Chapter Forty-One
Me (on April 1st): Note to self…don't do so much skipping…
Tahra: Oh Jaaaaaanus!
Me: Hey, why are you using my MFZ name? Ah, heck, I'll answer to that. What?
-The good guys gather-
Me: ?
Shadow: I know it's a day late but…
All: HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JANUS! -They all hand over stuff-
Me: Aw, you guys are the best. Anyway, I got a birthday present of sorts from ScarletEbon, and she has postedartof Vera and Nazo (at last!)but that's beside the point. It's been forty-one great chapters, and the end does not appear to be in sight for this fic! I still have another plot idea to write out, which may take anywhere from 15 to 20 more.
-- -- -- -- --
"This is the place," the guard said with a hint of pride after leading Sonic and Tails to the site of where the supposed "angel colony" was. As Sonic suspected, there wasn't an angel in sight. The arrival of the two resulted in a crowd of children gathering around them. This crowd didn't just consist of half-kitsune/half-fox mixes. There were a whole amalgam of hybrids, including hedgehog/echidna crosses, hedgehog/kitsune hybrids and almost everything in between. Some of these were unnerving to Sonic at first, and realized why they were hated so much. But still, he couldn't help but feel sorry for them…because of no fault of their own, their own parents and the society they were born into shunned them.
"Hey, take it easy there, kids…" Sonic said a little nervously. They were all looking at him in amazement and clambering to get a closer look. Never in their lives had they beheld a pureblood hedgehog in person. A female half-breed, a mix of hedgehog and echidna, came in and herded the children away.
"Please excuse the children…they haven't ever seen a pureblood in their lives, except for Miss Naylet. You must be Sonic, and the one next to you is Milos, her younger brother…though he seems to be older than I first thought…"
"Long story…" Tails replied excitedly. "Where's Naylet?"
"Maybe she's in that big hut over there…" Sonic said, pointing to the large hut in the center of the area. Tails realized his lack of perception, and was immediately embarrassed. The two made their way to the aforementioned hut.
"Do you think she'll recognize me as I am?" Tails asked. "It's been, well, six thousand years since I've seen her. Maybe she's forgotten I exist."
"Nah…she'll remember you. I think the memory of a sibling doesn't die easily. Besides, we've been told that she foresaw our coming. She's probably on cloud nine right now." Sonic and Tails had made it to the door by this point. Tails took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
A few moments passed before the door was opened by a female three-tailed kitsune, appearing to be roughly in her early twenties. In reality, kitsune take a while to age, so she was at least 600 years old…and she was older still, because of her nature of being an angel. She stood a little over four feet tall, which was normal for kitsune. Her fur was the same color as Tails', but a bit darker. She wore a simple green dress that went down to her ankles. The finery of past millennia was unnecessary for her now. Her eyes lit up for a moment before embracing Tails. It was Naylet all right.
"Little brother…you came, just I had foresaw! Oh, I haven't seen you in ages…literally!"
"I'll leave you two alone to have some quality time," Sonic said before walking away. He decided to go and take a nap by a nearby tree. Of course, when a hero takes a nap, something significant happens in dreams…
-- -- -- -- --
"Man, I'm getting really annoyed at these 'floating in the void' dreams," Sonic thought out loud. "It always means someone's trying to contact me." But the void soon changed to the inner sanctum of a strange temple. Standing by what appeared to be an altar was a hedgehog. The fellow was about as tall as Sonic. The quills on his were all spiked upwards like Sonic's own Super form, but this one was the color of darkened blood. His shoes were flatfooted and black, save for the socks. The hedgehog noticed Sonic's arrival, and turned to face him. His "white" of his eyes was black like obsidian, and the iris was the same color as his fur: that of darkened blood. His hands were gloveless as well. This guy seemed to scream "evil demon," but the greeting Sonic received was not quite like that…
"Greetings, Sonic the Hedgehog;" the hedgehog said. "I am glad we could finally have this meeting."
"Just who are you?" Sonic asked. "And how did we get here?"
The hedgehog chuckled in a mildly unnerving manner. "You modern people are always so curious. My name is Akuma, guardian of the Sacred Arms, and the greatest warrior to have ever walked the earth, if I do say so myself."
"Heh…you don't look so tough…"
Akuma was smug in the face of this insult. "Perhaps I need to demonstrate?"
"Is that a challenge?"
"No…it's a warning that I'm going to inflict so much pain on your dream body that your physical body will be unable to move for days…"
"Bring it on, blood boy!"
Akuma simply disappeared, and moments later, Sonic was subjected to a veritable blizzard of unarmed strikes, sword swings and even a few energy blasts, all in the span of a few seconds. Akuma reappeared where he was before, with a smug look on his face. Sonic struggled, but managed to get back on his feet.
"Okay, I get it…you're a great fighter…but I know you didn't come here just to beat me up. What is it you want?"
Akuma seemed a tad embarrassed. "Actually, that was the reason, in a way. It is proof that you really are one of the Chosen Heroes. Any lesser being would have been utterly annihilated by that assault. It was a test of your endurance. What I attacked was your very life force."
"So…I could have really died from that?"
"Indeed…but you did not…anyway, perhaps you want to know about me. I'll be brief. In my day, I was the greatest warrior in the world. I faced hundreds of opponents, and none proved a challenge. Only one being was able to defeat me…your greatest enemy, Nazo. In search of revenge, I forged, with the help of a member of certain races, the four Sacred Arms. I would use them to battle Nazo and his dread master. Then I was put under a curse by Nazo…I could never use them in battle. So I found four worthy souls…"
"The first four Chosen Heroes…"
"Yes…I trained them as best I could, and then gave them the holy weapons. There were two echidnas, a hedgehog and a kitsune. The hedgehog, as you may know, is your father."
"You're…my father's mentor?"
"…As shall I become your mentor, when we meet again. Continue fighting as best as you can. Until we meet again…"
-- -- -- -- -- --
"I should have feared as much, sis…" Tails sighed when he heard what the Kitsune Lord was really up to. It turned out that the Kitsune Lord was on an insane quest to purge his race of impurities. Unfortunately, he had convinced himself that all two-tailed kitsune were not pure kitsune, and only three-tailed members of his kind were "pure". What was more, he believed that all half-breeds had sworn loyalty to the Judgment, and needed to be eliminated. This latter belief had no real basis.
"I'm still stunned that anyone could do such a thing," Naylet said.
"Have you told anyone, besides me and the residents of your little commune?" Tails asked.
"No…if I did, they wouldn't believe me. We have to get proof from the Kitsune Lord himself, and that's almost impossible."
"If only there was a way…"
Their conversation was interrupted when Sonic burst in with a look on his face that suggested good news.
"You guys wouldn't BELIEVE who just showed up! I was taking this nap, you see…"
"Get on with it, Sonic!" Tails moaned.
"Just come out and see them!"
Sonic led the two out of the hut. There were four familiar individuals waiting around, and Tails' heart soared when he saw one of them.
"CREAM!" he exclaimed joyfully.
"Hey, Tails…surprised to see me?"
"Yeah…" Tails replied before recognizing another individual. Naylet was the first to greet this one, though.
"Armeil...I've longed to see you again." Cream, Sonic, Vector and Charmy all recoiled in surprise at this comment.
"But Naylet, isn't he…" Tails began.
"Not anymore, I am not," Armeil replied. "Thanks to Cream, I was freed from my own dark side." Tails glanced at Cream, who winked at him.
"You never told us that you had a girlfriend, Armeil!" Charmy quipped, "let alone another of a different species!"
"Perhaps I can explain everything over a meal," the echidna replied.
-- -- -- -- --
Night had fallen, and the group was now seated on a mat around a low, circular table with the remains of a modest, but tasty and filling meal on the table. They had discussed the situation with the Kitsune Lord among other things. With every one having had their fill, Armeil finally began to explain the reason for the existence of the Judgment.
"In those days long ago, Naylet, Milos and I lived as mortals. I was a young but powerful warrior, recently given a title and a share of land. I met Naylet one evening at a party. We became friendly and soon grew affectionate. But our love was against so-called sacred law, and she and I, along with her brother, were banished from our respective societies, forced to wander the world. But we soon met Eberon, Devlin, and Nack, a weasel. As we traveled together trying to right great wrongs, we were noticed, and approached by a mysterious red hedgehog named Akuma…
"Hey…that's the guy who I met in my dreams…" Sonic interrupted. "Did he happen to have black and red eyes, along with quills like so?" Sonic pulled up his quills as best he could to mimic Akuma's hair style. Armeil and Naylet nodded.
"Yes," Naylet continued. "He offered us a quest to stop a great evil that was threatening to tear the world apart. It turned out that Devlin, Eberon, Armeil and I were destined to wield the Sacred Arms, which were forged by Akuma himself. He trained us, and soon we felt strong enough to challenge the evil he had mentioned…"
"The Meteor Parasite…" Vector said. "So, what made that whole operation go to pieces?"
"There were rumors of jealousy between Eberon and Armeil over Naylet, and I got possessive of my sister," Tails answered. "Apparently the creep took advantage of that. He offered us the security that Naylet would be with us forever if we served him. We fell for that trap hook, line and sinker."
"I was also promised the complete eradication of all that I deemed sinful, as an addendum to that," Armeil noted.
"How did the others become Seraphim?" Sonic asked.
"When Armeil and I gave the others a good thrashing," Tails continued. "A spark of reason left in Armeil allowed them to live if they served Geddon. They regretfully agreed. We formed the body of the Judgment from the bodies of those who had died in meaningless racial wars. Of course, their souls had long passed on, but their material bodies still had memories of the reasons they died, and all vowed revenge."
"We began infiltrating organizations across the planet," Armeil said with a heavy heart, "extending the will of ourselves, and thus the Meteor Parasite, into the world's agenda. I became obsessed with the destruction of those whom I deemed sinful, and my own hatred formed into the human-like angel who possessed Sonic."
"Eberon told us the rest, Armeil…" Sonic finally said. "But why did you join up with our side, all of a sudden? Did you see the truth or something to that end?"
"I could not have put it better myself, son of Devlin…" Armeil chuckled. "But I have seen the results of my actions. It may not look like it now, but the planet is dying…"
"Dying?" Vector exclaimed. "What do you mean?"
"Geddon, as we speak, is draining the cosmic energy out of the planet itself, and has been doing so for eons now. Thankfully, he has had difficulty consuming it in its current state. But if the planet is destroyed, the energy will be floating freely, and he can eat his fill that way."
"Does he have an ultimate goal?" Tails asked. "He never mentioned a real goal."
"I have heard him whisper that he will return the universe to perfect order…what that entails can only be bad, but I have no knowledge other than that."
"Wait…" Tails said. "I think I know what he means, but it requires physics to explain."
"Is this going to take long?" Sonic groaned. "I hate that kind of stuff!"
"Not really, Sonic. You see, everything that moves has energy. When it applies force over a distance, it transfers some of its energy to that object. This chaotic process is constantly going on around us as we speak. But eventually all movement, and thus transfer of energy, will cease on its own. This is known as the heat-death of the universe. Some human scientists predicted that this would happen in the very distant future, but Geddon must intend to hasten this process. Without the constant transfer of energy, nothing can exist. Perfect order, in the eyes of the Meteor Parasite, is the end of all creation."
"I don't know WHAT you just said," Charmy fumed, "but I don't like the sound of it one bit!"
"Amen, Charmy," Sonic said. "Amen. But first, we need to figure out how to get the Kitsune Lord from achieving his fiendish goal of so-called racial cleansing…"
-- -- -- -- --
Me: Just a few notes, people. I do not own Akuma the Hedgehog, but I had asked his owner, whose real name is unknown to me (or to most people), to allow the use of his character. Akuma (the author, not the hedgie)is a well-known figure in the world of sprite editting, renowned for his skills in turning ripped sprites into virtual works of art. Check out his comics on mgcomicsdotcomslashAkumaTH.
Sonic: Janus...
Me: What?
Sonic: Could I get an ice pack? I'm really sore!
Me: -rolls eyes-
