Chapter Fifty-Two
Me: Okay folks, the final part of the journey is drawing ever closer! Soon four epic battles will ensue: Shadow vs. Black Doom….Amy vs. Ragozine…Tahra vs. Evil Armeil…and you may or may not be surprised as to who Sonic had to take down…
Sonic: Is it…
Me: (claps hand over Sonic's mouth) No, Sonic! Don't spoil it! Anyway, it's time to pull yet another DBZ-based trick out of my hat…those lovely things called fusions.
Amy: That sounds cool! Start writing!
-- -- -- -- --
"Land…oh, glorious land!" Raiden howled as he flung himself off the boat and kissed the dock.
He had hated every moment of the sea journey, and was elated to be back on solid ground after two months at sea, looking for Leviathan.
"Ah, it wasn't so bad, m'boy…" Sven replied as he pulled the wolf back up. The mole was also happy to be back on land, but not in the same way as Raiden. He wanted to return home to Molondon and see his wife and son again, assuming nothing terrible had happened. But he knew that it would not happen until the Meteor Parasite was defeated. He just had to be strong and do everything he could to help.
Though Charmy and Espio were glad to walk on solid ground again, Vector felt like he was going to miss the ocean…as if a small part of him was forevermore tied to the great expanse of water. But now the matter of finding Ziz was at hand. He glanced at the hawk, Zeipha, who was already looking to the skies for the great bird.
Ziz, as she had heard in hawk folklore, was a bird of such great size that when it was first created, it changed day into night whenever it opened its great wings. But the mysterious powers that govern the universe knew that such a creature would destroy it, so they reduced it to a mere one-hundredth of its original size, and then forced it to nest on the moon. But with the Meteor Parasite threatening, surely it would be allowed to come to earth and await the one who would call it. Never in her wildest dreams did she think that she would be the one to call it. But something else was on her mind…the weasel, Nack.
Never in her life had she known a weasel to be that devastated about losing someone they cared about. She had always thought that weasels cared for no one but themselves, and perhaps their money. But Nack made her, and everyone in the group, see otherwise. She watched Tails and Cream walk past her, and sighed. She could remember the days she and Jet had spent together…there weren't many times that they went out, but when they did, she loved it. She started to wonder how he was doing.
Her attention was distracted when she noticed a black, shadowy head with two yellow eyes poking out from some boxes. This head quickly withdrew as the hawk went to investigate. As she peered over, the shadow creature leapt out of its hiding place and knocked her down. It tried to gnaw at her chest, but she flung the shadow creature off…but she didn't have to use her hands. With simply a thought, a rush of air blasted the monster upwards and into the water, where it sunk into the deep. Armeil, who had seen the whole thing, came over to see if Zeipha was okay.
"Yeah, I'm alright…what was that thing?"
"Heartless."
"Yeah, that was pretty heartless of it to just attack me like that. Then again, it doesn't have a soul."
"No…it's called a Heartless."
"Huh?"
"As the ex-leader of the Judgment, I have knowledge of the Meteor Parasite's minions. Heartless are beings, who, quite obviously, lack hearts. They are not truly evil, but they act entirely on instinct, and will follow anyone who can command them, but no good individual would dare associate with Heartless on anything but hostile terms. That is all I can tell you."
"So…that could have been a friend?" Zeipha asked.
"Do not try and think about that."
-- -- -- -- -- --
"I still have a hard time believing it…" Tahra said to Amy one morning a few weeks later. "I wake up, and Sonic's nowhere to be found on this island! It's like they just disappeared."
"It's my fault," Amy replied, still very ashamed. "I let my dark side overtake me…I remember everything so clearly. If Akuma hadn't intervened…I don't think I'd be able to fight anymore."
"By the way…where is Akuma today?" Tahra wondered out loud. She looked around the sky for a minute or two before she noticed him flying towards the island from the fog. When he came down and approached them, the two noticed that he was carrying a pair of silver bracers studded with small gems of varying colors embedded in them, and each had a large ruby embedded in it too. To their surprise, each of them received only one of these items.
Akuma immediately began to instruct the two girls. "Amy, put yours on your left arm…Tahra, you put yours on your right arm." They did so, and their mentor continued.
"Now, press the large ruby, both of you."
The two girls shrugged, and did so while Akuma took a big step back. Nothing happened for a second, but then both girls felt magnetically attracted to each other, and were being pulled toward each other by unseen forces. When their two bodies contacted, both began to glow brightly as their two forms melted together. Both felt the other's thoughts, and they began to swirl together into one. Soon neither could feel their bodies, and even their very souls began to merge. In one final flash of white light, the strange fusion process finished, and Akuma awaited the result.
The new fused hedgehog emerged to reality with arms crossed and legs bent in a defensive stance, shielding her eyes from the blinding light of her "birth". After a few moments, the new hedgehog began looking around, getting her bearings. Once she did, she turned her eyes to Akuma.
"Is it just me, or did you get shorter?" she asked.
"No…you're taller now," Akuma replied and pointed to a nearby pool of water. "Take a look at yourself." The new hedgehog did so, and gazed at her new form. Previously, both hedgehogs had been less than three-and-a-half feet tall…their fused form was now a little over five feet tall. She had Tahra's hairstyle, with the addition of two more hanging down, but now the quills were Tahra's purple tipped with Amy's pink, and the bangs, which belonged to Amy, were pink as well, but tipped with dull gold. The rest of her body was Tahra's purple streaked with pink in several places. The shirt had been replaced by Heroic Tahra's armored bra, but the same jeans were there too. There was also a noticeable increase in bust size, which made Akuma drool for a second.
"Well…I assume you're pleased with your looks. But this isn't making you look pretty…uh…what is your name? I assume you've come up with one."
The new hedgehog nodded and spoke in a voice that seemed to be both Amy's and Tahra's at the same time. "Yeah…the name's Amahra, turkey-eyes. And don't you forget it."
Akuma was incensed. "You DARE to insult me like that!" Amahra simply reacted by sticking out her tongue, showing that she had no respect for Akuma. The red hedgehog answered in the only way he knew how…by throwing a punch at her. To his surprise, she caught the attack.
"What now, turkey-eyes?" she taunted. Akuma threw another punch, but that was caught too. With a grin, Amahra tossed the red hedgehog skyward. He stopped himself in mid-air, and was now on the verge of exploding with rage. Never in his days had he been so insulted. To be compared with a game fowl was the greatest insult in his mind.
"STOP CALLING ME THAT!" Akuma roared as he plunged toward his bratty student, both hands crackling with Chaos energy. In his blind rage, he didn't anticipate Amahra's next move: she changed into her Super form and stopped the raging hedgehog's attack with both Labrys and Mjolnir, one in each hand. The weapons absorbed Akuma's attack and discharged the excess energy harmlessly.
"You can't beat me, turkey-eyes…just give up and tell me where Sonic and Shadow are!"
Akuma was aghast. Had he been too successful in training the girls? He didn't have this much of an obedience problem with Sonic and Shadow, but he wondered if the result of their fusion, Shadic, was even more powerful that this one. And Shadic seemed even more egotistical. As this thought occurred to him he heard the voice of said fusion, which was a blend of Sonic's and Shadow's. Amahra looked up to see the fusion of her boyfriends.
Shadic, like Amahra, was a little over five feet tall, and was mostly black, with blue stripes on his quills and around his eyes. A white tuft of fur much like Shadow's was on his chest, and he had Shadow's wind-rider shoes. It was all topped off with Sonic's characteristic grin, and a pose to match. He was also carrying Excalibur in one hand and Masamune in the other.
Amahra flew up to level with the newcomer, and looked him up and down. She seemed to recognize him, and put away her weapons, making them disappear with a thought, as did he.
"Are you…"
"…Yep. I see cherry-locks gave you Fusion Bracers too."
"You call him cherry-locks? I call him turkey-eyes." The two fusions laughed together, while Akuma sat there, fuming over how his own students had the gall to insult him. But as he listened, he remembered the times he had similar conversations with the one he married…Kari…the only female he considered his equal. They had made such jokes about each other…how could he be angry at these youngsters when he himself was guilty of such behavior? His rage calmed when he realized this, and he sat back to think of something he could do to put these two in their place…
-- -- -- -- -- --
"Excellent, my boy," Nazo said as he retracted his personal energy sabers. "We are finished now. You need to rest." The hedgehog prince Haishin lowered his axe and panted heavily. Nazo liked to make him work hard, but he knew he would need all the training he could if he could get his revenge on Tahra…the one thing he could never have…
"You…want to be my boyfriend? This is so sudden…" the thirteen-year-old purple hedgehog in a light blue skirt exclaimed when she was approached by the prince.
"I suppose it is, my lovely…but the loveliest girl in school deserves no less than a prince."
"Oh…that's very sweet of you, Haishin…but don't you think we're too young?"
"True love has no age limit, Tahra…"
"But to me, it does…maybe someday, Haishin…just not now."
She had turned him down right there. He was prepared to give her anything she wanted. But she rejected in front of everyone. Everyone did their best to consul him, but it seemed that nothing could cheer him up. He refused to see anyone for months, and often disappeared for at least a week. Even after he returned, his personality was darker, angrier and he was more prone to lashing out. He no longer garnered respect and admiration…now he was feared and hated. A mysterious cloaked figure approached him one night, and offered him revenge. Haishin agreed, but before he got the chance to get revenge, Tahra returned to the city when her parents returned from business trips…and then she never returned until the day of the raid.
But he was done reminiscing. He had already crossed a line that he had no regrets crossing…no sympathy for those he had betrayed. In fact, he had barely any heart at all. Unbeknownst to him, the shadow creature, a Heartless, was slowly eating away at his heart and soul. Soon, Haishin would become a Heartless himself.
As Haishin began to walk away, Nazo stopped him. The prince noticed a smile of unusual sincerity…something that he rarely did. It was always a sardonic grin or something like that whenever Nazo smiled.
"You want to ask me something?"
"Call this question silly, but…do you consider me a father figure of sorts?"
"More than mine ever was, I guess. But don't call me son, and I won't call you father."
"Very well then, prince; I'm going to check up on the white bat now. Busy yourself with the girls if you so desire."
-- -- -- -- --
"You're really out of your game, Nack," Vector exclaimed as he pulled in a pile of rings from the stump they were surrounding. He, Nack, Espio, Raiden and Sven were playing cards, and the weasel, who had usually won, was now being clobbered. "I know you're missing Rouge a lot…but don't worry, we'll find her as soon as we find Ziz, we promise." The weasel simply sighed and then stood up.
"I'm going to bed. You keep on playing if you want." Nack slowly walked away, forlorn as he always was these days.
"Just seeing the guy depresses me," Raiden sighed with a shake of his head. "He must have really liked that white bat. But who wouldn't? She's so dang pretty."
"Nack loves 'er, Raiden, and not simply for her body…" Sven replied. "To have someone ya truly care about suddenly ripped away from ya is a horrible thing. I can vouch fer that, t' be sure. The basis for his feelings is somethin' I can't put my finger on. That weasel's tighter-lipped than a grotto clam. By the way, who's dealing, since Nack is out?"
"I'll do it," Vector said, taking the cards, and commencing to shuffle them. "How about we do blackjack this time? I'm getting tired of poker."
"I don't know how to play," Raiden said, standing up as well. "If you'll excuse me, I need to go and howl at the moon." The others looked at the wolf like he was an idiot. With a nervous grin, Raiden told them that he was just going to go and snooze.
"Blackjack's me favorite!" Sven said gleefully after Raiden had left. "I'll play, Vector."
"I suppose it's no fun with two people," Espio sighed. "I can keep going."
"Blackjack it is, then!" Vector said, and began to deal. "Anyway, I've been overhearing Zeipha talking to the others about so-called Heartless. Are they the shadow creatures we've been fighting? I wonder if that Meteor Parasite is the source of them."
"I doubt we'll ever know. I doubt he'd tell us that," Espio said. He glanced at his cards, and knew that victory was his, but kept a straight face.
"I'll stay," he said. After all the bets had been placed, the chameleon smiled, and flipped his cards.
"Blackjack," he said. Vector's mouth dropped open.
"Lucky son of a gun…" he muttered before yawning. "I'm about ready to call it a night. You're watching, right, Espio?"
"Yes. It's my turn tonight. You two sleep well."
"G'night Espio…" Sven said with a yawn of his own.
-- -- -- -- --
"Huh?" Mikael wondered as he sat up in a strange, grassy field, still at night. "Where is everybody? Where are all the trees?"
"You're asleep, Mikael," said a strange but friendly voice, a voice that seemed like someone inhaled helium. The source was a little more foreboding…a small figure in a black robe. The figure was wearing a hood, but it was topped with two perfectly circular ears that seemed like they were glued onto his head. It was some sort of mouse. His face was shrouded in the shadow of his hood, and he carried a strange sword in one hand…it looked oddly a key.
"How did you learn my name, mister?" Mikael said. "And what are you doing in my dreams!"
"I only came to warn you…the shadowy creatures called Heartless are part of a threat that extends beyond this world."
"What's that supposed to mean, mister?" Mikael wondered.
"I'll explain when you're older, and you obtain a Keyblade."
"Where can I find one? Is that a Keyblade you're holding?"
"The Keyblade will find you, Mikael. That's all I can tell you right now. Goodbye, and may your heart guide you to happiness." The figure stepped backwards and disappeared in a flash of light, leaving Mikael alone to wonder just who this fellow was, and why he had chosen to approach him.
-- -- -- -- --
Espio: You've got Kingdom Hearts on the brain, I see. He doesn't even have the game, or a Playstation 2, for that matter.
Me: Can it, Espio. Any self-respecting Kingdom Hearts fan should be able to guess who just visited Tahra's little brother. He'll be returning in the sequel. But the next chapter of this work will feature both the arrival of Ziz AND the return of the four hedgies from Akuma's training chamber!
Akuma: Turkey eyes, huh? YOU'RE GONNA PAY FOR THAT!
Me: Eep! (Runs away)
