Bloom
- Chapter 3-
Dangling down the open jaws of danger is excruciating. Anxiety ravages the souls of those in unfortunate circumstances. Impatience and tears come to the weak who can't survive life's trials. A better man, or hedgehog, would possess something for such trials. This was Sonic's greatest strength in conflict: A hard heart for the heaviest storms.
First, acquire snark. This was Sonic's prerequisite for any situation. A simple line will do, something clever to take back hold of the situation before it fell into enemy's hands. Villains always play up when you delude them into thinking you're safe. While this current shocker of a situation didn't leave him with much to say, he didn't lose hope, he'll come up with something. He always did.
Sonic scanned his surroundings, producing a mental checklist. Amy was fine, she'd kept her grasp solid on Silver, who'd managed to catch on to something on his way down. Just below his waist line was his feline friend, she'd held on to Silver's right foot and had hers dug into a crevice just below his body. Save for a few cuts and bruises they seemed fine for the time being, but the duo on the other side was having harder time keeping up.
"I see work in the mechanic shop has paid off Tails" Sonic said to his strained buddy.
Tails wasn't having the jest. A head-on collision wit,h one side of the wall had shattered his right aviator lens. A sharp outward edge cut his right tricep and left his upper arm covered in streaming red. Further collisions broke his trusty gadget belt, causing some of the devices to continue the tumble downwards. Now he could feel the tendons in his biceps strain themselves as they tried to support the weight of his best friend. Despite this, he held on to Sonic's body with all the energy he could muster and swore never-ending guilt upon himself if he let go.
"Tails, you're going to kill yourself carrying all that baggage," Sonic said. "Drop me and save yourself."
"You're joking, you're bluffing", Tails sputtered through gasps. His tongue tasted the stingy cocktail of sweat and blood.
"You're not going to be able to hold on Tails", Sonic continued.
"Just watch," Tail's kept himself steady by wrapping one of his appendages around some protruding edge of the abyss's walls. The other appendage was now just a tattered mess, wrung with broken bones and torn veins. Ironically it was the same tail he'd used for comfort against the storm earlier.
"I can't fly away, even if I wanted to, the fall broke my tails," Tails sputtered.
"Oh snap," Sonic said, letting a small giggle escape his exhausted breath.
"Don't know, what's so, funny about it", Tails continued. It was getting harder to breath.
"Nothing". Sonic could feel a cold wet stream seep down the middle of his head. Soon, the base of one of his upper spikes would be bathed in crimson liquid. He'd had it the worst during the fall but he couldn't let Tails know. A constant stream of blood loss would result in an eventual brain shut-down. A painful loss of consciousness. He'd use the little time he had remaining to get the others to safety before thinking of himself.
"Is everyone okay?" Amy asked, her head still buried in Silver's shoulder. "Silver please say something, I don't want to look."
Silver's pupils had shrunken to little dots. The scene before him ruptured his sanity. Sheer terror was the only way he could describe it. He couldn't recall the loss of focus he had earlier, or why he couldn't activate his abilities on time. Seeing Tail's now flimsy body, attached to Sonic's like a rusting chain, was enough to tip him over the edge. Blood, the sight of it was enough to send his mind packing.
"I-I'm sorry", Silver let his left hand slip free from Amy's grasp and stretched out his fingers towards the duo's position. Confidence was required for the hour, but he was found lacking. Fate desired that he move but he was all but ready. Were this the typical situation, Sonic and Tails would have been dragged from their position using his ability and left to float between the abyss's walls, free from gravity and its consequences. He tried, Silver swore that he tried, but nothing happened. It wasn't an external force that was in the way, nor was the abyss emitting some kind of anti-psychokinesis field. He was just scared. Fear is the most powerful inhibitor of any ability. He couldn't tell where this fear came from, he'd been fine just a minute ago.
"I'm so sorry," Silver tried again, but he couldn't let anything budge.
"Silver?" Sonic yelled from his position. The nerves from his vocal cord shook his skull, making the bleeding hurt even more. Silver didn't respond.
"Silver, it's okay, we're fine, just grab us now!" Sonic said, "I'm not planning on hitting the ground today."
The white hedgehog kept mute.
"Sonic, I think he's going through shock," Blaze said. She had wisely chosen not to look down during the debacle.
"Is that right?", Sonic asked rhetorically. "Well looks like Sonic has to save the day again huh Silver!"
"Sonic, you need to grab on to something," Tails said, he could feel his right shoulder slowly dislocating. This was nothing like mechanic work.
"Listen Tails, there's clearly something in this abyss that has Silver shook", Sonic said, ignoring his friend's warning.
"He missed the jump," Tails said. He fought back the burning urge to greatly reprimand the white hedgehog for his error.
"Silver, missing, that's funny", Sonic let his head drop down. Once more he admired the view of the void and studied its unidentifiable beauty. This will be his last chance to do so. "He has a strong sense of justice, that hedgehog, but he doesn't have half the wit or experience, or confidence I have"
"We can talk about that later," Tails said. His right shoulder gave in, he let it fall by the side of his body and quickly grabbed Sonic's other leg using his left arm.
"I think I prefer his other version, huh Tails?", Sonic couldn't tell whether it was his usual persona or the blood loss getting to him. He'd try to tone down the sarcasm for the current situation but his perception grew blurrier with every passing second. The sight in his right eye was almost gone.
"Sonic! Grab on to something!" Tails could feel his friend's legs slip through his gloves with every passing second.
"Tails", Sonic looked up to his friend and spoke softly. His fully orange fur, large ears, the expression of determination brought all of that together. How many times had Tails saved his life, how many times had Sonic saved his? It didn't matter, but remembering all that made this sour moment into something sweeter. Whether this was good-bye or a temporary departure won't matter. If he was going to go down the void, Tail's face would be the last thing he'd want on his mind.
"Tails, you need to let go," Sonic said. "If you don't let go, I'll drag you with me and you're going to have far worse a headache than I have now."
Tails noticed the blood dripping from Sonic's forehead. "Sonic"
"I'll beat gravity and make my way up, alright?"
His leg slipped further down Tail's gloves.
"Sonic that won't work, it's too deep and too rough, you'll splatter,"
Silver kept rotating his fingers around their sockets, trying to get something out. He stared on, he hadn't noticed the bleeding on Sonic's head but he knew something was very wrong.
"How many times have I heard that before? Now it's coming from you Tails". Sonic could feel the energy in his hands leave but there was still some blood circulating in his legs, this was good. Enough energy for one more moment of heroism.
"This isn't like Mephiles, or Infinite, or Chaos, or that blasted doctor", Sonic continued. "Now I get to put my life in peril danger, and you get to be the person to press the button."
A teardrop rolled down Tail's right lower eye-lid and fell like a droplet into the escalating abyss.
"Better to fall by your hands, than the hands of anyone else I know, do you understand that Tails?"
"Sonic, shut up, you don't know what you're saying!", Tails said
"You can be very stubborn," Sonic continued.
He thrusted his free foot into Tails's chest, causing the orange fox to lose his grip and let Sonic tumble into the wallowing darkness.
"Sonic!", Silver screamed. His markings glowed a strong blue as he stretched his arms out in a desperate attempt to grab the falling blue form. His hypnosis was broken but it was too late. Sonic zapped into the abyss below.
Tails clutched his chest, his pupils dashed back and forth the corners of the void, looking to see where Sonic could have landed. There was no visual response. He perked his ears around, hoping to hear some kind of spin-dashing. When nothing happened he waited a bit longer to hear the unpalatable body splat. Nothing there too. No audio, no sight. Zero analog information. He slapped his dislocated arm about his belt, hoping to grab something useful. Nothing struck him as valuable for the current situation. There was nothing left to do.
Author's Note: Made some updates here too, August 13th.