"I PASSED OUT AT THE WHEEL!"
Tails jolted at the sudden yell of his older brother, then fumbled to catch him as he slipped out of his arms. The fox winced as Sonic fell head-first into the sand, then hopped down from the plane wing and hesitantly approached his brother.
"Sonic? Is that you?" Panicked green eyes snapped onto confused blues as owner of the former rushed to meet the owner of the later, the blue blur manically checking for any injuries while babbling as fast as he could run.
"Ohchaosareyouokayidon'tknowwhyijustsuddenlyblackedoutwedidn'tcrashdidwealsowhotheheckisthat?!"
Tails blinked as Sonic's hand suddenly shot up and pointed to the plane, his eyes following the other's finger to discover that the professor had woken up and was watching the chaos unfolding before him.
"That's Professor Pickle, remember? We helped him escape Eggman's base a few moments ago." Tails's worry intensified when Sonic gave him a look that said 'No, no I very much do not what is HAPPENING.'
Said human amiably looked around. "Say, I wonder where that other fellow went."
Sonic went completely still. "Other WHAT?!"
The professor continued and Tails silently decided that the man had to be either extremely oblivious or mildly sadistic. "That big fellow with unusually sharp canines and claws. He was with your yellow friend when I met him."
Tails watched as Sonic's eyes became increasingly wider and decided that now was definitely the time to intervene. "Let's not worry about that for now. So, what happened in the plane? You were yelling about 'passing out' when you first woke up."
Sonic opened his mouth to protest the topic change, but stopped at the sight of Tails's pleading look. He huffed, his foot rapidly tapping the ground as he started calming down. "I think I just blacked out mid flight. Dunno why, one moment I was fine, then suddenly I kinda just…" he snapped his fingers "Out like a light."
Tails frowned. "So...you don't remember anything after that?"
Sonic shook his head. "Nothing. One moment I was flying the plane, next I was waking up in the sand."
"Not even when we nearly fell outta the plane?"
Tails could almost hear Sonic's mental record scratch. "When we nearly what now."
Tails suppressed the memory and a shudder. "Never mind. You don't wanna know." He turned his attention back to Professor Pickle. "If you want, I can fly us back to your lab. We don't need to worry about space since Sonic can just stand on the wing."
The man frowned in mild concern. "That doesn't seem very safe. I don't mind buying a plane ticket-"
Sonic waved him off. "Nah, don't worry about it. I've been doing it ever since I was a kid. It'll be fine." Tails nodded in encouragement, before realizing a small problem he had almost overlooked.
"Actually, Sonic, maybe you should just Chaos control the professor back." Tails piped up. He then narrowed his eyes as he watched the now fidgeting hedgehog avoid all eye contact.
"Why? What's wrong with taking the plane?" Sonic hesitantly asked.
"It'd take at least four hours to get back to Spagonia, assuming we don't take any pit stops." Tail slowly enunciated. 'Oh chaos, he lost them didn't he.' "Sonic, show me the emeralds."
Sonic sheepishly grinned as he pulled out seven, extremely dull chaos emeralds, which Tails stared at while contemplating the life choices that had led him here.
"And you didn't say anything...why?" Tails forced out.
Sonic helplessly shrugged. "It kinda slipped my mind."
Tails buried his face into his hands while Sonic awkwardly tucked away the emeralds, the two of them sighing in unison.
'This is gonna be a long plane ride.'
(Four hours later)
The plane ride back was...an interesting one to say the least. It mainly consisted of both brothers indiscreetly attempting to interrogate the other, while desperately trying to figure out what the hell was going on. By the time they arrived in Spagonia, the two had pieced together a grand total of absolutely nothing. At least they could take solace in the fact that the other was just as confused as he was.
Faced with that current dead end, they decided to focus on other things instead, with Tails asking Professor Pickle about some general myths and legends from his studies, and Sonic enjoy the sight, sounds, and smells at noon...wait.
Sonic discreetly nudged Tails. "Did we get him anything to eat since we rescued him?"
Tails blinked, looking blankly at the blue hedgehog. "Uhhh…"
"Don't tell me we just shoved him onto a four hour plane flight at the crack of dawn with no food, water, or bathroom breaks."
Tails slowly brought a hand to his mouth and the two of them fell silent. In a nearby house, the theme of Curb Your Enthusiasm was faintly playing.
"Are the two of you alright?" The professor asked, causing both mobians to jolt. Sonic mentally scrambled to think of something to say, and could only hope he didn't sound as guilty as he felt.
"H-hey Professor, how about we talk about your research at lunch? Our treat."
The professor brightened up. "Why thank you! You know, there's a lovely little bistro just around this corner that sells some lovely sandwiches…"
The hedgehog turning his attention back to his brother that was now cringing at his own actions. "Chaos, I can't believe I'm worse than delta airlines." he despondently mumbled.
Sonic sighed and patted his brother's back. "At least we didn't frame him for murder." (Somewhere in the multiverse, a pig wearing a spider costume sneezed, before shrugging and going back to his business).
The duo followed the professor now happily chatting about food.
…
"These ancient documents are known as the Gaia Manuscripts. They tell the legend of a disaster that befell our planet some tens of thousands of years ago."
Said ancient documents were currently laid out haphazardly on a plastic restaurant table, which caused a few weird looks that the group reading it ignored.
"A disaster...?" Tails asked. 'Feels like a bit of an understatement.' he mentally commented.
"Quite." The professor nodded. "And according to the Gaia Manuscripts this isn't the first time the planet has been broken apart into pieces."
The two mobians glanced at each other in apprehension as the professor continued. "The cause lies at the very core of the planet. All of the phenomena we've witnessed-" ("That's one way to put it." Sonic muttered.) "are the direct result of one creature, the hyper-energy organism spawned at the planet's core: Dark Gaia."
"So, uh, how'd the planet get fixed last time?" Sonic asked.
"It is to be defeated by Light Gaia, who would rebuild the world and return Dark Gaia to dormancy, as the cycle goes."
Tails sighed in relief and leaned back against his seat. "So all we have to do is wait it out." The professor shook his head.
"Because of 's premature wake up call, it appears that Light Gaia is still dormant." Any relief was completely shot down as the two now frozen mobians stared at the professor who was decidedly way too calm about the current circumstances.
Sonic nervously laughed. "Ooooookay, I guess I can try fighting Dark Gaia. It's just like Chaos but with lava, right?" He said, both his voice and heart rate five times higher than normal.
"Perhaps." Sonic sincerely hoped that the professor was joking. "Luckily, Dark Gaia has yet to be fully reborn. If we act now, we may be able to restore the planet by returning power to the chaos emeralds. By traveling to each of the temples listed in the Gaia Manuscripts, the planet's power will restore the chaos emeralds. In turn, the chaos emeralds will restore the planet and help it heal naturally."
"Really?" Sonic asked. The hedgehog fell silent, partially to think of a plan and partially because holy hell was that an emotional rollercoaster. He then turned to Tails. "Maybe we should go to see Knuckles."
Tails blinked and raised an eyebrow. "But shouldn't we go find the-"
"Hear me out, hear me out." Sonic continued. "Maybe I can convince Knux to let me use the Master Emerald, go super, and beat the baddy before things get too ugly."
Tails hummed. He then held a hand to his chin, his eyes focus despite not looking at anything, and silently muttered under his breath. Abruptly he got up, and left some rings on the table. "Thank you so much for the help Professor Pickle, but we've got to get going."
"Of course, of course. The both of you are welcome to visit the library anytime." The professor responded, pleasantly waving.
With that, the duo headed off to Angel Island.
(Three days prior)
In the shrine of the Master Emerald, a lone guardian was meditating (read dozing off) on stone stairs. The duty, although important, completely lacked any 'off time', meaning that Knuckles' sleep schedule was nonexistent at best. That paired with the warm glow of the Master Emerald's energy was not helping.
And then it was gone.
The echidna's eyes snapped open as he stumbled up the stairs in the sudden dark and pressed a hand against the ancient gem. No warmth, no light, and had Knuckles not known any better he would've thought it was just another rock.
"What the hell?!"
He looked around, the island much too peaceful considering that the very energy keeping it afloat stopped working. With mounting nervousness, he rushed towards the edge of the island and looked down. And gaped.
The pitch black ocean he was floating over currently looked like a broken window.
"What. The genuine. Fuck." He mumbled under his breath.
He was completely frozen, his mind struggling to comprehend what he saw below. "What could caused-" he dumbly started, before smacking himself on the forehead. "Of course it was him. I swear to- that blue idiot's not a hedgehog he's the second god of destruction."
He cursed under his breath as he marched towards the communicator Tails gave him. He harshly jabbed the power switch.
"What did Sonic do this time?!" He yelled. The only response was radio static, leaving Knuckles thoroughly unnerved. Tails' communicators rarely had problems connecting transmission, and when it did it was laggy, not like whatever this was. Knuckles lips pressed into a thin line. For the first time, he wished that the island was closer to one of the land masses below it.
He hurried back to the Master Emerald. His hands pressing against the now lifeless gem as he repeated the ancient mantra again and again. "The servers are the 7 Chaos. Chaos is power... Power enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos." His words got louder and louder with each repetition until his voice became hoarse. Nothing. He couldn't even feel a spark.
He slumped to the ground and clenched his fists.
It was the end of the world, and there was nothing he could do but watch.
Eyyy, remember when I said I'd update this every month? Ha haha ha oof. I t'was just a fool who forgot that finals existed, so here I am now.
If you're cringing at how OOC everyone is and how the tone just kinda flails everywhere, don't worry, so am I. I'm not gonna try to edit this story tho, at least until it's finish cause if I do I'll never be able to finish this. I'm still gonna try to aim for an update once a month.
Soooo, yeah. Dunno what else to put here.
Thanks for reading- Gremlin