Has anyone reading this read Prower Demonopoly? If so, what do you think of it? Should I keep going? For now, I'm just gonna keep updating this one.
Sorry for the wait. Winter break made me feel more like animating than writing. I've got 2 minutes of a 3.5 minute animation done, though! My YouTube channel is MTP. There's nothing there yet, but there will be in the near future (I hope).
Alright it's been too long, so I'll own up and start making a list of things I've done to procrastinate on this chapter:
2 min of animation
20 sec of another animation
Finished 5 animes in the past month (37 hours' worth)
Studied some nuclear physics
My apologies. I hope this was worth the wait.
"Everyone, please report to the bridge for launch," I called over the intercom system. "Please report to the bridge for launch. Thank you."
I released the com button and sank back into my seat and started up through the ship's glass blast shield at the metal roof of my basement. Sonic was there in seconds, skidding to a halt in the middle of the bridge. I looked down at him from my elevated captain's seat.
"Ready?" I asked him.
"I was ready hours ago," he retorted with a smirk.
"Well, pick a station, then," I said, gesturing to the four operation stations; two to my left and two to my right. He nodded and took the nearer one to my right. "Remember how to work it?"
"Ha! What kind of question is that?" he asked, sticking his nose in the air. "Of course I don't!"
"Heh, I thought so… Turn it on and go through the tutorial. It should be pretty easy to figure out past that." He nodded and pressed the power button on his station. I returned my attention to the bridge's entrance at the sound of Cream and Knuckles approaching. The former was beaming up at me excitedly while the other only looked tired. I smiled back to Cream. "Anything you two need to do before launch?"
Both shook their head, and Cream sat to my left. "Good. Knuckles, you'll have to operate a nav-station since we're down two people this time. Is that fine?"
Knuckles tilted his head in thought as he took the farther seat to my left. "Yeah, that's fine… How's it work?"
"Press the power button and click tutorial," I instructed. He did as I said. At that point, only one seat remained empty. I decided to give Amy a few more minutes. The ship was pretty big, after all. I stood, climbed down the stairs to the ground, and strolled to the railed deck a few meters ahead. There was nothing but basement junk to look at, but it was calming nonetheless. I recalled several times that I stood there with Cosmo, looking out at the stars. I reminded myself that that could happen again. That thought alone was oddly exciting. There was no room for pain anymore, only anticipation… I heard rushing footsteps drawing near. It was Amy, of course. I watched as she jumped into the only remaining station. In turn, I returned to my seat.
"Sonic, can you open the roof? It's the green button on the control panel."
"Sure…" He hopped from his seat and dashed away. It took no more than ten seconds for the roof to begin prying open, and another ten seconds saw Sonic back in his seat.
"Alright… Initiating launch!" I clicked a certain few switches on my control board. A timer appeared on my display and began counting down. "Sixty seconds, everyone!"
The floor began to vibrate. My job was done, so I let my focus wander. Cream was starting at the sky with Cheese on her shoulder. Knuckles was still studying the screen, trying to figure everything out. Sonic and Amy were both looking pretty bored. I would be, too, under normal circumstances. The minute crawled by like an hour. When the timer finally reached zero, though, the ship jerked violently and began to rise. In a short matter of time, we were overlooking my house and workshop. Our view expanded quickly, mile upon mile of land revealing itself from over the horizon. The planet's spherical form eventually became perceptible, indicating that we had entered space.
"Alright, everyone," I announced. "We're in space!" I heard an unenthusiastic whoop to my right and a delighted hum and happy chirp to my left. "Cream, could you calculate the shortest path through every planetary system?"
"Sure…" She tapped on her screen once… twice… thrice… and waited… "Done!"
After one more tap on her screen, a large central monitor hanging from the ceiling displayed… an indiscernible mess of red scribbles. Cream zoomed in on the image, revealing a map of the planet systems within ten parsecs of us. Most of the twenty-nine stars were connected to each other with a path of red lines, like a game of interstellar connect the dots.
"Wait a minute," Sonic interjected. "Are we searching through every solar system?"
"Well… we only have to stop at each one for a second to see if there's a signal from a chaos emerald."
"And how fast can we travel?" Amy asked.
"Warpspeed is about four light years per second."
"Isn't going faster than light impossible?" Cream added.
"Warp drives keep the space around the ship inside an anti-curvature bubble and propels the bubble, so it's as if the ship isn't even moving."
"Where's that tutorial button you were talking about?" Knuckles asked.
"On the right side of the bar on the top of the screen. Any more questions?"
"Yeah," Sonic started. "Instead of going to every solar system ourselves, why don't we stop at every close group of stars and send some sort of probes out to them?"
"Good idea. I'll be thinking of a way to do that."
"Can I start making dinner now? I'm getting hungry," Amy groaned.
"Uh… yeah, go ahead." She stood from her seat and made towards the exit.
"How many stars are we visiting?" Cream asked. Cheese squeaked and chirped along with her.
"There are only about three thousand confirmed planetary systems."
"How long is that gonna take?" Sonic asked.
"Not including retrieving the emeralds and recharging, less than a day."
"And including all that?"
"I dunno, up to a month or two, probably."
"Hm. You said there's three thousand confirmed… How many estimated stars with planets are there?"
"Well… thirty billion, but chaos emeralds are attracted to life, so there's no need to search every star. We already know about most—or maybe all—planets with life, and that's where we're going."
"..."
"Is that all?" There was a collective nod. "Okay. Let's go, then."
I pressed 'confirm route' on my control panel, and space began to move at warpspeed.
x
The Master Emerald first ran out of power after twenty-four minutes of use. We had visited exactly one hundred stars and found no emeralds in that time. Since we were in a system with life, it only made sense to land on one such planet.
I called Sonic over the intercom to take his place in the copilot's seat. After he showed up and took his seat, I directed the ship towards the planet with life and readied it for landing. I called a few orders to Sonic during the landing sequence, and we came to a smooth stop. Before I could thank him for the help, he jumped his seat and told me that he'd gather everyone at the door. I sighed as he sped into the hallway. He hadn't been quite himself since I'd seen him. I knew exactly why, but there was nothing I could do to help except act like my old, happy self. But not overdo it and look like I'm faking it. But…
Now that I'm thinking about it… What was I even like before all this? Friendly with everyone, tried to help however possible… Just a little naive…
I shook my head and dismissed the topic for later. What I needed right then was a reading on the planet's environment, which I could get from Amy's station. I jumped from my elevated post and flew into her seat. I entered a few commands, and an analytics screen appeared on the display. Loading data. Over time, numbers began to appear, and graphs began to fill with data. After giving it a once-over, I decided that the planet was completely safe… with the exception of a slight excess of ammonia in the atmosphere. I shut off Amy's computer and headed to Sonic's station to expose the ship's solar panels. I gave the bridge a single security check before leaving. As Sonic mentioned, he had everyone gathered at the exit. I warned them that the air would smell a little pungent and entered the code to open the door. And so began the first recharge.
x
The first comment after exiting the ship was from Amy. She remarked that the air did, indeed, smell like fish. The first thing I noticed, however, was the ground; it was layered with a turquoise, cattail-like foliage that stuck to my socks.
"There's animal-like life on this planet," I noted aloud. Sonic commented about not seeing any animals and asked how I knew that.
"The foliage is sticking to my socks," I answered.
"That's mental gymnastics if I've ever seen any," Knuckles quipped. "How'd you come up with that?"
"Well, plants wouldn't develop that ability if there weren't any animals to stick to. They stick to animals to spread their seeds around," I explained.
"Whatever, I believe you."
On that note, we headed forward with me in the lead. Several seconds later, Sonic became impatient. He told me that he'd run ahead to look around. I nodded in confirmation. Once again, he seemed to be in a hurry to get away from me.
Or was this just a couple of coincidences? Or, alternatively, am I just overthinking it? In retrospect, he's always in a hurry for everything. Regardless… it still feels wrong. Could that be because… nowadays I want someone to stay with me?
I looked back at Amy, Cream, and Knuckles.
Yeah, maybe I just feel like this because I want someone to stick around more now than I did in the past. And that'll all be better soon! Cosmo will be with me again! For now, though… Sonic's not my only friend.
I slowed down and let myself fall back into the rest of the group. Once I was next to Knuckles, I looked up at him and opened my mouth to say something. Nothing came. There were a thousand things that I'd say to Sonic. I looked back down. Knuckles somehow interpreted the awkward attempt at conversation as his queue to take the lead and sped up a bit to fill the position.
Cream took the spot next to me. I looked down at her, and she glanced up at me with a beaming smile. There were a thousand things I'd say to Cosmo, but nothing came to mind for Cream. I looked back up. I looked back at Amy, who seemed to be lost in thought. I fell back a little more until I was next to Amy. This time, something crossed my mind. Perhaps we had found each other in the thoughts we were both lost in.
"Have you noticed something… off about Sonic?" She cut her eyes towards me with a concerned frown.
"You bet. He's been avoiding eye contact, smiling less, and hesitating on his clever remarks." I gave a half smile.
"And does it seem like he's in a hurry to get away from everyone?"
"That, too." I nodded in quiet relief.
So it's not just my imagination.
"Any idea why?"
"Psh. He's obviously worried about your emotional health and doesn't know what to do," she whispered. "He ran into a problem he doesn't know how to deal with, but he can't ask you for help this time. So he's running away. The problem may be imaginary, though. I know I'm not your best friend, but tell me the truth. Are you alright?"
I nodded. "Yeah. It's kind of ironic, though. I'm more worried about him than anything right now."
"I see…" She took a deep breath. "Let's talk about Cosmo, then."
The name didn't hurt to hear anymore. I didn't expect it to after learning that revival was a possibility, but it was nice to acknowledge. "Okay. What about?"
She seemed pleased to find that I was unaffected by the request. She proceeded to ask a series of questions while trying her best to sound casual. I noted that she was using a technique called Freudian Psychoanalysis, an ancient form of psychological therapy. I wondered why she was trying to use a therapeutic technique when I said I was fine; did she not believe me, or did she think it was some kind of mind reading trick? Or did she even know what she was doing and I was just thinking too much of it? After Amy ran out of things to say, I took my turn in the conversation.
"Have you ever heard of Freudian Psychology?" She faltered at the question.
"Er… Yes, I have!"
Right. I thought so.
"I was thinking… do you think Sonic separating himself from everyone is a subconscious reaction?"
"Definitely," she affirmed.
"I think so, too. How about one of us uses psychoanalysis to make that subconscious reaction conscious? You seemed to be pretty good at it just now, so how about you try it?" Her face went red.
"Hn? J-just now? I-I wasn't trying to… Ugh. I'll do it…"
x
We walked another kilometer before Sonic returned. He almost blended in with the foliage, so we were all startled by his sudden appearance. What was equally surprising, however, was his announcement of a nearby settlement.
Note: our modern age is ancient in the era of Sonic.
Don't procrastinate, kids.