Thank you to all of those who read the first chapter and came back to read the second. I do not own sonic the hedgehog or any of the characters from the games, movies or comics but I do own this story and the other characters, I hope you enjoy it.
Things Whispered In The Shadows
CH.2 Worlds Apart
The Exit was lit by moonlight, we had made it through the cave. It had taken longer than we initially thought, we had needed to keep stopping to let Talon rest even though he insisted otherwise. He was looking worse than when we had entered, our new found ally, Fel, holding him up to keep moving forward.
"Sweet freedom, sweet sweet freedom..." I hadn't intended to say that out loud but I really didn't care at this point, I realized just how much I hated dark, cramped spaces with no visible way out. I flopped onto the gravel at the entrance to hug the ground and breathed in the cool fresh mountain air. During our trek through the dark of the cave Talon had told me how he had heard a rumor about an old man living at the top of the mountain who was known to occasionally wander the lands researching the ruins of ancient peoples. He had hoped that he may have known a few of their secrets. If the stories were true then he might have some sort of answers or a secret weapon, at the very least he lived in a place we could train for a while away from the constant eye of the tyrant.
"Whisper don't!..." Fel reached out toward me still supporting Talon, but didn't get any closer. Instead he looked frozen to that one spot, fear crossing his face almost comically, one hand outstretched Talons surprised face mimicking him.
I gave him a confused look and then it dawned on me... It was dark out...
I had completely forgotten where we were after being in the cave for so long. I slowly turned around and spotted the source of Fel's fear. Leaping to my feet I began backing away back toward the cave nearly tripping over myself as an enormous creature reared up in front of us. At least I knew the cave was relatively safe. The creature was easily three stories tall, had six trunk like legs and a long neck, too long for its comparatively short stocky body, which would have been funny if its mouth hadn't been large enough to swallow any one of us whole and filled with rows of jagged teeth...
"What the hell is that?!" I had never heard Talon swear before and I wasn't sure if this counted but it was definitely the closest he had ever gotten. The creature trained one of its six hideously over-sized eyes on us, blinked and then decided it wanted to eat us. I dodged left and Fel dodged right with Talon in tow, the monster went for the easier prey and charged after them. I stopped running and watched in horror, realizing that if it got them I would be alone, if I survived at all. I pulled my Silver Sleeve loose, letting it drop over my shoulder and raced full speed up to it from behind and jumped toward its head. I leapt back almost immediately after making contact, but I wasn't fast enough to avoid the counter strike, apparently it also had two whip-like tails to worry about. I sailed across the clearing and only stopped when I hit the cliff wall next to the cave. "No! Whisper!" Talon tried to make his way to me only to end up on the ground with nothing to support him with Fel trying to help him back up to get out of the way of the thrashing tails and gnashing teeth. At the very least I had gotten its attention. I stood up holding my bruised ribs and tried again, the only thoughts running through my head were saving Talon and Fel, and the need to go faster and hit harder. I hit it again and managed to avoid its counter attack only to miss my footing on the landing and get pummeled by the other tail. I looked up in time to see it rear up on two legs ready to pound me into a purple pancake.
A loud boom sounded from behind the monster on the other end of the stony clearing only to be drowned out by the monsters dying roar. The thing collapsed sideways near the cliff and slid down the incline, disappearing over the drop with a cascade smaller rocks following it down. A trail of crimson blood the only proof of its fall. Relief washed over me as I saw Fel help Talon off of the ground as they hobbled over to me, then panic set in as I wondered what was powerful enough to kill that thing in one blow. Shakily I stood up and looked around ready for another fight to begin at any moment, but nothing happened. A confused look crossed my face. "Good to see you can stand." Fel gave me a once over, looking for anything serious. "We were lucky that the old geezer showed up when he did." I glanced over to see that an old grey fox was standing at the base of a long flight of stairs that seemed to continue the rest of the way up the mountain and around to the back of one of the peaks. He wasn't particularly intimidating on his own, in fact he looked more worn out and tired than anything, but the large smoking tube that he was holding was clearly a weapon, made me nervous. If that was what he had used to kill the beast I had no idea how it had done so, it made me almost as curious to know more about it as it made me afraid to know. Better to err on the side of caution at the moment...
"Don't worry it's harmless now, it only fires once before you need to reload it." the old fox had noticed my stares and was now walking over to our ragged group, tossing the large weapon over his shoulder and onto his back with little effort. He was tall for a fox and looked as old as the mountain itself, he was even the same grey as some of the rocks. "Talon and Whisper I believe?" he looked from my brother to me, "Let's get you up to the temple, here hold on to me." He pulled a large green gem from the pocket of his long white lab coat and put his other hand on Fel's shoulder. I grabbed onto his coat and Talon onto his arm, then the world disappeared. I found myself falling to the ground in a different place than before, a nauseous feeling rising up inside as I tried to keep up with the sudden change. Talon held up only by Fel beside me with the same befuddled, nauseous look on his face and if it wasn't my imagination he looked a little greener than usual. I almost chuckled at that but thought better of it as the room seemed to spin around me a bit. Fel was still standing with only the slightest discomfort showing on his face, mixed with amusement at our own discomfort no doubt. "We're here" the old fox announced as if it weren't obvious.
"You seem to have us at a disadvantage, we never got your name..." Talon inquired as Fel helped him over to a seat on a nearby bench, the room was enormous and crammed full of... well, stuff. There was no other way to describe the mess stacked nearly to the height of the door around the edges of the room.
"Oh? Forgive my manners, my name is Maxis Prower. I am the current guardian of this temple." He gestures to the messy room and I assume the rest of the, what did he call it a temple? It didn't look much like a temple to me, more like a junk heap with a roof but that was just my opinion. "I believe you have met my assistant and adopted son Fel already."
"Well that explains a few things..." Talon smirked as Fel dug through a pile of boxes and bins till he pulled a large white box out of a stack. Setting it on the couch next to Talon and started pulling out rolls of gauze and other supplies. "I was told you could help us. We are looking for..."
"Yes, yes I know what you are here for, how else would I know your names?" Maxis busied himself with digging through a stack of papers and redeposited the large green gem back into his coat pocket. "Now where is that blasted book..." concentration creasing his face as he began searching again.
"That gem... where did you get it?" remembering the night our parents died, the image of a similar, red gemstone was burned into my mind once again.
Maxis suddenly stopped rummaging to turn a wide eyed stare toward me. "You've seen one of these before? Where? What color was it?" he slowly picked his way over to me, not once looking away he settled his steady hands gently on my shoulders when he reached me.
"A red one, hanging from the neck of the demon who killed our parents, Salem." Now it was Talon and Fel's turn to be surprised. Talon hadn't see Salem kill our parents or get a good look at him, he was too busy trying to save both of our lives as the house was set ablaze around me. "What is that gem?" this old fox knew something important and I was determined to know what. Knowledge was power and I needed strength to fight this war.
He was silent for a moment, "This complicates things... These gems are the keys to overthrowing Salem, they can give certain people enormous power and if he has the red gem then he has two of the seven while we have only one." the old fox dropped down into a large chair surrounded by stacks of books, papers and the occasional piece of mechanical junk. "We need all Seven of these gems to recharge the temples power supply and open the doorway to that world."
"What world?" Talon and I ask in unison.
"Oh yes that's right I haven't explained much yet have I. This world is a fragment of another, severed hundred if not thousands of years ago from its parent world. Those of us chosen to guard this temple have been charged with the duty to gather the seven fragment emeralds and reunite this world with the original." tapping his pocket with the emerald.
"Fragment emeralds? Why not call them something cool like infinity emeralds or power emeralds or something like that?" I knew it was probably a pointless question but I couldn't help but ask.
"Because little hedgehog, as I said this world is only a fragment of the original and so the emeralds are only fragments of the original emeralds from that world. They may not be as powerful as the originals but those of us that can control them still gain amazing powers from them. Such as our trip here." He gave us a moment to let it all sink in.
"So... the fate of our world, that just so happens to only be a fragment of another world, rests on us finding and obtaining a set of magical gems, that also happen to be fragments. Two of which happen to be in the hands of the person we need to obtain said gems to defeat... Does that about sum it up?" Talon may be the most understanding person I know, not that I know a lot of people, but to see him now was so depressing it was making me regret coming to this place even more. He was rather blunt when it came to information.
"Yep, sounds about right." We may have just met but it was obvious that Fel was putting on a brave face. Even these people, who lived in a place that Salem's armies couldn't march were not affected by his influence. Even with the unbelievable knowledge that they had they were still outnumbered and under-powered comparatively. My mind began to turn, weather from my unwillingness to lose or my need for retribution I was loath to give up even now.
"So? Where do we start?" I couldn't give up now, we had a chance no matter how small. They all stared at me in shock for a second before Talon, then Fel smiled and a spark began to grow in Maxis' eyes. Hope, the one thing we had never dared to dream of was finally within reach. We were no longer alone and now we had information that could change the game entirely.
"This is going to be the hardest thing any of us have ever done, are you sure you're all up for it?" Maxis looked to us stopping to stare at each of us, almost like a challenge.
"Up for it? Why do you think we're here? We didn't endanger our lives coming to this forsaken place to ask for the secret ingredient to someones famous soup. I'm in." Talons smile widened when he turned to look at me, the old fox nodding approvingly. I would do anything to stop his tyranny and this was our best chance. After all of the sacrifices we had made to get here and the hardships we had survived just to make it this far, there was no turning back.
"Do I have much of a choice? If Salem has two gems then it's only a matter of time before he comes looking for more and turns his gaze toward this place." Fel stood up and gave a nervous smile.
"Good, then we start here and now. Seeing as how Talon cannot participate for a couple of weeks he will be an observer until such a time as he can join us. Fel, help Talon to a room and meet us in the training room. Whisper, follow me please." With that I was given the grand tour of the temple turned science project, and introduced to the inhabitants of that forsaken place. Robots of all sizes and kinds were lined up against the walls of the training room, most were at least twice my size and some were as big as small buildings. I had only seen the decrepit shells of ruined bots before as well as hearing the tales of old that claimed them to be superior weapons to even an artificers abilities could produce alone. This room was the biggest one in the entirety of the temple from what I could see and was so large it was nearly impossible to see the ceiling in the low light of the evening. "Fel would you be so kind as to activate the novice training bots?" Fell nodded and strode over to a couple of smaller bots leaning against the nearest wall and put a hand on each one, the surprise on my face when sparks raced from his palms and across the bots must have been more obvious than I thought since Maxis chuckled I hadn't even notice him enter the room. "Sorry for the surprise my dear, Fel is himself a robot, and a dammed good one at that." I looked from Fel to the old fox and back in astonishment. I barely knew what a robot was let alone that they could look like a normal person. I was learning more today than I had in the last few years combined.
"Ready."Fel gave a quick nod to Maxis.
"Now, I got a good look at what you are capable of outside but with such impossible odds it is hard to gauge what kind of damage you can do to reasonable opponents." He gestured to the two bots that had made their way to the center of the room and stood there facing our general direction. "Feel free to attack whenever you feel ready"
"Ok..." I wasn't sure where to start, I had never initiated a fight with an opponent that was not already trying to kill me, or someone else, so I just dove in going for the one on the right first. It was a mistake. The first one dodged me easily while the second one struck me in the back tossing me forward. So they were at least intelligent enough to counter a direct attack, and it hurt. I got up and tried again I charged in the same as before but instead I dodged to the left and swung around behind the bot trying to counter my oncoming blow. It stumbled forward into the first bot and then fell to the ground in a tangle to arms and legs. "Hah!" I turned around to announce my triumph. "See that?" Fel covered his eyes, smiling and grimacing at the same time as I flew forward again. I should have realized that training of any kind would never be that easy. I stood up again, and dodged a second blow only to run headlong into the second bot. Using the bots head as a step I launched into the air and turned my momentum into an axe kick to the first bots face, effectively disabling it and then spun around and charged the second hard enough to punch a hole in the outer shell. I backed up holding my hand, "Owowowowowow..."
"Well done, although if you could have done that in the first place you would have had fewer bruises." Fel snickered from across the room and I stuck my tonged out at him.
Maxis, ignoring our childish behavior, walked out of the room. "That should be enough for tonight, Fel show her where they she will be living while I prepare some food." He nodded and lead me up to the room opposite my brother. This was going to be an interesting kind of training to say the least and I was looking forward to it.
- A Year later -
"Don't let him get behind you!" It had been a Year since Fel had led us through the cave and Maxis had taken us under his care. The clash of fighting surrounded the three of us. Fel spun around behind me blocking an attack that I could have easily dodged and then danced off to smash another bot in the face. Talon jumped above the fray and landed on the shoulders of one of the taller bots, steering it flailing toward the center of the group. I backed out of the melee and looked around, dismantling the stray bots that came for me instead of the other two. I grinned to myself. I was only 15 but I knew that my speed was nothing to sneeze at. I could easily out pace my brother and Fel wasn't much better, I didn't need more than a couple minutes to take down most of Maxis' bots anymore and neither did the others. This was our final test before our real training began. I settled into a low crouch, then launched into the fray again. I ricocheted from one bot to another working my way up the ranks and picking up momentum as I went.
"Hey Whisper! Give me a boost!" Talon had fully recovered from his injuries and had even surprised the old fox by improving faster than any of us could have ever hopped. Now we fought side by side feeding off of each other's momentum, getting stronger and faster by the day. I grabbed hold of Talons arm as I dashed past and pulled him forward fast enough to launch him into the largest of the bots and stopped to watch. He plowed through it like it was made of paper, then took out the remaining bots with the momentum he had left. We had learned to fight without our scarves for the most part only using them when absolutely necessary, or when we felt the need to put an extra flourish on a finishing blow. So far we hadn't needed to use them and the only opponents left were hoisting their gargantuan selves off of the sidelines.
The three Titan bots slowly surveyed the field before moving into the arena. They were each the size of a two story house and each had unique fighting styles. They were hard opponents on their own and together they were downright deadly, but unfortunately for them so were we when we worked together. I nodded to Fel and Talon, they nodded back with a mix of seriousness and excitement... The silver and gold sleeves trailed out behind us and Fel raised his arm now sporting a miniature accelerator cannon. I smiled and charged full force into the largest of the three as Talon speed up the fortresses arm and Fel leveled his cannon at the speedster. I hit first Knocking mine back and hitting it over and over to keep it on the defensive. Talon punched out one of the fortresses eyes and half of its face with it, I began letting up on my attacks, leading the massive bot over to its armored companion. Fel fired the cannon with a deafening boom and took out one of the speedsters arms throwing it off balance and slowing it down, then a second shot took it down at the knee. The fortress, now blind on one side swung for Talon only to hit the behemoth, crushing its own arm and the other bots face. I spun around and took out the remaining eye and Talon crushed the bots' power sources. Another loud boom and Fel watched the final bot fall to the floor with a gaping hole in is center where the core would have once been.
"So that's what it feels like to impress the old geezer" Fel grinned at Maxis who was in fact grinning in return. I hadn't seen him so much as crack a smile on more than a couple occasions, so the fact that he was this happy was something to be proud of. But not too proud because the old fox could still kick all of our buts in a second if he wanted to, as we had found out shortly after starting training when we didn't feel like doing our morning routine.
"Don't go getting a big head Fel, you might have to retire early if you can't fit out the door." Talon dodged a swing and danced out of Fel's reach. I giggled a little and walked out of the training hall after Maxis who was already on his way to the dining area, it would be too much of a stretch to call it a room as it was more of an open hall but it was still one of our favorite places to be, aside from the lookout of course.
In the year that My brother and I had been here, Fel had become Talons best friend and Maxis had become my tutor once he realized I had an interests in crafting. I learned how to make weapons stronger than even my parents had dreamed, then again this knowledge was passed down from another world. He may not have been an artificer but his knowledge of mechanics and materials was invaluable. So as nice as our lives seemed now we still had a long way to go before we could take on Salem and his ever expanding empire. For now we had to settle for besting the monsters that lived in this ancient place. We still couldn't venture out alone after dark even though we were good enough on our own during the day, as long as we stuck together. In this place it was eat or get eaten and thanks to our training and each other we were the ones doing most of the eating.
We had the rest of the day off to do with as we pleased and like usual on days like this, when we had time to ourselves, we found ourselves in the watch tower, the only place higher than the peaks that surrounded the Temple. We could see for miles in every direction, like looking out over a mighty kingdom of beasts. For some reason being completely surrounded by ferocious monsters that could easily eat any one of us, and even Maxis if he was to careless, was comforting especially knowing that even Salem and his armies would have a hard time surviving here let alone conquering it.
The three of us sat there in silence for a while and even watched the sun set over the peaks. "It's hard to believe that we made it this far..." Talon, still staring at the setting sun, was the first to move "We can't wait much longer, we have to keep moving or we won't be able to get enough of the fragment emeralds to take the ones Salem has."
"Well you can count on my help, whether you like it or not I'm coming with." Fel grins, his eyes dancing with anticipation "Man think of all the adventures and the treasure! Not to mention the adoring fans we'll have after we kick Salem's butt and take the emeralds from him!"
"Adoring fans?" I can't help but laugh a little when I say it "And besides if we manage to kick Salem's butt we won't need the emeralds anymore. The whole purpose of getting them was so that we could kick his butt."
Fel blushes and stops to think about it and Talon buts in to save his best friend from further embarrassment "Either way we need to get them from him, they could be dangerous in anyone's hands if used the wrong way or for the wrong purposes."
"Well you're both forgetting that regardless of if they fell into someone else's hands or not Maxis and I need them to reunite the two worlds remember?" We both had to stop and stare at Fel this time. Big duh moment there for the both of us.
"I almost forgot about that, we've been so focused on Salem we forgot about what we were going to do after..." Talon turns back to the last of the sunset and sighs. "It's strange thinking that one day we might be able to explore the world without someone or something trying to kill us every time we turn around..."
"Yeah I know right? It's like the world got a whole lot bigger. Heh I call the fan girls!"
"No way dude, and besides what makes you think they would go for a robocat? I stand a way better chance at getting a girl than you, and fan girls so do not count."
This is where I rolled my eyes and left the conversation. The boys could be so boring sometimes. I turned to leave them to their girl talk and stopped when I saw Maxis at the top of the stairs.
The look on his face said that he had something important to tell us, "Hey guys." Of course I was ignored, "Guys!"
"Would not!"
"Would so, robocat."
"If you two are done I require your undivided attention." I stifled a snicker but failed to hide the smile, and to think they called me childish.
The boys nearly jumped out of their skins and they both turned red from embarrassment. They stood up and gave Maxis the undivided attention he asked for, probably more from a need to move on from the embarrassment than actual fear of what the old fox might do. "Tonight your real training begins, it will be brief and intense." He looked between the three of us "If you are not up to the challenge then I suggest you find your way down the mountain before nightfall tomorrow evening." Clearing his throat and continued. "Otherwise I suggest you get your rest and prepare, you have a long hard journey ahead of you starting tomorrow night." I didn't particularly like the slight emphasis he put on the word hard but we were used to hard training up till now. This was somewhat exciting, it was different from the routine we had grown used to.
"Not a chance were giving up, we spent to long getting here." Talon nodded to Fel then smiled at Maxis.
"Same answer here, why abandon the most interesting thing that's ever happened in my life?" Fel stepped forward slightly and looked to me.
I sighed "I hate to admit it but I have to agree with these two idiots." I gave them both a Mischievous smile before turning my attention back to Maxis. To my surprise he was smiling again which only made the rest of us smile even bigger in return.
"Well I guess that settles it then, get yourselves some rest, I will see you tomorrow at sundown."
We exchanged excited glances before following him down the tower and heading off to our rooms. I plopped myself down into my bed and realized I was exhausted, the good kind, and drifted off wondering what kind of training we would be doing next.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed the chapter! Feedback is welcome.
