It's finally here, ch14! 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 Only Whispered In the Shadows
Ch14. Warm Welcomes And Chili dogs
A light rain permeated the early morning, staining the sky grey over the already dark forest. I let the rain run down my face, as I stared at the clouds. Breathing in and out with the wind as it occasionally whipped around me and then through the trees and up the mountains. It was going to be a real storm soon, and I would miss it. Ever since I was little storms had fascinated me, the raw power and unpredictability they possessed enchanted and inspired me despite the danger. Even now I could hear the thunder rumbling gently in the distance.
I found myself clutching the emerald in one hand and my notebook in the other. I knew I wasn't ready, was there a good way to prepare to go to another world? Well there was no turning back now, it was too late to go back to the nightmare and tell Shadow to call it off. "What is wrong with me?" I stashed my notebook in my bag and ran my hand through my quills. "What am I doing? I shouldn't have fought with Talon like that, and I shouldn't have lied to Shadow, even if I knew he would give me grief about it."
I couldn't help myself, my nerves were getting to me.
"I should have said goodbye, not started an argument… he shouldn't have overreacted, but I shouldn't have disappeared like that."
Lightning danced across the clouds and thunder rippled through the air. Waiting was going to drive me mad if I kept second guessing my every decision, and getting worked up over every little thing.
The rain grew heavier and the thunder louder, the usually calming sounds of the impending storm were beginning to unnerve me. Then the wind picked up, nearly bowling me over and I knew it was going to be bad. They had better teleport me soon or I was going to either drown in this deluge or get crispy fried by the lightning. Another booming flash from the ever darkening sky sent shivers down my spine. Just then I felt something, like the world shifted somehow. Another, louder, boom made me jump as the flash of lightning nearly blinded me as it tore through the trees just across the clearing.
There is no way this was normal, not even for a thunderstorm, the lightning was red… another flash from the other end of the clearing lit the area in a sickly reddish hue.
Fire.
I covered my eyes as billowing smoke began to fill the forest and the clearing, another flash and more smoke billowed up from behind me. I turned to run between the flames and felt the familiar tug of the emerald in my hand. Another flash of red hurled me across the clearing and nearly into the sizzling, roaring inferno. The downpour was no match for the fire as it engulfed the nearby forest lighting the underside of the clouds the color of blood and the veins of red lightning were not helping any. Another tug and another bolt of red lightning just barely missing me. The world slowed down as the sky lit up with one final flash of crimson death as it crackled towards me, one final tug and everything disappeared.
Blinding white light surrounded me, engulfed me as I blinked away the tingling sensation running through my entire body. Every quill was standing on end from the electricity, and several parts of my fur were singed from the fire. I stood up after a few seconds of silence and gazed around, at nothing and no one.
Wasn't I supposed to be in the other world?
Then the tugging began again, only stronger and more persistently. Finally I left the empty space, only to find it replaced this time by a warm sunny morning on a familiar beach overlooked by a lighthouse on a hill.
My fears subsided, the tension left me and I gave a huge sigh. It was real, and I was certain I wasn't dead. The yellow emerald glowed in my hand, getting brighter as I stared at it. Looking around I couldn't figure out why it was doing that. There wasn't any tugging so it wasn't going to drop me somewhere else, so, what then?
Then I heard it, a continuous rumbling. It was quiet at first, then it grew louder and louder, I looked up to find the same flying machine as was in my dream circling above me. I shielded my eyes as it passed in front of the sun, yep it was definitely the same one. A minute later and it had landed nearby on the beach and a small, two tailed fox jumped out, waved, and began walking towards me. I half waved back with a dumbfounded look on my face. He was one of the heroes wasn't he? He was awfully young for a hero wasn't he?
"Hey! I found her guys, she's on the beach near the lighthouse." He seemed to be talking to others even though I couldn't see anyone else and he wasn't loud enough to be heard very far away. As he got closer I could hear other voices replying to him, where were they coming from? I wasn't sure if I was going crazy or if it was similar to the flying contraption he had arrived in. I had asked shadow about it one night and he had told me about how this world had a lot of tech like it all over the place and that it would take too long to explain it all to me, it would be better to see it for myself and learn as I went. Maybe this was one of those things?
"Um, hi I guess." Well this was an awkward way to start a conversation, me staring at some kid like he had a second head because he was talking to people who weren't here and they were actively talking back and I could hear them too.
"Hi, I'm Miles Prower, my friends call me Tails." Why did that name sound familiar? "Nice to finally meet you, knuckles and shadow told us you would be showing up somewhere today. I'm glad we found you so quickly, we wouldn't want you getting lost in an unfamiliar world." his smile was beyond genuine and he looked like finding me was the greatest thing in the world. I gave an awkward smile in reply and blushed.
"Oh, well I guess. I'm Whisper nice to meet you Tails. So um stupid question, what's with the voices?" he looked at me for a moment before it dawned on him.
"Voices? Oh you mean the communicator."
"Communicator?"
"It's a device that lets people talk to each other from a distance, as long as the other person has one too that is." Oh well that's helpful, and good to know I'm not going crazy, yet.
"Cool."
"Well I wouldn't really call it cool but I guess I never thought of not having it. Oh hey look its Sonic!" A blue blur zipped over a hill in the distance, and then another hill. And I thought I was fast. He zipped over the last hill and skidded to a stop in front of us. I was so not going to get used to being slower than someone else.
"Hey Tails, so this is our new guest huh?"
"Yep, Whisper this is Sonic the hedgehog, Sonic this is Whisper."
"Nice to meet you. So worlds in danger huh?" I nodded. He was exactly the same as he had been when I saw him fighting the robots in the dream I had of this place. "Don't worry, we go you covered. We're kind of experts with the whole saving the world thing."
"Good to know…" I wasn't sure if he was just being confident or cocky at this point. "So where do we start?"
"By getting the last emerald from Eggman." Shadow had appeared behind us while we were talking. I had the strange urge to throw something at him. I resisted. He gave me a once over. "What happened to you?" I remembered my singed fur.
"Oh, that. Yeah. Freak thunderstorm started a fire right before I teleported."
"I hope no one got hurt." Tails concern was kind of cute.
"No, I was a good ways away from anything and with the way it was raining it should put it out before it spreads too far." He sighed in relief. The people here were surprisingly caring about things that most people wouldn't bat an eyelash at in my world.
"Hey guys! We finally caught up." Knuckles and the pink hedgehog ran over from down the beach panting.
"Hey whisper, good to see you made it." I nodded to them.
"So now that were all here…" was I imagining things or was Shadow more impatient than usual? "Let's get down to business."
"Don't be so uptight Shadow." Sonic smirked at him, well that explains Shadows discomfort. "Let's grab something to eat first, I could do with a couple of chilidogs right about now."
"What's a chili dog?" everyone turned to look at me with a mix of shock and disbelief, even the usually annoyed Shadow had a surprised look on his face.
"Wait, you mean to tell me you don't know what a chili dog is?" Sonic really seemed to like these chili dog things.
"Um… yes?"
"To the chili dog stand!"
Over the next hour I tried chili dogs for the first time, made a whole host of new allies, and potentially new friends, as well as getting a glimpse of what my world could be. A glimpse of the peace and prosperity that I had been missing most of my life. It was a shame I couldn't stay, not yet. And with that my adventure began in earnest.
What challenges would arise in a world so full of peace that could make heroes as strong as Shadow and Sonic?
What would happen to our two worlds if they were reunited I wondered?
After we got to know one another and after we had eaten our fill of chili dogs and other tasty things, although not as good as Fels cooking in my opinion, I began to explain what had happened to my world from the beginning. They all listened, with the occasional question about unfamiliar creatures and differences in our worlds, but otherwise left me to tell my tale. I left out most of mine and Shadows time in the nightmare world assuming he had told them what they needed to know beforehand and also left out the part about my argument with my brother before I left. At the end, most of them just sat there silently.
"This is going to be a bit harder than we thought. If this Salem can control the emeralds like you think he can then we need to take him down quickly. There is no telling what kind of damage he could do if he got a hold of all of them."
"There is one more thing I need to tell you about the fragment emeralds."
That definitely got their attention.
"If he gets a hold of all of the fragments and takes over the temple, then he will have the power to come to your world. The temple is the only place the fragments power is strong enough to do so and if he somehow manages to get both sets of emeralds then he can recombine the worlds, effectively taking them both over."
"That's not good."
"Knuckles, that's the understatement of the century." Tails had pulled out what he called a computer, he had tried to show me how to use it but most of it went way over my head, I assumed he had recorded everything in some way. Now he was just looking at the rest of us. "If he gets all of the emeralds then they would more than likely recombine as well, making them even more powerful. We wouldn't stand a chance against him."
"Then we don't give him the chance. We need to strike first, while he is unaware and we have the advantage."
"I agree with Shadow on this one, basically we need to get the emerald from Eggman before he gets the other fragments from your friends, no problem." Sonic stood up from the table, the others followed his lead. "Looks like we have a lot to do."
"You make it all sound so easy…" I stood up slowly, there was no way it was going to be so… simple… and yet.
"Alright! Let's do this." The others were getting psyched up about this, they were awfully optimistic about this fight. I couldn't help but trust them, even if there was still a bit of doubt lingering in the back of my mind.
"Er, um. One more thing before we get too carried away…."
"Yeah?"
"I assume that this is going to take more than one day to do so… where am I supposed to stay?"
Hope you enjoyed ch14! Sorry this chapter is a little short but I wanted to have all of the next part in one piece rather than two. Hope you come back for more next chapter. Thanks.
