The X-Tornado touched down and Tails leapt out. Sonic had asked him to meet at one of Eggman's old bases after getting Knuckles to help. It was strange that Tails had beat him there, even with his aircraft.
He took a good look around. The place was a robot graveyard. The wreckage of both Eggman's robots and the invaders littered the ground. It must have been invaded days ago. Save for a quiet breeze, it was silent.
Tails felt uneasy. Extremely uneasy. He wished Sonic was there- maybe at least he'd feel a bit safer. Looking around, he saw nothing, but somehow, it felt like he was being... watched. He was distracted when he noticed one of the alien robots on the ground before him. Many others were lying around, but this one looked largely intact, and yet still dead.
Against his better judgement, the curious fox walked over to it. He knelt next down and began prodding at its remains. He had seen similar ones before- it seemed this particular build was the most common. They stood about twice as tall as him, and their cases were made of a bronze-like substance. He ran his hand over its unnaturally cold surface. In the center of it, there was a glowing cell, possibly a power core, or central processor. The fan-shaped head was badly damaged, bent at an awkward angle and barely holding on to the main body. Its single eye, normally a bright, yet ominous red, was turned off. He cautiously touched the joints in its battered neck and rotated it around, attempting to get a look at its intricate machinery.
The light in its eye flickered. Tails barely had time to notice.
The machine leapt up and latched itself onto his arm. Tails cried out in panic and began desperately struggling against it. Even in its severely damaged state, its grip was too strong to break free.
The construct brought itself to its feet, dangling Tails in front of it. Its mangled, crooked head stared straight at this foreign creature, studying as it flailed in its grasp.
NETWORK DAMAG%##%#%%**
MIN.../COR3...!
COMPUT.^^
ACTION INDEPEN6*&77&^%$
EXTERM18e^X
ANOMALY
11010001001110100
Tails could see it raise its palm towards him, which reconfigured into some sort of small gun. He quickly kicked its outstretched hand as it discharged, sending a short-ranged shockwave into the air above him. Tails brought another kick to the arm holding him. The robot dropped him and staggered backwards before toppling over again. Before it could get back up, Tails brought his foot down on its core, shattering the barrier containing it. A strange, luminescent fluid sprayed out and it shut down.
Shaken, but unharmed, Tails slowly walked back from the dead construct, his shoe covered in the unusual liquid. Disgusted, he tried wiping it off on the grass, unsuccessfully. After a few moments, he gave up, and began walking back to the X-Tornado, keeping a close eye on all of the other supposedly dead robots. Needless to say, he didn't want to risk anything else here being alive. Not while he was alone.
Alone.
He paused, one hand on his aircraft.
'Remember I'll always be with you...'
"No! Not now..." Tails closed his eyes, choking back tears. He always remembered at the worst times.
"Hey Tails! Where ya goin'?"
Perfect timing, Sonic. Thanks.
The blue hedgehog dashed up to greet Tails. Knuckles was (relatively) close behind. Tails subtly wiped his eyes dry and put on a half-hearted smile.
"Hey Sonic. I wasn't going anywhere, I was just waiting for you." He motioned to the robot he killed moments ago. "Don't worry, I'm not hurt," he said upon seeing Sonic's concerned face.
"So now that we're here," Knuckles interrupted, "what do we do now?"
Sonic looked around. "I guess we start searching the place."
Tails pointed the group to a bunker in the center of the fort. "The computer mainframe is probably in there. Its a good start." He went into the X-Tornado and dug out an arc welder. They went to the locked blast door, and Tails cut through it before Knuckles pried it open. He hid the welder by the door to pick up later.
The team went down a short flight of stairs, leading to a long, dark hallway. The only lighting was flickering backup lights. Once their eyes adjusted, they saw more wreckage of Eggman's robots.
"Thats strange," began Tails as they slowly walked down the hallway. "It looks like they were cornered, but the door was locked."
"Whatever those other robots are, it looks like they can teleport," replied Knuckles.
Sonic kicked one of their severed heads as they passed. It bounced several meters before coming to rest. Its dead eye was fixed directly on him.
The thing glared at him. Its red eye pierced the darkness, watching, calculating. The fires of the buildings cast a gleam over its armor. Soon Sonic saw another eye. Then another. Gradually, they all turned around until the entire legion was facing him.
And for a moment, Sonic felt nothing.
"Hey Sonic, keep up!" called Knuckles from around a corner, snapping Sonic out of his memory. He glanced down the hall, then back at the head, then crushed it beneath his foot before moving along.
By the time he caught up to them, they had already found the central computer and Tails was busy hacking away at it.
He was done in seconds. "Hm. Easier than I thought. Eggman didn't put many security measures in place."
"So what does it say?" asked Sonic. "Anything about how he controls these things?"
"Theres only a few things here. Some pictures, and an audio recording. Hold on, I'll get it playing..."
Tails tapped on the keyboard for another minute, and it played Eggman's all-too-familiar voice.
"I haven't slept in days. These machines display rather strange capabilities. The last time I slept, I had a dream, which I believe to somehow be the memories of the one that I'm studying. Much of what I saw was hazy, but if nothing else, I know what they're called. Whatever it last fought- which appears to be other humans- called these things 'The Vex.'"
Tails pulled up some diagrams of these "Vex" that were also on the computer.
"I've also learned the names of the individual units. The flying ones are called Harpies. They function as scouts, and act as eyes for the whole network. Goblins and Hobgoblins are like their basic infantry. Hobgoblins have advanced optics,mostly exhibited through their role as snipers. They also have a defensive reflex. An impenetrable shield which burns whatever it touches. Any attempts to breach it have been fruitless, as have attempts to replicate the effect.
This brings us to Minotaurs. Their large case is also protected by an energy field. I've observed them building various structures around the planet, though what those structures are used for is yet to be seen. Finally is Hydras. They're nearly invincible, and further protected by a rotating defense matrix. Attempted mappings of the Vex's computation networks seem to show that they oversee and possibly control other constructs in the area.
As for how they fully function and their final goal here, I don't know. Not yet."
"So even Egghead doesn't know much about these things," said Sonic. Still not convinced that he's not completely involved.
"It doesn't look like it," said Tails, pausing the recording. He found a map of the planet, which was traced with zigzagged lines. "But it seems like this file was made before the Vex began to show up. Maybe theres more in the recording..."
" But I have looked into the conduits underground. By using electrical impulses, I mapped the whole network, and discovered that it circumscribes the entire globe. But all tendrils of this network converge on one place. I've called it 'The Nexus,' and began fortifying its location. This network became active as soon as the Vex began appearing, but parts of it were damaged as a result of my experiments.
This is where things get more than confusing. My experiments were to investigate these conduits, try to find out who built them, how they function. But the discovery was disturbing- the material these were made of, besides being entirely foreign to our world, is older than our own planet.
I've devised multiple theories, but as of now, theres no way to test them. The most obvious conclusion is, somehow, also the most insane: That the components of this conduit haven't been built yet. That they will be built in the future, and will eventually be taken back in time to our planet- and possibly others- and installed to be awoken when the Vex invade.
I've run similar dating tests on the material that makes the Vex. Their cases are just as old as the conduits. Wherever they came from is from far across the universe- possibly not even our own, or in our timeline. This means that the Vex can teleport across time and space, easily and en masse, without Chaos Emeralds, hence why they've shown no interest in them.
What this potentially means is that whatever power created and controls the Vex is far greater than any power I've seen. Under any other circumstances, I'd begin hunting for it. But the way these Vex behave- and the apparent effects they have on my mind- is enough to drive me away from it. I don't even want to touch them anymore, much less control or reverse engineer them."
"Thats insane," said Knuckles. "Not only do they have a power greater than the Chaos Emeralds, its so dark even Eggman wants nothing to do with it..."
"But there are more pressing matters at hand. The Vex are beginning a large offensive across the whole planet, and possibly other time periods. As such, I'm abandoning all other bases and sending all available robots to the Nexus, which I'm forced to assume is where their goal lies. To protect whats left, small detachments will defend the remaining bases. A tracking program will let me predict where and when the Vex will teleport next."
A few seconds passed in an eternity.
A blaring alarm started sounding through the base, and the computer locked down.
"What did you do?!" Knuckles asked Tails.
"I didn't do anything! It just... wait... whats this?"
The tracker that Eggman had designed had picked up signatures.
Sonic turned around. "Uh... guys? We've got company..."
The telltale lightning spheres had appeared down the hallway behind them. As if the Vex knew what they were up to, they were coming for them.
A series of blinding flashes lit up the room.
Sapphire continued walking down the trail which now cut through a shallow rock gorge, rifle drawn. As she walked, she looked around at the ruins scattered across the trails. They all belonged to the Vex, and predated humanity by thousands, if not millions, of years. She paused by a particularly large stone block. The Vex seemed to be obsessed with these blocks. They were scattered all across the solar system. When the Vex began appearing on the planet, these geometric stones would gradually morph into machines, but their purpose was unknown. It was like a strange omen of the planet's fate. Mercury, once a lively garden world, was now a massive, lifeless machine. And if the Vex weren't stopped now, Venus would suffer the same fate, which would also befall Mars and Earth.
"Are we just going to stand here all day?" asked a nervous Ghost. "This is a good spot to get picked off by a Hobgoblin. I don't feel like restoring you this far in enemy territory."
Sapphire disregarded her companion's warning. She'd been dead before, multiple times. Death was simply an occupational hazard in a Guardian's job. So long as a Guardian had their Ghost and their Light, death was far from insurmountable- and really only scary the first time.
Still, the block could only hold her attention for so long, and she kept walking. As she did, she pondered Cayde's unusual directive. The Black Guardian hadn't been sighted in centuries. It was doubtful he (she? it?) even existed. What were the odds of finding him, just out on Venus? Was he even a Guardian? Legend says he serves the Darkness...
"Guardian?" Ghost broke her train of thought. "Theres a clearing up ahead. I'm picking up some Vex signatures."
Sapphire gazed down the trail aways. There was a large area cut into the rock face, though she could only see the corners. She ran up to one, and held still for a moment.
In a brief flash of light, her armor's invisibility capabilities activated, and she vanished. Steeling herself, she rounded the corner, weapon raised.
Several quick visual scans, and nothing. Not a single Vex. Her camouflage disabled and she lowered her rifle. Looking around more, she started taking in the details of the place. There were a large amount of Vex ruins, some of which were morphed into machine blocks. Several inactive portal frames were scattered about. A path made sort of a walkway wrapping around the clearing, and in the center was a large, bronze door. The realisation hit her like a Hive Ogre.
"This is the Vault of Glass," she said quietly and summoned Ghost.
"It matches the old descriptions. Let me look around." It flew from its perch in her hand and began scanning objects of particular interest.
Sapphire herself began to walk about the area. The path leading to the Vault began to the left of where she stood. After walking up to a short flight of stairs, leading to a platform made of Vex ruins, she stopped to analyze an unusual circle engraved in the ground. Kneeling down, she gently touched the ground inside, trying to sense something, anything. Her gauntlets had a neural interface that allowed her to feel as if it were her skin. But there was nothing. The ground was just solid and unremarkable.
Unsatisfied, she continued to follow the path up to the Vault itself. The door was huge, at least 10 meters tall, and built into the rock face. She noticed another circle on the ground before it.
The Ghost floated back up to her. "Theres another plate on the ground over there," he said, gesturing towards the final segment of the path. "But it looks like everything here is inactive. Some faint Vex signatures from those plates, but thats it."
Sapphire and the Ghost studied the door. There was an elaborate contraption built into the center- some sort of lock. "They're probably how you open the Vault."
"Its been sealed for centuries. They say the last time the Vault opened, it released unspeakable evil," said her Ghost, turning to face her. "Take that as a hint."
"I don't think I could open it, even if I wanted to. Mark the coordinates and lets move on."
"Don't you think we should report back to the Tower? Even if the Vault is still sealed, this is a huge find. The Cryptarchs will be all over this."
Sapphire started walking back. "We still have orders. And I said I could stay out for a few days."
"You mean that ghost chase Cayde sent us on?" Ghost grudgingly, but dutifully, followed her. "The Black Guardian is a legend. Even if it wasn't, what are the odds that-"
They froze. Standing below the ledge, well away from them, was a figure wearing black armor, watching them.
"You have got to be kidding me..."
"HEY!" Yelled Sapphire, waving to him. The Black Guardian dashed off in an instant at an unusually fast pace.
Sapphire leapt over the edge (using her boots' thrusters to slow her descent) and sprinted to where the Guardian was a moment ago. A glance down the trail showed nothing- he was gone. She let out a frustrated sigh and looked down. Something caught her attention.
Where the mysterious figure was a moment ago, there was a distinctive burn mark in the ground. Gently running her fingers over it, it still felt warm. Looking further up the path, there was another one, just a few feet away. The pattern continued as far as she could see.
"Ghost," she asked, "where does this trail go?"
"It leads North. Right to the Vex Citadel. Your Sparrow's ready to go, since I know you'll never listen to me."
"Worth checking out anyways, even if he's not there." Her Ghost synthesized the bike, and she jumped on, kickstarting the engines. "We'll come back later."
Knuckles braced himself and slammed his shoulder full-force into the charging Minotaur, forcing it against the wall and breaking its energy shield. He drove his fist straight through its chest and threw its dead shell into a nearby Goblin. Sonic dashed past them and spun into another Goblin. A Hobgoblin warped behind the two, and Tails leapt up and kicked it to the ground. It rolled over, stood up, and raised its gun towards him. Tails grabbed the long rifle and twisted it out of its hands. Knuckles charged in and knocked the robot back into the wall, shattering it.
They ran back down the hall and rounded a corner, where a swarm of Harpies were lying in wait. There was a flurry of movement as they spun open, exposing their twin guns, and the three ducked for cover as a hail of energy bolts saturated the air.
Acting quickly, Sonic sprinted around the corner and immediately threw his legs in front of him, sliding along the ground beneath the Harpies. Once behind them, he spun into them, chaining between three of floating constructs. They let out a shrill chirp as they shattered. The remaining ones turned their focus to Sonic, but Knuckles charged straight for them.
The scouts dealt with, the path ahead was clear. They ran back down the hall and up the stairs. More Hobgoblins stood atop the surrounding buildings, and a Hydra stared them down, backed up my Harpies.
LINKING BATTLE NETWORK
TARGETS IDENTIFIED
SCANNING NETWORK FOR RELATED [INTEL]
ARCHIVES ACCESSED [POST-MORTEM]
...The machine leapt up and latched itself onto his arm. Tails cried out in panic and began desperately struggling against it. Even in its severely damaged state, its grip was too strong to break free...
...Knuckles narrowly dodged another series of blasts from the construct and delivered another blow to it. This time anticipating the shield's effect, he hit the ground and immediately sprung towards it again. The robot teleported forward several meters, and Knuckles missed. He wheeled about and struck again. Its shield nearly depleted, it raised its hand and swung towards him. Knuckles ducked and attempted another upwards strike. It countered by bringing its own fist straight down, slamming into Knuckles and blocking the attack...
..."C'mon, Knucks. We've beat bigger things before."...
PERSISTENT
EXPUNGE ANOMALIES
The Hydra didn't take long to engage them, and scorched the area where they stood with its twin torch hammers.
They quickly dodged its attack and tried to find somewhere to regroup, but wherever they went, more Vex awaited them. Eventually, they decided to retreat back to the bunker.
"I can't get to the X-Tornado," panted Tails. "Not with all those things here."
"We've gotta fight our way out," said Knuckles. "I'll get the big one. Sonic, you keep those snipers off my back. Tails... don't get hurt."
Sonic dashed out the door first and leapt up against a nearby wall, then sprung into the air and spun to the first Hobgoblin. Their gaze distracted, Knuckles ran out and charged the Hydra, dashing left and right to dodge its fire. Once within range, he sprung towards it, only to get caught in its shield and propelled backwards again. A nearby Harpy targeted him, but before it could get a shot, Tails ran in and drove a piece of sharp scrap metal through its eye, and it shattered. He once again ran for cover as two more found him.
Up top, Sonic spun through two more Hobgoblins. One atop another building across the way tried to get a shot on him, but he saw the telltale glare of its charging rifle and dodged the energy bolt. He managed to get a running start and jumped towards it, but it was ready for him. Sonic spun up, collided with the construct...
...and cried in pain as an intense, scorching heat immediately knocked him back. He managed to land on his feet, and saw it bent over and covered in a red aura. The defensive reflex Eggman mentioned. Still, it was only temporary, and Sonic dashed towards it again once it stood up, only for it to teleport behind him. One more attack and he finally wrecked it.
Knuckles continued his brawl with the Hydra. Punch after punch landed, each one only slightly damaging it.
CALCULATING TRAJECTORY
...
...
DONE
EVALUATING NEXT MOVE
...
DONE
After leaping upwards to dodge another volley from its cannons, Knuckles delivered a blow straight down on top of it. This one finally managed to crack its case, but the Hydra had already calculated his move. Knuckles clumsily landed between the construct and its defense matrix, limiting his movement options. He tried to claw his way out as the Hydra began curling up, and barely leapt clear as it explosively discharged a powerful force field, knocking him back aways. He landed, rolled, and got back on his feet, and managed to jump away as the Hydra sprayed another salvo of cannon fire at him.
Sonic finished off the last Hobgoblin, throwing its now-headless wreckage off the edge of the building. Wow. When did I become such a maniac...
The air hung heavy with smoke and ash, of both buildings and people. "Monsters," he growled...
Oh yeah. Thats when.
He shook it off and jumped back down, spinning into a Harpy that had its eye on Tails, just as he destroyed another one.
MULTIPLE NETWORK DISRUPTIONSX34%^
DAM4G*** INCREAS####
ESTABLISHING TRANS-CHRONOLOGICAL LINK
[DEUS EX MACHINA]:
REQUEST REINFORCEMENTS
Assuming direct control.
A few seconds passed in an eternity.
In a flash of light, more Harpies appeared and turned on him. Sonic motioned for Tails to get behind him. Tails could usually hold his own in a fight, but he was nowhere near as experienced as Sonic. He didn't want Tails fighting these things alone (even if it was just the little ones).
The fighting raged on for several more minutes. No matter how many Vex they destroyed, they just kept coming. Another squad of Hobgoblins spawned away from them, and one set its sights on Tails. It charged, and fired, and Tails bent over backwards as the bolt narrowly missed him. Another shot, and he began scrambling backwards, dodging beam after beam. It was too far away to fight, and Sonic was preoccupied with more Harpies. He didn't even notice he had begun straying too close to the Hydra...
Knuckles was getting tired of fighting this thing. Its case was further cracked, and energy seethed down its spine. The damage had made its movements and calculations even more sluggish. Going for the final blow, he charged forward and aimed his fist straight for its eye.
This vessel is weakened. Severing connection.
[FUNERAL PYRE] ACTIVATED
One final, powerful hit, and the machine was knocked back. It glowed brightly as it clattered to the ground, right next to Tails. Smaller explosions covered its shattered exterior.
Knuckles' eyes widened. "TAILS! GET OUT OF THERE!"
Tails quickly glanced aside to see the self-destructing Hydra. As fast as he could, he jumped up to his feet and sprinted away, barely making it out of the lethal blast radius, but the shockwave still caught him, and he was thrown aside, slamming into the ground and tumbling several more meters.
"...please Tails, oh please be ok..."
His vision slowly faded back in, and he saw her. "Ah... what happened?" he asked as he sat up, clutching the gash on his head.
"Careful! You're hurt!"
"...Tails? Tails?!" Knuckles tried to help the young fox back to his feet. "I'm so sorry, I didn't even see you... are you alright?" Tails stood back up, but kept his eyes closed. His head throbbed from the explosion.
"I'm fine, Knuckles," mumbled Tails. Not the first time this has happened to me...
Sonic dashed up to them after cleaning up the rest of the Vex, and took a look at Tails' forehead. "It looks like you're bleeding. Its not too bad, but you should probably patch it up."
"Theres a first aid kit in the X-Tornad-"
Tails didn't even finish the sentence before Sonic sprinted off to get it and was back in seconds. He rummaged through it and dug out some tape and a bandage, and (somewhat crudely) wrapped them around his head.
"Thanks Sonic," he said. "So where are we going next?"
"You're going home," said Sonic. "I don't want you fighting like this." Tails opened his mouth in protest, but the stern look on Sonic's face clearly said that it wasn't up for discussion.
"Ok. I'm sorry I can't go with you."
"Don't worry about it. You've helped me out plenty of times. You need a break." Sonic gently put a hand on his shoulder and smiled. "Just get some rest. There'll be plenty of action once you feel better."
Tails smiled back. "Thanks. If you ever do need me, though.. you know where I am."
He returned to his plane and took off. Sonic calmly watched as it disappeared over the horizon.
Knuckles looked at the charred wreckage of the Hydra. Something's wrong with Sonic. I've never seen him fight with so much... hate. He said he saw these things massacre a bunch of people. Was it really that bad? Its not like we've never seen people get killed before. Maybe he's scared... No, thats impossible. Sonic, scared.
Isn't it?
He turned back to Sonic. "So where do we go next?"
"Wherever this 'Nexus' Eggman mentioned is." Sonic didn't even look at Knuckles. "He'll be there. And if he's this interested in the Vex, and the Nexus is so important to them, he'll know how to stop them."
"And if he's really trying to work with them?"
"Then we stop him, too. You don't have to come if you don't want to."
Knuckles sighed. As much as he hated to admit it, Sonic was his friend. And he needed him. "Well, if the Vex don't care about the Master Emerald, and Eggman's too busy dealing with them, then I guess I don't need to guard it. You know where we're going?"
"Yeah. I'll have to recall the way from memory, but we can probably get there before nightfall. C'mon, lets go."
And with that, they took off.
The Vex Citadel ominously towered over Venus. Sapphire jumped off of her Sparrow and gazed up towards the otherworldly structure. The Vex built it centuries ago, during The Collapse. It jutted from the planet like a diseased, metal tree. The ground where it was rooted was slowly turning into machinery. Lightning arced between the dark clouds swirling above its apex, as if The Darkness itself were gathering there. Its purpose was unknown, but the Vex guarded it heavily. No one had successfully infiltrated the Citadel.
It was the perfect place to go if one really didn't want to be followed.
The base was still further up the trail, but she wasn't looking to infiltrate. Just to shadow whoever she saw. The hunter began scaling the rock wall by the edge of the trail and ran along its ridge. At her command, her Ghost teleported her sniper rifle. She eventually found a good vantage point, went invisible, and laid down with her rifle.
She scanned the intricate stone walkways below. They were patrolled by the Vex, but something seemed odd- there was no pattern or coordination to their movements. The Vex were known for being unpredictable, but there was no way they could be working together.
At the corner of her scope, she noticed unusual movement. Focusing towards it, a pair of Hobgoblins were looking over the edge of the walkway they patrolled. One of them fell off, as though it were pulled, just before the other's head was sheared off.
Sapphire began quickly scanning for their assailant. It seemed like none of the other Vex had noticed. A pair of Minotaurs faced each other, only about 15 meters away from where the Hobgoblins were moments ago, just standing still. Its as if they were waiting- not for whoever was attacking, like they were waiting for orders.
She briefly caught a glimpse of movement on the ground.
Invisibility. Another Hunter.
The other Guardian decloaked and immediately set upon the Minotaurs. His blade flashed with Arc Light and he rammed it through one's back. The construct was torn apart at the molecular level, and it collapsed to the ground as it disintegrated. The other made a lunge for him, but he had already blinked backwards. He drew an assault rifle and opened fire on the other. It retaliated with shots from its Torch Hammer, and he blinked away again.
Her finger hovering over the trigger, Sapphire wanted to help him, but part of her (and her Ghost) said to sit back and watch this violent game of cat-and-mouse. After a few moments of shoot, blink, repeat, the Guardian threw a grenade, which latched onto the Minotaur and detonated, severely damaging its case. Another burst from his rifle and it went down. She was barely impressed.
Sapphire continued to watch him cut through the Vex below. A squad of Hobgoblins caught sight of him from across the area. The Guardian immediately narrowly dodged the energy bolts discharged by their Line Rifles. Trading his assault rifle for a sniper rifle, he vanished to reposition before returning fire. Sapphire took a moment to zoom closely on him. His armor matched no known makes- it was jagged and angular, and colored black and red. His cloak was also pure black, with an unusual red marking on the back that she couldn't quite describe. The rifle he wielded was an extremely rare Icebreaker prototype. Sapphire would have been jealous, were it not for Icebreaker's reputation to explode during use.
The snipers dealt with, he compressed his rifle into a small, portable engram of programmable matter and stored it before drawing the handgun strapped to his belt and turned his attention to the swarm of Harpies confronting him. A few well-placed explosive shots downed several before they could unfold and attack. Blinking behind them, several more bullets took care of the rest.
Then he vanished again, and Sapphire lost track of him.
"So he just tore through a bunch of Vex... what's he up to?" she whispered.
A gun pressed into the back of her helmet.
"Why do you need to know?"
I hate this chapter. Only took me 4 months to write. Lethal amounts of exposition (but hey, I'd prefer to address the Vex by name). More flashbacks than a Call of Duty game. I kinda gave up and eventually forced myself to write it and just shove it out after doing a once-over for grammar and continuity errors. Anyways, that makes chapter 2.
Plan for next chapter: Actually advance the storyline. Don't suck. Take less than 4 months. Try to have the story done before Comet (or House of Wolves, if possible). That about sums it up.
Also on DeviantArt art/Sonic-Guardians-Chapter-2-The-Vex-513593680?ga_submit_new=10%253A1423810046 (okay, uh, can't do links, didn't know that, so I guess just put flyinpenguin117 . deviantart . c o m (they REALLY don't want links, am I gonna get in trouble for this?) in front of that without the spaces. I'll be posting other non-fanfiction stories, scraps, journals, etc. that I can't here)
Its not over... it hasn't happened yet... and it will happen again.