Chapter 13: To Change a Destiny (Part Two)

Pia felt a little bad about tricking Silver, but this really was the best way. She was the one who could communicate in the language of the day, and configuring her Jumpsuit's trackers to look for Chaos Emerald energy signatures was straightforward enough that it only took a minute. She might need Silver's help before they were done here, but for now the smartest thing was to make sure the native carrying the Chaos Emeralds wasn't startled by them. This was a primitive culture, so they were probably sexist enough not to be wary of a lonely woman. All the tears in her red uniform from the fight with the Cleaver back in the present and the subsequent patching of the Jumpsuit certainly helped lend authenticity to her image as someone from this time period. Taking off her sneakers might also be a good idea, but Pia had a feeling she'd be running a lot before this mess was fixed.

The Temporal Protectorate agent looked closely at the little map in the corner of her heads-up display. The blip representing the Chaos Emeralds was moving around, but still staying put within the perimeter of the village in the near distance.

Pia planned to wait until the native began the trek from here to the canyon where the Black Arms were already starting to shape the soil with their alien technology. At a sprint, she was at least as fast as her mother was in her prime. Pia didn't doubt for a second that she'd catch up to the native no matter which route they took.

Ah, the blip was moving again, this time towards the wooden fence that seperated the village from the thick jungle surrounding it. Pia got comfortable. It'd take them at least ten minutes to get to where she lay in hiding.

The orange cat made the mistake of blinking right at that moment, which was why she didn't see what happened to the blip on her mini-map. One second it was there, the next it was gone.

"Signal lost. Attempting to trace signal," said the helpful voice in her ear.

That wasn't necessary now. Pia could see the dust cloud from here. It shot right past her position.

"Oh sh-"

-

The green blur slowed down when the demon army came into view. The foul beings had violated the sanctity of the Chasm of the Forefathers. How dare they befoul that holy place with their presence?

Ma'Ik leapt backwards as a nightmarish thing appeared over the edge of the cliff and drifted towards him. He could only describe it as a starfish with a reptilian eye growing out of its middle.

"The Emeralds of Chaos! I can sense their power!"

"Back, demon! I carry your undoing at the hands of the Divine Traveller!" Ma'Ik shouted, clutching the sack containing the magic stones.

The demonic sea creature flew closer. "The Black Arms are the only divinity you have need for. Do you know of the wars, famines and vile pestilence that rule over this world? Fear no demons, the true threat is man and animal kind. Only our perfect order can save you - the order of Black Arms!"

"I will not listen to your lies!" Ma'Ik shouted, and turned to speed away.

As soon as the green hedgehog put one sandal before the other, a foul black serpent-like monster exploded out of the ground, throwing Ma'Ik off his feet. His sack tumbled away out of his reach.

"My dear Annelid, eat and devour this savoury dish. Now that the Emeralds are ours, my spawn will never hunger again!!"

Doom's Eye stretched his tentacles towards the sack, which suddenly started to glow and levitate rapidly in the opposite direction. Silver caught the Emeralds with his left hand, while releasing a psycho-kinetic blast with his right, paralyzing the giant worm before it could swallow the green hedgehog.

"Who dares defy me? You will suffer unrelenting pain for untold ages as punishment for this crime against the superior beings in this galaxy! Your action will be a betrayal of your entire species, when the inevitable comes to pass and-"

Some things would never change. Black Doom, for example, never knew and would never learn when to stop talking. Silver had more than enough time to get fed up with the gibberish and simply grab the lightweight alien eye with his power, then toss it like a rock into the chasm.

"You must be an ally of the raccoon sent by the Gods. You have saved me from the demons!" said Ma'Ik to his rescuer.

"You must be the idiot Pretorious tricked into handing over the Chaos Emeralds to the Black Arms. They're alien monsters, not deities or whatever you think they are," said Silver to the native.

Since neither one of the two could understand a word the other was saying, the exchange didn't accomplish much. Either way, the two hedgehogs weren't out of danger yet. More black worms shot out of the ground around them, while dozens of airborne Black Arms approached from the unfinished structures being constructed in the middle of the canyon.

Silver pushed the sack into Ma'Ik's arms, and pulled out a Chaos Emerald. "I've only done this once, and I had Shadow's help that time, but..."

Black Doom's holographic image appeared near where his minions were closing in on the interlopers. The sight delivered to the alien overlord was a shocking one: These primitive creatures had learned how to perform Chaos Control. But how? Could even his perfect intellect have underestimated the capability of the Earthlings?

This changed everything...

-

The jungle encircling the canyon seemed to go on forever, with the barren terrain in the distance just refusing to get any closer. Pia's legs ached, but she couldn't stop running now. Far too much was at stake. Even though it seemed impossible, she had to catch up with that native and stop him from delivering the Chaos Emeralds to the Black Arms. She had to-

The sudden flash of blinding light made Pia trip over her own legs. When she looked up, there was Silver holding a Chaos Emerald, and beside him stood a fearful-looking green hedgehog clutching a luminous leather sack.

"Whoaaa..." said Silver. "No wonder Sonic never used Chaos Control unless he absolutely had to."

"Chaos Control?" Pia repeated, standing up slowly. "Wait, this is- It's him, isn't it?"

"Yeah. Old geezer Doom wasn't exagerrating. This guy really had all seven Chaos Emeralds with him. Well, still does. Six, plus this one here, I mean. Unbelievable, isn't it?"

"The tongue of the Gods. If only I were worthy enough to understand. No, forgive me for questioning your divine judgement. It is right that one so lowly as I should not understand the sacred tongue."

Pia made a face.

"Can you understand what he's saying?" Silver asked.

"Every word. It's the same language the Black Arms were speaking in that nightmare future. They must've enslaved Earth almost immediatelly after getting the Emeralds. You know what? It's against every Temporal Protectorate regulation, but I'm going to have to have a serious chat with this guy and set him straight. We don't want to risk him or his descendants making the same mistake the next time the Black Arms visit Earth."

"Alright. You probably know best. As long as he gets the idea that Chaos Emeralds and Black Arms should definitely not mix. Ever."

"I'm Pia. This is Silver. What is your name?"

"Ma'Ik of the House of Hedgehog, divine one. How may I serve the Gods with my life?"

After watching Silver in action, the native was terrified of him. Pia would have liked if Ma'Ik would give her a few intimidated looks while she talked to him instead of glancing towards Silver all the time. Well, not like liked, but...

Silver could tell from the green hedgehog's body language that he was giving them more credit than they deserved, to put it lightly. Indeed, Pia didn't make too much progress with the interview until she was able to convince Ma'Ik that he didn't need to keep praising them and putting himself down between every single statement. It didn't take her long at all to start envying Silver for not being able to understand any of that drivel. Eventually, she did manage to get the necessary information from Ma'Ik. Pia was surprised that the change Pretorious had made was simply letting himself be seen by an impressionable nut. In all fairness, Ma'Ik was probably the perfect poster boy for his culture, but he wasn't someone you should trust with the fate of the world. At least fixing the change was simple enough. All Pia had to do was emphasise the importance of listening to the 'Five' instead of trying to interpret apparent miracles on his own. Judging by the length of Ma'Ik's apology, the message got through.

"So now do as you were instructed, and take the magic stones to safety until the demons depart. Don't breathe a word to anyone about your meeting with us OR the raccoon, and all will be forgiven," Pia finished.

"I will, divine one! Thank you! Thank you so much!" Ma'Ik said, clearly on the verge of tears.

Silver and Pia watched Ma'Ik run off at fantastic speed.

"He's no Sonic the Hedgehog, that's for sure," said Silver.

"Yeah." Pia looked thoughtfully towards the distance, then added "But you know, I don't think Sonic himself would've been any more dependable if he'd been born in this time and raised the same way Ma'Ik has been. He's been told all his life how insignificant he is, so now he believes it so completely that he doesn't even realise how powerful he could be."

"I guess you're right. So what do we do now?"

"Well, Ma'Ik gave me a very good description of the place where he saw Pretorious. If there's some tracks, then maybe we can find him, or at least discover the exact location he departed from this time period at. It's over thi- Do you feel that?"

"Yeah, the ground is vibrating," Silver responded, looking around. "Could just be an earthquake. Let me try to fly up over these trees and take a look."

The white hedgehog levitated up over the trees. The sight before him gave an unmistakable indication that there was still a lot left to do before Ma'Ik's error could be rectified.

The Black Arms were marching directly towards the village. All of them. They'd abandoned their operation in Glyphic Canyon and focused every last soldier, hawk, giant, bull and worm towards the jungle and the populated village directly in their path. Black Doom wasn't about to let the Chaos Emeralds go just yet...

-

In the next chapter:
- All-out conflict between the Black Arms and Ma'Ik's tribe.
- Silver and Pia need to not only repell the invasion, but convince Black Doom that getting Chaos Emeralds is way out of his league, lest he attempt the exact same thing every 50 years after.
- Still nothing from Dr.Pretorious.