(A/N: Hello, Flygon here. I have some bad news: Due to unforseen circumstances, this fanfic is officially discontinued...April fools! Here's chapter 4!)

Chapter 4

Failure

The pouring rain peppered Sonic as he dashed as fast as he could to the Mystic Ruins, hoping that he could get there before this 'Nebulous' did. He looked back over his shoulder to see a flapping ear; Cream was holding on to the blue blur with all her strength, trying not to fly off. "How you doing back there, Cream?" He called.

"J-j-j-j-j-j-u-u-u-u-u-u-u-s-s-s-s-s-s-t-t-t-fi-i-i-i-i-ne, Mr. S-o-o-o-o-o-ni-i-i-i-ic! She called, her voice quavering from the speed at which they were traveling. Sonic saw a darkened silhouette of a house approaching: Tails' workshop. Almost there! Please be all right, Bro. He thought, putting on an extra burst of speed. Arriving at the front door, he screeched to a stop, nearly sending Cream flying off of him. No . . .

The door was ajar.

Cream shook her head to clear it and jumped down from the hedgie, staring at the open door. Listening over the rain, she could hear strange, metallic clanging noises from within. "We're too late, Mr. Sonic! Nebulous got here before we did!"

Sonic shook his head. "Listen! It sounds like Tails is fighting him! Come on, he may need our help!" He said, dashing into the house, followed by Cream. Running into Tails's garage, the two came to an abrupt halt. The kitsune was standing defiantly in front of the rose, holding a heavy crescent wrench and gasping for breath. Before him towered the imposing figure of Nebulous. Cream gave a squeak and hid behind Sonic's back at the sight of the evil Seedrian, who was currently standing with his arms crossed, and seemed to be reasoning with Tails.

"I'm only going to say this one more time, Two-Tails. Hand over the plant before I take it by force." He said calmly.

Tails raised his makeshift weapon. "NEVER!" He shouted, and with a feral roar, he charged at the Thorndrigan, who seemed to move in the blink of an eye, swinging his scythe and knocking the wrench clean out of Tails's hands with a clang; it flew through the air and clattered on the ground, cut clean in half. Sonic had seen enough. He took a few steps forward, but was stopped by Tails's furious shout.

"STAY OUT OF THIS, SONIC!" He ordered. "HE'S MINE!" He charged at Nebulous, who punched him almost casually in the gut. Tails bent over, the wind knocked out him. The assassin grabbed him and flung him backwards, where he crashed into the wall and slid down. Sonic cringed.

I...didn't even see him move! He thought, remembering how fast he had swung his scythe. Come on, legs . . . move! Why can't I move?!

Nebulous dusted his hands off. "Well, that was time-consuming." He said. "Now, I'll just collect the horticulture and be on my way." He walked calmly toward the plant, then stopped short. Looking down, he saw that Tails had grabbed onto his leg. "Please let go of my leg."

"That rose means more to me than life itself." Tails snarled.

"What are you, the frinkin' Beast or something? Leggo!" Nebulous shouted, kicking the kitsune in the head. Tails instantly let go of his leg, collapsing to the ground. Sonic's finally snapped out of his daze.

"TAILS!" He shouted, hurtling forward. Nebulous was just reaching out for the flower when he saw Sonic running toward him. With a twist of his body, he whipped the scythe at the blue hedgehog. Sonic ducked out of the way . . . and right into a high-powered kick to the chest that sent him backwards into Cream, and the two went crashing out the door. Nebulous put his scythe away and turned back to the plant.

"Soon, Dad. Very soon . . . " He said, reaching out and stroking the plant's stem. Suddenly he reached back and grabbed his finger. "YEOWCH! Gaah!" He swore. A thorn had just popped out of the stem and dug deep into his finger. "You little . . . " He said, reaching out and picking it up by the ceramic pot and dashed out the door, stepping over the unconscious bodies of Cream and Sonic on his way out. Sonic slowly pushed himself up, just in time to see Nebulous run off. His daze seemed to vanish and he jumped to his feet, pulling the groggy Cream to her feet. "Hang on Cream. Let's go!" He said, slinging her onto his back.

"Mr. Sonic? Wha . . . WHOA!"

Nebulous dashed through the woods as fast as he could, looking occasionally over his shoulder. He screeched to a stop in front of a symbol in the ground. He pulled out his scythe and looked around. "Come on, you louse, where are you?"

"Looking for someone?" Nebulous turned to see Sonic and Cream stepped out of the darkness. "I don't know who you are, or what you want with that plant, or what in the hell possessed you to kill a little girl's mother, but I do know that you are going DOWN!"

Nebulous chuckled softly, and the darkness seemed to make his blue eye glow. "As I told the child, my name is Nebulous." He looked down at the rose in his hands. "And I'm not quite ready to tell you anything else." He slowly stepped backwards toward the symbol. "If you really want to find out, though, go into space . . . look for the Nightshade . . . I will be waiting for you. Until then, farewell." He stepped onto the symbol. There was a few seconds of silence, in which the assassin seemed to be waiting. He rolled his visible eye and brought his hand up to his left ear, muttering something about 'inept'.

"Rowan . . . what part of 'as soon as I'm under the ship' didn't you understand? BEAM ME UP, ROWAN!"

Sonic dashed forward just as Nebulous and the plant vanished in a flash of light. Sonic's wild haymaker hit nothing but air; he tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his face. He turned over to see the light fade out. His face fell as he heard Cream say. "No." The plant was gone.

They had failed.

Sonic and Cream walked back into Tails's house. Sonic looked down at the unconscious inventor on the ground and walked over to him. Leaning down, he softly shook his shoulder.

"Uhnn . . . " Tails groaned as he slowly sat up. He immediately looked over to his desk and his eyes widened. "Sonic . . . Cosmo . . . "

"Tails . . . I tried, but . . . "

Tails grabbed Sonic by the collar and pulled him right to his face. "Where is she?! WHERE IS COSMO, SONIC?! TELL ME!" His voice broke off and he collapsed to his knees, sobbing wholeheartedly. "Tell me . . . "

"So let me get this straight." Said Knuckles from where he sat on the couch. "There's an evil Seedrian out there that calls himself Nebulous?"

Sonic nodded. "Yeah. And like I said, he killed Vanilla, then beat up Tails and I, stole the plant, and ran off."

Amy shook her head sadly. "Vanilla . . . how could this happen . . . " She turned to Cream, who was staring emptily at the floor. "Cream. I'm so sorry."

"..." Cream was silent.

Knuckles shook his head. "But, how is this possible? Cosmo said that she was the last of her kind, and she's . . . well, you know."

Sonic gave a chuckle. "Well, he exists all right: I think I've got one of his footprints on my chest! And as for Cosmo, her plant is in the hands of this psycho."

Amy turned to her longtime crush. "Speaking of Cosmo . . . " She looked at Tails, who hadn't said a word since he had broke down. "Tails, are you all right?"

"I promised I would protect her, always . . . " Tails said in a broken, hollow voice. "I couldn't save her when she was alive, and I couldn't even protect her plant . . . I feel so . . . so useless."

"I remember he said something weird about the plant, though." Sonic said suddenly. "Something about if we wanted to find out, he would be waiting for us . . . "

Tails' head shot up. "What?" He shouted. "He's waiting for us?! Let's go after him, then!" He shot up off the couch and began to run toward the garage, but was stopped by Sonic's firm hand on his shoulder.

"Whoa! Easy there, little man." He said. "Think about it. He killed Vanilla, then stole the plant. Then we found him standing near his ship, like he was waiting for us. He wants us to chase him for some reason. That means that we can't just charge in there: we'll be playing right into his hands."

Tails shrugged his best friend's hand off. "I promised to protect her, and I will. If you want to come with me, then let's go. Otherwise, stay back."

Sonic drew back for a second, then gripped Tails's shoulders. "Listen closely Tails, Don't think for a second I'm saying that I don't want her back, she was my friend too, but this guy is in a league all his own! If you go out there half-cocked, you'll be charging to your doom! If you get yourself killed, I would never forgive myself, so we are going to take a breath, and figure out what our next move is!"

Tails glared viciously at his friend for a few seconds, then hung his head. "You're right . . . I want to save Cosmo, but we'll never win if we just charge in."

"We have no choice." Said Knuckles, and they turned to look at him. "The only way to approach him is to follow him into space."

"And he's protected." Said Amy. "He took the plant into his ship. We can't shoot him down without destroying the plant."

"Hostage situation." Muttered Sonic. "All right, we have no choice but to find out what this bozo wants."

Rowan blinked onto the screen and stared at his master, who was hunched over something in his hands. "Sir Nebulous?"

Nebulous jumped, and slowly looked up. He held up what was in his hands: a Nintendo DS. "You made me loose a life, Rowan. You know how I feel about being interrupted."

"So sorry, sir. However, the Hedgehog and his friends are approaching the Nightshade."

Nebulous closed the DS and put it down with a chortle. "Well, I suppose that is a bit more important than Contra 4. Okay, Rowan, now for the fun part." He reached out and picked his scythe up. "You are to fly just ahead of them; speed up as they speed up, and slow down as they do. When we guarantee they are following us, I'll take it from there. So let's go, Rowan. The fate of the Metarex rests on us."

"Yes, Sir."

Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate! Yar, har...

"...ROWAN!"

"So sorry, sir."

The Nightshades primary thrusters engaged, and the ship began moving forwards at a casual speed. Nebulous sat back in his seat.

"I picked a hell of a day to have you for an AI, Rowan."

Tails slowly guided the X Tornado toward the large silver craft hovering before them. "Whoa. Now, that's a craft." He said enviously, staring at the emblem emblazoned on the side: an open black flower with a grinning skull in the center. "I hate to say it, but that guy must have state of the art everything: Weaponry, boosters, shields...I bet he's got a really advanced AI too!" He reached out and pressed the communications button. "This is the X Tornado. You wanted us to follow you, but why?"

There was a few seconds of silence, then the thrusters on the Nightshade fired, propelling it forward. Sonic raised an eyebrow from where he sat next to Tails. "That's weird. He tells us to follow him, and then he runs. What's with that?"

Tails pushed the thrusters forward. "I don't care. We're going after him."

10 minutes later...

Nebulous looked in the rear camera to see the Tornado still following them. "Persistent. Good." He said, and the insane grin lit his features again. "Alright, Rowan. Lets do this." He reached out with both hands, palms facing outward, chanting words no human could try to pronounce. In front of the Nightshade, a huge, black portal appeared: a gaping wound in the very fabric of space. The Nightshade put on speed and launched into the portal.

Sonic's eyes widened as the enemy ship vanished into a portal that had appeared out of nowhere. "What in..." He said in shock. "We're not going in there, are we?"

Tails gritted his teeth. "Damn right we're going in there. Why not?"

Sonic stared at the void before them. "Tails, I got a really bad feeling about that thing." There was a unanimous agreement from Amy, Knuckles, and Cream.

"Cosmo's in there." Tails said. "We're going in." He pushed the thrusters, and the X Tornado pursued the Nightshade into the dark portal, which closed behind them.

(A/N: Tails' love for Cosmo orders him to enter a mysterious portal that has appeared in the void, but will the forces of good triumph, or are they playing right into the evil Nebulous' hands? Find out next time! Also, I have a picture of Nebulous. I did not draw it, but my good friend Psychic-Girl did. For some reason, unfortionately, the link won't completely show up. It's on Deviantart, so search Nebulous Seedrian, Nebulous Sonic, any of those, and it should pop up. Sorry for the inconvenience, but I hope you like the pic! As always, read and leave a nice, long Review!)