Seeing as I've been having trouble with spacing... let's see if an N in bold will show up to divide the different things, N being for Next. ;)
Iris knocked on Aaron's bedroom door. "Aaron?" She heard a faint muttering. "Pardon?"
"I didn't say anything to you." She frowned, puzzled.
"But I heard something."
"I didn't say anything okay?"
"Sorry..." She went to her own room and sat on the bed, leaning against the wall and closed her eyes. Suddenly she heard Aaron's voice as clearly as if he was beside her talking into her ear.
"Why is Iris bothering me? She was such a good little girl and apologized. She knows we're both special, she probably didn't mean it." Iris shot up. She ran to Aaron's door.
"Aaron you open this door!"
"Why?"
"I heard what you said about me not meaning it when I said sorry to Noah!"
"What's wrong Iris?" Sentimento stood on the stairs. Iris suddenly heard Sentimento's voice, but her aunt's lips weren't moving. "I wonder what she's upset about?" Iris was baffled. She had heard Aaron saying something, but he said he hadn't said anything. And just now she'd heard Sentimento say something, but she wasn't moving her mouth. And why had her voice echoed slightly?
"Aunty?"
"Yes Iris?"
"Why did your voice echo?"
"My voice didn't echo? Did it?" Asked Sentimento, turning to Senzace, who was coming up the stairs.
"No. What is Sentimento talking about? She sounds normal."
"There it is again!" They turned to Iris. "Your voice echoed this time Uncle."
"No it didn't."
"When you said that Sentimento sounded normal, your voice echoed!" Senzace's jaw dropped.
"I didn't say that out loud..." Sentimento suddenly grinned and took Iris's hand.
"Come with me my darling, I think I might know what you're hearing."
N
Noah had heard this from his bedroom, where he was quietly working on his homework. He stared at all the smiley faces on his workbook and closed his eyes. Something had been been wrong with Senzace before he came inside the house, and something was definitely wrong with Aaron, he didn't know how he knew, he just... did. He opened his eyes and finished answering the last few questions before closing the book. He sat on his bed, looking at his hands.
Aaron and Iris's powers had appeared unexpectedly. Why not his? Was something wrong with him? He wished he could disappear, that would make things a whole lot easier. Would they forget him if he actually disappeared? Reaching for his glass, he frowned. Something was different. He brought the glass to his mouth and found it empty. It had been full just a few seconds ago. He dropped the glass and it shattered, some of the shards digging into his leg. He didn't notice, he was too busy staring at the thin glove of water that hovered just above his hand.
N
Aaron heard the crash and his ears twitched. It was from Noah's room. He was at his bedroom door before he started actually thinking. If Noah had got hurt, so what? He wasn't anyone special. Aaron smirked. Now he, on the other hand, was special. He had powers. He'd found out that he could deal with metal as easily as he could with putty in the car, he'd bent his pocket knife out of shape, then back into shape as easily as he'd bend a blade of grass.
He went back to his bed and stretched out onto it, closing his eyes to go to sleep, ignoring the sounds of Iltinis and Amy rushing to Noah's room. Oh yes, their oh-so-precious son. Just because he'd said something that had hurt Noah, he mattered less now. Well he'd show them, they hadn't reacted enough when he'd shown his powers. They should have found out if he had more, they should have congratulated him, maybe then he'd have been able to apologize to Noah and entertain the idea that his brother might have powers as well. Now, he doubted it.
Something was wrong with him, he knew this. He just didn't know what. But despite this, he embraced this negative thing, finding it was far easier to continue to blame and condemn and treat his family as enemies than to forgive them and apologize. However...
N
Iris and Sentimento high fived at the same moment the glass shattered. Iris's head snapped towards the door, she'd heard the 'thoughts' in Noah's head that told her what happened. Sentimento had felt his pain. They reached his room first and found blood trickling down his leg, and him still staring at his hand. Iris went over to him. "What happened Noah?" He looked up.
"What?" He asked in a dazed voice. Amy and Iltinis came in next. Iltinis smelled the blood before he saw it. He crouched by Noah and gently began extracting the pieces of glass.
"Why did the glass break?" The water around Noah's hand had disappeared, now he reached into the air, as if searching for something. Water appeared slowly around his hand, swirling serenely. Amy gasped.
"I do have powers," he said, still sounding dazed, but happy now.
"Good for you Noah, but we still have to get all the glass out of your leg. Why did it fall and break?"
"I was wishing I could disappear, my glass had had water in it, but when I reached for it there wasn't any, and there was water around my hand, just floating there." Iltinis smiled.
"I see." Senzace started sweeping up the shards of glass from the floor.
"Well, Iris has telepathy and telekinesis, and Noah seems to have control over water! Very cool."
"Hm." They looked up, Aaron was leaning in the doorway. He had a ball of metal over his hand, constantly changing into different shapes. "Are you alright brother?" He asked, sounding concerned, but his face didn't look it, his expression made him look as if he was examining his brother to see how much of a danger he was.
"Yeah, thanks Aaron."
"Sorry about earlier." Said Aaron, jaw tightening. Noah nodded. "I'll see you all tomorrow."
"I'm glad that that problem is fixed up," said Amy, smiling, seemingly not having noticed the look on Aaron's face. Itlinis gave her a half hearted smile. He could tell it wasn't. Senzace and Sentimento could tell the same thing. Senzace felt Aaron crushing a metal figure of Noah in his hand.
N
Shadow, with his typical speed, was back to normal. Or as normal as was possible for him. Tails gladly told him he could go home, happy to have the moody hedgehog out of his workshop. Shadow skated for awhile, then slowed to a walk. He heard a small noise and spun. He didn't have time to say the name of the person before he was knocked unconscious.
N
The Puppet Master smiled as he got confirmation of Shadow's capture. "Good. Shadow shall be useful for my plans." Finitevus entered the room.
"The curse is almost finished." The Puppet Master nodded.
"And Knuckles?"
"Still giving smart remarks," said Finitevus, scowling.
"Why haven't you sedated him yet then?"
"It might interfere with the process."
"I see. Well keep working. Let me know as soon as our tool is completely forged." Finitevus hated it when the Puppet Master referred to the being they were going to turn Knuckles into as their tool. By now he'd figured out that he was no longer in charge of this operation, and it irritated him. Especially seeing as Knuckles knew it too and was constantly teasing him about it.
N
Vector was snoring when a figure came through the door, it was hooded, so it's identity was hidden. The soft click of heels was all that could be heard other than the crocodile's snores and the static from the television. The figure passed Charmy, passed out beside a bag of cookies, and went up the stairs. It swept down the hallway to Espio's room. The ninja was sleeping peacefully, but the creak of the door opening woke him up. He carefully opened his eye a tiny bit. He saw a figure advancing towards him, some sort of thread in one hand.
Espio got up. "Who are you?" There was no verbal reply. The figure lunged at him, trying to touch him with the thread. Espio pulled a shuriken out of one of his cuffs. "Who are you?"
"Enter the service of the Puppet Master," the figure hissed in a voice distorted by some sort of mask. Espio mentally cursed. If he beat the person and they fled, he wouldn't be able to identify them later.
"Who are you?" It only repeated it's message, lunging once more with the thread outstretched. A silent battle commenced, then a second figure entered through the window. Espio turned to face this new threat, and the first figure swiftly touched the thread to the back of the chameleon's neck. Espio's eyes widened, then he went limp and fell to the floor.
The second figure put away his thread and picked Espio up. "Mission accomplished," hissed the first, sounding pleased. They left through the window, leaving only a tiny scrap of thread to show they'd been there.
N
Iltinis was still sleeping when Dark Gaia's presence entered his head. "Wakey wakey sleepy head! Important news from the Chaotix." Imagine his shock when Iris's voice spoke to him.
"Leave Daddy alone, he's tired."
"Have I entered the wrong head?" Asked Dark Gaia.
"No, you're in Daddy's head, but I told you he's tired!"
"Well then, maybe this will get him up. Shadow and Espio have gone missing." Iris ran out of her bedroom into her parent's and shook Itlinis roughly.
"Daddy! Daddy! Uncle Dark Gaia says Espio and Shadow are missing!" Iltinis sat up, blinking.
"What? Who...?" Amy sat up as well.
"What is it Iris?" Dark Gaia spoke through the young girl.
"Shadow and Espio are missing for the third time! And something is preventing me from locating Shadow's mind. It's even more frustrating than when Vector hid all the chocolate on me and wouldn't allow me to make hamburgers for lunch." Iltinis ignored Dark Gaia's grievances.
"Do Vector and Charmy know?"
"Of course! There's only this weird silvery thread on the floor of Espio's room. And his window was open this morning."
Aaron had his ear pressed against the wall that connected to his parent's bedroom. He couldn't help but feel worried. He liked Espio, the ninja had been nice to him before, and had taught him some fighting techniques, even when Amy protested that he was just a child. But the negative part told him not to care, and it seemed to know he would see Espio soon, so he relaxed and waited.
Noah, Senzace, and Sentimento were downstairs, enjoying breakfast when the rest of the family clattered down the stairs. "What's wrong?" Asked Sentimento. The situation was quickly explained as Iltinis bolted down a couple of pieces of toast then rushed out the door, transforming into a werehog as he did so, seemingly not noticing the shocked cries as he rushed past the people on the sidewalk.
Amy quickly got the children ready. "You're going to stay with Uncle Knuckles and Auntie Rouge for awhile okay?" They nodded. Amy locked the front door and they all climbed into the car.
N
Sentimento and Senzace were quietly trying to figure out why they were sometimes feeling things with each other's powers. There seemed to be no real explanation. Iris quietly helped them by switching back and forth between their minds, searching for such instances. When they reached Tails' workshop, they knew that only when they were too far apart from each other, their powers would start "leaking" in a way, so that they could share them with each other.
Iris also had another idea about this. If their powers leaked, what was to say that they hadn't activated hidden powers in people they were near whenever they were away from each other? It did seem like a rather interesting coincidence that the first time they'd been apart, the children developed their powers. Or did their being apart give people powers? If that was the case, how many other people had been affected? How many other people would start displaying strange talents? Tails was perfectly happy to agree to fly them to the island and back, getting the plane ready and rushing around, grabbing snacks for the children to enjoy on the way.
N
Knuckles was worried. The baby had been born last night. Luckily, Shade had been able to help Rouge, while Knuckles helplessly paced in the living room, unable to do anything. The same night, Rouge had left to go get something and hadn't come back. He was left with the unnamed child, an echidna like himself, who had stopped crying about an hour ago.
Knuckles now held the tiny albino in his arms. Shade had gone to look for Rouge for him, leaving him with baby bottles and lots of instructions that made no sense to him. The birth had been a premature one, and Shade had told Knuckles that she was afraid that the baby might not survive. Knuckles looked at the sleeping child in his arms and his expression became grim. He may not know where Rouge was, but he knew where the kid was, and he certainly wasn't going to let his son die.
He heard voices, he recognized them as Iltinis's family. The baby opened it's eyes, then smiled at him and wrapped it's tiny hands in his chest fur. His expression softened. The child might not have been born like a normal echidna, in an egg, but it was still an echidna. Still his son. He could see tiny little bumps on it's knuckles that would grow to be spikes like his own. Amy walked into view. "Knuckles, would you mind looking after the kids for me for a bit? I promise they'll behave and leave the Master Em... what's that?"
"My son," said Knuckles.
"Aww... he's so cute!" Said Amy, momentarily forgetting her troubles. "What's his name?"
"Rouge and I haven't decided yet."
"Where is she?"
"I don't know. She went to get something last night and I haven't seen her since." Amy paled.
"Shadow and Espio are missing too." Shade came back then, saying she couldn't find Rouge anywhere on the island. She left with Amy and the vampires to join Iltinis, while the guardian was left with four kids. Awkward.
"Uncle Knuckles, what do you want to name him?" Asked Iris, wide-eyed.
"I don't know..."
"Oh don't lie, you know you want to name him Alfred." Knuckles's jaw dropped, Aaron smirked, and Noah burst out laughing.
"She's got telepathy, Uncle Knuckles."
"I told you before, just call me Knuckles."
"Well Knuckles, we'll call him Alfred for now. Can I hold him?"
"I suppose..." said Knuckles reluctantly. Iris carefully took hold of Alfred and smiled at him.
"You're a cutie, you know that?" The baby smiled at her, his sky blue eyes full of life. "Yes you are, yes you are!" Aaron rolled his eyes as Alfred laughed his little baby laugh.
"Iris!"
"What?"
"That sounds weird!"
"It's girl stuff, guys like us don't understand that sort of thing. Rouge did it too," said Knuckles. Noah laughed.
"Uncle Sonic would say that you wouldn't get stuff like that even if guys were doing it." Knuckles frowned.
"Well, 'Uncle Sonic' is going to be having a bit of a conversation with my fists when I see him next..."
N
The Puppet Master frowned. "Where is Rouge?"
"We could not find her Master," said the first figure. Shadow and Espio's eyes were blank, tiny bits of silver thread were against the backs of their necks. Somehow, the ends of them were attached to the Puppet Master's gloves. He sighed.
"Well try to find her, she will be useful. We need to get that child of hers, you wouldn't believe the things that people would do when children are at stake..."
It's official, that Puppet Master guy is CREEPY! O_O I found a document that I'd made ages ago with some powers I wanted the kids to have, so I used those (plus some ideas from reviewers). ^_^ What do you think of the name for Knuckles' son? What name do you think Rouge would want him to have? And I'm still trying to figure out why the Puppet Master would want Shadow and Espio and Rouge. I know why he wants Mobius Prime's Knuckles though. It's quite annoying when the characters you're writing seem to have control of the story instead of you isn't it?
Disclaimer: -.-
What?
Disclaimer: -.-
Fine, be that way.
Finitevus: While they act immature... CrazyNutSquirrel doesn't own Sonic and Co. She owns Iltinis, the children, the Puppet Master, the vampires, and... anything else that obviously doesn't belong to SEGA.