Chapter 2: What Darkness Lies In The Hearts of Men
"I'm afraid I can't let you go any farther, Young Silver." A voice said. It was calm yet sinister, and Silver turned to see Sonic standing and pulling out a combat knife from behind him.
"What?" Silver said. He backed up, only to find another knife at his back. He twisted around to see Amy holding the same knife Sonic had. She opened her mouth and revealed herself as the speaker. From her mouth it sounded utterly guttural.
"Simply, I need to keep you here."
"Why?" Silver glanced around. The others were all standing, and holding the same knife as Sonic and Amy. They opened their mouths, but only one voice came out with no source.
"Because the surface is the easiest level to operate on."
"What do you mean? I wasn't even going anywhere." Someone grabbed his shoulder and pressed the edge of a knife to his throat. Silver stiffened and tried to suck in his throat. This time the voice came from behind.
"Don't be ridiculous. You were trying to dig deeper into Blaze's mind. Letting you do that would just be unnecessary work." Silver twisted around to see who was holding him.
It was Blaze, yet Silver somehow knew Blaze was still in her coma.
"What's happening?" Silver said.
"Let me give you a clue." The voice said in Silver's mind.
Blaze slit his throat.
The whole city was engulfed in flames. Silver found himself in the relative safety of a skyscraper's roof as the city below him was engulfed by rivers of lava. Silver was pulled up by his long quills and felt the pain of his throat being slit again.
He was left to fall on the ground, and this time he recognized where he was. He was in his home town in the present, his time. He gave a sigh of relief. Maybe it was all just a-
Once again he was picked up and had his throat slit. Now the city burned like it had when Nega attacked it with the Ifrit. Another slit throat and the city was back to normal.
The hand let go and Silver fell to the ground, instinctively grabbing at his throat. It was pointless, though, because he had already realized something. The things happening were all so impossible.
"This is all in my mind." He said.
"You're pretty good." The voice said. Blaze walked in front of him, this time covered in some undefined black suit. "Most would take forever to figure it out. Of course, most would simply die of shock when I made them think their throat was slit."
"We're in Blaze's mind, aren't we?"
"You're even smarter than I thought, Young Silver. I'll admit it took me ages to figure out even this much when I started. Yes, you are a mind reader."
"How did this happen?" Silver felt his anger rising. Things were out of control, and there was nothing he could do. "I've always been just a telekinetic."
"Really, this just a much finer level of control brought about by our connection with the Chaos Emeralds. We grab electrical patterns from a person's mind and interpret it in our own." Blaze reached up and used her fingers to push her mouth into a smile. "Or we can rearrange the patterns according to our wishes."
"What would changing someone thoughts do?" Silver demanded. He tried to attack the image of Blaze, but it simply disappeared and reappeared behind him, shaking its head.
"And you were following so well. Our actions come from our personalities, and our personalities are nothing but a combination of our genetically derived instincts and our experiences. The power to change someone's thoughts is the power to control their mind."
"You were controlling Blaze." Silver exclaimed. He swung his fist at the image of Blaze, but it disappeared again.
"Yes." The voice said. "My will is powerful, and the friends you have surrounded yourself with will easily fall before me, and with only one I can easily kill the entirety of the world's heroes, leaving it defenseless." the image of Blaze reappeared still clutching the knife, this time a few feet away from Silver "I'm afraid there's nothing you can do to stop me."
"You already told me we have the same power." Silver, steeling himself into a fighting pose.
"Same abilities, yes, but nowhere near the same level of power." The voice replied. "In your current state there's almost nothing you can do. Unless, of course, you let me unlock your full potential."
"I'd never side with you." Silver yelled.
"Naive Young Silver, you remind me a lot of myself. I'm not offering this to get your help; I'm offering this to destroy you." The image of Blaze spread its arms wide and raised its voice. "You'll feel the thoughts of everyone miles away. The thoughts of everyone in this city alone will be enough to drive you mad in a deluge of never ending cacophonies."
Silver narrowed his eyes and looked straight at the image, lowering his arms.
"Do your worst." Silver said. The image of Blaze grinned and brought the knife down through his forehead.
OOOOOOOOOO
Let me tell you a story.
He could see everything.
There once was a boy who could read minds
He felt everything.
He came from a distant place, a land consumed by death and despair
He was everything.
He finally fled that land for good, and came to this place
A tempest of clashing images and sensations engulfed the mind.
He was alone here, without even his one friend from his childhood.
The joy and thrill of a child watching the stars. The depression of a man with only a box to call home.
His heart was filled with sorrow, but his mind was dedicated to the good he never saw as a child
The pain of a dying man. The passion of two lovers.
He used his powers to hunt evil-doers; madmen and murders, showing them to this land's guardians and finding why they did what they did
The sights of Maria dying before him and Metal Sonic grabbing at him were split by a black line
But one day, with one killer, the boy dug too deep, and the killer had prepared himself for his meeting with the boy
Who am I?
The boy took everything from the killer, every memory and thought
More black lines appeared in the space between memories
They subsumed him! He lost who he was, and his sorrow was twisted into hatred for this world
The darkness formed the image of a skeletal man, stalking towards him. As the figure became closer, its substance became clear as darkness-filled memories.
Likewise I will consume you, Young Silver, and forge another tool of my vengeance
"NO!" Silver screamed. The dark man had said too much, given the...
White...
Hedgehog...
Every memory was impossible to grasp onto, but Silver did so anyways, and slowly built himself back up. His naked body was flat on a non-existent surface, with the torrent of thoughts pouring around and piercing through him and tearing him apart.
He needed to control himself.
You never will
Where were his gloves?
Insignificant!
He needed his gloves!
Why?
But this was his mind...
They mean nothing The black figure stalked closer and closer.
With a grunt of effort Silver pulled on the first boot. Immediately the memories behind Silver disappeared, replaced by a green purity.
Silver pulled on the second boot and the sensations to his left were gone.
Silver pulled on his first glove, and the thoughts to his right were blocked out.
Silver pulled on his last glove with a crisp snap and threw his hand forward, dispelling the rest of the absorbed memories. Only the black figure remained, bracing itself against the torrent of power.
How!
"The same way I control my telekinesis." Silver said, glaring at the dark memories that tried to engulf him with their hatred. "You said yourself that it's the same thing."
You'll never rid yourself of me
"I wasn't planning to." Silver said. With a yelp he jumped forward and punched his fist through the black figure's head.
A ruined warehouse.
A silent figure, its shape uncertain, tracing its finger on the floor.
Disclaimer: Characters belong to SEGA. Some back story belongs to Hideo Kojima and KONAMI as a whole.