12. . . . or Not
Tails leaned closer to the strange blue sphere called a 'dream chip'. The blue light it emitted created strange patterns on the scarred wooden worktop. He tried to ignore the stark, tricolored form of Reala looming on the opposite side of his workbench. The Nightmaren had confirmed the Dreamcaster and the dream chips as being genuine, although his thin lip had curled distastefully at the latter, and he had avoided contact with them. Across the room, Amy was muttering under her breath as she hunted through cabinets for Tails' collection of Chaos drives, and in a corner, Knuckles and Sonic were using the cub's computer to hunt for Chaos Emerald sightings. Reala's steady stare was making the fur on the back of the fox's neck stand up, and he kept trying to rub it back down.
"Can the dream chips hurt you?" he asked suddenly, looking up at the tall Nightmaren.
Reala blinked, startled by the abrupt question. He reached out and picked up the luminescent object, touching it only with his fingertips. "Neither I, nor NiGHTS," he said, looking at the dream chip as if it were a handful of dung. He dropped it back on the bench, and Tails grabbed at it to stop it rolling off. "The third-level Nightmarens can be harmed by them, even rendered immobile; the second-levels are repelled by the things. I merely do not like them, because they are concentrated bits the power which opposes my Master's. We possess more of Master Wizeman's will and less of the substance of Nightmare - or we're supposed to."
Tails considered that with one part of his mind, while most of his attention flicked between the dream chip and the Dreamcaster that lay in the middle of the table. It was cupped in a sort of cradle made from some of the special materials that Emerl had been built with; materials specially designed to convey Chaos energy, with all its unusual properties, the way that copper wire carried electricity. This particular device was one that Tails had thrown together shortly after the last Death Egg affair, with an idea towards charging a Chaos drive from a Chaos Emerald, or vice versa. Not that he'd actually expected to use it; it had been more of a thought experiment. Now he was trying to figure out if he could somehow hook the luminescent dream chip up to it.
He jumped at the sudden clatter of falling metal; Amy had just knocked over the set of hoverboards that had been leaned against the wall. Rouge had showed up shortly after Sonic and Shadow had gone out looking for the Dreamcaster, and prevailed upon the fox cub's better nature to 'spruce up' her hoverboard and the two G.U.N. agents'. While she'd initially leaned hard on what Tails owed her for her help with Emerl, she'd left a trio of boards behind for Tails, Sonic, and Knuckles. Tails had thoughtfully modified those boards as well, suspecting an ulterior motive, either from Rouge or Eggman, since the boards had clearly been made especially for each of them. Shadow's board was also among those Amy was now picking back up, waiting for Tails to get to after dealing with the Dreamcaster.
Or not, as the case might be. I have no idea how to fix this. "Shadow?" The dark hedgehog poked his head in from the other room. "Could you, um, see if you can feel any sort of link between these two things? Or maybe transfer a little bit of power from one to the other? For the life of me, I don't see any way to connect this chip to the linking unit."
"Hmm." Shadow stepped into the room and approached the table. "I didn't sense any power at all in the Dreamcaster, before." He held the palm of his left hand over the glowing sphere, half-closing his eyes. After a moment the hand lowered so that it was cupped over the chip, and he picked it up to cup in both hands. Then he opened his eyes and looked at Tails, shaking his head as he put the chip back down. "There's something there, but I can't touch it. It's not like Chaos energy at all." He picked the Dreamcaster up and concentrated on it again briefly. Then, staring at the small stone resting on his right palm, he raised his left hand and snapped his fingers. A small bubble of Chaos energy appeared and burst into brief sparkled of light. Sonic and Knuckles looked sharply around from their corner. Shadow moved his hands next to each other and snapped his fingers again. This time the sparkles leaped from the ephemeral Chaos bubble toward the striped stone. Tails blinked. Had a gleam of light just traveled along one of the purple striations? Shadow regarded the stone thoughtfully. "Amy, have you found those Chaos drives yet?" he asked.
Amy hurried forward, holding out several glowing rods, each made of a substance that wasn't glass and capped with the same esoteric metals that the transfer unit was constructed from. Shadow selected a crimson one, wrapping his fingers around the glowing core and closing his other hand around the Dreamcaster. Scarlet light seeped between the fingers of his glove where he gripped the Chaos drive. He closed his eyes fully in concentration, his whole body tensing, and the drive grew brighter - and now light was beginning to ooze like blood between the fingers of his other hand as well. Sonic suddenly folded a hand around Shadow's, blocking the escape of light from the small stone. Tails looked at his friend in surprise, but Sonic seemed nearly as surprised himself; Shadow didn't seem to have noticed. Even Reala, who had been looking utterly bored, was now watching intently. The light from the Chaos drive faded and died; Sonic dropped Shadow's hand as if burned and stepped back. No light seeped from that fist now. Shadow relaxed, and opened his eyes and his hand to look at the stone.
This time Tails was certain that he saw a tiny gleam in several of the stripes that hadn't been there before, but it was like a lit twig at the base of a ten-foot bonfire. "We need a Chaos Emerald," he said.
Shadow nodded. "I can at least tell you that the power can be transferred, but the stone is transforming it, somehow - and wasting a great deal of the energy in the conversion. What is in there now is not Chaos energy. The Chaos Emeralds may be able to assist in that transformation, because they are . . . aware, where Chaos drives are not, but it will certainly take a great deal of energy even then."
"So we need more than one Chaos Emerald?" said Sonic. "Or would the Master–?"
"Nuh-uh!" Knuckles cut him off vehemently. "The Master Emerald's staying right where it is, and I'm not risking it on some weird rock!"
Tails refrained from pointing out that the Master Emerald itself was a weird rock. Shadow also ignored the echidna's outburst, answering Sonic's question. "I don't know that you need more than one Chaos Emerald, but it might be faster. Although their power is infinite, the amount that can be channeled at once is not." Tails and Reala nodded, but the others looked confused. Shadow clarified, "It's like having a bucket full of water, and trying to drain all that water through a small hole. The more Emeralds you have, the more 'holes' there are to move energy through; and also the holes get larger when you bring the emeralds together."
"So," said Tails, looking at Sonic and Knuckles, "did you find any signs of Chaos Emeralds?"
"No," said Sonic.
"Yes!" cried Knuckles. Sonic whirled to glare at the echidna, but Knuckles was already bending over the computer again, tapping a spot on the screen with one thumb. "Look, there," he said, "it just now found it."
Tails pushed past Shadow and Reala to look, tapping in a quick command to detail the location of the Emerald. "That's . . . . That's Future City. Hah, home of Robotnik Inc.'s largest factory, and the energy plant that Eggman tried to take over a few months ago." Twin tails curled in satisfaction. They could get there quickly and he was very familiar with the city; it was an excellent source for some of the more esoteric parts and circuits he used.
"I thought that was Metal Sonic, pretending to be Eggman," said Amy.
"Actually, Eggman had started that, and Metal Sonic just sped up the process," said Tails. "I think Eggman was holding it sort of in reserve; he could have taken it over fairly easily anytime he wanted to, he just hadn't wanted to yet."
"Ah, a plotter after Master Wizeman's heart," said Reala. Tails noticed all his friends giving the Nightmaren sidelong glances.
"Um, yeah," he said hurriedly. "Sonic, why don't you and Knuckles go get the car ready. I'm done with your boards, if you want to take them along; I just need to finish Shadow's so he can go catch up with the G.U.N. group."
Sonic glanced uneasily at Reala, then at Tails and Amy. The his gaze flicked to Shadow, and it seemed to Tails that the two hedgehogs exchanged a significant glance. Then the blue dokan shook himself. "Sure, Tails. Amy, could you raid the kitchen for us and see if there's any food we can take along? Come on, Knux."
"That's Knuckles," muttered the echidna, as he followed Sonic out to the garage.
Tails flipped Shadow's hoverboard up onto the table. Like its rider, it was glossy black, with red and white accents. A small silver plate announced that it was made by Robotnik, Inc.
The cub's first order of business was to remove that plate and replace it with an identical one. Shadow cocked his head, but it was Reala who asked, "Why are you doing that?"
"Because I don't trust Eggman." Tails didn't look up; even as he explained his hands were busy opening the compact engine compartment and sorting tools. "Robotnik, Inc. is a legal corporation, founded by his dad, and no one's ever been able to prove anything wrong with any of the robots or equipment made by them, but . . ." He scowled at a stubborn nut but finally worked it loose. "Um, it's just be too easy to put in a homing chip, or a tracer, or a remote control or something, and since this board was clearly designed for Shadow's use, I'm replacing the i.d. plate just in case."
"I meant, why are you replacing it?" clarified the Nightmaren. "Why not just remove it?"
Tails flicked an ear. "That just doesn't seem right. It is one of their copyrighted products and ought to be labeled as such. Even if I am tinkering with it. Besides, if there's actually something fishy about it, someone will probably check to be sure the plate is there. But they may not check too closely, to avoid drawing attention to it." Humming softly to himself he switched two wires to different connections, and wired a small gadget of his own into their original inputs. Then he sealed that cover back in place and removed the access port for the batteries that were supposed to run the boards. "I thought this was interesting," he commented as he pulled out the batteries, then removed the plate at one end of the compartment. Doing so revealed a pair of long thin slots - just the right size and shape for the Chaos drives he was now sliding into place. "Not only is there a space for the drives behind the battery compartment, the docking apparatus for the drives is already in place."
Shadow was now leaning against the table himself, watching with interest. "So it will now run on Chaos energy - instead of air? I believe the ads all talk about how they're air-powered."
Tails grimaced. "They do, but they really mean 'air propelled'. The batteries - and now the Chaos drives - power the pumps that draw the air in and compress it to store, and then release it to give the boards extra speed and maneuverability. The drives do it better, of course." He adjusted a few more things and then closed it back up again. "There. It's not quite the job I did on ours, but it's better than Rouge and the other two agents got. I could do better with more time, but–"
"But we don't have it." Shadow nodded. "Thank you, Tails. You get the Chaos Emerald - I hope Sonic can stay focused for once - and see what you can do about the Dreamcaster. Reports are coming into G.U.N. from all over the country now, and just over the borders, about third-level Nightmaren attacks. Not that anyone knows what they are, of course. Rouge seems to think it wouldn't be a good idea to tell them, yet."
The dark hedgehog darted a glance at Reala, who shrugged. "They aren't listening to me anymore. Master Wizeman might be able to control them - or might be controlling them - but I cannot, now." There was a pause, then to Tails' surprise the Nightmaren added, "Actually I never could. I can direct them to do something and they typically obey, but I can only stop them from doing something by physically restraining them."
Tails regarded the tall figure suspiciously; volunteering that sort of information seemed out of character. Reala returned the look cooly. Shadow was also watching the Nightmaren, and his gaze was nearly as chilly as Reala's. When he spoke, his voice was as cool as his stare. "If the Nightmarens are doing your master's bidding, shouldn't you be with them?"
The blue eyes flicked from Tails to Shadow, then looked away from that crimson gaze.
"That is my business, I believe, and none of yours. Suffice it to say that for the moment it is to my benefit that you succeed in your respective tasks."
"Meaning you want to get back to your world of Nightmare, where you have more power than you have here." Tails wasn't sure if Shadow was guessing or if the striped hedgehog had information that the fox cub didn't, but Reala was unmoved by the challenge.
"As I said, for now, I wish you success." The Nightmaren produced a strange, golden mask, like a bejeweled set of eyeglasses, from his left sleeve and put it on. For an instant he regarded them from behind the visage of a golden bird, then abruptly he was a large bird. Black-bodied with white flight feathers, and crimson tail and crest, but his blue eyes still peered through the gilded mask. With a flap of wings longer than Tails was tall, he leapt up and out the window, gliding away in a manner that Tails knew wasn't entirely powered by those wings.
"Here we go– what was that!?" Amy had returned with a backpack of food just in time to catch a glimpse of the red tailfeathers vanishing out the window. She hurried across to look out and up.
"Reala has a few tricks up his sleeves, it seems," noted Shadow dryly. "But, now that he's gone, I'd best be off. Thank you for the modifications, Tails." He nodded his head to the fox as he picked up his hoverboard. "Good luck in getting the Chaos Emerald." He nodded towards Amy, as well, then left the workshop.
The door to the garage opened as the one to the front walk closed. "We're ready, Tails," said Knuckles. "You've got a lot of junk out here, you know."
"It's not junk," protested the cub, taking the pack from the pink hedgehog. He slung one strap over his shoulder and picked up his own hoverboard. "It's spare parts and works in progress. Thanks, Amy. Um, I guess we'll see you later?"
"What?" Amy was confused, then she frowned. "Hey, wait! You're not leaving me here, are you? I can help!"
"I know you can," said Tails hurriedly, "I came to you for help at the beginning, remember? But there's not room for all of us in the car, and you don't have a hoverboard, so we can't say you're entering the race with us–"
"Are we entering the race?" Knuckles cut across Amy's building outrage. "No one tells me anything."
"No, Knuckles. We're not entering the race, we're just using it as a reason to go after the Chaos Emerald. It's the entry fee, remember?" Actually Tails wasn't certain about that part himself, but that was what Sonic had said, wasn't it?
"Hmmph!" snorted Amy. "Well maybe Cream and I will form our own team, and enter the race for real!" She stamped out the front door, slamming it behind her.
Tails and Knuckles looked at each other a moment. The fox cub was willing to bet that Amy could be very good on a hoverboard, and Cream was reasonably athletic for her age, but . . . . Knuckles beat him to it. "Big on a board?" The echidna smirked. "That I have GOT to see."