Here it is: the kind of chapter I've been working towards for a long time. It's actually surprisingly difficult to write a chapter when 12ish characters are all in one room o.O
Anyway, if you've come this far with me, understand that the events that happen in this chapter are kind of where the foundation for this story came from—so what I'm saying is, I did my homework for this, and I really hope it pays off.
Plot is happening. Yay!
Disclaimer: yada-yada.
Chapter 15
Six Will Come
Sonic found the black hedgehog on the roof of the Research Center, gazing into the setting sun with more melancholy than he had ever witnessed in Shadow—and he had witnessed some pretty serious melancholy in Shadow.
For a long time the two simply stood there, side by side, watching the light disappear. Sonic waited.
Shadow had been in solitude since his victory over Team Rocket. He had said nothing, acknowledged no one—just wordlessly left the Pokémon Center as soon as safety had returned, trying to hide the liquid crystals trailing down his cheeks.
He wasn't crying now. His tears had dried long ago, Sonic knew, but the ache in his heart was still there. It showed itself in the pressure of his tight jaw, the slight quiver of his clenched fists, the longing in his sad, crimson eyes.
Finally, his voice spoke quietly into the evening.
"I saw her, Sonic."
The blue hedgehog understood immediately whom he was talking of but said nothing. He simply nodded, slowly, gently, and left the air open.
Shadow continued to gaze at the sky, now darkening from brilliant orange to a soft pink hue. "I was with her again, like we had always imagined. It was…beautiful." The word felt strange in his mouth, but there was no other that he could substitute.
Sonic said softly, "A dream."
His companion shook his head slowly, deliberately, but not offended. "No," he said, "she was real. I wanted to stay with her. I…I almost didn't come back."
"Why did you?"
A moment of silence—then, "Because I'm still needed here. Maria showed me that." A faint, sad smile tugged at the corner of the ebony hedgehog's mouth. "Heaven knows how you might screw things up trying to get yourself out of here."
"Hey now, I resent that," Sonic said, feigning indignation. Then he smiled lightly. "Come on, Faker. Rouge has been wearing a hole in the floor waiting for you to come back."
Unexpectedly, the blue blur lightly punched Shadow's arm as he turned, encouraging him to return to the Center. The friendly gesture was not returned, but it was not rebuked—and a moment later the two hedgehogs were leaping from the roof and headed inside.
The elation at his return was by no means subtle. Humans, Mobians, and Pokémon alike released various sighs of relief and joy at having Shadow back among the living and looking more like his normal, broody self. Even Knuckles couldn't hide his grin as he slapped Shadow on the back as though he had committed a great feat. Then again, supposed the hedgehog, he had successfully dispelled bandits within a minute of regaining consciousness.
Secretly, Shadow was possibly-maybe-slightly-almost happy to see them too—at least his four Mobian counterparts.
Wait…only four?
Shadow frowned and recounted. There was Tails, Rouge, Knuckles, and Sonic. Including himself, that made five Mobians in total. For some reason, that number seemed to be a little off, but it took him a few moments to realize why.
"Where is Amy?"
His question brought a silence over the celebrating group and frowns of confusion and concern invaded each individual's features.
Sonic chuckled awkwardly and ran a hand through his quills. "Oh yeah. She was with us when the whole thing went down, wasn't she?"
Nurse Joy sighed exasperatedly. "Are you saying that there are still more of you?"
"Only one," Tails answered, then added, "I hope."
"But, I haven't seen Amy," said Rouge. "Are we sure that she even made it?"
As if on cue, something changed in the atmosphere that sent a familiar shiver through Sonic. The blue hedgehog glanced at his ebony counterpart and they two caught each other's gaze, a silent question confirmed in the other's eyes—they had both felt it.
Less than a second later, a bright pink flash lit the room and momentarily blinded each occupant. When the light had dissipated and the groups' eyes readjusted, an unexpected sight met them.
There, huddled in the center of the room, were two pink creatures. One wore a red dress, the other sported a long tail, and each was recognized by opposite parties.
"Amy!" came the unified exclamation from the five already-present Mobians at the same time that the humans exclaimed together, "Mew!"
CLOMP
Faster than he could blink, Sonic found himself trapped in the small pink arms of Amy Rose.
"Oh, Sonic!" Amy cried, squeezing the breath from her idol and crush. "I finally found you! I was so scared—I thought I'd never see you again!"
Sonic tried in vain to pry her from his neck. "Ack! Amy—can't breath—!"
Another minute and a few Mobians' assistance later found Sonic panting to catch his breath and Amy crying loudly in the middle of the floor, her sopping fur and dress dripping a growing puddle around her. Sonic shook residual water from his own fur and exchanged glances with Shadow.
"Amy," Shadow began, very seriously. "Did…did you just use Chaos Control?"
Amy stopped wailing immediately and looked to the black hedgehog in confusion, tears still in her eyes and on her cheeks. "What do you mean?"
"Just before you showed up," Sonic elaborated, "the energy in the air, it…It felt like Chaos Control. Not exactly the same, but…Well, Shadow and I both felt it."
"Mew mew!"
The pink creature that had appeared with Amy floated up to Sonic and paused uncomfortably close to his face with a smile on its own. Sonic stared at the new Pokémon and realized that, somehow, the energy had come from it. Residue from the recent expulsion of power still radiated from it—not in excess, but enough for both he and Shadow to recognize.
It then left him and danced through the air as it approached the familiar humans.
"Mew, it's good to see you!" said Brock.
The creature greeted him happily.
"You know Mew?" Dawn asked, amazed to be in the presence of such a powerful and rare Pokémon.
"Yeah," he replied. "Ash and I have had a couple adventures with Mew in the past. Right, Ash?"
The Pokémon floated to Ash to greet him, but stopped suddenly and backed away, startled, as it met the boy's soft brown eyes. They did not have the spark of kindness that it knew him for, but held a dark and secret malice despite the smile on his face. No one else seemed to notice.
Professor Oak stepped up and cleared his throat. "Well then, are we to assume this is everyone?" he asked, smiling at Amy. The Pokémon Center was starting to be pretty crowded with the five humans, six Pokémon, and six Mobians.
Suddenly, an expression of realization flashed across Dawn's face and she muttered something.
"What was that, Dawn?" asked Brock, getting the attention of the rest of the room's occupants.
The girl looked up and around, recounting the Mobians, and repeated, louder, "'Six will come, with seven needed.'"
"The prophecy!" Tails exclaimed and returned to the modified PC in the corner.
"Do you think it could be about us?" Rouge asked, joining the kit at the computer.
"I was thinking about it earlier," Tails said, "before Team Rocket showed up. I think Dawn is on to something." He looked at his Mobian friends. "There are six of us, right? Only six of us were at Freedom HQ when Shadow's Chaos Control brought us here, and here all six of us were brought. But look, the prophecy says that we need a seventh. And then I was thinking about the Chaos Emeralds, because—"
"Wait," Professor Oak interrupted. "What is a Chaos Emerald?"
"The Chaos Emeralds are ancient gems with mystical properties," Knuckles explained. "In our world, they are the most powerful sources of energy, and some of us can tap into that energy and use it to grow stronger. Shadow and Sonic are both known for their connection to the Chaos energy. And I'm a guardian," he added, too proudly to be considered important.
"Then that move you did earlier," Brock directed at Shadow, "'Chaos Spear', I think you called it?"
"Yes," Shadow replied. "I can weaponize the Chaos energy around me, among other things."
"It pretty much does whatever he wants it to do," Sonic muttered begrudgingly. Shadow smirked.
"Anyways," Tails continued, "do you guys remember that I had put the Emeralds in my satchel so that we would always have them near us?"
The Mobians nodded.
"That's right!" Sonic exclaimed. "That means that we have the Emeralds here! We can go home!"
Tails rubbed the back of his head awkwardly. "Well, you see…When we got here, Sonic, the Chaos Emeralds were gone. They're not in my bag anymore."
"Oh great," Knuckles muttered. "So they didn't actually come with us after all."
"Or they scattered themselves again," Shadow pointed out.
"'Lost power must be captured again.'" Tails nodded.
"Mew mewmew."
Sonic clapped his hands together and stretched his legs with a signature smirk. "Alright then, all we have to do is find them again. We've done this dozens of times; this won't be any different."
"I'm not so sure about that," Shadow said. "Are you forgetting, Sonic? That creature," he gestured towards Mew, "used something that felt a lot like Chaos Control to bring Amy here. We've never encountered that before."
"Mew mew!"
"Chaos Control…" Professor Oak began. "So, that is like teleporting?"
"Not exactly," Tails said. "Chaos Control warps time and space. Teleportation can be a result, but they're not really the same thing. That's why it's possible to travel between dimensions and not just from one place to another."
"And what that creature did was not just teleporting," added Shadow.
"MEWMEW!"
The company's attention was finally captured by Mew, who was floating in the center of the room impatiently.
"What is it, Mew?" Brock asked.
Its face was grave as it looked at him, then it looked up and its eyes began to glow with blue light. The room seemed to darken around its occupants as a picture appeared before their eyes. The images moved and they realized it was a memory.
A terrifying sound pierced the night. Howls, wails, roars, of anger and of pain grew from the darkness, swelling slowly over the pounding of the rain on the ledge of a mountain overlooking a great forest. It might have been mistaken for the wind echoing across the mountain's face but, as strange lights began to glow afar off, it became clear that the sound was reaching the mountain from the mysterious approaching figures.
Drawing nearer and nearer were seven distinct shapes of different colours. They came from every direction, both from the sky and from the ground. Green, purple, yellow, cyan, sapphire, white, and red approached; some glowing and some being illuminated only by the sheets of lightning briefly bathing the world in light.
The shapes drew nearer and the observers heard the memory of Amy asking, "I'm about to be eaten, aren't I?"
Then suddenly, the shapes were recognizable as Pokémon—Pokémon that Ash, Brock, Dawn, and the Professor recognized from past adventures. The first to reach the mountain was Rayquaza, the long dragon that lives in the ozone layer. It slithered through the sky, slicing through the rain, and came to a crash landing on the open mountain ledge. Next to arrive were the three legendary birds from the Orange Islands—the titan of fire, Moltres; the titan of lightning, Zapdos; and the titan of ice, Articuno. The three birds landed relatively gently, but collapsed from exhaustion once on the ground. Cresselia was next, floating through the air with less of its splendor than seemed healthy, and similarly crashed into the ground, exhausted and quite worse for wear.
Amy clung to Sonic fearfully. "No, please, turn it off! I can't look again…make it stop!" she begged anyone who was listening. No one was.
"I wonder why all of these legendary Pokémon gathered on that mountain," Dawn said, watching in awe as the scene unfolded.
"I don't know, but they all look pretty hurt," Brock speculated.
Lastly, and most surprising of all, came the two great legendary Pokémon Palkia and Dialga. They did not crash land like the others, but stood strong and stood side by side, though both had obviously been through a battle. But it was the way they stood together, however—in the same dimension and without aggression towards each other—that surprised the human onlookers the most.
"That's Dialga and Palkia," Professor Oak pointed out for the sake of the Mobians, who had no idea who any of these legendaries were. "Dialga is the Temporal Pokémon, and Palkia is the Spatial Pokémon. These two are said to be among the most ancient of Pokémon."
"Time and space…" whispered Tails, the gears in his mind spinning.
The images faded and the room returned to normal as Mew's shared memory came to a close. Amy slowly came out of her hyperventilating, and soon Sonic had feeling back in his arm as the blood flow returned.
"What could all of this possibly mean?" Professor Oak asked, not really expecting an answer.
But there was another genius in the room whose mind was working just as fast to answer the same questions. "I noticed something," Tails said. "Maybe this is a stretch, but…did you guys notice the colours of those Pokémon that we just saw?"
The humans had no idea what he was getting at, but the Mobians understood immediately.
"Green," he began.
"Cyan," Sonic added.
"Yellow," said Amy.
"Red," Shadow continued.
"Purple," said Rouge.
"Dark blue," Knuckles added.
Tails nodded. "And white." He looked at his Mobian counterparts seriously. "The seven colours of the Chaos Emeralds."
A stillness fell over the company as the significance of those words sunk in. It couldn't be a coincidence, but what could it mean?
Before anyone could offer an interpretation, however, the atmosphere shifted again. But it wasn't the same kind of shift that had brought Amy and Mew to the company. This shift made the lights flicker and a chill run up each individual's spine as a dark chuckle resounded through the room. The more timid of the company clung to the more confident—Nurse Joy moved closer to Oak, Dawn stuck to Brock's side, Tails cowered by Knuckles, Rouge's arm looped wordlessly through Shadow's, and Amy attached herself to Sonic.
The laugh seemed to echo from every corner of the room, from within their skulls, from outside the building. Ten sets of eyes searched the room, searched each other's faces, and finally came to rest on one figure.
The source of the sound was Ash.
He stood in front of the door to the building—somehow he had made his way unnoticed from the other side of the lobby. His head was down, the shadow of his cap covering his eyes, but this was not the most foreboding element of his features. For, though his countenance was dark, something else was more noticeable and more eerie. Surrounded the boy and leaking into the air was a corrupted blue aura that chilled the air and blotted the light.
"You fools."
The voice was definitely Ash's, but there was something wrong with it. It seemed to come from underwater, yet it was still audible—and when he looked up with a devilish smirk on his face, his eyes were no longer brown: they were green.
Ninetales and Persian growled. The other Pokémon companions shied from the emerald stare. Even Pikachu had abandoned the side of its best friend in fear of this sudden change.
Dawn took a step forward warily, her hands shaking. "Ash, what's wrong?"
His eerie emerald gaze fell on her and she froze. His smirk widened and he shook his head slowly. "Dawn, Dawn, Dawn. Whatever do you mean? We feel better than we've felt in a long time." His third person narrative summoned goose-bumps to the arms and necks of his audience and he looked between the girl and Shadow, the latter of whom met his gaze steadily and unshaken. "You might say, we're feeling simply…Chaotic."
Then the strange aura grew, shifted, enveloped him, till Ash as they knew him appeared distorted through a shimmering blue mist that reflected and consumed the light.
The Professor stepped forward, hands held out in a calming gesture. "Ash," he began, "you're not yourself." He took another step so that he was within arm's length of the boy and reached to lay a hand on his shoulder.
"Professor, don't—!" Tails began, but he was too late.
Ash's hand shot out, but the boy never touched Oak. The Professor was stuck by a tangible force that sent the man crashing hard into the wall, cracking the plaster. The company looked on in horror as Ash's hand came down, but it wasn't Ash's hand. The mist of his aura had compressed into a watery extension of his limbs, an outer shell of translucent fluid that was all too familiar to the Mobians.
Sonic stared, eyes wide and mouth agape, at the form that stood before them. "How…When did…But…"
Knuckles' fists clenched, but he could not hide his own trembling muscles. "This is impossible."
Brock, Dawn, and Nurse Joy all rushed to the groaning Professor's side while Ash turned to the Mobians—specifically, to Shadow. He smirked darkly from within the barrier around him. "The hunt is on, hedgehog."
With that, the transformed Ash swung around, obliterating the entire entrance of poor Joy's Pokémon Center with the back of his hand, and, for lack of a more accurate explanation, flowed into the darkness of the night like rapids down a river.
It was several moments before anyone spoke. Finally, Shadow had to ask, "What was that thing?"
Sonic looked out into the night, still trying to wrap his own mind around what they had just witnessed.
"That was Chaos."
Don't forget to leave a review! I'm not one to beg for them or anything, but I need to know reactions to this doozy, so it'd be nice to have some feedback. :)