5.
The once lilac color of the fur, became blood red…
Pupils were gone…
Rings of fire surrounded her wrists…
A blazing aura encircled her body.
The transformation was now, complete.
What a beautiful spectacle… The Apocalypse was.
The Demon of Flames slowly rose in midair, nothing more than blind fury in it's features. It's soulless eyes looked down at her opponent… The one who dared to challenge it… The one who caused it's awakening…
It grinned at him.
"BE GONE!!"
And so, the once fanatic, vengeful, one-armed, silver colored hedgehog… Became a rodent torch of unforgiving fire…
First, consumed by Vengeance. Then, consumed by the flames… How appropriate.
His screams of sheer terror and pain echoed in all the forest while his flesh was burning mercilessly… Until nothing more than a carbonized body, was left. His gene spreading projects were finished even before commencing.
His blue emerald rolled away from his lifeless hand…
It laughed. It tasted the moment. It breathed the smoke.
"EVERYTHING SHALL BURN!!!" It yelled, still in midair, still blazing.
A shuriken tried to hit the beast but ended up melted even before touching it's vessel body. The Bakeneko didn't even notice Espio's weak attempt to stop it's wrath.
"FOOLISH MORTALS! FEEL MY FLAMES!!!"
It raised it's arms toward the sky and hundreds of lethal fireballs were shot from it's hands, burning down to ashes everything they would hit…
In mere seconds, entire sections of the forest disappeared into flaming glories… And so it would have the whole county… If a certain someone didn't decide to take action!
He came out from nothing, he simply appeared in front of the demon, completely ignoring it's fiery shield. He quickly put an hand on the surprised Bakeneko's forehead.
"WHAT!!!?" It cried but to no avail.
"This ends now!" He cried back.
Void hold his red Chaos Emerald tightly in the other hand and solemnly pronounced:
"CHAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOSSS… REGENERATION!!!!"
A huge sphere of white light engulfed the burnt battlefield.
After a whole minute, the light was gone, along with Void and Blaze, and the forest was back at it's former splendor… Trees were grown, green grass was all over and there weren't left any signs whatsoever of the previous fight. It was like if nothing happened at all.
Espio saw everything and couldn't quite believe his eyes. Unfortunately for him, the so called Chaos Regeneration technique hadn't only worked on plants…
He turned his head and saw the third degree burnt figure of the one-armed hedgehog once known as Silver… Clearly infuriated.
"Eheheheheheheheheheheheh… DIE!!!" He muttered while preparing an energy beam with Espio's name written on it.
A beam was, indeed, shot… But it wasn't the hedgehog's.
He looked down… There was a peculiar hole were his stomach previously used to be. He slowly turned to see his killer in face…
He found himself quite shocked when he apprehended that his powerful murderer… Was a child.
There he stood, smoking hand's palm pointed over the mad rodent's direction, Silver's blue Chaos Emerald in the other hand and a couple of angry, glowing eyes…
Miles "Tails" Prower looked rather pissed off.
"That was for Sally… YOU BASTARD!!!" He yelled in anger.
Silver simply collapsed on the ground, muttering incomprehensible words in the process…
This time he was dead for good.
Espio gazed at the kit with thankful eyes.
"Don't mention it." Tails said, his angry face returned to the normal happy one.
"WOAH! THAT WAS MONDO EXTREMO, LITTLE BRO!!!" Screamed an un-mistaking obnoxious voice.
Both the Kitsune and the reptile turned their heads to see a certain cobalt blue hedgehog standing nearby with a disfiguring hole on his stomach… It was kind of awkward, to say the least.
"What?" He asked to the bewildered duo, then he took a look at his body and realization hit. "Oh… This! Don't worry buds, being made of metal has it's advantages… This hedgehog doesn't die that easily!" He reassured.
Tails was about to reply but he was interrupted by Knuckles who just arrived in that precise moment.
The red echidna glanced at his surroundings… There was a physically battered violet chameleon, a two-tailed kit with a suspicious glowing gold aura around his body and a blue hedgehog with a hole where his stomach was supposed to be…
Knuckles asked the "1 million dollars" question!
"Did I miss something?"
The three of them just sighed in chorus.
Then a dead serious Tails approached his red leader and solemnly uttered:
"We need to find… The 7 Chaos Emeralds!"
The gentle sea breeze caressed her fur, making her feeling comfortable… Calm… In peace with the whole world. She couldn't believe she would ever feel like that again.
Emerald Beach had this effect on the troubled souls… And she wasn't an exception. The venomous Flames that used to consume her heart were magically gone.
It didn't matter what she'd done in the past… It didn't matter what she was just about to do in the present time… It didn't matter anymore.
Blaze was in Paradise… And her angelic savior was with there…
"Thank you… Void." She quietly muttered while feeling the peaceful wind.
Void, from behind her, put one of his strange, 3-fingered, clawed hands on the cat's left shoulder. His facial features were showing a distressful sadness.
"I'm sorry, Blaze… For all the troubles I've thrown on you." He said in a tone that matched his emotional state.
The former Bakeneko was listening intently. He continued.
"It was me the one who told Silver where to find you… Through his dreams… I'm really sorry for that." He tightened his grip on Blaze's shoulder and frowned.
She slowly turned and look the Seedrian in the eyes… Those lonely, empty, black eyes… And smiled sweetly.
He was taken aback by this.
"You saved me Void… Not just from the Flames that were consuming me… But you healed my soul as well! You're just like your mother… You're just like Cosmo." She said while caressing his cheek. "You are so similar to her…" She now had tearful eyes… She still missed her adopted sister.
"I wish it was true…" He sorely added. "… In reality, I am nothing more than a vicious manipulator… I used Silver as a short cut to get at you… I hoped that you would actually lose your control so I could come and capture you without other people's interference…" He was sincerely feeling sick of himself.
"And why did you that?" She was still smiling.
That only made him feel worse.
"It was my father… My master's order… He wanted you to be a part of our group and…"
"Yes?"
"… I wished that too. You see, Blaze… I inherited Cosmo's powers when I was born… That means that I also have her memories… Her dreams, her nightmares, her deepest fears and darkest thoughts… And the ones about the people she loved the most…" He looked the cat girl in her gorgeous yellow eyes. "… Tails and you."
She could no longer contain her tears. She hugged the young Seedrian in front of her, crying softly.
"I-I don't know… When her emotions end? And when my true personality begins? I-I don't even know if I have one! Am I just Cosmo's rip-off?" He added while hugging Blaze back.
"You are a beautiful person, Void… You saved me! Don't you get it? That was you, not Cosmo!" She consoled him.
"T-Thanks." He said, blushing a little.
They released their embrace.
"Tell me about your father." She asked, changing the topic.
"Well… He's not really my father… He took me when I was born and teleported me in the dimension he was trapped… I grew up in there and developed my powers into perfection…"
"You was born from Cosmo's seed, right? But that was just a month ago! You seem to have my own age!" She replied in astonishment.
"Time works a little differently in the Sanctuary dimension… A month here equals 15 years down there." He explained, showing an "I know everything" kind of face.
In doing so, Blaze found that he had some similarities with Tails… She couldn't help but giggle at the thought. Then her mind went back to the main thing.
"You mean to tell me… That you have spent your entire life inside that cold dark place?" She felt great sympathy and compassion toward him.
"My master spent the eternity inside of it, for that matter! He was a powerful sorcerer who was trapped into that prison by the ignorant people who feared his abilities… He was different… Just like you and me… And Tails and Knuckles and even that weird Sonic person, I guess… We're all different… We're all superior… We are chosen by Chaos and Nature themselves!"
Blaze flinched a little… She used to think of herself like that when she was younger… Her people used to believe it too… Was she really a chosen one and not just a birth mistake? Was she the next step of the feline evolution? Her fertile mind tried to picture a world full of blazing cats like her… She shook the disturbing thought away.
"If your master is that powerful, why couldn't he break free from his prison… And how could you enter it in the first place?" She logically wondered.
The answer came immediately.
"The mages that sealed him into that dimension used the power of the emeralds to do it… Even his powers aren't great enough to break that seal… He can, however, teleport other people in his dimension but only if they accept to come… I did."
"But you were an infant!"
"I DID AND THAT'S THAT!!"
He paused a little to take some breath.
"That's why I need to get the Chaos Emeralds in order to free him… You're friends had one, now… I, myself, have one… Still 5 remain." He declared while showing her his red emerald… The one he's had from her mother… The one he was born with.
"Why do you want to free him?" She calmly asked.
He smiled.
"Because, he has the powers to make this world a better place for us to live… Without wars and without violence… Because it was her dream… Her last wish…" He paused again and glanced back at the cat, dead seriousness in his black orbits. "Will you help me realize it, Blaze the Cat?"
The ominous convincement of his tone made the question seemed like a marriage proposal. She took some seconds to reflect… Then, just like a willing bride at the altar, she accepted it.
"I do."
He smiled, took her soft gloved hand into his ugly, 3-fingered claw, then he put his emerald back in his chest… Where it used to be since he was born… And summoned a Chaos Control.
"Blaze?"
"Tell me."
"How was my mother?"
"She was gentle and caring… But she also had doubts. Just like anybody, Void… Just like anybody."
"Thank you."
And the "married couple" disappeared into the proverbial nothingness.
"So… Let me get this straight! Cosmo (which is NOT dead) came visiting you in your dreams and told you that a creepy guy named Cactus Fungus…"
"It's Ixis Naugus, Knuckles…" The kit corrected.
"Whatever… A fucking sorcerer is using Cosmo's son, the same that beat the hell out of you for no apparent reason, in order to collect the Chaos Emeralds so he could get out from his freaking dimensional prison and destroy the world as we know it…"
"Uh-huh…"
"… And we MUST get to the emeralds before he does so we can save the whole damned planet… Did I forget anything?" Sarcastically muttered the echidna.
"Blaze has been mondo bad abducted by the Void dude… Right after she almost eradicated the county… Oh! And Tails blasted the hell out of that freknohog with an uber cool energetic beam!" Added Sonic, who by now, was on an operating table… With Tails trying to fix his mondo ugly stomach hole. "Ehi, ehi! Easy there, Dr Tailsenstein… That chainsaw tickles!!"
"It's just a screwdriver, Sonic... And that's what you deserve for running away like that!" The fox replied not hiding his sadness.
The metal one felt ashamed for that.
"I'm sorry, Tails." He simply muttered, guilt was shown on his synthetic facial features.
The boy genius angry expression softened until it turned into a smiling one.
"… Just, don't do it again, ok? Robot or not robot, you are a friend of us… And a Freedom Fighter too!"
"Yeah… Yeah… Just like your freaking uncle Chuck." Knuckles impatiently replied.
Suddenly… A metallic tilt could be heard inside the hedgehog brain…
"UNCLE MONDO CHUCK!!!?"
His reaction was so unexpected that Tails found himself catapulted out of the infirmary room and right on Espio's meditation pose…
After avoiding a few poisoned daggers from the not-so-relaxed chameleon, the vulpine came back to the room.
By now, Knuckles had already explained the situation to the agitated Metal Sonic.
"My unc is a mondo cool spy!!!"
He was so excited at the idea that he started singing the "Goldfinger" theme song… How did know about it, was a mystery even for me.
"Please… SHUT UP! I want us to focus on the main topic, here… Why I can't help but feel that this whole 'collect the Chaosdamned Emeralds before that Bonus Malus guy does' story is a bunch of pig shit!?"
"He's name is Ixis Naugus!" Again corrected the irritated fox.
"Yeah Knuckle-head! His name is ehrrrr… Pixies Chorus!" Added a particularly dumb metallic rodent.
"YOU CALLED ME KNUCKLE-HEAD, AGAIN!!! AND THE NAME IS RAPTORS NAUTILUS!!" Yelled the easily anger-able echidna.
"BOTH OF YOU! SHUT UP!! FOR CHAOS'S SAKE!!!" Finally screamed the distressed kit.
The other two were about to argue when… Knuckles's wrist com. started beeping and Maximillian Acorn's hologram came out from it.
"Knuckles?" He said. "We need to collect the 7 Chaos Emeralds."
From that day on… "Utter Astonishment" became the echidna's second name… Along with "pissed off-able" and "Chaosdamned cluster fuck".
After the Freedom Fighters moved into the computer room, Maximillian's figure appeared on the screen and explained the current situation to all of them…
"After days of intense and balanced discussions with the other members of the Mobian Council…" What the old chipmunk meant was, after days of savage beatings and hardcore wrestling contests… "… We came into a conclusion! The Chaos Emeralds could be the perfect weapons to defeat the Eggman menace once and for all…" He then looked at Sonic. "And we know for certain where one of them is… Why don't you show them, Sonic the Hedgehog?"
Everybody's faces where fixed over the hog in question. Sonic sighed.
"Ya got me there, Alvin!" He then opened a compartment placed on his chest and pulled out… A light blue Chaos Emerald!
They all looked at him in surprise, except Max, who was smirking in satisfaction through the screen.
Metal Sonic noticed their collective gazes.
"What? Haven't you seen a robotizied hedgehog pulling out a fist sized jewel from his chest, before?" He paused for a moment, thinking at the idiocy of his question. "… Guess not." He concluded.
"YOU HAD IT FOR ALL THE FUCKING TIME!!!?" Yelled an enraged Knuckles.
"Ya never asked…" He muttered… Putting his own life in serious jeopardy.
"Calm down, you too." Said the former royal. "By the way, we knew about the emerald thanks to Sir Charles… A reliable agent as always."
Pride was filling the hedgehog's features when he managed a smile.
"My unc is a mondo cool hedgehog… Almost like myself!" He said, grinning.
"Wait a sec… Where did you find that emerald, Sonic?" The ever so logical vulpine asked.
"I stole it from uncle Ivehrrrr… I mean Eggman's laboratory when I escaped… That's the main reason he's after me…" If Sonic could, he would have shivered. "… He personally came to the forest to kill me, no longer than a couple of days ago."
An earthquake of "HE WHAT!!!?" shook the entire Mobius… A couple of car accidents were registered in Station Square and, somewhere in Robotropolis, a certain mad doctor's sensitive ears whistled.
"HE WAS HERE IN THE HOLY SHITTING FOREST AND YOU DIDN'T TELL US!!! YOU, STUPID FUCKER!!!"
While an over, over…. Over infuriated Knuckles was shouting unreadable things about the metal hedgehog's heritage and ancestors… Tails's brain isolated itself in order to better focus on the current situation and come out with a proper plan of action.
So… Eggman is looking for the emeralds too… That's definetelly no good! No! Scratch that… That's a total darn mess! At least, now we have an excuse to look for them… We are going to need everybody's help for this…
Suddenly, Tails's head dinged in realization. Something was missing… Or better, someone!
"Guys?" He shyly said.
"I'M GONNA SO FREAKING KILL YOU, HEDGEDORK!!!"
"OVER MY DEAD BODY, KNUCKLE-BRAIN!!!"
"Ehi, guys?" He tried again.
"THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE, DUMBHOG!!"
"YOU DON'T MAKE ANY SENSE, ENCHILADNA!!!"
"GUUUUUUUYYYYYYYSSS!!!" He finally yelled.
"WHAT!!!?" They responded in unison.
"Where is Amy?"
"………"
"….. Who?"
In the dark of an unspecified location… A young pink hedgehog was slowly waking up from Dreamland.
"Where… Am… I?" She asked to nobody in particular… Only to find out that she was tied up to something.
She suddenly remembered what occurred in the afternoon… And she wasn't pleased by that.
"Grrr… That jerk of Mephiles… When I'll get my hands on him…"
"I would LOVE to see that… My rose." Went a second voice.
She stared at the direction of the sound… And she noticed the all so familiar green cat / snake like eyes…
The Dark one… Was in the dark.
And now… She was truly scared.
A/N: Continues on "Amy, Mephiles and Shadow".