AN: Hey everybody, sorry this chapter took so long I've been really busy(and lazy) lately but I finished it and here it is. Anyway, enjoy and don't forget to review.
Sincerely, Strikefence
Chapter 8: Wake Up Buttercup
Mystic Ruins, Planet Mobius, October 2nd 2012
For the second time in two days Ferris woke up in a strange bed. Looking around he noticed that he was in a small, bare room that only contained a night table with a lamp and the cushy bed he was sleeping on.
Pulling the blankets off of him, he sat on the side of the bed and began to rub his temples. Suddenly he began to feel pain throughout the top of his head. Quickly glancing around to see if there might be an advil somewhere in this room he came up empty. With nothing else to do he ignored the pain, got up out of bed, and headed towards the open door opposite. As he walked he did what any responsible gun wielder would do and felt around his belt for the pistol that he had strapped there. The familiar holster and it's corresponding gun was missing. Worried, the teen felt inside his pockets and found that his ammunition clips were also missing. Ferris looked back to the night table to see if perhaps his possessions were there. Unfortunately the only things on the table were a lamp and a faint coat of dust.
With his worries in mind he made his way out the door and down the hallway. In the hallway were two more doors, one open with a bathroom inside and one closed. Paying these doors no heed he continued down what he now realized was a short hallway. At the end of the hall he found a staircase which he used. At about the halfway point of the stairs he began to hear the faint sound of a news broadcast emanating from a TV.
"-counts coming in from GUN state that at least thirty prisoners were killed in the breakout and at least as many guards were killed as well."
Ignoring the sounds Ferris continued down the stairs. At the bottom he emerged inside the familiar plain living room of Tails' house he had seen the day before. Inside said living room was the house's owner, sitting on the couch drinking from a cup of what Ferris theorized to be coffee in one hand, and examining Ferris' pistol in the other.
Without looking over Tails said, "Well look who's finally awake."
"Good morning. So what exactly happened yesterday?"
Tails actually looked at the human with a slight curve in his lips as he said, "Let me guess, you feel like someone hit you over the head with a bat?"
Rubbing his aching skull Ferris replied, "That pretty much sums it up."
"Well you sort of tried to use those leggings."
"Yeah I remember that."
"Then you hit your head on the ceiling."
"Oh, well that explains a lot."
Suddenly a low grumble came from the stomach area of the human in the room.
In hearing this Tails stood up and placed the pistol down on the coffee table, "So I'm assuming that even in your dimension morning is the universal time for breakfast."
"Pretty much."
"Well good, I've got some toast in the toaster and..." the familiar sound of toast springing up out of a toaster sounded from somewhere nearby. "speaking of which, also I've got some eggs and bacon in the fridge that are just begging to get cooked."
"Sure, breakfast sound great, I have just one question though." Tails rose one of his eyebrows in a cartoon-like fashion. "The eggs are from an actual non-Mobian chicken right?"
The only response Ferris received was a doubled over fox laughing hysterically.
Angel Island, Planet Mobius, October 2nd 2012
As the floating Island slowly crept closer to the Mystic Ruins, Knuckle began to get bored. Although he did enjoy the usual peace and quiet that was the life of the guardian the recent events had reminded him of the action filled life he used to have. Then there was also Tails' call the evening before telling him that the worst had occurred and Robotnik had broken out of prison. While he didn't relish the thought of having to fight the tyrannical doctor again he did in some ways long for the business that fighting him brought.
Eventually in his boredom Knuckles found himself walking towards a small cave at the base of Angel Island's large mountain. The space around the cave's mouth was a decent sized plain grassy area surrounded by trees and the cavern itself was surrounded in moss and ivy.
Knuckles took his first step inside and immediately felt a rush of cold air as the cave's air enveloped him. Compared to the rest of the island, which usually had somewhat warm almost-but-not-quite-tropical climate, this cave was abnormally cold.
After several more steps he adjusted to the cold air of the cave, but unfortunately he did have another problem. The light, or rather lack of, was toying with his vision and he couldn't see a thing. Knuckles stopped, turned, and jogged towards the cave exit. Once there he continued to jog the last few metres to the edge of the clearing. Looking up Knuckles saw a fair sized branch that he felt would serve his purpose. With the branch in mind Knuckles, using his knuckles spikes as claws, began to climb the tree. Once high enough the echidna grabbed hold of the tree trunk with one arm and reached out towards his target branch with another. Suddenly with his free hand Knuckles gave the branch a quick "light" punch. The branch gave way immediately and fell to the ground, followed by Knuckles who jumped down after it. Picking up the branch in one hand, the guardian brought it to the cave opening and held the end of it to the cave wall. The echidna brought up his free fist and scraped his knuckle spikes against the wall, several small sparks bounced off the wall but none of them took. Knuckles tried again, this time a spark came off the wall and caught hold of the end of the branch. Quickly a soft glow began to come from the contact point on the branch and Knuckles, remembering how blowing on sparks causes them to glow, began to gently blow on the end of the stick. Soon flames began to flicker from the end and Knuckles grinned, now he could see.
Using his makeshift torch Knuckles made his way further into the cave. As he journeyed further into the cave one primary thought began to overwhelm him: Why hadn't he seen this place before?
Knuckles had lived on Angel Island since he was born. He was now thirty-two and he had thought that had seen everything there was to see, hear, touch, smell, and taste. Now he wasn't so sure.
As Knuckles journeyed further he began to notice a slight slant in the floor that seemed to increase with every step he took. With this slant Knuckles began to get the feeling that he was travelling into the bowels of the Earth, then he remembered that he was actually several kilometres above said Earth. That made him feel somewhat stupid.
Due to being lost in thoughts of stupidity and bowels Knuckles barely noticed the end of the cave sitting right in front of him.
"Whoa." his voice echoed back to him several times before dissipating.
The confused echidna placed his palm on the smooth wall in front of him and sighed. His first thoughts were the obvious Well that was useless.
Out of frustration for wasting his time Knuckles pulled back his free fist and punched the wall. To the guardian's surprise a small crack appeared in the wall from which light and a gust of air poured out.
A plain "Huh" was Knuckles' only reaction.
Knuckles figuring that whatever light was on the other side of the wall would be sufficient, threw his make-shift torch behind him and gave a quick double punch to the area near the crack opening up hole about the size of his head from which even more air and light emerged. Knuckles, growing bored of his current progress pulled back his right hand, curled it into a fist, and gave one final mighty punch. Nothing could have survived such a punch, especially a thin rock wall. As the rock gave way and fell to the ground, Knuckles peered through the new passageway into the cavern beyond.
Mystic Ruins, Planet Mobius, October 2nd 2012
After Tails laughter had subsided he had lead Ferris into his small kitchen where Ferris was told to basically sit down at the table and wait.
Looking around the kitchen, Ferris noticed everything within seemed to be proportional to the small size of it's owner. There was a small stove that was around two feet tall, beside the stove was a small counter with an identical height. And then there was the table Ferris was sitting at. The table was about the same height as the counter but not nearly as long. To Ferris it looked as if two fairies were about to walk in the door and start drinking tee at it. The only two things in the entire room that seemed to be made for humans were the ceiling and the chair Ferris was currently sitting in, which Tails had to bring in from the basement.
Finally after what had felt like an eternity of starvation to Ferris, Tails placed two plates of breakfast on the table.
Tails watched Ferris bend over and pick up his plate and fork. "Yeah, the table might be a little small but at least I found that chair, right?"
"True, I think if I was to sit in one of your chairs I would have broken it."
Tails took a bite of his eggs before replying, "And then I would have made you build a new one."
"Seeing how much junk you have downstairs," Ferris took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. "I could probably build you a better one."
"Speaking of which, how did you get my Strength Leggings to work? I've been working on them for ages!"
"I don't really know, I just saw them, had and idea, and then let instinct take over."
"What do you mean, instinct?"
"I just sorta think of something that I want to build and then sorta go into a zone where I know exactly what to do to get what I want."
Not knowing what else to say the two sat and ate the rest of their breakfast in silence with only the sound of chewing portraying that they might actually be living things.
Tails was the first to finish so he chose to break the silence first, "So what do you think we are going to need for your gateway?"
Ferris shoved his last morsel of food into his mouth and swallowed whole, "Well at the very least we're going to need a micro particle accelerator, two high-powered plasma-ion lasers, and twenty pounds of instant coffee."
"Wait, why the coffee?"
"Trust me, you can't survive days without sleep if you don't have coffee."
Tails nodded knowingly but then thought about it, "What do you mean days?"
Angel Island, Planet Mobius, October 2nd 2012
The cavern was a rectangular and a was decently sized. Knuckles estimated it to probably be somewhere around twenty meters squared. The cavern walls were completely covered in perfectly preserved carvings and cave paintings that would be recognizable as Ancient Echidna to even the most anti-cultural human from an anti-Mobian community. Looking up Knuckles identified the source of light as a glowing, light blue stalagmite hanging from the ceiling.
Knuckles finally decided to take a step inside to further investigate the strange room. Giving the carvings and paintings a second look he could tell that they told some sort of story, perhaps a war story or some part of Echidna mythology. Searching around the room for the beginning of the story, he found it on the left wall.
"Origins Of Humanity" he translated out loud. "Wait, WHAT?"