Ark Fox Chapter 12
Thanks to the people who reviewed; prowerboy, Dingo 57, Sierra Zanimalini14, FlamingSheep and Shika1929.
Now should I ever meet you in real life you get a free hug
And damn it FlamingSheep, get a profile before I ironically sheep strike your worms.
Don't own any characters, if I did, insert hilarious quotation here.
Out of all the creatures on Mobius perhaps the Flicky is the least understood, little to nothing is known about these sentient birds, however what we can pull up on them is quite unique.
Believed to have evolved to sentient status only recently, they show stunning signs of intelligence, showing a complex variety of signals, chirps and gestures that are used in conjunction to communicate with each other. The common Flicky's nest is almost always ingeniously designed, often encompassing to the surrounding climate.
However the most notable feature about the Flicky is perhaps its body's ability to hold Chaos Energy, the Flicky uses its reserves of Chaos Energy to escape predatory danger by fooling the minds of these lesser animals, by utilising it's ability to detect the motives of anything around it.
The personality of the Flicky is timid and shy however, and only a few friendships from a Mobian to a Flicky have ever been recorded, however when a friendship is developed, the Flicky will often show a lot of respect and trust towards this individual.
A small blue and white feathered bird studied the piece of paper briefly, before tearing it up and returning to its nest. Mulching up the paper and putting it in water would provide an excellent insulator.
Fortunately for the small Flicky, his home wasn't far away from the book so his trips to and fro wouldn't be that far in-between.
The Flicky, appropriately named 'Fluffy' briefly thought about keeping the page, it could be useful to know what these 'Mobians' knew about him and his race, but the idea was soon pushed to the side as he could simply ask the Fox Lord what the Mobians knew anytime.
Landing in his humble abode (a house located in the middle of a thick tree, a veranda was positioned just outside the front door of the house which was a good six metres up.) entering the door (a simple piece of papyrus that was protected from the weather by a plastic awning.) he plopped the piece of paper down on the floor.
His house wasn't that decorated, a small table was positioned in the centre for 'grub.' While a few maps and diagrams of Hilltop, the surrounding area, dotted the walls, there were also some portraits of family members and famous Mobians glued to the walls, among the Mobians were; Sally Acorn, Sonic Hedgehog, Amy Rose, Cream Rabbit and most notable of all Miles "Tails" Prower AKA The Fox Lord.
The Fox Lord was a personal friend of Fluffy, and many a time had he and his family been helped out by the kitsune; healed wings, full stomachs and most importantly knowledge of the outside world all thanks to the selfless fox.
He was the only Mobian that the entire Flicky population trusted, he was seen as a happy, selfless, trustworthy friend, the three traits Flicky's adored.
Suddenly a massive Chaos spike was felt... Something was up, probably to do with the 'Dr Eggman.'
The trio woke up early the next morning, by Mr Tanaka entering with a vegetarian breakfast made especially for them by the president's chefs. The trio were surprised to hear the chef's thank yous for the opportunity; Mr Tanaka had to explain that Chris preferred to wake up to a cereal called 'space crunch'.
"Speak of the devil." Sonic noted as Chris entered with a bowl of what was presumably 'space crunch'.
"Are you 'munch munch' ready to go? 'munch munch'." Chris asked between mouthfuls of the cereal.
"Mr Chris, please try to be more dignified." Tanaka commented.
"Huh!" Chris said, before realising what he was on about and answered properly "Oh yeah sure, dignified, president, got it 'munch munch'." The trio just laughed at the sight before them, Chris hadn't changed much since becoming what he was, obviously.
"Yeah, we're ready to go anytime." Sonic replied.
"Good, I sent Topaz up to the Ark last night to help you out... hope you don't mind." Chris responded before continuing. "The Ark hasn't been visited once since the eclipse cannon thing with Doctor Eggman, honestly it hasn't been much of a priority, but that technology is still pretty advanced considering how old it is and we want to make sure it doesn't pose a threat."
"Well that makes sense I guess." Tails replied this time "So long as she doesn't stop my research I'm fine with it."
"Don't worry..." Chris laughed before continuing "... Miss Tanaka won't be a problem!"
"What!" Sonic and Tails facedroped, Chris and Mr Tanaka simply burst into a fit of laughter.
a short time later
"Alright, just press this button here and you can Chaos Control normally." Tails explained. The three pressed the designated button on their watches, and lifted their Chaos Emeralds; Shadow green, Tails yellow and Sonic red, before muttering "Chaos Control." Tails knew saying it wasn't required, but it still felt cool to do.
"Damn it!" Shadow growled as he looked around him, he was in front of Tails grave again. The same figure he saw the day before was here, and she visibly jumped. "Please don't do that to an old lady, Shadow, my heart's weak enough!" the mystery woman said angrily, clutching her chest.
"Why do I keep coming here old woman? Who are you and what is this place?" Shadow questioned angrily.
"Sorry Shadow, I can't tell you who I am..."
"And why the hell is that!" Shadow interrupted.
"Well to you I technically don't exist." The figure spoke, shaking her shoulders, saying it didn't seem to faze her the least. Shadow eyed her but let her continue. "You see, it's this place, the Graveyard of Heroes... It's a pocket dimension that warps reality."
"What!" Shadow said with a raised voice "How, what kind of place is that!"
"Well a pocket dimension is a dimension that exists outside of normal space, this is the only dimension that the Chaos Force allows anyone to visit, but it has some laws that is forced on everyone, even you."
"What do you mean?"
"Well for one, you know who I am, yet this place won't allow you it figure it out does it?" The old woman said, Shadow was forced to admit she was right, her voice was so discernable, her figure and posture obvious, yet he couldn't see her. Everything that could be described as skin on the lady was pitch black, not allowing any form of light to hit her. Her voice was so soft and sweet and caring, old with age and wet with tears, but he couldn't figure out where that voice was from.
"But couldn't you just tell me your name, and how do you know who I am?" Shadow asked.
"Yes and no '...' see I just told you but you never heard me say it." the figure said. Shadow was forced to go over what she just said in his head before speaking up again.
"Where am I, where is this Graveyard of Heroes, what is it."
"The Graveyard of Heroes is simply a grave that commemorates the biggest heroes of all the dimensional Zones." The old lady spoke again. Shadow looked at her strangely before asking another question.
"What can you tell me about you? Last time we met you said something about me telling you about this!"
"I'm from the future Shadow, although technically I don't exist to you, you exist to me do you understand?"
"So you can see me and I can't see you?" Shadow answered, hands coming out to his sides.
"Yes, so you simply told me about you seeing me, as for what I can tell you about me... Sigh... nothing much really, I'm just a clumsy old widow..." the lady sadly stated, getting down on one knee slowly, joints audibly creaking.
A soft sniffle was heard as tears dropped onto Tail's grave. Shadow felt the sudden urge to help the poor lady and put his hand around her shoulder, after a minute or so the woman's tears relented and a 'thank you' was heard.
"Will I keep coming here when I Chaos Control?" Shadow asked, his body was starting to disappear.
"No, you won't see me again for a while." She said, regaining her posture.
Shadow had a few seconds to think about the events before his body completely vanished and he appeared on the Ark.
"When you get back, don't tell anyone about this... I know you won't as you never did, please just think of what you saw today. When the time comes you will make the right choice."
"So Topaz, how have you been?" Sonic asked, shaking the G.U.N. agents hand steadily, soon taken over by Tails and even Shadow (Who had mysteriously turned slightly white again.)
"Good thanks Sonic, good to see you again, you too Tails... Shadow." Topaz replied, an audible drop in sincereness when she reached Shadow's name. "Hummrph" was the reply.
Tails hated to admit it, but now that he was on the Ark, he had no idea where to start looking for any information. Space Colony Ark was massive, and could take days to explore fully, not only that, but the Ark seemed less forgiving now, a hate filled asylum, he didn't want to be here.
"You don't like it do you Tails?" Shadow asked, Tails was forced to say a truthful "Yes."
"Poor kid, if he hadn't seen that memory he'll probably be all over this place, instead his furs sticking up straight." Shadow thought.
"Let's just get this done." Tails said, walking over to a nearby console and activating it.
"Hey... you alright Tails." Sonic asked.
"Yeah you don't look so good!" Topaz said truthfully, earning an evil stare from Tails before he forced it away.
"Yeah I'm fine." Tails lied expertly, he had got really good at that ever since Cosmo died.
"Well ok if your sure buddy." Sonic started, putting a hand on the kits shoulder "but one thing before you start, I promised Miles that I'll never let you find out about this and I'm breaking that promise right now, so I'm reading any important looking document first, and if you find any more of those memory cards, I'm looking at them first got it." Sonic ordered, determination on his face.
Tails grumbled out a barely audible "yes..." clearly annoyed at the fact Sonic would try and censor any important info, and with Sonic having absolutely nothing better to do at the moment he would probably be Tails ghost for their entire stay on Space Colony Ark. As much as it pained him, he would have to find a way to research without his brother.
"So Tails, how are we going to start looking for this info?" Topaz questioned.
"Eggman said something about a 'foxy hacker' Topaz, so we simply look for any unusual files and trace them to their source, and repeat the process until we find the station I used to hack into the system."
"Wait, did you just say Eggman?" Topaz said, clearly she hadn't been briefed on the situation fully. Shadow passed her his memory card before saying "press the red button... you may want to lie against a wall when you do." a click was heard and Topaz's eyes fluttered into unconsciousness.
"You'll think she would of been told this" Shadow said out loud what everyone was thinking.
"She can still hear you ya know." Sonic said, smacking Shadow on the arm. The punch was quickly returned and a full on fist fight began. Tails briefly paused his work to watch the carnage with a smile, those two would never change.
Downloading a map of the Ark to his watch, Tails soon left the two to it and set off towards the mainframe.
Walking down the various hallways, Tails could see these were the exact ones that Shadow ran down while holding him in the memory, only he was walking the other way. Tails had only watched the memory twice for fear of hurting someone in a blood high, but the second time he watched, the memory was nowhere near as beautiful as the first.
These halls were foreboding now, disgusting and unnatural. He felt a sense of security when he was in Shadows arms however.
"What is Shadow to me? A friend? A brother?"
Tails was pulled to a stop however, as he reached the start point of the memory, the room where he was brushing his teeth. "I have no time for this Tails" he thought and tried to move on towards the mainframe, but the overwhelming sense of curiosity brought him back. He never really looked at the room when he was in the memory.
Entering, he could see it was a simple toilet room, nothing much interesting about the room itself, a few urinals lined the walls, a few toilet stands and a few basins. The only noteworthy thing about this room was a small red toothbrush, the same one Miles used.
Walking over to the basin he picked up the toothbrush, It looked quite new considering it was half a century old, the bristles were still white and only a few were sticking out. Losing interest in the toothbrush Tails dropped it into the sink, stained yellow with age. he decided to fellow the memory's path, it wasn't like he couldn't return to his task anytime he liked.
Opening the door and stepping out, he briefly tried to imagine what Maria could have been like, she seemed very nice and mature in the memory... especially for her age.
"Then again, so were you!"
Spinning his tails, he rushed through the hallways.
The same hallways he was laughing through, smiling through.
"What was on Miles mind, truly, how much did he go through, do I even want to know?"
Half a minute later, Tails was at the entrance to Gerald's secondary lab, according to his map anyway. Looking around at the empty hallway, Tails felt his fur drop, remembering the tickle attack from Shadow, It was hard to know this was part of his childhood.
Entering the lab, he could see various beakers and papers littering the tabletops, a few Bunsen burners were visible in a glass cupboard and a few unimportant looking consoles in the back. All in all, it looked unused and neglected. Little did Tails know he was now being watched.
Tails decided to enter the chamber that changed his DNA, and properly inspect the machine. After that he would find the entrance to the observatory window and check that room out, then finally go back to trying to find the station he used to hack into the Ark.
Entering the next room, his eyes were instantly drawn to the machine, and could feel his fur sticking on end. Metal splotches and a faint red stain was visible on the floor, it looked very much like the blood he coughed up. Behind the door, a red and yellow iris focused closely on the kitsune. "What is he doing?"
Inching closer to the machine that Dr Eggman called the Chaos Engraver, Tails kept a close eye on it, prepared to run in at the slightest chance of its activation. It took a full ten seconds for Tails to get there.
Upon finally reaching the Engraver, Tails noticed a panel on the side of the machine, plying it off quickly with one of his claws, he noticed a stand that would presumably contain a Chaos Emerald. Understandable Tails thought, it was called the Chaos Engraver after all. But this was probably the only thing worth looking at in here, and Tails didn't want to spend any more time in here then necessary.
Dooms Eye only just managed to escape detection from the fox by flying back into the ceiling.
Rate and Review... you, unless you want me to send Dooms Eye to spy on you... which I will!