Chapter 1: The Convention
"Are you sure this is the right room? No one's here." I said warily as I walked into the empty gymnasium. I hugged my jacket to myself and looked around. The large room was eerily quiet, and cold. They usually have the heat going on even during the night hours so it doesn't look like a skate rink in the morning when the first gym class takes place. I turned and looked towards Scourge who had closed the door and was now walking towards me on the sidelines. He put his hands on my shoulder and guided me towards the center.
"Trust me Charlotte, they'll all be here soon. And once they hear how you sing, they're sure to give you a part on the show." He reassured. His light blue eyes gleamed with sincerity in contrast to the rest of his seemingly innocent less clothing. His large green and black sneakers squeaked on the floor while my flats made seemingly no noise.
"But what if I mess up?" I asked. He smiled and shook his head.
"I don't think you could mess up, but just in case, why don't you practice? The gym has good acoustics, so you'll sound even better than normal." He walked back out towards the circle surrounding me in the center and began to pace around and around.
"Well, what are ya waiting for? Sing." He said. His voice echoed off the walls and came right back into my ear canals.
I sighed and dropped my jacket onto the floor. I'd rather my whole body freeze than just one half. Breathing in I thought of the first note. The first pure note.
"It started out as a feeling, which then turned into a hope."I sang. The words flew around the gymnasium like a thousand birds singing the same tune. Fluttering and dancing all around me, enveloping me completely into the song. When the song finally ended and the last note echoed throughout the gym, I noticed that there was another in the room standing next to Scourge at the circle's edge.
At least, it was standing like a person though it was maybe only up to my shoulder in height. Whatever it was, it had long, white spikes falling around its shoulders which had a long black cape falling to the floor. It had glasses on its face and bandages on its hands and feet. There was also a gold diamond shape on his forehead which went with the gold belt around the waist. His piercing red eyes stared right at me.
"So what do you think? She's good yeah?" Scourge asked the thing. It nodded and looked away. I breathed a sigh of relief.
"Yes, she should be a fine specimen to try the Chaos energy on. I'll bring her now then." He said. I could tell it was a he because the voice was so darn deep. I saw Scourge nod and walk up to me.
"Charlotte, I want you to keep this with you alright? If anyone tries to hurt you, tell them I gave it to you, and that you're under my protection." He said, his mouth inches from my ear. He pressed something small into my hand and let go. I grabbed on and put my arms around him.
"What's going on Scourge? What is that thing?" I asked, glancing at the thing at the corner of the circle. It was staring at me. I looked away and towards the ground.
I felt Scourge's hands take mine off of him.
"You'll see soon enough. Just remember what I said okay?" He told me quietly. He then turned towards the white guy. "I'll be there as soon as I finish up here."
Scourge pushed me forwards towards the white thing, who grabbed my arm. He nodded and pulled out a large red crystal. He held it up above his head and began to speak an incantation. I tried to pull away from him, but his grip was too strong. The crystal glowed and we were enveloped in a bright light.
I reached towards Scourge who was still standing in the gym looking at me before we vanished.
I looked around my surroundings which seemed to be the dungeon of a castle. There were cobwebs everywhere which put me under the impression that no one had dusted in over ten years at least. The dark gray bricks on the wall seemed to go on a long time in either direction with the occasional candelabra hanging. I turned towards the white thing who was walking down the hallway towards a light.
"Follow me." He said as his cape trailed theatrically behind him.
I stared at him until he realized I wasn't following. He turned, and his red eyes glowed.
"Please follow me, or I'll leave you for the rats." At that, when he walked away I followed.
"Look, I know these are really stereotypical questions but, who are you? Where am I? What am I doing here? And what's Scourge got to do with this?" I called up to him. His pace never slowed, so I was forced to jog to catch up to him. That's when I noticed that I only came up to his shoulder! Being five foot three, at least, and having a huge head on top of that, I don't know how a height change like this could occur. I hoped I wasn't shrinking…
I heard a slight chuckle from him as he continued to walk.
"My name is Finitevius. I'm a scientist on the planet of Mobius, though we are currently in Moebius, the darker version of the first. And this place, being a darker counterpart, is a castle where the king resides. In this case, Scourge. Now, as to why you're here…" He said as he turned his head to look back at me, a slight smile spreading across his face.
"That you'll find out as soon as Scourge gets here."
"Wait, what do you mean Scourge is a king? He's just a high-schooler like me!" I said to him.
"There's more to Scourge than you know Charolette. There's a whole lot more, but please, come in and have a seat." He said motioning me through the door.
I stopped in front of him briefly and then walked through. There was a scientists lab throughout the entire space. From test tubes, and beakers, to what looked like a really expensive computer… it was all in there. I mean it looked like Jekel and Hyde exploded in the space age really.
"Wow." I said as I walked in and began to touch all the seemingly fragile objects full of odd liquids. "This is neat."
"Thank you. I'm glad you approve." Finitevius said sarcastically as he walked around to a large table filled with odd looking objects. "Now, if you could please come over here?"
He motioned for me to come over to him, and I obliged. I walked up next to him to see him holding up a large stone tablet with weird markings on it.
"What's this?" I asked.
"This is a set of directions for an experiment I plan on running. And, you're going to be the "guinea pig". Now, if you would stand over there in that circle for me?" He said pointing to a cleared area in the center of the room.
I stared at him blankly for a few moments.
"Are you nuts?" I asked. He looked at me with an inquisitive look on his face, like he wasn't used to people disobeying his requests.
"You expect me to come here and do whatever you tell me to do just like that?"
"Yes, actually, I do. Scourge thought you had potential to do this experiment. And by the time he gets back I would like to have made some sort of progress." Finitevius growled. I stood down to his sharp teeth.
"Fine. Fine." I said, making my way over to the circle. "So, what exactly is this experiment?"
His head was looking down onto the tablet.
"I want to put chaos energy into a living object. The ones I've tried on… MY kind haven't worked out too well," He said. "So, I wanted to try a simpler species to see how the energy reacted. Then I'd try it out on something more complex."
He walked over to a cabinet and opened it.
"And, you'll know what I'm talking about soon enough. Ah, here it is." He pulled out a yellow crystal similar to the one he used earlier.
He turned to me.
"This is called a Chaos Emerald, a lighter version of the Anarchy Beryl normally found on this plane. I'm going to attempt to transfer the energy from this, to you."
I looked at the glowing crystal in his hand and stared in awe. It was beautiful by all standards, but how on earth did he plan on getting THAT into ME?
"Mmhmm." I said. "And what will-"
"Finitevius!" A voice interrupted. I looked towards the stairs as tall orange fox in a black jumpsuit with a big yellow bow on her head walked in.
"Why do I smell a- Human!" She growled as she spotted me. She walked up to me and pulled me up by my shirt front bringing me up to her face.
"How did she get here?"
Finitevius walked calmly over to us while I held onto her hands.
"Calm down Fiona, I brought her here. She's the one Scourge talked about. You do remember don't you?" He asked.
Fiona's eyes flashed and slowly put me down. I promise I'll never make fun of gravity again… feet should never really get off the ground for more than a brief second.
"I remember." She said. "So where is HE?"
"Back on Earth tying up some loose ends for Charolette here." I looked up at him.
"Tying up some loose ends? I thought I was going back soon." I said.
His red eyes glanced over at me.
"The times of both our worlds work differently, as far as we've noticed. Apparently for every week you're here only an hour goes by there, so you shouldn't be gone too too long. At the very most twenty four hours."
"Twenty four hours?" I asked in disbelief. "That's too long though! My family might think I'm dead!"
"That can always be arranged little one." Chuckled Fiona as she leaned against a desk. I stuck my tongue out at her.
"My name is Charolette." I grumbled. Finitevius walked over to the fox and put a hand on her shoulder.
He softly spoke something to her and she sighed as she left the room.
"Fine. Fine. I'll go get them." She said. Then, at the doorway, she stopped and turned towards me. "Good luck Tiny."
"So, shall we carry on?" He asked as he walked back over to his abandoned tablet. "It's a quick process, but your recuperation time may take the longest out of everything."
"Sure," I said absentmindedly as I walked back over to the circle. "Really quick, why did you guys take me here?"
"Because, Scourge chose you." He answered as he walked in front of the circle with the yellow crystal, or Chaos Emerald, or whatever you called it.
He raised the hand that held it and began to chant what was ever on the tablet. Almost immediately the room darkened and the circle I was in began to glow. I looked up through my hair that was floating around my face and saw the glowing crystal/Emerald/thingy disappear. Then, there was a prick in my chest. Almost like when a needle goes into your arm to take blood. You can feel it, but you can't feel the pain unless you look at it, and of course I looked down.
The crystal/Emerald/thingy was standing on its tip right on my sternum. Then it seemed to melt on my chest. It was warm, like a freshly dried towel, and completely enveloped my body. I screamed slightly because the sensation was so unusual, but then I felt it crystallize. The reason I knew this was because for about a minute I couldn't move any part of my body. My eyes were frozen somewhere on the circle on the ground. My lungs stopped working too. The crystal shattered and I fell down to the ground breathing in all the sweet air I could. My hands touched the ground, but my arms couldn't support the rest of my body and I fell down to my rest side and resorted to looking like a landed fish, breathing for air up and down, up and down.
From my vantage point on the ground I saw the glowing of the circle slowly dim. I then heard Finitevius walk over to a cart and put the tablet on it. His footsteps then came back over to me and turned me over. My muscles were so tight, I couldn't move.
His red eyes looked into mine and scowled. They then looked up and he stood.
"Take her into the back room, but keep a close eye on her. I don't know if she'll make it through the night." Then, there were two sets of footsteps walk over to me and I saw another fox, though this one had swept back hair and wearing a coat, and a big purple thing with mechanics on his head and one of his arms.
"Hello there," Said the fox as he leaned in to my face. His eyes looked my up and down when he finally looked up. "Pick her up Boomer, and we'll take her back."
The purple thing, Boomer, picked me up bridal style and began to walk towards a set of stairs on the opposite side of the room I entered.
"I… hope I'm not… too heavy…" I said softly.
"Hmm? No, you're just fine." Said Boomer back to me. He walked up a set of stairs into a well lit hallway.
"Miles, can you open the door?"
I saw the fox in the red coat run ahead of us and opened a door.
"You have… two tails…" I pointed out to the fox as Boomer walked in.
Miles nodded. As if he'd gone through his whole life and not known that he had two tails sticking out the bottom of his spinal column.
Boomer walked over to a bed and set me down. Miles put a couple blankets around me, and almost as soon as that occurred, I fell right asleep, though, I could've sworn I felt a needle go into my right arm…