Chapter 2: The Foothold

I was running, just running down a hallway, I slid to the end and began running to the right. As to what I was running from, I don't know. I was just running, running, running, running…

My eyes popped open to a dark room. I was lying down in a bed with blankets on top of me. I turned over onto my right side and came face-to-screen with a monitor displaying bright green symbols. I could take it to be my heart rate because I could hear the beep, beep, beep, of my pulse every couple seconds.

Slowly, I sat up on my arm and spotted a figure in the far corner of the room.

"Hello?" I called softly. No response. "Hello?"

Again, nothing.

I sighed and swung my legs over the bed and jumped off. My bare feet touched the cold floor with a soft tap. Someone must've taken my shoes off at one point. I walked forwards when a sharp pain led my eyes to my arm. Sure, enough there was a needle. I took it out and let it fall to the floor. I also released the patches that where attached to my chest and forehead. The beeping on the monitor turned into a steady hum. I walked the rest of the way to the figure in the corner.

I shook its shoulder.

"Hey, are you alive?" I asked. "Hey, wake up." I heard a groan as its head lifted up. A pair of bright blue eyes gazed into mine. "Scourge?"

He stood up and scooped me into a hug as he spun me around and set me down.

"Charolette! Thank god you're okay. I just got back a while ago and was waiting for the Doc to come in. How are ya?" He asked.

"I'm doing fine. Confused and still mildly tired, but okay. You mean, just got back from my world right?" I asked as he turned on the light. I gasped and stepped back towards the bed.

Scourge was no longer human. His skin was green, all of it, and his hair was spiked back into large clumps. His mouth was now a muzzle with a large, black nose, and his sharp teeth I thought I'd noticed before where now much more prominent.

"What happened to you?" I asked as I took another step back. He looked down at himself and back to me like he forgot what he looked like.

"This is how I usually look, Charolette. I had to be a human to gain access to your school and meet you." He answered calmly as he walked towards me. "Is this okay? I promise I won't hurt you."

I tried to calm myself down and breath deeply, letting his animal self soak into my mind.

"Yes," I said after a couple seconds. "It's just…"

"Weird? Yeah, but you'll get used to it." He said pulling me towards the door. "Come on. We'll go tell the Doc you're alright. I know he was somewhat concerned. You've been in bed for about ten days."

Ten days. That's about an hour and twenty minutes back in my world…

"And he hasn't given up on me yet?" I asked.

"No. So, it means that he really wants to see how this experiment turns out." He put his hand out. "Congratulations." I took it and shook. Then the door burst open allowing more light to enter the room.

"Scourge!" A voice yelled. A tall figure in the door stormed over to the bed I previously occupied. I quickly hid behind Scourge. I didn't really want to get in the way of this guy. But he did look familiar come to think of it… "Where is she? What have you done with her?"

"Chill, Miles." Scourge said as he stepped forwards. "You scared her when you burst in here yelling like a banshee." I felt his hand on my back as he pushed me forwards. Which meant I was pushed about three feet forwards straight into the person who was on an angry rampage.

I felt my face hit their chest and their arms caught mine.

"Oww…." I whined. "Who'd I hit?" I looked up into an orange muzzled face with silvery gray hair sweeping over the face. Their eyes which a few seconds ago held malice, softened as they looked back at me.

"Hello Charolette." He said. I could tell he was a boy because of his voice, and the clothes he wore. Red uniformed top with gold buttons.

"Uh, Hello?" I asked as I righted myself.

"Sorry. Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Miles." He said. "And it's nice to finally meet you."

"Yes… I remember you… You brought me here with a… a Boomer. Yes?" I asked as I re-noticed his two tails. Miles nodded, and then walked over to the heart monitor and turned it off.

"Do you have any idea how much you worried us because of this? Finitevius is probably still having a heart attack as we speak Scourge. And it's not funny!" He yelled. I turned towards Scourge, who was holding his stomach as he was doubled over in laughter

"The hell it isn't! Man, I would kill to have seen his face!" Scourge laughed. Then he sighed, still chuckling, and wiped a tear from his eye. "We probably should let him know she's fine though huh?"

"That would probably be for the best." Miles said calmly as he walked over towards me. "Charolette, if you would." He prompted as he held his arm out. I took it and walked out of the room with him. I heard the tapping of Scourge's shoes behind us.

We walked in silence, which was mildly awkward for me. I got the feeling these two didn't see eye to eye on anything, and that they more than likely fought with each other on a regular basis… Goodness…

I sighed.

"So, I've been out for ten days?" I asked.

"That's correct." Miles said. "Finitevius was surprised that you survived that long. Normally a patient wouldn't make it past the original initiation of the Chaos energy."

"Yeah, some of the other ones would explode or somethin'." Scourge added.

"Eww…" I said. "Glad that didn't happen."

"Me too. Then all that time I spent looking for ya would've been wasted." I turned around sharply while continuing to walk.

"Thank you so very much for your lack of emotion." I said.

He smiled and flashed his eyes at me from underneath his red sunglasses. I blushed and quickly turned my head forwards again.

"Just ignore him," Miles muttered to me from under his breath. "His intelligence regarding other people doesn't reach all the way to the top, if you know what I mean."

"Completely." I murmured back.

"I heard that."

I stuck my tongue out at him. He returned the motion.

"Well, well, well," came a cool voice from a doorway. "You made it through then. How… fortunate for you." The girl from earlier, Fiona if I recall correctly, pushed off of the wall and walked over to me. She too was taller than me. "But as to how, I'll never know." Her eyes then darted from me over to Miles. Her mouth turned into a sinister smirk. "As for you, I'd think twice before you tried anything."

Miles cleared his throat and dropped my arm slowly.

"This way, Charolette." He said as he opened a door for me. I walked past Fiona and Miles into the same Jekyll and Hyde laboratory from before. I saw Finitevius sitting by one of the tables with his head in his hands. There where some other animals nearby, one of which I recognized as Boomer.

"She's alive Doc," Fiona called into the room. Immediately Finitevius' eyes opened and his head popped up and stared at mine. I saw relief flood through his eyes as he made his way over to me.

"Thank goodness, I was worried that we'd have to start the whole process over again." He said as he checked my pulse. "You're feeling alright? No external bleeding or rashes?" He asked.

"I sure hope I don't," I said as I nodded to his initial question. "Why? Is that what happened to the other people you tried this on?"

"Some of the symptoms. These where just a few that came up on the females."

"Bonjour, Mademoiselle." Said a masculine voice as a tall figure stepped towards me. He had brown fur with blonde hair pulled back into a small pony tail. He was wearing a green French army coat, with gold buttons, and one eye stared at me. I only say one because the other was covered by a black eye patch.

"Um, Bonjour?" I said back. He kissed my hand and bowed. I felt my face most definitely turn red.

"Eet iz wonderful to meet you Meez Charolette." He said with a French accent. "My name is Patches."

"Well, it's nice to meet you. And you, formally, Boomer." I called. The purple and gold walrus waved a clawed hand in my general direction.

I then felt a prick in my arm. I looked down and saw Finitevius put a drop of fresh blood onto a Petri dish and set it under a microscope. He began to mess around with the knobs, nodding occasionally and writing down notes on a piece of paper nearby.

"Very good. Very good." He muttered. He turned towards me with what appeared to be his version of a smile- his pointed teeth where simply more prominent, and he was walking towards me like I was lunch.

"You seem to be recovering with the Chaos energy quite quickly. Now… we just have to show you how to use it…, and after some more experimenting, I should be able to use the Anarchy Beryl… hmhmhmhm wonderful." He chuckled.

His red eyes then darted past me, once more pure raw malice shown through.

"Scourge, I want you and Alicia to go patrol the perimeter and make sure no one will get through while she's being taught. This won't be effective until tomorrow when we actually start, but make sure that all precautions are made immediately."

I turned and saw Scourge roll his blue eyes.

"Sure, if I can find her."

"He's right Finitevius. The last we saw of her she was going towards the woods. You remember how long it was until she got back the last time." Miles added.

Finitevius nodded.

"Then Fiona, you go with him."

Fiona smiled and took Scourge's arm as they walked out of the room.

"And don't even think about messing with the moat again!" Boomer shouted after. I heard laughter and footsteps running down the hallway. Boomer grumbled to himself as he continued to work on some sort of contraption in the corner.

"Patches, go look in the cabinets and see if there's any suitable clothes for Charolette to wear."

The animal in question walked over to a set of dresser cabinets and opened the door. I saw what looked to be tons of shirts and pants.

I then looked down at myself. I thought I looked alright. Albeit I only had on my white tank top and a pair of bell bottoms, but it would work for me. I shrugged it off. Getting on Finitevius' bad side was not high on the list of things I wanted to do at the present period.

I walked over to where Boomer was and stared intently at his back.

"So, what did they do to the moat?" I asked. He jumped a little, but turned around to face me with a grim look on his face.

"They made a hose spray me everytime I crossed," He shuddered. "I think that was the most I'd ever had to reboot myself…" He shuddered once more and then turned around.

"Charolette, please come over here." Called Patches from the other side of the room. I obliged and stood next to him. He handed me a couple pairs of pants and shirts. I took them. "Zese should do ze trick for you."

"Thanks." I said as I looked through them. I don't think I've ever seen colors quite like these. Insanely bright shades of reds, purples, and greens showed up quite often, as well as the normal shades of blues and yellows I was used to.

"Will zey be satisfactory?"

I nodded.

"They should be fine… Oh! Um, where can I sleep? Or will I have to stay in my hospital room?" I asked to him, but ended up being the rest of the room in general.

"Well, she could always stay in Alicia's room until she gets back." Boomer suggested.

"Or, we could set up one of the hundreds of other unused rooms in the castle instead of throwing ourselves in the line of fire of Alicia's wrath." Miles countered.

"Whatever makes the rest of your lives easier," Finitevius growled. "Make up a room for her, but please leave me alone if you're going to continue to talk that loudly."

Miles and Patches guided me towards the door when Finitevius called my name.

"Charolette. Tomorrow we'll begin to test you and the Chaos Energy, so make sure you get enough rest so you won't fall asleep. Also, we don't know if the energy will keep well in your body so we need to get the experiments done as quickly as possible."

"Gotcha." I answered. "Bye Boomer." Once more, he lifted a clawed hand up in my general direction.

I followed the other two down the hallway and then up a flight of stairs to a rather roomy hallway with absolutely no cobwebs in sight. The floors were covered in a red carpet with gold fringes and it seemed to go on forever.

"So, um, is Scourge really the King or something?" I asked hesitantly. I say 'hesitantly' because once more no one was talking.

"Yes, in a matter of speaking," Answered Patches.

"It all matters in who you speak to. To me, he's the only one who people will take orders from effectively." Said Miles.

"Then he isn't a King?"

"Well, he does have a crown, he just hasn't worn it in a while."

"Why?"

"It involved an incident that happened a few months ago. Scourge was humiliated by his double, and after we got him out of prison he vowed not to put it on until he could win."

"Zat eez why zeese experiments are being done, to make 'eem stronger." Added Patches. "Once he's beaten Sonic zen 'e will wear 'is crown once more."

"That and make an even bigger pain out of himself than he already is." Miles complained.

"I don't think Scourge is that bad." I said. "He was really nice to me."

"Oui. Zat eez because Scourge eez what one might call a 'womanizer'. 'e knows how to play a woman like a deck of cards."

I sighed to myself. Scourge never acted like a womanizer around me. In fact, he was always a gentleman towards me and my friends….

"I think this will do for you." Miles said as he pushed open a door in one of the side hallways. Dust fell into the empty space in between the frame and all three of us coughed. "We'll get someone to clean this. But, what do you think?"

I stepped in first and was greeted with a lovely site. To my immediate right was a large, wooden, four poster bed with a large fluffy looking mattress in the middle. On the next wall to it was a large dresser, and next to that, a large floor to ceiling mirror. Directly across from the bed was a large window with seats cut under it out of brick in a semi-circle shape, which took up the majority of that wall. The wall to my immediate left held only a door. The whole space was decorated in gorgeous red material. And on the floor was a large red and gold Persianesque carpet.

"It's absolutely amazing." I said as I looked around. "I honestly don't think I've ever seen anything so beautiful my entire life! Thank you!" With that I threw the clothes in my arms to the floor and leapt onto the mattress. And it was as fluffy as it looked.

As I laid on the bed, I heard their boots walk around the floor, doors being opened and closed, and soon enough… silence. I sighed once more and looked out to the window. It was nearing sunset now, and through the panes I saw bare skeleton trees which reflected the glow of the sun. I yawned, and only now did I realize how tired I was, even though I had slept for ten days in a row! I pulled back the great red covers and climbed into the crisp clean sheets, and once my head touched the pillows I was out.