A/N- Chapter 6! I wanna thank my friend Rainy for also looking over this chapter and fixing it a bit ilyyy.
this chapter is a bit on the sort side but yeea enjoy
Chapter 6: A Minutes Rest
"So, the night creatures are actually called Nightmares?" Keela asked as she strode through the grass.
"Yes…" Chip replied, flying closely behind her.
"It makes sense… but what I don't understand is why are they showing up now? I've never come across these creatures before. I bet they have to do with that Dark Gaia creature you mentioned before. Am I right?" Keela wondered, her tone finally returning to normal.
"You just answered your own question…" Chip stated quietly.
"Then let me ask another. Why is this Dark Gaia creature appearing now? What's so significant about this time?"
"Nothing." He answered bluntly.
"It just so happens that Dark Gaia is returning because of Iblis," Silver added, as he barely managed to keep up with Keela and Chip.
"That's impossible. Iblis was destroyed, according to the record books." Keela argued, giving a quick glance of disapproval to Silver. "There isn't any possible way that Iblis could be involved."
Silver's brows lowered and his expression darkened considerably.
"You obviously have the wrong facts about what happened to Iblis." Silver hissed, as he lengthened his strides to catch up to Keela. Chip slowly began to back off, knowing that a 'small' spat was about to occur.
"Excuse you, but who's the brighter one here?" Keela asked, turning to Silver as he caught up to her.
"Were you actually there witnessing the so called 'destruction' of Iblis?" Silver questioned, trying to ignore her pompous question.
"No, but I have read-"
"Well it certainly sucks for you." He interjected. "You have the wrong information."
"How dare you!" Keela bellowed, clenching her hands into fists. "How could you possibly know!?"
"I WAS THERE!" Silver shouted, glaring at Keela and clenching his teeth. Keela was going to respond but she stopped and stared at Silver in disbelief.
"What?" She muttered. "How could you have-"
"Iblis wasn't destroyed. There isn't any possible way to destroy Iblis! Oh but wait - you wouldn't know that, since you weren't living in the place where he ravaged the planet the most. The only way to truly defeat Iblis is placing him within a host," Silver hissed, his voice beginning to shake. "I think you should get a better record keeper."
Feeling that his point had been made, he turned his gaze forward.
"We should get to your town. The Nightmares could already be causing extensive damage," he then advised, avoiding looking in Keela's direction.
"Why are you changing the subject?" Keela spat back, becoming serious. "You haven't proven anything to me about Iblis-"
Chip flew in front of Keela and shook his head and hands in unison. "I would stop right there…he obviously doesn't want to go further into detail, but he is right."
"About what?" Keela questioned.
"About Iblis. You should believe him," Chip advised before lowering his hands and moving to fly next to Keela. She let out an annoyed huff, bringing her gaze downward to the grass.
"Fine. But I will be looking for an explanation of some sort later," She grumbled before striding after Silver.
'Why did we agree to bring her along in the first place?' Chip thought as he moved to catch up with the two of them.
"So, what exactly are we planning on doing once we get back to town?" Keela asked after a long period of tense silence. Silver was keeping his attention forward and didn't bother to answer the question, so the responsibility was placed to Chip.
"Well, without the temple to weaken the nightmares here, I believe that we'll have to fight most of the night to get rid of them all," He estimated.
"All night…wonderful," Keela muttered unenthusiastically.
Chip secretly felt the same way. He remembered back to staying up mostly every night with Sonic as they moved through the different continents, fighting nightmares and restoring Chaos Emeralds. Thinking back, Chip immediately had a thought to their current situation. He sped up his pace and flew next to Silver.
"You're going to have to learn how to fight." Chip stated bluntly. Silver quickly turned his attention away from the ground to Chip, causing him to stumble.
"You did say your telekinesis isn't working…but I suppose that makes sense since Sonic lost his speed when he transformed." Chip muttered. Silver just made a look of worry and concern.
"Chip, I don't know how-"
"Silver, I can't use my powers very well with the planet in this state. And I don't even know if Keela knows how to fight…" Chip said, whispering the last part. Keela made an annoyed sigh in response.
"Right now, you're the best hope that this town has." He admitted. "I would help but I'm unfortunately useless."
"As you keep saying," Silver grunted. "If this stupid bracelet hadn't affected me so much, I could fight easily."
"Fighting isn't that difficult." Chip said as he gave Silver a small smile of encouragement.
"You've already used that body to your advantage." Keela reminded Silver, a prominent sound of irritation in her voice. Silver was about to turn and give Keela a glare, but didn't when he realized she was right. "If you were able to get me out of that black goo, then I think you're able to fight off these Nightmares," she muttered, her opinion sounding forced.
"How do you-"
"Look, I've already lost a lot of people I care about. If you're going to be responsible for the people of my town tonight, you better be able to fight." Keela hissed. Silver wanted to retort but she did, yet again, have a point.
"I'll do my best." Silver replied confidently.
"And don't worry. Despite me having little to no power, I'll help out as much as possible!" Chip exclaimed. Silver grinned slightly and nodded in response.
"In fact, I think we're about to start fighting right now." He then muttered, his smile falling.
"Why?" Silver asked, his grin falling as well.
"Because the town is just up ahead - that's why." Keela told him, pointing to the small entrance next to the tavern.
"And I sense hundreds and hundreds of nightmares…"
"Hundreds!?" Keela exclaimed.
"Well what did you expect? The temple was eliminated!" Chip shouted. "Just be thankful there aren't thousands!"
Silver scrunched up his face in annoyance as he took a few steps away from the two of them. He looked toward the town, his ears twitching. He could hear the sounds of a large scuffle along with many people shouting and children screaming. Silver's brows lowered and his hands clenched tightly. His strong sense of justice was beginning to take over his unsure mindset about fighting in his current form. With his motivation high, he got down on all fours and began sprinting up the rest of the hill toward the town.
'Ready or not, I need to do this.' Silver thought as he reached the top of the hill and headed into town. As he disappeared through the entrance, Keela and Chip had finished their argument in agitated huffs.
"Whatever, we need to-" Chip began, but stopped when he noticed that Silver was nowhere to be seen.
"Where'd Silver go?" Keela asked, looking to Chip.
"He must've gone into town." He replied.
"Well what are we waiting for? An invitation?" Keela exclaimed before running up the hill to the town's entrance.
"Wait up!" Chip shouted as he flew after Keela.
"There's no way I'm waiting!" Keela replied as she sprinted inside the city limits. "If anything, you need to hurry up!"
Chip let out a short annoyed huff and flew quickly after Keela. Only seconds after entering into the town, Chip was bombarded with pulsing waves of Dark Gaia energy. He flinched slightly, mostly startled by the amount of energy, but realized that if nightmares were causing such a terrible amount of energy, Silver would most likely be fighting with no help at all. However, he still needed to support Silver. He began flittering and flapping his wings as hard as possible and moving forward to catch up with Keela, who had already run out of sight and into the dark.
Keela had only made it so far into town when she was stopped in her tracks by Nightmares jumping her out of nowhere. Still slightly shocked from what happened at the temple, her determination and strong composure subsided as the nightmares advanced towards her at top speed. Her heart began to race and her breath hitched, her nerves completely going out of whack.
'Move!' She screamed to herself, but her legs weren't particularly listening to what her mind had to say. Her eyes widened as the Nightmares lunged towards her, their shadowy claws outstretched. She stood frozen, waiting for the impact, but something caught her attention; the sound of rapid heavy footfalls. Keela remained stiff as Silver dive-bombed around the corner, his teeth barred and eyes narrowed in determination. He launched himself at the nightmares, tackling them down from the air and tearing through their bodies until they disappeared through a thick puff of smoke. As the smoke cleared, he immediately got back down on all fours and ran off in search of more nightmares, leaving Keela standing alone.
Relief was the first thing to flow throughout Keela's mind. She gave a shaky sigh as her body slowly released the tension.
'Was that really Silver…?' Keela thought looking to where the nightmares once stood. 'How in the world did he get so confident in the last few minutes?'
When they were traveling to the town it was clearly evident that Silver was nervous and a little unsure about fighting in his new condition. But now, from what Keela just witnessed, it seemed as if all his worries had flown right away and looked like he had been fighting in his new body his whole life. It was very perplexing and Keela couldn't wrap her head around how that was physically and mentally possible.
"Keela!"
Keela jumped slightly hearing Chip call to her. She slowly turned her head just as Chip stopped next to her.
"Sheesh. You run pretty fast, I practically lost you!" Chip exclaimed as he panted lightly.
"Sorry…" Keela replied, sounding mystified.
"What's wrong?" Chip asked, detecting the different tone in her voice.
"Silver."
"Silver?" Chip questioned, a little confused. "Did you see him?"
"He…he took down a group of nightmares without even taking a seconds rest. He did it so flawlessly too…it doesn't seem right," Keela whispered. Chip's brows lowered slightly as he listened to what Keela was saying.
"That might be because of his new form. I wouldn't be completely surprised if his personality alters from time to time." Chip admitted.
"But-"
"We can worry about that later," Chip interjected. "Right now we need to get the people in the safety of their own homes if some of them haven't made it already. It seems that Silver won't really be needing help fighting after all."
Keela remained silent for a moment but nodded eventually and followed Chip into town. However, she couldn't help but have Silver's actions stuck in her mind.
The time seemed to drag on and on for Chip and Keela as they moved throughout the town helping the townsfolk get safely to their homes. Silver, however, traversed about, attacking any nightmare that came into sight. Subconsciously he didn't have a clue what he was doing, and wondered exactly how he was able to move about so smoothly. But whatever force was allowing him to fight with ease, his mind and body decided to roll with it. It was somewhat strange really. He didn't exactly have much control over what he was doing; only having the determination to take down every nightmare within the town. This plan of action seemed to work though, since the numbers of Nightmares began to gradually decrease. By about 1:00AM, he had taken care of the last group of Nightmares. It seemed that they knew their invasion wasn't going anywhere, and decided to leave the town alone, not wanting any more of a hassle.
As the last nightmare disappeared in a puff of dark purple smoke, Silver's mind began to clear and come back into focus. His expression softened as he blinked a few times before looking around him.
'What just happened?' He thought, seeing the streets empty. Slightly confused, he stood up and began walking throughout the town looking for Chip and Keela, noticing that the two of them weren't with him.
"Chip? Keela?" Silver called. He waited to hear a response but silence only followed. He placed his large hands on his hips in thought as he looked around once again.
"Hmm…" Silver hummed quietly. 'Maybe they're still-'
Silver's thoughts were interrupted, as he heard the sound of running coming from behind him. His ear twitched as he turned in the direction of the runner. Could it be another Nightmare? Was is a frantic townsperson? Silver readied himself for whatever was coming, but stopped when he heard the light hum of tiny wings.
"Chip! Keela!" Silver called once again, hoping to receive a response this time.
"Silver!?" he heard Chip respond. Silver sighed in relief and started to run awkwardly in their direction. The three quickly met up on one of the smaller sidestreets.
"Silver! There you are!" Chip exclaimed as the three came in sight of each other. "Keela and I have been keeping an eye out for you this whole time. We honestly couldn't find you after you entered the town."
"Yeah…I couldn't really find myself either." Silver muttered quietly. "Anyway, it doesn't look like there are going to be any more nightmares."
"I'm not surprised." Keela said. "You practically took care of all of them."
"What? No, I only took care of a few…I think." Silver said, sounding unsure of himself. "I'm not exactly sure what happened, to be honest."
"Interesting…" Keela whispered, nodding slightly. She was silent for a few seconds before nodding again and looking at Silver and Chip.
"It looks like everything is going to be all right for the time being. I say we get some rest." She suggested.
Chip replied immediately. "I agree."
"Come on, I'll show you to my house. We can rest there," Keela said before turning the opposite direction and walking toward her house. Chip gave a quick glance to Silver before flying after her. He stood still for a moment in thought, but quickly came back to reality and followed Keela to her house.
The walk wasn't very long and they were at Keela's house in a matter of a few minutes. She brought the two of them in, and they all settled themselves down to rest. There was a small bit of conversation as they went over the game plan for the next day. Since the temple here was useless, they would need to make the people of the town aware that they needed to fight for themselves each night, before heading off to the next continent in search for a Chaos Emerald and the next temple. The closest continent was Spagonia, and by "close" it was really more like a many-day's journey from Angel Island. But transportation wasn't exactly up and running again, so they didn't exactly have much of a choice.
With a plan set, the exhausted trio drifted off into a very uneasy sleep, their minds going over the events of the day.
A/N- sorry this one was so short. ya next chapter comin soon