Chapter 13: The Dead City
--
Five figures stood on the smoldering remains of a hilltop, looking down at what was once a prominent and beautiful city; now it was a smoldering ruin, black and red clouds of despair constantly choking any life and hope out of the dead city. To say the least, the devastation that these five had seen in the former White Acropolis Base was mild compared to the apocalyptic wasteland this city now was.
"Man, I wonder what happened in the time we jumped through to cause this!" Sonic said wistfully, kicking a loose rock out of his way.
"I can assume that the Flames of Disaster were unleashed," Shadow said plainly.
Sonic looked at Shadow, and had to agree that was a valid assumption. He knew about the Flames of Disaster from the account Elise had told her.
"So, this is what Dr. Kintobor was after?" Sonic motioned to the dead city. "He just wanted to nuke the world?"
"I don't think it's that simple," Tails said. "He has a time machine after all; why waste that?"
"Tails is right," Shadow said. "The Flames of Disaster are just part of the equation of what Dr. Kintobor was after, but it could be determined that the Flames of Disaster were uncontrollable and therefore..." Shadow motioned to the city, saying no more.
"It has been roughly two-hundred years since the time we had been erased from," Rouge said. "If something happened and was over with, it would've been rebuilt long before now. I'm guessing something is still keeping the city this way."
"Or no one is around to rebuild because they're all dead," Knuckles said morbidly, which gave Tails the creeps.
"No," Sonic said suddenly. "I think people are still around..."
Knuckles looked at Sonic. "How can you be so sure?"
"Well, it's going to sound really strange, but I guess you'll guys see him sooner or later..."
Sonic launched into an account where he met Silver in Soleanna, emphasizing the fact that he claimed that he, Sonic, destroyed his future, judging from the fact he said "for the sake of the future." After finishing, everyone was silent for several seconds. All that could be heard was the fell wind blowing through the wasteland.
"Let me get this straight:" Knuckles began. "You met this psychokinetic white hedgehog guy who claims to be from the future, and he practically wants to hang you by your entrails because he thinks you did THIS!?" Knuckles motioned to the dead city below.
Sonic, blinking at Knuckles' choice of words, replied slowly with, "Ye-es, I guess you can say that."
"Well, I call bullcrap," Knuckles said. "He probably just hates your guts and is making up the excuse to nail you."
"I am not so sure," Shadow said. "If there was a time machine in the time we had left, it would not be illogical to assume that one could exist in this time."
Knuckles grunted, showing that Shadow's speculation was a just one, but his pride wasn't about to let him admit that.
"If that is true, we can search for it as well as the Chaos Emeralds," Tails said. "If we can't find one, we can find the other."
"Good thinking, Tails," Sonic said, flashing a thumbs-up. "Let's get cracking and find those Chaos Emeralds or a time machine. I can't stand the thought that the future looks like it. It flat out sucks!"
"So you've said before, good-looking," Rouge replied, a hint of veiled seductive nature bleeding out.
Sonic scratched the back of his head; a red tint was slowly appearing on his face and a bead of sweat appearing, while Tails was trying to keep a straight face. Both Knuckles and Shadow looked annoyed.
"All right, all right," Knuckles said, exasperated. "Let's get going."
After some further discussion, it was deemed best that the group would split into two: Shadow and Rouge in one; Sonic, Tails and Knuckles in another. Both teams remained together until they reached the outskirts of the city, where the troupe split.
"So, where should we look first?" Sonic said wistfully.
"Just start looking," Knuckles growled.
Sonic looked mischievous. "Gee, I heard that Snow White was missing one of her seven Dwarfs, and I think his name was Grumpy!"
Knuckles knew exactly what Sonic was implying and wasn't about to take it. He swung a wild fist at Sonic, but the hedgehog knew that he would do that and stepped aside out of reach. Tails stifled a laugh, and Knuckles grew more agitated.
"You think this is funny, Sonic?" Knuckles teeth were bared in agitation.
"No, they way you're overreacting is," Sonic said, smiling.
A growling sound from Knuckles; Sonic knew he was pushing Knuckles, but Sonic knew that the Echidna was a real hard-head and never learned how to chill, a polar opposite of Sonic, who himself possessed a short-temper, but seemed in a constant state of playfulness.
"I an NOT overreacting!" Knuckles exclaimed.
Tails thought this was a good time to back away; fights between Sonic and Knuckles were fantastic to watch and you never wanted to get too close as an innocent bystander.
"You're just making yourself look more ridiculous," Sonic said, grinning even more.
"Shut up!" Knuckles shouted. "I don't need you lip more then I need a tattoo! Now shut the hell up or I'm going to break that flapping jaw of yours, Sonic!"
Sonic wasn't showing any remorse. "Whatever."
Knuckles snorted loudly and walked on, eyes to the ground and face distorted by fury. Tails rejoined Sonic at his side. "Gee, Sonic, you really shouldn't make Knuckles so mad."
"What, and miss out on all the fun?" Sonic replied. "Although, he did have something going there..." Sonic rubbed a finger underneath his nose.
Tails blinked. "What? What did he say?"
"I don't think a tattoo would hurt him; might suit him..." Sonic snickered.
"Oh, brother..." Tails sighed.
Knuckles was quite a ways ahead now, so Sonic and Tails had to jog to catch up with him. When they had caught up with him, they could tell he was still venting. He really is quite a sorehead, Sonic thought. Inwardly, he was sorry that he made Knuckles so miserable, but his ego was snorting it off saying that Knuckles just gets mad, so Sonic kept quiet.
Something caught Sonic's eye ahead but to the right. It looked to be a red fiery glow, obscured by the mounds of rubble. What the heck? Sonic thought. Picking up the pace, he veered towards the right and began to scale the piles of rubble in his way.
"Sonic?" Tails said, noticing the hedgehog travelling of at a tangent.
Knuckles looked on wordlessly at Sonic, teeth and fists clenched. What is that punk up to now?
"Wow!" Sonic exclaimed. "Check this out!"
Tails snapped his two tails around and spun them like helicopter blades, lifting him off the ground. Drifting towards the hedgehog, he asked "What's up, Sonic?" just as he landed beside him.
Sonic pointed forwards, and Tails looked and saw what had caught Sonic's attention. "What...is that!?"
Knuckles, against his will, was bitten by curiosity and he soon found himself scrambling up the loose rubble to see what was so captivating. Once he saw it, he had to admit that it was truly awe-inspiring. A great distance away, there was a column of fire burning high, twisting around like a tornado. It was so tall that it towered even over the high buildings that were still standing. "What's that?" Knuckles said.
Sonic's gaze was fixed to the fire devil. "I haven't got a clue, but I intend to find out." Sonic leapt off of the pile of rubble to the broken pavement below.
"Sonic!" Tails cried after him. "What about finding a way back?"
"Tails is right," Knuckles said matter-of-factly. "We have to keep searching for the Chaos Emeralds!"
"I know," Sonic said, not at all distracted. "But I want to know what that is."
"Sonic, don't you even care that we're stranded in time!?" Knuckles exclaimed.
"Of course I am!" Sonic shouted back. "I'm just not making a big deal about it!"
"It IS a big deal!"
"That's what you think," Sonic said. "There really isn't any hurry."
"And what do you mean by that?" Knuckles said, trying to control his building rage.
"When we make the rift, we can jump to whatever time we want. We could even reappear in the good old doctor's base literally a few minutes after he sent us here. Now that would be a kick!"
Knuckles was fuming. "You know what the problem with you is?"
Sonic's crossed his arms, pretending to look agitated. "What?"
"Your priorities are screwed up, that's WHAT! Everything is a game to you! Can't you take something seriously for ONCE IN YOUR LIFE!?" Knuckles said, building ferocity in his voice as he said these words. Crying out in pure agitation, Knuckles stormed off, punching a ruined wall as he past. Sonic and Tails watched as it collapsed in a cloud of dust.
Tails looked at Sonic, almost disapprovingly.
"What?" Sonic said.
"Sonic, can't we just forget about that and find the Chaos Emeralds?"
"It's okay, Tails," Sonic said. "Trust me. We'll get back right as rain soon enough. There's something about that fire twister thing that is getting me, and I intend to find out what the heck it is and what I should do about it."
Tails just sighed.
"C'mon, buddy. I'm not asking you to come with me, you know..."
"You're not?"
"No! You're old enough to make your own decisions. I'll be going to check this thing out because I want to. I'm not going to drag you along if you don't want to..."
Tails blinked. Sonic wasn't treating him like a kid, even though he was only fourteen years old.
"Well, I'd like to go with you Sonic, but I keep feeling that I really should keep looking for the Chaos Emeralds."
Sonic looked at Tails for a brief second, and then shrugged. "Your call. Happy hunting, Tails!" Sonic turned right around and dashed away in a blue blur. Tails looked on after him, wincing at a twinge of guilt that was poking him after he turned Sonic down. Sonic had said he should make his own decision, and that he would respect his decision. Sonic seemed to be easy about it, though.
"Be careful, Sonic..." Tails said. The fox then looked for Knuckles, found him about fifty yards away, and flew after him. Tails hoped Knuckles won't take his angry out on him you could never know.
As for Sonic, he would soon realize that it was probably a good thing that Tails decided not to come with him.
- - - - -
Shadow and Rouge were digging through the remains of what might have been an office building, judging only by the fact it was a tall skyscraper and that the room layout on each floor was dictated by repetition of design and layout. They weren't interested in that however; Rouge had detected either a Chaos Emerald or a Talisman of Essence deep within the bowels of this ruined building. Neither knew how structurally sound the building was, but if it held for over two-hundred years, it could probably hold for more.
The hard part was determining the exact level that the Chaos Emerald was located. Rouge's Chaos Emerald tracker could detect a Chaos Emerald on a two-dimensional planar representation to the utmost precision on the X and Y axes, but when it came to the depth on a three-dimensional space (Z-axis), it was no help. The best way to rectify the disadvantage was, by trial and error, to plainly explore each floor until they would happen to encounter it. This was easier said then done as they had soon found out; whatever calamity befell this city made huge messes, and a lot of the stairwells leading from floor to floor were next to useless as large chunks were missing from it, making conventional passage impossible.
If they were not certain that the Chaos Emerald was here, they likely would have given up by now, but Rouge's tracker hasn't ever lied or been mistaken, so it's somewhere in this building. They would find it...one way or another.
"Shadow," Rouge said.
"What is it?" He answered in his usual quiet and oily voice.
"You mentioned that the Flames of Disaster might be responsible for what made this time the way it is," Rouge began. "Do you know what the Flames of Disaster are?"
Shadow closed his eyes and paused, considering a response. "Vaguely. In their religious texts that I had encountered on, the Flames of Disaster were simply described as the fury of Solaris, their sun god. I can't say I believe in that dogma, but Dr. Kintobor sees that it is real and seeking to utilize that power." Shadow again close his eyes and crossed his arms. "I don't believe that they are from a god though."
"Do you believe in God, Shadow?" Rouge asked. It wasn't a serious question; she just wanted to keep Shadow talking. He talks far too little due to his brooding.
"Ping the Chaos Emerald," Shadow said, ignoring the question.
Rouge batted her eyes at Shadow's quick answer, but looked at her tracker just the same. Walking to where it pointed, she made a quick look around. "Not on this floor."
"Very well, we'll proceed to the next floor."
You're not getting out of this one, Shadow, Rouge thought. "So, do you?"
"Do I what?"
Rouge pretended to look annoyed. "Believe in God?"
"Why?"
Rouge shrugged. "Just curious. You don't really talk about anything."
Shadow snorted. "No. I don't."
Rouge didn't seem to care. "Well, I do, but he doesn't do a thing for us now. We can take care of ourselves, so we don't need him."
Shadow didn't answer. It was no sense in replying, as his atheistic view and Rouge's agnostic view were virtually the same. "This is pointless," said Shadow finally. "We need to find that Chaos Emerald."
"Ok, handsome," Rouge said, dropping the subject at once.
Neither said anything for two more floors, when they finally hit pay dirt. The tracker wasn't even necessary as what they were seeking was lying in plain sight, glowing a steady bright green.
"Ah! A Chaos Emerald!" Rouge said, fluttering ahead of Shadow and scooped it up, admiring its chartreuse glow.
Shadow tromped up behind her and was looking around. They have their Chaos Emerald now so there was no point in staying.
Rouge's ears suddenly perked. Shadow saw this and tensed. Being a bat, Rouge had an uncanny sense of hearing, and could hear the faintest of sounds that could not be detected by many other creatures. Shadow's own ears perked, searching for any detection of a noisy disturbance. His alertness was so peaked that he even noticed that a small seemingly-insignificant piece of rubble drop from the ceiling and bounce along the ground. Cursing, he grabbed Rouge and snatched at it before Rouge was able to protest.
"Chaos Control!"
Shadow and Rouge reappeared outside the building, and both could hear a rumbling noise coming from the building. It was on the verge of complete collapse. Grasping the Emerald again, Shadow Chaos Controlled farther away to steer clear of the backwash of debris that would arise as the building fell. Now about three hundred feet away, they watched in hypnotized horror as the building collapsed from top to bottom. The metal beams, weak from extended exposure to the harsh elements folded like an accordion, and the momentum of this movement brought the top-weight of the building to crash down upon it. It was a true sight to behold, watching as the top collapse straight down and in, while the bottom blew outwards. Despite the chaos, it was truly orderly.
"I wonder what made it collapse," Rouge said.
"Something must have disturbed the infrastructure of the building," Shadow started, his voice rising slightly in alert. "But in order for it to collapse like that, something would either have to have smashing into it from the top or from the side at just the right velocity." Shadow was good at general instant calculations, so a quick physics question was second nature to him. "But what...and who?"
Rouge said nothing. She had no idea. "Well, at least we found the Chaos Emerald." She reached out to take it from Shadow, but the black hedgehog held it out of reach.
"I can hold this just as easily as you," Shadow said, ears flattening.
Rouge narrowed her eyes at Shadow. If there was one thing she liked, it was holding a precious gem in her hands, especially a Chaos Emerald. She was robbed of this now, and it agitated her.
A noise of motion rumbled through the ruin, causing Shadow and Rouge to turn quickly towards the sound. Whatever made the noise was hidden from view by mounds of rubble.
Instinctively and automatically on guard, Shadow stalked forwards slowly and carefully, as if each step would make the ground give way underneath him; he clutched the Chaos Emerald, fingers like talons. The Chaos Emerald started to glow hotter, somehow sensing Shadow's alertness; if he needed it, it would comply with his wishes.
Rouge's wings unfolded slightly, ready for a quick flight if necessary. She would fly away a distance, but she would be ready if Shadow needed the assistance.
More movement. Shadow tensed and Rouge froze. Both soon received a strange impression that whoever was making that noise was trying to remain hidden but was struggling. Shadow moved ever so slower, clutching the Chaos Emerald within his hand ever so tightly. A large piece of broken concrete, wedged upwards like a wall, stood as a grim barrier between Shadow and whatever was stirring.
Shadow followed the wall, his free hand sliding against the wall. There was no more noise of motion from the mysterious being. Ironically, that made Shadow nervous. Now hugging the wall, he walked sideways along it, his fingers snaking along the wall like millipedes on the run. Eventually, he reached the end of the cement pavement-wall. Here, he halted and considered his options. He could wait here and wait for this mystery person to come out on his own, or he could he could peer around the corner to see if a glance could determine if it was a friend or foe...or he could leap out and face the mystery person full front. That one seemed to appeal to Shadow the most, although to most creatures, that was a foolhardy action...but Shadow lived to defy foolhardy.
Rouge didn't know what Shadow was thinking at first, but got a really big hint as Shadow seemed to crouch just a hair lower then usual. Rouge had seen him in that posture before; it was his pre-attack signal.
Shadow braced himself for the leap, grasped the Emerald tighter, and counted in his head to three. Then, like a ghost, Shadow leapt clear around the wall, turned a rough one-hundred and eighty degrees and landed in a crouch. He found himself looking down a barrel of a firearm, judging by the build, a shotgun, a lethal weapon at close range.
The bearer of the firearm was a sight to be seen for sure. Despite his dirty complexion, Shadow could tell it was a human, and judging by the sorry state he was in, he had seen a lot of action.
For several seconds, Shadow and the gun-bared human had a standoff; neither didn't want to make any sudden moves, otherwise he might provoke an unnecessary attack from the other. Shadow was studying the human, eyes slowly travelling from the tip of the barrel, stopping at the hand bearing the gun, fingers lacing around the trigger. One hand? The weapon being a shotgun, holding one with one hand ready at the trigger takes an incredible amount of strength due to their kick-back. Shadow knew only one person who could do that.
Suddenly, Shadow's eyes darted to meet the human's eyes. They were venom-yellow. Just as quickly, the hedgehog's eyes darted to one of the human's arms. Half of it was made of metal, heavily tarnished from much use.
"Viper?" Shadow said in half-shock. What had happened to his man?
The human's yellow eyes flashed in what the black hedgehog had learned to be a great shock, as if he just saw someone that he had known to be dead for years upon years, and now he's seeing him in the flesh, breathing and talking. "Shadow!" the human said, his voice in a broken hiss. He must not have had water recently, and was suffering from mild dehydration. "How the hell did you get out?"
Shadow blinked. Get out of what?
Rouge, who was still on the blind side of the wall, had not seen what was going on. Curiosity got the better of the white bat and she walked around the wall, surmising that Shadow had not met anything harmful. "Shadow, what's going--" Rouge's words died on her lips as she saw the human.
If the human's shock of seeing Shadow was apparent enough, seeing Rouge was an even bigger shock to say the least, for it was as obvious as neon lights shimmering on a starless midnight; almost as quickly, the surprise faded to confusion. The human's eyes darted from Rouge, then Shadow, then back again. "What the hell is--" the human, dubbed Viper, caught his tongue, as if something dawned on him. "You're from the past..."
Shadow relaxed his posture, crossing his arms. "I see your reasoning has not diminished," Shadow breathed, then said matter-of-factly, "You've been surviving in this for nearly two-hundred years."
Viper coughed. "Damn straight I have."
Rouge was still in shock of seeing Viper, apparently now over two-hundred years old, but in his current look, despite all the wear and tear of exile, he appeared to be at least thirty. The white bat inspected the human from where he stood, and could see that he definitely had seen extensive sufferable conditions to say the least. Viper's eyes still gleamed with the same venom-like gold color and still seemed to pierce past normal vision as before, but everything else about him was alien. Viper's usual dark-brown (almost black) hair was bleached to a sandy color, but specks of darker hair were visible underneath. Stubble laced down his jaw-line, splitting near the chin to continue under and over the mouth. Viper never let facial hair grow, so seeing it on him was a shock. His left arm (half-metal) was usually covered on a thick leather oversized glove, but this was gone (lost?), so the arm was now exposed to the elements and it showed extended tarnish, dirt and dust were caught in the crevices. His clothing was torn from heavy battle and his flesh (whatever shown) was matted with ash, dirt and occasionally clotted gashes and cuts that need two-digit amounts of stitches. His weapons, although also matted with ash and dust, were in better condition then their wielder.
Viper's eyes once again danced back and forth from Shadow and Rouge. "Dare I ask how you two got stranded in hell?"
Shadow nodded first, and then answered. "We met a character named Mephiles and he sent us through a spatial rift, and we came to in the ruins of the Doctor's White Acropolis Base."
At the mention of Mephiles, Viper's eyes went distant for the briefest of seconds, as if seeing something in his mind.
"He says he knows me," Shadow said. "Do you know him?"
Viper regarded Shadow. In front of him was a shade of the amnesiac hedgehog that he had tracked and fought during the Black Arm Invasion so long ago (to him), overshadowed by Shadow himself. Viper wondered at the wisdom of saying what he knew, despite not having all the answers.
"I haven't heard of anyone by that name..." Viper said, not willing to say any more.
"Viper..." Rouge started, and she was met with an icy look. Apparently his disdain for Rouge had not died despite two-hundred years. Rouge wasn't deterred. "...what had happened to this place."
Viper exhaled, almost coughing. "What happened? The Flames of Disaster happened, that's what happened. The Princess of Soleanna was killed, although I don't know how, and it pissed off Solaris. You can basically the whole planet was nuked. And that's not all. To make sure none of us pick up the pieces and live, he unleashed a bastard demon from hell...Iblis."
Shadow and Rouge looked at each other. The Princess was killed?
"The only reason why there are some of us still alive is because we can put down Iblis...for a time. This we have done over and over. We had hoped to find a way to destroy him once and for all, but as far as I know, there is no way." Viper coughed again.
"We are looking for the Chaos Emeralds," Shadow said, changing the subject. "With them, we can probably get back to our own time. Have you per chance found any?"
Viper shook his head. "The only one I've seen is that one you've carried. I had wondered if they were still around..."
"Hey," Rouge said suddenly. "What's that?" She pointed towards a glow in the sky.
Shadow looked to where Rouge was pointed. Sure enough, there was a strange glow that seemed to twist and churn. The view obscured the source of the light, so Shadow and Rouge climbed a rubble pile to see what it could be. When they saw it, Rouge gasped and Shadow froze. It was a churning whirlwind of fire, sweeping up debris and tossing it out like rag dolls.
The black hedgehog snapped out of his stupor and looked at the tattered human, who had not moved. "Viper, what is that? You know what it is..."
"I'd be damned if I didn't," Viper said. "That..." Viper motioned with a wave of his hand in the glow's general direction. "...is the cause of all of our problems. That...is Iblis. If he's in that whirlwind form, he's not yet complete yet. His real form is butt-ugly."
Shadow and Rouge looked at each other, and then back at the flaming whirlwind. That was the Flames of Disaster, in its raw form. The supernatural destruction of this world...it was truly awe-inspiring.
Both Shadow's and Rouge's communicators chirped in unison, startling both of them. Who'd be calling them in a place like this? Rouge answered hers, and Shadow just ignored his. "Yes, this is Rouge..."
"Rouge, it's Tails. We didn't find a Chaos Emerald yet, but we found...something."
Rouge battered her eyes, half at Tails' mysterious report and half at Tails being able to contact her when he didn't know her frequency code. "What is it?"
"I don't know how to describe it fully...but it's this big gate. It's marked all over with these weird symbols. It's way to the north of the city. I wouldn't bug you about this, but with my Chaos Emerald tracker, I detected a Chaos Emerald somewhere beyond it..."
"Ah, I see now," Rouge said. "Okay, then. We'll be right over. Out."
Rouge turned off her communicator, and turned to Shadow. "Have they found one?"
"Yes...and no..."
Shadow's ears laid back in an annoyed manner. Viper was inclined to feel the same.
"I mean that they have found one, but it is beyond a gate that they can't open. They need our help."
"Right..." Shadow said.
"Go on ahead," Viper said. Both Shadow and Rouge looked at him. "I won't be of any use, plus once you get that Chaos Emerald, you're going to try to get back into the past."
Neither Shadow or Rouge said anything.
"You can do this on your own, but promise me this:" Viper said, leaning forward slightly. "Once you get back, do not allow anything to happen to the Princess. If you don't, this hell won't exist. Promise me that."
Shadow blinked. Viper had never asked him to make a promise like that, but looking at his desperate state, Shadow could understand where he stood. "Understood. I won't allow the Flames of Disaster to happen, and let you or anyone else have to deal with that demon." Turning to Rouge, he said, "Let's go."
Shadow took Rouge's hand and teleported away. Viper was left looking at the spot where they were.
"Shadow, you don't fully understand," Viper said in a dry whisper. "I didn't want you to make that promise for me." A pause. "I wanted you to promise it for you. You'll suffer worse then any of us will if the Flames of Disaster are unleashed..." Viper blinked away his suddenly watering eyes. "I'm sorry...that it had to happen."
- - - - -
Sonic leapt over mounds of rubble doing two-hundred. The city was a warzone of torn up pavement and piles of rubble crusted with concrete, stone and glass. Traveling at high speeds was a dangerous agenda, but Sonic had convinced himself that it couldn't have been anything worse then running through the Final Egg base with all its mazes and traps, just before all hell broke loose in the form of Perfect Chaos.
Screeching to a stop, the blue hedgehog took a good look around the desolate landscape. He thought he heard something. "Hello?" Sonic looked around again. Someone...or something was around here. "Hey, who are you? I won't hurt you!"
Almost immediately, as if on cue, something pounced at Sonic from his right side. Instinctively, he left away from his assailant and spun around. "I take it back..."
What Sonic found himself looking at both shocked and amazed him: it was some kind of lizard creature; it reminded Sonic of a gecko by the way it gripped the ground it walked on. Its insides seemed to be on fire as a fiery-red light leaked through its ash-colored flesh. It was some kind of lesser demon.
"Heh," Sonic said. "Some sort of demon, huh? That's new..."
In response, the demon lizard growled and opened its maw and breathed out a jet of flame. It didn't reach far, and Sonic took it as a show of aggression.
"So, you lookin' to play, huh?" Sonic grinned with a cocky smirk. "Ok, I guess I got time to kill..."
The lesser demon pounced at Sonic again, but Sonic was already on the move. He leaped at the demon, curling into a ball of deadly spines. They met in the air, and the demon screeched a most horrifying scream, and then expired in an explosion of fire and ash. Sonic landed on his feet, coughing as he inhaled some of the scratchy ash. He looked behind him where he had destroyed the lesser demon. "That's it?" he said, observing the cloud of ash and fiery sparks fluttered to the pavement. Finally, with a shrug, he said, "That was a letdown. I was kinda hoping for more then a couple of sparks."
More growling sounds floated towards him like a seeping mist, causing Sonic to spin around, every inch the expecting warrior. There were probably one or two dozen more of the lesser demon lizard things moving towards him. Sonic crossed his arms and watched them advance; they must've heard the commotion and came to investigate.
Sonic chuckled, the kind he chuckled every time he met a foe that the hedgehog knew he could whip with two hands tied behind his back. "Well, here comes the welcoming committee."
A little over two minutes later, Sonic left the scene coated in ash and sneezed from all the ash in the air. "Sorry to wreck the party, dudes, but I gotta split!" he called back towards the area where he had taken out the lesser demons. Shaking a modest could of ash out of his spines, he continued towards the growing whirlwind of flames.
As he progressed, he soon saw the earth grow more and more broken, as if there was a major earthquake that nearly shattered the planet. Also, the buildings here were much more broken apart, and he soon saw ahead that the buildings were practically leveled and wiped away, as if somebody ripped them out of the ground and dragged them off, like lumberjacks in a forest. The air was also growing hotter, and Sonic felt a trickle of sweat was dripping down the hedgehog's face as he ventured.
"Whew, is that fire tornado that hot?" Sonic thought out loud, wiping gathering sweat from his brow.
A hiss of steam on the hedgehog's general left startled Sonic, and he turned to see a white jet of steam spurt out of the ground from a crack and fade. Sonic stared at it, when it finally dawned on him where the heat was actually coming from...he was standing in a volcanic wasteland! The last time he traversed a volcanic wasteland in the Red Mountain and Fire Lake Wildernesses, he was nearly well done by a volcanic eruption that happened while he was inside the cone of the volcano. It wasn't one of his fondest memories.
As the anxiety of past horrors arose, he quickly suppressed them as he reasoned that this wasn't an actual volcano/ In addition, he sort of caused the last experience as he was dumb enough to crawl inside a cavern that lead into the core of the volcano.
"Just don't do something stupid like that, and you'll be okay. If there's no volcano, there shouldn't be a problem. How bad could it be?"
Very bad as he would soon find out for himself.
He continued towards the ever-growing whirlwind of fire, and a fell wind was increasing. A flicker of apprehension sparked in Sonic's conscience, thinking that it was probably not a good idea to go on, but Sonic's ego was curious and wasn't about to leave until it was satisfied.
He soon came upon a high rocky outcrop of what remained of the pavement. To get up to it, Sonic had to climb up rubble to see ahead and his vision was now obscured. Climbing up and earning minor scrapes from the rough pavement, he clambered onto the ledge and lay there a moment to catch his breath (it was a rough climb after all). After about a minute, he dared to stand up and looked around.
"Holy moley!" Sonic exclaimed.
The choice exclamation came for a very good reason. Sonic had wondered onto a rocky ledge that stretched over one of the biggest lava lakes he had ever seen. The air was stifling from the heat given off from the near two-thousand degree lava hundreds of feet below. Sonic dared to look down and wished he hadn't. He was never one for acrophobia, but somehow standing over a lava pit was more then enough to justify a sudden attack of it. The lava was red and orange, mixed with black specks. The lava boiled from underneath and Sonic could definitely hear the sick slurping of lava flowing. The air was filled with a constant rumbling, as if the earth was about to blow. In the center of this lava lake was the tornado of flames.
"Man, oh, man. Tails, Knuckles, you have no idea what you're missing..." Sonic breathed.
He glanced downwards again at an angle towards the lava lake, and soon noticed something about the lava. It was moving, ever so slightly, towards the tornado. The only way he could really tell was by the black speckles that dotted much of the surface of the lava. Could it be? Is that tornado made not of fire, but of lava?
He didn't have time to think about that, for something changed. The whirlwind of lava soon collapsed on itself into a thickening dome of molten rock. Sonic watched in hypnotized horror, but not from the display itself...was something moving inside of it?
An explosion of fire and lava shot lethal missiles and bombs of lava thousands of feet into the air. Sonic flinched at the sound of the explosion and the idea of giant drips of lava falling on his head. For a quick second, he looked upwards to see the glowing specks of lava shining like dim stars fade into nothingness as they cooled. A flash brought his attention to the lava dome again, only to find it gone. In its place was the biggest, and most certainly the ugliest thing that Sonic had ever seen. It towered above Sonic, and the hedgehog thought that it could easily rival Perfect Chaos. It had four monstrous arms, ending with a clawed four-fingered hand. It possessed the same glowing flesh muddied with grey and black ash that the lesser demons Sonic had defeated possessed. This thing was a demon as well, but not a lesser; a demon lord was what it was.
Sonic audibly gulped. He had never seen demons before, and figured that it was something he could have very well lived without seeing. He couldn't wrench his eyes from it, nor could persuade his petrified legs to move. He was frozen in awe and terror of this supernatural being of darkness.
The demon seemed not to notice Sonic's very existence, and even turned its back on him, and began to walk away. Sonic felt the muscles in his legs loosen up, and felt a fresh blanket of sweat settle on his back. All the tension came out one huge sign of relief. Sonic thought he would have to battle this thing, and he wasn't so sure he could without going Super or Hyper. With the Chaos Emeralds missing, and his Super Emerald Belt lifeless (because of the fact they were in a different world and the Super Emeralds in Hidden Palace couldn't power the miniatures), he was sure that any attack otherwise was as fruitful as leaping out of an airplane without a parachute.
The adrenaline slowly washing out of his veins, he watched on as the demon waded through the lava like water further and further away from him. As he watched the demon go, something flashed to his mind. Before Tails, Knuckles and he started looking for a Chaos Emerald, Shadow had made the surmise that this time was caused by the Flames of Disaster. Could this demon be the embodiment of the Flames of Disaster? There was no solid proof; this is just mere speculation. Still, it was too much for Sonic to it being all just a coincidence. It was enough for him.
Something clicked in his head. The reason why Sonic had heard about the Flames of Disaster was because he asked Elise about it...because Dr. Kintobor said he was after it. Whether this future was intent or no, for it did not matter; Sonic knew that madman must not get his hands on the Flames. He had to get back into the present and stop him once and for all...but how?
He looked at the demon again which was by now roughly on the opposite side of the lava lake now, when he saw that it seemed to be fighting. It was swinging its arms around and occasionally spouting out breath of fire.
"Huh?" Sonic thought aloud. "What's up over there?"
Resisting curiosity has never been one of Sonic's strong points as was aptly demonstrated earlier back with Tails and Knuckles, so when the idea of going to find out what was up had flickered in his brain, it was not doused by reason. Sonic hopped down off the ledge onto the pavement below and took off at a flat run around the circumference of the lava lake, going as fast as he dared--a little under a hundred--because of the presence of steam vents hot enough to melt flesh right off the bone.
When he arrived, he couldn't believe his eyes. Two figures were fighting the demon practically hand to hand. There was a purple, almost lilac-colored, cat that seemed once in a while to catch on fire. At first Sonic thought she gut hit by the demon with his fire, but the flames on her extinguished just as quickly as they appeared. A pyrokinetic, one that can control the flames of fire.
The other person Sonic knew all too well and Sonic felt he had to pick up his jaw when he saw who it was. A white hedgehog with a tuff of hair on his forehead that reminded Sonic of a cockatoo.
Silver.
Sonic watched as the hedgehog he identified as Silver used some weird telekinetic power that the blue hedgehog had become all too acquainted with to throw just about anything within reach: metal beams, boulders, even the demon's own fireballs. Sonic watched in hypnotized horror as both attacked the demon with such a ferocity that Knuckles would be jealous. He even saw that the cat had the stones to take the fight personal when she leaped up into the demon's face and pounded with sharp and fiery attack, shattering its ash-colored armor.
"Wow, that's just crazy! These two have more guts then I do, I'll give them that."
Sonic found that he respected Silver just a little bit more for trying to stop a demon like this, although he still thought facing a demon period was without question lunacy. He felt inclined to help them, but he didn't think he could do much since he was limited to melee attacks, and that was out of the question. Going in like that cat did was for him suicidal.
He flinched as he saw the beast's helmet break off its head with a crack, and it seem enraged. Sonic felt the impulse to look away; Silver and that cat had to be toast now...
He heard a voice, a deep and menacing voice, and he turned...just in time to see the demon toasted with some waves of energy. Sonic couldn't even think what in the world it was, but it must have been powerful. The demon wilted under the punishment and turned into ash, drifting upwards into the atmosphere because of the rising heat.
"As if the air didn't have enough ash already..." Sonic said, smirking. He then looked at the new stranger and froze. It was a black hedgehog with twisted spines. "Shadow? What the heck do you think you're doing!? Wait..." Sonic held his tongue. There was something about that black hedgehog that wasn't quite right. Then he saw it. This hedgehog, although physically resembling Shadow, he was all...wrong. Instead of red, there was an indigo-cobalt color on his spines. His movements were too fluid, too correct, as if Sonic was watching a computer animated image. He couldn't see his eyes, but Sonic had the feeling they weren't red. Even the shoes had that dark indigo-color instead of the red. He looked like a Shadow re-colored.
Sonic's ears perked to see if he could pick up any conversation whatsoever. It just might prove useful.
Silver, the white hedgehog was speaking, and he sounded and appeared irritated. "Are you saying we should just give up? Let him kill off all of us!?"
The cat spoke next, a higher voice but had some power behind it. It was reproaching the Silver. "Calm down, Silver...let him finish..."
"If you intend to keep fighting this way...yes." said this Shadow-clone. Sonic also noticed the voice was a lot harsher then Shadow's oily voice.
"I wonder why that is," Sonic thought aloud quietly; he didn't want to get spotted.
The black hedgehog continued. "Eventually, he would get so strong that nothing you could do could stop him. You would just perish in flames."
"Then tell us what we should do!" Silver blurted out again, pounding the side of a ruined pillar in frustration. "How can we completely destroy Iblis!?"
The cat crossed her arms and turned away. Sonic got the idea that they've been fighting this thing for a long time.
"By knowing the truth, Silver, of course..." said the black hedgehog.
This must've interested the white hedgehog, for he looked up, regarding the shadowy stranger. Sonic too was all ears. "Finally, something interesting..."
"Such as grass comes from seeds, or a baby bird from its egg, everything that walks the earth has an origin. It is needless to say that Iblis cannot be stopped by normal conventional means now; however, if the chain of events that awoke Iblis was broken before they have finished, Iblis would not exist. The chain must be broken to stop Iblis, and the destruction of this world." The hedgehog waved to the mayhem around.
"Chain broken? What does that mean?" Sonic thought. "Stop speaking in riddles, you cloned jerk."
"Is that all we have to do?" Silver said eagerly. "Do you know how we can do it?"
The black hedgehog did a ghost of a nod. "Come with me; there is more to see before the task..."
The shadow leapt over the ruins as if he was light as a feather. Silver and that cat gazed at each other, and the latter ghosted after him. Silver paused for a half-second, then followed to.
"Now that was interesting. Just what did that guy mean? The chain of events..." Sonic said to himself. He found it helpful if he heard himself speak, plus you didn't look crazy if you were alone. "Sounds like I should find out exactly what this is all about. Whatever it is, it should be interesting..."
Sonic didn't think about it. He looked after where the three had gone, and then followed himself. He was going to find out what was going on one way or another.
