Waves of Darkness: Chapter 2. - The Mysterious Gem
"NOOOOOOO!" a voice screamed, falling from the skies. At a cliff in a place known as Windmill Isle, a whaling scream from a figure falling from the sky comes crashing down onto the ground with a huge, "Thud!"
Specs of dirt where flung into the air as the figure shown had its head stuck into the ground while holding its body up. The blue figure's feet fell to the ground as he started using his strength to pull his head out of the ground. With one last push, the blue hedgehog got his head out of the ground and balanced on his feet before holding his head.
"Owww…" Sonic groaned before looking at his surroundings to find himself in Windmill Isle.
Sonic then started looking at his surroundings before spotting a limp figure on the ground unconscious. The hedgehog was about to go to his friend but the figure disappeared into thin air, leaving behind what was his supposed necklace. Sonic went to the relic and picked it up off the ground before hearing a voice.
"I'll never forget you," Chip's voice sounded in Sonic's head as the hedgehog looked down at the relic, surprised to hear his friend, "I'll be here by you, always," Chip whispered as Sonic looked out into the distance, "a part of the earth you tread."
Sonic confirmed it was indeed his friend talking to him through the ancient relic as he put it on his wrist by pushing his hand through the circle opening. The hedgehog then walked up closer to the cliff as Sonic watched the sunrise, reminding him of how he and Chip first met. Sonic inhaled the fresh air surrounding him before running off, deeper into the parts of Windmill Isle.
A sound like an engine was heard as a red coloured biplane came into view and flying next to Sonic who was running by the cliff.
"Hey, Sonic!" a familiar yellow fox called out from the biplane's driver seat and waved to the blue hedgehog.
Sonic looked up and saw his best friend Tails waving at him from the biplane known as the Tornado, "Hey Tails! Race you to the village!"
"Alright! Let's go!" Tails called out while driving the Tornado at a faster speed.
Although the Tornado can't go as fast as Sonic, Tails still goes up to the challenge because he loves to spend time with his best friend. Sonic was running at what seemed to him a jogging speed since the Tornado couldn't go as fast and if it went full speed for a period of time then it would lose power.
As the two were traveling, Sonic spun around and started running backwards and looked up at Tails while he spoke, "Hey Tails! Once we get to the village, what do you want to do then?"
Tails had a look of thought before looking over briefly at the Tornado's side, there was some damage to the side of the biplane. During their previous adventure, Tails had lost control of the Tornado and crashed, it was still working but some things need to be fixed. The damage wasn't huge but a dent like that needed some repairing, in Tails' opinion of course. Although there were some upgrades that the fox had in mind for the biplane.
"Well… the Tornado needs a few repairs and I want to add some upgrades to it. But I need to go to my workshop in the Mystic Ruins so…" Tails said with uncertainty in his voice, as if unsure on Sonic's answer.
"Great! Let's go then!" Sonic replied before jumping onto the back of the Tornado, where he used to stand on their previous adventure around the world.
Tails nodded, "OK! Off to the Mystic Ruins!"
The Tornado then started rising higher into the sky and picked up on speed. A tracking map was displayed on Tails' device called the Miles Electric which pinpointed the location of his workshop in the Mystic Ruins. He used that map to go around the world as well.
Tails smiled at the fact that he and his "big brother" was going to be spending time together. It had been a while since he and Sonic had spent time together, just do the two of them. The last adventure, Tails had briefly helped Sonic by taking him and his friend Chip around the world to restore the planet and the Chaos Emeralds to save the world from the wrath of Dark Gaia. Not only did Sonic have Chip with him, the hedgehog had gained a new transformation dubbed the "Werehog" since he would only transform at night and he was very strong and more independent, so he hardly needed help.
However, the last few months Sonic had spent limited time with Tails and it bothered him to not see his "brother". Now Tails could finally spend time with Sonic, just the fox and hedgehog spending their time together. Hopefully for a long time before danger strikes again, especially from a certain scientist who just never gives up on world domination.
After a few long hours, much to Sonic's dislike, the pair had arrived to the Mystic Ruins where Tails' Workshop and home was located. Mystic Ruins is a swampy, overgrown rainforest where some railways are built for trains since archaeologists come and go since there is history on the land. It is known that the Mystic Ruins has a history in it involving the Knuckles Clan which was a tribe of echidnas since the land was once the ancient homeland of the tribe. Mystic Ruins is also connected to Angel Island, an island in the sky where the Master Emerald stays under the watch of its guardian, who happens to be Sonic and Tails' friend Knuckles the Echidna.
Tails drove the Tornado to a small two story house located on a hill. It also has a long biplane runway with two rows of palm trees leading out into the ocean, this is Tail's workshop. The biplane runway was in front of the Tornado as the biplane landed safely onto the concrete runway. Tails changed the gears so that it would slow down to a halt, which it did in front of a small house.
Sonic straight away jumped out of the Tornado and gave his limbs a stretch while Tails pressed a button on his Miles Electric and a large door started opening in front of the biplane. The door opened revealing a garage where Tails puts his biplanes like the Tornado and other inventions as well. Tails slowly drove the Tornado into the garage so he would not destroy anything and successfully placed the biplane in its original park.
Tails did a few more things in the garage before stepping out and pressed a button on his Miles Electric making the garage door close. The fox then walked over to Sonic who was still stretching from standing still on the Tornado for so long, a very long time in Sonic's opinion.
"Hey Sonic, what are you gonna do now?" Tails asked.
Sonic looked up to his best friend and said, "Well, I was thinking about going for a run. Cause you know, these legs need some stretching after being still for a long time."
Tails rolled his eyes, knowing what Sonic was like from being still for too long. The fox had an idea that he could go with Sonic but then remembered about the Tornado, it still needs fixing.
"It can't fix on its own can it?" Tails thought in his mind, annoyed that the Tornado needed some repairing after crashes sometimes, although it rarely happens.
"Well, I'll stay here and fix the Tornado. It needs a few tweaks after our last adventure and plus, I'm thinking of adding some new upgrades to it," the fox said slightly annoyed but was still happy to work with his mechanics.
Sonic raised an eyebrow, he can tell when Tails was annoyed about something when he tried to hide it, "You right bud? You sound a little down."
"Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little annoyed that the Tornado always needs some fixing but hey, it can't fix on its own can it?" Tails replied.
Sonic chuckled at the fox's humour, "Alright Tails you stay safe. And make sure nothing blows up in your face like last time!"
"Right," Tails replied before Sonic took off in a second, leaving behind a blue streak.
"Bye…" Tails said in his mind before walking inside his workshop to work on the Tornado, not noticing an incoming call from his Miles Electric.
Sonic ran through the Mystic Ruins at great speeds but watched out for the ancient structure the land still held. Every time Sonic got a break, he would run, feel the wind hitting his face and the feeling of freedom rush up in his veins. However, at some point danger occurs and Sonic has to go stop it. Why? It's just part of his nature, fighting for the freedom of others.
The hedgehog was running at great speeds before coming to a halt where he saw a lake up by a hill. The place was familiar to Sonic so he walked up to the area and stopped, it was the Chao Garden. Sonic would sometimes come to the lake to look after the Chao living there since the small creatures seemed helpless and needed a guardian. Of course, Sonic took that roll whenever he came to the Mystic Ruins.
Sonic walked closer to the Chao Garden and looked at the Chao running around and playing with each other. The hedgehog smiled and whistled, catching the attention of the Chao. Instantly, a group of Chao was already running up to Sonic with smiles on their face. Most of the Chao were neutral with their light blue colour but there were a few Hero Chao and Dark Chao that Sonic had raised.
"Chao! Chao!" the Chao called out as if calling out to their guardian.
Sonic kneeled down onto the ground with his arms out as if ready to hug all the Chao, "Hey! What's up everybody?"
When they were close enough, the Chao leapt into Sonic's arms making him fall back in laughter. Some were hugging Sonic's arms and legs while some others were tickling the hedgehog making him laugh even harder. Through his laughing fits, Sonic didn't notice a Dark Chao run up to him and bite his ear.
"Hey!" Sonic shouted playfully while successfully getting up and holding the Dark Chao in front of him, "you're a sneaky little fella you know that?" the Dark Chao replied with a cheeky grin, which looked cute yet sinister.
At that moment, some of the Chao were getting jealous and started begging for Sonic to pick them up, "Hey! One at a time!" Sonic said while putting down the Dark Chao and picking up another.
After all the Chao had their turn of being held, they went out to play again while some still stayed with Sonic. One of the Chao which is a Hero Chao was walking to the lake nearby and was about to go for a swim until something caught its eye. The Hero Chao skipped towards the shiny object and picked up a purple gem radiating with energy. The Chao's eyes were glued to the gem for some time until it had an idea.
The Hero Chao held the purple gem in its small arms and walked over to Sonic who was playing with some other Chao, "Chao! Chao! Chao!" the Hero Chao called out.
Sonic heard the Hero Chao's calling and looked towards the direction of the Chao. The Hero Chao was walking towards Sonic with a purple gem in its arms. Sonic was confused at first but then the Hero Chao stopped in front of the hedgehog and held the gem in front of him as if giving a present.
"Hey little guy, what have you got there?" Sonic asked the little white Chao.
The Hero Chao held the gem out further to Sonic, "Chao!"
"What? Is that for me?" Sonic asked the Chao.
The Hero Chao nodded, "Chao!"
Sonic took the purple gem and looked at with awe and smiled at the Chao, "Thanks little guy, it looks awesome."
"Chao!" the Hero Chao chirped with glee and jumped into Sonic's arms as the hedgehog petted the little creature.
The Hero Chao purred with delight at the attention before running off to play in the water. Sonic chuckled at the Chao's behaviour, that one was very generous to others sometimes. Another thing Sonic found unique with the Chao is that they all have different personalities like people, like how the Dark Chao bit his ear before.
Sonic then looked at the purple gem he received from the Chao and had a further inspection on it. It wasn't a Chaos Emerald, but it was radiating with powerful energy similar to that of a Chaos Emerald. It wasn't exactly the same feeling but similar… yet different.
"I think Tails should have a look at this because something is not right with this thing. It's like a Chaos Emerald yet… different," Sonic thought in his mind as he looked over the field of Chao and spotted one in particular.
The Chao Sonic was looking at was a Chao taking the form of Tails. One day, Tails had come with Sonic to the Chao Garden and one Chao in particular really like him. What happened next was the Chao morphing into a mirror image of Tails, only with a Chao effect to it. There was another Chao that looked like Sonic himself and the hedgehog would find that the Sonic Chao and Tails Chao would spend a lot of time together, like he and Tails did.
"I wonder what was bothering Tails anyway… he looked a bit off for some reason…" Sonic thought in his head before looking at the sky.
The sunset was in view which meant the dark night would come soon. Sonic wished he had a tent right now so that he could stay with the Chao but Tails would get worried if the hedgehog stayed out for too long. He decided it would be best if he went back to Tails now before the fox starts worrying.
Sonic stood up and spoke to the Chao, "Sorry guys but I have to go now. Tails will get worried if I stay out any longer."
This caught the Chao's attention as nearly all of them came up to Sonic with saddened faces, begging him to stay. Sonic kneeled down and petted them softly, guilt rushing up to him. Even the Dark Chao had a saddened look.
"Hey, I'll come back another time okay? I always do," Sonic said soothingly to the Chao to which their moods changed suddenly to happy.
Sonic smiled and took off leaving a blue streak while the Chao waved out to nothingness. The hedgehog ran at fast speeds to get to Tails' workshop and it wasn't too long until Sonic got there, thanks to his speed.
It was in fact dark out by the time Sonic had arrived to Tails' workshop and the hedgehog was worried that Tails might pass out from working too much on his mechanics. Sonic came up to the front door and knocked.
"KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!" the sound of knocking sent drumming noises inside the house.
"Yo Tails! You home?" Sonic called out but no answer came.
Sonic thought Tails hadn't heard him so the hedgehog kneeled down to the floor mat in front of the door and lifted it up. He then pulled out a piece of loose stone on the ground which revealed a passcode lock. Sonic putted in the correct passcode and the latch opened revealing a key inside. Sonic grabbed the key, closed the lock, put the stone back in and put the mat over the stone floor again. It was obvious that Tails had put in a special way to the key if Sonic came by since Tails could use his Miles Electric.
Sonic put the key through the hole which unlocked the door successfully. He opened the door and saw that not a single soul was in the room. It was a small longue room with a couch and TV in case there was something interesting on and there was a kitchen nearby. Instead of going there, Sonic decided to look in the number one place Tails would be, the basement.
The hedgehog then went into a hallway of the small house and one of the doors led down into the basement. Sonic opened the door and walked down the stairs until he got to the bottom.
"Tails? You in here?" Sonic called out as he arrived to the bottom of the stairs.
In the basement was where Tails would put most of his inventions in or for upgrades and repairs. The room looked almost like a laboratory if it weren't for all the machinery in the room. There were blueprints hanging on the walls that looked like designs for new inventions or upgrades for one already made.
In the middle of the room stood the Tornado which Tails said he was going to repair earlier. Sonic walked over to the Tornado to see a certain fox sleeping in the driver's seat. The hedgehog chuckled at the sight of his "brother" falling asleep during working on projects, repairs or upgrades. He was still a kid after all, a smart one that is.
Sonic carefully lifted Tails from the driver's seat of the Tornado and turned off the lights before walking out of the basement with Tails in his arms. The hedgehog stepped into the hallway again and found the stairs leading up to the next floor of the house. Sonic came to the top of the stairs with Tails in his arms and saw two doors, one was Tails' room while the other was Sonic's.
Sonic went through the door that led to Tails' room and placed the sleeping fox onto his bed. The hedgehog tucked Tails in under the bed covers before walking to the door and looked back at the fox sleeping.
"Goodnight little bro," Sonic whispered before shutting the door quietly.
Sonic then went through the door that led to his room and grabbed the purple gem out his quills, "I might ask Tails to look at it tomorrow…" he thought.
He placed the gem on a small table next to his bed and threw himself onto his bed. Sonic sighed thinking about that gem. It was strange for some reason, it was radiating with energy yet it wasn't that of Chaos energy. The hedgehog shrugged it off and went to sleep.
Morning came as the sun shined through Sonic's room making him groan. Sonic then popped his head out of the bed's covers and decided to get up. Pretty fast for a teenager to be getting up so quickly.
Sonic blinked as he opened his eyes, his vision getting clearer. The hedgehog's eyes then casted on the purple gem on the table as he remembered why it was there.
"Oh yeah! I was gonna ask if Tails could look at it!" Sonic thought before grabbing the gem and run down stairs to the lounge room.
Sonic was just about to call out for Tails until he heard some tinkering coming from the basement. The hedgehog rolled his eyes as he knew where the young fox was. Sonic walked down the stairs to the basement and found two yellow tails swishing behind the Tornado. The hedgehog smirked as he quietly crept over to the Tornado and saw Tails working on the Tornado's engine.
Sonic waited a while before Tails popped his head away from the Tornado or any other dangerous equipment before shouting, "HI TAILS!"
"AH!" Tails jumped from the shout as he fell over on his bottom.
Sonic chuckled before walking towards his friend and held a hand out, "Need some help?"
Tails relaxed when he saw it was just Sonic who shouted before, "No, I'm fine. Unless shouting out of nowhere gives an excuse that I would need any help," the fox said with sarcasm before grabbing Sonic's hand to be helped up.
Sonic rolled his eyes before taking out the purple gem out of his quills and showed it to Tails, "Well, anyway, the reason I came down here is if you could help out with this gem. One of the Chao at the garden found it and gave it to me but this gem is really strange if you ask me."
Tails took the gem out of Sonic's hand and looked at it with further inspection. At that moment Tails realised what Sonic was talking about. The gem was radiating with energy similar to that of a Chaos Emerald only… different. This caught the fox's attention as he now wanted to research it further more.
"I see what you mean. I'll scan the gem's properties and see what this is all about but it may take a while," Tails said.
Sonic nodded and gave Tails a thumbs up, "OK Tails, I'll leave it to you."
"Last time I recalled, I do just about all the researching around here," Tails replied with a smirk.
"That's cause you're the best at it bro!" Sonic replied and held his fist up for a fist bump to which Tails followed the action by bumping his fist with Sonic's.
"Okay, I guess you make a point," Tails replied, cheekiness detected in his tone.
Sonic then left the basement as Tails took the gem to a scanning machine he uses to scan the energy in Chaos Emeralds but it could be used for other sources as well. The machine straight away started scanning the mysterious gem for its properties as the scanning process was going to take a while.
"This gem is strange… I've never seen anything like it before," Tails thought as he decided to work on upgrades for his inventions while he waited for the results to come up.
A few minutes later, Tails was staring at the screen which told the gem's properties with a concerned look. Sonic came in to see Tails staring at the screen like a hawk and decided to ask if anything came up.
"Hey Tails, anything come up?" Sonic's voice snapped Tails out of his trance as he replied back.
"Yeah but it's strange. This gem is definitely not a Chaos Emerald, it holds some powerful energy but it's like there's another layer of energy blocking the gem's power," Tails explained.
Sonic looked at Tails confused, "So what exactly are you saying?"
"What I mean is that there is a wall blocking the gem's power and is manipulating it somehow. As if some magic or source of energy was casted over it to make it do something else," Tails explained with concern, "this is very strange…"
While Tails was deep in thought, Sonic looked over at the screen that showed the mysterious gem's properties and saw an image of the gem which showed an outer layer covering the gem's surface. However what was strange that the energy covering the gem was a very dark colour.
"Not only is there a layer covering the gem…" Tails said catching Sonic's attention away from the screen, "but there is no other type of gem or rock on the planet that matches this gem's properties."
Sonic again looked at Tails confused, "So what does that mean?"
"I mean, that this gem possibly came from another world," Tails explained, "well, it's the only theory I could think of."
Sonic was about to reply however the purple gem started glowing ferociously making Tails' machine start detecting numerous amounts of energy. Tails rushed towards his scanning machine, horrified that the gem could malfunction the device.
"It's triggering heaps of energy!" Tails shouted while trying to shut down the machine.
At that moment, the Chaos Emeralds Sonic had with him appeared encircling around the hedgehog, "Tails! What's going on here?!"
Tails looked back at Sonic horrified to see the Chaos Emeralds reacting strange. However the next thing startled the pair greatly was the mysterious gem started floating towards Sonic and the encircling Chaos Emeralds. The gem glowed more brightly making the Chaos Emeralds spin at rapid speeds as a bright white light engulfed the entire room.
A train stopped in front of a wooden deck and opened revealing an angry pink hedgehog who stormed out of the train, "Those two have better give me a reason why they didn't come to Shamar where the party was cause I had to catch a flight to Station Square, line up for a train and here I am looking for answers! At least I tried to call them with Tails' gadget-"
However, before the hedgehog known as Amy could talk anymore, a great white light builded up from Tails' workshop and shined though the area making the girl cover her eyes. Once the light disappeared, Amy looked over at the workshop on the hill to see it still standing but a worrying feeling was tingling in the area.
"Oh no! Please let it be Tails working on his projects again!" Amy said before running towards the small house as fast as she could.
When Amy reached the front door, she pushed it to find it was unlocked so she stormed through the door with a worried look on her face.
"Sonic?! Tails?!" Amy shouted going through the rooms but no one had answered her.
Amy ran through the house going through each door until she found the entrance to the basement. Her instincts were screaming at her to look in that room so she went through the door and down the stairs. The scene before her horrified her.
Right in front of Amy's eyes was the many machines built burnt with sparks of electricity flicking out. It was as if a bomb was lit in the room. The only inventions that survived were the Tornado but the Miles Electric was nowhere to be found. The silence was ghosting as not a single soul was heard or seen in sight.
Amy looked down on the floor and saw a speck of blue. Curiosity flickering, Amy picked up the blue speck to find it was one of Sonic's quills. She held it tight to her heart and stormed out of the house to see dark clouds covering the sky.
"SONIC! TAILS!" Amy screamed as she looked at the blue quill in her hand, "I have to find them…" she thought.
Her heart told her that Sonic and Tails are alive as Amy listened with her independent look sparking on fire, "I have to find Knuckles, he may be able to find their Chaos energy through the Master Emerald," Amy said to herself as she ran off to find a way to get to Angel Island.