(Okay, two things. One; should I change the story title? If so, any ideas? Or should I stick with In the Dark? PLEASE REVIEW OR COMMENT OR PM ME YOUR ANSWER.
Two; I now have a co-author! The guest reviewer RobinsInTheSky who helped me out SO MUCH with the plot of this story now has an account (RobinsonSiblings) and is a full-time contributor to the story. Believe me, this story is so much longer than I originally anticipated and I LOVE it!
Anyway…
Last time on In the Dark…
It's finally happened. Dark has taken control of Sonic. It seems that Sally's and Amy's efforts to help him have been for nothing. But they can't give up hope yet. After a harsh battle with their former friend, Sally and Amy have successfully stolen the Chaos Emeralds and Light Stones from Dark's grasp. However, the dimension of Exe has been released, and the Exes are running amuck in the streets of Mobius, terrifying its citizens. Can Sally and Amy return the power to the Emeralds and Stones before their whole world is turned upside-down? Or will Dark cease control of the entire planet? Go back to Chapter 14 – Ruined for more info on the previous chapter, or read on to find the answers to these questions!)
Amy and I walked down the street and past the shadow people. They didn't disturb us, surprisingly. At least, not for a while. Once we were a few blocks away from the house, the Exes started flying at us, charging us. We, at first, fought them off, but eventually had to duck into alleyways to avoid them. After a good several blocks of dodging the shadows, I was exhausted. I slumped against one of the buildings in an alley to catch my breath.
"Do we even…know where we're…going?" I panted.
Amy shook her head, doubled over. "Not…really…"
"We need a plan," I said, standing back up.
"Well…" Amy said, straightening. "We could go and see Knuckles."
"That might be an option," I said. "Maybe Angel Island hasn't been corrupted yet."
Angel Island was a small, floating continent, kept aloft by the controller of the Chaos Emeralds; the Master Emerald. Our friend Knuckles lives there and guards the Master Emerald.
Amy nodded at my suggestion. "But how do we get there? Neither of us knows how to fly a plane…"
I frowned. Tails has always been our mode of transportation to the floating island. How do we get there…?
"Let's just try and find the island first," I said. "We can make a plan then."
Amy nodded. Since we didn't want to run anymore, we climbed a fire escape (I had to boost Amy to bring down the ladder) to the roof and, since all the buildings were close together, ran from rooftop to rooftop. But just below us, people were screaming and running in terror. Hopefully, that would all change in a few hours.
A couple of hours later, we were standing on the top of one of Mobius's many mountains, watching Angel Island as it floated closer. I had already called our friend via Nicole and comlink, so he knew we were coming. As it neared us, a rope ladder was dropped down from the surface of the island. I grabbed hold and climbed up, quickly followed by Amy.
The sky here was blue, as usual, but in the distance you could see the darker skies moving closer by the minute. I was glad this place was still untouched by Dark's taint.
Waiting for us at the top of the ladder was a red echidna named Knuckles, sporting dreadlocks that hung past his shoulders. His gloves were more like mittens, with two spikes on his namesake. He offered a hand to us, helping each of us up onto the grassy plain.
"So, what brings you here?" he asked in a gruff voice.
"We were wondering if you could turn these back to normal," I said, opening the bag I had over my shoulder and showing Knuckles its contents.
"The Chaos Emeralds," he said. "And are those…"
"The Light Stones, yes," I finished.
"Ah. What happened?" Knuckles asked. "Does it have to do with the dark skies over there?"
"It's kinda a long story," I said.
"We have time."
"Actually, not much. But I'll try to keep it short. As you know, when Sonic gets really angry he turns Dark, right?"
"Right…"
"When Tails…died, Sonic did go Dark. Eggman did something to him that gave his Dark form a mind of its own, and since then it's been trying to take control of him. Well, as you can tell…it succeeded, and corrupted the Emeralds and Stones. Now he's slowly taking over the world. So we were wondering if it was possible to change them back before the Darkness he's spreading hits the island."
"Well, I can fix the Emeralds fairly quickly with the Master Emerald," he said. "But the Light Stones…I've heard of them and researched them, and I don't think it's possible to change them back. Their power has been sucked out of them, turned into Dark energy, and used up. There's nothing here strong enough to change them back."
I frowned. "Would we still be able to use the Emeralds against Sonic—I mean Dark?"
"I'm not sure, but let's just start with changing the Emeralds back," Knuckles said, "before they cause more trouble for us. We need to go to Mystic Ruin for the Master Emerald. Luckily, it's not too far from here. C'mon." He ran off, and we followed.
A couple minutes later, we reached the site; the ruins of what looked like a stone temple stood in the middle of the island, with a shrine holding the Master Emerald at its core. We trudged up the steps to the top of the shrine, which overlooked most of the island. After following simple instructions, the seven black Chaos Emeralds surrounded the giant, green Master Emerald, with the Light Stones tucked safely away in my bag. Knuckles stood in front of the Master Emerald, raised his hands, and started chanting.
"Oh, great Master Emerald, please aid us in our time of need. Restore the power to the Chaos Emeralds so they may help us in the fight against the Darkness. The servers are the seven Chaos, the Master Emerald serves to unify their power. Here my cry, we need you!"
As he spoke, the Master Emerald glowed brighter and brighter, and the Emeralds regained their light and power one by one. Each of them emitted a white light that engulfed the entire shrine.
"No!" Knuckles cried. "Not this again! It's Chaos Control!"
But it wasn't Chaos Control. The Chaos Emeralds disappeared in seven streaks of light, going off in different directions. I groaned, having seen it before. When the light faded, the Emeralds were gone.
I looked at Amy; Amy looked at me.
"Well, that just made our job harder," Amy said.
I nodded.
"Sorry, guys," Knuckles said. "But at least they're back to normal."
I sighed. "It's alright, thanks for the help."
"So…what now?" Amy asked. "Do we have to find them all?"
"We might have to…" I sighed. "But I don't think we'll have time. There has to be another way."
"Well, you could talk to Shadow," Knuckles suggested.
"Who?" I asked.
"Shadow the Hedgehog," he replied. "He knows Sonic and knows a lot about the Chaos Emeralds, though not as much as I do."
"I knew him for a time," Amy added, "but we haven't talked in years."
"Great, why don't we go and find him?" I said, hope replacing the helplessness I felt a moment ago.
"Last time I talked to him," Knuckles said, "he was working at GUN. But that was months ago, and GUN moved their base and isn't telling where. I'm not sure if he's still with them."
I frowned and looked up at the sky, which was streaked with color from the setting sun. Soon, we wouldn't be able to distinguish night from day, and there would be no sleep from the terror that would sweep the nation. Our very reality was falling apart at the hands of one corrupted hero.
"I'd rather not search at night," I said. "I'm guessing those Exes are more active then than during the day."
"Exes?" Knuckles asked.
I looked at him. "When Sonic lost control, he released a dimension called Exe. He's working with someone to take over the world."
"Ah," he said. "Well, there's a secret cave under the shrine, you guys can use that. Look for the ancient symbol of the echidna tribes. Push it in, and the cave will open."
I nodded. "Thanks, Knux." Amy and I walked down the steps, but at the base, Amy paused.
"What about you?" she called up to the echidna. "You're in as much danger as we are."
"I have my job, you have yours," he responded. "You go."
Amy hesitantly nodded and followed me. We circled the shrine until we found the rune, about the size of my hand. As Knuckles had instructed, I pushed it in like a button. A stone slab below it slid aside with a grinding sound, revealing a crawlspace. I crouched down and shuffled on my hands and knees inside, closely followed by Amy. The inside of the shrine was hollow, so we stood in a huge cavern, the light from the Master Emerald seeping in through cracks in the ceiling. The corners of the cavern were full of spiders and cobwebs. Two mattresses lay in the corners of the room. I went back outside, grabbed a pine branch, and used it to clear most of the cobwebs away. After beating the dust out of the mattresses, Amy and I lie down and fell into a troubling, nightmare-filled sleep.
(So. That's that. Enjoying it so far? Sorry I didn't post this EXACTLY a day after, but oh well.
On Thursday I'm leaving for a writers/artists conference that lasts all day. I'm excited and nervous. I'm doing writing this year, but I don't know what to write! I probably won't be able to post Thursday or Friday, so sorry about that! Hope you're enjoying the story so far! Almost hit 3k views! EEP! Still need the reviews though…
That's all for now!)
~SonicTheHedgehog-Nerd