Me: *chases DW in the room* Where were you? I had to do the whole chapter by myself!
DW: *runs away from Oceanera* Don't kill me!
Nicole: As you can see, those two are a bit busy, so thanks to everyone who reviewed. *clears thought and begins to read paper.* Comments by Era:
Meadow of Starlight: Yeah…I prefer time travel over dimensional. This is one of the many debates DW and I get in.
Christian Wolf27: Um…elaborate please? When you just say it was not a good chapter, then I don't know how to make them better…and thank you for saying no offense.
DylanDamboise321: Okay, one thing at a time.
Characters: You're right I have way too many characters…so I'll fix that at the end of this chapter.
Song: Well think about it this way, in Sonic 06, (I know terrible) Shadow sees his future after the whole 'world burns to crisp thing' and it's getting locked up. At some point one of two things will happen after everyone he knows today is dead (since he doesn't age). One, the world will turn against him and either try and kill him or capture him, but he will still try to look after Earth. Or Two, the humans will trust him and he'll stay safe. But seriously, at some point, even if it's 100's of years down the road, it will be the whole world against Shadow. Does that make sense? I personally don't like that song that much, but I thought it was a good comparison.
Cat: What cat? I don't remember a cat…?
*Oceanera is still chasing DW around the room*
Nicole: Sorry, it took sooooo long to update, but Era was having issues. DW was hard to get ahold of, and she misplaced the chapter and couldn't work on it. Plus, school started back up and…well you know. Homework. Okay…do I just start the chapter? Or-? You know what, I'm just going to start it. I need to know what happens to my sister! (and if I get to kill Manic…) Let's roll the film…or script…or…whatever!
Nicole's POV:
Well I had a nice sleep for the first time in months…which was actually very nice.
Unfortunately, as soon as I woke up I had to do three of my least favorite things.
Get the same debriefing as last night
Be on guard duty at the front gate (don't ask why I hate it. It's a very long story)
And introduce Arianna to Manic (or vice versa…whatever)
Okay…the last one wasn't actually that bad, surprisingly.
Manic was so happy to get out of that hospital room…but not so happy to go into another one.
"No more rooms! I want out!"
"Quit your whining, Prince Annoying. Cosmo said 24 hours. You're more than half-way there so just do as you're told!"
Practically dragging the hedgehog into Arianna's room, we made quite an entrance. But Ari seemed to like it. When I turned around, a large smile was upon her face.
"Oh, go ahead! Laugh all you want! It's not my fault he doesn't like it here!" I cried with an annoyed look on my face.
Arianna tried to stop smiling, but ended up laughing instead. I joined in pretty quick because I did have to admit, I probably looked ridiculous.
Over by the locked door, Manic just looked confused. "Um…why are you laughing? No one told a joke or fell on the ground?"
That just made us laugh harder. Poor Manic didn't really understand…so Ari tried to explain, but it just made the whole situation 10 times worse.
Eventually, we just dropped the subject and we finally did proper introductions.
"Okay, Arianna, this is Manic Kingsley. He's the son of Star and Will…although I don't think you met them…" I trailed off in thought then shook myself back to the present, "And of course, Gray meet my older sister, Arianna Ultimate."
Manic did a bow towards my sister. "Nice to meet you."
Arianna just nodded her head, a bit startled. "Um…you too. I'd rise to bow back, but as you can see…"
"Don't worry about it." The hedgehog waved it off.
I just watched the exchange in awe. "No, sassy remarks to my sister…okay then."
Confused, I wandered over to the window and stared out it while Ari and Manic got better acquainted…or rather Manic got more acquainted with Ari. Whenever she asked him a question, he either didn't answer or gave a vague answer.
After an hour, I got bored enough that I left. I told Ari I'd see her later in the day and went to do some training. I was a little rusty on my shooting and Shadow was not pleased with me. When I stopped by Arianna's room for dinner, Manic was long gone, but…Ari seemed a little distracted. Maybe it was because the food was disgusting…
Narrator's POV:
True the food was disgusting, but that was not why Ari was distracted.
After Nicole left to go training, Arianna went a little quiet. Her mind was wandering back to all of those training sessions before…Mistress. She shivered in the memory.
Unfortunately, Manic took that the wrong way. "Oh, is it too cold in here? I can turn up the heat, is you want?"
"No…I was just reliving some…unpleasant memories…" The hedgehog looked down at her hands.
In a chair by the bed, Manic looked out the window. "I know how that is…" his voice very soft.
Ari sighed. "Have you ever-never mind."
"What?" the hedgehog looked at her interested.
"Well…" the girl looked up then back down, "Have you ever done something that seemed as harmless as…putting on a bracelet, thinking that nothing bad could come from it then suddenly found yourself in a situation that made you wish that you were dead and it was all because of that 'harmless' action you did before? You find yourself doing and saying things that you don't really mean and your whole world comes crashing down on you and you're known for that mistake the rest of your life…" Arianna trailed off. Then she sighed, "Of course not, sorry to bother you." She pulled her thin blanket up to her chin and laid back.
What she didn't hear or notice was the whisper that left Manic's mouth. "Yes I have…" The gray hedgehog stared at the injured girl in a new light. But before he could say another word, Cosmo marched into the room.
"Well, Good news Mr. Kingsley, you're free to go. Your 24 hours are up. So if you just check in with the front desk and-" She didn't really get to finish because Manic was already out the door.
"Bye Ari! Nice talking with you!" He called out from the hallway.
Cosmo watched him go then sat down next to Arianna. "Well he seemed nice…don't you think?"
Distracted Arianna nodded, "I guess…but he was a bit distracted and secretive."
"Um…have you looked at yourself recently, girlfriend?"
"I'm serious! He avoided all of my questions didn't give any information about anything. At least I talked about stuff before…" She paled.
In a comforting manner, the nurse patted her hand. "You need to rest. We'll talk in the morning, alright?"
Ari nodded and laid down. "Night Cos."
"Goodnight Arianna…" She shut the door and mumbled, "I hope you don't have nightmares…again."
Manic was very bored…and wasn't exactly sure where he was going. Part of him wanted to run and keep running, but he wasn't much of a runner. Born without super speed or chaos abilities, Manic was the strange one in the family…that and the fact that he just showed up with Star after one of her crazy dimension jumps. She didn't even remember having him, but at least she still had that annoying motherly instinct over him. Sometimes he really hated that…especially today.
Of course Star was mad at him sneaking out with his buddies, but what did she expect? That he would spend the rest of his life in the castle. True, being the prince had its advantages, but it had more disadvantages…like being imprisoned in the castle your whole life…
Angrily, he kicked a rock.
The street lights were beginning to turn on as the sun went down. In the back of Manic's head, he knew he should go back to GUN, but he didn't exactly trust them. Although Arianna seemed pretty trustworthy…at least she sort of understood.
Somewhere after several hours of wandering Manic was joined by Mint. "Hey boy. Where did you run off to?"
Mint wagged his black tail. ((Note: Mint is not exactly a Dog, but picture a big dog and that's pretty much what he looks like.))
Manic leaned down and rubbed him behind the ears. "You want to show me something?"
The dog barked once then took off down the street. Quickly, the hedgehog followed his long time buddy for the next three miles. After about twenty minutes, Mint stopped in front of a run-down building.
Jonny's Juice Bar
Manic rubbed his dog behind the ears, "Well what's this place?"
The 19 year old's question was answered as three Mobians threw a human out of the facility. The Lemur shook his fist, "And stay out, you Fox!" he laughed as he and his buddies went back in. The golden fox dusted herself off, "This is why, I hate Mercenaries!" she stormed off into the night.
After the angry girl disappeared, Manic looked at the old building then back at his dog. "You really know me, don't you?" Mint wagged his tail eagerly. The hedgehog rubbed him behind the ears then turned towards the building. "Well, let's see if there the same in every dimension…"
Without another word, Manic marched up to the building, swung the door open, and went inside with Mint following right behind.
Me: Well, I've calmed down now so I can talk. Alright so addressing the "Too many character issue:"
I WILL NOT BE ACCEPTING IN ANYWAY SHAPE OR FORM CHARACTER IDEA'S FROM OTHER PEOPLE. This also means I will not be using any character's that have been previously sent in, so sorry to anyone who was looking forward to the return of Burn, Ivan, and anyone else. Sorry, but it's too much.
In fact these are the main characters that the following stories will be following: Nicole Ultman, Shadow The Hedgehog, Arianna Ultman, Manic Kingsley, and Ethan Lavar. There will be about 2 more stories then I will be hanging up my pencil for this story ark… I may do a little spin off every once and a while, but nothing huge unless it's requested. So I have…Gray Shadows after this one then Dying Shadows. Gray Shadows mainly will focus on Manic and *spoiler alert*. Dying Shadows will focus on Nicole's Destiny and explain a few things like; Why she wanted to protect the world from practically the beginning, Why she survived so many assassin attempts on her life, Why Shadow didn't kill her; and Why the cloning process gave her waaaayyyy too much Chaos Energy. So, I hope you all enjoy it. Review please, and be specific in what I'm doing wrong or right please. You guys are AMAZING. Sorry, about the long wait. Ta Ta for now!
DW: Do you guys like Manic? Because you're going to love him at some point… *smiles forebodingly.*
Me: DW stop with the spoilers! *chases DW around again.* Bye everyone! Get back here you!