Chapter 1: These Are the Days of Our Lives
*Heavy breathing*
In a forest in an unknown location, the sound of a person's heavy breathing and his legs running through and leaves were heard echoing in the forest. The forest itself was dead, no sign of life and greenery can't be spotted miles around even if one were to climb the tallest tree in the forest would still not find any. It was once filled with life and wonder, small animals living their lives as naturally as they can. Long streams of water would be filled with fishes that one could get a fish. But all that was gone. The place was now a graveyard of its former self yearning to bloom like it once did.
*Heavy breathing*
The heavy breathing was coming from a man. He had this scared look on his face as he kept running almost like his life depended on it. The man looked like a beggar, clothed in a rotten cloak that was dirty and had ripped holes in some places that even his toes could be seen from his old worn out shoes. He hasn't been able to wear any clean or proper clothes for months.
The man bumped into a rock that was on the ground on his way. He couldn't see it because it was covered underneath some leaves and twigs. He let out a scream due to his toe bumping into the rock unprotected. The man quickly covered his mouth and really regretted screaming just now. Despite a small injury, the man gritted his teeth as he gained the strength to keep on running.
Running was the only option the man had left. There was no turning back to the people he knew or returning home where he belonged for it was gone for him. The man stopped to take in some air as he leaned on a tree to rest his tired body. The man just started weeping as tears started to fall as he knew he was in danger by an unstoppable being coming after him. This being is known to be vile and crazy with power.
The man wiped his tears and looked around to see nothing around him that he could see in the distance. He was starting to calm down as he wiped his tears away before any more of them could reach the dead dry ground below him. He seems a bit calm seeing that he might have a chance to make it, he had a bit of hope left. That small glimpse of hope soon vanished when he heard a rhythmic sound of someone snapping their finger.
*snap*snap*snap*snap*snap*snap*
"No." Said the man, his voice shaking in fear.
The man stood frozen for a bit as his eyes widened hearing those six finger snaps. He immediately got up and began running after hearing the fingers snap in a rhythm. He looked behind to see some black smoke slowly merging around the forest coming after him.
He was now crying like never before as he kept running even harder. "I don't wanna. I don't wanna…..die." The man cried, as he ran.
The man kept running until he hit a dead-end, where he met a wall of a cliff. He looked back to see more of the black smoke coming towards him. The poor man looked both left and right, only to see it was pointless trying to run to the side of the wall. He could easily see that he was being toyed with since the beginning of his run and never had a chance at all.
To the evil being it was just having fun chasing him like a rat. The snapping of fingers then got louder as the black smoke spread through the area. The man then had no choice but to climb up the wall desperately as he leaped towards it. With his best effort he climbed trying to ignore how tired and injured his body was for his life depended on it.
As he almost got halfway on the rock wall, a part of the wall broke off making the man fall to the ground and injuring his back making a large impact on the ground. The man cried and moaned in pain seeing his attempt at escaping failed. While trying to recover, he slowly shifted his head to look at the black smoke that was chasing him because it was now spreading around him.
*snap*snap*snap*snap*snap*snap*
The man knew this was it, the end of the line of this chase and his life as his body moaned in pain. The sound of snapping fingers was getting louder and he stayed in place. The evil being managed to catch up to him without running or even trying at all.
In the black smoke barely visible was a figure in it. The man could literally feel his heart pounding so hard that it could burst out from his chest. The figure in the black smoke seems to look feminine with the way she was swinging her hips left and right in a playful manner. She could be seen snapping her fingers with her right hand that's going on the same rhythm her hips were moving.
What was scary the most was when the female figured open her eye lids to reveal a pair of glowing red eyes and sadistic smile alongside it. Her body began to light up in a fiery aura as she walked towards the man.
The man himself just closed his eyes as he was too exhausted to keep them open. He was slowly passing out from his injuries and lack of stamina. The last he saw and sensed was a hint of lavender color coming out from the black smoke, burning scent of perfume, and the sound of a finger snapping.
*snap*snap*snap*snap*snap*snap*
Sol Dimension
It was a nice sunny day over in the Sol Dimension, the home dimension of one of Sonic's good friends, Blaze the Cat, the princess and righteous ruler of her kingdom. The people in Blaze's kingdom were living peacefully with their friends and family while under her ruling.
A long while ago, the home and shops of the villagers were destroyed by the likes of Dr. Eggman Nega, Blaze's arch enemy of her dimension much like Sonic with his Eggman. However he wasn't alone, for he had the help of an evil ice princess known as Shivera, who Eggman Nega set free from her frosty imprisonment from thousands of years ago. The evil ice princess had a grudge against Blaze mostly towards her ancestor, Princess Igni, who was friends before turning into the enemies.
Thankfully with Blaze's skills, firepower, and the help of her friends. She was able to thwart Eggman Nega's plans and defeated Shivera to prevent the world from becoming a Eggmanland Iceland.
Right now Blaze was in her village trying to restore the last few buildings of her village that were destroyed by Eggman Nega and Shivera. After Blaze's victory, the village and other kingdoms big and small praised Blaze for her heroic action. They made statues and murals for her and made a book about it that would be told for many generations to come. Almost everyone around the world was looking and worshiping Blaze, not just as a princess but as a goddess who saved them.
As much as Blaze appreciated the praises she still didn't want people to treat her any differently than before. She wanted everyone to know they were just as important as her. Thankfully she wasn't alone at the moment because she had some of her friends with her. Those being Sonic, Honey, Knuckles, Tails, and Marine who were there helping Blaze and her kingdom to bring back its former glory. The gang wanted to check in with Blaze and her dimension and because Blaze had a small issue that she was hoping Sonic and the others could help her with after restoring her kingdom.
Sonic was helping clean the new buildings by sweeping the floors and washing windows, Knuckles was carrying large piles of wood that he gave to Honey who was chopping them with her fighting skills. Tails and Marine were doing the math to see how big and wide the buildings needed to be estimated to see how much material was needed.
Blaze was doing paper work by a nearby desk, ordering what people need for their homes and shops as lined up in front of her. Trying to make sure everyone can get back on their feet. She would sometimes stop and let her royal advisor and personal guard Gardon take the orders and help her people with her own hands instead of sitting around writing on paper.
After some time, the last building of the village was finally rebuilt, making everyone stop what they were doing as they looked at the village to see that everything had been fully restored. The village was now back on its feet but looked much better than before and everyone felt a nice glow from it.
Everyone cheered as people clapped, couples kissed, and people hugged that their village is back to the way it was. Most importantly everyone including Sonic and the others cheered and clapped for their feline friend.
Blaze was astounded, never in her life she thought she would get this amount of love and praise from others. Before she met Sonic and his friends, Blaze was cold hearted and only cared about protecting the planet and the Sol Emeralds from Eggman Nega, caring only about her duty left by her royal family. She wasn't a very open person and refused to make any friends.
Here she is now with her friends and people praising her. She couldn't help smiling, which she's been doing a lot lately because of them. Blaze couldn't think of the last time after the Shivera event where she didn't smile.
Blaze softly smiled at everyone and gave a bow. Wanting everyone to know she cares and respects everyone around her. Everyone felt proud and humble that their princess treats them like equals and shows their importance to the kingdom.
A female child from the crowd made her way through the crowd as she came face to face with the royal princess. Everyone stood silent as the small girl looked up at Blaze with a warm smile. Blaze smiled back at the child and gave her full attention for she had something to say to her.
The child bowed at Blaze before looking back at her. "Princess Blaze, I just want to thank you for saving our home." She said, very thankful.
"Please just call me Blaze, young one." The feline said, smiling.
"Sorry, but I'm just really proud we have you as our princess." The child said with a huge smile.
The child then unexpectedly hugged Blaze, who was quickly taken back by the sudden hug. While surprised, Blaze hugged back the young child making sure she felt comfortable.
"Thanks to you. My mom and dad can continue their bakery shop." She said to the feline.
Blaze looked up to see a middle aged man and woman who she assumed was the little girl's parents. The parents smiled and waved at Blaze, greeting her as the young girl looked up at her with a smile.
"When we open up our bakery. I promise to make you the tastiest cake you'll ever meet!" She said, very excited to start baking for the princess.
The feline smiled and patted the little girl's head. "Thank you, I'm sure your cake will be the best thing I ever ate." She said, smiling.
The little girl gave a determined nod and ran back to her parents and watched Blaze admiring her. Blaze raised a hand in the air gaining everyone's attention as all eyes shifted towards her.
"Everyone, for the occasion I have prepared all of you some of the most delicious food made by some of the best chefs in the kingdom." Blaze said, informing.
The feline then pointed at her castle, "All of you are most welcome to join, please pass through my castle doors and enjoy the meals for all of your hard work restoring our kingdom. Please don't rush, I assure you we made enough food for everyone." She said, proudly.
Everyone once again cheered and clapped for Blaze's generosity. The princess then proceeded to walk towards her castle alongside Sonic and the others. Everyone was getting excited by the thought of eating the food that Blaze made for them. The doors of the castle slowly open to reveal a large area filled with chairs and tables. Separate tables where people wanted to sit together in a small group and one very long table with a throne seat in the far end meant for Blaze to sit on while still able to eat alongside her friends and the people of her kingdom.
What caught everyone's attention was the moment of the food and drinks that was displayed. There was pastry such as cakes, muffins, and cupcakes while hot meals like soups, lobsters, chicken drumsticks, and pasta that's ready to be devoured. Drinks such as fruit punch, lemonade, and simply water were also present.
Blaze's royal guards happily handed plates and cups to everyone who were heading towards the food tables. Blaze herself sat in the throne seat at the end of the royal dinner table. She sat comfortably as her friends soon joined her sitting close on the side of the table.
One of Blaze's royal chefs came and laid down a personal food tray for her to eat. She thanked the chef and gently ate her meal with her friends. Sitting on the left side from Blaze's point of view was Sonic and Honey while sitting across from on the right was Tails, Marine, and Knuckles.
After taking a few bites of their meal it wasn't long before the gang of friends started chatting as usual, making nothing but smiles and laughter. Sonic was currently telling Blaze what happened recently with him and his friends.
Blaze's eyes widen hearing Sonic's story, "Wait? Eggman blew up half the moon with a powerful weapon in your dimension." She said, baffled by the story.
"That scientist really is bonkers!" Marine said, surprised.
Sonic chuckled, "Yeah and because of that he woke up a moon goddess who was angry at him for destroying her moon." He said, laughing.
"Her name is Selene the Hedgehog, by the way and boy was she after Eggman's blood. She wanted revenge so badly." Honey said, laughing remembering the scared look on Eggman's face.
"So what happened next?" Blaze said, more curious to know.
"Yeah tell us mate! It's getting good." Marine said, excited by the tale.
"Of course, I had to protect Eggman since I am a good guy after all, but I didn't like it though." The blue hedgehog said, before picking his chili dog to take another bite.
"We gave it our best, though me and Knuckles were a bit worn out from our sparring session we had earlier that day." Honey said, remembering how her body wasn't fully recovered.
Knuckles nodded, "Yeah if we were fully rested up. Selene wouldn't have a chance against my fist." He said, showing off his fist.
"Selene was able to control and manipulate gravity at any time, she almost made Sonic fall infinitely to space when she changed the gravity in our surroundings." Said Tails before taking a sip of his drink.
"At the end of it all we got lucky by making her laugh so hard that it calmed her down after something embarrassing happened to Eggman." Sonic laughing at the mad doctor's humiliation.
"We kinda made friends with her, she ain't evil for she was just mad that Eggman blew up half of her moon." Explained Tails.
"She's probably at the moon back in our dimension wondering where we're at." Honey said, thinking about the moon goddess.
"Wow, a moon goddess was sleeping in your dimension's moon." Blaze said, amazed.
"I wonder if there's a moon goddess in this dimension?" Honey said, rubbing her chin.
"If so, we best not wake her up. We got lucky dealing with Selene. Who knows what kinda person this Moon goddess in Blaze's dimension could be like." Knuckles said, making Sonic and Honey nodded.
"There might not be one at all, after all our dimension is much different than Blaze's dimension." Tails said, stating the possibilities.
Everyone then went back to eating their meal and stayed quiet to enjoy. After a while their food and plates were almost empty. Blaze grabbed a nearby napkin and gently wiped her mouth, very princess-like to get rid of food crumbles to look presentable in front of everyone.
She laid the napkin to the side as one of her servants came to take her empty plate from the table. Blaze smiled seeing everyone stuffed and full from their meals her chiefs made for her friends. Sonic was just done eating his fifth chili dog that was personally made by the chiefs in Blaze's castle, knowing the hedgehog's love for those.
"I would like to thank you all for coming here to check on me when I ask if you guys can come. It means a lot that I have people that care about me." Blaze said, giving a short bow.
"Aw don't sweat it Blaze, we're friends after all. We just wanted to hangout and help your kingdom." Sonic said, chuckling before taking one last bite of his chili dog.
"Yeah! Besides, you came to my birthday party when you had the time." Honey said, making Blaze smile.
"So what now Blaze? Now that the world and your kingdom has been restored, what's next?" Said Knuckles, wanting to know.
"It is my duty to protect the world and its inhabitants. Eggman Nega is still out there plotting his next move to get rid of me and get his hands on the Sol Emerald. I do plan to come visit your guy's dimension a little more often after dealing with him." Blaze said.
"Me too! I want to see more of your guy's dimension." Marine said, excitedly.
"You guys are always welcome to visit us. I'm sure Cream and Vanilla would be more than happy to have you stay with them." Tails said.
"Just remember to wipe your shoes before stepping into our dimension." Sonic said, joking.
Gardon, who was staying quiet because he wanted Blaze to have a good time with her friends, stood up from his seat because he remembered something important.
"Your highn- I mean Blaze." Gardon stopped and corrected himself. "I believe there's another reason Sonic and others have come to our dimension."
Blaze's eyes widen remembering a small problem she has. "Oh yes of course, thanks for reminding me, Gardon." She thanked the koala bear.
"What's up?" Sonic said, with a concerned look as he watched Blaze get up from her seat.
"I've been having a small problem with the Sol Emeralds lately." Blaze informed the hedgehog.
"Sounds concerning." Knuckles said, getting eerie.
"Probably, I'm not sure yet. It's best if you guys come see for yourselves." The purple feline said.
Sonic and others nodded as they got up from their seats. Everyone is mostly done with their meals as they were filled up at the moment. They were far more concerned about what was happening with the Sol Emeralds that caused Blaze to worry.
The gang went through many hallways of the castle, on the way they were greeted and bowed by Blaze's servants and knights that proudly served her. They even came across the royal courtyard to see some of the royal knights training or recruiting new members. Everyone was impressed walking in Blaze's castle for it has a beautiful decor that they don't see often and thankfully Blaze was leading the way for it was also easy to get lost.
After minutes of walking and admiring the decor of the castle. They soon approach a large door that was heavily guarded by a line of royal guards. Behind the door that they are guarding leads to the altar room where the Sol Emeralds were.
When the royal guards saw their princess heading their way. They moved to make room for Blaze and others to pass through as they opened the door for them. Sonic and others went in first for Blaze went in last to thank her knights before entering.
Entering the room, stood the huge altar where the Sol Emeralds were floating in the air as they were feets apart from each other. The gang carefully walked up the stairs that lead up the center of the altar. They all looked at the Sol Emeralds to see them blinking oddly.
"Umm Blaze, why are the Sol Emeralds blinking like that?" Sonic scratched his head.
"That's just the thing, I don't know why they are blinking like that." Blaze answered.
"When did it start doing this?" Knuckles asked, looking at one of the Sol emeralds.
"Not too long after I defeated Shivera. In the beginning they had a small faint glow that I barely noticed which later began to glow more the coming days." Blaze said, looking worried at the Sol Emeralds.
Tails walked towards one of the Sol Emeralds and began examining it. "Very odd indeed. It looks like they are being called by something." He said, thinking of the possibility.
"Really? Is that possible?" Honey said, surprised.
"The Chaos Emeralds and Sol Emeralds have called out to each other before, it's not a far-fetched idea." Sonic said, remembering how he and Tails got sent to Blaze's dimension the first time.
"Which brings me to this question, Sonic, did you bring a Chaos Emerald like I ask you?" The feline asked politely to her hedgehog friend.
Sonic's eyes widen as he remembers Blaze's request. "Oh right, one Chaos Emerald coming right up." He said, nodding at her.
Reaching the back of his hammer space he pulled out a blue shiny Chaos Emerald as he kept a grip on it. "One Chaos Emerald ready for you m'lady." He said, happily joking.
"Thank you Sonic." Blaze softly said.
"Why was it important that I bring a Chaos Emerald with me anyways?" Sonic asked, a bit confused.
"I was hoping maybe having you and the Chaos Emerald would help solve this problem. You guys have more experience with the Emerald's powers than I do." Blaze explained.
The blue Chaos Emerald that Sonic was holding suddenly began to react on its own as it shook his hand. The hedgehog carefully let go of his grip on the emerald. Everyone watched as the blue Chaos Emerald began floating towards the blue Sol Emerald. The blue Chaos Emerald then began to slowly glow, almost like it was trying to communicate with its blue color counterpart.
"Woah, that was weird." Honey said, a bit amused.
"If only I brought some equipment with me so I can further study this." Tails said to himself.
"No worries mate! I think we have the equipment in the Blue Typhoon that could help us." Marine said, wagging her tail.
"Really? The Blue Typhoon!" Tails said, surprised and happy to hear the Blue Typhoon was nearby.
"Yeah! I was hoping we could go on a material hunt after we're done here. It would be like old times." Said Marine as Blaze nodded.
Gardon stood beside Marine, "Allow me to accompany you. It's been a while since you last visited us Marine. You will likely get lost with the new decor we put up." He offers the young raccoon girl.
"Thanks! I could use a hand, we'll be right back you guys." Marine said, giving a thumbs up.
Everybody watched the raccoon and Koala bear step out of the room giving small waves of goodbye. Once Marine and Gardon were out, everyone turned to look at the emeralds to further guess what was happening to them.
Knuckles then thought of an idea, "Blaze, is there perhaps a power source that can control the Sol Emerald. In our dimension we have the Master Emerald that controls the Chaos Emeralds' power." He said.
"I'm afraid I do not or at least know one even exists. The closest thing I can think of is the Jeweled Scepter." Blaze replied back.
Sonic who turned to look back at the blue Chaos Emerald. He walked towards to lean down to examine its strange glow. "Who's calling you and the Sol Emeralds, buddy?" He said to the Chaos Emerald as if it was a living person.
The hedgehog then reached out for the Chaos Emerald. The moment he put his hands on the blue emerald, it too began to glow brightly making Sonic cover his eyes with his arm. It soon caught the others' attention due to the brightness coming from the Chaos Emerald. The Sol Emeralds themselves also started to glow constantly.
"What's happening?!" Honey yelled, covering her eyes from the brightness of the emeralds.
"Guys! I…I think I might have activated Chaos Control by accident! I can't hold it back!" Sonic yelled, turning his head to his friends.
"Chaos Control?!" Blaze said surprised to hear about this.
"What's gonna happen?" Tails said, getting worried.
"Maybe we're being teleported to what's calling the Sol Emeralds." Knuckles said.
"Quick hold on to me! We're gonna get separated if we don't!" Sonic shouted.
Everyone quickly ran towards Sonic and grabbed his arms. The Chaos Emerald and Sol Emeralds glowed even more brightly as everything around the gang was soon in a blinding white light.
The only thing they could hear was the sound of the Chaos Emeralds' power using chaos control. The blinding light soon vanishes in seconds, the blue Chaos Emerald stopped glowing and the Sol Emeralds fell on the ground around the gang.
The group slowly opened their eyes and looked around to see their surroundings. They seem to be in the same place before being the altar room. The gang looked confused as they tried to make a sense of what happened.
Blaze looked at Sonic with a wanting look for answers. "Sonic, you mentioned something about Chaos Control? What is that?" She asked.
"Oh right, I guess you've never seen me use it before. Chaos Control is when you harness the emerald's power. It allows the user to control time and space, even warp to different places." Sonic said, explaining the power of the emeralds.
"Wait?! The Chaos Emeralds could do that?!" Honey said, surprised.
Sonic frowned looking at the blue Chaos Emerald in his hand. "Truth be told, I can't really use or control Chaos Control often, only by accident or pure luck. I'm not like Shadow who can use Chaos Control frequently since he was built to do so. I can use Chaos Control more often in my super form since I have a much easier time harnessing it." He said, looking at his reflection on the emerald.
"Yeah he even used a fake Chaos Emerald to do Chaos Control to save himself. It had just enough chaos energy to do it." Tails said, looking at Blaze and Honey.
Knuckles began looking around, "If you used Chaos Control just now to teleport us, why are we still in the same place?" He said, curious.
"There's no point sticking around here for answers. Let's check outside to see what happened." Sonic suggested.
Before moving, Blaze gathered the Sol Emeralds to place them in her hammer space knowing they were safe with her. Sonic also quickly put away the Chaos Emerald fearing he might accidentally use Chaos Control again. The group began walking towards the exit door of the altar room.
Upon reaching the door, a simple push wasn't enough to open the door. From the looks of it, the door seems like it hasn't been used in a very long time. There was some rust and dirt that was coming off the door as they tried to open it. Which really struck as odd since the last time they saw the door was in a very clean and working condition. Knuckles stepped forward and with the power of his strength pushed the door.
With enough strength and without breaking down the doors, the gang were greeted by some lights. Opening the door they were expecting to see the Blaze's castle like how it was before. What they saw instead was shocking.
At first sight, the whole castle was in ruins. The walls and roofs that protected the inner part of the castle have been destroyed leaving the outside of the world to be exposed. There were some walls of where the castle once stood but they were mostly broken, unable to provide protection.
What really shocked the gang was the outside world. There was nothing but dead trees, no wildlife, and dead grass scattered all over. This gave Sonic, Blaze, and the others a very eerie feeling knowing something wasn't right.
Blaze was most effective of all of this. She was looking at everything that once looked like her castle. The same walls where she had pictures of her friends, gone. All of her ancestors mentos, gone. Her knights and servants, gone. All that she worked to protect was gone and destroyed.
This is the sorta thing Blaze would have dreamed about as nightmares, but to see it actually happened was really affecting her. Blaze just sat down on the dead grass and tried to recollect her thoughts.
Sonic and others quickly took notice of Blaze's worried look and confronted her. "Blaze you okay, pal?" Sonic asked.
Blaze shook her head trying to get back to reality by the sound of the Sonic's voice. "Y-yeah, I just need to catch my breath." She replied, getting up.
"What happened to this place?" Tails said, looking everywhere.
"The better question is, where are we?" Knuckles said, looking at the destroyed castle walls.
"We're definitely in the Sol Dimension, but not the same one." Blaze said, looking at her destroyed castle.
"Hmmm guys?!" Honey called out her friends while she was standing near the cliff side of the destroyed castle. "I think you're gonna wanna see this?"
Everyone walked towards Honey and looked to see where she was pointing. Down below in the far distance as the village that was part of Blaze's kingdom, looking gray and dead looking. While it didn't look in good condition, they could see far enough to see some folks walking around.
They don't know what's in store for them the moment they leave that cliff side they were standing on, but they knew they had to be ready. A bit of fear was inside Blaze, fearing to know what caused this, Eggman Nega or something else entirely different she never imagined would cause such damage. Neither less she had Sonic and other's help to uncover the truth of what happened to the world.
End of chapter 1
(A/N): Sorry to keep you guys waiting, but here is the next entry of Sonic Tales after Gravity Calamity I've been working on for the past few months. I like to give a huge shout out and thanks to Elzetto for making the cover art for this story, consider following him on Twitter X and commission if you like his drawings. There will be drawn images of scenes of the story also made by Elzetto, if you want to see those scenes go to my deviantart under the username nightslayer244 in the coming weeks.
Prepare yourselves, for this story is darker than the previous stories before it. It's gonna be a wild ride and the first chapter is just the appetizer.