Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog or Mass Effect.
EDIT: I made some edits towards the end of the chapter to correct the timing of the events (evening as opposed to noon).
Chapter 6: The latest of many firsts
The Wisp had made itself comfortable next to Vilmis' throat. Its weight was practically nothing, even less than the weight of his clothes if possible – but the strange warmth that was not quite warmth and the energy slowly spreading through his body was undeniable. This was very much a living being – somehow, despite all appearances, despite what should be possible. It did not quite breathe, not in a way Vilmis could tell, there was no heartbeat he could feel, but it was alive.
Did it breathe through its skin? Did it need to breathe at all? To eat? It had eyes and it could see, the limbs could be used to grab things if needed, they had a language that could be translated, it was warm, all these certain markers of a living being. And yet he questioned. Did it have a heart? Did it have blood? Did those things even matter to him? Surely a scientist out there would love to dissect them.
As if sensing Vilmis' thoughts, the Wisp squirmed. It was surprisingly effective in dispelling them.
He stopped for a moment, taking a breath to clear his head. The strange energy he felt from the Wisp sunk in through his lungs, almost. It was doing something to him, maybe. It felt good. Vilmis gave it another head rub, as an apology. It edged even closer, under his jaw, rubbing like an animal sharing its affection.
He followed everyone back into Jewel's office in a trance. They passed through a hall he had never seen before, and someone was doing a slide presentation on a subject they seemed overly passionate about. He found himself standing before a metal door that Jewel was quick to unlock, and it led to a room completely unlike anything he had seen here – absolutely massive, high ceiling, mostly dark, with a flat screen that covered the entire wall and a Bright-sized desk in the middle completely covered in stacks of printed paper. There was a plant pot with a bunch of flowers in it, different from the ones above, and he realized he did not even know the words to describe them. He wondered what these ones were called.
There was only one chair in here, behind the desk. Jewel plopped right into it.
The lack of sitting arrangements did not seem to bother any of the others, all of them appearing accustomed to standing up for prolonged periods of time. They all moved to different corners of the room as if those were their designated spots. Tangle had even-
Did her tail EXTEND!?
…
…You know what? After Miles' "explanation" on how his tails worked, he was not going to question anything biology and anatomy related ever again.
He also knew this would be proven wrong embarrassingly quick but it was the principle of the matter. No more biology questions. He would leave that to whichever poor STG scientist got assigned with looking into DNA samples.
Anyway, Tangle made a swing for herself and Whisper. He wondered if it was painful for her.
And speaking of Tangle and Whisper… The Wisp was still in his collar. Vilmis looked questioningly between it and Whisper, and after getting the clue it left its spot on his neck. Something in Vilmis lamented the sudden loss of the energy boost.
To his surprise however, it did not go back to Tangle. Instead it chose to hover around the height of his shoulder, glancing at the rest of the room before something caught its attention and it tugged at his sleeve.
Before Vilmis could question what was it, a female voice – Amy's – called out to him.
"So, you had questions about the Wisps?"
He turned and saw that parts of the large monitor in the back were lit up now, showing what looked like a Mega Encyclopedia page – probably this planet's equivalent of the site. Vilmis really should check Earth's version of the Extranet when he was alone again.
"I have a lot of questions actually" he admitted – not that it was any big secret, he said as much outside. "To my understanding, you had First Contact with several alien species we haven't even heard of, and well… that hasn't happened before, to my knowledge. Usually when a new homeworld is discovered, they haven't had First Contact with any species not already a part of the Citadel." Mainly because interstellar travel without Eezo within a reasonable timeframe was practically impossible; and that reminded him, he still had no idea where this planet was, if it was within the galaxy at all.
He tried not to think too much about that.
"Citadel…" interrupted Jewel "is it an alien alliance between multiple species?"
"Yes. But-"
"We should all be here for it so you only have to explain it once" said Amy, echoing the earlier statement.
"It would be for the best. It's a long story." He especially did not look forward to explaining the Citadel's policy regarding artificial intelligence, given what he had seen so far. Or the unreasonably massive satellite cannon.
The pink-furred female turned to Miles. "Tails, mind taking over?"
They would leave the explanation on Miles? "Um, could you please try not to elaborate too much? I need to remember everything…"
Miles let out an awkward laugh. "Eheh, sorry…"
"Vilm asked how his tails worked" said Sonic to Amy in a not-silent-at-all whisper. Wait, Vilm? He figured out very quickly that Sonic had nicknames for most of his friends, but already? Vilmis… he was not sure how he felt about that. But he felt something alright.
Well, it was not the time to address this. If it was even worth addressing in the first place. Vilmis took a deep breath to steady himself and turned to Miles.
"You said the first race to come to Earth was the Ancients?"
Miles nodded. "That's right. The Ancients arrived on Earth fifteen thousand years ago, back when humans were barely forming their first ever civilizations, and us brights had not developed sentience yet. They used to call themselves Xaoq, and thanks to Cyberspace we have all sorts of information about their technology and civilization."
That was more than what could be said about the Protheans. Then again, there was a significant time gap between the disappearance of the two species. He wondered if he could ask Miles for some files to read later.
The young inventor typed something on his Electric and the big screen switched to… a being. It had the general body plan of the striking majority of the races in the galaxy, excluding present company; a bipedal body plan with three-fingered hands and two-fingered legs and knee joints much like Salarians, Turians, Quarians or Vorcha.
The odd part was how the being on the screen – the Ancient – did not appear to have… flesh. It barely looked solid. It was definitely an aquatic being, the large fins were enough of a clue, but otherwise Vilmis could barely make sense of their appearance. He could not even spot a mouth on them. It looked almost transparent, like it was made of water and diluted blue dye.
He quickly reminded himself his newly established policy of no biology questions. It could simply have an odd skin texture. There were plenty of transparent and semi-transparent organisms in nature.
"We don't know where exactly the Ancients came from; what we do know is that they were all forced to flee their planet in massive spaceships after The End destroyed it."
Alright, that was a lot in one sentence. "What do you mean, destroyed it? What is this end?"
"Not sure" said Sonic "but it's gone now. We made sure of it."
"…I will ask for details later" declared Vilmis, making it clear he would not let the subject be forgotten.
"Fine by me."
Miles took this as a sign that their little diversion was over. "The End blew up their home planet to pieces, so they created seven massive space ships powered by the Chaos Emeralds to flee their planet."
Much like the Quarians had to flee their own. However, the number "seven" took him by surprise; the Quarians had the biggest fleet in the galaxy by far, housing millions of their number – barely enough for a city, but definitely sustainable for a species. Having only seven ships did not sound nearly enough to do the same. However, those ships were powered by these "chaos emeralds"…
"You mentioned this before. So these chaos emeralds are what, devices made by the Ancients?"
Miles shook his head. "They're not devices. They are seven emeralds containing unlimited power and they have all sorts of other properties!"
"Save it for later buddy" said Sonic, swiftly cutting off the incoming info-dump.
Meanwhile Vilmis was reeling. Emeralds. Unlimited power. "Are you sure they are real?"
"YES."
…That was said by everyone at once.
"Alright. Understood. My apologies." What the FUCK are the chaos emeralds!? "So unlimited power, I assume they were using them as a power source…" Those spaceships were probably much larger than he originally assumed then. Big enough to make the Quarians' liveships look like jokes.
"Yes, that's their most common use."
"And last time we talked" he continued, recalling that disastrous conversation from the cafeteria "you said they were dragged to Earth? What do you mean by that?"
"The Chaos Emeralds resonated with the Master Emerald, and the Ancients lost control of their ships. They could only go where the Emeralds wanted them to."
What. "Are you telling me the rocks are sentient." Because it sounded like the rocks were sentient.
Seeing that they were actually going to answer that WHAT Vilmis raised his hands up; "Please don't answer that." I do not think my sanity is ready for it.
They closed their mouths. Vilmis lowered his hands. "Is this Master Emerald alien too?" He was not sure why he asked that. Perhaps he wanted to know if this planet was normal at any point in its history. Was it too early to jump into conclusions when he still knew next to nothing?
No, definitely not.
"We don't know if the Master Emerald is alien or not" said Miles. "We… basically know nothing about it." Well, that cut off any questions he may have had short, if Miles was admitting to having no answers.
Time to go back to the actual subject of the conversation; previous first contacts.
"Then the Ancients decided to settle on Starfall Islands, and their colony was destroyed approximately thirty years later" finished Vilmis.
"Damn" said Sonic "you have a good memory."
Well, he was trying to memorize as much information about this planet as possible. "Thank you. How were they destroyed?"
Sonic, Miles and Amy exchanged a heavy look. Everyone else in the room leaned closer, suddenly making the trio the absolute center of attention. This was not the kind of reaction one had to a historical event. Did something happen?
"The End…" said Amy, voice cracking "followed them here. The Ancients were able to seal it away in Cyberspace, but it was far too late for them."
Seal it? That sounded like it came straight out of a magic fantasy game- oh wait. Everything did. More importantly, was this what Sonic meant? About how they made sure The End was gone?
Earlier, Vilmis wondered if these people's talk about the Chaos Emeralds was rooted in science or religion. Now it seemed that these people had factual evidence that their religion was actually real. The only other species who could claim that were the Hanar.
"I see…" he said, not knowing what to add. He really did not want to think about cosmology right now.
"The Ancients left more than the Chaos Emeralds behind" said Miles, also eager to change the topic. "Many of them transferred all their data to the Koco."
"Koco?" He had heard the name before, but…
"I showed you a picture."
"Oh! The toy-looking things. Wait, so they're- hosting AI copies of the Ancients?" He remembered hearing from somewhere that the Quarians had tried to create Vis based on their ancestors prior to the Geth Rebellion, so the concept was not unheard of, but to hear that someone actually succeeded was completely different.
The entire Quarian species would go to war with this planet.
"I would not exactly call them AI copies."
"Crane was" cut him Sonic.
"Yeah, but most Koco weren't. No, they transferred their memories – practically their souls – into those vessels."
Memories was one thing, given the existence of greyboxes, but souls? "…Science and religion are really blended on this planet."
Sonic whistled. "Hoo boy, that's a rabbit hole of a topic." That sounded ominous.
"Everyone worshipped the Chaos Emeralds at some point" added Miles. Made sense, if half the things stated about them were even remotely true.
"And that's not getting into the Ancients' religion…" continued Amy, rubbing her head in a clear sign of an incoming headache. "I'm still surprised they even had a religion." Yes, levels of piety tended to drastically decrease post First Contact, or with general advancement of science.
Vilmis judged that it was time to go back to the main topic of discussion again. "So, the Ancients left behind the Koco?"
"And the Chao."
He blinked. "Chao?"
"Chao!"
All eyes moved to… Cheese?
"That's a Chao?"
"Yup" said Sonic. "They evolved from the leftover Ancients. They are… partially sentient. About toddler level. For the most part. They're all talented in different fields. They fall under special legal status."
…
...Is devolution actually REAL on this planet!? What the fuck? Other than the colours this thing looked nothing like an Ancient!
"You haven't seen Chaos" said Amy.
"Huh?"
"Chaos. A chao mutated by the Master Emerald. You haven't seen him."
"…Did I say that out loud?"
"The part about Chao and the Ancients looking nothing alike? Yes, you did."
"Oh." He really had to stop doing that before he accidentally said something truly incriminating.
"No, you're right, it's a drastic change."
"Oh. Alright. Thank you. Uh, um, sorry Cheese."
Cheese did a little dance. Cream smiled and gave a tiny bow. That was probably an acceptance of his apology. He would take it. He did not want to know if it was possible to offend Chao.
Also, note to self, look up Chaos later because he was certain they did not mean the concept of anarchy and disorder.
"Ancients then. Who went extinct and their remnants are the Koco – which are greyboxes of some kind – and the Chao, which are descended from them. Who visited your planet next?"
Miles stared at his screen for a few moments too long, without moving his fingers over it. As if he was debating on whether he should mention this at all. Vilmis could see the moment he settled on a decision.
"Next… are the Babylonians."
When Wave woke up that morning, the last thing she expected to see in her notifications was a message from shorty.
She did not really see Sonic and his little squad very often; the last time they contacted each other on purpose as opposed to running into them on accident was during the Zombot fiasco. They were not exactly not in contact, but it was barely in a professional sense; she had his contact information the same way she had the contact information of a few other engineers, and that was what most of their correspondence boiled down to. Not that she really ever gave tech tips to anyone, but she was the undisputed expert in everything Extreme Gear-related and she was asked to do reviews and tests quite often. It was the Rogues' most legitimate source of income, along with prize money from sport events.
She opened up her email to see what in the world he sent her first thing in the morning; well, they were in different timezones, so he would have been up for a couple of hours earlier than her, but still pretty early.
She gave it a cursory read.
She blinked.
Her eyes were getting blurry, so she rubbed them and read it again. She then closed her email app and started with her morning routine, because she needed to be fully awake for this shit.
She downed a full bottle of water first thing and then spent almost too long in her bathroom cleaning, tidying and re-oiling her feathers. She had a breakfast made up of a fruit smoothie and a few eggs and then freshened herself up before turning on her monitor this time and logging into her email account.
The email was still there, so no she had not dreamt that shit.
"Hello Wave! It's Tails.
This is kinda complicated and a bit of a long story, but short version is, a few days ago an alien ship crash-landed on Starfall Islands, and their technology that sounds way too similar to the Ark of the Cosmos. There's one survivor that talked about it a little but he's not an expert – still he explained some things.
There's a substance called "Element Zero" that they call Eezo, and is generated when solid matter is subjected to intense gravitational forces, such as a star going supernova. Eezo, as it's commonly called, can change the mass of itself and nearby objects depending on what kind of electric current passes through it. I'm pretty sure it has something to do with Dark Energy, but I've been too busy to test it.
The point is, when electric currents pass through Eezo, it starts glowing the exact same blue as the Ark of the Cosmos did. I included a video. This is only a theory for now, but I'm pretty sure the Ancient Babylonians were using Element Zero back in their spacefaring era.
The spaceship is in pieces from the crash, but the engine and the Eezo core are mostly intact. We have to be careful though because the survivor says that direct exposure can cause cancer.
I'm sorry that's a lot to spring on you all of the sudden, but do you think you can pop up sometime in the next few days to take a look? Your opinion would be invaluable to this research!
Hope we see you soon!
Tails"
Almost in a trance, she opened the video. What she saw was…
It was…
A giant core that resembled some kind of twisted star, a glowing spinning sphere that was such a familiar blue it almost made her choke, the people on the video standing next to it startling and gasping as the small objects held in their hands were suspended in the air once they approached. She knew how they felt, as if the blood in their very hearts was pumped in all the wrong ways as if an invisible hand was squeezing it, the thrill of the world sinking and rushing around you as all loose objects were yanked towards them in their wake.
It was a terrifying thrill, unlike any other.
Wave slumped on her seat.
Ever since the Ark of the Cosmos left…
She was fine with it, really. They all were. They found out the truth behind their people's oldest legend, and the original Extreme Gear was hung like a rag at Jet's place. They had all been content with where their lives were, the possibility of a homeworld they never knew existed completely cut off from them.
And now Tails sent her this.
She had to…
She could not let this go. She could NOT let this go. It was too big and too much and she wanted to KNOW because how dare they get their hands on it first. She had to-
First, she had to make sure this was not some kind of prank. He was not the kind of person to do mean pranks like that, stupidly honest that he was, but this was important. She could not just- call Jet and have it all turn out to fake.
Fuck, what would she tell Jet?
No, she could not focus on that now. Instead she passed the video through all programs she could think of and even replayed it a bunch of times herself trying to find any kind of special effects or inconsistencies.
Nothing. It was real. That video was real.
She had- she had to tell Jet.
Chaos, how would Jet take this news?
Wave was not sure if he would even want to know or care. Jet was pretty much incapable of caring of anything that was not beating Sonic, getting rich, their general wellbeing (and by that they meant being "eh, good enough"), and world-ending disasters. Wave did not think the news about-
How to even phrase this. Lost technology of their ancestors?
Because here is the thing – she had analysed the Arks of the Cosmos. She took her time with them because that airship ride was long. But she did not take as much time as she would want to. She had assumed at the time that the Arks would be in their hands forever, that she would have a long, long time in her hands to figure out how they tick. And they were ripped away from them in days, never to return.
No use crying over spilt milk so she did not bother.
But now there was more milk. And it had not been spilt yet.
And yet…
And yet…
"The Babylonians are a race of avian aliens that arrived here on Earth seven thousand years ago."
The image switched to what looked like a celebrity poster of all things, featuring a trio holding up what was obviously trophies. A sports competition, perhaps?
Miles noticed his inquisitive gaze. "Yeah, those are the Babylon Rogues. We know them, they're pretty famous."
That sounded like a long story for another time. There was a more pressing matter.
"So they did not go extinct like the Ancients?"
"No, in fact it's the opposite. There are Babylonians everywhere on the planet. Every sentient avian here on Earth is a Babylonian. I think it's about twelve percent of the Brights population? They're always included with the Brights in demographic counts."
"THAT many? How did that happen?"
"One of their live ships had engine failures on all its engines at once and crashed on Earth."
"A liveship…" like the Quarians.
Fifty thousand ships hosting – or rather, housing – seventeen million Quarians. There were stories about the Migrant Fleet, how it was impossible to grasp its true size unless you saw it with your own eyes, that seventeen million for a sentient species seemed like such a small number until you considered the logistics behind it, to realize how utterly impossible that was.
"The Babylonians realized that their ship was far too dangerous and decommissioned the engines, but did so in such a way that it would be possible to restore them. They hoped to get supplies from Earth to do that and resorted to raiding and stealing, but… Earth just didn't have what they needed."
Wait…
"Eventually they started trying to create new flight technology from scratch, on a large smaller scale, and it worked, but nothing that would let them operate a spaceship. Eventually they were so absorbed in the local cultures that they forgot they were aliens entirely, and the spaceship faded to myth."
Forgot they were aliens? They forgot?
"Um, Vilmis? Are you alright?"
"…If I had heard that in any planet other than this one, I don't think I would have believed it."
Miles looked… troubled. "Believed what?"
"That a species could forget that they're alien. But… I supposed they blend in, here."
"They sure do" said Sonic.
"Oh, by the way, we don't know anything about their homeworld, and neither do they. So that's it, for them."
So far, that made two species that mysteriously crash-landed on the planet. Three, if he counted himself.
Where in the galaxy was this planet? Was this planet even in the galaxy? Did it even matter, considering the situation?
Could he go home?
"Any others? You mentioned the Zeti and the Wisps."
"There were the Black Arms, but…" For the second time in the conversation, Miles visibly hesitated. "It's… a long story. Shadow is the one who knows the full story, but… they're not a problem anymore."
Well. That was not ominous in the slightest.
"Did it involve them crash-landing too?" he tried to joke.
"No, the Black Arms were… quite hostile."
"Ah, screw it." Vilmis turned to Sonic. "Those guys were alien invaders, all gloom and doom. And because of Shadow they're now extinct."
E-
"EXTINCT!?"
"I mean, they were trying to eat us all."
…Eat…?
"I… think you need to… elaborate on that." Before he jumped to conclusions he really should not jump to.
Maybe it was a situation like the Rachni Wars…? What did Shadow do?
"The Black Arms were an alien race inhabiting the Black Comet" says Miles, taking over for Sonic. "That comet used to pass by Earth every fifty years. Most recently was almost two years ago."
"Wait, did they colonize the comet?" asked Vilmis, trying to imagine the logistics behind it. "I've never heard of a comet that could naturally develop life."
"They, uh…" Miles scratched his head, looking kind of awkward. "We don't actually know?"
"They had no trouble breathing on it, and neither did we" said Sonic. "And that Black Doom guy said they lived on it for at least two thousand years."
Vilmis did some mental math. "That is old but not unheard of for a colony."
That stunned everybody else, especially Miles. "You have two thousand years old space colonies?"
"Mostly us Salarians and the Asari. And the Protheans had an entire empire forty thousand years ago. We don't know where their homeworld is so all their cities must have started out as colonies."
He could feel the mood plummeting everyone visibly worked through the implications of this sentence.
Vilmis had very similar thoughts about it. They said the Black Arms were extinct, but at the same time they seemed to be under the impression that this comet was their species' homeworld. But if it was just a colony…
"Do you think there are more Black Arms out there?"
It was Cream who had spoken up, voicing everybody's thoughts in a tiny voice. Cheese was huddled close to her.
Well. Those reactions spoke for themselves. Still, he needed more solid information than Sonic's out-of-context remarks. "What exactly happened with the Black Arms?"
"They tried to eat all of us" said Amy. "They invaded and consumed a lot of people. Black Doom wanted to drive us to extinction!"
"Yeah, he kept saying some crap 'bout how he was "doing us a favour" because we'd blow up ourselves or whatever." Vilmis hated himself a little for instantly flashing back to the blown up moon and thinking they might be on to something. "Shadow eventually blew up their comet, and that was the last we heard of any of them. Good riddance."
He was going to ignore the part about Shadow blowing up a comet for now. Especially since he suspected a very specific cannon was involved in it.
"I assume this Black Doom was a commander of some kind?" Really, what was with this planet and their bizarre names?
"Well, kinda yeah. He was the only one actually talking."
Vilmis' confusion must have shown on his face.
"We don't know if the rest of the Black Arms were fully sentient or not" explained Miles. "According to Shadow they had a hive mind, and they had pretty advanced technology – they were really good with energy weapons – but other than Black Doom they never tried to communicate with us."
This was sounding more and more like the Rachni. Eerily similar, even. The Rachni were also obviously sentient, but it was completely impossible to communicate with them.
"Something wrong?" asked Amy.
Vilmis debated for a second. "I'll tell you once everyone is here, it has to do with galactic history."
Amy took that wrong. "Did you have Black Arms sightings!?"
"Wha-no, nothing of the sort! It's just- we have incidents like that in the galaxy too. Well, just one but-"
"Oh, I get it" she confirmed. "Moving on?"
"Movi- wait." Vilmis thought back to a tiny detail of Miles' most recent sentence that he overlooked while thinking how similar this situation was to the Rachni.
"What is it?"
"Did you say energy weapons?"
"…"
Don't tell me this PRE-spaceflight race that DOESN'T HAVE EEZO has-
"You guys don't have any?"
Damnit.
"No" he said, vaguely feeling like his soul was leaving his body. "No we don't."
"…"
"…Most use gunpowder or the Wisps if that helps any?" said Tangle. "At least that's what Whisper is telling me."
Vilmis turned to the Wisp serenely floating next to him so fast he almost gave himself whiplash.
"You're ammo?"
The Wisp looked very smug.
"MOVING ON!" said Amy. "Up next we got… the Wisps."
"…"
The Wisp was laughing at them.
"So much for moving on."
"Sonic!"
Vilmis ignored their banter. "You mentioned the Wisps quite a few times already, but…" He felt awkward, not sure who to address; the Wisp was right next to him but they could not talk to them…
"How about we let the Wisps explain?" suggested Sonic. "You guys feeling up for it?"
Vilmis turned to the Wisp that was keeping him company, which was practically vibrating. It zoomed over to Miles in an instant, prepping itself – themself? – in a manner akin to a stage performer. Miles quickly typed something on his Electric and the desk computer, and suddenly ahigh-pitched electronic voice blared from the speakers.
"HI!"
Miles quickly turned the volume down.
"Ow, that was loud… Hi!"
A sudden knock on the door and the human who was doing that slide presentation on the hallway came in. "Is everyone ok- OH, I'm sorry, I heard a noise-"
"It was just the speakers" said Jewel.
"Right, my apologies… Excuse me."
The human left closing the door behind.
"OK, for the last time, hi! Glad to talk to a crowd for once! The whole language barrier thing is a pain in the- anyway! So, us Wisps! We come from planet Wisp! Baldy MacNosehair " Vilmis almost choked "stole our planet and brought it close to Earth and tried to turn it into an amusement park! And he stole a bunch of other planets too! He also used us to power up his machines, we didn't know we could do that! We don't have much technology on planet Wisp because we don't really need it, so we were super scared! But we figured out that we can power up people too, and not all machines are bad, so now we're helping everyone beat up Baldy MacNosehair and his robots!"
Most of that Vilmis had already heard in fragments, but the power up part was new. "So… you Wisps have enough energy to use as batteries?"
"Sure do! It's called Hyper-go-on!" What was WITH these names!? "And it's the most awesome thing ever!"
"And this… doesn't hurt you?" Vilmis could not imagine being a living battery as pleasant.
"Baldy's machines did but the Wispons don't hurt at all. Everyone is super nice here! Well, most people."
That was good to know. "So what happened to planet Wisp?"
"Mother Wisp put it back in place."
…Should he ask about this? Actually, no better chance.
"Who is Mother Wisp?"
"She's our mother, obviously! She made Planet Wisp for us and protects us! Baldy MacNosehair hurt her really badly, but she's all fine now! We miss her here, but we want to beat Baldy and help our friends!"
"That's… nice of you. I'm glad you're all fine." As weird as the whole situation was, an alliance to apprehend a terrorist made perfect sense. He was glad to know the Wisps that were here on Earth stayed by their own free will.
He had a lot to think about, like what was this "Mother Wisp" who allegedly created a planet yet the Wisp spoke of her live a living being. Or did they just attribute everything they didn't understand to this "Mother Wisp", like a religion of old?
The relationship this corner of the universe had with religion was really giving him a headache.
"I… guess that's it, more or less? Planet Wisp is super pretty, but it's better if you visit it!"
"That sounds nice" said Vilmis distantly, lost in thought. "Thank you."
"You're welcome!"
The Wisp – who still had not introduced itself, did they have names? – left the desk to return to hovering next to Vilmis, obviously in a good mood.
Vilmis decided to get back on topic. "Any other alien races? You mentioned the Zeti earlier."
"It's just them left" replied Miles.
About time. That list was getting long.
"Wait" said Amy "aren't we going to talk about Dodon Pa?"
"That was a one-time thing."
Amy stared at Miles in disbelief and so did Sonic and Vilmis. Miles typed something on his device. The other two dropped the subject.
What did he tell them?
"So, the Zeti. As we said earlier, they are a species that lives on the Lost Hex satellite, which orbits around the outer ends of our atmosphere thermosphere layer. They have the ability to control electromagnetic signals, which means that they can control most machines with their minds. We're not actually sure if they're aliens or not because they're so close to Earth, but they're notoriously isolationist, so we can't really test them. Rumour has it that they're the source of all the myths about Oni in the eastern hemisphere, especially Japan."
"Oni?"
"A collection of folklore demons. They're very aggressive and even tried to invade Earth at least once, so they keep spreading rumours that they really are demons. We're keeping an eye on them just in case."
Miles opened his mouth, then closed it, then opened it again. "I guess that's… all of them? I'm not forgetting something…"
"Little Planet?"
"Nothing sentient there…"
"Then that's all of them."
"I guess… I, uh… Vilmis? I'll send you some of those files on Black Arms. And the Ancients. Some of them aren't online, but I think you should take a look."
"Right. Thank you."
He had a lot to think about.
"Mr. Padmin."
He snapped out of his thoughts, looking up to see Jewel looking at him, clearly having addressed him. It was mostly professional habit that held back his stunned reaction; she had been mostly a non-entity during the presentation. Yet despite that, and how obviously tired she was, she was looking at him right in the eyes, her gaze even.
"Yes…" he briefly debated on what to call her "…ma'am?"
Her face twitched, betraying her surprise, but she did not lose focus. "As the leader of the Restoration, I have to ask you… What are your future plans?"
He should have seen this coming. He was surprised they did not ask him sooner, really.
"Personally, I have no issue with continuing to house you here in HQ for as long as you wish, providing you contribute to the community in some way. However, I need to know what you wish to do. From what Tails told me, you crash landed here during a recon mission gone wrong. So understand that you have other obligations."
"Other obligations" was a bit of an understatement…
Vilmis gathered his thoughts. He knew what he wanted – and more importantly, needed – to do. Think of it as mission parameters.
"You are correct. As per the mission parameters of Operation MIRAGE, we were conducting survey on Anhur, a planet that turned invisible via unknown means by an unknown party, and SUV Letos was transferred here on Earth upon entering Anhur's airspace. I don't know if the STG or other parties are currently proceeding with the mission."
A deep breath.
"I need to reestablish contact with the STG, confirm whether or not Dr. Robotnik is involved with the disappearance of Anhur, and hopefully return to Citadel space – or at least known galactic space. There are many things with that, such as establishing proper First Contact between our governments or create a proper codex regarding Earth's species, culture, languages, history and biology. However, that is definitely not a task I can complete by myself, and from what I've heard so far… you operate in a significantly different manner than the rest of the galaxy." The words would not stop coming. "Not on your daily lives; from what I've seen the lifestyle of the average civilian is no different than that of the average civilian in most places on the galaxy, however everything else frankly… contrasts even conventional physics. I'm having trouble understanding at which point you separate science and religion. I'm at a loss at what these chaos emeralds you keep mentioning are even supposed to be. The more I think about the state of this planet the less sense it makes. No- it's- it's internally consistent, at least I think, you don't contradict yourselves, but the rest of the galaxy just… doesn't work that way. I know next to nothing and I can't figure it out. Honestly I'm just lost."
He… probably should not have said that last part.
It was quiet before but it was completely silent now. He could see the eyes of Sonic, Amy, Miles, and Jewel boring into him, and he was certain the other people in the room out of his line of sight were doing the same.
"You want to know what the Chaos Emeralds are?"
Miles' voice was flat. Serious.
"…Yes. Please."
"Follow me."
Huh?
Miles got off his seat and headed out of the office. "Come on."
Was he serious.
"Yes, I am. Follow me."
"Tails, you sure buddy?" asked Sonic.
"Yes. Everyone has seen them at least once. We hunt them down all the time. We'll have to do it again, and soon. Especially if Eggman is involved."
Vilmis was pretty sure he was not supposed to be getting an ominous feeling from this, but it was settling in his ribcage all the same.
And so he followed.
He was not entirely sure where he was. He was taken deeper and deeper into the building of the Restoration, but perhaps they had left it; all he knew for sure was that they had been underground for a long time. It probably, possibly, felt longer than it was, perhaps in different circumstances Vilmis would have been able to follow and memorize the route as he should have, but his mind was buzzing too much, focused half on the orange fur of his companion like a beacon and half on everything else.
This was the last thing he expected. It was as if he and his friends were talking about Prothean Beacons and suddenly one of them told them "let me show you the one I have in the basement". Perhaps not even that was truly analogous.
He wondered how they were doing. Pris would absolutely adore being here, he was sure. His skin would curl with envy if he heard what kind of adventure Vilmis found himself in. If he was here he would boast about it until the end of days.
He wondered what Pris had been told. If he had been told anything. Vilmis was missing for a few days already, he knew. Had the crew been declared missing yet? Had he? Was the STG, the Batarians, anyone looking for him, scanning Anhur's surface and airspace in vain? Would they stumble across Earth by accident?
Was Earth even in the same galaxy?
By the Wheel, was Earth even in the same galaxy?
He did not know. They would have to compare star maps but right now he had no way of knowing for sure. Did he have a star map in his omnitool? He should know, he should remember but his head was buzzing, he could not complete the thought and that was terrifying did he have a star map did the ship have a star map the ship was in pieces he remembered seeing the stars through the cracked ceiling and hearing chimes.
"We're here."
It was an engine room. Well-lit. White and clinical. Massive. Full of machinery. He could smell oil, smoke, metal, water. There was the faint sound of a stream, accompanying the buzzing of machinery and the air fans. Bizarrely cold and hot at once, the air was like a cool breeze in a hot day yet in felt wrong, like it made you sick instead of providing relief.
Two steps closer and he felt it.
He felt it when Shadow was near. He felt hints of it near Sonic. That feeling that made his skin itch, stronger than ever.
Nobody else was here.
Miles did not break stride, even. Vilmis slowed down, exposed. The corridor just wide enough, narrow, straight, framed by the machines. As if they were staring down at him.
A tiny bridge was elevated over a passing stream. The roaring was not enough to drown the buzz in his ears.
He passed over wires sprawled on the white ground like roots.
At the end was something that in no way resembled the word that came to Vilmis' mind, for it was little more than a transparent cylindrical casing, the nexus points for so many wires, linking all the machines together.
Altar.
Inside…
… was a Crystal. Floating. Its spin the heartbeat of the system. As bright as the sun. The depths of its colour unfathomable, twisting and drawing in the eye, unable to gaze elsewhere.
"Here it is. The Chaos Emerald that powers this base."
He lifted his hand. He could not think to stop. He-
"HEY!"
Miles.
He just- by the Wheel. Did he- did he just try to touch that thing?
"I'm sorry, I… I don't…" I don't know what happened.
Miles' expression was alarmed, slightly panicked. "I've never seen a reaction like THAT before!"
"Sounds like that's a bad thing…" he tried to joke. "I'm sorry, I've just…" He had no idea what to say to cover how that… thing made him feel.
"It didn't occur to me that it really was not an ancient mechanism until just now." It sounded weak even to his own ears.
Miles was oddly quiet. "I remember seeing them for the first time too."
"Really?"
"Hm. It was back when I first met Sonic. I think that was also his first time seeing them but… He doesn't really talk about his super mode."
"…Super mode?"
Miles turned to the ceiling, far, far away.
"He's like a shooting star."
This is something that may happen in the future.
There is a cubical box in the middle of a lab. It's dark and metallic, like everything around it. Countless sensors point towards it. From the slightest slit there is green light coming from the inside. The box is locked. The lab is locked.
A water droplet drops.
The light from the box is gone.
The next time the box opens, it's empty.
This is something that may have happened in the past.
Flesh is being woven into metal. The flesh stains the metal black and red. The flesh was once battered and bleeding. It no longer bleeds.
All those connected with the flesh scream in pain. There aren't that many of them.
A signal passes through the flesh as it turns sold. The screams halt.
The flesh is now stationary.
This is something that may be happening in the present.
Something is arguing with itself. It has many, many selves, and now they are split apart by their own will.
Some selves choose to observe. Some selves choose to learn. Some selves choose to fight. Some selves choose to help.
Some of these selves watch as a visitor from afar searches for the glimmer of scales in the black water.
The visitor is successful.
This is something that is happening right now.
A lost man is contemplating the light burned into his eyes. The light was warm and life-giving, searing through the skin, solid and moving.
The man left the temple/machine where it was held in a daze.
He only asked to be left alone for a while, which he was allowed.
The light was enough to plant into the man the seed of faith in the divine.
Vilmis wanted to collapse on his new bed but found that he could not. Too jittery from that light, too full, that yellow gemstone…
That gemstone…
It floated and rotated by its own power, the light feeling like static and current and sunlight and cool and warm all at once, the light had a texture to it and it was like silk and sand and water all at once. The reflection on its surface was immaculate, so clear you could see right through it, so deep it was impossible to see anything beyond it.
Vilmis locked the door to his apartment and started laughing.
No wonder they worshipped it. No fucking wonder they worshipped it.
He laughed because it should not be real and because it was more real than anything he had ever seen. He laughed because it was placed in an altar as a glorified battery. He laughed because it was alive without being a living thing, because it was a lifeline that could be replaced yet was irreplaceable.
A ping to his omnitool which he had not heard in days and he saw a bunch of files with an unknown military logo and a note that they were "edited by Miles Prower".
He glimpsed at those files without reading them and started laughing again remembering the conversation he had just before going to that altar.
How the fuck was he supposed to fit that in a report?
His world had just been tilted at its axis.
And that changed nothing, did it. Nothing at all. Nothing about his situation had changed. He made no progress after that reveal. The world kept moving as it always did and he was still stuck here incapable of doing anything.
The only thing he earned was the knowledge that there was something more.
And wasn't that a terrifying thought.
He opened his omnitool and swiped away the files to read them later.
Connecting with the local version of the Extranet was all too easy. Vilmis typed in two words and trusted the translator to handle it.
Chaos Emeralds.
Results came quickly. Articles and videos, as expected from any search engine.
There were thousands of results. Nowhere near as many as he would have gotten in any corner of the galaxy. Still far too many to handle right now.
Almost on impulse, he added Sonic's name to his search.
The first result was news footage marked from two years ago. The videoshell displayed water. The title said "Sonic the Hedgehog First Recorded Appearance – Sonic saves Central City from water entity | CSB News LIVE". It had billions of views.
He switched his omnitool to full colour display mode, and then drew the blinds to darken the room as much as possible in the middle of the day. Nowhere near as good as a solid screen in terms of visual quality but it would have to do for now.
He clicked on it.
It was footage from a news helicopter. Below was a flooded city built in a style that flung him backwards in time, as if in his hand he had footage from the pre-spaceflight era – which he guessed he did.
No, flooded was an understatement. It was as if the ocean itself had risen to swallow the city whole. The buildings and the streets had cracked, enormous geysers suspending them mid-air. Somehow waterfalls fell from the broken windows of the skyscrapers even though the water had not reached those heights. The water was swirling furiously as if in the middle of a growing typhoon. The reporter was barely keeping calm as they were assessing the damage as professionally as they could before they turned away and-
"WHAT IS THAT!?"
The camera operator turned to followed the gaze of the reporter as exclamations of shock were nearly drowned by the noise of the helicopter.
Two years in the future, Vilmis echoed their reaction.
It was a monster.
That was the simplest description of it.
A titan easily larger than any of the skyscrapers surrounding it, yet it seemed like only its neck and head were visible; its body glittered like water- no. On second look, it was as if its body was the water. The dread in Vilmis' insides grew as he realized that it truly was made of water, moving surging water defying gravity, a living entity in its own right, choosing to appear as the head of a monster and the true size defying comprehension.
It was water. Immaculately pure and sparking water despite all the debris swallowed by the typhoon. The only thing solid was its spiked back, dark blue like the deepest ocean, as if that water had solidified into something other than ice for it was strangely organic. He could not tell what kind of organic, the holoscreen was not good enough for that.
The spikes were glowing emerald green at the places they were not transparent, a glow that continued from its paradoxically solid and opaque green mouth down to what he could only describe as its esophagus or perhaps its spine. A glow mirrored in its sharp pupils.
Water tendrils emerged fluidly like limbs.
"Oh Gaia…" came from the reporter. "I have no idea what this thing is, Jimmy, I have no idea…"
"WATCH OUT!"
It opened its mouth and suddenly an energy beam came out of it like a cannon, splitting everything before it before landing on… a bizarre red airship of some kind. It blew up to pieces with an escape pod coming out just in time.
"That's Dr. Robotnik! The man who almost detonated a nuclear weapon on Station Square!"
Vilmis felt a jolt going through him at the sudden namedrop of the terrorist who may be behind the disappearance of Anhur. Not that this footage allowed any glimpse of him, gone too fast for the helicopter or the camera to catch up to him.
The rest of him was still preoccupied with the beam of energy that came from this creature that he could swear he felt through the screen.
It roared.
Even through the video, that roar…
"Hey, Jimmy take a look at this down there!"
The camera turned away from the water entity and down to street level where…
It was Sonic. His fur colour was so bold and distinct that Vilmis was certain he would be able to recognize him from any distance. And he was… arguing with someone, indicated only by his wild gestures, the distance covering any sound not already swallowed by the roaring waters. The other Bright was nobody he recognized, with light orange/pink fur, except that…
He could only tell because Sonic was standing right next to them but… was that Bright transparent?
"Who is that? Why haven't they evacuated yet?"
"Spark, the monster!"
The footage was a blur again as the helicopter moved further away from the entity and the camera operator focused on it again. There were seven lights floating around it. Vilmis recognized them instantly. He saw one of them mere minutes ago.
The Chaos Emeralds. All seven of them.
Somehow landing on Sonic's feet of all places.
"Any idea what these are, Jimmy?"
"Maybe, but- hold on, lemme zoom in. There are more people on the bridge!"
"Gaia, you're right! There's a group of Brights running straight to the disaster zone!"
And Vilmis recognized them, Miles with his distinctive two tails and Amy in a different dress than what she was wearing today, along with two others he had yet to meet, a red one that bore a passive resemblance to the transparent one (and now he was sure they were transparent and he did not want to consider the implications of that until after the video) and a massive one who was deep purple.
"Is that Miles Prower?"
"It IS! That's the young prodigy who defused the nuclear missile that Dr. Robotnik set on Station Square just two days ago!"
By the Wheel, that sentence had no right to exist.
"Perhaps he figured out something!"
"I don't know man, the kid's a prodigy but that's no machine. And we don't know who the others are."
Golden light.
Oh.
So that was what Miles meant by "shooting star".
Sonic turned gold. Somehow. He was glowing with the same light he saw from the Emerald and he was gone with a breath, running across the water faster than a bullet, diving into the entity and attacking from the inside, creating a second trail of light from within its body. It dissolved into mere water and reformed just as fast, and Sonic just kept trying again and again, dodging everything the entity would fire at him, water, energy, cyclones, flames even.
Fast enough to go by in a blur. Slow enough to drown the breath with anxiety.
Until it could no longer continue.
It dissolved. For the last time. The reporters were dead silent as Sonic flew – flew! – back to the broken bridge were all his friends were screaming for him.
Except it was not just them there.
To Vilmis' dread, the water started reforming right there on the bridge, only for the dread to be replaced with confusion at how little water there was.
It did reform.
Into an Ancient.
There were blue blobs all around it and the camera zoomed in to reveal that they were Chaos. Just a bunch of Chao surrounding it. The Ancient.
The transparent one ran straight to them. Perhaps they talked a little.
Bemusedly, Vilmis was not surprised when they floated away and vanished.
"Um… Jimmy? Any idea what that was about?"
"No clue, Spark…"
"What about that blue… golden…"
"There they are! Still at the bridge!"
The camera turned just in time to catch Sonic, back to normal, jumping from the bridge, and Miles along with the red bright yell after him. Sonic was already across ten rooftops.
"Well Jimmy, I think that's one for the history books!"
A knock on the door and a glance at the clock that came with the translation program announced that it was time for dinnertime.
With mild annoyance – he had asked to be left alone for the rest of the day – he opened the door.
It was not Miles. It was the Wisp from earlier.
It was holding a tiny sign that Vilmis could not read.
He lifted his omnitool and it said "food".
Well, he knew an invitation when he saw it. He asked the Wisp to wait for a moment and he grabbed his shoes, wallet, and keys before following it. The Wisp took him to a surprisingly quiet corner of the Restoration base, where he found no other than Whisper.
She nodded to greet him and offered him something with meat in it. She did not otherwise make any motion to talk.
Vilmis opened his mouth, feeling obliged to say something, but she and the Wisps just motioned him to sit.
That…
He sat.
They just ate. Not really talking.
It was… fine, actually. After this morning he appreciated the quiet. He asked for it, even.
It was beyond rare to find silence and a quiet spot on Sur'Kesh. There were just so many people, and each family was massive by standards of another species. It was next to impossible to live alone on Sur'Kesh. It was said the Salarians were naturally social because of this, not necessarily outgoing but easy to socialize with, and Vilmis guessed that was true enough. He could hardly recall any moment in his life where there was no conversation ongoing right in front of him or next to him, whether he participated in it or not.
Perhaps during exams and tests and that sort of thing? School felt like another universe, had felt so for years since he finished. Not that this was unusual.
The Wisps accompanying Whisper were busying themselves with eating their own portions and playing a game with six-sided dice. Whisper kept to herself, eating. Vilmis found himself observing her after a while.
She was obviously one of the more carnivorously-inclined species, indicated by her sharp incisors visible through her mouth and her choice of meal. But other than that she was…
He supposed the word was weary. Or something.
Out of everyone he had seen in this base, she was the most obvious military – or more accurately, paramilitary. The one person he would instantly ping as a mercenary.
It was… familiar. Comforting, almost.
The long rifle at her side was the most obvious bit. It was the first piece of weaponry he had seen yet, and its makeup was curious, having a large spherical chamber halfway through the barrel. It was otherwise a dark grey and black, like most military hardware. He supposed it was one of the Wispons that had been mentioned during that meeting earlier.
However, the rifle was only part of it. The rest of her clothing was… solid. Made of thick and hard material, many pockets, dark grey boots and cloak preferred for camouflage in urban and dark areas, the corset was non-reflective despite its white colour, and the boots were unusual in design only in that most species did not have that kind of foot morphology that the people of Earth – what did they collectively call themselves? Earthians? He would have to ask – obviously shared with the Asari. He was mostly reminded of Batarian combat boots, clearly meant for rough terrain. No sign of barrier tech anywhere, but again snipers had less need of it than front-line crews.
Not that he could judge right now; he had yet to see a combat situation on this planet.
Except Sonic. But he was not willing to think about that video right now. He just needed the pressure in his head to lessen.
The meat was fairly salty. Juicy and chewy too. Rich though. Took some work to go through it, but filling. Dark red. He supposed that was the colour of blood here.
There were others who had red blood too. The Quarians, Batarians, and Vorcha, that is.
Krogan had orange. He was pretty sure the Rachni had yellow once upon a time. Salarian was green but the colder side of green. Asari blood was a nearly blue dark purple, Turian was straight up blue.
Some people had a lot to say about blood colour.
There were entire theories online from certain groups about how the colour of blood was somehow indication of how "acceptable" a species was, that all the "undesirable" races having similarly-coloured blood was not a coincidence but that it was a genetic trait to be a scumbag.
Of course, red blood only indicated that the blood used iron to trap oxygen in it. He knew that.
He wondered that colour did the Wisps bleed. Or the Chao. Or maybe those Ancients. That Ancient. Did that Ancient bleed water?
Would that even count as "bleeding"?
That Ancient… was water. Vilmis could not find a better way to describe it. That Ancient was water itself. Its body was water, the weather changed in accordance to its fury, defying gravity.
He was certain, even through the screen, he could feel the energy of the Chaos Emeralds.
The Ancients were supposed to be extinct. But that Ancient was very real.
He remembered the orange Bright.
Real doesn't mean alive.
He shook his head. What a ludicrous thought… for a moment he had wondered if that Ancient was a ghost. If that Bright was.
Can a ghost be water? You can't kill water.
You cannot kill water. Water just… was.
The reporters called that thing a monster. The title called it an entity.
Vilmis was juggling another word in his head, spinning it around and examining it as he stared at the red meat in his hands, taking in the details of its fibers.
"Everyone worshipped the Chaos Emeralds at some point."
The Emeralds were definitely real, alright.
He just kept eating, letting half-formed thought pass through his head, Whisper at his side a silent companion.
The first thing he did upon returning to his apartment was to transcribe the first report he wrote, correct some errors in it. These hours after dinner signaled a cessation in activity, slow but certain as most turned in for sleep. Vilmis was not one of those people, his biology forbidding him, and so he had to fill his nights with other things.
He wanted to begin drafting a new report, but first…
He opened the files Miles sent him. A lot of it was heavily redacted.
That was fine. The fact alone that he had been given military files-
He had been given military files. Actual. Military files. Just like that. They knew he was a spy, and they knew next to nothing about him and- holy shit a child just sent him military files in his omnitool. Redacted, but there.
There- there was no way that was legal.
Did not Miles say something about not trusting banks?
Did he not defuse a nuclear missile at one point?
Was Miles a criminal!?
HOLY SHIT, Miles.
And oh no, that was an entirely different headache. One that he could do nothing about because apparently his legal guardian was Sonic "turned into a golden living shooting star to beat a god and then left mid conversation" Hedgehog.
He should just read those files.
Yes. That was how he would spend the night. Worry about the demonic technopaths and the maybe-not-extinct offshoot Rachni instead of questioning people's sanity and re-evaluating religion.
Vilmis sat on his chair and braced himself for a long study session.
One thing at a time.
Hi, I'm back. A bit of a longer break this time, but I was - and still am - pretty busy with all sorts of things.
So, chapter 6! With this we're officially over 70k words. Holy shit.
You know, this was supposed to be the "talk about aliens and then trash whatever's left of the Letos" chapter. Instead I gave the from a religious crisis. Oh well, had to happen. Sometimes I'm surprised myself with the direction these things go to.
The Xaoq thing is a shout-out to one of my favourite Sonic the Hedgehog fanfics. I wanted the Ancients to have an actual species name because there's no way they called themselves that, and Tails has all sorts of info from Cyberspace so why not this.
In case you're confused about Sonic on the news, my headcanon is that Sonic Adventure 1 was the first game where the Sonic vs Eggman conflict was caught on camera and they were made famous, and that the Classic games were completely off the media.
Also, the reason I used videoshell instead of thumbnail is because I don't know if Salarians have nails. Language.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to review!