A/N: I have never done anything remotely similar to writing prompts in my whole life, but like Tails says in my headcanon, there's a first time for everything! But when I became aware of Whumptober back in July, as well as reading someone else's Tails-themed Whumptober story over on AO3, I knew what I wanted to do this year.
This year, my whumpee is gonna be Chris Thorndyke from Sonic X. He's one of the characters I'm best at writing, and I have plenty of experience whumping him in Chaos on Earth, as well as two of my oneshots, Proving Innocence and True Intentions, so if you haven't checked those out, feel free to do that!
This is for all the Chris fans who love whump stories (and the Chris haters too, I guess). And some of you might be like, "What is wrong with you, Stardown?! Chris is just a kid!" I know, but I've done it before, plus I know my limits when it comes to Chris. Also, just a heads-up that obviously I'm not gonna do any prompts that have to do with torture or anything like that since that's just not in my taste, regardless of the character. I always try to counter-balance hurt with comfort whenever I can, but there are some cases where it's just not possible, but we'll see.
There will be some days where I pick multiple prompts, like this day for example.
But anyway, here's day one!
Disclaimer: SEGA owns Sonic X and TMS owns Sonic X. And SEGA owns TMS too from what I hear.
Without further ado, let us begin...
Day One: Race Against The Clock
Prompt: Race Against The Clock; Panic Attack
Less than twenty-four hours.
That was all the time Chris had left before he would witness the destruction of the planet he called home for the twelve years he had been alive. The worst part of it all was he was about to watch it all unfold from where he was standing inside the relative safety of Space Colony ARK.
The last hour had been a complete blur for him. The first moment, he was pleading with Shadow to help Sonic because he had been convicted as a criminal because the people thought Shadow looked like him. He didn't know what happened next, but now he found himself aboard Space Colony ARK, a massive space station that had orbited Earth for at least fifty years.
Shortly after he first met Sonic, the hedgehog had told him that humans should never use Chaos Emeralds, because their effects were largely unknown to humans, and the few that tried to use them died within a few hours or days. Even though Shadow was the one who used the Emerald and not Chris, he still felt very sick to his stomach.
He was not ready for the reality-bending effects of Chaos Control, and there were so many bright lights and abstract movements around him. It seemed to only last a few seconds, but it was just enough to cause his stomach to heave, and he ended up vomiting on the floor. It wasn't until after his stomach finished churning that he realized that there was a trash disposal system that he could have used instead.
While Shadow turned away when Chris was getting sick, as did Rouge who had come with them, he couldn't help but feel that the atmosphere felt cold around the black hedgehog, like he didn't like Chris. He wasn't planning on taking Chris there, nor did Chris want to go in space, especially not with someone he didn't know. But, here he was.
Fortunately, the space colony had cleaning supplies inside that Chris distastefully used to clean up the mess and throw away in the garbage disposal system, but his time spent there was rather uneventful, not to mention boring.
Only one thing happened between his arrival there and now, something that caused him to immediately panic when he heard it. Even though he hadn't seen Eggman at all, he had seen his shuttle outside approaching the station. Less than ten minutes later, the doctor made an announcement that Chris was sure changed the course of history.
He demanded that the entire planet submit to him and support the foundation of the Eggman Empire, or be destroyed in twenty-four hours. To further prove his point, Eggman fired the station's Eclipse Cannon directly at the moon, and to Chris' shock and horror, the laser directly struck the moon, completely destroying half of it. Chunks of rocks and debris hurtled through space away from the impact zone, and several moon rocks fell toward Earth, where they gradually began to burn up in the atmosphere.
Chris was standing there in shock. His stomach dropped in complete fear and dread, and his breathing started to quicken. He was scared. Eggman was not bluffing this time. He was actually going to destroy the earth in less than a day.
Chris was practically hyperventilating now as he stared in complete disbelief at the moon. It looked like someone had taken a big bite out of it. In fact, he could see beyond the bedrock and into the moon's mantle. It was horrifying how much power Eggman was holding onto now that he had all seven Chaos Emeralds.
Chris' panic attack was made worse due to the fact that he was completely alone. Being alone was his greatest fear, and even though he knew Shadow and Rouge were on the ARK with him, they were not his friends. Rouge only tended to do things for her own benefit, and Shadow was Eggman's pawn. There were other people on the ARK, but he felt alone.
There was no one there to help him, no one to comfort him. He was truly alone.
Where was Sonic? Where were Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Cream? Were they okay? Did they hear the announcement too? But more importantly… did they know he was gone…? Were they coming to rescue him?
Chris was breathing so fast that he didn't register one of the moon rocks approaching the space station until it was deflected off the energy shield that surrounded it. He put one hand against the panoramic glass in the conservatory he was in to support himself, still unable to take his eyes off the moon.
He had no way of telling if his friends were coming to rescue him. He had no contact with Earth, with his friends, with his family down below.
He was truly alone.
And only twenty-four hours remained until that statement would become fact.
A/N: That concludes day 1! This was a tricky one to write, and it was probably one of my weakest entries to date, but I promise they will get better. Also, I think this is the first chapter of any of my stories I've ever written that has no dialogue whatsoever, which allowed me to explore Chris' thoughts.
When I saw the prompts, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Fitting in "Search Party" and "Panic Attack" were both a bit tough, but I was able to get "Panic Attack" in there at least. "If only we could hold on" could mean literally anything, and I didn't think I had enough time to figure out what it could be, so I ruled it out and went with the title prompt.
As of now I have finished the first 14 days, so I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to finish on time, but if I don't, then I'll just post the chapters whenever they're done, even if it's November.
Tomorrow's theme is "Trust Issues!"