[FANFICTION] Sonic Burst: Rise of Ashura (post-SatAM AU)

[Itzyaboi64]

Wow crazy plz do a sonic satam season 3

[ChaosCTRL]

Holy cow. This is great!

[Lorekitten]

On 12/28/2023 at 9:49 PM, Itzyaboi64 said:

Wow crazy plz do a sonic satam season 3

That... is kinda what I'm doing?

On 12/29/2023 at 10:35 AM, ChaosCTRL said:

Holy cow. This is great!

Thanks!

So here's how the updates for Episode Three are gonna go. This one's another seven-chapter long, and originally I wanted to post twice a week, but between my health issues and the myriad other projects I've been working on, I have no idea how long Episode Four will take to complete, so I ultimately decided that Episode Three chapters will drop once a week on Mondays.

...except for this one, which I'm dropping here a day early because you've been waiting literal months for it and I can't contain my excitement anymore.

Episode Three: Ring Me If You Need Me

Chapter One: Time Waits for No Hog

Spoiler

The roboticization chamber had seen better days. Then again, so had Snively, and he wasn't complaining.

Certainly he wanted to complain. It had all been going so well, with Hedgehog Priority One captured, starved out, and last seen en route to his own roboticization. And then suddenly everything had gone entirely wrong, because of all the Freedom Fighters that Snively had not expected to come to the rescue, it had to have been the wild card. The reject, the failure, the single insurgent that Snively hadn't adequately programmed Metal Sonic to counter on account that Snively had actually met the guy before and had rather conclusively deduced that he was very little threat to anyone's planetwide empire, much less his own.

Except obviously he had been wrong about that, hadn't he?

So what if the little cur had grown a spine? Snively knew how to break him. He'd done it before, and he'd do it again. Unfortunately, he would have to find him first, and the thing about finding Freedom Fighters is that they had very good reason to not want to be found. Most of those reasons had to do with Snively himself.

Shortly after the Freedom Fighters' escape (and Snively was still seething about it), the heavily sabotaged mechanisms of the roboticizer had caught fire, filling the room with flames and noxious smoke. Thankfully the danger had been neutralized by a group of Aquises and Flying Choppers that served as Robotropolis's new fire brigade as of Snively's takeover -- certainly there could have been more effective robot models to put out blazes, but the little man with the big nose just couldn't resist building a small army of robot seahorses and jet-propelled piranhas.

That was the secret behind the badniks. Variety. Snively had long studied the Freedom Fighters from his time as Robotnik's lackey, and he'd learned that each Mobian species had their own unique traits. Hedgehog curled up, walruses swam, squirrels had a tendency to climb, and Bunnie Rabbot had once possessed incredible jumping capacity before the roboticization incident had made her legs considerably heavier. And then there was the weird two-tailed fox boy, which Snively had never quite understood because the way its tails worked should not have been physically possible and yet there they were. At any rate, it was criminal that Robotnik had never truly considered the possibilities of modeling his robots after the many specialized ecological niches that the Mobians already filled. The man might have been a genius, but he had also been entirely short-sighted and far too dependent on his precious SWATbots to even consider that there were better options.

And that was why Robotnik was dead and Snively was not. Despite the size of his late uncle's brain, at least Snively actually used his own.

But this badnik? Ohhhh. THIS badnik was Snively's magnum opus. Formed entirely from nanites produced by roboticizing microorganisms found within the mysterious green water of the Kraken's kingdom, powered by a glowing green Power Gem forged into a fully functioning hard drive through the most cutting-edge nanotechnology known to Mobius, and sculpted into the very shape and form of Hedgehog Priority One itself, Metal Sonic was a cut above the rest. So what if it meant that Snively had a favorite son? Metal Sonic deserved it, and every badnik in Robotropolis knew it.

Well, except for one, anyway.

"One gallon of nanite syrup, coming up!"

Snively flinched as a bright purple and entirely too enthusiastic Buzz Bomber flew up, gripping a large bucket of silver goo within its lower appendages and nearly splashing him with it. Buzzi -- as Snively had named her -- had had her personality specifically designed from the ground up in order to ensure that she would not languish as a thankless and grudging assistant that would eventually plot to overthrow him for command of the global empire. He wasn't making the big round guy's mistakes, no siree. Buzzi had been specifically designed to adore her job as a lackey, and Snively had every intention of ensuring she stayed that way. If he was perfectly honest, as much fun as it would've been on his part to be a cruel and oppressive overlord, he at least had the good sense and tact to save it for his actual enemies and not for allies that knew enough important classified information to use it against him.

But blast it all, she could be so annoying.

"Serum," he growled, motioning to the wreckage that had once been the roboticizer. "Nanite serum."

Buzzi blinked, an action that technically would not be necessary for the camera receptors that served as her eyes, but Snively had indulged himself on making his robot models as lifelike as possible. "I'm... not sure that's what that word means."

"Who invented the nanite serum, Buzzi?" Snively asked, annoyed.

She turned back to him. "You did, boss."

"So who gets to name it?"

She shrugged, or at least made a motion with her forelimbs that resembled shrugging. "Fair enough, Mister Boss Man. So where'd you want this nanite syrup, anyway?"

Snively groaned to himself, wondering just where exactly he'd gone wrong with Buzzi's code. "Just pour it on the rubble already. We'll see if the Power Gem survived... that."

Buzzi pulled back a bit. "Pour it on the rubble? Isn't that kind of a waste?"

"Not if Metal Sonic's core processor is still functioning, it isn't. Besides, so long as the microorganisms in the miracle water we've harvested thus far keep reproducing at a steady rate, the nanite serum is a renewable resource." He glared at the Buzz Bomber. "So just pour it already! We don't have all day for this!"

If Buzzi had any further reservations, she kept them to herself. The badnik flew up to the wreckage of what had once been the roboticization chamber and, reluctantly, upended the entire bucket of silver goo on top of the pile of smoldering junk.

For several silent seconds, the fluid seeped into the charred metal rubble. Neither man nor machine dared speak a word, which was really saying something when that machine was Buzzi.

And then...

A clawed hand emerged from the ooze.

---

Been a while since we spoke, huh? Well, okay, I say that, but from my point of view, it hadn't been three minutes since Ant and the others had left for the Miracle Planet before Tiara showed up and told me that Sal just called an emergency meeting. Which was about the earliest she could actually come and get me without causing a temporal paradox, given that she and the others had time-traveled all the way back to the night before they actually left.

Yeah, time travel. It doesn't get any easier to understand from here.

Of course I was still on doctor's orders to take it easy, but time waits for no hog, and neither does evil. So I decided I'd rather risk Nursa getting pissy than my friends being in danger, and besides, there'd be an entire planet between me and her and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't violate the Hippocratic Oath anyway. (Hopefully. You never really knew with her.)

Not gonna lie, when Tiara spirited me away to the front gates of the Castle of Light, I'd thought I'd died and crossed the Rainbow Bridge and was standing feet away from the throne of God. That's how awesome it looks. Apparently Tiara enjoys doing this to people that she brings here, because the looks on our faces when we see the light shining through the enormous stained glass castle are, in her words, 'classic.' She seems to have gotten used to the sight herself. Me? I can't IMAGINE getting used to a sight like that.

Unfortunately, the sight I saw inside was far less glamorous.

Sal was pacing frantically. Ant was in a fetal position, shaking like a leaf. I'd seen them both in states like this before, but usually it was surrounded by at least some of our friends. Friends who were supposed to be here, but clearly weren't.

I didn't think much of it at first -- I'm used to being the first to arrive, because let's face it, I always am. I just flopped down on a chair and casually asked, "So, we gonna talk now, or wait for everyone else?"

"WAIT for--?!" Sally exclaimed. "Tiara, did -- did you TELL him?"

My heart dropped like a stone into my stomach. Oh no. NO. Not this, not this one time, PLEASE don't tell me they're all--

"Tails!" I gasped. "Bunnie, Rotor... please tell me they're not--"

"We don't KNOW!" Sally yelled. "The -- this MONSTER warped them away to who knows where, and we don't even know if they're still alive, or in another dimension, or in another era of time entirely!"

The words hit like a truck. "Monster?" I asked, not sure if I wanted to know.

"A Warp Phantom," Tiara said, her voice icy cold. "Which aren't supposed to actually exist, but this one did. Two, actually -- so far as we know, they're both dead now, but that doesn't mean there can't be more of them."

"Warp Phantoms?" I asked, chills creeping up my spine. "I thought those were just things Rosie made up to try to scare us into behaving! You're telling me they're REAL?"

"They are, and they aren't," Tiara said. "Antoine fought one -- for a given definition of 'fighting' -- and he said that there was something solid underneath. Something that bleeds. Whoever or whatever we're fighting, they're not what they seem on the outside. They could be a crazy cult for all we know."

I glanced at Ant, who hadn't stopped shaking since I'd stepped into the room and clearly had no plans to change that. "Well, if HE can take one out, they can't be that tough. If they're dead, then do we have... bodies?"

"The one Antoine attacked warped away before we could confirm its death," Sal said. "The other one was caught under falling debris, but when the rubble was cleared away, there were no signs that it had even been there, or even of the Time Stones it had stolen." She held her head in her hands. "We have no idea who or what we're facing, or even where to look!"

"Which is why we're calling the Chaotix Crew," Tiara said firmly. "If anyone can find the unfindable, it's these guys. They're the most effective private investigators for the price in Las Pegasus, no exceptions."

Sal gave her a skeptical look. "You also told me that they were the cheapest."

"That's what makes them the most effective private investigators for the price. Also they owe me a favor."

I glanced at Antoine. "So, uh... is Antoine coming? Because he doesn't exactly look... functional right now."

"Given what he's been through in the past few days," Sal said, "he's more than earned a right to sit this one out."

"But, my princess!" Antoine said, poking his head up. "If -- if zhose monstairs--!"

"Let me rephrase that," Sal said, clearly realizing where this was going. "I'm ordering you to stay put. Keep an ear out for any new sightings of suspicious activity around the castle, and do not engage unless absolutely necessary. Sonic and I can handle anything that comes our way in Las Pegasus. Understood?"

I knew Antoine enough to know exactly why this wasn't going to placate him. Any implication whatsoever that I could handle something he couldn't would never fly by him, regardless of the fact that this was true of most things, especially this one. "Sonique?!" he snapped, clearly insulted. "Ze man is still uncovering from rehydration and airsickness! He will not to be any help against ze Warp Phantoms!"

"Okay, Ant, first off, it's dehydration and heat sickness. Second, we're just going to Las Pegasus, it's not a huge deal." I paused. "Wait, what's Las Pegasus?"

"Only the biggest city on the Miracle Planet," Tiara said. "And it's where we'll find the Chaotix Crew."

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

If for whatever reason you haven't watched The Magnificent Motobug yet, DO IT. I loved it so much, I knew I had to do something with the concept of an overly-eager Buzz Bomber lackey. This one, however, is purple and is named Buzzi, so... I guess this is the Palworld version of Motobug's Buzz Bomber? It's not like Garrulous64 and Pip Productions own the Buzz Bomber concept itself anyway.

Originally, the badnik Coconuts was going to be a recurring character and Buzzi would be his assistant. However, while I still may yet use Coconuts down the line, I decided that Snively needed his own lackey character and Buzzi was right there and I knew it would be even more hilarious than my original plans. So there you have it.

Las Pegasus is, believe it or not, an actual place on the Miracle Planet according to a certain Sonic manga. This is why I love the Sonic series -- the iceberg only gets icier from here.

 

[juanpablomorales]

On 12/28/2023 at 8:49 PM, Itzyaboi64 said:

Wow crazy plz do a sonic satam season 3

Well, Team Sea3on is doing the Season 3 of Sonic SATAM if I am not mistaken.

[Lorekitten]

On 2/5/2024 at 11:07 AM, juanpablomorales said:

Well, Team Sea3on is doing the Season 3 of Sonic SATAM if I am not mistaken.

They are indeed, and I'm looking forward to seeing it.

---

So I've mentioned in my last post that the plan was to post chapters every Monday. While that part hasn't changed, I'm considering whether I should also post chapters on Fridays, given that you've already waited over a month for this episode and I kinda want to get it out soon.

Chapter Two: What Happens in Pegasus, Stays in Pegasus

(TW: brief mention of gun violence)

Spoiler

When Tiara said that Las Pegasus was the biggest city on the Miracle Planet, she wasn't kidding. What she hadn't told us was that it was big enough to be a mishmash of several different cities and even looked the part. Sal was quick to point out the varied architectural elements and which regions they hailed from -- a series of gates from Chun-nan, a stone building from Mazuri, a Spagonian-style vegetable market, even a few elements from Mauga, which is weird when you think about it because by the time we showed up there the entire civilization was long dead. And a heck of a lot more details that I'm sure would've been interesting as heck to anyone who cared.

Honestly, just BEING in Las Pegasus was exciting enough. I hadn't been in a densely populated city since I was five. We hadn't HAD densely populated cities, because those were the first places Robuttnik took out in his big ol' roboticization spree. He'd move in with his SWATbots and giant robots, announce that he was seizing control, blast a few buildings to make his point, round up the citizens and anyone who he hadn't already destroyed for resisting him, and then roboticize the whole lot of them and force them to rebuild the cities into factories for making new war machines so he could do the same thing somewhere else.

Heck, I don't think I'd ever seen so many PEOPLE in my life before, either.

I think Sal broke down into tears, she was so happy. "I'd never dreamed... that so many Mobians escaped Robotnik's takeover!"

Tiara shrugged, clearly not nearly as impressed. "Yeah, that's what all the survivors say when they first see this place. Nothing special."

Sal opened her mouth to say something, but somehow nothing ever actually came out. Maybe she was just struck dumb by the realization that freedom on the Miracle Planet was something that its people actually took for granted. Speaking as a guy who's stared down the barrel of a gun at least three times a week for the cause of freedom, there are very good reasons why you never want to take freedom for granted.

Tiara sighed. "Look, Princess, I know how this is a big deal to a couple of refugees from a post-apocalyptic planet, but I know a lot of people in this city, so PLEASE don't say anything to embarrass me."

"Hey, Sal!" I yelled from a few feet away. "There's a stall here that sells nothing but scarves! I've never even SEEN this much fabric in one place!"

I'd never seen someone sigh and facepalm at the same time, either, but Tiara did it.

The stall owner was a yellow cat in a red dress who seemed, well, starstruck to see me. "Omigoshomigoshomigosh. You're THE Sonic the Hedgehog? I'm Honey! I'm selling scarves!"

"The one and only," I bragged, glad to hear that not everyone on this planet knew me as Nicky Maurice. "So you've heard of me?"

"The leader of the Freedom Fighters? The hero who took down Robotnik himself?" She seemed close to shedding fur with excitement. "Of COURSE I've heard of you! Everyone here has been dying to meet you!"

"I mean, Sal HELPED with the whole taking-out-Robuttnik thing..." I said nervously, unsure if I really wanted to face the possibility of an entire planet full of rabid fans.

"Oh, where are my manners? You want to buy a scarf?" she asked, not bothering to wait for an answer. "I've got loads of scarves! But I couldn't charge YOU money! Come on, pick out some scarves! I'll give you three on the house!"

At that, she grabbed my wrist and pulled me deeper into the stall, eagerly pointing out different fabrics and patterns as if she'd thought I cared. It felt like I was drowning in a sea of napkins. To be honest, this whole situation made me mondo uncomfortable, but I didn't want to disappoint her, and at any rate, she was giving away free stuff and it'd be rude to refuse.

I picked out three matching brown scarves and tied one around my neck. I've never been a big fashion guy (I wear shoes and gloves, and a backpack on missions; I tend to heat up at full speed and any unnecessary fabric friction only slows me down and may occasionally set me on fire DON'T ASK ME HOW I KNOW THIS), but I would've put on a fake nose and glasses to get out of this situation, and was now quietly wishing I'd done so before I'd left.

"All right, all right!" I said, a bit louder than I should have as I pushed my way back to the front of the stall. "I've got my stupid scarves now. We're kind of in a hurry, so if we're done here--"

"HEY, EVERYONE!" the yellow cat yelled. "SONIC THE HEDGEHOG IS WEARING MY SCARF!"

Every single face on that crowded city street turned to look towards me.

And that was when Tiara rolled her eyes, grabbed mine and Sal's hands, and waved her Shifter Scepter, taking us straight inside the Chaotix Crew's headquarters without passing Go and without collecting two hundred dollars.

---

We rematerialized (which is the only word to describe how I felt after being mysteriously warped away) in a dark and dusty office somewhere on what I could only guess was the wrong side of town. The windows were shuttered, the air smelled musty, and the only illumination appeared to be a strangely colored light hanging from the ceiling. The carpet was some indescribably drab color given a strange tint from the unorthodox light fixture, and the room was filled with cardboard boxes, filing cabinets, large stacks of poorly organized papers, and several assorted children's toys scattered haphazardly around the office.

And while Sal and I took stock of our surroundings, a chameleon suddenly materialized in front of us and hurled a smoke bomb in our faces.

Now, this wasn't my first rodeo by a long shot. I'd dealt with smoke bombs before. I ran rings around them -- literally -- and that's exactly what I did then, to disperse the smoke. And I did it so quickly that chameleon boy wasn't even able to shift his colors back to invisibility before I had him up against the wall and introduced his face to my fist.

"Espio!" Tiara snapped. "We're not intruders! It's me, Tiara!"

I'm not entirely sure what Espio said to that, considering I'd just given him a fat lip. But when the enormous crocodile ran in demanding to know exactly what was going on, it occurred to me that I should probably try not to look like the aggressor in this little incident, so I released the chameleon and sped back to a defensive position alongside Sal and Tiara to try to look innocent.

The crocodile facepalmed. "TIARA," he growled. "What have I told you about using the Gaia-blasted DOOR? The one with the bell on it? So we know you're not an intruder?"

"Well, Vector," Tiara snapped, "maybe if you had actual LIGHTS ON in this dump, your little guard chameleon would realize that this is Princess Sally Acorn and the leader of the Freedom Fighters that we're dealing with and not a bunch of intruders!"

Vector lowered his hand from his face and glared daggers at the bandicoot. "Look, we're not millionaires here. We had to default on one of our utility bills this month. We need water to live, and most of us are cold-blooded so we have to have heat. So until we figure out how to convert the energies of the Chaos Emerald that one client paid us with into actual power, we're using it as a lamp."

Sally's eye twitched. "Tiara, please tell me these aren't actually the best detectives on the Miracle Planet."

"I didn't say they were the best detectives on the Miracle Planet," Tiara hissed. "I said they were the best detectives FOR THE PRICE."

Vector glowered. "I heard that, you know!"

"What's going on, Uncle Vector?"

I turned around and saw the absolute last thing I'd expected: a six-year-old bee boy, likely barely out of his pupa stage. He took one look at me and shrieked. "Hey, it's Sonic the Hedgehog! I didn't know he wore scarves!"

I took a step backward and gave Vector a questioning look. "And this is..."

"Oh, right!" Vector said. "Charmy Bee. He's, uh, our apprentice. Yeah, apprentice."

Sal gave him a stern look. "He can't be a year older than seven. Please tell me he doesn't come along on cases."

"Well, we can hardly afford childcare if we can't even afford the frickin' electric bill," Espio muttered, backing slowly away from us. (Well, me specifically. Can't say I blame him.)

"Look, I don't care if you're the princess or a Freedom Fighter or whatever," Vector snapped. "If you have a case, let's hear it; if you don't, then scram."

"We have a case, all right," Tiara said firmly, grasping Sal's hand to try to discourage her for making for the door. "Five missing persons. All courtesy of a Warp Phantom. We need to track them all down before anything terrible happens."

"Hold up," Vector said. "A Warp Phantom? We're private investigators, not ghostbusters! What in holy heck makes ya think we can track a Warp Phantom's portals?"

Espio glared at him. "Whatever happened to 'we never turn down work that pays'?"

"Tracking portals to literally anywhere or nowhere? We'll never find all five of them. Heck, we'll be lucky if we find ANY of them!"

"We could always ask the Oracle for help!" Charmy said cheerfully.

Now, I had no idea at the time what the kid meant by the Oracle, but Vector sure did. He froze up like a deer in headlights. "Ohhhhhh no," he said firmly. "We are NOT going to that old coot again. First off, he lives in the coldest part of the planet, and most of us are cold-blooded. Second, you and I both know we're not on speaking terms anymore."

"Hold on a moment," Sal asked. "The Oracle?"

"The Oracle of Delphius," Espio said. "Lives way up in Crystal Frost Zone, in an ancient cave system on the other side of the Ice Gates. They say he sees everything -- past, present, and future. But he rarely shows his face outside his cave. Quite frankly, I'd be surprised if he's even still alive."

"Oh, he's alive, all right," Vector growled. "But we're not going to see him, end of story. I don't care how much you're paying, I'm not--"

And that was when Tiara pulled a rather large stack of bills out of her pockets, casually waving them in Vector's face.

It was like watching my dog Muttski around a chili dog. I could almost hear the cash register noises in Vector's brain. "Iiiiiiiiii that is a lot of money."

"It is," Tiara answered. "Believe me when I say that we are VERY motivated to get our friends back."

All of us could see Vector's indecision play out on his face. It dragged on for about thirty-five seconds before he finally caved. "Okay, okay! We're going to see the Oracle, I guess. But I'm gonna have to ask for half up front. Electric bills and all."

Tiara separated half the stack of bills and handed them to Vector. "All right then. We, uh, should probably change into something a bit more suited to the weather."

"Wait, you're coming with us?" Vector gasped. "I thought..."

"You thought we were just gonna hand you a case from the literal heir to the Kingdom of Acorn and stay hands-off about it?" Tiara narrowed her eyes. "We're following you every step of the way. We do NOT want a repeat of the Fang the Hunter incident."

"What's the Fang the Hunter incident?" Sal whispered to Tiara.

"We don't talk about the Fang the Hunter incident," Tiara hissed back.

"Okay, FINE," Vector growled. "I guess it's a date, then. I'll tell Mighty to watch the office when he gets back from picking up dinner, and I guess we'll set off."

Espio gave him a glare. "So we're having the literal only warm-blooded member of our group be the one that DOESN'T go to Crystal Frost Zone?"

"Have you ever tried to fit an armadillo into a winter coat?" Vector asked.

Espio shook his head no.

"Exactly!"

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

Yes, I gave Sonic the Sonic Boom scarf. No, I'm not sorry. Also it gave me an opportunity to have Honey the Cat cameo, and cameos are always fun.

Can I just say that I love the Chaotix being goofy goobers just trying to make a living in this crazy world? Because I do.

As for Tiara's personality (which, given that she was a cut character from a cancelled game, there wasn't a great deal to work with), I figured that given her background of having grown up with a sheltered life on the Miracle Planet and not really fully comprehending the situation on Mobius, she wouldn't really understand the Freedom Fighters' very different perspective. I'm not saying that she's a bad person; I'm just saying that she's got a lot to learn about how the other side lives. But hey, we've got an entire twenty-six episode season ahead for character development, let's see how that goes!

 

[Lorekitten]

(TW: arachnophobia; this will get worse in the later chapters)

Chapter Three: You'll Panic When I Tell You to Panic

Spoiler

You wanna know why else I don't wear clothes? Because my clothes tend to get holes in them. Not my fault I'm made of prickles; okay, okay, so technically I COULD shave once in a while, but why would I want to do that when I can have hair that puts holes through sheet metal? My quills even sharpen themselves while I'm spindashing at a million miles a minute. Low-maintenance. (Although washing the dirt, grime, and motor oil out of them at night is hardly fun. And this is why I don't take my gloves off when I shower. And why Antoine says I smell like a road. To be fair, I have no idea if he actually meant a road or was trying to think of another word but got the wrong one. And I'm not sure I want to think about what he might have actually meant.)

Anyway. We were headed to Crystal Frost Zone, the northernmost point of the Miracle Planet and also the coldest. Naturally I had to ask Tiara to send me back to Knothole to pick up my winter duds, because nobody wants to lend me a parka because they know that even if I go over it three times afterwards, there's still gonna be some little blue prickles hidden in the liner to stick them when they least expect it, and you don't exactly want to take your coat off in the middle of minus-zero weather just to remove a pin.

Yes, I know, it's hard being made of awesome. Way past awesome.

Sal didn't want me to come along because of the whole heat sickness thing. I countered that my heat sickness couldn't well get worse in below-zero cold, to which Nicole gave several fancy-sounding medical explanations as to what exactly might happen if I did head out there in my condition, and I shot back that risks or no risk, I sure wasn't heading back to the castle to hang with Ant. Eventually Espio took the diplomatic approach and suggested that I stay behind with Mighty to help guard Chaotix HQ. By that time I'd already put on my full winter gear for no good reason, but I chose to play nice. Didn't keep me from snarking off about it, especially with a heating system on that was tailored to the cold-blooded, but given that I had a very spiky body and people kept bumping into me from the poor lighting, I figured keeping my parka on was safest for all involved.

(For those of you who want to know: yes, hedgehogs sweat, but only from the belly. We don't sweat from the back because as I've mentioned before, it's crazy hard to keep our spikes clean even without the sweat. Even for those of us who don't cut through sheet metal with them.)

Staying watch wasn't a bad idea anyways, since they were keeping classified documents and had to have a man on base at all times to avoid the wrong people breaking in. Not to mention that Chaos Emerald, which was still hovering somewhere around the ceiling and giving me a funny tingle in my bones whenever I was aware of it -- and given that it was the only thing producing light in the entire building, I was MONDO aware of it.

"So, uh..." I asked, desperate for a conversation topic while we waited for Mighty to show up. "How'd you guys get into the sleuth business, anyway?"

Espio glared at me. "Classified information."

"Oh, Uncle Espio's a ninja whose clan got snatched up by Robotnik," Charmy said innocently. "Uncle Mighty's folks were thieves and he's gonna redeem his family name. And Uncle Vector says he just needs the money."

If looks could have killed, Vector and Espio would've been guilty of conspiracy of first-degree infanticide in a room full of witnesses.

"What's HE doing here, anyway?" Tiara muttered. "Why is your 'apprentice' six years old?"

Vector seemed more than happy to take the conversation off himself. "Funny story there. The kid showed up on our doorstep four years ago, when he was just a grub. We tried to find his parents, but there was no sign, no trace -- nothin'. Only case we've never solved." He gave Charmy a fond look. "But, y'know what? We wouldn't be the same without him. He's the heart and soul of the gang."

"So you're saying he's a glorified mascot," Tiara muttered.

Charmy, to be fair, took that as a complement.

---

Meanwhile in Robotropolis...

It took a bit of time for Metal Sonic to get its head together. Literally, as the nanite mechavirus that made up its body had to reform itself according to the data archived within the artificially developed Power Gem that made up its central processing unit. And said processing unit had gone hardly unscathed after that little sneak Antoine had somehow manipulated it into making what, under less fortunate circumstances, would have been the last mistake it had ever made in what could figuratively or at least metaphorically be called its life.

And all that time, Father was staring at it disapprovingly, as if it was something that a devil dog had dragged in from the yard.

"Father..." Metal said slowly, not wanting to be yelled at. As much as Snively was trying not to make the same mistakes Robotnik had, including mistreating his underlings, that didn't mean the little man with the big nose wasn't prey to the same sort of frustrations that inevitably hit anyone who had to rely on others to do things for them. One of which, Metal realized, was the fact that licensing out your evil deeds made it far easier to blame that person instead of yourself when something went horribly wrong.

"Don't bother explaining what happened," Snively growled. "I saw the entire ridiculous spectacle on the security cam footage. My most brilliant creation, somehow bested by the most incompetent Freedom Fighter ever born! What have you got to say for yourself?"

Metal tried to explain what had happened, but found itself unable to process the incriminating data into words. It was as if a spider had spun a web in its head (a metaphor that likely would've disgusted most meat people, but Metal was untroubled by the mental image) and whatever desires it had towards warning Father that its programming was compromised were caught in the web and struggling to get out while the spider sucked them dry. Unfortunately, that spider was not fully metaphorical, as there was indeed a microprogram installed within Metal Sonic's head by whatever infernal device Antoine had used against it, and it wasn't letting Metal talk about it.

"System... error..." Metal managed to choke out. "Internally... compromised..."

Buzzi looked perturbed, at least so much as a mechanical wasp face can do so. "Um... Boss, I think this guy may need some maaaaaajor work done on his hard drive. If that kid did that much of a number on him--"

"I can see THAT, you fool!" Snively snapped, forgetting himself. "I-I mean, I'll look into that personally! I did create that Power Gem from scratch, after all."

"You built it from Scratch?" Buzzi asked, alarmed. "I liked Scratch!"

"Not from the badnik Scratch!" Snively corrected. If he'd had enough hair left worth pulling out, he probably would've done so. "I mean -- oh, why did I choose such confusing names for my badnik models? Why couldn't I have just gone with a serial system of letters and numbers?"

Buzzi smiled, which looked somewhat unnerving given her bomb-spitting mandibles. "Because that's what Robotnik did, and you'll never be like him!" she said cheerfully.

This reminder seemed to snap Snively back to reality. "I-I-I... you're right, of course," he said softly. "I'm not... him. Thank you, Buzzi."

"Don't mention it!" the Buzz Bomber said cheerfully. "Unless, you know, you really wanna. I won't mind!"

Snively ignored this last statement, motioning for Metal Sonic to crouch down for an examination. Reaching into the rounded opening in the robot's chest, he attached a small scanning device to a green crystalline structure embedded within Metal's core. Checking from a handheld screen, Snively mulled over several sheets of data generated from the scanner.

"Hmm... it appears that your unauthorized command code came directly from..." His eyes grew wide. "Robotnik's own PDA?!"

"Now, let's not jump to conclusions here!" Buzzi said quickly. "Anyone could've been using that PDA. Didn't the security footage show one of the Freedom Fighters holding a pocket computer?"

Snively let out a slow breath. "That... you're right... but that's still a problem! If they have the big round guy's old tech, they could easily hack into our servers again. Shut down the entire city's infrastructure, override the central control system for the roboticized--!"

"Ohhhhhhhh," Buzzi said. "That's... bad."

"It's worse than bad!" Snively ranted. "This could be catastrophic! Metal Sonic, I need you to hunt down that computer and destroy it before it can possibly be used against us!"

Buzzi nudged Snively with her metal head. "Ah-ah-ah! Didn't Metal Sonic just say that he himself was compromised by that very computer? If you send him after it without some form of malware protection, the Freedom Fighters could corrupt him against us!"

This was a point, and quite frankly Snively was surprised that his own assistant had realized this before he had. Unfortunately, he was far less surprised to find that Metal Sonic had taken off running the moment that he'd said his own piece and had thus completely missed Buzzi's.

There was a shared moment of cold dread between Snively and Buzzi as they realized that, at the speeds Metal Sonic was capable of reaching, it was very likely already honing in on the PDA's signal and close enough to it that any communications Snively initiated between himself and Metal Sonic would almost certainly be picked up by said PDA.

"Request permission to panic?" Buzzi asked nervously.

Snively whirled around at her and snapped, "You'll panic when I tell you to panic and not before!"

He paused, taking a deep breath. Under further consideration, the situation was unfortunate indeed. His finest creation, dancing at the whim of his late uncle's favorite pocket computer, whose creator had hardly been the most stable being on Mobius in the first place. And for all he knew, could actually still be alive.

"Okay," he said nervously. "Now you can panic."

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

Crystal Frost Zone is/was a zone from the cancelled Sonic X-Treme game (you know, the game Tiara originated from). Since we know very little about what the X-Treme zones actually looked like, I will be largely drawing from my own imagination in describing these areas.

Which is pretty heckin' fun.

 

[Lorekitten]

So I'm going to have a colonoscopy tomorrow and will probably need some time to recover, so I'm posting tomorrow's chapter today and calling it a week.

Chapter Four: Frosty Reception

TW: reference to war violence/massacre

Spoiler

Princess Sally had seen a lot of strange things as a Freedom Fighter. Underground rivers of pink acid, giant carnivorous plants, roboticized rats the size of cars, a literal time guardian, and a few things even stranger. Comparatively speaking, she hadn't banked much on this 'Oracle of Delphius' or the Ice Gates he lived behind as being any odder than what she'd seen before.

When she actually got a look at the Ice Gates, however, it was another story.

She'd expected something Mobian-made, possibly of ice, possibly of mere metal or stone -- crystal, even. She had not been expecting an entire frozen waterfall easily the size of the tower of Dragon's Nest, split in two by an enormous outcropping smack in the middle that could've been ice, rock, or Mobian-made for that matter, if any part of it could have possibly been visible given the mass of snow and ice obscuring its true identity. Whatever this mass was, its presence had redirected the flow of water on both sides, revealing a narrow (relatively speaking to the size of the Ice Gates themselves) opening where several Mobians could easily walk through at their leisure.

"Whoooooooaaaaaaaa!" Charmy exclaimed. "Now THAT'S a--"

"Keep it down!" Vector whispered, clamping his hand over the bee's mouth. "Don't make too many noises! We don't want the whole thing crashing down on us!"

"Actually," the pocket computer Nicole said from Sally's pocket, "it would take an especially loud noise to make this waterfall collapse. Otherwise, a simple thunderstorm would've already broken it apart."

"Do they get thunderstorms this high up north?" Tiara asked.

"Maybe the Oracle knows!" Charmy offered helpfully, lowering his voice not at all.

"If this Oracle only gives us a limited number of questions to ask," Espio muttered, "that's not making it on the list."

Without warning, an eerie multi-colored light shone out from the crack between the two waterfalls, and a sudden rumbling dislodged several sizable clusters of snow and ice to plummet from the top of the Ice Gates down, down, down to the ground below. To Sally's rising alarm, the Ice Gates themselves were moving, the two halves of the waterfall actually sliding outward to reveal an enormous cavern on the other side of the gates, lit up with what seemed to be a thousand starlike lights and an entire aurora within.

This was about the time when Charmy decided to full-blown panic, darting behind Vector and screaming to wake the dead. His wings fluttered so quickly and so violently that it was hard to tell where his buzz ended and his scream began. Not that Sally would've liked to be the judge of that.

Eventually the Ice Gates slid to a stop and frozen hell stopped raining down on everything in the near vicinity, which thankfully did not include Sally, Tiara, or the terrified Chaotix, who were still a safe distance away. Espio had quite literally turned green under his winter gear, although whether that was from mortal fear or just a chameleon thing, Sally wasn't really sure, and she didn't feel comfortable asking. Honestly, she didn't feel comfortable about anything in this situation, but if this Oracle -- whoever he was -- could help her find her friends, she'd walk through the gates of death itself to find him.

"So, uh..." Tiara said nervously. "Should we... walk right in?"

"I think we're well past the point of knocking first," Sally said.

But as she stepped forward to approach the gates, she felt a strange, powerful shudder within herself. It felt oddly like the rush of adrenaline she'd felt when she and Sonic had activated the Deep Power Stones, but instead of energizing her, this sensation seemed to freeze her in place, as if some primal urge deep within herself was screaming WRONG, WRONG, WRONG -- if it was even a part of her speaking to begin with.

"I-i-is it even safe?" Charmy asked. "Wh-what if the gates slam sh-shut on us?"

"Good point," Vector said a little too quickly. "We should go. Now."

Tiara gave him a glare. "We've come too far to turn back now. Unless you'd like to give us back the half up front?"

The look in Vector's eyes made it quite clear that no, he did not want to give up the money, but neither was he keen on passing through the Ice Gates to whatever lay beyond them. But before he could give voice to his thoughts, another voice spoke out:

"Well, well, well," said the robed figure with the long green scaly snout sticking out of its hood. Not even Espio had seen it approach; it might well have appeared straight out of thin air. "The first time you've come to see me in three whole years, and it's about another case?"

Vector's eyes went wide, and he stammered something unintelligible. Backing away slowly, he tripped over a rock hidden in the snow and fell smack on his tail, which collided with another rock. Charmy thankfully managed to fly out of his path barely in time, but that hadn't dampened his rising alarm.

Not to mention the alarm in Sally, who was still paralyzed from whatever dark sensation was gripping her innards. She could feel the power within her churning at the hooded Mobian's appearance, if it was even a Mobian -- it felt almost like encountering the Warp Phantoms again. Whoever or whatever this newcomer was, the power did not like it and did not trust it.

The figure turned towards her, and for the first time, Sally saw its eyes. They weren't fierce eyes, or wrathful eyes, or ominous eyes. They seemed kind, but determined, and it felt as though they were looking straight through her and into whatever had seized and frozen her in fear.

"Princess Sally Alicia Acorn," the figure said, not sounding surprised in the slightest. "I've been waiting for you to show up."

"You're the Oracle of Delphius," Sally said breathlessly. She hadn't known, not exactly. At least, she hadn't been told. This sort of knowledge seemed to go without saying, and whatever fear was churning within her against her will seemed to agree completely.

"I am indeed," the robed creature said, pulling back his hood to reveal his full, vaguely crocodillian face. A face that looked remarkably like...

"Yeah, yeah, we know who you are," Vector grumbled, pulling himself out of the snow. "Dad."

---

While Antoine had not been entirely thrilled with being reduced to guard dog duty (which admittedly was usually his job, stereotypical though it may be) while his princess went out on the town with Sonic (he wasn't at all convinced that it wasn't a date), the assignment did give him the opportunity to see more of the Castle of Light, which only become more impressive with every room he entered. He'd never had any idea that one could make the tapestries themselves translucent, and yet they'd done it. Some of the threads were glowing.

Of course, he'd spent so much time gawking at the furnishings that he'd spent more time looking suspicious than looking for anything suspicious, and eventually this caught the wrong ferret's attention.

Which was how he suddenly found himself up against the wall with Skulk's blade pressed against his throat.

Normally he would've shrieked something barely intelligible in any language, but it was hard to speak without getting any closer to that extremely sharp blade. He settled for a high-pitched whimper and a set of puppy eyes that said Bonjour, my name is Antoine, I promise you that I am not dangerous and that I am too young and handsome to die.

Thankfully, Skulk seemed to get the hint. "Oh, it's you," she said, retracting her blade. She seemed a little angry, though Antoine wasn't sure if it was directed at him for setting her off or at herself for threatening a guest. "Let me guess. You're looking for someone?"

"Oui, oui," Antoine said quickly.

"So who is it?"

The coyote paused. "...I do not factually know. Someone... suspect-ious?"

HE'S SAYING THE PRINCESS PUT HIM ON GUARD DUTY, Aster X cut in helpfully. WHICH I SHOULD HAVE EXPLAINED TO HER IS ACTUALLY YOUR JURISDICTION, BUT I WAS IN HIS BACK POCKET AT THE TIME IN HIS OTHER UNIFORM. BY THE TIME HE PICKED ME BACK UP, SHE WAS GONE.

Skulk's eyes narrowed. "What is this?" she asked, plucking Aster X from Antoine's pocket.

Antoine internally panicked. If this very violent swordsmobian learned that he was going around the Castle of Light with an arguably sentient computer once owned by Robotnik himself, she would surely turn him into a shag carpet. But if he lied to her and she realized he'd done so, he could get arrested or worse, possibly even worse than being turned into a shag carpet. And just standing there making terrified squeaking sounds under his breath was already rousing her suspicions of him, which did not bode well for his or Aster's fates.

"Oh," the ferret finally said, breaking the silence. "An Asteroid. I didn't know there were any left."

"A-Astairoid?" Antoine asked, confused as usual.

"Personal pocket computer assistant. All the rage back around the 3210s. Went out of stock after most of the employees of the company that made them were murdered in the Christmas Island Massacre."

"M-m-massacre?"

"Oh, right. That would be before your time, wouldn't it?" Skulk handed Aster X back to Antoine, who nearly dropped it but didn't. "Lots of conspiracy tales on that one. The year was 3219, with the Great War raging throughout Mobius. The official story is that the Overlanders unleashed an army of genetically and cybernetically enhanced Mobian prisoners, brainwashed to be killing machines. Tons of casualties, including most of the company staff, who were working in a secret military compound to develop superweapons. The Acornian military believes that the Overlanders were trying to seize these weapons to use against the Mobians themselves."

A company. Aster X had told him that it had been created by one specific person as a gift to Robotnik, but Skulk claimed that these computers had been made by a company and sold en masse? Something didn't add up here. "What was ze name of ze company?"

"Don't know, don't care. I've never been a tech-head myself. Kids these days with their snouts in their smartphones. Back in my day life was simple." She gestured with her sword. "You see the enemy, you stab them, you keep stabbing them until they stop moving. And you most certainly don't liveblog the incident and post it on social media."

Antoine was not quite sure what this last sentence meant, but given the context, he wasn't sure he wanted to. Probably something violent. Skulk struck him as a very violent person. Maybe the kind of person he should watch out for. He had no idea if he could trust her, and she had been the one to send the Freedom Fighters on the mission where most of them had been warped away...

And as he was thinking that and not paying attention, Aster X suddenly blared at its loudest volume: DUCK!!!

Antoine was caught off guard. "What du--"

And that was when Metal Sonic crashed straight through the multicolored crystal walls of the Castle of Light, with murder in its electronic eyes.

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

This has been my favorite episode to write thus far, largely because of the set pieces. It took some time to decide what I wanted the Ice Gates to look like, as that was one of the three acts of Crystal Frost Zone (and don't worry, we'll see the other two shortly). The idea of them being built from an enormous frozen watefall stuck in my head, likely inspired by the frozen waterfall scene from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe movie, and the rest is history.

So hey, meet Vector's dad! I knew Vector had a religious background thanks to Knuckles Chaotix lore, and the Oracle of Delphius from Sonic Underground does look kind of like something of the crocodile variety, so I decided to connect the two characters. What's a cold-blooded reptile doing in the coldest part of the Miracle Planet? Well, we'll find out.

 

Edited February 15 by Lorekitten

[Lorekitten]

Chapter Five: Breaking the Ice

Spoiler

From a distance, Sally had presumed that the cave system past the Ice Gates was made mostly of rock frozen over with ice. However, actually entering revealed that the entire cave was made of thickly packed ice, with the countless lights she'd seen from afar being the aurora (how was an aurora inside the cave?) reflecting off the multicolored ice crystals jutting out in various places. Out of all the strange sights she'd seen as a Freedom Fighter, this was definitely high on her list.

Prism Chorus, the Oracle had called it. A crystal cave where the magic lit up its surroundings and made the ice sing. But for Sally, all she heard on the inside was churning fear and chaos, the sense that she should not be in such a place and if she stayed there she would die.

"Going to me for help without even TRYING to look for leads first? I thought I raised you to be more discerning."

"Dad, I BECAME that good at sleuthing because I spent my entire life up to that point trying to friggin' UNDERSTAND ya!"

She could vaguely make out Vector arguing with the Oracle in the background, a family drama that make her heartsick for her own father, whom she hadn't seen since her adventure in the Void. Another realm made of crystal, where those who dwelt in it too long started to crystalize themselves upon leaving. Perhaps this Oracle knew how to break the king free without him turning to stone? But every time she tried to approach him, that same weird feeling overwhelmed her, the sense of WRONG, WRONG, WRONG, as if something both inside herself and beyond herself was controlling her.

She'd been possessed a time or two, once by Lazaar's computer and once by the sorcerer Naugus. While this sense of dread wasn't dissimilar, it felt stronger, beyond mortal comprehension.

This doesn't make sense, she thought. If I have the energy of the Deep Power Stones, it should be enough to shake off...

"It is the energy of the Deep Power Stones," the Oracle said, his voice cutting through the mental fog. "Which is not what you think."

"Wait, what?" Vector asked, clearly miffed at the derailment of his angry rant. "We're not talking about--"

"What you have within you is one half of an entity known as Solaris," the Oracle went on, ignoring Vector's protests. "It was sealed within the Deep Power Stones ages ago by an ancient civilization, broken into two parts: its power, and its mind. Both seek the other, but could only ever reunite if their two halves were reconnected..."

"Which is exactly what you did, wasn't it?" Tiara interrupted. "Against the Doomsday Project?"

"Yes..." Sally said, confused. "But... when we did so, the only thing released was the power used to destroy the Doomsday Project and defeat Robotnik. We never saw anything else come out of the stones..."

And even as she spoke, the sense of dread continued to manifest, screaming STOP TALKING STOP LISTENING HE'S LYING YOU CAN'T TRUST HIM GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT...

"You may not have perceived it at the time," the Oracle said, "but both you and Sonic received one part of Solaris within yourselves. Both halves have sought the other since their sealing, but the spell imprisoning them in the Deep Power Stones even now prevents them from recombining. When you used them, instead of rejoining to themselves, each half sought in one of you what they themselves were missing. You, Sally, with your incredible mind, drew in Iblis, the manifestation of Solaris's power. And Sonic, with his unbelievable power, drew in Mephiles, the incarnation of Solaris's mind."

Oh, no. Dear Aurora, no. "Sonic...?!"

"Alas, I fear Mephiles has already managed to manifest within him," the Oracle said, shaking his scaly head. "When Robotnik's nephew kidnapped and starved him, he briefly lost control, and Mephiles gained a foothold into his mind. Increasing his strength and speed at the cost of his sanity, Mephiles briefly twisted your friend's psyche into something not quite Mephiles, but not quite Sonic... I would call this form 'Dark Sonic.'"

"Hey, isn't Sonic back at HQ with Mighty?" Charmy interrupted.

"Oh crap!" Tiara gasped.

"Fear not," the Oracle reassured her. "In his current condition, he is unlikely to snap again, at least for the time being. But he will need help in conquering the darkness within him. For both halves of Solaris know that if their mortal vessels are killed, the sealing spell will be broken and they shall be free once more." He paused. "I believe that may be why the Warp Phantom saved you -- not for your own sake, but to prevent Iblis from escaping."

As the Oracle spoke, the churning within Sally's soul reached the peak of its crescendo, trying desperately to drown out the prophet's voice: NO STOP DON'T LISTEN DON'T BELIEVE HIM IT'S NOT TRUE IT CAN'T BE TRUE--

And suddenly the voice stopped, and Sally blinked, surprised to see that the Oracle had slipped a silver medallion around her neck, pressing another into her hand. "Here. These are not a perfect solution, but they should help you and your friend control the darkness within yourselves. Give the other one to Sonic."

Sally let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding. "Thank you... mister..."

"You may simply call me the Oracle." He paused. "Be careful, Princess. Solaris will manifest more strongly when its vessel is under great physical or emotional stress. You must take care not to push yourself too far, or it may gain the upper hand."

"Yeah, well," Vector cut in, "I know this whole 'Solaris' stuff is pretty important, but we kind of have five missing Mobians to account for, and no idea if they're even still alive. Can your mumbo jumbo figure that out?"

The Oracle gave him a sharp look. "I thought I taught you patience, my son. Very well. To find your missing friends, we must go deep past Prism Chorus and into Cryogenesis to consult the Web of Fate."

---

Antoine's life flashed before his eyes. Well, as much of it as he could remember. It pained him to realize that he had no real memories of his parents, as he had come to Mobotropolis for safety as a child during the Great War and Robotnik's coup had happened shortly afterward, ending in his journey to Knothole Village and eventual training abroad in the Delmont province under one Sir Connery in hopes of hammering his burning desire to be a hero into actual competence.

That, he realized belatedly, hadn't really worked well.

Skulk quickly got between Antoine and Metal Sonic. "I'll take this one!" she hissed, pulling out a pair of daggers and preparing to slice some rather crucial wires. What was a robot's equivalent to a jugular, Antoine wondered? (What he actually wondered was "What was a robot's equipment to a jaguar," but the intention was there and that was what mattered. Language was hard.)

THAT WON'T BE NECESSARY, MA'AM.

Aster X sent out a flash of light, and Metal Sonic froze in place, clearly wanting to move but clearly unable to do so. Skulk, who did not take orders from kiddie meal toys, immediately rushed forward and sliced off both of Metal Sonic's arms without breaking a sweat, holding the robot at knifepoint.

AHEM. Aster sounded about as miffed as a synthesized voice could reasonably be expected to sound and then some. I SAID. THAT WON'T. BE NECESSARY! I HAVE HIM COMPLETELY UNDER MY CONTROL, AND I'D APPRECIATE IT IF YOU'D NOT FURTHER ESCALATE THE SITUATION.

Skulk was entirely unapologetic. "It escalated the situation when it broke into my castle!"

"Do I get a say in this?" Metal asked.

"No!"

NO!

Metal narrowed its optical sensors. "You do realize I have a vested interest in, I don't know, not being carved to pieces!"

"You're one of Robotnik's metal freaks, aren't you?" Skulk hissed. "You came in here to kidnap or kill someone, didn't you?"

"I only came here for the annoying computer," Metal growled. "You two are just collateral damage. Not that either of you have given me anything but trouble yourselves, but if you just turn that blasted thing off and allow me to reattach my arms, then I can complete my mission and this entire mess can be avoi--"

Skulk responded by burying both her daggers into Metal's faceplate, shorting out its optical sensors. "I would say see you in Hell, but I'm not sure what happens to the souls of machines and I certainly wouldn't want to meet you again anyway."

Antoine winced. Certainly he had no love for Metal Sonic (he'd set the thing on fire a matter of days ago), but seeing anything that looked so unnervingly like his most obnoxious fellow Freedom Fighter get stabbed in the head was not a pleasant sensation and he strongly suspected that he would have nightmares about this incident for several months afterwards.

But what Metal said next made it terrifying obvious that he might not have that option after all.

"Self-destruct process initiated."

OH DEAR.

Author's Notes

Spoiler

So the three acts of Crystal Frost Zone are/were the Ice Gates, Prism Chorus, and Cryogenesis. It's been fun imagining how they might have turned out.

And hey, we finally learn what's up with Sonic's mental state during the Metal Sonic fight in Chapter One! To whoever guessed Fleetway Super Sonic, you weren't far off. I knew I needed some way to incorporate the aftermath of the Deep Power Stones into Sonic Burst without making Sonic and Sally too OP, so I decided to tie it in to Solaris's two halves in a way that's hopefully going to turn out better than, well, Sonic 06.

Also, it is no coincidence that the Oracle of Delphius is gifting Sonic with a silver medallion. Don't worry, there's no guitar inside it.

[Lorekitten]

Sorry this is late in the day; you would not BELIEVE how stressful the past week has been. It all came to a head today and I had an emotional breakdown, but thankfully I survived it.

Now let's see if Antoine survives it!

TW: Arachnophobia, (possible) explosion

Chapter Six: Cold Steel

Spoiler

As the Oracle led the others deeper through the ice caves, Sally couldn't help but notice that the song of the ice crystals (or was it the aurora singing? she didn't really know) appeared to ebb and flow around her, harmonizing in a language her mind didn't recognize, but her heart seemed to know. The medallion around her neck resonated with this music, vibrating softly against her fur as its energy formed a protection caging the powerful magic within her.

Iblis. Mephiles. Solaris. This was all just so much. Had the Acorn dynasty always known of the true threat within the Deep Power Stones? Had Nicole herself known? Had she been ordered never to reveal it, or had that been knowledge meant to pass on when Sally came of age, or even ascended to the throne?

She knew Iblis was still writhing inside her. She could sense it like a bad headache, but its whispers no longer tore at her psyche. It was more a dull throb, a resentful, muted sulking inside her head that didn't hurt, not really, but was impossible to ignore.

Would she live like this the rest of her life? Could she take the risk of expelling the spirit within, knowing that if it were to escape, all reality would burn?

She took a step, heard a crunch, lifted her boot, and found it rooted in place. A quick examination revealed that while she had been brooding and not paying attention to her surroundings, she'd stepped into an enormous spider web, frozen over with frost.

I am not going to panic, she told herself. I am quite certain that there is an entirely reasonable and not at all dangerous reason why this part of Prism Chorus is entirely engulfed with enormous spider webs.

Entirely engulfed with enormous spider webs?!

Thankfully Sally did not need to panic, as Charmy easily did that for her. "SPIDERSspidersSPIDERSspidersSPIDERSspiders...!"

"Aww, c'mon, Charmy!" Vector reassured. "You're with us, remember? The Chaotix Crew ain't afraid of a few little spi--"

And that was when five Mobian-sized spiders descended from the cave ceiling, surrounding the Chaotix and their customers. They were all dressed in full ninja outfits and armed to the teeth with ice weapons.

"-- and I have absolutely nothing against really big spiders!" Vector was quick to finish.

Espio tensed and pulled out a pair of enormous shuriken. Where he'd been keeping them Sally certainly didn't know, but this was not the time to ask. However, the tension within the ice caves was immediately deflated when a sixth spider ninja suddenly plummeted straight down from the ceiling and faceplanted on the ground in front of them with all the poise and grace of a beached whale.

There was a moment of stunned silence as both teams of would-be assailants tried to parse what just happened.

"Dang it, Parkour!" one of the other spider ninjas yelled. "You're making us look bad!"

"Sorry, bro!" said the fallen ninja, jumping up as fast as his multiple sets of legs would allow (he seemed to have trouble keeping track of which ones were which) and pulling out what was likely intended to be a set of ninja weapons but was actually a yellow sticky hand and a can of spray cheese. He quickly pocketed those and retrieved a pair of actual daggers.

The Oracle rolled his eyes, clearly familiar with this sort of display. "That's enough, children," he said sternly. "If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times: if you want other Mobians to stop being afraid of spiders, don't keep scaring them."

"Aww, man," Parkour muttered. "But there's nothing else to do around here!"

"Yeah," said another spider, "why do we even bother with ninja training if there's nobody around to actually fight?"

"Because one day, there will be, and we'll need every hand we have to protect what is ours," the Oracle stated. "You know full well what the Web has predicted. The safety of the Miracle Planet is not set in stone. It is ours to protect, down to the last of us."

"Yeesh, old man," Parkour muttered. "Way to kill the mood."

From the way these spider ninjas behaved, Sally could easily tell that they weren't any older than the Freedom Fighters themselves, and they could've stood to be more organized. And she couldn't help feeling concerned about the Oracle's statement.

As was Vector, evidently. "Um, what has the Web predicted?" he asked.

The Oracle looked around the cavern as if searching for something. "That's best left for safer quarters," he said, shooing away the spider ninjas with his hand. They parted without argument, leaving a path open for the Oracle and his entourage to pass.

"Hey, Princess?" Parkour whispered as Sally went by, slipping her a slightly sticky piece of paper that smelled of soft drinks and cheese powder. "Can ya get me Sonic's autograph? I'm a big fan."

Sally rolled her eyes and chose not to comment, slipping the paper into her vest pocket. She had one nerve left and judging from the increased frequency of the humming from her medallion, Iblis was determined to get on it.

---

They went deeper --

-- and deeper --

-- and deeper into the ice caves. As the light from outside that shone through the translucent ice slowly faded, the light of the aurora and the glowing crystals (were they icicles or stalactites, Sally wondered?) seemed to intensify, reflecting off the glimmering frost on the frozen spider webs. The strange humming song around the heroes only intensified the eerie sensation that this was not a world meant for any mere Mobian to tread lightly on.

The spider ninjas were following them. They hadn't shown themselves, not on purpose anyway. But Parkour was clearly trying so hard to be stealthy that his attempts had turned the other way around and he could not have possibly been more obvious if he had been trying. More than once Sally had heard a crash and a whispered "Parkour!" exclamation from another of the spider ninjas, immediately followed by a hastily muttered apology. Sally privately wondered if Antoine would have had any sympathy for Parkour if he had come here, or if he would've just been every bit as annoyed as the rest of them were. Actually, he'd probably have been the most annoyed out of any of them.

And then, suddenly, they were there.

Cryogenesis.

The cavern was so enormous as to contain its own weather, a vicious winter storm pelting the Mobians with sleet and hail. It was only with the wave of the Oracle's hand that the storm let up, allowing Sally and the others to glimpse the true splendor before them.

Cryogenesis seemed almost like a museum, or perhaps an art gallery. The massive cavern was dotted with countless ice sculptures, some shaped like Mobians, some like Overlanders, and others beings perhaps from beyond time and space. Sally felt a cold shiver looking into the statues' eyes; were they even really statues at all? Had some great tragedy occurred in this sacred cavern's past that caused so many living things to freeze entirely?

The Oracle seemed to read her thoughts again. "So long as you are with me, you will remain safe," he said quietly.

"He means don't fly off, kid," Vector whispered to Charmy with the sternness of a parent telling their child to stay out of the road.

Charmy did not fly off, largely because he knew the spider ninjas were still around somewhere and he didn't want to meet them.

The cavern floor was thick with almost a foot of snow, and each and every step left echoed crunching sounds beyond it. As the Oracle led them on, Sally couldn't help but feel uneasy as the continued reverberations of their footsteps seemed only to multiply, and she began to imagine that worse things than spider ninjas might well hide behind the sculptures. What if some of them were alive?

While she hadn't voiced her concerns, Vector seemed to pick up on her nervousness. "Hey. Look, I know my old man is a kook, but he's not that sort of kook. He'd never put anyone in unnecessary danger, yet alone a kid like Charmy or a literal princess. We're safer with him than we'd be in our own beds. So, yeah, I know how creepy this place is, but just stick close with the rest of us and everything's gonna be fine."

Sally took a few deep breaths, fingering the medallion around her neck. "That's not... the main thing I'm concerned about."

"Oh, Iblis? If anyone can solve that, it's Dad. Just... be aware that the process might not be pleasant. I've seen a few exorcisms performed, and those can get intense fast. Never in a place like this, though. You don't want to have demons running around a cave full of fragile ice statues..."

"We're here," the Oracle said suddenly.

Sally looked up and gulped. Spun between two massive icicle stalagmites, glistening with frost and ice, stood the largest spider web that she or anyone present had ever seen.

It could only be the Web of Fate.

"It's... beautiful," Espio said reverently.

"Since time immemorial," the Oracle said, "this Web of Fate has been guarded and maintained by the Gossamer Clan from those who would use its powers for evil. Each strand represents a person or event that connects with another to change the tides of destiny and bring forth our future."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Charmy exclaimed, waving his hand. "Am I on that web?"

"You will be, if you get too close," Vector said, pulling him down. "Please try to not get your wings stuck on and pulled off, alright?"

"The threads are not sticky," the Oracle said flatly. "The Gossamer Clan knows better than to use sticky threads on a Web meant to be read by others."

Tiara seemed unimpressed, as usual. "So I'm guessing this is the thing that's gonna tell us where our friends are?"

"It has more to tell than that," the Oracle said sternly. "In times long past, the threads of the Web have remained sturdy. However, in recent times, the threads have begun to weaken and fray, sometimes snap entirely. While the Web itself cannot predict the why or how, only the what and when, all signs seem to indicate that the Web's alteration is the work of a single force..."

"...the Warp Phantoms," Sally said hollowly. "They have a set of Time Stones. They're changing history. It's the only logical explanation."

"The Warp Phantoms have been their own legend since before recorded history," the Oracle said. "It is unknown who or what they are or what their ultimate goal is. However, it is strongly believed that they do not act at whim, but function under a greater purpose... whether for good or for evil."

"Yeah, well, I'm not charging by the hour," Vector said. "Does the Web at least know where those ghostly goons sent the Freedom Fighters?"

"I'm getting to that, son," the Oracle said, annoyed. "The Warp Phantoms do not act without reason, whatever that reason may be. And in the case of your friends, each and every one of them was sent to their own chosen location on the Miracle Planet... including Tiara." He turned to the bandicoot. "I expect you remember where you wound up?"

All eyes were on Tiara, who blushed a bit and looked down at the snow-covered cavern floor. "I mean... I didn't want to say anything, but when I came into Cryogenesis I couldn't help but think... it was familiar? Like, the same sort of place I'd seen for a few seconds before warping back to the Timekeep?"

The Oracle nodded. "Six Freedom Fighters were warped from the sacred Timekeep, and six Freedom Fighters were sent elsewhere on the planet, to other sacred spaces. I could be wrong, but I greatly suspect that the Warp Phantoms seek to bring the Freedom Fighters to the secret locations of the six Rings of Order. And you, Tiara, have been brought to the dwelling place of the Ring of Ice."

Tiara blinked. "Is that... good?"

"If you are judged worthy of bonding with the Ring, then yes. But if not..."

The Oracle motioned to the countless frozen figures filling Cryogenesis.

"...then the Ring will mete out its due."

---

"Duuuuuude," Parkour's voice said from behind Tiara and the others. "Way to kill the mood."

Tiara wasn't sure what to think. She'd known of the legendary Rings of Order, the power behind the Miracle Planet Defense System. Every ring smith worth their salt had heard of the Rings of Order. But learning that some thing, or person, or organization, was actively trying to push her to bond with one of the Rings... the gravity of it all was beyond comprehension.

"Are you... sure of this?" she asked nervously. "That this is what the Warp Phantoms actually want?"

The Oracle looked down his rather large snout at her. "If you doubt my interpretation of events, you may consult the Web of Fate yourself."

Tiara stared at the enormous spider web covered in frost. "Is it... safe?"

"You won't stick to it, if that's what you're wondering. But as for safe... is anything truly safe in this world?"

That was a decent question, and Tiara wished she had a decent answer. Taking a deep breath, she put her hand against the Web, and saw --

Antoine. And Skulk. In the Castle of Light. Against an exploding robot.

She couldn't wait, couldn't ask any questions. However the Web was putting these pictures in her mind, it was very clear that time was of the essence. Gripping her Shifter Scepter, she warped back home without hesitation.

---

The Castle of Light

This wasn't supposed to be happening.

Aster X had prided itself in its hacking skills. They were, after all, taught to it by one of the most brilliant minds on Mobius, one who had personally worked side by side with Dr. Robotnik himself prior to his coup. And yet somehow Snively's little copycat creation had managed to override Aster's influence long enough to trigger an irreversible self-destruct order.

WELL, IT'S BEEN NICE KNOWING YOU, Aster said about as casually as it could muster under the circumstances. DON'T PANIC, I'M MADE OF BULLETPROOF PLASTICS SO I SHOULD BE FI--

And that was when Tiara warped into the room and hit Metal Sonic with a flying tackle, throwing it to the floor.

Aster X was about to tell her that this action was futile, that the shrapnel from the explosion could not reasonably be fully contained by her own body, but it occurred to it that by the time it had even finished that sentence, Tiara would already be dead, so it wasn't as if it would do any good anyway.

And then it occurred to Aster that the explosion really ought to have happened by now.

It ran a heat scan of the room. Antoine and Skulk were no longer present; how they'd managed to escape that quickly defied any sort of logical sense, but what truly concerned Aster was what was happening at Metal Sonic's location, because the temperature had dropped quite considerably within the past three seconds.

Tiara backed away from the prone robot, her hands shaking. In the space of mere moments, Metal Sonic had somehow become completely encased in ice.

And frost was coming from her hands.

"What... just happened?"

She looked again, and realized that a gleaming ring had somehow wrapped itself around her wrist. A ring as bright as gold, but as cold as steel.

The Ring of Ice.

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

No points for guessing the origin of Parkour's name. It felt very appropriate for a spider ninja.

This chapter was longer than I originally intended, and honestly if I did the entire episode over again I'd want it to focus more on Tiara's characterization, as her being chosen by the Ring of Ice felt kinda rushed and she didn't actually get as much character development as I was aiming for. But ultimately the episode swayed more into introducing the Chaotix and setting things up with Iblis and Mephiles, so Tiara kinda got shafted in what was originally going to be her own episode. Hopefully I can give her more attention moving forward, because it's very interesting having her and Amy be the more 'privileged' members of the hero group because they didn't have to grow up under the robot apocalypse.

Also, yes, I did intentionally have Antoine facing an exploding Metal Sonic. Because I'm still not over it. It's been a decade or so and I'm still kinda ticked off that Ian Flynn tried to break up the core cast of Freedom Fighters to the extent he did in the Naugus arc. At least Archie Sonic Online is righting that wrong. (I almost typed 'writing that wrong'...)

The next chapter will be the finale of Episode Three, and definitely shorter than this one. But it's a chapter I've been looking forward to sharing.

 

[Lorekitten]

Well, with all the stuff I've got going on today, it completely slipped my mind that the final chapter of Episode Three was due today! Thankfully I remembered it a lot earlier than the last chapter...

Chapter Seven: Invisible Ink

Spoiler

The Castle of Light

Antoine must've passed out in fear (which happened frequently enough to be a problem on missions). The last thing he'd remembered was Metal Sonic declaring its own self-destruct sequence, but now he was lying on a masterfully woven carpet on the other side of the castle with Skulk helping him upwards with surprising gentleness for one so gruff.

"Are you... well?" she asked.

He didn't understand the question. "My name is Antoine. Do I look like ze Will to you?"

She growled under her breath in annoyance. "Are you healthy?"

Antoine quickly checked his person for injuries and/or abrasions. Surprisingly, he was entirely unhurt, but he was also entirely without Aster X. "Astair...!"

"It's fine," Tiara said, warping into the room and tossing Antoine the computer. "Bulletproof plastics. And the thing didn't even actually explode, if you can believe that. It might, down the line, if it ever gets unfrozen, so we shouldn't let it get unfrozen."

Antoine's ears twitched. Obviously he'd misinterpreted one of those words. "Un...frozen?"

"Long story, apparently I have ice powers now," Tiara said, pointing to the golden bangle around her right wrist. "The good news is, we've got a lead on where all our friends are. They're kind of all over the Miracle Planet and it's gonna be a ride finding them all, but at least we know. And it's strange to say this, but I don't think the Warp Phantoms have malicious intent."

Antoine's ears went back. He did not like the idea of the Warp Phantoms not having malicious intent, partially because they had taken his friends from him and partially because he had had to stab one and he did not want to have to apologize to it.

"Anyway, I should probably warp back to Cryogenesis now and figure out whatever the heck is going on," Tiara said. "Not sure how you and Skulk wound up on the other side of the castle so quickly, but that's a question for another day..."

And with that, she twirled her Shifter Scepter and warped away, leaving Antoine with more questions than answers. As usual.

The other side of the castle...?

He turned to ask Skulk about this, but she was nowhere to be seen.

---

Chaotix HQ

"So, basically, our friends are wherever the Rings of Order are?"

"The old coot wouldn't say more," Vector grumbled, shuffling his feet in embarrassment. "I'm not convinced he even knows himself. Just that whatever these Warp Phantoms you met are, they've got some sorta agenda involving the Freedom Fighters and the Rings of Order."

"I don't like this," I muttered. "First these 'phantoms' steal the Time Stones, then they send our friends out towards the OTHER most powerful relics on the Miracle Planet... I mean, we've just gotta find our friends before anything terrible happens, right? Log their positions on the map, and I'm there in a Sonic second!"

"It's not gonna be easy," Tiara warned. "These Rings of Order are all under guard. If our friends are mistaken for intruders, or deemed unworthy..."

"Find our friends, do it quickly, gotcha. You've got the one and only Sonic the Hedgehog here. It'll be a cinch."

Tiara wasn't convinced. "Aren't you still recovering from heat sickness?"

"Ti, I know you have like literally no idea what being a Freedom Fighter is like, but this is kinda important. When my friends are in danger, I help them. End of story."

"Oh!" Sally said. "The Oracle told me to give you this medallion. I'll... explain on the way home."

She reached into her vest pocket to pull out the medallion, but a piece of paper fell out. She blinked, stooping to pick it up. "...right. A spider kid named Parkour asked me to have you sign this."

She handed it to me and I unfolded it. "Um, Sal? There's a poem here. A really weird one...

"A fallen star shall light the way

For angel born from demon's name

If order falls, let chaos rise

And save our world from sea to skies..."

"Where'd that kid even get this paper, anyway?"

Sally and Vector looked at each other warily.

"We can't assume that was a mistake," Espio said. "This was from a ninja living under the roof of an oracle. It's entirely possible that he saw something he shouldn't have and had to pass it on to us without arousing suspicion."

"Yeah, but... under my dad's nose?" Vector asked. "This doesn't seem like something he'd try to hide from us if it was important."

"Let's get a closer look at it," I said, moving closer to the Chaos Emerald. "Maybe there's something else here that I... oh crap."

"Oh crap, what?" the Chaotix asked.

It was invisible ink. Invisible ink between the lines of the poem, apparently the type that gets visible in a certain color of light or something like that. And it read:

Your father is alive and watching you.

You will meet when you least expect it.

DON'T TRUST HIM.

"WHAT?!"

---

To be continued in Episode Four: Tails' Skypatrol...

Author's Notes

Spoiler

So I may have mentioned this before, but in recent years the DuckTales reboot has easily beaten out SatAM as my favorite animated series of all time, and its success was a major inspiration for Sonic Burst itself. And one of the things it got right (in the first two seasons, at least) was its episodic storytelling.

The reason I bring this up is because at the end of the second episode of the first season, Dewey says a word. I will not spoil what word he says because it's far more effective if you don't see it coming, but it sets the tone for the central mystery of the first season and for the show in general. It caught me completely by surprise and absolutely hooked me, as it brought up a question that I genuinely had not expected to ever be answered and elevated the cartoon from a series about duck people into an epic family mystery.

For Sonic Burst, I wanted to do something similar. I wanted the series to address the enigma that a lot of Sonic media never truly touches on: where does Sonic come from? Why is he so fast? Did he ever have parents, and what happened to them? While some spin-offs gave the blue blur a bit of backstory, I knew I had to go all out for this one. And while finding and bonding with the Rings of Order may be the current plotline, the central arc of Sonic Burst: Rise of Ashura was always going to be Sonic's quest to find the truth of who he's meant to become.

Another path, I must now walk on...

See you next episode.

 

Edited February 26 by Lorekitten

[Lorekitten]

Finally I have returned... with Episode Four: Tails' Skypatrol.

Which turned out not really being all that based on Tails' Skypatrol, but it kind of ran away from me.

Updates are set for Wednesdays and Saturdays, so as not to collide with blog articles on Fridays.

Chapter One: Daddy Issues

Spoiler

In one moment, it felt like the battle was over. The Warp Phantom was gone, everyone else was alive, and the Timekeep was safe. At least, until an even bigger, scarier Warp Phantom had appeared from nowhere and roared:

DO YOU FOOLS HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE JUST DONE?!?!

Tails had been terrified, as anyone with any sense of self-preservation (read: anyone but Sonic) would have been. And it wasn't long before he was even more terrified, because in the work of a single moment, a tangerine light enveloped him and he found himself stranded on a beach in the middle of nowhere, under the full brunt of a gale-force hurricane...

As any small child would, he panicked. And like any sane Mobian who didn't want to get wet, he scrambled for the nearest shelter -- in this case, a dark cave. Unfortunately, he failed to notice the rather large sign posted outside said cave in sloppy handwriting:

WULF'S DEN

TRESPASERS WIL BE PERSEKKUTTED

---

"What the freakin' ever-loving HECK?!"

I paced irately across Chaotix HQ, clawing the air with my hands. "My dad's alive. MY DAD'S ALIVE, and I have no idea who he is because Uncle Chuck somehow never thought to TELL me about that, and literally all I know about him is that a spider ninja said that he's watching us, we can't trust him, and he's coming when we least expect it. You can't just DROP that on a guy!"

I could feel the rage building. "Why? Why didn't my uncle tell me any of this? What even WAS 'any of this,' anyway? What kind of a person WAS my father? Why would he just disappear like this? Why didn't he even tell me he was alive? WHY DON'T I EVEN KNOW HIS FRICKIN' NAME?!"

Sal put her hand on my shoulder. "Sonic..."

And she slipped the silver medallion over my neck, and suddenly everything felt different, and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding when I realized that my bad vibes had felt scarily like how I'd felt fighting Metal-Me in the roboticization chamber, like there was a wild beast inside me clawing to get out. A beast... or something worse.

"What... just happened?" I asked.

The looks on Sal's and Tiara's faces told me that this wasn't something they felt like I was in any mental state to handle, which of course meant that I immediately wanted to know more.

Espio, thankfully, bridged the gap. "When you and the princess used the Deep Power Stones to destroy Robotnik, you unleashed two halves of an ancient evil that took up residence inside the two of you. Wearing those medallions should keep the evil at bay."

"Wait, what?" I asked. "Like, wear them ALL the time? Because correct me if I'm wrong, but wearing stuff like this while sleeping is a strangulation hazard, right?"

"It's MAGIC, Sonic," Tiara scolded. "Magic artifacts generally have safeguards built in not to kill their wearers."

I all but collapsed against the wall. "Great. Lovely. Snively's got an army of robots plus a Metal-Me wreaking havoc, some eldritch entity impostors are messing up the timestream and sending our friends who knows where, my DAD is out there somewhere doing who knows what without me, and I have a LITERAL DEMON living rent-free in my head. I never thought I'd say this, but I miss Robuttnik!"

"Actually, I took care of the metal you," Tiara said. "Courtesy of the Ring of Ice."

She held her arm out, revealing the golden ring around her wrist. Wisps of frost played around it like your breath on a cold night. "Whoa. That's pretty chill."

"According to the Oracle of Delphius," Sal said, "our friends should be at the locations of the other five Rings of Order. He wasn't sure why, but apparently the Warp Phantoms have a purpose for drawing us near to those rings... for good or for evil."

"Sal, these 'phantoms' kidnapped our friends," I said. "They've gotta be evil."

"I'm... not convinced," Sal admitted. "Maybe they're more... chaotic neutral? Whatever their goals are, they may not be our friends, but I'm not convinced they're our enemies either."

"Didn't Antoine stab one of them?" Tiara asked. "I think that would at least make any future interactions with these guys pretty darn tense."

"Aren't we missing the part where we know where our friends are now?" I snapped. "Let's go get them already!"

"It's not gonna be that easy," Vector said. "The Rings of Order are among the most protected relics on the face of the planet -- and they protect THEMSELVES. If your friends get too close, and they aren't deemed worthy..."

"The Ring of Ice was inside an enormous cavern filled with frozen victims," Tiara said. "That's kinda hardcore."

"Oof," I said. "Okay, so where's the closest of these Rings of Order? Because we've gotta knock 'em all out before anything REALLY bad happens to our friends."

"I've downloaded a map of the planet marking the locations of the five remaining Rings of Order," said Nicole, Sal's pocket computer. "The Rings in closest proximity to our current location are the Ring of Air in Jade Gully and the Ring of Earth on Flicky Island."

"Okay, cool," I said. "I'll speed there in a Sonic sec--"

"No, you won't," Sal said firmly. "You're still recovering, remember?"

"Oh. Right. Not cool." I paused. "But hey, we have Ti's baton-thingy, right? That should get us there just fine!"

"That's not how the Shifter Scepter works!" Tiara scolded. "Short distances are one thing, but you try to warp across the ocean to a place you've never been before, you're just asking to drown. How well do you even swim?"

"I don't," I admitted. "At all."

"You DO realize that all travel costs will factor into our bill," Vector said.

Tiara sighed. "YES, Vector, I'm well aware of that. And seeing as we lost all our Warp Rings back fighting that Phantom... it looks like we've got no other choice."

"Choice?" several voices asked.

"We've got to face up to my dad and admit that we're the ones who lost all his Warp Rings," she muttered.

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

It took a little longer than I would've liked to get this episode finished, but I like how it turned out. Not much to say about this chapter, since it's basically a transition between episodes three and four, but I'll probably have more to say as the episode progresses.

 

[Lorekitten]

My apologies for how late this is; I've been kind of distracted by health issues and other things (such as the fact that all the best YouTube videos come out over the weekend, but I digress).

Chapter Two: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Spoiler

Sopping wet, Tails darted into the cavern and shook himself dry. The chills from the cold wind and rain were nothing compared to the chills in his heart. Where was he? Where were his friends? Were they anywhere nearby, or could they have been warped hundreds of miles away, or worse...?

He'd heard about Warp Phantoms before. Mostly from Sonic, who had a tendency to exaggerate his scary stories, especially if Antoine was in the room. But knowing they were real, and that one of them had his friends...

And what could he do? He was just a ten-year-old kid, out in the middle of nowhere. The sheer gravity of the situation hit him like a wall of collapsing bricks. He had no idea where he was... or what else could be out there with him.

Think, think, think! What would Sonic do? Probably run rings around the planet until he found their friends; which wasn't really a viable option for Tails under these or any circumstances.

Okay, what about Aunt Sally, then? She'd approach the situation cautiously. Scope out the terrain, identify any threats, keep an eye out for potential resources and/or allies. That seemed far more feasible in this current situation, even if Tails didn't have the benefit of Nicole.

And speaking of allies, he heard voices from deep within the cave.

"Heeheeheeheehee!" one voice laughed. "You little kiddies thought you could mess with the Witchkarters, did'ja? Now, whatever shall we do with you three?"

"I say we eat 'em," said a deep, booming voice with a dangerous tone to it. "I ain't had roast duck in ages."

"Now, now, gentlemen, be reasonable!" said a higher-pitched voice. "You know I wouldn't be able to have any."

"Shut up, duck!" said the deep voice. "Dinner doesn't get to talk!"

"I'm a woodpeck--"

Tails heard a loud roar and the sound of somebody's fist hitting somebody else's head (he had heard this quite a lot in his life, usually when Antoine got in over his head again). He did not hear the woodpecker's voice again.

Whoever these people were, they were absolutely not his allies. But if they had prisoners, maybe if he rescued them...!

"Listen up, you goons," a young female voice snapped. "We came to Jade Gully on an important mission from Wester. I'm sure you've heard that name before? He is NOT someone that you want to cross."

The deep voice snorted. "Wester, eh? One problem there, missy -- Wester's dead. Long dead. Don't think ya can scare me, ya rassa-frassin' vixen!"

"Uh, Bearanger?" said another voice, an adult female from the sound of it. "What if the girl's right? I mean... they'ah never found Wester's body, did they'ah?"

"She's making it up," said the first voice firmly. "You don't just come back from an Overlander massacre. Especially with those mutant mind-controlled freaks they set loose on him. Wester's deader than a bag of bricks." The voice giggled again. "And you lot are about to join him!"

Tails had heard enough. Rushing in would only get him captured, but if he crept in quietly, maybe he could find an opening...!

"Wuh-uh, darlin'," said the older female. "We ain't gonna really eat these kids, are we? If they'ah know somethin' 'bout Wester bein' alive an' all, the boss lady might wanna know that!"

"Well, Wester's not alive, Carrottia," hissed the deep voice, which Tails deduced had to be Bearanger, "and neither will these gosharned hooligans be once we--"

And that was when Tails heard the sound of ropes snapping.

"Uh, boss?" Bearanger said. "Are ropes s'posed ta do that?"

"They do when Bark eats them!" the woodpecker said cheerfully.

The younger girl's voice rang out: "CHARGE!"

Tails immediately decided that discretion was the better part of not getting killed and pressed himself against the cave wall like a mosaic, hoping not to end this adventure in quite as many pieces as one.

---

Professor Gazebo Bowski's lab, the Castle of Light

I hadn't seen an adult that angry at a teenager since the last time I'd beaten Robuttnik. "Do you mean to tell me that you STOLE my entire stock of Warp Rings, lost them in a fight against a Warp Phantom, and ALSO got five of your friends warped away to Aurora knows where?!"

"Technically there were TWO Warp Phantoms?" Tiara said nervously.

This revelation did not make her father any happier. Quite frankly, I wouldn't have been surprised if his head had spontaneously combusted then and there.

"Well, if the Oracle's prophecy is correct, we do more or less know where they are," Sal put in. "Apparently they've all been teleported to the resting places of the other Rings of Order."

Gazebo's eye twitched. "OTHER Rings of Order?"

Tiara slowly held out her arm, revealing the Ring of Ice around it. "Yeah, see... we found the Ring of Ice and it CHOSE me, so... that's good, isn't it?"

Gazebo collapsed into his desk chair and massaged his temples. "Tiara, what have I told you about leaving the castle without permission?"

"That the world is a dangerous place and I'd only get myself in trouble?"

"Well, considering the current situation, I was clearly misled. Seeing as you've put OTHERS in trouble as well!"

"Look," I put in, "from what I've heard, it was all Antoine's fault the Freedom Fighters even got involved in the first place, so if you're gonna yell at someone, yell at him. He's used to it."

I turned around to see how Ant would react to that, but apparently he'd taken the opportunity to disappear before I could blame him for anything. Can't say I'm surprised.

Tiara pouted. "What's the point of my even having a Shifter Scepter if I'm not even allowed to use it?"

"To keep you SAFE!"

I don't usually move slowly, but this seemed like a time to back away as carefully and quietly as possible.

"Tiara, I..." the professor said. "You've got so much of your mother in you. And you know what happened to HER..."

"I'll be fine, Dad!" Tiara said. "I took out an exploding Metal Sonic just this afternoon. I can handle myself!"

"That's what your mother said!" The prof looked close to tears. "Tiara, please... I warned you not to leave the castle for a reason! It's not SAFE out there!"

"Well, it's clearly not safe in here, either, if there are killer robots breaking in!"

"There weren't killer robots before those Freedom Fighters showed up!"

Uh-oh. Shots fired. I could see the unease on Sal's face, so I cut in. "Excuse me? EXCUSE ME? Sure, I can understand not liking a disaster magnet like Antoine, but ALL of us? What were YOU doing while we were all fighting tooth and nail to save Mobius? Because I never saw you ivory tower types move a finger against Robuttnik! And if you're not gonna help us save our friends, then we're just gonna go after them ourselves, capice?"

Professor Bowski glared back at me. "Mind your manners around your elders, young man!"

"I'm sorry, I can't hear you over your massive attitude!"

"SONIC!" Sal yelled. "This isn't helping!"

I stopped. Not that the guy didn't have it coming, but our friends could well have been in danger and when Sal decides to step in and take charge of a situation, it's definitely best to just let her. Which I totally do. All the time. No, I'm not protesting too much.

Sal took a deep breath, then stepped towards Professor Bowski. "Sir... with all due respect, your daughter has been chosen by one of the Rings of Order. If our friends have been sent to the others, perhaps having someone with us who has already been chosen will convince the other rings that we're all on the same side?"

I could tell from the sound of her voice that she was having a hard time believing this herself. These were RINGS we were talking about. The power rings that we had back in Knothole Village were mere tools, solidified energy that boosted my abilities to supersonic levels. The idea that these Rings of Order actually had thoughts and choices was kinda unnerving when you thought about it too much.

I knew Sal was never one to pull rank on anybody, but her being the princess and all did mean something, at least to the prof. "All right," he sighed resignedly. "If you think that Tiara can help save the others... then she can go."

Tiara practically shot through the roof. "Yes, yes, YES! Don't worry, Dad! I won't let you down!"

I decided that it was probably safest not to mention that us Freedom Fighters don't exactly have the most stellar track record of us all making it out alive.

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

So here's the first name-drop of Wester. Don't bother trying to look him up in a Sonic wiki; you probably won't find anything under that name. Although to be fair it's the type of name that Ken Penders might have given to one of his echidnas...

I had to carefully consider whether or not I wanted Carrottia to have a Southern accent, especially given that I'm Southern myself (though only by technicality; my mother came from Michigan and my dad from Colorado) and I wasn't sure if I really wanted to play into the stereotype of 'she's a rabbit in the SatAM universe so she's Southern.' But since presumably there is a population of rabbitfolk with Southern accents on Mobius, I felt it was appropriate.

Wow, Sonic can sure be obnoxious, can't he? He has many admirable qualities, but he can still drive you nuts.

 

[Lorekitten]

Chapter Three: Westside Story

Spoiler

By the time Tails mustered the courage to actually look inside the cavern to see what was going on, he wished he hadn't. From what he could tell from his hiding spot behind a stack of barrels, there was a large, giggling wolf fighting a teenage vixen, a polar bear wrestling a grizzly bear, a green woodpecker in a red bandanna hurling bombs everywhere, and a white rabbit woman throwing what appeared to be lethally sharpened carrots of all things.

Not the kind of scene any ten-year-old wanted to walk into, especially if they planned to also walk out of it.

Tails wasn't sure if he should step in. He hadn't clearly seen who'd said what, and while he had his guesses as to who the instigators were, there was no guarantee any of the combatants would take kindly to having a kid crash their party, or that he wouldn't wind up as collateral damage entirely by accident or held hostage by one group as a Mobian shield.

And then, as if things couldn't have gotten worse... he had to sneeze.

Trying to hold in a sneeze for too long is never a good idea, especially when you happen to be right up against a stack of barrels and in failing to prevent said sneeze, you knock into the stack and send a barrage of rolling barrels straight at the people you're trying to avoid while in the process completely destroying your cover.

Which was exactly what happened.

It didn't help that the barrels were all full of bombs.

All six combatants froze mid-battle. Tails would only understand why they all did this sometime afterward, although not particularly long afterward.

The vixen turned to the woodpecker and grinned. "Bean, light 'em up."

The bird snapped his fingers, and for no apparent reason, every single explosive spilled from the barrels began to glow.

The grizzly screamed "RASSA-FRASSIN'--"

But the woodpecker, polar bear, and vixen took off running in the direction of the cave exit, leaving their assailants to carefully consider just how quickly they could move after them without getting any closer to the deadly mass of imminent kaboom spread all over their base.

Tails knew enough to take off running himself.

But as he turned to speed after the teenagers, he gasped as the rabbit woman pulled out one final sharpened carrot (or a projectile weapon resembling a carrot) and hurled it straight at the woodpecker's back.

Tails didn't think about what he was doing. Sonic wouldn't have bothered to, and there was no time anyway. Spinning his tails behind him to pick up speed, he slammed into the fleeing bird, knocking him to the ground moments before the woodpecker would've been impaled. The carrot weapon flew harmlessly by, narrowly missing Tails' rapidly whirling namesakes.

"HEY!" the bird snapped. "I had the right of w--"

And then all the bombs exploded, sending a rain of falling rocks throughout the cavern, one of which knocked Tails mercifully unconscious.

---

"Look, we can't just carry this kid around with us on the mission. You know darn well he'd be a liability."

"Aw, c'mon, Fiona! He's so cute! He'd make the perfect fluffy mascot!"

"Bean, we don't need a mascot. We need to get that relic, and we need to not get distracted. Right now, we are doing neither."

"So why are we doing neither again?"

"BECAUSE YOU KEEP DISTRACTING ME!"

Fiona's yell snapped Tails out of unconsciousness. He was lying in the arms of the polar bear and he had no idea why or how that had happened, so of course he panicked. The end result being that the polar bear only gripped him all the more tightly and gave him a look that said "Don't make me do anything we'll both regret."

Which of course Tails had no intention of doing, so he stopped flailing and tried to keep his terrified shaking down to a dull roar.

There was no sign of the Wolf's Den. The group had taken him to a lush forest of bamboo, which smelled of wet earth and wet bamboo and while it was clearly no longer raining, the humid atmosphere made Tails' fur stick out at unnatural angles. Or maybe that was his nerves. He was still very much far from his friends or from any sense of safety whatsoever, and he'd already barely escaped certain death at least once since the incident in the Timekeep and had no reassurance whatsoever than he wouldn't have to do it a second time.

The vixen glared at him from the side. "Look, kid. You've caused us no end of trouble interfering with a fight we were already winning, but Bean's taken a liking to you after you saved him from a carrot to the back, so I'm not arguing with him."

"Um..." Tails said, confused. "Thanks...?"

"Don't thank me, thank the duck."

"Woodpecker," Bean corrected. "Well, my mother was a woodpecker, my father was a duck, but they loved each other and that's what matters."

The polar bear made a low huffing sound and set Tails down, considerably more gently than the fox had expected. "I... uh... thanks," Tails said. "My name's Tails. And you are?"

"Fiona," said the vixen. "That's Bean, and the polar bear's Bark. He's nonverbal. We're the Westside Island Freedom Fighters, and we're here on a mission to make sure one of the most powerful relics on the Miracle Planet doesn't fall into the wrong hands. Not that I think there's any danger from those Witchkarters anymore."

"It can't fall into the wrong hands if they've already been disarmed!" Bean said smartly. (Bark rolled his eyes and pretended he hadn't heard.)

"Freedom Fighters?" Tails asked, eyes gleaming. "I'm a Freedom Fighter, too!"

Fiona gave him a look that was clearly pressing X to doubt. "A kid like you? Don't make me laugh."

"But didn't Wester say--?" Bean started, but was immediately cut off from a low, gruff sound from Bark, who set his mittened hand on Bean's shoulder and gave him a glare that said "Don't say anything we'll both regret."

"You mentioned working for Wester before," Tails said, confused. "Who is he?"

"Oh, only the most dangerous Mobian on the planet," Bean said offhandedly as if he was talking about the weather and did not have an annoyed nonverbal polar bear trying to get him to be quiet. "At least he would be, if he was ever on the planet."

"He's dead," Fiona said flatly. "He's been dead a while. I only told the Witchkarters we were working with him to try and scare them. You may not have noticed, but none of those guys are mentally stable. Wendy Witchkart likes to recruit rejects from society and promise to give them a place in whatever her evil schemes are. Scraping the bottom of the barrel if you ask me."

"Wait, Wester's dead?" Bean asked, sounding genuinely confused. "That explains his eyes..."

Bark huffed in a manner that told Tails that this was entirely what anyone would expect from Bean and that the best thing to do was just roll with it.

"Actually, sometimes I wonder if our real boss does the same thing," Fiona muttered darkly.

"Aw, don't judge yourself so harshly," Bean said, putting his arm around Fiona and very clearly missing the actual point of her comment.

"Don't patronize me," she growled.

"So who is your boss, then?" Tails asked, confused.

"Classified information. Suffice to say you wouldn't know him. We operate off the grid from King Acorn's list. Our boss... is not the most trusting individual on either planet, and he has a personal grudge against the Acorn dynasty. Not my business to judge him or anything, that's just how it is."

A grudge against Sally's family? "What did the Acorns do?"

"Not my circus, not my monkeys," Fiona said firmly.

"We just follow orders," Bean explained. "Another day, another dollar, never get involved in politics."

Tails raised an eyebrow. Fiona seemed stable enough, if a bit more irritable than he would've liked, but Bean was clearly a few bricks short of... something, and Bark was hard to read. And if their boss, whoever he was, was angry with Aunt Sally's family, it might not be a good idea to bring up that he was one of the Knothole Freedom Fighters.

"I need to get back to the Castle of Light," Tails said. Hopefully that would be enough to get him back to his friends without any awkward moments between Aunt Sally and the Westside Island Freedom Fighters. "Could I, uh, get a ride?"

"We've got a boat!" Bean said smartly. "But it's only made for sinking."

"It's a submarine, Bean," Fiona growled. "Submarines always run under the water. And we're not leaving until we accomplish our mission."

"Ooh! Ooh!" Bean said, ignoring Bark's increasingly annoyed expressions. "What if we get this guy to help us get the relic, and then we help him get back to the Castle, and Queen Elena will be so happy with us that they'll throw us a party with ice cream and cake and one of those big bouncy houses!"

Fiona gave Bean a severe look that gave Tails the impression that the Castle of Light was absolutely the last place that she wanted to go.

"Yeesh, just a suggestion," Bean muttered, clearly offended.

"We can get you to the mainland in the Sea Fox," Fiona said to Tails, pointedly ignoring Bean. "That's our submarine. Past that, you're on your own. And we're still picking up that relic first. If you really think you're not gonna just slow us down--"

"I can help!" Tails cut in. "You'll see! I'm a real Freedom Fighter! I helped Sonic and Sally find the Deep Power--"

He cut off abruptly, realizing too late that he'd mentioned Sally's name.

The three Westside Island Freedom Fighters gave each other worried looks. "Deep Power..." Fiona muttered. "Oh, no. Oh no oh no oh no oh no--"

But whatever else she would've said afterwards, Tails never knew, because that was precisely when the Witchkarters showed back up again.

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

Bean's comment about his parents is a callback to Ian Flynn's statement that Bean's father is Bin from... some old obscure Sega game I'm blanking on the name of. And also the fact that official continuity hasn't been consistent on what Bean's species actually is.

The Sea Fox was originally Tails' submarine, and appeared in the Archie story that introduced (robot) Fiona. Interestingly enough, at the end of that story Tails wanted her repaired, but we never got that. Which is probably for the best all things considered; she was pretty abusive.

And whoever these guys' actual boss is, we can probably assume this backstory will be important eventually...

 

[Lorekitten]

Chapter Four: Lost in Transition

Spoiler

"Heeeeey, it's the Witchkarters!" Bean said excitedly as if greeting old friends. "You're looking good for dead!"

The wolf, bear, and rabbit did look something like they'd just crawled out of their own graves. Their fur was singed and smelled sooty, and their expressions nearly scared Tails into hiding behind his own tails.

"Heeheeheeheehee!" said the wolf. "Did'ja really think Wendy Witchkart wouldn't have shared her magic with us?"

"Knowing what you'd use it for, Hocke-Wulf," Fiona snarled, "I would think she'd have better sense!"

And that was when the grizzly bear threw a barrel of explosives at them.

The explosives weren't lit, at least at the time he'd thrown it. But they were certainly lit by the time the barrel was on its way down. Not waiting to see what would happen when it landed, Bark grabbed Tails by the scruff of the neck and took off running with Fiona and Bean.

"When did they get magic?" Fiona gasped. "Why didn't Wester tell us they had magic?"

Bean shrugged, no mean feat to accomplish while running for his life. "Maybe if he wasn't dead, he would have!"

Fiona narrowed her eyes. "YOU shut up!"

The Freedom Fighters had the advantage within the bamboo grove, as their main goal was to not get caught, made easier with the lush forest of plants around them. However, the Witchkarters were clearly not above a scorched-earth policy, and despite the recent rain, the smell of smoke was hot on their tails.

"Any ideas, boss?" Bean asked, out of breath.

"Get to Bamboo Transit," Fiona huffed. "It's the quickest way up to Emerald Clouds. And hope these idiots burn themselves down with the forest."

"Gotcha gotcha!" Bean said, saluting.

"And don't blow it up in the process!"

"I cannot in good faith make that promise!"

Fiona growled under her breath as Bean ran up ahead. The nerve of some Mobians!

---

"Tell me AGAIN why I'm stuck babysitting Antoine?"

YOU ASKED ME AND NICOLE TO CALCULATE THE MOST OPTIMAL TEAM STRUCTURE FOR THE ONGOING MISSION, Aster X said. WE CONCLUDED THAT EACH TEAM SHOULD HAVE TWO FREEDOM FIGHTERS, TWO CHAOTIX, AND ONE ASTEROID. GIVEN THE CHOICE BETWEEN PAIRING ANTOINE WITH TIARA OR WITH YOU, I CONCLUDED THAT YOU HAVE MORE EXPERIENCE WITH ANTOINE'S... QUIRKS, SO YOU WOULD BE THE BETTER BET.

"Oh, I have 'experience,' all right," I muttered. "Somehow I'm always the one saving his butt when he jumps headfirst into danger he can't jump out of. One of these days I'm not gonna be around to save him, and he's gonna win a Darwin Award."

"An award?" Antoine asked, immediately interested. "Fantastique!"

"It's an award for dying in the stupidest way possible, Ant!"

Antoine started back at me, clearly unsure if he heard me right. "Well, seeing as I am still alive, I cannot be winning ze award, can I?"

I decided to leave it at that. Some conversations aren't worth having, especially with that guy.

The four of us on Team Sonic -- me, Ant, Espio, and Mighty -- were sailing a motorboat towards Jade Gully while Team Sally -- Sal, Tiara, Vector, and Charmy -- went off towards Flicky Island in another boat. Neither of us knew which Freedom Fighter we'd find at our respective destination, if any, and none of us wanted to even think about what would happen if the Oracle's claims were wrong and our friends were somewhere else entirely.

LOOK, I KNOW YOU TWO HAVE... ISSUES WORKING TOGETHER, Aster X admitted. BUT IF I PUT HIM WITH SALLY I'D HAVE TO PUT YOU WITH TIARA, AND SOMETHING TELLS ME FROM THE FEW MOMENTS I'VE SEEN THE TWO OF YOU TOGETHER THAT IT WOULD NOT END WELL IN THE SLIGHTEST. ALSO BOTH YOU AND TIARA HAVE SUPERPOWERS, WHILE ANTOINE HAS NOTHING AND THE 'POWER' INSIDE PRINCESS SALLY IS... NOT SOMETHING ANY OF US REALLY WANT TO LET LOOSE.

This was fair. Even with the medallion around my neck, I could still sense whatever dark spirit had been hiding within the Deep Power Stones lurking somewhere in the pit of my stomach, trying to claw its way out. Mephiles the Dark, Sal had called it. I wasn't sure what it was or what it wanted, but I definitely didn't need it creeping back into my head again.

BUT WHILE WE'RE ON THE TOPIC OF THINGS WE DON'T TRUST, NOW'S AS GOOD A TIME AS ANY FOR ME TO CITE MY SUSPICIONS ON THAT SKULK CHARACTER.

"Captain Skulk?"

ADMITTEDLY MY SENSORS WERE NOT OPERATING AT FULL CAPACITY DURING METAL SONIC'S ATTACK AT THE CASTLE OF LIGHT. BUT I HAVE EVERY REASON TO BELIEVE THAT SKULK USED UNORTHODOX METHODS TO TRAVERSE FROM ONE SIDE OF THE CASTLE TO THE OTHER SHORTLY BEFORE METAL SONIC WOULD HAVE EXPLODED IN OUR FACES.

I didn't have to look at Ant's face to know that all of those big words had gone completely over his head.

OKAY, PUTTING THAT IN SIMPLER TERMS, SKULK IS USING WARP MAGIC.

"Warp magic?" Mighty asked. "You mean like warp rings?"

UNLIKELY. WARP RINGS TAKE A FEW SECONDS TO ACTIVATE. I'M THINKING THAT WHATEVER SKULK USES, IT'S LIKELY THE SAME SORT OF ENERGY THAT THE WARP PHANTOMS USE.

"Ze Warp Phantoms?!" Antoine shrieked. "You are not zheenking..."

I'M THINKING, ALL RIGHT. IT'S MY JOB TO THINK. YOU KNOW IT CAN'T BE A COINCIDENCE THAT SHE'S THE ONLY ROYAL GUARD WHO EVER CAME BACK FROM THE RAID ON THE TIMEKEEP.

"I AM ze Royal Guard..." Antoine muttered under his breath.

"So you think she's the one who stole the Time Stones to begin with?" Espio asked.

NOT NECESSARILY. WE'VE MET MORE THAN ONE WARP PHANTOM, YOU KNOW. I'M THINKING SHE'S AT LEAST IN CAHOOTS WITH THEM, IF SHE'S NOT ONE OF THEM TO BEGIN WITH. SHE PROBABLY SET THE FREEDOM FIGHTERS UP TO TRY TO PREVENT THE THEFT SPECIFICALLY SO THE WARP PHANTOMS HAD AN EXCUSE TO SEND YOUR FRIENDS TOWARDS THE RINGS OF ORDER.

Not gonna lie, this was a lot to take in. "So, uh... does that make her a good guy, or a bad guy?"

IT MAKES HER A SUSPECT. AND IF SHE'S A SUSPECT, WE NEED TO WARN QUEEN ELENA ABOUT HER.

"You realize none of us have ever actually met the queen, right?" I said. "We've been kinda busy over the last few days."

"Well, we can't just suddenly show up in the throne room and tell her the captain is shady," Mighty said. "We need more evidence. And we need to get that evidence without getting Skulk suspicious."

"I can handle that," said Espio, shifting the colors of his scales as a demonstration.

"Just be careful in there, pal," Mighty said, setting his hand on Espio's shoulder. "The Castle of Light is pretty colorful, and it could be a challenge getting your scales right."

"I haven't been caught yet," the chameleon said darkly.

"Well, these guys threw the Freedom Fighters in prison because they tied up a little girl," I pointed out. "Never mind that said little girl tried to flatten an 'innocent' coyote with a giant hammer. I wouldn't take any risks if I were you."

"I don't 'take' risks," Espio said. "I am the risk."

From the look in Antoine's eyes when he said that, I'm not sure I want to know what Antoine thought that meant.

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

So when the Witchkarters appeared in the Archie comics post-reboot, it was revealed that they were all possessed/brainwashed by Wendy Witchkart into doing her bidding. While that sort of thing is perfectly fine for a 'big bad' sort of villain to do, I felt that it took away from the Witchkarters' characters if they were only doing what they were doing because they were forced to, so I didn't use that concept. I'm still trying to figure out the Witchkarters as characters rather than simply as obstacles to the main characters, since they never really got all that much attention in the franchise, having appeared in one game only and then been entirely forgotten until Ian Flynn dusted them off again and put them back to work.

So I may have mentioned before that Skulk was invented to replace a Sonic character that I felt would've been problematic to introduce wholesale into the storyline. Anyone care to guess who? (The warp magic is a hint.) Whether she's actually guilty of anything or not, well, that remains to be seen...

 

[Cyb3rkn1ght]

On 12/5/2023 at 7:52 PM, cosmichaos said:

Dude, this is crazy good! All the characters feel true to the show, and I really like how most of the chapter comes from Sonic's POV. You're excellent with words and sentence structure, and as someone who writes every now and then(not for the public, I'm not THAT bold(or motivated)), it's always nice to see, and it makes organizing information better. I'm excited to read the future chapters! :)

I heavily second that! its interesting that it feels like a world that was struggling to survive, but now is peaceful. until WARRIOR AMY SHOW UP OML. cant wait to read the rest soon!

[SpeedyChilidogs]

Finna binge all this!! 

[Maple Syrup]

I have mentioned before, you are a talented writer. You have a gift. Keep on writing, @Lorekitten!

[Lorekitten]

Replies:

Spoiler

On 4/20/2024 at 10:01 PM, Cyb3rkn1ght said:

I heavily second that! its interesting that it feels like a world that was struggling to survive, but now is peaceful. until WARRIOR AMY SHOW UP OML. cant wait to read the rest soon!

Yeah, SatAM was probably the bleakest Sonic timeline all things considered. Gonna be interesting seeing how the world develops as plot happens.

On 4/20/2024 at 10:32 PM, SpeedyChilidogs said:

Finna binge all this!! 

Enjoy!

On 4/20/2024 at 10:36 PM, Maple Syrup said:

I have mentioned before, you are a talented writer. You have a gift. Keep on writing, @Lorekitten!

Thanks! Writing is as natural to me as breathing, so I have no plans whatsoever to stop now. My ultimate dream is to write an original fantasy series and get it turned into an animated feature/series, but it's considerably harder to build an original universe from the ground up than it is to develop fan fiction, so it's gonna be a while before that particular project is anywhere near ready...

Chapter Five: Where There's Smoke

Spoiler

From the looks of Bamboo Transit, Tails hadn't seen a more disorganized mess since the one time he'd peeked into Sonic's sock drawer. (Never again.) The place was a maze of mine carts, tracks, pulleys, and lifts, seemingly going everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Fiona caught the confused look in Tails' eyes. "This is where the harvested bamboo gets transported all over Jade Gully," she said. "More importantly, it's our ride out of here."

"Um, Fiona?" Bean asked nervously. "Bark wants to know how we're gonna escape from a team of magic guys with explosives in an entirely flammable mine cart."

"We just ARE, all right?" Fiona roared. "Now get in the cart and let's get going!"

The four Freedom Fighters managed to fit themselves all inside the cart (no easy task, considering Bark's bulk), but soon found themselves in an entirely new quandary: getting the cart to move.

"Oh, come ON!" Bean ranted. "These things always move automatically in video games!"

From the smell of smoke and sound of footsteps behind them, it was clear that the Witchkarters were drawing nearer. Thinking quickly, Tails turned around so that his tails were hanging out the back end of the cart, then spun them rapidly, creating a gust that propelled the cart forward across the track.

"Hey, neat trick there, kid!" Fiona said. "Where'd you learn that one?"

"Right here," Tails admitted, "just now."

"Well, you're a natural. Just keep spinning, and maybe we'll all make it out of this alive!"

Tails wished his friends were here to see this. Actually, he wished his friends were there to take on the Witchkarters and bring him home to Knothole, but as long as they were wishing, he wanted whatever stupid war was happening now to just end already. Destroying Robotnik was supposed to bring peace back to Mobius, but... now what? Snively had picked up where his uncle left off, the Warp Phantoms had stolen the Time Stones, and who even knew what this Wendy Witchkart wanted with that relic...

"Bean, blow up the tracks behind us so we aren't followed," Fiona said. "And blow up the other carts as well, just to be safe. We can't take any chances."

"Blow them up?" Tails asked, concerned. "But they aren't ours!"

"You want those Witchkarters to catch up with us? They'd eat us alive! Trust me, kid, it's every Mobian for themselves out here. What matters is that we make it out alive."

Tails wasn't sure what kind of Freedom Fighter believed something like that, but Fiona was older and more experienced, so he stayed quiet and focused on powering the cart while Bean played target practice with everything behind them.

---

It's not easy to smell anything other than Antoine's overpowering cologne when you're right next to him, but I knew I smelled smoke. Once it got strong enough that we could see it coming from the exact direction of Jade Gully, I knew something was up, and since our boat couldn't outspeed a blazing fire, I jumped out and straight-up ran on the water to the shores and made my way to Bamboo Transit all on my lonesome.

Espio and Mighty were less than thrilled to see me run off the way I did. Antoine not so much.

By the time I reached the source of the fire, Tails and his new 'friends' had already vamoosed out of sight, and the three Witchkarters were trying desperately to activate some sort of hovervehicle designed to look like a giant carrot. Whoever thought a flying vegetable was a good idea, I'll never know. I think we've already established in this story that the Witchkarters may not have been all there.

"Hey, you three!" I asked, having of course no prior knowledge as to why or how Bamboo Transit was set on fire. "You guys get the number of whoever set this grove on fire?"

The wolf -- Hocke-Wulf -- grinned deviously. "Heeheeheeheehee! They just took off for Emerald Clouds! See if you can catch up with them, won't you?"

I should've probably seen the red flags a mile away, but that's when the white rabbit spoke up. "They'ah a group called Team Hooligan, two foxes, a duck, an' a polah beah, an' they'ah workin' fah a guy that calls himself Westah. Prolly not THE Westah, since he's dead, but..."

"'The' Wester?" I asked. I had no memory of ever hearing that name before, but something about it put a cold feeling in my stomach. The fact that I'd somehow deduced its correct pronunciation despite the rabbit's accent was probably a clue.

"Well, he's only the most gosharned dangerous man on the planet," the bear said. "An' if he wants the Rings of Order, he can't want anythin' good with them."

I can only describe what happened next as something dark awakening deep within me. I'm not sure if it was Mephiles' influence or just pure fear, but something inside me told me that whoever this 'Team Hooligan' was, they were a danger to Jade Gully and quite possibly the entire Miracle Planet. And you know me: I don't question my gut instincts. I just DO.

Which isn't great on those minor occasions when my gut instincts are wrong...

But before I could even consider that possibility, I was already racing away.

---

Tails and the 'Freedom Fighters' had already made it to Emerald Clouds, a grove of the tallest mangrove trees any of them had ever seen. Tails could easily see how the zone got its name -- the lush, leafy tops of the mangroves stretched so high into the sky that they could easily be mistaken for clouds.

"And there she is," Fiona said, pointing upwards. "Somewhere within that grove is the Ring of Air, protected by gale-force winds. We've gotta get up there before the Witchkarters do so we'll be ready for them."

Bean looked thoughtful for perhaps the first time since Tails had met him. "So, how many explosives would it take to create enough lift to launch us all the way--"

"NO, Bean!" Fiona snapped. "You'd set the entire grove on fire!"

"Yeah, that's a fringe benefit."

"We're climbing the trees," Fiona said, pointedly ignoring her partner's idiocy. "Be careful of the winds, and for the love of Aurora, do NOT do anything stupid."

"Stupid? Moi?" Bean was clearly not at all offended but pretending to be offended for comedic value. "Just how long have you even known me?"

"Too long, clearly," Fiona muttered, pulling out a grappling hook and wondering why everyone she'd ever met was insane.

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

So while the title of the episode is Tails' Skypatrol, the locations are actually named for levels in the cancelled Sonic X-Treme game. Jade Gully was to have three levels in it: Wolf's Den, Bamboo Transit, and Emerald Clouds. Given that one of the Witchkarters was, well, a wolf, it made sense to introduce them in this area.

 

[Cyb3rkn1ght]

1 minute ago, Lorekitten said:

Writing is as natural to me as breathing, so I have no plans whatsoever to stop now. My ultimate dream is to write an original fantasy series and get it turned into an animated feature/series, but it's considerably harder to build an original universe from the ground up than it is to develop fan fiction

Preach. Ive had this reoccoring thought in my head going "What if there was a Unknown Planet in the Orbit of Planet Wisp, where mobians live and has powers based on said wisp, but their word is just opposite of Mobius?" I have some character ideas, but its not a picnic as to how it would work. maybe an AU? Maybe not just Wisp powers, but other powers as well?

[Maple Syrup]

9 minutes ago, Lorekitten said:

Thanks! Writing is as natural to me as breathing, so I have no plans whatsoever to stop now. My ultimate dream is to write an original fantasy series and get it turned into an animated feature/series, but it's considerably harder to build an original universe from the ground up than it is to develop fan fiction, so it's gonna be a while before that particular project is anywhere near ready...

I hope that you'll one day reach your goal! I'll be waiting happily and patiently!

[Lorekitten]

Replies:

Spoiler

On 4/23/2024 at 10:34 AM, Cyb3rkn1ght said:

Preach. Ive had this reoccoring thought in my head going "What if there was a Unknown Planet in the Orbit of Planet Wisp, where mobians live and has powers based on said wisp, but their word is just opposite of Mobius?" I have some character ideas, but its not a picnic as to how it would work. maybe an AU? Maybe not just Wisp powers, but other powers as well?

Intriguing concept. What exactly do you mean by 'just opposite of Mobius'?

On 4/23/2024 at 10:40 AM, Maple Syrup said:

I hope that you'll one day reach your goal! I'll be waiting happily and patiently!

Thanks!

Trigger warning: possession, physical violence

Chapter Six: Bombs Awry

Spoiler

I swear, Bamboo Transit was specifically engineered to try my patience. Running across hairpin turns on the cart track at Mach 2 without dropping into a bottomless pit that had NO REASON to even be there is not exactly my idea of fun. I don't know who built that place, but I sincerely doubt it was MOSHA compliant.

I survived, obviously; I wouldn't be writing this if I hadn't. But it was something, I'll tell you that much. By the time I made it to Emerald Clouds, the dark spirit hidden inside of me had gained enough of a foothold that I wanted to punch the next person I saw.

Until I actually saw the next person I saw, which was Tails. And, of course, Team Hooligan with him.

I'd known the bunny had said there were two foxes in Team Hooligan. I hadn't thought for a moment that Tails would be one of them. Under normal circumstances I would've known straight up that my best bud wouldn't destroy a forest if you promised him his parents back, but like I said, I wasn't in a great place mentally. "Hey, uh, buddy?" I asked, confused. "You, um... who're your friends?"

Before he could answer, Bark grabbed him from behind and pulled him into a death grip with obvious hostage-taking intent.

"Hey, look, it's Mr. Needlemouse!" Bean announced. "Wester's gonna pay us through the nose for this!"

"Careful, team," Fiona said, and the look in her eyes told me that she wasn't playing games here. "If the files we've read are true, he's highly dangerous. Especially with half a Gaia Titan inside him."

Gaia Titan. That thing Mephiles was supposed to be part of. How did she...?

That didn't matter. Tails was in trouble, that was all I needed to know. "What do you want, you creeps?"

Fiona laughed. "What do we want? We're here for one purpose only: the Ring of Air. And it only takes one of us to grab it. But YOU showing up of all people... well, that changes things considerably. Bean, knock him out!"

The woodpecker grinned, pulling out several explosives and hurling them in my general direction. "Bombs awry!"

Bombs, I could dodge. Not a single one hit me, which I figured would be a given. Unfortunately, these weren't your run-of-the-mill blow-a-guy-to-pieces bombs. These were smoke bombs, specifically bombs with smoke that made you drowsy if you breathed it in. Which, unfortunately, I only realized after I did so.

"SONIC!" Tails screamed before I fell unconscious...

---

Fiona grinned deviously. "Mission accomplished. Now run in there and fetch him."

"On it!" Bean said cheerily, rushing towards the smoke cloud with no regard for his personal safety.

"And cover your beak first!" Fiona shouted. "Otherwise you'll--"

Bark, who was close enough to Bean to know where this was going, grabbed Bean by his tail feathers and pulled him away just in time. However, doing so meant he could only grab hold of Tails with one arm, giving the young fox an open opportunity to try to escape.

And that was when Tails bit him.

Foxes are carnivores, which means, among other things, that they have very sharp teeth. As Bark roared in pain, Tails managed to wriggle free, kicking the polar bear in the chest and rocketing towards Bean with his tails just as the bird was adjusting his bandanna to cover his beak, knocking them both into the cloud of knockout smoke.

In hindsight, this was probably not the most advisable course of action.

Tails immediately held his breath, whirling his tails at lightning speed to try to clear out the smoke. Not the easiest task to engage in when you're not taking in any oxygen for your muscles, but this could be life or death for Sonic. And he'd thought these three were Freedom Fighters! Who were they even?

Was the last thing he thought before he passed out from oxygen deprivation.

---

Bean was thankful he'd managed to get his bandanna over his beak before being pushed into his own smoke cloud, although honestly he wasn't sure who to thank. Himself? The cat woman who'd sold him the scarf? Eh, she was cute, he'd thank her later. Maybe take her out to the local milk bar once he got paid for this job.

All thoughts of romance fled his head entirely when Mr. Needlemouse got up.

Except it wasn't Mr. Needlemouse. Well, it was, but it wasn't. The car lights were on, but the wrong guy was driving. From the dark aura around the hedgehog and the glowing red eyes, it was evidently clear even to someone like Bean that this was a clear-cut possession incident. The actual Mobian inside the body might not even be conscious, for all he knew.

Why hadn't Wester warned Team Hooligan that Mephiles could do something like THAT?

"So, my old enemy is still alive," Mephiles spoke. "It's been, what, hundreds of years? Thousands? He's cheating, isn't he? That's all he knows how to do. Sad, really. His end is inevitable, considering the sheer power that he's fighting against."

Bean was about to say that he had no idea what Mephiles was talking about, but a dark hand clamped around his neck and he was suddenly eye-to-eye with the possessed hedgehog. "Tell me everything you know about Wester," the spirit hissed. "Where he is, how he's still alive... what he's planning. Because if you don't... what ARE you looking at?"

Much to Mephiles's dismay, Bean seemed entirely unaware of the precarious situation he'd just walked into. Instead, the woodpecker was staring at a glimmer of silver metal underneath Sonic's scarf. "Shiny..."

Bean reached for the medallion, and Mephiles threw him against a baobab tree, knocking him unconscious or worse. "Don't even THINK of touching that."

And in that act, Mephiles had made the unthinkable mistake of making Bark mad.

Ignoring the remaining wisps of knockout smoke, the polar bear lunged for Sonic's puppeteered body, punching fiercely with roars and snarls that would've put any non-Mobian animal to shame...

---

And this, unfortunately, was about the time I regained consciousness. Possessed by a demon and pummeled by a bear. Two for two on the bad day meter.

The misery ended when Fiona cut in. "Stop it, Bark! Wester wants him undamaged, and you KNOW what that man's capable of. Get the inhibitor ring!"

Lovely. Another inhibitor ring. Concentrated nope energy at a moment where I couldn't move my own limbs to save my life and at this point I wasn't sure if Mephiles could either.

"Bean, hand over the--" Her voice cut off abruptly. "Bean? BEAN?!"

Because Bean, apparently, had regained consciousness quicker than any of us had hoped and had just used actual explosives to give him enough lift to rocket straight up the side of one of the massive baobab trees like his life depended on it.

Given the circumstances of the past five minutes, it very likely did. Because if Mephiles didn't kill him for it, his teammates certainly would.

Author's Notes:

Spoiler

Not really much to say about this one. In hindsight, this chapter turned out a bit short for my tastes. But, hey, Mephiles makes his first 'real' appearance!

 

[Cyb3rkn1ght]

13 minutes ago, Lorekitten said:

Intriguing concept. What exactly do you mean by 'just opposite of Mobius'?

Good question. I have no idea

maybe like how the sol demention is? I have no clue honestly, it was a toss away thing I said now I think about it. (I will definitely be reading this later)