#he only uses his real tails when sonic is around hyping him up

[wickedcriminal]

No man fox is an island

Nine PMV because I like him :) sorry I can't draw Sonic for the life of me

song cover link!

[the-heart-of-a-monster]

Wh-

What the f-

UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH HELLO EXCUSE ME WHAT-

Yeah. This is fine. This is great, even! I'm just scrolling around on Tumblr, havin a good time, then I see some asks talking about the new page and I get excited. I riot in my head, even! I squeal with joy because I absolutely adore your art!

Then Sonic pushes Shadow away and my heart breaks in half.

wtf /pos and /lh

I wanna psychoanalyze this so fuccin bad so I'm gonna try my best but everything is so clear and easy to see so idk how obvious this will all be. I'll have a TLDR at the end that will hopefully be shorter idfk

Also before I do that I just wanna say that I absolutely love THOAM and I'm so glad I've been along on such a crazy journey for this long. Love seeing your art evolve throughout the 2 years I've been here!

ok let's get on with it already-

---

Okay so the first thing I noticed is Sonic's demeanor in this entire chapter so far. Sonic wasn't necessarily pissed at Shadow before coming here, (I still fail to remember the name of their location) but he was a bit... He seemed angered to some degree. This obviously has to do with the lack of sleep he's been getting due to his incredibly painful transformation, and uh side note here, transforming on its own would be enough to make someone feel out of sorts. I totally understand why Sonic is acting odd, in this case.

Anyway, the point I'm making is that Shadow has slowly been testing Sonic's patience throughout this and the last chapter. In the last one, Shadow said something incredibly rude and impulsive, which lead to Sonic staying behind in the dorm while Shadow and Chip were getting mawled. He only came back because he knew they were in deep trouble. The hug he got from Shadow didn't really help all that much, even if it was a kind gesture and something the Ultimate Lifeform wouldn't typically do. Because, y'know, it's just a hug. People hug others all the time, and it's not even close to a real apology.

Then Chip stayed behind with Tails. And... Suddenly, Sonic took a complete 180!

Without Chip around, without Sonic's emotional support buddy, the blue blur is left with all these pent up emotions that he's been refusing to let out for a long time. The last time he cried was days ago when he accidentally attacked Amy, and for us, that was probably like 3-4 years ago at this point. He's hardly had enough time or room to really feel anything, and that leaves him all constipated and icky. Sure, he had to kind of mellow his real feelings when Chip was around because he's just a kid in Sonic's eyes, and when Sonic lashes out it impacts Chip in a bad way. This doesn't mean Sonic feels any better without Chip, because without him, there's no hype man to make him feel better. There are no comforting words or small chit-chats for the road and no pit stops to get snacks... It's just him and Shadow now, and since they're on a pretty important mission to, you know, fix the entire fucking world, there's like no time for breaks.

Combine all this with the fact that Sonic is stuck as a Werehog for this entire chapter, and for the entirety of this specific mission... Yeah, you've got a pretty cranky hedgehog. And here's the sad part in all of this: Sonic doesn't like feeling this angry and this alone, but no one seems to really understand him anymore. Not even Shadow. They don't know what it's like living two whole lives at once, having to go through all this pain and agony for so long and not able to tell a soul. They couldn't possibly comprehend!

So how should he feel when his closest companion makes an effort to understand, even just by a little bit?

---

TL;DR

Sonic is confused and angry at the world. He doesn't understand what to do or how to act, and without Chip's support and unintentional therapy, he's just kinda... Left to his thoughts. Shadow suddenly trying to help after being not very helpful for a while made things even more confusing, and the fact Shadow never told Sonic about the constant nighttime thing... Yeeeeeaaahhh, Sonic's not doing too hot.

Hope this wasn't too long and I hope Tumblr doesn't eat this up due to its length. Thanks so much for reading to the end and thanks for just being you. Because if you didn't exist the world would explode-

<3

NEVER TOO LONG i think others also appreciate the theories ♥

[egg-emperor]

I apologize if you’ve been asked this or if you’ve spoken Apologies if someone has asked you this or if you talked about it before, but what are your thoughts on the audio series Sonic and Tails R? I know it’s fanmade but it features Mike Pollock as Eggman and it manages to write Eggman as a pretty powerful villain imo! I wanted to know since you are THE Eggman Expert to me, and very passionate about the way he is portrayed (which I agree with, lol)

The Eggman Expert? :O Ahfddjfnskjnfdsgdjsg thank you so much!

I haven't shared my thoughts in-depth yet because I wanted to wait until we heard it all to share my final opinion on his portrayal. But now we've reached the bittersweet end, so I'll share them here now. ^^

A lot of the hype for this fan series was around the official actors reprising roles for the first time in years, that's for sure. I get it because hearing Ryan Drummond return with my absolute favorite Sonic voice and multiple other actors is a real treat. But I barely saw anyone talk about Eggman's characterization and Mike Pollock's performance were as a result. So of course I'm gonna be that guy!

First I'll go through a brief summary of my thoughts on Eggman in each episode, then my final thoughts on his portrayal as a whole overall. So of course, this will contain spoilers!

Episode 1:

One of my absolute favorite episodes! I loved how it immediately started off with some really exciting action. Despite it being audio only, it was very easy to picture exactly what was happening. My favorite part was the sly and cunning Eggman and the way he was actually luring them into a trap with each phase and waiting for the right moment to use his tractor beam. It was great to already see him get the upper hand within in the first episode!

I love it so fucking much whenever Eggman talks with that lower quieter tone and whisper, it's absolutely thrilling. I'm just like sir... my heart is yours 😳🥰💜💘💕

Episode 2:

He was only in it for a short moment but it was a very important one. The way he was restoring emeralds and didn't understand why the emerald he was piecing together were leaking energy was worrying for a moment but his view on it was fitting for him to have. He was actually right for it to be no cause for concern because it never ended up being a part of his reason for failure, which I feared at first. It's nice when Eggman's plans don't backfire against him because of his own actions.

Also, the part where he puts the emphasis on the word "perplexing" always cracks me up. The way it's followed by his sinister excited tone as he wonders where the other six might be is a wonderful amount of range heard from him within just a few seconds. Mike never fails to deliver both Eggman's goofy and serious lines in the most entertaining ways!

Episode 3:

It was a relief that Eggman explained that the corrupted chaos emeralds still have just as much power as before. What was even better was that they could potentially be even more powerful than the originals, so his mechs could be more powerful than his super form. I love how something he wasn't sure of at first actually turned out to be something that was beneficial to him. It's a refresher from the constant "Eggman creates a problem for himself that leads to his eventual failure" thing that makes people misinterpret him as an incompetent joke.

I love the way he threatens Sonic and Tails in this one. The impact of the way he began with a hushed tone and raised his voice with the threat was again, so thrillingly menacing and showing how dead serious he is about destroying them. I always wish for more moments where Mike gets to portray Eggman's darker, cruel, and intimidating side like this and I'm very grateful that this series gave him the perfect opportunities. I really hope there are more in the games soon!

(He wasn't in ep 4 so I won't talk about it here lol)

Episode 5:

Another favorite episode because I couldn't stop smiling all the while at his playful tone throughout, I love it so much when he's so mischievous and cheeky and he gets to have fun with his schemes! He knew he had a good reason to be so confident and giddy when he had a bomb set to detonate at the finish line so he could grab the emerald.

Something else that was awesome was how Eggman already had FOUR of the emeralds. He'd been doing a great job finding and piecing them back together all by himself! This series really showed his competence and ability to be well ahead of Sonic and friends. It was like Adventure again!

(He wasn't in ep 6 so not talking about that one here either XD)

Episode 7:

Another one of my favorite eps besides 1 and 5! It was cool that he made a fake Eggman in the style of Metal's fakes in Heroes that managed to trick, beat, and blast Tails and then blow up to knock him and Sonic out. The way he was so condescending towards Tails like he's seeing him as the eight year old child he is with the tone of mockery in his "you'll get over it" and "poor boy~" has me like 😩💗💜💕💖 Yes he's being awful to a little kid but he's being extremely hot while doing so, I can't lie it makes me insane lol

I love how all the focus was on him for his speech about how there's no one that Tails can depend on and that he's all alone. I like that he was trying to get into poor Tails' head to make him believe that if he can't always be perfectly independent then he's screwed because he shouldn't truly rely on anyone with teamwork. I like that Eggman is delivering that fucked up message because I enjoy lone wolf Eggman that believes he's powerful enough on his own, doesn't need anyone, and is comfortable in it due to his ego and confidence.

I like how he got to make Sonic and Tails feel helpless when he tells them they practically just gave all the emeralds to him, just like in Adventure. But it's also thanks to his competency in how he was always a few steps ahead of them in finding the emeralds and the way his plan was so well thought out for a long way through that plays a huge important part in it too! He even got to go through with his earlier threat about blasting them out of existence, proving he wasn't all talk by bringing out his vaporization technology.

I'm so happy that we got to hear such a wonderful amount of chaotic maniacal bastard Eggman in this episode! That (unfortunately temporary) moment of victory was a joy that had me smiling so wide, I was so happy for him! This is why I love evil cruel Eggman so much, it's so thrillingly entertaining. With the cliffhanger you can really imagine that he finally killed Sonic and Tails and I love it. If it wasn't for what the emeralds and Tikal can do then he really would've killed them right there and then, once and for all! :D

Episode 8:

He wasn't in this one much but his "what happened?" and the return of his high-pitched gasp were cute. If only Sonic and Tails weren't the main characters so his win could've been permanent. :')

Episode 9:

Also one of my absolute favorites, of course!

Sonic says that Eggman shouldn't have hit them with a laser powered by the emeralds but it wasn't glaringly obvious that it would be an effect of the laser, so it was a way for there to be a flaw in Eggman's plan without it seeming like there was something extremely obvious to overlook. It wasn't at the expense of his seriousness and competency like it has been in IDW, so they did it better. Plus, he had already proven how he could plan well and ahead as he had the upper hand for a while up until this point.

The Egg-Gidorah was epic and I really like how the concept art shown on Twitter revealed that it was based on the dragon boss that was cut from Sky Chase in Adventure. The way it was golden as if it had its own super form from the emeralds was pretty badass. And it was supposed to be so huge that Sonic looked like a tiny speck of dust in comparison.

I love how Eggman clearly gave it his all after anticipating it for so long. He had multiple tricks up his sleeve and even pulled out the tractor beam to drain them of the emeralds' power again. With the speech he gave when he truly almost had them, I liked how he thought about everything that lead to this moment to build the suspense. His tone of mockery with the way he says he's "almost sorry it's over" and calling them his "admirable adversaries" and the delivery of that "crush them" had an amazing impact. Every time he uses that particular tone it makes me shiver with glee!

It's not just Eggman that gave it his all, so did Mike with his extremely impressive performance! Eggman had that energy, desperation, and determination to win in his voice on a similar level to the Egg Dragoon boss in Unleashed, which has always been one of my favorite performances from Mike. With the way he accidentally mispronounced Ivo aside despite getting it right two times before, I adore the energy in the delivery of the lines where Eggman says he's the greatest genius the world has and will ever know, and how they're nothing compared to him! He's so right 🥰💘

Episode 10:

I know he's a bastard but of course I felt bad for how grumpy he sounded about his defeat. I love this grumbly grumpy old man so much ajfjsmgkskgkkdh It makes sense for him to not be as pumped up about getting Sonic next time like he often is because there are still times where defeats hit him harder like we see in Adventure and Unleashed, and this was another pretty big defeat after how long he had the upper hand and how well thought out his plan was. It also wouldn't be the first time he's bluntly admitted to defeat.

At first, when he said that it turns out that Sonic's willpower was stronger than his genius, for a second I was like "HUH‽" because why would he say that when he's a narcissist that will always see himself as superior? But he obviously wasn't genuine, you could still hear the sarcasm in his tone and the "until we meet again, that is" line confirmed that. I might have written that part a little bit differently but it doesn't bother me much and I still think the writers had a good understanding of his character.

--------------------

Overall, this is one of the few cases of Eggman interpretations and writing within fan made content that's been right up my alley. I think they understand Eggman's character well and it's always a delight to see a genuinely evil and competent Egg that doesn't add fuel to all the misconceptions. This series gave him the respect he truly deserves by having him as the one true villain with plenty of spotlight that shows off his skills and his evil bastard ways.

I adore how confident and smug he was across multiple episodes, especially 1, 3, 5, and 9. It's typical with his big ego but anyone will realize he has a good reason to be with this plan because it was impressively successful almost the whole way through. He lured Sonic to the extractor, managed to acquire emeralds on his own, and easily snatched more from Sonic and Tails during their attempts to recollect them. He didn't give up to the very end despite every challenge and tried everything he could to defeat Sonic and Tails, he never seemed like an incompetent joke.

I always adore Eggman being genuinely evil and villainous. When he's egotistical, eccentric, evil, threatening, funny, and charming I'm like THAT'S my boy! I'm delighted when he goes all out with his badass creations and is a completely ruthless and threatening bastard that's determined to win, no matter what. I love his maniacal laughter as he finds enjoyment in it, the thrill of the chaos and malicious intent of his actions, his threats and mockery, and the way he asserts his superiority and tries to make those he sees beneath him as nothing in comparison. He's powerful and believes in himself and his goal and he doesn't let anyone get in his way!

I really like how he was sinister and threatening while still having moments of endearing silliness that because that balance is important. It's a part of why he's so fun and entertaining and Mike Pollock also helps deliver it with his charming as ever performance! He brought him so much life and energy in a way nobody else could, so I'm really happy they could get him for this fan project. As usual, my heart started racing every time I heard him and I couldn't stop smiling. He never fails to impress and I hope it's not too long until we get to hear him play Eggman in any form of media again.

So in conclusion: Yes, Eggman's portrayal in SaTR absolutely has my approval and the series has become very special to me as a result. It's a great example of his true potential being explored by giving him the respect and spotlight he deserves. It's also a perfect reminder that he's genuinely evil, competent, and a serious threat. I will always treasure his portrayal in this series for that and I can't recommend it enough! 🥰💜💕💖

[mobius-prime]

244. Sonic the Hedgehog #175

Oh, boy… Anyone who knows the comics will have been looking forward to this one. In the spirit of milestone issues tending to be big game-changers, this milestone is probably the most dramatic one yet. I will say that in my opinion it's not quite as cinematic as Endgame, which had a very season-finale feel to it, but as far as milestones goes, this issue is easily one of the best. I feel like anyone who really had major doubts about Ian's ability to steer the course of this comic probably ended up persuaded otherwise when this one came out. But enough of me hyping it up, let's take a look and see what all the fuss is about!

Eggman Empire

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

As the Egg Fleet silently approaches Knothole, the Freedom Fighters, Chaotix, and assorted allies all chill in Freedom HQ, unaware of what's coming. Knuckles tries to convince the other Chaotix that something is wrong since Espio hasn't returned from his mission yet, but Julie-Su disagrees, saying that Espio is skilled and if anything would be offended that they came looking for him. Rouge, sensing an opportunity, butts in to reassure Knuckles that if he wants to go looking for his friend, she'll gladly help, which naturally pisses off Julie-Su to no end.

Don't get too complacent, Sonic. Bad things happen when you get complacent. In the brain trust room, Tails shows a little concern for Nicole, who's running a bit slowly, and she initiates a diagnostic on her systems while Tails and Rotor chat. Rotor shows concern for Tails' mental state, especially considering recent events, and notes that even after the Fiona thing was solved, he still seems a bit distant from his best friend. Tails admits that times have been hard for him lately, but reassures Rotor that he'll be fine, as he still has his friends around him and his parents around to take care of him.

And then Nicole sounds the alarm.

The roof is suddenly violently ripped off the base, revealing Snively in some kind of battle suit grinning down at the various occupants. Before anyone has time to think, he begins shooting off beams of energy, and one heads straight for Tails before Rotor pushes him away, getting hit in the spine with debris in the process. Energy beams hit Rotor, Rouge, Vector, and Julie-Su, disintegrating them before everyone else's horrified eyes.

Knuckles, enraged, tries to leap forward, but Mighty is already doing a pretty good job of holding off Snively all on his own, screaming in unrestrained fury over his vaporization of Ray. However, as soon as Snively gets a clear shot off and zaps Mighty away, Sonic prepares to leap in for a fight - only for Snively to sneer that he was only "the distraction" before flying off. Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, trapped under the rubble from the base, urge Sonic to rush out and save their families before more of Knothole falls. Unfortunately, Eggman has already been busy with the rest of the town.

Sonic shakes in horror as Eggman walks out of the fire, thinking Eggman has literally just killed everyone he's ever loved, but Eggman smugly informs him that they're not dead, only captured, having been transported to his Egg Grapes. This, of course, is probably the worst thing he could have told Sonic, because as we know, if Sonic sees even the tiniest ray of hope, the barest glimmer of a way out, he never, ever gives up. He and Eggman begin to fight, but it becomes clear very early on that despite his battle experience, Sonic is really no match for Eggman's new suit of battle armor. Eggman gloats as they fight, reminding Sonic of every failure he's ever had over the course of his entire life - his father's roboticized state, the deaths of Tommy and Sir Connery, even his complicated love life, using it all to rile him up.

Eggman claims that this is the real reason why the rest of the world refused to rally around Knothole during the king and queen's travels around the globe, because they knew they would never have a chance. Sonic furiously continues to fight, but Eggman informs him that he's studied Sonic and his capabilities his entire life, that the only reason Sonic is even able to take this much punishment without dying is due to the sheer amount of magic rings he's been exposed to, and that this suit is specifically designed to be able to counter literally anything Sonic might throw at him. When he gloats that Sonic has "reached his limit," Sonic appears to break, yelling "LIMIT?" over and over before taking off in the opposite direction.

Despite all his boastful claims, as Sonic races back far faster than any vehicle could ever go, Eggman appears to actually become a little nervous, bracing himself for the blow. Within seconds, Sonic has made it back into Knothole, and makes a beeline straight for Eggman…

…ouch.

Sonic does his best to continue to fight back, but he's exhausted and injured, and for once in his life, truly unable to win. Eggman beats on him a little more, reiterating with every blow what a failure he is and how helpless he is in his current situation, before picking a defeated Sonic up off the ground for one last word.

And with that, he tosses Sonic carelessly back onto the ground, leaving him broken and defeated.

This. This right here is the Eggman I love. Sure, the wacky and often mostly harmless villain archetype may be fun, but this is the reason that Eggman as a villain, especially in the comics, is so legitimately terrifying. He may seem affably evil, silly and ultimately not much of a threat when you interact with him one on one, but it's when he targets Sonic personally that things get very real, very fast. The Eggman of the comics in particular is very fond of legitimate psychological warfare, and in the end, he's not afraid to do whatever it takes, up to and including war crimes and brutal torture, to get what he wants.

That said, he does have one fatal flaw - the need to be feared. We've seen it lead to his downfall before, with his desire to let at least one survivor go at the end in order for word of his deeds to spread and cause fear. And in this case, he's made the worse mistake of all - out of everyone he could have let go, he chose Sonic. Sonic may be beaten and injured, but as Tails runs up, having freed himself from the rubble, he sits up and reassures Tails that he'll be fine and that the others are still alive. Tails is horrified by the destruction he sees around them, but Sonic stands up and tells him to rally the others - that they still have a chance to save everyone, and that as long as they're still breathing, they can turn this defeat around.

[bloodlinevalentine]

Helena (1)

Some nautical krii7y written for my personal aesthetic mostly that I thought I may just share with you guys. In fact, I was so hyped that I didn't even really proofread lol :)

[BTW, if you like my writing (by whatever miracle) you can expect an unholy amount of BBS and GBG Christmas stuff incoming in the next month and a half:]

Ice cold. That's what Smitty's mind screams the moment he regains consciousness.

He gasps twice very hard, once as his face is flooded with the feeling and taste of salty seawater, and again when he feels the overwhelming pain in his chest. His eyes take a moment to adjust to the stinging and darkness, blinking chunks of mucus and foggy tears away, before they allow him to see the ship around him.

He registers quickly that the wooden splinters in his back prodding at his skin are from the deck of the ship, which is not even his ship he notices, and twists into a sitting position. He is lying face up in a slight divot, the boards pushed in no doubt from the force of his body slamming into them, if the already deep-set pain in his bones was anything to go by. It was also likely what knocked him unconscious, he realizes absently.

With some difficulty, he manages to completely pull himself from the creaky floorboards, but not without jostling a bloody gash in his arm. He pauses and tries to assess it, but it's more or less out of his field of vision, the only evidence of it being the spotty drops of blood staining the light wood red, just now beginning to ebb away. How long had he been out cold?

He shakes his curiosity away and stands, finding a much better vantage position on his feet. Right now, what he needs to focus on is strictly getting back to his ship and helping his crew with the recovery. He couldn't remember much, but he could at least gather that this fight must have been a nasty one. They were probably strung somewhere worried and furious at his disappearance. He needed a compass, but right now he would have to make do with using the north star. 

Above him, the sky is a mess of puffy clouds, dim yet plentiful stars, and their weak light competing with the reflective moon. He catches himself staring for a moment, and realizes that the lights were slowly getting further and further away: he had to be falling very slowly. 

He runs over to the rails and looks over to discover that yes, the ship is sinking, and the nearest island is too far to simply swim to if he wants to live. He plops down right where he's standing, panting in a panicked sweat. This was how it would end for him, lost aboard an enemy ship with an island just close enough to be a blue blur off to the distance and nothing more. His heart hammers inside his chest so hard he thinks he might be able to hear it.

Suddenly, a harsh wave strikes the ship, almost knocking him overboard as it forces it into a near-horizontal tilt. His fingernails split and his knuckles go white as he grips the rail for his life, fear lacing his blood like oxygen. The severity of the wound in his arm is still unidentified and screams sonic protests that he is forced to ignore. There must be a whirlpool just off the distance, spinning and sucking water into it and causing some sort of backlash pulling system, his brain supplies weakly, but it does little to quell his rising panic. He forces himself to catch his breath as the ship is uprighted and left to rock in place. He needs a plan and he needs it fast.

Smitty looks over at the island again, really eyeing the distance and chewing his lip in thought. Brown eyes flicker back between the railing and the dense line of trees, counting paces, praying to deities he hasn’t thought of since childhood. After a moment, he decides that if there is anything he needs to do, it's try. It seems like the only chance he has at surviving right now, but even the thought makes him swallow thickly.

Well, the very least he should do before he goes is to search the ship.

He dashes over to a ladder and hatch near the wheel, but pauses short on the steps. The second floor had long since begun to take on water, and now was over halfway full, still rising. The only things still visible were the barrels that this crew had used to likely store food, and a chest full to the brim with riches. He toys with the idea of wading through the water, but ultimately shrugs and settles for a bag hanging haphazardly from one of the ceiling beams. A quick rummage inside shows a few gold coins and a beaded necklace, but nothing overly personal. Perfect.

Next, Smitty makes to run into the navigation port and pick up something like a compass and a map, but he quickly realizes that those are useless after they’ve been wet, and there are no small rowboats in his vicinity. They would be ruined after the swim.

And that’s where his mind is when he sees the man.

It’s not until he turns back to cut his losses and head down the ladder that he spots another figure, slumped in half on one of the planks leading up over the edge of the ship. He can’t see much from this angle, but the body spasms and twitches with life even though it appears so dead.

Carefully, he approaches and watches for any sudden movements, but the person, distinctly male he can see as he nears, is completely unconscious. He can’t help but feel a tug on his heartstrings.

Smitty winces, but drops his bag and reaches down, dragging thin arms around his shoulders to hoist the body up onboard, but stops short. God, the guy is heavy.

It’s odd, considering how normally sized the person seems, but he just shakes his head, squints down at the rising water levels, and pulls with all of his available strength. The body follows, and he gets the wind knocked out of him under the force with which it comes crashing onto his chest. He lies there for a moment, panting and staring up at the sky again before he rolls himself free, only to gasp at the creature lying next to him.

The upper half was just as he had become well acquainted with, curly brown hair and oddly bare chest aside, the figure looked strikingly human. But the bottom half consisted of a long, thick, and shimmering tail where legs should have been. What he had thought before was a man had turned out to be a merman!

It's a slight wrestle between Smitty’s self-preservation instincts and his inner curiosity, but in the end, he knows that he cannot bring himself to leave the being there to die, no matter the species

He finds himself chewing his lip again, but there is really nothing he can do in such little time, but jump and hope for the best. Unceremoniously, he leans over and angles the torso to rest over his shoulders and around his neck, perhaps his best option for transporting it. Then, he pulls the string within his bag and secures it to the threadbare loops in his pants so that it safe while he swims. With that done to the best of his bloody and shaky ability, there is only one thing left to do.

Smitty feels the wooden planks with an awakened sort of clarity as he climbs off the edge of the hull. The soggy rope, frayed and waterlogged, threatens to tear under his weight as he rocks with the waves. His eyes bounce between the restless ocean and still unconscious face next to his as his nerves spike again. He feels another deathly tilt, and this time the boat really does tip so far that there's no going back: it's going to capsize for sure. It takes more strength than he sure he has in all of his body to gather his faith in himself. The deep breath is not nerve-steeling enough to reassure him, but he leaps off the ladder and plunging into the water anyway, the lifeless figure gracelessly falling from its perch around his neck and following him down, the rope tethering him to the bag dancing wildly in the air.

He begins sinking the moment he hits, the sudden temperature change being the first to register on his skin. It is surprisingly therapeutic, even as it breaks him out in gooseflesh and instates the urge to shiver himself right off of his bones. The salt burns across the deep wound in his arm, pulling a hiss from his parted lips, but the sound is swallowed up by the bubbles in the ocean. He pries his eyes open and heads to break the surface, but just as he gasps, he feels an agonizing impact from above. Through the fireworks exploding throughout his vision, Smitty sees the distorted image of the prone figure come crashing down onto him before the world goes black. 

Overhead, a flock of birds split apart from their formation and slowly drift until they're all going their own directions.

🕸 🕸 🕸 🕸 🕸 🕸 🕸

The ship was going down very quickly now, taking his last hope of survival with it. If anything, he was lucky to be alive after that encounter but was doomed because of it, and maybe he had done more bad than good "rescuing" this man. If he perhaps had more time to salvage what he could maybe gather some food, he may have had a better chance. The real question was how quickly would he this end for them.

John feels every muscle in his body screech for relief, but he forces himself to keep going. The wind is foreign on his soft skin, and his very bones seem to creak under the weight they are forced to support, bent akimbo to hold the body over the water. 

However, he ignores the pleading and continues above the surface. The pirate is limp and heavy in his arms, even heavier when his muscles are so weak, but he knows that the creature is a human, and too much water inside them kills. His lips fall open idly and he squints to see the hazy alcove before him. Hope rises in his chest the closer they manage to drift towards it, but they're still too far to make it before he succumbs to fatigue.

With wobbly arms and a slight prayer to whatever would listen, John straightens his arms into the air and sinks below the surface, hoping the angle is enough to keep the human’s head out of the water. Immediate relief bustles through his system as he gasps heavily. His muscles thank him as the water eases the load, but he knows he can't stay like this. Nothing above the water is visible, and he can't navigate around the pesky schools when it's so dark. The air bites harshly at his fingertips, which have long since lost sensation aside from the fiery heat of the pirate's rough, dirty flesh. He takes a few more labored breaths before his arms threaten to buckle and he's stuck breaking out above the waves.

John doesn't know for sure how long he does it, or how he does it at all, but eventually, he's flapping his tail in short, sharp movements to carefully maneuver through the entrance to the cove. Dragging the lifeless body felt lighter than the bag locked between his teeth with all the euphoria thrumming through his blood. He felt like he was on fire, and he didn't need to touch the clammy skin of his comrade to know he was probably stone cold. In a sweep of pride and pure unadulterated joy, he swings the body past his own and onto the black sand. His shiny green eyes roll back as he sinks into the water to just stop and breathe. He'd saved the human!

He rises up to look at the figure, triumphant grin still locked in place, but the person is still and lifeless in the sand. Fear traces John's features, and he pulls himself up onto the shore to get a better look. He runs a hand across the face and presses his head to the cloth clad shirt, but the human is indeed breathing, if shallowly and in small pants.

That alone makes him feels grateful, but the thought doesn't last. The human is cold, injured, and perhaps even starving. He’ll need a fire if he doesn't want to freeze to death, and desperately needs something to cover that vicious cut for the night. The only thing the human has to protect himself is a short, dull dagger, chipped and dirty from what must have been years of use. John's teeth clench; it seemed like just when he thought he was out of hell another gate opened up. In a somewhat childish fit of rage, he curls his still hot fingers into a fist and slams it onto the human, hoping to will him awake.

And, it works. Sort of.

Water spouts out of the pirate's mouth like a geyser and his brain snaps into consciousness. John watches in slight fear as the human coughs and sputters more and more murky water filled with mucus and other fluid slime, dragging himself onto his side. It seems to help, as the human's fit comes to an end and his eyes finally fall open.

🕸 🕸 🕸 🕸 🕸 🕸 🕸

Smitty flops bonelessly onto his back and stares wide-eyed and shocked at what must be the roof of a cave. His chest burns just like his skin in that way that suggests it's from extreme cold, and a subconscious groan escapes his lips. He takes a moment to just breathe and feel his heartbeat hammer away at his chest. A shaky hand raises to wipe the salt caking the area around his eyes push his hair out of his face. Well, it looked like he’d survived anyway.

A shuffling off to his side brings him to the present, and a quick glance over makes him do a double-take. Laying next to him in the dark sand is the gorgeous merman, sprawled out with arms protectively curled around Smitty's own form.

"You're a mermaid." He says, voice hoarse and scratchy, and it sends him into another coughing fit. The merman pulls himself away from his prone figure but holds a hand out to help steady him, even after Smitty's natural flinch in response. He allows himself to be dragged into a proper sitting position, which also gives him the ability to properly breathe.

The creature watches him take a few breaths before deeming him not on the verge of death and nods hesitantly. A closer look reveals familiar wisps of brown hair and moonlight pale skin. It was indeed the merman he'd dragged off the enemy's ship before he blacked out.

"You saved me?" He asks, but it sounds less like a question and more like a comment. The merman's eyebrows draw together at the words, and he shakes his head.

"I was only returning the favor. It was you who saved me first." He says quietly, but his voice reverberates heavily through the empty cove, although it is just as scratchy as Smitty's.

"Well thank you anyway." He concedes, clearing his throat and running a hand through his knotted hair, but the merman only shakes his head back.

"You don't need to thank me.” He says, voice much clearer now, as he re-positions himself into a crawl. Smitty watches delicate hands find purchase in the dark sand and begin dragging his ill-suited body back into the pool. “What you need is to get out of those wet clothes and get a fire started."

"You're right," Smitty says and winces into a stand. He makes it a good twenty seconds of attempting to shuck off his lone boot, having long since lost the other one in his impromptu trip, but finds that he’s not quite ready to be entirely upright just yet. He sits back down and his head thanks him as he slips his jacket over his shoulders and pulls his shoe off. His ripped brown shirt is next, but he hesitates with pants.

When he realizes why the human is staring at him so expectantly, the merman feels the strong desire to roll his eyes.

"Alright. While you do your thing, I'm gonna go find us something to eat." He sighs, face darkening slightly as he speaks. He opens his mouth as though to add something else, but gives up and turns to dive into the shallow pool.

"Wait!" Smitty calls, and he pauses for a moment, confusion crossing his subtle features as he twists back to face the human. Smitty crouches into a seat at one of the higher edges of the shoreline.

"What's your name?" He asks softly, now that they were so close. The merman stares up at him for a moment in consideration before seeming to mentally shrug and cock a brow.

"You can call me John."

Smitty nods lightly and brings a calloused, bruised hand to grip at the cold stone. "Well John, I'm Smitty," he conjures up what he hopes is a charming smile, "And I really do mean it when I say thank you."

John's eyes widen ever so slightly and fierce violet rises into his cheeks. He nods once before finally sinking into the water and taking his leave. Smitty watches him swim away until there is no trace of him in the cave, before he finally allows himself to attend to the agony of his cut.

All that aside, however, he can’t seem to wipe the grin off his face. He’d met a real mermaid today.

:)

[cutegirlmayra]

Commission receipt: Ember’s Story, another chapter

Ember’s Story Commission Receipt

@marydragneell Commission for The Flares That Come From Ashes (Another chapter to Ember’s story)

Time: about 2 months or so.

Review: @marydragneell :  OMG IM ABSOLUTELY IN LOVE WITH IT ❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤ The beginning is so cute 😍 how ember and manic are with each other. Her being in manic's band❤❤❤❤How cute and adorable they are together. Love the sinister appearance of mephilis perfect for him. Manic being a awesome badass for his girlfriend. Shadow acting jealous in such a cute sibling way. The perfect reaction to her trigger of seeing someone she love hurt 💔 ❤The recomforting ❤🖤❤🖤❤🖤❤ Just manic calling shadow big bro XD and pocking fun of shadow. All the " i wanna get your blessing ". Perfect representation of the duality of ember mental state, her nature and how she act. AMAZING BATTLE SCENE!!!!!!!!!!! The characters grow 👌 And the fact that you show that the fusion did left a permanent impact on her.

Me: Boy it was fun! Thanks again for the opportunity. ^//u//^

Paid Amount: 60$ for 50+ pages to add to the wonderful story of Ember the Immortal Wolf, prototype to Shadow The Hedgehog, and embedded with the rejected Cursed Emerald.

Product Preview: With permission from @marydragneell, here is the ROUGH DRAFT of the product.

The Flares that Come From Ashes

Another short story for the amazing Mary!

By: Cutegirlmayra

"La, la, la~" Ember tapped the mic, then garbled some gibberish to clear her throat. "Do, ray, me." She spoke, smiling nervously as she seemed a bit spooked by the stage lights. "Come on, Manic. You really think I'm ready for all this?" Ember twiddled her claws lightly against each other, ducking her head slightly as she tried to see through the blinding spotlights and turned to see the rest of the band practicing in their own respective places on stage. "It just seems... like maybe I'm not cut out to be in a band." She rubbed her arm, shyly admitting her fears of joining his group.

"Nah, girl. You really are ready." Manic, leaning against the side of the stage, finally walked out to reveal himself and stood beside her, drumming her shoulder, then her head, then her mic as she giggled and pulled her head slightly away from his reach. "You just need some confidence singing in front of others, is all."

Ember smiled sweetly, blushing at his cute charms. "This will be a lot different than helping Shadow at..." she gagged, not wanting to say G.U.N's name and still having a biased against them.

"Right. No more secret missions." He winked to her, then leaned with his arms crossed on the mic. "Babe, you really think you can't have a first debut with my band?"

"I'm just..! Psyching myself out!" she shook her head, her long coat swishing with the motion as her tail fluffed out in hopes of getting herself pumped. "Let's practice, just one more time!" she gripped the mic and he moved for her, but placed a hand right where hers was on the mic, then moved it up to show that he would stand there as emotional support. He gripped the mic to hold it steady for her, and for a second, their fingers intertwined, just the pinkie and ring finger, making Ember smile at his tender touch of compassion.

"Remember your diaphragm is your strongest tool, use it well. But it needs to breathe." He teased, leaning to her cheek to and letting their faces touch. His breath was warm, and the scent of their last home-cooked meal made her giggle and wiggle her nose a bit. Tingles came from her hands up to her cheeks, and she blushed at how close he was.

Nodding and swooning at his flirtations, she finally took a deep breath... honing all the knowledge about music, tempo, and breath-control he had been teaching her and began to sing lightly.

"Louder, Ems!" he bounded towards the edge of the stage, "Louder, girl!" then jumped off, moving back and spreading his arms out. "We gotta hear ya in the back!" he started drumming on the chairs, "I can't hear you, and I'm up in the front!"

She tried to sing a little louder, swishing her body back and forth but still nervous and more focused on what he was doing.

"Where's my girl's voice? I thought this was a rockin' concert!" He drummed louder, since she couldn't see through the lights, letting her know he was now towards the back of the venue they were playing at tonight.

She took both hands and pulled the mic's stand towards her, the wires whiplashed and she hoisted it up above herself, belting as loud as she could a powerful note that suddenly blasted through the speakers like an avalanche on a mountain's side.

The whole of the arena shook in the vibrations, making the band behind her almost lose balance and a few plug or stuck a finger in their ears from the deafening sound.

"Whoo! Now that's what I call a lion's roar Friday and no canary Saturday! Yeah!" He seemed to be hyped about her new found sound but his band mates all shook their heads and itched inside their ears again, hearing a ringing from that loudness.

They clearly weren't thrilled about her almost blowing out the mics, but she patted it lightly and whispered, "Sorry." with an embarrassed smile. She just wanted to get back at Manic, trying to prove a point that she didn't want to—literally—bring the house down.

However, Ember was only focused on pleasing Manic at the same time. She still wasn't the best at making friends, but with the ones she was able to gain, she treasured them dearly and without hesitation.

She trusted Sonic and his gang, Shadow—obviously—and lastly Manic... first and foremost.

She was still a little hesitant about Rouge... but that was just because she worked close with Shadow, and she didn't like how close they seemed to be in more ways than just work...

Either way, this was family. What she had wanted from the very beginning. To not feel alone or useless... Manic and the others accepted that she was dangerous, but also that she was loving, funny, and sweet.

Sure, she could be sassy, but only when provoked to and by appropriate means... sometimes.

She giggled, thinking of times she's purposefully ticked Sonic off just to make Shadow smile. Though he'd scold her, it would be a light whack on the head, and she knew by the light pat afterward where he hit her that he was glad she shut his annoying mouth for a change~

Most of the time, she acted a bit like the gang's grandmother. She would pick flowers with Cream, try and help Amy to learn to sing, and duke it out with Knuckles! She wasn't always keen on the technical stuff Tails liked to do, but even then, she let him research her powers every now and then. Showing off her strength was fun too, but Shadow always told her to hold back a bit... which was hard, since Ember could get super competitive!

"Hey, let's go over some songs real quick. We still got time." Manic hopped up to the stage and sat on the edge, pulling out some sheet music and pointing to some parts. "You struggled before with this one but I think you've nailed it since. Still, no harm in rehearsing and making sure it's picture perfect right?"

'Perfect..?'

Ember lowered her mic's stand back down lightly to the stage. sorrowfully, she was pulled out of her funny, perfect memory and placed in another conflicting stance. There was no better word to dampen her spirits than that one... and it hadn't been so long since she felt so imperfect and dangerous. It was definitely something she struggled with, but worked hard to overcome within herself.

Those children... they were still screaming for food or hugs. Maria... and Dr. Gerald Robotnik... they were still marveling at Shadow before he had awakened.

Some things never changed, but her memories of not being able to save anyone... those were the hardest to lock away and turn her mentally gazing eye from.

"Huh? What's wrong, Ems?" Manic got up, noticing her change in demeanor. "Uh oh, did I cramp your style?" He moved his hand in an old 90's way and she shook her head, realizing he was trying to cheer her up again.

"Shadow's the ultimate life form... the perfect cure or whatever..." She swished her body to the side, ignoring his cuteness for a moment to try and explain herself. she nervously held her hands behind her back and rubbed them together too, trying to hide her fidgety nature. She sighed a long, breathy wind out onto the mic from her nose and then felt arms around her waist. "H-hey!" she blushed, getting lifted up into the air, her arms coming out by her sides.

"Well, it's true no one's perfect." Manic tickled her with his long, hedgehog nose by her exposed belly, making her fidget to get out of his grasp. "But your perfect for me, babe. I don't need you to do the world's sense of perfection, but only your very best self should be on this stage. Alright? Otherwise... I'm gonna have to have a private session with you in the back..." he turned her around and began to kiss her neck, making her laugh at his suggestion.

"Oh, no audience, eh? Taking the pressure off?" She teased, patting his chest lightly to pretend to get him off of her.

"Emm... something like that." He head-bumped her forehead affectionately, "Just us two. Playing... somewhat what we're supposed to do." He took her hands and pulled them out a little to her sides, just messing with her and helping her loosen up.

Her tail wagged slightly and she looked up with a red muzzle. He really was a charmer... "Are all hedgehogs born charming?"

"Naaaah," Manic let one of her hands he was holding onto go and waved her compliment off in a comical way, "Your brother was created with his natural, flaring smile." He gestured to his smirk and she fell to the ground laughing. "Engineered to be devilishly handsome, I suppose. Your family has good genes."

"Hand-selected." She teased back and the two fell in howling laughter on the ground, rolling to their backs and having their arms grasping around their waistlines, the tip of their heads right up by each other's.

"Yo, can you two stop acting so precious?" One of the band mates smiled to them, "We need to get back to practice, you know. And you two would be wise to do the same, as well!"

Manic just nodded, pretending to be serious again. "Right, mate. Of course, don't let us stop you guys from your hard work either." He held up a hand and as soon as the member turned around, he expertly threw a lightly spinned drum stick to hit his head.

"Ow! Why you-!" Then the whole of the band started laughing, jumping in to dog pile Manic.

Ember smiled at the ruckus, wagging her tail as she got up to avoid the squabble. Seeing how close he was to them, made her happy... but... She crawled away from the fight, hugging her legs to resist the urge to join them. Though she really, really wanted too jump in and roughhouse with them. She knew she was a bit too powerful to do that though... So her ears bent back and she placed her head on her legs, waiting patiently and enjoying the boys' playful wrestle match, all in good fun.

"We don't care if you bring your girlfriend in to sing, but do you have to be so cute with her, Man!?" one stated and she blushed. They never really officially told anyone... maybe just Shadow, but he denied it fiercely.

She wondered why... after all, Manic kept her away from Shadow most of the time. She stayed out of trouble too... so why was he so opposed to him?

He had stated he was fine with her having friends, so why not a boyfriend? Last time he saved her from Scourge, Shadow had admitted Manic wasn't so bad a guy... maybe he was prejudice against his hippie vibe persona? Though she knew in her heart he was raised in the rough streets where he had to steal most of the time... maybe that could be a player in Shadow's obvious disapproval of him?

"Lay off, dude, I can't help but want to hold her. Got a problem with that?!" Manic grinned from ear to ear, hitting the blokes off in their tussling sport before they all seemed to be done with messing with him. Panting and looking tired, they probably just needed to blow off some of the nerves they were feeling. It was their big night too... Ember couldn't screw it up.

"Whatever, just keep to a schedule. Kiss and coo after the performance, okay?" One went to get his fallen shades for his eyes and shook his head, just making fun of his friend.

"Yeah, at least we can avoid it then." Another stated, giving Manic a nudge in the shoulder as brothers would do.

"The love police, Ember. They're everywhere!" Manic got up with a quickened step, stumbling over as fast as he could back to her, scrambling to stay on his feet but really just crawling to her. She just couldn't help but fall for him over and over again... as he kept falling over and over trying to get to her.

He helped her up and she jumped to her feet, "Maybe we do need to just go solo then."

The band groaned and they laughed, "Don't take our best drummer, Ember." They teased in reply.

But as all seemed to go back to normal, the band rehearsing and Ember warming up her voice, a strange wind storm picked up... there was a rustling in the leaves as they flew up towards the stage lights... causing gentle shadows over the harsh beams of white. The wind blew a warning sound, bellowing as though trying to speak over Ember's singing voice. But in the darkness of the sky there twisted out a small, purple portal. It's mouth gaped wide, spinning with loops of different shades of darkness like blues and purples into a wavy effect in the black sky.

Finally, looking away from Ember a moment as he drummed, Manic sensed something off as his quills picked up in the wind's fierce direction. He stopped by reaching out and touching his drums, stopping the beat and vibrations to look around. "What is that?" Manic held up a hand for the others to also cease a moment... and listen. He then turned to his band, "Get on guard, dudes. There's only one thing that makes me this chilly." He began, getting off the drums and clutching his magical necklace a moment, "Dangerous schemes..." he narrowed his eyes towards the purple portal.

They all hurried to the back of the stage as something misty and liquid dropped like runny goop from the rift in the sky. It began to form from the shadows around it, rising from the ground in what looked like a misty, disfigured water fountain. A figure solidified... rolling its head into place and crooking its two arms out like a scarecrow in the isle of the arena...

The figure had distinct hedgehog quills... then a white tuff that looked almost grey a moment... bluish gleams from its silhouette.

It almost looked like... That obsidian color...

"...Shadow?" Ember stated in disbelief as the rift blasted away as though something fiery were on the other end. Flames that torched the sky and even blinded the band who tried to shield themselves with their arms. "Ahh..!" Ember felt like the flames were brighter than the stage lights... At last, the figure looked itself over, as though checking to make sure it survived whatever had brought it here.

The colors were slightly wrong, the grey instead of the red... what was this? An illusion? Some sort of trick?

His eyes were covered in what seemed like a green glaze, though it was clear it did resemble Shadow, in a striking way.

"Strange... this time was my only escape... I don't have long before Sonic and his friends blow out my other half..." He then sharply looked over to Ember, narrowing his eyes as he felt the pull of an odd chaos emerald. "Interesting... I sense a great sorrow in your chest... mind if I remove it?" he slowly, creepily moved in a zombie fashion with flimsy gestures with his hand to point at Ember. "It won't take long... but it will be painful... hahahaha." He laughed as though an axe hacking at stone.

"This doesn't look so good!" Manic grabbed the silver necklace that dangled loosely by his chest and a set of magical drums—different than his band's—sprung into existence through sparkles from the arena. "Get out of here, Ember. I don't think this guy is anywhere close to being your brother."

"B-but..." She covered her cursed emerald, and looked to Manic. "What about you? I'm not just gonna run while you take on this... this thing!" She was clearly spooked, but would never abandon Manic.

'It could be a clone,' was her first thought, remembering Shadow's stories and how Eggman had cruelly tormented him by making him think he—himself—was nothing more than a fake. Luckily, he was the original, and Ember could tell that right away... though she had never seen a clone.

"Shadow... I haven't heard that name in a long time." The figure slid his foot up to step forward, "Nor have I heard... Brother?" He seemed to twist his head as though stretching his neck back. "I wasn't aware there were more of his kind... but that explains why that dark essence hasn't eaten your life away just yet..." He was like a ragdoll, and quickly seemed to regain himself, rolling his spine as up to straighten himself, but instead his back lurched back and his arms dangled again to his sides. "I need a host soon, or my very being, the will and mind of Solaris, will be destroyed fully in my flame body, Iblis... Which Sonic currently is trying to defeat." His words made no since to them, but Ember gathered that he knew Shadow.

"You know Shadow The Hedgehog?" She stepped forward, but Manic just looked back at her, worried.

"I... drew my form off his shadow." His head lowered as his eyes seemed to pierce like spears through to her core. "And soon... I'll draw form from you as well..."

"Ember, don't listen to him! I can feel his vibes, he's no good!" Manic tried to warn her, getting antsy on his drum seat. However, she seemed entranced with the idea of someone that looked like Shadow... maybe another experiment?

Though she had a perfect memory, she knew for a fact that Gerald hadn't created any similar copies of Shadow...

'Flame body?' she wondered, her ears flicking as she pondered his words. 'Form?'

"Ah, I see you're of the sensible kind... excellent. Hahahaha..!" The figure laughed in his sadist way again, plotting something... "I was ripped apart from my other half by your... brother..." He gestured to his body, "I assume his form now only to survive, but since I have failed after merging with my glorious true form again... I have no choice but to rewrite time while I still have a silver of flame left in me... Reunite me with a new half, and I can tell you what will befall Shadow in the future... The persecution... the misery of his shamed life." He wildly swung a hand out to her, the side of his body faltering as he tilted with his outstretched hand, down and to the side.

Ember was immediately pulled into that promise, wondering what he meant and if he was somehow tied to another time. She stepped forward again, but this time Manic grabbed her arm back, "Ember, don't-!" he warned, but this figure only laughed at his attempt.

"Ember... what a befitting name... the last flares of my life... mixed with the ashes that shall soon be the remainder of your own... It's perfect poetry... hahahaha!" The figure stood like a scarecrow again, laughing as more dark flares formed around him, rolling his head back in dark humor.

At that last sentence Ember stepped back, and the lure he had over her lessened.

However... for Shadow's future's sake... she wanted so desperately to know more.

"I escaped a deadly fate, I only want to release you from your imprisonment... and allow it to be my salvation." He gestured his hand out to speak, seeing he had her strung on his previous words, "But not just my own... but to save your fellow immortal... as well..."

"He has answers. I knew G.U.N would betray us!" she began to grow angry, her fangs bared with her clamping bite as she gritted her teeth and growled.

"Yes... the world will never accept you... After all, we're both of the dark." He lowered his head, having her emerald embedded in her chest glowing the same purple mist with darkness lining its power in his crystallizing eyes with magma red glowing from the sockets... "Together... we can change the future." He flashed in a light and seemed to crystallize fully, "Now then... with the last of my power, I have altered time and come to this world... Ember... Give me of your power!"

"Ember, please." Manic didn't like holding her back, but he knew something was off. "You've accepted yourself, remember? The world doesn't matter, but those who love you do!" he gently tugged on her arm again, trying to get her to stand behind him on this one. "Please... this guy doesn't have your best interest at heart! Isn't that obvious?!"

"But he might have Shadow's..." Her eyes softened, but she didn't want to just shake Manic off. She knew in her heart that would be wrong, "If there's a way I can help Shadow..."

"Keeping you alive and happy will help Shadow!" Manic spun her around, turning her gaze from the figure, who lifted his head in a twitching jolt at losing sight of the cursed emerald... "If Sonic defeated him and he's running, don't you think that's a bad sign?" Manic tried to convince further, "I just can't have you go with him, Ember. Please, listen to me. Just this once, okay? You can ignore me the rest of the concert but hear my words now, at least now, Ember!" He was struggling to have her look at him, but she just kept ducking her head. She hadn't seen him this worked up before, but the idea that Shadow's future could be spared... But was he really a bad guy from another time and world? Would Sonic know of him?

She longed to have joined in that playful wrestle with Manic and his friends... If she was rid of the cursed emerald, could she live a normal life? Would her immortality fade and she could have a life with Manic? Finally end this suffering? Would her super powers fade and she could be a regular lady without a single care in the world?

Or would the world be better off without her... if she was so dangerous, maybe at least... she could leave Shadow with some hope for his future...

Impatient, the figure's being rose in the air. "I am Mephilis the Dark. I'm your only means for salvation." He began to form what looked like a crystal in his hand. It carried down to form a crystal around his body, and soon, he blasted into a hardened form with seemed to have a silver tuff that looked strangely like a bird... "Come to me, chaos emerald! Join your form to a more suitable host!" he formed a purple sphere in his hand and threw it towards her, a large dark beam flung behind her to block the other members of the band from interfering.

A huge ridge was created in the stage, and the others moved away to escape the glowing beam before Manic turned to see Mephilis charging through the air towards Ember, reaching for her emerald.

Ember's eyes looked ready to reflex... but relaxed... as though thinking it was time to accept whatever fate had in store... maybe for the greater good.

"No!" Manic slammed his drum sticks against his magical drum set that blasted out a sonic boom.

Mephilis pulled back to block the attack,... "Grr...ahhh!" In frustration, he was held back.

Manic looked to Ember, a sense of urgency and concern in his eyes, "Look, I've lived on the streets! Take my advice and get outta here or I'm gonna have to fight this guy!" he seemed really serious, "Go!" he was done saying please, and Ember could see it.

With regret at not trusting him right away, she looked back at Mephilis, then Manic. "You run too, then!" she cried out, but he was already locked in a battle with the strange figure now known as Mephilis... as dark orbs launched towards him but Manic played a sick beat that blasted them away.

"No! Go find Shadow! I'll stall him!" He seemed dedicated to the fight. "Trust me, I'll be okay! You guys go too!"

The bandmates all hesitated as well, but then took hold of Ember, trying to pull her back and let them flee with her.

"Noo..!" She shook them off, almost throwing one of them, "I won't leave you!"

However, the bandmates looked to each other and one put their hand on her shoulder, "Look, Ems. He's Sonic's brother, right? If he says he's got this, we gotta trust him." He nodded to her, "That weirdo's after you, right? He's only trying to protect you. Come on, we can fight another day. Especially when we learn more about this impostor!"

She took one final look back at Manic... "Promise?" she knew he would never go back on one...

Manic didn't say anything... but gave a light nod. "Take care of her for me, boys... her brother can keep her safe and I'll figure out more about this dude. Go now!"

"Manic..." She felt tears coming to her eyes but with an orb being sent her way, a bandmate stepped forward and whacked it back with his guitar. At least, he tried, but upon impact the guitar exploded and sent the bandmate flying back.

Ember outstretched her hand and grabbed him, moving with the others to retreat. "You better promise me... in your heart! I'll be waiting for you! Otherwise... I'm... I'm coming for you!" she was rushed with the bandmates out through the back...

"I don't take lightly to people trying to rip my girlfriend apart!" A side of Manic that Ember hadn't really seen in him came out, a protective and hardened side of Manic she didn't know was there.

She knew he lived on the streets, was a thief and all, but he always talked about having honor with it.

As she took off, she could hear him bantering with Mephilis, and knew he'd be somewhat okay. She could picture him winking to her, blowing her a kiss, and saying to find somewhere safe. But the only safe place right now would be... ughh...

She groaned in her thought process, "Shadow's going to be so mad..."

G.U.N HQ

"I didn't bail on Manic! He's not into fighting, true, but he knew something was up and I just didn't listen to him. I wanted to know what future that look-a-like was talking about for you, can you blame me?" Ember tried to explain herself, but Shadow turned around abruptly to cut her off from any further justification she would have thrown at him.

"Yes, and I will." He moved to the other side of the room, "This is bad timing. I get a headache when you say his name, and I can't remember where I would have met him. You say he has my form?" he looked back at her as she nodded, once figuring out he wasn't talking about Manic.

"Truthfully! I thought it was you at first..." she held her head down, worried about Manic again, and then tried to give him her best 'pleading little sister wolfie eyes' to get him to help.

Shadow just sighed, taking a moment to accept that she wasn't making things up for his attention. "Fine. I'll look into it, see if Gerald-"

"No! I know his secrets, this isn't one of them!" She swiped her arm out, declaring it thus. "Let's not waste time with reading insignificant files! We have to go and get Manic!"

"Calm down, sweetie. Your boyfriend's defeated but he isn't dead... yet." The womanly voice flew down from the rafters, flexing her wings out and patting Ember's head. However, the action was taken as a insult, Ember thinking she was demeaning her by making her feel like a child being comforted, "There, there. What a whiny little sister you can be sometimes. Especially since you're a number one target for that escapee recently."

"Rouge." Shadow's eyes narrowed to her, as if telling her to remain silent on that.

"Escapee?" Ember thought a moment, moving her fingers as if trying to put two and two together, then her eyes widened in shock. "SCOURGE!?" Ember gripped her head, then looked wildly to her figurative brother, "Scourge is out now, too!?"

"Apparently, seeking revenge." Rouge walked around her and headed towards Shadow, folding her arms. "You were instructed by G.U.N to track him down, yet you didn't even warn your own sister yet?"

Shadow just verbally let out a groan at her spilling the information without going over it with him first. "I didn't want to worry you." He looked to Ember, "I would have handled it silently, no need to get you fired up over a rematch."

Ember would have liked the idea but now was not the time, "E-Everyone's after me cursed emerald!" she shouted out like an Irish leprechaun, but stuttered in trying to make the atmosphere lighter than what seemed like impending doom... "So he's broken out of prison, there's a time traveling—I guess—looney now. Anything else I missed?" The room remained silent, eyes turning away from her. "Great, this is too much for a young, single, totally attractive immortal wolf to handle." She dramatically leaned against one of Shadow's desks as he glared at her.

"Knock it off. Try and act seriously for a change." He scolded.

"Isn't that why G.U.N... 'let me go'?" she did the bunny ears, but clearly she was fired from working alongside Shadow.

"You were a menace to them. You couldn't see it the way I... no, the way Maria wanted us to see them." He turned back to her, and she was slightly triggered on her name, but just shook her head.

"I've handled way worse before... than just losing Maria." She turned her head away, but knew Shadow was probably throwing daggers into her back with his eyes as she said that. Those kids... it was more than just Maria at this point, so... much more.

"...Look," To break the tension, Rouge stepped in-between, holding her hands out to calm Shadow and try and reason with Ember. She seemed to be struggling finding a good way to accomplish that... however, "You can't stay at G.U.N if you don't work for them, and since your last boot, Shadow and I have lovingly referring to you as the new apprentice to that hippie." She seemed to lower her eyes as if annoyed by that.

"Boyfriend, and I'm not a hippie." Ember folded her arms in protest, then stuck her tongue out at Shadow, knowing he didn't want to refer to Manic as that.

"Is it official, though?" Rouge raised a shoulder up over her cheeky look, disguising her clear curiosity but also sinister ploy to get her to admit that nothing had really happened yet between her and Manic...

Ember flinched, holding back wanting to fight her.

"Either way, your brother doesn't like that crowd, apparently." She looked over to him, "Jealous, maybe?"

"Enough, Rouge. He protects Ember, that's all I need to know." Shadow turned back to the door of the facility, having it open as guards waited with shields and guns, ready in case Ember 'acted up' again.

"And he's not a hippie!" Ember was humored by their efforts but was too busy with other important problems to 'play on G.U.N's fear' though she wanted too... badly.

"I disagree." Shadow kept walking and she walked behind him.

To lessen G.U.N's concerns, Rouge also walked behind her. "Seems to be the underlining case... I think you disagree wholeheartedly." she shrugged her arms out.

"Thank you, Rouge." he didn't pause in his stride.

"-That maybe he doesn't like the fact that you're spending so much time with another hedgehog other than himself." She covered her mouth with the back of her hand as Ember gasped and Shadow tensed up, turning his head around.

"Rouge!" he scolded.

"Uh oh, did I touch a nerve?" Playing innocent, Rouge smiled and looked away from him, seeing as Ember also seemed touched and went to hug him. However, he outstretched his hand in an attempt to hold her back.

Upon exiting the steel facility of G.U.N, the team decide to drop in on Sonic, seeing if the team of adventuring friends had any luck with remembering this enemy... but to their surprise—"Huh?"

"I've never heard of someone with the ability to shape-shift like that..." Tails placed a book down, trying to look through his journals but nothing was popping up about this strange Shadow figure...

"Maybe you have an admirer, Shadow." Sonic tilted his head back and to the side, giving Shadow a cheeky grin sneakily, but Shadow was too observant for his teases. He just rolled his eyes at Sonic's antics, choosing not to entertain him with a response.

"According to Ember, you were in battle with him before." Shadow explained, giving his full attention to Tails as Sonic dipped his head down and smirked, seeing as Shadow was trying to take everything too seriously again for his tastes.

"Oh? Must have trounced him then!" Sonic gave himself a hearty fist swing, as though to celebrate his victory that he didn't even understand had happened or would happen yet. "Maybe he's from the future? We could ask Silver..."

"No good, there's nothing about him here. Technically, if what Ember says is true, he does sound like it's his 'past' to him..." Tails deciphered through Ember's perfect retelling, trying to pinpoint terms that could lead to an answer.

"You assume I'm not?" She played, looking to Sonic to show that his sense of humor wouldn't go unnoticed.

He gave her a quiet snicker with his eyes closed, enjoying the fact that at least one immortal had some charm.

"N-no, of course not!... heeeyyy..." Tails worried he had upset her, but seeing her and Sonic's shoulders bouncing and grins, he knew they were laughing together. "Don't pick on me..." He whined cutely.

"Oh, never Tails." She swished her tail behind her, "Never without the intent to sweetly embarrass you."

He sighed and continued, "Anyway,... we don't know if it's our future or past. Not for certain, but it does sound like something that was currently occurring for him, and he knew he wouldn't be around much longer in that time-frame of space..." Tails tried to think over what Ember said, it was still hard to identify where this villain would have originated from in their timeline.

"Another world? Dimension, maybe?" Sonic questioned, trying to help him out with half the thinking.

Tails scratched his chin, moving his torso around before gripping his head in frustration, "Oh, I just can't figure it out! I need more information..." He looked downhearted, unable to help. "I'm sorry..."

"Don't worry, Tails." Ember lightly patted his head, "Maybe he's just some jerk, that's all we need to know, right? A bad guy..?" She still wasn't sure about that... he seemed to know about Shadow's future...

She was still curious about his origin... but mostly about what he knew of whatever future he had seen or known for Shadow...

"A-Aren't you curious?" Ember turned to Shadow, who walked over beside the couch and folded his arms, facing away from her. "Whether he's an enemy or not? He tried to take your emerald, which I believe sustains your life since you are a prototype. He openly admitted that Sonic had fought him and was winning. Wouldn't that mean he is?" He turned to look at her over his shoulder. "I've always known my path would be full of human fear and deceit. But I don't do it for myself... you know who I promised. I can't withdraw from this life, even if I know it will be misfortune in the end. My form will only be useful for such things as pertain to this world... If this Mephilis uses my form and seeks to remain in this world by your power, then he is corrupting both our purposes." He tightened his fist.

Ember rubbed her arm, sensing she had struck a nerve. She didn't want to push the subject and trigger the tragedy, but she also knew he didn't understand what she was actually asking, "That's not quite what I-" but before she could finish, the door to Tails's workshop slammed open.

"Get this kid some place to lay down!" Rouge had shoved the door open with one hand and holding Manic by her other arm. He was slumped over, his head down and slowly looking up with a bruised eye, squinting it open slightly to look around. He was clearly hurt, his arm around Rouge to support himself as she tried to get him over the step and into the house.

"E..Em...Ember..." he spoke faintly with a weak strength that barely let him slide a foot under himself to help Rouge move him easier.

His black eye shut again as Rouge looked over to Shadow, "Let's get him on the couch. I went to check on him like you asked me to... but..." Sonic and Shadow moved swiftly, lifting him from Rouge's care and placing him on the couch as Ember's eyes trembled, seeing someone she loved so much in pain...

She covered her mouth, "No... no more... no more hurting..." she shut her eyes, unable to bear the sight any longer.

So many memories... of the ones she's grown to care about hurting so much... because of her.

Manic coughed, being laid on the couch as Sonic gave him a worried smile, "Like old times, eh? What happened to you, Manic? At least tell me you won... right?" He meant to say 'are you okay?' but that was just how him and his brother spoke to one another.

"Oh yeah, I did decently." He tried to open his eye more for his brother, giving him a playful wink. "Ouch..." He flinched, the action might have been too strenious. But that didn't stop Manic from trying to pull it off.

She had pictured that wink... but now it was so very, very different...

He was hurt.

It was all her fault...

Though that villain should be to blame, Ember couldn't help but direct the guilt to herself.

"They got the better of me... still, my Bandmates got Ember to Shadow, and they themselves found me pretty banged up... but those two... they made a deal." Manic's last words had caught the attention of everyone in the room.

He looked over to Ember, seeing as she was lost in her own thoughts, looking anxious. "Hey, don't be afraid, Ems. I'm okay... really..." He tried to grab her attention, but she was lost in her own self-grief and pity. "I just got beat up by some powerful, wicked bad dudes, no biggie. I'm still here, see?" He smiled kindly, though worse for wear, he outstretched a hand in compassion towards her.

He wanted her to come to him... even though he had gotten hurt for her sake?

She slowly approached, but her memories of the fallen were a lot for her to take.

She didn't want him to suffer the same fact as others who had known her.

"Shadow was right." She fell to her knees and cried, unable to grab his hand as the others watched her in shock. "Our only future is misfortune... especially for those around us..."

They all looked worriedly towards her, but remained silent in her sorrowful display, not knowing how to comfort her.

"I should have stayed!" she cried out, "You should have let me fight beside you..!" She wiped the tears from her eyes as he smiled at her gentle display of compassion towards him, but also knowing she didn't want anyone's sympathy, just like Shadow. He was too prideful to comfort her, so he just let her cry, closing his eyes to give her a moment of respectful distance.

"Look at my girl... so strong, like her brother." He looked to Shadow, almost like to mock him for not being emotional about his tragic fate either. "Heh, I didn't want to see you hurt either, Ems. I did what a man should do." He nodded his head back to her, dismissing Shadow, who opened his eyes to try and judge what he meant by that. "Protecting the people you love isn't easy, it isn't easy for anyone, but that doesn't mean you don't take risky chances to ensure their happiness."

"How does this make me happy!?" Ember gripped and shredded some of Tails's wooden flooring... "How does this make anyone happy!?"

"... I am happy, knowing you're not hurt, or worse." He tried to get up, but began to show the pain and couldn't quite do it. "Now come on, Ems. Come sit with... me." Ember worriedly raced to him, skimming his back and letting him rest his head on her lap as she gently eased him into letting her sit down and look after him.

"Dummy, I can heal faster than you!" she helped him relax again and he gave her a huge, dorky grin.

"Does this mean you'll take care of me? Man, so worth it!" he joked, settling into her loving care.

She gently massaged his shoulders, rubbing his chest, and trying to self-comfort herself that he was alive. "I am glad you're alive... but I refuse to just let you talk me into running off like that again... I don't care how mad you get."

"Heh... I guess saving your life is only good for a one-time thing, eh?" Manic closed his eyes, and even with everyone staring at him, he leaned his head towards her and began to try and take it easy. "You're so used to Shadow always partnering up along side you... I just wanted to be a daring, brave hero for you... at least once."

Shadow twitched an eyebrow, but moved swiftly over to Sonic and Manic, seeming to want to change the subject and ignore the two's intimate moment. "We need you to tell us exactly what happened." he spoke with a lot of authority, but also with a hint of annoyance... maybe he just wanted to get more details out as soon as possible?

Manic turned his head slightly to Shadow, then smiled weakly. "What's up, big bro?"

Shadow flinched again, "I asked you a question. It's urgency couldn't be more dire."

"...Isn't that the same thing?" He looked jokingly up to Shadow and then to his brother, "Did you see him march over here like I'm some kinda crook?"

"You do have your head in his sister's lap, bro." Sonic folded his arms, giving him a sly look.

"Ha, I'm not the dog here." He looked lovingly up to Ember, "I'm a gentlemen."

She leaned down to his head, lightly kissing it. "You're a gentlemen rogue." she teased, "Stealing my heart and all."

"But she gave you her lap freely." Sonic snickered under his gloved hand, giving a sideways glance to Shadow, seeing his reaction.

Shadow refrained from making a comment, but it was clear he was starting to get upset.

Ember tilted her head, "Shadow? Does this really bother you?" She couldn't understand why, but wondered if he really was protective of her or not.

Shadow turned his head away, and after a long, awkward silence, Manic spoke up again.

"Can't a man catch his breath first?" he turned his head to Rouge, "Can I get some water? My mouth's a little dry here..." But Ember bent down and kissed him again, instead. "Woah..! Did I die and go to heaven already?" he marveled at her, but she just giggled as Rouge covered her mouth and seemed to enjoy the young lovers having their 'catching up' moment before retreating to the kitchen. She slid her hand over Shadow's arm, whispering something for him to relax and then came back with some water, handing it to Ember to help Manic drink.

"Let him rest a moment, Shadow. There's no use in pushing him too far." Rouge stated, nodding towards Ember. "Besides, your sister can get more out of him than you ever could~" she teased. Ember smiled up to Rouge, realizing she wasn't as bad as she thought...

At least she was siding with her and Manic, for now, anyway.

After gulping down some sips of water, Manic gave out a long, happy sigh. "Ahhh... now that hit the spot. I feel much better, able to talk more now, too." He looked to Shadow. "That guy called himself Mephilis the Dark, right? While we fought, he was insanely strong! No matter how much I hit him, he never seemed to fade in strength all that much... however, I think I almost figured him out, at least his fighting style, but..." He trailed off and looked away, seeming disappointed in the turn of the events, "That's when that Scourge guy showed up with his gang." Manic narrowed his eyes a moment, remember the encounter. " I remember his name alright... They jumped me and my drums formed back into my necklace... they held me down and beat on me as Scourge demanded to know where Ember was, but Mephilis must have saw him as an opportunity to find her as well."

Ember bit on her lower lip, worried about them tag-teaming to find her...

"I don't know why Scourge agreed, but I have a feeling he's not gonna be honest in that arrangement... but then again, I don't think Mephilis was too keen on honesty or trust either... They all look like backstabbers to me, and they're all after your Cursed Emerald, Ember..." He looked up at her again, lifting his hand to cup her face a moment. "But don't sweat it, I'll make sure they never get you. Mark my words, babe." They touched foreheads a moment, as Sonic and Tails looked to each other, concerned.

"We'll try and figure out where Scourge is and what he's up to with this guy. If they are hunting Ember down, we should plan out if we're gonna bait them or hide her." Tails gestured a hand out, stating the necessity for a plan, but Shadow immediately stomped up to him.

"There won't be a need to use Ember." he stated, looming over Tails. Tails moved back a bit, but Sonic countered by moving up towards Shadow, stopping him from intimidating his friend.

"If they've teamed up, who knows how powerful they are now. He interrupted Manic's fight, and are probably after the other emeralds. Me and Tails will try and split up our gang, find out if they're heading to Angel Island or are abandoning everything to find the impure emerald." Sonic tried to bring reason and logic into his actions, which calmed Shadow down a bit. "If you and Manic take Ember, Rouge can go off on her own to try and spot them and stay as a spy. We'll cut them off before they can cause any further trouble. But let's hope they're only after Ember... that trouble we can ambush, sound good to you?"

"...Ember doesn't do well with plans." Shadow glared back at Ember, as though implying that she needs to agree to this too.

Ember nodded her head, looking determined to get back at Scourge for hurting Manic, and also hoping to find out what this Mephilis the Dark guy knew about Shadow... and if it was true or not.

"You've gotta let me come with you, Shadow." Manic winced in pain as he got up, which made Ember panic and grab his arm to help him. "I care about her just as much as you do... I may not be as strong or accomplished at saving things like Sonic is... but I'm just as good as my brother when it comes to protecting those I cherish..."

Sonic nodded, giving his brother a thumbs up for his bravery. "You won't find a better man, Shadow!"

"...Alright." Shadow conceded. "I don't need any further convincing. If Ember wants you along to help, I won't oppose." He began to walk out the door, "But listen... heed this warning... Scourge, we understand his ways, but Mephilis, we do not. We need to be cautious, for Embers sake." He looked to her as if saying she really needed to act mature during this, and Ember just embarrassingly looked away, still holding Manic's arm as he kissed her cheek to try and cheer her up.

"Ugh." Shadow turned away, disgusted by the display of comforting affection, and walked to open the door. "Come on, we should keep a constant movement..."

"Your brother once protected the president before, right?" Manic wanted to encourage Ember that he probably knew best, but she just laughed.

"And tried to destroy him."

The room grew silent.

Then Sonic let out a huge roar of laughter, gripping his stomach.

Scourge and Mephilis, on the hunt...

"We've scowered everywhere for this girl! Why is she so hard to find?!" Scourge kicked over a burning trashcan, watching it's tin tink against the dark street... there were people screaming to escape the fires, and Scourge just looked at his hand, gripping it tightly. "What good is causing mayhem and panic if I know I'm not the most terrifying thing out there!?"

Mephilis had his arms crossed, standing next to him, looking like stone... "I think we'd get along... if you weren't so deranged." He mused to himself, turning to him as Scourge got right up in his face.

"I only make friends with subordinates. We agreed you'd let me do this my way! Flush out the rat with flames!" he threw his hand back to the burning city. "Besides, you look as twisted as I am..." he muttered under his breath.

"I have no issue with you burning the world... but as for sniffing or snuffing her out, I doubt you'd find her." He moved with strange elegance, and placed his hand on the ground. Shadows of whispy, black vines began to mutate around him, "If what you say is true... then her emerald has negative chaos energy... compared to it's seven, pure siblings... it's power can't be controlled or harnessed... It's a mad stone. One who needs a host able to contain and manipulate its madness..."

The darkness began to grow, dodging the fires but being born from their flickering shadows cast to the walls as well, upon the walls they danced... and began to search for every living soul... Like a reign of purple and misty hound dogs, falling over each other as they searched for the same... strange... energy...

"What's that your doing?" Scourge growled, scowling at him doing something without an order from himself. "I don't like things done behind my back!"

"...Finding the diamond in the rough..." Mephilis laughed, his dark power moving under screaming feet, the fires burning everything they touched. He had missed this feeling... but soon, with the Cursed Emerald, he'll have it all over again... "The shadows I'm made of are linked with a strong connection to the ultimate life form... if she is at all with Shadow, I shall know of it... and take what I need to survive."

The shadows, almost like the fire from which they were spreading, continued forth out of Mephilis and searched with a lapping, slithering haste that seemed to crawl everywhere in a furious urgency.

Soon, they were outside the city, spreading themselves into the forest. Little Flickies hid in their tree truck holes and cowered from the impending doom they seemed to send.

One of the shadow tips lingered as though to spike through a piggy that was holding its bunny friend, shivering in fright. It came closer before it sensed something, and immediately slithered towards where Shadow was, diving into his shadow...

Mephilis tilted his head, as Scourge once again grew frustrated. "Did you find something..? Care to share with the rest of the class?" He bent down and gestured a hand up as Mephilis just creepily turned to him, but didn't look directly at him.

"I found him... I'm... listening and looking to see where they are..." He heard Shadow speak and was pulled back to the moment at hand.

Shadow, hiding behind a bush with Manic, were clearly alone for right now. "She's well hidden?"

"I told her to stay put." Manic grumbled, "But you know Ember... she's always excited about a new test of strength."

"This isn't a game, she'll listen to you." Shadow was once again so serious, and it was really bumming Manic out.

"I know, I know. But she'd do anything for you." He smiled to Shadow, "You know, she's really attached to you. It broke her heart when G.U.N said she couldn't work with you anymore. It felt like they were taking something else away from her too." He explained, wondering if Shadow knew.

Shadow remained silent,... a moment went by before he sighed quietly and spoke up again, gentler this time. "I tried to warn her. She wouldn't follow orders... G.U.N is different from the past, they're trying to live better than they were..."

"You forgave them, which I respect." Manic nodded his head to him, "But for Ember... it's kinda a betrayal."

He looked away, "G.U.N was run differently in the past. They've learned to accept my power as long as it's used for good means."

"Their means." Manic countered, fiddling with a twig as Shadow glared at him. Manic was momentarily distracted with the twig, playing with it and bending it but not to the point of snapping before looking up to Shadow and then throwing his hands up in apology, and hoping he may calm down and back off a bit from the intense glare of annoyance. "H-hey, now! I'm only saying what Ember's told me. You know, you two should really talk more... she misses you." He gently put the fallen twig back into the bush. "She feels like this twig here... broken off from every family she ever made. Too dangerous to stay with anyone for too long... and mostly hunted down for her power. You can understand how she feels, can't ya?" He gave him a half-forced smile, "You have to understand... how much she longs to be in a real family..."

Shadow 'hmph'd to the side, "She's always been sensitive." but there was a warmness in that tone... A bond that Manic was happy to see shine through.

"Hey... is that a smile?" He teased, gesturing to the gentle curl in Shadow's lips.

Shadow patted Manic's accusing finger away and flicked his nose, "So she's gathering berries and other wild provisions?"

"While we remain lookout, yeah... she didn't like that plan all to much." Manic made a face and Shadow only chuckled.

"That is Ember." He joked,"And you were pretty useless in that condition... I'm... glad you recovered well." the two shared a mutual moment of fondness for her, and then looked to one another. It was as though Shadow had accepted that fact, that Ember loved Manic, but also that Manic was a good man. For a moment, he gave a look of acceptance, before looking off again. "Ember... Heh." He seemed to be thinking back on their adventures together. "She's headstrong, like Sonic. Doesn't stand still for a moment... all this and more... is why she's who she is. Which is exactly why I worry she may never find a decent job in this world..."

"She's doing pretty good at singing." Manic volunteered the idea, trying to lighten the downplay on Ember's talents but Shadow only made a face. "What? Singing don't jell right with you, big bro?"

"Don't call me that." He looked annoyed again.

"All I'm saying is maybe Ember isn't cut out for army or military stuff. She's not like Rouge, a secret agent and spy. She can't always be stealthy," Manic started.

"She longs too much for the attention." Shadow mused to himself while Manic just lowered his eyes and looked back at him as though thinking he was purposefully being a downer now.

"She's powerful, yes. But she also has a powerful, beautiful soul to her as well." He started drumming the ground, "We each have our own rhythms, Shadow. Maybe her's is better suited to things outside of fighting?"

"Yet, she loves to tumble." Shadow joked again, which made Manic just throw his arms up and laugh.

"You're not gonna give my thoughts on Ember the time of day, are you?" He seemed to realize Shadow was blocking him out, but Shadow just pushed his head down, done talking about this for now.

"Just duck down low and do as you're told... Ember wants you here, that's why you are here." He warned him, but Manic just scooted on up to him, moving his hand and seeing a brotherly side of Shadow showing.

"Hey," he grinned widely. "I've been meaning to ask you... I never did get your blessing on asking Ember to date me."

Shadow seemed to lose the slight smile he had, turning to one of more worry and anxiety.

"I wanted to make it more official after I talked with you about it, but you were always caught up with work," Manic continued, but didn't notice Shadow's shifting eyes, and the fact that he adjusted his squat away from Manic. He seemed so unsure of the topic... but what was really bothering him? "And I didn't want to tip Ember off too early about it... Mind if I ask now?"

"No." Shadow abruptly stated, closing his eyes as though to tune Manic out.

Manic took a moment to wait and process that, before speaking up again, "No..? On the timing or..?" he finally turned to try and read Shadow's expression, but Shadow kept a low-profile when it came to his emotions.

"Ever." Shadow moved away from him, and as he did so, the shadows began to move and peer around him, as though fading and glitching out of reality.

"Now hang on a sec-" Manic got up with him, trying to stop him from retreating during an important—and vulnerable—conversation before seeing the abnormality start rising up and swarming the shade around Shadow's silhouette on the ground.

"W-woah!" Manic got up from his squat, "Shadow, what is that!?" He pointed, as shadows seemed to spray out like vines whipping the ground, like an octopus's tentacles lashing out from a spaced hole on the ground, in the shape of Shadow...

Suddenly, they faded into nothingness... Shadow's shadow... was immediately gone.

"Grk..! GAHH!" Mephilis pulled his hand up, the shadows quickly retreating as if being drained back to him forcefully as he gripped his wrist. Scourge had stomped on his hand, seeing him flicker, and thinking he was going to leave them.

"Where ya going, friend?" he sneered, grabbing him and pulling him up as he continued to glitch out and in of reality, causing Scourge to barely have a hand on him. "What are you thinking of doing? Running!? Getting out of the deal!? WHERE IS SHE?"

in his wildness, Mephilis was also held back by Scourge's team: The Destructix. However, in a flash of light, Mephilis completely broke free of them and sent a blast out to knock them back. Slowly moving towards Scourge in his strange movement way, he then fired out a huge beam of power to skim Scourge's ear, spooking him back...

"You're not king... yet." Mephilis landed a manipulative intimidation, faking that they were one in the same goal. He looked at his hand again, examining the strange rift of time and space... his time was running thin. "I could erase you all from ever being born... but I chose to use my power to aid you... if we don't move now... my existence in this timeline will fade... and my own world events... vanish." He glared, threatened by the limited moments he still had.

Scourge may be in a hurry, impatient without question, but he could tell that Mephilis was trying to deceive him just as much as he was trying to trick Mephilis... "You gonna back-stab me, Dark? Better do it while I'm in a good mood..." He smirked, getting up in his face again and not fearing the power he demonstrated earlier; or at least, shaking it off. "Ember's mine. I'll rip the gem out, then you take it as host, and I control you. We all in accord again?"

Mephilis just stared at him, and as though dismissing conflict, moved Scourge aside with a soft swing of his arm. "When I am host to the Cursed Emerald... you shall have a world that will burn in black flames..." He continued on, dipping as though sinking down into the shadows...

Scourge was getting ticked off, "He'll set me aside for the last time... do you have what I asked for?" the team showed him that the portal Mephilis created did in fact lead to a forested area, and seemed to have Manic with Shadow.

"Excellent..." Scourge put his sunglasses back into place, then adjusted his crown. "Let's stick to the plan for now... we'll deal with Darky later..." he then snapped his fingers for Fiona to speak up again. "What about Sonic and the other Chaos Emeralds?"

"They've fortified the island. It will be tricky... but with Mephilis's portals, we should be able to-" She stopped as he spun around, grabbing her waist, and gripped her to him.

"Shh... you're so fidgety lately..." He cooed, lowering his sunglasses, "Babe, all I'm asking is that we plan for that guy to be smoke and dust by the time I get the Cursed Emerald..."

"R-right." She sweat-dropped, knowing that he planned to ditch Mephilis as soon as possible. "In that case~" she flung the paper back behind her, letting it drift in gentle sways to the burning grounds behind them. It was clearly her report from her spy mission, and decided to loop her arms around his neck, "We'll need a long rope... or you'll have to chaos teleport our merry band of thieves..."

"And I, their king." He shoved his face into hers, kissing her as the others waited while they messed around...

Rouge watched as they all disappeared into the portal... behind them, thousands upon thousands of burnt ruins... and flying pieces of flaming fabrics blew in the wind...

"I have to warn them!" she worriedly began to fly into the alley but turned when someone cried out for help, and flaming beams from streets and houses began to topple over one right after the other, some in the distance and others sparking as lamppost exploded as they hit the ground. "...They need me too, though." In her moment of conflict, she flew towards the burning city...

"Please be alright... Shadow... Manic... Ember..." she pleaded under her breath, "I'm leaving them to you all now."

Ember was forging but finding it hard not to pluck a berry with her claw, and then lick the juices and call it 'not eating' her bundle.

She knew Shadow would disapprove but Manic? He'd probably think it was funny. She hummed as she tried to not think about all the evil people that were after her. After all, it wasn't new, it was just kinda exciting. She was immortal, never really aged, but seemed to have never truly lost her immaturity at finding humor in even the most outrageous and life-threatening circumstances.

Sure, you get hurt, but as long as its only her getting hurt she's okay with it.

She thought back to Maria and Gerald Robotnik, how no matter what went wrong, they were always together.

The kids she'd look after and who'd treat her with their skits and plays to entertain one another... they were always together.

Shadow, however... seemed to be more concerned about his 'duty' then spending much time with her.

She loved going on missions with him, trying to impress him. He always acted like she was a liability though... even though he knew how powerful and capable her abilities were.

She could control some chaos, she could do some amazing feats, why did he always scold her on her strength and acting first before asking questions later? She was very much the same with doing something and apologizing later, her simple mottoes, she supposed. It was just her nature, and it seemed to bother Shadow... Was it truly her downfall? Curiosity only killed cats though, not wolves.

Even so, Shadow was kinda always protective of her, now that she thought of it. Even before he accepted her as his experimental prototype for his creation, he seemed to have a distaste for leaving her be too long. Isn't that what brothers are supposed to do? She couldn't really know... but seeing how Manic and Sonic joked around, verses Sonic and Tails, or Manic with his bandmates... it seemed like Sonic and Manic could goof off, wrestle, and even tease without worrying too much about the other.

So then... what was Shadow's deal? Why didn't he trust her... why didn't he want her around..?

She felt her tail swish down to the ground at the thought... She had always taken care of others, maybe that was Shadow's way of showing affection too?

Wasn't she overprotective? Wasn't she always on-guard? Perhaps she just hoped her and Shadow would be different. A true sibling bond.

She would want to return the favor, but how? He didn't even like hugs... but they did trust each other, right?

She trusted him... he seemed to trust her... was Rouge right? Was that why G.U.N kicked her out? Simply because they did trust each other but maybe two experiments was too much for them.

She paused and looked at the food in her hand, growing sorrowful again. Was the world jealous, or just Shadow?

He was the perfect weapon... the cure to all humanity... and yet, she was meant to protect him.

Then why... does it seem like he's protecting her?

Were they really... ever gonna be like a real family?

Or were they already one? But an imperfect one?

She slowly... let her hands fall and the berries drop out of her arms. Sighing, she looked to where she knew Manic and Shadow should be, "I got the food... some of them aren't stabbed... hehe..." She tried to play off her pondering emotions and licked her claws again. "They're good, at least." she teased.

No one answered...

"Shadow?" she called, trying to look over the foliage and tree trucks. "Manic?"

But no one answered.

She narrowed her eyes... and began to sneak around to see what she could find.

As she twisted herself through the bush, she let out a quiet gasp and plugged her mouth, seeing Manic and Shadow each tied up by what looked like shadowy vines that clung and tightened with their struggling movement.

In her surprise, she comically looked for somewhere that could conceal herself. So while still covering her mouth, she dived into what looked like a mossy patch near some water, and let the moss cushion her hasty fall to hide.

"Chaos... Spear!" Shadow was able to shoot out some beams to hit back Mephilis and Scourge's team, but Scourge took out a knife with a refined blade and held it to Manic, then a gun with a black coating and held it to Shadow's head.

The others had successfully dodged the spears, and snickered at their futile attempts.

"You can't contain me, I'm-!" Shadow began but realized these shadows had a strange power to them... he didn't realize they were infused with his own shadow... thus making them successfully able to contain him and his own power.

"Quick the light spectacle and realize when you're beat." Scourge pressed the gun's barrel against Shadow to move his head back against the tree they were tied up too. Manic couldn't reach his necklace, but Mephilis saw his attempts.

Floating on some shadows with his arms out wide, he turned to instruct Scourge, "Rip that silly trinket by his neck... Let him know true despair, when one holds no power, and takes everything away from you..." sadistically, he held up his hand, as if a dark sense of torment was awakening once again in him. He crushed his fists together, "I want to see the look of helplessness... as I take that light of hope from his eyes..."

"Oui! What'd I say about you giving me orders?!" Scourge flicked the knife under the necklace, "Only I'm allowed to do that!" twisting the sharp side of the blade to his necklace's bond around his neck, he yanked it off of him, pulling back the band and making his neck snap a little back as he tried to resist having his precious, childhood power and gift removed from him.

"Nooo..!" Manic saw the magical necklace fly through the air, glistening in and flipping through the gaps of light through the trees... his most precious possession left to him, which reminded him of his beloved mother... like having his family torn from him when he was an infant. It fell to the dirty soil and barely made a noise, due to the soft ground beneath...

He hunched a little, already seeming defeated by not having any special abilities, and now... not even having his only means to fight back besides his natural struggling force. "Now... I'm really mad." Manic gritted his teeth, some tears forming on the sides of his eyes. "I won't let you get away with this... with hurting Ember... or with taking any of my family from me!" he looked up with eyes full of righteous vengeance.

Shadow had never seen this side of Manic before, and it surprised him somewhat, but now was not the time to be in awe. Instead, he noticed that Manic and Scourge had created a kind of opening. This distraction allowed him to sneakily reach back and get a firm touch on his communication device. Swiftly, and trying to be discreet about it, his G.U.N training kicked in and he began typing in coordinates for Rouge and Tails. Hoping the signal wouldn't get spotted by the others... Shadow hid the device under his gloved wrist as it sent the code, however, transferring it to the others remotely was going to take some time...

Mephilis, highly sensitive to Shadow's movements, rose his head in Manic's defiant spirit and tenacious attitude, but sensed something off with Shadow. He was delighting in Manic's sorrow and frustration, but that would have to wait for now...

"He's fidgeting too much..." Mephilis lifted his hand and in a whirlwind of speed, slashed Shadow in the head and knocked him out. "There... that's better... Hahahah!" his infamous laugh carried through the forest, as Ember's hands twitched in rage.

Her Cursed Emerald began to glow...

"Heh, I like your style." Scourge used the bunt side of the gun to knock out Manic from his neck, "Now what? Where's the girl!?" Scourge turned to Mephilis, pointing the gun to him... "I think you already figured this out but... I don't like to be kept waiting..."

Ember couldn't contain her rage anymore, the insanity from the Cursed Emerald drove her out of hiding, her emotions spiraling out of control. This wasn't the first time, but she wanted it to desperately be the last time anyone messed with her friends and life. 'I'm tired of people telling me not to fight!' she felt her body lose control as she ran on all fours to defend her beloved family...

"RRAHHH!" She jumped into the air, the curse in full swing as her entire body was filled with her insanity mode flaring to life. "Let them go!" Black flames burst from her purple emerald, and Mephilis's eyes reflected their glow.

"Yeeess... You'll do nicely." He seemed fixated on the dark power it contained, seeing it as the perfect host for this new timeline.

Her eyes burned white as she came down, but Mephilis moved quickly back, floating on his shadows as the earth shook and cracked under her power.

"Alright! An ultimate showdown! At last!" Scourge readied himself, but Mephilis drifted in front of him, his shadows like a catching up behind him. "What!? What are you..? Out of my way, freak!"

He shot the back of Mephilis's head, "I'm tired of this game!" But Mephilis's head just bent forward with every shot, and it was clear nothing was penetrating through his crystal hide... The bullets looked squished and condensed upon impact with his quills.

He slowly turned back... "I'll deal with you... after my form becomes permanent in this world..." He was fading, but reached out to Ember, "I can kill Shadow, and he has the power to destroy your beloved friend as well..." He then gestured to Scourge and Manic. "What will you choose? Immortal... a prototype? You were made to be a mistake, to learn from... But with me, I can give you your ultimate purpose..." He lifted his arms up into the air, showing the half-destroyed moon. "There must be revenge that you seek... much like your figurative brother..." He slowly turned his attention back to her. "I have the means to control your cursed emerald... join to me, child of error, and I shall make you the key to all destruction!" he clenched a fist up by her, showing his resolve to want to 'help' her.

However, Ember—still wild—had already broken through Scourge's goons that had come around from behind, and slowly hunched over at Mephilis's words.

The Destructix's lay panting on the ground, remembering last time... and knowing they're efforts were futile.

Even Scourge looked pathetically over to them, seeing that without Mephilis, taking Ember head-on again might be a bad idea...

Her eyes seemed vast and hollow, as though Mephilis's words meant nothing in this state. Instead, they were simply filled with the power of negative chaos energy...

"You have a choice..." Mephilis began, speaking plainly as he could tell that Ember was no longer present, but only the Cursed Emerald's protective recognition remained. "Surrender yourself to me... or let me take over your current host's form." he flicked his fingers out, before jamming his claws into Shadow's side again. "Otherwise... I make your host's life even worse... more alone than ever before... and you, the soul who reigns over her... forever. Hahahaha!" he had figured it out, her emotions got the better of her and let out it's full power. He truly was clever, and using Shadow as a trigger, hoped the Cursed Emerald would be fueled off of her emotions, and get even stronger. "Do you now see where my loyalty lies? Now... let us join together! We shall rule this world with a burning blaze!"

Ember's power skyrocketed as her body jerked forward and then back, seeing Shadow reel back in pain before going unconscious again. It was as though the amount of empathy felt in that moment gave Ember's body the same amount of pain as it saw Shadow endure.

"Mortal... immortal... nothing escapes fate." Mephilis pulled out his claws, his shadows released Shadow from his bonds around the tree truck and he fell forward. Mephilis never ceased in his dark pleasure of torment and pain, laughing and laughing in his sadistic delights, leaning his head back as though to gloat and strike envy. "It never gets old... seeing the fear and hatred on their faces... when I kill all they care about..." Was he speaking to himself? Or to Scourge?

Now it didn't matter what he knew about Shadow's future, it was clear he wanted a ill fate for him, and for Ember as well... Though trapped inside her own mind, Ember clawed for redemption. 'Manic... everyone... if I let this fiend live, he'll tear apart the whole of what I've found!' she pounded against the dark energies that kept her locked up tight. 'My emotions... they're not meant for evil! Cursed Emerald... you're not cursed anymore! You're my power! And I choose to use you to protect my family!"

Mephilis all at once... became her new G.U.N.

Getting a momentary grip on herself, Ember reached into her chest, scratching and digging to try and pull the Cursed Emerald out of her. 'I can't lose him!' she began to cry through the searing pain as her claws bore into her flesh. However, it was instantly healing itself, burning to seal the scars she was making. She couldn't pull it out, and it wouldn't be ripped from her either... soon, it back-lashed and forced her into a full state of control, meaning that it now had full power over her... and was completely consumed in her emotions once again.

"Join me, Cursed one!" Mephilis spread his shadows around her, but the Cursed Emerald controlling Ember's body tilted its head, only interested in destruction.

Bursting into raw chaos energy, Ember's body looked more like a giant, standing wolf than anything else... her power radiated into a beast in it's rising aura...

Mephilis was slightly taken aback, "This power... Iblis would be pleased." He laughed, "Very well, I shall take you on!"

Dark orbs were thrown towards Ember's body, but she shredded through them with her dark energy claws, her true form hidden within the massive dark aura-wolf. It blasted the shadows away that tried to consume the Cursed Emerald, showing that it wouldn't be taken without a fight.

Manic's head looked up, feeling the shadows loosen and weaken from around him as he fell down from the tree he was tied too. "What... what happened?" he looked to his necklace, and reached for it in a sudden moment of clarity.

"Ah-ah-ah." Scourge kicked it away, mimicking Sonic's infamous finger wiggle and grabbing him into a choke hold. "Who said you were allowed to wake up!?"

As Manic struggled, trying to reach for a punch, it was clear Scourge was stronger than him. "Hahaha! Pathetic! She chose you over me!?" He raised an eyebrow, "I'll let Mephilis weaken her down a bit first, after all, I tried to fight her and look where that got me?"

He threw Manic as he slammed against the tree, falling back down and struggling to get up.

"But you? That's the easy part. You don't have your precious little girlfriend to protect you." He pulled out his gun, firing off some bullets as Manic rolled on the ground to dodge them. "Darn that Dark... he took all my bullets like it was nothing..." Scourge rolled his shoulders back, arching his steps around Manic and tossing the gun after it seemed emptied of bullets. "Guess we'll do this the old fashion way..." He took his knife and and then stomped directly on Manic's necklace, making Manic look up and glare in his pain.

"You're gonna end up just like him..." Scourge flicked his head to Shadow's limp form, as Manic gasped, seeing it.

"Shadow! No!" he cried out. "Shadow! Get up! Ember needs-!"

"Nothing but death!" Scourge laughed, "Same's gonna come to you, and I'm not sorry. Let's consider it a mercy kill, eh? You don't have to see your doggy dame maimed before your eyes!"

But as soon as he said that, Manic jumped at him and began to push back, grabbing his arms. "I may not be as strong as you... but I'm ten times more clever than you!" he slid his foot between Scourge's feet, then pulled it back around his foot to have him trip and fall backwards.

Manic's drum necklace skidded from the action over the ground. Manic reached and grabbed it with a tumble, rolling before having it glow in his hands. "And she picked me because I'm handsomer shade of green than you! The ones that not representative of envy!" Manic summoned his drums, then took out his drumsticks and began warming up with a drum roll. "I don't think you can take this beat, Scourge!" he began to fire off sonic booms from his drums, pushing and shoving Scourge down, as the knife in his hand was pulsed back by its sonic power.

"Grr..! No!" Scourge used his super sonic speed to start moving to dodge each drum beat. "You think you're stronger than your own anti-brother!?" but right before reaching the drums and seeing the white in Manic's worried eyes as Scourge reached out for him...

"HRRAHH!" Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles jumped from the bushes, tackling into Scourge as Manic stopped playing in awe.

"Everyone!" Manic's eyes widened and then relaxed in relief. "Thank you." He breathed out, and then looked to see Shadow starting to get up on his feet, gripping his torn and pierced side.

He crawled towards Ember's insane, dark aura-wolf form as though desperate to reach her.

"Em...ber..." He stumbled to his feet, but looked a bit woozy from the loss of blood. "I'm... com-...ing..."

"Shadow!" Manic unsummoned his drums and kept a firm grip on his magical necklace, but grabbed Shadow to help him stand better. "What'd he do to you?"

"Urk... She... needs my... help." He tried to move forward, but Manic helped him not fall.

"I know, I know! But she'd never forgive me if I didn't help you first!" Manic looked to see Scourge's crew start coming too, and Ember's insane form fighting Mephilis. "This looks ugly... I know you guys recover fast, what do you need me to do?"

Shadow gave him one look, and he knew.

Save Ember...

for me, in my place.

Mephilis began compiling all his being into one, super mass of his collective consciousness. "Now... you're mine!" as though a miniature storm, flashes of lightning formed around the purple mass as the shadows circled all around it quickly, helping to move it towards Ember's insanity frame. Diving into Ember's form, other shadows leaped up from the shade of the trees to tie her down as she remained on her feet, growling and straining against their takeover.

"At last... though not Iblis... you and I shall be... Cursembaris!" Mephilis's ball of dark energy blasted the dark aura-wolf as it howled in defiance, but was absorbed into his purple and blue darkness, which then engulfed Ember's body.

No matter the power of the Cursed Emerald, Mephilis the Dark soon sealed himself in fire within it's core...

The shining emerald suddenly dulled with shadows, and soon...

"I can't waste another moment..! You're power must fuse with mine, or I will fade from existence of all worlds! I can't fight any longer without a host... You will do nicely! Hahahaha!" Mephilis got her down to her knees, as her form took on a crystallized state, and her eyes shifted to Mephilis's own...

Suddenly, her form was overwhelmed by flames, bursting up and spreading out to form her into light that mixed with his shadows.

The fire raged and burnt the ground beneath as she was lifted into the air, and then made into a black flame, crystallized, large wolf.

Cursembaris looked at it's new body... moving up to its full height, it laughed manically in a monstrous howl that blasted the wind back and forced the others to brace against the wind storm.

Suddenly, with the power of a cursed chaos emerald, it summoned many shadows. All resembled his previous form: Mephilis, and a deadly horde began to materialize to finish off Mephilis's original goal as Solaris.

"Now... to finish off this world... and burn it all, as I have promised you, Scourge... Hahaha!" Mephilis's voice was mixed with Ember's, and their laughter was more fine-tuned, making it sound even more sinister than before...

"Grk..!" Manic forced himself up, his drums ready for battle again. "I've fought you once and held my own! Release Ember, now!" he hit the drums hard, but the fused creation just flicked his wolf's paw, and thousands of the shadow-horde began to run towards Manic.

Cursembaris laughed through it's crystallized body as though cackling howls from rocks banging against an echoing cave... Ember's voice being drowned out by Mephilis. It stalked around the battlefield as though eyeing its prey, watching Manic desperately fight back against the horde. It kept it's head low, readying to pounce at any moment...

The shadows were destroyed by different drumbeat sonic booms, but Manic was already feeling the weariness setting in. Gritting his teeth, he tried to send the blasts where they needed to go.

"This world will be too easy..." Mephilis mused, holding a clawed, crystal paw out, as though ready to hunt. "I will destroy the ultimate life form... take out Sonic once and for all,... and then leave you as a toothpick for when I'm bored!" Cursembaris's snarl spewed fire through its bared teeth. This was driving Manic insane, he hated it with a deep passion and anger, hearing Ember's lovely voice mingled with such evil.

Shadow, still hunched over, brought out his hand to his side, 'I can't let this stand... I won't lose her. I won't lose anyone else!' He looked up at his sister, seeing a form which he didn't know or understand. His fist tightened, "I had to let you go once... I won't do it again!" He took off his limiters, preparing himself as he stored his power up. "Chaos... spears!" he was able to successfully target a few spears that pierced through the shadows, having them automatically disintegrate and then strike through Cursembaris's crystal hide. They were made of pure light and chaos energy, stabbing with an effect into a dark being like Mephilis and the Cursed Emerald meant it began to weaken the shadows around it, causing actual damage.

It's crystal wolf body was jammed back with each successful spear glowing an area of effect around it, spreading light through its being...

"Hopefully... you can... push through it..." Shadow fell back to his knees, then fell down as his body began to recover and forced him to yield.

It's head slowly looked up to Shadow after examining itself, and almost with concern, it stared... until Mephilis's voice, the dominant sound, rang through again in it's muffled cry. "You'd injure your own sister..? For the sake of the world..? Shadow... I never thought you so cruel..."

Shadow frowned openly, his fangs bared, gripping his injured side as he twitched helpless on the ground. "I'm not aiming for her..!"

Cursembaris tilted it's head, then turned to see Scourge had fought off Sonic, throwing him off of him but seeing his team still apprehended. He glared to it and charged, jumping and grabbing the Cursed Emerald in glowing purple as he was burned by its natural protection of itself. "My turn!" his eyes blazed with power... though the Cursed Emerald wanted to lash back and fight, it was being controlled by Mephilis... So it could only sear him for now...

"This power is meant to be mine!" Scourge used all his imbued Master Emerald strength to try and force the Cursed Emerald out. The natural repulsion was actually working in his favor... The gem began to move out from the spiraling flames and dark purple mist... Thanks to Shadow's Chaos Spears still giving the creature splotches of yellow glowing light to weaken Mephilis's control and power over it.

"N...Nooo!" Mephilis, weakened by the now exploding Chaos Spears Shadow had thrown, felt them pulse off with every hit from Manic's other light and sound based attack...

Soon, Scourge's tug-o-war was actually succeeding, as his gloves were consumed in flame, his insane smirk never left him.

Manic's feelings pounded the drums with a powerful beat that exploded his sonic booms to push Mephilis back and Scourge closer to pulling the Cursed Emerald out. Shadow watched as he flicked his fingers and wrists, letting the Chaos Spears go off one by one in rhythm with Manic's attacks.

Howling into whimpers, Cursembaris reeled its massive form skyward, leaning its head back in the pain and slowly defusing at Scourge's persistence.

"Nooo..! I refuse to lose! I must at least destroy Sonic The Hedgehog! The Iblis Trigger!" Mephilis began to fade... his time running out. He turned to Sonic and his gang, who were unsure of how to approach the creature without getting burned. Bringing out the pure Chaos Emeralds, Sonic turned Super, and stared into the magma stones that made the being's eyes... dead in their centers as his form glowed the same way the Chaos Spears had...

"You want some?" He gestured to his new, light-based form. "Come and get me!" he bolted off at incredible speeds, flying behind Cursembaris and charging into it's neck. Digging his way through, Sonic pushed and punched the Cursed Emerald towards Scourge, helping to remove it.

According to Tails, if the Cursed Emerald was removed from Mephilis, Ember would return. He noticed the shift of polarity around the two converging timelines that were still being affected by Mephilis's presence, and determined that if they stalled long enough, Mephilis the Dark would fade from this reality, his own being wiped out in the process...

"Why... can't I... fight back?!" Mephilis's voice rang through as Cursembaris swung it's head around, trying to resist the urge to create more destruction and hacok. With all these forcing whamming into it, causing great damage to the Dark forces controlling it, the light side began to shine through...

It leaned it's head up, it's eyes filling with the white fire that Ember's would have had if still in her insanity mode.

"I ... won't... hurt... my family."

Ember's voice... was finally in control.

Scourge—at last—had gripped a Chaos Spear that hadn't exploded yet, feeling his hands burn from the light of that as well as the whipping backlash from the Cursed Emerald, and ripped it out of place. He forced it deeper into the beast, jamming it behind the Cursed Emerald and desperately trying to excavate it out as he wiggled the Chaos Spear around to hopefully pull it lose. Finally, he ripped Ember's fusion out from Mephilis as he faded away in a blaze of glory.

"Ah... HAAA...ahhhhh..." Mephilis's form began to drift towards the ground, as Ember's landed in ashes... "Now... I shall truly be... forgotten..." Mephilis's consciousness, a purple mass of shadows, slowly dwindled out on the ground... a puddle becoming less and less... before all at once... getting blown gently out of reality and time...

Ember opened her eyes gently, seeing the ash below her clawed fingers drift as scourged sunglasses tank'ed against the ground near her. As Mephilis disappeared, Super Sonic slowly returned down to the ground, and looked around for Scourge. "Where is he..? What..?" He saw the sunglasses, as Ember seemed to refuse to reach for them.

Super Sonic remained silent, horrified but also dropping his jaw at the fact that the heat had been so intense that perhaps... Scourge was was burnt into oblivion too...

He turned his head down and closed his eyes, but in his moment for the dead, Scourge was glowing green behind him. "Aw, I'm touched." and then sucker-punched Sonic. "But if that emerald won't budge, I'll kill her and take it for myself!" Hearing that he may try and fuse with the Cursed Emerald, Ember slowly got up, clutching her now completely black and soot-covered chest... forcing herself upright.

Shadow gripped his side and stumbled over to Manic, giving him a nod. He knew now that Manic would do whatever it took to protect Ember and keep her safe. Giving him a thumbs up... he turned to Ember, mouthed words she only wished she could have heard... and then collapsed.

"Shadow!" Manic didn't leave his drums again, seeing Scourge crash Super Sonic against multiple trees and then grab Ember, still trying to control her power.

However,...

"You never learn..." Ember muttered, sending him back in a backlash as she moved her arm and let him grab the Cursed Emerald again, but was blown so far away in its fury... She then, seeing the damage done, knew what last thing she should try.

Surrendering fully to its cursed power, she leaned her body back. "Shadow... I love you too. I won't forget again... that you accept the good I see in Manic, and that you don't want to lose me just as much... as I'd hate to lose you too." She let out some tears, as the Cursed Emerald began its last stand at defending itself. "Manic... I've seen you struggle, and do everything within your power to protect me... I won't forget this... I won't forget your love and devotion. Even if you only have the power of a mortal... you fought an immortal cause. You have gained your victory... And I will love you forever." Then she spread her arms out, "I'll remember... but you won't need too... This awful fate... that threatened my friends and family... will never be again." She closed her eyes, as Manic tried to run to her, "Chaos... Unleashed." A huge white light engulfed the entire area...

Time was rewritten, as is what the power of the Chaos Emeralds can do... though this power was reversed in that it could completely rewrite fate only if severely threatened by removal and/or death.

Ember was sitting down with Manic after the concert, leaning on his shoulder. 'Finally... Peace.' she thought to herself, proud that she was able to muster the courage to perform after all the emotional and painful turmoil of the time that never was...

Only she alone remembered... Shadow's figurative blessing to Manic in a simple accepting thumbs-up, and that mysterious figure that she still didn't know who or what he was... She had already called Shadow to warn him about Scourge's escape and they found him right away. It was as though she saved her family without a single soul knowing about it.

'Good... who needs another gloat, anyway?' she joked within her mind, smiling as Manic kissed her forehead, still thinking she was just calming down from stage fright.

Shadow's Chaos Spears had weakened both Mephilis and the Cursed Emerald's power, allowing Scourge to pull her out. Then, when the spears disappeared, Ember had control over her insanity power for a split second, and used it to go back... knowing Mephilis wouldn't be there to screw up her future this time... But the unleashed Chaos came with a price...

She leaned up to look at Manic, "When I predicted Scourge's eventual escape, I also told Shadow how much you cared about me... I think he's willing to see that I want time with him... and with you, too." she gently put her hand into his, grasping it lightly. "Is that alright?" she looked down as though shyly to his hand.

He chuckled to himself, growing nervous. "W-what? What brought that up all of a sudden?" He rubbed behind his quills, but she fiddled with his long-hanging bangs as he smiled warmly to her. "Did you learn my secret?"

"What secret?" she looked away, pretending like she didn't know he wanted Shadow's blessing. She had heard a lot through Mephilis's fusion with her, and his shadows and knowledge of them were something she was able to discover. Though... she still didn't understand his reasoning when she searched his mind for 'Iblis Trigger' or 'Solaris'. It was all too confusing, anyway, and she didn't stay fused for too long either.

But his influence over her was still there... the longing for destruction, the cunning and manipulation... her Cursed Emerald's flame would never glow the same...

"Never you mind how I know things~" she teased, fanning them away and disregarding her own sinister thoughts that she would push away. She was strong enough to resist whatever power was still infused in her emerald... she didn't care. She only wanted to use her power to protect those she cared about. The power would be used for nothing else, "Just come here and tell me what a great singer I was tonight..." she cupped his face, knowing he really did try everything to protect her in that other, erased timeline now. They kissed very sweetly, but he soon pulled her into a deeper, more passionate moment.

"You sang like a dark angel." he slowly moved over her, as she spread her back slowly against the stage's floor, letting him make his way over her. "Like a siren through the sea of lights..." She was feeling her heart rate escalate with the moment when...

Suddenly, a voice came from the rafters.

"Now, now, you two." The alluring woman's voice slyly added, "Play nice! After all, I'd hate to tell Shadow that when he sent me to look after you, that you and your new boyfriend —who he so graciously allowed for you to be with —were being naughty..."

Rouge's voice rang a thousand times in Ember's ears and mind when she pulled away from Manic and shook her fist in frustration. "SHHHADDDOWW!" she whined in disapproval, not liking that he sent Rouge to spy on her, still thinking her a child.

"Hmph!" she folded her arms, turning from Manic and pouting. "He still can't trust me!?"

Manic just laughed, "Ohhh, now I see the family resemblance!" he pointed to her frown and then clutched his head and stomach, belting out a hardy, but joyous cascade of laughter.

She couldn't help it, she may be imperfect but so was the rest of the world. She had a family... and no matter what twists in time or space was brought their way, they would always love each other, and want to spend time with one another.

That brought her peace. Love and family, imperfect people being perfect for each other.

She hugged Manic and laughed too, enjoying the moment with him, as Rouge smiled sweetly down to them and then flew off, giving them their alone time and space... since this was the timeline within this universe's space that they could do so... without any distractions or restraints~!

END.

[tophatlucario]

LET ME FOLLOW YOU

I need more blogs to follow, so if your blog is associated with any of the topics below, please reblog or like this post. — Nintendo — Sonic — Splatoon — Kingdom Hearts — Xenoblade Chronicles — Videogames in general — Sonic Mania — Sonic Forces — Sonic — Fun stuff — Sonic — Xenoblade Chronicles — Sonic — Artwork — Cute artwork — Sonic — Classic Sonic — Sonic Forces — Super Mario Odyssey — Splatoon 2 — Kingdom Hearts 3 — Kingdom Hearts 3 — Cats — More cats — Cute cats — Funny cats — Evil cats — Sonic — sanik — Dogs — But more cats — I'm allergic to cats — That's why I want cats on my blog — sinic — sonic — more sonic — tails also — & Knuckles — SEGA — Kingdom Hearts III — KH3 will never release — Metroid — Samus — Metroid... — Paper Mario — Xenoblade Chronicles — Kingdom Hearts — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic Mania — Sonic Forces — Nintendo Switch — Reggie — More Nintendo — Kingdom Hearts III — SANIK — SONIC — AAAAAAAAAAH — Kirby — Did you know that I like pancakes? — I should start to work out — But I'm a lazy crap — I also have a job with terrible work hours — Sonic — Sonic — LIVE AND LEARN — HANGING ON THE EDGE OF TOMORROW — SINIK — Xenoblade Chronicles — Sploon — Xenoblade Chronicles 2 — Nintendo Switch — But I need money for Switch — So that's why I have my job — Are you still reading this? — sinik — u can stop now if you want to — or not — sonik — I seriously need blogs to follow — lots of blogs — i also like music — mostly instrumental music — also videogame and movie soundtracks — Kingdom Hearts III will release — on November 30th 2018 — I have my sources trust me — I also like Disney — Forgot to tell that — Big Hero 6 👌👌👌 — I have a labrador retriever — His name is Pontiak — He's 4 years old and super nice — Sonic — Sonic Mania — For real Sonic Mania is HYPE — And Sonic Forces too — I need my OC to get real — The moon landing was fake — I'm actually Neil Armstrong — Also Elvis is alive — Sonic Sonic Sonic — Super Mario Odyssey — Xenoblade Chronicles — Kingdom Hearts III — SEGA — Nintendo — A little bit of Mega Man I guess I like too... — Memes — Cats — Dogs — But especially cats, remember that. — my sister is hazzling me — Cuz I said Wreck-it Ralph is a little slow — but I love her anyway — The Mario & Luigi games are hype — Super Paper Mario has a better story than TTYD — Also better music than TTYD — Sonic — Xenoblade Chronicles — Kingdom Hearts III — Sora — Roxas — Music — Videogame music — How to train your dragon — not the 2nd one — It wasn't as good as the first — I seriously need a Nintendo Switch — I saw a squirrel today — It had light brown fur, almost red-like — It was so cute! It was eating a nut — I screamed "SQUIRREL!" when I saw it — Like in the movie UP — Are you still here? — I'm pretty sure you have got an idea of what I like — Sonic — Sonic — Don't — Autocorrect — I dunno how "Sonic" became "Don't" — Maybe it's fate telling me something — Nah — In that case fate can screw itself — Sonic is BACK AND HYPE — My fingers are tired — I don't know how much longer I will go on — Sonic — Super Mario Odyssey — Super Mario Galaxy — Rosalina — Also I don't like Rosalina nowadays — They made her into fanservice material — It's disgusting really — Rosalina was one of my favourite characters — But not anymore — Well she is still my favourite in SMG — That game is ACE 👌 — Super Mario Odyssey looks dope tho — Especially Bowser — Super Smash Bros. — I still need to play the MGS games — SNAAAAAAAAKE EAAAAATER!!! — I spoiled the main theme — sorry.... — But Snake is handsome — Nice dude — Wanna play as him and stealth — Sonic — Donic — Donic — Sonic — Cinos — Sanik — Melee — No not Melee — The Melee fans scare me — Mario Kart is also good — Splatoon — Hey!! — Do you think this is a joke? — I still need lots of blogs to follow — So don't forget to like or reblog — Otherwise I wouldn't know about you — I dunno what else I should talk about — I could tell a joke, but that would be terrible — I am bad at jokes — Also we are doomed — I had to get it out there — Just look around yourself — We will get nuked any day now — Somebody gotta be real here — I'm almost done — Let's write more saniks — Sonic — Sonik — Sonikku — Sanik — danik — sank — dank — memes — Sonic — Sonic Mania — Sonic Forces — My favourite meme is We Are Number One — I like swimming — And skiing — And sports in general — Anyone wanna play some sports with me? — I just sneezed — It felt goooooooooood — Sonic — Super Mario Odyssey — Xenoblade Chronicles — Kingdom Hearts — Nintendo — SEGA — ^^ — Those are pretty much the real ones — OH and Splatoon too — I'm sure I missed something — METROID — I WANT A NEW METROID GAME — A game that takes place after Metroid Fusion — We need Metroid 5!!! — Spoilers ahead: — Samus is freakin' hunted!! — By the United Federation — I want a game where Samus is — Fighting against the government — That would be AWESOME — Also please make Samus badass again — She's not just fanservice — Sonic — Sonic — Xeno — Blade — Shulk — FIIIIOOOOOORAAAAAAA!!!!!! — If you are still here — Congrats — You deserve a medal — But I don't have any — I'm a cheap jerk — But honestly good work — When I was younger — I used to roleplay as Sonic characters — It was weird — Atleast it helped me learn english — Also what happened to Detective Pikachu? — I honestly wanted that game — It looked fun and weird — I like those kind of games — Do you think I should change me URL? — And my pfp? — I think so — It's pretty old and irrelevant — But I want Detective Pikachu... — Wanna see what happened — Did they cancel it? — That would be a shame if they did — Almost done here — Sorry — I may have teased you for a little too long — I'm pretty sure I will lose followers — This post is gonna take forever to scroll down — But I will take it — I have already come this far — And I will not just throw it away — IT'S ALL OR NOTHING — So... — How have you been? — I like your hair — Did you go to the barber recently? — Maybe you cut it yourself — And and your shirt is 👌👌👌 — I have a shirt of my own that I like a lot — I got it from the KH Orchestra On Tour — It has Sora on it — Super nice shirt really — But your shirt really takes the cake — Anyway — I'm almost done here — Only a few more lines — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonic — Sonkc — Tails — Knuckles — Amy Rose — Shadow — Rouge — Dr. Eggman — Dr. Robotnik — Tikal — Metal Sonic — Cream the Rabbit — Chao — Espio — Charmy — Vector — Silver — Blaze — Are there any more charact— EGGMAN NEGA — He's weird — Also his name is just begging to be misused — in inappropriate ways I mean — I think you can imagine what I mean — ALRIGHTY! Thank you for sticking around. — It's been a long ride — I'm sorry it has to end — But this is the start of something new — I want to follow you! — So — Lastly before I go — I have one last thing to say — Sonic & Knuckles

[spindashed]

(via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1dV4YriZVM)

Over time, if you follow my blog, you will see me write “counter articles” in response to the fandom, and non-fandom videos, reviews... etc.

Lets begin!

1.) “Have an actual story this time.” I can partially agree with this.  I do agree that having a in-depth story per console game adds to the value of the experience. More so than stories that are short and simplistic. Sonic Unleashed had an amazing story, and it’s gameplay was great!  I loved the daytime stages, and I personally LOVED the nighttime stages too!(The werehog was a nice touch, it gave flavour to the story, and it had a very “God of War” vibe to it, both the game mechanics and the fact that you had to solve puzzles.. Huge points from myself especially since I love the God of war series.) That said! phrasing your first rant with: “Have an actual story this time.” Is quite an ignorant statement.. 

I strongly feel you’re grasping at straws with this one, because I could easily sit here and list the “actual stories” from each game. Sure some games had shorter plots, or plots that weren’t seriously in-depth like Unleashed, but there are stories there. Saying otherwise is just straight up ignorant.  Besides! Sometimes simplicity is best.

2.) “Only put fan favourite characters in the game’s story if it’s for a legitimate purpose, however, no more of the ‘The adventures of Sonic and Tails’.” This one is a funny subject. When Sega had Sonic’s friends in game as playable’s, there came a point where   people were LITERALLY bitching and complaining about how they’re so sick and tired of Sonic’s friends!!!! That all they wanted was “SONIC” as a playable..

Now that Sonic has been the only playable in most games, fans are now complaining about how they want Sonic’s friends back.. Smh.

For some fans, having certain characters as playable’s (I.e. Shadow.), would bring a lot of joy... Fortunately with myself, I’ve been a Sonic fan since 1991, and usually have a preference to only use Sonic, so I’m personally happy with Sonic only games. But my personal preference aside; I think it’s safe to say fans of specific characters would be far happier to see their favourites appear even if they are NPC’s (Non playable characters) oppose to them not appearing whatsoever..  In my personal opinion, I’d say if Sega/Sonic Team decide to have a NPC appear, they should have them doing something, even if it’s an Easter egg kind of thing in the background for fans to catch.

3.) “Don’t reply too much on nostalgia.” Alright! Green Hill Zone crybabies need to get over themselves. Wahhh, Green Hill Zone is back... Why! Wahhhh.. Are you sure you’re even a Sonic fan? The Green Hill Zone was LITERALLY the FIRST stage in the series!  It was brought back, because it’s timeless it’s iconic just like Sonic himself. The Green Hill Zone is like Mario’s Mushroom Kingdom, like Cloud Strife’s Midgard, like Link’s Hyrule... I can go on..  Not to mention: It has COMPLETE justification to reappear in Sonic Forces, considering it’s where Classic Sonic spends a lot of his time. (This has been verified by direct source: “Sonic revisit GHZ often, because he really likes that Zone.”)

If Classic Sonic is brought back to the present time, where else would you expect him to be found? Gtfo.

(Green Hill Zone) “A lot of us are getting sick of it..”

Speak for yourself. I should also note, the most vocal fans in our fandom, often also tend to be the haters.. The same crybabies that whine about everything.(Wahhh Sonic’s eyes are green. Wahhh Sonic’s arms are blue...)

4.) “Stage to stage is fine, but if you’re gonna have a hub don’t be lazy with it.”

a.) I loved Sonic Unleashed too. I give you that.

b.) If you actually played the game in full, and paid attention to the concept of the story, you’d understand that the hub world stages being completely “white” was justified, and even when you bring life back into it, the background stays white because Time Eater FUCKING ATE TIME!

If there is nothing left in existence other than pocket zones (a.k.a the hub worlds.), it’s either going to be white space, or black space. Deal with it.

c.) Sonic Generations was one of the best games of the modern era... I think based on what the game was in it’s overall entirety, we can cut the hub world’s details some slack. Besides, what glorious games have you made? Talk is cheap, remember this.

5.) “No stupid cringe worthy jokes.” Alrighty, I can agree with this one.  Knowing how to blend good humour in with the right action and seriousness is key for greatness.

I feel that because Sega has begun aiming the games at a younger audience, despite the fact that the younger audience of today actually play the same “serious” games that we adults play..  The jokes can come off a bit much sometimes.  I’ve been a long time reader of the Archie comics (Which I’m sad to see it’s probably been canceled.) That said, I’d enjoy seeing Ian Flynn write for Sonic games, I think he’d be a wicked asset to the games.

6.) “If you’re going to have Wisps be more creative and actually make them fun.” I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again! For people who ACTUALLY play the games.. They obviously served a purpose in “Sonic Colours” storyline.

It was literally explained in “Sonic Runners”, why the Wisps were still in Sonic’s world. (After the events of Sonic Colours, some Wisps liked Sonic’s world so much, they decided to stay on earth/mobius.)

In Sonic Lost World, they were completely optional to use or not. Plus Wisps are basically items/power ups. KEY WORDS: “Optional to use.”

I don’t see anyone complaining about it when Mario uses his reoccurring power ups, so why must Sonic fans be so cringe.. And lastly, I’m starting to think people in our fandom are headass af..  This time around, in Sonic Forces, the Wisps aren’t there like they have been in the past. They are now “Wispons” as in they power up “Avatar’s” gadgets. (Maybe spend less time complaining, and pay a little more attention to the content revealed.. smh.) 

The fact that people are actually complaining about basically an item/power up, which the Wisps literally are; is as headass beyond words as can be..

7.) “Make sure the custom character feature lives up to the hype.”

a.) Sega literally stated “Avatar” (Which is what Sega calls him/her.) plays a heavy role in the events/story of Sonic Forces. Again you would know this if you actually paid attention over flapping lips.

b.) Sega/Aaron Webber also literally stated that the Avatar character doesn’t actually talk, voice actors have been hired, and they do grunt and have voicing to some extent. This may or may not be something that will change. But as far as things go at the moment, they won’t have any real lines.

c.) Avatar is each person’s PERSONAL OC, which literally means, if Avatar doesn't live up to the hype, you as a player failed. Sega is simply giving fans a tool, it’s up to the fans on how to use it.

8.) “Have a Super Sonic final boss fight.” I agree having Super Sonic in the games is fun, mostly because I love Sonic including each of his forms..  But I find this one ironic, because you were literally just complaining about how Green Hill Zone has been back too many times, and how the Wisps were back again.. And yet you want “Super Sonic” to be just that. (Perfect example of the crybaby logic at it’s best.)  Thank you for proving my point. *Thumb up!*

9.) “Try as hard as you possibly can to not make the game short.” I think you should go try to make your own game.  It’s easy to talk, but if you have no experience in the industry that’s quite the ignorant statement man..  But don’t get me entirely wrong. I understand where you’re coming from. Games are not cheap these days, and feeling like we have some good content to really dig deep into goes a long way.

10.) “No stupid power up that spawns when you die too much so you can skip ahead to the next checkpoint. Not only does activating it happen on accident, but it’s like the game is holding my hand.” It’s funny, because Mario games have an option where if you die around 3 times, you have the option to let Luigi complete the stage for you. (I.e. skip the stage.)  And no one complains about that. The only catch from what I understand is skipping a stage in a Mario game will keep you from unlocking everything in-game.  I think it’s a pretty fair, or good optional thing to have.

11.) “Either change Sonic’s Voice or Roger Craig Smith Improves.” Jason Griffin was one of my favourite voice actors, no doubt! But Roger isn’t all that bad. Not to mention the voice actors do actively try to improve, but they’re also doing what Sega directs them to do. As far as I’m concern, this is a complaint based on bias, and is not worthy of the “my opinion” title.

12.) “Have a moment in the story that somewhat shocks the player.” Plot twist are great, but when you have fans that wear the “expect card” right on their forehead, even if Sega comes up with a pretty good plot twist, I’m sure the fans will find something to complain about. (Notice 99% of your video is a big complaint?) 

13.) ”Have Unleashed-esque presentation.” I can agree with you on how epic Sonic Unleashed was all day. And I would love a “Unleashed-esque” presentation/depth to all the games. But lets be real, you and I both know the loud people in our fandom will find something to complain about regardless.

14.) “Don’t be kiddy.” I’ve been saying this one for a long time now. Sonic should always be catered to us long time old fans. The younger fans will come into the fandom on their own.

One of the hottest games for people was the “Call of Duty” games. Despite being rated for the older crowd, I cannot begin to tell you how many underaged kids were playing these.

My point is, kids like what we older fans like.  (I should also note, I have never cared for the COD games.)

15.) “Make the gameplay more open than in previous games.” “Sonic Boom Rise of Lyric” was an open world game.

It was also meant to be a much fuller and in-depth game, but due to being rushed, and having to have massive game content cuts, it ended up being what it was. (Check out Sonic Synergy. What Sonic Boom RoL was meant to be, and it looks amazing.)

16.) “Fix the Ranking System.” This is the first time I’ve heard anyone complain about the rank system...

This one is also a ironic one, because if you check out the Mario games, those games are some of the easiest brain dead games you can play..... People eat them up, and yet when Sonic is time to time easier going, it’s a bad thing? Smh.

17.) “Fix the Ranking system animations.”  This one is a bit better of an opinion.  I did enjoy how Sonic would react to the rank in Unleashed, and how the music was dictated based on your play quality.

(I feel this one was an actual constructive criticism. Thus I accept this one.)

18.) “Have Crush 40.” There have been a few games without Crush 40 that had some real great OSTs. “Sonic Unleashed” was one of them. What I will say with this one is: I’d love more rock and even metal tracks in future games.. 

19.) “Have actual boss fights this time.” I’m pretty sure we’ll get a good serving of decent boss fights with Sonic Forces. 

20.) “Fix the Classic Sonic Physics.” a.) Plenty of people wanted Classic Sonic back. And when Sega brought him back, being true to the cringe our fandom is judged on, the crybabies haters started pushing the bandwagon for all who wanted a ride...

b.) Classic Sonic had pretty damn well the play style he had in the classic games, I think you’ve lost your damn mind.

(*Note: I should add, anyone who dislikes Classic Sonic is headass.  Without Classic Sonic, there would be no Modern Sonic. Respect the roots.)

21.) “Don’t make the final boss Eggman.” I’m not sure if I want to slap you or strangle you for this one.

Eggman is Sonic’s fucking nemesis. Get over yourself. Mario has Bowser, Cloud has Sephiroth, Ryu has Bison, Megaman has Dr.Wily, Blah blah blah blah.. The list goes on forever.

Every Super hero has his main villain. And it’s not ALWAYS Eggman. Sonic has fought other main bosses just as equally as everyone else in their own respective games.

22.) “Eliminate the lives system.” SMFH! That’s all I can do for this one.

This is by far one of the most ridiculous things I've ever heard. I guess every other game best get rid of the lives system too right? Get the fuck outta here.

24.) “Put the Chaos Emeralds in the story.” Adding the Chaos Emeralds for the sake of adding them for what tiny fan service addition they give to the story, just like throwing in Super Sonic for the mere fan service would be literally no different from just throwing random Sonic friends into the story for mere fan service, your arguments are literally contradictory as fuck. Smh.

25.) “No false Advertising.” As mentioned earlier: Sonic Boom was what it was strictly because the game was rushed, and “Big Red Button” literally got a last minute notice that it was for the weaker system compared to what they had been making it for. Thus the game had significant content cuts, and was released incomplete.

Hence why Sega literally gave a public apology.

26.) “Bring back humans to raise the stakes.” Humans have both appeared and been absent across games. This will not make a difference to overall game quality so once again, this is a ridiculous complaint.

27.) Just make a good Sonic game please, is that too much to ask?” a.) Sonic fan’s expressing their opinions makes the game better ONLY if it’s constructive criticism! The games will not ever be better when the bitching and complaining is void of a positive point to improve said game. (i.e. “the constructive” part.).

b.) “I call it actually caring.” *See 27a. If you still cannot comprehend that, might I suggest getting a cat scan? 

28.) “I’m in grade school.” Why is it, school kids always seem to think they know it all. lmao.

29.) “This is not a Sonic hate video.” Than how about making a video with a overall positive tone. This entire video was nothing but the same tired bs.. Complain, complain, complain.

Try talking about what you love, and if you’re going to give constructive criticism, back it up with a positive fix. 

This fandom is already far too full of haters, and bandwagon riders that can’t think for themselves, we don’t need any more of that cringe.

“Sonic is my SECOND favourite game franchises.” Of course it is. 

*Closing Note: The Sonic hate, complaining for the sake of complaining, and constant negative tone with out purposeful point is tired af guys. It’s also far from cool. Don’t be a bandwagon baby.

If you are in this fandom, and all you think of is negativity when Sonic comes to mind, it’s time to leave the fandom and never come back.

[sqgtdevreviews]

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 Publisher: Sega Developer: Sonic Team/Sega Technical Institute System: Sega Genesis Year: 1992

After the runaway (pun intended) success of Sonic 1, it was only natural that Sega immediately commission a sequel. While Sonic has had several periods of very high popularity over 25 years, this was easily the peak of his fame. Sonic 2 was one of the most hyped games in history, and the first ever to release worldwide on the same day, known as Sonic 2sday. Despite a troubled development with American and Japanese staff who had trouble working together, and the removal of several zones to make the date on time, Sonic 2 fully lived up to its colossal hype and is, to this day, still the most popular Sonic game of all time. While Sonic 1 continues to age well and is also considered a genre defining classic, Sonic 2 set the series standard that many of the following games try to build on or outright copy.

Sonic 2 managed to keep the gameplay from Sonic 1 simple without adding much to it. However, the additions Sonic 2 made became permanent series staples. The first is Miles “Tails” Prower, Sonic’s two-tailed fox sidekick. Tails is the Luigi to Sonic’s Mario: he’s orange instead of blue, adorable instead of cool, and he is the player two character. Tails is AI controlled and will follow Sonic around, collecting rings and attacking any enemies in his sight. When he gets left offscreen (which will happen a lot), he’ll use his two tails to fly back on screen. He might not seem that useful at first, but he can help you quick-kill bosses. He is a very fun addition to the game and without a doubt the most essential character in the series other than Sonic and Eggman. The best part is that a second player can pick up a controller and play with him to help you out! You can, of course, choose to play with Sonic alone, or with Tails alone, but unfortunately playable Tails cannot fly.

The second huge addition is one so important that new players frequently struggle in Sonic 1 without it: the Spin Dash. By ducking and mashing the jump button, Sonic will curl into a ball, but will stay in the same position and visibly build up speed. Letting go of the D-Pad will rocket Sonic forward in ball form. It’s a great way to gain speed quickly on any solid ground, and as a result, you don’t have to search for steep curves to roll down to gain speed quickly. This has the effect of kicking the game’s pace up several notches.

The third is a 7th Chaos Emerald. Other than the Game Gear games, the number would stay at seven for the rest of the series. Special Stages were almost completely reworked, and while you still need 50 Rings, you just need to bring them to a Star Post (checkpoint) now, which opens a ring of stars that take you to the Special Stage. Sonic 1’s Rotating Mazes were ditched in favor of a fake 3D halfpipe minigame, in which the player faces away from the screen and runs continuously. Each Special Stage has three sections to it, and in each section you have to collect a specific amount of rings that come towards the screen, while dodging bombs that will make you lose rings. If you reach the end of a section without enough rings, you’re booted out of the Special Stage. Otherwise, you’ll keep going, and at the end of the whole stage is a Chaos Emerald waiting for you. These are a lot more fun than the spinning mazes, and you get a lot more chances to beat them. However, they start to get difficult very quickly, and Tails’ AI is notoriously terrible here and will smash into bombs frequently. By tying Special Stages to checkpoints, you also start seeing a lot less of them by the fourth zone, though thankfully the main acts are short enough where you won’t lose that much progress if you die.

Now there is an actual reward for collecting all seven emeralds. By collecting 50 rings and jumping, Sonic will become Super Sonic, who is for all intents and purposes a fun nod to Dragonball Z. Super Sonic is invincible and much faster, and he has his own theme. However, you have to keep maintaining your ring count, because Super Sonic slowly drains your rings. If it drops to 0, you return to regular Sonic. He was clearly added in last minute as he is a bit glitchy, but he is extremely fun to play around with.

There is also a fun two player split screen mode. Sonic and Tails can compete to race to the end of Emerald Hill Zone, Casino Night Zone and Mystic Cave Zone. They all have different music tracks (originally meant for zones that were removed), and the bosses are removed, but they otherwise are the same. There is also an extra monitor type that switches both players. On top of that, there is also a competitive Special Stage; here both players share the same screen and have to get more rings than each other. Hardware limitations prevent this mode from being truly fantastic, but it still manages to be pretty fun.

The above additions make Sonic 2 a lot more engaging than Sonic 1, but a subtle change that goes a long way is that the game structure was redone for faster pacing. Zones are no longer made of three acts (other than Metropolis Zone), but just two, and there are a lot more zones this time around. There are also no more slow paced and blocky levels like Marble and Labyrinth Zone this time around. Now every zone has many opportunities to roll around at the speed of sound. Despite having (purple) water, Chemical Plant is widely considered to be one of the best levels in the series thanks to its intense speed and dozens of multiple pathways. Casino Night is the definitive casino zone and the first to add slot machines and pinball flippers, both a perfect fit for Sonic’s ball form.

Unfortunately, the level design still isn’t perfect. The first six zones are an absolute blast, but once you reach Oil Ocean, the game hits a slump that it never recovers from. The zones from this point on start to throw tons of cheap shots at you (especially the infamous Metropolis Zone) and generally drag on. The exception is Sky Chase Zone, a short and relaxing one act zone in which you wing walk on Sonic’s Tornado biplane. The entirety of the final level, Death Egg Zone, is two bosses in a row without any rings. If you’re very good at pattern recognition you’ll probably take them both out quickly, but if you’re not, God help you.

Thankfully, the relatively lame final stretch is the only real negative. Everything else is near perfection. The graphics and art style are the same as in Sonic 1, but with a ton of extra background detail and more bold colors, which makes the game as a whole much more eyepopping. The Special Stages are especially striking; while they are a bit choppy, it does nothing to make the fake 3D effect look any worse. The halfpipe tube even twists and turns with many frames of animation. It’s seriously impressive! The music is also more of the same from Sonic 1, and is still composed by Masato Nakamura. This is not a bad thing, and it lives up to the high standards of Sonic 1’s outstanding soundtrack. Just as Sonic 2 is a lot faster paced than Sonic 1, the soundtrack was also given a kick in the pants, and almost every song in the game feels more up-tempo.

I don’t consider Sonic 2 to be the best game in the series but regardless, it’s pretty damn close, and if someone else were to rate it #1, I would understand fully. It’s a great experience from start to finish and truly defined the Sonic series as we know it.

[crusherthedoctor]

Sonic & Tails: Beyond the Stars - Prologue

Prologue: All Is As It Seems...?

"...zzz..."

"Sonic."

"...zzz...zzz..."

"Sonic..."

"Zzz... zzz... zzz..."

"Hey. Sonic."

"Urgh... what?"

"We're nearly here."

"Oh! Great!"

Awakening from his deep slumber... on the wing of the Tornado... Sonic the Hedgehog slowly opened his eyes and wiped them, and when he could see more clearly, he was dazzled by what he saw.

The sea below their flight was just as faintly green as it was blue, making for a shimmering spectacle of colour. But what was up ahead, what the ocean surrounded, was even greater: An island of truly impressive size and scope. Far larger than South, Westside, and possibly even Angel Island. All sorts of sights and geography could be seen to the naked eye even from afar. And though you couldn't tell by looking at it from the side, if you looked at it from above, you would notice it's shape was perfectly circular, like a smooth gemstone.

This island, known to the world at large as Viridonia, was where Sonic and his best friend Tails were planning to take a well-needed vacation. Saving the world is hard work, and after all the trials these two have faced, you couldn't say they didn't deserve it. But is it possible that malicious intentions could come along to make a mess of their intended vacation time...?

Well... we'll get to that when we get to that.

"Looks stunning, doesn't it?" Sonic asked out loud, with a massive grin on his face.

"It sure does," answered Tails with a smile, as he took in the pleasant view. "I've heard great things about this place, but seeing it is another story. I can't even begin to think of where to start with somewhere so big!"

"We have all the time in the world for that, so what's the rush?" He glanced at the island once again, this time with a more thoughtful expression. "I just hope there's no trouble from Eggman this time around. We never get a break from him, do we?"

"Actually," Tails pointed out with a raised finger. "You told me there was no Eggman in those books that were lent to you. Well, technically there was a guy who looked like Eggman in the first one, but..."

"Alright, don't get technical with me," Sonic poked his tongue out in light jest. He then motioned towards the ground. "Okay Tails, we're getting real close, let's find a spot to land."

"Right away," the fox obeyed, before adding "And uh... don't worry, I made sure to install the landing gear this time."

"Oh. Nice."

------

They landed on an empty stretch of sand by the sea, having made sure they wouldn't land in a place that would cause too much interference. The little beach was peppered with turquoise rocks that looked and shined like real gems, and the sand itself was more white than it was yellow. Despite being by the sea, the town nearby had a very modern, yet elegant appearance. As Tails spent a little more time fiddling around with the Tornado, Sonic wasted no time in admiring the setting.

"Heh heh... just look at all this," Sonic said to himself as he marveled at the environment, hands on his hips. He was definitely liking the look of his vacation spot. "So much to see, so much to do. And it's just me and Tails."

"~Soniiiiiic!~"

"And... Amy?"

Sonic turned to his right to find none other than Amy Rose, who was currently sprinting over to him with a big grin. Her younger friend, Cream, was tagging along behind her.

"Fancy seeing you here!" Amy beamed. Her tail was unashamedly wagging away in excitement.

"Oh uh, hey Amy..." Sonic muttered out of surprise. Not disappointment, or annoyance, just surprise. "Didn't know you'd be here... why ARE you here?"

"Isn't it obvious? We wanted to go on a vacation of our own! And we just HAD to come here when we read all about it." She looked over to Cream, who simply nodded. "We haven't seen much of the place yet, but there's no hurry, right?"

Sonic looked over at Cream, as if he was expecting something from her.

"She's telling the truth, Mr. Sonic," the rabbit assured.

"Okay, good."

"Huh? What do you mean?" The pink hedgehog frowned as she crossed her arms. "You didn't think I just followed you here like some creepy weirdo, did you?"

"NO. No. Of course not. I'm sure you wouldn’t do that... not intentionally."

"Good! We didn't know you would be here, but what a great turn of events that you are! Maybe we can discover the Rainbow Paradise together... and find the perfect spot for the two of us, hmm?" She winked playfully, complete with a little spin.

"...Maybe. Maybe. We'll see," Sonic said in a very neutral manner, although he couldn't help but smirk at his friend's ever present determination. As he walked off to see how Tails was doing, Amy turned and noticed that Cream looked uncomfortable despite the lack of any apparent danger.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Amy asked out of concern. "You still feeling a little anxious?"

The rabbit just nodded silently. Her hands were mildly fidgeting.

"Well, that's okay, you know." She put her hand on Cream's shoulder. "But your mother wouldn't have let you come with me if she felt it would be a bad idea... although then again... she didn't mind you taking on evil monsters... or evil robots..." She shook her head and hoped her friend didn't hear that part. "This is meant to be a good time for both of us, Cream. It's why I brought you along, after all."

"I know, and I appreciate that very much, Amy," the girl thanked her politely. "Maybe I could have a little look around... but I won't go too far away from you, okay?"

"I know you won't," Amy smiled.

Meanwhile, Sonic was busy pondering to himself. "Rainbow Paradise... Rainbow Paradise... never heard of it. Sounds made up. You ever heard of it, Tails?"

"Heard of what?" asked the fox as he was in the middle of reading the guidebook he had about Viridonia's sights and spots.

"The Rainbow Paradise."

"Nope, new to me. Sounds made up."

"Yeah, I thought that too."

"You said that too."

"Hey now, you better not be poking fun at my habit to babble again." The Blue Blur raised an eyebrow jokingly.

"My bad. But you do the same thing with me when I do that."

"Yeah, that's true."

And they both had a hearty laugh together.

------

ADVENTURE FIELD: Lime Shores

Welcome to the first hub of the game. There are quite a few hubs in the game, but for obvious reasons this is the only one you can play around in for the time being. Things might be very humble and not particularly intense so far, but fear not, that'll all change soon enough. This doesn't count as a spoiler, because it should be blatantly obvious that something's gonna happen, otherwise there wouldn’t be a story. You can probably guess who will be responsible for it too. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Lime Shores covers both the town and the beach it's next to. As mentioned before, the beach has plenty of rocks that might as well be gemstones from the way they look and shine, and the sand is very light in colour. The town on the other hand is very reminiscent of England. More specifically, Birmingham, Solihull, and Stratford-upon-Avon. A perfect blend of old and modern architecture all around, and a very humble yet proud atmosphere all around. (And classy lamp posts everywhere!)

Right now, you can't really do too much aside from talking with the locals. Said locals will be all too eager to tell you such interesting facts like:

"Oh my god! You're Sonic the Hedgehog!"

"I can't believe Sonic the Hedgehog is here!"

"SONIC! SONIC! ...I don't know who you are, but everyone else seems to be excited, so I should be too! SONIC! SONIC!"

Yeah, they're all very hyped up about the hero showing up in their area. Maybe they'll be a little more helpful and informative later on once they've calmed down.

So what to do for the time being? Head over to the beach where Tails is, and you'll discover that for whatever reason - maybe he read the script ahead of time - he's set up a Virtual Reality training system, not unlike the one he used with Emerl all those years ago. Talk to him, and he'll ask if you want to work on your moves for a bit. Don't be fooled by this setup. Unlike most tutorials within the story, you're NOT forced to do it if you don't want to. If you say No, the story will go on ahead, and you won't have missed out on anything. No worries. No tedium. No problem!

But for the purpose of this... hypothetical guide, let's pretend that you said Yes so that we can go over the tutorial anyway. Don't worry. It's not long.

------

ZONE 0: Light Speed Simulation

Note that when you start, you're given the option to pick between Sonic or Tails. Like in Sonic Rush Adventure, you can pick between characters whenever you want for each act or boss. Very convenient.

This one-act zone takes the form of a neon grid in a pitch black area. Most of the grid is blue, but certain parts of the architecture - such as loops, and crates for you to destroy - are green in order to help you recognise them more clearly. There's even some pools of water, but because this is just a simulation, you never run out of air for this one. (Of course, you are helpfully reminded that you won't be so lucky when it's time to face real water.) Amusingly enough though, the infamous countdown still ticks away in this area, but when it reaches zero... nothing happens, and your character remains completely dumbfounded for a second.

This tutorial does not require you to go through certain motions in a specific order. Nor does anyone tell you what to do. This is nothing more than one big playground for you to get your teeth into at your own leisure. There's no end to the zone either, it only ends when you choose to quit.

The controls of Sonic and Tails are for the most part identical to their Sonic Adventure incarnations. But there are a few key differences:

• Sonic is a good deal faster than Tails, even though the latter is still legitimately fast in his own right.

• Tails is able to keep flying for a longer period of time compared to how long he could fly in Sonic Adventure.

• Sonic keeps his ability to Parkour from Sonic Lost World, in addition to his ability to wall jump from various 3D games. Although in this case, the latter takes a page from Super Mario 64, in that the wall jump is only activated when you actually jump against a wall, as opposed to just randomly locking onto the wall after a homing attack.

• Like in the 2D games, Tails is able to swim in water, but his swimming speed is a little faster in this game, more reminiscent of the underwater charging in Spyro 2 and 3, aka the best 3D swimming mechanics that have ever set foot on this earth. But Tails still needs air bubbles like Sonic, so keep that in mind if you’re too deep to swim to the surface.

• Due to there being no Adventure-esque upgrades in this game, Tails’ Tail Spin attack reaches a middle ground here, in that he can spin infinitely for a select period of time before stopping. But don’t worry, the tired out period doesn’t last for a long time, so there won’t be any annoying situations like enemies hitting you repeatedly whilst you’re unable to react.

When you feel you've had enough of fooling around here, proceed to quit at the pause menu, and the story will continue immediately.

------

In an effort to get herself acquainted with where she'll be staying for the next few days, Cream had wandered into a nearby forest, accompanied by her loyal pet, Cheese. She took her time looking around, making sure she didn't get too lost in the place. The forest reminded her very heavily of the one she had went through a long time ago with Amy and her other friend, Big. Various fruits of peculiar size could be seen on the trees, and even though it was clearly daytime, fireflies could be seen lighting the place up. The young rabbit was impressed with the scene, an innocent smile having planted itself on her face the whole time.

"It's so pretty, isn't it Cheese?" The Chao nodded. "Maybe it was a little silly of me to get tense. It's just a new experience for us, you know? I wonder if Amy would like to see this... Maybe Mr. Sonic would like it too?"

"Like he would care what YOU think!"

"Huh?"

Right on cue, a small gang appeared on the scene, and it was without a doubt the most stereotypical gang of hoodlums you had ever seen. They were all roughly the same height, and they looked to be within a similar age group as Sonic. There were four of these blatant wrong'uns in total: a panther, a lime gecko, a grey rat, and a light blue falcon. The panther was wearing a black tuxedo, the gecko was wearing a purple zoot suit, the rat a brown trenchcoat, and the falcon a white fedora.

They looked incredibly goofy, but they were still intimidating enough in the eyes of young Cream.

"This is Sonic the Hedgehog you're talking about!" the panther said incredulously. "The world famous hedgehog! He doesn't have time for little brats like you!"

"Yeah!" The falcon shouted in agreement, flapping his wings.

"What...What do you mean?" Cream asked, with a hint of upset.

"He means..." the gecko started, in a slightly indecipherable accent. "You are... lacking in importance... for someone like... the hedgehog."

"Yeah!" The falcon agreed again, flapping his wings again too.

"That's not true..." Cream muttered fearfully, as she slowly took a few steps back. As if by instinct, she covered Cheese with her hands to protect him. "Mr. Sonic cares about all of his friends..."

"Yessss! For publicity!" The rat cackled in a completely over-the-top manner, complete with clasped fingers. "You're a blip on the radar to him! And so is everyone else! People like him only care about themsssselves!"

"Yeah!" Once more from the falcon, complete with the flapping of his wings. It became abundantly clear that the falcon had absolutely nothing to add to this already ridiculous discussion.

"Why are you guys saying this? None of that is true! Mr. Sonic does care!" The poor rabbit was getting into a panic.

"Because it's true!" The panther took a step closer to Cream. "Anyone with a brain can see what a world-renowned superstar truly thinks of weak, helpless, useless little girls like you..."

Cream looked like she was ready to cry, even as her grip on Cheese grew tighter. She only just got here, and already she was having a scary time. She took another step back, but the panther took another step forward. Though Cream could have very easily taken care of these guys like nobody’s business through the awesome power of her pet Chao, she was too distraught by their slander to consider the thought. But just when the rest of them started taking a few steps forward themselves, as if to overwhelm the rabbit all the more, a brand new voice emerged out of nowhere. A low yet feminine one.

"You guys stink."

The four members immediately looked around in surprise at the new voice that had joined the conversation. They searched and glanced for where the voice came from, and their expressions indicated a sense of familiarity. After a few unsuccessful moments of searching out the source, the source decided to reveal itself instead.

Emerging from the shadows was a female figure, her fur a gentle light green, and her eyes a cool brown. She appeared to be older than anyone in the gang. She was wearing a light tank top, trousers, a pair of knee-high boots that were completely flat at the heels, a pair of gloves that reached up to her elbows, a headscarf atop her head, and a bandana scarf covering the lower half of her face. With the exception of her brown trousers, all of her clothes were blue, three different shades used in total.

It wasn't immediately obvious at first glance, but you could tell from her lengthy tail, and her equally lengthy ponytail, that the young woman was meant to be a horse. You could also tell from the look of dread on the gang's face that they've seen this person before. But what caught Cream's attention the most was the way the woman was walking over to them. It was very... slow. Deliberate. Almost meticulous, even. She didn't understand why the woman was walking like that, but before she could think more about it, the gang was already talking to her. The latter simply stood there, calmly, with one hand on her hip.

"Uh, hey there!" The panther swaggered about in an obvious attempt to save face. "How ya doing? We were just giving the kid a warm welcome, we thought you'd like to join us?"

"No thanks. I don't greet people by making them doubt themselves. Least of all young children." She held her nose high as a sign of disapproval, not that you could see it due to her bandana obscuring it. "This is the most pathetic thing I've seen out of you yet. You lot are becoming parodies of yourselves by the day. What reason do you have for spending your time putting down this girl?"

"Well... you see..." the gecko reasoned, his eyes darting left and right. "It was... the boss... He wanted to... give our regards... to the newcomers."

"By threatening them."

The rat grinned sheepishly as he cowered away. "Some people have a rocky exterior?"

"Haven't heard that justification before." Her right hand held up her left elbow as she rested her head on her left hand. Her eyes indicated a sense of fatigue. "Don't bother with the excuses. I'm going to ensure that none of you ruffians cause a disturbance for our visitors. This is not up for debate. And that guy you speak so highly of? He does care about his friends, inside and out. What he doesn't care for is people who spend their time causing trouble and making a complete imbecile out of themselves." She sarcastically waved a finger at the group. "Kinda like you guys, right?"

"Yeah!" The falcon shouted yet again, to which the other three members glared at him. The falcon just shrugged.

"Ha, a bit of common sense from one of you at least." The woman made a fluttery shooing gesture. "Now away with you, please. It's rude to pester visitors like a bad smell."

Without a single argument, all four members of the gang bolted out of the forest like their lives depended on it. The woman stood there for a few seconds with a stone-cold stare, making sure they were definitely out of the picture. All the while, Cream wondered to herself why the gang had been rendered so easily skittish when the woman had made no indication from either her tone or her body language that she was going to attack them.

The horse turned to her right to face the rabbit. As she walked up to her, Cream still felt nervous and intimidated, something that the horse sensed right away. So, very slowly and carefully, she knelt down so that she was equal to Cream's level of height, and after a few further seconds of examining the girl, the woman lowered her bandana to reveal the rest of her face. Despite the blocky facial structure you would expect for a horse, the face of this one was instead a lot rounder and softer.

"You okay there?" asked the horse in a comforting tone.

"I... think so, yeah," the rabbit replied shyly. "I'm sorry if I caused a lot of trouble. I could have gotten Cheese to handle it, but it didn’t occur to me. But thank you for defending me, Miss... Miss..."

"Lutrudis," the woman answered for her. "The name's Lutrudis. And you didn't cause any bother at all. Those guys have had a history of doing nonsense like that. They like to fool around with everyone for reasons I don't quite understand. I'm just glad I arrived in time before things got out of hand." She took Cream's hand and covered it gently with her own, indicating to Cream that she had no reason to feel afraid of this person. "Are your friends a fair distance away from here?"

"No, they aren't. They were at the town the last time I saw them." Cream looked left and right, with a worried expression. "But I think I've gotten lost in this forest after all. I didn't mean to go too far away... Oh, I should have stayed with Amy..."

"I can take you back to your friends if you want," Lutrudis offered.

"Would that be okay?" Cream asked. "Because I don't want to waste your time..."

"You wouldn't be wasting my time, sweetie." She smiled warmly. "I've got little better to do anyway. Your friends wouldn't want anything to happen to you, right? And neither would I."

Cream looked at Cheese, who in turn glanced at Lutrudis, as if he were silently coming to his own conclusions on whether she could be trusted. He nodded, and the girl felt at ease. "Okay... If you’re sure that would be alright, Miss Lutrudis."

"You don't need to be so formal with me, Cream," the woman assured, still smiling. "Just Lutrudis will do." She slowly raised herself back up, every bit as careful as she was when kneeling down. And as she did this, Cream had a question to ask.

"How do you know my name? We've never met before... And you've never met Mr. Sonic before, have you? So how do you know about him?"

"Well, you guys are heroes, aren't you? Of course I know about you all. Doesn't take long for the word of heroics to spread." She held Cream's hand, and they began to walk ahead. As they walked, Cream felt more relaxed around the horse, as did Cheese. But not long later, another question popped up in the rabbit's mind.

"Miss Lutrudis?"

"Yeah?"

"I don't mean this in a bad way, but... why are you so careful with your movement? The way you walk, and crouch, and..."

"Heh, so you did notice it then." Lutrudis lightly chuckled as she looked down at Cream. She looked as though she wanted to add something, but the words weren't quite reaching her mouth. Eventually, she returned to looking ahead.

"I'll explain when we get back. I can demonstrate it more that way."

"Okay then." Cream then proceeded to beam brightly. "My friends are really nice, you know. I'm sure you'll like them! And I think they’ll like you too!"

Lutrudis simply chuckled once more.

------

NEXT TIME: The game properly begins! And the first zone ain't your typical Green Hill... but not your typical City Escape either...

[todokori-kun]

(Random but I think your reply was a little later than normal? Was it the internet again? Anyway it’s nice to be talking with you again queen :D

Also just in case you didn’t get the other messages I sent (I sent them a few days ago so I guess tumblr ate them again), I was basically trying to say that the CP aesthetics are gorgeous and that I found the real Hamilton’s last letter to Eliza and was wondering if you’d like to see it too if you haven’t already. I think I was also trying to ask if you got the new pics I sent you)

EXCUSE me how is it even possible to not be impressed with Hamilton (ok, ok, so I guess you’d be pretty unimpressed with Alex after Say No To This…but ELIZA. ANGELICA. AND PEGGY. WASHINGMACHINE. And of course the entire hecking cast is awesome). At least they acknowledged the Frenchfryette…

(jk, jk, we all have different tastes so I guess even Hamilton might not be the right thing for some people ^^)

HE AIMS HIS PISTOL AT THE SKY-

“WAIT!”

(Burr. You should know by now that the whole ‘talk less, smile more’ and ‘wait for it’ theme doesn’t really work out for you most of the time. It’s certainly not gonna stop a bullet you already fired ;-;)

According to my parents I was a really bubbly, well-mannered kid who never whined or threw tantrums…but, BUT, I was as much of an airhead then as I am now, and I ended up causing a lot of trouble XD Other than the bathroom flooding incident, once when I was tiny my mom left me playing in the hall while she was making dinner. When she came to check on me I’d turned one of the walls into a piece of modern art (like Carnage Kabuto did to Genos, only better/worse). With permanent markers.

And once when I was even younger, mom woke up to a strange sound coming from outside the bedroom, and she realized I wasn’t in bed with her. She found me in the living room, plucking the rocks out of a plant pot and rolling them across the floor like marbles.

I also remember that I had a habit of doodling all over my arms and legs and cutting up my pajamas to make them look 'cool’. Literally any time I rolled up my pants you’d see giant, brightly colored marker lines/dots/swirls all over my legs, and all of my pajama shirts and pants were starting to fall apart because I kept snipping at them (I remember grabbing my craft scissors and hiding behind the sofa to redesign my clothes in peace without my parents seeing and being all “Evans, those are for cutting PAPER, not your clothes” lol).

I was a weird kid.

You’re right- at the place where they finally got the thing out, I think the doctor just had me lie down and got it out with pincers(?). No pain, no blood, it was over pretty quickly. I do think I remember being told that the heel of the shoe had gotten buried in the inside of my nose, though, and that was why it was so difficult to get out…

As for the nosebleed, idek. I remember some people holding this blue, rubbery pump-thing to my nose and trying to get the shoe out with that??? And then blood just suddenly started pouring from my nose? LOL it didn’t hurt, though, and there’s always the chance that it had nothing to do with the shoe. I got a lot of random nosebleeds as a kid, I’d literally just get up in the middle of the night, decide I needed to go wipe my nose because it felt runny, then turn on the light to see blood plastered all over my nose and around my mouth…I probably looked like something out of a horror movie XD

I RELATE TO THAT. There are still a few toys I’m super attached to even if I don’t play with them anymore, and I get sorta…upset?…when people touch them the wrong way (also my dad keeps talking about how we need to throw some of the old dolls away soon and I haaate it ;-;).

Yeah, that particular kid (let’s call her Friend A) is a bit of a brat lol. She smacks her own mother when she’s upset and screams her head off whenever she doesn’t get her way. It’s pretty uncomfortable to watch because her mom never really does anything about it…

(also, some context for the kicking: the boy she kicked (let’s call him Friend B) has been friends with my little sister for a few years now so they’re closer with each other than they are with Friend A. But Friend A got upset about that and came to the grown ups to tell on them; everyone tried to calm her down and suggested that maybe she should try asking them nicely, but she ended up throwing a tantrum. So Friend B’s grandma jokingly said that if Friend B kept being rude to her she could just fight back, give him a punch (she was laughing while saying it, so even to a kid it should have been pretty obvious she was joking).

After we found out what Friend A had done and tried to talk to her about it, she was like 'his grandma told me I could so I did it.’ and refused to apologize.)

OH NO. IS THIS ANOTHER ONE OF THE DREADFUL FANDOMS WHERE YOUR OTP NEVER, eVEr, HAPPENS?! That settles it, I’m never watching or reading Fairy Tail 0.0

Well, sure, most mangas have at least one hiatus at some point…but HxH is on a whole different level. The hiatuses are LEGENDARY.

just imagine what would happen if a manga artist tried to keep up with Ishida’s TG schedule (one chapter every single week except on holidays). An artist who apparently has no assistants. An older artist who has health problems. Tbh you can’t really be upset with HxH for the hiatuses…but it’s still a really, REALLY long wait whenever it happens, and sometimes it goes right back on hiatus barely a few months after the last hiatus ended ;-; I’m lucky I joined the fandom so late (and right after the hiatus ended, too! :D) but I can’t be sure when it’s going to happen again..

Ok, ok, so in case you haven’t searched what Feitan looks like he is LITERALLY Levi. The narrow eyes. The murderous stare of disinterest. The hair.

Then there’s absolute loyalty to a leader. Levi ->Erwin, Feitan-> Chrollo (Chrollo=manipulative spider thief who actually managed to troll HISOKA, of all people). Feitan is also one of the stronger characters as far as I know, and he’s just as blunt and rude and Levi. And he’s a thief; Levi used to be a thug.

Also, also- Levi=160cm. Feitan= 155cm.

Feitan is Evil Levi. Actually, maybe Thug Levi could have turned out like Feitan if he never met Erwin…that’s a scary thought 0.0

(as for Hisoka and Saitama, well. Hisoka realizes that even his Nen (his special power), Bungee Gum, has absolutely no affect on Saitama. He proceeds to Schwing. Very hard.)

(I doubt I’ll ever be over Old Man Fu because Iiked him a lot ;-;)

Saitama is my fav tbh, though Genos comes close..and from what I know about Metal Bat, he’s also a really cool dude. (Also I love Amai Mask/Sweet mask. I love to hate on him.) I like Sonic, but I can’t take him seriously most of the time because he feels like a parody of Sasuke from Naruto (also I keep thinking of Sonic the Hedgehog lol)…his smile is adorable though :3

I’m neutral towards Tatsumaki because her powers are super cool and I like her design but her attitude is a bit annoying to me. Still, I think I read that she’s gotten more development and backstory in the manga/webcomic, so I’ll wait until I can catch up with canon :)

OH NO. Apparently Bert’s death can still hurt me even after all that’s happened since then (also AoT’s new chapter hit me straight in the Annie/Bertl feels. I guess it’s basically one-sided canon now).

YES. I’m seriously so hyped for Ragnarok. I’m just as hyped for the fanfic as I am for the actual movie. And the FANDOM. Can’t wait to see what tumblr’s gonna be like when the Loki fans realize their king has returned XD

I can’t drop TG because there are too many things I want to see/know (like the whole deal with Kimi and Kanou, what’s going to happen with the whole Human vs. Ghoul thing in the end, what’s going to happen to the Touken kid, if Kaneki will live, if Shuu will ever actually get angry at Kaneki, the OEK’s true identity, Eto’s return…). And SPOILERS FOR NEW CHAPTER

after this chapter I definitely can’t stop until we see how Urie gets out of this situation (plus I sense character development/backstory/reveal time, which is always cool). Maybe I should be scared for Urie but I’m still not that worried. Death cliffhangers in TG almost never come true, and like I said, Urie just CAN’T die now when his character arc is nowhere near finished.

But I totally get your frustration, queen.

I’m probably gonna play it tomorrow :D I’ll let you know when I do!

Yep, I know what happens in his bad end. I don’t want play it XD

I did play Fritz’s bad end a few days ago, though. WHY DID YOU HAVE TO SAY GOODBYE VARG

I ship Queen Luna with too many people and I don’t even care

(DON’T YOU DARE WRITE MORE FRITZ HCs THOUGH, PLEASE. HAVE MERCY. IT’S TOO FLUFFY FOR ME TO HANDLE)

Also: I have a game to recommend! :D If you haven’t played it already, The Blind Griffin by Asphodel Quartet is awesome. I downloaded it from Itch.io :) it’s set in America, in the 1920s. The MC is looking for a job and happens to stumble into a speakeasy run by magicians.

Review so far:

pros:

-great MC! She has a fun personality- not the flat heroine most Otome games have, but not a super cold Ice Queen type either. I really liked her.

-Diverse cast! From the main cast there’s the MC, who’s Chinese-American, Vivienne, who’s African-American, Alexei, who’s Russian, Giovanni, who’s Italian, and Emilio, who’s Spanish. Then Marie, who’s transgender, and her gender identity is handled very well! Also a lot of different body types and facial features.

-Lovable characters. I didn’t expect to like everyone so much but there is literally nobody in the main cast that I dislike. I thought I wouldn’t enjoy Giovanni’s route after I played Alex’s and decided he was my fav, but turns out I was wrong. Gio was great too.

-everything is quite realistic and fits well with the setting. There’s even a glossary for slang.

-Art and music are gorgeous

-several different endings! I’ve only played the romance routes so far but I think there’s a friendship ending as well as a sad ending for each character. The romances were really sweet so I can’t wait to see what happens with the other routes!

Cons:

-it was made for NaNoReNo, so the story does feel a little rushed because of the time limit and the game is really short ;-; it feels like there should have been more but they just didn’t have time to finish the story.

-not a lot of choices.

And random note: do you know, I actually wanted to make an Otome Game myself a while back. I had some plot, choices, routes and characters all planned out and even downloaded a program to try and teach myself how to make a game…but then I realized I suck at it and it was just too much for me to handle on my own XD I’ve been working on the ideas I had for that game though- mostly the characters, I’ve thought of a lot of Love Interests ;) maybe someday I could actually make this work as a collab with someone else when I’m older…for now I think I might try writing down the script and drawing some more concept art for the characters because I have too many ideas and I need to let them out LOL

I’M ALIVE. The internet was absolute shit, yay. Sorry about the long wait OTL

Aaah, right, I got those, I just noticed them after posting ^^;;; They were buried in the asks from my other blogs ^^:::: Thanks a lot about the aesthetic compliments! I’m glad you liked them! I definitely enjoyed making them ^^ And wow, the feels ;-; Best of Wives and Best of Women.

The drawings you sent me are gorgeous!! Dead Fish Eyes Family tho XD

The thing is, from the start, even before we reached My Shot, they were like ‘meh’. But I still forced them to listen anyway muhahahahaha HOW COULD THEY NOT LIKE THE SCHUYLER SISTERS? THE ABSOLUTE QUEENS??? I am disappointed in them T^T

I STRIKE HIM RIGHT BETWEEN HIS RIBS I WALK TOWARDS HIM, BUT I AM USHERED AWAY THEY ROW HIM BACK ACROSS THE HUDSON I GET A DRINK

((I’m writing those lyrics while listening to one of the most happy songs I know XD))

I’m guessing Burr needed a real life lesson about bullets and their negative effects on humans, especially if they’re fired at someone else. Welp, hopefully he knows now.

We were opposite as kids XD My parents once decided to make a small experiment. They told me to sit down and stay like that for as long as I could. Then, they started measuring how long it took me to start fidgeting, then how long until I stood up and ran somewhere. Barely a minute before fidgeting, a bit more than 3 until I stood up and ran away. I wasn’t joking when I said everyone thought I had ADHD.

Thankfully, I knew the consequences of drawing on walls well enough from my sister’s example (I still remember how mad my mom was when she found out she’d been writing an walls) to do anything, but for some reason, I always broke everything I touched. I was not to be trusted with the dishes and if anyone got me a snow globe (which was surprisingly often), it wouldn’t last a month unless it was placed on the highest shelf, out of my reach. Even then, I would still manage to break it sooner or later.

((Random, but my playlist is on shuffle and just played 98% of my Christmas songs, one after other. I am slightly worried XD (even tho I sang along)))

I didn’t do it to my clothes, but I had a knack for redesigning barbie clothes/hairstyles/makeup. And my sister would usually help, despite being 6 years older XD She was always so artistic, she even sewed some clothes for them! They were actually pretty good, despite her being 10-12 yo.

To be honest, I’m fascinated. I am genuinely fascinated. Partly at the fact that the shoe managed to get buried in the inside of your nose, partly at how much fuss you went through to get it out XD  I think I would’ve cried regardless of pain or not, had I gotten a nosebleed as a kid. I just couldn’t stand blood (still can’t tbh)

I’m slowly running out of space on my shelves, because I keep adding new books there, and yet I never move any of the trinkets or toys that are there. My mom keeps insisting we at least move some stuff to the basement, not throw it out, but I never give in XD I mean, I’m very happy with how the whole thing looks right now, and it would be empty without the stuff. For some reason, I have no problems with dolls now, but plush toys and small figurines are what get to me… For example, horses have always been among my favourite animals, so I have a shitton of horse toys, and they honestly take up a lot of space, and yet I feel like I’d be betraying my hobby (horse riding) by throwing them away ;-; Until I have no more space for books, I’m not moving anything XD (unfortunately, that’s gonna be very soon, even now I always have to move stuff around a lot to fit them in)

Wow. Well, I’m gonna be a stiff and say ‘Kids these days…’ Im only halfway joking. I went to visit my old elementary school last year and, boy, did the first years (7yo) annoy me. Now, I was a brat, but I wasn’t a brat with a smartphone who didn’t socialise with others at all. And my old teacher told me stories of their parents… I’m slowly changing my mind about wanting to be a chemistry professor in the future XD I think imma just be a researcher. Thing is, parents aren’t strict enough. True, my mom was a bit too strict, but one of the girls I went to elementary school has parents who always let her do anything she wanted, and even when they grounded her, they’d ‘un-ground’ her half an hour later. And guess how she turned out! Today, she smokes (cigarets and weed), goes out at least 4 times a week and gets wasted every time, I don’t even want to start on her grades and, most of all, she’s an ungrateful brat who’s used to getting everything she wants. Life’s gonna be fun for her. 

YES, YES IT IS. I mean, in the last chapter, almost all of them were heavily implied, one of them even had an actual love confession a few chapters back, but nothing was said in the last chap, except for this:

WHAT’S THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN??? THIS IS MY 2nd ULTIMATE OTP IN THE SHOW; WHAT THE FUUUUU

AND THEN THERE WAS ANOTHER ONE, WHERE BOTH OF THEM DIED IN THE MANGA, BUT THEY WERE THERE IN THE LAST CHAP, APPARENTLY AS REINCARNATIONS??

BUT MY OTP. THE SHIP I CARED ABOUT SINCE DAY 1. THE ONE I SHIPPED FOR AS LONG AS I’VE BEEN READING THE MANGA (which is, admittedly, quite long, I’d say more than a year and a half) IT WAS THE MOST ??? ONE.  OKay, here’s the story: He’s originally a bad guy, but he was manipulated, so he repented of his sins, did some good shit and was still locked in a prison. Then, there was  a huge war arc and he was freaking helpful and did a lot of good stuff, so now, in the end, he was pardoned. AND THE LAST CHAP; HERE’S WHAT WE FIND OUT: HE WAS PARDONED; AND EVER SINCE,  SHE’D BEEN DOING HER HAIR EVERY DAY (implying she’s happy or seeing him, I guess???) AAAAA I’m lowkey debating posting the entire last chap here for you to read, even without context, just so you can see how much it’s only implication and nothing real (;_;)

Ouch… Well, I’ll have to think about it then ^^

Tbh I can’t imagine Levi with Feitan’s hair. It’s too messy XD

Ahahahahahah Idk if I’ll ever get over Schwing, despite not watching/reading the manga…  Schwing.

I think most of Metal Bat’s personality comes through in the manga, because he has a few omake in the manga, where he goes to strenuous lengths to protect/keep his sister pure. It’s adorable, really. His sis is a bit of a brat tho. Amai mask. I can not stand that guy. 

Oh yes, the beautiful, murderous smile. You can practically hear the panties dropping.

I still have 15ish chaps till I’m caught up w the manga, but both she and her sis have very… interesting personalities XD Im pretty sure she’s like that on purpose, though, to bring more humour into the manga (as if it needed that XD)

AoT Will keep hurting me as long as it can. Basically, until I either drop it or until it ends. 

Oh, you don’t think they’ve realised yet? From the amount of gifs I’ve seen, I’d say the fangirls are very well informed XD 

Oh joy… Please keep me updated XD And come screaming if Urie does die, cause I gotta read that for myself XDDD

OYAOYAOYA SO HAVE YOU PERHAPS STARTED WALTZ??

Ahah, I warned you… I still wanna cry when I think of Varg. #stillnotoverit

huehuehueheuhueheuheuheuehueheuheuheuehuehueheue ill spare you for now. no telling what comes in the future tho~

Alrighty, i’ll check it out ^^ it seems interesting enough!

Oh, yeah, I forgot to add, but I’m trying to start a love live dance cover group here in Zagreb! It’s harder than you think =3= It seems like I’m the only one who likes the show. Hopefully, I manage to find people ^^

[sultan-of-weasels-in-boots]

Kin Tarot Readins - My Sonic kins

It’s been a while since I’ve shared any memories, so I thought I’d share some of my past lives via this tarot spread for fictionkins. (It’s a good thing my mom bought me tarot cards of my very own a long time ago.)

I figured I’d start off with my Sonic character kins since I’m starting to get a little more hyped about Sonic Forces (plus happy birthday Sonic!!).

Also please keep in mind that I’m still a bit new to giving myself tarot readings, and I’m just going by the card meanings the set I was given say, so...I apologize if I word my timelines a bit oddly.

Johnny

1. An emotion/feeling/state of mind that dominated you: The World – Everything. Completeness, understanding, trust, perfection, achievement, love. Fullness. Saturation. Lack of space for other things. Everything in the right place.

2. An action you took because of it: Chalices 4 – Habits. Doing the same things, indifference to news, loss of drive. Care and patience for the little things. The same gesture has the same meaning.

3. A key event in your time line: Three of Pentacles – Service. Obedience, duty, respect, work. There is also honor in serving.

4. Your role in the key event: Two of Pentacles – Balance. Moderation, prudence, equilibrium of opposites. Opposites can coincide.

5. Your standing with others: Prince of Chalices – Birth of an emotion. Thoughts come from the heart and take on life.

6. Others' standing with you: Two of Wands – Desire. Search, curiosity, love, far-off thoughts. Where the eyes don't see, the heart sees.

7. Something you've forgotten: Ace of Chalices – Source of life. Everything comes from life and from life comes everything.

8. A mistake you made: Queen of Pentacles – Harmony with the environment. Harmony between us and the world that surrounds us is the basis of happiness.

9. Something you did right: Seven of Swords – Subterfuge. Moving about secretly, shrewdness, small steps, don't attract attention. The straight road is rarely the best.

10. A lesson learned: Ace of Wands – The Ego. Know yourself and don't be afraid.

So, from what I can gather, I was at first satisfied with my life. I did pretty much the same things each day (probably a lot of jet skiing). But, despite my hobbies, I worked as much as I could during my time being a part of Captain Whisker's crew and knew to keep myself under control when working. The captain and I were real close, so it was only fair that I repay his kindness towards me.

I'm not entirely sure who the “others” are for 5 and 6. For 5, perhaps the “birth of an emotion” happened once I heard about Sonic. I was jealous of him and it must have taken over me. And 6? ...Maybe I did have some fellow fans/speed lovers out there. Whether they truly adored me or were jealous of me and my skills, I'm not sure.

Here's where things stood out more for me: Something I've forgotten. The source of life.

Whisker... I left him behind. I feared so much for my life that not once did I think about him. I probably just thought he'd be able to fend for himself, but...he didn't. He couldn't. His death impacted my life greatly, didn't it? I just...have this deep feeling that I felt pretty empty once I realized what had happened.

As with my mistake...I refused to make peace with the so-called “heroes”. I kept challenging Sonic to races rather than simply give him his stupid emeralds. After all of that, perhaps after Sonic went home, I made a wise decision to keep myself away from any innocent people, as they probably would've alerted their Blaze that I was still around.

And then, I learned my lesson. The isolation gave me time to retrace any facts about myself. It must've given me enough courage to go out there and do what I do best, possibly even improve my skills a bit. Maybe I even eventually made peace with the kingdom's people.

-

Blaze

1. An emotion/feeling/state of mind that dominated you: Queen of Chalices – Harmony of emotions. Live emotions fully without getting swept away or worn out.

2. An action you took because of it: Eight of Swords – Dead End. Fear, paralysis, difficulty, feeling of imprisonment, ability to react. The solution is found by not giving up.

3. A key event in your time line: Prince of Pentacles – Birth of an interest. Curiosity is the initial contact between us and the world.

4. Your role in the key event: Ace of Swords – Thought. May thought be your blade, penetrate deeply and stop only at the truth.

5. Your standing with others: Death – The Threshold. Transformation. Confront the unknown. Defeat personal fears. Grow. Let go of the past. Make a clean break. We will never be ready to overcome certain thresholds, and yet we will get beyond them anyway.

6. Others' standing with you: Queen of Wands – Harmony with yourself. Don't have remorse or regrets but feel comfortable with yourself.

7. Something you've forgotten: The Hanged Woman – Equilibrium. A rite of passage. Sacrifice, training. Submit to or confront adversities. Understanding paid for dearly. Determination when faced with difficulties. Equilibrium comes from inside.

8. A mistake you made: Prince of Wands – Birth of a wish. Existing means acting and not following.

9. Something you did right: The Moon – Harmony. Dreams, thoughts, imagination. Intuitive understanding, perception of things, going beyond appearances. Illusion, magical moment, fleeting sensations. Harmony in giving and receiving.

10. A lesson learned: King of Wands – Search for the right choice. Don't be centered only on yourself but have self-confidence.

In this timeline, I often made my emotions clear to myself and other people, but along with that, I had some difficulty controlling my powers. Thus, I stopped being open about how I felt, which helped give me time to control my flames, but obviously, it didn't help prevent me from being picked on.

Now, birth of an interest... I guess I was a bit curious about Sonic's world, as it was quite different from my world. But, overall, I had to be focused on getting the Sol Emeralds back. Cream and Sonic helped change me quite a lot. They both helped me overcome my hatred of my powers, which is what made me be able to harness the power of the Sol Emeralds.

Once again, 7 and 8 greatly stood out to me, but not the same way it stood out during my timeline as Johnny. I forgot...equilibrium. Balance. A sacrifice? Did I forget to sacrifice myself? Is this in reference to Iblis? Was I too scared to die that I didn't go through with sealing Iblis away, and the future was never fully saved? I never would've thought I'd have any event from Sonic 06 as part of my timeline, but I guess now it's a possibility. I wonder how Silver must have felt...

I'm honestly not sure what the reading means in regards to harmony, but judging by the lesson I learned, I'm guessing it's more based on the Rush timeline. You could say it had something to do with me making up with Sonic, and that relying on others helped defeat Eggman and Eggman Nega. It's certainly a lesson I'm glad I learned.

-

Fang/Nack

1. An emotion/feeling/state of mind that dominated you: Nine of Pentacles – Possess. Control, opulence, lack of drive, self-confidence. Be careful of what you desire because you might receive it.

2. An action you took because of it: Queen of Pentacles – Harmony with the environment. Harmony between us and the world that surrounds us is the basis of happiness.

3. A key event in your time line: Three of Swords – Suffering. Anguish, solitude, fear, loss. Reason alone does not warm.

4. Your role in the key event: Nine of Wands – Vigilance. Regard for something, defense, commitment, prudence, anticipation of problems. Not everything happens without conflict.

5. Your standing with others: Three of Wands – Wait. Patience, nostalgia, things that follow their course, times that must mature. Sit on the bank of a river and wait. Sometimes it's the only way.

6. Others' standing with you: Six of Chalices – Nostalgia. Remember the past. Recall things believed lost. Find yourself. The meaning one's roots. Flowers grow every year with the same colors.

7. Something you've forgotten: Three of Pentacles – Service. Obedience, duty, respect, work. There is also honor in serving.

8. A mistake you made: The Sorceress – Will. Decision-making ability, beginning of a journey, courage, energy. Will and equilibrium are the basis of every action.

9. Something you did right: Princess of Chalices – An emotion that gains strength. The heart cannot be controlled.

10. A lesson learned: Five of Chalices – Loss. Give up the superfluous. Distinguish the important from that which is not. Preserve something. Look at yourself in the river. Let it divide what you have from what you don't have.

Let's see. During my life as Fang, I had plenty to possess, such as the profits I earned off of selling stolen artifacts. It was this simple life as a thief where I had confidence in myself and I lived peacefully in the Special Zone. Of course, I got caught a few times, thus I lost every treasure I was planning to sell. I was starting to think I was losing my spark, which drove me a bit over the edge. Then I heard that there were these sets of Chaos Emeralds that were always left unsupervised.

So, I waited for an opportunity, or someone, that I could use to my advantage. I waited specifically for Sonic and Tails to get into my dimension, and I went after them so I could get the emeralds once they took care of all other obstacles in the Special Stages...not that it worked, especially once I saw Dr. Eggman get into the picture. I tried to run away, though I guess that was my mistake, 'cause that's when Eggman suddenly struck me down. Pretty much showed how much of a coward I was.

Then Sonic the Fighters happened. I accepted my loss from before and, feeling pretty generous, I helped Sonic and his friends defeat Eggman and destroy the Death Egg II as a somewhat thanks for having the heart to save someone like me from death. I eventually had to go back to my zone, but I guess I ended up leaving a pretty good impression on them, and they still remember me from time to time. At least, from what I understand.