Chapter 2 - Chapter 2

Darkest Before Dawn
Chapter 2

Knuckles’ POV

My stare, my mind, was set on the TV screen headline.

The news reporter began her shocking story, “Today at exactly 8:36 A.M. police officers found the mad-man Eggman found dead in his home while investigating the surrounding area.”

I immediately grabbed the telephone and dialed up Sonic.

* * *
Sonic’s POV

I sat Tails down on the couch after I removed the phone and my magazine I fell asleep reading before the phone call. I looked up at my clock on the wall: 11:35 A.M. Almost lunch time.

I moved into the kitchen and looked in the pantry to see what I had to eat. I seized a cereal box and put it on the table. After that I got out a bowl and the gallon of milk and poured the cereal into the bowl until it was full. Then I added milk.

I was about to take the first bite of my lunch, but…..

^Ring, ring, ring,^ taunted the voice from earlier.

‘What do you ---!?’

The phone began to ring.

I rushed into the family room and picked up the phone hoping it didn’t wake Tails. I moved back into the kitchen and then said, “Hello?”

“Sonic? This is Knuckles. Turn on Channel 6 now.”

“Channel 6?” I asked. I thought for a moment and then asked, “Aren’t you supposed to be guarding the Master --?”

“Just turn to the damn channel.”

“Ok,” I muttered in a confused voice. I walked into the family room once more and picked up the remote and flicked on the TV. I changed the channel to 6.

My mouth dropped when I saw the headline:

EGGMAN FOUND DEAD

The news reporter said, “Investigators say he could have died from anything except form another person’s hands. It could have been a heart attack, stroke, the effect of obesity, or it could just be nature taking its course…”

“Call everyone else. Tell them to meet there,” I told him blankly. I hung up the phone not wanting to listen to Knuckles’ remark.

“Yes,” continued the news reporter as she walked along the outside of Eggman’s lab, “Eggman’s death was cause by nothing more than nature.” She stopped by dead robots. “But what about this?”

I lean in closer to the TV, “What?!”

The voice laughed coldly inside.

I was going to tell it to shut up, but I heard a small voice from behind me on the couch: “What’s going on?”

I looked back to find Tails awake sitting up. His eyes were glued on the TV monitor in front of him. “Tails,” I muttered, “go back to --.”

“Eggman’s dead?” He asked. He looked to me, “What did ya do?!”

“Nothing. Now quiet,” I told him. I sat down next to him and we both turned our attention to the television.

“Thousands upon thousands of robots are now destroyed,” She told us. “But nothing in the body itself was touched. Only the brain – the very life-support of the beings’ existence has been damaged in each one. It’s like it… exploded on its own. There is no way nature could have done this… or did it?” She took in a deep breath and started again, “Investigators say that as soon as Eggman died, the robots gave up the will to survive. But this is only a theory, and only time can tell…” She stopped and then said, “We’ll be right back after this commercial break.”

A commercial came on.

I turned off the TV and looked to the small kitsune next to me, “Listen, I’m going to go… somewhere… I want you to get some sleep while I’m gone, all right?”

“But I wanna go!” He cried. “Please?”

“No, you’re sick. A temp. of 103.”

“That isn’t that sick.”

“Yeah right.” I stood up and told him, “I’m not going to argue. You’re not going and that’s that. Nothing can change my mind.”

“Awww,” he muttered.

I began to walk away from him and towards the door, “I don’t want to hear it.”

^Let him come,^ the voice said inside, ^how much can it hurt?^

I shook my head to block it off and continued towards the door.

^LET THE KITSUNE COME!^

“On second thought,” I said. I looked back to him, “Why don’t you come? How much can it hurt?”

“Yes!” He said, jumping up from the couch.

We left.

* * *
Tails’ POV

As we ran at full speed down the road towards Eggman’s, I stared at Sonic. Why’d he let me come? He said nothing can change his mind, but yet he did. I didn’t even really complain or talk back. I decided not to ask him about it…

I felt my head. I was still burning. My eyes began to drowse. I shouldn’t have come along. But I couldn’t pass this up. Eggman dead. I can’t believe it. I had to see it with my own eyes.

When we reached the mad-man’s lab, we skidded to a halt in front of the rest of the team – or the rest of the team that didn’t have school. Big and Rouge was there, so was Knuckles and Shadow.

“Figured out anything?” Sonic asked.

“They wouldn’t let us in without you,” Knuckles answered. We all started to walk towards the crime scene surrounded by cop cars and yellow block off tape. “Don’t you think this might be a plan of his? Making everyone think he’s dead?”

“I don’t think Eggman would go that far,” Shadow said.

Sonic agreed. “He would not just dispose all of his robots like that.”

“So you think he’s really dead?” I asked.

Sonic nodded.

The sergeant in charge of this situation and greeted us. “We’ve been waiting for you, Sonic.”

“What happened?” Sonic asked.

“Don’t know really,” he answered. “Wanna take a look inside?”

“Sure.”

We began to walk inside of the house and the sergeant followed us.

“Alone.” Sonic muttered.

“Yessir!”

“Thanks, sergeant. Keep up the good work.”

We entered.

The house was dark and musty. The light bulbs were shot… nothing seemed to be working anywhere in the estate. Not even the air conditioning. We made our way down the main hallway and up the stairs connecting to it, not bothering to go into any of the rooms lining it. When we reached the top of the steps we entered Eggman’s lab.

Eggman lied on the floor dead.

There was a surprised gasp. I didn’t know if someone else had let it out or if it was me. Sonic looked very astounded, Rouge was disgusted and scared, Knuckles stared blankly, Shadow had a small smirk on his face and Big stumbled back.

Whoever said dead things looked peaceful, they were wrong – wrong at least in Eggman’s case. His eyes laid open and had a blank while color to them. His face looked angry, scared and almost as if he had gone mad. What made it worst was the only light unbroken in the house was shining right on him, almost as if it had been staged.

We looked to Sonic for a response.

He said nothing.

There was a sudden bang from the other side of the wall. We looked over to it. It happened again…. and again… and again…

“Wanna check it out?” Big asked quietly.

“Let’s do it,” Shadow smirked.

We guardedly exited the lab and went to our right until the next door, which was shut tight. Sonic turned and pulled the knob to open it, but nothing happened.

“Move,” Knuckles told him. Sonic obeyed and the red echidna punched down the door. It was dark in the room – too dark almost.

Suddenly a robot jumped out of the room and hit Knuckles into the wall. It started screaming and running around insanely. When it saw me, it stopped its officious and stared at me straight in the eye. Finally it muttered, “You must leave, kitsune…. Something evil lurks in this place….” He started to twitch. “It drove Master insane… so insane it killed him… It meddled with my brothers’ minds…. And as we all died, It laughed so coldly…..”

The machine started to go insane once more. “AH! Get them away! Don’t let them eat me!” It ran around running from something not chasing him. “Kill the snakes! Kill them, kill them!” A boom came from where the brain was and the robot fell over dead.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Sonic said. “Let’s get outta here.”

Everyone nodded in totally agreement.

^Hehehe,^ the voice giggled, ^now the real fun begins…^

Sonic took my arm and we all began to run down the hallway towards the stairs. Once we mastered the stairs, we could go no farther. Out of the ground came shadows of chameleons. They flashed their red eyes and when they saw us, they leaped.

The voice’s laugher echoed off the walls. I could tell everyone could hear it now.

One launched itself at me and next thing I know everything goes black….

~ V ~ I ~ S ~ I ~ O ~ N ~

I slowly opened my eyes to find myself under a bright blue sky. I shot up and looked around. I was in…. a field of flowers? The breeze blew gently across the plains making the flowers sway ever so slightly.

I stood up and searched the meadows for any sign of my friends. Nothing. I wanted to call their names, but decided not to. I didn’t know where I was and I could draw someone else’s attention.

I continued my search and then stopped when I saw something heading my way. I dimmed my eyes from the sun overhead. The figure was orange… The closer it got, the more I could make it out. It was a kitsune! A girl kitsune to be exact. She wore beautiful flowers all over her head – and her herself was beautiful. I had never seen something like her in my life.

A gorgeous voice began to sing: “Win dain a lotica, en vai turi, si lo ta. Fin dein a loluca, en dragu a sei lain. Vi fa-ru les shutai am. Enriga-lint.” She stopped at a clear spot in the fields that was covered in grass and clicked her fingers. A blanket appeared and all sorts of food began to appear with it. “Win chent a lotica, en vai turi, solota. Fin dien a loluca, si katigrua neuver. Floreria for chesti. Si entina…” After everything was set up, she sat down smiling. A blue bird flew overhead and she put her hand up. It landed on her hand. “Lalala… Fontina Blu Cent De Cravi esca letisimo. Lalala… de quantian la Finde reve.” She slowly let up her hand and the blue bird flew off. “Win dain a lotica. En vai tu ri. Si lo ta. Find ein a loluca. En dragu a sei lain. Vi fa-ru les shutai am. En riga-lint.” She stopped.

I stared.

She looked over to me and smiled, “Oh. I’ve been expecting you. Come, have a seat.”

I faltered, but decided it couldn’t hurt. I made my way over to her through all the flowers and sat down across from her. I decided to first tell her my name, “Hi… my name’s --.”

“—Miles ‘Tails’ Prower,” She said. “I know everything about you.” She held up a slice of cake. “Would you like some cake?”

“S-sure,” I answered. She handed it to me and I nibbled on the end. It felt so refreshing in my mouth. Soon it was gone.

She looked off into the distance and her smile turned into a frown.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

The kitsune looked back at me and smiled, “Oh nothing. Are you still hungry?”

“No, but thanks.” I looked around and then to her. “Where am I?”

“My dream world,” She answered.

“D-Dream world?” I asked. “Who are you?”

She giggled, “I am –.” Her gaze fell on where she was looking to before. “Come on,” She said quickly, “we must go.” She stood up and all the stuff on the blanket began to disappear out of sight.

“Where?” I asked, standing up. “Why?”

The blanket vanished beneath my feet.

She continued to look that way and grabbed my hand. “Come on!”

We began to sprint through the flowers. I looked behind me to find nothing. I looked back to her confused. She was still looking the same way as before. I looked back again. This time I saw something. It was far away and not too noticeable. It was a dark figure. It looked like a hedgehog, but yet two fox tails traiedl it. It sped up on us and started to catch up.

The girl started to run faster. The blue emeralds in her eyes were shaking from fear. I noticed the flowers were beginning to cripple up and die. Soon the land was a barren wasteland. The shadow chameleons began to rise from the ground…

The kitsune girl tripped.

We both collapsed onto our stomachs. I tried to get up but something was pushing me down. I looked over to the girl. She was crying. I tried again. Nothing.

Suddenly I heard a blade slice through something and the weight released itself. I stood up dragging the girl up with me. I looked behind me to find a black kitsune. Most of his fur was a midnight black. He wore an odd necklace with a blue ruby at the end. His eyes were a dull red color. He held a beautiful decorated sickle in his hand. He looked to us, “GO!”

The girl began to run with me once more. I wanted to ask her so many questions, but now was not the time. We jumped off a cliff and landed on a soft sand mound overlooking the ocean.

“Come on, Tails,” she said. We ran off towards the ocean and once at the coast line she grabbed onto me tightly and we took a deep dive into the ocean

~ R ~ E ~ A ~ L ~ I ~ T ~ Y ~

I coughed up water. I found myself in the middle of a forest by a small pond. I stood up and shook the drops of water off of me. “Hello! Anyone here?” Nothing. Had I been dreaming? I tried to recall the events before appearing in the flowery field and they came back hazily to me. We were at Eggman’s… he was dead… Chameleons came out of the ground.

“Sonic!” I cried. “SONIC, SHADOW, ANYONE!”

No one answered.

This was when I realized I was all alone…

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(Scary music) Hehehe. Actually it’s not scary at all, but that’s ok. Please remember to review. I’d love if you did. Thanks.

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