Kapitel 19: Chapter 19
Sonic walked out of the room. For some reason, the hallway was much shorter than before. Very weird. But then, he heard something he hadn't in a while. It made him jump into a ball. There were voices coming from the child's room. One of them had a familiar rhythm to it, but the sound itself was unfamiliar to Sonic.
"And so what if we die?" The familiar, yet unfamiliar voice cried. It sounded like the voice of a young adult girl. "You brought this upon us, and now you want others to suffer for your mistake!"
"Silence!" A grown woman's voice hissed. "You can't begin to comprehend the salvation my new device will bring to us all! I'm a hero! And you're just a naive little child!"
The girl sighed. "Miles told me what you plan to do-!" The young girl's voice trailed off near the end, as if she had said something she shouldn't have.
Miles is Tails' birth name... Sonic thought to himself, listening in by putting his ear against the door. He didn't want to intrude on... whatever was happening. However, Miles was quite a common name on Mobius after people began to recognize Tails' heroics across the globe. And rightfully so. Sonic couldn't really jump to any conclusions. He had to remain open-minded.
Sonic heard the sound of a shoe against wood. "Miles told you WHAT?!" The grown woman screamed. "Why, the traitor! The under-the-table twit!" There was a certain giggle in her voice, even when she seemed angry. It rubbed Sonic a little the wrong way.
"Hey! Don't say that about Miles! You evil bi-!" The young girl shouted. A false sense of authority carried itself through her voice. This authority was sent flying into oblivion as it was knocked out of her with the sharp sound of a slap. "Ah!"
Sonic gritted his teeth and donned a furious expression. This wasn't right. By the sounds of things, the woman who hit the other was much older, and more powerful. It boiled his blood and brought back memories that he couldn't quite make sense of. He pounded on the door hard enough to make a small dent on it. "Hey, what's going on in there?!" Sonic shouted.
"Shit!" The older woman hissed again. "It's him!"
"Yeah, it's me!" Sonic yelled, reaching for the door. "I'm about to teach you a lesson on...!" But then, Sonic's vision faded back to red and purple static. He looked upwards at that same blinding light. The voices faded out of earshot. "Wait! No! Not now!" Sonic tried to yell. But no words came out.
Sonic woke up in the study. Getting up, his heart sank. The bulb was still shattered, leaving glass shards on the floor. The windows were boarded up once more, with the storm blowing cold wind inside. The paintings and photos were back on the walls, and canvases littered the floor. The shoe's mud print on one of the canvases was still wet. It was as if no time had passed.
Now, Sonic had seen weird before. Some very weird things. But this was actually starting to scare him, and scared and Sonic usually don't go together. Just what was going on with this place?
Sonic then realized, the door that had been jammed before had now fallen onto the floor, leading into another room. Another cold breeze flew in from the other room. Looking behind him, Sonic also noticed the door behind him was closed. Sonic had learned now that when a door was closed here, it usually wouldn't open. So there was only one way to go. Forward. Before he proceeded however, Sonic called Tails on the Miles Electric. The call wouldn't go through no matter how many times he tried to make it.
"Drat! Work, you stupid thing!" Sonic yelled at the Miles Electric. As if on cue, the call miraculously went through. But when the call loaded, Sonic didn't see Tails. All he saw was the same silhouetted figure from the cameras in Tails' laboratory during the initial recording of the storm. It shook and twisted unnaturally. Sonic felt... it was getting closer. A jolt of fear went through his body as his finger scrambled for the power switch. The Miles Electric powered off. But on the last frame that it was open, Sonic could swear he saw the figure smile a toothy grin. He breathed heavily after this. In and out, in and out.
Then, a gust of wind blew into the room from the fallen door, sending a chill down Sonic's spine. Walking over to the door and looking up, he noticed what may have been supposed to be a sunroof of some kind. But under these circumstances, the hole in the roof showed a direct view of the eye of the storm. No sun in sight.
The room itself seemed to be some sort of stone bridge with a dark blue tint to it. The bridges branched off into multiple paths. Sonic, walking over to one of the fences, found that there was a long drop on the other side of the fence. Sonic isn't scared of heights, but when you can't even see the bottom of a hole, it's enough to get anyone on the edge. It was pitch black as far down as the eye could see. Just to test it, Sonic picked off a piece of rubbled fence and dropped it down. Sonic didn't hear a sound.
"Wouldn't wanna fall down there," Sonic mumbled. He turned away and almost stepped right into an open hole. He tried to gather his balance, as the hole would be large enough for him to slip right through. "Whoa!" He cried. Finally, he caught his balance and stepped back away from the hole. Looking at the floor, the entire room was spotted with these holes.
Sonic made careful and calculated steps across the room. The floor, even the parts where there weren't holes, looked crumbly. It could very well give way at any moment, plummeting him into the abyss below.
Finally, Sonic reached a door. With a skip of his heart, he tumbled into it. He had had enough of the anxious feeling the room gave him. The door hadn't been shut all the way, so Sonic stumbled right into the next room as the door opened upon his push.
Looking around, the room looked to be some sort of small personal library. Now, Sonic loved to read in his downtime. Sometimes endless adventure gets stale too. So there's nothing like sitting down with a chili dog and reading a good book. Sonic had quite the collection, but this sight left him in awe. It was larger than any library he had ever been to, even the Great Spagonia Library on Earth. Books lined the endless shelves. Some of these books, Sonic had never seen, some had spines that were written in languages Sonic couldn't understand, and some were all too familiar.
Sonic didn't have time to read books, though. He again had that feeling of being watched. Looking to his right, he saw a shadowy figure. It looked just like Knuckles, but he was missing his hat. His knuckles were as sharp as ever, not nubs like in Sonic's terriblest thoughts of Knuckles being dragged away against his will until his knuckles turned dull and bloody.
Without thinking, a smile made its way onto Sonic's face. "Hey, Knuckles!" He called out, joyous as can be. He reached out his fist for a fist bump, but Knuckles did not return the gesture. Instead, he closed his eyes, snickered mischievously, and ran off into the endless maze of books. Sonic, thoroughly confused, and growing a pit in his stomach, immediately gave chase to him. As he ran past shelves of books, he didn't even notice that the labels seemed to deteriorate as he went on, gradually devolving into random messes of letters and colors. Some were just random symbols and jarbles of code.
"Knuckles!" Sonic called out. He heard nothing but giggles and laughter from behind the shelves. Sonic took a sharp right into the next row of shelves, not losing any speed. He continued to run until he was sweaty and tired. It felt like he had been running nonstop for a while now. He hesitated a second. He wanted to check the time, but all he had that could tell him the time was the Miles Electric, and the last time he powered on the Miles Electric didn't go so well.
Swallowing his fears, he pulled the Miles Electric out of his bag and powered it on. The ordinary home screen greeted him. He sighed a sigh of relief. But he realized pretty quickly that not all was right. The timer was not progressing as it should. Instead, it switched between random times, even dates. Either it was simply broken, or something was horribly, horribly wrong. But Sonic didn't want to think about it.
Figuring it was no help in terms of telling the time, Sonic put away the Miles Electric. He felt he was able to run again, at least for a while. He heard some heavy breathing from far away. Immediately looking forward, he saw a figure obscured by shadows poking its head out from around the corner. The figure's hair seemed much like that of Knuckles' if not a little longer for some reason. Sonic didn't get a good look at it, as as soon as Sonic did see it, the figure made a beeline away from the corner. Sonic gave chase. Was Knuckles just playing a game with him? This was ridiculous. Turning the corner, Sonic saw the figure... float away. His mind interpreted this as Knuckles gliding. It had to be.
Sonic resumed chasing the figure, as it rounded the corner. He couldn't let this figure get away. He didn't even know why it was running away. But if it was Knuckles, he may just be in shock. Even then, Sonic couldn't afford to let him get lost or hurt. He never quite got a good look at the figure. In every new hall Sonic ran through, he felt the need to sneeze. A lot. Something was up with him. This wasn't right. Could he be sick? It was pretty cold in this place. It wasn't impossible.
Sonic found it strange how this figure was outrunning him. He was supposed to be the fastest, right? This question he had was answered when Sonic saw the figure go right through a shelf into the next hall, knocking over books that broke the silence and leaving a blotch of white goo in the shape of a long haired figure that indeed resembled Knuckles. But it was too tall, towering over Sonic. It was not huge by any means, just much taller than any modern day Mobian. It disappeared quickly.
"What in the name of Mobius?" Sonic asked, bewildered. This should be impossible. This IS impossible. What has happened to poor Knuckles? Running around the corner, Sonic found cracks and scrapes on the wall, scattered and some broken teapots littering the floor, an empty pie tin, and a small desk with a wilted flower in a flowerpot on top of it. He had to slow down to avoid running into it. He soon started walking precisely and carefully down the narrow hallway while looking at the ground to make sure he wasn't going to step on anything. He wondered what exactly all of this was doing in a library.
He heard fast, unpatterned, and panicky breathing coming from not far around the corner. Perhaps he had startled Knuckles? But Knuckles isn't quick to startle, and that also would be against the fact he was laughing right before the chase.
Turning the corner, Sonic lost his balance as he tripped over a stack of books. Was that supposed to be a trap of some kind? He heard a feminine gasp. A feminine... gasp...
This wasn't Knuckles.
Whoever it was may have seen Knuckles, though! Sonic got up, and walked over to the source of the gasp. He saw the figure standing right against a wall. They seemed to be shaking. Sonic didn't quite know how to strike up a conversation with this person. So he tried to start with a simple...
"Hello."
The stranger didn't respond, not verbally. But they did react. The shaking stopped for a second. And then, it returned and the panicked breathing turned into intense screams. Sonic nearly jumped back in fright. "Ah!" Sonic yelled. He then covered his mouth with his hands. The stranger continued to scream, shaking violently. Sweat ran down their arms.
"P-please don't be scared!" Sonic stuttered, an apologetic hint in his voice. "Here, do you need help?" Sonic reached his trembling arm forward, reaching for the stranger's arm. The figure got up, turned around, and slapped Sonic's arm away with a loud SMACK.
Momentary shock fell over Sonic. The stranger too. Sonic hit the floor.
Continue to Chapter 20
Wöchentlicher Energiestatus
-- Power-
Rangliste 
-- Power-
Stein