Zephyr walked through the tall hallways of Equinox Manor. He stretched his arms over his head, making his quills frizzy slightly. He was tired. Which surprised him, considering he was usually a source of boundless energy. Though, he had been taking extra combat lessons with Aunt Maria. Not to mention Mari, had been going hard on him to learn the spin dash. Somehow the crossbreed had managed to become invested in his training yet still seem to be completely detached, all at once. So, that could have been the reason.
The thoughts that were wrestling deep within his mind, weren't helping him relax either. The last, but also first, mission had messed with him more then he thought. Seeing what some people could do to one another, it stung to know that he had been looking at the world through rose colored glasses. It was the farmer who help him that was most unsettling. It made him realize just how easily that someone he cared for could be put in harm's way. How easily it could've been someone else? Like Ma or Pa.
The speedster sighed, letting one of his hands reach up and rubbed the back of his neck. He was getting too worked up over this. It was just the first mission. If this one messed him up this much, then how would he feel after the next one? After the next ten? After a hundred? He didn't even want to think about that. The possibility was more than likely, Scourge's soldiers had been after the League ever since he was born. More than likely that that monster wasn't going to give up, especially since all that stood in his way was a bunch of kids.
Maybe Mari had been right. Maybe he didn't belong here. No, no, he couldn't even think that. Why was he thinking like that? Zephyr took a deep breath. Mari was wrong, he did belong here. He was the son of Sonic the Hedgehog and Amy Rose. Two of the world's greatest heroes. It was his job, his legacy, his birth right, to keep the world safe. To put a stop to Scourge. He sighed. That sounded right, but why didn't it feel right?
Zephyr stopped and rubbed his eyes so hard, that he could see flashing patterns behind his closed lids. He took a deep breath, and opened to find...that he had no idea where he was. Suppressing a groan, he started just to walk. The youngster didn't even try to retrace his steps, he knew it would be pointless. Equinox mansion, was so large it was a wonder he hadn't gotten lost sooner, to add that all of the walls moved and rooms constantly swapped around. While these shifts were technically on a clock that signals the changes, to Zephyr, a newcomer who hadn't memorized the shifts yet, they still seemed completely random.
The young hedgehog's only hope of figuring out where he was, was to continue going in one direction, and finding someone who knew the mansion better. He was probably wandering aimlessly for the next hour before he decided on that exploring while he was lost would be better than just being strait up lost. He questioned as to why he hadn't tried to do this earlier. It wasn't like he was going to get in trouble for snooping, he did live here after all, and this place was so big that no one would probably notice.
When it came to the exploring part, Zephyr might have as well been spoiled. The halls of the mansion were beautifully decorated with murals of nature and the sky, all in greens, purples and bright gold. Dark wooden doors were never a rarity either, each of them leading to new parts of the confusing, and exotic, manor. Though, most of the ones that Zephyr opened lead to mostly three person bedrooms, some to storage and rooms that look like they were once used to some kind unsavory rituals. The only strange thing was that, despite seemingly not being touched for years, none of them had a speck of dust in them.
After sometime, Zephyr came across a pair of double wooden doors. These seemingly being much more fancily decorated, and reenforced. Flecks of gold were etched into the patterned carved into the old shinning wood. Whatever was behind this door, it was important. And the little curious, mischievous, demon inside of Zephyr couldn't resist.
Carefully his gloved hand gripped the door's golden handle. Twisting it once or twice was all he needed to know that it was locked. Zephyr titled his head, a smirk growing on his face. Violently, he shook the handle at super speed making the lock dislodge. The door opened without even a creak.
Zephyr smiled proudly, as he slipped inside. Unlocking doors this way, was a recently discovered perk of his powers. How he figured this out, was when he got locked out of the speedster training shed, it didn't take long for him to learn that vibrating the lock could sometime shake things into place.
Inside of the doors, looked be some kind of very fancy storage room. Relics that Zephyr both could and couldn't recognized lined the room, all of them safely encased in untouched glass. Zephyr swallowed, maybe that door was locked for a reason. Hesitantly, he stepped into the room, terrified that he might break something. This placed was clearly important. He was about to turned around and forget he was ever here the he heard someone jiggling the door handle from the other side.
He felt his heart jump into his throat, worried that he was about to be busted. Because if the door was lock than he probably wasn't supposed to be in here. But his relief was instant when he realized who it was on the other side. Angie was opening the door, her eyes on the handle as if she didn't think it would be unlocked. Zephyr let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding. Causing the half-breed to finally notice his presence.
"Zephyr?" Angie asked in confusion, "What are you doing here?"
"Well, I got lost," Zephyr answered bluntly.
"Mansion still a little confusing huh?"
"Yep."
"Well, I guess that's explains why you're in the treasury."
"The treasury? Is that this place?"
Angie nodded.
"Okay, Cool. What's the treasury?"
"This is the room where Mari's mom kept all the fancy relics from the league days. Well at least all the important ones," Angie walked past him and deeper into the room.
"Important ones? If they're relics of the league, shouldn't they all be important?" Zephyr asked following Angie.
"Well, you could say that, but this room is for some of the more powerful relics. AKA the more dangerous relics. Magical talismans, some of the mad Dr.'s more explosive devices, etc."
"Oh," Zephyr said, his feet slowly coming to a stop, "So, if these are dangerous what are you doing in here?"
Angie turned around, and raised a brow at him, "I wasn't sneaking in if that's what you're wondering," She huffed, "Aunt Maria just keeps it lock so that Damian can't get in, just in case if he reacts to anything in here," She paused and glared suspiciously at Zephyr, "Wait, Aunt Maria always keeps this door locked, how did you get in?"
"Jiggled the handle. How do you usually get I here, do you have a key?"
"No, I just pick the lock."
"Ah," Zephyr glanced around the room.
This was where the league kept the dangerous items that they had taken from the villains they faced. Zephyr looked closer at the items. A large amount of them looked like inventions. Strange mechanical, egg and bug shaped, inventions. Though that wasn't all that was in the room, there were quite a few objects that looked like jewelry pieces.
He crossed over to the right side of the room, and up to a smaller case. Inside of the glass, resting on a small pedestal, was what looked like a bracelet. The circlet was crafted of a platinum like metal, that was beautifully carved, and a large round minty green crystal adorned the top. At first, he thought it might be one of the relics connect to the mansion, but that thought was soon banished as the etchings didn't match up with the rest that were in the mansion.
"What are you looking at?" Angie whispered into his ear, surprising the young hedgehog.
Zephyr stumbled but quickly regain his balance and part of the pride he had dropped in that moment of embarrassment. He had no idea how she had managed to get so close to him without him noticing. Must have been the spy in her.
Zephyr cleared his throat, "Well, I was looking at this bracelet. Do you know what this is?"
Angie shot him a confused glance, "You don't?"
Zephyr shook his head, "Should I?"
"That was one of your dad's most prided possessions up until his death, if I'm not mistaken."
Zephyr's eyes widened, "It was?"
Angie nodded, "Yep. That's the amulet of Light Gaia. Your father joined him in battle to defeat Dark Gaia when the entity was aroused early from his eternity long slumber. Light Gaia like his dark his dark counterpart, returned to his own slumber afterward. Leaving the bracelet behind as a parting gift to your father. Uncle Sonic always wore it on his wrist."
"Wow, my father defeated a dark entity? With the help of its good counterpart?"
"Yep. Pretty impressive, you might be doing something like that one day."
Zephyr nodded, "Wait, if this is a place is for the more dangerous items. Why is this here?"
"Because it radiates Gaia energy. Not harmful to anything or anyone, but it's still magic. Meaning we can't let it fall into the wrong hands."
"You said this was a gift from Light Gaia the good one, what could this do if it's from a good guy, magic or not."
"Gaia while being its own thing is also connected to the chaos magic line. After you-know-who destroyed the Gaia temples, this bracelet became one of the last relics of Gaia, and stabilizing factors of the chaos line."
"Gaia temples?"
"They were temples constructed all over the planet for magic lines to flow into and store until needed. In some cases, they were used to reform the planet when it broke. But there's point in knowing about them now, with them being destroyed and all."
"Look maybe I missed something, because this feels like something I should know, but can you explain what you mean by magic lines?"
"Oh, magic line, or energy line, are basically the rawest source of magic. They run through everything in universe, we just can't see them. Relics and sometimes people are able to connect to them, that's how they gain their power. Some of them are just ways for the lines to blow off steam and others are there to keep the line stable."
Zephyr nodded, "Okay, so the Gaia temples were some kinds of conduit for these lines. Then why did he destroy them?"
"We're not really sure. Some people thought it was just a power move, to intimidate us. But now we know it had some kind of purpose to it. We're pretty sure he wanted to destabilize the magic lines. Didn't work out like he planned it though. Gaia didn't touch all the kinds of magic, thankfully. But it's certainly much more of a rarity now."
Zephyr nodded, understanding what she meant. Pa had talked about how not to long ago magic or energy ran wild, and people who could harness it existed. That's what all the old wolf's legends were about. But Zephyr rarely had seen anything out of the ordinary in Redwell, at least not anything like here where it was clear that the forest was over flowing with magic. Had scourge really tried to destroy all magic through the temples?
Deciding that he needed a change of subject Zephyr looked around the room, and thankfully another case caught his eye. This one was holding a very familiar looking mask.
"Hey, is..." He walked up to the case, "Is that the mask of Infinite?"
Angie walked over to join him, she tilted her head the side, "Yep."
"The league was involved in the Forces War?"
"Yeah, actually they were the ones who started the resistance. You didn't know that?"
"No..."
"Just another thing that monster turned into a lie," She growled.
"So, you guys claimed the mask after they took down Infinite?"
"Well, actually no. They didn't find Infinite after the final battle of the Forces War. Not until a little under four years later."
"Four years! What was that guy doing for four years! That's a long time to plot revenge."
"Infinite wasn't plotting revenge. Uncle Gadget found him in the desert half-dead, turns out the phantom ruby had more side effects then they previously thought."
"Are saying that rock he was using...?"
"Was influencing him, kind of. At least we think that was what was happening. We never really understood what Phantom Magic really was. During the Equinox War Uncle Zero, destroyed every relic from the phantom line he could get his hands on. Well, all except the mask."
"Why didn't he get rid of that one? It's probably more known than the ruby."
"I'm not really sure, some how some one convinced him to save it. I think it was Uncle Tails as he probably wanted to keep it for study, in order to make a tracker in case they missed something. But it barely puts out any sort of energy, so that idea didn't work."
Zephyr nodded, "I didn't know that the league was formed before the Forces War."
"No, they weren't. But they were still heroes at this time. The league was formed in the next big all planet war, the Equinox War. And they probably would've disbanded this time too, but G.U.N had taken a major blow during it. Meaning that the world needed something else to protect it for a little while."
After getting that information, the mask seemed a little boring. Glancing around again, Zephyr tried to find another case to ask about. Angie didn't seem to mind him asking about them, and this was becoming a great distraction, to his earlier thoughts. Everything was so interesting, that he couldn't decide. Until he saw a rather larger case, that was stuffed away in a back corner of the room. Inside of it was a...mobian?
"Hey, Angie what's that?" He said gently jogging over to it.
Unlike the rest of the room, the case was covered in dust. A comical amount of dust was on this one, as if some one had covered it in the grey powder of age to hide whatever was inside. The only thing that Zephyr could tell from just looking at it was the online of what looked like mobian inside. Carefully, he reached out a gloved hand and swiped away some of the dust. After an expected sneeze and a little coughing, Zephyr caught a glimpse of what was inside the glass. His eyes widened and he stumbled back with a gasp.
Zephyr was staring at...himself. At least a version of it. A version forged of aged metal. Inside of the case was robotic hedgehog. The screen that was supposed to be its eyes was deactivated only showing a dead black, monitor. Its royal blue paint was faded and chipped, while the parts that were bare grey metal clearly showed scuffs and scratches from past battles. What was this thing?
"Oh, you found him," Angie said as she walked up to the case. Her voice was solemn.
"Found who?" Zephyr demanded, his guard still up.
"Metal."
"Metal? I know it's made of metal, that I can easily tell, but what is it?"
"No, Metal, as in short for Metal Sonic."
"Metal Sonic?"
"He was one of Doctor Eggman's greatest inventions. The only one that our parents had a hard time keeping down. A robotic copy of you father, just as fast and almost as resilient."
"What happened to him?"
"We don't really know. The doctor went missing not long after Scourge made his first real move. Eggman had a number of secret bases, but we eventually found the one he was most active in around the time he vanished. Everything inside was destroyed. The only that remained almost online, was him. Uncle Tails tried to repair him best he could, so he could tell us what happened to Eggman, but Metal went into some kind of stasis mode. He's been kept here ever since."
"You keep calling it a him, is he sentient?"
"As of the moment, no. But before, it was sort of a weird mix of yes and no. He would take orders from Eggman, but sometimes he would break from his programming and do something unexpected."
"Do you ever think he'll wake up?"
"We don't know. Sparky thinks that if Metal does, he could handle reprogramming him. Chaos knows his help would be welcomed at this point, but I doubt it he's been inactive for nearly nine years. I don't think he's coming out of this."
Zephyr nodded feeling slightly bad for the robotic copy of his father. To be locked away in this room, never to be seen again, it seemed like a cruel fate. Even the amount of dust left on Metal's case proved that no one came to care for the robot since being stored here, considering everything else was spotless. The blank black face stared back at Zephyr, the head titled downwards ever so slightly, as if the robot were in deep grieving thought.
"What did you see?" Zephyr thought.
"Anything else in here you want to see?" Angie asked, breaking the somber silence that had settled in.
Zephyr looked around before turning back to Angie, "Why don't you choose?"
"Me?" Angie said a little flustered, "I mean this place isn't all that new to me, I thought you should just lead the reins on this one."
"Well, if you come here all the time then you have got to have a favorite. I want to see that one next."
Angie's cheeks flushed, thought she tried to hide it by chuckling into her palm, "Well, I guess I do have favorite, but you can't tell Aunt Maria that I showed you."
Zephyr nodded, before following the cheerful half breed to the back of the room. Angie skipped in between the number of cases in the room, a bright excited pip in her steps. In the back wall of the room was a large bejeweled door. Golden metal plated its edges and the large complex lock, in the shape of a ripped-up kite, on the front.
"What is..." Zephyr trailed off.
"This is the vault. Sort of the super secure part of the treasury. This holds the really heavy hitters."
"I can tell by the giant lock," Zephyr gaped.
"It's not just the lock. It's also bound by enchantment, that means that it can opened by magic."
"Magic?"
"Yep, watch."
Angie pulled up a necklace that she was wearing under her clothes. A small, greyish green raw crystal charm, rested on the thin golden chain. She twisted it in her fingers before taking it off and scraping the gem across the lock. The lock shimmered with pale green sparks before its pieces began to turn and click into place. Going from the mess that was the ripped kite to forming the same symbol that Zephyr had seen on Mari's and Damian's arms.
Come to think of it he had seen that symbol showed up all around the mansion.
Once the Symbol was complete, the engravings in the lock gleamed with pale green energy. The door split down the middle and slowly slid out of view inside of the walls. The gleam of sparkling items shone through the now opened door. Zephyr flinched, but after a moment his eyes adjusted, and then widened at the sight of what was behind the door.
Inside was a small room, that looked like it was made out of the finest purple velvet and gold. On the single piece of furniture that was inside, a beautifully carved table, was a stand that held six diamond cut stones. Zephyr thought he should feel memorized by them, but something felt wrong.
The gem stones, didn't shine evenly, he noticed now that his eyes had adjusted to light (The light that came from all the gold in the room not the gemstone themselves). Only two really shown, one that was blood red and the other was the same purply stone Mari had once used. While two of them seemed to flicker and the last one was faded to the point of being black. This wasn't right. How he knew that he didn't know but this didn't feel right.
Zephyr cleared his throat, "Well, not what I was expecting to be your favorite."
Angie frowned, "I know. Over the years they've lost their shine, but that's not why I love them. Do you know what these guys are?"
"The Chaos Emeralds," Zephyr's brows furrowed in confusion, "Wait a minute, there's six here. I though there were seven."
"Number seven is in Aunt Maria cane. Just in case. She's one of the few people left who can use chaos control."
Zephyr nodded. So, Aunt Maria knew how to use chaos control. That meant Zephyr was the only one with hedgehog blood who hadn't been taught chaos control. That was excluding Damian of course, Aunt Maria seem more focused on her youngest nephew's academic schooling rather than teaching him combat. And Zephyr couldn't really blame her for that, the little cross-breed was only five after all. But that still didn't explain why she hadn't come to him asking if he wanted to learn. Another chaos wielder, even one who had to use an emerald, would've been certainly helpful now.
"Yeah, some of the most powerful gem pieces in all of Mobius. All of them right in our basement. For how much longer we don't know." Angie said sadly.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, over time the emerald lost their shine and magic. They became unstable, some times being completely over charged and others being well," she glanced at the black crystal.
"Why?"
"We don't know. It started happening not long after You-know-who showed up."
There was pause between them.
Zephyr knew who did this. He did this. But why? The chaos emeralds, as far as Zephyr knew didn't only help those with good intentions. Evil doers could use the as well I they knew how. If anything shouldn't Scourge, he trying to get them? This didn't make sense.
And all of the adventures he was just told about. How could the people of mobius just forget all about the League? Pa didn't, but he still just thought of them as legends. They were real but everyone didn't realize that. That didn't make sense either.
None of this made sense.
Zephyr took a deep breath, "All of this...How did I not know about all of this...I know that I wasn't raised here and that I don't know the details well, but how could all of this," Zephyr gesture to the whole treasury, "Just be forgotten? All of this good. All of the lives saved. Just...just gone."
Angie stayed quiet; she knew he already knew the answer.
"I know that Scrouge did it, but to get an entire planet to think that these amazing real people, were nothing but myths. It seems impossible."
"Our enemy dwells behind a dark veil of lies and magic, and only exits when someone whom he deems is worthy challenges him," she quietly huffed, "And most of our worthy challengers have been slain. It feels more impossible every day, but this is our lives and we can only keep living them."
"Who told you that?"
"A friend."
Zephyr sighed, "I'm sorry if I'm bringing you down. It's just sad that all these stories and memories are just lost. And that after we're gone, no one will ever see them again. I mean you can't just turn on the past like a TV and watch."
Angie's eyes suddenly widened and sparkled with remembrance, "Do you have anything in the morning that's super important?"
"Well, that depends on what you mean by super important?" because breakfast.
"Like the world-is-going-to-end important."
"Well, then no."
A smile split across Angie's face, "Perfect."
"Perfect? Perfect for what?"
"Oh, you'll find out," And with that the Half-breed locked the vault with her necklace and skipped out of the treasury. A spark of mischievous glee in her plum eyes.
Zephyr was dreaming peacefully...well until something strong shoved him out of his bed and onto the floor. Groggy and confused, the young hedgehog tried to untangle himself from the number of blankets he had been using. Chilly nights were starting to become more common than not.
"Zephyr come on," a familiar female voice called out to him in a loud whisper.
"Huh, what?" Zephyr looked up to find Angie standing over him, her spines worn down and dressed in a pale pink silk slip. Zephyr felt his cheek grow hot.
"Angie?"
"Well, what are you waiting for lazy bones? An invitation? Come on we got to go!" Angie said walked towards his bedroom's door.
"G-go? Go where? Wait what time is it?"
"A little after 2:30."
"2:30? What are we doing up at 2:30?"
"Will you stop wasting time and come on, we only have until sun raises to do this and then we have to wait until next month," Angie walked out of the door, though she did keep it from slamming.
Zephyr stared after her, one ear up and the other down. Confusion was running through him, like flickies on a sugar rush. What was going on? He had no clue, but it seemed to be important to Angie. And now that his curiosity was peaked, going back to sleep was nothing but a phantom thought. Quickly untangling himself for the blankets, Zephyr quietly and quickly went to catch up with Angie.
And apparently, she wasn't only one wake for what ever was happening. Both Damian and Sparky were also sitting outside of his room seemingly waiting for him to arrive. The younger boys imminently perked up at the sight of the speedster emerging with ruffled quills and fur. Zephyr couldn't help but notice that Damian's markings, which were usually a sunshine gold in the day time and subtly glowed blue at night, were glowing a brighter than he had ever seen them. Granted that was still a very small amount, but they were clearly brighter.
"Okay, Dami, you got it?" Angie asked the youngest among them, to which Damian nodded excitedly and held up a small leather brown bag.
"Perfect. Okay where are we going tonight?" Angie asked, turning towards Sparky.
"Indoor and outdoor training areas, lab and assembly hall," Sparky explained.
"Come on, come on, come on!" Damian said rushing over to Angie, grabbing her hand and pulling her down the stairs.
Sparky and Zephyr, were quick to follow them down the flites of steps. The staircase, and eventually the halls, of the mansion were filled with the quiet, hushed laughter of the next generation of heroes. Smiles planted firmly on their faces, they arrived to the indoor training room. Well almost all of their faces, Zephyr's still remained completely confused.
"What is going on?" Zephyr asked the extremely excited fox next to him.
"Just wait for a moment, you'll understand," Sparky answered, before giggling.
Zephyr raised a brow but didn't say anything more.
"Do it Dami," Angie whispered to the youngest among them.
The little cross-breed flashed a smile, one of the cutest that Zephyr had ever seen, and stepped forward. Opening his small leather bag, he poured a handful of what looked like shimmering indigo dust in his palm. The dust began to glow on connect with Damian's hand, and after whispering something that was too quiet to understand, the young let out a strong puff of air from his lips spreading the dust everywhere.
But it didn't make a mess like Zephyr's first thought was...
Each speck of sparkling dust swirled around the room, as if a wild wind was carrying them, forming patterns of...people. The visuals came first, and then the voices. distance and echoing, but they could be heard. The scene of a younger female hedgehog and an older jackal, practicing on the training floor, appeared in what looked like a swarm of twinkling indigo fireflies.
"Like this?" The hedgehog, said her voice echoing violently. A sword firmly in her grasp.
"No, your legs aren't planted right. With that stance your opponent will have an easy time knocking you off your feet," The Jackal answered, using his feet to lightly shoved the hedgehog's feet into the right spots.
Zephyr just stared in awe at the scene that was unfolding before him. His eyes widened and his jaw slackened. How did Damian do this? Who were these people? He turned to the others. On their faces a mix of excitement, wonder and sorrow. This only spawned more questions? Did they know who these people were? Did they lose them? Just what was going on?
Thankfully Sparky took notice of his confusion and lend over, "You alright?"
"How?" Zephyr asked.
"It's called memory dust. It can be used to make a number of potions, share experiences, and in Dami's case reveal glimpses of the past."
"So, what we're seeing has already happened?"
"Yep."
"So, who are these people?"
"You don't recognize the Hedgehog?" Sparky's right ear flopped in confusion, and his head quirked to the side.
Zephyr shook his head. No, he didn't recognize the hedgehog currently sparing. Should he? She looked only about a few years older than he was, quills cut short and held back with a headband. He couldn't tell what color her fur was as she only appeared as a glowing indigo outline, but the more he stared at her the more she seemed familiar. The smile, the eyes...Wait...Aunt Maria?
No, it couldn't be. This hedgehog was far to young, but it was her. This wasn't the Aunt Maria he knew. Zephyr thought back to the 6th floor portrait. How young and lively she looked, with her quills cut short. That was this Aunt Maria, only now Zephyr could see how different she truly had been from now. Young, pure, untouched by war. This was Aunt Maria as a young budding warrior, not the worn, but loving mentor she came to be.
"You guys just watch days of the league at night?" Zephyr asked.
"Well, only on the full moon when the magic is powerful to activate the dust, Damian is only a novice after all. And well, we can only see the events that happened on the same date at today, but the year we see it from is completely random. Besides for me, you and Dami this is the only way we will ever get to see our parents," Sparky explained looking back at the scene.
Zephyr looked at Sparky, a deep sorrow stabbed the young hedgehog in the chest. Learning about your parents through, faded scenes of their pasts? Only hearing the sounds of their voices as echoes through time? Never truly seeing them in person, only as these glowing outlines? It hurt, knowing that this was all his friends had left of their parents, that they never had any love from their parents. Even though Zephyr knew that love, thanks to his Ma and Pa, but Sparky was still right...this was the only way he would ever see his birth parents alive.
The training scene continued for a few more moments, before the glowing outlines faded away. Apparently, the Memory Dust only lasts for a short time, before burning through it's magic reserves and needed to be recharged. Their next stop was at the lab. There Zephyr watched Sparky look longingly at his father working on one of his inventions. It was a bitter sweet moment. Even without including the twin tail aspect one could tell how Sparky and this phantom of a fox were related. And Zephyr could see the pain on his friend's face watching him faded back into dust.
The outdoor training arena, was a similar scene. Apparently, years ago on this day, Angie's and Damian's father were sparing. It was amazing watching the two leaguers battle. Well, amazing for Zephyr. Angie's eyes were practically on the verge of tears seeing her father, laughing and throwing punches. He knew that she was holding back from crying for Damian's sake. The little cross-breed look on wonder at the father he never got to know. Apparently, it was only two months after his son was born that Shadow the Hedgehog was killed by Scourge.
It wasn't until their last stop for the night, did Zephyr get his own tear trigger. The assembly hall was a large room with a large round table. Maps coated the walls, and there were even a few pieces of modern tech. With a glass sunroof, that allowed the room to be lit with star shine. This was where it happened. This was where the league met to plan their missions, to converse on ideas, to save the world.
Damian once again blew the dust out of his palm, and the scene took its shape. The fine flecks of dusts swirled for a moment, before constructing the form of...his mom. The outline of Amy Rose, was exactly how she looked in the 4th floor portrait. Her quills styled in a short bob, and held back with a headband. She was sat at the far curve of the table, outlines of old stacks of papers and books surrounded her. It was clear that she's was tired, her head leaning into her fist that was propped up on the table, and an echoed sigh escaping her lips.
"Work the problem Amy, those villagers in Greenhill can't wait forever," his mother mumbled.
Zephyr stared one in wonder. Her voice, he had just heard his mother's voice. It echoed and felt distant, but it was hers. It was familiar, warm and tired. Vaguely, like a whisper from a dream, zephyr remembered her talking to him. He couldn't see her face, he couldn't even understand nor remember what she had said to him, but he remembered how it felt. The love, the warmth, and the heartbreak.
The image of his mother working quietly at the desk, didn't stay that peaceful for long. The echoed sound of a rush of wind blew around her, sending many of the papers flying. And that rush of wind didn't arrive alone.
"Hey, Ames!" Chirped the second character in the scene. Another hedgehog, maybe a couple years older than his mother was then, a hedgehog who almost exactly like him.
His father. This was his father. The outline of a hedgehog cockily sitting on the edge of the table, twitching his foot up and down at the rapid pace. His head confidently tilted, with a cheeky grin on his face. This was his father.
Zephyr's mom, raised a tired brow, "Nice to see you too, Sonic. And thank you for making a mess of my notes."
"Oh, is that what all these papers are, sorry Ames," His father said, before expertly running around and collected all of the notes and placed them in a neat stack.
His mother carefully picked up the papers and looked them over, "Thank you. You even organized them correctly."
"What can I say I do things all the way through."
Zephyr's mother raised a brow again, though it was much more playfully this time.
"Don't look at me like that, it's true." His father crossed his arms, smirking.
"You can't watch a movie all the way through."
Sonic groaned, "Oh, very funny. I can't watch one of your movies through. Ask Tails and he'll tell you that I have sat through a number of movies."
"Yeah, your movies of nothing but senseless action and no story."
"Amy, not everybody wants to watch your blucky gucky romance movies."
"Uh huh," She turned back to the papers and sighed.
"Okay, what's wrong?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, usually by now you're either flirting with me or threatening me with your hammer. NotthatIdon'tlikethischange. It's just weird."
"Seriously? The only times I threaten you with my hammer is when you need some sense knocked into you, and right now I have other more important things that to worry about."
Sonic smirked, "More important than me?" He joked, but once no retort came flying back at him, and he saw that she wasn't joking with him. His face quickly went from a cocky smirk, to brows furrowed with concern and sincerity "Amy? What happened?"
"We lost our outpost in Northern Greenhill zone."
"What?! I thought all the sprites were tamed in that area and they were rebuilding."
"That's what I thought too, but we hadn't getting reports from the outpost for three weeks, and when I and Abe sent a team out there to investigate," She sighed, "It was completely destroyed."
"Destroyed? By what?"
"We don't know. Judging by some of the damages it could be some rogue human military force."
"What about Egghead? We haven't seen him in a while."
"Could be, but that's not the problem I'm worried about. The sprites were ticked off by whoever sent the attack. They started to hit the nearby settlements, and I can't get anyone out there right now."
"You can't?"
"NO! There's no one able too. Knuckles is on Angel Island making sure nothing bad is happening to the master emerald. Tails is busy trying to figure out a way to upgrade the wispons so we can defend ourselves better. Team Dark is investigating elevated magic levels in the mystic ruins. The chaotix are working on finding missing family members for the refugees. G.U.N's resources are stretched thinner than a piece of rice paper. And we don't even have any sort of people in the desert zones," She slammed her head against the table and sighed, "I would go myself, but someone needs to be here to keep everything in order."
"Don't worry Ames, I'll handle it."
"What? Sonic, you can't you have..."
"Other missions, I know I know. But with how fast I am being in two places at once really isn't all that hard. Besides with all the work your doing, I need step up otherwise people will start thinking I'm slacking," he hopped off the table and started for the door.
"Sonic!" Amy called after him.
"Yeah, Ames?"
"Thank you."
And with that the magic glow of the memory brought to life, faded back to dust.
Zephyr felt something hard and prickly settle in his stomach. Those were his parents. Parents who had fought and died for him and everyone else on the planet. They weren't just stories and photos anymore. The were people. Real people with stories and had lived lives. People he would never know. People who were dead.
Tears were soon pricking at the corners of his eyes. Was this? What Sparky's and Damian's lives were like? Never truly seeing the people who were supposed to love and care for you more than anyone else. Only these depictions in dust were all that was left. These moments lost in the past. There wasn't a future here, only things that have gone and died.
Zephyr couldn't help but wonder, what his life would've been like, if his father never died. Scourge would've never amassed the power he had now. His parents would've stopped him. Would've they raised him to be a hero? Would've they have raised him here in the mansion, or in a small little home of their own? Where would that have been? In the country, or in the city? Would they have more children? Would he have brothers or sisters or both? But in the end, they were all only what ifs. Dreams only for sleeping. Wishes that would never be granted.
A new emotion, flared from the middle of the overwhelming veil of grief that smothered him. Anger. Anger at whoever took that future from his family; from his friends' families. Anger at the clueless people beyond the forest's edge who didn't know how much was sacrificed for them. And anger at himself.
He had the strengths of both his parents, yet earlier he had felt he didn't belong here. He felt like he was a coward. He should be able to do this. He should be able to be the one who would run into fire without thinking. Then the images of prisons are the silo flashed back to him. That fear and worry, was quickly drowned out by his rage. He wanted, he needed to get over that. He needed to find the monster that destroyed so many lives and lock him away. And he couldn't do that if he was freezing when put on the spot.
He needed to figure this out.
Maybe he just needed to look at this from another angle. Maybe he was a little too over confident in his hero abilities. Perhaps there was more to learn about being a hero then how to fight and used your powers. Maybe he just needed to learn. Shouldn't be a problem, Zephyr had learned things before, mostly things his Pa and Ma taught him. What did Ma tell him when teaching him how to cook?
"In order to master something, you start simple. If you try to do too much, you'll make a mistake and end up mucking up what you already know. Cooking isn't just knowing what tastes good. It's about making something that can bring smiles to folks faces, and it's important you know the difference between the two. You can read as many cook books as you want but they will only take you part of the way, it's the experience that comes with serving people to truly know what just tastes good, and what makes folks smile."
Knowledge and experience, Zephyr knew you needed both to master a skill. He was getting knowledge every single day with training, but experience...that was a different story. And the young hedgehog was definitely not ready to go on another spy mission yet; they were still too much. Maybe he just needed to start smaller, like what Ma had said.
But how was he going to do that?
A/N:
I think this might be the closest story updates have been together in a while. Go me!
So, this is a bit of a sort of disconnected from the other chapters, but it does play into the story. Yes, I did come here to break hearts.
What's going on with Dami's powers? Why are the chaos emerald's magic unstable? What will Zephyr do next? We will find out....eventually....probably...
See Ya'll in the next chapter.