The Flames of Hope/Episode Silver: If We Shall Last

==Chapter 1==
thumb|right|200 px|Waking Up
She fell to the floor, falling on her hands and knees as the dry ice washed over her. Her head was a mess, a jumble of thoughts and feelings. It took a minute or so for her to adjust to being alive and to remember how to speak English. Then she stood up and looked around at the group of Mobians looking at her. One of them, a male eagle, whistled.
“Would you look at that,” He said “Stunning.”
“Wonder how a girl so pretty could do so much damage.” Another one said.
“Where...am I?” She asked them.
“Honestly?” The eagle said “None of us know, and it’s unlikely we ever will.”
“Thanks, and...Who am I?”
The group looked at each other in surprise.
“Hey, girl doesn’t remember her own name!” A Mobian rabbit said “Guess she doesn’t remember what she did, either.”
“And who are you?”
“The Grand Raiders,” The eagle told her “We usually take stuff, but this time we thought we should do something good.”
“Do something good? What do you mean.”
The eagle laughed.
“It means killing you, of course. But first-”
His sentence was cut short by loud footsteps from somewhere down the hallway. They were in a room lined with tubes, each one containing a person. She looked behind her, seeing that she too had been in one. The one in the tube to her left was a black hedgehog, the one to the right was a figure in a black, hooded trenchcoat who didn’t even look Mobian. While she was focused on the room, the Grand Raiders were looking around, horrified, drawing weapons of various shapes and sizes.
“The hell?” The rabbit said “I thought we had perimeter guards! Why didn’t we hear anything?!”
“Killed them too fast, that’s why!” A Mobian Bear replied “We’re on our own.”
“Against...what?” She asked.
“Against Iblis.” The Bear replied.
A growl sounded down the hallway. The Raiders hid beside the doorway, and she took cover behind one of the pods away from the doorway. That’s when she saw her name on the pod.
Blaze.
Soon the gunfire started. Blaze didn’t look round: there was very little she could do in this situation. She didn’t know who she was, where she was, how she ended up here. And most importantly, she didn’t know if she could fight or not. The air was filled with screams and growls, but soon the screams started to die away. All that were left were the monsters.
Blaze panicked as she heard the creatures start to walk towards her. She tried to wrack her brain for something she could use to save herself, but her mind was empty. She tried jolting her body around, seeing if her muscle memory would kick in when her conscious brain couldn’t. It worked: a small flicker of fire left her finger. She held onto the feeling of power that came with it. She then clenched her fist, and once she opened it again a fireball rested on her palm.
Blaze jumped out, seeing the creature for the first time: a lithe, dog-like creature made out of fire, it’s body burning like a furnace. The floor was covered by ash where he stood: the remains of the Grand Raiders. Although horrified by the way they were killed, Blaze was slightly glad that they were dead. They didn’t exactly seem like nice people.
Blaze screamed and hurled the fireball at it. The fireball hit, but nothing happened: the dog simply stood there and took it. The creature slowly started to approach her and she backed away, knowing nothing she could do could harm the creature. Then, it was surrounded by a green glow and thrown into the ceiling. The glow vanished and it fell back to the floor, revealing a new Mobian the corridor. He was a white hedgehog with gold bracelets, knee high boots, a satchel on his hip and a leaf-shaped crest on his forehead. Now the beast was stunned, Blaze ran up to it and kicked it in the face, feeling no heat despite it’s lava body. There was a sound like breaking glass as the creature’s form dissolved and it fell away into lava that soon simply vanished like it was never there.
The new arrival walked into the room.
“Wow,” He said. “I’ve never seen that before. Nobody has been able to kill one of those things by kicking it. How did you do it?”
Blaze raised her hand, trying to call a fireball into existence but now being unable to.
“Firstly,” Blaze said “You tell me who you are.”
“I’m Silver,” The hedgehog replied “Silver the Hedgehog.”
==Chapter 2==
thumb|left|200 px|Silver's World
“200 years ago, a being known as Iblis was born. We don’t know how, we don’t know why, it just came into existence and within a month had turned the Europa continent that we’re now standing on into an apocalyptic wasteland. The rest of the world has suffered a similar fate, but it’s at its worst here. This used to be called Soleanna, and it’s ground zero for Iblis. This is where he stays, and he’s never left, even though his influence spreads around the world. They say that some ragtag nations still exist, that there’s a secret colony aboard the half-moon in the sky, that utopia still exists. I believed them once. Not anymore.”
Silver and Blaze stood on top of a ruined building, looking out across the ruins of a great city. The ground was completely covered in lava, the sky burned red, and the silhouettes of monsters weaved in and out of their field of vision. Blaze had, according to Silver, been in stasis in what was once a high-tech laboratory, but now was mostly busted. Apparently, he and his colony had once lived down there, but they had moved out to somewhere safer. He was the only one who stayed in the city anymore. He was the only one standing between Iblis and the world becoming more of a hell than it already was.
“Are you sure you don’t remember anything?” He asked Blaze again.
“No,” She replied “I...have powers of some kind. Fire powers. That might be how I could hurt the creature.”
“I’ve never seen anyone hurt them with unarmed combat. That seems as good an explanation as any.”
“So, what powers do you have?”
“It’s called psychokinesis,” Silver said “I can move objects with my mind. I only have a limited supply of energy before I have to recharge, but it’s enough to get the job done, and I can recharge it pretty quickly.”
“So, where is Iblis now? Shouldn’t you be going to find him?”
“Iblis isn’t really anywhere right now. I’m waiting for the call.”
“What call?”
As if on command, a beeping sound came from the satchel. Silver opened it, dug around a bit and pulled out a small, hexagonal object. There was a circle in the middle that was currently flashing red.
“Receive,” Silver said. Suddenly, an hologram of a Mobian hamster appeared. The hologram was entirely white, and it flickered like some kind of damaged TV. When the hamster started talking, the object let out hisses of static along with his voice.
“Silver,” The hamster said “He’s been spotted. Bearing 098, 24 miles relative to your position. Only form II, count yourself lucky.”
“Understood,” Silver said “End call.”
The hologram vanished and Silver stuffed the object back in his satchel.
“I think I get it,” Blaze said “Iblis reforms each time, doesn’t he? You can’t finish him off permanently.”
Silver nods. He looked a the ground away from Blaze
“I can’t win this war,” He said “All I can do is not lose.”
He spun round and looked her in the eye.
“You want to help?” He asked.
Strangely, she smiled. Somehow, she remembered enjoying combat in her former life. Silver clearly didn’t share the same sentiment.
“Let’s do it,” She said.
“My psychokinesis can only get us so far,” He said “We’ll have to-”
Before Silver could finish, Blaze had already run past him. He looked around, horrified she might have fallen off, and flew over to the edge, only to find her on a damaged bridge below them.
“Blaze?” He said, relieved and confused at the same time “How did you get down there?”
“I...don’t know?” She said, being almost confused as Silver was “I ran forward and just managed to...run down the building.”
Silver floated down next to Blaze. She intrigued him: a girl in cryostasis with amnesia, fire powers and super speed. He was starting to get to like her.
“Let’s get moving,” He said, floating into the air with his psychokinesis “The city is not easy to traverse.”
“I’ll manage,” She said, and the two went off together.
==Chapter 3==
thumb|right|200 px|City of Crisis
Blaze ran across the bridge, accelerating so fast Silver was having trouble keeping up with her despite his psychokinesis enhanced flight. She leapt across the shattered pieces of road with an almost unearthly grace, but her momentum was soon shattered when a Phoenix-like creature descended from the sky and tried to stab her with its beak.
Blaze was caught completely off guard, throwing herself to the side and barely staying on the narrow road. Silver caught the being with his psychokinesis and smashed it into the ground, making it disintegrate. He then helped Blaze up and the two kept moving forward. They soon reached what had once been road, squashed between two decrepit skyscrapers and crawling with the dog-like creatures that had attacked Blaze and killed the Grand Raiders.
Two of them leapt at the Mobians. Silver caught his with his psychokinesis and chucked it into another one that was gearing up to attack while Blaze kicked hers away, then rushed behind it and punched it through the chest before it could even land. Another bird flew at Blaze, but this time she was ready: she leapt up, grabbed onto the creature and tore off its wing. The creature let our a demonic howl as it crashed to the ground.
“Keep moving!” Silver shouted “We have to get there as quickly as we can! We can’t let Iblis get stronger!”
Blaze nodded and bolted up the skyscraper. Monsters leapt out of the windows, trying to grab her and make her fall, but Silver quickly dispatched them by hurling them into the ground. They got up to the top of the skyscraper, with nothing but a broken metal rail as a way down. Through some other instinct, Blaze jumped on the rail, riding it like a skateboard, and using its momentum to keep moving. Silver flew alongside her.
“How are you doing that?” He asked her.
“No idea,” She replied “Probably practice.”
They smiled at each other and continued onwards. The rail ended at another skyscraper. Blaze ran along the wall again, but Silver went inside and ran through: he needed to wait for his psychokinesis to recharge before he could fly again. Once again, monsters tried to leap out of the building and attack Blaze, but once again Silver took them out, this time surprising them from the side and killing them with well-placed psychokinetic bursts. Eventually, he reached the end of the building, crashing out of one of the last remaining windows and once again taking to the skies. He grabbed Blaze as he went, as there was nowhere for her to jump onto.
“How far have we got left?” Blaze asked.
“Going off what Jared told me,” He said “Around...15 miles?”
“How do you know that?”
“I never leave this city. Ever.”
Before Blaze could ask him more, they landed on a fallen skyscraper. Before them was a large number of monsters, including dogs, birds, and behind them a large humanoid made of rock and lava.
“I’ll take the Goliath,” Silver said, “You take the rest.”
Blaze nodded and dashed forward, launching a slide attack on a dog before destroying it with a knifehand strike. Silver flew past the monsters as the Goliath picked up a large chunk of debris and smashed it downwards, aiming to crush Silver. The hedgehog merely caught it with his psychokinesis and ripped it out of the goliath’s hands before smashing it down on the monster’s head. The creature staggered backwards, and Silver used this opportunity to pick it up with his powers and throw it off the edge of the building. The giant almost grabbed onto the side of the building, but before it could Blaze slid under it, elbow striking the creature’s palm and knocking it down into the lava bellow. Silver looked around to find the creatures she’d been tasked to kill were already dealt with.
The two simply nodded to each other before Blaze ran down the skyscraper and onto the side of another one as Silver flew with her, heading towards a very thin tower in the distance. However, Silver noticed something forming that he hoped wouldn’t be.
“Tornado!” He shouted “Look out!”
Before Blaze could react, the tornado swept over them. Silver’s flight meant he could keep his distance, but he could do nothing as Blaze was swept into the tornado with the debris.
==Chapter 4==
Blaze took a moment to process what was happening. She was absorbed into the tornado which had pretty much appeared out of nowhere, getting smashed into a chunk of cement from a skyscraper. She tried to grab on, but she felt like she had no control of herself as the wind pulled her around like a ragdoll. She was thrown towards a shipping container, being smashed into the door. She managed to knock the door open with her momentum, hanging onto the inside and hoping that she’d be strong enough to hold on long enough to formulate a plan. She knew that she needed enough momentum to get out of the tornado, but there was nowhere straight road to get the speed required to pull herself out.
Before she could think of anything, her grip slipped and she was thrown into a another large chunk of concrete. She waved her hands around frantically and managed to grab onto a handrail. That’s when she realised: as if by magic, the tornado had actually absorbed a straight piece of road.
She sighed, realising she’d only get one shot at this. She let go and made sure her foot touched the road a second later, trying to run as fast as she could as the wind tried to pull her away. Slowly, but surely, she started to outrun the tornado’s pull. The road didn’t reach the tornado’s edge, however: she’d need to be able to jump on something to keep her momentum going fast enough to escape. Whether that thing would come, however, would be pure luck.
She increased her speed, a sudden burst that even surprised herself and leapt forwards just as the shipping container came past again. She leapt of it, jumping onto another piece of concrete, and reached the edge of the tornado, just out of it’s pull. At that point, she realised the fault in her plan.
She didn’t have anything to land on.
She began to fall, desperately looking for something to run on but too panicked to actually focus. Then she felt someone grab onto her back. She looked up and saw that Silver had caught her.
“Good work,” He said “I thought you were dead.”
“So did I,” she replied “How close are we?”
“We’re almost there. Tornadoes are surprisingly good transport.”
The duo landed in another skyscraper, diving behind what was left of the top floor’s back wall, hoping it would stop the tornado blowing them away again. Silver sat there recharging his energy as Blaze looked around, looking for the creatures. She saw quite a few of them were being absorbed by the tornado.
“Iblis doesn’t control everything here,” Silver told her “His arrival practically destroyed the ecosystem. The poles melted, sea levels went up, carbon dioxide from all the fire went into the atmosphere...yeah, he screwed up the world pretty good.”
He stood up.
“No time for reminiscing, though,” He said “We’re almost there.”
Blaze also stood up and ran forward, dashing down the skyscraper and across another broken bridge as Silver flew above her. From his point of view, he could see Iblis over the edge of a skyscraper, still in Form II: a mass of lava forming into a rocky upper body with arms and an armoured head, being as tall as the skyscrapers that surrounded it. Soon, Blaze and Silver reached one of the skyscrapers next to it. Blaze, having never seen the world-destroying monster before, looked shocked.
“That’s him?” She asked “Iblis?”
“Yep,” Silver replied “The creature that destroyed our world.”
“He’s...smaller than I expected.”
“He’s only in Form II. The strongest I’ve seen him is Form VIII. I couldn’t fight for a week afterwards.”
As they were talking, the monster turned round, green eyes that were as large as they were staring at the Mobians. Blaze felt like it was glaring at her very soul. It let out an inhuman howl as the two got into a fighting stance.
“Alright, Iblis,” Silver muttered, knowing the monster couldn’t hear him “Let’s go.”
==Chapter 5==
thumb|right|200 px|Iblis Form II
The lava in Iblis’ body bubbled and suddenly rocks flew out. Blaze was caught off guard by this strange attack, but Silver had seen it a million times before, easily catching the rocks with his psychokinesis and hurling them at the beast’s giant head. The creature screamed in agony as the rock that protected it’s head cracked slightly. It retaliated by slamming it’s massive fist down onto the skyscraper, strong enough to smash the roof that Blaze and Silver were standing on, forcing them to separate and dive away. Silver hung in mid air while Blaze jumped down onto a lower floor of the building, carefully dodging the collapsing rubble.
Silver flew straight and Iblis, using his psychokinesis to pull a chunk of concrete and smash it into the monster’s face, once again breaking the armour. Meanwhile, Blaze jumped out of the building and ran across the underside of the arm, eventually running up to Iblis’ rock-plaited back. Iblis raised his arm and tried to grab Blaze at an angle that would break his arm if it was any normal creature. Blaze swiftly dodged out of the way and Silver smashed another piece of concrete down onto Iblis’ arm. He then retreated to the damaged skyscraper, waiting for his psychokinesis to recharge. Blaze jumped up and tried to divekick Iblis’ head, but the creature was prepared and snatched her up in it’s hand. Silver spun round to see Blaze in the monsters grip.
“BLAZE!” He shouted as he flew over to her, but his shout gave Iblis time to react and grabbed him as well. However, Silver was able to shrug it off with a blast of psychokinetic energy, making Iblis yelp in pain. He flew over to Blaze and smashed to the arm hard enough to make the monster let go. Silver caught Blaze with his psychokinesis and hurl her straight at the monster’s face. She kicked Iblis’ face, shattering part of the monster’s armour, before falling down and landing on some broken ground near the creature.
Iblis started getting desperate: he uprooted a skyscraper and tried to bring it down on Blaze. Blaze managed to jump through one of the windows, leaping across interior walls until eventually escaping and running across the creature’s arm. While Iblis was distracted, a car flew into his face, shattering his remaining armour.
“Where did you get the car from?” Blaze asked. Silver shrugged.
“It was probably in the tornado. Now let’s finish this!”
Blaze leapt towards Iblis’ face and Silver threw another piece of concrete at the monster. They struck in unison, and the creature howled in pain as it’s face melted away and the lava and rock that made up it’s body fell into the burning depths below. Silver grabbed Blaze with his psychokinesis and they both floated down to ground level.
Blaze sat down on the ground, feeling exhausted. Silver just stood there, completely unfazed.
“We got lucky,” Silver said in almost monotone. “He’s not usually this weak.”
“That was his weak form?” Blaze said in surprise “He tried to hit me with a skyscraper!”
“Usually he’s throwing the skyscrapers.”
“Maybe...he’s getting weaker? Maybe your efforts are paying off?”
“No. This has happened before. His activity goes up and down, sometimes he’s super weak, sometimes I barely survive. This isn’t going to stop.”
As Silver finished talking, Blaze heard a shuffling sound from the shadows behind them. She spun round, as did Silver.
“Who’s there?” She shouted.
thumb|left|200 px|Theme of Mephiles
“You say this isn’t going to stop,” A voice said from the shadows “You think you have tried everything. Maybe...you have only tried the things within your reach?”
“What are you talking about?” Silver growled. This new arrival seemed to be mocking his attempts at saving the world.
“Plants come from seeds. Chickens come from eggs. Everything has an origin. If you destroy the origin before it begins, that thing ends. Have you ever considered destroying Iblis’?”
“I know his source of power. I destroyed it. It just rebuilt itself.”
“That is not the same as his origin.”
The figure shuffled into the light: a black hedgehog with dark blue highlights and no mouth. His limbs hung like he was a puppet being pulled by strings.
“What if you could go back,” The person said “What if you could stop Iblis from even existing at all?”
“That’s impossible,” Silver continued, “You can’t change the past. No one can.”
“I can.”
“Who are you?” Blaze asked as Silver and the new arrival stared each other down. She didn’t know what it was, but this figure seemed familiar.
“My name...is Mephiles.”
==Chapter 6==
Silver woke up, feeling like he’d nearly been drowned and was gasping for air. He looked around: he was in a room with a giant screen and banks of computers. He’d never seen this room before, but the familiar smell of ash filled the air, so chances are they were still in the city. Next to him, Blaze had done the same thing as he had just done.
“What the hell happened?” She said as she jumped to her feet.
“I apologise for that,” Mephiles said, walking out from behind them “My presence can be...harmful, to those who aren’t used to it. I assure you, I have no intention to use it. It’s one of the many curses of this new form.”
He spun around, like he was showing off his body like it was some kind of fashion item.
“New form?” Silver asked “What are you talking about?”
“I haven’t had this body for long. I’m a shapeshifter, to a degree, but I need something to copy. I haven’t exactly been alive for very long either. That said, I have still been alive long enough to know what’s at stake here and how to solve it.”
“So why are we here?” Blaze asked. She wasn’t sure how much she trusted Mephiles.
“I want to show you how this came to pass,” He said, typing something into the computer. It came up with a video: a news report. It showed a new city with a blue sky, something Silver was far from used to. A voiceover came on, a woman’s voice.
“The Iblis crisis has gripped the world,” She said “But, today, some hope was gained.”
The scene changed to a destroyed square, with several policemen and military vehicles around the perimeter. In the centre was a massive crater, and nearby the crater was the dead body of a white hedgehog with an X shaped scar.
“The military, as well as the mysterious vigilante who assisted in the capture of the Iblis Trigger have been commended for their bravery, even if the latter died protecting this world.”
The scene changed again, this time to a protest. Countless people protesting, with signs like “1 life for the many” and “Iblis or the Earth?”
“The hedgehog is currently in G.U.N custody, being questioned about his role in the rise of Iblis. However, many think that the believed Iblis Trigger should be executed immediately if there is any hope of defeating Iblis.”
The video ended abruptly.
“The rest of the tape is damaged beyond repair,” Mephiles said “That’s all that remains. Killing the Iblis Trigger after Iblis was released did nothing, but killing him before...that will, indeed, save everything.”
Silver and Blaze stood in silence.
“Who was it?” Silver asked “The hedgehog who they thought was the Iblis Trigger?”
Mephiles typed something else into the keyboard and a Soleannen newspaper with a picture of a blue hedgehog appeared.
“His name is Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog.”
A bit overzealous, aren't we? Hey, don't bite off more than you can chew. And be yourself. Don't need to do everything on your own.
Blaze staggered back as she heard a voice she knew, but couldn’t recognise.
“Who...who said that?” She said.
“We didn’t say anything,” Mephiles replied.
“Blaze, are you ok?” Silver asked. Blaze looked at the hedgehog on the screen, her head filled with imagery just slightly out of reach.
“I’m...I’m fine,” She said, although Silver wasn’t convinced. “Why are you telling us this?”
“Because I can stop this all from happening,” Mephiles replied “I have the power to travel through time.”
“And I’ve told you,” Silver said “That’s impossible. And even if it were possible, why haven’t you done it yourself?”
“I am no warrior. As you can see, the Iblis Trigger is...was, rather...a formidable fighter. I cannot challenge him...but you can.”
Silver stood there for a moment, looking at the floor. What Mephiles was telling him couldn’t be true, time travel was impossible. But was there any other choice? Either Mephiles was tricking them and the last barrier stopping Iblis came down...or the world was saved.
“If I stop the Iblis Trigger before Iblis can be released,” Silver asked “Will this future change? Can our world be saved?”
Mephiles simply nodded, albeit a bit too quickly to be considered natural for a Mobian. Silver looked him in the eyes.
“I’ll do it,” He said.
“Silver?” Blaze looked at him incredulously “Are you serious? Do you really think he’s telling the truth?”
“Even if he isn’t, what choice do we have? This is my last chance to save everything.”
“But what if there still was another chance? One that isn’t theoretical?”
“There isn’t,”
Silver glared into Blaze’s eyes. It was like everything about him had turned cold, the hopeful, heroic demeanour vanishing in an instant.
“Do you think I and the countless others who came before me haven’t tried everything?” He asked her, his voice once again becoming almost monotone. “Do you know what I’ve been through? The amount of people I’ve lost in order to fight Iblis, sacrificed in the hope that they may save something? Nothing works, Blaze. All we can do is stave off the inevitable. Do you really think I was the only one who came here to the city to contain Iblis? There were 50 of us once, a new batch of heroes sent from the outlying regions of Soleanna to stop Iblis.”
“How many are there now?” She asked quietly. Silver didn’t answer that question. He just looked back at Mephiles.
“Are you joining us, Blaze?” Mephiles asked. Blaze simply nodded.
“Good,” Mephiles said, raising his hand. “You will arrive 3 days before Iblis is meant to be released. You will not arrive near the Iblis Trigger so you can better adjust yourself to the new environment, but I’m sure you’ll find him soon enough. Upon the defeat of the Iblis Trigger, go to the square in New City. I will retrieve you and bring you back here to an altered world. Good luck, heroes.”
Mephiles clicked his fingers and the group vanished.
==Chapter 7==
Silver once again woke up gasping for air, the same feeling he’d had when Mephiles took him to the computer room. But he wasn’t there now. His back was lying on something soft, wet. The sky above him was a vibrant shade of blue, one he’d barely seen outside of videos. He stood up, and saw what he was lying on, something he’d only heard and dreamed about before. Grass.
He looked around to see himself in a jungle, the massive trees towering over him. He didn’t think that there was this much green in the whole galaxy, and he just stood there, taking in the sight.
“He...he was right,” Silver muttered “This has to be the past, Blaze. Our world can’t be this green.”
He turned round and to his surprise saw that Blaze wasn’t with him.
“Blaze?” He shouted “Blaze?”
It wasn’t any use. Blaze wasn’t here. He doubted she would leave him: they must have gotten separated when Mephiles sent them back. That didn’t matter, he’d fought his whole life on his own, but she was starting to grow on him, and it was worth having a friend in this strange world that was really his.
thumb|right|200 px|A Green World
He walked through the grass, pushing the foliage to the side as he walked through the forest, not really knowing where he was going. Everything felt so unusual. For possibly the first time in his life, he felt calm. He was convinced Iblis was about to jump out and drown him in lava, but Iblis wasn’t here, and if he had a say, Iblis would never be here at all.
He kept on walking, listening to the noise of animals he didn’t recognise, until he reached what looked like the sea (he thought that’s what they used to call it, anyway). Sticking out of the endless expanse of water stood broken ruins; not of modern buildings like in his time, but of ancient brickwork. Giant turtles swam through the water; he only recognised them through description, he’d never seen even a picture of one before. Above it flew unnatural beings, not unnatural like the Iblis monsters that plagued his future, but creatures made of metal and sparking flame with guns for arms. Silver didn’t think these creatures were good.
He flew over to one of the pillars sticking out of the water, standing on them while surveying the area. The unnatural creatures were mostly congregated around a small, raised temple area. Silver figured that if he was to find out more about this strange time, this would be a good place to start.
One of the metal creatures floated towards him. Silver got into a combat stance.
“Who are you?” Silver asked. The machine just started shooting at him.
Silver flew towards the creature and kicked it with his foot, shattering it easily. He’d drawn the attention of several other of the metal creatures, who were now shooting him constantly. Silver weaved in and out of the bullets, dispatching the creatures one by one, but his psychokinesis was running out and, unlike the urban cityscapes he was used to, there was nowhere to hide. He landed on another pilar, hoping he’d have enough time to recover, but he had barely any time to: before he could charge even a sliver of psychokinesis, he was shot in the leg.
Silver screamed in pain as he stumbled back, falling down. This isn’t where I die. He thought. It can’t be.
Luckily for him, it wasn’t. Silver felt himself land on something soft. He limped to his feet, wincing from the pain, to find he’d fallen on a pile of leaves on top of one of the turtles. Said turtle was now swimming towards the temple as the robots shot at Silver. Now no longer needing to fly, Silver easily caught the bullets and threw them back at the machines that were shooting at him.
“Thanks, buddy,” Silver said to the turtle. He didn’t know if it understood English, but he knew that it got the gist of what he said.
They continued onwards until they reached the base of the old temple. It was a small structure but it was absolutely surrounded by various robots. Silver pulled the bullet out of his leg with psychokinesis and wrapped one of the leaves round it, hoping it would stem the flow of blood until he could properly get patched up. He rubbed the turtle’s head.
“See you later,” He said to the beast. He then flew up to the centre of the temple’s platform, instantly gaining the attention of several robots out for his blood.
A humanoid machine with giant hands tried to punch Silver, but Silver pulled off the arm and hit it over the head with it’s severed limb. Several missiles flew at him, but Silver easily deflected those, destroying their respective attackers easily. Another ball like one with shields for arms tried to sneak up behind him and hit him and Silver quickly kicked it away, finishing up by smashing it into the raised platform. The robots had been dispatched in just over a minute: Silver figured the least he could do is see what they were guarding.
He walked into the temple; an old stone building with a pyramid shaped roof. The walls were covered in moss and holes let in sunlight. At the back of the room were three doors with a sun, a moon and a star, and to the left was another room with several circular platforms. However, that’s not what caught Silver’s eye. On a plinth in the room was a magnificent blue gem, the sunlight glinting off it’s surface. Silver picked it up and suddenly felt a rush of energy: a feeling that soon went away. He didn’t know what the gem was, but he figured it must have some kind of importance if the robots were guarding it, so he stuffed it in his satchel for safe keeping. He walked out of the room, but as soon as he was out of the temple he felt his leg buckle. He looked down to see that the leaves had done very little to stem the bleeding. He stumbled off the plinth and back onto the turtle’s back. The creature looked concerned.
“Don’t worry,” Silver said “I’ve had way worse.”
“Ya sure?” The turtle replied “Cause it looks pretty bad from where I’m swimmin’ ”
“It’s fine, I’ve fallen unconscious twice today anyw-wait, did you just ta...”
Silver soon slipped back into the depths of unconsciousness. The turtle rolled it’s eyes.
“Kids.” He muttered to himself and swam off towards the nearest hospital.
==Chapter 8==
Silver had little memory of his visit to the hospital. He remembered the first warm bed he’d been in for a very long time, he’d remembered having food that didn’t taste stale, he remembered being healed in some way that made his leg look good as new; it usually took wounds months to heal like that.
“Your recovery has been astounding,” The Doctor had said, although Silver had been half delirious from the amount of blood loss. He was pretty sure he replied with something about a giant fire monster, but the doctor had laughed it off as him being delirious, and he wasn’t entirely wrong.
Silver left before he was meant to: he had very little time to stop the Iblis Trigger. He only stayed for the remnants of the first day he was in the past, flying out of the hospital with his psychokinesis while no doctor was looking once he felt he was ready. He entered into a city he recognised: the city of crisis from the future, but fixed, modern. Silver didn’t like it much anyway and began to wonder if Iblis had done architecture a favour.
It was the middle of the night. He had found a crowd in the street, looking at a massive electric sign. A news report from the same presenter that had done the report on Sonic’s capture. It showed a town on fire, and people were gasping in shock.
“This is the remnants of Castle Town,” She said “The annual Festival of the Sun was cut short this evening by an invasion by Doctor Ivo Robotnik, better known by his pseudonym of Doctor Eggman.”
The scene swapped to grainy footage taken from a phone, showing the metal creatures Silver had fought in the jungle attacking the town, and above it a fat man in a red coat looking down on it all from a flying machine of sorts.
“Eggman’s robots [So that’s what they’re called. Silver thought] descended on the Town before Princess Elise could perform the annual prayer to Solaris. However, luckily the world’s most famous hero came to the rescue.”
The picture jolted as the person was picked up. The camera eventually rested on the picture of a hedgehog for a split second, but at that split second the film stopped moving. The crowd gasped and cheered as they saw the picture, but Silver only growled.
“Sonic the Hedgehog saved the majority of the town’s inhabitants. Princess Elise, however, is still currently missing. Castle Town is now being rebuilt with Sonic to support the construction crews.”
“Hey,” Silver asked someone in the crowd “Do you know where Castle Town is?”
“Yeah, it’s just to the north,” the man said “Why?”
“I’m a tourist,” Silver replied, although he had no real idea what that word meant.
Silver walked away from the crowd and into a backalley before they could reply. His psychokinesis flared up and he shot up into the sky, attracting some shocked looks from the few people nearby. He flew across the city, seeing buildings he half recognised. With his weakened state and limited psychokinesis, it was dawn by the time he arrived in Castle Town.
He sat on the top of a tall building for a time, using high tech binoculars to scan the area and resting up the best he could. Then he saw him: Sonic the Hedgehog, talking to a yellow two-tailed Fox on the edge of the town, looking over the sea. Silver stood up and lowered his binoculars as he saw the fox run into the town and a few moments later the hedgehog ran across the ocean.
“I’ve found you at last,” Silver said “The Iblis Trigger.”
Soon, he was flying in pursuit.
==Chapter 9==
thumb|left|200 px|Following The Iblis Trigger.
Silver had thought Blaze was fast, but Sonic was completely on another level. Even flying as fast as he could, he could barely keep up with the lightning fast Hedgehog. He also wasn’t used to flying across such a large expanse with nowhere to land: in a city of fire, it’s not like he learned how to swim. His psychokinesis was almost completely depleted by the time he arrived at some kind of beach area, with several rocky outcrops. He landed on one of the outcrops, surveying the area and keeping out of sight of the Iblis Trigger.
A massive aircraft of some kind flew above the beach, with robots pouring out of it. Sonic was easily dispatching them, but soon they started to attack Silver. Silver easily caught them and threw them into each other. He knew that these robots could dispatch Sonic for him, but he doubted that would happen: the past was currently playing out with no input from him, and he was the only one who could change the world. However, he figured this ship belonged to Eggman, and if he could take out two global threats in one go, he might as well try.
Silver flew towards the massive ship only to face a barrage of missiles and bullets. He hurled them away, destroying the robots attacking him but being unable to damage the ship in any meaningful way. As such, he flew over the aircraft and landed on the top of it, looking for a way in. Eventually, he found a hatch, landing in a long metal corridor. He heard voices and hid in a doorway to avoid being detected.
“Doctor,” A mechanical voice said “The princess has been sedated, as per your orders.”
“Good,” Replied another voice which Silver correctly assumed was Doctor Eggman “I couldn’t stand her constant shouting. Even that loathsome Amy Rose didn’t shout as much.”
“Also, Sonic has pursued us and we are withdrawing troops from the resort. Ergo, increasing speed would be advised.”
“Good. It’s time we had a change of pace.”
“Also, we have detected another hedgehog.”
“...What?”
“A white hedgehog with psychokinesis. We believe he is responsible for the attack on Tropical Jungle and the loss of the Chaos Emerald. We also believe he attacked troops here but then vanished. Ergo, we believe he is onboard.”
Silver felt his throat grow dry at this. Stealth wasn’t his strong suit. He pulled out the gem he had retrieved from the jungle. Was this the Chaos Emerald the robot was talking about? Why was it so important?
“Well, he has a Chaos Emerald, correct?” Eggman said “Scan the ship for Chaos energy and set course for the Desert. I’m sure Sonic will come for the princess, and when he does I’ll give him a surprise…”
“Of course, Doctor.” The robot said. Before anything else could be said, Silver had flown out of the hatch again, still holding the Emerald and started to freefall towards the chain of islands. He couldn’t see the Iblis Trigger, and the aircraft had already bolted away at incredible speed.
“The desert, huh?” Silver said as he fell “Let’s see if we can beat you there, Sonic.”
Silver turned in the air and blasted off in pursuit of the Egg Carrier.
==Chapter 10==
If Silver couldn’t keep up with Sonic, he barely stood a chance against the Egg Carrier. Even with its size, he couldn’t keep up. All he could do was go in the general direction the craft went in and hope that at the end of it he’d find a desert. Surprisingly enough, he did.
Silver had been in a few deserts in his time thanks to Iblis screwing up the ecosystem, so he knew what he was dealing with. He noticed that the majority of the desert was made up of quicksand fairly soon after he arrived, so he simply flew over it, keeping to the ancient ruins and avoiding the robots (Soleanna did seem to have a lot of both of those things). He didn’t know where Eggman had gone, but he didn’t care: the Princess they’d been talking about wasn’t his concern if the Iblis Trigger wasn’t there as well.
thumb|right|200 px|Under the Desert
However, soon a major setback occured: A sandstorm started to set in, thick enough to block out the sun and make it feel like it was nighttime. Silver used his psychokinesis to protect himself, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep moving forward for a while. Luckily, through the storm Silver saw the entrance to a tunnel hidden under a huge mound of sand, torches outside that seemed to stay bright despite the storm. Silver walked in; even if it led to nowhere, shelter from the storm was enough. The entire tunnel was well lit by similar torches, the bright orange flame lighting the way. He kept walking, occasionally glancing at the old symbols and writings on the walls, with occasional vandalism from people who somehow managed to get through here. He had no idea how far down he was, but he could still hear the sandstorm overhead.
He continued onwards, eventually coming to a room that was mostly taken up by a square pit. He stood on the raised area above it, although it wasn’t far down to the pit, it was only about his height. There were large holes in the pit, and several balls, at least Silver’s size, were being rolled around by Eggman’s robots, who were trying desperately to pot them. They hadn’t noticed the hedgehog arrive, so he sat down until they did.
Soon they finished their work, opening up a door on the other side of the pit. Silver then grabbed them all with his psychokinesis, crushed them into a ball and threw it into another one of the holes before continuing through the door. Here, the floor was made of quicksand and ruins jutted out of it, just like in the desert above. The roof was also made of quicksand, held up by what was left by a stone ceiling. Silver wondered how anyone could build anything here without drowning in quicksand as he jumped across the pillars.
However, while he was thinking to himself, he’d made the assumption that the room was empty when in truth it wasn’t. One of Eggman’s robots had hid in the shadows above him and opened fire. Although he didn’t get hit by a bullet like he had before, one of the shots still grazed Silver’s arm mid-flight. He lost focus of his psychokinesis and fell into the quicksand. He quickly threw a pillar into the robot, destroying it, but he was already starting to sink into the sand. Silver tried pulling himself out, but he couldn't: the sand wasn’t budging, and he had already sunk down to his waist. He used his psychokinesis, trying to push the sand away, but the force of it was too heavy. All he could do was struggle as his psychokinesis started to run out.
As a last ditch attempt, he used his psychokinesis on himself, trying to fly. Suddenly, he felt his body dissipate, feel like he was nothing but a disembodied thought, and he appeared flying above the quicksand, whole. He looked at his hands: what had he just done? Right now, that didn’t matter. He floated to another pillar and sat there for a while, letting his psychokinesis recharge and checking for any of Eggman’s other robots before he continued onwards into a room where he was on a platform with quicksand 20 feet below him. As if on command, several platforms rose up to his right and he followed them onwards.
For a while, there was nothing but empty corridors. Eggman’s robots clearly didn’t want to mess with him, or so he hoped. Soon, he came to another room with a quicksand floor and quicksand roof. This one, however, was filled with Eggman’s robots. One of them, the humanoid with huge hands he’d seen in the jungle, fired his arm forward as a projectile, but Silver threw it back at him, destroying the machine. Several robots flew out from below him, having been skimming just above the quicksand, before opening fire, but Silver clumped them all into a ball and hurled them at another turret-like flying robot that had its sights set on him, destroying them all in an explosion. What Silver hadn’t noticed, however, were the spider-like robots on the wall behind him. They leaped down, pinning him to the ground, while another robot in the air fired a missile straight at him.
Well, Silver thought. It’s now or never.
Silver focused his psychokinesis again, repeating what he had done to escape the quicksand. He felt that strange and unnerving sensation of having no body before appearing behind the missile robot. The spiders looked horrified as a missile destroyed them all in a flash.
“Looking for me?” Silver asked the robot before ripping it in two with his powers. He then continued onward to the next room, which was empty apart from the two doors on each side. Silver decided to go right for no reason other than sheer curiosity. He used his psychokinesis to raise the door, the grinding momentarily blocking out the woosh of the sandstorm outside. What he saw before him was a ball and a long corridor with holes in the floor. Then a hologram of a man in Soleannen guard uniform appeared before him, momentarily startling Silver.
“Hello, traveler!” The hologram bellowed in a voice so loud Silver could have sworn the roof shook. “It SEEEEEMS you have arrived at my FANTASTIC BALL PUZZLE OF FANTAAAASTICAAALNESSSSS!”
==Chapter 11==
Silver raised his eyebrow and folded his arms as the hologram kept talking.
“IIIIF you can move this ball from HERE and drop it in the END ZOOOONE. YOOOU WILL RECEIVE A GRRRRAND PRIZE! Oh, but there is a catch however! You CANNOT EVER TOUCH THE BALL! The ball has pressure plates so it will teleport back to the START if you ever touch it even ONCE! Try beating this FIENDISH TASK PUZZZELAAAAR!”
Silver had walked past the hologram the moment it mentioned the end zone, picked up the ball with his psychokinesis and began walking to the end and was only dimly aware of one of the pillars in the room behind him collapsing as the hologram said the last word. There were many, many holes in the floor, some of which Silver was pretty sure would be unavoidable if it wasn’t for his powers. It seemed Eggman had stayed clear of the madman who made the puzzle as well, as not a single robot was here. The corridor felt like it went on forever, and Silver soon put down the ball to recharge his psychokinesis. He put the ball down, and then it vanished as soon as it hit the floor.
“YOU LOOOOOOOSE!” The hedgehog heard radiate down the corridor. He sighed and flew back to the start. He let his psychokinesis charge to full and started to run down the corridor as fast as he could with the ball held above him, only using his psychokinesis on anything else when he absolutely had too. He was within touching distance of the end zone, a small red box the same size of the ball with a door nearby, when the psychokinesis ran out.
“YOU LOOOOOOOOSE!”
Silver sighed and started again, this time edging the ball down the hallway as slowly as he could without using his psychokinesis outside of weak blasts. Once he was next to the end zone he picked it up and placed it in the slot.
“YOU LOOOOOOOOSE!”
Silver was confused. He went back and did the same thing again.
“YOU LOOOOOOOOOSE!”
Silver didn’t even bother with the ball this time. He used his psychokinesis to rip the door off its hinges and walked through into the next room. There was no treasure, as he had predicted by now. Instead, he was met by the hologram once again.
“IMPRESSSIVE...NOOOOOOTTTTTT!” The hologram practically roared. “This puzzle could only he solved legitimately by CHEEEEAAAATING! And this proves that you are a CHEEE-”
He didn’t get another word out before Silver ripped the projector of the wall, crushed it with his psychokinesis, and chucked it in the end zone where the ball was meant to be. He continued down the next corridor.
The sandstorm had stopped: he had been so busy with the ball ‘puzzle’ that he hadn’t noticed it until now. He kept walking down the corridor until he saw light at the end of the tunnel. He emerged into an ancient arena, so old and decrepit that their was barely any ceiling left and a large hole now sat where he assumed the entrance was meant to be. That’s when he saw it: a blue blur running across the sand, destroying robots left, right and centre: The Iblis Trigger. Now he was so close, Silver had no idea how he was going to fight someone so fast. He walked out of the arena and looked around, seeing the parts of the robots Sonic had destroyed disappear into quicksand.
The quicksand gave Silver an idea. He could hide under it, using his psychokinesis to create an air bubble. Then he could attack the Iblis Trigger before he could react. Sonic seemed like a hero at this point even if he would bring about the end of the world, and the least Silver could do was give him a quick death.
He flew between the pillars, keeping out of sight from Sonic as best as possible. Then he saw Sonic stop at a raised platform surrounded by stairs, with a pillar on each corner of the main platform. Now he’d stopped running, Silver realised that he was carrying a girl, presumably the Princess Eggman had captured. That would make this harder: what if she saw him and told Sonic? Now he had to act with speed and stealth, neither of which were exactly his specialty.
Silver got as close to the platform as he could without being noticed before diving under the sand, creating a bubble to hold the sand back. However, now he was completely blind, acting on sound alone. He started to move forward, and as he got closer he started to hear a conversation between Sonic and the Princess.
“...Honestly, I know very little, it’s more Tails’ area of expertise.” Sonic said.
“When did you first discover them?” A girl’s voice, presumably the Princess’.
“I...think I was 12? I was racing one of my old friends on South Island. Started the race and suddenly shot off like a lightning bolt and flew through a wall. Uncle Chuck was not happy about that.”
“Is it...unusual for it to come out now?”
“Again, ask Tails. Not my speciality.”
She paused for a moment.
“Sonic...did you ever have...hallucinations before you discovered your powers?”
There was no reply.
“Sonic?” She asked, sounding worried and curious.
There was a long period of silence, and Silver could only hear the sound of movement.
“Alright, you can come out now!” Sonic shouted “You think I haven’t kept my eye on the sand?”
Silver sighed. He would have to fight Sonic after all. Well, now he was spotted, he figured might as well make an entrance.
Silver blasted straight up out of the sand, freezing the sand in mid air for effect. Both Sonic and the Princess (a green mobian cat in a flimsy dress) were looking straight at him: the Princess backed away slowly while Sonic simply folded his arms.
“I’ll skip the whole “faker” thing for Shadow’s sake,” He said “So what’s your name?”
This was it.
“I am Silver the Hedgehog! And it’s time for you to die, Iblis Trigger!”
Continued in Part II
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