(Old World) Coming Home

WarTraveller · July 6, 2017

First released back in 2013, Coming Home was the very first major stories I wrote, on my own, without help and following a strict sense of continuity...even if the continuity I was referencing was never established in the first place. Something I HOPE to rectify with all this reboot stuff I'm working on. Regardless, it was what started my attempts to make bigger stories, including The Surgeon...which went nowhere, Sonic: Forced Evolution...which no-one read and I cancelled, and the reboot stuff that I have yet to work on. After way too long, as well as contemplating rewriting the thing from scratch, I decided to just post the old story here, see how well it goes down. If at all.

Some things to note:

This story was done back in...well, 2013. Before I had learned to plan these stories out...or spell correctly. I've tried to correct as much grammar and spelling mistakes as I possibly can.
Apart from that, the story will not be edited besides minor edits for the sake of clarity, like Freedom Dies With Me was. This was what it was like when I first put it up on Fanfiction.net. So if parts fail to make sense...well, it didn't make sense at the time, either. Oh yes, and...well I know I've said I dislike the use of the word "cringe" when it comes to critiquing but I certainly cringe when I READ half the stuff in this thing, so...
None of this is really canon anymore, due to the reboot. I might still write some stories in the preboot world, hence why stuff like this will be tagged as Old World material.
Oh yes, and there might be some swearing and very...uncomfortable ideas and sequences within. So, not exactly NSFW but caution is advised while reading. Ready? Here we go...

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"Mr Highcastle...are you afraid of god?"

"No. Our god is Master, and he is harmless...but I'm afraid of you."

Perry Martin presents

COMING HOME

Chapter 1: The Start of Darkness

KNIGHT ISLAND
Off the coast of The United States
October 23rd, 1922
7:32PM
Mr. William Needlemouse

"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" came the first of the voices, a young one, filled with joy, wonder and an overpowering sense of boredom.

"Not yet, little one..." another voice said, older and yet still young, but weary and low pitched, laced with a British accent and a tire of the daily life events, "But we're close. So very close..."

There was a gurgle and a groan as light, or what little of it, flooded the man's eyes. William slowly arched his neck upwards to the same sight as he had seen a long time before. He was on a boat in the middle of nowhere, nothing but wild, dark blue waters in every direction. The winds were strong and the waves fierce, rocking the boat all over the place and keeping William focused on his balance. Ahead of him were three people, all hedgehogs just like him. One was old, around the same age as William, which was around 24. He had dark fur, causing him to blend almost seamlessly against the darkly lit night that over-shadowed the sea surrounding them, with a sort of "skunk stripe", following along his eyes, from his brow to the top quill, which contemplated his purple eyes and rather dark, but still light skin. He was wearing a yellow raincoat and matching hat, but William could see he was wearing a waistcoat under that, with a white shirt and black tie, along with his pinstripe trousers and monocle.

Next to him was another male, younger and smaller than the other, around 15 or so. He was a very dark brown in colour, the darkness surrounding his eyes (along with sitting with his back to William) and masking his eye colour, instead showing off his quills, which were short, bushy and rather badly kept. He was dressed much more strangely, with some sort of strange cloth jacket with metal teeth and trousers with many pockets and metal buttons, made of a rather strange material. He wore woollen gloves that had the fingers cut to the middle and metal glasses that shone a radiant blue, even in this environment. Beside him was a small child, which William had recognised as his own son. He was a radiant blue, just like his father, with a coil of brown "hair" across his eyes, acting as a fringe. His own eyes were an even lighter blue, almost aqua, and he was wearing a small waistcoat and matching suit, as was common for such a grand party.

The younger and older males were both working at the oars of the boat, rowing slowly but strongly, pushing the water aside with great strides and sending jets of water along and across the sides of the boat, a touch of white to the otherwise dark setting. The child was just tugging at the younger's woollen jacket, as if demanding something.

"So, this Rose woman..." the older male spoke up from the gloom, his voice thick and wallowed in the middle class, "What makes one say she has much importance to you. Is she your girlfriend or something?"

The older one chuckled at his joke. The younger still had his face away from William, but the strain and the low volume of his voice made it clear he was weary and tired, but struggling to stay awake for something that seemed important.

"No..." he sighed, "It's just...unfortunate that some of my test subjects decide to make a break for it, that's all. Me and someone else have been sent to this rightly marvellous party and...retrieve her. A Mr. William Needlemouse, I think."

"And..." William spoke out, his voice normal, but otherwise timid, "And that'll be me...right?"

"Indeed, he seems the right man for the job," the older spoke again, all three seeming to ignore William, "I've gone through some of his old case files. Ex-Freemason, before someone turned him away, worked as a private detective. Only one child, and that'll be young Jules here..."

The younger stared at the child that still tugged at his jacket, but never-the-less continued his indefatigable rowing, "Yes...good kid'll go far. His...eyesight needs attending to, however."

"Oh yes, don't want to make him LOSE it or anything..." the older continued chuckling, "It would cause something horrible no doubt...he might become half machine or something!"

"Heh heh...yeah, don't press your luck..."

The younger reached under his seat and pulled out a wooden box, with brass engraving and corners with metallic screws. He gave this to Jules, who then gave this to William. The box's engraving read "MR WILLIAM NEEDLEMOUSE. Bring me the girl ALIVE". William opened the box and slowly inspected the contents. There wasn't much, just a picture of the girl and her profile:

AMELIA ROSEANNE
AGE 17
FEMALE
HEDGEHOG
GREEN EYES, PINK FUR
ANSWERS TO SONIC

William smiled to himself. Sonic sounded like a very good name to him. Another thing inside the box was a key, fairly standard, but with the initials AR along the edge. The last thing was a pistol, a Browning M1922, as was standard for the time. William wasn't the biggest fan of guns, but it was only needed if Amy decided to fight back. William cocked the slide of the gun and put it in his shoulder holster, safety on, with a wide grin on his face, "Nice..."

"So, this William..." the older continued, "Does he hold any significance to you? Why pick him?"

"You make him sound like your typical meathead," the younger sighed once more, "No. He is...special to my cause. It's probably best you don't know."

"Yes, but what makes him so different?" Older asked, brow raised in question.

"Because he doesn't row," Younger shrugged back.

"He doesn't ROW?"

"No...he DOESN'T row..."

"Oh..." Older mused, "I see what you mean...kinda..."

The younger looked up to the background behind him. In the distance, getting bigger and more brightly lit with every passing second, was a castle, huge and majestic, covered top to bottom in delicate engravings and candlelit windows. The being chuckled in satisfaction, "We've arrived."

"Finally!" Jules chirped in, turning to William, "We're here dad! Isn't it wonderful?"

The boat soon pulled up to the dock and wedged itself firmly in the mould. The owner of the castle, a Mrs Eliza Prower, had designed new-fangled mechanics designed to ease the course of life. The mould was so the boat wouldn't need attaching to the dock, which saved rope and rot. The younger was the first to climb out, straining in the effort as he dragged his wrecked body onto the soggy wood. He reached down and pulled Jules up next, who emitted an outburst of joy at this action. The older climbed out next, showing no strain or no effort, leaving William the last to leave. As he climbed out, he could see a vast array of cogs that held the infernal contraption working, knowing that if single one of them went wrong, the entire thing would fail. The logistics of the entire thing made his brain ache. 1920's tech wasn't exactly space age.

The three hobbled up the long, winding stone staircase towards the castle doors. The doors were three times the height of William and twice as wide. They were a very polished walnut brown with big brass handles and doorknobs. A majestically engraved bell sat near the side, once more hooked to a mass of bits and bobs so it could work. The Prower Family, Charles and Eliza, were complete geniuses and were quite happy about it too. They had designed many advanced mechanisms and contraptions way ahead of their time and had made a rather large fortune selling it to the government for private and public use (though the actual public never got to use it. Obviously). They bought the castle on an island just off the coast of America, Knight Island. There they spent their days inventing new and perfecting old, to keep their money coming in. They used the money on regal and sophisticated parties that everyone wanted to attend, often unveiling new machines in the process. William was beaming with delight on the inside at the mere thought of attending this kind of party, but he was nevertheless a man on a mission to find a young girl who had fallen into strange hands.

Strange really. Like that man who went to that flying city ten years previous. The older man was somewhat...familiar.

William suddenly jumped with shock at the thought of the man before him, "Oh! Almost forgot! I never got your name, Mister..."

"Me? My name's Dewitt Highcastle," the older stretched out his hand to shake William's, "Nice to be assisting you on this adventure."

"And you?" Jules poked at the younger.

"Me? Hmmm..." the younger paused over his words with caution and scepticism, "Just call me Master. Everyone else does."

Master and Dewitt Highcastle. Very strange names, William was thinking to himself. However, such odd names would become entwined in his memory for a long time soon.

After the nightmare this "adventure" would bring to him.

KNIGHT ISLAND-ABANDONED
Off the coast of Mobius Alpha
July 5th 2013, 2:12PM
Oliver Maruice "Sonic The Hedgehog" Needlemouse and Lowell Theo Highcastle II

"The things we take from Miley, huh?" Lowell joked as he kicked the fragile wooden door, "And to think I never thought this place even existed.

Sonic shyly sighed to himself. Lowell had only just learned of this place's existence, but Sonic and his family had known about it for time immemorial. It was said to be so majestic so long ago, but a mysterious accident had caused the place to enter a new state of mystery, no two rumours being alike. The castle was shut down finally entering the 1940's and had thus been abandoned for 73 years. The engravings, while still present were almost completely illegible and faded from the cruel concept of time, the once amazing art now nothing more but vaguely interesting shapes and shadows of a previous world. The insides were coated with dust and darkness, damp and cobweb-flooded. A place that shrieked the themes of horror and possession...and, unfortunately, it was the place Sonic and his friend would be spending the next month.

This is because while the place was completely empty, the castle was said to be, in one of its many rumours, to have once been the property of the the Prower family, whom which Sonic's best friend Miley was of. It was said they were of great technological importance to the government and thus they were dead rich via selling their tech to the world, but the accident, whatever it involved, screwed up their reputation and forced them to flee the castle and go low-profile, until Miley came along and improved her family name once more. Unfortunately, that's all it was; just another rumour. There wasn't even a will inside the house, at least at the time of inspection. All Sonic and Lowell had to do was find this will and they'll be able to help Miley reclaim her fortune. That, or live there for at least a month. Sonic thought this was the easier and more likely to succeed plan. Lowell didn't even know of its existence. Luckily, Sonic had managed to hide luggage and their girlfriends aboard the boat before setting off.

"Uh...yeah," Sonic said awkwardly, trying to find a subtle way to mention such plan, "I suppose. It's a mystery to many, isn't it?"

"I thought it was a secret to everybody, but I'll take that too," Lowell shrugged, "Not too bothered about that. Besides, we shouldn't be here long. All we need to do is find that deed and we SHOULD be free...right?"

Sonic sighed heavily. It was now or never, Sonic thought, and while he certainly didn't want to do it, it HAD to be done. He slowly inched over to the boat that had dragged the four onto this island and pulled the luggage free from it's hiding place. Sonic's face spoke a thousand words, mainly fear at his compadre's reaction as well as a little confidence at doing the thing, considering the traumatic event that had caused his radical change in personality so many years ago. Lowell's own face twisted into the same grimace it normally took hold of, a mix of confusion and anger.

"Sonic..." Lowell asked, puzzled, "Why have you got four suitcases?"

Sonic said nothing and simply shuffled backwards, awaiting the inevitable coming in the form of a bellowing scream from Lowell's unusual lungs. Instead, Lowell was hobbling around the orange suitcase, opening its lid with a patterned zipping sound and inspecting his contents. His grimace turned to an even more puzzled frown as he inspected the contents. A couple of extra capes of varying colours and pocket amounts, specially made toothpaste designed for fangs, a red cloth blanket that was extra soft to the touch and an old record by Sully Mcgrenzy, mainly his hit single "My Best Friend Is My Colon"...the switch finally flicked in his head. He threw his gaze at the blue hedgehog before him, who had managed to stand up straight for once.

"SONIC..." Lowell said once more, a bigger hint of anger in his voice, "This is all MY stuff! Why?"

"Because..." Sonic said timidly, "Because I said that...well...the political state of Mobius Alpha has gone to the red abyss, you know that. The new government says that squatters living in forgotten homes can own it after a month of living in it. That, and we need to do this because we ended up with that bet from Shadow. And we haven't got 1'000'000 Rings. And I'd also like to hang on to my knees if that's alright with you..."

Lowell's eyes shrunk to bead-like proportions for a few seconds as the shock of Sonic's words brushed against his mind.

"A...a...A MONTH?!" Lowell shrieked in his mix of shock and anger.

"Yeah, but it was the only way to do so..." Sonic tried to calm the angered wolf down, albeit to no avail.

"A BLOODY MONTH?!"

"Well, it ain't MY fault!" Sonic said quickly, getting defensive, "It was you, after all, that got hammered and tempted Shadow to fire an arrow at his own skull via Chaos Portals. After that, he had us over the Sharks. Besides, I don't see why YOU'RE complaining. I've only got enough underwear for tonight!"

"Well, THAT'S because you only wear it as Soma!" Lowell was still riled up, but had become remarkably calm in such a short space of time, "That's all you've EVER had!"

"...True..." Sonic regained his composure, "Now look, we're stuck with it. Trust me, I'm a master of speed. It'll fly past in no time at all. After all, remember when you were born and then a month old? The time flew past."

Lowell's annoyed mind stood him up and replied, "It passed because you had two breasts big as your head at beck and call day and night! Give me that now and I wouldn't be complaining!"

"Well..." Sonic kicked the floor with a smug look on his face, "I can give you something similar," he edged his way towards the second suitcase, a dark grey with purple highlights, "You see, I came prepared. Just in case you decided to ventilate me in anger..."

Lowell's confused head tilting to the left like a robot powering down gave Sonic the signal he had to show him exactly what he meant. He unclipped the suitcase and opened it with a large creek and a sudden WHOOSH as someone burst out of the bag. It was a female hedgehog, black in fur colour with delicate purple highlights on her fringe and quills. She wore a light grey t-shirt with a black cloth jacket and trousers with a skirt oddly wrapped around her belt, ending in white boots with red bands. The woman sat up in the case, clutching her chest and taking deep, heavy breaths.

"Darn you, Sonic!" she gasped inbetween the stinging breaths, "I haven't had a worse trip to nowhere since I ended up on the DeviantArt Fetish Train!"

"Sonic, let me get this straight..." Lowell facepalmed, "You locked Kathrine...MY girlfriend...in a suitcase and brought her over here..."

"Yeah!" Sonic said happily, giving a thumbs up, "And Frost is in the other suitcase. I thought it was a good idea..."

Lowell's face scrunched up into that grimace. He slowly walked up to the beaming hedgehog and stared at him in the face for quite some time. With a sudden burst of speed, he whisked his custom revolver out of his holster and jabbed it firmly to Sonic's forehead, who let out a sudden high pitched scream at this.

"Give me yet another reason to blow your head off," Lowell growled threateningly, "Come on..."

"Wait..." Sonic started inching backwards and cowering, "Wait wait wait wait wait wait wait WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAITWAITWAITWAIT NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!"

As Sonic's back slammed against the castle walls, there was a huge roar that shook the very confines of the island to its core, a monstrous and low growl spreading throughout the air. The door glowed with a strange purple haze, causing all three people to ignore the whole "ventilation" thing and stare at it. The doors swung open on their own terms with deafening creaks, showcasing a large, long hall. Lowell slipped the revolver back into its holster and ran towards the hall. He dragged his bare finger along the nearest well and stared at. Something had felt wrong to him, and his check had confirmed this to him.

"No dust..." Lowell said, "And no cobwebs. This place looks like it was never abandoned, at least on the inside..."

"Didn't Miley said this place was left barren for 73 years?" Kathrine asked.

"Yes..." Sonic said with wonder in his voice, "Perhaps someone already owns this place? Perhaps we'll have our work cut out? We should explore just to be certain. Let's go!"

Sonic clicked his heels together and sped off in his usual way towards the doorway, wooping all the way. Lowell suddenly pointed to the fourth, unopened suitcase, yelling "Unlock Frost first!"

Sonic suddenly skidded to a stop, "Unlock Frost first, right..." and walked back towards the suitcase.

Lowell sighed and reached into one of the many pockets on his yellow cape, rummaging around and finally pulling out a large bottle of whisky. He opened the bottle and took a large swig before turning to Kathrine.

"Looks like we're in for a long one here..."

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Return to First Entry: http://freescribesofmobius.ipbhost.com/topic/373-old-world-coming-home/

WarTraveller · July 7, 2017

Chapter 2: The Waters of Confusion

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PROWER'S CASTLE - Main Entrance
Knight Island, United Statescoast
October23rd 1922 7:34PM
William Needlemouse, Jules Needlemouse, Dewitt Highcastle, "Master"

"Well, now we've all gotten to know each other's frankly insane names," Master sighed, "Now we better get on with the entire she-bang-she-bang, get what I'm saying?"

"...Not really," Dewitt mumbled in response.

"...Oh right, you haven't invented that phrase. Sorry," Master sighed once more. He slowly walked towards the walnut doors and rapped politely on the front of the door. This didn't seem to actually work, so he stared at the door for a minute and a half, before kicking hard on the door. This...didn't really work harder, so he started wildly bashing on the door with both fists, ramming the door and otherwise attacking it. After he finally wore itself out, he just went limp and rested against the door, panting and breathless. By now, the rain had been falling like a meteor shower, leaving everyone else behind Master completely soaked.

"...Nice," William snarked, "Now can we go in?"

Dewitt pushed Master out of the way and pressed a nearby button that Master had failed to see. There was a clicking sound as the many gears that lined the wall shifted and rotated as a small striker above the four struck a bell loudly. This sent the usual loud ringing noise around the thin air, surprisingly loud given the large area it was struck with. None of the four were seemingly affected by it, except Master's slight eye twitch, but nothing more. There was a loud creak as the door finally opened, sending bright, yellow, candle light and soft violin music flooding into their soaked senses, creating a sense of warmth that washed over them in blissful joy. In the doorframe was an adult female fox. Such fox had bright orange fur that had seemingly been fluffed up somewhat for the event, while a few streams of fur slid down her face and curtained her pristine light blue eyes with an adorable little fang in her mouth. She wore glasses and a bright red shirt that only covered her arms to the middle of the uppers. Her trousers, uncommon for common female clothing of the 1920's, were made of a strange material that was rough to the touch and not very flexible, with her shoes being made of what looked like leather but coloured as white as snow with bright red lines along the soles. Her main defining feature, however, was her two fox tails that swayed free and lightly, waving the very air around them into something sweet smelling, directing the smells of the nearby food to the noses of those outside in the pouring rain.

"Hello!" the fox chirped, "So nice to see you!"

"I suppose you're now the owner of this fair castle, Eliza?" William said, approaching the fox with wonder, "I've never seen anything like your outfit before..."

"Yep!" the fox winked, "Mrs Eliza Prower here, service wonder extraordinaire! My outfit is all thanks to the man of cloth jackets."

"In other words, me," Master said, for once sounding somewhat happy with a light tone of voice, "Eliza Prower. So nice to see you once more. My my, you're getting more radiant and stunning as the visits pile on."

"Oh stop it!" Eliza giggled, "I'm MARRIED, remember?"

"So you and your husband've been giving the Government all this new-fangled tech, eh?" Dewitt approached her next, "I know one thing for sure; you've got quite a lot of electricity. Only the richest and biggest in this world have that kind of luxury. How do you do it? What's your secret?"

"Oh, THAT'S for later..." Eliza lightly brushed Dewitt's chin in a flirty manner, "Perhaps we'll finally reveal what's exactly happened here. I know YOU'RE here for a female..."

"Yes," William spoke up, "A Mrs Amela Roseanne. Do you know her?"

"Not exactly..." Eliza shrugged, "I've never seen her in my life. But someone similar...might've. Might've. Well, no use standing out here in this awful rain. Come on in. And feel free to have some of the sweets on the side."

Eliza quickly turned and wandered down the hallway towards the dining room. The four finally stepped in and added their coats to the nearby rack. William could now properly see Dewitt's waistcoat and Master's now uncanny clothes. He could also see himself in a mirror lined with gold and jewels, shining brightly and showcasing his own blue fur with browning quills. His own blue eyes complemented his fur, along with his own white shirt and waistcoat. His, however, was also covered by a jacket, completing a very dapper suit that he was wearing specially for this event. What was noticeable was his shoes, a family heirloom, that were a deep red with white shoe straps and brass buckles, as well as his gloves, which were white with circle cufflinks and red bands. Very dapper, very smart.

As William reached for the red sweet, he could feel some new thought take form in his thought-addled brain. The ideas came as thick and fast as the strong strawberry taste from the sweet (and no less embittering), recoiling back to that Master guy. Now that he had a chance to get cosy with one of his friends, he could see certain patterns emerging. The cloth jackets, the trousers of strange, but yet different material, the t-shirts, the banter between them. Something felt off. SOMETHING felt strange, as if they were connected somehow. The thought continued to gnaw at the back of his head as he struggled to come up with some sort of explanation for everything he was seeing and hearing.

Master had finished his green lime-flavoured sweet when he noticed William staring at the guy, staring with an odd look in his eye, "What?" he eventually asked in a somewhat annoyed tone.

"There's something strange about you," William said inquisitively, "You and that Eliza person. I know Eliza. She was the exact same as any other 1920's woman before you came along. I don't get it. What did you do to her? Just who ARE you?"

Master simply smiled, "I am the keeper of dreams and nightmares. And we'll see YOUR'S come true tonight..."

PROWER CASTLE - Dining Hall
Off the coast of Mobius Alpha
July 5th 2013, 2:12PM
OliverMaruice "Sonic The Hedgehog" Needlemouse, Lowell Theo Highcastle II, Kathrine Lowhouse and Blaze "Frost" Cattington

There was another click and a snick as the last, purple suitcase opened up slowly with a small creak. Unlike Kathrine, who had sprung out in a panic, the dark purple cat inside rose gracefully out of the case, eyes closed in bliss and smiling with a tiny mouth. She yawned, opening her now normal mouth, lined with fangs and a few red splotches, and stretched her arms, encased in a somewhat tight fitting latex bodysuit. The sun shone upon the bodysuit giving bright glares around the area, the suit being covered in a red T-shirt and denim shorts. The orb upon her head that often gave the Blazes of the Multiverse their powers was now a very solid blue that still had it's perma-shine upon its corner. Her hair band was a similar blue, holding the ponytail that split into a three blader, showing new black tips that looked like Werehog quill tips. Her "hair" was also tipped in this way, folded lower than the usual hair seen on any Blaze. And as she clambered out of the suitcase, it could be seen her legs ended in brown leather boots that had cowboy spurs and a leather band around the top with a special emblem on the sides.

"Ah, that was a nice sleep!" she growled, finishing her stretch and reaching for the pair of dark metal glasses also in the suitcase, "In fact, I think that was one of the most blissful sleeping sessions I've ever had!"

"...You LIKED being locked in that for three hours, Frost?" Kathrine asked, exhaustedly reaching for Lowell's whisky bottle.

"Of course," Frost replied, pushing the metal bars back into her ears, "If you get a...liking...by having magic boob jobs, you might as well go all the way."

Kathrine shrugged, "Can't argue with that logic."

"So..." Frost approached Sonic and assumed her normal pose of hands on hips and left leg bent to assume a leaning pose, "Where've you taken us for this?"

"Knight Island. Used to belong to Miley's parents, or so I'm told," Sonic said, waving his hand in the direction of the castle, "A place of majestic tech and marvellous company until an accident caused them to flee and abandon this place."

"Or so we thought..." Lowell said too, his deep British accent ringing in Frost's sensitive ears, "But we looked at the main hall alone and it seems to be brand new and dust free. As if someone...never left."

"Sounds tacky," Frost said in her usual perky way.

"Kathrine, you studied this place for your temp job as a sub teacher, right?" Lowell asked his girlfriend, "Find anything strange?"

"No..." Kathrine said, "I studied the damn thing for three days, with a telescope. I never saw anyone come or go and I didn't see anything about it that looked like new work done on it. The records don't say anything about renewal either..."

"So...something or someONE has lived here under no watch..." Lowell said, confused, "But who?"

"This should be interesting..." Sonic said smugly, walking quickly down the large, long hall before them. The walls and the ceilings were delicately engraved with strange swirls and various symbols that no-one could really decipher. The pillars and supports were made of the finest marble and gold, showing a painting of what looked like a bunch of foxes with only one tail being led by a female fox with two tails holding what looked like a tablet device.

"That...doesn't make any sense either," Lowell looked up at this strange mural depicting the futuristic device before them that he himself had in one of the many pockets littering his wavering cape, "That sort of tech has only been made affordable to the common man. Well, humans, anyway."

"Something's wrong here..." Frost said, shuddering slightly.

"Relax, it's nothing to worry about," Sonic said reassuringly, patting Frost on her head, which made her giggle, "Miley told me everything. Her parents made all the tech before us modernists got anywhere near the draft stages. Never did tell me HOW they did so, however."

"Probably has something to do with Master," Lowell mumbled, "He's been getting into the habit of escaping to the past as an ambassador for this present. After all, everyone else is too busy complaining about Sonic's eye colour."

"Don't remind me," Sonic growled.

"Why's Master doing this?" Kathrine asked.

"He's gotten sick of the modern world, obviously. I don't blame him," Lowell sighed. There was a sudden change in his thoughts as a small smell made it's way to his nose. It was the most delectable smell he had ever had the fortune to encounter. His limp form, hypnotised by the smell of freshly baked pastries and meats of various animals, began to walk slowly towards a door that was smaller, with simple wooden patterns. Inside was a large kitchen, which was rather...kitchen-y, complete with the latest in stoves and cookers, using Prower-branded Microwaves and other such high tech. On the tables was a few plates, each containing the food the smells had come from, a delicious palette of pastries and cured and spiced meats of the various creatures-crocodile, dog, beef, bacon, squid, octopus...the selection was astounding, with a noticeable plate containing the meats in a long bun like a hot dog bun. Next to the plates were four different drinks; one green plastic bottle full of citric liquid, one full of tea, another full of strong coffee and the last containing a mixture of the three.

"The hell?" Sonic asked, "All this stuff is present day food and drink and it's ALL still in date! They even have Chilli Dogs! AND Generic Carbonated Beverage!"

"I love Generic Carbonated Beverage!" Lowell said back, "This makes no sense! NONE of this is!"

"And no-one's lived here for months!"

"Then there's only one explanation..." Frost said, her voice suddenly solemn and serious, "And that is...there's a GHOST in this house!"

"That is insane!" Lowell said, panicking slightly, "Ghosts do NOT exist. Never have. Ever..."

"Apart from the ghost I found during my angsty Werehog days?" Sonic challenged, crossing his arms. Lowell remained silent and verbally defeated, so Sonic continued, "That's what I thought. It ain't MY fault you're scared of ghosts. And Frost is right, only that really explain all the recent food and lack of dust. Someone has been waiting for someone. Waiting to...exist again..."

There was an intense rumbling around the room as a sort of lightly coloured mist began flying around the room, a massive wind whipping up the small amount of dust that WAS in the area into a tornado around the area. Sonic and Frost were still standing at the table with brazing , yet cocky faces on, while Lowell's once stoic face had twisted into a fearful expression, teeth clenched, while having fallen to the floor and holding tightly onto the waist of Kathrine, who was sort of just...standing there.

"Hello?" Kathrine called out over the noise, "Mr OR Mrs Ghost? Who's there?"

A high-pitched giggling rumbled through the room, making Lowell recoil even further into fear and hug Kathrine tighter.

"Oh goody..." came a high-pitched and perky female voice that echoed around the room with an eerie familiar voice, "They've come! The successors have come! They have come to help free me! Yay!"

"Free you?" Kathrine asked, "What d'ya mean?"

"Your ANCESTORS!" The voice took on a tone of anger, shaking the floor even harder and bellowing even stronger, making Lowell squeeze Kathrine like a Victorian corset, "They KILLED ME! I've been stuck here for you for YEARS..." her voice went back to the sweet tone, "Hehehe, forgive me. I get a bit trigger-y in my senile age. Anyway, feel free to the food before you all, you are welcome. Just please...help me..."

The wind and mist vanished into the walls and corners, the dust falling to the floor with a shifting sound like hundreds of little ghost particles pattering to the floor. Sonic approached the chilli dog and took a massive bite out of it grinning, "See? I told you this would be an interesting month. Free, modern, non-rotten food, good accommodation, a good Ghost Host AND a smatter of ADVENTURE! Woo!"

"AND we need to find out why we need to 'free' this ghost," Frost reminded him, "That should be interesting. Perhaps we'll go back in time and stop it ever happening? Or exact revenge on those responsible!"

"Uh...Lowell?" Kathrine poked Lowell's head, "Can you stop crushing my waist. It's small enough for the fashion gurus, thanks..." Lowell's shuddering form nodded slowly and let go of her waist, standing up and brushing off his furry chest. Kathrine giggled and hugged Lowell, stroking her chest, "You're cute when you're scared," she giggled playfully.

"I'm...I'm not scared!" Lowell defended, stuttering slightly, "I just...d-don't like Ghosts much..." he cleared his throat, sounding stoic once more, "Right, so we're stuck in a haunted castle that used to belong to Miley's parents for a month, chock full of mystery and anachronistic tech, with a ghost we have to somehow free by possessing one of us and killing the others in horrible ways with final creepy faces before we die. Oh, and adventure. I suppose it'll keep me on my toes..." he approached Sonic while grabbing the plastic bottle, "Sonic, I just want to say. I want you to remind me about something."

"What?" Sonic asked, smiling.

"Remind me to kill you when we finally get home."

Sonic gulped somewhat fearfully, "Duly noted."

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Return to First Entry: http://freescribesofmobius.ipbhost.com/topic/373-old-world-coming-home/

WarTraveller · July 8, 2017

Chapter 3: Shed a Tear

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Prower's Castle-Dining Hall
Knight Island, American coast
OCTOBER 23RD 1922
7:34PM
Mr. William Needlemouse, Dewitt Highcastle, Jules Needlemouse and "Master"

"I don't know, Charlie..." William sighed, watching with head in hand as Master, Jules and Dewitt padded down the hallway before him, "There's something wrong about him..."

"Relax, Will," Charles said, strutting alongside William, "I've met the guy before. He DOES seem to be the kind of guy us people would avoid, but...well, he knows his stuff."

Charles Prower was the husband of Eliza Prower (hopefully you could've guessed that by now) and he too was of a light yellow colour in fur, though his fur was dirtier than Eliza's by a considerable margin. Unlike his wife, he was wearing period correct clothing, a white shirt with pinstriped trousers and jacket, a red tie lodged in his collar. He wore glasses with round, thick rims and had what looked like a cog around his ear. Most noticeably, however, was his left arm. He had lost it when first working on the machines and creations he and his wife were now famed for, and now his arm was a mass of endlessly clicking brass cogs of various sizes and speeds. The fingers were a bright silver, the fingertips electroplated gold from unknown ways, almost like a fingerless glove.

"I suppose," William said, sighing, "But what exactly can I do? What is this stuff he knows?"

"I'll give a clue," Charles said, nudging his friend with his mechanical, leather covered elbow, "All will be explained at tonight's meeting party. The ultimate in futuristic tech!"

William looked blank, "The heck do you mean?"

Charles smiled smugly and rested his hand on the door the two had finally gotten to, "You're about to find out..."

Once more, the door creaked open on its rusted hinges and saw the two in. William was quickly basked in the lovely glow of a thousand candles littering multiple parts of the room, highlighting picture and vase, casting the most eye-catching shadows on the many sculptures littering the area. Beside the back wall, there was a table stocked with the most delectable treats that could be seeable with the eye; roast and stuffed turkeys and chickens littering the middle and surrounded with a sea of sweet treats and multiple types of fruit in tasteful ways and odd colours. Master and Jules could be seen near the table, with Master playfully hanging a fruit over Jules' nose until the child simply jumped up and took a huge bite out of it, leaving himself hanging like a dog on a chew toy before dropping with a chunk of sweet apple in his mouth. Master simply chuckled and ruffled the grinning Jules' fringe, looking much happier than he seemed on the boat to the castle. Dewitt and Eliza were nearby, discussing something that was inaudible over the course of the music.

On the other side of the room, there was a large stage, the length of the room and a little bit higher than Jules. On it stood a large, complicated machine made from various boxes and curves, sheet metal and bolts holding the thing together and having a rather large set of Tesla coils, about four or five littering a small area, small amounts of bright blue electricity streaming between them at random intervals. On the stage also was a long metal stick with a black receiver stuck on the end (a microphone) and a small table with a gramophone that was playing 1920's music. Littered around the rest of the room was multiple other party-goers, dressed in the finest tuxedoes and cocktail dresses and dancing slowly and methodically to the music.

"Nice party," William mused, "You really need to outdo yourself every time, huh?"

"Well..." Charles said with a smug grin on his muzzle, "I don't wanna brag. That would be rather impolite. As the technology I and my wife conjure up become more advanced, so must the parties be able to increase in grandness. I know we'll falter one day, but not TO-day. Get my drift?"

"...Kinda."

"Oh, well I did say that you'll see what makes us tick and what keeps us going. And..." Charles checked the watch on his robotic wrist, "That's about now."

Charles fiddled with the watch and pointed it towards Eliza. Eliza's face peered over the crowd and then to her own watch, then back to her husband. She smiled in a strange way and slowly walked towards the stage. Once upon it, she signalled to Master, who was still at the back. He noticed and slowly carried the somewhat sluggish Jules over to William and put him in his arms, then hobbled towards the stage too.

"And what'll be this new sort of...thing?" William asked.

Charles grinned again, "Prepare to lose your excrement."

Charles climbed onto the stage just as Eliza switched off the gramophone and activated the micro one, "Right, testing!" she called out, her voice echoing around the chamber. The group below stopped dancing and stared at the microphone, "Right...ahem, hello...to the yearly Prower Knight Castle party. I hope you've been enjoying yourselves so far, but now I must turn your attention to the reveal of this year. And this time, I will pass the honour of such a thing over to our favourite; Master!"

"Thank you, Eliza," Master said timidly, stepping up to the microphone, "Now then, those among this group today have noticed I have appeared at the numerous parties, year after year after year, without fail.You may have asked yourself why when I don't do much and come from a country that is about to fall from grace...you see, there's a reason for that. I...am from the future."

A large gasp spread around the room from numerous surprised party-goers, mixed with cries of shock and confusion which would only come from the mind of a 1920's gentleman. William's mind was also in this state, shouting various times inside his head, repeating "I knew it! I KNEW it! I knew IT!"

"Indeed!" Master said, his voice now full of pride and glee, "I was the one that gave all the special ideas for the tech to these two wonderful foxes. THEY made the devices, I showed them the devices from the future. You can behold all the miracles (and some of the more crappier parts) of the 2010's. Let me put it this way, it's very different. Obviously. But even then, I wouldn't be able to actually be here and supply the machines without special tech to transport it. I could digitise it, but that would take weeks and there are moral problems...I'll explain later."

"And it was here that out friendship started," Charles suddenly spoke up, "We both needed to find a way to get them here, and fast. And that's when Master told me of this special substance all around us in the air..."

"Basically, it's unnamed for now," Master noted, "BUT...one thing I know is that it keeps a sort of...record of everything ever put there. Every year, every day, every hour, every SECOND, it remembers it all. Hell, it's even able to co-exist between universes! Tap into the right frequency of this power and you're able to open portals not only to another time, but also another WORLD."

"The other world thing, however..." Eliza shrugged, "Is somewhat unstable. We can't keep the portal up and running with 1920's power. It just isn't enough juice. But the records say SOMEONE was able to do so, so it IS possible, just not now."

"Instead, we'll just show you the other use for it," Charles said, approaching the machine mentioned before, "And with THIS little number, it should be rather easy. Right, Master Guy, start it up!"

"With pleasure!" came Master's reply, hands rubbing in excitement. There was a sudden burst of energy in the once before tired and sombre dark brown hedgehog, suddenly climbing onto the top of the device with the utmost of speeds. He reached for a control panel stuck just out of view on the top of the machine and mashed random buttons at seemingly erratic paces. The machine then started to hum and light up with the brightest of devilishly red glows, grey streaks of electricity bouncing around the Telsa coils. Master put on a pair of heavy duty goggles and headphones, before giving a thumbs up to the Prowers, who did similarly.

"Better cover your ears, people!" Charles yelled over the infernal racket created by the device, "This is gonna get LOUD!"

Jules started to cling to William tighter than before, a small whimper starting to leak from his throat. William also clung tighter to his son as the humming increased in pitch and volume. Charles scooted over to the lower console and too mashed buttons with wild abandon, spraying more and more electricity around the various coils and causing the room to heat to odd temperatures. As the wine boiled like bottled volcanic springs, the electricity around the coils suddenly crossed and made a sort of circle with the result. This cause a loud clap of thunder, then a bang of exploding energy before another ear-splitting noise. With that noise, however, came the spawning of a large energy-window, basking all before it in it's grey light, causing young Jules to dig his head further into his father's chest in fear.

"IT'S WORKING!" Master yelled over the inferno, his voice now quick and rather energetic, "WOOOO! Say hello to the future, ladies and gentlemen!"

William's eyes slowly adjusted to the extreme light levels just as the light itself began to die down, the machine's smoking form slowly ceasing it's whirrs and bangs, with only a low hum keeping the portal alive. The portal itself showed the exact hallway that he and Charles were walking down at the start of this chapter, but so much was changed you wouldn't think that at first. The strange mural of the double-tailed fox with the tablet remained, but the rest of the hallway was in a small amount of ruin, stuck in a limbo of both the 1920's and the long distant future of cobwebs and faded art.

William was the first to speak up, "It...it doesn't look any different!"

"Of course not!" Master said, "This place is somewhat...untouched in 2013. Because that's exactly what this is. July the 5th, 2013 to be exact. Around..." he quickly scooted over to the lower control panel Charles had bashed with mechanical strength, "About 5:15PM."

"Wait, look!" came the sudden voice of one of the women in the crowd, pointing a velvet sleeved arm at the portal, "People!"

Master's face suddenly brought on a look of befuddlement and looked upon the portal with focused, detailed eyes. The slight sound of him muttering under his own breath could be heard, very faintly and sounding like "This can't be right. This place is left desolate for 70 years..." he then stood up and simply said "Oh."

Indeed, in the portal were two figures. Both were male with somewhat similar features, being long spindly arms and legs, bushy quills of varying lengths and only gloves and shoes to their beings. One was orange and a wolf, sporting a cape and standing taller than the other, who was blue with a lavender neckband, their colours still seeable against the washed out grey bleakness of the hallway. Willam's mind once more went into a confusion panic at the sight of the blue hedgehog, who looked almost like him and little Jules, minus the coloured fringe at the front.

"Well, I wasn't expecting that!" Master said, facing the crowd again with uncertainty, "Uh...would William Needlemouse and Dewitt Highcastle please make their way to the front?"

William looked nervously at Jules, who had now stopped digging into his father's chest and was looking at the figures too, and then to Dewitt, who simply shrugged and began making his way to the front. Willaim did also, handing Jules to Master and then getting up onto the stage. Master continued to hold Jules as the group inspected the portal.

"Oh yes, this is 2013..." Master said, gleaming with shocked happiness, "Dewitt, William...these two are Lowell Highcastle and Sonic Needlemouse. Your grandsons."

William quickly lost the ability to utter even a surprised squeak, the sheer concept of what was happening leaving his voice lost in the midst of the mindscrew vortex this portal was giving off. Trembling, he slowly tapped on the portal, making echoing sounds almost like tapping on a glass window. The two beings became alerted at this and rushed to the portal too. The wolf was showing a complete stoic face, looking upon the two with simple confusion, casting glances at Master and then at Dewitt.

"Master!" the wolf finally said, "What've you done NOW?"

"Oh, two-way communication, that's new!" Master gleamed some more, "Lowell, Sonic. Meet your grandfathers in their 1920's prime! William Needlemouse and Dewitt Highcastle. And THIS little guy..." he hoisted Jules up to the portal's window, "Jules Needlemouse. Your father in training pants."

Jules simply smiled and waved. The blue hedgehog inched towards the portal, getting a closer look at Jules and William. He then smiled and stepped back too. The wolf also stepped back, sitting down with crossed legs and the same look of confusion spreading across his face.

"That reminds me," the wolf said, "I think I found one of your lollipops, Jules.

William looked confused, "Jules took some lollipops with him?"

"Yes. Of course, they're ruined from age, soured and sugar scarred, but yours are on the south balcony if you still want them. They're still wrapped in the packet so you should be okay."

"Thanks, Mr.Wolfy!" Jules said out happily. He gave Master another short hug and then leapt away, sprinting down the hallway at full speed and bursting through the doors like paper. The wolf smirked.

"Well, the kid is fast. You're just like him, Sonic. Well, except that you haven't got shot through the eye."

William's eyes widened in shock, "Wait, WHAT?"

"Oh, uh...probably shouldn't have said that...Master, the reception's starting to fade."

"Oh dear, we seem to be over-doing the power supply," Charles sighed, checking on the nearby monitors, "We better shut her down now."

"So you're my grandson, huh?" Dewitt asked the wolf, "Not a bad-looking guy."

"You should wait until you see him as a child," the blue hedgehog cooed, "He's so embarrassingly adorable."

The wolf blushed a very deep red in response, "Dammit! I told you never to look through my family album!"

"Wait, one last thing!" Dewitt called out, "I'm not married yet! How do you come around?"

"I can't tell you!" the wolf reminded, "Paradoxes are very dangerous things! Trust me! And, truth be told...I'm not sure."

There was a sudden flash as the portal suddenly became all fuzzy and almost cut off. The hedgehog and wolf sighed.

"Looks like we've gotta go!" the hedgehog said, "Well, it's been short. But it's also been FUN!"

"We'll see you in about three decades," the wolf said too, "Around the 1960's. 'Cause THAT'S gonna be fun...maybe."

At last, the portal gave one final sputter and vanished in a shining grey light, leaving only two more echoing remarks:

"Hey Lowell, if our parents are in their 40's and they're currently in their 20's in 1922...how does that make sense and why're WE in our teenage years?"

"*sigh* Master never did give a care for canonicity. As long as it involves guns somehow."

...And then finally cut off, bringing the once vibrant and noise-polluted room to an utter standstill. As William and Dewitt tried to recover from this event, the crowd was as silent and still as the most remote of graveyards. The faces stuck in the crowd couldn't make a single sound between them, nor move an inch or breath a...breath. They just couldn't come to terms with what they had just seen. Some of the women even fainted from the shock. Cautious and somewhat nervous, Master slowly stepped up to the microphone. His face was twisted into a mixture of anticipation and fear and his words were once more stuttered and timid.

"...A-Any questions?"

From this question alone, the crowd below him began to swarm around the stage, barking multiple questions strewn from confusion and fear at what the machine could do. Master simply shrugged and slowly made his way to the crowd below to answer them.

"How did you even come across this sort of stuff?!" William asked on the way, "Why're you showing us this?"

"Because it's fun," Master said back, "And now you know who I am. Master, God of Universe 112233CHARLIE and time travel extraordinaire! And if you think it's great now..." he quickly smirked, "Wait 'till I tell Ken Levine!"

PROWER CASTLE - Master Bedroom bathing quarters
Off the coast of Mobius Alpha
July 5th 2013, 9:33PM
OliverMaruice "Sonic The Hedgehog" Needlemouse, Lowell Theo Highcastle II, Kathrine Lowhouse and Blaze "Frost" Cattington

Lowell sighed to himself as he washed his murky face with the fresh water. It had been one hell of a long day. From the very start of the adventure on the docks to the meeting of the ghost, from the awkward lunch to unpacking the suitcases for one long month of living in a haunted castle - all while avoiding that damn ghost, whoever she was.

It was at this time that Lowell could turn to the full-length mirror on the other side of the bedroom and take a good look at himself. As said before he was a wolf, about 1 foot taller than Sonic, with rather dirty and unkempt orange fur, his hair styled in hedgehog-esque spikes with black werehog-tips, rather like the emo fringe spread across his bad eye. His eyes were a dark, crimson red to go with the vampire thing and connected to a furry muzzle, it's fur darker in colour than typical Sonic character skin and a large fang poking out of his mouth. His belly spot was also furry and had a large red scab on the right side where his heart used to be, slightly below a large black collar with a red gem stuck in the centre. His cape, a dark one with yellow insides, connected to that and reached his shoes, one blue with green circles and one green with blue circles while both with black socks and soles. He wore grey fabric fingerless gloves and had knee and elbow pads along with a belt stuffed with various flash grenades. A large wolf tail lightly brushed the back of his legs and then moved a little in the air, covered in the same black markings as his "hair".

The musing over his appearance over, he shuffled away from the bathing chamber and stumbled towards the bed, tired and thus disorientated. He then sighed sadly clambered into his lonely bed. Sonic had made sure that their girlfriends got separate rooms for...some reason, he never specified. This left Lowell in his own room; alone, sober and somewhat paranoid of the ghost that could sneak up on him while asleep.

Lowell darted his eyes across the room to the end of his bed. A fully loaded Mossberg 500, adorned with an olive paint job, a magazine instead of a tube and a scope, was lying by the end. So just in case the ghost wanted to get into his dreams, which typically consisted of Kathrine and a bathtub of chocolate pudding, he could just grab the shotgun with two quick shots. Or at least that would be the idea.

Unfortunately, Sonic had placed his bedroom at the end of one long corridor and the bathing room only contained a bath and a sink, but no (functioning) toilet. The only working one was at the OTHER end of the corridor. Where he was most vulnerable.

And he had to go.

Lowell sighed at Sonic's obviously cruel joke and kicked the sheets away, shuffling towards the door with the M500 in hand. With trembling fingers, he slowly grasped the doorknob and twisted it with the pace of a snail, opening it with an unearthly creak. From there, he stepped out from the warm light of his room into the dark, ghost-filled gloom, sealing his fate by the door to his own room slamming shut behind him. He dug out the torch he kept in one of the many pockets inside his cape and fumbled with the switch. The beam of light shot down the corridor, casting many beams of it towards the odd paintings that dotted the walls, all revolving around the two-tailed foxes with their cog-filled tech looking high and mighty over the one-tailed folk below them. Lowell sneered at such a disgraceful approach to boasting and continued his journey to the toilet, which was long, cold and harrowing. Every single time he expected the ghost to appear from the ether to take his life, he'd suddenly remember that - being undead - he didn't have one and the ghost was nowhere to be seen.

Surprisingly, he managed to reach the bathroom intact (or as intact as you can get after an event that tears out your heart and gives you aichmophobia). Once inside, he locked the door, put another set of drawers behind the door for good measure, put the shotgun to the side of the sink and did his needed business. He then washed his hands and stepped outside once more, shotgun in hand and feeling a tad more confident.

"Well..." Lowell mused to himself slowly, "At least there's been no ghost."

"I know!" came that eerie voice again, "You were so close!"

The giggle spread throughout the room, causing Lowell to pump the shotgun in a reflex action and jab its barrel in the vague direction of the voice. He could feel his skin go colder than it normally did and, even worse, he could hear himself breathing. Hellbloods never needed to breathe, but when they did...

Well, they were incredibly scared. And so was Lowell.

There was another gust of wind and the pink mists once more began to pile up and circle around Lowell's position. This time, however, the mists were slowly starting to form a body of some kind. A small, female body that looked vaguely familiar. Of a pink hedgehog. A sharp pang started to form in the back of the wolf's mind. Lowell couldn't help it. He had been trained to hate the form he was seeing with a passion. Well, and the fact his scared mind could become suddenly become irrational. He could feel his finger tighten on the trigger and there wasn't much he could do about it. It was then, and only then, he could feel cold, slimy fingers reach out and touch his shoulder with a giggle. He could feel his body twisting almost uncontrollably and aiming at the ghostly figure, squeezing the trigger and firing a shot in the ghost's general direction. The buckshot passed through the figure and such figure seemed to react, cowering in shock and fear, making a general shot in the dark. The ghost set herself up again, looking awkwardly disturbed from the shot, almost as if it set off something in her mind.

The figure's hands began to tremble from what seemed to be anger, her face scrunching into one that showed only the purest of rages. Her once formed body began to fade in a single pinkish colour, yet still in the shape of the hedgehog he remembered so well. Then the figure rose up and let out a shriek at the top of her spectral lungs.

"ANCESTOOOOOOOR!" she wailed, causing lightning to strike Lowell's position, "I KNEW IT! I KNEW ALL OF IT! IT WAS YOU! YOU AND YOUR MASTER! YOU KILLED ME! YOU SUBJECTED ME TO AN ETERNITY OF SUFFERING AND HEARTBREAK! NOW PREPARE TO SUFFER AS I HAVE SUFFERED!"

More lightning struck the ground and Lowell could feel every synapse in his brain scream at him to run as fast as he could possibly run. Lowell let out a bloodcurdling scream and sprinted back down the hallway towards his room, his movements panicked and shuffled, his footsteps almost softened into melody from the shrieking of the ghost. The gun was held high and fired repeatedly at the raging thing, but every shot fired was a shot missed by the ghost. It wasn't long before Lowell hit a wall and slowly slid down to the floor. The ghost continued her assault, slowly and yet ever so surely. He raised the shotgun one last time...and heard a click. It was only then that he remembered the shot he had wasted and the gun was soon slapped out of his hands. The ghost shrieked again and was then suddenly...stopped via a hand on her shoulder. Kathrine's hand, more specifically. The ghost suddenly calmed and sank through the floor, muttering "What did I do wrong? ...Did I over-react again?"

"Wow, what's with all the noise?" asked a very tired Sonic, watching Kathrine breath a sigh of relief, "The fastest thing alive needs his handsome sleep!"

"Yes, but the CAMPEST thing alive doesn't," Kathrine snapped back, "Something terrible caused the ghost to attack Lowell. I heard a few gunshots and screams and next thing I know she was about to turn HIM into a ghost too. Poor guy...scared of ghosts and yet you bring him to a haunted castle? New low, Sonic. NEW LOW!"

"Hey, it's not as if it was MY fault it's haunted..." Sonic began to argue, but soon trailed off. Lowell had caught his attention, now a sobbing lump vaguely in the fetal position, strained breathing hearable between those sobs, "Wow...never seen him like this before. Better get my camera, I'll probably never see this again!"

Kathrine grabbed Sonic by the scruff of Sonic's neck as he began to make his exit, being pulled back to Kathrine's own side. From there, she pulled him close by his chest skin, "Now then, I want you to get all his stuff and move it into my room. Tomorrow, we shall sort this out FOR GOOD! NOW GET MOVING!"

Sonic did as he was told and was quickly gone. Kathrine crept closer to Lowell and managed to pry away his arms long enough to hug him, stroking his "quills" slowly.

"All he did was accidentally shoot her..." Kathrine thought to herself, "In this universe, that's a typical hello. What happened to that ghost? And why did she look so much like...Amy Rose?"

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Return to First Entry: http://freescribesofmobius.ipbhost.com/topic/373-old-world-coming-home/

WarTraveller · July 8, 2017

Chapter 4: Ghost Buddies

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Prower's Castle - Corridor 23B
Knight Island, American coast
OCTOBER 23RD 19228:20PM
Jules Needlemouse

"Right, well that's the toilet tent...where do we sleep?"

"OH? Oh hahaha(!) Oh look out everybody, I'm about to blow my trousers off at Eddie's sarcasm(!)"

"What, you mean THAT'S the whole tent?"

"Eddie...this isn't just a tent! This is a WorldRanger StormBuster 4! You could go anywhere in that!"

"Yeah, and we probably will as soon as the breeze lets up."

"Hey hey, don't knock it! You'll be glad of this when the bomb drops!"

"Wot?! You think THAT'S gonna withstand a 20-Megaton nuclear blast?!"

"Well, YOU'LL be sleeping in it tonight, so we'll find out, won't we?"

Jules was not able to understand the concept of what he was seeing and hearing, but the sound of roaring laughter coming from the group seemed to signal to him that it was a rather funny concept to those who COULD. After finally managing to answer the almost endless questions of the mob surrounding him, Master had managed to keep the close-to-rioting mob docile with what he called Television. It was, at it's most basic, a large plastic box with a glass screen on it. And from this wonderous invention came something like a miracle to the young hedgehog's brain; two men in a field bickering, one hairy and pathetic, one bald and violent, on the screen as if they were inside the "Television" itself. Almost every man and woman were sitting in front of the thing, staring deep into the glass screen, completely mesmerised by the entire concept they could see before them. Jules, however, had his mind set on a different task at hand, namely his lollipops. He remembered that he and Master had rushed ahead while William was talking to Charles and had been playing with the lollipops on a balcony somewhere. Having been reminded where they were, Jules was setting out to find them. He passed his father on the way, seeing that William has failed to understand what had happened that night and was simply drinking heavily to try to cope with it. Master was sitting next to him, his expression one of annoyance and saying "Well, I'M driving him home tonight..." from his face alone. Dewitt was talking with Charles, he too trying to cope with what exactly was happening.

Jules ignored them and started his way towards the balcony where his sweets were kept. While Master had carried him to the balcony himself, Jules still remembered the way and thusly could easily retrace his steps. Far from the bright party, the corridors of the rest of the castle were dark and barren, showing cobwebs and odd slimy walls, the lighting dim and unsettling, not helped by Jules' slight fear of the dark. Inside his small, developing mind, the darkest creatures of the deepest pits of nightmares were waiting just out of reach, glaring at him with their bright yellow eyes and stained teeth, their tounges slavering and salivating inside their tombstone-esque fang-filled mouths. It began to creep out little Jules even more from the lack of true noise, the murmuring of the "television" now just a murmur in the distance and only the crackle of the torches and the smooth thumps of his own footsteps close to hand. For a second, he swore he could see one of the monsters edging in the corner of the room, eyes trained on him as if the monster could jump out at any second and slay him, to rip off his limbs and eat them as he slowly watched and bled out, but chose not to so he could catch him at the poorest timing.

Eventually, paranoia and juvenile fear completely overtook Jules' mind and he started to run. He broke out into a sprint, hearing the vicious monsters on his tail and seeing their deep, hairy forms increase in size from the shadows behind him. The grasping, blood-stained claw of one of the monsters grabbed Jules by his leg, almost tripping him up, but Jules violently kicked the monster away and sprinted with all his speed for the nearest door. With a terrified shriek, he rammed through the door and fell to the floor, skidding to a stop near a wall, that wall connected to a balcony overlooking the sea. Jules, scared out of his mind, slowly dragged himself to his feet, looking out over the balcony overlooking the dark, moonlit night, tears streaming down his eyes and a few sobs escaping his throat every now and again.

"H-Hello?" came a sudden female voice out of the corner of Jules' vision, "Are you okay there?"

Jules quickly and suddenly turned his head to the left to see who was there. Who was there was a pink female hedgehog, her quills arched down like a bobcut and a three-part fringe covering one of her eyes. Her eyes were a radiant, glowing green with ruby red lipstick and her gold ring bracelets sparkled in the moonlight. She was dressed in a beautiful bright red ball gown, covered in creases and roses, with one placed in her quills and another around a band on her stomach, to contemplate her heeled shoes, also a bright ruby red. All in all, she looked rather pretty (not a factor to Jules, of course), but to Jules something looked...off about her. Closer inspection revealed a horrifying amount of scars and marks on her face and legs, notably a large scar across her face and some marks on her ankles that seemed to indicate a sort of cloth wrap was once tied tightly around her legs. Her face was pained and fragile, her skin soft, yet hardened with the aforementioned bruises and cuts.

"Who're you?" Jules asked out of fear.

"I..." the figure seemed to pause over her words, then sighed wearily, "Is anyone following you?"

"Just...the monsters..." Jules sniffled, tears slowly welling in his eyes.

"Monsters..." the woman said, sighing again, "I'd say monsters don't exist, but to say that...what with I'VE been through...it just wouldn't sit well. At least you're not with company."

Jules was understandably creeped out by this, "Why? You're not gonna do...anything to me or something?"

"Oh, NO..." the woman sobbed, "I've seen enough to turn me away from that for the rest of my life, trust me. I'm Amelia, by the way."

Jules' mind suddenly became awash with multiple, still-forming memories of the past hour. The tears, the questions, the ruckus that followed, he even got a snippet of the files William had in his suitcase while he was sleeping. This was the Amelia that William and Dewitt were tasked to find and bring to safety. Jules quickly became confused from this, his small, juvenile mind unable to understand why they wanted her. He slowly approached Amelia and climbed up onto her lap. Amelia looked somewhat confused in response, but let him lie there, holding a packet of round, red lollipops in her hand.

"Amelia?" Jules asked, at last, quietly fearing an enraged response from the woman, "Are you the one dad is looking for?"

"Your dad?" Amelia asked.

"Y-Yeah! He came looking for someone. She looks pretty," Jules said back, "Like this!"

Amelia looked at the smart child, taking the photo and list he had suddenly had in his hands. She studied the picture, then the list. The picture was an exact replica of one that was taken of her during a time she'd rather forget and showed her in full, albeit in a slightly different outfit. The list read out her name, her age, some specifications and one last detail that made tears well in her eyes from looking at it. But what clinched it for her to start crying a bit was the signatures present on the bottom of the page:

"Mr William Needlemouse, I trust to inform you that, should you fail you comply with rescuing the girl, the antidote for your wife will not be delivered. So DO IT. Signed, Perry "Master" Martin and Delago Needlemouse."

This caused Amelia to sob a bit, throwing the papers to the floor and sputtering "Oh...so they HAVE come for me..." with a wavering, wobbly voice.

Jules was confused and upset he had made this woman, whoever she was, cry. After opening and eating one of his lollipops, he tugged on Ameila's dress and shyly asked, "W-What do you mean?"

"You want the truth, child?" Amelia sobbed, "Fine. That name is a fake. My name is not Amelia Roseanne. It's Amy Rose. I'm from another dimension."

Once more, Jules' mind flashed back to Master and the Prowers opening the Tear, what they said about universal travel, and said "So...you're the one they mentioned who managed to move from...here...to...there?", his lack of jargon experience faltering him.

"From my universe to yours? Yes, that's me. I came here to...escape my life. Having been captured in a raid, I ended up in the care of my dearest Sonic...your own son, I believe. But something was wrong with him. He felt so...corrupted. So...far gone. His mind had been warped beyond what it was, he was a shadow of what he was supposed to be...I mean...look at me!"

Jules took another look at Amy's body. Her scars and bruises didn't look self-inflicted or accidental, even to the young tot who couldn't write or even chew his foot properly. The scars looked like bite wounds and slashes with a knife, the bruises inflicted from lack of blood and pipe wrenches. There was even a long, dark purple bruise along her muzzle in a faint line, with a round area around her lips.

"The abuse, the beatings, the...bondage. He just went haywire! And he's not finished, he says! What's he gonna do, pull off my arms? Reduce my legs to stumps? And with every time he attached a ball gag to me and almost drowned me, I could swear that he was gaining...pleasure...OH GOD!!!"

Once more, Amy lapsed into a sobbing fit, unaware of what she had told that young child. She just hugged the child, finding comfort in his small body and cute appearance. Unbeknownst to her, Master had slowly followed Jules and was now watching the two in their emotional hug, a look of sadness and regret across his face. He sighed, staring at the floor and stumbling to the nearby bathroom, running the water and splashing it on his face. He stared at the face in the mirror, a face that had seen the worries of the world and had done some bad stuff in his life. He sighed and leant against the mirror before a sudden ringing got his attention. He looked down to his belt and saw his Multi-Versal Communicator, ringing within an inch of its life. Master picked it up and pressed the "Call" button, bringing it up to his face.

"I know what you're calling for, you know..." he sighed, his voice once again thick with depression and disgust, "And, you know, I'm having second thoughts on your 'promise'..."

"I can detect the sarcasm in your voice..." came the hissing, unearthly voice on the other end of the device, "You think I'll just resume my pleasures with Amy-poo, huh? Well, I assure you I'm not. I'm just an honest hedgehog trying to make an honest living...enjoying the company of my dearest."

"Yeah, as long as you've got a ball gag, some rope and a tissue!" Master barked back, his voice now saturated with anger, "I've made up my mind. You won't have Amy!"

"Wrong," the voice hissed, "I've still got William. As long as his wife's future resides in my grasp, he'll do ANYTHING I say. And I shall say also, Mrs. Needlemouse has been a VERY good replacement for Amy in the meantime..."

"Urgh, you're an animal!" Master bellowed, "Sod off, Delago! I'll make sure Amy'll never enter your claws!"

"You can make her run..." Delago hissed in anger, "But you CAN'T hide her from me FOREVER!"

With that, the phone disconnected with a click. Master's face moulded into a grimace again and, with the speed of a raging panther, dug straight into his pocket. Upon pulling it out again, there was a large bore pistol in his hands, with a two-tone slide and tactical rail over the barrel. The words "Desert Eagle" were engraved on the side. Master grabbed the slide and racked it back with a sharp click and then kicked open the door with the gun in hand. He stormed down the hallway, erratically and indefatigable, towards the main room.

"I need to solve this one problem at a time. No-one orders a GOD what to do."

PROWER CASTLE - Dining Room
Off the coast of Mobius Alpha
July9th 2013, 12:33PM
Oliver Maruice "Sonic The Hedgehog" Needlemouse, Lowell Theo Highcastle II, Kathrine Lowhouse and Blaze "Frost" Cattington

"Okay...we're ready. Bring them in."

With the now signature creak of the old, rusty locks, the doors on either side of the dining room swung open. Kathrine was situated at one of the doors, Lowell's shotgun in hand, while Frost was situated at the other end. Lowell was paraded into the room, pushed forward by Sonic, and sat down at the tableside that had the bottle of Generic Carbonated Beverage at the side. The other side was soon surrounded by the pink wind and the outline of the Amy-Ghost soon faded into existence, once again dotted with the high-pitched and cute giggling. Lowell began breathing heavily, but Kathrine and her deep-feeling back rubs calmed him down. Sonic closed both doors and then walked off hand in hand with Frost, most probably to make out in peace.

And from there, the room was silent, bar the cold coastal winds blowing against the windows, choking the natural movement of the waters outside. From there, the room was empty bar the three now sitting at the table. All three were just staring at each other across the table, their expressions still and emotionless, bodies frozen in tension and waiting for one of them to speak. Lowell was shivering slightly, with Kathrine sitting next to him and rubbing her cheeks into his arm. The Amy-Ghost, on the other side of the table, had now faded again into a detailed being of pure light pink energy, her white smile beaming through her aura and looking rather cute while doing it; a far cry from what she was like all those years ago with Jules.

"So...you're really Amy Rose?" Kathrine asked, at last, a small squeak escaping her throat.

"...Yes." The Amy-Ghost said at last, sounding calm and meditated, "It has been so long since I've seen a Sonic that once loved me like your own. But...if he wants to love that cat woman, I don't mind. I've kinda gone off him after all these years."

"Well, we've...managed to get you here because..." Kathrine said afterwards, "There's been a misunderstanding. For the past few days, you've been planting things around the house, flying into rages, messages of death on the bathroom mirrors, that sort of thing. We're here today to help you and Lowell become friends."

"Lowell?" Amy-Ghost asked, "The orange wolf?"

"Yes. You scared him half to death, relatively speaking, a few nights ago. And you keep going on and on about us helping you seek redemption and all that."

"But...b-before we can help you," Lowell stuttered, "We need to now what's plaguing you."

"Ahh..." The Amy-Ghost sighed, laying back, "That's when things get a little sketchy."

"How so?"

"I...I don't want to tell you. Trust me, it's awful."

"Hmmm..." Kathrine mused, "Well, let's start at the bottom. You said you did not love your Sonic. Now, as far as Amies go, you're a black sheep. Along with Thorn. And Ms. Rose. And Rebirth...well okay, you're not exactly a black sheep, but still. Anything you'd like to say about that?"

"I..." Amy-Ghost started to say, her shifting eyes showing she was trying to change the subject, "I think I do. It's something to do with my past and...this figure. This young figure from the future. In a hoodie and with a mug of glowing purple drink."

"Glowing Purple Drink?" Lowell said, "Sounds like Master's learning drugs! Do you have a memory of a 'Master'? That name ring a bell?"

Amy-Ghost could feel anger well up inside of her at the name of that awful waste of energy, as well as hear a small angry grunt escape her throat, but quickly calmed down when she saw Lowell start to edge back in his seat. She cleared her throat and rested her head on her arms, "Y-Yeah...him. The guy who made my life a misery. Not that he had any choice."

"Good, good, we're off to a good start," Kathrine started smiling and slowly rubbing Lowell's tail which had landed in her lap, "Now then, can you tell us how you died?"

Amy-Ghost knew deep down that the true events had been long lost to time and her ever budding anger and hatred for Master, but she nevertheless tried hard to remember what she could. She slowly stuttered out a few words while entranced in her own deep, dark and foreboding thoughts, "Uh...i-it was years ago. 1922. I tried to escape my own version of Sonic, who had...been corrupted from something. All these horrible things he used to do to me...but I can't remember them that well. Maybe it's for the best. All I remember to this day is being held at gunpoint by three people, one of their guns being much bigger than the rest. Then...I remember falling...falling forever, it seemed...before I neared the ground and the Grim Reaper caught me in his arms."

"So...you just remember falling?" Kathrine asked. Amy-Ghost nodded sadly, her once bright pink aura now fading and dulled from the power of her emotions.

"It's all I remember. When I woke up as a ghost, I didn't even know I was dead at first. Just a sort of...lack of feeling and sense, thinking I no longer existed and I felt a limbo state of okay and terrible, eternally confused."

"Sounds like Thorn after a good night's drinking," Kathrine snarked, "But never mind that; then what?"

"After I figured all that out and got myself in order, I simply waited around for many years, keeping the inside of the castle clean. I knew the ancestors of the men who killed me would return because I knew about those 'tears' in the multiverse. It's how I got here. And every night, when I fell asleep, I had that same dream of that one night. Falling...falling for the entire dream...I started playing cards in the dreams in the end."

Kathrine's face then lit up like a lightbulb, "I've got something!" Kathrine turned to Lowell, "Lowell, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"That we've been ripping off Timelock House and should really apologise?"

"...Yes, that," Kathrine sighed, "And the fact that something doesn't add up. Confused or not, ghosts don't need sleep. They're already asleep, somewhat. Which makes me think that maybe somebody is forcing her asleep at night. Someone is maybe giving her another chance at this life thing. Someone may be ashamed of Ghost-Amy's existence but yet still has to help and has thus compromised."

"Your point?" Asked the now slightly annoyed Ghost-Amy.

"Someone HAS been living here, undetected and undeterred. Maybe they destroyed the records or prevented them from being properly updated to avoid giving themselves away. Amy-Ghost...what should I actually call you?"

"You could call me Spectre."

"I would've gone with Spirit, but someone else has that," Kathrine shrugged daintily, "Anyway, Spectre, is there anything you've noticed that's odd to you?"

"Well, there IS this small hut in the front garden, "Spectre noted, "It's really small and strange, but there are odd bleeps and bloops and flashing lights. And I see people moving inside. A small shadow or something every now and again."

"Well then, there's our answer," Kathrine said, "We better check it out!"

"But what about the ghost thing? Making me okay with the things before they murder me?" Lowell asked fearfully.

"...I'm hovering right here," Spectre said, annoyed.

"...Sorry."

"Well, we'll just have to do later. We've got a mystery to chase!" Kathrine said energetically, her eyes flashing quickly with a small white gleam. With that, she was up and sprinted out of the room.

"...Your girlfriend seems to have ADHD or something, it seems..." Spectre said sheepishly.

"Nah, she's a brilliant lass," Lowell assured, slowly gaining confidence in his voice, "It's just that she gets a little excited over adventures. She got her first taste when that other universe got invaded by Dark Gaia creatures (again) and she ended up in the crossfire. Became a Werehog and everything. Or is it wolfhog? Can't remember."

"I think I remember that too," Spectre giggled, "And I THINK it's supposed to be Wolfhog. Anyway, enough about that. Now that your girlfriend isn't helping, I might as well continue this...I'm sorry I scared you half dead a few nights ago. It was just...what happened to me all those years ago flashed before me when that shot passed through me...it's not just something you can easily forget, is it?"

"No, I'll admit that," Lowell said back, his very tone showing barefacedly he was swallowing some of his non-existent pride, "And I'm sorry I shot you in the first place. I find this world too...violent for a proper greeting. I'm sure you're well versed about that."

"Yeah. So..." Spectre held out her hand, which Lowell looked at nervously, "Friends?"

Lowell slowly edged his hand towards Spectre's, unsure if a demonic possession was supposed to come his way. Luckily, that never happened and the two slowly and quietly shook hands, Lowell finally breaking the awkward silence with a simple and confident-sounding "Friends."

"Cool. Also, I wouldn't worry about the whole 'possession' thing. I can't seem to do that for whatever reason," Spectre said quickly after the handshake ended, before quickly speaking up once more, "Oh, one more thing...could you get your Sonic to...disguise himself slightly? It's just that it's kinda hard to look at him again after all the...pain and suffering he caused me."

"Oh sure, sure," Lowell smiled, steadily gaining his confidence, "You'll never believe what our Sonic's alter-ego is. SONIC! Sonic? Where've they gone now?"

Lowell rose from his chair and walked rapidly down the hallway, bashing through various doors before finally throwing open the one to the lounging area. And there, resting on a sofa adorned with cushions and pillows, were Frost and Sonic, making out furiously. Something seemed...off about Sonic, for one. For a start, he was wearing a white cotton dress, arm length gloves, fake breasts and fishnet stockings, a pair of white boots nearby. His fur was a paler blue, he was wearing make-up and a long black wig that ended around his waist. His voice also seemed higher, with a few female-like moans escaping from the kiss sounds. It took a while before either noticed the two standing at the doorway, and upon doing so they stopped dead in their tracks, then slowly turned to stare at the two with beet red muzzles. Lowell was acting indifferently, possessing the same face he did at the start of this adventure, while Spectre's jaw ran all the way to the floor. Sonic was the first to speak up, stuttering a lot and possessing the female voice they had thought she had gained.

"Hi...uh, heh heh...this's gonna take some explaining..."

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Return to First Entry: http://freescribesofmobius.ipbhost.com/topic/373-old-world-coming-home/

WarTraveller · July 10, 2017

Chapter 5: Sunbeam

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"...I...I never stopped for a second to think what I was doing was wrong," Master's assistant Becky wiped the sweat off of his face while he sat there on the dull and lifeless grass, "I just thought it was the right thing to do. I always questioned people, but I never questioned myself."

"Well, that just goes to show," said the strange young woman in front of him, "You can't trust yourself sometimes."

"Well, who the hell DO I TRUST!" Master bellowed suddenly, throwing his arms straight into the air, "It's not like I could trust just any old person at the ball, could I? Half of those chumps thought my telly was fueled by MAGIC, for my sake!"

"You're problem, Master," the mysterious woman went on, "Is that you're so full of anger and resentment and you see it fit to take it out on people who just don't deserve it! You killed almost everyone you encounter. Almost killed...her and him."

"Yes," Master said, suddenly calm with a hint of irritation, "But I believe that we came to the agreement that we would NEVER EVER MENTION THAT AGI-"

"MASTER!" Becky quickly stepped forward when she could see Master begin to dig out his now rusty Deagle out of it's holster, holding him back with strength unseeable to the common man, "Calm down! You have to admit it happened, remember? You don't wanna end up like your superiors!"

"Right, right..." Master said wearily, flopping backwards to the floor, a tear of guilt in the corner of his eye, "I'm sorry. I...don't know what came over me."

"Jesus..." the woman said pitifully, "And the common man calls you a god..."

...

"So...let me get this straight..." Spectre mumbled uncertainly, "You're like this because of you getting...fused with your universe's Amy and it leaving side effects upon separation? Mainly by photos of you in her swimsuit circling the internet?"

"Yeah!" Sonic chirped, "It's a long story, I know."

Lowell just shrugged sluggishly. Having recovered from the massive shock of finding Sonic in the dress (or Sonya, as she preferred to be called in this form), Spectre was just asking all sorts of questions aimed towards how this was possible, ranging from the obvious ("Why do you feel comfortable this way?") to the hard to explain ("How did you get those...things without breast pads?") to the pointless (Why the hell are you wearing STOCKINGS?!"). Sonya simply smirked in response to each one, before answering the entire thing in a few sentences:

A few years previous, there was an event called the "SonAmy Incident", where Sonic was brainwashed and genetically adjusted to turn into Amy Rose herself with each and every dream. The end result, however, was a dead Sonic/Amy hybrid (of which Lowell was the cause of), a near-ruined universe, a locked-up (and branded insane) Master and a Rouge with the impaled abdomen. It was...not a normal weekend, to say the least.

Upon revival and inevitable fixing of everything they went wrong (this IS Sonic, remember), a quick poke around his brain revealed that not all of the genetic screwy stuff was fixed. Thusly, many aspects of Amy's personality were still integrated into his own. This on its own was not exactly an issue, just leading to lapses of Amy at random and (as ever) inopportune moments, but it was near-fate that one of those lapses would happen near one of Amy's old swimsuits. One round of Rouge-taken, internet-released photos later and it seemed to be the end of the line for both personalities. Luckily, Lowell (a professional therapist) and Miley 'Tails' Prower (a great mechanical and genetic wonder) found a way to combine a dress, long boots, fishnet stockings, a wig, black quill dye, eye contacts and a breast-forming-voice-changing chemical to release the inner-female trapped inside the hybrid mind. And, after all that pretentious stuff was out of the way, it worked.

Having had enough time to fully absorb and process all the info, Spectre's face twisted into one of pure confusion, but slowly re-shaped to a normal (if slightly disturbed) smile, having nothing to whisper but, "...O-okay..." Lowell could see that she was disturbed by what exactly this alternate version of her ex-lover had become, even compared to that ex. He could sense a feeling of dispair and fear from deep inside her ghostly mind, one that was now very much aware of the fact that her most favouritest lover in the history of forever was, even across universes, a shallow con-like hollow husk of a hedgehog who wanted nothing more than to destroy everything he held dear to make himself seem the best person alive (mainly by being the ONLY thing alive). A mind that, probably for the first time in years, was afraid.

"Don't think about it too hard," Lowell said after a short while, "Trust me, it's more complicated that she'll let on."

"She?" Spectre asked.

"Yeah, she. She's a transgender, remember?" Frost said, her voice a timid whisper, "That's not to say it's still Sonic under all those layers, physically and mentally. She...he...whatever...is still my lover."

"Oh, stop it," Sonya giggled, "You'll make me blush."

"Well, that may be because of the fact you have to have your panties extra-tight to hide...something. Certainly, something that never actually existed..." Lowell snarked. Sonya blushed a very deep beet-red and flew into a rage.

"WHY YOU...HOW DARE YOU SUGGEST I'M HIDEOUSLY KINKY!"

"Beleive me," Lowell said, starting to gain an ounce of irritation in his own voice, "If I wanted to paint you as the sad kinky type, I'd mention the rope, ball gags and iron weights!"

"Guys..." Spectre said timidly, "I'd love to hear your frankly disgusting bickering, but we...seem to have company," her voice suddenly gained an angry, gruff tone and it was now her turn to whip up a small rage beneath her skin, "Like HIM."

Master, Becky and the Mystery Woman were now in plain sight, having taken to sitting outside the lab on a well-kept wooden table. On the table, there was a simple basket of assorted treats and sandwiches, with three goblets placed in random places on the table bearing two names with the last partially smudged and scribbled over. Nearby was Kathrine, simply hovering near the back of the table and staring deeply at Master and Becky, sitting opposite them on the same side as the Mystery Woman, slowly taking in notes and showing signs of thinking hard to work out what had happened. Master seemed nervous and jumpy, as if he did not want to be in a place he had hideous memories of, and never seemed to focus on any of the women around him. Indeed, he only seemed to be focused on the scenery surrounding the table; mainly grass and flowers and other natural things that were more or less just rocks all those years ago. Being a master of time travel through the Tears, Master himself was no older than before. However, he sported a slightly different outfit, mainly one that was of a different palette. His 'cloth jacket' (ie. a fleece) was now a simple grey as opposed to the dark blue it had been before, and no longer sported an unusable hood and instead had a sort of large collar like-arrangement around his neck. His gloves were much longer and also seemed to be partly made of leather as well as wool, and his shoes had lost their blue tint and were now just a plain black.

Becky, sitting next to the paranoid Master, was a small female hedgehog with white fur that also had dark-furred quills and ears. Her eyes were a brilliantly bright teal colour with a matching green shirt that exposed her right shoulder and some of a wound on her upper arm. Her legs were encased in jeans with silver boots and matching ring bracelets, just like the ones Amy Rose wears. The woman sitting opposite her, however, seemed to care little about her personal appearance (which, admittedly, was a rare occurrence in any plane of existence). She wore a normal pink t-shirt that was all sorts of stains on it ranging from ketchup to oil, along with a pair of jeans that made it obvious early on that they weren't the ones you buy pre-ripped. She didn't wear gloves or shoes, simply wearing pink and frayed socks that showed brown fur poking out of the holes. She wore her quills in a ponytail, a quite messy one at that, and wore glasses that were hastily repaired with tape and hot glue. Her eyes were purple with dark rings under her eyes and she seemed weary and depressed. She slowly glanced at the group before them, before eyeing the table again and sipping her drink.

"Master?" Lowell asked out loud, "What's he doing here?"

"You think he wouldn't return after the event at the party all those years ago," Sonya shrugged, "After all, it's doubtless he had a part in it somewhere. Nevertheless, it could be possible that he's here to find a way to cover his tracks in some way..."

"Perhaps he's trying to retire?" Frost asked, sarcastically.

"Well...I wouldn't put it past him," Lowell said, "He's done some bad stuff these past few years..."

"Oh yeah," Sonya winced, "The Lost Hex...Amy's corpse...thing...how's Amber, by the way?"

"She's good," Frost shrugged, "It's not easy to enjoy life when you know your brother more-or-less glassed a planet and killed billions to get you back from the realms of non-existence."

Spectre's head tilted to the side in pure shock, "What?! Look, I may've just been hovering around here for years, but what exactly did I just hear? Did you just say he killed billions?!"

"Well...not exactly so," Frost said quickly, trying to grab Spectre's arm, "He DID revive most of them at the end, you have to know!"

"I don't know or care anymore," Spectre growled, "I've wanted to do this for years!"

Master slowly sipped at his coffee and stared at the other three before him for a second. His mind was awash with nervousness and guilt and he wasn't exactly excited to be back on the island in the first place. He placed his hands on the table and scrunched them up into little balls to prevent them shaking, but that didn't seem to work. He could feel a cold wind blow against his back, arching over the collar and brushing his neck with it's long, cold fingers. His sweat began to freeze slightly and he was becoming more and more sure that the ghost was near him, ready to extract her ghostly revenge.

And it was only then did he notice Spectre hovering near his side. A short and painful cough of surprise left his throat and he fell to the floor, edging slowly away from the vengeful ghost until his back was touching the brick wall behind him. Spectre hovered closer and closer, her eyes becoming tighter and tighter, her mouth growing fangs and emitting a rough growling. Master curled up into a ball and squeezed his eyes shut, too scared to apologise or even scream. Spectre just stared at him as the other females around the table stood up and back a few steps, becoming just as uneasy.

"YOUR EYES..." Spectre said in an unearthly tone, "PURE EVIL. Just like last time..."

"SPECTRE!" Lowell shouted, rushing to her side, "Don't!"

"Why not?" Spectre asked back, "This guy ruined my life! He killed me! Made me suffer eternal damnation!"

"It-it wasn't me, I swear!" Master said quickly, his once strong and powerful voice now a stammering wail, "It w-wasn't anywhere NEAR me!"

"YOU'RE LYING!" Spectre screamed in an even more unearthly way, her eyes misting over and glowing a slight and ghastly shade of red, "YOU'VE ALWAYS BEEN LYING!"

"...What if he isn't? What if he was simply taking guilt for this event?"

From the sound of this soothing female voice, Spectre seemed to calm down and the glowing ceased. All heads began to turn to the unknown woman, who had broken her silence and was now beginning to speak in a low and mature (yet decidedly weary) tone. Spectre hovered closer and closer to this woman and stare deep into her eyes. Unlike Master's, she found nothing; just a calming wash of black pupils with purple tones to the outsides. An unusual contrast the fire that was at first burning in the eyes of the Master, such fire now extinguished and damp. Kathrine straightened her jacket and joined the others as they began to crowd around this woman with wildly varying levels of interest. The woman, in response, simply shrugged and began hugging herself.

"So...does the concept of personal space mean anything to you people?"

"How do you KNOW for certain that he's wrong?" Spectre asked sceptically.

"Why, it's simple, dear Roseanne. I've told young Kathrine here everything I can."

"Indeed she has," Kathrine spoke up, "Basically, her name is Sunbeam or something, and she's been the one living here and forcing Spectre into a sleep mode. And she's doing that 'cause she's been studying the events of that day and trying to see who was really behind it."

"So..." Spectre turned to Sunbeam, "You forced me to sleep every night so you could look into my dreams and see what I recalled of it?"

"Of course," Sunbeam replied, "After all, you were there...obviously. Unfortunately, it was a failure; you just kept dreaming of the falling part and not the actual death. Falling wasn't the exact cause, I'm sure of that. There was a gunshot wound on your body. One that, after scanning all the files and records I could find, was from a bullet that could not have existed in that particular timeframe. Specifically, a .50 Action Express cartridge."

"Only one gun I know of chambers that..." Sonya spoke up, "And only one guy I know would be dumb enough to carry one as a sidearm, too..." she then walked briskly over to the still balled-up Master and then fiercely kicked his face until he lost consciousness, silently breathing an "I've always wanted to do that..." After this, she began to rifle through his pockets. There was finally a click and a tick sound, and out came the gun she was expecting; the Desert Eagle. It was mildly the same as from that day, as it still had the tactical rail and two-colour paint scheme. What WAS interesting about it, however, was a large amount of rust on the weapon. It was incredibly dirty, as if the paint scheme was just tinfoil attached with glue, and some of the buttons on the slide were missing. Lowell stared at the gun as Sonya presented it to Sunbeam and suddenly realised he hadn't seen Master use it for a while. It seemed to him that, whatever happened on the island, Master had abandoned his gun and instead turned to his ever popular Staff of Chaos as his main weapon. Indeed, Lowell took a quick check of the area and the Staff was seen perched on the table, glowing a faint purple and featuring many unusual tidbits and gadgets to make it look more Steam-Punky. Nevertheless, Lowell smirked at the Desert Eagle, knowing he would be able to repair it to full strength when he next had the chance.

"Is this what you're talking about?" Sonya asked, handing the weapon to Sunbeam.

Sunbeam carefully inspected the weapon, unloading it and attempting to flip the safety on (which failed because the switch wasn't there anymore). She flipped it around and looked slightly harder and it was then she noticed the fingerprints on the frame, from areas she had not touched. She quickly pressed a piece of sticky paper on to collect them, and then gave the gun back to Sonya, saying; "Yes. This is the one we're looking for. With this, I can finally get the Answer to work!"

"...The Answer?" Frost asked, "The heck's that?"

"I...have no idea," Sunbeam said with a simple shrug, "It's a machine I found on this island a few years ago and I've tried to make it work for some time. I found some files and it's an amazing thing. It's the last thing the Prowers made before they went out of business and it's designed to, and I quote, 'to shed all light on this endless nightmare'. No idea what they were talking about. All I know is that it requires the fingerprints of that Master guy to activate. And now I have them."

"And why not use Master's own fingers?" Lowell asked.

"Well, this whole event was quite awful to him. And would YOU like him to re-experience something tragic and horrific?"

Lowell paused, then slowly looked sheepishly to the ground, "Good point..."

"I dunno," Sonya shrugged, "He seems to be determined to make my counterpart do the same."

"Not exactly important, but well noted. Let's get on with this," Sunbeam said, "Maybe now we can finally find out what happened that night..."

Taking the now passed-out Master by the arms, Sunbeam picked him up and dragged him into the lab everyone was standing behind, with all the others following quickly. The insides of the lab were clean and yet incredibly unorganised, decorated almost entirely with the remains of past machines and experiments. The cog-powered Tablet Lowell had seen in the great hall was now on the table in many pieces and with a large note with the red words "RUINED" scribbled across it. Lowell got the feeling that the Prowers before Miley weren't as invincible as they thought they were. Apart from that, there were a few (hopefully) harmless chemicals spilt around the room and the odd loose cog and wire here are there too. In the farthest corner was a rather crude living quarters and kitchen with a badly made bedframe with mattress and table, along with a TV and gas oven. In the centre of the room, however, was the most important machine; a large cog-filled machine hooked up to a chair nearby with wires poking everywhere and what seemed to be a holographic projector connected to the top of the box. Sunbeam dusted off all the rubbish that had accumulated over the years and then forced Master into the chair, securing him to it with straps and shackles. After this, she then walked briskly over to a control panel on the machine and started to press all sorts of colourful buttons. She then pulled a lever and the machine, slowly and surely, sprang to life.

"I would suggest you...take a seat over there," Sunbeam said, pointing lazily towards some cushioned chairs with popcorn and drinks nearby, "This'll take a while."

The others did as they were told and sat accordingly. Sonya and Frost sat together and shared the popcorn, while Lowell and Kathrine seemed to quickly fall asleep against each other. Spectre just hovered around and then slowly approached and floor and "sat", if that would ever be possible for a ghost, on the floor. The machine continued to spring to life, it's numerous clicks and whirrs slowly filling the area and bathing it in a similar grey light. From there, a sheet of white material slowly pulled down from the ceiling and somehow glowed on it's own. Soon, the machine appeared to reach full change; it's whining appeared to go no higher or no louder. Master was beginning to stir and regain his composure, before quickly jerking upright and yelping in surprise. His head darted around in multiple directions to find out where he was and, upon finding out just WHERE he was and WHAT he was strapped into, he began to struggle and squirm and attempted with all his might to escape the contraption. Alas, it seemed to be in vain and, after a few minutes of using all of his strength, he collapsed in a breathless heap and began to cough violently. Becky quickly ran to his side and pulled out what seemed to be an inhaler with small ventilating chamber attachment and stuck it in his mouth. The inhaler was sprayed and Master took long, deep breaths, which seemed to do the trick and calmed him down.

"Master has asthma?" Sonya asked as Becky returned to her seat.

"Sometimes," Becky corrected, "Only seems to occur when he over-exerts himself."

"Huh," Spectre mused, "He becomes a lot less scary and powerful with that in mind. I thought he was a God and all that."

"Is THAT what he tells you?" Becky sneered, "Typical. But he isn't TOTALLY wrong. Master isn't his real name; it's actually just a race of powerful people who rule the universes they create. Not exactly Gods, per se. They certainly aren't invincible by any stretch of the imagination. They're bad-tempered, violent, hypocritical, egotistical and want things to go their way and their way only. But they're not gods. They're children given the power to do things they shouldn't."

"Oh, I see," Spectre said calmly, staring back at Master, "Would you ever say that to his face?"

"Of course not!" Becky cried out sharply, "These Masters are violent and EXTREMELY powerful. Just not invincible. It's his emotions that do him in at the end of it all."

"So..." Sonya was the next to speak up, kicking the ground beneath her chair, "What's his real name?"

"No-one knows," Lowell spoke afterwards, "Not even me. He keeps it a secret to everyone. My guess is one that's embarrassing or awkward-sounding in certain accents."

"So, it could be Perry?"

"Probably, yes."

"I can HEAR you, you know!" Master cried out himself from the chair, "I'm not deaf!"

"No, but you ARE conscious," Sunbeam said, approaching the chair that Master was tied to, "All the better to re-experience one of the worst moments of this year. In full colour and, hopefully, detail."

"Let me out of this!" Master protested, making no second attempt to escape himself, "You won't find anything there, except maybe OUR memories! And trust me; you don't want them anymore..."

Sunbeam seemed driven aback by Master's use of "our memories", but too regained her composure and silenced him with a swift and hard-hitting slap to the side of the face, "We'll see about THAT," being said in a dark and restless tone.

The machine's pitch shot slightly higher still and a train whistle blew in a very loud manner, disorientating everyone in the room. Sunbeam saw this as the metaphorical lock being opened and rushed to the controls. A few buttons were pressed and a few levers were thrown and the machine finally glowed an eerie grey and began to rumble with pure power. A final shunting sound was mixed with Master's anguished cry of "NO!" and a beam of light began to shoot onto the cloth. From there, the entire room became overblown with a bright and stinging light and only when it subsided did the image show; a large pool of light, showing an image of the castle balcony from years ago. There was Amelia, as she was when she was alive, calmed and still upset, stroking the baby Jules slowly and in an odd pattern. From there, the image could be seen in near-perfect clarity and a small amount of rain began to splatter into the room. The winds began to stir up and sweep around, blowing Sonya's popcorn clear across the room and into the corner. From there, however, nothing else happened and the pair by the edge of the wall seemed to pay no notice to the new audience.

"Is this what The Answer does?" Sonya asked, "Give us a damn slideshow?"

"It's a TEAR!" Master yelled in fear, scrunching his eyes tight, "Oh, I was dreading this!"

"Greeting..." came a slow and dull voice from somewhere inside the tear, echoing around the room just like the wind, "I am Charles Prower. This is one of my last recordings before leaving this castle and this way of life, perhaps forever. If you are listening to this, you have brought Master's fingerprints to the Answer and have activated it. Hopefully, you may also use this evidence I will now be able to show you, powered by the emotional power from that scumball Master person, to bring him to justice. Tonight, you will experience a recording of the final moments of Amelia Roseanne and our fall along with it. I lost my life, my wealth, my servant Zoi and my best friend..." the voice seemed to choke slightly here, "William. With this, you will see just how bad this Master is and, how ironic, how bad he needs to die."

"I don't care!" Master responded, his eyes still clenched closed, "I ain't watching!"

Just as he said this, two probes extended out of the machine and gave Master a brutal shock, causing him to spasm and jibber in a shock as powerful as the one being given to him. When it stopped, it seemed to Lowell that his eyes had been forced open, with slight twitches along the way.

"You WILL watch!" Charles began to bellow, "And you WILL be silent. Today, the answer to all your questions will be revealed, and all debts will be paid in full. Amelia..." Charles' voice once again began to choke, "I'm sorry."

At last, his voice went silent and the image whitened out to another view inside the castle. Master was now totally unwilling and unable to escape, the combination of asthma and the electric shock leaving him drained and paralysed. The others stared wide-eyed at the unfolding events before them, but the last thought to cross Spectre's mind before tuning in was that Sunbeam was not at all pleased with what she was seeing. She seemed...confused.

And very afraid.

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Return to First Entry: http://freescribesofmobius.ipbhost.com/topic/373-old-world-coming-home/

WarTraveller · July 10, 2017

Chapter 6: The Truth Revealed

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Prower's Castle-Dining Room
Knight Island, American Coast
October 23rd, 1922,8:50PM
William Needlemouse, Dewitt Highcastle, Master

It was quite late now, at least it was for the 1920s. The candles had begun to burn out and only a small, warm glow remained. Most of the guests were now preparing to leave and were collecting any artefacts to take home in their bags. Reporters for the newspapers were finishing their scribbled into their notebooks for their editors in the morning and some of the women were staring hard and coldly at the machines on the stage, trying to think of what had happened and what could be done about it. William, having sobered up a bit, was now sitting straight up and staring at his watch in worry. It had been many hours and not a single trace of this Amelia was to be found. He was getting annoyed, seeing as this was his job and it was all that was standing between him and filing for bankruptcy. And he couldn't put young Jules through that. He sat up, holding his legs and groaned.

"You okay, William?" Dewitt asked, sitting down beside William.

"Y-Yeah," William said with a hearty sigh, "I mean, it's just that we haven't found this Amelia woman and time is running short."

"Yeah, gave us the slip didn't she?" Dewitt said, opening the last bottle of whisky on the table, "What a waste of time. Well, apart from THAT."

William looked at the location that Dewitt had begun pointing to and it was indeed directed towards the machine again. William sighed again, "You know, I've been thinking...this Amelia woman, you think she used the portal to come through to hide here?"

Dewitt looked forlorn, "Perhaps. The only other guy who could was that Master bloke, and he doesn't seem to NEED that thing. But that brings up an interesting fact: if this Amelia has used up all this energy just to escape someone, that someone must be one of the WORST Mobian I've ever heard of."

This musing was suddenly cut short by a crash. The door at the end of the room was flung open and nearly wrenched off its hinges. It was Master in the doorway, looking angry and a little pale. He approached William, grabbed the pistol out of his shoulder holster and gave it back to him, barking, "Get up."

"Why?" William asked carefully.

"JUST GET UP," Master barked again, "I've found Amelia. And so has her 'boyfriend'. Sod the agreement, we need to get her out of her NOW. Come on!"

William got up and helped Dewitt to his feet. Before long, both were running, guns in hand, behind the sprinting Master. He seemed serious and enraged in some way, running through the corridors like a sort of animal and ramming through the doors in multiple ways. One was a ram, another was a slam, another perhaps a smash, leading to a wondrous and violent finale of ripping the door straight off its hinges and throwing it away. He was silent, his brow furrowed in grim determination, with just the odd growl when bashing through a door or tripping over a stray rock. Finally, he opened a final door and saw the balcony. From there, his frown turned to a gasp of surprise. He stepped back slightly and then the anger returned to his face and he growled once more. As he continued sprinting towards the people on the balcony, his Deagle was pulled and aimed at the duo before him, with a quite audible "DON'T YOU F***ING MOVE!" escaping his throat.

For there, in front of them, was the "Amelia" in question. Jules was nearby and it obviously looked like he was kicked aside in some manner (but the kick was gentle enough to simply bruise him), crawling away and crying somewhat. Amelia herself was trapped; her legs and arms were tied with rope once more and duct tape had been placed over her mouth. She was attempting to cry for help from Master, but alas her panicked shrieks were but a muffled scream. And there, holding this poor woman by her bonds, was Delago. He was a tall hedgehog with dirty brown fur and a bent back, almost like a banana. His teeth were bucked and discoloured, obviously showing a sort of broken brace of some kind. He wore almost nothing apart from a pair of gloves and shoes, with socks so stiff and solid that you could almost hear a crunching sound as he walked briskly to the edge of the balcony. His gloves had two ball gags wrapped around them as a sort of bracelet, along with another on his right ankle. Apart from that were glasses, showing obvious repair with duct tape and superglue, and breath with the puerile stench that would befit only a man such as himself. William and Dewitt were already disgusted by this man, without a single word being uttered, and almost instantly aimed their own handguns at his form. Master had already had the displeasure to meet this man and was already squeezing his finger on the trigger. A crowd, enticed by the Master's brutal entry and exit, had now formed at the doorways, Charles and Eliza included.

"Master, Master, Master..." Delago chuckled, "What AM I going to do with you?"

William winced at the man's voice. He sounded almost like...himself, but with a high, raspy tone to it. He also spoke in an almost-posh British accent, as opposed to Master's more...commonplace dialect. For what he was and what he was there for, he seemed totally calm to everyone, never screaming or yelling until the bitter end. William noticed what he looked like in a heartbeat.

"You...you're...my grandson?"

"Gold star, Mr Needlemouse, gold star..." Delago wheezed, "I am. Another version, from another universe, with different looks and goals. I only seek to...help these poor defenceless females and make their last hours...well-meaning."

"How could you think of it that way?" Dewitt asked in a disgusted tone, "You make me SICK."

"Thank you," Delago grinned, "Now then, I'll say now. I'm impressed Master; you try to make her hard to tie up, I undo the altering. You teach her to fight back, I fight back harder. You employ BODYGUARDS to protect her AND move her to an alternate universe..." Delago pointed at William and Dewiit at 'bodyguards', "But after all that? I still win. You had me at almost EVERY TURN and I still win. It amazes me that you still try. And no matter how many times I die, no matter how many times you kill me with the sharpest of blades and the hottest of bullets, I come back. I come back STRONGER. I come back SMARTER. I come back BETTER. I'm your worst nightmare."

Master began to approach Delago and Amelia with his gun in hand, his finger ever inching closer to the final 'click' to send the bullet straight towards his nemesis. However, Delago smirked again and quickly whipped out an M1911A1 pistol and put it to Amelia's temple. She shrieked again, tears streaming down her cheeks, and Master stopped in his tracks. As he did so, there was a large, loud and long sound of cutting air and a helicopter rose from the waters below and flew to gun level with Master. The miniguns attached to its nose meant trouble for even someone like him, and Master stopped.

"Oh dear, it seems that shooting me won't be so easy this time," Delago taunted, "I've got a gun, you've got a gun, it's got a gun, WE ALL HAVE A GUN! Now, back down, all three of you! Or your target's brains end up as chum! And Master?"

Master growled at this. He stared at his gun, then Amelia, then William, then back to his gun. He growled again and threw the gun across the floor, skidding to a neat stop at William's feet. Delago grinned again.

"No...way...you're related to me!" Willaim said, somewhat feebly, through clenched teeth.

"Oh, I'm not," Delago said once more, "I defected from your family of hicks and backwaters..."

"And made an ARMY full of 'em!!!"

"Ooh, I'm wounded," Delago returned, "Now then, after that pathetic attempt, I made my own group of peeps who...know a good woman and a good time when they see one. It's not MY fault you see my stuff as WRONG...it's YOURS. Too arrogant and closed-minded to appreciate the true beauty that a bit of rope and a ball gag can bring out in a lady. Besides...it's not like you'll make me bring her back."

"And I'll guess you're the contact?" William snarled, walking forward, "Master was a pawn. Dewitt was a pawn. And you're the one with the antidote for my WIFE!"

"You're on top form today, aren't you?" Delago said yet again, "And trust me, I've been real close with her lately. Boys?"

On a click of the fingers, the helicopter turned sideways and the door began to open. Inside were a few soldiers, all wearing black combat gear, and a pale-blue hedgehog with a white dress. An IV drip was attached to her arm and she was very pale. She looked miserable and weak, being held by the soldiers by her arms and looked seriously ill. She tried to reach out to William, but to no avail. She too had the bruises and rope marks and she looked somewhat traumatised.

"Mary!" Willaim called out, reaching out to her also.

"William..." Mary said weakly as she was hoisted to the castle floor. She weakly pointed to Delago, "If I wasn't like I am, I'd kick your ass so hard!"

"Well, tough," Delago said, his gun quickly trading hands from left to right. He turned to Master and William, "Master, William. For what you are, and for how high up in modern society you are, you have no power. You couldn't stop your past mistakes. Your wife's illness, your glassing of an entire planet. The Archie Incident, the Sonamy Incident. You both had a hand in that in some manner. And Master, you and me; you're powerless to stop me just as much as you're powerless to stop yourself. You see me as a sick individual who kills and maims for his own gain. But what about you, glassing entire planets for long lost sisters? Killing Amies and Knuckles WORLDWIDE for it? Letting another Amy die a horrible death while letting this one slip away? What about the Archie Incident? Was there a lack of ass in your 'verse? I'll tell you now, you're hypocritical and near uncaring of your status and responsibilities. You only do what you wanna do, and that's often killing anyone and anything which displeases you. And thusly, you couldn't rule a line, let alone what they've given you!"

"Cut the crap and give me the antidote!" William yelled, raising the gun to Delago's head, "My wife is sick!"

"Oh, I know," Delago said, his gun finally resting, "Very sick indeed. A thought-uncurable disease. But, luckily for you, I have the antidote to fix everything. And now, I prove. Prove my power. My will. My strength. Even if you wanted to, Master, you could not stop this."

For a second, he seemed to giggle psychotically. William noticed that the smirk betrayed his actions and his gun was slowly inching towards a different target entirely. He let out a hand and a scream of "NOOOOOOO!", but it did nothing. A gunshot whipped the air and the blood spurted high. Mary's time on this planet was cut short almost instantly, slowly landing in a puddle of blood and brain matter. William screamed in rage and grief and attempted to sprint towards Delago, but was held back by Dewitt.

"Don't do it," Dewitt yelled, "He'll kill you too!"

"I'LL KILL HIM!" William screamed, "I'LL F***ING KILL HIM!!! I'LL SKIN HIM ALIVE, I'LL TEAR OFF HIS HEAD AND USE IT AS A TOILET BRUSH! I'LL SEND YOU HOME IN A F***ING BOX!!!"

"Ooh, childish William. Tsk tsk. And I thought that what I just did would be considered a mercy killing," Delago said. He then walked towards Master and forced him to his knees, dragging him to Amelia and grabbing her with his other arm, "Now then. Master, I think I have suitably shown that I have the power here. Not you. You wanted to save that Amelia woman and Mary both. To redeem yourself. But redemption isn't something you can order and just BUY...didn't want another life on your conscience, did you?" he removed one of the ball gags from his wrist, "We're going to have quite a lot of fun. You'll be delighted with the amount of...swimming...you'll be doing."

He could attach it, yet another crack of a gunshot wracked the air, this time one of bigger sound and power. Master and Delago were both perforated with the bullet and both fell to the ground, screaming in pain. Behind them, however, was Amelia. Her stomach had also been perforated and was showing a much bigger hole, showcasing some of her guts as they slowly spilt on the floor. She had a final sob and a throat-wracking scream and then tumbled backwards off the balcony. Master dragged himself to the edge to see her body falling...falling...falling...ending with a solid and life-ending THUD as she hit the ground. Amelia was dead, well and truly.

"No..." he whispered silently. Delago sprinted over to the side and he became scared.

"But...I had Master by my side! Who did this?!"

Someone coughed. Everyone looked to see the origin of the sound, including the now petrified audience. And there, holding Master's Deagle in shaking hands, was William. He was bloodstained, tearstained, weary and hunched over. He sunk to his knees and dropped the pistol, which clattered to the ground out of sight.

"You..." Delago began to scream, "WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

William didn't look up. And he didn't need to, "...It was a mercy kill. Just like yours."

"But...I...I NEED HER!" Delago screamed, running for William with a knife in hand. He got almost halfway before Dewitt had tackled him to the floor and knocked him out with a punch to the neck.

"Gotcha, a**hole," Dewitt sighed and turned to William, "So...what now?"

"No doubt the police would want to hear this," Charles said at last, "This is gonna ruin me! What have you DONE, William?!"

"...Saved her. Saved him. And damned that Master!" William sprang up and grabbed Charles by his shoulder, "Let me tell you now. I'm gonna just...go. No-one would want me and everyone would like me dead. Now, take care of Jules for me...and make sure that Master ROTS in damnation. As soon as you can and for as long as you want..."

No-one was quite sure what had happened at this point, but a glowing green flash soon erupted out of the air and William was gone, with just two shoe-shaped scorch marks on the ground to show where he stood. Jules, who had watched the entire ordeal with crying eyes, rushed to Master and tugged on his sleeve, "Where's Daddy? Where'd he go?"

"I...don't know, little one," Master said, returning to his depressed state and looking like he would start crying, "I don't know."

"I wanna go home!" Jules began bawling, "I wanna go home!"

"Well...I'll help you. But I'm not sure you'll like it when you get there."

"You'll do NOTHING of the sort," Charles said, disgusted.

"Why're you getting angry at ME?!" Master said, "It's DELAGO who killed her!"

"Maybe, but he wouldn't be here without you," Charles said, "I see what he is. A mirror to you. And perhaps you AREN'T so different. I don't even care anymore. All I know is this; get out of here. Run as fast as you can and don't look back. If you even BREATH near this place EVER AGAIN..."

"I GET IT!" Master yelled, "FINE! I'm going...I'm sorry..."

There was another flash and a portal appeared. Master sighed and, soon, he was gone.

"...The government ain't gonna be happy," one of the crowd-bearers said.

"What's going to happen to us?" Eliza asked fearfully, "And what're we gonna do with William's children?"

"I'll look after Jules," Dewitt spoke up, "It's all I can do, seeing as I don't have children of my own at the moment. Might pick up a few tips. But in all...seriousness, there isn't any other choice."

"Well then," Charles said woefully, "I'll try to scavenge what I can about this. The sooner that Amelia is buried, the better. May Chaos have mercy on her soul."

Charles sniffed and walked back inside, followed by most of the crowd. Dewitt picked up Jules in his arms and slowly began to pick up the lollipops that had been scattered on the floor. As he did so, however, he saw another hand appear to do so. Dewitt looked to his side to see one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen. She had orange fur with a ponytail and an eye-covering fringe, with little black highlights on the tips. She had a furry muzzle and a single fang sticking out of her mouth to compliment the single red eye that was visible. She also wore a brown, almost leather dress with a matching corset with a white upper part and long sleeves that dropped off her hands and around her waist. Dewitt was taken aback by this women, as did she for reasons truly unknown.

"...Hi..." she stammered at last.

"...Hello," Dewitt said back, "You are?"

"My name's Zoe," the woman said back, "Servant to Charles and Eliza. Well, for now anyway."

"What do you mean?"

"Well..." Zoe sighed, "You know this ain't going to end well. You saw that. All of that. They're gonna lost their cred, they're gonna lose their money and I'm gonna lose my job. But...I have nowhere else to go."

Dewitt's mind began to race. She looked almost identical to his grandson, Lowell. Perhaps she was the one? The wife that Lowell couldn't mention. Perhaps it was near fate that this would occur? And all the other so-called "romantic" pish-posh like that. But even so, there was the feeling that this was always to be. That this was pretty fate altogether. And besides, if he didn't. Where would she go? What could she do? How could she survive? He didn't want to know and he didn't want that sort of thing on his conscience. Not like that Master guy, and the road he went down.

Dewitt continued to stare into Zoe's eyes, "Say...I don't suppose you could...help me with this?"

"...Sure," Zoe said quietly, a small blush on her face, "Not like I have another choice," she reached out her hand and Dewitt helped her to her feet. She eyed the silently sobbing Jules and the carnage around her, with Delago now being taken into a small cage to be disposed of later. She became fearful, "That...Master guy. What happened to him? What'll happen to us because of it? Will we face a similar fate? Mr Highcastle...are you afraid of God?"

Dewitt looked forlorn and then handed Jules to Zoe. He then stepped over to the edge and looked over the barrier. Amelia's body was still in a crumpled heap on the ground with people slowly approaching, shovels in hand. Even at that height, Dewitt could tell some of them, Eliza included, was crying. A perfect waste of a life with so much potential, all squandered by a fetish-driven man and his psychotic, hair-trigger temper equal. Just because of a little squabble. Dewitt turned to Zoe, who was now holding an asleep Jules in her arms.

"No. Our God is Master, and he is harmless...", he looked over the side again, almost as if he was talking to Amelia:

"But I'm afraid of you."

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Return to First Entry: http://freescribesofmobius.ipbhost.com/topic/373-old-world-coming-home/

WarTraveller · July 12, 2017

(Yeah, I kind of skipped a day yesterday. I might as well upload the final chapters today)

Chapter 7: Delago's Revenge

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From the room from which all of the before was surveyed, the room had grown quiet. The picture had faded out and the grey static was gone. There was no wind, no voices, no action. No noise of any sort. Apart from one. A single, stammering voice repeating "No...N-No! B-But-..." over and over again. It was of Sunbeam, clutching her head in agony and sorrow, and kneeling on the hard and cold concrete that had sheltered her in the past, now only a grim representation of the crowd behind her who could only watch in confusion. Master, on the other hand, was happily squirming in his chair, now recovered from the electric shock and revelling in Sunbeam's breakdown.

"Hah!" he suddenly yelled triumphantly, "I knew it! I knew I was innocent."

"But...but I don't understand!" Sunbeam yelled, "I...I thought you were the one! I thought you DID it!"

"Handling a large amount of Chronostic Energy will do that to you!" Master retorted back, "I told you, but did you listen? NO!"

Sunbeam stood up again and stared at Master and his bulgy, smug face. Her own began to twist into one of rage and frustration, as if she had tried to end him multiple times in the past and everything had failed. She grabbed a nearby shard of glass from one of the broken windows and began to rush towards him with wild, glass swinging abandon and screaming, "I'm the hero! I saved Amelia from a horrible and slow death. Now my own grandson...granddaughter...THING thinks I'm a monstrosity! And you? YOU got away scot-free! Not even a consequence! WHY WON'T YOU JUST DIE?!"

But before Sunbeam could sink the glass into Master's soft, teeth-scarred flesh, there was another "thwump" sound as a sledgehammer flew out of thin air and collided with Sunbeam in mid-sprint. She skidded across the floor and stopped just shy of the machine. She got up, wincing in pain, before finding herself staring down the barrel of Lowell's revolver. She sniffed and slumped to the floor again in defeat. She began to cry slightly, half out of pain and half out of exhaustion.

"Don't kill me..." she whined in a high-pitched fashion, "I was only doing what I thought would help everyone..."

"Lowell!" Sonya stood up and rushed to his side, picking up the sledgehammer along the way, "What're you doing!?"

Lowel ignored her and instead stared at Sunbeam. "Alright..." he said, slowly and calmly, "Two things are going to happen. ONE: you are going to shut down the machine and get Master out of it. TWO: you are going to explain what is going on here. I have no idea what's going on and frankly, I don't want to. But the sooner we solve who really killed Amelia, the better."

"...Alright..." Sunbeam said, "I'm just...I'm sorry..."

"It's okay," Sonya comforted, "Here, I'll help you," she knelt down and grabbed Sunbeam by her arm and lifted her up. They began to hobble in unison towards the console. Sunbeam painfully stretched out her hand and slowly pressed some buttons. The whining from the machine died completely and the restraints around Master's wrists opened with a loud clack. Afterwards, Sonya helped Sunbeam to the makeshift bed in the corner of the room and let her lie there. Frost placed her hands on Sunbeam and began to channel a small amount of cold through them to ease the pain. With that being taken care of, Lowell went to Master, who had flopped onto the floor due to the after-effects of the shock. After a swift kicking, Master was up and walking slowly towards Sunbeam and the others.

"Well..." Spectre said after a long pause, "Now you will BOTH tell us what happened that night. What happened to me? Who killed me in the end?"

"I'll...I'll start," Sunbeam said in a solemn way, "Now, I know what you're thinking...yes, I am William. Or rather, I WAS."

"I figured that out somewhat easily," Lowell said, "I'd like to know what happened with you just vanishing in a show of light."

"It was a...a nightmare, from before," Sunbeam said, "I was sleeping on the night before the party and I just saw...saw Amelia. I saw her in a cage, in Delago's 'special' dungeon. She was hogtied and screaming for help, as her cold screams were choked by the rippling of the water she was lying in. She wriggled and threw herself about violently...and then she just stopped moving. She was just...dead...on the spot. And there was that Delago...just sitting there. Enjoying this brutality!"

"It was only after a little research that I figured out where that dream came from," Master spoke up next, "The year previous, I had been testing a new liquid I had found. It was half of what powered that tear machine. You know the Time Stones?"

"From the Little Planet, yeah," Sonya said, "Useless little things. I wonder what happened to them, 'cause I never saw 'em again."

"I took 'em," Master said again, "I ran them through a processor to see if any interesting things were lurking in it, or if it was just a Chaos substitute. Well, this new liquid I extracted made the whole of time tick. I called it Chronos Energy."

"I thought we already had Chrono Sto-" Sonya began before Lowell swiftly slapped her across the cheek, "Oh, right, forgot. Never mention any Archie things. Sorry."

"...Yes, anyway. I saw MANY, even endless possibilities with this new liquid-time," Master said with glee before returning to the emotionless mumbling of before, "But alas, none of the ideas seemed to be able to work. I was going to show it at the party, but I forgot. I guess little Jules got to go and took it."

"...I DO remember Jules coming back with a canister of blue liquid," Sunbeam said suddenly, sitting up straight before the pain in her still ruined stomach caused her to keel over again, "I thought it was some sort of new blueberry drink."

"...You DRANK it?!" Spectre said in amazement.

"Well, it didn't taste of blueberry, let me put it that way," Sunbeam said, "That's when the nightmares came. Piece by piece, like clockwork every other night, for the entire year up to the party. That last night pieced it all together. When I saw Amelia in that picture, I saw it was her. And I decided to prevent her end like that. Make it fast."

"And you set up Master to take the fall?"

"He was the closest to hand," Sunbeam said again in a sob-like way, "And I didn't want to endanger Charles; he was my friend. And I couldn't blame Dewitt; I knew he was innocent. And in hindsight, Master is the type of guy that would do something like that. Turns out I was right on the money."

"...Is this true, Mr. Master?" Spectre turned to Master, "Do you think I needed to die?"

"Life is a gift," Master said quickly, his voice wooden and monotonous, "It's given to you to be cherished and respected. But there will always be people who abuse the gift, like a spoilt child with a new toy. All that's left to fix the problem is to take it away. People like Amelia, it's taken away for their own good, lest people take it from them by horrific force."

"...I guess you do," Spectre said, disgusted, "Perhaps you know that your presence has the potential to breed the sort of animal Delago is?"

Master stayed silent that time. He didn't have an answer to that. Sunbeam smirked and continued her story, "And after that, on the boat ride, I saw what would happen at that time. Me, with the gun, vanishing in a bright light. No more, no less. When that time came...well, I did what I had to do and told Charles to make sure Master was punished for his crimes."

"Crimes that he didn't totally commit," Lowell sighed, "Not that it matters, I guess. I may serve you, Master, but you disgust me."

"...I know," Master said bitterly, "And after that, I guess the Chronos Energy transported William to the future Knight Island and broke down his body, creating the being before us."

"Well, that's settled," Frost said at last, "But what do we do now? I mean, what else is there to do?"

"Only one more thing," Sunbeam said, "I saw one more thing in that dream; Delago here in modern times. Turns out he escaped his bonds before the government came along and shut the place down. He's coming...he's here to finish the job."

Suddenly, there was a crash outside and most of the party rushed out to see what was up. Only Katherine stayed behind to tend to Sunbeam's wounds. Outside, there was a swoosh of flowing grass and crashing waves as some sort of mecha fell from the sky. It was a large, hulking thing with multiple guns on every limb and chest panel. It's rocket thrusters emitted jets of steam and smoke as the flames burst out at periods and seared the grass. And there, in the full-glass cockpit, was Delago. As with Master, time had not aged him and his face was still as scarred and disgustingly weasel-like as ever. The only real difference was some bandages across his forearms and a scar across his chest. And an enraged smile on his face.

"Won't you guys just DIE already?!" Delago screamed, "You're making me look BAD! Who do you think got this entire thing off the ground? All I wanted was my precious Amy-poo! And you ripped her from my hands, like an animal!"

"You don't deserve me, you monster!" Spectre spoke up at last, "Do you see anyone who's just going to bow to you?"

"Oh, Amy-poo, I'm better than that!" Delago wheezed, "I'm not that egotistic and pathetic to just ASK them to bow to me. I've had years, many many years, to focus on that day. All that time to think about seeing you fall to your doom. And lo, I've come to this conclusion; kill you all. Every last one of you! 'Cause as long as you peeps live, I'll never get my beloved Amy-poo. And you lovely ladies..." he edged closer to Becky and Frost, "I'll be sure to treat you right. I only use the softest of silk gags...like that?"

"F*ck you!" Becky retorted.

"Well, I tried," Delago shrugged, "Now then, how about we finally battle? I want to see your blood mix. PREPARE FOR BATTLE!"

The machine's mechanical arms swung about with terrible ferocity, crashing into the ground before the heroes and raising a large chunk of earth into the sky. From there it let out a mechanical shriek and threw the chunk towards the awaiting group, of which most of them dodged with graceful accuracy. Lowell dug out his revolver and fired it's five shots towards the mecha, causing a few bullet holes to erupt in the bodywork but otherwise not damaging the machinery. Becky likewise responded by digging what appeared to be a Howa Type 64 out of...nowhere and firing a few short bursts at the machine. This round of fire managed to pierce the glass cockpit, but beyond that was stopped before it hit Delago in his fleshy head. It just stopped and levitated in the air for a short while before dropping to the ground for a bit.

"Cute," Delago said, smirking wildly, "Anti-gravity shields are always useful in cockpits. Makes me wonder why Eggman never used them in HIS machines. I mean, they're so...CHEAP...anyway, my turn to shoot things!"

Delago mashed a few buttons with very little precision or finesse, but this seemed to activate what attack he had selected. The four miniguns on the chest of the mecha rang out with their songs of gunfire and perforated the ground with hot lumps of brass. The group was forced to run, yelling in shock, and dive into the castle. Unfortunately, not everyone managed to fully escape the bullets and Becky was suddenly hit by one, clipping her left shoulder and sending a lot of blood around the room. As she fell to the ground in agony, the others pushed the doors shut from outside the doorframe, closing them with a tremendous creak and an even more tremendous slam. The bullets started again and almost tore the doors to shreds, but it managed to stay onto the hinges. The guns stopped for a bit and the mecha moved inland, cutting a path through all the shredded ground it had created, and lurched forward with the same sort of majesty of its pilot (that is to say, none at all). It then began to lift it's giant, oil-stained claw and thrust it through the doorframe, trying to catch the group unawares. It was not successful and retreated to re-plan its attack.

"...Seems a tad one-sided, doesn't it?" Lowell said at last. Everyone more-or-less nodded in agreement (except Becky, who tried her best anyway). Master didn't seem to be fully aware of the situation, blankly staring at the ceiling and deep in obvious and depressing thought. Lowell sighed at this hideous timing and slumped against the wall.

"If only I had the Chaos Emeralds on me!" Sonya whined, "I could make short work of that thing!"

"Anyone got any ideas?" Spectre asked.

"Well I can freeze his guns so he can't use them," Frost said also, "I mean, they're ALL miniguns. If we disable them, he can't cover as much ground."

"Or as much vertical area," Lowell said, looking back at the mecha and then to Spectre, "Spectre, do you know if there's a way back to the labs from here?"

"I think so," Spectre said, "A few trapdoors and underground corridors here and there. Don't see how it'll help much, though. Just wires and cogs and stuff."

"And that gives me an idea. Patch up Becky and get her someplace safe."

Inside the mecha, Delago was starting to get impatient. Whatever his victims were doing, it was taking a VERY long time. Even the thoughts of his desires were not enough to stave off the boredom and he began to spin up the guns to amuse himself. He hastily pawed at the microphone controls and bellowed out, "OI! Can you hurry it up a bit? I'm getting bored here!"

"Hang on, hang on!" Came Lowell's voice from the castle, "Just trying something! Okay, Frost, could you hand me that screwdriver? No, the other one! I'm not a fan of cocktails. I prefer whisky."

There were a few bangs and whizzes and then they stopped just as suddenly as they started. Sonya's voice rang out shortly afterwards, "Okay, that did the trick! We're ready to go! Frost, you're up!"

Delago blinked confusedly for a few seconds, before becoming brutally impatient and opening fire onto the castle once more. Luckily, the stone bricks used to create it were slightly more sturdy than the door and the structure of the castle held. From the side came Frost and Lowell, Frost on one low-level balcony and Lowell on another, slightly higher level balcony. From there they ran around the complex wildly, jumping from balcony to balcony, firing ice blasts and bullets as they went. Delago tried to tail them with his own guns, but his mecha was simply too slow. Instead, he could only flail at the controls of his sluggish contraption and scream "SLOW DOWN, DAMMIT! I can't get a bead on you!" before a clunking and painful sound brought a look of horror to his realising face. That sound, the one you hear when ice breaks in large quantities, was enough to tell him that Frost had been lucky with her shots and his guns had frozen completely, making them useless. On top of that, Lowell now had no less luck with his own accuracy and all the other guns were just shot to bits. Not a single ranged weapon was left active on his "powerful" mecha and the problem became worse when it was discovered that the ice had also rendered the mecha inoperable, making it essentially a gigantic metallic brick. Delago screamed in horror and mashed the buttons again in the vain hope that SOMETHING would happen. But his button mashing, rather than doing magic like it does in Hollywood, had completely locked up his controls and left his mecha a sitting duck in a large, target-like pond.

"Well, that was...easy," Frost said, "Still got it!"

"Indeed," Lowell said, "Now for the final attack! Get the damn thing out here!"

At the very top of the castle, there was a shudder of wheels against cold aged rock and a few bangs of metal here and there. From the doors came a mechanical catapult, cobbled together from old scrap and what seemed to be a bed, with an even bigger cobble of scrap as it's ammo. There was a yell and a swipe of an arm from Lowell and the catapult fired, throwing its supply with a distinct lack of grace high into the air. There, it tumbled for a short while before finding its mark on the cockpit of the mecha, smashing its glass and denting it's metal to absurd extents. The mecha stumbled around slightly, then began to ease up and fall. Down it fell like a mighty sack of potatoes, before crashing to the ground...

Right near the building with Katherine, Master and William in it.

Lowell's face went from incredibly happy to incredibly "OH GOD NO" in accordingly short order.

"Wow...that was...pretty easy," Frost said, unaware of the damage, "Is that a lack of challenge, you think?" She paused for a second or two before looking at Lowell's frozen face, "Well what's wrong, Lowell? You look like you've seen a...oh. Never mind."

Frost's own face then turned that particular shade of white. She quickly rushed back inside and got everyone up and soon the group was running down the stairs and back into the courtyard. From there, half of the workshop was in smouldering remains, in flames and various unearthly shades of purple. The group looked among themselves, half-confused and half-shocked.

"That..." Lowell began, "Wasn't supposed to happen."

"I hope we didn't kill 'em..." Spectre gasped in response, "I kinda like being a ghost, but I don't need friends like that."

"Katherine and Master should be fine," Sonya sighed, "Katherine because she's a Hellblood and Master because...well, he's a Gary-Stu, to be honest with you. He's probably put a shield around him and William to protect themselves."

"...What about Delago?"

"GOOD...QUESTION..."

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Return to First Entry: http://freescribesofmobius.ipbhost.com/topic/373-old-world-coming-home/

WarTraveller · July 12, 2017

Chapter 8: Homecoming

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Lowell began to squint slightly and peer into the twisting fires from which the echoing growl originated from. From within the flames came a smatter of dark blue light with strange particles surrounding that one would swear formed clocks and stopwatches. It slowly turned from light to a bubble of energy, getting larger and rounder as is emerged from the roaring combustion. From there, three figures emerged; Delago was first, his sticky fur reduced to crisp blackened charr and parts of his skin horribly cut or burned to the extent of showing muscle tissue. In one of his hands was his M1911A1 with no real damage, but in the other was William (or Sunbeam). She was perfectly fine, bar some bruises and Delago's hand clasped tightly around her neck, and she was trying to wrestle from his grasp. She did not look panicked, however, more a mix of misery and anticipation with half-closed eyes and a crooked smile. At their feet was Kathrine, unconscious but undamaged. Delago seemed no longer interested in her and simply kicked her aside, where Frost managed to pull her back to safety and tend to her wounds.

Delago snarled at the group before him, holding the gun firmly to William's temple, as before. Lowell just cried out "Masterdammit, why won't you DIE?!"

"I'll be the judge of that," Delago growled, any sort of real emotion bar tranquil rage removed from his voice, "But all I know is this; all of this crap started with one man. One who killed my Amy-Poo and locked me in that cell for decades. One who decided to condemn her to a life of misery and poetic debauchery for the mercy of my company. One who is in my arm RIGHT NOW and I will kill dead unless you all surrender. OR, better yet, just kill yourselves here. On the spot. ALL of you!"

Lowell aimed his revolver at Delago, but this did not seem to scare him. It seemed that Delago was well beyond rational thinking; certainly desperate but certainly not insane either. His snarling maw and foaming lips may have told otherwise, but even Delago wasn't brave enough to follow through with pulling the trigger. He still played up the big man image, however.

"Don't point that thing at me, boy!" he yelled, "I'm not scared of your fearmonger tactics. I'm not scared of your Master. I don't want that ghost anymore. I just want ALL OF YOU TO DIE!"

"...You...want that?" William asked in an almost dream-like state, "You want us to die in horrible ways?"

"Yeah."

"You want us to perish in very unusual and painful mannerisms?"

"Yeah!"

"You want us to, say, explode in flesh-rendering and bone charring bursts of fire?"

"YES! FOR GOD'S SAKE YES!"

William smirked at this last remark. She slowly looked up at the group before her and nodded, causing the group to step back a bit. To Delago's shock, she began to glow a violet blue, getting brighter and brighter each second, accompanied by a rising pitched whine to signal something...powerful was about to be unleashed. As the light became blinding, she only looked back at Delago's face, scared of shock and confusion and grabbed onto his wrists, uttering a soulful "Wish granted..."

"WAIT!" Lowell yelled suddenly, reaching out for William. What followed next could only be explained as a massive explosion of time energy that sent all afflicted back. As Sonya stumbled to her feet, all she could see was a large crater with a small amount of seawater seeping in. Delago was nowhere to be seen, seemingly scattered across the elements as mere particles of dust. Master's ears still rang with his obnoxious laughter, however, and for that, he continued to lie down where he had landed and stare at the sky in a meditative state. In the middle of the crater, slowly stewing in the water, was William. She was badly damaged and was bleeding in several places, her breath wheezing and brief. Sonya rushed to her side and propped her up.

"Sunbe...uh, Willia...grand...no!" Sonya struggled for a proper term, "Arrgh, are you okay?"

"O...Okay?" William said, gasping for air, "I'm fine, child. I'm almost finished in this act."

Frost skidded to the crater and checked her new wounds, "Dammit, it looks like you're rotting from the inside out! What the heck WAS that?"

"One...final surge of Chronos Energy," William wheezed, "To vaporise that Delago guy. Or rather, his physical form," everyone turned to Master, who was still laying on the grass, bleeding somewhat from his mouth, but tossing and twisting, "I guess the Delago he fought for so long was just a part of his mind. A special part of his hatred that managed to break free and maintain a physical form from some sort of energy. Chaos...Chronos...Hyper-Go-On, I don't know. But all I know is that Delago is back where he should be. And he and Master'll be acquainted for quite a while yet. But that burst...well, it's more or less done me in. I'm dying...I can feel it...but it's not like I had much else to live for anyway."

"W-What? No!" Sonya cried out, "You can't die now! If we knew you had this power, we'd...I'd...think of the many people in the multiverse who could use someone like you!"

"M-Master!" Lowell called out soon after in a stoic way, "Help her. Heal her...do SOMETHING."

Master did not respond. He continued to lie there, unaffected.

"Don't worry about me," William rasped, "I kinda want this to end, anyway. I've caused enough damage already. It was nice seeing you, my...grand...something."

"No!" Sonya wailed again, "You can't-"

"But I will," William's voice was starting to fade, "I see what I've done wrong all this time. All that I and Jules did wrong for you, right here. I just want to give one last helping offer and...return to my wife. I can see her in the light!" William reached up suddenly, her voice stronger and more powerful, "Mary! You hear me? I'm coming, honey! Just give me a second!"

She flopped down to the ground again and Lowell arched his head downward, "I...guess this is the end."

"Indeed," William said finally, "Goodbye everyone. And...thank...y..y-"

And with that, she slowly closed her eyes and flopped back to the floor. Lowell rushed to her chest and placed his hand upon it.

Nothing.

"That's it," Lowell sighed, his voice wavering slightly, "She's dead."

"Hell of a way to go," Spectre said tearfully.

"...Just when I got to know her better too," Sonya began to sob a bit, "But...guess it's what she would've wanted."

"What do we do now?" Spectre piped up again, "I mean, Delago's dead, Master's near catatonic, I'm...glowing."

Becky walked over to the ghost and studied her new goldish glow, "I've seen this before. All ghosts do it. All ghosts glow like this when they're about to pass over."

"P-PASS OVER?!" Spectre wailed, horror and fear in her voice, "But I'm not ready to cross over yet! I've always wanted to see what else lies beyond this stinking island! I've been here for 90 years and I want to LIVE, dammit!"

Suddenly, without warning or provocation, a blue energy beam shot out of William's chest and struck Spectre with great force. She tumbled to the ground, screaming in pain, as the others were frozen in place. To their increasing shock, parts of bone began to form within Spectre's form. The parts formed into full bones, slowly covered in muscle fibre and then flesh and fur, all while a bright blue glow blinded all but Spectre herself. Soon, the glow and the yelps of pain subsided and there, sprawled across the ground, was a pink hedgehog clad in a fancy red dress and ruby high-heeled shoes.

The hedgehog slowly got up drowsily and began to look around her body. She began to jabber and stutter at a fast pace, rubbing her various limbs and her stomach. She grabbed her chest and felt respiration. She grabbed her wrist and felt a pulse. Then she put her hand on her chest again...and felt a heartbeat.

"I'm...I'm alive..." she whimpered slowly. There was a pause before she suddenly exploded with energy and leapt to her feet, fists raised to the sky, screaming "I'M ALIVE! I...I'M ALIVE! HOLY TOFU ON A CHILLI DOG I'M ALIVE!!!" Her voice cracked and her legs gave way soon after, falling to her knees panting in exhaustion.

"...What...what the hell just happened?" Frost asked.

"Guess that was William's 'last helping offer," Lowell said, staring at the body before him, "The chance to...live again."

"Tacky," Frost called out.

Lowell ignored her and slowly approached the new hedgehog, who was crying in pure joy, before she suddenly tackled him to the ground and hugged him tightly, yelling, "Oh Lowell! Look at me! I'M ALIVE!"

"Yeah...we kind of got that," Lowell said awkwardly, patting her quills to calm her down, "Now, would you mind getting off me? Katherine's starting to wake up."

"Oh, right sorry," Spectre quickly dashed off Lowell and back onto the ground, "Oh, I just...wow...I mean, I can feel things! Breath! For the first time in 90! LONG! MISERABLE! YEARS!!! I...say, what's that in the distance?"

Sonya looked out toward the ocean, where Spectre was now pointing, "What? I don't see anything."

"A boat," Spectre said inquisitively, "With M.O.P.A on the side."

Lowell sighed annoyedly, "Great. Them."

In the distance was not just A boat, but a FLEET of them, rushing towards the island (or rather, what was left of it) at breakneck speed. They were full of agents in suits and ballistic vests, holding onto AK-12s and with their special handguns in their holsters. They soon reached the shoreline and clambered out, splitting up and searching every part of the island with raised rifles and strange orders. Soon they began to set up tape around the now destroyed workshop and sending in other members in special suits. Lowell could see in the corner of his eye that a couple of soldiers were approaching Master, who looked up at them before lowering his head in defeat and hanging out his arms for the handcuffs. They responded by smacking him in the face with their rifle stocks and dragging him to a cage on one of the boats. In the middle of the chaos was a single woman in a fancy suit, slowly waltzing in front of the group with a sort of professional finesse. Her suit was black with a red tie, black tie and boots. Her own fur was a light teal colour with wild, dark blue quills acting as hair, her face housing a single brown eye next to a cold, mechanical one with a dark green iris. She stood before the group, handgun in hand, gazing silently around them.

"...Evening," she said at last, her voice poetic and deep, "May I be the first to ask what exactly you were doing with...whatever was enough to turn half of this semi-protected island to rubble?"

"Look, it wasn't our fault," Lowell said, half-woodenly in such a way as to suggest he knew she wouldn't believe him, "I know we don't really have any proof, but we've been over what we sort of people do these days."

"Maybe," the woman said in a somewhat similar way, "I mean, it's not like your 'adventures' haven't levelled half of our home city yet."

"Look, Agent Breeze, I..." Lowell started.

"Wait, Breeze?" Sonya suddenly piped up, "As in Breezie?"

"...Sonic?" Agent Breeze suddenly asked, dropping the stoic act, "My word, I haven't seen you for years! Not since I was created by Robotnik-"

"Eggman," Frost corrected.

"And I tried to seduce you to...wow. The years just fly past. Gotta ask, though; what's with the get-up?"

"...Meh," Sonya shrugged, "Thought someone'd see through it. It's a long story, I promise."

"And an even longer one about how we actually got here," Lowell reminded her, "Look, I think we can reach some sort of agreement-"

"Indeed," Spectre said loudly, stepping forward on shaky legs, "You know that old case here? The one you must've filed years ago?"

"The Knight Island Incident?" Agent Breeze asked, "Yeah, we never found out what actually happened there. What's your point?"

Spectre just smirked, "You let these guys and gals go and I'll tell you. EVERYTHING."

"The Mobius One Protection Agency doesn't work that way, Miss," Agent Breeze sighed, "We need as many eyewitness accounts as possible. We got a tip off from someone that a large explosion would occur on this island within a certain timeframe. We thought it was some idiot prank-calling, but then we saw that explosion. The entire city did. And that caller sounded a lot like you. All we ask is to that you tell us what you know, you said. Then we'll let you go."

"What sort of person would tip them off?" Becky asked, still clutching at her hastily fixed arm, "I mean, Spectre couldn't...could she?"

"You know..." Spectre said in a half-scared, half-amazed way as she stared at her own hands from which a dark blue cloud of clock-shaped energy began to emit, "I think I might've. Just not yet."

ONE WEEK LATER
LOWELL AND SONIC'S BUNGALOW
Outskirts of The City
July 16th 2013, 9:23AM
Lowell Theo Highcastle II, KatherineLowhouse and Oliver Maurice "Sonic the Hedgehog" Needlemouse

Sunlight began to sting Lowell eyes and they began to twitch open before he bolted upright. He looked around and saw he was still in bed, as he had been for a few days from the stress of the event. To his left was Katherine, snoozing away the "fun" they had had the night before, still wearing the yellow latex catsuit and gasmask that she always insisted on wearing for reasons best left unexplained. Lowell smiled at how cute she was while sleeping, even in her strange get-up, and gently removed the gas mask to help her sleep peacefully. Her breath returned to normal and her small dimpled smile was revealed, causing to Lowell to smile more endearingly and stroke her quills slowly.

After a while, however, there was a knock at the door; a quick polite rapping noise, one unlike the usual sort of sounds Lowell expected to hear. A new one, perhaps? Regardless, Lowell managed to get out of bed and towards the door. He simply grasped at the handle before getting a proper grip on it and opening the door. There, in the doorway, was a female hedgehog. She had blond fur, a fairly common fur colour in the area, but she had her quills up in a ponytail that pointed towards the sky slightly, held in place by a black hairband. She wore a red t-shirt with shortened sleeves and black arm-length gloves, along with ripped jeans and combat boots. Her eyes had splashes of blue eyeshadow and electric blue lipstick to compliment it. Were it not for Katherine, Lowell might have considered her attractive. He continued to stare at the woman, leaning on the doorframe, before finally finding the energy to say, "...Can I help you, miss?"

"Huh? You don't..." the woman began in a very familiar voice, before jumping back with, "Oh, right! The new outfit thing, yeah! It's me, Lowell! It's me, Spectre."

"...Spectre?" Lowell asked, "Good grief, I almost forgot about you. Didn't see you after the questioning. What happened?"

"Well," Spectre began, "You know that blue energy emitting from my hands from last week? Well, that Breezie woman got her magic echidna girl to check my powers out. She was..." she stared at her bosom, "...Pretty thorough."

"What, Jani-Ca?" Lowell asked, becoming slowly more alert and awake, "Yeah, she can be a bit...rough with her projects. Can't really blame her. Her father died, you know."

"Yesyesyes, ANYWAY..." Spectre went on, "Turns out the power from William...Sunbeam...whatever, gave me the power to travel through time and open time portals and stuff like that. I'm basically a living container for all that Chronos Energy that Master found! Isn't that cool?"

"Sounds a tad Mary-Sueish," Lowell sneered.

"Yeah, that's what Breezie thought too," Spectre shrugged, "But she didn't want to go through all the paperwork for removing my powers or risk killing me again. So they just injected some limitations and...well, here I am. Also legally changed my name and files so I can integrate back into society. And trust me, I'll need it. I mean, it took me the first few days to properly control my basic motor functions again."

"Bowel movements included?" Lowell asked in a curious manner.

"...What an odd thing to ask," Spectre said, creeped out, "Don't go turning into Delago on me. But, yes...bowel movements included. As far as the officials are concerned, I'm Amelia Rosalina, Time Travel Enthusiast."

"If what you're telling me is in any way true," Lowell said, now fully awake, "Then enthusiast appears to be putting it lightly."

"That alone is putting it lightly," Amelia said, beaming, "More that I am my own Elizabeth...don't look at me like that, they let me use the internet while I was there. With direct supervision, of course. It's not like I haven't experienced it for about 90 years or something!"

"...So you came all the way to tell me," Lowell smirked, "Gotta admit, that's kinda cute. And...now I wonder if you're also here so you can ask for a place to stay."

"...Well, they're still getting the paperwork together, so..." Amelia said awkwardly, "I would just go forward in time until it was done, but I haven't QUITE got the hang of it yet. Again, limiting stuff. And basic motor functions. And bowel movements."

"This is why I built an extra room, just in case," Lowell shrugged.

"Thanks," Amelia grinned, "Have any cake?"

"Guess so..." Lowell said sluggishly, before standing up straight, "Actually, two more things we never got round to. Whatever happened to Knight Island? And Master, for that matter?"

"Turns out the deed for the castle was stuffed into my dress by Delago on the night of the incident," Amelia sighed, "So, legally, NO-ONE can own it, so MOPAs tearing it down. Putting a coffee shop on the Island, a major tourist attraction, you know? As for Master...well. The last I saw of him, he was handcuffed and thrown into one of the agent boats. They told me about what happened, though. Yeah, just some questioning with the odd punch here and there. They say he's been punished by the Elder Masters and stripped of his powers, and now he's exiled to another planet JUST to get rid of him. You think he might learn his lesson this time?"

"Well...probably," Lowell said, "But he'll come back. They always forgive him. Said he had a side project as well. Something about...dust and reincarnation."

"Ashes to ashes and dust to dust," Amelia mumbled, "Whatever he's planning, I don't like the sound of it."

"Yeah..." Lowell sighed, "At times I wonder why I follow him. Anyway, how about a cup of tea?"

"Thanks," Amelia sighed, waltzing into the bungalow and sitting down, "I'll try not to be a burden. I've gotta go in a few days, anyway. Ever heard of The Reborn?"

"Nope, not really," Lowell shrugged, "Why ask?"

"I was able to see in the future, briefly..." Amelia said, somewhat fearfully, "And there was this Reborn group. I was there and Master was there and...well, there was another Amy and she was...horribly mangled. Mechanical limbs, respirators, more machine than woman! Only someone LIKE Master could guess at what horrible, death-begging procedure would create something like that...but it's that sort of thing has sort of given me what I could do with my life."

"...Go on," Lowell said, interested.

"Let's be honest, I was one of the lucky ones," Amelia sighed, coffee in hand, "I would still be floating around that island if what happened over the past few weeks didn't go the way it did. I was lucky. The other Amies, like that one I mentioned, are not. There are millions of Amies and Rouges and Sonics being abused for all sort of foul reasons. Master was consumed by his rage over their predicaments but I'm gonna do something about it. I know I can't reach them all, but I KNOW that I'll try my best. From this day forward, Amy Rose is dead and Spectre is reborn!" Amelia stood up and posed heroically on the coffee table, "I am Amelia Rosalina, Time Master Vigilante of the MULTIVERSE!!!"

"...Uh, Amelia?" Lowell asked, "Could you get off the table? It was a bit...pricey."

"Oh, right, sorry," Amelia stepped down and dusted herself off, "I didn't know what came over me."

"So, after staying here, where be your next stop?"

"That universe, of course," Amelia said, grabbing a photo from her back pocket, "Before the portal closed, I was able to get a picture of what this Reborn leader. Here."

Amelia handed the picture to Lowell. He studied the picture carefully, taking in every detail. From there, the subject was male, with bright yellow fur and a single monocle. His icy blue eyes stared at Lowell while his red scarf covered his muzzle and amped the suspense. Lowell looked shocked, a simple "Oh dear..." escaping his throat.

"What? What's wrong?" Who IS that?" Amelia asked.

"It's...it's a guy called Dictator Sparky," Lowell said, "One of Master's alter-egos. But I know where Master is and what he's doing. He wouldn't do this. And with Delago in mind, then..."

"It seems that his mind has escaped," Amelia gasped, "How many parts of his psyche have escaped wreaking havoc?"

"I don't know," Lowell sighed, "But I guess, when your powers are trained, you need to go after them as soon as possible. I'm counting on you, Amelia. These guys mean all sorts of business. Trust me."

Amelia smiled weakly, looking up though the skyline to the clouds above. She swore a faint silhouette of William and Mary could be seen in the heavens.

"Oh, I can master these moves. I learnt from the best, after all. I hope you're happy, William. Thank you for sacrificing your life. 'Cause mine has just begun."

THE END

/////-----/////

Return to First Entry: http://freescribesofmobius.ipbhost.com/topic/373-old-world-coming-home/

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