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Dear Whoever the Heck is Reading This,
I wonder if anyone will get this letter.
It's one of those drop-it-in-a-bottle, wonder-who-would-actually-want-to-read-it things. It's just a last record, something so I can record what goes on here in wherever-the-heck-we-are land. Well, it's a little-known town called Zeusar in little-known kingdom called Hera, but still.
My name is Lumina, and I am a Messenger.
You should see this planet we live on. No matter where we turn, we see nothing but tyranny, war, and the like. Every kingdom, every town has its own villain.
But every town can have its own heroes. For every action there's an equal and opposite reaction, right?
My friends and I- the Messengers- have one of the most important jobs ever. It's up to Shahra, Elise, and I to find these hidden heroes, and show them what they are supposed to do. We bring the messages- get it?
We can predict what the heroes look like, and then we have to find them. Maybe if we tell them what's going on, they'll be able to fix this planet. Maybe they'll be able to save the world.
Shahra's already got a rough idea of whom we have to visit.
Oh, wait, they're kids?
No way. No. Freaking. Way.
We're doomed.
Okay, before Shahra yanks the pen out of my hand, I guess this may be able to work. Our first step is to learn more about the heroes. Get to know a little bit about their past, so we know who they're up against. Then we can help them better.
Let's go to a little place I like to call Flashback-Land…
We didn't worry about stuff like age, gender, and social status back then. We were only little kids; our only goal in life was to hang out and have fun.
There were five of us: Me and Tails, Cream and Amy, and Cosmo. We were as close as close can get.
Our favorite place to hang out was Cream's house. Her mom was really nice; she'd always have a snack or something like that ready for when we were done playing outside. The games varied; when we all got tired of each other, Tails and I would go off and do our own thing, and the girls would play their own game.
But one day everything changed.
We were in Cream's backyard, as usually; I'm not sure when it was, but it was somewhere around two or three years ago. The game was tag- it's funny how I can't remember exactly when it happened, but I can remember what game we were playing like it just happened yesterday or something.
It was tag. I'd never get tagged unless I felt like it; Amy always tried to tag me, but I think it was just a reason to tackle me to the ground. (She actually did tackle me once) Even if she's sort of weird sometimes, she was still a good friend and almost as fast as me. Cream and Tails even turned the game into an aerial battle, and it was really fun.
But then Vanilla, Cream's mom, made us go inside. Made us, literally. "Stay inside, kids." Her voice was overly calm, like she was being forced to keep it that way.
We didn’t notice anything at first, grabbing a deck of cards and playing a quick game or five of Go Fish, the only card game all of us could play together.
Here’s another funny thing. I can’t remember exactly when all of it happened, but I can remember who was wining the game of Go Fish when it happened- Tails. He was the Go Fish king that day.
Well, back to topic.
A loud robotic clang caught our attention, and curiosity kept us from playing any more. Vanilla wasn’t in the room watching us; I have no idea where she went. So there was no one to stop us as we opened the door and looked outside.
It was empty.
“What was that?” Cosmo asked; she and Cream were unwilling to disobey Vanilla’s orders, the only ones staying fully inside the house. Tails and Amy each had one foot out the door and I was outside fully, looking around the backyard. “Dunno.”
“W- we should get back inside,” Cream called.
“Why? There’s nothing out here.” Amy walked out and stood a couple steps ahead of me, turning around to look at Cream. “See? You worry to much, Cream. C’mo- ahhhh!”
Of course, Amy had fallen for the oldest trick in the book, stepping out in the open. Of course, whatever was prowling the streets had seen her, and snatched her up. Cream screamed, but she was the only one who spoke.
“Child Amy Rose. Daughter of the rebels. Permission to take her into custody… granted.” The robot grunted. Amy screamed, loud and shrill, and pounded her free arm against the robot’s head. “Lemme go! Let me go! You- you-”
“Sonic!”
I spun around and saw Tails was looking up at me. I recognized what he was trying to tell me and nodded. “Got it. Let’s go.”
“One…” Tails smiled and started the countdown, readying himself.
I grinned as well. “Two…”
“Three!” We shouted in unison. The two of us ran toward the robot; Tails served as the main distraction, flying up in the robot’s face. Amy screamed; the robot tried to recognize Tails as well. “Child Miles Pro-”
He was interrupted as I launched a not-very-well-practiced spin dash at the robot, tearing it to pieces. Tails caught Amy as the robot dropped her, and I skidded into the ground dizzily. …Ow.
“You okay? You okay?” Cream shrieked, coming out to meet us.
“Yeah…” I shook the stars away from my head and looked over at Tails. He grinned and gave me a thumbs-up; I returned it.
“Razel has a new leader…”
Amy ran over to me, grabbed my wrist, and tried to lead me back inside. “Sonic… there’s more…”
“Huh?”
“All will bow down to the Eggman Empire.”
Cosmo, who’d still been inside, ran to the doorway. “Come back! Come back! There are tons of them outside!”
“All rebellion will fail miserably. This is Razel’s final warning. All rebels will be disposed of immediately.”
“Huh?”
“Daydreaming again, huh?” Maria smirked at me, grabbing my arm and forcing me upright. “Granpa want to know if you’ll go on an errand for him.”
“Oh… oh, sure.” If I was daydreaming, I wasn’t aware of it. It was more like staring off into space without any thoughts running through your mind whatsoever. “Whaddya need?”
“Here.” Maria pushed a scrap of paper- that I recognized as a list- into my hand. “Do you need help? Want me to come with you?”
“Nah… that’s okay, Maria. I’ll be back in a flash.”
“Literally, of course.” Maria smiled.
“Yep. See ya.”
“Bye, Shadow!”
Next to the chair I’d been sitting in was a table; on top of the table was a red-colored jewel. It was a prototype of the real thing, which Gerald called a “Chaos Emerald”. Whatever that meant, all I knew was that I could use the red jewel to teleport. It was really useful for getting groceries and the like.
“Chaos Control!” I shouted, using the signature phrase that activated the jewel.
After a big flash of light, I reappeared in the center of the village.
Using Chaos Control was definitely easier than walking to the village square, considering we lived a mile or two away from the village itself. The Square was where most of the stands were located, the place where I could by all the things we needed. I took a look at the first thing on the list- bread- and looked for the right stand.
About an hour later, I had all the things on Maria's list. Even if I was the only non-human in the village, the people didn't treat me different. They knew I was staying at Gerald's house and was often running errands for him.
But that day was weird. When I had finished shopping, all the people were watching me closely and whispering to each other. I didn't think much of it at first, focused on my own withdrawn-from-the-world attitude. They continued to stare at me as I grabbed the faux-Emerald and Chaos-Controlled back home.
The world was on fire.
The whole house had erupted in flames, and I was standing in the middle of it.
The first breath I took was filled with smoke, causing me to cough and fall to my knees. I spent a moment like that, then adrenaline kicked in. I leaped to my feet and shut my eyes tight. "Maria? Maria!"
"Shadow!" Someone cried weakly.
The cry was enough to give me the general direction of where she was, and I was forced to open my eyes and make my way in the direction of her. Why did we have to have such a big house? There was way to much stuff in the way, and I choked through the smoke and tripped over anything and everything in my path. "Maria!"
"Shadow!"
I thought about using Chaos Control for a moment, but dismissed the idea almost immediately. I didn't know what I would face when I reappeared; I didn't want to reappear in the middle of the fire. "I'm coming!" I called, then abruptly choked on the smoke.
"I'm in here!"
'Here' was a blocked door. As soon as Maria sensed I was near, she began pounding on it. "I can't get out! The door's blocked!"
"I'll try to bust you out. Get back away from the door."
"'Kay. Ready."
I paused for a moment and tried the doorknob. Maria was right- the door wouldn't budge. I gritted my teeth and backed up as far as possible, then ran at the door at full speed. The attempt didn't work out as planned; instead of going through the door, I was propelled backwards, hitting the wall. I felt the fire singe my quills and cried out in pain; Maria screamed when she heard me. "Shadow! Are you okay?"
It took me longer than usual to recover, oxygen mixed with smoke. When I finally felt like I could stand, I ran back over to the door. "I'm fine."
"Shadow, you gotta get out of here. The door isn't gonna open."
What? I shook my head a couple times to clear focus. "Huh?"
"This ain't gonna keep up much longer. You gotta get out, Shadow, while you still can."
"W-what? I'm not leaving you."
"P-please." Maria's voice cracked, and it wasn't because of the smoke- I realized that she was crying.
"Maria-"
"Please, Shadow. For me. Be careful... Go..."
"Maria..."
"Go away, Shadow!"
For you. "Chaos-" I choked on the word, but it managed to transport me anyway. I reappeared outside the house... and it was alit with flames. I fell, arms out to steady myself, and coughed the rest of the smoke from my lungs. No...
This wasn't real. This didn't happen. A nightmare, that's what is was. A nightmare...
What just happened?
"You aren't as strong as the professor made you out to be."
"W-what?"
"I am Mephiles- Mephiles the Dark. You all were supposed to die. But two out of three isn't bad, is it?"
"Ya better shut up, girly, if you value your life."
I would have shot back some sort of witty comeback, but I was tired and scared out of my mind. All I'd been doing was roaming the streets of my hometown, Scargon, when I'd been... kidnapped. Yeah, that's what it was. I tried to say something, but one of the kidnappers put a hand over my mouth. "Don't want you attractin' any unwanted attention, princess." I would have struggled (and more preferably bit his hand) but it was like I was frozen.
"The princess will collect quite a pretty ransom, don'cha think?"
"Let's take her back. You know what to do."
One of the kidnappers grabbed a cloth from out of nowhere and tied it around my face, preventing me from seeing anything. He threw me over his shoulder; I was too afraid to cry out or do anything about it. We walked for a long time- I wasn't sure about the exact distance, but it took a while- when the kidnapper threw me to the ground. "Home sweet home, princess."
I didn't trust myself to speak, but the kidnappers couldn't see my glare because of the blindfold over my eyes; I frowned instead, the most I could do.
"'Ey, Silver, tie 'er up."
"Me? Why me?"
"'Cause I said so. Tie 'er up. Now."
"But... oh, fine."
There was the shuffling of footsteps and someone knelt before me; he carefully removed the blindfold from around my head, and I blinked in the dimming light. A giant bonfire was crackling rapidly to my right, but I didn't notice the heat.
The person who'd removed my blindfold was a white hedgehog, and had to be the same age as me, if not younger. He grabbed a coil of rope and began wrapping it around my arms when suddenly he leaned in closer. "Don't worry, miss," He whispered in my ear. "Trust me."
Why should I trust him?
Night fell, and not the twilight-sunset type- the real, new-moon-pure-darkness kind. I tried to shiver, but the ropes kept me from moving. Whoever that kid- Silver- was, he could tie ropes. I whimpered a little bit and tried to see, the fire dimming.
"Ssh."
Faintly I could see Silver on the other side of the fire; he held a finger up to his mouth in a gesture to keep quiet. I did so; Silver sat up slowly and crawled over to me. "It's okay. I'm here to help."
I didn't answer, but Silver kept on talking. "I'll get these ropes off." He held up a hand and it surprisingly glowed aqua; so did the ropes around me, and suddenly the ropes slackened and fell to the ground. "See? I'll help you get home, miss. These guys are bad news, trust me." This time I just didn't trust myself to speak.
"Here, miss, it's cold." Silver handed me the blanket he'd been sleeping on, wrapping it around my shoulders. It was patched, faded, and threadbare in places, but warmer than the cool night air. "I'll show you your way home, okay?"
"O-okay."
"Good." He lowered his voice to a whisper and grabbed my hand, gently helping me to my feet.
Silver knew Scargon better than anyone I had ever seen. He guided me around the streets with ease; it didn't matter how far away we were from my home, because Silver would have managed to get me there in record time. We ran in silence, tending to stick to the back roads and alleyways instead of the main streets.
The road to the castle was a dirt one on the other side of town. I knew we were on it before we even saw the castle. "I... I can make my way home from here."
"Oh, okay." Silver let go of my hand. "You sure?"
"Yep." I smiled and nodded. "Thank you..."
"Silver the hedgehog."
"Silver. I'm Blaze."
Silver nodded. "I'd better go now, before they find out I'm gone..." He sighed, and mumbled quietly. "God, I am so dead..."
"Thank you, Silver."
"You're welcome."
I am different, though. Not even most anthromorphics- known more commonly as "non-humans" here- have the powers I do.
Before I continue, don't think that I am hated because of my magic or anything. In fact, it's quite the opposite. Some people actually worship me- and trust me, it's scary.
My name is Tikal the Echidna, and I'm a witch.
It's not one of those Halloween-she's-gonna-kill-us-all type of witches. I just simply have powers that most humans- and nonhumans- don't have. I can manipulate the earth, its water, and its air, for example.
The people of Hera welcomed me with open arms. Like I said before, some of the people even worship me. Despite my protests, they refuse to think of me as anything but a savior. All because I can manipulate some air currents.
I've been made out to be some sort of big hero, and I hate it. They shouldn't treat me like this. All I want to do is practice and perfect my powers. Do they have to worship me? I'm not who they think I am. I'm not perfect, and I've explained this to them thousands of times, but they just won't listen.
I'm not a hero! I'm just a kid!