"Tails the Necromancer" by Adrian Tymes [Legal disclaimer: This story is based on characters created by SEGA and Archie Comic Publications, Inc., Sandra Nightweaver by David Pistone, David Prower by Shawn Wolski, and "Postcards From Mobius" #2 by Richard Ray Roberts. Permission is granted by the author to freely distribute this story, so long as: a: no recompense of financial value is received or given by the person who distributes the story, and b: the distributed copy is identical to the story as originally authored. In other words, don't sell it, and don't alter it. The griffins in this story are my own creations. If you wish to write a story including or referring to the griffins as presented below, or the events in this story, please contact me in advance - I would like to know who uses them. Copyright (c) 1996, all rights reserved, et cetera.] ****** Barely a week had passed since Tails had first used his new powers, and he had already taken over Robotropolis. Taking out Packbell had been easy. He'd just turned himself invisible, walked up to the android, and ripped out his power source using telekinetics. With Packbell gone, Tails easily reprogrammed the robots to follow him, doing his every whim. He now sat on the same command chair that Robotnik, Snively, and Packbell had all used, savoring the feeling of total power. Only one thing troubled the fox. To get enough magical power to take out Packbell, he'd had to absorb the lives of nearly all of his friends at Knothole. Only Sonic remained alive, since Tails had not had the courage to kill him. That had been a mistake. After Sonic had seen what Tails had done, he made a vow to get revenge on his former friend. Dashing through Robotropolis as if the SWATbots weren't even there, he spun through the control room's doors, vaulted over the laser traps that littered the floor, and landed on Tails. Grabbing him by his shoulders, Sonic shook him violently while yelling, "Yo, T2! Wake up, big guy." ****** Tails opened his eyes, but his vision did not change much. A concerned Sonic was shaking Tails lightly. "Wake up, Tails. You're..." Tails yelped, leapt out of Sonic's grasp, and hid behind his bed. "You're right, David. This is serious." Tails looked around and saw that he was still in his bedroom. Only a single night had passed since he had absorbed the life of his friend, Kenal. Sonic was on the other side of his bed, while his android brother, David, stood near the doorway. "Sonic? David?" Slowly, Tails stood up and looked out the window. "What's the sun doing so far up already?" David monitored Tails' biological condition by observing his IR signature. "You had a nightmare, brother. It was causing your vital signs to go crazy. Your heart rate exceeded safe parameters by a factor of three. I asked Sonic to wake you up after my attempts failed, since letting your sleep continue did not seem advisable." Sonic queried, "What were you dreaming about, anyway?" "It was horrible," Tails answered. "Everyone but you and me was gone, even Packbell, and..." "Whoa," Sonic interrupted. "Packbell was gone, and this was a nightmare?" "I took over, but you were still a Freedom Fighter." "So?" "So, we..." Tails' voice faded as he searched for the right words. "Sonic?" David walked to Sonic, then whispered in his ear, "What my brother apparently does not wish to say is that you were doing to him what you now do to Packbell." Sonic did a double-take. "Big guy and I fighting? That'll never happen." "I hope so," both Prowers echoed. ****** Sally and Sandra were having an animated conversation as Sonic and Tails exited the Prowers' hut. "Tails? Could you come here for a second?" "Sure, Aunt Sally." Tails approached, while Sonic tagged along out of curiosity. "What's up?" "Sandra's been telling me what happened yesterday. She told me a few details that she claims you left out. I just want to confirm them." "Ok." Tails glanced warily at Sandra, suspecting that she gave details he'd deliberately not mentioned. "You said just before she died, Grisha took Kenal's life. But Sandra said that all the other lives she'd taken were returned when she died, yet Kenal's wasn't." "I guess Kenal must have been trapped." "She also says that Grisha was dead by the time you got to her, but Kenal was still alive." "Maybe something else absorbed his life, then." "Something else," Sandra hissed, "or someone else. Like you." "Me? What are you talking about?" "I saw that energy go into you. I saw you casting spells. Where'd you get the power for them?" "Well...ok, I guess I must have, if you put it that way." "Tails!" Sally stared in astonishment. "You took his life? You said Grisha did. Did you lie to me?" "It gets worse, Princess." Sandra pointed to the minicomputer on Sally's boot. "Ask Nicole what happens to those who use that type of magic." Sally blinked, then took her minicomputer from her boot and opened it. "Nicole, what are the side effects of absorbing other peoples' lives by magic?" "ACCESSING...FILE UNDER TIMELOCK. ACCESS DENIED." "If I may?" Sandra gestured, and Sally nodded. "Nicole, remove all timelocks. Access code: bean." "Bean? That was my father's name for me." "Mm-hmm. Who do you think placed those timelocks?" "VOICEPRINT CONFIRMED. MESSAGE BEGINS." Sally gasped as King Acorn's image was displayed. His recorded voice sounded amused. "I don't know how you got Sally's computer, Sandra, and I don't want to know. But I would like you to know that Nicole has been programmed to emit a powerful homing signal, which will only stop when it is back in Sally's hands. It will take you at least a week for you to get anything from Nicole, by which time we can easily track you down. If you leave this computer behind, though, we probably won't find you. "There's only one way you can safely hold on to it, and that's if you have kidnapped Sally." King Acorn's voice took on a tinge of anger as he spoke. "For your sake, I hope you haven't. If you have, I will post a ten billion Mobian reward for her safe return and your head. Not you, just your head. Return Sally unharmed and I might reconsider." The image faded out. "MESSAGE ENDS. HOMING SIGNAL ACTIVATED. HANDPRINT CONFIRMED. HOMING SIGNAL DEACTIVATED. NUMBER OF SIGNAL PULSES EMITTED: ZERO." Sandra giggled at Acorn's old threat. "Ten billion Mobians? For that kind of money, I might turn myself in." "Where to? That message was recorded before Robotnik took over. I doubt that he, or Packbell, would pay you to visit their jail." "Yo, Sal." Sonic waved a hand towards the mess hall. "I had to miss breakfast waking Tails up. Mind if we grab a quick bite?" "Sure, Sonic, go ahead." Instinctively, Sally grabbed the nearest stable object as Sonic and Tails dashed off, creating a miniature gale in their wake. Sandra watched them go. "Someday, I'm going to have to learn their secret." "How they move so fast? Tails flies, Sonic runs. That's all there is to it." "No, I mean how they trust each other so much. It's more intense between them than among the rest of Knothole. You have to rely on each other to live, but with them, it goes beyond that." "It's called friendship, Sandra." Sally smiled as she retorted, "You might want to try it sometime." Sandra returned a sideways glance that was half-jest, half-ice. "Right. No, Sally, there's more to it than just friendship." "I know. Sometimes I think that if one of them went to serve Packbell, the other would, too, just to protect him from the rest of us." "That reminds me. You've still got to get Nicole's timelocks off so you can get the info on Tails' magic." "How does Packbell relate to...never mind. Nicole, remove all timelocks. Access code: bean." "TIMELOCKS REMOVED." "Nicole, what are the side effects of absorbing lives by magic?" "ACCESSING...ABSORPTION IS POWER SOURCE FOR NECROMATIC SPELLS. KNOWN SIDE EFFECTS: ABSORBED LIVES CONTINUE AS GHOSTS ATTACHED TO THE ABSORBER. GHOSTS RE-EXPERIENCE FINAL MOMENTS OF INDEPENDENT LIFE EVERY TIME THEY ARE USED FOR SPELLS. ABSORBER'S BRAIN BECOMES INCAPABLE OF INHIBITION, LEADING TO RISE OF WHAT IS KNOWN AS A PERSONA'S 'DARK SIDE'. SIMILAR SYMPTOMS EXIBITED BY IVO ROBOTNIK, ALTHOUGH DIFFERENT CAUSE IS LIKELY. IN ADDITION, ABSORBER BECOMES ADDICTED TO POWER, AND SEEKS TO ABSORB MORE LIVES. IF LEFT UNCHECKED, ABSORBER WILL EVENTUALLY TRY TO ABSORB AND/OR DESTROY ALL OTHER LIFE TO SATISFY THIS ADDICTION." "Tails...like Robotnik?" Sally turned a worried look towards where Sonic and Tails had gone. "I told you it got worse, Sally. Now the question is, what to do about it?" "Nicole, is there any way to prevent these side effects?" "ABSORBER WILL RETURN TO NORMAL AFTER LOSING ABSORBED LIVES. ABSORBED LIVES CAN BE REMOVED BY VARIOUS FORMS OF MAGIC, OR BY DEATH OF ABSORBER." "Y'know, Sally..." "Don't even think it, Sandra. You shot him once. That's more than enough." "Actually, I was going to suggest that I find one of those magics." Sally's response was cut off when Sonic landed in front of her. ****** Meanwhile... "Yo, T2! Am I seeing things, or did you just get another tail?" Tails landed in front of Sonic at the mess hall entrance, and spun all three of his tails to show off. "I put another one on to keep up with you." "How?" "Magic. I asked Kenal how I could match your speed. He suggested this, and told me what spell to cast." "It didn't work. I still beat you here." "Maybe another one?" With a brief thought, Tails cast another spell. A fourth tail appeared on his rear. "Are you sure it's safe changing your body like that?" "Yeah. Why?" "I don't know, big guy. Something about this doesn't seem cool." Tails felt a familiar anger. "You're just jealous 'cause you can't do it." "Am not!" "Are too!" "Look, I..." Once again, Tails' anger formed into a bolt of energy and slammed into the one he was talking with. Sonic was knocked back to Sally's hut. Tails sped off into the forest. "Are you ok, Sonic?" "No I'm not, Sal. Something's wrong with Tails. He just blasted me for no reason." "We've got to find him. Any idea where he might be headed?" "Not a clue, Sal. But I'll track him down, don't worry." Sonic ran after his friend. Sandra cogitated, then said, "Do you suppose he's gone to get more lives?" "That's possible, but where?" "Where's the closest concentration of people that he knows about?" "Other than Knothole? The griffins' Home, but that's..." "...probably where he's headed. And if not, they may have the magic you need to save Tails." "You're right. I'd better check it out." As Sally made tracks, Sandra winced at the value of the information she'd just given away. "No charge." ****** When Sally neared the formerly hidden Home of the griffins, she noticed something that hadn't been there a day earlier: piles of robot parts around the wide pit of crops that surrounded Home's entrance. She carefully picked her way across the debris, but stopped when she came to a recessed ring of spikes that encircled the crops. Knowing the griffins' skill at holograms, Sally picked up a rock, tossed it into the pit, and jumped back when it was shattered by a laser beam, seemingly fired from nowhere. A voice from the pit's shadows sounded, "Come back for more, eh?" "More? I've never been here before." The shadows moved. Sally briefly saw a griffin outlined in the pit's shadows. "Oh, yeah, I forget you outsiders aren't all together. You can see what happened to the last batch that came by. Only two hours after our hologram fell, but we were ready for 'em. Try to get in if you want the same." "No thanks. I'm just looking for a friend, a two-tailed fox." "Like the one that came by yesterday?" "That's the one." "Sorry, haven't seen him lately." "I was also wondering if you could help us. You see, he absorbed Kenal's life, and we're trying to take that away before the power gets to him." "So that's how he got our magic. Well, from what I saw of your friend, the power's already got ahold of him. You're going to have to kill him." "No! We know you have a way of removing absorbed lives, and we want to use it on him." "We do have a way, but only someone who has taken lives can use it. Someone else has to steal Kenal's life from the fox, and the only way to do that is by the same type of magic you're trying to get rid of. Since you probably don't want anyone else to be affected by the power, that doesn't work very well, does it?" "Is there any other way?" "Well, if you could convince him to release Kenal, or to revive him, that would work. But I've never known anyone that could give up that much power willingly. Besides, we don't even know the spells he'd have to cast. We left those records at our former Home in the Great Plains, along with the records of most of our powerful spells. We haven't gone back since we don't need them anymore." "Did Kenal know this?" "I think so...oh, that's right, your friend can talk to Kenal. Well, if he's gone there, be warned that our records are in our old language. We switched to Mobian when we came here, but Kenal might be able to read the old writing. If so, your friend could soon be the most powerful necromancer that ever lived." "He's only taken one life. I thought the power of a necromancer's spells was related to the number of lives taken." "It is. One of the spells we left behind allowed its caster to take all life on Mobius at once. None of the old necromancers were crazy enough to cast it, but I can't say the same about your friend." "He is not crazy." "Maybe, maybe not. He is an outsider, and that says it all." "Why do you lump outsiders together like that? We're not all alike." "Aside from Sandra, you might as well be. Dragon friends, betrayers, scum... people not to trust, in any case. Especially that King Acorn. You don't want to know what I'd do to him if I could, but he was sent to the Void. Poetic justice, you'd call it. I guess I'll have to settle for his daughter if she ever comes around." Sally's poker face hid her inner reaction to the griffin's taunt. "I'll tell her that if I see her. I'd say later, but in this case, there's probably not going to be a later. Goodbye." She was gone in a flash. Behind her, the griffin smiled and whispered, "Goodbye, Sally Acorn." ****** An unusual chase passed from the Great Forest to the Great Plains. Tails had flown after Sonic across this border before, but this was the first time that Sonic had ran after Tails. Even more unusual, Tails was outracing Sonic, using nine tails to propel himself backwards as bolt after bolt of magic flew towards a dodging Sonic. Before long, they reached a set of thousand-year-old ruins. Tails slowed down and fired off a lightning-fast series of bolts. Sonic leapt to avoid them, but he was not their target. When he landed, Sonic fell into the deep hole that they had dug. Tails sailed into the ruins. "Kenal!" His friend appeared in his mind's eye. "Yes, master?" Part of Tails was horrified at Kenal's words, but part of him smiled at his recognition of their new relationship. "Find that spell and translate it." Sonic rolled down one side of the pit and up the other, gradually gaining altitude. Not having heard Kenal's response, he thought, "Man, big guy's flipped out. No wonder he blasted me." Eventually, Sonic spun over the pit's top. Tails was reading one of the engravings on the ruins, so Sonic dashed forward and tackled him from behind. "Let go!" Tails wrapped his tails around Sonic, pulled him off, and tossed him to the other side of the ruins. Kenal found the spell of Tails' desire. He yelled out its translation in a voice only audible to his master. Tails flew to the top of a nearby column. Green energy started to flow from Tails to a spot directly beneath him as he cast the spell. Sonic rebounded off a wall, sped back, ran up the column's side, and grabbed his friend out of mid-air just after Tails' power stopped flowing. Both fell to the ground in a spinning circle, which ran into a wall Tails first. "What do you think you're doing, Tails? I oughta..." "Thank you." "...thank you. What?" Sonic turned around to see the source of the unknown voice. His scan stopped at Kenal, alive and well, where Tails had cast his spell. "Thank you for reviving me, Tails. When I scanned your mind, I thought I saw one who could resist the power. I am glad that I was right." "You mean he went through all this just for your sake?" Sonic turned back to Tails, who was now back to only two tails. "I did not think I could survive my confrontation with Grisha, so I gave him the power to finish it. I hope he can forgive me for what I put him through, but it was necessary." Tails hovered out of Sonic's hands. "Hey, no problem, Kenal. I'm not the one who had to keep dodging." "You're right. Sonic, I apologize for letting the magic free Tails' dark side." Sonic warily glanced between Tails and Kenal. "'Dark side'? What do you mean, 'dark side'?" "That's the part of Tails that made him attack you. It's so small, you would never have seen it otherwise." "But I thought...I thought I was your hero, T2. Why would you want to attack me at all?" Before Tails could answer, Sonic did the only thing he could do when confused: he ran. Running had always helped him calm down, and he needed to figure things out. "Sonic, wait!" "Let him go, Tails. He needs some time to himself." "If you say so." Tails shook his head. "I still can't believe I did that to him." "We all have dark sides, Tails. You're lucky that yours almost never comes out, but it's there." Kenal pointed to Tails' heart. "Will I do it again?" "No. Now that your power's gone, your dark side should be safely locked up." "Do you think I can still use those magic tricks you told me about while you were dead?" "You might, if you can find a power source for them. But I don't want to be it this time." "Well..." Tails tapped Kenal on the head. "You're it." Kenal closed his eyes in anticipation of being absorbed again. After a few seconds of not being taken, he opened his eyes to see Tails speeding away. "Air tag?" He smiled. "I'll get you for that, Tails." Kenal soared after his friend, who giggled all the way back to the Great Forest.