"Trials" - A Sonic the Hedgehog Fan Fiction Story ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Written by Aaron Lye E-mail: prower@pacific.net.sg ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ THE LEGAL STUFF Sonic the Hedgehog, Miles Tails Prower and other related characters are based on the characters created by SEGA, Archie Comic Publications, and the Sonic the Hedgehog Saturday morning series created by DIC and Sega of America. Other characters that appear or are mentioned in this story are original creations of their respective authors. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Cast" of characters used in this story (in random order) ----------------------------------------------------------- Sonic Sally Tasha - Aaron Lye Other characters play minor roles ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1996 Aaron Lye ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ TIMELINE: Two weeks after "Visions of Truth" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ REMEMBER: READ ON TILL YOU REACH THE WORDS "THE END"!! IF YOU DON'T SEE THEM, THE STORY'S NOT COMPLETE. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ *You will be the instrument....* Princess Sally couldn't get that chilling phrase from her dream out of her head. She had been playing that dream over and over in her head since she had it two weeks ago, and still did not understand it. She was sitting in her living room, sipping a strong cup of java, looking out of the window at the view of Knothole and its residents surrounded by the Forest. As she looked around, she saw a blue blur race towards her hut. A moment later, Sonic entered looking strangely excited. "Sal, come with me. I think I've found something you'd really want to take a look at." The hedgehog picked Sally up and raced out of Knothole. ***** After a few minutes, they reached their destination. Sonic had brought her to the entrance of a cavern in a mountain that was a few hundred kilometers away from Knothole. "You wanted me to look at a cave?" Sally asked dryly. "Check out the inside, Sal." Sonic shot back. The two walked into the cavern. It was surprisingly narrow and was obviously dark. Sally took out Nicole and instructed the computer to increase the brightness of it's screen enough to provide illumination for the cavern. With some light, the two managed to walk faster, since there was no danger of bumping into something unexpectedly. The two walked on a bit, then as they turned a bend, Sally saw a light coming from the end of what she now knew was a tunnel. As they approached the end, Sally gasped. They had entered a larger cavern, illuminated as brightly as any building in Knothole. Looking at the ceiling, Sally could make out large lights which reminded her of very bright halogen bulbs. This was impossible, she thought. She turned her attention away from the ceiling and looked around the cavern. She gasped at what she saw. In six niches along the sides of the cavern sat six ancient-looking scrolls, firmly tied with twine. The squirrel took a quick glance at Sonic, who was now grinning wildly. She approached the scrolls carefully and activated Nicole to scan the area for any dangers. Assured there were none, she picked up one of the scrolls and opened it. The paper was fragile and the ink had faded, but Sally could still make out what was written on it. She whispered, "Sonic, this scroll must be at least two thousand years old... it's a recording of the coronation of the first king of Mobius... but what is it doing here?" Sally put down the scroll and picked up another. Opening this one, Sally saw that it was written in a strange language. She used Nicole, hoping that the computer could provide a translation. As Sally waited, she remarked, "Who could have built such a place?" "Analysis complete, Sally." Nicole monotoned. "Item dated as fifty years old. Language used: Human language, classified as Chinese. Text describes occupation of a region of territory known as "South East Asia" during a time known as "World War II". Do you wish specifics?" "No, Nicole." Sally said. "What is something from Earth doing here?" She focussed her attention on the next scroll. To her surprise, the scroll was blank. An analysis by Nicole indicated that the paper was over five thousand years old. Two of the remaining scrolls were between 3000 to 4000 years of age, written in an ancient Mobian language. The last scroll however, was an enigma. Nicole could not recognize the language nor analyze it's age. After looking at them, Sally spoke. "I think we had better take these back to Knothole. This place is hardly safe, and I've no idea how they stayed safe here all this time...." With that Sally gathered all six of the scrolls and placed them inside a large pouch she had been carrying. ***** "This was a great find, Sonic. They'll make great additions to our archives." Sally was very cheerful back at Knothole. "What's a great find, Sally-dear?" came a voice from her doorway. At first expecting to see Bunnie, the squirrel corrected herself when she saw Tasha standing there. Sally took a bit of time explaining what had transpired, and then showed the six scrolls to Tasha. "Well, these are indeed a treasure, Sally. Records from ancient times as well as from another planet and....oh my....this was with the scrolls?" Tasha motioned to the scroll that Nicole could not analyze. "Yes. You know it." "Of course, dear. You have no idea what a find that scroll is to us! That scroll is written in an ancient Guardian language, and describes the ceremony in which the Guardians were entrusted with the Emeralds.... ..Our copy was somehow lost.... and the only other copy was with the Watchers....the race who gave us the Emeralds... Sally you MUST take me to this cavern!" Tasha ended. ***** Five minutes later, Tasha, Sonic and Sally were once again inside the brightly lit cavern, and Tasha seemed awe-struck. She gaped at the surroundings. Suddenly, she seemed to notice something. Walking to the back of the cave, the three saw something that they had missed earlier... hewn into the rock was an opening the exact size and shape of a Chaos Emerald. Trembling, Tasha reached into her cloak and withdrew a palm-sized red stone, her Chaos Emerald of Control, and inserted it into the crevice. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, all of a sudden, a bright green beam emitted from above the door and impacted with Tasha's forehead. The beam didn't seem to do any damage and looked a lot like a scanner beam rather than a weapon. A few seconds later, the beam shut off and the wall in front of them vanished. They walked through and were amazed at what was before their eyes. They saw a large cavern, with blue shimmering walls. The cavern was so large they could not see the other side of the cave. They could hear a waterfall in the distance, but what caught their attention was an blue emerald the size of a house that was firmly planted in the center of the cavern. Tasha was too overwhelmed to say much. "The legends were true... the Great Emerald..." Sonic questioned, "Great Emerald?" To which Tasha replied, "The Great Emerald was supposed to have been the first Chaos Emerald, all our Chaos Emeralds, as well as the larger Master Emerald, were all supposed to have been cut from the Great Emerald. It was believed to have been only a myth.... but this certainly proves otherwise...." Sally took a step closer, when a figure seemed to materialize in front of the trio. She stepped back, and the three saw that the figure was an exact duplicate of Tasha. When the figure spoke, it sounded as though it were a chorus of voices. "Proceeding further is unallowed for the unauthorized. Identify yourselves." Tasha spoke up. "Ah am the Entrusted. Ah am Guardian. Ah protect that which is Red, which is Seven, the Emerald of Control." The figure paused for a moment. "You are recognized, Guardian of the Seventh Emerald of Control. You may pass. Who are these others?" Tasha continued. "This is Sally Alicia Acorn, princess of Mobius, heir to the throne. And this is her... um.. mate, Sonic." The duplicate-Tasha spoke. "Her authority is not recognized here. If she wishes to pass, she must prove herself worthy." Tasha paused for a moment, then spoke to Sally. "There is a great risk involved, Sal. You must pass four tests to satisfy the Emerald. According to what I know, I can help the two of you get through these tests. Do you want to take them?" Sally didn't even blink. "Of course. The things we'd learn in there makes it worthwhile...." "Will do, Tash." Sonic piped in. Tasha spoke to her duplicate. "They accept, on the condition that Ah aid them." "It is agreed. They must pass four tests. Be warned that to date no one has survived these tests....." With that, the three were enveloped in a blue flash. ***** The three reappeared at the end of a long tunnel. Tasha spoke. "Our legends call this the Trial of Physical Capability. You have to defeat a myserious creature... even I do not know what form this creature will take..." An ethereal voice floated in. "The Trial of Physical Capability begins." A seven-foot tall lion, clad in medieval armor materialized in front of them, brandishing a rather mean looking sword. The lion suddenly seemed to distort for a moment, before charging at them. Tasha brought up her paws and unleashed a bolt of lightning on the lion. To everyone's shock, the bolt impacted harmlessly against the creature. The lion slashed his sword at Sonic who deftly stepped out of the way. Luckily too, for the impact of the sword split the rock behind the hedgehog into two. Sonic thought, "Just great! We can't hurt him, but he sure can hurt us..." Tasha tried other forms of magic, and Sally even took out the small phased energy pistol she was carrying and fired a few shots, all to no avail. "It's no use! Ah can't understand it..." Tasha was saying. It was then that Sonic had a brainstorm. He immediately dashed over to Sally and picked her up. As he did, he yelled to Tasha, "Teleport yourself to the other end of the tunnel." He waited just long enough to see Tasha disappear in a yellow blaze before picking up speed and leaving the lion to eat his dust. He arrived at the end of the tunnel at the same time Tasha materialized. They quickly exited from the tunnel out into what seemed to be open forestland. They could hear the lion roaring as it catched up with them. They immediately raced behind some dense foliage to hide and watch what the lion would do. They saw him approach the exit, and the moment he stepped out of the tunnel, the lion vanished. Tasha seemed impressed. "How didja know?" She asked Sonic. "Call it a hunch." The duplicate image of Tasha appeared. "You have succeeded. On to the next trial." ***** The three materialized inside a room with a table and some chairs. Tasha spoke, "This is the Trial of Intelligence. Ah should handle this. Questions asked here were meant for the Guardians." A bespectacled squirrel appeared, exhibiting the same distortion as they had witnessed the lion display for a moment. The squirrel spoke. "The Trial of Intelligence begins. Who will answer?" "Ah will." Tasha answered. Tasha was all ready for questions concerning Guardians... but this was not to be. The squirrel ordered, "List all prime numbers between 1 and 32767." Tasha gaped for a moment, then answered as best as she could. She did fine until she reached 100, then stumbled. The squirrel's eyes seemed to glow red. "You have 10 seconds before you fail this trial.... 9...." Sally thought fast, then activated Nicole. "Nicole, compute all prime numbers between 1 and 32767 and display as holographic output." Nicole obliged and the holographic screen flickered before taking on it's signature translucence. Tasha continued, reading off the screen. The squirrel turned to Sally. "This is not....", but Sally interrupted. "You said she was to answer, you never said we couldn't help." The squirrel paused, and it's eyes stopped glowing. It spoke. "You have done well. You have shown intelligence. The second trial is passed." The three dematerialized out of the room. ***** Sonic, Sally and Tasha appeared at the next trial. Once again, Tasha filled them in on what was expected. "This is the Trial of Perception. It is a trial of trust. One of us will see what the trial really is like, while the other two see false images. We have to decide who's is the one to trust...." The ethereal voice floated in. "The trial begins..." A bright flash, and then Sally gasped in fear. She was standing on a precipice, overlooking a deep chasm. She stepped back in fear. Meanwhile, Sonic was standing beside a large lake, and Tasha could see a vast green meadow, filled with flowers. Tasha looked at her companions, and saw Sally looking afraid, which really looked silly from Tasha's perspective, as Sally was staring at a rather beautiful patch of roses. Sonic on the other hand, seemed nonchalant. Tasha asked them what they saw, and they responded. This seemed to be the hardest decision they had to make so far. They were all thinking when Tasha had an idea. She called to the other two. "Pick up a small stone or some heavy object." They complied, each managing to find a small rock. Tasha threw hers directly in front of her, and saw the rock go right through the ground. The view was partially blocked by the grass, but Tasha could distinctly see the same distortion they had witnessed earlier occur again, and she made that known to the other two. Sally threw hers into the chasm, and to her surprise saw the air ripple into waves as the rock fell. Sonic then threw his, and sure enough, he saw the ripples as the water parted where the rock entered. Now knowing what was real, they swam across the lake in no time. The minute they got across, they once again vanished. ***** They reappeared in the blue cavern they had started at, only this time right in front of the large blue emerald. The Emerald spoke to them, pulsating with light as it did. It spoke with the same ethereal voice they had heard throughout the trials. "You are better than expected. This is the final trial, the Trial of Illusion. Your question is: Who am I? You are allowed two chances, as this is considered very challenging...." Tasha immediately spoke up. "It is obvious that you are the Great Emerald, origination of the Chaos and Master Emeralds." The Emerald pulsed. "Am I now? Am I the Emerald you think I am?" Sally then spoke to the emerald. "You are not an emerald. You are an illusion. I think you are a mere computer." Tasha seemed shocked at what Sally said. The emerald pulsed, "And what brought you to this conclusion?" Sally continued, "First, my computer has registered that there is a powerful holographic generator in this cavern, which I believe was used to create all those trials we faced. The distortion also gave it away. Then, in the trial of Intelligence, we were asked a question that seemed like a question only a computer would ask. Need I go on? Oh... yes, your holographic generator has a misaligned emitter which is causing the distortion. It's a simple matter to fix it...." Sonic gaped. "You mean you knew all this time..." To which she quickly replied, "No, I suspected it all the time, because of the distortions and all that, but whatever that is was blocking Nicole's scans. It's only now, when it's using a large amount of processing power to keep up the large image of that emerald and the extra large cavern, that Nicole could punch through the interference." Tasha absorbed what Sally was saying. "Then... the Great Emerald is really a myth.... Ah've been hoaxed...." The truth hit Tasha hard. The emerald shimmered for a moment, then vanished, along with the blue cavern, revealing a much smaller cave, with a house-sized spacecraft in the center. A voice came out of the craft. "Your race is better than we originally thought, good enough to validate future contact with us." Sally understood. "This entire charade.... was simply to gauge whether we were ready? Then those scrolls were just hoaxes... a bait?" The craft continued. "The only scroll we placed there was the one from Earth, the rest were there long before we came.... We had nothing to do with them." Sally questioned. "How did you know so much about the Guardians?" To which the voice replied, "When we arrived, we noticed the door with the emerald crevice, hooked up to a telepathic scanner, presumably for security identification for whomever had built it. We modified it, and used it to scan the mind of whomever could open that door... your Tasha." "You said it was already there?" Tasha spoke up. "Yes." "Then, there is a chance...." Tasha trailed off. The craft spoke to Sally. "We will meet again. Until then, Sally Alicia Acorn. Farewell." With that, the vehicle flew up and shimmered for a moment, turning nearly transparent. Sally presumed they were phasing out so as to get through the rock. True enough, the craft passed through the roof as though it were not there. Trials over, the trio proceeded back to Knothole. ***** Back in Sally's hut, the scrolls sat side by side each other, awaiting people to read them.... that is.... all but one. No one noticed the scroll with no words start pulsating with an eerie glow.... TO BE CONTINUED THE END ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Enjoyed the story? Write to me at prower@pacific.net.sg! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~