Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Miles 'Foxy' Prower! ❯ Awkward Beginnings ( Chapter 22 )

Okay, I am officially back from the dead! GOD! This story needed an update SO bad.

But now that it's finally here, my conscience is clear! (hey, that rhymed!)

 

Anyway, sorry I've been gone for so long people, I have absolutely no earthly idea as to what possessed me to stay away from this story for such an unnerving period of time! I missed you all too much to forget though, so I'm back, and I got story! So, let's cut right to the chase then, shall we?

 

“Miles `Foxy' Prower!” Chapter 22: “Awkward Beginnings”

 

 

“What… Am I supposed to do again?” She bleated, perplexed, and suddenly awkward. The blond boy never once opened his eyes or moved anything but his lips.

 

“Center your thoughts, then center yourself. Imagine every piece of information that's ever entered your consciousness, every little detail, and the even smaller details attached. Imagine how they are all related, filter nothing, put your mind to think of not only people and places, but stars and galaxies… Think of everything you've ever learned, everything you've ever experienced… Now think of everything else. Try not to lose any of it, keep it all centered in your mind… But stay at peace…”

 

Rouge did as he said. She brought all things that were important to her first, then all things presently happening to her, all things that had happened in her past… even things that had not yet happened, she brought into her mind. Every single thought she'd ever had, she brought into her mental clearing. It felt a little cluttered, and as it accumulated, it felt very cluttered. Very frustrating. She didn't like it.

 

Nobody would have liked it.

 

“…I don't like this at all…” She stated, squinting.

 

“Good, you're not supposed to. Hold for just a little longer…” Armic said. She held. She started to sweat. The bubble of her fragile mind felt as if all the matter within it might make it burst.

However, the young Chaos Spirit did what his Masters before him did, and waited until she was about to break.

“Now, Rouge, I want you to clear your mind completely. As a dust pan collects trash and scoops it aside with one movement, I want you to take all the collected mental images and events floating within your mind and rid yourself of all of it. Scrape it under a carpet somewhere, for another day, until there is only blank, only white, nothing in your mind… Erase all of it.”

 

And she did as he said, happily. She deleted the thoughts all at once, as if it were nothing… and now, it was nothing. It felt amazing… but she couldn't think about how it felt. She thought of nothing, sat blank, only relishing the feeling, but not indulging it. She sat motionless, thoughtless.

 

“Focus on nothing but the sound of the wind around you… The slow pulsations of energy you feel from my voice, my presence… Focus on the power resonating from your own body, with every beat your heart makes. Let that heart beat in tune with mine, and listen for the echoes they leave in their wake…. Collect the excess strength you feel peeling off your body, and use it to make yourself stronger, more aware…”

 

Rouge felt something welling up inside of her… some sort of power, some sort of energy. She concentrated on it… was that always there? Did she always possess such power? She noticed a lot of it leaking off of her, but, using her mind, she reached out, and re-captured it, and pulled it back to her own being… It was as easy as breathing, and soon, it became the essential to breathing… Subconscious, gentle, and vital.

 

But her mind was clear of all other things. Focused, but not muddled. A moment of this passed her.

 

“…And at last, Ms. Rouge, awaken…”

 

She opened her eyes, and it was like she had just been reborn. Like a flashflood of power surged through her, and yet it wasn't fiery and radical, but peaceful, flowing like a gentle, but mighty stream. She could hear, see, and sense her surroundings better than ever… and she suddenly became conscious of her own power. It was like she was connected to all things, capable of reaching all things, all impossibilities, and it was indescribable.

 

Armic also opened his eyes, and smiled at her stupefied reaction to his enlightenment. He didn't say anything, but let her take it all in first. She looked at him, and noticed that she now felt him in a different way. She felt his energy, and it was strong… Very strong. But… hers was stronger.

Still, the energy felt warm, like sunbathing, only no glare.

 

She could feel the energies of the others in their tents… She didn't even have to see them, she just… felt them. Some were weaker than others, one in particular, whom she highly suspected to be Eggman, felt very cold, but all the others felt their own special kind of warm. And she knew who each was just by the feeling she got.

 

She looked at Armic, unsure what to say for a minute.

 

“What… is this I feel?” She asked him. He smiled lightly.

 

“That is your Chakra, Ms. Rouge, the Crystological Force that runs through your veins.”

 

“I feel so… Aware… So awake, like…” She trailed.

 

“Like everything around you is in direct link with you?” He finished for her. She only nodded, still flabbergasted. He stood, and looked down at her.

 

“This is how I see and perceive the world around me, Ms. Rouge… How I found you and Amy when we first met. This is what is called Chakra Sense. Only those born with a high density of Chakra can do it.” He told her. She looked up at him.

 

“This energy I feel coming from deep within myself, peeling off my body like a rapid river, is this…?” She started to ask. He smiled, and nodded.

 

“That is your Chakra. You were born with that, and yes, it has always been there. I merely helped you to see it. And now that you can feel it, you can learn to control it, use it, channel it.” He told her.

 

After a moment, she finally stood. She felt like she was ready for anything, but she was also aware, maybe even wiser than before. She looked at him, curious.

 

“Tell me what Chakra is again… Be more specific.” She asked. He smiled, gladdened that her new sense of awareness was truly taking root already. She seemed to realize that she didn't know everything, whereas before she didn't seem to care.

 

“I was about to.” He said. He cleared his throat, and continued:

 

“All right… Chakra is a permanent span of energy that each and every form of life is born with. Chakra is stable, eternal, and unchanging… From the day you are born, your Chakra remains the same, until the day you die.” He added.

 

“What happens to it when you die?” She asked him.

 

“A good question. Well, when a person dies, Chakra leaves with their life, and flows freely across the earth, through solids, liquids, anything you can think of that has no life of its own… It floats freely for eternity, never stopping until it is accumulated by a very special type of matter…”

 

“Crystals?” Rouge inquired. She surprised herself, and the surprise that played across her face for a very brief moment showed it. She knew that she'd never have been able to make such a deduction before, but now she was enlightened. Her intuition had sharpened greatly. Armic smiled.

 

Truly, by that, the awakening was more of a success than he'd initially thought.

 

He simply nodded, bright ambery eyes reflecting a certain pride. The bat smiled in return. She was glad she decided to do this… This art had already shown her something that amazed her, wisened her, sharpened her every quality, peaked her potential… Or at least it felt that way. She questioned how she managed to live without it up until now.

 

“That's right,” He said, “The reflective and refractory qualities of all forms of Crystals accumulate the free Chakra that flows from the passing of life… Some Crystals even attract it. But of course, there are exceptions, variants, things that are common in most of life's teachings.”

 

“Sounds complicated.” Rouge mused.

 

“It is.” He admitted.

 

“Goody.” Was her sarcastic addendum.

 

“Alright, um… we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Let me first further explain the obstacles you'll encounter when it comes to casting spells…”

 

As he said this, he pulled from his garbs the small pouch of Crystals that the bat had seen only once before. Rather than choosing just one, he dumped out about half of it's contents.

 

Rouge counted 23 pebble-sized gemstones, all of them shiny and beautiful.

 

“These are all lesser Crystals… They're much easier to use because they don't contain as much Chakra, seeing as they're so small.” He explained. Rouge looked a tad confused.

 

“How does the fact that they have less Chakra dictate how easy it is to use them?”

 

Armic considered for a moment.

 

“Hmm. It may be best to show you.” He said, picking out a single little Crystal, offering it to her.

 

She examined it. It had a very small symbol inscribed on it, and she could feel a tiny little speck of power coming from it. She took the gem without any hesitation, but the energy, to her surprise, seemed to conflict with her own the very instant she physically touched it. She immediately dropped it, flinching.

 

Armic laughed, and picked it up.

 

“It is a strange feeling, I know. I dropped my first Crystal, too.” He told her. She grimaced. She'd never gotten as much displeasure out of touching a gemstone as she did just then… It was like getting pricked by a needle.

 

“Ew… Why does it feel so strange? I'd swear it almost… hurt. But it didn't… It was just weird.” She trailed. Armic nodded, rolled the stone around in his palm.

 

“Oh, it's not so bad once you get used to it. What you just felt was your Chakra repelling the Chakra within this little Spark Crystal.”

 

Rouge cocked her head.

 

“Chakra repels Chakra? How can that be?” She asked him.

 

“Surely you've noticed that my Chakra feels different from yours? That each individual Crystal here has a different sort of Chakra in it? That every person's Chakra is unique?”

 

She thought about it for a moment. He was right, all the Chakra around her, abundant or not, was unique in either a subtle, or significant manner. Hers was the most unique. Armic's was the next, and then the others came one by one, all different types of energy coming from them.

 

When the teacher saw the student's gears beginning to click, he continued: “There is no Chakra exactly like another, it is much like the snowflake that falls from the sky, some subtly different, some amazingly unique. But one thing is for certain—all different forms of Chakra repel one another. Don't misunderstand what I meant when I told you that Crystals trap and accumulate loose Chakra; It's by no means a good thing. As you can probably see, it's actually quite the nuisance.” He said, looking a bit irritated for a split second.

 

“Because it feels so strange?” The bat asked him. He looked at her for a moment, then shook his head.

 

“No, that's not even the half of it. You see, in order to use a Crystal to cast a spell, you must not utilize the Chakra already within it, but you must channel your own Chakra through it.” He began.

 

He knew she was smart enough to figure the rest out, so he let her think on it for a moment.

 

“Oh, I see… Since Chakra repels, in order to run my own through the Crystal, I've got to push what's already inside of it out… Right?” She said, with a deductive gesture.

 

The blond Crystologist grinned, and nodded at her.

 

“Yes, that's it exactly. That is also why lesser gems are easier to use, and greater ones are more difficult.” He told her, showing her an example of a greater Crystal, which, she noticed, gave off a much more noticeable amount of energy than the others.

 

However, when he started to show it to her, another Crystal fell out of his bag, and it didn't look intentional, because he immediately gasped, and scooped it up, stuffing it back into the bag. The Crystal was by far the most eye catching out of the bunch, even though she only had a glimpse of it: a fiery earthen cat's-eye tone. It was large, flat, and octagonal, kind of like an exotic coin. The symbol on it seemed to glow, she remembered. The most peculiar thing about the stone, however, was the fact that it had a string attached to it, as if someone had worn it around their neck…

 

Rouge didn't like the fact that he was keeping such a fantastic gemstone away from her.

 

“What's the matter? Don't think I'm ready to even see that one?” She said through a scowl. Armic wiped his forehead, as if he'd just caught something precious and fragile right before it could shatter on the ground. He gave her an apologetic look.

 

“No, it's just… That Crystal's very, very special. If I were to explain something so complicated to you so early in your lesson it would only confuse you…” He dodged, not looking her straight in the eye.

 

She could feel it, she could sense the fluctuation in not only his emotions, but the energy she was now so attuned to… He was lying to her.

 

But, after a moment, she decided to let it go. Armic was trying to teach her something, and he'd already taught her a lot… She had no right to hold something so trivial against him… but…

 

Well, as usual, the lust to have all the world's most beautiful gems all to herself complicated her sense of fairness. Now it was not only knowing it was there; it was feeling it. If what he told her so far was true, than that was his greatest Crystal by far—she could feel the sheer potency and strength it gave off, even masked by all the tinier, less significant Crystals. It stood out like a sore thumb… She hadn't sensed any energy like it in anything other than a Chaos Emerald…

 

Suddenly she thought of an… interesting question.

 

“Armic.” She asked, stopping him mid-sentence. She didn't really know what he was saying, but it was some reiteration of Chakra's properties or something… She could come back to that if needed.

“Erh, oh, Yes?”

 

“The energy that comes from a Chaos Emerald… Is that Chakra?” She asked him. He looked taken aback by the question.

 

“Oh, what a fabulous observation! Yes, Ms. Rouge, it certainly is. But… Well, it's a different sort of Chakra.” He added, trailing a bit. The would-be Apprentice Crystologist tilted her head.

 

“Different how?”

 

“Well, for one thing, the Chaos Emeralds contain an artificial Chakra—In every way, the energy is exactly the same as regular Chakra, only far more vast, far, far more.” He explained.

 

“Like how vast?”

 

“Like infinite vast. Surely you know that the energy a Chaos Emerald gives off is limitless?” He asked her. She looked at the ground, seeming to be in deep thought.

 

What he said made a lot of sense, but it also left many things in the dark. Things she wanted to know.

 

She looked up.

 

“How were they created, and how were they infused with limitless energy? How do you make Chakra, anyway…?”

 

Armic frowned, and shook his head, seeming defeated in a way.

 

“I admit, much of it's nature eludes me as well… It was not something I had any obligation to understand, but I will tell you what I know.” He started.

 

Rouge nodded, and listened.

 

“Well, as far as I gather, the Chaos Emeralds were grown over 100 long years, and carved, and enchanted by the Kingdom's finest Crystologists. The enchantments sealed the Emeralds, to where no form of free Chakra could enter, but no form of Chakra could leave. The plan was to grow the Chakra inside. However, the spell that was conjured to infuse these special Crystals with limitless energy was so great, so powerful, it required that each of the Emerald had a host body, a host Chakra to serve as a basis for the Emerald to strengthen.”

 

Rouge tried desperately to piece together what Armic was telling her, and found her mind more capable than before, before she cleared it out, and organized. Now she had room to think, and she found that it made her wiser than she ever was.

“So that's why you're bound to the Emerald!” She stated, grinning at her own deduction. Armic nodded, a little sadly, but smiled.

 

“That's right. That's also why my energy feels exactly the same as the energy within the Emerald. It's Chakra was duplicated and mass produced from mine.”

 

“I think I get it… So it took your Chakra, and made more of it?” She asked him. Again, he nodded.

 

“Yes, that was the key effect of the ancient spell. And it still is, and will, for all eternity. As time passes, the energy within a Chaos Emerald grows.” Armic trailed, and thought for a moment. “I'll tell you something interesting. We use the term `infinite' lightly. The reality is, the Emeralds create their own energy, and it continues to grow perpetually.”

 

Rouge gave that some consideration. She nodded a little to herself, concluding that `infinite' of anything was impossible, but she also understood why they would say that about an emerald, since it was ever growing more energy. It really was quite interesting.

 

Rouge suddenly had a doozy of an idea, and her face lit up.

 

“Armic! Could you use Chaos Emeralds to cast a spell?” She asked, eager to know the answer. Armic scratched his head.

 

“Miss Rouge, I believe your friends have already had encounters with that… I think… Yes, I believe the spell is called Chaos Control.” He clarified.

 

Rouge's mouth dropped open, awed by this revelation.

 

“Chaos Control is a Crystology spell!?” She asked, not believing it herself. The blond boy cocked his head, as if it were obvious.

 

“Yes, that's right. It's a very special spell, that anyone can use, regardless of Chakra. You merely need to know how to channel your inner energy. I believe Sir Sonic and Sir Shadow have both done it before, from what Miss Amy has told me.”

 

Rouge shook her head, unable to believe it.

 

“Wait a second, if the Chakra inside the Emerald is so vast, how can someone with weaker Chakra use it to cast a spell?” She asked.

 

Of the Chakras at the camp, hers was the biggest, followed by Armic's. Sonic's came next, but his was only about half of Armic's. Shadow's was far away, but about the same as Sonic's. Everyone else was either puny or insignificant.

 

Armic scratched his chin, pondering the question for a moment.

 

“I'm not sure I know for sure, but I think it has to do with the fact that the Chakra inside a Chaos Emerald is not authentic. It's fake, therefore it could have been designed to not contradict other kinds of Chakra, letting them pass through without pushing what's already in it out. That would also explain why the gems don't atrophy after a single use, because they still have Chakra in them.” He explained, seeming in deep thought.

Rouge was thinking hard to, and was a little confused. The pieces didn't all click into place.

 

“I guess I understand.” She said after a minute of hard thinking.

 

“Chaos Emeralds are exceptions to the common rules of Crystology. They are valuable and revered treasures because they are designed so anyone who can channel Chakra even a little bit can use their power, and also because their power is limitless.” He explained.

 

Rouge sat for a moment, then stood up, her eyes wide with excitement.

 

“Does this mean I could use Chaos Control?” She asked, aquamarines twinkling with hope. Armic grinned.

 

“Do you want to find out?” He said, holding his hand up.

His palm radiated with a familiar golden glow, and Rouge could feel his Chakra reacting with the Chakra of the Chaos Emerald she left in her tent, under her pillow. The Emerald suddenly shot out of her tent and into the air, sparkling in the moonlight, before Armic caught it. Rouge suddenly understood how Armic did that.

 

“Oh, now I see! Just like I reached out and pulled my excess Chakra back into me, you reached out and pulled your Chakra from the Emerald back to you!” She deducted, looking proud of herself. He laughed and nodded.

 

“That's what having control of your Chakra is all about. Here.” He said, holding it out to her. She took it with some amount of hesitation, but she found that the Chakra inside didn't repel hers.

 

“You were right, it doesn't feel funky like with the other gem.” She said, admiring the golden Emerald.

 

“Really? I never knew for sure, since it's the same as my own.” Armic speculated.

 

Rouge stared at the stone for a minute. She looked up at her teacher.

 

“So all I have to do is run my Chakra through it? I don't have to do anything else special?” She asked. Armic tittered lightly.

 

“There's no strings attached, Miss Rouge. Just channel your energy through the Emerald, and back into you.” He assured her. The thief grinned a little at the thought of her using Chaos Control.

 

“Do I have to say `Chaos Control'?” She asked. Armic didn't get the joke, and shook his head.

 

Rouge just stood there for a minute.

 

“Can I say, `Chaos Control'?” She asked bashfully. Armic just shrugged.

 

The bat grinned. In a minute she'd be moving so fast time would be essentially frozen for everything but her. She knew exactly what she was going to do. Or she thought she did… She was stuck between two things…

Oh well, she had all the time in the world. She'd do both!

 

She held the Emerald out, and spoke the words, in a silky voice: “Chaos Control!” As the Emerald lit up…

 

And then faded.

 

Nothing happened. Everything was still the way it was, and Rouge looked kind of embarrassed, if not a little surprised. Armic blinked.

 

“Oh my, I forgot! Miss Rouge, we need to get you out of those clothes.” Armic said, hastily. Rouge's face went a little red and she scowled at the boy in anger.

 

“ExCUSE me?!” She shouted, hands on her hips. Armic flinched considerably, his face matching the hue of a tomato as he held his hands up, waving them frantically.

 

“Tha-tha-that's not what I meant! I mean, you need some loose-fitting robes in order to channel your Chakra more freely!” He sputtered, not wanting to be turned into a eunich by means of a mere misconception.

 

“Huh?” Rouge worded, not having heard him clearly. Armic took a deep breath and contained himself.

 

“The clothes you're wearing are a tad… umm… Constricting. I mean, I don't mind, but erh… Chakra can be kind of particular as to what type of garments you wear.” He said, choosing his words as carefully as possible. Rouge looked down at her current attire, which was tight, like every other piece in her collection.

 

“Hmph. Is that why you wear robes?” She asked him. He nodded.

 

“That's why, yes. Erh, but I've none for you, I'm afraid… Do you have anything, by chance…?” he asked, hesitant. Rouge tucked the Emerald away in the usual spot, and looked to be in a pensive state.

 

“Hmmm. Nope. Loose-fitting isn't my style. But it's not a problem.” She said, flapping her wings once, twice, and then thrice as she lifted of the ground. Armic looked up.

 

“Where are you going?” He shouted.

 

“To get something. Stay here, I'll be right back!” She said, flying off into the night.

 

Armic stood there a minute or two, then smiled to himself.

 

“Now's my chance.” He uttered to himself.

-----_____-----_____+

 

The specter of the night remained in his own spot in the moonlight, on the highest building he could find. He liked to be alone on nights like this, high up, where he could see everything. He watched in amusement as the young Chaos boy seemed to be teaching Rouge how to use the energy she held inside of her.

 

Shadow was not nearly attuned to it as Armic was, but he had always felt it there, and vaguely knew how to control his own energy whenever he felt it necessary. He could always sense the Emeralds because of the massive energy they gave off, but people were more difficult. Rouge and Armic were the only energies he could feel outside of a Chaos Emerald, and now there was only one of those left.

 

And he sensed it, and felt a familiar fluctuation come from Rouge's hazy energy. Familiar in a very strange way.

 

“What in the…? Is she trying to use Chaos Control?” Shadow thought to himself. He watched the Emerald light up, and for a second, he thought she might actually do it, but the Emerald's light died down, and she remained in the same spot.

 

Shadow did not expose any sort of cocky grin he might have many years ago, because he could sense how close she came. It seemed like only a thin layer of some unknown force was holding her back from doing it.

 

He remembered when he thought he was the only one who could actually perform Chaos Control. Then Sonic proved him wrong, and now Rouge was trying to drive the fact home.

 

But Rouge was a mischievous little thief.

 

“Rouge plus time control… That doesn't bode well…” He thought exhaustedly.

 

Suddenly the bat took off, flying into the ruins of the city. Shadow vaguely wondered where she was going, and considered following her for a minute. It would give him something to do.

 

But then something roused his curiosity even more. The young Chaos Spirit looked around, sprouted his magic wings, and took off in a different direction.

 

Now, Rouge was extremely whimsical, did what she wanted, when she wanted, how she wanted, and she hadn't changed a bit over the years… but that Armic, kind as he might be, was still very mysterious, and was probably still keeping many secrets from them. Secrets Shadow wanted to know.

 

And he appeared to be waiting till the coast was clear to take his leave. He was definitely going someplace where he didn't want to be followed.

And he wouldn't be followed. Or at least he wouldn't know that he was.

 

End Chapter

 

I know, I know, extremely short chapter and you hate me forever and ever but I just HAD to jump at that cliffhanger! Couldn't resist. ^_^

 

Anyway, I'm totally friggin BACK, with plot and all that junk. I need something to do, because I've had… erh, let's just say our family's really gloomy at the time, and I've had no choice but to cancel my vacation! But that's alright, as long as I have writing, and you guys, I'll be just fine.

 

So what'd you think of this chapter? I know it was short, but it was good, right?

 

Right?

 

Anyway, I'm in an excellent mood, so I'll make up for this chapter's shortness with another chapter update VERY soon. I mean, it's a cliffhanger for me, too, and I must know what happens! Or, must think of what happens!

 

So please read, review, and stay tuned! I'll be back very very soon with some more Miles Foxy, of that I assure you!

 

~YiffyOne