by K. M. Hollar
Copyright information: Sonic the hedgehog and related characters copyrighted by Sega and
Archie comics. Serena, Slasher, Spike, and the concept of Mekion copyrighted by K. M. Hollar.
Drasyre the Mithril Dragon and related concepts copyrighted by R.J. Adams, and used with
permission.
Chapter 1: The wronged
Seliris Island stood four hundred miles off the coast of North Mobius, and six hundred miles
from Central Mobius. It stood by itself in the middle of the ocean with no reason for anyone to
travel there, and the shipping lanes passed far to the south of it.
It was skirted by a warm current from the equator, and the warm water combined with the frigid
air created a constant fog that shrouded the island, veiling it from high-altitude eyes. The legends
about it were almost as fantastic as those of the Floating Island, and both sets of legends included
fabulous treasure and a fearsome guardian. The only creatures that lived there were seabirds that
migrated there for their breeding season.
Among the birds, sentient and non-sentient, Seliris Island was well-known. Not every bird had
the strength to travel between the island and the mainland more than twice a year, but one bird
made a living ferrying passengers across the wide sea to lay eyes on the mystical lonely island.
She was called a Magnificent Frigatebird. Black as jet, with a wingspan of an airplane, she spent
her life on the wing and could outdo even an albatross in sheer distance. She was still several
years too young to take a mate, and in the impetuousness of youth she dared to challenge the
wrath of the island's guardian by hosting aerial tours of his home. But so far he had not noticed.
Today she winged through the mist with a passenger strapped into the cloth saddle on her back,
circling the rocky island and giving him glimpses of green hills, clumps of dark trees, and
gleaming lakes reflecting the misty sky.
Her passenger was a green hedgehog. He wore goggles and a scarf over his face to protect it from
the biting wind. He wore a silver circlet around his head with a black stone set in it against his
forehead. His left hand was a black biomechanical implant, primitive and outdated, and the cold
had locked it to the saddle's handgrip. He was too interested in the island below to care.
"Cerbeth," he said to his guide, "where does the guardian live?"
"In the cave system in the island's east end," the bird replied, banking left and beating her way
through the mist. The island disappeared, and the hedgehog had to trust her sense of direction. He
had lost his own when the mist enveloped the sun overhead.
"He doesn't care for visitors," said Cerbeth, parting her long beak in a savage smile. "You
wouldn't believe the money I've been offered to take in treasure hunters, but my clients are worth
more to me alive."
"Treasure hunters?" said her passenger, trying to sound disinterested. "There really is treasure
down there?"
"I wouldn't know," said Cerbeth. "I don't fancy flying inside to find out. There's the cave
entrance."
The mist parted ahead of them, and they looked down at a rocky hillside with a vast cave mouth
yawning open in its side. A well-worn path wound from it out of sight down the mountain. The
hedgehog stared at it as they flew over, leaning so far out of the saddle that he was in danger of
falling out. "Can we go any closer?" he asked.
"Sure," said Cerbeth, circling back and diving toward the hillside.
The hedgehog wrenched his robotic hand free of the saddlegrip and leaped out into space.
"Spark!" Cerbeth shrieked as he plunged earthward. He curled into a ball, struck the path and
bounced fifteen feet in the air. He struck the ground again and rolled to a stop. Cerbeth dove
toward him, tossing panicked looks up toward the cave mouth. She extended her feet to land, but
Spark leaped up and ran like mad toward the cave.
"No!" she cried, then beat her way back into the air, terrified of the way her shrill voice echoed
off the rocks. She dared not call again. She watched helplessly as the hedgehog plunged into the
cave and vanished from sight. The idiot! The fool! Drasyre would eat him alive! And if he
smelled frigatebird on Spark, he would come for Cerbeth, too. Oh, what should she do, what
should she do?
She circled around and around, hardly beating her wings, watching and waiting, hoping against
hope that Spark would emerge. The minutes passed. Nothing happened. She circled five, six,
seven times, as slow as she could manage, cursing herself and her passenger.
Movement. Spark reappeared in the cave entrance and bounded down the path, looking over his
shoulder as he ran. Cerbeth swooped toward him, heart hammering in joy at seeing him and
terror at what might be pursuing him. He dashed toward her, caught the saddle's handgrip in
midair and vaulted onto her back. "Get me out of here!" he ordered. "Now! Quick!"
"You are so stupid that words fail me," she snarled at him, her powerful black wings rocketing
them into the cover of the fog. She looked at him over her shoulder and saw that the right side of
his face was shining with blood. Clutched in one hand was a glowing diamond the size of a
grapefruit.
"Now words for your stupidity REALLY fail me," she snapped. "He'll track you across the world
to retrieve his treasure! Throw it down, please!" Her tone changed from scolding to begging.
"No," Spark replied softly, clutching the white gem to his chest. "I need it. You don't know how
badly."
Cerbeth eyed him over her shoulder, and put two and two together. "That's a Chaos Emerald, isn't
it?"
Spark nodded, and wiped blood off his face. "Get me back to the mainland as fast as you can. I
need a Chaos Wizard to do what I need done. I need ..."
"Sonic Hedgehog!"
Amy Rose stood in the middle of the street, feet wide apart, fists on her hips. Her pink spines,
usually neatly brushed, now bristled with fury. "I told you to marry me! ME! And you've gone
and--and--"
Sonic stood in the doorway of his hut, looking pained and cornered. It was 7 AM, and he had
only just awakened, for his blue hairdo was in disarray and he was barefoot. Down the street,
Sally emerged from her own hut, saw the standoff, and clapped a hand to her forehead. Other
curious Mobians were looking out of their doors and windows, and some were grinning.
"Look, Amy," said Sonic, "you're nice and all, but--"
"I saw Sally's ring!" Amy shrieked. "You can't do that! You just can't! I love you, Sonic, I've told
you a million times!" Her voice carried across the village.
A red tint crept into Sonic's cheeks. "Amy," he said in a low voice, "can you keep it down?"
"No!" cried Amy, eyes gleaming with tears. "They need to hear this! You cheated on me!"
"We were never an item to begin with!" Sonic snapped, his temper rising with his
embarrassment. His eyes found Sally down the street, pleading, and she hurried forward. Sally
was a fawn-colored squirrel, and was as trim and sleekly-groomed as Sonic was rumpled. Amy
spun to face her as if expecting attack, teeth bared.
"Amy," said Sally softly, "Sonic will always be your friend. Our engagement will never change
that." Her blue eyes searched Amy's furious green ones.
Amy glared for several seconds, panting. Then she wailed, "But he was going to marry ME!" She
dissolved into tears and ran for her hut on the next street.
Sally turned and looked at Sonic. He was massaging his forehead, and raised his eyebrows. "I
knew this would happen," he said in an undertone.
Sally put a hand to her own forehead and murmured, "Me too." Sonic heaved a sigh and retreated
inside his hut to dress. Sally shook her head and walked back to her own hut, folding her arms
and shivering.
It was midwinter. The trees of the Great Forest outside the village were bare and gray, the ground
carpeted by fathoms of dead leaves. Their first winter snowfall had not lasted long, and the
ground was hard and frozen underfoot. The sun shone brightly in a clear sky, but gave no
warmth. Sonic and Sally had been engaged for two days before Amy found out, and her reaction
was predictable. Sonic would definitely duck when he saw her coming for some time. Sally
smiled to herself as she entered the warmth of her own hut. Poor Amy.
Amy nearly went home, but didn't feel like facing questions from her mother, such as, "Why are
you crying?" and "Haven't I told you to leave Sonic alone?"
Instead she detoured into the privacy of the woods, wanting only to hide from inquiring eyes. She
found a tree stump, sat on it and had a good cry, hating Sonic and Sally both. It burned inside of
her like acid, a churning mix of anguish, betrayal and fury. Sonic should never have picked Sally!
Didn't he see that Amy loved him? How could Sally do such a thing? Amy had always been in
awe of Sally, considering the squirrel her vast superior in age and wisdom. But now she saw that
Sally was just a know-nothing squealing fangirl who had snared Sonic with her wiles.
She was sniffing and wiping her eyes when she heard footsteps. She looked up, half-hoping it
was Sonic coming to apologize. Instead she saw Serena, a dark violet hedgehog, Sonic's younger
sister. She was several years older than Amy, but the two got along reasonably well. Serena was
wearing a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, which were her eternal preferred style of choice.
It worked well in the winter, for Amy was beginning to shiver in her flannel dress.
"You okay?" said Serena softly, pausing at a short distance with her hands in her pockets.
Amy nodded and sniffed.
Serena walked up and sat beside her on the tree stump. "His engagement was a shock, huh?" said
Serena, trying not to smile.
"Yes!" wailed Amy. "How can he be serious about Sally? They haven't been going out or
anything!"
"They do a lot of work together," said Serena, folding her hands in her lap and gazing at them.
"They hang out all the time, too. I guess that counts."
"It's not fair!" Amy moaned, fresh tears welling to the surface. "I love him! Doesn't he know
that?"
Serena shrugged. She knew quite well how much Amy annoyed Sonic, but wasn't about to point
that out. Right now Amy needed someone to listen to her, so Serena listened and nodded
sympathetically for the next twenty minutes.
Amy poured out her rage, frustration and hurt feelings. She described how much she hated Sally,
and how she loved Sonic so much that she just hated him. She wanted to hurt him until he saw
that he loved her. None of which made any sense, but Serena listened and was sympathetic
anyway, inwardly shocked at the violence pouring from the pink hedgehog's mouth.
"And you know what," Amy concluded, "I'm going to date other guys now! Just to show Sonic
that I can live without him. If he can blow me off, I can blow him off."
"Good idea," said Serena blandly. "There's lots of guys your age around here."
"Yeah," said Amy, wiping her eyes for the dozenth time. "Like Tails."
"Uh ... what?" said Serena. Her thoughts had wandered, and now jumped back to the original
topic in alarm. "What about Tails?"
"We're almost the same age," said Amy. "Wouldn't it tick Sonic off if I dated Tails instead of
him?"
"You think Tails would be interested?" Serena said. In her mind's eye she pictured Tails's face if
he saw Amy coming for him. The anguished terror was easy to imagine.
"Of course he'd be interested," said Amy, patting her ruffled pink spines. "And if he's not, I'll find
somebody who is. But don't worry, 'Rena. I'll stay away from Spike."
Serena twitched as if she had been electrocuted. "Why do you say that?" she said, feeling her face
grow warm.
Amy smiled at her, her moist eyes dancing in mischief. "I've seen the way you look at him. You
like him and his punk hair." Amy gestured, mimicking something exploding from the top of her
head.
"Nobody's supposed to know," muttered Serena out of the corner of her mouth. "Do you know
what Sonic would do if I started going out with Spike?"
"Yeah." Amy's eyes took on a red glint. "It'd make him mad. Madder than if I dated Spike. So
you go ahead."
"I'm not out to hurt Sonic, thanks," said Serena, annoyed that Amy was so eager to use her to
further her agenda.
Amy looked at her scornfully. "Too loyal to your brother, eh? I see how it is. Fine. I know what
I'm going to do." She jumped off the stump and stalked back toward the village. Serena half-rose
to follow her, but changed her mind and remained on the stump.
Serena and Sonic had grown apart in the past few years. He was increasingly involved with Sally,
and he crossed paths with Serena less and less. Serena was studying natural remedies and botany
in preparation for a Mobian medical school, and as a result remained in Knothole most of the
time. And she watched as she and Sonic grew up and lived different lives.
She missed him terribly at first. They had been best friends, told each other everything and did
everything together. Then suddenly he wasn't around as much. He preferred Sally's company
more and more, and while Serena was hurt and jealous, she knew that it was how things had to
be. Her hurt had died down and become a quiet resignation. But she needed a male influence in
her life, so she had taken to hanging around Spike. Sonic would not approve if he knew, but
Serena was careful to tell everyone that she and Spike were just friends. She doubted that even
Spike knew how much she liked him.
And if Amy planned to use Serena as a weapon, then Serena would continue to do nothing. She
shivered and stood up. The damp stump was slowly soaking her jeans. She brushed herself off
and trotted back toward Knothole, wondering what Amy was up to.
Far away from the Great Forest, the Ice Cap mountains to the northeast had long been wrapped in
snow and ice. Hidden deep in the bowels of one lofty peak was a series of tunnels and rooms.
The walls and floors were stone and metal, cold to the touch, sucking away any warmth.
Darkness ruled supreme, challenged only in one small room, where both lights and heaters defied
the frozen mountain.
But the lighted room was unoccupied. Its door stood open, letting a beam of friendly yellow light
stream into the passage beyond it. At the point where the light faded to twilight, another door
stood open, the room beyond it as black as a starless midnight.
The dim light touched a limp hand, gleaming on the sharp claw on each fingertip. The hand hung
from a low cot, not quite touching the ground, and its owner was wrapped in darkness. A tiny
creature stood beside this hand, peering up into the shadows. Eight inches tall, with soft round
paws and big eyes, she looked harmless and gentle, contrasting with the power and potential
violence of the hand. She touched it with a paw. "Mecha," she said softly. "Mecha, are you all
right?"
The slit of a red eye appeared, glowing in the darkness. It focused on the chao for a moment, then
winked out of existence again. The fingers flexed and went limp. The chao stroked the hand, then
sighed and toddled out of the room, closing the door behind her.
She returned to the lighted room, looking small and comical as she closed the door, then
scrambled into a chair. The chair was pulled up to a row of three computers, their monitors in a
neat row on a table. Only one of these was on, and the chao gazed at it, pushing a mouse with
both paws. She moved the cursor over a table of links and clicked on one entitled "depression".
The screen displayed, "A psychoneurotic or psychotic disorder marked especially by sadness,
inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite
and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal
tendencies."
Aleda read this slowly, making sure that she understood all the big words. That was what was
wrong with Mecha, all right. Shadow had left two weeks earlier, and Mecha had done nothing
but sleep ever since. Aleda had seen how Mekion made Shadow do bad things, like attack Mecha
without warning, and she had been glad when Shadow left. But she had watched Mecha grow
cold and silent, and sleep for hours and hours. This in itself was strange, because Mecha despised
sleeping. Usually his nights were spent working or planning while Aleda slept beside him,
comforted by the glow of his red eyes.
She did not know how Mecha had come to this point. How through a series of experiments, first
on Shadow, then on himself, Mecha had converted his robotic body into a semi-biological one. A
body that breathed oxygen, consumed food, and bled when injured. But he had taken Shadow and
converted half the hedgehog's body into a machine, testing to see if biomechanical machinery
could indeed integrate into a living body. The experiment was a success in that Shadow survived,
but a failure in that the additional hardware in Shadow's brain that controlled the robotic limbs
also sought to control Shadow, himself.
Mecha and Shadow had become friends, and the stronger their friendship became, the more
Mecha regretted his experiments on the black hedgehog. Shadow was no longer Shadow. He was
Mekion, a calculating, cruel personality who acted disturbingly similar to Mecha before he had
left the service of Dr. Robotnik. Thus, when Shadow was critically damaged and could no longer
control his robotic mind, he had to leave Mecha and seek exile in a world where semi-robots
were treated with fear and suspicion.
This prospect had ground Mecha down into depression, and he sought solace in sleep. In
addition, Mecha had been grievously damaged while trying to free Shadow from Dr. Robotnik,
and his complex body took a long time to repair itself. Which was another reason for his near
hibernation; Mecha was in pain while awake.
Aleda was left to her own devices for two weeks, and took to playing with the computers. She
figured out how to access the information network that Mecha used, and did research on Mecha's
ailment. It was hard without Nox. Nox was Shadow's chao, and had accompanied his master into
the unknown. He had the ability to feel the emotions and moods in other people, and he had been
an accurate barometer of both Shadow and Mecha. Without him, Aleda didn't know how Mecha
felt, nor could she persuade him to awaken long enough to tell her.
She was scrolling through a website filled with pictures of Mobius landmarks when she heard the
control room door open. She spun around with a gasp to see Mecha standing there. For having
no fur, he looked bedraggled; his usually shiny blue skin was a dull, tarnished smoke color, his
ears drooped, and he was squinting in the bright light. He was holding one hand against his
stomach, nursing the closed bullet wound that his motion had agitated. He looked at Aleda and
the computer with an upset, accusing expression. "Aleda," he said softly, "what are you doing on
that console?"
His voice was hoarse and raspy from a fortnight of disuse, and there was no trace of the tinny,
metallic timbre that robotic voices usually had. Mecha formed his speech with a synthetic larynx,
tongue, teeth and lips, like a living creature. Indeed, Mecha occupied a gray area between the
robotic and the organic, part of both but entirely neither.
Aleda looked guiltily at the glowing monitor. She knew that she wasn't allowed to use the
computers without permission. "I was looking for places to go," she said. "Next time we go
traveling." Which was the truth--it was what she was doing at that exact moment. She didn't
know what Mecha might think of her research attempts on his problems.
He limped to the console and leaned against it with one hand. With the other he speed-typed on
the keyboard, reviewing the log of everything Aleda had done online. When he found the medical
dictionary on depression, his expression softened. He read it, identifying his symptoms and
secretly experiencing a stab of joy that Aleda was intelligent enough to reach this conclusion
completely through empirical observation.
He turned to her. "Do you believe that I am suffering from depression?"
"Yes," said the chao, hearing the gentleness in his voice and relieved that she wasn't in trouble.
"You slept so much that it scared me. I wanted to know why."
Mecha was silent a moment, then gathered her up in his arms and stroked her head. It was a sort
of affection he only displayed when deeply moved or grieved; emotions were still new to the
ex-robot, and he had trouble expressing them.
"I am depressed," he said quietly. "Do you know why?"
"Because ... Shadow's gone?" Aleda ventured.
"Yes," said Mecha, closing his eyes for a moment. There was a tell-tale burning behind them, and
he waited until it faded. "But not only because he is gone. Because of why he had to depart."
"Mekion was messed up, wasn't he?" said Aleda, leaning back to peer into his face.
Mecha kept his eyes fixed on a spot just over her shoulder, too guilty to look her in the eye. "I am
the reason that he is Mekion. I am the reason for his torment. I cannot undo the damage, and it is
increasing exponentially now that Mekion's operating system is corrupted." His voice cracked,
and he fell silent for a moment, closing his eyes. Difficult as it was, it was a relief to confess his
crime to someone.
He cleared his throat and continued. "Any other creature would have died by now, but it is
incredibly difficult for Shadow to die. He does not age, and heals immediately from any wound.
Because of this, it is doubly dangerous for his minds to war with each other. Suppose Mekion
triumphs. There is hardly a being on this planet who could stand in his way."
Aleda shivered. She had not thought about what might happen to Shadow out there, alone with
his maniac robot half. No wonder Mecha was depressed. His lone friend was also potentially his
greatest enemy. But not only Mecha's enemy--the enemy of all Mobius.
"Shadow said that he would learn to control Mekion, though," said Aleda. It hurt her to see
Mecha's eyes glisten so dangerously, and hear that unusual tone in his voice. She clung to hope
for him. "He can do that, right? He can beat Mekion?"
"Yes," said Mecha heavily. "There are equal odds that Shadow shall triumph. But this debate
would not transpire at all were it not for my interference."
Aleda didn't know what to say, so she laid her head on his chest and patted his arm. He held her
for a long time, stroking her with his sculpted, powerful hands, never letting his claws brush her
fur. At last he turned back to the computer and set her on the desk. "I observed that you were
investigating landmarks. May I inquire why?"
"Oh," said Aleda, her crimson eyes lighting up. "I was looking for places where the Master
Designer might live."
"Really." The corner of Mecha's mouth curled in a smile. "How do you conclude that he would
reside near a natural formation on the planet?"
"Well, if he made it all," said Aleda, "he might have a favorite place to live or something. And ...
I kind of wanted to see these places. See the picture of the Viper Canyon? And Mount
Everwhite? And the crater of a volcano with a city on an island in the lake in the center?" Aleda
talked faster and faster as her enthusiasm bubbled to the surface.
Mecha was amused, but also found that the idea of seeking the Master Designer in locations of
natural beauty appealed to him. "Perhaps," he said. He pulled up a map on the screen, which was
marked with the locations he planned to visit for research purposes. "There are several places in
which you might be interested on our next trip ..."