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The Rise of the Phantom

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The Rise of the Phantom

Sally was a mere three seconds away from being pronounced the wife of Patch, alias Antoine, when Sonic bashed the courtyard doors open with a bang that caused everyone to turn to look at him. He had a dark, vengeful look on his face. He raised his hand to reveal two vials, pointed an accusing finger at Patch, and shouted, “YOU! You sick, twisted, depraved little MONSTER!!!” He thrust his hand aloft to show everyone the vials. “You dropped these on the way out last night, pal, and I found your memoirs in your quarters. I know about everything you’ve been doing!” Sonic said through gritted teeth. He raised one vial, which was plain, and spoke to everyone. “This vial's full of poison, which HE's been slipping into the king’s drinks during every meal. Isn’t that right, ‘Antoine’—or should I say, ‘PATCH?!’” Everyone gasped as Sonic produced a book (Patch’s memoirs) from his side bag and threw it on the carpet. He then held up the other vial, which was made out of blood red glass and had a stopper in the shape of a skull with fangs. “This,” he said to everyone, “is a vial used to hold Dark Serum. I read in that little book about what he did with it. The night before Sally entered the ‘Source of All’, he poured the Dark Serum into the sacred water to show a fake destiny for her. He planned to poison the king to death so that he would become king after marrying Sally. AND HE INTENDED TO HAVE HER KILLED AFTERWARD!!” Sonic flung the vials to the ground viciously, smashing them to pieces. His skin began glowing thanks to the energies of a Deep Power Stone he activated years ago. “Nobody does any of that to my friends or loved ones,” Sonic shouted, “AND GETS AWAY WITH IT!” He pulled the Chaos Emeralds out of his bag and allowed them to begin spinning around him. “You’re gonna pay for this, Patch. Draw your sword, and face me!” What Sonic didn’t know was that when he threw the vials, the one for Dark Serum had cut his wrist with its carry-cord as it left its hand. A trickle of Dark Serum left in the bottle rose from the red glass shards and formed an orb in front of Sonic. Suddenly, the orb formed into a blade shape and flew into the cut on Sonic’s wrist. “AAAAGGGHHH!!!” Sonic yelled as the Serum entered his body. Then, purple and black flames began to emerge from his wrist and started curling up his arm. “YAAAAAGGGGHHH! Chaos Emeralds, help me! SOMEONE HELP!!” Sonic cried. The Chaos Emeralds suddenly began to fire beams of light energy into Sonic’s body to counter the evil power of the Dark Serum. But the damage it had managed already was about to unleash a nightmare.


All of a sudden, Sonic collapsed on all fours, and his body began shaking. He was crying out feebly in pain. The Chaos Emeralds abruptly halted the flow of light energy and fused directly into his body. He’s about to become Super Sonic, everyone thought. The ordeal that followed would haunt the witnesses for several nights.
Without warning, Sonic’s body was engulfed in purple and black flames. Sally cried out, “Sonic, are you alright?! What’s happening to you?!” Sonic began laughing in a dark, cruel voice. It did not sound like the Sonic she knew at all. Instead, his voice was cold and serpentine. “Heheheheheheheheheheheheheheheh…My name...…is...” He sprang upright.

“PHANTOM SONIC!”

Everyone who saw him gasped in horror. Sonic was surrounded by purple and black flames, and his body was turning jet black. His spines were streaked here and there by inky purple flares of color. But the most horrifying part was Sonic’s face. His eyes had hair-thin white outlines, the sclera of his eyes were a murky black color, and his pupils were now deep, fiery orange orbs with blood red cores. Even more horrifying, his eyeteeth had become sharp fangs, which were all visible, as he had a cruel smile on his face. He was looking directly at Patch. Sally’s eyes were wide with terror, and her pupils had shrunk to small dots. Sonic’s body became enveloped in a ragged, ghost-like cloak, which apparently encased his whole torso and legs, as it was revolving slowly around his body, showing no signs of what lay underneath. “Hahahahahahaha! What’s the matter, Patch? Are you too spineless to face me?!” Without warning, Sonic flew straight up into the air, coming to stop between about seven and nine feet in the air. He was still laughing in his bone-chilling, snake-like voice as eight long tentacles sprouted from his back. Like his body, they were jet black. The tentacles were buzzing and sparking with electricity, and had vicious barbs on the ends.
Patch’s eyes began glowing with a blood red color. "You filthy PIG," he snarled. He snatched a syringe from his pocket, and plunged it into his own arm. No sooner had he injected its contents than energy began to erupt around his body. "Zis shall be your dying day." He let out a roar and unleashed his dark energy form. His shirt was ripped off in the process, revealing a black, sleeveless, skintight shirt underneath. Chain-shaped tattoos ran the length of both his arms. He drew a glowing longsword with a ruby pommel stone carved into a skull shape, and levitated himself to Sonic’s height using what looked like Chaos Control.
All this time, Knuckles had edged around the courtyard to get behind Sonic, in order to give the hedgehog some back-up in case things got ugly. When Sonic took on his dark form, it only took Knuckles a few seconds to realize what had happened. The Chaos Emeralds had stopped the Dark Serum from taking over his soul, but the Serum had still managed to temporarily rob him of his ability to show mercy, compassion, love, or quarter. Knuckles knew there was nothing he could do for the hedgehog. He kneeled down and prayed silently for Sonic’s time in darkness to be short.
Patch swung his longsword and sent a wave of dark energy directly at Sonic, scoring a direct hit on the hedgehog. Sally shrieked in horror. But when the flames from the blast had cleared, Sonic was still floating there, without a single mark of injury on his body. His grin widened. “Is that the best you can do, Patch? How pathetic!! I expected more from a so-called warrior! Let me show you true power! HAH!” Sonic’s eyes flared with cold light, and he fired two beams of energy straight at Patch. “AAARRRGGGHHH!!!” Patch shouted as he fell out of the air. No sooner had he hit the ground then he struggled upright and began rapid-firing intense shots of dark energy at Sonic with his blade. Sonic moved swiftly around the edge of the courtyard in a circle, dodging every shot. He returned to his former position. Patch was breathing heavily. “Poor, weak little fool. In this game, there are winners and losers. And guess what?”—he fired all his tentacles at Patch, and his eyes narrowed as his smile grew wider.—“You just lost.” His tentacles wrapped tightly around Patch’s body. The coyote struggled to escape, but the tentacles wound tighter and tighter around him. Sonic began to send down a continuous wave of electricity. Patch screamed in pain as the tentacles electrocuted him. Sonic was laughing the whole time. Suddenly, he threw Patch to the ground. The coyote tried to move, but he was paralyzed. Sonic looked down at him. “HAHAHAHAHAHA! Tell me, Patch: How does it feel to have your identity unmasked, your plans ruined, and your crimes about to be punished? How does it feel?” Patch let out a small groan of pain. “Perhaps I’m not making myself clear,” said Sonic. He shot a tentacle at Patch and shocked him once again. “TELL ME HOW IT FEELS!!” Patch was screaming and shrieking in pain. Sally, with tears in her eyes, cried out, “Sonic, please stop! He’s had enough! Please show him mercy!” But Sonic could not hear her. His senses were enveloped in darkness. But Sally's cry somehow got to him a bit, and he did the only thing he could with the small amount of control he gained. He opened a dimensional portal to where the real Antoine was, and with all the will power he could free, he took one tentacle and lifted Antoine out, and managed to place him next to Bunnie before the dark power took him over again. Then, he lost all control over his mind once more. “Heheheh... Well, it looks like your identity is really blown now, Patch!” An opening appeared down the front of his cloak. Suddenly, it billowed out to reveal his hands. His gloves were now made of iron mesh and plating. His left hand was otherwise normal, and in it he had a sword with a cruel-looking ripping edge. His other hand was something out of a nightmare! The glove had a fanged skull silhouette on the back, and worse, his fingers were bolted to long, saber-like blades with ripping edges similar to the sword. “Heheheheheh, what a pity. I had so looked forward to using this sword. Well, no matter. SEE YOU IN OBLIVION, PATCH!!!” Sonic opened his claw-hand at Patch, and a sphere of dark nova energy began to grow in his palm. He released the beam, and a colossal blast of dark energy was blasted directly through Patch’s chest. “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Patch screamed as his body was vaporized in the dark energy. When the explosion cleared, Sonic slowly descended to the ground, and finally landed where he had been in the first place. He stood there, with that evil smile on his face, and the flames enveloping him began to grow higher and higher. Before anyone could react, Sonic was engulfed in a tower of burning light energy which obscured him from view. The roar of the light energy shooting skyward was deafening. Everyone jumped in surprise as the roaring energy was suddenly broken by the sound of someone screaming morbidly out of pain. The voice sounded like Sonic’s. The inferno of light energy dissipated seconds later. When the smoke cleared, everyone saw Sonic standing there. He was back to normal, and he didn’t make a sound. But he looked like he had seen the apocalypse.

His eyes were wide open and were visibly bloodshot. His pupils had contracted almost to the point where they couldn’t be seen. His mouth was gaping open in an expression of horror and pain. There was a huge gash across his chest where Patch's swordblast had struck him, and his right hand was burned from the dark nova energy. The Chaos Emeralds made his chest glow (they had fused to his heart) as they fired vicious blasts of light energy to purge the Dark Serum. A tremor ran through Sonic's body with each blast. Without a place to channel energy through Sonic’s emotions, the Dark Serum suddenly erupted out of Sonic’s wrist and evaporated. The Chaos Emeralds reversed fusion with Sonic and left his body. They came to rest in a perfect half-circle behind him. Sonic didn’t move for several seconds. The courtyard was completely silent. Then, Sonic dropped onto his knees, and then he collapsed to the ground altogether. The hedgehog didn’t move. Sally was first to break the silence. “SONIC!” She cast off her veil and ran over to where Sonic lay prone on the ground. She knelt down beside him, sobbing with fear. “Sonic, please say something! Please be alive!” She gently lifted his head up. When she turned Sonic’s head toward her, she saw that he had tears streaming down his face. “What have I done?” He cried weakly. “What have I done…? How could I kill him in cold blood? Why couldn’t I control myself? Why… why did I do it?” Sally was overcome by sympathy for him. She now realized that Sonic hadn’t done what he did by choice. He had lost control over his mind. “Oh, Sonic…” Sally hugged him gently and kissed his cheek. “It’s all right, Sonic. Don’t cry. You couldn’t stop what that Serum was doing to you. Don’t be upset. C'mon... k-keep your eyes on me... Everything's going to be alright...” Sonic lifted his arm, and managed the effort with his remaining energy to rest his hand on Sally’s cheek. “Sally, please… listen to me… I’m probably… going to tap out… any second now. I’m sorry… for everything... that happened. I shouldn’t have gotten angry… with you... or responded… to you the way I did… Sally… I… love… you…” Sonic didn’t get any further, as he fell into unconsciousness. His hand slowly fell from Sally’s face. Sally’s eyes began to well up with tears. “Sonic? SONIC?! Sonic, please, wake up! Please!” She broke down sobbing and hugged Sonic’s body close--she thought he was dead. Doctor Quack rushed over and placed two fingers on Sonic’s neck and paused for a moment. Then he placed his hand on Sally’s shoulder and said, “Sally, it’s okay. Sonic isn’t dead. He’s only unconscious. But we have to get him up to the infirmary immediately.” Ash and Mina Mongoose, Knuckles, Julie-Su, Tails, and Amy Rose all came forward and lifted Sonic up. Sally cradled Sonic’s head in her arms. Bunnie and Antoine (who was evidently none the worse for wear) pulled the courtyard doors open, and Sonic’s friends carried him in. Everyone else in the courtyard began to rise and follow them. Bunnie and Antoine stopped them. “Hold your horses, dahlins’,” said Bunnie. “We’d bettah stay out heah until the Doc calls for us.” Mighty the Armadillo spoke up. “Why shouldn’t we go with them? Sonic’s our friend, too!” Antoine replied, “So are we. But right now, ze only people who should go with Sonic are zose who have been with him since zee the beginning of his years as a Freedom Fighter-- he has not been having an easy time since his ree-turn to Mobius. He needs time to repair ze bonds he has with ze Princess. We shall all get to be seeing him once he is feeling well again.” The crowd murmured in agreement.

Up in the infirmary, Sally and the others sat outside the sickroom. Sally was weeping out of fear for Sonic’s life. Amy, Mina, and Julie-Su did their best to comfort her, but they could see that she had been traumatized. After about fifteen minutes, Doctor Quack came out. Knuckles asked the question on everyone’s mind: “Doctor, is Sonic okay? Is he going to survive?” Doctor Quack smiled at them. “Don’t worry, Sonic is fine. I stitched up the gash in his wrist and stabilized him.” “What do you mean ‘stabilized’?” Amy asked. The Doctor’s face was calm as he spoke. “The combined energy of the Chaos Emeralds and the Dark Serum threw Sonic’s heart rate way up. He fainted because his heart was pumping so fast that it drained the energy out of his body. But there is another reason.” “What’s that?” asked Tails. “Knuckles can tell you,” said Doctor Quack, “But right now, Sonic asked to see you when he woke up, Sally. He doesn’t want to see anyone else just yet.” Nobody protested—they understood that Sonic needed time to repair the problems between him and Sally. They moved aside to let the Princess in. Doctor Quack followed her and closed the door.

Sally went into the room and saw Sonic lying in the nearest bed. His wrist and his hand were bandaged, and he also had a strange glowing strip of cloth wrapped around his torso. He heard the door open and looked over to see Sally enter. “Hey, Sal,” he murmured. Sally walked over and sat on the bedside. Placing a hand on his cheek, she spoke softly to him. “Sonic, I was so worried about you. Are you alright?” Sonic smiled weakly at her. “I’m fine, but I feel like nearly every ounce of energy has been sucked out of my body.” He slowly got himself into a seated position. “It’s okay, Sally. You can go ahead.” Sally hugged Sonic, tears of relief and joy running down her face. Sonic held her tightly in his arms. “I’m sorry for what happened back there, Sally. I hope you never have to see me like that again.” Sally lifted her head up and kissed Sonic's cheek. “Sonic, it’s alright. After you told me what Patch had been doing, I understood everything. As far as I’m concerned, that sick monster deserved everything you did to him.” Sonic lifted his hand and wiped a tear from Sally’s eye. “Well, I had to do something, darlin'. I couldn’t let you walk into the trap that Patch set up. You’re the only girl I’ve ever really loved, and I wasn’t about to let you get hurt.” Sally hugged Sonic again and whispered to him, “You’re the only man I’ve ever really loved, Sonic.” Sonic held her head to his shoulder. They didn’t speak anymore for a few minutes. They just held each other in an embrace. Finally, Sonic asked, “Sally, you want me to call in the others?” Sally looked up at him and smiled. “Sure. I think they’ve waited long enough.” Sonic called over to Doctor Quack, “Hey, Doctor, I’m ready to see the others now. You can bring them in!” Quack went out and came back in with the rest of the group, who had told the crowd outside that Sonic was alright. Bunnie and Antoine had joined them. Sonic was almost instantly surrounded by his friends.
“Hey, Blue! Good to see you alive!”
“We were all so worried about you, sugah-hog!”
“You’re not going to turn scary again, right Sonic?”
“Glad to see you’re okay, Sonic!”
“Thank heavens we didn’t lose you!”
Sonic smiled at his friends. “Hey, guys.”
Antoine was the first to respond. “Sonic, how were you knowing what my evil tween was planning?” Sonic replied with a tired smile, “It’s a long, complicated story, guys.” Quack walked up to the bed and spoke. “If you wish, Sonic, I can set up a more comfortable place for you to visit with your friends.”
Ten minutes later, the gang was in a private living room. Everyone had found a seat on a cushioned armchair or sofa, and a fire crackled beneath the mantel. Sonic was lying on a large sofa in the center of the room, with Sally in his arms (Everybody realized they were rekindling their relationship when they saw this). Sonic looked around the room and said, “Everybody ready?” They all nodded. Sonic took a deep breath and said, “Alright, here we go.” Sonic began telling them what happened. “Last night, I was on my way up to bed, when Patch walked past me down the stairs. I noticed that he had dropped something as I reached the landing. When I took a closer look, I found those two vials. I was going to take them and place them in his room, when one of the vials started glowing! I took a look at it, and I got suspicious when I saw that weird skull-shaped stopper on the vial. I went into his room, and I found this.” He motioned to Doctor Quack, who brought him a book wrapped in black leather. “From the moment I saw the first page of this book, I realized that something was definitely wrong.” He opened the book and read a few excerpts from the pages. The faces of everyone in the room grew more and more horrified with each excerpt. Patch’s plan had been deviously and meticulously planned out. The excerpts described how he slipped the poison into King Max’s chalice while preparing the King’s food, and how he broke into the sanctum containing the Source of All. When Sonic had finished, he closed the book and returned it to Doctor Quack. “When I learned Patch’s plans from that journal, I had to think fast. I knew that if I told anyone, either no one would believe me, or even worse, they would believe me and Patch would attempt to kill someone with his cover blown-- we've all seen what he was like out in the battlefield." They all nodded-- Patch had been completely ruthless in battle during the time he'd managed to fool them. "I finally came up with an idea—but it was really risky. Last night, I came into Doctor Quack’s room and told him everything. He was able to use a trace of the poison still in the vial to create an antidote. He gave Sally’s dad the antidote fifteen minutes before the wedding started this morning. By the way, how is he doing now, Doc?” The doctor smiled. “He’s still in bed, but he’s recovering, thanks to you, Sonic.” Sally kissed Sonic on the cheek. Sonic continued the narrative. “I told the Doctor not to reveal anything that I told him. I didn’t want Patch to find out that his cover was blown, and I especially didn’t want him to find out that his plans were about to be sent down the drain. What you all saw me do today before the Dark Serum “attacked” me was part of the plan. Man, I wish I had seen the rest of it coming. My idea was working as arranged until the Dark Serum entered my body. I originally intended to go Super Sonic and defeat Patch, and then lock him back in his own dimension. Obviously, nothing went right after that.” Sonic blinked a few times, and then he spoke as calmly as he could. “I’m... still a bit haunted by what I did to Patch in that dark form. I would NEVER kill anybody in cold blood like that intentionally.”
There was silence for a few seconds, and then Mina asked, “But why didn’t you just stop yourself, Sonic?” Sonic replied, “Because I couldn’t. I had no control over my body.” Mina had a puzzled look on her face. Sonic added, “Knuckles can explain it better than I can.” Knuckles caught the hint and explained what had been happening. “Mina, you need to understand that Sonic was lucky to survive after having Dark Serum in his body.” “What do you mean?” asked Tails. Knuckles spoke to everyone with a grim voice. “I've learned a lot about the other dimensions of the universe from my Dad training me to be the next Guardian. The one subject I remember best is what he told me about the Anti-Dimension that parallels our own. Dark Serum is a native substance to the Anti-Dimension. It's kind of like the Anti-Dimension's version of the water in our world's Source of All. It's a potent energy source that can kill with a single touch. Only skilled handlers—” Knuckles glanced at Sonic. “—and warriors with pure hearts can touch it without suffering fatal effects. There is only one fact to its lethal properties: Dark Serum, in a way, is the concentrated energy of death.” Everyone except for Sonic stared at Knuckles in horror. Knuckles continued to explain. “Sonic was able to avoid having his life drained away by the Serum because he managed to call out for help from the Chaos Emeralds. The beams that the Emeralds were firing into Sonic were beams of light energy, which is the power of life and purity. When the light energy couldn’t pull the Serum out of Sonic’s body, the Emeralds fused straight into his heart to attack the Serum directly. Unfortunately, in this case, the Serum did temporary damage. The Serum spread Dark Energy through Sonic's body. As a result, True Blue here was robbed of the ability to feel or express sympathy, compassion, love, mercy, and quarter to any living being. It also blocked out his senses. That was why he didn't respond to Sally's plea for him to stop torturing Patch. The only thing he managed to do of his own free will today was to open up that dimensional portal to bring back Antoine. I saw his face while he was doing it, and he looked like he was in agony. That was the other reason that the Doc gave for his falling unconscious. Sonic used nearly all the energy he had in his body, just to focus hard enough that he could retake control of his mind for a few seconds. And those few seconds pretty much wasted him." Sonic said quietly, "Throughout that little bit of time that I was controlling myself, I felt like I was trying to hold a mountain above my head. It hurt like heck, and I barely managed to hold out long enough to set 'Twan down safely before that Serum took over again." Knuckles nodded and continued, "The Emeralds fused with Sonic in time to prevent his soul from turning evil. If he had called out a second too late, he would probably be wreaking havoc on New Mobotropolis by now.” Upon hearing these last words, Sonic hugged Sally closer. He knew all too well what he could have done if he had hesitated to call out to the Emeralds. A single tear fell from his eye. As if she could sense Sonic’s distress, Sally gently stroked his cheek to reassure him. Knuckles went on. “The powers of the Emeralds and the powers of the Dark Energy were fighting in Sonic’s body the whole time he was in his “Phantom” form. The flames around him were coming from the Emeralds forcing the Dark Energy out of the Serum and out of Sonic’s body. He didn’t transform into Super Sonic because the Dark Serum tainted his powers with evil. Sonic was struggling over and over again to regain control of his mind the whole time, but the Serum stopped him each time. And it did so in ways that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.” “Why, how did it stop him?” asked Julie-Su. Knuckles replied, “The Dark Serum used torture to keep Sonic from focusing his mind enough to regain control. It attacked him with the cruelest, most agonizing form—mind torture. As of today, Sonic has experienced the worst pain any of us could ever imagine.” “Is mind torture really that painful?” said Ash. Sonic’s face was grim as he spoke to Ash. “Ash, imagine having a thousand knives driven into your brain. Imagine having your head burned up from the inside out. Imagine having a rod buzzing with electricity drilled through the back of your skull. If you can imagine THAT kind of pain, then you’ll know what kind of pain I went through when I was under mind torture.” Ash and nearly everyone else in the room was horrified. “Wait a minute. Oh, no. Oh, no, no!” Sonic groaned. “Something just came to me! The Source of All still has the Dark Serum in it!” Knuckles allayed his fears. “You don’t have to worry, Sonic. After we brought you into the infirmary, I went and collected the Chaos Emeralds, and I took them down to the Source of All. I’ve left them in the water to purge it of the Dark Serum.” Sonic was relieved. “Phew, I owe you one, Knuckles.” Knuckles shook his head. “You don’t owe me anything, Sonic. It was the least I could do for you after the services you performed today. A lot of Mobians owe YOU their lives.” Sally smiled at Sonic. “We all owe you our lives, Sonic. If you hadn’t been here today, things would have turned out a lot worse.” Sonic smiled back. “Sally, I’m really sorry for what I said to you when we had that argument about your dad's decision. I... I should’ve taken your feelings into consideration. Instead, I acted like an idiot. Can you forgive me?” Sally put her arms around Sonic’s shoulders. “I forgave you when you saved us today, Sonic. You showed me how much you care. That was more than I could ever ask for.” Sonic said four words that Sally had missed hearing for a long time. “I love you, Sal.” “I love you too, Sonic.” Sonic pulled her close and kissed her. Everyone in the room reacted classically. “Awwwwwwwww.” ‘This,’ Sonic thought to himself as he held Sally in his arms, ‘is one thing I’ll always hold in my mind.’


END OF CHAPTER
Here it is. The fourth chapter in my storyline. Who is the Phantom, you might ask? It's none other than Sonic... but what happens to him? Is he good or evil? And does he end up saving the day... OR BRINGING DESTRUCTION?? Read the story to find out...
© 2008 - 2024 Ignatian-Mystic
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Fionafox890's avatar
Awwwwwww that's such a cute story!