Sonic and the Mystic Mage Ch 8

"Sonic and the Msytic Mage"
Chapter 8

All Sonic Chara(c)SEGA/Fan chara(c)Me.

Miia and I were walking home after school. I was thinking about the mysterious quake that occured recently. I looked up to Miia and to me, she seemed a little shaky, but I'm very glad to see that she is fine. We're fine, actually.

I looked down to my orble. In the sunlight, it is a beautiful ocean blue color; a suitable color for me(1), since I often break the sound barrier and one with the wind(2). Basically, all my life I was afraid of water, but I seemed to get over it when I was rescuing Amy. But a few months after that, it sorta came back. Heck, even thinking about it gives me the jitters. I tried to calm down, but even with my hyperactivity, it is really hard.

But then, I haven't felt any "wind magic" today; I sure hope they didn't go away-- No, it's unlikely they would have; if Queen Arcadia says that there are mages to be "born" here, and probably back at my world, then I, for one, believe her.

"Taking your new pet for a walk, Miia?" a snobbish voice said. I turned to my right and Miia did the same to see a girl with dark purple hair and lavender eyes wearing a different school outfit(3).

"FYI, Ryoga," Miia answered. "This is not my new pet, even though he seems like an animal, he is also human(4)."

"And I'm just escorting her home," I finished for her.

"A mutant animal escorting you? That is so 16 years ago," Ryoga answered back. "Also, what about your rollerblades? Got them imported to a land fill?"

"Watch it, I'm planning to go rollerblading after I finished my homework!" Miia scolded.

"Oh, you poor girl." Ryoga sounded sarcastic. "Oh, of course I don't mean 'poor' as in 'not rich'... if it's what you think you are!"

"Yeah, you can 'poor' it and shove it up your ass if you don't shut your trap, Ryoga,(5)" Miia said coldly.

"Ohh, temper, temper!" Ryoga smirked. "Hey, careful with my scooter!"

I glanced at the two men carrying a scooter from a truck; most likely the scooter Ryoga was referring to.

"It's brand new, you know!" she pointed out.

Miia gave away an exasperated sigh, most likely that she couldn't even stand Ryoga. "See you later, Ryoga." She turned to me as we resumed walking. "Should we find any more mages, Sonic, remind me to turn her into a monkey!(6)"

"Yeah, she's such a snob," I agreed. "Ya saw that scooter?" I turned to the Ryoga girl and made a rasberry sound(7). I then turned back. "Not gonna be on my friend list." I made a girlish pose(8) as we resumed walking.

"Well, thank you, captain obvious," said Miia. "Since she's never been my friend in the first place."

"Is that a fact? Long before I first came here, I've only had several enemies and only a couple of frenemies, but most of which are those people I made friends with."

"Really...?" Miia was amazed on account of her expression and tone of voice. Then she made a nervous laugh. "Well, I've once had an equal balance on both friends and enemies, and by that I mean the equal number of both friends and enemies."

"Balance? Equal number?" I was a little confused on what she said, even though she happened to simplify it.

"It once occured to me that no matter how many enemies or friends I make it will still remain equal." Miia smiled. "But that's all changed now, since I've grown popular at my school."

"Well, that's good to hear!" I made a wink and thumbs-up.

For a couple of blocks we passed, we stayed silent. Then Miia finally said, "That reminds me, we need to learn a couple of spells."

"Huh?" I wish I understood what she meant by that, yet I was trying to remember.

"Remember that Arcadia said that we need to learn and collaborate on spells," she explained. "She said so that 'darkness is gathering and must be prepared'."

"How? I don't know that much about magic or recieving magic powers just because Arcadia said that we are the Mystic Mages, and there are others out there, or--"

"Don't worry," Miia optimized. "I read a lot of fantasy books when I was growing up, I'm sure my knowledge and experience will most likely help us. Let's go check out the library for some spellbooks."

Just then I had an idea. I grabbed Miia in my arms and said, "Well, let's go there, then! If you have time to worry, then run!(9)"

And then I dashed away with Miia in my arms. To me, I think she seemed to enjoy it.

************
Minutes later, we were at the library. Miia was sitting at one of the computers looking up some spellbooks. I looked around the library and I was stunned at what I was seeing. Looks like a pretty big place for a library; from the looks of it, it has three floors, plus a glass dome on the top! Look at how much everything has changed the last 16 years!

Speaking of change, I wonder how much Miia has changed. I know that she was a baby back then when I rescued her from the flaming building. If only I stayed at this world a little longer...

I went back to the computer area to check Miia's progress on finding these spellbooks. Turns out that I've arrived just in time.

"There they are!" Miia announced.

I checked the computer screen(10). "120 finds! Doesn't look like much."

"True that," she agreed. "But they look pretty advanced."

"How 'bout looking some books up for beginners?" I offered.

"With the romanized words and pronounciations in it, I could..." Miia sounded like she's having some doubts.

"Hey, c'mon!" I laughed. "Don't doubt yourself now! I'm a beginner and you're a beginner, so look it up!"

"Uhh... I guess so..." She sounded annoyed. I couldn't figure out why, even.

Miia got to typing and typed in "spellbooks for beginners" in the field and clicked  on "genre" and "enter". In a few seconds, six finds popped up, all of the same topic and genre, but with different volume numbers, yet with the same author.

"Let's see here, where's volume one...?" Miia was thinking out loud under her breath. Then she found what she was looking for. "There it is!" She clicked on the link for the title for a better view plus where it is located. "It's on the second floor, fantasy reference section, and its call number is 'Fu 17917173'." She tore out a piece of paper from her notebook and wrote the info down. "Okay, then," she got up from the chair. "Let's go spell-hunting!" She let a smile on her face.

"All right! Let's go!" I said with a thumbs up(11). Then we quickly got up the stairs to the second floor. Moments later we are there, but this time, I had the same stun look.

As we were looking for the fantasy area, I asked Miia, "I couldn't help but notice that this library is big enough to be a museum!"

"Well, it has a fairly large history there," Miia began. "Originally, it was a museum of art and natural history, but months later it was closed do to budget cuts and other financial problems. But then the governemt gave some of its funding to the construction industry to remodel this into the country's first largest library."

"The three floors are referred to as 'zones' in interior design terms; the first zone that we were are the non-fiction zone, the second zone, where we are now is the all-genre fiction zone, and the zone floor is the children/fun-and-play zone." She looked at her torn-off note to double-check. "Now let's see..." She then looked at the large tabs on the tops of the shelves letters ranging from AB-CE to W-Z, and then she said "Ah, the 'F's." as she eyed one of the bookshelves with the tab with the letters ranging FG-H.

"Let's go there," she gestured.

"Okay." I responed.

We walked over to the bookshelf and Miia searched for the call letters and numbers she wrote on her note. "...171, 172... ah! 173, this must be it!"

Miia found one of the first two volumes of the spellbooks and pulled them out. "This is all we can borrow for now. I have some more spellbooks my parents bought for me, but they are more slightly advanced than this."

After a full minute of thinking, I said with a smile, "I don't mind, we can always borrow a few more volumes after I've learned a bit."

Miia smiled back. "Okay!" and we went downstairs to get the books checked out.

When we got back to the first floor, Miia went to the open windows with a male librarian in one of them. "Yeah, I would like to borrow these for a while." She handed the man the two books.

The man scanned them both with the computer and said, "Okay, then, you have your library card?"

"Right here." Miia handed him the card.

As he was scanning it, he noticed me. "Hey, aren't you the hedgehog from 16 years ago?"

I smirked. "You know I am! Sonic The Hedgehog!"

"I think I remember you..." the man was in deep thought.

"Think?" I stopped smirking. They must think I'm yesterday's news or something.

"Well, a lot of years have passed, and half of us still know you or remember you." The man turned to Miia. "You his friend?"

"Uh, well, he's.... staying with me for the time being," Miia said modestly. "But whatever," she said quickly. "I need to borrow these, like right now."

"I haven't forgotten." The man smiled as he put two larger cards in each of the books. "These are due by the end of the month."

"Okay, thanks," Miia said.

She and I walked out of the library. When I looked at the sky, it looked like we've been in there or at most ten minutes.

"All right, let's go home," said Miia.

I picked her up bridal style and said, "Hold on to these books tight."

Miia blushed a little but let out a smile and said, "Okay." and then I ran off at my top speed, all the way to Miia's house. Even though I really don't know about magic, even when I recieve any, like last weekend, I'm still very excited about learning a magic spell or two. Even more, I have a hunch that several of these would be useful the next time we fight a Mirror Beast.

***********

I was sitting on the couch watching some TV, Miia is upstairs looking up some spells in her spellbooks that she's gonna agree with me to be useful. That reminds me, the note on the fridge said her parent's won't be coming home unitl 9:30 in the evening; when I told her that, she looked a little distraught, but she understands, even though she sounded a little depressed. Maybe I should advice her to tell her parents to spend some more time with her, I mean she's got a new friend, a blue speedy hedgehog from another dimension.

"Tt, not interested in this channel," I said. "I wonder what else is on." I picked up the remote when I surfed a few channels, when suddenly, I came across the news channel. Instantly I stopped to hear what was happening. Looked like that they were talking about the quake we just had.

"What happened a few hours earlier was a mysterious earthquake that shook the entire city of Kamura. Fortunately, no one was hurt during the incident."

"Miia, come down, they're talking about the quake!" I called upstairs.

"What, they are?" Miia was running down the stairs, heeding my call.

"Yeah, just listen to this." I turned up the volume a little so that we can hear more.

"....then moments later a light flashed, believed to have surrounded the globe. However, after the flash, there are two creatures somewhere on the outskirts of this city." They showed two pictures of Knuckles and Tails. I was really surprised to see them here, but I was relieved that they came for me(12).

The news reporter continued, "Strangely enough, they seemed to be two sidekicks of our hero that once lived on our world, Sonic The Hedgehog; they are called Knuckles The Echidna and Miles "Tails" Prower."

Miia happened to notice my expression and asked, "You know these two?"

"Yeah," I said with a smile. "They're my best friends, Knuckles and Tails!"

"I've pretty much never heard of them either." She looked at the TV screen. "But, they look sorta cute. Sorta like you." She smiled.

I blushed when she said that, but I turned my eyes back to the screen.

"In further news, there was rumored to be a black shadow roaming outside the city, and also twin human cats, a boy and a girl that happened to be the shadow's follower. Further details will not be released until more information has gathered. This is Sayoko Fujiwara reporting live."

I remembered the time when the black shadow appeared while Miia and I were walking to the nursery. Sounds like a Mirror Beast.

"Sounds like a Mirror Beast," Miia interuptted my thoughts, but she sounded like she remembered the black shadow from before. "Oh, also, I found a spell that's gonna be useful, it's about finding weak spots, even when they are hidden."

"Really, that's great!" I said. "Can you show me?"

"I'll show you how it's done in the book, and then we'll pratice it in private."

"Okay."

Miia went back upstairs to her room and came back with one of the advanced and beginner spellbooks. She opened one up to the page where she found the weak spot spell.

"Here." She showed me a page of the spell, but there are some wierd symbols on them, but there are some graphics of the spell such as where and what your position should be when performing it(13).

"Cool, but how can you do it if it's not in English?" I asked.

"Usually spell books like this have some magic symbols, mostly forming sentences and such," she explained. "If you like, I'll read it to ya, so you'll understand."

I beamed at the suggestion and said with a thumbs up, "All right!"

Miia gave a thumbs up and said, "Okay then, let's practice!" And she walked to the front door and I followed her. She opened it and we stepped out into the sunlight.

"Looks great today!"

Having her said that, I picked her up bridal style and said, "Yeah, a perfect day for a run!"

"We're learning spells, Sonic, not signing up for track meets," Miia seemed to frown.

I smirked and said, "I haven't forgotten! Just hang tight! We're going to the park to pratice!"

Miia smiled and said, "All right, you win, let's go!"

"All right!"

I ran at my best top speed to the park, the only private lace I could think of. I think I remember its name, it's... Saku... Saku... Sakura Park! I sorta went past it [sweat drop] while I was looking around 16 years ago, but I can smell the cherry blossoms when I did. Heck, even thinking about it makes me feel a little high(14).

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Blast, I think I'm kinda lost," Knuckles is still searching for Tails, but he was also thinking about how the red-brown crystal got around his neck.

Just then, he sensed an energy source. That feels familiar...

Then Knuckles saw a faint red light coming from the bushes. He approached it, rustled through the leaves and was shocked and amazed at what he is seeing.

"A Chaos Emerald!" Knuckles exclaimed. He picked up from the bushes and looked at it in awe. "How'd this get to this world? Could it be dimensional transferred along with us? If so, then they must be scattered everywhere!

But then, Knuckles realized that he and Tails are separated during the transfer. "But first, I need to find Tails first; he could be anywhere..."

And so Knuckles went off again, with the red Chaos Emerald in hand. He knows that he is now back to the human world, but only at a different location. He is worried about Sonic and Tails' safety, but at the same time, he was admiring the forest.

He then smelled cherry blossoms in the air. Cherry blossoms, he thought. I must be in some park... He continued walking in the forest in hopes of finding either Sonic, Tails, or both.


T.B.C.