NIGHTMARES By: Chaos Kitsune Long ago, when I was still writing stories, I had this and about 3 others in the making. Then I abruptly stopped writing, leaving this and others unfinished. More than two years later, I drudge this story up and finally get around to posting it! Sorry it too so long. When you read it, you'll notice some things are kind of out of date, such as some relationships. I decided to post it unedited. Enjoy! dont' blame me if ya go mad form reading it! ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Yess!!!" Robotnik cackles as he holds a dodecagontal stone in his hand. "This dream stone will enable me to create dreams of my wish! Now I don't have to deal with those ugly reminders of defeat. . ." He shudders at the thought. "Now, to install. . ." He places the stone on the indented place on the machine. The stone fits perfectly. It starts glowing a dim green, then dies down. "Tell me again, Snively, how does the stone work again?" "Simple, sir. The stone works by absorbing the dream states of all the good dreams being experienced by other around you. In other words, it absorbs all the good dreams from anyone within a 25 km radius, while leaving bad dreams alone. "Ahhh, I can't wait to try it!!" Robotnik lumbers over to his metal bed, and crawls up onto it. "Attach it!" "Yessir." Snively reaches for the headset full of tubes and wires., and places it on Robotnik's head."Goodnight sir!" Snively flips the switch. "Good night, you lumbering fool." He whispers to himself. "What was that Snively? Oh well, good night it is. . ." Robotnik closes his eyes, and prepares for sleep. Snively walks over to the intricately decorated box which contained the stone, and places it on the armrest of Robotnik's chair. A piece of old paper falls out of it. "What is this?" He says. He picks it up, and begins reading it. It reads: Be warned. DO NOT misuse the stone. Catastrophe will result. This has been a warning from the emeralds. "Huh!? Oh well, I'm sure it means nothing!" He throws the paper to the side, jumps up on Robotnik's chair, and watches Robotnik have his fun. ........................................................................... "‘Night everyone!!" Everybody yells as they enter there hut from their days fun. Psycho and Sebrina enter theirs. Ciseal and Chaos enter theirs. Cher enters hers with Derek. EG Foxfire enters hers, and Miss Sonic enters hers. If only they knew of the terror which will soon become of them. . . .............................................. Faster and faster Ciseal ran through the woods, running from her pursuers. Jumping stump here and ducking tree branch there. Everything looks as if she were half asleep, blurry and uncomprehendable. But somehow she manages to make her way through the dark, dreary woods, keeping just paces ahead of her two pursuers. "FASTER! WE MUST CATCH HER FOR ROBOTNIK!!" One of the two SWATbots yell. Ciseal wishes that she hadn't done what she did. Stupid plan!! Why didn't I plan it better! Now look what I've done!! It was perfect. . . until I made that one tiny mistake!! I wish it hadn't backfired so!" Ciseal starts losing her breath. She stumbles over a tree root bulging from the ground. It seemed to her like slow motion as she fell. "THERE SHE IS!" The other SWATbot yells. Two hover crafts slide up beside her. The two SWATbbts step out and stare at her lying down. "What should we do with her?" "Kill her. We can't have any survivors. They may try again." "But Robotnik-" "ROBOTNIK said to detain her! We'll just say that she committed suicide." The other SWATbot shrugs and pulls out a laser pistol. His partner does the same. "NOO!!" Ciseal screams as they aim and take fire. . . ...................................................... "AHH!!" Ciseal awakes with a start. She shudders, then pans the room with her eyes. The first thing she notices is that she's drenched with sweat. Ciseal turns her head and sees her alarm clock above Chaos, who is at her side.. It reads ‘3:00'. She finally realizes that it had to be a dream. Getting up and getting a drink is the next thing in her mind. She does so, still trying to understand her dream. "Why did I have that dream?" She thinks to herself. "I never experienced that, and I don't know anything about it! She shudders after thinking about her dream. She crawls back into bed, placing her empty drinking cup on the night stand beside her. Sleep is the last thing she wants to do, so she lays there, awake as ever, thinking of the dream. She decides to play some music to calm her, and keep her awake. Getting up was a chore since she was so tired, but she managed. Ciseal flips the CD case open, takes the CD out, and plops it in the player. Then places headphones on her head. Soon, soft tones can be heard through her headphones. Ciseal crawls back into her bed, and sits there listening, trying not to disturb her sleeping husband. What she soon didn't' realize is that the music was putting her asleep, not keeping her awake. slowly, her eyelids close, and, slowly, she drifts off into dreamland. ........................................................... Chaos looks all around. Distorted faces surround him. All of his friends are laughing at him. Cher, Derek, Emerald, Sebrina, Psycho, even Ciseal. Chaos turns heels and runs faster than he's ever tried to run before. Unfortunately, it does not help. The more Chaos tries to run, the slower he goes. "LEAVE ME ALONE!!" Chaos screams. The faces ignore him, and continue laughing. Then, one by one, they fade away, only to be replaced by his enemies. Dark Chaos, Dark Cat, Robotnik, and a few unfamiliar faces stare at him. Hands reach from the grey and black mist, grabbing and holding Chaos in place. "LET ME GO!!" Chaos struggles out of their grasps, and tries running again. Again, he fails. He sits down cross-legged, and sulks. Suddenly, as if out of the blue, Chaos starts falling in pitch blackness. Images fly by him, faster and faster they fly. Chaos strangely is calm at that time. Soon, he lands softly on a white misty floor. Kaos, his brother steps out of the mist. "BROTHER! Help me!! What is going on!?!?" Chaos cries. "I AM NO LONGER YOUR BROTHER!!" Kaos points at Chaos. "You were, and ARE a failure. Never again will this mistake be made again!" A crowd appears. Chaos recognizes the crowd as people from his clan. They all nod and murmur in approvement to what Kaos said.. "BEGONE FAILURE!" Kaos shoos his brother, and steps backwards into the mist behind him. The crowd does the same. "NOO!!!!!" ............................................................ "AACCKKK!!!" Chaos sits up straight, his face as if in pure terror. He looks around the room for the people he saw in his dream. He only sees Ciseal at his side, sleeping like a baby. A minute passes by before the realization dawns on him that it was only a dream. He turns his head and looks at his alarm clock. It reads ‘4:00', then he sees the headphones Ciseal's wearing, and can barely hear the soft tones emanating from them. He pulls them off her ears, and puts them aside, letting the CD end on it's own. The CD ends right there, clicking into the off position. Chaos takes a deep breath, and lied back down. He wipes the sweat off his brow. Once again, he looks at the clock. Chaos lies there, and stares at the ceiling, knowing that he's not going to finish the night by sleeping it away. ............................................................ Cher stands alone in the field where she and her friends play war and other such games. She looks around, and sees no one. Then, as if he came out of they came out of the woodwork, all her friends, and relatives step out from the forest surrounding the field. They rally around, trapping her in a circle. Knuckles, David, Hope, Chaos, Ciseal, Psycho, Sebrina, Jade. They all stand around her. David walks up to her, and seats her in a chair, then he steps back in the crowd. "IT IS TIME TO PASS JUDGEMENT!!!" David yells at Cher, and the crowd. Hope takes one step forward, and speaks. "You were never a good friend." She says. "Always bossy, always ignoring me and listening to your stupid music. Never a good friend indeed." She steps back to let Psycho step forward. He walks around her, with his arms behind his back, then faces her. "Always ignoring! That's one! You've got 3." He holds up one finger, then three in her face, then steps back Sebrina walks forward, and talks in Cher's face. "You ignored me also! Never took notice! You were my friend. Guess not." She steps back to let Jade take her place. "Bad sister. Bad advice. Never there for me." She shakes her head at Cher, then steps back. "NO, NO, NO!! What are you talking about!!???" Cher cries. Ciseal takes the step forward for the group. "We are passing judgement on you. Strike TWO of three." She holds two fingers, then three. Knuckles steps forward. "Jade is right. Not a very good sister. Too much of a tomboy. A disappointment to your parents. YOU'RE what killed my mother!!" A tear falls down his cheek as he points at her, then steps back to let Chaos take his place. "Chaos! My pal! You know I'm not bad!!" Cher begs and pleads. "Yeah right. You always thought I was a child. I hate that. I hate you. . ." Chaos lets David take his place. David walks forward, and stares Cher right in the eyes. "Strike three." He turns to the crowd and raises his hands. "STRIKE THREE!!" The crowd cheers. "TIME TO PASS JUDGEMENT!!!" The crowd moves forward. They surround Cher and tie her up tightly with ropes. Then they pick her up, and bring her to a stake surrounded by wood. There, they hang Cher up, and set ablaze the wood below her. "NOO!!" Cher screams as the searing heat burns at her. .......................................... "AHHH!!!!" Cher awakes with a shudder, then sits up straight. She turns her head to look around her hut. Darkness, that is all she sees. Cher flips the switch on her lamplight, and a small glow hits her bed. Again, she looks around. Only shadows, and her husband, Derek, at her side, nothing else. She wipes the sweat of her brow, then cautiously crawls out of bed, feeling with her toes the floor first to make sure it's there. With a drink of water in mind, she heads for the cupboard and gets a glass. She pours water into the glass from the tap close by, and drinks a bit of it. Then walks over to her bed and crawls back in, placing the glass half full of water on her night stand. There, she lays, frightened of going back to sleep, and wondering if anyone else is having trouble sleeping. ................................................. Psycho jumpkicks the misty figure in the cloak. "GET AWAY FROM ME!!" He screams. The creature tries to step forward. "GET AWAY!!" He turns his head from the figure, and starts punching it. "I WILL KILL YOU NOW." The cloaked figure says. It pulls out a knife from it's cloak, and attacks Psycho. "NOO!!" Psycho picks up a blade he found on the floor, and whips it at the figure's head. It hits dead on into in dark depth under the cloaked figure's head cloak. The figure drops their blade, shudders, then falls to the floor. "Dead?" Psycho steps up to it, and kicks it softly. No response. "Dead." Psycho kneels down at it's head. "Who are you?" Psycho lifts the veil. "NOO!!" He screams. "NO, NO, NO, NO!! IT CAN'T BE!!!" Psycho cries, and runs away from the unmasked figure. "NOO!!" Psycho stop, turns and takes one last looks at the uncloaked furry, who is revealed to be Sebrina, then turns around again and runs. ............................................ Psycho sits up straight in pure terror. Sweat trickles from his forehead. He gulps a few times, then turns to his right. There, he sees his wife, Sebrina, at his side. Quietly, he leans over and shakes her shoulder. She groans slightly, then turns over. Psycho lets a sigh of relief. He sits back. He knows that he'll never get to sleep after that experience, so he lays there, pondering his dream. Unnoticed by Psycho, Sebrina is having a slight terror dream as well. .................................................. Sebrina chances her survival and lunges at the cloaked figure. The figure turns to one side, and lets her drop to the floor. "I WILL KILL YOU NOW." The figure pulls out a blade, and takes a stab at Sebrina. "NOO!!" Sebrina rolls out of the blade's way, and picks up another she found laying on the misty floor. With blade in hand, she charges at the figure, and whips the blade at it's head. Dead contact. The figure drops it's blade, shudders, then falls to the floor. Sebrina walks over to the body, and pulls the head cloak away. She rears back at the sight. "NOO!!" She throws herself on the body and cries, knowing the face behind the cloak s the one of her husband, Psycho. "NOO!!!" ...................................................... "Wake up Sebrina!!" Psycho shakes her shoulder, waking her up from the nightmare. "Oh god, Psycho!" She hugs him tightly. "I had a terrible dream!!" She cries on his shoulder. "Sh, sh, it's all right." He pats her on the back. "It's just a dream." "But it was horrible!! I dreamt. . . I dreamt. . ." She stalls, "I dreamt I killed you!" She cries some more. "It's alright Sebrina! It was just a dream, nothing else!" "Oh, I thank god it was Psycho!" ................................................. Eg looked around, but with nothing to look at. She held out her hand, feeling for a wall. Again, nothing. "What is this!? Where am I!?!?!" She questions. Her echo is all she hears in reply. Then the world around her slowly fades into appearance. Soon, she saw where she was. It was a dark alleyway. "Huh!?!" She starts walking forward, as if strangely drawn to the end by her curiosity. A shadow on the wall appeared in front of her, then disappeared in the blink of an eye. She shudders. "I wanna go home!" Eg cries. This time, an answer came calling. "This is your new home, EG Foxfire. Or, should I say, soon to be!!" A shadowy figure step forward from in front of her. "Huh? Who are you!?" She questions the figure. "Simple. Don't you recognize me?" The shadow steps forward, revealing himself. "SHADES!" She hugs Shades. "I wanna go!! I don't like this place!" "Why not? I think it's just fine. Join me." He points to the shadows. "Huh!? Wha!? Shades, yer scaring me!!" She steps back. "Your not Shades!!!" She turns and runs from the figure. "COME EG!!" The figure is surrounded by mist, and the mist follows Eg. "Faster EG ran. Streetlights plus the moonlight makes for an eerie light. Yellow, and dim. Just a bit scarier. Just a bit less comforting. Just a bit less. . . "LEAVE ME ALONE!!" She starts crying while running. Weird memories start popping into her mind. Memories she never experienced. Just memories. Or she may think memories. Really just her imagination running away with her, or is it? "COME EG!! JOIN THE FUN!!" Shadows start dancing on the walls around, frightening her even more. "NOO!!" She sits down, and starts crying her head off. ...................................................... Eg wakes up, staring at the ceiling. No scream was emitted by her, she just stared, frightened out of her wits. She looks to her right to see Shades. She sighs, and rolls over, wondering why she would have a nightmare like the one she experienced. She just lays back, knowing sleep isn't in her agenda for the rest of her night. ....................................................... Faster and faster Miss Sonic ran around the meadow, just barely out of reach of Rittz's squirt gun. "HAHA! YOU CAN'T GET ME RITTZ!!" She turns her head and sticks her tongue out at them. "YOU JEST WAIT!!" He Laughs as well, firing his gun into the space between them. "PSY! HELP! GET MISSY!!" He yells at Psycho. "Gotcha!! I'll head her off at the pass!!" Psycho runs 10 meters in front of Miss Sonic, then turns and faces her, firing his gun "HEYY!!" Miss Sonic screams. She shields herself with her arms while laughing her head off. Then she becomes surprised. SWATbots appear out of the forest, and surround her. "Huh!? Hey! Help guys!!" She yells. No response. Her friend begin to fade away as they back away from her into the woods. Strangely, it seemed to her as if they didn't care. They had no expression, nothiig. Just fading. "NOO!! GUYS!!!" She reaches out, but touches nothing, then she realizes she's touching a concrete wall. Everything around her turns into a dark, dreary cell. SWATbots grab her arms, and start dragging her down a long hallway. "NO!! LEMME GO!!" Miss Sonic screams as she ties to struggle out of their grasp of the two SWATbots. She kicks one in the shin, but it has no effect. "Weeeeeelcome my dear!" Robotnik snickers as she enters the domain of the most feared machine on Mobius. . . the Robotisizer. "Welcome to your last days as a rodent, and your first as a slave!! I need a new shoe shine slave!!" Robotnik cackles at the thought. "HA! Rittz'll save me!!" Miss Sonic kicks dirt at him, and spits at him. "Oh, you mean him!?" He points towards a darkened part of then room. A robot steps forward, revealing itself as Rittz. "NOO!!!!" She cries. "I'LL GET YOU FOR THIS ROBOTNIK!!!" She flails wildly, trying to get loose. "Doubtfully. Throw her in!!" The SWATbots throw the small hedgehog into the large green cylinder which is attached to a machine. "NOO!!" She kicks and pounds on the reinforced glass. "Bye, bye Missy." Robotnik lets out a evil grin, followed by a eerie laugh as he presses a red button on the control panel on the armrest of his chair. A yellow beam surrounds Miss Sonic. First she calms down strangely, then a tingling sensations comes over her. First her fingers, then arms and legs, then body become slowly roboticized. She opens her mouth to try to scream, but not a sound was emitted. The cackling of Robotnik is the last thing she hears. . . .............................................. Miss Sonic sits up straight, fear and terror written across her face. She shudders slightly, then shakes her head, trying to knock out the dream from her mind. "It was all a dream!" She says to herself. "What a nightmare!! Aiiii!!!" She knocks her head a couple times with the palm of her hand, then lays back on her bed. There, she lays, not a bit of sleep in mind. ............................................ "How about I turn it up to max power!!" Snively cackles. "Then he'll take longer to wake up, so I can rule longer!! And when he wakes up, he won't be mad that I took over! Yes! Excellent!!" Snively walks over to the machine, and turns a dial to point named ‘max', and jumps back into Robotnik's chair. The machine shudders slightly, then resume's it's normal actions. If only Snively knew the full outcome of his actions. ............................................. "Where am I!?!!? Where are we!!?!?!" Everyone looks around, and sees their friends with them. They are in the meadow. "Why are we in the meadow!?! What is this about!? Is it another dream?!?!" Psycho yells. "I Wanna go hommeeee!!" EG whines. "Quiet down everyone!" Ciseal raises her arms. "Something is going on! Something weird." "Ohhhhh, HOW RIGHT YOU ARE, MY DEAR!!" A voice echoes throughout the meadow. "Huh!?!? Who said that!?! "WELCOME TO MY WORLD!!!" The voice chants in a soft tone that echos eerily throughout the meadow. Mist surrounds the meadow, and darkness shadows it, making it more frightening than imaginable. The voice chants over and over. "MEET YOUR DOOM!!!!" A firebomb appear out of the sky. It hits the ground in a blaze, but the blaze dies quickly. Only to be replaced by 7 shadowy figures. The figures are each cloaked in a black cloak with a cape on, and huddled in a circle formation.. "Um, what is this?" Psycho takes one step back. "I AM. . . NIGHTMARE!!!!!!" A figure hovers downward from the sky, and lands in the middle of the group. NIGHTMARE, as he is called, is large figure. He stand many feet above the crowd, and wears a blue cloak, unlike his group that wear black cloaks. The group parts so there's a gap in it's circle, and NIGHTMARE steps forward. "Welcome to my world!" He holds out his hands, then raises his fists, then points forward. "GET THEM!!" "The cloaked figures turn around, and walk towards the group of frightened teenagers. They pulls out blades from their cloak, and attack. "ACCKK!!" Ciseal picks up a sword she found mysteriously on the floor, and starts dueling with a cloaked figure. "Good idea Ciseal!!" Psycho picks up a sword also, and starts dueling with another figure. "YAH!!" Chaos and Cher pick up two sharp edged discs laying on the floor, and hurl them at another figure. The discs hit with direct contact at it's stomach. The figure stumbles backward, and shatter like glass onto the floor. The pieces shimmer, and disappear quickly. "LET'S GET THEM PEOPLE!!" Psycho points forward with his sword, and the crowd of furries attack the group of cloaked figures. A battle. Sebrina, Eg, and Miss Sonic lock arms, and clothesline two cloaked figures. Sebrina picks up Miss Sonic by the arms, and swings her in the air, hitting a two more figures. The four figures hit fall, and shatter like glass as well. "YAH! GO SEBBY!!" Psycho takes a stab at his cloaked figure while cheering for Sebrina. He hits the figure, and the figure shatters like glass, just like the other ones. "Yeah!!" Ciseal stabs her figure, and it shatters like glass also. "NOO!!! YOUR NOT SUPPOSED TO DEFEAT THEM!!" NIGHTMARE snarls. "Well, now I will have to make a NEW challenge for you!!" "NO!" Chaos steps forward, holding out his palm at him. The group joins him. "YOU HAVE NO SAY!!" NIGHTMARE screams. "YES I DO! THIS IS OVER!!" Chaos pulls his fist back, then lets out a thundering punch into the air between Chaos and NIGHTMARE. "NOOO!!!!" NIGHTMARE shields himself with his arms, but that is futile in his destruction. NIGHTMARE joins his cloaked friends as he shatters just like them into glass. AS the pieces fall, mysterious light is reflected off of them as if they were mirrors, blinding the group. A flash of light. . . .............................................. Slowly, unnoticed by Snively until it was too late, the stone grows brighter and brighter. "Huh????" Snively hops out of the chair, and runs over to the machine, and tries to turn it off with the override switch, but nothing happens. "Uh, oh. . ." The stone becomes incredibly bright, then explodes in a flash of colours. "AHHHHH!!!!!!!" ............................................. Morning hits Knothole, and everyone groggily heads towards their usual meeting place, they all walk in together, and sit down. The small crowd of furries huddle around the couch. Chaos and Ciseal are sitting on one side, Psycho and Sebrina on the other. Derek, Cher, Rittz and Miss Sonic are on another couch that was pushed beside the other. Everyone else is huddled around in chairs. "It was freaky!" Psycho says. "Yah! Not nice dreams!" Chaos added in. "Isn't it strange, though, that we all happened to have nightmares on the same night??" Ciseal asks. Everyone nods in reply. "Whaddya tink caused it????" EG asks. "Maybe it was Dark Chaos, or Dark Cat! Or maybe. . . ROBTNIK!" "How would you know Cher???" "Well, while I was on one of my usual walks through and around the woods yesterday morning, I saw some of Robotnik's ‘bots diggin' in the ground. There were only three, so I took them out easily." "YOU attacked some ‘bots!?!?!" Derek screams. "You could've been killed!!! What do you think you were doing!?!?!" "But I WASN'T killed, alright!?!?!? Anyways, I found out what they were after, but some more ‘bots came, and I had to skee-daddle outa there. They were looking for something called the ‘Dream Stone'. "Dream Stone?? Hmm. . . I tink I may have heard o' dat!! Yah! I learneded abouts it from me dad!!! He told me dat it was jest a myth thingie! He said dat it kin take other people's dreams, anna mix dem together anna all, so one person kin have dis really coolsie dreamy!!" Chaos chimes. "HUH!?!?!!?" Everyone asks. "Lemme translate Chaos there." Ciseal says. "He said that he heard about the stone from his father as a story. His father told him that the Dream Stone enables the owner to steal dreams from other people, and keep them for themselves. "Dats wha I says!!" "Ciseal said it better." Psycho adds. ............................................................................. "I AM FREE!!!" A silhouetted figure slips out of the stone as mist, and forms a figure. "Wh-wh-who are you?!!?!" Snively stutters. "NIGHTMARE." Was his reply, then he becomes mist again, and disappears. ................................................................ "Uh, oh!!!!" Ciseal looks around with fear in her eyes. "Hey, Chaos, do you feel that???" "Yah. . ." Chaos thinks about it for a bit, then finishes his reply, "NIGHTMARES's baaaaa-- accccck. . ." Everyone looks around, half expecting NIGHTMARE to pop out from somewhere, but nothing. "HOW?!! WHERE!??" They all ask. "Wha??? Don ask mes! I dunno, I jest knows." "Ditto." "So. . . wha do we do now???" Psycho asks. "Umm. . . wait?" ............................................................... "Hehe, this'll be funnnn......" NIGHTMARE travels through the air, unnoticed by all. He swoops downward and crashes through the trees, hits the ground. The ground breaks and he falls farther. ................................................................