Chapter 10

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|    Table of Contents: http://pastebin.com/a4Cj2gT0          |
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|    Chapter: 10                                              |
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|    Next Chapter: http://pastebin.com/Rq2cgRGL               |
|    Prior Chapter: http://pastebin.com/jancgBX2              |
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|    Synopsis: Two unhelpfuls and an astraphobic fly a        |
|              biplane through a lightning storm of           |
|              legendary scale as they search for a           |
|              chaos emerald.                                 |
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|    Revision: A                                              |
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|    Characters Copyright © Sega, Writing licensed under CC0  |
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A couple of clouds broke up the otherwise perfectly blue sky as a calm ocean sparkled below a red plane with three passengers. A piece of equipment’s alarm blasted constantly aboard the otherwise gracefully flying tornado. “There’s chaos energy all over the place!” Cried Tails as he tried to shut it off. “Odds are we’re going to go through a zone portal any moment!” He finally got the machine to quiet down before dedicating his attention to piloting again. “Hold on tight! We don’t know what’s in the special zone!” Amy tightened her seat belt as Shadow gripped the wings of the biplane tighter.

Time seemed to freeze as they waited for the inevitable transition into the special zone. Their apprehension was juxtaposed by the beautiful calmness around them. Finally, they passed through an unseen zone portal.

What was once a gentle breeze was instead a massive storm. The sky immediately went dark with thick, dense clouds that towered to impossible heights. Through the fog below, a restless ocean could barely be seen. Its waves reaching well over 40 meters in height. Massive rotating pillars of clouds expanded from an indeterminate length below and merged into the top cloud cover.

The first thing the trio noticed was the sudden loss of light. They then felt a torrential downpour so extreme that breathing became a slight challenge. They knew they were in trouble when the wind gusts finally hit them, throwing the airplane around like a small kite.

Tails worked fast to stabilize their biplane as Shadow lowered himself into the safety of the tornado’s body. Amy hardly noticed Shadow sitting on her lap through the chaos that was the mighty storm they were in the middle of.

They started to talk about what to do when they were interrupted by a blinding flash immediately followed by a deafening boom. Then another boom, then another. The explosions varied in loudness but remained relatively frequent. Sometimes a mighty flash of lightning could be seen in the distance but most times the thunderclap was emitted from brief flashes occurring in the clouds.

Amy and Shadow looked in horror as Tails sat petrified in his seat. Without him actively controlling the plane, it was thrown around in a nauseating flurry of flips and turns through the turbulent sky. They could see the tips of his tails pop up from the top of his seat, more puffed than they thought possible for the fox boy.

All three of them knew that they were not safe from lightning in the small biplane. Had it not been for the gusting wind, they would have felt the charge in the air making their fur stand up.

Shadow tried to shout some sense into the frightened fox. “Tails! We need to find the emerald now or else we… are going… to die!” Before Shadow could finish his pep talk, their worst nightmare happened. They only had a split second to see their plane light up as a bolt of lightning struck it. A few disorienting moments later, Shadow and Amy opened their eyes. They were back from the special zone as if nothing had ever happened. They were back in the sunny calm skies of Mobius. The only evidence of their journey was their waterlogged fur.

They could hear Tails quietly shiver as he recovered from his state of unadulterated fear. Their time for recovery was brief as they went through another zone portal. The storm picked up exactly where it left off.

This time, Tails’ stiff state of fear was replaced with a massive adrenaline rush. He gripped the joysticks of the biplane as he expertly maneuvered the plane through the crazy winds. He could only do so much before the inevitable bolt of lightning stuck them again. However, with the speed gained from the turbulence it took no longer than a few seconds before they warped back into the stormy special zone.

At last, after simply trying to keep the plane in control long enough to start thinking of a plan, a brilliant blue light shone in the distance though the heavy rain, illuminating the clouds around it. Nothing had to be said as Tails began the complex trek through the unpredictable winds to get to it.

As they neared the chaos emerald, the lightning strikes became more frequent. The flipping back and forth between Mobius and the special zone was disorienting. Sometimes the emerald was a few hundred meters away, other times it was almost within arms’ reach. As Tails put the tornado into a tighter and tighter turn to get closer and closer to the chaos emerald, the lightning strikes and zone portal frequency increased to the point where the two worlds seemed to merge.

The chaos emerald floated peacefully amidst the chaos. With a bright sun and heavy rain, the surreal scene exploded with a bright array of rainbow colors. At last, Tails put his plane into a corkscrew like maneuver. With the emerald right above his head, he grabbed it.

While in the palm of Tails’ hand, the dark blue chaos emerald emitted a disorienting shock wave that dissipated the clouds in the sky. When the three finally came back to their senses, and their plane reoriented, the skies were clear again save for a massive rainbow that was not there before.

Shadow and Amy slightly blushed once Shadow realized he was sitting on Amy’s lap and Amy realized that her arms were wrapped tightly around Shadow’s body. Everyone felt too weak to re-situate themselves. Amy shifted her attention towards Tails to congratulate him but was interrupted by his quiet sobs. “Tails…?”A brief period of time passed before he responded.

“I was so scared…” He breathed in sharply through his nose before continuing. “I wish Sonic was there… He would have been there for me! He would have helped me...”

This time Shadow joined the conversation. “But he wasn’t, and look at what you’re holding in your hand now.”

Tails looked at the chaos emerald he was holding and said nothing. Shadow had made his point.

“Sonic...” the fox whispered to himself before wiping some water off his brow and tears from his eyes. He looked up and turned the tornado towards Cocoa Island.

==== Revision History ====
A: First Draft

==== Remarks ====
This was a pretty fun chapter to write! I planned on it being shorter because I just wanted to get something done quickly tonight, but it ended up being about the average length. I'm having a lot of fun giving the special zones and their emerald hosts an almost divine... aura about them. I got a little carried away with this chapter as things got a little chaotic towards the end. I'm pretty fine with that though, as the special zones are sort of supposed to be chaotic. They do house the chaos emeralds after all!