"A Beacon in the Darkness"

A work of Sonic the Hedgehog "Fan-faction" by Glazius Falconar

I think you know what comes next. I think you know what it’s going to say. But I have to do this anyway:

This story and all new characters and situations are copyright (©) 1998 by the author, Glazius Falconar (a.k.a. Paul Arezina). You can’t change the text in this story without my expressed written (or digitally signed and e-mailed) permission. Sonic the Hedgehog and all related characters, from the Saturday morning DiC cartoon or the Archie comic book, which seems to be getting a lot farther away from the series every day, are copyright SEGA. So you can’t charge anyone money for the express purpose of viewing this story without their expressed written permission. Oh, and good luck getting said permission. The concept of the Internet was first put forth in a story by H.G. Wells entitled "Men Like Gods". If you can find it, please have a look. And a certain system of "magic" in here comes from TSR’s "Dark Sun" campaign setting. That’s used without permission, as well. The title comes from John 1:5 : "[T]he light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it." And if you see a few other Biblical references… well… that’s not entirely coincidence. I’m Christian in RL… so flame me all you want about that, but your flames will be received and forwarded back at you a thousand-fold. You might also want to e-mail me if you think I should change something in this story, or if you’d like to post it on your own web page. Why? Well, first, I’m not so proud that I won’t update my own work, and second, I try and write a new one of these every month or so, and I’d like to know who to send them to. As always, my email is at the end.

"Safe journeys, Glazius."

"Safe journeys, Professor. And may the peace of Sanctus go with you."

"With you as well, Glazius." The connection blinked off.

I can’t believe that I forgot what today was… I’d been so wrapped up in worrying about delving into the secrets of Mobian religion that I completely ignored my own religion. For today, back on Avis Prime, was the day on which we Avians celebrated the birth of Sanctus.

Sanctus was a dove whose life was well-documented by our historians. He shared a bond with the Almighty that not many Avians had had before, or have had since. He lived at a time when two Avian clans were warring over airspace… as though boundaries could be drawn in the air. Each claimed to have the power of the Almighty at their side, and the struggles became more vicious and more violent, culminating, eventually, in a duel to the death between the leaders of the opposing clans. They struck hard, and fast… and Sanctus decided to intervene, to prevent them from doing harm to each other.

To put it bluntly, he was torn to shreds. A dove is no match for the claws and beak of any Avian whose ancestors were birds of prey. In that one simple gesture… Sanctus made it rather clear that the Almighty was on no one’s side… and the disputes were settled peacefully from then on. Amazing how it sometimes takes a death to change the life of others… I wonder if any such parallel exists in the Mobian religion. I’ll find out soon enough… there should be scriptures of a sort in the Cathedral. "Mark, teleport me to the Cathedral, and guide me along flight path 7-Beta."

"Teleporting, Glazius…"

I was in the Cathedral… and took a few seconds to marvel at the architectural splendor of the structure… and listen to the singing? It wasn’t even sunrise yet, and the service was being held? Well, if this was a true Winter Solstice celebration… I imagine beginning at midnight wouldn’t be too out of the question. I flew toward what I thought was the main worship area, and micro-fluttered near the ceiling of the Cathedral, listening… and scanning the crowd.

It’s a real pity that language translators, even the finest ones, can’t translate songs or poetry perfectly. The song being sung down below had a beautiful arrangement, but I would wince every so often as an awkward translation of the lyrics marred that beauty. "Mark… cancel aural translation. Reduce to visual display."

"Affirmative, Glazius."

Much better. Even though I couldn’t understand the words… the music was beautiful, and the poetry that accompanied it was at least pleasant-sounding. I began looking over the crowd, having Mark display the dossiers of everyone it could recognize.

The Knothole Freedom Fighters were here, certainly… even Dulcy, whose massive body braced itself against three of the marble pillars which formed a corner of sorts. A group of canine sapients took up a sizable portion of the pews in this church; Mark’s dossier showed them to be the "Wolf Pack". I idly wondered where Tails’s parents were; his father had spoken about going to find the Wolf Pack… perhaps they’d been driven underground by… yes. Robotnik’s forces had forced the Wolf Pack into hiding, according to the dossiers Mark pulled up on… Lupé… that’s who Sally had contacted… and a few other wolves… Greyfang, Windflash… strange names… but probably no stranger than "Glazius" would seem to them. I also saw a group of animals, all standing in a shaded area of the church and still squinting at the small amount of sunlight that poured in… they must be the group living under Robotropolis. As the song drew to a close, Mark located and identified the last of the Freedom Fighters on Robotnik’s criminal database. Now I knew who was fighting Robotnik, at least.

Silence suddenly fell over the Cathedral… silence broken by a single set of footsteps. Father Lucifer walked slowly over to an ancient book, resting on a pedestal, and opened it to a page marked with a pink silk cord. He began to read…

"And when the time was near at hand, the Dragon arose from the dust of the earth, saying that he was the Anointed, foretold by the prophets. He gathered many followers to him, who marveled at his size and power, saying that something so great must truly come from the Almighty.

"The Dragon and his followers swept over the world, calling all who opposed them and their thinking heretics, demons, sorcerers, and worthy of nothing but death…

"And it was at this time that the Anointed’s presence was first felt. The Dragon combed the land, trying to find the Anointed and his bearer, and devour them both alive. But the presence of the Almighty protected the bearer of the Anointed, and she was kept safe… for a year and a day.

"But the bearer of the Anointed was found, decried as a witch, and hunted by the minions of the Dragon. She fled into the desert… far away from the power of the Almighty… and the Dragon and his minions descended upon her. She cried out for help…

"And the Archangel heard her pleas and descended from the sky with all his followers, and a great battle ensued. The Archangel and his followers fought the Dragon and his minions, and the sounds of fighting reached to the far ends of the world.

"And so it was, amidst the throes of battle, sheltered by the shadow of the desert sands, that the Anointed came into the world. And the Archangel rejoiced to see the prophecy fulfilled… but fell to the sand, struck down by the Dragon…

"Who struck with magic, a foul sorcery of his own. Thus it was that the Dragon was revealed to all the world as a false leader, and was sent back to the dust from whence he had come."

Father Lucifer looked down at the book, nodded, and stepped back from the pedestal.

"Mark, stop time."

"Initiating retrograde translation…"

The world froze… as I thought about what the mouse had just read. I realized that my own translation would probably differ enormously from what was meant by the book… religious texts are often heavily symbolic, relying on complex hierarchies of imagery and subtle turns of phrase to convey their points. But from what I could gather… this was their equivalent of the Terran Christmas celebration… although the story differed greatly from the Terran version… a child, brought into the world in the heat of battle… no, I told myself, that couldn’t happen. Mammalian births require much more effort on the part of the mother than do Avian ones… unless the Anointed was a sapient bird… hmm, perhaps. A few of the windows in the church certainly seemed to depict avian sapients… even though I had yet to see any.

And I continued to wonder… was what the mouse had read real? Or were "Dragon" and "Archangel" merely formal titles? I knew dragons existed… and was a bit surprised Dulcy hadn’t reacted to the mouse’s words… and a large and powerful sapient bird would certainly seem to be an Archangel… especially to a writer who may have never seen such things before… hmm…

A strange idea entered my head… why not go back and see? There should be references to the actual time period in whatever holy texts this place had… but I’d have to wait until everyone had left. A book whose pages turned itself was not exactly an ordinary thing. And I would be interested to see what (if anything) was going to happen next… "Mark, resume normal time flow."

"Ceasing retrograde translation, Glazius…"

Father Lucifer stepped into the central aisle of the Cathedral, looked over the Freedom Fighters who had gathered there, cleared his throat, and began addressing them…

"And that is why we can gather here today, my friends… because of the sacrifice the Anointed made a long time ago to stop the Defilers from sucking Mobius dry of the Almighty’s blessings."

Defilers? Sacrifice? This was turning out to be a bit like Avian religion after all…

"And I know that all of you fight a similar battle… against a foe who seeks the same as the Defilers… power, at any cost to the lives of others. This is why I say with a heavy heart… that I cannot help you."

His covenant with the Almighty… it would be interesting to know the terms…

"My covenant with the Almighty… enables me to use the powers He has granted me to defend only against a misuse of His blessings. And what you face now… is a monster who twists the products of your own sciences against you. So I cannot fight him directly… unless it is to defend myself or my Cathedral… or unless he wins out against your valiant efforts.

"But know this: I am here for you. To heal, if need be. To offer sanctuary, if that is what you require. But, perhaps most importantly… to guide you all. Not in battle, but in your own search for what this world means to you. There will come a time when Mobius will no longer be a battleground, that I know. But in your souls… the battle is not won so easily."

The mouse smiled. "But for now… the service has ended. Go in peace, my friends, and may the Almighty’s grace light your steps."

"Yours as well," replied most of the sapients in the Cathedral.

And Father Lucifer turned to leave, passing around the stone altar of the Cathedral as most of the sapients slowly filed out the doors… most, but not all. A few stayed behind, though… some to pray… and some to talk to the priest.

"Father Lucifer?"

The mouse turned, to see Tails flying toward him. He smiled at the approach of the young fox. "Yes, little one? What is it?"

Tails lowered himself to the floor of the Cathedral. "You said you’d tell me who the Almighty was when we came to the services. And it’s over… and I still don’t know…"

The mouse nodded his head thoughtfully. "True, true… little one, it has been a very long time since anyone asked me that question. And I have thought long and hard about how I could explain it to you… I think I may have found a way you can understand.

"Imagine… just for a moment, little one… that Robotnik has won. He has taken every living thing in Mobius into that terrible city of his and turned them all into robots. And then… as we all must… he dies. Leaving the robots with no leader and only a vague set of commands to follow. And one day… something strange happens.

"The air slowly begins to turn from its normal black color to a brilliant blue… and the forests slowly become green… and the water becomes oddly clear. And you, being robots, aren’t used to this… and you’re more than a little nervous about what’s going on.

"And a strange machine appears in a warehouse on the outskirts of town. And with it comes a man… like Robotnik, but in species only. He is tall and thin, where Robotnik was short and squat. His body is purely natural, unlike Robotnik’s existence as a partial cyborg. And… his face is peaceful and smiling, while Robotnik’s was distorted into a perpetual scowl.

"And he says… that the machine is a ‘de-roboticizer’, that it will set you free from Robotnik’s control. Free to breathe the air, to play in the forests, to splash through the water….

"But you don’t really want to go inside… not at first. The machine looks like it might be painful… and the few who have gone inside have come out drastically changed. They no longer spend time in the city with the robots who were formerly their colleagues; instead, they’re out running around in the forest and hardly ever come to the city.

"And the air and forests and water… they’ve changed as well. They’re not what they’re used to, and you’re not sure if you will enjoy them. For that matter… you’re not even sure that the machine won’t kill you.

"But the man who stands there, laughing, smiling, inviting you to take a risk… and be free… he, little one, is the Almighty."

Silence fell over the Cathedral as the mouse finished his story. And it became rather clear to me that, whether he had intended it or not, everyone there had heard him. This place had wonderful acoustics…

"So where’s this machine?"

I didn’t even have to turn to know whose voice that was… the rather cynical tone to the voice told me it was Sonic.

Father Lucifer laughed. "There’s no machine… not really… but the risks you’ll have to take are as real as those you’d take stepping inside… and even more so. You have to let the Almighty take control of your life… if only for a little while. And to do that…"

The mouse went to a door in the back of the Cathedral and opened it… to reveal a room with thousands of books in it, arranged on oaken shelves which extended for a dozen wingspans, easily. All looked to be exactly the same, right down to the lettering on the spine. This must be the equivalent of the Terran Bible…

"You’ll need to read one of these. There was a time when this room was almost empty… but, with Robotnik in charge, very few are interested in reading the Almighty’s words. Take as many as you like; I have very little need for so many of them."

As a few Freedom Fighters went into the rather dusty room to take books… Sally and Lupé among them… I flew inside and alighted on the top of one of the bookcases, shifting my weight so as not to unbalance my perch.

"Mark, scan these books. Compile a translation, and send it to the Avis Prime central databank. Oh… and try and find the chronological location of that passage the mouse read today."

"Scanning, Glazius…"

Mark slowly swept a beam across the top row of books on the shelf opposite me, analyzing each page and running it through its internal translation algorithm. I idly watched… as just about every Freedom Fighter took the mouse up on his generous offer… Tails took two, and gave one to Dulcy, who couldn’t fit through the door. And… after everyone had left… Sonic came in and rather surreptitiously took a book.

"Scan complete… translating and analyzing…"

I followed Sonic out the door as the mouse gently swung it closed. He sighed. "It’s a start, at the least…" The mouse walked over to the stone altar in the center of the cathedral, knelt, and began to pray…

"Almighty… I thank you for the inspiration which you saw fit to give me today. It may be that Your words have taken root in the hearts of these brave ones… fighting, as did the Anointed, to save the world from its destruction. Grant them the strength to continue, Almighty… and grant me the strength to help them in all the ways I can…"

"Analysis complete, Glazius."

"Excellent, Mark. Teleport me back to base, and let’s have a look at this world’s scriptures."

"Affirmative, Glazius."

A brief extra-dimensional journey later, I was home… or at least what passed for it on this world. I idly scrolled through Mark’s translation… hmm…

In places, this read more like a fantasy novel than a work of religious text. Defilers… "wizards" who drained the planet of its life to power their magic. And Preservers… "wizards" who simply drew on the power of life without draining it dry. Certainly made for some epic battles… which were interspersed with the lives of some of the greatest… hmm… this was odd… or was it?

Apparently, the two styles of magic also carried their own philosophies of power. The Preservers believed that their power was granted to them, a gift from the Almighty, to be used only when necessary and only to protect other lives. The Defilers viewed their power as taken from the land itself, as a right and not a gift, and to be used however they saw fit. Although there were a few cases of Defilers acting for the good of the Mobians… most of the time, a Defiler acted in his or her own best interests. But when a suitably powerful one… Arcanis Naugus by name… came along… that all changed.

Arcanis, from what I could gather, was able to unite most of the Defilers under his leadership, through superior skills and the occasional bit of back-stabbing. And it was during his "rule" of Mobius that the Anointed was born… hmm…

From what I could understand, the Terran parallel to the Anointed saved the world from spiritual danger. And Sanctus saved us from a psychological one… it seemed rather fitting that Mobius should be saved from an imminent physical danger. But was this book real… or just a collection of stories and myths, passed down and distorted by oral tradition? Only one way to know… fortunately, I had that way available to me.

"Mark, have you calculated the temporal coordinates for the passage the mouse read today?"

"Affirmative, Glazius. Spatial coordinates were also calculated and are accurate to within three percent."

"Excellent work, Mark. Take me there."

"Teleporting, Glazius…"

The world went black for an instant… and I found myself floating above a completely barren desert. I began micro-fluttering… out of habit more than anything else… and saw…

A forest. And out of the forest… an echidna? Odd… monotremes are more often than not evolutionary dead ends… and she was carrying an egg, clutched protectively in her arms… my guess had been at least partially right. The Anointed would come from an egg… but not an avian one… perhaps there was some significance to the fact that the species harbored a mix of mammalian and avian characteristics… hmm…

I flew over the scene… the desert, as Mark’s map showed, would later become a part of the vast desert called simply the Great Unknown. And there were dragons right behind the echidna… as far as Mark’s sensors could tell… although one of them appeared to be cloaking himself in an elaborate hologram. This pseudo-dragon was much larger than the other, real, Mobian dragons, and appeared to boast a massive set of slightly curved horns. He certainly looked to be powerful enough… this was no doubt the "Dragon" this planet’s scriptures referred to. And the echidna… assuming what the mouse had read today was factual… was carrying the Anointed.

No visible sign of any Archangel, though… but something had to happen to save the child… unless the writer had merely adapted an actual event…. What was I thinking about this for? I had a much easier way of discovering the truth… "Mark, begin incremental translation, full aural buffering."

"Affirmative, Glazius."

The world slowly came to life. The echidna bolted from the forest and abruptly slowed as the firm earth was replaced with shifting sand. She struggled to get herself over one of the dunes and managed to hide in its shadow… as the first dragon emerged from the foliage. Or rather… the Dragon emerged, calling to his followers…

"Come, my loyal subjects! We shall purge that witch from the face of this planet with claws and fire! She’ll not get far without the life force to power her magic!"

An exultant cry sounded from the forest as dragons of all shapes and sizes emerged, to search for the bearer of the Anointed. They fanned out across the desert and in the air, trying to catch a glimpse of what they undoubtedly thought was the vilest creature on the face of the planet.

Odd… they should have at least scented her… unless… yes. A quick flight over her location confirmed that she was projecting a psychic cloak… similar to the one the Cathedral projected. It wasn’t entirely unreasonable that a "wizard" would develop the mechanisms to hold and control an inner store of energy. But the magnitude of the store couldn’t be too large… as time slowly passed, I could sense the cloak beginning to flicker… and soon it faded out entirely.

The echidna huddled against the dune, clutching the egg… which was starting to crack… and abruptly realized her predicament. "Only one thing to do… I only hope I have the strength…" The echidna concentrated for a moment, and then a voice emerged from her throat at least two orders of magnitude greater than normal speech…

"Almighty One… help me!"

A simple manipulation of air would do as much… increasing the density locally would definitely aid in the propagation of sound waves…. Unfortunately, the echidna’s cry for help had not gone unnoticed by the searching dragons… or by most of Mobius Prime, for that matter…

The Dragon (an illusion, so far as I could tell) called across the desert. "The witch has betrayed herself! Come, my followers! The Almighty will not help her here!" A cry of what could only be bloodlust sounded from a dozen points across the desert as the real dragons converged on the false one’s call.

This was not good in the least… I’d read about the Terran witch-hunts and the Inquisition… a gross violation of basic moral concepts… like the supremacy of the truth… to attempt to exterminate an evil which was largely non-existent. But this… was a hunt, pure and simple. A physical solution for a physical problem… it seemed appropriate, yet I couldn’t help but wonder what could…

A brown streak plummeted from the sky and braked itself next to the exhausted echidna. I could see… so this planet did have avian sapients… a massive eagle, glancing at the sky and looking a bit worried.

"Get on."

"W… what?" The echidna was still a bit shocked from the massive creature who had come from nowhere.

"I said, get on!" The eagle was rather insistent… and a hint of fear crept into his voice.

"But… but… why?" asked the echidna, more than a little distrusting.

The eagle turned and gazed intensely into her eyes. "Dawn, unless you and Joshua want to become dragon chow in the next minute, you’ll get on my back and let me take you out of here!"

Joshua… her child, I imagined… I could see no one else.

The echidna nodded a bit dumbly and climbed on the eagle’s back. He launched into the air, wings pumping madly... and I was hard-pressed to keep up with him…

As were the dragons who took to the air. The eagle gave a quick look behind him and called out… "Come to me, my brethren! The time is upon us, and the Anointed’s life is in our care!"

The sky filled with birds… from seemingly nowhere… no, Mark’s scans showed the remains of a psychic cloak in the sky… I imagined that some avians were also "wizards". The avian army swooped down among the dragons, not striking to kill, or even wound, but simply delaying the massive beasts. The occasional bird would fall, torn open by a dragon’s claw or fang… and I watched the scene, tears forming in my eyes, until I was forced to turn away…. As I did so, I realized that the eagle was still flying away. I took off after him.

The eagle swooped down and landed in the foliage surrounding a small oasis, and I followed close behind him. Dawn set the egg down on a patch of grass and took a drink from the pool… and… "Mark, exactly what’s going on?"

"Please clarify, Glazius."

"The energy flow, Mark. I feel… something…"

"Scanning… odd… it appears that the echidna is slowly absorbing the Emerald energy in the soil, using the vegetation as a natural conduit."

I shook my head, chuckling slightly… despite the seriousness of the battle raging within eyesight. Emerald dust and its energy quite literally enabled the impossible to happen. It didn’t surprise me that what passed for magic on this planet worked on the mechanism I was seeing…

"Who are you… and how did you know our names?" The echidna, thirst quenched, was resting after her ordeal in the desert, and understandably curious as to the identity of her rescuer.

The eagle turned to her and gave a heavy sigh. "I am Stormwing. As for your names… I am a scribe among my people, and a devout student of the scriptures. The prophecies of ages past have as much as spelled out today’s events. That is how I knew… and I have trained my entire life in preparation for what is yet to come. Help my brethren, Dawn. I know your power, and all my people know that it cannot come but from the Almighty."

"But…"

"I will be preparing. Please, bearer of the Anointed… help us so that we may save you." With that, Stormwing shut his eyes and began concentrating… and I needed no readout to tell me that he was drawing in energy from the earth as well.

I turned my eyes back to the sky. The birds of this planet were hanging back, circling out of the range of the claws and teeth of the dragons, and moving only to prevent a dragon from getting through to the oasis where Stormwing… and two very important echidnas… waited.

The false Dragon bellowed in anger. "Fools! Letting the witch’s minions keep you at bay! I need none of you… the witch shall die by my claws alone." Taking a quick breath, he charged toward the wall of birds guarding the oasis… and cut through it with a massive lance of flame. Their death-cries echoed across the desert, and many of the real dragons were hovering, shocked at what their leader had done. The false Dragon was laughing maniacally as he closed in on the oasis… only to stop abruptly. The puzzled expression which initially filled his face turned to one of rage as he plummeted to the sands.

"Mark, what just happened?"

"A matter wave equal in amplitude to that of the dragon’s was projected from the oasis, causing destructive interference and a marked decrease in kinetic energy."

The false Dragon rose from the sands, seething with rage. "How… dare…"

Stormwing abruptly broke his reverie, and screamed, "Phantasmos Exorcis!"… and a strange beam of light shot from his wings and smashed into the false Dragon… who slowly faded.

"…you." Instead of the Dragon, there stood a strange… creature… who looked like an orangutan grossly bent out of shape, with a spire of bone jutting from his forehead, malformed shoulders, a hunched back…. The creature took a look at itself and gasped.

"Mark…?"

"A field of slightly distorted light beams was being utilized in the creation of a dragon hologram. The distortion field suffered a major disruption and was rendered inoperable."

Magic… science… Mobius certainly blurred the distinctions beyond belief…

Stormwing slowly spiraled to the ground, exhausted at least mentally by the spell. He called out to the winged creatures above, most of whom were staring at the spectacle. "True dragons of Mobius… this is the leader who thought himself sent by the Almighty. This is who you have followed. He is an agent of the Arcanis, worthy only of death!" A cry sounded from above as thousands of sapients streaked to the ground, all eager to strike evil from the face of Mobius.

The creature seemed oddly unconcerned. "So… you have won, Stormwing?" It laughed. "Perhaps. But your victory will not come without cost." The creature made a strange gesture in the air and thrust his hands at the eagle. "Avis Cardis Crystallum Morphox!"

Stormwing shrieked in pain as a massive crystal suddenly protruded from his chest feathers, and he collapsed to the ground as the onslaught from above hit the creature. The battle… what little there was… was over in a matter of seconds, leaving only a bloody smear to mark where a wizard once stood. But Stormwing…

"Mark, what happened?"

"It appears that one one-billionth of a mole of an atom was placed in Stormwing’s cardiac muscle. The atom appears to be an isotope of the atom which powers Chaos Emeralds… and appears most unstable unless integrated into crystal…"

"Meaning that it drew on the silica from the sand to create an approximation of the proper crystal structure… leaving one sapient eagle with a heart essentially encased in crystal."

"Affirmative, Glazius."

A sad fate… Stormwing was still conscious, but once the oxygen in his blood ran out… his heart could pump no more. I heard a faint cracking sound…

And Dawn turned from the pool of the oasis, holding a young echidna in her arms. She rushed to Stormwing’s side and knelt by the fallen eagle… who managed to say…

"May I see… the Anointed?"

Dawn motioned to the child in her arms, holding him a bit closer to Stormwing. "His name is Joshua…"

"Blessed of the Almighty." Stormwing reached out with one of his massive wings and gently touched the child’s face. His eyes grew distant… "Receive your servant now, Almighty One… I have seen that which you promised of old… and have not… lived… in vain…" The great eagle’s eyes closed, and his breathing slowly halted as his oxygen-starved cells shut down.

Dawn bent over the stranger who had saved her life, tears filling her eyes… and falling on a child much too young to understand what was going on. She rose… to face a crowd of dragons and sapient birds who were more that a little confused. They were torn between celebrating a victory, rejoicing at the birth of a savior… and mourning the loss of a hero.

A voice called from the crowd… avian or dragon, I could not tell… "The Anointed is among us! Praise be to the Almighty!"

And a chorus of "Praise be to the Almighty!" echoed from the mass of sapients. The chorus was repeated a second time, and a third… and shouted out across the planet as birds and dragons took off from the desert and fanned out across the world…

Leaving two echidnas and the body of a once-noble eagle beside a pool of water.

"Don’t worry, Stormwing…" said Dawn. She gestured in the air, and a crystal tombstone rose from the ground as the eagle’s body slowly faded from existence. "… no one will forget you." The echidna took two steps, and she and her child were gone in a flash of light.

"A psychic cloak over the eagle’s body, another use of the isotopes to crystallize, and a bit of constructive space-folding. Am I correct, Mark?"

Mark twittered a few times as it processed the events of the last few seconds. "Affirmative, Glazius."

I nodded in satisfaction. Mobian "magic" was no more magic than electricity or magnetism… and had a sound scientific basis to it, despite the fantastic things which could be accomplished. I had seen enough of the past… it was time to head home. "Mark, return me to my native time stream, and teleport me to my base."

"Teleporting, Glazius…"

As Mark readied the sequence which would take me home, I had a look at the tombstone Dawn had made for Stormwing… what was engraved on it was startling… but not a surprise in the least.

STORMWING

Servant of the Almighty,

even unto death…

Greatest of the birds,

and now…

greatest of the angels.

It is finished. But there is much left to be explained…

Questions? Contact me at [email protected].