The Starfallen

Ripples in a pond

"So what're you looking for, again?" Sonic asks, striding confidently alongside Tails, who holds up a sort of radar the hedgehog never fully understood when he asked about it. Put simply, it can sense high energies of some sort of signal. "Well, we're looking for whatever's causing such a huge surge of energy on my monitor." Tails explains, gesturing vaguely to the device. Sonic suggested it may have picked up a Chaos Emerald, although Tails has a few doubts. The signal looks too strong, in his opinion. "Oh." Sonic accepts this explanation, putting his hands behind his head and stretching. The two pause when they reach the mouth of their destination: a cave. In a fight with Eggman two weeks ago, they discovered this cavern, and after Tails did some digging and research, they found it has something the Doctor must want. The little fox wanted to explore on his own, but Sonic was all too eager to go explore, too. It's not that he didn't think his best friend, his little brother, couldn't handle himself, but more he wanted to go on an adventure with him. "So, this is it. You ready?" Sonic asks, glancing at him. Tails nods, reaching up to flick on a flashlight he'd attached to his head. "Yep! Let's go." Sonic motions towards the cave. "Lead the way, buddy." He encourages. Tails steps forward, shining his light into the darkness, and heads in. For the first little while, it's a normal walk; stone walls and a few side tunnels. After about 15 minutes, Tails stops. "The readings say it's somewhere around here, but I'm not seeing anything out of the ordinary..." he muses, looking a little closer at some of the rocks nearest his feet. "That's weird...is there something we're missing? Or are we in the wrong spot?" Sonic wonders, rapidly tapping his foot on the ground as he thinks. The fox shakes his head, checking his monitor for the 4th time to be absolutely sure: "This is where it says it is." He confirms, then frowns as a new sound reaches his ears: a cracking, shifting sound that sounds like stone.

His eyes widen as he realizes what it is, and reaches forward to try and pull Sonic away. "Look out!" He exclaims, and despite his attempt to prevent it, the ground splits open underneath the hedgehog, and he falls with a shout. Jumping up and using his tails to hover above the new chasm, he barely hesitates before diving into it as well, noting that it's sloped, but dismisses it when he hears splashing and coughing. Sonic's fallen in the water. Following the sounds, he locates his friend struggling in what appears to be a sort of underground lake, only lit by a few glow-worms that remain a fair distance away from the water. "Sonic!" He calls, reaching out to offer his hand for assistance. After a few seconds of floundering, Sonic manages to grasp onto Tails' hand and lets him drag him out of the water, where he spends a moment catching his breath, then flopping to lay on his back, panting and breathing heavily. "Whooo! That was fun!" He chuckles breathlessly, Tails nodding silently. "Are you okay? That fall must've hurt." Sonic sits up, starting to try his best to dry off, wringing out his gloves and fixing his quills. "Meh, I've bounced back from worse with less. I'm fine, really." He assures him, chipper and happy. "If you're sure..." Tails looks back at the slope they came from. The flashlight illuminates what appear to be the rough, very weathered and old shapes of carved stone. Was this place important at some time? It would explain why Sonic fell through so easily, maybe the roof wasn't covered before. Tails also notices that in his haste, he'd dropped the monitor; he'll have to pick it up again afterwards. That can wait, though, he'll get it when they walk back up to the top part of the cavern. "Are you up for walking back up?" Sonic nods, standing, though he wobbles for a moment as he does. "Ah...guess I'm not entirely used to actual legs." He mumbles, chuckling under his breath. "What was that?" Tails asks, unsure if he heard correctly.

"Huh? Oh, I was saying that I'm not all too used to having actual legs yet. It'll come to me, though." The hedgehog replies, stretching out his hand to inspect it. "For such a small body, it is quite efficient." Tails' brow furrows, and he tilts his head in confusion. "What do you mean? Did the water mess with your head somehow?" Sonic shakes his head, grinning. "No, no, little fox...I've never had such a clear mind. But I thought you would have figured it out by now, what with you being a so-called 'genius'. Honestly, didn't you learn anything about what you were walking into?" He sighs, then shrugs. "Doesn't matter to me, honestly. Not like it makes a difference to anything." Tails twitches his tails, a small motion, wary and on edge. "Why not? Sonic, what are you talking about?" The fox is struggling to understand. Was there something bad in the water? Is it some sort of joke he's trying to pull? "If you don't understand it by now, I'm not going to explain it to you. I have a plan, I think I'm going to put it into action." Sonic steps forward, but the way he does causes Tails to instinctively take a step back. "See, your friend, he has quite the free spirit. Very strong-willed. Even now, I can sense him, feel him fighting a losing battle." He taps the side of his head. "And while he can't do anything at all where he is, he can still see what I see." The hedgehog breaks into a wide grin, like a child who's excited to play with a new toy. Suddenly, he's right in Tails' face, something in his green eyes unsettling and unnatural, so Tails jumps back. "The first thing I'm going to do is break that spirit. Starting with you." That's all the warning he gets before Sonic leaps at him, hands outstretched as though reaching to claw him. But Mobians don't have claws. Luckily, the fox manages to just barely dodge out of the way, charging up the slope and ignoring the device he'd dropped. He has no time. Whatever's happened to his best friend, he's still faster than Tails, meaning every second counts. To his surprise, he manages to make it all the way to the cave entrance, a feat that confuses him. Did Sonic get stuck, or lost? Daring not to pause and check, he keeps going, intending to try and lose him by air. Just as he's about to leap off the ground, however, something jerks him back, keeping him from freedom. Sonic has caught him quite literally by the tail, and pulled him back before taking the opportunity to attack. Yanking the fox again, he catches him by the throat, lifting him up and tightening his grip. Tails grunts, swaying his tails and kicking his feet to try and break free. "I can hear him, you know. He's begging for your life. He's your planet's hero, isn't he? Sort of pathetic, if he's so quickly neutralized." Sonic shakes his head a moment, then brightens up again, a wild excitement in his eyes. "But it'll be interesting to see how he reacts when you die. That'll break him at LEAST a little bit, don't you think?"

Tails, unable to respond, gives a choked gasp, lungs beginning to burn, mind still swimming with confusion, vision starting to blur and dark spots gathering around the edges. 

A/N 

Aight so welcome to my descent into madness and darkness. See that picture up top? It'll be important; imma change it as these poorly done chapters continue. 

I will put the trigger warning right here: 

Blood. Lots and lots of blood, especially in the pictures as they continue. Also, death?? Whole point of EXE as far as I understand is he's supposed to try and kill Sonic's friends soooo...

Yeah this is gonna be pretty bad and dark. 

You have been warnethed.