Skye Prower

"But chosen for what Locke?" Miles managed to grin despite the blood running down his face from the repeated attacks. "You should never trust God-like powers or their agents. Think of the power they wield, the ability to see the future. They could have prevented Robotnik rise or his return. But they let it happen. Or any of the other tragedies that have come to pass. They aren't on your side, only their own. So being a 'Chosen One' does not mean chosen for the side of good." Miles suddenly leapt back, tails spinning, and landed atop the throne. "Let me show you what I mean. One of the former Kings left something behind in this throne." As he spoke his form began glowing and Skye began screaming in his struggle to keep his father's power contained. (ooc: I really wasn't gonna pull this trick as it's a little cheap, but when Locke mentioned 'chosen one' I just had to. Though, given Skye is fighting against him, Miles isn't full blown invulnerable super-form. More like a second wind at this stage.)

Miles slammed painfully into the wall, barely managing to stand. He tried to call on his magic, or to change the fabric of the dream, but both were cut off from him." "No more playing games," he hissed through the pain, "all I need is to kill my weakling son and I'll be victorious." Miles' tails began whirling and he took flight, gaining as much hight as he could before diving at Skye, who was too busy concentrating to see his father's approach. (ooc: my last post for a bit i'm afraid)

Miles looked up from his son just to see Dylan leap at him, too late to dodge. He was hurled to the floor by the force of the were-hog and found himself pinned. Miles form dissolved from under Dylan only to reform behind him. He shot another bolt of energy atDylan, but somehow this one didn't have nearly a fraction of the power of his first attack. Miles whipped round to face Skye, realising that instead of trying to take control of the dream, Skye was focusing purely on locking him out. "Oh no you little brat, you won't get rid of me that easily." Miles stepped forward, only to have Melody barrel full pelt into him, knocking Miles back towards Dylan. "Yes I will. I'm not alone any more. And you can't take that away from me this time." (ooc: at this stage I'm just controlling anyone with a 'Prower' at the end of their name, so what happens to the other characters is in your hands.)

Skye tensed every muscle in his body, taking in every word Locke and Shadow said to him. Not wanting to let his friends down, he struggled with every ounce of his being to take control of the dream. The darkness started to lift from the room, and the storm outside began to sound fainter. “The works of your friends are inspiring you to fight me? We can’t have that.” Miles almost sounded amused. The Dream Shadow Monster leapt towards his real life counter-part while the winged monster swooped towards Locke. Miles simply walked over to his son and struck him across the face. “You’re friends are deluded. You know you can never match up to me. Never could, never will.” Miles next words were cut off as Melody sped past, whacking him on the back of the head. Miles grunted in pain. “Stupid subconscious,” he muttered. “Not this time,” Skye defiantly stated as he rose to his feet. “You took my life away from me once, and I’m not gonna let you do it again. I’m gonna fight you. And I’m gonna win!” “Brave words. But foolish. If it wasn’t for your tails I would never believe that you were my son.” Energy began crackling in Miles hands and began arcing into Skye, who writhed in pain. (ooc: And that’s my last post before sleep. It’ll give Dylan a chance to join in before the fight finishes.)

“You miss one important point Locke, and yet you are correct. I have lost everything. Even my physical form. Which is why I need that of my son’s.” Meanwhile, Skye hearing Shadow’s words tried to bring his memories of the assassins into his mind. But he met his father’s eye, and instead called to mind every time he had failed to live up to his father’s demands. He sank to his knees while Miles laughed horribly. “It doesn’t matter Shadow,” Miles continued, “what my son’s memories tell him. I am in control here. The brat is too scared to stand against me. Dylan is mindless. And you two are old and badly injured. While I..” Miles thrust his arm towards Shadow and a bolt of Arcane energy streaked towards the black hedgehog. “I am at the height of my power. I control the boundaries of my son’s mind. Here, my power would rival a GOD’S!” The walls of the room began to shake, and the creatures in the shadows leapt towards the group.

“My name is NOT Tails Shadow,” Miles growled. “And I’d advise you to be more worried about Dylan yourself. You’re between him and me.” Then Miles laughed as Locke spoke. “You a better father than me? After all the experiments you subjected your son to? As for Melody,” for a second Miles actually looked pained, but the moment quickly passed, “My daughter died over a year ago Locke. The figure you see here is… more a link to my son’s subconscious given form. Which means, Boy, if you leave this dream, you loose Melody again.” Skye turned to face Melody, who couldn’t bring herself to meet her brother’s eyes. His lip began quivering. “Melody, tell me it’s not true. You can come back with us. Please!” Melody just shook her head in reply.

I thought it might be handy to have a Q&A style topic, especially for people haven't done forum RPing before. Afraid I've got a question already! How are conversations between characters handled in a forum RP? Making a wild guess, between players does it work by several quick-fire posts? I.e. Player 1 posts his line, Player 2 posts the response Player 1 replies again etc? (Though that could get tricky with multiple players in different time-zones! :P ) If the conversion is between a player and an NPC (or multiple PC's controlled by a single player), can the whole conversation take place within a single post? Thanks.

“Here we are, called Melody, “the Throne Room.” Skye walked into the room with interest behind the others, taking it all in seeing it for the first time. The room was bathed in darkness except for around the door, but the layout of the room could still be determined. Ahead stood the throne, a figure just visible sitting on it. The light around the throne began to brighten, showing the Insanity sitting on the throne, as if waiting for them. The manifestation stood up from where it had been sitting, clapping slowly in a mocking fashion. “You did better than I expected,” the Insanity begun, sounding worryingly sane, “I suppose I should drop this charade now. And Locke, you can stop acting as if you are the boy’s parent…” The form of the Insanity started to shift. Growing taller and older, the cow’s lick flattening and darken in colour, the fur changing from a light orange to a dull yellow, a military style uniform appearing. “when his real father is right here.” The form of the adult Miles stood imperially on front of the Throne, looking more bored than anything else. “When my brat planned to use his Syphon I had already taken steps to hide my mind and power inside him, and take over should my original body fall. I should thank you Locke. It wasn’t until you broke through my son’s true insanity that I was able to start taking a hold of the boy’s mind. And that accident with the chair only made my job easier. And now I have you here in a dream scape under my control…” In the darkness around the room several creatures began to emerge, including the red glowing eyes of Shadow’s dream form, and the winged monster-assassin. “There is no escape for any of you, unless you surrender my son to me.” (ooc: Meet the big bad! You can pick your friends…)

(ooc: actually I was expecting Melody to just bounce off Dylan. Oh well...) "Hurry up, we're not far from the throne room," called Melody as she sprinted off again while Skye gingerly tip-toed past Dylan.

Skye backed off, pulling his twin tails on front of him like a fuzzy shield. At that moment something yellow moving at immense speed slammed into Dylan’s back. “Stop standing there and c’mon!” Melody yelled. (ooc: talk about bad timing)

Somehow Skye's smile became even larger. Ahead, Melody was beginning to put distance between herself and the rest. "Melody, slow down. We can't run as fast as you!" Skye called out.

Um, those Admin Hammer's that just popped up in CF. Do they have some 'everything is okay' field to go with them? Cause otherwise I can't see many of the characters being happy until they knows for certain Blaze and Aqua are safe. Doubly so as they just left Mogul's casino with the DEL closing in on them!

“Really?” Skye’s eyes lit up and his face broke into the first completely genuine smile since arriving in the dream. “You mean there might be some way I can get her back?”

"I-I... I don't remember the way to the throne room," Skye said, looking downcast. "I do!" interrupted Melody as she got to her feet. "Uh.." Skye looked at her confused, "but if you're just part of my memories how can you know the way when I can't remember? Nevermind, we'll follow you."

Skye was barely aware of the conversation between Locke and Shadow, concentrating fully on his sister and rescuing her from the clutches of his own Insanity. “Fight it Melody. Come back, please come back,” Skye encouraged. “I… won’t… let… you… control… me…” Melody’s voice began coming in stronger, only her irises retaining the blackness now. “You want to hurt Skye, you want to kill him for usurping your place. WHY ARE YOU RESISTING ME?” the Insanity spoke through her. “My… choice… not… yours…” “Melody, whatever I’ve done to hurt you, give me a chance to sort it. I will make it right” Skye promised. Melody shuddered and her eye’s returned to their normal blue/green. A piercing scream echoed around the castle. “Bah!” This time the voice of the Insanity spoke once again from all around, but now it spoke with screaming rage instead of the earlier mocking tone. “I had hoped to break Skye, but it looks like you’ve forced me to use plan B. If Skye dies, his mind is still mine. None of you will leave alive.”

Well, Sonic was once hit by an energy beam that sped up both his speed and, unfortunately, his ageing.

(ooc: I work on a farm. We can't take the weekend off.)

"Melody! No!" cried Skye. He tried to pin his sister to the ground, but found himself almost unable to move in Locke's embrace. Instead, he grabbed both of Melody's hands in his. "Please, listen to Locke and me. He's the only family we have now. We grew up together. We played together. Don't throw it away like this." "I told you Skye, your will cannot match mine. I was always stronger than you." The voice from Melody's voice was a distorted version of Skye's own. "I won't let you take my sister from me." "She's already gone Skye. You can't bring her back." "She's still there in my memories. And this time I'm not gonna fail to save her." With all his willpower, Skye tried to force his memories of Melody to the forefront of his mind, trying to recall what had been lost in the haze. The blackness in Melody's eyes began to recede. "Skye..." she began weakly. "Please come back Melody," Skye pleaded to his sister. (ooc: That's probably my last post for the day. And I'm back to work from tomorrow, Boo! So afraid my posting rate is gonna take a nosedive during the day.

(ooc: I'm really sorry Locke) "I...I... You're both right. I just... I need her to forgive me." Skye turned to face his sister with a hopeful look, which died the moment he saw those jet black eyes. "Wrong move coming so close, Greybeard," cackled Melody, as she snatch the knife from Skye's backpack and lunged at point blank at Locke.

"Shadow?" Skye looked up in surprise. "But... but you don't know that. We both could have made it out alive if I'd just been faster, or stronger. If I'd been brave enough to take that assassin on rather than hide." ****** The Insanity's head whipped round. "No. You gave up Shadow. YOU HAD GIVEN UP!" It turned back to face Dyaln and Locke, only to see Dylan slumped against the wall and Locke gone. "NO! I'm not defeated yet," it would have spoken through gritted teeth, had it been solid. "Melody, KILL THEM ALL! And if you die in the process, so much the better." (ooc: see you later Dylan.)

"Something else Locke? Like how you and your Brotherhood used the powers at your disposal for the betterment of others? Oh no, I forgot. If it wasn't an Echidna, you never cared. And shout all you want, Skye can't hear you. Dylan is a mindless monster. Shadow has given up. And faced with his sister; Skye's guilt will drive him to me. You've all lost, and soon..." the Insanity's face broke into a wide grin, "you WILL be lost." ****** Skye dropped to all fours, then his ears pricked as he heard a faint sound. "Locke," Skye whispered. "Is that you?" Skye tried to make out the words being called, but shook his head. "I can't let go. She's right. It was my fault. I should suffer for what I've done." (ooc: Yeah, Skye's Insanity is lying about Skye hearing Locke, but not that Locke knows that.)

"Everything in my life hated and wanted to destroy me. I'm simply returning the favour. Oh, Locke, you really think you're threats will work on me? This form isn't flesh and blood, so if you wanted to spill my blood, you'd have to hurt Skye to do so. And before you think about smashing through walls, you are in Skye's mind. Think what damage you could do to him by breaking the structures of his mind." ****** "Melody, please," begged Skye, "It wasn't my fault. I tried to save you. Please, I tried to save you." "You failed," Melody replied simply, "You could have flown despite the pain. You knew that. You let pain and fear take over, and it cost me my life." "No, please," murmured Skye as he sank to his knees. Across the castle, the shadows seemed to grow and the lights started to dim. The storm outside howled with an increased ferocity.

“You said I couldn’t effect you Locke, but you do seem sooooo distressed. What if you could never find your young ward.” Spoke Insanity with mock concern. Sounds began playing from all directions around Locke, some of Skye calling him name, some of Skye crying, or screaming in pain. “Hmm, it seems Skye might actually be close to being forgiven by his sisters memory. We can’t have that.“ ***** “Yes, we were friends,” replied Melody, anger leaving her voice for the first time, “but now…” Suddenly, her eyes dropped shut and her head lolled. Then it rose again, her eyes now jet black. “Now I can never forgive you. You are the reason I’m dead. It was your fault, and only yours,” Melody spoke to Skye.

"Melody, please. I never wanted to be a prince or a ruler. From what I've learned of Moebius I wouldn't have lasted long anyway. And that's in the past, more so than you know. We used to get on so well. Can't we be friends again?" ****** Meanwhile, the manifestation of Skye's insanity materialised beside the near-unconscious Dylan. His form was now somewhat wispy, as if made from mist, and his eyes jet black. Skye tutted at Dylan. "I had hoped you'd last a bit longer. Now it will take you some time to recover. But that's the funny thing about dreams, time can speed up or slow down. And right now, for you, time is going to move much faster. Heh heh. It may even give you a slight edge in your hunt. Meanwhile, I'll just send Locke down a little maze." (ooc; Locke, I sent you a pm if you haven't seen it yet.)

Skye pushed Melody off him with both feet, realising the only reason he was still alive was because Melody no longer had her knife. He got to his feet and the two children stared hard at each other. "So, the coward has finally nowhere left to run too," growled Melody/ "I'm sorry Melody," Skye responded desperately. "I didn't want to run. I didn't want to leave you or Mother. I was forced." "I'll never understand why mother wanted a weakling like you to take the throne first," she spat, seemingly disgusted by Skye's attempt to placate her. "I'm not weak..." Skye began to protest, then paused as he realised something about his sister for the first time, and more memories began to return. "Wait... You were jealous that I was next in line?" ***** "Oh, better, much better. And with Shadow busy, it only remains to be seen whether Melody will drive her brother to despair, or gut him first. Heh heh."