-Winds of Heat 1: Crossing Hearts-

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Wow, I have much to say, and much to apologize as well. Throughout the time I was gone, I have been enjoying my breaks and have a good time, clearing my memory and thoughts of the very depressing past I had and moving on into the new year. During that time, I have been also brainstorming onto this story, gathering thoughts and collecting ideas for future preferences. I know it has been quite a while since the last time I have updated my story, but the break is finally over and now I have broken free from my writer's block! I deeply apologize for the agonizing wait you all had to suffer! Here are a couple of reasons why I wasn't updating during January as well.

I was depressed for a while.

I lost a friend who understood me.

I was very busy throughout the month.

I had writer's block.

I feel like I'm putting too much tragedy/drama into this story, so this chapter will be an adventure!

(Response to reviewers)

Arena Luminati; I took that advice, I hope you enjoy the story!

sonicxblazey; I updated now! Enjoy the new chapter!

awsumdeadface; Yeah, I never liked him either. Sure he is cool, but I still don't like him. Sonaze forever! Thanks for the wonderful reviews by the way! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

The Prince Of Souls; I'm glad you are enjoying this story! I enjoyed your sonic series 'Sonic Origins' by the way, keep up the good work!

shadowkiller168; I know I don't have the best grammar, but I believe it is good right now. I'm glad you are enjoying the story though!

Now, without further a-do, here is the chapter 12 you have all been waiting for! Enjoy the chapter!

Special thanks to sonicxblazey and Prince of Souls for advising me through the past months!

On with the story! (Sorry if it's a little short!)

CHAPTER 12: Blaze... What Happened?

It has been nearly a month after the incident with Silver, and Sonic and Blaze have been a very happy couple. They spent all day and all night together. They went to a couple of fairs, went to the mall, and even run through green hill a couple of times. Blaze won a few of the runs, but she thinks Sonic let her because he knew he was faster than her. Even though the occurrences have been set aside, they had one thing on their mind at the moment, and it was that giant dimensional cloud that was heading right towards earth.

At the start of its discovery by the ARK, the cloud was quite a distance from earth. Now its visible from Earth's atmosphere, and it looks menacing as well. The couple were walking down the street Sonic's house was at when they heard a terrifying noise coming from the cloud above.

"It won't be too long before the cloud gets here..." Blaze said with a saddening look on her face. She wasn't sad because Earth won't be the same anymore, she is sad because she has to go through what ruined her childhood all over again. Well, half of her childhood that is...

"Are you sure we can't stop it?" Sonic asked.

"Yes I'm sure Sonic, if it could be stopped, I would have stopped it before my planet was taken from yours."

"Well shouldn't we do or find at least something to stop it?"

"I doubt we could..."

"Sounds like a challenge, I'm in! Just you wait Blaze, I will stop this cloud and you're coming with me!"

And with that, Sonic took Blaze's hand and headed off to the only person he could go to at the moment, Tails.

On the way there, Sonic stopped by the mall for a couple of snacks and such. As always, he got the chili dogs wrapped in shining tin foil, and Blaze got a tuna sandwich, which Sonic did not like at all. After they got their snacks, they got to Tail's workshop in a little under an hour. Even though Tails knew everything about the cloud, he could not find anything on how to stop one from approaching the Earth.

"What do you mean you can't find out how?" Sonic said, collapsing to the ground in disappointment. He knew Tails was the most reliable person he can go to, and now he is not reliable in this situation.

"Well, I can't just figure out how this cloud actually works! It's not a living thing, and it's not powered by anything. At least, that's what I think...".

The group thought for a second, trying to think of ways on how this mysterious cloud of strange proportions could get to this planet so fast. It must have been 10 minutes before Blaze spoke up in the silence.

"Maybe Dr. Eggman is behind this?" She said, a little uncertain of her answer.

"That could work, let's scramble some eggs again!" Sonic called out, readying himself for another battle with Eggman.

"Hold on Sonic, I don't want to jump to conclusions just yet." Tails instructed.

"Well, I think that Eggman would be behind this; I mean, he has torn the world apart once, made a giant cannon, built a giant space and air fleet, turned me into a werehog, kidnapped a girl AND a princess, tried to kill all of us, try to harness both chaos and-"

Sonic was suddenly stopped when Blaze put her finger on his lips. He shrugged and stop talking to let the others talk freely.

"We get it Sonic..." Blaze said.

"Alright Sonic, if you are SO sure that Eggman is behind this, then let's go pay him a visit!" said Tails.

"Alright, lets get going then!"

So they were off. They first checked Eggman's base offshore of Station Square. When they found nothing there, they checked every single base that Eggman had ever built. They were out of luck with each base. They regrouped in the sandy desert, where they will search Eggman's last base, the Egg Pyramid.

Everyone was walking in the hot desert on their way to the base. There was small talking for most of the walk, determined to catch Eggman before it was too late. Even with all the determination in the world, even Sonic can complain about something else...

"Blaze... do you have powers other than heat? I'm burning up like a crisp here..." Sonic said. He hated walking, but for Tails' sake, he had to!

"Sonic, this is the 43 time you asked that..." Blaze said. He was annoying at times, but she always still loved that about him.

"Alright..."

"Hey Sonic, what's that light up ahead?" Tails pointed out.

Sonic looked straight ahead to where Tails was talking about. He found it. A enormous blue ring of energy was appearing above the sandy dune they were climbing. It the middle standing below was a huge pyramid.

"See? I told you this had something to do with Eggman!"

"Wow, Sonic is actually right over Tails for once!" Blaze said, trying not to laugh.

"Shut up!" Tails argued back.

As their talk continued on, Sonic was thinking about what Eggman could be doing, and if it had any connection with the Cloud. They approached the gate, which was surprisingly open, and walked inside.

The place seemed empty. No guards, no robots, not even a spec of dust was able to be seen in the facility, it was a ghost town!

"I don't like the looks of this guys..." Tails said.

"Well buddy, we need to see if Eggman is behind all of this." Sonic replied.

They all walked into a circular room, which they believe was the main area. Tails approached the computer that was sitting in the middle of the place. He took out his hacking tools and began to investigate the files. Sonic and Blaze were talking while Tails was doing his thing.

"Sonic, why is it that this place is entirely empty?" Blaze started.

"I don't know Blaze, it seems to me that Eggman has other plans up his sleeves!" Sonic stated back.

"If he does, he better know that this cat here won't go easy on him like the last machine he built."

They looked around the room, gazing at every corner, every wall, every place that was visible to their eyes. Then, in the blink of an eye, a vast hemisphere of energy zapped itself around the heroes, leaving them to a suspenseful state of wonder.

"Oh there will be no fighting of any machine, your highness." Came a voice from afar, although they knew EXACTLY who it was.

Eggman appeared from the shadows of a secret corridor, revealing a small device in his hand. He had a smirk on his face, kind of like when he knew everything was according to plan.

"I was wondering when you all would show up. I've been attracting that cloud for a while now, and you just now got here! I would think that Sonic is loosing his speed, but we all know that's not true."

The heroes tried their moves against the hemisphere, with no luck. They only got a little shock and forced backwards form where they originally started their attacks.

"Good job Egghead! You actually thought ahead of time!" Sonic said with his casual smirk. This made Blaze giggle a little bit, even through their current situation.

"Why thank you Sonic. I really thought yonder than you have ever thought, now didn't I?" He said as he pressed a button and chairs popped from underneath the group. Clamps held down their arms, legs, and stomach. Sonic didn't like this one bit, seeing that he is always on the move.

The temperature started rising around Blaze's wrists as she slowly melted the restraints around them. Unfortunately, Eggman noticed this and pressed another button. The restraints suddenly had a energy field around them, so she couldn't melt them anymore.

"Now that you two are nice and cozy, I might as well tell you of my plans for the future. You see, the cloud that you have been noticing in space is actually being drawn here by me, using the attractor beam in this facility. You may be wondering why though, hm?"

"Yikes, Eggman. I think that mustache is getting a little too big for ya." Sonic said in his cocky attitude. This made Blaze laugh again.

She wasn't laughing for long though.

A powerful shock was transferred to Sonic. Sonic can take some electricity, but a shock that the chair was giving was a real show for Eggman. Blaze got angry at the sight of that.

"Why do you have to always do that to Sonic? Why can't you just put up with his cocky attitude and let it go?!" Blaze said out of her enraged voice.

"Because, your highness, that is, oh what's the phrase again? Oh yes! Because that's how I roll, you stupid cat."

The shock was still taking it's toll on Sonic. Blaze was on fire. Eggman was laughing. Then, all of a sudden, Blaze had yet again hit her breaking point.

A dark aura formed around her body. The colors changed, the flames changed, and her eyes changed. She was no longer her normal self, again. Eggman, now realizing Blaze's similarity to darkness as Sonic, started mashing the buttons on his computer pad from his seat. Sonic's shock suddenly stopped.

As Sonic opened his eyes, he can see Eggman in fright, but why? Then he noticed a powerful sense of darkness in the air. He looked to his left, and didn't see Blaze sitting in her seat, he saw someone else. Similar figure, but in his mind, it was not Blaze.

"Blaze...? Is that you?" He spoke with whatever energy he had left after the shock.

The dark cat looked to her left. She knew who he was instantaneously, and popped a cocky smile. Her eyes, they struck fear in Sonic's heart.

"Dark Flame, Sonic."

That voice... Sonic felt an emotional discharge when he heard it. His love, feeding in hate and ready to dish it out. 'Is that what happened to Silver...?' Sonic thought.

All of a sudden, she went on a rampage. The flames snapped the restraints in half, letting her go free. Then, she turned up the heat. A LOT.

The aura of energy pushed outward with a magnificent force. The eruption caused the hemisphere to shatter instantly. Eggman knew she would easily attack him if he didn't act. He did the best thing anyone could do in that situation, run.

His little floating pod ejected from the mainframe and was flying off into a tunnel. Eggman turned around, only to see a dark floating figure rapidly approaching, including someone running extremely fast behind her.

"Listen Bla-"

"DARK FLAME!"

"Erm, Dark Flame. We can settle this without any violence, right?" Sweat was pouring out of him like a faucet. He knew Dark Flame could EASILY kill him if she caught up to him. Dark fireballs were hurdling towards his pod. Luckily for him, he dodged every single one of them.

Just as Dark Flame was approaching, Sonic came running behind her. He tried yelling at her, but she couldn't hear because of her altitude. That's when he remembered his Chaos Emeralds. Sonic knew that he shouldn't be using his super form for this occasion, but time was running out, and his job was to save lives. Plus, Dark Flame looked extremely powerful...

With that, he used the emeralds to turn into his super form, Super Sonic. He dashed towards Dark Flame and approached her side.

"Blaze, I'm alright! Stop doing this!" Sonic yelled.

"I'm doing this for you." was all she said before blasting off faster than ever.

Sonic did the same thing soon after. The scenario lasted a good 5 minutes. Dark Flame shooting fireballs at Eggman, Sonic trying to convince her to stop, while also traveling at over mach 3 along the desert, since they were now out of the tunnel. Blaze eventually caught up to the pod. Latching her claws along side of it, she scaled the pod with ease and approached the glass dome that was covering the evil mastermind inside.

"Dark Flame, please. Stop this nonsense! This is not like you! You don't know how much of a loss you might cause!" Eggman said. He tried his best to hide his extreme fright.

Dark Flame knew this...

With little effort, she smashed her hand through the glass dome. But just before killing Eggman with a dark fireball with her hand, Sonic tackled Dark Flame into the sand.

The two landed with a crushing blow on each side. The sand was flying everywhere, which made it very hard to see for a few seconds. The first to awake from the crater that was formed, was Sonic. He was no longer super, and Blaze was back to her original self. Eggman made his escape cleanly.

Sonic struggled to get up, but something was holding him down. He looked to see that Blaze had her arms wrapped around him. He chuckled, picked her up and walked out of the crater. The cloud in space was clearly visible now. Seeing this, Sonic sighed.

"What are we going to do Blaze..." He said.

"More importantly, what happened to you?"