Chapter 8:
The Wedding, the Horsemen, and the Blades

Acid found himself at a dead end. He was ready to snatch the sacred blade, Caliburn, in an attempt to bring forth his desired sword into the his plane of existence. There existed one problem in Acid's 'fool proof' plan. In his plan, Acid was going to use his resemblance to Sonic as an advantage, and steal the blade in plain sight, after all, he would have looked like Sonic. But Sonic was still with Caliburn, almost as if the blade never left his side. "Damn," Acid muttered to himself, "how am I supposed to steal a damn sword, when it's master always has it!?"

Acid was spying on Sonic for an opportunity to steal Caliburn, and thus were near outside of his new home, the royal palace. His lackeys were right behind him, while staying in the shadows, "Sir, surely we can simply be patient. In the hype of all of this 'wedding' business, Sonic will have to leave the blade, then that will be your chance!"

Acid stamped his foot on the ground, "Oh, I hate waiting! But since you're so sure of it, I will take pleasure if you are wrong." So, the group of chaos cultists waited... and waited, until Sonic was lured somewhere by his bride-to-be, leaving Caliburn unchecked. "Well... seems you were right..." Acid frowned, "You deserve a promotion! Anyway, I'll be back!" He started to walk toward the blade, very hastily, as if he only had a few minutesd of opportunity before his window was lost. As he approached the blade, memories of all the good Acid had done when he was Sonic flowed through him. He instantly shattered those memories with thoughts of anguish and despair.

Acid grabbed Caliburn and made a mad dash away from the palace. Still possessing the super speed of his past life, Acid zipped through the now bustling streets of Mobotropolis, and found himself at his fortress again. But Caliburn had realized what went on, and shouted at his thief, "Unhand me, chaos scum! Do you know who I am!?"

"Yes, Caliburn," Acid frowned, "You were my sword in past ages... we were such good partners... oh yes, King Arthur was a challenge, and so was the Dark Queen, but we managed."

Caliburn's eys widened in shock, "You... you cannot be Sonic! It is impossible!"

Acid laughed, "Trust me, I am told that a lot these days... now I have some important things to do with you, partner!" Once inside his fortress, he met up with Shadow, and placed Caliburn in the middle of a chaos star painted on the floor. The two hedgehogs began to chant an evil and demonic tongue, and as their words went on, Caliburn was raised in the air by dark magics. Then, the chanting grew more forceful and violent, and as such, immense pain started to fall upon Caliburn. Even though he was a steel weapon he could feel the dark powers of the chaos stinging within him.

As Acid and Shadow's chanting started to speed up and become even more intense, Caliburn felt himself being torn in two. His very essence started to tear at his life force, until... a small rift opened near him. And from this rift, a pitch black sword, with a ruby jewel in the center of the hilt, exited the energy spewing hole. Acid was pleased, as he witnessed the blade he sought for, but then something strange happened. Caliburn started to feel more pain, even though the chanting had stopped. More blades pilled out from the rift until there were seven new blades in all.

With all the force that was exerted onto him, Caliburn shattered, the powers of chaos too much for him. Then, the new blades started to float into the air. They clanged together and were sent flying in opposite directions. Each going somewhere unique, but the blade Acid wanted conveniently landed in a cavern near their fortress. Shadow stared in disbelief at what happened, "Exactly, what was that, just now!?"

Acid busted into laughter, than had a coughing fit, as always. Once recovered he smirked, "It seems that we have summoned all seven of the sacred blades! At the cost of one..." he stared at the shattered remains of his former partner, "You were always weak, Caliburn. I just didn't see it at first!"

Shadow interuppted Acid before Acid got into a bragging monologue, "Um, sir. Might I ask, what do we do now?"

Acid turned to his minion, "We crash a wedding... and in style... Do you and Amy have those designs I wanted?"

-Three Days Later, Mobotropolis-

The wedding was huge. It was a major event, considering that not only was the groom, Sonic, Mobius' ruler, but it was also a reassuring that Sonic would take the burden of leadership. Just before the ceremony, Sonic was having doubts. Fortunately, Tails, whom he had made his best man, was with him every step of the way. "I don't know if I should do this, bud. I mean I like her bu..."

"But what, Sonic? If you want to do this, then go ahead, but no one's stopping you from not," Tails responded. "Besides, if you like her this much, why would you-"

"It's because of them!" Sonic stated, "whenever they can know about these things, they will! I don't want a day like this to turn into a bloodbath."

Tails put his arm around his shoulder, "Don't worry, big brother, everything'll be okay."

-With Chaos-

Four hedgehogs stood out in a crowd in Mobotropolis. They weren't rich, and they were certainly not in poverty. No, it was because of their strange attire. The blood red one was wearing body armor: two shoulder-guards, half a breastplate, and leg-plates to be precise, all a darkened gray color. The black hedgehog was covered in robe nearly head to toe, and his robe was adorned with various infection symbols, such as influenza, anthrax, and of course, the bubonic plague. The pink hedgehog, the only female of the four, was wearing a morbid dress, made of what seemed like beautiful fabrics from the outside, but on the inside revealed horrible things, such as human flesh, and twisted and gnarled bones.

Finally the last of the four was nearly impossible to tell the fur color, but his attire was thee strangest. He wore a full suit of blackened armor, as dark as the night sky. On the jaw-plate of the helm was painted an array of serrated teeth, and on the breastplate lay the chaos star. The four hedgehogs were obviously Acid, Shadow, Kharn and Amy, but they went by... different names. Acid turned to his comrades and said, "War! Pestilence! Famine! We ride!"

All three shouted in unison, "Yes, Lord Death!" The four rushed off, but out of the ground came skeletal horses, trotting along side them. Each hopped upon their skeletal steed and rushed off to some place very special... very special indeed.

The wedding was being held at the palace, obviously, and because of it, was held behind some closed doors. Amy placed her ear against the door, once they arrived at the massive structure, and heard cheers of joy. "Damn it all to hell!" she exclaimedin frustration, "And I thought we could stop it!"

"Calm yourself Famine," Acid said, "This changes nothing. So they got married... who cares; I don't and you shouldn't either, now come on, we have torment to inflict!"

Sonic and Rainbow Dash were finishing their kiss when chatter was heard on the other side. Silence was all around, and in mere seconds, the door swung open to reveal Acid, Kharn, Shadow and Amy in their strange attires. Acid shouted at the top of his lungs, "The horsemen of the apocalypse come for YOU, SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!!!"