Sonic the Hedgehog. Blue Rat. Hero. Speedster. Cerulean Pincushion.

The teenager had been called many things, but archeologist had never been on that list before.
The morning was cool, a soft breeze blowing over the clearing that housed the ruins of what appeared to be an ancient village. Sonic paused at the top of the hillside, looking down at the sight, then reached into the satchel slung over one shoulder and across his chest. As he pulled his hand out, it came with a small communicator, which was currently buzzing. The hedgehog pressed a button on the side, holding it with both hands. "I found the source of the beeping, kiddo." He reported. "Ruins of some kind..."

Ruins? On the communicator's screen appeared a young fox, his blue eyes cheery as he leaned closer to the screen. Weird... I'm not finding anything about ruins in the area.

"Oh, they're here." He flipped the screen around, letting it pan over the landscape in front of him. "I'm gonna take a look around."

Don't break anything! This could be an a serious find, Sonic! I'll be there to join you in a few minutes!

Sonic smirked. "Yeah. Serious rocks. Got it."
He tossed the communicator back into the satchel then walked down the slope into the clearing. Though the ground had been beaten down by feet, it had obviously been long enough ago for some grass to have pushed through in random patches. The cool breeze brushed up some dust, blowing it across the clearing with a faint whistling sound. Everything was eerie quiet. "Echo!" he shouted, grinning as his voice echoed off of the walls of the ruins, before it faded. "Dude...Talk about depressing."

He looked up at the obelisk standing in the center of the clearing, one of the few things still in one piece. The sides were etched with markings, but Sonic wasn't sure what they meant. What had this place been? Who had lived here?
His mind fell back to a few months ago, when he'd met Chaos. Chaos was a powerful creature that Dr. Eggman had freed from slumber, but had turned out to not be as evil as they'd all thought.
Chaos had mentioned destroying a race in anger when they threatened his charges, the chao, but he'd said that he'd obliterated any signs of it, so these leftover buildings couldn't be remnants of it. They weren't even in the right location on the planet to match up.

Sonic's ears pricked as he heard a sound, like a child's cry. "Hmm?" He turned his attention to one of the buildings still in good shape, and where the sound was coming from. He wandered into the entrance, pulling out a flashlight from his satchel and shining it down the corridor. "Hello!?" He called. "Anyone here!?" He stepped into the corridor, the sound still present, but getting ever fainter. "Kiddo!? Are you alright!?" he called. He wandered the corridor a ways, then paused as the sound suddenly vanished.
"...What was that... Where was it coming from...?" He mumbled as he leaned up against the wall. A sudden sharp pain like being stabbed then struck him in between his shoulder blades. "Ah!" He jumped away from the wall, whipping around and looking for what poked him, but the stone was as smooth as glass. "Weird..."

Sonic gasped as he heard shouts and cries coming from the way he'd come, and he hurried back towards the entrance, only to stop abruptly as he saw something dripping down the hall through the cracks in the ground...

...Blood.

The smell made him want to throw up, but as he tried to run for the door, he only gagged more as he saw the bodies lying around outside. Male and female, of several different species, slaughtered by the dark soldiers standing around, their blades and armor bloody. "W-What...!?" Sonic squeaked, backing away a few steps and hoping they didn't see him.

"I'm only counting eleven...!" One of the soldiers growled. "Where is the healer and their offspring!?"

Sonic gasped as out of another building that had been broken a few seconds ago, a soldier dragged out another of his own troop. "Nephrite...!" he growled as he tossed the body forward. "He betrayed us! Sent the healer and children away before anyone else could get to them!"

Nephrite was smaller than the others, and his helmet was gone, exposing his young appearance as his lifeless eyes stared at nothing. He couldn't have been more then ten years old. What kind of sickos were these guys!?

"Foolish child...!" the other soldier grumbled, kicking the boy over and exposing the stab wound to his stomach that had taken his life. "I should've known he'd be the sympathetic one...!"

Suddenly a light washed over the body, forcing Sonic to look away, and when it faded, Nephrite's body was gone, a blue flower in it's place.

"Gah! Get going!" the soldier barked, stomping the flower to shards. "Autumn Leaf and the children couldn't have gotten far!"

As the soldiers ran away, scene finally began to get to Sonic. The smell of blood, the sight of dead bodies lying still forever, the sound of the wind as it blew around and not a sound came from anywhere else. He started to teeter as darkness washed over his vision and his head became light, and he started to fall towards the ground.

"SONIC!"

Sonic's eyes snapped open, and he found himself heaving onto the grass outside of Tails' workshop.

"Whoa!" A strong arm wrapped around his torso, holding Sonic up as he swallowed back the urge to bring up more. "Take it easy, Sonic... Just relax."

"You okay, Sonic...?" Tails asked as he ran over into Sonic's view. "You dashed out here and... You're not okay."

Sonic trembled as he looked up at the red echidna who held him. "S-So much death... So much blood...!" he whimpered.

"What...? Did you see something?"

"D-Death... It was a massacre, Knuckles... A bloodbath...!"

Tails returned from the workshop with a clean rag, wiping Sonic's face off from his heaving. "We found you out in the ruins, unconscious in one of the buildings... Knuckles said he felt a dark presence there."

"Dark is right...! I-I was just looking around... But when I went inside, I...I heard someone screaming and then... Then I saw all these dead bodies, and these soldiers had killed them all and... It made me so sick to my stomach."

"It must've been a vision." Knuckles replied. "I've had them before... But from what you're describing, no wonder you threw up when you woke up."

Sonic looked up towards them. "... It seemed so real..."

"Come on inside, Sonic." Tails offered. "Some good rest will help ease your nerves."

"What if I have another vision and throw up again?"

Knuckles smirked. "I'll have a bucket ready, just in case."
Sonic nodded slowly, taking a few steps before his shaking legs fell out from under him. "Okay, tough guy. Just let me carry you for now..." Knuckles picked the hedgehog up carefully in his arms, walking towards the house with Tails following.

Whatever had happened to Sonic in the ruins was more than just a simple scare, because by the next day, the hedgehog was running a high fever and had thrown up several more times. Tails was concerned enough to call a doctor, and now stood out in the living room as the doctor examined the hedgehog in the bedroom.
He looked up as Knuckles opened the door. "Hey..." He murmured.

"...How's he doing?"

Tails sighed. "He finally managed to keep some crackers and water down, but he's still too weak to move and his fever's only gotten worse. I had to help him to the bathroom earlier, and he nearly passed out on the toilet... I'm worried about him. Maybe he caught some sort of virus left in those ruins."

"Whatever it is, we need to find a cure, and fast." Knuckles expressed. "Eggman could attack at any moment, and we can't have our go-to hero down when that happens."

They turned as the door opened, and the doctor left the room, her bag in hand. "I've done what I can for him, but I'm afraid this is out of my expertise."

"What do you mean?"

"Whatever Sonic caught in those ruins, it wasn't the only thing he brought with him... There's a presence about him. You kids may need to go back to the ruins to get answers..."

Tails and Knuckles looked to each other as the doctor left the house. "A presence...?"

Tails rubbed his chin. "...Maybe a spirit from those ruins invaded him... The doc's right, we need to go back to those ruins."
He went into the bedroom, seeing Sonic asleep in the bed, his face paler than the moon. "Don't worry, Sonic...We're going to get to the bottom of this..."