Disclaimer: I do not own these characters.

Sonic's Unexpected Journey

By Fangs of Lightning and The Chuckinator

Chapter 1: Summoned to Middle-Earth

Sonic, Knuckles and Tails sat on the couch as The Hobbit played. Each of them had their attention locked on the screen, unable to tear their eyes from the movie. Shadow was surprisingly dozing off in the chair to their left. Tails was about to say something to him when Sonic noticed a strange purple oval on the screen. It was glowing and growing larger by the second.

"Guys...I think there's something wrong," Sonic said.

Shadow opened one of his eyes. "What's wrong with the screen?" he asked.

"I don't know," Tails said.

The oval turned into a portal and began to suck them in. All four of them tried to resist it, but the gravity pulling them in was too great. They found themselves standing in Middle-Earth in a matter of moments.

"Where are we?" Tails asked.

Knuckles frowned. "I believe we are in Middle-Earth."

"That's nice," Shadow said. "Now how do we leave? We don't have time for this."

"I don't think we can, Shads."

Shadow smirked and took out a Chaos Emerald. He focused on the energy held within the emerald before saying: "Chaos Control." A bright light flashed and Shadow vanished from their presence. Shadow appeared inside a mountain. He frowned and looked around; he was still in Middle-Earth.

"Why didn't it work?" he asked himself. "I pictured my house, not some mountain." Shadow growled at the emerald before returning it to where he kept it. with nothing better to do, Shadow began checking out the area. He searched around before coming upon an underground city, and saw a room filled with gold. Shadow's eyes widened at the sheer amount of gold piled up. "I've got to be in someone's treasury," he said. He smirked. Suddenly, a beam from the Chaos Emerald hit him and he screamed in pain. "What the hell?" he snarled. Shadow growled before screaming again. Something was happening to him, he could feel it.

He yelled in pain and doubled over. Shadow could fell himself beginning to transform.

Shadow looked behind himself as he felt wings tear from his back. Falling forward, he held himself up on his hands and knees. Everything seemed to shrink around him as he felt his body painfully grow larger and larger. Scales replaced fur and his hands changed shape as he stared down at them. It was reasonable for him to assume the rest of his body had done the same. After a few painful minutes, Shadow looked around again. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, they had turned into slits. When the transformation was over, he looked at himself in awe. He'd never given much thought to what he'd look like as something else. Now that he'd seen it, he didn't mind it at all.

"I...transformed into a dragon," he said. "This is awesome." Suddenly, instincts filled his mind and he growled in pain. Shadow looked around, wondering what was causing it. Nothing but the treasure seemed to be in the room. "Maybe it's telling me to go hunt," he muttered.

The dragon let out a roar and flew out of the mountain. Shadow watched the ground beneath him, half letting his new instincts lead him. He landed in the forest and looked around for prey. He could smell something nearby, but he couldn't see whatever it was. Shadow moved forward a few steps, knocking over a few trees with his new body. Shadow saw a deer and growled, then lunged. The deer didn't stand a chance, caught up in his teeth before it had a chance to even try running away. Shadow growled and flew back to the mountain. He groaned in pain as he could feel his mind changing mentally.

"What's happening to me?" he asked himself.

He growled in pain and saw memories in his mind. He knew who he was now: Smaug, the one who overtook the Lonely Mountain and made it his own. Shadow nodded. All he had to do was whatever Smaug had been trying to do. Then, maybe he could go home. The dragon growled in pain as his mind changed to Smaug's. Shadow looked around, thinking of what to do next. He saw all this gold and his eyes widened. He had to protect it. Shadow went up next to the gold and looked around. He needed a safe place to watch over the gold from. That way, if anyone came after it, he would be able to attack easily.

The dragon thought about it and buried himself in the gold. Once settling himself, Shadow sighed and went to take a nap. He had to protect the gold, and nothing would stop him.