The streets of Station Square had never emitted such an eerie, displacing feeling before in all of the days he'd wandered and explored it's various alleyways, corners, and stores. He didn't know where he was going in this, these rains of Chaos, but he kept sprinting, his legs never tired and nor did his desire to survive the onslaught of bullets flying at him from whichever direction. East, West, up, down, it didn't matter anymore. Everything was a target, everything was an enemy. He was stuck like this, these mangy paws and overgrown fingernails, his expansive, stretchy arms and purple, wild fur coat and mighty mane. His spiked sneakers chewed into the soaked concrete and asphalt, every now and then hitting upon something like a large, brownish puddle of mudded water and the reputable slosh of city garbage.
His mouth was drenched and he shook it away, the salty taste of the obviously befouled liquid staining his gums. He brushed it away with a still running paw, his hind legs picking up the added slack right before the paw slapped the surface of the street again, hsi right arm stretching and snatching a street pole which he used in tandem with his own momentum to yank himself forward like a yoyo. Something had tripped his senses, every dark blue lock on his back and his legs stabbed into his flesh and erected rhythmically, alerting him to make the quickest evasion effort possible, the very maneuver saving him as 3 feet of concrete suddenly went up in smoke, followed by an expanding wall of flame that tore apart Smasher Street.
The blood lowest his chest painted the alice of his underbelly a humid venetian color, a thin strand of black signified the recovering gash injury he'd received moments prior from one of the packs of hunters following him. His eyes batted left, the dark figure towering over him swung his weapon, a bowstring weapon with a bronze tip, smashing a messy hole in the ground where the feral creature had been seconds earlier. Like the lightning sparking in between the clouds overhead, the figure vanished into the small columns of water plaguing the area.
The creature growled, lunging from his hiding spot underneath the nearby truck and thrashing against the street lamp. His claws did their job well, he scurried upward and ranged away from the streets, hopping over rooftops and digging through the taller buildings he came across. The creature stopped suddenly, overlooking a barren parking lot with an obvious number of hunters, standing willingly against the showered streets, still and undisturbed. Unlike the others his nose had recalled, and his eyes had studied, and his claws reminisced stabbing into and mutilating, these ones lacked the same aura, the mysterious atmosphere they presented whenever they chased him.
That, of course, did not stop the blue beast from leaping downward, almost gracefully flipping himself over the roof of a minivan and charging them, fangs and arms bared. Not once did they move, silent as they were shredded, smashed into the ground like rag dolls, they refused to bleed or whimper. The creature stopped momentarily, spitting out a amalgam of a head of an arm as he spotted a white, yellowish material spill into the lot, washed away by the rain.
"Grrrrggee...grrggrrr....DECOOOOYS!!!" the beast shouted rapturously, swinging its long, muscled arms around in frustration, flinging away objects that had no purpose of being there. Spit ran down his chin, and he whipped around, snarling at things that seemed to fade the moment he'd found them. Now he was going rampant, no sense of rationality left as he roared at this unforeseen enemy.
KWREEE-KRASNEEERRRNNNGG!
A metal force bashed him in his stomach, quickly succeeded by a mouth-shutting blow to his ribcage. He hastened, but was unable to keep up with force, as the same pain ran up and down his chest and arms in simultaneous waves. Miniature blossoms of heat exploded on his fur, setting him ablaze and flashing him. He was blind, spasming uncontrollably to remove the flare and rip open whoever had summoned the gall to assault him. Unbeknown to him, as he furiously scratched at his bleeding eyes, he soon vaulted into the street, crashing through one side of a building and out the front door of the same one, into the southern district of the city known as Casinopolis.
A large, vibrant sign lurched above the feral creature reading CASINO HOTEL in big, mixed purple blue pigments sparkled within the curtains of rain, leading the previous passers-by out of the surprise storm and just as easily goading them to waste away in the hotel's privately-owned Casino. The light it gave off guided the creature, following what few hints of sight that poked through its tremendous blight. It howled, casting a sullen petrification over the city's skyline as it slammed against a wall, denting it and rebounding, throwing its fists about. Jewel-plated eyes watched from above, as did a brother pair of summer irises, the two leaping down from their high-up perches toward their prey.
"RRRAAAOOOOW!!!" the beast screamed, tortured by the same cherries growing from what appeared to be its own body. The haze placed on its eyes withered, but the creature itself was exasperated, all of it's previous luster gone just as a big, smoldering patch of its shoulder was now gone, incinerated by the hunter approaching him. He tried to scream, to reach the hunter and attack, but the same malice it had gathered shifted and pained it, the results of its unbound fury traveling up its arm and capturing the beast in a web of electricity.
He settled, arms still and lifeless, face wrought with sorrow and anguish as it squeezed one final gasp of air from its lips. The hunter, dressed in a uniform that dauntlessly synchronized with the rain, threw an arm forward, snatching the lupine by its neck. He mumbled, words that made the beast bare its teeth out before calming once more to the static shock ripping its insides apart, reluctantly giving the hunter an opportunity to reveal his curt teeth aligned into a sharp grin. With one hand still wrapped now around the creature's entire neck, he dragged it forward, into the rain as his female partner sighed and followed, disappearing before the red and blue sirens even had a chance to pass.
-
SONIC THE HEDGEHOG
UNderworld
-
"Reunion Favor"
"Last week, police captain Defmens called off the month-long search for the mysterious werewolf allegedly spotted roaming Station Square prior to the initial reports of inhuman claw marks found on local city streets and street lamps-"
Tails flicked off the television set, curling his legs into his stomach as he sat distressingly on the couch. The young, mutant fox often trried to not think about his childhood idol, Sonic The Hedgehog, during these times of civil unrest and turmoil in the city. It didn't do him any good either, peering over to the left side of his couch where a table held up a picture of him and Sonic. He remembered those days fondly, being only eight years old and going on such incredible adventures. The picture itself was dated four years ago, taken by Knuckles while the echidna waved them goodbye from atop the floating Angel Island. Sonic's smile was that of a heroic, powerful figure, as he stood proudly on the wing of his plane, the Tornado, the very original model Tails had built.
He was twelve years old now, Tails didn't shed the same tears he would have when he was nine or ten, whenever Sonic would leave Knothole, off in search of adventure and new challenges, or maybe distress calls received from outlying victims of Doctor Robotnik's extinguished robot legions, the legions they'd together eradicated from the surface of two homes with many others. Tails winced, clutching his temples with the palm of his hand as the sound of bells challenged his endurance.
Na nnun. Na nnun. The doorbell of his apartment's front door rang, drawing him from his pounding headache as he walked towards the ringing noise and drew the front door back. The sight he witnessed made him gulp, bright pink radiance and an orange surface dashed inside before Tails could react, making assent comments about things trivial as the carpet and the wall's rich color. 'Not these two again...', Tails tried to think up an excuse to push himself away from the inevitable bearhug he was about to be encased in.
"MISTER TAILS!!!" chimed the female rabbit, in the same-styled orange dress he'd remembered her in from months back. She rose to his mane, though, now a slight inch or so taller and closer to his own height than before. Her tan, tropic arms lassoed his waist and pulled him, his hand still on the door and inadvertently shutting it from the gravitational pull of her tight hug.
"TAILS!!!!" rejoiced the pink, very jubilant hedgehog he'd tolerated for the past few years as her arms, in tandem with the rabbit's finally wrestled him to his knees and onto the floor, pressing him against her chest like a child's toy. His eyes became the very likeness of such a thing as the hedgehog's added pressure choked him, he wagged his tails to no significant effect before they released him. She was wearing a recognizable outfit, with her very much standard Mercia red dress over a light red skirt, black leggings, and pink, thigh-length socks.
Confusion passed, Amy helped Tails up and pulled him into his living room, a hostage of simply having ignored a few phone calls while amidst smoking beakers and dangerous Tesla fielding. She dropped him back onto the couch and dropped her tote handbag on his lap, he fumbled it away as Cream ran aside, skipping and dancing until she landed against the window. Her eyes widened with excitement as she viewed Speed Highway, with its ever-dazzling lightshow provided by the neverending multitude from the overhead view of the Journey Nights Hotel.
"Amy, couldn't you guys have come a little earlier, its 8PM!"
"I told you over the phone we would be getting here late. Station Square's and traffic ever since Eggman was reported incarcerated two years ago, all the residents who had their homes destroyed from the Chaos incident are renting houses left and right." Amy answered.
Tails held back a deep moan as Amy set up shop, Cream hopping on his couch, stealing the TV remote, and flipping through the child-friendly channels from 3 to 78. A brown burlap bag, three sleeping backs, packs of Chao Food, some dozen cans of Chao Cola, and homemade foods rolled off onto the floor, leaving the two-tailed fox to bend and help scoop them up. When he finished, dropping them on the counter, he gasped to himself as Amy daunted over the newly-ordered stove in the left corner of the kitchen.
"Ooh, Tails, is it brand new!?"
"Tails, what show is this!?" Cream chimed in.
Amy jumped back almost instantly, "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! This is so cute Tails!"
"I'm HUNGRY." Cream added.
o o o
o o o
The main highway, the freeway, the under roads, and the overreaching patterns of concrete and asphalt were conquered by the thousands of cars running over it like a playground full of sugar-fed children. The light blue hue of the sky made the man with red fur, a dread-lock styled haircut with white rings around the thick locks, and tied, green-ovated sneakers give an apical smile. His bright purple eyes covered the dense population of the Square, brimming with excitement as he left the monotonous traffic ways to the freedom of the air, arms extended like an airplane as he leapt off the side of the narrow-lined road. The wind gently carried him, but he refused it, commanding the elements to push him faster and faster, until he knew not what speed he would be able to stop at.
Like that, the ride ended, his sneaker's smacking lips against the jet-crimson roof of a Chrysler, the driver kicked and stomped down on the car's gas, making it rear-end another driver who promptly screamed at him. Unwilling to answer to police let alone get caught with the blame, the echidna dashed over the cars, flinging himself over and under bridges and tunnels. It took him less than four minutes to reach his destination, City Hall, where he had once visited in a previous search for a number of mystical objects.
"C'mon Knuckles, you can do this." the echidna, briefcase shoveled under his right arm flipped open, revealing a Bobcat-model Beretta 21 cozy inside its own polyester cushion, said to himself. He tried to take pleasure from the moist air, sucking it up for a whole twenty seconds before he walked inside.
The first thing that grazed him was the cold, illicit stares of the "toddlers" and "teens" gathered in their own cliques, small to tall. They were all bathed in an ambient thistle purple, illuminating each individual circle of the almost transcendent rooms. The walls that once appeared normal from an outsider's view had widened to expose the supernatural forces dawdling within, the very forces that his soon-to-be attackers had been playing around with since the Darkest Ages, something he and his ancestors planned to put an end to before their leaders could bring any further destruction down upon this planet.
"Excuse me." the first voice, the first victim, called out to him from an oddly greener shade of light than what his now pinkish fur was covered in currently, "Do you have an invitation? Please answer quickly, because if not I must ask you to quietly depart our housing."
Knuckles grinned.
And the lights above them flickered.