I doubt that any of you would know, but when I first started writing for this site, the first two fics that I did were Sonic the Hedgehog fics, and they were god awful, so I'm kind of glad I deleted them. Now, though, I'm finally back and new and improved, at least in my opinion. So, enjoy!

NOTE: When writing this, I wasn't sure if I was going to rate this as a T or an M, to be honest. I don't think this chapter's bad enough to make it an M, but if you guys think that I should change it to an M in future chapters, let me know and I will, because it might get a bit graphic. Keyword being might.

"Hello?"

It was a dark and stormy night inside the forest outside of Station Square. Everyone sane was asleep inside their homes right now, but there was one person that was still outside.

The man in question was trying to find his dog, who managed to slip out of his collar while the two of them were on a walk outside.

Even though he heard that there was going to be a huge thunderstorm coming through the city soon, the man ignored the warning bells that were going through his head, wanting to find the dog as soon as he could before he got too far ahead.

So, as he continued to chase the dog through the dark forest, his flashlight piercing through the nighttime, the rain continued to pound through the trees, drenching him.

"I really should have gotten my umbrella." he thought to himself.

Finally, after being forced to keep his jaw clenched to prevent his teeth from chattering, he was barely able to hear other noises besides the thunder.

However, what he heard made his blood run cold. There was a loud yelp, and the man immediately thought that it must have come from his dog.

Rushing towards the sound of the noise, the beam of his flashlight soon landed on a ghastly sight.

His dog was very much dead, the pool of blood forming around it giving a clear sign of what happened to the man. The shock of his dog turning up dead wasn't what made the man nearly tripped over his feet in an attempt to get away, though.

In the darkness above the dog was a pair of blinding white eyes focused right on the man. As the figure soon began to growl, one thing ran through the man's mind.

"Oh, shit."

The man shot off like a rocket, desperately trying to find his way towards the edge of the forest as the figure gave chase. Unfortunately, with each tree inside the forest looking exactly the same as the others in the darkness, the man soon became lost.

It didn't take long for the man to soon become gassed from the amount of running he was doing, and the figure soon caught up.

However, the man wasn't going to give up so easily. Changing direction, he slipped behind a bush and froze, hoping that he gave the monster the slip.

Listening carefully through the rain, the man heard the pounding footsteps of the monster grow faint. Thinking that he managed to escape, the man switched his light back on, only for it to short out.

Freaking out, the man whacked the side of the flashlight, hoping that the batteries haven't run out with him lost in the middle of a forest.

Finally, the light came back on just in time for him to scream as the monster pounced.

The morning soon came, and the forest was a cacophony of noise, as the police were searching for a man who was recently reported missing by his wife.

Unfortunately, even with the large amount of officers, it was a tough search, as there was a large amount of area to cover.

One of the officers, a man by the name of Berkowitz, was almost finished with covering his assigned section of the forest, with no luck. He reached over to the walkie-talkie on his shoulder, pressing the button on the side as he began to speak.

"CP, this is Officer Berkowitz. No sign of-"

Before he could finish his report, he felt his foot hit something soft. Ignoring the station's calls to finish his report, Berkowitz shined his flashlight in the area where his foot was, and his arm immediately went up to his face as he covered his nose from the smell.

"Ugh, that's disgusting."

In front of the officer was the dead body of the man, his entire chest cavity showing as clear as day to the officer.

"Come in, Officer Berkowitz! What's going on?" crackled the radio on his shoulder.

The officer stared at the scene in front of him before slowly reaching over to the radio.

"This is Officer Berkowitz. The missing person has been located."

The news soon spread like wildfire, as it seemed like practically every television in the city was tuned into the news about the death of one of their citizens.

The news even traveled to the outskirts of the city, where world-renowned hero Sonic the Hedgehog and his best friend Miles "Tails" Prower shared a house together.

Tails, taking a break from his usual tinkering on the Tornado, decided to sit down on the couch and turn the television on, figuring that some cartoons would help keep his mind off of the problem he was having with the propellers.

However, when he turned the TV on, the news was currently on. Tails was about to change the channel, when there was a story that piqued his interest.

"Hey Sonic! Come in here for a second!" he yelled into the room opposite from the workshop that he just left.

Tails braced himself, expecting Sonic to shoot in here and send everything in the room flying, but surprisingly Sonic walked into the room, looking curiously at the one who called him in.

"What's up, Tails? You need something?"

Tails shook his head.

"Check this out. Doesn't this look kind of strange to you?"

Tails gestured towards the TV, and as Sonic took a look at the news reporter gesturing towards the roped-off area of the forest, his normal calm and collected demeanor was replaced with a look of horror.

"Sonic? Are you alright?" asked Tails, having noticed the look on the hedgehog's face.

"Um…yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

Sonic plastered a fake smile on his face, hoping that Tails wouldn't get any ideas.

"Alright, if you say so. Just let me know if anything's bothering you, okay?"

"Oh yeah, sure thing."

Tails continued to look at Sonic for a moment, unsure if his friend was really trying to hide something. Eventually, the two-tailed fox shrugged, focusing back on the TV as he changed the channel to something more interesting.

As for Sonic, he was desperately trying not to panic. Not wanting to attract any more attention from his friend, Sonic knew that he had to get out for a while, so he headed towards the front door, turning towards Tails as he had his hand on the door knob.

"I'm gonna head out for a bit. You gonna be okay on your own?"

"Yeah, I'll be good." said Tails, halfheartedly waving towards Sonic as his focus was on the show in front of him.

Trying to keep his hands from shaking, Sonic opened the door in front of him, heading through the doorway and shutting it behind him before rocketing off towards the city.

As Sonic ran through the city, hundreds of thoughts were swimming through his head, most of them consisting of him hoping that he wasn't the one who killed that man.

Pausing to rest for a moment, Sonic made sure he was hidden from view before removing his right glove and inspecting the bite mark on his hand.

You see, Sonic has a secret, one that not even his best friend Tails or even any of his other friends know about. He's not exactly the world-renowned hero and do-gooder that everyone knows him as, at least not since a week ago.

Ever since he was bitten by a rogue werehog that he managed to run into during a journey through Apotos, Sonic turns into one of those creatures each night, his mind going blank once the feral instincts kick in. Nothing ever gets in his way once he gains the power of the werehog, which unfortunately can lead to some wanton destruction. Thankfully, though, after a night where one of his transformations led to a hole in the wall of his house, he learned it was probably best to sneak out towards the forest every night once Tails was asleep so he didn't have to deal with having to explain the damage he caused.

He never remembers anything that happens during the night, though. The only way he gets any clue about what happened is when he wakes up in the middle of the forest once the sun comes up, disoriented and gloveless.

This morning in particular was sticking out pretty clear in Sonic's mind, though, because he woke up covered in blood. He was definitely shocked to find the state that he was in, but he was able to collect himself enough so that he could get home and get himself cleaned up. Getting all of the blood out of his fur proved to be an issue, though, due to how caked in it was. He did manage to get it all out, though, but the amount of time he spent in the shower led to some questions from Tails. Thankfully, though, at this point Sonic was a pro at making up good excuses, so he was able to get his friend off of his back, at least for now.

After getting a new pair of gloves on, Sonic sat in the kitchen, lost in thought as he wondered what exactly happened inside the forest last night. Of course, he was given the answer when the news came on, but it didn't make it any easier for him.

Anyway, this new revelation was starting to worry Sonic. He knew he had no control over his own actions when the werehog came out every night, so there was a good chance that anything that crossed his path while he was roaming through the forest wasn't going to leave. However, he had no idea that it was going to get as far as killing humans as well.

His head continuing to swim, Sonic sat down on the ground behind a dumpster, burying his head in his hands as he tried to process this new revelation. From what he could tell with the amount of the news report he actually listened to, the cause of death of the man hasn't yet been determined, so there was no way that the police would have had any idea of his existence inside the forest every night, and they wouldn't know to keep people away so that they would be safe.

Sonic knew, however, that he couldn't just reveal the fact that he was a werehog to everybody. There was no telling what the people would think knowing that their hero was a monster, not to mention what they'd think when they knew that he was the one who killed that man, though unintentionally.

Unable to think of anything that would help, Sonic decided that the best course of action would hope that the police would eventually get the idea and close off the forest.

Until then, he knew there was nothing he could do, so after standing up, Sonic rocketed off, deciding to head towards the crime scene to see if there was anything he could discern from what happened.