Chapter 1: Unexpected Changes
It's been months since Nebula and her friends joined and befriended the Sonic gang. After adventuring together for a long period of time, Nebula, her sister Selene, and their friends had now become a part of Sonic's large list of allies. In fact, now that Nebula and Shadow were dating, things had only changed for the better. Though Shadow would never admit it to Sonic, his life has gotten better and more stable ever since Nebula walked into his life and he had opened up to Sonic. In fact, not too long ago, Shadow had even moved in with Sonic at his new apartment.
It started with Shadow being in the same situation that Nebula was in; homeless. Like his girlfriend, he needed a place to stay if he was ever going to stabilize his life to be a bit more "normal." As it turns out, Sonic was in a similar situation and soon offered that they both live in an apartment and share the rent. Shadow, of course, was a bit hesitant at first. The two had never gotten along a whole lot before and their conflicting personalities could make life a bit more difficult for the both of them.
However, after some convincing on Sonic's part, Shadow finally conceded to Sonic's suggestion and moved in with Sonic to the urban jungle, both trying to fit in to a slightly more "normal" lifestyle.
With that being said, being more "normal" was not always as easy as some might think. Obviously the two hedgehogs would butt heads occasionally. With Sonics carefree attitude and Shadows hot-tempered nature, their arguments can get a little out of hand from time to time, and in some instances, the two hedgehogs would feel that the other had crossed the line in some way, making for some stubborn feuds.
Even though the two would fight, no matter how big or frequent they would get, there was always one thing that made them such good roommates; respect. The two had fought together under life-threatening circumstances for a long time now, and though they had started off as bitter rivals, they had now earned each others respect and admiration, now seeing each other as equals. Just like Amy had done for Sonic after they started dating, Nebula had taught Shadow how to give and receive respect in moderation. Shadow now saw Sonic as a close comrade whom he could trust with more personal information; Sonic saw Shadow as a slightly older brother figure, similar to how Tails looked up to him (or perhaps Shadow was more like a long-lost, brooding cousin?).
Sonic himself couldn't be more happy with this situation. Dating Amy wasn't as bad as he thought it would be and living with Shadow gave him some new perspective on life. They still went on life-threatening adventures with their friends (why wouldn't they? especially with an egg shaped maniac on the loose) but this new lifestyle has allowed Sonic to appreciate the finer things in life. Indeed, life on Mobius had been generous, and with the luck that he's been having, it seems like nothing too weird would happen to mess it all up… well that luck was about to run out.
It was past 10 in the morning. Contrary to what some may believe, neither of the hedgehogs were really much of a morning person since one could sometimes be lazy while the other was sometimes stressed out; besides, nothing interesting happens in the mornings. However, this morning, Sonic would wake up to something that was quite… different.
As Sonic slowly opened his eyelids, he stretched and gave off a powerful yawn. While this was happening, he heard a girl yawning in the room he was in. Ever alert Sonic looked around the room but found no one near him. Leaning back to yawn again, he realized that the "girl" voice was coming from him.
"Huh? What's up with my voice?" He looks down, finds out the source of the problem, and gasps. "Well.. that's weird."
As he looks down, he noticed that his breasts are big and he now has a more womanly figure. He's wearing red sunglasses on his head, a blue-green shirt that looks loose on the right side with pink lightning bolt logo, a bracelet on his left wrist, light blue shorts with a pink belt and red laced up boots instead his sonic shoes. His quills are now longer, more curved and flowy. After a few more seconds of… inspecting himself, Sonic finally realized that what he was seeing wasn't the result of some dream or delusion. As he realized the horrible truth, Sonic quickly began to panic, sounding like a girly little sissy.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" He screamed like a little girl so loud, that it woke up Shadow in the other room.
"Hey, what's the big idea Faker?" Shadow said as he walked in, not bothering to look in a mirror or look down. His voice was now so different, that Sonic wouldn't have recognized him if he hadn't used that "faker" nickname/ insult they shared with each other. Shadow quickly realized that his voice sounded different and looked down at his body in utter horror. "Wait a minute! What the hell's going on!?" he gasps in a voice that was still high pitched, but not quite as funny as Sonics.
He looks at himself and saw his breasts are big with white fur around his collar. He (or rather she's) wearing blue-green strapless crop top, pink sleeveless leather jacket, blue ripped striped leggings, and pink striped heels instead of his skating shoes. His quills are long like Nebula's except that it's a bit more curly, he doesn't have a pony tail, and his skin color is more peach,
"OH MY GOD! Why am I a girl?!" S/he screamed. Sonic could only look on in horror as Shadow walked into the room.
.
"Oh God, not you too!" Sonic said in shock.
"When did this happen?" Shadow said, looking at Sonic, seeming to expect a ridiculous explanation that involved Sonic being the cause of this.
"I don't know! All I can say is I just I woke up as girl with horribly designed clothes" said Sonic.
"Same for me," Shadow said, for some reason cringing at the clothes he was currently wearing.
"Shadow what are we going to do? We can't let anyone see us like this, especially Nebula and Amy." Sonic could only shudder at the thought of their girlfriends finding out this embarrassing predicament.
"Don't worry Faker, maybe Tails can help change us back."
"Houston, we have a problem," Sonic replied.
"What do you mean?" he/she asked.
"Well…you see yesterday when I was dating Amy while you were dating Nebula, I got call from Cream. She told me that Tails caught the flu and she's taking care of him until he fully recovers," Sonic answered.
"Oh great! Really great, that's what I needed to hear," said Shadow.
"Calm down Faker, besides maybe we can find a way to change ourselves back to boys without Tails' help" said Sonic.
"Exactly how are we're going to do that?" he/she asked.
"Well, what I've got in mind is simple. All we have to do is re-trace our steps from yesterday and see what might have caused this," said Sonic.
"Oh, that's a great plan!" Shadow replied sarcastically. "In fact, it's so brilliant, I think I should give you a medal!"
"...You know, it's really hard to take you seriously now that you look and sound like that," Sonic rebutted. Shadow simply huffed and cast Sonic an annoyed glance. "Besides, I don't see you coming up with any plans oh great and fearless mastermind."
"Very well Faker," Shadow said in mild defeat, "but we need to change our names so we don't have to explain to our friends about this situation. This includes our girlfriends. Also, we must remember not call each other Fakers in public. Otherwise anyone who recognizes our normal selves will definitely know what's up."
"Good call," Sonic said, eager that Shadow was willing to go along with his plan, even though it was admittedly not a great one.
"It's all part of the precautions. Anyways, do you have any suggestions for what our aliases should be," Shadow asked.
"Let's see…" The two sat in thought for a few minutes before a small smirk came across Sonic's face. "Well, since your dark as night and full of brooding mystery, I came up with the perfect name for you called... 'The Jackass'" Sonic responded.
"Seriously?! NOW?!" Shadow yelled, clearly not in the mood for Sonics usual childish antics.
"Just kidding," said Sonic laughing. "You really need to lighten up more. But seriously though, how about I call you... Nights"
"Now how did you come up with THAT name?" Shadow asked with an eyeroll.
"Well you see," Sonic began to respond as though it were a serious question, obviously missing the sarcasm; "Since your fur is still a really dark black, I thought it was pretty fitting. Besides, 'Nights' sounds like a more feminine version of 'Shadow' when you think about it."
"Good enough for me" Shadow scoffs, slightly more impressed that Sonic knew the word 'feminine' rather than the actual explanation itself. The new name sounded different enough from his own so as not to attract too much attention. He/she then started wondering what name to call Sonic. He/she considered suggesting the name 'Phonie' but found it too obvious and too close to Sonics childish sense of humor. Then Shadow (or Nights as she shall now be called) began to break Sonics name into syllables. 'So-nic. -nic… Nicole.'
"Say, how do you like the name Nicole?" Nights asked.
"Hmm….I like it, but it sounds too… serious." Sonic responded. "How about you call me Nikki for short?"
"Alright," Shadow said.. "From now on we are Nicki and Nights."
AN: So there's our first chapter. Originally, I wanted no part of this story. The original draft was originally written by my cousin on her DeviantArt page, Jazmir97 while she used OCs from her friend GothNebula aka Nebula the Hedgehog. Then when she showed me what she had done, she suggested that I be the one who fixed her story so she could avoid grammar mistakes and OOCness. I was hesitant at first, but after some convincing on her part, I decided to re-write the story for her and I must say, I'm pretty happy with what I've improved on. I re-worked the characters to make them as in-character as possible and re-wrote some of her story aspects so they would make more sense in the Sonic Universe. As for GothNebula's characters…. well, you'll see soon.