Disclaimer: I don't own Sonic, Sally, Rotor, Tails, Bunnie, Antoine, Robotnik and all the rest. No, not even Knothole…
The 'Sonic the Hedgehog: In Castle Robotnik' book is a Sega owned copyright, published by Virgin Books and written by Martin Adams.
--Cue Special Sonic Unlimited Opening Theme: Sonic CD – Sonic BOOM--
CHAPTER 1: Terror In The Nite
Unknown Location / South Island
The sky overhead is thick and dreary, on this dark and stormy night.
From the broiling black clouds that looked like sprawling smoke monsters came the booming thunder that blotted out the mobian moon. Jagged forks of lightning lit up the night skies in garnish electric blue as raindrops the size of light bulbs splattered into the ground, making the primordial soup that is very wet and thick mud, and very dangerous to boot.
Palm trees swayed in the howling winds, and unfortunate owls, desperately clinging on to them with cramped feet, went 'Wooooo, woooo, wooooo!' rather pathetically. The commotion was scaring off even the quickest and stubborn of lightfoots or bunnies if you will, migrating clucky birds and even the mud loving porkers.
Let's face it, only a complete maniac would be outdoors on a night like this…
And on this Halloween, whilst the rest of Mobius is covered in a fierce and maddening thunder and rain storm the likes its ever seen for a very long while, Sonic and his chums are chilling at his place and watching, what else? Scary movies!
Sonic's Pad / Knothole Village / 21: 57 PM
The blue spiny hedgehog was of course the hippest, streetwise and cool dude around and was the one who came up with this Halloween movie night in, to which everyone but Antoine, a well known fraidy cat coyote, happily agreed to wanting nothing but some peace and chill time before taking up their inevitable mantle(s) once more…
Sonic and his freedom fighter chums cowered in the darkness, their eyes as wide as dinner plates, with their bodies being lit only by the sinister blue flickers from the TV monitor set they were engrossed in. just in time, Sonic managed to stop squealing by stuffing a pawful of chilli tortilla chips into her mouth, whilst helping himself to another chilli dog.
Needless to say the act resulted in a stern, annoyed but silent response from the princess, to which the now south-island famous just shrugged and laughed coyly. The tense silence was dissolved by a rare moment of humility by the hedgehog, as he hugged Sally as an apology and speedily helped clean up the mess at her feet, before kicking back up his legs on the sofa and getting back into the movie.
"Begone, hideous nightmare-type being from our overpaid and totally useless special-effects department, untroubled by intelligence or creativity!" snarled the actor on the screen. Well, no all right, that's not what he said but you he just wanted to! What he'd actually said was, "Begone, foul fiend of the night! Drink the blood of the living no more!"
"Oh, that's just gross…" Sally whimpered before she could stop it, gulping down the last of her unexpected snack refill as her small bushy tail stood upright, as if some practical joker had just zapped forty thousand volts through it. "This is really bloody and abit scary, are you sure that Tails should be-"
"Yikes!" squeaked the fox in question, laying down on the floor in front of her and next to Sonic. This was of course Miles 'Tails' Prower, also known as Sonic's twin-tailed foxy best friend, fellow long time adventurer and all-round cute little dude. "Look at that! He's got fangs bigger than Rotor's!"
"Ahem we walruses do not have fangs,' Rotor sniffled in mock grumpiness. "We just have very, very long, sharp, pointy tusks. All the better to – eat you all up!" With that he lunged from his one sitter at Tails, who took super-fast evasive action sideways. Rotor carried on right past him and flipped a slice of tuna and anchovy pizza into his mouth with ease, which was what he'd really been after this time.
"Now look, you guys! Can we all chill out and have some quiet here?" Sonic complained, tapping a red-sneakered foot irritably on the floor. "I mean, I'm really enjoying this and this is my pad…"
"That I give to you and Tails personally may I remind you mister," Sally cheekily chimed in, causing Sonic to sprout a 'whatever' looking posture at first before deflating and giving her the wink and thumbs up, leaving a proud and smiling princess, a cocky blue speed demon and the rest of their chums to finally get back to the movie at hand, hopefully anyway.
"Sally does bring up a good point sugah hog ya know, about Tails watching this film… I mean… Ugh… Just look at all that blood!" moaned Bunnie in concern, all the while trying to shield her and Tails' eyes from the video. Sonic looked over at her, a despairing look on his face. For a kickass rabbit girl with half her limbs metallised, Bunnie's wimpometer was bouncing suspiciously down in the red area tonight. That's girls for you I guess, he thought.
"The dude's a vampire," Sonic pointed out. "What do you expect him to do? Go to the mall and get a meat sandwich from the deli? He's just eating on the hoof, that's all. Rolling buffet ya know. Besides this is cool with you Tails man, right…?"
"Of… course… I mean, of course Sonic! It's just a movie…" the fox stuttered, before feigning over with mostly fake confidence and brushing off the movie in a cool Sonic like fashion with a toss of his small paw.
"See nothing to it Bunnie girl. Sal…" Sonic mused, and the latter was about to refute and reply when the screen went black for a few moments, leaving the room in utter darkness, then a hideous wailing scream filled the room. All the animals – yes even Sonic! – almost jumped right out of their teenage and pre-teen, in the case of Tails skins.
The largest cry was from Antoine, who'd been cowering behind the sofa and taking sneak peeks out at the TV monitor throughout most of the film. "I… Mi doesn't want to watch this anymore! C'est est too scary," he complained. "I'm gonna have bad dreams after watching this! It's even scarier than the one we saw last week… Que s'est-il appelé? The Scrunchback of Dotty Name?"
"Oh yea, that was righteously cool! I loved that part where the girl Desmeralda is Quasirobo's shirt with a wok," Sonic grinned, which earned him two disproving glares from the girls present.
Tail's eyes were glued to the screen, wagging his twin tails ever so slightly, fascinated and scared at the same time. The video you see was very dark and it wasn't clear what was happening so he'd had to get real close in order to take a good look.
sighs "He's gonna get square eyes doing that…" Sally whispered to no one in particular, shaking her head at her adopted nephews' antics.
The cloaked vampire suddenly burst into focus on the film as lightning flared out behind him in dramatic fashion and Tails leapt two metres backward, landing flat on his back. He had his paws firmly clasped over his eyes.
Sonic stood over him, shaking his head at 'pixelbrain's' antics. "Garlic pizza?" he suggested.
"Well I think I will be off to my bed now…" Antoine stammered out, shaking like jelly all the while as he edged closer and closer to the bedroom exit. His eyes were like giant sized saucers now but with his added tiredness he looked surprisingly old and goofy looking. "Although I'll probably get soaked in the rain. Good heavens, it's raining cats and dogs out there," he said whilst taking a peek out of the drawn curtains outside.
"Why do people say that?" Sonic wondered aloud.
"I have no such a clue. They could have said it's raining hedgehogs and foxes, or coyotes and princesses, I suppose… Don't ask me," Antoine droned in his 'I'm so proud to be a French speaker' voice.
"Be sure the vampires don't get ya Antoine sweetie!" teased the newly relaxed Bunnie.
"There is no such a thing as real vampires," the coyote sniffed derisively. "Everyone knows that, I read a book about it once in fact…"
"In glorious French no less I bet", Sonic mocked.
"As est so happens it was! Stop your laughing at me you – you – you foole!" Antoine snapped in return, pouting. Sonic just rolled his eyes and shrugged, turning his head back to the movie and managing only a slightly vertical arm motion to wave his cowardly comrade onwards and farewell.
Despite Sonic's obvious lack of interest the others all turned to Antoine, curiosity lighting up their eyes. Even Sally's standards could keep up with Antoine's in the book reading department and he was smart contrary to what his cowardice radiated out 80 or 90 per cent of the time, so he knew about stuff and more so.
"One reason why people used to believe in them was because once, a long, long time ago, people used to be buried before they actually were dead, by mistake. 'Cause they got some kind of nasty lurgy that made them all look horrible like and dead. Then they used to claw their way out of their coffins," the coyote said in posh French relish, getting more and more into the story now he knew he had an audience awaiting. Tails for one was getting more scared by Antoine's tale than he was just minutes before by the film.
"So they had blood all over their hands and faces, and when they were… dug up," Antoine said, pronouncing those last two words v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y to gross them out, "People thought they were vampires. But of course they do not exist so we and mii shall all be fine!" he said, reassuring himself seemingly in the haste he spoke, coaxing towards the exit door once more.
"Oh yuck, that's horrible! I don't think we wanted to know that Antoine! Especially Tails, he's too young to hear such things!" Sally complained, sending a scornful look the coyote's way whilst the others also had mild looks of disgust at the images the tale brought forth to them.
"It's true stuff though. I read too you know…" Rotor piped up, not that anyone seemingly heard.
"It's all right, I'm just going," Antoine gloated. "Tomorrow I'll tell you what was in the second chapter of the book. Heh, heh…"
"Wow, who know that Antoine actually could tell a somewhat decent tale and a horror one to boot?" Sonic chuckled, causing Antoine to scoff and look away, head held high.
Always mocking me… what a foole, Antoine thought as calmly took his leave and left the humble abode just as another flash of lightning crackled overhead, I can be brave sometimes… Yes I can! Just like my papa was…
He then vanished into the darkness of Knothole Village deep within the bowels of the Great Forest, and moments later they heard the front door downstairs slam slightly, and then nothing.
"Ding dong mousier Antoine has left the building!" Sonic exclaimed.
The video ended soon afterwards. Despite their maturity for their age(s) for the most part, they were all a little unnerved and twitchy after what Antoine had brought forth, and the storm was still raging outside. Sonic asked them all them all if they'd like to stay the night
since the weather was so bad, and everyone thought it was a good idea. Although Bunnie did scold Sonic for not offering the same to 'poor Antoine' which was met with a shrug and an 'it was his own choice to leave' like reply.
Sonic especially thought it was a good idea because he'd seen where Sally had 'secretly' stashed the remains of the tortilla potato chips and a huge pack of marshmallows when he'd gone to get drinks from the cooler earlier, and he was still kinda peckish after that last chilli dog… Sonic and slumber parties seemed to go hand in hand.
Rotor, though, decided to go home. "I don't mind wet weather," he pointed out to calm his friends' protests. "I am a walrus after all, I love it! It reminds me of home…" He lumbered out into the night, ducking his whiskered head through the doorway, splashing happily along the huge pools of rainwater afoot.
The animals seem settled down to sleep, dozing on Sonic's beanbags and sofa. It wasn't easy to drop off though, because the storm was nosier than a grunge band practising next door and visual thoughts of vampires stirred varied queasiness among them all still.
Before they knew it there came a rap at the door. Bang, bang, bang! BANG!
Instantly Sonic jerked into wakefulness from his cool bedspread and looked at Tails to his side, who predictably had both paws over his eyes and was sat up in the bed hoping that whatever was at the door would go away. Sonic wasn't afraid though, and he walked right up, sped down the spiral staircase and flung open the front door.
Wind and rain howled into his face in a sudden storm squall and messed up his spines he thought. He could barely see the huge, sinister form fitting the doorway, its terrible twin fangs gleaming in the full moon suddenly revealed by an ominous parting of the dark clouds. The lumbering thing towered over him and reached down as if to grab in its stretchy amorphous limbs.
"Better come quick, Sonic. It's Antoine," the voice of Rotor said grimly, breaking the visual nightmare. "He's been bitten by a vampire…"
END CHAPTER
And yes I have no real idea on how to word Antoine, as you may have noticed from 'Tides of Light, in Chaos! I never did any French…
So any suggestions are welcome XD
I hope you like this little adaptation with a few twists and stuff of my own thrown in so far especially those who had read the original book!.
See ya next time folks. smiley face