Two Beasts

HOORAH FOR SONAZE I DON'T OWN ANYONE! Oh, and by the way, this doesn't take anything (Well, except for one thing) from the Sonic Unleashed plot.

Day 1

Sonic woke up with his back against a tree.

Now, NORMALLY this would be regarded with concern, since most people would freak the Hell out if they woke up in some random forest, not to mention waking up in the Forest of the Beast, but this was actually normal routine for Sonic these days.

His reasoning? He was the Beast.

The residents of Station Square all knew about the Beast. He had never been seen, mostly because they were too scared to actually go in the forest, but He had been heard. Everyone was too scared to enter that place, so they put up signs advising people to stay away.

Every night, Sonic snuck to the Forest of Beast before dusk, making sure nobody saw him. There, he reverted to his Werehog form, thus creating the Beast. Then, at dawn, he woke up as a regular hedgehog and quickly ran back to his house, getting as much sleep as he could before getting up again. Yes, Sonic's friends, and Amy, all thought about Sonic's lack of sleep lately. But none of them managed to make the connection that the Beast only showed up at night, never when Sonic's around. He really couldn't get sleep when he's in his Werehog form, he's nocturnal then after all, so he just tried to cope with it the best he could.

Sonic got up, yawning as he did, and quickly began the run back to his house. After a couple of minutes, he was out of the Forest of the Beast and jumping into his bed again, really for some more sleep…

… Well, at least before his phone rang.

Sonic groaned angrily and got up out of bed, trudging with heavy steps over to his phone. "Hello?" he said into the phone, trying his best not to sound tired.

"I hope I didn't wake you up from your apparently needed sleep, Sonic." said a familiar voice on the phone, a chuckle following after.

"Oh, hey Blaze. What gives? The Sol Emeralds missing or something?"

"Not exactly, I have them right here. I figured out how to use them. I'm, right now, standing in the middle of Station Square."

"Really?" Awesome." Sonic followed that sentence with a yawn, finding difficult to express joy at the moment.

"Well, I could use a tour of the place. You mind?"

"Oh no, not at all. I'll be right there."

"Thanks." Sonic could have sworn that he heard Blaze yawn right after.

"You too, huh?"

"Yeah, I guess I'm not really much of a morning person. Anyways, see you there. Bye."

"Bye." Sonic then hung up the phone as he struggled the process of remembering what just happened. After a few minutes, he finally remembered the entire thing, shaking off his drowsiness. But the thought that stood out the most was one thing Blaze said. I'm, right now, standing in the middle of Station Square, she had said. That meant she was here. Finally, Blaze had managed to come back without putting both their worlds in jeopardy. At this realization, Sonic got up and headed out the door, racing down to the middle of Station Square. Soon, he saw the lavender cat standing exactly where she said she was. Sonic screeched to a halt before he hit her, then composed himself. "What do you know, you weren't lying." he said, a grin on his face.

"Who said I was lying? Nice to see you in person again, Sonic." said Blaze, an identical smile appearing on her face. The two shook hands, both happy to see each other again after so long. Blaze hadn't changed a bit.

"Alright, where would you like to start the tour, your highness?" Sonic asked, following with a mocking bow to Blaze.

"Hm, I'm not sure… Race you to Cream's!" said Blaze, dashing off immediately after.

"Oh, no fair!" Sonic called after her, taking off in pursuit after. As soon as he caught up, he dashed ahead of Blaze, thinking that she was now struggling to keep up. "Not so fast without advantages, huh Kitty Kat?" he said to himself, not noticing the trail of flames that had quickly caught up with him.

"Think again, Blue Blur!" yelled Blaze, now right next to him. Sonic looked at her in surprise-She hadn't been that fast last time!-then smiled.

"Oh, it's on Kitty Kat!" he yelled back at her, as he watched her smile back. It remained like this for some time, the two running neck in neck, until they were on the home stretch. As soon as she crossed the finish line-A tree directly in front of Cream's house-Blaze skidded to a stop. Sonic… Well, he wasn't so lucky. He had ended the race by face planting onto the ground because of some random stick.

"I'm pretty sure that was a tie, Blue Blur." smugly said Blaze, looking down at the hedgehog before he rose to his feet.

"I guess so. When did you get so fast, Kitty Kat?" asked Sonic as he dusted himself off.

"Hey, sometimes it gets boring standing at a dusty old altar, guarding the most powerful emeralds that my world has ever seen! I've gotta do something, and running just seems like the perfect thing to do." explained Blaze, looking around. "Well, this place hasn't changed much, has it?"

"Yeah, it's almost the same thing you saw last time. Except that Tails expanded his workshop and Faker moved here." said Sonic, who knew that Blaze had pretty much met everyone who lived here. She pointed over to a house between Cream's and Shadow's, right across from his house.

"That's were I'll be staying for a while. Looks like I'm Cream's new neighbor."

"Yeah, and mine Kitty Kat. My house is right across from there." said Sonic with a smirk.

"Really? Isn't that a coincidence, Blue Blur. Anyways, how is everybody? I'm dying to know how Cream is." she asked Sonic, starting to walk down the road once more. Sonic began walking side by side with her.

"Not too bad, actually. Egghead hasn't struck since your last visit, not to mention everyone's busy with other things. Tails has been in his workshop most of the time, working on some new project of his. I swear, if that kid stays in there for one more day, he's going to turn into Gollum!" stated Sonic, earning a laugh from Blaze.

"Marine's been busy too, maybe we'll have to deal with two Gollums!" she said, both of them laughing. "What about Amy?"

"Obsessive, as usual. Once I found her hiding in my closet! She was standing there, saying that she dropping her IPod in there, which I saw in her pocket immediately afterwards, being the incredibly perceptive person I am." Sonic proudly said, earning an eyebrow raise from Blaze.

"Uh huh."

"… Will you believe after she started smothering me to death?"

"Now that sounds about right." she said with a chuckle.

"Knux has basically been the same hot headed, gullible, loud mouthed… Dare I go on? Guardian he's always been. Shadow, Rouge and Silver really haven't done anything of notice lately, and finally, Cream has been doing all sorts of stuff. Helping out her Mom, hanging out with Amy, playing with Cheese… But mostly she's been helping Tails." after he finally finished saying what everyone had been doing for the past while, he looked up ahead of the path. As fate may have it, they were right in front of the Forest of the Beast.

"Hey, what's with all the signs around here?" asked Blaze, looking slightly confused.

"That's the Forest of the Beast. You don't want to go in there." Blaze looked at him, still looking confused.

"Why not? I'm sure you of all people could handle this… Beast, I guess."

"Well, truth be told, nobody's really supposed to be in there in the first place. Not even me. Before, people came in and out of that forest all the time, even though they weren't supposed to. I guess the Beast just… I don't know, scared them away. Nobody goes in there anymore." Blaze looked at him again.

"So… Nobody ever goes into that forest? There's, I don't know, no psychos who decided to live in there?" she asked, putting a bit of edge into her voice.

"No, there's not a living thing in there, except for the Beast." Sonic decided not to tell her that he was the Beast, that would just freak her out.

"Hm. Okay then." said Blaze, a thoughtful look appearing on her face. For a moment, Sonic could see the Blaze he had first met standing in front of him, not to the Blaze he had come to know. After a while, Sonic finished showing Blaze around, and by the time they had returned, it was already late afternoon. Cream, who had been outside playing with Cheese, saw him and Blaze coming up the path and immediately ran over and hugged her. That was when Sonic decided to take his leave, saying goodbye to Blaze and returning to his bed. He had to be ready for tonight, no matter who had come into town. After all, it would be just like any other night of dealing with being a Werehog…

… Right?

R&R!