Chapter 2: The Transformation

The teenager smiled and nodded. "I wanted to take a human form for a while, and wound up going to school. Call me Crimson."

"Are the other emeralds human also?" Silvond asked.

"Yes. Most of them are at school, as well. I was the red one."

Shade spoke up. "Was it the seven of you who sent us here?" The human nodded, and Shade looked at him. "Why?"

"We need your help."

"With what?"

"There's something trying to suck our energy."

"Is it Doctor Eggman?" Maurice asked.

"We think it might be. But knowing that doesn't help us at all," Crimson said.

"What do you want us to do?" Silvond asked Crimson.

"Find out what's trying to drain our power."

"We'll do that. One question that I would like to ask you is, why are we human? And why do we change into hedgehogs at night but become human during the day?"

"You're human because anthropomorphic hedgehogs don't exist in this universe. As for turning into your original selves at night...I have no idea why that happens."

"What about you?" Shade asked. "Do you change back into your emerald forms?"

"No, we don't."

"How come?"

"We don't want to."

Shade smiled. "Don't worry, Crimson. We'll help you and the others." Crimson smiled and walked away as the three teenagers left and walked back to their house. "So, now we know why we're here," Shade said. "What do you guys think?"

"It's pretty interesting," Maurice said. "Do the two of you like being human?"

"I'm used to it," Shade said.

Silvond just shrugged. "I like it."

Maurice nodded; so did he. The two went into their room and began to do their homework. After a few minutes, they heard Maurice yell in frustration.

"What's up?" Shade asked him as he walked into his brother's room.

"I can't figure this out."

"What homework do you have?"

"The math. I can't understand it."

Shade looked at the homework Maurice had. "I might be able to help you with that."

Maurice looked at him. "You can? Thanks, bro!"

Shade smiled. "Anything for my brother."

Maurice smiled and Shade sat next to him on the bed. Shade helped him on his math until Maurice could do the problems himself.

"Ask if you need help with anything else." Shade pat Maurice on the back before getting up and leaving.

He went back to his own homework. Silvond was doing his as well. Maurice frowned as he looked at the rest of his homework. He sighed and moved on to history. This was hard, and he'd been working on it for a few hours. Maurice put his head down on his bed with a sigh. He looked around and stood up, then walked into Silvond's room. Maurice nodded as Shade walked into the room. They looked at the clock and saw that it was almost six PM.

"We should figure out what to do about dinner," Silvond said.

They nodded and walked into the kitchen, getting dinner ready. They sat down and ate the dinner.

The three brothers ate a nice dinner, talking to each other about school. When they finished, the sun had set and the three groaned in pain as they felt their bodies shifting. Maurice fell to the ground, holding his head as his hair started to grow and fuse. Six quills were soon on the back of his head, curving down toward the floor. His ears shifted, growing out of his head as they became pointed like a cat's. Maurice felt fur growing all over his body as more quills came from the back of his shoulders. His body warped as his features were changing. The clothes he had on were reduced to shreds.

Maurice looked at his new body. He looked at Silvond and Shade to see that they were transforming also. Silvond had two long quills on the back of his head with five sticking up where his bangs were while Shade's six curved upward. Fur covered their bodies in a shower of white, and red-black.

Sonic smiled. "This is going to be interesting."

Silvond's head began to change as his eyes moved together, the nose extending off his face. He took his clothes off also, except for his gloves and shoes. Shade did the same and looked at the other two. They had all become anthropomorphic hedgehogs.

"We've changed back," he said. "Until morning, that is."

"Should we just go to sleep, or do something?"

Shadow thought about it and shook his head. "It's not that late. Let's head out and see what the Chaos Emeralds need us to do." Sonic and Silver nodded as they left the house, and Shadow looked at them. The three hedgehogs walked to the school and looked around for Crimson.