Hey there sorry it took so long to write these chapters I have been getting ready for midterms in college. So I have been busy studying to hopefully ace them.
"Growl bark grrrr bark (Sonic is trying to say something)."
Sonic writing something out.
Chapter 3
Night at Rome
Behind the corner of the square Sonic was in pain again hidden from view of everyone in the square. This time Sonic was not delirious with pain as he began his second of many other changes that he would be making through out the adventure. So Sonic could feel his body growing and changing as time progress through the now nightly transformation. At one point Sonic began to scream, but quickly that scream turned into an anguished howl.
Well all that noise brought the vendor that sold Sonic those chilly dogs earlier toward street that Sonic was on. That vendor when he saw Sonic who had just finished his transformation, saw a whimpering beastly monster on the road next to the square.
Sonic who now notice the chilly dog vendor standing over him. So logically Sonic tried to speak to him.
"Whine grrr whimper, woof (What did you put in those chilly dogs, buddy?)," Sonic incoherently asked.
The poor vender was like any other person and screamed out with fright, "M-m-MOSTER!!!"
Unfortunately for Sonic his hearing is now much more sensitive than normal. So to him that yell was as loud as a fog horn in his ears. Trying to muffle the sound to a more manageable level Sonic had his hands over his ears. While Sonic was slightly disoriented by the ringing in his ears a small mob had formed at the entrance to the square.
"Woof bark grrr (Nice lungs there.)" said Sonic. "Whimper whine (Could you turn it down?)"
The small mob that saw was a monstrous creature that was barking at them. This only intensified the fear that they had when they saw Sonic in his current form. So now with true mob mentality the group of people charged at Sonic with killer intent.
Well Sonic saw that they were charging at him with intent to do harm to him; so like anyone else in that situation he run away for all his worth. Though when he was running down the street he notice that he was only a little faster than a normal person, and not the insane speeds that he usually runs at.
"Why am I going so slow right now," the questioning thought that Sonic had while running away from the mob. "I need to go faster than this if I want to get out of this unscathed."
Just as Sonic completed that thought a stone was thrown at him, and hit his back making him lose his footing to fall forward. Well not wanting to fall on his face Sonic thrust one of his hands in front of himself. Then instinct started to act on itself by this action, because Sonic started to run on all fours. This got Sonic's attention for he was now faster than the mob of people behind him. Though this still didn't get rid of the mob behind him. Noticing an opening just ahead that led to the entrance of a alley.
The mob notice that Sonic turned into the alley just ahead. They all had thoughts that they would be able to rid the world of the monster, because that alley is a dead end with no way out. When they turned around the corner they found nothing there, but a few over turned trash cans.
A few minutes earlier.
Sonic just rounded around the corner into the alley. He now noticed that the alley that was to be his escape was a dead end. Sonic knew that he couldn't get out in time before the mob came into the alley. There was no place to go, no man hole to crawl down into, and no place to go but up. The lowest ledge to grab onto was about 9 feet up. With no other options Sonic leaped up and stretched as far as he could to grab the ledge above him. Though to his surprise his arms were actually stretching to grab the ledge above. Pulling himself up Sonic was out of sight just as the mob ran into the alley.
As the mob began to look around the alley in search of the monster that was Sonic. While the mob searched below Sonic was doing his best to no make a sound that would alert them that he was just above them. After what felt like an eternity to Sonic the people of the mob started to leave one by one; thinking that they were all just imagining the monster.
Shortly after the last person left Sonic let a sigh of relief, and leaned back only to fall onto a flat roof. Getting up Sonic now had moment to examine himself since that agonizing pain, and the trouble that had followed after that. Looking at his hands Sonic immediately noticed was that his hands were huge compared to normal, with each finger tipped with an menacing looking claw. Now Sonic was glad that he didn't replace his gloves earlier. Then were his arms gone was the peach colored fur, for now was a dark navy blue, and instead of the slender shape of his arms were now big and bulky. Defiantly not liking what he just saw Sonic looked up sharply, and closed his eyes.
"Whine whimper (It's not real.)" whispered Sonic quietly to himself, but only to hear animal sounds coming from his throat. "Bark! (What!)"
At this point Sonic was hoping that what he saw a moment ago was only an illusion. Keeping his arms at his sides Sonic tipped his head to look straight down at himself. Opening his eyes Sonic was thoroughly disappointed that he was wrong about what he saw was not an illusion. For he saw his once peach spot was now a silver blue, and the quills around it was the dark navy blue, not the cobalt blue that he was proud of. Then there were his legs that had changed a little, they were a little thicker to probably help support his upper half weight, and the color was that dark navy blue. Now came the last place that he could look without a mirror was his feet; the basic look didn't really change, but there was a metal spiked band were the white band on his sneakers was, and underside was spiked making his shoes cleats. The only thing that seems to have not of changed was his white socks that he always wears with his shoes, but they sort off looked out of place with all of the changes that Sonic had gone through.
Thinking of what he sounded like a moment earlier Sonic tried to make words come out of him, but only got doglike sounds out. Rubbing his head in frustration Sonic noticed that he no longer had quills on his person, but soft fur covering his entire body. Now Sonic felt completely defenseless, because he didn't have his speed to get away from trouble, nor his sharp quills to protect him.
A sudden sound nearby made Sonic realized that this was not the best place to stay put. Remembering the slums of the outer city on how they were disserted would be much better than here. Sonic started towards the far side of the roof in the right direction. Looking over the edge of the roof Sonic notice that there were people down there, and he would cause a panic if he went down there. Looking around Sonic noticed that there were lamp posts high above the street that ran hopefully near to the slums. Still he being the same hedgehog in Sonic's way of thought, Sonic jumped into the idea of quickly swinging lamp post to lamp post without a second thought. Well Sonic is one lucky guy, because his plan worked. For Sonic's new arms stretched the rest of the distance that his jump missed, making that way of travel work.
After an hour of traveling by lamp post Sonic had finally was at the entrance to the slums of the city. Walking into the abandoned part of the city Sonic had learned that his normal few minute run could be hours by a normal person standard time. This was an eye opener to him now having to basically run at a similar speed as everyone else. Now the slums entrance was no longer visible from were he was standing.
Sonic's sharper hearing heard the sound of aggressive creatures getting ready to attack whatever came around the corner. Looking down at his now clawed hands Sonic decided to charge in and fight off the aggressors. Jumping around the corner Sonic swiped with his claws the nearest creature, without really looking at what he was swiping at. Now looking the group of creatures Sonic could see that they were not wild animals, but glowing blue and purple monsters. The monsters taking their opponents' distraction jumped up to bite Sonic; well all but one missed. The one monster was holding onto Sonic's right forearm tightly. Sonic let out a yelp of pain when he was bitten. Now Sonic was fighting with his all to get away alive from these monsters. The last of the monsters that was slain was the one that was on his arm, which was killed in a way that made Sonic cringe at what he did. The thing is that Sonic bit the monster with his own jaws crushing the spine.
Leaving the battle field Sonic was slightly bleeding, but it would stop soon. Walking off Sonic started to look for shelter for the night. When Sonic started to hear the sound of a battle that was nearby. Being the hero that he was Sonic started to run towards the sound as fast as he currently could. At about a block away from the battle Sonic jumped up to the roof to see what was going on.
In the clearing in front of the building Sonic was on was Knuckles fighting Eggman's robots, in front of some sort of shrine. They must have been fighting for about an hour, because Knuckles looked tired and beat up. In the back of the robot force was a robot with a viewer with Eggman looking through it. There was a pause in the fighting for a moment.
"Knuckles I know that you are the one that had to have destroyed my robots earlier today," accused Eggman towards Knuckles. This made Sonic worried for his friend that was being blamed for what he did. Eggman continued his accusing Knuckles with, "I know that you have the Chaos Emerald that my robots collected this evening, but I am a reasonable man. So if you give me back my Emerald I will walk away without harming you."
"I told you Eggman that I don't have any Chaos Emeralds," panted Knuckles.
"Maybe I should tell you with what I did to Sonic earlier," commented Eggman. Sonic's ears perked up in finding out why Eggman though that he didn't take the Chaos Emerald in the first place. "And then you will sees that I mean business."
"Like you could do anything to Sonic, Eggman," retorted Knuckles.
"Well then you see I did do something to that meddlesome Hedgehog. I finally killed him."
"Impossible."
"Yes it is. You see Knuckles I drained Sonic of all of the chaos energy from him. Then when I was done I dropped him from space back down to Mobius."
Sonic who loved to foil Dr. Eggman's plans, spatially those that involved him. Jumped from the roof towards the large group and made the landing in front of Knuckles. Knuckles of course was getting ready to fight what he thought was a new foe, but Eggman's reaction was in absolute shock that Sonic was still alive.
"Sonic how in the world did you survive the landing back onto Mobius," questions the now frustrated evil genius.
Knuckles was shocked that this monstrous looking creature was his friend Sonic. "Sonic," Knuckles asked in a cautious tone.
"Woof (Yep.)," said Sonic as he turned his head towards Knuckles with a smile and a thumbs up. Knuckles flinched slightly at now seeing his friend's new face.
Relaxing slightly Knuckles teased, "Can you fight like that or are you helpless at the moment? Cause we're going to have to fight all of them off."
"Grrrr (That's not a problem)," growls Sonic getting ready for another fight for the night.
"Well, well, well," chimes Eggman. "It looks like Sonic can no longer communicate properly. Eggbots, ATTACK THEM BOTH!"
All of the robots in the area started to charge towards Sonic and Knuckles. Knuckles was doing his usual beat up a single robot at a time thing. Sonic on the other hand was shredding two or three robots at a time with his claws. With a single hand Sonics claws tore through the metal of one or two, and with both hands Sonic at times could take down four at once. Well the robots quickly dwindled down until the screen viewer robot was left.
Deciding to have a last laugh at Eggman Sonic removed the Chaos Emerald from one of the spikes of fur on his head.
"YOU HAD MY CHAOS EMERALD HEDGEHOG," screamed Eggman at Sonic. Before Sonic's free clawed hand ran through the robot destroying it.
"So you're the one that took Eggman's Emerald," stated Knuckles with a sigh. "Why didn't you say anything that you are the one that took it?"
"Grrr bark woof (I can't talk.)," barked Sonic literally.
Realizing that Sonic really couldn't speak in a way that Knuckles could understand. Knuckles then began to look at the Chaos Emerald with a keen eye, but refused to touch it when Sonic offered for Knuckles to hold it. When Knuckles was done he was surprised that Sonic was not effected by the Emerald in this state, because any living creature that touched them at this point they would become very weak at this moment. Then remembering what Eggman had said about Sonic being drained of ALL of his chaos energy, might be why he wasn't being effected.
"Hey, Sonic," called Knuckles as he ran up the steps of the shrine. "Come over here, and bring that Chaos Emerald."
Not really knowing what was going on Sonic followed his friend at a quick pace. Knuckles notice that Sonic was running on all fours going as fast as he could in his current form.
Not wanting to pass up a chance to turn Sonic's own words against him Knuckles said, "I'm waiting Sonic."
Sonic who didn't like being reminded that he was slow by his standards just snorted in displeasure.
"Hey I only did it because," explained Knuckles. "This might be one of the only time that I will actually be faster than you. Now come on we need to put the Chaos Emerald in this temple."
Having caught up to Knuckles Sonic realized that he was now taller than Knuckles by almost 2 feet. Hearing about the Emerald got Sonic thinking that Knuckles needed the Emerald got it out to give it to him.
"You're the one that is going to carry the Emerald Sonic," said Knuckles backing away from the Emerald, like it carried the pelage. "So come on after, we're done we can get some sleep here."
In the middle of the shrine was a pillar in the single room. On the top of the pillar was an indent in the stone large enough for a Chaos Emerald to fit in snugly.
"Put the Chaos Emerald in the indent on the pillar," explained Knuckles.
Carefully Sonic put the Chaos Emerald into the indent that was a perfect fit for the Emerald. After the Emerald was in the resting place Sonic started to look around to see if anything was happening. Nothing was happening, but Sonic felt this strange urge rising up inside of him. His body then stopped listening to his own conscious and went on pure instinct. Throwing back his head Sonic angst his will let off a howl that sounded like the whole city could hear it.
"Aaaarrrrrrroooooooo," the shrine echoed the sound of Sonic's howl. The sound seemed to have had an impact on the shrine. For all of the walls and floors became clean, and there behind the pillar was a large wall decorated framed mirror sparkling like new.
Still not knowing what he currently looked like, Sonic ran towards the mirror. Looking at his new face for the first time Sonic was frightened of himself. His peach muzzle was now a silver blue, just like his chest. The once emerald green eyes that he had, had dimmed to a forest green making them look feral. Sonic opened his mouth, but instantly regretted doing so. For now he had menacing looking fangs that had replaced his incisors, but thankfully not his molars.
Knuckles looking at the shrine that seemed to have been restored by placing the Chaos Emerald in the pillar and Sonic's howl. Though when his friend did that Knuckles was afraid that Sonic lost all control of his body and would attack him next. Watching Sonic go to the mirror to examine himself, made Knuckles wince for Sonic didn't look nice at all. This made Knuckles wonder on how his friend ended looking like a monster. Then a thought popped into Knuckles head when the thought of the draining that Eggman did to him gave him a idea of what happened, though explaining it to Sonic might prove difficult. For he was curtain that Sonic would have questions for him, but with out his ability to talk would prove difficult. Though Sonic was in control of his body, that maybe, just maybe that he could write what he wanted to sat to Knuckles by writing it out.
"Sonic," yelled Knuckles at Sonic snapping him out of looking at his new image, and looking at Knuckles. "I have an idea why your like this, and a way to communicate what you want to say. Lets step outside for a moment."
Sonic who has been wanting to tell Knuckles of what Eggman did to the Chaos Emeralds barreled out the door to the dirt covered ground. Knuckles followed chuckling at Sonic's antics, for if there was one thing that loved to do almost as much as running was talking. Finding a stink Knuckles gives the stick to Sonic to use, and Sonic not getting what the stick is for was about to throw it away, when suddenly.
"Don't throw that stick Sonic," snapped Knuckles at Sonic. "Just use it to write in the dirt on the things that you need to say."
Now getting the idea Sonic begins to write out, Eggman didn't tell you everything about the draining.
This got the Echidna's attention immediately. Looking Sonic dead in the eye he waved him on to explain further.
It's true that he took the chaos energy from me, began Sonic. But he didn't tell you that he also took the Chaos Emeralds energy too. By using me as the converter for that energy for his machine.
With wide eyes Knuckles now had good picture of what was happening, and none of it was really good.
"Sonic, if what you say is true then we are all in big trouble," Knuckles said solemnly. "Your transformation might be from that your body no longer has any chaos energy in it, thus making it susceptible to the chaos energies around us. So hopefully by first light you be back to normal, but you will most likely transform back to what you are right now time from time. Since you were the one that the Chaos Emeralds' energy was forcefully extracted from, only you can put each Emerald in its shrine. Until then you will have no chaos energy of your own. I also believe that Eggman has unleashed the dark beast that sleeps in the center of the plant, and the power of the Chaos Emeralds keep it there. Now that they are powerless the dark beast shale awaken."
So all I have to do is find the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic writes once more on the ground. And put them in a shrine like this one.
"Just so you know Sonic," points out Knuckles. "That all the shrines are all around the world, but the Emeralds should be somewhere near the shrines."
With the adrenalin now out of Sonic's system now felt extremely tired. Opening his jaw wide at an yawn passing through his jaws. Turning back to the shrine Sonic walks drowsily inside. Knuckles already guessing what the werehog was up to followed him inside. After this nights adventure they deserved a good nights sleep, because after all the rest of the questions could wait until morning.
