Sonic the Hedgehog (Game universe)
Transformation
by: Kimura Ayame

Chapter 3: Kitalia

Knuckles could tell that she had been unconscious... she didn't even need to open her eyes. She could smell the unfamiliar surroundings. Judging from differences in her body awareness, she guessed that she had been caught in the blast that she had caused by destroying the Egg Cannon. It seemed such a stupid thing to do, now that she had suffered the consequences. 'Not like I can do anything about it now...' she thought, 'Might as well find out where I am.'

What she saw when she opened her eyes completely startled her. She was lying in a bed, in what was obviously a teenage girl's bedroom. She sat up, taking note of the scenery visible through a nearby window. It looked like Central City, one of the several cities connected to Station Square, and the home of the President.

As she moved, getting out of the bed, she noticed something else different, aside from being female. Looking down, she saw that she was wearing a black dress, with a skirt several centimeters above her knees, and a white crescent on the chest, following along the neckline. Her gloves were smaller than the ones she had been wearing, but the same style, spiked knuckles and all. For shoes, she had almost knee-high boots, with just a slight bit of a raised heel, that were mainly black with a golden yellow stripe, and they had the same metal plates on the top as her own shoes did. She could feel the underwear more than see it... which made her wonder why female anthropomorphs were so meticulous about their clothing. It wasn't like they needed underwear, but they wore it anyway. Even though it was most likely that nobody would ever see it. Altogether, she just didn't understand girls, and becoming one hadn't helped so far.

While Knuckles was examining her current outfit, a young brunette with clear blue eyes walked into the room, "Oh! You're finally awake."

"How long was I out?" Knuckles cringed as soon as the words were out. The sound of her own voice caught her off-guard. Of course, she knew it would have been stupid to expect to hear her old voice. But there was really no way she could have prepared for this new, almost husky alto. The thought briefly crossed her mind that she'd have to figure out how to sound more threatening than alluring with this new voice.

The brunette knelt down, touching one hand to Knuckles' forehead, "Two days... I found you out in the street, without any clothes... except for some shoes and gloves that were a bit too large." Satisfied that the echidna was not feverish, she stood up, "Where did you get those anyway?"

"They used to fit."

"Oh." The girl didn't really understand, but she chose not to pester her guest, "Anyway, while you were unconscious, I made some clothes for you."

Knuckles looked at her outfit again, then looked up at the human girl, "You made these?"

The brunette couldn't read the echidna girl's expression, and started to feel worried, "Do you like them?"

Knuckles shrugged, "They're alright." She actually hated the idea of wearing a dress, but she didn't want to insult someone who had just been trying to help. Especially an innocent teenage girl. She started to walk away, "Thanks for the help."

The girl gasped, "Wait! I haven't even introduced myself yet... I'm Christine."

Knuckles turned around, "Name's Knuckles."

Christine frowned, "Knuckles? Is that... your real name?"

The now-female echidna mentally kicked herself. Of course she couldn't give her real name. She took a moment to think, 'Now... what was that name again? That echidna girl that I met in those weird flashbacks... Tikal? Okay... Tikal... Kital? No, that sounds stupid. Kitalla... Kitalia...' She smiled, resisting the urge to snap her fingers, "Kitalia! Er... my name's Kitalia."

Christine grinned, "Nice to meet you, Kitalia."

Kitalia turned to leave again, "Yeah. Well, see you around, Christine."

"Wait! Can't you at least stay for dinner?"

Kitalia was starting to get annoyed. She turned around, glaring at the human, "Where are your parents, girl?"

Christine stared at the echidna as if she had just been slapped in the face. Tears slowly began to well up as she explained, "Th-they're gone... I live alone."

Kitalia groaned. Yet another case of classic Knuckles the Echidna foot-in-mouth. She sighed, her anger completely faded away for the moment, "Sorry."

"It's okay..."

Still standing in the doorway, Kitalia felt something she rarely felt... sympathy. The girl was living alone, with no family. Kitalia knew what that was like. She walked over to the now depressed-looking girl, placing a gloved hand on her shoulder, "When's dinner?"

Christine smiled, looking into the echidna's bright violet eyes, "You mean you'll stay?"

Kitalia smiled back, "Sure. I could use a decent meal. I just wanna know one thing..."

"What's that?"

Kitalia looked at one of her hands, "You have a mirror somewhere?"

--

Checking her reflection in the bathroom mirror, Kitalia noted with very little satisfaction that her earlier examination of her outfit was correct. She hadn't noticed before that her body had changed from pure red to slightly magenta-tinted. Also, she had a gold band wrapped around one of her dreadlocks. She wondered for a moment how Christine had managed that one. Moving on to her eyes, she noted that the irises had changed to a violet color, and they had become somehow larger and more expressive. Meaning that they were yet another thing about herself that had become annoyingly 'cute'. The heavily noticeable eyelashes would take some getting used to as well.

She wasn't entirely certain what she thought of her body. Still thinking like a male, her body was certainly attractive, but she didn't know whether she considered that a good or a bad thing. 'I guess I'll give that one some time... until I find a way to change myself back.'

Christine's voice called, "Kitalia! Dinner's ready!"

--

In the dining room, Christine and Kitalia sat across from each other at the small table. Christine had a small steak, a baked potato, and some mixed vegetables. Kitalia's plate was piled with five larger steaks, three baked potatoes, and a small helping of mixed vegetables that Christine had insisted that she take. Kitalia was also shoveling the food down with incredible gusto.

Christine watched Kitalia eat with an amused smile, "You like it?"

Kitalia spoke in a muffled voice, "It's great!"

"Thanks." Christine took a bite of her steak, "So... where are you from?"

Kitalia had already finished her food, and leaned back in her seat, "Angel Island."

"You mean the island that floats in the sky near the Mystic Ruins?"

"Yep."

"Wow... the scenery must be incredible from up there."

Kitalia shrugged, "Maybe. I'm not exactly the one to ask."

"You live there alone?"

"Yeah. It's my job to guard the Master Emerald. Without it, the island would crash into the ocean. It's really powerful... and its power can be dangerous when used incorrectly."

"So what brought you here?"

"I had some... other business to take care of. I'm still not sure how I ended up in this city..."

Christine put her silverware down on her empty plate, "So I guess you'll be going back to Angel Island." There was a tinge of sadness in her voice.

Kitalia sighed. This Christine girl really was lonely. "Someone has to protect the Master Emerald."

"Yeah, I guess..."

Kitalia stood up to leave, "Thanks for dinner, Christine. If you don't mind, maybe I could come back here next week?"

Christine looked startled, "You mean... you'd come visit me?"

Kitalia flashed her usual confident grin, "Why not? The Master Emerald can take care of itself for a few hours." Inwardly, she wasn't so confident. The Master Emerald had been stolen before, and could easily be taken again while she was away. But, for reasons she couldn't begin to understand, she currently felt more strongly about Christine's obvious loneliness than the Master Emerald's safety.

Christine was elated at the thought of actually having somebody visit her every week. "Thank you, Kitalia."

Kitalia waved as she walked toward the front door, "See you later, Christine."

--

Author's Notes:
I thought this one would be difficult, and I was pretty dead-on. Writing Knuckles, as a girl, and actually socially interacting with another person was a bit of a challenge. But I tried to make it work. Since you should all know I love talking about voices and characterization by now, I'd like to point out that I changed the original description of Kitalia's voice. Knuckles I still imagine as Scott Dreier, but Kitalia now makes me think of Jennifer Hale. I didn't even bother to think of what Christine might sound like... and no, she's not named after Chris from Sonic X. To be honest, there's not a whole lot to her character yet (and there may never be). She pretty much just exists at this point to force Kitalia into social interaction, so I didn't really care enough to change her name. What I did care enough to change was the heavy description of Knuckles/Kitalia's inner thoughts and feelings. I can only have Kitalia groaning about how feminine she looks/sounds/is named/etc. a limited number of times before it gets too pervasive. Oh, and I also changed the name of the city to Central City (back when I originally wrote this, it was only referred to as "the capital city"). Now that this chapter's done, we only have one of the four main characters left. And this time, I'm not even giving you a hint. Except that you can just go ahead and skip to the next chapter, regardless of whether I've gotten around to editing it yet...