I shot up in bed and frantically tried to take in my surroundings. Everything had an almost demonic reddish glow about it, with shadows dancing and flickering across the walls. It also felt considerably warmer since when I had gone to sleep. I was about to attribute it to just still not being accustomed to my fur until my nose picked up the unmistakable odor of smoke. It didn't take the senses of a wolf to figure out what that meant. I glanced upward and noticed that the entire roof of my hut was on fire! Considering that my humble abode was made of wood, I promptly decided that hanging around in here any longer was crazy and prepared to escape posthaste.
Thankfully, the fact that I had fallen asleep with all my 'clothes' on, the only possessions I had in this place, spared me the need to go rummaging around in this blazing deathtrap for any personal belongings. Instead, I bolted out of bed and made a mad dash for the door, praying that my smoldering shack would hold up for another two seconds.
Of course, it didn't.
About a foot from the door, the entire place suddenly began collapsing around me. Not wanting to discover how fire-resistant my body was (Richard Pryor was more than enough evidence for me, and he didn't even have any fur!), I dive-bombed towards the exit and made it out just as my hut got leveled by the flames.
As I got back up to my feet and looked around, I quickly decided that I was probably better off staying in the hut.
The entire village was on fire, throwing the entire night sky into the same lurid glow that was in my former living space. Unlike mine, most of the huts were still standing. However, they appeared to be slowly deteriorating in condition, with one of them collapsing before my very eyes. Of course, this wasn't going on with no one noticing: the children were all running around in a total anarchy of panic and confusion. Some were fleeing into the woods, others were trying to play hero by putting out the flames (yeah, right... How are you gonna do that, genius? Pee on it?), but most were simply running around in circles, screaming or crying for their moms. Amidst all of the confusion, I was able to spot Shaun trying to reclaim some substance of order and get everyone evacuated.
"Shaun!" I shouted out, running over to the deer, "What's going on!? What's happening!?"
"I don't know!" Shaun snapped as a reply, obviously too worried about getting everyone out safely to be concerned with pleasantries, "This place just started going up in flames! I don't know how it... Oh, shoot..."
Shaun suddenly trailed off and began staring like (pardon the blatant pun) a deer in the headlights at something behind me. Easily concluding that whatever he was looking at couldn't have been good, I nervously turned around, only to discover that, as unbelievable as it may seem, the fire was the least of our worries.
Walking through the flames ravaging our village was an entire army of Eggman robots. There were about ten Egg Pawns like the one we just barely managed to trash out in the woods, and they were not alone. Joining the entourage were a few flappers (the flying robots in Sonic Heroes, not girls from the Roaring '20s, stupid), a dozen or so of those more realistic-lookin' guys found in Sonic NextGen, and, most shocking of all, about fifteen robots that I recognized from another Sonic continuity: SWATbots! To top things off, they all seemed to be under the command of another classic baddie: the ever-not-so-popular Eggrobo from Sonic and Knuckles! In other words, it was fourteen of us, most who weren't even old enough to drive yet, vs. nearly fifty of them, a 'greatest hits' collection of Eggman's goons!
I don't know about you, but I hardly call that a fair fight.
"Wha... Wha..." I sputtered like an incoherent idiot, "We gotta get outta here! Where's Nate!? Where's Liz!? We gotta find all the kids and run!"
Shaun was about to respond, but we were both cut off when our two other friends ran right past us. Nate was twirling his pole around like a madman, ready to strike at anything metallic, while Liz was doing improv with a burning branch she picked up off the ground (I guess even she realized that a pocketknife wasn't gonna help...).
"We'll hold these jerks off!" Nate hollered, "You two get everyone out safely!"
Neither me nor Shaun were exactly in the mood to argue, so we ran off and tried to round up all the kids. This, of course, was a lot easier said than done. Since no one exactly wants to stand still during while there's a huge fire and a bunch of robots attacking (who would?), we found that we were constantly recounting the same kids and that there had to be at least a few unaccounted for. Regardless, we rounded up as many as we could and got them a short distance out of the village until the flames themselves couldn't even be seen.
"Whoa, hold on..." I panted like... well... a dog, "Shaun, how many kids are you counting?"
"Well... Um..." Shaun mumbled, trying to think, "There's us two, Nate and Liz are holding the robots off... At least, I hope they are..." he began counting the ones right in front of us, "And I'm counting five here."
"WHAT!? ONLY FIVE!?" I yelled, "That must mean there's still five in that village, then! We have to go back!"
"We can't risk it!" Shaun retorted, "I'm sure Nate and Liz will find them!"
I looked at Shaun, and then back towards the village. Although the flames were out of sight, the eerie glow continued to resonate from the area and the smell of things burning was not being lost on my canine nose. Heck with the risks: I'm not leaving them behind.
"You wait here with the ones we got," I told Shaun, "I'm going back."
"Are you crazy!? You can't do that!"
"Watch me," I quipped, running back into the inferno. I'm pretty sure I heard Shaun mumble something I'd rather not repeat, but the line was lost on me, anyway. I needed to find the rest of the kids and that was final.
As I approached the village, I nearly ran right into Nate. He was currently trying to make his own escape, and he was carrying an unconscious Liz over his shoulders!
"Nate!" I yelped in surprise, "What happened to Liz!?"
"SWATbot zapped her with a stun gun," Nate explained, "at least, that's what I think it was... She's still breathing, and that's all that matters. We have to get outta here!"
"Wait! Did you see any kids while you were in there? Shaun and I only got five!"
The sudden look of shock on Nate's face clearly told me 'no'. He whirled around and frantically scanned the blazing nightmare for any sign of non-robotic life. I was the first to spot something, however: I saw the same tiger cub from before... Getting dragged off by Eggrobo!
"IEEE!!!" the poor kid cried, "PLEASE!!! SOMEBODY HELP!!! MOMMY!!!"
I glanced over at Nate; it was obvious he also saw the cub. However, he was frantically shifting views from him to the unconscious Liz. It was clear that he was stuck in a dilemma: whose life was more worth saving, the tiger cub's or Liz's? I, on the other hand, was much more focused on the life in front of me, not next to me. How could someone do that to a little kid?... How dare that robot do that to that kid!
At this point, something within me awakened.
Slowly, my vision started turning red, not from the flames, but in pure rage, and everything started to simply fade away: all I saw was the kid and that blasted robot. I felt the fur all over my body began to prickle up and my heart began beating faster and faster. Suddenly, I fell to the ground and began running, on all fours, to my foe... My victim. Before, I may have looked like a wolf, but I was still human, but not now. I could feel it... Now, I was pure animal, pure beast, pure monster.
I can't remember much of what happened after I gave into my animal instincts, but the feeling was unforgettable. Nothing could stop me from reaching my target. I think about four Egg Pawns and six SWATbots tried to get in my way, but I was unbeatable, untamable. At one point, I felt electricity pulse through me, possibly from some robot using those stun guns Nate mentioned, but they couldn't stop me. Rather, it made me stronger; what was meant to paralyze me simply invigorated me. A few robots tried to stop me with brute force, but I just plowed through them, motor oil and circuits feeling like ecstasy for my rage. I was shot at, punched at, clawed at, but no about of pain or blood loss would stop me. Not until I destroyed that monster.
Eggrobo didn't even stand a chance. He pitifully tried to simply drop the cub, hoping that would somehow quell my wrath. I repaid his effort by leaping at his 'jugular', sinking my fangs into his almost non-existing neck, completely unaffected by the massive voltage that was leaping from his open circuits and directly into my body. About ten more robots piled on top of us, trying to pull me off their leader, but I refused. At this moment, my adrenalin had reached its breaking point. My vision completely went red. There were just noises: explosions, screaming, the sound of my claws on metal, and then... nothing. Complete and udder stillness, quietness, and darkness.
It was perhaps the most euphoric rest I had ever gotten.
I woke up to a throbbing headache and a nausea that probably rivaled the hangovers usually reserved for the worst of drunkards (and the Kennedy's). My vision was still blurry, but judging by the huge collection of green and blue blurs that were entering my retinas, I figured that I must have been lying face-up, looking at the morning sky through a canopy of leaves. I tried to get up, but something held me back down.
"Whoa, now... Settle down, mate. You still need your rest."
I recognized that voice: it was Nate. Finally, my eyesight started coming back together and I was able to see my companion kneeing at my side, holding 'my' canteen to my lips, letting me take a sip.
"You took a real beating out there," Nate began as I struggled to swig some water down, "you should've seen yourself go! You were leaping around like... like..."
"... Buck at the end of The Call of the Wild?"
Okay, that confirmed that Shaun was nearby.
"Um... Right..." Nate mumbled, not impressed with the Boy Scout's literacy knowledge (although, having read that book, I'd have to agree that his analogy was pretty accurate), "Seriously though, Matt, what got into you? You practically took on an entire army of robots by yourself!"
"I... I don't know..." I groaned, slowly sitting up and supporting my back against a nearby tree, "It was like... Like something just rose up in me... I don't even think I was... human..."
"Well, none of us are really 'human' at this point, but I get your drift."
Suddenly, I remembered why I had risked my life to begin with: the kids!
"Nate!" I suddenly shouted, sitting up straight (and causing a very sharp pain in my muscles), "Where's that kid!? Did I save him!?"
Before Nate could reply, the tiger cub I had nearly decapitated Eggrobo for came walking up.
"Yep! Ya saved me!" the kid declared, "Not bad for one of you big'ums... But my name's not 'Kid', it's Mike, got it?"
I risk my neck to save this brat and this his how he thanks me!? Before I could say some choice words about gratitude, 'Mike' walked off to do whatever little kids do after someone, you know, saves their life. Jerk.
As Mike went on his way, I took the time to take in my surroundings. Wherever we were, it wasn't near the village: it looked like we were in some rest-stop along the side of a medium-sized dirt road. I guess someone must've dragged me all the way here. I'll have to thank them when I find out who.
To my left was Shaun. Although I definitely didn't see him do much fighting before my little berserk-fest, he actually looked rather battle-torn. Must've come back and fought after seeing me run off to do the same. His Boy Scout vest was all ragged at the bottom, and one of his antlers had a half-inch or so snapped off. The biggest clue that he got into combat, though, was that his fur had black singes all over it, indicating where (laser) blaster fire had just barely gazed him. So Shaun actually fought... I didn't know he had it in him.
I glanced left at Nate again; he took an even worse beating. He had his right arm wrapped up in a crude bandage made out of leaves (probably the work of Shaun and his 'amazing' survival skills), and there was a huge gash running down the side of his left thigh. It definitely looked like it would scar, but at least the fur would cover it up. I wonder: if we ever got our human bodies back, would he still have that scar?
That's when I realized I hadn't even seen what had happened to me. Looking downward, my left arm was in a similar leaf bandage as Nate's, and my right arm was all black and smelled like smoke, either from the flames or all the electricity that got shot through my body. My legs were also badly cut up; not enough to scar like Nate's, but enough to still be slightly bleeding and getting my fur all sticky and messy (note to self: find body of water and wash off ASAP). Although I couldn't see my back (what do I look like, a contortionist?), the fact that I winced whenever I felt around back there seemed to imply that it was badly beaten. Finally, my tail got a bit of a haircut: it now looked haphazardly styled, with sporadic 'almost-bald' spots, and I coulda sworn that it was a touch shorter... I think the end got nicked off!
I then looked around to see who else was there. Besides Nate, Shaun, and Mike, there were the other five kids that Shaun and I rescued, but no one else. Liz wasn't even there.
"Nate..." I murmured, "Where's Liz? And the rest of the kids? Didn't we rescue?..."
"Liz is fine," Nate assured, "she's sitting on a log over there; you just can't see her from your position. But the other kids..."
His head bowed down, like he was paying respect to the dead. Not good.
"When you kicked Eggrobo's butt, all the other robots simply stopped what they were doing," Shaun explained for Nate, "it was like they were waiting for orders or something... During that pause, we saw a few of those flying goons holding the four other kids! But before we could react, all the robots retreated... Faster than we could keep up... And the kids... They were taken with them..."
"But don't worry, mate," Nate comforted, "we're gonna get those kids back. If those robots didn't want to kill them, they must be held prisoner somewhere, right?"
There was a low, almost inaudible laugh, coming from where Nate had motioned that Liz was. It wasn't a cheerful laugh or anything, but more like a sarcastic chuckle, or the kind of sad laugh someone makes when they're about to tell someone something terrible, pitifully assuming that the laugh will somehow lessen the blow. Leaning forward as far as I could, I was able to see our only female companion, sitting on a log like Nate said, laughing. She looked the worst out of all of us. While she had no scars or burns to speak of, her scales, which used to practically shine in the sunlight, were now dry and flaky, like mud that has dried up in the sun. Her chap skin also had tons of cracks in it, causing very small drops of blood to be coming out of seemingly every pore in her body. Ew.
"Come on, Nate, who are you kidding?" Liz asked, letting out another sad sigh of a laugh, "You watched SatAM... What does Robotnik do to his prisoners?"
A dawn of realization came amongst all of us. We knew what she was talking about: the roboticizer.
"But... But come on!" Nate protested, "He wouldn't do that to a bunch of kids, would he?"
She didn't bother to counter his argument; she was right and she knew it. I turned back to the kids that we managed to save from that awful fate: there were clear looks of sadness and confusion on their faces. They knew something terrible had happened to their friends, but they didn't know what.
It was the end of innocence for all of us: this was what the Sonic universe was really like, and we wanted to go home.