Once again, I don't own anything... except the plot... and the story... Characters are not mine...

The Savior of Light within Darkness

Chapter Six: The Stereotypical Tour

Sonic had come downstairs, where Zazie, Django and Otenko were waiting.

"Hey, Sonic, how's tricks?" Django greeted, raising his hand for a high five.

The blue hedgehog didn't respond nor did he return the high five. The boy slowly put his hand down, confused.

"What's goin' on, Sonic?" Zazie asked. Still no response. "This isn't like yer, Sonic! Come on, cheer up!"

Finally, he showed some type of reaction.

He rubbed his head, "Sorry guys… I couldn't sleep… So, I'm kinda beside myself today…"

The country girl thought about this for a minute before she suggested, "How 'bout we cancel we cancel this tour so yer can catch up on sleep?"

"You don't have to do that, Zazie… I… I'll be okay…"

"Yer sho' don't look fine to me," She disagreed, "Ah want yer to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed on this tour! Ah'll postpone it for an hour an' Ah expect for yer to be yer ol' happy self, 'kay?"

Sonic nodded sleepily, and then he went over to a table, sat down and went to sleep.

Otenko looked at Zazie, "What are we supposed to do in the meantime?"

"Eh, Ah dunno," She shrugged; the others went wide-eyed, "Why don't yer go play some cards or somethin'?"

She left and Otenko and Django looked at each other, sparks of war in their eyes.

-An Hour Later-

The blue hedgehog woke up, rubbing his eyes. He lifted his head off the table and looked around. Sonic saw Django and Otenko playing cards.

The boy looked at his last card stomped his feet in anger, "GRAAH! I'm an Old Maid!"

The sunflower laughed maniacally and held his leaf out. Django grudgingly went into his pocket, pulled out a five and gave it to Otenko, grumbling angrily. The sunflower smirked at his prize; Sonic sweat dropped.

"I win again!" Otenko exclaimed, his voice unusually high and raspy.

"Grrr! How come I can never win?" The boy growled.

"One word, Django: Luck! And you, to put it mildly, just don't have it!" Otenko explained, continuing to mock the boy by waving the five dollar bill in his face.

"I am going to get you so bad…" Django seethed.

The blue hedgehog couldn't help but chuckle at the whole thing. He looked behind himself and saw Zazie sitting at a table on his right hand side, pointing a camera at Django and Otenko; she must be taping it.

"Come on, Otenko, just one more game!"

"Nope, it just wouldn't seem right." His voice was back to normal. "I've already taken half of your money. Do you want to add something else to that list?"

The country girl turned the camera off, put it away and walked over to the two, "Sorry Solar Boy! There isn't gonna be one more game!"

"WHAT?" Django exploded, "But why?"

"Sonic's awake," She replied, pointing at the blue hedgehog, "Which means we can go on our tour! Or have yer forgotten 'bout th' whole thing?"

"I don't see why we have to go on this thing in the first place…" He muttered.

"In case yer didn't know, Sonic doesn't know diddly 'bout th' town, aside from th' hotel an' th' barrier, an' that's why we're going; to introduce him to them wonderful folks as well as th' shops. Now, yer can stay here if yer want to, but we're goin'!"

Sonic stood up and, along with Zazie and Otenko, left. Django stayed for a minute before realizing that weird things happen in this town and he got up and ran after them.

"Hey, wait for me!"

-Around the Town-

"The first place we have here is th' Fruit Shop," Zazie pointed to the shop on the corner, "The name of it is pretty self-explanatory, so, uh… Let's enter!"

"Zazie's not a very good tour guide, is she?" Django whispered to Otenko, who nodded; Sonic stifled a chuckle.

The four went in and the blue hedgehog looked around in awe; the place was clean and fruit was neatly stacked on shelves. Then he saw a girl standing at the counter; she wore a blue dress with short, white, puffy sleeves and a blue bow tie tied at the back. Her dark brown hair was curled and she wore her bangs in a Mickey Mouse fashion. She wore a dark brown turtleneck shirt underneath and brown shoes. Her eyes were an Emerald Green and they sparkled with serene happiness.

"Why hello there," She greeted, her voice soft, "I wasn't expecting visitors. Welcome to my shop, Django, Otenko and Zazie. How may I assist you?"

"Oh, we don't need help, Lita," Zazie waved it off, "We're jus' takin' this lil' fella on a tour of this town."

The girl looked around, but didn't see him.

Sonic sweat dropped and waved his arms, jumping up and down, "I'm right here!"

The brunette looked down in between Zazie and Django and saw the blue hedgehog, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there. When you said 'little fellow', you really did mean little."

He sweat dropped even more, "(Am I really that short?)"

"Sorry," She realized her joke could've offended him and quickly apologized, "So, what's your name?"

"My name's Sonic. What's yours?"

"My name's Lita. I'm the Earthly Maiden of this town and have been helping Master Django slay and purify Vampires for a long time now."

Sonic slightly cringed at the words "slay" and "Vampires" and pushed the "what would happen if she found out he was a Vampire" thought to the back of his mind.

"Although, it's not in a physical way," She added, "I opened up this shop to help him."

The Earthly Maiden walked over to the group and put her hand on his shoulder. Lita felt that his shoulder was cold and knew something was wrong. The girl punched the blue hedgehog without warning, contacting his jaw.

"Ow! What was that for?" He exclaimed, rubbing his jaw.

"He's a Vampire! Master Django, get the Pile Driver ready and I will get him ready to be purified!"

"Huh? Wait!" Sonic raised his hands in defense, his eyes wide.

"So long, dark Immortal!"

She readied her fist for another punch when Zazie and Django stepped in front of the blue hedgehog, defending him.

"What are you guys doing? He's a Vampire for goodness sakes!"

"Well, maybe he is," Django began, "But he's one of the few good ones!"

"What good Vampires; they're all evil monsters! I bet he's just waiting to sink his fangs into my neck! We've got to destroy him before it's too late!"

"I can't believe that you believe that horrible stereotype…" Sonic said.

The two moved out of the way to reveal the bleary-eyed hedgehog.

"Well, it's the truth!" Lita exclaimed, putting her hands on her hips.

"Stereotypes are lies… and nothing else… You see what they do and then you pin a label on them and never relent on your decision. You see only one thing that happens and label them (Vampires) as malicious bloodthirsty monsters, and then you go blind to everything else," He paused to swallow a sob, "My dad was not like that, I'm not like that. He sought to make peace with the humans and he even married one. I do agree that Vampires are evil and that they do horrible things—they even turned me into one—but keep an open mind and know that that stereotype doesn't apply to all Vampires… Over and out," He then left the Fruit Shop and went back to the hotel, thus ending the tour.

Lita slowly put her hands down and sighed in guilt. She was taught so many times never to stereotype, so why did she do it? She realized that she had lost a friend as soon as she made it, all because of her mouth. The Earthly Maiden was about to rush after him to apologize but Zazie stopped her.

"Ah don't think Sonic would want to see yer right at the moment."

"But, I want to apologize."

"You've done enough, Lita." Otenko stated, stoic, "Come on, guys. Let's go."

The three left and the girl allowed her head to drop in shame.

"(What did I just do?)"

-At the Hotel-

Zazie entered the hotel and called, "Sonic!"

She then thought about where he could be and snapped her fingers, "The balcony!"

She rushed upstairs and ran to the end of the hallway and saw the blue hedgehog sitting on the railing of the balcony with a depressed expression on his face.

"Sonic, are yer okay?" The country girl asked, walking up to him and leaning against the railing.

"Yeah, I guess…"

"Yer know, Lita felt really bad 'bout what she said… How 'bout we continue this tour tomorrow?"

"No… the town's not ready for me; every time they touch me, they attack," He stated, taking evidence from what Zazie and Lita did, "And I don't think they'll ever be…"

The country girl decided to change the subject, but what should she change it to?

"…Listen, Zazie…" The blue hedgehog began, "I appreciate you trying to cheer me up, but… I just want to be left alone for right now… There's nothing wrong with you, it's just… complicated…"

She nodded and left, leaving him to his own devices. Zazie didn't want to leave without cheering him up first, but she did. She hated seeing him like that, although it was her first time, but sometimes you just have to let it take its course.