When Something's Broken, Fix It…

Chapter 7

By: Soniclover28

(Sonic's P.O.V.)

My body ached and my ears were ringing. I tried opening my eyes but I felt too weak. I was dizzy and nauseous.

My wings hurt… My arms hurt… My legs hurt…

Everything hurt.

I tried in vain to tense up when I heard noises, and my ears gave the slightest twitch to the sounds. My nose burned from the smell of chemicals and humans. I groaned hoarsely and tried moving again, but still found that my body was unable to function properly.

I was finally waking up enough to process that whatever I was laying on was not the warm blankets I had last slept on.

No.

It was definitely not blankets.

I finally gained enough sense to raise my heavy eyelids, only to close them again in pain. Wherever I was, it was very bright there. Blinking to adjust to the intense light, I looked around and saw different humans standing all around me. I tensed and my lip curled back into a snarl as I glared at the furless creatures. I tried standing, but my legs buckled and I fell to the ground again in exhaustion. Grunting from pain that seared through my head, I tried standing up again as the humans made a move to pull out something flat and start moving a little stick around on it. I arched my back and hissed at them, this time actually standing for about thirty seconds before collapsing again.

I lay there and rest for a moment before getting up one last time. I bunched up my muscles before they had a chance to give out once more, and I lunged at the humans standing only ten feet away. However, just as I came within inches of them, I hit something hard and stumbled back in shock. The action caused me to fall to my right as my limbs started aching again, and I just as I thought I'd land on a human, I pressed up against some sort of hard and thick barrier.

I was trapped.

As soon as I realized it, I roared in rage. Some of the humans jumped back as I did so, and I rammed into the barrier as hard as I could head-first. Expecting my horns to burst through the glass, I rammed it once again, but to no avail. I let out a startled breath, and lashed my tail in panic.

I was trapped.

I reared up on two legs, fear pumping my adrenaline, and slammed my front paws against the glass as hard as I could. Nothing happened. I spun around and swung my muscular tail to slap the glass.

I hawked up some of my venom in a last resort, and spat it at the glass. To my disappointment, the substance was a yellow color—meaning I was either unhealthy or too weak to form actual poison. Anger flooded through my system, and I screeched loudly as I reared up once again and hit the glass with everything I had.

Not a scratch.

I was trapped.

I wailed in despair; a sound that sounded foreign in my throat.

I was trapped.

I clenched my teeth in anger and defeat, lowering my head in shame and sadness.

I was trapped.

(Tails' P.O.V.)

I clenched my fists as the mutated hedgehog before me had finally showed his sign of giving up. My heart had lurched when Sonic had cried out in agony, as well as my two friends' hearts beside me. Amy was practically crying a river, and Chuck was shooing away the scientists that had started the animal's panic in the first place.

"Go! Can you not see that he's not going to move until he feels safe again?!" Chuck spat.

"But he is merely an animal. Surely he could not know what the true feeling of being sa-"

"That 'animal' saved this world more times than you can count, and you have the gall to say he doesn't know the meaning of being safe?! I think it's the idiots like you who started this whole problem in the first place! It's not his fault he's like this! He's scared! He's confused! For chaos' sake, leave him alone!" I burst.

The room cleared out pretty quickly after that.

"Um… I-if I may…" I whirled around to see another scientist standing at the doorway.

"What?" I snapped.

"I-I have a message from Project Shadow and Agent Rouge on the antidote for your friend," the man sputtered.

"Let's hear it," Chuck replied.

"Y-yes, of course…" The scientist nodded, pulling out a clipboard and flipping a few pages. "Here it is." I snatched the paper from him and read the letter.

'Dear Fox and Friends,

The antidote is 88% complete. All we need is a bit of Sonic's blood and some of his venom. I wanted to ask your permission before doing this; we have to knock him out in order to get the venom. If we do it while Sonic's awake at all, he could spit the venom at us and give us serious injuries. When one of our scientists was helping load him in the truck he was transported here in, Sonic's mouth was oozing with the poison. The scientist accidentally touched it and now he's undergoing some… changes.

My point is; Sonic has to be in a deep, deep sleep in order for that venom in him to be inactive as well. The problem is this: We don't know how long he will be asleep. Something as different as this must be treated with extreme care, we know, but his system is different from regular animals. Anyways, think about it and give us an answer when you feel comfortable.

Signed,

Shadow and Rouge'

I reread the letter to make sure I hadn't been day dreaming the whole thing.

'So… Sonic could go into a coma…?' I thought.

"What does it say, Tails?" Amy asked, wiping her tears away.

I stayed quiet for a moment before turning and smiling. "They're just saying that the antidote is almost done, and they just need a few more ingredients," I explained cheerfully, "Sonic'll be back to normal before you know it."

Amy gave a sigh a relief and Chuck nodded in approval.

They had bought it.

I turned and borrowed a pen from the scientist to sign my name and my answer to the letter on a piece of paper, and handed it to the scientist.

"Th-thank you; I will take this to Project Shadow immediately," The scientist stuttered and left the room. I nodded and turned back to my mutated brother.

"C-can… Can I have some alone time with him…?" I squeaked. Chuck and Amy nodded in understanding and left the room silently, shutting the door behind them.

I walked up to the glass containment and kneeled down on the side that wasn't covered in spit. Inside the glass, curled up into a ball of despair, was the most fierce, yet pitiful, looking creature I've ever seen. I placed my hand on the glass and tapped it tentatively. Sonic's head lazily lifted up, fur bristling, and he snarled at me before laying back down with his back turned to me.

I carefully walked to the other side of the glass cube, and I tapped the glass there as well. Sonic irritably opened his eyes and glared at me, giving off a warning growl. I got down on my knees and sat as still as I possibly could. The hedgehog stopped growling and tilted his head a bit at me in confusion. He hesitantly got up and took a careful step forward. Then another. And another.

I didn't dare move as to not startle the timid creature. The sheer size of my brother made it tempting to look up and take in all his qualities, but I still sat perfectly motionless. He sat down merely inches in front of the thick wall that separated us, wrapping his tail neatly around himself almost cat-like, and bent down so that he was nose to nose with me.

Sonic was a whopping seven feet long from his nose to the tip of his tail. His eyes were wide, and his pupils dilated to the size of a small rhombus.

For the first time I got to observe him more closely. Sonic's muzzle was stretched out almost wolf-like, the skin by his lips forming a slight bump where his over-sized teeth hung. They looked similar to that of a saber tooth tiger. His eyes were a golden yellow that seemed to almost shine even in the piercing light. Horns decorated his head from just in front of his ears to where the first few quills started to stick out of his head. Sonic's ears were larger and more curved and similar to the ears of a mobian bat.

His backside was morphed as well. I stared in awe at his leathery blue wings. They were dragon-like; decorated with only the finest and thickest skin. His tail was more than twenty times longer than its original length; being almost longer than the body it was attached to. It was muscular as well, and I took note to stay away from it as I realized it must be used for constricting prey.

Curious, and nervous that I might startle him, I slowly made a move to raise my hand. Sonic tensed. I carefully placed my hand on the glass, and after a moment of deathly silence, Sonic raised a giant paw and placed it on the opposite side of the glass. I concluded that his paw was almost two feet long in width. I slowly put my hand down, and so did Sonic.

I raised my other hand and brought my fingers to my thumb. The shape of my hand was similar to a mouth. I put my hand up to where Sonic's mouth was, and slowly opened my hand again. Sonic tilted his head. I repeated my movement again, this time opening my mouth in the same movement with my hand.

Sonic seemed to understand.

He almost opened his muzzle up, but stopped himself just as I caught a glimpse of his tongue. I opened my hand and mouth again slower, and Sonic kept pace with my mouth. Soon his jaws were as far as they could go, and even though it was open enough to give Sonic the message, my jaw dropped even more when I saw what Sonic was actually hiding under his muzzle.

His teeth were not aligned as a normal mammal's teeth at all. It represented more of a shark than anything. Sonic's mouth was penetrated by hundreds, maybe thousands, of different sizes of teeth. There were some smaller than a grain of rice, but there were some bigger than a good sized stone as well. In the midst of it all, though, sat a nice, fat, pointed tongue. It rolled out of his mouth, hanging over the bottom lip by about two inches.

On the roof of his mouth, however, behind the mass of teeth, I spotted two valves that were opening and closing simultaneously after almost every second. Drops of a yellowish-white substance were oozing from them before rolling down the sides of his mouth and back into his throat.

I closed my mouth and hand, and Sonic closed his oversized jaws once more.

Sonic truly was a monster… For anyone that didn't know him, he would seem savage. My heart ached for the hedgehog, and I lowered my head to stare at his giant paws. I slowly got up, and walked away from the cube. I wanted to stay longer, but the G.U.N. soldiers would be coming for him soon. I took one last glance at my brother before walking out into the hallway, and what I saw broke my heart.

Sonic was lying down with his nose pressed up against the glass. His paws were over his face, and I couldn't see his expression, but what I could see was his back hitching up and down.

Sonic, the fiercest mutation ever to exist since Godzilla, was crying.


(Sonic's P.O.V.)

A few hours after that fox creature had left; I was found pacing circles around my glass cage. I was hungry and there was nothing but air to devour. Aggravated at the food deficiency, I snarled at nothing in particular.

I froze when I saw some humans suddenly walk through the door that my containment was in. Two of them were carrying a large cooler in between them, and they placed it just in front of my cage. A little treadmill that ran from outside of the glass wall to the other side of it suddenly appeared on the floor. The cooler's lid was popped open and a little slot opened in the glass wall. I didn't bother trying to escape; there was no way I'd fit through that. After the cooler was rolled into my cage, the slot immediately closed again.

I cautiously stepped up to the cooler, aware of the humans watching my every move. I looked inside the cooler to see…

'Actual food…' I thought.

I sniffed it skeptically, realizing it was actually a few hours old. I snorted in disgust, and gave a menacing growl at the humans. After a few seconds, hunger took over my actions, and I started gulping down the meat in swift bites. I stopped in mid-chew when I tasted something other than animal carcass in my mouth. I spit out the contents in my mouth onto the floor and nosed around in it until I found what I was looking for.

Pills.

Three yellow pills were embedded into the half-mush meat. Fearing I'd already eaten some meat with more of those things in it, I pulled out another strip of carcass from the cooler and tore into it, finding three more pills.

'Oh, no…' I thought.

I dug through every piece of meat, finding pills in every one of them. I had already eaten half of the contaminated food; what would it do to me…?

I whipped my head around to growl at the humans staring at me with round eyes. I could see them muttering something to each other, but I was unable to make it out through the soundproof glass. I snarled, aggravated that I couldn't even eat a meal without being tested or watched.

The scientists eventually left after seeing that I wasn't going to eat the food they had tried to give me. I was pacing again, finding that it was the only thing I could do at the moment.


After a while, my mouth started to feel sticky and dry.

'So… they'll give me food but no water…?' I thought, grunting in irritation.


My head was throbbing and my nose was so stopped up I couldn't even breathe through it. My limbs were shaky and I kept coughing up goopy venom. It was supposed to be nice, clear and very thin; now my venom was a thick yellow and looked more like infected mucus than anything.

Then it hit me.

'That's why they're keeping me dehydrated,' I thought, 'They don't want me to be able to use my venom anymore.' I would've reacted by snarling or snorting, but I just lay down on my side and tried resting to preserve my energy.

Just when I was about to doze off, I heard the 'swoosh' of the glass slot opening again. I lazily raised my head to see that the slot was tall and wide enough for a human to walk through, but still not quite big enough for me. To my alarm, a human actually had the gall to walk inside, holding something behind his back. I immediately rolled and sprang to my feet, but stumbled sideways from a wave of dizziness that hit me. I leaned against the glass wall, taking nervous breathes.

Through my hazy vision, I made out the figure of the human coming closer to me, and I tried my best to flare my quills. I attempted screeching, but got choked up and lowered my head to spit the mucus-like substance out of my throat. Trusting my judgment, I ran forward, and huffed in triumph when I rammed into something softer than glass.

I had hit the human.

"Ahh!" It yelled, as I pinned it to the glass wall with my rounded horns. However, I yelped in shock when something stung my shoulder blade. I released the human from my crushing grasp, and I started to feel light-headed. My pupils grew to cover most of my iris, and only a thin rim of gold was seen from afar. I felt so…so…

Calm…

I sat down on the ground, unable to hold all of my weight up at once. My head was unconsciously tilting sideways as I noticed a yellow figure come into view. At first I thought I should be scared, but that safe feeling entered me again, and I just drowsily looked down at the figure before me. It tentatively reached its hand up towards me, and it froze when I lay down on my stomach.

I couldn't process a thought.

I rested my head on my giant forepaws, my ears starting to grow lopsided. I tiredly looked up at the creature before me, whom had placed his hand on my forehead. He was tense. I could tell just from him touching me. Everything was growing fuzzy and soft. My eyes were heavy, but not from exhaustion. A nice, milky, warm drowsiness swept through me, and everything slowly blurred and faded black.

(Tails' P.O.V.)

When my brother's eyes finally closed, I couldn't help but get a lump in my throat from when he had looked up at me. His muzzle was very pale, and his eyes were glassy and hollow. Dried mucus crusted around his nose, and his breathing sounded ragged and difficult.

'It's not fair!' I thought, 'He doesn't understand! He doesn't deserve this!'

I stepped out of the way as six gun soldiers came and hauled Sonic onto a rather large gurney, and wheeled him off into a deeper part of the laboratory. Now all that was left to do was wait and inform the others of the news…

If I could muster up the courage to tell them…


"You… You what…? You what?!" Amy screeched, grabbing my chest fur and wrenching it closer to her. "What if they experiment on him?! Chaos knows what those idiotic humans are capable of!"

"Um… We're right here, Amy…" Chris chirped nervously.

"Shut up, Chris!" Amy snapped, whirling on the young boy. Chris looked taken aback, his eyes widened and he raised his hands defensively in front of him.

"Amy, calm down…" Chuck told her.

We were in a separate room in G.U.N. headquarters. The place where Sonic was being treated was only a few doors down. Once Amy had seen Sonic being wheeled into the large room full of different machines and gadgets, she had immediately shot me a glare and pulled me into this closet-like room. Chuck and Chris had shortly followed.

"Don't tell me what to do, when he's the one going behind our backs and handing Sonic over to those humans!" Amy burst, pointing to me.

"I only did it so they could find the cure! They're almost done with it; all they need is some of his venom, and a sample of his blood," I informed, backing away from the fuming hedgehog.

"You know they're untrustworthy! G.U.N. are dirty scumbags that always do stupid things for their own foolish needs! Do you really think they'd help us with something this big without asking for a reward?!"

"We gave them a chaos emerald!" I barked.

"Yeah, and I bet my hammer that they're going to ask for another one if this takes any longer!" Amy yelled.

"That might be true, but at least they're still getting the antidote!"

"And what are you doing?! All you're doing is sitting around doing nothing!"

"Speak for yourself!" I burst, "I'm the one that stayed by his side in the hospital! I'm the one that stayed right beside him when he came home!" I was practically snarling now. "And I'm the one that's going to fix this whole blasted mess, because it was my fault in the first place!"

Dead silence filled the small G.U.N. room. Even through the thick white fur, I was sure my muzzle was a deep red. Amy finally seemed to process my words, for her anger slowly bubbled down and a look of sympathy appeared on her face.

"Tails… It wasn't your fault… It wasn't anyone's but James' and don't you dare think otherwise!" Amy scolded, tears forming in her eyes. "It was all his fault! No one deserves a better pounding than him, and when Sonic gets better, I'm sure he'll think the same! For now, all we can do is encourage the scientists and hope nothing goes wrong-"

"Something's gone wrong! Something's gone wrong!" A scientist suddenly burst into the room, waving his arms madly and yelling hysterically.

"What the-?!" Amy was shoved out of the way as the scientist scrambled up to me.

"What's wrong?" I asked, getting a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"It's Sonic… He- He's woken up…! We- we didn't know that the hypnotics were too weak for his system!" The scientist sputtered.

"Where is he now?!" I questioned.

"J-just a few hallways down! He's delirious, and our tranquillizers aren't having any effect on him!"

"Well, come on then!" I yelled, running out of the small room. The others followed. Already, I could see injured people running past us; some carrying others to safety. I saw no dead bodies, though. Just as the scientist had said, Sonic was fumbling down the hallway; slowly but surely. He kept making sounds similar to that of a confused dog when they tilted their head sideways.

"Sonic!" I yelled reflexively. The mutated hedgehog didn't seem to hear me, for he continued his journey to chaos knows where. I sprinted after him, noticing multiple tranquillizers stuck all over his body.

"No more tranquillizers!" I yelled a warning to the G.U.N. soldiers taking aim. "Too many will put him in a comatose! Wait a moment, and I'll take it from here!"

Hoping I could trust my own words, I threw myself in his path, tensed up and prepared to keep him from going any farther. However, all he did was look at me and plop down on his rump. I blinked in confusion, but studied him nonetheless. His pupils took over his iris almost completely, they were so big. His eyelids looked heavy, and his mouth hung open almost lazily.

He grunted at me, and dipped his head down to study me better. In the process, he lost his balance and stumbled forward. I jumped away just in time as his giant paws thundered in the place I had just been. I pressed myself against the wall near a G.U.N. soldier as Sonic fell on his nose and laid there. He whined, pressing his ears against his head, and I abruptly sped-walked in front of him again. I kneeled down a few inches from his over-sized muzzle, and I placed a hand on his forehead. Minding his horns, I started stroking his head soothingly while his breathing started to calm down.

He developed a sort of snorting sound as he tried breathing through his nose, and he growled in frustration. He adjusted himself out of his sprawled position across the floor, and he tucked his legs neatly underneath himself. Sonic surprised everyone when he laid his chin on the top of my knee. My eyes widened in both surprise and joy as I sat into a more comfortable position, stroking Sonic's large head all the while. Because of its size, Sonic's head hung off the side of my leg as he shifted into a sleeping position.

Sonic gave one last look at me, and what I saw made my heart soar. His eyes were cleared and sharp, and they were full of gratitude and kindness. For a heart-tugging moment I thought that maybe Sonic would miraculously change back into his normal form, but the joyful thought was quickly dismissed as his eyes clouded up again.

Recognizing me alone wouldn't do as much as actually change him back to a normal hedgehog again.

Sonic's golden eyes suddenly rolled to the back of his head, and he fell completely limp. I carefully moved his huge head off of me, and gently placed it on the ground beside me. When I stood up, I was greeted by shocked faces all gaping at me.

"…What…?" I asked bashfully.

"You… You calmed him down as if it were nothing…! Tell me, how did you do it…?" One of the scientists asked, carefully walking up to me.

"He-he's my brother… I-I have a special connection with him, I guess… He's usually calm around me, and I've always comforted him when he needs it…" I explained. However, the scientist looked uninterested as he rolled his eyes, shook his head, and walked away.

After that, Sonic was ordered to be taken back into his glass containment until further notice.


"Fox." I snapped my head around when I heard my nickname from a certain someone.

"Shadow," I greeted, nodding to him.

"I have a report. The antidote… It's finished. We are doing the last procedures to make sure it's safe, and then tomorrow at 8:30 a.m. sharp we are going to inject it into him," Shadow explained.

I had almost stopped listening completely when he had said the word 'finished.'

'It's done… Sonic's going to be okay… He'll be back to normal… He'll be my brother again…' I thought. I smiled practically from ear to ear. Letting my emotions take over, I lunged at Shadow and gave him a bear hug.

"Thank you…" I whispered.

Shadow, obviously not used to this kind of treatment, stuttered a 'you're welcome.'

"Now release me before someone sees," He muttered. I laughed and let him go.

"Well, I have to go and tell the others! Goodbye, Shadow!" I called, already bolting toward G.U.N.'s nearest exit.

"Farewell."


I was fidgeting non-stop, and I couldn't keep the smile off of my face. I impatiently looked at the clock hanging on the wall.

' 8:25…8:26… Aw, c'mon go faster!' I thought.

"Tails…?" I looked over to see Amy.

"Hm?"

"I'm scared…"

"Why…? Sonic's going to be back! You should be happy!"

"I am! I really am super excited that he's finally going to be with us again! It's just…" She trailed off. "It's just; I'm scared of how he's going to react once he sees us… I keep thinking that maybe he'll be the same, brave hedgehog we know and love, but… What if… What if he's still broken…?"

"…He… He probably will be, Amy…" I finally answered.

"Wh-wha-?"

"He probably will be terrified once he realizes what's going on… But that's why we're here, Amy. We're his family… It's our job to support one another when we're down. Sonic's never, ever, given up on us, and now it's our turn to return the favor. I'll give him two months—tops—and I know he'll be back on his feet again. Just give him time." I put an assuring hand on her shoulder, and she smiled at me sincerely.

"You're right, Tails…As always…" She giggled.

"We are ready to begin."

Amy and I about jumped out of our fur when Shadow and Rouge suddenly appeared behind us.

"Geez, you two are quiet," Chris commented while smiling.

Ella, Cream, Cheese, Chris, Chuck, Knuckles and Tanaka were there as well, and were all prepared to have their speedy blue friend back.

"We're not called agents for nothing, honey," Rouge winked. Chris just laughed nervously. Shadow rolled his eyes.

"Let me repeat my statement: We are ready to begin," Shadow cut in, turning his attention to me.

"Right; you should get started," I tried stating calmly, but failed when my voice cracked in excitement.

We all watched as Shadow was handed a syringe with extra care, and walked into the glass container in which Sonic was still sleeping in. He injected the serum into the mutated hedgehog's neck and quickly exited.

Everyone held their breath in anticipation. We were waiting for something to happen. Anything. My heart was beating so hard I was sure everyone could hear it.

Sonic twitched.

I tensed.

Sonic's muscles started to spasm.

I was leaning forward, curling my toes and fisting up my hands.

'It's finally happening… He's going to turn back to normal…' I thought happily. However, I was soon snapped out of my head when everyone jumped.

Sonic was roaring and screeching in pain. He suddenly jumped up and threw himself to the right, slamming himself into the glass wall. Even through the supposedly sound-proof glass, his cries were heard clearly.

"Is this supposed to happen?" I yelled over the screeching.

Shadow gave a nonchalant shrug. "We didn't know what to expect," He raised his voice. "For all we know the process could take hours—days, maybe."

My eyes widened. 'Days…?'

However, the thought was quickly dismissed as Sonic's giant wings started retracting and pressed close against his body. Miraculously, they seemed to dissolve into his skin. Sonic's tail scrunched up in pain, jerking this way and that. It shriveled up and started shrinking closer to the hedgehog's body. Sonic's ears folded against his head, and when he lifted them again, they resembled more of a hedgehog's ears than a bat's now.

Sonic roared in pain as his muzzle started forcing itself back into the face it was attached to. I saw that his tongue looked shorter and smaller, and the millions of teeth that decorated his mouth were disappearing. His sharp, saber-tooth-tiger-like fangs dulled and became short once again.

Sonic's horns slowly sucked themselves back into his head, causing the hedgehog to grasp his head in his shrinking paws. His hindquarters started straightening again, looking much more human-like than wolf-like. The claws that reached almost six inches long were wearing away, and pale, almost unnoticeable nails were their replacement.

When Sonic yelled out again in pain, and a hint of his old voice was heard. Sonic's entire body started shrinking in pulses, and soon enough, he was back to his normal size. Sonic's eyes opened, and I literally watched them flicker from gold, to yellow, to yellow-green, to a deep emerald green.

The last details started taking place.

Sonic's paws started dividing at the toes, and his fingers on his hands were seen; his toes were the same. His ears were triangular once again, and his tail was short and pointy. Quills started sprouting out of his back to make two sections of sharp defenses.

"Argh…! Aahh!" Sonic's voice was fully recognizable, and the sound-proof glass was proving dominant once again. I could see Sonic yelling out even more, but couldn't hear it.

My heart was soaring, and I was so happy that tears were coming close to falling. Amy was practically drowning in her own tears, as well as Ella, Cream and Cheese.

There was one moment of pause in the blue hedgehog, whom was on his knees. My heart dropped. Was something going wrong…?

"Wait…" Shadow said smoothly.

Sonic hacked and coughed up about a gallon of yellow vomit before collapsing on his side.

You could hear a pin drop, it was so quiet.

"He's finished," Shadow stated, breaking the silence.

I ran up to the glass and pressed my hands up against it, taking in every quality of my brother.

Nothing was out of place. No horns, no fangs, no wings; not even injuries were visible.

Sonic was completely healed.


THE END!

*is pointed at with gun*

I'm just kidding!We have a few more chapters to go! Had ya there, didn't I...? No...? Okay...

REVIEWS! I NEED DA REVIEWS!


To Be Continued...