They heard the scream, it echoed throughout the entire building they were in. Sonic had heard fear before and these screams did sound much like them. Knuckles and Sonic both looked towards where those screams came from, both hearts practically stopping due to fear and catching in their throats making it hard to swallow. It was only one glance that they both gave each other that they silently agreed to pursue the noise. Sonic went ahead, his breath nearly vanishing from him because of fear that Tails and Silver might be in serious trouble (though they were quite capable to handle themselves Sonic still worried from both his friends).
He screeched to a halt as Sonic made it to the inner area of the construct, eyes darting every which way he can in such blinding darkness looking for anything that might lead him to his lost companions. The light pulsed through the endless abyss, creating a light that rippled across all the room, the metal turning practically white from the raw energy. There was still nothing but the sounds of muffled turning and dripping of some substance. His brows furrowed, last he had been here there was nothing dripping. Emerald eyes turned upward, the light now gone and thus he looked at a darkness. The hedgehog squinted carefully at the abyss, searching for where that dripping noise was coming from, and it wasn't until there was another pulse of light coming from the chasm that Sonic gasped.
There above, attached to the metal and stone walls, appeared to be a leech-like monster. Its appendages stuck to the wall like glue and wrapped within its tail was both Tails and Silver whom appeared to be passed out. The thing looked liked it was covered in a thick slime, which accounted for the dripping that was heard around the area. The creature almost blended into the wall, making it hard to see even with the bright light illuminating the area. Sonic tried not to make any noise in hope that the creature wouldn't notice him, yet he could not keep the gasp from coming out of his mouth. Last he saw of the creature before the light dissipated was a shift of its head as it turned to look right at Sonic. Though doubtful that the thing couldn't see in the dark, he tried to back away from the edge of the hole in hopes that if the creature did pursue him that it would strike the last place he had once stood. Sonic thought carefully of the situation, and he needed to wake Silver and Tails from their slumber before the creature lets them go from its tail.
Sonic could hear the thing shuffle across the wall and it sounded retched. Another pulse of light from the center of the room and Sonic saw that it moved from its place and had dropped down to where Sonic once stood previously when it first saw it. The tail waggled all over practically throwing his two friends around, he wondered how they could possibly still be awake from all the tossing (perhaps the fluids that it was covered in had a sleeping agent). He needed to get it farther away from the edge! Perhaps with Knuckles back there he could act as bait and Knuckles could just punch the thing. It wouldn't hurt to try. "Hey, slime ball!" The creature turned its head towards him, "Don't think you got room for an extra side dish?" It screeched at him, loudly, and he had to cover his ears before he started to run and the thing began to chase him. He kept just slow enough that it wouldn't lose interest, but fast enough that the thing barely bit down on his tail, and when the barest sight of red appeared in his vision he shouted, "Heads up Knuckles!"
The hedgehog proceeded to run faster as Knuckles looked dazed for just a moment before his eyes caught onto the large being that was chasing Sonic. Eyes widened as Sonic rushed passed him, but he wasn't slow enough to draw back his arm and slam his fist down onto the things head. Though the head didn't crush from Knuckle's fist, it did become dazed and let go of the two friends who had been dangling from its tail. They hit the floor rather hard, enough for Tails to come out of his slumber looking around rather crazed. His breath was fast as if awakening from a nightmare, and he was wide eyed as Knuckles wiped off slime from his fists.
"Eww…" he said rather meekly as he wiped the substance on the wall. "What is this stuff?" Sonic ran to his side and shrugged as the thing began to haphazardly get up and recover from the punch.
"Beats me, but we got bigger trouble." They both readied themselves as the creature roared again, it was more ear splitting than the last. Silver didn't even stir and Tails semi-crawled towards him as the beast began its assault on those who trespassed upon its lair.
"Silver?" Tails began to shake Silver attempting to get him to wake up. The monster moved around wildly as Sonic baited it and Knuckles tried to repel it. Silver, meanwhile, was shaking so uncontrollably that Tails thought he was having a seizure of some sort. The fox knew little of medicine, and tried his best to help Silver the best he could. It almost appeared as if he was trying to open his eyes, yet to no avail. Perhaps it was the slime that was making him react this way, and if that was the case Tails needed to get it off of him.
The beast, meanwhile, was screeching and moving about haphazardly among the corridor. The darkness that swelled around the two heroes made it hard to coordinate their attacks on the leech-like monster. Occasionally, they bumped into each other, or missed a queue for the both of them to begin their assault on the thing as it moved about wildly and left slime all over the place. At one point or another the two slipped on the substance that it left behind and almost found it impossible for them to fight the thing. Unfortunately, the thing was persistent in its battle against the two, and briefly Sonic wondered if there were more of these monsters within the place.
"We got to get out of here!" Knuckles shouted before he narrowly missed a bite from the monster. He counter struck it with a punch to the monster's side, to which it returned with a wail and hiss.
"Tails, grab Silver!" Sonic gave it a good kick to its side as it began to stumble so that it could tip over and they could make a dash towards the exit. Tails looked up just briefly upon hearing those words, then took Silver by the hand and gently began to bring him up to his feet. Sonic rushed to his side to help Tails with carrying hedgehog as the thing attempted to get back up. They attempted to make a run for it before the being got up and began to chase them, but because of Silver dragging them down and the slippery floor, it was almost impossible to get away from the nightmarish creature. They barely glanced back until they heard another wail come from it, this time less pronounced and almost as if the thing was fading from life. Tails glanced back to see Fox standing over the slain creature, a spear having been thrown into the creature's heart.
"Sonic, Fox, they..." he trailed off as the group of them slowed down and the mysterious armored being began to walk towards them. As they walked nearer, Silver began to murmur and eyelids droopily opened yet he still wasn't coherent enough to speak or to actually think.
"Your friend appears to need help," Fox commented as Sonic and Knuckles looked over to check Silver.
"He'll be fine," Sonic replied rather jokingly. Tails frowned at him but tugged Silver upward to get a better grasp on the barely functioning hedgehog. "What was that thing that just chased us?"
The armored being looked back at the beast for a moment, then turned back to Sonic. "It was a wyrm."
"A worm?" Knuckles questioned.
"I think they mean a dragon," Tails replied offhandedly as he kept his observation on Silver to see if there was any changes in his mental state.
"So you keep dragons in here?" Sonic replied to Fox's answer.
"I do not keep them, they just appear here among other things." They motioned to the area around them, "This place is like a joining of many realms. Though I cannot say that you can find whatever else you may be looking for here, you can find many other things from different places. I suppose it might be the genie's work that this place is like that, but I can not be too sure." They paused to allow their words to sink into the trio's head, "There are many other things in here that are worse than what you fought, and I must plead that you leave here before more of them awaken from their slumber. Its strange, for my years having lived here not once had they stirred till that appeared." It made a motion to the emerald that Knuckles had kept on him, "I assume your friend would know more about that than I, but I assume it has to do with the influx of power that it is creating in this place." Sonic glanced at Silver who was still weary, yet color began to return to him and he was able to lift his head from his previous limp state. For a second Sonic guessed that Silver didn't have all the answers to the universe, nor all the answers to time travelling, yet from what Fox said he was starting to think different.
With slurred speech Silver spoke, "Past t' present…." speech drifted off as if his thought had been misplaced within his mind. "Emeralds are.. screwing with th' balance…" Tails shushed him before he continued with his ramblings.
Fox looked at Silver for a time, then back to the group in general. "I'll take you back to the surface, I doubt the emerald will affect this sanctum while you stand outside, but I implore you to leave as soon as you can."
"Yeah no worries, we'll leave as soon as we can." Sonic gave a thumbs up to Fox, who in response turned away and began to lead them through the corridor. Sonic shuffled towards Tails and took Silver's other arm and wrapped it around his neck. "Come on, Silv. Don't want you dragging behind." His companion gave him a wary look then looked rather blankly at the floor. "Tails, what happened while we were separated?"
Tails looked up from what he was focused on, "Well… we left to go look for you then we found that thing. I wasn't too freaked out over it but Silver began screaming. I don't know why, he was more than capable to defend himself against it. While he was freaking out the thing knocked us out and before I knew it I was here." The fox shrugged while glancing at Silver who tried to speak again but all that came out was even more slurred speech.
"Maybe he has a fear of leeches, I know Amy does." They began to walk around the creature that they had slained. Silver began to tense up as they stepped over a limb but Sonic reassured him that the creature was dead. "Look Silv, the thing is dead, you don't have to worry about it anymore." In a lower voice Sonic began, "Hey Tails, you sure that Silv didn't drink that stuff that was all over this thing?"
Tails gave Sonic an annoyed look before replying, "The creature did make us dream some weird things."
"Like-?"
"I don't know, I mean, at one point I was dreaming that I was drowning. I think the substance on the creature gets absorbed into the brain while its victims sleep and affects the part of the brain that stores our memories and emotions. Maybe that's what it feeds off of."
"Or maybe you just happened to have a bad dream," Knuckles jumped in. He wanted to keep things pretty simple in his mind as of now, today was already beginning to get too complicated for him. "Maybe its like Sonic said, Silver has a fear of leeches."
"Let's ask him when we get out of here, this place is giving me a really bad feeling." Sonic began to look around the place as he said it as if another one of those things will come out.
"Yeah, that's a good idea. I'm starting to feel bad around here too."
