Lauren the Echidna

Chapter 10

Scorched Dreams

"What seemed to be a large car wreck down the middle of the Brooklyn's streets, it seems more than that. Witnesses say they spotted a group of creatures fighting with what looked like large vines, fire, psychic powers, and lightning. Our rescources say that..."

As the news continued on, a local boy in Bayfield, Wisconsin, overheard these words and found it impossible to believe. The boy looked to be about fifteen, getting closer to his sixteenth year. His hair was a chocolate colored brown, but the usual length that any fifteen year old's hair would be. His glasses covered across both his deep brown eyes, the glare from it showing the reflection of the TV he was watching, where he noticed all of my team collapsed on the ground, now being transferred to a local hospital where all of us would recover.

The boy's eyes narrowed. He knew exactly who these people were, and wanted to find a way to come and help. Well, he already knew in his head that his parents wouldn't want to just up and go to New York, so he had to find another way. What he couldn't believe that the next moment, he saw his beloved Ivy laying there on a two seated couch, resting her head, as she was the one first to wake up. Several officials had startled her when she awoke, but came to find out that she was laying right next to another one of the team members, then another...then another.

All of the team had been taken into the waiting room of a hospital...except for one. Ivy looked around, waking up the rest of the team from their unconscious state by healing each one. The police were startled after peeking in again, but just talked it over as a few more policemen had ran toward another room. Nicky woke up and noticed she was right underneath Andrew, who had already sat up, rubbing his head from the impact of Weed's vines. Jamie was then to follow when she had peeked out of the room to see where the other policemen were headed.

A few thuds had been heard from that very room, policemen being slammed up against the walls. Shouting had also been heard coming from the room. The voice sounded so familiar, so one of the others had walked out of the room, but was stopped by the captain of the police force.

"No one is allowed in that room...that girl in there is insane."

"Girl...what girl?" Asked Jamie with her always serious voice.

"Some blonde headed girl thinks that she can handle the police in this situation.

Blonde haired girl. They all knew it was me, but why would I be going crazy inside that room? Only one way to find out. The team turned away from the captain and finally got past him by Trey pinning him up against the wall to let them pass. Trey smirked and pushed the captain away while he followed up behind. As they entered the room, the expected the unexpected. The wall of the hospital room had been destroyed, and I was nowhere to be found. Andrew, who was standing in the front of the group, looked back to them and urged the team to follow him in pursuit.

Everyone transformed to their animal selves, jumping, running, and flying from above and below, searching frantcially for my whereabouts. Drew's blue eyes shifted upward to Dani, who was placing a hand over her eyes to block the sun of mid-day, and would shout,

"Yo, Dani! Any sign of her yet?"

"Hmm...huh? Yeah! I see her, straight ahead!" Drew's ears twitched as he looked forward, spotting the yellow haired head of me, my body curled up as if it was being attacked. I was sitting up on my knees, but my head hung straight down, shivering in fear. Ark deformed to his human self, Trey walked up close to me as everyone else kept their forms.

"Lauren? Hey...you okay-?" But while reaching for my hand, I quickly swatted it away, shouting,

"NO! GET AWAY FROM ME!" My voice had gotten raspy. Body shaking, eyes wide and pupils gone, only showing my lime green colored eyes. Trey blinked, trying the same gesture again, but this time, it was too far. I began to raise my hand up, glaring at Trey with such anger that there was something I couldn't control. His eyes widened as everyone shouted his name to move, but something even more happened...

"I told you to- GUH!" I was quickly swatted away by a red blur, but with a bit of black mixed in with it. I grunted and was now facing downward onto the ground before the team. Drew looked up ahead and saw someone he didn't believe had made it there.

With his yellow eyes, this red hedgehog's look was unlike any other. With his hands covered in what was now black gloves with the fingers white, he flicked the two bangs out of the way and smirked, straightening his new black sleeveless hoodie. On that hoodie was that of an emblem that resembled his power of fire, and is usually known as the Flaming Wind of the Sonic universe. The hoodie's outline was of course red, but the same crimson red as his fur. Below this hoodie was a pair of dark blue jeans, but this time he had a longer chain wrapped about his belt loop, having quite a surprise waiting in the pocket of those jeans. Along with black and white tennis shoes covering his feet, the hedgehog left the ground at a decent speed, reaching his fist back to knock me in the side, keeping me down onto the ground. The boy, knowing him as Jeff, had become his self character, Scorch the Hedgehog. Since this was not a good thing for me, I got even angrier, but the red hedgehog had other plans.

"Yo, Drew. A bit of help would be of some use, huh?" He smirked back toward the brown hedgehog and stepped aside.

"Hehe...with pleasure." He took a few steps forward and reached his arm out. Drew's arm began to glow a solid gray and white color, forming the elements around him to form a decently large piece of metal on his hand that grew up to his elbow. Rocky spikes began to merge into the metal, creating a guantlet that was shining brightly off the sun above, causing a few of the team members to cover their eyes. Around these spikes was of course small sparks of fire, since he couldn't resist giving it a bit of a show-offy sight, and raised it above my head. His eyes dropped slightly and he stared toward me, watching as my eyes were narrowed angrily trying to get up from the recent hit.

"I'm sorry I gotta do this, sis...but you leave me no choice...HAH!" Thud. That's what all was heard. Everything was black at this point. Nothing was heard in my head. Just...black.

But what...what's this? I saw a figure...a figure that resembled that same dark apparition that keeps haunting me.

Mephiles. He's just there standing in the middle of this...dream? Wait...I'm asleep? All I could remember was fighting against that clone, Weed...then everything went black. But a nightmare had come to me a few minutes afterward. Mephiles and his clones were all around me. In numbers, even in an army. They only left me a small circle as the closest ones to me were of the seven Chaos Emerald's elements, in Mephiles' cloned form. In the middle...was Mephiles himself. Smirking. Laughing. Snickering and who knows what else. And this happened again. The same dream, but this time, it started to fade. Someone...is calling me? I hear my name being spoken. But it's so faint. Why is it so faint? It's nowhere over me. I could finally feel my body moving. My arms and legs weren't though. I was...being held back? But from what? I started to calm down slightly, giving the two boys who had me more room to get me to sit down.

"G-Guh..." I panted from the struggle. Andrew and now Jeff, who had just reverted back to his human state, both had me from around my arms, helping me to sit down.

"I think she's coming to..."

"Hey, sis...you're okay now...just take it easy..."

"Lauren!" Finally the third boy who was let into the room, Trey, looked to the two in shock and worry. Andrew nodded to Trey, telling him that I was going to be alright. Trey agreed and kneeled down to me, placing a hand on my shoulder. I shivered slightly to his touch, but finally realized that it was him and not who I thought it was. I took a breath and looked up to him, my green eyes now back to normal, but looking really tired. As Trey continued to calm me down, outside of the hospital, all of my friends had just laughed at a sight of Ivy glomping her beloved Jeff and gripped him in a tight hug, almost playfully choking him. Jeff picked her up on his back and held her there, finally smiling back at her after she had let go. Ivy was of course happy to finally see 'her Jeff' as she would say, and just leaned on his shoulder as Andrew asked the most simple question,

"Alright, how the fuck did you get here, Jeff?"

"Heh...funny story. I was planning on asking my parents about taking me all the way out here to Brooklyn, but...I knew it would be a longshot, so at first I let it go, knowing that you guys could handle it. But I also found something that would ensure me to help you guys out no matter what it took." As he let Ivy down from his shoulders, he reached in his jacket pocket and pulled out what seemed to be...

"A Chaos Emerald?!" Said the team except for Jamie, since she wasn't as in awe as the rest of them. Jeff nodded and spun the yellow colored emerald on his finger, being talented in such a thing, then smirked, catching it finally.

"Yep. Found it in the chicken coop as I was feedin' them." He chuckled. Andrew smirked and crossed his arms, about to speak, but Nicky interrupted, spotting something odd about the emerald.

"Hey...what's up with the Chaos Emerald?" She wondered, pointing to it. The emerald had been shining brightly, but it slowly dimmed down and suddenly lost it's color entirely.

It's color had been taken away, but it didn't last too long. Above the team, out popped a bright yellow aura that slowly formed to that of a hedgehog body. All of the team gasped in surprise, as Jeff quickly took the emerald and put it away to prevent anything from happening to it, since they knew that it was yet another one of Mephiles' clones. They all stepped back several steps, but were all suddenly blown back by a huge shockwave of lightning, sending them into either the ground or trees. This seemed all too familar in battle, but they got right back up, wanting more of this fight. Without the help of two of their members, they had to wing it on their own while Trey and I got things settled with whatever I was freaking out about.

The hedgehog quickly formed after another second and began to laugh meniacally, almost like a psycho. His bright light yellow eyes had glazed across the entire battlefield, his smirk following his eerie laughing with fangs and a long yellow tongue hanging out. This one was indeed creepy.

His quills were longer than the other clones, one almost hanging down to the edge of where his tail was, the other five pointing upward like Mephiles' usual quills. He smirked and laughed down toward the team and just swiped his hand across the first group, who was Ashleigh, Dani, and Nicky, once again getting shocked by his high voltage. Andrew dodged to the side of one attack and growled, quickly transforming to his hedgehog self, shouting his love's name in worry afterward. Nicky stood up to her feet and her eyes narrowed, clearly pissed after most of her hair was frizzy and out of place. She shook her head, fixing her hair and trasnforming to her hedgewolf form. As the others did the same, the lightning based clone laughed more. He apparently admired everyone's guts. Once he finally began to speak, his voice had a higher quality to it, but just as creepy and slurred out.

"Heeeeheheheheheee! What bravery, children! I almost wanna cry because of all this love going around. EEHEEHEE! BUT SADLY, I DO NOT CARE! BOW TO THE HANDS OF BLITZ!" His hands clapped together toward the same group, ignoring the group behind him, who had already devised a plan to take him down. Now that his name was revealed, they're banter to help the determination would help a lot more.

"Alright, Blitz...TAKE THIS!" Scorch's hands had ablazed with nothing but hot red and red orange fire, and thrusting them forward, slamming the sides of his fists together. Two beams of fire had been fired out of his fists, the two suddenly swirling together to create a tornado beam that was easily burning most of Blitz's quills, leaving him to float there and snicker from the pain.

"EEHEEHEE! How quaint. A fire based hedgehog. That hurt, you little rat..." His eyes suddenly narrowed, as well as his smirk turning into a frown. His hands clapped together once more, creating another shockwave of lightning that had gone right into the path of Scorch's running path, shocking him and bringing him to his knees. Ivy shouted his name in worry, then glared up toward Blitz with her hands already freezing Blitz's surroundings. Several ice shards had appeared, but he was ready for this...at least he thought it was. Blitz backflipped over most of the shards that were fired, but had flipped a few more times, sending out hundreds of needles that were covered in lightning. Ivy's eyes narrowed as she spread her arms out to defend herself and Scorch, but the needles had suddenly frozen in the air. She opened one eye to see one of them right in her face. She blinked and looked to the side, moving away from it and going to help Scorch.

On the other end of the battlefield, Blitz looked back to see huge metallic spikes that were brought up from the ground by our team member, Drew. His metal bending had created the spikes, along with Nicky standing beside, guitar in hand, giving the spikes energy to absorb the needles and attract the lightning. Blitz was amazed, he never knew that kids like this could have such power. It didn't stop him for a moment, he surrounded himself in a wave of electricity and laughed once more, but was interrupted by another blast of fire. He grunted from the pain and looked back to see Scorch and Ivy preparing an attack of their own.

Scorch smirked as he held a hand behind him, an orb of pure fire in hand, while Ivy was covering the orb with the freezing aura around it, but not enough for the chemicals inside to explode...yet. Blitz knew exactly what was happening, but he couldn't let it happen. Once again, he threw his hands together, copying the move that Scorch used earlier, but this time with electricity beams spiraling down toward them. In a quick flicker of Chaos Control, Jamie and Dani appeared in front of them, Jamie giving the energy, and Dani creating the barrier. Her hands were raised, feeling the electricity course through the shield, it slowly moving it's way towards them all. Jamie gave the shield more energy and smirked, pushing the shield forward with Dani's help to knock Blitz off his balance and fall to the ground. He shook his head. What power, he thought. But...as he stood to his feet and stumbling, next thing he knew he was shot in the face straight on with the shouting of Scorch and Ivy's attack,

"MIST BLAST!" As the two lunged forward into the face of the clone, a large explosion was seen and heard from a mile away. Blitz raised his arms at the last second and shouted loudly in pain, and was blown back into the ground, leaving a crater underneath. His being was still there, but was able to escape at a moments notice. From out of the mist surrounding him, was Scorch's fist grabbing him by his throat. Blitz gagged from his tight grip, but smirked at Scorch's now glaring eyes. *End 1*

"Eeeheeheehee! You think you're so tough! You'd better be glad I didn't get to that Berry girl...her power and fear shall soon become Master Mephiles' ULTIMATE WEAPON! EEHEEHEEHEE!" He snickered louder and began to phase into nothing but solid electric needles on the ground before them. Scorch narrowed his eyes to their limit and stomped on top of them, forcing them to dissipate into nothing. Scorch returned to his human form, dropping to one knee in the crater, while Ivy and the others ran up to congratulate him on his victory. Ashleigh walks up, having felt that she did nothing got her down, but Jeff smiled toward her and stood to his feet, comforting her that she helped no matter what she was doing. Ashleigh nodded as she and the rest deformed to human and then looked back to the hospital.

"So...should we go back and check on Lauren?" Ashleigh wondered.

"We should...but now we gotta ask her why the fuck did she really need us all to help her. If she was able to do all this with Knuckles back then...why would she need all of us to come with her this time?" The team looked to Andrew in confusion. They all pondered for a moment, but finally Jamie spoke up,

"Yeah, that's true. But why don't we think about it before we start assuming shit we don't know." She looked to Andrew especially, knowing all his weak points by now about things such as this. Andrew glared to her and just looked away.

"Hmph...we won't find out until we ask her, Jamie. I think it's worth a shot." He looked to Nicky, who had already let her eyes drop slightly, not really liking the idea. Then Andrew glanced to everyone else. The only one who seemed to agree was Dani. Since she would usually follow the ones she thought was right, she believed that there was something more to this than they thought. Finally the rest of the team agreed.

If there was more than this, the team would need answers. Now that everyone is together in one place, they would need a plan to be ready for Mephiles' next attack, or the clones' attack.

But in the shadows of the battlefield...someone had been watching their efforts...and was ready to exploit them for what they really were...