Told ya it'd come faster. anyway, enjoy
Sonic still couldn't believe that he had to go through all the night areas back to back without any sanctuaries in between. It was a bit overwhelming – normally, he wouldn't have minded it, but with his current state, the last thing he needed was to go on through the whole night. He gave a quiet but noticeable grunt as he walked out into the stage, not even bothering to do his howl. He was on a concrete level placed on top of a small mountain of sheer rock, but a part of the fence bordering it was broken. Sonic looked down at it – at the bottom was a pathway with surprisingly no water in sight; just a green pathway leading into the forest with some fences every here and there. He hopped down quickly, but as he was running through the path, he was greeted with the sight of wizard-looking nightmares wielding magical staffs emerging from the ground. With a sigh, he jumped up to the step they were on, and exhaustively began a battle with them.
As soon as he landed on the next step, more nightmares came out. But the extra help didn't stop him – Sonic raced over to them, claws in full swing. He managed to land a few hits on one of the wizards, but it warped away from him before he could do it anymore harm. One of the nightmares snuck up behind him and slapped its arm right into Sonic's back, making him stumble a little. With a grunt of frustration, he swung his arms at all of the creatures, landing hits on each of them. Another one managed to hit the werehog again, but he pushed it aside and kept hurling his fists at them. Most of the nightmares died, but one of the wizards warped away, and the other swung its staff at Sonic, knocking him straight on the head. Sonic grasped the top of his head in pain for a second, and swung his free arm out at the wizard and grabbed its robe. Clutching onto it tightly, he swung the wizard behind him and let it slam to the ground, then swung it back over in front of him, repeating the process about three more times. With small shockwaves emitting from the impact the wizard was making with the ground, some of the living nightmares seemed to get a little damaged as well. With one last swing of his arm, Sonic grabbed onto the wizard's robe with both hands and jumped up in the air, slamming it down to the ground with all his force.
As he landed, he turned to the other living nightmares, which more had erupted from the ground on the next step up. Sonic finished with the nightmares on the step he was on, and jumped up onto the next. He charged over to the nightmares, but was slammed down by the living wizard's staff once again. He almost couldn't get up with the pain that staff had put on him – it wasn't nearly as bad as the bees, but he could tell they were going to be quite an annoyance later on. He got back up onto his feet, and gave each of the nightmares around him a full smack down, including the wizard, and eventually killed all of them. Breathing heavily, he spotted Chip flying over to him, looking at him worriedly. With the sudden mini-war, Sonic had almost forgotten about the fairy even being with him.
"Are you ok, Sonic? That looked like it hurt!" he called out, attempting to look into his eyes. Sonic put a hand on his sore head, and gripped it tightly in pain.
"Ugh... yeah. I'm fine, let's go!" Sonic replied, dashing over to the gate alit with lanterns. He began dashing through the dark pathway, but was all of a sudden stopped by swinging pendulums. Looking at it with keen eyes, he glanced back at Chip and pulled him close, burying him safely in his arms. With keen timing, he jumped right past it, and rounded a corner. Another pendulum swung in front of them, but Sonic pushed it aside and dashed right past it. He looked ahead cautiously before letting go of Chip, then began a light dash over what looked like a very unstable floor panel. As soon as he stepped foot onto it, he could feel it shaking. As quick as he could, he sprinted over to the other side and jumped off, just barely making it off as the panel fell and revealed a large bed of spikes. Breathing heavily, he turned to Chip.
"Jeez, Chun-nan's great, but man - I think the people here hate tourists!" he called out, wiping a small dribble of sweat from his forehead.
"No kidding! Imagine falling into that!" Chip retorted, looking back at it. Sonic grabbed his wrist and continued on, but was once again stopped by pendulums – two at the same place, this time. He clutched Chip close to his chest so he wouldn't get hit, and with a carefully placed jump, he made it to the other side without a scratch that he hadn't already made. He let go of the fairy and walked over to a dock to other side of a mountain that looked like it had been broken. He put a hand to his head and scratched it gently.
"Ya think I can make that jump?" he questioned. Chip nodded.
"Of course! You're Sonic the Hedgehog – you can do anything! Even climbing that waterfall over there!"
"Say what, now?"
"Yeah, see?" Chip flew over ahead of him and pointed into the distance. Sure enough, there was a tall waterfall blocking his way, and Sonic was sure that he'd have to climb it to proceed. He grunted in frustration, but pushed it aside as he leaped over the broken bridge, landing safely on the other side. But then there came the hard part. As he walked over the next bridge, he examined his next path – or lack of one. Ahead, there was almost nothing but water. Only a few poles and short side paths led the way over to the waterfall. Taking a deep breath, he jumped over to the first pole and clung on. The next pole was moving somehow, which made his trip harder, but he managed to clutch onto it just as it was moving back. As soon as it stopped, he let go and clutched onto the next, then jumped back onto solid ground again. A harmless bat nightmare appeared out of seemingly nowhere, and Sonic spent no time thinking before he jumped and clutched on tightly to it, lightly swinging himself back and forth as his nails dug into the bat's flesh. He reached a good enough distance and jumped off, clinging onto the pole in front of him. He turned around and leaped off, once again on solid ground. Sonic looked up at the waterfall with questioned eyes, then turned back to Chip.
"Do you really I can make that?" In his regular hedgehog form, he could climb a waterfall with no problem, but his werehog form was a completely different story. He still wasn't completely used to it yet, and climbing waterfalls weren't exactly his preferred method of testing himself. Though, Chip seemed to have quite the opposite feeling about it, and nodded.
"Yeah, of course you can," he stated while yawning lightly. Apparently he was feeling fatigue as well. Giving a rather deep breath, Sonic glared right at the waterfall with determined eyes.
"Ok then – let's do this."
With a dashing start, he began to run up the rock path and stopped right at his first jump. Thankfully, there was a ledge to grab onto, so he did so and practically bungee jumped onto the ledge with his stretchy arms. He continued upwards carefully and clung onto another ledge. Pulling himself up, he walked onwards and caught sight of the first pole, which he was somewhat questioned on why anyone would put it there. Pushing the though out of his mind, however, he gripped onto it and climbed up, and without thinking, he jumped off and unconsciously grabbed onto a bat who happened to be flying the opposite way as soon as he reached the top of the pole. Sonic lightly swung himself back and forth until he reached another pole and clutched onto it, climbing up. As soon as he reached the top, he turned and let go, and quickly grabbed hold of a sideways pole hanging out from the waterfall. He could feel the mist coming off of the waterfall from being so close to it and was almost tempted just to hang there for a little while and relax himself, but he just didn't feel too safe there. He swung himself carefully over to the next pole, then the next, and eventually grabbed onto another upwards pole, almost losing his grip from a rather bad jump. Pushing the thought out of his mind, he climbed up and just missed another bat as soon as he reached the top of the pole. He looked at Chip, who was hovering closely.
"I hate waterfalls..." he stated dully as he waited for the bat to come back. Chip's face turned with a state of shock.
"How could you not like waterfalls?" he gasped. "They're so pretty!"
The bat came back, and Sonic almost didn't bother replying. "Chip – looking at a waterfall is one thing; climbing it is another," he stated as he swung back and forth until he reached another pole. As he climbed it, he noticed that there was no actual way around the waterfall, but a small path behind it. Carefully clinging onto the wall, he shuffled over to the other side until he reached another pole. He clung onto it, and as he climbed upward, Sonic could see the top. Slightly joyed, slightly relieved, he jumped off the pole without hesitance and carefully made his was across a log placed over the water. Making his way towards a small cliff, he couldn't help but look over at what he had just climbed with a sense of accomplishment.
"Ha! I conquered you, waterfall!" he shouted in an accomplished tone. "Ok, let's go before I do something reckless." He jumped over to the cliff beside him and clung to the wall as he made his way to actual land again.
"See Sonic? I told you that you could do it," Chip stated in a tone that wasn't as excited as Sonic had thought it would be. Perhaps he was just tired. Sonic continued on and begun to see flames flickering in the distance, blocking the way through. To his right, though, he spotted a barrel with a water symbol on it, obviously containing water. He picked one up and tossed it right at the fire, putting it out quite quickly. He walked into the room with Chip following slowly, and grabbed onto a nob on the wall, swinging himself up to the top. Sonic pulled himself up onto the top, and as soon as he stepped foot onto the floor, nightmares and dinos erupted from the ground. Although kind of happy about this, Sonic was somewhat confused as to why there wasn't much enemies in Chun-nan – or at least this area. Though, he didn't question it, and made a beeline for the closest enemy, slashing it right in the face. Out of the corner of his eye, he could spot Chip slowly flying up to the building on his right, avoiding the fight, but his straying attention led to some dinos ramming their heads right into him. Somewhat set off balance, Sonic slashed them all away and continued to attack them all until they died. More came out, and Sonic gave them the same treatment. Some of them landed a few hits onto him, which were getting more and more difficult to take as the night progressed – perhaps because of his fatigue. He pushed all of the nightmares away from him, and began to slash his claws at each of them until they were reduced to nothing but dust.
Sonic looked around quickly – thankfully, he saw no more enemies around, and he slowly walked over to the building Chip was at. The fairy didn't make a sound or even come down after the last creature had been defeated, which somewhat questioned him. "Chip? Hey Chip – they're gone, you can come down now."
Still no reply. Sonic scratched his head and grabbed onto the ledge on the building with question in his eyes. He got up and spotted the fairy lying on the floor, not moving except for slow, steady breathing. Sonic first gasped, quickly getting the idea that one of the nightmares must've attacked him when he wasn't looking, but soon realized that wasn't the case. He was just sleeping.
"Chip? Chip, wake up!" he commanded in a more forceful tone rather than a worried one. Chip didn't reply – just got into a more comfortable position and continued to snore softly. Sonic picked the imp up by his tail and shook him, though, it didn't really seem to have any effect. The fairy was dead asleep, and wasn't waking up anytime soon. Sonic continued to stare with frustration, then gave up and climbed back down to the level below and continued to walked into a dark room with Chip in his arms. The dark atmosphere was taunting, and Sonic desperately just wanted to fall asleep in it for the whole night, maybe even longer. The werehog walked over to a dark corner and slumped down to the ground, too exhausted to continue.
He waited for Chip to wake up, every now and then his eyes would slip closed and he would almost fall asleep. Constant yawns escaped his mouth, and he almost found himself slumping over in exhaustion. About thirty minutes passed, and still no sound from Chip, and that thirty minutes soon turned into an hour. Somewhere along the line, Sonic couldn't take it anymore, and let his eyelids fall, and didn't bother to raise them back up. He eventually fell asleep as well, unaware of the kicks and light whimpers coming from the fairy.
'It was dark out – and rainy, too. Endless drops of water came pouring down from the skies as streaks of blinding white lightning flashed through the night. Chip looked around, scared, and examined his surroundings. He didn't know exactly where he was – perhaps still in Chun-nan, but very deep in the forest. With a frightened look in his eyes, he pushed the wet hair out of his face and stumbled in fear as another flash of lightning lit up the sky. He gasped and glanced around frantically – where was Sonic? He didn't see him anywhere! Broken gasps of fear escaped his lips as he stumbled back, nearly tripping over his own feet. Chip looked around again, breathing in heavily. Thunder roared through the night, becoming the only thing audible besides the pelting rain. Though, Chip's large ears picked up some kind of small, muffled sound through the air – a rustling of a bush. Gasping, he looked around again, in all possible directions, growing more and more frightened by the second. In a flash of nearby lightning, he could've sworn he saw a dark shadow moving silently, though he couldn't tell what it was.
"S-S-Sonic?" he stuttered out with chattering teeth, which he couldn't decide were a result from his fear or the cold air. Though not nearly as freezing as Holoska, the area was still pretty cold – perhaps because of the pouring rain. A large shiver ran down Chip's spine as he heard another rustle, and he quickly turned around in fear. Though, he still saw nothing. With a couple strikes of lightning and booms of thunder in the background, Chip didn't feel so safe anymore. He shook and shivered, and looked for any sign of a living person roaming around without him knowing, breathing in heavily. Suddenly, as a blinding flash of lightning struck nearby, something – or someone- tackled Chip to the ground, thunder booming loudly. He fell to the ground with a yelp of surprise, and was pinned down on his back. He tried desperately to push the thing on top of him off, or even figure out what it even was. Another flash of lightning lighted up the area for a second, enough time for Chip to get a glance on the being. The creature was rather small, about his own size, perhaps a few inches bigger. Large white fangs hung out of his mouth, much larger than Sonic's. Flaming purple, messy hair topped the creature's head. It had a dark maroon shade of fur, almost scaly looking. But what really got to him was was the creature's eyes – both snake-like eyes with a seemingly glowing shade of green, and an extra large green eye in the middle of its forehead. Even without the lightning illuminating the area, the creature's eyes were still clearly visible, gleaming with an evil shine. Chip gasped at the sight, and again tried to pull away, until the creature started to speak.
"Long time, no see... Light," he spoke in a demonic voice which sent shivers down Chip's spine. Though his attention quickly turned to the strange name he had been called. Light? It questioned him greatly. He was tempted to ask about it, but instead pushed the thought out of his mind and threw the creature of of him – he was quite light, about his own weight, maybe a little heavier. Once he was free, he got up off the ground and began running in the opposite way. But in another loud boom of thunder, Chip was tackled right back down to the damp ground with a yelp. He was quite surprised at how fast the creature could move, but paid little mind to it as he tried to push himself off the ground. Though, he was weighed down by the creature on top of him, and could feel his large claws digging into his arms. Chip gasped in and clenched his eyes shut, but soon opened them back up to finally speak out about what had been on his mind.
"Who... who are you?" he questioned in a meep voice. The creature's claws digging into his arms suddenly loosened a little, and Chip could feel his gleaming green eyes glaring daggers into the back of his skull. He felt himself being pulled off the ground and was forced to turn around, forced to look right back into those dreaded eyes.
"What's the matter, Light?" the creature questioned, calling him that name again. Chip cringed at the sinister tone of voice. "Don't remember me?" Those three words kept replaying over and over again in his head. He had known him before? Chip had no memory of him whatsoever! He gasped silently. Suddenly the creature stood up and gripped onto Chip's blood stained bandages that covered his scars caused by Sonic, and pulled him up to his level.
"I'm you greatest enemy," The creature spoke again. He pushed Chip away with such force that he almost toppled over. But the creature was quick to catch him before he fell to the ground again. "I'm the creature that haunts your dreams." He pushed Chip away again, this time with such force that he couldn't stay on his feet. He tripped and fell to the ground again with a yelp, and tried to get back up, but something erupted from the ground he was near, surrounding him. Chip couldn't tell what it was, as it was too dark to see, and they only appeared as black shadows in the night.
"I'm the one who makes your nightmares become real," the creature's voice seemed to grow more demonic, scarier, every time he spoke. The shadows around Chip finally grew into something recognizable, and he gasped at what they revealed themselves to be.
Nightmares.
They were the small ones, but there were at least five of them, and Chip had no way of defending himself. The nightmares surrounded him and all took one of his limbs into their clawed hands, refraining him from moving. He struggled to get free with a few small screams escaping his mouth, but was unable to move. Though he struggled even more when he spotted one nightmare seemingly crawl over to him and pull down his bandages, revealing his scars. Chip yelped in pain as the nightmare dug its claw into the top scar and slashed right through it, making it bleed once more. It did that to each of his scars until all of them were bleeding like Chip was just receiving them for the first time. The nightmares finally backed away and let go of him, then evaporated into that all too familiar purple gas. But instead of disappearing like normal, all the gas strands formed into one large stream, and all spiraled right into the creature's chest. He closed all three of his eyes as soon as he received it, and his features started to change, almost transform in a way. The tips of his ears seemed to form some blue ice-like crest on them. Both his fangs and his claws grew larger, his claws also turning blue at the tips. His leathery wings grew larger with a mix of a purple and blue color, and his fur turned even more scaly than before. Once he opened his eyes again, which were now an even brighter shade of green, Chip clutched his bleeding chest and attempted to again run away. Though it wasn't very long before the creature caught up to him and grabbed him. With a small stumbling twist, Chip gasped as he felt the creature's claws curl around the back of his neck and pull him over to a small pool of water in the ground created by the pouring rain.
The creature suddenly knelt down in front of the pool and thrusted Chip's head right into the water. Chip immediately started panicking, air escaping his nose and mouth as he struggled to raise his head back to the surface. Though, the creature had a rather large force pushing down onto him, making it impossible for him to get back to air on his own. Water filled his lungs every time he accidentally gasped inwards, and he could already feel his chest seemingly burning. Suddenly, he felt the creature pull his head out of the water. As soon as he could, Chip coughed the water in his lungs and took in as much air as he could, but soon let it all back out in a short scream as the creature forced his head back under. Chip nearly lost all the air he had as he struggled more than before to get back up. He lungs were already screaming for air, and he was almost forced to let out all he had left. Bubbles engulfed his face, and he could feel himself almost about to lose consciousness. But before he could, the creature pulled him up once again for air. Chip coughed and sputtered, and took in deep gasps of breath.
"You're much weaker than I remembered," the creature retorted with a voice that could make babies cry. "Pathetic."
He tossed Chip to the ground, who continued to cough violently, trying to regain his lost breath. The creature walked right over to him again and glanced down at him with those god-awful eyes. "I shouldn't be surprised, though. You've always been weak." Chip gulped.
"But I don't even know who you are!" he called out, but soon regretted it as the creature suddenly reached his clawed hand over to Chip's loosened bandages and pulled him up to eye level. He looked like he was about so say something about his relation towards him, but commented on something else.
"Time's running out, Light," he growled. "The man who awakened us has found a way to resurrect me. It's only a matter of time before I become whole and complete." The creature kept his grip on Chip's bandages, and pulled out something from behind his back. "And when that day comes, nothing will stop me... not even you or that pesky friend of yours..."
Chip immediately knew who he was talking about. 'Sonic...' he thought to himself silently. A flash of lightning struck in the sky, making everything a bit more visible for a second. The thing the creature pulled out revealed itself to be a large silver dagger with dried blood stained on it, most likely having been used before. Something was dripping off of it, and somehow Chip knew it wasn't rain. A small drop of the substance fell from the tip of the dagger to a small plant on the ground. The substance sunk into the plant, and in a few short seconds, the plant grew black and withered. Chip gulped, and looked back at the creature with fearful eyes.
"You remember this, Light?" the creature questioned, knowing the answer already. "It has stabbed over a million people's hearts, and the poison killed them all. It's slow moving poison, so its recipient can suffer through the pain, but chances are they will die either way." The creature dropped Chip, then stood up and put his clawed foot onto the fairy's neck and pressed down, cutting off his air. "And you're next." As Chip struggled to move his foot off, the creature raised the dagger over his head and got ready to strike forward.
"Go to hell, Light," he growled. Chip gulped. "And take your friend with you..."
The creature swung the poison coated dagger down fast, and Chip barely had any time to gasp as he felt the blade penetrate his skin, the poison dripping into his blood...'
"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!"
A scream rang out, breaking the silence and waking Sonic up. Sonic abruptly opened his tired eyes and looked around frantically. The screaming continued, and surprisingly, Sonic didn't spot Chip in his arms anymore. Instead, he found him on the ground curled up in a fetal position and screaming.
"Chip? Chip, calm down!" The werehog called out, crawling over to him. Chip's screams slowly turned into whimpering and heavy breathing, but he still seemed just as frightened as before. "Chip, what's wrong?"
Chip started speaking in whimpers and mumbles Sonic couldn't understand, but eventually his speech turned into something he could make out. "-A-and it was raining- and I didn't know where it was – I-I think it was Ch-Chun-nan- and then he came and I didn't know who he was, a-and he started pushing me around, but then they slashed through the cuts you gave me, and I was bleeding- th-then he tried to drown me – then he pulled out a dagger, and there was poison, and then he- he- he... HE TRIED TO KILL ME!"
Chip collapsed to the ground in a ball, and Sonic couldn't tell it he was crying or just whimpering. His voice was breaking as scared whimpers escaped his throat.
"Chip... what are you talking about?" Sonic questioned. He knew it must've just been a nightmare, but he was so brief about explaining it...
"I dunno – I don't know who that was... he kinda looked like me in a way... and he... he kept calling me 'Light'..." His voice broke. "Sonic, I'm so scared!"
He collapsed into Sonic's arms, who just lightly stroked his fur, attempting to calm him down. "It's ok, Chip... it was just a dream... it can't hurt you."
Chip soon quieted down, though he still clutched onto Sonic's fur as if for dear life. He stayed silent for a while, but soon began to whimper again. Unknownst to what was bothering him, Sonic hugged him closer in an attempt to comfort him. Though, he continued to whimper.
"S-Sonic...?" he started in the quietest voice.
"Yeah, Chip?" The fairy raised his hand up shakily, showing Sonic the scary liquid that coated it.
NOT A FANCHARACTER, I SWEAR.
i'd say something else about this, but i'm just not in the mood.
make me happy and leave some reviews, k?
"I'm bleeding..."