Review Response!

Eggman hater : XD I love that!

Psychic Nature : Yeah... I kinda found that out after I posted the story ^^;

Retto the Otter : Yes... I know that now...

The poke lover : :| Thank you.

The Speedy Blue Pokémon!

Chapter 11

By: Soniclover28

(Sonic's P.O.V.)

"…And then Shadow and I turned super, and he helped Cosmo hold Dark Oak still while I got into the Super Sonic Cannon. Tails fired me towards the planet and—long story short—it exploded. Shadow barely saved Cosmo and brought her back to the Blue Typhoon, and the universe was saved."

"What about you? What happened when the planet exploded?" Charmander asked, completely absorbed in my tale.

"I died."

"What?!" All the pokémon gasped. They gave me a bewildered look, and all shot unsure glances at each other.

"Well, almost died. I can't really explain it, but I visited this mystical being named Chaos—the guardian of the chaos emeralds—and he granted me life again as a repayment for saving the universe. What was really weird, though, was when I got back. Everyone said I'd been gone for weeks, when I was only dead for what felt like minutes."

"Wow…" Pikachu breathed.

"Gave Eggman the surprise of his live, though," I snickered, "You shoulda' seen his face."

"So the… chaos emeralds, you said; they're really that powerful? Now I understand why we're looking for them," Bulbasaur said.

"Yeah. We have to find them all before Eggman does, or we'll never get home," I replied.

"Sonic, are you done having story time yet, or can we get going?" Knuckles' voice made me ear swivel around, and I nodded to him.

"Sure, I just finished. We'll leave as soon as everything's packed up."

"Um… I'm taking that as a yes…" Knuckles blinked, rubbing the back of his head. I laughed and nodded again.

We set off again shortly after, and I was in the lead once again.

"Hey, Sonic!"

I turned my head to see Pikachu spring off of Ash's shoulder and bound up beside me.

"Can you tell me more about your adventures? They're amazing!" Pikachu asked, walking on all fours beside me.

"Well… I'd have to think of one, first… Hey, you and Ash travel a lot; why don't you tell the story this time?"

"Oh, okay! Hmm… Well, there was that one time that Ash got turned into a Pikachu…"

A day or two had passed, and we were now trudging up the mountain. The grassy terrain was slowly morphing into dirt and rocks, and the air was growing colder and colder. We were getting closer to the emerald; so close that Knuckles himself could sense it now.

We were marching on until it began to get so cold that everyone was shivering from time to time. The sun was beginning to set, and Brock began to set up tents for everyone with Tails and Misty. The rest of us were trying to find sticks and possibly a stream where we could refill our water canisters.

The cold snow underneath my hands and feet weren't that much of a bother to me, not since I've spent most of my life outside. The only ones that seemed troubled with the cold were the humans, Rouge, and Cosmo, who weren't exactly built for such low temperatures.

Ash's pokémon had come out of their pokéballs and had huddled inside the tent with Tails and I.

"So what happened after you fell back down to Mobius?" Butterfree asked, shifting her wings in curiosity.

"I don't really remember anything except for ending up in Eggman's laboratory." When everyone gasped, I continued. "No, he didn't capture me. He actually patched me up and told me I'd been out for about a week. He also said that he found me washed up on the beach while he was exercising, which was actually more surprising than waking up in his lab."

"What, you washing up on the beach?"

"No, the fact that he was exercising. I mean, this guy is huge. He's so fat, sumo wrestlers are jealous."

"Sumo…wrestlers…?" Pikachu echoed.

"Never mind. At least Tails got the joke," I replied, motioning to the chuckling fox.

"So what happened next?" Squirtle pressed, motioning his hands for me to continue.

"I got up, told him thanks, and got outta there. Then, of course, I came home to see a giant Metarex attacking my town."

"Metarex…?"

"That giant, half plant, half robot-thing."

"Oh yeah! So how'd you stop it?" Charmander asked excitedly.

"Did you use a rapid spin on it?"

"Did you get a ring and get powered up?"

"Did you turn super and smash it?"

"Well… A-actually…" I stuttered, a light blush appearing on my face. "I... didn't… beat it… I was still exhausted from my fight in space, and it only took a couple of hits to take me down. It took the planet egg and flew off, and that leads us right back to how I met Cosmo," I explained.

"Oh…" Squirtle replied, showing a small look of disappointment.

"Yeah, but later you beat all of those Metarex, right?" Pikachu asked.

"Well, sure I did. Not without my friends, though."

"Speaking of friends," Tails interrupted, "Everyone is asleep but us. You should all go back to Ash's tent; we're going to find the chaos emerald tomorrow."

"Aww…" Everyone replied, their heads lowering.

"Boo, Tails! Boo!" I said, giving him a lighthearted thumbs-down. The fox rolled his eyes and gave me a smile before finally shooing all of the pokémon away.

Tails turned the lantern we were using off, and he settled into his sleeping bag. I yawned, suddenly feeling drowsy as the chesto berry Brock had given me for dinner began to wear off. I took the sleeping bag that had been laid out for me and began to tug and pull on it until it was in a nest-like position. I spun once for a reason unknown to me and finally plopped down onto the sleeping bag. I closed my eyes and waited for sleep to come.

And was immediately met by nightmares.

I was running through a dark cave, dodging rocks and leaping over trenches that suddenly appeared in front of me. I was able to run on two feet here with my shoes, but I didn't care at the moment. I was being chased by something, but couldn't quite figure out what. My breathing was labored as my aching muscles screamed for me to stop running.

I obeyed their wish as I suddenly found myself at a dead end where the ground suddenly dropped into a never-ending trench. It was too wide and risky to jump to the other side, and when I turned to find another escape route, I froze.

The thing—or things—that were chasing me was the flaming girl and none other than my demonic self.

"Well, well, well…" He started with a grin, "It seems you're stuck between a rock and a hard place." He took a few steps towards me, and I suddenly found that I couldn't move. Dark Sonic stopped and motioned me forward. I came to him.

"You don't take warnings very well, do you?" His voice echoed across the cave and cut through the air like a knife. "I told you that I'd be back. And now I'm so close… But just to make sure that you don't screw it up again, I thought I'd send you yet another warning." He turned to the girl made of magma, and the deformed creature lunged towards me. She effortlessly pinned me down, and I could do nothing but shoot nervous glances between Dark Sonic and the girl of flames. Her touch burned, but I could feel no pain.

"You are in the one place where you are in control, and yet, you have no control at all," Dark Sonic hissed, placing his hand on my chest as the world suddenly turned. What I thought was once the ground now became a wall that my dark self was pinning me to. He ran his free hand across my cheek, as if petting me, and I could finally flinch away.

"Don't touch me…" I growled.

Dark Sonic gave a laugh of dark amusement and suddenly threw me to the ground. I grunted on impact, indicating that I was able to feel pain again. I stood up and whirled to face him, but found that he was gone. The cave that I was in suddenly vanished, and was replaced by black.

"Get on your knees like the scum you are!" Suddenly rang out behind me, and before I could react, I was pushed forward onto my knees.

"Do you honestly think you can defeat me?! I know you better than you know yourself, Sonic!" The voice rang out again as I got up.

I whirled around, hoping to see my dark self, but only saw a reflection of… well, me. The younger me. The me that was lost and confused.

"Hi there! I'm Sonic! What's your name?" He asked in a bouncy tone.

"Wha-?"

"Ahh! It's a rat!" A shrill voice screamed from somewhere.

"N-no! Don't scream! I-I'll make it better! I'll make it better!" The little hedgehog pleaded, backing away as the voice called for help. The four year-old boy suddenly bolted away in fear, and I could feel the hurt that had suddenly pierced the little hedgehog's heart.

All he had wanted was a friend…

"Sad, isn't it…?"

I didn't move as Dark Sonic hovered beside me.

"To think that we had to deal with that for years…" Dark Sonic shook his head.

"'We…?' What do you mean, 'we?!'" I whirled on him, fresh anger starting to boil inside of me. "You weren't the one that slept on the streets! You weren't the one that went days without food! And you sure weren't the one that watched their parents die right in front of them!" I snarled. "You only showed up when I was old enough to realize that I could defend myself! And even then you weren't really 'there!'"

Dark Sonic gave me a slightly surprised look, but it instantly turned into a malicious grin.

"Sure I was," He replied calmly, "I was there when you got depressed. I was there when you got scared. And, yes, I was there when I came so close to making you kill your friends. I can manipulate you any way I want. Soon, you'll be a puppet while I hold the strings."

His smug look and stance irritated me. His words rubbed me the wrong way. But the fact that he was right infuriated me.

I snapped.

I lunged at him, for once catching him off guard. I started beating his face in with every word I said.

"I—will—never—let—you—win!" I shouted. I yelped when a sudden force crashed through me, sending me flying off of my dark self.

I landed with a thud, skidding on the non-existent ground as I did so. I forced myself to stand, suddenly feeling very weak. I tried taking a few steps forward, but my knees buckled and I fell to the ground.

"Like my new trick?" Dark Sonic snickered, suddenly standing over me.

"Wha-…Wha'd you… Wha'd you do to me…?" I wheezed, looking up at him.

"Nighty-night…" Dark Sonic smiled evilly.

I took one last look at him before my vision faded to black.

"Sonic! Sonic, please wake up!" A voice cried.

It sounded distant.

"He's breathing again! Everybody back off!" Another yelled.

It sounded closer.

"Shh! He's trying to say something!"

Then there was silence.

I barely raised a heavy eyelid, letting green eyes scan my surroundings. I heard my heartbeat in my ears; it was deep and slow.

"Sonic…?" My vision drifted over to the fuzzy picture of Amy, and I stared at her through bleary eyes.

My head felt too heavy to lift up, and my muscles too weak to move. A headache started to throb in my head, but I couldn't do anything as I watched the world invert from blurry outlines to unidentifiable blobs.

I took another raspy breath, my throat felt as if I had just cried my eyes out.

"Sonic, can you hear me?" I heard a voice ask.

My eyes flickered over to Tails; whose face was glazed with worry and shock.

"Say something…" He pleaded, his voice breaking.

I tried to, but all that came out was a distorted whimper. My body shuddered as I suddenly went into a coughing fit, but nonetheless clearing my throat.

"Anyone…" I rasped, as everyone leaned forward in order to hear my almost soundless voice, "Anyone get the number of the bus that hit me…?"

I was immediately brought into a hug from Amy.

I tiredly wrapped my arms around her to comfort her. She set me back down, and I was able to stay in an awkward sitting position. I occasionally swayed, but stayed upright, nonetheless.

"Sonic… What happened…?" Brock questioned.

"I-I… I don' really know…" I replied. It was somewhat of the truth, too.

"You were making weird noises in your sleep, Sonic. You were snorting and yelping like a dog. At one point you hissed at me when I went to wake you up. I just watched you toss and turn until you got choked up and you just stopped breathing…It scared me…" Tails confessed.

"…Wow…" I replied, blinking.

"So, you're okay, now? Nothing hurting anymore?" Brock asked carefully.

I shook my head to him and stood on all fours to stretch.

"Maybe you should just rest for now, Sonic. I don't want to risk a relapse," Brock told me, gently prodding me back to my makeshift bed.

I shook my head and said, "We've been delayed enough. We're leaving right now. Everyone get your things, we're finding the emerald today."

Tails reluctantly translated for me, and everyone hesitantly started packing up.

"It's got to be around here somewhere…" I muttered, pacing the area where the chaos energy had suddenly spiked, shuffling my feet through the snow in order to feel the ground. Knuckles was looking as well as the others, but I was the only one that could really pin-point it.

I nosed around the foot-deep snow, shuddering as another chill hit me. I shook it off and tried focusing on the chaos pulses again, but the cold was really distracting. I knew in my mind that I'd been in worse temperatures, but I couldn't help but wish for the emerald to just appear in front of me.

And then my finger bumped something buried in the snow.

I wrapped my hand around it, suddenly spotting a white glow from under the snow. A burning sensation spread through my hand, and I yelped and immediately let go. I dug up the snow around the object, and laid my eyes upon what was, indeed, the white chaos emerald.

I tried picking it up again, but that same sensation made me pull back.

"What the…?" I mumbled.

Again I tried picking it up, and again the shock went up my arm.

"Guys, I found it!" I yelled, trying to understand why the emerald was acting this way.

The group ran up to me, and Knuckles immediately grabbed the gem out of the snow.

"Nice! Two down; five to go!" Knuckles boasted. While the others cheered, I couldn't help but notice a strange feeling in my chest; a cold and crawling feeling.

For some reason I whipped my head around, my ears perking and swiveling from side to side. My eyes scanned the snow and cloudy sky, but I saw nothing dangerous.

My fur started to stand on end, and my muscles tensed.

Something was wrong…

"So, Sonic, do you think you can locate the next-… Sonic…?" Tails was by my side after seeing my defensive stance, and I couldn't help but glue my gaze to a spot in the sky.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

I shook my head, briefly closing my eyes and taking a deep breath.

"Nothing, Tails. Just tired, I guess," I told him, putting on a soft smile.

"Oh…" Tails didn't look convinced, but didn't question any further.

"Hey, Sonic; you think you could ask the emerald to show you where the next one is?" Knuckles asked, walking up to me as well.

"I can try, yeah," I said, nodding. I winced when a weird feeling entered my chest again; this time it felt as if it were pushing my back.

"Great! Here," He said, holding out the emerald to me. I reached up to take it, but froze as a dark voice echoed in my head.

"Yes… Almost there… Just take it… Take it, already!"

I shook my head and backed away from the echidna, pinning my ears down.

"Hey, what's wrong, Sonic? Take the emerald so we can get going," Knuckles urged.

"What are you doing?! Go and snatch it from his hands!" The voice snapped.

I shook my head again, backing away further as Knuckles neared me.

"Sonic, stop being difficult and take the emerald," Knuckles said, a bit more irritated.

I glanced at the emerald, shifting uncomfortably, and suddenly wished I hadn't.

My eyes were glued to the gem, and a sudden urge to get it spread through me.

"That's it… Baby steps…"

I realized I was slowly making my way back to Knuckles, but I found I couldn't stop. The hypnotic shine of the emerald was glowing brighter with every step I took towards it, and I carefully reached a hand up to grab it.

"Knuckles, no!" Tails suddenly yelled.

The startled echidna jumped, causing me to miss the emerald by inches when I tried snatching it.

Unable to process what was exactly going on, I pounced on the red mobian, clawing at him.

"Get Sonic away from the chaos emerald!" Tails ordered, running up to us.

Knuckles immediately realized what was happening, and he kicked me away.

"Give me that emerald!" I roared, suddenly infuriated for some reason. I lunged at the echidna once more, and he instinctively rolled into a protective ball of quills. I veered to the left, avoiding the spiky trap, and landed squarely on the ground.

"Sonic, what's gotten into you?!" Amy cried.

I snarled at her in response, my eyes shining in wild, uncontrolled anger. I crouched into a pouncing position, ready to spring up at her, when I suddenly heard someone yell, "Primeape! Use sky uppercut!"

Before I could react, something punched me hard under the chin, and I was sent flying a few yards in the air. I grunted upon impact with the hard ground, and I got back up quickly.

I snarled when I recognized the same Primeape that had beaten me ruthlessly back in the forest. I bared my teeth when he came near me, my quills bristling as I did so. I arched my back, showing off the millions of quills that had suddenly come out of their neat, triangular shape, and looked like a blue bush on my back. A blue thorn bush, that is.

Primeape bashed his fists together, awaiting its next order.

"Use hyper beam!" The voice called out again, but I was too focused on the pokémon before me to acknowledge it.

While the ape-like pokémon was charging his attack, I charged at him, curling up into a ball, and knocked him back a few feet.

He didn't seem fazed. He let loose a powerful white beam, and I was hit before I could evade. I was knocked back, skidding on the ground and earning a couple scratches from the sharp rocks beneath me. I stiffly got back up, still snarling at the pokémon.

Before I could prepare my next attack, that voice called out again, and Primeape grabbed me and jumped into the air. I thrashed around, trying to escape his iron grip, and suddenly stopped.

I turned to face the pokémon, took a deep breath and unleashed an air ripping scream. The startled pokémon let go of me to grasp his injured ears, and I dropped ten feet to the ground, landing on my feet again. Before Primeape could smash into the ground, I sprung up and met him just before he even touched the ground.

I started snarling like a savage beast, biting, clawing, and punching as much as I could.

"Sonic, stop!"

It didn't register.

I soon got bored with the ape-like creature, and I bounded to the nearest bystander there. I pinned him to the ground, snapping at his neck as he tried pushing me away.

"Ash!"

I yelped when I suddenly felt electricity pulse through me, but I closed my eyes and endured it. The pain soon faded, and I smiled malevolently as, with one huge pulse, my body grew a bit.

"What the-?!"

I back flipped off of the human, searching for the thing that had shocked me.

I found my target as I noticed sparks gathering in his cheeks, and I gave a dark smile when he charged at me. A golden field surrounded the small creature, and he rammed into me. The pain left as soon as it came, and I noticed that my fur had grown to a midnight blue.

I swung my head similar to how a bull would before a charge, and hissed as I propelled myself in the air. I did a front flip, landed on the yellow pokémon, grabbed it, and pinned it down.

"S-sonic! Snap out of it! What's happening to y-?!"

He was rudely cut short when I screeched in his face.

I made an animalistic noise, as if snorting, and backed off of the small creature. Another pulse let my body grow, and I smirked when I saw all the other creatures' look of horror.

My eyes locked with the echidna's, and I charged at him faster than the eye could see. I rammed head-first into him, making him throw the emerald upwards. I used his head to propel myself upwards and grasp the emerald as tight as I could.

A shudder ran through me as the emerald froze me in the air. I curled around it, letting it continue to suspend me in the air. I closed my eyes, waiting for something I somehow knew would happen. I felt a tingling in my hands, and when I opened my eyes again, I saw sparks of white energy dancing along my fur.

I had absorbed the emerald.

"No!" A voice shouted. I looked to see Tails staring at me in horror, and a dark grin was suddenly plastered on my face. I flew further into the air, focusing all my power into one—or in this case, seven—things.

I felt heat surge around me, and I opened my eyes to gaze upon the glow of the six remaining emeralds. I held my hands out to them, closing my eyes once again. When I reopened them, I could literally feel the horror radiating off of everything at once.

Risking a glance below me, I suddenly registered what I had been doing all at once. The memories crashed into my head, as I realized what a savage I must have looked like.

My mind was suddenly shifted to the memory of Tails' outburst back in the forest. I tried to push the thought away, but it was as if the memory was forcing its way into my head.

"He doesn't deserve to be a hero, if he can't even do the job right!"

And then to the little hedgehog again.

"N-no! Don't scream! I-I'll make it better! I'll make it better!"

And then to the worst one of all. Gunshots rang off in my head, and I cried out, willing this one to go away.

"Daddy!"

My mind was shut down, my vision flashed white, and then splotches of red covered everything around me.

I froze.

My mind was stuck on my mother and father's dead, bloodied faces.

The tears welled up.

I screamed in pain.

A single drop hit the ground below me.

Dark Sonic finally grasped what he had always longed for.

Dark Sonic had finally taken control of me.

To Be Continued...