Anonymous Review Replies!

MetalScizor: Eh, not sure whether you write yourself, but each chapter easily takes up of 25+ hours to write, including editing, plotting, letting it stew then going over dialogue, sending it to a beta, working in their criticisms...add to that the fact that I've got currently 4 fanfics running parallel that I do that for, plus having a day job and a social life and you can see why it takes as long as it does. I do get reviews that tell me they enjoy the fics though, so I'm not overly bothered.

LoneGarurumon: Thank you! :D It's fun to think up Pokémon battles like in the anime, they always had just...a *bit* more flair than what you're allowed to do in the videogames ;P And yeah, I do like most characters having an area of competence and for both sides of a crossover to come across as equal, valuable partners :) Hope you enjoy the new chapter!

LAST TIME ON THIS FANFIC...

Well, after the Chaos Emerald our friends need to get home has been announced as the grand prize of the Xeno-Cup Pokémon Tournament, now Sonic needs to enter as Ash's Pokémon to win it (of course)! To prepare for this, everyone has engaged in a practice tournament, with Tails and Amy acting as Sonic's "trainers" and Ash sending in Pikachu for a rematch! Sonic didn't seem overly concerned, but now that Pikachu has used Iron Tail to knock him clear into the sky and sent a Thundershock after him, our flailing hero might not be so sure about this anymore...

ooo

Chapter 20: What Friends are For

"NO! SONIC!"

And then he opened them again when instead of blinding agony, there was suddenly a brilliant red hammer being hurled from below, dispersing the electricity harmlessly as it collided with the Thunderbolt, and then, there was another cry of:

"NoworriesSonicigotyou!"

And he was all at once scooped up in thin furry arms interrupting his free fall and turning it into a graceful dive toward middle of the arena.

"Wha-? Tails! Amy! What on Earth are you doing?!" Brock was frantically running toward them, wildly waving both his referee flags to stop the fight.

Both Amy (standing in the middle of the field and having just summoned and raised another hammer) as well as Tails (hovering slightly above and clutching a non-plussed Sonic under his arms) now looked slightly sheepish.

"Uh..."

"You do know that trainers generally are not supposed to participate in the fight, yeah?" Brock cocked an eye brow.

"Sorry, it was a...kinda reflex..." Amy chuckled nervously as Tails finally let his brother drop down again, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"Yah, uh, we...just didn't want Sonic to get hurt?" he tried. "That's what Ash said, didn't he?"

"Yes, but..." Brock gave the small troupe the stare most rational people eventually employ after having tried repeatedly to explain a concept like 'reason' or 'logic' to an auditorium filled exclusively with the cast of Looney Toons, and then merely sighed. "Never. Mind."

"Hm, well, maybe the next fight should be fought with you and Ash as a team," Misty said. "And maybe not Tails and Amy anywhere in it," she added.

"Hey, what happened?!" Ash was now also jogging up to them from his side, looking confused. "Where did that hammer suddenly come from?"

"Trade secret," Amy commented glibly, before ducking her head. "But yeah, sorry we disrupted the battle and broke the rules. I think we work better when we're fighting together with Sonic, not letting him fight for us."

"Heh. Probably true," Sonic snorted, before then glancing up at Ash. "And hey, Ash? Just wanted to say, nice tactic." He gave a lop-sided grin. "I think you woulda won that fight. And you, too," he added to Pikachu, who immediately preened and rubbed its ear.

"Pika pika!"

"Thank you!" Ash gave him a wide grin, his words perhaps the exact same sentiment of his Pokémon as he smiled. "I guess that makes us even, right?"

"Hah!" Sonic laughed. "Yeah, guess it does."

"Alright, then," Brock clapped his hands. "So, Ash, now that you've seen what Sonic can do, you guys wanna switch it up?" he glanced over at Sonic."Sonic, how'd you feel about a practice fight with Ash handling you?"

"Um..." Sonic gave a small frown, not quite able to hide a slight irritation at the word the human used so non-chalantly, but then again – he himself had had to admit that Ash had just used the abilities of Pikachu really well after he knew what to expect from Sonic. The hedgehog cleared his throat.

"...alright. Let's try this. Who are we gonna fight against, Ash?" he asked (and was pleased to note how the boy's face lit up at his inclusion). Misty cleared her throat.

"Actually, you can take your pick," she smiled. "My specialty is water Pokémon and Brock collects rock types."

The answer didn't take very long.

"Brock. Very, very definitely Brock."

xxx

"...wow," Misty managed after a couple of minutes. "I don't think I've ever seen an Onyx that has tied itself into a knot before."

"Well," Sonic said (trying not to sound too smug) "Seems like some of your Pokémon are not prepared for yours truly's signature move, the figure-eight spin-dash."

"Oh…oh no, Onyx, please stop pulling, you're making the knot tighter, please listen to me…" Brock's pleading voice could be heard from the other side of the playing field, the teenager trying to reason with his distressed giant rock snake Pokémon. "I promise you, you will never have to fight against Sonic again, it's okay…hey!" he shouted loudly at Misty, who was currently the referee, "I concede the match! Ash and Sonic have won!"

"Yes!" Ash cheered. "Awesome work, Sonic!" he shouted, giving Sonic a wide grin, who couldn't help but smile back. The match had gone fairly well, actually – it had been Ash's idea to confuse Onyx after it had been clear that Sonic's homing attacks weren't able to do much damage to a being made effectively of living rock, and then Sonic had taken that plan and literally run with it, adding his own unique execution for a win.

And now, some of that enthusiasm of that boy could actually be contagious, the way he just seemed so happy for you- next, though, Sonic immediately stiffened, because Ash's hand went smoothly to his belt.

"Sonic! Come back!"

There was a brief blue blur, and then something red and white and sneaker-shaped hit the still closed Pokéball mid-flight so hard it got hurled away at what seemed like terminal velocity. Where it had been in the air, Sonic dropped down, green eyes now staring at Ash in a mixture of surprise and alarm, fists clenched.

The boy's face immediately fell.

"Er – oh, no, Sonic, I'm so sorry, it was only a reflex-!"

Sonic didn't reply, only took a step back, but Ash was already jogging toward him, looking seriously upset.

"I really didn't mean to try and catch you, honest!"

"It's true. He looked as as surprised as you did when the Pokéball flew," Knuckles said from the side of the field, arms crossed and regarding the human hurrying toward them stoically before raising an eye ridge at Sonic. "Mind you, I think you're as mad as a bat to duel for them in their games, but I don't think he's lying."

As soon as he had finished speaking, Ash finally reached them, dropping down to a knee to be on eye level with Sonic. "Really, it just slipped my mind that you're not one of my Pokémon for a moment." He gazed at the hedgehog, looking seriously embarrassed. "Sorry?"

Sonic considered for a moment, but then sighed. "...yeah, okay. Guess it was an honest mistake."

"Your friends ran into the battle as an honest mistake," Misty pointed out amusedly. "Guess old habits die hard on either side, huh?"

Sonic snorted. "I guess so." Shaking his head, he finally gave a small smile again to Ash. "But yeah, apart from that last part I don't think you make a bad advisor, kiddo. I think we'll have that tournament in the bag."

The black-haired boy lit up like a miniature sun at the praise. "Really?!" he asked the hedgehog, before punching the air in elation. "Awesome! Thank you!"

"Well," Knuckles observed, but even he could not quite keep himself from letting his lips twitch into an almost-smile. "At least in enthusiasm he's got you matched, hedgehog..."

xxx

Later on, when dinner preparations were already underway, Ash was currently standing at Oak's computer, carefully placing one of his Pokéballs in a special tray on a platform next to it. Then he seemed to be scrolling through a menu of icons that all seemed to portray different Pokémon, clearly searching for something.

"What are you doing?" Tails asked curiously, standing on tip toes to peer over the edge of the computer desk.

"Oh, just retrieving Charizard for the tournament," Ash replied cheerfully. "I don't carry him that often with me, my other Pokémon need more training. But any Pokémon you don't currently have with you can be easily put in a computer box and retrieved from any Pokécenter or Professor Oak's laboratory."

"You store the Pokémon online?" Tails asked, wide-eyed. "Huh. I wonder whether that's like a special zone in there."

"A what?" Ash blinked.

"Uh, never mind. But yeah, matter digitalization, that's really cool," Tails said, blue eyes gleaming. "Is there ever any trouble with, I dunno, internet Pokémon theft or anything?"

"Not unless Team Rocket tries one of their stupid schemes again, no." Misty, having overheard their exchange apparently, laughed. "But they generally fail. Pokémon storage is actually quite secure – as soon as one is newly caught in ball and gets digitalized, it gets assigned a unique ID that identifies it and which trainer it belongs to at the central database. The Pokéballs transmit that information directly and also encode it into the Pokémon's digitalized data itself, so there can never be a mix-up."

"Wow," Tails breathed, "that's really advanced technology."

("And yet, like everything else on this planet, they fail to use it for anything else than letting kids carry around eccentric battle pets," Knuckles commented from the side but was ignored.)

xxx

"Hm, okay," Oak said, tapping his bottom lip with a finger as they were later in the kitchen, dinner preparations about to start up. "Next question is, how are we going to get you all inside the tournament?"

"Um. Can't we just come with you? Like Pikachu?" Amy asked, blinking and shooting the little yellow monster a glance. It was currently curled up on Ash's head and sleeping, only a twitch of its tail indicating it had heard its name.

"Well, it's not quite as easy," Brock pointed out. "At such events, there is only one free Pokémon per trainer allowed, otherwise it could get too crowded or the Pokémon out of control."

"Oh. Well, in that case, I'll take Amy," Misty volunteered immediately. "If we all pair up, it should work, right?"

"Hm, that's an idea," Oak replied, stroking his chin. "I'd quite like Tails to accompany me, then. What?" he added, as he became aware of their glances. "I want to study them as much as any scientist and I haven't been to a tournament in ages. I'm not that old, you know?"

"No no, it's fine, Professor," Brock immediately tried to calm him down. "I'll take Knuckles with me, then."

"Cool," Sonic said with a smile, nodding at Ash. "In that case, we'll make a pair and everything's-"

"Uh," the human boy now actually looked faintly pained. "I, er, can't take anyone with me. Pikachu already accompanies me everywhere."

"But..." Sonic began, a small frown beginning to creep over his features as he was starting to do some mental arithmetic and already starting to get some very discomforting results, "That means...hey, wait a minute-!"

Ash grimaced. "It's the ball for you until you're on for the tournament. Sorry."

xxx

"If that little yellow pipsqueak doesn't want to be in the ball I don't see why I have to be."

It was a low grumble, uttered by one severely grumpy hedgehog leaning against the wall of Oak's farmhouse with his arms crossed some time later, although anyone who knew the hero of Mobius well could probably have discerned a small measure of nervousness in his eyes at the prospect of being essentially trapped in a tightly enclosed space.

"Sonic?" Sonic's head lifted at the mention of his name to see Ash step outside into the evening air. "I thought I'd find you there. Dinner is almost ready."

"Ah. Right." Sonic nodded, dredging up a smile but not quite managing to meet the eye of the human. "Thank you."

"Uhm...is everything alright?" Ash seemed to sense something was off, though, and lingered a bit, rubbing the back of his head. "For what it's worth, I thought you were amazing out there today. I've never seen any Pokémon as fast as you."

"…huh. Well, cool to know the title seems to hold even on this world, then," Sonic muttered a bit wryly, before managing to finally meet the boy's gaze, adding a more sincere "Thanks."

Ash still frowned. "…you still don't look too happy, though. Don't you want to participate with me after all? Was I too pushy?" He looked a bit worried.

"No, that's not it, you were fine. Pretty great, even." Sonic sighed unwillingly. "I guess I just...I don't like the idea of being ...captured by anyone." He looked to the side, uncomfortable. For the moment, he was glad it was just him and Ash out here.

"Ah. Yeah. I guess we don't usually see it that way, but I get where you're coming from." Ash looked slightly awkward now as well, at least, a pained smile on his young face.

Sonic raised an eye ridge. "What do you mean, you 'don't see it that way'? You are catching wild creatures and keep them in those...capsule things, right? Seems pretty like pretty straightfoward capture to me."

"Uh, well…" Ash looked distinctly uncomfortable now, but Sonic didn't let that stop him.

"I mean, yeah, okay, they're more like ferals, so it's not exactly as bad as capturing people, but..." the hedgehog crossed his arms, looking away again. "I don't like the thought of anyone or anything not being free."

There was a moment of silence. When he spoke, Ash's voice was quiet.

"Tails said you're a hero in your home world, fighting for freedom, right?"

"Mh." Sonic exhaled a little, gaze still focused on the horizon. "I guess you could call it that, yeah."

"Well, I dunno if it helps, but..." Out of the corner of his eye, Sonic could see Ash letting himself slide down against the farmhouse wall until he was sitting next to Sonic, putting their faces now on an almost even level. "I think most Pokémon stay out of their own free will."

Sonic finally turned toward him, blinking. "Yeah, I noticed. Don't get that much, either, to be honest."

"It's really because there's trust," Ash said, looking up at him, earnestly. "My Pokémon are my friends more than anything. I would never send them out in fights if they didn't want to battle and become stronger."

Sonic looked at the boy but couldn't see anything but honesty. "That so?"

"Yeah. Well, I…I definitely think so, anyway."

Sonic sighed. "If I...agree to let you put me in a Pokéball," he said, once again not quite able to look Ash in the eye at that imagined scenario, "Can I...will I be able to escape if I needed to?"

At the question, Ash seemed to look slightly uncomfortable.

"I," he swallowed, "I don't know. If you're strong and unwilling to be captured in the first place, then breaking out is easy, like your friend did," (he said that last part with a sympathetic grimace while Sonic rubbed his jaw with a wince at the memory), "But usually if a Pokémon was too weak to escape or agreed to be caught by a trainer..." he let the sentence trail off, before shrugging a bit awkwardly.

"There's always a few Pokémon who seem to be able to come out at the worst time possible, though, so I don't know."

"Hm." Sonic frowned. "What about being recaptured once you're out?"

"That, er, yeah. That's actually rather easy. If you've been properly captured once, they can retrieve you at any time," Ash admitted, looking a bit pained. "Has to do with being registered in the database, I think."

Sonic could feel his expression darken further at this information. "Right."

"But, Sonic," Ash now looked actually nervous. "If it helps, I swear I'd never force you back inside the ball against your will." He swallowed. "That...that's not something I'd do to a friend."

Sonic, who had slung arms around knees, looked up, silently studying the kid for a moment. Then, he slowly exhaled his held breath through his nose.

"Hm. Maybe I can work with that," he said, giving Ash a small smile that seemed to relax the human a little.

Now, if only he repeated it often enough, maybe that knot in his stomach would loosen and Sonic could believe it himself.

Xxx

"You know…" Amy bit her lip as they were sitting around the dinner table after it had been cleared off, their human friends currently outside to exercise some of their Pokémon before turning in for the night. "I'm still a bit worried. About whether Shadow is here or not. And whether we shouldn't try and find him if he is."

Sonic shot her a glance, mouth twitching. "Worried? About Shads?"

Knuckles shrugged. "If you ask me it doesn't even seem likely he came with us. Contrary to the rest of us, he was strapped into that bizarre contraption of Robotnik's."

Tails nodded. "And if he did, it would have made sense that he'd have landed in the surrounding area of Pallet town as well, like the rest of us. And with his speed he should have been able to search the area to come across at least one of us, right?"

"I don't know," Amy fiddled with her gloves a little, eyes on the table. "What if he was injured? And we mostly managed to find each other because we all automatically tried to communicate with the humans here and ask for help or directions. You know Shadow wouldn't do that."

"Yeah…" Sonic pulled a bit of a grimace, all of them knowing the stance the Ultimate Lifeform generally held on the human race after the disaster aboard the ARK. "I do think the news here would have picked up on him being around, though, wouldn't it? And Ash and his friends know what to be on the lookout for…"

"What if he was captured, though?" Amy asked again, still looking worried. "That wouldn't necessarily make the news."

"Ash put that search warrant out on their general Poké-database or whatever they're using, remember?" Sonic shrugged. "Now if anything gets captured that even remotely resembles him, it would be instantly flagged."

(Which was patently true. Ash had told them that since the day they'd made their claim on the police station, he had been notified of the capture of no fewer than half a dozen Zoroarks in the meantime, which had been somewhat amusing, but not very helpful.)

"He can be stealthy, though, right?" Tails pointed out. "Not sure if anybody would discover him if he was being paranoid and intentionally avoiding detection until he knows where he is."

"Either way, he can probably care for himself," Knuckles crossed his arms. "And not only can he sense the Chaos Emerald if he gets close enough, if he was anywhere in the vicinity of a town, they have been announcing their fancy tournament with pictures of the Emerald everywhere. If that hedgehog ended up in this world with us, even without a translator, he's likely seen them by now and will turn up there."

"Hm." Amy still pulled a face, looking out of the window unhappily. "I don't know, I have a bad feeling..."

xxx

Sonic was staring at the ceiling. He was in the same room he had been on his first night here – the only difference being, there were now two more Mobians sleeping in it, all of them sharing the large human twin bed – but unlike then, sleep tonight was not coming easy.

Beside him, Tails and Amy were slumbering peacefully, heedless of his tossing and turning for the past half an hour. Sonic gave a huff of frustration. Having trouble sleeping was usually so not him, but tonight…

Green eyes turned over to the large, bright and full moon outside – it was obvious that it wasn't their moon, the craters on it all wrong, but it would have been nice if Sonic could at least have felt a bit better for its presence; something at least semi-familiar to remember his homeworld by.

Alas, no such thing.

Mostly because by now, only the round shape of the damn thing was enough to remind Sonic that tomorrow, he was going to be trapped in a friggin Pokéball.

"Augh!" At this point, the hero of Mobius tried to stifle his grown of absolute dissatisfaction by suffocating himself with a pillow.

This isn't working. I'll never get to sleep this way. Sonic rolled over, glaring at nothing in particular. Finally, he sat up.

Fine. He'd take a walk, then. Maybe that would help to calm him down or wear him out (though of course he knew how unlikely that last option was).

With stealth borne from many an infiltration mission, slipping out of the room unnoticed and near noiselessly through the house was easy – Tails and Amy barely twitched, and Sonic knew that Knuckles was sleeping in one of the trees lining the front of the house, so he slipped out the back. As soon as the door closed behind him, and a sky of unfamiliar stars unfolded above his head, he could already feel some tension dissolving.

Oh man. Sonic briefly pinched the skin above his muzzle. It wasn't that he didn't trust Ash, but…

He broke that thought off. If they wanted to get into that tournament tomorrow without alerting security, this was the only surefire way. He'd just have to bear with it.

Or maybe I'll find Shadow somewhere if I go looking for him at night. Dude looks like a vampire anyway. Then HE can go into that stupid ball tomorrow…

Sonic managed a small amused huff at that mental image, and, mood at least somewhat restored, took off toward the near forest border with a small burst of speed. Maybe a run was just what he needed.

Behind him, the house lay just as still as he had left it, except for two small black eyes blinking sleepily awake on a windowsill.

"Pika...?"

xxx

Even though the sun had set long ago, bathing the forest around Pallet Town into impenetrable darkness, there were now footsteps intruding upon the nightly silence. Sonic, walking now instead of running along the unfamiliar forest paths, didn't even quite know himself what he was doing out here, having slipped out of Professor Oak's house silently over half an hour ago without telling anyone. He had run at first, but stopped and slowed as soon as he had entered the nightly forest surrounding Route 1, blue ears only occasionally twitching at the noises of nocturnal creatures slipping through the undergrowth around him.

Probably, this was stupid. With the tournament tomorrow, he would most likely be better off sleeping and resting now, instead of roaming around outside. But still...

Maybe it just had to do with wanting to escape the feeling of restlessness that came with knowing that tomorrow, he was going to be locked into a ball by a human he had barely known for half a week, a human that at their first meeting would have had no trouble with cheerfully taking Sonic for his pet against his will. The hedgehog scowled at the memory, turning sharply down a more overgrown path randomly.

Sure that had been a misunderstanding, and from what he had seen, Ash's Pokémon did like their master, and Ash seemed like an experienced trainer and a good kid, and the voice of reason in his head tried to remind him of how much help Ash and his friends had already given them in exchange for nothing, but... unthinking, Sonic kicked a stone, perhaps more viciously than intended. It bounced away into the undergrowth - and then hit something behind the bushes with a definite metallic clang.

Sonic stilled and turned to look what he'd hit. Then, green eyes subtly widened.

In front of him, two metres high against the black, moonlit sky, a high metal gate was rising. It was topped with two gargoyle-like statues, its grills ornately twisted, a small, dirty plastic sign hanging on its right side the only thing ruining the supremely gothic effect.

Cautiously but curiously, Sonic stepped closer, his breath, the soft tread of his sneakers and the quiet hooting of an owl somewhere in the distance the only sound besides the ominous creaking of the gates in the night breeze.

Despite the full moon above, in the gloom of the forest he couldn't yet decipher the sign from the distance even if he squinted. But as he slowly neared the gate, he also realized he wouldn't need to, as it became more and more apparent what was behind it anyway.

The stone markers looked slightly different from those he knew from Mobius, but somewhere, Sonic thought, a graveyard would always look like a graveyard.

A gloved hand folded itself around one of the twisted metal bars as he came to a halt in front of the gate to peer inside. Out of reflex, he read the sign anyway.

Pokémon Cemetery

Of course.

Sonic's eyes narrowed. It was only natural that there would be a Pokémon cemetery, obviously – they would have to die of old age or disease or in accidents like every other living creature in the world. And if they were beloved pets and companions, it wouldn't be a huge leap in assuming that the humans would want a place where they could mourn their deceased Pokémon like owners in his home world interred pet cats, dogs, Chao, or flickies.

But still.

How many of those that lay there had been killed by their very own 'beloved owners' in battle, Sonic couldn't help but wonder as he stared at the graves through the bars.

I wonder whether it would say anything about it on the grave stones...?

He had begun to lean against the bars and then tensed up in surprise as suddenly, the gate started to move slightly under his weight. Evidently, it hadn't been locked. Green eyes flickered once more to the sign underneath the spikes -

Visiting hours – Sunrise until sunset.

DO NOT ENTER AFTER DARK.

A faint frown graced the hedgehog's features. That did sound foreboding – but then again, that could likely have to do more with respect for the dead and the hours during which a caretaker was around than with anything else. After all, in his own world locking a graveyard's gates at sunset was mostly about keeping the goth kids from holding poetry slumps (like poetry slams, but depressing) in them at night.

Sonic shrugged, and slipped inside, not bothering to close to gate behind him.

xxx

The paths of the graveyard stretched out in front of him, the stone markers rising higher than those he knew from the cemeteries around Station Square, reminding him more of those he'd seen in Chun-Nan. Some of them were large and ornamental, some of them small and less adorned, their irregularity adding to the slightly maze-like look of the winding ways of this forest of the dead.

Sonic could feel a bit of an uncharacteristic cold shudder run under his fur as he walked inwards further, the dark, leafy branches of the trees growing from in between the gravestones blocking out more of the moonlight as he proceeded. He wasn't sure whether it was morbid curiosity at this point or even something else altogether that drove him forward, but he also knew that he wouldn't stop until he had found out.

Somewhere in the distance, something wolf-like howled and he had to consciously stop himself from freezing in response.

Stop it. *You* were 'something wolf-like' just last year, remember? And you've already dealt with ghosts in Pyramid Cave. There is nothing to be afraid of here…

A headstone larger than the others caught his attention for a moment and Sonic almost gratefully focused on that. There were two statues of small, ceramic foxes in front of it, and Sonic crouched down for a moment, brushing some ivy aside to read the inscription engraved in the stone…

Here Lies

NINETALES

A faithful guardian,

warrior and protector

member of the Katsura family

to the end

Missed and Loved

Sonic could feel the familiar sombre emotion that usually accompanied the reading of words on grave stone, a shadow of the grief of someone else briefly resonating with something deeper inside yourself – but his eyes widened as they fell on the Pokémon's birth and death dates underneath the inscription – mostly because they encompassed a time span longer than 200 years. Sonic blinked.

Somehow, that didn't seem like a life span you would reach if you fought life or death battles every day…or, hopefully, an age you would choose to stay with a family that mistreated you, once your original owner would have passed away. It must have lived with that Katsura family for at least 5 generations…

There was a sudden, sharp noise from some of the undergrowth nearby and Sonic leapt nearly three feet into the air.

"H-Hey? Is somebody there?"

He could feel his own heart beating double time underneath his own voice (that thankfully didn't sound as startled as he felt). Chaos, he hadn't even noticed how tense he was.

There was no reply save for another strange noise from the bushes and more rustling. Sonic could feel the quills on his back standing on end.

Yeah, no. Not going in there. That's not what I'm here for, anyway.

Not quite sure anymore what he was here for, either, he nevertheless continued on inside the cemetery, eyes wandering over the headstones, just seeing whether there would be another one drawing his attention like that Ninetales' had done – when something else did.

"...huh?" Sonic stopped and paused as there was a whoosh of air and the sound of beating wings to his left, his gaze snapping to the small opening in the undergrowth where a footpath branched off the main walkway he was on – and then he blinked because now there was something lying on the earth between the bushes; something gleamingly gold and very familiar.

"...rings?" Sonic breathed for a moment aloud, but then caught himself – no, that wasn't a power ring (which wouldn't make sense anyway; you only found rings in special zones) that was –

"Shadow's bracelet?!" Sonic exclaimed, immediately forgetting all about his earlier apprehension and hurrying toward the golden band lying on the ground off the path, parting the branches of the undergrowth to get to it. "Shadow?!" he called again, louder. "Are you here, dude? I just found your-AGH!"

There was a very abruptly cut-off scream as Sonic had almost reached the bracelet and then the earth collapsed under him.

"AGH! What the-ugh!" There was a rush of darkness as he plummeted down, but he didn't fall far – the ground rushed up to meet him pretty much immediately, the hero of Mobius smacking into the wet earth of the – pitfall? Trap?-'s floor face first with a solid thump!

"Ouuh...what the hell? I swear, if this is some budget trap from some friggin kid who couldn't afford Pokéballs-"

Sonic raised himself to his hands and knees, one hand of his holding the part of his forehead that had met the ground first. He shook his head, blinking to try and re-adjust to the darker surroundings of the pit he had obviously fallen into – sitting back on his knees, his other hand landed on what was obviously the ring that had to have fallen down with him. Sonic grabbed it and peered at it.

...huh. Well, it definitely looks like Shadow's bracelet...Sonic thought, which begs the question who placed it as some sort of bait on a trap. Sonic looked up.

"...Egghead?!" he called out. "If this is what your traps have come to in this world, I'd lay off the 'evil genius' bit for a while, y'kno-"

And then he abruptly broke off because against the backdrop of the moon overhead, a strange-shaped head poked over the edge of the pit.

"...Murcrow?"

"What?" Sonic managed.

In response, the creature rose into the air, revealing its shape to be that of a large, crow-like bird – only to then shoot straight down into the pit, outstretched claws descending toward Sonic's face with a screech, and behind it, more black birds followed, their wings blocking out the night sky.

xxx

"Ow! Ow! Geddoff! OW!" Sonic was yelling, flailing his arms wildly to fend off the birds descending on him as if this was the cartooniest Alfred Hitchcock movie in history. He had managed to scramble out of the (thankfully not very deep) pit, but the birds were wailing on him, clawing and pecking and scratching as if he had been thrown into a feathered blender. Sonic couldn't very well run if he wasn't able to see where he was going, and with one arm of his basically having to cover his face to avoid getting his eyes pecked out, this wasn't going to happen.

"OW!" Sonic cried out again as there was a particularly vicious tear of a beak down his side that felt like one of the birds had actually drawn blood. "Fer Chaos' – okay, graveyard or not, this is enough!" He barked, whirling around and then leaping into a spin, feeling his quills fan out as he curled up and spun in the air, cries and squawks of the bird monsters around him as they flapped and flailed to avoid the blades of his back.

"Hah! Yeah, see if you want to bother a hedgehog again." Sonic smirked as he dropped down to uncurl, watching the fleeing murder of crow Pokémon rushing back into the dark wood surrounding the graveyard. He only let himself wince and sag a little when the last one of them had disappeared – showing any weakness at all to an attacking Pokémon was, he had learned, an unwise choice – and then took a slow turn to survey his new surroundings.

This was a newer area of the graveyard, clearly – any tombstones here looked clean of moss and less worn, and there were several graves freshly dug open in various sizes, as of yet still unadorned and unnamed. Sonic tore his gaze away from one that seemed to have the perfect size for him.

Chaos, dude, way to creep yourself out, here. I should probably get going before I've had no sleep before the tournament tomorrow…

He looked again at the bracelet in his hand, letting it absent-mindedly spin around his index-finger once, frowning – but then again, if Shadow were around here, he'd have to have found Sonic by now, the other was fast and his and the Pokémon's combined screaming during the fight and the chase hadn't exactly been quiet.

Yeah, no. Guess they must have carried the bracelet here from some other place - or Shads was here and then moved on. Smartest thing to do is still go back and then try and find him at that tournament, I guess…Sonic thought, before bringing the spinning motion of the bracelet to a halt and holding onto it securely instead. He turned, trying to judge which way he had come from in his mad dash to get away from the murder bird Pokémon things – and then abruptly froze.

Which was mostly because in front of him there was now a sphere of black nothing, and as he watched, it grew eyes made of nightmares and a mouth full of sharp teeth.

"Gastly," it said, full of dark promise.

To be continued…

Hope you liked, I'm so happy I got the graveyard chapter up in time for Halloween! :D Hope you all enjoyed the ride (even if Sonic didn't lol) and if you read, please review, always makes my day! :)