Act 0, Part 3 – World Adventure

Two years earlier...

"MWA-hahohohohohoho!"

A cackle of demented laughter was the first thing Sonic heard from his precarious position, clutched in the steel hands of a madman's latest mechanical monstrosity.

A look upwards revealed the villain himself, grinning devilishly as he looked down on his captured quarry, prince-nez glasses showing the hedgehog his very own reflection as they glinted menacingly even in the depths of space.

How had he gotten himself into this predicament in the first place, one might ask?

Oh, right; this newest fiasco had all started when Robotnik had turned up one day and announced his newest plan to collect the Chaos Emeralds and use them to power his newest fleet of battleships that were designed to take over the world, and so on and so forth.

Now, the last time the doctor had done something similar, Sonic and his various allies had ended up having to deal with a homicidal robot trying to exterminate them with maximum prejudice. Taking that into consideration, the azure hedgehog had immediately sprung into a frenzy, running all over Mobius and collecting the emeralds before the doctor so much as had the chance to say Chao.

In hindsight, however, what he should have considered was that it was probably a trap.

Either way, a quick assist from Tails was all it took to get the hero onboard the vile doctor's airship, and soon Sonic was decimating Robotnik's lackeys and security systems like it was nobody's business.

He'd been doing so well, too- until the evil roboticist himself had taken matters into his own hands, hopping into his latest mech and successfully trapping the blue Mobian in a vice grip.

Just then, Sonic's ribs began to creak in protest as the fingers wrapped themselves firmly around his stomach, aiming to constrict, suffocate and asphyxiate him.

The hero squirmed, trying to break free, but in response, the hands began to tighten, intent on slowly crushing him. His eyes closed shut but his mind flew at the speed of light, trying to figure out a solution to get out, get out of the deathtrap he'd ended up in.

All the while, Robotnik- who went by Eggman now- gazed at his predicament in sadistic glee.

Drat.

He'd really messed up, hadn't he?

This has gone on long enough, he heard a light, disembodied voice whisper in his ear, unheard by anyone else. Do not forget what is within.

Oh, right, he'd forgotten that he currently possessed the Chaos Emeralds, the gems that allowed him to turn invincible and (usually) golden; yet also evidently came with a particularly strange side-effect.

'Wait, the Chaos Emeralds! That's the solution!' he thought, perking up even as his body was being squeezed like a wet cloth.

Use the Chaos, concurred a second intonation, sounding akin to many voices speaking in unison.

Sonic finally opened his eyes, shooting the diabolical human a grin that made Robotnik's demented smile falter. Seven gems extricated themselves from his quills, floating and circling him by means of an unseen force.

'Thought you had me cornered, huh? Let me re-introduce you to Super Sonic!'

The energies of the Chaos Emeralds melded themselves into his form and he felt an electric fire spread through his veins, escalating into an outburst of golden flames that rocketed outwards and blasted apart the arm holding him hostage.

The now bright yellow hedgehog noted to his delight that the villain's victorious attitude had changed to one of utter, terrified dread.

'Serves him right,' he thought, just as he shot off in a blur, ripping apart the formerly unstoppable Super-Badnik in less than three-point-five seconds. Not even a challenge.

"Time to go!" he heard Robotnik shout, rapidly increasing his speed in a deep panic as he flew away in his hovercraft.

Don't let him get away. Put an end to this madness once and for all.

Sonic smirked. 'Don't have to tell me twice, weird disembodied voice.'

The brilliant yellow aura surrounding him grew brighter as the golden entity took flight and gave chase.

The hunter became the hunted as the human bobbed and weaved through smaller airships, swerving past obstacles as he frantically tried to make a getaway for himself. Just behind him, a golden blur followed, an invincible flare of light and power that ripped through the villain's aircrafts without so much as flinching.

This went on until the hedgehog finally had the doctor cornered in a secret hatch of one of his airships.

The Egg-O-Matic had made it just in time to collapse in a discarded heap, leaving Robotnik all but defenseless against the souped-up Mobian who had just burst out of the ground like it was nothing just tissue paper.

Super Sonic grinned like a cat that had caught the canary as he stepped closer, watching in amusement when the human scrambled back in response.

Eggman began to plead to mercy, begging on his knees, and the voices- hallucinations, perhaps? He could never really tell- rose up in a hushed uproar.

You cannot possibly believe he is being genuine, the second entity deadpanned.

Perhaps not, protested the first voice. But if he is spared, he might at least call off his scheme.

Unlikely, the second figment refuted.

Well, we cannot just end his life; our wielder would protest against the notion.

Very well, but if this villain is not crippled in some fashion, he is never going to stop abusing the Chaos for his own ends. That last bit was directed partially towards Sonic himself.

The first entity agreed, sounding almost resigned. Our wielder is so infuriatingly noble that he wouldn't harm a mosquito unless it bit him first.

A darker entity within him scoffed, the second hallucination actually huffed, and that was when Sonic found that it was his cue to speak.

"Well, this is new," he finally spoke, silencing the debate taking place in his head.

"Showing remorse, Eggman? If you played nice, I wouldn't have to break all of your toys."

The Super-hero took another step forward, and that was when Robotnik's frightened expression abruptly morphed into a triumphant grin.

"Gotcha."

Every voice made an alarmed noise at the new development, but the hedgehog himself had no time to react before all of a sudden he couldn't move.

He could absently register the feeling of the chaos in his veins slowly leaving- no, being drained from his body, yet at that very moment all he could focus on was the pain.

Normally, using the Chaos Emeralds was like a healing fire that spread through his veins, a warm yet comfortable sensation that quickly spread all over his form.

The draining process felt like the fire was burning him up inside, igniting his very veins in the most painful way possible as his insides slowly turned to ashes and dust. Even that description fell short in fully explaining the full extent of his suffering; akin to the feeling of being slowly bisected and burned in a pool of lava all at once.

The torment continued even when the hedgehog was de-powered into his baseline form, and his pained screams continued to echo and bounce off of the walls- until something inside began to change...

The hedgehog's bones began to painfully crack and re-align themselves, forming a skeleton that would've been too big for its original body to adequately cover.

His fingernails poked out of his gloves and sharpened into pointed claws, his normally vibrant pelt was de-saturated into bleak shades of navy-blue and gray and a new set of fangs burst out of his gums as he felt himself growing and expanding into something larger and bulkier; a new creature entirely.

By the time the baleful transformation had completed, Sonic was barely even conscious, but he was just lucid enough to hear Robotnik declare his success in splitting apart the planet.

So, that emerald quest mission really was a trap. And he'd played right into his enemy's hands…

A bubbling, feral growl erupted from his subconscious and Sonic started in surprise.

'What?'

"You've really… gone and done it this time, Eggman." He gritted out instead, his own voice sounding much too gruff to actually be… his. The growl had long since cut off as abruptly as it had initially started…

...Or rather, it had done so until Eggman started speaking again.

"Ahh, Sonic. That's a good look for you. Festive!"

Another snarl was heard, going unheard by the villain but reverberating in his mind, as per usual for the voices that popped up in his head during each Chaos-power-usage. At least, Sonic supposed that it was a new voice his mind decided to inconveniently hallucinate once again- the odd two or perhaps maybe even three was enough of a cacophony to deal with, in his humble opinion- but that wasn't the main issue here.

The issue was that, well, frankly, the blue Mobian didn't know whether to be more worried about the fact that the new voice seemed to only speak in grunts and growls, or that he understood perfectly what those growls meant:

Prey.

Egg-man is prey.

Must hunt prey.

Must k-

"-So long, friend!"

Eggman slammed his fist on some random button on his dashboard, ejecting him and leaving him to fall towards the fragmented surface of Mobius below.

Gravity truly earned its reputation as an unkind mistress; a fact that the unfortunate Mobian soon became very acquainted with.

Sonic's great freefall continued even as he fully entered the planet's atmosphere- somehow surviving the re-entry burnup with no ill-effects. He assumed he had his new… look to thank for that, but even that small mercy was merely a small positive drowned under an ocean of negatives…

…With said proverbial "ocean" being the ground, hundreds of miles below.

The hedgehog just prayed it wasn't an actual ocean- at least. Uncertain doom or no, he did not come all this way just to drown!

Assuming he didn't die on impact, that is.

The unforgiving ground began to slowly yet steadily approach and Sonic closed his eyes, thinking of his friends and the many good memories he'd shared with them over the years.

Would he somehow survive a collision of this magnitude? Maybe, but unlikely.

Did it suck that Eggman seemed to have finally won the day? Yeah, pretty much.

Had Sonic tried his best, however? Absolutely.

'Sides, Tails, Knuckles and Amy can take over for me if needed. I just hope they don't find me… like this.' He thought grimly, taking a deep breath before the hero turned to face the ground and steeled himself for the inevitable.

Or, at least, he tried to; instead, as soon as he'd turned and saw the grassy floor rising up to meet him it suddenly hit the Mobian that he was indeed approximately ninety-six feet away from becoming more splat than Tails' experiment with pancakes last week.

Something desperate and undeniably feral within him snapped, and the next second Sonic found himself screaming for his very life- something that he'd later deny vehemently when asked.

Fortunately, before the hedgehog did, in fact, become a pancake, gravity seemed to have answered his prayer, and the navy-blue creature's descent halted a mere three yards above the grass and rocks. The air around the Blue Blur seemed to be tinged green, most likely some form of telekinesis or simply an energy shield of some kind.

Whatever was the case, Sonic figured that he had very good reasons to slump against his savior with a great big sigh, feeling some of the most relief he'd ever experienced in his whole fifteen years of existence.

The pleasant feeling washed over him in waves as he just sat there and enjoyed his respite…

…Until the bubble then proceeded to pop, dropping him the rest of the distance.

A loud thump as well as the sounds of disturbed grass and wildlife was heard as Sonic violently faceplanted into the floor upon landing. The Chaos Emeralds landed on the ground mere seconds later, drained of all color and scattered about on the ground like abandoned trinkets.

So much for relief.

Letting out a pained groan, the Mobian slowly and shakily rose to his feet, nose thankfully not broken after that. After patting himself down for bruises- which he didn't have- and dust- which he did have- a sharp gasp of air was all that was needed to get his bearings back.

"What the heck is goin' on...?" he mumbled, eyes darting back and forth. The setting he had been unceremoniously dumped in was a lush, grassy coastal region that was comprised of several enormous cliffs that overlooked the glistening sea. Dotting the landscape were numerous small hills, atop which old-fashioned windmills sat. Vaguely, he could see a city in the distance.

The sun was still in the process of rising over the locality and the dawn's rays tinted the sky a mix of various shades of blue and lavender, causing Sonic to crack a small smile at the view despite himself.

Finally sighing, the navy-blue Mobian turned towards the discarded and powerless Chaos Emeralds, walking over to them and gingerly stuffing them into his fuzzy head-quills. He had just picked up the last of the set when his eyesight, enhanced due to his new form, picked up the sight of a small, prone body in the grass.

Pausing in his action, the hedgehog hesitantly approached the thing, falling into a low, defensive crouch as he did so- for some odd reason.

The animal on the ground was evidently a Mobian of some sort; a wee Chihuahua-like creature that was colored a shade of burgundy with white interspersed on its limbs, mouth and stomach. A silver-colored tuft of hair protruded from its head and sat in-between its large and pointy ears, appearing strangely similar to a dollop of whipped cream.

A grin appeared on the navy-blue creature's muzzle of its own accord, canines bared as he peered down at the thing. Such a small animal lying out in the open would make for a nice snack, easy prey.

'Wait, what?'

The smile slipped off of his face as he backed away from the animal in a confused daze. 'What the heck did I just think?'

Small sleeping animal, easy to capture, the thought grunted back. Easy prey.

Sonic actually licked his lips before he snapped out of it, shaking his head furiously to dispel that thought process.

'What? No! This is a Mobian, not some defenseless animal, and I'm not some two-bit predator from a nature documentary!'

Hungry, it insisted, just before Sonic's arm grabbed for the animal of its own volition, stretching much further than he'd ever thought it'd go- were his arms made of elastic of something?

The fingers- his fingers had almost enclosed around the creature when the hedgehog came to his senses and forcefully tugged at his arm, stopping it in its tracks. His brain instructed his nerves to pull his arm back, and so it did- or at least tried to.

Sonic grunted in effort as he tried to return his distended arm to its usual place, yet experiencing great difficulty in doing so.

Funny. It was almost as though his arm was resisting him…

A rumble of protest echoed in his mind.

Why?

The hedgehog growled back in frustration at the ever-persistent voice. 'Because I don't eat people!'

Hungry! it insisted, Easy prey!

'I'm not a cannibal, neither do I munch on animals I find in the bush! Now STOP!'

Sonic's voice echoed through the space, and his arm slowly eased and returned to its normal length.

There was a beat of silence.

'Huh. Did I say that out loud?'

At that moment, a low groan emitted from the small Mobian on the ground as it stirred. Sonic perked up, walking forward and concernedly bending over to observe the small creature.

"I can't… eat... another bite," the Mobian moaned, speaking in a high-pitched yet masculine voice as he slowly but surely woke up. Bronze-colored eyes opened slowly and swiveled in different directions before finally resting on the hedgehog.

Now, it was safe to assume that waking up from unconsciousness only to find a large, bestial-looking creature looming over you would be pretty terrifying to most normal people.

So with that in mind, Sonic probably shouldn't have been surprised when the Mobian kicked him in the face and hid behind a nearby rock with a scream.

A bubbling growl bubbled in his throat and cries of prey, prey, prey echoed in his mind, but he hedgehog smothered them, recognizing them as not his thoughts but the impulses of the monstrous voice inside.

"Don't eat me!" his surprised victim stated from behind his hiding place, "I taste bad!"

Something in his head not-so-eloquently stated that it would rather check the accuracy of that theory itself, with its teeth- but Sonic ignored it.

"You okay? Nothing broken?" he instead asked, relaxing in order to make himself as unassuming as possible.

A single, wine-colored ear popped out of the rock before the stranger tentatively removed himself from the rock, floating towards him by means of a pair of small, lime-colored wings on his back.

"Oh, I'm just fine!" the small Mobian stated, having calmed down at the fact that the hedgehog wasn't going to make him his next meal. Just what was he, anyway? Some kind of chihuahua, perhaps? "Thanks for asking, Mister Monster Guy!"

...Mister Monster Guy?

Sonic, for the first time since his space-odyssey-gone-wrong, looked himself over, seeing unruly fur, forcefully expanded muscle and oversized claws.

Yeesh.

"Looks like things have gotten mundo-ugly," he muttered gruffly.

"Yeah!" The stranger agreed, "Look at those teeth- and those claws! What's your name anyway?"

Oh, right; he'd never introduced himself before scaring the daylights out of him.

"I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog. And you are?"

"I'm…" the maybe-chihuahua trailed off, furiously scratching his brain in deep thought. If Sonic didn't know better he would say the little guy didn't-

"-I don't know! I can't remember!"

Oh. Well, that was unexpected.

"You mean you forgot who you are?" Sonic questioned. Chip nodded vigorously.

"I remember something falling from the sky, and everything just going all white... and then nothing! I can't remember a thing past that!"

The hedgehog pursed his lips in thought, intently processing this information. So this guy was minding his own business and got knocked out by something that literally fell from the sky- oh.

"Did I fall on him?" he asked no one in particular, before extending his arm- not literally, this time- and lightly gripping the not-chihuahua, who by this point had spun into a panic, flying in hurried circles that almost made the dark blue hedgehog nauseous.

"Don't worry! I'll help you get your memory back!" Sonic said, giving a reassuring smile.

"Really? You mean it?" the reddish-purple Mobian asked, taking off into the air once again and surprisingly landing on top of Sonic's head. A startled growl erupted in his mind, but the hedgehog was ready for it.

'He's not prey. Not-prey.'

…Not prey?

"Huh?" came the response from the stranger-turned-acquaintance, who peered down at him at the words he'd inadvertently voiced aloud. Sonic shook his head- responding more to the voice in his head than the reddish-brown Mobian.

"It's nothing," he waved off. "Anyway, I'm sure we can find someone out there who knows ya, kid."

It was at this moment that Sonic decided that being stuck in a bulky, feral-looking form with a set of de-powered super-gems could wait- helping this little guy was most important. Besides, he had experience with amnesiacs- a certain Ultimate Lifeform coming to find- and the kid couldn't have been a stranger to everyone, at least one person would know him well enough, so it should be easy enough to restore his memory.

"Oh, thank you!" exclaimed the smaller of the two, flying happy circles around him, "Thank you so much Mister Monster G- I mean, Sonic the Hedgehog!"

Smiling genuinely at the small Mobian's enthusiasm, the bluer of the two raised up an open palm, which his newfound friend clapped in joyful excitement.

Friend?

'Yeah,' thought Sonic, letting a laugh escape him despite himself as his partner flew a number of different patterns through the air.

'Friend.'


Weeks later, a fully de-feralized Sonic ran through the coasts of Windmill Isle- as that particular part of Apotos was called.

Flanking him was none-other than Tails, keeping pace with the hedgehog in his trusty plane, the Tornado-1.

Neither of them spoke, only navigating the lands at a speed that the azure Mobian could appreciate, allowing him to, for the first time since the space debacle began, catch his breath and think over past events.

In the subsequent days after Sonic met the small stranger in this very locality, the pair of Mobians had quickly found Miles. After a hot minute was spent updating the fox on the situation, the trio teamed up and traveled the world, re-energizing the Chaos Emeralds and re-connecting the fragmented parts of Mobius by placing the rocks in a bunch of temples scattered around the globe.

Dr. Eggman had proved to be a very persistent obstacle, trying his hardest to obstruct the efforts of the Blue Blur and his burgundy partner, who he'd christened "Chip" as a reference to his whipped-cream-like hair. Try as the villain might like, though, there was no stopping the heroes, who handily defeated his machines and finally managed to put the pieces of the planet back together.

The mad roboticist wasn't the only problem they'd had to deal with, however: the hedgehog's new form had come with its own set of issues; During the day, Sonic would inadvertently revert to his baseline form, and he would transform back into the beast at night, beginning a distressing cycle of transformations.

In addition, not only did becoming the Werehog- as he now called the form- severely reduce his running speed- which the supersonic hero was not happy about- the voice that accompanied it seemed to think that almost everything and everyone was a meal.

Still, however, they'd managed despite the circumstances, and they'd even gotten Chip's memory back:

Turns out that the excitable chihuahua-like creature that enjoyed scarfing down food was actually Light Gaia, an ancient primordial entity that was in a millennia-old conflict with its dark counterpart, Dark Gaia, for the fate of the earth. Apparently this cycle of destruction and rebirth occurred every million years, and Eggman's meddling and subsequent shattering of the earth into several large pieces just made the next conflict happen sooner.

Sonic scoffed. 'Figures that Ro-butt-nik would almost cause another world-ending catastrophe by mistake.'

Either way, after basically flex-taping the world back together and engaging in one last duel with the villainous human, they'd ended up falling into the earth's core, where Dark Gaia awaited them; and boy, was that thing terrifying.

Sonic would be surprised if he didn't have nightmares about that one for the next few days.

Either way, Sonic and Chip teamed up to defeat the abomination, forcing Sonic to permanently lose his Werehog form, which he'd had mixed feelings about:

On the one hand, he was free from a series of constant transformations.

On the other hand, despite the beast's strange compunction to eat everything in sight, he could tell the voice he'd happened to hallucinate did really want the best for him- or at least, that's what he'd supposed.

Anyhow, the energy Dark Gaia had sapped from the werehog had just so happened to be sufficient to begin a metamorphosis into its Perfect form- which was even more horrifying than its incomplete one, hooray.

In response to this new threat, Sonic promptly went Super (who knew that projecting a bunch of voice in one's head could be so… comforting?) and Chip assembled a golem-like form comprised of the remains of the shattered Gaia temples. Together, the powerful duo had promptly brought the beast down, quite literally knocking the entity back into a million-year slumber.

The hero had promptly crashed after the experience, and Light Gaia returned him to the surface by means of the Gaia Colossus- his rock-form- before entering a slumber as well, but not before leaving him something to remember him by.

Sonic brought his hand in front of his chest, peering at the bracelet that sat snugly around his wrist- a silver-colored item with a jade-colored gem embedded in its center. The blue hero's lips quirked upwards in a somber smile and he gazed at it for a few more seconds before turning back to the horizon ahead of him.

The world adventure was finally over.

Robotnik's schemes had been thwarted once again.

Mobius was fully restored, and yet some part of the hedgehog doubted that things would really go back to being the same.

But, come to think of it, that was fine by him.


Fun fact, the first quarter of this chapter was one of the first parts of the story I wrote! Having access to a webpage containing Unleashed's script really helped with certain details too, I'd say.

Next chapter preview: No-specific era. With every silver lining comes a dark side- one that grows stronger with time...