Chapter Two – Changed
Amy screamed in horror.
"What do you mean Eggman's got an underwater base?" She scowled, unable to believe that they didn't know about this sooner. But Tails absolutely panicked. He gulped.
"Look, thats what all the indicators are telling me. He must have kept it entirely under the radar. I had no idea it even existed, until it went online a few minutes ago. Guys, we've got to move on this and quickly. We only have less then an hour to go in, set charges, and get out, blowing the place, before it becomes fully functional, with security installed. If that happened, we'll never get in and who knows what Eggman will do then." He stammered. But Amy grabbed her hammer, and growled.
"So, how do we get in?" She spat. But Tails was hurriedly searching his handheld. He frowned.
"Hang on. I'm just going through the satellite imagery of the island's coast of a possible location." He hissed, then after a long pause, he squealed. "Hey, found it. Whoa, ok. I wasn't expecting there. I haven't been there in a while, not since I was younger. It appears that the way in is through a tunnel on the ocean floor. Looks like we'll have to swim for it." He smiled. But suddenly, Sonic goes absolutely white, the colouring draining from him. He gulped.
"Swim?" He stammered, his severe aqua-phobia kicking in majorly. But Tails just grabbed his arm, comforting him. He smiled.
"Hey, you'll be fine. We'll just use the scuba gear." He beamed, but that didn't really help matters. He remembered the last time he used the scuba gear, and Eggman almost drowned him then. Sonic nodded, not fancying his chances a second time. But he didn't really have the choice.
Soon, they were off, all piling in the Dude-mobile, much to Amy's disgrace. A yellow van with yellow seats, a red roof, a flat front, and the image of a green pineapple depicted on each side. The side windows are covered in thick orange grids, and on the roof were a pair of roof racks with a beach chair and a blue-white surfboard tied to them. The van also had a grey van ladder on each side leading up the roof, and an additional ladder on the right side leading up to the front seats. In the front, the Dude-Mobile had a pair of front lights, a wide black bumper, a winch, and a pair of wing mirrors with beam-emblazoned yellow caps on the backs. The entire vehicle itself stands on tall suspensions with medium-sized black wheels. Also, on the rear is a green hatch with a compartment.
They collect Sticks and the scuba gear and raced across the island, as fast as they could to the secluded bay and alcove of which Eggman had chosen for his secret base. Screeching across the sand, they weren't exactly quiet in their arrival, as a certain Black Hedgehog, easily saw them coming, beautifully hiding in the shadows of the trees. He smirked, evilly, a deep crimson glow in his eyes, as he watched the friends struggle to put their scuba gear. Wet suit, flippers, air tank and full head mask, which allowed for speaking between the divers. Extremely quickly, they were ready to go, and threw themselves into the water, or in Sonic's case, pushed.
Shadow watched them go, as then silently entered the water himself. He didn't need any gear, he could easily withstand the water cold temperatures, and pressures from the depths. Though that was what he'd usual find. But here, the water was surprisingly warm, and quite hot in places, as though volcanic activity was present nearby. Then, doing some, well rehearsed, breathing exercises, he filled his lungs to their absolute full capacity, as hard as they would go, allowing him to hold his breath for more then ten minutes, he dived for the water. He smirked. Showtime. Ten minutes was more then enough for that he had his mind.
Sonic was terrified, as the whole placed seemed silent. Tails agreed, as he dived down to towards the ocean floor from the surface.
"Too quiet." He growled. "This place should be crawling with Badniks. It might still be, lucking in the shadows, so be careful, everyone." He called, as they all sunk to the tunnel entrance of the underwater base. But it had been completely blocked with boulders. Tails roared with frustration as he ordered Knuckles, to use his mighty strength, to get those rocks gone. He obliged, smashing them to dust far faster then Shadow had anticipated. He growled, realising that he'd have to move forwards with this plan, sooner then intended. Sinking to the ocean floor, in the shadows of the nearby cliff, Shadow saw that Tails and Knuckles were already down to the ocean floor, Sonic and Amy were on they way, and Sticks, the world's most irritating Badger, as far as Shadow was concerned, was last. Getting her gone and out of the picture, would made things significantly easier.
Finally, they were all down, and swimming past his hiding place, completely none the wiser to his existence. Suddenly, as the Badger passed, and then directly behind her, Shadow stuck out a hand and grabbed the air pipe to her mask and with a huge burst of strength, yanked it cleanly from her tank. She screamed, gasping for air.
"My air-pipe broke, my air-pipe broke." She panted, but Tails voice rang down the communicator, somewhat confused, but stern.
"Get back to the surface." He yelled. "You'll be fine. We'll deal with things down here." He ordered and the Badger turned around and swam up, only just making it, as her head punched the water's surface. The sweet smelling air, filing her lungs as they were screaming for oxygen. She heaved, treading the water. All she could do now was wait.
Tails heaved, now somewhat scared. He was confused. He throughly checked that gear himself. It was perfect. Why would it suddenly fail? Regardless, the lack of anything happening was become very spooky. He knew Eggman was here, he feel the hum of electricity, behind the huge metal wall that lead away from the tunnel. Knuckles just had to remove the boulders. Once in, Amy would just bash through the doors, and Sonic would could ditch the scuba gear and then just Super-Speed destroy the place, setting charges everywhere.
Shadow growled, he had to stop them at all costs. They were minutes from removing the boulders, and he knew from experience, this team was fast in their execution of destruction of Eggman. Next, the Black Hedgehog eyed up the Echidna, just as he about to destroy the very last boulder, but never got the chance as Shadow jumped behind him, and again, forcibly yanked his air-pipe from his tank. He screamed, grabbing his throat, and then began kicking his way upwards as fast as he could. Tails whirled around finally seeing the real cause of all the malfunctions. He screamed.
"It's Shadow. It's a trap." He panicked, but the Black Hedgehog just disappeared again, into the deep shadows of the cliff, only for Amy to scream, as the air-pipe on her tank was pulled. She had been clinging onto Sonic, but was forced to leave him, as he was promptly kicked to the ocean floor. Tails, abandoning the mission, immediately swan into help, knowing the Ultimate Lifeform only had one target here. Sonic, only to get brutally kicked aside by the powerful Ultimate Lifeform. He crashed landed into the boulder, next to the tunnel entrance, of which rolled onto him, pinning him down. Satisfied, Shadow's eyes were now on the Blue Blur, his killer instinct flaring. He wanted blood, and today he was going to have it. He grabbed Sonic from behind, arms around his shoulders, and legs around his knees, and flipped his over, onto his back, used his immense weight to keep him under the water.
Then with an almighty smirk of pure evil, he yanked the air-pipe from the tank, and complete pulled off his face mask. Sonic screamed, kicking and pushing against Shadow, absolutely desperate to get away, huge air bubbles rushing from his mouth. Tails tried to get himself free as the others were diving down from the surface as deep as their lungs could carry them. But it wasn't far enough, just out of reach. Shadow gritted his teeth, his enormous power just about holding the mighty Blue Blur in place. Kicking and screaming, his lungs were rapidly filling up with water. Trapped and unable to break free, he looked back, seeing the deep, glowing, murderous red eyes, and tears streamed down his own. Suddenly, his eyes rolled back inside his head, as he finally stopped fighting, fully consumed by the water. His body became completely limp, still and lifeless, as Shadow finally let him go, allowing him to drift and hang in the water.
He was dead.
Tails screamed, his eyes streaming with tears, as fought desperately with the boulder, he finally freed himself, and roared across the water at Shadow, who was just about to leave as he was on the verge of running our air himself. Seeing the Fox, he was about fend him off again, but a extremely bright pale blue light, stopped both of the in their tracks. They both hovered in the water staring as the source of the light that seemed be coming from the Blue Blur himself. The intense light radiated out from his very heart, as his lifeless body was then flipped over so that his back now dangerously arched, his hands and feet dangling, pointing to the ocean floor. Suddenly, the light seemed to tear at his wet suit, it just slipped away from his body, revealing his brown neckerchief wrapped tightly round his neck, gloves, socks and shoes.
It was still weird for him to still be wearing his neckerchief. But to Tails, he had always worn it and never took it off, even under scuba gear, unless for very special occasions. Suddenly, flapping in the water, his scarf comes loose, finally revealing slits on each side of the neck. Tails stared at Sonic, moving forwards to touch the now very cold body. He ran his hand across the Blue Blur's neck. The ridges extremely distinctive. His jaw dropped.
"Gills!" He panted, absolutely dumbfounded. Suddenly, the light shines even more, and as he body hangs in the saltwater, he begins to transform. His body lengthened, becoming very delicate, long and thin, yet strong and powerful, tapering to a point. His legs meld together, his toes elongating, tearing his shoes and socks to shreds. They grew so long, that they are almost a third the length of the rest of his entire body. Then webbing exploded between the toes forming one of the biggest singular, most powerful, highly prehensile, tails, anyone had ever seen. Circular, with a least a dozen prongs, it hung, still pointing down to the ocean floor, clearly showing the huge immense power it possessed. Suddenly, Sonic's upper torso and ribs, began to violently clunk and shift as his lungs melted away, and the fur on his body vanished to become a silvery royal Blue, silky smooth skin, and his quills fused together. Small webbing appeared between his gloved fingers, creating steering flippers, the white athlete tape still wrapped round his wrists, no communicator.
Finally, the light dies away, and Sonic was still left hanging in the water. Tails gulped, immediately recognising what his best friend had just turned into. He mouth just hit the floor. He gasped.
"An Aquahog?" He stammered, staring especially at the distinctive shape and size of his tail. "But they're pure myth." He gulped. Shadow, the whole time had just stared, staying right by the Fox, had completely forgotten about his own desperate lack of oxygen. He gulped. He was now looking at the most stunningly beautiful creature he'd ever seen in his life. Sonic's silken curved body seemed to be producing it's own now somewhat dimmed light in the murkiness of the saltwater. The word 'Aquahog', completely blew his brain, and all of a sudden, the smell of seaweed and the traits that seemed to lean towards the ocean, all began making sense.
Suddenly, Sonic awakes, to enormous thrusts of his tail, as his gills finally kick in and he's left looking around at everyone, panting heavily, gulping the water hard. Swirling round, his eyes become fixed on the Ultimate Lifeform, as suddenly, the newly formed Aquahog charged at him, roaring with pure anger.
It happened so fast that Shadow instinctively pushed the Fox aside, fearing him, and very generously, took the hit. He didn't know why. Sonic curled into a ball on approach and super-spinning around, he proceeded to hit Shadow, extremely hard, with the flat side of his enormous tail. It was so powerful, that it threw the Ultimate Lifeform, far away from the underwater base, and hard, right out to sea, across the deep ocean depths and into the darkness. Sonic stopped, panting heavily, his anger still flaring, his stunning big green eyes glistening in the water. He blinked, his vision perfectly clearing as he heard his name being called.
"Sonic?" It stammered. The Blue Aquahog, almost invisible in the water, turned around, to see the frightened young Fox, still incredibly unsure of what he'd just seen. Sonic bit his lip, his anger completely breaking, as he looked up, and saw the others snorkelling from above. They too having witnessed everything. Tails puts a hand out to him, but Sonic backed away, absolutely terrified. Tears of pure fright began streaming down his face, as he did the only thing he could do. Flee, swimming deep into the depths of the ocean, as fast as he can run on land.
Sonic was indeed a Aquahog. He had always known. He had been hiding the truth for years. It was why he was so frighten of water. Not because he couldn't swim, quite the opposite. It was the fact that if he returned to the water, he'd never return to land, and he feared the consequences for his friends. His trip on land from his watery home, was only ever supposed to be temporary, to help a little baby Fox in danger and then return. But he never returned home. He never meant it to last this long. He just couldn't leave Tails. But now he had no choice. Extremely frightened, he swims to the only place where he can get help. Home. It had been so long he'd been there, he had no idea if it was still even there or how much it had changed. He had a extremely large tail for an Aquahog. It more then a dozen prongs in it and made swimming, especially at speed, very easy. He had forgotten what life under the water was like and felt incredibly free down here.
Despite the darkness, his instincts were sending him home, but he had no idea who he'd ask for help from when he got there. But he had a problem, suddenly remembering why Aquahogs normally travelled in groups. Sharks, many of which would think nothing of happily eating one of his kind, and the waters between here and home, were heavily infested with them. There was no way he was going to make it through alive. Not alone, but turning back, he remembered someone he might be able to persuade to help him. He gulped. Finding him again, was the last thing Sonic wanted to do. He just tried to kill him, but if he wanted to go home, which he knew he had to do. He didn't have choice. He heaved, and kicking his splendidly enormous tail, he swam back up the steep cliff, the way he came, through the darkness.
Shadow was violently thrown deep into the bowels of the ocean, his immense weight pulling him towards the sea floor, causing him to crash, hitting the rocks hard, toppling over and over, until be came to a screeching halt, on his side, the almighty lungful of air, completely knocked out of him.
Now he was drowning, as the water rushed into his empty lungs, causing his body the spasm and shake, absolutely panicking. Complete winded, he didn't have any energy to move. He smirked.
Oh, the irony. He tried to drown his arch nemesis only for him, to not only survive, but then deal the exact same fate right back at him. He had to admit, it was good. He tried to kick out, but nothing happened. Quickly running out of air, as his lungs filled up with water. Within seconds, he'd drown. Finally, Shadow blacked-out. But suddenly, he opened his eyes, seeing perfectly and sat up. Still on the ocean floor, surround by water, Shadow could feel oxygen feeding his brain and muscles. He felt pain in his chest, like he was using muscles that had never been used before. But his lungs were still full of water. Stunned, he felt all around his chest, and could feel weird flapping movements within them. Shadow had noticed those weird structures inside his lungs, on scans and x-rays but had always thought nothing of them. Now he knew what they were. Gills. He could breath. Passing water in and out of his lungs as if it was air. It didn't really feel any different.
He frowned. How was this possible? He had his own set of weird traits, which had been a mystery for years, but finding out there was more then one species of Hedgehog changed everything. You can't create life from nothing, which meant that Gerald had used a base DNA from somewhere. Shadow had always believed he'd used a Ground Hedgehog, but now he isn't so sure. He'd never seen another Black Hedgehog anywhere and he was far more muscular and heavier then a standard Ground Hedgehog. Also he could withstand a huge amount of pressure on top of him. Far more then Knuckles. Drowning had always feared him, but he was immortal, what's the worse that could happen?
He smirked, apparently nothing. As he stood up, but realised that there was going to be a major issue. All of his Chaos Powers were gone. The water pressure intervened so much that he had to fight just to power himself through the liquid. Suddenly, he had a idea. Having a tail certainly made swimming easier but he didn't have one. He could replicate one, by hold his feet together. He put his two hands out in front of him, and his two feet together at the back, and kicked, sending a sinusoidal wave down his body. To his utter astonishment, he moved forwards surprisingly quickly, but it was immensely tiring, and soon he grounded, having no idea where he was going in the incredibly murky water.
Suddenly, he heard it. The last thing he expected to hear. A voice, crystal clear through the water, speaking as if like Magic. It was incredibly cold. It scowled at him.
"Lost your way, Merhog?" It hissed. Shadow frowned. Merhog? Then he looked up and saw someone gracefully swimming just above his head, just out of reach, his stunning royal Blue sleek body, slicing through the water like butter. Shadow growled at him. He opened his mouth and spoke, weirdly hearing his own voice through the water. It was bizarre, but Shadow just shook it off. He leered at the Blue Blur.
"Come to gloat, Aquahog?" He spat. But Sonic just fumed, swimming down the ocean floor, again still just out of reach. He guessed correctly, that Shadow was powerless down here. He heaved, in frustration.
"No." He spat. "I have always smelt sea-salt on your breath, and knew that throwing you out here, wouldn't actually hurt you. Unlike you, I'm no killer." He sighed. But Shadow just frowned, causing Sonic to raise an eyebrow. "You don't know, did you? I thought with you attacking us outside of that underwater base, that you knew, but the look on your face now clearly says no. Your a Merhog, or part of one, at the very least. That's how your able to breath down here. There are two species of Water Hedgehog, Aquahogs and Merhogs. Merhogs are very muscular, and tend to live in the shallows near the surface. With fins and tails like Aquahogs, but more similar in shape to mammals, like dolphins. They have gills in their lungs and had the ability to breath air as well as underwater. Aquahogs had gills only, in their necks." He smiled, indicating his own. "And would immediately drown on land." He gulped, now shuddering at the thought. "We are much more delicate, thin and nimble, perfectly evolved for deep sea living." He added, causing the Ultimate Lifeform to be deep in thought, thankful for the information. He gulped.
He dreaded to think what Gerald did to get the blood from a Merhog. He suspected the poor creature didn't survive. But it left Shadow with an utter hatred for all Robotniks. He growled. The Aquahog hanging around, plus the constant talking signalled only one thing. Sonic could have easily left him, as he stood on the ocean floor, his arms folded. He smirked.
"What do you want?" He hissed. The Aquahog looked at him, somewhat sheepish. He gulped.
"I need your help." He asked, but Shadow just scowled.
"Not interested." He spat, and immediately began part running, part swimming right past the Aquahog, along the ocean floor. It was so murky that every direction looked as identical as the next, so he just picked one. Suddenly, Sonic panicked, immediately swimming after him.
"No, Shadow, not that way." He squealed. He easily caught up and grabbed him by the arm, in an attempt to stop him. The the Ultimate Lifeform throw him off, and growled.
"No one tells me what to do." He sneered. But the Aquahog, just raced after him. He screamed.
"But your heading straight for Devil's Canyon." He gasped, and suddenly Shadow's eyes widened.
Devil's Canyon?
Unable to see nothing ahead of him but the murky silty water, suddenly, he feet gave out from under him, and his enormous weight caused to topple over and over straight down the extremely steep, hugely deep, cliff-like edges of the fabled underwater gorge. Devil's Canyon was a large gash in the surface of Mobius. A trench so deep, that no one had ever seen the bottom and lived to tell the tale. The deepest point anywhere.
Shadow heavily tumbled down the canyon, as Sonic dived for him and somehow managed to grab the mighty black Hedgehog, turn around and desperately try and swim, with the enormous tail kicking, the both of them back to higher water. But the huge water pressures and Shadow's mighty weight, and Sonic just didn't have the strength. Suddenly, he got completely caught up with the Ultimate Lifeform and the two of them together toppled right to the very bottom of the canyon.