ADAPTION chapter ten

"Welcome to my world."

Amy looked up into the steady gaze of Doctor Bowen. His inner self was massive, muscular and dressed in an almost gaudy fashion, with an oriental twist.

This may be his world she was in, but Amy new she was the more powerful of the two, and despite his intricate knowledge of his mind, she would be able to kill him, with little more than a thought. Though in here, a thought was an action.

She grew in size, to match Bowen's and they stood, looking each other squarely in the eyes.

Impulsively, Bowen giggled, and clapped his hands together in a childish manner.

"It's so good to have you here at last!" He smiled, almost warmly, and waved his arms in an expansive gesture, showing her the world she had entered.

The sky above them was a deep voluminous green, twinkling here and there with stars she soon noticed were actually eyes, they were standing in the center of a field of sweet corn, each pod ripe and ready for the plucking. Without thinking Amy pulled one from the stem and removed the leaves, instead of corn she found teeth, perfectly formed, tiny children's milk teeth. Repulsed, and forgetting for a moment she was inside a mind, she dropped the cob.

She blinked and looked up again, and she was no longer in the field under the green sky, she was in a large white room, and Bowen was sat at a table watching her.

He suddenly looked strange, his fur was red rather than brown, and he had little horns protruding from his ample forehead.

She folded her arms at him and frowned.

He flicked a tail that was not his own, long, thin and barbed at the end.

"Are you going to continue this game Bowen?"

He stood and gave her a rather regal look, "Oh, call me Matthias, please. And yes, I am, as you see, it's rather amusing seeing you run around, trying to find a way to kill me in time to save your little honey bug." He smirked, and the blank white walls melted away leaving them both standing in the center of a large cage with iron bars. Outside the cage, thousands of people sat in row upon row in a circle around them, watching silently.

Looking around Amy was surprised to find Bowen had stepped out of the cage, leaving her alone.

She turned suddenly as something snaked across her foot.

Tails and Melissa fought as if the very world depended on the outcome, and to Tails it did. Sonic was depending on him as never before, he had to stop Melissa and get to Sonic as soon as possible. But it was proving to be a lot harder than he would have thought.

Both fighters were torn and bleeding in several areas, their clothes ripped to shreds.

Tails glanced down at Sonic, quickly checking he was still alive and nearly paid for his trouble, Melissa, by now a screaming mass of fur, cloth and blood, charged him, talons and energy at the ready.

Tails was ready, he snarled and waited for her, let her within his range, allowing her to think she had him, and then he attacked.

Melissa went down with little more than a feminine grunt.

Even before she hit the ground Tails was once again at Sonic's side, ripping and tearing at the grass binding his oldest friend and mentor.

Sonic emerged gasping and gagging for breath, coughing and trying to work his way free of the tightening binds holding him down.

"Hold still sonic! I've got it now."

Tails, one finger glowing a bright, almost white, green, slashed through the rest of the bindings, until Sonic could finally sit up, still coughing for breath.

"Sonic! You're ok!" And Tails threw his arms around him. Gratefully, Sonic, taking care not to move his damaged arm, returned the embrace.

"Thanks little buddy."

Amy found herself trapped.

She was no longer in the cage, and the animal, born of Bowen's twisted mind, was gone, but she was still stuck, this time in a cage of glass that was too small.

The beast had been easy to over come, it was simply his father, twisted and malformed and no longer resembling anything that had ever been alive.

She had fought it with everything, until it had finally evaporated with a childlike cry.

Then the room had melted away again and left her in an ever shrinking glass case with a strange pattern sand blown onto it.

Repeating to herself that this was all in her mind or his at any rate, she closed her eyes and attempted to take control. The glass case slowly evaporated and she stood, opened her eyes. She was in the corn field again, but this time all the cobs were over ripe and beginning to turn, the eyes in the sky were no longer sparkling.

"It's very dangerous trying to outwit me in my own realm, little girl"

Amy turned, and suddenly she was.

She was no more than ten years old, she was brown furred, she was carrying her original crossbow on her back and she didn't know where she was.

"Now darling, are you scared?"

She looked up at the strange man standing a few feet away, he looked ok, not like her momma had told her bad men should look at all. She smiled triumphantly.

"I'm not scared, I'm never scared" She folded her arms defiantly, "I'm going to be a freedom fighter one day, and fight at Sonic's side, so I'm not scared."

Bowen stood up straight and smirked.

"So, you've liked him that long, eh? I wonder how your younger self would have taken the thought of dieing for him."

The young Amy was looking around the corn field interestedly.

"You are of no use to me like this," the field of corn melted away leaving a grown Amy bound to a bed via long slim white chains manacled to her wrists, and Bowen standing over her in red suit with black cane.

"Much better"

The room was large, but not too much so, with deep blue walls and gold drapes, no windows but an expansive doorway.

Amy was sitting docile on the bed, wearing no more than an almost see- through gown, that in the real world she would never have worn.

He left her there and returned to the real world.

"Where's Amy?"

Sonic looked a little panicked again as Tails bound Melissa in the rope grass he had been bound in. She was still unconscious, and probably would be for a long while yet.

"Last I saw she was off attacking Bowen."

"Oh God, he's gonna kill her, and there's nothing we can do about it!"

Tails looked shocked, "What? What are you on about? She's stronger than him, how can she loose?"

Sonic looked distraught, "But she isn't, he told me, he bragged about it! He's been a telepath all along, merging with the master emerald like that just made him stronger. They're equals, but he's had more practice."

Tails reacted quickly, "We have to find her, overpower Bowen's physical form maybe?" Sonic nodded "We should give it a try at least."

When they found Amy it was quite by accident, if Sonic hadn't tripped over what appeared to be a simple mound in the earth Amy would have started suffocating and eventually died. As it was, he cursed and yelled in pain as he landed on his bad arm, causing it more damage. He turned to viciously kick the offending bit of ground and noticed its odd shape. It looked like a hand.

"Tails! I think I've found her!"

Sonic knelt and began to frantically dig with the hand of his good arm; Tails joined him a second later. After only a few minutes, Amy was dug up, and Sonic was cradling her head and shoulders in his good arm. She looked like she was sleeping.

Tails looked on with tears in his eyes as Sonic gently kissed her on the forehead, hugging her tightly to him.

After all attempts, they eventually gave up trying to wake her, and Tails turned his attention to Melissa and Bowen. There was absolutely no sign of either of them.

Wondering what had happened to them, Tails held onto his two friends, and teleported back to the safe house, to safety and, hopefully, a reawakening for Amy.

A few minutes after they had gone, Bowen slowly formed out of the ground that was now completely his, and smiled. Beside him Melissa rose from the earth, bindings falling away. She climbed to her feet and smiled up at her love, then watched as he created his world around them.