STRANGE SIGNS
A/N: Hello. Next chapter! I do not own any SEGA characters. I do own all the others though. Along with Celestial if you had not already guessed. Oh, and italics is "dream mode". Yeah… Now you can start reading what you've waited for.
A female echidna waits nervously by a door. There are many other echidnas behind her. All of them look equally, if not more upset. One of them looks particularly disturbed. He is wearing a ragged T-shirt and jeans. On his upper arms are slightly deep scars that go all the way around his arm like a ring. They seem to be healed very well, but he would have had to receive a great amount of damage for them to look like that.
He steps out of his place in line and quickly walks over to the female in the very front of the line. He whispers something to her and hugs her tightly. She looks barely relieved but manages a smile.
The male echidna goes back to his spot briskly. As he does this the door slides open and the female echidna is admitted into the room. The door quickly slams shut. Minutes later sounds are heard, loud sounds of pain.
Knuckles' eyes snap open. He looks at the clock and the time was about nine. He sleepily gets out of bed and takes a shower to help wake himself up. Afterwards, he walks downstairs to find that Sonic had not moved at all and was still out cold. Either that or he was now sleeping.
"Sonic…" whispers Knuckles while nudging the blue hedgehog.
Sonic does not respond. Knuckles gets frustrated quickly and pokes Sonic hard. This causes Sonic to stir slightly.
"Sonic," says Knuckles. "Wake up…wake up!"
Sonic's eyes flutter open. His vision is slightly blurred. He first sees Knuckles as a bright red blob. He blinks a few times to no avail. Sonic becomes alarmed and tries to move away. He is stopped by a sharp and sore pain in his arm.
"Ow…" says the hedgehog wincing in pain. Sonic's vision returns to him and he shakes off the pain.
"Sonic!" exclaims Knuckles. "What's the matter with you?"
"I…it was…horrible," says Sonic weakly.
"What was horrible?" asks Knuckles anxiously.
Sonic suddenly becomes rigid and just as quickly as he had gone stiff his body grows limp. Knuckles looks thoroughly pissed and mutters to himself angrily as Sonic is yet again out cold.
"Oh…my…god," says Knuckles angrily. "I can't get shit out of this stupid idiot!"
Knuckles sits down. He turns on the TV and the news is on. He pays little attention, as he is very angry right now.
The reporter is saying something about an attack near a large, thick area of woods.
"There was no proof of who or what could've done this," says the reporter. "This has been the 2nd attack this month on South Island. Also resulting fatal for the victim, and now, here's Wes with the weather. Wes."
A different screen appears and a tan colored hedgehog is standing there. He begins to speak and Knuckles yawns widely out of boredom.
"Also," says Wes. "There have been some very abnormal weather patterns just south of here. We may be getting some of it soon. So I advise all to take cover because we will have a major storm and it is moving fast…"
Knuckles turns off the TV. As he does so thunder rumbles loudly outside. He turns on the light. It was getting dark and cloudy even though it was early in the day. The bright red echidna walks over to the window, opens the curtains, and looks outside. He discovers that the sky is a violent shade of reddish orange. Dark gray clouds are moving closer by the minute. Knuckles can see small rivets of orange, yellow and purple lighting coming from them.
"What the hell kind of weather is that?" he questions with wide eyes.
He walks back to the chair and sits down. "There is absolutely nothing to do right now," he says with a sigh and looks at the unconscious Sonic.
He is suddenly very tired and begins to nod off. He had just slept but he feels exhausted again. He continues to feel more fatigued by the second and slowly slips into a deep slumber. Again he begins to dream. This time he can see himself. (As though you were playing a video game.)
Knuckles finds himself in a rather vacant area. Filled with nothing but dirt and rocks. He looks around but sees the exact same thing all around himself. He then hears a voice.
"Someone will come for us," says a male voice gently.
"We've been waiting for years!" shouts another. "This 'hero' is never coming!"
"Then why would we all know this?!"
Knuckles looks very confused. There is no one there to make the voices yet they come as if someone were right next to him. Suddenly, everything goes black and he hears a lone voice. It is full of despair and seems to be on the verge of tears.
"Please!" says the voice. "Somebody help us! Hear my plea! Come to South Island. We are all here…waiting! Please!"
Knuckles jerks awake feeling rather sick. He is face down on the floor, and the radio on the table is on. Knuckles does not remember putting it on though. He also assumes that the voices came from the radio and were put into his head from it. Knuckles reaches forward to shut it off but as he does the power goes out, and the room is now pitch black. He gets up shakily and sits against the wall. He puts his gloved yet clammy hands to his face. "What's happening to me?" he asks quietly.
Outside a storm is raging. The house is creaking from the fierce winds. The echidna gets up and finds his way to the kitchen. There he finds a flashlight and turns it on. He walks over to the couch to see if Sonic was still out of it. He shines the flashlight in that direction but the spot is empty. Knuckles feels a small twinge of fear.
"S-Sonic?" he calls lightly. "Yo…you awake?…you up?" Knuckles gets no answer. He then hears a slight noise and whips around. Strangely enough his flashlight flickers off. He hears slight breathing.
"Knuckles…" says a voice that makes Knuckles' hair on the back of his neck stand up.
Out of fear Knuckles stays still and does not answer. Red eyes appear and glow brightly in the darkness. They seem to stare right through him.
"Wh-what are you?" questions the frightened echidna.
The red eyes move closer to him and he backs away and into the wall.
"What the hell do you want?!" he asks. Still he gets nothing. As Knuckles feels a cold hand wrap around his throat he instantly puts both of his hands on the arm connected to the hand. He pulls at the arm with all of his strength but to no avail. Usually Knuckles would be able to do anything like this, but he seems to be extremely weak compared to whatever was doing this. The icy cold hand tightens, and the echidna finds it harder to breathe. Still it continues to crush his windpipe further and further. Knuckles begins to feel himself slip away and tries to fight it.
Suddenly, something flies through the window and strikes the one who is trying to choke Knuckles. The room lights up, as it was a fireball. Knuckles gasps for air and looks at the charred figure in shock. It was Sonic. Sonic began to get up. He still has bright red eyes and there is a demented smile spread across his face.
"What the frick happened to you!?" asks Knuckles. He is also very puzzled that a fireball flew through the window. The place where Sonic was struck is smoking. Wind blows and it catches fire.
Knuckles runs outside only to be burned by water. The rain falling is steaming. There is thick fog all around. Many buildings around are on fire. Knuckles runs forward to find shelter and to get away from Sonic. As he is running a fireball pelts the ground in front of him. The sky is now a deep, flaming red. Knuckles hops over the burning hole and continues to run. He finds shelter in a dim alleyway. He stops and calms down a bit. Knuckles turns around but is met with the sight of Sonic. He quickly gets into a fighting stance and punches the hedgehog in the jaw.
Sonic stumbles back a bit and wipes the blood from his mouth. He fixes his completely red eyes into a glare, smirks, and runs at Knuckles. Just as he is about to hit the echidna he leaps over him and speeds on while looking back at him. Knuckles stares at Sonic with a look of concentration and begins to chase him.
After a while Knuckles looses the speedy hedgehog and slows to a stop. He is in a clearing and it is no longer raining. The sky looks slightly pink but it is clear. Knuckles looks around and listens for noise. He hears nothing and begins to walk forward. He walks for what seems like hours and reaches a rather tropical beach. There are many green plants and trees. The water is a transparent blue and the sand is very fine and almost white.
"I might as well crash here," says Knuckles as he sits down. His feet are in the water and the tide comes up occasionally and soaks up to his knees. He rests his head back against the soft sand and looks into the sky that is slowly turning velvety black. He sighs. "What's Sonic's deal? Why did he try to attack me?"
He continues to think and soon drifts off into a peaceful sleep.
While Knuckles is sleeping something moves quickly just below the surface of the water towards him. It travels a very, very long distance for a long time. Knuckles still sleeps peacefully. Suddenly it shoots out of the water revealing itself to be a bright pink beam. It zaps the sand right next to his head and wakes him up immediately. The sand next to his head is now a small slab of thick glass. He looks at where the beam is now and gets to his feet to dodge it.
He starts running along the beach away from the beam. It keeps getting closer and closer to him. Knuckles pushes himself to run even faster.
"Daammmit!" he says.
Still the beam moves closer and closer, finally hits Knuckles. It sends a searing pain throughout his whole body until he passes out on the beach. The beam suddenly dissapears as he falls. As Knuckles lies on the beach injured, someone watches him from the thick greenery.
A/N: I know. Weird place to end it but I think it's okay. Please review and tell me what you think. I hoped you liked it. I'll update soon, I promise!
