The two combatants snarled at each other, barely held back by Shadow's arms. The-thing-that-wasn't-quite-Sonic—it really needed a nickname—hissed and scratched at the black hedgehog. Opposite it, a lavender feline's yellow eyes narrowed dangerously.
The black hedgehog frowned at the blue. "Control yourself, Sonic."
Pretzel half-expected the creature to laugh evilly and claim Sonic wasn't home—or something along those lines—but instead it just blinked. Lime green eyes darted uneasily from the cat to the hedgehog and back to the cat.
"Sonic?" The cat took a step back, the fury slipping from her face to be replaced by confusion.
The creature blinked rapidly, hands opening and closing like it wasn't sure whether to slit their throats or choke them to death (okay, perhaps she was projecting). It hissed, wincing and squenching its eyelids shut. After a moment its eyes opened—his eyes, with pupils and everything. The black hedgehog nodded and stepped back, satisfied.
"Hey Blaze, Shadow," Sonic nodded unsteadily to the cat and the hedgehog in turn.
"Hello, Sonic." The cat—Blaze—tried to cover her confusion with a frown, her tail coiled warily around her legs. "What was that about?"
"Uh…" Sonic glanced off to the side, ears twitching uncomfortably. His gaze caught on Pretzel and quickly flicked away. "I'm… not really sure myself."
"He is possessed by Light Gaia." The hedgehog—Shadow—provided helpfully. He didn't seem to notice Sonic glaring.
"Light Gaia?" Blaze repeated.
"It is an ancient entity made of energy which—" Shadow started, but Sonic cut in with forced cheerfulness.
"What're you doing here, Blaze? I mean, I'm always happy to see you, but it's not often you drop in."
"The Sol Emeralds brought me here. I am unsure why." She adjusted her necklace self-consciously, scowling. "And now they've scattered to the winds. I was hoping they might have been drawn to this temple." She nodded to the massive building, the faded brown stone blending with the dusty ground.
"Well, your timing is impeccable, as always," Sonic grinned. "What about you, Shads? You here by coincidence or—"
"I was following you." Shadow answered without hesitation. "G.U.N. believes you are a threat."
Sonic blinked. "Uh… okay."
Leathery flapping drew Pretzel's attention, and she watched as the bat—Rouge, wasn't it?—joined the group, apparently confident Sonic was under control.
"Why the intervention, then?"Her smooth voice was unusually curt as she turned to Shadow. "Why not let her—" She jerked a thumb at Blaze, who stared at it as if it had personally insulted her. "—take care of the problem for you?"
"It is not my problem," Shadow pointed out. "It seemed like a… waste."
"Wow, I didn't know you cared so much," Sonic said dryly, and was ignored.
"Not like you to disobey orders," Rouge muttered. Before Shadow could retort, she spun around to face Pretzel. "Planning on joining us anytime soon, hon?"
Pretzel dug her claws into the thatch, slitting her eyes against the light. "No."
"C'mon, Pretzel!" Sonic encouraged, waving energetically, all thoughts of murder apparently forgotten. "You need to make friends!"
Pretzel considered, studying the group. Two grays and two lights, and the cat didn't seem inclined towards Light Gaia. It would be helpful to know more people who wouldn't turn psychotic at the drop of a hat. Or… they probably wouldn't…
Pretzel jumped off the building and glided to join them, landing beside the black hedgehog, to everyone's surprise. "Fine." She folded her wings around herself. If only it would stop being so hot… and bright…
"Alright, introductions!" Sonic beamed while everyone glanced warily at each other. "Blaze, this is Shadow. He's fast and edgy."
"I'm what?" Shadow's ears sprung forward at the last comment.
"Shadow, this is Blaze. She's fast and shy."
"I am not!" Blaze protested, baring her teeth at Sonic's cheeky grin.
"Rouge, this is… wait, you guys know each other." He squinted, mumbling to himself as he pointed to each of them in turn as he tried to figure out who knew who. "Geez, it's hard keeping track of you guys," he grumbled, quiet enough that Pretzel had to prick her ears to hear him.
"Rouge the Bat." Rouge offered her hand to Blaze, who hesitantly shook it. "Professional spy and world-famous thief." She flashed her fangs in a dazzling smile.
Blaze quickly dropped her hand, forcing a smile as her fingers twitched uneasily. " …Blaze the Cat. Guardian of the Sol Emeralds and Princess of the Isles." Rouge's eyes narrowed at the titles, but she didn't comment.
"Great! That's everyone!" Sonic clapped his hands, making everyone but Shadow jump. "Now let's—"
"Forgetting someone?" Rouge raised an eyebrow, nodding at Pretzel.
"Oh yeah," Sonic looked at Pretzel like he'd forgotten she existed. "Eh, sorry about that, Pretzel."
"That's my name," Pretzel told them all curtly before she took off, flying for the shade of the temple.
"Hey!" Sonic yelled, charging after her. Blaze yelped and jumped aside as he boosted across the clearing, blue energy bending the air around him. She chased after him, fire creating a similar effect. Rouge didn't spare Shadow a glance as she shot into the air, leaving him to skate leisurely after them.
Pretzel scowled and hunched her shoulders as the group joined her. She doubted Sonic knew the meaning of "personal space".
"This," Sonic declared, gesturing grandly at Pretzel, who sank further into the shadows with a pout. "Is Pretzel!"
"What is she?" Blaze asked, ears pricked curiously.
"Well—" Sonic started to say, brow furrowing, but Rouge interrupted.
"We don't know what she is, and she claims she doesn't know either," Rouge shrugged.
"She doesn't know?" Blaze's brow wrinkled. "How could she not know?"
"She says she has memory loss. You'd know a thing or two about that, wouldn't you, Shadow?" She raised her voice, looking pointedly at the hedgehog.
He hmphed and turned away, frowning.
"Edgy," Sonic whispered, and Shadow whipped around to stare at him.
"It's a strange situation, alright," Rouge continued, looking at Pretzel with a faux-sympathetic expression. "She wakes up the same time as Light Gaia, with mysterious powers and no memory. Makes you wonder, doesn't it?"
Blaze's eyes narrowed. "That is… convenient."
Pretzel scowled at them, flicking her tail petulantly.
"Are you sure you do not remember anything?" The cat stepped towards Pretzel, tail swinging slowly, like the pendulum on a clock. Rouge stood beside her, arms crossed. Pretzel was effectively cornered, and Sonic was too busy explaining what "edgy" meant to Shadow to be of any help. Not that she was sure he would help her, but he had proved good at derailing conversations in the past.
"I'm sure." Pretzel glared at her interrogators.
"Not a name?" Rouge raised her brows. "Nothing at all?"
"Nothing," Pretzel insisted, flexing her claws on the stone.
"Really? You seem rather comfortable in this world for someone who knows nothing," Rouge cocked her head to the side, an oddly menacing gesture. Then again, at Pretzel's current size, any gesture seemed menacing. Current size…?
"Surely you must know something," Blaze insisted, the tip of her shoe dangerously close to Pretzel's personal bubble. "If you awoke at the same time as this 'Light Gaia'…"
"I don't remember!" Pretzel flared her wings, baring her fangs. Rouge opened her mouth to counter, but was abruptly shoved into the wall. She yelped, grabbing her singed arm.
Sonic unceremoniously picked up Pretzel—the touch burned why would it burn—and set her on Shadow's head. "Cut it out." He frowned at Blaze and Rouge in turn.
"Aren't you a little curious?" Rouge brushed a hand over her singed fur and winced.
"It is suspicious—" Blaze started, but Sonic shushed her.
"Don't wanna hear it. Until proved otherwise, Pretzel is our friend, and we do not interrogate friends," he stressed the word, staring hard at Blaze, and she frowned and looked away. He whipped around to point at Rouge. "And you should know better than to question convenient amnesia."
Rouge huffed. "Fine, but don't blame me when she stabs you in the back."
"That would be inefficient." Both Shadow and Pretzel said at the same time.
Sonic glared at both of them before sighing and shaking his head. "Let's get a move on." He skipped into the temple, smile returning with unnatural speed. Shadow kept pace with him, muttering something about "edgy" under his breath, and Blaze darted after them. Rouge trailed behind, sulking, but was soon distracted by the intricate carvings on the walls.
Turning back to the front again, Pretzel studied Sonic. He was cheerful and chipper once more, no sign of the frustration he'd shown outside. And no sign of wanting to kill me. He was annoyingly—and frighteningly—inconsistent.
"Pretzel?" Several long minutes later, a soft voice from beside her (or beside Shadow, anyway) made Pretzel jerk her head around. Blaze was walking beside Shadow, ears turned back as she chewed her lip uncomfortably. "I… am sorry for making you… uncomfortable."
After a moment of staring hard at the increasingly uncomfortable cat princess, Pretzel shrugged. "You didn't do anything wrong." She lay down on Shadow's head, eyes trailing lazily over the carvings.
"Actually," Sonic butted in, and Pretzel looked over to him as he walked back to join Blaze. "She was rude." Blaze blinked at him, and he smiled impudently. "Buuut that's not so unusual."
"What!?" Blaze bristled. "What do you mean by that!?"
Sonic shrugged, walking backwards away from her. "You're rude, s'all."
"Why you…!" Sonic started running, and Blaze took off after him, the pair blasting through the temple like twin rockets. Pretzel could have sworn she heard Shadow chuckle quietly.
To Sonic's credit, Blaze only caught up with him because of the wall. He was ninety-percent sure he'd have stayed ahead of her indefinitely if there were absolutely no obstacles in his way, but this was a temple, and far be it from an ancient architect to make a straight hallway.
He slammed into a wall at Mach 2 and was pleasantly surprised when he didn't lose consciousness. A few seconds later and the pleasantness drained from the surprise as his skull began to pound.
"Are you alright?" Blaze offered a hand, and he gratefully took it. The light jolted in him at the contact, and he wrinkled his brow, trying to ignore it.
"I'll live," he smiled at her, then sneezed at the dust. "I'm more worried about the wall." He glanced back at it, confirming that the ancient, beautiful, delicately carved temple wall was now marred by a long, jagged crack and a hedgehog-shaped dent.
Blaze wrinkled her nose. "You should be more careful."
He laughed. "Sometimes I forget how little you know me."
Her ears flicked back towards the sound of footsteps, the rest of the group still far behind. Sonic's large ears picked up their approach effortlessly. Blaze's eyes followed the motion, and she started walking around him, studying his new form.
"How did this happen?" She asked, looking at his face again.
He crossed his arms, tilting his head back as he tried to remember. The memory was foggy in his head, clouded with white light and obscured by harsh contrast, like a poorly edited photo. "Eggman… I think he trapped me in some kinda machine. It used the Chaos Emeralds—" he shuddered involuntarily as he remembered the beacons going out, but he pushed past the unsteady feeling. "—to awaken this thing, Light Gaia. And it transformed me somehow. I dunno." He shrugged, suddenly aware of the odd… wings? …rising slightly with the motion.
"Light Gaia…" Blaze murmured. "Is that what was controlling you out there?"
Sonic looked away, shifting his arms and shuffling his feet. "I… uh… yeah. I guess it was, huh?" He forced a chuckle.
"Can it control you again?" Blaze moved to catch his gaze again, yellow eyes sharp and clear and impossible to avoid.
"Of course not!" Sonic pushed a grin onto his face, puffing out his chest. "Don't sweat it, I've got everything under control!" He gave her a cocky thumbs up.
Blaze's eyes narrowed to slits, a slight growl in her voice. "Sonic…" She started, but was interrupted by the arrival of their companions.
"Sorry to break it up," Rouge smirked, pushing between them, and Sonic breathed a sigh of relief. "But we are here for a reason." She glanced at Sonic as Shadow skated up beside them, Pretzel apparently asleep on his head. "Should we be worried about you losing it again?"
"I can handle—" Sonic started to assure her, but stopped as he felt Blaze's glare burning into his skull.
Carrying the entire world on your shoulders?
Listen, don't bite off more than you can chew.
He groaned softly. He should have known one of his teamwork speeches would come back to bite him someday. "I can handle most things." He finished weakly. "But… Light Gaia's presence is pretty strong here… so…"
"I will stand guard over him." Shadow jumped in, voice clipped and cool. "And immobilize him if he acts suspiciously."
"That's the Shadow I know," Rouge muttered before placing her hands on her hips, raising her voice. "We'll cover more ground if we split up. I'll go that way—" she pointed down a dim hallway. "Princess can go that way—" she gestured in the opposite direction. "And the rest of you can sort yourselves out." She took off without waiting for an agreement.
Sonic started forward, and Shadow kept pace beside him, watching him like a hawk. Sonic sighed. "Shads, could you give me a little space?"
"My name is Shadow, and no, I cannot. Light Gaia could take over you at any minute. I need to be prepared."
Sonic raised an eye ridge. "So are you going to kill me if I move weird or somethin'?"
"Why would I do that?" Shadow frowned. "That seems unnecessary."
Sonic laughed. "Right, right." He deepened his voice, apparently imitating Shadow. "'You're still of use to me. I'll kill you later, when you're least expecting it and it's most painful.'"
Shadow's frown deepened. "I don't sound like that." He hesitated and then stepped aside, giving Sonic more space. "I… am sorry if I gave that impression."
Sonic blinked at him, taken aback. "Really?"
Shadow glared at him, spines raising. "Yes, really."
"Okay, okay!" Sonic raised his hands, stepping back in submission. As Shadow's quills smoothed, Sonic suddenly remembered something. "Hey, where's Pretzel?"
The two hedgehogs looked around, Shadow lighting the hallway with the green glow of Chaos energy from his fist (Chaos energy? He's still connected to the Chaos emeralds? Then why…?) There was no sign of the little creature.
"Guess she's flying solo," Sonic shrugged, trying to ignore the niggling guilt. "C"mon, I'll race ya!" He took off down the hall without any further warning. Behind him he heard Shadow shout something and the hum of his hoverskates activating. Sonic grinned and leaned forward. This would be fun.