Chapter Fourteen

Shadow was pacing on the shore by the moonpool, keeping Sonic's belongings close to him. It has been an hour since Sonic had gone into the water and he was starting to get worried. It was odd to him. He never thought he'd actually be worried for his rival, but yet here he was, pleading for the blue hedgehog to come back safe and sound.

"Come on, Faker. Where are you?"

Suddenly, bubbles started to rise from the moonpool. He quickly rushed to the water, ready to pull Sonic out despite being told to stay back. But to his surprise, instead of the Siren, a strange metal device popped out of the water. Confused, Shadow reached over and grabbed it, pulling it out of the water. As soon as he set it down, Sonic soon popped out after it. His sudden appearance startled the ebony hedgehog, making him step back and fall onto his rear. He looked up, watching as the blue merhog pulled himself out of the water and laid on the shore, panting in exhaustion.

"Sonic?" Shadow said as he stood up and hesitantly stepped toward his rival. But the moment he got too close, Sonic hissed at him, baring his fangs in a simple warning to keep the other hedgehog at bay. A few moments after that, Sonic screamed and gasped for breath. Shadow watched in horror as Sonic went through the transformation to turn back into a hedgehog. He felt like he was gonna be sick as he watched the tail disintegrate into legs. As soon as the transformation was over, Shadow rushed over to Sonic and gently held him in his lap, letting him catch his breath. "Are you ok? That looked really painful."

"It is." Sonic weakly nodded. "You'd think I'd be used to it by now. But that kind of pain… I'd rather be tortured by Eggman again."

"Then why do you do it? Why do you let yourself go through that?"

"Because I have responsibilities, Shadow. Both on land and in the water. Mobias depends on me to protect them. And now that I'm of age I have the responsibility of impregnating the females that choose me during mating season. Besides, I can't stay out of the water forever, Shads, otherwise I start scaling."

"Scaling?"

"That's when my skin dries up too much and it starts to look like scales."

"It must be really hard to be a Siren."

"Like you wouldn't believe." With that said, Sonic sighed and sat up, accepting his belongings back and putting them on. "Speaking of torture, whoever made THAT thing is gonna wish that they never took Ryn."

"What is it?" Shadow asked as they both approached the device. "And how do you know it's tied to Ryn?"

"It's a lure." Sonic frowned. "Whoever made it was trying to attract more Sirens to them. There's a button on the side that creates Ryn's distress call."

To demonstrate, Sonic pressed the button on the device. Immediately, the red light started flashing, and Ryn's cries of pain echoed in the cave. Sonic hissed in furry, while Shadow's eyes widened in shock.

"She sounds like she's in pain." Shadow observed.

Sonic hissed and turned it off. "Whoever has her is torturing her and recording her voice to lure other Sirens to her aide. The others don't know about the surface world as much as I do. They wouldn't understand that this was a trap if they had found this thing before I did."

"Did anything happen when you found it?"

"... A net… a net almost caught me. I was barely able to get away."

"So it was a trap then." Shadow frowned. "Sonic… I know you want to find your friend but… please… don't go back down there… I don't want you getting caught."

Sonic was touched. He smiled and chuckled, lightly punching the ebony hedgehog on his good shoulder. "Don't worry. Since because I'm banished from the colony and I know for sure that this is the only clue we'll get to Ryn, there's no reason for me to go back down there."

Shadow sighed in relief. "Good, at least until we know for sure it's safe."

"Right." Sonic nodded. "In the meantime, let's take this back to the house and see if we can figure out who made it."

"Right." Shadow nodded, watching as the blue hedgehog picked it up. But then, as soon as he did, some saltwater poured onto Sonic's arm, making him drop the device and cry out in pain, his skin sizzling as if the water was acid. Shadow stared in bewilderment as Sonic's skin peeled back to reveal some scales before quickly drying up and being covered by skin again.

"Ngh." Sonic whimpered, holding onto his arm in pain. Shadow picked up the device and held it away from Sonic.

"Why don't I hold onto this thing, so that doesn't happen again." He suggested.

Sonic nodded, rubbing his arm a bit. "Yeah. That seems like a good idea."

With a final nod, the two hedgehogs left the cave, carrying the device back to the house with them, and hoping that their friends weren't suspicious about their disappearance yet.

Unfortunately, once the two hedgehogs walked into the house, they were immediately met by their worried friends.

"Where have you two been?" Vanilla demanded in a worried tone.

"We were just at the rescue center and then suddenly you two weren't there." Amy frowned.

"We got bored." Shadow shrugged.

"And the sea lions didn't exactly make us feel welcomed." Sonic added. "We didn't want to bother you so we split off and explored on our own."

"What's that?" Tails frowned in curiosity as he pointed at the device in Shadow's hands.

The two hedgehogs shared a brief look but they both knew they couldn't hide this.

"We're not sure what it is." Sonic said.

"We think it might be a lure." Shadow added. "It washed up on the shore and it was making this weird sound." And then, without thinking, before Sonic could stop him, Shadow pressed the button.

As soon as Ryn's cries were heard, their friends' eyes widened in shock. Sonic hissed and quickly turned the sound off, growling at the thing, which caused his friends to give him a questioning look.

"I don't like the sound." He quickly said. "It sounds as if the poor creature is being tortured."

"What kind of marine creature could make a sound like that?" Knuckles frowned.

"None that I know of, that's for sure." Tails said. "... Maybe it was whatever Shadow saw yesterday."

"Whatever it is we need to find out where this thing came from so we can rescue it." Amy suggested. "The poor thing must be traumatized."

"The red light seems like it could be a tracker." Tails said. "Perhaps I could tap into its system and see where the signal is coming from."

"Good idea, hun." Rouge nodded. "While you do that, I'm gonna have a small talk with Sonic and Shadow."

And with that, before the boys could get a single word in, Tails took the device while Rouge took the boys outside to talk to them.

Oh, things were starting to get messy.