A/N: If you want to hear Ryn's song, go to youtube and look up Siren Ryn's Song.
Chapter Twenty
The moment Ryn's beautiful voice hit his ears, Shadow stopped. The way the music left her lips so flawlessly. The way it kept increasing and decreasing in volume. How it sounded like multiple voices at once, and it came directly from one of the most beautiful creatures he has ever seen… it was intoxicating.
Ryn kept singing, her tail waving seductively in the air over her as she playfully bent her finger towards her, luring the black and red hedgehog towards her. Shadow was too out of it, too entranced, to realize that this was a trap. He stepped towards the purple merhog slowly, each step bringing him more and more closer to the ground towards her until he was on his hands and knees, crawling to the singing Siren, his red eyes never leaving her blue ones.
At last, he was close enough for Ryn to pounce on him, but before she could do so, she was interrupted.
"SHADOW! NO!"
Sonic, who had just finished transforming, practically bull rushed into Shadow, knocking him away from the singing Siren. Ryn was so shocked by her friend's actions that she stopped singing, watching in awe as he tried to get her prey to snap out of it.
"Shadow! Shadow, snap out of it!" Sonic cried to the ebony hedgehog, shaking his shoulders violently. "You have to resist her song! Please!"
With the combination of Ryn no longer singing, and Sonic shaking and screaming at him, Shadow shook his head out of his daze, bringing himself down to earth.
"Ugh…" He groaned, putting a hand up against his pounding forehead. "What happened?"
"Ryn." Sonic hissed, turning back to the female. He hissed at her, signing in their merhog language. "How dare you?! He is my friend! You cannot sing to him!"
Ryn hissed and signed back. "Oh please, Sonic. I was just following my instincts."
"Not. With. Him!"
"The robots have all been taken care of and Eggman is retreating." Knuckles said as he and the others ran up to Shadow, helping him up to his feet. The red echidna looked over to Sonic and Ryn, seeing them signing to each other frantically. "What's going on there?"
Shadow looked over to the two Sirens and frowned. It looked like they were arguing but he couldn't understand why. "I don't know. I'm unfamiliar with such forgein sign language."
"We will continue this discussion in the water." Sonic hissed and ended it there before turning to look at his friends. "Is everybody alright?"
"We're all fine, hun." Rouge assured him. "What about you and your friend?"
"I'm fine, but if we don't get Ryn back in the water soon she'll…"
Suddenly, Ryn gasped and started screaming. Sonic's eyes widened in horror and turned back to her, his quills standing up as he saw her starting to transform. "Ryn! No! No! No! No!" He ran up to her and held her close, trying to get her to calm down. "Guys! She needs water! I don't know if she's strong enough to transform!"
Everybody looked at Ryn in horror as her scales started peeling back to make way for skin and fur and her tail started to disintegrate. Each second in the transformation looked like pure agony and her screaming wasn't helping the matter.
Shadow looked around, desperately trying to find anything that could stop Ryn's transformation before it could possibly kill her. Suddenly, his gaze fell onto the valve that Eggman had used to fill Sonic's tank. "Guys! The valve!"
In silent agreement, the group of landwalkers ran to the valve. Shadow grabbed the hose and quickly brought it over to the two Sirens, pointing it directly at them. "Now!" At his command, the others turned the heavy valve, watching as saltwater came spraying out of the hose, drenching Sonic and Ryn. The two of them cried out in pain though Ryn's was shorter as her transformation into a hedgehog stopped, allowing her to stay in her merhog form. Sonic, however, continued to scream as his body was forced to go under another transformation, even after he just came out of one. When he was back in his merhog form he panted, leaning against Ryn tiredly. He was exhausted from how much he had transformed today.
"How many times have you transformed today?" Ryn asked him in worry, noticing his exhaustion. Sonic was too tired to sign properly, so he held up his hand, showing her he transformed five times today.
"He's exhausted." Shadow frowned, cautiously approaching the two of them and kneeling down, gingerly petting Sonic's quills back. "He's transformed too much today." He looked up at their friends. "We need to get them to the water before they start drying up and transforming again."
"Yeah we may have a problem with that." Tails replied as he looked outside.
"What's wrong?"
"There's a crowd outside. I think they're here to see if the Sirens are real."
"Dammit." Shadow hissed.
Sonic whimpered and grabbed Shadow's arm, being careful not to puncture his skin with his razor sharp claws. "Help us… please." He signed to him desperately.
Shadow couldn't understand what he was trying to say, but he was sure he knew what it was. He gently took Sonic's hand and held them, staring directly into his blue eyes. "Don't worry. We're gonna get you and Ryn outta here. We just gotta figure out how."
"The back way." Amy suddenly said. "We can take them out the back way."
"Taking them out that way may avoid them being seen from the front, but we still gotta sneak by to get them to the water." Rouge frowned, looking at Sonic. "It would be easier if Sonic was in his hedgehog form, then he could use his speed to sneak by with the other merhog in his arms, but I don't think Big Blue can handle another transformation."
"Let alone two more." Shadow agreed. "I won't let him go through that pain anymore today. He needs to rest."
"At least now we know why you two were being so friendly towards each other." Knuckles frowned.
"Now's not the time, echidna." Shadow growled. "We're running out of time."
"If only I had brought my plane we could put them in it and we could fly over the crowd and to the beach without them noticing us." Tails said.
Suddenly, Shadow's eyes widened, a spark of determination suddenly shining in them. "Tails, that's it!"
"What's it?" The yellow fox asked in confusion.
"You and the others can't run as fast as me and Sonic, but that doesn't mean you and Rouge can't stay outta sight." The ebony exclaimed. "You and Rouge can carry Sonic and fly over the crowd to stay outta sight, and I'll carry Ryn and run right past them."
"Sounds like a good idea to me." Rouge nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, but I don't think Sonic's too thrilled about it." Knuckles said, pointing to the blue merhog who was anxiously pinching his thumb, index and middle fingers together in the common ASL of "NO", knowing that it's a sign they'll most likely understand.
Shadow frowned at him. "Why not? What's wrong?"
"I'm not gonna let you carry Ryn! She tried to hurt you!" Sonic signed, pointing at Ryn so that his frenemy could get the vague idea of what he was saying.
"Do you not want me to carry her?" Shadow guessed, then sighed as Sonic nodded. "But I have to, Sonic. Do you really trust her to be carried by Rouge and Tails?"
"I am right here!" Ryn signed. Despite being unable to understand Shadow, judging by Sonic, she knew they were talking about her.
"Shut up! You're not off the hook yet!" Sonic hissed at her.
Ryn hissed back and smacked him across the face, shocking his friends. Sonic growled and lunged at her, the two of them fighting with tooth and claw.
"Hey! Hey! HEY!" Shadow shouted, forcefully pulling them off each other. "Break it up, you two! This is no time for fighting! And besides, you're friends! You should be settling whatever it is going on between you two civilly!"
Sonic huffed and signed to Ryn. "He's right. We'll settle this in the water."
"Agreed." Ryn nodded.
Satisfied that the two weren't fighting anymore, Shadow noticed that their skin was drying up again. He grabbed the hose and sprayed them, rewetting their scales to stay in merhog form. "This water isn't gonna last forever, and I can hear the crowd getting anxious. If we're gonna do this we gotta move now. Tails, Rouge, grab Sonic and let's go."
"Got it." The two fliers nodded and carefully picked up Sonic in their arms, flying in the air as they kept a good grip on the heavy merhog.
"Don't you dare hurt him." Sonic signed to Ryn as Shadow picked her up. "He's just trying to help."
"Land dwellers are trouble."
"Not these ones."
"Alright, we're ready." Shadow nodded. "Let's go."
