Chapter 10: Like Father, like Son/Daughter
The group which consisted of Sonic, Amy, Nyx, Infinite, their son and Tails had relocated to Tails' home/workshop; Dr. Reiner had contacted Nyx an hour ago and informed her that despite the beating he endured, Levi wasn't in any immediate danger. The most he suffered was bruises and a broken rib that thankfully didn't puncture his lungs, and his lungs may have been exposed but they weren't compromised.
Physically, Levi was going to make a full recovery but Dr. Reiner said that the psychological damage was extensive: being physically and sexually abused by his father was one thing, but to have his father come back claiming he changed for the better only to bribe Tony and his gang to beat him mercilessly...there was no denying that Levi was scarred by this incident and needed professional therapy.
Nyx thanked Dr. Reiner for informing her and she said she'd take care of it on Monday morning as she knew an excellent therapist for whom she could recommend for Levi. Now she stood off to the side with her best friend, his fiancee, and her sister as her husband and son laid down on an examination table while Tails used a machine to scan the two of them. Tails looked down at a console that was wirelessly connected to the machine with fascination.
"Huh, this is very interesting", said Tails. "What is it, Tails? What did you find?", asked Sonic. Tails looked down at the console, "According to my Bio-Scanner, even after Eggman had removed the Phantom Ruby from your chest, about 80% of its energy still remained inside of your body, Infinite. Then something happened: at some point, half of the energy had transferred out of your body, leaving only 40% inside of you and the 40% that was transferred out is now inside of Finn", he said.
Infinite sat up in shock, not only at being told he still had some of the Phantom Ruby's power within him but that his infant son also had some of its power as well. He looked down at his hands and closed his eyes, concentrating on trying to access this power within him; the same low humming noise was heard as red glowing cubes appeared and changed the interior of the workshop into the interior of an airship. There was a fire lit in the wood fire stove, which filled the room with comforting warmth that everyone could feel.
"Wait a minute, I know this place!", said Nyx. Infinite looked around in sadness as his head dropped down, "Its...my childhood...home...", he trailed off as tears welled up and fell from his eyes. Nyx walked over to him and held him close, "Its okay, honey. Don't cry, I'm here for you", she said as she kissed his forehead. The room shifted back to normal as Infinite looked up at her with a smile and gave her a kiss on the lips, he then looked down at Finn who crawled over and laid in his lap.
Tails held a questioning expression, "Hmm, Tony said that Finn was crying the whole time before his teddy bear morphed into a monster and attacked him and his gang. I have a theory about that, but I want to test it first", he said. Tails walked over and gently pulled the teddy bear away from Finn, which caused him to start crying; just then the room suddenly turned into a swamp with piranha infested waters.
"OUCH!", shouted Sonic as a piranha had chomped down on the end of his tail. Tails quickly gave the bear back to Finn and he calmed down, red cubes circled the air as the swamp suddenly changed back into Tails' home/workshop but Sonic still had a very visible bite mark on the end of his tail; then Tails moved closer to Finn and started to make goofy faces at him. The little pup started laughing at the faces he was making, the red cubes appeared again and the room morphed into a circus tent with a bunch of clowns running around doing all kinds of silly tricks.
Tails thought for a moment, "Hmm, interesting. Nyx, I want you to pick up Finn and rock him to sleep", he said. Nyx picked up her son and proceeded to rock him gently back and forth, humming the song her mother sang to her; Finn's eyes slowly drooped closed and he fell asleep, the red cubes appeared and changed the circus tent into a grassland with several sheep lying around sleeping beneath a cloudless, full moon night. "Tails, this is cool and all but what exactly are you trying to do here?", asked Sonic.
"It proves my theory that the Phantom Ruby's energy is only activated if the user is experiencing strong emotions, think about it: Infinite made his childhood home, which was burnt down, appeared and the sight made him cry. Then I took Finn's bear away and he cried, making my workshop turn into a piranha filled swamp and disappeared when I gave it back; then I made funny faces and a circus appeared when he laughed, and a grassland with sleeping sheep appeared while he's being rocked to sleep.
"Its clear that Infinite and Finn can tap into their respective wells of Phantom Ruby energy through strong emotional stimuli, only difference is that Infinite is more capable of controlling his emotions than Finn and not just because Infinite is an adult but because he has had experience with using its power. In fact...maybe that explains how he was able to use it in the first place.
"At that point in time, Infinite was consumed by anger and hatred, and those emotions translated into all the destruction he caused. Finn was terrified by the loud noises made while Levi was being beaten and that fear translated into his teddy bear turning into a monster that attacked the reason for his fears. Even in terms of the Phantom Ruby prototypes, it could've also worked the same way. Nyx, what emotions were you experiencing when you used the Phantom Ruby prototype?", asked Tails.
Nyx wracked her brain to try and remember what exactly happened, "Well the first time I used it, it was after my battle with Infinite. I still felt hatred towards him for what he was doing and then he conjured these cannons to fire at me, but before the cannon balls could hit me, they suddenly phased through my body. Then when Eggman planned to drop the sun on us and Tails told me I had to use the prototype to stop it, I felt nothing but determination as I leapt into that fake sun, effectively destroying it...I also felt searing pain from how hot it was", she said.
Tails nodded, "As I expected. Whether its a prototype or the real thing, the Phantom Ruby's energy is only activated when the user is experiencing extreme emotional stimuli. Its too soon to know for sure just how strong Finn's power will be and its also too soon for Infinite to show him how to properly, so for now, you both have to make sure he doesn't get to excited or upset otherwise your house is either going to be overrun with bugs or Chao", he said.
Infinite looked at his son who was sleeping peacefully in his wife's arms. Just when I start to believe my life was staring to go back to normal, he thought.
A month later, Nyx and Infinite were doing their best to make sure their son's emotins stayed in check, but that was easier said than done; everytime Finn cried, something crazy or terrifying would happen. For example, when he cried because he was hungry, a monster version of his baby bottle tried to eat Tempest alive. And when he cried because his diaper was dirty, the entire house would transform into a garbage dump and stink to high heaven. And each and every time, Infinite had to use his own power to eliminate the illusions; it was difficult balancing that and making frequent visits to the Sunset Heights Rehabilitation Center to help Levi cope with the his psychological trauma.
But as stressful as their lives were, it was nothing compared to what Sonic and Amy had to deal with. You see they were engaged to be married but the wedding was actually rescheduled to take place a month earlier than it was originally because as it turned out...Amy was now pregnant. And because the gestation period of Mobian hedgehogs is 30-40 days, the wedding had to happen before she gave birth.
Exactly 40 days after the wedding, Amy gave birth to a pair of fraternal twins, a boy named Turbine Maurice the Hedgehog and a girl named Speedalina Rose the Hedgehog or for short, Speedy and Turbo. They were the spitting image of their parents: Turbo looked exactly like Sonic except he had Amy's light blue eyes and a single tuft of dark blue hair on his forehead, and Speedy looked just like Amy except she had Sonics green eyes and a single tuft of dark pink hair on her forehead.
Now raising twins alone is pretty difficult, even for two parents, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Three months after their birth, the twins took their first steps and after that they perfectly demonstrated that they were indeed born with their father's inate super speed, and they were soon running all over the place with Sonic being the only one who could keep up with them.
But things got so much more hectic.
One night while they were asleep, Sonic and Amy were awaken by a loud crashing sound from outside. Grabbing her hammer, Amy following Sonic outside to where their trashcans were and the shadows of two small animals pushing and knocking the cans over. Sonic turned on his flashlight to reveal Speedy and Turbo, but that wasn't all, their fur looked darker in color and shaggier; the only teeth they had at the time had grew long and fanglike, their fingernails became claws, their baby quills were longer and their eyes had a darker hint to them.
Both baby hedgehogs looked up at their parents and whined like injured puppies because they thought they were in trouble, but Sonic and Amy simply stood in shocked silence. Oh Chaos not this again, thought Sonic.
The next morning, Sonic and Amy brought their kids to Tails to have him scan them, and as it turned out, Infinite wasn't only one with residual dark energy that passed on to his child; Sonic still had about 60% of Dark Gaia's energy inside of him, the same energy that caused him to transform into a werehog at night, had been equally divided between him and his children and now each of them had 20% of the dark god's energy in their bodies. This energy, despite how small it might've seem, was enough to allow the twins to transform into a pair of mini werehogs at night.
Sonic wasn't too big a fan of the idea that he was still able to turn into a werehog because during the time before, he hated walking around looking like a unrecognizable monster but this time he was able to control his changing at will, and this meant he'd have an easier time teaching his children how to control their powers as well as protecting them from harm.
Sonic even called Nyx and Infinite, and told them about the whole situation. Needless to say, they all had a good laugh about it; as if being first time parents wasn't difficult enough, now one of them had powerful illusion abilities and the other two could transform into werewolf-like creatures at night. It seemed like they weren't allowed to have normal lives, even after almost three years of peace.
As he watched Amy feed mashed apples and bananas to Speedy and Turbo, Sonic only had one thought running through his mind as he scratched the back of his head and smiled sheepishly. Now how am I going to explain this to my parents, he thought.
Author's Note: Well that ends Chapter 10, and apologize to everyone for taking so long to update my story. Its just that I have been very preoccupied lately trying to find a part time job, not to mention I had just started an account on , under the name "Toshi-the-Panda-1996", so I have been rather distracted. I liked to tell you that I will update frequently but I'd been lying and I don't want to lie to anyone. Anyway, next chapter, we celebrate the twins first birthday as Sonic's family comes to visit and an old friend comes to visit after a long time. Who is it? Find out in Chapter 11; until next time, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out.