A/N:Hoorah. Really not too much to say, except that I want to get this story good and over with D:! I just can't wait 'til I can move onto something less icky. Know what's just GORGEOUS? The names of the story things or whatever in Shadow the Hedgehog! I'm like… Woah, deep! Anyone get whatI mean :P? Meh. Read yer hearts out C:! C: is my new favourite smile XD It's so… C:!
--LA
Dit één is Nederlandse... hoffelijkheid van Ik bezit slechts Gabbie, Felix, Leah... ja, die het:). There :)! How was my accent ;)? Grammarlicious.
"What?" Hina asked in surprise, looking slightly afraid of the boy's awed stares. "What's the matter?"
Tails shoved the hedgehog off of his chest. "C'mere." He breathed. The tiny girl had grown slightly… less tiny.
"What?!" She repeated, shooting over as told. She stared back and forth between the two with wide eyes. "What's wrong?"
Her hair had elongated, and now flipped out into a neat wave at the end. Her twin roses had grown ever lusher and her bangs now flicked out over her face in two, sea-green pieces.
But it was her lower body that shocked Tails the most. Although her outfit had been altered slightly, Tails almost didn't notice it for he was in such shock from the appearance of her body. She looked a bit taller than Cream, but had somehow reached the physical maturity of Amy. Quite honestly, Tails was concerned. Amy was thirteen, going on fourteen in a few months. Hina had less than a year under her belt. Something wasn't right…
"Hina…" he breathed, "How do you feel?"
"Feel?" She echoed, looking even more frightened. "Why? What's the matter?"
Tails grabbed her wrist gently and tugged her silently to the washroom, careful to be soundless and not wake their guests. Sonic followed, looking more intent than anything. Hina yelped when she saw her own reflection in the mirror. Tails stepped away to let her discover her new appearance.
"It's…" she breathed, leaning in to get a closer look at her face, fingering her new bangs, "me…"
Tails watched her for a moment before nudging Sonic. They two boys left the Hina to investigate her new self. When they arrived in the living room, Sonic let out a whistle.
"Holy crap, Tails!" He said, sounding amazed, "Hina's… hot!"
Tails smacked him in the arm. The fox opened his mouth to snap at Sonic for being stupid when there was likely something wrong with her growth, but he was interrupted.
"What the hell, Sonic?" demanded a third male voice from the doorway. "Are you some kind of pedophile or something?"
A very moody-looking red echidna stalked into the room, his arms crossed.
"Go see her for yourself!" Sonic said defensively. He turned to tails with an apologetic grin. "And you know I was just kidding around."
To Sonic's discontent, however, Tails looked afraid.
"ButI think there might be something really wrong with her, guys. I mean that can't be normal."
Sonic knew the fox well enough to tell that he was seriously afraid. "Tell you what," he said, trying to keep mild irritation out of his voice, "we'll go over to the hospital in the morning, okay?"
Tails gave an uncertain smile. "Okay."
"And it is supposed to be beautiful tomorrow!" said Gabrielle suddenly, flowing into the room with a charming smile. Knuckles melted away out the door without the smallest goodbye. "So we can bring a picnic lunch."
"Gabrielle," Tails said in annoyance, "A trip to the hospital isn't exactly-"
"Picnic?" chimed two children's voices. Leah and Felix slouched into the room, looking exhausted.
"Yes!" The squirrel said happily, "Hina is going to take a trip to the hospital, and we are going to have a picnic lunch on our way there!"
"That sounds like so much fun!" Said Leah, beaming around. Tails couldn't bring himself to deflate the emotionally scarred child's excitement. The panda blinked, and furrowed her brow, "But why does Hina have to go to the hospital?"
"That is a good question." Gabrielle said, turning intently to face a very harassed-looking Tails.
"I.." the fox began. He wasn't sure if Hina would want to break the news to them herself. Luckily Sonic noticed Tails' apprehension and cut in with another loud whistle.
"Man, it's late." He said with a yawn. "Why don't I make us some hot chocolate, and we can turn in."
Tails was extremely relieved to see the two children sprint into the kitchen, naturally followed by Gabrielle. Admittedly, he knew that Sonic's cooking skills were questionable, but was grateful nonetheless. The fox slouched down into one of the silver chairs, feeling panic bubbling up in his chest. He tried to calm himself, but names of nonexistent diseases that Hina could have relentlessly wormed themselves into his skull.
"Mipro?"
He was so relieved to hear Hina's soft voice. It was still his Hina, just in different packaging.
"Is this bad?" She asked quietly, seating herself on his lap and burying her face in his warm fur.
Tails wasn't sure how to respond. Of course, he didn't want to lie to her. But honestly, he believed that it was very bad. "I don't know." was all that he could come up with.
If Hina could have buried herself underneath his skin and stayed there, forever warm and safe, she knew that she would.
"I'm going to go for a walk." She said quietly, sounding on the verge of tears. Tails was about to protest; it was black outside, and Hina was still just his little girl. Instead, he nodded, resting his chin on the top of her head.
"You'll be fine." He told her in a voice so small that she could only just hear. "I promise."
Her tears fell numerous, but the whole world, it seemed, was masked with impenetrable shadow. Her hushed sobs cut into the silent night air like little needles. Hina felt strange and filthy. Adult. She hated looking her Mipro directly in the eye. He was her shelter, her mother, her father, her friend. But now they felt equal.
She was walking blindly, turning and pivoting at random points in her path. Terror of the darkness was building up. It felt as though there was some unseen demon around every corner, waiting. She had to cover the gem on her chest with a coat to stop its glow from escaping.
Suddenly the pitch blackness was relieved when she noticed a dull green light high in the sky. Her curiosity was spurred. Glancing around, she lifted herself up on a glittering platform of pale blue cloud. She had always loved them… they were warm and comforting, and so dependable. She could summon them without any effort.
It was impossible to describe how she controlled her floating platform. It was as simple as lifting a finger. She simply needed to urge it with her mind.
She hovered higher into the air until she realized that she had become parallel to some sort of floating island…
Landing gently on her feet, the cloud dematerialized beneath her. She padded softly towards the faint green light. As she came closer, she realized that it was coming from something perched within a pyramid-type building. She timidly walked up the steps, her eyes fixed on the glowing green. When she came closer, she realized that it was a massive gem.
She reached out a hand. The instant her index finger brushed its surface, the emerald glowed icy blue, and then everything was black.
Step… step… step…
Rouge quickened her pace when she heard heavy footfalls from behind her. She knew that she could defend herself if it came to that, but she was in no mood.
"Shit! Shit!"
She knew that voice. It froze her mid-step. "Knu-aaah!"
He collided straight into her. "Sorry." He said, sounding furious, and pushing past her, "Move. Shit!"
Rouge's jaw dropped and she placed a hand on her hip in indignation. Luckily, her good night-vision allowed her to follow after his sprint. When she caught up, she tackled him to the ground and pulled a pair of hand-cuffs from her handy 'chest pocket'. Admittedly, she hadn't purchased them for this type of roughhousing, but they were effective nonetheless.
She fastened one around his wrist, and one around her own. He wasn't running away. Now that Rouge had cooled off, they needed to talk.
"Shit! Rouge!" he roared, struggling to his feet, with a jerk that forced her off of hers and flat onto her back.
"No." She said flatly, holding him down by his arm. "Please, talk to me."
"Not now!" he exclaimed, shaking his hand, desperately trying to free himself. With an exasperated groan, he lifted Rouge into his arms and continued to race towards his goal. "Shit!"
"What do you think your doing?" she demanded, squirming. She had to admit that she was not putting all of her effort into escaping. Despite all of her anger, it was still nice to be held by him for the first time in weeks.
"Something's wrong with the Master Emerald!" he answered, gesturing towards the floating island with a jerk of his head. Rouge furrowed her brow, genuinely distracted. The emerald was blazing pale blue like a beacon.
"Fine." She said, maintaining her cool, "But I'm not letting you go."
Knuckles glared forward. After a few moments they reached the base of Angel Island.
"Fly." The echidna commanded. "Since you're stuck to my frickin' hand, I can't get up otherwise."
"Manners, manners." Rouge replied coldly. But she didn't wait for him to correct himself. Without too much difficulty, she managed to fly them up to the edge. Knuckles saw a teenaged female's silhouette against the blue of the emerald.
"Thief!" roared Knuckles, charging forward.
"You idiot!" Rouge said to him, hitting him in the side of the head with her fist. "That's not a thief! Can't you see she's unconscious?"
"Well, what the hell is she-" he began to ask angrily.
"Come on!" cried Rouge, now dragging him forward, "She looks like a poor kid!"
"Funny…" she added quietly to herself… "The Emerald looks the exact same colour as Hina's…"
They rushed forward, but Knuckles halted when they were three steps from the top of the shrine. Rouge turned to snap at him, but found that his face was glazed over, and his eyes staring widely at the emerald.
"Oh, shit." He murmured.
A/N:What a smelly ending :\. Knux seems to like that word this chapter XP! Soo, I'm going to try and write a little Valentine's Day story for this Wednesday ;)… so that comes before the next chapter. Check it out when it's done, guys C:!
Aanndd… here's a "grown-up" Hina picture :\. Well… it's more of a doodle of her on one of my doodle pages in my sketch book XP. See this time she gets… a scared chick's eye… a… well, some kind of big-cat thing :\... some shit on pyth… pie… pi… Pythagoras!, umm a TVsaurus… and like five "emma"'s for company. Actually, I think the chick is scared because the pipe-smoking, big-cat guy is going to rape her. I can see it in his eyes…
ANYWAYS, here it is XP :
Look downn below, 'cause this one didn't work .!
Tell me if it doesn't show up, please :\...
Yeah, I know Hina's only ever been sad in her spiffy new bod, but sad doesn't make a divalicious picture like that ;)!
Thanks for reading :P… and PlEaSe ReViEw :)?!
--LA
Edit: Gahh! That IS NOT COOPERATINGG! This is like my seventh time trying to do it D! Try this :!
http(:)(slash)(slash)xs(dot)to(slash)xs(dot)php(questionmark)h(equals)xs124(and)d(equals)08066(and)f(equals)scan815(dot)jpg
How can I go wrong with THAT ?! the (and)'s are &, by the way :).