"Please, tell me what's going on! Please!" Sonic looked at the doctor who was examining Tails. The doctor moved the stethoscope around a little more, sadly shook his head and then placed it on a table.
"I'm sorry Sonic, but I'm not sure what's going on. It seems he's somehow gone into a coma, but I'm unable to pinpoint the reason…"
"Please help him! I'll do anything!" The hedgehog's eyes were so hopeful the doctor just couldn't say no.
"I'll do whatever I can. Nurse, get Tails ready for X-rays. Sonic, perhaps you'd like to go to the waiting room?"
"No…wherever my buddy goes, I go." The doctor could tell Sonic wasn't going to back down, regardless of what he said, so he sighed and motioned for the hedgehog to follow.
XXXXXXXXX
Isis cursed to herself as she watched a few doctors insert needles into Tails' arms and test his pulse. She disbanded the spell and dumped the bowl of water onto the ground behind the hospital; there was no reason for her to watch anymore. Isis sighed; she didn't mean to run off before – she was planning on giving Tails the medicine to wake him up right away, but then realized she had forgotten to bring the lily-of-the-valley flower she required. The potion had to be made fresh, otherwise it was worthless. In the ten minutes it had taken her to run back to her campsite and return, Tails had disappeared.
It was easy enough for Isis to track Tails down, but now that he was surrounded by doctors and nurses she wouldn't be able to give him the potion and explain everything to him without being detected. By now everyone was keeping a close watch for someone with her description, which meant that she couldn't go out in public easily anymore.
"No matter," Isis muttered to herself, "This just makes everything more interesting." She popped open a little star-shaped device that looked like a makeup container; it was small enough to fit in her palm, yet was powerful enough to work as a computer, television, phone and more.
Isis typed in the name of the hospital and clicked on the website. If she was going to get close to Tails, she needed information. "So, this hospital has a volunteer program, eh? This will be much easier than I thought…" She put the device away, then shifted her pack off her shoulders and began rooting through it.
The first thing she had to do was disguise her regular appearance. Isis pulled out a brown bottle and walked over to the water tap at the back of the hospital. After one quick check to make sure no one was coming, she turned on the tap and stuck her head underneath, letting the cool water rush over her. If anybody saw her washing outside when it was already below zero, they'd think she was crazy. But the cold didn't bother her. Isis snapped open the lid of the bottle and rubbed the brown paste into her hair. After one more rinse under the tap, her hair was now a chocolate brown.
Isis smashed the bottle into pieces and threw it into a dumpster. She then washed her hands and went back to her pack. Next was her eyes; her lavender eyes were way too uncommon. "Blue or green, I wonder? Maybe a bluish-green…" Isis looked through her colored contacts, and finally decided on a silvery-blue that looked nice, but wasn't remarkable. She carefully inserted the contacts into her eyes; the last thing she needed was an eye infection. Isis flipped open her compact and changed it to her mirror, and seeing that her contacts were in correctly she moved onto makeup. She powdered her skin to make it look a little whiter, and then added silver sparkles on her eyelids. After applying light pink lipstick, she nodded in approval.
For clothing, she changed into a pink t-shirt and blue jeans, and slipped on running shoes. A heart necklace that said, '#1 Friend' and a heart bracelet added the final touch.
"There! Now, all I need is a background story…" This was Isis' favorite part; when she made up everything about her new look so she had something to tell people if they asked. She always tried to make it way different from her last one, so she could try out different styles.
"Ok…my name will be Brittney Forsyth. I will have a mom named Danielle who stays at home with my little brother Tommy, who is two months old, and a dad named James who works with computers. I'll be thirteen, in ninth grade and go to…" Isis opened her compact again and searched for local schools, "Swann High. I'll play volleyball and soccer, and be on the student council. My favorite color will be pink, my favorite animal will be a horse, and my favorite food…" Isis thought for a moment, and then decided to do something a little more out of character, "Chili dogs."
"That basically covers everything," Isis mumbled to herself as she printed out a volunteer hospital tag. She pinned it on her shirt, picked up her supplies and then ran off to find a hiding place where she could wait until morning.
XXXXXXXXX
Sonic sat beside Tails' bed, looking down at his best friend. The doctors had hooked him up on a life support system because his breathing faltered every few minutes, and they were afraid he could die. The bed had a rail around it, just in case Tails started thrashing again. The room was dark except for the moonlight shining down on the two friends, making their fur sparkle slightly.
When Sonic wasn't watching Tails, he watched the machine registering Tails' heartbeat – it was getting slower and weaker as time passed. Still, Sonic refused to give up hope, and he sat right by Tails' side, refusing to let go of his hand. The doctors said that something was going through his bloodstream and that could be what was killing him off, but because they didn't know what it was it was too risky to try and remove it. It looked like a dark liquid was moving through the fox's body and surrounding his brain. Nobody had a clue what was going on.
Sonic whimpered softly and leaned forward to rub Tails' head, "What's going on, buddy? Why is this happening?"
XXXXXXXXX
"Where is Sonic?" Knuckles asked, looking at the three hedgehogs. The four of them were in the hospital's cafeteria, eating breakfast. Knuckles didn't hear about Tails' sudden disease until morning and decided to come over to hospital to see how he was doing. As well, Rouge told him that Sonic refused to move from Tails' side and fought anybody who tried to drag him away.
Amy and Shadow continued to eat in silence, but Silver responded, "Still in Tails' room. He hasn't budged since they brought Tails here ten hours ago."
"I don't think he's slept, either," Amy sighed, picking at her breakfast, "I'm so worried about both of them. What do you think Tails has?"
Shadow shrugged, "Who knows…but if having Tails on death row is affecting Sonic this badly…"
The black hedgehog didn't need to say the words. Everyone had the terrible thought in the back of their mind that said that if Tails died, Sonic was going to completely lose it.
"I'm going to go talk to him," Knuckles said, getting up and heading for the elevators.
Along the way, a girl with brown hair and wearing a white coat caught up with him, "Hello! You're going up, too?"
Knuckles nodded, "Yeah…to see my friends." The bell dinged, and the doors slid open. The girl and Knuckles entered the elevator.
"Oh! What happened to them?" Knuckles looked over at the girl, and read a tag that said, 'Brittney Forsyth, Volunteer'.
"No one knows. One just got sick, and the other won't move from his side." Knuckles thought he saw Brittney's fists clench, but he wasn't completely sure.
"Really? That's so noble! What room are they in?"
"Why do you care?" Knuckles shot back, "I'm sure it's all over the news right now anyways!"
Brittney became sad. "I'm sorry," she whispered softly, "I didn't mean to make you upset."
Knuckles sighed. It wasn't this girl's fault Tails was so ill, "It's ok…I'm just worried."
That cheered Brittney right up. She smiled, "Alright! By the way, I'm Brittney."
"I'm Knuckles."
"Charmed," Brittney said, taking Knuckles' hand and shaking it without him even offering his hand, "I'm here to get credits for college, although I'm only in ninth grade! You know, maybe I can help your friends! I'll ask around."
The doors opened on the fifth floor ICU center, and Knuckles stepped out of the elevator, "You do that." He left without another word.
Brittney got off on the sixth floor and walked towards the stairwell. She walked down until the fifth floor and headed straight for the file room. Nobody questioned her as she walked inside and began looking through the files; Isis knew the trick was to act like she belonged.
XXXXXXXXX
"Hey Sonic," Knuckles said softly as he went to stand beside his friend, "How's it going?"
"Not good," Sonic whispered. His eyes never looked away from Tails.
Knuckles looked over to the fox lying in the bed. Tails' breathing was soft and shallow, and he seemed to be getting weaker as time moved on. It already looked like he had been sick for months, not just half a day. "Sonic, you're not doing yourself any good by sitting here. Why don't you come downstairs and eat something?"
"No," Sonic whispered, "I have to stay awake for the next ninety hours right by his side without eating anything or he'll die. I have another seventy-nine to go…"
"Are you crazy? That's not going to help!"
"Yes it will!" Sonic finally looked at the echidna, "I don't know why. I just have to."
Knuckles couldn't make himself argue back; Sonic's eyes were showing two rare emotions – fear and sadness. The only time Knuckles had even seen Sonic this upset was back in June.
"Alright, stay here. Can you drink anything?" Sonic nodded, looking at Tails again. "Want some juice or something?"
"Yeah."
"What kind?"
"Orange, please."
"Ok…I'll be right back." Knuckles walked quietly out of the room, like a sudden noise would suddenly cause Tails' heart to fail.
There was a vending machine not far down the hall. Knuckles popped a few quarters in and waited for the machine to give him the bottle of orange juice. Out of the corner of his eye, Knuckles thought he saw a dark figure slip into another room, but when he turned around to get a better look, nobody was there.
The sound of the plastic bottle landing in the little tray brought Knuckles' attention back to Sonic and Tails. He grabbed the juice bottle and was about to walk back to the room when a black hedgehog suddenly was blocking his path.
"Shadow? What the heck do you want?" Knuckles asked.
"Mephiles is back! He's attacking a jewelry store not far from here. Let's go!" Shadow took off before Knuckles could reply.
Knuckles was confused for a few seconds, and then ran to Tails' room. He burst through the door and said, "Sonic, Mephiles is back! We need you; let's get going!" He dumped the orange juice on the table next to Sonic.
"No. I cannot leave Tails or he'll die. Go alone." Sonic didn't even seem to be affected by the information; right now the only thing on his mind was his best friend.
Knuckles stared at Sonic silently for a minute, and sensing that the news wasn't going to hit home he left to go fight himself.
XXXXXXXXX
The head of the hospital commanded that no citizen should leave the building. The only people permitted out were those going to help the injured at the crime scene. Everyone was crowded around the televisions, watching the whole event unfold live, making it easy for Isis to get out undetected.
Isis had seen enough footage to get an idea of the situation; some crazy hedgehog was trying to steal some gems with a horde of random monsters and some other hedgehogs were fighting back. Isis knew that Sonic was supposed to be there, but because he was so occupied with Tails he wasn't going anywhere.
"Well, I guess I owe you this much, Sonic, since it's my fault Tails is this way." Isis ran along in an alley, making sure no one saw her. She couldn't fight like this – if her picture got on the news, which it likely would, she'd never get close to Tails – so she had to switch things up a little.
While running, Isis commanded her body to change form. She moved to running on all fours, and her arms and legs became covered with black fur. She gained a tail, and her body packed on muscle and grew black fur. Her face twisted and morphed, and instead of a young girl a black panther was moving towards the fight.
Isis leaped onto a dumpster, and then onto the roof of the nearest house. From there she was able to jump from building to building all the way to the store. She stopped on the wedding shop right beside the jewelry store and watched the scene below.
Knuckles was pounding away at what looked like a ten-foot tall, brown and white evil rabbit; if it wasn't doing so much damage to the street Isis would have thought that it was a complete and utter joke. Isis could see a silver hedgehog attacking a dark blue one, but there was no sign of the pink and black hedgehogs she had seen earlier.
The dark blue one was wearing a cape and floating above the store, twisting out of the way of the silver one's punches. He flipped around and snarled, "Hey Silver, wanna play a game?" He moved his hands to his sides and began to charge up some sort of energy ball.
Silver quickly gained his balance and turned to meet the other hedgehog, "You can't win, Mephiles!" The energy ball Mephiles fired was reflected back at him, although Mephiles moved before it could hit him.
The rabbit-monster below slammed its brown-furred hand into the wall, missing Knuckles by a good two meters. "The stupid creature must have horrendous depth perception," Isis thought. Civilians were backing away from the fight and screaming, while the police just stood in shock, unsure what to do. The only people who seemed to be alive were the reporters and camera workers, wanting to capture every moment of this exciting battle; and would it ever sell papers.
The rabbit tried to hit the echidna but missed again, raining bricks and cement supports onto the ground. Over the noise only Isis' enhanced hearing was able to catch Mephiles shout, "Hey Silver! Remember what I did you? You were so tight…such a sexy little thing."
Silver snarled and tried to ram Mephiles, which was exactly what the dark hedgehog wanted. A dark blast hit the silver hedgehog squarely in the chest, knocking the wind out of him.
"Silver!" Isis' attention turned to the ground below, where a purple cat was making her way towards the fight, "Hey Mephiles; leave him alone!" Mephiles barely managed to dodge a stream of fire, and the dark hedgehog left Silver alone in order to face his new opponent.
By now Isis was ready to join the fight, but something bothered her. Mephiles' remark sounded like he had raped Silver or something…but it was a lie. One of Isis' powers was that she could tell when people were lying, and what Mephiles had said was a lie. But Silver believed it – so what was going on?
"Perhaps I made a mistake," Isis mumbled, "Through the noise and in the heat of battle? Yeah, I messed up. I must have…or this strange hedgehog must have some interesting powers."
XXXXXXXXX
Shadow dropped down to his knees in order to avoid the kick, and then quickly snapped a fist up and hit his opponent directly in the stomach. The strange reptilian creature was knocked off balance and tumbled into a display case in a waterfall of shattered glass. Shadow stood up and looked around the room, but all of the enemies seemed to have been defeated.
"This isn't right; why did Mephiles attack this place and not take anything? Just for kicks?" Shadow looked back at the creature; it was about four feet tall and had purplish scaly skin. It looked like a combination between a lion and lizard, and of course was dead now thanks to Shadow. Or maybe it wasn't dead; considering Shadow didn't know what these creatures were, perhaps they had to be killed in a special way.
Shadow looked at the other five he had defeated, all around the same size, crazy colors and crosses of two different animals – a white monkey-sheep, a blue alligator-dog, a red armadillo-hyena, a green weasel-llama and an orange caribou-cougar. None of them had moved since Shadow took them down just a few minutes ago – but why were they here?
"Shadow, this way! I found something!" Shadow carefully walked across the floor, making sure not to have any glass scratch his legs. At the back of the room, Amy was sorting her way through a pile of debris that had fallen down because of Shadow throwing the monkey-sheep cross into the wall. Said creature was lying on top of the pile Amy was searching through, but it didn't seem to be alive.
"Careful, Amy. Who knows what those things can do…" Shadow let his ruby eyes move over to the body, but it remained still.
"And you'll just beat them up again; it's no big deal. But look what I've found…" Amy pushed the last bits of brick aside and pulled out a glowing, white gem.
Shadow's eyes went wide when he saw it, "A Chaos Emerald?"
XXXXXXXXX
Isis' senses went on high alert. Some object of power had come into her psychic vision. She always had a mental barrier surrounding her, warning her when danger was near. But this object…Isis closed her eyes and let her conscious flow into her environment. In a few moments, she interpreted the power source – some sort of white jewel. After a quick examination, Isis pulled back into her body to use her mental powers to analyze the gemstone. In another minute she knew all she needed to know – this bauble was very powerful, there was more than one, and while she couldn't personally draw out the power inside to its full potential, there were others who could – two hedgehogs, the black one and Sonic, seemed the most likely candidates.
"Fascinating," Isis murmured, "Perhaps I shall hunt for one of these jewels myself to see what I could do with them…" A blast from below brought Isis back to the battle. The rabbit had snatched Knuckles up and was crushing him in its iron grip.
Silver and the cat were too busy focusing on Mephiles, and the two hedgehogs inside couldn't see what was happening. Seeing that Knuckles was struggling but couldn't escape, Isis decided it was time for her entrance, so she let out a roar and leaped off the building onto the monster.
XXXXXXXXX
"What's this doing here?" Shadow asked, stepping closer.
"I think that thing had it and dropped it when you threw him," Amy replied, pointing to the monkey-sheep cross.
The creature suddenly sat up and chuckled in a deep, gravely voice, "You got that right, girly."
Amy gasped and began to back away, while Shadow stepped protectively in front of her. "I thought you were dead!" Amy gasped. Shadow nodded, agreeing.
"Hardly, girl," the caribou-cougar cross said, standing up and coming closer. The other strange breeds began to move towards the two hedgehogs, "Just tired, is all."
"And weeeee want that geeeemmmm…" the lizard-lion hissed.
Shadow held up his fists and snapped, "You wish! Amy, run!"
Amy scrambled to her feet and dashed into the storage room and out the back door while Shadow pounded away at the monsters.
XXXXXXXXX
To say Knuckles and the rabbit-monster were surprised was an understatement. To say that either of them expected a black panther to be so skilled in combat was even more off. Isis' claws ripped through flesh, and in seconds Knuckles was free.
The battle-hardened echidna landed on his feet and then dashed up, slamming his spiked fist into the monster's stomach. The rabbit let out a loud moan and fell onto his back, defeated.
Mephiles stared in shock, wondering where the heck this panther came from and why it was fighting against him, and just barely avoided being burnt to a crisp. "One of your friends, Blaze?" he snarled, looking at the purple cat that had just landed on another building.
"Not sure," Blaze panted, "But it's not yours!"
Mephiles snarled and looked at the panther, and suddenly a purple light filled his eyes, bringing a slight pain with it. He was dazed for a moment and then was smacked to the ground by Silver. Mephiles moaned and sat up, and then flew into the air again. He heard voice in his head say, "One hour remaining until termination."
"Oh hell no," Mephiles thought, "There's no possible way that cat could have cursed me!"
Knuckles looked over to the panther that had saved him. The panther regarded him with brilliant lavender eyes, and Knuckles asked, "Um, you're on my side, right?"
The panther let out a chuff and nodded, eyes dancing. Knuckles wasn't quite sure what to make of the cat, seeing that panthers weren't native to this place and this one seemed to understand speech. Knuckles moved closer to the panther so they were only two feet apart and asked, "Are you willing to help me out, then?" The cat nodded again, and Knuckles pointed to the building, "Go inside and help my two friends in there; both hedgehogs. I'm gonna get that guy." Knuckles pointed to Mephiles. The cat roared and dashed inside the all but destroyed building.
XXXXXXXXX
Shadow brought his heel down and hit the weasel-cross on the temple. The thing seemed to have fainted, but Shadow didn't have time to check for he was already fighting the alligator-monster. The thing snapped at him with its long snout with both dog and alligator fangs, and Shadow was trapped, holding the thing at bay but leaving the rest of his body unguarded.
The sudden roar of a cat startled everyone for a moment, but Shadow quickly regained his bearings when he saw the panther swipe at the armadillo, meaning that it probably was on his side. Shadow easily flipped his opponent over his head and kicked it, taking it down. By this time the armadillo was torn to pieces and the panther was after the caribou-cross. Shadow took on the last monster, and once again all of the creatures were defeated.
Shadow went down on one knee, panting heavily. A drop of sweat rolled down his cheek and he hastily wiped it away. The panther walked towards him and rubbed his face, chuffing lightly, like it was asking if he was ok. Shadow looked up into a pair of eyes almost like his own – showing strength, power and anger – just a different color.
"You on my side?" Shadow panted. The cat nodded. "Did you see a pink hedgehog?" The panther tipped its head to the side, seeming confused. "Guess not." Shadow stood up, "I'd better go check on her…" The cat stepped in front of him and shook its head back and forth before pointing to the remains of the front door, "You want me to go help the others? You'll look for Amy?" The panther nodded. Shadow grinned in spite of himself; talking to a cat that understood him seemed plain odd, "Alright. Good luck, cat." The panther winked at the hedgehog before dashing out the back door, and Shadow stared for a moment in confusion; even though the cat had stepped on sharp glass, it didn't cut its paws.
XXXXXXXXX
Amy was exhausted. She had sprinted a good two miles or so without stopping, but now her adrenaline was basically gone. The pink hedgehog leaned against a wall, heaving. She was out of the busier parts of the city and now was alone behind a factory. In the daylight, it was actually an alright place – there was even a park behind a chain link fence across from her, meaning there were plenty of ways for her to escape too, if needed.
"I need to get back to the hospital," Amy panted, "Sonic can take care of this Emerald." She looked down at her hand, gripping the glowing white gem, "I wonder how it got in that store…"
"Master's plan! Master plan!" Amy gasped and twirled around, and saw three strange black birds sitting on top of the building, looking down at her. All three looked like giant crows, but with huge blue feathers poking out of the tops of their heads, and strange blue eyes that seemed to be twirling around and out of focus.
"What plan?" Amy asked, slowly getting ready to run.
The bird on the left said in a robotic voice, "Plan for master."
The middle one squawked in the same tone, "The master plan."
The right one said, "Master's plan for ruuuuullllliiiiinnnngggg," drawing out the last word so it sounded like a bell ringing. He peered down at Amy, scrutinizing her.
"Go away, you nasty birds! Shoo!" Amy picked up a rock and heaved it at one of the crows, hitting it squarely in the eye.
The middle bird squawked and fell onto the roof, but in a second sat up and moaned, "Join uuuussssss…" It spread its wings and flew down at Amy.
Amy gasped and ducked, the bird zooming right over her head. It immediately turned around for another strike, and Amy took off down the alley and back onto the streets. The crows followed, squawking.
But she was too tired to continue running for long. After only three blocks she was exhausted, and all three birds were coming for her. "I…I can't…fight…them…" Amy panted, "I'm…too…tired." She slumped against a light post, "What…am I…gonna…do…" The birds were coming for her, so close…Amy shut her eyes, but then opened them again when he heard the birds screech and a cat roar. Amy gasped as a black panther knocked her pursuers out of the sky, easily leaping twelve feet into the air to bring them down. It only took a few minutes for all of the birds to be defeated.
The panther nimbly landed on all fours and strutted towards Amy, tail swishing back and forth and lips pulled up in a cat version of a smile. The birds twitched behind the cat, but didn't stand up.
"You…you saved me. Thank you." Amy let herself sit on the ground now that the danger had passed, and the cat lay down beside her.
After a few minutes when she got her breath back, Amy turned to the panther, "I hate to ask, but could you possibly protect me until I get back to City Hospital? I can't let this get stolen." Amy showed the panther the Chaos Emerald, and the panther's eyes grew brighter. It nodded enthusiastically, then got up and walked in front of Amy before crouching down and looking at her.
"Do you want me to ride you?" Amy asked. The cat nodded again, so Amy slowly moved forward and pulled herself onto the sleek, muscled back. As soon as she was on the great cat leapt forward and began to run.
XXXXXXXXX
Mephiles suddenly stopped fighting the two hedgehogs, Knuckles and Blaze. His eyes glazed over with dark flames, and then he snapped his fingers and disappeared. Knuckles stopped his attack and landed on the roof of the destroyed building, skidding to a stop, "Hey! Where'd he go?"
"Not sure," Silver said, looking around, "But he'll be back."
"He always comes back," Blaze replied, "But he's never disappeared just like that before. I wonder what made him leave."
XXXXXXXXX
Mephiles cursed the black panther as he walked throughout his newly dug base. That cat was no simple animal; it had placed a special curse on him – either he had to leave the area under a certain time limit or die. He knew that dying wouldn't help accomplish his goals, so he teleported back to his base, downright furious at his new enemy.
"How did that cat know what to do? I have never seen somebody else with that kind of power! I couldn't dispel the curse…" Mephiles pushed aside some papers on a huge table in his lab and began pawing through a pile of books, "What kind of powers does this cat have?"
It didn't take long for Mephiles to find out. He had carefully researched each of his opponent's powers and their weaknesses, and the cat had used an ability that Silver could learn – if he wasn't focused on the light side of his powers instead of dark.
"So, this panther uses psychic abilities, eh? And combines dark magic with it to make curses…" Mephiles scoured the pages, rooting for more information, "A strange combination; ghosts usually scare these types, but otherwise they have few weaknesses. Fine, so the cat's a psychic, and a strong one. But apparently most of their moves don't work on ghosts…now, where can I get a ghost?" Mephiles turned the page to a picture of an old lighthouse, "Jackpot."
XXXXXXXXX
Amy held onto the cat's muscled neck as the panther ran through the city on the way to the hospital. While the panther was moving nowhere near Sonic's speed, Amy didn't doubt that they were moving faster than normal. In just a few minutes, they were outside the hospital, yet the cat didn't show the slightest sign of exhaustion.
The pink hedgehog waited until the panther laid on the ground before getting off, "Thanks for the lift." Then she smiled, "Hey, why don't you come see my friends? I bet Sonic and Tails would like to meet you!"
"Tails?" Isis thought, "Oh, yes please!" She wagged her tail and nodded, smiling as well.
Amy giggled, "Great! They let therapy pets in here, although I'm not sure about therapy panthers…but you'll behave, won't you?" Isis nodded and walked towards the front entrance, Amy following.
XXXXXXXXX
Sonic could feel sleep beckoning him, an ache building up behind his eyes – but he refused to give in. He needed to stay awake for the next seventy-seven hours or so if Tails was going to be alright.
The door creaked open, and Sonic looked over his shoulder. To his surprise, Amy came in, along with a black panther, "What the…?"
"Sonic, this panther helped me get away from Mephiles' minions. I thought you'd like to meet her." Amy patted the cat on the head, and Isis walked forward, holding a Chaos Emerald in her mouth.
Sonic's eyes went wide, "Where'd you get that?"
"Mephiles knew it was in the jewelry store…he must be looking for them," Amy replied as Isis dropped the Emerald into Sonic's lap. She then rubbed the blue hedgehog's side and let out a small purr. Sonic grinned and rubbed Isis' head and her purring grew louder.
"I read that therapy animals often help patients who've gone into comas…" Amy whispered after a few minutes, "Perhaps this panther can help?"
Sonic looked at Amy, "They let this cat in here?"
"Well, nobody seemed to notice, or if they did, they didn't care. Nobody spoke to me." Amy shrugged, "But she's a nice cat. She won't hurt us."
"How do you know it's a girl?"
Amy giggled, "The eyes, I guess…I didn't think a boy would have lavender-colored eyes, and when I asked if she was a girl she nodded."
"Huh…" Sonic looked at Isis again, his sad green eyes meeting her calm purple ones, "Could you possibly help my friend?" Sonic whispered.
Isis nodded, leaped onto the bed beside Tails, lay down and closed her eyes while letting her mind attach itself to Tails'…
XXXXXXXXX
Tails was trapped in this darkness. He was nowhere, but somewhere too. All around him was black, except for the circle of light he was sitting in, coming from no source. He shuddered and curled into a ball. Where was he? What was going on?
"Help me, somebody…" Tails whispered. There was no point in shouting; nobody could save him from the blackness that surrounded him. He had been calling for hours, and no one replied. What was going to happen to him?
Suddenly, a purple eye appeared about a hundred feet away from him, looking exactly like the picture on the wheel. Tails uncurled and leaned slightly forward, wishing to see who was there. The eye slowly grew larger, and after an agonizing five minutes Isis appeared, looking exactly like Tails remembered, and holding up a purple crystal eye making the light.
Tails gasped, "Isis? What are you…?"
"I'm sorry, Tails…I should have been more prepared. You thought I left you, didn't you?" Tails nodded, and Isis sighed, "I'm sorry, but just to let you know there are three things I never break: hearts, friendships and promises, and I do believe I promised you super powers, right?"
"Yeah…" Tails nodded, standing up, "So what's going on?"
"You're in a coma, basically. When someone gets powers in this way, their body has to shut down in order to deal with these new abilities. Originally the idea was to give you a potion so that you'd stay awake, alive and feel no pain until your body adjusted – although you'd be quite weak for some time; it's easier on everyone else. When Sonic took you here, I had quite a bit of trouble getting into the hospital undetected to give you your cure…"
"Can I die from this?"
"Not unless you're pure evil; then the power will kill you to prevent someone from abusing it. But you're not evil so it's all good." Isis reached into her cloak and pulled out a bottle, "Because our minds our attached, I don't need to make a real potion anymore – my mind creates it, transfers it and will produce the same results." She held out the purple flask to Tails, "Drink it and you'll wake up in a few hours. You'll be tired and weak, but you won't feel any pain, nor will your friends worry anymore. Your powers will come soon enough, and if you'd like I'll teach you the basics. But until then I've gotten run – the cops are after me."
"For the wheel, right?" Tails asked, and Isis nodded. "Why are you doing it?"
Isis waved her hand, "Long story, doesn't need to be told. You want the cure or not?"
Tails nodded, and Isis handed him the bottle. The fox uncorked it. The sweet scent of flowers filled the air, and Tails took a deep breath and gulped the contents of the bottle down. All of a sudden the darkness disappeared, and the two were standing in a huge field of flowers. A small brook bubbled not far from them, and the trees were heavy with ripe fruit. Bubbles floated everywhere in rainbow colors, and birds sang and chattered in the trees.
Tails seemed confused, and Isis chuckled, "The image you'll see for the next little while can be anything, but I thought you'd like it to be something relaxing. Don't worry; you'll wake up soon." Isis bowed, "I'll be seeing you." With that, Isis turned and started to walk away.
"Isis, wait!" Tails called, running after her. But then he felt strange, like something disappear, and he stopped running. He knew that she had broken the connection and was gone.
XXXXXXXXX
Sonic and Amy both smiled as Tails' heartbeat went right back to normal and his breathing was no longer labored. Sonic was crossing his fingers that his best friend would wake up, but the fox stayed silent.
Isis opened her eyes, yawned, and then got off the bed. She padded out the door and left without looking back.
Amy was about to call for the panther, but Sonic stopped her, "Let the panther go; she's done her job." Sonic smiled and gripped Tails' hand, "Tails will be ok soon, but I can't leave just yet."
Amy shook her head; Sonic was going on about his theory again. But usually his instincts were right, so there was no reason to currently doubt him, "Will you be alright?"
Sonic smiled, "Of course!"
"Perhaps you should keep this," Amy said, handing Sonic the Chaos Emerald, "So Mephiles can't get it."
"Alright," Sonic replied, tucking the gem into his quills, "I'll take good care of it." Amy smiled and left the room, wondering where the panther had disappeared too.
Sonic turned back to Tails, and then every event caught up with him. He started to shake, and had to hold the bedrail to keep himself from crushing Tails' hand, "Oh gods…Mephiles is back! Oh gods…" he put his head down, "What's going to happen to me now that he's back?" He was gripping the bedrail so hard his hands were starting to hurt. Sonic slowly forced himself to remove his fingers, one by one, but immediately he curled into a ball on his chair, shaking. Even after all this time, knowing that Mephiles was so close made him panic…and once Mephiles came to him in person…
"No! This won't do!" Sonic looked at Tails, relaxing his body so he was sitting normally again, "I bet he had something to do with this; he hurt Tails and attacked my friends…I can't let him win! I won't! I'll beat him!" Sonic growled, "I don't care what it takes! I'll do anything to get rid of him once and for all!"
Sonic grabbed Tails hand and whispered, "You helped me so much, Tails, but I've got to stand alone again on this. I vow that I'm going to do whatever it takes to beat Mephiles, and no threat, move or power is going to stop me!"