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III: Shadow Demons

Sonic gasped at the strange and horrifying creatures before him. He had faced many enemies over the years, but nothing that looked like this. Although, they appeared mainly human in shape, they looked like they had just crawled out of the deep pits of hell.

The three that had emerged from the forest were all a deep black colour and appeared slightly blurred around the edges as if they were a hologram. They had no faces, only cold emotionless white eyes in the middle of what looked like a head and the repulsive smell of death seemed to follow them. Sonic almost gagged at the smell and Sky cringed back in fear.

"The bad guys I presume." Sonic stated as he crouched into a defensive position, ready to fight them.

The creatures didn't say anything as the one in the middle slowly pointed towards Sky. Sky glared back, but didn't say anything.

The other shadow demons seemed to understand the signal and began to slowly drift towards the two blue hedgehogs. The grass underneath them turned brown with every slow step.

"Oh no you don't." Sonic snarled as he spin dashed towards them.

"Sonic no!" Sky yelled as Sonic's attack failed as he fell right through the creatures as if they didn't exist at all.

Sonic gasped as he dashed through their cold bodies as his attack had no effect on them. He managed to turn around and saw them heading relentlessly towards Sky who held her ground. Sonic had to admit that he was impressed with this kid's guts.

The shadow demon in the middle stopped in front of her and held out a deformed hand towards her. Sky looked at it in confusion as the shadow demon continued to beckon the girl to come with him.

"What do they want with you?" Sonic demanded as he dashed in front of Sky to block her from their view.

This angered the creatures as they let out an ear splitting screech and were about to swipe at Sonic before Sky pulled out the green chaos emerald. The creatures froze and stared at it with their white eyes for a few seconds before they began shrieking and spluttering again while Sky and Sonic watched in confusion. They burst into flames and then within seconds they had disappeared.

"Whoa." Sonic breathed. "Great idea Sky."

"What do you mean?" Sky asked. "I just pulled it out so I could give it to you, I didn't know that would happen."

"So, I guess those creatures can't go near a chaos emerald." Sonic noted as he stared at where the creatures had disappeared in wonder.

"Seems that way." Sky agreed. "Maybe that's why Shadow gave it to me. That hedgehog is always one step ahead. He gave it to me to protect me." She added sounding slightly emotional.

"Shadow a friend of yours?" Sonic asked in astonishment. Shadow wasn't friends with anybody.

"Not really." Sky said shaking her head. "I rarely see him, but he's always looked out for me and my brothers and sister."

Sonic chuckled. "He always had a soft spot for kids."

Sky snorted. "Yeah, well, I'm not your average kid."

"Tell me about it. You were so brave against the creatures."

Sky smiled at the compliment and handed the chaos emerald to Sonic. "You know what to do with it more than I do."

"Thanks." Sonic said as he put it away. "So where does Tails live now?"

"He lives a few miles outside of Westopolis." Sky explained. "Unless he's had those creatures after him and he had to run away."

"Westopolis it is then." Sonic said as he scooped the young girl into his arms again and began running back through the fields.

"So, do you know all my friends then?" Sonic asked trying to make conversation as the world around them blurred past.

"I think so." Sky answered.

"Are you friends with my future self?" Sonic was desperate to know as much about his future as possible. He was so interested in finding out everything he was destined to get up to.

"I guess you could say that yeah." Sky replied. "Though, I haven't seen you around in a while. You've been really busy with this whole shadow demon thing."

"Do I get up to anything good? Anymore cool adventures." Sonic asked excitedly.

Sky's face suddenly turned very dark and this made Sonic falter in his running slightly.

"Hey, what's with the face?" Sonic asked worriedly. "What happens to me?"

"It's not nothing really and not my place to say. You could always ask your future self if we find you." Sky chose her answer carefully. "I don't want to reveal too much, I don't want to create anymore paradoxes than I have to." She gulped.

"I've met a past version of myself before. Time travel isn't new to me." Sonic reassured her.

"So I've heard." Sky said. "It was so weird seeing the past versions of everyone at that party."

Sonic chuckled. "I hope we all don't look too old in this time zone. Hey, I don't have any wrinkles do I?" Sonic asked shuddering and Sky giggled.

"No." She replied. "I told you, we aren't that far into the future."

"How do you think Tails will react to seeing me?" Sonic asked.

Sky shrugged as best she could in Sonic's arms. "Dunno. I imagine he won't be happy with me, go on about how dangerous and reckless it was and how my dad will kill me when he finds out what I've been doing."

Sonic laughed. "Your dad sounds pretty over protective. A little danger is what makes life fun and exciting. Besides if I was him, I think I'd be grateful for the help."

Sky looked at him weirdly before looking on ahead where tall buildings were beginning to appear over the horizon. The sun was high in the sky as midday struck and luckily there wasn't a shadow demon in sight.

"So where about does Tails live again?" Sonic asked as he ran around the outskirts of the city. Sky pointed in the direction he needed to go and Sonic began to speed up.

They then arrived in a small little village with beautiful cottages. The road was made of cobbled stone and every house had all sorts of beautiful flowers and trees growing outside. A few Mobians were out in the gardens and on the streets doing various activities and as Sonic placed Sky down on the ground, she froze when she saw all the people outside.

"Maybe this wasn't such a good idea." She gulped before looking down defeated.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked as he took a step forward to enter the village. He gasped as Sky yanked him back and pulled him round to hide behind a tree with a surprising amount of strength.

"We can't have anyone recognising you." Sky hissed as she peered around the tree trunk to check if they had been spotted.

"Huh? Why would that be such a bad thing?" Sonic demanded, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Because they'll be asking all sorts of questions and I want to keep my plan on a need to know bases. Some people here can be gossipers and I don't want all those demons finding out. They find the future you enough as a threat as it is and we need the element of surprise. I'm just glad my family isn't staying here at the moment." Sky said.

"This is where you live? It's beautiful." Sonic commented.

"Thanks." Sky said. "That house on the end is mine, but we had to leave because the shadow demons were after us."

"Why you?" Sonic asked.

Sky sighed. "I don't know. Probably to use us against my dad or something."

Sonic whistled lowly at this information. These shadow demons didn't seem to have any principals. He hoped that he could help his future self defeat the shadow people so Sky and her family wouldn't have to hide anymore.

Sonic peered his head around the tree and decided the best way to get past them was to maybe run with Sky to the back door of Tails' house. Hopefully when going really fast, no one would spot them.

"I've got a plan." Sonic said turning around to speak to Sky, but stopped when he realised she was gone. He looked around for her and was beginning to think she might have been kidnapped when he heard her voice calling for him a few feet away outside one of the cottages.

"Over here." She hissed at him while looking around to see if anyone had noticed her.

Sonic quickly dashed over there and looked at her in confusion.

"How the hell did you get over here so fast and without being seen?" He asked.

"I ran when no one was looking." She answered flatly.

Sonic was about to question her again before she grabbed hold of his arm and yanked him towards a back door with honeysuckle wrapped around the doorframe.

"I know Tails is your best friend and everything, but it's important that I do the talking." Sky explaining seriously while giving Sonic a firm glare.

"I don't understand why, but ok." He answered before Sky timidly knocked on the door.

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