Author's Note: Finally! After what, five chapters? Back to Sonic's POV!
Well, another SUPER long chapter, but what do you expect from the blue hedgehog himself? XD enjoy!
Chapter 9- Realisation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Sonic the Hedgehog
I woke up with a massive migraine. It wasn't just my head that hurt though, most of my body ached. Especially my stomach though, I felt like I had been hit by a car.
My second thought was that I was on the ground. Real ground, as in not the metal floor of our spaceship. I didn't move or open my eyes, because doing so would probably alert any predators that were around, and I was sure that I could hear footsteps behind me, which was not a good sign. It was better not to do anything when you didn't know where you were or why you were there.
I tried to remember how I got here, because I don't remember going back to Mobius.
Did I fall from space? I asked myself. I remember fighting the Metarex on top of our ship, then I got... A headache? And... Nothing. It's all a blank.
I tried to remember more about what had happened while I was fighting the Metarex, maybe then I would know what happened. Me and Knuckles and Amy were fighting them by the control room, and... Cosmo. Cosmo came out and called to Knuckles, and she brought the chaos emeralds to me. And... I racked my brain trying to remember what came next. Um...
Suddenly, a memory flashed through my mind.
The emeralds surrounded me, I could feel their warmth. I stopped fighting to accept their power, I looked back to my friends. But a Metarex soldier had gotten past me! It shot at Amy! It... It hit her.
I bolted upright and opened my eyes. "Amy!" I yelled. I didn't care where I was, or what had happened anymore. Was Amy okay?
And there she was, standing right in front of me. She looked fine, if not a bit tired. She also looked a bit shocked at the fact that I had just suddenly sat up and yelled her name. I didn't care that I had just totally embarrassed myself in front of her, she was okay.
"You're okay!" I shouted happily, and jumped up to hug her. I was suddenly full of energy that had just not been there five seconds ago. She was surprised for a second, then accepted my embrace and hugged me back.
"Umm, Sonic, you know I love hugs and all, but what are you talking about?" She sounded pretty confused.
I pulled away from her. "You were hit by a Metarex, right?" I asked.
She looked confused for a second, then she remembered what I was talking about. Then she looked worried and searched my face. "Sonic, that was almost a day ago... Don't you remember what happened?"
"Wh-what? A day?" I staggered backwards. Have I been out for a day? What's she talking about? What happened?
That's when I noticed that Tails, Knuckles and Chris were behind her, watching me with a mixture of confusion and worry.
I decided to answer her question. "No, I don't remember what happened. All I can remember is that we were fighting those Metarex, and then Cosmo came out with the emeralds, and you were hit... And then nothing. I woke up on the ground here wondering how I got back to the planet, and when I tried to remember what happened, all I could remember was that you were hurt." I decided to leave out the part about everything hurting, because then she'd just worry.
"That's strange, I don't know why you don't remember anything, but guys, I think I figured out why he's back to normal." Tails informed us all.
"Wait, what do you mean, 'back to normal'?" I asked. Now I was really worried, what had happened?
"Well, umm..." Tails looked nervous. "We'll explain later Sonic. But I just remembered, Sonic, you know how when Gaia was released and you would turn into a Werehog every night, but then go back to normal during the day?" He asked me.
"Ummm, yeah, why?" I answered, wondering where this was going.
"Oh, I get it now! The sun came up, that's why he went back to normal!" Amy said, then a sudden realisation hit her. "But that means its not over..." She looked afraid.
"What isn't over?" I asked, frustrated that they wouldn't tell me anything.
Tails and Chris looked at each other.
"We'll tell you when we get back to the typhoon, okay?" Tails reassured me.
"Whatever, fine. Lets hurry then." I answered.
"Sure thing, Sonic. But I can only get four seats in the X-tornado..." Tails pondered.
"That's fine, I'll just ride on the wing like I usually do." I responded, impatient to hear what happened.
"Okay, in that case, we should get going." Tails said, and walked towards the airplane. Everybody hopped in, and I jumped onto the wing.
"Start her up Tails!" I shouted, happy to just get moving so that I could hopefully clear my head a little.
The fox started the engine, and we took off. I loved the feel of the wind in my quills, and I leaned into it and closed my eyes. I had to stop leaning forward pretty soon, and just hold on tight to the plane, because we started to go almost straight up, and I couldn't keep my balance while leaning into the wind.
It was a pretty quick flight, and we soon made it up to the typhoon. We landed in the cargo bay where Cosmo, Cream, and Cheese were waiting for us. As I hopped off of the wing, Cream came running to me.
"Mister Sonic! You're back!" She exclaimed as she hugged me.
I hugged her back. "Yeah, I'm here, how are you?" I asked.
She didn't let go of me, she hugged me tighter, like she usually does when she needs comfort. "Oh, mister Sonic, I was so scared! There were two of you, and then mister Shadow got hurt, and you fell, and then everybody left except Cheese and Cosmo. But now you're back! So everything is gonna be okay, right?" She asked.
I was seriously confused now. Two of me? Shadow got hurt? It could wait until later though. Right now I needed to let Cream know that everything was gonna work out alright.
"Of course everything is gonna be okay, you're forgetting something very important." I told her, then kneeled down and put my hands on her shoulders. "What's my name?" I asked her.
She looked confused, but answered my question. "Ummm, you're Sonic the hedgehog?"
"That's right." I said. "Everything is going to be okay as long as I'm around. Don't you worry, Cream. I promised your mom that I'd keep you safe, and I have every intention of fulfilling that promise." I reassured her.
She smiled really big. "Okay Mister Sonic! I trust you!" She told me, and hugged me again.
Amy tapped me on the shoulder. "Come on Sonic, we're going to the control room." She told me.
"Okay." I said, and then stood up. I held my hand out for Cream to hold it and she took it without pause. "C'mon Cream, I have a lot of catching up to do." I told her and she giggled at my pun. We started to walk towards the control centre of the Blue Typhoon.
Halfway there, we passed by the clinic, and the lights were on. I stopped in front of the door.
"Hey Cream, when you said that Shadow was hurt, did you bring him here?" I asked.
"Yeah, he was hurt pretty bad, and we were the only ones with a hospital. Hey look, he's awake!" She let go of my hand and pushed open the door.
Shadow was sitting on the bed with his legs dangling off the side. He was facing Rouge, who was standing next to the bed. Shadow had white bandages wrapped around his head, chest, and right leg. His forehead looked pretty bad as well, like it was kinda flat. Rouge was watching him with a sort of protective expression, which I found kinda weird.
Shadow saw me in the doorway and half-smiled. I did a double take. Shadow? Smiling?
"Hey, actually, I was just about to go looking for you. How are you doing?" Shadow asked me, which I also found odd for him, usually he was the kind of person who doesn't care about anybody, and keeps to himself.
"Umm, I'm fine, how are you?" I responded, staring at his forehead.
"A little tired, and kinda beat up, thanks to you." He said this off-handedly, like his injuries were nothing to worry about. That's not what got me though.
"Wait, I did this to you?" I asked.
"Don't you remember?" He responded.
"No, I don't remember anything after Cosmo gave me the Chaos emeralds. It's all just a big blank, its really frustrating, and no one will tell me what happened! And now I find out that I did... This." I gestured to him. "To you."
"Yeah, I know the feeling. But don't worry, I'm pretty sure your friends will tell you what happened. Just be patient." He responded wisely.
I remembered that he has amnesia and immediately felt bad about complaining that I couldn't remember to him. The difference was that I had friends who had promised to explain everything to me. He didn't. No one could tell him what his life had been like. I tried to imagine what it would be like to have my whole life like this past day. It was too hard. It must really suck to be Shadow.
"Dude, sor-" I started to say.
"Don't be." He interrupted. "I've actually started to remember a lot since you gave me that blow to the head. I've remembered more about my life in the past day than I have in the entire time since I've woken up."
That must be why he's so much more easy-going, he's remembering stuff about his past. "That's great! Nice to know something good has come out of all this. I should go, I'm gonna try to get my memories back now." I grinned, relieved that he wasn't mad at me for busting his head.
"Go on, I wish you luck." He responded sincerely.
"Thanks, I'll see you later." I told him, and started to walk out the door.
"Hey, wait. I just decided that I want to come too." He told me. "I could do with a walk."
"Shadow..." Rouge warned.
"She's right mister Shadow," Cream said, "you're in no condition-"
Shadow cut her off. "Last I checked, it was my skull that was broken, not my legs." He stated.
"But your foot..." She tried again.
"Has been put back in place, now if there are any more objections, keep them to yourselves. I'm going." He finished her sentence and jumped down off the bed, he winced a little, but recomposed himself quickly.
I smiled and shook my head, he was just as stubborn as always. In that way, he was a lot like me, we both never gave up, and never backed down. He was having a little trouble walking on his right foot, so I started to go over to help him, but Rouge beat me to it. He brushed her off though, and went over to his shoes to quickly slip them on. I guessed his foot must have just been a bit stiff, because he quickly lost his limp, and was walking normally by the time he made it to the door.
Rouge was still behind him shaking her head incredulously at his stubbornness. He looked back at her and then turned to me with a mischievous grin.
"Race you to the control room." He whispered so she couldn't hear.
"You sure that's a good idea?" I asked just as quietly.
"C'mon, you too?" He pouted.
I looked at him, if he was anything like me, he probably just wanted to prove to himself that he could do what he wanted. "Fine, you're on." I accepted his challenge.
"Yeah!" He grinned, and began to run. "I'll be waiting!" He shouted back to me.
"Hey! No fair!" I yelled back, and took off after him to catch up.
"SHADOW!" Rouge thundered behind us. Shadow started laughing.
He was pretty fast, but I managed to start gaining on him. Halfway down the corridor I had nearly caught up with him. By the time we got to the control room, we were neck-and-neck. I managed to tie with him at the door.
Even though it hadn't been very far, we were both pretty tired out. Me because of my aching abdomen, and Shadow from his multiple injuries. Shadow offered his hand to me like he wanted a handshake.
"Looks like its a draw, good running." He acknowledged.
I took his hand and shook it. "The same to you." I told him.
Just then Rouge came flying in with Amy and the rest of our friends running behind her. Both of them looked pretty upset with us.
"Shadow..." Rouge growled at the same time as Amy said
"Sonic..." She snarled. Both of us quickly put our hands behind our backs and attempted to look innocent.
"I can't believe you would take off like that with your injuries!" Rouge lectured.
"I can't believe that you would encourage him, Sonic! I'm disappointed in you." Amy scolded.
"Why, Shadow, why do you do this to me? You nearly gave me a heart attack!" Rouge asked like she had all but given up on making sense of Shadow.
"Sonic, are you trying to get Shadow injured? What is going through your head?" Amy accused me.
We took it like men. Meaning we gave our respective girl the most cute apologetic look we could manage until they both rolled their eyes and forgave us. Unfortunately Rouge and Amy were harder to crack than we thought, and weren't even fazed. They were still lecturing us when Shadow stepped over to Rouge.
"I'm sorry I scared you." He apologised, putting a hand on her shoulder. She pretty much melted right there.
"I'm just glad you're okay." She rolled her eyes and hugged him. He winced from his chest, but awkwardly hugged her back, knowing it was the only way she'd let him off the hook. I figured if it worked for Shadow, it would probably work for me.
I put my arm around Amy. "I'm sorry too Ames." I said, as sincerely as possible.
"Oh no you don't, that may work for Rouge, but you're still in trouble with me. And don't call me Ames." She said, shrugging my arm off.
"But Amy, you know I didn't mean to hurt anybody, and look, Shadow's fine." I said, trying to sound genuinely hurt and giving her my best puppy-dog face. That's all it took.
"Oh fine, I forgive you." She said, and hugged me too.
Shadow winked at me from behind Rouge. "Well, I wouldn't say that I'm fine, but you didn't hurt me any more..." Shadow teased.
"Oh please, you're the one who wanted to race. Don't even give me that." I taunted back.
Both girls let go and looked at each other. "Boys..." They said at the same time and rolled their eyes. When they turned their backs, me and Shadow bro-fisted. Knuckles saw this and snickered.
"Hey, you weren't going as fast as usual." Shadow stated. "I have an excuse for going slow, what's yours? And don't say you were going easy on me, because I know you weren't." He demanded.
I shifted uncomfortably. "Well, I'm not sure why, but since I woke up, my chest has been hurting a lot. It feels like I've been hit by a truck." I told him, and Knuckles overheard me.
He put his hand behind his head to scratch his neck guiltily. "Sorry, that's probably my fault. I kinda socked you in the gut when you attacked us." He told me.
"Wait, what?" Both me and Shadow asked at once. I looked over at Shadow confusedly.
"Why are you confused?" I asked him.
"They told me that you'd just passed out after we got you in Eggman's trap. As far as I knew, you had just been out cold for the past few hours, why would you have attacked them? And why would Knuckles have hit you?" He told me.
"That can't be right, when I woke up, I was back on Mobius. And as far as I could tell, I hadn't even been out very long..." I trailed off, and we both looked to the group of people watching our conversation. Rouge was attempting to hide behind Amy.
Now it was Shadow's turn to be upset with Rouge.
"Rouge, explain." He demanded.
She stepped out from behind Amy. "Well, Shadow, I didn't want to stress you out anymore than you were, so... I kinda lied to you. But don't get angry! The truth is, I wasn't exactly sure what had happened to Sonic myself, so I just didn't know how to explain it to you. And in your condition-" she began to say, but was cut off.
Until that point, Shadow had been trying to keep his cool. But hearing her judge his condition again just crossed a line for him.
"How many times do I need to tell you people!?" He shouted, obviously angry. "I'm tougher than you all seem to think! I've survived through more than this! I'm not called the Ultimate Life-form for no reason! Quit thinking you know what's best for me! I can take care of myself!" He finished indignantly, then crossed his arms and turned his back on the rest of us.
I didn't know how to react to this. On one hand, I knew exactly how Shadow felt, people were always underestimating me, and trying to do 'what they thought was best', which really irritated me most of the time and usually ended up getting in my way. However, I also thought Shadow had overreacted a bit, but that just might be because I was so used to him generally not saying anything.
Everyone else in the room was dead silent, looking at either Rouge or Shadow. Rouge looked like she had been slapped in the face, and she was looking at Shadow's back guiltily. I decided to take Shadow's side on this. He's always so alone in everything, he really needed someone on his side. I walked over and put a hand on his shoulder. He involuntarily tensed at my touch.
"I know exactly how you feel. Having people underestimate you stinks." I told him, letting him know that I had his back. His shoulder relaxed a little.
"Nice to know at least one person gets it." He said gratefully, and turned around to face the rest of us.
There was a kind of awkward silence while Shadow glared at Rouge, and she looked at the ground in shame. I decided to break it.
I clapped my hands together to get everybody's attention. "Well now, if we're all done lying, I'd like to know exactly what happened." I stated loudly.
"Sonic's right." Tails agreed. "We should get the whole story laid out so that there's no confusion anymore. But where do we start?" He asked.
"Start with what happened after Cosmo tossed me the emeralds and Amy was hit, that's where my memory blank starts." I decided, and Tails nodded.
"Okay Sonic, I think Knuckles should tell that part, he was right next to you. Just let me connect with Eggman again, he probably has some video of it as well." Tails told me cautiously as he walked over to his computer.
"What?!" I yelled in surprise. "Since when do we work with Eggman?!"
The kitsune looked ashamed for a moment, then shook himself and looked at me defiantly. "Sonic, I know you don't like Eggman much, but we needed his help when you were out of control. It's only because of him that you're here and back to normal right now." He told me, then stared me down like he expected me to argue with him.
I was taken aback, usually Tails was so quiet and agreeable, I guess a lot had changed in the past day. "Saying that I don't like Eggman much is an understatement." I told him, making Knuckles snicker again. "But, if you trust him, then I'll just deal with it. I believe in your judgement, Tails." I let him know, swallowing my pride.
Tails looked really surprised, he must have been expecting me to put up a fight about having to work with the doctor. He then realised that I had just complimented his judgement, and he perked up, happy that I trusted him.
"Ummm, okay. I mean, good. Eggman's been a big help." He said, kind of confused, but pleased at the same time. He walked over to the control board almost like he half-expected me to stop him.
I realised that pretty much everybody was staring at me.
"What?" I asked exasperatedly.
"Sonic, you hate Eggman, and your just gonna work with him now?" Knuckles inquired.
"Hey, if Tails trusts him, then I trust him." I stated stubbornly, daring any of them to contradict me. Nobody did.
Tails typed something into his keyboard, and soon Eggman's face filled the screen.
"Hello again, Tails." The doctor greeted my friend, then he saw me. "My my my, hello Sonic! I see you're back to normal. It looks like you were right, Tails." He congratulated the fox.
"Eggman," I acknowledged the doctor with a nod.
"And Shadow! You look much better than when I last saw you. How are you feeling?" He asked the ebony hedgehog to my right.
"Just fine." Shadow responded curtly, still upset about Rouge's lie.
"That's wonderful! Now Tails, I see that you've got Sonic back, and he's not destroying anything anymore, so what do you want me for?" He asked.
"Well, ummm, you see..." Tails looked to me like he didn't know what to say.
I stepped forward to explain for him. "I seem to have amnesia as to what exactly happened this past day. Tails wanted to ask you to help me remember what happened. He was wondering if you had any video footage or anything." I informed the doctor.
"You don't remember any of it?" The doctor exclaimed, obviously surprised.
"Isn't that what I just told you?" I said aggressively, then remembered that I was supposed to be working with him. "I mean, no, I don't remember anything after Cosmo tossed the emeralds to me." I clarified as civilly as I could.
Eggman looked a bit amused. "Of course I have footage, do you think I would have ambushed you without video taping every second of it?" He asked. "If you'd like, I would be more than willing to just let you watch all the tapes. And I'm sure the news reports would be helpful as well." He said, obviously enjoying this, though I wasn't sure why.
"That way, you can see it for yourself, instead of having us explain everything to you." Chris mused out loud.
"Yeah, that would be great." I told him, forcing myself to smile.
Tails cleared his throat. "Maybe you shouldn't watch those tapes alone... I'll watch them with you, if that's okay." He told me. I was kind of worried about exactly what I would see, so I agreed by nodding my head.
"I'm coming too." Shadow said. It wasn't a request. "I want to see what really happened after he got caught." He finished, glaring pointedly at Rouge, who stared at her feet.
"Fine." I agreed. "Where can we watch them?" I asked, hoping that I didn't have to go to Eggman's ship.
"All the files are on my ship, so if you want to see them, you will have to come here." He informed us, and my heart sunk. I hated anything to do with that man, and now I had to go on his ship? And watch his computers? Oh well, at least I had Tails with me. And Shadow, I guess.
"Okay then, lets go guys." I said rather flatly. Tails looked at me sympathetically, he probably knew what I was thinking about.
Shadow led the way to the other ship. Rouge tried to go with him, but whenever she got close he would either speed up, or drop back so she couldn't walk next to him. Eventually she gave up and just went back to the rest of the group. We got to the cargo bay, where Eggman had already lined up his ship with ours so the three of us could board.
We were greeted by those three robots, Bocoe, Decoe, and... Bokkun, I think. They seemed pretty excited to take us to the room that the doctor had set up for us to watch the tapes in.
There was a lot of walking through confusing metal corridors, and then we finally made it to the room. Eggman was waiting for us there in his weird hover-chair thing.
The room was pretty simple. It was like a living room made of metal. The only non-metal thing in the room was the blue couch in the middle. There was a metal coffee table sort of thing next to the couch with some metal bowls full of food on them. I guess Eggman was hungry. Or maybe he was thinking we would be hungry?
The lights were dim, but everything kind of glared from them anyways. There was a screen on the far wall playing some video showing me bouncing around the whole ship taking out Metarex and missiles. The sound was muted.
"Welcome, Sonic. I hope you don't mind if I stay to watch as well, it is my ship after all." The doctor greeted.
I clenched my teeth, but I didn't really have a choice, unless I thought Knuckles could give me more information then actually watching it.
"No worries Eggman, that's cool." I said, trying to sound like I was talking to just anyone. I couldn't keep myself from glaring at him the whole time though.
He knew he was making me uncomfortable, and that just made him grin wider to show more of his ugly teeth. "Perfect! Now lets get started, you all will sit on that couch. My apologies if its not very comfortable, it is quite old. You're free to the snacks if you like, but I'm not sure if you will have much of an appetite." He instructed us.
That got on my nerves. Despite all our differences, Eggman and I know each other pretty well, so we always know exactly how to make each other miserable, which is why we're enemies. If Eggman is suggesting that I might not have an appetite from these videos, then whatever I did must be pretty bad. I already know that Amy got hurt, I hurt Shadow, they trapped me, and I attacked my friends. What else could have possibly happened? How and why would I do any of those things?
"Mm-hmm" I mumbled, plopping myself down in the middle of the couch. Tails sat on my right side, and Shadow on my left. I didn't bother eating any of the food, if Eggman wasn't willing to eat it, then I wasn't either. Tails and Shadow must have had the same idea, because neither of them touched the food.
It didn't really matter because my eyes were glued to the screen. On the tape, Amy, Knuckles and I had just grouped together by the control room. Eggman turned the sound on, and we could hear the explosions and gunfire from the battle. It was weird seeing myself battling from where the bad guys were watching. I was moving almost too fast to see, all we could really see on the video was a blue flash that jumped from place to place inside our defensive perimeter. Every now and then I would stop long enough to be visible when I kicked a Metarex or jumped back from a solid spin dash. I looked pretty awesome.
From this angle, I could see that our group was making a lot of progress very quickly on the waves of robots. It hadn't felt that way when we were down there pushing them back, but I guess perspective is everything.
Eventually, there was a small commotion as Cosmo ran out with the emeralds. We couldn't hear what she said over the explosions and gunshots, but I remembered that she had told Knuckles to go help Tails, then tossed me the emeralds. I looked away for what came next. I didn't need to see Amy get hurt again. Strangely, I actually heard something happen, and I whipped my head back.
Amy was unconscious against the dome where she had been pushed back. What I was hearing was a scream. It hadn't come from her. It was me. I looked furious, and really frightening. I was floating, head thrown back in a roar of rage. The emeralds still surrounded me, but I wasn't turning super. At least not entirely.
I split down the middle, one half dark blue, almost black; and the other golden. It actually looked kind of cool. I looked around like I was surveying the damage. Then I looked to the still-attacking Metarex.
I flew back into the battle with amazing power. The robots didn't stand a chance. I blasted left and right, in front of and behind me too fast for any of them to put up a fight.
"Whoa... Way past cool..." I said as I leaned forward.
But from that point on, everything went downhill.
AN: Yeah, so there's just gonna be this kinda boring bit where Sonic catches up on all the naughty things he's been doing, but it will move on in the next chapter. This part is mostly to see his reaction to his not-so-completely-heroic behaviour. I promise the next chapter will be a bit longer so that there is some exciting stuff to make up for the boring part :)
If you have anything you'd like to say, I would be more than happy to read your comment, so tell me what you think. I still consider myself new at this, so any reviews are welcomed with open arms. Even hater reviews, I actually like those the best, cuz they tell me how people really think, and they're kind of fun to respond to, because I'm the kind of person who doesn't take any shit from anybody XD I'm the product of stubborn people and schools that fully support debate, I'm pretty sure I can take whatever the haters of the world wanna throw at me XD
I wanna know how many people picked up on the Shadow-Maria reference when Sonic woke up at the beginning of this chapter (he shouted 'Amy' too XD).
Okay guys, love to all! Have fantabulistic day! (My new favorite word: fantastic+fabulous+fantastic again! XD it says everything I ever need a word to say, it describes everything XD)
-Kthxbai, Silverfangirl96