Chapter Seven - It's All About Speed
When Shadow finally looked up at him, Sonic realised that he had heard him. He jumped up and down in so much joy, that Cyrus had to calm him, otherwise they'd be found out. Sonic looked at Shadow, he couldn't make out his injuries through the window.
{Shadow, can you walk?} He asked.
Shadow stared. How was he going that? How was he able to place his words so deep in his mind? He felt the muscles in his arms and legs, they ached but felt strong. Yes, he could get up, he could walk. He looked up and nodded. He was all he could do to respond.
Sonic smiled at that, but then quickly thought. How were they going to get him out? He looked at Cyrus for suggestions. He shrugged.
{Can't you use that speed of yours somehow?} He asked. {Its the only weapon you have against them. Those are Guard Chasers in there.} He shuddered.
Sonic stared. Cyrus was a genius, and told him so. The chestnut werewolf went red.
Cyrus looked back at Sonic. {So what do we do?} He asked.
Sonic smiled. {I need you to distract them, I'll do the rest!} Cyrus stared, he shook his head. He had charm but not for Guard Chasers.
Sonic rounded on him. {Do you trust me?} He asked again. Cyrus nodded. Sonic wheeled around and looked through the window. He saw Shadow still lying on the floor, but his chaos aura had been building, healing him, he was like a coiled string ready to pounce. He was ready to move.
'Perfect!' Sonic thought. Now to tell him the plan.
{Shadow, I have a friend out here whose going to distract those monsters long enough for me go in a speed kick their butts. If you can blast your way out of that cell, I'd love for you to join me. These guys are not as fast as they look, not against pure chaos speed. It'll be just like fighting Eggman!}
Shadow rested his head on the ground and rolled his eyes. It's a stupid, hair brained idea, but extremely typical of his blue counterpart. I guess there were some things that hadn't changed. He looked up of his Werewolf guards. Sonic did have a point, they were fast, but when it came to pure chaos speed, he and Sonic were kings, and Shadow saw weakness. He smirked back at the window, he liked this plan, despite its stupidity. He was ready.
Sonic beamed at Shadow's reaction and looked back at Cyrus, to make a move.
{Go on, I've got your back!} Sonic encouraged. He crouched down, letting his chaos speed build up inside of him again, he knew Shadow was doing the same in his cell. When it happened, it was going to be fast. He gave the signal to Cyrus.
Cyrus sighed heavily and muscled up his courage. He ran for the door of the Detection Centre, and went in. The two Guard Chasers stopped and stared at him.
"What!" He said cheerily. "No meat left for me!" The two Guard Chasers growled at him. Sonic and Shadow knew that this was their cue and let it rip, the both of them releasing their chaos speeds at the same moment. Shadow jumped up in his cell, rolled into a ball and span. The resulting circular saw blasted through the cell door, as though it was paper. Sonic had done the same outside, jumping up, curling into a ball, creating his own circular saw that blasted into the Detection Centre behind Cyrus, causing him to duck for cover. Then they were on top of them, the two hedgehogs, expertly working together, dive bombing the Guard Chasers. They swung at them, they bit at them, but they were too fast. Cyrus had never seen such speed. Finally Shadow got the two monsters on the head, knocking them out cold, then he ran for it. He didn't want to stay in that place any longer then was necessary.
Sonic saw him bolt, and ran after him, grabbing Cyrus on the way.
{Hey, Shadow, wait up!} He called. But it was after running down several tunnels, breaking several sound barriers along the way, Shadow finally stopped. They were in the middle of nowhere again. Shadow was out of breathe, so to was Sonic, that fight was fiercely fast. Cyrus stared at both of them. Two werewolves, that fast? It made no sense. He stared at Shadow. He looked like a hedgehog but smelled like a werewolf, was that even possible? Where did he come from? Cyrus was frightened.
Shadow was heaving, he finally found his quarry and he wanted answers. Sonic looked around.
{Hey! I think we lost them!} He said, so both Cyrus and Shadow could hear. It was the last straw for Shadow, as he lost his temper with the blue werewolf, grabbing him by the scruff of his neck. He swore and cursed.
"What is going on? What is this place? And how the hell are you able to do that?" He shouted at Sonic. Shadow had had enough of Sonic's games. Cyrus panicked and ran between them. He could tell that they were friends, from the way they had worked together. A bond like that is only formed after spending years together. Cyrus figured that he had the right to be angry, which is why he told Shadow everything. Shadow listened as Cyrus spoke. He told him who he was, where they were, about the Werewolf Colony. Where had had found Sonic and how Thought Speech worked. He figured that Shadow, like Sonic, didn't know how to use it. Shadow listened in disbelieve.
"But I'm not a werewolf!" He gasped.
Cyrus stared. {Then why do you smell like one then!} He sounded rather put out inside their heads. Sonic stared at Shadow, and sniffed. That scent, his 'inner wolf' when mad, he knew it. It was the werewolf scent that been on him, when he woke up in the clearing in the forest. Shadow had been there for him. Sonic felt himself go red. He did care after all. Shadow looked rather bothered.
{Come on Shads. You don't know what concoction of DNA and chemicals Gerald Robotnik used to create you. He may have used some Werewolf DNA. So what! Your fast, your strong, and your immortal. Welcome to the Club!} Sonic grinned.
Shadow stared. But the blue werewolf did have a point. He genuinely didn't know the true combination of DNA Gerald had used to create him, but if Werewolf DNA was in there then it meant that... He sighed as he decided to he'd give Thought Speech a try. He found it a lot easier then he thought he would be.
{So how come I don't transform with a full moon?} He smirked, as Sonic and Cyrus stared at him. Cyrus was finding the concept of Shadow being created rather then born difficult to grasp.
{Maybe Gerald removed that ability when he created you!} Sonic suggested. {Or maybe your only half Werewolf!}
Half Werewolf! It sounded like a stupid idea to Shadow. He looked the two companions. Maybe he'd have get used to the idea. Sonic was getting giggly again, his cheeks going red. Why does he always do that around him? Did he like him or something?
That news hit Shadow very hard, as he stared at his blue counterpart, his heart shell cracking again. Maybe Shadow liked him too. Wait? What? Did he just admit that! He hated that blue hedgehog with a passion sometimes. And yet... He sighed. He smiled.
But Cyrus broke their gaze. {Can we go now? or is there something else we have to do?} Sonic shook his head, but then it hit Shadow, extremely hard in the stomach. He didn't come to this place alone.
Tails! He panicked. He told the others what happened and Sonic also panicked. He rounded on Cyrus, for any idea as to where they may have taken him. Cyrus shook head, saying that there was little chance of his friend still being alive, being a normal Sapient. Sonic growled at him. He didn't believe him. With both Sonic and Shadow bearing down on him, he relented.
{They may have taken him to the food store, but there is no guarantee he's still alive.} He cried.
{Can you take us there?} Shadow asked, in a extremely cold, hard tone. They stared. Sonic didn't realise that Shadow voice could get any colder before today. It was scary.
Cyrus nodded. It would mean heading back to the main cavern. The last place he wanted to go. He was not happy about guiding them back there, but he was outnumbered two to one on the issue. There was something about those two. The bond they had, the way they worked together, it was something special. They had a deep fondness for each other and they could read each other so well, they didn't even need to speak.
'Useful.' Cyrus thought. 'Especially at the speeds they travel at.' He sighed, and looked back them as they followed him down the tunnels. He knew where they were now and could navigate back.
'The Speed.' He wondered. 'Where did they learn to do that?' Cyrus could only guess at that. They were two very usual werewolves, and he was glad they were on his side. They were good people. He noticed that they were already getting their strengths back, after the Detection Centre. He raised an eyebrow. That was fast. Who were these guys? Light and commotion ahead in the tunnel told Cyrus that they were near their goal. It had taken some time to get there. He indicated to his new friends to follow him and they headed around the edge of the tunnel as it opened out of the main cavern. They hid behind some nearby boulders. Cyrus had brought them out right at the base of the arena. The place was heaving with Werewolves. Cyrus figured every Werewolf in the colony was there as he saw the market beyond was deserted.
Cyrus gulped, there was only one reason this so many Werewolves would turn out in the arena. The Sapient Games. They would drag caught Sapients into the arena alive, and then promptly rip them to pieces, to great cheers, and eat them, seeing what fight they'd put up. Cyrus despised it, hated it with a passion. It was not his idea of fun. All of the Werewolves in the arena were all non-breeding males and total brutes, in his opinion. He wanted them gone, he wanted them dead. But looked like they hadn't gotten started yet. He looked around, there might be a chance.
He was looking for the Sapients, and spotted them whimpering in a small metal cage at the side of the arena. There were three of them, all male, non of them he knew. There was a hedgehog, a rabbit and a fox. He stared at the fox, he was the smallest of the three, crying his eyes out, his two tails sticking out of the bars of the cage.
'Two tails?' Cyrus thought raising an eyebrow. 'Never seen that before!' Then it hit him. Two tails... Tails! Could he be their missing friend? If it was, Cyrus knew he was extremely lucky to be alive this far, and he didn't know how long he had, as a mean looking Werewolf, opened the cage and dragged the rabbit into the arena. They watched in horror as he was slaughtered, to the cheers of the crowd. Cyrus indicated to Sonic and Shadow, that he had found their missing friend. They were reeling from the horror of what they had just seen. They stared at the cage and was horrified to see the Werewolf coming back, grabbing the hedgehog. Tails would be next. They didn't have much time. They could run out and grab the fox, but they would be pounced on by over a hundred Werewolves. They had to take them out somehow. Cyrus looked up at the vast expanse of the cavern and at the tunnel behind him. Then he had a brain ware. He looked at his new friends. They had the speed, they had the power. They could end it, here, today. The abuse, the rape. Get rid of the brutes permanently.
He grabbed them, and told them his idea. It was crazy, it was stupid and it just might work. They didn't have much time, as the cheers from arena told Cyrus, the hedgehog was dead.
{But what about Tails?} Sonic had asked.
{I'll get him!} Cyrus said, determined. {Just do your thing!}
Cyrus' plan was for them to use their speed to create a tornado inside the cavern and sweep up all of the Werewolves in the arena, and then throw them into a tunnel and somehow, using the sound barrier, collapse it in on top of them.
Shadow had raised an eyebrow at this idea. For sheer craziness, it was up there with one of Sonic's. He growled. After what had just seen, he wanted to bring the whole dam colony down on top of them. They were coming for Tails, it was now or never. He grabbed Sonic and ran down the tunnel for a short while before turning back. They were going to need a run up for this one.
Shadow swore and cursed using Thought Speech. Sonic stared. He had never heard language so blue on the black hedgehog before. Shadow noticed Sonic's discomfort.
{You can hear my thoughts now, Hedgehog, deal with it!} He smirked. Sonic looked down tunnel towards the arena, his chaos speed building. But he agreed with Shadow, he hated those Werewolves too. He looked back at his friend. Now he was ready.
{I'm not a Hedgehog!} He growled, his anger building and ran. With a combination of extreme chaos speed and temper, he exploded from where he stood, a Sonic Boom blasting out behind him, sending him forward. A second boom told Sonic that Shadow had mimicked him, and briefly they looked at each other. They knew the drill, they had done this before, and in perfect synchronisation, they rolled into a ball and span. The speed was mind blowing, and they blasted out of the tunnel, just as Tails was being dragged into the arena. Cyrus had to duck for cover, again, amazed at their shear power, as they ran past.
Tails squealed in delight when he saw them, and found the courage to try and free himself from his captor. Cyrus looked up at them, as be began to spin, creating the tornado. There was pandemonium. Panic spread among the Werewolves, as within seconds, the tornado really picked up some speed fast, and began lifting the Werewolves off the ground. The shear force of the tornado, began to shake the colony, like an earthquake, boulders began to fall all around them. Cyrus began to the see the heads of Werewolves thought the windows of the cavern. Timid Werewolves like him who believed this was wrong. He called out to them.
{Help me!} He hollowed. He knew most of them, they'd recognise his voice. {There going to take them out!} He added pointing to the tornado. It increased in speed and power, causing yet more shaking. More Werewolves were scoped up by it. Then they came, welding sticks and throwing stones. His friends, all like him had all suffered the abuse, and now they had a chance to win. They ganged up against those brutes in the arena, ensuring that every single last one of them was sucked into the tornado. Cyrus had ran in and grabbed Tails, telling him he was a friend, and took immense pleasure seeing Xander being drawn up be the tornado.
He looked up. They now they had all the Werewolves, shouldn't they be moving on. Cyrus screamed as the colony's shaking got so violently, it caused cracks in the cavern. If they didn't do something soon, they were going to bring the whole place down.
That was Shadow's doing, he was fuelled with so much anger that Sonic had real difficulty getting him to listen to him. He had seen Cyrus' friends join the fight, he didn't want to bring the colony down on them. They were good people.
{Shadow!} He screamed in his head. He could feel his speed beginning to slow, he didn't have much left in the tank. {Time to go!}.
Finally Shadow relented, and he moved towards him. Until that point, they had been at opposite ends of the tornado, spinning it. Now they came together, spinning alternatively within a matter of inches of each other. This was a extremely dangerous, one wrong move could be fatal, but it was incredibly effective. The resulting spin high in the air, drew the wind and the Werewolves up towards them. This meant that when they left, they took the wind and the Werewolves with them. The whole colony was still shaking, as they sped off down the tunnels. They turned left, then right, until they found what they were looking for, a dead end. They screeched to a halt, just before the dead end, and jumped to the side. The wind and the Werewolves came flying past, crashing into the rock. But neither Sonic or Shadow stopped to think of them, before their next move. They jumped into the air and span. Holding still for a moment, allowing the chaos speed to peak, they let it rip. Sonic booms rang out in that tunnel. Sonic, himself, when nuts. Pin balling around the walls of the tunnel at the speed of sound, sending booms everywhere, adrenaline getting the better of him.
The tunnel was shaking violently, it couldn't hold out for much longer. They it came crashing down, so fast and with such power, that Sonic and Shadow for forced to run for their lives. The main tunnel they were in collapsed, crashing down all around them, then a second and a third. All of the surrounding tunnels came down, as they had no choice to be head back to main cavern, bringing down with them a large section of the tunnel system. They screeched to a halt in the cavern. The tunnel behind them collapsing with boulders. The whole colony was still shaking, but it stood up to it and soon all was calm.
Sonic and Shadow were in heaps on the floor, the both of the them on their knees. It had taken every ounce of their strength to pull that off. Sonic looked at the tunnel they had entered the cavern from, it had caved in. Those brutes were gone, they had done it. It was no way in hell anyone could have survived that. Immortal or otherwise. Cyrus later confirmed that, after a party had been sent out to check, they were all dead. It was possible to kill Werewolves after all, if the situation was right, their immortality only lasted to a point. Sonic had never considered himself as a mass murderer, but Shadow shrugged it off, it was in a day's work for him. He cried, Shadow rounded on him.
{Don't you dare shed a tear for those...} He swore. His language blue again. {They got everything coming to them!}. He looked hard at him, his voice cold in his head.
Sonic looked back. Shadow was right, but it wasn't morally the right thing, and that's what got to him.
{Drop it, Hedgehog, it was the right thing to do!} scowled Shadow at him. All around them Werewolves were coming into the cavern, all of them like Cyrus, shy, timid and now free of the abuse and rape. They cheered, they celebrated. They helped Sonic and Shadow to their feet, hugged and embraced them was one of their own. Tails came running and wrapped his arms around Sonic. He almost collapsed again, in pain and exhaustion, Shadow grabbing him, holding him up. He smiled.
'What's with that guy?' Sonic puzzled. 'One minute, he's at your throat, the next, your best friend? What gives?' Sonic thought he had fathomed Shadow, but no, as the black hedgehog walked away from him, exhausted and limbing. Then he realised something.
{Hey, I'm not a Hedgehog!}
They stayed at the colony for about a few weeks, allowing Sonic and Shadow to gain their strengths back, but the diet of meat, was not to Shadow's taste. Tails was also struggling too, but Sonic was in his element, as he saw the colony took on a completely new feel. The Werewolves when back to going about their business, but now all of the brutes were gone, and most of the Werewolves were now non-breeding females. They now had the confidence to come out and socialise, now that it was safe, no more abuse, no more rape, no more Guard Chasers.
Cyrus came bursting through the door of his house, where they were all staying, saying that he had be elected as the Colony Leader. They were all delighted but then Cyrus remembered something. He looked to Sonic.
"You know how you said you going to get me out of here?"
Sonic nodded. Cyrus sighed. "I can't leave." He said. "My people need me now!"
Sonic smiled for Cyrus, but then looked disheartened. Cyrus realised what was going on.
"Your leaving, aren't you!" He asked. Sonic nodded again.
"I'm sorry, Cyrus, but I have to go back. My life is there, not here." Sonic really missed home, and his old friends.
"A Werewolf living among Sapients, I'd never have believed it." Cyrus smiled. He walked up and hugged and embraced his friend. "Don't forget us!" He added.
"I won't!" Sonic whispered back, crying. They had been through so much together, he was going to be missed.
Cyrus let go of Sonic and rounded on Shadow.
"You take care of him!" He said, glared at him. Shadow nodded, looking surprised. Tails giggled. There was something going on between those two, Cyrus was sure of it. They were way more than just friends.
The next morning, they bid their farewells and left. The Werewolves guided them through the tunnels, where they were eventually brought out into daylight, right on the edge of the desert. The squinted with the bright sunlight, as they headed for home, the three of them, leaving the colony far behind.