Sonic tried to enjoy the wind in his quills like he normally would on a run, but the feeling of unease that had been following him dampened that enjoyment considerably. Sonic stopped to drag a hand down his face. Why couldn't he even enjoy a run? One of life's greatest pleasures? Sighing he shook his head to try and clear it; it sort of worked. Though he supposed he was just happy to be out right now.
Progress on figuring out what was going on with Sonic had been… well mostly nonexistent. Thankfully the spike in his chaos energy hadn't happened again, but he still felt uneasy around the emerald. Tails had experimentally brought it out at one point and Sonic had reacted on pure instinct by dashing across the workshop in order to get away from it. Needless to say it was rather embarrassing, but at least only Tails saw it and the fox wasn't one to judge.
Still, the reaction he had worried him, and he could tell it worried Tails too. There really should be no reason to act like that. He'd used the emeralds plenty of times before, so it was frustrating that he felt like he couldn't even get near them willingly right now. What had changed? Sonic tapped his foot impatiently. Tails had finally let him out of the workshop, likely because the fox wasn't making any more progress with Sonic being there then he would without. Honestly he'd probably been let out due to the fact he was driving his brother a little crazy. Mostly due to the fact that Sonic had started to feel rather stir crazy himself. Not being able to run for that long? Yeah that was bound to mess with him. He'd tried to be patient really, but had royally failed at that. Tails had all but shoved him out and told him to go for a run. Making some excuse along the lines of it being something he could collect data from.
Sonic tapped the device on his wrist. It was sending data back to Tails to see if anything weird happened. Something to do with his bio data and chaos levels or something. Sonic had really hung onto the 'go out for a run' part of what Tails had said and subsequently missed a lot of the other things his brother said. Welp now wasn't the time to dwell on that; now was the time to run.
His run took him all over. Though he wasn't really taking in the sights as he ran; he was focused on running. It was… a nice distraction from the near constant unease he'd been under for the past several days even if he couldn't fully enjoy it. Eventually though he did decide to take a quick break before taking off again.
Something caught his attention as he stopped to stretch. Out of curiosity he walked towards it and tripped as he stumbled back. How? How had he randomly stumbled into one? The yellow chaos emerald sat there, peacefully. Yet Sonic was stuck staring at it as pure terror flooded through his system. He felt like he couldn't move because part of him wanted to scoop up the emerald while the other part of him wanted to run back to the dubious safety of Tails' workshop.
Slowly he managed to pick himself up off the ground. Pinning his ears against his head he glared at the emerald. Some stupid rock shouldn't be scaring him like this, super powerful or not. He was Sonic the freaking hedgehog; he'd been through things far scarier than whatever this was. Taking a deep breath he gathered his confidence and strode towards the emerald and picked it up in one fluid motion. Tensing, he waited for something to happen. Slowly the tension left his body as the emerald sat calmly in his hand, and he didn't hear anything. Ok so, maybe there was something wrong with the other emerald? Sonic inspected the yellow gem carefully. Yeah it looked the same as always. Why had he even been worried? What happened with the other emerald must have been a fluke. Yeah, that was all it was. Weird things happened to him all the time, so this was nothing to worry about.
Sonic tossed the emerald in the air and caught it. "You know…" Sonic's head whipped around at the sound of a voice that seemed eerily similar to his own. Maybe a bit… higher pitch? More gravelly? His frantic search yielded no results. There was no one there with him. Just like….
"Where are you?" Sonic asked with a calm he didn't really feel. He would not let whatever this was get to him.
"You'll find out soon enough, Sonic~" The voice replied.
Sonic could practically feel whoever it was smirking , and Sonic decided he very much did not like how that thought made his skin crawl. "Who are you?" He asked, practically growling. He wasn't sure why he was getting so defensive. Instinct maybe? Whoever this was just felt dangerous.
"Hmmm, an interesting question. I'm sure I'll have a more satisfying answer for you later. For now you'll just have to wait." They laughed, and yeah that was the same laugh as before. This was the same person who he heard when he picked up the red emerald the other day. "For now, why don't you head back to your little fox friend? Wouldn't wanna worry him now would you?"
At that remark Sonic wasted no time in rushing back to Tails' lab. To his surprise Tails was outside his lab waiting as Sonic returned; the miles electric gripped in his hands. His tails swished agitatedly behind him. "Sonic!" Tails called as the fox caught sight of him.
Sonic gave him a quick once over before deciding Tails looked ok. An empty threat then? Just to mess with him? Was it even a threat? Whoever this was seemed like the type to do that but… "What's up?"
"Your chaos energy spiked again! I was getting ready to hop in the Tornado to come get you in case the same thing as last time happened." Tails looked at Sonic concerned. "What happened?
Sonic glanced down at the device around his wrist. Right, Tails had been monitoring things. That had managed to slip his mind briefly. Holding out the emerald he frowned. "I found this while I was out." That was safe enough to start with.
Nodding, Tails took the emerald from Sonic; he didn't try to stop the fox. "So the spike must have happened when you touched it then…" Tails looked over the emerald and frowned. "Did anything weird happen this time? Like with the laughing last time?" Tails asked looking back up at Sonic.
Hesitantly Sonic nodded. Yeah eventually, once he felt he could think properly, Sonic had told Tails about exactly what happened with the red emerald. As much as he didn't really wanna admit to hearing a whole voice this time, it was probably important information to pass on. "Yeah. I heard… a voice this time. They responded to me too." His ears drooped. "I rushed back here cause I thought they were threatening you but…"
Tails looked contemplative. "So whoever or whatever this is, probably isn't friendly then."
"Afraid not." Sonic sighed, shaking his head.
Tails' ears drooped. "Maybe… we should go talk to Knuckles. He might know something more because honestly I'm stumped as to what's going on."
"Maybe…" Sonic hummed. "Not sure how thrilled the knucklehead will be with us bringing trouble to his island again though." He smirked.
Tails sighed, but a smile creeping its way onto his muzzle betrayed his true feelings. "Yeah, he probably won't be too happy, but if he can help it'll be worth his threats of throwing us off the island."
Placing his hands behind his head Sonic followed Tails into the workshop. "He can threaten all he wants. He'd have to catch me before he could actually throw me off."
"What are you two doing here?" Knuckles frowned as he walked over to where the two were getting out of the Tornado.
"Can't we just drop in to say hello Knux?" Sonic asked, spreading his arms in question. Both Knuckles and Tails shot the hedgehog an unimpressed look. Folding his arms Sonic sighed. "We came here to ask for some help."
"What trouble have you brought with you this time?" Knuckles asked, crossing his arms, but motioning for them to follow.
"Something weird has been going on with the emeralds. Or me. Or both." Sonic shrugged. "We're not really sure." Tails gave Sonic a look. Right, he should probably elaborate. "I've been… hearing things? Someone maybe? When I've touched the emeralds. The first time it happened I couldn't even properly function and Tails had to drag me back to his workshop."
"It's been causing unusual spikes in his chaos energy as well. The spikes are similar in intensity to when he goes super, but one emerald shouldn't be able to cause that." Tails added.
Knuckles hummed. "That's… odd. When did this start happening?" He asked once they arrived at the master emerald shrine.
"Well I suppose it might have started when we beat Eggman the last time. The emeralds kinda hesitated when I was finished up with my super form." Sonic started, making sure to stay a respectful distance from the master emerald. "The hearing voices and stuff happened the first time I touched an emerald after that."
A contemplative look made its way onto Knuckles' face. "Hm." The echidna tapped a hand against his arm slowly for a few moments. "The master emerald started acting up around then as well."
Both hedgehog and fox looked at Knuckles surprised. "So there could be a connection between the two?" Tails guessed.
"It seems more likely than not." Knuckled grunted, frowning. "Doesn't mean I have to like the fact though. I already was worried enough when it was just the master emerald, but with the chaos emeralds being involved too that just makes things worse."
"I mean, they don't seem to be affecting anyone but Sonic strangely. I've been able to handle them just fine and nothing strange has happened to me." Tails said, holding out the red emerald that they'd brought with them.
Sonic unconsciously scooted away from it and Knuckles watched the action with mild interest. After looking away he held a hand out for the emerald. Tails gave it to him and the trio waited to see if something would happen. It stayed quiet and Knuckles didn't outwardly react. "No, nothing seems to be happening to me either." He gave Sonic a tired glance. "Why is it when something goes wrong it always seems to involve you?" Sonic simply shrugged in response. "At any rate, this seems to be a 'you problem' as you've told me before." He turned away from a slightly disgruntled Sonic to hand the emerald back to Tails.
"Yeah that's what I figured as well." Tails stashed the emerald away and Sonic released some tension that he hadn't realized he'd been holding. "That's why we came to see if you might have any insight. I'm not making any progress at figuring this out." Tails' ears drooped sadly and Sonic pat his brother on the back consolingly.
"Well considering this whole thing seems to have affected the master emerald as well, it only makes sense to help." Knuckles conceded. "As much as I don't want to, I suppose I'll extend an invitation for you two to stay here while we figure things out."
Sonic shot the echidna a grateful look. Surely with all three of them working to figure this out they'd get it done. "Thanks Knux, I really do appreciate it."
Knuckled huffed but grinned at Sonic. "Yeah sure. Let's just get this over with. The sooner we figure this out, the sooner you two can get off my island."