Hey hey!
Chapter 3 is here! I hope you're all enjoying this story so far! Shout out to SoraRose7 for this great request, hope you're loving it so far! Be sure to keep reading and reviewing and keep in mind I'm still taking requests but I don't know when they will happen. I'll try my best though! Enjoy!
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
Ciao! xx
Sonic stormed out of the agency, his two siblings fast on his tail with the other three following behind before they finally made it out of the centre of the city. Just as Sonia was just about to reach out to her little brother, bring him into an embrace that may calm him down, he dashed off. The streak of colour he left behind was different this time, though. Not his usual royal blue but a midnight blue, almost black.
Sonia felt her stomach twist in a knot as she retracted her hand, Manic coming to her side and pulling her into him letting her sob gently even if it was only for a few seconds, that being the only time she would allow herself that sign of weakness to anyone – but more importantly, herself. Amy stood on and appeared to watch the two hedgehogs, when she was really looking past them, watching the midnight coloured streak slowly fade away into the distance.
Rouge and Shadow gently brushed past her to walk up to the hedgehog brother and sister, the dark hedgehog offering his condolences while Rouge placed a friendly hand on Manic's shoulder. Amy would spend time with them later, but she couldn't help letting her mind be invaded by questions of where Sonic went. The answer was a scarier thought when it was obvious he had turned dark again. They had to find him and stop him before it was all too late.
'We need to get back to the others,' Amy began as she walked up to Sonia's side and squeezed her hand, 'come up with a plan before Sonic comes back. What do you think?'
'Good idea.' Sonia nodded as she squeezed back.
As they all made their way back to the garage quickly, Rouge couldn't help but think about how well Amy was coping with all of this. Despite the fact it was blatantly obvious how worried and genuinely scared she was for her sapphire hero, or at least how obvious it was to Rouge, she thought Amy was dealing with it really well. Not once had she acted on her feelings, always putting particularly Sonia and Manic first.
'You ok?' She whispered to the bubble-gum teen, only to receive a nod.
Rouge wondered how long the fuchsia heroine could keep up the charade, and she doubted she was the only one wondering. She turned her gaze away from her friend and onto the dirt path as they neared their destination, hoping Sonic was either already home or not far off. If they didn't come up with a solution soon, there were going to have some real problems soon.
'Don't worry, guys,' Silver began as he got to his feet, trying to lift everyone's spirits, 'you know Sonic. He just needs a run to clear his head.'
'He'll be good as new when he gets back!' Cream added, backing up her brotherly-figure.
'Two peas in a pod, you are.' Blaze smirked genuinely, slouched on an armchair.
'You didn't see him when he ran,' Manic began firmly, looking outside as he rest against the door frame, 'turning dark again, acting so unlike himself.'
'We're going to fix this,' Tails piped up as he turned away from his research for a moment, 'I swear.'
The two tailed kitsune waited for the sap hedgehog to face him before staring him down, letting his words sink in so they would know he was serious before returning to the screen and continuing his research. Cosmo took a seat by the computer with Tails and began sifting through books that he hadn't gotten to yet, wanting to help in any way, the others still remaining silent and wondering if Sonic was ok.
'I'm sure he's just fine, Manic.' Shadow said as he walked up beside him with Knuckles.
'You know what he's like,' the fiery red head began, 'just needs some space.'
'I guess so.' Manic shrugged, not really listening.
'You know what? I think we should all just get some rest. If we stay up all night worrying, we'll go mad.' Tikal suggested.
'Someone should wait up for him. I'm not quite finished here so I will.' Cosmo smiled.
'Me too,' Tails added staring at the screen before finally breaking his gaze, 'the rest of you, get some sleep.'
It was after sunrise and Sonic still hadn't come home. When Tails and Cosmo both finally fluttered their eyes awake, they snapped up, realising they had unintentionally drifted off. The twin tailed kitsune sat up to view the time on his laptop, revealing it was almost mid-morning. He helped Cosmo to her feet as they made their way groggily upstairs to find the others, and hopefully Sonic.
Tails walked into the kitchen, expecting to find someone awake but continued in to make himself coffee. Cosmo made her way into the centre of the living where she found everyone asleep, but no Sonic. She quickly scanned the house, coming back and claiming he was nowhere to be found before shaking the others awake. They all awoke groggily, most asking when Sonic got back before Cosmo told them he was still gone.
'I thought you guys were waiting up for him?' Sonia asked frantically as she got to her feet.
'We were but we dozed off.' Tails yawned as he passed Cosmo a mug of coffee.
'Well, come on, then.' Amy said assertively as she got up and headed for the stairs, 'we need to go find him.'
'I'm with Amy, let's go everyone.' Tikal supported the fuchsia bundle.
'Come on, you guys,' Shadow began, not having budged from his position on the lounge, 'Faker will come back when he-'
'We said that last night and he still isn't back!' Manic cut him off, 'Now all of you get up and let's go.'
It didn't take much more than that, not that it took most of them much convincing to begin with, for them to get to their feet and head downstairs. As they all rubbed the sleep out of their eyes and ignored Shadow and even a little of Knuckles' mumbling about being woken up, they got to the bottom of the stairs to hear the scuffing of sneakers coming from the other end of the room.
Everyone's eyes snapped up, suddenly fully awake, to see Sonic trudging tiredly through the garage and towards them. They knew it wasn't exhaustion though, no. His fur had gone back to its beautiful, royal blue colour, same colour steam that was exuding from him, disappeared. But he was exuding something else, something invisible. His head bowed, his feet dragging, his fists struggling to refrain from clenching.
'S-Sonic?' Cream broke the silence, taking a step forward only to be gently grabbed by Silver.
'How're you feeling?' Knuckles asked, this making Sonic look up at them.
His eyes. Still those stunning emerald orbs that have the ability to draw anyone into his soul, but something dark and sinister lying beneath them. Not one of the gang didn't notice, all of them feeling that sickening bullet shoot through their stomachs as he looked into Knuckles' eyes. He didn't speak, he just stared. Watching, thinking, judging. It was as though he was someone different entirely.
'Sonic, where've you been?' Cosmo spoke up, breaking the awkward silence with a surprisingly dominant tone, 'Tails and I waited up for hours. Everyone's been worried about you.'
'What's it to you?' Sonic almost spat.
'Who the hell do you think you are?' Rouge grit her teeth, taking an involuntary step forward.
'Rouge.' Blaze said calmly, pulling her back.
'Dude, what's gotten into you?' Silver cocked a brow.
No response. Unless, of course, you counted a passive aggressive growl before brushing past everyone and upstairs. As he was about to unintentionally barge past everyone, colliding shoulders with Manic, he looked Amy dead in the eye, bearing right into her soul the way he always had. Only now, it didn't melt her heart, swirl her stomach and make her see stars. If anything, it made her entire being shudder, like a cold wind had whipped through the room in one, swift movement.
Rouge, Blaze and Tikal all exchanged glances before subtly turning to face the fuchsia heroine, the three surrounding her since they had reached the end of the stairs. They watched Amy courageously try to hide her emotions, but even someone who didn't know her that well could see she was doing a bad job. Having said that, she didn't really know what she was feeling. Anger? Sadness? Shock? Fear? Probably all of the above.
Everyone was frozen solid, only able to hear Sonic's heavy footsteps drag along upstairs. They continued to listen to his footsteps drag along through the living room and into the hall, trudging through to his bedroom and slamming the door behind him. Everyone jumped at the sound, allowing the atmosphere to fall eerie again, the only noise being the heavy and anxious breathing mixed with pounding heart beats.
'Go home, everyone,' Sonia sighed, 'Manic and I will stay here with Tails.'
A few days have passed, maybe four or five, and Sonic hasn't come out of his room once. Well, at least not to see any of the gang. Tails saw him jump over his balcony once or twice to go for a run, getting back not that long after he left only to dash all the way back up to his room, slamming the door behind him. The twin tailed kitsune had heard the shower running a few times, and assumed the cerulean creature had come out while he wasn't around to eat. Other than that, no one had heard from him…
One day, the level-headed and calm Blaze dared to go in and talk to him, stepping quietly into his room to find him sitting on his bed with his back to the door. She cleared her throat before taking a seat with him, her back to his. She wanted to talk to him, try to get anything out of him she could while still trying to make sure he knew that they were worried about him. Alas, things probably couldn't have gone much worse.
Granted, Sonic started it, but Blaze probably didn't handle his outburst all that well either. The heroic hedgehog lashed out, yelling and screeching things the lavender feline knew he couldn't mean, keeping her cool as she allowed him to vent. Until he started insulting individuals in the gang, including her. Her normally calm and level-headed demeanour tore away to reveal the fiery temper that is often kept on lockdown.
Blaze was able to keep her fiery inferno self from breaking loose, knowing that sometimes when her temper flares, she can get out of control. Sonic on the other hand – that new, familiar, midnight blue streak flew out of the bedroom and over the balcony, dashing away over the horizon. Everyone's frustration was beginning to peak, they had to come up with some sort of plan. Right now, anything was better than nothing.
'They've been travelling a lot lately, so it took me a while to get in contact with them.' Tails informed them as he turned around from his laptop.
'Who's been travelling?' Tikal arched a brow.
'The remaining Freedom Fighters,' Cosmo answered, 'we think they can help him.'
'He's beyond help.' Blaze muttered only loud enough for her grey counterpart to hear.
'What do you think they can do?' Silver asked as he dared to rub Blaze's shoulders, trying to relax her after that morning.
'Yeah, what can they do that we haven't already tried?' Shadow added.
'Well, they've known Sonic and Tails a long time, maybe they can think of something?' Cream answered optimistically.
'I don't see what they could possibly do that we haven't.' Knuckles shrugged.
'You got a better idea?' Manic piped up, maybe a little too coldly.
'When are they going to be here?' Rouge jumped in, avoiding an argument.
'Tails said they were going to be here tomorrow morning. They said they would message us when they're near.' Sonia answered.
'Great, we'll just have to wait until then.' Amy sighed as she got to her feet and left the garage, heading home.
Everyone watched her walk out, putting up a strong front as she did. Everyone couldn't help but keep their eyes locked on her until she disappeared before bowing their heads into their lap, sighing in exhaustion and frustration. After that, one by one, they got up and said their goodbyes before making their own ways home, wondering what tomorrow morning might bring…
The twin-tailed kitsune rose early with the sun, not having gotten a lot of sleep that night anyway. Come to think of it, he had barely slept more than a few hours since the entire ordeal. He was sitting peacefully on the living room balcony with a mug of coffee, taking time to himself when he received a message from the beautiful, talented and heroic Princess Sally, leader of the Freedom Fighters.
She told him they would be there around nine, and she couldn't wait to see the young man she hadn't seen since he was so young, clinging to her as a sister. The rest of the gang started showing up around an hour prior in order to eat and load up on caffeine together, hopefully someone would pluck up the courage to go and tell Sonic that his old friends would be coming. This time, it was the young and innocent Cream, who didn't so much consider she had the courage, but even she figured she would be the best bet in getting a response out of him.
'S-Sonic?' Cream announced as she knocked on the door and walked a step in, seeing him still sitting on the bed, back to her and not making a sound.
'Sonic, we have some visitors coming around in an hour or so. Miss Sally and the other remaining Freedom Fighters are going to be here.' She continued, her voice trembling a little, involuntarily.
'Why?' Sonic asked firmly, coldly, as he turned around to face her with a scary fierceness.
'U-Uh, they want to visit you?' Cream stammered, his changing appearance scaring her.
'Hmph,' The grumpy, slightly darker hedgehog began, 'get out.'
Cream did as she was told, out of fear mostly, his demeanour still lingering vividly in her mind. His fur was darker than it's usual sapphire, almost a dirty blue, but not quite the midnight blue they were growing accustomed to. He had black rings under his eyes, and those stunning emerald orbs were growing milky. The young bunny scurried back to the garage to find their visitors had already arrived.
'Cream! My darlin', it's so good to see your pretty lil' face!' Bunnie D'Coolette exclaimed as she scooped Cream into a firm hug.
'My, 'ow you 'ave grown, young Cream.' Antoine added in his thick French accent.
Everyone was quick to exchange greetings, handshakes, hugs, kisses and even a laugh or two. Cream discreetly shook her head in Tails' direction, hiding her own pain, signalling things didn't go well. The young kitsune informed Sally where her former partner in crime was, notifying her that things still weren't good. She was worried, knowing Sonic as well as the others and knowing this just wasn't him. She wanted to get to the bottom of this now.
'Alright then, let's go and bid the Hero of Mobius good morning.' Sally smiled to everyone.