Chapter 3 What are you?
'I wish I could've told you sooner'
"Sonic SONIC are you alright?!" Knuckles screamed through the door only to be answered by silence. He tried to break the door down but believe it or nit it was really sturdy "move it echidna." Shadow said stepping in front of the door and himself and giving it a strong kick. It broke the top hinge off and swung inward allowing them inside. Shadow couldn't believe his eyes the room was torn to shreds and the floor was littered with debris. Sonic crouched in the middle of it his head down. "Faker what happened?" Shadow asked however he was very surprise by the answer he received.
Sonic gave a deep growl as he slowly looked up. Knuckles took a step back in surprise and fear. Sonic's eyes were a deep blood red and his pupil was slit, his fangs were long and glistening in the light, his much longer tail lashed threateningly behind him as he snarled claws digging into the carpet. Sonic snarled menacingly as saliva glistened off his fangs his eyes glowing blood red as the instinct to kill set in. Tails then came up the stairs hearing growling but immediately froze at the sight of his brother. "S-Sonic what happened?!" Tails exclaimed taking a step towards him "Tails NO!" Knuckles yelled but too late. At the movement Sonic gave a loud snarl and lunged slamming him hard into the wall due to his heavy body weight. Sonic then pinned the kitsune on it staring directly into his eyes as his mouth slowly opened fangs ready to deliver the killing bite. Tails struggled with his brother as he kicked and yanked at his quills managing to pull a few out. Sonic flinched but wouldn't budge.
Thats when Shadow had enough, he gave a strong punch to Sonic's side making him yelp in pain. However Sonic then laid his blood red eyes on his counterpart growling he released the fox as he turned on Shadow pining him to the ground before sinking his teeth in his arm which the dark hedgehog had raised in order to protect his neck. He screamed in pain blood beginning to run down his forearm and sides as Sonic started to maul him. Knuckles then jumped in tackling the blue hedgehog off his counterpart, but the action sent them both tumbling down the stairs. Knuckles ended up landing hard on his back Sonic landing on top as he growled before delivering a scratch to his face. Knuckles yelled in pain as he rolled over holding his now bleeding cheek. Big mistake Sonic sank his teeth into the echidna's leg making him scream again, then he sunk in his claws before standing up normal for a few seconds enough time to toss the red guardian. Knuckles grunted as he slammed into the front door nearly breaking it off its hinges.
Shadow and Tails came down next the dark hedgie lightly grasping his arm. He was too slow to react as Sonic's tail came wrapping around his leg also tossing him. He landed on top of Knuckles in a dazed and crumbled heap, to weak to move he could only look on as Sonic turned at a startled scream and target the owner. Cream. Sonic slowly prowled towards the rabbit growling and snarling as he bared his fangs totally ignoring the foxes pleads and distractions behind him. The blue hedgehog then licked his lips as he got ready to pounce his prey beginning to cry as she hugged her little flying companion. His muscles tensed and his eyes focused as he rocked his shoulders "Mr. Sonic please your scaring me." Came the rabbits tiny voice...Sonic stopped getting out of his stance. He growled as he fought his urge.
He grunted and groaned as he struggled with himself. His eyes turned green and looked down at his hands. They were covered in blood. He turned to look behind him seeing Tails's fur fluffed up in fright and his rivals/friends slowly getting up from the crumbled heap in front of the door. He then turned to the frightened rabbit in the couch and whined. 'What have I done?' Sonic took a step towards Cream but she flinched away out of fear unable to tell that her friend had come to his senses...for a short time. 'Does that answer your question now? Your a monster.' Sonic grunted as the urge returned, squeezing his eyes shut he jumped past Cream and out the window with a crash. He tumbled a little the glass having cut his leg, but he quickly got up and ran off into the forest disappearing from sight thanks to the rain.
"Sonic wait!" Tails called running out the door once Knuckles and Shadow moved following after, but he had lost sight of looked down in defeat 'Sonic...Whats wrong with you?' Going back into the house he calmed the rabbit down enough to get her back to bed and sleep. However he, Shadow and Knuckles stayed up as they tended to the wounds their corrupted comrade had made. "Ow that stings." Knuckles hissed as Tails cleaned his cheek wound "Sorry Knuckles, but it will only get infected if i leave it." He said applying a bandage "Can some one explain why Faker is acting like this?" Shadow demanded visibly annoyed and pissed as he tended to his own wounds. Tails sighed "i don't know..I've never seen him like this...EVER." Shadow huffed at the answer trying his best to cover a large scratch on his side going towards his back but failed. "Need some help?" Tails offered Shadow folded his arms and looked the other way sighing a little in defeat "Mind you that this is the only time I'll let you touch me." He said.
Tails rolled his eyes 'Typical Shadow.' While patching up Shadow's back one of the dark quills lightly pricked him in his forehead. Rubbing the area Tails then looked at his hand realizing he was still clenching a couple of Sonic's quills. He then lit up a little as an idea came to mind. He zipped down towards his lab located in the basement Shadow and Knuckles following as he sat at his computer. Placing the blue quills on a tray he sent them under a scanner causing the monitors to come to life as he typed in some command codes in an odd order. "What are you doing Tails?" Knuckles asked confused as to what the fox was doing. Tails remained silent for the time being as he continued to punch in commands, soon the computer screen brought up a smaller screen showing Sonic's holographic body and DNA. Tails eyes lit up suddenly "I knew it!" he exclaimed.
Shadow and Knuckles exchanged a glance before turning back to the fox "What is it?" Shadow asked Tails pointed to a DNA strand that was slowly changing from green to red "I never knew but now I understand." he said turning to the to the others behind him "Sonic's a hybrid." Knuckles jaw dropped in shock and Shadow's eyes widened slightly "How is that possible." Knuckles said "Explain fox." Shadow demanded. Tails turned back to his computer separating the DNA strands from each other into separate columns. "Okay on the left is Sonic's usual hedgehog traits, speed, and certain body functions." Tails explained "On the right are his others it seems Sonic contains a few genes that relate to that of a black panther, claws, canines longer than normal, slit eyes, longer tail, better hearing, and the ability to see infrared." Shadow folded his arms and huffed "That still doesn't explain why he attacked us." he muttered "It doesn't but it explains his odd behavior, Being half panther means that you'll have sudden urges right? I've noticed that sometimes Sonic will look down in order to hide his eyes I'm guessing that when the sudden urge comes he'll hide his eye color and wait for it to where off." The fox explained.
"But what urge?" Knuckles asked still confused. Tails gulped "The urge...to kill." They both froze, Shadow unfolding his arms. "So this urge is the reason why faker went nuts?" he asked Tails looked at the screen again "Sorta it seems something else was injected into Sonic's systems causing his more predator side to really show." he said watching as another strand slowly changed its color "What is it?" Knuckles asked "Some kind of weird serum that i can't quite name yet, but if I don't get a cure soon whatever was injected will corrupt Sonic's DNA if that happens...the strands that control functions like his heart and lungs will shut down...and Sonic will...die." He had sped up the screen making his computer preview the upcoming doom. All the strands turned red before suddenly turning black and falling apart. The hologram of Sonic crumpled in a heap its chest rising and falling rapidly before it fell limp all together.
Shadow's eyes widened more at this he growled and clenched a fist 'No not gonna happen even if he's annoying he's still a...' "How long will it take." Knuckles asked Tails typed in some more codes "We have time a week maybe 5 days...that gives me some time to build the chamber Sonic needs and some extra to make the cure...the only problem now is finding him." Knuckles nodded at that "What do you think Shadow?" Knuckles asked snapping the streaked hedgehog from his thoughts. Recovering quickly he folded his arms "hmm I think we should round some more of your friends more eyes means we can save some time in finding faker." Tails nodded "He's right you guys get the others and set out a search party once the rain stops I'll stay here and get started." They all nodded and Shadow and Knuckles sped off to gather a team. Tails turned to a screen watching another strand slowly turn black 'Don't worry Sonic I won't let you die and I promise I'll find out who did this to you.'