Chapter 11: The Next Step

After everyone had eaten, they quickly went to sleep. Only Sonic, trapped in his monstrous form, stayed awake. His form wouldn't allow him to sleep. He sat with his sleeping friends and looked at the sky, sighing wistfully.

"Why don't you get some rest? You look exhausted."

He turned to see his best friend walking up to him. "I can't sleep, Tails," he said. "As long as I turn into this...horror when it's night out, I can't sleep a wink."

"Really?" Tails said. "Does it only happen at night?"

"Uh," Sonic blinked, thinking it over. Then his eyes widened with realization. "You know, now that I think about it, yes! It's only happened at night. That, and when Baseball Head and I got sucked into that strange other dimension."

"So when the sun sets," Tails said, "you turn into a werehog. Then, when the sun rises, you become yourself again."

"That's it, then," Sonic nodded. "It's all a matter of the sun and moon."

"Hm," Tails mused. "I wonder if there are Pokemon related to those. Maybe they could help you."

"Maybe there are," Sonic said with a shrug. "But I wouldn't put it past them. They're probably busy right about now."

"Yeah," Tails nodded. For a few minutes, the two of them just sat there in silence.

"Hey, Tails?" Sonic said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah?"

"When you found us earlier and brought us back to camp, how did you recognize me?"

Tails blinked. "What do you mean? I could recognize you in the blink of an eye."

"When I'm a hedgehog, sure. But I wasn't a hedgehog then. I was...this thing, yet you still didn't think twice when you found me. How'd you do that?"

Tails smiled. "When you and I have been best friends as long as we have, it doesn't matter what form you get stuck in. Even if you were glowing so bright that I couldn't even look at you, in your heart of hearts, you would still be Sonic the Hedgehog. I know you well enough that a small change in form can't stop me from recognizing you."

Sonic took all this in, then smiled at his friend. "Thanks Tails," he said. "I needed that."

"No problem," Tails winked, giving him a thumbs-up.

"Hm," Sonic mused. "I sure hope we can find the Chaos Emeralds soon. No doubt Eggman's hunting for them as we speak."

"The Chaos Emeralds?" Tails asked, intrigued.

"Yeah," Sonic nodded. "I had them all when I fought Eggman in space, but I lost them when he yanked them out of me and threw us out."

"I see," Tails said. "Well, you're in luck. It just so happens that one of the emeralds landed right in our little corner of paradise." He pulled out a yellow emerald for them to see.

"Oh, good!" Sonic smiled. "That's helpful. Now we just need to find the rest of them. Hm…"

"Hey, you know me," Tails grinned. "I'm one step ahead of you. I have a radar system that requires one Chaos Emerald and can locate the others." He pulled out a handheld yellow device.

"Seems about right for the likes of you," Sonic said, still smiling. "So what's the deal there?"

Tails booted up the device, revealing a global map. "With the world broken apart as it is, every major region of the world is separated. Thankfully, I don't think that's anything a strong aircraft can't handle."

"And the emeralds?"

"It looks like five others each scattered into five other major regions of the world," he said. "It's going to take a while to recover them."

"No sweat," Sonic smirked, folding his arms. "As long as we can get them in time to stop Eggman's plans, we'll be good as gold."

"Right!" Tails agreed.

"Hey, wait a minute," Sonic said, suddenly realizing something. "Even if we visited the other five regions, that would only leave us with six emeralds."

"Right," Tails nodded slowly.

"Then what about the seventh emerald?"

"Well, I've located it," Tails explained, "but it's in a region I know nothing about."

"But you have located it, right?"

"Right," Tails said. "Still, I think it would be more beneficial if we went through the other five regions first. We're more familiar with those regions, so finding those emeralds won't be as difficult as finding that last one."

"Okay," Sonic nodded. "Then where should we head next?"

"I think the closest region to here is the Unova region," Tails said. "That would probably be our most logical next step."

"All right, then," Sonic said. "When the sun is up, it's to Unova we go!"

Hmhmhmhmhmhm...come to me, my prey.