70th Chapter! Thank you so much for supporting me this far!

Chapter 70: Amnesia

When Sonic came to, he found himself lying near a windmill that stood by the edge of a sea-cliff. He suddenly heard moaning behind him and noticed a small boy with close-cut brown hair and a bleach-blond Mohawk that was jelled back. The boy wore a chestnut-brown jacket with a white T-shirt underneath, and matching brown shorts and white sneakers.

"Hey," Sonic said as he picked up the child and started shaking him. "Hey!"

The violent shaking immediately caused the boy to stop moaning. As the boy's eyes opened, he took one look at Sonic before screaming loudly. In response, Sonic backed away as the boy ran behind a large boulder that was closer to the cliff.

"Are you all right, kid?" Sonic said as he approached the boulder.

"Stay away from me, Mr. Monster-Guy!" the boy yelled back. "I'm not very tasty!"

"Mr. Monster-Guy?" Sonic looked down at his clawed hands and gently pressed his tongue against his newly-formed fangs. "Looks like things got out of hand for us, eh, Sonny. Sonny?"

Sonic then looked around and when Sonny's apparition didn't show up, he instead found the Chaos Emeralds scattered about with their individual colors shaded in dark gray. He picked each of them up and examined them carefully while the small boy peeked out from behind the boulder. When Sonic looked at him, the boy shrunk down.

"Look, kid, I know I look scary but I'm not going to hurt you," Sonic said as he placed the Chaos Emeralds in the pockets of his slightly-torn shorts.

"You won't?" the boy said from behind the boulder.

"I promise," Sonic replied.

The boy then cautiously stepped out from behind the boulder while Sonic stood with his hands limp at his sides to show he meant no harm.

"Wow, you're actually not that scary up close," the boy said as pixie-like wings suddenly sprouted from his back and he flew in circles around Sonic. "What's your name?"

"I'm, um, Sonic the Hedgehog," Sonic said staring at the boy in confusion. "Though I'm more commonly known as The Blue Blur. What about you?"

"Oh, my name is…" the boy suddenly stopped flying and then he sank back down as his wings vanished. "Wait, what is my name?"

"Did you forget?" Sonic tilted his head and folded his clawed hands. "What's the last thing you remember?"

"I remember…something falling from the sky, then everything went white," the boy said rubbing his temples in irritation. "And after that, you woke me up."

"Nothing else from before comes to mind, like how you got here or where you came from?"

"Sadly, no." The boy stopped rubbing his temples and looked up at Sonic. "What am I going to do, Mr. Monster – I mean, Sonic the Hedgehog?"

In response, Sonic gently put a clawed hand on the boy's shoulder. "Don't worry, kid, because I'm going to help you get your memories back."

"Really?" the boy's eyes widened. "That's awfully nice of you, but why are you doing this for me?"

Sonic in turn used one clawed finger to lightly scratch his thick hair as he looked astray. "Well, I did kind of fall a long way down just now and you were lying nearby after I landed. So I'm figuring that maybe I fell on top of you by accident, which caused you get knocked out in the first place and lose your memories in process."

"So you think you're the reason for my amnesia and want to make it up by helping me remember who I am."

"Pretty much."

Behind Sonic, the sun rose over the horizon. This in turn suddenly caused Sonic to flinch in pain as a dark-purple aura suddenly enveloped him. Then in a flash, Sonic had changed back into Sonny.

"Woah," the boy exclaimed. "How did you do that?"

"I…have no idea," Sonny replied.

###

Later, Sonny and the boy found themselves entering a seaside town with white adobe-style buildings and wooden windmills.

"Now let me see if I've got this straight," the boy said as Sonny followed behind him. "You're Sonny right now, but you were Sonic before and yet the form I saw was not what Sonic typically looks like."

"You got it, kid," Sonny replied. "Now I'm not sure what the deal was because normally Sonic can change back into me whenever he wants, but for some reason he wasn't able to after he changed into that…werewolf-looking thing."

The boy raised an eyebrow. "You mean Werehog?"

"Werehog?"

"Because he's a hedgehog, at least that's what he claimed."

"He has a hedgehog tail and ears for sure, but I don't know if I would consider him a hedgehog."

"So if he can become you, then you can change into him?"

"Sure."

"Can you do it right now?"

Sonny briefly looked around, saw no people standing by, and nodded.

As the boy watched, Sonny closed his eyes and concentrated really hard. However, when Sonny opened his eyes, nothing changed. He then noticed the boy lingering near an ice-cream stand nearby.

"Hey, kid!" Sonny called. "What are you doing over there? I thought we were going to look for your memories."

"Yeah, just a second," the boy said absent-mindedly staring at an ice-cream sundae. "How much will it be for one of those?"

After Sonny used some money that Miles had given him back in Soleanna to buy the boy and himself a couple of ice-cream sundaes, they walked along a cobbled street into the town which the boy learned was called Windmill Isle from the man who ran the ice-cream stand.

"Mm, this Chocolate Chipped Cream Sundae Supreme is amazing," the boy said as he ate his sundae voraciously.

"Yeah, it sure is," Sonny replied licking his. "But more importantly, we should ask the people around here to see if anyone knows you, Chip."

The boy looked up at Sonny with a mouthful of chocolate. "Chip?"

"It's the nickname I'm giving you temporarily until we figure out your real name. But if you don't like it—

"No, Chip's fine," the boy responded. "I like it."

"Well, that's good."

###

"I can't believe it," the boy Chip groaned. "How could no one in Windmill Isle knows my name?"

"Maybe you're not from around here," Sonny suggested.

"Then where am I from?"

"So I take it none of your memories resurfaced the entire time we were searching."

"Not a thing," Chip sighed as he watched the sun slowly set beyond the windmill where he and Sonny met which was located on a small island that wasn't too far from the coast of Apotos, which was the continent Windmill Isle was a part of. "I'm sorry if I seem like a burden to you."

"You're not burdening me," Sonny said assuredly. "But what I don't understand is why I couldn't transform into Sonic earlier today."

"Did you have to get in touch with him or something?"

"Well, I normally just will myself to become Sonic and it happens. But not this time, and I couldn't see his spirit either."

"His spirit? Is he a ghost?"

"Sort of. It's a little more complicated than that."

As the sun went down over the horizon, Sonny felt a sudden pain in his chest and doubled over. Chip was about to help him when the same dark-purple aura that Sonny emerged from enveloped him again. When it was over, the Werehog version of Sonic appeared once more.

"Oh, Mr. Monster-Guy is back," Chip said as Sonic looked at himself in horror.

"So when the sun goes down, I transform into this?" Sonic looked around and was relieved to see no one around. "Something about this set-up seems familiar."

"Are you all right, Sonny – I mean, Sonic?"

"I'm fine, Chip, but I'll have to make sure none of the people in this town see me like this."

"How did you know my name? Do you and Sonny share memories?"

Sonic nodded. "It comes with the spiritual connection we have."

"So you really are a ghost?"

"I'm a spirit-like entity who possesses Sonny's body from time to time, but I don't remember exactly what I was before I lost physical form though meeting certain people and situations jog my memory."

"Then you're a lot like me, in the sense that we both have amnesia."

"Yeah, plus we've got features that regular humans don't such as my hedgehog ears and your pixie wings."

"You mean these things?" Chip said as the pixie-like wings emerged from his back once more.

"Have you always had those?" Sonic asked.

"As far as I can remember."

"Hmm, then maybe you're a human who's possessed by a spirit-like entity as well."

"You think so?"

"It would explain the wings, and the amnesia."

Before Chip could reply, a loud scream was heard nearby.

"Was that…Miles?"

"Miles?"

"He's a friend of Sonny's, and has a spirit in him named Tails who is a friend of mine."

"I see. It sounds like he's in trouble."

"That's what I'm worried about," Sonic said as he lumbered toward the source of Miles' cry.

To be continued…