Downfall won the competition!
So here is your first chapter from my Halloween story!
...
Sonic stared into the face of a human with a rugged beard and a wild look in his eyes.
"You were one of us for a time." He said eerily. "And you will join us again."
no
A purple light engulfed his vision.
No
Uncomfortable pain wracked his body.
NO
His eyes fell on a pink hedgehog who was on her knees and a yellow fox helping her up.
NO!
He rushed at them.
"Sonic!"
"NO!"
...
Sonic's eyes snapped open and flitted around the cave in fear. His quick breathing slowed when he saw the magenta werewolf who'd woken him up.
"Amy." He said, voice low and gravely.
"Are you okay?" She asked; crouching lower so she was level with his face.
"Y-Yeah." He answered; getting up, stretching, and yawning widely. It still felt weird doing that; made him feel like a dog.
"Nightmares again?" Amy inquired.
"Yeah," Sonic gazed at the bite scar on Amy's arm that was visible even under her fur. Tails had the same mark.
Amy moved so she was sitting on her hind legs in front of him. "Sonic, you need to stop beating yourself up over this. You said it yourself, it's probably for the best that you bit us. Wolfric or Varia could have gotten to us, otherwise."
Sonic shook his head, "I lost control, Amy, what if I'd severely hurt you and Tails? Or worse..."
"No." She insisted. "Quit thinking like that, it won't change the past."
"I know. I just don't want it to happen again."
"It won't." The magenta werewolf assured him.
"Are you two lovebirds done being cute over there?" A white werewolf with gold fur down his back interrupted from the other side of the cave. "I'm hungry."
"You don't need my permission to eat, Loki." Sonic answered with an eye roll.
"Of course, my alpha." Loki answered, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Sonic groaned to himself; that kid drove him nuts. Loki was a 13-year old whose life's goal was to make Sonic lose his mind.
In fact, Sonic had to wonder if that was the only reason the kid had joined the pack at all. So he could brag to the world that he'd driven their hero crazy.
"Oh, leave him alone." A purple werewolf said; stretching an arm out to smack Loki on the head. "He didn't ask to be alpha."
"Thanks Rory." Sonic said. He romped over to the food pile where Loki and an acid green werewolf named Moody were snacking on fruit that probably used to be apples.
The blue werehog snatched his own treat and leaned against the wall of the cavern. "Where's Tails?"
"He went out with Crescent, Leon, and Rex to scout the area." Amy answered.
Sonic nodded and scanned the cave for the rest of the members of his pack.
A grey werewolf named Ash and a brown one named named Piper were still asleep; the youngest two, a white werewolf and a blond werewolf, whose names were Vulpine and Hope, were playing a game they'd made up with rocks; green Ivy was hopping around the treetops just outside the cave; and cyan Winter was chatting with Rory.
So with Tails, Crescent, Leon, and Rex out and about; that was everybody.
Amy came to sit by him, "That day isn't the only thing bothering you, is it?" She asked knowingly.
Sonic stayed silent for a moment, then answered. "Tomorrow will mark a year. A year of this nightmarish world. And what have I done in all that time? Nothing! I haven't tried to fix anything, I haven't tried to find Wolfric or Varia, I haven't even tried to find our other friends! Knuckles, Cream, Rouge, Shadow..."
"Then let's go try and find them."
The blue werewolf shook his head, "I can't abandon the pack, they look up to me."
"I get it." Amy said; gazing at all the werewolves they'd befriended in the past year. "Even though you didn't ask to be the alpha."
"Well, everyone started looking up to me cause I'm 'Sonic the Hedgehog' and I always figure something out. I guess when I realized that that's what I'd become, I accepted it, though."
"So you answered yes to an unspoken question?" Amy tried to joke. When Sonic didn't even smile, she said. "Everything will work out eventually. We just need to wait for a sign that it's time to start changing things."
"I just hope our friends can hold out until then."
"We're back!" Tails called, entering the cave with three other werewolves. "Sorry we took so long, we found an abandoned village and decided to collect some supplies."
"We've got bread!" Leon, a yellow and red maned werewolf shouted.
"Yay!" Hope and Vulpine cheered.
"Boo." Ash moaned. "I can handle fruit, but werewolves do not eat bread."
Loki ran up to Rex, a brown werewolf, and a snatched a piece of his bread with his mouth.
"Hah!" He exclaimed to Ash; crumbs flying from his mouth.
Ash wrinkled his nose, "Very mature, Loki."
"We shouldn't waste food." Tails added.
Loki swallowed the bread, "Eh, I was hungry anyways."
"You're always hungry." Crescent, a silver wolf, joked.
The white and gold wolf huffed and leapt onto a large boulder. "Tell that to the king of the rock!"
Piper instantly took up the challenge and tackled Loki; who pushed him back. "My rock!"
The other werewolves howled in excitement and joined the game; circling around the rock and trying to push Loki off.
Sonic watched the fun from afar for a few minutes, then out of nowhere he shot one of his stretchy arms out and smacked Loki in the back of the head; sending the kid toppling off the rock. "Hey!"
The blue werehog ran up and hopped onto the boulder before anyone could react. "And then it was my rock."
Loki shot him a dirty look; then grinned, got up, and joined the crowd of werewolves who now had their eyes set on Sonic.
Sonic sucked and weaved around the flying fists; nearly losing his balance multiple time. "Hey! Respect the alpha!"
"Crush the alpha! Ivy shouted; using her long arm to trip Sonic.
The blue werewolf stretched a hand up to the ceiling to catch himself. "Whoa, now; let's not be mean."
"Rollin around at the speed of ground!" Rory sang as she crashed into the alpha werewolf from behind; sending them both tumbling to the ground.
Sonic groaned, "Very funny, Rory."
Amy jumped onto the rock in triumph. No one dared challenge her. It hadn't ended well last time.
"Whoo." Rex panted. "I, am exhausted; who wants to go visit the water hole with me?"
Loki, Rory, Hope, and Sonic took him up on the offer.
"I'll hold the fort here." Amy assured them.
Sonic nodded to show that he'd heard; then led the small group out into the dark forest, underneath the almost full moon. Not long til the moon would be it's full, shining self. And every werewolf would...
The thought was interrupted by Loki stretching an arm up to a sturdy tree branch and swinging from tree to tree as they journeyed. So that's why he'd come along!
"Mr. Sonic?" Hope asked; drawing Sonic's attention away from the crazy, white and gold werewolf.
"Hmm?" The blue, former hedgehog gazed down at the young, blond werewolf. She reminded him of Cream; and it made him feel terrible that he hadn't tried to find her yet.
The small werewolf looked up at Sonic, "I heard you talking to Mrs. Amy, earlier; are you really worried about your friends?"
"Yeah." Sonic admitted to the young girl. "But I'm sure they're fine, my friends are really strong."
"You should go find them."
Sonic blinked in surprise at Hope's statement. "But, I can't..."
"We're strong to." Hope assured him with a wide smile. "And you're the fastest thing alive, I'm sure you'll find your friends in no time at all!"
Sonic didn't have the heart to tell her that he didn't have his super speed anymore; so instead he said: "You and the others are my friends to, now. I'm not leaving any of you."
"Then we'll go with you!"
Before Sonic could tell her that no, no one was going anywhere; a cry of surprise reached his sensitive ears.
Loki was wildly swinging his arms at a red and black bat that was flying around his head. "AAAHHH! Vampire! Get it off, get it off, get it off..."
He kept repeating "Get it off" until Rex finally had enough and reached up to swat the furry creature away.
"Calm down, Loki." Rory said. "That probably wasn't even a Vampire."
"Have you ever seen a bat with red stripes!?" Loki argued. "And it tried to bite me!"
No one was listening to the teenager, they were already at the water hole a few feet away; drinking some H2O.
Loki looked around in apprehension; then decided to ignore the encounter and join the others at the small pool of water.
"CANONBALL!" The other werewolves scampered away as Loki crashed into the water.
"WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR!?" Sonic shouted; quickly shaking his fur to get all the water off himself.
"Oh yeah, forgot you hate water." Loki said in a way that made everyone thing he hadn't actually forgotten.
Rex quickly came to his alpha's defense and tackled Loki; sending them both underwater.
Soon Rory and Hope joined the pool fight as Sonic watched in amusement from afar.
But he wasn't the only one watching from afar...
...
It was on the way back to the cave that Sonic found the message.
Everyone but had been thoroughly soaked but him, and they were all ready to head back to the cave; Sonic was taking in the scenery on the way back.
It had just occurred to him that if you see the same places and things over and over again it starts to look dull and you take it for granted; but if you focus on it it's almost like you're seeing it for the first time. His eyes roamed the trees around them, the sky above them, and the ground below...
He froze in shock as he stared at the ground, then he looked up at the tree to his left. Yes! It was the same tree in which Loki had encountered the bat. The bat with red stripes...
"U-Ummm." Sonic said; earning the other werewolves attention. "I-You guys go on ahead, I need to check something."
The all shrugged and continued walked. Once they were far enough away; Sonic took another look at the word and arrow formed on the ground with tree branches embedded into the earth, then raced away to the right as fast as his legs could carry him.
It couldn't be him...could it? After all this time...
Sonic burst into a clearing and stopped. In the center of the tree-vacant area stood a black hedgehog with red eyes, red in his quills, and a red cape on.
No doubt about it, it was Shadow the Hedgehog.
Sonic smiled widely at his rival and broke into a sprint to greet him.
Shadow took a step back and put a hand up, "Don't you dare, Sonic."
Sonic skidded to a halt, understanding that he probably didn't want to tick Shadow off too bad during their reunion. "Shadow! I can't believe it's you! How'd you find me?"
"It was an unfortunate accident." Shadow said as an explanation.
"I liked the message." Sonic said; quickly shifting the conversation. "Although, we haven't called each other 'Faker' in a while."
"I wasn't sure how long you and the others would be, so I tried to think of a single word that'd signal to you that it was me."
"So how've you been?"
Shadow suddenly looked a bit apprehensive. "That's not important."
"Oh." Silence lapsed between the two of them for a couple minutes.
"How long?"
Shadow raised a questioning eyebrow at the inquiry.
"How long have you been a, well...Vampire?" Sonic elaborated hesitantly.
"Since that first day. I had a lot of chaos energy in me, what were you expecting I would be like when you saw me again?"
"I don't know." Sonic admitted.
They were silent for a little longer, until...
"Why did you reach out to me?" Sonic asked.
Shadow stared him in the eye, sending shivers down Sonic's spine. "It's time we change things."