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It had been three months after what was now known as the world shattering event caused by doctor eggman in yet another attempt to seek power. This time by the dark powers of the ancient deity known as dark gaia. Three months of the members of the planet recovering after such a traumatic event. (or in some cases, don’t, either by passing on after a confrontation with a dark gaia minion, or by dying later due to medical issues as a result of said event)
It stands to reason that even the strongest people could fall victim to the full brunt of surviving such an event. No other person fits that description better than one blue hedgehog. Who had been in the crossfire of said event, having been turned into a wicked creature of the night, similar to the dark minions that had stumbled, flew and crawled through the darkest corners of the globe. The only ones aware of Sonic’s identity had been his little bro miles “tails” prower, the human known as Mr pickies, a teacher in the school of spagonia, and a little creature later known as light gaia. But was nicknamed “chip” after mysteriously losing his memory shortly after meeting the infamous hedgehog.
Despite the rapid change into the werehog during the night, sonic still fought through and, with the help of chip, managed to revive all seven of the chaos emeralds in the gaia temples, effectively putting the broken pieces of their world back together, and facing off against dark gaia. Unfortunately the final battle didn’t come without any casualties. Chip, who saw sonic about to plummet into the core of the earth, saved him. And in the end had to return to the earth to keep watch over dark gaia, which he had done since the beginning of time. Leaving behind the necklace he was wearing as something to remember him by.
Since then, sonic has always had it with him, be it on his wrist or in his quills. Wanting to keep the reminder of his dear friend close to him, knowing that he’s never gonna see him again. And that’s where this story begins.
Three months later
Amy placed down a plate of freshly baked cookies on the table with a small clank, joining the batch of other delicacies like fruit cakes, scones and muffins. There was a plate piled high with chili dogs, which sat in front of an empty chair, which Amy glanced at when she thought no one was looking, a small grimace pulling her mouth down in a frown. Tails sighed softly from his spot in his chair at the table, knowing what Amy was worried about, a certain blue hedgehog. It has been three months since the fight with dark gaia, and sonic has become increasingly distant from everyone. The two tailed fox hadn’t known anything was off with him at first, it started with sonic going on his early morning runs earlier than usual, and not coming back until the late evening. But as time passed, Sonic proceeded to stay out later and later, until tails barely even saw him during the day. It worried him, and when he finally got sight of him to ask him if something was wrong he would have this look on his face, like someone having been caught, nervous on his feet and looking seconds away from running off. Then would quickly make an excuse saying he was fine and that he was just tired, and would promptly exit out of the conversation.
It didn’t take him long to come to the conclusion that Sonic was grieving over chip, since he couldn’t think of anything substantial happening prior. and not knowing how to articulate his feelings, sonic does what he always does in these situations- runs away from his problems, which Tails knows isn’t gonna help him in the long run. But all the same, he doesn’t know what to do, he can’t just force his brother to talk about it, cause that would just make things worse, but he’s running out of ideas, and he’s worried that if he doesn’t do something Sonic’s gonna get hurt somehow-
The fox was brought out of his spiral when he felt a soft warm hand get placed on his shoulder, looking into concerned bright green emerald eyes, Amy was standing over him with a concerned frown etched on her face, her eyes wrinkled down by the force of her furrowed brows. Tails felt his heart sink as he realized he was unintentionally making the pink hedgehog worry, but before he could speak, that concerned frown morphed into a ghost of a smile, “tails, I understand you’re still worried about sonic, but constantly worrying about it isn’t gonna get you anywhere.” She said.
Tails was surprised she could read him so well, but thought better of it as his thoughts were probably being reflected on his face, and thought better of it. “I understand what you're saying amy, but it’s been WEEKS since the gaia crisis,” the gaia crisis is what most people have dubbed shortly after and during the crisis. Along with the earth shattering crisis, “eggman messes with shit he shouldn’t” crisis. The last one was his favorite, but he understands why the gaia crisis is the one most people use. “And Sonic’s only become more distant by the day. I know he is capable of taking care of himself, but that doesn’t stop me from worrying.’
Amy nodded her head solemnly, “I know tails, I know. I’m worried for him too. Despite not seeing him that much during the crisis, I got the feeling that he just wasn’t acting like himself. I keep telling myself that he just needs time, but that just isn’t working anymore.”
The two sat in uncomfortable silence as the food on the table continued to cool, which thankfully was the thing to catch her attention, “tell you what, after we eat some lunch, how would you feel if I accompanied you to wherever sonic ran off to?”
Tails stared at her a moment before a wide grin came to his face, almost overtaking his face, “sure!”
As the two began to eat, the sad note in the air seemed to evaporate as the two thought about how they would go about tracking the stubborn hedgehog down. Starting with asking around if anyone had seen the speedy blue hedgehog, knowing how much he liked to travel Amy speculated that the two had a lot of ground to cover.
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Several miles away, sonic lived in a hut in the outskirts of an unnamed city in the state of adabat. The nice crisp air flowing from the ocean does greatly at calming his nerves, even if he doesn’t like water, the smell of the sea is refreshing. he had rented out the hut a few months back, he wasn’t planning to stay here long, but just long enough for him to get his act together.
For the past few months after defeating dark gaia and losing chip, he hadn’t felt like himself since. There was this constant weight on his chest whenever he thought about it, the constant nightmares about chip or his friends being killed by dark gaia or his minions didn’t help either. he hadn't even been able to eat ice cream, it just kept on reminding him of how much chip had loved that chocolate chip supreme, the thing that he was named after. Sonic didn’t want to tell his friends about how he’s been feeling, since they’ve all been really busy with rebuilding cities and towns that had been damaged by the earthquakes caused by the planet splitting apart and moving back into place. He didn’t want to be someone who could distract them from that.
Which is when the constant running in the early hours of the morning had began, on the nights where he couldn’t get to sleep no matter how much he tried, he’d wait until the sun rose to run out of the house, while trying to be as quiet as he could so as not to wake up tails, which worked out better than others, but it’s the thought that counts. He knew he was likely worrying his little brother, which filled him with guilt, thinking he was being a bad brother….
Sonic shook his head as he found himself staring into the bowl of cereal that had been sitting in front of him for the past few minutes, which had undoubtedly gotten soggy. The hedgehog grimaced as he felt the familiar feeling of nausea willing up in his chest. For some odd reason he has had these spikes of nausea for the past few days, without any way of knowing where it came from, he can’t think of anything that he’s eaten recently that could have given him food poisoning.
Sighing, he stood up with the bowl in hand, pouring the contents of it into the trash can, milk and all and placing the empty bowl into the already overflowing sink. Shoulders sagging in defeat, he trudged into the living quarters near the kitchen and grabbed the nausea medicine on a wooden table he had bought from a nearby market a few days ago, right around the time this had begun happening. Afterwards he sat on the edge of the bed with a sigh, before deciding to lay down and wait for the meds to kick in, ending up falling asleep not long after.
An unknown time later, sonic felt a deep throb pulse from somewhere deep in his body as he slowly returned to consciousness, opening his eyes just to look into a dark room. Looking around from his place on the bed, Sonic deduced that it was around late evening. He didn’t remember the nausea medicine having that kinda side effect.
As the hedgehog tried to sit up, another throb of pain spiked through his body, causing him to gasp, looking down at himself to try to figure out where the pain was coming from, he didn’t seem to see or feel any marks or wounds on his body in the dark moonlit room, so the pain might be internal. Just as he thought this, another spike of pain rushed through his body, and this time he was aware of it enough to deduce that the pain was coming from deep in his chest and stomach. And he could feel the sensation traveling down to his legs and arms, causing him to hiss in pain as it felt like his limbs were being stretched out like taffy. It suddenly felt hard to breathe as the pain in his body seemed to become more inflamed by the second, and his whole body seemed to tense up as his limbs felt like they were getting stretched out further and further until he could hear the sound of bones snapping and cracking from his legs up to his arms, with his hands bunched up in his covers as he heaved for breath as the pain continued to course through his body.
Sonic felt himself grunting his teeth as the pain continued to bombard him, and loosely thought the pain flowing through his gums and teeth was just from how tightly he had them clenched. Feeling wetness in his eyes that began trailing down his raised cheeks as he began to let out choked screams and whimpers.
As the pain began to become too much, Sonic vaguely felt himself move onto his stomach as the pain began to travel up his spine and settled somewhere around his tail, and just like with his arms and legs it too began to feel like it was being stretched out, creaks and cracks reverberated in the air once more as the pain in his tail became more and more intense, and at this point sonic just wanted it to end, the comforter under him began to grow wet with his tears as he tried to breathe in air through his chest which felt like it had been broken apart only to be mended back together.
Eventually the nightmarish sensation finally began to subside, and sonic was left a mess, chest heaving as the hedgehog tried to bring in as much air into his body as he could, stopping once or twice to cough and he continued sobbing in pain as he was reminded that his rib cage did not appreciate being jostled too much. It was here sonic stayed until he felt well enough to slowly sit up on the bed, halting abruptly on the way up as his body yelled at him, causing himself to sit half hunched over his bed, his face wet and eyes blurry. As he gently laid back down, forcing his body to relax after whatever the fuck just happened, he noticed his head began sinking further into the mattress then it did before, it was here he noticed after blinking the wetness out of his eyes that the comforter upon his bed had long jagged claw marks running through it, looking as if a wild animal had started clawing at it. As he began feeling the marks with his fingers, his eyes widened as he noticed that his hand looked different, it had turned a familiar light blueish color with sharp claws on each finger tip. Which fit oddly close with the claw marks on the sheets. Heart beginning to race, he inspected his hand and how it looked much bigger, having grown ten times larger than his hand should be. Where his once peachy tan arms used to be were now covered in thick deep blue fur that covered his now thick muscular arm. Looking at his other arm revealed the same thing. Without thinking, sonic rushed off the bed and his knees buckled as his legs fell out from under him with a thud, the hedgehog only had seconds to react to plant his hands on the floor to prevent himself from meeting the ground. Heaving a sigh, sonic army crawled over to the nearest wall and used all his strength to push himself off the floor, shaking as he stood up. He felt pathetic.
Legs continuing to shake, sonic continued to use the wall as leverage to make his way out into the hallway and into the bathroom, once he opened the door, stepped into the room and looked into the mirror he froze.
Standing in front of him was the Thing he wished he’d never see again. His quills and fur were now a dark blue, his ears were bigger and fluffier, and his muzzle and chest were the same color as his hands, with his chest sporting extra fluff, something none of his previous forms had. As he opened his mouth as his breathing began picking up, he was greeted with sharp pearly white fangs that looked as if it could barely fit into his mouth in his normal form.
blood rushing through his head, heart beating mile a minute, sonic slowly began backing away from the mirror, from the terrified Thing in front of him that Shouldn’t Be There- until he tripped over something and fell into the tub, head hitting the wall beside it with enough force to rattle his teeth. long furry limbs sprayed out on all sides like a starfish. Lurching forward in an attempt to get out, Sonic’s hands just barely caught onto the rim of the tub, his claws leaving marks in the porcelain with a sound rivaling nails on a chalkboard that caused the hedgeho-werehog, he corrected himself- to wheeze in pain as his extra sensitive ears pinned back on his head.
Successively pulling himself out of the tub, sonic avoided looking into the mirror as he rushed out of the bathroom and into the hallway once more, just in time for his legs to fall under him for the second time that day. Sonic released a deep growl as he glared down at the offender, not surprised to see that his legs and feet had changed too, his legs looking more like dog legs with how the part where his knees used to be were stretched out in a slight hooked shape, making it so he could only walk on the tips of his toes. No wonder it was so hard to get around, he wasn’t used to having half of his feet limited.
Something in the corner of his eye caught his attention, causing him to look behind himself only to see a long fluffy appendage laying on the floor next to him. Not even my tail stayed the same, Sonic thought numbly as he reached over to grab his tail, giving it a slight squeeze to confirm it was real. Deciding to chance his luck, sonic maneuvered himself so he had his hands on the floor and pushed himself up, wobbling in place for a moment until he steadied himself with his arms spread from his sides, feeling like a newborn deer. Running like this feels near impossible, Sonic thought to himself as he slowly began walking around the hallway of the cabin until he felt steady enough that he wouldn’t fall.
Now that he’s had a moment to recollect himself, sonic felt a wave of fatigue hit him all at once, reminding him that it was probably sometime around midnight. Fighting back a yawn, sonic made his way slightly unsteadily back to his room, flopping on the bed with a huff. With any luck he will at least be back to normal by morning, the thought seemed to greatly relax him as he found himself slowly fading from awareness as his eyes closed, not even budging to cover himself up with the comforter, which were littered with small tears.
As sonic fell asleep, his hind legs twitching, he vaguely felt a heavy feeling in his stomach growing bigger, but the feeling was so small that he barely even noticed it…