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Chapter Text

It was a sweltering hot afternoon in Sandopolis as the mad scientist, Doctor Eggman, searched the zone in his hovercraft vehicle, the Eggmobile.

Sandopolis zone was known for its large desert area, surrounded by pyramids and sand dunes. The zone was located on an island that floated sky high, known as Angel Island. The floating island was home to Knuckles the Echidna, the sole guardian of the Master Emerald. The Master Emerald’s great power was the reason behind why the island was floating, and it’s power often attracted those who wanted to steal it for themselves. As such, the Guardian echidna did not like visitors, especially unannounced.

Eggman’s previous visit to Angel Island had not been a pleasant one, Knuckles had made sure of that, leaving the round man with some memorable bruises. This time around, Eggman did not want a run in with the hot-headed echidna, and had only brought along a small number of robots on the secret exhibition. The doctor hoped he would go undetected.

Sitting in his vehicle, Eggman stroked his long orange moustache while reading through documents on his computer screen, “Find the golden pillar, located in the ruins north of the Sandopolis pyramid.” He was seeking a golden pillar, but it had proven to be more difficult than expected. The building ruins had a significant build-up of sand around them, making it hard to easily spot structures, let alone one that was golden. Eggman’s robots were suitably fitted with tools for the task, and frantically searched the desolate area high and low.

An hour soon had passed, and the golden pillar still had not been found. Eggman banged his fists down hard on the vehicle’s control panel, “I’m sick and tired of this god forsaken zone! Where is it?!” Eggman exclaimed in frustration, he was about ready to cancel the search and return back to his base. He had an abundance of other projects to work on anyway.

Suddenly, a robot hurried over to the doctor, “Pillar..location..has..been..found.”

Eggman grinned widely, following the robot over to a broken stone pillar that was barely poking out from the sand, “Well don’t just stand there, dig it up!” Eggman demanded with an annoyed tone.

The robot got to work, digging up the sand that surrounded the pillar, causing a large hole to form. The stone structure was uncovered, revealing thick golden lines painted on its surface. Soon, the robot stopped digging, it had found a stone. Eggman impatiently jumped out of the Eggmobile and rushed over, grabbing the stone out from the robot’s hand.

“So, this is the mystical stone? Doesn’t look like much,” Eggman said as he held up the stone to inspect it. The stone was about the size of Eggman’s palm, and heavy for its small size. The stone had a thick covering of dirt and grime, which had developed from being buried for hundreds of years. Eggman sat back inside his vehicle and placed the stone into a scanning device. With the press of a button, a beam of light surrounded the stone and the build-up of dirt disintegrated. The stone was now pure white, with sparkling golden engravings that resembled dancing female figures.

“Ah, that’s better! According to the ancient scriptures, this stone has the ability to summon the power of a God!” Eggman picked up the stone and held it tightly. A devilish grin grew across his face as he imagined what he could do with that sort of power.

---

“Hey Eggman!” A familiar voice echoed from nearby, interrupting the doctor’s daydream of world conquest. With a rush of blue light and a dust cloud of sand, a grinning cobalt blue figure appeared at lightning speed. It was Sonic the Hedgehog, Eggman’s arch nemesis and hero of the world.

The blue hedgehog came to a sudden halt, keeping a somewhat safe distance between himself and Eggman, “I heard you were hanging out here, so thought I’d stop by to say hi!” Sonic grinned at the doctor, folding his arms over his chest.

“Sonic?! You blue nuisance!” Eggman was caught off guard by Sonic's sudden appearance. He scrambled inside his Eggmobile, hiding the stone behind his back.

“So, whatcha got there?” Sonic tilted his head slightly to one side, his eyes locking onto Eggman's hidden hand.

“None of your business that’s what!” Eggman roared, pointing a finger at Sonic, “Robots, attack!!!”

The robots that surrounded Eggman marched towards the hedgehog.

“Do you really think your tincans are a match for me?” Sonic laughed, “I guess that’s why you’re an egghead after all!” He focused his attention on three of the robots in front, performing a homing attack and swiftly destroying them. Only seven more to go.

“They don’t need to be a match Sonic, they just need to be a distraction!” Eggman yelled as he pressed a button on his vehicle’s control panel, commanding the remaining robots.

The robots held out their arms at Sonic, and streams of high-pressure water began firing out from all different directions, aiming straight at the hedgehog.

Sonic was taken by surprise at the robots choice of attack, holding his hands out to block the water from hitting him in the face. The water was cold, and it was going everywhere, quickly drenching Sonic’s fur.

Eggman launched the Eggmobile higher into the sky, readying his escape. “Au revoir!” Eggman called out from above, motioning a wave at Sonic below. The Eggmobile blasted off into the distance, leaving Sonic alone with the robots.

“Come back here!” Sonic spluttered out, water in his face. Sonic ducked down, curling into a ball and spinning in a stationary position. He was building up incredible speed, with water flying off his fur. Suddenly, he launched his revved-up attack at the the seven water-gunned robots, smashing them apart.

Sonic wiped his face down with a gloved hand. He looked up at the sky, trying to locate Eggman, but he was no where in sight. “Ugh, what a dumb attack...It's almost as if Eggman knows I don't appreciate lots of water..." Sonic frowned at the thought. How could Eggman possibly know that? Sonic decided it was just another one of Eggman's randomised attack methods.

Sonic reflected on what his adoptive brother and best friend, Tails, had told him. Tails was a smart kid fox, who had a knack for technology. Often, he tried his luck at hacking into Eggman’s systems, and every so often, he got lucky. Recently, Tails had managed to successfully hack into one of Eggman’s central databases, and discovered new data on a mystical stone, hidden underneath the pillars of Sandopolis. Apparently, the stone had the ability to summon godly powers. Sonic had rushed off to find Eggman before he got his hands on the stone.

Sonic felt the earth beneath his feet begin to rumble. An eruption of sand burst from the ground, and a red figure emerged from the newly formed hole.

“Knuckles!” Sonic exclaimed, surprised to see the Guardian echidna.

“Where’s Eggman?” Knuckles demanded, looking around the area that was covered in robot remains.

“Nice to see you too! Egghead took off a few minutes ago,” Sonic gestured to the sky.

“You let him get away?!” Knuckles placed his hands on Sonic’s shoulders, shaking him back and forth.

“Chill out Knuckles,” Sonic said calmly, brushing the echidna’s hands off, “I’ll catch up to him, no biggie.”

“Tails told me what was happening. That stone has some sort of connection with chaos energy…It’s too powerful to be in the hands of Eggman,” Knuckles stated, “we need to get it back before he figures out how to use it!”

Sonic already felt bad that he had let Eggman slip away in the first instance…And he wasn’t going to stick around and get lectured by Knuckles about it. “You don’t need to tell me twice!” Sonic sprinted off, leaving a dust cloud of sand behind.

“Sonic! Wait!!!” Knuckles yelled, swatting the dust out of his face. Sonic was long gone. “Idiot! You might be vulnerable to that stone,” Knuckles said as he chased after Sonic.

Chapter Text

The Eggmobile sped through the sky, with the dessert landscape of Sandopolis still below. It was on autopilot, and on-route back to Eggman’s base. Eggman sat back, feeling accomplished in his successful exhibition of finding the stone.

Eggman was determined to unleash the stone’s power. He had researched into the history of the stone, uncovering that it belonged to a powerful Goddess, Nyoka. According to the scriptures, Nyoka had been called upon by a group of worshippers in distress. But, it was actually a foul trap to capture the Goddess’s power. In a desperate attempt to escape, Nyoka transferred her power and spirit into a white stone that lay nearby, solidifying inside. While the scriptures didn’t go into too much detail, it was enough to understand that the stone was very powerful.

Eggman held the white stone to the sky, his eyes tracing the golden engravings. It certainly was beautiful he noted. “What extra detail am I missing?” Eggman pondered, “Perhaps these engravings are some sort of instruction, I wonder...” Eggman placed the stone back into the scanner device, and fiddled with some buttons. The mysterious engravings decrypted into text. “Genius as usual!” Eggman exclaimed proudly.

“Embrace the chaos filled heart…” Eggman read aloud from the scanner’s screen, scratching his chin and thinking about what it could mean. “Embrace…That could mean holding close. Chaos, probably relates to energy. And a heart, possibly someone with chaos energy…” A certain blue hedgehog came to mind. Over the years, Sonic had frequently interacted with the Chaos Emeralds, that by nature, contained a huge amount of chaos energy. Even to the point it would trigger a super form transformation. Yes, if Eggman required a heart filled with chaos energy, Sonic was the perfect candidate.

“I'll lure Sonic into the stone,” Eggman smiled as a sinister plan quickly came to mind.

---

The blue blur blasted through the sandy dessert, searching the sky for a familiar round hovercraft. Soon enough, Sonic found who he was looking for. But there was one problem: Eggman was sky high in his hovercraft vehicle and out of reach. Sonic looked down at the sand beneath him and grinned. “If Eggman thinks he’s getting away, he’s got another think coming!” He set his strategy in motion, running around in circles, his movements generating a sandstorm.

Eggman stretched lazily in the pilot's seat, letting out a yawn. He had decided he would deal with Sonic tomorrow, and was looking forward to returning back to his base and taking a well deserved nap. Suddenly, a warning beep came from the control panel. Eggman sighed loudly in frustration, fiddling with his monitor to see what was causing the commotion. A huge sandstorm was fast approaching.

The sandstorm rapidly engulfed the hovercraft. A strong gust spun the vehicle in the air, and sand swirled around, obscuring Eggman's vision. The doctor frantically interacted with the control panel, trying to boost out of the storm. But the vehicle had gone into emergency mode, and there was nothing he could do.

Sonic watched the vehicle spin around, descending from the sky as it made an emergency landing. “Well, that was easy!” Sonic exclaimed coming to a halt, causing the sandstorm to gradually disperse. Sonic tapped his foot impatiently as he waited for the Eggmobile to reach the ground.

The hovercraft landed with a thud. An angry Eggman sat inside the cockpit. He rubbed the back of his head, sore from bumping against the seat more than a few times. Suddenly, the Eggmobile began jarring violently back and forth. The hedgehog was repeatedly spin dashing into the covered cockpit, trying to smash it open. The doctor looked at the vehicle vitals, and was happy to see that the system was back online.

"This will teach that pin cushion a lesson!" Eggman slammed a button down on his console, and an electrical force shield was activated. As Sonic launched himself at the Eggmobile for another attack, he was unexpectedly hit by a strong burst of electricity, flinging him off the vehicle and flying backwards, hitting the ground hard.

Sonic groaned as he lay on the ground, electrical shocks roaring through his body.

Eggman opened the vehicle cockpit, standing up from his seat to look across the ground at the electrified hedgehog. Sonic's body was twitching. Perhaps he had the voltage turned up a bit too high he thought. Oh well, it didn’t kill him. And if it did, well, that would have been Sonic’s own fault.

“You don’t look too good, Sonic,” Eggman grinned. He shifted his focus back to the stone. Yes, this was the perfect opportunity to test his theory about how to activate the stone’s power. And Sonic was going to be the test-subject.

“That was a low blow, Eggman…” Sonic grumbled as he slowly sat up from the ground.

“You seem to really want my attention. What do you want?” Eggman asked angrily. In their last encounter, Sonic hadn’t mentioned anything specifically about the stone. Eggman couldn’t be sure if Sonic knew about it, and he would need to adjust his plan accordingly.

Sonic stood up, brushing the sand off his blue fur, “That stone you’ve got, it’s not a toy you should be playing with. Hand it over.”

“A stone? Oh, you mean…This?” Eggman picked up the stone, and waved it in the air. At that same moment, the Eggmobile began firing out lasers, aiming straight for Sonic. Eggman had to make it look like he didn't want Sonic near the stone after all.

“That's the one! Hand it over!” Sonic dodged the beams with ease as he charged at Eggman. Rushing straight into action was Sonic’s style. But, he wouldn’t make the same mistake twice. He quickly scooped up some sand and threw it at the Eggmobile. No electric field was activated this time.

Sonic pushed out his legs, kicking Eggman in the face and forcing him down into the vehicle seat. Sonic jumped on top of Eggman, lunging at the stone.

“Let go of it!” Sonic yelled, trying to pry the stone from Eggman’s grasp. He was surprisingly strong.

“Get away!” Eggman yelled back, tightening his grasp, and using his free hand to punch Sonic hard in the stomach.

Sonic bent over clutching his gut, winded from the punch, “Didn’t think you had it in ya to throw hands…” Getting sucker-punched by your arch nemesis wasn’t good form. And Sonic was annoyed that he still hadn’t managed to get the stone off Eggman.

“You know what, Sonic?” Eggman said, tilting his head to meet Sonic’s gaze.

“You’re gonna hand over the stone? Or get your butt kicked?” Sonic grinned up at the doctor. Eggman didn’t pose any real threat. He’d hand over the stone.

Eggman grinned back at the hedgehog, and with a sudden, quick movement, Eggman forced the stone hard against Sonic’s chest, right where his heart would be.

“What are you doing?!” Sonic eyes widened as the stone began sinking into his flesh, turning his cobalt blue fur instantly white and paralysing his body. He wanted to run away, but his legs wouldn’t budge.

“I’m giving you the stone! I thought this was what you wanted?!” Eggman laughed hysterically as Sonic collapsed backwards, falling off the vehicle and landing on the ground below. Eggman sat back in his seat and looked down at Sonic, watching in anticipation of what would happen next.

A few minutes passed. Nothing. “Well, that was boring,” Eggman said disappointedly. He climbed out of the Eggmobile and walked over to Sonic, whose unconscious body lay face-first in the sand.

“All out of blue?” Eggman laughed, as he looked down at the now white hedgehog, half expecting a sassy reply.

Eggman nudged his foot against Sonic, was he still alive? Nudging a bit harder, he turned Sonic’s limp body over onto its side.

He was speechless as he looked down at Sonic.

Chapter Text

Sonic’s cobalt blue fur had faded to white, and his quills were shorter and noticeably less sharp. His previously muscular chest, now featured two petite breasts. His straight slim figure, now with widened hips. And while Eggman certainly wasn’t going to check “down there”, it could be deduced that Sonic was certainly no longer a male.

Eggman let out a frustrated huff, “Why is Sonic now female?! This makes no sense at all!” Eggman massaged his fingers against his temples. He hated getting things wrong.

“I’ll take Sonic back to the lab and run some tests. There might still be a way to harvest the stone’s power.” Eggman opened up a compartment underneath the Eggmobile, unravelling a thick, metal net. The net was thrown over Sonic, securely encapsulating the unconscious hedgehog. Eggman climbed into the vehicle, activating the net’s electric force field. A precaution in case Sonic happened to wake up.

---

Knuckles was beginning to sweat as he ran along a mountainous sand dune, following the noticeable trail left behind by Sonic. Knuckles couldn’t run as fast as the speedster hedgehog, but he had still managed to catch up in time. He spotted Eggman at the bottom of the sand dune, along with a white figure, trapped in a net. Who was that? And where was Sonic? Knuckles jumped up, and glided down the sand dune to confront Eggman.

“Eggman!” Knuckles roared as he landed on the ground. He rushed over to the white figure, peering into the net to see if he could recognise who it was. Laying down inside was a beautiful girl hedgehog. Her soft quills draped against her face, and her white fur glowed in the sunlight. Knuckles’s face turned bright red as he noticed she was naked.

“You’re a bit late Guardian,” Eggman grinned down at the red echidna.

Knuckles quickly shifted his focus back on Eggman. “Who is this? Let them go!” Knuckles pulled at the metal net, intending to rip it open. He was instantly zapped by a strong burst of electricity.

“YEOOOWCH!” Knuckles yelled, his hands managing to let go of the electrified net.

“Don’t you recognise your old pal, Sonic?” Eggman exclaimed, gesturing at the female hedgehog.

The electric shock hurt Knuckles, but he was more in shock at the revelation of Sonic now being a girl.

Eggman’s hovercraft ascended into the sky, lifting the net containing Sonic up, off the ground.

“Let Sonic go!” Knuckles demanded, chasing after the vehicle.

Eggman laughed hysterically, activating the boost on his Eggmobile. Knuckles watched as the vehicle blasted away, soaring up high into the sky. He couldn’t keep up with that sort of speed.

“Sonic…What the heck happened to you…” Knuckles said as he reflected on the white female hedgehog. “I need to find Tails.”

Chapter Text

Numerous tests were conducted on Sonic while he was unconscious, providing staggering results. Sonic’s absorption of the stone caused a huge accumulation of chaos energy in his body. Eggman noted that Sonic’s physical transformation appeared to resemble that of the ancient female Goddess, Nyoka. The transformation was certainly unexpected, and Eggman had concluded that Sonic was a vessel, containing the Goddess’s power. Eggman planned to find out how to control it.

---

Sonic slowly opened his eyes, fluorescent light blinding him briefly. He gazed around, noting the gray metal walls, and a long metal table in the corner of the room. No windows. It seemed he was in some sort of prison.

Sonic could feel his back pressed against cold metal, and his wrists and ankles locked in place. His arms and legs were spread apart, bound with tight metal cuffs secured to the wall. He pulled on his wrists, testing the restraints that held him. They were solid and strong, unlikely to break from pulling alone.

A throbbing sensation pulsated from Sonic’s chest. He looked down to see a bandage wrapped tightly around his top torso. It was noticeably protruding more than usual, which Sonic found odd. Then he remembered the stone, and how it had absorbed into his chest. Maybe there had been an injury from that event? In any case, his chest was the least of his worries right now. He needed to escape.

A large computer screen mounted on the wall nearby caught Sonic’s eye. The screen was flashing cryptic information that Sonic couldn’t understand. Tails would easily be able to understand that screen Sonic thought. His stomach suddenly sank as a dozen horrible scenarios sprang to his mind. What if Eggman had taken this chance to destroy his home? Destroy his friends? …Destroy Tails? Sonic shook his head, he had to snap out of the worry. He had to focus on the moment right now and not concern himself about what ifs.

Sonic stared at the single door located at the opposite end of the room, “Looks like that door is my only way out.”

“Eggman!” Sonic yelled out, knowing full well that the mad doctor was the reason for his entrapment.

Sonic listened as his voice echoed throughout the room. Something was odd. His voice sounded very different.

“Hello, hello, hello,” Sonic spoke aloud. It wasn’t his imagination. His voice was definitely higher pitched…Like a girl. Sonic squirmed against the restraints trying to see if anything else about him was different, and then, he noticed that his usual blue fur was now white. Sonic remembered his chest...That was different too. Sonic arched his back, pushing his chest out as far the restraints would allow. He peered down the top of the bandage. A gap formed, uncovering a small cleavage. Sonic could feel himself breathing heavier, his hands starting to sweat, and a nervous feeling forming in the pit of his stomach.

“EGGMAN!” Sonic erupted, his face red with anger. Eggman had definitely crossed a line.

Silence.

“Eggman! What have you done?!” Sonic yelled out again.

Still silence.

He continued yelling for what seemed like an eternity.

Sonic was growing very concerned about the situation he was currently in. He now had a higher pitched voice, white fur, and a suspicious looking chest. Something about his body felt wrong. Very wrong. And there was no response from Eggman. Was Eggman ignoring him? Was Eggman even there? Had he been left alone to rot? Sonic began to panic, pulling wildly at the restraints.

Suddenly, the door squealed opened, and a familiar face walked in.

“So, you’re finally awake,” Eggman grinned as he approached the restrained hedgehog, who was conveniently positioned on the wall at the doctors height.

“What did you do to me?” Sonic snapped, glaring daggers at the doctor. Sonic was trying his best to put on a brave face, despite the unnerving situation.

“You wanted the stone, and I gave it to you,” Eggman said with a smug look on his face.

“Why does my voice sound so different? Why's my fur white? And what's up with all these bandages?” Sonic quickly asked, growing desperate for answers.

“Well Sonic…” Eggman paused, “It appears that you are now female,” Eggman snorted at the absurd circumstance his nemesis was in.

“W-what?” Sonic exclaimed in shock, “You turned me into a girl..?" Thoughts quickly raced through Sonic’s head, digesting what Eggman had just said. Sonic didn’t want to be a girl. He loved being a boy. This was a nightmare. An absolute nightmare. And it was all Eggman’s fault.

“YOU ARE INSANE!” Sonic shouted, startling the doctor.

“Settle down,” Eggman loudly interrupted, “I didn’t turn you into a female. The stone did,” Eggman emphasised. He was slightly annoyed at Sonic’s accusation. Purposefully turning Sonic into a female had never been on the agenda. “There may be a way to reverse the transformation. You just have to cooperate.”

“Cooperate?” Sonic scoffed, “I trust you about as much as I can throw you!”

“Oh don’t be like that,” Eggman remarked. “I can help you.”

"That’s a first,” Sonic gave a wry smile. He didn’t believe for a second that the doctor had any intentions of helping him.

“Listen Sonic, I don’t want to be in this situation anymore than you do. But the fact of the matter is, that powerful stone completely absorbed into you, and caused a mysterious transformation. We don’t know what might happen next,” Eggman explained.

Sonic let out a long sigh. He had no idea how he was going to get himself out of this mess. He desperately wanted his body back. And he wasn’t keen on more strange things happening to him. Maybe he could trust Eggman and cooperate…for now.

“I guess I can play along,” Sonic said half-heartedly, not knowing what that would involve.

“Oh how delightful!” Eggman broke into a malicious smile, “First, I will need to conduct a few tests…”

“Tests? What sort of tests?!” Sonic interrupted, very much disliking the idea of being experimented on.

“Slightly invasive...” Eggman inched closer to the hedgehog, “But necessary.” He hooked a finger under Sonic’s chin, tilting it forward, forcing Sonic to look him in the eye, “Or are you enjoying being a girl?” Eggman grinned widely, watching the hedgehog’s reaction.

“What?! No! Reverse me back! I don’t care what has to be done!” Sonic yelled recklessly, overwhelmed with embarrassment at the unwarranted accusation.

“We have an agreement then,” Eggman let go of Sonic and smirked. It had been all too easy to convince the hedgehog to comply. ”As stated previously, I will be conducting some tests. No more questions.” Eggman didn’t care to share with Sonic that numerous tests had already been performed on him while he was unconscious. It didn’t matter. What mattered now was that Sonic needed to be in a conscious state in order to get the data Eggman desired.

Eggman looked down at the device that was wrapped around his wrist, and began pressing a combination of buttons. Six robots walked in to the room, two holding metal trays that had various medical instruments resting on top.

“What are you planning on doing?” Sonic gulped as he eyed a medical instrument that looked like a scalpel.

“Ah-ah, didn’t I just say no more questions?” Eggman picked up a syringe from the tray, and without warning, injected it into Sonic’s arm.

Sonic yelped as the syringe stabbed into his flesh. He felt lightheaded, and the room began to rapidly spin around him. What had he just agreed to?

Chapter Text

“A necessary part of testing. Though there may be some adverse side effects...” Eggman stated, curiously watching the hedgehog. Eggman had injected Sonic with an experimental drug that he had designed to extract chaos energy. Potentially extracting the Goddess, or at least her power. He wasn’t quite sure if it would work, but while he had Sonic captive, he figured he might as well test it out on him.

”What did you do to me…” Sonic coughed, lifting his head up to look at Eggman.

It was hard for Sonic to pull his thoughts together. His head was pounding, and his vision blurred. He had an intense pain in his stomach, feeling like something was stabbing him repeatedly. Sonic winced as the pain grew stronger, and his throat was beginning to tighten. A huge vomit of bright green liquid erupted from his mouth, running down his chest and dripping onto the floor. Sonic could feel every muscle in his body beginning to pull, as if all the fibres in his body were trying to break him apart. He opened his mouth and screamed out in agony.

Blinding, excruciating pain. That was his world for about 60 seconds. Then the pain stopped.

Eggman looked at the computer screen on the wall, checking Sonic’s vitals. ”Hmm, looks like the drug didn’t work after all. Oh well, back to the drawing board,” Eggman mumbled. He turned back around to face Sonic, “How do you feel?” Eggman grinned.

"I feel terrible," Sonic gasped, "but you already knew that,”. He didn’t want to cooperate anymore, Eggman was making him sick. “Eggman can’t be trusted, I should never have given him the benefit of the doubt,” Sonic thought. His mind shifted to thoughts of Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. “Maybe they’re looking for me…” Sonic clung onto the hope that his friends would rescue him.

“Don’t be such a cry baby,” Eggman waved his hand dismissively as he interacted with controls on the wall next to Sonic. The restraints around Sonic’s wrists and ankles unclasped, causing the hedgehog to fall down, collapsing onto his hands and knees.

This was it. This would be Eggman’s mistake Sonic thought. He curled up into a defensive ball, pushing his razor sharp spikes out. He was going to spindash. He was going to break apart everything in this god forsaken prison. He was going to make Eggman pay for toying with him.

Suddenly, Sonic’s thoughts were interrupted. A hand grabbed Sonic by the scruff of his neck, lifting him off the ground. “What!?” Sonic was startled by the unexpected and unwelcome touch.

A sinister grin spread across Eggman's face as he roughly dangled the small hedgehog back and forth, “Your quills are blunt, a side effect from the transformation. Do you want to know another side effect?" Eggman paused, his grin growing wider, "Try running.”

Sonic clawed at Eggman’s hand, trying to break free. His legs kicked about in the air, desperately trying to gain speed, but couldn’t reach any momentum. A feeling of dread came over Sonic as he realised his speed was gone.

Eggman grinned widely at Sonic’s reaction, feeling ecstatic. The speedy hedgehog was always getting in Eggman’s way of world conquest, ruining his plans, destroying his machines. But not this time. Yes, it was deliciously delightful to see Sonic stripped of his powers.

“Let go of me!” Sonic growled angrily, feeling humiliated as Eggman tossed him helplessly about in the air like some sort of toy.

Eggman carried Sonic over to the metal table in the room, throwing him down on top. Two robots stood on either sides of the table, forcing the hedgehog over onto his back.

“Let. Me. GO!” Sonic demanded loudly. He thrashed about, trying desperately to get up off the table. Without his super speed, and in a weaker body, the robots could easily overpower him. The robots locked Sonic’s neck, wrists and ankles into the metal restraints on the table, keeping the hedgehog pressed against the cold surface.

“If I remember correctly, you did agree to do whatever it takes to reverse the transformation,” Eggman stated, reminding the hedgehog of what he had previously agreed to.

“And now I’m saying to stop! Let me go Egghead, this isn’t funny!“ Sonic yelled out, straining and writhing in the metal restraints that clamped down tight.

“You can’t just change your mind. You’ve already agreed!” Eggman cackled, motioning another robot into the room.

Sonic had restricted movement in his neck, but he was able to see the robot as it walked past him. It appeared to be holding draping black material, looking like a towel. The robot positioned itself to be behind Sonic’s head, out of the hedgehog’s line of sight. Sonic’s stomach sank, not knowing what the robot was going to do.

“Is that a towel? If you wanted me to take a shower, all you had to do was ask!” Sonic joked, trying desperately to change the serious tone of the current situation. He knew the towel couldn’t be good, but he couldn’t let panic take over.

“Experiment 055...Waterboarding…Readying commencement,” The robot stated, pressing a button that made the metal table slope downwards slightly, positioning Sonic's head to be lower than his heart.

“Oh shut up! You spoiled the fun!” Eggman whacked the back of the robots head.

“Waterboarding?!” Sonic’s eyes widened and a memory flashed back to when he was a young child...

***

”Haha! I'm the fastest thing alive! Nothing can stop me!" A small young blue hedgehog yelled out confidently, running at the speed of sound through a forest of trees. He flipped forward in the air, quickly turning himself around to run backwards. He rested his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes. He moved with ease, relying on his senses to dodge any incoming obstacles behind him.

The young hedgehog's stomach let out a loud growl, "I'm starving," he momentarily became distracted as he thought about the last time he had eaten. He had eaten a burger for breakfast, and he hadn't eaten for at least a few hours now. "Some chilli-dogs would be good, I could go to the local—" his foot slipped. Sonic had tripped over a tree root in the ground. The fast speed he had been going now worked against him, causing him to fly backwards, tumbling hard against the ground...and then he fell.

The young hedgehog was falling down a steep cliff, his body scraping against jagged rocks. He quickly dug his fingers into the rough surface, managing to stop himself from falling further. Sonic looked down behind him, seeing a raging river below. He panicked, scrambling to pull himself up. Sonic felt loose earth begin to crumble in his fingertips, and he frantically kicked his feet against the cliff, trying to get some sort of toehold. But the force of his kicks caused the edge of the cliff to break away. And he slipped, falling as rocks pelted down at him, crashing into the river below.

"Help!" Sonic cried out, thrashing his arms and legs desperately in the water. He couldn't swim, he didn't know how. The rough rapids were not kind, and they pushed and pulled him through the river like a rag-doll. Then came a long drop, taken down a waterfall, pushed and held roughly under the spiralling currents. He couldn’t escape. He couldn’t breathe. He was going to drown.

Then suddenly, he felt two claws wrap tightly around his body. He woke up on the riverbank nearby.

***

After that traumatic event, Sonic had avoided bodies of water. He was terrified of drowning.

“H-hey, surely you could try something else instead?” Sonic laughed nervously, his ears pinned flat against his head. He forced a smile as he locked pleading eyes with the doctor. Sonic was trying to stay calm, and not let the rising fear overwhelm him.

Eggman turned away from the hedgehog, feeling an unexpected twinge of pity for his nemesis. He had never actually seen Sonic look scared before. Even when Sonic battled against some of Eggman’s most violent machines, he still kept his never-say-die attitude. It was almost uncomfortable for the doctor to see the usually brave hedgehog in such a fearful state. But, he had already started the experiment, and he was not a quitter. He cleared his throat, “Experiment 055 commence.”

The robot holding the towel placed it over Sonic, covering his face.

“No!” Sonic called out through the darkness of the towel. His adrenaline surged, pulling against the restraints furiously, tossing his head back and forth, trying to shake the towel off. He could feel the metal restraints bruising and rubbing his skin raw as he tugged. But it was useless, the restraints didn't budge. Sonic realised there was no way he could get out of this, and no amount of rage could push away the fear brewing inside of him.

Cold water suddenly poured down onto Sonic's face, knocking the breath out of him, and causing him to gasp. Water flooded his throat, making him choke and splutter. He tried to breathe again, but inhaling brought the damp towel down tightly against his face, making it impossible to breathe through. Sonic couldn't breathe, and sheer panic flooded him. He thrashed against the restraints, the metal cutting into his flesh and blood tickling as it ran down in small streams. His body was trembling and his heart raced faster and faster.

At thirty seconds, the towel was lifted up. Sonic gasped for air, taking fast and shallow breathes. He was still trembling from the horrible treatment he had just endured, “Y-You bastard!” Sonic spluttered out, clenching his fists so tight that his nails were digging in to his palms.

“I’d focus on breathing rather than talking if I were you,” Eggman motioned for the robot to cover Sonic’s face with the towel.

It went dark again. Sonic yanked and pulled at the restraints, feeling the sting of cold metal dig into his cut skin. The water felt less cold this time, and Sonic tried to hold his breath. But the tilted downward position of Sonic's head made it difficult to keep the water out. Water quickly trickled down his face, flowing into his nose, going down his throat. He gagged, and his mouth reflexively opened in the hope of air, but only received water. He was trapped in a dark suffocating wave, with panic roaring through him.

After another thirty seconds, the towel was lifted away. Eggman peered down at the hedgehog curiously, “You’re lasting longer than expected.”

Sonic choked, coughing up water and wheezing for air. His throat was raw and his lungs burned. “Stop…” Sonic gasped out, breathing quickly, and trying to take in as much air as possible.

And then the process repeated itself. The robot covered Sonic’s face with the towel, suffocating him with water. The towel was removed, giving Sonic a few seconds to breathe, and then the towel went back on. The robot repeated this over and over again. Sonic couldn’t think, his thoughts were overwhelmed with fear and panic. It was one big blur of constant drowning, and he was absolutely terrified.

Finally, the robot lifted away the towel for more than a few seconds, revealing an exhausted, shivering Sonic underneath. He was cold and his fur was dripping wet. His eyes were tightly shut, and his lips quivering.

"You certainly have a strong will for survival...It’s annoying,” Eggman remarked, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "So, I think we will leave the towel on indefinitely this time."

Sonic's eyes opened wide at those words, but the darkness of the towel had already covered his vision. The towel smothered his face as water rapidly poured down, burning his sinuses and throat. Sonic was exhausted, and at his limit. Eggman was actually going to kill him by drowning. And this realisation made Sonic’s heart pound so rapidly against his chest that he felt like he was going to have a heart attack. "This is it…I’m going to die...” Sonic thought, his eyes rolling back and his lungs giving in.

Suddenly, a burst of light erupted from Sonic, throwing Eggman against the front wall of the room, and breaking apart the surrounding robots. Sonic stood on top of the metal table. He had a bright aura glowing around his body.

“You dare to harm my vessel?” A loud voice boomed.

“It worked!” Eggman exclaimed, picking himself up from the ground and focussing his full attention on the Goddess that stood before him. The Goddess that he, the great Doctor Eggman, had figured out how to summon. He had hypothesised that causing a strong emotional reaction in Sonic would cause a strong reaction with the chaos energy inside him. All it took was for Sonic to truly fear for his life! Genius.

The white hedgehog stared at Eggman with a stern, unforgiving expression.

“Goddess…Goddess Nyoka!” Eggman yelled out at the hedgehog, “I command the power of the heart!”

“You command the power of the heart?” The Goddess questioned, “You do not have a pure heart. You are not worthy of my power.” The hedgehog motioned her arm towards Eggman, sending a beam of light towards him, knocking the doctor unconscious.

The Goddess levitated off the table, making her way out of the metal room, down the corridor.

Chapter Text

Security alarms blasted as Knuckles and Tails ran through a maze of long, dark corridors inside Eggman’s base. The corridors lit up intermittently by the flashing of red lights, and an occasional announcement from the speakers “intruder alert” could be heard. Apart from this, it was unusually quiet. There didn’t seem to be any robots around. Or any sign of Eggman.

Tails held onto his tablet device, which lit up the path in front. He was hoping to locate heat signals to guide them to Sonic. But nothing was showing on the display. Either Eggman had built his base to block out heat-detecting signals, or…He didn't want to think about the alternative.

“I hope we’re not too late,” Tails said worryingly, looking up at the red echidna who was running next to him.

“Sonic can hold his own,” Knuckles said reassuringly to the fox. He hoped Tails hadn’t sensed his own worry of the hedgehog.

Tails let out a sigh. He reflected on how he had told Sonic about the Goddess Stone, and how Sonic had rushed off to find Eggman who was searching for it. But, it was only after Sonic had left, that Tails found some hidden glyphs, which decrypted to say "Embrace chaos filled heart". Tails wasn't quite sure what the words meant. He had contacted Knuckles about it, who said that Sonic might be susceptible to the stone’s power, and agreed to find the hedgehog to warn him. And then...Sonic somehow transformed into a girl. It just didn't make any sense.

"It's my fault, Sonic...I shouldn't have let you rush off in the first place..." Tails thought to himself. The fox began running at a faster pace, overtaking the red echidna, "Hurry up Knuckles! We need to find Sonic!"

"Tails! Don't rush off!" Knuckles yelled as he ran faster, catching up with the speedy fox.

---

The Goddess’s eyes glowed bright gold and a golden aura surrounded her body. She stood still, arms out stretched, and palms facing upwards with light radiating from them.

Nearby robots had spotted the prisoner escaping, and responded by charging at the Goddess. A huge shockwave of energy emitted from the Goddess's body, delicately ripping the robots apart. The shockwave's force significantly increased, radiating throughout Eggman’s entire base and disintegrating all robots, returning them to the earth. The Goddess collapsed onto the ground, and the golden light that had once surrounded her, faded away.

Sonic awoke to the sound of alarms blaring. He squinted his eyes open, and was greeted with flashes of red light.

“Alarms…” Sonic was dazed, but forced himself up from the ground, and into a defensive position. He could could be in danger.

Nothing happened.

Sonic was confused. What had happened? He couldn’t remember that part. The last thing he remembered was being trapped in Eggman’s prison, and finding out that he was not himself. Sonic looked down at his chest, letting out a defeated sigh as he cupped his petite breasts.

“And Eggman...That bastard!” Sonic cursed, remembering that Eggman had tortured him with water. “I can’t remember anything after that though,” Sonic rubbed his head, as if that might jog his memory, “In any case, I need to find Tails. He will know what to do,” Sonic said, reassuring himself.

At that moment, a burst of green bright light appeared in front of Sonic. The light was familiar to Sonic. It was from Chaos Control, an ability to warp using the power of a Chaos Emerald.

As the light faded, a black hedgehog with crimson red stripes along his spikes was revealed. The hedgehog’s name was Shadow, and was well known to Sonic. The two hedgehog's often competed with each other, particularly when it came to speed. And while Shadow and Sonic certainly weren’t best friends, Sonic generally considered Shadow an ally. But the thought of Shadow finding out that Sonic was now a girl, made Sonic feel surprisingly embarrassed. Sonic decided to not disclose that information to the black hedgehog. Not yet anyway. He needed to find out why Shadow was here, and if this time round, he was friend or foe.

Shadow crossed his arms as he eyed the unknown, female hedgehog that stood before him. Her fur was white, with soft ruffled quills, as if she had just gotten out of bed. Wrapped tightly around her chest and groin were ripped-up bandages, barely concealing what they were covering. Shadow felt slightly uncomfortable in the almost-naked girl's presence.

Sonic stared back at the black hedgehog. Shadow always acted so moody. And why was Shadow even here? Maybe he had teamed up with Eggman? The timing was very suspicious Sonic thought.

“What are you here for? Are you helping Eggman?” Sonic asked the black hedgehog.

Shadow wondered who the girl was and what her involvement with Eggman was. Why was she in Eggman’s base alone? Regardless, he didn’t like being accused of things, especially from strangers. “I’m just here for the Chaos Emeralds. Do you have them?” Shadow asked calmly.

“Do I look like I have Chaos Emeralds on me?” Sonic said in a deadpan voice. His hands gestured up and down his body, emphasising the fact that he was half-naked.

Shadow’s eyes followed the female hedgehog’s hand movements, shifting his focus on her white furred body, covered in minimal bandages. Her body was toned, yet soft. Quite soft. Shadow felt flustered as his eyes traced her body. She was gorgeous. Shadow quickly pulled his thoughts together and cleared his throat, “I suppose not.”

Shadow had come to Eggman’s base because there had been a report from G.U.N, the worldwide military group, that Doctor Eggman’s base had extremely high chaos energy readings. Shadow had been sent to investigate. Shadow knew that strong chaos energy usually meant that Chaos Emeralds were involved. The mad doctor was obsessed with world domination, and the power from Chaos Emeralds were his ticket to achieving that. Shadow wouldn’t allow such a fool to take over the world.

Shadow closed his eyes. He found that if he concentrated, he could channel in on nearby chaos energy. That’s what had led him to this exact location in the first place. "This girl…I can feel strong chaos energy radiating from her," Shadow thought to himself.

Sonic sighed in relief. Shadow was just after Chaos Emeralds. He wasn’t working with Eggman. And he seemed to have no idea about the Goddess Stone. “Well now that’s sorted, I’ve gotta get out of here! See ya!” Sonic winked, and waved goodbye to the black hedgehog. Sonic needed to find Tails as soon as possible. He desperately wanted to be his old, blue self again.

Shadow quickly shifted to be directly in front of the female hedgehog, blocking her path, “I know you're harnessing chaos energy, it's not safe. You need to come with me. I will take you back to G.U.N,” Shadow said, almost demanding. This girl was harnessing a huge amount of chaos energy, Shadow was sure of it. She was a danger to everyone, including herself.

“Take me to G.U.N?” Sonic frowned, "You’re not taking me anywhere,” Sonic said defiantly, pushing past the black hedgehog. Sonic was not going to be taken in to the military agency, known as G.U.N. They were notorious for unethical experimentation. He’d already been through hell with Eggman, who knows what G.U.N would do.

Sonic’s arm was suddenly grabbed from behind. Sonic pulled his arm to break away, but Shadow held on firmly.

“You are coming with me,” Shadow said warningly, narrowing his eyes at the girl.

Sonic spun his leg around to deliver a kick to the black hedgehog’s stomach. Unfortunately, Sonic’s usual speed was no where to be found, and the kick was easily countered by Shadow. Shadow grabbed the girl's leg, quickly spinning her around and landing her face first on the ground. Shadow pressed his knees into the back of the girl’s legs, preventing any further kicks. In a split second, he had pulled her arms tightly behind her back, restraining them with some sort of electrical binding.

Shadow let out of a frustrated sigh, he didn’t enjoy having to restrain those weaker than him, but it had to be done. This girl had to be taken to G.U.N so that the chaos energy could be controlled.

“Let me go!” Sonic huffed, squirming underneath the black hedgehog. Sonic felt incredibly frustrated at the current situation. Shadow was too strong to shake off.

Shadow pulled the girl effortlessly off the ground, and held onto her arm tightly. From all the commotion between the two, the bandages wrapped around the girl's chest had fallen down. A blush reddened Shadow's cheeks as he eyed the hedgehog's two naked, perky breasts.

Without a moments thought, Sonic quickly threw a knee up at the black hedgehog, hitting him off-guard in the groin. Yes, it was a sucker shot, and Sonic wasn't proud of it. But desperate times called for desperate measures. "Have fun with that!" Sonic let out a laugh and ran away as fast as he could, albeit his hands still restrained behind his back.

Shadow bent over, holding his stomach in a response to the pain that was just dealt to him. Shadow grunted at he stood up, watching the white hedgehog fade into the distance.

Sonic could see an exit up ahead. If he could just make it there quickly, he might be able to shut the door off from the other side, stopping Shadow from getting through.

Suddenly, Sonic felt a strong gust of wind behind him. In an instant, Shadow stood in front of the white hedgehog, lifting the girl off her feet, and pushing her against the corridor wall. He placed his hands between the sides of her head.

“Don’t play games with me.” He moved his face close to the female hedgehog, his eyebrows drawn down in a frown, “I don’t have the time or patience.”

Sonic’s eyes widened as he met Shadow’s, feeling unusually nervous with Shadow surrounding him. Sonic let out a soft squeak to his embarrassment.

Shadow’s expression slowly softened and his eyes changed focus to gently move away a strand of hair from the girl’s face. She was beautiful, and Shadow couldn’t deny that he was attracted to her. “I don’t want to hurt you. But you do need to come with me. I’ll make sure you’re safe,” Shadow whispered into her ear.

Sonic’s body shuddered slightly as he felt Shadow’s hot breath, “Is Shadow…Flirting with me?” Sonic gulped at the thought. He wasn’t sure anymore about what Shadow’s intentions were. Perhaps he needed to stop playing around and just tell Shadow about the transformation…Even if it would be embarrassing.

“Geez faker, way to make me all hot and bothered!“ Sonic said in jest, a hint of nervousness in his tone.

“Faker?” Shadow repeated, looking puzzled. The only one that ever called him that nickname was a certain blue hedgehog. And the hedgehog in front of him certainly wasn’t blue.

“…Sonic?” Shadow said hesitantly, stepping backwards.

“Isn't it obvious?” Sonic grinned widely with a wink, “Yes, it’s me, the one and only...Sonic the Hedgehog!”

“...How are you a girl?” Shadow blinked, dumbfounded. The realisation that this gorgeous girl was actually Sonic, made Shadow embarrassed, and feeling like some sort of fool.

“It’s a long story Shadow…involving a mysterious stone,” Sonic said, “I need to find Tails, he’ll be able to figure out how to fix this mess. I hate to ask, but can you help me?” Sonic didn’t particularly like asking others for help, but he probably couldn’t do this by himself. Not without his sonic speed.

Shadow sighed, mentally debating whether or not he should help. He trusted that Sonic was telling the truth at least. There had been no reason to doubt Sonic’s integrity, particularly from all their past interactions. Though he was annoyed that Sonic hadn't told him straight away that he was transformed into a girl. That Shadow had to go through this silly little charade with Sonic. And that he had made Shadow feel…Well, quite attracted to him.

“I suppose I can help you,” Shadow paused, “but do you understand that you’re harnessing a huge amount of chaos energy?”

“Chaos energy...It must be from the Goddess stone that was absorbed into me!” Sonic exclaimed.

“A stone was absorbed into you? Not an emerald?” Shadow asked, he had never heard of a stone containing chaos energy before.

“Yeah, the Goddess Stone. It’s supposed to grant godly powers. I confronted Eggman who had found it…But he kinda pushed the stone into my chest, and then this transformation happened,” Sonic said, pointing at himself.

“I see,” Shadow said, avoiding looking at Sonic's body, especially his noticeable bare chest. He still found it quite perplexing that this female hedgehog was Sonic. But then again, he wasn’t completely surprised that this had happened to Sonic. Sonic was too impulsive, too reckless. Sonic had probably chased after the doctor and the mystical stone without thinking about any consequences.

“So, do you think you could take this thing off me now?” Sonic spun around and presented his bound hands, wiggling his fingers.

“I’m not sure if I should. At least with you restrained, you won’t be able to get up to trouble,” Shadow commented.

Sonic frowned, was Shadow being serious?

Shadow snickered, and removed the electrical bindings from Sonic’s wrists.

Sonic smiled, Shadow was joking…a joke! Guess there’s a first time for everything. “Thanks Shadow, thought you were serious for a second there!” Sonic laughed, and pulled the fallen bandages up, covering his breasts. While he was in this female body, he would at least be modest.

"Do you think you can Chaos Control us out of here? Let’s try Tails’s workshop,” Sonic put his arm around Shadow’s shoulder, preparing for the warp from Chaos Control.

“Alright, hold on,” Shadow could feel Sonic's chest brush up against him. He quickly reminded himself that this girl was Sonic. Sonic was a boy. And he couldn’t let Sonic’s transformation distract him.

“Chaos Control!” Shadow yelled, and with a flash of green light, the two hedgehogs disappeared.

Chapter Text

“Did you see that?” Knuckles exclaimed, seeing a bright green light flash in the distance.

“I think it came from the fork to the right!” Tails said pointing to the end of the long corridor.

Tails and Knuckles swiftly made their way to where they had seen the flash of bright green light, hoping to find Sonic. Unfortunately, the long corridor was empty, with only rows of doors to be seen.
 
“Oh great, we were too slow,” Knuckles said gruffly.
 
“Wait Knuckles, look! Someone was here…” Tails said, picking up a piece of bandage cloth from the ground. “Maybe it was Sonic?”
 
Knuckles glanced around the area, looking for any more clues. He noticed a light shining from a door nearby, and walked over. He slowly opened the door, peering cautiously into the room. Inside the room, lay an unconscious Eggman. “Looks like we just got lucky,” Knuckles smirked.
 
“Tails, get over here quick!” Knuckles called out, motioning the fox to come over.
 
Tails put the piece of cloth away, and jogged over to the room where Knuckles was. Tails let out a loud gasp when he saw the motionless Doctor Eggman passed out on the floor. He hadn’t expected this.
 
“Let’s tie him up!” Knuckles grinned, “Interrogation time.”
 
“But what if it’s a trap…” Tails said warily. He knew very well that Eggman was always up to no good. And the fact that there wasn’t a robot in sight, it seemed way too suspicious.
 
“See these?” Knuckles said as he held out his knuckled fists, “If he tries anything, he’ll be getting another knock out!”

Tails laughed, Knuckles was right. Together they were a strong team, even without Sonic around. Surely they would be able to handle things.
 
“Alright,” Tails agreed, scanning the room for something to restrain the doctor with. Tails caught sight of the restraints on the back wall, where unbeknownst to him, Sonic had been previously locked up.

“There are some restraints on the back wall. Do you think you can lift Eggman over there?” Tails asked.

“Pfft of course I can!” Knuckles said defensively. He grabbed Eggman’s legs, dragging the round man to back of the room. Knuckles manoeuvred Eggman’s limp body around, positioning and holding his arms up so that Tails could bind them with the wall restraints.

The fox and echidna stood back to admire their effort, exchanging a high-five. The unconscious Eggman sat on the ground with his back resting against the metal wall, arms suspended and restrained, and his head drooping over. He certainly wasn’t going to be able to escape easily.

“Now all we have to do is wait,” Tails said.

- - -

Shadow and Sonic teleported to Tails’s workshop. The workshop was messy, and filled with an abundance of tools, books, mechanical gadgets and computer screens. 

Shadow watched as Sonic raced frantically around the workshop trying to find his friend. “Tails! Tails! Where are you buddy?” Sonic yelled out.

A large window, filling up with the morning sun caught Shadow’s attention. He walked over and peered out, his eyes meeting a stunning view of the ocean. There was a long desk positioned next to the window, with an open book. An illustration of a familiar hedgehog caught Shadow’s eye. The illustration was of Sonic, well, Sonic’s current female transformation. Shadow read through the information on the page of the book:

The Goddess Nyoka was once a popular deity that was celebrated by animals tribes on Earth. The Goddess was part of a small group of Gods that provided support to life on Earth. Unfortunately, Nyoka’s caring nature was her downfall. A group of Shaman had called out to Nyoka for help, but it had been a trap to steal her powers. In an attempt to escape, Nyoka transferred her power and spirit into a white stone that lay nearby. Many tried to release her, but none succeeded.

“Interesting,” Shadow mumbled, as he eyed some scribbled notes next to the book. The notes had glyph symbols, with written text underneath. “Embrace chaos filled heart…” Shadow reflected on what Sonic had told him. How Eggman had pushed the mystical stone into Sonic’s chest, absorbing into him and causing the transformation. Shadow let out a sigh, Sonic had ran right into Eggman’s trap. “Not surprising,” Shadow thought to himself, smirking slightly at the ridiculous situation Sonic had gotten himself into.

“I don’t think Tails is here,” Sonic said as he walked over to Shadow, “I hope he’s ok.”

Shadow placed the notes back down on the table, and turned around to face Sonic who was standing behind him. “The G.U.N reports said that Eggman had not left his base for approximately the last 48 hours. It seems he was preoccupied with you. I’m sure your fox friend is fine,” Shadow stated.

“Thanks Shadow. I really should have more confidence in Tails and his ability to look after himself…It’s just, he’s like a brother to me. I feel responsible for him. If anything were to happen to him, I’d never forgive myself…” Sonic said softly.

“I understand. Caring for others can be…” Shadow paused, his eyes glancing down, "Tough." Shadow had once cared for another. Her name was Maria. She was Shadow’s childhood friend…His only friend. He cared so much for her, only for her to be taken from him. Shadow felt his stomach sink as he remembered the day she was gunned down in front of him.

“Yeah it can be…But I wouldn’t change it for the world,” Sonic said, “I know I won’t be around forever, but in the time that I do have, I want to protect those that I care for.”

“What if you fail to protect those you care for? Then what?” Shadow exclaimed suddenly, a slightly pained expression on his face, “What’s the point of caring…When it just brings pain.”

“I see your point,” Sonic said gently, “but, that’s no way to live life. You can’t live in fear of what might happen. Having meaningful connections with others…That’s worth the risk of pain in my opinion. Yeah, I could just live for myself, be as free as the wind, not have anyone to worry about, and I’d never get hurt. But that would be such a lonely life.”

Lonely. Those words hit Shadow hard. Was he lonely? No, he didn’t need others to feel fulfilled. He was content being by himself. “I’m not lonely. I don’t need anyone,” Shadow thought.

“I’m always here if you need someone to talk to,” Sonic smiled warmly as he gently placed a hand on Shadow’s arm.

Sonic’s offer caught Shadow off-guard. It almost annoyed Shadow when Sonic was so nice to him, especially when it was unwarranted. “Hmph, you might regret offering that,” Shadow grunted, brushing Sonic’s hand off.

“No way, I’m always here for my friends!” Sonic beamed.

“Friends? Sonic considers me to be his friend?” Shadow thought. Shadow had always considered Sonic a rival, at best an ally. He grimaced at the thought of Sonic’s friends, unquestionably following Sonic around and being so dependent on one another. No, Shadow wasn’t going to be another one of Sonic’s little friends. Shadow was independent of Sonic. Shadow glared at him, “We’re not friends,” Shadow said coldly.

Sonic let out a sigh. He felt like he and Shadow had formed somewhat of a friendly relationship over the years. It was disappointing that Shadow didn’t feel the same way. “Ok, rivals then. I’m always here for my rivals!” Sonic chuckled.

“Pfft, rivals? To be a rival, you need to actually be a challenge,” Shadow scoffed.

“I am a challenge! I’ve beaten you every race we’ve had! And I’ve whooped your butt every fight we’ve had!” Sonic bragged.

Shadow crossed his arms, rolling his eyes at Sonic.

Sonic began bouncing up and down, throwing punches in the air, “In fact, you’re not good enough to be my rival…” Sonic said, a playful banter in his voice. “You’re not even good enough to be my fake!” Sonic let out a laugh, grinning widely at Shadow with a challenging stare.

Shadow smirked at Sonic’s comment. Shadow had once said those exact words to Sonic when they had first met as enemies. He and Sonic had certainly come a long way since their first encounter. And Shadow couldn’t help but like Sonic, he didn’t actually hate the hedgehog. Still, he wouldn’t allow Sonic to get away with disrespecting him, even if it was in jest.

In a flash, Shadow had kicked Sonic’s legs off the ground, making him tumble over backwards with a hard thump. Shadow stood over the white hedgehog, his foot pressing down on Sonic’s stomach, pinning him to the floor. “You were saying?” Shadow grinned, flashing his teeth.

Sonic grimaced as he looked up at the black hedgehog standing over him. Sonic pushed Shadow’s foot off his stomach and began to sit up. Shadow quickly shoved Sonic back against the floor with his foot. “You know, I’m kind of enjoying this,” Shadow said with a smug look on his face.

“Because you want to see me chuck up chillidogs?” Sonic groaned, squirming under Shadow’s foot.

“Because you always think you’ve won,” Shadow stated.

“I do always win!” Sonic said confidently.

“Hmm? You do?” Shadow asked mockingly, pressing his foot down on Sonic’s stomach, reminding the hedgehog of his current position.

“Yes!” Sonic said, letting out a groan, “And any win you’re getting at the moment is just cheating! I’m currently a girl if you hadn’t noticed!”

“Well then, you’d be wise to not challenge me while you’re transformed,” Shadow said calmly, tapping his foot against Sonic’s stomach.

“It’s not my fault you can’t take a joke!” Sonic blurted out.

Shadow glared at Sonic, eyes narrowed, “Maybe you do want to ‘chuck up chilldogs’ after all?” The black hedgehog slowly pressed his foot down on Sonic’s stomach.

“Come on Shadow, this isn’t fair!” Sonic exclaimed. Shadow was really starting to hurt his stomach.

“Hmm, you’re right, it isn’t fair,” Shadow admitted. Sonic was in a much weaker form, and Shadow easily had the upper hand. It wasn’t a fair challenge. “But don’t test me hedgehog, I don’t have the patience for your games.”

Shadow removed his foot off from the white hedgehog. Sonic winced and picked himself up from the floor, his stomach still hurting slightly.

“Geez Shadow, talk about an overreaction. But, you know…I am going to get you back for that once I’m back to normal!” Sonic said, brushing himself down.

“You can try,” Shadow smirked.

Chapter Text

The unconscious doctor Eggman sat with his back against the wall. His limp body falling over, only to be stopped by his restrained arms.

Eggman didn’t stir as Knuckles slapped him across the face, trying to wake him. When it didn’t work, Knuckles slapped him again. Then again. Then ten more times. Knuckles’s right hand tightened into a fist, getting ready to collide with Eggman’s face.

”Knuckles! Stop!” Tails grabbed Knuckles’s fist, stopping the hot-headed echidna before he punched the doctor square in the face. “He’s not going to wake up from you hitting him, you’re just going to give him a black eye!”

“Ugh fine, just how long does this man want to sleep for anyway?” Knuckles complained, pulling away from the fox and crossing his arms.

Tails shrugged, he had no idea how long it would take for Eggman to wake up. “We just have to wait. In the meantime, I’m going to check in on the workshop.”

“You can’t just leave Tails, we’re so close!” Knuckles huffed, he was annoyed that Tails suddenly wanted to abandon the mission.

“I’m not leaving Knuckles. I meant check in remotely!” Tails waved his tablet in the air.

“Oh yeah, sure thing,” Knuckles said, not sure what Tails meant.

“Before we infiltrated Eggman’s base, I disabled the tablet’s network communications and configured extra security protocols to prevent Eggman from being able to pick up on us,” Tails explained.

Knuckles nodded, still not understanding at all what Tails was talking about.

“Is that Sonic?! And is he with Shadow?” Tails exclaimed suddenly, pointing at the screen to show Knuckles the live camera feed from his workshop.

Knuckles peered at the screen, seeing a familiar white female hedgehog. That was Sonic alright. “Yep, that’s him! Looks like he is ok,” Knuckles said relieved.

“I’m going to connect to my computer in the workshop so that we can talk to them!” Tails said excitedly, pressing some buttons on his tablet device.

“Hello?” Tails spoke into the tablet speaker.

The familiar voice startled Sonic and Shadow. The voice came from behind, and the two hedgehogs turned around to face the computer. Tails’s face was displayed on the large screen.

“Tails! It’s good to see you buddy!” Sonic was absolutely thrilled to see his brother.

“Sonic! I’m so glad you’re ok!” Tails let out a relieved sigh. The young fox had been worried about Sonic ever since Knuckles told him about the transformation. He felt guilty for letting Sonic run off to get the stone without fully understanding potential consequences.

“Of course I’m ok! Well, apart from being a girl!” Sonic laughed. He had to laugh at himself. Because if you didn’t laugh, you would cry.

”I’m so sorry Sonic, if only I had researched the stone more extensively before I let you go after Eggman…” Tails hung his head. It was his fault this transformation happened to Sonic.

”Tails, there’s no way you could have known. Heck, Eggman didn’t even know about the transformation and he was obsessed with the stone!” Sonic said reassuringly.

Tails felt himself relax at Sonic’s words. Sonic was right. He had researched the Goddess stone as much as possible, and no where did it say that the stone could cause a transformation.

Knuckles interrupted, pulling the tablet screen to face him, “Well I told you not to go after the stone, didn’t I?!”

Knuckles had speculated that the stone might cause a reaction with Sonic given his history with chaos energy. The echidna had surprisingly been right, though he never would have thought the reaction would cause Sonic to transform into a girl.

“Hmm, don’t remember hearing that, you were probably too slow to tell me!” Sonic teased, he loved getting a rise out of Knuckles.

“Too slow?!” Knuckles snapped, “If you hadn’t of rushed off without thinking, none of this mess would have happened!”

“I was trying to stop Eggman! There wasn’t enough time to stop and chit chat!” Sonic said defensively.

Tails rolled his eyes as the echidna and hedgehog argued. Sonic had an impulsive nature, often acting first before thinking. But there wasn’t any point arguing about that fact. Tails pulled the screen off Knuckles and focused it back on himself. “We’ll get out of here and meet you at my workshop, and then figure out next steps. See you soon Sonic!” Tails motioned a wave at the screen.

“Sounds good, see you guys soon!” Sonic waved back, and the computer screen went blank.

“I’m glad they’re ok,” Sonic let out a long sigh of relief.

Shadow nodded in agreement. He was also glad that Sonic’s friends were unharmed.

At that moment, Sonic felt a strange sensation overflow him. The pupils of his eyes turned white, and a golden aura blasted throughout the workshop. Sonic began losing his balance, blacking out.

Shadow felt the force from the aura as it blasted past him, watching the entire room light up golden. “Sonic!” Shadow exclaimed, quickly rushing over and catching the hedgehog before he hit the floor. Shadow checked Sonic’s pulse. “He’s still alive.”

- - -

“Sonic…” A gentle voice echoed. Sonic slowly opened his eyes to find that he was surrounded by white. A figure slowly emerged. “Sonic…I am the Goddess Nyoka.” A beautiful white female hedgehog, wearing a flowing golden gown stood before him.

“Your pure, chaos filled heart was able to release me from my prison of solitude. I am forever grateful. I know your heart does not seek power, but I would like to give you a gift once I am completely free.”

“Goddess Nyoka…I’m glad I could help free you. But, I’d rather not be trapped inside a body that isn’t mine. Can you return me back to being me?” Sonic asked.

“Unfortunately, that is part of being my vessel, Sonic. I need you to go to the golden temple in Sandopolis. There, you will perform a ritual where we will be able to split apart, and consequently return to yourself.”

“How do I perform this ritual?” Sonic questioned.

“I will tell you the words to say when you are at the temple. But I stress Sonic, you must make haste. There are those that know I have been awakened, and I fear they may come for you.”

“Like Eggman?” Sonic frowned.

“Not just him. There are also groups of Shaman. These Shaman originally tried to steal my power many years ago, and their offspring still exist today.”

“Heh, well if I had my powers back, these Shaman wouldn’t be an issue!” Sonic bragged.

“Indeed, but your powers have been temporarily suppressed while you serve as my vessel. You have a staggering amount of chaos energy inside you Sonic, even before we connected. I’m afraid if I use my powers again while connected to you…My powers will overload your mortal body, destroying us both. Which is why you need to go to the temple in Sandopolis as soon as possible and perform the ritual.”

“Gotcha. No problem!” Sonic said confidently, giving a thumbs up.

“Thank you Sonic.” The Goddess faded away.

- - -

Shadow slowly paced back and forth, waiting for Sonic to wake up. Shadow had carried Sonic over to an old couch in the workshop, resting him down on its cushions.

Sonic’s eye’s slowly fluttered, opening up.

“Sonic, are you ok?” Shadow asked, a concerned look on his face.

“I met the Goddess…” Sonic said, rubbing his eyes, “She told me to go to the golden temple in Sandopolis, and perform a ritual to split us apart.”

“You’ve got a way to get back to normal now,” Shadow smiled.

“Yeah. Only thing is, the Goddess mentioned there were groups of Shaman that would probably come for me,” Sonic frowned. He didn’t have his powers, and he didn’t even have the Goddess’s powers. He was just stuck in a body that wasn’t his, with no abilities to protect his friends or himself. And this made Sonic feel uncomfortably anxious.

“Evil Shaman?” Shadow repeated. He hadn’t heard of any “Shaman” causing trouble while working for G.U.N. In fact, that term was unfamiliar to him. “What are Shaman?”

“I only know of Shaman from fairytales. Basically they are able to harness power from nature, like water, wind, fire, earth. I never thought that they would be real,” After a moment, Sonic added, “but I’ve seen a lot of strange things during my adventures, so nothing really surprises me anymore!” Sonic chuckled lightly, adjusting himself so that he was sitting up on the couch.

“Sounds like trouble to me,” Shadow said warily.

“Maybe. But with friends and rivals by my side, I’m sure it will be fine!” Sonic grinned at Shadow, springing up from the couch. Perhaps he didn’t need to be anxious after all.

Shadow shook his head in disagreement, ”I’m not going to Sandopolis with you, Sonic. I helped get you to the workshop. You found your friends. And that is where it ends.” Shadow wasn’t going to go running half-way around the world, babysitting Sonic. He had already wasted enough time hanging around this dump of a workshop.

“I could really use the extra help,” Sonic confessed, rubbing the back of his neck. Sonic had found himself once again asking Shadow for help. But Sonic had no idea what he was up against. He truly could use all the help he could get.

“Why do you need my help? Can’t your friends help you?” Shadow let out a sigh.

“They can, but your speed could be really useful against the Shaman…” Sonic said, knowing that it was often his own speed that helped win battles.

”Hm,” Shadow stared at Sonic, contemplating whether to help him or not.

“Please Shadow?” Sonic asked.

Shadow carefully watched as Sonic slightly shifted his gaze downward. He could see that the hedgehog was anxious about the whole Shaman situation. And Sonic did have a huge amount of chaos energy in him. It would be concerning if somehow these Shaman were able to extract that energy. Shadow concluded that it would be best to keep his eye on Sonic, at least until the transformation had been reversed.

“Very well…” Shadow was silent for a moment, “But this isn’t going to become a common occurrence. I’m not going to just buddy-up with you whenever you ask.”

Sonic’s eyes lit up, “Of course! I would never expect that from you!”

”Good,” Shadow said bluntly.

Sonic gave a warm smile, placing a hand on Shadow’s shoulder, “I really appreciate you helping me out.”

Shadow let out a low growl, feeling Sonic’s hand on him. It made Shadow feel uncomfortable when Sonic invaded his personal space. “And quit with the touching,” Shadow glared at Sonic, brushing his hand off.

“Oh, sorry!” Sonic laughed lightly. Touch was simply how Sonic expressed his emotions with those he was comfortable with.

Shadow cleared his throat, “Hopefully your friends get here soon. The longer we wait around, the higher possiblity of something bad happening.”

“Tails and Knuckles are pretty quick, I’m sure they’ll be here soon,” Sonic said confidently.

Chapter Text

Tails and Knuckles were about to leave Eggman’s base until they heard the doctor let out a loud groan.

“That blasted hedgehog,” Eggman cursed, his eyes slowly opening. His head was pounding and his cheeks were stinging, as if he had just been in a slap fight.

“Well, well, well,” Knuckles exclaimed as he spun around to face Eggman, “Look who decided to wake up.”

“Knuckles! Tails!” Eggman was startled to see the echidna and fox standing before him. He felt his arms restrained to the wall behind him and immediately became angered, “What is the meaning of this?!”

“What is the meaning of what? Tying you up? It’s pay back time for whatever you did to Sonic!” Knuckles roared. While Sonic hadn't disclosed what happened while he was captured by Eggman, Knuckles could only assume it hadn't been good.

“Listen you Knucklehead, there are bigger things to worry about than what I did to Sonic,” Eggman hissed. As far as the doctor was concerned, Sonic's little friends didn't need to know those details. They wouldn't understand the genius behind his experiments anyway.

“Like what?” Tails's voice was unusually sharp and began to raise in volume, “What exactly is more important for us to worry about?”

“The Goddess stone. My computer over there was able to capture valuable data while the Goddess was awakened," Eggman eyed the offline computer on the wall, “If you release me, I can access the computer and share that data with you.”

“Or I can just get the data myself,” Tails said confidently as he walked over to the computer.

Tails touched the computer screen, interacting with its controls and turning it on. The computer was securely locked down. He would need to hack into the system to extract the data.

“How long is this going to take?” Knuckles asked impatiently, "And why do we need Eggman's info anyway?"

“Eggman's computer might have intel on how to reverse Sonic's transformation," Tails said as he quickly pressed numerous buttons, "It shouldn't take me too long to hack into the system..."

“Computer, unlock restraints,” Eggman suddenly stated. His restraints instantly came undone. It had been all too easy to trick the fox into turning the computer back on.

Tails gasped as he heard Eggman's command. Of course Eggman’s computer had voice-control. How could he have been so stupid.

Eggman quickly interacted with buttons on his wrist, causing a force field to form around himself. He stood up from the ground, grinning widely at the fox and echidna.

Knuckles readied himself for a fight, hands tightened into fists.

“Knuckles, let’s go. We can’t waste time fighting Eggman. We need to get back to Sonic!” Tails said, holding onto Knuckle’s arm.

“What’s the matter? Scared to face me without Sonic around?” Eggman laughed, taunting the echidna.

“I can face you on my own!” Knuckles growled, inching forward.

“No Knuckles! That’s what Eggman wants you to do! Please, let’s just go!” Tails pleaded as he pulled the hot-headed echidna backwards.

Knuckles huffed. He hated running away from a fight. But Tails was right, they needed to get back to Sonic. Knuckles grabbed the fox’s arm, running the two out of the room, “You’ll get a clobbering next time Eggman!”

“Those two pests think they can just break into my base, restrain me, and then run away?! They aren’t going to get away that easily,” Eggman snarled. “Protocol 101 commence,” he spoke to his computer, waiting for a response from his security robots. Nothing.

“Protocol 101 commence!” Eggman repeated, now yelling at the computer. Still nothing.

Eggman rushed over to his computer, checking the base’s map. He was looking for the position of his robots, but there were no robots displayed on the map. They were all gone. He frantically looked through the recent security footage, spotting the white female hedgehog. He watched as she destroyed all the robots that had surrounded her.

“All my months of work! Gone!!!” Eggman screamed, he was furious. He suddenly paused for a moment, rubbing hard at his temples, “This is all Sonic’s fault.”

Storming out of the room, Eggman headed towards his base robot factory. He would find a way to repay Sonic ten-fold.

- - -

“Tails? Tails are you here?” A familiar voice could be heard calling from outside the workshop.

Sonic’s eyes widened, gulping nervously. The voice belonged to Amy. Amy was a pink hedgehog, who had originally started off as a big fan of Sonic, hopelessly obsessing over him. Over time, they grew to have a more friendly relationship, and Sonic considered Amy to be one of his closest friends. Even still, Sonic wasn’t quite sure how Amy would react to the transformation, and that made him nervous.

Sonic quickly crouched down to hide, as if Amy had x-ray eyes and could see right into the room. Sonic held his finger to his lips to tell Shadow to be quiet.

Shadow found Sonic’s reaction to the pink hedgehog fascinating to watch. “Don’t you want to say hi to your girlfriend?” Shadow teased.

“She’s not my girlfriend! Shhhh!” Sonic whispered, waving his hand in an up and down motion, gesturing Shadow to crouch down to his level.

“We’re inside!” Shadow called out, an amused smile tugged at his lips.

Sonic smacked his forehead.

“Huh? Shadow?” Amy opened the door of the workshop, peering in. Shadow was standing in the middle of the room, with an unfamiliar white female hedgehog crouched down next to him.

“Oh, I’m sorry!” Amy quickly turned around, covering her face in embarrassment. She was unsure if she had just intruded on something intimate.

“No need to be sorry, it’s just me and Sonic,” Shadow smirked.

Sonic glared at Shadow, standing up from his crouched position. He was going to have to face Amy.

“Sonic..?” Amy hesitated, turning back to face the two hedgehogs. Was that white female hedgehog really Sonic? Sonic, the guy she absolutely adored…He was a girl? Amy slowly eyed the female up and down. She had mesmerising golden pupils, and her quills were shoulder length. Her body was lean, featuring small breasts, a noticeably small defined waist, and shapely legs. Minimal bandages were wrapped around her chest and groin. Amy couldn’t believe this girl was Sonic…Shadow was joking, right?

A flush crept up on Sonic’s face as he watched the pink hedgehog’s mouth hang open in disbelief. He was suddenly lost for words.

Shadow held out his hand to present the white hedgehog next to him, “Sonic was reckless, as usual, and got himself into quite a mess.”

Sonic scoffed, swatting Shadow’s hand away, “What Shadow means is…I was saving the world, as usual, a little unforeseen transformation happened, and then I stopped ol’ Eggface from getting his hands on a powerful stone!” Sonic boasted. He was stretching the truth, but Amy didn’t need to know that.

Shadow rolled his eyes at Sonic’s version of what had happened.

“…You turned into a girl?” Amy asked with a puzzled expression. She was still unsure if the female hedgehog in front of her was really Sonic. This girl was certainly acting as cocky as Sonic, maybe it really was him.

“Well yeah...But don't worry Amy, it’s only temporary. I know how to reverse it!” Sonic grinned.

“Oh…” Amy said, taking a minute to digest everything the two hedgehog's had said. This white female hedgehog was actually Sonic. Then suddenly, an idea sparked. “...Oh! I’ll get you some cute clothes then! You can’t just walk around in bandages!” Amy whirled around, rushing out the door before Sonic could reply.

Sonic blinked hard a few times, staring at the now empty doorway.

“Well that was fun,” Shadow commented with a smirk.

“Fun for you. Do you enjoy embarrassing me?” Sonic glared at Shadow.

Shadow leaned in closer to Sonic, the smirk on his face growing wider, “It’s amusing.”

“Ugh, you’re the worst, you know that?” Sonic threw his hands up in a flustered fashion.

“At least you’ll get some cute clothes to wear,” Shadow snickered.

Sonic huffed loudly. He knew Amy just wanted to help, but he was feeling very nervous about what “cute clothes” meant.

Chapter Text

Tails and Knuckles escaped from Eggman’s base with ease. There hadn't been a robot in sight to get in their way. As such, they had made record time returning back to Tails’s workshop that was located in the the Mystic Ruins. The two ran towards the workshop, passing a familiar pink hedgehog on the way.

“Hi guys! Be right back! Just getting some things for Sonic!” Amy waved as she ran in the opposite direction. She was on a mission to help Sonic in any way that she could.

Looking at each other, Tails and Knuckles started to laugh. They were all too familiar with the cat and mouse relationship Sonic and Amy could have at times. Amy would chase after Sonic, and Sonic would run away. Rinse and repeat. But, Amy knowing that Sonic was a girl…Well, that would surely be a spectacle to see.

“I guess she's seen Sonic. Wonder what she's getting him?” Knuckles asked with a grin.

“No idea, but she seemed happy?” Tails replied with a chuckle. He truly had no idea what Amy was up to, and the pink hedgehog could be slightly erratic at times.

Tails and Knuckles continued to share laughs as they made their way over to Tails's workshop. They had been working together over the last couple of days to find Sonic, and it had really made them bond closer as friends.

- - -

“Took you two long enough,” Shadow commented as he turned to face the fox and echidna entering the workshop.

“We got here as fast as we could,” Knuckles said, eyeing the black hedgehog.

“Hey guys!” Sonic’s face broke into a wide smile as he walked towards his friends.

“Sonic!” Tails exclaimed, running over to greet him. It was very strange seeing his brother in a female body. But, it was still Sonic inside. Besides, it's not like Sonic hadn't been transformed into something before. He had even once been a Werehog! And they had worked together to get Sonic back to normal. Tails was positive that this time would be the same.

“Good to see you kid!” Sonic smiled at Tails, giving his hair a ruffle.

Tails laughed, stepping back from the hedgehog and quickly fixing his hair.

Knuckles smiled, walking over and giving Sonic a firm, friendly handshake, “We tried to get information on your transformation from Eggman, but he played foul.”

“Well lucky we don't need Eggman's intel, I know how to reverse the transformation!” Sonic responded with a grin.

“You know how to reverse the transformation? How?!” Tails asked excitedly, eager to find out.

“Sonic has to go to Sandopolis and perform a ritual,” Shadow interrupted before Sonic could reply. He was growing tired of all the chit-chat. They needed to get a move on.

“Aaaand there might be some evil Shaman involved,” Sonic said with a nervous laugh.

“Evil Shaman…” Knuckles mumbled, “I’ve heard of Shaman.“

“What do you know about them?” Sonic quickly asked. He needed to find out what he was up against.

“There used to be multiple echidna tribes throughout Angel Island, and some tribes were quite magical. They would interact with gods, and tamper with the power of nature. But, they grew power-hungry, consequently causing wars and destroying their tribes…” Knuckles said, “If these Shaman still exist today, they would probably be pretty powerful.”

“Which is why we need to get a move on,” Shadow said, frustration in his voice.

”Agreed! Let’s get going!” Sonic said enthusiastically. The thought of Amy returning with cute clothes still nagged his mind...He really wanted to leave before she came back.

”Do you have anything here that can get us to Sandopolis, fox?” Shadow asked, looking at Tails.

Tails fidgeted with a nervous expression, he found Shadow intimidating at times. “Oh uh…Well, my new jet plane should be able to get us there quickly…I recently upgraded her with some powerful boosters, but I haven’t tested the boosters out so I'm not sure--”

"Well go and test them,” Shadow said curtly. He was annoyed that they would have to wait around even longer, “And be quick about it,” he grumbled.

“You don’t have to be rude, Shadow,” Sonic said, moving next to Tails.

"Pfft,” Shadow scoffed, he wasn't here to be buddies with Sonic's friends.

“We’re counting on you Tails. I know you’ll get your plane to work just fine,” Sonic smiled, patting Tails’s shoulder reassuringly.

“Thanks Sonic,” Tails broke into a bright smile. He could always count on Sonic to believe in him. He ran towards the hanger of his workshop where he kept his vehicles.

- - -

“I’m back!” Amy called out cheerily, walking into the workshop. She was holding hangers with multiple clothes on them. “I’ve got lots of options for you to choose from Sonic!”

“Oh no…” Sonic gulped, eyeing the brightly coloured clothes.

Amy delicately laid the outfits out on a nearby table.

Knuckles let out a loud laugh, “Are those clothes for Sonic?” The echidna went over to the table, examining the different outfits Amy had brought.

“Yes Knuckles, they are for Sonic,” Amy smiled proudly.

“Ohhh this one! It’s even your colour!” Knuckles exclaimed as he dangled a shiny blue dress in the air, showing it off to Sonic.

“So it is…” Sonic laughed nervously, running a hand through his quills.

"I'm not sure, maybe that dress might be a bit too formal?" Amy commented.

Shadow let out a snicker, joining Knuckles and Amy over at the selection of clothes.

“Hm…What about this one?” Shadow grinned, eyeing a yellow halter-neck dress with a semi-faded flower print. “It’s even got some pretty flowers on it.”

Sonic stood sheepishly in the background, watching as the group happily sorted through possible outfits for him to wear. He felt sweat begin to prickle on his forehead. This was becoming extremely embarrassing very quickly.

“I was actually thinking yellow would contrast nicely with Sonic’s white fur. It’s a good choice Shadow!” Amy nodded in agreement. “Come over here Sonic!”

Knuckles put both hands over his mouth, holding back laughter. This whole situation was absolutely absurd.

Sonic wiped the sweat from his face, and walked reluctantly over to the group at the table. All he could see were dresses, lots and lots of dresses. “I appreciate you getting some clothes for me Amy, but do you have anything...” Sonic paused “Less girly?”

“These are my clothes Sonic. Girly is my style. I thought you would know that!” Amy said, slightly offended by Sonic’s comment.

Shadow picked up the yellow dress and shoved it into Sonic’s chest, “Beggars can’t be choosers. Hurry up and get dressed.”

Sonic held the dress tightly, feeling his face blush as Shadow, Knuckles and Amy looked at him with grinning eyes.

“Ugh, fine. Whatever,” Sonic said defeatedly. He carried the dress to the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

- - -

Sonic stood at the bathroom sink, looking into the vanity mirror. An unfamiliar, female face stared back at him. Sonic turned the tap on, splashing his face with cold water, trying to clear his head.

“Pull yourself together, Sonic,” he scolded himself. He couldn't get so emotional about this. He needed to stay calm.

The hedgehog let out a long sigh, unravelling the bandages wrapped around his chest and groin. Sonic turned around to face the yellow dress that lay on the floor. A full length mirror on the back of the bathroom door caught his eye. The reflection of a naked female body made him slightly curious. Sonic slowly turned from side to side, inspecting his new body. He had a shapely round butt, and his breasts were small and perky, jiggling when he moved.

Admittedly, he found his body very attractive. He could see why Shadow had flirted with him earlier…He blushed slightly at the thought, and quickly shook his head as if to shake it away.

Focussing his attention back on the dress, he picked it up and pulled it on over his head. He couldn’t believe that he was wearing a dress. Even if he was in a female body, it still felt embarrassing.

He held onto the door knob of the bathroom. He didn't want to leave the room. Because once he opened that door, everyone would see...But what other choice did he have?

He took in a deep breath, opening the door.

- - -

Shadow and Knuckles couldn’t help but gawk as Sonic emerged from the bathroom. The yellow halter-neck dress shaped and hugged Sonic’s body in all the right places, emphasising his curves. It was definitely an impractical dress to wear for an adventure, much too short and barely covered half his thighs.

Sonic wrapped his arms around himself, feeling extremely uncomfortable about what he was wearing. He tried to pull the dress down a little, hoping to cover some more thigh, but it wasn't budging.

“It looks lovely on you!” Amy gushed as she ran over to Sonic. He did look stunning in the dress, and the yellow colour suited him perfectly. Amy noted that the dress usually fit loosely on her, but on Sonic, the dress was quite filled out. It made Amy feel slightly envious that Sonic had a nicer figure than herself. At least it was only temporary.

“All done!” Tails exclaimed as he walked into the workshop where everyone was grouped. Shadow, Knuckles and Amy surrounded Sonic who was awkwardly standing in front of them, wearing a short yellow dress.

“Sonic…What on earth are you wearing?” Tails asked, confused about what had happened while he was preparing his plane in the hanger.

“I-I they made me!” Sonic choked out.

“Sonic needed some clothes to wear,” Amy interrupted, “he couldn’t just walk around in bandages, they were hardly covering anything.”

“The dress isn’t any better…” Tails mumbled.

“What was that?” Amy asked, “If you have a problem with my clothes, then just say it,” Amy frowned at the fox.

“Uhh, anyway, I’ve got the jet plane up and running,” Tails said, quickly changing the topic. He didn't want to deal with an angry Amy.

“Good. Let’s go,” Shadow said as he walked towards the hanger, with Tails and Knuckles following after him.

Sonic simply stood there as the others left, eyes blinking in bewilderment. He was processing everything that had just happened. The grinning stares, the dress, how uncomfortable he was feeling. He sighed, there was no point in complaining, he just had to suck it up. Soon he would be back to normal, and he had to focus on that. Sonic began walking towards the hanger.

“Hey, you might want these…” Amy said nervously from behind Sonic.

Sonic turned around to face the pink hedgehog. Amy was holding out some white material, folded neatly in her palm.

”What is it?” Sonic asked, observing the material. Was it a handkerchief? Did Amy seriously think that he, Sonic the Hedgehog, was going to cry?

“You’re a girl…At least temporarily and—“

Sonic quickly cut Amy off before she could finish her sentence, “Look Amy, I may be transformed into a girls body, but I’m not going to cry about it. I appreciate the gesture, but you can keep the handkerchief.”

“...Girls wear panties, Sonic…” Amy hesitated, “You need to wear panties under your dress, otherwise that’s a bit…” Amy paused for a moment, “Pervy”.

“I’m not pervy!” Sonic blurted out. He wasn’t a pervert. He was far from it. He was so far from being a pervert that the very idea of seeing a pair of panties in front of him was enough to make him want to pass out.

“Well put them on,” Amy grabbed Sonic’s hand, placing the panties in his palm.

Sonic's face burned hot with embarrassment, realising that he was now physically holding a pair of panties. He stared at his hand, as if mesmerised, feeling a softness from the white material...It was silk. Sonic suddenly asked, “Are they yours?”

Amy blinked, taken aback by what Sonic had just asked, “...Excuse me?”

“Uh…” Sonic could see that Amy was giving him an angry look. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to repeat the question.

“They’re brand new Sonic! I haven’t worn them if that’s what you’re asking,” Amy’s face flushed, she couldn’t believe that Sonic had actually asked such a thing.

“I-I didn’t m-mean it like that…” Sonic stuttered in embarrassment. He hadn’t meant the question to come out that way, he just thought…Actually, he didn’t know what he thought. “Sorry…” Sonic said quietly, lowering his eyes.

Sonic dropped the panties onto the floor, aligning his feet up with the holes. He then bent down, pulling the panties up, underneath the dress.

“Good, you’re all set,” Amy sighed in relief. Getting Sonic to put on panties was not something she ever imagined she would have to do.

“Thanks Amy, this whole girl thing is new territory…” Sonic laughed nervously.

“It’s ok…Just don’t rip up my dress,” Amy gave a cheeky smile.

Sonic laughed lightly, “I’ll try not to. See you later when I'm blue!” Sonic waved Amy goodbye as he continued his way towards the hanger door.

Chapter Text

He had half expected Amy to chase after him, begging to go to Sandopolis with him. But the pink hedgehog had surprisingly stayed behind. Sonic decided he wouldn’t worry about it. It was better that Amy stayed behind anyway. The less people involved with the Shaman, the better.

Entering the workshop hanger, Sonic could see Tails in the plane's pilot seat, happily fiddling around with controls. Shadow and Knuckles were standing next to the plane, both with their arms crossed, and both looking grumpy.

Shadow stared at Sonic, slowly tapping his foot against the ground.

“Hurry it up, Sonic!” Knuckles called out, motioning for the hedgehog to join him. The echidna climbed up into the plane, and sat in a passenger seat at the back.

As Sonic walked towards the plane, he wrapped his arms around his chest. He was still feeling uncomfortable in the tight dress he was wearing.

Walking forward, Shadow blocked Sonic’s path.

“What is it, Shadow?” Sonic asked.

“The dress suits you,” Shadow grinned, “very fitting for a hedgehog that never loses.”

Shadow held a smug look on his face as he watched the anger rise in Sonic.

“Move,” Sonic growled, pushing Shadow out of the way. Normally, Sonic was very good at controlling his emotions. But Shadow’s teasing was really starting to get on Sonic's nerves.

Sonic climbed up into the plane, sitting next to Knuckles in the passenger seat. He folded his arms tightly, and crossed his legs. It was uncomfortable sitting down in the dress.

“Are we good to go, fox?” Shadow yelled out to Tails from below.

“Ready to go!” Tails grinned, putting up a thumb.

Shadow joined the others in the plane, sitting on the opposite side of Sonic.

Sitting in the middle, between Shadow and Knuckles, Sonic leaned back and rested his head on the seat back. He realised just how tired he was. Breathing deeply, he slowly closed his eyes.

“Sandopolis, here we come!” Tails announced, turning the engines on full power. The plane began slowly moving along the runway. A huge blast shot out from the plane’s boosters, launching high and soaring in the air at an incredible speed. “The upgrades worked!” Tails smiled to himself, relieved that the last-minute testing had been successful.

“How long until we get there?” Shadow asked.

“With the boosters, we should be there within the next hour. So just sit back and relax!” Tails replied.

“Looks like Sonic already got that memo,” Knuckles laughed lightly as he looked at Sonic, who was now fast asleep.

“It’s good that he’s getting some rest,” Shadow stated, knowing the last few days had been rough for Sonic. A nap would be good for him. Shadow felt a little bit guilty about riling Sonic up, but, it had also felt strangely satisfying.

- - -

A wide grin grew across Eggman's face as he admired his newest robot, dubbed the EggCeleratorVoid. The robot’s primary function was to capture chaos energy. Eggman planned to find Sonic, contain him, and extract the Goddess's energy into the machine's core. The robot’s secondary function was to act as a large vacuum capable of extremely strong suction force. Sonic didn’t have his speed to run away, so Eggman knew the vacuum would work perfectly against him.

The EggCeleratorVoid had a mech frame, covered in sharp metal spikes, standing at about 65 feet tall. Its body was rounded, with a circular vacuum in its middle. The vacuum surrounded a hollow dome, which quickly opened and closed like an eye; specifically designed to trap a certain hedgehog inside. In addition to the robot’s two legs, there were six large arms with claws that stuck out from all sides.

The Eggmobile vehicle was integrated inside the robot’s mech head, just in case Eggman had to make an emergency exit (which had happened more than a few times in the past). The round man climbed up into the Eggmobile and powered on the EggCeleratorVoid. A digital location map was displayed on the screen of the Eggmobile, with a loading icon shown as it searched. The data that had previously been captured from Sonic, provided Eggman the ability to precisely match up with the energy wavelengths coming from the hedgehog. It would be a piece of cake to find Sonic's whereabouts.

“Eureka!” Eggman exclaimed, pointing at the screen. The map now displayed a flashing dot, in the middle of the ocean between the Mystic Ruins and Angel Island. That's where Sonic was. “Time for a little adventure.”

The base ceiling opened up, revealing a sunny blue sky above. Eggman pressed down firmly on the vehicles accelerator, causing rockets to fire out from the robot’s feet, launching the robot into the sky.

- - -

Tails's plane had made excellent time due to the recent booster upgrade. The plane was now flying over the large desserts of Sandopolis. It was noon, and there was still plenty of hours left in the day. Tails wanted to land the plane as close as possible to their destination: the Goddess's golden temple. The map told him the temple was located near some ruins, south of the giant Sandopolis pyramid.

“Get ready for touch down!” Tails announced.

“W-what…” Sonic mumbled, his eyes opening halfway.

“Rise and shine, hedgehog,” Shadow stared down at Sonic, who was leaning against his shoulder, “now get off.”

”Oh, sorry!” Sonic quickly sat up, “I’m actually surprised you didn’t kill me in my sleep, Shadow!” Sonic chuckled.

”I pushed you off multiple times, but you kept falling back. I was going to slap you into next week..." Shadow said coldly, "But, the echidna insisted I show mercy,” Shadow sighed, annoyed that he had spent the last hour with Sonic sleeping against him.

”You’re welcome, Sonic,” Knuckles said, his eyes were closed and his arms folded. He had been meditating, but the sudden chatter was too disruptive.

“Thanks Knux!" Sonic said, "And thanks Shadow for being my pillow!” Sonic laughed.

Shadow did not like that comment, and glared angrily at Sonic.

Sonic grinned playfully back, “Guess we're on friendlier terms now, huh? Sleeping buddies, right?” Sonic nudged Shadow's shoulder, giving him a wink.

”If by sleeping buddies you mean punching you until you’re put to sleep…” Shadow's voice got dangerously lower as he grinned, “Then yes, we can be.”

Sonic laughed nervously, staring at Shadow’s clenched fist that looked about ready to punch him, “…Maybe we’ll just stay rivals!”

Knuckles smirked, shaking his head at Sonic. He wasn’t going to stop Shadow from hitting Sonic this time, Sonic had asked for it. In fact, if Knuckles was in Shadow’s shoes, he probably would’ve punched Sonic already.

“Uh, guys? Hate to disrupt the friendly chatter back there, but we’ve got a small problem,” Tails said nervously.

“What is it, Tails?” Sonic asked, not liking the sound of his brother’s tone.

“You know how I installed new boosters?” Tails let out a nervous chuckle, “Well, we might have a rough landing…”

The plane began to shake in the air, throwing the group against their seats. Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles looked at each other with concerned expressions.

“How rough exactly?” Sonic gripped onto the seats armrest.

“A bit rough. Hold on!” Tails yelled with his hands held tight around the controls. The fox was focused on keeping the plane flying as steady as he could.

The plane was shaking roughly as it descended, crashing into the sands of Sandopolis. Despite the malfunctioning boosters, Tails had managed a safe landing, and to the group’s surprise, the impact was gentle. The plane’s doors opened, and the three passengers slowly got out from the plane.

“Sweet, sweet earth,” Sonic dramatically flopped down onto the sand. He was glad to be back on solid ground.

Knuckles was rubbing his head, and Shadow didn’t seem phased.

Tails jumped out of the pilot’s cockpit, quickly looking around the plane to examine the damage. “The boosters…They’re completely ruined…” Tails said disappointedly, turning to look at the group, “Without the boosters, we won’t be able to fly back home.”

“You can fix them though, right Tails?” Sonic asked, standing up. He had no doubt in his mind that Tails wouldn't be able to repair the damage.

“Well yeah, but it might take a few hours...” Tails admitted.

“Very well. You fix the plane. We will go to the temple and get Sonic’s transformation reversed,” Shadow stated.

“But I want to help too!” Tails whined.

“We need a way to get home, Tails. And we might have to make an emergency exit. So we’ll need a working plane,” Sonic said gently.

“But…” Tails said softly, looking down at the sandy ground.

“You’re the only one that can fix the plane. We're relying on you buddy,” Sonic said, placing a hand on Tails’s shoulder.

Tails felt the familiar, safe weight from Sonic’s hand on his shoulder. The touch was comforting, and told Tails that he needed to do this for the team.

“Ok, I guess I can stay behind and fix the plane,” Tails sighed slightly. He really wanted to help Sonic get back to normal. But it was true, he was the only one in the group who could fix the plane, and everyone was relying on him.

"You’re a champ Tails! We’ll be back soon!” Sonic smiled, waving goodbye.

- - -

A group of Shaman watched Sonic and his friends (and rival) from atop a sand dune nearby.

The Shaman group consisted of three young sibling echidnas, two brothers and one sister. They looked similar to Knuckles the echidna in terms of having dreadlock-like spines, but they were much taller and muscular in size.

Adar was the youngest sibling. He had mostly brown fur, with the exception of his spines, which were partially black. His dreadlock-like spines were tied back low with white bands surrounding them. Adar wore a black leather vest, adorned with hanging fringe threads. Two metal chained necklaces were looped around his neck, and on his feet were plain black cowboy boots.

Barak was the middle child, and was noticeably taller and muscular than his two siblings. His fur was black, with brown spots covering the fur on his face, like freckles. His echidna spines on his head were pulled back high, with white bands wrapping around them. He wore a tan leather jacket with fringe threads, and walnut leather cowboy boots with black straps.

Zaylia was the eldest sibling, she had a muscular frame and was a bit shorter than her younger brother, Adar. Her fur was brown, and she had a wavy black side fringe that mostly covered her left eye. Her dreadlock spines were wrapped low behind her head with white bands. She wore a sleeveless, denim corset top with buttons at the front, and a black bandeau covering her breasts could be seen underneath. A woven beige crossbody bag sat at her waist, ripped black jeans hugged tightly against her legs, and black leather ankle boots covered her feet.

The siblings were trained in Shamanism, with the ability to summon earthen elements, such as water, fire, earth and air, allowing them to cast elemental spells. They had the utmost respect for the elements, but no respect for divine beings.

The sibling's clan had passed down the knowledge of The Goddess Nyoka, who was part of a small group of Gods that provided support to life on Earth. The Goddess would often disregard the elements in favour of helping mortals. The clan believed that these gods did not respect the elements, and saw these types of gods as an offence. They vowed to get rid of them and take their powers. They believed if anyone should have those godly powers, it should be the clan. The clan would maintain the balance between the elements, while being supercharged with the powers of gods.

So the clan set up a trap to take one of the Gods powers away, and that God was the Goddess Nyoka. But, the trap failed and the Goddess sealed herself away in a stone. It was the sibling’s destiny, if the Goddess was ever awakened, to take her power for themselves, and fulfil their duty to their clan.

“The energy we sensed was correct. That girl looks just like the Goddess…She’s actually pretty cute in the flesh,” Barak grinned while holding binoculars to his eyes.

Adar smacked the back of Barak’s head, “Get your head out of the gutter. We’re trying to get the Goddess's power, remember?”

“Pass the binoculars,” Zaylia sighed, holding out her hand to Barak, gesturing for the binoculars.

Zaylia looked through the pair of binoculars, examining the white female hedgehog in the distance. The hedgehog was standing next to a plane, a fox, a red echidna, and a black hedgehog.

”I say we go down now and attack,” Barak hissed.

Zaylia rolled her eyes at her brother, “That’s four against three, we’d be outnumbered. And we currently have no idea what their skills are like.”

Zaylia watched as the white hedgehog, red echidna and black hedgehog began walking away from the fox, “But, it appears our luck has suddenly changed. Looks like they’re leaving the fox behind. There’s only three of them now. Those odds work more in our favour.”

”So, when do we attack them?” Barak asked impatiently.

Zaylia grinned, “I bet they’re heading to the golden temple. We’ll follow them, study their skills, and strike when they least expect it."

Chapter Text

Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles walked along sand dunes in the large Sandopolis desert. The afternoon was especially hot, and the group was feeling the heat. They had been walking for about half an hour, searching for the golden temple that would allow Sonic to perform a ritual, returning him back to his normal blue self.

“Do we have any idea where this temple is?” Knuckles sighed. All he could see was lots and lots of sand.

Shadow held onto the map that Tails had given him, “If this map is correct, then the temple should be on the other side of that giant sand dune in front.”

Sonic groaned dramatically, tugging down on his dress. He hated the dress. But he hated walking even more. It was too slow. Too slow and boring.

“What’s the matter with you?” Shadow looked at Sonic, raising a brow.

“Can’t you just run us there?” Sonic had a pout on his lips.

“And how do you propose I do that? Have me pulling a sled?” Shadow asked mockingly.

“You can carry me!” Sonic happily suggested, walking with a bounce in his step.

“I can carry you?” Shadow scoffed at the idea. He was not a taxi service, and he would not be carrying Sonic anywhere.

“Sure!” Sonic grinned playfully, quickly jumping onto Shadow’s back. Sonic wrapped his arms around Shadow's neck before tightly wrapping in his legs around Shadow's waist.

Shadow staggered back slightly in surprise, feeling a warm body pressed against his back. A soft chest against him. He had to refocus, this was Sonic. And Sonic was being a nuisance.

“Get off!” Shadow growled, spinning roughly around, trying to throw the hedgehog off.

“But you just said you’d carry me!” Sonic laughed, locking his arms tighter around the black hedgehog.

Knuckles palmed his face as he watched Shadow spin around in circles with Sonic wrapped around his back. These two hedgehogs were a handful to deal with.

At that moment, a mad cackle could be heard echoing from above. It was Eggman. He was descending down quickly in a huge spiked robot. The robot had six robotic arms with claws, and its body was rounded with a noticeably large core in its middle. The three looked up at the doctor, their mouths open in disbelief.

”Eggman?! Seriously?” Sonic exclaimed, hopping off Shadow's back. They were so close to the temple. So close to reversing the transformation. And Eggman had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Sonic couldn't believe it.

”The doctor’s timing certainly is impeccable,” Shadow stated, watching the robot descend from above.

Eggman grinned as he sat inside the robot's mech head, controlling the machine to crash down into the sand. Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles quickly got into a defensive stance, narrowing their eyes in on the current threat.

The robot stood tall, towering over the group. Its clawed arms moved up and down, and its round body lit up, making a loud humming noise. There was a dome in the robot's core, which began to slowly open, exposing a hollow inside. Around the dome, was a circular frame, which began spinning like a clothes dryer on steroids.

"I present to you, the EggsAccelatorVoid. My newest invention, and one that I'm sure the three of you will enjoy!" Eggman gleamed, he loved showing off his machines.

"Enjoy turning into junk!" The tone in Sonic's voice was filled with excitement. He loved destroying Eggman's machines.

Eggman looked down at Sonic below, noticing the new attire that the hedgehog was wearing. A large grin grew across his face, “My, what a lovely dress you have on Sonic!”

"Shut it, Eggface!” Sonic fired back, pointing angrily at the doctor.

Eggman laughed loudly, enjoying getting a rise out of Sonic. The circular frame in the robot's middle began spinning rapidly, generating a vacuum and pulling in anything nearby. The group quickly reacted, moving backwards and getting out of the vacuum's proximity.

"Ha, what a weak robot! How embarrassingly boring!” Sonic stretched out his arms, letting out a loud yawn. He couldn’t help himself, taunting Eggman was like second nature to him.

"Don't encourage him," Shadow hissed at the hedgehog. Sonic's motormouth was surely going to get them into trouble.

"My machine hasn't even begun!" Eggman roared, banging his fists down on the dashboard. It infuriated the doctor when Sonic insulted his machines. Eggman would make a point to demonstrate that his robot means business.

”This can’t be good…” Knuckles said, warily watching the robot’s arms move slowly up and down.

The six spiky robotic claws began rotating, quickly building up speed. The arms suddenly slammed down, the turning claws targeting each group member individually, trying to either snatch or squash them.

Shadow rushed at Sonic, who was about to be minced hedgehog, pulling him out of harms way. Another claw came crashing down at the two hedgehogs. Shadow rapidly reacted, holding onto Sonic, and running them outside of the robots range. The black hedgehog quickly glanced around trying to find some sort of shelter.

"Thanks Shadow, I—"

Shadow grabbed the white hedgehog, running him over to be hidden behind some nearby boulders. "Stay here. Don’t join the fight," Shadow demanded, his eyes stern. Sonic wasn't fast enough to dodge the robot, and he needed to stay away from the battle.

Before Sonic could whine in protest, Shadow had already zoomed off, joining Knuckles to fight against Eggman's robot.

Sonic huffed, crossing his arms as he leaned against the boulder. He hated this. He wanted to fight Eggman and pay him back for...Torturing him. Sonic frowned as he remembered the waterboarding incident, it was almost surreal. A part of him didn’t want to believe that it even happened…But it did. And Eggman had really gone too far. Sonic didn't think the doctor had it in him to do something so downright cruel. It was concerning to see what Eggman was truly capable of.

The black hedgehog and echidna ran around the battle area, dodging the large robot arms trying to crush them, while also keeping away from the force of the robot's vacuum.

"We need to smash the claws off!" Knuckles yelled out to Shadow.

"Agree. I'll focus my attention on—"

The robot suddenly made a loud beeping noise, and the force of the robot's vacuum became extremely powerful. The vacuum had been warming up earlier, and was now at full power. Shadow and Knuckles quickly ran backwards, but the vacuum's strong force caused them to tumble over, violently pulling them inwards. The hollow dome was open wide, ready to capture. Shadow grasped at the ground, digging his fingers desperately into the sand.

Knuckles slammed his fist down hard, anchoring it deep in the ground. The echidna grabbed onto Shadow's arm, catching the black hedgehog before he flew into the robot.

- - -

While Shadow and Knuckles were preoccupied, Eggman focused his attention on finding Sonic.

"I won't let Sonic miss out on all the fun," Eggman smirked, his screen displaying the location of Sonic’s energy signal nearby.

Sonic felt a large shadow loom above him. He looked up to see a giant robotic claw, meters away from his head. Sonic launched himself forward to escape, but the claw had already scooped down, clutching Sonic in a tight grasp. The arm quickly retracted itself to be back in front of the doctor.

“Damn it," Sonic groaned as he squirmed in the robot's tight grip, frustrated that Eggman was able to capture him so easily.

”Do you remember that little stunt you pulled off at my base? Where you destroyed all my robots?” Eggman asked, glaring at the captured hedgehog in front of him.

”Maybe?” Sonic couldn't remember doing that at all, but he wished he could. He loved breaking Eggman's toys.

"Maybe?” Eggman repeated mockingly, “It took me months to build my robot army! And it took you seconds to destroy them all!” Eggman roared, “But, maybe it will just take seconds to destroy you as well…” Eggman suggested, making the robot ever so slightly tighten its grip around Sonic.

”Haven't you had enough of torturing me?!” Sonic yelled angrily, his body feeling a crushing pain all over.

"Torture?” Eggman scoffed, “My dear, dear Sonic, you don’t know the meaning of torture. You think back at my lab was torture? That was merely an experiment,” Eggman paused, and a large malicious grin grew across his face, “if I wanted to torture you…Well, let’s just say you wouldn’t be out and about moving freely.”

- - -

“Sonic!” Knuckles and Shadow both exclaimed, hearing Sonic's voice echoing from above. They looked up to see the white hedgehog being held high by a large robotic claw.

Shadow frowned, he had specifically told Sonic to stay away from the battle. Why was that hedgehog always such a troublemaker. “I’m going to use Chaos Control, then Chaos Spear that claw to pieces. Get ready to catch Sonic.”

Knuckles nodded, understanding the plan.

”Chaos Control!” Shadow shouted, warping to be in the air, directly above the robot. As Shadow fell downwards, he hurled a spear of chaos energy directed at the robot's core, making it malfunction and stopping the vacuum immediately. But it didn't appear to break, and the durability surprised Shadow.

Shadow could hear Eggman yelling furiously at him from the cockpit, and this made the black hedgehog smirk. It was pointless for the doctor to even think that he could defeat him. "How pathetic," Shadow thought, throwing another chaos spear at the robot claw that held Sonic. The claw sliced cleanly off the arm, unclasping its grip, freeing the hedgehog.

Knuckles had to be quick with his movements, it wouldn’t be good news if Sonic hit the ground from that tall height. The echidna jumped and leaped, catching the falling hedgehog in his arms.

Knuckles held Sonic with one arm under his legs and the other supporting his back, like a groom carrying his bride. He felt his face blush slightly as he looked down at Sonic, who was obviously still in the body of a gorgeous girl. Sonic's face was cutely flushed, eyes closed with beautifully long lashes, and delicate lips softly parted. Knuckles had to quickly remind himself that this was Sonic.

Sonic blinked hard, surprised by the sudden rescue. He looked up at Knuckles with a smile, “Nice save Knux!”

Knuckles smiled back, happy that Sonic was safe now. As much as Sonic got on his nerves, Sonic was still his best friend. And although the red echidna would never admit it, he would do almost anything to save Sonic.

Shadow landed on the ground next to Sonic and Knuckles, “You two, head for the temple. I’ll handle Eggman.”

“Alright, good luck,” Knuckles said, placing Sonic on the ground, pushing him forward to run, “Let’s go, go, GO!”

Sonic looked behind as he ran, feeling uneasy that they were leaving Shadow to battle Eggman alone. But he reminded himself that Shadow was more than capable of looking after himself. He was the Ultimate Lifeform after all.

Chapter Text

Sonic and Knuckles ran to the top of the giant sand dune in front of them, viewing a landscape filled with ruins down below. There were broken stone buildings, collapsed stone walls and lots of concrete pillars spread around the area. A small ancient city most likely had once existed here. Glistening in the afternoon sunlight, a round golden temple could be seen amongst the array of destroyed buildings. The temple looked like it was still fully intact. Sonic and Knuckles slid down the steep sandy dune, making haste towards their goal.

“There it is, the Goddess's temple!” Sonic exclaimed happily, pointing at the temple in the nearby distance.

"Wait...Can you hear that?" Knuckles quickly grabbed onto Sonic's arm, stopping him from moving forward. The two glanced around the area, their eyes scanning for movement.

“Surprise!” A large, brown male echidna jumped out from behind a nearby pillar. The echidna was very muscular, and at least a foot taller than Sonic and Knuckles. He wore an interesting attire, looking like some sort of western cowboy. The threads that hung from his black leather vest rustled in the wind as he generated electricity in his hands, manipulating energy into orbs. He rushed towards Sonic and Knuckles, hurling electric orbs at them. The two managed to quickly jump out of the way, barely dodging the attack.

"Watch out!" Knuckles pushed Sonic out of the way from another incoming electric orb, hitting him instead and causing shocks to radiate through his body.

The brown echidna launched at Knuckles, tackling him onto the ground and punching his body all over, each hit filled with a shocking electrical force. Knuckles squirmed underneath the larger echidna, feeling like he was constantly being zapped. The red echidna threw his own punches back in rage, "Coward! Fight me without your magic!"

”Knuckles!” Sonic shouted as he ran towards his friend.

At that moment, a sharp sting of water slammed into Sonic’s back. Sonic turned around to face another large male echidna towering over him, a wide grin plastered across his face. The echidna had black fur, and shared a similar “Wild West” aesthetic to the other echidna. He wore an open tan leather jacket with hanging threads, and long cowboy boots that had patches of dirt covering the brown leather. The echidna was manipulating water into a sphere, tossing it back and forth between his hands as if it were a ball.

”Why does it always have to be water,” Sonic mumbled, running from the black echidna, who was now hitting him with multiple sharp bursts of water from behind. “Is that…Ice?!” Sonic exclaimed, stumbling on the surface in front that was covered in thick ice instead of sand. He quickly lost his footing, slipping over head first.

Spears of ice crashed down around the hedgehog, not hitting, but getting frighteningly close. Sonic was on the ground face down, covering his head. There wasn’t much else he could do, except perhaps try to reason with the guy, “Hey! Do you think you can quit with the ice show? It’s a bit much.”

The hurls of ice slowly stopped crashing down, and Sonic could hear footsteps approaching.

"Hey toots, not a fan of the ice?” The black echidna smirked as he eyed the female hedgehog up and down, her dress was saturated in water, and the dress had lifted up to reveal a round, toned behind.

Sonic slowly uncovered his head and turned over to see that the large echidna was now standing next to him. He stared up at the echidna, looking unimpressed.

The echidna smirked down at the girl, “You shouldn't have even bothered trying to escape, you’re too slow. I guess you hedgehogs are a weak species after all...” The black echidna held a smug look, watching the growing frown on the hedgehog's face, “...At least you've got a nice ass,” he added.

Sonic's face flushed with anger, and his hands twitched. He was shocked by how rude this guy was being. He needed to be punched, right now. “You've got a nice face...” Sonic said with a smirk, quickly lunging up at the black echidna and swinging his fist into the echidna's cheek, ”It’s very punchable.”

A flash of pain rippled down the right side of the black echidna's face. The punch had hit surprisingly hard, and the echidna was angry that he had been caught off-guard. But, he was more angry that this girl had the nerve to stand up to him. Who does she think she is? He grabbed the white hedgehog’s arm tightly, narrowing his eyes, “You do something like that again, and I won't be so merciful.”

“You should learn some manners. I was just warming up,” Sonic gave the echidna a stern look, he refused to be intimidated by the echidna.

The black echidna scoffed, giving the hedgehog an irritated look. He threw the hedgehog back onto the ground. A sharp spear of ice extended out from his hand, and he held it threateningly at the girl, "Try warming up now."

- - -

Knuckles was still on the ground, wrestling the brown electric-wielding echidna. Knuckles’s opponent was much larger, and the weight of his body was heavy enough to hold Knuckles down. He was also annoying to fight, all over the place with no real tactic. Which should have made it easy for Knuckles, but the random shocks of electricity was just enough to startle Knuckles each time, causing his own attacks to lag behind, giving him a disadvantage.

"Aren't you done yet, Adar?" A female voice yelled out.

The voice caught the brown echidna’s attention, distracting him for a second. And in that second, Knuckles drove his fist into the brown echidna’s jaw. An eruption of punches flew at the brown echidna’s stomach, over and over again. The brown echidna fell off Knuckles, curling up into a ball and wincing in pain. Knuckles stood up, brushing himself off. He was ready to face the new opponent.

"I won't be as easy," a female echidna commented as she stood to the side, staring at Knuckles with a slight smirk. She had brown fur, a muscular frame, and looked to be slightly taller than the red echidna. Her face was partially covered by a black side fringe, and her dreadlocks were pulled back behind her head. She wore jeans that looked like they had been ripped apart, fur from her legs visibly poking out. A tight denim top wrapped around her torso, emphasising her ample breasts. Knuckles didn’t particularly like dealing with girl enemies, as girls often made him feel nervous. But, you can’t choose the actions of others. And right now, this girl was choosing to be a threat.

The female echidna began manipulating currents of air in her hands, throwing strong bursts of air at the red echidna. But Knuckles was well attuned with the feeling of wind, thanks to all his past spars with Sonic, who by his very nature, moved like the wind.

”Don’t waste my time,” Knuckles growled, easily dodging the attacks. This girl wasn’t a challenge. And the other echidna had only been a challenge because of the surprise electric shocks. Take away that little advantage, and these two echidnas were amateurs.

”We’ve got your girlfriend you know,” the female echidna stated, pointing behind Knuckles.

Without thinking, Knuckles turned around. He had been too distracted fighting, and had forgotten to look out for Sonic. He had to know if Sonic was alright. The red echidna could see his friend on the ground in the distance, with a black echidna holding a sharp weapon at him. “Sonic, I should have been protecting you,” Knuckles scolded himself. Suddenly, he felt an explosion of energy surround him. The world began spinning, and he collapsed to the ground.

A totem had been thrown on the ground. It had amplified electrical energy from the surrounding air, exploding and stunning the red echidna. The female echidna watched curiously as Knuckles slowly passed out on the ground.

"I had it under control…" The brown echidna said, holding his bruised face.

"Uh huh. Grab him. Barak has the girl," The female echidna stated bluntly.

- - -

Sonic sat on the sandy ground with legs crossed and leaning back on his arms. The black echidna stood next to Sonic and still held the ice spear, though it had been lowered so that it was no longer pointing directly at him. Sonic was surprised that the spear made of ice hadn’t melted, especially in the hot heat.

”We’ve got the red one!” A voice yelled out.

Sonic turned to look behind him. He could see two echidnas in the nearby distance, a brown female and the brown male from earlier, who was now dragging an unconscious Knuckles along the sand by his leg. At least he hoped Knuckles was unconscious, and this thought made Sonic feel sick in the stomach.

The two echidnas walked over, standing beside the black echidna. The hold on Knuckles’s leg was let go, causing the red echidna's body to flop over on the sand.

“What did you do to him?” Sonic demanded as he stared at his friend lying limp on the ground.

“He’ll be fine. Besides, we're not after him. We’re after you…” The female echidna said, “Quick introductions. My name is Zaylia, and these are my two brothers, Adar and Barak," Zaylia smirked and turned her head to look at Barak who held the ice spear, “I can see you’re well acquainted with Barak already.”

“Yeah, we’re best buds,” Sonic said sarcastically, looking at the black echidna who held a frown on his face.

Zaylia crouched down to be at eye level with the hedgehog. She started leaning in closer to Sonic, and when her face was inches from his, the hedgehog pulled back with a nervous expression. "You are a vessel," Zaylia smiled, tapping the hedgehog gently on the nose.

Sonic scrunched up his nose from the unexpected touch. He wasn’t happy about being booped on the nose, but decided to let it slide. “Actually, I'm a hedgehog and I have a name, it's Sonic," Sonic glared at the three echidnas surrounding him. There was no doubt that they were the Shaman that the Goddess Nyoka had warned him about. He wasn't quite sure how dangerous they all were, but the black echidna named Barak certainly had been unpleasant.

“Well Sonic, you are still a vessel containing the Goddess Nyoka’s power,” Zaylia said as she stood up, “The huge amount of chaos energy soaking off you, and the fact that you look exactly like the Goddess Nyoka…It was just too easy to hunt you down. You should have tried a bit harder to make it more interesting for us.”

“I can still make it interesting, how about you all turn around and count to 100?” Sonic suggested with a grin.

Zaylia simply smiled at the hedgehog. She fiddled with the woven beige crossbody bag that sat at her waist, pulling out a small old-looking book. She flipped through the book’s pages, reminding herself of the steps to extract the Goddess’s power.

"Sonic..." Adar mumbled, eyeing the white hedgehog suspiciously, "Hey, I've heard that name before...You're not Sonic the Hedgehog are you? The guy who goes around saving the day all the time? The famous hero in all the newspapers?"

Sonic was surprised that Adar had heard of him, especially considering the echidna looked like he lived in a cave. But it made sense that he was known, he was a world-renowned hero after all.

"You are him! Just look at your shocked face!" Adar grinned widely, feeling like he had just uncovered a big secret.

Sonic chuckled nervously as the echidnas stared curiously at him. While it was nice knowing how famous he was, telling these echidnas his uncommon name probably wasn't the best idea.

Barak let out a loud laugh, staring at Sonic who was sitting on the ground at the echidna’s feet, “Doesn’t look like a hero to me. Are you sure he's not a washed up hero?"

The two brothers laughed together, their faces filled with amusement. Sonic rolled his eyes, not impressed by the attempt to insult him.

"Listen here bud, it takes a certain type of person to be a hero. You need to have strength, courage, and intelligence,” Sonic smirked as he stared up at Barak, pausing for a moment to emphasise his next words, “Qualities that you severely lack.”

“Lack?” Barak spat out, nostrils flaring. His hand gripped so tightly around the ice spear that it snapped in half. He threw the broken piece on the ground in frustration, stamping on it, and smashing the ice into pieces. Such an impudent little hedgehog, how dare he mock his ability Barak thought.

Sonic watched in awe, stunned at how easy it had been to hit a nerve. Barak’s hot temper reminded him a little bit of Knuckles. But, this guy was definitely next level.

”Barak…” Zaylia said, putting the book she was holding back into her bag. She was concerned about what her brother might do next.

Barak took a subtle deep breath, creating another ice spear out from his hand. He slowly turned his head to look back down at Sonic, his expression making a jarring transformation from venomously angry to calm. “What a joke, you’re no hero,” Barak directed the spear at the hedgehog’s stomach and jabbed him, but not hard enough to draw blood.

"Ow!" Sonic flinched as he was unexpectedly prodded, the ice feeling like a sharp knife had pricked him. The ice spear moved towards him again, going in for another jab. Sonic found himself quickly scooting backwards, until he bumped into Adar’s feet standing behind him. “Don't like hearing the truth huh?” Sonic said in a snarky tone.

"Ok, that’s enough playing around!” Zaylia loudly announced, she could see that her brother was about to take things too far, and she didn’t want the vessel seriously injured, or worse, killed.

Barak grumbled, and lowered the spear. His eyes glaring at his sister.

Zaylia glared back at her brother for a moment, then focused her attention on the hedgehog. “You’re harnessing the Goddess Nyoka’s power little hedgehog, and we will extract it from you. That power belongs to us, and—”

”The Goddess’s power doesn’t belong to you,” Sonic interrupted, his tone matter of fact. Sonic was growing tired of the sibling echidnas, wishing he had his powers to quickly settle this mess. But instead, he was stuck in a hot desert, getting prodded with ice and having to listen to power-hungry rants.

Zaylia’s expression changed into an angry one, “Any power, belongs to anyone who can take it.”

”We don’t need to explain ourselves to the hedgehog," Barak hissed, inching the ice spear towards Sonic’s throat.

"Uh, don’t you need me alive to extract the power and all?" Sonic gulped, eyeing the spear that was threatening to stab into his flesh.

"We do. Leave him alone Barak," Zaylia didn't wait for a reply, pulling the ice spear away from her brother. The ice began to quickly melt away in her hands, water dropping onto the ground and disappearing into the sand.

Barak gritted his teeth, he hated his sister ordering him around like a child, "Let’s get this brat to the temple already." The black echidna grabbed Sonic's ankles, savagely dragging the hedgehog along the sand behind him.

”H-hey! I can walk! I can walk!” Sonic yelled out as his back was roughly pulled against the sand. He twisted his body around, pulling at his legs and bending forward to sit up, trying to free himself from the black echidna's grip. But Barak was rough, and the forceful forward motion kept throwing Sonic backwards.

Zaylia sighed as she watched her brother rough handling the hedgehog. But she couldn’t be bothered stopping him, an argument that she didn’t have the patience for.

”Quicker this way,” Barak grinned, turning his head to look at the hedgehog that was dragging behind him. The defiant hedgehog needed to be put in his place.

Sonic quickly realised it was pointless trying to escape from Barak’s grip. The hedgehog wrapped his arms behind his neck, providing a bit of support to his head, and kept his back down as he was dragged. The sand was soft at least.

Adar followed behind his brother, dragging Knuckles limp body along the sand as well.

"Have you two seen the black hedgehog?" Zaylia asked her brothers as they walked towards the temple, cautiously eyeing the area.

Sonic wondered himself where Shadow was. He hoped Shadow would show up soon, he could really use assistance right about now. Though it would be kind of embarrassing if Shadow saw him like this...Being helplessly dragged along the sand like a sack of potatoes. “Very fitting for a hero that never loses…” Sonic remembered the words Shadow had said to him. The hedgehog frowned, he was in yet another humiliating situation and Shadow would probably enjoy the sight.

"Probably still battling it out with that big robot. Hopefully it took care of him," Adar commented with a smirk.

"We still need to be on our guard. His skills were particularly strong," Zaylia cautioned.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever," Barak grumbled, rolling his eyes. He could easily handle a puny hedgehog.

The texture of the sand felt like it had somehow gotten rougher, or perhaps Sonic’s body had just been dragged against the sand for too long. Every pull now caused the hedgehog a fresh wave of pain, as if moving against sandpaper. The sand was also getting increasingly hotter, and feeling like it was burning his fur. At least the dress was helping to protect his hide a little bit Sonic thought.

"Let me walk! This sand is burning my butt!” Sonic called out as his body roughly bumped against the ground.

Sonic waited for a reply, but none came. The three echidnas were ignoring him.

”I said, let me walk!” Sonic huffed, annoyed that these echidnas had no concern about the pain they were putting him through.

“Shut it!” Barak said, keeping his eyes forward on the path to the temple.

Sonic’s ears flattened against his head. The sand was hot, and it certainly wasn’t soft anymore. Sonic felt a roughness all over his body. He could feel scratches against his peach skin as his arms grazed the sand. His backside felt bruised from the bumpy pulling and cut up by the coarse and gritty sand underneath.

”This is ridiculous, are you trying to burn my fur off?!” Sonic yelled angrily, it was really uncomfortable being dragged across the hot, gritty sand. He wondered why Barak was doing this, was it payback for the sucker punch from earlier? Their little argument from before? Or did Barak just enjoy inflicting pain?

“If I hear another word from you, I’ll drag you across the entire desert!” Barak snapped, glaring behind at the hedgehog. He squeezed hard around Sonic's ankles, as if to make a point.

Sonic frowned, he didn’t want to test if Barak was bluffing or not, Sandopolis was a very large desert. At least the temple wasn’t too far away, and so hopefully he wouldn't be in this horrible position for too much longer.

Chapter Text

The sun began to sink below the desert horizon, followed by a sky bathed in reds, oranges and pinks, creating a beautiful sunset. Shadow skated across the ground on his hover shoes, particles of sand rippling behind him from the powerful thrusts. The black hedgehog moved with ease as he hovered slightly in the air, not needing to rely on the grip of the terrain.

Gigantic claws crashed down, spinning aggressively and trying to strike. Multiple homing missiles fired out from the robot's legs, targeting the hedgehog. The robot was slightly more challenging than before. Shadow had to constantly be on the move to avoid being hit, but this was easy enough for the speedster hedgehog.

“How about you head home, doctor?” Shadow calmly called out. The fight was growing tedious and the sun had already begun to set. He was wasting too much time battling the doctor. He needed to catch up to Sonic and Knuckles in case the Shaman showed up.

The giant robot’s attacks were no match against Shadow. And Eggman knew this. He was merely distracting the hedgehog for the moment. Shadow’s previous chaos-fuelled attack had fed energy into his robot’s core, increasing its power. Eggman hadn’t purposefully designed the machine this way, but it was a welcome feature which he intended to fully utilise.

“I won’t be heading home until the Goddess’s power is mine. And you can't stop me! Especially not without Sonic here to help you!” Eggman said with a mocking tone. He hoped to bait the hedgehog into using another chaos energy charged attack, wanting to take as much energy as he could. Shadow wasn't quite as reckless as Sonic, but the two hedgehogs both shared big egos, and neither liked when their ability was questioned.

Shadow growled softly at the doctor’s words, how dare he underestimate his power. Shadow’s Chaos Spear attack didn't destroy the robot's core last time, but perhaps that was because it hadn't been charged up enough. If he threw multiple, charged up Chaos Spears at the robot's core this time, the increased attack power would surely destroy it.

He clenched his palms tightly and concentrated on the sensation of chaos energy, building energy rapidly up inside of him.

“Chaos Spear!" Shadow shouted as he fired an eruption of spear-shaped bolts at the robot’s core, causing an explosion of sand and sparks. He ran full speed at the robot, spinning aggressively in the air and colliding into the robot’s core as a final attack move. Bouncing off the robot and landing on the ground, Shadow breathed deeply and waited for the dust and smoke to clear so he could see the damage done.

The robot’s core was unscathed.

And Shadow now knew why. He had felt a strong energy coming from the robot’s core when he collided with it. A familiar energy. “You’ve got a chaos emerald powering that machine.”

"Actually, I have two," Eggman bragged. It had taken many months for his robots to hunt down the two mystical gems. Considering how randomised the location of the Chaos Emeralds could be, the doctor had really lucked out.

"I must thank you Shadow, your chaos fuelled attacks were quite helpful in providing additional power to my machine. It's now filled to the brim with chaos energy," Eggman took great delight in boasting about his machine's capabilities.

Finding out that the doctor had TWO Chaos Emeralds was alarming. The giant robot’s attacks hadn’t been strong enough to even consider that it was being powered by the emeralds. Or had the doctor been holding back this whole time? Shadow wasn’t sure, but he was angry that the doctor had been playing around and taking energy from him.

The sound of fast beeps blared inside the robot’s cockpit, an incoming signal was fast approaching. "Ah, just in time," Eggman leaned back in the pilot’s chair with his hands clasped over his ample stomach.

Shadow was suddenly drawn from his thoughts as a loud whining sound whizzed past him. Whatever it was, moved extremely fast.

"Shadow!" A familiar voice cried out. A small orange fox, wrapped by a rope, was being held up by a cloaked stranger. It was Tails. His ears were pressed against his head. He looked scared.

Shadow's eyes widened slightly, shocked to see that Tails had been captured. His eyes quickly narrowed as he stared at the unknown humanoid figure, trying to figure out who was working with the doctor. They wore a black cloak with a hood covering their face and a black mask poking through. He couldn’t see who or what was underneath.

"Hand over the Chaos Emerald, or the fox boy dies," Eggman demanded with an added threat. He was determined to take the emerald from Shadow. Having the power of three Chaos Emeralds, and soon enough, the Goddess Nyoka’s powers, would make Eggman truly a force to be reckoned with. His dream of conquering the world and building his Eggman Empire would finally become a reality.

"I think you have me mistaken with someone who cares," Shadow replied flatly. He assumed the doctor was bluffing.

Tails and Eggman blinked, both taken aback by the black hedgehog's response. The doctor didn't actually want to go through with having the fox killed, but he really wanted that Chaos Emerald, "I'm not bluffing Shadow."

Eggman motioned at the cloaked figure. They swiftly pulled out a gun, holding it firmly against the fox's forehead. Tails gulped, and closed his eyes tight, trembling slightly. Did Shadow really not care if he died? He wished Sonic was here to help him.

Shadow let out a frustrated sigh, the situation had quickly spiralled out of control. He didn't want to give up the Chaos Emerald. But if didn't, the doctor would have Tails killed.

"Damn it," Shadow cursed softly. No, he couldn't let Tails die just for the sake of keeping a Chaos Emerald. The hedgehog pulled out a bright green Chaos Emerald from his back spikes, holding the powerful gem up in the air.

"A good choice indeed.” Truth be told, Eggman was relieved that the black hedgehog didn’t want Tails to die. It had been risky bargaining a life with Shadow. Sonic on the other hand was easy to bargain with, very predictable and always too eager to protect others, even if it meant putting himself in harms way. But Shadow was a different ball-game, unpredictable and hard to read.

“For a moment there, I thought you were fine with seeing the boy’s head explode off," Eggman added with a dark chuckle.

Tails slowly opened his eyes, feeling relieved that he probably wasn’t going to die. The stranger still held the gun at him though, but the pressure against his forehead had been lessened.

"Let Tails go first, then you can have the emerald," Shadow demanded.

"Ah-ah, I know full well how that little tactic works. I free Tails, then you both manage to run off without handing over the emerald! I'm not an idiot. Put the Chaos Emerald in my robot’s hand first, and the fox lives. You have my word.”

Shadow grunted as he walked towards the robot, one of its arms outstretched. He held tightly onto the Chaos Emerald, hesitantly placing it into the robot’s palm. The robot quickly retracted its arm upwards to be in front of the doctor. Eggman chuckled to himself as he grabbed the Chaos Emerald. Too easy.

"Let Tails go. We had a deal,” Shadow's eyes narrowed.

"Oh yes that..." Eggman said nonchalantly, his eyes tracing the newly acquired Chaos Emerald, "I think I'll hold onto the fox for a while. But I won't kill him, as agreed."

The cloaked stranger smacked the fox hard against the back of the head, instantly knocking the child out. In a split second, they had thrown Tails upwards. A giant robot claw quickly caught the fox, throwing him into the robot's center dome.

Shadow shook his head in disbelief. The doctor had the Chaos Emerald, but for whatever reason, wasn’t letting Tails go. It's not like Tails was a threat. "What do you need the fox for anyway?” Shadow hissed.

"Bait," Eggman said simply.

The cloaked figure turned, pointing the gun at Shadow. In a flash, Shadow charged full speed at the stranger, sweeping his leg around with a powerful kick, throwing them backwards and knocking the gun out of their hand. He rushed forward, and using his fist he slammed the stranger into the ground.

“Who the hell are you?” Shadow demanded, holding the unknown stranger against the sandy ground. A concealed, masked face looked back at him. Shadow yanked the mask down, eyes widening as he saw who it was. A familiar, metallic blue robot hedgehog: Metal Sonic. The two stared at one another with unwavering eyes.

A sharp fist suddenly collided into Shadow’s stomach, with enough force that sent Shadow flying backwards. Shadow landed a few feet away in a crouching manner before immediately rushing at his opponent. Shadow zoomed past Metal Sonic, grabbing his cloak and slamming him across the ground. Spinning around, Shadow delivered a kick rocketing into the back of Metal Sonic's head. “Pathetic,” Shadow sneered as he looked down at the robot.

Metal Sonic's eyes flashed with rage. The robot activated the jet engines in his feet, blasting off the ground and flying into the sky above. The robot shredded and tore the cloak off his body, realising that the attire had caused him to have a visible weakness. Metal Sonic glared at the black hedgehog below, and made a rude gesture. He couldn’t talk, and so body language was the only real way he could express himself.

Shadow scoffed as he glared up at Metal Sonic who was giving him the bird.

Metal Sonic flew down towards the black hedgehog with his claws outstretched. As the distance between the two drew rapidly close, Shadow jumped over the robot and performed a homing attack, colliding multiple times into Metal Sonic’s back, causing the robot to lose balance and stagger in the air. The robot spun around, managing to raise a powerful energy shield to block another incoming attack. Shadow tried to break through the shield, but Metal Sonic swatted the hedgehog away, sending him into the ground.

Like a hawk, Metal Sonic's eyes locked firmly on his target. His torso glowed, and a powerful wave of yellow energy shot towards the hedgehog, its radius hitting the ground and causing an explosion of sand. Metal Sonic was unable to see through the thick cloud of dust that now covered the area where Shadow had been standing. He wasn’t sure if the hedgehog was still alive, and he scanned the area for heat signals.

Nothing. Had the hedgehog been obliterated from his plasma pulse laser attack? Metal Sonic could only hope that was the case. He cautiously landed on the ground, and inspected the area, searching for remains.

Suddenly, Shadow appeared behind Metal Sonic, spinning fast and swinging his legs. The hedgehog’s feet connected into the back of robot's head, delivering a hard blow and causing sparks to fly.

A robot arm shot out backwards and grabbed Shadow by his leg. The hedgehog’s back hit the ground with such a strong force that it left a large indent in the sand. Metal Sonic yanked Shadow back up, and slammed him violently into the ground.

Again.

And again.

And again.

Shadow groaned as he lay on the ground, facing the sky. The world was spinning like a carousel. Metal Sonic's cold red eyes stared down at the hedgehog, preparing to deliver a final blow. Shadow quickly rolled out of the way as Metal Sonic's fist slammed into the ground, sand flying everywhere.

A smirk grew across Shadow’s face as he wiped some blood from his mouth, standing up into a fighting stance. The feeling of adrenaline pumped through his veins. The fight was getting interesting.

Metal Sonic dashed at Shadow in a distracting zig-zag pattern, swiftly jabbing a knee into the Shadow’s stomach and causing him to cough saliva. Shadow held his forearms in front of him, blocking Metal Sonic's next kick as it slammed in to him.

Shadow jumped backwards, curling into a tight ball, revving up and spinning rapidly on the spot. He blasted forward at the robot, a powerful sharp blow hitting directly into Metal Sonic's head. The force sent the robot flying back, sparks spitting out from the collision. Metal Sonic's eyes flickered as he kneeled on the ground, injured from the attack.

While Metal Sonic was disoriented, Shadow continued to charge forward, delivering a roundhouse kick into the robot’s head. Metal Sonic managed to launch himself backwards, dodging another incoming kick that tried to impale him.

"Haven't you fallen apart yet?" Shadow smirked, watching little sparks still flying from Metal Sonic’s head. He would shatter the robot’s head apart soon.

Metal Sonic’s red eyes darkened. The hedgehog had caused a considerable amount of damage to his vitals. He would need to be careful to not sustain further injury. The robot raised his steel claws threateningly, and swiped at the hedgehog. Shadow effortlessly dodged the attacks, and Metal Sonic's frustration grew.

"METAL!” An angry voice boomed at Metal Sonic through his internal communicator. It was his master, Doctor Eggman. “Stop playing around and get Shadow inside the robot’s core. I will provide you with a distraction…Do NOT fail me.” Eggman had been closely watching the fight unfold, keeping an eye on Metal Sonic's vitals. It appeared that Shadow had dealt quite a bit of damage to his prized robot. And he couldn't have Metal Sonic falling apart. Not yet.

A sudden burst of bright light emitted out from Eggman's giant robot, lighting up the surrounding area. The strong force stunned Shadow for a second, allowing one of Metal Sonic's sharp claws to connect, leaving a deep gash across Shadow's chest. Skin and flesh were torn away, causing blood to spill out.

"Damn robot," Shadow snarled as he grasped at his wound, blood seeping through his fingers and staining his white glove. He considered ripping off his inhibitor rings and turning Metal Sonic into dust.

While Shadow was paused by pain, Metal Sonic had charged his jet pack into overdrive. He accelerated towards Shadow at breakneck speed. Before Shadow could react, Metal Sonic had grabbed him, flying them towards Eggman's giant robot and hurling Shadow into the open dome of the giant robot's core. Metal Sonic's eyes beamed with victory as he stared at the black hedgehog lying trapped inside.

A strong force held Shadow's body tightly against the floor. His wounded chest was burning, blood slowly spilling out.

”Chaos Control!" Shadow yelled out in desperation. He hoped that with the Chaos Emeralds close by, he might be able to tap into their power.

Nothing happened.

Manic laughter could be heard from above. There were speakers inside the dome, allowing Eggman to gloat at his captured prey, "Well that was a good show you and Metal Sonic put on! Though that injury of yours certainly doesn’t look too good.”

“Release me now, or you will severely regret it,” Shadow spat, furious that the doctor had trapped him. He tried reaching for his wrists to release his inhibitor rings, but the force was too strong. He couldn’t even lift his arms up.

”Big words for someone who is incapacitated,” Eggman remarked, finding it incredibly annoying when his enemies kept a brave face, despite their dire circumstance.

“By the way Shadow, Chaos Control won't work for you, not while you're inside the EggCeleratorVoid. My machine's primary function is to contain chaos energy. And as you can see, it's doing quite a good job at it,” Eggman explained, "That bright light you saw before was a simple demonstration of the sort of power I can now produce.”

“You will regret this doctor,” Shadow growled. He turned his head to see Tails lying next to him, the poor fox still unconscious.

"I’m sure I won’t. Now, without further ado, I have a Goddess to capture!" Eggman launched his robot into the air, heading towards Sonic's location. Metal Sonic followed closely behind.