The Experiment

Chapter 3

Rouge and Tails continued running though Tails was protesting on Sonic being left behind. "No! We have to help him!" Tails shouted, struggling in Rouge's grip. "It's no use to go back! We'll just get torn apart by Shadow!" Rouge shouted. Tears were streaming down Tails face as he continued clawing at Rouge's back. "I don't care! We need to help him!" Rouge rolls her eyes as they made it to a different part of the city. Rouge looked around and found the section tone awfully familiar. 'Amy lives in this area' she thought. She runs onto the sidewalk, not caring for the curious and suspicious glances.

She looks left then right until she found Amy's apartment. 'Gotcha!' Rouge runs across the street, flipping off those who honked their horns. She finally made it to the other side and knocked on Amy's door. The patio lights came on after a few seconds and the door swung open to reveal a tired pink hedgehog. "What is it?" She asked grumpily. "It's Sonic!"

Sonic's ears twitch in confusion as Shadow's growling became more intense. Sonic had to move his head to the side as to not be suffocated by the fluffy mass of fur in front of him. The only light he had was the moon and yet he couldn't see what Shadow was seeing. He could hear faint rustling in the bushes. Just then, a dark figure arose from the darkness. Sonic could just barely see the features. It looked to be wearing a suit and 4 different set of wings sprouted out of it's back. The hands were covered in little thorns. The feet were that of hooves and a spike curved out from the bottom of the hooves to the middle of it's calf.

It's eyes were a fiery gold and it stared right at Sonic. Sonic's eyes widen as the creature started to swiftly advance on the two. Shadow instantly drops Sonic and lunges at the creature. Shadow bit into it's neck, earning an inhuman scream from the creature. The scream was a combination of what sounded like screeching tires, an eagle, and surprisingly what sounded like a lion. Sonic winces at the piercing sound. The creature grabs Shadow and throws him across the clearing. The clear thunk of Shadow's body hitting a tree sent shivers down Sonic's back.

The creature then turns towards Sonic and starts approaching him. Sonic freezes as he just realized how tall the thing is. It was taller then most of the trees here and it approached Sonic with slow, but long strides. Sonic starts pushing himself back only to hit the same tree. Sonic starts breathing rapidly as the creature brings up it's hand, the hand molding into a blade. Sonic's breath hitches as the blade is brought down. Sonic closes his eyes, expecting to feel an excruciating pain but felt only the breeze of the wind. He opens his eyes to see Shadow standing over the now dead creature.

He was huffing as he looked at Sonic. He slowly walks over to Sonic and hugs him to his chest. Sonic shudders as he burrows his face into the white, fluffy chest that belonged to Shadow. Shadow looks down at Sonic then down at the body only a few feet away. He let's put a low grumble like sound, pulling Sonic closer to him. He sniffs the air only to find the forests' scent and Sonic's. No more danger.

"What do you mean that Sonic's about to be killed?!" Amy exclaimed. Rouge and Tails were by now in Amy's apartment explaining what was happening. "Or he's already dead- thanks to Rouge!" Tails shouted, tears forming in his eyes. "I was trying to save you! Besides, I was following what Sonic said" Rouge argued. "Yea because you're so used to being bossed around that you take orders instantly!" Tails backfired. Rouge stands stun at what Tails said as her ears went down. Amy had a worried expression and put her hands up. "Woah, Tails, I think that was too far" she said.

Tails huffs as he turns away and looks out the window. He could see the faint glow of the sun rising above the horizon. His ears go up as he turns around. "We can run back now! The sun is coming up!" He said, running out the apartment. Rouge and Amy follow as they follow in their previous footsteps.

Shadow's ears perk up as he hears leaves crunching underneath 3 pairs of feet. He starts growling as the fur in his neck raised up again. Sonic slowly pulls away and looks up at the sky to see the glow of the sun. He turns around as he also heard the footsteps. The sun fully rose above the trees and Shadow froze instantly, his lip twitching. The grip around Sonic loosens as Sonic stands up. "Shadow?" Shadow was hunched over, growling. He started to shrink. Rouge, Amy, and Tails came back in the nick of time to see Shadow transform back to normal and collapse on the ground.

"Sonic!" Tails shouted, running up to him and giving him a hug. "Woah, hey Tails" Sonic said before hugging the kitsune back. Rouge walks over to Shadow and gently shakes him. He makes a grunt of protest as he shifted away from Rouge. Rouge sighs as she shakes him more vigorously before he wakes up. "What?" He growled. "Nice to see you too, handsome" Rouge said, helping him up. Shadow grunts as he grabs his head. "Mh, what happened last night?" Shadow grimaced. Sonic looks around, remembering the creature. It's nowhere in sight.

Rouge shrugs. "We don't know. We just thought that you were tearing Sonic to shreds." Tails sends a glare in Shadow's way before turning towards Sonic. "So what did happen, Sonic?" He asked. "Well, as you guys remember, I told you to leave me behind so that I could slow down Shadow. Of course, he starts walking up to me like he's going to kill me but all of a sudden, he's just on top of me, staring at me. It caught me by surprise and he just licked my face. But then he heard something off in the woods and got in a protective stance."

"What came out of the woods was terrifying. The thing was at least 10 feet tall and it wore a suit. It had 4 pairs of wings on it's back. There were little thorns on it's hands as well. It's feet were shaped as hooves with a spike coming out from underneath the hooves up to half of its calves. It had fiery golden eyes that pierced into my soul. I was terrified but Shadow here killed it." Shadow looks around, not finding a dead body. "Where is it?" He asked. Sonic shrugs. "I don't know. It was here, I remember that, but it just disappeared." Rouge looks around swiftly before turning her attention back to Sonic.

"Anything else, Blue?" She asked. Sonic thinks before he snaps his fingers. "Also, Shadow got thrown across the clearing and hit that tree over there" he said while pointing at the bruised tree. "That explains why my back hurts like hell. Anything else?" Shadow grimaced. Sonic shakes his head. "Nope. That's it." Shadow nods before adding on. "Good because I need to rest. I feel like shit." Everyone agrees as they walk back to Tails' place. Sonic, however, walks in the back. 'Good thing I didn't tell them about that moment. It just felt so odd but yet so welcoming.'

'It's like I had a connection with Shadow's wolf or even Shadow himself, but why? What caused this? Is Shadow hiding something? Why is his wolf so friendly to me? And last but not least, what was that creature?'