---

The run home had felt amazing. The breeze, both how it smelt and felt across his now clean cobalt fur, had woke him up enough to take the long way home. Shadow had departed halfway to his own place, more than likely sick of Sonic ambling on anyway, the blue hedgehog suppressing a chuckle at the thought; little did he know that he was probably returning home to catch up on some deprecating reading.

Sonic reached the door to his and Tails' place, looking through the bush besides the mailbox to find the false rock housing the key. After opening the lock and tossing the manmade stone elsewhere, he opened the door with a large smile towards his humble abode. Moving quickly through the small foyer – Sonic could swear since purchasing this place, he hadn't spent more than five minutes in there, he entered the kitchen with a deep inhale; ah yes, it was Tails turn to cook tonight, and he more than likely was making Macaroni and Cheese – the shapes, always. The fox stood on a stool to help him reach the stove, Sonic giving a smile at the adorable sight as he crept closer before throwing his arms around the vulpine's middle.

"Hey!" Tails looked over his shoulder in shock but smiled when he realized who it was. "Oh, Sonic! Hey, where were you all morning?"

Sonic didn't respond right away, only tightening his grip a bit and nuzzling into the soft fur of his shoulder. He thought back to his panic earlier, about how many of his thoughts revolved around his little brother, and was relieved that nothing was going to come between the two. He finally pulled away with a ruffle to the other's bangs, stepping towards the fridge not too far away.

"Ah, nothing Tails, I visited Shadow for a few hours," He lied, which was not a habit for the hero since he usually found it easy telling Tails many of his deepest secrets, knowing he could trust him; but this was something he did not want his younger sibling to worry about. "Nothing to worry about." He lifted the jug of water he was looking for from the fridge and sipped it straight out of the mouth piece, not bothering for a glass. "Whatcha making?"

"Macaroni and cheese shapes." Said Tails with a grin, stirring the boiling water. He was young, but had more knowledge than Sonic and most of their friends combined, so the hedgehog knew he could trust him enough to not hurt himself.

"I guessed that; Mondays is always macaroni night." He sniffed the air. For some reason, even though he usually enjoyed the meal, he wasn't feeling particularly excited about it.

"Are you hungry?"

"Not exactly," stated Sonic, rubbing his chin. "I haven't really been hungry all day." At that moment, his exhaustion chose to return and he gave a yawn, looking back to his friend as he moved towards the door frame. "I'm actually going to turn in early tonight." He looked outside the window; it wouldn't be too long until the sun would start to set.

"Alright," Tails was surprised to get a refusal; when does Sonic ever turn down a meal? "I'll leave some in the fridge for you, you might want it later."

"Alright, good thinking." Sonic smiled back at him and brought the gallon of water with him. "I'm taking this!" Tails just nodded with a bit of a roll to his eyes, but the smile remained none the less.

Sonic made his way through the den, which was filled with mismatched pieces of furniture and little trinkets of Tails left about; it was a typical male household, since Sonic made no attempt to decorate it nicely let alone ever yell at Tails about putting his things away. After a quick run up the stairs, literally a second for Sonic even in the shoes given to him by Shadow, he made it to his bedroom as he forced the door open.

His possessions littered the floor, not an inch of carpet was free to step on. He just stepped on his things freely, not that he really cared about them much anyway if they were strewn across the floor, sitting himself down on the edge of the bed. His bones felt weak but he still took the few moments to pull the shoes off his feet and leave the water on the nightstand before stretching out on the bed. He arched his back, scratching a hand through the quills in a way without harming himself, before turning over and flopping onto his stomach. His emerald eyes were half lidded for only a few minutes as he stared out the window in front of him, the sun beginning to glow orange; he fell asleep with the beautiful sunset on his mind.

Shadow had returned to his den to predictably curl up on his couch with his smutty novel so he could enjoy what was left of his rather strange Monday. So caught up was he in his reading, Shadow never noticed the slow ticking of hours passing him by until he found his living room swathed in darkness.

Should anyone question whether or not the Ultimate Lifeform was enjoying said book, he would venomously deny that he ever even read it. However, one would most likely be able to catch Shadow smuggling the book into a private area should he choose to finish it in peace.

For purely educational purposes of course...

He had just getting to the climatic part of the book, having been drawn into the romance and the story just as dusk was settling. The shadows in his living room grew long and dark, but the ebony hedgehog paid them no attention. He was far too preoccupied with the growing tension between the female lead and the male she was lusting over to notice how swiftly night was falling.

The cell phone near his nightstand rang out like a shrill alarm and Shadow stiffened in surprise. He looked around in his dark living room, the glow from the phone's LCD screen illuminating the area with a sickly green light. His gaze fell on the caller ID and Shadow nearly groaned when he saw Sonic's name flicker across it.

'What does that Faker want now?' Shadow thought in frustration as he reached for the phone to flip it open, "I don't suppose you can stop harassing me for a day, could you?" He barked into the receiver, clipped tones signifying his annoyance at being bothered at home for the second time that day.

However, he trailed off in a second the instant the sounds from the other end of the line registered to him.

The line was fuzzy with an array of noises in the background before whomever picked up the phone and dialed responded. It sounded like glass was breaking, furniture being thrown callously; the sounds were soon followed by a shrill yelp. Finally Tails, who's shivering was evident even in his tone of voice, spoke desperately into the phone.

"Shadow," he sobbed, his age able to allow him to cry freely. "Please come here, Sonic—"

Before he could finish, the line was severed. The dial tone sounded into the receiver, leaving Shadow to wonder just what the hell was going on.

The dark agent stared at the dead line in shock. Uncertainty knotted in his stomach as he fought to understand what had reduced the normally mature fox to tears. Something was wrong — that much he had gathered. It sounded like Tails was being attacked by something.

Sonic probably had gone on a run of some sort to clear his head, leaving the fox at home alone. Shadow sighed as he abandoned his book and strode over to the door, swiftly throwing it open and tearing out of his den. He'd have to hurry and hope Tails was smart enough to take care of himself long enough to get to Sonic's.

He tore off in a blaze towards the other end of town. Sonic might have taken his sweet time going home before, but that was because he hadn't been able to move at top speed with the shoes he had borrowed from Shadow.

The agent on the other hand was not at such a disadvantage. He tore off at a blinding speed, knowing that soon whatever had been attacking Tails could manage to pin the vulpine down and attack him.

Shadow was mentally running through a list on what or who the mystery assailant could be. Eggman was out of the picture, so he could be knocked off the list. An experiment gone wrong – with the genius fox, anything was a possibility.

He was still thinking about it by the time he arrived at Sonic's den. He could hear the clear signs of crashing and something large rummaging around within. Shadow grasped the door and let it swing open. Immediately he paused as he took in the hugely damaged room. It was littered with stuffing from the couch and shards of glass coated every inch of the thick carpeting. Shadow walked inside cautiously. "Tails?" He called out.

The rustling inside halted; whatever it was going berserk in the house hold had heard Shadow. Large footsteps from upstairs boomed above the agent, the ceiling scattering little pieces of dust from the impact. The stairs, which had a few steps cracked down the center from some time of powerful force, creaked as whoever tore this house to shreds made its way down the stairs, leaping down the next few steps with ease.

Its form, although huge, was covered in the shadows of the night since most of the lights had been pushed over and the bulbs smashed. A window close by draped moonlight over the floor as one large, foot revealed itself in the glow, its piercing talons clacking against the wood. Soon enough, the beast had coated itself completely in the light, an emerald eye glinting dangerously as he eyed what had interrupted its searching.

The creature was a dark, navy blue, its chest which was normally peach now a light azure. Long, soft fur cuffed its massive clawed hands, the same light blue dripping from its head quills. It would have looked exactly like Sonic if it wasn't for the ears curling inwards like horns, one of the said appendages giving a twitch. Its lips sneered back as they revealed massive, dripping fangs, wet with drool that pattered onto the floor as if it had just seen a meal to ravish on. A low growl escaped from its throat as it stalked closer to Shadow, the ground vibrating with each step.

If this was Sonic, he looked absolutely furious at the intruder. But this couldn't have been Sonic…right? It suddenly reared itself on all fours and lunged at the other, reaching its arm out as if it somehow became elastic, reaching to swipe with all its strength towards the hedgehog in front of him.

Shadow's eyes had widened in utter shock the instant the huge creature's form had lumbered into view. He remained absolutely still as it registered to him that this angry beast was none other than the hedgehog he had seen just a few hours ago.

"Chaos," He breathed as he took in the bulky form, his traitorous heart hammering in his chest. Ruby eyes met dark jade, searching for any sign that Sonic recognized him. The warning growl that was vibrating in Sonic's chest told otherwise, as did the sudden attack from one stretchy arm that seemed to reach twice the distance he should have been capable of.

Relying solely on instincts, Shadow leapt to the side, narrowly avoiding being run through by a massive hand. His mind was still playing catch up, but his body was reacting immediately to Sonic's attacks. Years of training aboard the ARK was what saved his life when Sonic's second arm came flinging out at Shadow. The dark hedgehog neatly ducked under it and darted to the side, his thoughts reeling.

Normally Shadow held the slight advantage over Sonic whenever they fought indoors, but he was finding himself at a disadvantage. It became exceedingly evident that despite the fact that Shadow was a lot faster than Sonic in this form, he couldn't dodge the other forever. The wolfish-creature that had replaced Sonic was every bit as strong as his former self had been fast, leaving Shadow with a very good reason not to get caught.

The floor was splintering badly underneath Shadow's feet, Sonic's attacks tearing up the ground with terrifying ease. No matter where the dark hedgehog ran, he couldn't escape this insane version of Sonic. He pivoted sharply when he found himself running out of options and pulled on the chaos energy that burned within him.

He wordlessly flung a bolt of chaos energy at his assailant, praying that it would do more than singe the werehog's fur.

The creature snarled when his arm missed its target, his hand grabbing at the floor, long nails dragging across the ground to create massive scars in the wood. He leapt again at Shadow, his second arm just missing him as he avoided it expertly, his fist instead making contact with a cabinet in the kitchen before smashing it in two. He pulled himself free in quick retaliation, skittering across the slippery floor before it would crack beneath his footsteps, charging after Shadow with a deep, reverberating bark.

His arms would stretch almost unnaturally as they would just miss the fast moving hedgehog, smashing to the floor with a sickening crack of wood. Sonic's breath was ragged, the beast mindless as it only had a desire to foil the reason for interrupting him attaining his shivering prey upstairs, his emerald eyes dilating as they struggled to adjust in the light. Unfortunately for Shadow, darkness was his element, only existing in the night so his senses were highly attuned. He again lunged after the other as Shadow was bringing him in literal circles around the house, potholes dotting the ground from Sonic's massive form.

The creature paused for a second after receiving a bit of a shock from Shadow's chaos spear, but continued in their chase after giving a humorous sneeze in response.

Finally, a hand reached out and took grasp of the other's thin ankle, taking a hold of it before throwing him into the air and slamming him down to the wood, the floor cracking beneath Shadow's form. He pulled himself forward, on all fours again as he eyed the hedgehog beneath him, saliva dripping down onto his furred stomach as he growled with a sharp-toothed frown. He licked his lips; maybe the fox wasn't to be his meal after all. Yet the beast hesitated as he continued to stare down at Shadow, leaning forward to take a deep inhale of the ivory fur dressing his chest. Before he could make another move on his captive, something heavy came down on his head. The resulting crash knocked the Werehog out clean to fall directly on top of Shadow in an excruciating amount of dead weight.

Tails stood shivering behind his passed out form of the animal, clutching a cracked television set he had managed to lift before tossing it to the side, giving a cry about what happened in the past half hour and what he had just done to his big brother.

Shadow, who had been attempting to buy some time by darting around to confuse the beast, grunted in surprise when one of those stretchy arms finally caught him around the ankle and jerked him into the air. Before the sense of vertigo could grip Shadow, he was sent plummeting hard into the ground, his head cracking against the floor.

Dazed, Shadow attempted to get up, but found that he was too late. The creature had already clambered on top of him. He fought to come up with something to do. Obviously his chaos spear hadn't done a lick of good. The beast had simply taken the blast of chaos energy to the chest without so much as batting an eye.

Shadow's heart thudded as he watched Sonic's lips curl back in a feral snarl, exposing a dangerous row of sharp, saliva coated fangs. He let out a pained grunt and tried to squirm away when a dollop of drool landed on his pelt and began to soak through. Shadow could read the mad and clearly ravenous look in Sonic's eyes.

He closed his eyes, not wanting to see that hungry mouth descend on his throat and couldn't help but jump slightly when he felt Sonic's muzzle bury itself in his chest fur and inhale deeply. Shadow had thought only cats played with their food before they ate it, and wondered if Sonic was going to kill him the same way that deer had died

Then, suddenly a huge and heavy weight collapsed on Shadow, causing the agent's eyes to snap open and lose all the oxygen he had been holding in his lungs. Sonic had collapsed entirely on him, his massive weight pining him to the torn up ground better than his stretchy arms ever had.

Shadow grunted and squirmed, fighting for a mouthful of air around the beast that was currently attempting to crush his diaphragm. With agonizing slowness, he managed to squirm out from underneath one of Sonic's powerful arms and crawl dizzily to his feet. He looked around, one of his hands creeping up to rub at the sore spot on his throbbing head. He spotted the frightened looking kit standing behind Sonic's crumpled body and headed towards him.

"Thanks," Shadow growled softly, not wanting to startle the scared looking fox.

Sonic was out cold, his long tongue hanging out past his fanged teeth. He let out a groan of pain unconsciously, his voice noticeably lower, but did not do much more than quietly breathe. Tails immediately joined Sonic's side despite his fear, taking a massive paw into his tiny ones.

"What," Tails stared at Shadow. "What happened today?" his voice trembled. "He said he was with you all day."

His little hands squeezed as he held his big brothers, which was terrifyingly larger than it usually was, Tails actually needing both of his to hold it properly. He looked back over to Sonic before more tears rolled down his face, as if he had forgotten a few moments ago when his sibling had crashed out of his bedroom and charged at him with hunger and maliciousness only in his eyes. He knew somewhere deep down Sonic had to be inside this beast, even if he couldn't find his way out.

Shadow sighed and sat down on one of the ruined chairs that seemed like it was still mostly intact. His head gave a painful throb from his rough landing and he looked at the fox, feeling almost as though he was cross-eyed, "He was."

He took a moment to collect himself before realizing that even though Sonic might have been unconscious now, that did not mean he would remain that way for long. "I'll tell you the story once we get him tied up," His voice left no room for argument. Sonic obviously in no state to differentiate between friend or foe, and Shadow was not looking forward to fighting round two with the beast.

"Get some chains from your workshop and make a call to Knuckles," Shadow grunted as he wrapped his arms around one of Sonic's massive shoulders and attempted to lift him up. His head screamed in protest against the idea, but his survival instincts were kicking into high gear and promptly suppressing the need to hunt down an extra-strength Excedrin, "We're going to need him."

With that, Shadow began to drag Sonic over towards a closet where he hopefully wouldn't wake up and begin to tear things up. The ruby eyed hedgehog watched as the scared kit scampered off to do as he asked, leaving Shadow with the unconscious Sonic.

The dark agent looked at the transformed shape of Sonic. It was becoming painfully clear just why Sonic had woken up covered in the deer's blood. He had turned into this... creature. Sonic was just lucky that he hadn't caught Tails' scent last night, otherwise– ... Shadow's gaze turned towards the torn up house.

--Otherwise Sonic's earlier fears about having killed someone would have been realized.

Shadow looked back as Tails returned, dragging the heavy chains he used to keep the Tornado planted and secure in the hanger. "Did you get in contact with Knuckles?" Shadow inquired as he began to loop the chains around Sonic's body.

Sonic was completely unconscious, not helping an ounce as Shadow dragged him towards the closet. He rested inside of it, inhaling deeply and exhaling with a long rumble of his vocal chords. Tails approached Shadow and handed him the chains, nervously wringing his small hands as he watched the huge lumbering beast that was his brother, not hearing Shadow's question at first.

"Huh?" he asked rather unintelligently, something fairly unusual, showing just how focused he was on watching the other fearfully.

"I called him—he doesn't sound too happy, let alone awake, but he should be coming." He nodded softly, looking at Shadow expectantly, waiting for what happened during the day.

Shadow nodded and finished tying Sonic up to the best of his ability before shoving the giant beast in the closet. He dragged the remains of couch, followed by a dresser to shove up against the closet door. It probably wouldn't stop Sonic completely if he was really determined to get through.

He turned towards Tails once he was finished burying Sonic in a mass of furniture, sitting down on the tattered couch. He beckoned the trembling fox to join him by the torn seats, his mouth set in a grim line. "Earlier today Sonic came over to my house covered in blood and with no memory of what he had done the previous night," Shadow hastened to continue when he saw Tails' face abruptly lose all color, "We checked it out and it turned out to be a deer's blood. Sonic felt fine so he decided to go home and get some rest and think about it later."

The agent frowned and his cheek twitched, "Obviously we know what's been responsible for his memory loss now." He eyed the closet, "He's not going to be happy when he wakes up in there."

There was silence after Shadow finished, the two-tailed fox giving a nod as he looked at his entwined hands. He actually stood for a moment, moving towards one of the damaged cabinets and searching through it with a bit of difficulty, until he came out with a bottle of pills for Shadow's headache. He offered it to him before speaking, watching as the other made use of them. When he settled back down against the cushions, his feet barely just missed the ground.

"Maybe…" he looked thoughtful for a few moments. "I think it has to do with Eggman." He gazed over seriously at the hedgehog that saved his life. "Sonic and I were the only ones to face him the other day." He rose from his spot on the couch, motioning for Shadow to come. "We have a while before Knuckles comes; I have to show you something." He took him to the door leading down to his workshop, one of the only parts of their home that Sonic couldn't get his clawed paws on. The massive room was filled with trinkets, gadgets, and machines whirring as their gears churned, little beeps sounding here and there to show they were functioning. He brought Shadow to his work table, revealing the blue chaos emerald he and Sonic obtained from their last encounter with Robotnik. It wasn't glowing strangely enough like they usually did; rather this one was dull and completely lifeless.

"Sonic and me arrived to his base, you know, expecting usual Eggman antics. Sonic went in by himself, but for the most part, he told me Eggman was just standing there, as if he was expecting him to waltz in, a huge, wicked grin on his face. All the chaos emeralds were lined up, and Sonic of course channeled up the energy to turn Super," as he spoke, he lifted the seemingly dead chaos emerald in his hands. "But he had been waiting for that; he tricked Sonic, he stepped over and kneeled before him as if he was giving in with a begging plead, finally going to turn himself over…

"But then he just captured Sonic in this…weird, glass machine. As I said, Sonic went in alone, but I kept close by in the Tornado, so I didn't see what was going on. He didn't say much after that, other than the machine had somehow triggered him to turn from Super to normal despite having gold rings." Tails shrugged. "He brought out all the emeralds to me and I've been trying to figure out what has been wrong with them ever since." His frown grew. "I think it's obvious now his changing has something to do with this."

Shadow frowned and he plucked the blue emerald from the table, turning it over in his hand. His frown deepened further as he tried to sense a flicker of ambient energy emanating from the emerald. There was nothing, only a foreboding sense of emptiness. The usual hot pulse of chaos energy that Shadow was used to feeling from the emeralds was ominously absent.

It would also explain why Sonic was forced from his Super form while drawing on the emerald's powers. He settled it down and he looked over at the fox, "You have all seven, but they're little more than decorative paper weights at the moment." He nodded and rubbed his hand over his disheveled fur.

"I'm not sure how their lack of power and Sonic's transformation is related, but it seems to correlate," Shadow muttered as he eyed the young kit, "What else do you know?"

"That's it," he shrugged. "Sonic didn't tell me much else, but he did go to bed with a bit of a headache." He looked thoughtful. "Other than that, he didn't say anything else that happened in there." He shook his head. "But I know he certainly wasn't expecting this."

Tails face instantly became upset again at the thought of his brother, finding a pair of keys to unlock one of the drawers on the desk, swinging it open to reveal the other six emeralds. "So far, I haven't come up with much about what's afflicting them, but I obviously didn't think the situation would be this dire," He shook his head once more. "So foolish of me.

Tails pulled away from his desk as he stood near the stairs, looking over his shoulder to the GUN agent.

"What are we going to do about Sonic?" the way he looked over at Shadow, with tears beginning to form in his huge topaz eyes, could melt anyone's heart.

It was with a great deal of effort that Shadow managed to keep a straight face after staring into the eye of all that was cute, fluffy and adorable. He sighed and looked at Tails firmly, his arms folded over the tuft of fur on his chest.

"We'll have to wait him out, he'll turn back to himself in the morning," Shadow said firmly, sounding far more confident than he really felt. How did he know Sonic would turn back to himself? Just because he had done it once didn't mean he would again. It was probable he could eventually turn back... but...

There was no use frightening the fox more than he already was. If Tails started crying because of something Shadow said, it would just be the topping on a day that had been far more hectic than Shadow ever thought it could possibly become.

"This will all make more sense in daylight," Shadow walked back into the room, his ear twitching as he heard faint scratching at the door. Apparently their local monster had finally managed to wake up, "Try to get some sleep Tails. I'll keep an eye on things down here..." He growled edgily.

"Alright," he nods. "You're right. When he wakes up and he's able to be spoken to, maybe I can run some tests on him? We'll have to see tomorrow." As the two moved up the stairs, Tails continued to talk, "He could possibly be the first specimen of real lycanthropy! I know…I know it's bad, but I can't help but think it's a little fascinating." He weakly smiled through his sadness, of course always looking at situations through a logical stand point.

As they came back to the destroyed living room, the faint noise of scratching at the door could be heard in the houses silence. Sonic was definitely awake, making marks in the wooden barrier with his claws to the best of his abilities in his chained up state. A muffled whimper broke through the thick barrier in front of the door.

Tails couldn't suppress a giggle, "He kind of sounds like a puppy."

A puppy that had wanted to chew his head off.

A puppy that hit like an eighteen wheeler and salivated like a starving man. Hell, he wasn't even house broken yet. Shadow scowled and glared over at the door, ignoring how the whining became more pronounced. His migraine had yet to break, so Shadow was feeling whole heartedly unsympathetic to the giant Werehog.

He just hoped Sonic wouldn't get out before dawn. Shadow didn't feel like wrestling with him again, puppy or not.

---

Sonic had assumed he slept in today, he was feeling awfully tired yesterday after all. He yawned and then attempted a stretch, before his eyes snapped open. It was pitch black, and he noticed he couldn't move. He swallowed with a 'gulp' as he instantly became nervous, taking a deep breath as he tried to rationalize.

'Alright Sonic, relax. You have been in worse situations than this before.' Even though this was true, he was not expecting to wake up again in a terrible condition like last morning, but of course, the life of a hero is never dull. He squirmed a bit, kicking at his surroundings to gage where he was. His hands had some use, but not much, and he identified by the sound of metal as he moved across the floor that he was chained up. He kicked the wall with one of his movements; okay, he is in a tight space.

He tried his best to squeeze free of the binds, sweating as he did so, giving a few deep breaths after struggling for a few minutes. He guessed the next option was the best thing to do in this situation:

"Uh," he voice was muffled behind the door and the furniture covering it. "Hello?!"

Shadow was one very cranky hedgehog. It had been difficult to get any sleep when the Werehog would occasionally let out a mournful howl in the middle of the night, but Shadow's only other option was to let the salivating beast out to try to kill them all again.

Needless to say, Shadow didn't get much sleep.

He had finally managed to squeeze in a few hours of rest, and he was left dozing on the remains of the couch when he heard a soft cry from behind the closet door. His ear flicked in the direction and he recognized the voice being higher and more legible than the Werehog's had been.

"Sonic?" He asked no one in particular and began to shove furniture out of the way. He took a deep breath and prepared himself for the worst. Slowly he opened the clawed up door and spotted the familiar and thankfully normal form of Sonic, wrapped up in the heavy chains and looking completely ridiculous.

The door opened and Sonic saw an exhausted looking Shadow standing before him in the door frame, finally letting in light to the small room, the younger of the two blinking upwards. He looked to the side, then down at himself chained, before resting his big emerald eyes on the other.

"What…" he let out a laugh. "What happened? Is this a joke?" he couldn't help but smirk. "Shadow, did you do this? You would be into this type of-"

His speech was cut off when the other immediately closed the door.

"Hey! Faker, it was a joke! Let me out!" he kicked at the floor under him and wriggled in his spot.

Shadow had every intention of letting the blue hedgehog sit in the closet for as long as possible and letting him simmer in his time out box for that annoying quip. Shadow was just thankful he had managed to cut him off before he could finish his lewd joke.

Unfortunately, he could hear Sonic growing increasingly more obnoxious as the seconds ticked by and knew Tails would eventually come investigate what was keeping Shadow from letting Sonic out; other than annoyance, nothing really. But Shadow held firm in the belief that he was doing the world a favor by preventing Sonic from running around.

Reluctantly he opened the closet door again, "Any more smart remarks and I'm leaving you in there for a week." Shadow said shortly.

Sonic decided that his best tactic was to annoy the hell out of Shadow, since this usually did work in getting what he wanted from the GUN agent. He kicked the floor and the door, wriggled in his spot as he continued to just spew nonsense, hoping his voice was more annoying than a car alarm.

"Hello, hello, hello, let me out! Let me out! Let me-" The door opened. "Finally!" he pouted playfully at Shadow's next comment. "Fine, I'll be good. Can you please undo these chains, and possibly let me know what happen—"His voice caught in his throat again as Shadow moved to assist him in undoing his chains, getting a look over his shoulder at some of the damage done to his home.

Tails heard the speaking from his room, having difficulty himself sleeping last night with everything going on, rushing down the stairs to see what was up. "Is he awake?!

As Shadow was freeing him from his metal hold, Sonic didn't notice Tails looking happily over the other hedgehogs shoulder, moving his head to get another view of the devastation in the house hold.

"What…what…" he couldn't even speak, dying to move so he could investigate his living room and kitchen being in shambles.

"Unfortunately," Shadow replied to the fox over his shoulder as he finally managed to unlock the chains and let them off of Sonic's body, "If you didn't need to run your tests, I would have suggested leaving him in here for a few weeks."

"That sounds like a good idea to me," A new voice said gruffly from the side. The burly form of a red echidna walked into the room from the kitchen and eyed the dumbstruck hero, "Calling me back from my duties to baby sit a hedgehog. Pathetic."

Sonic was not laughing, his quills noticeably bristling as he stood, ignoring that once again he was bare of any article of clothing. He pushed past all of them and his lips quivered at the sight of his house, naked hands curling into fists as he turned to the three others in the room. He moved to speak, but nothing came out of his mouth out of anger or shock, one couldn't be too sure. Sonic focused back on the destruction and he stepped over the holes in the wood before finally turning back to others in rage.

"What the hell happened to my house?! Tell me this is a party that's gone wrong; first problem, why wasn't I there!? Second," he took a deep breath. "Was it really necessary to break my floor, my cabinets…" he gasps. "Is that my television!?" it was currently resting where Tails had thrown it, the screen sporting a major crack down the center.

"Who did this," Sonic's fists were shaking in anger, a far cry from his usually gracious demeanor. "I want an answer. Tails?" he looked to his little brother, knowing he'd tell the truth.

Tails looked noticeably nervous, the tips of his fingers tapping together in tandem as he was lost for words. As an instinct, he stepped behind Shadow as he was drawing short of the actual answer, even if he witnessed it with his own eyes.

Sonic's mouth went agape at his little brother's reaction. Who the hell did this?!

Knuckles shrugged and leaned against a doorframe that was now missing a few chunks of wood from its molding, "Don't look at me. The place was trashed by the time I got here." Not that the echidna looked as if he truly cared. He seemed to be enjoying Sonic's unpleasant reaction more than was logical. Not that Shadow blamed him; the agent was having a bit of a problem keeping his laughter to himself.

Shadow bit the inside of his cheek to prevent himself from smirking at Sonic's reaction to the state of his house. It was a bit ironic actually as Sonic had been the one to tear up every square inch of the place. He barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes when the fox skittered behind him for protection from his brother's wrath.

"You did it a rather large portion of it," Shadow said flatly, his gaze drifting over to the television, "Although Tails is responsible for breaking the TV. It wasn't his fault though."

Tails looked at Shadow with an adorable glare, while Sonic's look on the other hand was much more vicious. "It's not funny!" he spoke to both of them, looking between Knuckles and Shadow with angry eyes, knowing the two probably secretly enjoyed his turmoil.

He moved towards the living room, almost tripping over one of the potholes in the room, finding it strange that once again his legs were wobbly like yesterday morning. The headache wasn't there, but his limbs still felt so strange, which didn't help the awkward feeling of being so exposed in front of his friends. He moved to examine the stairs and turned abruptly with a fumed air as soon as he spotted a few of the steps had been cracked down their middle. He heard Shadow's comment and whirled about angrily. "I did it," his voice went into a shout once more. "I did it!? That's absurd; I didn't do this to my own home! I was asleep upstairs until I woke up chained in this closet!" he looked to the said alcove, the door sporting nasty looking marks in the wood from the inside.

Sonic had barred his teeth, which didn't have remotely the same gravity as it did yesterday since he only sported small canines, much different from the massive ones his mouth dawned the night before. Tails had hidden further behind Shadow's legs, since the only shocking reminder of the Werehog was the other's eyes; the emerald glare looked every inch like the beasts last evening.

The blue hero took notice to Tails' reaction, and when he reached out to grab him to see what was wrong, Tails immediately shivered and whimpered as he avoided the other's hand.

Sonic guessed the feeling in his chest was something akin to being stabbed in the heart.

"Seriously," he was becoming worried, and it showed in his tone. Tails reaction did not sit right with him, and the piece of ceiling that fell to the ruined floor did not help matters. "Tell me what happened." He just couldn't believe Shadow's answer.

"Right, because I just love to see you get naked," Shadow muttered sarcastically, "Two days in a row."

"Do you honestly believe we would have stripped you naked, chained you up, and throw you in a closet that was barricaded with several hundred pounds of furniture if you didn't deserve it?" Shadow asked Sonic flatly, "Look around you Sonic." He gestured to the torn up room, "Don't you think it looks somewhat similar to the clearing you woke up in yesterday?"

"You turned into a werewolf of some kind," Shadow shook his head, "You tried to eat Tails, and he called me for help."

Sonic noticeably flinched at the suggestion of the horrific scene yesterday, listening to Shadow's words as he just stared, his ear twitching once or twice as he absorbed the suggestions in his brain. Slowly he looked around; he studied the claw marks marring the floor, finding them frighteningly similar to the day before. There were only two differences; they were indoors, and there wasn't blood scattered across the ground. He shuddered and finally spoke, his glare melting away moments before and now replaced with an upset expression.

"I tried to eat Tails?" it was the one piece of information that had upset him the most, and it hurt even more when he watched his little brother look downwards to avoid Sonic's stare.

"It's true, Sonic." His voice was quiet. "You turned into some sort of lycanthrope."

Sonic didn't know what the hell that was, but he took Shadow's answer of 'werewolf' instead. His lips quivered as he tried desperately to process this information, before blushing swiftly. He was naked in front of Shadow, again, for the second time in a row. He moved to look over the living room and found a small pillow with a massive tear on it, picking it up before grimacing at the heavy amount of drool on it. He held it above his groin and looked at the others with a bit of pink on his cheeks, the cushion leaking slick saliva on the floor as it started a puddle.

"I'm a Werehog?" he asked the others, blinking; 'The life of a hero is never dull', he reminded himself, yet this was too much.

Knuckles let out a bark of laughter at Sonic's meager attempt at covering himself, despite the fact that it was wholly unnecessary since the hedgehog didn't even wear pants. The echidna strode off upstairs, presumably to Sonic's room so he could fetch the hedgehog a decent pair of gloves, socks, and his trusty shoes.

"It would appear so," Shadow nodded and surveyed the blue hedgehog, "Tails said he can run some tests. He thinks it has something to do with your last encounter with Eggman."

Sonic looked thoughtful as he continued to clutch the pillow in its spot, noticing Shadow's stare as he abruptly showed him his back. "That's more than likely the answer." He sighed in irritation; Wishing he could see this 'transformation' with his own eyes, this seemed almost a little too wacky, even with all the things he had seen, saved, and experienced in his short lifetime.

"Sonic," Tails knew his best friend would flinch at his next sentence. "We're going to run some tests." And flinch Sonic did, the hedgehog giving a grimace.

Sonic's undeniable fear was water; it was rarely spoken about, the hero avoiding the topic as much as possible, believing Tails to be the only living creature to really know about this lifelong terror. But something that definitely put him on edge? Doctors, medical equipment, and testing, even if it was by his intelligent sibling. This meant more than likely, blood would be taken. 'I guess a little blood is worth the life I took from that deer.' A huge pang of guilt sounded through his chest.

"Really?" he scrunched his nose, sounding unwilling. "Can't we just cut to the action, go out there and find Eggman, and serve his butt on a plate to him?" Sonic really had a bone to pick with him this time; two bad mornings in a row, and all the hedgehog wanted to do was get a good days rest in.

"As appealing as the idea of ruthlessly beating the doctor into submission is, I think it would be more relevant if we find out what's wrong with you and work on discovering a cure," Shadow eyed Sonic, then turning his gaze towards the torn up house. A small smirk worked across his face, "Either that, or we work on house breaking you."

He was glad that Sonic was taking this better than he would have thought, but Shadow was still worried. In the daylight, their options seemed brighter, but Shadow realistically knew that the day would not last forever. When the day passed them by and the moon rose, Sonic would turn back into the creature he had been the previous night.

Shadow had to suppress a slight shiver as he recalled just how frightfully close he had gotten to having the Werehog chew a hole through his abdomen. He just hoped the added strength of Knuckles would be enough to restrain Sonic when night fell.

Sonic's blush darkened from pink to red as he glared over his shoulder at his older counterpart, trying his best to ignore the comment. "I guess, easy for you to say, you're not going to be the one getting prodded with needles and such." He shivered.

He was taking it surprisingly well, but what was he to do, not having a single shred of memory toward last night's disaster. He moved to investigate the damage done with an angered pout, taking a moment to appreciate with some worry the claw marks both on the walls and the floor. He only had himself to blame for everything that happen (except his television, which was only broken albeit because Tails was provoked into doing so), his furniture and entertainment set ruined completely in ruin. He examined his beloved Wii that now had been reduced to bits of white plastic with a hole in the ground where it once was, his ears drooping. "I guess we won't be staying here for a while." There was sadness in his mumble, quickly disposing of it as he turned back to Shadow with a neutral tone.

"What are we going to do about tonight? Is this going to happen again?" he looked between Tails and Shadow for an answer.

"We don't know, Sonic." Tails felt terrible for his brother. "But hopefully we can uncover some information today."

"It seems like we're going to run out of houses soon if this keeps up," Knuckles pointed out as he returned, carrying Sonic's clothes, "I haven't seen the 'Werehog' that did all of this, but we obviously can't keep you out in the open and you're certainly not going to tear up my island."

"Perhaps we can use one of the older warehouses in Radical Highway?" Shadow suggested, looking over at the gathered group, "No one seems to go by or use those any longer since the construction was never completed. Knuckles and I could prepare the area while Tails tests you for any anomalies." He eyed Sonic.

Sonic didn't know what to think of himself being reduced to a warehouse, his ears pinning to the back of his head in thought; he didn't bother to ask Knuckles how his room fared, since it already looked like it had been hit by a bomb before this whole fiasco. He took the gloves and shoes that were offered to him as he slipped them on thoughtfully, looking up at the three of them.

"That sounds fine, I've been there once or twice, no one really goes by there except some homeless folk," he nodded, sounding surprisingly composed, even to himself, "Tails and I will complete the testing while you guys go and check it out." The hero didn't want him there for the process anyway, since he was rather shaky when it came to medical equipment. He looked over to child scientist before kneeling in front of him, affectionately brushing his bangs from his eyes as he hesitated; Tails could identify the guilty look in his stare, and he smiled at him in hopes to cheer him up.

"After the testing, I'm dropping you off at Amy's."

"Why!?" asked Tails, clearly sounding upset. Sonic was keeping his foot firmly to the ground, though.

"Because trying to eat you once is more than enough of a reason to keep you away," He gave a single laugh in hopes to lighten the mood. "You can still see me during the day, promise." Anyone could see Tails wanted to protest, but Sonic stood before he could get a word in. "In the next few days, I know what my mission is; find Eggman and get to the bottom of this. I'd rather not forget my nights anymore and go on a vicious rampage in the process." He gave a noticeably bitter mumble.

Shadow looked over at Sonic and grunted, "It's not just your mission alone Faker." He eyed the distressed hedgehog, "The Doctor decided to make an enemy of me when he drained the Chaos Emeralds of their power." He hissed, "That's something I simply cannot ignore."

He walked with Knuckles towards the door, his gaze drifting over towards Sonic and resting on the hedgehog. "We'll be back in a few hours and we can decide where to search for the doctor then."

He couldn't quite suppress the feeling of anxiety that welled within him when he met the unsure jade eyes of Sonic. Shadow didn't know what he was getting involved in, but he knew that he was already neck deep in something that there was no turning from. He bit the inside of his cheek and looked away, feeling almost as if every step was taking him deeper and deeper into an adventure where there was no end in sight.

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