Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Alpha ❯ Forest City ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Sonic, Amy, Tails, Knuckles, Cream, Cheese, Eggman, and the Choas Emeralds owned by Sonic Team. Yup, they're not mine.



The leaves stood still in the dead forest. The canopy at this point was too thick for the sun to shine through. It was as if a demon had stolen the light and hid it far beyond any living being's reach. There was complete silence haunting every tree and animal close by. It was the type of place one could feel both perfectly at ease and utterly terrified at the same time. Thoughts came freely without the distraction of noise but a strange feeling of loneliness loomed in that desolate pit of the Earth. Even the owls and crickets seemed to avoid traveling this far into the wood for fear of what could not be seen or heard.

A flash of light suddenly went by. It moved quickly and without fear against the evil that had stolen the sun. The trees thrust themselves at the warmth of this light, hoping for any reprise from the darkness the bound them in their place. A sudden symphony of sound came from all the night creatures that had been recently slumbering. The entire forest sprang to life at the fleeting moment they were overtaken by their own bright star.

Then, almost instantly, it stopped. The being of light was now visible in the torch he had been holding. His green eyes pierced the night as he searched for something only he could see. He perked up his ears to the night and heard the same faint noise that had halted him. He pointed his head back to the void he had emerged from. He froze his body, and his breathing ceased as he focused all his attention on the voice in the distance.

"Sonic!"

NOW he recognized the voice.

"Amy..." Sonic said quietly, shaking his head. "Maybe next time I'll just keep going."

He looked up and noticed a faint object in the dark. It was like a small ember, moving through the night. It was mysterious and astonishing to hime because it seemed that it was being pulled along by an invisible force. He stared at it, trying to figure out what it could be when he realized it was getting close. It approached slowly at first and then faster. He finally figured out what the object was and flailed in an attempt to dodge it. By then, however, it was too late.

WHACK! Amy's hammer had come flying throught the night and hit Sonic squarely on the head, and immediately, he started feeling faint. He dropped his torch on the ground and reached for his head. And, just as he did, his legs failed. He found himself falling and his vision was fading. He hit the ground hard, and before he knew what had happened, he was out cold.

Tails, Amy, Knuckles, and Cream, followed by Cheese, emerged from the dark, with Amy in the lead.

"Sonic...you're....going...too..fast..." she stated, out of breath. "We can't...keep up."

Tails had moved near sonic and leaned down to make sure he was okay. "Amy, you knocked him out."

"Oops. Well...he stopped didn't he?"

"Yeah," Knuckles now interrupted sarcastically, "do you think next time you might be able to avoid trauma to the head? That'd be great."

Amy's face turned a crimson red and she planted her eyes, burning with anger, right on Knuckles. Tails knew exactly what was coming next.

"I would tell you to get out of here and guard the master emerald," she retorted, "but you're more useless there than you are here. Some treasure hunter you are! Tell me again how many times you've had the master emerald stolen from you."

Knuckles temper was just as high as Amy's. The group had been searching for one of the chaos emeralds when the whole incident occured. "You're going to regret ever having met me," he growled in the back of his throat, but before he knew it, Amy was in the air, heading straight towards him with her hammer out. He barely had time to react before impact.

"Here they go again," Tails sighed. This had been happening throughout the three days the team had been searching. It had become a common occurence and Tails had long since given up trying to get them to stop. If he had learned anything about those two, it was to let them have it out and stay out of the way. Better they let out all their steam then turn him into a fox-pancake. Tails tried to put it out of his mind and focused his attention on Sonic. Cream walked over as well, with Cheese hovering close behind, to see if there was anything she could do to help.

"It looks like he got hit pretty hard," Tails stated, observing the bruise on the blue hedgehog's head. "I'd say he'll be out for a good half hour at least."

Cream examined Sonic the same way Tails had been. She was too young to know much about first aid, but she wanted to help in any way possible. She thought for a minute while looking at Sonic and suddenly jumped, overcome with an idea.

"Why don't you go and see if there is a house or anything up ahead? I can watch Sonic and make sure that Amy and Knuckles are okay."

"Good idea. I'm not going to go that far, only about 15 minutes ahead. That way, I'll probably make it back before Sonic comes to. Just remember that if he wakes up, try to keep him from moving. He needs to heal for a while before doing anything strenuous. Oh, and try to stay out of their way," pointing at Amy and Knuckles. "I don't think even a hurricane could seperate them at this point. Good luck Cream!"

"Good luck Tails!"

And with that, Tails pushed ahead into the forest. The last thing he saw fading into the distance was a flash of pink and red, as Amy and Knuckles got more violent.

"Why did I agree to this...?"






"Man, I can't see anything in here!"

Tails had been moving straight into the nothingness in front of him for almost fifteen minutes. The sun was still unable to overpower the thick branches above the ground. Tails looked at his watch and noticed it was 2:07 pm. It was hard to keep track of the time without the sun. Midnight was identical to noon and without any major landmarks to base distance on, it was hard to get a feel for how long he had been traveling. He was about to turn back when he noticed a small glimmer of light. He continued moving but looked up at it. The trees were becoming less and less dense and the sun was breaking through the barrier of leaves. Tails had been so focused on the light emerging from the trees that he almost didn't notice that there was a village in front of him.
"Alright! We can finally eat and rest a little! I'm sure that will make Sonic feel better and Amy and Knuckles seem like they need to relax for a while."

He stopped for a moment to stare at the village from outside. The citizens, he noticed, were wolves. It had been a long time since anyone had seen wolves and now he understood that it was because they had migrated there. A 12-foot wall surrounded the town in a big circle with one large building visible in the center. Tails figured it had to be where the most important people stayed. Other buildings were displaced in different levels around the lavish manor in the middle. Everything within the cities walls was beautiful and Tails could tell that while the inhabitants weren't "rich," they led enjoyable lives.

Tails looked at the outside of the city and noticed something much different. The first thing he noticed was that there were small huts outside of the town walls, and it looked as though people lived in them.

"That's strange, Tails thought. "If they needed a wall, wouldn't all the villagers live inside it?" It struck him as odd that the leaders of this place would leave any of their citizens directly in the line of battle. The ground outside was littered with dead grass and garbage from inside the city. The peasants outside the wall wore ripped, damp clothes or none at all. The gate leading into the city was enormous. Doors of wood, with steel to reinforce and support it, were built to block the opening to the village and kept out all intruders, but for some reason, they were open. Two guards were posted outside of the gate and were armed to destroy all that tried to enter without invitation. Tails noticed that one of the guards was chained by the neck to the wall just beside the gate.

"Maybe I can ask someone in there if they have seen the chaos emerald."

Assuming that the open gate was a sign of welcome into the village, Tails approached the gate. He began to jog as he got closer, trying not to take so long so that Cream wouldn't be left waiting. He was almost through the gate when the chained guard jumped in front of him. Tails skidded trying to stop but was unable to do so before running into the guard.

The next thing Tails could remember was flying through the air and hitting the ground 10 feet back. He was having a hard time breathing and felt a strong pain in his stomach. He looked up to see the guard approaching him. He looked remarkably similar to Tails. He was slightly taller and more muscular than Tails. He had dark green eyes and dirty grey fur, which Tails thought must be because he was one of the serfs outside the city walls. He wore one piece of armor over his right shoulder and arm and had a strange symbol on his forehead that looked like an upside-down "U". He approached slowly, and Tails noticed a look of sadness or despair in his eyes, as if he regretted what he had done. The chains rattled loudly as he walked closer. Tails managed to stand up and regain his composure.

"Don't move. You have made yourself an enemy of the village by attempting to enter without proper authority," the sentry said. "You will be taken to interrogation, where your will be expected to cooperate or face execution."

"Woah, isn't that a little harsh?!"

"This city has survived for years because it has remained unknown to all outsiders. We will not risk you endangering our people by allowing you to leave with knowledge of our location. Surrender or I will have to...eliminate you."

Tails could hear hesitation in his voice and his eyes were starting to glaze over. Tails could tell that he must have been forced to do this, and failure to perform his duties would result in some penalty for him. He noticed the guard put his right hand on the hilt of the sword hanging from his belt, ready to attack. Just as he began unsheathing the blade, Tails noticed a blue flash overhead. Faster than Tails could blink, the guard had fallen on his back and Sonic was standing right next to Tails, ready to defend him.

The sentry jumped up and made a mad dash towards the two, sword out. Sonic got ready to dodge the attack, keeping low to the ground and bending his knees. He smirked, confident that this guy would be a piece of cake. He moved much too slow and his sword only made him slower. However, the guard also seemed confident. He barreled toward Sonic as fast as he could, focusing all his energy into hitting the small blue hedgehog. He was only a few feet away when one of the leaders of the village intervened.

"Stop!"

The chained wolf halted dead in his tracks, and both he and Sonic looked at the source of the order. A female wolf stood just outside the gate, wearing a fine silk dress and a circlet. Her fur was a light gray, much more clean than the guard's fur. She had a mark on her forehead, different than the guard's. Sonic thought it was somehow related to the way they both dressed.

"Sky, return to your post, NOW!" the female wolf snapped. The guard wolf immediately turned and walked to his original position without giving Sonic or Tails a second glance, as if it had never happened.

"So, I see we are finally graced by the legendary Sonic the Hedgehog's presence. And I see you have brought some friends as well." she said as the rest of the group came into view. Amy stopped right behind Sonic and immediately bent over, exhausted from trying to keep up with Sonic. She glared at him, making sure that he knew she was not happy.

"I'm sorry about the trouble," she said through her teeth, glaring at he guard. "He must not have recognized you. It's quite a surprise seeing you here. What brought you to our part of the forest?"

"...We were looking for something.." Sonic stated suspiciously. "Who are you anyway?"

"Oh, forgive me. I'm Ayn, the alpha female of this city. Please, come to my estate so we can speak away from these peasants," motioning towards the two guards again. Amy had a feeling about this "leader" that she just didn't trust. The group started moving forward.

"Sure, maybe we can get some food while we're here," Sonic pointed out, licking his lips. "We haven't eaten a good meal in days." The rest of the group followed.

Amy stayed put. She meant to talk to the guard to see why things were like this, but she didn't want Ayn to know.

"Uh..I think I'll just stay out here. I want to...look at some of the flowers around here!" blurting out the first thing she could think. Luckily for her, it was a good enough excuse for everyone to believe.

"Alright, that's okay. We'll meet you back out here when we feel like we've seen enough. Make sure to eat something, okay?" Sonic was worried that Amy would be too weak to help in the search, but didn't want to go too deep into it. No one else needed to know that he cared about her as more than just a friend. As soon as the team had left, Amy moved towards the guard, trying not to make it obvious. She stopped for a minute to look at some plants growing on the ground, then moved closer, then looked up at the clouds, then moved closer still. She finally came close enough to the gate to talk to the shackled wolf, who was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed.

"Hi there," she said, trying to sound innocent. She was close enough to see that he was deep in thought now. Her words suddenly brought him back to reality and he planted both eyes on her.

"Yes?" he demanded impatiently, wanting to return to his dream.

"My name's Amy, what's yours?"

"Sky" The wolf had answered quickly, hoping that he could finish this conversation quickly and continue on with other things. Amy could see that being subtle was not going to help her find out what she wanted to know. She was familiar with the way he was acting, trying to hide his emotions so it wouldn't effect others. It was something she knew Sonic did, as well as Knuckles. 'Why are guys always cutting themselves off from everyone around them?' she thought to herself. She snapped out of it and remembered what she was here to do. She kneeled down in front of him, getting close so she wouldn't have to talk loudly.

"I want to know about this place." His ears perked up. He wasn't expecting her to get into the subject, and at first he thought she had no right to know. How could he trust this person with information about his past? His heart started pounding as the events were thrust into his mind again.

"Why does that concern you?!" he shouted jumping up and getting real close, trying to intimidate her. To his dismay, Amy saw right through it. She had somehow known that he was not one to do anything to hurt her unless it was necessary.

"I know you don't want to talk about it, but I think the leaders here are wrong to treat you like this. I might be able to help you to get away, but I need to know why you're shackled up to do that." His face suddenly became blank. Freedom. He hadn't thought about that for a long time. He had been bound to this village for years and had lost hope for escape before long. He felt his heart perk up and for the first time since he was imprisoned, he felt truly happy. He longed to run into the forest and find the one he had lost years ago.

"Alright, I'll tell you..."