Bab 65: Chapter 65
Sonic and the others sprinted through the maze of carnival rides under a blanket of darkness. Every now and then, they'd come across a stray hand monster, which they would make short work of. Sometimes, another devil-in-the-box would jump out at them. While this was startling at first, its effect slowly wore off until they were but an annoyance.
They were approaching a large tent. In front of it, it had the largest billboard with a picture of a colorful clown on it. Come in and see Tatters the Clown and his Remarkable Juggling Act! The billboard read.
"Hmm, very showy!" Sonic said, turning to everyone else. "Think this is the place?" He asked. Sonja slid forward, paying no mind to Sonic. "Uh, Sonja?"
Sonja seemed to snap out of her trance. She looked at Sonic. "I remember this place!" She exclaimed. "C'mon, let's go!" She burst into the tent, the curtain doors parting as she flew through. Sonic shrugged towards Tails and walked in with Tails and Buck. But immediately, Sonja came floating backwards and knocked into Sonic.
"Ah! Sorry!" She apologized. She looked all shaken up. Pico seemed traumatized. He was shaking, and his eyes were stuck in a state of terror. He was resisting the urge to scream out from whatever he had just seen.
"What is it?!" Sonic asked, panicky. "Is there something in there?" He peeked through the circus tent curtains, which had a mostly blue pattern, four stars making up a diamond to the right, and a sort of cross on the left. The pattern was scratched partially, and very worn. Everyone else backed away.
As Sonic looked through, he felt his heart sink. Standing on the sandstone floor, was a human figure. It had two legs, two arms, and everything you would expect from a human. But it was far too tall. It was dark inside. But soon, two spotlights danced around the room. They gave Sonic more of an idea of this person's figure.
As it turned around slowly, Sonic saw, bit by bit...
It was no person...
Burns riddled its dull, light blue skin. It looked cooked in some areas. It had a far too long face. Sharp, partially crimson fangs were visible from its unhinged jaw. Red scabs drew their way down its knees. Red bubbles on its skin looking ready to burst littered it all over. Blood mixed with some kind of slobber flecked from its tongue as it turned. It had a tongue like a snake. The faceplate of a generation 1 Motobug masked away its face, though one of the eyes were popped out, revealing a red and yellow eye underneath.
"What are you?" Sonic sputtered, scared of this strange being.
The being cackled in a crackly voice. Something about it put Sonic on edge. He could tell this was another creature ready to kill him. Instantly, he bolted forward and rolled into ball form. The creature swatted him away. He bounced into the wall of the tent. Leaving ball form, he felt his legs sink through the material the walls were made of like a trampoline. He bounced off and bared his fists.
"What am I?!" The creature squealed in an odd, vaguely feminine voice. "What are YOU?!" The creature grabbed Sonic by both his furry hands and swung him over her. He was then slammed onto the hard sandstone that made up the floor. Sonic groaned in pain.
"Look at yourself," The creature told Sonic. "She turned you into a monster just like she turned ME into a monster!"
"What are you talking about?!" Sonic asked. "I'm no monster! I might be like this on the outside, but on the inside I'm still..." Sonic dashed around in a circle in ball form, slicing one of this creature's feet off. The creature didn't cry or scream. "... Sonic!"
Outside, Sonja and the others were contemplating if they should go back inside or not. They had heard the commotion. But they didn't know if it was really safe to go back in. Sonja had tried, but every time she tried to move Pico looked up at her with sad, teary eyes. He didn't want to go back in at all. He'd rather stay out here where it was somewhat safe. Even if the darkness was a little scary. Sonja knew she couldn't put him in danger.
"What do we do?" Sonja asked Tails and Buck. "We can't just leave Sonic in there! But Pico doesn't want to go back in. If we leave him out here he might get hurt!"
"I'd say we should let Sonic fight whatever is in there," Tails stated. "He can do it!"
Meanwhile, Sonic was very much not capable of this on his own. At least, not with the way things were going. The monster had him against the wall, and he was now wrestling to get his hands out of her grip as she closed in, chomping at the air with her sharp teeth.
"Get away from me!" Sonic shouted. He was putting all his might into pushing her away, but even his strength didn't seem to be enough. So instead, he lifted his foot and kicked her hard. He followed this up by Spindashing her in the face. This knocked her back in a trail of her own blood. "How... how do you like that?" Sonic smiled fakely.
"I like it just fine..." The creature growled deeply. "How about THIS?!" She lunged at Sonic and knocked him to the ground, flecking bloody saliva into his face. Grabbing a piece of sandstone with her hand, she raised it above Sonic.
Sonic didn't know what to do. Where were his friends? Where was his courage? Where was his forcefield? "Allow me to introduce myself, not that it matters, as I'm about to kill you," The creature said. "I am Christina Crow. Better known as The Taker. And now, I'll take everything you know and love away from you!" The Taker let out a high pitched laugh, one that left a ringing in Sonic's ears.
"Everything I... know and love?" Sonic asked. That meant... his friends, his world...
Something in Sonic felt like it had physically snapped. As The Taker slammed the rock down onto his head, she found it broke into a million different pieces. Sonic hadn't even moved.
"ENOUGH!" Sonic shouted, floating up into the air on his own. He took an empowering stance, as a dark aura surrounded him. He yelled as he seemed to be charging something up.
The Taker blinked. Suddenly, The Taker was blown away from Sonic and through the tent. The Taker flew backwards. The Taker looked for something to grab onto to stop her backward flight, but nothing.
The Taker looked forward after hearing a whistling sound coming her way. "What?!" She hissed. Coming her way were what appeared to be splinters of sandstone. The same rock of sandstone she had tried to cave Sonic's head in with. They were coming fast.
Almost instantly after she realized, she already felt the spikes poke a few holes in her body. A red mist floated up from the holes. Luckily for her, no vital organs had been pierced. But it hurt badly.
Looking forward, she saw a blueish black blur coming her way at a speed she thought impossible. A purple and dark blue glow emanated from it.
Meanwhile, Sonja and the others watched the fight from above, Tails carrying Buck, and Sonja carrying Pico. Pico hid his eyes away from the sight. "What happened to Sonic?!" Sonja asked Tails.
"I don't know... I've never seen him like this before!" Tails answered as best he could.
Sonja looked at the blur as it sped off into the distance. It looked like Sonic could handle this, but she didn't feel too good about leaving him on his own for this fight. "Shouldn't we help him?" She asked.
"I think the hedgehog has this one in the bag," Buck answered.
Miles away from the tent, but still in the carnival, the blur disappeared from The Taker's vision, only to appear above her. It was Sonic. But his eyes, instead of black like before, were now a blinding, glowing white. It looked like headlights as Sonic hit The Taker down. A PIIIING accompanied The Taker being launched down to the ground and back up again as she ricocheted and flew up into the air.
Sonic flew up in the blink of an eye, and started zipping from side to side, hitting The Taker each time. Sonic had the strength of a titan, a speed that he can not reach under normal means. He punched, kicked, headbutted, and spun through The Taker at blinding speeds. All without so much as a snarky remark or even word to himself or his foe.
The Taker screamed out in pain. Sonic didn't care. He was at his absolute breaking point. He was unstoppable. He was Dark Sonic.
And so, Dark Sonic, with a speed faster than a lightning bolt, swept under The Taker and kicked her up. Into the storm. She disappeared from sight as she entered the black hole above. The last thing she saw was Dark Sonic's eyes, staring through the darkness of the black hole like a monster truck about to make a head on collision with you.
Dark Sonic dashed down onto the ground in a blur. He landed on his feet as his team appeared from behind a tent. Instantly, Chip's bracelet's gem stopped glowing purple, and returned to its usual neon green. Sonic turned blue again, and his eyes returned to black.
"Sonic, what was that?!" Sonja asked as Sonic turned back to the way he was before.
Sonic was silent. He then shook his head back and forth really fast. He looked at Sonja. "I... I don't know! It just kind of... happened..." Sonic remembered the last time this had happened. The Metarex, an alien army, had taken Chris and another alien named Cosmo the Seedrian and had hurt them badly. Sonic had become so overcome with rage, that it got the better of him. He had transformed into a raging monster whose power was nearly rivaling Super Sonic's. Could this have been the negative being wanting to come out of his head?
"Whatever it was, it saved the day, right?!" Sonja asked. She smiled unsurely. "So it's a good thing, right?"
Sonic didn't know how to respond. He had saved himself and gotten rid of that monster, but while he was that thing, he felt an uncontrollable rage. He felt like he might have torn through everything in existence had he not gotten a hold of himself. Of course, he couldn't let Sonja know this. "I think so," Sonic sighed. He then remembered he saw what appeared to be another trap door in the big tent. "I think we should go back to that big tent. I saw something there while I was fighting tall dark and gruesome."
Sonja nodded. Then, the lights flickered on and off. And then on again. This time, they stayed on for more than a second. The ugly, horrifying rides turned back into standard carnival rides. But the thing is, they started to operate. Pico still didn't trust them. He looked away and squealed in refusal. Sonja stroked her hand through Pico's thickly furred ears.
Pico looked back to ensure the rides weren't moving towards him and his new herd.
And just as he feared... they were...
Everyone else noticed shortly after Pico screamed in terror at a ferris wheel. It had come off its hinges and started rolling towards them. Horses from merry-go-rounds broke away from their poles, leaving an oily ooze flowing from their backs. They made squealing and nickers from the pain as they did. They stampeded towards Sonic and company.
"Move it!" Sonic shouted, as he ran off. They still hadn't quite recharged their Multi-Boost, so they just had to trust their individual speeds. Sonja was by far the slowest, with Tails in front of her, Buck in front of him, and Sonic, of course, in the far lead. Strange. Tails was usually able to keep up with Sonic just fine by spinning his two tails and flying forward.
Sonic short-jumped over a devil-in-the-box. He wouldn't know, and he didn't look back, but the toy devil face looked at him as he sped past, as it let out a demonic, off putting cackle. Buck kicked it back into its box. "Take that!" He shouted as the box closed.
A headless mechanical bull jumped off its pad and started bouncing all over the place. Sometimes towards Sonic or one of his teammates, but most of the time not. The clatter of hooves against concrete from both the eyeless horses and Buck, the crash of the ferris wheel, the crazed stomping of the bull. Sonic couldn't look back, he never looked back. He knew he could outrun everything they threw at him, but he also knew Sonja was the slowest. And she held Pico.
Sonic skidded to a stop and let the ferris wheel, that was about to crush Sonja, catch up with him. He bolted through it diagonally, making a small explosion. It soon turned into multiple large explosions. It came to a stop as it blew up from the inside. Sonic landed on the ground. He saw the mechanical bull coming his way.
Fiery pieces of the ferris wheel were flying everywhere, and everyone had to do their best to dodge them as they came down. All the attractions in the carnival had gone berserk and were now trying to kill them. But Sonic and the others weren't just running. Whenever they had a chance, they would take out a haywire attraction with their own attacks.
Sonic jumped onto the mechanical bull as it jumped high into the air. He grabbed onto the peg on the bull's neck so he wouldn't go flying off. A scream emanated from the mechanical bull. But Sonic didn't see any speakers. Sonic controlled the mechanical bull by pushing and pulling the peg like a joystick on an arcade machine. It was hard to control, but he soon found himself getting the hang of it. He directed the bull towards a lazy river of some kind, where he jumped off and let the bull sink and short-circuit in the water.
When Sonic ran back, he found that the team had finished off the horses. Oily ooze covered the ground around the horses, and some on the team and their clothing and or fur.
"Hey guys..." Sonic sighed. "How'd it go?"
"Well, it was hard... but we did it!" Sonja exclaimed. Pico cooed in relief, spouting out baby gibberish and laughing as though he was saying a cohesive sentence. But Sonic swore he heard papa in there somewhere. He smiled at Pico.
"You guys make a pretty good team, even without my supervision!" Sonic half-joked. "Also, would you believe that's not the first time I've fought a ferris wheel?" Sonja laughed with Sonic at him saying something so ridiculous, but Pico, Tails, and Buck didn't seem to get it. So, they continued back to the tent.
Continue to Chapter 66
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone