Chapter 37

Before he could see anything, Sonic felt something. Cold, slightly breezy air. He felt strands of wet grass under his back and arms. His vision caught up, and he found himself under a stormy sky. Not just any stormy sky, but the storm from earlier. Looking behind him, he saw an exit door to the mansion. He was outside! He was free!

But as someone once said to Sonic... getting out of your chains does not make you free. For once, that person seemed right. Sonic was out of the house, yes, but he still hadn't resolved anything. Knuckles was still missing, he didn't know who the person inside the walls was, Tails had turned into a bloodthirsty beast, he still had no idea what was going on, and Sonja's memories were still not back.

Looking to Sonja, she seemed asleep. And she was holding someone Sonic didn't recognize. It was a Mobian. A Mobian woolly mammoth.

No way.

"Sonja!" Sonic exclaimed. He shook her on the shoulder. "Wake up!"

"Mmmngh..." Sonja groaned as she opened her eyes. She immediately shuddered from the cold grass under her. She quickly got up. She looked around. "Sonic... where are we? What am I holding?" She looked down at her arms. She nearly dropped the Mobian she was holding with a scream, but quickly wrapped her arms around it and held it close to her.

"Is that the woolly mammoth from Green Hill?" Sonic asked.

"Could it be?" Sonja asked. She looked down at the sleeping Mobian woolly mammoth. "This mammoth looks more like you than a regular animal like before." Sonja had a whine in her voice. She looked ready to cry. "Did we lose it?"

"Well..." Sonic tried to think of a reasoning. "Maybe something happened in the timestream to turn it this way? Time travel is weird like that." Sonja looked up and wiped her eyes.

"M-maybe..." She said, a hint of a whine still present. The mammoth rolled over and latched onto her.

They were in a forest. Weeping willows covered the ground, but there was a clear and definite path between. Sonic hadn't seen this before he went inside the house. The forest stretched out in all directions. It was like they were in a whole new place altogether.

Sonic heard no animals. He didn't smell any either. Perhaps they too had been swept into the storm. It was just an empty, silent forest. Until...

"Sonic!" A familiar voice called. Sonic turned around, and, to his surprise, out of the exit door, he saw Tails! No blood, no miosis, no grin. If anything, he looked concerned.

"Tails!" Sonic cried. He ran up and hugged his little buddy tight. "What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, are you?" Tails asked. He hugged Sonic back, fumbling his hands a little.

"I am," Sonic assured Tails. Sonja just stared, holding the baby mammoth away from Tails a little. "What was that back there?" Sonic's worries washed away as he saw Tails, as normal as can be.

"That was an imposter!" Tails shouted. He turned his hands into fists as he put them to his side and put on an angry face. "I don't know how, but someone is going around impersonating people. Whoever it is, they might be the one behind this all!"

"Great!" Sonic exclaimed, congratulating Tails. "Now we just have to look out for people acting suspicious, and we'll find our guy!"

The baby mammoth woke up at this point. It looked around curiously. Then, it saw Tails. It jumped out of Sonja's arms with an animal-like squeak and tried running away on all fours. But its new body wasn't built for all-fours mobility, so it just fell over slowly and bonked its head on the ground. "Uh... who's that?" Tails asked. Sonic ran over to the baby, who looked up frantically, its face covered in dirt. It looked to have a mixture of irritation, fear, and sadness whirling around in its head.

"This is Pico... oh, hey little guy!" Sonic sang softly, trying to get Pico to come into his arms. Baby Pico, gritting his gums, made a deep rumbling sound, at least... as deep as a baby can get. Sonic pulled back his hand as Pico began to try to ram his tiny face into Sonic's gloved hand. It was kind of pathetic. He was starting to get irritated with Pico.

To pet Pico, go to Chapter 38

To push Pico away, go to Chapter 39