Chapter 48

Sonic and the others looked behind them. There, stood the source of the booming voice. It was a large, towering lion. Much bigger than any lion Sonic had ever seen. It cast a shadow over the surrounding land. The deer yelled in fright. Behind the lion, there was a human flying with the aid of a jetpack of some kind. He had slick black hair, with foggy glasses, a dark red tuxedo, and blue dress pants. There was the biggest grin on his face.

"So he is the Sonic you spoke of?" The lion asked, turning to the man. The man nodded. "Hmm... I knew he would be puny, but this must be some kind of joke."

"Puny?" Sonic asked. He faked offense. "How dare you... We'll see who's puny when I cut you down a size!" Sonic instantly Drop Dashed into the lion's foot. The lion kicked him away like a soccer ball.

"Sonic!" Sonja exclaimed. Sonic bounced on the ground and eventually skidded to a stop on his face. He got up, mud covering his face. The lion cackled.

"Amusing," The lion said. "But there's no time for games. My people must eat. And more importantly, our god must be pleased." The lion and the human got into fighting stance. "Grovel before Marmask and Mimask!"

The lion moved its claw upwards slowly, charging up an attack. The deer yelled. For lack of a better word, he was like a deer in headlights. As the lion swiped its claw across the area where the deer's chest would have been, Sonic jumped in and tackled the deer away from the claw. There was the sound of air being sliced open as the illusion of orangey-red slash marks were made from thin air. They faded from sight.

"Get off!" The deer shouted towards Sonic. Sonic was promptly pushed off as the deer made a mad dash into the woods. But he soon came out, yelling and waving his arms around. More of the cult members were chasing him with sharpened wooden sticks. They made a loud dead-sounding moan like zombies as they did so.

Sonic jumped on some of the masked figures, knocking them away. Sonja disappeared and reappeared to avoid getting stabbed with the spikes, but noticed she had dropped Pico. Right in front of one of the masked figures! Tails swept in and saved the child from being impaled. He dropped Dummy Rings on the horrible masked creatures, which exploded and blew them away. Some ran around and caught others of their kin on fire. The deer kept running around in a blind frenzy.

All the while, Sonic was going for the lion's throat. Throwing quick punches and lightning-fast kicks, he also had to dodge the lion's attempts at tearing him open. The lion tried to grab him numerous times, but Sonic was too quick. But then, while Sonic was recovering from landing from the lion's head after kicking him in the skull, Sonic saw a large fist coming his way. He tried to run out of the way, but it was already too close.

Sonic braced for impact. A hit like this could very well kill him. But instead of being hit, Sonic saw a neon green force field appear in front of him. The lion hit it instead, and, while it broke, the lion was launched far away, skidding on the ground. Sonic looked at Chip's bracelet, and noticed it was glowing. "Huh..." Sonic said. As Marmask stood up, Sonic saw the mask he was wearing was significantly scratched up. Then, he got up and charged towards Sonic, the ground rumbling under every step.

Sonic did not see Marmask coming his way. Instead, in his mind he saw Zavok. Ready to come and kill him. Sonic did not fight. Instead, he ran. He ran away from this beast. This freak of nature.

"Where are you going, you coward?" Zavok's voice boomed from behind him. "Come, and face the inevitable!" Sonic yelled out for help as he ran, leaving the demon in the dust.

Sonja, seeing Sonic run, knew what she had to do. Putting up her fists, she blasted off towards the lion and headbutted it in the back. The lion was knocked over from the force of the headbutt.

"You!" The lion roared as he turned around. He took a step towards Sonja. Sonja flew around him and over to Sonic, who she picked up in her arms.

Sonic's senses caught up with his speed. This wasn't Zavok. This was just some lion hiding behind a mask. He could take him, and he had nothing to be scared of. Jumping out of Sonja's arms, to her surprise, Sonic charged up a Spindash mid air and rocketed down towards the lion. The lion looked up, and, over his face, he saw Sonic coming at him directly. He put up his hand in Sonic's way to stop him, but Sonic cut right through his hand. It fell off of his wrist and onto the ground with a loud, meaty sound. Sonic then went out of Spindash form and spun around like a drill in the air in his Tornado Headbutt, hitting Marmask in the face multiple times. This tipped Marmask over the edge of the cliff. He fell.

"NOOOOOOO!" Marmask cried. He fell through the clouds. There was a large crash sound as he landed eventually. Sonic looked over the cliff curiously.

"May he 'lion' peace..." Sonic mumbled. He looked away from the edge and back at Sonja. Tails floated down with Pico in his hands. Pico was swinging back and forth happily like Tails' hands were some sort of jungle gym. The deer walked over.

"Thanks for saving me back the---" The deer mumbled. But he was interrupted by Sonic.

"Tails!" Sonic exclaimed. "Any updates on 'Mimask' or whatever that guy was called?"

"He got away!" Tails explained. "I tried to fight him, but I wasn't enough... sorry, Sonic..."

"It's okay, Tails," Sonic assured. He put his hand on Tails' shoulder and picked up Pico. He slung Pico over his shoulder, holding onto his back to support him. Pico let out an indifferent trumpet sound. Tails looked at the ground. "We'll get him next time. But hey, at least we took out one big baddie." Tails nodded slightly.

Then it began to rain from the purple and red particles in the sky. "Agh, great..." Sonic groaned as Pico tried to lap up some of the raindrops. He looked irritated and made a deeper rumbling than before when he found he couldn't get any. "Pico, don't drink that stuff, you don't know where it's been." Pico stopped with a sad squeak.

"We need to find some shelter, right?" Sonja asked. "We shouldn't go back to the mansion, but there has to be someplace we can go to, right?"

"Yeah. Tails, Sonja, let's go," Sonic agreed. He began to run off, with Sonja and Tails following not far behind.

Continue to Chapter 49