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Tails sat up from the floor of his workshop, feeling more worn out than usual. The last thing he could remember was cleaning up before heading out. He didn’t recall falling asleep on the floor much less his workshop. The sharp ring of the doorbell interrupted his thoughts. “Who is even out here this early? I don’t really want to talk to anyone right now.” Tails muttered to himself as he slowly got to his feet. Every step felt heavy as he dragged himself to the front door. He stared at the door for what felt like ages before the bell rung a second time. Sighing he opened the door, surprised to see Silver, Blaze, and Shadina standing there.
“Are you okay Tails? You seem pretty tired right now.” Silver asked. “I think I just slept funny, nothing to worry about. I’m more worried about the three of you considering last night was the full moon.” Tails laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. “Funny you mention that because that’s actually why we’re here.” Blaze said. Tails paused as the last time he talked about the full moon was the month after Silver had turned for the first time. “Just come in.” Tails groaned wanting nothing more than to collapse in his bed. Silver couldn’t help but notice the mess on the floor. During the time he knew Tails he wasn’t the type to have a big mess in the house. “Tails why does it look like a tornado tore through this place?” Silver asked hoping that it wasn’t the same as the night Shadow had partially transformed.
“I’m not sure. It was clean yesterday. If only I could remember what happened last night.” Tails muttered speaking loud enough for Silver to hear him. “Anyways what did you guys need to talk about?” Tails asked. “Well last night I ended up turning into a werecat and apparently Shadina turned into a werehog. The thing is neither of us remember getting bit by anyone before that point.” Blaze explained.
Tails pondered the explanation for several seconds. He wasn’t exactly sure what happened when Silver had gone to check on Shadow when he turned for the first time. “Hey Silver, what exactly happened that night you checked in on Shadow’s transformation?” Tails asked hoping it wasn’t what he was thinking. “Well, he didn’t exactly turn into a full werewolf. He had a little bit of fur and just started tossing things around his house. It seemed like he was acting more on the wolf habits than the wolf and hedgehog balance that me and Sonic experienced. Since then, he has gone through something similar to the normal werehog transformation.” Silver explained. He didn’t want to talk about Shadow’s inability to control himself the past few months. At that Tails started shaking and was struggling to catch his breath. It explained how his workshop could have gotten trashed without him even knowing. Seeing Tails panic, Blaze crouches down in front of him and rests her hands on his shoulders.
She watched him until he managed to calm himself down. “Are you okay now Tails?” Blaze asked speaking softly and quietly. Tails simply nodded as he was still stressed out. Shadina and Silver glanced at each other as they started to figure out what happened to Tails. It left them with more questions as to how other people were getting the curse out of nowhere. Tails’ situation was the most concerning as he spent most of his time working on inventions or helping Sonic on the occasional adventure. There wasn’t much of a chance for him to get bit by something. “Do you think the hunter…” Silver started not wanting to finish the thought. “I think he’ll be fine as long as he doesn’t go out during the full moon. This is one of the moments where his isolation is actually a good thing.” Shadina whispered, knowing what Silver was afraid to say.
A quiet snoring broke the heavy silence. Silver glanced over Blaze’s shoulder and spotted Tails passed out. He shook his head and let out a small chuckle. He didn’t blame Tails for falling asleep after going through his first night as a werefox.
Blaze carefully picked Tails up and carried him to his room to get some proper rest. “Looks like we’ll have to wait until he wakes up to get some answers.” Blaze said after silently closing the bedroom door. “You don’t need to wait that long. I mean the two of us are very similar to each other. If you give me a few minutes I can set up my station to figure something out.” A female voice said behind the group. Shadina quickly turned around as she recognized the voice. The voice belonged to one of her friends, Talia, a young twin-tailed fox. “I forgot you were still here as I haven’t seen you around for ages.” Shadina responded. “I’ve been trying to help Tails locate our dimension code so I’ve been busy. I’m also aware of the werehog situation as he had told me a while ago.” Talia explained brushing her hair out of her face. “Well, if you think you can help, we’ll gladly accept it.” Silver said just wanting to make some kind of progress in this mystery.
Talia nods and runs off to prepare her working area. “Hopefully we learn something or at least find something to help in the situation. I’m worried that something bad will happen again before we figure all of this out.” Shadina muttered to herself. As much as she didn’t want to admit it she couldn’t deny the fact that she can’t do this alone. Most of the time she liked to deal with problems on her own. With nothing better to do Silver started picking up the tools scattered over the floor. It would at the very least make things easier for Tails when he eventually woke up. Tails was particular in his organization so he could find things easier. As such he had a habit of labeling everything with the name of the tool and a small picture which made the job easier for Silver. Blaze joined him in cleaning up shortly after he began.
After around ten minutes they had cleaned up the room. Seconds later Talia popped her head through the door and said, “I’m ready for you guys now. We’ll see what we manage to figure out.” Silver led the way into Talia’s workshop with the others following close behind. “I think we should start with either Blaze or Shadina. They both said they were never bit in the first place.” Silver said. Talia tapped her pencil against her head and quietly muttered to herself. “Alright, Shadina I need you to step on the raised platform over there.” Talia said, pointing to the left side of the room. Shadina followed her hand to a circular platform surrounded by various machines. Taking a deep breath Shadina slowly walked to the platform and stepped on it. Talia stood up from the desk and headed over to the main control panel. She pressed a small button in the center of the panel and waited for the machine to spring to life.
A quiet whirring sound echoed around the room as the platform lit up. “What exactly does this do?” Silver asked watching what was going on. “It’s a scanner that can detect traces of magic. Curses tend to leave a trace behind that can lead to how it got there in the first place. If we’re lucky we can find out how this happened. After a few minutes the scan finished and the platform went dark. Talia ran over to the desk and pulled up the results. “That’s weird. I can’t seem to get anything. It shows that the curse is there but something is just off.” Talia said before stepping aside to let Silver, Blaze, and Shadina to see. “We just have Blaze now. I hope this reveals something useful.” Silver said. Blaze sighed and stepped on to the platform as Shadina had done earlier. Once again Talia started the machine and headed back to the results. “I don’t know what is wrong with this thing. The curses are almost exactly the same with a slight difference. Silver, can I scan you so we have something to compare these two scans with?” Talia said hitting her fist against the desk. “That’s fine. It should be helpful if we have results from someone who was actually bit.” Silver responded. He waited on the platform and noded to Talia. For the last time she started the machine and waited for the results.
“Well good to know that this works. This is what it’s supposed to do. If you look at his hand you will see a mark that resembles a bite.” Talia said. Silver just watched Blaze and Shadina confirm the fact for themselves. After they finished looking Talia pulled up Shadina’s scans and compared them side by side. Both showed that the werehog curse was present. The purple mark on Silver’s scan was nowhere to be seen on Shadina’s scan. “That makes no sense. There should be something, some sign of how it spread and changed. Even the specific curse is different.” Blaze said. She couldn’t comprehend what was going on. “Well at least we know that this is caused by something that leaves no trace. It can’t be physical injury or most weapons. Weapons are interesting in that they often times leave a trace when they hit someone. Now if someone had powers that were the same as your own would certainly not leave a trace. The power would be completely absorbed as it matches.” Talia said. “Me and Blaze don’t have actual powers.” Shadina responded.
“What I mean by powers is that you have a specific energy that no one else has, besides Shadow and anyone else who happens to be the same being. Everyone has a different power flowing through them. Some people like Silver can harness that power and turn it into abilities. The Chaos Emeralds are known to temporarily turn the power into a new form, the super form.” Talia explained. “I think it’s safe to say that this is by more than one person. Unless you can say that there is someone who has an ability that can do this we’re dealing with a group.” Silver responded.
“I have a bad feeling that someone we know is behind this. Think about it, no one saw anyone suspicious and none of us really spend time with strangers. We wouldn’t be as worried if someone we knew did something minor that could be odd if it was anyone else.” Blaze said. Silver thought about any situation Blaze was in over the past month. For the most part they were together at their house. He tried not to think about his encounters with powerful beings who tried to take over the world. “That makes no sense. None of them would want to make us stronger, they’re too smart. Even Eggman has been trying to stop the werehog curse for some reason. If it was him, he wouldn’t be trying to help us.” Silver muttered to himself.
The door to Tails’ bedroom silently swung open. During their visit Tails’ appearance had changed. He grew sharp claws on his hand, fur on his body, and sharp teeth. “Tails what happened to you?” Blaze asked. “Nothing I just got up. Why are you looking at me like that?” Tails responded not realizing that his appearance was different. Silver took a step back as the form was similar to Shadow’s original werehog form. He had talked about turning during the full moon but remained in his form the following day. “You’re in your werefox form. I thought you were only supposed to turn during the full moon, not the day.” Silver answered trying to make sure Tails didn’t start panicking. He watched Tails run off to check a mirror. The group waited in silence until a loud crash echoed through the workshop.
Blaze and Shadina ran over to check on Tails. They found him sitting on the ground with the mirror in a thousand pieces on the floor. “This makes no sense. I’m supposed to be figuring out how to stop the transformations not deal with them myself.” Tails said. “Tails we’ll figure this out together. You don’t have to do this alone.” Blaze responded.
While they were busy helping Tails, Silver stayed behind with Talia. “This is bigger than I thought. I think they might be here for a while.” She spoke. She thought the werehog situation was more contained than it actually was. It wasn’t like she could have known what happening the previous night. “The thing I’m more concerned about is where this even came from. If it is different than Mine, Sonic, and Shadow’s curse then either it somehow changed on its own or it came from somewhere else.” Silver responded. Dealing with the effects of the werehog was fairly easy to manage as long as no one headed out in the middle of the night. “If it helps me and Tails will be keeping an eye of the other dimensions. There is a chance that this originated in one of them. If anything, we need to make sure no one is able to come into our world to keep this from spreading to another dimension.” Talia said. She didn’t want anything to happen if someone unknowingly got the curse if they ended up here. Tails had been working with her to make sure that the genderbends could return to their dimension for several months at that point. It would make the job easier as they could watch for signs of the curse spreading or someone entering.