Author's note: So hey guys! It's been a real long time since the last update. I've been (evidently) busy with things of late. But the story continues. Last time we left off with Sonic and a mysterious kitten (aww so cute...is it?) See what happens in this newest chapter, enjoy. (Btw, I had a lot of issues with uploading this chapter so sorry if I unintentionally spammed anyone's mailboxes.)

Chapter Nine:

Scaly Trap

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Years of battle have trained his reflexes.

After countless battles with Dr. Eggman, robots, genies, and a certain green hawk, Sonic was used to being threatened and being in a state of constant danger. His senses had been trained to be on alert during strange situations, and he had learned to trust his instincts and reflexes. The blue hedgehog's uncanny speed had also saved his tail time to time.

During that split moment right before the kitten had lunged, something inside him had snapped. In the very millisecond the once, innocent kitten had grinned at him with evil malice, his eyes had widened with surprise, and his mind had shouted at him, Get up, now! His instincts, along with the surroundings, had warned him earlier, but he had chosen very idiotically to ignore them. The kitten's innocent and harmless demeanor had dragged him straight into a trap, a clever trap that had its victim unaware of its attacker until it was already too late. Now, those once, seemingly harmless eyes bore into him, black with malevolence, and the glint in the kit's beady eyes added onto the shine of its white fangs, protruded and aimed towards his chest.

These he all took in in just a fraction of a heartbeat. As the kit's sharp fangs and hooked claws prepared to pierce down on him, without thinking, Sonic swung himself to the side, throwing his arm up as the kitten lunged past, its claws so close that it brushed his skin. As if in slow motion, the kitten crashed headfirst into the ground a few feet where the blue hedgehog had just been crouching, its paws flailing. Sonic dug his feet into the ground and skidded on the dirt before he came to a complete stop, his heart, grudgingly, beating rapidly from the close call.

The blue hedgehog quickly regained his balance, his body now tense and angled in a defensive posture. "Hey! What was that all about?" he shouted at the black figure on the ground, his spikes flexing as he scrutinized its every movement in case it would suddenly lunge again.

The black kitten sprang nimbly back onto its feet, and when it turned to face him, its black eyes were full of fury. The fur around its thin, red scar on its eye seemed to ripple as its face contorted with distaste. "How! How did I miss?" it screeched in a voice scratching like a nail against sandpaper. Its claws gouged the earth as it spit and glared at the blue hedgehog, and Sonic could only stare at the kitten. After all this time, he or she could actually talk? Yet the sound of its voice was not of a child's. All innocence that had radiated from it before was completely gone, and instead was replaced by a furious creature that had failed to mark its victim.

"Well, I'm sorry that you almost killed me," Sonic remarked cuttingly, aware of its sharp claws still embedded in the earth. He got up and brushed himself off, making sure to keep his distance. "You really got me back there with your incognito. But play time's over little fella." He narrowed his eyes. "Who are you, and what do you really want?"

The kitten, still hunched in its position, said nothing for a few seconds. Instead it fixed him with its condescending stare, probably disappointed that he was still alive. Then slowly, it turned its head. "You were lucky that day in the woods, when Renix failed to kill you and your friends," the kitten muttered softly, and for the first time, Sonic could distinguish its voice as that of a female's. The black fur around her face suddenly started to ripple, and she lifted her head, eyes glinting.

Before the blue hedgehog could react, the kitten let out a pierce cry, and she shriveled up right there on the floor, her face contorting gruesomely. Her fur seemed to melt and harden into one black form as her legs melded into her body, which suddenly began to stretch like a rope. Her entire face shrank and narrowed in the front, while the back of her head widened on two sides, forming a black hood. White fangs showed as a spasm shook her jaw.

Even then, with her body mutating, she rasped, "But what he failed to do, I plan to FINISH!"

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"Are you sure about this?" Tails asked her for the umpteenth time, his breath coming in short pants as he stumbled along after the magenta hedgehog, the rabbit, and the Chao. After Lavendar's hurried description of what had happened during her Aura Sense, she had ushered the rabbit, Chao, and fox to quickly follow her to the place where she had last detected Sonic's presence. Tails, not wanting to leave his invention behind, had brought it with them, and now it bumped rather noisily against the ground. Lavendar (wincing every time the wheels of the machine crashed against the ground) could barely suppress a sigh at the fox's question as she focused on running, not bothering to turn her head back at him.

"Tails, if you don't trust me, then you can take your water machine and go back to the lake while Cream, Cheese and I go on," she snapped, pushing back a low branch from a tree. "Even if Sonic isn't in any trouble, it wouldn't hurt to check, right?" The lingering feeling of the dangerous presence caused her spine to tingle as she narrowed her eyes; trying to remember the place she had felt Sonic's Aura. During her Aura Sense she had remembered seeing a line of trees, possibly the end of this small wood, and a grassy plain farther off. As she continued to push further, she could see an opening through the trees, and she beckoned for Cream, Cheese, and Tails to follow her.

"Look! There's a place where the woods end. I think that might be where Sonic is – "

Suddenly, she sensed an abrupt flash of Aura, and she stumbled in her tracks. Tails bumped into the magenta hedgehog, his water machine crashing noisily against his heels, and Cream continued to fly a few feet before realizing the two had come to a stop. When she turned back and faced them, she asked confusedly, "Lavendar, why did you stop?"

Lavendar didn't reply, and instead, she stared at the ground, eyes wide, expression frozen. When the abrupt flash of an Aura had crossed her sense range, she had immediately tried to make out the presence, expecting it to be Sonic's.

Instead, cold sweat formed on her brow, her vision of the ground wavering as memories of flame and smoke engulfed her vision, smothering and choking her as sharp brambles pierced her skin and black arrows sliced past her arms. Shrieks of agony that rang out into the night vibrated in her ears, their shrill pitches like screams from the devil. But the sense of the attackers closing in overpowered everything else, their black Auras like a total eclipse over a lightless land, trapping and drowning her.

"It…it must be one of them, the cloaked ones," she whispered breathlessly. The familiar, cold, vile Aura now filled her senses, locking her muscles in place. Where was the Aura coming from? Was one of the reptiles lurking behind the trees, ready to put an arrow through her heart and take her gem, Aquarius, away from her? Terror gripped her as she breathed heavily, remembering the fear she had displayed when Sonic had pulled out one of the reptiles' arrows before. The very Aura of the evil beings rendered her hopeless.

Slowly, an inner part of her mind thawed from its icy trance and shrilled at her, What are you doing? How will you ever seek your vengeance if you can't even take the enemy's mere presence? She had to be strong, not act like a hopeless kitty mewling for its mother. Shakily, she tried to pinpoint the location of the Aura, trying not to flinch at its murky and vile ambience. Instead of being behind the trees like she thought it would be, it seemed to be in the frontward direction, just beyond the stretch of trees that marked the end of the wood. Even specifically, it was in the exact location that the previous, dangerous presence she had felt before during her Aura Sense had been. Unlike before, when she had been too far away to inspect the murky Aura in detail, she now felt its cold, dark presence so evidently that it seemed to crawl down her skin. There could be no doubt about it. The two presences were one.

There was also no doubt that Sonic was definitely in trouble.

Suddenly, she felt Tails put a hand on her shoulder, his voice surprisingly calm as he said, "Can you find either Sonic's or the attacker's location?"

The touch of his hand further eased her panic a little, and she blinked a few times, the icy feeling around her arms dissipating. Taking a deep breath, the magenta hedgehog stared at the opening between the trees, the light filtering through the trunks casting a yellow glow over her gray eyes.

"If I'm not mistaken, the weird presence I felt earlier possibly belongs to one of those cloaked attackers that burned my forest," she stated softly, and she didn't have to turn around to look at the fox to know that he was shocked. In front of her, Cream's brown eyes were wide with apprehension at her words, and she squeaked, "Cloaks? Do-do you think it's possible Sonic encountered the same one that threw the knife at me and Cheese?"

The three, nervous Auras around her seemed to close around the agitated hedgehog, and she let out a breath, trying to stay calm for the rest. Compared to her, they were younger and obviously needed a Mobian who was strong for guidance. But personally, out of all the Mobians in the world, Lavendar believed to be the last when it came to being strong.

"It could be, Cream," she said, eyes glinting, "and if so, then Sonic really is in trouble."

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The newly formed cobra lunged towards the blue hedgehog, venom glistening on her teeth. Although surprised at the sudden turn of events, Sonic sprang into the air and leaped over the snake as she landed on the other side. Whipping around to face him once again, her body coiled into an angry, scaly knot as her nostrils flared.

"You jussst don't ssstay ssstill, don't you?" she hissed, rearing up on her stomach and swaying in front of him. "The girl is ours, Sonic, and there's nothing you can do!"

Sonic regained his balance and faced the attacker, spikes flexing. She just…changed, he thought bewilderingly as he scanned over the black snake. Just a moment ago, she had been a kitten, he was sure of it. Then suddenly, she had transformed in front of his very eyes into a cobra. He doubted it was a different Mobian, and the same thin, red scar from the kitten marking the snake's eyelid confirmed his assumptions. There could be no other explanation. She was a shape-shifter.

Whoever she was, wherever she came from, he knew that she had been there the day when he and his friends had found Lavendar injured in the forest. How else would she know about the cloaked attacker that had ambushed Knuckles and Tails? She must've been watching them recently when they were at the lake too, since she knew his name. Was she on the side of the cloaked figures?

"I think I liked you better when you were a kitty!" he retorted, and this time, he rushed at the snake, preparing to pin her to the ground. Judging from her words, it seemed that her intention was to find Lavendar and take her, whether she was on the cloaked reptiles' side or not. If he could just knock her out, he would be able to keep her from reaching his friends still at the lake.

His speed was too quick for the cobra, and the blue hedgehog rammed into the snake head-on, causing her to thrash and hiss with rage. The two crashed onto the ground, a writhing mass of black and blue as Sonic struggled to grab her by the neck. The cobra's strange, swirled pattern on her hood flashed in and out of his vision as he slammed his knee onto her scaly body and pinned her head down with his arm. But she seemed to be equally as determined to escape, bringing her tail around and slapping him across the face.

The sting caught Sonic unprepared, and for a second, he was dazed by the sudden impact. A second was all the snake needed. Tensing beneath him, she coiled and jerked upwards, at the same time wrapping her tail around the hedgehog's abdomen. Her muscles contracted and she threw herself against the blue hedgehog, causing him to lose his balance and to fall backwards. Sonic yelped and attempted to kick the snake off of him, but the tip of her tail snaked around his shin and caught his foot in mid-kick. In that very moment, the snake looped the rest of her body around him, slowly encasing the struggling hedgehog in a scaly grip.

"The reptile hasss caught the rodent," she hissed gleefully as Sonic struggled and growled, unable to free himself from the snake's tight coil. The uncomfortable texture of her scales scraped itself against his body, and the blue hedgehog grimaced, can't believing his carelessness. As if the head end was the only part of a snake, idiot! He scolded himself. Now look what you've got yourself into!

Her forked tongue flickered in and out of her mouth as the snake came eye-level with the hedgehog, her black eyes full of evil triumph. "I know where the girl isss, and you can't hide her from me," she sibilated, her scaled face coming unnervingly close with his, causing him to scrunch his nose.

Despite the fact that he was at her mercy, and that she could crush him any second, the blue hedgehog smirked at her.

"Whatever you want with Lavendar, you can forget it," he replied, green eyes flashing. "She's under my protection."

As if he had said something hilarious, the snake threw back her head and let out a hissing laugh, causing her sides to shake. Bringing her head around, the cobra grinned wickedly. "Oh you fool, you think she fanciess you, Sssonic? You think you are doing her a favor? She wouldn't hessitate to join usss if only she knew what wasss going on." She narrowed her eyes to slits, her forked tongue so close to his face that he could sense the vibrations coming from it. "She would leave you, and your pitiful friendsss, if she knew, and without a sssecond thought."

At the sound of her taunting words, Sonic's face threatened to redden, but he forced himself to keep calm. The hedgehog knew that with her body around his, she would be able to feel his heartbeat, and he would rather attempt to swim in a lake than let her know that her words had hit a mark. He grinned cockily back at her.

"Although I've only known Lavendar for a short time, I know she won't go with Mobians with the likes of you. I doubt she fancies scales."

The cobra's eye ridge jerked. "Be quiet hedg-"

"Want to bet?" Sonic interrupted, adjusting his position (and failing.) "I think I got ten rings on me right now, I'm willing to bet five."

"Shut up, you inssolent-"

"By the way, a snake form isn't very attractive for a girl," Sonic added with feigned innocence, just for good measure.

Perhaps he shouldn't have gone that far, for in the next second, the blue hedgehog found himself face down on the ground after being slammed against it, the grip around his abdomen tightened considerably.

"Enough of thiss!" the hedgehog heard the cobra shriek, and he was righted once more with her furious face right in front of his bruised one. Annoyance flashed across her eyes. "I have already wasssted enough time with you. It'ss time I dissposse of you and hurry on my way."

At that, the snake began to increase her force around the blue hedgehog, causing his smirk to falter. With alarm, Sonic realized that the snake was serious this time about crushing him. As her powerful muscles clenched him, he winced as his body started to ache. Every time he struggled against her, the pressure around him increased and choked him. He tried to suck in more air, but the increasing pressure around his lungs prevented him from drawing in any more, and he realized that if he didn't think of something fast, he would suffocate to death in just a matter of seconds.

At the edge of his blurring vision, Sonic could see the forest where he had come from. He doubted that Tails, Cream, or Lavendar would suddenly appear to the rescue. It seemed that he was on his own.

Usually when he was in trouble, the blue hedgehog would rely on his renowned speed. But how could he rely on it now with his entire body tangled? Sonic grimaced and closed his eyes, rapidly trying to find a way out of this mess. Tails was normally the one with the strategy, and all the blue hedgehog had to do was put it into action. But now it seemed he would have to do both jobs in order to save his tail. Think…if you don't want to become a pancake, then you need a plan, and fast!

Sonic, you really should know better. Thanks to anyone who reads and reviews! And hopefully the next chapter will be up soon (no absolute guarantees though...)