The wind blew against the trees and it's leaves, which fell from the long branches and into the grass as the full moon shone bright in the midnight sky.
Suddenly, a portal opened from above and down came three hedgehogs, two of them screaming as they fell. The azure one was laughing at them, landing on his feet with a huge thump from his red sneakers. The albino one was able to stop screaming then he surrounded his whole body with blue aura, using his psychokinesis to keep him from falling onto the ground. The last one, a forest green hedgehog, couldn't react fast enough and hit his body on the grass painfully.
"Ow~" Scourge groaned, lifting himself from the ground as he rubbed his aching muscles.
"Oh my chaos!" Silver landed on the grass and ran over to help him. "Are you okay, Scourge?!"
"No! I'm not!" Scourge's ocean blue eyes glared at their azure friend as he gritted his teeth. "Why didn't you tell us that we were going to fall through a fucking portal, Blue?!"
"Eh," Sonic shrugged. "wasn't really worth mentioning, in my opinion,"
"HOW IS IT NOT WORTH MENTIONING?!"
"Cause I didn't know we'd fall from that height! I thought we could at least fall from the trees!"
"OH, REALLY?! WHAT DO YOU THINK WE ARE?! LEAVES?! NO! WE ARE FUCKING HEDGEHOGS, YOU IDIOT! WE AREN'T EVEN CATS TO FALL ON OUT GODDAMN FEET OR HAVE NINE GODDAMN LIVES!"
"Enough! Both of you!" Silver came between the two. "Remember why we're here; to go on a vacation with our Semes. So cool it. Alright?"
Scourge huffed and folded his arms, clutching his jacket the moment a gust of cold breeze blew towards them. Sonic looked around at the familiar place then looked up in concern.
"But..." he asked. "where are our Semes?"
A few moments later, three screaming hedgehogs came out of the portal, landing on the trees above them. The Ukes watched as the red-striped ebony one groaned, the dark aqua-striped, coal black one tried to untangle himself from the branches and the golden one fell down on a bush from the top of the tree.
"Ugh..." Shadow rubbed his head and jumped off, his hover-shoes making a clinking sound at the touch of the ground. "Man, that was rough..."
"My...same...reaction!" Mephiles finally snapped the branches before landing hard on the ground on his back. "Ow~"
"You okay, Mephy?" Silver helped his boyfriend up.
"Yes," Mephiles sighed in relief and nodded, facing his Uke. "I am now,"
"That was quite a fall, isn't it?" Sonic grinned as Shadow walked beside him.
"And WHO'S fault do you think THAT was, huh, Blue?" Scourge glared at his azure friend as he pulled Fleetway from the bush.
"Oof!" Fleetway smiled and hugged his lover. "Thanks, Scourgie!~"
"Hmph!" Scourge's muzzle reddened to the tip of his ears, making everyone laugh.
Their laughter spread throughout the forest before it slowly began to cease. After it did, the group began to set up camp. Shadow started up the camp fire, Silver and Sonic took down some trees to make logs for them to sit on, Scourge set up the tents, Mephiles placed a boundary around their campsite to make sure none of them wonders off, and Fleetway unpacked the uncooked meals they brought.
Finally, the group was done so they all gathered around the campfire, roasting raw chili dogs and marshmallows above the burning flames. Sonic strummed his guitar to add some music as the rest of them sang and laughed. They even got a flashlight to tell spooky stories to each other, scaring both Sonic and Silver terribly but after a couple of minutes of cuddling them and soothing them with gently with whispers, Shadow and Mephiles were able to calm them down.
Soon, it was getting late and their campfire had burnt out so they headed for bed. Each couple slept in each tent, each Seme snuggling their Uke tightly but warmly as they all fell into deep slumber. All was quiet and the only sound heard was the wind until...
RUSTLE!
Sonic's ear flinched at the sound then he groaned before forcing himself to sit up, causing Shadow's arms to fall from his grip around the azure Uke's waist.
"Mm, what was that?" Sonic rubbed his eyes and cautiously crawled to the end of the tent to peek his head outside.
Nothing. There was nothing outside but smoke from their campfire and the logs they sat on. None of their things were even touched.
"Maybe I'm imagining things..." he whispered to himself but soon shook his head in disagreement. "No, I don't think so. This is the kingdom of Camelot, I'm talking about. From talking swords to traitorous wizards, anything is possible here!"
RUSTLE! RUSTLE!
"Wait!" he turned to a bush. "What was that?!"
"Mm...Sonic?"
Sonic turned to the other tent to see Silver, who was barely awake as he rubbed his eyes and yawned.
"Sonic?" he asked. "What are you doing up?"
"I heard rustling sounds," Sonic replied, standing up on his white socks.
"Me too!"
The two turned to see their fellow Uke by the last tent with a flashlight in his hand. He went out of his tent and stood up on his socks before stretching.
"Fleetway just fell asleep," he explained. "I was trying to get him to not fuck me for one night and it worked but before I could get a chance to sleep, boom! I hear rustling. I took the flashlight to investigate then I heard more rustling and you two talking so I came out of the tent,"
"I WAS sleeping," Silver gave another yawn. "That was until I heard rustling and Sonic's voice so I got out of my tent to investigate,"
"The rustling bothered me already," Sonic groaned. "I had to be alert on what's going on. This is the Dark Hallows, after all..."
"Let's gather around," Scourge suggested. "I'll light up the campfire again cause I have a feeling we won't be able to sleep without getting to the bottom of these mystery rustles,"
The younger two didn't have any complains. The simply sat on the logs as the eldest Uke (YES, SCOURGE IS THE ELDEST OF THE THREE UKES IN THIS STORY) lit the campfire with two sticks.
Finally, there was a spark and an ember before the whole thing burst into flames. Scourge sighed in relief then he dropped the sticks and sat with the two.
"So," he grumbled. "do we tell the others about this?"
"I think we should," Silver replied with a nod. "They might be able to protect us. Let's wake them up to help us,"
Sonic turned and snickered. "Maybe we don't need to. Look."
The older two (YES, SONIC IS THE FREAKING YOUNGEST OF THE THREE UKES IN THIS GODDAMN BOOK SO DON'T JUDGE) turned to where Sonic was looking at and noticed that there was someone stirring from Silver and Mephiles's tent.
"Do you think Mephy's awake?" Silver asked.
Sure enough, Mephiles came out from the tent, rubbing his eyes before a yawn escaped him.
"He's awake," Scourge chuckled. "Barely but awake nonetheless,"
"Silver?" Mephiles walked beside his Uke. "Why are you up and out so late? Is something wrong? Did something happen?"
"No, not really..." Silver gulped, nervous as his ears pinned.
"Can you wake up the others, Mephiles?" Sonic asked, sounding serious. "We...need to talk about something..."
Mephiles's ear twitches at the serious voice of the happy-go-lucky azure hedgehog before he nodded and turned, walking away to oblige.
A few minutes later, the six were all gathered around the campfire, with Silver hugging Mephiles close, Scourge leaning his head on Fleetway's shoulder and Sonic hugging himself while Shadow had his arms around his Uke's waist.
"So..." Shadow sighed after the Ukes explained to them why they were still awake. "let me get this straight; you three were bothered by some rustling in the bushes?"
"You don't understand, Shads," Sonic shook his head. "We're in the Dark Hallows in the kingdom of Camelot. No innocent wild creature would live here. It would either be a dangerous dragon or..."
His emerald green eyes widened in horror. "...a knight of the underworld..."
"A Knight of the Underworld?" Mephiles was taken back. "But how is that possible? The underworld is sealed from Camelot,"
"It happened months ago," Sonic told them. "A fake King Arthur, called the Black Knight, made by the royal wizard Merlin corrupted himself because of the scabbard of the sacred sword Excalibur. I was summoned here to take him down and to stop the Knights of the Underworld from taking over the kingdom. Unfortunately, Merlin's granddaughter Merlina got corrupted in her eager to make Camelot eternal and spread the darkness even more. I was able to defeat her and find the REAL King Arthur to rule Camelot but...we never actually finished making sure the creatures of the Underworld were out of the kingdom..."
"Well," Scourge huffed. "that ain't good,"
"Could they be living in the Dark Hallows?" Silver worriedly asked.
"Possibly," Fleetway sighed.
"They're probably living with the Dark Creatures I made and left in this realm," Mephiles mumbled and the others gasped.
"Wait, what?!" Scourge jumped to his feet in shock.
"What are you talking about, Mephiles?!" Shadow demanded.
"I didn't originally came from the Iblis," Mephiles explained. "I wasn't always the goo from it. I originally lived here in Camelot as Mephiles the Time God of Darkness. I was feared by all because I would order my legions of dark creatures to take an innocent villager then I would slay them at hand. My form was nothing but darkness until I copied the form of one of the Knights of the Round Table during a battle,"
"Let me guess," Sonic chuckled with folded arms. "It's Lancelot's form, wasn't it?"
"Yes, it was," Mephiles nodded. "How did you guess?"
"Lancelot looks like Shadow because he's his counterpart so I'd assume that you'd copy his form,"
"Honestly, that's the reason why I copied Shadow's form; because he looked like Lancelot,"
"Alright..." Fleetway twisted his lips.
"Anyway, I remained in that form until I was summoned by the Iblis, rotting my form into nothing but goo. My legions of dark creatures were left here in anarchy. Or...so I thought..."
"What does that mean?!" Scourge growled.
"I mean, maybe the Black Knight Sonic told us is still alive. My legions can reform other dark creatures, especially those from the Underworld but when was here, I wouldn't even try to consider the idea of opening the doorway to the Underworld,"
"Why is that?" Silver tilted his head.
"The creatures of the Underworld are too powerful to control," Mephiles hissed. "They might be in anarchy but their main concern is feeding their dark forms with innocent souls. I never tried but I didn't want to. I learned very little knowledge of the Underworld so I knew it wasn't a good idea but now, the doorway is open and I have a bad feeling that, with the help of my legions, the Black Knight from the Underworld took the opportunity to rule over the darkness,"
"Oof!" Fleetway shuddered. "That can't be good,"
"No, it isn't. But what confuses me is the fact that I left my legions at the top of a mountain. Why would they be here in the Dark Hallows?"
"Maybe King Arthur would be able to answer that," Sonic suggested. "He HAS ruled here for many years, even before he disappeared due to Merlina and Merlin,"
"I'd rather not question the king about this," Mephiles shook his head in disagreement. "We do not have a great history. In fact, I tried to take over Camelot with my legions but Arthur defeated me with the Excalibur,"
"I don't wanna face Arthur either," Scourge added, looking quite uncomfortable. "Believe it or not, I've been to this dimension before and I don't have a good history with Arthur either,"
"What did you do, Scourge?" Silver raised an eye brow as he looked unpleased.
"Well, it started out small. It was about 4 to 5 years ago; I was like 13 or 14 but I was already a flirt to women. I came here to take a break from Möebius and began to flirt around girls. I MIGHT have used them for sex and stuff, which made me face King Arthur for the first time..."
"Oh, Scourge," Sonic facepalmed as Shadow shook his head.
"Yeah, yeah," Scourge sighed. "I was a shitbag that time so I had no clue on the bad things I was doing. After being pardoned since I was TECHNICALLY a kid, mostly in Arthur's eyes, I went back home, got my army and tried to take over Camelot,"
"Scourge!" Silver growled.
"I know, I know! I was fucked up and retarded!" Scourge groaned with a glare. "Don't need to rub it in, Silver. Yeesh!"
"Calm down," Sonic sighed and shook his head. "Both of you, just stop!"
Silver rubbed his temples and Scourge scoffed before turning away. Fleetway stroked Scourge's quills and Mephiles hugged Silver close as Shadow sighed and folded his arms.
"Well," he said. "if we can't ask King Arthur the question then what should we do? Move camp?"
A chilling gust of wind blew against the camp, putting out their campfire in an instant.
"Too late." Mephiles looked around cautiously. "They found us."
"Uh oh..." Sonic gripped tight to Shadow's arm as his Seme held him close.
"Mephy...!" Silver was trying to calm himself down but was obviously in panic as he went closer to his Seme.
"Fuck..." Scourge cautiously looked around while his Seme pulled him closer to his body.
A moment of silence followed, with the huge gusts of wind turning into small breezes as the six remained still, not wanting to move. They didn't want to catch attention to whoever was there to get them.
Suddenly, their ears twitches at the faint sound of horse hooves galloping from afar. The group stood up and went on their battle stands as the gallops got louder and louder, meaning the horses were getting closer and closer...
"Look!" Silver cried out in panic once he saw a huge knight with dark aura coming towards them on a horse.
The knight came closer until he stopped in front of the group, a group of knights and other dark creatures on horses stopping behind him as his soulless eyes glared down at the six.
"The Black Knight..." Sonic gulped and went behind Shadow, who glared back at the creature in front of him.
"Dark creatures," Mephiles spoke in a loud, clear voice. "it has been too long. I see that you have gotten yourselves a new leader, correct?"
A dark creature from behind slithered to the front and stood in front a spiky form with gleaming white eyes. He got on one knee and bowed.
"God Mephiles," he said in a cold, hoarse voice. "it has been so long since we have seen you. This leader of ours is the Black Knight but he was only to replace you until you returned,"
"Hmm, so you say, Terror..." Mephiles nodded and bowed at the Black Knight. "Thank you for taking care of my legions,"
"An honor to serve the Time God of Darkness," the Black Knight bowed.
Unfortunately, the moment he looked up, his eyes found Sonic, who was still cowering behind Shadow and was trying to keep himself unseen. The Black Knight growled and took out his sword.
"You!" He aimed his sword at the azure Uke. "I will dispatch of you!"
Sonic gulped as his eyes widened in shock. Shadow stood between them, lighting up a Chaos Spear as he glared at the Black Knight.
"Touch a SINGLE fur on him and you're dead to me!" he roared.
Mephiles quickly intervened and went between them. He narrowed his eyes at the Black Knight, looking straight into the villain's soulless eyes as he took an arm out to defend the others.
"Do not attack them!" he ordered. "They are my friends!"
"Friends?" the Black Knight wasn't pleased. "How can you be friends with this creature?! Sir Sonic has gone against the dark knights! He deserves to perish!"
"Besides," Terror tilted his head at Mephiles. "most of these creatures behind you are innocent and heroic, something that destroys us darkness,"
"He has gone soft, Terror!" a dark creature with the form of the shadow of a tree hissed. "Our once-powerful God had gone soft because of his disappearance to the other realm!"
"Quiet, Death!" Terror snapped and glared at his comrade.
"But it's true—!"
"SILENCE!" Mephiles roared, using one of his dark tentacles to grab Death and throw him away.
The dark creatures behind gasped and the Black Knight aimed his sword at Mephiles.
"He is a traitor to us!" he bellowed. "Dark legions, get them! All of them!"
"Well," Scourge groaned as the dark knights and creatures went closer towards them. "this won't end well..."
"Don't worry, Scourgie," Fleetway whispered to his Uke. "I'll take care of things,"
He unwrapped himself from his lover then attacked the dark creatures. This reckless move, however, earned him a hard beating from dark tentacles of the dark creatures, knocking him out before some of the tentacles grabbed him and dragged him away.
"Fuck that idiot!" Scourge gritted his teeth and tried to get his Seme back but failed as he was grabbed and taken away too.
"Scourge!" Silver ran to save his friend but instead got knocked out and dragged away by a tentacle.
"Silver! No!" Mephiles went to his crystal form and tried to control the creatures but they were too strong and rebelled against him.
"You are a traitor!" Terror shouted before he got kicked down by Shadow, who turned to Mephiles with panic.
"What do we do, Mephiles?!" he demanded.
"Keep fighting!" Mephiles responded. "We need to! We have to!"
"Shadow! HEEEELP!"
The two Semes turned to see Sonic cornered to a tree, with the Black Knight ready to strike with his sword.
"I will...FiNiSh YoU!" the Black Knight raised his blade. "sAy GoOdByE, sOnIc ThE hEdGeHoG!"
"No!" Shadow sped towards his boyfriend just as the sword was lowered.
He went in between them and took the strike, causing him to fall. Sonic gasped with tears eyes.
"Shadow!" he ran to him and hugged him close, letting his tears roll down his cheeks.
"No!" Mephiles wanted to take down the Black Knight but was knocked down by Death, who came back with a tree branch in his shadowy hands before turning to the Black Knight.
"Your orders, sire?" he asked, bowing.
The Black Knight chuckled down at the sight of Sonic crying before taking out his sword and knocking the azure hedgehog out. He lifted Shadow and Sonic up on his shoulders then turned back to Death.
"Leave Mephiles here to suffer his treachery," he said. "I have BETTER plans on what to do with these two pathetic hedgehogs..."
"As you say, sire," Death nodded.
"Good, now," the Black Knight turned to the rest of the dark knights and creatures. "we will take our leave! Come, we have MUCH MORE important things to do..."
He pulled on his horse's rope and galloped deeper into the Dark Hallows with his knights and legions, leaving Mephiles alone and unconscious...