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Amy Rose hid behind the ruined pillar, hammer in hand and eyes firmly shut, trying to calm her pounding heart enough to hear clearly. But other than the sounds of dripping water somewhere she heard nothing.

Apart from the sound of claws on stonework as the reason she hid stalked the old ruins.

"Come out, little hedgehog! You don't want to be the only one left out do you?" The creature stalking her clucked.

***

It should have been simple. Tangle had heard about an old cave where there had once been mines extracting a rare mineral. She had wanted to go see if there might have been any lying around to take back home, so had soon convinced Whisper to accompany her. Then Rouge was lured in by the prospect of shiny things too, claiming she only wanted to look. So Amy had agreed to come and try help stop the bat going kleptomaniacal. And at first she'd felt quite useful.

The caverns had been blocked by some fallen rocks, but apart from the ones in the way, the rest of the caves seemed stable enough for now. Whisper had looked at the rocks and said something to the Lemur.

"Hmm, yeah, maybe a bit much for your Wispon.... Hey, maybe you can smash these boulders with your hammer, Amy!" Tangle had suggested.

Whisper mumbled something that Amy hadn't caught.

"It looks stable otherwise, I don't think we'll get a cave in even if Amy's hammer hits harder than your wisps," Rouge said, the wolf's eyes opening a little in surprise.

"She's a bat, remember, super hearing?" Tangle whispered, though being Tangle it was loud enough for Amy to catch as she readied her hammer.

"Well, here goes, and if Rouge is wrong get ready to run away!" She'd grinned, and smashed the rocks apart.

Then there'd been other obstacles suited to the rest too. Whisper and Rouge carrying the other two over a ravine. Tangle worked her tail through a gap to open a gate that was sealed on the other side in a spot a little less stable looking. The whole team needed to get into the depths of the cave/mines. They found a vein of the mineral, with a nice displayable chunk remaining. A few rusty old tools were nearby too, so with her hammer, Whisper's Wispon in a hammer mode, and a few alarming moments when Tangle hefted up a pickaxe too fast and turned into a half-lemur half-whirlwind spinning around out of control, they'd eventually managed to get it free of the less interesting rocks around it.

And then it turned out they'd been tailed, Wave the Swallow apparently after the shiny things as well, and seeming to be on her own. She swooped in, grabbed it, and tried to fly off on her extreme gear, but Whisper apparently hadn't agreed with that plan. A well aimed shot caused her to lose control of the hoverboard, and it had crashed into what turned out to be a weak wall that opened up another cavern. A cavern filled with crumbled pillars and what seemed like an old temple. Water seemed to be dripping down from the high cave ceiling above, raining down gently in spots.

They'd split up and searched for Wave in the maze-like ruins, as Whisper covered what seemed to be the only way in and out. They found her board crashed into the base of what looked like it had been an old statue, but there was nothing there now. And then they'd heard a scream. Amy saw Whisper jumping down towards where the noise had been, rushed to get there herself. Amy was just behind Whisper as the wolf had turned a corner, eyes widening in surprise as Tangle leapt into view, trying to shield Whisper from something.

But it had been for nothing. The Lemur and the Wolf both cried out, freezing in place as their eyes glowed blue for a second, and then their fur began to turn grey, solid. The unusual sight of Whisper wide-eyed locked in place, and the terrified, frantic expression on Tangle's face was half shifted to despair at failing to protect her friend with her effort to get in the way. The pair turned to stone right before Amy's eyes, the corner of the ruins defending her from whatever had inflicted it.

As Amy gasped in surprise at the sight, she heard a voice.

"Someone else is there? Excellent... What a lovely wake-up present! Five new statues at least!"

"Amy, run!" Rouge had shouted from somewhere, and she'd rushed around the corner.

What she saw was Rouge leaping out from behind rubble, tackling a grey-blue feathered shape, the pair rolling past... A petrified Wave, the Swallow locked in stone with a cry of fright preserved in her beak, her back against another crumbling pillar.

And Rouge was about to join her too. The feathered shape, looking like it was a chicken or something, with a lizard tail and dragon-like wings, was far larger than the bat, and yanked her to her feet, forcing her eye open and starting the process.

Amy had saw Rouge's glowing eye catch hers, and felt like a coward as she now obeyed the earlier instructions. But as she had turned, she heard wings flap and had to close her eyes as something landed ahead of her. She'd swung her hammer, something had cried out in pain, and she scurried away to hide as the creature recovered

"Gha! I'll get you for that one, Pink thing! No one strikes Lapis The Cockatrice!" The apparent Cockatrice had pledged.

And that was where she was now.

***

"You can hide as long as you like, little Hedgehog. I've been sealed here for centuries, a few more hours or days is nothing. I can see the only way out. So come on, don't delay the inevitable. Or do you want to fight?"

Amy heard the sound of something heavy scraping for a few moments, and then the Cockatrice spoke again.

"Let's make it fun. Come out, swing your hammer, keep those eyes closed! There's five targets out here. Let's see if you can hit one... and make sure it's me. Want to make the gamble? One in five chance if you do land the blow. Either I get knocked flat by that hammer, and you can try flee.... Or you hear the crash of shattering stone."

Any refused to take that kind of risk.

"Then again, maybe I should just start breaking them myself? I do prefer to keep my artwork intact and I do need to restart my collection now all those I claimed before were restored by those who defeated me years ago... but accidents happen."

"Don't!" She cried out automatically, and then winced.

"Oh, wanting to bargain? Here's my offer. Come out, and join them. Or, I start breaking things off, then once I catch you, you join them. Or I go out of here if you cower. Into that town that must be nearby. I start making rubble instead of art, and it'll all be because you hid. What's it to be, Hedgehog?"

Amy grit her teeth, and left cover, walking out eyes closed still and hammer in hand. She heard the claws of the Cockatrice's feet scratching on the rocky temple floor.

"Good, now, give me the hammer..." The creature clucked.

"Sure, yeah, you'll get the hammer," Amy muttered.

Amy began swinging, opening her eyes to try and make sure she definitely would hit this Cockatrice thing, but when sight was restored to herself, she had to stop mid-swing. She panted in shock, having stopped her hammer just inches from slamming into Wave's stone head.

And then a feathered hand grabbed her face, turned her wide eyes to gaze into deep blue ones, and she felt herself freeze in place. She let out one last strangled noise of surprise as the Cockatrice claimed her fifth statue, pink quills becoming the same grey as the other four.

"Hm, this kind of thing is what people wear in caves now? Little red dresses? And I thought some of the others had strange attire. Well, now you're taken care of, I'll go see what fashion is like now in town. I do hope there's some pretty future statues up there..." The Cockatrice grinned, flapping her wings and heading to the way out, but paused.

"I'll come back and fish you five out later. As my debut pieces of the new season, you'll need to be on display once I really build up my gallery...."

And with that, the Cockatrice left her first victims in centuries behind.

Amy stood there, hammer still inches from smashing Wave apart, her head facing the wrong way from her target. The Swallow now looked like she was crying out in fear at her impending conversion to gravel, and the other three statues now looked like they watched on in shock. An accidental story told as a result of the Cockatrice's efforts, as she went off to begin a new story in the nearby streets and alleyways of the town. A story of more Mobians rendered into statues.