Hello Everyone! Welcome to 'Welcome Home'!
First off, this story has a few OC's in it. The majority of which, are mine and one which, is someone else's, but I will go into more detail about that in the chapter where that OC shows up.
This is a big move for me, since I've never done and OC story before. I hope you all enjoy it!
Since there isn't much else to say, I'll just do the disclaimer and allow you to read on. There will be a chapter every Saturday until it is finished! So, I'll see you next week!
Arby xx
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in the Sonic franchise. They belong to SEGA. Arby, Nocturne, Jak, Sage, Dové, Zeus and Angel are all my characters and belong to me.
Another dreary day was soon upon me. Good god how I hated getting up in the morning, especially when college was involved. I hated how days would pass and nothing would change. I was tired of the typical everyday life with nothing even vaguely interesting happening. Even the voice in my head agreed. Her name was Justine, despite it technically being my name. I preferred my nickname, Arby, and things went from there.
"Maybe there'll be a fight today?" The one in my mind asked me.
"Pfft, we hope that every day, but that never happens. All we do is bitch behind each other's backs." I responded coldly.
"To be fair, we do that too." Justine replied. She sounded exactly like me with her voice being deep enough to be able to tell the difference.
"To vent." I reasoned with her. Just when I thought there would be one day where things would be fine, things inevitably got worse.
1 Hour Later…
After lazily walking up two flights of stairs to class and sitting as far from the teacher as possible, I turned my music up and daydreamed. Images filled my head, images that were better than the reality I lived every day. These half-existing adventures would change depending on what song was on and it would pass time a hell of a lot quicker. I would dream of another world, a better world where there was no need to question the possibility of suicide every time my eyes opened from a restless sleep.
The day was Monday; not the worst day of the week, but not the best either. It would normally be seven hours of 'catching up with coursework', which we never had the motivation to do, but the first lesson wielded something I was sure we all dreaded; assignment hand backs. One by one the teacher, Debby, would give each of us back work to either sign off or upgrade depending on whether we were happy with the grade or not.
"Shit." I whispered to myself knowing exactly what was coming. Justine laughed.
"I was just about to say that." She chuckled some more. I was tempted to tell her to shut up, but the risk of drawing unnecessary attention to myself wasn't worth it. With an emotionless face, she handed me some work that I had finished last week only to see the usual 'R' written on it. It stood for 'referral', which I assumed was another way of saying 'fail'. Normally I would just brush it off and upgrade it at home, but this assignment I actually put some effort into.
"Why did I fail this time?" I asked with frustration clear in my voice.
"It was good, but you just needed more detail." She told me before handing out more work. There it was. The magic word: 'detail'. This single word had caused more 'R's' than Team Rocket. "I've booked computers, so any work you need to finish you can do now." She told us. As we walked, Justine began talking to me.
"Do you think she even cares?" She asked. I walked slower to separate from everyone else so I could answer.
"Of course not. As long as she gets paid she couldn't care less. Same goes for every other teacher here." We were both quiet after that and once I was on a computer, I turned up my music once again and journeyed to my better world.
In this world, societal ills didn't exist. Every day was worth living and people lived exciting lives, whether they were saving the world or solving crimes. Humanity, as much as it liked to think it was, wasn't the dominant species on the planet. This world was something that I would beg to exist, simply so I could start anew there and become a far better person than I could ever hope of becoming here. This world was commonly known as Mobius with a vast, unique race known as Mobians. They weren't human, fortunately. Instead, they were humanoid animals ranging from mammals to reptiles and everything in between. They would walk and talk and live lives like humans, but would look significantly different. Sonic the Hedgehog was the most popular and most famous of this unique species, but my thoughts would always travel to the under-appreciated members of the Mobian race: Espio the Chameleon, Charmy Bee and Vector the Crocodile with the only exception being Shadow the Hedgehog. To mix things up I would often pair up Espio and Shadow since their personalities were so alike. They were quiet, independent and serious despite having very different lives. Just as I was getting comfortable, Justine spoke again.
"Quick question before you leave the Earth's surface; if you were to be a Mobian, what would you look like?" I really thought hard about the question, but in the end joined my two favourites together without it looking weird.
"I'd be a hedgehog like Shadow, but instead of red markings, I would have purple, like Espio. What about you?" I asked in return.
"Not a clue to be honest, I'd like to be a chameleon though. Climbing walls and turning invisible. Imagine how much fun that would be." I wasn't surprised by her answer; she liked the same characters I did. She was in my mind after all.
To our surprise, the two teachers we had in the afternoon were both at some emergency meeting, which meant we were only in for the morning and then got to go home. The bus home was pleasant with no other people on board, except of course, the driver.
About 45 minutes later and I made it home to the surprise of my mother, who I said a quick hello to before retreating to my room with a hot cup of tea.
"It's only one in the afternoon, maybe we should do something?" Justine began. Personally, I wasn't up for anything. All I wanted to do was go back to bed, but I heard her out nonetheless.
"What have you got in mind?" My voice lacked the enthusiasm.
"Nothing outrageous, just a walk or something. Maybe to your old high school?" I shuddered at the thought. I have enough bad memories to deal with, the last thing I needed was to return to the site of many of them.
"Anywhere, but there." I said bitterly, which certainly got my point across.
"Your old primary school?" That idea definitely caught me off-guard. I hadn't been there since I was 12 and all of a sudden she wanted to go back?
"What the hell? Why there?" I questioned.
"Do you remember it being abandoned?"
"What?! Seriously? I never knew that!" I exclaimed in surprise.
"Oh…" She replied sheepishly. "Must've forgotten to tell you." I sighed loudly in response.
"I guess we could… got nothing better to do… except maybe sleep."
"Great!" She said excitedly, obviously ignoring my last comment. "Let's get going." With little time to breath, I finished my tea and headed out. My old primary school was quite the hike from where I lived and involved walking up many hills, but I was certainly awake by the time we got there.
A winter storm was in full swing and while it wasn't raining, an icy wind was trying to tear the landscape apart. It felt as if knives were trying to get through the leather jacket and red bandanna which clung to my neck, both did no good at keeping my small body warm. The view on the other hand was phenomenal.
The school was on a high hill overlooking the harbour, which was under siege by the untamed ocean. To the left of us was a large field, which I remembered playing on during the summer months as a kid and to the right was the abandoned school itself.
"Whoa…" I whispered in disbelief at how much it had changed. The building was old in its own right, being originally built out of simple stone bricks, but now it had lost its welcoming glow and reassurance that real life was still years away. It was as if it had grown more brutal with age… just as I had.
"Some sight, huh?" Justine spoke, reminding me that she existed.
"It looks and feels so different." I was nearly lost for words whilst staring at this living metaphor of adulthood. "So broken…" I whispered once more. Justine could tell I was thinking deep again and tried to bring me out of it.
"It's ok. The old park on the field is still there. Wanna sit for a bit?" I nodded and began walking away from the school with an odd feeling of relief as I turned away from it.
Once there, I sat on one of the swings with an underlying fear that the chains holding it up would snap at any moment. Justine knew I had a lot to think about and chose to remain quiet. I was brought back to Earth when I noticed something… not quite right near the fence. I first thought that I was imagining things until I saw it again; the faintest shimmer. It didn't take long for Justine to notice my sudden perk in curiosity.
"What is it?" She asked me.
"Over there, are you seeing that to?" After a few silent moments, she confirmed that I hadn't completely lost my mind… yet.
"Yeah, that weird distortion. The fuck is that?" I shrugged and decided to get up and move closer. With every step, it became more visible with the distortion becoming clearer.
"What is it?" I asked, forgetting that Justine had asked it first.
"I'm… not sure. Is it dangerous?"
"I don't know." I replied simply and tried to extend my arm to touch it.
"Are you crazy?!" She snapped at me. "What if it tears your arm off?!"
"Thanks for putting that image in my head." I groaned sarcastically.
"Come on, we have no idea what this thing is." Justine was obviously unsure, but I didn't share her concerns. "It could be a gate to the Underworld or the Distortion Realm."
"Or we could not jump to conclusions that something unfamiliar is instantly hostile." I could tell she wanted to reply, but couldn't. I had made my point, it wasn't her fault though. The vast majority of the human race was like this. They would freak out over something small and attempt to wipe it from existence.
"Ok…" Justine continued trying to be reasonable. "What do you think it is?"
"Well, judging by the crazy shit I've seen on TV, my only guess would be that it's some kind of portal."
"Portal?" The way she said it made it sound as if the suggestion was ridiculous. Perhaps it was, or maybe it was normal and the rest of the world was ridiculous. "To where?"
"I don't know!" I said losing my patience. "But, we could find out."
"…Please tell me you're kidding?" Justine asked in an uncomfortably calmer tone, but the five second silence soon made it obvious that I was being serious. "No way! Fuck that! What if we never come back?! Or we get killed?! You've got family and friends here who would be devastated if something happened to you!" There's the speech again. I truly wanted to believe that people would miss me, but given enough time, they would all move on and resume their lives.
"Are you sure about that?" I groaned depressingly.
"Don't do this to me Arb! We don't know what's on the other side!" With her constant yelling, I soon snapped.
"What if something amazing is on the other side?! What if the true meaning of freedom is waiting for us there? Or dare I say it, something better than our current doomed existence?!" We were both suddenly silent. I could feel her fear, but with everything I had, I chose to ignore it.
"Look, I know I can't physically stop you, but at least think about it. What if we do find this great place, but can never come back? I know you'd miss people here even if you don't want to admit it." Now she had made a good point. While there were few people that I dared to care about, I know I would miss those few people.
"Ok but, what if we can come back?" She thought about it before answering.
"Then… I don't see the harm in it, but we don't know any of that."
"And we'll never know unless we take this chance. For once in our lives can we not wimp out and remain quiet?" I heard a defeated sigh, which I assumed was my green light. My stomach churned with anxiety as I approached the gateway, but the thought of going back to a normal, repetitive life was enough motivation to get me to jump through.
"I hope you know what you're doing." Justine said just before I ventured forward.
"I'm human; I never know what I'm doing."