Sonic the Hedgehog is owned by Sega and is not my property!
I only own one character, my OC named Penny. She is going to start out as a human, but will be turned into a cat. Unoriginal, I know, I have another fanfic like this, but I was thinking of dumping it soon anyways.
The story will follow from Sonic Adventure 1 through Sonic Generations without side games (with the exception of Sonic Rush).
With all this out of the way, let's start the fanfiction.

Chapter 1

It was a very rainy day whenever I decided to play my games. It was raining very, very hard, like it was a hurricane. I knew better though. It was a pretty normal storm for my house, as it was next to Lake Erie. And the only thing notable was that it was thundering outside.

My name was Penelope Carmichael and I was a senior in high school and an avid video gamer. Before you ask me why I was at home alone and playing a video game in the middle of a rainstorm, it was because my mom and dad were out of town and on a business trip. As for my sister, Sarah, she was at my grandma's and visiting her.

I was at least 5 foot 4 inches tall, making me a bit shorter than the others in my grade. I also had black, messy hair that never wanted to straighten, so I just fashioned it to be as curly as possible, only brushing it when I woke up and after showers. My face was nothing too special, just a few freckles here and there and a small scar on my nose from when I got cut by a kitchen knife when I was a dumb kid.

And what game was I playing right now? I was just turning on the game Sonic Adventure for Gamecube, the remake version from the Dreamcast. Sure, it wasn't spectacular, in fact it hadn't aged well, but it held lots of nostalgia for me specifically.

But when I turned on the game and the intro cutscene started to play, something bad happened. A crash of thunder sounded and hit the television dead in the middle, the game's screen going all glitchy the moment it happened. "Oh no, oh no! Please don't fail on me now!" I exclaimed as I tried to touch the power button on the television. Hah! As if that would've made a difference!

No, what happened after I did that was something that would change my life forever. Rather than just shock me or not work at all, when I touched the button, I felt my entire body become enveloped in a bright flash of light! And the next I knew, my body was in a dark void. I didn't know where I was or what had happened. All I knew was that I wasn't in my house in PA anymore. And I could feel something in the darkness. Something... liquid-like.

When I touched the liquid, I didn't know what it was and I could've sworn I felt something else in it. Some kind of... squishy substance. "Please. Stop that. You're making him upset," I heard a voice say in my head, which I immediately jolted my hand out of the liquid thing. What... what did I just hear? It sounded like a voice I'd heard before, but I couldn't quite place it.

"W-Who's there? Where am I? Please answer me! I-I'm so scared..." I gulped, ready to shit my pants because of how afraid I really was. "Calm yourself... I don't know how you got here, but your presence in this thing is making it full to bursting. If you don't return from wherever you came from, you'll end up freeing Chaos," the voice said.

When she said that name in my head, I immediately tried to think. Honestly, this must've been a dream, right? This is definitely a lucid dream I'm having! I could just jump out of the darkness and I'd be on an island floating in the sky! And then I'd have a tea party with 7 different princesses! That would be the fitting thing to happen in any dream!

Yeah, I wished.

I tried jumping out of the darkness, but when I ended up hitting the ceiling, I immediately rubbed my head from the pain. It was hard as a rock. But I could see a visible crack nearby that was showing some light. I immediately ran to it and attacked it, hoping I could escape. "No! Stop! You'll free Chaos!" the female voice pleaded at me. "Listen, whoever you are, I know I'm in a dream and I'm going to wake myself up! So just... sit... back... and... watch... me... oh god... I can't break this... I'm such a wimp..." I groaned, every word I said being followed with a punch until I finally gave up from the pain.

"Do you wish to escape?" I heard the voice ask again. "With every fiber of my body. Please. Tell me what I have to do to get back home!" I said, hoping the voice's owner would show up somewhere. I needed to know if what was happening was actually happening or not.

"You may be in luck... sadly, I believe the seal on the Master Emerald is nearly defeated. Once that happens it will shatter, and we all will be freed... I only ask that, once that may happen, you do your best to stop Chaos if he tries to do anything bad," the voice said once more. I was still convinced that this was all a dream and that I wasn't actually in what I assumed was a world that I didn't belong in.

"What's your name? And where are you?" I asked, hoping that the voice would answer me straight. "My name... it is Tikal. And I'm speaking to you as a spirit. My body failed me when I trapped Chaos in this Emerald, so I only remain as a ball of spirit energy," I heard the voice say.

When she said her name was 'Tikal', I knew I was screwed. But I had to wonder. Was this really all a dream? It felt too real. I got my answer when some bright flash of light came out of literally nowhere and I got blinded from the force of it for a few seconds.

"GAH! MY EYES!" I exclaimed in pain as I suddenly hit something that felt like a stone slab. "What the?! What have you done to the Master Emerald?!" I heard a voice ask from nearby. A gruff voice. "W-Who's there? I... I can't see a damn thing... please help?" I asked as I tried to stand up, only to run into a large amalgamation of water. And once I connected with it, I tripped right through it and onto the ground, falling down a staircase before my eyes finally recovered.

"Ow... Pain..." I groaned as I finally opened my eyes as I heard some grunting noises from the gruff voice. I looked in his direction and knew for a fact that this wasn't home. A being made of water was fighting a red echidna with dreadlocks, spiked quills and fists, and wearing nothing on but some shoes.

And when I placed my hands in front of my face, I knew something had happened to me as well. My arms were furry and I touched my body to make sure my clothes were still there. They were, but I felt my face and saw that it was still as normal as I could get for being a human. But my body and my backside? I felt them and they were both furry, and the thing that confused me the most? I had a tail. A very long one with fur all over and being unusually puffy. It looked almost like a squirrel's tail, but it was on my body. I knew that just this much detail in my surroundings and my body and the two in front of me duking it out were no longer a dream. This was reality. And I was screwed.