When twins Mark and Monica are whisked away into a gamers' dream, could it turn into a nightmare? Can they save the world from total destruction and chaos or will they parish in the fires of heck? What does a Sonic the Hedgehog game have to do with this? Your guess is as good as mine. Read to find out!

Rated T for crude humor, action/adventure, peril and mild blood.

MONICA…

I thought today was weird and couldn't get weirder…and that was BEFORE I got sucked into my brother's game. But enough of that for now. Let's start at the beginning…

My kid brother and I were fooling around in our basement, playing our Wii and thinking nothing could go wrong. Man, we were off by a mile.

So a few days ago Mark, that's my brother, by the way, got a new game that I didn't care about at all. See, I wanted Black Ops for our 13th birthday.

Notice how I said OUR 13th birthday. That's right. We're twins. I'm exacally 56.78 seconds older than him. Anyway, while I wanted my extremely awesomely awesome game, he ended up getting the new Sonic the Hedgehog game.

Yeah, major bummer. But on the bright side I got new Software to animate with on my laptop. I've been trying for ages to animate run cycles with animals.

So that fateful Saturday after our birthday began with Mark getting up at about 5:00 in the morning and running downstairs to play his new game. I stayed in bed trying to sleep to at least five the next morning.

But the sun had different plans by shining in as brightly as possible in my face. I had only slept to about 8:00.

Imagine my annoyance.

So I threw on some short-ish blue jeans and a rather long blue T-shirt. I went downstairs, drank some leftover coffee from my dad's coffee maker that he left before hurrying off to work, and ate toast with a spread of Nutella on it.

It was dang good.

Literally as soon as I finished the coffee and toast I heard Mark shout from the basement, "Gah! Not again!"

I snickered to myself and put the dishes in the sink and went downstairs. "So, did you fail again?" I asked casually.

"Monica! I've been on this one level sense about…about…ten minuets ago!" Mark said, looking exasperated. "It's the longest I've ever been on a level…ever!"

"Wow, that's terrible." I said in mocking tones. "Near the end yet?"

"Yeah, about half an hour left!" Mark stared at the screen.

It's amazing how similar we look alike and yet we hate anything to do with each other. We each have sandy blonde hair, greenish-blue eyes, and eyebrows that arch when we're paying close attention to something. Although in Mark's case, that never happens in school.

But although our facial expressions are the same, we're so different in height it's scary. I'm at least a head taller than my little brother, if I can even say that, being twins and all.

"So after this level come up and help me get rid of the extra coffee stuff." I said.

"Can't you do it? You know I hate the smell of coffee." Mark said, not averting his eyes from the screen.

There was a blast of machine gun fire on screen and Sonic died. The huge GAME OVER sign appeared.

"Ha, you lost. Come on." I headed up the stairs.

"Aaagh, come on, Monica! One more try…" Mark had already hit the retry button and tried again.

I sighed, rolled my eyes, and walked up the stairs. I then proceeded to take care of the coffee maker myself, without any help from the addicted gamer in the basement.

Just as I was putting the grinds in the garbage Mark gave a shout. "Monica! Monica, come here!"

I thought he was in trouble, so of course I ran down. "What?" I demanded.

"Look!" Mark pointed to the screen.

"Oh, you got upgraded another level? Good for you. Whatever. Goodbye." I started for the stairs again but Mark kept insisting. "Look! Our names…they're in the game!"

I stole a quick glance at the screen and read the subtitles. Was this some kind of practical joke?

"Mark, why is that guy…" I started, but quickly left off.

There was a bright glow coming from behind the TV, near the Wii. I quickly looked at it.

"Mark, if this is a joke, it isn't funny!" I protested."I know that's a flashlight, and-"

"It's not a flashlight!" Mark yelled, dropping his controller and backing away from the Wii. "It's for real! Monica…"

"What?" I demanded.

"We're…"

That was all he managed to say before the bright glow had consumed us.

MARK…

I thought today couldn't get any cooler, even after we got teleported to the best place in the entire universe.

Obviously Monica thought otherwise. But once you think about it, why would you WANT to go into a Black Ops game? They'll just be out to kill you.

We went from our boring old basement to a field that seemed to stretch on forever. The grass came up to my ankles, even though I was wearing my shoes that gave me an extra inch of height. The sky seemed blue-er if possible.

I suddenly felt like I stood out majorly, in my brown T-shirt and carpenter jeans.

"Wha…what is this?" Monica nearly shouted, turning in circles to take it all in. "Where are we? Mark… what level were you playing?"

I couldn't respond. I was too busy looking around, watching some birds hovering lazily in the sky.

"MARK!"

"Oh, I don't know. Some level where I just run around to find the Goal." I said. "It was pretty normal, except halfway through I ran into this cloaked guy. He said our names, and something about coming here…"

"Where exacally IS here?" Monica shouted. "I want to go back! What will mom and dad say?"

"Probably something stupid. They're grown-ups, Monica. They don't understand our gaming careers."

Monica looked like she wanted to scream. "Mark, just answer my question: Where are we?"

I looked around again. "Stage five, level two." I said.

"Is it bad?" Monica demanded.

"I don't think so. We're on their planet, Monica!" I felt really happy. "I've always wanted to do something cool…but not ever something as cool as meeting some game characters!"

Monica paled. "You mean…?"

"Yep! Isn't it great?"

"We need to find someone to send us back. Are there any geniuses here. Or is this entire planet as dumb as the games look?" Monica began making plans.

"Whoa, first of all, all the geniuses here are evil." I said. "We definitely don't want any help from them."

"Well, anyone else?"

"We'll just have to see, won't we?" I smiled mysteriously, or as best as I could.

"Mark, we're in the middle of a field. How the heck are we going to find anyone here?" Monica began to get agitated, as far as I could tell.

"Well, at least it's better than being in a battlefield in your Black Ops!" I retorted.

Monica opened her mouth to argue, thought better of it, and said instead, "I never thought of it that way. So we have a bigger chance of surviving here then?"

"As far as I can tell." I said. "Although if this was Guitar Hero we'd be A-Ok."

"Thank God it isn't Super Smash Brothers Brawl." Monica sighed.

"Or Super Mario Galaxy. We'd die." I laughed.

"Or Legend of Zelda."

We laughed for a few minuets until a voice cut through our thoughts.

"Um…can I help you?"

Monica and I whirled around. I broke into a huge smile and Monica screamed.

"What is that…that…that rat thing?" She screamed. "Oh, my Gah! Oh, my Gah! Get it away!"

Miles 'Tails' Prowler looked really rejected. "I'm sorry, I didn't…"

"Monica! Relax!" I said. "He's a good guy."

"I…you….this…Wii….Aaagh!" Monica cried. "I'm sorry. So much has happened in the last fifteen minuets. Sorry...who are you?"

"I'm Tails." Tails said. "Do you need directions? Are you lost?"

"You have no idea." I muttered. "Wow, this is really cool. Meeting you and all. So, how's things here?"

"Well, they've been better." Tails said. "Not all worlds are perfect."

Monica stared at him. "Worlds? You mean…there's more than one here?"

"What?" Tails looked confused. "Um…it's a saying… you know, like every cloud has a silver lining."

"Oh." Monica hung her head. "We're not from around here, as you can tell." She said almost too quietly to hear.

"I figured." Tails said. "Where are you from?"

"We're from Earth." I said.

"I've never heard of it." Tails said almost instantly.

"Oh, we're gonna die." Monica wailed.

"But until we can find out what Earth is and how to get you back, you should come with me."

"Really?" I asked. "So what's your place like?"

"I've got airplanes." Tails said.

"I'm soooo in."

MONICA…

Tails politely informed me along the way to the town that he was not a rat, he was a fox. Now that I thought about it, that made a lot more sense.

But the whole going-into-the-Wii-to-a-made-up-world didn't in the slightest.

The buildings and structures in the city looked strangely like ones on Earth. If I concentrated hard enough, I could almost imagine back home as right here. But as soon as I saw the people it all changed. There was something about them that didn't seem entirely…real. It was animation, but rather good animation. I almost believed they were real people.

Tails lead us to a small building that looked a lot like a library. Once we stepped inside, I realized it WAS a library.

I forgot all that happened in the past half hour or so and allowed myself to get lost in the books.

Mark and Tails talked about whatever nerdy stuff they liked to talk about while I read about their worlds' view on space and planets. It was fascinating.

They believed that all planets had links with others, and if you find a portal to another, you can visit freely. It gave me hope that we may soon return home.

"So…Monica?"

I looked up over the thick book I was thirty pages into.

Tails gave me an odd look. "Do you know much about our world?"

"Only that it's not real and you're Fictional." I said. "And animals and walk and talk but not only that, but can run at supersonic speeds."

"She doesn't believe that she's in your world yet." Mark said quickly. "Give her time. She'll adapt."

I returned to my reading.

About half an hour later when I had completed a book on the animals on the strange planet that was called Mobius, Tails gave me something wrapped in paper.

"What's this?" I asked cautiously.

I looked over at Mark, who had something that looked like ketchup smeared around his mouth. He managed to say around a mouthful of…whatever… "McDonald's."

I expected some greasy crap like on Earth, but this was…good.

I have never tasted such a good hamburger before. It was(Excuse the pun) Out of this world.

"I have to admit, this is good." I said.

"Really?" Tails' eyes seemed to get brighter than they already were. "Do they have this stuff on your planet?"

"We do, but it's worse for you." Mark said.

That was about when the door to the library opened and Mark just about fell out of his chair.

"What are you doing in a library, Tails?"

I turned and saw Mark's bizarre hero, Sonic the Porcupine…thing…whatever.

"Sonic, this is Monica and Mark." Tails said. "I found them in a field..they said they came from a planet called Earth."

"Our game consol glowed a weird glow and then we were in an endless scorching field that went on forever." I said plainly.

"I was playing your game…and then..then I was there!" Mark stuttered. "Man, do you have any idea how to get back to our real world?"

Sonic sort of stood there. "Um…what?"

"If you have any teleportation stations or whatever alien technology you might have to send us back, please give it to us." I said.

"Well, this world is probably a huge difference for you, huh?" Sonic asked. "I've never seen eyes that color."

"What this? It's common from where we come from!" Mark boasted. "What's rare is to find someone with red or purple eyes."

"Really?" Sonic looked interested. "So you only have boring colors?"

"I wouldn't say boring…"

"Can you help us or not? Because if you can't, leave me alone so I can read." I said rather loudly, opening up another thick book and beginning to read about evolution.

"Don't mind my sister. She's just mad we didn't get sent into Black Ops." Mark said. "She's actually kinda nice once you get to know her."

"I'll take your word for it." Sonic said.

"Do whatever you want." I muttered, shutting out their voices completely.

MARK…

I had no idea why Monica was acting like this. You would think anyone would be excited to meet any game character. But she seemed too tense and mean to enjoy anything.

Plus she was ruining my chances to meet everyone else.

It began to get late and Tails offered us a place to spend the night. I excepted immeadentally, but Monica gave me a look that said, 'What the heck are you doing?' only the look didn't say heck.

So I gave her the look that said, 'just come on, we may learn something about getting home'.

Luckily, being twins, we are psychic so we understand each other completely.

Or one of us has the power of persuasion. Hint: it's the awesomer of the two.

So that night we bunked in Tails' living room. Being the nice younger brother, I let Monica have the couch.

"I don't care if they're your heroes." Monica muttered sometime around midnight. "I don't trust them. I don't trust ANYONE here."

"Monica, they're the good guys! If they were evil, then this whole planet would go up in flames." I protested.

"So who do we have to watch out for?" Monica asked. "Who are the 'real' bad guys?"

I quickly explained to her who Dr. Eggman was and his many robots and minions. Monica snickered at his name, but I could tell she was listening. I also told her about as many baddies as I could remember from any game.

"Is that it?" She asked about forty five minuets later.

"I hope so." I said back. "If it isn't, then we're in a lot more trouble than I thought we were in."

Monica didn't speak for a while. Then she asked a question that was both stupid and logical, if you know what I mean…

"In games, you can cheat, right? Is there a way to cheat ourselves out of here?"

I laughed so hard I snorted.

"Mark, seriously, think about it! It makes more sense than supersonic porcupine things, at any rate!"

"Two things, Monica. One; that's the most stupid idea I've ever heard, and two, he's a hedgehog." I said. "And even if we could cheat ourselves out of here something might go wrong."

"So in other words we can give up any hope of going back home." Monica muttered. "We're stuck in this…this…weird world forever."

"Isn't it great? I mean, any planet with a McDonald's that's good for you must be awesome, right?"

"Stop trying to be funny." Monica muttered. "I'm going to sleep now. Don't wake me if you know what's good for you."

MONICA…

The next morning I got up to the smell of pancakes. It was rather unusual, as my dad didn't have any time in the morning to cook big breakfasts like that. Our mom wasn't much better, because she was obsessed with shopping day and night.

I should have taken the hint that our parents cooking for us was too good to be true.

Sure enough, when I opened my eyes I nearly freaked, because the ceiling was a different height, slope and color. I glanced at the kitchen and got an equally scary shock.

Mark was the one cooking.

"Hey, Monica! Tails showed me how to make pancakes!"

I blinked hard. "You…cooking? There MUST be a fire station nearby." I glanced out the window, but all I saw was a nice yard, and a rather large shed that resembled an airplane hanger.

"Don't they smell good?" Mark bent way over the griddle and inhaled everything, practically. "I haven't smelled this smell in forever!"

"I have to agree with you on that one." I admitted. "How many are you making?"

"I dunno, there's gonna be four of us, so I'll make four each." Mark did the math.

"Ok, you, me, your creepy fox friend, and who else?" I said.

"Sonic's coming too." Mark said. "Don't tell anyone, but I put chocolate chips in these."

"It's pretty obvious, looking at those things that are a sorry excuse for pancakes." I said, glancing in the griddle.

There were two light brown ovals in there that had run together, and every now and then there was a splotch of darker brown.

"They look like sunglasses, kinda." Mark said, turning his head sideways and looking at the pancakes.

"Uh, yeah. Get those off the pan. They're burning." I walked away.

I went onto the back porch and looked over the lawn. It was so perfect it didn't seem real.

I had to remind myself it WASN'T real. Nothing here was real. So why did it seem so real?

"I mowed the lawn yesterday."

I jumped and nearly fell out of the lawn chair at the voice behind me. I spun around to see Sonic standing behind me, looking over the lawn proudly.

"Oh, they have lawn mowers here too?" I asked.

Why did I sound so surprised? Of course they had lawn mowers here! Duuuuuh….

"Well, yeah. But we've got one of those that practically pushes itself, and all you have to do is walk behind it and turn it around every now and then." Sonic said. "But mowing really lets you relax now and then, right?"

I thought back to all the times I had to mow the lawn in 100 degree weather and nearly passed out. "It depends on how hot it is the day you mow." I said stiffly.

"If you've been bashing up robots all day you'll call this a break too." Sonic said, yawning. "So what's for breakfast?"

"You won't like it. Mark's cooking." I said.

"You'd be surprised…"

We went into the house to find the table laden with run-together chocolate chip pancakes, orange juice, syrup, butter, milk and plates.

"Ok, guys! It's ready!" Mark said proudly. "I hope you like it."

I decided to be polite and take my four, even though I planned to never finish them. We loaded up on syrup and butter and began to eat.

Poor, unfortunate Tails took the first bite. His eyes got wide.

"Do you like them?" Mark asked hopefully.

"Like them? I LOVE them!" Tails nearly shouted. "I must be a better teacher than I thought I was!"

Sonic took the next bite and then practically shoved the entire pancake into his mouth.

"You like them too?" Mark looked ecstatic. "Wow!"

It must be pretty exciting for your heroes to enjoy something you cooked up. I thought if they liked them, then I might.

I carefully put a forkful in my mouth and chewed it.

Holy. Freaken'. Crap.

It was the best pancake I've ever tasted, hands down.

"Mark, I never knew you had a talent for cooking." I managed to say between bites.

"I didn't either!" Mark said, drowning his pancakes in syrup. "It's weird, I think we have the same brand of syrup on Earth."

I grabbed the bottle from him and read it over. "It's a store brand, Mark. But it does look similar."

"So what's your world like?" Tails asked.

"It does look sort of like this one, only eye colors are usually different, and it's more…realistic, I guess is how you'd say it." I said.

"And what did you mean by 'I was playing your game'…?" Sonic asked. "What game?"

"Don't you know? You guys are some of the best video games ever!" Mark said. "We have a Wii, so that's how we're here in the first place."

Tails and Sonic looked completely and utterly confused.

"What's a Wii?" Tails asked.

"It's a game consol. We can play games on it." I said.

"I'm famous on your world too?" Sonic asked. "Wow, how did that happen?"

"No clue." Mark shrugged. "But you guys rock."

"You're not the best games ever, exacally." I said. "The best games were voted on, and Legend of Zelda overthrew you and Halo. Thank God."

"So we're like, second best?" Tails asked.

"Pretty much. Don't let it get to you, though. I'm always second best. She's older than be by about 56 seconds." Mark said apologetically.

"56.78 seconds, to be exact." I said in flat tones.

"So who else is here?" Mark asked. "I want to meet everyone."

"Wait, if these game things you speak of tell of our adventures, tell us something that we would know but no one else would." Sonic said.

"Pfft. Easy." Mark said. "You can't swim, you like coneys, and you really wish Amy would leave you alone."

"Ok, we'll leave it at that." Tails said. "If this game thing tells you all this, does it tell you about other things, like how to break into secret bases?"

"What secret bases? There aren't any bad people here, are there?" I asked.

"You got the occasional nutcase." Mark said. "But as far as I know, it never said an exact location for anything like that."

"Ok." Tails said. "So even in games locations are secret…" he thought as hard as his little fox brain could for a while.

"So how are we going to get back? Have you thought of anything?" I asked.

"Not yet. But the answer should come soon."

"What if we have to win the game?" Mark said. "What if when we win the game, we go back?"

"That's the stupidest idea I've ever heard of." I laughed.

"It's not any worse than your cheat ideas." Mark retorted.

"So in the meantime, want to meet everyone else?" Sonic asked.

Mark's eyes bugged. "Really?"

MARK…

This was by far the awesome-est day of my entire 13 years and counting. Not only did I get teleported to an awesome world by my Wii and meet some of my favorite game characters ever, I get to meet them all!

The only thing that sort of ruined it was the fact that Monica was coming too.

"Do we get to meet any actual people?" She asked. "Or are these more talking animals?"

"Is she always like this?" Sonic asked me after Monica made a terrible crack at Tails.

(Tails wasn't with us. He stayed behind to work on an airplane)

"If she doesn't like it, then she can get mean." I said. "But sometimes she can warm up. You just have to wait. Only time can tell."

We went to the field we had appeared in the other day. It wasn't as hot as it was yesterday, but the sun was still warm. It reminded me of back home.

But why did Monica want to go back in the first place? All mom and dad did was argue and pay us no attention. The only reason I was still alive was because of cereal and toast.

But here, on Mobius, this was paradise. No parents, just great awesome people.

"If we're lucky, we can find someone here. Either it'll be Knuckles digging for treasure with a metal detector or Amy prancing around picking flowers." Sonic said. "But if it's Amy we leave immeadentally."

"Ok." I said. "I don't really like her either."

We went a bit further into the field until we found a small clearing clear of grass.

Near the edge of the clearing thing was a small brown bunny.

"Hey, Cream?" Sonic asked.

Cream turned around. "Hi, Sonic!" She squeaked. "Who are these guys?"

"This is Mark and Monica. They came from another world yesterday." Sonic said.

"Wow, really?" Cream barely reached my hips. She was even cuter than in the games.

"You're Mark?" She asked me; her brown eyes wide.

"Yeah. Hi, Cream." I said. "Is Cheese with you?"

Cream shook her head. "He's taking a nap."

Monica snickered behind me. "Cream cheese?" She giggled.

Cream went around to Monica. "You have pretty eyes."

Monica sort of stood there. "Uh…thank you." She managed to say. Her face broke into a smile. "You have cute ears."

Cream blushed and looked away. "Do you want to be friends?"

Monica looked at me like she didn't know what to do.

I nodded at her and she turned to Cream again. "Sure."

Cream jumped up and down. "Do you like flowers? I like pretty purple ones!"

"Yeah, I do too!" Monica smiled. The two of them ran to the corner of the field to look at some flowers.

"That was unexpected." I said, looking surprised.

"Tell me about it. But if anyone was going to get to her it'd be Cream." Sonic said. "She has her way of breaking even the stoniest heart."

Monica and Cream came back about ten minuets later with a bundle of flowers.

"The flowers here have some healing powers." Monica told me. "These will help colds if you grind them up in tea."

"It's good too." Cream squeaked. "It's kind of like mint."

"Monica, we're going to meet everyone else. Come on!" I called, walking out of the field after Sonic.

"Can I come too?" Cream asked.

"Sure." I hear Monica say.

This is good. I thought. If she makes a friend or two then she won't be so eager to go back home.

We walked out of the field and into the town.

"So where to next?" I asked.

"Who do you want to meet next?" Sonic asked.

"I don't know. Surprise me."

We wove our way through the crowd until we came to a small side road thing that lead back into some woods.

After about five minuets we came to a ocean, practically. There was a small boat tied to a tree.

"Everyone in." Sonic said. Monica and Cream entered first. I got in behind them and Sonic grabbed an oar. We rowed for about three minuets before we reached an island.

"I think I know what this is." I said, smiling.

We exited the boat and headed to a small house thing. Sonic knocked on the door.

"What do you want? I'm busy! Go annoy someone else!"

"It's me, Knuckles." Sonic said.

"Oh, you." Knuckles grumbled. "In that case, I'm not home."

"Come on, man, open the door. I've got someone here that wants to meet you."

The door opened so suddenly it seemed like it was going to be ripped off its hinges. "What are you…Who's this?" Knuckles changed topics very fast.

"I'm Mark." I said. "We sort of came from another world."

"Really." Knuckles said. "Well, I know no way of getting back. Go away."

He began to shut the door but Sonic stuck his foot in the way. "Come on, they just want to meet you!"

"They just did!"

Cream glanced at me. "Um, Mark, can I talk to him, please?"

Cream walked up to the door and peeked around it. "I brought you some flowers." She said sweetly.

After a second's hesitation Knuckles opened the door again. "I can never resist the cute look…"

"So is this where you keep the Master Emerald? On this island?" I asked.

Knuckles gave me a weird look. "How do you know about that when you're from another world?" He glared at Sonic like he had told me.

"You won't believe me if I told you." Sonic said.

"…Nice house." Monica said after an awkward pause.

"I built it." Knuckles said. "You're…?"

"I'm Monica." Monica said. "That's Mark."

"Ok, well if you're done wasting my time you may leave. The boat's in that direction somewhere." Knuckles pointed and then slammed the door.

"I guess we caught him at a bad time." Sonic muttered. "Sorry. Anyway, let's head back."

MONICA…

If there was one person in this entire crazy world I could make friends with, it was Cream. She was great, making me feel excepted and more secure about everyone here.

She told me about the best bakery in town and how cool water skiing was.

"So who's Cheese?" I asked on our way back to the main city.

"He's my Chao." Cream said. "And he was my only friend until I met you."

"What's a Chao?" I asked.

"I'll show you later. They like everyone." Cream said. "Even if everyone doesn't like them back."

We reached the city and exited the boat.

"So where to next?" Mark asked, excited.

"How about we get all the grumpy people out of the way before we go on to the delightful ones." Sonic said. "Unless you've had enough grumpy for a day."

"I don't like grumpy." Cream squeaked.

"Me too." Mark glared at me.

I glared right back.

"Ok, then. Let's pay Blaze a visit."

Mark got really excited. "Monica! You'll like her. She's a cat!"

I had always wanted a cat when I was younger, but my parents had refused to get me one, even though I had proved myself 'worthy' millions of times.

"Blaze is nice." Cream said. "She can be shy though. And she can throw fire balls."

I gave Mark a weird look. "What does she mean by that?" I asked.

"She means what she said." Mark said. "That's why her name is Blaze."

I like cats, but not fire throwing cats, you see.

We wondered through the streets until we came to a rather large hill.

"Now that is a sledding hill." Mark commented loudly.

"It was a volcano. Now it's dormant." Sonic explained. "Blaze lives in a little house up near the top."

We trekked up a small path thing for a while until we came to a small house that was surrounded by trees.

"She doesn't get many visitors unless it's me, Silver or Knuckles. Occasionally Shadow comes up here, but usually it's to blow something up at the top." Sonic said, going over to the house's door.

He knocked and ten seconds later the door was opened by Blaze.

To put it mildly, cats on this planet were downright cool. Blaze had style.

"Can I help you?" She asked.

"Hi, Blaze. These guys wanted to meet you." Cream said.

Blaze looked at me and Mark. "Why?"

"We came from another world and I think you guys rule." Mark blurted. "And Sonic's letting us meet everyone."

"Really." Blaze said, looking as though this was completely normal.

"Blaze, this is Monica. She's my new friend!" Cream said happily.

I waved at Blaze, but she didn't wave back. She gave me a steely look and nodded.

"You have a nice house." Mark said, turning in circles.

Blaze nodded at him just as she had done with me. She glanced at Sonic. "Is there any hope of them getting home?"

"You don't like us, do you?" I accused. "You want us to go back, don't you?"

"If that's what you desire." Blaze said. Her expression hadn't changed. "Do you have any leads on getting back?"

Thunder rang out in the distance. I just realized it began to get dark.

Blaze looked out beyond the trees. "You should come inside."

MARK…

Blaze's house was full of cool little trinkets. There were shelves after shelves of figurines of dragons and mythical creatures. There was a fire in the fireplace, and above the fireplace there was a mantle with a single candle on it. The candle seemed to be burning with a green flame.

"So you don't know how to get back?" Blaze caught me looking at the green flame.

She was almost as tall as me, but nevertheless was as intimidating as a ten-foot tall giant.

"No. We have some theories, but they're crazy." I said. "At first Monica looked like she was going to kill for her way out."

Blaze nodded and glanced at the green flame. "She has a good heart, but it's protected by stone and misguided."

I thought that was the weirdest thing anyone has ever said about my sister. "So what about me?" I asked.

Blaze seemed to be staring into my soul. "You have to find courage in the future, Mark. Some things you can't do by yourself."

She left the main room on that creepy note.

By now the rain was down pouring outside in an all out flood, practically.

"Does it always rain like this here?" Monica asked from the other room.

"Only sometimes." Cream said.

I left the room with the green flame and joined everyone in the other room, where they were all gathered around another fireplace.

"Blaze, can I talk to you?" Sonic asked.

Blaze nodded.

"It's kind of not meant for them." Sonic added.

The two of them headed into the other room. "Um, talk amongst yourselves until we get back." Sonic said.

"What are they talking about?" Monica asked.

"I'll find out." I said.

"Wait." Cream said softly. "This really may be important. If you listen in on this and accidentally tell the wrong person what you heard, then who knows what could happen."

I stood near the closed door to the other room, but I couldn't understand what they were saying. I could hear Blaze talking about something in quick, rushed tones.

"But what if this is important…like if the more people know, the more we can figure out together?" I protested.

"I think we should wait." Cream said. "And besides, if Blaze catches you eavesdropping she can get pretty mad."

I backed away from the door and sunk into the couch beside Monica. "Maybe you're right."

There was a small tapping sound.

"What was that?" Monica asked.

"Be quiet…" I whispered.

We waited about ten seconds before another tapping sound came, this time a bit louder.

"Is there someone at the door?" Monica asked.

I crept towards the door that lead outside. Outside, lightning flashed. It was a classic murderer-at-the-door scene. I grabbed a thick snow globe from one of Blaze's shelves as I made my way to the door.

Monica and Cream followed me, with Cream hiding behind Monica's legs. Her eyes were wide and scared. "What if it's a robot?" She squeaked.

"Then I'll throw this." I said, gripping the door handle and lifting the snow globe over my head.

I flung the door open and someone attacked me.

"AAAGH!" I screamed. I tried to throw the globe, but it slipped out of my hand. My attacker yelled and shoved me aside and scrambled up from the floor, sopping wet from the rain and looking terrified. "Where's Blaze? Who are you? Why are you here? Why…Oh…Hi, Cream."

Cream went from looking terrified to looking happy. "Hi, Silver. What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was coming to ask Blaze something, but halfway up the stupid hill I tripped and twisted my ankle. Then it rained a lot, I knocked on the door, leaned against it, and then it flung open and I fell onto this deranged psychopath." Silver inched away from me.

"So…you fell on me, you didn't attack me." I said.

"Yeah…"

"Wow, sorry, hey…oh no. Blaze's snow globe! It fell!" I freaked out.

"But it didn't break." Monica held up the globe, which was perfectly intact. "How the heck did that happen?"

"I'm psychic." Silver said proudly. "No, really, I am."

The snow globe lifted itself out of Monica's hands and landed back on the shelf it belonged on. "See?"

"Wow! Can you heal your ankle, then?" I asked.

"Last time I tried that I got distracted and it broke." Silver muttered. "But most of that was Sonic's fault. He was trying to catch a butterfly that had landed on my head."

Monica nodded slowly. "Oookaaaayyy…"

"So is Blaze here?" Silver asked.

Right on cue Blaze and Sonic came running from the other room. "What happened?" Blaze demanded. "I heard a yell."

Monica quickly accused me of attacking innocent bystanders.

Blaze gave me a murderous look that seemed to burn with fire. "Do not ever touch my stuff, you hear?"

"Yeah…" I said, backing up from her.

Blaze turned to go into the other room.

"Wait, Blaze, can I get a towel?" Silver asked.

MONICA…

A bit later all six of us were gathered in Blaze's living room.

"Blaze I have to ask you something." Silver said. "When's the next date?"

Mark burst out laughing. "I knew you two were dating!"

Blaze's eyes pretty much shot flames. "We. Are. Not. Dating." She hissed dangerously.

"Not that kind of date." Silver said. "It's…more of a 'when will something bad happen next' thing."

"So dating's bad?" Mark apparently spoke his thoughts.

Blaze was steaming with anger…literally. I quickly backed away from her with Cream. "Mark! Shut up!" I hissed.

"Well…something happened a few months ago." Sonic said. "And…a lot of people died."

"That doesn't sound good." I said. "What happened?"

"We're not suppost to talk about it." Silver said. "It was kind of classified in the first place. We already told you too much."

There was a rather long silence where the thunder continued to rumble outside.

"How many people died…can you tell us that?" I asked.

I hope that Mark would be able to use as many small facts as possible to come up with the big picture on what happened here. Sense he was a Sonic fan and played every game in existence, maybe he had a clue what had just happened.

"Honestly, they're still counting the dead." Silver whispered. "So few survived…"

"Where in your world did this take place?" I probed.

"Actually, it-"

"Shut up, Silver!" Blaze hissed. "I think they're secret spies."

"Spies?" I laughed. "For who?"

"They're not spies!" Cream protested. "They're my friends!"

Blaze just stared at us. "Fine. But I'll be watching you."

Mark shuddered next to me.

"The storm's stopped." Sonic said, glancing out the window. "Maybe we should leave."

"Maybe we should." Mark said, getting up rather quickly. "Sorry for using your snow globe as protection, Blaze."

Blaze hissed at him. After that he left rather fast.

"Yeah, sorry about him. He has a tendency to… attack and ask questions later." I said.

"I noticed." Silver said. "Well, I hope you can get back to your world."

"Me too." I sighed.

MARK…

We ended spending more time at Blaze's place than we thought. By the time we got back to town after dropping Cream off at her house it was about 3:00 PM. We ended up stopping at the McDonald's place again to eat dinner/lunch.

"Blaze's been sort of quiet recently." Sonic said. "She won't talk to hardly anyone besides Silver and me. I think it's just the shock of the….never mind."

"You keep bring this up, and then you don't tell us anything!" I protested. "We can't help you get Blaze out of her depression and help you guys if we don't know what's been going on!"

"It's complicated." Sonic said. "We sort of swore on our lives to never tell anyone."

"It doesn't involve any of you guys, does it?" I asked. "No one died, right?"

Sonic glanced around. "Uh…well…"

"So someone died."

"Well…yeah, but-"

"Who was it?" Both Monica and I asked the same question at the same time.

"Aaagh, I can't tell you!" Sonic nearly yelled.

Monica and I exchanged looks.

"Come on, it's getting late. We might as well head back. Maybe Tails found a way to teleport you back to your world." Sonic said. "Knowing him, he probably did."

MONICA…

It was about 9:00 PM. Mark, Tails and Sonic were in the airplane hanger, gawking over the planes and the mileage it gets or something. Tails hadn't figured a way for us to go back yet, and he had said in the meantime to enjoy ourselves on their planet. I told them I needed some space and started wondering their lawn.

It was the biggest freaken property I've ever been on. How the heck does Sonic manage to mow all this in one day?

Oh. That was a stupid question…

A twig or something snapped off to my right. I turned to see some trees at the beginning of a forest. I had wondered pretty far.

"Anyone there?" I asked.

Only crickets and frogs answered me. the sound reminded me of home.

Home.

I guess having a friend really made me forget what I was searching for in the first place. It can be good and bad at the same time, if you know what I mean.

I headed towards the forest. "Anyone there?"

I must have walked at least a mile with only the light from the moon guiding me. The trees were very close together, and more than once I thought I lost my way. But I broke branches to remind myself where I had come from so I could find my way back.

"Is anyone there?" I called, although I knew no one would answer, unless there were talking wolves too.

That thought didn't completely seem out of the question.

I was about to head back when I heard a stick snap up ahead. It sounded like a big stick too. I wonder…

I forged on, every now and then calling to see if anyone was there. I had the creepy feeling I was being watched.

Then I came to a small clearing free of trees.

"Is anyone here?" I called.

There was a small light suspended from one of the trees. "Hello?" I called again. "Small, little light? I can see you."

The light moved and came towards me. Then I realized that there was something attached to the light.

Don't know what it was? Try robot that's about 35 feet tall.

"Oh…my…Gah…" I muttered, backing up. "Go away, huge, creepy robot! Leave me alone!"

"Oh, you're not the one I was hoping to find." The robot spoke.

"…What?" I asked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean that you're not the one I'm looking for." The robot said again.

There was a slight hissing sound and someone came out of the robots head. The robot reached up and the person got into its hand and lowered them to the ground.

"Who're you?" I asked suspiciously, the list of baddies recited by Mark going through my mind.

"I…" The guy paused for effect. "…am Dr. Eggman, super genius!"

I was 67% sure this guy was on the list. Unfortunately, I didn't know how evil this guy really was, so I played dumb.

"Never heard of you." I said.

"Curses!" Eggman yelled. "Well, soon enough that will change."

"How?" I asked casually.

Eggman stuck his moustache adorned nose in my face. "When I rule the world."

"Like in a bad way?" I asked.

"It depends on what your definition of bad is."

"Ok, look, I just want to go back home. Well, my home isn't really here..in fact, it isn't really anywhere on this planet, and-" I stuttered.

"You're not from this planet?" Eggman asked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean my brother and I got teleported into a game." I said. "Can you get us back?" I asked without even thinking. I gotta keep in mind here that this is a "super genius".

"Of course I can get you back! But I would need one thing from you." Eggman said.

"What's that?" I asked.

"I need you to capture Sonic." Eggman said evilly. It was a little too evilly for my tastes.

"Why would I do that?" I asked. "You know what? I can find some other guy to teleport me back and-"

"NO!" Eggman yelled. "I mean, no, there's no one that can! Only I have the necessary equipment for teleporting between worlds!"

"But why do you need Sonic?" I asked.

"So he can power it. He can run fast enough to power the teleportation machine so you can go back."

"But why do I need to capture him?" I asked.

Eggman hesitated. "You need to so he can get some pent-up energy. He'll be extra hyper so you can get a better turnout."

It sort of made sense.

"But how do I know I can trust you?"

"I offer you a way home. I'm true to my word."

I thought about it for about ten seconds. "I'm pretty sure that you were on my brother's list of 'Psychopathic Maniacs'."

"You want to know what they were talking about, with the millions dead?" Eggman asked mysteriously.

"Well, yeah, if I can help in any way-"

"Get me Sonic and I'll tell you."

"Can't you just give me a hint?" I asked.

Eggman sneered at me. "You obviously haven't met everyone yet."

With that, he climbed up into the robot's hand and back into its head. "I'll be waiting here for when you get him. Don't stall."

"Ok, then…" I muttered. Going home and having answers were all I cared about, after all.

MARK…

"You built this?" I marveled at the airplane hanging in the airplane hanger in Tails' front lawn.

"Yeah. Everything." Tails said proudly. "Took a while, but it's finished."

"But it still can't go as fast as me." Sonic said.

"But still…wow…" I walked around the plane about fifteen times, trying to take it all in. "The Tornado…"

"Yep." Tails said. "It's helped in a lot of crazy missions involving the fate of the universe."

"So…if you save your world…is that connected with Earth in some way?" I asked. "I mean, when you say you saved the universe…?"

"I don't know. It possibly could have an effect, but I'm not sure." Tails began to day dream. "But what if…?"

"What if what?" I asked.

"Don't disturb him. If he gets distracted he can't think." Sonic said.

We waited a bit while Tails ran off and returned with some paper and a pencil. He began scribbling furiously and muttering to himself.

"Dang, this must be important." Sonic remarked about five minuets later.

"Shouldn't Monica be back now?" I asked. "I mean, how long can a walk take?"

"Don't ask me, I don't walk anywhere." Sonic shrugged. "I'll go find her. You make sure Tails doesn't use up all the lead in that pencil."

So I got stuck watching the brainiac fox scribble notes on paper while Sonic went to find my sister.

Although it was rather cool sitting in the presence of an actual smart person it began to get old…fast.

"Mark?"

I spun around to find Monica at the hanger's entrance, her blue-green eyes wide. "Mark, I've got to tell you something. This is important."

"What?" I asked.

"Go through the list of baddies again."

"Ok, well, there's demons of sorts, it depends on where you are. There are giant mutant flowers, giant mutant bees, robots. The robots are built by Dr. Eggman, and-"

"Stop right there." Monica said. "How bad is this guy?"

"Um…on the Evil Scale, about a seven out of ten." I said. "Why? Don't tell me…"

"I was walking through the woods, Mark." Monica said. "Then I found a robot. He came and told me that he can take us home. Home, Mark! But in order to do that I needed to bring him Sonic."

"Typical. What did you say?"

"Well, I was kinda vague, but I think I said yes…but I'm not sure." Monica's eyes seemed to get wider. "He also said that we obviously haven't met everyone yet and he knew what everyone was talking about…you know, the next 'date', and the millions dead."

I glanced at Tails, who was still scribbling like mad. I got a sinking feeling in my stomach.

"Sonic just went out there looking for you." I gasped.

"Oh my gah… If he finds my trail into the woods he'll get captured!" Monica said. "Come on!"

The two of us ran out onto the lawn, screaming at the top of our lungs.

"Sonic! Come back!" Monica screamed. "Don't go into the woods! It's a trap!"

Why did this seem like some sort of terrible murder movie?

The word murder upset my stomach. I ran faster, towards the woods and towards where Monica had entered.

"I entered in that clear-ish spot over there, Mark, I bet you anything he went in there too!" Monica yelled.

All light seemed to be swallowed up by the trees as we entered the forest. It was eerily quiet, with only the sound of our heavy breathing and footfalls as we ran.

"Over here." Monica said, pulling me in the right direction.

There was a strange noise up ahead.

"I know that sound anywhere." I muttered. "That's a robot. Come on! We have to go faster!"

We ran like mad, even though my legs were cramping up and my left ankle was killing me.

Suddenly there were bright flashes of light ahead.

"No!" Monica screamed, tearing into a small clearing that held no trees but had an at least thirty two foot tall robot.

"Oh, yes, thank you, Monica." I knew that voice, but I had always laughed at it. Now it chilled me to the bone.

"I suspect you want to go home now." Eggman continued.

"Where's Sonic?" Monica screamed, looking terrified and yet determined to set things right.

The robot unclenched one of its metal fists.

I had to take a step backwards. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Sonic lay motionless in the robot's palm, looking for all the world dead or dying.

"Let him go!" I shouted. "Or I'll….I'll…"

"You'll what? Throw twigs? Intimidating, but not good enough."

With that, the robot turned and blasted up into the sky. "See you…not!"

"What do we do?" Monica asked as the robot disappeared from sight.

"We get Tails." I said. "He'll know what to do."

MONICA…

I have never felt so guilty.

Not only had Mark lost his all time favorite video game character, but that character may be out of the games for good unless we did something, and fast.

Why did I prize going home over a life?

Why did I betray my friend?

Why did I even get teleported here? I should have run as soon as I saw the Wii glowing.

But yet, here I am, in the backseat of a biplane that was designed for two people about Tails' height, not two humans and one fox.

"He went south!" Mark shouted over the roar of the wind. "Then I lost sight of him!"

Tails turned the biplane and we headed south.

"Do you have any ideas where they could have gone?" I shouted.

"I have one, but just hope I'm wrong!" Tails shouted back.

We flew at a rather low altitude, if you ask me. Then we made a bumpy landing on someone's driveway.

"Is that even legal?" Mark asked, getting out of the plane.

"Let's hope so." Tails said. "Follow me."

We ran a short distance to what looked like an old abandoned factory in the moonlight.

"What's this?" I asked.

"It's hopefully Eggman's base." Tails said.

After Mark got the door open we went into the building. There was no light at all.

"Hang on a second…" Tails said, and then light filled the entire space we were in. Light switches are handy.

"Wow…I wonder what was being made in here before it got abandoned…" Mark began to wonder the room. "What was this big vat full of?"

I looked up near the end of the room. There was a small balcony that looked like it lead further back. "What's up there?" I asked.

"I don't know. Should we check it out?" Mark looked excited.

"We should." Tails said. "Come on."

We made our way back there. Then the real probablem struck.

"Where's the stairs?" Mark asked, looking on either side of the balcony. "There's no stairs! That's dumb…"

Then I found out that not only could Tails walk, talk and build things, but he could fly.

"Ok, now this is really weird." I muttered as he flew up to the balcony and threw a rope over the side.

"Come on!"

Mark shimmied up the rope as if he was born to climb. I had some trouble starting, but I managed to get up.

"There's another door." Mark pointed. "Come on."

I put my hand on the cold metal doorknob. "Who knows what's behind this door." I muttered. "Why didn't we bring weapons?"

Mark slapped himself on the forehead. "Well, duh! I thought your days of playing war games paid off, but boy, I was wrong!"

"Relax. There's pipes over here." Tails handed Mark and I some pipes. "These could come in handy."

I nodded and gripped the doorknob tighter. I slowly opened the door.

It was dark. Even the light that came from the main factory room couldn't break the darkness ahead.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Mark muttered. "Long, dark hallways aren't my specialty."

"Because we all know it's short, brightly lit closets." I said flatly.

"Very funny, Monica." Mark growled.

"So what do we do for light?" I asked.

There was a bang behind me and I turned to see Tails pick up a rusty steel lantern thing with a half melted candle in it. "Ok, there's this. Anyone got any matches?"

We improvised with a piece of wood and something scratchy. It worked, at least.

We had a lantern.

We had pipe clubs.

We had each other.

We were SO NOT prepared.

But we went ahead down the dark hallway anyway.

The candle was small, so we didn't have much light. But any light was a blessing in the pitch blackness ahead of us. We followed the walls, but it never branched off into more corridors or hallways. It was decently straight for the most part.

Then we met the hall's end.

"It's a steel door that's locked from the outside." Mark confirmed after taking a three second look at the door. "We have nothing to break it with."

"Well, then. We're stuck." I muttered, marching up to the door. Something shifted under my feet. "We might as well head back, and-"

"Monica!" Tails said. "Look down!"

I did. There was a wooden door under my feet. I mean, a literal door. Like the ones that normally hang on hinges that are vertical.

"Well, isn't that the weirdest thing I've ever seen." I muttered.

"I think that's our way in." Mark said. "I'll go first, Monica."

No way was I arguing.

So Mark pulled the doorknob and the door opened outwards onto some stairs.

"Here we go…" Mark entered.

MARK…

The stairs went straight down and lead to another door. This time, pale blue light flowed around the sides of the door. At least there was light.

But the light also meant that someone was in there.

"Everyone's got pipe clubs, right?" I asked.

Monica held hers up awkwardly. "I have it, but I don't know how to use it."

"Me neither." Tails had a pipe in one hand and a lantern in the other.

"That makes three of us, then." I sighed. "Well, here goes nothing…"

I pretty much broke the door down in my haste to get it open.

We were blinded momentarily by the…

Moonlight?

"What? I thought we were in a factory!" Monica said. "How did we get around the entire thing?"

"Well, either the steel door was the only way in, or this was all a waste of time." I sighed, tossing my pipe to the ground. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know." Tails' eyes were wide. "I don't know!"

"Mark, you gotta know something! A secret base! Anything!" Monica yelled at me. "You're a game freak! Where do the bad guys have their hideouts?"

"I don't know! If we could happen to get into Eggman's base, then I would know where to go from there on out! But I have no idea where the base actually IS!" I nearly yelled. "We need someone who knows where it is!"

"But who?"

I searched the gaming portion of my brain at least ten times. "I can't think of anyone!"

"There's got to be someone!"

"Well, there isn't! And thanks for getting us into this mess in the first place, Monica!" I shouted. "If it wasn't for you we'd be back at the airplane hanger watching Tails work like a madman!"

Monica opened her mouth to shout something, but nothing came out. She shut her mouth and glared at me. "You mean if it wasn't for your stupid game none of this would have happened!"

"If you weren't my twin-"

"But I am, so live with it!"

"Stop!" Tails yelled over our yelling.

Monica and I stared at him. "What?" Monica hissed.

"We'll get nowhere like this." Tails said. "I think the best thing we can do is head back to the house, try to get some sleep, and head out in the morning."

"And maybe get some help from friends." I added.

Tails nodded. "And that too."