Series 2 - The Three Tests
Episode 11
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There are two or more sides to every story.
Every story has different viewpoints, completely different opinions and amazingly different emotions connected to whatever perspective you choose to take. Sometimes you'll never know what happened in a story properly until you take a different perspective. I bring to your attention two completely different individuals, Sonic Maurice Hedgehog and Ashura Incubushi Yujiheshi. Both have different ways of thinking, different ways of acting, different methods of acheiving their different goals. But when their perspectives ultimately collide, neither will come out knowing the entire story. Luckily there is a method of looking into the minds of both of these individuals, and I present you this method now.. just you see if you don't need to look at another perspective to get the whole story....
SERIES TWO CHRONOLOGY:
1. The New Girl
2. Dragon the Chain
3. Never Say Nemesis
4. When a Hedgehog Meets a Fox
5. Just Your Imagination
6. Shred
7. The Death Machine
8. Metal Made Flesh
9. Power Corrupts
10. Halfway Across the Galaxy
11. Two For One
12. Prologue to an Adventure
13. Adventure
From the pen of Sonic the Hedgehog,
Dear diary,
I'm documenting the events of the past few days as best as I can remember. The entire affair I believe began on the 15th November 1999, when Ashura came back once again.
New Knothole was being constructed near Station Square. Man, that city is so cool! I must have spent so much time there that everybody has gotten to know me.. they greet me on the street! It has a place called Speed Highway.. it reminds me a lot about Stardust Speedway! But I'm not here to reminisce about Little Planet or SS I suppose, so I'll get back on track. I was hanging around this cave I found, after a hard day's work on building the new village, and I could see a bonfire inside. Being the curious hedgehog I am, I went inside.
"Anybody here?" I asked. Nobody replied. Spotting a can of baked beans sitting on a rock, I picked it up to have a look. Not that I wanted to eat it or anything, I hate beans, but I just wanted to find some indication about who owned it. I had barely touched it when somebody yelled "DROP IT!". Looking around, I saw a very familiar face I would like to forget.
Last year, he had infiltrated Knothole for the first time.. I think it was around the time Robuttnik was working on Cyber Sonic. He turned out to be evil, and very nearly wiped us all out, trying to suck our 'youth' and 'power' out with his joker's staff. Then, earlier this year, he struck again, teamed up with my evil clone twin Cinos. He and Cinos used the Negatron to one-by-one replace every Knothole villager with an evil copy. Once again, I was quite nearly killed. He was Ashura the supposed shaman. He's just as bad if not worse than Mecha Sonic, and if he owned his own city he would even surpass Robotnik. But he doesn't luckily.. he's some kind of hermit, and God only knows what the heck he was doing in that cave. Maybe I will never know.
He obviously recognised me immediately, because he yelled out my name. "Ashura!" I said, in disbelief. Ashura pointed his staff-thing at me, and the orb on top began to glow. "I'll kill you ONCE AND FOR ALL you little RAT!" he yelled. Something shot out of the staff, and I didn't have time to dodge, so I did the only thing I could, and held up the can. Yeah, I know it was stupid, but it was the only thing I could do in the spur of the moment.. and it worked, too. There was an explosion as the beam hit the can and rebounded, and both of us were thrown back and knocked unconcious. Although we were both knocked out, there was one main difference between us:
I woke up again.
As for Ashura, when I came to, he was lying dead. I swear it.. I checked his body functions. The old codger finally did himself in, after years of being such an evil and energetic villain. Though he was one of my mortal enemies, I brought his body back to New Knothole for a decent burial.
"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust." Sally said. She stood for a few minutes, trying to think of anything good she could possibly say about the old shaman. "He... was young in his mind." she said, finally. "He was never willing to say die, and never wanted to grow old. Though he dedicated his life to black magic, he will be... uh... remembered." "You can bet on THAT." I said. I put Ashura's scepter across the grave, and walked away.
And that was that. The rest of the day was spent working on New Knothole again, and nobody said anything else about Ashura.. but that was only the beginning.
When I woke up the next morning, everybody was already out of bed. I walked to the door of my hut and looked outside. There was a crowd standing around something. I walked out, and tried to see what they were staring at. "Hey, what's up?" I asked. Sally turned around to face me. "Oh.. Sonic.." she said. "A villager.. he was murdered last night. Look.."
I'm sure she could see the blood run away from my face. I pushed through the crowd to get a look. Murdered? Who could do such a thing? A million thoughts a second were going through my mind. Then I saw him. I thought for a horrible second that it was Tails.. I would quite nearly die MYSELF if my little buddy Tails was killed right in my village... but it wasn't. It was an orange fox, but an older one. With ONE tail. He just lay there.. lifeless. No pulse.
I turned back to Sally. "How do you know it was murder?" I asked her. "Well.. let's see.." she thought for a second. "Well, there's a huge lump on his head where something hit him like a truck, and there are marks on the ground where his body was dragged here from the bushes, and not to mention the three or four witnesses who heard screaming last night and saw suspicious characters roaming around."
I looked back at the body. What kind of sick, twisted person would MURDER a villager? I decided that nobody in the village was that horrible that they would take the life of another.. when they are fighting for FREEDOM! It must have been an outsider.. It was then that Tails approached me. "Who do you think it was, Sonic?" he asked. "I don't know, Tails." I replied. "But I intend to find out..."
"It was a hedgehog!" somebody shouted. "A blue hedgehog! I saw him!" Sally shook her head. "I'm pretty sure the only blue hedgehog we have is Sonic." she said. "Maybe you were mistaken in the dark.."
Later, in the afternoon, Tails and I were in my hut. Tails had brought his notebook and pen in.. any excuse to play the detective! I was sitting beside him, thinking. "It could have been Cinos!" Tails exclaimed, suddenly. I cringed at the mention of the name. Earlier the previous year, Snively shot some strange weapon at me and cloned me. The result was Cinos.. my exact likeness, but exact opposite. He was kind of like a reflection.. equal but opposite. "Why's that?" I asked Tails.
"Well, somebody said that they saw a blue hedgehog do it!" Tails replied. "Yeah..." I replied. "That's true. And Cinos is my opposite and evil to the bone, maybe he did it for a thrill kill." I thought for a minute. "But Cinos is.. gone." I added. "I destroyed the Negatron, I don't know how he could possibly return."
"That's true." Tails replied. He looked at his notebook, and put a big 'X' over the word 'Cinos'.
"Mecha Sonic?" I suggested. "He's a robot, but he could be mistaken for a blue hedgehog in the dark. Mecha is ALWAYS out to get me, he's been my nemesis for years. Maybe he came here after me, couldn't find me, and that orange fox got in his way?"
"Maybe.." Tails replied. He wrote 'Mecha' in his notebook and put a question mark beside it. "Wouldn't he take him back to Robotropolis for robotization, though?"
"Mmmm... maybe." I replied.
There was a long silence, then Tails said "Zero?" "Huh? Zero?" I asked.
"Yeah.." he replied. "He's not blue, but he's a hedgehog. He kidnapped Sally one day! Maybe he came back.. we never DID find his body at the bottom of the cliff, you know."
"Yeah, he's probably out there somewhere.." I replied. "Put him down as a possibility, anyway." I continued thinking. "Who else is there?" Tails asked. "Nack the Weasil." I suggested.
"Huh? Who's that?" Tails asked. "I've met him once, and so did Sally." I replied. "He's the guy who stole the Chaos Emeralds. He's a sneaky one, and he's VERY trigger-happy. I'm sure he could end up killing somebody..."
"But the cause of death was a blow on the head!" Tails reminded him. "Oh yeah..." I replied. "It probably wasn't Nack, then."
"Could be Shred." Tails suggested then. "He's into mindless killing and all that! Remember when he came to Mobius? Shax had to hold him back from killing us ALL!"
"Yeah, but he's more likely to EAT the poor guy.." I replied.
Tails nodded. "Hey Sonic.." he said, "Mind if I crash here for the night?"
"What's wrong, kinda scared?" I taunted him a little. He just looked at me sarcastically. "Sure thing, little bro!" I said, at last. "Go ahead.. I got an extra matress here somewhere."
"Thanks, Sonic." he replied, smiling. Suddenly, he looked in the corner, as if something was irritating him. "Sonic, what's that glow?" he asked. I followed his gaze to the corner of my hut. Glow? I had nothing glowing in my hut! At least, nothing I knew of! I walked over to where he was staring, and had a closer look. There was a sparking glow between a wall and a cabinet.. I reached in, and grabbed whatever it was. After dragging it out, it took me quite a while to realise what it was.. but even then I didn't believe it. The object was made of wood, and it was about a metre long. At the top, was carved into the shape of a bird's talon or some kind of claw, and the claw was holding a glassy, mystical looking orb. I stared at it, hypnotized. I recognised it... but how? HOW? I had put this next to Ashura's grave! But here it was, in my very own hut.
This was Ashura's scepter.
CHAPTER TWO:
"What's that, Sonic?" Tails asked. I almost dropped it.. I was a little jumpy. "It's Ashura's.. thing!" I replied.
"I thought you put that on his grave!" Tails replied.
"I did!" I replied. "Or at least I thought I did! I must not have, if it's here!"
"That thing creeps me out, Sonic." Tails complained.
"Me too." I replied. I chucked it out an open window, and began to pull out a matress for my friend to sleep on. "I'll collect it again in the morning.. get rid of it." I promised. We both got into bed, and I blew out the candle.
***
When I woke up, Tails was gone.
At first I thought he had walked outside, but then I noticed the muddy footprints.. NOT from his shoes.. that went from his bed to the open door. I jumped up, and stumbled across the room. When I got out of bed, something landed on the ground with a thump. I took a moment to look...
The scepter again. IT WAS IN MY BED!
This was insanely creepy, but my mind was more focused on Tails' disappearance. I bolted out the door, and almost ran into Sally, who was walking past. "Whoa, Sonic!" she exclaimed. "What's the rush?" I explained to her that Tails had disappeared, and about the footprints, and by the end, she had a look of concern on her face.
"Oh my gosh.." she muttered. "Maybe he's gone for a walk or something?"
"Those footprints didn't look like his, Sal!" I replied. "And how would he suddenly get MUD on his feet while in my hut?"
Sally shook her head. "We'll send out a search party or something." she said.
That's when Knuckles approached. "I just heard the news." he said. His sudden appearance made us both jump. He had a hard expression on his face. "I knew that guy." he said. "The guy who was murdered, I mean. We were talking just a few weeks ago... do you know who did it?"
Sally regained her composure. "No we don't.." she replied. "It has us baffled."
"Me an' Tails have ruled out quite a few suspects.. we think it could have been Mecha or Zero, but both seem unlikely.."
"Or it could have been an 'inside job'." Knux replied. He was trying to avoid eye contact with me. For some reason, in the weeks after we travelled to Kha, he didn't seem to want to talk directly to me... he seemed kind of angry at me. He probably thinks I'm partly responsible for him not being able to rescue his ancestors.. And I'm pretty sure that the warning to "keep my hands off his island, emerald and ancestors" still stands.
"What do you mean?" Sally asked him. He shrugged. "I'm just saying that anybody in this village could have done it!" he said.
I tried to restrain from frowning. He didn't say it, but I know what he was implying... he was thinking I did it. After all, I doubt he believes I ever recovered from the hyper-neutrino. But it was absurd to think that I could have killed somebody! First of all, I knew myself that I DIDN'T! And secondly, sure the witnesses THOUGHT they saw a blue hedgehog, but it was dark, and they could have been mistaken! But nobody else really believed that the killer was me..... did they?
So, that's how I got tangled up in a seach party.
To prove how desperately I wanted to get Tails back, I joined the Tails search party. But it wasn't just to clear my name, by no means - I really DID want Tails back. I was so angry at the creep who kidnapped him.. RIGHT UNDER MY NOSE! The team of me, Sage, and about fourteen villagers I didn't know, walked through the forest all day. There was no sign of Tails, which upset me. What if the murderer had killed again? What if we went back to New Knothole and found everybody crowded around TAILS' dead body?
"Let's make camp here." somebody said.
I yawned. I had been walking all day, and I couldn't deny that I was tired. There was another feeling, too.... while a part of me was asleep, another part seemed to be just waking up...... the time escaped me, and before long I was inside my tent, and dozing off.
CHAPTER THREE:
I had a dream that night.
I dreamed that I was standing inside a circle of flames. One of my hands was raised above my head, holding something I couldn't identify. The other hand was holding a strange book. On the ground, also inside the circle, was the body of the dead Ashura. I was screaming things at it.. like I was preaching at it or exorcising it or something. Nonsense words, like "nil fro fwap ching" or something to that effect. The body just lay there, motionless. Then I fell over, and the dream ended abruptly. I still do not know the purpose of such a weird dream...
When I woke up, everyone had abandoned me.
The entire camp... nobody was around. They even took the very tent that I was sleeping in! They took everything! I just lay on the ground, dazed and confused, alone in the forest. I got up, and looked for any sign of the other search party members.. even for a NOTE or something. They left nothing. Confused, I made my way back to New Knothole.
There was a commotion when I arrived. Everybody crowded around... my first thought was that the killer had killed again. It looked just the same as when we had found the orange fox dead the last time. I walked up to the crowd, and noticed Sage was standing there. I tapped him on the shoulder. "What's happened?" I asked. He turned around, and jumped a little when he saw me. "THERE HE IS!" he shouted, pointing accusedly at me. The crowd made gasping noises, and began to surround me. I was surprised... "What's wrong?" I asked. Somebody walked up to me nervously and put his wrist on my forehead, as if taking my temperature. "What are you doing? I'm not sick!" I protested. "Sonic, why did you attack the search party?" Sally asked, stepping foward. "WHAT?" I demanded. "I didn't! They ABANDONED me!" Sally's accusation was rediculous.
"They came back to New Knothole terrified!" Sally said. "They said you attacked them..." "I DID NOT!" I protested again. I looked to my left and saw Knuckles step foward. "We've pieced it all together, Sonic." he said. "I don't know what's happened to you, but you've chased Tails away, and we can't even erase you as a murder suspect for that fox!"
Chased Tails away?
"I didn't chase Tails away and you know it!" I retalliated. "He was OBVIOUSLY taken, I can't believe you can overlook the evidence and accuse me!" I was almost cold towards the echidna, now. "We're not overlooking ANYTHING!" Knux replied. "In fact, all the evidence POINTS to you!"
"NO!" I yelled. "The footprints....!"
"The footprints..... are YOURS, Sonic!" Sally reported.
"But... but... where... the mud?" I spluttered out. I bolted through the crowd blockade, and pushed a couple of people over. I broke through and ran to my hut. I almost collided with the door, before I twisted the knob and fell onto the floor. I came face to face with one of the muddy footprints belonging to Tails' kidnapper. I immediately noticed something I had strangely overlooked before. The footprints were not facing the door, as if somebody took Tails and walked out.... they were facing towards MY BED, as if from someone returning from the forest. I grabbed one of my shoes and pulled it off.
The treads matched.
Even though I knew I hadn't done it... I was framed so well that nobody would believe me. To them, I would never be anything more than a killer and a psycho.
I heard a great noise from the villagers outside, as if something had swayed their attention from accusing me. I looked outside, and saw a familiar figure running into the village. Suddenly, all my fears were gone. I was so happy I could have cried! It was Tails! He was alive! Not only was my best friend safe and sound, but he would also ensure MY safety! After all, he was the only one who knew the identity of the person who REALLY kidnapped him.. he could clear my name! I was so happy he was alive... I burst out of my hut and ran towards the fox, who looked equally relieved. But when he saw me, his smile faded, and he dug his heels into the ground so hard he fell on his butt. "NO!" he yelled, frantically picking himself up. "No, SONIC! GET AWAY FROM ME!" he yelled. Sally ran to comfort him.
My best friend even believed I had turned bad. The only one who could clear my name... NOBODY would believe me now.
"Tails!" I spluttered. "Tails.. it's me! Please... I did nothing wrong!" The fox gulped, and walked up to me. "Look at me.." he pleaded. I bent down slightly, to his level, and looked into his eyes. After a while, a grin spread across his face, and he grabbed me and hugged me. "Sonic.. you're back!" he said. "Thank God you're back!" "He's....back?" Sally asked, raising an eyebrow. I was just as confused. Tails turned around to the villagers. "Sonic didn't do anything bad." he reported. "I mean... he did, but it wasn't his fault, something was up."
"Tails... what was 'up'?" Sally asked.
"He was bewitched, or something!" Tails reported. "I saw it in his eyes... When he attacked me, it wasn't him inside."
So I HAD attacked Tails? Had I killed that villager as well? Had I attacked the search party?
"How is any of that possible?" Sally asked. "Who could do anything to Sonic to make him do things he has no control over?"
Tails crossed his arms. "Has anybody checked Ashura's grave lately?" he asked.
***
Empty.
"Ashura DUG HIMSELF out of his coffin AND grave?" Sally asked, almost fainting with shock. But there it was... am empty grave. A big hole in the ground in front of the tombstone.
"I FOUND THE COFFIN!" Somebody shouted nearby, dragging a big box out of the bushes. It was also empty.
"He's pretty powerful.." I said, shocked.
I don't think there's one person in New Knothole who can come up with an adequite theory about what happened. All I can say myself is that, if I really did do those terrible things, it was not on purpose, I can't even remember doing them. And I'm pretty sure Sally and most of the villagers agree, after seeing the empty grave... they know what Ashura is capable of. Knuckles is probably the most skeptical of the lot, but he'll get over it. As for my opinion, I think there are a lot of questions that will remain unanswered... I dunno if I'll ever find out the truth. How had Ashura lived, after I was sure he was dead? How, and WHY, had he forced me to do all those horrible things? Why did his scepter keep appearing everywhere, almost like it was haunting me? All I know is that I had led a secret night life for the last few days.. even secret from MYSELF. As far as I know, I haven't done anything like that since. Has Ashura had his fun and moved on? I sure hope so. I still lock the door at night, not that it would stop me from opening it, the lock being on the inside... I guess I'm still learning to trust myself again.
19th November 1999
SONIC HEDGEHOG