Invisible' (Sonic Short Fanfic) (Open to Interpretation)

by Cutixemma

A short fanfiction, in the POV of an unknown being, about the issue of a blue hedgehog struggling from 'invisibility' that makes him unseen. The main protagonist of this fanfic tries his best to support him from this 'minor problem'. Unfortunately, he begins to wonder whether he is a good friend to Sonic or a non-existent being. Contains blood, injuries and a mention of suicide.

You may not see him, but Sonic is right here. No signs of a short blue hedgehog, but still here. People around here can't see him and always ask his friends where he is. Where is Sonic, you may ask? He's right here. Helping me.

Sometimes, people can actually see him. If he were to be in the crowd, his appearance would make him stand out the most. Obviously because he's not a human being. He's a fast blue anthropomorphic hedgehog with white gloves and red shoes. Take away these bright features and you will not be able to recognize Sonic. Not even his green emerald eyes can help that.

At those times, Sonic is a celebrity. He is famous for being a superhero who guards the world from evil. His unique looks and well-known identity gets him all the attention from ordinary people. The old and wise would appreciate him for protecting them and the young and childish would ask him for autographs. The fanatics would do what it takes just to be with Sonic, to the point where chasing after him and squeezing him tightly became the norm for them. All of those stress is luckily avoided when he 'goes missing'.

At the other times when Sonic is 'nowhere to be seen', he is basically an unknown being. No one sees him. Only his friends and I can. We are the only ones who can see and interact with him. Each time I talked to him in his 'unseen' state, people around us would stare at me as if I was talking to a ghost. I did tell them that Sonic was here, but they would scoff it off as they can't see him. They called me crazy. Only a crazy person can talk to oneself. Maybe I'm crazy. But I had seen a ghost before. And I can assure you that Sonic is not a ghost. He is alive and well. And real. It's just that he can not be seen. Only I can see him.

Mostly I guess.

But I once felt that he could not see me. Only the surface and crazy me. The fake me. I wished.

And that thought had worsen at one time when I wanted to be 'missing' instead.

At that time, we were in the park sitting on a bench. I was simply gazing at the astonishing night sky, with shining stars and the moon taking up the space. I was the only one of the duo enjoying the scenery as it seemed that Sonic was not looking at it.

I turned to see what Sonic was doing. He was looking at his 'transparent' body, with eyelids halfway closed. I became concerned about him looking at his own laps.

"Is there something wrong with him?" I thought."He's usually such a fun guy to have a chat with, unless I mess things up."

Then I thought about the latter part for a while. It saddened me as I reflected on it. "Did I mess things up a little too much?" I asked myself in mind. Right after wondering about what I could do to make him feel better, I decided to help him through emotional support. Though I felt that doing so would make me regret on that due to not being good at my choice of words.

"I better talk to him."

I faced towards Sonic, who was still staring at his limbs. "Is there something wrong, Sonic?" I asked him kindly as I moved myself to be near him.

The frown on his face stretched a bit. "I'm sick and tired of this!" he yelled in frustration. "People run away from me like I'm a ghost or something. I can't take this anymore!"

I was shocked. I did not expect such an outburst from a normally mature guy. It seemed clear to me that he was upset. So I went onto the backrest of the bench to cheer him up. "Sonic, I'm sure that your problems will go away so that people will be able to see you again," I convinced him.

But my first attempt didn't work. Sonic still looked upset. "I can't wait any longer!" Sonic responded in exasperation. "You acted just like these humans when we first met!" He then went on into ranting, glaring straight into my eyes. "Because I lost my hedgehog body occasionally, nobody even knows that their hero they need the most is right here! Sure, this gives me the advantage of not being chased by fangirls and all, but that doesn't help the fact that I unintentionally chased everyone away!"

Sonic then took a long deep breath from being way too exhausted to continue on complaining. I could not say anything. I just stared at him covering his face and sitting on the bench, brooding about something. I understood why he was feeling this way. A little bit.

"He said that people ran away from him 'like he was a ghost or something'," I thought. "We had been hearing screams of horror all the time, but it wasn't their fault that they ran away. Everyone has a phobia... right?"

I put my hand on his shoulder, attempting to convince him again. "Don't worry about it, Sonic," I reassured him. "The world is currently in danger and they need you."

Sonic put down his hands and glared at me again. "They need Sonic the Hedgehog," he said, "and he's GONE."

I twitched a little from hearing just that one word. "He's not gone! If he is, I'll be vulnerable." My thoughts went a little mad as I could not bear seeing my hero in an emotional state. I didn't want Sonic to feel this way. It made me feel as awful as a pet in pain.

"You ARE Sonic the Hedgehog!" I assured him in another attempt to help him. "Sure, you lost your usual look occasionally, but it's no big deal!"

His facial expression did not change at all. But I was determined to help him. "What about humans who can't protect themselves and animals that are in need of rescue?" I asked him. "Isn't the world still worth saving? Are you going to give up on that just because you lost your usual appearance sometimes? Please, Sonic..."

Sonic looked up to the beautiful night sky. I assumed that he was thinking back about what I just said. I took a closer look at his face. His facial expression still looked melancholic. He moved his head away from me when I read his expression. The way he did that struck me as him not wanting to be bothered.

"Did I fail to convince him?" I thought in distress.

As I was thinking about how I unsuccessfully make him not think about his 'invisibility' problem, I began to wondered what else might have made him miserable as well. The fact that he didn't seem to take my words into consideration and still looked that upset concerned me. Why would he be upset?

Everything besides the people being scared half of the time and Sonic doing his job in fighting Eggman's robots and other enemies was great! We were touring nice and unique places that are important in his journey to save the world. I enjoyed visiting wonderful places and meeting kind people. Each country introduced to me always got me hyped up. Sure I did not act like how a normal human being should act... well, I got comments from grumpy people that I acted like a lunatic sometimes, but almost everything I experienced was so fun and amazing!

But why was Sonic being upset?

...

"...Lunatic..."

...

"Did I... hurt his feelings?"

Just as I was starting to think about what I did wrong with him, I got interrupted by an unexpected creaking sound. I looked around and saw that the 'unseen' hedgehog had stood up from the bench he was sitting on. He looked back at me with a calm look on his face.

"C'mon," Sonic told me, "let's get back to saving the world."

I felt relieved. Then, for a moment, I thought about this short-lived miracle. It was so unexpected. I thought that I could not convince him to continue on his journey but I DID.

"Did I actually helped him? It... is it the first time that I am..."

"HEY! Are you coming or what?"

I shook like a jelly as my thoughts were interrupted by a yell with irritation in the tone. I looked behind to see what hit me up. It was Sonic standing at the entrance of the park, furiously tapping on the ground with his foot, waiting for me.

My heart sank. Confused and disappointed.

"...What did I do wrong?... What did I do to make him feel that way?"

We went back from the park to the streets. We barely talked to each other. I didn't want to hurt him more than I already did. The usual surroundings and people were becoming a blur to me. I heard the repetition of screams and shouts. The reactions had been so constant that they became boring and mundane for both of us. We had been seeing the same old terrified faces and hearing screams and shouts half of the time, maybe even more than that. It was as if we were in Groundhog Day. Or at least that was what Sonic referenced when he commented about it just as this happened. The looped sounds became way too bothersome. For some reason... I wanted to...to...

"Wait. No. Don't do that, stranger. These people are innocent and did nothing wrong."

...

"...But... it's not justifi-"

Out of the blue, I heard sounds of dragging rough shoes. I turned and saw that my protector had shifted into a prepared pose. I saw his ears twitching. "Someone's in danger!" Sonic alarmingly yelled, unintentionally scaring people around us again. "I need to save them!" he ended his sentence as he rushed off to wherever he went to. Lots of people either gasped or ran away from 'the unknown force'. I was in utter shock. He just ran off quickly without bringing me with him. I followed him, trying my best to catch up with him. But he was running too fast! TOO FAST!

"He should have told me to hang on his back or whatever available body parts he has, but he didn't! Is it because he doesn't want me to bother him on his side mission? Is there... something really wrong with me?"

His running speed, combined with his lack of hedgehog appearance, was a strong wind to these ordinary people that he passed by in hurry. As I was following him, I lost a lot of energy. I stopped catching up with Sonic and landed on the concrete ground to catch my breath. I felt so exhausted, yet my thoughts were endlessly running around my head.

"That hedgehog barely sleep. How does he have so much energy to run so fast?"

After thinking about Sonic being bizarre for some time, I dozed off from being so tired without realizing my own surroundings.

ZzzzzZZZzzz

STOMP!

OW!

I woke up in pain from being stomped by someone. It hurt so much that it felt like a brick had landed on me. I looked up to see who stepped on me. I saw a gigantic human looking down at me in shock. "I'm so sorry," she apologized, "I didn't notice you here." I put up my hand in gesture, forming my fingers into a peace sign. "It's okay," I responded, "it was an accident." I tried to stand up, but the big impact on my chest felt agonizing, bringing me back down to the ground.

"Oh man, I shouldn't have slept on the ground. I'm such an idiot."

The lady helped carried me to safety, from buzzing people walking, to a bench nearby a store. "Thank you," I told her. "You're welcome, little guy," she accepted my appreciation. I slowly attempted to stand up again. This time, it was successful. I was about to go off to find Sonic, but she stopped me. "Where are you going?" she asked me. "I'm going to find Sonic," I replied sincerely.

"Sonic?" she replied in surprise. "Didn't he went missing?"

Something ticked me off.

"Those words... He's not missing! He's around here somewhere. She's wrong... SHE'S WRONG!"

But I didn't want to tell her off for being wrong about poor Sonic.

Instead, I jumped off from the bench immediately and ran away from it trying to find Sonic.

Something inside my head hurts, but I kept it in. I didn't want these people to see how I felt. I saw angry people fighting once and I did not want to be like them. I thought that they would definitely call animal control on me if I show them my anger, at least like what they almost did to Sonic. And I didn't want to show it to him either, as I assumed that he would abandon me forever. I didn't want to cross anybody's line. I just want to be a good boy. But I did not present it in the correct way. I didn't act right.

I could not locate where Sonic was. I asked some people in the streets where Sonic was. "No" was the usual response. It took a while for me to realize that they can't see Sonic, even when he was in front of them.

"How could I forget that important detail?" I questioned myself. "I'm such a fool..."

...

"...I'm always a fool..."

I ran around in directionless streets, trying to find where Sonic was. I was so tired and focused on my little 'mission' that when I went to the crossroad, I could not see what was coming. As I rushed through the crossroad, I got hit hard by something fast. The big impact got me flying to the ground and it hurt so bad as I landed on it.

Funny enough, I was still conscious. I managed to crawl to the other side of the road and got onto the pedestrian path. This had never happened to me before, at least as an anonymous. In fact, I had never ever cross the road or even seen a traffic light before. Everything were still new to me. I am not kidding. I was definitely not from the city and I definitely never grow up around here.

I heard loud beeping sounds beside me. I looked around to see what hit me. It was something I wasn't familiar with; a truck. I never knew anything about road vehicles before I got hit by one. Another new thing. I felt more and more stupid than ever just from looking at new things. Darn it.

I heard a lot of talking and shocks above me. I looked up and saw eyewitnesses being shocked. They were saying things like "Are you hurt?" and "Wow, that thing survived!".

Ugh.

I ignored them by looking away from those dumb faces and I tried not to listen to those dumb talks. Everyday, people always have a shock look on their face and talk nonsense about Sonic's whereabouts.

"These boring things are getting annoying," I mumbled to myself. "But that's not important right now. Right now, I have to find Sonic. I'm the only one who can see him. I'm the only one..."

When I stood up, my body felt like I was being tortured. I looked down at my body. There were major injuries on my right arm and leg, and blood was leaking out of them. I panicked upon seeing such a terrifying sight. I never bleed nor have serious injuries, at least that was what I remember, until this moment. I felt myself getting weak. I thought that I really need to approach Sonic and Tails for this particular problem.

Despite the pain, I kept going. But a stranger stopped me when I was about to run off. "You're hurt, little fella," he told me in concern. He tore off one of his long sleeves and wrapped it around my injuries, which slowed down the bleeding. I thanked the man for treating my wounds with a nod and resumed my search for Sonic. But then again, the crowd stopped me from doing so.

"Don't!" one of the crowd said worryingly, "We have to get you to the nearest hospital to make sure you're healed properly.". I thought that I already got treated with a 'bandage' wrapped around me. I had no idea what a hospital was back then. I was still fixated on my need to find Sonic.

"May I please be released for once?" I asked them politely. "I have to find Sonic. He will get me help for sure!"

"Sonic!?" all of them yelled in shock.

"He's not here to save you. He disappeared! C'mon, we have to get you to the emergency room!" one person convinced me again.

I could feel something urging me to... do something beyond stupidity... But I held it back again. I didn't want to hurt these people who were concerned about me, but my feelings were telling me the opposite. I tried my best to stay as calm and positive as possible under the circumstances. But I had a painful headache from caging my true emotions. I ignored it with my best efforts and it still hurt.

I rushed through the crowd like a wind. I tried to go as quickly as possible to avoid getting caught by people chasing after me. Their screams were reaching into my ears telling me to stop. My thoughts were getting madder and madder.

"They shouldn't worry about me! I'm nothing to them! I don't belong to any of these places! They're all aliens! I don't know them! I don't know if this world is even my home at all! But all I have to do now is to find my protector... who... left me all alone... in the streets... full of people... driving me nuts..."

...

"No... I don't want to show anybody my feelings... I don't want to be crazy... I'm a nice guy... I'm a nice... stranger..."

This had been going on for God knows how long this madness took for me. Buildings. Dropboxes. Whatever were in the streets. Yet I still could not find Sonic. I was heavily breathing from a lot of wasted effort trying to find him. I took a break again to get my energy back.

I thought back about the accidents that happened to me recently. Apparently, without Sonic, I could not even protect myself from people stomping on me or incoming vehicles hitting me, all because of my stupidity.

Then, the thought of the word 'stupidity' hit me as hard as that truck accident.

"...It's true... I am an idiot and will always be an idiot even if I tried not to."

And then, I thought that Sonic purposely abandoned me because of that.

"...Oh no... did he truly... hat-"

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I heard a terrifying scream coming from my right. I heard lots of cries as well. I did not expect that to happen, after a long period of time finding Sonic. Being curious as usual, I checked out to see what happened.

As I approached the scene, it was... beyond shocking. There was an apartment. On fire. Large smokes coming out of the windows. Red firetrucks. Firefighters attempting to put out the fire with hose from the trucks. And bystanders just standing there watching the apartment burn in blazing fire.

"So this must be the danger Sonic was talking about before he abandoned me in the streets."

I understood why he ran off without me. And there he was. Coming out of the window from the second floor, carrying survivors to safety. I observed the survivors. They seemed glad that they got rescued. As for the bystanders, they backed away from, what I assumed in their sight, 'floating' survivors landing on the ground like genies.

I fluttered to the front of the crowd. Everyone gasped at me for looking messed up. Sonic became shocked when he saw me like that. His eyes were way too wide and his lips were stretched to its limits.

"Oh GOD!" He exclaimed in horror. "What happened to you!?"

I tried my best to hold back my rage and sadness from being abandoned to not make Sonic leave me alone again. "I'm okay..." I lied.

Guilt was formed on Sonic's face. He did not believed what I told him. "No, you're not okay," Sonic replied.

But before I could even say anything, Sonic immediately brought me into his arms and ran off from the scene. I heard shocks and screams from people behind me. I clenched my fists upon hearing that.

"Do these people SERIOUSLY think that the 'invisible ghost' who rescued the apartment fire victims is going to HARM me!?"

Sonic kept running while hugging me in his arms. He climbed onto the staircase at one of the apartment buildings and went onto the rooftop. It seemed that we had avoided the dramatic screams for a while. Finally some alone time...

I sat on the edge of the roof, looking at the cityscape. The bright streetlights and interior lights made the scenery looked nice... but it didn't reflect the reality of the world.

"Everyone thought that Sonic went missing! I hate hearing these words! Sonic is missing, they say. 'Where is Sonic, they ask?' If only I can let the entire world hear my reasoning, they would see that Sonic truly is here. But the world is too big... and they will definitely not listen to me... I'm a stranger... I'm unknown... I'm invisible..."

Sonic kneeled down and took a look at my wounds. He noticed a cloth wrapped around my right arms and shoulders. "Woah, somebody actually helped you," he noted. I nodded a little, but I kept my comments to myself as I felt that telling him off would offend him.

"I noticed that you weren't with me when I ran off," he told me, "but I had to keep going to rescue people from the fire." He then looked upset as he stopped examining on my 'bandage'. "I'm sorry for abandoning you there," he apologized, "it was stupid of me to leave a vulnerable guy in the streets..."

"I don't think he ever need to apologize to me. He saved poor people there. I might have dragged him down if he brought me with him to that building."

"No, you're not stupid," I told him, "it's a good thing that you didn't bring me to that burning building as a companion."

He stared at me right after I said that. His face shifted from guilt to complete shock. "You're kidding, right?" he questioned me. "I would let you stay outside the apartment, but I shouldn't have left you in the streets that far! You don't seem like you can take care of yourself! Look at you! You looked like you have been beaten up!"

"I told you that I'm fine," I reassured him.

"No, you're not!" Sonic told me angrily. "You could have been killed! You'll be a goner if I didn't protect you! It's my fault that you're wounded! I won't be able to live up as a hero if I did not take care of someone who's lost and in need of help!"

From that moment, I snapped. I could not hold back my feelings anymore. I thought that he shouldn't have brought me to his adventures. I thought that he could have just rip out the only useful tool for his main mission and just leave me in the middle of nowhere or somewhere else. I thought that I was not worth it. I thought of ending myself.

"Sonic... I don't want to be here," I confessed.

"...What?" Sonic asked.

"You could have just leave me there," I told him. "You could have just leave me alone and not bring me with you."

"No, that's very selfish-"

"YOU DON'T NEED ME HERE! I'M WORTHLESS!"

Sonic stared at me in silence. Regret was seen on his face. His speechlessness had been going on for a while. I looked at the scenery, but its beauty does not help me calm down for a single bit. I might have really bottled up my anger to the point where I did not feel well when I released it.

I felt a warm hand on my back. I kept looking at the cityscape. I felt embarrassed to look at his face after my outburst.

"I shouldn't have done that," I thought, becoming upset about myself.

...

...

"... Did you... try to hold back your emotions?" he asked me slowly.

"..."

...

...

"You shouldn't hold back your emotions," he advised me. "That's unhealthy."

I looked up to the night sky. I sighed on thinking back about everything that just happened.

"He gave me an advice... but he did not need to..."

Then I thought about myself. It was almost nothing. I was almost nothing. Besides my quirky demeanor and recent experiences, everything about me was nothing.

"I don't know how to act or make decisions," I admitted to him quietly. "Everything is still so new to me. I'm still a stranger who doesn't know anything better than... just being kind and stupid."

I felt something that I never felt before. I could feel... tears.

I was crying. A newfound feeling. It made me sick.

"No, don't discourage yourself for being stupid," Sonic told me calmly, "you should instead think of ways to improve yourself from your flaws. Besides, you do have good traits. You care about people. I can see that when you tried to cheer them up. And you're useful for something important in saving the world. I need you. And you need me. We're both getting closer into ending the apocalypse."

"The usefulness from me is a tool that anyone can just take off," I said. "I am kind to people for the sake of seeing them happy, but so what? Does that change the fact that I am stupid? No! I am stupid not only because I know nothing about this world, but because I know nothing about how good decision making works! I slept on a path full of people walking when I was too exhausted. I got hit by a fast thing when I was focused on finding you. I am stupid because I don't know anything at all and I don't know how to make choices! End of story."

"So that's why you are injured," Sonic said in sad, quiet tone. "But that doesn't change the fact that I have to protect you."

I raised my eyebrow. "Why?"

Sonic replied, "Look, I understand why you tend to be stupid. You don't know anything about this world or even yourself. But that wasn't your fault. You lost your identity. That's why I wanted to help you get that back. I felt bad when I saw you in this state back there. It shows that I wasn't doing a great job in protecting an unfortunate and lost fella."

"...You proved my point about my stupidity..."

Sonic brought me into his chest and hugged me. "Nobody is perfect. I don't expect you to be flawless at all," he said as he wiped off my tears. "I may get irritated by you being childish, but that does not give me an excuse to not help you."

I kept staring at him wondering about what he was doing.

"Why would he try to convince me that I need him? I'm a burden. I'm a loser. Why does he have to waste time calming me down-"

Sonic still tried to help me. "You opened my eyes by convincing me. You helped me focus more on my priority to save the world than my harmless condition. These people at the building on fire would have die if I continued on thinking about my problem instead of moving on to the mission. It was thanks to you that they got rescued by me. Isn't that worth it? You're not useless. Don't think about your flaws. Think about your strengths."

I looked up at Sonic when he said that. I thought I made him feel miserable. I just couldn't see it.

"So... I actually helped you?"

A smile was formed on his face. A real, natural smile.

"Yes."

I was surprised. I actually convinced him. I thought I failed to help him when he looked away from me back at the park, but I really did. He had never motivated me before until then. It seemed that consolation and motivation were the keys to help me feel more positive. Tears were still flowing down my eyes even after Sonic wiped them off, but they were becoming less distressing.

Sonic put my head close to his shoulder and patted me in comfort. I didn't ask to be hugged, but I let it be anyway. It was what I needed.

"...Thank you for supporting me there..." Sonic said in appreciation, stroking my hair to calm me down. "You knew how much I needed that to get me to continue on my mission. So I do the same to you."

I shut my eyes. That was a repay on my support for him. It was pleasantly surprising. I needed to let all of my emotions out. No more holding back.

After all this time, despite my childishness and idiocy, Sonic put that aside and still wanted to help me. I tend to focus more on what was on the outside than what was on the inside. I thought I knew what was going on in Sonic's head, but I was wrong. I let my feelings cloud my judgement on his recent mistake of abandoning me. I should learn not to think of myself badly just because of my problem with my flaws and being unknown to the world. And that I should improve myself from my flaws and focus more on my advantages.

Then, I felt something that I felt before. Something felt empty.

Not in my emotions. My... needs.

I realized that...

I was hungry.

My stomach gurgled from hunger. Sonic heard the sound and checked in his inventory. I didn't bother to check on whatever food supplies I had left in my inventory because I was way too exhausted to do so. Sonic handed me one of his snacks to feed me. I slowly bit it.

My sadness slowly but surely went away. He still cared about me despite my weakness. I stopped telling myself that I didn't need that kindness. Because I really need it. He truly had concern for me. He helped me. And that was the most important thing for me.

"You deserved my help," he told me, "because you are my friend, Chip."