DISCLAIMER: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog. All characters shown here are property of SEGA.

Author's Notes: I was actually supposed to upload this a lot sooner, but I kept forgetting... whoops! Anyway, this is a rewrite/novelization of Sonic Forces, meaning that I'm taking my own spin on the story shown within the game. I'm adding new levels, cutscenes, changing dialogue and plot details, etc. all to make the Sonic story I was looking forward to!

One thing to note is that I really do love what Sonic Forces gave us; I just wish it had done more! I don't hate the game by any means. This fanfiction was crafted out of the love I have for this franchise and to add/improve upon what the game didn't deliver. (Which, unfortunately, is a lot, in my opinion.)

Without further ado, here's the first chapter!

The room was made of cold metal, no windows to the outside world to be seen. Inside the vast room were rows upon rows of capsules, each containing a red, icosahedron jewel suspended in midair. All except for one, which held a figure almost indistinguishable in the dim lighting. Approaching this capsule was the mastermind behind the mass-production of these jewels: Dr. Eggman.

"Oh, Sonic. How I hate him." he found himself grumbling. "And all of that loathing has been focused into this invincible instrument of destruction!" he motioned to the figure in the capsule, his voice rising into a triumphant shout as he continued. "Every defeat, every humiliation at the hedgehog's hands will be returned a thousand-fold by my unstoppable creation!" With a low chuckle, he pushed aside one of his servant robots to take a better look at the figure he referred as his ultimate masterpiece.

"This is my dream come true," he said quietly. His voice rose once again, his constant change in tone displaying a man trying to keep his manic ecstasy in check and continuously failing. "With this, I can expand my Eggman Empire across the globe and take over the world!" With that declaration, he erupted into laughter. He truly seemed mad to anyone watching; in this case, his two servant robots, dubbed Orbot and Cubot, the former of which decided to speak up.

"I must say, you really outdid yourself this time, boss!" he exclaimed. "I wasn't sure you would be able to find a use for him after that stunt he pulled, but you surpassed all expectations!"

"Yeah, the boss really means business this time!" Cubot piped up. Eggman paused his laughter in order to respond, although he ignored Cubot's comment entirely.

"Oh, he's going to be plenty useful," he chuckled softly. "Now, let's go for a test run, shall we?"

There wasn't anything Sonic loved more in the world than running. He loved a lot of things the same amount as running, like his friends, relaxing days on the beach, and a wide variety of food (although chilidogs definitely stood out as his favorite), but there was nothing that could exceed the amount of love he had for running. Which was why he was spending today running across one of his favorite landmarks: Green Hill.

The place was a natural beauty to behold: bright green grass covered the ground where flowers and palm trees grew in abundance. Even the dirt was interesting to look at, with varying shades of light and dark brown arranged in a checkered fashion, as if it had been deliberate. If it was, Sonic had never bothered to find out.

It was sunny and warm on the best of days, casting the world in a bright glow, and Sonic was lucky enough to be there on those days more often than not. The wind that kicked up whenever he ran was especially fresh in a place like Green Hill, and breathing it in almost felt like breathing life itself.

So yes, this was one of his favorite places to run. And he would have continued doing just that if a voice hadn't suddenly spoken through the intercom he carried in his ear.

"Sonic! Do you read me?" It was the voice of his best friend, Tails, who was also the one who came up with the idea of wearing intercoms everywhere. Sonic wanted to be against the idea, but really, with the near-constant threat of Eggman's schemes, it was best to know when and where he struck before it got too severe.

Plus, Sonic was terrible when it came to bringing grocery lists.

"Loud and clear, buddy! What's the emergency?" he asked, leaping over a particularly large gap in the floor. Judging from the urgency in Tails' voice, he hadn't called for idle chit-chat.

"Eggman's built a new army and it's storming through the city near Green Hill! We need you over here as soon as possible!" he exclaimed. At this news, he felt a mixture of concern for the innocent people being put in danger and amusement at the fact that Eggman had picked such a convenient location to launch his attack. As per usual with Sonic, he based his response on the latter.

"He sure makes it easy for me to stop his plans in their tracks, doesn't he?" he commented, before adding a quick, "Don't worry, Tails, I'm on my way!" There was no doubt in his mind that he would make it in time and stop Eggman's plan right then and there. Of course, since it was Eggman he was dealing with, he most likely had a few other tricks up his sleeve, but he had gotten past everything the doctor had thrown at him before. Now wasn't going to be any different.

He wasn't exactly surprised, though, when various robots pointing guns at him obscured his path. He did note the lack of the usual bright color schemes on these new minions, (an unfortunate development, in his opinion) but that did nothing to keep him from jumping into the air and launching himself at each and every one of them. One by one, his sharp quills tore through their hardened armor, leaving them as a pile of scrap on the ground before making his way further.

Rinse and repeat, the robots felt like they were being stationed everywhere. Robots in the air, robots on the ground, they were practically in formation to make his journey a little harder. Of course, they hardly succeeded in slowing him down; if anything, dodging their bullets and getting to blow them up made the trip all the more fun for Sonic. He actually found himself laughing as he took out a particularly large group of them, enjoying the brief seconds of a challenge they offered him to the fullest.

That was around the time he noticed a change in the environment. The lush green grass was quickly being replaced with sand, until no grass was visible at all in the sandy wasteland he had entered. But that wasn't right; there was never any sand in Green Hill. He wasn't sure what the purpose was, but he just knew Eggman was behind this.

"Okay, so Green Hill just got turned into Sand Hill… thanks a lot, Eggman, you've gone and messed up one of my favorite spots!" he remarked, talking to no one in particular. He made a mental note to ask Tails how to get rid of all this sand after he saved the city. He may have loved running with all his heart, but running on sand was a bit of an annoying challenge. There wasn't nearly as much in the way of traction, and when you're running at the speed of sound, that can be problematic.

Thankfully, he adjusted (albeit with some difficulty), but not before taking note of the giant robotic sand worm in the distance. It was making its way in and out of the ground as if it were in an actual desert, to which he could only groan in discontent. He didn't have time to deal with the giant sand worm right now, he had to get to Tails! So instead, he opted for making fun of it.

"Well, check out this piece of work! I guess things like that just crop up when your neighborhood is turned into a desert. Clean-up's gonna be such a chore." He complained, his sass being somewhat overruled by his distaste for the situation.

After running through a naturally occurring loop in the ground and destroying the last line of Eggman's robots, he had made it to his destination. The gate to the city was open, and he wasted no time rushing through it. What he saw upon entering the city was definitely concerning, though, more so than was standard for Eggman's initial attacks. There were practically rows of robots firing wherever and whenever they saw fit, fires had broken out in at least three different places that he could see, and buildings were already in the process of being leveled.

Still, it looked like he had just made it in time to stop the havoc before any permanent damage had been done, which was a relief. But he would feel a lot more relieved once those fires had been put out, the robots destroyed, and the people were safe.

Knowing there was no time to lose, he immediately ran towards the offenders with such ferocity and speed he was actually generating a wave of pure energy in front of him, as it always did whenever he performed a Boost (as he had taken to calling it).

This particular attack was one of the most useful in his vast arsenal of techniques he had picked up over the years, but it also had plenty of downsides. The wave it generated might have taken out huge crowds of enemies just by running into them, but he was going so fast that it was difficult to turn. He could still remember the pain from the bruises he got after attempting it the first few times and ended up crashing into just about everything. The other downside was that it was particularly exhausting if kept up for too long—a problem that he later found could be solved with the help of kind little aliens called Wisps.

As if on cue, a small batch of white Wisps came his way, gesturing wildly and making their high-pitched gibberish noises as if he could understand them. He slowed and gave them a smile and a wave.

"Hey there, little guys! Are you here to help me out?" he asked them. Sonic hadn't failed to notice that the Wisps always seemed ready to help him after their first encounter. They made more noises in response before flowing into him and transferring some of their strength to his.

"I'll take that as a 'yes!'" he remarked, making a mental note to learn how to speak Wisp after this was over and Boosting away yet again.

He tapped the com in his ear before speaking again. "I'm in the city, Tails! And making quite the show, I might add," he said, unable to suppress the smirk that crept up on his face.

"Yeah, I can see the explosions from here. I'm leading a group of civilians to safety, but we're getting outnumbered fast. I can't fight them all and keep the people safe at the same time!" Tails urged, making it clear that he needed assistance without actually asking for help. (Sonic was convinced that was something Tails had picked up from him.)

"Don't worry, I'll be there soon! Just tell me where you are!" he said in response. There was no denying the concern that started bubbling up inside his chest at the thought of his best friend in the line of fire, unable to dodge lest someone else get injured, but he knew better than to let that get in his way. He was the fastest thing alive; if anyone could make it in time to help Tails, it was him.

"I'm nearing the western perimeter of the city now. Hurry, I can't hold these things off for long!" he replied. Sonic didn't exactly have a compass on him to tell which way west was supposed to be, but he recognized this district as the northern one from the tour Tails had taken him on a few months before. If he thought that information would be useless then, he most certainly thought otherwise now.

"Alright, I'm heading your way!" he said, taking a left and leaping off the bridge he had been running along. The city might have been big and filled with robots, but Sonic had long since figure out how to maneuver situations like this. (The time he spent running from the government certainly came to mind.)

He used the placement of several airborne robots to his advantage and repeatedly destroyed them to make some more distance before dropping down like a rock onto the concrete, using the same force that propelled him midair to instead take him the ground quicker than gravity would approve of. Immediately, he took off again, bounding over any obstacles that came his way and not letting anything break his momentum. He had to get to Tails as soon as possible, to keep him and anyone else he was with out of harm's way.

There he is! He thought to himself upon reaching his destination. Sure enough, there was Tails and a small group of civilians, backed into a corner by multiple robots with no easy escape route. With a quick jump, he launched himself at one of the mechanical soldiers with such force it tore through the one next to it, repeating the action a couple times before landing. With a quick Boost, he blasted through the last of them and felt some of the tension lift from his shoulders. He turned around to address the small group of people he had just rescued.

"Everyone okay?" he asked, worried that someone might have gotten hurt while he was making his way over there. Thankfully, no one seemed to be injured. Most gave nods of confirmation while others gave a small cheer at their rescue.

"We are, thanks to you. Cutting it kind of close though, pal," Tails replied affectionately. Sonic offered him a shrug, finally feeling at ease enough to smirk.

"Yeah, well, you know me. That's just how I roll." He said, although his attention was quickly diverted to the large, annoyingly familiar floating mech that descended upon them. The Eggmobile, carrying the infamous Dr. Eggman himself. "Well, look who finally decided to show up! I'm not in the mood to drag this out, so let's finish this here and now, Eggman!" he yelled, decidedly wanting this to be over with as soon as possible. He had several acres of sand to clean up and an alien language to learn, he wasn't about to let Eggman of all people completely ruin the day for him and everyone else.

"It will be your finish, Sonic," Eggman declared, "Behold the power of my ultimate masterpiece!"

Sonic had heard this speech more times than he could count, and frankly, it was getting boring. Which was why he simply shrugged with an exasperated expression before jumping into a spinning formation, planning to knock Eggman off his vehicle to assert control over the situation. (Which, in his mind, he already had, but he had to start this fight somewhere.) It would have worked quite nicely if something hadn't slammed into him while he was in midair.

He flipped out of formation and managed to land on his feet, using his hand to slow his skidding across the floor. When he came to a stop, he was able to get a look at whatever or whoever had just hit him. He would not like what he saw.

"Shadow?!" he exclaimed. "What are you..."

His feeling of innate betrayal was quickly replaced with confusion when he saw something strange going on with Shadow. He was surrounded by red and pink... static? That was all he could compare it to. It almost looked like he was glitching, if that were possible in real life. He couldn't make sense of it.

That wasn't the only thing that was weird. His posture was definitely the same as the Shadow he knew; standing up straight, arms crossed, frown firmly in place. But there was something about his eyes that unnerved him. His brow might have been furrowed into a glare, but his eyes looked empty. Like they weren't looking at anything, or were trying to see something but couldn't. It was eerie and filled Sonic with a sudden sense of concern for his friend (which he insisted they were, despite Shadow's protests).

"Shadow, what's wrong?" he asked. No answer. "Say something!" He pressed, growing more anxious by the second. He tried waving his hand in front of Shadow's face, but there was no response. Shadow wasn't moving or saying anything; all he did was blankly stare ahead at nothing.

"I don't get it. He's unresponsive," Tails noted, "but it's not like he's catatonic or anything; he was moving just fine before. And I'm picking up some really weird readings from whatever that energy surrounding him is. It's scrambling my device's sensors!"

He heard what Tails was saying, but couldn't think of how to respond to it. Whatever was going on with Shadow, he knew for certain that Eggman was responsible for it. That thought caused his blood to boil, and it definitely wasn't just concern like he had felt for Tails just minutes before. This was anger, stronger than he had felt that entire day.

"What have you done to him?!" He demanded, turning his attention back to the Doctor.

"I've done nothing to him, hedgehog," Eggman smirked, sounding so smug that Sonic had to restrain himself from attacking him right then and there. "But he's far from your only problem at the moment."

A loud thump behind him alerted him to the presence of a new arrival. He quickly turned around and was surprised to see none other than Zavok, a zeti from the Lost Hex that he had fought not too long before. He had the same weird glitches around him that Shadow did, his eyes just as empty.

"Zavok?! How are you still alive?!" Sonic yelled. Zavok was supposed to be dead, burned in the volcano of the Lost Hex. He wasn't exactly unhappy with this development; he certainly never wanted to kill any of his enemies. He was glad, even, that the zeti were getting another chance at life. But that didn't explain how, and Zavok was still an enemy. He had to keep his guard up, even if he was shocked and confused at what was happening.

"Oh, you'd be surprised at just how much a zeti can endure. Especially when he has as strong a motivator as revenge," Eggman explained deviously.

The roaring sound of an engine interrupted their conversation, and Sonic actually had to sidestep to the right in order to avoid getting crashed into by a chunk of metal. A chunk of metal which, evidently, turned out to be none other than Metal Sonic. He opened his mouth to make a comment about not seeing this particular robot in a while when he noticed that Metal Sonic had the same strange static around him that the others did. His eyes lacked any sort of pupil, which was normal for other robots but still looked weird on Metal, who always had the most believable eyes of any Eggman creation.

"Seems a bit redundant to use whatever that is on your own robot," Sonic commented dryly, trying his best to remain calm.

"Sonic, look out!" Tails suddenly yelled, but without any indication of what direction to dodge, Sonic experienced only a split second of hesitation that resulted in him getting hit by an inexplicable wave of water. He felt panic strike through him, all attempts to keep his cool washing away with the water. A yell of surprise (and certainly not fear) erupted from his lungs without his permission as the wave made contact and he scrambled to pick himself back up after it ceased. Eggman's laughter in the background wasn't helping things much.

When he stood back up, he discovered the source of the wave: Chaos, the creature that lived inside the Master Emerald. Who had destroyed Station Square before Sonic purified him as Super Sonic. Unsurprisingly, he had the same glitches around him as everyone else did, although his eyes looked no different. They were always solid green and unreadable. Sonic felt obliged to make a quip at this point.

"Man, Knuckles is gonna be so ticked when he finds out about this," he said, but somehow his heart just wasn't quite in it. Chaos wasn't too much of a problem on his own in this form, but Metal Sonic always gave him more trouble than Eggman's other robots, and having to fight both him, Chaos, and Zavok (and Shadow, if he ever intended on moving from that spot) all at once was definitely going to be more problematic than it was worth.

And that was before the fifth one showed up.

The figure that floated down from the sky was the only one that Sonic didn't recognize, and as with any new enemy, Sonic immediately felt compelled to make fun of him. There were about a dozen jokes that sprang to mind in sight of his overly elaborate mask, unruly white hair, and his overly elegant and serious disposition. (The red stone that looked embedded on his chest was kind of cool, but he could absolutely joke about jewelry or obvious weak spots, assuming that's what it was.)

Unfortunately, given the circumstances, he thought that might be a bit ill-advised.

Instead, he settled for giving the newcomer a knowing smirk, reminding himself that he would get the opportunity to gloat and tease all he wanted once their battle was over. Sure, he was outnumbered five-to-one, (five-to-two, counting Tails) and the upcoming battle was going to be anything but pleasant, but all things considered, he had gotten out of far worse situations before. Whoever this masked guy was, Sonic would find a way to defeat him and everyone else Eggman had assembled. He always did.

Deciding to be the first one to make a move, Sonic broke out into a Boost towards the masked one. At such a close range, nothing could react fast enough to dodge him at his quickest (advisable) speed. So, when he ran forward, he expected to immediately be met with the force of crashing into another living being.

But the impact never came.

Sonic was able to stop himself fast enough to stay within range of everyone, but his mind was riddled with confusion. Turning back towards his enemies told him that his target was merely a few feet away from where he had initially been standing. But how was that possible? No one had ever been fast enough to dodge his Boost at that range!

Unfortunately, Sonic's brief moment of shock was all the time it took for the masked one to unleash a spin kick that made direct contact with Sonic's back, flinging him into a nearby wall. The pain that shot through him was unexpected in both its suddenness and severity, but it was hardly the worst thing he had experienced. He was used to being thrown into walls at this point. He picked himself, feeling strangely more confident now that he knew a little more about his new opponent. (Which basically amounted to "he's crazy fast and kicks really hard," but it was still good to know.)

What he hadn't realized was just how fast this newcomer really was. The second he stood up, he saw the newcomer's mask staring right back at him. Sonic barely had a moment to even acknowledge this fact before he found himself being thrown into the air again and felt several burns spread across him from... were those lasers?

Okay, so apparently, he can shoot lasers from his hands, too, Sonic thought to himself before plummeting himself back onto the ground, just barely missing a strike from Metal Sonic. From the corner of his eye, he could see Tails attempting to fend off Chaos with varying success. But he couldn't focus on Tails right now; he had to deal with dodging the punches Zavok had suddenly started throwing at him.

Delivering a few swift punches and kicks to Zavok in return, he found himself on the run again from Metal Sonic. Shadow, it seemed, still hadn't moved, and as much as Sonic didn't want to hurt him, he was going to take full advantage of his current state while the moment allowed it. He grabbed Shadow's arm and turned to fling him into Metal Sonic.

...Only for Shadow to pick that exact moment to regain mobility, turning Sonic's maneuver against him and throwing Sonic into Metal instead. And Metal didn't waste a single second shooting Sonic with an energy beam of his own. Curling into a ball midair kept him from feeling the full brunt of the blast, and he expected to land a hit on Metal Sonic any moment now.

Instead, Metal just grabbed him mid-spin and shot another laser from his chest plate. There was no avoiding this one.

He couldn't keep himself from letting out a pained yell as his entire torso felt like it was being lit on fire from the blast. He was all too aware of how his body practically screamed at him when he tumbled across the floor from the force of the attack. Meanwhile, Eggman's taunting laugh was echoing a little too clearly in his ears for his liking.

But he dragged himself up once he stopped rolling despite his body's protests, finding himself face-to-face with Shadow once more. His mind was clearing fairly quickly, considering he had just been shot point-blank, which meant he could fully acknowledge the fact that Shadow was actually looking at him. He hadn't made eye contact with anyone all day.

Sonic didn't have time to think about that, though, because his thoughts were promptly interrupted by something that made his stomach twist into a knot.

Tails was screaming.

That alone compelled Sonic to push Shadow to the side and run as fast as he could towards the source of the horrible sound. He had been so caught up in his own battle that he let Tails get overwhelmed, and the image in front of him only worsened the feeling of guilt that was already punching him the gut.

Tails was being enveloped in the same red static as the rest of his foes, his small form generating strange red after images; again, it looked as if he was glitching somehow. Whatever was happening, it was clearly hurting Tails, and the masked one was obviously the one causing it, if his hand firmly held in Tails' direction was any indication.

His eyes wide with desperation, Sonic let out a shout that came from rage more than any pain he was feeling as he balled up his fist and forcefully connected it with the masked one's face. It wasn't enough to knock the mask off, but it definitely sent him flying, which was all he needed to do at the moment.

Tails' screaming stopped, but that did little to comfort him since he collapsed almost immediately after. Sonic was by his side in an instant, lifting the small fox into his arms.

"Tails! Are you okay?!" he yelled, louder than he was meaning to. He breathed a sigh of relief when Tails looked up at him, disoriented and pained but very much alive. Still, they weren't out of danger yet, and the last thing Sonic was about to do was leave Tails anywhere near these five. He immediately started running as fast as he dared away from the fight, hoping that he could make it far away enough to get Tails to safety before the others caught up. He might still have to fight them, but at least his best friend would be out of harm's way. Maybe he could even call for backup.

"Don't worry little bro, I'll get you somewhere safe, you'll be fine—AAGH!"

He was interrupted by a sharp pain in his back. Whatever had shot him had enough power behind it to plunge him forwards into the concrete, losing his grip on Tails as he rolled out in front of him. Grunting in pain, he tried to lift himself up, but the fresh pain in his chest and face was making it difficult. The masked one was a lot faster than he had imagined; even Sonic himself would have needed another few seconds to catch up with something moving as fast as he was.

Could it be that this new enemy was actually faster than him?

If that was the case, then there was no escaping this fight. The odds were being stacked against him more with each passing second, and for the first time in months, Sonic was starting to feel scared that he wouldn't be winning this.

That was when his vision turned red.

He blinked, trying to fight off whatever life-threatening symptom was making his eyes see red, but he quickly realized that it wasn't his eyes that were at fault. His surroundings were enveloped in red, everything glitching slightly as if they had all been affected by the same thing as Shadow and the others on a much larger scale. That was when he noticed that Tails had vanished.

"Tails? Where are you?!" he managed to shout, desperation laced in his voice. Had the enemies taken Tails?! If that was the case, he would never be able to forgive himself until he found him again. He turned towards the masked one, who was surrounded by a strange aura. Shadow, Metal, Zavok, and Chaos were all behind him, but they made no move towards them.

"Pathetic," the masked one uttered, "You really waste far too much energy worrying about other people. Let me remind you who your real problem is right now."

Suddenly, he was burning.

Not from flames, he didn't think; the loud crack that nearly deafened him sounded an awful lot like thunder, so he must have been burning from electricity. Every fiber in his body felt like it was being twisted up and clawed at by the harsh currents that struck him. He couldn't breathe; it was only when the thunder died down that he figured out why. He was screaming, louder and more painfully than he had in ages. Thoughts seemed to evaporate out of his brain. He had no idea how long this was going to last, or how long it already had.

Then, as quickly as it began, it stopped. The world wasn't red anymore. Lightning stopped coursing through his veins. The floor was a lot closer than he remembered it being, so he must have collapsed. But he barely feel the hard floor beneath him. He could breathe again, but it didn't feel like he was getting much air.

He could see his hand laid out in front of him and tried to move it, but managed no more than a twitch that sent pain shooting through his fingers. He felt so depleted. Moving was proving to be impossible. Everything was slowly turning dark as he weakly struggled to keep his eyes open.

The last thoughts that went through his mind as he saw the masked one float down were berating him for being such a fool. If only he had made it to Tails sooner, if he hadn't been so arrogant, if he could have done anything differently…

In the few seconds of consciousness he had left, he heard Tails' voice.

"Sonic!"

Then everything went dark.

Author's Notes: And that was the first chapter! I really hope you all enjoyed it. As you can see, I took a... darker approach to that cutscene, which was really fun to write. You can expect the rest of the story to follow in those footsteps.

Anyway, feel free to leave a review to let me know what you thought of this chapter! Any feedback you give is extremely helpful. :)