Monitor
Sonic frowned.
The jump ahead of him couldn't have been more than six feet high, but moving through the water had already taxed him to the point of exhaustion. It was worrisome and frustrating, because as much as he wanted to find an alternate route around the obstacle, he knew for a fact that his time was limited. From afar he could barely make out the place at which he had last taken a gulp of air. It seemed like ages ago.
And unfortunately, it was ages ago...
The brackish purple water was nearly choking him at this point. The concentration of chemicals that Scrap Brain Zone pumped into the place was revolting, leaving the water far worse than the state of the water in Labyrinth Zone. Sonic had wondered earlier if the chemicals in the water would have any impact on his attempt to make it through the ruins, and now it seemed he had his answer. A six foot jump above ground would have been a piece of cake, and a six foot jump underwater in Labyrinth Zone wouldn't have been much more difficult.
But here? Oh man, time was really running thin...
He made a lunge for the ledge, gliding a few feet through the dark water. He grabbed the stone and tried to grip on to anything that could hold him in place. But instead his gloves slipped on the smooth surface of the rock and he floated back down to the floor.
The initial lunge had taken so much out of him, and he was really feeling the need for air now. It was pressing, but he kept that need from getting to his head. If he was going to get up to the ledge and to next set of air bubbles, he was going to have to focus all of his attention on getting there. Nothing else.
He sprung from the ground with an even greater force this time, reaching his hands as far as he could. He was able to get his chest on the corner of the slippery rock, but even with his hands stretched to the middle of the stone, there was still nothing to hold on to. He clawed at the rock as he slipped backward, slowly sinking back to the ground.
Panic was beginning to set in. The hedgehog had never held his breath this long underwater before. The next set of air bubbles weren't even in sight, and he still hadn't cleared the jump to the ledge above him. Sonic made a worried noise, frantically looking around for some bubbles that he may have missed. It wasn't any use. The only alternate route he could see was the way he had come from, and he knew for a fact the last set of air bubbles were too far away now.
Sonic didn't want to believe it, but he knew it. The only way out, is up. If he was going to have any chance at being alive thirty seconds from now, he was going to have to try to lunge for that stone one last time.
Sonic squatted down as low as he could on the floor, and with every ounce of stamina left in him, he launched to the ledge. He pressed his hands together, searing away the brackish water ahead of him to move up as far as he could. Managing to actually launch above the stone this time, he stretched out his foot to catch the edge. He almost thought he would slip for a moment, but his shoe caught on the edge, and with that he was able to lever himself onto the top of the rock.
He had finally cleared the jump, but Sonic had no time to spare for celebration. He had begun to feel a bit dizzy from the lack of oxygen, and his vision was starting to blur. The bubbles were just ahead of him though...all he really needed to do was take a few steps.
He made a single small stride, but it was enough to let Sonic know that he wasn't going to get to the bubbles on his feet. He felt too lanky to keep upright, and pretty soon he was down on his knees, desperately dragging himself to the air source.
He was there, but he was near his end. Bubbles formed around him and enveloped him, but they were simply too small to breathe from. Doing the only thing he could do, he pressed his mouth against the opening, hoping air rather than water would eventually flow into his lungs. The moss on the ground was slimy. The water around him was dark and cold. He really wasn't up for going out like this. In his mind he'd always pictured going out with a spectacular bang, but this was more like going out with a whimper...
When Sonic awoke, the first thing he noticed was that he was breathing real air. It wasn't something he would normally notice right off the bat, but after his near-drowning experience, he couldn't help but cherish the moment for as long as it lasted. A second passed, two seconds passed, and Sonic still took breaths.
He opened his eyes and realized he wasn't breathing from a bubble at all. The ground below him no longer felt mossy or rocky...in fact, with his mouth still pressed on the ground, it tasted metallic and felt really cold. He pushed himself up to get a better look at the air vent below him, but when he finally could see beneath him, there wasn't a vent to be found. The whole floor around him was smoothed down, lacking any cracks or openings.
Confused and disoriented, Sonic turned over and sat down to set his mind straight. It was then he made another realization...he could feel the force of gravity. He moved his arms around him and they whisked around him without any drag. Wherever he was, it certainly wasn't in the Scrap Brain Ruins, and it was a place filled with air.
Yes.
Sonic breathed a sigh of relief. He eased himself back to the ground and laid with arms crossed beneath his head, smiling. So he had made it! He had lived!
But...how?
He racked his brain to consider all the possibilities. Somehow he had been able to get air from a bubble, that much was certain. He certainly wouldn't have made it otherwise.
But then what? How did he proceed after that? He certainly didn't remember leaving the air vent or continuing to the end of the ruins. In fact, it was doubtful that he would have had the energy to make it that far, even with the extra air. Somehow, through some method or another, he must have been transported from the ruins to this place...whatever this place was.
He considered for a moment that it could have been Eggman who moved him here, but that made absolutely no sense. That mad doctor had already tried numerous way to off him, from wrecking balls to giant spikes of doom. He'd have no reason to save Sonic from drowning. He'd probably enjoy watching such a scene.
Maybe finding out more about this place would help him piece together what had happened.
Sonic pushed himself up to his feet. It seemed like whatever time had passed had let him recover pretty well. He felt rejuvenated, ready to explore whatever was coming next. But looking around him, there really wasn't much out there to explore.
He discovered he was in a tiny room, surrounded by jet black walls. He walked over to one and knocked on its surface. Yes, it seemed like the walls were made of the same material as the floor...some sort of special metal. He felt like he had come into contact with this sort of material before, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it.
His train of thought was interrupted as he turned to view the only light source within the room. Actually, it seemed as though the light was coming from outside the room.
Sonic walked over to it and discovered that the light source was actually a window to somewhere. The window was enormous...it must have covered nearly the entirety of the wall. Looking at it so suddenly had temporarily blinded him with light, and he had to squint as he came closer. He pressed his hand to the glass to keep from bumping into it, and used his other hand to shield his eyes until they adjusted to the brightness. His eyes gradually became more willing to accept the light, and finally, the outside world beyond the window came into focus.
And suddenly, in front him, was Green Hill Zone.
What?
There was no mistaking it though - the clean cut grass, the checkerboard soil, the palm trees, the loops. It was all there beneath him, without a doubt. It was only earlier that day that he had been there, so there wasn't any chance he could have forgotten its appearance. Or had it been earlier in the day? Now he wasn't sure of that either...
Sonic looked around at the hills and loops and noticed something very peculiar. There wasn't anything there. Of course there was plenty of plant life around, but there wasn't anything there that was moving. No badniks, no animals, and certainly no Eggman. It was just an empty zone. It didn't bother him that Eggman and all of the badniks had cleared out...that was more or less a godsend. But where were all the animals? Sonic must have released hundreds, maybe even thousands of animals from their metallic prisons. He knew for a fact that they all lived here, so where had they gone?
Something else was off too. The trees and the loops...they seemed larger than he had remembered them. It had been a breeze traversing the zone his first time around, but now he could hardly believe it had been so easy. Could he muster enough speed to clear that enormous loop in the distance? Even he had his doubts...
More confused than ever before, Sonic turned away from the window and sat down where he had awakened. He needed a bit of time to adjust to his new surroundings, relax, and logically piece together the clues. It seemed like he wasn't in any immediate danger, so time was on his side. Plus, a little break from his arduous adventure seemed like a good idea.
He was in a dark room somewhere in Green Hill Zone. The room could've been connected to a larger building, but that was unlikely seeing as there weren't any visible doors or crawlspaces. Nothing in the room, save for the large window on the side, yielded any information about the type of place he was in. It couldn't have been a hospital or a mental health facility...even if he had been placed in quarantine, he definitely would've encountered at least someone by now.
A prison seemed unlikely. The only person who'd want to send him to prison was Eggman, but for one, Sonic hadn't committed any crime and wouldn't have been accepted by a prison in the first place, and second, Eggman would rather have him dead than send him anywhere else. Sending Sonic to a secluded place would just delay the inevitable, and Eggman wasn't really the role model of patience, at least when Sonic was involved.
Eggman had been responsible for most of Sonic's misfortunes in the past, but for some strange reason there seemed to be no logical way for him to be involved in this situation.
So much for piecing together the clues...
There was still the matter of Green Hill Zone itself that Sonic hadn't puzzled over yet. He knew for a fact that it had to be Green Hill, but all of the dimensions were assuredly much larger than they should've been. There wasn't anyone around out there either, which was extremely concerning considering how vibrant Green Hill had been in the past. It was the exact same Green Hill, just...
Different. Aha...
A warp zone! That was it! Sonic figured he must've stumbled upon a warp zone in the ruins of Scrap Brain, and that's how he ended up here in an empty Green Hill. Warp zones were rare on the island, but Sonic had been able to travel through a few notable ones under urgent circumstances. The basic warp zone was exactly what it seemed like - a gateway to another part of the island. But of course, there had been stories of other warp zones, warp zones with more complex properties. They were extremely hard to find, but supposedly a trip through one would send its passenger to another part of the island - a familiar place, but with several things subtly changed. The layout would remain the same, but certain dimensions, textures, colors, creatures...they'd all have certain changes. And for the most part these changes weren't very good ones...or so the stories went.
As far-fetched as it seemed, Sonic had to admit that it was the best explanation he could think of thus far. It would explain the sudden switch to this area without Eggman's involvement, and it would explain the strange nature of Green Hill Zone outside. It still failed to explain the room though, and this was a bit troublesome, but upon thinking about it some more, Sonic reasoned that it did not matter. Being in this room wasn't going to be a problem for much longer anyway...
He stood up and ran for the back wall. He turned to face the window ahead of him, spines pressed against the wall's cold metal surface. Knees bent, toes pointed, arms swaying, he prepared for a spinning dash through the glass. From what he could tell, the glass couldn't have been more than an inch thick. Crashing through it wouldn't take more than a single hit in the center. He'd crashed through a lot worse obstacles by spinning without a running start, and this time he had that advantage. No more creepy black walls for him, he was out to see this new Green Hill zone for himself.
In the next few seconds, a series of events took place that led to an unpredictable end:
A charge.
A leap.
A spin.
A blur.
A smash.
A fall.
A collapse.
A groan.
In less than ten seconds, Sonic went from determined, to bewildered, to frustrated. The glass hadn't given way at all! Not even a single scratch mark was visible on its surface! Sonic groaned once more and rolled his eyes at the undamaged glass. His backside felt sore and his forearms felt bruised, but most importantly his spirit had been shaken. A one-inch thick window had stopped him in his tracks. How was that even possible? How did that make any sense at all?
He got up and ran for the back of the room once more. This time he pushed himself to his limit, taking the longest strides, digging into the ground with substantial force, spinning with a centripetal force rivaling that of higher-order centrifuges.
Nothing changed. No scratches, no dents. He crashed to the ground once more, aching on all sides and extremities. His temper had reached the boiling point. Groans turned into scowls. The question of where he was, the warp zone, the alternate Green Hill, the dark room...it had little meaning anymore. All in front of him was glass, and he couldn't break through.
He tried again and again and again. With each successive attempt, his frustration grew as the glass failed to show any sign of damage. The pane didn't even shake upon each collision...it was like it wasn't even made of glass, but rather transparent concrete. Eventually, Sonic stopped going for a running start and ended up just standing next to the glass, hitting it, kicking it, and slamming into it. It was the most useless thing he could be doing, but Sonic had enough of the futility of the situation. He never got held back by an obstacle...never! There had always been a way past something, whether it was dashing into it, jumping over it, or toppling it over. But this...what the hell was this?
Sonic kicked the glass a final time, not really as an attempt to damage to glass, but more as a sultry farewell. "Thanks for playing, come back soon!", the glass seemed to reply. Sonic sneered and walked off.
He began to walk laps around the room to cool down. The pent up frustration and the continuous collisions with the glass had really worked him up, and he needed at least some way to recover. Thinking about his current physiological status though, he had to admit that something was a little off. He must have crashed into that pane of glass at least a hundred times, but he never bled at any point. He felt plenty bruised and battered, but there seemed to be no visible sign of contact anywhere on his body. No bruises, no cuts, no gashes. Another odd thing in this whole convoluted mess...
Sonic swore a week must have gone by. Maybe even two.
He was sitting by the window, his head rested against the indestructible glass, looking out at the clear sky and waving grass of Green Hill Zone. It still looked the same as it looked when he had first arrived. No signs of life. Everything larger than it should have been.
To make it even more of a head scratcher, Green Hill Zone had continuously remained the same since his arrival. It was always day, and the sun remained in the exact same position no matter how many hours had passed. Apparently, wherever he had ended up, time was meaningless...
It was getting way too cramped for Sonic's taste. He could run around all he wanted to, sure, but running onto the walls and ceiling of the room just made him feel like he was running in a hamster's ball. It wasn't very liberating at all for Sonic. And liberation was a term that he lived by.
On the bright side, he never had to worry about hunger or injury. Sonic figured out not too long after his arrival that his body was stuck in some sort of functional limbo. He never felt hungry or thirsty, and no matter how hard he threw himself into the glass, he never truly injured any part of his body. Pain seemed to be an exception to the rule though, much to Sonic's displeasure.
The biggest problem was boredom. He never fathomed that at any point of his life he'd be bored to excess, but the room was testing him in ways he couldn't have imagined. He did everything he could to keep himself busy. He sang Mobian songs to himself and told himself stories that he'd learned on Christmas Island long ago. He tapped on the glass and metal, coming up with new tunes in his head. Alternatively, he ran for hours at a time. He tried to count the seconds it took to complete various numbers of laps, and eventually he formulated his own scoreboard with his best times. Trying to improve with every run became a fun activity for him, but after what seemed to be a few weeks, even that became boring.
..Am I being punished for something?
I should've found an alternate route. There must have been an air vent I missed.
Sonic sat in the corner, unable to think about anything except the last moments of his life. His real life anyway, not the life he was forced to live now in this godforsaken room.
The island's probably gone now, Eggman must have taken all of it back. If time is progressing here like it is there, then it's past too late. No one stopped him...
Sonic's grasp of his emotions had begun to fade as time had passed, but his grasp of guilt never really changed. How could he forget about it if it was the only thing he had left to think about?
Click. Whrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
The sudden noise made Sonic jump. He had been lounging with his back against the glass, humming a Christmas Island folk song to himself, when all of the sudden everything around him began to change. From the back wall, a panel that he swore had never been there before opened, revealing what seemed to be some sort of old projector tube. Despite a lack of power from any discernible place in the room, the projector turned on, forcing Sonic to cover his eyes. He pushed himself away from the glass, troubled by the sudden glare, but at the same time he was excited. Something was actually happening.
He stood up at turned to look at the glass. For whatever reason, the projector had decided to cover the glass with a screen of static. No pictures or messages, just a bunch of digital static that wasn't clearing up to be anything. Still, Sonic was intrigued. He waited in place for a bit longer, hoping to see another change occur. Perhaps an open door to the outside world? Or at the very least something extra to combat his boredom.
Thinking about all of the possible changes made him realize that maybe the changes weren't limited to the room. He walked back over to the glass and pressed his face against it, cupping his hands over his eyes to keep the glare out. What he saw was astounding! A vast number of badniks had taken up the vacant space throughout Green Hill, ranging in design from Buzz Bombers to Motobugs. In fact, it seemed as though they were all the same badniks he encountered the last time he ran through Green Hill. And where had they all come from? It was as if they had instantaneously materialized out of thin air!
And yet, Sonic could hardly contain his excitement. He honestly never thought badniks would be such a welcoming sight, but they were! Everything was finally beginning to change after such a long period of remaining the same, and perhaps this meant he was closer to leaving. He could finally start his journey back to the real world...and hopefully it wasn't too late!
Sonic peered out towards other parts of the zone, hoping to find additional developments. In a matter of seconds, he saw it. A blue blur out the corner of his eye. He found it in the far distance, and when the blue blur stopped, it's appearance was unmistakably clear.
It was him! It was Sonic the Hedgehog! The blue quills, the tan stomach, the white gloves, the dark eyes...in every way, shape, and form he was the exact duplicate of himself. A Sonic doppelgänger, running through Green Hill, determined to defeat Eggman and...
Sonic's smile faded. The thought, "determined to defeat Eggman", echoed in his mind. The gears were beginning to turn and the pieces were finally falling into place. Watching the Sonic doppelgänger smash into the first few badniks only set into stone what was finally dawning on him.
He knew exactly where he was. And he knew exactly what was going to happen.
This wasn't an alternate universe. It was the past, reset to the day on which Sonic had first set foot on Green Hill. The larger trees and the larger loops outside weren't larger at all...Sonic was smaller.
It all made sense. The appearance of Green Hill Zone, the impenetrable glass, the black-walled room, the projection of static...all evidence of something tragic that was about to happen. Sonic couldn't help but tremble. He turned his head frantically to look about the room for some sort of escape, but nothing had changed besides the wall with the projector. He started slamming his fists upon the glass, trying in vain to flee from this death trap, his survival instincts kicking in. He thrashed and kicked and threw himself repeatedly against the glass, yelling in terror all the while. The doppelgänger approached ever so quickly, and Sonic heard himself bellow out such calls as, "Stop!", "Help!", "Let me out!", "LET ME OUT!".
It was no use. There was no escape, and he had the sickly feeling that it was meant to be that way. He slumped to the ground, his hands in his face, a lump in his throat. The whole near-drowning experience in Scrap Brain Zone was just a preview of his impending end. This was the real deal. As soon as the doppelgänger caught up to his position, he was a goner. This, once and for all, was truly game over.
Sonic lifted his head from his hands to find the doppelgänger again. He wasn't too far away now, but from the looks of things he still had a minute to go. Thinking about the doppelgänger, Sonic couldn't help but think that it wasn't right to call him by that term. The blue hedgehog outside wasn't a copy, but the original. That very same hedgehog had been himself only weeks or months before, and he was thinking about the very same things. He was probably thinking about Eggman, what his plans were at the end of Green Hill Zone, where he would try to flee next. He was probably thinking about the creatures of the island, how many there were left that he needed to save, and how many he needed to save that he had missed. He remembered himself thinking about those things, and he remembered how confident he had felt.
His feelings had certainly changed since then. But wasn't it only because of how he had ended up here in the first place? If he hadn't had trouble in Scrap Brain Zone...if his confidence hadn't wavered and he hadn't panicked before making his last attempt for that ledge in the ruins...would he be here? Or would he have been able to get that last air bubble and continue past the ruins to Eggman's layer.
Yes, he probably would have succeeded.
So while there was no hope for the Sonic sitting inside the doomed room, there was hope for the Sonic running around the checkered loop, smashing into badniks this way and that. As long as he maintained his confidence, he could break the pattern and keep going without being sent to the worst place imaginable.
The original Sonic stood for the final time and faced his previous self, who was already on the home-stretch, bearing down towards the pane of glass that separated the two. He knew the previous instance of himself wouldn't be able to hear him, but he felt the need to speak anyway. It was a final ditch effort to correct everything that had gone wrong. Even if he had gone thorough such a harrowing experience, hopefully, this Sonic wouldn't have to.
"You have the right idea old friend. You have your eyes on the prize and hardly anything to stop you. Just remember that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to. Your mind is a powerful tool. It can get you through the most dangerous of situations, so use it wisely. But most importantly, use it to suppress the fear you must be feeling now. Don't let those "what if's" get to you, because as long as you keep your eyes on the prize, none of those things will happen to you. And whatever you do, never hesitate. Not even once. Do this, and you'll never have to live in this cursed monitor."
"All you have to do is cope."
Pop.
The monitor imploded upon contact, much to Sonic's delight. He hummed a triumphant tune to himself as he continued through the course, smashing into more badniks, collecting rings here and there. He wasn't really sure why, but smashing into the various monitors Eggman left behind had become a rejuvenating activity. Maybe it was the fact that the machines crumbled so easily, or the fact that he was destroying property that Eggman spent time building, but all the same, he felt like he was breathing in new life.
It made him really optimistic about the journey ahead. Sure, there were bound to be more difficult zones in the future, but if Eggman's badniks and monitors were so easy to destroy here, how could they possibly get that much tougher? Defeating Eggman was simply becoming a question of getting through the harsh terrain, and at the moment, that was only limited to spikes that he could basically step over.
Sonic smiled as he reached the end of the zone, replacing Eggman's territorial sign-post with a post of his own. He whistled a folk tune to himself as he bent down to fasten his buckle a bit tighter, preparing for another section of the green wilderness ahead of him. Despite the fate of the island hanging on this mission, Sonic couldn't help but smile, thinking about the progress he had made and the life he was truly living.
He couldn't imagine himself frowning anytime soon.