Disclaimer: I do not own Sonic. That's all for now. This is rated T but will get more T'ish later on.

The Writing's On the Wall

Chapter 0: Late nights

Location: Ottawa, Canada

Time: 12:25 am

'And that's why photosynthesis is important to plants and humans alike.'

I stopped typing and slammed my head against the table. I was exhausted. From what I could tell, I had been writing my homework for over 5 hours. I looked at the clock in the corner of my study; it read 12:25 am.

'Shit. Why does this keep happening?' I asked myself.

'I attend an online high school from my computer and I was finishing my biology paper. I had very strict instructions to get my assignments finished on a certain schedule, so these late nights often occurred.

'Why can't I be more like Tails?' I asked myself, referring to one of my favorite characters in my all time favorite game: Sonic the Hedgehog. I often wished that I were brilliant so that I could have more time doing other things like hanging out with my friends.

'I guess I should check my mail.' I said as I opened my mail server. I opened my mailbox.

'Junk, junk, keep, junk, keep, keep.' I said as I went through the new messages. After I was finished, I got up to go to bed, but I remembered about MSN. I waited the 10 seconds for it to load and checked my buddy list. Gabe: Offline, Angela: Busy.

'No surprise.' I said to myself. 'She's an insomniac. I continued to search, but no avail.

As far as I could see, all my friends were either offline or not interested in talking.

'That figures.'

Before I could hit the quit button, a message popped up:

'Shadowman has been added to your buddy list.'

'What?'

As soon as the warning message disappeared, an IM window came up.

'Hello Alex.' Someone typed. "Yes, I know who you are.'

'What the hell is this? The Matrix?' But the message continued.

'I know it's late and you want to go to bed. Don't be afraid when the clock strikes 13.'

'Ding dong Alex.'

'What the?' I jumped:

'Bong, bong, bong!' The clock in my living room started to count the half hour.

The message vanished.'

'WTF was that?' I asked myself. 'Nothing I guess.'

I stood up, stretched my legs, shut off the computer and left the room. I looked down into the darkness at my feet and saw my dog Theo trying to sleep.

'Hey girl.' I said, leaning down. 'Can't sleep either?'

I left her to her dreams. Instead of climbing the stairs to my room, I turned left and headed downstairs. I was sleeping there since my room was being re-painted.

I reached the living room on the bottom floor, it wasn't exactly the ideal room in the house, a broken down sofa that I was expected to sleep on, a few shelves of books and tapes and a TV sat at the far end of the room.

I opened my bag, took out my nightclothes and slowly began to change. What had that message meant? I didn't know anyone by Shadowman. I sat down, picked up the remote and turned on the TV, intending to watch something for a while.

………

'Was the message sent?' Asked a shadowy figure from behind a control panel.

'Yes it was.' Replied a black hedgehog named Shadow.

'Good. The plan is in motion.'

Shadow tuned his back on the man.

'Chaos Control!'

………

I was beginning to get really tired now, but I was still pondering over the mysterious message. Why would someone send a completely random message to a boy in the middle of nowhere in a completely dead city?

Saying this, I thought about how much I'd like to change those last few words. My city wasn't exactly the most exciting place to live. I would have loved to live somewhere else. I had vowed that I would never go to university on this continent and that I would broaden my horizons. Maybe Japan? I was a very large fan of anything Japanese, Anime especially.

Just as I was about to turn the TV off, something caught my attention.

'Bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong!'

'Shit, our clock's broken.' I said to myself.

CRASH!

'What?'

A crash like that was bound to wake up my parents. I waited a minute, but no footsteps could be heard 2 floors above.

Mustering up my courage, I got out of bed and started to climb the stairs. If anyone touched my computer, they would pay. My computer was my life. I worked and played on it. Without it, I didn't know what I would do.

I shivered as I reached the top of the stairs as if a cold wind and blown through the house. Still, I couldn't hear anything from upstairs, so my parents were most definitely asleep. A crash that rivaled a bulldozer crashing through our house and they wouldn't wake up? I had a very strange feeling that I was the only one to have heard it.

I crossed over Theo in the hall on my way to the study, still wondering if this had anything to do with the strange events of the evening.

Entering the study, the first thing I saw was that the computer was on again. I turned to leave the room, but before I could, MSN had activated again. I sat down and stared in horror as warning messages came up, saying that people with screen names Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy had been added to my buddy list.

'This can't be just a coincidence.'

An IM window came up with all four of them in it.

I hesitated for a moment before typing:

'Hi guys…'

'Hello kid.' The one named Knuckles said.

'Tails?' I typed.

'Yep, it's me.' He typed back.

'This is impossible. You're not supposed to be real.'

'In your mind, we're real.' Amy typed.

'Does this have anything to do with Chaos Control?' I asked.

'What do you know about Chaos Control?' Sonic asked back.

'Only that you, Shadow, Tails and Knuckles are the only ones who know how to use it.'

'Who else?' Asked Tails.

'No one.'

'No one?' Asked Sonic, and even though we were typing, I somehow could tell that there was some skepticism in his voice.

'Yes, no one. At least no one I know. What's this about?'

'Look to your left.'

I looked.

'Nothing.' I wrote.

'Nothing?' Even more skepticism.

I looked back. Still nothing.

'What kind of a joke is this? Who are you?'

'We're just who we say we are.' Typed Knuckles.

'No, you're just some group of people who think that pulling a stunt like this is funny. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to bed.'

'I wouldn't be too sure of that.' Typed Amy. 'Sonic.'

I stood up to leave.

'Look again kid.' Said the so-called Knuckles.

Thinking I had nothing more to loose, I looked to the left again. Sitting there on the desk, was a red stone.

'You believe us now kid?' Asked Knuckles.

'This isn't possible…' I said to myself as I picked up the stone.

'We need your help.' Typed Tails.

'What do I do?' I asked.

Nothing.

I sat there for a few minutes to take the whole thing in.

'Kid. You know what to do.' Typed Sonic.

The stone began to glow. As I was engulfed in its brilliant red light, these two words came to my mind. It was so simple; it was if I had known them my entire life:

'Chaos Control!'