No Brotherly Love 2: Echoes In Time

Chapter 1: Awakening

'God, my head…What the…Where am I? This isn't…Normal. There's nothing but blankness. How did I get here? I was with Tails and…Christ, he's dead, she killed him!' I think to myself. 'And then…Then there was nothing but…This. What caused this? I remember an explosion after what happened to Tails. And that agent, that fox lady, she spoke to someone through her earpiece and then…The explosion. God dammit! I'll kill her! I'll kill her for-AHH! What the hell was that? That stung-AHH! Again? You've gotta be kidding me! What is this pain-AHH! Right that's it! Do that again and I swear-AHH!' I reach out to grab whatever it is that's causing me pain and eventually get a hold of it. 'Haha! I've got you now you…Wait…What on Earth? It's metal. Why do I have hold of something that's metal?'

"S-Sonic…" A robotic voice chokes through my hold. "S-Sonic…Let go, you fool…" My eyes widen in shock. 'That voice.' I think.

"Metal…Sonic? Is that you?" I ask, hope in my voice. My vision's no longer blank, it's blurred but…I can just make out Metal. He's standing above me, watching me. I loosen my grip on his metallic neck.

"You're awake, finally." He says, rubbing his neck. I swear, if he could, he'd be smiling right now, I can tell.

"Where am I?" I ask, the tone of my voice weak from just waking up.

He slowly shakes his head at me. "I think the most suitable question is when are you."

I frown at him. I attempt to sit up, but the stinging pain returns to my torso, causing me to yelp in pain. Metal helps me to sit up, and as he does so, I try to take in my surroundings. I'm in, what looks like, a hospital wing, in a bed.

In confusion, I ask, "What's going on?"

Metal lets off a robotic sigh. "You see Sonic," He starts, "That explosion was, how should I put it, not used to kill you." The expression I give him shows my disbelief. He continues, "That 'weapon' had the dark matter found in the creatures you've encountered fused into it, like the atoms that are used in the likes of an atomic bomb. That, along with a few other adjustments made it so that…Well, have you wondered how the creatures suddenly appeared in the world?"

I nod. "Yeah."

"Well, they used teleportation and time travel to get around. G.U.N got their hands on this technology and-"

"Wait!" I interrupt. "The creatures use technology? Like computers and stuff?"

"Well, not exactly computers and the like, but yes. They use a unique form of technology." Metal answers. "Anyway, G.U.N decided to test this technology on Miles, or as you called him Tails, but since you beat him to within an inch of his life, and were an enemy of G.U.N, they decided to test it on all of Station Square, making it so we all moved forward in time."

It takes me a while to get a grip of this, but once I do, I ask, "Well, what is the time? The year even?"

"I don't know." Metal answers simply.

I give him a worried smirk. "You're kidding, right?"

He shrugs. "I'm afraid not. I've been busy attending to you, making sure you survived the journey from one time to another since I, as a robot, can't be affected by time travel because, unlike you, I don't have a lifespan."

Sarcastically, I say, "Oh, that's just great." Metal's about to say something else, but the noise of alarms stops him. The room suddenly goes dark, and then, not long afterwards, the room becomes illuminated by a red light.

"ALERT! Necro's found in hospital wing! Repeat: Necro's found in hospital wing!" A voice spoke over some speakers.

Metal stares at me worriedly. "Sonic, are you alright?" I look at him, he starts to disfigure and his voice becomes deep and disorientated. "Sonic? Sonic are you alright?" The room morphs, making it so Metal disappears and I'm suddenly in some sort of dark abyss, stood on something unstable. I look at my feet and see, what looks like, a part of a spiders web. I then look up, and intertwining webs can be seen everywhere, or at least what looks like webs.

'Where am I?' I think to myself.

"The most fascinating and complicated mechanism in all creation." A voice with a dark, deep tone answers.

"And that's what exactly?" I ask reluctantly.

The voice laughs and then responds, "Why, it's your mind."

"My…mind?"

The owner of the dark voice appears before me, as if out of thin air. I study the figure, and quickly come to a horrifying conclusion. This person was, without a single shred of doubt, the other me, the one with the bad attitude and a dark demeanor.

"Surprised?" He asks. I can't even answer. Here I am, standing in front of myself. 'Is this even possible?' Before I could think of anything else, the other me answered, "Of course it is. After all, people are the ones that put limits on things. Everything is possible, yet if it's never been accomplished, it is seen by almost everyone as being impossible. There is nothing real, unreal and surreal, for we decide what to call real. I mean, think of a flower. The majority of people would call it a flower, but it is a flower as much as it is a rock. What I'm saying is, if we wanted, we could call a flower a rock simply because we make it so, but we label it as flower. All words are made-up, but the ones that most people don't use are seen as not being a real word, and so do not exist."

I give him a look of confusion. "Your point is?"

He chuckles at my question before he answers with, "Well, my point is that, in the end, you decide whether I'm real or not, and whether this encounter really happened or if it was all just your imagination."

"What are you saying?"

His voice suddenly takes a more serious tone. "Forget it. You will understand soon enough. The reason you've been called here is so I can warn you."

"Warn me? Warn me about what?" I say, questioning his words.

"About many things. One being me. Another being realization. But the one I'll be telling you now is this; they're here, and Amy is close, with Cream even closer."

'Cream?' I think. Thoughts of what happened to her, what she became, return to me. 'Cream, you became one of those creatures, one of those…Things.'

He continues, "Cream has been tasked with killing you. That is her mission, ordered to her by your father…My father."

'Father? I remember him. He was like me, or at least the other me. He was dark, cold and messed up. Is he really my father? Could he really be behind all of this?' I ask myself.

"No." My dark self interrupts my thoughts, at the same time he starts to answer them. "He is not your father, he is my father. And he is not the only one behind this. There is something more, a greater force than you and I, and even my father, the creator of chaos and anarchy. What this force is, I do not know. But whatever it is, we are but a nuisance to it, a wrench in the gears, if you will." My other self starts to disappear, along with the confines of my mind. My dark self raises his hand and finishes, "Oh, before I take my leave, there is two more things you should know. One; Metal, the robotic fellow you're with, he is the only one you should trust. Do not accept help or place your trust with anyone or anything else. And two; Sonic, Knight of The Wind, the blue wind, Saviour of the Arabian Nights, Hero of Soleanna and many other names, you WILL die. And when you do, I will be there to fill your shoes." He laughs manically before he disappears. I reach out as I try to stop him, but he's already gone. The world I had left, the one which I had apparently travelled in time to, starts to reappear around me.

I look at my hand in shock and bewilderment. 'What did I just say, the other me, I mean? Why did I…Why did he say it like that? Is he insane? Does he look forward to my death? Is he a part of it? Does he cause it? What the hell is wrong with me?' I clench the fur on my head and scream in annoyance, along with falling to my knees. 'I give up! I don't understand anything anymore, nothing makes sense! Why do I have to die? Do I even die? Where's Amy, where's Alicia? And Shadow, my son? What about my daughter, where's she? Have I lost my frigging mind? And better yet, where's-?'

"Sonic…" Someone says in a ghostly manner. I look up and see the very person I was just thinking of.

"Cream?" I ask aloud. She's there, just down the dark, dimly lit hallway right in front of me, just near where I was resting earlier.

I feel a metallic hand grab my shoulder. I look behind me and see Metal. "Sonic! We have to go, NOW!" He aims at a nearby window. Cream reaches out to me, as if she wants to hold me in an embrace.

"Don't go…I wanna play…" She says. Although she apparently wants to kill me, I feel sympathy for her, and sadness upon looking at her. She was such an innocent and kind young girl. She doesn't deserve what's happened to her, to be transformed by her own mother. Although I can tell it's Cream, it's hard to recognise her through the dark liquid pouring from her ears, mouth, nose, nails and finally, her eyes. It looks like she's crying, at least until I see that crooked smile on her face. This is no longer Cream. Something's controlling her, using her body as a puppet, a tool to use at will for their own sickening ends. If my father is really behind this, I'll kill him.

Metal shoots the nearest window with his rifle, which shoots a sort of laser like energy thing instead of bullets. As the energy flies through the air, approaching it's target, I can't help but give Cream an apologetic look, as if trying to show her I'm sorry for not staying and helping her. But how can I? I have no idea how to destroy that thing, that darkness controlling her without killing her along with it, and I'm in no rush to do that.

"Sonic…" She says. It's as if everything in the world suddenly decides to go in slow motion, except for her and I. "Sonic…are you…ready…?"

"Ready?" I ask.

"To save her, to save Amy? Are you ready…?" She stops for a second. Her smile grows, her eyes start to glow and she maniacally laughs. "Are you ready, Sonic…TO DIE!" She screams. As her scream echoes through the hall, time speeds back up and Metal's shot destroys the window. As soon as it breaks, both Metal and myself, along with things in the room, get sucked out of the room and find ourselves in midair…at least, I think it's midair. I closed my eyes when the glass broke, but as I start to open them, I see Metal place a mask on my mouth. This mask's feeding me oxygen, and looking at where we are, I was sure as hell gonna need. We're in space, floating away from where we had just come from. I see that the hospital is just a small part of some enormous space station.

I have no idea where we are but one thing's for sure; out there, somewhere on this station, is Amy, and the answers I need to all this with her. I have a feeling that all that happened in Station Square is nothing compare to what is about to happen to me…

End Of First Chapter

I wrote this while away on holiday in Devon, a lovely part of England to the south of where I live, which is the north of England. When I finished it, I would be heading to the zoo with my family the next day, so I will be having plenty of ideas from the animals for Sonic's new foes. I hope, when this is up, you enjoyed it and that it's a good start to the first sequel of the first story I ever started and finished. Please review and alert so you know when new chapters are up! ;)