AHA ha-ha-ha-ha
"You monster..." Sonic stuttered.
His double chucked, then retorted, "Are we now? You do realize I'm you, right?"
He shook his head. "No. No you're not." He coughed; a sickening bloody stench clogging his throat. "You're just a game. A sick hack!"
AHA ha-ha-ha-ha
"Well then, real me, come over here. You too, Tails, buddy."The fox cowered behind the real hedgehog, whimpering and shaking.
"Don't say that after what you did to him!" Sonic spat at the executable file. "Some friend you are to him!"
"Sheeesh. When did I become such a Shadow?" Sonic-dot-exe wondered, turning to lead himself and his friend deeper into the dark hallway. A trail of blood was smeared in the same direction.
"Well, me, I dunno what to say. Pretty smart of you, Tails, to fly me up and around as Mr. Grumpy Quills shot at me. Knuckles would've never figured that out."
AHA ha-ha-ha-ha
The three were now in the void, and the bloody Sonic kept going. "By the way, d'you have any idea where the fake is? He just disappeared." He grumbled. "There's no telling where he might be. Heck, he could even be out of the game. But I doubt that, after all,"- a grin spread across the program's face, "I've got his little friend in here."
Miles stopped whimpering to shake out a question to his warped warden. "Uh...um... S-s-sonic... was-was that girl... down the street, you know, uh, was she-uh... um, really his girlfriend?"
"Pfffft. Yeah. Get this; he actually smiled around her. Ha-ha! Can you believe it?"
Sonic's heart ached. Shadow never smiled around his other friends. That girl... she must've meant the world to him- and knowing now that she was trapped in Round Two, where unknown horrors awaited...
"Why'd you have to mess with Shadow?" he mumbled.
"Ehh. I really didn't want to get him in here, honest. He's such a killjoy. But, you know, these things happen, y'know?" He put on a reminiscing face and began to giggle.
"Sonic..." the fox whimpered to the real one as the giggles got a little louder.
"She's soo cute though," he chortled. "Every little thing scares her to death. She squeaks and squeals and runs around like a little mouse. Ha-ha-ha. She's a lotta fun."
He stopped and turned, extending his arm to showcase another television. Dr. Robotnik's head lay slumped against the cracked glass of the screen. Blood trickled from his smashed glasses along his gray skin. Sonic couldn't see much of his eyes or mouth, but, the sight of him made him pity the mad scientist.
"Buttnik's not as fun as Egg-head," Sonic-dot-exe commented. "Your doc's pretty fun; so mad about this and scared outta his wits. But since he's Eggman, he's not gonna ask for help. You should see him jump. Ha ha. It's like I'm his worst nightmare!"
No kidding, Sonic thought. "So, me," he gulped, "what now?"
AHA ha-ha-ha-ha
"All right! It's time for the main event!" he said, smiling from ear to ear. "Shame Shad doesn't know the rules, wherever he is."
The hedgehog slung his arm around the other's shoulders and guided him onward, leaving Tails shaking in the spot. "Here's the deal; if you can round up all our friends, Egghead, and Faker's girl, and make it to the end, I'll let all of you go."
"El-e-eleven people..." Tails stammered.
"Right-o, little buddy! Tell ya what, me, if you manage to find Ultimate Crybaby, too, I'll throw in Kris, Kyle and Tom."
True Blue put his fist to his mouth. Miles told him Kris had died, and that Kyle and Tom couldn't be helped.
"That little fox doesn't know what's happened. He's never made it past his level. He's too slow."
Was that...
"C'mon... you never lie, do you?"
"You gotta swear you'll never trap anybody in here ever again," he said facing himself dead in the eye.
"But meeeeeee," he whined,"It gets so borrriiiiiinngg around here. I'm sick of catching Tails and I'm sick of messing with Knuckles. I haven't had this much fun since Tom played with me! Everybody's in here now...well...not everybody." He scratched his head. "Huh. Cream and Cheese, Sonia and Silver. Honest, I thought fern-head would be the easiest to get in here. He's so gullible and slow."
Sonic's mind went back to the letter. "Maybe 'cause he knows about you," he said.
"Anywho. All ya gotta do is find everybody and get 'em to the end." AHA ha-ha-ha-ha
"What's in Round Two?"
"Oh, come on. Don't make me spoil the surprises. Just have fun! It's like a big easter egg hunt!" AHA hahahahaha
Red static began to flicker in the void. "Is it a deal, me?" Sonic-dot-exe asked, holding out a hand. "I'm waaaaaiting."
Sonic began to consider the possibilities. After all, Shadow disappearing into the game was worrisome enough. If he couldn't find Shadow, how was he supposed to get out with the others to avoid the dangers of Round Two? What if Shadow only came for his girlfriend and already escaped the program? How was Sonic supposed to get out without him? What if the black hedgehog was already caught by Sonic and was trapped in a TV like the others? What would he do then?
"Whaddya say?" Sonic's voice snapped him to reality, moving his blood-stained glove a bit.
What about Silver? If Silver got word about the rescue, would he be on his way or just wait it out? If he came after them, how would he know which Sonic was which? After all, this was Silver he was thinking about. Did the paradox even know how to get into a computer like Shadow?
After what seemed like forever, Sonic locked a grip with the hand. "Deal." Tails gasped as the wicked Sonic curled his lips in a jovial grin.
"Sonic, no!" But soon, all Sonic could hear was static, and the drowning laugh of his double. The void, and the exe file were engulfed in red static, which blared in Sonic's ears.
The ground gave way, and the hedgehog was falling fast, flailing his arms about and spinning,until he finally got ready to land-
It was so dark and hot inside. He heard gurgling, like a river, but it sounded more like bubbling.
AHA ha-ha-ha-ha
"Better hurry."
The ground began to rumble, and Sonic heard splashes in the darkness. He turned his flashlight on to see where he was. Brown rock earth... Stalagmites and stalactites...
Flame Core?
But Sonic saw that the bubbling wasn't lava, it was steaming water, bubbling and,- it was slowly turning a rock into bubbles. There was another tremor.
"I'd say this place is about to blow in... eh. Five minutes?"
AHA hahahahaha
"Hellooooooo?" Sonic called out into the dark caverns.
"In less than five minutes, we'll have a poached egg!"
"Eggman!" Sonic called out, trying to figure out where else he could go from here. "Hey, Eggman!" Finding another path, Sonic jumped onto the raised ground. The beam of the flashlight struck a small alcove, and the hedgehog approached it. No sign of Eggman.
"Eggman, come on, we gotta get outta here!" The cavern shook violently. There were other places to go from here, but how far was the exit? If Sonic didn't get out of here, with or without Eggman, who knows what would happen to him?
"That's easy. You stay with me."
AHA hahahahaha
"Eggman! C'mon!" Sonic began to take quick peeks inside the other openings; nothing, nothing, the beam bounced back on Sonic when he hit a crystal inside the third opening. He started to walk away-
He thought he hear a sigh of relief inside. The hedgehog sped back, pointing the flashlight down as he entered. "Eggman! Eggman, is that you?"
"Not you!" he heard the voice of the maniacal doctor grumble. "You, you stay away from me, you sick corrupted data file!"
"Eggman! Eggman, it's okay! It's me, Sonic!" He waved his flashlight around the cave, catching a bit of Dr. Eggman's moustache in the light, then shining it on himself. "See?"
"I thought I'd never be happy to see you again," he muttered, catching his breath. "You have no idea how awful this has been for me! I'm already afraid of you as is, but then I get sucked in here by a "Sonic" even more horrifying-" His ranting was cut short by a sudden tremor, that almost drowned out that hideous laughter.
"Eggman, we've gotta get outta here!" Sonic insisted, and was happy to see the doctor making a run for it. They ran into the big tunnel as the rock crumbled about them.
"I can see a light over there!" Eggman informed, taking the lead, but Sonic swore he saw at least three other beams of daylight.
"Eggman, there's three more over here,-"
"It's a trick, Sonic! That thing is messing with you! This way!"
Reluctantly, Sonic followed the doctor's trail, and it did indeed lead outside. They ran along the crumbling mountainside and made a break for it as it went black.
AHA hahahahaha
"What a show! I never thought you'd actually listen to McNosehair!"
AHA hahahahaha
"So you were right..." Sonic mumbled.
Eggman puffed out his chest. "Well, of course I'm right! I've been stuck in here for days, tormented and tricked by that awful thing! You know Sonic, you're not very trustworthy yourself!"
"That guy isn't me, Eggman!" Sonic argued. "It's just a sick hack of my game!"
The doctor leaned in to disagree but both were snapped to attention by the laughter, followed by red static.
"What now..." the scientist grumbled, pretending not to look scared, even though Sonic too was a little unnerved by this game he was playing with himself.
"Eggman, I made a deal with this Sonic-dot-exe-thing," the hedgehog confessed.
Eggman flew back in surprise. "You what?! Sonic, that thing is a monster, he's even worse than all my other plans- You can't trust him!"
"He said if I found everybody he's trapped in here, he'll let us all go."
"Everyone?" Eggman echoed, scratching his head. "Who else is in here?"
"Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Rouge, Team Chaotix, Blaze, Manic, and this other hedgehog."
"How'd you even get in here?"
"Shadow and I came in here," he said, then added, "But he only came for that last hedgehog I mentioned."
The doctor put his finger under his nose as he hummed. "Before you came along, I thought I heard him coming, so I hide in that mineral deposit. But whoever was there was calling out an odd name. Maybe that was Shadow, and he was looking for that hedgehog."
"Probably," Sonic nodded. "Hey, Eggman, do you know if we can get out of here?"
Eggman stroked his mustache, raising an eyebrow. "Well, I have been inside a computer terminal before. Shadow and Espio have, too. And I'm guessing that as a GUN agent, Rouge has been in one too.
"But you can't just get out of the computer at your will. You have to find the exit of the program you're in in order to be able to get out. And I bet that sadistic little Sonic is protecting it. Maybe it was a good idea to make that deal with him.
"Even so, Sonic, I doubt he'll let us go," he warned. "That little devil likes making us run around and scaring out of our wits. We're his toys in this world."
"I know," the hedgehog mumbled, "but it was the only way at a chance outta here. Shadow ran off, and I doubt he'll hang back waiting for the rest of us."
The static began to grow louder and then in faded another stage.
AHA hahahahaha
"Sonic," Eggman noticed the stage fading in, and Sonic held his breath when he saw it.
Chemical Plant Zone, spilling its bubbling, sizzling liquids everywhere. Buildings on fire. Sirens blared. Some parts of the complex exploded suddenly, rocking the world with it.
Who was trapped in this apocalyptic nightmare?
"Knuckles and Rouge, sittin' in a tree… B-U-R-N-I-N-G…"
AHA hahahahaha
