Sonic Rebirth
Author's Notes: Everything from chapter 1 applies reguarding the Japanese. In case you couldn't tell they go to play Dance Dance Revolution in the arcade. And the song is Open Up Your Heart from Sonic Adventure. That's all and enjoy.
Chapter 10
My name is Dusk the Hedgehog. Dusk for short. It's morning now; I can see the sun mostly blocked behind the tall buildings from my perch on the rail of the balcony. Breakfast, if you could call it that, went like it always does, I didn't stick around after eating the scrambled eggs and partially burnt toast that Crimson made, since it was her turn. My parents left earlier this morning to go do something together since they usually work when the other has the day off. So it was just Crimson and me, but like always that was going to change.
"Hey Dusk," Crimson said, walking out onto the balcony.
She stopped next to him, resting her elbow on the black iron rail.
"Do you want to come with me today? We can stop by the arcade or something," she asked, looking over to him.
Dusk was sitting on the railing, with his arms crossed, just staring at the tall buildings across that were made nearly of all glass. After staring out for a moment he finally glanced towards her.
"I'll pass," he said plainly.
"Fine then," she said, jumping up and lightly landing on the narrow rail, "I'll have to go by myself then."
She glanced back briefly, purposely making a scene to see if she could make him give in. Sometimes he would finally agree but turn it into a race. Today was different, he didn't feel like leaving. Crimson finally sighed.
"Don't get into trouble," she said before leaping off into the air and flying down to the streets below.
Dusk watched her vanish into the city, and no sooner did she leave did someone knock on the door. He looked back to the door, not moving at first. When the person knocked again he reluctantly walked inside to answer the door. He couldn't possibly think of anyone who would be coming here, especially considering his parents and his sister already left. When he pulled open the door he was surprised to see an eccentric purple hedgehog standing there.
"Hi, Dusk," Circlet said, cheerfully, "I was starting to wonder if you would answer the door or not."
He crossed his arms, "I do answer doors," he said plainly and softly.
"So, I've came here to see if you'd like to roam the city with me," she beamed, smiling, "and you better not refuse because I'm not taking 'no' for an answer."
Dusk stood there for a moment, before nodding slightly. He took a glance back to make sure the sliding door wasn't locked before following Circlet out into the hallway. He was starting to wonder how she even knew where he lived, it's not like she ever asked him before. By the time they made it down the staircase to the main floor and out into the streets, the sun was fully above the buildings.
"We're going to have so much fun, you just wait," Circlet said excitedly.
Dusk followed her lead through the city streets, there weren't quite as many people out as there would be later in the day, and it was still too early for many of the city goers. As they made their way to the electronic district, Dusk started to wonder why he agreed to come on this trip, especially when he didn't know where they were even going. Though Circlet didn't seem like the type, to him not to give up on something she set her mind on.
He sighed slightly, staring down at the ground for a while as they continued to walk forward. A few minutes later, Circlet suddenly stopped and luckily Dusk managed to stop himself in time before he crashed into her. He first looked up at Circlet before over to the building they stopped in front of, it was an arcade. It was a dimly lit place, with all the flashing bursts of color radiating from all of the glowing monitors scattered throughout the room. He looked up to the unlit neon sign above the doorway.
"Zero Wan Aakeedo [Zero One Arcade]," he murmured to himself, reading the sign.
While staring up at the sign, Circlet suddenly grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the open doors saying, "Let's go in, it looks like fun!" in her upbeat voice.
After stumbling in her wake for a few steps he managed to get in step with her. Dusk glanced down at her white gloved hand holding onto his arm, noticing that he could barely make out his reflection in the deep blue bracelet around her wrist. He then looked around him at all of the glowing machines as they passed by, noticing that majority of the games were multiplayer and or used some sort of physical implement, such as a light gun or musical instruments.
"Hey, Dusk!" Circlet said enthusiastically.
He looked to her, wondering what this strange girl's intentions were. He nearly died when he realized what game she wanted to play.
"Kore ga shiyou! Ne, Dasuku? [Let's play this one! Whatcha think, Dusk?]" she said pointing to a dancing game.
He was stunned at first as Circlet led him closer to the machine. He never in his wildest dreams thought of playing such a game, especially in an arcade. They paused in front of the machine; it didn't seem all that threatening. There was just a giant LCD monitor suspended above a platform with four directional buttons.
"Omoshiro-rashii ne? [It looks like fun, right?]" she said turning to him.
After staring at the screen, watching the computer generated character dance to the directional buttons being inputted he sighed.
"Jishinnashi... [I'm not sure...]" he said softly.
"Aw, come on it's fun. You'll see," she said taking hold of both of his hands and pulling him up onto the dance stage. "Now you stand on this half of the stage, and I'll be right over here."
Dusk stood where she told him to, slowly shaking his head in disbelief. Circlet fished out some coins from the change purse she kept in the inner pocket of her vest. As she kneeled down to pop them into the glowing red coin slots, Dusk happened to look over his shoulder to spot that some of the other people in the arcade were starting to take notice of their activity. He rubbed the side of his face as calmly as he could, wishing the ordeal was over already.
"Okay, now all you do is hit the arrows on the floor there with your feet when they scroll by on the screen," she explained, smiling at him. "Just follow my lead," she said right as the game started up with the music.
Dusk glanced up at the giant monitor as it said "Ready" in big letters and in a second later it said "Go!" in English. Then on his side of the screen the directional arrows started to scroll upwards. He sighed, figuring he might as well try to play along so he wouldn't look completely idiotic, besides it would make Circlet feel better. He had to look down at his feet as he pushed the first five commands, missing three of them.
"Just look up at the screen," Circlet encouraged, getting a perfect on all of her moves, "If you just focus on hitting the arrows you'll not do good or have as much fun."
Dusk decided to take her advice, even though he was starting to feel stupid. As he fumbled around to hit most of the next set of moves he caught a glimpse of a few people gathering around. Just what he needed an audience to laugh at him, not that it really mattered what they thought but the idea made him a bit uneasy.
Let them think what they want, he thought turning his attention back to the onscreen prompts.
Left, left, down, right. Right, right, left, up. He followed the arrows, sort of getting the hang of moving his feet between the arrows to the beat of the music. By the time the song was starting to end he was realized he was moving between the arrows without touching the center as much. He then finally caught notice of the song blaring out of the speakers directly above their heads.
"Close my eyes and feel it burn. Now I see what I've gotta do. GOTTA OPEN YOUR HEART, IT'S GONNA BE ALRIGHT!"
Shortly later the game ended flashing the ratings on the screen; Dusk noticed that Circlet got a near perfect while his score was slightly marginal.
"Hey, yeah!"
"That was great!"
The crowd started up, reminding Dusk that during the whole ordeal more and more people were crowding around. He turned around to face the group of like ten people gathered around the game, clapping and cheering. He glanced over at Circlet who seemed rather flattered, waving and saying, "Thank you!" in perfect English.
After a few moments of cheering Circlet stepped off the platform and Dusk decided to follow as well. As soon as he stepped down, the nearest person standing next to him, a frog furry wearing baggy jeans and a bright yellow shirt, came up to him.
"Hey, you weren't that bad. Have you played before?"
Dusk shook his head, "Iie, shokai," he said plainly.
"Really?" he said. "That was really good for a newbie. Now Miss Circlet, on the other hand, is a true pro. With talent a natural like that, you'd be sure to get as good."
Dusk thought about that for a moment. Circlet must come to this arcade a lot to play this game, to be known by the other gamers. Sometime during his thinking the crowd fanned out, until it was just Circlet and him again. After seeing all of her friends off Circlet turned back to Dusk.
"You were great!" she beamed, "You should definitely come back with me and play some more."
"Moushide wo kotowaru [I'd have to refuse]," he said in his head, unable to find the tangible words for them.
Circlet looked at him for a moment before, turning away to think with her finger pressed against her muzzle, "Let's see.... Ah, I know where we should go next!"
She turned back and grabbed his arm for a moment to lead him out of the arcade and back into the brightly lit streets. Dusk blinked for a minute as his eyes adjusted.
"Come on, let's go!" she said, taking off down the street.
He blinked a few more times, before deciding to follow her, "Oi! [Hey!]" he called out, slightly louder than normal.
Nahkas the Echidna, Zero Velocity, Dream Circlet the Hedgehog, Seraphim the Echidna, Skye Prower, Milo Prower, Dusk the Hedgehog, and Crimson the Bat were created by me, KnucklesGirl, and cannot be used without my permission.
Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Dr. Eggman, Amy Rose, Metal Sonic, Cream, Rouge, Shadow and any other Sonic characters are copyrighted to Sega and the Sonic Team.
This fiction is not any part endorsed by the Sonic Team or Sega or by those weirdos at Archie Comics; this is purely fictional and was formulated in my delusional mind. It cannot be reproduced in part or in whole without my permission. And if I'm forgetting to mention some copyright law then I'm sorry; I'm not trying to infringe on anything so please don't sue me, because I don't have any money.
If you'd like to email me for any reason (questions or would like to comment to me personally) feel free to email me at If you can't figure out my email view my author profile. If you'd like to visit my Sonic website go to: