He faces a monster with a purple-clad, lanky man by his side.
"You ready for this?" a gruff voice not his own asks, and the lanky man grins.
"What the heck. We're probably gonna Game-Over anyway. May as well let it be with a bang. What power-ups did we get?"
"I got the Rock Mushroom and the Gold Flower. And you know which one I'm taking."
"Heh. Greedy son of a-"
"Careful, cuz. Save the swear for your last words."
"That's what I was gonna say," taunts the monster as he fights other warriors.
"Screw off! You never win, not permanently, and that's with just two Star Kids coming for you! How do you think you'll do against six?!" the gruff voice snaps as the owner's body turns gold.
"Look at me! I'm soloing all of you!"
"Using a power-up to clone yourself doesn't count!"
"Cheater says what?"
The lanky man in purple screams in anger and forms a boulder around himself, charging as the man whose eyes he sees through charges.
Shadow the hedgehog woke up silently, trying to process what he'd just seen. "What the... I need to talk to someone."
Fire ravages the landscape. People she doesn't know clash in midair, wielding power she doesn't recognize against each other.
"Give it up, idiots!" taunts the monster in the area as clones of him surround her and two men in red and green shirts, hats, overalls, and gloves. "You'll never beat me this time!"
"We don't need to! You've got more people after you!" fires back the man in red, pulling out a blue flower. His clothes change and he shoots a streak of energy at the ground. Walls of ice block the clones from the three, and he turns to the man in green. "You okay, Weeg?"
"I don't think so, bro," the man in green replies. "He caught me with a fireball. Do you have another power-up?"
"Yeah. Do you want the Tanooki Suit, the Boomerang Flower, or-"
"Give me the Vanish Cap. Sneak attacks are a good call here, and the invulnerability is a good help since we can't use star power much right now."
"Coming right up." The man in red hands his brother an almost transparent cap, and the man in green turns invisible. Then, the man in red turns to her.
"Peach? Do you want the Fire Flower?"
"You know me so well." That isn't her voice. Those aren't her hands reaching for the red flower. This isn't her body the searing heat rushes through. What's going on?
"What are you gonna use?"
"The Metal Cap. If I use that one, I can tank more of Bowser's hits. Mama mia, I forgot how hard he can hit me."
Who's Bowser? What's going on?
The person she's seeing through nods. "Heh. It's always a doozy, isn't it? The doubles are almost through the wall. We gotta be ready for anything."
The man in red smirks. "Aren't I always?"
The wall shatters. Whoever this is pays no mind to how cold it's become as her hands ignite and she charges.
Amy Rose woke up in a cold sweat, eyes wide. "What the... what was that?!"
Her phone lights up. Shadow? Why is he texting her? How did he even get her number?
I had a dream. I think. Or a vision. Of a battle on a planet I've never seen before. I need someone to talk to.
Amy hums. What a coincidence. So did I.
What should we do?
Do you think anyone else had one?
I don't know. Perhaps a group chat is in order.
I'll set one up.
If anyone else has had something like this, then whatever gave them the vision is worth a look.
When the green-clad arm reaches out and touches the monster, the feeling of adrenaline from delivering the electric shock is something he rarely experiences to this degree. Most of what he does get is because his best friend is an adrenaline junkie. But this is different. It's like a feeling of power.
The feeling of power even manages to dull the pain of being sent through four trees by the monster's tail. A little. "Mama mia!" the voice not his own cries.
"Luigi!" cries a man in red, running over. "Come on, man, you okay?"
"Ngh... I need a heart," replies Luigi. "Bowser got me really good."
"Lasting five minutes with the Vanish Cap is really good, though. I'm proud of you, Weeg."
"Sh-shut up and heal me so I can get back in the fight," chuckles Luigi. The man in red returns the laugh, complying. The pain alleviates. A little. Then the man in red hands Luigi something like a propeller hat.
"Try to stay in the air, eh? You do your best work when you're in the air."
Luigi smiles. He can feel it. "Oh, ha ha, Jumpman."
Tails woke up to a group message.
Has anyone else had a weird dream? Amy wrote. Shadow and I have.
Shadow sent a GIF with an affirmative message, and Tails sighed. Yep. Right here.
He dreams of barrels. Of breaking them over the head of a monster. Of beating his chest. Of throwing and taking punches. Of fighting. Of a time he knocked the moon out of orbit. Of being at war.
The monster speaks to him. He does not care. The monster is too dangerous. The monster must be brought down. His friend asked him to. Rocky though their relationship is, they are friends all the same.
Whoever he's seeing the world through is the first to notice a dark cloud covering the battlefield. It's freezing. He doesn't like it. But the fight must go on.
The monster must be brought down.
Knuckles was very much not attached to his phone. He only had it because Shadow had insisted he keep one on him for important stuff. So he really hoped that whatever he was being contacted about was impo-
So you guys dreamed about fighting a monster, too?
The guardian frowned. Well, his hope had been well-placed.
Yeah, I did. What happened in your dream?
He carries others. He feels at home doing it. He dreams of being ridden by a hero into battle with a monster, using his tongue to catch fireballs and throw them back.
"And to think I lost the stars last time because of a glorified horse," snarls the monster once he gets close enough. "Was raising these idiots hard, Yoshi?"
A warbled answer from what feels like his mouth is the reply, and then he attacks again. He thinks. Is it him? Is it someone else? What's happening?
The fight continues with a bunch of people he doesn't know, but he can tell are extremely powerful attacking a monster. He doesn't like all this fighting. Or how cold it is. Or the fact that there seems to be ice around them. His rider, a man in red, is knocked off him and he's flung away. Before he can return, the ice reaches him. It's cold... so cold…
Big the cat woke up. His phone was buzzing. He'd check it later. Froggy was probably hungry. Big got up to feed his pet.
He dreams of power. Of the stars. Of war. Of peace. Of a clash in the sky, of seven gods duking it out.
"Bowser, you know you're going to fail! Why are you doing this?!"
"Do you really think the universe will destroy itself again? Just to stop us?!"
"It already has. Twice," growls the voice that isn't his. "We both watched it happen."
"And we persisted. The stars remained. You can't kill gods."
"We are NOT gods!"
"We wield the powers of the cosmos, Mario! Donkey Kong knocked the sky out of orbit! Luigi took down the king of ghosts three times! You killed Dimentio. I had to be brought down by the entire universe! Even our friends are so much stronger than other people! What else would you call it?!"
Mario- apparently that's his name- doesn't answer, and Bowser smirks. "Yeah. That's what I thought. I... WHAT THE- NO! SPORT!"
Below the two is a landscape covered in ice. Ice that's covering the small group of people on the ground. "Bowser, what did you do ?!"
"I didn't do a thing! What's going on?!" Bowser hovers down to a miniature version of him, frozen in the ice.
Mario flies down to a man in green and his hands ignite in fire as the ice reaches up to cover him. "Weegie! Weegie, don't worry! I'll get you out! I'll save you!" He blasts the ice with fire, screaming in desperation.
The ice silences him.
Sonic the hedgehog woke up shivering, curled up. "What was that...?"
His phone buzzed. How many people had gotten those dreams?
We should talk in person, Shadow had written in the chat. Everyone meet at BOP at noon. We can do it over lunch.
That was in three hours. He had time. He wrapped himself in his blanket, trying to warm up.
He rarely dreams. When he does, it's usually unpleasant. Even his current dream isn't really a dream. Just a black void full of furious thoughts.
"WHERE AM I... WHO DID THIS... HOW DARE THEY... I HATE THEM... LET... ME... OUT!"
The voice gets louder as he nears a small light, and a thousand years worth of hate and anger starts flooding his mind. He likes that. He can use that. Hopefully.
The light is so much closer. It looks like it's coming from a door. A door decorated with the image of a monster's face. He opens the door and finds a fiery landscape, and at the center is the source of all the fury. A beast- no, not a beast. A god. A god in all its hateful glory.
Their eyes meet, and the god smiles.
Dr. Ivo Robotnik woke up with a pull in a direction and a monster to find. He got dressed, turned on his computer, and got to work.