Prologue
Shock. Fear. Disbelief. The three ingredients needed for the perfect recipe of panic.
It started out as a normal evening.
The weather was warm, not a single sight of a cloud in the bright, beautiful sky. A light breeze whispered through the limbs of the evergreen trees that made up the forest. It was silent, with the acceptance of a few birds twittering in their nests. A babbling brook flowed gently as a doe and her fawn lowered their heads for a drink.
Nearby, a green hedgehog was walking through the forest, enjoying the warmth of the day and admiring the flora and fauna around him. In his world, such things did not exist. In his world, everything was the opposite.
His name was Scourge the Hedgehog, Sonic's anti-doppelganger, and the king of Mobius' sister Zone, Moebius.
He was everything that Sonic was. Fast, brave, and reckless. The only differences that separated him from the hero of Mobius was his looks and his attitude.
Scourge had the same built and quill style as Sonic. His fur was a light shade of lime green, his eyes an ocean blue. He had a peach muzzle, peach arms, and a peach chest with two added zigzags of dark scars. His gloves were smaller than Sonic's and a bit whiter. He wore a black leather jacket with red and orange flames on the sleeves. The ends of the sleeves were flayed to give him the rugged bad boy look, the same for the belt that hung loosely by his side. His shoes, instead of red and white, were black and dark green, and to complete his look, a pair of red shades rested over his nose.
Along with his bad boy look came an attitude to match.
He was a jokester, a love for pranks in his very being. He loved sparring with Sonic, and causing trouble in his world. He was a criminal, a fugitive from the Zone Police for unauthorized Zone crossing.
In fact, that's what he was doing in the forest now.
He was hiding from Zonic, another doppelganger of Sonic, and his crew of Zone cops. They had followed him through the different Zones he had jumped, but they lost him three Zones before Mobius.
"Those idiots will never learn." The hedgehog chuckled to himself as he continued walking through the forest, his footsteps crunching against the fallen pine needles of the trees. He whistled a little tune to himself, paying no mind to the skittering rodents across the forest floor. He was more concerned about his plans for being in Mobius.
Maybe he'll stir up some trouble in town. Perhaps he'll find Sonic and start up a fight. He snickered to himself as he thought of a third idea of disguising himself as Sonic and bugging Shadow. Oh, that would be priceless!
He was deeply lost in his thoughts until a startling realization snapped him back to reality.
The forest was deathly silent.
The birds had stopped twittering. The rodents had burrowed themselves. The doe and her fawn were gone, and even the babbling brook had silenced its babble. The trees were still, the whispering wind no longer whispering, but gone completely.
It was so silent, you could hear a pin drop.
"What in the world?" Scourge whispered to himself, almost afraid to break the silence.
It was much too early for the wooden animals to turn in for the night. There was still plenty of light left.
Not even Mobian mothers were ready to put their children to bed at this time. So why was it so silent?
...
Meanwhile, in the farside of the forest, Scourge wasn't the only one that noticed the silence.
Sonic and his friends were taking a leisurely stroll through the wooden terrain, chatting and joking with each other. They had planned to have a picnic supper, and they were looking for the perfect spot when suddenly, Shadow stopped in his tracks, a frown on his face as his ears twitched around.
"What's wrong, Shads?" Sonic asked him, walking up to the ebony hedgehog as he noticed how tense he suddenly was.
"Everybody shut up. Listen."
The others frowned at the rudeness of the order but they didn't say anything, knowing it was just his personality. They all silenced their chatter and strained their ears to hear what the other was hearing. Some, like Silver and Tails, looked around in case they could catch a glimpse of some noisemaker, but they saw nothing, and the forest remained silent.
"I don't hear anything." Sonic finally said.
"Exactly." Shadow nodded. "It's quiet. Too quiet in the forest for this time of day."
At this, everybody realized what he was so concerned about.
"Shadow's right," Knuckles agreed. "Where are the birds and the rodents? What happened to the wind that was blowing just moments ago?"
"Even the creak is silent." Silver added, looking at his friends with wide eyes. "That's not normal."
"Definitely not." Shadow nodded, his eyes darting to and fro, his stance still tense as if he was waiting for something to attack. "Something's wrong. I got this sick feeling in the pit of my stomach… It's almost as if a corrupted aura of Chaos has entered the forest."
"What do you mean?" Tails asked him.
Shadow was about to answer him, but before he could, a set of fast approaching footsteps caught the attention of the group. They turned towards the noise, taking a fighting stance when all of a sudden, a blur of green came rocketing through the shrubbery and slammed right into Sonic, knocking him down as the two went tumbling across the forest floor, their skin getting cut up by rocks and prickers.
They at last skidded to a stop, a few feet away from the shocked group. Sonic groaned in pain, his eyes squeezed shut and rubbing his head as he tried to get up, but whatever was on top of him held him down.
Sonic shook his head and opened his eyes, shock appearing on his face when he saw what, or rather who, had ran into him.
Scourge was laying right on top of him. His eyes were glazed over in what Sonic could tell was pure terror. His usually peach muzzle was snow white, lost of its color in panic. His breathing was labored and his body was shaking. A few cuts and scratches covered his skin, Sonic couldn't tell if they were from the fall or if he had already had them. A whimper came from his throat, making Sonic lower his ears in sympathy.
This was not the Scourge he knew.
"Scourge? Are you alright?"
The green hedgehog finally snapped back to reality as he looked back down at Sonic, realizing the awkward position he had unintentionally put them in. He scrambled to his feet, a bright blush on his muzzle as his blue eyes of fear stayed in contact with the green eyes of concern.
"I… I…" He stuttered, watching as Sonic stood up from the ground, debating whether he should tell him what was going on or not.
Would he even believe such a story?
Before he could properly decide, though, a hard punch came from the right, knocking against his cheek and throwing him against a tree just a few feet over, his back hitting the bark roughly.
Scourge shook his head clear from the sudden attack and looked up, his ears lowering in dismay at what stood in front of him.
Sonic's friends were standing in defense mode, all eyes glaring at the green hedgehog in front of them, seeming to have forgotten about the strange silence just moments ago. Even little Cream and Cheese had that killer instinct in their eyes.
Scourge didn't know what to do. He was clearly outnumbered, and he was too weak from the calm of the adrenaline rush he had gotten when he came face to face with the one responsible for the silence. There was no way he could fight back, and quite frankly, he didn't want to.
He knew that Sonic and his friends would take him straight to Zonic, and he would be locked up in the No Zone prison institute. But after what he just saw, he was hopeful that he may be safe there.
When he saw that Scourge wasn't fighting back, Sonic's eyes widened as he quickly rushed between the green hedgehog and his friends, holding his arms up against the group.
"Wait!" He shouted. "Don't hurt him!"
"Are you nuts, hedgehog?" Shadow growled, a Chaos Spear resting in his hand. "Have you forgotten who that is?"
"No, I haven't forgotten, but look at him." Sonic urged, looking over his shoulder at the trembling green hedgehog. "He's not fighting back, and he's clearly terrified. Something must've happened."
"Yeah, he probably got in it with the Zone Police again." Knuckles scoffed. "Come on, Sonic. Let's send this guy back to where he belongs. The No Zone with the other criminals like him."
Sonic shook his head in refusal. "Not until he explains himself." Sending one last warning glance at his friends, the blue hedgehog turned around and knelt down to the green hedgehog. "Scourge? What happened? What's got you so frightened?"
"... Danger… Demon…" He whispered with a shaky voice.
Sonic shared a confused look with his friends.
What did he mean by demon? There was only one demon they knew of, and he was safely locked away.
"What do you mean?" Sonic asked him. "What demon?"
Scourge was about to answer, but before he could, a sharp sound of a barking dog disrupted the silence. He whimpered at the sound, the color disappearing from his face again.
"Run!" He simply said before he quickly shot up to his feet and ran off, accidentally knocking Sonic over.
"Scourge, wait!" The blue hedgehog shouted after him, but the green one wasn't listening.
He continued to run, his breath becoming hard and labored in his fright. His mind was in shock and disbelief.
It shouldn't be possible, what he had seen.
It's been years since it was a part of his life. Years since his childhood. There was no way it could possibly be back. And how had it found him anyway? How did it know where to look? How was it able to travel between Zones? And more importantly, what was it gonna do to him when it catches him?
Lost in his thoughts, he did not realize that he was approaching a cliff face. He saw a large wall of rock and skidded to a stop, just before he slammed face first into it. He looked up the giant rock face. It was too steep for him to climb, and the walls of the cliff circled around him.
He was trapped!
Suddenly, a low growl from behind made him tense up, his ears flicking at the noise. He slowly turned around, his ocean eyes widening as they came in contact with another pair of icy ones. His legs gave up, losing his sense of control in his fear as he fell to the ground, slowly backing up away from the creature, but each move he made backwards, the creature stepped forward.
The monster growled and snarled at the poor hedgehog, it's pearly white fangs dripping with a mixture of saliva and blood that covered the black gums. The snow white fur it had was already caked in blood, as well as it's large paws, adorned with long and sharp looking black claws.
Scourge whimpered, suddenly finding himself cornered between the rock wall and the monster of his childhood, his back scraping against the gravel behind him. There was nothing left for him. He could not fight this thing. He could not run from it. It will always find him. And it will always corner him.
There was only one last thing he could do.
"P-please… don't h-hurt me."
But there was no mercy. The creature snarled viciously and lunged at him, it's large drooling maw opened wide, almost as if unhinged like a snake. And Scourge… he could do nothing but scream in terror as it's powerful jaws wrapped tightly around his throat.