Hey everybody! It's Suzie Echidna here, hoping you'll enjoy the first chapter! Now here's the legal stuff. In order of appearance... or mentioning... 'cause Knuckles doesn't actually speak in this chapter, and Lexi is a memory...

Sonic is (c) SEGA

Elias is (c) Archie Comics

Tails is (c) SEGA

Chaos Shadow is (c) his own player, (Chaos Shadow)

Suzie is (c) Stephanie S.

Knuckles is (c) SEGA

Lexi is (c) Stephanie S.

Oh, and remember! You can still have me put your character in my story! ... That's what Chaos Shadow did, and see? I'm a good person; I actually live up to my word! Yeah, I'm sorry this chapter was so late... and yeah, it's a stupid title... just like all my stupid titles...

Brainsuckers

Wires, long cords and currents of electricity, probed the mind. His mind.

"Stop..."

Vivid colours, sucking up memories; spitting out new ones.

Brainsuckers

Headaches, nausea, adjusting... adjusting to what? Now nothing was making sense...

***

Sonic awoke in a cold sweat. Rubbing his brow, he reached for the glass of water he left on his dresser every night. His hand groped through the air until he realized his dresser was on the opposite side of his bed. He picked it up quickly and chugged down all that was left.

Slouching with exhaustion, the blue hedgehog held the now empty glass in his hands, his head still pulsing with the remnants of the nightmare.

"That... all of those... those things... it was only a dream?" He slammed his glass down on the metal side-desk and kicked off his sheets irritably.

"What's wrong with me?" he wondered aloud.

"Be quiet!"

Sonic turned to his side to glare at his roommate. "Shut up, Elias."

"I'm not the one yelling in my sleep." The squirrel grabbed his pillow and pretended it was attacking him. "Oh no! Get away from me! Stop!" he grinned. "What was it?"

"None of your business."

"Ooh, that good, huh?" Elias flipped his hair out of his eyes and wiggled his eyebrows. "You naughty boy."

"You're sick." Sonic angrily tossed a pillow at the squirrel, hitting him squarely in the face.

"You're not going to start a pillow fight are ya?"

Sonic growled, stalked over to the boy, and grasped the pillowcase of the object he had just hurled, dragging it back to his bed, grumbling. He shut his eyes and prepared to attempt to sleep without dreams.

Then his roommate called out again.

"Yeah! That's it, just sleep. But try not to go crying out again... bad enough I have to smell ya, but now I have to hear ya too!"

"Shut up! I couldn't hate you more!"

"The feeling's mutual."

"I said shut up."

"Aye."

The tiny camera in the corner of the room, too tiny to be seen if not gazed upon directly, flickered.

***

"What happened? I distinctly remember you saying that he wouldn't have any recollection of the brain probes!"

The assistant trembled slightly, than replied, "Sir, all memory of those things," he gestured towards the machines. "Everything he felt or saw while being worked on, was erased. But, the strong ones always have the aftershock."

The "Master" turned back to the computer entitled, "Sonic", which held all of its name-sake's thoughts and memories and attitudes. He stroked his chin and watched as the brain activity chart on the screen slowed to normal and the vivid pictures of the wires vanished.

"I hope these aftershocks won't pose any problems..."

***

"1... 54... 32..." Sonic read his combination, mouthing the numbers absently. Why he had to go digging for this slip of paper, he had no idea. He didn't recall any time he had ever before forgotten his locker combination, and after 12 years with the same locker, (despite graduating numerous times), it completely escaped him why he would have trouble entering his combo now.

He pulled out his textbooks on language, battle strategies, and positions, and clutched them in one arm, slamming the door shut with the other. He waited for the beep of the lock, to know for sure that it was now closed to everyone else.

Beep

Sonic smiled and turned, but then he stopped short.

Standing in front of him was a little fox with two tails. Sonic stared at them, wide-eyed.

"What? Knuckles has those growths on his hands, but I don't see you staring at him all the time!"

Sonic looked away from the tails and met eyes with the fox. "It's my business what I look at, and mine alone."

The two-tailed wonder grinned. "I guess you're right!"

The serious blue hedgehog simply gave a little nod to the boy, and sidestepped him. He began to walk toward class.

He didn't count on the little guy following him.

The cheerful voice soon reached his ears. "What's your name?"

"Sonic... will you leave me alone?"

"Sonic... that's cool! I'm Miles, but my friends call me Tails."

"Miles, would you please let me go to class?"

"Oh, you can call me Tails, just like my other friends do!"

"I don't have any friends."

Tails frowned. "What about Elias?"

Sonic stopped and turned to face Tails. "What about him?"

"Well, I thought you two were friends."

Shaking his head, the hedgehog began to walk again. "Nope. Just roommates."

The boy's big blue eyes seemed concerned for a moment. "Me and my roommate are great friends... I can't imagine me and Ray being enemies..."

"And I. You mean, "Ray and I", as well as, "My roommate and I". Sheesh." Sonic shook his head. A boy without proper grammar...

The little fox clung to Sonic. "Well, now you have a friend! I'll be your first friend!"

"That's... great. Heh, can you let go of me now, Tails? You're cutting off the circulation to my arm."

Tails let go and blushed. "Sorry. Well, I hope I didn't annoy you. It's just, I felt like we were meant to be friends, a-and I wanted to congratulate you."

Sonic raised an eyebrow. "Congratulate me? For what?"

Tails smiled. "On becoming a commander!"

***

"Commander? Commander?!"

The white hedgehog crossed his arms. "Howcum he gets to be a commander while I get this stupid slip of paper saying, "Sorry, but the idiotic subordinates who select the commanders have had too much to drink, and, as a result, have chosen Sonic over you and left you under commander status"."

The green echidna that had her locker next to his took the paper and peered at it. "Actually, the paper is more of a sheet than a slip, and it says, "Congratulations on becoming a fleet captain under the command of recently promoted Sonic the Hedgehog." She smiled slightly. "Not so bad."

"It's the same thing." He turned to look at her. "I can tell you got a promotion."

"Wha? How?"

"C'mon, you rarely ever smile."

Suzie raised an eyebrow. "I'm surprised you of all people would notice. I've been promoted to, "lackey"."

Chaos Shadow stopped entering his combo. "Interesting... I never knew there was a level named that."

"There's not. That's my word for, "personal assistant". I'm Knuckles' personal assistant." she shuddered. "The guy has this weird obsession with emeralds. He always wears that stupid gauntlet set with one." Sighing, she continued. "Anyway, I'm sort of like his bodyguard and source of information. I help him plan all of his attacks... I'm also the technology expert for his ship, and I inform all the other subordinate tech. experts in the fleet."

"Sounds great!"

"Whatever..." the female shut her locker and started off down the hall.

Chaos sighed. That was Suzie. She was socially out of touch. He looked towards Sonic, who was now entering his classroom door. The blue hedgehog as well had no friends.

Thinking back, the white hedgehog closed his eyes for a moment.

It never used to be this way...

Before the Brainsuckers. Suzie and Sonic had been charismatic, with tons of friends. His guess was that the Brainsuckers wouldn't be able to get people as friendly as this to go around shooting people. That was why they had taken out the friendly attributes, and put in hard, cold ones. The same was done to countless others, their minds changed as quickly as sets of clothing, under the control of the "Master".

He and a few others had slipped through the system, without their memories erased. They had quickly decided to play as if they had gone through the mind wipe, for fear of being discovered and shot on sight.

Like... Lexi...

She had attempted to go back and stop the machines before they could do any more harm to people. She was seen sneaking through the halls past curfew, in an area that was clearly marked, "Off Limits". The most trusted student was called to eliminate her, as they knew that he would not dare enter into any doors of the forbidden place. Chaos cringed. He had tried to stop her. He could still hear her scream, as he hid nearby.

Sonic had shot her.