Heroes

A Fanfiction by Stoney

LEGAL JUNK: Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and all related characters/locations are copyright to SEGA.

Sonic: Hey, what're you talking about? Nobody owns me! I'm my own person!

Wrong. You're a slave to corporate culture, get used to it.

Sonic: WHAT?! Why doesn't anybody ever tell me these things??

Because of the way you're acting right now.

Sonic:.....somebody's got some explaining to do.....

I was in a bad mood when I wrote this, so please don't be offended or anything if it seems too dark or agnst-ridden.

Let's start the story already!

"People don't ever seem to realize that doing what's right is no guarantee against misfortune."

--William McFee, 1881-1966


Some people think it's easy to be a hero.

They think heroes get the easy life: meeting important people, winning awards, going on talk shows, etc. They think that heroism is a piece of cake.

They're wrong.

How would they know? How could they possibly understand what it's really like? They've never experienced the things I have. They've never had to endure the things I've gone through.

Let me start by making one thing clear: Being a hero isn't all it's cracked up to be. You've got to get up every morning with a fake smile on your face so your adoring public won't be dissappointed. You've got to act brave and cheerful for the benefit of the ignorant masses. Even if you want to scream in frustration, you can't. That wouldn't be 'heroic'.

You can't be yourself when you're a hero.

When you're a hero, you must have the endurance to sit through hours and hours of interviewers asking the same dumb questions over and over again. You must be adamant enough to turn down the thousands of marriage proposals you recieve from countless starry-eyed fans, and try not to feel guilty when you see their heartbroken faces. You must give up any possibility of ever having a normal life, since you'd be famous wherever you go.

I can't remember the last time me and Tails went out for a hamburger or to the movies without one or both of us being accosted for autographs. Whenever I'm in a store, people always stare at me. If I'm on the street, I have to escape crowds of screaming fans just to make it back home safely. Knuckles is the luckiest of us all: Since he lives pretty much isolated on his island, he doesn't have to put up with half the stuff that Tails and I do. I wish I had his life. It seems so much easier.

Everyone always expects me to be brave and courageous. But none of them understand.

I'm NOT courageous! During my adventures, I'm scared for my life half of the time! The other half I spend worrying about what will happen. If not for my friends' encouragement, I probably wouldn't have the nerve to face my enemies. Does that seem brave to you? It sure doesn't to me.

I hate being a hero.

I wish I'd decided to let someone else fight against Robotnik. Maybe then I would have been able to live like everyone else. But now it's too late. My life will never be normal again. Ever.

I hate being required to toss aside my true feelings and say, "It's easy, folks! Be like Sonic and brush your teeth every day!", instead of saying what I really want to.

None of them understand what it's like. None of them know the pain I go through.

My last adventure seemed to snap it all for me. During it, someone who had a genuine change of heart for the better, died. He could have been a great friend. We were such a good team during the final battle, as if our attacks were coordinated with each other perfectly. I didn't realize until it was too late what a cool guy he might have been to hang out with.

And now he's gone. Forever.

But I can't grieve like I want to. That wouldn't be 'heroic' of me. Instead, I've gotta put on that same old plastic smile as I accept all of the awards that he should have gotten. He deserved the praise much more than I did--because he did something truly heroic during the last battle. He made the ultimate sacrifice for the world.

The humans--they took away everything from him. They murdered the one person he loved more than any other, drove his creator to insanity, locked up his only home he'd known for his whole life, and kept him prisoner for over half a century.

But despite all of that, he still sacrificed his own life to save them. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what heroism truly is all about.

But now he's gone, so they simply forget about him as if he never existed and start cheering for ME instead.

I don't deserve any of this. He does. I'm tired of all the lies, of the deceit and false public images. I'm tired of masking my true feelings for the sake of those who can't even recognize who the real heroes in their midst are. I'm tired of getting the honor that should go to those who've earned it, rather than me.

My friends are starting to get worried about me. They say I've been acting weird since the last adventure. But I don't care. None of this is worth it anymore. Nothing matters any longer. All I want is to be normal again.

I hate being a hero.