Chpater 3
The Appearance of Christine
I woke up what seemed like a minute later to find that the music wasn't playing anymore. I put my glasses on, and sat up. I could hear music coming from down the hall. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite remember what song it was. I got out of bed and walked down the hall. On the TV screen in the living room, I saw something similar to being flushed down the center of a japanese electric toilet. It was Frequency.
"Sonic," I said, walking over to him and sitting on the couch. "I know how to play this game!"
"Cool!" said Sonic. I knew what he was going to say next.
"No I don't want to play right now, I have to go out for a while. See ya!" I said, and I walked out the door. Meanwhile, in Death Egg II, Dr. Eggman was typing in something on his computer.
"Locate subject: Christine Bedee." said Dr. Eggman to his computer.
"Searching..." said the computer. It made a beeping sound. "1 result has been found." A picture of her came up on his screen. "Awaiting further instructions."
"Display Animal: Pink Echidna." said Eggman. A picture of a pink echidna showed up on the screen.
"Press 1 to transport Subject into this dimension and transform it into the pink echidna." said the computer. Eggman pressed one. It made a whirring noise. A few minutes later, a pink echidna appeared on the dimensional teleporter.
"It worked!" said Eggman.
"Warning! Warning! This system has a fatal error." said the computer. The consoles started to explode.
"NO! Not again!" shouted Eggman. Christine looked around and ran out of the room. She found a window, and jumped out of it and started gliding. 'Well,' she thouhght 'This is fun.' She continued gliding until a flock of flickies flew right past her at high speed. They flew so fast, than she was knocked off the path of flight, and started falling. 'Oh great.'
"What's that?" I said as I looked up. I saw something falling from the sky. It had a shape similar to Tikal. It was growing closer. 1000 feet. 500 feet. 250 feet. 125 feet. 50 feet. WHUMPH!!! It landed on top of me, knocking me flat on the ground. Most of my rings were scattered all over the field. "Tikal, how did you get all the way up there?" I asked as I got up, but then I realised that the body wasn't Tikal's. Her body was shaped in the sameway as Tikal's, but she was pink like Amy. She looked like she had been knocked out. "I guess I'd better take you back home." I said, and I picked her up, moved her onto my back, and started walking toward where I would be living for the next few months. About 15 minutes later, I got home, and opened the door.
"Hey Dan! What's... who's that?" he asked, his smile fading from his face.
"I don't know," I said, "I'm going to take her to my room until she comes to, then I'm going to find out who she is." I carried her over to where I had come out of eariler this morning, then put her on the bed, her head on the pillow. I then walked over to the desk, got out some markers, a pencil, and some paper, and started drawing some pictures of various things. 30 minutes later, there was a stack of 10 pictures next to the box of markers. Then I heard something stirring behind me. I turned around and saw that the pink echidna was waking up. She sat up, and held her head.
"My head. Where mam I?" she asked as she looked around. I stared at her, then hugged her tightly, despite not even knowing who she was, although I recognized the voice.
"You're awake!" I said, "I'm so happy that you're okay!"
"Who are you?" she said, "And where am I?"
"I'm Daniel Hemmings." I said, "And I think I know who you might be. Hmm." I thought for a moment. "Your first name starts with a c and ends in an e. Your last name begins with a b and ends with another e. Am I not correct?"
"Right." she said.
"Is it Christine Bedee?" I asked, hoping that I was right.
"How did you know?" said Christine, looking surprised that I knew who she was.
"I recognized your voice." I said, "Let me show you around." I walked out of the room and Christine followed. I walked into the living room, and saw the real Tikal sitting on the couch with Knuckles and Rouge. They all looked at me when I walked into the room.
"Hey Daniel!" said Knuckles, smiling, but he loooked to the left of me, ans saw Christine. His smile faded from his face. "Who's that?"
"This is Christine Bedee." I said.
""Great." muttered Sonic to Tails, "Another echidna couple."
"I also realized something," I said, "If you combine Knuckles and I you'd get Tikal, since red and yellow make orange. and Knuckles and Sonic combined along with some white would make Christine." Everyone stared at me, including Christine.
"I got a high score on Freezepop's 'Science Genius Girl'" said Sonic, obivously wanting to change the topic. "I just can't seem to unlock Curve's 'Worst Mistake'. I'm behind by 500 points." Meanwhile, the Death Egg II was falling toward the Earth.
"Metal, brace yourself for impact in 1 minute!" shouted Eggman over the sirens.
"Master, have you found the Chibification-ray gun?" said Metal. He too was searching for the Chibification-ray gun. It was hard to see through the thick smoke. Metal turned on the fan that Eggman had just fixed a few days ago to blow a hole through the smokescreen. Metal found the Chibification ray gun lying on Eggman's virtual reality game. Metal grabbed that too and ran back to Eggman. "Master, I've found it!"
"Good job Metal!" said Eggman, "Once we get enough new stuff, I'll give you a new coat of paint!" They then lept out the window just as the Death Egg II crashed into the ground. They ran away from the wreckage as fast as they could. They were about a tenth of a mile away from it when it exploded with a deep BOOM that could be heard for miles around. It made the trees nearby sway from the vibration of the blast. Back at Sonic's house, I was just sitting down to watch TV when I heard the boom. I didn't actually hear it, but rather "felt" it, as though a large wall of water had just smashed into me.
"What was that?" said Christine, getting up from the chair she was sitting in.
"I'll go check it out." I said, "Knuckles, you come with me. Tails, you fly over there in your Tornado 2 and scout the area. Amy, you can go with Tails. Tikal can come with me, along with Christine. Sonic will go over to where the explosion came from and see what the cause of it was. Any questions?" Tikal raised her hand. "Yes?"
"Can you try not to do that?" said Tikal, "You seem creepy when you do that."
"Other than that, let's go!" I said. I ran outside with Knuckles, Tikal, and Christine right behind me. As we climbed a tall Sequoia tree, we saw a blue blur rush past us. From the side we looked like a multi-colored centipede. We reached the top of the tree, and stood up, forming a square. "No, we aren't going aerial square dancing." Just then there was another explosion, but this time I didn't hear it. I saw it, then felt it about 5 seconds later. The force of the shockwave caused both Christine and Tikal to lose their balance and almost fall off the tree. I heard their arms waving around, and right before they fell out of reach, I grabbed both of them by their legs. I wrapped my legs around a nearby branch. "Knuckles, grab my legs and try tto pull us up!"
"Okay." said Knuckles. He walked over to me, grabbed my legs, and started pulling. He pulled as hard as he could, and slowly, we started inching up the side up the tree. "Almost there." There was another explosion, and Knuckles fell off the tree, causing the four of us to fall off the Sequoia tree. We were about 100 feet from the ground when we landed in the Tornado 2.
"Hey guys!" said Tails from the front of the Tornado 2. "What were you doing all the way up there?"
"It's a long story." I said, not wanting to explain.
1304
In a cave
Meanwhile, Eggman was in a cave, making the final adjustments to his Chibification ray gun.
"Wrench." said Eggman. Metal handed him the wrench. "Screwdriver." Metal handed him the screwdriver. "Grilled Cheese sandwich." Metal looked suprised. "A guy has got to eat sometime." Metal got him the grilled cheese sandwich, and Eggman took a bite out of it. Munching on the sandwich, Eggman reached into his pocket to find something. "Now where is it?" Metal sighed.
"Master, it's in your back pocket." said Metal.
"How long have you know that?" said Eggman, looking suprised.
"For exactly 10 hours 39 minutes and 13 seconds." said Metal. Eggman took the Chaos Emerald out of his back pocket, and placed it in the Chibification ray gun.
"Now we need to find a good test subject." said Eggman, looking around outside the cave. He saw Sonic, then Tails, then Knuckles, then Tikal, then me, then Christine. "Which one to choose. What to choose."
"Master, I'd suggest getting the Echidnas." said Metal, "They don't look very fast."
"Thank you Metal." said Eggman. "Now to find out where they live." Metal sighed.
1303
In Mushroom Hill Zone
Back at Sonic's house, we were all relaxing, doing the things we'd normaly do. Actually, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Tikal, Amy and Rouge were doing the things they'd normally do, while I was showing Christine some of the places that I liked to visit, or would like to visit.
"I've never seen Mushroom Hill Zone in 3 dimensions before." I said, impressed at the way it looked. We walked a bit further. We walked past the cave where Eggman was hiding. Eggman's Chibification ray gun was aimed at Christine.
"Ready?" said Eggman, moving the gun to track her progress.
"There's the weird... robotic dragonfly thing." I said, looking confused. "I never liked those things."
"Aim." said Eggman. Christine looked at the cave.
"What's that?" said Christine.
"FIRE!!!!!!" shouted Eggman, pulling the trigger.
"Look out!" I shouted, pushing her out of the way, but in the process getting hit with the chibification ray. I felt myself slowly growing shorter. My eyes grew slightly larger. Then it stopped. I had been 11 years old before. Now I was 5 years old, more than half my original age.
"Not quite what I planned, but it will do." said Eggman. "At least I know it works." He ran deeper into the cave, dissappearing from view. I looked around, then looked up at Christine. She was looking down at me, as though I was an abonded cat or dog that was living inside a cardboard box on the side of a road in New York City. She picked me up and carried me to Sonic's house.
"Let's get you home." she said. When she walked in the door, Sonic turned around.
"How did your walk wit- what the..." said Sonic when he saw me in Christine's arms. "What happened?"
"Well, Dan was walking me through Mushroom Hill Zone, wheen I noticed a cave." said Christine. "I saw something sticking out of it. I said 'What's that?' and Dan shouted 'Look out!' and pushed me out of the way, but in the process, getting hit by the chibification ray." I walked over to Tails.
"There can only be one way Eggman got so much power." I said, looking at Tails.
"This must be..." said Tails,
"...the energy of..." I continued.
"The Chaos Emeralds!" Tails and I said together at the same time.
"That's about the second time you've done that today." said Tikal, shuddering slightly.
"Sorry." I said, "Sometimes I can't help it."
"Anyway," said Sonic, "We're going to have to get used to having a chibi around the house for a while."
"Great." I said, "First I'm suddenly transported to the Sonic the Hedgehog world, then Christine shows up as a pink echidna, then, to top it off, I get turned into a chibi. Now let's see." I reached behind Tails' desk, and grabbed a piece of posterboard. "You don't mind if I use this for something?"
"Go ahead." said Tails, smiling. "I can always make more."
"Okay," I said. I climbed up onto a chair, and hung up the piece of posterboard. "We have 4 boys in here and 4 girls." I wrote our names on the posterboard, the boys names on the left and the girls names on the right. "So far, we have 1 definite couple." I looked in Sonic's direction. He smiled weakly. "Next we have Knuckles and Tikal." Knuckles also smiled weakly. "Then we have Christine and I." 'Oh great, Why did I just do that?' "The only two avaible people remaining are Tails and Rouge."
"Once again, you did something that scares me." said Tikal, shuddering again.
"Tails," I said, "I just realised something."
"What is it?" said Tails.
"My body was turned chibi but not my mind." I said. "Plus I can now give you the dreaded Puppy Dog Eyes."
"Errm... Okay," said Tails, slowly backing up. I laughed.
"I'm kidding!" I said, still laughing my head off. "I was just having a bit of fun with you." Tails sighed with relief. "But..." Tails gulped "You'd better be careful what you answer to my questions, because I have the dreaded puppy dog eyes!" The doorbell started playing the Zone Complete jingle from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
"That jingle is getting old." said Sonic. "Remind me to change the tune on the doorbell." He got up, walked over to the door, and opened it. He saw Eggman standing there.
"Who is it?" said Christine, peeking around the corner.
"It's Dr. Eggman again." said Sonic. I heard the name, and rushed to the front door.
"Dr. Eggman," I said, "What do you want from us this time? The-"
"Oh no," said Eggman, "I just need a willing volunteer to test out my Virtual Reality game." We all stared at him. "What, I do other things other than plot Sonic's destruction." At the mention of the word Virtual Reality, my face instantly lit up.
"I'll be glad to test it!" I said, nearly bouncing on the balls of my feet.
"I'll come to," said Sonic, "I want to make sure Eggman doesn't pull anything funny."
"I'll come also," said Christine, "I want to see more of this world anyway."
"I go anywhere Sonic goes!" said Amy, giving Sonic a hug. Sonic gave a forced grin.
"I'm coming with you," said Knuckles, "I want to see what Eggman wants."
"I go anywhere Knuckles goes!" said Tikal, hugging Knuckles, who smiled weakly.
"I guess Rouge and I will be coming also," said Tails, getting out of his chair.
"Okay then," said Eggman, "Let's go!" He got into his Egg-o-matic Hovercraft and flew off. I lept up and clung to it.
"Christine, grab my hand!" I shouted down at her. She started chasing the Egg-o-matic Hovercraft and me. She lept up, and grabbed my hand.
"Knuckles! Now you grab my hand!" shouted Christine down at him. He started chasing the Egg-o-matic Hovercraft and Christine. He lept up, and grabbed her hand.
"Okay, Tikal, your turn!" shouted Knuckles. Tikal jumped up and grabbed Knuckles' hand. We were waving around in the wind like a flag. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Rouge were running beneath us. We reached Flying Battery Zone after a couple of minutes.
"Here we are!" said Eggman, jumping out of his Egg-o-matic hovercraft. I sighed and wiped a bit of sweat from my forehead. Then I realised that I wasn't holding on to the Egg-o-matic hovercraft. We fell to the ground with a dull thud. After untangling ourselves, we got up and walked inside. We gasped at the size of the place since we had last been here.
"Eggman, you've done some nice decorating." I said, looking around.
"Thank you," said Eggman, "The virtual reality room is this way." He indicated a stairway that lead to a door. We walked up the staircase, and Eggman followed. He entered in the password on the keypad. The door beeped a few times, and opened with a faint hiss. There were several pods in the room, along with some various other arcade games, including Air Hockey, Pinball, Pac-man, and other classic games. "Player 1 sits in the pod in the center of the other 7 pods." I got into the pod in the center. Christine was in the pod next to me. "The way the game works is simple. It's like a Final Fantasy game. You have a certian amount of HP. You can attack enemies that yo encounter. If you run out of HP, you lose a fairy. When you run out of fairies, the game is over for you." He walked over to the control panel. "I'll keep track of your progress on this monitor." He pressed a button on the panel, and the hatches on the pods closed. "Engaging system in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Engaging Virtual Systems!" He pulled a switch, and we all blacked out.
The Appearance of Christine
I woke up what seemed like a minute later to find that the music wasn't playing anymore. I put my glasses on, and sat up. I could hear music coming from down the hall. It sounded familiar, but I couldn't quite remember what song it was. I got out of bed and walked down the hall. On the TV screen in the living room, I saw something similar to being flushed down the center of a japanese electric toilet. It was Frequency.
"Sonic," I said, walking over to him and sitting on the couch. "I know how to play this game!"
"Cool!" said Sonic. I knew what he was going to say next.
"No I don't want to play right now, I have to go out for a while. See ya!" I said, and I walked out the door. Meanwhile, in Death Egg II, Dr. Eggman was typing in something on his computer.
"Locate subject: Christine Bedee." said Dr. Eggman to his computer.
"Searching..." said the computer. It made a beeping sound. "1 result has been found." A picture of her came up on his screen. "Awaiting further instructions."
"Display Animal: Pink Echidna." said Eggman. A picture of a pink echidna showed up on the screen.
"Press 1 to transport Subject into this dimension and transform it into the pink echidna." said the computer. Eggman pressed one. It made a whirring noise. A few minutes later, a pink echidna appeared on the dimensional teleporter.
"It worked!" said Eggman.
"Warning! Warning! This system has a fatal error." said the computer. The consoles started to explode.
"NO! Not again!" shouted Eggman. Christine looked around and ran out of the room. She found a window, and jumped out of it and started gliding. 'Well,' she thouhght 'This is fun.' She continued gliding until a flock of flickies flew right past her at high speed. They flew so fast, than she was knocked off the path of flight, and started falling. 'Oh great.'
"What's that?" I said as I looked up. I saw something falling from the sky. It had a shape similar to Tikal. It was growing closer. 1000 feet. 500 feet. 250 feet. 125 feet. 50 feet. WHUMPH!!! It landed on top of me, knocking me flat on the ground. Most of my rings were scattered all over the field. "Tikal, how did you get all the way up there?" I asked as I got up, but then I realised that the body wasn't Tikal's. Her body was shaped in the sameway as Tikal's, but she was pink like Amy. She looked like she had been knocked out. "I guess I'd better take you back home." I said, and I picked her up, moved her onto my back, and started walking toward where I would be living for the next few months. About 15 minutes later, I got home, and opened the door.
"Hey Dan! What's... who's that?" he asked, his smile fading from his face.
"I don't know," I said, "I'm going to take her to my room until she comes to, then I'm going to find out who she is." I carried her over to where I had come out of eariler this morning, then put her on the bed, her head on the pillow. I then walked over to the desk, got out some markers, a pencil, and some paper, and started drawing some pictures of various things. 30 minutes later, there was a stack of 10 pictures next to the box of markers. Then I heard something stirring behind me. I turned around and saw that the pink echidna was waking up. She sat up, and held her head.
"My head. Where mam I?" she asked as she looked around. I stared at her, then hugged her tightly, despite not even knowing who she was, although I recognized the voice.
"You're awake!" I said, "I'm so happy that you're okay!"
"Who are you?" she said, "And where am I?"
"I'm Daniel Hemmings." I said, "And I think I know who you might be. Hmm." I thought for a moment. "Your first name starts with a c and ends in an e. Your last name begins with a b and ends with another e. Am I not correct?"
"Right." she said.
"Is it Christine Bedee?" I asked, hoping that I was right.
"How did you know?" said Christine, looking surprised that I knew who she was.
"I recognized your voice." I said, "Let me show you around." I walked out of the room and Christine followed. I walked into the living room, and saw the real Tikal sitting on the couch with Knuckles and Rouge. They all looked at me when I walked into the room.
"Hey Daniel!" said Knuckles, smiling, but he loooked to the left of me, ans saw Christine. His smile faded from his face. "Who's that?"
"This is Christine Bedee." I said.
""Great." muttered Sonic to Tails, "Another echidna couple."
"I also realized something," I said, "If you combine Knuckles and I you'd get Tikal, since red and yellow make orange. and Knuckles and Sonic combined along with some white would make Christine." Everyone stared at me, including Christine.
"I got a high score on Freezepop's 'Science Genius Girl'" said Sonic, obivously wanting to change the topic. "I just can't seem to unlock Curve's 'Worst Mistake'. I'm behind by 500 points." Meanwhile, the Death Egg II was falling toward the Earth.
"Metal, brace yourself for impact in 1 minute!" shouted Eggman over the sirens.
"Master, have you found the Chibification-ray gun?" said Metal. He too was searching for the Chibification-ray gun. It was hard to see through the thick smoke. Metal turned on the fan that Eggman had just fixed a few days ago to blow a hole through the smokescreen. Metal found the Chibification ray gun lying on Eggman's virtual reality game. Metal grabbed that too and ran back to Eggman. "Master, I've found it!"
"Good job Metal!" said Eggman, "Once we get enough new stuff, I'll give you a new coat of paint!" They then lept out the window just as the Death Egg II crashed into the ground. They ran away from the wreckage as fast as they could. They were about a tenth of a mile away from it when it exploded with a deep BOOM that could be heard for miles around. It made the trees nearby sway from the vibration of the blast. Back at Sonic's house, I was just sitting down to watch TV when I heard the boom. I didn't actually hear it, but rather "felt" it, as though a large wall of water had just smashed into me.
"What was that?" said Christine, getting up from the chair she was sitting in.
"I'll go check it out." I said, "Knuckles, you come with me. Tails, you fly over there in your Tornado 2 and scout the area. Amy, you can go with Tails. Tikal can come with me, along with Christine. Sonic will go over to where the explosion came from and see what the cause of it was. Any questions?" Tikal raised her hand. "Yes?"
"Can you try not to do that?" said Tikal, "You seem creepy when you do that."
"Other than that, let's go!" I said. I ran outside with Knuckles, Tikal, and Christine right behind me. As we climbed a tall Sequoia tree, we saw a blue blur rush past us. From the side we looked like a multi-colored centipede. We reached the top of the tree, and stood up, forming a square. "No, we aren't going aerial square dancing." Just then there was another explosion, but this time I didn't hear it. I saw it, then felt it about 5 seconds later. The force of the shockwave caused both Christine and Tikal to lose their balance and almost fall off the tree. I heard their arms waving around, and right before they fell out of reach, I grabbed both of them by their legs. I wrapped my legs around a nearby branch. "Knuckles, grab my legs and try tto pull us up!"
"Okay." said Knuckles. He walked over to me, grabbed my legs, and started pulling. He pulled as hard as he could, and slowly, we started inching up the side up the tree. "Almost there." There was another explosion, and Knuckles fell off the tree, causing the four of us to fall off the Sequoia tree. We were about 100 feet from the ground when we landed in the Tornado 2.
"Hey guys!" said Tails from the front of the Tornado 2. "What were you doing all the way up there?"
"It's a long story." I said, not wanting to explain.
1304
In a cave
Meanwhile, Eggman was in a cave, making the final adjustments to his Chibification ray gun.
"Wrench." said Eggman. Metal handed him the wrench. "Screwdriver." Metal handed him the screwdriver. "Grilled Cheese sandwich." Metal looked suprised. "A guy has got to eat sometime." Metal got him the grilled cheese sandwich, and Eggman took a bite out of it. Munching on the sandwich, Eggman reached into his pocket to find something. "Now where is it?" Metal sighed.
"Master, it's in your back pocket." said Metal.
"How long have you know that?" said Eggman, looking suprised.
"For exactly 10 hours 39 minutes and 13 seconds." said Metal. Eggman took the Chaos Emerald out of his back pocket, and placed it in the Chibification ray gun.
"Now we need to find a good test subject." said Eggman, looking around outside the cave. He saw Sonic, then Tails, then Knuckles, then Tikal, then me, then Christine. "Which one to choose. What to choose."
"Master, I'd suggest getting the Echidnas." said Metal, "They don't look very fast."
"Thank you Metal." said Eggman. "Now to find out where they live." Metal sighed.
1303
In Mushroom Hill Zone
Back at Sonic's house, we were all relaxing, doing the things we'd normaly do. Actually, Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Tikal, Amy and Rouge were doing the things they'd normally do, while I was showing Christine some of the places that I liked to visit, or would like to visit.
"I've never seen Mushroom Hill Zone in 3 dimensions before." I said, impressed at the way it looked. We walked a bit further. We walked past the cave where Eggman was hiding. Eggman's Chibification ray gun was aimed at Christine.
"Ready?" said Eggman, moving the gun to track her progress.
"There's the weird... robotic dragonfly thing." I said, looking confused. "I never liked those things."
"Aim." said Eggman. Christine looked at the cave.
"What's that?" said Christine.
"FIRE!!!!!!" shouted Eggman, pulling the trigger.
"Look out!" I shouted, pushing her out of the way, but in the process getting hit with the chibification ray. I felt myself slowly growing shorter. My eyes grew slightly larger. Then it stopped. I had been 11 years old before. Now I was 5 years old, more than half my original age.
"Not quite what I planned, but it will do." said Eggman. "At least I know it works." He ran deeper into the cave, dissappearing from view. I looked around, then looked up at Christine. She was looking down at me, as though I was an abonded cat or dog that was living inside a cardboard box on the side of a road in New York City. She picked me up and carried me to Sonic's house.
"Let's get you home." she said. When she walked in the door, Sonic turned around.
"How did your walk wit- what the..." said Sonic when he saw me in Christine's arms. "What happened?"
"Well, Dan was walking me through Mushroom Hill Zone, wheen I noticed a cave." said Christine. "I saw something sticking out of it. I said 'What's that?' and Dan shouted 'Look out!' and pushed me out of the way, but in the process, getting hit by the chibification ray." I walked over to Tails.
"There can only be one way Eggman got so much power." I said, looking at Tails.
"This must be..." said Tails,
"...the energy of..." I continued.
"The Chaos Emeralds!" Tails and I said together at the same time.
"That's about the second time you've done that today." said Tikal, shuddering slightly.
"Sorry." I said, "Sometimes I can't help it."
"Anyway," said Sonic, "We're going to have to get used to having a chibi around the house for a while."
"Great." I said, "First I'm suddenly transported to the Sonic the Hedgehog world, then Christine shows up as a pink echidna, then, to top it off, I get turned into a chibi. Now let's see." I reached behind Tails' desk, and grabbed a piece of posterboard. "You don't mind if I use this for something?"
"Go ahead." said Tails, smiling. "I can always make more."
"Okay," I said. I climbed up onto a chair, and hung up the piece of posterboard. "We have 4 boys in here and 4 girls." I wrote our names on the posterboard, the boys names on the left and the girls names on the right. "So far, we have 1 definite couple." I looked in Sonic's direction. He smiled weakly. "Next we have Knuckles and Tikal." Knuckles also smiled weakly. "Then we have Christine and I." 'Oh great, Why did I just do that?' "The only two avaible people remaining are Tails and Rouge."
"Once again, you did something that scares me." said Tikal, shuddering again.
"Tails," I said, "I just realised something."
"What is it?" said Tails.
"My body was turned chibi but not my mind." I said. "Plus I can now give you the dreaded Puppy Dog Eyes."
"Errm... Okay," said Tails, slowly backing up. I laughed.
"I'm kidding!" I said, still laughing my head off. "I was just having a bit of fun with you." Tails sighed with relief. "But..." Tails gulped "You'd better be careful what you answer to my questions, because I have the dreaded puppy dog eyes!" The doorbell started playing the Zone Complete jingle from Sonic the Hedgehog 2.
"That jingle is getting old." said Sonic. "Remind me to change the tune on the doorbell." He got up, walked over to the door, and opened it. He saw Eggman standing there.
"Who is it?" said Christine, peeking around the corner.
"It's Dr. Eggman again." said Sonic. I heard the name, and rushed to the front door.
"Dr. Eggman," I said, "What do you want from us this time? The-"
"Oh no," said Eggman, "I just need a willing volunteer to test out my Virtual Reality game." We all stared at him. "What, I do other things other than plot Sonic's destruction." At the mention of the word Virtual Reality, my face instantly lit up.
"I'll be glad to test it!" I said, nearly bouncing on the balls of my feet.
"I'll come to," said Sonic, "I want to make sure Eggman doesn't pull anything funny."
"I'll come also," said Christine, "I want to see more of this world anyway."
"I go anywhere Sonic goes!" said Amy, giving Sonic a hug. Sonic gave a forced grin.
"I'm coming with you," said Knuckles, "I want to see what Eggman wants."
"I go anywhere Knuckles goes!" said Tikal, hugging Knuckles, who smiled weakly.
"I guess Rouge and I will be coming also," said Tails, getting out of his chair.
"Okay then," said Eggman, "Let's go!" He got into his Egg-o-matic Hovercraft and flew off. I lept up and clung to it.
"Christine, grab my hand!" I shouted down at her. She started chasing the Egg-o-matic Hovercraft and me. She lept up, and grabbed my hand.
"Knuckles! Now you grab my hand!" shouted Christine down at him. He started chasing the Egg-o-matic Hovercraft and Christine. He lept up, and grabbed her hand.
"Okay, Tikal, your turn!" shouted Knuckles. Tikal jumped up and grabbed Knuckles' hand. We were waving around in the wind like a flag. Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Rouge were running beneath us. We reached Flying Battery Zone after a couple of minutes.
"Here we are!" said Eggman, jumping out of his Egg-o-matic hovercraft. I sighed and wiped a bit of sweat from my forehead. Then I realised that I wasn't holding on to the Egg-o-matic hovercraft. We fell to the ground with a dull thud. After untangling ourselves, we got up and walked inside. We gasped at the size of the place since we had last been here.
"Eggman, you've done some nice decorating." I said, looking around.
"Thank you," said Eggman, "The virtual reality room is this way." He indicated a stairway that lead to a door. We walked up the staircase, and Eggman followed. He entered in the password on the keypad. The door beeped a few times, and opened with a faint hiss. There were several pods in the room, along with some various other arcade games, including Air Hockey, Pinball, Pac-man, and other classic games. "Player 1 sits in the pod in the center of the other 7 pods." I got into the pod in the center. Christine was in the pod next to me. "The way the game works is simple. It's like a Final Fantasy game. You have a certian amount of HP. You can attack enemies that yo encounter. If you run out of HP, you lose a fairy. When you run out of fairies, the game is over for you." He walked over to the control panel. "I'll keep track of your progress on this monitor." He pressed a button on the panel, and the hatches on the pods closed. "Engaging system in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Engaging Virtual Systems!" He pulled a switch, and we all blacked out.