Hoo boy, it's been a while, hasn't it? Well, Flip Side is back, just barely. I got quite a few ideas for this that I doubt anyone will expect. And I bet they won't get why I'm writing them, either. ... You might want to start from Chapter One- it's been so long.
I must have made it. I must finally be dead. After all I went through, I definitely have to be dead. Where I'm lying is so comfortable... Heaven? Wait, then why does my back hurt like hell?
Come to think of it, what happened to me? Where did I come from? What did I last do?
... Who am I?
Amnesia. You can never truly guess what it is like to remember nothing that has ever happened to you. The only thing you can do is use your senses to tell what has happened, is happening. Well, we might as well try this one step at a time.
Touch. My body appears to be injured. There is no way I can tell how badly, so let's try moving. I move my ankle; a twinge of pain shoots up my leg. A flick of either wrist brings a bit of hurt. I think I'll stop that, now. What I'm lying on is soft. A bed would be my guess.
Smell. There isn't really any scent in this area. I can feel a small breeze, which wafts in natural smells. Grass, barely-scented flowers, water, that sort of thing. Taste? My mouth doesn't taste like anything. So, I've been out for a while, huh?
Sound. Tiny chirps of birds, whose sounds tell my mind that I must be in a room and hearing them through the window. Sharp senses are a veritable miracle; they tell you more than most people could ever find out. I can hear metallic clinks and scraping through one of the walls of my room. From what my mind can recall in the way of sounds, someone is eating breakfast.
Ah yes, sight. My eyes have been closed this whole time. The guesses that I've made are confirmed by my first glimpse of where I am. I see the door first, as it's right in front of the end of my bed. Turning my head slightly reveals a single half-open window to my left. It looks out directly over water. The birds are seagulls... The ocean?
I shift my position to the point where I'm partially sitting, with the various injured parts of myself whining another complaint of pain. Makes you wonder why my neck doesn't hurt, but I suppose that's why I'm not dead. To my right are two empty beds, one with the covers moved down and rumpled. To my left is another bed, with some echidna girl asleep in it. She's drooling... So unladylike.
I wonder suddenly how I look, anyway, and push the covers down a bit to study this. Jet black fur meets my eyes, as well as two round lumps-- so I'm female. I see a ridiculous amount of burn scars on myself. The question of what happened comes to mind, and all that meets me in response are snippets of conversation intermixed with general static. Trying to remember is giving me a horrible headache, for that reason, so I give up.
I feel a rumble in my stomach, and that registers in my mind as hunger. I don't feel like I've ever been hungry... But, then again, I don't remember ever eating. A quiet noise from outside the door reminds me of where to get food. I stretch my arms and legs, feeling a bit less pain and more limber now, and open the door.
There is another hedgehog at the table as I walk toward the smell of food. He looks male, but his quills are pink. That must be a bit insulting to him, I think. He's wearing a pair of shorts that I somehow wouldn't call "brand-new," but look like they've definitely never been worn.
I must have opened the door silently enough, because he visibly jumped when I said, "Um." After he turned to face me, he swallowed his food-- which I noticed was cereal-- immediately.
"Eh, oh, you--'re-- awake. Sorry if I seem kinda flustered; you just really startled me," he said jerkily. After a pause, he added, "Would you like me to find you something to wear? I'm sure I-- we've-- got something around here."
"Uh... Sure." I nodded. He ran up the stairs (which I now noticed), ignoring the rest of his breakfast for the moment. He came back quickly, holding a red dress in his hands.
"Here, try this on. I..." His face flushed, "... Put your underwear and stuff inside it, too."
I got the feeling that I was supposed to walk away or risk making him more uncomfortable, so I walked back to my earlier room. The echidna girl had rolled over, but I could see that she was still drooling a bit. I stuck my tongue out a bit, though it felt odd to me to do that. I put the clothes on and decided to look at myself in the mirror on the wall. I look nice, I thought, but maybe there's a bit too much red. Ah well.
When I returned to the kitchen, the hedgehog was reading the day's newspaper. I walked behind him, and read over his shoulder. He appeared to be closely reading an article discussing something about a G.U.N. Corporation looking for a captive specimen they had recently lost. In the article, the company stated that, while they had lost all pictures of it, this specimen was evidently a black hedgehog that looked much like one 'Sonic the Hedgehog.' Reading further, this hedgehog was part of one 'Project SHADOW,' and created by a 'mad scientist' by the name of Gerald Robotnik. Suddenly, my mind reeled some, and memories flitted before my eyes too quickly for me to grasp, and disappeared just as suddenly. "Huh!?" I said, causing the hedgehog to jump again, this time nearly hitting my jaw.
"Aah! ... Oh, you again. Cut that out!" he said mockingly. After another pause, he noted that the dress looked pretty on me.
"Thank you," I said, testing the waters. He nodded.
"Ssso, uh... My name's A..." He trailed off. "... Air." Odd, I thought, he changed the vowel sound. "Nice to meet you. What's yours?" he asked politely. Of course, I just had to be confused.
"What?" He looked at me oddly.
"I said, what's your name?"
"Uh...," I stalled.
Another wave of memories hit me. I had no visual memory, but I heard in my head a deep voice saying, "Maria? MARIA! Stop it, what do you think you're doing to her, it's not her fault, she..." It rambled on. And then, "No! MARIAAAA...!" I suddenly came back to myself, and saw Air waiting patiently for an answer.
"... Well, I don't remember much, but... I'm Maria. Nice to meet you, too. Now then, I'm really hungry. Could you get me some breakfast? Maybe some of that cereal you're having?"
He looked positively stricken for a moment, then said, quietly, "Ss...sure."
