Luff: Hi! I just thought I would post up this little note just to clear a few things up. Chen can't join in 'cos she's on the Isle of Wight (MOAWHAHAHA!), so I hope she doesn't mind me doing this… Anyways, lots of people are asking us questions that they are confused with, so I am going to try my best to answer them. Takes deep breath OK, here it goes!
For Yugi and Mai: Sorry, we can't tell you who is behind this Rouge impostor, so you'll just have to wait until the next chapter. When we've finished it. Heh.
For DarkXeno: Um, Tails doesn't have anything in particular against wearing shorts. It's just one of those thing that people invent for their stories. We do know that Tails' real name is Miles Prower. We have quite a few games. It's just easier to call him Tails. We also decided to change their ages a bit to make it easier to write this story. We thought it would be easier if Tails were 10 so we could do this whole thing with him and Marie. We do the character thing at the beginning of the chapters merely for amusement purposes only. Um, I hope that answers your questions. If you have any more you would like to ask, I would be only too happy to answer them!
For Guest: Um, Amy isn't in this story because my sister and me find her really annoying, and hard to work with as a character. She has gone off to live with her "aunt" somewhere (Don't ask). Eggman is now a good guy because he was "good" at the end of SA2B. Well in a manner of speaking. I know the story's different in Sonic Heroes, but hey. It's a story! So what if it's a little different. They do that with Yami Bakura in Yu-Gi-Oh!, but nobody moans about that. Yeah, I have no idea what that "uncle" thing is, either…soz.
Luff: Umm, I don't think there were any more questions. However, I would like to thank the above people as well as RichaCo, Dragon Master Naya, and midnightblue56 for reviewing our last chapter! (Sorry if I've missed anyone) You don't know how grateful we are!
Oh, and before I forget, you can check our author's page to find out how far we are with writing our stories! Isn't that cool? It will (hopefully) tell you exactly how much we have done, so we will be regularly updating it. And also, if we are having any trouble with our story at all, it will be on the page somewhere.
OK, now that I'm done, it's time to say goodbye! And please don't forget to review!
Thankies! -
Luff xxx
S. Chensu: I'm back now and we're sorry for not posting up the next episode but we just haven't had the time because I've had English coursework that's had to be in this week and Luff has a big graphics project to do. I didn't want to get rid of the note thing, as it's very useful. However, since Luff posted it up, we've had a couple more questions/clarifications so here it goes:
Yugi and Mai: You won't find out about the master of the Rouge robot this episode. In fact it won't be for a few, unless you make the connections. But I won't spoil it by saying anything else. And if you're going to review a story, make sure it's the right one. Reviews for the 'Pressures of Life' should go there, not here.
DarkXeno: Tails just doesn't like shorts; they're not very warm for a start off! And we /have/ acknowledged the fact that Tails' real name is Miles Prower (episode eleven), but he doesn't like being called that. The ages have changed because I personally didn't want them to be in 6th form (it's what we have in British schools from ages 16-18), as you need GCSEs for it. The Tails thing is same as above and Shadow is sixteen because he was encapsulated when he was sixteen, so therefore he looks sixteen (we do realise he is very old). The characters are, as Luff so funnily puts it "for amusement purposes" so just ignore them. We gave them up after a few episodes anyway as it got too complicated. But if you want to give us some characters to do things with we need names and if you have some ideas then by all means, give them to us. They have to be someone we vaguely know though. If it's anime we're restricted to Yu-Gi-Oh! and Cardcaptors but if it's video games, we're a bit better. We do all of Nintendo (that includes third party games), Kingdom Hearts and maybe Final Fantasy. Cartoons we do He-Man, X-Men and Disney (although that may fall under the film category). That's about it. Oh, we do loads of books and films too, we're (especially Chen) film obsessed. We haven't based Sonic on anyone in particularly, for despite having a Sonic story, we very rarely read them, as we don't have time at the moment. We're not picking on Tails; we're just incorporating him into the story.
Guest: Same as above.
S. Chensu: Thank you again for the reviews and sorry if there isn't a message for you; it's just that we've had a lot of reviewers asking questions, which rightly need answering. Just don't ask them again puppy eyes pretty please?
Luff: This episode is (as the title suggests) the start of the story! It'll be exciting so let's go!
Disclaimer: We don't own the Sonic characters but we do own the story, Sammie, Emily, Marie and any other characters not owned by the Sonic team. We also don't own the film mentioned in this episode but we won't spoil it by saying which one…
Episode fifteen: The story finally starts
A month had gone past and finally the group had settled down. The police had fully apologised to Rouge for arresting and charging her despite her innocence and while everyone seemed to forget about it, she was still troubled by the event. She had of course, discussed the whole 'master' thing with the others but they couldn't come up with any credible answers. And anyway, she, Sonic and Knuckles had too much coursework to do at the moment, not allowing them any time to give any serious thought to it. It annoyed her that the others weren't taking it seriously, they didn't realise how scared she had been, knowing that there was something that had been created to look like her. It meant that whoever created it knew who she was, what if it was watching her right now?
But she had to be positive. She heard about the robots of Sonic and Knuckles that Eggman had created and they had never seemed to give them too much trouble in the past. But had they expected Eggman to do something like that, she didn't know anyone who wanted to get rid of her that much.
The only thing that was worrying her and the others was the fact that Emily and Sammie were still missing. Apparently, according to the school, they had gone on holiday with their mum and dad but they couldn't remember them ever mentioning it and plus it seemed like a very long holiday to take at such an important time of their school lives. Sonic had told them about going round their house but was very vague concerning it, like someone had wiped the memory away. They merely waited until they came back again so they could find out what had happened.
It was a Thursday evening and the group were sitting in the living room on the various pieces of furniture, one of the few times they could relax. They were waiting for a film to come on and while they did, they talked about various things until the point of the robot was raised by Tails, the one who talked about it the least.
"Does anyone else think it's weird that we haven't seen that robot again?" He suddenly asked and Sonic turned to him, frowning.
"No, not really. It's not like any of us want it to come back. And anyway, we've been through this before. If it was serious, it would have attacked again by now but it hasn't so don't worry about it." Sonic smiled and put his feet on the table, only to have them smacked away by Shadow.
"Hey, I've only just cleaned the last set of sweaty footprints you left on there, I don't want to have to do it again any time soon." He snapped, causing Sonic to grin.
"Aw, little Shadow working all day long with his cloth and frilly white apron-" He stopped suddenly when Shadow lunged at him, causing them to start rolling around on the ground in a play fight.
"Boys, typical." Rouge tisked, rolling her eyes. This turned into a screech though when they bashed into the table, causing her coffee to wobble dangerously. "Watch where you're going you idiots or you'll have to clean the table again anyway!" Shadow stopped immediately when he heard this and sat up in alarm.
"No, anything but clean the table again!" He wailed, pulling Sonic up off the floor to prevent him from colliding with it.
"Now stop it you two." Eggman stated, putting his book down to talk to them properly. "The film's starting now so be quiet."
They dutifully sat back down on the sofa in a subdued mood, knowing that Tails would shout at them if they interrupted the film. They both knew this was one he had wanted to see for ages but he wouldn't say anything about it. The adverts finished and the screen went black with blue and green smoke in the background and a large '4' down one side.
"And now on Channel 4 we present The Exorcist. This film contains bad language and images of extreme horror, which the viewer may find disturbing." As soon as this was said, there was uproar.
"Tails, you are not watching this film!"
"It's an eighteen for a start off!"
"And you'll get really bad nightmares. I couldn't sleep without my light on for a week after I saw it."
"Eggman was afraid of a film?" Sonic snickered and Eggman scowled.
"You have obviously never seen The Exorcist." He crossed his arms and sighed. "Fine then, watch it. But it's not my fault if you get nightmares."
"Thank you Eggman! I promise I won't get nightmares!" Tails squealed, causing Eggman to blush slightly in embarrassment.
They settled down to watch the opening credits, which showed the streets of a city in America…
"ARGH!"
"Tails, I thought I told you not to scream in my ear!" Knuckles snapped, rubbing the side of his head as Tails yelled in fright for the tenth time.
"I'm sorry…" He muttered, proceeding to half hide behind a pillow as he squeezed it to his chest.
"Tails, if it's making you that scared then maybe you should stop watching it-" Eggman started but he shook his head in determination.
"Nope, I'm going to watch all of it!"
"Even if that means getting really bad nightmares?" Shadow asked, standing up and stretching as he said this.
"Where are you going?" Sonic asked, looking up at him.
"Bed. I've seen this before anyway." The others said goodnight to him before he went to his room.
An hour later and the film had finished, although Tails didn't seem to acknowledge this. He remained rigid, staring at the screen as the news came on.
"Tails…earth to Tails…" Sonic said, waving his hand in front of his face. "Hey, are you ok?" He said, putting his arm round his shoulder, causing him to jump.
"What?" His head whipped round to face him and he sighed in relief. "Yeah, I'm ok." He shivered and looked at Sonic pleadingly. "Can I sleep with you tonight?"
"I thought you said you were ok." Sonic replied, raising an eyebrow at him.
"Please Sonic!"
"Fine then. Just don't take up too much room." Sonic rubbed the top of Tails' head before heading towards his bed.
"Just remember you four, I'm not letting you off school because of this." Eggman said and they nodded their heads, turning back to their rooms.
They went to school the next day, although Tails continuingly yawned his head off, complaining about the lack of sleep. Eggman had remained unsympathetic to his cause, not helped when Tails pretended to be ill. So now he was trudging to school, the only thing making it bearable was the fact that Marie was with him and he could boast to her about it.
"You saw The Exorcist? /The/ Exorcist? You are /so/ lucky, my mum wouldn't even let me stay up that late!" Marie exclaimed, causing Tails to smile.
"He didn't see much of it really, he spent most of his time behind a pillow." Sonic added, causing Marie to giggle while Tails scowled. "And then he had to share my bed because he was afraid the demon might come and take over him." By now Tails had the look of death on his face while Marie continued to laugh. She stopped though when Rouge nudged her and smiled gently at him.
"Don't worry Tails, I'm not laughing at you. I was too scared to watch it too." She whispered, causing Tails to grin.
"Shadow went to bed half way through it because he was so bored." Knuckles commented thoughtfully while Marie looked at him in amazement.
"Really? It sounded very scary."
"He said that he had seen it before anyway. I don't remember watching it back in Japan though…" Rouge commented.
They soon arrived at the entrances to their schools and they waved goodbye to each other before making their way to their rooms…
"Are Sammie and Emily still not back yet?" Miss Dink asked at registration and they shook their heads, not able to explain why. "And Gillian is-"
"At a doctor's appointment." Rouge interrupted and Miss Dink nodded her head.
"Oh yes, I remember her telling me about it yesterday." She closed the register and while she talked to a group of students about a piece of coursework they had to hand in soon, Rouge, Sonic, Knuckles and Suzie were discussing the whereabouts of the twins.
"They surely can't be on holiday /still/…" Suzie whined.
"Maybe they went somewhere really far away like Japan…" Sonic mused, causing Suzie to laugh.
"What, with Sammie's appalling grip on the language? She'd probably send everyone she met either to the hospital or into a rage for accidentally insulting them."
"You're probably right… But even then, we're not supposed to take off more than two weeks a year. And now they've been gone for three…" Knuckles added, making the others frown.
"What if they had an accident? They could be hurt and we won't know about it." Suzie suddenly thought but Rouge shook her head.
"No, they've probably gone to visit a family member who's very ill or something…"
"Well I won't be happy until they get back." Suzie said, crossing her arms.
"Let's talk about something else now…" Sonic said, not really wanting to think about their two friends any more.
"Has anyone finished their English coursework yet?" Knuckles asked, only to be hit by several glares.
"Knuckles!" They all yelled, staring at him in disbelief.
"What? What did I say?" He asked in mock innocence, grinning at them at the same time.
"You just want to boast about the fact you've already finished yours!" Sonic snapped, causing Suzie to gasp.
"You've /finished/ yours? I've barely started mine!"
"Well I like the play!" Knuckles exclaimed, putting his hands up in a calming way.
"I didn't know you liked Shakespeare…" Rouge muttered, causing him to blush. "Especially Romeo and Juliet…"
"Ooh ee missus, I think we have an case of girlyness on our hands!" Sonic said, causing Knuckles to punch him on the arm.
The bell went at that moment and so they stood up, making their way to their first lesson, which was, funnily enough, English.
The group made their way home but as it was a Friday, they went to the local newsagent to buy some sweets with the money that Eggman gave them every week. Well, Tails and Sonic bought sweets while Rouge bought magazines and Knuckles didn't spend it at all, saying he wanted to save it. Shadow merely didn't but then it was because he said they were bad for you. Marie occasionally bought something too if she could get the money off her mum. Gillian was at athletics' practice so she wasn't with them and of course, Sammie and Emily were still gone.
However, this week was a little different as Sonic decided to follow Knuckles' example and not buy any sweets at all. So while Sonic and Shadow waited outside on the other side of the road, the others went in to have a look for anything they wanted.
"Kensa, I've found them." A girl walked up behind another girl, whose name was said and looked down towards the ground.
"I know, I can see them too now." Kensa replied, her voice quiet and thoughtful.
"Are you sure we have to do this?" The other girl asked, glancing up at her face.
"Yes, I'm sure. Now please stop asking questions." She fell silent and the girl sighed, sitting down on the edge of the building.
"Fine then, I'll stop asking but only if we're allowed to have a little fun with them first." She said.
"There's not time for us to have fun Shaylea! This is serious and if we don't get them-"
"I know about that but can't we throw something at them?"
"Like what?" Shaylea stood up and walked along the roof, stopping when she reached a bag. She brought it back over and Kensa looked in it. "Cabbages? Why cabbages?"
"Because it's funny! And plus they're not just any old cabbages, they're smelly cabbages." She crossed her arms and stared at Kensa.
"Yeah, I can tell." She waved her hand in front of her nose and passed the bag back to Shaylea. "Fine then but you're throwing them, not me."
"Ok."
Sonic and Shadow stood on the path in silence, not being able to think of much to say to each other. Despite the fact they had fights with each other and seemed friendly, there were still a lot of questions that had to be answered and they didn't want to talk about them. Sonic suddenly thought back to the fluttering in his stomach and his confusion only grew, not sure what it was supposed to mean. Especially since he found about Rouge and Knuckles. Were he and Shadow like that? No, he definitely didn't like Shadow like that and he probably would have said the same thing.
His thoughts were rudely interrupted though when he felt something hit him on the head and by the sound of things, so did Shadow.
"Hey, did you feel that?" Sonic asked as he looked at Shadow. He didn't reply though and Sonic followed Shadow's gaze before frowning: a cabbage. What the hell was a cabbage doing here?
"Do you think it's the others?" Shadow asked instead and Sonic shook his head.
"It felt like it came from above…" They both looked up and were surprised to see two people standing on the roof of the newsagent's, one of them holding a round thing in their hand.
"Who the hell are they?" Sonic yelled but Shadow didn't know, so he just shook his head in disbelief.
Suddenly the two people jumped down from the roof and the last thing they felt was the rush of air and wings, which felt very familiar to Sonic before they were knocked on the back of the head. In fact, all that remained was their trainers and a few cabbages.
The others soon came out from the shop, having bought their stuff and looked around, wondering where Sonic and Shadow had gone. It was then they spotted the cabbages.
"They're not here!" Tails yelled out, looking around desperately for any trace of them.
"Everything's gone but their shoes!" Marie also yelled, Tails' panic seeming to be infectious.
"But they were here not long ago." Rouge murmured, kneeling down on the ground to get a better look at what had happened.
"S-s-smelly c-cabbages…" Knuckles stuttered, hiding behind Tails, wincing every time he saw them.
"What the hell?" Tails said, shaking his head as he turned around. "Sonic and Shadow have gone missing and all you can think about is the fact some cabbages are on the ground?"
"Well I don't like cabbages, I had a very bad nightmare about them once. It was after Sonic force fed them to me…" Marie sniggered slightly but Tails frowned.
"Come on, we have to get back to the apartment and tell Eggman about this." He picked up Sonic's shoes while Rouge took Shadow's.
Knuckles suddenly saw a black feather and so picked it up quickly before the group started to run as fast as they could towards the apartment.
S. Chensu: Whew, done. But it's really short, considering the fact it's supposed to be one of the most important parts of the story. And it's crap. If you want something to blame, blame Richard III and my coursework essay on curses, which I've just been redrafting for the third time.
Luff: The Exorcist is one of our favourite films although I agree with Tails, it is a bit scary. And please ignore the whole cabbage thing; it's to do with an advert we saw for MacDonalds once. It's the old ones with the hyenas in it.
S. Chensu: And Shakespeare's in there because my English coursework reminded my on the stuff I had to do at GCSE and one of my essays was comparing Mercutio (my favourite character) and the Nurse. Please ignore the fact I'm going down memory lane here…
Luff: Quite. Anyway, because the story is completely different now, we may change the summary a little bit.
S. Chensu: Also, we'll put up the date for the next chapter on our summary so make sure you read it to know when it is.
Luff: We're doing this as the rest of the story is mostly made up of shorter chapters and it's unfair for you to wait a whole week so it'll be 4-5 days instead.
S. Chensu: So until then, please review!