S. Chensu: We've finally reached this episode!
Luff: Sorry about that people but this is one of her favourite episodes.
S. Chensu: It's full of surrealism! If you don't know what surrealism is, it's a movement in art, which is most famous for 'The Scream' by Munch and 'The Persistence of Memory' by Dalí (the one with the floppy clocks). And it's great!
Luff: While she's being weird, it's time for reviewer replies.
Dragon Master Naya- Worst nightmare?
RichaCo- I know, there's some more 'phases' stuff in this episode. Kind of. You'll see when you read it. The Book of Knowledge is coming in episode 30 so just be patient!
the funk master- Yay, someone who wants a second series! It's a bit different to this one. It has more characters for a start off but... Oops, we can't talk about it anymore or it would spoil the plot of this one. We'll tell you more about it near the end.
Lewa Nuva- Yes, we're British! And the way you spelt favourite came up wrong on our computer, which means you're American! What do you mean by close in action? You mean putting more in? Don't worry, there is no boy pairing, we've already said this many times! We did realise you could make it STREAKS, which would have made them a bit of a laughing stock really. We'll explain again that there's no Amy because we started writing this before we had finished the game so we didn't realise she was at the end. D'oh! Sorry, we don't know much about Sonic's girlfriend, we only have the Gamecube games and watch Sonic X on TV. Which isn't even that great. Do you mean Sally or that robot thing that was on the old TV series? We don't know anything about the comics, Chen tried looking for them but they aren't anywhere nearby. And plus she has no money. But anyway, we're glad you enjoy the story!
Yugi and Mai- You mean EXAM? Chen loves that word, especially when English Literature is put in front of it. Blessy, Yugi all asleep. Did you survive from Bakura on Saturday? Lots of love and kisses by the way. And hello Mai too! They're not getting back together for some time, so stop going on about it! Ah ha, you might be onto something there with what you said about Emily and Sammie... And as for Yami tucking her in, I hope that's all he's doing, although I know if she had her way...
S. Chensu: As usual we don't own anything in here, including pictures apart from things we own. Like the story for example. But I do wish I owned a nice piece of Surrealism by Magritte...
Luff: Careful or we'll have the lawyers baying for our blood!
Howls are heard in the background
Luff: See what you've done! They're coming!
Lots of screams are heard before the screen goes black and the episode pops up for the reader. Aren't they so nice?
Episode twenty-five: Time's end?
Eggman wandered along the path, looking around with interest. He was trying to work out how the place had come about but gave up after being unable to come to any conclusions. He stopped and looked behind him but the arch he had walked though had now disappeared. Shrugging his shoulders, he continued along the path until the tunnel opened up and he stood in front of a blue dome. It seemed to be night time from looking at the sky although he realised it probably wasn't real because he was underground. The dome was made up of triangles but was opaque so he couldn't see inside.
In fact it took him a little while to realise that there was a door in the dome because it was the same colour as the rest of it. He yanked it open and squinted in the darkness. He couldn't see anything apart from something that was glowing in front of him. He discovered that it was the Hornet and glad of some protection, he jumped into it. As soon as he did so, lights suddenly came on and Eggman sat back in the machine, amazed by what was seeing.
He was in a maze but it wasn't made of bushes. Instead, the walls were covered in strange pictures and patterns, which slowly moved around. The light glinted off the patterns, making them look like jewels. It wasn't actually a maze though, as Eggman soon realised. It was a path, which clearly went up but it went in so many different directions it looked like a spider's web. The floor was transparent and Eggman gasped in horror when he saw faces pressed up against it. They looked spookily similar to the figure from Munch's 'The Scream' and he sighed in relief when he realised they weren't actually real people. He was still on his guard though as he slowly made his way forward.
Nothing seemed to attack him and this gave him a chance to look at the pictures properly. Dali, Magritte, Miro and many more masterpieces stared back at him. Occasionally a random object would float past him but they did not attack. In fact, apart from the pictures moving, the place was totally silent. Eggman was surprised that no one had attacked him yet; after all, he was not hidden by anything. There was nothing that could threaten him, unless the paintings suddenly started flying around. After a while, Eggman tried to avoid looking at the walls because they made him dizzy. He stopped when he heard a crackling sound and he looked around him. There was a crossroad ahead of him and as he got closer to it, he could see a figure.
It seemed to be made up of various materials and as it turned to face Eggman, he realised that it was female. Her hair was made of fire, her face of earth, her body of water and her wings of air. Wondering if this was even possible, he got out of his machine and walked towards her. He stopped abruptly when she moved, unsure of what she would do and was extremely surprised when she laughed.
"Don't worry, I will not hurt you. I am here to show you the way out of this place. After all, I assume you do not want to stay here forever?"
"No, I'd rather not. Why are you showing me the way? Aren't you just going to kill me?" Eggman asked puzzled.
"Now why would I do a thing like that? I have my reasons for helping you Robotnik." He frowned when he heard his name.
"How do you know my name?" She walked forward and he leapt into his machine, following her.
"I know a lot of things. I know for instance that you are here to save two people, hedgehogs to be exact..."
"Right, a wise guy. So what is this place then? How did it get here?"
"I haven't got time to tell you about that unfortunately. But talking of 'wise guys'..." She turned to Eggman. "It looks like you're one yourself. I'm sure you can work it out without my help." They walked in silence for several minutes. "This place, it is the creation of a twisted mind, something that would make most rational people question what they're seeing. It confuses the mind to make it weak..."
"But I'm not confused or anything! How come my mind isn't going weak?"
"Because I'm here. A voice in the silence to keep you thinking. If I were you, I wouldn't be asking how this place came about but /who/ made it come about. That is your greatest concern for it is the reason why your friends are here."
"You've seen Sonic and Shadow? Are they ok?" Eggman demanded.
"They will survive until you see them. However, they may not be sane... Did you not wonder if there was anything out there worse than you?"
"What do you mean?"
"I know who you are /Eggman/, I know what you've done in the past. How you and Sonic have been at each other's throats."
"That's in the past. We've made a truce...for now. I know what I've done in the past but things have changed." He paused. "Are you saying that there is something bigger out there, watching what we're doing, waiting for us?"
"I wouldn't know for definite, I've never seen it but you have to consider what you've just said... And so yes, there probably is something controlling us all." They came to another set of cross roads and she considered for a moment which way to go.
"Like 'The Matrix'?"
"/'The Matrix'/?" She laughed scornfully. "Humans are stupid if they think that anything wants to control them."
"Excuse me, I'm a human." Eggman said coldly.
"Hopefully one who will be able to realise the truth in time. No, it's not like 'The Matrix'. It places no value in humans, most of them are too dumb to work out what's going on." She let him think about it for a moment. "Your friends are here for a reason..."
"Well...Shadow is the ultimate life form and Sonic is the fastest hedgehog..."
"You're thinking on the right lines but you've overlooked something so obvious... It's in front of you, all around you, in you..." She waved her arms around.
"What about you? Is this thing in you too?"
"No, it's not. I would be dead by now if it was. Don't worry about finding the answer to it, you'll know soon enough. Ask your black friend when you see him, he knows what it is, although he doesn't realise it."
"You mean Shadow? How would he know but not the rest of us?" Eggman asked.
"He was trusted by someone to keep a secret. But I've said too much now. You must hurry to catch up with everyone else, you are already behind. It is lucky that I was here to help you, do you know what you would have had to deal with if you were alone?" She pointed behind them and Eggman turned around.
Flames of fire licked over everything but for some strange reason, Eggman couldn't feel the heat. Things rained down from the sky and blood flowed on the floor. But where he was, there was nothing. It was like things only started happening when he wasn't there. Unless it was the person... He turned around but she had gone. Nothing remained of her but as he continued to look around, he saw a door ahead of him.
He walked to the door and just as he went through it, the room began to shake and collapse. Thankful he was barely in time, he closed the door behind of him, blocking off the world he had just gone through.
Silence
Random reader: 00 ..................?
Silence
Random reader: Err...hello?
Limbs appear on the screen flaying around
S. Chensu: Help us, we're dying!
Random reader: ARGH!!!!!!!!!!! Covers eyes
Lawyer: Sorry about that woof, it'll woof soon be gone. Woof.
Random reader: Phew, well that's ok then.
Lawyer: There, all gone.
Random reader: Uncovers eyes Wow, it /really/ is all gone. But what do I do now?
???: Review!
Random reader: W-who was that?
???: It's the ghost of the STREKS future.
Random reader: Oh no, please! Anything but the ghost of the STREKS future!
Ghost of the STREKS future: If you do not review then you'll be hated by everyone and your grave will be spat on!
Random reader: NO!
Ghost of the STREKS future: YES! So what are you going to do?
Random reader: REVIEW!
Ghost of the STREKS future: Good reader strokes reader on top of the head. Here, have another episode.
Random reader: Cocks head New episode? Where?
Ghost of the STREKS future: When the writers bring themselves back to life, get some of their exams done and can think of what to do next evil laugh.
Random reader: D'oh!
Ghost of the STREKS future: But it will be soon.
Random reader: It had better be!
Ghost of the STREKS future: Eek! Runs away
Random reader: Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Deep breath Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Deep breath Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha! Deep breath Hmm, this is getting boring now, I'd better review.
(This bit of randomness was brought to you by the 'Random R Us' company.)