Sonic walked around and really enjoyed himself. He looked around and saw plenty of friends and people he cared about. The party he threw for Eggman's defeat was one that the whole world came to with gusto. Even Knuckles, the silent and lonely guardian of the Master Emerald was there, enjoying his time with Rouge. He walked past some party goers to get some punch.
Sonic the Hedgehog, the hero of Mobius, has finally defeated his eternal enemy Eggman. To celebrate, he's thrown the biggest party imaginable. But what Sonic doesn't know is that he's about to fall into a world full of nightmares. And that fall begins now…
Sonic took a couple of drinks of punch before he spotted Shadow. It was a surprise that the usually quiet and reserved dark hedgehog was there.
Sonic walked up to the dark hedgehog and asked, "So, enjoying the party Shadow?"
Shadow gave a feral smile and pulled out a handgun.
Sonic looked down and asked, "I don't understand?"
"Wake up!" Shadow said with a silent chuckle and pulled the trigger.
BLAM!
Sonic felt the bullet hit his upper chest and fell down.
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"AHHHHH!" Sonic shouted as he sat up violently from the bad dream.
"Sonic, you all right!" Tails asked as he entered Sonic's room in his workshop.
Sonic looked up and saw the young fox's face full of worry. He let out a breath he was holding in and shook his head.
"Yeah, Tails, I just had a nightmare. Pretty real, too." Sonic said as he got up from the bed.
Tails shook his head and said, "Sonic, you need to lay off the chili dogs for a while."
Sonic chuckled and agreed with him.
"So, what was this nightmare about?" Tails asked as he started to straighten up the room.
Sonic got out some bathing supplies and said, "Well, there was a party…everyone imaginable was there…I was sipping some punch…and Shadow walks up."
"Shadow…" Tails said with a little disbelief in his voice.
"Yeah, Shadow, anyway he walks up and when I ask him a question, he just shoots me." Sonic said.
"…shoots you?" Tails asked with a little disbelief.
"Yeah, shoots me…right in the chest." Sonic said, pointing to his nightshirt-covered chest for emphasis.
"…Sonic, you definitely need to lay off the chili dogs for a while." Tails said.
Sonic nodded and removed the shirt. It was then that Tails noticed the scar on his chest.
"WHOA! SONIC LOOK AT YOUR CHEST!" Tails shouted with alarm.
Sonic gave a confused look before he looked down at his chest and saw a scar, right where the bullet had hit.
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A Hero's Fall
Sonic sat in a doctor's office, voluntarily for the first time, and was nervous about what he had saw that morning in Tails' house. He straightened his loose long-sleeved t-shirt and looked down at his blue jeans and red/white tennis shoes. He ran a gloved hand through his quills and had lost himself in thought.
'Is any of this real? Did I really get shot by Shadow or did I just dream the whole thing? Maybe it's just exhaustion…yeah, that's it, I just have been fighting Eggman for so long that I needed a new bad guy to keep fighting…but why did he shoot me?' Sonic continued to ask himself in his mind.
Sonic looked up when he heard the door open and saw Cream walking in. She kept her blouse and skirt neat and tidy along with her lab coat. This was a drastic contrast to the wrinkles and day old feel to Sonic's clothes. Cream also kept her long brown ears kept back to see, as well as her brown fur kept in a ponytail.
"Sonic, we discussed earlier that you should get some rest. Maybe you need to spend some time on Angel Island?" Cream said as she put her pen back in her pocket.
Sonic looked a little agitated and said, "Look, Cream, this isn't some beef against anybody or stuff like that. I mean, I had a dream where Shadow, one of my semi-best friends, just walks up to me and shoots me! DOES THAT SOUND LIKE SOMEONE NEEDING REST!"
"Sonic, calm down…now, is there a possibility that you just sleepwalked into, say, a smoldering cigarette?" Cream asked.
"If I did, then it would have burned the shirt a little. There was no sign of something smoldering…with the exception of my temper in the next few seconds if you don't tell me what's going on." Sonic said, a little more agitated this time.
Cream looked at Sonic's chart and said, "I'm going to bring in a fellow doctor in on this. Just don't go anywhere, ok?"
Sonic nodded his head as Cream left the room. He noticed that she left his file out where he could get at it and started reaching for it. He didn't get far when she opened the door.
"Sonic, this is the associate I was talking about." Cream said in a neutral voice.
Sonic looked up and saw Shadow in a crisp black business shirt, black khakis, red/white tennis shoes, and a lab coat. Shadow had the same predatory look that he had in Sonic's dream…as well as the same handgun.
"Cream, what's going on here! What's he doing in here with a gun!" Sonic said, visibly shocked and backing up.
"Wake up!" Shadow said as he aimed for Sonic's side.
"NOOOOO!" Sonic shouted as he tried to hide.
BLAM!
Sonic felt the bullet hit his side as he fell.
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"AHHHHH!" Sonic shouted as he shot up from his bed.
"Sonic, relax…it was just a bad dream." Tails said as he tried to calm down his friend.
Sonic, visibly shaken and sweating, nodded and had leaned back onto the headboard of his bed.
"That was a weird dream." Sonic said, letting out a slow sigh.
"Really, what happened?" Tails asked.
Sonic opened his green eyes and stared up at the ceiling as he was remembering.
"Well, it was a dream within a dream. First, I was at a party…then Shadow walks up and shoots me in the chest. Then, when I thought that I was awake, I went to the doctor's office for a scar that was there that shouldn't have been there. While I was there, Shadow appeared again as a doctor and shot me in the side…" Sonic said as he looked at his friend, hoping that Tails didn't think he was crazy.
Tails looked at Sonic for a few moments before saying, "Sonic…maybe you need to go to the beach or something for today. I mean, you've been working pretty hard with stopping Eggman."
"Right…I just need to relax or something." Sonic said as he got up and started for his dresser.
"Oh, I almost forgot, your mail came in today. Cream wanted me to remind you that you need to rest for a little while." Tails said as he straightened out Sonic's bed.
Sonic pulled off his light blue nightshirt and was about to put on some beach shorts when he spotted a bullet scar in his side.
"Tails…" Sonic began.
Tails turned his head toward his friend before exclaiming, "HOLY COW! WHAT HAPPENED!"
"Tails…please tell me that I've been sleepwalking." Sonic said, visibly shaken at this point.
"Sonic, forget what I said about the beach. Why don't you just go for a run? You usually feel better about a run." Tails said, also nervous.
"Right…" Sonic said as he put the rest of his clothes on.
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Sonic reached the center of Station Square and stepped into his favorite food shop, the Hot Dog. He ordered his usual 5 chili dogs and sat back. It was then that he heard someone that he thought he never wanted to hear again.
"Amy, don't bother Sonic now. Faker looks like he needs the sleep." Said Shadow's familiar deep voice.
Sonic opened one eye slowly, praying to whatever god would listen to him that it wasn't Shadow.
Luck, however, was not on his side. Sitting in the booth in front of him was the groupie Amy Rose and the person that he had been dreaming about for the past couple of times now.
"What, Faker, something wrong with me sitting here?" Shadow teased, noticing Sonic's fear.
Like a kid about to receive punishment, Sonic asked quietly, "You aren't going to shoot me…are you?"
Shadow laughed before saying, "I wish…the only thing I want to do is eat my hot dogs and go home. Amy's just here because of you."
"I am not! I was just…hungry, yeah!" Amy said with slight cheer as she started eating a cheese dog.
Sonic let out a sigh as he received his meal and started eating.
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Sonic had drove to the 'dream' clinic because his mail had a bill for 400,000 dollars worth of therapy sessions. He walked in and sat next to a person reading a paper. His mind was puzzling at what had happened.
'Ok, Shadow's shot me twice and this time, he's keeping a civil tongue in his head…what's going on here? I'm sure that I'm awake this time…right?' Sonic asked himself as a nurse had walked up and called him into a doctor's office.
He walked in and noticed that the doctor's chair had been facing the wall. He was about to say something when the chair swiveled around. In it, was Shadow with a handgun pointed at his head.
"No…you said you were just eating…this is impossible…" Sonic began.
"Wake up…" Shadow said.
"No…NOOOO!" Sonic shouted as Shadow shot him in the head.
BLAM!
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"AHHHHHHH!" Sonic shouted as he shot out of his bed.
Sonic looked around and saw Tails standing in the door. He looked like he was not happy.
"Sonic, some men are here from the Station Square Police Department. They said there was a murder last night. Did you kill Shadow?" Tails asked plainly.
Sonic looked dumbfounded as Tails stepped aside to allow some officers into his room. Among them, was Shadow in a police sergeant's uniform.
"NO…NO…NO!" Sonic said as he hid behind an overturned table.
Tails and the cops looked at Sonic like he lost his mind.
"Please…no more. It hurts every time! I didn't mean to kill you, but you took Amy from me. Please…" Sonic said as he prayed that Shadow wouldn't kill him.
"Wake up…" Shadow said.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Sonic shouted as he tried to hide behind the table.
BLAM!
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Tails looked at his friend from the other side of the mirrored window. He saw what had happened when the cops came. Sonic was having a full-blown meltdown when the cops came. He had killed Shadow in cold blood when he heard that Shadow and Amy were engaged. Amy sat right next to him and just stared at what had become of her former hero. He was bound in a straight jacket and just rocked over and over mumbling something under his breath.
"You'll have to excuse him. This is the first time he's been quiet. He's usually shouting and trying to claw his quills out." Cream said as she wrote on Sonic's chart.
"What's he mumbling?" Amy asked.
Cream looked at Tails and Amy before saying, "He keeps shouting or, in this case, mumbling 'Sorry' over and over."
Amy and Cream left the room to talk outside. Tails looked at his former friend and shook his head for a moment.
"Sonic, if you ask me I'd say you got lucky on this one. Amy felt sorry for you and just left you here. Good bye…old friend." Tails said as he left the room.
For Sonic, his battle ended with Eggman. But, in the absence of his lifelong obsession with destroying the evil without, he forgot to also take care of the evil within. Now he sits here in a lonely corner of his mind. This was a painful lesson that was taught in the harshest of ways…in the Twilight Zone.
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Thought I'd try something different. I promise to update the other stories as soon as I can. If enough people like this, I plan to make a sequel. Until then, Read and Review.
Also, here's a little question: What episode does this loosely resemble? The first one to get this right will get their own character in the sequel.
Legalities
I don't own Sonic or The Twilight Zone. SEGA and New Line Entertainment own them both respectively.
