Sonic the Hedgehog

Forced AU

Rating: R

Pairing: Undecided

Follow story developments on tumblr blog: sonicforcesau

"Sonic, where are you?" Tails's young, panicked voice suddenly rang through the named hedgehog's communicator - worn around the wrist on the right hand, hidden inside glove cuffs.

The blue hedgehog was currently in Green Hill Town, relaxing after a recording session in the town's studio with a band which requested for his vocals on a new rock song; with some cheesy lyrics that he weirdly enjoyed.

"Hey Tails!" replied the hedgehog cheerfully. "What's up? You sound kinda worried."

"Eggman's attacking City, Sonic!" responded the fox. "I'm in Sunset Heights - you better get over here, fast!"

"I'm already on it, buddy!"

And Sonic the Hedgehog immediately took off at his full speed - at the speed of sound - as soon as he heard the news, frightening some people around the hero as he swiftly made his way out the town.

He left Green Hill Town within the blink of an eye, and plotted the quickest route from Green Hill to City in his head. As he ran, he noticed some sand on the paths, and also; for some reason, hills of sand seen in the distant landscapes of Green Hill.

While Sonic wasn't the best at geography, he knew that although Green Hill and Sand Hill were right next to one another; in this part of Green Hill he was currently in, he should not be able to see deserts!

Eggman, somehow, had to be the cause of this plague of sand.

And - speaking of Eggman - there were some of the evil scientist's robots surrounding the hilly, grassy plains of Green Hill; directly in the route of which he wanted to take.

He had no choice but to take them all down.

Pushing himself further, he burst out the rest of his available speed straight into his legs; and a sonic boom sounded. In quick succession, he rolled up his body into a tight ball and plowed through all of the Egg Pawns that blocked his path like a rocket-propelled wrecking ball.

"I'm almost there, Tails!" announced Sonic after he destroyed the dozens of robots with ease. "How's it looking over there?"

"I'm trying to hold them back; but there's too many of them!" Tails responded.

"Just get the people over there to safety." Sonic replied as he caught the sights of City.

"I got it." Tails stopped the transmission of his voice, and did what the blue hedgehog wanted.

The fox quickly checked his own surroundings, and noticed that there was a small alleyway that the civilians could escape through. Unfortunately, the path was being blocked by rubble from destroyed structures caused by the attackers.

There were at least twenty Egg Pawns currently in the area; and Tails only had his flight ability working for him. He carried an Eggman robot up in the air and dropped it on another - the action damaging the robots.

And luckily, these robots were bulletproof, so he could use them as temporary shields from gunshots with ease.

"It's hopeless, Tails." taunted Eggman who sat in his floating vehicle while watching the fox get rid of his robots one by one. "Robots, get them all at once!"

"Not so fast, Egghead!"

The familiar voice immediately attracted Tails's attention.

The Hero of Mobius suddenly appeared out of the blue, and quickly began taking down all of the robots in the square that threatened the lives of the innocent citizens of Mobius; earning some cheering from the civilians.

"Get them out of here, Tails!" Sonic shouted over to the fox as he landed on the ground, ready to engage another wave of Egg Pawns, and jumped once more into the air.

"Roger!" the fox wasted no time and started to clear up the path for the blocked alleyway that he spotted moments prior, as other mobians joined in to help.

While that happened, Sonic the Hedgehog had already finished his work and took down all of the evil scientist's robots that attacked City; and now, the robots were nothing more than scrap metal on the grounds of Sunset Heights.

"I've been waiting for you, Sonic!" announced Eggman, as he floated up to the blue hedgehog in his Egg-Mobile. "And this time, all my efforts shall pay off!"

Sonic snorted in response, and he began his cocky speech. "C'mon, Egghead! We've been through this so many times! You and I both know how it ends!"

"Well…" Eggman smirked back with an expression similar to the hedgehog. "This time, it's different!"

Sonic raised an unamused eyebrow as he slightly pouted in anticipation.

"Observe closely, hedgehog."

But he couldn't observe whatever the grinning, gesturing scientist wanted him to; because the Hero of Mobius's eyes had suddenly caught a sudden, swift movement in the corner of their vision and had made the blue hedgehog switch to full alert mode in an instant - ready to engage the potential threat.

In a flash, he dodged; jumping away from the black ball aimed towards him at an incredibly fast speed, which would have impressed the blue hedgehog.

And the black ball - somehow - unraveled; and, revealed to the blue hero:

"Shadow…?!"

It explained the speed. But why was Shadow… fighting him?

The black hedgehog stood still and did not speak a single word - keeping complete silence; and before Sonic could go into a tangent of thoughts and theories in his head regarding his rival's actions, he heard the unmistakable sound of a jet engine coming for him.

Sonic felt like a gigantic bullet had shot right into his entire body as he was violently plunged into the nearest wall. He heard the wall - that he landed on - crack, but luckily; his thick spines had shielded his skull, as he finally fell onto the ground.

"Sonic!" screamed the young spectating fox as he ran over to help the blue hedgehog.

It was agony, but it wasn't anything he hasn't experienced before. He pushed himself off of the ground, groaning as he checked who or what had decided to - what he thought - ram a bullet train right into his hedgehog body.

"... Metal…?" Sonic named in shock as he noticed another figure appear in his vision, which elevated his shock even further. "-and, Chaos…?!"

A loud laughter had caught the blue hedgehog's attention.

"Sonic!" Eggman shouted suddenly, before returning to his smug tone of voice. "Behold; my ultimate creation…!"

And the evil genius had gestured to a direction in the air, revealing to Sonic:

A character that he has never encountered before.

It floated in the air, and whatever it was; it was definitely not a robot. The black-furred mobian was definitely male, and he wore a mask; while a jewel embedded on his chest glowed menacingly red, and Sonic could see some hints of elegance in the other's posture.

He wasn't sure what he was really thinking, but something in Sonic told him that the new enemy is the top priority in his list of concerns.

Sonic jumped up in a flash, rolled into a ball and he launched himself at the enemy with his signature homing attack.

But somehow, he didn't feel a hit.

For once in a long time, Sonic felt puzzled as he landed on the ground - his aim was perfect; why didn't his hit land on the guy?

Unless…

"Tails, get behind me." Sonic ordered as he looked at the floating, masked mobian once more, seemingly sizing up the foe. The young fox had looked hesitant, but followed the hedgehog's instructions nonetheless.

There was no possible way, but somehow; this enemy… was faster than him. This new, unknown enemy he had never seen before was faster than he was; faster than Sonic the Hedgehog.

It was a huge blow to the pride of the fastest thing alive.

However, he couldn't continue his train of thoughts, as all the enemies - Shadow, Metal Sonic, Chaos, and the unknown mobian - all attacked him at once without warning in an instant of time.

It was quick, and it was almost like they teleported. They moved so fast; too fast for the blue hero's eyes to catch, but he had somehow managed to push Tails away before the blows could land.

Sonic braced for what was going to seem like how it felt to be struck by a meteor.

Rouge the Bat had stared at the radar in utter confusion, as the blinking light on the map left the region of dense civilisation with great speed; moving swiftly across the screen.

Why was Shadow leaving City? Has he already finished the job?

"Shadow! What's the situation?" shouted the bat over the intercoms, fully expecting a response from her black hedgehog teammate.

But there came no reply.

Rouge felt somewhat irritated, and at the same time; quite unsure of what to do.

What exactly was going on? What was wrong with their communication systems? Has Eggman somehow managed to jam up their communication links and signals?

A quick check on the signal packets coming from both of the other individuals in the channel - Shadow and Omega - confirmed that: No, the signal was excellent - there had been no technical faults since the channel opened up around nine minutes ago.

So why the heck weren't her voice transmissions getting through?

"Rouge!" it was Shadow. As soon as she heard her name called, her ears perked, and she listened on what her hedgehog partner had to say. "Where am I? Are you able to track my location?"

"Shadow, you're leaving City, on the main routes leading into it!" Rouge wasted no time, and immediately responded, hoping that her teammate could hear her.

"What?" came the reply from the other's deep voice. "Omega was just destroyed, Rouge, I saw it."

"Shadow...?" the bat muttered. She was baffled - Shadow's side of their conversation had made absolutely no sense to her. "You're not in City anymore! And Omega was indeed taken down!"

"It looks like Green Hill, Rouge; visually, at least-" responded the black hedgehog once more. "-but this isn't the Green Hill we're used to; something's very wrong."

Something was indeed very, very wrong.

Rouge promptly deduced that Shadow could not hear her; but was instead, hearing her own voice telling him false information! She furiously typed into the keyboard of the workstation, and pulled out the connection data and history of their communication channel links.

Three connections; including her own. No abnormalities. No hackers detected. Nothing was wrong with the intercom systems - it was the same thing she always saw.

Sighing with great frustration, she stood up while listening in to Shadow talk to 'Rouge' about who-knows-what, and picked up her own portable wrist communicator before leaving the room; hastily making her way out of G.U.N. Headquarters.

She had to find Shadow.

With a radar tracker activated on her transmitter, she programmed the device to track down Shadow's communicator location; and hopefully, she could reach him in time before things go from bad to worse.

Standing outside the G.U.N. Headquarters main entrance, she took off - flying towards the displayed location on the tracker.

Meanwhile; a red striped, black hedgehog ran through what appeared to be Green Hill. Or, at least, a part of Green Hill that he had never seen before; but that was impossible - he knew most of Mobius like the back of his hand. Shadow the Hedgehog found himself running around the familiar, but unknown place; while having to clear his paths from Eggman robots that blocked his way.

Where exactly was he?

That enemy - Infinite - was somehow the cause of this.

"Anyway, Shadow, we've really got to go pick up Omega." said Rouge - or was it really Rouge? It did sound like her, but Shadow could pinpoint that something was quite unfamiliar about this Rouge...

Perhaps this was all an illusion that he was trapped in…?

It would explain this strange, new layout of Green Hill...

Shadow the Hedgehog's eyes had suddenly widened as he recalled a recent memory: Before he arrived here, Omega had mentioned something about something…

Something important…

He attacked another Eggman robot before landing back on his feet. The area surrounding him was now clear of enemies threatening to attack.

… the parietal lobe!

Now, if he remembered correctly during his extensive time aboard Space Colony ARK and hearing his creator - Gerald Robotnik - babble continuously about parts of the brain: the parietal lobe region of the brain was responsible for the senses.

He frowned as he realised that his perception of reality was somehow being altered by that ominous character named Infinite. He didn't know how it worked; but wherever he was currently, he was definitely not in Green Hill.

But, how does he get out of this illusion? Does the effect just wear off eventually?

Shadow sincerely hoped so.

However, he couldn't just stand here and wait for things to happen.

Closing his eyes, he tried to focus his energy. He tried to feel the Chaos Energy field of Mobius. He tried to sense his surroundings - but it was hopeless, as all he could sense was some weird, strange unknown energy he never experienced before.

He had to find a way out of this…

"Shadow!"

His eyes snapped open. That was Rouge's voice; and it didn't come from the communicator. The voice that called him was free of any digital processing from the device. It was the real, actual voice of his partner - it was very soft, and far away, but he could hear it.

He tried to focus again.

Frustration built up in him as he felt the shrouding, unknown energy somehow reacting with his own Chaos Energy, and seemed to block any attempts of breaking free of the illusion.

He turned to the one thing in mind that he could think of.

"Chaos Control!"

In a flash, the Green Hill he was in disappeared.

Consequently, Shadow the Hedgehog was revealed to be located a great distance away from City, in the routes that connected Green Hill - the real one - and City together.

Had the usage of Chaos Energy somehow resetted his senses? Although nothing made sense to him currently, it did have some logic to it. After all, Chaos Energy was something he was very familiar with.

He stopped the flow of his energy into Chaos Control.

"Shadow!" it was Rouge, and she just landed on the ground next to him. "What happened?"

"Rouge..." acknowledged the black hedgehog, as he realised a sudden headache he acquired out of nowhere. "I was under an illusion."

"An illusion?" gasped the female bat as she watched her partner massage the midsection of his spined head. "How?"

"I've no idea... but somehow; an enemy named Infinite, is able to alter the perception of reality." Shadow responded as he turned his head around to check their surroundings. "I bet he's still somewhere around here - the illusion was strong."

"... This is worse than I've thought, Shadow." Rouge dreaded after receiving the new piece of information. Her eyes turned serious. "Sonic's in great danger!"

"Sonic?" he frowned. "Why?"

"I've received reports of him fighting Eggman in Sunset Heights!"

tumblr: sonicforcesau / kevpho

please note that I only reply to reviews on my blog and post data or research on there as well. Thanks!