A Sonadow Story:

Hero's Heart Corrupted

Chapter 3: Technical Assault

Sonic could not sleep. No matter how hard he tried, he could not fall into the deep slumber he desired. The blue hedgehog tossed and turned in his bed. Groaning, he grabbed a pillow next to him and slammed it down on his face. He could not get the disk out of his mind. It was just glued deep in his brain, not showing any sign of coming out. The only way the curious blue hero will sleep is if he finds out what is held in the mysterious object. Removing the pillow from his face, The Fastest Thing Alive stood up off of his bed and looked around for the disk.

Sonic's room was also very tidy unlike the rest of the house except for the kitchen. When you walked in, there was a huge double bed in the middle of the room, just as blue as the hero. Two oak wood bedside tables were on each side of the bed that held identical lamps, one on each. A neatly carved birch colored dresser was close to the right bedside table on the right side of the room, barely anything on its surface. An oak wood office desk was in the middle of the left side of the room with a clean surface and a black rolling office chair neatly pushed in. The blue hero's room was also a master suite, meaning it had a connected bathroom. The bathroom was connected next to the birch dresser, having two double glass doors. Inside had a clean shower, counter with sinks, bathtub (which is actually rarely used because of Sonic being hydrophobic), toilet, and closet to hold towels in.

Sonic soon remembered that Shadow had given the disk to Tails to inspect and grinned. Stepping out of his room, he moved down the hallway to his little brother's room and silently creaked open the door, seeing the kitsune asleep in his bed. The blue hedgehog smirked when he saw that the disk was gently lied down on the bedside table on the left side of Tails' bed. He tiptoed over to the bedside table and softly picked up the disk to not wake up the twin-tailed fox. Dashing out of the room and stopping to softly shut the door, Sonic moved down the hallway back into the living room, satisfied that he was able to sneak away with the mysterious disk.

The blue hedgehog froze in mid-step when he realized that someone had to sleep on the couch. Alert again, he peered over the back of the couch and his emerald green eyes widened when he saw that Shadow had chosen to sleep on the couch. He was not too surprised, knowing that the black hedgehog probably would not like roommates. Sonic successfully was able to get out of the living room silently without waking up his grumpy rival. The blue speedster moved to a place that should definitely have a computer: Tails' basement workshop.

Sonic stepped down the horribly long set of stairs down into the workshop, still grinning from retrieving the disk without making any of his friends wake up. Finally stepping into the room, the blue hedgehog spotted the big supercomputer Tails always used (and had asked for more than enough times for Christmas) and silently walked to it. He sat down in the little swivel chair and made the brilliant machine come to life.

"Let's see what this baby holds." Sonic's grin widened and inserted the disk into the monitor. Nothing happened at first, until a small window popped up, asking if he wanted to download what was in the disk into the supercomputer. Seeing this, Sonic started to get a little doubt into downloading the data in the disk. He should wait until Tails checks it, just to be on the safe side. He reached for the open/close button on the monitor and almost pushed the button, until he looked up at the screen again. The disk was downloading itself.

Sonic could only stare at the screen in bewilderment as the download bar reached toward its destination on the other end of the bar. It soon signaled that the download was complete. Nothing else happened for a few moments. Another window popped up, asking if he wanted to play the media stored in the disk. Not without hesitation, the blue hedgehog clicked "OK", and it launched.

The intro to the very first "Sonic the Hedgehog" game played, which made Sonic's spirits rise.

"Hey, it's my very first game! I should have known it was this!" The Blue Blur laughed and watched as the intro with his favorite 8-bit intro song played. The music stopped after it had ended. The intro screen disappeared without him touching anything, looking like another image had flashed before the intro screen disappeared. This sparked the blue hedgehog's curiosity, wondering why it had gone without him.

Something even more weird happened when the character selection screen from what looked like "Sonic the Hedgehog 3" appeared on the monitor. It looked uninviting and eerie-feeling, having a scarlet-red background. The playable characters were Tails, Knuckles and… Eggman? What was he doing in his game as a playable character? Sonic seemed to bore holes into the screen as he glared at the option to play as his worst enemy. He was not even a playable character for Chaos' sake! This only enraged the speedy hedgehog even more.

Sonic soon proceeded with the game by clicking on Tails, the only unlocked character at the moment. He almost leaped out of his chair when he heard the computer emit a horridly played 8-bit (and what sounded like evil) laugh. The sound was almost as horrible as hearing Amy's squeal right as she was about to glop him. The blue hedgehog shivered at the thought and continued with the game.

A text appeared on the screen as soon as Sonic selected Tails.

Hill:

Act 1

He appeared, playing as Tails, in what seemed like Green Hill Zone. It was empty; no obstacles, robots, hills, or anything in his path. His head tilted to the side like a confused puppy, he moved Tails down Green Hill Zone in search of anything. Nothing seemed to appear for a while until he came up against a small motionless lump. A bird with faded blue colored feathers lied on the ground, a pool of blood surrounding the poor creature.

The bird was dead.

Sonic stared at the screen in horror in seeing a dead animal in his game. Knowing there was nothing he could do, he proceeded down Green Hill Zone. More piles of dead woodland animals filled the area with fallen flowers and plants appearing too. The blue hedgehog gawked in disgust at what seemed like his game.

Then there came him. He stood in the middle of the zone with his eyes closed, like he was thinking of something or lost in thought. The Tails on the screen started to move closer to the Sonic on the screen, very slowly walking to him. With each step the kitsune took, a static sound came from the computer, and it only got louder with each step. The real Sonic couldn't help but feel a great sense of dread. Something seemed off with him on the screen.

He wouldn't just stand there near a zone of dead animals. He would look for the cause of this mass murder and deal with it, not stand there. The only time he was able to sit around was when Eggman wasn't invading and his friends actually gave him time to rest. And he would do it on the roof of his house, in his room, or sit down in the patio, rarely ever stand in the middle of Green Hill Zone. He would sometimes go play with the animals there and lean up against a tree to admire the scenery, but rarely.

Sonic focused back on what was happening on the screen and by the time he did, Tails was right next to the Sonic on the screen. The static was really loud, and Sonic had to adjust the volume so it didn't wake the others up. The yellow kitsune started to point at pixel Sonic like he was telling him something, but he stopped when the blue hedgehog on the screen opened his eyes. They were pitch black with bright red piercing pupils that gave Sonic the chills up his spine and quills to bristle. When did he become that thing!? The screen went black and some text appeared.

"Hello. Do you want to play with me?"

Another piece of text.

Hide and Seek

The scene reappeared with Tails left alone in the middle of Green Hill Zone again, but this time, something was different. Green Hill Zone was burning. Flames surrounded the zone, burning the grass and flowers that made contact. Tails seemed to stare at him through the screen, just as completely confused as Sonic was. The look the Tails on the screen gave him made the blue hedgehog pity him. He would like to be nowhere in that position either.

Sonic began to make Tails move across the fiery terrain, still searching for something he didn't know. Sonic's spirits dropped even more when the demonic pixel Sonic flashed on the screen. The demonic creature reappeared a few feet behind his little brother on the screen, chasing him. Knowing himself, he could catch Tails in no problem, but now he just wanted to slow down for him. The demonic Sonic wasn't running, he was gliding. The demonic pixel Sonic was gliding even closer to the Tails on the screen with the drowning theme music playing through the speakers on the computer. It only raised Sonic's dread. The blue hedgehog began to count down in his head.

5...

Only four feet from Tails...

4...

Now only three feet…

3...

Two small feet away from Tails…

2…

One foot remaining…

1…

The demonic Sonic was right behind Tails.

The demonic pixel Sonic seemed to phase into the twin-tailed fox and he was gone. Tails then burst into tears in the middle of the zone and Sonic could feel his sorrow make his heart feel heavy.

The blue speedster hoped to never see Tails in the real world like this, especially with him as the cause. He knew that Tails was strong, but nobody was invincible, not even himself. Sometimes he can't even control his emotions (ex. Dark Sonic). He one time got so depressed with faking his smile all the time that he locked himself in his room when Tails went out and just… cried. He couldn't remember when he had last cried, but he never wants anyone to see him cry. No one.

The Fastest Thing Alive continued to watch as the Tails on the screen just cried. Suddenly, the demonic pixel Sonic reappeared next to the twin-tailed fox. He reached out to his little pixel brother, and the screen went black with an ear-splitting scream. Luckily the volume had been turned down earlier, so it wasn't that loud. Yet the scream was still terrible to Sonic's sensitive ears, causing him to fold them down to block out the terrible sound. The menu screen popped up on the screen soon after again, but you couldn't choose Tails anymore. Above Tails' selection box was the static picture of another fox. He had a black pelt with bleeding eyes and white pattern on the tip of his tails, chest fur, and muzzle. His eyes were just like the demonic Sonic's, black where the white should be and scarlet red pupils. The real Sonic grimaced at the sight and turned his head away from the screen.

The blue hedgehog turned his head back to look at the other characters. Knuckles was now unlocked. He clicked on the pixel red echidna and waited for more horrors to come. He had gotten used to the pixelated evil laughter by now as he spawned after reading another pair of text that had appeared on the screen.

You Can't Run

Knuckles seemed to have spawned in a place that looked like Chemical Planet Zone, but yet looks aren't everything from what Sonic had learned very recently. The blue speedster moved Knuckles across the metal floor through the zone. Nothing seemed to happen after a very long walk, until the screen went to pale red static.

"Oh, c'mon! This is just getting ridiculous!" the blue hedgehog yelled in a hushed tone to not wake up his friends upstairs. The screen lit back to Knuckles just standing there in the middle of Chemical Planet Zone. Static again. Back to Knuckles. Again with static. Knuckles. Static. Sonic was now wondering if it was the game or the computer doing this. He tapped the screen of the monitor with a gloved finger to try to find out.

The screen came back to Knuckles again, but this time it was different. Streaks of scarlet blood lined the metal floor at Knuckles' feet. Knuckles began to move by himself through the zone like nothing was happening around him. Sonic looked down at the keyboard then at his hands to see he wasn't controlling the pixel red echidna anymore. He wanted to yell at Knuckles on the screen and tell him to get out of there, but knowing it was only a game, he stayed silent. Knuckles abruptly stopped when a figure appeared in front of him. It was that demonic Sonic. The screen went to static again. The screen came back to see text.

"fOunD YOU"

The screen made the text disappear and back to the scene with Knuckles and demon Sonic. Knuckles was still alive! Sonic lit up at the sight and saw the demonic pixel Sonic in front of the red echidna on the screen. Now was his chance to beat the blue out of that demon doppelganger of him! He moved Knuckles up to the demon Sonic on the screen. Hoping for something else to happen, the demonic Sonic teleported behind the red echidna. He tried to go after it again, but to no avail when it only teleported behind Knuckles again.

"Scared, huh? Thought so!" Sonic smirked at the little blue image. The blue hedgehog began to think; why would the demon Sonic be avoiding him now after easily taking down Tails? There was only one answer.

Sonic tried to make the red echidna on the screen stop, but he was actually too late. Knuckles fell to the metallic floor, completely exhausted after trying to chase down the demonic pixel Sonic. The blue figure stood behind the tired guardian and reached for him, a black screen and terrified scream following. Sonic slammed his fists on the keyboard, not even caring how loud it was. He had let another one of his friends down, even if it was just a game! Just the thought of it made his heart fill up with guilt. He looked up to see another pair of text.

"So many souls to play with, so little time. Would you agree?"

The screen had went back to the character selection screen again after the text disappeared, Knuckles now not playable. Above the red echidna's selection box was basically Knuckles with his normal appearance, but he had the demonic Sonic's eyes. Sonic couldn't bear the sight and turned his head to look at the final playable and now unlocked character: Dr. Eggman.

Sonic selected his worst nemesis and blocked out the evil pixel laughter that played after. Text once again appeared on the screen.

...

He seemed to spawn in some kind of base of Egghead's. A row of stairs was in front of the evil doctor, giving Sonic the same feeling of dread as before. Let's just go and get this horrible creation of a game over with, Sonic thought to himself and moved Eggman down the stairs, wanting to just go back to bed. He would do that, but he couldn't leave the computer on. That's it, he could just shut down the computer and not see the ending of this game! The blue hedgehog leaped up out of his seat and tried to find the big red X at the top right of the screen. There wasn't one.

Sonic snorted and continued to look around the screen but to no avail. Now frustrated, the blue speedster tried to find the power button on the desktop. He soon found it and pushed it with a triumphant smirk. But nothing happened. Great.

The smirk on his muzzle disappeared as he rapidly pushed the power button a few more times, then tried holding it, then had to hold himself back from attacking the poor supercomputer with one of Tails' hammers. Nothing. Sonic started to grow anxious, but quickly calmed himself down.

Calm down Sonic, freaking out won't solve anything, the blue hedgehog said in his head and continued to search for a way to avoid any situation with the game. Can't close the page, computer won't shut down, running out of options. Sonic finally came to a conclusion to just unplug the computer.

The blue speedster crawled under the desk that held the computer and approached the outlet, giving the computer above him power. He reached out his gloved hand toward the plug slowly. The game was messing with his mind. It seemed like when his hand got closer to the plug, he heard static. The Blue Blur finally just lost all his senses and pulled the plug from the outlet. Sonic let out a sigh of relief when he saw the room go completely black again. He crawled from under the desk back into his office chair, staring at the now powerless computer.

The supersonic hedgehog could not help but to rub his sensitive ears. He could still hear the static from his mind. Or was he really hearing it? Turns out he actually was. The screen came back to life as some text appeared on the screen, freaking out the terrified hedgehog in front of it.

"Ready for Round 2?"

Sonic's eyes widened as he gawked at the supposed-to-be lifeless computer. The screen went black again for a few moments, until a figure appeared. It was a reflection of him, but it was different. Its eyes were leaking blood! Its eyes were even different. They were black with piercing red pupils…

It was that demonic Sonic from the game.

The static seemed to grow louder at the more Sonic stared appalled at the figure. A creepy and crooked smile that spilled blood appeared on the demonic hedgehog's face as he reached out at his heroic counterpart with a blood-stained gloved hand. Sonic let out a small squeal and grabbed under the desk, flipping the desk over and breaking everything on it. The blue hedgehog silently apologized to Tails in his thoughts for breaking his computer, but it was demonic. Totally something his little brother would believe. Sparks lit the room barely from the broken computer. Smoke from the sparks filled the air that made the blue hedgehog cough, but he didn't dare run out of the room with the probability of a fire. That's the last thing he needed now.

Sonic had to stand still to let everything process in his mind that had passed. Harmless game becomes a demonic nightmare, demon almost kills him, sees two of his closest friends murdered in the game, broken supercomputer, no sleep. What a night. Sonic found himself staring at the smoke coming from the computer and shook his head to get out of his thoughts. The whole room began to give off an unnerving air, making the frightened blue hedgehog more anxious than before.

What next happened made Sonic lose all of his sanity. From the smoke, he could make out two piercing, yet hazy red dots in the middle of the smoke. The blue hedgehog couldn't mumble another word before he was pushed against the wall by an unknown force, drawing his breath away when he saw the figure in front of him that restrained him from moving.

~End of Chapter 3~