Hello everybody! Here's a new chapter for you all to read. I hope that you all like it as much as I had writing it. After all, it is the chapter that will resolve the action that I have so dumped you all into the moment you started reading. Of course, the closure of this problem will only lead to a much bigger one for our main characters. Hope you end up liking the title for this chapter. It was kind of like a wheel of fortune them before and after. "Ghost Tricks" and "Tricks of the Trade". Just thought I'd try giving a slight play on words while also clearly stating the chapter's subject.
Just a little explanation about the story itself and how it's being written. The text that has been italicized stands for the spirit or spirits talking while normal text stands for the living people. Also, as I will give a little example of later in the story, when a spirit communicates with a living person, italicized will still stand for the spirit and regular for the living.
Anyway, now that that little explanation is over, I'll let you all go ahead and read this chapter to your heart's content. Don't forget to leave a review before you move onto your next story once you're done. Until the next update to any of my stories everybody!
P.S.,
Sorry to swiftshadow123 about that mistakes. I forgot that you said you were a girl on your home page. Didn't mean to say he the entire time in the author's note from the last chapter.
Chapter 2: Ghost Tricks of the Trade
"This is where I'm going to be able to save Tails' life?" the spirit of the blue hedgehog asked with raised eyebrows as he saw nothing but empty space occupied by small twinkling lights all around him. "And what's so special about this freaky place that looks like it would a good resting place for a certain bat that I know?"
"It's special because it's only accessible to spirits with powers such as yours and the souls of the dead that happen to follow you here," the mysterious voice explained with the sound of slight humor at the other's disbelief at the situation. "And as to how it will provide you with the means of saving your friend, I already said that this is a place I call the Gateway Between Past and Present. The name itself should provide you with the answer you seek. The answer's not too hard to come up with if you take a moment to think on it."
"So you're saying that this place is where I can actually go to the past and prevent this from ever happening?" the hedgehog responded as the sight of realization came onto his face. "That's perfect! It's just what I need to save him."
"I suggest that you listen to what I have to say before you do anything else," the voice warned. "I've seen a few people with these powers that I call Ghost Tricks go traveling to the past to save a life. As far as I can tell, they all were only able to traverse to the maximum of four minutes before their dead victim's death."
"What? You're saying that I only get to go back four minutes before the time he's supposed to be killed? How am I supposed to pull off a miraculous freak of nature with that pitiful amount of time? That's just a bunch of crap!"
"Call it what you will, but that's apparently the rules for all spirits with these amazing powers. I must, however, consider you to be lucky because not everybody that I have run into with these powers can travel back in time like you."
"So I should be thankful that I'm even being given this chance. Wait a minute; what's that blue flame-thing over there?" he changed subjects as he took notice of something apart from the normal surroundings.
"I was wondering when you were going to notice that. That blue flame happens to be the spirit of your departed friend. The reason why you don't see his form is because the newly dead tend to have temporary amnesia about their selves and how they died," the mysterious voice quickly said in anticipation of an unspoken question. "As such, they don't have a definite form to look upon until they wake up and remember who they are."
"How long does it usually take for the newly dead to wake up?"
"It varies from person to person; but I can say without a doubt that you're the only one I've seen to have woken up just literally seconds after your death. And you are the only one to have full awareness of who they were right after death. The only explanation I can come up with is that you must have a strong will housed within your very soul."
"Well, I do like to go with the side of justice whenever I can. Us regular people need to help the police in keeping the streets safe unless we want to live under constant fear of gang crimes and potential robberies."
"Hmm, now that I think on it, you never really did give me your name. Heck, you haven't even assumed your natural form yet."
"Really? I didn't notice. Sorry about that. The name's… Uh, I think it's…Sonic. …Yeah, it's Sonic Hedgehog! I don't know why my brain's fuzzy on it, but I'm sure that's my name now that I thought of it."
"Well, it's only natural that you still might be fuzzy on some details. It's nice to see that you finally assumed your rightful form, though."
Hearing the voice say this, the spirit now identified to be Sonic looked down at himself and saw that he had indeed looked like his normal self. Then again, he did not notice that he was not in his original form in the first place, so there was no difference in his eyes. It was just as he was looking as his supposedly newly formed spirit body did he hear a groan coming from a voice he clearly remembered hearing.
"Tails, you awake?" Sonic asked as he rushed towards the flame's side.
"Oh, my head…," Tails groaned out in a low tone. He then asked in a voice that changed to slight confusion, "What're you doing here, Sonic?"
"Y-you remember me?" the hedgehog spirit asked in an excited tone.
"I couldn't possibly forget about you no matter how hard I tried," the fox responded as his normal form quickly took place of the spirit flame. He was busy rubbing the back of his head while in a seated position with his free hand keeping his body propped up. "You leave too deep of an impression with all of your friends, you know?"
"My, isn't this interesting?" the mysterious voice mused more to himself in intrigue. "You also seem to have a strong sense of resolve around you to have regained your memories so quickly."
"Wh-who said that?" the two tailed fox asked as he looked around to try and pinpoint the source of the sudden voice.
"It's a bit of a long story, and it's one that I think is best to save for a later time. Right now, I think we should concentrate on saving your life."
"Hmm, that sounds like a good suggestion. Now, I want you to just simply concentrate on wanting to see the last four minutes of the dead person whose core you're currently inhabiting. In other words, concentrate on Tails' last four minutes of life."
Before he could get interrupted by a question he knew was going to come from the two tailed fox, Sonic concentrated on wanting to witness that last four minutes of Tails' life before he was unfortunately killed. Suddenly, he felt the world around him start to turn in a slightly dizzying fashion and the dark and bright sparkled world began to blend into one. And just as quickly as the sight and feeling appeared, it disappeared and was replaced with the scenery that he knew was to be four minutes before Tails' death.
Dead-End Park – 9:49 p.m. – 4 Minutes Before Death
Suddenly, Sonic saw his entire eyesight become flooded with the scenery surrounding Tails in the four minutes before he was killed. It was almost as if he were watching a movie with the greatest 3D technology poured into it, yet he was able to witness it as if he were really there at that exact moment in time. He was able to see where he was and the area around him as easily as if he was alive.
Not even two seconds into this surreal experience, the sound of a gunshot took away from the feeling of amazement and replaced with a sense of anxiety. And as if on instinct, Past Tails started running towards the park where he had heard the gunshot. He soon arrived and saw the gunman with a still smoking gun in his hands and a freshly dead Sonic leaning against the wall in front of him.
"Sonic!" he was heard shouting as he ran straight to the fallen cobalt furred body and completely ignored the gunman in front of him. He did, however, managed to shove him out of the way, and this caused him to slightly lose his balance and accidentally kick a stray bike bell on the ground closer to the body.
The next thing that the dead cobalt hedgehog heard was something he remembered taking place because it was the same exact thing he laid witness to the moment he woke up from his death-induced unconsciousness.
"Why did you do this?" the fox shouted as he performed the same exact action he remembered him performing and said the same exact thing. "What has he ever done to you?"
"It's not the matter of what he did to me that's the issue here," replied again as he aimed his gun once more at the two tailed fox. It was clear at this point to Sonic, who was silently watching in shocked amazement, that he was basically watching a repeat of the past few minutes which also just happened to be Tails' last four minutes of life. "He just happened to be around at the right time for me."
"And you just wanted to kill the next random person you just happened to run into regardless of who they were?"
"That's pretty much the gist of it, boy. Unfortunately, I didn't expect for you to come by and become a witness to this unfortunate event. As much as I don't want to do this, I'm afraid I'll have to be stealing away another life tonight."
"Figures that you would do that. You want to get away with this as clean as you possibly can. It's people like you that I just can't even begin to understand! You're nothing but a heartless man!"
It was here that his mind quickly comprehended that there was something off from what he remembered. He remembered that time had frozen at some point during the two tailed fox's sentence. Even though he did not understand everything that was happening, he managed to figure in his mind that he was in the mindset of Tails, and he was not aware of the time freeze and therefore just passed through it like nothing had happened.
"You couldn't possibly understand why I had to kill the hedgehog. And I don't intend to spend all night explaining it to you. All you need to know is that I shot him for a very specific reason. And my specific reason for killing you is because you ran into me just as I was finishing up here. I suggest you start saying your prayers fox, because you're about to head in the same direction as that poor guy without any hopes of ever returning."
In the next second, the sound of the bike bell ringing reached their ears, and both the fox and the gunman turned their heads to where they heard the sound coming from in surprise.
"Wh-who's there?" the gunman shouted with his attention temporarily diverted like before. This, of course, was the opening created by Past Ghost Sonic in an attempt to help get his buddy out of the deadly situation. It did work for a moment when the two tailed fox shoved the man to the ground, but he ended up tripping when the man quickly rolled onto his stomach and grabbed ahold of his ankle.
"Thought you could get the slip through me, huh?" he said with that same growl that Sonic now figured to have been from both surprise and slight pain. "It'll take more than a weak distraction like that for you to escape from your deadly mistake!"
"Thought that I'd at least give it a try," Tails responded with a groan of pain that had no doubt come from having fell so suddenly before looking behind him. "Did you really think I wouldn't try to go down without at least a fight?"
"I commend your attitude, but I'm afraid your luck's about to end here," the man said as he pulled out the knife. "I've got you anchored to the ground. All I have to do now is drag you down a bit and stab you in the back. Couldn't be any simpler than that."
The next distraction made by Past Ghost Sonic soon came from the gun suddenly firing and startling both people once more.
"Wh-what's going on around here?" he exclaimed with the same amount of surprise in his words and the same exact movement of his head towards his discarded gun. "How did my gun just go and discharge like that?"
An just as before, Tails kicked the knife out of the man's hand before freeing up his ankle and trying out his escape attempt once more. And just like the first time around, the murdered took a branch near him and threw it at his feet and forcing him to the ground once again while yelling, "Damn, you're not going to get away with this!" And just like the first time, his stomach fell right on top of a branch and he groaned out, "Crud!"
"Ha, you honestly think that you can get away from me boy? It should be clear by now that no matter how hard you try, you can't get away from me." He then said as he reloaded his gun, "Alright, that's enough with all these distractions. Now it's time for you to die!" And then he kicked him over onto his back. "And now, I'll give you the pleasure of seeing me kill you. Consider this an honor that you'll see the very moment of your death. Not many get to brace themselves for a death since they have no idea that it's coming."
"Gee, I suppose I should feel honored that you're doing this for me," Tails replied sarcastically as his eyes wandered around in a panic. "Why is it then that I still hate you all the same?"
"Feel what you will, but I hope you'll gain the understanding on why I did this while you're in the afterlife. Now, while this interesting game of cat and mouse was fun, it's time to put an end to it. So long, and say hello to your friend if you happen to see him. Chances are, though, that you won't any time soon."
And that was when the sharp sound of a gunshot robbing the boy's life was heard. And the entire viewing area turned into a blank white area, most likely a result of seeing the end of the retelling of the past four minutes.
"And that, my friends, is the last four minutes of life from this poor boy," the mysterious voice explained as the scenery changed back to the way it was expect for now having been frozen with the sight of Tails now dead and the gunman standing above him. "Wouldn't you say that's quite intense?"
"So that was me being killed, huh?" the spirit of the two tailed fox responded as he looked on in shock. "I never thought that I would actually be able to see my own death. It's kind of freaky now that I've seen it."
"Well, I'm going to perform a freak of nature and stop your death from ever happening!" Sonic exclaimed with a determined look set on his face.
"Then concentrate once more on wanting to see the beginning of these four minutes," the voice instructed.
Once more, the hedgehog did what was suggested and felt that familiar dizzying feeling engulf him momentarily before seeing that he was back at the beginning of Tails' last four minutes of life.
4 Minutes Before Death - Changing Fate
"Alright, now it's time for you to get to work Sonic," the voice said full of anticipation. "But first, I'll go ahead and explain some things while the scene unfolds. After all, what you had intended to do before he had died comes up near the moment of his death, so there's plenty of time to discuss some technicalities until then. Now, I'm sure you've noticed where it is that you started from?"
"Isn't this the same place where Tails was killed?" Sonic wondered as he recognized the rock that was nearby.
"Think of it as you entering a room. Naturally, your body would start at the entrance before you can go and wander off to wherever it is that you want to go. That's the same concept here. His dead body's core was an entry point, and you can only start from that same entry point. Does that make sense so far?"
"I guess it kind of makes a bit of sense," the hedgehog replied as he along with Tails kept a close watch at the replay of the scene a good few yards away from them and slowly coming closer. "If you don't mind me asking, is it possible for me to go into this Spirit World place that you kept taking me to earlier?"
"Like it was when you wanted to come to the beginning of these four minutes, all you have to do is concentrate on wanting to see the Spirit World. You will then go there and see what regular items have cores on them. I must warn you now that not everything you see in the real world has a core attached to it. So just be aware of that for future reference."
"Why is it that I don't have these powers?" Tails asked the voice as he listened to the explanation and kept it shuffled into his mind for future reference. "Why does Sonic have these things?"
"It's a rather rare phenomenon that only a select few of freshly dead souls can obtain," it explained as the sound of the bike bell was heard along with the sounds of the light scuffle. "While you may have not obtained it now, there's no saying you won't the next time you die. Of course, I'm not advertising that you should die just so you can test it out."
"As if I were even planning on doing so in the first place," the fox responded in a deadpan expression as the sound of a gunshot was heard along with another scuffle before the thud of a falling body falling right where they were. "Geez, I must've really loved the ground while all those distractions were taking place. I'm guessing then that all of those things were from you Sonic."
"The one and only," the hedgehog stated as he began to concentrate on going to the spirit world like the mysterious voice had instructed him to do. And just like before, the world froze over and the bright cores could be seen. "Wow, I can't believe I actually did that."
"Wow, it's like a world within our world. It's just amazing!"
"Anyway, I think it's time that I continue on with what I had originally planned before you had officially died. Hopefully, your past self will notice the rock moving next to you and use it as a weapon."
"Hey, I was actually trying to reach for it while he was crushing me with his foot!" the two tailed fox countered as Sonic moved from his starting position to the rock's core. "It just happened to be out of my reach then."
"Then let my try moving it closer to you so you can use it."
Once he was in position, Sonic tried to get out of the Spirit World in the same he had entered it, by concentrating. To his surprise, it had actually worked, and the world returned back to its original flow.
"Alright, time to see if my plan would've worked," the hedgehog replied with a hint of nervousness just as the murderer kicked Past Tails onto his back and crushing him. "Hopefully, you weren't too panicked to not notice the rock within arm's reach."
With that said, he tried to manipulate the rock, which happened to be relatively rounded with a sharp point to it. Amazingly enough, it rolled a few inches towards the past version of the two-tailed fox and within his grasps.
"And now, I'll give you the pleasure of seeing me kill you," the murder said as he aimed his gun right at the fox's head in preparation for his murder. "Consider this an honor that you'll see the very moment of your death. Not many get to brace themselves for a death since they have no idea that it's coming."
"Sorry, but I have no intention of being killed right now," Past Tails said confidently, which was a far cry from what he had originally said under the same predicament. In the next moment, he had picked up the rock that was moved closer to him courtesy of Sonic and stabbed the pointed end right into the man's leg. This, of course, caused him to yell in pain and accidentally throw his gun away in the process. Amazingly though, his foot never left the boy's chest. Instead, it just made him step even harder.
"Uh, I think that only made things worse for me," Tails responded as he winced at the new situation created. "I guess my original idea of stabbing his leg so it would get off me wouldn't have worked."
"But this change in this 4-minute world is a good thing," the mysterious voice said as he froze time so as to explain something to them. "You see, what you're witnessing is something that fate has already preordained. However, whenever you make a change outside of the original path of fate, like wounding a man by dropping a crate on his head, then the fate of the overall situation is changed ever so slightly. As such, it could buy you more time to figure out a permanent solution, or you can inadvertently open a new path for yourself by influencing the course of fate and adding a little something extra to it."
"Wow, that really sounds complicated," Sonic responded as he seemed bewildered by the onslaught of information. The two tailed fox, on the other hand, seemed to easily understand what was said and digested it with ease. "Too complicated for a simple new ghost like me to come up with in such a short amount of time. How do you know all of these things? Just who the heck are you?"
"I told you already; I've been dead for a little while already. What I know about these powers is what I've learned through visualization and experience. However, now's not the time to be talking about myself. You still have a friend to save."
And with that, the world started to flow freely again, and the sound of the man howling in pain reached their ears.
Fate Changed!
"Wow, I didn't think that you'd still be here standing on me," Past Tails wheezed out as he felt the pressure increase after he stabbed his attacker in the leg. He felt warm drips of blood falling onto his chest, but that was clearly the least of his worries right now. "And I thought that you'd be rolling on the ground away from me in pain."
"God damn it!" the man shouted in pain while gripping at the area around his freshly made wound while gingerly holding onto the rock. He then pulled the stone out of its lodged position within his leg with a great howl of pain and threw it angrily over his shoulder. He then growled out in equal while ignoring the blood now freely gushing out of the open wound and onto the fox's white chest fur, "That's it, no more playing around! If you don't want to die by gun or knife, then I'll kill you with my own bare hands!"
And with those angry words, the man practically collapsed right beside the fox. He then smothered both of his hands roughly over his nose and mouth, thus cutting off all air flow to the inner workings of his body.
"Damn it, I'm back to where I started the night off!" Sonic swore as he looked at his current surroundings from the rock he still inhabited and saw his body right next to him. He saw off to the distance the fox struggling to get air into his lungs. He even tried to use his arms to wrestle the hands over him and punch the other, but both had practically no effect due to his unfortunately smaller and weaker body. "He's about to suffocate to death! There has to be something I can do here!"
"If I remember correctly, there weren't any other cores around this immediate area besides the bike bell when you first learned of your abilities," the mysterious voice mused without any concern in his words.
"Then how about you try going to the bell again?" Tails suggested as he saw himself still struggling but visibly starting to grow weaker. "Maybe you could try ringing it again and get him distracted."
"I don't think that's going to work this time Tails," the hedgehog spirit responded as he quickly froze time so as to both buy him more time to think and search for any available cores. "He looks too immersed in trying to suffocate the life out of you. No, there has to be something else that I can work with. Wait a minute; I never noticed that before," he added thoughtfully as he turned his full attention towards his body that was still lying against the wall. "There's a core over my dead body. It's a blue color like other regular things, so I'm guessing it's not a gateway to my four minutes before death."
"That's pretty observant of you, Sonic," the voice commended in a tone that could have been construed as sarcastic when only heard and not seen. "It is just another regular core for you to travel by. And just for the record, you can only do this with your own body since you were the previous owner of it. Any other dead bodies would just lead you to the Gateway Between Past and Present."
"But then why doesn't Sonic's body emit this different kind of core you said you both came through?" the two tailed fox asked as he continued to look on at the frozen form of him and his attacker. It was almost as if half of his mind was entranced at seeing himself at this angle while the other half was listening to the ghostly conversation happening right next to him. "Why can't he go back to this Gateway Between Past and Present and to his last four minutes before death? That would help erase both his and my death."
"Because a spirit with ghost powers cannot enter their own core through their own sole power. If they were allowed to do so, then every person with this ability would be able to live out their life to lengths fate had not intended for. The only way a death can be reversed is to have another spirit with ghost powers enter your core. But the chances of a complete stranger helping you like that are close to none."
"Look, so long as I can save Tails' life here with these crazy powers, then I can say that my death at least meant something. I don't like to leave things the way they are when I can do something about it even if I'm dead. Anyway, I'm going to my body and see if I can manipulate it or something like that."
"I'm afraid that you'll be in for a rude awakening," the mysterious voice said in the same tone he used when he had tried to travel from gun to rock earlier. "I'll let you, however discover it for yourself. The fun in learning is to discover things on your own."
Choosing to ignore the ever cryptic musings of the voice that he knew almost nothing about, Sonic made his move towards the core on his body. Initially, he was just out of walking reach, but he managed to migrate thanks to his outstretched arms. Tails, who was tagging along with him, followed suit.
"Alright, it's time to go ahead and unfreeze time. Hopefully, I'll be able to save you with this next move."
With that slight hint on uncertainty made clear, the hedgehog unfroze time and quickly began to imagine himself taking over his own body. It was different from when he tried to manipulate other objects because he was not feeling the slight buzz he noticed he would get when being able to activate his powers. After a few moments though, he felt that familiar feeling and delved into it. He was soon fully immersed into his dead body and now completely taking control of it.
"My god…!" the voice exclaimed silently with a sharp intake of breath. "I never expected for this to happen. I've never seen such strong display of power in all my years of using and witnessing ghost powers!"
"Alright, time to do some rescuing here!" Sonic replied excitedly as he quickly got up from the floor and ran towards Tails' attacker without a second thought. Arriving there in less than five seconds, he roughly pulled the man off of the fox and held him by the scruff of his shirt collar with no signs of letting go soon.
"S-Sonic?" Past Tails gasped out in shock while taking deep breaths as he saw the hedgehog he saw to be dead just minutes ago standing right in front of him coming to his rescue. "B-but I thought you were dead! I didn't see you breathing! How the hell are you even walking around after something like that?"
"I'll explain it to you later, buddy!" the blue hedgehog replied before throwing a rather strong and quick punch right at the man's face. As a result, there was a cracking sound of his jaw being broken before the satisfying sound of his now unconscious form falling flat to the ground. He did not move since then.
"Well, that takes care of that major problem," the hedgehog responded as he wiped his hands clean of the imaginary dirt. "And that should take care of your death while you're at it," he added as he looked at Past Tails and saw his shocked and confused face. It was then that his vision disappeared and replaced with nothing but pure whiteness.
Fate Averted!
"Wow, I didn't think that you'd be able to manipulate your dead body and use it to fight that guy off of me!" Tails exclaimed in awe at what he had just witnessed from his previously officiated last four minutes of life. "That's definitely a freaky way to go about saving me. What if you ended up giving me a heart attack because of that?"
"So I accidentally freaked you out with that little stunt of mines," Sonic responded with a sense of indifference. "What difference does it make now? The important thing here is that I managed to save you from that man. Or would you rather die by suffocation and not see me return from the dead in all my glory?"
"You were hardly glorious when you were still alive," the two tailed fox countered with a roll of his eyes as their surroundings lost the blinding whiteness and reverted back to the black starry-like atmosphere. "I hardly think with you dead and getting all these new abilities would really qualify you for an upgrade in glamor."
"Well, you've certainly done better than I previously gave you credit for," the mysterious voice said in a congratulatory manner. "Not many new spirits like you could have executed something like that so well. You even managed to give me a rather pleasant surprise there. That's certainly something for me to think about in the future."
"Hey, I want to thank you for helping me save Tails," the cobalt hedgehog spirit thanked the voice. "Although I do have to admit that it was kind of weird to be getting help from someone I don't know let alone see."
"Well, it was the least I could do since you helped to satisfy one of my many curious thoughts in regards to these ever complicated puzzles of Ghost Tricks. Allow me to give to you one more piece of advice concerning your powers as further thanks for doing so. When you're in the four minutes world of your chosen victim and make a change to their fate, you have successfully created a new branch in that person's history. As such, if you so happen to make a mistake after that point, you have the option to either go back to the creation of the new branch or all the way to the beginning of the original scenario.
"Now that I've seen what I've seen here and told you everything that I feel necessary for you to know, I'm afraid I must make my leave," the voice stated with a small sigh after finishing his quick explanation. "I wish you both the very best in the new future you've just created. And whenever you feel like leaving here yourself, just relax your mind and you'll be back in the real world in the new future."
"W-wait a minute!" the two tailed fox exclaimed rather suddenly when it sounded like the voice was about to leave them. "Don't you think you could tell us your name before you leave? You haven't told me yet, and I doubt you told Sonic since he hasn't called you by name ever since you both approached me."
"…I suppose you both are inclined to know that much about me," the voice responded after taking a couple of seconds to consider the thought. "I'm afraid, however, that I won't be disclosing my real name. You'll have to earn my overall trust before you can have the right to know. For the meantime, you can just call me Rei, the Japanese word for 'Spirit'. I hope to see either of you two again in the near future. In fact, I'm most certain that we'll meet again under circumstance different than this."
"Hey, that's not the answer to our question!" the hedgehog retorted angrily as he tried to get a straight answer from the voice he had been hearing since the moment of his death. However, he was met with only silence, a clear indication that the owner of the mysterious voice had already left them. "And now he's gone before I can get a real answer. I swear; I think he likes giving me the runaround with my questions."
"Has this Rei voice-person thing always been this mysterious when you first met him?" Tails asked with eyebrows raised in confusion at the sudden lack of response from the once present voice. "I've only heard you try to ask him for something a couple of times, and he seems to like dodging it all whenever he can."
"He's not just mysterious; he's also pretty difficult to get a straight answer on anything," Sonic admitted while adding in another part from his short experience with the strange but helpful spirit. He then added with a small sigh, "Then again, I guess I can't really go about complaining about his crazy behavior even though I really want to. After all, he did introduce me to and taught me how to use these weird powers I just suddenly got and helped me to help you survive your murder. I suppose I should consider it small payback that he even gave us a name to call him by, even if it's only a fake."
"Whatever it is, he knows how to be mysterious in a helpful way. It's really amazing how he knows so much about your powers. It's like he's been around as a spirit for a good while. Anyway, do you think you can get us out of here now? I'd like to go back to my old body and greet your dead body with open arms," the fox added with humorous sarcasm clearly laced into his words.
"Hey, at least I'm still walking around and protecting you from killer people, and I don't think that's going to be changing anytime soon!" the hedgehog retorted in the same humorous fashion. With a chuckle coming from the other, the hedgehog concentrated on relaxing his mind like the voice had instructed him to so he could go back to the real world. He then felt a feeling of lightness and saw the world around him disappear as his vision began to black out followed closely with his consciousness.
Well, I hope that you all liked how this chapter came out. I decided that I will put it under the same format as the Ghost Trick game when it comes to moving to a dead person's last four minutes of life. There will be a replay of their final moments upon entering their core before the actual attempt of fixing the death. And as shown already, changes to fate will be announced and then the complete erasure of the deadly fate. And isn't it interesting how Sonic is able to possess his own body along with making certain things perform certain actions.
And just as a small note, I purposely made this particular replay of death lacking good details in terms of background and the characters' body movements. The reason being is because I've already done that in the last chapter; I only had to redo the dialogue and add a few small things I accidentally left out description-wise. So sorry for those of you who felt that dialogue was redundant. It was all part of the story.
And for those of you who played Ghost Trick, you might notice that I made this particular fate problem somewhat resemble the very first fate problem in that actual game. Sonic tried to save Tails while he was still alive and ended up failing before going to his past to try it again from a new perspective. And of course, the run away scene kept getting botched, but I tried to make it more realistic in that he would keep getting tripped up by the murderer instead of like the game where it was practically the "slowest running away" ever known in video game history.
Anyway, thanks to all of you who have read this chapter. Don't forget to leave a review before you move on. They are always greatly appreciated, and I always take the time to read whatever it is that you have to say except if it looks and sounds like a flame or criticism that's just masking a flame. Until the next update on any of my stories on here everybody!