Title: "Virtual Reality Nightmare"
Author: Chronos the Cat
Description: A Sonic the Hedgehog Fan Fiction
Chapter: 1.00.00 (Prologue)
Version: 00.00.02 ( Fanfiction-dot-net edit)
Date: 2008.08.03
Copyright & Disclaimer: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters (c) SEGA of America. (Used without explicit permission.) This story may be freely reproduced and distributed in its original, unaltered form, so long as no monetary transaction is involved.
Continuity Notice: The events in this story are set in an alternate history that diverges from the Archie Comics' Sonic the Hedgehog series just prior to issue #16.
Concept: What if the Freedom Fighters had never escaped from Robotnik's Virtual Reality device in issue #16, and the rest of the series were a Virtual Reality Illusion?
It was the day the citizens of Knothole had been waiting for for months. The marriage of their greatest heroes, Sonic and Sally...
Six months had passed since the final battle with Robotnik, and the destruction of Robotropolis. Though King Acorn still remained trapped in the Zone of Silence, and the Roboticized Mobians still lacked a will of their own, the planet had started to recover from Robotnik's depredations, and it seemed only a matter of time before everything was set aright.
As Sonic put on his tuxedo in preparation for the big event, he mused, "If only Robotnik could see us now!"
...Unbeknownst to him...
"Oh, but I can see you, my little blue friend," Robotnik gloated, gazing down at a 3-D representation of Sonic and his friends.
"I can see all of you! Trapped like a fly in a web... by my most fiendish plot to date!
"My master-plan was a model of insidious simplicity! So simple, even the hired help couldn't mess it up! Easy as A,B,C!
"A: Lure Sonic and the Freedom Fighters to Sleepy Hollow under false pretenses...
"B: Fill Sleepy Hollow with sleeping gas...
"C: And, it was good night, sweet hedgehog!
"With the Freedom Fighters in la-la land, it was child's play to move the slumber party to Robotropolis... where they'll sleep to their heart's content -- forever!"
Crabmeat spoke up. "Why don't we just dispose of them and be done with it?"
"Because, dear Crabmeat... what I have in store is far more evil -- and much more fun!
"Now, after fitting Sonic and his playmates with these special virtual reality helmets, and plugging them into my main computer, we'll force-feed them their fondest wishes and worst nightmares with my new AI enhanced virtual-event generator, the Plot Device!
"Ooooh, I'm such a genius I even scare myself!"
"What...?" Sally asked in confusion as she woke up in a room in Robotropolis, drenched in a clear, sticky liquid. Near her, in a similar condition, were Antoine, Tails, Bunnie, and Rotor. And near them, floating in a glass tube, was Sonic.
Sonic's face appeared on a computer screen, and over the speakers, he told them, "I know this is going to be hard to believe, but everything we've experienced in the past six months was a trick -- we've been in a Virtual Reality simulation 'Butnik cooked up. Heck, it hasn't even been six months!"
The Freedom Fighters were too disorientated for the full implications of this to sink in, but at first glance it was a great relief. The past few hours had been incredibly strange. Sonic had disappeared from his own wedding, and Antoine had taken his place. Sally had found herself saying "I do" when Antoine was the last person she would have agreed to marry... And melting clocks had been popping up everywhere...
"Get back to Knothole," Sonic told them. "I'll follow you as soon as I stop 'Butnik's War Machines."
"But enough fun and games! Time to get down to business!
"There's a whole wide world left to conquer -- and my War Machines are more than up to the task! They shall roll over the face of Mobius -- crushing anything and anyone in their way. Those who survive shall be roboticized...
"...And my dream of a perfect, ordered society shall come to pass -- save for that piece of chaos under glass!
"Alas, perfection has its price!
"Make sure you turn off the light on the way out, Crabmeat!"
Future Plans:
During one of the happier times in the comic for the Freedom Fighters (relatively speaking - such as between 50-73, just after 123, between 165-174, or after 177; current suggestion is between 184-185) the Freedom Fighters awaken in a ruined building, and are met by a new group of freedom fighters. The new group explains that they just rescued the Knothole group from the virtual reality tubes they had been trapped in since the events of issue #16. During that time (several months or more even in the real world), Robotnik has had almost free reign, and most of the world's resistance groups and ecosystems are gone.
The Freedom Fighters rejoin the fight against Robotnik in a much darker world.
After a time, the Freedom Fighters realize that this reality is also an illusion. The Freedom Fighters learn to hack into the code of the VR both for short-term "cheats" and for the purpose of eventually breaking free of the virtual world. Robotnik begins cheating as well, and it is revealed that he is the latest incarnation of a AI devised by the VR program to keep the Freedom Fighters from getting too happy – as it was the first illusion being "too good to be true" that allowed the Freedom Fighters to see through it.
After years (VR time) of battle, the Freedom Fighters delete the Robotnik program. They then hack into the real Robotropolis' computer network to begin working towards getting free, and to learn what they've missed. (Alternately, the Robotnik program could have escaped into the computer network to avoid deletion, in which case they will still need to face it again eventually.)
The Freedom Fighters are aghast to discover that decades have passed in the real world. Robotnik succeeded in destroying all resistance, but has since died of old age. Robotnik's empire continues to function on auto-pilot, but in some parts of the world the infrastructure has broken down and the ecosystems have started to recover.
Their real bodies old and atrophied, the Freedom Fighters must either have themselves roboticized or utilize cybernetics if they want to re-enter the real world. This accomplished, they must determine the best way to dismantle Robotnik's empire and help the world recover. (However, if the Robotnik program escaped, they must first deal with it's attempts to take control of the real Robotnik Empire.)
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