Level 4

Something about the peculiar-looking arena that supposedly hosted level 4 looked so damn familiar, it was almost scary. I gazed everywhere around me in awe. The background was pitch black, with little, almost invisible specks of white dust scattered here and there. Something big, round, and blue caught my attention, and then it hit me like a bolt out of the blue: the Space Colony ARK. It was that long-abandoned space colony, intricate as I had always imagined it. The problem was that it was overcrowded — I saw players of all sorts, ages, you name it, everywhere I looked — which would've made sense if it was actually where the fourth level took place. But was it?

Chaos ensued as I tried to push my way through the mob of humans. What, did the humans get this game two years before I had a chance? The feeling that I'd run into instant death plagued my every following thought, action, deed, etc. Adding insult to injury was the fact that I'd actually listened to the entire Harlem Shake song for once. Of course I didn't want to, but it was the only thing I could hear for the longest four minutes of my life. The fact that the video had already reached a billion views wasn't helping, either. But at least it had more hits than "Baby".

The staleness of the air in this "level" suggested that I might be here for a long-ass time. I surveyed practically every corner of the otherwise empty colony but saw no trace of anything linked to how to beat the level or where the escape portal even was. Just great. I'd get to witness my untimely demise again.

I nervously strolled into the control room, where surprisingly no one dared to hide. Why this room in particular was empty was way beyond me. But the further I searched for a good hiding point, the more likely I felt to get ambushed. And sure enough, a sudden force from underneath me got ahold of my ankles. I flopped face first onto the cold metal floor, a pool of blood draining where my beat-up face lay. (Just kidding.) The force that prevented me from escaping its grasp pulled me into its death trap...

"You! Thank God you're here. Yes, I know that was an awkward way to get you to safety, but it was the only way I could think of, ok!?"

This guy intrigued me in more ways than one. His pitch-black fur said one thing about him, but there was no red across his quills, or on his gloves, or anything.

"Do I know you?" I finally asked, feeling a bit awkward that I just said that.

The hedgehog in black just stared at me menacingly, almost passing off a look that Shadow was likely to give me after beating him in baseball.

"My name's Moon," he replied, looking at me with a rather concerned face. This was not right at all. Was he really the real Shadow!? (I'm only exaggerating.)

"I'm Zenith. Nice meeting you."

"You feeling ok, dude?"

I tried to remain as calm as possible. "I don't know. I've been having to deal with some rather odd occurrences recently, namely this game, as well as me having this weird vision occur to me last night..."

At this point the ebony freak became uber-intrigued. "Eh? What did you visualize?"

I lied for two legitimate reasons. "I don't remember, it all happened so fast."

"I dunno. I find that a bit hard to believe. Did you get the feeling of being on the verge of death?"

"I don't know, I guess...?" Correction, his description was extremely accurate; I just didn't feel like admitting it. "I could barely feel myself. You know what, I hardly even felt like myself."

"Ok..." I knew what he was thinking the second he muttered that sound effect. "Tell me what happened."

I wanted to tell him what happened... but then again, I didn't... and yet I still did. But Moon wouldn't wait. And I didn't know anyone who would. "What happened was, last night in one of my dreams, I felt myself drifting away from my room, maybe from being extremely bored — no, I mean really really REALLY bored, like bored to the fifth power — and I was visited by random voices of all sorts..."

"What did they all say?"

I had nothing else to say in response to this inquiry. "I honestly don't remember. Maybe it went something along the lines of 'You're not who you think you are' and 'Don't do this to yourself' or something like that. And then..." This was becoming a chore to describe. "And then this girl came up to me..."

Another holdup by the ebony-and-crimson freak. "Really? What was her name? Come on, tell me now!"

It was my turn again. "I don't know, Moon! It all happened too fast! But anyway, she went up to me and recited this... thing. I was somehow able to pick it up over the ensuing madness behind me. 'The servers are the seven Chaos'..."

He joined me in an intrigued manner. "'Chaos is power, power is enriched by the heart. The controller is the one that unifies the Chaos.'" I could hear a sparkling sensation, as if it was trying to give my ears a seizure. Then it stopped.

All was quiet for ten seconds. Then Moon spoke again. "I sure hope nothing serious happened..."

I replied in an assuring tone, "I think I would've figured it out by now if it did."

Something in his tone made it sound like he was dead serious. "No, really. It's very dangerous if you're holding a Chaos Emerald. Who knows what kind of trouble you could cause in the afterlife."

"In the what?!" He had me flabbergasted. "You actually believe that it exists? And I thought you were immune to death!"

"Well, put more simply, just permanent death. But I have traveled there once or twice... but of course being forced to turn back while I could or else be lost forever." How I wished I could've seen what he was thinking at that point. "You'll see when you get there."

"I don't know what you're talking about." It was seeming too unreal to be real. "I'm never going there. When I die... well, who knows?"

"Zenith, there's no way you can be related to Shadow the Hedgehog. He's practically ageless because he relies on Chaos energy, which is contained within the emeralds. I'd hate to see how badly you'd react with that kind of energy. To say the least, it is a beast to control. It's so unstable that very few have the power to harness its... well, power. I'm sorry. I'd recommend you don't try Chaos Spear or whatever anytime soon."

I'd figured all my life there were millions of awkward "facts" about myself I still wanted to know (and at the same time didn't). It was only just now that I resorted to hitting myself for being lazy all this time. After I got ahold of myself, I unknowingly said out loud, "I wonder, what if I could do that..."

Moon chortled a bit. "You'll never understand, kid. I can't tell whether your self-esteem is really high or really low. I'd hate to see how far down the hill it'd take you."

"I think I'll be fine, Moon. And for the record, I'm 13. Don't call me a kid."

He shrugged sheepishly. "Fine. At least I know how to take a joke."

That statement of his was more wrong than the pronunciation of the word "wrong". "Don't push it, Moon. You know what, enough with the chatter. I wanna get out of here."

"I don't," he said in a cool tone.

"Well I got an idea. We'll wait until the area clears up..."

"How long do you think that'll take?"

"Ok, fine. I'll go look for the escape portal right now. Have fun by yourself."

His next response, having come from nearly six inches behind me, caught me by surprise. "On second thought, why spend the rest of my life crammed in that spot where nothing ever happens. I'm coming with you."

That statement only confirmed that he wasn't the real Shadow, but he done done something with the real Shadow. I figured it was dumb luck that we didn't run into trouble with them other players. Moon would've been just as uncomfortable as I was from those run-ins. Humans: my worst enemy.

Moon and I stared in awe at the hideous beast guarding the portal. "No way. I'll lose all my lives before I ever make it through... that!"

Moon nodded in agreement. "So much for the untold riches. I'm screwed."

Quitter. "Wait, I think I have a plan to get past that guy. You wanna hear it?"

"Maybe later. I'm going back to cram myself in that tight space over there."

"No, it has to involve both of us, otherwise it won't work."

He pushed me aside. "Find someone else to do your bidding, ok!?"

I didn't care how hard I had to try, I wasn't gonna risk being stuck here for the rest of my life. "Do you wanna beat the game or what?"

"LATER."

"No, you're doing it now. Come with me." I took his hand and pulled him back to safety, the force of his grip almost dragging me in the opposite direction. I began to shove through my pocket, and felt a crystallized texture. The emerald was still there!

"Ok, this may be a bad time to bring this up, but check out what I found in level 1..." I pulled out the crystal blue item.

Moon studied it carefully. "Isn't that a fake?"

"I don't know. For all I know, one of the Chaos Emeralds that Shadow used to defeat Perfect Chaos or whatever may have been a fake. But even if it was, maybe we could blast that portal guard with this emerald!"

He looked back and forth at me and the emerald. Eventually he focused on me and said, "You thinking what I'm thinking?"

Probably not... "CHAOS SPEAR!" we shouted at each other in a loud whisper simultaneously.

Moon stopped me for a moment. "I don't know about that. What if the guy respawned?"

That idea made sense for once. But by now the situation was problematic. "Guess you're right, eh. Ok I have another idea. Punch me."

"Why would you want me to do that?!"

I explained as carefully as possible, "I can distract the idiot guarding the portal if you get me close enough. When I eavesdropped on him before I met you back there, I noticed he was frequently going out of position, trying to kill other players who tried to get close. When he sees me, he'll need to get closer for a better range. That's where you come in."

Moon thought for seven seconds. "You know, that's not such a bad idea. But of course I have the problem of controlling how hard I punch..."

"If you wanna fake it, I don't care. Humans are stupid anyway."

"I am 250% positive that you're right on that," he joked in agreement. "But then we have G.U.N. agents. God, they're just awful. They're like, extremely efficient..."

"Whatever. They always set their minds on one thing, and yet they hardly ever realize what they're actually doing."

"Yeah, don't get me started on that."

"Whatever," I remarked. I poked my head out as if spying on our friend the portal guard. He was still doing nothing. Five seconds. "Now!" As if right on cue, Moon gave me a powerful hook right where I would imitate a blue idiot's trademark grin, without even any time to flinch.

"Bad idea?" I heard a familiar voice inquire before I lost consciousness.