Categories > Games > Sonic the Hedgehog > To Another World
Another world...
In another world, it would be different.
In another world, someone would have seen it coming. Someone would have been ready for them-someone, anyone. There would be a more competent defense force than a few military platoons, augmented by surprisingly competent bands of armed civilians. There would be no horrendous black creatures storming into my lab, shooting down my assistants.
There would be no young, dark-haired intern unleashing powers I had never dreamed she had on the monsters that are turning their blasters on me.
This is wrong. This is wrong, she shouldn't be defending me. She should hate me, she thinks I'm a condescending bastard. She should be leaving me to die.
She takes a chair and breaks it over one of the alien's heads. Their blood is a green color; it contrasts sharply with the red of her blouse and of her blood. One of the shoulders of her shirt is torn, and I can see a birthmark, a scar, that looks like a w... No, it's a lowercase omega. Omega...
For a second, just a second, I see something else there. A monster, metallic red and black, with a blaster built into its arm raised, pointed at my head...
And then the intern again, her dark eyes shining as she holds her hand out to me.
"Take my hand, Doctor. I'll get you out of here."
*
All my life, I've suffered from the most severe sort of déjà vu. Everywhere I go, everyone I meet, I feel like I know people I've never seen before. Sometimes I get flashes, images of creatures that cannot be, in place of human beings... sometimes it's the same person, but they're so much different.
The day before it started, it happened at the mall. A little pink hedgehog, clad in low-cut jeans and an obnoxiously trendy t-shirt, made a comment to her friends about my apparent lack of fashion sense. I turned to look, planning to roll my eyes at the little brat... but when I met those green eyes, I saw someone else entirely.. A confident young hedgehog, clad in a red dress, pleading with another hedgehog, black as the night...
I hurried away.
The day before that, on my way to work, I had run into a picket line, full of protestors, decrying the ethics of my work. At their forefront was a young woman with crimson hair, and more piercings on her face that I cared to count. As I passed in my car, I noticed a letter tattooed on her back... Gamma, was it? And for a moment-just a moment-I saw a robot standing there, firing at its kin...
So, as you can see, there is something more to my perception of the world around me than simply what I see. I am in tune with something else... As a child, I dreamed that it was another world, a world where I was a hero, who would save the world from the evils from without, a world where I was persecuted as a villain rather than just a madman.
For the longest time I believed it was fantasy, until Miss Megan informed me that an army of black creatures had stormed the gates of the university.
Now, I need to find out just what it is.
*
She leads me through the corridors, her tiny hand gripping mine more tightly than is comfortable. Her black hair, splattered with different kinds of blood, flies behind her. It's so beautiful, something about her is so beautiful... I don't find her attractive at all, I'm not of that persuasion, but I always wished that I could say I had a daughter that lovely...
"I didn't have a chance to tell you before they got in. The aliens have taken Westopolis and Central City. Station Square is holding out, if barely. They have some kind of strange energy source that they're using to power their weapons, it seems to be an inverted form of chaos energy. My friends asked me to tell you this; their parents work for the government. We're to rendezvous with my roommate at the housing office. She's arranged a military escort to get you out of here, but I don't know if it's gotten here yet. I suspect it never will."
"Megan, how do you know all this? Do you work for the government?"
"I wouldn't work for a government," she spits, turning around. "But right now they're the best focal point we have if we want to stop these aliens."
"Why did you save me?"
"Because if anyone can stop this," she says, a knowing twinkle in her eye, "It's you."
She pulls me into a classroom and closes the door, then pulls a walkie-talkie from her purse. "Chad, we're at North 229. Give me an escape route."
A male voice answers her. I remember her speaking of him... her best friend, Chad, a biology major. "I sense them... they're closing in on your location. You're going to have to go through a window."
"The doctor can't FIT through the fucking window, Chad, and I can't fight off many more of them!"
"I'm on my way."
"Any word from Rouge?" Megan demands.
"The transport got intercepted before it left city limits. We're on our own. Rouge is on her way."
"Remind me to kick her ass when this is all over. Omega out." My assistant grabs a chair and braces the door. "I advise you catch your breath, Dr. Robotnik. We have maybe a 40% chance of making it out of this alive."
*
It's been twenty minutes... but finally, I hear a voice on the other side of the door. "Omega, open up!"
The stocky intern dashes over and tears the chair from beneath the doorknob. She opens the door. "Get your ass in here, Chad."
In walks a surprising specimen. I expected a burly linebacker of a young man, befitting of the blackbelt in karate that Megan casually mentioned in the past. But the boy who enters hardly looked like a man at all. Not an inch over 5'4", he has to strain his neck to meet his friend's eyes. The young man is bloody and beaten, just as Meg and I are, but considerably less so. His black glasses are as pristine sitting on his nose as they must have been before the seige-a far cry from my broken, mirrored lenses. Also pristine is his spiky black and red hair, immaculate in shape, although I imagine some of the red is blood. He wears a black track jacket with a gold undershirt, and black jeans, with a pair of red and white boots.
"Doctor Robotnik, I presume," he says, bowing. His eyes are a rich brown, almost red...
Red eyes, laughter echoing through them as he stood over me, with her...
I take a step back.
"Don't be alarmed. I have a black belt in karate and I... I can sense them. The aliens."
"My group and I," Megan states, "We're all big believers in the paranormal. We all have some kind of strange power. Chad and his brother seem to be able to manipulate time. Rouge senses chaos energies. And I see into people's souls... what they're supposed to be."
"We don't have time for this Omega."
She turns to him. "Fine then. How are we going to escape? Are you just going to whisk us away with your freaky powers?"
"My brother hotwired an armored car and is en route. Rouge is on her way here. She snagged a Chaos Emerald from the physics lab..."
"Hmm. Do you think Sonny and you can use it?" She asks.
"Not like in our dreams, no. But maybe we can do a few little things."
"Then this world is damned."
"Meg, don't talk like that."
"I saw it very clearly. You have to be able to use the chaos control in order to stop them. You have to be able to fight off their weapon as well. A human can't do that. Only a furry would have a chance"
"Well, then get Rouge to do it!" he growls, crossing his arms.
"Keyword: Chance." She turns up her nose. "We need the Hedgehogs Sonic and Shadow, not the humans Sonny and Chad. Another requirement is the cannon, which hasn't been invented."
Suddenly, the window breaks, and I turn to look. A young bat, dressed in black, climbs through. "I came as fast as I could. The convoy was destroyed, Sonny's on his way with a hotwired car, and they've unleashed some kind of gas on the other end of campus."
In my mind's eye I see her, hanging upside down in a chamber, smirking confidently as she tossed the...
...blue emerald into Chad's hand. "Do your freaky thing so we can get out of here."
"Chaos... control!"
And in a flash of light, we are gone.
In another world, it would be different.
In another world, someone would have seen it coming. Someone would have been ready for them-someone, anyone. There would be a more competent defense force than a few military platoons, augmented by surprisingly competent bands of armed civilians. There would be no horrendous black creatures storming into my lab, shooting down my assistants.
There would be no young, dark-haired intern unleashing powers I had never dreamed she had on the monsters that are turning their blasters on me.
This is wrong. This is wrong, she shouldn't be defending me. She should hate me, she thinks I'm a condescending bastard. She should be leaving me to die.
She takes a chair and breaks it over one of the alien's heads. Their blood is a green color; it contrasts sharply with the red of her blouse and of her blood. One of the shoulders of her shirt is torn, and I can see a birthmark, a scar, that looks like a w... No, it's a lowercase omega. Omega...
For a second, just a second, I see something else there. A monster, metallic red and black, with a blaster built into its arm raised, pointed at my head...
And then the intern again, her dark eyes shining as she holds her hand out to me.
"Take my hand, Doctor. I'll get you out of here."
*
All my life, I've suffered from the most severe sort of déjà vu. Everywhere I go, everyone I meet, I feel like I know people I've never seen before. Sometimes I get flashes, images of creatures that cannot be, in place of human beings... sometimes it's the same person, but they're so much different.
The day before it started, it happened at the mall. A little pink hedgehog, clad in low-cut jeans and an obnoxiously trendy t-shirt, made a comment to her friends about my apparent lack of fashion sense. I turned to look, planning to roll my eyes at the little brat... but when I met those green eyes, I saw someone else entirely.. A confident young hedgehog, clad in a red dress, pleading with another hedgehog, black as the night...
I hurried away.
The day before that, on my way to work, I had run into a picket line, full of protestors, decrying the ethics of my work. At their forefront was a young woman with crimson hair, and more piercings on her face that I cared to count. As I passed in my car, I noticed a letter tattooed on her back... Gamma, was it? And for a moment-just a moment-I saw a robot standing there, firing at its kin...
So, as you can see, there is something more to my perception of the world around me than simply what I see. I am in tune with something else... As a child, I dreamed that it was another world, a world where I was a hero, who would save the world from the evils from without, a world where I was persecuted as a villain rather than just a madman.
For the longest time I believed it was fantasy, until Miss Megan informed me that an army of black creatures had stormed the gates of the university.
Now, I need to find out just what it is.
*
She leads me through the corridors, her tiny hand gripping mine more tightly than is comfortable. Her black hair, splattered with different kinds of blood, flies behind her. It's so beautiful, something about her is so beautiful... I don't find her attractive at all, I'm not of that persuasion, but I always wished that I could say I had a daughter that lovely...
"I didn't have a chance to tell you before they got in. The aliens have taken Westopolis and Central City. Station Square is holding out, if barely. They have some kind of strange energy source that they're using to power their weapons, it seems to be an inverted form of chaos energy. My friends asked me to tell you this; their parents work for the government. We're to rendezvous with my roommate at the housing office. She's arranged a military escort to get you out of here, but I don't know if it's gotten here yet. I suspect it never will."
"Megan, how do you know all this? Do you work for the government?"
"I wouldn't work for a government," she spits, turning around. "But right now they're the best focal point we have if we want to stop these aliens."
"Why did you save me?"
"Because if anyone can stop this," she says, a knowing twinkle in her eye, "It's you."
She pulls me into a classroom and closes the door, then pulls a walkie-talkie from her purse. "Chad, we're at North 229. Give me an escape route."
A male voice answers her. I remember her speaking of him... her best friend, Chad, a biology major. "I sense them... they're closing in on your location. You're going to have to go through a window."
"The doctor can't FIT through the fucking window, Chad, and I can't fight off many more of them!"
"I'm on my way."
"Any word from Rouge?" Megan demands.
"The transport got intercepted before it left city limits. We're on our own. Rouge is on her way."
"Remind me to kick her ass when this is all over. Omega out." My assistant grabs a chair and braces the door. "I advise you catch your breath, Dr. Robotnik. We have maybe a 40% chance of making it out of this alive."
*
It's been twenty minutes... but finally, I hear a voice on the other side of the door. "Omega, open up!"
The stocky intern dashes over and tears the chair from beneath the doorknob. She opens the door. "Get your ass in here, Chad."
In walks a surprising specimen. I expected a burly linebacker of a young man, befitting of the blackbelt in karate that Megan casually mentioned in the past. But the boy who enters hardly looked like a man at all. Not an inch over 5'4", he has to strain his neck to meet his friend's eyes. The young man is bloody and beaten, just as Meg and I are, but considerably less so. His black glasses are as pristine sitting on his nose as they must have been before the seige-a far cry from my broken, mirrored lenses. Also pristine is his spiky black and red hair, immaculate in shape, although I imagine some of the red is blood. He wears a black track jacket with a gold undershirt, and black jeans, with a pair of red and white boots.
"Doctor Robotnik, I presume," he says, bowing. His eyes are a rich brown, almost red...
Red eyes, laughter echoing through them as he stood over me, with her...
I take a step back.
"Don't be alarmed. I have a black belt in karate and I... I can sense them. The aliens."
"My group and I," Megan states, "We're all big believers in the paranormal. We all have some kind of strange power. Chad and his brother seem to be able to manipulate time. Rouge senses chaos energies. And I see into people's souls... what they're supposed to be."
"We don't have time for this Omega."
She turns to him. "Fine then. How are we going to escape? Are you just going to whisk us away with your freaky powers?"
"My brother hotwired an armored car and is en route. Rouge is on her way here. She snagged a Chaos Emerald from the physics lab..."
"Hmm. Do you think Sonny and you can use it?" She asks.
"Not like in our dreams, no. But maybe we can do a few little things."
"Then this world is damned."
"Meg, don't talk like that."
"I saw it very clearly. You have to be able to use the chaos control in order to stop them. You have to be able to fight off their weapon as well. A human can't do that. Only a furry would have a chance"
"Well, then get Rouge to do it!" he growls, crossing his arms.
"Keyword: Chance." She turns up her nose. "We need the Hedgehogs Sonic and Shadow, not the humans Sonny and Chad. Another requirement is the cannon, which hasn't been invented."
Suddenly, the window breaks, and I turn to look. A young bat, dressed in black, climbs through. "I came as fast as I could. The convoy was destroyed, Sonny's on his way with a hotwired car, and they've unleashed some kind of gas on the other end of campus."
In my mind's eye I see her, hanging upside down in a chamber, smirking confidently as she tossed the...
...blue emerald into Chad's hand. "Do your freaky thing so we can get out of here."
"Chaos... control!"
And in a flash of light, we are gone.
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