The Spirit of Giving A Sonic the Hedgehog story by Helen Stansfeld. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Sonic the Hedgehog and other affiliations, characters and locations are © Sega Enterprises Ltd. Used without permission. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Part Five - Never Tempt Fate "Aaaagghh!" Tails screamed while there was a huge flash beside him. The statue began humming fervently and Tails allowed himself a peek at the spot where the boom had been. There, standing nonchalantly, was Sonic. Tails gasped. "How did you do that?" he asked in awe, eyes wide. Sonic turned to him. "To be honest," he said, "I really don't know." He motioned towards the statue, "And what in the heck is that?" "It's that model of you we found earlier today," Tails replied. "It's creepy, and it started humming like that when you entered the room." Tails shivered. "Hmm..." Sonic mused, staring at the statue. Tails tapped him on the shoulder. "Can you hear that?" he inquired in a whisper. "Hear what?" Sonic asked, still concentrating on the statue. "Listen - there's voices outside!" Sonic pricked his ears up. It seemed like Tails was right, there were definitely voices outside the door. Who they belonged to was a different matter, although he knew that it wasn't Robotnik or any of his cronies. Two female voices, a male and a.... a what? "Shall I call out?" Tails asked. Sonic nodded. "Hey! We're in here!" Tails yelled. "We need help!" "You want anyone else to come? Robotnik maybe?" Sonic said dryly. "Who's there?" one of the female voices inquired. "Sonic and Tails!" Sonic shouted at full volume. Tails arched an eyebrow. "Sonic!" the voice called. "It's me, Amy! And Sam, Knuckles and Mecha-Sonic are with me! What are you doing in there?" For once Sonic was glad to hear Amy's voice. "I don't know how I got here!" he replied. A thought struck him. "Mecha-Sonic?!" "He's on our side!" Amy hollered back. "Knuckles is going to smash the door in, so stand back!" Sonic and Tails both shielded their eyes and backed away. When they looked again Knuckles was standing on the remains of the door brushing himself off. "Thanks, Knux," Sonic said gratefully. "Why are you guys here?" "Don't go near the statue!" Amy interrupted at full volume, running towards them. "It's an evil plot by the dastardly Dr. Robotnik to suck out your spirit!" Sonic and Tails both took an involuntary step back. "Say what?" Sonic asked. "You heard her," Knuckles said. "Don't touch the statue." Sonic gave him a withering look. "If that's true then how come I'm OK now, huh?" Sonic placed his hands on his hips. Suddenly the statue let off a noise like a siren and Sonic fell to his knees. "Never tempt fate," Knuckles remarked, shaking his head. "Sonic, you've got to get up!" Sam cried. "Fight it!" Sonic lifted his head up and looked sadly at Sam. "I... I can't," he said slowly, sounding as if it pained him to speak. "You can!" Amy replied, running over to him. "If you try you can do anything!" "Yeah - Toot Toot Sonic Warrior!" Tails added. "What?" Knuckles asked. "I dunno!" Tails turned to him. "It just sort of popped into my mind. It seemed the right thing to say," he added defensively. "Yeah? Well, can you feel the sunshine?" Knuckles retorted. "What?" Tails was confused. "How could things turn out so wrong?" Sam added. "Are we the only sane ones here?" Amy asked Sonic and Mecha. "Not at all, my dear," a suave voice replied from the shadows in the far corner of the room. "Who.... who are you?" Amy called out. "They call me Sonic," the voice replied, stepping out from the dark. "Impossible," Amy breathed. The figure was a drop-dead likeness of her hero. "Not at all," the doppelganger said, moving towards her. "Essentially, we are one and the same." "I don't see why I should believe you," Amy glared at him, crossing her arms over her red and white dress. "See that statue over there? Good. Know what it's for? Well, let's just say that my pitiful original-self has a real spirit of giving. Ha ha - that's rather good seeing as it's his spirit he's giving! Ah ha ha ha ha!!!!!" The pseudo Sonic threw his head back and laughed evily. "You aren't Sonic at all!" Amy shouted. "The real Sonic would never make hideous puns like that!" Tails turned his head, hearing the commotion. Knuckles and Sam stopped throwing words at each other that they hadn't even understood. Knuckles summed their collective feelings up. "What the heck is going on?" he asked. Mecha-Sonic hovered over to them. "Sonic's spirit has split away from him," he explained. "It's turned into some sort of new Sonic or something. The real Sonic is the one on the floor holding his head." "Hey look!" Tails exclaimed. "What's Amy doing?" Everyone turned to see. Amy appeared to be whispering something that only the evil Sonic could hear. He suddenly turned very pale and began backing away from her. Amy had a manic grin on her face and was advancing on him, whacking one fist into her open palm. "Man, what'd she say to him?" Sam wondered. "He looks scared stiff!" "She probably threatened to kiss him," Knuckles remarked, grinning. Tails winced on behalf of the second Sonic as he ran out of backing away space, finding himself up against a wall. All four of them watched intently to see what Amy would do to him. The hedgehog closed his eyes and braced himself for whatever was coming. Amy leaped like a cat towards him, angling herself so that her feet would smash his head. He had been ready for this, however, and darted away underneath her. Amy smacked heavily against the wall and the evil Sonic kicked her head violently, rendering her unconscious if she wasn't already. "You scum!" yelled Knuckles, distraught at seeing his friend brutally attacked like that. The echidna charged at him, head first, as if to head-butt him. Tails whimpered, knowing what would happen. "Stop, Knuckles!" he screamed as the hedgehog jumped up, arms raised. Knuckles skidded to a halt, narrowly missing the Sonic statue that had created the second Sonic. He turned round quickly and raised his fists to protect himself from Sonic's attacks. It worked to some extent - he wasn't badly hurt, but the evil Sonic took no damage and bounced off the gloves, missing the spikes on each paw. Meanwhile, Sam had run over to tend to the crumpled body of Amy Rose. Tails looked over and saw the look in her eyes; what he saw terrified him. What had the pseudo-Sonic done to her? Knuckles was still battling him, both foes circling each other, neither wishing to make the first move. Tails' tails stood up on end, as did the fur along his spine. He did not like this at all. Something grabbed at his sneaker from the floor and he yelped, flying up into the air. He glanced down to see Sonic crawling along the floor, obviously in a lot of pain. He flew down, embarrassed, and knelt by his best friend. "What has it done to Amy?" he asked. Tails was afraid to answer. Sonic looked up at Tails' stricken face and then at Amy, who was being tended by Sam. Something caught Tails' eye up above. Sonic saw it too, and a grim smile crossed his face. A dark blue figure was silently making its way across the ledges at the top of the room. The fox recognised it as Metal-Sonic. How things had changed since he and Sonic's expedition to the Metropolis Zone. Sonic whispered something in Tails' ear and he nodded in agreement. It didn't do to attract attention to the robot hedgehog; that would kill the element of surprise. Instead he turned to watch the fight between Knuckles and the evil Sonic. Knuckles finally cracked under the pressure and lunged at his opponent. Sonic strafed effortlessly away and mocked the angry echidna. Knuckles would have gone red if he wasn't already coloured that way, and made another attack. The atmosphere in the room changed at that moment. It took on a greasy feel and Knuckles faltered, not understanding what was happening. The evil Sonic raised his arms and threw back his head, laughing mercilessly. "Fools, all of you!" he exclaimed, giggling like a maniac. "You think I should not be here? Why don't some of your party ask themselves the same question? Ha ha ha ha!" Sonic turned to Tails, baffled. "What is he on about?" he asked weakly. "I don't know," the 8 year-old replied. The room felt wrong. He didn't know why. He really didn't know the answer to anything that was going on anymore. "What are you up to?" Knuckles demanded, reaching the end of his tether. "I am about to get rid of a few people who should not be here," the hedgehog said darkly. "Like Miss Rose, for example." "Amy?!" Sonic questioned. His doppelganger looked down his nose at him. "No, not Amy," he replied. "Her." Sonic looked in the direction he was pointing in. "You're mistaken, pal, that's Sam." "I know." The evil Sonic snapped his fingers and the black hedgehog disappeared with a shriek. "Sam!" Sonic cried, struggling to his feet. He lurched over to his evil double, groaning with the effort. "I'll kill you!" he growled, attempting to clasp his paws around the other hedgehog's neck. Before he could get anywhere, however, Metal-Sonic dropped onto him from above, crushing him with the blow. Tails and Knuckles exchanged worried glances. They both moved closer to each other, and Tails started shaking with fear. Metal-Sonic had changed sides, Amy Rose was unconscious or worse, and Sonic had been crushed by half a ton of free-falling metal. "Give up now!" the two hedgehogs laughed hysterically. "There's no way you can win!" "I have one question," Knuckles shouted. The evil Sonic turned, interested. "What?" he asked. "Why, and how, did you get rid of Sam and change Metal-Sonic back?" "Ha ha ha," the hedgehog laughed. "It's very simple, really. When my other half and his fuzzy friend thought they'd been warped to another dimension, they'd really been taken to an alternative reality created by Doctor Robotnik by accident. I simply took us back to the real world, where "Sam" never existed, and my colleague still had his sanity. Is that all, or do you have another question before you die?" Tails stepped forward bravely. "I have a question," he quavered. Metal-Sonic glared at him. "What would happen if I did this?" he yelled as he dived towards the Sonic-statue and started wrenching at its head. Knuckles followed his example and with one swift movement rendered it head-less. The evil Sonic screamed and started to fade away. Metal-Sonic looked around hurriedly. The odds had changed to Knuckles and Tails' favour in a matter of seconds. Tails growled at him and winked at Knuckles. Metal-Sonic started backing away, only to be stopped as someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind. He spun round to be greeted by the pain-stricken, leering face of Amy Rose. If he were flesh and bone Metal-Sonic would have gulped. He back-flipped, landing a metre away from Sonic, still lying on the floor. "Amy, are you OK?" Tails asked, running over to her. Amy collapsed in his arms and Tails dropped to his knees. Metal-Sonic smiled; it was an even match now. Knuckles smiled back at him knowingly. The hedgehog glanced over his shoulder and shrieked - Sonic was standing behind him. "Give up now, metal-head," Sonic warned in a low voice. "Or we get nasty..." He left the sentence trailing ominously. Knuckles crossed the room to stand the other side of Metal-Sonic. The robot, seizing his last chance, leaped for the open air-duct and crawled away. Knuckles shrugged and Sonic fell over backwards. "We better get them out of here," Knuckles said to Tails. The little fox nodded and tried to lift Amy up. Knuckles grinned and freed Tails of his burden. They ran out of the door and to freedom. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Epilogue Sonic was sat on a hollow log near the border of the Green Hill Zone. His face was cupped in his paws and he sighed heavily. He and Amy had recovered quickly and it was almost as if nothing had happened. Knuckles and himself had called a truce and were on friendly terms, which was a refreshing change. There was something missing from this, though. Sonic had been calling out in his sleep over the past month and kept falling into bouts of depression. Tails had tried to comfort him, but he would not be consoled. The little fox didn't really understand what was wrong. Waterfalls rushed in the distance and the sun shone brightly, but Sonic didn't notice. A voice sounded behind him and he sat up hurriedly. When he turned round, however, there was nothing there. He lay on the ground on his back and closed his eyes and smiled for the first time since the fight. His ears pricked up as the faint sound of a helicopter droned over the zone. The next thing he knew, something was tapping him on the stomach and he wriggled up, laughing. "Don't do that, Tails!" he giggled, squirming. Tails' eyes lit up at his friend's good humour. "Are you OK?" he inquired. Sonic laughed and Tails felt a weight lift from his heart; everything was all right. The two friends ran off into the distance, laughing happily. That would have been the end of it all, but for one thing. The view swings round to the hollow log on top of the lonely hill. In the right light, if you look very carefully, something can be made out faintly - something carved into the wood inside. On closer inspection it seems like a face, smiling at you. It has a shock of hair and a strangely buoyant pony-tail. Was that a trick of the light, or did it just blink and close its eyes... ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Author's Notes Well, that's it. The end. At least, I think so. You see, this story kinda ran away with me and never quite brought me back. It wasn't meant to happen like this at all. I just can't remember how it was meant to happen. That said, I didn't write with a plot in mind. Yes, I admit it. I hope you enjoyed it though. My brother didn't, but that's what siblings are for, isn't it? And now for a few mistakes I made... In part four, I wrote the sentence "Tails wondered why it was necessary to bolt the door from the inside and shivered." I have no idea why I wrote that because it doesn't make sense. It made sense at the time... In the last part, Tails had trouble lifting Amy, but he quite happily lifted Sonic previously. Now, I'm just assuming this, but Amy is lighter than Sonic, right? Hmmm... Enough of the 'glitches' already. Now some stuff to make you think... Just who was "Samantha Rose"? A relation of Amy's, perhaps...? I don't know. How should I know? I only wrote the dumb thing! What happened to that other dimension? Who won the beachball game? What's with that log? Why is the hill lonely? Well, that's enough from me. Please send fan-mail to sonic@chilham44.freeserve.co.uk and hate-mail to president@sony.com. Feel free to say what you liked about it, what you didn't like about it, your favourite character, how it could be improved, plot suggestions, etc. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Final installment converted to HTML on the 17th of January 1999.