Sonic Series Fan Fiction ❯ Sonic Matrix ❯ Waking up ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Shadow woke up and shook out his spines.

He furrowed his brow as he thought about the dream he had.

In the dream, he was at the park with Maria and eating coffee flavored ice cream. The odd thing about it was that the strange green tint everything on Mobius had was gone.

"Was that green tint always there?" Shadow thought. He got out of bed to get ready for his job as a white collar hacker. "It doesn't seem like it was, but maybe I'm imagining it."

Shadow put on his headset and sat down in front of his computer.

His phone rang.

Shadow looked at his phone. He didn't recognize the number, but he answered it anyway since it could be a potential new client.

"Hello?" Shadow asked.

"Good morning, Terios." A female voice said.

Shadow furrowed his brow. "Who is this?"

"You've noticed how things in this world just seem off." The voice said. "Would you like to know why?"

Shadow leaned forward propping his arms on the desk. "Yes, but who is this?" He questioned. "How do you know my other hacker name?"

"We've been watching you for a while." The voice replied.

"We?" Shadow asked.

"Meet the green and pink hedgehogs on Main Street in two hours." The voice said. She hung up.

Shadow checked his watch. "It'll take me five minutes to get there." He muttered. He took his headset off, got up, and picked up his jacket off of the back of his chair. "This better be worth it."

He made sure to get his gun out of his gun safe before leaving the house.

Shadow walked down the street and zipped up his jacket.

A dark pink female hedgehog and a neon green male hedgehog, in trenchcoats and wearing dark sunglasses, approached Shadow.

"I knew you'd show up." The green hedgehog said. "Come with us."

Shadow took a step back and eased his hand toward his gun holster. "What is this about?"

"You want answers and it's not safe to talk on the street." The female hedgehog replied.

"You're the one who called me." Shadow replied. "I'm not going anywhere with you two until you tell me."

The green hedgehog looked around. "Badniks." He said, jerking his thumb in the direction of two crab-like robots. He ran down the street.

The female hedgehog grabbed Shadow's wrist and ran after the green hedgehog.

Shadow reluctantly followed her since the robots were a whole lot harder to take down and not worth the trouble of fighting them for no reason.

The two hedgehogs led Shadow to a black SUV with heavily tinted windows.

They got inside.

A female chipmunk was in the driver's seat of the SUV. She glanced at Shadow. "Glad to have you, Terios." She said, driving away.

"Now can you all tell me what's going on?" Shadow asked.

"There's some stuff that the Blue Blur will have to explain, but sure." The green hedgehog said. "I'm Manic, aka Rogue."

Manic motioned to the dark pink hedgehog. "That's my sister, Sonia. Her hacker name is Princess." He said. He leaned on the driver's seat and smirked. "Say, what's your hacker name again, Sally?"

"Bean." Sally muttered.

Manic laughed.

Sonia elbowed Manic sharply in his ribs.

Sally shot a dirty look at Manic. "Bean was my dad's nickname for me, smart aleck."

Manic rubbed his side. "I'm so sorry." He said. "Anyway, about nineteen years ago, Dr. Robotnik took over Mobius. We tried to fight back, but he captured most of us and has been using us for… like… biological batteries for his machines. To keep us from suspecting anything, he set up this simulation and gave us amnesia somehow. However, things are… off."

Shadow motioned around them. "Like this weird green tint over everything?"

Manic snapped his fingers. "I thought it was green." He replied. "I was unplugged a few years ago. Everything is in a silver tint when we hack in."

Shadow shook his head. "How do I know you all aren't crazy and that it's always been like that?" He asked. "This virtual reality stuff is just a weird, but fascinating conspiracy theory after all."

"Because we've seen the outside world." Sonia said. "It's beautiful, Shadow."

Shadow sat beside Sonia. "Why should I trust any of you, Princess?"

"You don't have to." Sonia said. "But if you want answers, then you'll have to join us."

Shadow settled in the seat. "This had better be good."

Shadow and the group arrived at some abandoned house just outside of town.

A blue hedgehog, a little fox with two tails, and a red echidna were inside the house, gathered around a computer.

"We brought Terios, bro." Manic said.

The blue hedgehog looked up and raced over.

"The Blur Blur?" Shadow asked.

The blue hedgehog smirked. "Yeah, but you can call me Sonic."

"Fill him in, I have to get something to eat." Manic said, patting Sonic on the shoulder.

Manic walked away.

Sonia and Sally, both on their phones, sat on the couch.

Sonic motioned for Shadow to follow him.

Shadow sighed and followed Sonic further into the living room.

Sonic sat down in the armchair.

Shadow sat down on the coffee table.

Manic came in with a plate of sushi and sat down on the couch.

Sonic glanced at Manic. "Tell me you weren't crazy enough to buy sushi from the grocery store."

"It looks pretty good, but I think I may have made a huge mistake." Manic said, taking a bite of sushi. "It's not very good. Not sure if it's the virtual world or what."

"Now we wait." The red echidna mumbled.

"Don't jinx it, Knux." Manic replied.

Sonic groaned. "Okay. Anyway, Tails and I were the only ones Robotnik didn't round up to be used as living batteries." He said. "We've been working on freeing everyone, but it's not as easy as you'd think. Not everyone believes they're in a simulation. Some actually prefer it."

"You're saying this is a simulation?" Shadow asked.

Sonic nodded. "Everything here, except us, is a simulation Robotnik made." He replied. "It's almost perfect, but his AI glitches occasionally. The biggest one is that weird green scale tint. It's like the program is having trouble recreating reality."

"I see." Shadow said.

Sonic shrugged. "I wish I could tell you more, but you have to be unplugged first."

"You can't try?" Shadow questioned.

"You're still in the system." Sonic said. "I can't show you the real world while you're trapped in the lab."

"How do I unplug?" Shadow asked.

Sonic got up. "Follow me." He said, walking over to the fox and the echidna.

Shadow got up and followed Sonic.

The echidna turned around and shook Shadow's hand. "I'm Knuckles; my hacker name is Destroyer."

Shadow nodded.

Sonic motioned to the two-tailed fox, who was typing furiously on his computer. "This is Tails." He said. "It's his hacker name, but he refuses to go by his real name Miles offline."

Tails threw a balled up piece of paper at Sonic. "I told you I hate that name."

"His extra tail gives it away." Shadow said.

"Told you to come up with something less obvious, little bro." Sonic said, ruffling Tails' head fur.

Shadow looked at Manic. "So why do they call you Rogue, Manic?"

"Because he's a thief." Knuckles replied. "He picks pockets, so make sure you keep your wallet and phone where you can see it."

"I was a kleptomaniac pre-unplugging. I only steal from Ro-butt-nik now." Manic said.

Sonic shook his head. "Whatever. Tails, Shadow wants to unplug."

Tails stood up and unzipped a pack on the table, revealing a needle and two vials of serum, one was filled with red liquid and the other was filled with blue liquid. "If you take the red, you'll unplug. If you take the blue, you'll wake up tomorrow like none of this ever happened. But this is your only chance to unplug. Robotnik changes the codes and locations of everyone each time he finds out we contacted a prisoner."

"We still can't find Rogue's girlfriend." Knuckles said.

Manic roughly brushed a tear out of his eyes. "If she's still out there." He said softly.

Shadow thought about it. "The red one."