RayKitten

I'm starting to get less and less into Sonic The Hedgehog these days. Not because of the fandom. not cuz of bullying, not even because of simply outgrowing it. But because of an experience I've had. Now I may be just a little melodramatic, but I have to put out there for people to hear.

It was cold one Wednesday, rain was pouring down. What'd I expect? I mean, it was in February, so I guess that's to be expected. However, being stuck at home did give me an excuse to dust off my old Sega Genesis and play some games. I decided on Sonic 3 cuz I felt nostalgic. Ah, Sonic 3... It was just Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Eggman. The newer characters that came after like Shadow, Rouge, Silver, Blaze, Big, they're okay, but nothing can beat the classic lineup.

As soon as I turned on the game, I noticed something strange. Instead of "Start Game", the text said "I'm hungry." I thought of it as just a glitch and pressed on. The start was seemingly normal, but at a closer glance, I noticed something... Weird. It looked like I can see Sonic's ribs. He was noticably thinner, and looked kinda tired. That's when I got confused. Did someone break into my house and hack my Sonic 3?

Not wanting to ask more questions. I kept going. and the part where Knuckles steals the Chaos Emeralds played. Only instead of chuckling like he usually did in the scene, he walks up to Tails, killing him by ramming his fist through his chest. I was disappointed and shocked to say the least, because that not only means I can't get to higher areas without him, but I witnessed Sonic's best friend get killed.

When I played, Sonic's jumps were shorter than usual. Not by a significant margin, but it was noticable. He was also slower than before, and sometimes fell over. His idle animation was him holding his stomach in pain. Poor guy wasn't in real good shape. I felt bad for him. I didn't want to keep playing, but I did. Big mistake.

When it got to Eggman bombing the island, I noticed Sonic fainted from the pain. He wasn't moving for a good 4 minutes, until eventually, I saw a textbox that said: "Sonic: I should've eaten before we went here, but HE'S not letting me eat." "Who's 'he'?" I asked under my breath. As soon as I asked that. Sonic's color palette became more sickly and dark. The whites of his eyes became red, and he looked sad. Another text box: "Sonic: I'm so sorry, Tails... Why didn't I help you?" He shouldn't be blaming himself, he was hungry and tired. There wasn't a thing he can do. A third textbox popped up; "Sonic: I'm so hungry... My best pal Tails died... Why?" Knuckles came in and laughed at Sonic's misfortune. Now. Knuckles wasn't really the villain in the game, he was just protective of the Master Emerald. But he seemed to have malice in his eyes as he laughed. Like he genuinely hated Sonic.

I wish I was there, to help Sonic, but there wasn't a thing I can do. Then eventually, another text box appeared. "Sonic: Help me..." I wish I could, but then I saw a huge hand grab sonic, slowly pulling him into the darkness. I heard Sonic's cries and screams as he was getting pulled in. Sonic games didn't have voice acting back then, so it sounded distorted and compressed, as did Knuckles laughing. Suddenly, all sound stopped, and the game cut to black.

It was like that for 5 minutes until I saw another.... Sonic? He looked normal, but when he turned around, his eyes were black with red pupils, he was crying blood. I soon realized it wasn't the normal Sonic, but rather, Sonic.EXE. And he did that signature Kefka laugh as he looked at camera. He's done something with Sonic, I feel it. I felt like a 5 year old kid, watching their first horror movie. Then, the Sonic that EXE took was onscreen, sad, starving, deformed. Text saying "Help me" was all around him. Then the Sega Genesis turned off by itself. When I tried to turn it back on, the only screen was a red "No" against a black background. My other games worked okay, but this one in particular just says "No".

Sonic is trapped, and Sonic.EXE trapped him. It felt as though in order to help him. I had to break the game somehow. So I spammed turning it off and on. until Sonic. EXE got annoyed. I was soon taken to a boss battle against EXE, with a character who looked identical to me. It even had my name, "Darrell". I was ready to take him down. I struggled, but I had to lure him to the Master Emerald, and as soon as he spindashed into it, it broke and reformed around him. He was trapped.