Sonic Runaways

A little human girl walked down the bustling sky-high sidewalk of Grand Metropolis, cradling what appeared to be a perfectly still old man in her arms. It could be mistaken for a dead body at first, but it was actually just a statue. "So how did you like the movie, Colonel?" The girl asked, as if she was talking to a real person. "I thought it was a bit scary! But having you there made it better." No response. "You don't talk too much, do you? I find it strange, the whole time we've been friends, you haven't said a single word. No offense, but I think I might just like you better that way!" She skipped along into the sunrise, colliding into people without really caring. She held on tightly to the statue as she picked up speed.

At the gas station convenience store, the girl bought some candy while hugging the statue close with one arm. "Even when I buy food from places other than Slate's, you don't complain." She placed him on the other end of the only seesaw in the small playground, much to the irritation of the other kids as she tried to get the seesaw to work. Not that it would work even with a real person. No care was put into this playground because the Eggman Empire didn't see it as worth the money or time. Aeshleigh didn't see the problem, it was all she ever knew. "Unlike real people, you never get cross with me. You never shout at me, you're always ready to play whatever I want to play."

"Hey, Aeshleigh! It's our turn!" A boy who looked a tiny bit older than the little girl whined at her. "At least get that stupid statue off of the other side so one of us can use the seesaw." Aeshleigh got up from the seesaw and shoved the boy to the ground. All of his friends then ganged up on her. They shoved her around, spat on her, and kicked her back and forth like a soccer ball. One of them even threw the statue off of the seesaw into a puddle. This was the last straw. She fought her way to her feet, punched the smallest kid attacking her in the nose, and ran to her precious statue man.

"And you're always there when I need to cry to somebody. You're my only friend, Colonel. I feel like you understand me more than anyone." She picked the statue up from the water, brushed some mud off his face, and limped away from the playground into the sunset. She was covered in scrapes, dirt and bruises. "I need somebody like that. Thank you for everything, Colonel."

The girl placed the statue back on its rightful pedestal in front of one of the many Slate's Burgers and Shakes in the city. She looked up to it as it glistened in the sunlight, smiling with a new cut on her lower lip. "Well, looks like none of the workers here noticed our adventure today," Aeshleigh mumbled. "That's strange, you'd think somebody around here would notice that you were missing. You're practically the face of the company, after all." The girl heard somebody walking up next to her. She glanced to the side, to see a ladybug with a weird outfit. "Colonel, do you think they're heading into the restaurant?" Aeshleigh whispered to the statue, barely looking at the ladybug girl. She was surprised to see… that the ladybug girl was checking the statue out too!

Cherry the Ladybug stared deep into the statue's eyes, and gasped in realization. It looked so viscerally real at first, but she couldn't find a Persona in its plastic eyes. She couldn't find a soul or any sign of life. Her mind said the statue wasn't real. But her heart said it was less fake than most people in the world. "Fascinating…" she mumbled, squinting and examining the statue from every side.

"Oh! He sure fooled me when I first met him too," Aeshleigh panicked. Nobody had ever shown so much appreciation to her statue savior other than her. Cherry glanced to Aeshleigh, then back to the statue. Aeshleigh rummaged through her brain for anything to keep Cherry's attention. She felt her heart opening a little bit to a real person for the first time in years. She was still a little cautious. "Do you like the Colonel too?"

"He's… certainly well-made," Cherry murmured. "Look, kid, I'm not a good person. You probably don't want to become friends with me."

"Ah. I get that," Aeshleigh sighed, looking down. "I'm not that good of a person either, I just punched a kid in the face."

"Metal," Cherry gasped. Her widened circular eyes returned to their normal tired appearance "I stole a bunch of people's personalities a while ago. I nearly got myself and some guy killed just so I could try to steal his. I fell in love with him, I think. And after all I did to hurt him, he wanted nothing to do with me. Now he may as well not exist." Cherry exhaled shakily and held her arm. "You might have seen me on TV, it got THAT bad. Don't end up like me, kid. Ever. You got that?"

"Got it," Aeshleigh sighed, dejectedly. Figures the only person who shared her obsession with the burger guy statue was some kind of criminal. "Bye…" Cherry walked into the restaurant. Aeshleigh frowned, looking to the ground. "Well, that's okay if she doesn't want to be friends with me. I hate real people, anyways." Aeshleigh stared into the burger guy statue's eyes. "They're the reason I had to leave home. They're the reason my dad died. You always looked just like him, Colonel. I'm glad you followed me from Station Square to this city." The moon was out now. "It's like he's still around."

"Aeshleighhhh…" a hollow voice grunted. Aeshleigh froze. She knew she wasn't supposed to be out this late. This was when really dangerous people walked the streets, monsters too nowadays.

"Wh-who's there?" Aeshleigh asked. She looked all around for anyone, but she couldn't see a single soul. Without thinking, she ran over and grabbed onto the burger guy statue's arm. "Colonel… I'm scared, help me…" she mumbled. She looked up at his face. "Colonel? You look taller than usual."

"Aeshleigh… you're in danger," the same voice said.

"... Colonel… is that you?"

"Aeshleigh… they're coming," the Colonel said. "They're coming to hurt you. They're coming to take me away from you." Aeshleigh's eyes widened. "Right around the bend." The Colonel pointed to the corner of the sidewalk. Aeshleigh could hear footsteps and voices approaching.

"Well, what do I do?!" Aeshleigh whimpered as quietly as her panic would allow her to. She looked at the orange light emanating from the Slate's restaurant. "Inside! Let's go inside!" Aeshleigh tried to pick up the Colonel, but he was too heavy now. She couldn't get him to budge.

"Aeshleigh… the Sixteen Secret Spices, Aeshleigh…" the Colonel muttered, handing Aeshleigh sixteen small plastic packets. She looked to the packets, then up to the Colonel in disbelief. "Use them, now…!"

Team Dark rounded the corner, Rouge looking like she was about ready to pass out on the sidewalk. "Rouge. Do not die. Yet. Eggman robots remain," Omega said, his optics darting around. Nobody was there, be it man or machine.

"I'm not dying, it just feels like I am," Rouge yawned. "I haven't slept in a while."

"Omega, this is an Eggman city," Shadow said as they stopped walking in front of a fast food joint. "There's gonna be robots everywhere, so let's just give it a rest."

"Affirmative. You know, we all deserve some relaxation time. Constantly being on edge is detrimental to our ability to- DARK PRESENCE DETECTED!" Omega shouted. An alarm blared from within Omega. He held up his arm cannons and started shooting in every direction.

"OMEGA. You're calling attention to us. Let's just slink by and avoid the Dark Gaia monsters," Rouge hissed, grabbing Omega's arm and shoving it down to his side with a loud sound like a heavy crankshaft being turned. Rouge's heart pounded out of her chest.

"Hands off the merchandise," Omega muttered. As the two argued, Shadow could barely hear footsteps behind him. The smell of trashy fast food grew more and more potent.

"Mister—" a little girl's voice said, tugging on Shadow's back spine. He spun around, and saw Aeshleigh standing right there. "I need you to… you need to…"

"I need to what? Are you okay?" Shadow asked, kneeling down to face her. Something about this girl was familiar. She gulped her fears down.

"You need to… get… AWAY from the Colonel," Aeshleigh growled, glaring at Shadow blankly. An indigo energy blast emanated from Aeshleigh, blowing Shadow and Rouge back. While the others struggled to keep their footing, Omega opened fire, shooting bullet after bullet at Aeshleigh. She was protected by a dark silhouette of an old man not too dissimilar from the burger guy statue at the front door of the restaurant. He slashed away at the bullets, cutting them all in perfect halves and striking poses as the fragmented bullets fell to the ground. The darkness disappeared a little, revealing a whole new girl underneath the bleak veil. She floated into the air, her purple gown glistening in the moonlight.

"Who are you?!" Rouge asked, getting to her feet and preparing to fight.

"I am Dark Princess Syn of the Sixteen Spices," Aeshleigh introduced herself. "In the name of the Colonel, I shall feast upon your deep-fried souls." Beams of solid gold rained down from the sky, crashing into the sidewalk and sending Team Dark into a frenzy as they tried not to get hit. Rouge curiously approached one of the gold beams while Omega caught one out of the air and chucked it at Syn. It knocked her out of the sky, onto the sidewalk and onto equal footing with Shadow and Omega.

"Oh my, all this for little ol' me? What a sweet young lady. You shouldn't have!" Rouge squealed in excitement as she pulled the large golden beam out of the pavement. "It's a little scratched, but—" Rouge suddenly felt a scalding sensation coming from the beam. She screamed, jolting back and holding a scorched part of her arm. There were a few sizzling grains of what appeared to be salt stuck to Rouge's forearm, continuing to burn her. She scrambled to brush them off, and inhaled sharply. "Boys! DO NOT touch the gold bars!" Rouge watched as the gold bars faded away into what looked to be giant french fries.

"What kind of idiot would go and touch them, anyways? They're meant to kill us…" Shadow mumbled, slicing one bar in half with a Chaos Blade, unknowingly making an opening for Omega to rush towards Syn. "Wait! Omega!"

"Locked on target, preparing to annihilate," Omega droned, his claws sharpening as he charged forth.

"Cut it out, Omega! Don't hurt her!" Shadow shouted. He couldn't explain why he cared so much about this peculiar little girl, but he knew he had to protect her by any means necessary while also not letting her kill him.

"Weapons loaded, gon' commit a crime! Watch out world, it's killing time!" Omega sang. Shadow sparkled with green electricity.

"Chaos Control!" Shadow shouted, feeling something strange in his chest. Omega froze. Syn froze. Rouge froze. Shadow grabbed Omega, and repositioned him to the burger guy statue in front of the restaurant. "This thing should distract you for now, I don't… THINK it's alive." The Chaos Control wore off, and time resumed. Omega ran right into the burger guy statue and started slashing away at him.

"DIE! DIE! DIE!" Omega shouted, breaking the statue's arm off and smashing its head in with the severed limb. Shadow turned to Syn and approached her cautiously.

"Hey… let's stop fighting for just a second, please," Shadow spoke to her, extending a hand to help her up. She clutched the sides of her head, breathing shakily. "Are you okay? Come now, let's put a stop to this nonsense."

"No… please, don't hurt—!" She sniffled, wiping away her tears.

"I won't hurt you," Shadow muttered. "You seem… troubled. Are you lost, perhaps? Where's your family? Do you HAVE a family?" Syn looked to the side in horror as Omega mutilated the Colonel. Shadow looked over too. "Hey, there's no need to be afraid." Syn's eyes widened. "It's just a statue. It's not real."

"What's all that noise?" Cherry yawned, walking out of the restaurant and watching as Omega continued to bludgeon the statue. "... Right." Suddenly, Shadow slid to a stop by Cherry's feet, having been swept up by a wave of Chaos Soda. Cherry jumped out of the way as Aeshleigh opened her hand and shot Chaos Soda right at Omega, entering his air vents and frying his circuitry for a second. While Omega was immobilized, Syn teleported to the Colonel and teleported away, holding onto him tightly.

"Colonel, are you okay?!" Syn cried, distraught at the damage done to the Colonel. "No… no… please, speak to me! I know you can speak now!" She brushed dirt off of the Colonel's caved-in face. One of his eyes were missing. She sat there in silence for a moment as the sounds of the city continued on, forgetting all about the burger guy statue.

"Kill them all, Aeshleigh," the voice in her head said. The Colonel's voice. "Flay them and let them fry on the sidewalk in retribution for their actions against us."

"Kill them?" Syn asked, horrified.

"Are you backing down?! Will you really quit and spare them after all they have done to hurt us?" The Colonel asked, putting his hand on Syn's face as well. Syn's ears rang. "I must leave you now. May we meet once more in the future." His voice trailed off. Syn's heart rate spiked, as her limbs moved on their own. She got up to her feet in a jerky motion as her stare locked onto Team Dark.

"I'll kill you… I'll kill you and throw your bodies in the meat grinder so they can be turned into Slate's burgers," Syn mumbled, levitating in front of the moon. Everybody watched as she ascended. She raised her hands into the air and charged up a fiery blast. "Cook! Sizzle! FRY for what you did to the Colonel!" She screeched, tears sizzling on her face as the flame grew larger with every passing second.

Only for her voice to trail off, all of her ambitions and misled vengeance taken from her in an instant. She slowly hovered down to the sidewalk, as all the energy left her. As all the color left her. As all the soul left her.

"What just happened?" Rouge asked, shocked. She watched as Cherry's eyes turned red, just like Syn's. Not a second later and Cherry slapped herself in the back of the head, the color leaving her eyes and turning into a red heart with an arrow jabbed through it. She readjusted her hat.

"Just as I thought… poor girl was corrupted by Dark Gaia," Cherry muttered, holding the Persona swirling with Dark Gaia Force in her hand.

"Just like the Dark Widow!" Omega interjected.

"Yes, Omega. Like the Dark Widow," Shadow sighed. "Do you think you can help her, Ms. Ladybug?" Rouge looked over to Shadow in surprise.

"Hmm…. we'd need a powerful, direct flash of pure light to exorcize any sort of spiritual influences that have latched onto her Persona," Cherry mumbled. "I don't know if I can do anything myself."

"Very well. Stand back," Shadow said, swiping Aeshleigh's Persona. "Chaos… CONTROL!" Shadow opened his electric blue eyes and let their chaotic light shine onto the Persona.

Nothing happened.

"Why didn't it work?" Shadow grumbled, turning the still hazy Persona around in his hands.

"Better question: what the heck was that?" Cherry asked.

"My powers are linked to a special drive that acts as my heart. It contains crystalized energy from the Chaos Emeralds," Shadow explained. "That is the extent of my knowledge on Chaos Control. Forgive me, my memories are rather messy."

"I thought your heart was a Chaos Emerald?" Rouge corrected him, a little shaken up at what he had said.

"... No, where'd you get that idea?" Shadow asked, turning to her. A small drip of sweat went down her face.

"It could be that the light from your dinky little Chaos Drive is simply not powerful or pure enough to expel the Dark Gaia Force," Omega said.

"Screw off, Omega," Shadow growled. "It's very powerful. Although, with that part of me being purely mechanical, I do not know if 'pure' would be the best word to describe it." Shadow cleared his throat. "You'd understand that, I bet." Shadow picked up Aeshleigh's Silhouette and carried her off. "Let's get moving, we need to find a powerful enough light to cure her Persona. Ms. Ladybug, we may need your help, as you seem to know a lot about these things. You wanna tag along?"

"Sure. I need to get out of this place, anyways," Cherry obliged, as she and Rouge followed Shadow.

"How [expletive deleted] DARE YOU?" Omega replied as everyone walked off, his claw hovering over his speakers in offense. "Are you implying I'm not an absolutely pure angel? Are you questioning my status as Team Dark's soft little cinnamon roll with no desire for bloodshed and revenge? Challenging it perhaps? You? 'SHADOW' THE H'EDGEHOG'? I'll have you know I—"

"Please don't fight again, you two," Rouge groaned from up ahead.

"Oh crap now I can't say anything. Oh my god I look like a complete weirdo because you're all taking my words at face value and missing the irony," Omega hung his entire upper body in shame. "This is what I get for being built with a monotone voice synthesizer. You guys must be so proud of yourselves for that one." Omega looked for the nearest object that he could take his anger out on. He shanked his arm through the burger guy statue and blasted it into the distance. Omega watched as it splashed into the river before dusting his hands off and following Team Dark into the night.