CreamSoda productions

Fluke

It was all a fluke. Joining that fat bastard, ruining all their lives, everything. As stupid as it sounds, it’s true. If I’d known the consequences, I never would have done any of it. I was young and stupid.

***

“Uh oh, look out, I’m right behind you!”

“Yeah, right! Eat my dust, Ronnie!”

I slammed my thumb on the analog stick. Sonic zoomed forward on the screen and passed the finish line. Ronnie groaned and flopped back onto the floor.

“Man, you beat me AGAIN. How the heck’d you do that?” he asked, frowning at me. I grinned and flexed my fingers.

“Cheat codes, man. Cheat codes.”

We were only ten years old. Ronnie had come over to my house for our usual video-game-TV-pizza night. And I had just beat him for the…what was it, 17th, 18th time?

The screen flashed, and my character - Sonic - came face to face with an enormous robot. In the cockpit was this butt-ugly fat guy with no hair and an enormous mustache - Robotnik.

I flew through the battle with no trouble at all, pausing only when Ronnie complained about the empty popcorn bowl. The cutscene at the end was the usual - Robotnik yelling “NOOOO” in a loud, high-pitched but somehow rough-sounding voice, and Sonic doing his weird little victory dance.

I set down the controller and cracked my knuckles. Ronnie stared at the TV with a thoughtful look on his face. After a minute or so, he glanced over at me.

Here comes mistake number one.

“Hey, Flash?”

“Mmn?”

He glanced at the TV screen again, and then back at me.

“...y’ever wonder what it’s like to be the bad guy?”

I blinked.

“…er, no, not really…why?”

He hesitated, glancing at the screen again.

“…well, I dunno. ‘T just seems like…the bad guy’s always losin’, y’know? I was just thinkin’ about what would happen if they won for once…y’know, besides all that ‘rule the world and make the people they slaves’ thing.”

I pondered this.

“…hmm. That’s a good point. Although…” I glanced at the TV screen and shuddered. “…it would really suck if that fat greaseball ran for President or something. He’d force us all into an Anti-Fat-Free diet or something.”

Ronnie snorted with laughter.

“Y-yeah…that would REALLY suck. Big time,” he grinned. He watched Sonic’s victory dance for a couple seconds, and added, “…well, some bad guys ain’t that ugly-lookin’. There’s actually some cool ones, right?”

“Yeah! Like…erm…oh! Like Metal Sonic!”

“Yup! And…wait, Shadow’s a bad guy, right?”

“He is on that one game…”

“…well, in that game, he was pretty cool, yeah!”

“Aaand…uh…hmm…Robo Knux, I guess?”

“Yeah!”

Ronnie leaned back and gazed at the ceiling, an enormous grin on his face.

“Man…if I had to be a bad guy, I’d wanna be like that! That’d be so cool!” he said. I grinned and nodded.

“Yeah, me too. We’d be partners in crime!”

Ronnie gave a maniacal cackle - which, in his prepubescent voice, sounded hilarious. I fell over laughing.

“Dude, you sound so stupid…!”

Ronnie blinked and frowned thoughtfully.

“…huh. I guess I need t’work on it, then?”

“Uh, yeah. Big time.”

***

Well, wouldn’t you know it, we got our wish. But it wasn’t in the way we wanted.

Nearly a year later, we were playing near the old junkyard just a block away from Ronnie’s house. Long story short, a SWATbot was patrolling the area, spotted us, and dragged us off to the Fatman himself.

He must’ve saw some potential in us or something, or maybe he was in a good mood…he made us a deal. If we helped him with some evil plot he was working on, he’d let us live. If not…well, you get the point. He gave us a week to decide.

We didn’t actually talk about it during that week; we were pretty freaked out by the whole incident. Robotnik was even uglier in person than he was on the video games. (I guess SEGA just prettied him up?) And the way he spat at you while he was talking could make a baby cry. No, I take that back. It could make the baby’s father cry.

After the week was almost up, I contacted Robotnik through the email address he gave us. I automatically assumed that Ronnie was joining, too; I mean, hadn’t we agreed to be partners in crime just a few months ago? We would be just like those cool villains we always talked about, and we would be the greatest villain duo alive.

Mistake number two: I made an assumption.

***

Starlight Academy of Valiance: quite possibly the greatest school on the face of the planet. You either had to be really smart or have some kind of special ability to go there. I didn’t know of any weird power I had (yet, anyway), so they accepted me because of my grades. Once I heard from Ronnie’s email that he’d been accepted, too, I knew that he had to have the weird power. There’s no possible way he could’ve gotten in because of his grades…he was always falling asleep in class. (He claimed that it wasn’t his fault)

That’s where we met Koji, RK and Tora. Ronnie met RK at Open House, and Koji was in our Elemental Training class. Tora was a friend of RK’s, so we got to know her soon after meeting him.

One morning, as we waited for Koji outside of his room, Ronnie suddenly grinned.

“Hey. You remember when that fat dude asked us to join him?” he asked.

I frowned. Fat dude? We joined his side almost a year ago, didn’t Ronnie remember his name?

“…yeah…” I answered hesitantly, glancing over at him. He grinned even wider at me, as if he was trying to keep from laughing.

“Ain’tchu glad we decided not to?”

My stomach lurched.

He…said no…?

“…Flash? You okay, man? Y’look like you just ate my mom’s cookin’.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat.

“…y-yeah, I’m fine,” I whispered hoarsely, then added, “I…er…just remembered I had a…project…due today….”

Ronnie eyed me suspiciously, and I was worried that maybe he’d seen through my lie. But then he grinned and said, “Ah, that’s okay. Don’t worry about it, man. I procrastinate all the time, ‘n look at how I turned out!” He held out his arms proudly as though he were a first-place trophy to be admired. I sighed and forced a smile.

“Thanks, Ronnie. I’ll remember that,” I muttered.

Mistake number three: I didn’t worry about it.

***

As the year went by, and we hung out with our new friends, I started forgetting about the whole Robotnik mess. I lived out my life like a normal student at the academy (if any of the students there could be considered ‘normal.’)

Then I got the email.

Robotnik reviewed over the plan, what he was going to do, my reason for even being there. I immediately regretted never talking it over with Ronnie. His plan meant that the students going here - my friends, my teachers, everyone - would become part of Robotnik’s second Robotropolis. They would get hurt…and it would be my fault.

***

Part of the big ‘plan’ involved me convincing Koji that the Headmaster was an angry psycho who beat up his students (which, technically, he was), so he would tell someone so they could try and find out. It worked perfectly; Koji told Miku Grayhart, one of the few child-geniuses of the school, and Miku told Tails Prower, and they both figured out who the “Headmaster” really was.

I was told to release a few SWATbots into the computer lab as soon as the school website’s code was hacked into. That went…er, smoothly…as well. I just wish that those stupid hunks of metal hadn’t trashed the place.

One of the SWATbots went for Tails, who had been knocked out from a chair flying across the room. The others searched the room for Miku, and I helped them.

I eventually found him hiding under a table, his green eyes wide with fear and panic. Calmly, I reached over and pinched the back of his neck, stopping his blood flow for a millisecond and forcing him into unconsciousness. He collapsed to the floor, his goggles sliding off his head.

What’s wrong with me? I just knocked out a ten-year-old because a fat, greasy bastard told me to. It scared me, what I’d become. I couldn’t even remember why I was doing it. My mind was completely blank and my body moved on its own, as though someone else controlled my actions. I wasn’t myself anymore.

[As it turns out, there was a small side-plot to Robotnik’s plan. He was watching a couple of the teachers on the security camera during lunch one day. They were talking about that Miku kid, and one of them said something like “At the rate his IQ is growing, he could be building empires and commanding armies in a couple years.” So Robotnik was going to make Miku his successor or…something. I wasn’t actually listening to the whole tirade.]

***

Just as Robotnik said they would, a large group of students headed off towards the headquarters to save Tails and Miku. This group consisted of Sonic Hedgehog and the rest of his lackeys, Miku’s older brother and a few of his friends…and my own friends, Ronnie, Koji, and RK. (Tora hadn’t come; I found out later that she was gone that day with her sister and mother on a road trip) I watched from the surveillance room, extremely unwilling to participate in any fighting. It bothered me…they were all so relaxed and carefree…like they didn’t care if any of them died that day. Like they didn’t care if the hostages died that day.

Something occurred to me. What would happen if they found out about me? How would they react when they discovered that someone close to them had betrayed them? I shuddered at that last thought.

Betrayed. I had betrayed them all.

How could I convince them that it was all a fluke? …I probably couldn’t. Nothing says “evil pathetic loser” louder than “I turned the entire school and all of its students over to an evil dictator on-the-run so he could kill you all and make a second Robotropolis. Oh, I’m still your friend, by the way.” They would hate me…I wouldn’t blame them, of course. I’d hate me, too.

So there was only one solution. I would have to convince them that I’d done it all on purpose. That I was never their friend to begin with. That I was truly evil deep down inside and wanted nothing but for everyone in the entire school to die for a terrible reason. It would be harder to convince Ronnie, my long-time best friend since the playpen. He knew everything about me, how my mind worked…he would probably figure out everything.

Robotnik almost succeeded. Almost. That one kid - Miku - was already in the roboticizer when the process was halted. I wasn’t quite sure what happened; it was all just a blur. Robotnik fled, Miku lived, the roboticizer was nearly ripped to pieces…the plan had failed. A huge part of me was ecstatic; they weren’t going to die! The happiness was soon replaced with dread; I had to confront them now. Even if they had won, they deserved to know what happened.

My gaze fell on an old hologram projector set up in the corner of the room. This was good…I wouldn’t have to speak to them directly. So no one got hurt. Particularly me. (I know that’s a selfish thing to think, but I was scared out of my mind at this point)

And so, I spoke to them via hologram…which turned out to be mistake number four.

Miku immediately recognized me and hid behind his older brother, mumbling something about the SWATbots. Koji was confused; he couldn’t believe that the sarcastic, straight-A hedgehog that he’d known all year could’ve really betrayed them. RK was annoyed at first, and then as I continued my explanation, he got angrier and angrier. This scared me even more, but I tried not to show it. RK was known to be this loud, goofy person who never took anything seriously. I’d never seen this side of him before. He swore to kill me…and he meant it. I could see it in his now bloodthirsty eyes.

And then there was Ronnie. I couldn’t quite decipher what he felt, his expression kept changing. At first, he looked confused, like Koji. Then he was frowning with disapproval, as if he knew what had really happened (which is what I was afraid of).

Then, finally…he looked disappointed.

I already felt horrible for letting them all down, but seeing Ronnie like that made it even worse. Thankfully, RK destroyed the hologram projector so our communication was halted.

After a couple minutes, the entire building was shaking. I thought that maybe the group had done something to the foundation to make it fall to the ground or…something, I dunno. But when I checked the security cameras, a broken foundation was suddenly the least of my worries.

The Void was there, sucking up the building and everything in it.

Only one word escaped my lips as I realized this and frantically searched for a method of escape:

“SHIT.”

So Robotnik didn’t care if I escaped or not? That was awfully selfish of him, considering what I’d done for him. As I jumped out of the only window in the room and landed surprisingly gracefully on the ground, I realized another mistake I had made.

Mistake number five: I had more or less guaranteed myself a spot on the bad-guy side.

I had turned everyone against me, thinking it was the best thing for them, and completely forgetting that Robotnik was a dirty, lying, cheating greaseball who wasn’t likely to keep his promises. I couldn’t go back now; Ronnie would probably never speak to me again, and RK was probably plotting my downfall at this very moment.

***

Only a few days later, the pistol I normally used as a weapon broke. I had to buy a new one.

There was a small marketplace near the school, where we used to go on weekends to hang out. There was an armoury shop somewhere in there, so if I could slip by the other students without being seen, I could probably buy a new pistol and be out within ten minutes. I mean, there were about a thousand kids going to this school, and only about ten or twenty of them knew what I did. I was safe, right?

That was mistake number six, and things…didn’t go as well as I’d planned.

I reached the door of the armoury, and I almost had it open when I heard her voice.

“Flash! Hey!”

I winced and turned around. Tora ran up, an enormous smile on her face.

“You’re okay! That’s good. I was worried about you guys when I heard about all that Robotnik business, but I knew that you’d win. I bet you guys kicked butt, right?” She spoke quickly and fluidly, her eyes lighting up. I loosened the collar of my shirt nervously and cleared my throat.

“E-er…yeah…we did…Robotnik didn’t stand a chance…” I said slowly, glancing around at the streets to confirm my inconspicuousness.

“Yeah, I bet he didn’t! He had the best of the best fighting against him! ...oh, and Sonic and all those guys, too,” Tora shrugged.

She believed me. How is it that people are always able to believe me when I’m obviously lying? Strange.

“…y-yeah, sure…um, Tora, I really need to get going…” I began. Tora blinked.

“Oh, hey, where are the others? Aren’t they with you?” she asked, tilting her head to one side. I cringed again, but I don’t know if she saw.

“I…don’t know where they are, we got…separated…” I mumbled, glancing at the street again and away from Tora. She paused, and I thought that maybe she had finally realized that I was lying. Then she flashed a smile and said, “Okay. I’ll catch up with you later!” and bounded off.

I let out a heavy sigh of relief. That was entirely too close for comfort.

I was in and out of the armoury quickly, having been in a hurry to get as far away from here as possible before Tora unquestionably spilled her guts to the people I was trying to avoid. I turned into a nearby alley as a shortcut out of the marketplace. I was almost out when a loud crash and a low snarl behind me made me stop.

Again, I don’t remember much. It was RK, I’m sure of that. And he was thoroughly pissed off. Tora apparently had no idea that a numerous amount of people - including her best friend, RK - wanted me dead, and told the group that she’d seen me.

I do remember pain. Lots of pain. He put a huge, bloody gash in my shoulder, very narrowly missing my heart (which was probably his original target). I shot at him with the pistol and knocked over a couple garbage cans until I was able to escape.

***

Somehow, I ended up with Robotnik again. He wasn’t sorry for the Void incident, just like I’d thought. He started coming up with more convoluted plots that he dragged me into, and he failed at each one (and blamed me, for whatever reason, even if I had nothing to do with it).

I would check up on everyone occasionally; I never let them see me, of course. RK’s now dark and moody disposition had everyone depressed, and that irritated me. If he HADN’T promised me death, then he wouldn’t be like that. And he was hurting the ones he [used to] love by acting that way. Every time I saw him snap at Koji, or push Tora aside when she was trying to talk to him, I wanted to walk up to him and say “Hey, when you promised to kill me, did you plan on hurting everyone else, too?” It was annoying.

Ronnie was mostly preoccupied with keeping Tora safely away from RK. I already knew he’d had a crush on her ever since that first year, but he’d never acted on it. He usually avoided talking about me, and so did everyone else…again, I didn’t blame them. I’d avoid talking about me, too, if there was a homicidal echidna walking around who would stab out your eyes if you even MENTIONED my name. Scary, right?

And then there was the SAoV reunion, just twenty years after Robotnik’s attempted takeover. Everyone was older and MUCH more mature than I’d remembered. Koji had a wife and a baby girl, Ronnie had married Tora and they both had some kids, and RK was married with…no kids, surprisingly. Everyone seemed back to normal, laughing and joking like they used to.

It was a shame that I had to break it all up.

This attempt at a takeover was pretty similar to the one twenty years ago, except it actually took place at the school and not Headquarters. (Oh, I should probably mention that this takeover was plotted by Robotnik’s son [I shudder when I think of the poor girl that helped create that child], and that the original Robotnik had died. His son wasn’t very different, though…and if possible, he was even brattier. Which made my job a lot worse.) There were two hostages, like last time; unfortunately, I had no idea that one of them was Ronnie’s son, and he was really pissed off at me later. (like he wasn’t already pissed off at me)

While the adults (and some of the kids) fought off the SWATbots in the main room, I watched from the doorway. Everything seemed to be going well, so I figured I didn’t need to watch anymore. As I turned and started walking down the hall, I heard rapid footsteps behind me and a familiar female voice.

“Flash! Hey!”

I turned around. Tora stood near the doorway I had just walked away from, clenching her fists and glaring at me.

And you KNOW you’ve done something bad if TORA’S glaring at you.

Before I could even take a step forward, something small and metallic flew past my head, just barely grazing my ear. It took me a second to remember that Tora’s assigned weapons were ninja stars: small but deadly if they hit you.

I’d never physically fought with Tora before, not even in the Battle Dome. She was quick on her feet, and her throws were frighteningly accurate. Pretty soon, she had me pinned to the wall with three or four stars and was about to throw a final one at my heart. This…wasn’t how Tora normally acted. To say the least, I was surprised. My expression (I’m not sure what it looked like) must have confused her, because she hesitated. That gave me an advantage. I pulled away from the wall and switched positions. Now SHE was the one pinned to the wall. Of course, to anyone passing by, this probably seemed suggestive.

To my dismay, I could see RK watching us out of the corner of my eye. I had to get him to come out somehow; we needed to finish this. My mind started formulating plans on its own, but none of them seemed like they would work. I turned my attention back to Tora.

…wait. Tora. That’s it! Didn’t RK have a crush on her, too?

My mind formulated a new plan. And this one worked.

“…you haven’t changed, Tora,” I said, forcing a smirk. Her eyes widened a bit. So far, so good. “You couldn’t kill me, even if you wanted to…”

Tora bit her lip and made an attempt at a glare.

“…c-could too…” she said, her voice shaking a bit. I really hated to freak her out like this, but it’s not like I could’ve just called out to RK and told him to come out, because then I’d be a target for two killers.

And now here came the part of the plan I dreaded.

I leaned my face forward and pressed my lips against hers. I could feel her fear and surprise, but she didn’t try to stop me.

I almost didn’t hear RK come up behind me. His katana came very close to slicing my back open. I pulled away from Tora (who slumped to the floor) and jumped back a few feet.

And the fight with RK started. (Wow, it seems like we fight a lot, doesn’t it?) He had some new tactics and new advantages…like being able to fly, for example. I’m not sure WHEN that happened, but it scared the crap out of me when he suddenly lifted into the air and swung his katana at my head.

Eventually he had me pinned to the wall, like Tora had, with his katana at my throat. He had a strange…oh, what’s the word for it…maniacal grin on his face.

“This is the moment I've been waiting for for nineteen years, you slimy, traitorous, spineless bastard,” he hissed.

Geez, that’s scary…I thought, while my mouth said, “Then I probably shouldn’t keep you from that.”

A small voice from beside us whispered, “…A-Arkay…”

I could see the annoyance flash in RK’s eyes.

“What, Tora?” he answered tersely, not looking away from me. Tora remained slumped on the ground, staring fearfully up at RK, her blue eyes wide.

“…d-don’t…” was all she could manage. Aw, that was sweet…she didn’t want me to die. Or, maybe she didn’t want to see RK kill me. Either way, I felt a brief surge of happiness before RK gave his reply.

“Close your eyes, then,” he snapped. I frowned. That wasn’t very nice. Tora whimpered and shrank back without another word.

RK turned his attention back to me.

“How would you like to die, Flash? Want me to snap your neck? Want it to be quick? Or do you want me to soak you in gasoline and set you on fire? Or perhaps, do you want me to stab you through the heart, or slice your neck, and let all your slimy black blood flow out first? How do you want to die, Flash?” he asked, his voice dangerously low and his eyes gleaming; he had the kind of look that little children would have nightmares about.

And, being the idiot that I am, I had to make a joke out of it.

“...I see you've been thinking about this for a while,” I chuckled, “I feel sorry for your poor wife--”

RK snarled - and it wasn’t Mobian at all. I blinked, surprised by this, but kept going.

“And for your information, my blood is red.”

And suddenly, Metal was standing not far from us. I’m not sure how or when he got there; I was too busy worrying about how I was going to die.

“What do you want, Metal?” RK growled.

Metal was quiet for a second. Then he said, “…Tora, are you hurt?”

Tora shook her head, still shaking from fear. Metal nodded at the door, indicating that Tora should leave. She immediately got up and ran out.

While everyone was distracted, I pulled out of RK’s grip and backed up several feet.

And so the fight with both RK AND Metal began.

Now THIS was difficult. At one point, I would be concentrating on attacking Metal, and RK would swoop in from out of nowhere, and vice versa. I suddenly found that Tora’s ninja stars came in very handy, not to mention I had my pistol with me.

I had a perfect shot. RK was against the wall, and my pistol was at his head. I didn’t want to do it, but something inside my head told me I had to…

I had nothing to worry about, of course, because at that moment, Metal raked his claws into my shoulders and threw me up against another wall. For several moments, he seemed hesitant about something…I wasn’t sure what it was. Well, it’s not like I cared, I was trying to get the hell out of the way.

What happened next is something I will never forget, even if I live to be a thousand years old.

He slammed his [extremely sharp!] teeth into my neck, injecting some sort of poison or toxin into my system. I could feel the warm, sticky blood dripping down my neck, which soon disappeared as Metal lapped it up.

The pain wasn’t a sharp pain, the kind you get from giving yourself a paper cut and then dropping lemon juice on it. It was a dulled pain that became worse and worse, more and more painful with every heartbeat. I think I fell to the floor…there were a few voices still murmuring quietly around me, and then everything went black…

***

Mistake number seven and the final mistake I’ve made: I exist.
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