Distortion

“Wake up, Dawn.”

Dawn groaned as she regained consciousness, sore from her rough landing. She opened her eyes to find Sonic smiling sweetly down at her.

“M-Mom?” she said.

“That’s right, Dawn. It’s me.” he confirmed. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too.” Dawn unsteadily sat up and shared a tender hug with her mother. She looked over his shoulder to see their hut on the beach. “We’re back home?”

“Yeah, Dawn. I was worried about you, so I came looking for you. When I found you at the bottom of the pit in that cave, I immediately brought you home for medical treatment.”

Suspicion sparked in Dawn. She didn’t doubt that Sonic would be worried about her, but he understood how important this trial was for her, and he wouldn’t just appear out of the blue to take her out of it. He would’ve at least taken her to a safer, more secluded place to have her treated, but not all the way back home. Dawn noticed that none of their friends or her father were around.

“Where is everyone, Mom?” she asked, standing up and checking the surrounding area. “Where’s Dad? And Tails, Amy, and Sticks? Shouldn’t they have been here for when I woke up?”

“Don’t worry about them, sweetie.” Sonic said. “You’re back home safe, with your mother.”

There was the suspicion again. Team Sonic was like family, and they would never just brush each other off like this, especially their leader. Another thought occurred to Dawn.

“Where’s Shadow? Didn’t he come home with us?”

Sonic’s sweet, motherly smile faded into a cold, unassuming sneer. “I said don’t worry about them, Dawn.” he said sternly. “You’re here with me, your mother. Nobody else matters.”

“Mom, what’s going on?” Dawn asked. “This isn’t like you. You’d never just dismiss Dad and our friends like this. We’re everything to each other.”

Everything suddenly began to bend in unsettling ways. Dark clouds rolled over the formerly spotless sky. Strong winds started to pick up. The plant life withered and drooped. Sonic’s eyes glowed red, and from the sand around him rose metal components that encapsulated him, growing and shifting until they formed the mech suit he had found in a cave. Sonic had told her the story years ago, and she had grown to hate the suit for corrupting her mother.

“You are being a bad girl, Dawn.” he said coldly.

Dawn had initially been alarmed by the sudden change of scenery, but now seeing the mind-controlling mech suit made her angry.

“Mom, why are you wearing that suit?” she asked hostilely. “You swore you’d never wear it again after what it did to you.”

“It’s necessary with the way you’re behaving.” Sonic aimed his left arm canon at Dawn. “Now take your punishment, young lady.”

Dawn sped out of the way just before the blast of energy could find its target. She then took off running into Hedgehog Village, and quickly discovered that the extreme changes didn’t end at the beach. The lines of shops grew at least three stories and appeared to reach out to her, as if trying to grab her. Openings formed on the exteriors that resembled eyes and mouths, and they all released haunting groans and howls that chilled her to her core.

Dawn didn’t understand what was happening. Was this real? Was she dreaming? Had her imagination spiraled out of control? And where was everyone? Where was her father, her friends, the villagers? Where was Shadow? What had happened to them?

She had so many questions running through her mind, but she couldn’t make enough sense of anything to answer them.

Dawn sought refuge in the forest, where she could hear Sonic angrily calling to her. She kept running until she came to her family’s hut and his inside of it. She knew that Sonic would likely come to the hut looking for her, but she needed a place to lie low in, if only for a few minutes. She went into the part of the hut she slept in and sank down to the moss floor, hugging her knees to her chest, trying to make sense of the situation. What had happened that had put her in such a frightening version of her home?

She traced back the last moments before waking up. Her and Shadow trekking through the ominous-looking cave. Finding a mysterious source of light. Getting ambushed by Metal Sonic. Successfully beating him in battle. About to find out the nature of the light. Suddenly falling down a long pit.

And then nothing. She couldn’t recall anything after that point, anything useful that would explain her current situation. She wondered again if she was dreaming-it was a long fall down and she landed quite hard. She had to have hit her head on something and passed out, and the trauma must’ve caused her to hallucinate. She calmed down a little-there was no guarantee it was the real explanation, but at least now she had one to grasp onto.

Dawn suddenly felt a tingling on her back. She reached behind her and plucked something off-an abnormally large insect that resembled a beetle, though she wasn’t too sure. Disgusted, she flicked it away from her, and as it scuttled away she noticed what looked like a giant centipede crawling across the wall toward her. She was starting to panic again-her family’s hut was never this bug-infested and what insects they did have were never this big. More bugs came out of the walls and ceiling. Dawn sat frozen with fear until the roof of the hut was forcibly ripped off. By none other than Sonic.

“Get over here, you little brat!” he exclaimed angrily. The giant hand of his mech suit reached to grab her, but she spin dashed away from it and fled from her corrupted mother once again.

As she ran through the trees, her other enemies observed her on a computer monitor. They evilly laughed to themselves as they watched her scared, desperate state.

“Oh, our plan’s going wonderfully!” Eggman said gleefully. “She’s not even close to escaping!”

“That was really an excellent idea, honey.” Charlie said to his wife, Belinda. “Giving her a mental enemy to face rather than a physical one.”

“A battle with inner demons, as it were.” Belinda said proudly.

“It’s a good thing Metal Sonic managed to inject her with the serum during their fight.” Eggman said. “Let’s see you fight your way out of this one, Dawn.” This prompted more evil laughter from himself and his allies.

Back in the drug-induced world of nightmares, Dawn had made her way to the canyon. Dusk was approaching, and she desperately needed to find shelter before it got dark. Who knew what the night would hold in this strange new world she was trapped in?

She wandered around the rocky landscape, treading lightly, keeping a sharp eye out for danger. So far, nothing had happened, but as she was peeking into some crevices in the rocks-in case something was about to jump out at her-she felt someone touch her shoulder, and she jerked away defensively and raised her fists, ready to fight.

“Relax, Dawn. It’s just me.” Daw left her battle stance as she saw, to her delight, that it was her father, Knuckles.

“Dad!” she exclaimed happily and threw her arms around him. At that moment, in her father’s embrace, she felt like crying. Instead, she kept her voice calm as she explained to him what happened.

“Dad, something’s wrong with Mom, with everything. We were on the beach, just us, and I kept asking where you and our friends were, but he just kep saying not to worry about them. He brushed them aside like they meant nothing to him. Then a storm suddenly rolled in, and Mom put on the old mech suit that corrupted him and attacked me. Then everything started shifting and changing and-“ Dawn leaned against Knuckles, overcome with despair. “I don’t know what’s happening, Dad. I’m scared, I’m really scared!”

“It’s gonna be okay, sweetheart.” Knuckles said gently. “We’ll find a way to help your mom, and we’ll figure out wrong and fix it together. I promise.”

Dawn calmed down, relieved to have something go right for once. “I love you, Dad.” She said.

“I love you, too, Dawn.” Knuckles returned. “C’mon, let’s get you some rest. I built a small hut of sorts somewhere above us-it’s not much, but it’ll do.”

Knuckles’ description was accurate-the hut, built mostly from stone and chunks of earth, was only big enough to house one or two people, but it was good enough for Dawn, and a safe distance from the edge of the cliffs. Dawn went inside, eager to relax after what she had been through.

Knuckles blinked as he trailed after her, his eyes momentarily turning solid black before returning to their normal color.