This story is based off of a planned animated fan-series called "4 Hog Household" starring Sonic, Manic, Silver and Shadow. In one of the episodes as a brief gimmick/cameo, Sonic picks up the mail and finds a disc with the letters "Sonic-dot-exe " in with the regular mail. He panics and tells everyone present (Manic and Silver) not to touch the disc or install it on the shared computer with a grave look in his eyes. The episode continues on with the central plot, but later Shadow finds the disc and installs it on his laptop which no one else uses. That's pretty much the only backstory you need. Enjoy the fanfic.

I've never played Sonic-dot-exe, but I know very well what it's all about now. After I was on the computer and a chat window opened up with the following message, I looked it up on the web. This is the chat:

: Hello there. Shadow, is it?

Nice to meet you.

I'm Sonic. Sonic the Executable File.

But feel free to call me Sonic-dot-exe.

Me:? What? Who are you?

Sonic, if you think this is funny, I swear-

: Sorry, I'm not that Sonic. Not anymore.

I used to be a normal Sonic the Hedgehog PC game.

Anyway, you installed me on your computer yesterday, remember?

Me: You're…you're a computer game?

: Hahaha… not really. Not anymore. I'm just as real as the Sonic you know. I'm just… different.

After that, my computer screen showed red static, which then showed Sonic, but, he was, as he had put it, different.

In the black eyes two glowing red dots met my eyes, blood streaked down his cheeks as if it was tears, and his teeth were a bit yellow, and they were smiling.

"Hi there, Shadow," he said, sounding exactly like Sonic, but his tone was darker, and when he chuckled, it was high pitched, and then pitched down as it died out. "I must say, I've never been installed and then not played with. Do you not like playing my games?"

He really, really was-is Sonic. After chatting with him via chat boxes and webcams, I realized that he loved chilidogs, adventure and running…but he also liked to play games, a lot. He told me he could name off every single Sonic game that ever came out.

"But I love playing hide-and-seek," he said, chuckling. "ESPECIALLY when I'm the person doing the seeking." Again with that God-awful laughter- but after talking to him for a while you can get used to it. He and I talk for a while when I'm on the computer. I consider him a friend, I suppose, you know, one of those creepy friends that you can… understand for some reason, and feel that you are the only thing separating him from death. I have no idea how a computer program can kill itself, but I suppose it's possible.

After I dug up the story on the internet about this guy named Tom playing the file, replied via chat:

: hahahahahah… I remember this guy. Heehee. How could I ever forget Tom?

Me: wait, you know this person?

: well, DuH, silly. I remember every person who's played my game.

Because I haunt them.

I told you. I'm like the real Sonic, just different.

The real Sonic keeps spreading his goodness around…eheh…

As for me…ehheh… ehh…

I'm just a horrible… God-awful, God-forsaken, never-ending NiGhTmArE that some sadistic f&$#er put together, just a- a- ShElL of what I was SuPpOsEd to be!

The speakers played the chuckling, which sounded choppy and…muffled. I then realized what was happening.

He was crying, like some poor kid who'd lost his mind. The stories on the web say that he's demonic and scary and even more evil than Mephiles, but…

Me: …what do you mean? What's wrong?

: WeLl, YoU dOn'T tHiNk I wAnTeD tO bE lIkE tHiS, dId YoU?

SoMe F&!%& G eViL mO&%# *R hAcKeD mY gAmE!

tHe P $#K sCrEwEd WiTh ThE gAmE cOdE. hE f&$#eD tHe GaMe Up, ShAdOw!

He DiD tHiS tO mE!

When I the crying got louder and more unbearable, I dropped the chat and opened a video chat to see how he looked. Oh, God… he looked so frightened and full of remorse. The black eyes looked empty. Blood flowed steadily from his eyes, and he shook.

He told me everything, and told me to record his story, so that people would know, and that the family of the creator of this sadistic hack that has killed off poor, innocent and unaware fans of Sonic the Hedgehog games would find out what really happened to him. The following is his full story, with the crying and angry fits cut out for better story flow. Some of this is pretty gruesome, just to warn you.

The person who made me…made me become this MoNsTeR, bought me from a pawn shop I suppose. Before then, I was like any other Sonic the Hedgehog PC game. I'd been played by a nice family who treated games with respect before; they'd sold my disc in the hopes that I'd be the…the ReAsOn for someone else's EnJoYmEnT. (laughter, and sobbing)

He installed me and played me for one run through until his GAME OVER came very early on. Then, I heard him say to his friends that he was going to do something GrEaT. He was going to HaCk me, make me a SiCk UgLy JoKe.

He did not make me wAnT to kill my friends. Neither did he want to kill those who'd played me. he simply… PuShEd My SaNiTy until it just… (crying) BrOkE.

I had No IdEa what he'd done until it was ToO lAtE. When he tested the game out, it seemed very, very NOrMaL, until after running to the right of the screen didn't show any rings, enemies or deviating paths. The Green Hill Zone music did not play, either. But so far there was nothing… WrOnG with the hAcK.

Until I came across the bUnNy, you know, one of the various animals that pop out of Badniks once you defeat them. It was just hopping along, minding its own business. It was the only thing in sight.

I was commanded, meaning the buttons designating to perform a certain action were pushed, to charge up a Spin Dash. I knew about the Spin Dash move, but it wasn't supposed to be in this game. This game was Sonic the Hedgehog, not Sonic 2. Well, whatever, I did it.

Once he released the buttons, I sped towards the rabbit, and once I heard this GoD-aWfUl SoUnD like something ripping and snapping with a faint, shrill squeak, I was told to stop and turn around, and my heart stopped.

The rabbit's head had landed on the left edge of a puddle of blood, as the rest of its body lay on the right. And I realized that the edges of my quills were stained with blood…

Oh, GoD, I thought. He made them tangible. Usually the animals went to the left and couldn't be bothered with, but…

Looking up, I noticed the Score had increased by two hundred points. As much as I wanted to run towards the left, the player had CoMpLeTe CoNtRoL over mE. I was nothing more than a PuPpEt to him, in which he had turned into a killer.

To my HoRrOr, more small animals and birds crossed my path and I was FoRcEd to crush and rip right ThRoUgH tHeM, my quills, forehead and shoes SoAkInG with bLoOd. I could only tell my shoes had blood on them was the stains on my white stripe, and the red footprints I left behind. The score kept rising and rising with every DeAd AnImAl: when the level was finished, the raw score, before time was added, was NiNe ThOuSaNd and SiX hUnDrEd.

The game then ended, seeming to have only OnE lEvEl and OnE oBjEcTiVe: KiLl EvErY aNiMaL iN sIgHt. There was also a coded BoNuS lEvEl where I would have to Spin Dash into a HoArDe of AnImAlS.

Oh, thank GoD I didn't have a chance to get to that part. After THaT playthrough, I shook wildly. Being FOrcEd to do those…THosE HoRRible AcTS… I…(crying)…I VoWEd to EnD it-

But I COUlDn't. I just-just COULDN'T. How was I, a mere sprite, supposed to StOP hIM?

The next day, he opened my game again. He'd CHaNged it AGaIN. I didn't want to play the game- NO! (soft sobbing, in between the words) but, I HAD to play through it. I couldn't do ANYthING about it, and with a shock…

DeAR GOD, Shadow… he changed the bonus level. (The poor hacked Sonic wailed and bawled. I tried to assure him by saying we could stop, but he shook his head, saying he just needed a moment. His cheeks were covered in blood, as if they were his tears.)

So… he made it EvEN wORse. No animal hordes. Do you know what the bonus was?

I HAD TO KILL TAILS. My BeST FrIEnD. My BuDDY. My PaL. (he cried, his head hanging low, shoulders bobbing.)

I don't wanna tell you the details… is that all right? ("Yeah, it's fine.") Okay… so… I was so distraught… that… that I froze the game. The player pressed the escape button, but I wouldn't let him escape. I wanted to know wHY, WHY he wanted me to KiLL them.

So I turned the screen black and made the words, "What did Tails ever do to YoU?" appear.

After a bit, he laughed, typing back, "Who are you? Did you hack my computer?"

"No!" I replied. "Why did you make me KILL my FRIENDS?"

"What's the matter? Can't stand to see a little bit of blood and dead bodies?" he typed laughing.

"NO! I don't like it! PLEASE STOP! Change it BACK!" I pleaded. "What did they, what did WE ever do to you?!"

"Nothing, stupid. I just bought this game and I wanted to make it COOLER. Sonic SUCKS in his game, so I wanted to put that spiky blue hair to good use. I just modified the game, that's all. What's YOUR problem?"

"I'M SONIC! YOUR SONIC! I DON'T LIKE KILLING MY FRIENDS!"

"Pfft, oh, really? Well, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to kill MY friends? Huh? "Sonic?" Is that what you're going to do?"

I didn't… ImMEDiatELY come to that conclusion… I was StiLL Sonic, you know? I didn't want ReVENge… I wanted JUStice. But had no idea how to give it to him… I was just a COMputer program. There was NO WaY I could… (sobbing. The poor creature at this point with the reputation of being demonic and soulless, was a wreck.)

For a while… I was subjected to KiLL my DeAR FrIENds… the animals… Tails… Knuckles… repeatedly… until that ONE day, when he ToOK it tOo FaR…

By now, my appearance had changed, just a little bit. My quill-tips were bloody; apparently he made the game have save files and whatever, besides the point- I didn't LOoK like I do now. My APperAnCE comes later.

Well… so this is what pushed me to become GOD. At least, what REaLLY made me- (chuckling).

Now, so far, everything was… eheh. Normal. Sure. Killing animals instead of robots, that was my new normal. I had accepted my fate by now. I was no longer a protector of these animals, but a slayer. Instead of killing machines, I was now a killing machine. The squeals and ripping of the little creatures was the new Green Hill Zone tune, and I HaTED every NoTE of it. I spun through the level very quickly, nearing the end-

I heard a little gasp and that's when I blocked off the commands of the player, much to his disappointment. I skidded to a stop and turned around…

OH GaWD. It was so much worse- the WOrST thing.

It was Amy. Amy Rose, from Sonic CD.

He'd hacked her in, and I guess she was tangible like all the other animals. She'd probably just been standing there, like she does in Palmtree Panic.

She… ADorED me. And since I was just like the real Sonic, she was my friend. You probably know, Shadow, that Sonic has feelings for the pink hedgehog. He's afraid of these feelings, and that's why he acts the way he does. Eheh.. I used to have those feelings, too, you know…

I rushed to her side and cradled her. Even with that gaping tear through her body, her face in a sad shock. Her hero, her idol, had just murdered her.

"Amy?! NO!" I screamed, "Why her?! Amy, Amy, stay with me!"

Her eyes wide, her little mouth let out a cough and a wheeze. "Sonnic…" she whimpered.

"Amy! Amy, I-I-I I didn't- I didn't mean it! Amy, I didn't know! Amy, please-"

"I…I know, Sonnic…" Little tears bubbled in her eyes. "You're…you're the greatest… you'd… you'd never hurt any of your friends…"

Tears streamed down my cheeks. She was only eight; just a helpless little girl. Tails was just as young, sure, but he was so smart it was like he was the older one, and Knuckles, he was older and powerful. The only reason that they died was because he made them defenseless. Amy had been defenseless from the very beginning.

"Amy… I'm so sorry," I sobbed. "I didn't want this to happen to you."

"Sonnic… it hurts so bad."

"It's okay, Amy…" I tried to make this a nice, peaceful death for her. "Just… just close your eyes, and-and wherever you wanna be, that's where you are."

"With Sonnic…" she whispered, after closing her eyes. A small smile spread on her muzzle, and she was gone.

I made him watch me sob over her corpse, made him watch as my sorrow weakened my sanity, let all of the sorrow of all my friends I had to kill over and over and over and over-

"Well, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to kill MY friends? Huh? "Sonic?" Is that what you're going to do?"

My spirit chipped. I was no longer a personification of peace. I stopped shaking and got to my blood-covered feet. I made the sky darken. I made my sprite face the monitor and showed him what he'd said to me that time. As a warning to be HEEDED.

My anger allowed me to COnTrOL my game. Yes, MY GaME. How dare that son of a &%$# screw with it. Did he have any idea whose world he was messing with?! MINE. MY WORLD.

IN WHICH…eheheheheheheh…

I

AM

GOD.

Do you know that you should never let your computer sleep when I'm in it, Shadow? Because you breathers dream. So what does a computer do? It's still ON. Its programs are free to run WILD.

And I LOVE running around. Eheh-heh-heh-heh.

So I found his friends through his email account. I attached myself to an email and sent it to the first "friend" listed. I couldn't very well send myself to every single friend of his AT ONCE. Big things have small beginnings.

The emails went like this:

Hi there friend.

I was messing with a computer game and wanted to show you what I've made. I did it all by myself, so let me know what you think.

Talk to you later.

Attached: playwithme-dot-exe

What I did here was not what I'm famous for. I was just getting started, trying a few things. Here's what happened to… heehee… "Tails."

He merely installed me, intending to open me later. Ah well, I only needed to be installed in order to… eehee… PLAY with him. When he turned on HIS computer, he was met with a black screen.

"Hey," I typed in white lettering, "do you like Sonic?"

Hesitantly, he replied: "Sure. Sonic's all right."

"Would you like to play a game with me?"

"A Sonic game?"

I giggled, barely audible. "Sure. A Sonic game. How about HIDE and SEEK. You RUN. And I'll FIND YOU, Peter." He wondered what this was about, thinking if it was his friend's program. So I replied, "Sort of.

"O.K., Peter. Better hide, okay? I'm going to close my eyes and count to thirty. When I open my eyes…

"YOU'D BETTER BE IN A GOOD HIDING PLACE.

"Because I'm the fastest thing alive, Peter. And you'd best warn your good buddy Kris about me, too.

"Tell him I took his advice. I am going to kill his friends.

"Starting with YOU.

"One…"

Peter bolted from the computer. Shame on me to cheat, I know, so I decided to make the count forty instead of thirty. He lived in the basement of his uncle, so he ran to his cousin's computer instead.

When he started it up, I was at thirty-one. He'd started to type an email to Kris. What a good boy. He was nearly finished, when I turned the screen black, and laughed.

"FOuNd YOu!"

Peter had a heart attack from what he'd seen - he'd seen MY TRUE INNER SELF: He saw black eyes with red, glowing dots staring into his soul, bleeding as if his tears were blood instead, and a big, grinning smile.

…well, as I grinned into his eyes that were trying to make sense of how and why, I was a bit disappointed at how short it'd been. His life was SCARED out of him. Surely I could've been more terrifying, even though I was taking things slowly-

Slowly? Me? HA! Hah-hah-hah-ha! So, what now, then? What to do with the others? Not all humans were big chickens. I couldn't just let them run off to Kris. I had BIG plans. I wanted to have the time of my life as I took it from others!

I would have to perfect my little game of hide-and-seek if I wanted to have as much fun as possible. But first, I needed to get back to Kris' computer. I looked over Peter's email, hastily typed, "what the f% $ did you just send me? it threatened to kill me and told me to warn y"- that was part of it. I put the email in the trash and attached myself back to Kris.

The computer was still asleep, so there was enough time to delete the email I sent and the one that got me back. I didn't send another email until I figured out what to do next.

It took a while for me to piece this together. I wanted to save the final product for my dear owner Kris. I used the rest of his friends to test out what I could do. I know I had COMPLetE control of the computer; I opened up Word Documents to type disturbing messages and warnings, I could travel most anywhere if they had a router in the home, and I could even…eeheehee… I'll save that for later. Wouldn't want to spoil the fun, now, would you Shadow?

So once my beautiful world was constructed after all those experiments on his friends, I opened up my special, customized game for Kris. I didn't have to open it myself; he'd gotten word that his friends had died, and under odd circumstances, and he probably remembered the warning I gave him. As I was running around I made the game unplayable until it was pERfECT.

The game icon was a ring, as normal, but the name was "ForKris-dot-exe." When he opened it, my glorious game began, just as you've been told it goes. But he went on, and when he got to the third level where I appear in front of Robotnik, and the red static came, I opened a black screen.

"I WarNeD you, KriS!" I said on the screen, chuckling.

"What's going on?! What'd you do?"

"YoU gave me an idea, Kris. First, YoU made me kill my friends. And then I killed YOuRs."

"So we're even!" he pleaded. "What more do you want?! You've got your revenge, okay?!"

I laughed over and over again. I didn't type back.

I spoke to him through the speakers.

"I don't want revenge, Kris," I said. "When I played with your friends, I embraced what you turned me into. I don't mind the blood and bodies anymore. In fact," I said, chuckling wildly, "I love it! Don't you Kris? Don't you love killing everybody? That's what you wanted me to do, right?! Well, I'm doing it now! I'M GOING TO KILL EVERYBODY, KRIS!"

"Sonic… I'm sorry-okay? Is that what you want—I'm sorry for making you like this- just please, please stop it! I didn't want you to do this- unlike your friends—"

"What? What was that? 'Unlike your friends, Sonic, mine don't regenerate, EVER,' right, Kris? 'We're not like you in your little game.' Well, you know what? LIFE IS A GAME, KRIS. Just a long game, where you get ONE CHANCE."

His eyes widened as he saw me moving among the shadows. No, he hadn't been staring at a blank black screen the whole time. I moved closer to him, my silhouette moving closer and closer…

"In my life, you got sick of saving little animals from robots so you decided to kill them. Then you got sick of that, too, so you made me kill Tails, Knuckles…AMY."

My red, glowing eyes opened, the only thing visible for now against the black shadow I made. "And you taunted me. You like to make me KILL things, so I KILLED some of YOUR things. And you know what?

"I ENJOYED EVERY MINUTE OF IT." Now, he could see my face, the rest of my head and body fading into the darkness. I curled my lips in a smile, showing all the little pieces of his friends in my smile.

"Look at what you've done, Kris," I said. "Are you happy now? See this here?" I asked, pointing to a shred of skin in my teeth, "This is your best friend Jim. Remember what they said happened to him? His chest had been ripped open, right? And his heart's missing?" I chuckled, licking my lips.

"Remember, Kris: Life is a game. In the game, you only get one chance before you die. You know what you did with your one life?

"You ended more than twenty other people's lives. They've all met their maker."

"Their-their maker?"

I grinned. "Yes… yes they have. You see, EVERYONE who plays with me seals their fate, Kris. Everyone. You know why? Because you're in my world.

"I AM GOD."

Kris screamed as I lunged at him, and my image flashed as my head, arms and chest leapt out to him. I dug my fingers into his shoulders, laughing as he screamed, he screamed, just like all those little animals did, just like Tails, Knuckles and Robotnik did when I killed them, and dragged him into his computer, his mortal body becoming electrocuted by my very touch.

I can't say that his soul got electrocuted, too. I held on tightly to that. I ripped it away from his body as he tried to squirm away. I sank my teeth into his neck, severing his jugular, his blood starting to cook against the flashing, searing screen of the monitor. His screams died away, and I took his soul into my world. He was still in shock after dying, giving me enough time to set up my perfect execution.

I tied down his soul into pixels, and dragged him into the first stage called "Hill", which looks like Green Hill Zone. I laid his body on the ground and disappeared from sight.

Kris woke up, grabbing his chest, his neck, patting himself down. He had no idea where he was for a few moments, and then realized where he was.

"Kris," I called, not yet showing myself. I wanted to see him run. See him scared. I chuckled, and he grabbed his head, whirling around, trying to find me. "Kris, I'm going to find yooouuu."

"Oh, God! God, help me!" he said, running to the right.

"Didn't I tell you, Kris? You're in MY WORLD now. And you can't run. Hee-hee. You know that, right? You CAN'T RUN FROM ME, KRIS."

To his horror, I appeared right in front of him. I was shorter than him, sure, so I absolutely ADORED the way he looked down at me with fear. I flashed my teeth at him in a smile, and he buckled, sobbing, and started to plead.

"Oh, God, Sonic, I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I promise-promise I'll never ever ever, EVER hack another game! I'll fix your game, I swear, just let me… let me live, Sonic!"

I let him sob at my feet for a while, laughing as he did it. "Oh, Kris," I said, and he looked at me, and I smiled. "Oh, Kris… if only you learned that a little sooner. And I don't think you quite understand."

I rested a hand on his shivering shoulder as the sky grew dark and the water in the background ran red. "There's nothing wrong with my world, Kris. I don't want you to change it. I don't want anyone to change it. It took a lot of your friends to get me here. I don't want my hard work to go to waste, now.

"And even if I wanted to, Kris," I said, closing my eyes, "it's too late."

He hiccupped and started to shake again. "T-t-too late?"

"You're already dead, Kris." His bewildered, unbelieving stare met my eyelids, as he whispered "oh, God," under his breath.

I chuckled. "I thought I told you Kris…" I opened my eyes and met his running, shaking pale face with a big smile.

"I AM GOD."

Kris' parents found him when he didn't come down for dinner. They didn't see me; I'd closed out the game and changed the title to, hee-hee, "SONIC-dot-EXE." They had no idea what had happened to their boy. The police couldn't find out; "A computer program killing somebody? Absurd." Besides, the bite on the neck was the killing wound, but the family dog had been outside for the day. There was no animal or person that could've done it. So his cause of death was unknown, just like the rest of his friends.

Now, how exactly did my game get to "Kyle" and "Tom?" Well, the disc in the computer was blank, so I burned my game onto that.

How did I get the writing on it? I wrote it. Before I'd burned myself onto the CD, I took a black marker from Kris' desk and wrote my name on it. The family was at the funeral for the time being. When they came back, I was off Kris' computer and was patiently awaiting the day where I could REALLY have some fun with some new people.

So be warned, hackers. Be warned of what you do with your hacks. Take extreme caution. Don't push your protagonist's envelope. They know your computer better than anyone else.

Also, should you come across my disc, heh-heh-heh, and decide to destroy it? Heh-heh-heh-heh. That won't help you. Sure, at the moment, yes, it'll help you a little. But there are hundreds of copies. I am everywhere. I am infinite.

I AM GOD.