This is kinda a rant on my part. What about? Try and guess.

Cover art is "Sonic is sad..." by Rosa-Baka on DeviantArt.

Sonic sat on a small hill underneath a bright blue sky. It was a perfect day to go running, but the blue blur wasn't in the mood to go fast right now. He was a little weighed down.

Look at what you did!

He sighed as those words rang through his mind. Here we go again he thought, knowing exactly what was about to follow.

You call yourself a hero?

You've done nothing but destroy our city!

Shame on you!

We're gonna hold you responsible for this!

He closed his eyes softly, wishing it would all just go away. I almost didn't make it out of there alive he thought. Do they really not care about what Eggman did?

"Sonic?"

His eyes shot open. He looked up and saw a good friend standing over him. "Oh," he said, sitting up. "Hey, Ash."

"Hey," Ash Ketchum replied as he sat down beside him. "What're you doing out here? Your friends have been looking for you."

"Oh yeah?" Sonic said. "What for?"

"Oh, they were just curious." There was silence between them as they leaned forward, placing their arms on their knees as they stared at the landscape spread out before them. "What a view, huh?"

"Yeah."

After a moment, Ash turned and looked at Sonic, curious. "Is everything all right, Sonic?"

Normally, Sonic would have put on a smile and said that of course everything was all right, even if it really wasn't. He didn't like making his friends worry about him, and hey, it's not like things wouldn't get better! But this time, he decided he didn't want to do that. After everything he went through in his last bout with Eggman, he was too tired to act like everything was okay.

"I guess so," was his reply. It was pretty half-hearted, especially coming from him.

"You guess so?" Ash repeated.

Sonic sighed. "I mean...I stopped Eggman again and saved the city. But…" he trailed off.

"Go on."

Sonic turned to him with a somber expression. "We caused a lot of destruction...more than I would've liked."

"That's nothing new," Ash shrugged. "There's always some destruction after you guys battle, and even if you think it's too much, it doesn't usually bother you that much."

"Well, that's not what's bothering me."

"Then what is?"

Sonic paused for a moment before turning back towards the landscape with a sigh. "Everyone was angry with me for what happened. They shouted at me and told me that all of it was my fault, even though of the hundred or so things that broke, I only broke two of them."

"Well that doesn't seem fair," Ash muttered.

"They even talked about starting a petition to the mayor to hold me responsible for everything," Sonic went on. "Yet I didn't hear a single person bring up Eggman once he was gone."

"Really?" Ash's eyes widened. "You mean they're going to blame it all on you?"

"That's what it looks like," Sonic said, turning back to him.

Ash frowned in annoyance. "Jeez, talk about ungrateful."

Sonic sighed once again as he looked back at the horizon. "I don't know why I'm so bothered, to be honest. I did my best for them. Why wasn't that enough?"

Ash looked at his friend, a knowing expression on his face. "Sonic...people aren't always going to appreciate you."

"Huh?" Sonic blinked, turning towards him again.

"I know you do your best to help people who are in trouble, and you've even helped save the world more than once." He sighed. "But that doesn't mean everyone will always appreciate you. There's always gonna be someone out there who doesn't appreciate what you do, no matter how awesome you are. Believe me, I know."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah. A lot of people have talked to me and told me how awesome I was in the Kalos League, and that I inspired them to follow their dreams. But for each one of those people, there are probably at least a dozen who think I'm the absolute worst trainer on the planet."

"Huh," Sonic muttered with an eyeroll. "What a bunch of morons."

"Yeah," Ash laughed. Hearing Sonic say something like that, he had a feeling his little blue friend was getting back to being himself again.

"Does it ever bother you when they talk about you like that?"

"Sometimes," Ash nodded. "I'm usually pretty good about ignoring them, since I know that they're wrong." He frowned slightly as he looked at the ground. "But sometimes, I feel like they're right, and I wonder if it's really all worth it."

Sonic nodded in understanding. "What do you do then?"

"Well," Ash went on, looking back up, "usually one of my friends or my Pokemon come and remind me why I do what I do, and I more or less snap out of it."

"Oh," Sonic nodded. "So because we have our friends to support us, we don't have to feel down, right?"

Ash gave Sonic a deadpan expression. "Did you really have to drop that cliche?"

"What?" Sonic blinked. "What did I say?"

"Never mind," Ash chuckled as he stood up. "Well, I gotta go. My Pokemon and I need to train so we'll be ready for our next gym battle. Or trial. Or whatever our next challenge is!" He started walking away before stopping and looking back over his shoulder. "You gonna be all right?"

"Yeah...I think so," Sonic replied with a smile and a thumbs-up. "Since I have friends like you –"

"Aaand goodbye," Ash said abruptly, walking away before Sonic could finish. Sonic just chuckled, feeling better after sharing his problems with his friend. He stood up and, deciding he'd spent enough time doing nothing, turned and jogged away.

Update: Well, THAT didn't take long. Yeah, this is a rant on all the flack Sonic Forces has gotten since it released. But hey, if people want to see this as a jab at Ash-haters, then by all means, please do so!

Forces and haters aside, this little rant story pretty much sums up my feelings about the past week in general. Starting with a pretty lousy Friday last week (the main thing that got me through that day was the Sonic Twitter Takeover), this week has been an overall disappointment for me. While some days were understandably unpleasant, there were times where I was really off my rocker, and I don't know why. I can't remember every little detail, but I'm pretty certain that at least half the time there was no good reason to be angry. And yet I felt that way day after day. Thankfully, all of that seems to have ended with this morning's Ultra Sun & Ultra Moon reveal, which might as well be the last disappointment of the week for how little was revealed (though to be fair, Game Freak packed that little reveal with everything they could, and it shows).

One more thing: I have a poll live on my profile page on fanfiction regarding Pokemon: Adventures in Alola. I'm considering changing the name due to it being a little generic; also, there's at least one other story out there with a very similar name. I'd like your input on the matter, so please vote if you can.

Okay, that's enough from me. Feel free to rate and review, but no flames, please.