Chapter One: Just Another Rainy Day

The day before the apocalypse started started off with a bang.

Actually, quite a few bangs. Very loud ones. Alongside some other equally deafening noises.

Raindrops, large and opaque, began pouring from the sky in a frenzied cascade that sent everything and everyone on the island running for cover. Strong winds followed, kicking up the waves so high that they threatened to flood Bygone Island. Bright, vivid streaks of lightning struck the ground at random, immediately followed by the loud roaring of thunder. Life, in general, temporarily ground to a halt.

That trend remained unbroken throughout the village, even as the casual observer came upon the patched-together cottage that was home to one of the most famous inhabitants of this world. Even though most expected him to be out and about, performing some sort of heroic deed, in reality, he hated the rain just as much as everybody else did. Thus, without any reason to step outside and get wet, he waited inside with his friends (who had also taken refuge in his cottage upon the first drops hitting the ground) for the storm to pass.

Said inhabitant had a cheap red bouncy ball in their hands, and was currently using it to play catch. With himself.

Even though most normal games of catch needed two people in order to function properly, due to the high speed the ball traveled, speed was Sonic the Hedgehog's middle name. Thus, whenever he tossed the ball, he caught it so quickly it looked like he'd never let it go at all.

The other four temporary inhabitants of the cottage had immersed themselves in far more normal activities. Well, normal for them. A huge pile of leaves covered a section of the wood floor, which Sticks frantically sorted into two piles as if the results of her sort would cure cancer. Tails' spare-parts-and-elbow-grease laptop filled the room with a steady whining noise as the kitsune hunched over, typing so fast that his fingers seemed blurred. Despite being fully charged, it was plugged in to the wall, in order to, in Tails' words, "give it a little extra juice." Amy's hammer rested in a secure hatch above her as she exchanged it for a paintbrush and returned to a canvas that had been in progress for weeks. Knuckles held weights in both hands, but his arms hung at his sides for now. Instead, he carried them with him as he walked up to Tails.

"Hey, Tails," Knuckles said, " can I see what you're doing?"

"Not yet, the program I'm writing isn't done," was Tails' simple reply. "This is really complex. It won't make any sense until I've finished it. But that will be soon."

So, he resumed typing, and Sonic took a break from throwing the ball to sneak a peek at Tails' project. Sure enough, the bits and pieces that he saw made no sense whatsoever. Punctuated with vocabulary well beyond Sonic's reading level, filled with symbols that somehow pulsed and shifted and bounced around the screen, and causing the laptop to heat up so much that Sonic swore he could smell something burning, Sonic had to admit that he was way out of his league here.

He went back to catching the ball. Everyone else resumed what they were previously doing. The room once again became filled with the sound of Tails' laptop straining to handle his project, punctuated by raindrops slamming into the roof at high speed. For a rainy day, everyone recognized this pattern as normal.

Knuckles proceeded to turn on the static-filled television on in order to get an update about when the nasty weather might end. It took quite a bit of searching on his part (even though the television had only five channels on it) to locate and tune to the one where he'd have a shot at catching the weather, where a very soaked Soar the Eagle clutched the remains of a singed, smoking umbrella while talking into the microphone.

"As you can see, I've just had my umbrella struck by lightning and fried to a crisp. This is a further sign that this thunderstorm is way worse than the norm for the area. The radar is saying it should be over us for the rest of the day. Stay indoors if possible, and whatever you do, do not-"

The television cut off just as a sound like a miniature explosion filled the air. The television, lights, and everything electronic in the house (besides Tails' laptop, since that didn't require a plug to function) shone impossibly bright for a second or two before plunging the room into darkness. Sonic's ears rang, Sticks screeched and dove for cover, Amy plugged her ears with her fingers, and Knuckles… just kind of stood there, completely unperturbed by the his friends' actions. All he said was "Wait, what were we not supposed to do?"

Tails let out a little half-chuckle. "Sorry, guys… the thing I'm working on must've caused a bit of a power surge."

Amy risked looking out the window, and noted that the cottages near them had lost power as well, based on the fact that no television noises or bright glowing penetrated their windows.

"That was more than just 'a bit of a power surge,' Tails," Amy chided. "You knocked out the power for half the neighborhood! Maybe that's a sign you should take a break."

"I agree with Amy," Sonic said. "You should turn that thing off before the neighbors start rioting."

"Don't worry," Sticks interjected, "I'm always ready for a riot! Just give me a minute, I need to get my riot supplies from the burrow."

Without another word, she dashed out the door into the pouring rain, despite everyone's feeble protests. Tails, meanwhile, quietly complied with Amy's wishes and powered off the laptop. Its ever-present whine faded away to silence, and the noise of raindrops hitting the roof once again took precedence in everyone's ears.

Tails put his laptop down carefully on the kitchen counter, then wandered back into the living room to sit down on the couch. The old thing, already burdened with Knuckles' weight, let out an indignant groan as Tails plopped down, but did not collapse, much to the relief of Sonic.

The power, thankfully, turned back on after a few minutes. The few light bulbs installed in the ceiling turned in. The television flickered to life, its droning noise drowning out the pounding of the rain. And the radiator began to make its familiar thrumming sound once more.

Soar the Eagle continued his report from the television screen. "I'm sorry for the sudden fade-out, but my microphone stopped working for a few minutes. We may have more on what caused it, right after this."

The news show went to a commercial, but no one saw it, as Knuckles managed to turn off the television and restore the relative silence.

Everyone resumed their previous activities, save Tails, who went into the kitchen to make himself a quick lunch. However, they only managed to continue for a few minutes before being interrupted again, this time by someone outside screeching, "I will not stand for this!"

Everyone raced out the front door to investigate the cause of the noise, and they found it in a hurry. Sticks was marching around in circles, chanting nonsense to the sky, all while wielding a pitchfork in one hand and a torch (which was somehow flaming despite the storm) in the other.

Sticks only glanced at them for a second before going back to marching and chanting. She probably would have kept going on for hours if Amy hadn't interrupted her.

"Sticks, what are you doing?"

If looks could kill, Amy would be lying on the floor in a pool of her own blood. "What do you think I'm doing? You asked me to help the neighbors start rioting, so I'm trying to be inspirational!"

Sonic, Tails, and Amy promptly facepalmed. Knuckles tried to do the same, but did it so hard that he might as well have punched himself in the face.

"That's not what we said, Sticks," Tails said. Then, his eyes darted over towards the torch. Not only was the wick flaming, but the fire had begun to spread to the top of the torch. At this rate, Sticks' hand would be ablaze in less than a minute. "And how did you light that torch?"

"Easy! I coated it in oil," said Sticks, unaware that half the torch was alight. "Why are you so interested?"

Tails started to form a reasonable response, but he remained silent, mouth agape, as he watched the flames spread all the way down the torch and threaten to engulf Stick's right hand.

"Sticks, is your hand supposed to catch fire?" Knuckles said this slowly, pointing at Sticks' hand. The flames hadn't quite gotten there yet, but it was only a matter of time.

Sticks took a look and her hand and started screaming. "Someone get some sand, or a blanket, or something! I can't lead riots with one hand missing!"

Amy rolled her eyes. "Sticks, the beach is two feet away! Just use that," she instructed.

Sticks complied without a second thought, but not in the way everyone expected. Instead of just shoving the torch in an abandoned dune and letting time do the rest, she started picking up clumps of damp sand and tossing them on top of the torch, not realizing that any progress she made when the sand covered a flaming part immediately got erased when raindrops hit the oil. The flames hungrily licked at every part of the torch it could find, not spreading, but still perilously close to burning off Sticks' hand.

Sonic groaned. "Just drop it like it's hot, Sticks! Because it is!"

Sticks let go of the torch, which promptly embedded itself in the rain-soaked sand of a dune. It must've been very loose sand, for the torch buried most of itself in the dune before stopping. A few seconds later, the presence of stinking black tendrils of smoke indicated that the fire had gone out.

"Come on," said Tails, "Let's get back inside before we all get waterlogged." He then proceeded to shake himself like a dog, slinging water in all directions.

Everyone hustled back inside the cabin, except for Sticks, who dug out the burnt remains of the torch so she could carry them inside, along with the pitchfork she had brought for the "riot."

Things quickly returned to normal once more. Tails finished making his lunch, ate it, and went back to working on his mystery project on the laptop. The others went back to whatever they had previously been doing.

All in all, nothing differed about that day from every other rainy day in existence.

And all five of them liked it that way.

Author's Notes:

-Let's get the obvious out of the way. All the characters mentioned in this chapter belong to Sega, not me.

-This is a re-written version of Horror-exe, that awful story of mine that stalled in the middle of last year and ultimately ended up getting deleted. The goal of this rewrite is to improve the general quality of the writing, as well as fix the things that I didn't do well the first time around (namely characterization, thinking more than one section ahead for the plot, and the action sequences). For those of you who remember the original, kudos to you.

-This story is rated T for violence, disturbing imagery, and minor curse words (possibly). If you cannot handle those things, this fic may not be for you.

-Hopefully, you enjoyed this opening chapter. See you next Wednesday!