Chaos: Finally up! You can stop throwing rocks at my house! ...except for yugioh fans. You continue. Anyway, here we go. This is a prologue only and, now that this is actually uploaded, I'm gonna have to upload every week if I can. (sob sob) Well, merry christmas one and all! (grin)

Flower: FESTIVE SPIRIIIIIIIT!!!

Chaos: Oh...yeah. I forgot about you. Noooooo...!! Upload now!!

Flower: Hey, wait, I want to talk some more!

Chaos: (dives for the upload button)

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Sonic awoke slowly, his vision blurry. He was lying spreadeagled on a bed, in a white room. Someone was leaning over him, frowning. "What's goin' on?" he groaned, squinting. The man spoke quietly,

"Ah, you've finally woken up. You've been here three days now...this is New Island, the GUN base."

"GUN?!" Sonic yelped, suddenly much more awake.

"No, it's ok. We're terribly sorry about the Project Shadow mix-up. Anyway...do you remember what happened? We found you washed up on the shore, cut all over...you won't be able to move for a while, we're still healing you."

Sonic frowned and turned his head away, forcing his brain to work. Then suddenly the scenes were flashing past his eyes, like some kind of horror movie. Sweat broke out on his forehead and his eyes widened in shock.

"No... no... not Tails... not Amy! They... they..." Sonic moaned quietly, shutting his eyes. But it had to be; it was there in his memories. He turned back to the GUN officer, who was watching him with a worried expression.

"Was it your FRIENDS?" he asked, sounding horrified. Sonic stared dumbly past him; something seemed to have caught in his throat and all he could do was gasp, his mind completely rejecting the memories.

"Are you ok, Sonic? I realise it must be very shocking to find that your friends have-"

"Go...just go..." Sonic muttered. When the officer hesitated, he shouted, "GO!" The man quickly left the room, and Sonic turned his head away. He couldn't believe it; how could his friends... his friends! ...do this to him?

And GUN... they were being so understanding. Everything was mixed up! Since the ARK incident he had heard nothing from them, knowing only that Prison Island was being rebuilt on a different island further away from Station Square.

They were being nice, kind to him... but he hated it. He was going to be stuck in this bed for god-knows-how-long, barely able to move, and... oh god, Tails... why'd you do it?! He bit his lip and swallowed, a lump in his throat.

He remembered the picnic at the cliffs. Everybody was there; Shadow, Rouge, Cream, even Knuckles, and Tails and Amy, naturally. Everything had been fine, nice, they had all been laughing. Ah, except for Shadow. The sun was shining, seagulls crying mournfully as they swooped through the sunbeams, like in one of those romantic films. Then, suddenly, they turned on him. Amy had been talking to him at the cliff edge, and then suddenly grabbed his arm.

He wriggled in surprise, and then Tails had walked up, grinning. He had taken Sonic's other arm and laughed out, "Goodbye, Sonic! You'll pay for hurting us all!" and Amy was laughing too, everybody was, and he wasn't struggling properly, he didn't realise what was going on. Then Tails and Amy had swung him away, over the cliffs, and he had fallen down helplessly, crashing against the rock walls, to the blue crystalline waters, screaming their names, and...

...and then everything was blank.