GeneX - Nightmare Zone: Act IX
The Hypno-Haunting

Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA and 
Sonic Team. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related fanchars are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.


Ghost stories. Fun, right? We'll see...

The night hung heavy over the Mystic Ruins. The blackness of midnight surrounded Tails's Workshop, but a certain bi-tailed fox was still stirring, still busy tinkering with the wiring of his biplane in the garage. Tails had gotten so caught up in his work, he'd lost track of the time. His robotic dog, SPOT, was plugged into the wall, recharging, and didn't alert him to the hour. "Whew... I'm getting sleepy... What time is it?" the fox wondered, climbing up to check a digital clock on his plane's dashboard. "Eeep... That explains it..." he sighed. Suddenly, some banging was heard outside. It wasn't coming from the door. One moment it was in one place, and the next the sound was elsewhere. "Wh-what's that?? Is someone out there??" Tails stammered, turning to find SPOT. The robo-puppy was already unplugged from the wall, and starting out of the garage to check it out. "G-good boy, SPOT... Go see what that is..." Tails sighed. Normally he'd be braver, but hey, it was midnight, and exceptionally dark outside. Still, Tails steeled his courage and, picking up a flashlight, slowly crept toward the garage door. The banging sound had stopped for a bit, but suddenly started up again! Tails pressed his back to the wall, hoping to avoid the line of sight. "What line of sight? This is a garage..." he thought to himself, sighing. When the sound stopped again, he pressed the garage door remote, opening the door just a crack so he might look outside. When he leaned down to peer outside, a flash of red light was all he saw, cutting through the darkness! He promptly stood up, saying nothing. His feet took him towards his plane, as though acting on autopilot himself. However, as he climped up the side of it, he blinked a bit, and his eyes moved about in their sockets, looking around. "Wh-what am I doing...??" he stammered, fear filling him as he realized he couldn't control his actions! His hands steadied the plane's propellor blades. What was he doing this for? Then, he laid down over the top of the plane, his neck resting between two propellor blades! "Aaaaaah!! Wa-wait!! W-wake up, Tails!! WAKE UP!! ...You gotta stop doing this!! N-NOOOO!!!" He pleaded with himself, but to no avail. Somehow, the Tornado Remote had gotten in his hand. Unable to stop himself, he pressed a button. His shriek was cut off as his severed head tumbled to the floor, a look of horror transfixed upon it!

SPOT had sent a call upon finding his master like this, and the next day, Sonic, Knuckles and Amy discovered what had become of their friend. Though the desire to mourn this as a tragic accident was strong, Sonic had a mind to check the garage's security footage for foul play. Having seen what had happened, all they could do was wonder what could cause their sweet, good hearted friend to commit suicide. "Maybe the pressure got to him. Eggman's always right around the corner with some scheme..." Knuckles said. Sonic shook his head. "Something did this. And I bet it'll be back. So I suggest we spend the night here to investigate." he said. A banging was heard at the door at this instant, and Amy answered it. "Greeeat evil has invaded this house!!" It was Sticks the badger, an inhabitant of the jungle. "Not a good time, Sticks. Tails is dead. This is an investigation." Amy said. Sticks glared around the room. "I warned him not to trust indoor plumbing! Or light switches! Or that dumb robot dog! Or silver eating utensils! And most of all, ALIENS!!" she said, running to each object and shaking it until she mentioned aliens, when she shook Knuckles. "I've told you, Angel Island is not an alien spaceship." he sighed. "What'd you do with Tails's brain, MONSTER!!?" she hissed. Sonic dashed between them to break them up. "Trust me, Sticks, no one and... nothing... is above suspicion. Tell you what, you can stay here tonight with us and investigate." he said. Sticks glared at him. "Oooh, you'd like that, wouldn't ya? So you can get me, too, you alien killer!!" she shouted. Sonic, Amy and Knuckles all sighed in frustration. This would be a long night.

Each of them chose a different room of Tails's workshop to scope out, watching for anything suspicious. It wasn't a big building. Amy was in the bedroom, Knuckles was in the garage, Sticks was in the kitchen and Sonic was in the living room. The bedroom was in the upper floor of the workshop, the least likely to see any trouble, and SPOT went with Amy for protection as well. "I guess Sonic feels very protective of me, especially since Tails is gone..." she yawned, sitting on the bed as it started to get late. Her hammer leaned against the side of the bed, keeping her ready for any potential intruder. She laid down, a bit bored, a bit sad, and nearly ready to go to sleep. Suddenly, she heard a noise outside. A crashing sound, like someone or someTHING was stumbling about outside, trying to get to her. "Uh oh... SPOT, go get Sonic!" Amy suggested, prompting the robot to scurry on its way. Amy picked up her hammer and crept to the window. Peering outside, she could see a shadow trying to get its footing on the roof. It seemed to slip, but before falling, it vanished! "Yipe! M-maybe it IS aliens..." she gulped, taking a step backward. She heard banging behind her and turned frantically, but the sound was outside. "...Where is Sonic...??" she whimpered. The sound ceased at this point, and she decided to get out of the bedroom before she could be caught. "I'm going to find Sonic myself!" she said, opening a hatch revealing the steps going down. Before she could see anything, a red light flashed in her eyes, making her fall backward! She dropped the hatch in the process, closing herself in the bedroom! Standing up, she held up her hammer. Fear took her as she realized what was happening. "Wait... What... what am I doing!?" she gasped before the hammer smacked her directly in the face! She screamed as her hands started to swing her own hammer at her own head, quickly making her nose bleed and giving her a sense of terror she'd never felt as her body lost control of itself. "No!! Please, let me go, aliens!! Stop!! Stooop!!' she cried, trying desperately to reason with her mystery controller as her body backed to the window. Soon, a crash of glass was heard throughout the workshop, followed by Amy's shriek as she plummeted to her end.

SPOT had reached Sonic a bit late. It didn't help that he'd fallen asleep. Now, the sight of Amy's mangled body was a bit much to take. He grew angry. "Who did this, Knuckles!?" he snarled. "Aliens. I heard 'em knockin' around outside." Sticks said. "What!? Then... why are we outside!?" Knuckles yelped. "There's no such thing as aliens!" Sonic growled, "Well, except the Black Arms, the Wisps, possibly the Babylon Rogues, and the Zeti. But that's it!" After that "convincing" argument, everyone returned inside. However, Knuckles pulled Sticks along with him. "SPOT can cover the kitchen! I don't wanna sit in the garage all alone..." he sighed. "Aw, no. What if YOU'RE the killer?" she growled. "None of us is the killer." Sonic grumbled, lying on the couch, "I'm gonna try to sleep light. Scream loud if something comes after ya. I wanna catch it this time." he said. Knuckles and Sticks went into the garage together, not convinced that they'd both come out alive.

Knuckles passed the time by propping Tails's body up in his plane, struggling to get his head to stay upright. Meanwhile, Sticks pretended to play cards with Amy's body. "...I think you're peeking." she grumbled to her dead friend. Suddenly, the loud banging was heard once again, making Knuckles drop Tails's head directly on the ground. "It's the ghost!" he gasped. "Aliens!" Sticks corrected. "Oh, right, thanks." Knuckles sighed, "In that case, I can fight it!" he decided, hopping down from the plane and heading for the garage door. "No! You'll get us both killed! You can't fight aliens! All you can do is admit they're real!" Sticks stammered. Knuckles scoffed. "Watch and learn, jungle girl." he said, lifting up the garage door so it opened all the way and storming outside, fists crashing over the apparent "alien!" Shouts and yells went up as the struggle commenced, but then the alien appeared in front of Sticks in a burst of smoke! "You guys are mean!" it said. "Alien!!" Sticks cried, tossing her boomerang at him! "Ow!!" he cried. Looking more carefully, Sticks could see it was actually a human in an alligator suit, and that Knuckles was busy beating up nothing currently. "The alien has taken human form!!" Sticks cried, tossing her boomerang again! Knuckles finally walked back in and corrected her. "It's just Gator... What're you doing here, Gator!?" he grunted. "You gotta hide me, guys! The Loch Ness Monster is after me!!" he wailed, "It's been chasing me since last Thursday!" he added. Sticks nodded. "That makes sense." she said. Sonic ran into the room with a look of concern, but then frowned. "Oh... Gator." he yawned, "I guess the danger's passed for tonight..." he said. Sticks took Gator by the hand and led him outside. "C'mon. I know how to ward off lake monsters. But it'll cost ya!" she said. "Do you accept magic beans?" he asked. "Of course!" she replied. Knuckles sighed, a bit relieved. "I guess that solves the mystery of the aliens. Now, what was I doing...?" he said to himself. As he turned to pick up Tails's head, a flash of red light struck him from behind the plane! "I have an overwhelming urge to cut my head off with those blades. Sounds hard though. Can't I just bore this power drill through my skull?" he said, picking up a drill off the floor. As he turned it on, he started to sweat. "What am I DOING?? S-SONIIIIC!! Wake up!! I'm killing me!!" he yelled. Sonic jumped and scrambled into the room, but the method of death was too quick, and he found Knuckles on the floor with the drill stuck between his eyes.

Sonic and Sticks found themselves sitting in the living room together, with SPOT charging in the corner. "My money's on the robot to croak next." Sticks whispered. Sonic sighed. "We need to keep alert. Make us some coffee, Sticks." he suggested. "I can make coffee?" she said in confusion. "There's a coffee MAKER in the kitchen. Shouldn't be any trouble." Sonic replied. Sticks got up slowly. "All right... But stop dying while I'm not lookin! That's a cheap trick!" she grumbled, heading to the kitchen. She looked around with utter confusion once there. "All right Sticks... You was here earlier... Where's that coffee makin' gizmo?" she muttered, glancing about. Her eyes settled on the microwave. "Two coffees, please. Oh, right!" she said, pressing the number 2 on the machine. "Heh, technology really IS easy!" she sighed. Suddenly, she heard footsteps behind her, and spun around! It was merely SPOT. "Hey, tin can. Don't sneak up on me! You'll make me think you're the killer again! Ha! As if such a cute little thing could kill all of us..." she said with a cutesy voice. SPOT looked up at her, and then his eye monitor flashed with a hypnotic red light! "I could be wrong the second time and right the first time, though..." Sticks gulped. Now she was hypnotized in a room utterly filled with instruments of death. She found herself turning on the stove. "Hey, I didn't know I knew how to work this thing!" she babbled, "Wait!! Fire!! You found my one weakness!! No... NOOOO!!" she gasped as she... started boiling water. "Huh...? What's your game, pup?" she growled. "How's that coffee comin' Sticks?" Sonic called. "The robo-dog's a psycho!!" Sticks shouted. Sonic chuckled to himself. "Typical Sticks nonsense..." he sighed. Sticks started tossing seemingly random ingrediants into the boiling water, not having the slightest clue what her body was planning. "What am I doing? What're you makin' me do?? Huh???" she yelped as she suddenly climbed up the stove. She gasped suddenly. "I'm makin' boiled badger surprise!! You sick bastard!!" she hissed. "SOOONIIIC!!" she cried, unable to stop herself. Tears formed in her eyes as she dipped her toe into the scalding water. "Tell my mom... She was right that I die in a cooking accident!!" she wailed.

After about twenty minutes and a lot of wondering about that coffee, Sonic smelled something peculiar. "Something smells good... In a sinister way..." he said, getting up and heading to the kitchen. Seeing the lifeless head of Sticks jutting out of a pot of boiling water was all he needed to see. He walked over to the stove, turned it off, and leaned over the sink, the deaths of his friends finally catching up to his mind. He glanced at SPOT. "You did this... Why??" he growled. The robot stared blankly at him. "WHY!!!?" Sonic repeated, furiously. When SPOT didn't respond, Sonic struck him with a spin attack, breaking the robot's body into pieces. However, this didn't do anything for the pain. "Tails... Amy... Knuckles... Sticks... they're all gone... What's left for me?" he gasped shakily. He crept to the garage in Tails's workshop, passing by the bodies of each of his friends. He picked up a rope. He headed outside, seeming in a trance-like state himself. He tied the rope ever so carefully, and placed the loop he created about his neck, running away and tying the other end to the train track, on the bridge suspended above Tails's Workshop. "...See you soon, everyone..." he sighed, stepping off the bridge.

He remained dangling there, suspended above the Mystic Ruins, until a train came and snapped the rope. His body was shattered on landing, but his soul was already long gone.

The End.
Beware Red Lights...and Happy Halloween.