The April First Update · 4:43pm Apr 10th, 2013
I've gotten a dozen messages asking to have the original 'April Fools' epilogue restored to Hope. I won't do that, but I will provide the text here if anyone wishes it.
For those of you who missed it, I trolled my readership with a little joke for about 24 hours on 4/1. If you've not read Hope, or don't want to 'spoil' the ending you've already read, skip the rest of this post.
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There was no denying it: The planet looked beautiful from up here. With only a curved piece of reinforced glass between him and decompression, Sonic admired the view but not the danger. It was too late for unnecessary risks at this stage in the game.
"Hey, handsome," a sultry voice interrupted his reverie. "Let's get a move on. Only another hour or so of O2 in these tanks."
"Sorry, Rouge," he radioed back. "I never get tired of the view."
"Well, I want to see it from inside the station. Let's finish up this quadrant, okay?"
"I'm on it."
Ever since Robotnik and he had fought up here, years ago, he had the nagging feeling that he had missed something. He had worked out a deal with the local agencies to give him three days on the station, and all the EVA time he could eat to search the wreckage of the old bastard's Annihilator.
The place was bigger than he remembered. Huge drifting panels, covered in odd scorch marks, floated this way and that. Many were buckled outwards, destroyed by the violent decompression that occurred when he and his nemesis battled. Robotnik had vanished that day, and they'd never been able to find out where.
He didn't know what he expected to find, if anything, but he knew he had to search. Amy had rolled her eyes, Knuckles had shrugged noncommittally, but Tails and Rouge had agreed to come along. He floated closer to a scarred panel, and began cutting it into more manageable pieces. Something behind it shifted and floated free.
Sonic fired his thrusters and drew quickly away. There had been other booby-traps up here, and he wasn't about to risk a bomb-bot finally fulfilling its mission. What he saw, though, stunned him into inaction.
"Rouge. Tails." He signaled to his friends. "We can call off the search. I found him."
Space is, by definition, cold. But if you aren't holding your breath, and aren't in near proximity to a star, you can actually survive for some time. Shielded as he was behind this panel, he might have lasted a few minutes. Less if he had any bleeding injuries.
Sonic reached out a glove and poked his old foe. His coat and skin were charred, his flesh like stone, and the strangest look was frozen upon his features.
Peace, it said. Love. Maybe even...
Hope.
yay.
This was the most beautiful April Fool's joke I'd read that day.
hehe, good thing i downloaded it!
Seems to me like having the chapter called "April Fools Epilogue" and a note about what it is would be fine, but I didn't miss it so I can't complain.
Honestly reminds me of the end of SoltyRei. Except that was much happier.
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Now I want Worker to adopt Metal Sonic...