Two New Steps
Chapter 1
On the Eastern coast of Canada, there was a small town by the beach. The people were living their lives as per usual, all greeting each other with friendly waves. Standing right next to the beach was a one-story apartment building. The building consisted of a handful of tenants, each of which knew each other fairly well. One of the tenants was a young man sitting in a wheelchair, gazing out of his window. The young man watched the people on the beach enjoy the warm summer sun with a content smile. Normally, he would go out and enjoy the day with them. Unfortunately, due to an accident that he was involved in a few years ago, the young man has been confined to a wheelchair. The young man sighed as he glanced down at his unresponsive legs. He rubbed his hands on his knees, but didn't even get the slightest reaction to his touch. The young man had big aspirations when he could still walk, but now he would have to cast them all aside.
The young man shook his head and wheeled his chair over to his desk. On his desk was a monitor, keyboard, mouse, headset, and a controller. Under the desk was the latest gaming console that his neighbors so kindly pitched in to give him upon his return from the hospital. Video games had become a great comfort in the young man’s life since the accident. It kept him entertained and connected with other people he met online. As soon as the young man booted up his system, he saw a notification pop up for a video call. He saw the gamertag name and chuckled as he put his headset on and adjusted the mic near his mouth before clicking the answer button.
“How did you know I was already online?” the young man asked.
“Because you are a creature of habit, my fellow crippled friend,” The voice on the phone said in a cheerful and playful tone.
“Am I now?” the young man asked, teasingly. “How’s that leg of yours?”
“Well, still a stump after losing it, but hey at least I get half off deals on shoes,” the voice over the game joked. “I’ve been working on my new prosthetic, with any luck I’ll be able to try and walk.”
“I’m glad for you, Jet, really,” the young man said.
Jet Stream was one of the young man’s closest online friends. He was one of the first gamers the young man played with when he first started playing his gaming system. The two bonded rather quickly when they expressed their handicapped conditions with each other. After familiarizing and keeping in contact with each other for a year, they then shared how they ended up how they are now. The young man was glad he made a friend who knows what it's like to not be able to be as mobile as everyone else.
“So, what’re we in the mood for today?” the young man asked.
“Hmm, good question, Crimson.” Crimson was the young man’s player tag. “How about this new version of Sonic Forces? I hear it’s a multiplayer version now.”
“Seriously?” Crimson said. “When did they add that feature?”
“They added co-op play and some new story mode scenes. It’s only available on PC. And get this, game’s been out for a year but no one has been able to beat it on max difficulty,” Jet said, sounding eager.
“That right?” The young man said and booted up the game. “Did you finally beat the record on the last level yet?”
“I did. Took a long while but I finally managed to beat it. So, what do you say we try to beat this undefeatable level?” Jet asked, sounding very excited.
“Hmm…” Crimson glanced over on his desk and grabbed his glasses. He only wore them if he wanted to read something or if he ever got serious playing a game. He put his glasses on and smirked confidently. “Send the invite. Let’s do this.”
Though Crimson couldn’t see it himself, he knew that Jet was also grinning. Jet sent the link, and the two created their characters and began to spend hours playing.
“Jet! On your right! More of Eggman’s robots!” Crimson warned as he used his flamethrower to cover Jet’s character’s flank.
“Hah! Not even a problem,” Jet said with high confidence. “Not when I have my Quantum Blaster.” Jet’s character easily blasted down each of the robots with ease.
“I still can’t believe you imported a weapon from power rangers into this game,” Crimson chuckled as he watched his friend use a gun that can turn into a sword.
“Hey, when you have the power to mod a game, you mod the game. Besides, you weren’t complaining when I gave you a weapon that can turn into any of the other wispons,” Jet said smugly.
“Got a minute left!” Crimson said as he mashed his buttons and destroyed more robots. “I’m switching to Lighting Wispon!”
“And I’ll cut them down!” He shouted in equal excitement as he moved his character as fast as possible to slice down enemies.
“I see Infinite!” Crimson shouted as the main antagonist appeared. “I’m switching to Drill Wispon! Let’s end this!”
“Switching to blaster mode. Time to put a stop to Infinite!” Both players started to mash their controllers buttons as they were sweating bullets while playing.
“COME ON! COME ON!” Crimson shouted and leaned forward, almost falling out of his wheelchair. “TEN SECONDS! 25% ON INFINITE’S HEALTH BAR! SWITCHING TO ASTEROID WISPON!”
“FIVE SECONDS! ONLY 5% TO GO!” Jet was panting as he kept spamming the same attack as fast as his fingers could move.
“MY FINGERS!” Crimson cried.
“JUST TWO SECONDS LEFT!” Jet howled as the skin on his fingers were heating up and bruising.
At the same exact time, both players mashed their buttons at the same time and managed to beat Infinite at the last nanosecond. Infinite yelled in defeat as the scene changed to him falling to the ground before collapsing.
“We did it…” Crimson muttered. “WE DID IT! WE BEAT THE UNBEATABLE LEVEL!”
“Fuck yeah we did!” Jet’s voice boomed through the screen. “I got it all ok video too!” Over the headphones, Crimson could hear Jet fall over. “Haha, got too excited!”
“Hey, you okay?” Crimson asked.
“Y-Yeah, I tried to jump for joy, but forgot I only got the one leg,” Jet said, sounding a tad sad.
Suddenly, a window popped up on their game.
Congratulations!
You have successfully beaten Sonic Forces Secret Level!
Check out your reward in the item section in the customization menu!
“Ooh! New item?” Crimson said.
“Huh, weird. I wonder what they could be?” Jet, who had gotten back into his chair, checked on the new items with Crimson.
Crimson also checked the menu but the only thing he saw was a question mark.
“Uh…you seeing what I’m seeing?” Crimson asked.
“Yeah, maybe it’s because of the mod we can’t see it?” Jet hummed as he moved to click on the mysterious item. “I’m gonna click on it to find out what it is.”
“Same.” Crimson clicked on it as well. Another window popped up and it had a question displayed with a yes or no option.
Do you crave adventure?
“This is weird. It’s a question, and not an item.” Jet voiced mild concern. “Maybe the game has another secret level?”
“If it is, I’m down to play some more. I’m gonna click yes,” Crimson said and clicked on the option.
“Well, I can’t let you play alone now can I? I’m in.” And like Crimson, Jet clicked the same option before suddenly their screen went black. “What the?”
“Hey! Is the game broken?” Crimson said, and tried pressing the buttons on his controller.
“Same here, wait…the power is off in my house? But I can still hear yo-” Suddenly Jet’s voice cuts out and everything goes silent.
“Jet? Jet!” Crimson said, until the power went out in his room. “What the hell?!”
Suddenly, Crimson’s screen turned back on. The screen was white, and Crimson wheeled back slowly away from the screen. Just then, the screen started displaying some kind of swirling vortex. The screen shined brighter and brighter as the swirling on the screen faster and faster. Crimson felt freaked out and attempted to wheel his chair away, until his screen shook violently and the vortex on the screen burst out from the monitor.
“What the shit?!” Crimson yelped.
The vortex then stared to pull Crimson towards it. Crimson tried to stop his chair from wheeling towards the vortex, unfortunately it was too strong.
“OH SHIT! OH SHIT! OH SHIT!” Crimson panicked. “OOOOOHHHHH SHHHIIIIITTTT!!”
Before Crimson could attempt to try and avoid being sucked into the vortex, his chair fell forward and made the young man fall in. The last thing that Crimson saw was him falling through the portal and it shutting behind him. All at once, the vortex in his room disappeared and it was complete silence. After a few minutes of quiet, there was a knock at Crimson’s door but no one was inside the now empty room.
Crimson’s head felt like it was beaten with a baseball bat before he was dropped on his head. The young man groaned and winced as a ringing in his ear kept his hearing deafened. Slowly but surely, Crimson’s senses started to come back to him.
First off, Crimson could tell he was laying on his back. When he breathed in, he could smell the air and the outside world instead of his room. When Crimson opened his eyes, all he saw was a blur and blinding light of the sun.
“Ugh…” Crimson groaned, raising his hand over his face. “My aching head…”
“C-Crimson? Is that you man?” A second voice called out, the voice of Jet Stream. “You don’t sound like you’re on a microphone?”
“Who’s there?” Crimson sat up and looked around. He saw a blur in the distance, but couldn’t make it out. “Shit…where’re my glasses? Why’re my eyes so bad?”
“Who do you think it is?” Jet called out. “I can’t see either, but I can hear you. Where are you?” He called again.
“I…wait…” Crimson had to process the voice for a moment until it finally popped into his head. “Jet?! That you?!”
“No fucking shit, dumbass, I’ve been saying that for the last minute.” Jet called back, annoyed. “Are you okay?”
“I can’t see…” Crimson said, patting the dirt. “My eyes are still adjusting, and I can’t find my glasses.”
“Well, I’m no better, I can barely feel my arms and leg,” Jet whined and groaned. “You sound close.”
Crimson kept patting the ground until his hands brushed up against something. He touched the object and felt it around until he recognized the shape.
“Found them! Found my glasses!” Crimson said and picked them up. He rubbed the lenses with his shirt and put them over his face. “Now, let’s get a good look at-”
Crimson stopped talking almost immediately when he turned towards the source of Jet’s voice. He couldn’t make sense as to what exactly he was looking at. It looked like some kind of freaky anthropomorphic bird creature with cyan-blue feathers, sitting just a ways from him. It wore a black t-shirt with arrows pointing upwards, camo cargo pants, black and white sneakers, black fingerless gloves, and a pair of goggles on its head. The creature rubbed its eyes a little until it blinked, and then looked over at Crimson. It then also had a look of shock that mirrored his level of surprise. There was a silence between the two as they just stared at each other, unmoving.
“AAAAHH! DEMON BIRD!” Crimson yelped.
“Aaah! Wearwolf!” The bird creature yelled and crawled away.
“Wearwolf?! I’m not-!” Crimson snapped until he looked down at himself.
The first thing he noticed was that he had red fur all over his body. He wore tan-green cargo pants, green black tipped boots, black tank top, green and white gloves, and a utility strap that went over his shoulder and around his waist. When crimson touched his face, he felt that his mouth was stretched outward like a dog’s muzzle. Crimson was already in the process of having a panic attack, and he felt something move beyond him. When he looked back, he saw a bushy red tail that was sticking out from where his tailbone was.
“Oh my god?!” Crimson panicked. “What the fuck is this?! What happened to me?!”
“Why the fuck do I have feathers!?” The avian creature screamed in shock as he fumbled backwards examining his body until accidentally colliding with the wolf creature.
“Gah!” They both yelped.
“Who the fuck are you?!” They both said. “Who the fuck am I?! I asked you that! Stop copying me! You’re copying me! No I’m not! Yes you are! Shut up!”
Both quickly moved their hand to slap the other, each one smacking the other in the cheek and falling down.
“Ow!” Crimson said. “The fuck’s your problem, bird boy?!”
“Me?! What about you, dog breath!?” The bird shouted back.
Both were about to throw more insults at each other until they both stopped for a second. More seconds ticked by until they became minutes. Neither side said anything, neither blinked, and neither dared look away from each other. It wasn’t until Crimson blinked, did he say something.
“…J…Jet…?” Crimson said.
“Crimson?” Jet asked back.
Both slowly hobbled onto their feet, each one tumbling and fumbling trying to stand. When they managed to get their legs underneath them, they both examined one another.
Once again, both of them froze in place. Their breath was growing heavy as they both slowly looked down at their legs. Crimson was standing on both his legs while Jet was also standing on both of his two legs. Their hearts were beating faster and faster as their eyes become dry from not blinking.
“J-Jet?!” Crimson said in a choked up voice. “A…A-Are we…s-standing?”
Jet, being the most baffled, leaned down and pulled the pant leg on his left leg, and saw that he did indeed have his missing leg back. Almost frightened, he slowly straightened out. “W-we’re dreaming. We have to be dreaming,” he said.
Crimson gulped a large lump in his throat as his legs began to shake. He very precariously took a step forward and gently set it down on the ground. He had to hold his arms out in order to keep his balance but managed to take the step. Tears began to well up in his eyes, and he looked at Jet.
“I…I took a step…!” Crimson said.
Jet was preoccupied with his own legs as he stood on his left leg and did a few jumps up and down.
“It’s real, it’s really real! I’ve got my leg back!” Jet cheered.
Crimson took another step but lost his balance and fell forward.
“Ugh!” Crimson grunted.
Jet was about to help him up, but Crimson held up his hand. Crimson took a deep breath and raised his right leg up to plant it on the ground. Then he raised his left leg and planted it on the ground next to his right. Crimson made sure to be careful when standing up straight as he rose all the way on his feet again. The young man took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. His tears began to leak from his eyes as a wide smile grew across his lips.
“I’m…standing,” Crimson said. “After three years, I’m standing again.”
“I know what you mean.” Jet was smiling and had tears running down his beak as he admired his left leg. “I lost this thing nearly eight years ago, and now I have it back as good as new.” He couldn’t help but jump up and down on his left leg before losing his balance and falling onto his back.
“You okay?” Crimson asked, glancing down at Jet but his friend just had a big smile.
“If this is a dream, then let me stay asleep and never wake up.” The avain moved his arms and legs in long arks like you would when making a snow angel. “I don’t even care that I’m some bird creature.”
“That brings up a very large elephant in the room,” Crimson said as he looked down at his hands. “What in the ever-loving fuck happened to us?”
“Who knows, and who cares?” Jet said casually, closing his eyes and enjoying the lush green grass, as a cool breeze blew. “Hey, now that I’m thinking about it, don’t we look like our mobian avatars?”
“Now that you mention it…” Crimson said, looking at his clothes. “We kinda do. Didn’t you choose the bird character?”
“I did, and you chose a wolf, right?” Jet slowly sat up straight and took a moment to enjoy the fact he had his missing leg back. “Since we are pointing out the weird and strange things, where exactly are we?”
Crimson looked around and noticed they were standing in the middle of a grassy field with a few trees standing around.
“Your guess is as good as mine. It looks like Edmonton, but I don’t see any buildings. I live in New Brunswick, so I haven’t really been to many places in Canada,” Crimson replied.
“I lived in the desert part of California, and we don’t have trees or grass this lush near my home.” Jet finally stood up and looked around before scratching the back of his head. “Maybe we should start walking and hope we see either a building or a recognizable landmark.”
“I know right.” Jet moved a hand to cup over his eyes, as he examined the position of the sun. “Let’s go this way.” He pointed North.
Crimson shrugged and followed Jet. After taking a few steps, Crimson tripped but Jet managed to catch him.
“Oops…” Crimson chuckled.
“You okay, dog?” Jet joked as he moved one of Crimson’s arms over his shoulder. “I got you. Take your time and try to adjust.”
“Thanks,” Crimson said and they walked along. The two continued their trek for a while until Crimson managed to walk on his own. “This is just so wild. Is it too late to sock me in the jaw so I can make sure I’m not dreaming?”
Jet laughed before smacking the back of Crimson's head. “Will a slap to the back of the head do?”
“Ow…yup, not dreaming,” Crimson said. “By the way, I guess now’s as good a time as any to ask, what’s your real name?”
“Oh, well, it’s…ah…” Jet had stopped walking and moved his free hand to his beak as he tried to think. “I-I can’t remember.”
“You can’t?” Crimson said and they stopped walking.
“Can you remember your name?” Jet asked seeing that Crimson had a puzzled look on his own face.
Crimson was about to say something, but the words died in his mouth.
“I…I can’t remember either!” Crimson said. “What the hell?! How can I not remember my own name?”
“I can’t imagine why we’d have an issue remembering something as simple as our own names, but for the moment we shouldn’t panic.” Jet gave his friend a gentle tug and the two continued their walk. “For now, let’s focus on finding civilization.”
“Yeah…” Crimson said as he scratched his head. “This kinda sucks I can’t remember my name. Kinda makes me feel like I’m missing a part of myself.”
“But if that’s all we can’t remember then there’s no point worrying over it. We have each other, and we can walk again. I’m not gonna question it.” Jet, who seemed the least worried, smiled as the two would eventually find a dirty path to walk along.
“Well, this is convenient,” Crimson said. “Which way, right or left?”
“Hmm.” Jet took a moment to survey the area, before pointing left. “Look, I can see some smoke off in the distance, it could mean people.”
“Smoke?” Crimson looked to where Jet was pointing and saw the smoke. Only he slightly narrowed his eyes when he saw it. “Uh, Jet? Does that smoke look a tad black to you?”
Taking a second glance Jet felt that his companion may have a point. “Well, maybe it’s a campfire? Either way, we should probably investigate.”
The two walked towards the direction of the smoke, while also being slightly precautious.
“I just realized,” Crimson said. “How are we gonna explain to people what we are? I’d imagine they’d be freaked if they saw a couple of anthropomorphic animals who can talk,” Crimson said.
Jet thought long and hard about it before snapping his finger. “We’ll just say we are wearing customs, and are attending a friend’s cosplay party.”
“Pretty fricken real-ass costumes,” Crimson said sarcastically.
“Well, if you have a better suggestion, smartass, I’d love to hear it.” Jet grumbled as they continued down a hill.
“Okay, maybe if we act like real animals?” Crimson said, only for Jet to give him a deadpan stare as they walked up another hill. “What? We are animals. So how could it be weird if we acted like…” When they reached the top of the hill, Crimson gasped in shock.
Jet arched a brow and looked at what his friend was seeing. Jet also gasped when he saw a town on fire with black creatures attacking everything in sight. What’s more is that when they saw the town’s residents, they all appeared to be multicolored anthropomorphic horse creatures.
“What…the hell am I looking at?!” Crimson shouted.
“D-Did we end up getting electrocuted, and this is all one crazy-ass dream?!” Jet asked in disbelief as the two quickly moved to hide behind a rock.
Crimson hid behind the rock with them. When he glanced over the rock, he saw more of the black creatures flying in to attack the town. That’s when Crimson found himself staring at the creatures, not bothering to duck down back behind the rock.
“Dude, get the hell down!” Jet grabbed the wolf mobian by the tail and pulled him back. “You have no idea what they are or if they are hostile!”
“I…I know those black creatures…” Crimson said aloud.
“What are you walking about?” Jet peaked around the rock and saw the creatures. Much like his companion he too noticed something particularly familiar about the black creatures. “Aren’t those…”
“The Black Arms?!” Both friends yelped and hid back behind the rock.
“What the actual fuck?! Those’re Black Arms Monsters!” Crimson said.
“Okay, yeah, we are dreaming, this is most definitely a dream.” Jet started to slap his face trying to wake up but had no such luck.
“Jet, this ain’t a dream!” Crimson said. This is real! Those things are real! And those monsters are Black Arms!”
“I know, and I really wish I didn't!” Jet was rubbing his cheeks after slapping him before slowly getting up onto his feet. “Let’s get moving before one of those things comes after us next.”
Suddenly, the two heard what sounded like a mix of roller skating and jet engines. This particular sound was something they both knew all too well. The sound made both friends slowly turn to each other with bug-eyed expressions.
“Dude…no fuckn’ way…” Crimson said.
“I swear to whatever deity lives here, I’m not seeing what I’m seeing.” Jet was rubbing his eyes before looking at the familiar red and black hedgehog.
Sure enough, they saw the one and only legendary ultimate life form Shadow the Hedgehog, skate and jump over a couple buildings before jumping off and landing on one of the creatures. He grabbed the creature’s blaster and shot its head off before seething at the rest of the attacking creatures before skating off into the town.
“SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG?!” Both friends shouted.
“DUDE! THAT WAS SHADOW!” Crimson yelled, shaking Jet back and forth. “THAT WAS SHADOW THE MOTHERFUCKING HEDGEHOG!”
“I get it, I get it, now stop shaking me please!” Jet’s eyes were rolling and his body wobbled with every shake his friend gave him..
Unfortunately for them, a couple of the creators noticed their hiding spot. They growled threateningly at them before making a break right at them.
“Oh shit!” Crimson yelped.
“Remind me to send your ass to obedience school if we survive this,” Jet gulped.
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A revamped? Hopefully, Rainbow isn't so racist/xenophobic to our Mobian protagonists this time.
Okay... reading time...
So don't get me wrong I loved the old version of this story but what made you reboot the story is it the same reason why you reboot your other story?
11575422
Sorta. Goken and I both felt that the old version of this story wasn’t going anywhere, and was just dragging on. Honestly, at the time, we just started writing in the spur of the moment. So after some years of thinking it over and really thinking about how we could improve it by coming up with a different plot, we decided to give it one more go.
11575357
....I mean...probably not??
Also I never saw the original but I like this one already
11575425
Do you plan to keep some elements form the old version of the story or is this a full rewrite 🤔
11575453
You’ll just have to wait and see. 😁
11575504
boooo no fair
11575432
No, I don't want to see it repeating.
I hope this revamped can be better off without that stupid drama.
11575526
11575432
Rest assured, there will be no xenophobia or racism. We as the authors realize that it was unnecessary and over the top in the old version.
11575506
Well it's both fair and unfair.
It's unfair because of no spoilers, but it's also fair because,since it's in comment form, it's to everyone.
Not to nitpick but, why are they fanboying in a crisis situation?
You won't see a hostage in a bank robbery point to the window and yell "Is that Robert Downey Jr!?"
11575526
..ah...I mean..it IS a mew version so they have to shed stuff then put new stuff
Spotted some potential mistakes. They're in bold.
Werewolf. Unless it's a foreign spelling I've never heard of.
Should be uppercase since it's a proper noun.
Avian. Either arcs or arches. Ark typically refers to either the biblical ship Noah build or the tough-as-nails survival game.
Costumes. Unless it's a slang term in this instance.
Creatures.
That's all the potential mistakes I noticed while reading.
I wonder if crimson going to get lucky again
Oh cool you revamped this I can't wait to read this
I'm curious as to why Shadow and the Black Arms are there.
This was a good chapter definitely different from the original and I liked it