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One more… just one more emblem and I'll finally 100% this stupid game.

Damn, what a grindy journey this had been.

After a few days of playing this game, I was finally this close to completing Sonic Adventure 2. Now, some may be wondering: Why did I play this game to completion so damn late into the franchise? Well, to put it simply, I’m a guy who loves completing games, no matter what sort of game they are. Unlike a certain big-bearded youtuber, I don’t do it for money or views, I just simply do it for fun… and to feed into my perfectionism.

Another thing is that I recently joined the Sonic fandom. After seeing the movies, I decided to check out the games myself (on an emulator, duh). I started with the classic games first before I reached the adventure era, as the fans call it. Completing the classic games was alright, I can even consider them fun to complete, especially 3 & Knuckles. I decided to look into the spinoffs… but I just stuck with the mainlines to complete because I didn’t hear anything fun about them.

But Adventure 1 and 2? Holy shit, what was Sega thinking?

Sonic Adventure was a really good game… at least story-wise. So many play styles with a unique kinda story. But the side missions? Holy shit, who actually programmed that? Was it as bad in the original version, or was it just a DX problem? Whatever the case, it felt like I was playing a Souls-like platformer just to 100% that game. Like, getting the emblems is fine… but the side missions? Another thing entirely.

And then comes the current game I’m playing… Sonic Adventure 2. Unlike its predecessor… this game decided to take a different route to 100% completion. And that was… Tamagotchi grinding. You see, outside of the extra level missions, they decided to make the remaining emblems of the game tied to the Chao Garden. I’ve seen the Chao Garden in the first Adventure game, but I didn’t give much attention to it since it was literally just an extra thing.

But in the sequel? My goodness, they wanted you to spend most of your hours here.

Collect these shards and animals throughout the levels to give to the chao, level them up, repeat the process a bunch of times for the chao to level up their stats, and have them compete in races or battles that look hella illegal, and the difficulty of those two things gets increased until you level your little water… creature thingy more stuff to tackle those events. It’s SO grindy, and most of my play time was spent raising two of them for some achievements as well. Again, what was Sega thinking!?!?

Obviously, my perfectionism didn’t let me use cheats to make the process faster by any means. I wanted to feel proud of achieving these sorta things just like… well, with most of the things I do in my life. I want to do it while not half-assing anything.

… maybe I just like to gloat about some things too, but whatever, at least it gets me the best results possible. Even my boss loves my work for the company I work for.

Anyway, I was close to being done with this. I decided to overlevel my chao, having level 99 on every stat, just so it can one-shot every opponent in the chao karate. Not sure if it’ll actually be oneshot, but it’ll definitely be a guaranteed win anyway. But I wasn’t gonna endure that tournament today, it was almost midnight, and I was tired as hell. I was gonna leave that for tomorrow. After all, I remember seeing something about a nice reward for getting all the emblems, so I’ll have a better reaction to that rather than the stressful relief.

Hopefully, this reward would be worth all the hours of grinding. I’d look it up, but I like playing my games blind as much as possible.

I yawned as I turned off the computer, stretching a little bit before rubbing my eyelids. I swiveled my chair around, looking at my neatly organized room with a few posters hanging close above my bed perfectly aligned with one another, just how I liked them. The posters were of cool art pieces of some anime and video games I usually enjoy casually. My bed was neatly organized, ready for a tired man like myself to sleep on.

Without wasting time, I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth before returning to my room, putting on my pajamas, and then sitting on the bed. I grabbed my phone, which was charging on the cabinet beside the bed. I decided to check the messages to see if there was any from my boss about any surprise work for tomorrow. Thankfully not, however… There was a message from my dad.

… I’ll answer him tomorrow; there’s no reason to worry about him, of all people, with my mind this fatigued.

I rubbed my eyelids as I put my phone away, slipping under the covers and lying down. I adjusted my position again before muttering to myself. “After I’m done with that tournament tomorrow… I never want to look at a chao’s face ever again.”

And with that, I closed my eyes, waiting until I was blissfully drifting into the unconscious embrace of sleep.

The howling winds roared in the endless darkness of the void. Winds of nothing, the darkness of nothing, the space in the middle of nothing.

Nothing at all.

It was like that in the beginning, too. The void expanded infinitely from all sides, in any shape, and in every dimension. It was only darkness, no living thing existed, and there was not a single place in the infinity that existed; the concept of time and space was nonexistent. It was null, it was nothing, it was the void. The absence of everything that could exist… that was until the creation of the multiverse came along.

In the following billions of years, the void started shrinking as the multiverse began expanding little by little, atom by atom. And soon enough, the void only became these little gaps that separated realms and dimensions, and no living thing could survive within such a place.

Unless, that is… if they received help from an eldritch being or object that could pierce through the darkness of the void.

Floating through the darkness of the void, undeterred by the howling winds and lack of air, there was a human. Said human was enveloped in this green glowing bubble, the bubble drifting into a certain corner of the void while this… genderless voice echoed in the background.

Human from another universe… We have been waiting for someone like you. By acknowledging the existence of our world and learning about it, we are finally able to contact you.

The human was unconscious; he couldn’t hear the voice. He was too busy in their sleep, his mind deep into dreamland. 

You have been chosen to watch over the pioneers of the planet we reside on. We beg of you to be their guardian, to guide them and protect them with all your might. This universe is dangerous, and the current champions of the world may not be able to conquer every threat they throw at us.

The human yawned a little bit before turning to the side in his sleep. There was light piercing through the void that was a bit bothersome to him.

But fear not. You shall receive our blessing, along with the powers of our previous guardian. You shall also receive a vessel that shall help you fit into the universe. So please, I beg of you, do it for us…

The man continued drifting into the source of the light. However, his body began emitting a blinding bluish-green light as it began to morph and change shape, even beginning to shrink a little bit as well. 

Please, protect our planet!

The human then drifted into the light…

… ugh… my head hurt…

I couldn’t help but roll a little bit as I tried to rub my hand on my forehead, trying to smother that headache from my mind. God, I hate it when I wake up with a headache. At least it was a Saturday, and there wouldn’t be any work today and–

… wait a minute… why does my hand feel… strange? And my skin… why does it feel so… smooth and moist?

“W-what? My… hand… why can’t I feel my fingers… my legs or my elbows? And… is there something on my back?” I opened my eyes–or at least, I thought I did–and I was met with total darkness. I couldn’t see a thing… and I was feeling… constricted. Like something was restricting my movements, as if the covers I was in were wrapped in chains. Was it still night too? But wait, even if it was still night… I’m pretty sure I would’ve seen a few lights from below my apartment, wouldn’t I?

What the hell was going on!?

“Is… is this a dream? No, wait, if it was, I wouldn’t be realizing that… then what is… why does my body feel so… moist and strange?” I then tried stretching my arms a little bit, actually, I tried getting up from my bed… but from all my sides, I couldn’t help but feel constricted. I couldn’t… move correctly. I couldn’t stretch myself, I just couldn’t feel myself correctly…

Now, I wasn’t a claustrophobic sorta person. However, I… was beginning to feel this strange feeling of anxiety building up in my chest. It was weird, I never felt like this before, but now… in this complete darkness, with restraint all over my body and numbness on certain body parts, I just couldn’t help but feel like I may have been in some kind of danger. ‘Was I… kidnapped?’

It was a fleeting thought that I had, one that made me a bit more tense than normal. Why would someone even want to kidnap me? Sure, I lived in a nice apartment and was paid pretty well for my work. But, still, why? I was just a random salary man, not a CEO or something big like that!

Normally, I would’ve just written it off as a paranoid thought of mine in a few seconds or so. However, the thought began to intensify a little bit once I began to hear muffled voices coming from somewhere in the darkness of my sight. I wasn’t able to pinpoint exactly where the voices came from; it was almost as if I were trapped somewhere, blindfolded.

… I- I needed to escape.

If I were bound under darkness and constraints, my captors still let me breathe, so they must want me alive for something. Ransom? Perhaps, and those muffled voices I could hear… that must mean that they were close by, despite not being able to hear them correctly. So… they might’ve come to check on me to see if I was awake. 

So what I should do is simple. I should just… not move as much when those voices are around. From what I could hear, those voices sounded close enough; they were probably in my vicinity. I couldn’t hear any intelligible words, but it was probably because of how much they bound me. Ugh, if only I could get some info while trying to escape…

Whatever, I needed to go through with this. I took a deep breath, calming myself down and trying to not to move a single muscle in my body. I took my mind to places that led me to calm down, such as an organized table, a clean and pristine sink, a 100% completed save file on any of my games, and how my boss usually showers me with compliments whenever I send him a document with zero grammatical errors and with no customer dissatisfaction.

Then, I waited… the voices continued for a lot of seconds, dare I say, almost three minutes. Even though they quieted down a little bit, I could still hear some voices muffled beyond the darkness. I didn’t move yet, I wanted to make sure I could hear no alien sounds aside from my breathing only.

Actually, now thinking about it… he could speak; his mouth was alright. Why didn’t they put a gag or something to prevent him from screaming if he was actually kidnapped and bound?

Well, not that I could complain, I like having the ability to speak and breathe through my mouth. Whatever the case, I was managing to keep up my act of silence. It was working, for I could not hear any more voices coming from around me. 

This was my chance; now or never!

I began to struggle, stretching myself and trying to apply any sort of pressure to see if I could break whatever was holding me tight. I didn’t know what sorta furniture I was strapped to, but it was wobbly as shit. I felt like I could fall down at any moment with all the movements I was doing. But then–

CRACK

… what? What was that? I had pressed the back of my hand on something hard, probably against the chains or rope binding my body. But… why did I hear the sound of something crack as clear as day? It sounded something like glass or… an egg? What was going on?

I didn’t stop to think for too long; I continued to satiate my curious confusion, pressing my hand deeper into where the supposed crack sound came from. I began to hear more and more of that sound until…

Light. Actual light poked through the darkness through a hole in a… crater in the darkness? What? Actually, what was going on??? Was I not bound in chains? Rope? Any of that sort? Really, it’s as if I were in… in…

… no way.

“You’re kidding me, what…” I couldn’t help but grit my teeth, my curiosity peaking at such a revelation. This… this didn’t feel like some sort of kidnapping anymore; this felt like some sort of prank more than anything. “Okay, this is enough. I’m tired of this.”

I continued trying to break what appeared to be this giant egg. Tearing more chunks of it with my limbs as I continued to see beyond the darkness of my prison. I… could see something, but nothing more than the rays of light. So I continued to break the egg more and more–

The egg wobbled before tilting to the side, making me fall out of it, while it sounded like the egg finished breaking. My face planted on the ground, making me receive a mouthful of grass and dirt. I couldn’t help but grunt and groan a little bit before I looked up to see where I even was in the first place.

… this… wasn’t my apartment nor a hideout of some sort at all. 

I was in a grassy plain in the open air, the sun shining down on me while the wind rustled the grass around me. On the borders of the grassy plain, some trees extended as far as the eye could see. Around me, there were some patches of flowers of varying kinds, rustling in the wind, with no petals flying off in the wind. 

It seemed like I was in some sorta garden or playground… I couldn’t decipher because of the objects in my surroundings. I could see a seesaw, a swing, a slide, a jungle gym, and some other stuff. But I could also see a stone fountain, a bench, and even a tree with potted plants hanging from it. 

… there were also some… familiar creatures hanging in those places, which made my eyes widen a lot and made me question if I was dreaming or drugged. “What… am I…”

“They hatched! They actually hatched!”

A high-pitched voice came from behind me, and I looked to see not only what seemed to be a giant egg I escaped from, which was mostly baby blue, along with a green hue on the bottom and a red hue on the top, but also I saw something that made me widen my eyes even more in shock.

No way… You possibly can’t be joking about this shit…

Running towards me at full speed were… chao. Actual real-life chao. There were four of them, and each of them looked unique. They… looked pretty realistic, yet, somehow, their face remained cartoonish with the big eyes and thin lips. What caught me by surprise the most was that they retained their strange orb on the top of their heads; however, it was literally liquid.

… this had to be some sick joke by the universe; there was no way these creatures were real all along.

The four chao reached me, and holy shit, why were they so big too? The orange one with red, flame-like highlights on its nubs began speaking excitedly in a raspy, boyish voice. “Can’t believe Seraphina finally has a little brother! Look at ‘em, they’re so cute!”

I couldn’t help but crawl away a bit in fear. They… they could… speak? My mind was processing the revelations of everything right now, so that I couldn’t even process what the orange one said.

Suddenly, the purple one with jester-like appendages on the back of its head and a white halo above them put a nub on the “fiery” one’s arm with a female soft voice. “Crispin, calm down a little, okay? Can’t you see you’re scaring them?”

“Ack, my bad…” Crispín said, looking away, ashamed, the grey orb on his head morphing into a droplet of liquid that looked like a sweat drop. 

“Hm, is it just me, or do their colors not match with either Archari or Ophano?” The green chao, wearing a paper bag on its head and with a red spiky orb, questioned with a smooth and boyish voice. “They remind me of… something.”

“Well, does it matter, Woody?” The deep blue chao with white spots and a pink halo spoke next to a deep female voice. She then approached me carefully and crouched down next to me. “This is a new life in our garden that must be cherished and protected at all costs. I’m sure Archari and Ophano would love to hear the news about their new child.”

I was getting overwhelmed from all of this. I didn’t know what to say, I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what to think. It was all too much for me, stimulating my brain in all the wrong ways, which made my head literally hurt a lot from the stress that was building in my mind. It all resulted in one simple thought for me.

‘I need to run!’

I got up, not paying much attention to my surroundings, before I started to run away. However, it wasn’t literally a second before I tripped and fell on my face immediately. My… my legs… why did they feel so constrained? It’s like I couldn’t even feel them! 

I got up and tried to move again, but to the same result again. ‘W-what’s wrong with my body!?’

“Hey, calm down, little one! No need to be so afraid…” I heard the deep blue chao speak once again. But I didn’t want to hear her or anyone else. These things were probably figments of my imagination; hell, this could all be a dream at the end of it all. Chao are not real!

With my legs seemingly disabled, I decided to crawl away. However, it didn’t yield much result because of how the fiery chao just got in front of me by flying with the little wings on its back. “Yo, slow down, will you? I’m sorry I kinda scared you, but don’t worry, I’m a cool chao, I promise!”

I screamed in fear before trying to crawl away again, although, for some reason, my arms were not gaining as much distance as I expected them to. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get far because I was immediately stopped again, however, by having one of my feet grabbed and pulled by a moist and smooth hold that somehow felt sticky.

I didn’t dare to look back while I simply heard the voice of the green chao with a bit of strain. “Hey, trust him. There is no need to run. So come on, calm down for us, please?”

Knowing that I had no more chance to escape, as my foot was grabbed by actual alien hands, I couldn’t take it anymore and shouted. “STAY AWAY FROM ME! LEAVE ME ALONE!” I then curled up and just began trembling, muttering to myself while hyperventilating a bit. “I’m in a nightmare, I’m in a nightmare! Wake up, please, wake up!”

I closed my eyes and tried to imagine myself waking up in my room. Away from this place and away from these creatures. I wanted to wake up and be back in my bedroom so bad. Why wasn’t it happening? Why wasn’t I feeling the usual drowsiness being pulled away from my mind when waking up? Why wasn’t I waking up!?

… no changes. Only the sound of the wind rushing. The silence felt deafening.

That was… until someone spoke.

“Did… did you just speak…?” I knew the source of the voice from before. It was that deep blue chao, judging by how deep her voice sounded in comparison to the other female voice I’ve heard thus far. From the way her voice sounded, she was a bit close to me, too. “Did our ears deceive us?”

I didn’t respond, just trying to curl around myself harder, but having a little bit of difficulty. Why did my body feel so… wrong? Why was this happening to me of all people…? I didn’t deserve this–

Suddenly, I felt another wet touch in my body, making me flinch once I realized it was on my shoulder. I trembled, knowing that some of those creatures were touching me. Did they not understand me? What part of ‘leave me alone’ did they not understand!?

“Little one, please, I beg of you.” The same voice spoke close to me. However, I couldn’t help but feel this sort of… motherly tone coming from the female voice, sounding so soothing… comforting. “Calm down. Take a deep breath and relax. You are in no danger. Here in Floral Forest’s chao garden, you are in no danger.”

I was still trembling a little bit, overwhelmed with my current circumstances. I didn’t know what to make of what the voice said. It sounded so sure… so confident in its words that it felt like I would’ve been touched by them, no matter what. But I was shaken and a bit terrified from the situation I found myself in.

… but… as much as I wanted the easier option to come to me, there was no easier option. This… was my only one. The voice or… this creature was, unfortunately, right.

I then began to take deep breaths, trying to calm myself down a little. I didn’t fully believe the creature’s claim that I was not in danger here. But… I… I was alive. I was still alive and not dead yet. I… I didn’t know what was wrong with my body, but I was going to figure it out. I didn’t know where I was… but I was going back home. I needed to.

I needed to go back.

After taking several deep breaths and calming myself further with thoughts of things that brought me joy, I decided to uncurl a bit and open my eyes. The first thing… or creature that I saw was that same deep blue chao with white spots and a pink liquid halo. It was looking at me, smiling warmly as she observed me. “There we go, little one. No need to fear.”

“Well, leave it to Phioni, always knowing how to soothe the hatchlings, even the ones that… can speak, I guess.” I heard the purple one speak a bit further back.

Knowing that this was my fate now… I decided to ask. “Where… where am I? What… happened to me?”

“Chaos above, they can speak!” The paper bag-wearing chao commented, seeming surprised from the way its orb turned into… an exclamation point? Why was this translated to real life? 

“Did this happen before, or are we the first chao to ever witness this…?” The purple chao asked while putting a nub on its chin in curiosity.

In the distance, I could also see some other chaos chatting about while looking at me curiously. I couldn’t help but feel a bit overwhelmed again…

However, my attention was pulled back to the pink halo chao once again. “So… you’re conscious and aware…” It spoke with an intrigued look. “And pretty confused too… you’re probably overwhelmed by all of this, aren’t you?” I couldn’t help but just nod at that, and that action made me realize my neck also felt pretty strange…

I was a bit scared to look down to see what had happened to my body.

The chao in front of me then nodded in understanding. “I see. Let’s go to a calmer area, so you have an easier time understanding all of this. Okay?”

The fiery chao then approached as well, making me flinch a little as he began jumping up and down in excitement. “I wanna go too, I wanna go too! This is just something too cool for me to ignore! Please, please!?”

“I wanna go as well.” The purple one said as well. “Not only to keep Crispin in check, but also to help out the hatchling if he needs anything.”

Crispin shot a glare at the purple jester-like chao. “Hey, I swear I’ll behave!” 

The deep blue chao sighed while looking at the other two. “Well, you two can come if it doesn’t cause our newly hatched friend here not to get stressed. Cressie, make sure that Crispin doesn’t overstep his boundaries.”

The purple chao then nodded and put a nub on its torso. “Understood! Will do!”

As Crispin rolled his eyes, the blue chao looked at me and motioned a nub for me to follow. “Come with me, little one. I’ll answer any questions you might have about your new situation. I recommend you crawl for now, I don’t think your feet are fully developed yet for you to be standing and walking.”

Newly hatched… fully developed feet? It’s almost as if they’re treating me like a baby… unless…

I glanced back at the cracked egg and thought about it for a moment before a shiver of fear ran through my body as I thought of the implications of what had happened to my body. I grit my teeth and shook those thoughts away from my head. I then turned back to the chao and nodded. “A-alright then…”

Meanwhile, the fiery chao, Crispin, looked at the paper bag chao and asked. “Yo, Woody, you coming too?”

Woody shook its head and responded. “No, I’m going to go talk to Seraphina about this. She must hear this, after all.”

“Okay, tell her I also sent her a hi and a kiss too~!” Crispin responded with a grin.

Woody just sighed before agreeing. “Sure, buddy…”

I didn’t hear much after that as I was crawling after the blue chao. 

She began leading me out of the park or garden, whatever, and into the woods. It honestly sucked that I was stuck with just crawling, but with the way I couldn’t feel my legs, and my whole body felt strange… yeah, it was my only option. 

Honestly, this whole situation sucked. I shouldn’t have been in this scenario in the first place. Why did this even happen to me? Why am I not even in a dream about this? It would make sense then, but it doesn’t. It just doesn’t. Was there some sort of god other than the one I’m used to that just wanted to take a piss out of me? Just because I didn’t like the chao shit in Sonic Adventure 2 didn’t mean I would change my mind if I were among them in real life!

I couldn’t help but silently groan at that before I shifted my focus to the creatures ahead of me. These chao… they REALLY weren’t what I had been expecting. Now, I didn’t know if this was something the Sonic community was already familiar with, but first of all, I don’t remember the chao from both adventure games being this tall and this smart. Sure, this… garden they spoke about wasn’t this village with construction and houses; it was more like this park with a playground, but this was a level of sapience I didn’t expect from these creatures.

… but then again, one of them did run a shop in the game, but my dumbass just thought that was a bit of the developers.

During our walk (or in my case, crawling), the fiery chao approached me and spoke. “I’m pretty sure you’ve heard it from the others, but I’m Crispin. Nice to meet ya!”

I… didn’t know how to answer that greeting, so I just nodded and meekly answered. “Uh… nice to meet you too…”

“Sorry for scaring you earlier. I didn’t mean it, okay? I hope I didn’t say something that scared you…” It said while scratching the back of its head in embarrassment… despite how short its arm was.

“You… didn’t. I was just… well, overwhelmed…” I responded. Gosh, I would never have imagined talking to a real-life video game character would be in my life bingo but… here I was. 

Crispin shrugged. “Yeah, I get it. Being born while already being conscious and mindful enough must’ve been an experience.”

“That you definitely didn’t help by stressing him out.” The purple chao, Cressie, responded while looking back at the orange chao.

Crispin’s orb turned into an exclamation point. “Will you cut that out already!? I already admitted my faults and apologized!”

“Now, you two, there’s no need to fight, especially with someone as wary as the little one in our presence. Besides…” It stopped walking, turned to me and the others, and motioned toward the environment behind it with a nub. “We’re here.”

I crawled a bit closer to the blue chao and examined our surroundings. We found ourselves in another clearing; however, instead of grass, there was a lake that sparkled with a lustrous sheen. The water looked so clean that it felt like anyone could just dive right in or relax by the shore for some fishing. Not only that, there were some trees in the distance that looked like they provided some fruit to eat too.

It was such a beautiful sight.

I was pulled out of my enchanted trance when I heard the blue chao’s voice again. “Now then.” It sat on the grass close to me and spoke. “I think this lake is a good place for some peace and quiet if the garden is getting too rowdy. Do you find it soothing, too?”

I nodded and responded. “I think so… yes.”

“Good, that means you should be less stressed to answer some of my questions. Now, to start…” It tilted its head and asked. “Do you know who you are? And what are you?”

I mulled over her question for a moment, trying to see what she meant by that. Was she trying to see if I had some awareness of my current situation? Well… I guess it was best if I remained honest about my situation. 

I nodded and replied. “I know… my name is Walter, and I’m a human.” 

Crispin and Cressie gasped out loud while the blue chao couldn’t help but have its eyes widen in shock. Crispin was the first to comment in utter shock. “What!? You joking or something!?”

Cressie then asked afterwards. “You… you just recently hatched, how would you even know what a human is? Actually, how did you even already find a name for yourself!?”

“It’s the truth!” I responded, a little bit heated. “It’s what I am and what I always was! And from the way you guys are saying it, it’s like you know what a human is and yet you act like I was anything but one…” I hesitated a little bit, the question getting caught up in my throat for a moment until I dared to ask it. “Did… something happen to me?”

The three chao looked at each other for a moment before the blue chao tilted its head. “Little one… I… think you should take a look at your body.” 

I couldn’t help but frown at that. Why… did you have to make me confront the truth? I just wanted a simple answer, but you were forcing me to do something that my mind just… refused to receive knowledge of? … but then again, ignorance is bliss, but denial is stupidity.

That was something my mother always reminded me of.

With a deep breath, I sat down and looked down at my body. My eyes widened from what I saw, even though I should have expected this in some capacity. My human skin and clothes were completely gone. Instead, they were replaced by baby blue moist skin with white accents on my fingerless nubs and feet. I had no legs, and my arms were super short as well… “W-what the…”

I remembered the lake and its clean water, so I decided to feed my curiosity and crawled to its shore. With that, I looked down into the clean water and saw my reflection in it. What I saw wasn’t the face of a human… it was the face of a chao.

The chao that I saw in the water blinked, mirroring my expression exactly. The chao had big eyes, like the others, and had green irises, two rigid appendages coming from the sides of the head, and had a red accent on top of its head. The orb floating above its head was also crimson red.

That chao was me… I was that chao. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“W-what…” I was shaken, distraught by what I saw as I distanced myself from the water. My limbs trembled as I processed the information. For some reason, I was… the same as these creatures. The same creatures that I previously thought were fictional. Was I actually dreaming? No, it felt too real to be a dream; it was probably the influence of some kinds of drugs… but why was I still too sober and conscious to even think about this stuff? “W-what happened to me…!?”

I felt myself flinch when I felt a moist touch on my arm. My head flickered to the side to see that the purple chao, Cressie, was looking at me in worry. “Hey… calm down, Walter. No need to panic, you’re alright.”

“A-alright…?” I questioned as the shock inside began to subside, giving way to anger at my current predicament. “I’m… ALRIGHT!?” I slapped its… her? Whatever! I got away from Cressie and shouted. “You don’t even know half of it, and you think I’m ALRIGHT!?!?”

“H-hey, calm down, I didn’t mean it like that.” She tried to defend herself while putting her nubs in front of her.

Even still, I was too angry and continued ranting, punching the ground as well. “Of course, because you wouldn’t know! I wasn’t just a human! I was a human with a life! I had a nice apartment, a job that paid me really nicely, and I had an amazing boss, too! My body is gone… my life is potentially gone too! And it was perfect! Everything! Down to the last minute detail!” I could feel tears welling in my eyes as the weight of my situation began to register. I sat down as I began sniffling a little bit. “I… I didn’t want any of this… I didn’t want this body, I didn’t want to be here… I-I just… I just want to go back…”

This… all of this was real. The chao that I saw in the water… it was me, that body belonged to me. I wasn’t human anymore, and the question made itself present more than ever in my mind: “What if I can’t go back?” What if I were stuck in this body? Stuck in this place with no way back home? If there were chao and everything, did that mean I was in Sonic’s world? What the hell happened for me to travel into this world? And what if I were stuck here forever?

“Walter…” I looked up to see the blue chao standing in front of me, with a sympathetic look written on its- no… her face, her bright white eyes feeling like they were staring right into my soul for a moment. “There is no need to despair. Even though it may feel like it, you are not alone.” I continued staring at her, even when she put her nubs on my arms; my view was locked onto her face, probably because of my emotional instability. “We chao are going to accept you into our community as you get to terms with your condition. You are safe here, you are still alive. Your old body might not be there with you anymore, but there might be a way to recover it; we just don’t know it yet.”

I blinked as I let her words settle within me. I was too emotionally distraught to believe most of her words right now. But… the way she calmly said everything, saying that I was safe and there might be a way to fix everything, a way to get my previous body and life back… I didn’t immediately trust it, but it did fill me with hope. 

Hope that maybe… somehow, I would be able to get my life back.

With one more sniffle, I began to wipe my tears and commented. “Damn… can’t believe I’m receiving emotional support from a water baby…”

The deep blue chao tilted her head. “Water… baby?” She then couldn’t help but smile sheepishly. “Now, despite us chao inheriting the will of water, I don’t really know how humans actually age, but I’ve hatched at least 29 years ago.”

… what???

“Regardless, it’s okay to cry. You are going through so much right now, and what you need is comfort and hope. Hope that everything is going to turn out well for you.” She finished saying before rubbing the top of my head like I was a child.

“Yeah! Don’t worry about it, even though you’re one of us now, I bet that if you just try really hard for something, you’ll eventually get it!”  Crispin said while raising a nub happily. “You just gotta believe it! After all, I didn’t start flying suddenly; I trained my wings until that point!”

“I uh… I think his problem isn’t as simple to solve as that.” Cressie commented while scratching her cheek.

“It isn’t, but Crispin has a point.” The deep blue chao said before distancing herself from me. “Walter, you need to remain hopeful that you’ll be able to get your life back, and at some point, you’ll find a way to go back or even adapt to your new life.” 

I looked aside for a moment before sighing. “Yes, now I know.” I looked back at her for a moment before deciding to say. “Thank you… er… do you have a name?”

“Oh, you may call me Phioni. And you’re welcome, I just wouldn’t like for you to be suffering like this.” She then tilted her head. “Now, little one, do you have something to ask while we’re still here? Or would you like to go back to the garden?”

I blinked at that before looking down, trying to think of something that I would decide to ask. It was then that a question came up that I would love to get the answer to. “Um… I was just wondering if you uh… You guys know a guy, or like, a hedgehog called Sonic–”

“YOU KNOW OF SONIC!?!?!” Crispin suddenly blurted out loud, getting a bit too close for comfort for a moment before backing out and jumping to his feet as his wings also fluttered in the process. “I mean, it was obvious, despite being a human in the past, who wouldn’t know of Sonic!? He’s the best that ever was! I’m a huge fan, and I wanna be like him some day, saving the world whenever there’s trouble and, and–!”

The purple chao then stepped on the floor and called out. “Chill, Crispin! Didn’t you tell us you were gonna behave? You’re gonna scare Walter again at this rate! Look, he’s shaken again!”

Realizing that he was being hyperactive again, he looked at me and rubbed his head a bit, ashamed. “Aw crap, I’m sorry… I couldn’t help myself. I’m just a super fan of Sonic, and I just get really excited when I hear about him.”

Well… that at least confirmed in what sorta world I was. The problem was… I heard that every mainline Sonic game is canon. And if so, where in the timeline was I? Shit, what even happens in later games after Adventure 2? Weren’t some of the handheld games canon, too? Ugh, questions for later, I just knew in what sort of world I was in.

“It’s uh… fine. I just got a bit startled, that’s all.” I said a bit sheepishly as I looked at the lake again, soothing myself at the sight of it. Hm… was it just me, or did the water feel a bit wavy, unlike from a minute ago?

“Still, though, why did you ask that?” Cressie suddenly asked, tilting her head curiously. “I mean, basically everyone knows who Sonic is. I bet even chao from more isolated gardens know who he is.”

“Oh, uh…” I then questioned if I should reveal myself even more about the absurdity of my situation to these guys. Like, I already revealed that I was a human and all, but there are literally normal humans in this universe that fit alongside all the crazy anthropomorphic animals and supernatural things. Maybe… I should just stick to the fact that I’m just a human of this world… for now. Because I don’t know if they’ll easily accept that there is another universe that views some universes as games. “I just… wanted to know if I was still in the same universe and not an alternate one and all.”

“Oh, I see, that would’ve been even more difficult for you to adapt to, wouldn’t it?” She asked innocently, and I just hesitantly nodded at her.

You wouldn’t even know half of it…

“Well then, with that sorted, I think we should go back to the garden. After all that stress, you surely must be pretty hungry, wouldn’t you? Especially right after hatching.” Phioni asked.

“Uh… not sure, I don’t feel–” I interrupted myself when I felt my stomach rumbling a bit, before I couldn’t help but blush a little and look away. “I… guess so.”

“Don’t worry, Floral Forest has probably the best natural grub ever, so you’ll be feeling full in a second!” Crispin said before beginning to flap his wings and flying. “Well then, race ya back there!”

As the fiery-looking chao flew ahead, Cressie began flying as well while calling to him. “Hey! Walter can’t even fly yet, let alone run! Slow down, will you!?” 

Phioni, meanwhile, couldn’t help but sigh as she muttered to herself. “Ah, those two…” She then turned to me and spoke. “Don’t worry, little one. I will accompany you back, okay?”

“That’s appreciated, thanks,” I said as I began crawling after her. If only I could walk and not be stuck crawling like a baby… but I needed to get used to my new legless feet eventually.

This… was honestly a lot. I didn’t know how long I’d have to endure being like this. But, whatever the case, these chao were right. I needed to remain hopeful that I would eventually find my way back home. After all, if I somehow came to this world, there must certainly be a way back… right?