Sonic Shuffle from the 18th Dimension

CHAPTER ONE: ARRIVING ON EARTH

There existed the 18th dimension beyond the point of no return. In this dimension was unlike anything you had ever seen. All mythical creatures existed with humans. The Xbox did not receive as much attention as it does now, and neither did its successors, the Xbox 360 and the Xbox One. Microsoft believed in the Xbox family and released it, not knowing it would be such a disaster, and refused to discontinue it. Sega didn't discontinue the Dreamcast because fans demanded sequel after sequel for one of its games, Sonic Shuffle. In the real world, Sonic Shuffle was one of the less praised games in the Sonic franchise because of the long loading screens and lack of many mini-games available. Fortunately, in this dimension, the loading screens were three seconds long each, and there were 100 extra mini-games playable, making for less cold reviews. The moment they had discovered the amount of acclaim, Nintendo and Sony released Sonic Shuffle for the Nintendo 64 and the original Playstation. Also, Sega released it for the PC with no other companies besides itself. A year later, when the Gamecube came in with its rival the Playstation 2, Sonic Shuffle got exported into these game systems, too. The only systems for which Sonic Shuffle was not released was the Xbox and the systems after it due to the lack of interest. Nintendo's own party game series, Mario Party, received less positive reviews and less sequels due to the success of Sonic Shuffle. Hearing this report drove Mario fans to depression, but very few of them, if any, committed suicide. Long story short, lots of things happened in this dimension, almost 90% of which involved the one Sonic game that the real world disliked. And the strongest of all the creatures there was a female unicorn named Sonic Shuffle, who was named squarely after the game.
Sonic was a blue color with an electric yellow mane and tail, along with emerald green eyes. She was, unquestionably, the master of all dimensional beings that lived alongside her. Not only could she fly (without wings, incredibly), but she also had the power of telekinesis, teleportation, time travel and using her forelegs as though they were her hands. She could do all of these whenever she wanted, but only did so when necessary because they were so powerful. She could die, but she couldn't stay dead forever. Neither fire, nor lightning, nor illness, nor starvation (instead, she caused havoc with every step), nor explosions could kill her permanently. If she did die, it was only for a time until the tears of one with a true heart brought her back to life, a la Pokemon the First Movie, and in perfect health. The only way she (or any other unicorn in the 18th dimension) could die forever was by old age, and it would take forever for that to happen. In the 18th dimension, the average lifespan of a healthy unicorn was up to 33 years, or 99 in human years. Sonic was among the most awesome beings you would ever know--especially in this dimension.
When Sonic was younger, she played Sonic Shuffle, the game, every day and remembered it as most of her childhood. Among all of the other games she had, Sonic Shuffle was her number one favorite; not only because it had the same name as she did, but also because it was humorous, beautiful and 100% playable. She remembered every character's lines from every cutscene she watched. When Sonic was very young, about a year old (three in unicorn years), she played Sonic Shuffle, the game, for the very first time on the Sega Dreamcast. The first time she played it, she just didn't stop for a quarter of a day. From that day on, she loved that Sonic Shuffle game and played it every chance she had. There wasn't a single thing in the dimension that would keep the two away. As Sonic Shuffle grew, so did her love for the game. In fact, she bought every copy of the game for every system. The PC. The Playstation and its successor, the Playstation 2. The Nintendo 64 and its successors, the Gamecube and the Wii. In case she lost her Dreamcast copy or she had to send it to get fixed, she had all of the other system ports with which to keep herself busy.
Sonic's parents, Super Shuffle and Power Shuffle, were overwhelmed when they discovered her many powers. They were aware of her love for the Sonic Shuffle game and thought that it was how she got her powers. She was more powerful than her parents combined. Power believed that her daughter's real birthplace was in Maginaryworld, the game's main setting, despite that she was born in the same dimension as her parents. Super Shuffle disagreed, thinking that Sonic was born in the 19th dimension or even further. As a result, Super and Power left the 18th dimension to learn where their daughter got her powers themselves, though both of them were reluctant to do so because their only daughter was so young. But they both believed that she could take care of herself without them, so they left her regardless, and they had since not returned. Nevertheless, Sonic remained unworried, assuming they would return one day. The one day on which they would see her again was unknown, but Sonic accepted that her parents would be gone. She would use the Sonic Shuffle game as a memory of her beautiful, gentle parents. Like their daughter, Super and Power could die, but only for a time. If they died when Sonic found her, all she would have to do was to cry as hard as she could to bring them back to life. All of this happened back when Sonic was two years old--six in unicorn years--and allowed herself to live her life--until one fateful day.
Sonic Shuffle, now an adult unicorn at ten years of age (30 in unicorn years) was in her bedroom in her royal castle, waiting for her Sonic Shuffle game to load. She tried her best to be patient and sat down on the bed. The game loaded and went to the title screen after the company logos, but instead of pressing Start, Sonic just sat where she was, staring at the title card that consisted of a large SONIC and seven moving cards with colored letters that read SHUFFLE together. She was smiling happily as the nostalgically elegant music crawled into her ears and refused to leave. "This song is so awesome," said Sonic to herself. "It should be the only Sonic song."
Suddenly, the sky darkened outside. A giant lightning bolt struck the castle, causing a major power outage. The TV and Dreamcast turned off and the music ended abruptly. Sonic was sad to see this, and quickly turned angry. She ran off her bed to the TV, looking angrily at it. In her horn, she charged a blast of electricity in hopes that she would turn it back on. She was seconds away from releasing it into the TV, but before she could, another lightning bolt struck and now it had hit her. Sonic was electrocuted by the bolt, and even though she didn't die, she disappeared away.
Sonic went flying into space, screaming and crying in fear and despair. She was determined to get back home, so she turned around and tried to fly back, but her horn released a gigantic zap of electricity so strong it blew her away. She blew far, far away so fast that she flew through the past dimension every quarter-second. Now, 15 quarter-seconds passed and she landed into the real world--the third dimension. She fell to Earth and landed in a California park.
Happy that it was finally over, Sonic stood up and rubbed her face with her left foreleg. "What have I done...?" Sonic asked herself, looking around as she had never been to Earth before. Then she heard a voice.
"Hey! What was that noise?!"
Sonic turned her head. A small gang of four teenagers ran over to her. They had piercings on their noses, and they looked like they hadn't combed their hair for days. They had never seen a real unicorn before, nor did they know that Sonic lived over ten dimensions away from them.
"Who are you?! Tell us, or buzz off!" the leader--Rad Ricky, who wore dark sunglasses--uttered.
"M-my name is Sonic Shuffle," Sonic answered, standing up on all fours and trying to convince the gang not to harm her.
"Sonic... Shuffle?" Rick's eyes widened and he removed his glasses in shock. Then he turned to his members.
"Hey! This dumb horse's name is Sonic Shuffle! Remember? That game was a chunk of junk!"
The other punks laughed and taunted Sonic. The unicorn hung her head down in shame, now knowing that the game she was named after was panned in the real world. Tears began to fill her eyes, and the moment that they dripped off her face was the moment they increased in size. They kept on growing until they were larger than anyone in the gang.
The gang's taunts stopped, and their laughter ceased. They had never seen anything like it in their lives. The tears flew into the gang and not only completely drenched their bodies and clothes, but also sent them to the ground.
One of the other members, Wild Wiatt, landed on his back and leaned up to the sad unicorn. "Dude! This ain't no horse!"
"It's a unicorn!" Rick said.
Now, Sonic had realized what her magic had just done, and she knew she had to get away. She turned around and ran for her life out of the park. The gang got up and realized that Sonic was gone. Believing that she would return to them eventually, the four went off to the local bar to forget what they had seen.
Meanwhile, Sonic ran into a nearby alley and stood behind the brick wall, panting in an attempt to catch her breath. She slowly looked out of the alley to see if her new enemies were still there. They weren't, so before anyone saw her, Sonic pulled her head back. She pulled up her right foreleg and rubbed her sweaty face with an accompanying sigh of relief. It wasn't much longer before she heard a different voice, which was comparatively less mean.
"Are you okay?"
Sonic looked up. Standing before her was a young girl of around 12 years of age. She wore a colorful, pink and purple outfit, and her pink shoes glowed in the sunlight. Now Sonic was calming down and nodded her head. Then, she asked only one question, "Who are you?" The way she said it was to remind herself of the game she loved.
"My name's Stephanie," the girl replied, surprised that Sonic was talking.
"Where am I?" Sonic asked, now getting to the problem.
"You're in the real world."
Sonic's eyes widened when she heard this. She didn't know anything about the "real world" or anything relating to it. All she knew was that the only humans or creatures she knew of were the ones in her own dimension.
"You sure don't look like you live here," Stephanie commented.
Knowing for sure that meant Stephanie wanted to know where she came from, the unicorn had to confess. She did it reluctantly because she was afraid she wouldn't believe her.

"You're right. I don't. I was born fifteen dimensions away from yours."

Stephanie couldn't believe her ears. She, along with everyone else she knew, lived on Earth in the third dimension.
"I don't know how I got here, either. I guess I was struck by lightning and... well, here I am."
"I'm glad you're okay," Stephanie said.
Then another voice came, and Sonic was the first one to hear it.
"I hear her!"
Sonic gasped. This voice was from Rick, the bully she had met earlier.
"You need to hide me! Those guys must have hated my name!" Sonic said, remembering what had just happened.
Stephanie and Sonic quickly ran away from the gang. The unicorn and her new friend kept running until they found a house--that of Stephanie's. Stephanie opened the door and ran inside, and Sonic followed suit. The gang ran past the house, feeling that somewhere, Sonic was still there.
Inside the house, Sonic began to catch her breath. "Thanks, girl."
"We need to get rid of those guys," Stephanie said. Then she realized that she had never asked Sonic her name. "How should we do it, uh...?"
"Please call me Sonic. Sonic Shuffle, for that's my name."
Stephanie accepted this request. Then Sonic began to talk about her favorite game.
"Have you ever heard of a game called Sonic Shuffle?" the unicorn asked.
"Yeah, I have."
"Do you have it?"
"Yeah, but it's my brother's," Stephanie responded. "His name's Jason. He doesn't want me to play it, but I've done it before. I didn't get too far in it."
Happy that her number one favorite game did, indeed, exist in the real world, Sonic continued.
"I love that game. I've been playing it since I was really young. Where I live, it's pretty much the focus of the dimension. It's one of the best games there. I was named after it. Or was it named after me? I don't really remember. But when I got here, I thought that the game wasn't as popular or good anymore."
"Well, you're right," Stephanie declared, "I heard that Sonic Shuffle didn't do very well. The loading screens were pretty long. Like, a minute each. There weren't too many mini-games, either."
"That's disappointing," Sonic said. "My dimension had those problems fixed. The loading screens were about five seconds long, and there were 100 extra mini-games that were exclusive to my world."
All of this talk of her 18th dimension was making her homesick.
"I sure wish I could go back home. I miss my castle, my parents, and my Sonic Shuffle games. They were on PC, the Playstation, the Nintendo 64, the PS2, the Gamecube..."
Stephanie couldn't believe this.
"What about the Xbox?" she asked, but Sonic's response was less positive than she hoped for.
"The... what?"
"There's this game system called the Xbox. It's got a couple of new systems after it, too."
"Oh, no. Not... the Xbox!" Sonic was starting to lose it. The game she was named after was never released for the Xbox or its successors due to the lack of interest in those systems.
"You don't like it?"
"No, I don't. Not because of the games, but because... Sonic Shuffle... didn't get to it!"
"It wasn't that popular?"
"No, the game wasn't the problem," Sonic explained. "But the Xbox... I think it got too terrible. For the people who played it, I mean, including me. I guess that's why the game didn't make it there."
"That's too bad."
"You said it. But if you ask me, it's not really bad news..."

TO BE CONTINUED...