"Protest" (Sonic) (This is an english adaptation of a Spanish sonic creepypasta written by bloodylemons/red's video dumpster that you can watch here)

PROTEST.

I have always been someone who likes to find and collect modified cartridges, you never know what you can find in some of these.

It's quite curious because sometimes you can find good games, bad games or simple sprite modifications like putting Mario's face in other games. However my experience was a little more...particular.

It happened three days ago. I was having a normal day until someone knocked on my door. A delivery man had just dropped off a package from my good friend Kyle.

After taking the package inside, i opened the medium sized cardboard box. Within it I found a cartridge along with a letter from Kyle. I opened the letter first and read it, it went something like this.

"Hello Tom, it's been a while. I wanted to show you something. See, i got this game this day from a group of friends the other day. Apparently it's a bootleg version of Sonic 3. The guy who sold it said that it's been passed through the hands of some colleagues already and they couldn't find any meaning in it. I've tried it myself and in short. I think it's something you have to see for yourself. Give me a call when you finish the game -Kyle".

This was weird already. The game didn't seem to have anything particularly strange at a first glance. Something i noticed though was that the label was not from the American version, but was a rather crummy version of the Japanese label.

I wasn't sure if it was actually a bootleg version yet, so i tried to insert the game into my Sega Genesis. Fortunately, it turned on almost immediately. First appeared the Sega logo as usual, but when I thought that 3D model of Sonic would appear. The emblem of the previous games appeared instead and the Sonic sprite was clearly from Sonic 2.

The background was like the final version but the logo was adapted to the classic emblem. I really liked how it looked, but I didn't see anything that strange about it.

That was until I went into the data select menu. Sonic wasn't there to be selected, neither was the option for a 'No Save' game. What did surprise me were the only three available files that were in here. In each of them was Tails, Knuckles and to my surprise, Dr Eggman.

It wasn't the sprite used to delete save files, it was in regular sprite inside a game slot. Both Knuckles and Eggman were grayed out and with a red X on top of them.

This game seemed to want to completely remove Sonic as an option some reason. I couldn't choose Knuckles or Eggman, so I just went with Tails.

I was in Act 1 of Angel Island Zone. The level was virtually the same as the original and i could even enter the area that granted access to the Special Stage. But I noticed something weird in the area where you can find the passage to the first giant ring.

There, I found a ton of flickies, but all of them were corrupted and were frozen in place. I didn't know if that was intended or just the product of some weird glitch.

Once I got to the end I was expecting to see one of the incendiary robots like normal, but it didn't show up.

Instead the only thing I saw was Sonic. He was leaning against a palm tree and seemed to be asleep with his head down and eyes closed. I couldn't move Tails, instead he moved on his own. It seemed like a cutscene was playing.

It took me a bit to notice, but Sonic looked...different.

His quills were in disarray and his shoes seemed to have lost their shine as their colors were dull. When Tails got close to Sonic. He lifted his face to reveal a strange smile and different eyes.

The screen went to black and i appeared in Act 2, where Angel Island had been set on fire. But it wasn't the regular Act 2. The stage was completely flat.

After a bit of running a voice that seemed to belong to Sonic said "Let's run". And that's just what I did. Suddenly, the music got cut off after Sonic spoke. As I ran, Sonic ran in from the left side of the screen and the drowning theme started playing as he kept running.

Eventually he caught up to me. He made Tails trip and fall while he kept running. Something red started to appear underneath Tails after Sonic disappeared.

I was scared. Because this was the last thing I expected to see. Blood? Had Sonic actually killed Tails? Why?

When I went back to the data select screen, Tails' file had Angel Island as a saved level. And he was grayed out and covered with a red X. I was intrigued.

This game seemed to be trying to tell a story, but I couldn't draw any conclusions. I selected Knuckles to see what more surprises this Hack would bring me.

I was now in Launch Base Zone. Everything seemed normal. Like the last time, it was the same as the original Act 1 of this zone. Although, this time, the sky was red and there were clouds similar to those of Stardust Speedway in Sonic CD.

I moved forward for quite a while as some of the graphics started to get distorted a bit harshly. Eventually, I ran into Sonic.

When he touched Knuckles, the screen went black and another zone title card appeared. But this one said something like "Sonic FOUND YOU".

After that, Sonic didn't let me pass. Knuckles stood in a fighting stance whenever I didn't move him, so I figured out I'd have to beat Sonic.

I tried to attack him with a Spindash, but all my attempts were futile as he was running very fast, leaving a trail of dust behind his feet. Eventually, Sonic and Knuckles stood still in the same fighting stance.

Out of nowhere, Sonic ran towards him from behind. And when he reached him, everything went black again.

I went back to the selection screen. Now, both Tails and Knuckles were gray with a red X covering them. I let go of the controller and started thinking about the story behind this hack.

I didn't know how to take in all this. I sat for a few minutes at my desk jotting down possible interpretations.

A new and improved Metal Sonic that took the place of Sonic? An evil clone similar to Scourge? No, it really didn't make sense. But maybe all these options could be viable, but i got the feeling that the cartridge wanted to say something. I just didn't know what it was.

Why would Sonic hurt someone who has no evil intentions? And even then go so far as to kill them? This just got really strange. Finding no answers at the moment i went back to the game. Grabbed my controller and selected Eggman.

It was a very odd feeling to be playing as him. He controlled just like Sonic, but He couldn't do a spindash. I was located, surprisingly, in Scrap Brain Zone. Act 1, everything was once again just like the original. However after advancing through the level for a while, Sonic appeared out of nowhere and collided with Eggman.

Everything went to black.

I was confused. But then I jumped as a new image appeared on the screen.

It was an image of Sonic inside his emblem, and he had a disturbing smile. It was quite strange, but what threw me off the most was a text underneath Sonic that said.

FUN IS INFINITE.

I was unnerved. I didn't know what to do. This all got very confusing.

The first thing I did when I finished this strange game was to call Kyle.

I didn't know how to properly explain everything that had happened. But once I did. He seemed very unsurprised. He had already played it, as he said in the letter. He told me that maybe I could try to do some research on this game.

So I did. I didn't find much off the bat, as it seemed to be a very unique case. Then I decided to look for more information in wikis related to the Sonic franchise. I found one page, though I was unsure if it could give me any actual clues

It was a page with information about a Christina Coffing. A developer for the cancelled Sonic X-Treme who had almost died because of the infernal development of the game. I started to process that, along with everything else I've experienced. I didn't know how to interpret it inmediatly, but then I remembered that phrase at the end.

FUN IS INFINITE.

I recognized the phrase from a hidden screen in Sonic CD. The full phrase was “FUN IS INFINITE WITH SEGA ENTERPRISES”. I drew one conclusion from all this. Maybe this hack was created by someone who used to work at Sega. Maybe as some sort of protest? That's all I could think of. All the characters wanted to either escape from Sonic, or try to defeat him. Maybe Sonic represents Sega, and the others wanted to go against him.

But they couldn't.

Nobody could do anything.

At least...that's how I view things.