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It was a rare moment of peace between Sonic and Shadow. Sonic was still fighting the Time Eater and Shadow was still facing the demons of his past, but they’d managed to find some time to rest. However, Shadow had gotten stuck in some sort of giant alien squid form in the time since Sonic had last seen him and couldn’t figure out how to change back yet.
After the initial shock had worn off, Sonic had been asking Shadow everything he could think of about his new form. “Doom Morph,” Shadow called it. Sonic thought “Squidow” was a lot funnier. They were talking about powers Shadow had in this form when the subject of hypnosis got brought up.
“Hypnosis?” Sonic asked incredulously. “So . . . what, you could turn me into a mindless zombie if you wanted?”
“No,” Shadow grunted, his voice lower than normal and strangely distorted. “Just dumb you down. Make you relaxed. Compliant. It’s still new though. I haven’t tried it much and it doesn’t always wor-”
“Oooooooooo, try it on me!” Sonic leaned forward in excitement. “I wanna be a zombie!”
“That’s not—” Shadow sighed. “I don’t even know if it’ll work.”
“All the more reason to use me for practice!” Sonic suggested confidently. “Come on, I’ve never been hypnotized before! ‘Sides, I wanna see if it’s real.”
“Fine,” Shadow said. He lifted Sonic up, letting him sit on one of his tentacles, facing him. Shadow closed his eyes in concentration. “Let me focus. Have to visualize a pattern.”
“A pattern?” Sonic asked in confusion. “I thought you used some magic words like, ‘you are now under my controoool,’ or—”
“Shush!” Shadow hissed.
“Gee, sorry,” Sonic giggled, looking away.
“Okay,” Shadow said. He opened his blood-red eyes, and suddenly, the surface of the alien squid’s body started shifting, rippling, expanding outwards in a circular pattern.
“Woah . . . !” Sonic breathed as he stared. “Cool!” Even if this wasn’t hypnosis, that was still a pretty neat trick.
“Now . . . Don’t look away,” Shadow instructed in a slow, meandering voice. “Stay . . .”
“Kay . . . ?” Sonic leaned forward and quirked an eyebrow, waiting for something to happen
“Stay . . .” Shadow repeated.
Sonic did as Shadow instructed. He kept his eyes on the pattern. It was kinda pretty, but . . .
Sonic snickered and burst out laughing. This was so dumb! Of course hypnosis wasn’t real! It was just some fun party trick for kids to believe in. It couldn’t actually do anything to him.
“You’ll make me force it?” Shadow grumbled, clearly not pleased.
“Sorry, I’m sorry,” Sonic smiled, recovering. He might as well humor Shadow for a bit longer. “You’re right. I . . . won’t fiiiight . . . . . . . it . . . . . . . . .”
Woah. What made the world . . . . . . . shift . . . . . . . . just now?
Sonic’s mouth slipped down into a vague frown. He stared deeply into the expanding circles rippling across Shadow’s face. They were . . . . . really cool . . . . . . to look at . . . . . weren’t they? Satisfying . . . . . Almost . . . . . mesmerizing . . . . .
“Stare at me . . .” came Shadow’s deep, penetrating voice. It cut right through Sonic’s mind and stuck into his very soul.
“Fiiine . . .” Sonic whispered faintly. He could do what Shadow asked . . . . . It was a simple request . . . . . . And that pattern was so . . . so beautiful. His vision was . . . going all fuzzy . . .
“Mmph . . .” Sonic found himself sagging forward under his own weight. Before he realized it, he’d collapsed forward and Shadow caught him with the tip of his tentacle.
“Gottcha,” Shadow said.
Sonic giggled quietly. Shadow was . . . funny . . . when he wanted to be.
“Face me.”
He looked back up at Shadow, hardly able to hold his head up. Good thing Shadow was still holding him. He could barely keep his eyes open. He was almost . . . sleepy . . . in a weird way.
“I . . . . . am . . . . .” he slurred in response to Shadow’s request . . . instruction . . . command. He would stare at Shadow. It was all he wanted to do. He smiled stupidly up at his friend.
“Is it working?” Shadow asked. “How do you feel?”
“Feels . . . . . . funny . . . . . . . . . . .” Sonic mumbled. His brain was buzzing pleasantly. He couldn’t really think clearly but that was okay. He didn’t really want to think right now anyway. His ears were droopy. His quills were relaxed. His arms and legs hung limply downwards like they had invisible weights tied to them. He felt so bizarrely . . . at peace. He never wanted this to end.
Sonic felt like he was flying, but falling down a bottomless pit at the same time. He felt like he was resting atop a fluffy cloud, chained down by Shadow’s comforting stare. He felt happy. He felt calm. He felt peaceful. He felt warm and fuzzy and content inside.
He . . . . . . . never . . . . . . . . wanted . . . . . . . . . . to look . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . away . . . . . . . . . . .
Sonic’s eyes finally drifted shut and sank into inky soft darkness. He had no worries, no concerns, no thoughts. Nothing.
Nothing mattered.
He just slept.
. . .
Sonic felt like he slept for an eternity and a half. When he awoke, his mind was the last thing to get the memo. His body awoke but didn’t move. He could barely feel whatever he was laying on. He breathed in and out slowly, listening for sounds he couldn’t translate into meaning when they came.
In . . . Out . . . Steady . . . Calm . . .
Peaceful . . .
Always . . . peace.
Sonic’s eyes opened of their own accord and stared upwards. Same white sky. He couldn’t remember if that was good or bad. His brain still hadn’t woken up.
A familiar black face appeared above him and Sonic smiled unconsciously. His body reached a hand up and Shadow took it.
“Are you okay?” Shadow asked, his voice somewhere far away. Some part of Sonic registered that his friend was a hedgehog once more.
“Mmmmhmmm,” Sonic mumbled. “Neverrrr betterrrr . . . .”
“You don’t sound quite right,” Shadow said.
“Feel . . . jus’ . . . . . fiiiine . . . . . . .” Sonic sighed in contentment. This was nice.
“Sonic, do you know who I am?” Shadow asked.
“Shadowwww . . . . . . . .” Sonic breathed. Oh, were they playing a game now? That was fun. Sonic liked games.
“Do you know where we are?”
“. . . . . White . . . . . . . . ?” Sonic tried. He wasn’t too sure about his answer for that one.
“Close enough, I guess . . .” Shadow was starting to sound worried. That was no good. Shadow didn’t like how Sonic didn’t quite get that question right. He’d try harder on the next one. “What’s your favorite food?”
Oh. Food. Favorite? Sonic had one? Sonic searched through his blurry memory sluggishly. It had to be here somewhere, right?
“Chili . . . . . dog . . . . . .” Sonic managed. That felt . . . almost right.
Shadow nodded. “Get up. I still don’t think you’re quite right.” Shadow tightened his grip on Sonic’s hand and pulled him upwards. Sonic felt like he weighed a million tons. He could barely move a muscle, yet he somehow managed to remain standing when Shadow released him. Sonic stood limply, staring down at the ground with a wobbly smile decorating his face.
“Sonic, can you look at me?” Shadow asked.
Suddenly, Sonic found the muscles in his neck receiving their strength. He looked up at Shadow and met his gaze. Shadow furrowed his brow.
“Jump,” Shadow instructed.
Energy flowed into Sonic’s legs and he jumped once. The moment the motion ended, his muscles returned to jello.
“Stand on one leg.”
Sonic complied.
“Copy my movements. Exactly,” Shadow ordered.
The black hedgehog dropped quickly into a crouch, with an arm extended beside him. Sonic followed along, matching timing, speed, and positioning exactly. When Shadow tucked into a spindash and shot off to the right, Sonic’s body copied him flawlessly. They rolled together for a few feet before Shadow uncurled and skidded backwards on his feet to come to a stop. Sonic immediately followed suit.
“Crap,” Shadow muttered, fear evident in his voice. He stood up straight and Sonic mirrored him. “ Crap , Sonic, you’re still hypnotized! You haven’t woken up yet!”
“Oh . . . really . . . ?” Sonic responded. What was so bad about that? He felt so nice like this. He didn’t see anything wrong with it. Why was Shadow so scared? Sonic felt so dim and pleasant right now. If he wasn’t truly awake, that was fine by him. He never wanted to wake up.
“I have to wake you up. But how??” Shadow tore a hand through his quills in stress. Sonic did the same. Shadow looked back up at him when he noticed the blue hedgehog’s movement. “Stop that. You can stop copying me now.”
“Okay . . .” Sonic breathed. He felt his muscles go slack once again, limp without direction.
“Just . . . just sit down for a second,” Shadow directed.
“Okay . . .” Sonic did as he was told, settling down to the ground, criss-cross applesauce.
“What if I just told you to wake up?” Shadow guessed. “Sonic. Wake up.”
Sonic blinked slowly. He didn’t feel any different. “ . . . Body’s s’all ready awake,” he mumbled. “Not sleeping ‘nymore.”
“CRAP.” Shadow started pacing, spinning the rings on his wrist. Sonic merely watched him. Back and forth . . . back and forth . . . back and forth.
“Woah . . . . . .” Sonic whispered. Something about the rhythm of Shadow’s movements made him feel . . . different. He found his body leaning back and forth in tandem with Shadow’s pacing. Left, right, right, left. Sonic swayed, his eyes following Shadow’s movement. What was going . . . . . . on . . . ?
Shadow finally noticed what Sonic was doing and stopped pacing. In response, Sonic relaxed, slumping forward slightly.
“Sonic, what was that? What were you doing?” Shadow asked.
“Not . . . sure . . .” Sonic mumbled, staring downward at his slack hands. “Back and forth . . . back and forth . . . back and forth . . . baaaack . . . ‘n fooorth . . .”
“Why?” Shadow asked.
“Think . . . . . . pattern . . . . . .” Sonic offered. “Felt . . . . . . different . . . . . . fer a second.”
“Pattern . . .” Shadow mused. “Wait . . . Do I have to hypnotize you again in order to wake you up??”
“Maybe . . .” Sonic said. “But . . . . . don’t wanna . . . . . wake up. Like this . . . . . . Like this feeeeling . . . . . . . ‘s nice . . . . . . . . .”
“Well, I don’t like it,” Shadow told him. “Besides, you’ve got your own stuff to take care of. You can’t very well do anything if you stay like this.”
“Aw . . . . . .” Sonic breathed a sigh of disappointment. “Okay then . . . . . . . But . . . . could you hypnotize me . . . . again some time . . . . ?”
“Maybe,” Shadow said noncommittally. “Probably not though. I don’t see why I’d want to do this to you again, nor why you’d want me to.”
“Feels nice . . . .” Sonic did his best to haul himself upwards so he could look at Shadow as he tried to explain. “Calm . . . no worries . . . . peaceful . . . . everything’s fuzzy . . . ‘n warm . . . . relaxing . . . .”
“If you want a break that badly, maybe you should take a vacation more often.” Shadow huffed a dry laugh.
“Okay . . .”
“What— No, Sonic that wasn’t a command!” Shadow scrambled. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to. You should, but you don’t have to.”
“Okay . . .”
Shadow sighed and came to sit down across from Sonic. He crossed his arms again. “Now . . . how to generate a pattern strong enough to hypnotize you again . . . ?”
“ . . . Sssquid?” Sonic offered. That was how he’d done it before.
Shadow shook his head. “I managed to de-transform while you were asleep. I only morphed into that form in the first place because I was in a high stress situation. We’ll have to think of something else.
“Oh . . .” Well, that removed Sonic from helping. He couldn’t really think clearly like this and he’d already exhausted his only idea. Maybe if Sonic was present enough, he would realize that not being able to think was really concerning. But he wasn’t really present at all. He was off somewhere else. If his body was a ten story building, his mind had been thrown out of a top floor window and fallen down a hole so deep, it would never end. There was no way Sonic was going to be able to get it back on his own.
“What if I tried pacing again?” Shadow suggested. He didn’t wait for an answer, instead standing up and backing a few steps away to give some space between him and the hypnotized blue hedgehog.
Shadow began pacing, walking back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Before long, Sonic was swaying again, eyes following the movements as his vision dissolved into a blurry mess.
“Uhhhhh,” Sonic groaned, feeling something akin to motion sickness, but not quite. If this was what waking up felt like, he hated it. He never wanted to wake up.
“How do you feel?” Shadow asked. “Is it working?”
“Feel . . . weird . . . . . .” Sonic managed. “Sssssick . . .”
“But is it working?” Shadow pressed. “Are you getting re-hypnotized?
“Ummm . . . . . .” Sonic couldn’t think. Couldn’t form any concrete thoughts. Couldn’t speak. His tongue was a useless, foreign object in his mouth. His eyes squinted, unable to keep track of Shadow’s movements. He was moving too fast.
The next time Sonic was properly aware, he found himself collapsed on his side. He blinked a few times and realized Shadow was next to him, shaking him urgently.
“Crap,” the black hedgehog whispered. “Did it work? Or did I make it worse?”
Sonic smiled at Shadow waveringly, his eyelids so, so droopy. “Fffffeeeel . . . . . niiiiccce . . . . .”
“Crap, I made it worse,” Shadow hissed. He stood up and backed away. “Sit up,” he ordered.
Sonic felt like a puppet being pulled upwards by its strings. He resumed a sitting position, with his hands sitting limply in his lap.
“What did I do wrong?” Shadow muttered to himself. “Too fast? Not fast enough? Not consistent?”
“. . . . . . Loose . . . . . . .” Sonic managed to whisper.
“What?” Shadow asked, looking back at him.
“Un . . . . . untethered . . . . . . . . . . . .” Sonic mumbled. “No . . . . . . . . . . anchorrrr . . . . .”
“An anchor . . .” Shadow mused. “Like . . . something to focus on. Sonic, what was your anchor the first time? Do you remember?”
Ohhhh, that was so hard. His memory was a foggy soup. A messy sludge. But Shadow asked, so he’d try to remember.
Reaching, reaching back. It felt like such a chore. It felt like Sonic was stretching his arm out far further than it was meant to go. It hurt. But he kept going. Shadow asked him to remember. Finally, he caught onto the unclear memory and pulled it back. It was blurry, but there were two things that stood out sharply against the unfocused background.
“Eyessssss . . . . . . . . .” Sonic managed. “Vvvvvoiccce . . . . . . . . . . .”
“Of course,” Shadow grumbled, burying his face in his hands. “I did tell you to stare at me. Just my luck that those are two major things that got changed while I was in that form.”
“Sss’okay . . . . .” Sonic mumbled faintly. “Ssssstilll . . . . . . .”
“Still? Still what?”
Sonic blinked slowly and let out a long, tired sigh. His brain was too muddled to say any more.
Shadow thought hard, a hand on his chin. “My eyes and my voice were your anchor. I still have both, even if they’re different. Maybe that will be enough.”
“Mmmmmmmhmmmmmm . . . . . .” Sonic nodded. He was so tired.
“All I need is a pattern. One I can sustain while keeping eye contact and conversation with you,” Shadow pondered.
“Patttterrrrrrn . . . .” Sonic repeated unhelpfully.
“You need to be able to see the pattern while also looking into my eyes . . .” Shadow groaned. “That’s what it was in my Doom Morph form. But I can’t get back into it right now!”
“Patttterrrrrrrn . . . . . .” Sonic murmured once again. He stared at Shadow, noting how his red accents really popped against that familiar black backdrop.
Shadow noticed Sonic staring and seemed to get an idea. “What are you looking at, Sonic?”
“Sssssssstriiipessssssss,” Sonic slurred.
“My stripes . . . Patterns can come in colors too,” Shadow mused. “I can change color in my Doom Morph form if I concentrate. I wonder if . . . .” Shadow sat back down in front of Sonic and closed his eyes in concentration. “Tell me if anything happens.”
Sonic nodded, his head feeling as heavy as if it was filled with a million moons. He stared on, eyes pinned on Shadow.
For a long moment, nothing happened. Then, slowly, the red of Shadow’s stripes began to . . . shift. There was a slow gradient as they migrated from red . . . to orange . . . to yellow . . . to green . . . to blue . . . to purple . . . back to red.
“Colorssss . . . . . .” Sonic mumbled.
“Perfect,” Shadow smiled and opened his eyes. The colors settled into a steady pattern. A consistent speed. Red orange yellow green blue purple red orange yellow green blue purple red orange yellow—
It was so pretty.
So satisfying.
So . . . . mesmerizing.
“Now . . . don’t look away,” Shadow said. “Stay . . .”
“Fiiiine . . .” Sonic’s tongue suddenly felt a lot more free. Unstuck.
“Stare at me,” Shadow commanded. Instructed. Requested? “You’re coming back. Bit by bit. You feel more present. Awake. You’re coming out of hypnosis. Coming back to the real world.”
“Yeah . . . .” Sonic managed to sit up straighter. His eyes felt less heavy. His body less foreign.
“When you come out of it, I don’t want you to remember being hypnotized,” Shadow said. “You’ll remember the last few seconds before you became hypnotized, and then nothing until you wake up. Can you do that for me?”
“Yeah . . . I guess . . .” Sonic shrugged sluggishly. “Why though?”
“. . . This whole thing scared me,” Shadow admitted. “I don’t wanna talk about it and I don’t want you to bring it up. So I want you to forget everything that happened while you were hypnotized. Will you forget for me?”
“Okay then . . . I’ll forget . . .” Sonic promised. “I won’t remember being hypnotized . . .”
“Good,” Shadow sighed in relief. “Now, I’m going to snap my fingers and when I do, you’ll go unconscious for five seconds before waking up, completely un-hypnotized. Got it?”
“Got it . . .”
“Ready?”
“Go for it . . .”
Shadow snapped his fingers.
The world went dark.
. . .
Sonic groaned as consciousness returned to him. He was laying on his back on top of some grass. “Ugghhh . . . I feel like I was hit by a truck,” he groaned.
“Welcome back to the land of the living,” came a familiar voice.
“Shadow?” Sonic dragged his eyes open and squinted through the blinding light until his eyes focussed on his friend. “Oh, hey, Shadz. You’re a hedgehog again.”
“I am,” Shadow nodded.
Sonic grunted as he sat up. “Did it work? I remember staring at you and saying I wouldn’t fight it and then . . . nothing.”
“No. It didn’t work,” Shadow shook his head. “You got so bored, you fell asleep. I managed to change back while you were out.
“Bummer.” Sonic began stretching an arm behind him. He felt weirdly tense. Must’ve slept on a rock. “I was kinda looking forward to learning if all the hypno mumbo jumbo is actually real.”
“I’m guessing it only works on other members of the Black Arms,” Shadow shrugged. “Hivemind link and all that.”
“Huh. Well, that’s cool I guess.” Sonic got up. “Well, this was fun. Thanks for the nap, but I should really get going. Mini Me is probably looking for me by now.”
“Right,” Shadow nodded. “Good luck.”
“Same to you!” Sonic gave Shadow a smile and a thumbs up before getting up and running off into White Space to search for his counterpart.
He . . . couldn’t shake the feeling that Shadow was hiding something from him, though. Something had happened while he was out. Maybe Shadow really had managed to hypnotize him, but why Sonic couldn’t remember what happened and why Shadow didn’t want him to know was beyond him. He’d have to ask him about it later. Maybe convince Shadow to give the whole hypnosis thing one more go.
Maybe . . .