Tails: Role Reversal

Pre-Story Crediting
Credit goes to SEGA, they own all the rights to Sonic the Hedgehog. In addition credit goes to the original creators of Sonic.EXE and Tails Doll for inspiration.

Prologue
Since I was a little boy I've been a big collector of many famous video games. I still own most of them, but only a few consoles, the ones I cannot play, I sold. I actually own every single Sonic game ever released to a home or handheld console, except for the Mega Drive game that introduced my favourite character, Tails. I spent ages scavenging eBay and Amazon for a copy of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 which didn't look suspicious or at all sketchy. This means I did not buy a copy that was defined as bootleg, nor a ridiculously cheap copy for like... £5, nor did I buy a copy which had a replacement label with something weird written on it, or even scratch marks!

After hours of searching tirelessly, I finally found what appeared to be a 'legitimate' copy of the game. I was very excited, and wiling to spent £10 to receive such a masterpiece. The delivery charge took the price up to a total of £15, but it was being shipped from the other side of the world so I understood, £15 is usually the limit that I would pay for a new game, but for old games, this was good enough to be an exception.

I was a little skeptic...
I was a little skeptic at first when the game was delivered in a box big enough to fit every Sonic game box inside all at once, but I suppose the person/people who delivered the game just really liked packaging. Still, I'm not complaining, who doesn't like the utter satisfaction of popping bubble wrap?

I unwrapped the game, completely destroying the box in which it came, and rushed over to my SEGA Genesis, where I placed the cartridge and waited for the game to turn on.

Game Intro Hype
The introduction of the game initiated, no mysterious static, no blood, creepy music or dead characters, everything was set out exactly as it should be, which I cannot explain for the life of me how much I was relieved about. I started up the game for a test run, things were totally normal, a wave of joy came over me as I launched Sonic off into a powerful spin-dash for the first time in months.

Tails followed suite.

A difference
The graphics weren't exactly high definition but I survived, I'm more worried about the quality of the game than what's actually on the screen, and as far as I'm concerned, as I said before, Sonic 2 is a masterpiece.

It was strange though, the low quality of the graphics didn't seem to faze Sonic's character out, however Tails appeared significantly more blocky and robotic, even his movements were somewhat laggy and it almost looked as if he was very slightly levitating off the ground. Half way through Emerald Hill Act 1, I got curious as always and decided to stop ignoring this, moving closer to the screen to inspect Tails' strange appearance.

There were strange, black lines around the outline of his fur which appeared to be sewed on, his legs were limp and nimble, and his eyes were a soulless black, a red crystal lay on his head flashing vigorously, but it was so small you could say it was 'microscopic in comparison.'

I knew I had seen this 'attire' somewhere before, so I scrambled through all of my Sonic games, checking the cartridges and boxes of each one, also looking up information of characters and enemies.

My search ended when I came to the game 'Sonic R,' a very old but strangely addictive racing game which introduced a character known as Tails Doll. Tails Doll replicated Tails' abilities, however he tended to levitate slightly off of the ground, he had black lining to replace stitches sewn onto his body, his arms and leg seemed very limp and nimble, his eyes were like black buttons, soulless and empty, and a small rod stuck out of his head, balancing on its top a red, flashing crystal. His (or it's if you prefer to be literal, as Tails Doll isn't exactly a 'creature') tails were inanimate apart from the natural flapping as Tails Doll builds up momentum.

However, Sonic R was introduced years after Sonic 2, Tails Doll didn't exist in the time of the classic 2D genesis games...

Or was this truly a classic itself?

Tails Doll: Gameplay Tutorial
Tails Doll played a little differently to Tails. In fact, he played almost completely differently. He took no damage whatsoever from any item, fazed through spikes and other obstacles, never fluttered higher or lower, he only followed directly behind Sonic, like a stalker overshadowing its prey.

I reached the goalpost and hit it, running past straight afterwards, then I waited for it to stop spinning.

It spun, and spun, and spun.

After what felt like forever I decided that my game had crashed, and reached for the off-button. The very moment I held my finger over it, I looked up and the results screen was displayed, the goalpost had frozen, and there was silence, no music or sound effects whatsoever.

I entered act 2 and sighed, continuing to play. When I reached the half-way checkpoint, and hit it, I noticed that the stage was beginning to darken, the music got slower and more miserable, very gradually.

"Just like a generic creepypasta." I groaned.

Then I reached for the off-button once again, but something tugging inside of me urged me to continue 'enjoying this new hack...' I could feel it, it was warm and encouraging, like a mother's hug, but also firm, and I suddenly refused my own intention and obeyed these instructions.

Finally, I reached the boss. It was now night in-game, a cool addition I would have thought otherwise. The music faded, and then came out booming, louder than I'd ever heard in a Sonic game, at its usual speed, the same boss music I had become accustomed to, but when the boss, clarified as 'Drill Eggman,' reached the screen edge, I noticed one significant difference. This difference was not like the others, it sent chills down my spine, and made me literally shake with fear. Dr. Robotnik no longer sat in the seat of the boss weapon, Tails had overtaken that role.

I didn't want to attack my favourite character in the franchise! He was so innocent, so young, yet so angry. In this boss battle as he drove across the stage and I tried to swiftly jump over him, you could see fury and determination in his eyes, not like Sonic's, just pure rage.

The worst part was... even when I leaped over him, he still took damage; for every move I made, Tails Doll made another. The first time I dodged, Tails Doll mimicked my move, but the second time, he stopped right above Tails, turned upside down and flew head first into Tails, smashing into him as opposed to the robot. As Tails Doll moved away and returned to my side, I could barely make out tiny, red pixels dripping from Tails' mouth area.

Blood.

I had a very sensitive mind as a child, I was very easy to scare and anything gory would send me into fits of panic. Nothing had changed in 20 years apparently. I started to freak out over Tails becoming more and more severely injured for every move I made. He lasted an incredible 9 hits before driving off the stage much faster than normal, without exploding. As he did, he shot Sonic a very realistic death stare. I sighed, knowing what was coming next, and jumped ahead of time, expecting a slow drill-spike to pass beneath me, but instead, a lightning-fast, much bigger drill pierced Sonic directly in the stomach, while he was spin-jumping in mid-air. Blood splattered the screen, I screamed, and it spread into one word.

Traitor.

Boom.
Boom. That was the noise that the 'Drill Eggman' released as Tails Doll crashed into it one final time, his crystal and head appearing to be fully unscathed. There was no violent explosion, not even a non-realistic explosion that there should have been, just one click that sounded like a boom, and Tails faded.

The screen flashed with static, allowing unnecessarily loud noises to pass into my ear drums, like I was being attacked with a tazer over and over again. I bounded across the room, rushing for the off-button, determined to hit it before some sort of 'weird' voice in my head would try to stop me.

I was successful.

The screen shut off immediately, and there was silence, my Sega Genesis self-ejected the cartridge, flying at me and whacking me in the face. I caught it in my hands, and checked to see if my forehead was cut. I was lucky to get away with merely a little bruise.

I turned to the door, it was unlocked, the lights didn't go out, I was so happy.

As I walked out, however, I felt something inside of me again - but this time, it was pushing me away.

A voice in my head screamed, "TRAITOR!" over and over, driving me crazy.

Early Night
I had an early night last night, I said goodnight to my beautiful wife and tucked my son into bed, kissing his forehead because his mother was too tired to do so herself.

I climbed into bed beside my wife, tucked myself in and turned the lights off.

And then I saw a red crystal, flashing vigorously, not too far away from an arm's reach.

Police Report - 31/5/17
The next day, we investigated [Classified]'s house, his wife had called us in and reported a murder. We found her and her son crying uncontrollably in the living room, my colleagues stayed to help her while I approached her staircase with a gun in my hands, loaded.

I walked up the stairs quietly but hastily, and roughly booted the bedroom door open. a rope was lying there on the floor, drenched all over in cold blood, perfect holes had been sliced into the bedside table, and the lamp above it was shattered, it was like a post-torture scene, minus the victim.

We never uncovered the body.