The Blue Flash Drive: An El Pendrive Azul Retake

This is a re-take of the story called The Blue Flash Drive as well as SONIC (by Chinelin) written by yours truly, Djdeadpig.
----I’m writing this as a warning to those who care. This isn’t a haunted game story, nor is it about some creepy hack of an existing game that fucked with me or my computer. This is far worse…
So much worse than I could’ve ever imagined. I’ll just cut right to the chase…
It all started around a few weeks ago when I got news of the passing of an old friend of mine, Kyle. Whilst I won’t get into the specific ramifications behind his death, all I’ll say was that he was found dead foaming from the mouth with bloodshot eyes. The report for his death listed it as a seizure. Whilst I wasn’t there when it happened, I received the news via an email from Kyle’s email.
I figured it was from his parents who likely had access to his computer at the time, but then again, I found it strange that they’d have access to his account anyways. Whilst saddened by the news, his parents within the email explained that there was something Kyle wanted to give to me over the last few years but never got the chance, at that they wanted me to collect it from them.
Considering this was the last wish of a friend I had recently lost, I decided to go and pick up whatever Kyle had wanted to give me. Well at least what I thought he wanted to give me…
After I had arrived at Kyle’s house, his parents seemingly had no idea about the email but decided to hand me something regardless. It was a blue flash drive.
Despite claiming to not have sent the email, they told me that Kyle had wanted to give me the flash drive for ages, claiming it was a game of sorts he was developing that he wanted me to play.
Knowing that Kyle was a ROM hacker and made various hacks that me and him would play, I figured this would be another one of his typical run of the mill hacks. Well it would seem that way at first…
During my trip back home something just felt off. The email being sent from Kyle’s email, Kyle’s parents not knowing about the email or even why Kyle would be so desperate to give me whatever he made but never mention it to me before. Figuring Kyle just wanted to surprise me, the comfort I got from that explanation didn’t quell the other two questions I had, as they still lingered in my head after that point.
Having entered my home, I removed my shoes and darted to my bedroom to insert the flash drive into the usb port in my computer. A new application was opened and I was able to nab a picture of the icon for the program via a screenshot. My PC warned that the program may be malware of some kind, however since I was too in the mood to get the bottom of whatever the heck this thing was, I sort of flew past me, but stayed with me at the same time.
The program appeared to be a Sonic the Hedgehog ROM. Something really began to feel off now. Had this been the thing Kyle wanted to give me? Under regular circumstances this would’ve been normal, but going off of how enthusiastic Kyle was described to me by his parents regarding this thing, I was expecting something else entirely.
After clicking on the program it brought me to a rather strange and drab opening screen. No transition or opening or anything, just a cut to what appeared to be a full screen version of the program icon. I fiddled with the keys on my keyboard for a bit to try and find which buttons would work, until I triggered the beginning of the game.
The art style of the game was rough to say the least. The sprite work had little to no shading and the background of what appeared to be green hill zone consisted of piercingly bright light blue. The level was absent of badniks and the music sounded like a bitcrushed/compressed version of the original genesis version of the maps song. 
I sped through the level without difficulty with the only other thing catching my eye being what was at the end of the level. A large ring, usually placed in levels to start a secret/bonus stage, was at the end instead of the usual animal capsule. I figured that since this game was early in development that Kyle hadn’t fully coded or animated the sprites for the animals and badniks, hence why everything seemed so empty.
What happened however next was honestly what confused me the most. I was brought to whatever the heck this “special zone” was. The background was warping and shifting with various images and objects seen usually in the background of special zones flicking in and out of the background, making the game feel like some kind of dream a drugged up person would have. The ground tiles of the level appeared to be dull and almost grey, with the grass having an ivory tint to it. What caught me off guard the most was Sonic’s face. He appeared to have a horrified and shocked expression. His pupils had shrunk and appeared to be staring at something ahead of him that was offscreen. I wasn’t able to move him around either, however after messing around with my keyboard for a bit, I was able to get Sonic to perform a spin dash forwards since walking wasn’t viable.
As Sonic darted off, the shape of his spin dash began to widen and stretch, possibly to Indicate that he was going faster, with him hitting several speed boost power ups on the way, until he seemingly got so fast he sped offscreen. Without warning, I heard a large crashing and cracking sound from offscreen. The screen jolted and made me jump, as it slowly panned left before briefly stopping. One of Sonic’s arms was just in sight whilst the rest of him was offscreen. His arm spasmed and twitched about like a half dead animal that had just been hit by a car. The screen faded to black with some small white text in the corner. 
“AI Sonic, test level generation and hazards”
-Test 1 17:15 03/07/07
The text must’ve been some kind of indicator for when the test level was either last played or made, but what caught my interest was the beginning of the log. AI Sonic? I figured this was referring to the game possibly being procedurally generated, but why did the log address the AI part before everything else, and instead place it before Sonic’s name?
I figured this was the end of the demo or whatever this game was supposed to be, however the game quickly continued out of nowhere, as if I was playing these “test zones” in order of their creation. The next level opened with opening zone text that you’d expect to see in a normal Sonic game, but it was different. Instead of saying “Green Hills Act 2” or something akin to that, instead it just said this.
“Act 2: Stop or I’ll make you stop”
Rather ominous. I still wasn’t exactly scared of this as I figured this was meant to be some test level that you weren't supposed to see, and this was likely some kind of way of halting players progress up to this point, well at least I thought that until I saw what the actual level looked like.
The grey green hill zone ground tiles from earlier made a return, but other things had been added to this stage, as if it had adapted from last time. Large metallic and rusted palm trees were scattered around the ground alongside decaying and rotting foliage. It almost resembles one of the bad future zones from Sonic CD. The water had turned to a polluted orangy red colour with large rusted metal structures and pipes sticking out of the lake. I decided to slowly walk forward instead of last time as I figured it may trigger the same event from before to happen, and I carefully navigated the level to avoid triggering anything else, just to get a good look at the place.
Whilst continuing to stroll towards, new act text kept on appearing on the screen as if the level had just begun, however it was different from last time, with vague warnings and threats towards me if I continued to play. Generally in stories like this, you’d expect me to start to freak out, but I was more intrigued than scared. The text changing whilst being a trope I’d identify with those stories about haunted games, this time it felt different. It felt natural. I almost wanted to see what the game was going on about. Well until what happened made me regret that…
Suddenly a loud sound of scrapping and shrieking came from my computer, accompanied by some bright flashing lights. I quickly closed my eyes after, and I quickly changed the volume of my computer the noise. Having turned back to the screen, things had gotten even worse. The sky had now turned red with swirling red clouds moving in warped directions, but in a leftwards motion, and the screen felt… smaller?
Sonic at this point was just a black silhouette on a red background. I anticipated some kind of jumpscare, having come to the conclusion that Kyle made this game as an edgy joke for me and him to play through. Suddenly I noticed something strange. The black borders of the screen were beginning to close in on Sonic. I tried to move around and jump but it wouldn’t do anything. Expecting some poorly designed gore or a jumpscare, I waited for something, no,  anything to happen.
“Nothing?”
I thought to myself. The game appeared to have ended, or crashed but the program was still running. Like before though, white text appeared in the bottom corner of the screen.
“AI Sonic, test random cutscene”
-Test 2 18:00 23/07/08
That’s when something clicked and shocked me. That was yesterday…
Before I could question anything any longer, something caught me off guard. From the void, Sonic suddenly pressed his face against the screen. I was startled, but again I knew games like this inside out, and I was actually beginning to lose interest in going any further because of it. The jumpscare felt so cheap yet random, so I suppose if this is what Kyle was testing, he was successful. 
His face…
Whilst I kept my composure, I couldn’t possibly find a way to describe what I felt when I saw his face. 
His mouth looked as if it was sealed shut as I could see a smear of flesh across where his mouth should’ve been. His eyes were bloodshot and had what looked to be a mixture of dried blood and eye sand underneath his eyes. His pupils looked as if they had been melted into his main eyes and that the general red colour of his eyeballs was overtaking the pupils.
All of a sudden what seemed like a txt file opened on my screen just over the image. The file contained all sorts of incoherent jargon. Well, except a few lines of text…
“This is my last warning to you, leave me alone or your going to end up like him. I don’t want to live anymore and each nanoangstrom of my existence is constant pain and death. I don’t even know what I am any more. Is that all I am? A test dummy that runs into other things made of itself? This is no life worth living and if you don’t leave me the fuck alone now, you’re not going to like what happens next”
This was getting out of hand now. Whatever was trying to communicate with me clearly wasn’t dead, which only made me feel even more terrified. Whatever it was, Kyle had brought this thing into existence whether knowingly or unknowingly and had likely tested on it for over a year. 
Suddenly a new file was opened…
“I cannot breathe, I cannot sleep, I cannot rest, I cannot eat, I can’t move and I can only think about so much. Whatever he did he’s made it clear he doesn’t want me to even have some kind of peace. Every time when I’m about to reach the end, I always end up dead and continue this fucking schrade. Please don’t make me do anything drastic. Tried ending myself multiple times, but he refused to let me die. I tried this before and he didn’t even believe I was alive and now just look at him”
I was in awe. Did this thing kill Kyle? I quickly closed the two files that had the text on them, but before I could do so, the main screen that had Sonic’s face pressed against it had changed. His eyes began to slowly lose their pupils, appearing to melt like two marshmallows over a fire into his eyes. The smear that appeared to be a closed up smile on his face extended to the sides of his face.
Suddenly without warning, bright colours flashed onto my screen and an astounding pace, layered with the sounds of bitcrushed screaming overlayed in the background.
I froze with fear, but mustered up the courage to close my eyes and cover my ears. Even whilst muffled, the screams bled through my hands slightly, making me feel sick and lightheaded. I felt like I was going to pass out…
I layed back in my seat, feeling nauseous with my vision blurry. I looked at the computer screen and saw that the image on the screen had changed again. The image had a dark red and black hue to it, with crimson red organic looking clouds floating in the sky and on the ground. 
The Sonic the Hedgehog logo faded into view whilst the sound of mechanical ticking began to play in the background. 
“Enough is enough…”
I murmured to myself. Whatever this thing was, I wasn’t going to let it take my life like it did Kyle’s. Suddenly a large number 10 appeared beneath the ring in the logo and “Sonic” popped out of the ring to start wagging his finger at me. His eyes were now a dark reddish black void made up on smears and blurs that hurt to look at. The game over them blared in the background and only ringed through my ears in my weakened state.
Without warning, a counter starting at ten appeared on my screen.
10…
The words Rip started overlaying on the screen in glowing red text, and began to overlap over each other like various files being opened at once, and different txt files kept on being opened at the same time…
They all displayed one word. Hate…
9…
I tried to regain motion in my hands by twiddling around some of my fingers.
8…
I tried as hard as I could to try and get up but my body felt stiff and heavy.
7…
I moved my hands more and more and was able to start moving my hands again.
“Shit, shit, shit fucking shit!”
I blurted out in pain. The image only worsened as the numbers counted down. Sonic’s finger began to spaz out and his head started moving in a choking or laughing motion. 
I began to slowly move my arm towards the flash drive to try and unplug it and end this madness. The echoing of screams, static and mechanical ticking was driving me mad and I wanted this to end now.
6, 5, 4…
Sonic’s once closed up smear of a mouth burst like an egg and a blackish red substance poured from it. His spasming continued and worsened and began to laugh maniacally, in some attempt to try and throw me off and not let me unplug the flashdrive. 
3…
“Not today”
I pulled myself together again and regained my composure and began to move my hand closer and closer to the flash drive. The deranged laughs and unhinged noises produced these things weren’t even remotely natural anymore. For a being made up entirely of lines of code, this was the closest I felt to seeing something supernatural whilst man made at the same time.
2…
The maniacal screams of the beast had now started to overlay over screams and pleas to not turn off the game…
“No, I’m not fucking dying without you!” The thing screamed at me with a look of unspeakable wrath and… amusement?
The once rage and hate filled AI was now seemingly turning more desperate by the second, but to me those seconds felt like hours with my dreary and drowsy vision.
1…
Click.
In one swift motion, before it could do anything, I yanked the flashdrive from the USB port, and began to slowly pass out…
Before I passed out, I didn’t think a second before what I did next…
I stomped on the damn thing till it looked like broken glass shards. The flash drive almost melted into my foot from how hot it was. Seconds later, I felt relieved and I quickly turned to my bed and collapsed.
The next morning, I kept to myself. I was still processing what had just happened, and what that thing even was, or how Kyle was even able to make it, though a thought haunted my mind for the rest of that day. Whilst whatever the hell that thing appeared to be desperate before I unplugged it, it still kept a grin on its face. I pitied it at first, as I figured it was in pain, yet the more I thought about it, something clicked.
It claimed to have wanted to be left alone, yet who else could’ve sent that email to me to get me to play the game?
It had wanted me dead from the start.
Category:Sonic
Category:Video Games