The Watcher From Above.

Shatter Me.

It was that nightmare again. The one with the room filled with smoke. The one with an unfamiliar woman and child leading him to a window. The one with a bright light, then cold darkness. The one that always had him bolting up in bed screaming and sweating.

It was strange, he hadn't had that nightmare for a while. Not since Sonic and the others had come. Chris had never told anything about the nightmare to anyone. He couldn't expect anyone to be able to explain it if he couldn't himself. He glanced over at the clock and groaned. It was only 3:00 am. There was no way he was going to be able to go back to sleep. While he laid back staring at the ceiling he tried to recall what the woman looked like. Her face was always fuzzy but he knew her eyes were blue and her hair was black. The child...well she was a little harder to remember. She'd always had her face hidden in the woman's chest. Her hair was black like the woman, making him believe that she was her child. But who were they? He couldn't recall ever seeing someone like that.

A tapping on the door broke him out of his thoughts. He sat up and called, "Come in."

The door opened and Mr. Tanaka quietly entered the room.

"Is everything alright Mr. Chris?" The butler asked.

"Yeah. Just a nightmare." Chris forced a smile, his hands clutching the blankets, "I don't really want to talk about it."

"Alright." Mr. Tanaka nodded, then left. It was just like every other night he had that nightmare. He'd wake up screaming, Mr. Tanaka would walk in asking if things were okay, Chris would answer, then he'd leave. The boy sighed and flopped back on the bed. This was going to be a long night.

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Chris was walking to his new school when a kid with dirty blonde hair and blue eyes came running up next to him.

"Hey! You're the new kid right?" He asked excitedly. Chris nodded, "Cool! My name's Jessie! What's yours?"

"Chris." He nodded again.

"You come from station square right?" Man, he asked a lot of questions.

"Yeah." Chris replied. Jessie jumped closer.

"Have you ever seen Sonic The Hedgehog up close!?"

"Sonic? Well...uh...sorta."

"What's he like? Is he really that fast?"

"You bet he's fast!" Chris looked up at the sky with a smile, the nightmare forgotten, "He's faster than anybody. And he's nicer than anybody too."

"I wish I could meet him." The two boys stopped at an intersection, "Huh. Maybe if we're lucky we'll both get to meet him someday. Well I gotta get to class my teacher'll have my neck if I don't stop in early to pick up an assignment. See ya, Chris!" Jessie ran off, leaving Chris alone with his thoughts once more.

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Later that day Chris, Chuck, Cream, Cheese, Mr. Tanaka, and Ella were all in the front room watching the news. Chris was barely paying attention to the TV when a particular story came up that caught his attention.

"And now a breaking news story." A young blonde reporter stood in the middle of a room with crime scene tape everywhere, "I'm standing in the main pavilion of The National Museum of Art where earlier a thief broke through security and stole a priceless Chaos Emerald. Authorities found these images on tapes confiscated from security cameras." The image changed to the same room but darker. The figure of what appeared to be a hedgehog came into frame and smashed the glass. The red blare of the warning light blinded the camera for a moment before showing the hedgehog smirking, then running off frame.