Escape Reality (DISCONTINUED)

Phantom Ruby 'V2'

*set in Sonic 06 town*

Sonic whistled a rhythmic tune while running down a ceramic-tiled street. It was a normal day where the citizen was out and enjoying the cool summer breeze. Sonic had felt all of it while skidding across bridges and the alleyways. A pleasant rush of wind was all he could feel as he was speeding up.

He couldn't hold the excitement of meeting up with all of his friends. Today was going to get so exciting when his buddy, Tails, showed off his new invention! And it's going to cause a bigger blast!

*knock knock*

Sonic knocked on the wooden door and waited patiently outside while rocking back and forth gently on his feet. A scuffle made its way to the door and opened it.

Sonic looked down and beamed gleefully at the orange fox. "How are you doing buddy?" Sonic said, strutting through the entrance and into the building. Tails moved aside as he did so and smiled softly.

"I'm good. Excited to see my new re-creation?" Tails exclaimed, shutting the door. He then followed after Sonic and walked briskly alongside his best friend.

"Well, most of my amusement is going for that. The other is for plain old stuff," Sonic grinned.

They both stepped into the large living room and looked upon many cheerful faces of their friends; Amy, Knuckles, Cream and even the Chaotix were here. Sadly, Rouge and Shadow couldn't come to take part because they had a rather much more important thing to do.

The living room was big enough to hold all of their friends. Around them, there are peach-coloured walls and what they are standing on is the wooden oak floor.

"I gathered the most that I can. I want to show you something extremely cool," Tails firstly spoke to all of them as he tail-spinned to a machine shielded with a sheet of opaque glass. He opened the cover, dived his hand into the back of the machine, and pulled out an extraordinary rock.

"Now, this is going to shock you! Here, I introduce to you, the Phantom Ruby, version 2!" Tails exclaimed with excitement in his voice.

"What the-! Hold on, buddy, stay away from it!" Sonic exclaimed, standing completely frozen.

Everyone was so startled by its presence that their first reaction was to hide from it. All the people stepped further away from Tails (except Sonic) and hid behind the table that divided the room.

"No, it's perfectly fine. I re-newed and downgraded this Ruby so it is less harmful," Tails exclaimed as he glanced awkwardly at everyone. He didn't think his friends could react more serious than this.

"You know it isn't enough to make us trust this gem! Put it back!" Knuckles yelled out.

"Tails must have thought of something! It couldn't be bad. Right, Tails?" Sonic gave a wink at the fox and put on a brave face for everyone to make them feel reassured.

"Like I've just told you, it won't likely hurt anyone now!" Tails said while holding up the rock above his head, showing everyone its glorious content of the purple and velvet glow. "See? There's nothing to be worried about!"

"Not likely?" Knuckles bemused with irritation in his tone.

"Yeah, let's all trust Tails! We all know he's a great genius. Perhaps we can make a good use of the Phantom Ruby," Sonic smiled at Tails.

"But what are you gonna do with that?" Sonic bent over to his wide ear and whispered in it.

"I'll be showing you in a min-" Tails said, but before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by Knuckles.

"We need to dispose of that Ruby. It can be harmful still," Knuckles snapped, moving away from the table and stepping towards the pair.

"Wait, Knuckles!" Sonic said, limping in front of Tails to protect him.

"Move aside or else!" Knuckles warned him.

"Which side are you even on?" Sonic argued.

"The Ruby was used for evil purposes! Wherever Tails got this from, it can still be dangerous!" the red echidna hissed at Sonic's face, then shoved Sonic to a side. He looked at Tails with deadly eyes while casting a shadow over Tails. "Give it to me," he demanded.

"No, you listen to me!" Tails yelled at him, turning the view away from him with the Phantom Ruby tightly clutched in his hands.

"Yeah, you knucklehead," Sonic pushed Knuckles, separating him away from each other.

"What were you thinking, Knuckles? You're going to hurt the kid!" Amy said, scurrying out from behind the table.

Knuckles looked around him and stumbled upon many disturbed, angry faces. Once he felt he couldn't carry on with the argument, he simply laid off from it.

"Fine!" Knuckles said. He leaned over and grabbed a chair. He then sat on it while crossing his arms and continued to ignore everyone who was arguing with him.

After the argument settled briefly, everyone returned to their usual jolly faces and turned their attention back to the intelligent fox.

"So, does it still create illusions?" Espio respectfully questioned him.

"Yes, it still can, but not only does it do that, but it also allows me to programme the illusions into a virtual, live world. I'll show you on the computer!" Tails continued proudly.

"Ooh, fascinating!" Charmy squiggled and buzzed in the air.

"Gather around me. I'll show you right now, " Tails called everyone, pulling a chair and sitting under a desk. The fox's friends walked closer and surrounded him, except for the grumpy echidna.

Tails opened the computer, then inserted the Phantom Ruby in a metal holder attached to the device, and imminently the screen re-winded to a different scheme of colour, mainly of purple, violet and magenta.

"I prepared this game a few days ago, and I'm intending to use this Ruby to make the game work more fun and smoothly," the fox said cleverly. "Check this out!"

"Woah, that looks awesome!" Sonic leaned over to look at the screen. The inside world looked bouncy. It appeared that the video game contained many stages to choose from. For example, there are many different biomes to play on, such as; the desert, jungle, sea, flatlands and many more.

On the other side of the room, where there was no fun going on, Knuckles shrugged and still faced the other direction, not wanting to see and shame himself in front of everyone after he had told Tails not to have the gem.

"Oooh, look at this one-" "click on it!" "let me play!" he heard them say aloud.

There were gasps of "wows" and waves of laughter, indicating that Tails' new-invented video game was entertaining.

His curiosity was thirsting for a look at what they were doing. However, he refused to come and see what all the fun was. It's just a video game, he thought.

The red echidna sat back comfortably on his chair and mumbled a little tune to get his mind off it.