The Wrath Of LCMCdotEXErules2

Rating
[Not Given]

Note
This is in 7 parts, only parts 0 and 3 can be found right now. I'll addon to it soon.

If you don't know any characters, ask me, I'll try to respond.

Please don't delete this creepypasta :(

Basically a MLP + Sonic Remix.

Part 0 of 7: The Prologue
NOTE: This is my Wrath of Exetior canon sequel to the prequel starring my evil side! In both BECE's and I's canons Kyle is the first victim. Gary, Jake, Alice and others were killed afterwards, who were all caught trying to pass the disc on to Tom. But in my canon, after this, you (Benjamin) receive the disk, and Kyle has a different way of knowing how it goes. Now let's begin...

(may take a while to read due to space error... and minor grammar issue)



>-- [ Transmission: Kyle Caxton ] --<

Okay, this is absolutely crazy. Just what kind of human am I? Because I made a big mistake, and now it's costing me my life.If anyone is reading this, I'm probably unable to do anything because I might be dead. What I'm about to say is something I shouldn't have done. I regret putting that corrupted character... or this L2's evil version, into our world.

I'm sure you have heard of Lachlan MC, the creator of The LCMC Show. He has is all across the internet and wherever you can buy his GameJolt games (probably not at the time I written this, though). He has fan comics, fanfics, pictures, merchandise, and so much more.

But that's not too important right now. I have my mistake that

I need to explain...

Recently I had installed "Rainbow.EXE" on the computer. I was requested to do so by Tom as a recorded gameplay. He loves this sort of thing, and he always wanted to know what a glitched/hacked game looked like. Not sure this counted though.

But when I clicked the download button and all that, within 20 minutes the download finished. I noticed, that unlike what the download said, the file was a .BIN file labeled: "LMCMES-ORIGINS." I was confused by this, but I just decided to load it into my emulator. Now this is where the REAL story begins...

I never noticed this game before, but it was worth a shot. When the game booted up the SEGA jingle played, normal as can be. Then came the "Sonic Team Presents" screen, instead saying "Welcome Back, Kyle". Although this was a bit odd to see my name on it, I shrugged and thought that was a glitch. Finally the title screen popped up. It was the first Sonic game with the classic music and Sonic waving his finger. I was pleased by this. I pressed enter, but then something strange happened…

I could've sworn, in a split second frame, I saw Sonic change to Lachie  and everything else turned random colors. The title ribbon, originally saying "Sonic the Hedgehog," was changed to just "Lachie the Fox." Luckily, this image was only for a split second, but I was still confused and slightly shocked by this.

After a few seconds of black, a familiar file select appeared and a familiar tune played.

"Sonic 3's Data Select!" I exclaimed, and I laughed! There, sure enough, was Sonic 3's file select, music and all. There were a few differences though. The background was a blue sky that reminded me of Sky Chase from Sonic 2. There were also just 5 save files. The file select had Sarah (Lachie's TLS Sister), Lachie himself, Abby (surprisingly in her modern design), Benjamin, and… supacake0404? Now I knew something was up, how was SC playable? She was the bad girl! Maybe they added her in as a joke character, or maybe a playable cutscene in her hideout or something? I didn't know what this game would hold in store for me. I tried selecting her, curiously, but the game wouldn't let me select him with a buzzer noise.

I tried to select Benjamin, would he work? No, but this time with a "Hello!" sound from his pilot episode.

Abby? No, but with her sounds giggling and saying "Come here!"

Lachie? No, but he said "Play the other unlocked characters, kid!"

Sarah? Yes.

When I picked her, she did her victory animation from the Freedom Planet crossover, then she spun around and did another animation similar to Tork's "Here We GO!!" animation from Freedom Planet (beta), only Sarah was smiling and not insane, and she didn't have her head go up to the sky. Sarah then jumped out of his file, and the files scrolled upward. She fell through the sky as seemingly endless rows of clouds rushed by. The screen faded to black mere seconds later.

The first level started up. As expected, it was "Random Hill Zone, Act 1" from season 1! When the screen faded back, Sarah fell in and landed with an unfamiliar crouching animation, before transitioning into her normal standing pose. She looked around, (doing an animation similar to Sonic 1's good ending) and said in the (Sonic.EXE: Darkest Struggles style) first textbox of the game:

Sarah: Finally, back in action before I see Lachie again! I'd better get through Random Hill though!

The classic Green Hill Zone music from Sonic 1 then began to play from being slowed down a lot with the pitch and tempo, and reverting to normal, and I moved her through Act 1 quickly. She had the spin dash from season 1, the insta-shield from season 2, the flying moves from Speed Sky (Rainbow.EXE), and even the drop dash from the game Sonic Mania, which I hadn't even played yet! I blazed through the stage with her overpowered moveset. However, I noticed something at the end… when I had collected 50 rings, the giant ring wasn't there. In fact, neither was the signpost!

Instead, there was a monitor. But it looked very peculiar: it had Lachie's head in it, like the normal extra life monitor, but the eyes were black with glowing red pupils, and the background was in black too. I didn't trust this monitor, but I couldn't move Sarah offscreen. The screen was locked on the ending area with the monitor.

I was screwed. She HAD to hit the monitor. Nervously, I charged up a spin dash, and released it, right toward the monitor.

That was my ultimate mistake.

Immediately after Sarah broke through it, the icon rose out and started flashing. First slowly, then as I moved her toward it, it flashed faster and faster! Suddenly, the stage began to shake like crazy as Sarah did her "wobbling" animation, but she was looking up, instead of down. The monitor's icon rose into the sky, and a sound that sounded like time slowing down played as Sarah was lifted up, playing the "lost rings" animation. With a blinding flash of light, it cut to black.

The screen faded into what appeared to be darkness. And… Lachie was there? He was laying on its back for a few seconds. Suddenly its eyes snapped open and it jumped to its feet. A text box appeared, labeling the other Lachie as his Scratch account, "LdEr2(LPI)."

LdEr2(LPI): *gasp* What the heck was that? Better check it out.

He began running through the darkness, and as he did I noticed something: he had a somewhat red tint on his eyes, though it was barely noticable. He really sort of did look like Rainbow Dash.EXE, if you ask me. He ran along for a few seconds before he jumped into a red version of the special stage ring. It cut to black mere seconds after.

I was confused at this cutscene. What wasn't right? Who was this version? Before I could think about it a bit more, the next level title appeared, saying "The Game Starts Now, Act 2." Very odd indeed. When the screen faded in, Sarah now had an unfamiliar expression on his face now. It looked like a sad face. When she idled for a while, she looked at me and looked around, curiously and worryingly. She could now only jump, crouch or spin dash. She spoke in a text box.

Sarah: Something went wrong... I'm supposed to be at the mansion now, but where is he?

I pressed enter, but she continued.

Sarah: I better get going... again...

What was weird about this new level, while I continued, was that it was a long, linear version of Green Hill Act 3. The music had changed to what sounded like a calm melody that would belong in a Genesis game, but it was reversed. As I moved Sarah along, I had noticed the trees, grass and plants start to get white and more "winter-ish." The water had darkened to a odd orange, and the sky was blue and cloudless. Totem poles had expressions of fear on the top, as if they were screaming. As I kept Sarah moving, the music became echoed, as if it were being played in the gymnasium.

After walking throughout this barren level, something caught my attention on the floor. It was a flicky, the iconic blue bird version. But, it had no eyes and was laying down on the floor, seeming dead. Now Sarah walked with an unfamiliar slow walking animation. She passed more and more dead flickies, killed in gruesome ways. Trees were now dripping blood while being a bit more white, plants were now random colors, and some of the original GHZ stage gimmicks were on the ground, broken. It was a terrible mess. Even the grass was becoming orange with grey tiles.

As Sarah kept moving, I saw more dead animals and even broken badniks as Sarah moved past them looking more and more worried as the music changed to being more and more echoed. When there were no more animals, trees, totem poles, etc, the music suddenly stopped completely. Sarah also stopped, and the screen panned over to the right to show… Lachie? I was so confused, how were there two main characters now?

My playable Sarah started to walk slowly towards Lachie, whos back was against the tree. I wasn't using my keyboard to make Sarah move, so this was a cutscene, apparently. As she got closer static grew louder and louder. Sarah stuck his hand out to touch Lachie. But the static suddenly stopped and he turned around opening his eyes. A cutscene began here.

Sarah: Lachie! There you are! Something's wrong with Random Hill!

LdEr2(LPI) (apparently, supposed to be Lachie): Wha? Lachie?

Suddenly, Lachie's eye sockets began bleeding, but the worst was yet to come. With a flash of red, he revealed his true form. He now had red eyes in black sockets, which were bleeding. Sarah now had a terrified and shocked expression on her face. More textboxes.

Sarah: Lachlan?! What's wrong?!

LdEr2(LPI): My name is LCMCdotEXErules2, but you can just call me LdEr2.

Sarah: You have another form?

LdEr2(LPI): No, but this is my evilside, don't you remember?

Sarah: Huh?

LdEr2(LPI): You hit my monitor… now you shall pay with your life.

LCMCdotEXErules2, or rather, L2, lunged toward Sarah and grabbed her by the neck. She was choking and sobbing for mercy, even though it was to no avail. The same "time-slowing-down" sound effect played as the screen distorted and flashed into a black screen. A message appeared with text like Sonic 2's title card, and it appeared to be for me.

"Hello Kyle!

I have made this game especially for you. This will be the last game you play that involves the demonic version of me... or any game for that matter.

But for now, welcome to my world! You'll be here soon...

- LCMCdotEXErules2"

I was puzzled at this but I decided to continue anyway. Why? Because I had questions that needed to be answered. Anyway, the next level was titled "Level Pattycake, act"... "4"? I've never seen 4 acts before...

Sarah spawned in what looked like Scrap Brain Zone, but the background was a darker version of Sky Chase's background, which the original background was on the character select. I heard "Black Noises" from Sonic Adventure 2 start up, though it was only the part where Eggman met Shadow on Prison Island on loop. Sarah could now only run left or right, or jump. She couldn't  spin-dash. When she idled for a while, he pointed right, like in "The Game Starts Now, Act 2," but more panicked.

An arrow pointing right appeared, and I pressed the right arrow key down as hard as I could. She ran through the stage quickly, but it wasn't fast enough. I heard the Sonic 2 drowning theme start up as spikes began coming down from the ceiling.

"Run, Sarah, RUN!!" I shouted to her. Thankfully, she made it out thanks to a special stage ring dead ahead. It faded to black a few seconds after she entered.

A message appeared again.

"Way to go Kyle! I see your game powers have improved!

Besides, you're still alive? Now it's just getting interesting…"

The next level loaded, titled "Zalgo's Dead, Act 666."

When it loaded, Sarah was standing in darkness, like in the first cutscene with LCMCdotEXErules2. There was no background or ground tiles. Just darkness. She had got her overpowered moveset back, thank goodness. I made her fly through the darkness and she flew as fast as he could go.

Just then, a few minutes into the level, I heard a deep, demonic laugh and the background changed. Now she was flying past the static ground (literally) and the background was distorted, swirling, glitching Xbox images. I then noticed that music had begun: it was an intense, chase-like theme as I saw LCMCdotEXErules2 start gaining on Sarah! What disturbed me though, was that he, too, was flying! He flew in a manner similar to Super Sonic in Sonic 2, but without the "super fur." A wide smirk crossed his face as he sped up.

Dead ahead was a green version of the iconic special stage ring. Sarah jumped for it, but L2 stopped her, as if by telekinesis. A cutscene began.

LdEr2(LPI): GOTCHA, SARAH!!

Sarah: AUGH!! (Audio included) WHAT'S HAPPENING?!!?

LdEr2(LPI): You will not be breaking free because of me!

A quick-time event began where I had to smash the spacebar as fast as I could. The music had changed to what sounded like an intense fight song. And trust me, I nearly vibrated my keyboard while smashing the spacebar button. Luckily, I hammered the spacebar enough, Sarah broke free of LCMCdotEXErules2's telekinetic grab, and entered the green ring screaming. LdEr2 looked stunned. Then, he seemed understanding.

LdEr2(LPI): Oh. I guess I can't capture him yet until I gain more souls. And I know just who to start with...

Before it cut to the last message in the game, LdEr2 began laughing. He vanished a while later. Speaking of which, the last message of the game said:

"Well, Kyle, the game for you is over. You now have to do the following to avoid death.

You must send this to your gaming friend, and label this "TheLCMCShowCPGame", regardless of your writing skills. Afterwards, you can be provided with the note you write, and I will do the rest.

When you reach my world, you will see what I can truely do.

It's time... are you ready for the first round, Kyle Caxton?

- LCMCdotEXErules2"

That was the only time the game closed itself after I pressed enter. I couldn't believe that it said MY FULL ACTUAL NAME without any changes. I then noticed that my desktop had been given a huge overhaul:

My wallpaper of me and my GF Alice kissing was replaced with a realistic picture of me, Alice and LCMCdotEXErules2, along with Lachie MC and Sarah with different expressions and looking at the screen. There was text above this saying "Thanks for playing, Kyle! End of Round 0!"

The game itself was replaced by an Exe file, named "LdEr2's Gaming Of Creepypasta." I burned the file onto a CD disc and tried to break it, but it didn't break. Very strange. I wrote "The LCMC Show" in red marker on the top of it (with "The CP Game" on the bottom) and decided to send it to my friend Tom to destroy it for me. I wrote a note before I could be caught.

What I wrote was this:

"Tom Wilson,

I finally played the disk that might know other users. I tried destroying this disk, but somehow I cant. You think you can do it? Because he's taking me to the digital world, and I don't know how long I'll take before I get back.

Please Tom, destroy this god-forsaken disc before he comes after you too, it's too late for me. Destroy the disc, and you'll stop him, but do it quick, otherwise he'll catch you. That and you will belong to him. I'm out of time and options, so for the love of all that is holy, do it quickly.

If you do play it… don't fight back. Don't try deleting it or try to resist playing. Don't try to defeat him. You can try and survive all you want, but he WILL retaliate without mercy. I have suffered greatly for it. Just hope that he will be kinder to you than he has been to me. May God watch over you and may LCMCdotEXErules2 have mercy on your soul.

I'd best be going now anyway. He's ready.

... pleas tell me you are too.

Kyle Caxton"

It looked messy, but I didn't care. I wrote Tom's address on the envelope, put the CD and letter in the envelope, sent it to him, and started typing this blog post. That's pretty much it. Tom, if you're reading this, then thank you for being a amazing friend. You too, Gary, Jake and Alice. I love you all very much.

Thanks for reading. And good luck.

-Kyle Caxton



AUTHOR'S NOTES:

A few weeks after sending this note he entered the Digital World. People couldn't find him after that.

A few weeks later, Kyle's body was found with a note on his neck saying "LCMCdotEXErules2 Is Coming For You." Sadly, he was dead, but at least he looked MLG anyway, with his awesome "Deal With It" glasses, only that it was to real. (MLG means Major League Gaming, like "Wombo Combo" or "We Are Number One [Dank]".)

Gary, Jake and Alice were caught passing the disc on to Tom. They were all killed by the same person. Same with other people passing the disc around.

And thus, The Wrath of LCMCdotEXErules2 has begun.

... what the heck have I done?

- Lachlan Mackay-Caunce

I bid you farewell. ;)

Part 1 of 7: The Beginning
Who's the fastest kitsumanoid / host of TLS in LW, can do anything and basically is famous in various sites?

Lachlan Mackay-Caunce, of course! Ever since I was a in Kindergarten, he was my childhood hero, along with Sonic, Mario, you name it, (almost) every classic icon from those years! I had all his classic games as a child, and still do to this day (via my emulator, I sold my SEGA Genesis and cartridges). But, sometimes those games get old really fast. So, what do I do? Play ROM hacks and fan games, of course! They're made BY fans FOR fans, like me. Some people laugh at me for playing such outdated games, but I've never had as much enjoyment for any games other than those on classic consoles, like the NES, SNES, SEGA, N64, etc. Those good old games take me back to when things were much simpler and safe. After what's happened with one game, however, I have got more of those feelings for them now.

When I played classic games back in the day, I was happy. I was normal. I could wake up in the morning recognizing my own reflection, being absolute about my safety. Now they're more than just classic games. But there's one thing out of all the rest that I NEVER understood, regardless of what happened. Let me explain what I mean...

Recently, I had gotten Kega Fusion on my laptop. It's a SEGA emulator, for those who don't know. (I had also downloaded a ton of hacks from a website called Sonic Retro. I also downloaded more hacks from other websites, like SSRG and the Sonic Hacking Contest website. I also downloaded hacks and fan games from other non-Sonic related sites, like Mediafire and GameJolt. But I'm getting off topic. Let's skip to where this all began.)

I was playing a game called Sonic.EXE Darkest Struggles when I heard the doorbell ring. I had seen that the mailman had left a package for me. I took it inside. When I opened it up, it was a CD in a case from my friend Jaelyn. He had a note with it:

"Hey BJ,

I heard u like CDs,

So I got dis weird CD 4 u.

Tho I didnt play it, thought u would like it 1st. Itz 2weird4me.

Anywhooo, I'll c u soon.

- Jaelyn Brown"

Although he REALLY needs to work on his grammar, I was happy to have gotten a new game. But, I was confused as to why the game was "weird." Curious, I inserted it into my laptop, but before checking what the file was, I scanned it to see if it had any viruses. The antivirus showed that the file was virus-free, so I decided to have a look at it. The file was labeled, "The_LCMC_Show_-_The_CP_Game.lpi". I thought it was a file that I couldn't use, but I could somehow play it.

The SEGA logo from Sonic 1 played, except there was pixelated text above it saying "TRADEMARK OWNERSHIP FOR SOME CHARACTERS BY" that faded in along with the SEGA logo, and the sound was "Trademark Ownership For Some Characters By" from Exetior and then saying the SEGA jingle from Sally.EXE Nightmare Beginnings.

When it faded out, both the "Hell Gaming" and "My Little Revenge" images appeared on two sides, but with pixelated text above the two saying

"BASED OFF THE GAME RAINBOW.EXE

BOTH FROM". They all faded out together, but that's when the real game almost started.

The final thing that happened before the title screen was the "Sonic Team Presents", but instead it had 3 title items before continuing, each in order of appearance:

"LCMCdotEXErules2 Presents"

"A TLS Presentation"

"In association with Sonic Team, Hell Gaming, MLR, MLP, SEGA, various others and SuperGoat64YT"

That's odd... I don't remember making this game before, and yet my name was used anyway? Something's up...

Then, the title screen appeared. It was Sonic 1's title screen, except there was big text above Lachie's head that said "The Wrath of LCMCdotEXErules2". Text saying "Featuring" was above the ribbon that said "Lachie The Fox." Under the same ribbon was the text "And His Friends." The "PRESS ENTER / PRESS START BUTTON" from the beta of Sonic 1 flashed beneath the logo.

I never knew this game had a custom title by Lachie... but I tended to play it then. Either way, I just pressed start, the screen suddenly went crazy for a split second before it cut to black.

Thankfully I accidentally pressed the Print Screen so I could copy it to Paint later, but before I didn't rember to do it.

When I viewed it in Microsoft Paint, it was much weirder.

The image that occurred for a split second was that the sky was grey with black clouds, the background looked decayed and gory and the title logo seemed completely ruined and rusted.

But the worst bit of all was Lachie and text, which was changed too.

The text had changed greatly, which were:

"You Need To Leave"

"Lachie"

"IS TOO FAST"

"Don't Play This"

"OR YOUR NEXT TO GO"

The copyright also changed from

"SEGA 1991 / LCMCdotEXErules2 2018" to "SCP___079 / LCMCdotEXErules2 666".

Sounds odd, doesn't it?

Lachie seemed really creepy. His eyes seemed even creepier than Exetior, and they were crying tears like crazy. But for some reason he seemed sadistic as heck, grinning like a madman. He was also in his Pony form for that split second.

The pony form change and the background change was the only thing I noticed then, but otherwise....

Getting back to the true story, soon the character select appeared. This shocked me. It looked somewhat similar to Sonic 3 and Knuckles' data select, except there were 4 files, two of which were locked. There were two default characters to choose from: Lachie and Sarah. I chose Sarah (for now).

After I chose, the game cut to what appeared to be a world map of Green Hill Zone! A world map, huh? I thought to myself. Interesting. The music was a catchy upbeat theme similar to Emerald Hill Zone's theme.

There were boss icons at the ends of the map. One icon represented the Wrecker Checker from Sonic 1, and the other represented the Drill Buggy from Sonic 2. Behind them was an icon representing a capsule where you free the animals (at the end of pretty much every zone in a classic Sonic game).

When I went through the first act, the classic Green Hill tune played. One thing that was cool was that there were more areas to explore in Green Hill than usual, like Sonic Mania. In fact, Green Hill Acts 1 and 2 had their level designs straight from Sonic Mania! Act 3 had a mixture of Emerald Hill Zone Acts 1 and 2 from Sonic 2, albeit with more areas. Nothing too special, but it was nice to see these acts in the game. Another neat thing was that with each act, the time of day transitioned from day to sunset, then to night, then to sunrise, and back to day again. The act music was different with every act. Act 1 had Green Hill's classic theme, Act 2 had a 16-bit remix of Sonic Mania's Green Hill Act 2, and Act 3 was Emerald Hill from Sonic 2.

My first opponent was the Wrecker Checker. It was straight out of Sonic 1. If you don't know that boss's design, you aren't a Sonic fan in my opinion. It's as simple as it sounds… until after I gave the initial 8 hits. That was when the boss dropped its infamous checkered ball and it smashed the ground. The music slightly sped up as if I got the speed shoes in a normal level. After another 8 hits, the game suddenly started to glitch up and seem to turn into what you'd see in a Virtual Boy.

I pressed escape, thinking that was enough with the game for now, until suddenly my PC screen flashed red static and cut back to the gameplay! The glitchy colors were gone, luckily. In their place was SC0404 being defeated as usual. She flew off and the level faded out. But before it faded back to the world map, a message appeared on the screen, accompanied by a chime similar to when you enter a special stage in Sonic 1.

The message said:

"Do not leave this game. It has much more potential than you think."

For a moment I thought about that: What's that supposed to mean?

"You have a lot of work done on here," I thought aloud. "So... what did that mean?

Another message after I said that, this time in text from the Rainbow.EXE Game font called "Creepygirl".

"Don't worry, wise guy, soon you'll see. I'm still glad you decided to keep playing though."

I jumped at that statement.

Did the game just hear my words? I initially thought.

No, they just programmed it to be that way from the start, that's it. I thought to myself.

After the second message, it cut back to the world map. The Wrecker Checker icon was gone from the map. It was time to fight the Drill Buggy, who this time had a glitch of its own.

The Drill Buggy was driving at TWICE the speed it should've been, which startled me. SC must've planned ahead this time, I thought jokingly. After 8 hits, though, the Drill Buggy, as well as SC, started to… how do I put it? Shatter and melt into nothingness. She flew up after a few seconds, her getaway jetpack still exploding. He flew off, and the level faded out.

But when it got back to the map, the upbeat music stopped, and was replaced with a remix of the song "My Hope Will Never Die" from YouTube, with the lyrics playing only once before the song looped for the beat. That AND there was a new icon replacing the capsule. It looked like my playable Lachie character, except it was facing away from the screen and was darker. That icon wasn't there before I beat the Drill Buggy, but since it replaced the capsule, it must've been the only way to exit Green Hill, and move on to the next zone. I moved Sarah over to the icon and started the level.

The level looked like Green Hill in a different way. The water had turned black, like in Rouge.EXE, the trees and plants were random colors or had a mechanical look to them. The mountains now had the Rainbow Factory in the background and had a corrupted look to the mountains, and the clouds had all disappeared. The catchy upbeat tune was replaced with the last song (Sally's death) from the Sally.exe game, only it never went faster.

What really shocked me were two things: the replacement of the HUD, and Sarah's idle animation. The HUD had disappeared, save for the life counter. There was only a single bit of text at the top-center of the screen that said "Run, Sarah, RUN." Sarah now had a terrified look upon her face, and when she idled, he pointed towards the right of the screen frantically. I moved her slowly rightward thinking, Run? Run… from what?

The first time it hit me, I didn't even see it.

I heard a noise outside my room, and I checked to see if something fell. Suddenly, I heard a very fast version of the drowning music. I looked back at my laptop, but apparently, I was too late. A message had appeared, in a mixed-up font of the many different fonts from the classic Sonic games. This message read "YoU nEeD tO pAy AtTeNtIoN, mAtE..." and an evil laugh, along with a long droning note, accompanied it. When it cut back to gameplay, Sarah was doing her death animation and she lost a life.

Dang it, was all I could think. I figured it was probably just a glitch, so I started the level again, making sure to pay attention this time. After I made Sarah run at full speed, a heavily dubstep version of the Sonic 1 theme song began playing. That's after I heard a deep, distorted laugh...

And then... somehow Lachie was chasing her... but...

THIS Lachie had black eyes with glowing red pupils, and those sockets were bleeding. A wide smirk crossed his face as he sped up. This HAD to be his evil side. He didn't even use his wings for flight, he flew without them, and even Sarah was shocked about this.

By sheer dumb luck, or perhaps the adrenaline boost, I managed to speed Sarah up enough to put me and LdEr2 at the same speed. He ran very fast, so much so that if you saw him you were almost certainly going to die. And when I say "die", I mean your character would get killed instantly if he touched them.

Before she reached a couple of meters before the signpost, Sarah began to get a bit exhausted from running, and Lachie was getting closer. Although she was panting hard, I had to get this level done.

I passed the signpost, and when I did, Lachie stopped before hand and I cheered "YES!" ... Lachie didn't do anything but growled and said in a distorted text box, "Damn it Sarah... I've beaten you before, I will do it again." That's when he teleported out and the next world act began, but it took a while to figure out the name pun...

"Marble Zone Mayhem"



Part 2 of 7: Marble Zone Mayhem
I was still pretty shook up from the chase level when I started this. I checked the other end of the map to see who the bosses would be this time. They were what I call the Egg Flame Dropper (Marble Zone's boss), the Lava Sub (Hill Top Zone's boss), and the Egg-o-flame (Angel Island Act 2's boss).

Aside from all that, my eye was drawn to a new icon on the map: a monitor. I was really curious as to what it did. I thought it would be a bonus game, but I was wrong. I'll explain the "Quiz Levels" now, since this was when they started appearing. There was one of these per map from here on, and they always appeared near the start of the map.

When you started on a quiz level, Sonic would appear in the bottom center of the screen. There were 3 monitors, two with letters on them, "Y" and "N," and one with a neutral face. "Y" and "N" were at the left and right sides of the screen, the face monitor at the center. I refer to the monitor with the face as "Monty the Monitor" (real creative, I know), and for convenience, I'll refer to Monty as the one asking the questions.

Monty asks you twelve "Yes or No" questions, and you move your character to the Y and N monitors for your answer. When you answer, the question disappears and Monty changes expressions for a few seconds, then he goes back to neutral and a new question comes up. There was no time limit, nor any right or wrong answers.

Monty has no respect for the player's personal boundaries, and would sometimes ask deeply disturbing and personal questions. Other times he would ask questions that were either mind-numbingly stupid or just flat out ridiculous. And maybe once per quiz, Monty would ask you a question about the game.

Monty's expressions seemed to have no effect on the game, except for indicating what the game creator thought of your answer. His reactions rarely made any sense, and at first I thought they were randomly generated.

The questions never followed a pattern. Monty never stayed on the same subject for more than two questions. Early on, there were questions that made me think Monty was building up to something, only to then ask some stupid garbage. (Though in this game Monty did stay on the same subject of the game at times, which might build up to the real thing.)

The expressions of Monty are as follows:

1. Neutral (default)

2. Angry (If you tried breaking Monty his expression changes to this, but nothing else happens - however when I tried he respawns after I broke him)

3. Sad

4. Happy

5. Sick

6. Surprised

7. Love

8. Annoyed

9. Confused

10. Guilty/Hurt

He has other expressions, but they only appear to be in-jokes. Two of these appeared only once, possibly in-jokes by the creator. Their respective questions were "Do you like ice cream?" and "Are you a tough guy?" But these were much more different.

I remember all the questions because I have a pen and notepad with me almost always (don't ask, I'm a great rememberer that way). Here are the first series of questions, my answers, and Monty's reaction:

1. Do you like the game?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Happy

2. Are you afraid of this?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Surprised

3. Are you over 18?

Answer: No, Reaction: A confused face

4. Do you think this zone is going to be hard?

Answer: No, Reaction: Happy (again)

5. Are you smart enough to do it?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A Yellow Happy / slightly Confused face

6. How was Random Hill? (I thought it meant Green Hill, so I shrugged and answered anyway.)

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A light blue face with its eyes closed

7. Do you have a job?

Answer: No, Reaction: Confused

8. Do you like hurting people?

Answer: No, Reaction: Happy

9. Are you sure you don't hurt people?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Happy (updated)

10. Do you like dogs?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Happy

11. Is the president good?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A grayish face with derpy eyes and a surprised mouth

12. Is this game going to build a new 4th wall?

Answer: No, Reaction: A netural face with it's eyes closed (at first)

That last question confused me. Does this know my name like Sonic.EXE would?

But when I answered, it changed the question to "Actually," and then a few seconds later, it said "It WILL... now let us begin!" with a grey happy face.

Now that I've explained all that, time for the gameplay.

I started Act 1 as Lachie, which was a long hybrid of all the acts in Marble Zone. A few differences from the original were that gray checkerboard blocks (contrary to the black and white normal checkerboard blocks) vanished if Lachie touched them, adding speed onto the platforming challenge. Also, the "planets" from the beta of Sonic 1's Marble Zone were present too. And finally the act card said "Marble Zone Mayhem, Act 1".

It was long, it was challenging, but with rings being collected, I had a plethora of lives at my disposal, despite lots of lives lost (cuz Marble Zone is, you know, frustrating). Soon the Act was complete. Next was Act 2. This time, I played as Sarah again.

The level loaded the usual title card, "Dark Castle (Marble Zone Mayhem), Act 2," but after that, instead of fading into the level, it showed a screen with the text "Welcome To The Staircase of Doom" in the style of the Sonic Team Presents screen from Sonic 1. The level looked similar to the first act's interior, except instead of Marble Zone's theme, the DotDotDot music from Sonic.EXE's game was playing. The purple wall was different for this act instead of Act 1, with torches on the wall. I charged up a peel-out (from Sonic CD, for those who don't know) and made Sarah charge through the dark hallway. She ran along the checkerboard ground before dropping down a long staircase. The screen started to get darker and more red as Sarah moved along. The flames turned blue after a few staircases, which was very odd indeed.

I didn't want to admit it to myself at the time, but I realized something playing Staircase of Doom: the game had the power to make the player feel certain things. I don't mean in the sense that you get irritated playing a terrible game (like Sonic '06* in fact), or get unnerved by something scary in a game. What I mean is that certain events in this game can instantly make you start feeling something… but I don't know what. I know that sounds completely insane, and I don't blame you for not believing me, I wouldn't believe any of this either if I didn't play the game myself. But there was something very, very wrong with this game, and I didn't know how to explain it.

Either way, there were no rings in the act, and when I passed the signpost, the screen reverted back to its original color, no more red filter. I got the level done in a long time, almost 5 minutes of hallways and staircases. At least I didn't get a Time Over though.

After that, it was time to fight the bosses. First was the Egg Flame Dropper.

The fight with the Egg Flame Dropper was FAR different than the original Sonic 1 version. When SC dropped the flames, instead of splitting apart and sliding offscreen, they sent up a lava-like shockwave. It reminded me of the Sumo Bros' move from Super Mario World. The machine moved slowly, like the original, and after 8 hits it was done. WAY too easy. The same couldn't be said for the Lava Sub though.

The Lava Sub's fireball shooter was replaced with a scorching flamethrower from both the top and bottom of the machine. But, it could only shoot the flamethrower from either the top OR bottom. If you were playing the game, I would recommend to hit the boss from the bottom when the flamethrower is above the cockpit. After 8 hits, it was no more. Nothing much to say really.

After beating the Lava Sub, I got an idea: if defeating Robotnik's creations makes the creepy Run level appear, what if I went to the capsule level and skipped the Egg-o-Flame boss? So, I gave that a try.

However, a message appeared on top of the screen: "Sorry, you can't enter the capsule before ALL the boss levels are complete. Why don't we put you in the boss level for you instead?"

And immediately afterward, the game took control of my 8-Bit Lachie character and moved it before the Egg-o-Flame! My little trick didn't work! I had to prepare for another chase, but for now, the last boss of Dark Castle awaited me… the Egg-o-flame. For this fight, I tried out Sarah once again.

The Egg-o-Flame dropped fireballs, like the original, only this time the fireballs burst and split into two when they hit the ground. The tiny fireballs would bounce around before disappearing at the end of the screen. I discovered something sweet when fighting this boss. When I pressed the S key when I should've hit the A key, Sarah did something similar to a tail-swipe move and knocked a fireball back at the Egg-o-Flame! This shocked me, but I used it to my advantage, as a fireball dealt twice as much power as a normal spin attack would. Soon the Egg-o-Flame was destroyed, and as much as I hoped otherwise…

LCMCdotEXErules2 appeared where the capsule was, but this time looking at me with an angered look. I moved 8-bit Lachie over to the icon nervously. Before I began the level, I had a sip of my water bottle.

I started the level, and it was exactly what I was afraid it would be: a darker rehash of Staircase of Doom. The wall was now dark red, the dark gray checkerboard floor was stained with a dark red substance… probably blood? The blue flame torches were back, and as I kept Sarah moving, I noticed something extremely dark, but undeniably red on the wall… I think it was bloodstains? Thankfully, the bloodstains weren't what you people classify as "Hyper-Realistic" (there's no such word, idiots!) or MS-Paint or some trollpasta-worthy program like that, they were very dark and hard to see, but whoever designed the blood must have done a extremely great job with trying to make it look scary. I made Sarah peel out again as the heartbeat/drowning music hybrid intensified.

As I ran through the level, I saw LCMCdotEXErules2 start catching up again. I think he decided to get to its trump card now, as this time he was accelerating in a way that I never expected: he was using his wings to be flying again! One of his arms was outstretched for Sarah. The faker smirked as he began catching up. The screen started to get different again as the faker gained on Sonic. At times the screen even began to distort! From what I could see, the torches were now a black flame, but due to the differences I could JUST see the torches and the bloodstains. All I could see clearly was the growing-more-terrified Sarah, LdEr2 chasing her, and the floor with black stains on it now, aside from the "RUN" text and life counter.

I was afraid, and oh, sure LCMCdotEXErules2 was fast, but Sarah was faster, and with fast thinking and faster button pressing I escaped LdEr2 yet again, with a whoosh past the signpost! The screen reverted back to normal again once Sarah touched the signpost. I felt really excited for escaping the faker again, and so I laughed and said "Not this time, faker!"

But when I said that sentence, just before he disappeared, LdEr2 did something that shocked me:

He looked at me.

"I think not," he said in a text box.

I wasn't sure what he meant by this, but it did scare me.

Once again another zone was seen which was from Sonic 3, sort of:

"Lachlan & Zalgo's Island"

---=== Author's Notes ===---


 * I don't really see the problem with Sonic '06, honestly. The HUD and Sonic character seem fine to me. You'll have to show me why you hate it, because I still don't understand.

Part 3 of 7: The Lachlan and Zalgo Island
When I got back to the game, I was getting very curious.

I thought about the way LCMCdotEXErules2 looked at me. The game COULDN'T have heard what I said unless it hacked the microphone to be on, that's impossible. It had to be a random occurrence. But why did it happen precisely at the moment I insulted him?

At least some stuff about this game made sense. Just not the new boss tactics, the weird replacement levels, the quiz levels, and the chases. It didn't seem to add up in any kind of meaningful way.

However, being set similarly to the Wrath of Exetior is a bit odd to be here, but that makes sense, because creepypastas is what Lachie reads... or at least, the gaming and "cartoon" ones. That and it's set in LCMC World.

If it was a prank, it was a BIT funny (but not in any way I could understand), and the developers clearly put far too much effort into it. If they were trying to make a genuine sequel to the classic trilogy, like Rainbow.EXE's Nightmare Beginnings Fan-Game by L2's Crew, then why did they add everything else? Maybe it was some kind of experiment? Some group project made by a bunch of really talented but crazy people, and they lost the disc somehow? Or maybe they intended for some random person to find it?

It was all just fruitless guessing. As far as I could tell, there was only one way to figure out what the deal with this game was: to play it through to the end. Maybe, just maybe, there would be something in the credits, an explanation by the creators as to why they made this. Or it could be something much more cryptic and strange, maybe even something horrifying.

Before I got a good look at the Lachlan & Zalgo's Island map, I considered replaying the previous zone to see if the faker would look at me again, but I decided against it. I wanted to keep moving forward. I was also somewhat worried that backtracking might cause the game to become even more strange.

Speaking of strange, the board music sounded a lot like DotDotDot Full's music, except it was remixed to be from ZertyTV's Sonic.exe Version 9 YTP.

While listening to the music, I looked at the map. The three bosses were the Egg-o-Flame Mini (Angel Island's mini-boss), Egg Spike (Spring Yard's boss) and what looked like Knuckles the Echidna. I was surprised that I would have to possibly fight Knuckles. But the newest surprise was still to come.

I started the Quiz level. Here's another list of results in the same format as the last one:

1. Can you swim?*

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Happy

2. Can Sonic swim?

Answer: No, Reaction: Sad

3. Do you like fish? (I assume he meant with Chips)

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Happy

4. Can it spin in all directions? (There was no clarification of what Monty meant by "it" so I just guessed)

Answer: No, Reaction: Surprised

5. Do you breathe oxygen?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A dull purple face with buck teeth

6. Does it taste good when you bite a woman? (Okay, I don't even know who on EARTH came up with this question, but I really hope they're getting mental help)

Answer: No, Reaction: Happy

7. Is it night where you are?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: An orange face seeming puzzled

8. Do you like cats?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Confused

9. Is water wet?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A blue grinning face

10. Have you ever broken a bone?

Answer: No, Reaction: Happy

11. Do you like your job?

Answer: No, Reaction: Happy

12. Before we leave to begin the zone, we also suggested a new item... and that is this: Would you like a new character?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Happy

I wasn't entirely sure at the time what Monty meant by "new character", but I couldn't resist answering "Yes," just to see what would happen.

...

For a couple of seconds it froze as if it crashed (Rainbow.EXE Reference) and then it faded slowly to black. That is when I was taken by surprise.

The game took me back to the map and I had a new playable character in the form of Abby! Although you might not entirely understand who she is, I'll explain in a bit. I selected Abby as my playable character and moved her over to Act 1, eager to test her out.

She had speed and the spin dash like Lachie, though she had new attacks too. She could punch and uppercut with the S key (and kick with the D key, of course). And, in place of the peel out, she could do a dash punch and run at full speed swinging her fists like crazy (Nightmare Beginnings reference) She could also fly like Sarah as well.

As for the level, it was this:

It was a mixture of Angel Island Acts 1 and 2 from Sonic 3, but without any fire. It was fun, easy and great to be in Knuckles' home paradise from the third game without Robotnik's forces attacking it. Overall, I loved Act 1. The same couldn't entirely be said for Act 2. For this act, I played as Sarah yet again, just for variety. (Sarah seems like she can take a few hits, somehow... but where's Lachie TL in this?)

When Act 2 opened, I was immediately confused: it looked like Marble Zone and Angel Island on fire, but without any fire! There was a light sunset on the formerly blue background, turning it orange. The music was a higher-pitched remix of Green Hill's music. It gave me a nice, peaceful feel on Angel Island, and I felt like I was watching a nice, calm sunset somewhere. I moved Sarah through the flat level for a few minutes.

After that few minutes the Green Hill music faded out and changed into a song I couldn't hear for a few seconds, but it was "Epitome of Love" from the LCMCdotEXErules2 Creepypasta Soundboard (click here)! The only difference is it never had voices and it never sped up... I think.

I noticed a cutscene begin in this level after a minute of running. Sarah skidded to a halt and looked around him, doing an animation similar to Sonic in the good ending from Sonic 1. Sarah then spoke in a text box:

Sarah: Dead animals? What happened here? Did someone go on a massacre or something? I gotta see who did this and stop it!

Indeed, she was right: there was a massacre of Flickies and animals all around the tropical forest. Animals were hung on trees, laying in bloody heaps, and some even on the plants of the stage! My heart sank when I saw them and I wondered who could have killed them all. As I pressed her onward, I saw something in one of the trees. At first I thought it was a hidden monitor, and it was... it had a lightning bolt on it, but red... so I just left it behind and pressed on.

"I guess nothing's gonna hap-" I started to say to myself, but with a thunderclap through my speakers, the environment changed.

"Me and my coincidences," I cursed under my breath.

Lachlan & Zalgo's Island now looked more like "Satan & Acid Island" after the thunderclap. The ground was now black and yellow, the sky was darkening to a nighttime mood with "Intel" stars and green clouds, and there were more dead animals than ever. The music even changed and echoed more, now sounding more menacing and evil than ever. Sarah spoke again in a text box:

Sarah: It's getting worse and worse... What if the killer gets me this time? Should I go back and warn the others.....? .... No, no, no, no, you have to be brave... I think I see someone up ahead.

Sarah approached a flicky, panicking like nuts. I was relieved to see an animal still alive in the stage for a change. A conversation in text boxes began:

Sarah: Who caused these murders, little guy?

Flicky: Madam… turn back… it's not safe here… just run…

Suddenly, a horde of Motobugs stampeded into the area onscreen. However, unlike normal Motobugs, these ones seemed to have went absolutely insane. They attacked everything in sight, and they used their claws to tear the Flicky to shreds. Sarah had a terrified (and horrified) expression on his face when that happened. I immediately jumped over the Motobugs and made Sarah fly at full speed. I flew over two more Motobugs fighting to the death, clawing at each other. I didn't stay to see who won the fight though. I made Sarah land when I saw there were no more insane Motobugs.

As I kept Sarah running, I noticed trees block my view of him a while. Soon the foreground trees were gone. In their place was the nighttime version of Angel Island, but without the dead animals or storm clouds. The ground had turned to a nightly blue hue. The music from the first part of the stage had returned as well, as if nothing had happened.

And immediately, I started to feel dread. This is going to sound crazy, but it's the absolute truth: The game made this level from one of my memories.

After a long stretch of nothing, I was completely taken by surprise when the Egg Spike came in out of nowhere! SC knocked Sarah back when he appeared, and even she exclaimed (with her own audio voice).

The Egg Spike was similar to that of Spring Yard except easier, as the ground didn't break when SC lifted it up. It took only a minute for me to defeat SC because of this, but her sudden appearance had greatly shocked me. I made Sarah run off to the side of the screen, happy that I defeated SC again.

But what happened immediately afterward is NOT what I could call a reward.

I've been trying to keep my promise and suppress this memory for years, but it seems as if I have to get it off my chest. This is a very random memory for myself to explain, but the game already knows about it, and I think you should too. I'll just tell you the important parts, because I don't like bringing this experience back into my head when not asked to, unless I have to.

In The LCMC Show, like where this game was set in, I too was in the series. And recently Lachie had been able to access a new female... one with the name Melanie. She had beautiful black hair tied in a ponytail almost all the time. She (as well as Lachie) suffered from some kind of mental disorder that caused her to go into "episodes."

When she was in an "episode," she would stand/sit perfectly straight and still, and her face would instantly lose any expressions it had before. She would speak very clearly, without any hint of emotion. I could also swear on my life I could see a bit of a reddish… "glow," in her eyes, when she was in these episodes. Anyway, when the episode was over, she would start trembling and sometimes bury her face in her hands, and remain silent for several minutes. I can't really convey the feeling in words, and I won't try. You had to see this in person to understand.

But despite her episodes, she was a very kind person and I cared about her the same way that her friend Brian did. Sometimes we all like to hang out in a field at night, and look at the stars.

(Fun Fact!: I have the same "Episodes" but... you'll have to watch Flippy from Happy Tree Friends to understand what I was gonna say. - Lachlan MC)

One night, however, everything changed. That night, Melanie didn't say anything to Brian and me at all, she just stared directly at the moon. The red glow in her eyes was more prominent than ever that night. I tried to talk to her, but she suddenly sprung up, bid us farewell (not entirely sure why she did that...) and ran right into traffic. I tried to stop her, but I was too late. She got hit by a truck, and lost a life instantly that way.

I looked her right in the eyes when the wheels went over her neck. That sight has always haunted me.

I know that the game knows about this because after I defeated the Egg Spike… these messages appeared, in the style of the messages at the start of the game…

"MELANIE"

"SHE DIED BECAUSE OF ME"

"...OR DID SHE?"

Then random messages of the word "Hello!" appeared on the screen in a very rapid manner. I also heard a warbling sound as they did, but before the Hello corrupted the game... It cut to black immediately after, and one last message appeared as if Vinesauce corrupted it (but was like from Sonic 1's Sonic Team Presents screen):

"OH, HELLO THERE!! DO YOU WANT TO PLAY WITH ME??"

…

After… THAT, the game went back to the map screen.

I knew the game was going to test me if I kept playing. But I had no idea it would go so far. Or that it was even capable of doing what it just did. I did have one question that just read me, "Did the game just read my mind?"

That didn't seem possible. But what other explanation was there?

It was then that I could no longer deny what now seemed obvious: the game was now ALIVE. And not only that, it also could establish some kind of mental connection with the player.

And yet I couldn't convince myself to stop playing. I don't know if it was the game messing with my mind, or just my stubborn curiosity, but even with the previous revelation, I really wanted to see this through to the end.

Terrifying as it might be, even dangerous, I knew that if I quit playing, I would never be able to stop thinking about it. If I tried to restart the game, it might go back to being normal again. How many people ever get to witness something like this firsthand?

Messed up as it was, this was the experience of a lifetime.

But even so, I couldn't take any chances with my health. I had the power button right on the top left of my laptop keyboard, ready to turn it off in case I felt I was in actual danger. And if that didn't work, I would just run out of the room, or destroy the laptop, though at the same time, losing everything I saved on there.

Surely, that would be enough.

...

Um... wouldn't it?

...

Whatever powers the "game" has, it seemed to be confined to what it can show on the screen and, whatever its "mental connection" could do. The latter was what worried me. I still didn't know what I was dealing with, so I wasn't about to underestimate it.

I took a break for a few minutes to calm my nerves. And then it was back to the game.

I looked at the board and noticed the Egg Spike was gone. Lucky me, I guess. Two more bosses: the Egg-o-Flame Mini, and "Knuckles." I decided to go to the Egg-o-Flame Mini with Abby first. When I started the fight, a level title similar to Staircase of Doom's appeared, but with a different and very odd level name indeed: "Find The Exit To Continue, act READY"

The HUD had disappeared, like the RUN stages. In its place was a full health bar with Abby's new life icon. I was surprised by this, as I didn't know this fight would be health based. I boosted her health with rings at the start of the arena.

When I saw the Egg-o-Flame Mini come down on the right of the screen, I noticed it dropped bombs, like before Angel Island was set on fire in Sonic 3. However, instead of setting the area ablaze, the bombs broke the ground and Abby screamed as she fell from a great height. She couldn't fly then for some reason, but perhaps it was just a cutscene.

It faded to black, and the true level began: "Ey Boss - Egg-O-Flame.sth, act 1"

The grayscale Angel Island grass had returned, and the background was something very dark but noticeable. It looked like the green trees from Angel Island Act 1 before it was set on fire, but darkened heavily and turned gray. The music freaked me out the most, it sounded like a deep howling wind. Abby landed safely and looked around in horror and confusion.

Abby: Ahh great. Just knew that Freedom Planet would be able to corrupt Sonic 1 and crash each other... I'd better get outta here.

Then, I gained control. I knew right from the moment I saw this part of the "fight" that this was going to be distressing. I traveled through the stage for about a minute, and I noticed there weren't any robots or other enemies going around. But then this might be a good thing, maybe there wouldn't be any obstacles and I could get through the boss with ease. Thankfully she could fly again.

Then, the screen went dark. And immediately I snapped out of my daze from a few seconds earlier. Everything had been darkened so that the only thing I could see were the Abby sprite, a tiny bit of the area around her, and the health bar. I couldn't tell where I was going and I ended up frantically running off cliffs.

Mere moments later, I heard a noise, which sounded like a crowd running through a hallway. And along with the running, came the screeches. Loud screeching sounds, which I would describe as something like a rabid dog the size of an elephant, screaming with fury. And I could tell that whatever was making this noise, there were lots of them.

I knew there was something there, but it wasn't until the light came back on that I got to see what my pursuers looked like: the pursuers were Sonic, but in a very unrecognizable way: their eyes and mouth were dripping black goo, their fur had become a duller blue, and they had no arms. They hovered in mid-air as they chased after Abby, and an intense, chase-like music began playing. I had been literally running blind, and this mob of distorted Sonics, which I called "Melting Sonic(s)," eventually caught up to me. All I could think was "WHAT?!" as I saw Abby's health bar rapidly declining.

I made Abby run as fast as he could. The Meltings had taken her down to half of her total health, and they wouldn't give up, the little buggers. I was in panic mode now, moving as fast as I could go while trying every path I could find for a way out. I would have been dead meat had it not been for a statue of Sonic. As I stayed close to it, the Meltings seemed to avoid me. The statue warded them away, somehow. I was safe as long as I stayed near the statue, but at the same time I had to leave to find the exit.

When I found a long stretch at the bottom, possibly the end of the level, I noticed a slightly different version of Melting Sonic with arms, unlike the others with none, start chasing Abby as the chase music began again. This Melting Sonic was now flying in a horrifying way: it had one of its arms close to its chest, and the other arm was reaching out for Abby. I spammed the dash punch move as much as I could to get away from him.

Dead ahead, I saw a wall fall in front of Abby. I wasted no time in making her start to hover up that wall. Melting raised up its arm closest to its chest. I was confused at what it was doing until spikes began coming down from the top! The Melting Sonic disappeared before he touched the wall. But he didn't matter now. I made Abby speed from wall to wall, dodging the spikes. Soon the spikes were gone, and I climbed back up to safety.

The wall eventually turned from gray stones to brown, and Abby burst out of the ground in a similar manner to the opening cutscene by Knuckles from Sonic 3. She looked up, and the Egg-o-Flame Mini came down. The normal Egg-o-Flame Mini boss fight then took place, just like it did in Sonic 3. I was the victor, of course.

"Serves you right for nearly taking Abby down!" I shouted to the game. To my luck, the game didn't respond with something scary again. I was happy it didn't.

However it did respond with this corrupted text before it cut to black and went back to the world map:

"I wAsN't AiMiNg FoR hEr... I wAs AiMiNg FoR tHe MeLtInG sOnIcS!"

One last boss… the boss Knuckles. I started as Abby on the boss icon, and to my surprise, I was fighting Knuckles! But any Sonic fan worth their salt can figure this out.

The boss Knuckles had yellow gloves on his hands, as well as yellow stripes on his shoes. The fur was also a pinkish/reddish color, and the eyes were blue. There was only one "echidna" that looked like that in the Sonic canon: Mecha Knuckles.

Mecha Knuckles could dash punch like Knuckles, and could glide too, but gliding was his weakness, as I used Abby's uppercut to take care of him. After 4 hits the disguise went away, revealing his true robotic form.

Mecha Knuckles, in his robotic form, was no pushover. He and Abby were now equally matched in strength, but Abby was faster. When Mecha Knuckles tried gliding, I made Abby uppercut him with all of his force. Another 4 hits, and he was gone.

However, Abby's strength didn't matter now. Because I didn't need to fight anymore. I needed to run. Sure enough, LCMCdotEXErules2 had appeared at the end of the map again, but this time with a grin across his sadistic looking face, with... Scootaloo's decapitated head in his hand? ...oh well, I'm not to judge.

Even though it was cartoon-like with Scootaloo's tongue hanging out and the eyes at the back of his head, it was still disturbing.

Here we go again. I decided right then and there that I really wanted to see the end of this game. I decided that no matter what happened, no matter what the game showed me, I was going to get to the end. And I also made sure not to say a single word while playing a chase level from here on. For this chase, I tried out Lachie, as I was exhausted playing as the others for now.

Indeed, Angel Island was now on fire in this RUN stage. Lachie, like Sarah, pointed right when he idled, except I could see tear marks under his eyes and he seemed to be absolutely terrified. Poor guy… I actually felt bad for him this time. So, I spin dashed as much as I could and made him run at full speed. I was beginning to get the hang of it.

After a few seconds of Lachie running, LdEr2 started chasing Lachie, only it was running again, not flying. Trees impeded my vision like in Angel Island Act 2. After Lachie passed a few trees, LdEr2 vanished. Another few trees, and he was back, running again.

How is he doing that?!, I thought, as he vanished yet again. Suddenly, I saw LdEr2 charging right toward Lachie at full tilt after I passed the last tree. I made Lachie jump and fly over him. LdEr2 skidded to a halt and chased Lachie again. Without warning, however, another message appeared as Lachie landed.

This message said, "I told you to leave us alone, you idiotic kitsumanoid!!"

After that message vanished, it cut back to gameplay, and LdEr2 was now flying again as the drowning music began, but at a lower pitch. I made Lachie run at full speed to get away from him, to no avail.

Up ahead, I saw a wood bridge and a pit of water beneath it. When the faker caught up to Lachie this time, instead of a taunting message, the faker bowled Lachie over and rushed ahead. Lachie landed on the bridge on his stomach. He looked around for a few seconds, then seemed to look like he's about to cry and then... bursted into tears.

This scene lasted only about half a minute as then, the faker appeared again. He looked down on Lachie, smirking. Lachie, still teary-eyed, shut his eyes and waited for the end, but it didn't come. The bridge quivered and swayed a bit, before it collapsed, and Lachie exclaimed as he fell into the pool of water! The faker looked down, now hovering, and then spoke in a text box:

LdEr2(LPI): Oh no!! People like me can't swim here!! I'll get you when I can get my reinforcements!!

I guess it can't swim, I thought to myself. I then wondered how Lachie would survive underwater. Luckily, there was a bubble shield in the underwater area Tails was now in. As soon as I collected it I didn't hesitate to have him swim over to the right as fast as possible. However, I suddenly heard a laugh… an evil, distorted one… and images of the faker flashed all over the screen.

Then LdEr2 was following after me in a new aquatic form! I had no idea it had multiple forms. This new form had LdEr2 now have brighter fur, a darker chest and magical waterproof gloves. A cutscene started again as Lachie suddenly stopped.

Lachie: Wait a minute, how can that be?!

LdEr2(LPI): What?

Lachie: You're in water? But how?!

LdEr2(LPI): I told you before, I did this because of her!

Lachie: Rainbow Dash.EXE? But she isn't in this!

LdEr2(LPI): I know... AND NOW YOU WILL DIE!!!

After he said that, the chase started to get into the difficulty I had expected. Being in water slowed Lachie down, but only putting him and the faker at about the same speed. The only thing that would keep him alive was my fast thinking and reflexes.

This stage was a giant underwater maze. But before the true maze started, I guided Lachie through a long tunnel that changed directions every so often. All the while, he was chased by the faker. Up ahead, I saw a button. This closed a door behind Lachie, preventing the faker from still chasing him.

I moved him a bit more into the level, and Lachie hid behind some bushes (underwater bushes? Well, isn't that weirder?) as the faker appeared, looking around. The faker then said, again in a text box:

LdEr2(LPI): Oh, you wanna play Hide and Seek do you? Well then, Let's PLAY!

I had Lachie swim as fast as possible no sooner the faker vanished. The maze was long, and I often ended up backtracking into areas I had already discovered. In some corners, there were extra life monitors. These were really helpful, though I don't know how the girls could've survived this maze. Towards the final stretch of the maze, I saw the faker walking along the top of the maze. He then looked down and started flying after Lachie again! The second part of the chase then commenced.

I encountered some bottomless pits, in which mines floated up from. I assumed that if you hit one, it would damage you and knock you back. Considering how fast the faker swam, hitting the mines would be instant loss of a life, so I went through great effort to avoid them.

But that wasn't all I had to be wary of. Halfway through the chase the faker revealed yet another surprise: a black vortex from its mouth, trying to pull Lachie in and devour him. I only barely avoided both the vortex and the mines, but I could tell the faker was getting desperate, because the chase was nearly over.

And about a minute later, I had spotted a bit of ground that had the signpost. I had Lachie leap with all the might I could muster (without breaking my keyboard). The faker jumped out of the blood river in one last attempt to attack Lachie. He swung his hand at Lachie, as if to hit him down. Luckily, the faker missed, and I escaped his grasp. This time.

I fell back on my chair and took a deep breath, satisfied with yet another successful escape. Now I was headed to the fourth zone, a comeback from season 3: "Mystic Space Blaster Zone".

---=== Chapter 4 ===---

In the original Sonic the Hedgehog, Scrap Brain was the final and hardest zone in the game. Scrap Brain in this game was similarly hard, but not as challenging. The map had an kid-sounding beat, similar to the song from Silly.TIFF, which was Crem's level (Well, really it's "Cream", but LooneyDude invented her with that name.)

I started the quiz level. Here's another few list of questions. After the first two questions at the start, the quiz started to take on a darker tone:

1. Do you like Ice Cream?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A light green face with its "tongue" out.

2. Do you like clowns?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A clown face

3. Is time slipping through your fingers due to this game?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A realistic dark green face

4. Do you have any regrets?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: confused

5. Would you trust Sonic if he were in this? (Actually, my sprite character is LIKE Sonic, but only red and with a fox muzzle.)

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A grayish face with derpy eyes and a surprised mouth

6. Is it safe to go out at night?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A dark green confused face with gritted teeth

7. Do you find it hard to sleep at night?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: A ninja face

8. Have you ever killed anyone?

Answer: No, Reaction: A grinning face

9. Do you want to kill anyone?

Answer: No, Reaction: Confused

10. Are you actually accomplishing anything?

Answer: No, Reaction: A dark turquoise face with a "cigarette" in its mouth

11. Does life have any real meaning?

Answer: No, Reaction: Love

12. Are you having fun, my boy?

Answer: Yes, Reaction: Neutral (at first)

What was weird was, it stayed on the "having fun" question a bit, until it went away and was replaced with "I hope so."

"I hope so." was soon replaced with "Because you're nearly there!" And Monty's expression became a cute happy face. I smiled at this. Ah, positive encouragement. Just when I needed it most.

Mere seconds later, it cut back to the world map. After the quiz, I checked who the bosses would be this time, and they were the three robo-Sonics: Metal, Mecha, and Silver.

I started Act 1 as Lachie. I at first thought about Sarah and Abby, but dispite their neat abilities I chose Lachie. The level looked exactly like Act 1 of Scrap Brain from the original game. After 12 seconds or so of running, though, I noticed some things become… off. The background became greyscale, and there was a faint overlay of smog covering it.

After a few more seconds of running, the smog covered the screen, making everything become silhouette. I had grabbed 20 rings, and they started winding down. Up ahead was a hang switch similar to that of Sandopolis (I call that level 'Desert Hell on Earth'). I had Lachie jump and pull the switch down just as I had 13 rings left. The smog went away, and the Scrap Brain background reverted to normal. Then, it made sense. In order to survive the level, you needed to find the hang switches to make the fog die down before your rings were consumed by it.

I had quite a few close calls, but with Lachie's speed, I made it through the level, regardless I didn't die of the fog when I had no rings left on one of my close calls. I sighed with relief, and had a sip of my water bottle before continuing the game. Time for Act 2… I played as Sarah this time.

I was in the interior of Scrap Brain now, though the colors of the background were totally off: they were an unfamiliar orange, as well as shades of blue and yellow. The music was a faster paced and more intense version of Scrap Brain's theme.

As I moved along the spinning wheels that launched you into the air, I noticed a giant tube, blocking my way. I made Sarah climb up there, but it ended at the ceiling. I thought I was stuck...

Until I saw a red ring. It was just sitting up in a corner, waiting for me to grab it. I felt a little greedy when I saw it, so I made Sarah touch it.

That's when things went apes##t.

Sarah was now hyperventilating. The background was flashing random colors that would give someone a seizure, and the music changed to the faster version of the recent one. I noticed now that the tube was gone. I didn't hesitate in making Sarah run along, as the tubes that blocked her way were gone. After a minute or two it stopped and the tubes became solid again. I now knew that I had to find red rings to make the tubes vanish, and get through the level as fast as I could. I did about 2 red rings until eventually I found the signpost. Thank god for that. I was beginning to have a headache. Although after she did her victory move while the scores were being tallied, Sarah suddenly went into her own seizure that I didn't even expect, then fainted with foam coning out of her mouth. It didn't make much sense, but I knew she was prone to seizures now. At least in games. She also twitched before the screen faded out. When the world map appeared, I decided to play as Lachie again in Act 3, because he could swim unlike the other characters.

(Fun Fact!: For those that don't know, Scrap Brain Act 3 is actually Labyrinth Zone Act 4. You can imagine how angry people were when they found THAT out. - BECEnterprises)

Anyway, I was nervous what twist Act 3 would have, but to my surprise, Scrap Brain Act 3 looked just fine, no changes at all. I felt relieved because of this, because I could swim through the stage with ease as Lachie. The music was a nice remix-hybrid of Labyrinth Zone and Scrap Brain. When Lachie hit the last spring, he shot up to a room similar to before the final boss in Sonic 1, but the signpost was on the right. I passed it, and the level ended.

Time for the bosses. First up was Silver Sonic. I played as Lachie for this fight, and I saw to my surprise that the health bar from "FIND THE EXIT" was back. It stayed for every boss afterward.

After I reached the boss arena, Silver Sonic appeared, buzzing loudly. He charged up into a ball almost instantly and bounced around the ring. It was then I knew Silver Sonic wasn't weak anymore. He now had dash attacks, sharp bouncing, and sharp quills. Luckily, in the end, I was the victor. Silver Sonic exploded after I landed the final blow. In short, I could describe Silver Sonic as fast, strong, and persistent, but dumb.

Next was Mecha Sonic. I played as Abby for this fight (it was only fitting). To my surprise, the game loaded Sarah into an area high above Scrap Brain, on one long platform. The background was the same as the original Mecha Sonic fight from Sonic 3 and Knuckles, but Angel Island was missing and the sky was a dark orange/brown. Mecha Sonic fell from the top, and the fight began.

Mecha had all his attacks from Sonic 3 and Knuckles. But with Abby's new  moveset I blazed through the first phase of the fight. I knew, however, Mecha wouldn't give up THAT easily. Sure enough, Mecha powered on again and sped toward the right. The camera focused on him. I expected he'd use the Master Emerald, but instead, I saw a weird mechanical block saying "SBG." I didn't know what it meant at first, but as Abby spoke in a text box, I soon found out.

Abby: He's heading for the Scrap Brain Generator! That'll corrupt the entire game!!

When Mecha absorbed the SBG's energy, he turned into Super Mecha, just as I had expected. From here, a mini-cutscene occured, showing Scrap Brain going dark. It cut back to Knuckles and Mecha seconds later. The fight was exactly like Sonic 3 and Knuckles, I just waited until Super Mecha reverted to normal, then attacked him when I had the chance. A neat addition was that Mecha could still attack before he headed for the SBG, instead of heading there right away. After 8 more hits he was done… or so I thought.

After I landed the supposed final blow, Mecha started to glitch up, and the Doomsday Zone music sped up, like the Wrecker Checker fight in Green Hill. I discovered that the glitch was somehow related to the game making new things. After a few seconds, the glitches began to form a new shape… and thus, the game created "Hyper_Mecha_Sonic.hms".

The fight was just like the Super Mecha fight (phase 2 of the whole fight), but Mecha could stay Hyper longer than he could Super. But, he now had only 4 hits onto him before he exploded once and for all. I sighed with relief that Mecha Sonic was now no more.

The last boss was Metal Sonic. I played as Sarah for this one. I expected Metal Sonic would be a "race fight," like Sonic Generations, and I was right.

When the stage began, I made Sarah peel out as the Scrap Brain ground began to collapse. Metal flew from the background and came into foreground view. I instantly delivered a powerful blow onto him. The lights in the background were dark, so the Mecha fight must have permanently affected the setting of Scrap Brain.

Metal had his boost attacks and his "black shield" from Sonic CD. After 7 hits, another mini-cutscene occured, showing Sarah run into the interior of Scrap Brain. A door closed and Metal hit it, delivering the final blow. However, he 'died' in the most weird way: his sprite glitched up and vanished into red pixels lik he would die from GL Tron. That glitch was taking over the game, jeez…

One last thing to do: the faker chase.

Oh boy. Might as well just get this over with, I thought.

I started the level as Abby this time. Act 1's smog had returned, only now it was a thick blood red. I now noticed that the smog looked similar to the sky from the final boss of Sonic 3 standalone. The heartbeat sound was replaced with some kind of wind sound. I immediately made Abby dash punch to the right. As I kept spamming Abby's dash punch, making her run right, a wave of static appeared on the screen. I didn't know what was going on until the screen cut back to gameplay.

Scrap Brain now looked rusty. There were bloodstains on the floor as well, just like Dark Castle's RUN stage. Abby had stopped. Her idle animation was her finger pointing stance (still more panicked). I spammed the dash punch key again and again, and I noticed the faker fade in behind Abby a few times.

The first time, the faker was charging toward Abby flying at full tilt. However, he vanished before he touched her. This game was starting to trick me, and I didn't like that! When the faker faded in again, he was hovering with a pose similar to the "I'm outta here" game over from Sonic CD. The third time he said "Be ribular boy" as he glitched above her again, and when she turned around, the Knuckles "Oh No" sound played. I wondered if he was really there or just a figment of Abby's imagination.

But I didn't have time to answer, as suddenly, the faker appeared behind Abby in a lunging position! I panicked, fearing Abby's demise, but instead, he said without a textbox "Do u know de wae?", then static appeared. And after it subsided, a new message appeared on the screen…

"FoUnD YoU"

No sooner it cut back to gameplay, Abby delivered a powerful blow onto the faker, making him fly back. The faker spoke in a text box, just as he did in Angel Island's "RUN" level.

LdEr2(LPI): I'll make you PAY for this, Abigail...

Suddenly, a loud squealing noise played as the faker turned into a giant black column, flickering like crazy, with LdEr2 soon being in front of it grinning like mad as he walked towards her. Abby began to panic, and I couldn't blame her either. I had to make her dash punch at full speed through walls that had to be broken. This was probably the most nerve-wracking of all the "RUN" stages, and as such I had to keep my focus on the game.

It was this chase level that I realized Abby, too, was overpowered. She smashed through walls that needed to be broken, as with one punch, it'd just do a tiny bit of damage to the wall. Dash punches destroyed the walls entirely.

Something interesting in the stage was that I had managed to lose the faker by going through a different path than it apparently expected, and it was blocked from attacking me by one of the mechanical walls of Scrap Brain. Or so I thought.

It tried clawing through the wall for a second before opening up its mouth and tearing the wall apart with its vortex.

But those brief seconds that the faker was held back might have been the key to me finding the exit. The path to the exit was long and complex, but from what I remember I made Knuckles go left, down, and then back towards the right. There was no signpost though, it just ended at the right side of the screen. A sound similar to entering a special stage played as it cut to black.

I was sweating profusely, but my luck had saved me yet again. I hoped that it wouldn't run out before I finished the game. There were only two more zones to go.

But there was a message before it cut to the next zone:

"Will you miss me when you finish the game, kid? I will... - LCMCdotEXErules2"

Next was the penultimate zone, Sonic 2's lost level… "The Not-So-Hidden Palace Zone."