The last thing Issic remembered before dying was reaching for a bag of Doritos that had fallen behind his desk.
In his defense, those were the Spicy Sweet Chili ones. Limited edition. A man has priorities.
Apparently, his priorities included tipping his gamer chair back at exactly the wrong angle and cracking his skull on his radiator. Not exactly the blaze of glory he'd imagined.
So when consciousness slammed back into him like a freight train made of pure adrenaline, he expected... well, he didn't know what he expected.
He definitely did NOT expect to be moving at the speed of light with his fist extended.
His knuckles connected with something solid—something that felt like hitting a wall of condensed hatred—and the shockwave that followed tore the sky in half. Clouds vaporized. The horizon flickered. Somewhere far below, a mountain range simply stopped existing.
Issic's brain, still buffering like a 2005 YouTube video, tried desperately to process what was happening.
He was flying.
No. Not flying. Fighting. In the stratosphere. Against—
His eyes focused on the creature reeling back from his punch, and every alarm bell in his head started screaming.
Dark red fur covered a hedgehog-shaped nightmare, so deep in color it looked like dried blood. Yellow eyes—not golden, not amber, but sickly, venomous yellow—glared at him with pure apocalyptic hatred. Black rings encircled the creature's wrists and ankles, matching the pitch-dark shoes on his feet. And surrounding him, writhing like a living thing, a black aura pulsed with enough negative energy to make reality itself flinch.
Super Perfect Nazo.
The name surfaced in Issic's mind from memories that weren't his own, and with it came a flood of context: world-ending threat, chaos incarnate, the kind of villain that required literal divine intervention to stop.
And Issic had just punched him in the face.
What the HELL is happening, Issic's thoughts screamed. I was eating DORITOS. I was reaching for DORITOS. Why am I—
He looked down at himself and promptly had an existential crisis at Mach 5.
His body was pure white. Not pale, not cream-colored—white like fresh snow, like blank paper, like someone had removed all color from his form and replaced it with light itself. A rainbow aura cascaded off him in waves, prismatic energy that painted the sky in impossible colors wherever he moved. Golden inhibitor rings gleamed around his wrists and ankles—Shadow's rings, he recognized them instantly.
He was Shadic.
He was Hyper Shadic.
From Nazo Unleashed.
The 2006 Flash animation he'd watched on Newgrounds when he was twelve years old.
Okay, Issic thought with forced calm, okay, I can freak out about this later. Right now there's a murder-hedgehog trying to kill me.
"What's the matter, Shadic?" Nazo's voice cut through the air like a razor, dripping with contempt. His black aura flared brighter, darker, somehow both at once. "That punch had less force than the last one. Is your fusion finally failing?"
Issic said nothing.
Partly because he was smart enough not to reveal that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing.
Mostly because he didn't trust his voice not to come out as a terrified squeak.
Say something cool, a voice urged in his head. It sounded like Sonic—energetic, cocky, utterly unafraid. Come on, we always have a quip ready!
Or say nothing, another voice countered. This one was Shadow—cold, controlled, radiating quiet menace. Let him wonder. Let him doubt.
Issic had voices in his head.
He had Sonic and Shadow's voices in his head.
Later, he told himself firmly. Freak out LATER.
He settled for a simple smirk—a expression that felt surprisingly natural on his borrowed face—and raised one hand in a "come on" gesture.
Nazo's yellow eyes narrowed. "So be it."
The dark hedgehog vanished.
No—not vanished. Moved. Faster than light, faster than thought, a blur of crimson and black that crossed the distance between them in a picosecond.
Issic's body moved before his mind gave permission.
He twisted, and Nazo's fist screamed past his head close enough to feel the displaced air. The black aura trailing behind it left burns on his white fur that healed almost instantly, rainbow energy stitching the damage closed.
Chaos Energy regeneration, Shadow-brain supplied. We can take hits. But not forever.
Then let's not get hit! Sonic-brain suggested cheerfully. Dodge, weave, counter—you know the drill!
Issic did not, in fact, know the drill.
But his body did.
Nazo spun into a roundhouse kick. Issic ducked beneath it, feeling the shockwave part his quills, and drove an uppercut into Nazo's exposed side. The impact sent ripples through the fabric of space-time—literally, Issic could see reality distorting around his fist—and launched the villain upward.
Issic was already there to meet him.
He appeared above Nazo in a burst of prismatic light, both hands clasped together, and brought them down like a hammer.
CRACK.
Nazo rocketed toward the earth, a comet of black energy and rage. He hit the ground somewhere far below, and even from the stratosphere, Issic could see the explosion—a dome of darkness that expanded outward for miles, consuming everything it touched.
Nice one! Sonic-brain cheered. Now follow up before he—
The dome collapsed inward.
A pillar of black light erupted from its center, shooting toward Issic faster than he could react.
Pain.
Actual pain, searing through his chest, and suddenly Issic was the one falling, tumbling end over end through burning air. He caught a glimpse of his own body—white fur scorched black in patches, rainbow aura flickering—before Nazo appeared beside him, keeping pace with his descent.
"Pathetic." Nazo backhanded him across the face, sending him spinning in a new direction. "You and your 'friends' gave everything to create this form—" another hit, this one to the stomach, "—sacrificed your individual existence for power—" a kick that reversed his momentum entirely, "—and THIS is all you can manage?!"
Issic coughed, tasting something metallic. Could Hyper forms bleed? Apparently Hyper forms could bleed.
Get up, Shadow-brain commanded. This is nothing. We've endured worse.
Come on, dude, Sonic-brain urged. We don't lose. That's not what we DO.
Issic gritted his teeth.
He was Issic. Twenty-three years old. Former GameStop employee. Died reaching for snack food like an idiot.
But right now, in this moment, in this body?
He was also Shadic. The ultimate fusion. A being that twelve-year-olds on YouTube had put in "Top 10 Most Powerful Sonic Characters" videos with Linkin Park playing in the background.
And Shadic. Didn't. Lose.
Issic's eyes snapped open, blazing with prismatic light.
"Chaos..."
Nazo's yellow eyes widened.
"...CONTROL."
The world froze.
Color drained from existence, leaving everything in shades of grey—everything except Issic, who blazed like a rainbow star in a monochrome universe. Time itself had stopped, held in place by his will and the Chaos Energy flowing through his being.
Nazo was frozen mid-sneer, arm pulled back for another strike.
Issic floated in front of him, studying his enemy's position. The black aura, the defensive stance, the way his weight was distributed.
He's leaving his left side open, Sonic-brain observed. Bad habit.
Capitalize on it, Shadow-brain agreed. End this quickly. We can't maintain time-stop for long.
Issic nodded.
He positioned himself carefully, pulling his right fist back. Rainbow energy gathered around it, condensing, intensifying until his entire arm was wrapped in a spiral of every color that existed and a few that shouldn't.
Then he released his hold on time.
Color returned to the world.
And Issic's fist buried itself in Nazo's exposed left side with the force of a dying star.
The villain's eyes went wide, mouth opening in a silent scream. Issic watched, almost in slow motion, as cracks of rainbow light spread across Nazo's body from the point of impact—fractures in his very being.
But he wasn't done.
Before Nazo could recover, before he could even process what had happened, Issic spun and drove his knee into the villain's chest. Then an elbow to the jaw. Then a spinning kick that sent him careening skyward.
Issic followed, a streak of white and rainbow, and what followed was less a fight than a demonstration.
He was everywhere at once. Above Nazo, below him, beside him—each position occupied just long enough to land a devastating blow before moving to the next. The sky became a lightshow of prismatic explosions and bursts of black energy as Nazo desperately tried to defend himself.
He couldn't.
For all his power, for all his reality-warping darkness, Nazo couldn't land a single hit. Issic's borrowed instincts guided every movement, Sonic's speed and Shadow's precision working in perfect harmony.
This is AMAZING, Sonic-brain laughed. We've never moved this smoothly before!
The new consciousness, Shadow-brain analyzed. It's stabilizing the fusion somehow. We're more synchronized than ever.
Issic wasn't really listening. He was too busy being the coolest thing he'd ever seen.
A hammer blow sent Nazo plummeting. Issic cupped his hands at his side, rainbow energy spiraling between his palms.
"CHAOS..."
Nazo caught himself a hundred feet below, black aura flaring desperately. He looked up, yellow eyes blazing with fury and something that might have been fear.
"SPEAR!"
A lance of pure prismatic energy erupted from Issic's hands, a beam of concentrated power that painted the sky in every color of the rainbow. It struck Nazo dead center.
The explosion was beautiful.
A sphere of rainbow light expanded outward, consuming the black aura, the red fur, the yellow eyes, all of it swallowed by an aurora of destruction. The shockwave flattened clouds for fifty miles in every direction. Birds that had been flying over a nearby continent suddenly found themselves dealing with unexpected turbulence.
When the light faded, Nazo was still there.
Barely.
The dark hedgehog hung in the air, his form flickering like a bad signal. Chunks of his body were simply missing, replaced by crackling negative energy that was rapidly losing cohesion. His black aura had shrunk to almost nothing, guttering like a candle in a hurricane.
"Im... possible..." Nazo gasped, yellow eyes no longer glowing with power. "You... you weren't this strong before... the fusion was unstable... you should be weakening..."
Issic floated across from him, breathing hard. His Hyper form was still stable, though he could feel the energy drain with every second. He probably had a few minutes left at most.
But a few minutes was more than enough.
Finish it, Sonic-brain urged. While he's weak!
End him, Shadow-brain agreed. No mercy. He doesn't deserve it.
Issic raised one hand, palm out. Rainbow energy gathered once more, crackling between his fingers.
Nazo saw it coming. Tried to move. Failed.
"This... isn't... over..." he snarled, even as his body continued to disintegrate. "I am... NAZO... I am... CHAOS INCARNATE... I will return... I will always... return..."
"Maybe," Issic said quietly—the first word he'd spoken since the fight began.
Then he fired.
The beam of light consumed what remained of Nazo, unmaking him particle by particle. There was no scream this time. No dramatic last words. Just silence, and rainbow light, and then...
Nothing.
Nazo was gone.
Issic hung alone in the sky, surrounded by the dissipating remnants of their battle. Below, he could see the scars they'd left on the landscape—craters, gouges, places where the earth had simply been removed by stray attacks.
He'd done that.
He'd done that.
A guy who once called in sick to work because he was too invested in a Steam sale.
That was INCREDIBLE! Sonic-brain was practically vibrating with excitement. Did you feel that?! That last Chaos Spear was like nothing we've ever done!
The power output was approximately 340% higher than our previous maximum, Shadow-brain calculated. The fusion is more stable with the new consciousness. Interesting.
Issic wanted to respond. He wanted to ask questions, demand explanations, maybe have a small breakdown about the fact that he was apparently sharing headspace with two dead hedgehogs.
But first, his Hyper form gave out.
The white bled from his fur, replaced by deep blue. The rainbow aura faded to nothing. His quills settled from their supercharged state into their regular configuration—swept back, with tips that shifted from blue to vivid red. The golden inhibitor rings remained on his wrists and ankles. The Air Shoes hummed on his feet.
The power left him.
And gravity, that old friend, remembered he existed.
"Oh," Issic said, watching the ground rush up to meet him. "Right. I should probably do something about this."
Chaos Control! Sonic-brain suggested.
Focus on where you want to be, Shadow-brain instructed. The ground. Safely. Say the words and mean them.
Issic focused on the ground—specifically, on being ON the ground rather than BECOMING ONE with it.
"Chaos Control," he said.
Nothing happened.
"Chaos Control!"
Still nothing.
Dude, you're panicking too hard, Sonic-brain said. You gotta relax into it—
Brace for impact.
"WAIT, WHAT—"
BOOM.
Issic lay at the bottom of his crater, staring up at the perfectly circular hole he'd made in what appeared to be a rather nice meadow.
The sky was blue. Peaceful. A few birds were singing in the distance, clearly unaware that an apocalyptic battle had just taken place in the upper atmosphere.
"Ow," Issic said.
He didn't move for a long moment. Partly because his entire body ached in ways he hadn't known were possible. Partly because he was waiting for his brain to catch up with reality.
You good? Sonic-brain asked.
"I just beat a god," Issic whispered. "I just beat a god in single combat. I don't even know how to throw a proper punch in real life, and I just beat a god."
Technically, we beat him, Shadow-brain corrected. You simply provided... unexpected stabilization.
Don't sell yourself short, though! Sonic-brain added. That last Chaos Spear? That was all you, man. We just pointed, you pulled the trigger.
Issic sat up slowly, wincing at the protest from muscles he didn't know he had. He looked down at his hands—gloved, three-fingered, covered in dark blue fur up to the wrist where the golden inhibitor rings sat.
He flexed his fingers experimentally. Watched the white gloves move. Tried to reconcile the fact that these were his hands now.
The white tuft of chest fur. The Air Shoes humming quietly on his feet. The weight of quills—actual quills—on the back of his head.
He was Shadic.
He was actually, genuinely, irreversibly Shadic.
"CONGRATULATIONS, ISSIC."
The cosmic voice came from everywhere and nowhere, making him jump so hard he nearly gave himself a second concussion on a chunk of debris.
"YOU HAVE SUCCESSFULLY DEFEATED NAZO AND SAVED THIS WORLD FROM DESTRUCTION."
Issic looked up at the sky. "Oh, now you show up? AFTER the death battle?"
"THE SITUATION WAS TIME-SENSITIVE. HAD I STOPPED TO EXPLAIN, NAZO WOULD HAVE DESTROYED THE PLANET BEFORE YOU FINISHED ASKING QUESTIONS."
"You don't KNOW that—"
"YOUR FIRST THOUGHT UPON REINCARNATION WAS, AND I QUOTE, 'WHY DO I FEEL LIKE I HAVE TWO INTERNAL MONOLOGUES.' YOU WOULD HAVE TAKEN HOURS."
Issic opened his mouth to argue, then closed it.
That was... fair, actually.
He's got you there, Sonic-brain snickered.
"Okay," Issic said slowly, climbing to his feet. His legs felt like jelly, but they held. "Okay. Fine. You dropped me into the final boss fight with no warning. I somehow won. Now—" he pointed at the sky, "—explain. Everything. Now."
"VERY WELL."
The voice paused, as if gathering its thoughts.
"YOU DIED IN YOUR ORIGINAL WORLD. THE CIRCUMSTANCES WERE... UNFORTUNATE."
"I fell off a chair reaching for Doritos."
"...I WAS BEING POLITE."
Wait, seriously? Sonic-brain burst out laughing. Doritos?!
At least it was quick, Shadow-brain offered, which was possibly meant to be comforting.
"Can we skip the part where everyone mocks my death and get to the part where I'm a hedgehog now?"
"YOUR SOUL WAS COMPATIBLE WITH THE SHADIC TEMPLATE," the cosmic voice continued. "IN THIS WORLD, SONIC AND SHADOW EXISTED. THEY FUSED TO BATTLE NAZO, CREATING SHADIC. BUT THE FUSION WAS UNSTABLE—TWO SOULS SHARING ONE BODY, THEIR PERSONALITIES IN CONSTANT CONFLICT."
We didn't conflict THAT much, Sonic-brain protested.
We absolutely did, Shadow-brain countered. Remember the chili dog incident?
That was ONE time—
"THEY WERE LOSING," the voice continued, ignoring the internal bickering. "NAZO HAD PUSHED THEM TO THE BRINK. THE FUSION WAS FALLING APART. AND THEN... YOU ARRIVED."
Issic blinked. "I... arrived?"
"YOUR SOUL INSERTED ITSELF INTO THE FUSION AT THE CRITICAL MOMENT. A THIRD CONSCIOUSNESS, NEUTRAL TO BOTH SONIC AND SHADOW, SERVING AS A STABILIZING ELEMENT. THE FUSION BECAME PERMANENT. THE POWER STABILIZED. AND NAZO..."
"Got his face caved in," Issic finished. "Yeah, I was there for that part."
He looked down at himself again, processing.
"So... Sonic and Shadow. They're not dead? They're just... in my head?"
Present and accounted for! Sonic-brain confirmed.
Unfortunately, Shadow-brain added.
"And I'm stuck like this? Forever?"
"THE FUSION IS IRREVERSIBLE. YOU ARE SHADIC NOW. YOU POSSESS ALL MEMORIES, ABILITIES, AND INSTINCTS OF BOTH SONIC AND SHADOW, INTEGRATED INTO A SINGLE FORM. YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS IS DOMINANT, BUT THEIR... ECHOES... WILL REMAIN."
"Echoes," Issic repeated. "You mean the two voices in my head that won't stop commenting on everything?"
Rude, Sonic-brain said. We're helpful!
We ARE helpful, Shadow-brain agreed. Without us, you would have died in the first three seconds.
"That's... probably true," Issic admitted.
He took a deep breath, looking around at the crater, at the scorched meadow beyond it, at the distant city on the horizon.
"Okay. Okay, I can deal with this. I'm a super-powered hedgehog now. I have two ghosts in my brain. I just killed—"
"DEFEATED. NOT KILLED. BEINGS OF PURE CHAOS ENERGY DON'T TRULY DIE. NAZO WILL REFORM EVENTUALLY."
"—oh, that's fantastic, that's great news, love that—I just defeated a god, and now I have to... what? What's my mission here? Save the world? Collect emeralds? Find a princess to rescue?"
"FOR NOW? SIMPLY LIVE. THIS WORLD HAS BEEN SAVED. THERE WILL BE OTHER THREATS, EVENTUALLY, BUT YOU HAVE EARNED REST."
"Rest," Issic repeated flatly. "I just died, got reincarnated as a fan character, and fought an eldritch hedgehog at Mach Stupid. And your advice is rest?"
"ALSO, YOU SHOULD PROBABLY EAT SOMETHING. YOUR ENERGY RESERVES ARE CRITICALLY LOW."
As if on cue, Issic's stomach growled.
Loudly.
Oh man, Sonic-brain perked up. You know what sounds amazing right now?
"Don't say chili dogs."
CHILI DOGS.
"Of course."
I wouldn't say no to food, Shadow-brain admitted. Combat at that level burns significant calories. We need to refuel.
Issic sighed, running a gloved hand through his quills—a gesture that felt weirdly natural. His fingers traced the transition from blue to red at their tips, still marveling at the fact that this was his body now.
"Fine," he said. "Food first. Existential crisis later."
He turned toward the distant city, planting his feet—
And then remembered he had no idea how to control his speed.
The last time he'd tried to run, he'd crossed a continent in about four seconds and left a trail of sonic booms in his wake.
Just focus, Sonic-brain advised. You're not trying to go full speed. Just a light jog. Maybe... 200 miles per hour?
"A LIGHT JOG AT 200 MILES PER—"
For us, that IS a light jog, Shadow-brain pointed out. Your body can handle it. Trust the instincts.
Issic took a deep breath.
Trusted the instincts.
And ran.
Wind screamed past him as the world became a blur of color and motion. His legs pumped in a rhythm that felt as natural as breathing, each stride covering hundreds of feet. The Air Shoes hummed beneath him, compensating for terrain, adjusting his trajectory, keeping him stable at speeds that should have liquefied a normal person.
It was terrifying.
It was exhilarating.
It was the single coolest thing Issic had ever experienced.
SEE?! Sonic-brain crowed. This is the BEST part!
Focus, Shadow-brain warned. City approaching. Slow down or you'll overshoot.
Issic tried to slow down.
He did not slow down.
Other foot! Brake with the other foot!
"WHICH FOOT IS THE BRAKE?!"
BOTH OF THEM, YOU—
Issic hit the outskirts of the city at approximately Mach 1.2, carved a trench through three streets, bounced off a surprisingly sturdy mailbox, and finally came to a stop by crashing directly into a hot dog stand.
The stand exploded.
Hot dogs went everywhere.
Issic lay in the wreckage, covered in chili and processed meat, staring up at the horrified face of the vendor.
"I," he said carefully, "would like to purchase a chili dog."
The vendor fainted.
Smooth, Sonic-brain said. Real smooth.
We need to work on your deceleration, Shadow-brain observed.
Issic sighed, picking a piece of hot dog bun out of his quills.
This was going to take some getting used to.
Author's Note: Nazo got ratio'd by a guy who died reaching for chips, and now that guy can't figure out how to use the brakes. Next chapter: Issic tries to exist in public without causing property damage, discovers that this world has its own heroes, and accidentally becomes the most wanted cryptid on the internet.