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“Behold my latest creation!” Eggman said with an evil laugh, “It will summon demons from the depths of Hades to do my bidding!” Laughing gleefully, Eggman pressed a button on his console, “Prepare to die, rats!”
A circular portal opened in front of his eggmobile, vacuumed leaves and dust into it, and tugged Sonic, who struggled to walk backwards, towards it.
“W-wait!” Eggman yelled at the portal, slamming his fist on the console repeatedly. Each slam increased the suction force of the portal, pulling Sonic into it. Shadow, trying and failing to grab Sonic, was pulled in with him, the portal closing in on itself, trapping both Sonic and Shadow in the underworld.
“W-where the…” Sonic said, standing up shakily.
“Hell.” Shadow said, looking around.
“You don’t have to finish my sentences.”
“No, we’re in Hell.” Shadow turned to look at Sonic, “We need to get out of here as soon as possible.”
“Hell, how do you know?” Sonic questioned.
“The fields of dead souls and the smell of burning sulfur,” Shadow stated plainly, “It’s not rocket science.”
Pointing beyond the souls at what looked like an ancient Greek city in the distance, with crumbled buildings and scarcely lit roads, “That looks like our best bet on getting out of here,” Sonic said. He ran off. Following the blue trail of electricity, Shadow caught up to Sonic, and grabbed his arm to stop him from running in front of a sinner, dressed in a chiton and sandals.
“We don’t need to alert all of Hades to our presence,” he said, pulling Sonic behind a chipped Greek pillar and into the shadows, “We need to find the king of Hell, and fast.”
“I bet he’s there,” pointing at a castle, covered in lights and painted in red, white, gold, and purple stripes like a circus tent. Sonic walked along the buildings, not trying to hide behind pillars that looked ancient, and climbing over crumbled foundations. Shadow followed behind him with a sigh, glancing at the building, muttering to himself, “Whoever the ruler is here must like circus themed things.”
At the colorful castle, Sonic rang the doorbell. A high pitched voice demanded, “State your business.”
“Uh…we’re here to see the ruler of this… place,” Sonic said, then added, “please” when Shadow elbowed him in the ribs.
“Did you bring any bugs?” the voice asked.
“No?…” Sonic replied, questioningly.
“Oh…” the voice said, dejectedly, “Well, come on in!” A soft click was heard, and the gate opened inward. A tiny, humanoid, one-eyed demon ran up to the pair.
“Welcome!” it said excitedly. “You're alive!” It climbed onto Shadow’s head, and sat as if to be carried.
“I suppose I am,” Shadow said dryly, picking the demon off his head and placing it on the ground in front of them. “We’re here to see the king of this place, remember?”
“Oh, you mean Luci?” the demon said, brushing some bright red hair out of her eye with her twig-like hand, and leading them inside. Freezing in place, Shadow asked warily, “You mean, Lucifer?”
The sharp-toothed demon responded, “What? Oh, no his name is Hades, but prefers Luci. Says it’s a lighter, friendlier name than Hades, donncha think?” The small demon giggled, “I’m Niffty, by the way!” Nifty then led them to a huge door, flanked by pure gold pillars and decorated with intricate designs of the seven deadly sins.
“I’ll go tell Luci you’re here…” Niffty looked as if she was going to say something else, but a shiny black beetle caught her attention, and she yanked out a sharp knife from nowhere, and chased after the bug, yelling “Stab! Stab!” every time she tried to impale it.
“We’re going to be here forever!” Sonic said in exasperation. Suddenly, the doors opened and a short blonde man in a white chirton with a light pink sash pulled both Sonic and Shadow into a hug.
“Living creatures!” The man released the hug and poked Shadow in the chest, “You’re alive, right?” he asked. Shadow tensed up and looked like he wanted to break the man's finger.
“Yes! Yes, we’re alive, and looking for a way back to the surface.” Sonic said, interrupting the poking.
“I can help with that!” the man said. He spun around and walked into the room he had come from, which was a living room, and looked very lively for a place in Hell.
“Take a seat!” he said, waving a hand at one of the plush couches, “It’s nice to meet another living soul, everyone here is bland and boring.”
“I think it’s an interesting place.” Sonic said cheerfully.
“Try being the king of this place, it sucks.” The man who must be Hades sighed.
Sonic mouthed an, “Oh.”
“Anyway! You said you need a way back. Well, I’ve got just the thing!” Hades rushed to another door, “I will return!” He slammed the door behind him.
“You must be the living creatures that fell down here, I see you’ve already met Hades,” a figure in the shadows said, stepping forward and into the light. “Pleasure to meet you, I’m Persephone, but please, call me Alastor.” Alastor offered a hand to Sonic, and Sonic shook the hand. Alastor wiped his hand on the front of his blood red chirton in distaste.
A crash came from the room that Hades had entered, then what sounded like someone hitting a metal pipe on a metal garbage can, along with some angry yelling. Alastor sat down on a couch and rolled his eyes, crossing his legs and staring at Shadow. Shadow glared at the pesky red cat with a Cheshire cat smile who was rubbing against his legs. The cat meowed loudly, looking up at Shadow. Giving in to the cat’s badgering, Shadow reached down and pet the cat with a sigh. The cat’s smile widened, mirroring Alastor, who smiled as Shadow pet the cat.
Another metallic crash. The light coming from the torches lining the walls flickered off then on again, but out the windows, the whole city went dark. A loud, “Yes!” and Hades returned, “Sorry ‘bout the wait, but the portal should be powered up in a few minutes.”
Angered shouts came from outside the front door. A demon in an expensive dark blue suit and square red glasses, burst into the room, yelling for Hades. He was distracted by the two anthropomorphic hedgehogs watching him. “We’re trying to get home, so get the heck out!” Sonic shouted at the demon. Shadow glares hissing in annoyance.
“Oh, so you’re the cause of the blackout! You little rats cost me millions, the power outage fried all my news broadcasts!” The irate demon screamed at Sonic and Shadow.
“And you! Stop smiling like you’re enjoying this!” He yelled at Alastor.
“But I am enjoying this, and you just interfered.” Alastor said with a laugh.
The demon stepped forward, mouth open as if he was going to say something. The cat rushed forward, and he tripped, falling on his face with a crack. Sitting up, his glasses shattered, and looking stunned, he got up as if to leave, but was stopped by Alastor stepping in front of his exit.
“You're not getting out of this that easily!” Alastor said while summoning a short staff, visibly annoyed, smile sharpening. The room filled with black smoke and red light. Alastor smacked the demon on the head with the staff, turning him into an old cube TV playing jazz music.
A small yelling voice could be heard from the TV, but Alastor turned a knob and only the music remained. Alastor hummed along to the upbeat tune coming from the TV.
Suddenly Niffty scurried into the room, giggling manaicaly, “The portal is ready!” Running towards Alastor, she offered the beetle that she chased, now dead, to Alastor. “And I killed a bug!”
“That’s great! Let’s show our guests out, then we can add it to your collection.”
Leading Sonic and Shadow into the room that held the portal, Hades looked at the portal, then at the pair.
“Are you sure you couldn’t stay a little longer?” Hades asked with a pleading look in his eyes, “It gets awfully lonely down here, even with Persephone.”
“I wish they could, but they have to go back to their world,” Alastor said with a smile,
“but feel free to visit.”
“We won’t!” Sonic quipped with a wave, stepping through the portal. Shadow pet the cat one more time before looking at Alastor. He rolled his eyes in apology for Sonic’s rudeness, and stepped through the portal after Sonic.
“I wish they’d have stayed. No one wants to be in the underworld,” Hades sighed.
“I’m sure they’ll visit,” Alastor replied, deactivating the portal by pressing a button on a console.
“Just don’t tell Cerberus that living souls got past him,” Hades joked, laughing slightly.
“I think Niffty ran off to go do that,” Alastor said nonchalantly, turning off the TV.