Has anyone here heard of the Tails Doll curse? There was a game called Sonic R and one of the characters was a creepy doll version of Tails. Some people think that under certain circumstances, you could summon the doll in real life. Of course, its not true, but what if it was? This is a short story about such an event.

Curse of the Tails Doll

by Merhimek

In 1996, a game was in development for the Sega Saturn and PC. Wanting to try something new, Sonic Team and Traveller's Tales joined together to create a racing game based on the the blue hedgehog and several other prominent characters in the series.

After a few months of development, the game was nearing completion. All that was left was to finish testing the game for bugs. At last, a few days later, the game was ready for release. However, on the night before the game was to be sent off for production, it is believed that a disgruntled employee, half-driven to madness after hearing a particular song in the game countless times, made his move.

Around 1:30 A.M., the employee broke into the room where the master copy of the Sonic R game was kept. He picked up the now-completed game and stared at it for what seemed like an hour. The individual began speaking in a bizzare fashion, almost as if he were chanting. Then he began to yell phrases such as "Won't you be my friend? Well, won't you?" Nobody else was believed to be in the building, so he could very well have been talking to himself.

The next morning was business as usual, except when the storage room was opened, the disgruntled employee was found on the floor, apparently dead. Several other employees ran to his side. Suddenly, the man stood up, and stumbled out of the room, but not before turning his head and saying, "I made a new friend." His eyes were glazed over and he had no expression. He also appeared rather pale.

Shrugging it off, the employees took the game to the copy room. Soon people the world over would be playing Sonic R...

1997, the year Sonic R was released on the Sega Saturn. The game enjoyed a fair number of sales, although the number was still slightly dissapointing. Amoung the people who purchased the game was the well known video game designer and producer, Shigeru Miyamoto. He placed the Sonic R game into his console, and after playing it for a while, he thought it was quite fun, and wondered how he could unlock the other characters. He found out that by collecting all the tokens hidden in each stage, a new character would challenge him. The first up, was a robotic looking Tails plush.

"Well, this is an interesting character", he thought.

He managed to be the Tails character and proceeded to unlock all the characters, including Super Sonic. Having unlocked all the characters and stages, Miyamoto smiled and turned off his Sega Saturn.

"Not bad, not bad at all", he said, in Japanese.

He went to bed shortly afterwards. Several hours went by, and suddenly Miyamoto awoke with a jolt. He sat up and looked around his room, sweat beads on his forehead. The room was pitch dark, but a red light was seeping into the room. He got up and made his way to his living room. Miyamoto looked around, then brought his attention to the television. There,on the black screen, was the reflection of a figure. Somone was sitting on the couch behind him! He whipped around but saw nothing. Breathing heavily, Miyamoto slowly headed back to his room. On the way, something tapped him on the shoulder. He let out a yell and turned around. There, floating in midair, a gem on its head glowing, was the Tails Doll from the game! Shigeru Miyamoto, frightened though he was, made a fist and tried the punch the doll. He succeeded and Tails swung to and fro on the string to which he was attached. Miyamoto darted past the Tails doll and made a run for the front door. Before he could reach it however, Tails descended fom the ceiling and was blocking his path.

"Don't you wanna play?", said the Tails doll in a childish tone that somehow made it appear even more bizzare and frightening.

In a shaky voice, Miyamoto managed to say "Leave, now!"

The menacing doll simply stared at him and said "Aw, thats too bad."

Miyamoto could see that Tails was hiding something behind his back. What was it?

He watched as the doll brought his arm forward. Tails slowly opened his hand and it was now clear that he was

holding a disc-the Sonic R game.

"Don't you wanna play?", asked Tails.

Shigeru Miyamoto knocked the game out of the Tails doll's hand.

"That wasn't very nice", stated the doll.

"Get out of my house!", said Miyamoto.

The gem on the doll's head lit even brighter as it lunged toward the game designer.

Miyamoto moved out of the way just in time to avoid the attack.

"Looks like I'll have to take your soul", said Tails Doll.

Before Miyamoto could respond, the doll began moving widely, and dance like it had gone insane. In an instant, Miyaoto was bound the the doll's strings, and the gem began to glow brighter than before.

"Stop!", Miyamoto stated. "What do you want?"

The light faded and the doll looked attentively at him.

"Play the game", said the Tail's puppet.

"Why?", inquired Miyamoto.

The doll stayed silent.

"Wait a minute", thought Miyamoto, "This creature came from the game. Perhaps I can seal him inside the dic once more".

"Alright, I'll play", said Miyamoto, trying to sound like all hope was lost.

He walked over to the Sega Saturn and booted up the game.

"I'm pretty fast", said the Tails doll, hanging from the ceiling beside Miyamoto. "Why, I bet I could even beat Sonic in a race", he added.

"Sonic!", thought Miyamoto. "No, Super Sonic! If I can beat the Tails Doll in the game, maybe he'll be 'beaten' in real life as well!"

"You seem awfully confident, think you're gonna win?", said the doll. Then, as if by magic, a second controller appeared, and the Tails doll was ready to race.

"Tell you what", continued the doll, "If you can beat me in a race, I'll go away". "But if you loose, I take your soul". "Sound good, right?"

"Looks like I don't have much of a choice", thought Miyamoto. "Very well", he said, "I'll race you!"

"The stage we play will be...Resort Island!", exclamied the Tails doll.

Tails Doll selected himself in the game as the character he would play, and Miyamoto selected Super Sonic. The race was on!

Their characters selected, the race was ready to begin. The game was loading, and Shigeru Miyamoto thought to himself, "I cannot loose".

The intro music started and the racers were off! The song "Can You Feel the Sunshine" began to play. It was Miyamoto's favorite from the game. Super Sonic dashed forward and for a slight moment, was in the lead. Tails Doll quickly caught up and got ahead of him slightly. Miyamoto had to catch up! Knuckles and the other characters were close behind. Super Sonic made a turn and was toe to toe with the Tails Doll.

"Come on...", thought Miyamoto.

The Tails Doll stepped on a dash panel and zoomed forward, with Super Sonic doing the same. The race was really close. A second dash panel and a loop-de-loop, and the first lap was completed! One of Eggman's Homing Missles was aimed at Super Sonic, but with a quick jump, it was avoided. The Tails Doll was just ahead, if only he was a little faster!

The Tails Doll was moving at a slight angle. Steering his character as straight as he possibly could, Miyamoto managed to catch up to the Tails Doll. The second lap was over, now it was time to race through the final lap! The two racers were neck and neck, who would emerge victorious? The pressure was building. Miyamoto knew he had to win! Being such a fast character, Super Sonic was fairly difficult to control. The first turn came up, and once more, the Tails Doll took the lead. Miyamoto simply smiled. He had a plan. Having collected 20 rings, a shortcut was opened and, dashing through the tunnel, he made a right turn, went around in a loop-de-loop and crossed the finish line in first place! The congratulatory music played, and Super Sonic did a victory pose.

The real Tails Doll was silent. Then, it began to hiss and gave a blood-curdling scream. The screen got dark and an image of the Tails Doll with glowing eyes appeared on the television and a song played in the background. Miyamoto recognized it as "Can You Feel the Sunshine", being played backwards. The Tails Doll on the television began speaking, but it was unitelligible, as its speech appeared to be backwards as well. Then, suddenly, the Tails Doll stuck its hand out of the screen and grabbed the real Tails Doll, taking it into the game world. The televesion went black.

"It's gone!", exclaimed Miyamoto.

The Tails doll had been sealed away. Miyamoto reahced forward to turn off his Sega Saturn, but just before he did, the Tails Doll appeared on the screen again, with tears in its eyes. After a moment, the game shut off.

"I think," began Miyamoto, "the only thing he wanted was a friend."

Eight years passed and Miyamoto still played Sonic R every now and then. When he heard that a game called Sonic Gems Collection would include Sonic R he was quite happy, but he knew that the Tails Doll was still too unpredictable and dangerous. Because of this, he was allowed to place a special seal within the game, preventing people from summoning the Tails Doll. Many theories exist as to how the seal can be broken. Some say that tagging Super Sonic with the Tails Doll in the game releases him. Others say you have to stand in front of a mirror and sing "Can You Feel the Sunshine" backwards. How can the seal be unlocked? Well, I'm not exactly sure. In fact, I'm not even sure that it is such a good idea to try.

-The End-

Man, I can't believe Billy Mays died. He was on the Conan O' Brien show just 5 days before he died. I can't believe he died.

R.I.P., America's favorite pitchman.