Introspection

1 - Start! The Morning of Another Day in Paradise!

Rating: T

Pairings: None

Warnings: High school angst, Sonic might be OOC but he's not a hero so what are you gonna do, if you don't like Tails the Snarker then you should probably go somewhere else, anime clichés, and bad grades.

Notes: I promised myself a long time ago that I would never, ever write a serious high school fic in the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom, but when I happened upon this great plot in the shower one evening, I knew I had to do it. Plus, I needed a break from the drama fest of my other story. What better way to free oneself from royal anxiety than to flee to the warm embrace of teenage angst? ...yeah, I really thought this one through. Regardless, I suppose I should make the obligatory "this isn't your normal high school fic" disclaimer, but everyone seems to do that. I will not claim to be avoiding cashing in on the success of a particular brand of story, especially since I feel that I must try my hand at everything. However, I will say that I do so love the satirical cliché, and I love twist endings, so you may want to keep your eyes open for some of those.

Disclaimer: All recognizable material belongs to SEGA.

Onward!

They moved through the night, nothing but darkness against the pitch black landscape. Warm air ghosted out of their mouths, puffs of white in the chilled countryside of Holoska, and they took care to travel only on the well-worn path to mask their footprints. The silence of the crisp air only served to amplify the crunching of the snow beneath their feet, but they moved lightly, making barely a sound.

The building ahead was gray and square, security lights washing the area in red. Robots patrolled at steady intervals, staring blankly into the dark world for intruders, and there was a crackle of broken, unused intercoms that increased in volume as they approached. To any passerby, the small base was probably nothing more than a blip, a gray smudge in the middle of the harsh arctic tundra, but it was far more deceiving than anyone could anticipate.

They slipped through a hole in the patrol, timing it so the rapidly falling snow would fill in their footprints long before the robots would come across them, and easily scaled onto the roof. Solar panels, useless now in the eternal darkness of winter, littered the space, gleaming in the moonlight, and they dodged around in their shadows, staying well out of the sights of the flying patrols that crossed above every now and then.

Eventually, they made it the middle of the roof, where two windows allowed sunlight to stream in during the spring and summer. One of the dark figures bent down and tapped the glass, listening with large ears, and nodded before reaching into a utility belt and extracting a small explosive. The bomb was tiny, no bigger than a finger, but the compressive force would be just enough to rattle the frame of the window and allow them to pry it free.

A small burst of light was the only sign of the explosion and they made quick work of the window. Gray yawned in front of them when they looked down, the floor a good twenty feet below. They shared a look before the shorter of the two simply shrugged and vaulted over the pane, disappearing into the building with only the whistling wind and gravity to greet him. He landed with a small sound before glancing back and waving at his partner, who glanced back once before sliding into the room and gliding down as well. As one, they turned to the only door, rusty and weather-torn, and made for it.

What greeted them on the other side would haunt them for the rest of their days. Wires snaked this way and that, feeding into a large central machine that blinked and whirred with artificial life. The taller intruder snaked forward, darting between energy pods and computer consoles to reach the central terminal. However, something caught her eye and she froze, turning large blue eyes toward her partner.

"I found them."

o0o

He was running, the wind on his heels and sound a thing of the past. Ahead of him, a barricade of robots stood at the ready, plasma blasters leveled with his forehead, and he smirked before pushing forward again. The wind splintered around him, licking eagerly at his heels, and he plowed through the robots, sending them flying into each other. Behind him, they exploded in huge starbursts of orange and yellow light.

Further up his path, a huge mecha loomed, large and intimidating. Painted in loud shades of red, yellow, and white, it turned toward him with swooping movements. At its hands, a bright light flared, a plasma canon readying to fire.

His smirk grew and he poured on even more speed, snaking his way towards the feet.

"Oho, Sonic! You won't be able to stop me this time! You're no match for my mech's secret weapon! Good luck, Sonny-boy!

Wait, Sonny-boy? Since when—

"Sonny! Wake up! You're gonna be late for school!"

Sonic Hedgehog stirred, surfacing from the depths of sleep just enough to hear his uncle's footsteps on the stairs, and the dream evaporated, escaping into rapidly sharpening world. Distantly, he knew that he should start moving for fear of Chuck's wrath, but he was far too tired to struggle free of his blanket's firm embrace. He could feel his eyelids trying to pull open, but the lull of sleep was too strong, and he gave up after a few moments, opting to snuggle deeper into his pillow.

The light snapped on seconds later, and he groaned, rolling over to hide his face in the soft fabric of his pillowcase. "Up," Uncle Chuck demanded, voice formidable. Sonic groaned again for his own benefit. "Sonic, get up." He could hear Chuck as he moved toward the window, no doubt to yank open the curtains, and Sonic cringed into the pillow. The artificial light in his room was minimal, extending to a lamp and a single dull bulb in the ceiling fan, but the sun was too much this early.

"I'm up," he moaned to delay his exposure to the bright, outside light. Pushing himself away from the soft confines of his mattress, he sat up. "Don't touch those curtains," he commanded, sleepy green eyes narrowed at his uncle's harrowing position near the window.

"I see." Chuck's voice was clipped and crisp, and he raised an appraising eyebrow in Sonic's direction. There were a few beats of silence wherein neither party moved and the older hedgehog's other eyebrow rose to join its twin. "Are you gonna move or is this as far as you're gonna get?"

"Give me a minute," Sonic groused, blinking away the urge to close his eyes. "You ruined my dream," he complained, hoping to stall the coming day for a few more seconds.

"Which one was it this time?" Chuck was obviously humoring him. "Amy or Blaze?" Seeing Sonic's scandalized look, he added, "or was it that dream where you won the chili dog eating contest?"

Sonic's ears twitched and his face contorted into a perfect expression of revulsion. "First of all, ew – Amy's twelve. Second, Blaze is one of my best friends and Silver would kill me. Third, you wouldn't be able to wake me if it were that dream."

Chuck hummed, watching as Sonic finally pushed himself to his feet. He wobbled for a few seconds before starting forward, purposely skirting around his uncle to fumble around in his closet. His school uniform was a pile of fabric in the corner and he picked it up with a disgusted face. "Y'know," he began, turning back to Chuck, "I'm not really feeling school today. How about I run errands for you instead?"

"No way Sonny," his uncle answered without missing a beat, "if I let you skip every time you didn't feel like going, you'd be a high school dropout and I'd have a permanent errand boy."

"Win-win," Sonic remarked distractedly as he shook his uniform out. Chuck sighed with the air of someone who had had this conversation far too many times and Sonic decided to cut his losses for the day. When his caretaker started making sounds like that, he was a few steps away from extra chores. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

Charles Hedgehog was never one to roll his eyes, but Sonic could tell that he came very close in that moment. "Yeah, fine. I'll leave you to your unnecessary prepping. You have twenty minutes."

Sonic tossed an eye roll of his own over his shoulder, "love ya too, Unc." After Chuck had closed the door, the blue hedgehog turned back to his room and took a few deep breaths to steady himself before turning back to his uniform, cursing everything it stood for. He had never been one for school; too fidgety, too distractible, didn't play well with others, the list went on. He had always felt like school was a waste of time once he learned to read and write, and his grades have reflected that since then. Most of the time, he couldn't be bothered to do his homework, much less pay attention in class. It was only by the good graces of his teachers and extra tutoring from his friends that he managed to pass, and even then it was a close thing. He had planned for a while to drop out once he hit sixteen; he wanted to travel the world, see everything there was to be seen, not read about it in a book. The only thing keeping him from taking off now was Uncle Chuck. The man had taken care of Sonic for as long as he could remember, and he owed him enough for two lifetimes. He had promised him that he would finish school up to the legal dropout age, prove to him that he wasn't a total screw up, and at fifteen years old, he was so close to his goal that he could practically taste it. Only a few more months...

He heard Chuck yell the time at him from downstairs and quickly focused back on the task at hand. With that thought cycling through his head like a mantra, he pulled on his uniform. The Bellwyn Academy for Mobians was one of the most prestigious schools in Station Square, and the only reason Sonic got in with his laughable grade point average and horrible attendance record was because Uncle Chuck was an ambassador between the mobian governments of the South and Westside Islands and the humans of the mainland, and he rubbed elbows with quite a few important people. However, the school had a hell of a time with Sonic, especially after he managed to make friends with the rowdiest group of mobians to ever walk its halls, and he knew the faculty was counting the days until he turned sixteen. They weren't alone.

Two hundred and fifty-nine to go.

With a sigh, Sonic turned to the mirror as he yanked his uniform jacket on. The uniforms were one of the things he would miss the least: a blue so bright they washed out his own coloring and tailored for people with less quills involved in their lives, they were an uncomfortable fit on nearly everyone, but especially on Sonic. It had taken quite a bit of ripping, sewing, and wiggling to force the jacket to accommodate the spines on his back, but he had managed. Now it was a daily struggle to work himself up to putting it on, and he always longed for the days of summer when he could forgo the whole thing. Clothing was dumb in any setting, especially for those with fur. Sure, it was fine for the humans – they didn't have thick fur to add friction to their precious cloth, and when you had quills it was adding insult to injury.

"Sonic! Ten minutes!"

"Yeah yeah," Sonic answered quietly, grabbing his backpack from where he had dropped it on the floor next to the door the night before. He hopped down the stairs two at a time, stomach gurgling unhappily as soon as his nose caught the smells wafting from the kitchen. He made a beeline for the toaster after dropping his bag off at the table, a pair of bright blue eyes blinking sleepily at him as he passed. A matching blue uniform, ruffled and unkempt, nearly overwhelmed the small, golden child it clothed, and a nearby blue backpack was stuffed with textbooks far too large for one so small. "Morning Tails," the hedgehog greeted as he slid the lever down and watched his bread disappear into the chamber of red light, "sleep well?"

"Nhg," Tails grumbled, head drooping dangerously low until he noticed the bowl of oatmeal that was ready to act as a landing pad. He jerked up and glared at it as if it had personally offended him, before sighing with the air of an aggrieved soul and grabbing blindly for the spoon resting next to the bowl. "You?"

"Same." Sonic's toast popped and he fished it out with nimble fingers, spreading butter in one smooth move. "Ready for school?"

Tails made another indeterminate sound and stared down at his lumpy breakfast like it was an interesting science project. Sonic chuckled. Tails always made his day better, even when there was a dark cloud hanging over everything. Sonic couldn't pinpoint when, but Tails had been adopted by Chuck at some point a few years ago, and they had taken to each other like long lost brothers. Despite the fact that the fox was seven years younger than him, he had a killer wit and a huge IQ, which made him easily Sonic's equal, despite his small size. They did nearly everything together, and Tails was the primary reason Sonic hadn't flunked out by now. The school had no idea what to do with Tails; he probably should be doing college work, in all honesty, but they didn't want to plunge someone so young into the world of adults just yet. So, they decided to saddle him with Sonic and drop him right into his sophomore class. It was just as well – they were both bored out of their minds most of the time in class – for different reasons, but Sonic chose to ignore that – and they kept each other occupied, which kept the distractions down to a minimum.

"Do your homework?" Sonic asked, nodding at the fox's stuffed backpack.

"Yup," Tails answered around a mouthful of oatmeal. "You?"

Sonic sighed, glancing at his own, pathetically beat up bag. "Nope. Can I copy?"

"No."

Sonic rolled his eyes toward the ceiling, cursing Tails' morals straight to Chaos himself. "Not even a little?"

"No."

The hedgehog chewed thoughtfully on his toast. "Will you help me during break?"

"Yup."

"Monosyllabic day, huh?"

"And they say you're not smart."

"Shut up nerd." Sonic winked at the small fox before shoving the rest of his breakfast in his mouth. "We should probably get out of here. Don't wanna be late."

"Nhg," Tails grunted again, shoveling his food into his mouth before scooting off his chair. He pulled his backpack off of the table and it landed on the floor with a formidable thunk; Tails stared at it sleepily, blinking slowly, as if he couldn't pinpoint how it had landed itself in its current position, and Sonic sighed before passing the kid his bag. The hedgehog hefted the large backpack onto his shoulder and bodily pointed Tails toward the door with a hand on his shoulder. Trudging forward slowly, Tails banged out the screen door and Sonic made a mental note to hide his video games so he would get some decent sleep.

"Bye kids!" Chuck's voice called from up the stairs. "Have a good day!"

"Bye!" Sonic yelled back, pulling the door closed behind him. He turned to follow Tails up the driveway, mentally calculating how long it would take them to get to the school with Tails moving at the speed of smell, and nearly ran into the fox. Tails was planted in the middle of the path, eyes narrowed at him, hands shoved onto thin hips, namesakes whipping behind him in agitation. "What?" Sonic asked after the impromptu staring match had lasted long enough to grow uncomfortable.

"Something's different."

Sonic snorted. "Don't be a spazz. We need to get going or we're gonna be late." The hedgehog put his hands on Tails' shoulders, spun him around, and marched him toward the sidewalk.

The fox dug his heels in, though it did no good against Sonic's stronger hold. "No wait, don't you feel it?"

"Feel what? C'mon bro, it's fall, the temperature changes every once in a while."

"No!" Silently, Sonic wondered where all this energy had come from. Last he had seen, Tails had been snoring into his oatmeal. "There's something in the air! C'mon man, don't flake on me. I know you feel that weird stuff sometimes."

Sonic stopped at that and blinked down at his adopted brother. Now that he mentioned it... Sonic shivered as something...cold brushed its way up his spine and snaked its way around his middle. It settled over his chest, and he felt a small pinprick of unease as it pressed against him. Suddenly, his world jerked and the driveway in front of his house was replaced with a world of water, a city ravaged and sinking. Smoke clogged the air, he was soaked through to the bone and shivering, and screams filled his ears; he reached up to cover them, a thick stone of defeat settling in his stomach.

This was his fault. The thought came unbidden but he could feel the truth behind the words and he held back a whimper. I wasn't fast enough... I couldn't save them. Station Square's gone because of me.

He wanted to sink into the water, disappear forever so the world would forget him and his mistake. But then, he felt a warmth rise up in his chest, battling away the chill. It spread through his belly and chest, wrapping around his whole being. Suddenly, there was a tug and he was back in front of Tails. He blinked away the moment, battling away the phantom sensation of depression that held on with all its might.

The fox was looking up at him expectantly, and Sonic realized that only a few seconds had passed and Tails was none the wiser to his bout of... what was that anyway? "Deja vu, Tails. I get deja vu a lot," Sonic replied shakily. Maybe he was stressed. Stress could cause some weird things right?

Tails was staring at him calculatingly, and Sonic shook his head. Regardless, he didn't need to worry the fox with it. Not until he was sure he wasn't going insane, anyway. The hedgehog cracked a small smile, and prayed that Tails wouldn't see through him. The kit rolled his eyes but didn't move, so Sonic groaned. "We're gonna be late now, you know." He resumed his steering, grabbing onto the fox once again.

Tails crossed his arms stubbornly, glaring sullenly forward as Sonic pushed him up the sidewalk. "Yeah, fine, whatever. But when something happens, I warned you."

The hedgehog laughed. "Today's Tuesday, bud. Nothing interesting ever happens on Tuesday."

Everyone knows that the apocalypse will begin on Sunday, Tails. Gosh.

I don't plan on this fic being too long. The chapters won't be longer than 5,000 words and there should only be about eight to ten chapters. I hope to have it all written out by the end of next week if I get my life together. That being said, Foray will be on hold until I either finish this or February 21st hits, whichever comes first.

Hopefully I'll have an update for you by the end of the weekend.

Reviews are cherished.