Sonic – 7, Tails – 5, Amy – 6, Knuckles – 8, Rouge – 8, Espio – 7, Cream – 3,
Looking For Trouble
The sunlight glinted off a red stone embedded in a ring as the owner sifted through a stack of papers on her desk. Aleena had been at this for hours, and she was pretty sure she hadn't even made a dent in her duties for the day. A quick glance at the clock on the far wall let her know that it was half past four and she frowned as she glanced back at the remaining paperwork.
'Who knew being Queen of Mobius came with so much paperwork. At least now I understand why Chuck stepped down.' The young Queen let out a slow, measured breath.
Her lime green eyes scanned the words on the paper in front of her and she placed it gently on one of the two stacks she'd created to sort through later with her assistant. The heavy oak door creaked open and the young Queen jumped in her seat. Her gaze flashed to the door and she relaxed as a grey hedgehog casually strolled in, a beaming smile plastered on his face.
"Hey little Sister. What's going on?" He asked as Aleena stood up and returned his smile, brushing back a lock of her dark purple hair. His own smile faltered a little as he glanced at the messy desk. "I would offer to help, but I'm refusing to go anywhere near that." He continued, gesturing towards the sheets spread out on the desk.
"Chuck!" Aleena laughed as way of greeting. She quickly swerved around the desk and the mountain of paper on top of it and pulled her brother into a warm hug. "I was just thinking of you." She said as she pulled back a little. "What brings you around here, you almost never come to the palace?"
"What, I can't just decide to up and visit my sister and nephew whenever I want to?" He replied in a joking manner. "Speaking of my nephew." Chuck glanced around the room quickly before continuing. "Where is Sonic anyway? He normally see's me coming a mile away but I haven't seen him the whole way up here."
Aleena opened her mouth to reply but as if on cue, the door swung open with a loud crash and a small blue streak tore through the doorway with a loud cry of "You can't find me!". Sonic ran into the room with his gaze over his shoulder watching the corridor behind him. He was expecting to find his mother at her desk, so was a little surprised when he ran straight into a hard obstacle in the middle of the room.
"Ouch!" He yelled, instinctively rubbing his forehead with his palm. He'd bounced back after the impact and fallen onto the floor a few feet away from his mother and uncle. He lowered his palm as he glanced up to see what he'd run into and his scowl was instantly replaced by a wide grin.
"Uncle Chuck!" Sonic shouted joyfully as he jumped up from the ground. He ran straight at his uncle and wrapped his arms around his leg, not being tall enough to hug him properly. "When did you get here? You didn't come to find me?" He questioned quickly.
"Easy there buddy, I think you're stopping the blood flow in my leg." Chuck laughed as Sonic reluctantly released him. "Come here, give your uncle a proper welcome." He held his arms out and Sonic quickly jumped into them.
"How come you came to find my mummy first?" Sonic asked, a look of disappointment in his bright green eyes. "I thought - " A look of realisation quickly crossed his young face as the sound of distant laughter drifted into the room. Sonic quickly scrambled out of Chucks grip and landing effortlessly on the floor.
"I gotta find somewhere to hide." He blurted out as he started zipping around the room. "Otherwise..." Sonic shuddered in mock fear as he continued to look for the best hiding place he could find.
He let out a soft laugh as he scurried over to the desk and ducked into the cubby hole underneath, deciding that it was the best place. He'd been under the desk for less than ten seconds when a troop of five children skipped happily past the still open door. They'd almost walked past before a young two tailed kitsune doubled back and the rest followed.
Aleena smiled warmly at the group as the five children gathered around the door. They consisted of a red echidna, a white bat, a pink hedgehog, a purple chameleon and the yellow kitsune.
The pink hedgehog stepped forward and politely bowed before speaking. "Hello Queen Aleena. Is it okay if we look for Sonic in here? He ran off and Rouge thinks he might be around here somewhere."
"Of course you can look in here children. You know, I have a strange feeling that Rouge may have been right." Aleena replied with a conspiratorial wink, as she and Chuck moved over to the window to continue their conversation.
The group began to split up as they searched the room for any signs of the blue hedgehog. The red echidna however, remained standing just inside the doorway with his arms crossed over his chest."He isn't here." He muttered in annoyance. "We're just wasting our time."
Rouge glared at him and flapped her leathery wings to lift herself off the ground. "He is in here, and I'm going to prove it to you hothead!" She taunted, sticking her tongue out at him before flying around the room to continue her search.
Tails the kitsune had joined her in the air as well, using his dual tails to propel him up to check the top of shelves and bookcases. The last member of the group, a purple chameleon named Espio, had clearly given up on his search and was now waiting by the door with Knuckles. "How come I never get to hide." He grumbled.
"Because you can make yourself..." Knuckles waved his arms around frantically as he searched for the right word. "Make yourself poof! That's cheating and we never ever find you." Knuckles finished.
This started a small argument between the two, and after a minute they both huffed loudly and faced the opposite direction from one another with matching looks of disapproval.
Amy was still wandering around the room on foot as she searched for the young prince, humming to herself as she walked. The two adults had started to converse between themselves, occasionally smiling encouragingly at the kids around them.
"Aleena. I want you to be careful with everything going on. You need to watch Eggman closely. I have a feeling that he's up to something." Chuck whispered solemnly, making sure that the children couldn't overhear him.
Aleena sighed sorrowfully, "You two just can't get along can you? I mean the two of you are brothers for Mobius' sake."
"Half-brothers." Chuck corrected. "Mother was much nicer than that other lady. I still don't understand what Dad saw in her." It was a well known fact that there was no love lost between the old Kings second wife and his children.
"Well, she was nice to him. Just not the rest of us." Aleena replied.
"Just tell me you'll be careful." Chuck stated, his dark black eyes locked sharply onto Aleena's own green ones.
"I'll be sure to keep my eyes open for any unusual activity around Mobius." Aleena replied and this seemed to appease Chuck. He relaxed his posture and casually lent against the windowsill. Aleena tried her best not to laugh at his sudden change in attitude as she turned to see if her son had been discovered yet. To her surprise, Sonic remained hidden and unseen under the desk.
Knuckles stood at the doorway with a triumphant look as the rest of the group searched in vain. "I already told you he wasn't here!" He shouted, earning him another growl from the bat. Amy had decided that she would keep the echidna company because he looked a little lonely, humming as she did so. Espio had gotten bored standing around and was now helping Tails.
"Amy, will you stop humming already." Knuckles grumbled angrily at the girl next to him. He almost immediately regretted saying at he saw Amy's green eyes start to fill with tears.
Her bottom lip quivered as she replied. "You didn't even say please!" The tears threatened to spill over and she turned away from him.
Hearing the argument, Sonic's curiosity got the better of him and he chanced a peek. He poked his head out a little bit to see and he was just about to move further to get a better look when a firm hand pulled him out completely and lifted him off the ground.
"Lookie what I found hothead!" Rouge yelled gleefully, dragging the hedgehog through the air with her and dropping him unceremoniously in front of Knuckles and the tearful Amy.
Sonic landed with a loud 'thump' and almost immediately scrambled to his feet. "Took you long enough." Sonic laughed. His eyes fell upon the pink hedgehog who was hurriedly wiping tears from her cheeks.
"Hey Amy. Are you okay?" Sonic asked worriedly, slowly walking over to the pink hedgehog.
"Uhuh." Amy replied, nodding her head overenthusiastically.
"Knuckles shouted at her for singing or something." Espio chimed in, clearly relishing the fact he could get Knuckles back for arguing with him earlier.
"Well that wasn't very nice of you Knuckles." Sonic narrowed his green eyes at the red echidna as he moved to stand in between the two of them. Knuckles held up his hands, palms outward in a sign of surrender as he took a step back.
"I didn't mean to make her cry. I'm sorry Amy." Knuckles replied sincerely.
Both adults had stopped talking and were now watching the children from the other side of the room, ready to step in at any moment.
"It's okay Knuckles. I know you get grumpy sometimes." Amy replied with some of her earlier pep, giving him a small smile. Knuckles nodded in acknowledgement.
Before they could say anything else, Rouge interrupted the trio. "Hey. I knew you were in here and Knuckles didn't." She stated matter of factly, giving Knuckles an 'I told you so' look.
"Whatever bathead." Knuckles retorted. "You win, so what." He suddenly seemed even grumpier than he had been before the earlier arguments. Rouge beamed widely as she landed on the floor next to him and pulled him out into the corridor.
"See, I told you I was right! Now you have to do what I want to for the rest of the day." She said proudly as she quickly waved goodbye to everyone behind her, practically dragging the grumbling red echidna behind her.
"I'm gonna go too. I told Charmy I'd play with him for a while. Bye guys" Espio said calmly before he ran off in the direction of the main hall.
That left the two adults and three kids still in the room. Sonic pulled his arms out in front of him in a stretch and awkwardly smiled at the pink hedgehog. He turned to Tails, who was haphazardly twirling his tails behind him.
"It's my turn to count if you still want to play." He said cheerfully. When both Amy and Tails nodded in agreement, Sonic continued. "I'm gonna count in the..." Sonic scratched his head in thought. "I know! I'll count in the library. Tails and Amy, you two can hide there too. There's loads of cool places we can look for."
He gestured to the other two children to follow him and led them to the giant library down the corridor. The shelves reached the top of the high ceiling, each one stacked with books of different colours, sizes and thickness. The library itself had a sort of musty, but welcoming smell to it and the children ran in noisily.
Sonic ran to the tables set out in the centre of the grand room and began counting, as the other two quickly wandered off to find their perfect hiding places.
"One...two...three...four...five...six...sev-aaaah" Sonic jumped as he felt someone tap him on his shoulder. He turned around only to be faced by second Uncle who he hadn't heard creep up behind him.
"Uncle Eggy, do you always have to sneak up on me?" Sonic questioned innocently with a small pout. His uncle's mutated into one of pure displeasure but Sonic was completely oblivious to it.
"Of course. What kind of an uncle would I be if I didn't keep you on your toes?" Eggman replied sourly. The young hedgehog eyed the book in his Uncle's hands.
"Hey Uncle Eggy, guess what we're doing."
"I despise guessing games." Eggman said sourly.
"Aw, come on Unc. I'll tell you. Hide and seek! It's so much fun!" Sonic hopped from foot to foot excitedly as he spoke.
"Well forgive me for not leaping for joy - bad back you see." Eggman replied emotionlessly, vaguely motioning behind as he spoke.
"Hey, what's that?" he asked, pointing at the book curiously. Eggman's moustache jiggled as his lips spread into a sly smile.
"What? Oh, this old thing!" Eggman lifted the book up away from Sonic's grasp and continued. "This book was written by a person who went and studied the darkest parts of Mobius. But you don't want to know about that do you. You just finish you little game of seek and...whatever it is." Eggman's smile didn't falter, he knew full well what the young boy's next words were going to be.
"But Uncle Eggman, I do want to know!" Sonic replied stubbornly, stamping one of his sneaker clad feet on the floor for emphasis.
"Oh, very well. But only if you don't tell anyone that I told you about it. I'm not really allowed to tell you. You're mother would be very angry with me if she knew I'd told you top secret information."
"Top secret. I won't ever tell her." Sonic replied enthusiastically, his curiosity piqued.
"It's been said that in the dark parts of Mobius, there are these truly fascinating creatures made completely of metal. Robots they call them. They guard the dark parts of our lands and only the bravest of young warriors ever dare venture out to find them. The weak stay away from those parts in fear."
'If that doesn't get the little wretch interested, I don't what will.' Eggman narrowed his eyes evilly.
"Where are the dark part of Mobius?" Sonic asked eagerly, jumping from toe to toe in anticipation, not noticing the dark change in his uncle's behaviour.
Eggman led the boy to the window and pointed out into the horizon. "You see that dark part in the far west?" He asked pointing, and Sonic nodded in reply. "That part of the city is home to the dark lands. But you must never go there. Like I said before, only the bravest people go there." Eggman grinned widely as he left the awestruck boy staring out the window and backed out of the library as silently as he had entered, leaving the young prince to his own thoughts.
'Only the bravest people go there...Uncle Chuck calls me brave all the time. If I go there, I can prove to everyone just how brave I am!"
With that thought, Sonic ran off to find his two closest friends to tell them his great idea. They were going to be the bravest kids in the whole of Mobius.
"Look lively kiddos. So, where'd you want me to take you?" Vector asked rather loudly. The clumsy crocodile had been assigned by Queen Aleena to keep an eye on the trio of kids while they went out of the palace grounds.
The kids, who were whispering together in a huddle broke apart and smiled charmingly at their guardian. Amy was the first to speak. "Can you take us to the ice cream lady please?"
Vector's face lit up instantaneously. The owner of the ice cream parlour, Vanilla, had been one of the only things on his mind lately. "Sure kids, follow me!" Vector instructed happily, the children followed after him obediently, giggling at their plan.
"So while Vector's talking, we go to the dark streets. Okay?" Sonic whispered, both his friends nodded their heads to show they understood the plan.
"What's this about the dark lands eh?" Vector questioned, surprised that the young hedgehog even knew about it.
"Nothing!" Amy cried too loudly. "I mean... we don't know." Vector narrowed his eyes and turned to Sonic.
"I don't have to tell you anything." Sonic said with a rebellious smirk.
"Oh yeah?" Vector questioned, crossing his arms across his chest.
"Yeah, he's the future king." Amy interjected with a defiant expression.
"That may be so, but I'm the one buying the ice cream. Also, I'm gonna tell your mother." Vector replied coolly, completely unfazed by the trio.
"I think we should tell him" Tails whispered, just loud enough so that Sonic and Amy could both hear.
"Fine."Sonic jolted back hopping on his feet, feeling slightly flustered as he spoke. "We were just saying that there was a book in the library about it." Sonic spoke quicker than usual and Vector looked at him with slight suspicion.
"What's up, you got ants in your pants?" Vector asked as the young boy continued bouncing on his feet.
"No!" Sonic protested loudly. "I'm just excited that we're gonna get ice cream."He relaxed a little as the crocodile seemed to believe him and continued to lead them to the ice cream parlour.
After making sure that Vector was out of earshot, the young prince addressed his friends. "That was a close one. He would have told on us and then we would have been in big trouble." Sonic whispered, just loud enough of for the three of them to hear.
"You nearly gave us up there though. Just don't mention anything about the dark parts again okay?" Tails whispered back. Although he was the youngest in the group, everyone acknowledged him to be the smart one, always thinking things through beforehand. Sonic had to do a lot of persuading in order to get the kitsune to agree to come along.
After a few minutes of muffled whispering, Vector led the trio into the small shop. "Okay kids, were here. Now what sort of ice cream would ya like?" Vectors voice boomed as the three kids stated their personal choices. He walked up to the counter waited for the owner to serve them.
"Hello there, what can I get for you?" Vanilla's honey like voice floated over to him and he could only think to compare it to music, only sweeter and more melodic.
"U-uh um." Vector stumbled, struggling to remember what it was the kids wanted. "Er, can I get two chocolates, one strawberry and one v-v-vanilla please." Vector stuttered as he added his own order to the end of the children's.
The rabbit laughed softly before heading off to scoop the orders. Vector watched after her, noting her every movement as she loaded up the first scoop into a cone.
"Come on. Now's our chance! He's too busy looking at that nice lady. Let's go!" Sonic urged his friends as he started shuffling towards the door.
Amy nodded and slowly headed for the door after him. Tails however, remained standing exactly where he was before. He was watching a young rabbit who'd just wandered out from behind the counter and was smiling politely at him. Sonic snapped his fingers in front of the young fox's face and brought him back to reality. Tails hurriedly waved at her as he quickly headed out the door after Sonic and Amy.
He was in so much of a hurry that he didn't see the girl giggle and wave back excitedly before hiding behind the counter again.
The trio ran down the street and turned into the nearest alleyway and followed it down making a few precautionary turns just in case Vector was chasing after them. After a couple of minutes, they stopped and Sonic peeked around the corner to check if the coast was clear.
"I think we've lost him." He breathed, slightly out of breath.
The three kids high fived in unison before Tails started to try and work out where they were. After another minute or so of getting his bearings, he pointed to their left and the trio continued to head towards the dark parts.
They carried on walking in that general direction for about half an hour, but to their young minds it felt like hours had passed.
"Urgh! My feet really hurt." Amy whined, dragging herself after the two boys.
Sonic stopped and turned so that he could see both Tails and Amy. "Guys, grab on." He said as he extended out a hand to each of them. "I think it's time to speed things up a little."
Both of them gladly took his hand and Sonic tightened his grip on the pair of them as he geared up to use his super speed. "Hold on tight!" He shouted as warning as they zoomed off towards the dark parts of the city.
Less than a minute later, Sonic knew that they were close. He recognised some the desolate buildings from when he was looking out of the library window with his uncle.
One short burst of speed later they arrived at their destination, the edge of the dark streets of Mobius. Sonic grinded to a halt and Tails released his grip. His other hand was being squeezed tightly as Amy gripped it in fear. Her eyes were wide as she looked at the dark, damp street in front of them.
"Amy are you alright. You look kinda scared?" Tails asked worriedly, reading the fear all over her face. Amy nodded as she looked at Tails, reluctantly releasing her grip on Sonics hand.
"Come on Ames, there's nothing to be scared of. You got me to look after you, and Tails." Sonic said bravely as he tried to comfort her.
"Yeah, I know. But aren't you two a little afraid?" She breathed back, scared to raise her voice in fear of attracting whatever monsters inhabited the area.
"Scared of what? Uncle Eggman said there isn't anything here but cool robots around here." Sonic said coolly, looking down the long dark street. It was almost identical to all the other streets they had passed, except that it was darker and dirtier.
"This place looks dangerous." Amy stated simply. Tails nodded his head in agreement. Sonic moved further into the street in an attempt to show the two of them that it was completely safe. Once he was a couple of meters in, he turned back around to face the two of them.
"Danger? Hah! I laugh in the face of danger, ha ha ha!" Sonic stated proudly, puffing up his chest to look bigger and more confident. A loud rumbling rang out behind him and his green eyes widened in shock. Sonic spun on his heel and turned to look behind him as the rumbling continued to grow louder. He walked backwards slowly until he was level with Tails and Amy, his eyes never leaving the dark street ahead of him.
Three red robots entered the street from the alleys on the side, two from the side alleys in front of them and one from behind them. They were surrounded. The trio huddled together in circle, facing outwards to get a better look at the robots. Their wide eyes glinting with fear.
"Uh-oh!"
