Sonic was originally just a normal hedgehog, just as Eggman was originally a normal boy. However their stories are not quite chronologically tied together because Eggman was already a tenure professor on the verge of completing his third PhD by the time Sonic was born. He went by Professor Nick at the time.
After a sudden and unexpected divorce, Sonic's mom (Bernadette, or Bernie for short) sought council from hags, witches, psychics and magicians, some of whom were unlicensed. She was not entirely in her right mind when she trusted the advice of a sorceress to abandon her children and not to contact them until they were in their late teens.
When Bernie placed her last basket down in a meadow, she tried to stop herself from crying. This was fulfilling the prophecy's instructions by the book but she couldn't fully believe it.
I was never very good with relying on my own judgement but I didn't know how to stop the divorce, she thought, turning her face from the basket. She walked down slowly and imagined sinking into the earth with every step. Perhaps when the mysterious prophecy was fulfilled, her husband and children would forgive her and everything would be okay again. She turned around one last time to look at the basket Sonic was in.
He looked up with big inquisitive eyes. His feet thumped against the basket's edge in a rhythmic pattern.
Right after his mom turned his back on Sonic for the last time, he managed to crawl out of the basket. This would have signaled to her (had she seen it) that Sonic was already a gifted natural at using his limbs. Perhaps she would have changed her mind, swept the baby back up in her arms and had some comfort.
Who cares about prophecies? This is my child! What was I thinking? Abandoning my own children with no protector and with millions of things that could kill them? All of Mobius can go up in flames, I don't care! I just want my children to be safe!
But she didn't look back and so the only thing she could think of, trudging down that hilly area, was whether a good mother would abandon her children or a good wife would get divorced.
So Sonic found himself, still very young, lying down in a meadow alone. The grass was a substitute for motherly comfort, and a big palm tree was a substitute for fatherly protection.
The occasional rain was at first a horrific occurrence. Sonic hated how his bright shiny warm world could quickly become cold and wet. In time he learned to use his basket as a roof by flipping it over and hiding underneath it. This was better, but it still wasn't optimal because Sonic enjoyed exploring, and there's no way to explore the world under a basket.
Learning to walk was hard and made his limbs tremble but the rewards that came with it were amazing. He could search the prairie with ease and he could explore far more of it than he had previously dreamt of. Besides, getting grass stains from crawling was no good.
One day, when he had gotten too big to hide under the basket during a rainstorm, he decided to leave the meadow in search of better shelter.
After about thirty minutes of walking, he reach a short wall made up of sedimentary rocks. Using the rocks that jetted out as footholds, he was able to climb up over the wall with minimal trouble.
Although he was more interested in satisfying his hunger, he stopped to reflect this new view. He was on the bank of a small stream. Just beyond the stream was a barn and beyond that, pastures and fields extended to the horizon.
Sonic was familiar with streams. There were several across the meadows and fields he trekked, so he never needed to worry about dehydration. Still, he was frightened of drinking from them because a big ugly fish sometimes popped up out of the water and made him trip over from the shock.
With hesitation, Sonic peered into the water. It was clear and shallow and it didn't look like that big fish was anywhere close. After a quick drink, he dashed across and landed in a field with short grass.
The barn captured his interest. Big and red, it looked so mysterious to Sonic because it was unlike anything he'd ever seen. He circled around it, tracing the walls with his paws.
After some inspection, he realized that the entrance of the barn could be opened. Peeking inside, he heard the bray of horses and then the mooing of cows in response. This wasn't particularly welcome company, so a retreat was in order.
The good news was that there were plenty of insects around the barn for a nice dinner. Contented, Sonic fell asleep.
He dreamt that he was an invisible spirit floating in a dimly lit room. On one side of the room a medium hummed in her chair, eyes closed. Across a table, his mother eagerly looked to the medium as if she was placing all her hope in that meditating witch.
"Hmmm... mmmm... mmmm..."
The humming turned into a musical tune and Sonic flew around the room, dancing and singing along.
As if she noticed his off-key singing or his uncoordinated moves, the witch stopped abruptly.
"You are in danger!" she said, pointing at Bernie with her eyes still closed.
"You will be able to survive, but only if you hide yourself quickly! Take your children far away and leave them in separate solitary places!"
Bernie was genuinely distraught by this advice but Sonic didn't yet understand facial cues or words. But he instinctively felt that something was wrong, like a bitter taste that's hard to describe.
"The alchemists..." the witch whispered, gripping her head and sweating profusely, "...have found a way to turn living creatures into metal. In the near future that technology will be used to build an empire!"
"Please!" Bernie interrupted. "Is there any way the children can be safe with me?"
"I see many possible paths. It's very rare that more than two of you survive if you keep them."
This type of witch specialized in predicting future newspaper headlines. Although her last statement was purely conjecture, she did vividly imagine headlines which proclaimed the genocide of mobians or the devastation of mobian forests. And of course the most prominent headlines were that mobians were turning into robots at record number.
Sonic saw these newspapers floating around the room, their weird symbols and images leaping off the page and bouncing onto his head. This didn't hurt him but the impact left him cold.
The witch continued giving instructions to Sonic's mom, but this was basically white noise to Sonic. He was too busy shielding his head from the oncoming newspaper articles, which were now raining down faster and faster - getting him soaked!
Opening his eyes, Sonic realized it was raining! What a weird dream! Quickly he walked around the barn and wished he still had that basket to hide under.
Then he found the barn's opening again. The company of barnyard animals was not particularly enjoyable but it was a far better option than that awful feeling of being drenched and chilled.
Opening the door, he was pleased to find the animals quiet. Some were asleep, some were eating, but none seemed to notice his entrance.
Ironically enough, the attitude of the barn animals was equivalent to the average students' attitudes when attending a lecture by professor Nick.
The larger animals were boxed in to his left and his right so he only saw their heads, if that. Fences would do the trick for smaller animals such as swine. A wooden staircase directly ahead invited a challenge for him to climb to the second story and see all the animals from a birds'-eye view, which he was excited for but he was too cold and damp at present. He first decided to curl up by some hay in a corner.
Suddenly a giant bat swooped down and landed in front of him.
"Well I haven't seen any mobians in a long time. Where are you from?"
Being a bit perturbed her sudden arrival and unable to understand what she was saying, Sonic simply stared up at her with his big eyes.
"Do you have parents? Are you lost?"
The bat, named Rouge, found herself staring back into Sonic's eyes. His expression of wonder remained unchanged.
Rouge sighed. "I guess I'll have to take care of you until your parents show up."
Rouge had always wanted to be a mother (especially with a good-looking husband). Unfortunately she knew practically nothing about raising hedgehogs and there wasn't much literature (or handsome and knowledgeable men!) that she could take advice from. This would have to be a trial-by-error experiment.
But she wasn't too worried. In her mind all she needed to do was teach the hedgehog a few skills to be self-reliant. This had come naturally to her, leaving her own family at a very young age to hunt for emeralds.
Tomorrow morning I'll begin teaching him, she thought to herself as she flew back to her loft.
Typical of a young girl bat who is interested in treasure hunting and is a bit boy-crazy, her loft was divided into two sections. The first contained various gems and maps hidden in nooks. She also had small tools such as pickaxes or knives - not intended to hurt anyone but more than ready to threaten. She found the pickaxe to be the most reliable instrument since she mostly searched for treasure in caves and where beautiful gems could be lodged between several boulders.
On the other side, she had a calendar featuring the hottest mobian men of the year and a CD case of a famous boy band.
Since almost all of her items were stolen goods, she wasn't able to obtain anything extremely heavy or bulky like a TV or CD player. Even if she did get those fat items, it wouldn't have that much value since she hated things that made more noise than necessary. So instead of listening to her CD, she just hummed along to what she imagined could be a song from that album and stared dreamily at the calendar.
"Tomorrow I shall teach that hedgehog how to steal!"
Author's Notes:
DONT LIEK, DON"T READ
Haw haw, but seriously I hope you enjoyed. This is very different from my earlier styles and it's my first time experimenting in this genre so feel free to tell me if anything was a home run or if anything was a chore to read.
Also some of the events in this fic may contradict canon due to my limited knowledge.