Chapter 1: Assignment
The moon shone brightly over a tall lighthouse on a cliff by the seaside that had long been abandoned. The sea glimmered in the half-light the night was providing. Nearby, not too far away from the lighthouse, there stood a house settled in the middle of the meadow surrounding the area. Inside this house, there were two Mobian children sitting at the piano playing a soft and beautiful melody. The melody flowed through the large two-story house, its crescendos and arpeggios echoing through the halls and rooms, leaving a somber tone to the whole area.
The peaceful scene was interrupted by the sound of tires squealing as the driver tried to put on the breaks. A loud crash was heard and the two children stopped playing long enough to turn toward the door, wondering just what sort of chaos had happened. Outside, a ways away from the house on the cliff, a car was smashed against an old tree, away from the road. Two hedgehogs warily exited the car, one that was a cobalt color, and another that was a light pink color. Both hedgehogs were wearing lab coats with nameplates over the chest pocket.
The pink hedgehog was fuming, smoothing out her ruffled quills. "Where were you looking, Sonic?!" she choked, still trying to get over the shock of the crash.
Sonic let out a slight huff and crossed his arms. "Well excuse me for heroically evading that squirrel coming out of nowhere!"
The cobalt's companion looked out on the road at the freshly-road-killed squirrel lying flattened in the middle of the road from which they came. "You still hit it, dummy." She said.
Sonic came over to examine the sight that his companion was observing and when he saw the grave sight, his cheeks turned red with embarrassment, and he put his hand behind his head and let out a slight chuckle. "Oh." He said. "Whoops. But you've got to admit, Amy, it was a daring attempt!"
Amy looked back at Sonic and shook her head. "You ran over it and hit a tree." She said mockingly. "Two failures in one night. Nice going, hero."
Sonic laughed and smoothed his azure quills. "Hey, don't even worry about it." He said. "It's a company car, not as if we're gonna get fired for it."
Amy's emerald eyes widened at what Sonic was suggesting. "No, he'll just murder us instead. That's much better than being fired."
Sonic stopped his nervous laughing and inhaled through gritted teeth. "Good point." He said. "Well then, we'll just say that…I…" he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Ah! I got it! We'll just say I was saving a puppy! Yeah, that's it, everyone loves puppies!"
"I'm not sure, but I think he likes cats better." Amy pointed out, not going for any of Sonic's "clever" ideas for getting out of the mess he got himself into.
Sonic sighed, shrugging and looking to the sky in mock hopelessness. "Why does this world have to be so complicated?!" he said. He then jumped back into his care-free mood and patted Amy on the shoulder. "Well, whatever." He said, stretching his arms over his head and yawning. "Whatever fuzz ball he fancies, the crisis is averted."
Amy wasn't getting into Sonic's joking. "Good." She said, turning to examine the damage done to the car. "Go write that on your report when we get back." She looked disapprovingly at the damage done to the front of the car and shook her head, turning back to Sonic the court jester. "Let's just grab the equipment from the car and get going already."
Sonic hadn't heard her; he was too busy looking at the squirrel on the road. "I mean come on!" he muttered to no one in particular. "I crashed the car trying to avoid hitting this thing, what more do you want from me?!"
"Well, you could not crash the car and not hit the squirrel at the same time." Amy said cynically, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently.
Sonic shook his head. "Now that's asking too much." He said. This earned a slap to the back of the head from Amy. "OW!" he said. "Ok, OK I'm getting the equipment now."
When Sonic got the equipment from the back of the car, he groaned at the weight of the bulky mass of machines. "Geeze!" he said. "Why does this have to be so heavy?!"
The two hedgehogs walked towards the house, up flights of stairs, Sonic muttering and complaining the whole way. Eventually, they came to an area that was sealed off by a boulder.
"Maybe it's their security system?" Sonic suggested light-heartedly.
"Oh for pity sake, we don't have time for this!" Amy said. She took out her Piko-Piko hammer and whacked the boulder to get it out of the way, but upon hitting the boulder, a loud popping sound was heard and the bolder slowly flattened out into nothing. Amy looked at it in amazement. "A beach ball!?" she mused to herself.
"Guess it WAS their security system." Sonic said, earning a death-glare from Amy. "Sorry. Let's get going then." The pair continued their trek up the hill to the house. When they got there, Amy knocked on the door.
Inside, the two children playing the piano heard the knocking and called to someone upstairs. "Mama!" the little rabbit girl said. "They're here!"
An older rabbit descended the stairs and headed for the door as the children scampered off to another room.
Outside, Sonic and Amy waited for the occupant of the house to let them in. "Night shifts, love them or hate them?" Sonic said, trying to break the silence between them.
"You know the answer to that, dummy." Amy said. "And it's gonna be one long night."
"Yeah." Sonic said. "And I doubt they'd have any coffee."
"Shut up." Amy said.
Sonic did as told for a little bit, but just went back to talking. "And the ocean waves will sing sweet lullabies." He continued. "But it's gonna be a nightmare for me." He shuddered as Amy rubbed her temples.
"Don't worry." She said. "They're not going to sing through all of your mindless blabbering."
The door opened and the rabbit stood in the doorway. "Doctor Rose and Doctor Hedgehog I presume?" she said.
"That's us!" Sonic said as the woman let the two in.
"Thank you for coming on such short notice." The woman said. "My name is Vanilla the Rabbit."
As she was saying this, the two children dashed through the house into another room, chasing each other. "And this is my daughter Cream and her friend, Tails." Vanilla continued.
"Are you the patient's daughter?" Amy asked.
"Oh, no." Vanilla said, letting out a light laugh. "I'm just his caretaker. Shadow is kind enough to let us live here since this isn't exactly a nine-to-five job."
"I suppose that this "Shadow" is the one we're here to see?" Amy asked. Vanilla nodded.
"He's upstairs. Please come with me." Without another word, she turned and headed up the stairs. Amy turned to Sonic.
"Grab that equipment and let's get going." She said. Sonic sighed and picked up the bulky case of equipment.
"When my back breaks one day, you're going to be the first one I sue." He muttered. "Ok, let's get up there before I drop this." The pair of doctors ascended the stairs in search of their patient.
When they were gone, Tails peeked around the corner of the door in the next room. "Ok, they're gone!" he said. "Whoever gets there first gets to play the melody!"
Cream and Tails raced to the piano and Tails ended up getting there first. "No fair! You pushed me!"
"I did not!" Tails said.
"Whatever." Cream said. "You just get two silly notes anyways." The two sat on the piano bench and started playing the song they had stopped playing earlier. The melody once again echoed through the house and lightened the mood a little bit. Upstairs, Sonic and Amy stopped for a minute and listened to the tune.
"They're not that bad for kids." Sonic commented. "They're actually pretty good. Wonder where they learned."
The two entered the room in front of them and were greeted by the patient lying unconscious in his bed and a rounded man standing by his side, checking his pulse. Vanilla walked over to them. Are you ready to set up?
"Yes, it'll only just take a minute." Amy said as Sonic set the machinery down, gasping and holding his back. They set up the machine in the room. The machine turned out to be a sort of video game console that one would see in an arcade. A glass screen displayed several algorithms and codes that were confusing for one to understand.
"Are you sure that a normal household outlet will be enough for this?" Vanilla asked.
"Of course." Sonic said. "Don't worry, we're the experts!" This comment earned a huff of disapproval from Amy. Once the machine was plugged in, the lights surged and dimmed as if the machine had blown a fuse in the electrical system. "Crap." Sonic muttered.
In a little bit, the lights came back on as if nothing had happened. Sonic put his hand behind his head and chuckled. "Standard procedures." He said. "This thing just likes keeping us on our toes."
As Sonic set up the machine, Amy turned to the rounded man standing by Shadow's bedside. "I would assume that you are the patient's doctor?" she asked.
"Indeed." The man said. He shook Amy's hand. "Doctor Ivo Robotnik at your service. Please to meet your acquaintance."
"Eh, that name's too long." Sonic said. "Mind if I call you "Eggman", buddy?"
"Actually I do mind." Dr. Robotnik said.
"Eh, don't worry." Sonic said. "You'll learn to love it!"
"You'll have to excuse my colleague." Amy said. "He's extremely childish."
"I've dealt with worse." Dr. Eggman said.
"You don't know him like I do." Amy insisted. She looked at Shadow and then ack at Dr. Eggman. "How is he doing?"
Eggman sighed and pushed his glasses into place. "Not so well." He said. "If I were to say, I think he only has a day or two left."
"That's plenty of time." Amy said.
By this time, Vanilla's curiosity got the better of her. "So, you two can grant him any wish he has, is that right?" she asked.
"Well, we try at least." Amy said.
"But we always succeed because we're SONIC HEROES!" Sonic said cheerfully.
"What did I tell you about saying that?" Amy asked.
"To not say it." Sonic said.
"And how many times have I said it?"
"Too many."
"Then I must be serious, right?"
Sonic shrugged. "Eh, I can never tell." He said jokingly.
Amy sighed and turned back to Vanilla. "So, what's the wish?" she asked.
Vanilla didn't say anything for a minute but then spoke. "The moon." She said simply. "He wants to go to the moon."
Sonic chuckled. "The geezers just keep on getting crazier, huh?" he said.
"Sonic! Show some respect!" Amy said.
"So, can you do it?" Vanilla asked.
"It depends." Amy said.
"On what?" Vanilla asked a hint of skepticism in her voice.
"She meant to say "yes", that's all." Sonic said. "She just likes to mess with people that way."
Amy rolled her eyes and turned back to Vanilla. "Why don't you tell us about our client?" she said.
Vanilla bit her lip and played with her apron. "To be honest, I don't really know that much…" she admitted. "Shadow's a little odd. Through the two years that I've worked here, he's rarely spoken at all. He worked as a craftsman for most of his life, and his wife passed away before I started working for him. I don't really know many details. But, I suppose if you look around the house, you may find some more information about him. I don't think Shadow would mind since he signed for you two."
"Alright." Amy said. She turned to Sonic. "So, which one of us is going to go look around?"
"I'll do it!" Sonic said excitedly. "I love playing detective!" he stood up and headed for the door. "Just configure this, I've already got it started."
Amy sat down at Sonic's place at the machine as Vanilla spoke. "Cream and Tails can show you around. They're probably downstairs at the piano." Sonic nodded and exited the room.
"Wait, come back for a moment." Dr. Eggman said. "I have something for you. It's a heart monitor. It'll keep you updated on Shadow's condition." The doctor gave Sonic the small pager-like device.
"Sure hope there's no self-destruct button on it." Sonic said. "Somehow I always have a knack of finding those things."
"With your luck, you'll kill him before we can even start." Amy muttered. Sonic shrugged and exited the room and headed downstairs to find out a little about his patient before the grand adventure started.