Disclaimer: I do not own anything.

Hail to the King

Chapter One

A/N: Well hey everyone, before we start this long (or short-lived depending on feedback and such) journey I'd like to point out that I have switched up my writing style a bit in an effort to make this story a bit more…light-hearted I suppose. So, it would be really helpful if you would give me some feedback on how you like this style and whether or not you want me to continue writing like this.

Anyway, as always I ask you to review and leave you to enjoy the first chapter.

The aristocratic part of town had always made Manic feel uncomfortable, he wasn't exactly sure why. Maybe it was the stark contrast from the squalor of the rest of Mobotropolis and the posh-ness of the row upon row of mansions. It could have been the fact that he and his brother stuck out like sore thumbs, or in this case, hedgehogs with fur the color of a popular secondary and primary color respectively. Or, he supposed it could be the fact that the only times he had visited the area previously was to rob the arrogant richies blind.

The green hedgehog nudged the accelerator pad on his hoverboard and caught up to Sonic.

"Hey bro why do we always gotta go with Sonia when she visits Bartlebutt?"

Manic brushed a stray lock of hair away from his forehead and shot Sonic a curious look from the corner of his eye.

His brother snarled slightly, "Because Manic I don't trust that guy. What if one day he decides to-"

KA-BOOM!

Whatever Sonic was going to say was cut off as the upper floor of Bartleby's mansion exploded violently. The hedgehog triplets were thrown back from the force of it. Manic's hoverboard flew out from under him, Sonic was thrown onto his back, and Sonia bounced off the pavement once, twice, thrice before coming to a stop.

The world, from Manic's point of view anyway, was thrown into complete chaos. He was laying spread eagle on the ground and could hear panicked shouts, sirens, and the crackling of nearly white hot flames even over the ringing in his ears. Everything dimmed and then rapidly went back to normal as his head recovered from its smack on the ground. He could feel his hands stinging which meant that the road had torn through his gloves and made an unpleasant acquaintanceship with his palms.

"…oooowww…."

Manic propped himself up onto his elbows and looked around blearily. Both his siblings seemed to be in the same dazed what-exactly-just-happened state that he was in, although Sonia did look slightly worse-for-wear seeing as she had been closer to the mansion as it exploded.

"Guess you're not the only one who doesn't like Bartleby, bro"

The words were mumbled and scratchy but it was reassuring to hear his own voice, dopey valley boy accent and all.

"WOO-HOO! YEAH!"

Manic's eyes shot upward just in time to see a dark figure, backlit by the dancing flames, come leaping out of one of the upper floors shattered windows. The figure landed deftly on its feet, straightened up, adjusted the bag slung over his shoulder, and ran at Manic's hoverboard, which was still upright and hovering despite being flung yards away by the vicious explosion. He took a running leap onto it and used his momentum to kick start the board's movement. The figure took no time slamming down on the accelerator pad and the board whined nasally as it slowly began to gain speed. As he passed by time seemed to slow in the most curious way. Manic found himself looking into the arctic blue eyes of a hedgehog whose fur was almost the same shade of green as his own. The house fire threw his body into flickering relief, revealing an open leather jacket that partially concealed two jagged scars stretching the length of his chest. Without consciously realizing it Manic began to trace the other hedgehog's muscled chest and stomach with his eyes. The scarred hedgehog appeared to have noticed because he shot Manic a cocky, sharp-toothed grin before slamming down on the accelerator pad again and rocketing away.

There was a moment's pause and then time seemed to return to normal. Manic climbed hastily to his feet and went to check on his siblings. Both of them appeared to be fine, although Sonic was pretty mad and Sonia was practically hyperventilating from fear that Bartleby had been hurt. She shouldn't have worried though; they found the unconscious aristocrat on the porch of the servant house.

"Do you think he's okay?" Sonia asked concernedly, she slapped his face gently, "Bartleby, Bartleby, wake up"

The aristocrat's eyes fluttered open and he looked around blearily for a moment before snapping to his senses,

"Oh, Sonia it was horrible! The barbarian barged in, didn't even give me a minute to call the authorities, and hit me on the head. And look at my home! My beautiful house, destroyed! Do you have any idea how long it will take to repair this kind of damage? Where will I live?"

When Sonia raised an eyebrow and gave the servant's house a pointed glance the aristocrat paled,

"The servant's house? Did you receive a blow to the head, Sonia? I would be living as a commoner! A commoner!" the man wailed.

Manic winced slightly at the volume of the wail and shot Sonic an amused look,

"Oh yeah, Bartlebutt's fine"

It was the general consensus of the Hedgehog siblings that Manic was the go-to guy when it came to anything to do with Mobotropolis' criminal underground. However Manic didn't know everything about the city's criminals, despite what his siblings (and sometimes even he himself) believed. In actuality the teenager knew very little of the underworld. Ferrel had done his best to keep Manic, and most of the younger children and teens of the Thieves Guild, sheltered from the rest of the city's depravity. All-an-all Manic's criminal knowledge and connections were roughly equivalent to a kiddy pool when placed up next to its Olympic sized counterpart. In the grand scheme of things he was a small-time boy, positively microscopic in the goings on of the underworld. In fact, on Mobotropolis' rather warped criminal respect scale the only type of criminal that was looked down upon more than a thief was a drug dealer. A common underworld expression was 'any motherf*cking coward can sell drugs'. There are, of course, sayings about thieves but they are all quite vulgar and disrespectful so I shall leave them out.

Now, Scourge (or 'the blue eyed hot dude' as he had already been dubbed in Manic's mind) was not swimming in the kiddy pool, to use the previous expression. No, Scourge was in the Olympic pool, and dangerously close to losing his shit in the deep end. Through a rather convoluted series of events that he didn't remember quite clearly he had somehow managed to upset every gang in the city, from the Babylon Rouges to his own ex-gang the Suppression Squad, and gotten himself into debt with a very dangerous hedgehog that most people called Mr. M. He was, most likely, screwed. Or, barely treading water if you wish to keep with the water and swimming expressions.

However he was going to get some help (not that he knew it yet so, shhhh it'll be our secret) because unfortunately (or fortunately depending on who you are) the Hedgehog triplets had a very bad habit of getting in over their head. And they were about to fall face first into the Olympic pool.