Author's Note: Well, here's my first story! The credit for the basis of this story (as stated in the summary) goes to the Tumblr blog, the-sonic-cafe. Look her up if you're an avid fan of Sonic the Hedgehog. Essentially, the idea was an alternate plot for Sonic X. Helen was the human protagonist instead of Chris. Let me just say right now that THIS IS NOT A CHRIS THORNDYKE HATE FIC! This fanfiction is just exploring an alternate idea for the show and showing appreciation for an underrated character. If you're a fan of Chris Thorndyke, then don't worry. There will be no Chris bashing in this story.

Credit for Sonic X and the eponymous character goes to SEGA, and I'd like to give a shoutout to another fanfiction writer on here, Miss Femm, for being my beta reader! Love ya, girl! You're the best!

1. First Meeting

It was currently three in the morning in the city of Station Square. Despite the late hour, Helen was wide awake. She had woken up not too long ago and couldn't get back to sleep. So she had hoisted herself from her bed into her wheelchair and quietly rolled herself to the bedroom window. Now she was gazing out into the night, entertaining herself by either hunting for constellations in the stars or listening to the sounds of the city.

To her surprise, she had heard quite a few sirens (from what she guessed were police cars) speed by her house earlier. This is what had initially waked her up. Not that Helen minded, it was Saturday so she had no school in the morning. Plus, she actually enjoyed studying the moon and the stars. Ever since she was little she had an appreciation for the beauties of nature; her favorite things in fact were flowers.

Flowers…Helen sighed as she was reminded of that small island near the lake where she frequently ventured. In spite of the condition that confined her to her chair, she was very adventurous. The place where she desperately wanted to venture to was a small island, because according to her father it had the most gorgeous flowers of all different kinds. Although he had promised to take her one day, he was always wrapped up in his job at the grocery store trying to earn money to take care of her. His hard work was the reason why she had this chair as a matter of fact. Helen was never ungrateful for her parents' strenuous efforts to provide for her, but it was still rather lonely at times.

"If only I could go myself…" Helen thought sadly, staring down dejectedly at her useless legs.

CRASH

Helen practically jumped out of her skin at the sudden noise that came from outside.

"What was that?! It sounded like…whatever THAT was fell into the backyard!"

After taking a moment to restart her heart, Helen slowly peered out her window. It just so happened to overlook the backyard and the garden. Her eyes scanned the area for any suspicions or out of place movement. Finally, she caught the sight of a small creature faced down on the ground near her mother's tulips.

"What is that?" Helen wondered aloud, "Is that a cat, or maybe a large bird?"

She bit her lip, "The poor thing must be injured! I need to go see if it's okay, or at least see what it is. If I wake my parents up after investigating, then they might be able to help it!"

Making up her mind, she decided to take a visit to her backyard. Luckily her parents had managed to purchase a single story home with wheelchair ramps leading outside in order to accommodate her needs. It wouldn't be an issue getting there; the issue would be doing so without waking her parents. Helen's parents were very light sleepers; it would be tricky leaving the house in her chair without bringing attention to her position. With a deep breath, Helen carefully rolled out of her room. She shut her door and made her way into the den, quiet as a mouse. She was careful to roll in the places where the floorboards didn't creak, and she paused occasionally to listen for the sounds of her parents stirring from their sleep. At last she made it to the backdoor which led to the backyard. She opened the door and prepared to roll herself out. Little did Helen know, her life was about to change in ways that she never could have expected.

The blue hedgehog with a love for speed known as Sonic groaned as he pulled his head out of the ground after his crash-landing. Ever since he arrived in this strange new world he had been faced with craziness and confusion. First, these odd looking creatures had tried to coax him as if he was some pet, then they tried to capture him in nets, then they had tried to chase him down, and now he had been thrust into the air after racing a team of formula one race cars led by someone known as Sam Speed.

"What did they call themselves, the 'S Team'?" Sonic snorted, "'S' of course meaning slow-motion!" He chuckled at his little joke. That big talker never stood a chance; he WAS the fastest thing alive after all. Still, it was fun to humor him in the race that Sam had initiated; Sonic was always up for showing off his skills. He still could have done without the leap through the air that resulted in his crash into…into…

"Where am I?" Sonic asked himself. It had finally occurred to him that he had no idea where he had landed. He instantly became aware that he was sitting on something; he stood up and looked to see that he had been lying down in a pile of, now crushed, tulips.

"Oops…" he cringed, "I hope whoever these belong to won't be too angry…" He looked up and took in the rest of his surroundings. It appeared to be a backyard. There was a small table with chairs near a tall tree, and he saw that besides the flower bed he had ruined that there were other groups of blooming flowers of various kinds. There were daffodils, daisies, chrysanthemums, fuchsias, and even lilies.

"Whoever lives here must be a flower person." He concluded. It suddenly hit him like a rogue baseball, the person who lives here! "I better get out of here, before I'm discovered. I've had enough chases for one…"

A gasp from behind him made Sonic curse himself for wasting his time gawking. He was too late, and now he had been found out. He turned around cautiously, and prepared himself for a quick getaway if things got ugly. To Sonic's relief, however; it turned out to be a young girl. She didn't look threatening, just surprised and curious.

"Are people like me REALLY that odd in this world?" Sonic wondered. He took a closer look at the dumbstruck child. She looked rather young, perhaps no more than 11 or 12. She had cerulean eyes, long and wavy blond hair, and she appeared to be sitting in some kind of chair with wheels.

"Can she not walk?" After a small moment, the girl finally cut through the awkward silence.

"Wh…what…ARE you?" she breathed.

"I'm a hedgehog, of course." Sonic answered with a small grin.

The girl jumped a little. "You can talk! I've never seen a big, blue hedgehog that could TALK before!"

He guffawed. "Neither has anyone else in your world apparently."

"That's cool! Are you some kind of extraterrestrial being? You know, like an alien?"

Sonic looked at her as if she was crazy. "Didn't you hear me? I'm a HEDGEHOG, not an ALIEN!" he said with a frown.

"Oh. Erm…I'm sorry…" the girl looked down. "Oh! How could I be so rude? Let me introduce myself, my name is Helen!" she perked up. "And you are?"

"I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog" he answered with his trademark thumbs up. He made sure to put emphasis on 'hedgehog'.

Helen giggled. "Nice to meet you, Sonic the Hedgehog!" Her face swiftly became concerned. "Are you okay? I was awake and I heard you crash out here. You're not hurt, are you?"

"Me? Nah, I'm okay. I just had a LONG night that ended with me crashing into…" he remembered the tulip bed. He grimaced apologetically, "Hey look…I accidentally landed in your flowers and crushed them. I'm really sorry about that..."

Helen looked and saw the destroyed tulips. Only one was feebly standing upright, the rest were flattened. Their stems were broken, and their petals were ripped and lying on the dirt below. She was disappointed, but luckily her mother still had spare seeds.

"Aw, don't worry; my mother can just plant new ones. I know you didn't mean it." She assured him. "Though if I may ask, how did you crash here? What happened?"

"It's a long story…"

So Sonic told Helen all about how his friends and he had tried to stop Dr. Eggman and save Cream. He explained how Eggman's robot had unintentionally caused Chaos Control, and how it had transported him from his home to this unfamiliar place. Then he detailed how he had been pursued by these strange creatures (which Helen had identified as 'humans'), and how he had been chased/raced by Sam Speed and was sent flying over the city. Helen was in shock by the time he was finally done.

"Now you have no idea where your friends are?"

"No clue." Sonic sighed. "I don't know if they're here, if they're still at home, or if they're lost somewhere."

Helen looked at him in sympathy. "I'm sure they're safe…They can handle themselves from the sound of it…" she assured as she tried to give him hope. "Anyway, I'm sorry you've been through so much trouble Sonic."

"Don't worry about it…" He gave her a sarcastic smirk. "Say, you aren't planning on capturing me in a net or racing me in a formula one race car too, are you?"

Helen laughed, "Of course not!" She paused, "So what are you going to do now, Sonic?"

Sonic shrugged. "What else? I'm going to have to find a place to sleep. Though it's gonna be hard avoiding these…humans…"

Helen frowned and began to feel sorry for the out of place hedgehog. Then she was stuck with an idea. "Sonic, why don't you sleep in my house for a little while, at least until you can find your friends?"

"Is that okay? Don't you have parents? What would they say?"

"Oh you can hide in my room. They won't even know that you're here!"

"Wow…are you sure Helen? We've only just met; I wouldn't want to impose…"

"You wouldn't be! I want to help you Sonic…Please?" she gave him her best puppy eyed look.

Sonic chuckled. "You're breaking my heart, kid! Alright, alright, alright! I'll stay!"

Helen smiled and cheered. "Well come on in before my parents wake up! Be quiet, they're REAL light sleepers!"

"Gotcha!"

Sonic followed Helen as she rolled back up the ramp into her house. With that, the little wheelchair bound girl and the speedy hedgehog became unlikely friends.