Paladin: Welcome to my sixth "fanfic" fanfiction so far.

Zephyr: Hey, where's your other people?

Paladin: I locked them in the other dimension.

Zoey: Is it true that you got my name from one of your other characters? (Pulls out own piko-piko hammer)

Paladin: Nope! Well, sort of.

Zoey: You! (Starts whacking Paladin with piko-piko hammer)

Sparrow: Zoey, stop it! You're gonna kill him...

Zephyr: On second thought, keep on going. Just stop and wait for me to get a camera.

Paladin: Ow-I-ow-swear-ow-you-ow-guys-ow-are-ow-worse-o-than-my-ow-other-ow-creations-ow. Would you stop that?!

Zoey: Only because Zephyr and Sparrow told me to.

Paladin: Lesson learned: never use adolescents any more.

All three: Aww! But you took us in when no one else would!

Paladin: And I regret it already.

Zephyr: Meany head!

Zoey: Yea!

Paladin: Just do the disclaimer.

Sparrow: Paladin doesn't own Sonic the Hedgehog, nor does he care if anyone is mad that he might've stolen their story, because he has no way of knowing everything that goes on in the universe of the world wide web.

Paladin: Attaboy!

Zephyr the Hedgehog Ch.1

Zephyr POV

I was walking around school, like every day, looking for my "cousin," like every day, and I found her going goo-goo over Sparrow, the school jock, just like every flipping day. And just like every day, I got her away from him by means of ridicule, to which she replied by whipping out her Piko-Piko hammer and trying to smash me with it, like every day, to which I flew out of reach, like every day, and then she tossed it at me, hitting me square in the forehead, like every day.

"Ow!" I yell as I fall, like every day, and catches me in her arms, making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside thinking that today might be the day she confesses her true feelings for me and when she kisses me.

Yet, also like every day, she doesn't, because all she sees in me is a friend.

That day was 10 long years ago, from before I became the new international hero after graduating college with a masters degree in kick-butt-ology which is apparently a course you need to become a hero, taking over for her dad, while she got to sit at home worrying about me, the new "love-of-her-life." I know I should like the attention, but just like her mom, she tends to get a little bit too clingy.

I came back home after saving the world once again, wondering how "uncle Sonic" used to do it over and over and over, to which I was welcomed with the welcoming embrace of my mother, telling me how scared he was that I might've not come back. This all seems like dèjá vu, only because that is what happens every single time. To tell you the truth, I was quite sick of it.

"Oh, Zephyr, I was so-"

"I know mom. You've told me that over a thousand times this year alone. Can you just act like dad for just one second and not care?! It's annoying! I mean, I'm the son of the ultimate life form for pete's sake! Give me some credit!" I finally burst.

"Zephyr, you actually think I don't care whether you come home or not?" Dad asked.

"It does seem that way, does it not?" I wasn't necessarily mad at them, I was just frustrated from the set of circumstances that was my life, none of which I could've stopped from happening even if I wanted to.

"Zephyr, I think it'd be beneficial if we had a father to son talk." Here we go. He's going to tell me how I'm special and stuff, how I'm a good boy, how he loves me, so I immediately braced to be launched into my day dreams. "And I need you to listen. Rouge, could you please wait outside of the house until this is done?"

"Whatever." She left the room, now making me curious as to what he was going to tell me.

"Zephyr-"

"Save it pops, I don't wanna' hear about how special I am."

"Good, because that's not it. Look, I know you're frustrated from having to save the world a million times over, and I understand that, but you need to take a break from it. You might be an adult by now, but you've progressed so fast that you left your friends behind. Zoey worries about you, your mother worries about you, and as much as I don't want to admit I have feelings, even I care about you."

"What're you saying?" I asked, completely curious about what his point was.

"What I'm saying is that it's not healthy for you to have the weight of the world on your shoulders. So why don't you just take a relaxing vacation with some of your friends, and let the adults do the saving, just like old times, okay?" I had never seen this side of dad before, so I was completely stunned. It just didn't compute.

"Sure, thanks." I tried to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming, to which I felt pain, and I just brushed it off. thinking he was going through a midlife crisis.

Almost simultaneously, dad and I called mom out from behind the door. "Get in here!" Turns out there was a side of dad I never knew about.