Finally finished and revised. I dedicate this to Ben Hurst, writer of Sonic SatAM and Underground episodes, who left for sunnier pastures a short while ago.

Deceitful Appearances

By N. Harmonik

Nightshade and specific Chao characters copyrighted to me. Chao in general and other characters copyrighted to SEGA and/or DiC.

WARNING: Major spoilers for "Three Hedgehogs and a Baby"

[...]: Translated Chao language.

Ijja: Untranslatable Chao word that means both "he" and "she."

Luw: Untranslatable Chao word that means both "him" and "her."

Remember; Chao don't have genders so their language wouldn't need gender-specific pronouns.

Chapter 1: Mourning, Noon and Nightshade

Manic sat gloomily on a stone with his head cupped in his hands. The green hedgehog punk simply stared ahead, taking no notice of the gently flowing river sparkling in front of him or the laughter of the children who lived in this place: Sanctuary.

The prince felt a rush of anger. Sanctuary: the place where the Freedom Fighters raised their children; and the place the evil tyrant of Mobius, Dr. Robotnik, had tried to destroy just a few short minutes ago. How dare he!

But Manic's anger quickly turned into sadness when he thought of the means Robotnik used to try to find Sanctuary. He sighed.

"Manic?" A female voice tentatively called out. He turned around.

His sister, Sonia, a purple hedgehog with pink spikes, warily approached him, a concerned look on her face. "Are you alright, Manic?"

"I'm fine, just leave me alone." He turned back to look in the general direction of the river, staring into space.

Red and purple leotards and a skirt interrupted Manic's view of the river. He looked up to see Sonia staring down at him. "Manic Hedgehog, don't lie to me," she said in a firm, but kind tone. "I know what – or rather who – you're thinking about."

Manic looked down at his red and grey sneakers and recalled the last several hours.

He, Sonia and his brother, Sonic, had gone to the grimy, polluted city of Robotropolis on a mission and had come upon a blue, baby hedgehog abandoned in a "basket" in an alley. They, of course, had taken him back to their home. While Sonic and Sonia attempted to find the infant's parents, Manic got, much to his annoyance, stuck with babysitting. The baby had cried so much, Manic was just about fed up with him but the child had somehow won his heart over. After taking him for a ride on his red and yellow hoverboard and teaching him to play the drums (sort of), Manic had named the child Hip Hedgehog.

Sonic and Sonia had returned soon after with no success in finding anyone who was missing an infant hedgehog. After playing a song to make Hip happy, Sonic and Sonia had left again for a different mission. Manic decided, despite his siblings' claims that it would be too dangerous, to take Hip to Sanctuary all by himself on his hoverboard. En route, he had been attacked by a whole battalion of Swatbots and Hip fell from his basket (which turned out to be Dingo transformed). Though Manic had rushed to save him, he wasn't quite fast enough due to the height.

He didn't know which was worse: not being able to save Hip or finding out, upon him crashing into the ground and exploding, that Hip was in fact a robot created to lure Robotnik's forces to Sanctuary.

Sonia sat down next to Manic and tried to find words that would comfort him. "Listen, Manic. I…I know that you miss Hip and…and that you loved him..."

Manic stood up and stomped his foot hard. "I don't care!" He sounded angry but he had tears running down his face. "That was the lowest thing Robotnik's ever done It's not fair! (sniff) And this place...we could have…we…we could have… (sob)" He collapsed back onto his seat. His sister started to say something.

"Ahem."

Sonia and Manic turned around.

Sonic, a blue hedgehog in red and white sneakers, and a group of children were standing there. "Hey Bro, these kids wanna ask you something."

A small girl walked up to Manic shyly. "Um…Mr. Manic?"

The royal hedgehog wiped the tears from his face. "(sniff) Yeah?"

"Will you teach us how to play the drums?"

Manic blinked. "Huh?"

"Will you teach us how to play the drums?" repeated the girl.

He looked at her and the other children then he looked at Sonic, who gave him a thumbs-up, and Sonia, who nodded. Turning back to the children, Manic smiled a little. "Why not? Follow me."

"Hooray!" The children all followed Manic, giggling.

Sonia smiled at her other brother. "Thank you, Sonic."

He shrugged. "No problemo, Sis."

Dr. Robotnik was furious. The two hedgehog siblings he had in his grasp had escaped, the idiot Sleet had made Dingo grab Manic, making the robot fall out and get smashed, and the three hedgehogs had tricked his Swatbots and Sleet's ship into following them inside a cloud, causing them to crash into each other.

The obese orange-moustached human slammed a metal fist into his already heavily dented armrest. If Sleet and Dingo had survived (as they usually did), he was going to make them wish they hadn't when they got back. Thanks to them, those Sanctuary brats were going to continue to grow up to become Freedom Fighters.

A small robot that looked vaguely like a UFO with two spindly arms approached. "Sir, Mr. and Mrs. Pelier have been roboticized," it stated in a monotone. "However, before their son could be roboticized, an unidentified bat grabbed him and flew off."

"What?" Robotnik grabbed the robot and shook it. "How did it get in? Where is the bat now?"

"(bzzz) Method of infiltration: unknown. Location: (crackle) Sector 9. Stealthbots 41 through 44 currently (zap) in pursuit. Stealthbots 8 through 11 are on the way."

"Don't let them get away!" He threw the robot out the door.

Robotnik growled. He had used the Peliers' only child as a model to create a lifelike robot that would trick the hedgehogs into bringing him to Sanctuary. The reason why he had captured a family from a distant land, instead of one that lived in Robotropolis, was so that if the Sonic Underground went looking for the robot's parents, they would inevitably hear about a kidnapping if the family was local, come to rescue them and discover the trickery. However, since the Pelier family wasn't, the hedgehogs hadn't heard about them. Not that it did the dictator much good in the end.

He turned to his master control panel. "Monitor 1, show current footage of the bat."

The screen flickered on, showing a grey bat in his late teens in black khaki shorts, carrying a blue hedgehog baby, flying through alleyways trying to throw some flying, humanoid robots with tall, dome-shaped heads off his tail.

Robotnik grinned. Excellent; maybe something good would come out of this after all. Roboticizing someone always filled him with glee.

Nightshade wished his sound waves could bounce off of light; then he wouldn't have so many close shaves with lasers. The most he could do was to echolocate the laser rifles and get out of the area they were aimed at.

He glanced at the giggling babe in his arms, dodging another laser. Poor child, he didn't have any parents anymore. It was lucky for him that he, of all people, had been picked to go raid some supplies. What had Ronnie been thinking? He was a pacifistic daycare employee, not a fighter!

Nightshade checked on the kid again. Man, was he going to get it for this when he got back; correction, if he got back.

His sound waves suddenly picked up more of those flying robots directly in front of him. Nightshade looked up to see them coming straight towards him. Startled, he slowed down.

"Ahhh!" A sudden, searing pain made its presence known in his left wing. He curled up as he began plummeting towards the ground.

As if sensing the danger, the little hedgehog began fussing. Through a haze of pain, Nightshade heard his piteous cries and was brought out of his stupor with a wave of determination. Not even a damaged wing was going to set him back. He started gliding, somewhat erratically, towards the wall of one of the many buildings lining the alley, robots still in pursuit.

Nightshade landed on the fire escape of what used to be an apartment building, opened the nearby door and dashed inside.

After setting the baby down on the floor, who started to crawl around the room, Nightshade took off his backpack and began looking in it for something to bandage his wing. Taking a look at his surroundings, he noticed a few decrepit pieces of furniture, some old articles of clothing and a large fire burning inside a metal barrel in the room. Someone obviously lived here though that person was nowhere in sight at the moment.

He suddenly felt a large thud as the robots landed on the fire escape outside. Nightshade hastily picked up the baby.

Looking around the room again, Nightshade spotted something on the wall that gave him an idea.

The quick tapping of drumsticks on their appropriate instruments was the only sound that could be heard by those attending Manic's lesson. Even the people inside the wooden huts were listening. Twirling the drumsticks as fast as he could on the cymbals and pads of his drum set, Manic deftly did the thing he was best known for besides stealing.

Finally, he stopped and, with a smile on his face, told the children, "Now if you wanna learn that, you need to find some sticks and some flat rocks."

Laughing, the children ran off to get some. Sonic and Sonia, who had been watching, walked up to him.

Manic contentedly looked at the children as they disappeared from sight. "To think, I almost led those guys here."

Sonia placed a consoling hand on his red-vested shoulder. "You were just trying to do the right thing."

"You okay, Bro?" asked Sonic.

The sound of giggles accompanied the kids' return. As they came running, waving sticks and flat rocks, Manic's smile grew a little bigger and the weight in his chest, a little lighter.

"I am now."

Some soft snoring and footsteps were the only sounds that could be heard as Nightshade walked through the lighted tunnel, a sleeping hedgehog babe in his arms.

He hoped Ronnie wouldn't get too mad at him for using some of the sleeping powder he stole; it was either that or have their hiding place in the air duct given away. From long experience, Nightshade knew that infants did not like being too hot or cold, so he had fed the child in the air duct using a bottle and some milk that he had accidentally brought with him; after all, the heat from the fire in the barrel, which he had placed near the opening of the air duct to disguise their body heat, had been intense.

Though it had been a tight squeeze, the ruse had actually worked. The robots were fooled into thinking that there was no-one in the room so they left, allowing Nightshade to escape with the baby, much to his relief. It had been pretty tight in the air duct; he hated to see what it would have been like if he was…

[Oh Nightshade, there you are!]

The cry of relief and surprise brought Nightshade brought back to reality. Looking down, he saw the speaker, an almost-a-foot-high creature with a greenish-blue body and a tear-shaped head over which a small orb hovered. Beautiful peacock tail feathers and head crest adorned its body.

Nightshade smiled a little. "Hello, Pecan."

Behind the creature, which was a Chao, the tunnel ended in a spacious underground cavern, where his home, a village, was housed inside: Chaonalore. The houses were made out of rocks and mud and, in the streets, Chao of different shapes and colours walked or flew about with tiny wings on their daily business. On the high ceiling, large light fixtures shone, giving enough light for the trees and flowers that grew down here to live. Several streams wound their way through the village, entering and exiting the cavern through small tunnels at the bases of the walls.

Pecan started talking rapidly; so rapidly that Nightshade couldn't get a word in. [Look at your wing, it's injured! Oh this is all my fault! After you left, I reported back to Ronnie and ijja was furious because ijja wanted Night Snake, not you, Nightshade to go on that mission and I was so worried and ashamed and kicking myself for thinking that ijja meant you, especially since you're not very brave, no offence, and Night Snake is our best raider and…and…]

At this point, the peacock Chao noticed the blue hedgehog baby napping in Nightshade's arms.

Nightshade barely had time to indignantly ask, "What do you mean Night Snake was supposed to go instead of me?" before Pecan gasped and clasped fingerless hands to its mouth. [A hedgehog baby?]

At its loud statement, about a dozen Chao came flying to take a look. The small gathering attracted others and before long, Nightshade was surrounded on all sides by a small sea of many colours.

[Nightshade!] said a red Chao that had a draconic tail, wings and horns. [This is preposterous! I know you like young ones and all, but kidnapping one?]

"I had no choice! He was about to be…r…rr…ro…"

Ronnie gasped. [Roboticized?]

All the Chao shuddered. To them, the thought of being turned into something that wasn't living was appallingly horrific.

"Yes. I couldn't save his parents though."

[But doesn't he have any other living relatives?]

"I don't know but I'm going to take care of him until we find out."

[Take care of him? But Nightshade, this could be quite a burden! I know Chaodren love you but…]

[Yippee, it's Nightshade!]

A group of Chao children – called Chaodren – rushed over and gave Nightshade a huge hug, nearly causing him to topple over from the impact.

[What did you bring me?]

[Where were you?]

[Oooooh, what's that?]

Nightshade, noticing that the baby was waking up, thought fast. "I'll give you each a piece of candy if you get off me and be quiet for the next five minutes," he whispered.

Immediately, the Chaodren stopped chattering and got off their favourite person, hovering around him patiently.

Ronnie stared in amazement. [H-How did you get them to behave?]

"Um…you'd be surprised at what a few words can do."

[Oh. Well then, in that case, since these Chaodren are so well behaved, Nightshade, until we find a suitable replacement, this infant is your responsibility.]

Nightshade grinned. "Thank you, Ronnie." He walked off and the crowd dispersed.

The Chaodren, however, followed Nightshade, wishing that the five minutes would be up so that they could ask questions about the strange creature in his arms and get some candy.

Nightshade noticed them and started staring at the nearest one hard. Immediately, thoughts that were not his coursed through his mind.

After a few seconds, he stopped staring and felt a bit of his energy drain away.

"The five minutes are up now," he lied. "And, Alexis, I don't know the baby's name."

[Wow! Did you read my mind again?]

[Are you going to give luw a name?]

[Can we have our candy now?]

"Yes, no and wait until we get to the daycare."

[Hey, look! Ijja's awake!]

And so he was.

The infant reached over and grabbed his rescuer's finger. Nightshade smiled while the Chaodren watched with interest.

The bat pretended to tug as hard as he could and said playfully, "You let go right now or else."

The baby hedgehog cooed and let go…no, he wasn't really a hedgehog, not purely at least. His eyes were too small and his ears were on the side of his head rather then the top. Nightshade wondered why he didn't notice that before.

Nightshade started to tickle him. "Heheheheheh... If you're a pure hedgehog then I'm a real bat."