Sonic the Hedgehog has been and has done many things in his life. But, he has never had to dress in a full tux. That's why now the young hedgehog was struggling with the suit. He constantly tugged at the small neck and tie and was clearly displeased with the necessity of the clothing.
"Why the hell do we have to dress up like a bunch of lawyers and congressmen?!" To say Sonic hated this would be an understatement.
"You're not the only one who hates this shit." Shadow was also very displeased considering his stared down generals with less than shoes and his inhibitors.
"That makes three of us, huh?" Knuckles was uncomfortable but he tried his best to hide it.
Tails chuckled silently as he finished adjusting his tuxedo and quickly checked his watch.
"Alright, guys. Let's go."
The four walked out of the convenient bathroom and rounded the corner to face Amy and Rogue; both who were wearing dress, red and black respectively.
"And they say girls take forever getting ready…" Rogue joked, which amused Amy as well.
"So why exactly are we here?" Sonic asked, impatient as always.
"The president was impressed with our method of dealing with Eggman's latest scheme, and he wanted to talk to all of us personally."
"As long as I can rip all of this off when we're done…"
The group then set off down the hall to a large door guarded by tall, also suited, men wearing dark sunglasses. After a quick search for weapons, the group was allowed in. As the doors opened, they were greeted with the sight of the president looking out the window with a four star general standing nearby. The general immediately excused himself and calmly walked out. The doors closed as the six waited for the president to speak.
The old man, in his sixties, turned to face his visitors. His hair was combed back slick and gray. His rimmed glasses stood out in front of aging eyes. He removed his glasses and cleared his throat preparing to speak.
"Hello, Sonic and company. Thank you for being here. I'm hoping it wasn't an inconvenience to you all?"
"Well, now that you mention it..." Sonic began only to be elbowed by Amy.
Rogue took over from there, "No problem at all, Mr. President."
"Great. Now, I know you're all wondering why you are here. It's simple. You six and several of your friends have been hailed as heroes in the eyes of Americans everywhere. You are altogether intelligent, strong, cunning, and efficient. You have proven all of that time and time again with you encounters with Dr. Eggman. Speaking of which, what was his lastest scheme?"
Tails spoke, "Dr. Eggman attempt to destroy Sonic's past self to rid of him in the future by using a monster that could fly through time and space at the risk of ripping holes in the space-time continuum."
"On my birthday, nonetheless," Sonic murmured.
"I see. Well good job in defeating him, and sorry for missing your birthday, Sonic. How old are you anyway?"
"Eighteen."
"Excuse me?" President Howard was obviously confused.
"Oh! Uh, explain to him, Tails."
Tails answered quickly, "You see Mr. President; after defeated the creature and Eggman, a large blast erupted fixing time and space. A side-effect was that we suffered minor age regression that stopped after we loss about six years."
"I see, then." The president cleared his throat once more. "Well the main reason I've called you here is to ask you to consider working as mercenaries for the U.S. Government to handle some of our more secretive and dangerous operations."
"What do you mean by that?" Sonic asked bluntly.
President Howard was quick to elaborate, "You would not have to work solely for the government if at all. Nor will you have to travel around the world to handle operations our military can handle. No; all I ask is that if you can undertake certain missions, at your own discretion, that go beyond our level of understanding."
"Such as…?"
"Take this first mission, for example. You may have heard about Area 51, am I correct?"
The group agreed simultaneously, some eager to hear the truth behind the mysterious base.
"The truth is there are no aliens there. Not there or at any base; though, those conspiracies help hide our true intentions. It is really a base where we test experimental planes, shuttles, vehicles, and even our brand new mecha project. However, in our latest test, we were trying to test a brand new fighter jet that uses sound as weaponry by utilizing the planes ability to perform sonic booms from its speed. While flying at low altitudes in the desert, the plane was supposedly struck by an electromagnetic wave which effectively disabled the jet and caused it to crash, nearly killing our best pilot. While the plane will be costly to replace, I want you to head over to Arizona and investigate the cause of the electromagnetic wave, if it is even that. Will you accept my request?"
Before anyone could even say anything, Sonic grew a giant grin and blurted out, "Of course, Mr. President!"
Three days later, the group found themselves in the desert in the middle of one of the hottest years in history. Sonic seemed to be the only one eager for a run.
"Come on, guys! There's a whole lot of desert out there just waiting to be ran on!"
Before long, the group found themselves running in the hot desert barely able to catch up to the speedy hedgehog. Shadow was the only one who could have really caught up with Sonic, but he chose not to. After a while, they were nearing the area where the jet crashed.
Shadow yelled out, "Keep your eyes peeled! Look for anything suspicious!"
He didn't have to wait long.
"Look!" Amy cried. Out in the distance, there was a weird rock formation. And Sonic was headed straight for it.
The young hedgehog head started running backwards almost to taunt the others; though, this prevented him from seeing the oncoming salient in the path.
Shadow screamed to his semi-ally, "SONIC! LOOK OUT!"
Sonic grew a confused look and turned around, just in time to slide to a stop right in front of the jagged rock formation that very nearly crushed him with his own force and speed. The others slowed to stop behind Sonic tired but more curious of their discovery. The formation had a natural look to it, like a small mountain. The problem was it was in the middle of desert with the closest mountains off in the distance to the East. Another troubling detail was the abnormal symbol etched onto the rock. Strange enough, Sonic recognized the symbol as one used back on Mobius, but more outdated, almost old.
Before anyone could say anything, Shadow's communicator came to life signaling that someone had a message.
"Shadow the Hedgehog, do you read?"
He responded, "Shadow here. What is it, General?"
The general who was charged with help Sonic and his friends with their mission from Area 51 was a little displeased but was determined to find out what happened with his plane.
"I don't know if you've found anything yet; however, I must inform you that before you arrived we had major, if not abnormal, seismic activity in the area near your location. Be very careful, earthquakes are not habitual in the region."
"Well that explains the rock," murmured Knuckles.
Shadow silenced him and began, "Thanks, General. We've found an unusual rock formation far from the mountains. We suspect it was created from the mentioned earthquakes. We're investigating now, out."
The comm went silent as the group slowly approached the formation.
"Look around there has to be something," Rogue stated as she began to fly towards the rock.
Knuckles searched behind the formation and called out to his teammates, "Hey, guys! Over here!"
The others regrouped with Knuckles on the other side of the now seemingly shack–sized rock to find an entrance to a cascading staircase into the darkness. A dim light shone within signaling that there was light within the cavern, although it seemed like light from a torch. The same W-face-shaped symbol that appeared on the back of the rock was also found atop the entrance. It goes without saying that the friends were very intrigued and began descending down the staircase to find the answer to all of this.
After a couple of minutes of walking, the entourage found themselves in a well-lit tunnel that continued for miles in both directions.
"Well," Sonic began, "which way do we go first?"
Before anyone could answer, Shadow sensed a projectile flying from his rear he jumped and screamed, "Everyone, get down!"
They quickly jumped to the side as well to avoid the flying object. It landed in front of them and turned out to be a spear. This came as a shock to six. If it wasn't a grenade, bullets, missiles, or anything of the sort, then it couldn't have been any of Eggman's robots or any sovereign militant fighters. So who attacked them?
Sonic did a 180, as did the others. What they saw shocked them. What they faced weren't robots, drones or even soldiers. They were face to face with Mobians! Or at least, they assumed they were Mobians. They all appeared to be Mobians; though, they all seemed to be of feline species, more specifically, tigers. They came in an assortment of colors: reddish-brown, traditional orange, silver, white and even black. Most had a striped patterned like real tigers (though the black colored tigers had white stripes for obvious reasons) and had medium sized ears, smaller than Rogue's. They had large eyes much like the heroes with pupils of all colors. They skin of their ears was peach colored and a large white oval patch of fur was found on all of them on their chest down above the waist line. They wore leather pants and shoes concealing (presumably) similar-colored legs and feet and some sported chainmail or just leather/cloth shirts. They weren't necessarily tribal but mix between that and medieval. Though, medieval sounds like a good description. They held spears, swords (like knights' swords not rapiers), shields, and bombs (?). They readied themselves for an attack.
"Well, ladies. How about a little sparring match?" Shadow was anxious for a fight and turned his head to the side allowing for others to hear bones pop. Knuckles followed suit with his, well, knuckles.
Sonic laughed, "Finally! Some action!"
The warriors charged. Sonic ran straight into the first warrior who took a stab at Sonic. The blue blur lived up to his name twisting his body fast enough to avoid the blade. He then grabbed the spear and flung the warrior into the wall knocking him out. A second warrior charged at him from his right at which he jumped to avoid. Sonic immediately curled into a ball and began spinning to launch a homing attack. The soldier used his shield to push Sonic away, negating the attack. Not deterred, the hedgehog tried again with the homing attack catching the warrior off guard. He was flung to the other side of the tunnel. After Sonic landed, he heard a voice ring out from behind.
"Sonic! Grab their weapons! Simple screw and homing attacks won't handle all of them!"
Though he couldn't distinguish the voice, Sonic obeyed. A third warrior swung down with a sword. Sonic side-stepped the swing and snatched the sword with great speed.
"Ah, good memories," the hedgehog remarked before landing a blow to the head of the warrior with the hilt of the sword.
Another warrior charged at Sonic with a sword and spear combo. He stabbed with the spear before quickly slashing at the hero. Sonic jumped right and parried the attackers blow and delivered a strong kick to the warrior's chest.
After he confirmed the soldier was disabled, Sonic turned around. Shadow had stolen a spear, broken it in half, and delivered a sharp blow at two warriors. Knuckles punched one warrior while Rogue defended him by kicking another from above. Amy wasted no time pulling out her hammer and defeating at least three enemies. Tails stole a shield, and while Sonic didn't see it, he used the protective device as a disk to throw at hostiles with proficient accuracy.
After the fighting ceased, Amy quickly spoke, "Well that was uneventful."
The heroes laughed for a minute before sensing more warriors approaching. This time, several more warriors appeared with stronger weapons and armor.
Before anyone reacted, another one of the warriors appeared; however, warrior really didn't describe this character. Unlike any of the other members of this civilization (so far), he did not wear combat armor or clothing. He wore regal clothing and sported a crown. Not to mention he wasn't colored like any of the others like him. He was…purple. He was also rather large, a foot larger than anyone else in the tunnel. A warrior (this one an actual warrior) appeared from behind. This one stood out. He was young like the heroes. He wore no shirt and black cloth pants with white shoes. Though gloves were worn by the others for combat, this one bore no such clothing. His purple fur and darker violet (not black like the others) stripes made him stand out as well, helping Sonic and the others understand that purple apparently meant royalty.
The apparent king spoke, "Please, my knights. Don't fight our visitors. They are my royal guests."
After he finished, his son nodded at the warriors, which prompted them to lower their weapons.
"Michael, my dear boy, help me escort these individuals to the royal chamber."
"Y-yes, father."
Most of the warriors immediately disbanded at the voice of their leader though some stayed to keep an eye on Sonic and his friends. Sonic himself, however, was confused. When this king spoke, it sounded like English. Well, truthfully, it was Mobian. Though, only a human could tell the difference. Sonic could tell a major difference here. It sounded, like ancient Mobian. Like this civilization was once a remnant of the first generations of citizens of the planet of Mobius. Sonic could definitely tell the royalty in his voice but, at the same time, felt a sort of kinship…
In the throne room, the heroes found themselves standing in large albeit huge room that was obviously constructed to represent a real throne room straight from the 15th century. Several royal guards remained discursive throughout the room to keep an eye on the group. In front of them, the king sat on his throne with a smaller yet still grandiose seat sat empty to his right. Michael, the prince, stood to his left.
The king clapped his hands together and began, "If I may, allow me to apologize for my army's actions earlier. We've been attacked several times as of late, and they've been ordered to keep watch for any trouble."
"Now, don't think I don't know of your origins." This confused the heroes. Did he know about Mobius? Then certainly he and his group must have originated there.
"You all look Mobian to me. The hedgehog is obviously from the lands of the House of Mobius. The two-tailed fox and echidna hail from the lands of the House of Acorn. The younger hedgehog seems Skyan and the darker one from Moebius? The bat seems humanized."
For Sonic, this came as a shock. He was dead on (save for Shadow and Rogue).
"My people were powerful warriors that clashed several times with the Houses of Acorn and Mobius." So he indeed knew about Mobius and even knew about Sonic's royal family line, along with Sally's.
Wow, that's a name I haven't thought of in awhile. Sonic contemplated this while the king continued.
"Eventually, we were banished. Sent away to a different planet, in which we found Terra. The planet had scattered civilizations of humans so we, the Terranians, interacted with them before disappearing underground. Our history is complicated so allow me to skip a century or two. Twenty years ago, I, Amaldo Tigers, took the crown from my father. I had hoped to continue the prosperity of my people and maybe even one day find a fuel source to recover and revive our ancient mechanical technologies such as guns and lasers. However, as of recent, a strange creature has been hampering all progress and attacking all of our people. If it does not bother you heroes, would you mind joining my son, Michael Tigers, in finding this beast and defeating it?"
Sonic spoke, "Your Majesty (once in his life he kept his regal bearings), we would love to help; however…"
He never finished the sentence. A small jewel, the size of a dagger, flew at Sonic from behind. Just before impact, Shadow instinctively used Chaos Control to remove his allies from danger.
After reappearing, everyone turned to the direction of the projectile. There stood one of the most beautiful creatures Sonic had ever seen. Around the same height as everyone else, the near feline character walked with a sway in her hips, almost seductively. Her species represented something of a panther or leopard, maybe even mountain lion. Her light pink fur shined behind her illustrious clothing, which was covered in jewels save for her gloves which bore rings and her shoes. The jewels covered every inch of her body, all pink, red, and light purple in color.
Sonic's trance didn't last long.
"Fuck! IT'S JEWL!" roared Michael as he jumped from his spot down to where the others just were. Instantly, he started to transform. His muscles bulged, thickened, and grew. A purple aura surrounded his body as it morphed into, you guessed it, a were-tiger state.
The new Michael looked powerful. Amaldo did not seem troubled by this and simply stood and pointed yelling out, "GUARDS! ATTACK HER NOW!"
Jewl let out simple chuckle and stated, "Is that anyway to treat a lady?" After finishing her sentence, Jewl lashed out her arm, seemingly throwing (guessed right) jewels at the guards. Each one found the mark, with deadly efficiency. One flew right through one guard's throat. Another buried itself into the head of another. Blood spilled onto Amy when the one near her was hit in the heart. All the guards fell as the last of crystals flew at Michael
The giant tiger swung his arm swatting away the attack and charged at the woman.
Well, isn't this fucking great? Sonic screamed and charged at Jewl himself but not in malice. This was the decision that changed his life.