Sonic and friends belong to Sega, I own nothing.

Black and White

Chapter 1

What would you do if your best friend was a slave, and you alone were his only chance of freedom? Would you actually try to help, or would you just walk away like nothing ever happened between you two? That's exactly what happened to a young hedgehog and his black friend, who happened to belong to a ruthless slave owner. Sit tight and listen, you'll enjoy this story; it's a good one.

It was the summer of 1868, around the same time that slavery had become banned in the United States. The South had lost battle and slavery died away. However, slave labor still continued; people wanted to make money, and didn't want to pay people for labor, so they illegally continued slavery. Nobody knew about the few landlords who owned slaves, and honestly didn't care either. Because although slavery had died out, the strong sense of racism had not died out with it. The black creatures; so-called because of their dark tan, brown, or black muzzles, and dark skin and fur colors; were horribly ridiculed and terribly mistreated, more in the South than the North, but it was still occurring.
Now where does a single white-skinned hedgehog fit into this? Well I'm getting to that, hold your horses!

A young hedgehog, at the age of 11, had just moved from Chicago, Illinois down to Memphis, Tennessee for his father's job. This pale-skinned, blue-furred hedgehog went by the name Sonic. That wasn't his real name, but it's what everyone called him. I never got a chance to learn his real name. Sonic really enjoyed the outdoors; gave him plenty of space to run; and when he heard they were moving out to Tennessee, he just couldn't wait to go. And since slavery was no longer an issue, his parents felt it was safe for all of them to move to Tennessee with the father. Sonic was a runner, always have been and always would be. With the aid of his natural-born super speed and his special shoes, he was practically the fastest thing alive. The cocky critter never let me forget that! But after a few months of getting set in at his new surroundings, Sonic saw something that changed his life and mine.

Sonic the hedgehog looked both ways before he crawled under the fence to his neighbor's plantation, to go and grab his basketball, which had rolled under there. Sonic tiptoed out into the open to grab his ball.

"I hope I don't get caught in here," he muttered under his breath, as he bent down to pick it up. His neighbor, Mr. Robotnik, was a terribly cranky and awfully mean old man, with a long, brown moustache and a big, fat belly. He didn't seem like the type to own a farm, in Sonic's opinion, and he never saw the man actually work, but he didn't dare to ask. Maybe he had farmhands that did all the work? The weird thing about him, though, seemed to be that he constantly had a whip with him, and Sonic always heard these terrifying screams coming from his fields. Robotnik would always say, "I have very loud roosters," would always be his excuse if anyone complained, and he'd always get away with it. Sonic has seen this happen several times already, his parents being the complainers a lot of the time.

Sonic quickly stood up again and turned to run away, when he heard another scream from the other corner of the field. Sonic flinched at the familiar, blood-curdling sound, his fur standing on end, and he whipped his head around to see the origin of the scream. But Sonic didn't see any roosters there, and this scream sounded nothing like a rooster anyways. Near a field of corn, Mr. Robotnik was hunched over something, and he clearly appeared to be swinging at it. The seemingly feminine screams continued after each apparent beat the man laid on whatever he was pounding. Terrified, Sonic turned and ran, not bothering to see what it was he was hitting, and he leapt over the fence and across his backyard.

Sonic burst through the front door and slammed it behind him, his basketball still under his arm, as he leaned up against the door and panted heavily.

"Sonic? What's wrong?" his mother asked, rushing into the doorway.

"I saw Mr. Robotnik in his field, beating someone!" Sonic cried, still panting. Sonic's mom came up to him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hon, are you sure you weren't just seeing things? He may have just been beating a rug or something. He lives on a farm, they beat the dust from their rugs," she asked him.

"Honestly mom, you don't believe what you just said, do you?" Sonic asked her with a surprised voice. "Do rugs scream bloody murder when they're being beaten?" he asked her, "Cuz that's what I heard!"

"Sonic, Mr. Robotnik has told us several times; those are just his roosters. They scream sometimes," she said.

"You guys never believe me!" Sonic cried to his mother. "I'm telling you, there's something creepy about that old man, and I'm gonna figure out what it is he's doing on that farm!" Sonic snapped. He turned around to go outside again, but his mother stopped him.

"Thomas Quinton Hedgehog, you stop right this instant!" she snapped, and Sonic froze.

"Mom! I said never to call me that! My name's Sonic!" Sonic snapped back.

"You live in this household, under my roof, so I can call you whatever I want little Mister!" his mother snapped back, even angrier than before. Sonic clenched his fists and turned around to face his mother again.

"I do not want you to ever set foot in his property ever again, do you hear me?" his mother seethed. "I've gotten enough complaints about your trespassing as it is! If I ever hear from him again, you're grounded for the entire summer!" she threatened. Sonic grumbled in his throat in reply. "Answer me when I'm talking to you!" his mother snapped.

"Yes mom. I'm going for a run," Sonic grumbled, and he turned and stormed back outside, dropping his basketball and kicking it in front of him. He kicked it, harder, away to the side and jogged down the driveway and onto the road.

"Dammit, why can't she ever listen to me?" he thought as he ran. "I know what I saw, and it wasn't no carpet he was beating!" Sonic's eyes trailed over towards his neighbor's property as he jogged past it, looking to see if Mr. Robotnik was still there. He wasn't there anymore, but Sonic did, however, see something that caught his attention. He saw a small boy, about his age too, bent over in the fields, right where Robotnik was before. The boy was a short, dirty, and skinny little echidna with red fur, clothed in only a piece of burlap tied around his waist. Sonic kept his eyes on the boy as he jogged by, and just as he was nearly past the property, the boy looked up and his eyes locked with his. Sonic realized this boy was a black child; his muzzle was a dark tan, much darker than a natural sun's tan. His face was streaked with hardened blood, encrusted into his fur. The boy gave him a hardened look as Sonic passed, which made Sonic feel awkward, and he looked away. But the boy's longing gaze was etched into his memory; what would a black boy his age be doing in Robotnik's fields? "Maybe he snuck in there for some corn to eat?" Sonic thought as he passed the property and kept going down the road. "But then again, the boy looked so trapped… maybe he was an indentured servant to him?" he thought. "But indentured servants aren't treated that terribly! Maybe he's a slave?" The only reason why Sonic found that hard to believe was because slavery was illegal. Then again, since when did everyone always follow the law? Sonic mentally put all the facts together as he jogged. Mr. Robotnik never actually worked on his own farm plantation, terrifying screams are always coming from his property, he carries a whip with him at all times, and he's got a black boy my age working in a cornfield. Sonic mentally gasped. "Mr. Robotnik is an illegal slave-owner!" he thought. He stopped in the middle of his jog and exclaimed out loud. "I've got to tell mom and dad!" he exclaimed. He turned and hightailed it back to his house as fast as he could, not stopping this time to take a look at the black child in the field. Sonic ran up to his doorstep and threw open the door.

"Mom?" he called.

"I'm in the kitchen Sonic. What is it, I thought you were taking a walk?" his mother asked.

"Mr. Robotnik illegally has slaves on his property!" Sonic exclaimed. Sonic's mother looked at her child with angry eyes.

"You went into his property again after I specifically told you not to, didn't you?" she demanded to him.

"No, I was just running down the road and I saw a little black boy working in his fields as I ran by!" Sonic replied. "We have to go tell the police!"

"Whoa whoa Sonic, you can't do that!" his mother said, coming up and putting her hands on his shoulders. "You have no evidence or proof that he owns slaves!" she said to him. "Now what makes you think the boy's a slave? He might just be an indentured servant?" she offered. Sonic yanked his shoulders away from her.

"No, he's a slave, I just know it! He was all skin and bones, he was incredibly dirty, he had blood on him, and he gave me the most pitiful look when I passed him!" Sonic said to her. His mother sighed and shook her head.

"Sonic, please, I don't have time for your stories," she said to him. Sonic clenched his teeth and he growled angrily.

"You never listen to me! You don't care about me!" he cried. He stormed past his mother and up to his room.

"Sonic," his mother tried in a calm voice.

"Forget it! Nobody ever listens to me!" Sonic exclaimed, and he slammed his door.

That evening, after his parents went to bed, Sonic's door silently crept open and he snuck downstairs, carrying a flashlight and a camera. "If mom and dad aren't gonna' believe me, then I'll get my own proof and go to the police myself," he muttered, before he left his home. Sonic snuck through the grass to the border of his yard and looked over the fence into Mr. Robotnik's yard. He let out a deep breath. "Ok Sonic, this is it," he said to himself, "No turning back now." Sonic hopped over the fence and crawled down close to the grass past the farmhouse, where Mr. Robotnik actually slept, and he sneaked to the barn next to it. Sonic opened the door a crack and froze when he realized the door made a terrible creaking sound, and he looked up to the window in the house. Luckily, no lights turned on, so Sonic quickly opened it the rest of the way. Sonic flinched at the loud creaking sound it made, and he sneaked inside and flipped on his flashlight. Immediately, Sonic gasped and nearly dropped his flashlight at the sight of all the sharp and dangerous farm equipment dangling right over his head. There were sharp instruments and tools such as sickles, pickaxes, scythes, and more hanging from hooks on the walls and chinking together where they hang on the ceiling. Wide eyed, Sonic slowly backed out of the shed and quickly snapped a photo for evidence, and once he was out of the doorway, he turned and high-tailed it out of the area. "That was definitely not a barn full of slaves! Who is this guy?" he thought. Sonic sneaked out into the field to try and find evidence of slavery in there. After awhile of searching, he didn't find much of anything. He could see small bloodstains on the floor and took pictures of them, and then he saw Robotnik's garbage sitting out, waiting to be burnt in the morning, so Sonic sifted through that. It was mostly food scraps or old newspapers. But then he found a few papers that looked like forms for something. Sonic shone his flashlight over it and read it over, and gasped. These papers were ownership forms for two people, and the amount he paid for them. These papers were solid evidence that Robotnik was buying people for something, and probably as slaves. Sonic folded the papers and stuffed them into his pants pocket. But then, Sonic heard a door shut and a dog barking, and he whirled around fast, gasping and turning off his flashlight, plunging him into darkness. Robotnik was coming out of his house, dressed in his pajamas, with a lantern in his hands and his dog running ahead, right towards him.

"Who's out there?" he called angrily, his eyes on Sonic as he quickly walked out there. Sonic quickly took off running towards the road, fast enough that he knew Robotnik couldn't track where he'd gone in the dark. The dog ran up to where Sonic was and sniffed around the area for him, but it couldn't pick up a scent. Robotnik caught up and looked around, growling. He looked down at the spilled garbage can, at the trash everywhere.

"Looks like we've got a bad case of coons," he said to himself, as he kicked at the strewn trash on the floor. "C'mon Jessie," he called to the dog, and the hound turned and ran ahead to the house.

Sonic ran down the road back to his house. He slowed down at his driveway and fumbled his camera as he walked up the driveway. "I'll go to the police station tomorrow," he said to himself, before he quietly opened the door and sneaked back inside and into his room. "That creep Robuttnik won't get away with this for long," he whispered to himself, as he tucked himself into bed.

Sonic got up bright and early the next morning and dug in the pocket of his pants on the floor for the papers he'd found. He stuffed them, along with his camera, into a knapsack and he headed downstairs. Sonic packed himself a lunch, knowing he might be at the station for awhile, and was going to leave, when his father stopped him at the door.

"Where you going son? It's Saturday, don't you want to, you know, go outside and toss a football or something?" he asked Sonic.

"Dad, I'm busy today," Sonic said, hanging on the doorknob with a bored expression. "I'm going over to my friend's house today, I'll be back later today," he said.

"Oh… o-ok then," his father said quieter. "Just… make sure you're back before dinner ok?" he said to Sonic, who nodded, and Sonic left. Sonic's dad watched as he left, and he shook his head disapprovingly.

Sonic made his way over to the police station, but as he walked by Robotnik's property, Sonic saw a familiar little boy. It was the same, red-furred echidna he'd seen the other day, out working in the field again. Sonic stopped and walked off the road and into the ditch, coming up to the fence. The boy didn't seem to notice him and continued to work.

"Hey," Sonic whispered to him, and the boy looked up. "Hey, you, over here," he called, waving. The boy looked at him with cold, violet eyes, but then he stood up and took a few steps closer to the fence. Sonic smiled at him as the boy cautiously walked closer. "Hello, my name is Sonic, I'm your neighbor," he introduced, and he extended a hand over the fence, out to the boy. The red echidna just cocked his head at him, and didn't shake his hand. Sonic awkwardly put his hand back to his side, and his eyes trailed towards the blood on the echidna's fur, and found the source of it; there was a large cut across his dirty cheek, and it didn't look very pleasant. What's your name?" Sonic asked the boy, who had yet to say a word to him. When the boy didn't answer, Sonic tried to ask him something else. "Are you a slave here?" he asked him. The echidna still didn't speak and he gave Sonic a confused look. "Y-You know… are you being held here against your will, being forced to work for no pay?" he clarified. The echidna just looked at Sonic for a moment, but then he spoke.

"Ah was taken away from mah home an mah family. 'Botnik bought me an forced me tuh work," he said, with a very strong African accent. Sonic felt his heart leap. "I knew it, I knew he had slaves kept imprisoned here!" he thought.

Sonic looked both ways and turned back to the boy.

"I'll tell you what," he started, and he hopped over the fence. When he did, the echidna backed away from him nervously. "You look hungry. Here, take my lunch. I'm not all that hungry anyways," he said to the skinny boy. Sonic placed his lunchbox down in front of the starving kit, smiling at him, and backed away. He gave Sonic a cautious glance before he sat down and scooted the lunchbox closer to him, not wanting to come close to the stranger, and began to eat the contents. Sonic sat down next to him and watched, amused, as the little echidna ate his fill of his lunch. The boy licked his chops and looked up at Sonic, then back down at the box, then back up at Sonic again. Sonic just looked at him, smiling crookedly for a moment, before he looked away. But then he felt someone tap his shoulder and he looked back. The echidna was standing next to him, and he held out an apple to him, smiling.

"Uh... gee, thanks," Sonic said, taking it.

"No, thank you suh," the boy replied.

"Don't call me sir; just call me Sonic. I'm your friend," Sonic said, and he took a bite from the apple. He'd had barely taken 5 bites before he heard a belch, and found that the boy had eaten everything else he'd packed. The little echidna, now not quite so starved, lied down in the grass and purred happily, a hand resting on his stuffed tummy.

"I aint never ate that good in forever!" he mumbled. "Thanks again suh- I-I mean, Sonic," he said, sitting up and licking any last bit of jelly from the sandwich off his frail fingers. Sonic smiled and scooted closer to the slave boy.

"Tell me about yourself," Sonic said to him. The echidna's lip quivered a little, like he was going to cry, then he spoke.

"Mah momma was goin tuh take me tuh go fishin, when some big, white men went an took us away. They took us tuh a big boat and we dun got separated. Ah never saw mah momma again," he said to Sonic, trying his best to use good English. "On th boat, th white men teached us some English. It was hard tuh learn," he said. Knuckles looked at his feet and kicked them back and forth for a moment. "When we hit land, the white men taked us an sold us. Ah got sold tuh 'Botnik, long with some a mah tribe," he said. "We been working here ever since. He har'ly ever feeds us an beats us if we don do what he wans." Sonic shook his head, angry at Robotnik.

"I'm so sorry," he said to the boy.

"So I thank ya again Sonic fur th food," the boy said again.

"Well, if you like how this feels, then why don't you c'mon back and stay with me. You can eat whatever you want, every day, and my mom will help you find a good home," Sonic said to him, smiling. The boy abruptly shook his head no at Sonic's offer, though his eyes looked regretful to his own decision.

"No? Why not? Do you enjoy being a slave for that brute, Robotnik?" Sonic asked him. The kit cowered away from Sonic as his tone grew louder.

"It's not that I don wanna, but... what 'bout the others? A-And 'Botnik? How're ya gonna convince im tuh let me go?" he asked nervously.

"I won't have to; I'll sneak you out," Sonic said. "This evening I'll come back and bail you out. We can head to my place. Old Robotnik will never find you," Sonic said. Shivering, the boy backed up a step and shook his head again.

"Nuh uh, y'all r crazy! Yer gonna get caught, and ol 'Botnik's gonna keel ya!" he cried. "He gon' keel ya wit his gun!"

"He won't kill me. The guy's not that crazy!" Sonic said to him, but the echidna wasn't really looking or listening to him anymore. The echidna was looking down at his bucket, lying near.

"I'm gonna be killed!" he cried, and he knelt down by the bucket. "I was s'posed to be pick'n these cottons, but I was wastin my time talkin tuh you! I'm gonna get flogged fur this!" he cried, and he began to quickly pick the cotton flowers off the plants.

Sonic felt guilty; he had distracted the boy, and he might get hurt because of it. Sonic looked back and forth, to make sure no one was looking or coming, and then ran at a supersonic second down the rows of cotton, stripping the plants of their fluffy, white flowers. After each row, Sonic dumped the flowers into the bucket, until it overflowed, and the echidna stared in awe. Sonic finished the entire field and skidded to a stop in front of him, arms crossed over his chest.

"There, that wasn't so hard," Sonic said, and the kit still stared wide-eyed.

"Whoa... how ya done that?" he asked Sonic, astonished. Sonic smiled back at him.

"Call it a friendly gesture," Sonic replied. "So, you still on for tonight?" he asked the kit. The echidna's mouth hung open in shock, but he slowly nodded. Sonic looked up, but saw Robotnik storming towards them in the distance.

"Oh no, it's the lardo, 'Buttnik! I can't be seen here, or I'll be in HUGE trouble with my folks! I'll be back!" Sonic said. Knuckles sat in his spot and stroked one of the soft cotton flowers, nodding slightly. But before Sonic left, he had one last thing to ask.

"Oh, by the way; what's your name and how old are you?" he asked him.

"Mah name be Knuckles th echidna, an I don know how ol I am. Never learned to count," he said.

"I'm gonna guess you're maybe 10 to 12 years old," Sonic thought, looking at Knuckles' short and skinny body. "Bye for now Knuckles!" Sonic said, and he quickly hid behind a bush, as Robotnik approached. The fat man looked unusually angry today, and Sonic suspected it was because of his little "dumpster dive" into his trash last night.

"Get to work you little Negro, or else I'll- eh..?" Robotnik saw that Knuckles was all done with the cotton field and he stopped in mid-sentence and relaxed his posture a little.

"Well well, looks like we've got a real hard worker on our hands," he said to himself, looking out at the field and in all directions for an explanation. He couldn't believe one kid did this much work in an hour and a half.

"Th-Thank you suh," Knuckles replied to Robotnik's compliment. Sonic watched from the bush and smiled. "This should give him a little bit of a break," he said to himself. "I'm sure he'll compliment Knuckles on this!" But then, Robotnik did something that shocked Sonic. He raised his whip and cracked it down on the unsuspecting child, right on his shoulder, and Knuckles screamed in pain. His shoulder had already begun to bleed from the long slit on his dry, cracked skin, right around one of the spots where he was unprotected from lost fur. It took every fiber of Sonic's being controlling himself, and not running out there to grab the whip from that cruel man. All he could do was sit and wonder, "What did he do? What did I do wrong?"

When Knuckles' crying died down to only a whimper, Robotnik spoke with a sneer.

"You forgot to take them out of the pods!" he bellowed, picking one of the pod shells from a cotton flower. "Go on inside the barn and take the cotton with you! I want you to actually pick them the right way; remove all the flowers from the pods and place them in this sack," he said, tossing a burlap sack at Knuckles' sniffling and hiccupping form. Robotnik turned to leave, when his eyes spotted something on the grass, and he stopped. Lying in the grass was Sonic's metal lunchbox, standing out plain as day in the grass. "Oh, and by the way," Robotnik added, and Knuckles looked back up at him. "You don't get any dinner tonight, since you've had such a hearty lunch," he said, and he turned around fast to let three more cracks of his whip catch Knuckles' skin. The first one the young kit tried to block, and it struck his wrist right above the hand and curled around the wrist. Robotnik yanked it away, pulling off skin around his wrist and causing Knuckles to scream. The second one caught him around his waist, on his left side, and the third one on his back, between the shoulder blades. Knuckles' screams of agony made Sonic's blood chill, and tears came to his eyes. Robotnik finally stopped after the third and began to yell in the echidna's face.

"If you're not happy with the meals I give you, then go see how well people treat their workers on other plantations! Some get no food at all, you selfish pig!" he shouted at Knuckles, who flinched at his loud words. Robotnik picked up the lunchbox and he turned back to the sniveling echidna. "If the friend of yours who gave you this ever comes back, I'll kill him, you hear? Better tell him to get lost!" he exclaimed, and with that, he curled up his whip in his hand and walked away with Sonic's lunchbox in his hand. Knuckles crawled towards the pile of cotton and reached for a piece to dab on his bleeding wounds, but then a rock hit him upside the head.

"Don't you dare, nigger! I need that cotton to sell! Can't have you getting your foreign blood all over it!" Robotnik called from afar, and Knuckles moaned, letting go of the flower.

"Yes suh," he mumbled to himself, and a tear fell down Knuckles' cheek.

Sonics hands were cupped around his mouth in shock, but he couldn't bring himself to come out and help the poor, struggling kit. He just watched as the boy curled up into a ball and cried, his wounds bleeding into the grass, before Sonic snuck away.

Sonic sat on his bed later that evening. He didn't go to the police station that day as he'd planned. He just wasn't in the mood, after what he'd seen. Sonic just lied onto his bed, staring up at his ceiling, his mind bogged with thoughts. "Oh man that poor boy!" he thought. "I can't believe how cruel Robotnik is! If I were Knuckles, I'd beat the man's ass! I wonder why he doesn't fight back." Sonic flattened his ears onto his head and moaned. "Well duh! He's scared and doesn't know the terrain. If he did escape, he wouldn't know where to go!" he answered his own question. " I promised the poor kid that I'd help him get out of there somehow, but… how am I gonna do it?" Sonic tossed on his bed and looked at his clock. It was 5:30 PM, and he sighed. "What am I going to do?" he mumbled, "What if the police won't help; then what?" Sonic didn't have an answer to any of those questions. He just knew he needed to get Knuckles out of there before he's killed. He needed to sneak him out, tonight. He didn't know where he'd keep him, but he just needed to get him out.

Later that evening, Sonic sneaked out once again and silently made his way back into the plantation, looking for Knuckles. But he didn't know where he and the other slaves were, so now he was inside the plantation of a man that wants to kill him, looking for a single little echidna in the acres of farmland before him. Sonic pricked his ears towards a sound, and looked towards a second, smaller barn on the corner of the property. There he saw light in the window, and he guessed that would be a good place to start searching. Sonic sped up to the barn and looked both ways quickly before he knocked on the door. A moment later, it was opened by a short, black and grey-furred hedgehog woman. She appeared weak in stature, but she had a kind, reassuring smile.

"Can ah help you chile?" she asked him, with a thick African accent.

"Uh, yeah..." Sonic replied. "I'm here to see a young echidna boy," Sonic said. The hedgehog huffed slightly and spoke.

"Good luck findin 'im in this crowd," she said, and she backed away from the door so Sonic could see how many people were in the barn. Sonic gasped at how many tan, black, and brown-muzzled echidnas, hedgehogs, and other animals were in there. They were all talking in their native languages, and over half of them appeared starving and badly wounded.

"Better get in here chile," the black and grey hedgehog whispered to Sonic, "Before the master finds you and kicks you out." Mouth gaping, Sonic walked inside the barn and looked around, scanning the crowd for Knuckles. He saw several wounded creatures; one female dog was bandaging up a little fox boy's waist, where it was bleeding profusely. Sonic began to feel queasy so he looked in another direction. A hedgehog that had quills that actually looked a bit like his, with a dark brown muzzle and cocoa brown fur, limped past him, giving him a glare as he went by. Then Sonic heard a voice that stood out from the African babble.

"Oi! What's a whitie doin in here?" a voice exclaimed. Sonic whipped his head around to see an elderly hedgehog with a whitish-grey muzzle and pale grey fur standing in front of him, and his lips were curled back into a nearly-toothless growl. Sonic backed up a few steps, and ended up bumping into the black and grey hedgehog woman that'd greeted him at the door.

"Leave th poor boy alone! He's jus tryin ta find a friend!" the woman defended him. Sonic felt her put her hands on his shoulders, and he looked up. "Don mind Jeseppe, he's jus gotta real grudge 'gainst you white folk," she said, rubbing her thumbs into his shoulder blades. "Now, who e'sactly you lookin for?" Sonic kept looking up at her.

"H-His name is Knuckles. He's probably 10 or 11," Sonic replied. "Red fur, dark tan muzzle. He's got a white crescent mark on his chest that's-,"

"Ah know who Knuckles be," the hedgehog interrupted him. "Why di'n't ya jus say that? The boys ova there with momma," she said, pointing toward a couple of horse stalls in the corner. Sonic smiled at the kind hedgehog.

"Thank you miss... uh,"

"Devia," she replied for him.

"Then thank you miss Devia," Sonic thanked, and he ran in the direction Devia pointed. Sonic headed towards a group of echidnas in the corner and squeezed his way through the group, ignoring all the glares he received. There he saw Knuckles, now bandaged where he'd been whipped, and was having his head wrapped from an apparent new injury, by an elderly female echidna with peachy-blonde and white fur. He was talking to her in the African language, so Sonic suspected she didn't speak English like the others did. Sonic stepped to the front and cleared his throat.

"Knuckles… what happened?" he asked. The woman, who Sonic suspected was the lady Devia called "Momma," stood up quickly and began to speak to him in African, and she sounded angry. But when the echidna began to edge near Sonic threateningly, Knuckles stood up and took her hand, calling her name two or three times. He said a few things to her in African, which apparently calmed her, and she mumbled unhappily and sat down. Knuckles turned to Sonic now and gave him a little smile.

"Is ok, she jus don't want me tuh hurt mah head again," he said to Sonic as he approached him. "Momma's real protective like tha."

"What happened to you now?" Sonic asked, gingerly touching the bandage on his head. He could see Momma flinching at him touching Knuckles, out of the corner of his eye.

"Got kicked in the 'ead by th mule," Knuckles replied, "Tha' thang's a violent bastard," he added, smiling meekly like he was embarrassed. Sonic didn't smile back.

"Knuckles, I came to sneak y-," he stopped mid-sentence when other echidnas hovering nearby looked at him, and he pulled Knuckles closer. "I came to sneak you out of here, but now I can't when you're in this condition," he whispered to the boy. "You're nowhere near well enough to do this. You need a few days to recoup." Knuckles appeared hurt, and he looked around at everyone else around him. They all appeared to be giving them sad eyes, and Sonic thought they were purposely trying to make him feel guilty.

"But ah can't go… what 'bout th others? I can't jus leave them; we is a family," Knuckles whispered back.

"But I can't sneak ALL of you out! That's practically suicide!" Sonic whispered harshly in reply. But then, a black-furred echidna cut in on them, and he spoke with a deep, rough voice.

"Is there a problem here?" he asked them, with seemingly perfect English.

"No there is not!" Sonic snapped back, looking up at the echidna man. "Knuckles here is just being stubborn!"

"Ah'm not stubborn!" Knuckles replied. "I'm caring fur mah friens an family!" Knuckles walked away from Sonic and up to a group of probable teenager echidnas that were listening in on their conversation a bit, though they tried to appear innocent. Knuckles looped his arms around two of the boys' necks, pulling them down to his height, and the others linked shoulders as well.

"We all're family!" Knuckles called loudly. "All of us! We love, care, and nurture fur each other, and we don wan tuh leave one another behin!" he announced, catching the other slaves' attentions. People began to gather close to listen in on what was going on. "We all've been tak'n away from our homes, an we may all not come from th same tribe, or even th same continent! But we all feel same!" Knuckles proclaimed, as more slaves began to link hands or loop arms around the shoulders of another. People began to whoop and shout in agreement as Knuckles spoke, and Sonic simply watched, not saying a single word.

Knuckles looked right at Sonic now. "Don ya see? If ya'll separate us, ya'll're separating a family! No way am ah leavin without mah family!" he said, as the other began to cheer. Sonic looked around, his cheeks burning, at the whooping and clapping slaves. He saw all of them hugging and kissing, smiling and cheering; he could tell they really were a family. Sonic pulled his ears down.

"Alright… alright ALRIGHT!" he called over the noise. "I'll find a way to get you all out of here. But I don't know what you're all going to do once you're out! I have no control over what happens to you after that!" Sonic called. "But I promise you; I'll get you all out of here, together! For Knuckles' sake," Sonic exclaimed, and the slaves began to cheer again. Sonic looked around, smiling now, at the happy hedgehogs, echidnas, foxes, dogs, cats, and other animals. Then he looked right at Knuckles. The kit was clapping and smiling, much bigger than he'd ever seen before, and he hugged Momma tight.

But then, a loud voice broke the festivities. "HE'S COMING!" a voice cried over the noise. Everyone else knew that meant that the master, Mr. Robotnik, was coming out to see what all the ruckus was about.