My brother learned how to steal with quick nimble fingers, a skill he learned from our mother.
My sister learned how to lie through her teeth, with the same silver tongue as our mother.
What did I get from my mother?
I learned the truth about our mother from another's voice of reality.
I've been running since then.
. . .
With my hands shoved deep in my jacket's pockets, one I reluctantly wore only when it was a cold day just like this one, I walked briskly past many strangers going about their day through the city of Robotropolis. Inwardly my teeth chattered together and my jacket did little to give me warmth. I kept my gaze glued to the ground with my hood pulled over my head. I'd occasionally bump into another person but I couldn't afford to look up. If I looked I'd be a goner.
It was dangerous for me to be out here right in the open like this, I was alone with only my destination in mind. I needed to get out of this city in order to get there. I was in the heart of the city though. A bounty with a hefty reward hung over my head, dead or alive it didn't matter. As long as my body was taken and thrown at the feet of Robotnik this bounty would follow me. Somehow I doubt people would bring me in alive though.
I pushed through the crowds while I wished my current situation could be at least be slightly better. The destination I had in mind needed me to get outside of the city and take a chance to venture far past the forests and high in the air is so cold it was almost painful, the clouds were a dull grey and my heart was beating rapidly against my chest. It had to have been in the negatives now, I was shivering with many chills going through my body.
But the chills weren't from the cold.
They were from the fear I felt.
There was this itching, burning sensation that came from the fixated blatant stares I was given. But I refused to look up. I refused to meet the eyes of another person. All I could see is the sidewalk and walking legs of people. Eventually their legs stilled and faced towards me. The normal sound of bustling people had been silenced and the only sound that could be heard was my own shoes lightly tapping the ground with every step I took.
They know who I am. I am one of the three leaders of the freedom fight against Robotnik after all. I'm always with the other two leaders, my brother Manic and my sister Sonia and it's difficult for us to ever be separated from each other. The thing is, this time I'm alone in my journey. I'm an easy target for bounty hunters and the other creeps. But I can't afford to bring my siblings into this, and I definitely couldn't bring mother into this, I needed answers given to my growing suspicions. And the only person who could give me my answers is the mysterious, slippery seer known as The Oracle.
He is the cause of my troubles, of my life. Oh, you wanna hear that?
Well it all starts with a queen named Aleena ruling over her beautiful and peaceful territory. When a man I now know as Robotnik with devious schemes came forth and took the land from the queen, he was to kill her and the other royals in line so he could rule in tyranny. Except the queen had triplets with the eldest being crowned as the prince. The man with an armada of machines demanded the queen and her children be killed and the queen fled. She lived in poor conditions with her children, but she loved them so dearly. It was when The Oracle came and told her a prophecy of the future with her children.
Should she keep them and raise them the world would be equally worse as it was then, but if she sent them off separated they would all somehow come back together and form the council of four and take back their land and set things right.
I'm sure in some other world she made a different decision, one she thought was right. In that world she made the choice to give her children away. Well guess what. This isn't that world. My mother picked her poison that took us with her. Her decision changed her.
My brother and my sister never dared question her decision. Sonia and Manic loved our mother dearly. I...I always cared for her but I need to know. Did she make the right decision.
When a hand, cold and metallic gripped my shoulder I shoved the roboticized person away and I felt my heart sink deeper into my chest when I looked up to see the piercing eyes of people dig into me like a knife.
They were alive in a sense still, but since I was at the top of Robotnik's death list they were programmed to capture or kill me should I be in their sights. In the heart of Robotropolis they are all slaves. People who were forcibly roboticized with cold steel and a master to order them around whenever. It was when I looked into their eyes had they suddenly sprung into action.
I yelped when different sets of hands clawed at me. Panicking, I bolted and was nearly choked to death after somebody wrapped their fingers around my hood and dragged me up into the air where I could barely touch the ground.
Another person would accept that death would come for them. But now me. I refuse to go down as simple as this. I'm the fastest thing alive. I'm the leader of a growing resistance against tyranny. I'm Sonic the hedgehog.
I threw myself to the ground, huffing and the moment my feet hit the concrete I was gone in a blue blur. I had to chase after my future with my present holding me under. Fate can twist and mold whatever challenges it wants, I know I'll always do whatever it takes to get past the obstacle and get to my destination.
My mother holds the knowledge and power that can and will make Robotnik crumble and threaten the world. Her mind cracked like a vanity mirror which reveals her warped self which was no longer true. She may love us, but she has plans for us. Her power is hidden beneath her loving smile. I have to get to the Oracle, only he can give me the information no other has.
When I did get what I wanted...
Who knew that the truth is all that it took to make me reevaluate the bigger picture and leave like I did.