Even Heroes Cry

This week has been all about strange events happening. A friend of mine or should I say the world … has been acting strange lately. I was told that after he has breakfast he goes on his morning run, like normal, but something seems to be bothering him. He doesn't come home until the afternoon and after fights with Eggman he looks more worn out then he should be. I asked a friend of ours to go after him to see if he was okay, to see if he was just going on a run and not running away somewhere.

I heard a knock at the door and walked through the lounge room until I got to the front door. I opened the door and smiled when I saw a pink hedgehog in a red dress, standing in the doorway to my house. "Thanks for coming, Amy."

"No problem! I'd do anything for Sonic!" she exclaimed, putting on a triumphant smile.

I nodded, holding a smile of my own on my face. "Thank you so you much, Amy. This means a lot to me. I'm just worried about him after the way he's been acting."

"So am I." Amy then, looked down with worry in her eyes, but then looked back up with that grin back on her face. "But don't worry, I'll find out what's wrong with him!"

She turned around and I watched her leave in the direction she knew Sonic had run off in. I chuckled as she always had a feeling of where Sonic was with her 'Sonic Radar'.

EHCEHCEHCEHCEHC

When I finally heard back from her, she said that he had found her hiding. Amy said that he had looked pretty upset from being spied on and ran off, but she had found where he had gone. He had gone to a village on the outskirts of Station Square. I had heard of this village. It was located somewhere in Green Hill Zone. The problem is though; that village was completely destroyed ten years ago. Sonic had visited a graveyard, but why?

I picked up my communicator as I heard it ringing and pressed the connect button. "Hello."

"It's Amy. I have good news and bad news," I saw Amy's worried face on the screen and my expression completely changed.

"What happened?" I asked her.

"I found Sonic…" Amy began, but I knew by her expression that something else happened. "…but he found me and looked disappointed that had I spied on him."

I lowered my head, thinking, and then lifted it back up with a smile. "Don't worry; he'll forgive you sooner than you think. He's not one to hold grudges."

Amy nodded at what I said, but her expression didn't change. "There's something else."

I lifted both my eyebrows in surprise. What else could there be? "What is it?"

"Sonic, ran to an abandoned village somewhere in Green Hill Zone and … everything was destroyed. It was like a graveyard there." Amy looked at me with a terrified look in her eyes.

My eyebrows lowered and I looked at Amy's frightened ones as mine became concerned. Why did Sonic go there? What happened in his past that we don't know about? Why is he hiding this from us? And what has it got to do with that village?

EHCEHCEHCEHCEHC

I decided to dig a little deeper and asked for Sonic to come over to babysit Cream for me while I go out shopping. Cream had wanted to come with me, but I told her that she had to stay here and wait for Sonic to turn up as he would be watching her. She seemed excited when I told her that Sonic was coming since she looks up to Sonic as a big brother as well her idol.

I picked up my communicator and put in Sonic's phone number. I waited until he answered and was surprised to see that Sonic looked extremely tired. "Are you okay, Sonic?"

He nodded and yawned, before answering, "Yea, I'm fine. What's up?"

"I want to know if you want to watch Cream for me while I go shopping this afternoon." I asked him. He seemed quite tired, maybe I should take her with me?

"Um … okay. Can Tails come too? I don't think I'll be able to stay awake all that time," he asked as he yawned again.

I giggled and nodded at his question. "Yes, he can. I wouldn't let you take on such a job while you're tired."

He smiled and nodded and turned off the communication as I put my communicator back on the bench top, hoping that everything will go alright this afternoon.

EHCEHCEHCEHCEHC

The afternoon came by fast and I heard a knock at the door and I went over and opened it to see Sonic and Tails standing in the doorway. The teenage blue hedgehog still looked quite tired and looked like he was about fall over and take a nap on the front porch soon. I allowed the two inside with a warm smile and Sonic immediately took to the couch with a comforting smile. I smiled at that and looked to Tails; who didn't really know what to do.

"You two know where the food is. Cream is in her room right now, colouring, so you can let her know you're here," I told the two.

Tails nodded at me and Sonic gave me a slow nod, indicating he was slowly falling asleep. I smiled and left through the front door. As the door closed behind me I knew that nothing could go wrong with Tails there to accompany Sonic.

EHCEHCEHCEHCEHC

Once I got home I heard talking and knew the three of them were chatting. I smiled and opened the front door only to see Tails behind the couch, he looked worried and Cream on the floor beside it, she looked confused. What was on the couch shocked me. A blue ball was on the couch. It looked a lot like what Sonic curled into when he was about to attack Eggman. Wait … it is Sonic!

I dropped the groceries and ran over to the couch and looked down at the curled up ball. Sonic's quills weren't in defence mode yet, which was good. I looked from Tails to Cream, they were both probably wondering why their hero was curled in a defence ball and so am I.

"What happened?" I asked them.

Tails was the first to respond and I turned to him, "I went upstairs to tell Cream where you went and that we were babysitting her. I helped colour with her for an hour before we went downstairs to show Sonic our drawings to find him ... like this." Tails started to shiver at wondering what could frighten his brother into going into a tight ball.

I looked down at Sonic and a look of concern crossed my face when I looked at him. He looked so helpless in that tight ball, unlike his usual strong, proud posture he was always in. I reached my hand to put it on top of the tight ball, but his quills stuck up and I pulled my hand back, quickly. It was then that I heard something. I looked down and saw Sonic was shaking.

"It he cold, Mother?" Cream asked me, sounding worried for the hero.

My expression stayed the same, but a hint of worry seeped into it. He was crying. What could make the hero of Earth cry? What could break him this much?

I decided to try again. This time lifting him up underneath and putting him onto my lap. He started to slowly uncurl and his crying got slightly louder and clearer. Tails and Cream could now hear Sonic's sobs and became wide eyed. Sonic grabbed hold of my dress as his quills relaxed as his legs dangled off the couch. I put my hand on his quills and stroked them as he let all his tears out.

I looked down at him with a small smile on my face. "Sonic, what's the matter?"

He sniffed and said in a wobbly voice from all the crying. "S…She's gone…"

I tilted my head a little. Sonic had spoken quite quietly and I had hardly heard him, but I did make out one word. "Who's gone, dear?"

Another sniff, "M…My Mother…"

I looked at him in worry and nodded. I realise now why Sonic is breaking down. He may act like the big hero everyone wants to see in public, but in his heart he's a child, because he never truly had one. He never had parents and so he doesn't know what it's like to live with one. That may be the reason why he took Tails in, because they understood each other. Poor boys.

"What happened to your Mother, Sonic?" I asked the crying teenager.

Sonic stopped his tears at that moment and decided to wipe them away. "She saved me. She sacrificed herself to save me." I saw more tears appear in his eyes and I didn't want that to happen. His smile is better than his tears. "It's my fault. She died to save me!"

A smile crept onto my face and I lifted his chin up to my face. "Sonic, that's what parents do. They protect what is most precious to them. If anything she gave you an impression on what you wanted to become. Your Mother was your inspiration."

Sonic's eyes looked into mine, seeing the honesty in them and then smiled. I could see a hint of more tears about to come, but I didn't see them flow out of his eyes as Sonic hugged me. "Thank you, Vanilla!" He let go of me and looked at me again. "I've been thinking all along it was my fault and now you've changed my opinion. Thank you."

I smiled at him and nodded. He got off my lap and began to leave with Tails. I saw that the young fox was wiping a few tears of his own and I smiled, half-heartedly. I knew that Sonic still needed to let his emotions out every once and a while that's why he can always come to me. I'm a Mother after all. I'll understand what their pain is. If I don't I can still fix it as best I can. I love my daughter and all her friends as if they were my children too.

I've been planning for quite a while to do a one-shot like this, but I never got the mojo. I wanted it to start out that you didn't know who was speaking then it got to the part where you know, because I haven't written in so long I've lost a bit of my mojo and also I haven't written a story where you don't know who's speaking. XD Anyways, I think the beginning is kinda rushed and the ending turned out better than the whole thing, but I tried to fix the beginning to make it fit. Hope you enjoy, anyways!

VFMH OUT!