Shards in the Bone
A/N: A big thanks to Silveromifan for reviewing. And this time, I'll be sure to stick with this fic!
Now for those of you who aren't as gun savy as me. Let me tell you right now that the Model 500 is a real gun. To get a grasp of what the Smith&Wesson Model 500 is, think of the .44 magnum, the classic Durty Harry gun. Now multiply that by 10. A 500 can shoot a deck of bicycle poker cards from 25 yards away and literally vaporize the deck into air.
And for those of you wandering why I'm giving the Freedom Fighters guns and why I didn't give them lasers. Well there are two reasons.
1: Like I said i the first chapters this is to be a darker and more realistic retelling so it would make sense for a band of gurrila fighters to use guns.
2: I don't think lasers would have been widely avialable to the public. So to make it seem like they were a bunch of rebels with limited resources I gave them ballistic weapons. They have to use hi-powered ones one too or special ammo in order to punch through SWATbot armor.
Now on to the story!
Chapter 2: Tearful Reunions
The first thing Maurice noticed as he slowly began to awake was that he was comfortable. Tired, but comfertable.
For 7 years he had woken to the ache of fresh surgical wounds, the taste of stale recycled air in his mouth, the freezing cold AC, the sicky wetness of drying blood on his fur, and the hard, rigid, spring matress of his cell bed jabbing into his back.
But not this time.
This time, while still a little sore, his wasn't in any serious pain, the air was warm, soothing, fresh and clean, his fur was dry and clean, and the bed he laid upon was soft, supportive, and comfortable.
He liked the bed most of all.
With a tired groan he lifted himself up to a sitting posistion and took in his suroundings. The first thing he noticed was that he was in a small but cozy room. It was spartan at best, not having anything side aside from some dressers, a desk, and the bed he was in but it still had a warm quality to it.
The next thing he noticed was that his bandages were recently changed. Clean and white with not a single blood stain on them, and besides those he was in nothing bot a pair of clean boxers.
He didn't know what to think of that.
After a moment of examining himself Maurice went to get out of bed but the moment he stood up a wave of nausea and vertigo washed over him, forcing him to sit back down.
It was at that moment someone entered the room.
And Maurice's breath caught in his throat.
She was a beautiful chipmonk/squirrel girl with short aubrun hair. She was wearing a white tank top with a stylish blue unzipped jacket over it, a pair of blue jean shorts, and blue combat boots.
He also noticed the knife on her waist and the giant revolver on her right thigh.
Sally was carrying a tray of food and was looking down when she came in, but when she looked up she nearly dropped the tray in surprise. "Oh, your up!" She exclaimed, pleasantly surprised.
Maurice rubbed his head as the nausea faded away. "How long was I out?" He asked horsely, his throat was dry.
"Four days..." The girl answered as she gave him a glass of water and sat down on a chair next to the bed. " We were starting to doubt you would ever wake up."
Maurice gratefully took the glass from her and greedily drank from it. "Who are you?" He asked.
"You first." Sally bounced the question back, a cautious frown on her face. "I was pinned down by forty SWATbot half of which were heavy variants, and then you come out of nowhere, bleeding to death, and take them all out in seconds and then collapse with those CD Cores implanted in your body. I need to know if your a danger to the village before I let you out or give you any information."
Her tone was strict but not angry or hateful, and her eyes showed that she didn't truely believe he was a danger. At least not conciously.
"What were you doing there?" She asked again.
Maurice hesitated for a moment, not feeling comfortable talking to this stranger. He was confident that if he was at a hundred percent he could have easily knocked her out and escaped were ever he was. But he wasn't, he couldn't even stand up reight now, and she somehow managed to smuggle him out of Robotropolis while he was uncouncious so...so she deserved some answers.
And something about her seemed familiar.
"I have been Robotnik's prisoner since he took over seven years ago." He began his story with a solem tone. "I was sure that I'd have be roboticized but for whatever reason I got his attention and I've been his favorite lab rat ever since."
Already horror was begining to fill Sally as she connected the dots. Dr. Robotnik has been profforming dangerous expariments on this man since he was a child.
Maurice began to slowly undo his bandages, Sally went to stop him but he firmly told her to settle down. He continued to unwrap them until all five of his Chaos Drive Cores were exposed to the light of day. A soft deep blue glow radiated gently off them and the Chaos Stains and Maurice placed a hand over his chest.
Sally was shocked to see the were no longer bleeding and the once angry red, irritated flesh was now healthy and healed.
"I don't know much about these cores he implanted into my bones." The hedgehog said. "All I know is that they changed me from a small and sickly brown hedgehog into this blue freak. They also allow me to heal and move at incredible speeds and use this strange energy." He explained with no small amount of distain in his voice.
'Small and sickly brown hedgehog?' Sally repeated in her mind. 'He dissapeared around the same time this hedgehog claims to have been capture but...no...' Tears of horror began to well up in her eyes but she held them back. 'it...it couldn't be, it CAN'T be!'
"W-what is your name?" She asked, her voice shaking ever so slightly.
Maurice looked at her, slightly perplexed by the shake in her tone. "Maurice Hedgehog."
Sally stood up abruptly, the chair falling over and Maurice jerking away in surprise, hugging herself as she began pacing room. "No...no, no, no..." She started to mummer, rubbing her arms in a vain effort to calm herself.
'What got into her all of a sudden?' Maurice thought to himself. "You okay?"
"No, no, no..." Sally repeated, as she continued to pace. "You can't be him..." She then turned her gaze to the blue headgehog and tears were showing in her eyes. "No, you can't be Maurice!" She shouted. "He had Vrolik Syndrome, he was to sick to have survived the coup, he died! He didn't have to go through this Hell! He's dead, he's in a better place then this!"
Sally was obviously in denial, she didn't want to accept this. She didn't want her bestfriend to have gone through the horrible expariments this blue hedgehog must have been through.
Suddenly she stopped paceing and quickly approached Maurice with a determined look on her face. "What was Maurice's catch phrase?" She demanded edgedly.
"Huh?" Was the hedgehog's reply.
"Maurice had a catched phrase he used all the time. But there is no way Robotnik knows it or anyone outside of the village.." She explained but the edge in her tone and eyes never left, and descreatly her hand was hovering toward her pistol. "If you are Maurice, then tell me, what was your favorite phrase?"
It was then something clicked in Maurice's mind and he suddenly knew why this woman seemed familiar. "Sally?" He asked hesitantly. "Is that really you, Sal?" He began to reach out to her.
"Just answer the damn question!" Sally shreiked as she slapped the hand away, her hold on her tears finally relenting and twin streams fell from her blue eyes.
Maurice jerked his hand back but he wasn't hurt by her actions. He did look a lot different from 7 years ago and he was surprised he survived the explosions during the coup too. Back then he couldn't snap his fingures without breaking them.
A small grin, the first he's had since his capture, creased his muzzle. "It's Way Past Cool to see you again, Sal."
That did it.
Without warning Sally pulled Maurice into the biggest hug she could muster and awkwardly he returned it. She was sobbing heavily and he could feel her tears soaking into the peach colored fur on his chest and drip around his chest core.
"I'm so sorry, Maurice!" She cried sorrowfully , siffing and hicupping uncontrolably. "I should have known you were alive. I should have been able to find something to tell me where you were. I should have done better!"
Unuse to the harmless contact that he has been deprived of for so long Maurice was unsure of what to do to calm his childhood friend. But memories of somewhat similar occrances before the coup filtered into his mind and hesitantly he rubbed the emotional queen's back in what he hoped was a soothing way and massaged her head with the other.
"Shh..."He cooed. "It's alright Sal, I'm alive and free now. And despite my...condition, look..." He pushed her away gently just enough so she could see herself hugging him. "You're hugging my like a vice and my spine and ribs haven't shattered." He joked awkwardly.
Sally couldn't help the short laugh that escaped her lips. Not becuase the joke was particularly funny but becuase of how uncomfertable he obviously was and the need to release stress. "I guess you're right. Some good did come out of what Robotnik did to you." She smiled softly.
Seeing that smile, Maurice was suddenly reminded of the crush he had on his bestfriend before his capture and light blush dusted his muzzle. Awkwardly, he coughed into his fist and gently moved Sally so that she was sitting next to him.
"Some queen I am." Sally chastized herself as she rubbed her tears and a little bit of snot. "Bursting into tears like a little girl."
"Queen?" Maurice echoed with a tone of confusion. "You're Queen of the Acorn Kingdom?"
The squirrelmonk nodded silently.
"But, how can that be?" He asked in a way that showed he already knew why. "I know Robotnik...removed your father, but what happened to Queen Alicia? Where is Elias?"
"Mother died in the coup." Sally answered with a tinge of sorrow in her voice. "A SWATbot tosed a laser grenade at us and she took the brunt of the explosion to save me." She removed her jacket and lifted her shirt until just before her bust, showing a series of crisscrossing scars on her belly that looked like the were cut into her by a white hot blade. "It was a green laser grenade. Mother was sliced and burned to ribbons while I barely made it out with all my parts inside me."
She rolled her shirt back down but left her jacket off. "As for my brother, I don't know where he is, 'cept he's somewhere east. A week before the coup he went to study abroad and has yet to return." She let out a dry mirthless chuckle. "So the "prostegious" title of Queen falls upon me. As if it holds and real importance out here in the middle of the forest."
"So, uh...how are Sonia and Manic, and my parents?" Maurice changed the subject, sensing bad blood between Sally and the whole Royalty thing. She didn't even like being a princess so he could only imagine what being queen must feel like to her. "Did they make it out okay?"
Sally rubbed the last of her tears away. "Yes and no. Your mother and father made it out okay but Sonia, Manic and Uncle Chuck were captured. Chuck was roboticized, I don't know what happened to your brother and sister. Your parents took your disappearances really hard. Jules throws himself in his training and missions while Bernie does little more than sleep and act depressed."
She hopped out of the bed and held a hand out to the blue hedgehog. "But you're alive, and they'll be thrilled to see you!" Maurice grasped her hand and let her help him up, this time the nausia wasn't crippling and it faded quickly. A big smile spread across the queen's face. "I'll give you the grand tour of Knothole Village, Maurice."
"You know..." Maurice said as they approached the door. "I never did like that name."
Sally quirked an eyebrow. "Then what should I call you? The Smurf?" She joked, the tension of the last few minutes finally melting away.
A contemplative expression came to Maurice's face as he held his chin with his free hand before a smirk crossed it. "Before I escaped, Eggman always called me Subject: Sound Barrier becuase of my speed."
"Sound Barrier?" Sally asked with no small amount of mirth at the rediculus name.
"Call me..." The hedgehog thought for a second before he finished. "By my middle name. Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog!"
"Sonic the Hedgehog?" Sally tested the name as if to see how it sounded. "I like it." She concluded with smile.
"I like a bit of cruel ironey when it is at the expense of my enemies."
"Now get dressed."
In a small hut near the outskirts of the village two figures were argueing.
"Why does it have to be you Jules?!" A middle aged female hedgehog with brown fur and and chestnut hair wearing a blue sun dress shouted.
"That man took everything, EVERYTHING from us, Bernie!" A darker brown male hedgehog with a tufft of hair on his head shouted back. "He took, my brother, he took our children, he took our FUTURE! And I'll be damned if I just sit by and watch him gloat until he takes us too!" He was wearing a set of ceramic combat armor. A Hunter's Compensator hunting revolver on his right thigh and in his hands and an AK-74 in his hands.
Tears were welling up in Bernadette's eyes and she began to hug herself as sobs wracked her body. "You think I don't know that?" She whispered. "Maurice, Sonia and Manic were my whole world. Everyday I struggle to find a to get out of bed beyond personal higiene. When Robotnik took them from us, from me, he killed me without actually doing it. I-"
She was cut off by Jules as he pulled her into a comforting embrace, gently rubbing her back and resting his chin on her head. The tears continued to spill though as she returned the hug and burried her face in his armored chest.
"I don't want to loose you too..." She murmured.
"I know..."
Suddenly there was a loud knocking at their door and Bernnie quickly pulled away and attempted to clean herself up a little. "Come in!" She called.
Stepping through the threshold 2 mobians enetered the hut.
"Ah, Queen Sally!" Bernie exclaimed earning a wince from the squirrel girl.
"Hello Bernie." She greeted.
Jules bowed her her respectfully. "What is the occasion your majesty?"
Sally sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose in irritation. "Jules, Bernie, I told you a dozen time already to just call me Sally, or commander. I am not truely a Queen yet."
"Of course, ma'am." Julse responded like the loyal solider he was.
It was Bernie who first noticed the blue hedgehog standing awkwardly by the door, rubbing his left arm with his right nervously. He was wearing a simple brown hoodie, a pair of jeans and a pair of combat boots.
"Who is this?" The elder woman asked.
Sally smiled a knowing smile as she grasped Sonic's arm and pulled him further into the hut. "I think you already know this man, Bernie, Jules." She said mysteriously as she shoved the blue blur in front of her.
"We do?" The couple said in unisone, clearly confused.
"Mom, dad, it's me. Maurice." Sonic clarified nervously.
At first the two glared at the two with disgust. Thinking this was some cruel joke. "How dare you!?" Bernadette shrieked angrily while Jules glowered at them.
"No, it's really me!" Sonic persisted.
"Do you think were stupid!?" Jules shouted. "We might not have seen Maurice in seven years but I think we'd remember if our son was fucking blue!"
"Calm down you two!" Sally intervened, getting between Jules and Sonic, the former of which looked ready to beat the latter into the ground. "This is Maurice" She persisted pleadingly. "He was captured and exparimented on by Robotnik for seven years until he escaped four days ago. He's the reason why I didn't die back there along with th rest of my squad."
Bernie brushed pass Sally and stood in front of Sonic with a grim look. She took him by the chin and made him look her strait in the eyes and said. "What was my nickname for you and your brother and sister?"
For a while Sonic didn't answer, having to think for a moment to bring up memories he hasn't thought about for 6 years. And just as Bernie was about to give up and slap him for trying to decieve her and her husband.
"We were your Little Disasters." He said with a small grin. "Becuase we would always get into trouble."
New tears began to fall from Bernadette's, but this time tears of joy. "It's really if you..." She murmured before she quickly pulled her long lost son into a tight embrace. "Maurice!" She cried tearily.
Jules then slowly appraoched, shock clearly evident on his face. "I can't believe it!" He said in false denail before the biggest smile you'd ever see spread across his muzzle. "Maurice!" He to cried and pulled the two into a bear hug of his own.
With all the love and teard his parents were pelting him with from years of thinking he was dead, Sonic couldn't help letting a few tears of his own dripping from hus green eyes and returned the embraces with all his worth. "I'm back..." he assured quitely.
Sally couldn't help but smile at the warm reuinion before her and upon thinking of her own family again a few tears of her own formed and fell. She'll might never see her mother again, but there wass still hope for her father and brother.
The scene fads to black as we get one more glimps of the warm, tearful reuinion.