Chapter One

I wonder how Aiden's taking this right now… He's probably angry with me. What a terrible friend I am to just leave him like that, without anything but a good-bye and a hug. I had to, though, for both his safety and mine. I've been walking for five hours, and I just exited the huge metropolis three hours ago. Hopefully, I find a bus stop soon. Station Square is a long ways away, about fifty miles, but with my luck, I won't find a bus stop until after I get there.

Hmm… Let's see… I stole half of a leftover pizza, four bottles of pure water, and a small loaf of Soleanna bread. That should be enough to keep me going for the next week, in case I have to walk the whole way. "Hm-hmm-hm-hm-hmmmm… Hm-hmmmmm-hmm-hmmmm-hm-hm…" I have to keep myself occupied somehow. "Hm-hm-hm-hm-hmmmmm… Hmm-hm-hm… *YAWN*" Ugh… I can't just keep walking all night. I have to find someplace to sleep, anyplace really. I could care less where it is. I've even slept in a tree before, but there aren't any trees along this highway.

I find the thickest patch of grass near me and sit down in it. I take my backpack off and take a gulp of water, then eat a small piece of the bread. I close my backpack, grab my pistol out of my pocket, and lay down, cuddling with my backpack and holding onto my pistol with a tight grip.

"Yo! Dude! You alright?" Quit shaking me… "C'mon, wake up!" Wait a second, I don't recognize that voice! I snap my eyes open, stand up, and immediately point my pistol at the person in front of me. Unlike most people, however, the blue hedgehog doesn't put his hands up. In fact, he remains rather casual as he says, "Okay, no need to get violent. I just thought you were lost or something." Why is he so calm? His green eyes aren't showing any fear. It's like he's had a gun pointed at him several times before. Wait a second, he's…

"Sonic… the Hedgehog?" I ask quietly as I let my arms return to my sides and immediately drop the eye contact that was needed for me to aim. He's Aiden's hero. He smiles and answers, "The one and only! What in the world is someone your age doing on the side of a highway with a pistol and a backpack?" I sigh. "It's complicated," is all I say in reply. "You're homeless and a thief, aren't you?" responds Sonic without the normal malice people have when they find out. When I don't say anything, Sonic happily says, "It's okay, y'know. When my brother was little, he was in the same situation. Stealing's normally wrong, but when you have to do it to survive, people've gotta look at it differently. Plus, you don't look like a bad person. You just look like someone who could use a little help."

He pauses for a second and holds a chili dog out in front of me. "Go on. Take it. You look like you need it," I take the chili dog from him. "and I'd like to sit down and talk while you eat it. I like meeting new people and I wanna get to know them." Well, I hate meeting new people… I hate talking to new people… Miss Thorn was an exception… If I hadn't talked, things would've gone worse… but Aiden would love it if I told him I met his idol, so I'm going to do it anyway… I just hope I don't end up making myself look like a fool. Things usually go badly when I meet someone new.

Well, actually, Sonic's not new. I knew him back on Christmas Island. Sometimes, we would play together, back when things were better for me. It doesn't seem like he remembers me, though. Why would he remember a shy little hedgehog that could barely look at somebody? I haven't talked to him in six years.

We sit down on the patch of grass, and I start to eat the chili dog. "So, where ya from?" he asks. He could mean several things by that question. I think my silence gives Sonic a hint. "Oh, I get it. You've been all over the place. Let me rephrase that. Where were you born?" I take a bite of the chili dog and reply, "Christmas Island." while looking at him the best I can. Sonic chuckles and responds, "Hey, that's where I was born, too!" Then, Sonic looks like a light bulb goes off in his head before he exclaims, "Wait! I never asked you what your name is! What's your name?"

I can't help but chuckle a bit. He seems so casual around me, kind of like Aiden, unlike most people who come my way. "Maximilian Ultim… But please don't call me Maximilian, or even Max… Call me Rogue." Sonic nods. "You know, Rogue, you're starting to remind me more and more of my little brother. He hates his name, too. He just has everyone call him Tails." Sonic's eyes widen as he realizes something. "Wait, Max Ultim? I remember you! You're that smart little kid I used to play with on Christmas Island." So he does remember… "Don't worry about looking at me. I know how hard it was for you, and I can tell it still is." I immediately break eye contact in relief as he continues, "So, what happened to you? Where are your parents?"

I feel more comfortable now that I know he remembers me, but still not comfortable enough to discuss anything about that. "I don't like to talk about that, Sonic. It's not a good memory. All I'm gonna say is that they died in a terrible accident." I told Aiden once. He about cried his eyeballs out. Sonic simply nods. Wait! I just realized something. "Sonic…" I mutter as I stand up and eat the last of the chili dog. "You can't be around me. I'm a juvenile delinquent wanted by the GUN. If you're caught with me…"

Sonic stands up as well. "I know," he responds. "I've read several articles in several cities about 'Rogue' and one about 'Max'. The one about Max accused you of killing your own parents, and the ones about Rogue were just in cities where you had stolen a lot of stuff." He knows all of this? "I knew who you were from the beginning. I just wanted to see if you were the same boy I had grown up with, and you are. That shy boy wouldn't have stolen unless he had to, and I don't think he'd have killed his parents. That's one article that I'll never believe."

That hedgehog's clever. He pulled that whole ruse just so he could see if I'm me? "You don't have to run from the GUN anymore, Rogue. Not if you don't want to. You could come live with me and Tails in the Mystic Ruins, and then I could go out and clear your name. You wouldn't have to steal anymore. What do you say? We've got room for one more. I missed you after you left Christmas Island. It would be great to have you around again."

It sounds great, but I've just got one question for him. "You wouldn't take my pistol away… would you?" Sonic shakes his head and replies, "Not if it's important to you." Then, I hear a rustling sound coming from across the currently empty highway, in a very tall patch of grass. "I think we have a little visitor. Let's go check it out, Rogue." He and I jog across the highway and look in the grass. We see nothing, but we still hear some rustling. "Oh, I hope they don't notice me…" whispers a voice. I don't think Sonic heard it, but I did.

Aiden… Why did he follow me all the way out here? "Aiden, I know you're there," I say rather calmly, trying to contain my anger at him. "Aiden the Chameleon is not here right now. Please leave a message at the tone. Beep!" I sigh. "Aiden, stop fooling around." The young chameleon un-camouflages himself and turns cyan again. "Hi!" he exclaims. He can tell I'm angry at him.

"Dammit, Aiden!" I explode. "What the hell are you doing here? I told you to stay in Central City!" Aiden stands up and responds, "Well I couldn't just let my older brother leave me behind, could I?" Older brother? That's the first time he's ever called me that. That one rhetorical question calms me down quite a bit. "Brother, huh?" says Sonic. "I think I see what's going on here." I look Aiden directly in the eye to say that I'm sorry for yelling at him. It's the way I apologize.

"You guys must have your own unspoken language," starts Sonic after a few seconds. "because I have no idea what's going on." Aiden chuckles and asks me, "So you really knew Sonic when you were little?" I nod, but Sonic answers for me, "He and I were playmates back on Christmas Island before we both left. We used to have some good times together. Rogue here has barely changed since then, as far as his personality goes."

"So, I have a question for you, Sonic," states Aiden. "Can I come live with you, too?" He points to himself and replies, "Well, I'm okay with it since you're close to Rogue." He points to me. "But I think the final decision lies with him, and if he's like a brother to you, then you've gotta respect his decision." Should he come with? I honestly don't know. He blatantly disregarded my request for him to stay in Central City, but I can't very well send him back there, knowing he'd get punished by Miss Thorn if he went back.

"Okay," I say after a minute. "You can come, but only if you promise not to disregard what I tell you, all right? You do have enough room, right, Sonic?" He nods and answers, "Yeah, but either you two would have to share a room or Tails and I would have to. Either one would probably be fine." So, I don't have to live on my own anymore? That's good… "All right, guys, hop on my back. It's jelly and jam time!" I raise an eyebrow and ask, "Jelly… and jam? I don't see any."

"There's… no jelly and jam, Rogue," explains Aiden. "It's an expression." That would explain why it didn't make sense. "You take things way too literally." Not my fault! I hop onto Sonic's back, and Aiden gets onto mine, and then, Sonic exclaims, "Hold on, guys!" He revs up his legs, and then blasts off. This speed… feels awesome! Aiden yells, "Woo-hoo!" as we accelerate even more.

Within five minutes, we stop. We're obviously there. "Welcome to the Mystic Ruins, guys!" Holy crap! I don't think I've seen so much natural beauty! There are plateaus and trees everywhere, and the only things that even denote human population are a train station and a lone workshop that's right next to us. "This is the workshop where Tails and I live. Come on, I'll show you around." When we walk inside, I see the living room, in which sits two couches, a recliner, and a large HDTV that is currently off. On the couches are an orange two-tailed fox, a red echidna, a pink hedgehog, and a white bat.

"Where the hell have you been, Sonic!" shouts the red echidna. "I've been waiting here for an hour!" Just from listening to him once, I think his anger issues are worse than my outbursts. "For what, Knuckles?" asks Sonic. Knuckles growls and replies, "Well, to talk, but now I'm not in the mood to talk!" He folds his arms, but the white bat sitting next to him says, "Oh, Knuckie, don't be like that… Oh, say, that teal hedgehog behind you, Sonic, is pretty cute. Hey, if I dump this knucklehead, will you go on a date with me?" Uh… What?

"What did you say, Rouge?" yells Knuckles at the top of his lungs. Rouge chuckles and responds, "I'm just kidding, Knuckie. You're mine." She plants a small kiss on his cheek, and he noticeably calms down. "All right, time for some introductions!" exclaims Sonic. He points to me and says, "Everyone, this is Rogue," then points to Aiden and states, "and his friend, Aiden." He points to the orange fox and says, "Rogue, Aiden, this is Tails," to the pink hedgehog, "Amy," to Knuckles, "Knuckles," and to Rouge, "and Rouge." I wave shyly without looking at anyone and quietly mumble, "Hi…"

"Why isn't he looking us in the eye?" asks Knuckles. "That's plain rude! Doesn't he have any manners?" He's starting to yell. It's not my fault that it's hard for me to do that. "If there's one thing I hate, it's when people are rude to me!" He walks up to me and shouts, "Look me in the eye!" Don't yell at me… "Knuckles, don't yell at him!" exclaims Amy as if she's psychic. He nonetheless continues to do so. My eyes start to tear up. "Don't be so naïve!" he commands. That breaks me and I start bawling. "Knuckles!" scolds Rouge. "You made him cry!" She slaps him across the face and leaves a huge red bruise. "What kind of a man are you?"

Tails speaks, and his voice is even higher than I imagined it to be. "She's right, Knux, you can't talk to a kid with Asperger's syndrome like that." He can tell? "What's that?" asks Amy. "Well," starts Tails. "to put it simply, it's a social disorder. It causes deficits in skills like eye contact, facial expressions, etcetera. People with it are prone to outbursts of rage or crying, and as far as language goes, metaphors and sarcasm don't make sense to them. You have to treat them nicely. I'm guessing since he doesn't make eye contact at this age that he wasn't given any special help when he was younger."

"…" Knuckles says nothing as I wipe tears from my face. "…I'm sorry, kid…" he mumbles after a few seconds. "What?" exclaims Sonic. "I didn't hear that! I don't think Rogue did, either!" I did, though… Knuckles sighs and responds, "I… gotta say it again? I'm sorry." What I'm wondering is how Tails knows that much just from being around me for a few minutes? I nod, and Tails walks up to me, smiling cutely. "Hiya! My name's Miles Prower, but please, just call me Tails." He makes me actually want to look at his eyes. He's so calm and understanding. He puts his hand out for me to shake, and I grasp it. For pretty much the first time, I willingly make eye contact with someone other than Aiden or my parents. I stare directly at his blue eyes, although I think I'm doing it very awkwardly. "Hi, Tails…" I say quietly. "See?" asks Tails to no one in particular. "He's already making progress."

Amy walks over as well. "Hey there, Rogue. Have no fear; Amy Rose is here!" I shake her hand as well, and then I look into her hot pink eyes. They're so… beautiful… and dreamy. Her short pink quills are combed down, and she's wearing a headband with a brooch on the left side of it. She's wearing a red minidress and red boots. She's comparable to a princess from a children's storybook. "H-h-h… Hi, A-A-Am… Amy," I nervously say. "Aww! Look at that!" she exclaims. "He's blushing!" I am? I am! I quickly look at my feet to stop myself from turning red. Amy chuckles as Sonic whispers in my ear, "I know. She's cute, right?" Well, obviously. If she weren't, then I wouldn't be blushing.

Soon, Rouge steps up and says, "I'm Rouge the Bat, but you can call me Rouge. I'm the greatest jewel thief alive and an agent for the GUN." She… She is? That's not good… What if she reports me to the GUN HQ? Frick! When she puts her hand out, I shy away from her. "What's wrong?" she asks. "You… You're a G-G-G-G… GUN agent? Don't touch me! You're gonna arrest me, aren't you?" An inquisitive look appears on her face. "Why would I arrest you? You're just a kid. What could you have done that's so bad?"

I pull my gun out and yell, "Stop playing tricks on me! I know you know who I am! The last agent who tried to arrest me said that he'd put all of the GUN on alert!" Then, she looks as if a light bulb goes off in her head. "Wait, you're Rogue? I expected the thief 'Rogue the Hedgehog' to be a full-grown man, not a thirteen-year-old boy. What did you steal anyway?" Without putting my gun down, I reply, "Food… Just enough to survive…" Rouge raises an eyebrow. "That's what's got HQ's panties in a bunch? An impoverished kid stealing food? I swear they must have no heart. Either that or their priorities are messed up big time. And you know what? It's not my duty to arrest you. I'm a spy, not a full-time agent, and I honestly missed the company of another thief."

"Rogue… could you please… put the pistol away?" asks Amy. "I'm not comfortable around guns…" I put my gun in my pocket and immediately realize what a stupid move that was. I probably made Amy feel uncomfortable around me.

"Okay, kid," starts Knuckles while he stays on the couch. "I'm Knuckles, and I don't do the whole handshake thing."

After everyone's introduced, Knuckles, Rouge, and Amy leave. "So why'd you bring the two of them over here, Sonic?" asks Tails. Sonic scratches the side of his head with his index finger and replies, "Oh, yeah, I need to ask you something, Tails. Do you mind if these two stay here with us for a while? They don't have any place to go." Tails opens his mouth, but before he can say anything, Sonic interrupts, "And no, they wouldn't be able to stay with Vanilla. Rogue doesn't even know her and Cream, and I don't think she'd want a gun in her house. I don't think Rogue would like it there."

"You're implying that you know him pretty well. Did you guys know each other when you were little?"

"Yup. He and I would play together back on Christmas Island."

"How long ago was that?"

"Back when I was eight and nine years old."

Tails looks at me and smiles. "Wow!" he exclaims happily. "You've known Sonic longer than I have! Sure. You guys can stay in the guest room. You two are fine with sharing a room, right?" Aiden nods and replies, "Yep! That's fine!" Tails smiles once more and gets up from the couch. "All right! Let me show you around!"

We walk around the first floor, in which sits the living room, the kitchen, the dining room, the half bath, and the garage, which has three biplanes in it and one monoplane. "That's a lot of planes! Cool!" exclaims Aiden. Tails chuckles and says, "Yeah, I think they're pretty cool, too. I designed all but one of them. The red one is the Tornado-1, which is the one I didn't design. The blue biplane is the Tornado-2, and the blue monoplane is the Tornado-3. The silver one is the X-Tornado." The only thing I'm thinking about, though, is how huge the house is.

We walk out of the garage and head up the stairs. There are four rooms in the upper level. "Okay," starts Tails. "so the one on the farthest end is Sonic's room, the one next to that is my room, the next one is the bathroom, and the one right in front of us is the guest room, which is now your guys' room." He opens the door to the room, and in it sits two full-size beds, two nightstands, two small dressers, a bookshelf, a computer, a table, and a small TV. The room is at least twenty-five by twenty-five feet, which is relatively small compared to the rest of the house, but it's still huge for my standards. Back when I was seven, my room was probably only nine by nine.

"Jeez!" yells Aiden. "Your guest room is more like a guest suite! Heck, this whole house is huge!" Tails chuckles and responds, "Yeah. It was a steal, too. We seriously thought that someone was crazy when we were just given this house. They said it was because Sonic was such a hero that he deserved a good place to live, so here we are now! Anyway, get yourselves settled in. I'll see ya after that!" He walks down the stairs, and I just stand there, trying to take in the sudden turn of events. Half an hour ago, I was wandering along a highway, and now, I've been offered a place to stay by Sonic the Hedgehog.

Aiden runs over and jumps onto one of the beds. "Oh, my gosh! This thing is so comfy! Rogue, you've gotta see!" I guess I might as well… I walk over to the other bed, take off my backpack, and slowly sit down. Even when I'm just sitting, though, I already see what he means. I lay down on it… Seeing as it's been six years since I slept on a bed, I think I'd be content with any bed, but this one is comfortable beyond anything I've ever laid down on. I let out a sigh of comfort as I close my eyes. This is like heaven… "You're right, Aiden…" I say.

After a few minutes of laying down, I sit up in the bed and let my feet dangle off the side so I'm facing the TV. Hooked up to the TV is… Well, I don't know what that is. "Hey, Aiden, what's that thing?" I point to the weird black box. Aiden sits up and faces the TV as well. "Oh, that?" he starts. "That's a PlayStation Two, or PS2 for short. It's a video game console. We had one back at the orphanage." A video game console? Awesome! I haven't played a video game in forever! The last one I played was on a decrepit Nintendo. "Do you think they'll let us play it?" I ask.

"Of course. It's there for a reason, y'know." The voice came from Sonic, who's standing right in the doorway. "The games are right there on the bookshelf if you wanna take a look. Aiden and I nod and walk over to the bookshelf, where there are probably about fifteen games just for the PS2. There are a couple in particular that catch my eye, however. They have Sonic's name on them.

I take a game titled Sonic Heroes off of the shelf, and Sonic must have noticed my curiosity about the game, because he's now behind me saying, "You're wondering about some of those games? I swear that the company who made them was psychic, because even though these video game systems were made over a thousand years ago, they predicted almost everything that happened to me. Weird, huh? Of course, they did miss some valuable information, but it's still weird how they were able to do that… Can I have the game, please?" I hand the case to him, and he walks over to the PS2. "This particular game happens when Tails, Knux, and I had to defeat Neo Metal Sonic," he explains as he pops the game in. "That annoying son of a…" He doesn't finish his sentence before he says, "Here, I'll show you."

He turns the TV and the PS2 on, and he starts playing the game…