It's the next day and the sun is shinning brightly in the sky. No clouds in sight and the temperature outside is great. Not too hot or cold. Just warm and comforting. Rukia is busy looking at the sky, sitting on the roof with her legs over one another and her arms are at the back to support her torso. Sonic is beside her, lying down and enjoying the warmth of the sun. The two of them didn't talk much since they have to be quiet. The reason? Well, let's just say that the other humans inside the mansion didn't know about their existence yet. The only one who knows they are here is Chris. Speaking of Chris, he's on the phone with someone. Rukia can barely hear the voice on the phone, but it sounds feminine. Perhaps his mother? He certainly sounds happy, so it might be the case.
"Besides that, mama..." Chris starts off, guilt in his tone. She's right. "Actually mama...I need to apologize to you... I broke two of my promises to you... That I can't go our after midnight, and...that I can't enter the adult's pool... No...it isn't that..." Chris wonders off while looking up at Sonic. Feeling as though he's being watched, he opens up one eye and looks at Chris. "There was a cat drowning and I saved him." Chris lies, listening to what his mother has to say. Rukia listens with amusement. After that, there's silence. She didn't miss the part where Chris kisses the phone and rubs his head in embarrassment. Such a cute kid. Once he's done talking, Sonic jumps down and lands on the balcony. Rukia remains on the roof.
"When you said 'cat' you meant me, right?" Sonic questions while pointing at himself.
"Yeah. Are you angry? But if I had said that it was a hedgehog, she wouldn't understand." Chris protests.
"What do you mean?" Sonic asks in confusion.
"Because hedgehogs are much smaller. They're like...about this size." Chris explains while creating a small space in between his hands.
Rukia see's this and raises an eyebrow. Of course, she has seen small animals back home...but a hedgehog that small? Never seen one, except a newborn hedgehog.
"Heh..." Sonic mutters, though his facial reaction remains the same.
"You're different! You're bigger in size, and you can talk too! Say, when and where did you guys learn how to talk?" Chris asks them, quite excited to learn more about the two of them.
"I dunno... I don't remember something that far back." Sonic answers while scratching his head as if trying to remember.
"Hm...I learned how to talk when I was little." Rukia briefly answers.
She didn't go into much details after that. Something she doesn't want to talk about, especially to someone she just met.
"Really?" Chris asks, his voice full of disappointment. Rukia just nods at him.
Ring Ring
The phone in Chris's hand starts to ring. Surprised, Chris answers it. "Y-Yes?" There's a moment of silence before Chris's face lit up with recognition. "Papa!"
Ah, now it's the dad. Rukia jumps down and sits down on a chair. Even if she didn't come down, she would still be able to hear the dad's voice.
"Chris? I just heard from your mother that last night a cat fell in the pool? I'm sorry, Chris." the father apologies over the phone. "To have such poor security that a cat managed to pass by..." The father continues, still sounding apologetic. Rukia gives Sonic a side glance and notice he looks annoyed.
"No, no. Don't worry about it. I'm all right. I let him go. I looked terrible, he got scared and ran away." Chris assures him and yet tells another lie. He even laughes a little towards the end. Right now, Sonic's picking at his ear, still annoyed.
"Really?" the father asks, his voice full of worry.
"Besides, grandpa is over here. Ella and Mr. Tanaka as well. Anyway, you're busy, right Papa?" Chris asks, wanting to change the subject.
"Yeah... I'm quite busy." his father answers.
"Well truthfully, everything is okay." Chris assures him once more. Now Sonic looks bored. Rukia wonders how many facial expressions he'll show before Chris is done talking on the phone.
"Really? Well then, I have to go. You know that I always love you very very much." his father tells.
"Me too, Papa. Bye!" Chris says his goodbye before hanging up.
"You have a loving family." Rukia comments.
"Is that so? I guess I do." Chris says, while rubbing behind his head in embarrassment and just smiles.
Rukia just chuckles at his embarrassment. Sonic just shakes his head and sighs which makes Chris even more embarrassed.
"Oh yeah! What do you guys do for breakfast? What do you always eat?" Chris asks, realizing that he doesn't know what they eat. It would be bad if he didn't know what to give them.
"What do the hedgehogs from here eat?" Sonic asks.
"From what I found out on the internet..." Chris starts off as he picks up a small tray and hands it to Sonic. "...Here!" Chris offers.
What's on the tray are small brown bits that look like cat food. Sonic looks at the tray with a dull expression, but he tries it out anyway. He places the treat in his mouth and chews. His face has a thoughtful look before it turns into disgust. Apparently, he doesn't like it.
"What is this!?" Sonic demands.
"Cat food." Chris answers, while rubbing his head.
Poor Sonic. He's being treated as a cat and now he had a taste of cat food. Rukia can't help but feel sorry for him.
"No way! I don't want this!" Sonic refuses, sticking his tongue out to show his disgust.
"Well...it looked like it was hedgehog food... But it was written that it may be cat food. Also, it said that it could be dry grass..." Chris explains, but then Sonic merely smacks away the tray and jumps away from him. He lands on a tree branch. Panicking, Chris rushes over to the edge. "W-Where are you going!?" Chris calls out to him. Rukia just sits there, watching what is going on in front of her.
"I prefer something more gourmet!" Sonic answers.
Chris pulls back a bit, but then calls out to him again. "You can't! It's bad to go outside!" Chris protests.
Of course, Sonic hears none of it and merely waves at him. "See you~!"
Once he says that, Sonic jumps off the branch and runs off quickly. While Chris is telling Sonic to wait, Rukia is busy cleaning up the mess that Sonic made.
"He's gone..." Chris sighs before looking over his shoulder to see what Rukia is doing. "Ah! You don't have to clean up!" Chris protests.
"No, it's fine. Also, I want to apologize for his rude behavior." Rukia apologies, focusing at the task at hand and not looking up.
"No, no. It's okay." Chris says, watching her clean up. It's silent between the two until Chris speaks up. "Let me help." Chris offers, bending down and helping her out. Rukia gives him a side glance before looking down again.
"You're a good kid." Rukia compliments him as Chris just rubs behind his head with a shy smile.
"Thank you." Rukia nods at him after he says his thanks.
After a while, the two finish cleaning up. Rukia goes back to her seat and sits down. Not like she has anything else better to do. A sudden grumble comes from her stomach and Chris looks over at her in surprise. There's a moment of silence as Rukia looks away from him with a small blush.
"..."
"I have some bread here. Would you like some?"
"... It's your breakfast though."
"I don't mind sharing."
"... Thank you." Rukia thanks him and takes the bread. She takes a bite and starts chewing. It's good. Nice and soft with a bit of crunchiness to it.
"How is it?" Chris asks, wondering if she likes it.
"It's good." Rukia briefly answers with a content look. Rukia hears a sigh of relief and she looks up to see Chris smiling. After that little talk, there's silence between the two once again.
The three of them are in the living room watching the news. Apparently, Sonic decided to come back and he's snacking on some cookies (or was it crackers?). Having already eaten, Rukia didn't eat anything else and just focuses on the television. The news is focused on Sonic who was running on the road last night.
"Due to incredible speeds, it's difficult to make out the image. Here are interviews with the people who were on the scene."
The screen changes to a police officer. "It's about this big, blue, and looked like a hedgehog." It goes from a police officer to a random driver. "It went really fast, it passed by me going "screeech" that way!" Another driver appears. "I'm not kidding, I think it was going faster than mach five!" Then a scientist shows up. While speaking, there's a monkey messing with his glasses and Rukia cocks an eyebrow at the motion.
"Well, it could be a "U.M.A". If you're wondering if it can be a being from earth, then...my answer is "no". The fastest of animals is a cheetah but they don't run faster than a car. An animal with such speed does not exist. It would be easier to simply think it's a machine." the scientist finishes his theory. Rukia is pondering on this information.
'If they're focusing so much on Sonic, then I doubt that they know about me. Of course, there was that man from before and his comrades.' Rukia wonders to herself, still pondering on a couple of things. That's when she hears a door open and she gives the visitor a side glance.
It's another human, though older than the ones she met so far. He's wearing brown pants with a dark and light green stripped shirt. He's also wearing a blue button up shirt underneath and has a white lab coat on. Is he another scientist? He didn't seem to notice Sonic or her when he walks up to Chris.
"Did you hear, Chris? They said that what outrun the S Team was some kind of mysterious machine!"
The old man exclaims as he then takes notice of Sonic and Rukia. He looks to the television, then back at Sonic and he does the same thing again until he becomes really close to Sonic's face since he's the closet to him. Forgetting that they aren't suppose to be seen, Chris quickly covers Sonic with a pillow.
"You're going to suffocate him." Rukia warns him, seeing as though it's already too late to cover him up.
"Eh?"
"It's not 'eh'! Get this off of me!" Sonic's muffles under the pillow. He then pushes upwards and the pillow is thrown aside. He crosses his arms, looking irritated. The old man stares at the two of them, though his focus is more on Sonic. He has a thoughtful look on his face before he suddenly smiles in excitement. He grabs a hold of Sonic, who iss struggling, and takes out a screwdriver.
"What is this thing made of...?" the old man wonders, poking the screwdriver on Sonic's back.
"AH! Stop!" Sonic yells out, laughing a bit since the screwdriver is tickling him. He then escapes from his grasp and jumps away from him. Making sure he doesn't do it to her either, she jumps off of the couch and keeps a good distance from him.
"Don't run away!" the old man demands, wanting to take Sonic and Rukia apart, thinking they're machines.
"Ummm... Grandpa... They're... Sonic isn't a machine and neither is Rukia." Chris defends the two of them.
Surprised by this, the old man stands and drops his screwdriver on the floor. Rukia watches him and makes sure he doesn't make any sudden movements toward her.
"Stay away, please! I'm scared!"
"Chao!"
New voices come out of nowhere and Rukia turns to the television. Everyone else did the same, staring at the television. Up on the billboard, there's a young rabbit with a Chao. Rukia lightly narrows her eyes.
"Are they your friends, Sonic?" Rukia asks, seeing Sonic's surprised expression.
"Yeah! So, we aren't the only ones here after all. All right, wait for me!" Sonic exclaims, running out of the room. Chris quickly runs after him with Rukia close by. The two of them run out the door to see Sonic about to run off.
"Do you even know where it is?" Chris calls out to him.
Sonic skids to a stop and runs back with a lost look. He gives them a sheepish grin and shrugs.
"Apparently he doesn't." Rukia says with a sigh as she shakes her head.
The group are in a garage where Chris' grandpa is talking on the phone to someone. While he's doing that, Rukia takes this chance to look around the place. It looks more like a mini work place than a garage. There are some machines that she never saw before, so she didn't dare touch them. She hears a beep and turns to see that Chris' grandpa is done talking on the phone.
"The police said that they were transferred to Area 99." He informs them.
"Area 99?" Chris wonders off before he has a serious look on his face. "Isn't that a military laboratory?" Chris asks, quite alarmed by this piece of information.
"Military?" Rukia and Sonic ask simultaneously. Chris turns to look at them.
"Yeah, the National Defense Force with tanks, armed cars, and other weapons." Chris explains.
"Looks like that creep Eggman..." Sonic says, finding a similarity between the two.
"You know Dr. Robotnik?" Rukia asks him with a raised eyebrow.
"Yeah. He's an evil scientist who uses robots to fight. Though, he always gets beaten by me." Sonic brags with a grin.
"Hm..."
"Why? Do you know Eggman?" Sonic asks, wondering why she asked him.
"Not personally." Rukia answering the second question.
"To be taken to the military's laboratory means that they want to research them." the old man interrupts their conversation and they look at him. "Like aliens from outer space or some kind of biological weapon that another country developed. But what really happens there, eh?" the old man asks the two of them.
"Like I'd know. Well now that I know where the place is, I'm going." Sonic says with a shrug before walking towards the exit.
"If you do that they'll catch you too!" Chris protests, not wanting Sonic to get captured.
"If they can catch me." Sonic says with a confident smirk. Before he can go outside, however, the garage door closes on him. Sonic looks back, slightly glaring at them. "What are you doing?" Sonic asks, irritation in his tone.
Rukia merely looks over at the old man. "Don't blame Chris. Ask him." Thrusting her thumb towards him, the old man grins down at her.
"Ha ha I've been found out." Sonic looks toward him, wanting to know why he did that.
"It looks like fun! My blood is excited!" Chris's grandpa exclaims.
"Even you, Grandpa?" Chris asks in doubt.
The old man turns to Chris. "You're also going. Don't you always say that you refuse to have a boring life like your father?" He asks Chris.
Chris raises his hands up in defense and nervously smiles at him. "That's a secret. You can't say that to Papa!"
"I know!"
Rukia turns her head to the audience and sighs. "Is it just me or does the older generation tend to be more excited about adventures than the younger ones?" Rukia wonders with a sweat drop.
The adventurist group are riding in a car, going downhill on the road. The wind is blowing against Rukia's hair and it feels nice. Since they are surrounded by dry land with no shade in site, it's hotter than usual. The sun is beating down on them and it creates a little haze surrounding them.
"This thing is going so slow! Geez..." Sonic complains with a pout while having his arms crossed. Rukia can't help but roll her eyes at him.
'This guy is too impatient...' Rukia sighs mentally, staring at the scenery around them as she's resting on the palm of her hand with her cheek.
"Is this it?" Chris asks his grandpa.
"Oh yes, yes!" His grandpa answers as Chris turns his body to face Sonic and gives him an item.
"Put it on." Chris instructs him, while pointing at his own head.
"What is it?" Sonic questions, looking down at the item.
"An infrared scope." Chris's grandpa answers. "Most likely, in Area 99 there will be plenty of traps. But if you use that, you should be able to avoid them." he explains to Sonic.
Rukia looks over at Sonic to see him putting on some kind of one ear headphone with an attached mini microphone and a red glass covering his right eye. Once he adjusts it, Sonic gave them a thumbs up before unclasping his seat-belt and jumps out of the car.
"Thank you! Well, I'm going ahead!"
Sonic then takes off running down the road towards Area 99. This causes the two in the front to be amazed by his speed.
"Oh wow! He's so fast! ALL RIGHT!" the old man yells out, all pumped up and starts speeding up. Both Chris and Rukia are flatten against the seats as the wind blows wildly against them.
'The old man is WAY too excited!' Rukia shouts in her head as the car is flying down another road.
After a while of driving at quick speed, he decids to slow down so that Chris would be able to talk Sonic.
"Can you hear me, Sonic?" Chris asks.
"Yeah!" Sonic's voice is heard over the ear piece.
"When you get in, head for the air vents. From there, you should be able to pass security. Got it?" Chris explains to Sonic.
"All right!"
"But do you know where they're locked up?" Chris asks his grandpa.
"Of course!" the old man says, taking the ear piece from Chris and placing it on his ear. "Head for a suspicious place, and if you go there you should be able to find our objective." Chris' grandpa explains to Sonic.
"Can you be anymore vague?" Rukia asks him, shaking her head at the lack of description. Chris also agrees, believing it's irresponsible.
"Oh well, I'll take care of that!"
As easy going as Sonic is, he didn't mind what the old man said and continued on. The three of them didn't hear from him for a while, enjoying the ride so far.
"I'm in the air vents!" Sonic's voice speaks up after a moment of silence.
"Roger." Chris acknowledges on what he said.
After a moment, there's some muttering on the other side of the ear piece.
"What did you just say?" Chris asks him.
"Nothing."
Even without knowing what's going on for a while, it sounds as though Sonic isn't having a rough time. The car then drives up to a cliff and stops. Wanting a better view, Rukia jumps out of the car and stands near the edge. Area 99 is certainly big. The place looks as though it's covered almost half the landscape ahead of her. Silence surrounds them as they wait for Sonic to say something. All of a sudden, the alarm from Area 99 goes off.
"He's been spotted." Rukia points out, narrowing her eyes at the place.
They didn't hear anything from Sonic, so the tension around them increased.
"Sonic! What happened? Are you all right?" Chris calls out to Sonic, hoping he's okay.
"Don't mind me!" Sonic's voice assures them, but the tension is still there, wondering if they're going to make it.
Explosions are heard from the base as the alarm continues to go off. While watching the scene, Rukia is reminded back home of the incident where Dr. Robotnik's base was exploding in different places.
'Hm...if my theory is correct... Sonic is the one who caused the destruction.' Rukia wonders to herself, watching the scene some more. Her eyes then catch something in the sky. It's hard to see due to the glare of the sun. All she can make out is a blue airplane...
"Look at that!" Chris suddenly exclaims, pointing towards the building. Rukia looks over and notices Sonic flying in the sky with the rabbit in his arms.
The airplane that's flying in the sky goes over to them and Sonic lands on the wing.
"Nice catch." Rukia praises, impressed at the feat as the airplane flew over their heads with Chris watching in awe.
"Well then, shall we get going?" Chris's grandpa asks, starting the engine to head home.
Rukia nodded, jumping in the backseat and he drives off.
The group is back home, introducing one another. Rukia is leaning against the staircase, content with just watching.
"I'm Chris! I only made friends with Sonic yesterday." Chris introduces himself.
"I'm Tails. I'm always with Sonic. Right, Sonic?" Tails asks him.
"I guess." Sonic replies with a smile.
"I'm Cream. And this is my friend, Cheese. Pleased to meet you!" the rabbit, Cream, introduces herself and her Chao, Cheese, to Chris. Both of them bow to him in greeting.
"Me too! Nice to meet you! We're going to be great friends!" Chris bows back in return with a smile. "And this is my grandpa." Chris introduces his grandpa, who is examining the small paper airplane in awe.
"Incredible. I never saw such a remote-controlled airplane." He praises.
"Those are nothing special!" Tails says, rubbing his nose while wagging his two tails. Even if he says so, he looks happy when being praised.
"But..." Chris starts off while looking at Sonic. "That was really dumb! They're the army, you know! It could start a war..." Chris says, trying to get Sonic to understand what he did.
There was a pause before Sonic answers with an easy-going attitude. "If that happens, it'll work out fine!"
"That's not the problem I was talking about..." Chris persists. Sonic just shrugs at him, not caring at the moment.
While that is going on, Cheese starts walking around the place with curiosity. He then looks over to see Rukia leaning against a staircase, watching the others talk. He runs over to her and looks up at her. Rukia raises an eyebrow and looks at the chao. He's like other Chaos, except he has a red bow tied around his neck. Rukia bends down and starts petting him on the head.
"Nice to meet you, Cheese."
"Chao! Chao!" Cheese squeals at the motion, liking the attention.
Hearing his cry, Cream looks over at him to see Rukia petting him. Seeing as though Cheese didn't feel threaten by Rukia's presence, she must be a good person.
"Cheese?" Cream calls out to him.
Cheese looks over at Cream before looking up at Rukia with a smile. He then takes her hand and ushers her over to the group. Despite being little, he's quite strong. Once he takes her over to the group, Rukia stands straight.
"... I apologize for petting Cheese without permission." Rukia suddenly apologizes.
Cream shakes her head. "If Cheese let you pet him, then that means your a good person! My name's Cream, what's yours?" Cream curiously asks her with a smile.
"My name is Rukia. Rukia the Echidna. Nice to meet you." Rukia introduces herself as she bows her head.
"It's nice to meet you too!" Cream greets back happily as she bows back, glad to make another friend.
"My name's Tails. I'm curious, did you and Sonic meet before?" Tails suddenly asks her.
"Nice to meet you, Tails. As for your question, I've only just met him yesterday. Like Chris." Rukia nods over at Chris before turning back to Tails.
Tails nods, accepting her answer before turning to Sonic. "Hey Sonic... You, me, Cream, Cheese, and Rukia got caught in that accident, which means... Maybe others were sent to this world?" Tails theorizes.
"Other people who were there were... Knuckles, Amy, and..." Sonic starts off before widening his eyes.
"Dr. Eggman!"