Sorry for taking so long on updating this story. I had planned for it to be finished in August, but school among other things caused me to put writing this and my other story in the back burner for about a month. I've been working on this chapter on and off actually since September, when I had planned it so I can update this before or on my birthday (September 10th). Needless to say, THAT deadline didn't meet either and I ended up but this chapter on hold for a long planned. But I finally finished and proofread this tonight and did a few edits of the story for the first two chaps. (also another reason why this took so long was the flashback in this chapter. I wanted it to be perfect.)
It's the day of the homegoing of Sir Charles Hedgehog. His nephew, the fastest thing alive, Sonic the Hedgehog, is sitting in the limo, waiting to see his uncle for the last time. He wiped a tear from his face and stared at his feet. He just sat there, thinking about all the fun times that him and his Uncle Chuck have had together. There wasn't that many good of times like the time of his 6h birthday, just days before his parents, Jules and Bernadette Hedgehog died in a drunk driving accident.
It was in that very house that Sonic had his eighth birthday, which he had proclaimed was his best birthday ever. Sonic walked out the back door of the house from a day at the park with his dad and into the back yard which was decorated in a lot of birthday décor. In between two trees was the sign, reading 'HAPPY 6th BIRTHDAY SONIC!' in huge blue colors against a white background with pictures of streamers and his face on the right side. Just under it is a vividly colored piñata, with splashed colors of blue, red, green, white and orange. On the other side was a huge inflatable bouncer with a red dragon head sticking out the top front.
'SURPRISE!', the guests to the surprised party yelled in glee. The birthday boy ran to the long table where all of his friends: Tails, Knuckles, Amy, Espio, Vector, Ray, Sally, Mina, and Mighty, and his siblings, Sonia and Manic, sat. Everyone got up and started to hug and talk to the young blue hedgehog.
"Aww, guys! You shouldn't have!" he said in pure joy.
"Huddle up, kids!" the mom, Bernadette, who was wearing a green print dress with matching shoes, said in excitement of her son's birthday. "I want a group picture!"
All of the kids huddled up into one mass. Sonic was on one knee n the front and center, next to his very best friend Tails to his right, and his sister Sonia to his left. Manic, Knuckles, Ray, Mighty, Sally, Amy, Mina, and Espio were in the middle. Vector, being the tallest, was in the back.
"Now say CHEESE!"
"CHESSE!" the guests and birthday hedgehog screamed as a bright flash of light was seen, indicating the picture was made. Everybody went back to talking about things like school and what kind of toys they have.
The dad, a hedgehog with white hair and red boots, the white hair complimenting his dark green eyes, Jules, came back out from the house.
"DADDY!" Sonic ran to his dad and embraced him, his short height making him only to hug dad's lower body. Jules patted on the top of his head and picked him to show him what a real hug is. The daddy nearly squeezed the life out of Sonic.
"Dad…can't…..breathe….."
"Sorry, son." He let his son go.
"I'm going to jump in the big bouncy thing!" With that he ran to the to bouncer and started to play with his friends. He and everyone else was having so much fun that no one noticed that it was close to being dark out.
"Come out the bouncer, kids," Bernadette's sultry voice said from the table. "Time to see the birthday cake!" With that everyone ran out of the bouncer with shoes off and onto the table they were at before. Jules opened the box and everyone, including Sonic, was amazed.
The birthday cake had a picture of Sonic against a white, red, and blue background with HAPPY BIRTHDAY SONIC written in red icing. Along the sides of the cake were yellow icing stars that had a little shine to it. In the very center of the cake was a small figurine of Sonic himself. The cake was received with positive acclaim as everyone had stars in their eyes.
"I made the statue myself," the dad proclaimed. "The cake was your mom's doing." He nudged Bernie in the ribs, making her giggle lightly. "I also helped with doing the statue," Uncle Chuck, who appeared from behind to scare the little birthday boy.
"AHH! Uncle, don't scare me like that!" the now scare hedgie exclaimed as he embraced his uncle.
"Dig in!" the mom said. "WAIT! Hold on." The little ones were ganging up on the cake trying to get a piece of it. "Move out the way, Amy!" Mina and Sally exclaimed as they tried to get to the cake first, but to no avail as the mother of the birthday hedgehog shooed them away from the delicious cake! She cut the cake on the right corner in a big square. Inside the cake was a strawberry ice-cream filling and vanilla cake on the top.
"And this big piece of cake goes to our big boy, Sonic." He gets the cake from his mom and takes a big chunk of it from his fork. "Hmm, tasty! Thank you, Mommy." Everyone got a piece of the cake. Vector tried to eat most of it though, but to his dismay, he got tackled by Sonia and Manic.
"Oh, no you don't!" The pink and purple hedgehog said while sitting on top of the big croc, in hysterics along with Manic.
About an hour later, the gang went to the table where all the presents lay.
"OPEN MINE FIRST!" Amy exclaimed, grabbing her gift from the table and shoving it in his face. Sally bumped her out the way with her hip, mimicking Amy by shoving her present in his face. Mina did the same thing and the three girls ended up fighting over whose present the birthday boy would open first.
Bernie broke it up before punches were thrown. "Um…Sonic will choose what present he will open first.
"Um….I want my bwrother's present first," the green hedgehog cracked a grin before going to the table, getting his gift and giving it to his little bro.
"Her you go, little bro!" He said in his normally upbeat tone. The blue one opened up the small and brightly colored box and saw a medallion with a guitar on it which is similar to the drum medallion on his brother's neck and the keyboard one on his sister's.
After a many of presents, which included a kiss from Amy, Sally and Mina, there seemed to be no presents left, until..
"Oh, hold on there a sec, kiddo," Uncle Chuck said and ran to the house. He came back out to reveal a box wrapped in a colorful red, white, and blue wrap. He gave the present to the birthday boy. "Open it, kiddo."
Sonic did as he was told and opened the box, revealing a shiny pair of red shoes with a white stripe across the center of them. At the end of the stripe lays a shiny golden buckle. Sonic looked in awe of them.
"OH THANK YOU UNCLE CHUCK!" he ran up to him and hugged him tight.
A sudden jolt of the car knocked Sonic out of daydreaming. He looked up out the window. "Guess I'm here." He got out the car and stood in amazement. It was a huge chapel with with a medieval renaissance look, with long and tall colored windows and a arched door which is a lot bigger then him. He looked over his side to find his best friend walking up to him.
"Are you ready?" Tails said. Sonic took a long deep breath. "Yup. Let's go in." the hedgehog replied. They slowly entered the church and looked at the sight. The church was packed to the brim with friends and even a few enemies. In the front two rows were Knuckles, Sally, Amy, Mina, Sonia, Manic, and other friends like the Chaotix and the rest of Freedom Fighters. Towards the middle were all of the Smashers whom he met and became friends with when he was invited in the Brawl competition the year before, save for Bowser and Ganondorf. A small smile formed across Sonic's face as he walked down the aisle along with Tails.
And there he was. Charles Hedgehog. The uncle of Sonic the Hedgehog. The brother of the late Jules Hedgehog. Here in his casket. Sonic took another long breath at him. A tear shed from his eye onto the deceased one.
"Now now that he's here, Sonic," he looked up at the priest of the church, a gray walrus with a black suit on with black accessories said, "will you give your eulogy?"
"Oh, okay." And he went to the pedestal, but not before getting a quick talk from Tails. He whispered, "You can do this, Sonic."
Sonic cleared his throat. "Um….okay. First, I would like to thank you all for um..coming to my uncle's funeral. I really appreciate it. Well, um…my uncle was a really brave person. He almost sacrificed my life along with most of our lives as well. Here was the reason why I am the way I am today. He was the catalyst for me being a hero, really. Since he almost got killed and stuff, I've felt like I needed to be a hero, and here was there the whole time. He was there for me when my parents were killed. He was there for me a lot over the course of my life. I guess I haven't really figured that out until now." he took another deep breath. "I just wish that I could have seen him one last time before he died. Well, I guess this will be last time I will see him in the flesh. I love you, uncle Chuck. I'll miss you. Everyone will."
After the funeral, he went into the office of the priest. He sat down in one of the two chairs in the office.
"I am glad to see you here, Sonic. You know that video that you gave to me?" He held a videotape for emphasis.
Sonic straightened up in his seat. "Yea, what gives? He wrote in the letter that he wanted the video to be shown during the funeral, what happened?"
"Sonic, do you know who wrote that?" the priest said. "It looks to me that it was all a set up. I know your uncle personally, and I know that it was not his handwriting. So I took a look at the video and-"
Sonic jumped out his seat. "You looked at it already? You weren't supposed to! He wanted to show it during the funeral and-"
"It shows him getting murdered." Sonic's eyes widened as he slowly fell back in seat.
"It can't be…..the telegram that Max sent said that….he died of old age……" Tears were flowing to his face.
"Nope, it's all here in the tape. He didn't die of old age. He got shot," the priest said as he started to leave the room. "I will be back in a few, I have some other business to take care of."
I can't believe it. He didn't die peacefully at all, he….oh my god….., he thought as he put his face to his hands. Who would do all this even to put the tape right here and forge the note. Why….
OOOHHH SNAP, A TWIST. Okay, so the twist WASN'T originally gonna be part of the story, but I wanted this story to kinda end with a cliffhanger so the murder part was added in at the very last minute, I mean just a few hours ago recent. So with this story, there will be an epilogue explaining the tape and mystery of the dead hedgehog.
