Chapter 3
"Um, Uncle Chuck? I'd like you to meet my sister, and she, uh, needs someplace to stay."
"Sister?" The graying hedgehog replied, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, well, she got taken at birth or, whenever I, uh, we were on your doorsteps, but now she can't go back to her parents and we can't really leave her on the street so…"
"She can stay in the guest room."
"Thank you." Sonia said curtsying out of habit.
OOOOOOOOOO
The next day, Sonia was surprised by the early wake up call. Six was too early to be healthy. Sonic and Chuck were nice enough to give her some of their breakfast. She didn't see the foster father off to where ever he was going, choosing instead to stare at the rectangular, silver-rimmed black square on the kitchen's wall. Sonic walked back in to find her still looking at it.
"What is this?" she asked him.
"One of the Robotnik's wall viewers. Didn't your house have one?"
"No."
"Oh, well then. This is how he distributes information to everyone, even some of those outside of Mobian lands. It gives the news of changes in work schedules and assignment, harsh weather, dangerous people, things along those lines. It sets the waking and sleeping times, and also transmits the education programs for anyone young enough."
"Is that the only thing of his you have?"
"Well, he designed the food-heater and the storage unit."
"Oh. Where does the food come from?"
"Delivered every month. Where'd you live exactly?"
"Uh, well, someplace a lot… different."
"Huh. Well, let's go meet our brother."
OOOOOOOOOO
"So, we're gonna' start a band and would like you to join." Manic said after half-hearted introductions.
"Well, I only know piano and…" Manic winked at Sonic, who glowered, before replying.
"Keyboard, then."
"What's that?"
"Like a piano, only not as ridiculously huge. We both know a good shop, and we can get Sonic a guitar while we're there."
"Um, I don't have enough to rent one again…"
"I can buy it." Sonia replied quickly.
"How?"
"Oh yeah, she's rich, as I've already mentioned." Manic explained. Sonic just looked at her bug eyed.
"My mother- foster mother is a noble in the aristocracy."
"Why didn't you just tell me?"
"Because…"
"You thought he would be both jealous of your vast wealth and privilege while at the same time thinking condescendingly of you as a naïve rich kid." Manic quickly summed up. "Now can we get back to the matter at hand, please?"
OOOOOOOOOO
A little while later the three exited the music store, Sonic with an electrical guitar now owned by him in his hands, and Sonia with a new keyboard slung on her back.
"I still don't understand why the main entrance is in an alley." She was saying as they stepped into the main street.
"It's best for sales." Manic replied
"Right. What do you guys want to play first?"
"Fire-blast?" Sonic suggested.
"Why I Hate you?" Manic put in.
"Baelhauff's Fifth" Sonia suggested.
"Ode to Croatoan?" Manic said. Sonic glared at Manic's suggestion, but the green hedgehog only chuckled. "You do realize we're gonna' have to make something new. And Sonia, this is a rock band."
"You could have said so."
"I'd think it'd be obvious."
"Hmph."
OOOOOOOOOO
After a week of conspicuous practice, the three were ready for their first gig. They only had to finish negotiations with the manager. It was an interesting human with black, flat top hair and grey side burns, who had an annoying habit of speaking while he smoked.
"Now, you say you only want the publicity."
"Yes." Manic said for the tenth time.
"Hm. What's the name of your band again?"
"Uh, well…" Manic signaled to have a quick moment while he joined with his sibling in a huddle to discuss options.
"I say 'Three Kids Dumped'." Manic started.
"Stone Love" Sonia replied.
"Sonic Underground." He was met with blank stares. "What, it's just as bad as what you were suggesting." A collective sigh.
"Er, actually I somewhat liked a bit of the last one." The manager put in. "How about just 'Underground'." Making an imaginary frame in the air with his hands.
"Well, that suggests a kind of… illegality." Sonia said. The manager stared at her with an expression of honest shock. Turning to Manic he suggested,
"Why do I get the feeling there's been a distinct failure in communications."
"Ah, yes, well," Manic began, facing his sibling. "This is all technically illegal, being related to such social sins as drinking, being out after dark, and having a good time, but the Robotnik probably figures he's more likely to start a revolution by enforcing this than stopping one."
"Well, if that's all settled I think we'll take the name." Sonic said, turning to the manager.
"Okay. On in fifteen minutes, play for thirty. Got it? Good."
OOOOOOOOOO
Sonic looked out over the audience who were largely ignoring him. Stepping up hesitantly to the microphone, he played a single note, speaking the first words of the song, a classic:
Some bitter darkness took your heart,
And made you rip our love apart,
And all I am left with is fields of flower
Every word was matched by his guitar and he played the sounds in an unending stream that made a song. He could here his siblings adding their voices and interweaving their sounds. There was only a brief pause before launching into their next song.
OOOOOOOOOO
The three walked off in a daze, down to the bar where a jovial hedgehog bartender met them.
"Drinks on the house, kids! Whaddya'… how old are you?"
"Fifteen."
"Fifteen."
"Fifteen since I was found." Manic finished.
"That'll be water then. Good work on your playing." As the bartender went over to a spout which looked suspiciously like that of a sink, Sonia leaned towards Manic and said,
"I'm surprised you didn't pass yourself off as sixteen."
"Nah. Ferrel let me try some once, and it was pretty bad. 'Sides, I don't want a messy headache tomorrow." The bartender came back with all three's drinks, they thanked him and headed out to find a table. The establishment was cramped, except for one table.
"Isn't it a bad sign that no one's sitting with that one person, to the point of standing at other tables?" Sonic asked.
"Hey, I'm usually one of those people myself, so he probably isn't that bad." Manic replied defensively. They sat down opposite the shunned one who was… odd, to say the least. It took them a while to realize that the red fur and longer snout marked him as an echidna, not some mutated hedgehog. They were rare in all of the Greater Island, but they were a minority that had been there since as long as anyone could remember. Manic seemed more interested in the grey camo-patterned cloak he was wearing.
"I found it on the ground." the echidna enunciated slowly, taking a hand from behind his head to drink. It wasn't hard to notice the brass knuckle on his hand. The metal wrapped around each finger, linked to the others on the side. These ones also had a pair of sharp spikes on the top, making them a nasty looking weapon.
"What's your name?" Sonic asked. The echidna grunted angrily in reply. They left him alone after that, drinking their water and listening to music. When they realized how late it was they left, while Sonia left a tip for the bartender
"What was the big deal about the cloak?" Sonia asked as they walked down Mobius City's dark streets.
"It's from the Royal Guard. They were all offed like the king and queen."
"Offed?"
"Shot, killed, dead. Ya' really need to learn some basic slang, girl. Anyhoo, it's not unknown to own one, but wearing it's suicide."
"*BZZZT* CURFEW VIOLATION OF FOUR HOURS AND THIRTY-SEVEN MINUTES; IT IS 22:37. *BZZZT* SUBJECTS: SONIC MAGEE, HEDGEHOG, SONIA WINDEMERE, HOUSE WINDEMERE, HEDGEHOG, *BZZZT* UNKNOWN, HEDGEHOG." Towering over them were five Mark Seven Enforcers, known by most of the public as "cop-bots". They stood two meters tall, covered in purple painted metal. Their heads were bulges on the torsos, set with red glass eyes to cover their optical sensors. Thick, rounded arms came down to wickedly curved, razor sharp claws, and built into the right arm was an assault rifle.
"Terribly sorry," Sonic began, desperately trying to legitimize his illegitimate activities. "But…"
Crack
At that moment, the sound of a gun firing hit Sonic and Sonia's ears for the first time as a lit-up round slammed in to the first cop-bots chest unit. It stood still for a second before toppling over to the ground. The organic beings present hit the ground as the remaining four cop-bots formed a defensive circle and pointed their gun-arms at the rooftops, where the shot had originated.
Crack
The next one was from somewhere else. It burst through one's head, and the machines still able to see turned in unison and fired.
Crack
They all missed as was apparent from the damaged one's subsequent destruction.
Crack
Another cop-bot fell. The last two stayed utterly still, their guns pointed at the roof tops. The three hedgehogs dared to look up from their cowering, thinking the gunfire to have stopped.
Crack
This one came from behind a nearby waste bin, not on the rooftops, stopping yet another cop-bot. The last bot reacted uncharacteristically quickly, and with three cracks from its arm weapon the waste bin was neatly punctured. One crack barely hit the cop-bot's center causing it to unbalance. Sonic, Sonia, and Manic looked at where the last shot had been fired from. Something indistinct walked out of the alleyway.
"Huh. Six shots. Think I'm losing my touch." It was the exact same echidna from the bar, made definite by the pair of brass knuckles on his hands. He was holding some sort of light assault rifle. They just stared at him. "Yeah. Shoo, before something comes to investigate."
"Why? Did you shoot them I mean? We were perfectly okay." Sonic demanded.
"Coincidence. By the way, you never saw me." He added, motioning the gun barrel slightly towards them.
"Who are you?" The echidna only turned away. "Who are you?" with a sudden movement he turned and slammed Sonic in the face, knocking him to the ground. Sonic thought he could feel blood on his snout. The echidna grabbed him by his shirt collar and pulled him close.
"Knuckles. Happy?" dropping him, the self-labeled "Knuckles" took a quick glance around, before running off into the dead of night. Manic picked Sonic up and said,
"Ya' kinda deserved that, ya' know." Sonia nodded in agreement.
OOOOOOOOOO
Deep in the former royal palace, now the Robotnik's Central Administrative Unit, below the deserted bedrooms and dining halls, or the parlor where the king had been shot in his futile resistance and the queen had fled in futility. She had fallen in the city's central river. Below all of those wasteful rooms of decadence, there sat the Lord Robotnik himself, musing over what his life meant.
He had taken the title from the name of his grandfather on his mother's side, an even greater genius than he. His bald head was fronted by a bushy handle bar mustache, all over an admittedly obese body. He dressed in a long-coat red as bl- a rose. Red as a rose. And he wore black trousers with matching shoes. What if I had fired before Brushen had jumped in the way? He didn't particularly like the subject, but his mind forced him to ponder that moment again and again. He was relieved from that agony by an alert on one of the many holo-screens in front of him.
"Five this time?" he muttered to himself. His gloves were installed with special radio signalers, so he could touch the screen for it to respond. With a few taps he brought up the cop-bots video feed previous to their destruction. There were three hedgehogs he could see, but it was obvious they weren't involved in the combat once all the footage was over. The Robotnik ran background checks on all three to be sure. The pink one was Sonia Windemere, part of one of those accursed aristocrat families. He had needed their support to reach where he was now, but they really were the epitome of all he stood against. Strangely there was no indication of why she would be on the streets. The green one was unregistered, but the computer suggested connections to various burglaries and a few gang wars.
The blue one made him stop a second. "Sonic Magee" looked like the hedgehog he had killed. It was probably a mental mistake generated by the blue fur, but he wouldn't let it be taken lightly. He lived with an old hedgehog named Charles Magee since before the revolution. Or before the registration. It didn't matter. The Queen had drowned in the river. His Hunters gave him proof of that. And she hadn't even given birth yet. They would have let him know. That and the fact she would of had triplets. Best to keep tabs anyways. He notified all cameras to specifically separate images of him.