Disclaimer: Grapes is my own creation, nothing else, so back off.
Author's note: It's a bit A/U since I'm combining a few elements from the comic series and maybe a bit from the games as well. Some things may be off because I've lost track of most of the comics and Knuckles… IS RED! NOT GREEN! At least, here he is. You have been warned.
Past: (Timeframe Grapes Enters in, after Sonic Adventure 2)
Sonic – 18
Amy – 16
Tails – 10
Knuckles – 18
Future (nineteen years later)Sonic – 37, deceased
Amy – 35
Tails – 29
Grapes – 8
Knuckles – 37
Ten years afterSonic – 37, deceased
Amy – 45
Tails – 29, deceased
Grapes – 18
Knuckles – 47, deceased
"So this is the infamous 'mysterious young hedgehog' I keep hearing so much about… Good thing I listened to my instincts otherwise I wouldn't have saved your asses in time."
"Hey!" Sonic and Shadow shouted at the same time. But Knuckles kept on speaking, ignoring the duo.
"I felt a rather peculiar disturbance in this reality earlier, as if a hole has been ripped through it... I felt it the day you mentioned his arrival, and a stronger one just today. I guess it came from your Mecha-selves." Knuckles said as he inspected the once more unconscious Grapes. He, Sonic, and Shadow had already left using Shadows' technique Chaos Control. "Wonder why I didn't think of it before, that this kid is related to that strange disturbance a few weeks backs..."
Warping back to the relative safety of Angel Island, they watched over Grapes, wondering what to do with him. Sonic took the time to pace back and forth, trying to piece together everything that has happened over the last two months. Shadow sat in front of Grapes, whom was propped up against a tree. Knuckles chose to watch over the both of them, sitting on a tree branch while munching on some Grapes, the fruit.
"Do you think he's responsible for those robots?" Shadow asked Sonic. He didn't bother to turn his head, since the trio of former rivals all knew Shadow would only speak to Sonic. At least on friendly terms and with more vowels instead of his usual grunts and snorts.
Sonic stopped pacing immediately. "Indirectly is my bet."
"What do you mean Sonic?" Knuckles asked from his position.
Sonic paused for a moment, trying to explain his theory the best that he could. "First of all… he shows up, rescued Shadow and ends up saving him from those punks down at G.U.N. Then, he tells me where to find him, and then he saved our tails again from those robo-hogs although he was way out of his league. I'm betting they followed him here. He definitely knew them from somewhere and vice versa, and they didn't seem too happy to see him either… Alive that is."
"Wait a sec… You mean those tin cans almost beat this guy? The one with the power to turn super without any additional power ups? But that's impossible!" Knuckles replied in shock.
"We all know invincibility is a part of the package, but it's obvious that the only edge he had against those two robots was surprise." Shadow said to himself. Sonic and Knuckles looked over to Shadow, who was still studying Grapes rather intently.
"When that robotic version of myself shot at him," while pointing to grapes, "His natural defenses couldn't save him. Speed, power, invincibility, flight… They became useless."
Shadow slowly stood up and faced Sonic. Knuckles glided down, standing behind Shadow. He didn't plan on missing out on any important information just because Shadow neglected to let him in on anything because of past differences.
" It was a miracle that he had been able to pull off that last hit, damaging that imposter and sending them back wherever they came from. I say, we have to go after them, while they're still weakened from earlier!"
"You're just as insane as my old mentor described you." A voice replied tiredly. The three of them looked back, to find Grapes awake, his arm draped over his bent left knee. "Before you decide anything else, let me tell you, they aren't impostors and they are by no means weakened. They will come back, stronger and smarter."
"And who the hell are you to tell us anything?! We don't even know who you are, let alone your true intentions!" Shadow yelled at Grapes. "You brat! I should kill you where you sit!" Sonic quickly restrained Shadow while Knuckles only watched on impassively.
Grapes stood up. "What I tell you, you may not want to hear, or is necessarily helpful. Does a General inspire his soldiers by telling them to raid an impenetrable fortress?"
Shadow growled louder and even Knuckles looked a bit hostile to Grapes. Sonic took the initiative and whistled loudly while holding Shadow with one arm. Everyone soon stopped in their tracks.
"Alright, we got two killer robots on the loose that just can't be scrapped so easily, super form or no. So tell me, what's all this fighting gonna solve?" Sonic asked impatiently as he tapped his foot while crossing his arms. "Well? I'm waaaaiting!"
"I thought so! Anyways, to be fair… if you expect us to trust you, you gotta tell us what we need to know! We can't fight blind, and we sure as hell can't make friends, blind!" Sonic said while looking right at Grapes. Knuckles only stared intently into Grapes' eyes while Shadow only grunted while crossing his arms.
Grapes sighed. He rubbed his temples while trying to prepare what he had to say. There was no way he would endanger his own existence so he carefully picked his words At least they didn't ask any personal questions… not yet anyways…
"I come from a future where the world is conquered by a being much worse than Robotnik, or Eggman as you call him. In one swift strike, he managed to crush all of his defenses and took his weapons for his own use. He effectively did what he couldn't do in over a decade. Sonic… Shadow…" he said while pointing to each one while reciting their names. "You were the first few, and the most costly, casualties of war."
"Who is this guy?" Sonic asked.
Grapes hung his head. "You call him Mammoth Mogul. In my timeline, he is Master Mogul. And for good reason too. In his possession, he carries fourteen emeralds. Without you, the champions of this era to defend the future as you did in the past… there was no hope. Day by day, he was able to conquer more territory. Only the combined efforts of The Brotherhood, The Dark Legion, and The Acorn Resistance have kept him at bay but even so, they were dying out by the thousands."
"Wait! You only mentioned Sonic and Shadow as the first few casualties! Tails and I, we're still around right? What happened to us? Why couldn't we stop him?" Knuckles asked. Grapes could hear the desperation in his voice. Hearing that reminded Grapes of how he had parted ways with Knuckles and his last and harsh words with his mentor…
Soon his mind switched over to Tails. He was the Uncle Grapes never had and having found out his death from Knuckles had been the turning point of his life. He remembered that day clearly. It was the day he had sworn vengeance on Mogul and began his training under Knuckles and even under his own mother.
"Tails… I haven't heard that name in a decade… It was because of him, that I am what I am now. He was the best scientist the alliance ever had. He took the necessary steps to ensure our survival. When it came time he thought a 'super soldier' project would help win the war, he went as far as to experiment on himself."
"Experimented?" Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles questioned at once.
Grapes nodded. "He was able to compress the power of his fake chaos emerald into his genetic structure, make the power a part of him. In my world, we have no power rings. I just recently learned of that too."
"What happened to him?" Sonic urged Grapes on. He wanted to know what fate had in store for one of his oldest and best friends.
Grapes never looked up but continued to speak. "When he first started the process, he realized the explosive potential of the power if the subject can't adapt to the power flux or can't control it. He also realized that the war needed a swift and decisive end, so he did the next best thing to actually defeating him."
"He created an explosive powerful enough to destroy half of the planet and a type of zone generator. His plan was to infiltrate Moguls' fortress and pick a fight with Mogul himself. Then he would open his zone generator, suck in the entire fortress, and then along with the explosives, he would self-destruct by unleashing his own energy and an incredible rate. Somehow Mogul knew what he had in mind and suffice it to say, in the end Tails sacrificed his life for nothing."
He looked up at the shocked faces of his father, his future mentor, and Shadow. Grapes had ten years for the pain of Tails' death to transform into a dull aching in his chest. Watching their reactions and reliving the experience made all the pain come rushing back to him.
"And me?" Knuckles asked in a hushed tone.
Grapes sighed again before continuing. It had been easier to fight and concentrate when he had left the dead buried and the memories forgotten... Now it was hard to even think about what had happened.
"You were the longest living freedom fighter to date. The only person to outlive you, was my mother and I. When I found out about the death of Tails, I had sworn to avenge his death, and you took me under your wing and taught me everything you knew. Because Tails was one of the closest things I had to family, I spent ten years training and fighting off Moguls' army."
Grapes looked Knuckles straight in the eye. It had unnerved him to see so much optimism and so much doubt in his mentors' eyes. Repressing the urge to tell him the mental state he put himself in the future, he decide to tell him only what he wanted to know.
"You… fell in the line of duty. You, we… had been surprised with an ambush by Mecha Sonic and Mecha Shadow. We believed we were only going after some mindless drones when they were actually just the bait. One of them must have surprised you and killed you. I tried to fight them off by myself after but I almost died. Since I couldn't fight them on my own, the only way for me to save the future was to go back to the past."
For what seemed like an eternity, the heroic trio had slowly absorbed the information given to them. None of them could believe the tragedy he spoke of but they somehow knew it had to be true. Sonic, Knuckles, and even Shadow knew the risks when they took sides in a battle, but to them it was incomprehensible that Mogul could execute them with such a precise and coordinated matter, as if it were a game of chess.
"Out of all this hubbub, no one bothered to ask about my death?" Sonic asked, trying to break the silence with a joke. "So, what's my sob story?"
Grapes' eyes widened at his fathers' flippant attitude but he racked his memories of what had happened to his father. "I remembered what my mother said one night, when she thought I was asleep… she was talking to Tails. Over the years I pretty much pieced together the story from that night on… you pretty much sacrificed your life for your family and friends one night when Mogul planned a mass attack on Knothole."
"After your encounter with Shadow and Eggman, you went to live back in Knothole. You were the first one to notice an army approaching by land and air when you were having a midnight run around the forest. You came back to Knothole and quickly brought your family to Queen Acorn—"
"Queen Acorn?!" Sonic and Knuckles asked in unison.
"Uh… Yes. I believe you call her Princess Sally…" Grapes muttered. If there was one thing he hated besides Mogul, it had to be interrupted during an important conversation. And maybe speed bumps.
"Princess Sally kept your family under guard while you rally everyone outside of their homes to an underground route where Princess Sally would guide everyone to safety... "
"You held off Mogul and his forces all by yourself, to give everyone time to escape. After everyone was safe underground, Sally led a counterstrike team back into Knothole in order to aid you but it was too late. Mogul and his forces had already begun destroying Knothole and taking all the valuable equipment and information that was to be had in the computers, and you were no where to be seen."
Sonic whistled. "That can't be good..."
Grapes only blinked in confusion once more. What is wrong with his father? Was he dense? Did he have denial problems that he was never aware of before? Knuckles caught the look in Grapes eyes and chuckled.
"Don't worry, he understands the implications of what you're saying. He's probably just calculating the probable fun factor involved, since he'll have to deal with it. He's probably thinking about how he's gonna kick Mogul around."
"You shouldn't treat this as a joke! Mogul is nothing right now but he is gathering his forces as we speak! With Mecha Sonic and Mecha Shadow flying around, this won't be a walk in the park!" Grapes shouted.
Sonic only shrugged. "You're right. In your timeline Mogul had time to plan and work his way up. He caught everyone by surprise. BUT…" Sonic looked around as he spoke. "This time he won't! This time we know what's gonna happen beforehand, and we have time to stop it before anything gets out of control!"
"He's right. But somehow I don't think we're gonna be enough…" Knuckles replied.
"Why not? With the kid here and one of us in our super forms we could destroy this Mogul and perhaps even move onto Eggman himself." Shadow shot back.
"No, Knuckles is right. Mogul is not one to be underestimated." Grapes intervened. "We should gather up everyone we could find, form an army, and stop him from carrying out his goal."
"Fine, fine. When does he strike?" Shadow asked impatiently.
Grapes slowly did the calculations and slowly his eyes widen as he realized a grave, yet funny, miscalculation.
"I think I just made a slight, tiny, extremely miniscule, barely noticeable…. mistake…" Grapes said as he tugged on the collar of his jacket as he realized everyone started to look at him funny. "Whoo… is it me or is it hot in here?"
"What is it?" Shadow asked menacingly.
"Um… Good news is, we'll have plenty of time to get Mogul…"
"And the bad news?" Knuckles prodded.
"He won't attack for another ten years…" Grapes said
"ANOTHER TEN YEARS?! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Shadow yelled. He almost lunged at Grapes but he quickly maintained his composure before he could get an inch off the ground.
Grapes scratched the back of his ear as laughed sheepishly. "Ehhehheh… I just wanted to have enough time to prepare is all! I guess I jumped the gun a little."
Suddenly, that little gesture stopped Shadow cold. For some odd reason it bothered him. I've seen that from somewhere… I know it…
"Yeah, you jumped an entire decade!" Sonic muttered.
Knuckles patted Shadows' shoulder. "Relax! Relax! Hey, at least we have adequate time to prepare right? No need to look so down."
"Not necessarily." Sonic pointed out. "Who's to say Mecha Sonic and Mecha Shadow won't enlist help to take us out early? I'm guessing that Shadow was meant to die, right? If not for you, that is." he asked Grapes. Grapes merely nodded, not realizing the shock on Knuckles and Shadows' faces.
"I thought so. You already changed the course of history and by coming in contact with us you may have already prevented the future from crumbling. Those tin cans can't have that, so they might just pull out all the stops and kill us all early if need be, so their version of the future may stay." Sonic concluded.
Grapes thought about it for a few moments. "Great. So now what do we do?"
"Easy!" Sonic piped up. "We stop them, simple as that. No two ways about it! Now… no more talk about this loopy past/present/future stuff! I'm getting' a headache…" he laughed. "All these what-ifs can't be good for your health!"
An eventful afternoon had passed. Within a few hours Sonic, Shadow, and Knuckles had finally found out the horrible truth behind the miraculous survival of Shadow, the appearance of the mysterious young hedgehog, and the arrival of Mecha Sonic and Mecha Shadow. Deciding it to be a good idea to talk in private, Grapes persuaded Mina to go out and enjoy herself (and much to his dismay, at the expense of his own wallet).
"The sacrifices of a hero…" Grapes muttered as he looked into his empty, leather wallet.
By the time Mina had left, Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles, Tails, Rouge, and Amy had come by the apartment. In a matter of hours Grapes had retold his tale.
"Unreal…" Tails murmured.
"Yeah. I can't believe it." Amy murmured. She held a hand to her mouth as she suddenly realized something. "Oh my god, who's Sonic married to?! Is it me? Or did I die an old spinster?!"
::Everyone looks at her strangely::
"What? Those are honest questions!" Amy shouted indignantly. Soon all eyes turned to Sonic and Grapes. Sonic only huffed as he crossed his arms together.
"What, so now I'm responsible for what goes through her head, and out her mouth?" Sonic asked sarcastically.
Grapes cleared his throat while sending a swift kick to Sonics' shin.
"Ow!" Sonic said as he rubbed his ankle. He glared at Grapes, while everyone else wasn't sure what had happened since Grapes struck too fast for any of them to track. That, and most of them didn't pay attention, except for Shadow whom watched from a distance.
"Um… To tell you the truth, I really don't know whom Sonic was married to. I just pieced together information from what my mother spoke about and bits and pieces along the way." Grapes stated.
"Who were your parents? Do we know them?" Shadow asked out of nowhere. Grapes noticed the steely glaze in his eyes and he knew that Shadow had his suspicions and would actually expose him if need be.
"Good question!" Rouge piped up. "Are you Sonics' kid?"
Grapes suddenly froze. It felt as if all the blood had stopped flowing in his body and he was sure he was as white as Rouges' fur. Aw man! This is not good…
"I dunno, he looks kinda like Shadow…" Amy said hesitantly.
"WHAT?!" Everyone in the room half shouted and half yelled.
::Grapes' left eye twitches:: Or… Maybe not…
"I don't think he looks like any one of them. Maybe another hedgehog joined our little rag tag group?" Knuckles proposed. He then shook his head. "Why couldn't it be another echidna? It just had to be another hedgehog…"
Sonic suddenly spoke up. "Hey! Not a bad idea Red! Mwahahahaha! Hedgehogs are taking over the world!" he spoke triumphantly as he pumped a fist into the air.
"He could be Shadows' son. He certainly has the looks, power, and disposition…" Amy stated slyly, all the while watching slow but angry reaction forming on Sonics' face.
"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?!" Sonic bristled, not knowing he fell into another one of her traps. Amy only waved cheerfully with a smile on her face when Sonic stood in front of her with his teeth grinding endlessly back and forth.
Meanwhile Shadow was smashing his head on a nearby wall, clearly in disbelief over the stupidity of his comrades. I'm working with a bunch of idiots… Or maybe this is hell… Yes, that's it! I'm in hell! It all makes sense now…
Tails, whom had been watching this little play, covered his eyes with his hand. They really don't see the resemblance do they? as he looked back between Grapes and Amy. He then stood on a chair and cleared his throat to get everyone's' attention. "Should I point out the obvious here?" he asked politely as he could without either breaking out in anger or laughter.
In the distance he could see everyone nodding except for Grapes whom was violently shaking his head. Tails was about to point out that Grapes was Amy's' son, until he realized Grapes was slowly taking his sword out, and his fur and eye color began to change from soft lavender and intense green to an even brighter gold and red.
"On second thought… what would life be like without surprises?" he said nervously.
After establishing who was who, and swiftly ending the conversation on Grapes' lineage by Grapes himself, they only had one more issue at hand.
"So what should we do now? If we even change the slightest thing in our daily routines Mogul would notice. It's safe to say he has watched everyone of us in order to plan the perfect ambush." Rouge pointed out.
Sonic only shrugged. "The only thing we can do is to try to get stronger, faster, and smarter than the enemy. Hey, maybe Tails could build some sorta training room that can accelerate time! It'd be able to turn two to three days into a few years when you go inside! We could all train relentlessly and take turns. By that week, we'll be totally invincible!" Sonic said while flashing a victory sign.
He then noticed the astonished looks on everyone's' face. He then looked to Tails. "Whaddya think? Can it be done or what?"
Tails only shook his head. "I'm a scientist, not God."
"Future boy?" he asked as he turned to Grapes.
Grapes shook off the daze and immediately his eyes narrowed. "I have a name you know. And no it can't be done."
"Sorry. I don't like calling someone a fruit." Sonic said with a snicker
Grapes only slumped in his chair. "I really hate that joke. I mean really, so what if I'm purple and my name is Grapes?" He then looked over to his future father, whom was still chuckling at the joke. "Would you please grow up?!"
Amy chuckled herself but then noticed Grapes slumping. Without considering her actions, her maternal instincts took over. She took out her hammer, and faster than anyone could see she slammed it over Grapes head. "Don't slump! It's not good for your back!"
Grapes who was already used to the hits back in his timeline, only mumbled out an automatic apology.
"Sorry mom, I didn't mean too." Suddenly he froze as he realized what slipped through his mouth. He looked over to Amy and then to everyone else, and everyone to a certain degree, was shocked.
He quickly jumped out from his seat. "Uh! I mean, geez, don't be such a mom! Not that I'm saying you're actually my mom, you're just… mothering me, ya know? It was an accident, I swear! Really! Stop looking at me like that will ya?!" he yelled while addressing the entire group with that last statement.
Tails looked triumphant since everyone knew the truth now. Shadows' jaw was hanging, as was Knuckles and Rouges' jaw. Sonic had already lost consciousness while Amy was just speechless.
"Oh whatever. I'm going to bed, it's been a long day…" Grapes mumbled as he went straight to his room, leaving everyone sitting where they were, watching him slowly close the door behind him.
