Sonic Underground Remix Chapter 10

The Elephant in the Room

Metallic sounds were the first to greet Hope Selene Kintobor when she started to wake up. It wasn't until a few seconds later that the blonde girl had registered the uncomfortable sensation that was on both sides of her body. There was also a constant draft that was in the room, which had indicated to the waking child that she wasn't at her home with her big brother Ovi, who was always pushing himself too hard and trying too hard to be both mum and dad. Hope was constantly worried about her poor brother's health, as she had always thought that her brother was getting less cuddly when hugging, and more hurtful and pointy whenever the two of them hugged each other. It wasn't a BAD hurting against her, mind you, but Hope knew that Ovi felt a bit too weak to her. Her thoughts on her brother vanished when she realized where exactly the young girl was.

"I'm... Am I in jail?" Hope thought quickly, lifting her entire body off of what she had finally registered as a 'plank bed'. Her red-brown eyes scanned the jail cell; before finding her Dragon chao friend on the ground in front of her. Like the overall clad child was, Boomy is in full sleep, muttering to himself about whatever he was dreaming about while scratching his own backside tiredly. The orange-red chao rolled over to his side, shivering as his body registered the coldness of the room. Hope knew that if she woke her chao right now, said dragon plush would be cranky and unable to help her out of this situation.

Hope decided to ignore her chao, and instead went toward the metal bars encasing the only way out. The bars were designed to keep all sorts of animals—whether human or chao—from totally breaking the bars entirely. Instead of trying to attempt her escape on her own, Hope listened to the hallway outside of the metal bars to hear what was coming.

"...are you sure it's a good idea, old man?" a raspy voice echoed through the halls, Hope suspected that it was a female that said voice belong to. "Lord Sypress would have—"

"Don't you DARE bring up that moronic tin tyrant's name when father is speaking, Evangeline!" A much deeper, but just as dehydrated as the female's screeched in the halls, making the child behind bars to turn her entire head away from the loud sound. "Besides, I'm sure he's got that planned... right father?" she continued, allowing Hope to turn her head back toward the bars carefully. What she got instead however was a fright.

There was a strange man in front of her, having a big brushy moustache (that reminded her of walrus whiskers, oddly) that was a bright red-brown. He had strange frames that covered his eyes completely with blue glass. The man was extremely lanky despite his egg-like shape. He was wearing a red jacket with yellow buttons and white straps, a small yellow collar cape hanging off of his back. Black stretchy yoga pants and boots of similar colours covered the lower portion of his body completely, making Hope wonder if the pants and the shoes were actually a one piece. The man himself had no hair despite the next two people that came up when she screamed at the man. They both have very similar colours and clothing to the old man, save for both the younger two (yet much, MUCH older than Hope's big brother) having hair: the childish-looking male had a darker, more coppery hair while the female had long, strawberry-blond hair.

"Why YES Of course I've got every-thing sorted out, Andrew my boy!" the Eggman said, patting the younger male on the shoulder as he continued to explain. "I've managed to make it as convincing as possible! 'Let's interrogate a poor, impressionable little girl about the location of all of her father's inventions!' Oh, isn't that a GOOD IDEA. But unlike the moron that tuna can has for a second-in-command, I know that it's doomed from the start." The old man started to chortle vigorously, causing the two adults (for how could they not be if they look older than Ovi?) to sigh at what Hope assumed was natural for the old man to do.

The male, Andrew, had turned toward the woman beside him and whispered lightly "I think he's finally gone off the deep end, sis..." to her.

The Eggman turned quickly toward Andrew, and gave him a good old fashioned glare behind his large obscuring glasses. He then turned back toward the plump woman beside Andrew, asking "Evangeline, could you make sure that the cameras in this hallway are 'fixed' properly for all of us? We wouldn't want any... trouble to come around when they find out this 'general' isn't on their side." Evangeline went ahead to do what the older man wanted, taking along her much slimmer brother with her by the arm.

"Now that they're doing what I want them to do, I would like to ask you a favour little one..." the Eggman pointed his left index finger to Hope's face, nearly poking her petite nose. "I've noticed that you have an eye for mechanical and programming technologies. At least, from what I could gather from the elementary school files they have on you, you're obviously not the type to like what girls these days like..." was this man going to tell Hope that she shouldn't do what she wants because she's a girl? "I need your HELP!" Wait, what? Hope's face must have mirrored her confusion, as the man began to grovel on the floor as he continued his speech. "Y-you see, I need to help the very people who are trying to help out your brother's friends! They are currently going to help him try to find you, but Sypress wouldn't allow you to live for much longer!

"My badnicks are currently being used as Sypress' main army, with a velociraptor robot as their main commander!" Hope couldn't ask what the egg-guy meant by that, as her dragon-looking chao woke up at this moment. The chao tiredly fluttered to where both humans were at the end of the cage. He looked to the oddly shaped human, before almost reacting harshly to the man with Hope trying to calm the suddenly enraged chao. When Boomy realized that he wasn't getting out of Hope's grip, he sighed and looked darkly at the Eggman in front of them.

"I need your skills to create a super powerful virus to help out your brother immediately!" Only Boomy noticed the smirk as his care taker started to beam excitedly. "As you are the only one I could easily get to at this time, and your brother had disappeared off the map at this point, I acquire your brilliance and expertise!" He said as he finally bowed to the girl. "Please help me help the guys who want to help your brother! For if I, Dr. Eggman of Eggman Enterprises and Third General to Sypress' Sky-Corps cannot get the expertise I require, then I cannot help out your brother!" Hook, Line, and Sinker. Eggman said to himself gleefully, as a loud screech of 'yes!' came out of Hope's cheerful face.

It took a while for Ovi to finally wake, tiredly noticing that only he and Sonic were the only ones nearby the sewer entrance that Amy, Manic and Sonia had came through before Kintobor's freak-out. The orange furred rat had realized that he was lying on his back; his dulled glasses were off his face. As Ovi recognized that, his eyes strained to even see the ground under him, and he scurried to find his glasses before he gained the headache the size of Jupiter. He hurriedly put on the sight correction device before Sonic turned his head toward him, smiling at the human-turned-rat. As the hedgehog got up, the dragon that pranced everywhere with Sonic had also awoken, now back into the size that Ovi was accustomed to.

"Sleep well?" Sonic asked kindly, reaching for Ovi's jacket (that the rat had realized was covering him like a blanket to keep him from shivering) before the orange furred being swatted said hand away.

"Better than what happened earlier... What happened to the rest?"

"They went to collect whatever stuff they would need before we leave." Sonic shrugged as he continued. "I didn't go as well not just because of you: I don't want to bother with the old memories anymore..."

Ovi nodded at that; he didn't want to remember that Hope was possibly being held hostage right now. But... where the heck did Sonic's apathy for the past come from? "You sure about that answer?"

The answer Sonic gave was just a clueless shrug.

Ovi sighed quietly, not expecting the answer. "What about food, then? We'll need it in order to go where we're told to go..." Ovi got himself up from the ground, his balance completely off as he stumbled about.

Sonic had grabbed Ovi's waist and put an arm around his chest. "I was thinking that the both of us should do that, but we've been branded as criminals against the Lord. I've also noticed that the wanted posters been calling me, Sonia, and Manic the 'missing jewels of Aleena'." He said quietly, before continuing quickly. "I may have miscalculated the speed of which Manic and Sonia would come back at, because they aren't here at all right now. If I knew they were that slow..." Sonic's colour started to grey a bit, but not enough for Ovi to notice it. The blue prince turned toward Ovi suddenly, cheekily waving his right index finger as he said "We have to help them!"

Kintobor blinked once, twice, before his eyelid twitched furiously at the hedgehog. "You DO know that Manic can handle himself?" remember that time...?

"I know about Manic, but what about Sonia? Does she even KNOW combat?" a bit rude if you asked Ovi about this conversation afterwards, but at that point, both of them had not known the purple hedgehog for very long.

"I'm more worried about Amy and Tails, though..." He knew that the two children of the group had no way to defend themselves, unlike Ovi and Sonic. The orange rat had his priorities straight about who was in danger right now.

However, Sonic wasn't having any of this foolishness, and set his sights on his little sister. "Forget about them! I'm going to find Sonia and help her!" He rushed off, going into the direction where he knew Sonia was. Ovi quickly grabbed the small green dragon that nearly ran through his legs and lifted it by the steel collar. Allegro flapped her wings to keep herself from choking on the metallic collar.

"You're coming with me, Allegro. We need to find where Tails and Amy are and help them." The dragon nodded, and closed her eyes to change size and colour for Kintobor to ride on top on. He quickly climbed up the back of Allegro, and made the dragon move by kicking his legs onto her cyan scales. The sound dragon flew up, and then blasted toward where she knew the youngest of the group was.

At that point, Tails and Amy were just going through the young fox-genius' garage, looking for the Miles Electric prototype that Tails had mentioned to Sonic before they left. Both hedgehog and fox scurried around the entire room, checking even the toolbox that was under a beautiful red bi-plane. The wings and most of the highlights were a greyish white, shinning brilliantly in the little light that the entire open space received. It had a three-plank propeller at the front, which was black with yellow-orange tips on every piece. Tool the robot was sitting inside the cockpit seat of two, watching its creator and his friend calmly ever since they came by.

"Found it!" Tails yelled excitedly, startling the once pink hedgehog behind him. He lifted up what would be considered a Wii U© Game pad, modified to have handles and a radio dish on the right hand side. Most of the controllers and framework were replaced with a yellow metal, possibly discarded when the fox wasn't satisfied with the work he had done before. He stuffed the monitor into his hip-bag when they both heard the sound of Allegro's large wings, hovering slightly above the ground as she prepared to land properly. Her rider had slid off before her paws were on the ground, revealing to be a very distraught and almost collected Ovi Kintobor. He almost seemed to run toward Amy and Tails before quickly bringing them into a hug.

"Are you two alright?" He asked quickly, checking the both of them to see if there were any injuries on either of them. When he had made sure that both of the youngest members of the group had not suffered any injuries, Kintobor pulled back from them—knitting is brows in confusion.

"I'm so totally wrong in my assumptions..." Ovi muttered to himself more, before getting back onto Allegro. "We'll talk on the way! I may have endangered Sonic!" Tails didn't really need another answer to his many questions, as he jumped into the Tornado's pilot seat. Amy looked at the bi-plane, before quickly glancing at where Allegro used to be. The pink hedgehog sighed as she quickly got into the co-pilot seat, nearly sitting on Tool as the two-tailed fox started the engines of the old plane.

Sonic sped across the country-side, hoping to find the place that Sonia had lived in all of her life sooner rather than later. When he found the exact area where Sonia said she lived in, the blue hedgehog had gracefully failed in stopping, his foot slipped out of pace bringing Nickolas into a tumble that lasted up until the gate of the mansion. As he lifted his head from the ground, he caught sight of the most uninteresting sight his green eyes ever laid upon.

It would be what humans would consider 'extravagant' or a 'flaunt of stolen money'. Greek pillars kept the entire building's structure, which for many was way too large for a small family. It was about at least three stories high, the mansion being very rectangular no matter where you looked at it. Loads upon loads of rather large windows adorned the tanned outside, large mahogany double-doors were nestled within the middle of the place. A very, very large driveway seemed to spill out of the stairs leading to the double-doors, being blindingly bright tan if the sun hit it just right.

All in all, a typical wealthy establishment meant to lock Sonic's long-lost sister inside.

The portly hedgehog pushed himself off of the ground, deciding that for the rest of the mission until Sonia was safe with him that he would keep a much slower pace—at least, until he got the hang of running around at the speed of sound. The blue hedgehog tried to emulate his original running speed before he had discovered his powers, but as Sonic soon found out, he yearned for the constant (yet extremely dangerous) high speed, his body being utterly unwelcoming to his brain's logic. As it were, Nickolas found himself 'running' at least ten steps before a slight burst of speed would propel the hedgehog forward at least 3 metres before stopping.

He kept at this for at least until the front door, which he opened without much of a problem. "That's definitely a bad sign." Sonic's mind said plainly, earning a groan from the hedgehog himself as he realized that he may have to break his own rule too soon. The hallways were large and white, blinding the hedgehog as he looked around the first floor for his sister.

A few minutes and a lot of stopping to check every nook and cranny, he was about to go up the flight of stairs he had bypassed (With his mind wondering why the foyer wasn't the first room he had entered from the entrance instead of the large, utterly pointless front room that lead to multiple hallways), when he heard a loud shriek coming from the third floor up. Wasting no time to figure out whose voice it was, Sonic dashed up the long flight of stairs. He was so focused on finding out where the sound came from that he didn't notice that the red-tiled floor beneath him had suddenly gained an orange carpet, despite there being no other carpets in any other hallways within the mansion.

SLAM! Nickolas plowed through the doorway just before falling onto his butt and sliding toward Elizabeth, causing her to fall to the ground as well. She landed on top of her slightly large brother, groaning a little from the wind being knocked out of her.

"Good work, Dingo!" A nasally voice said above the two hedgehogs, getting closer as he made sure that the two couldn't escape so soon. Both Sonic and Sonia heard a rather soft click before feeling the weight around their necks double instantly. "That should keep you two in line." The voice continued, as Nickolas realized in horror that his speed was no longer at his beck and call. In fact, he felt largely lethargic as he tried to get up. Sonia also had an odd sense of tiredness, though hers wasn't as extreme as her newly-discovered brother.

"Like them, you little snack? The wonderful collars that I've put around your stupid necks are designed to keep your stupid little super-powers from getting out of hand." The voice forced both hedgehogs' heads to look at their captor, who was a blue-grey wolf in purple armour; he had yellow skulls all over his suit. His body fur (or what little Sonic and Sonia could see, as the wolf was covered to his neck in purple armour) was a light grey, while what little head fur he had along with a goatee-like beard off of his snout was a light blue. The wolf's dark-brown eyes looking down at his captive's own, a maniacal glee shone from within.

"And to think, I was worried that the children of Skylocke and Aleena would give us the run-a-round."