The Genesis of a Generation

"Call No Man Happy Before He Dies."

Notes: Now for a change of pace!

Dr. Eggman was not a complicated individual. He wanted the simple things, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, as his grandfather once quoted. It was some old human ideal, from a long time ago, but the young Robotnik had taken it to heart every time he read his grandfather's memoires. He just wanted to live happily, wanted his liberty expressed, and he was going to pursue this happiness by any means necessary.

And if he had to trample a few animals to do so, then so be it.

He enjoyed what he did. The simple act of coming up with new ways to make Sonic the Hedgehog's life a living hell was a favorite pastime of his and designing new robots to release on the planet filled him with an exhilaration that literally took his breath away every time he came up with something genius.

What he didn't like was when one of his robots felt the need to yell at him every time something went wrong. He put artificial intelligence in them for a reason; they needed to use it.

"Doctor," Orbot floated up to his side tentively, slightly hiding its head under the table Eggman was seated at, "the dimensional transporter is charged and ready for final modifications…" It trailed off, looking at the blueprint resting on the table in front of the human. The robot's head cocked to the side; Eggman could practically see the cogs and wheels turning as he categorized and analyzed the swooping lines of the mechanical quills and the sharp connective joints. "Working on something for your captive, sir?"

"That's not important." Eggman barked, pushing the blueprint away. "Is Sonic still incapacitated?"

"Yes sir. The Eggpawns are moving him into position now."

"Excellent. I will be down there shortly."

o0o

When Sonic woke up, his head was pounding and his tongue was swollen in his mouth where he had bit down on it sometime while he was unconscious. It throbbed with every heart beat, making his eyes tear up and his head's hammering seem insignificant in comparison. His ankle was twisted, but it didn't hurt, meaning that he was free to run on it if he was careful. He opened his eyes to unfamiliar surroundings, darkness all around.

He sat slowly, shaking his head and blinking his black eyes owlishly. His ten year old body protested the movement, but he forced himself to stand anyway, bouncing on his toes to warm up his feet.

He was just about to set forward – at least, he thought it was forward – when a bright light appeared behind him. Slowly, it got larger until it was almost on top of him. Suddenly a loud, mind-jarring sound came from the light, sending him dashing out of its way at the last second.

A huge truck screamed past him.

Sonic's eyes widened as another car honked at him and sped by, its driver waving his fist out of the window at the hedgehog. The speedster gasped, rushing out of the way and onto the sidewalk to get out of the traffic, bouncing over the heads of humans and siding around their feet.

"What's that? !"

"Is that Sonic? !"

"Not again!"

"Call the chief; we've got another hedgehog. This one looks younger than Sonic though."

A language he didn't recognize bounced over his head, the only word he managed to pick out his own name. His ears twitched as his brain categorized the odd sounds of the words, but his mind didn't need prompting to realize that most of the tones were unfriendly.

Speeding back onto the road, he bounced off the hood of a car to get a little momentum underneath him and he rushed forward, away from the humans. He ran up the highway, dodging around cars and taking quick turns to eventually get onto a less-congested roadway. There were construction workers on this road, but he just blasted right by them, ignoring their yells of shock.

He grinned back at the humans before turning forward once again, picking up a bit of speed and feeling the oppressing force of the sound barrier starting to lick at him. He was just about to break through when something to the right caught his eye.

It was a blue blur. He shook his head, forcing his eyes to focus and he nearly stopped running when he finally processed who was chasing him down.

It was himself.

Only it wasn't.

Sonic the Hedgehog was not unused to the idea of there being more than one of him. In fact, he had been living with an older version of himself for the past three months, but that didn't change the fact that he was still shocked speechless every time he saw a different version of himself.

This Sonic wasn't his older self. Well, he was older but not the twenty year old he had been hanging out with. This hedgehog was short, about as tall as the ten year old he was trying to flag down, but his eyes were green. His quills were large, bigger than the younger's and they seemed to swoop off to the right instead of straight back. He was a dark blue, darker than even the twenty year old.

Other than that, he was exactly what you expected from Sonic the Hedgehog: red shoes with buckles, white gloves, tan arms, muzzle, and chest.

The other hedgehog ran right at him, pulling level next to him. Sonic turned to face him and had to blink at the smile the other was giving him. It looked forced and almost-vain, like he was humoring the other he was running next to. "Chotto, osoku naru! Doko he iku no*?" The darker hedgehog asked the ten year old.

Sonic shook his head, his ears pricking on the unfamiliar language. With a sigh, he glanced forward to make sure he wouldn't run into anything before addressing the other. "Mobian?" He asked hopefully in said language. When all he got was a blank stare, he sighed again. "English?" He tried again, switching to a language that most Mobians didn't know.

The other's eyes lighted and he nodded. "Yeah, I got you." He replied in kind. His voice was deep, like he had just passed through puberty, but not yet as developed as the twenty year old Sonic's. "Where're you headed, little dude?"

"Where ever this road takes me, I guess." Sonic shrugged.

The other cracked a genuine smile at that. "Well, this road is about to end. You might want to take a detour." Nodding forward, he indicated something in front of him. "This street only leads to an unhappy – and wet – ending."

Sonic jerked his head forward just in time to catch sight of the end of the freeway. It curved upward slightly and ended abruptly. If he ran over that at this speed… there was no telling how far he would go.

"Lead the way then." He conceded after five seconds of deliberation. "I'm Sonic, by the way." He offered up his name with the feeble hope that the other actually wasn't another different version of himself.

"Nice to meet you, Sonic." The other greeted, his face unreadable. "I'm Sonic." Turning slightly, the hedgehog dashed to the edge of the freeway, jumping over the cement barrier and onto the feeder road running parallel.

Sonic shook his head, wondering slightly just how many versions of him actually existed, and followed easily.

o0o

Take a skip and a hop across about three dimensions – one of which was sideways and another that didn't contain any omnipotent hedgehogs at all – and you would happen across a twenty year old version of the very same hedgehog. He was waking in a manner very similar to his younger self.

Except he was in the middle of a forest instead of a busy street.

That in and of itself wasn't what made Sonic antsy. He had been in many a forest, and, despite the fact that they all looked the same to him, he was usually at ease in them. Forests offered trees that he could swing from, plants that he could dodge around, and feral animals he could use as an early warning system.

The birds always flew away when a threat was nearby.

No, it was the overlaying smell of oil, the way ash seemed to plume under him with every movement he made, and the sense of foreboding that hung in the air.

This place was dead. The trees may have been thriving – with barely any sunlight streaming through the pollution choked skies – but the air carried a heavy feeling of decay and death. Sonic could feel his ears twitching and his fur bristling as he sat up. His senses were on high alert, the silence around him hanging heavy and thick.

He stood carefully, making sure that his feet planted firmly in the slippery ash covering everything. With a sigh, he leaned backward to pop his back once he was fully vertical. Once he had gotten the sound he was looking form, he shook his hands out – half in an attempt to loosen his wrists and half to get all of the dirt off of them – and started off in a random direction.

He didn't have to go far before he happened across at robotic patrol. They were SWATbots, version two – not very advanced and mind-numbingly slow. He sighed, ignoring the way his breath puffed out in front of him – it was easily only twenty degrees, but he was trying his hardest to not notice the temperature – and slipped away back into the tree line. The bots were clumsy, somehow managing to stumble into every tree they passed, so they made their way toward him slowly. He didn't bother attacking outright; instead letting them fall right into his trap.

When the 'bots eventually stumbled passed the tree he was hiding in, he easily launched himself off of the branch he was perched on. He slammed his right foot into the head of the first one. Feeling it crumple under the impact, Sonic swung his other foot around, clipping the other one in the 'face'. It went down seconds later as his whole body followed his foot in a well timed spindash.

The third and final robot, using the time it took Sonic to incapacitate its brothers, let out a loud wail, surely some type of alert. The obnoxious siren was silenced milliseconds later as Sonic crashed straight through its chest in a ball. Sonic landed on one knee as the 'bot exploded behind him.

With a slight huff, he stood fully, dusting his hands together. "Well," he hummed to himself, "I don't know where I am, but at least I know that the robots won't be a problem."

Humming some no-nonsense tune under his breath, he turned to continue in the same direction as before. The cold was slowly starting to seep into his bones now, making him shiver slightly. His green eyes scanned the trees easily, looking for any type of animal. So far, he hadn't seen a single squirrel or bird and that worried him some. If all of the feral animals were gone, then what about the actual people?

Rubbing his hands up his arms to help warm himself up, Sonic shook his head. His thoughts were getting a little too pessimistic for his liking, so he turned his attention to something else.

Namely, the crunching and mumbling sounds he heard coming from behind him.

"-swear the alarm came from this direction, Sonia."

"Manic, there's no one out here. There couldn't possibly have been an alert."

"But what if someone's hurt?"

Sonic shook his head, debating on whether he should hide in a tree again and let the hikers pass him by or just intercept them before they got too far into the forest. With a sigh, he trudged forward, making sure to keep his head down with the small hope that they wouldn't recognize him.

A blue hedgehog.

Shaking his head and rolling his eyes to himself, he passed that one off as the cold making his brain slowly freeze over and he picked his head back up.

The two people slowly making their way towards him were hedgehogs as well, a male and a female. The girl was pink – Sonic resisted the urge to twitch – and the boy was green. Both were clothed in huge coats along with gloves and scarves. The pink one looked impeccable, even in this harsh place. Her hair was perfect, her attire unscathed by dirt. The other was the totally opposite – jacket askew and his legs covered in mud up to his knees.

"Hey look!" The green called, pointing straight at Sonic. "There is somebody out here!"

More crunching sounds as they ran toward him. Sonic mentally braced himself for the inevitable as they recognized him.

"S-Sonic?" The girl gasped as the two of them skidded to a stop in front of him, panting hard. "But I thought you were-!"

"Hang on Sonia," the boy cut across, crossing his arms over his chest and he stepped up at the blue hedgehog in front of him. "There's no way this can be Sonic."

To say the speedster was in shock would have been an understatement. Not Sonic! He sputtered, attempting to think of something to say.

"His eyes are green. And he's way to skinny. And look at those shoes! They're too shiny to belong to our 'bro."

Sonic's face went flat. So, they were 'those kind' of people. His brain ticked as he comprehended the rest of the statement. Wait… "Your 'bro?" He asked, coughing to clear his cold throat.

Both of the other hedgehogs jumped Both of the other hedgehogs jumped and stared at him, obviously shocked that he had spoken.

"Yeah…" The girl said timidly, shaking her head. "Sonic's our brother." Her eyes narrowed. "And you look just like him…" She held out a gloved hand, inching toward him. Her brother made a warning noise, but she just ignored him. She placed her palm on Sonic's chest, feeling his heart and nearly fell over backward. "Manic," she whispered, turning to look at the green hedgehog behind her. "His heart…" She nodded up at him.

Sonic felt his own eyes narrow and he resisted the urge to tap his foot. "Well," he popped his lips, "this has been fun, but I think I'm just gonna keep going. Can you point me toward the nearest city?"

The girl looked like she was about to respond, but something decidedly blue and spiky plowed into Sonic's back, blindsiding him and knocking him to the ground. The hedgehog got his feet back underneath himself quickly however, and he swept his left foot out in an attempt to knock his attacker to the ground as well. He smirked, satisfied, when a grunt met his ears.

He picked up his head just in the time to catch sight of a shocked expression. The face was young, with black eyes and for half a second, he thought he had facing his younger self. But then, he saw the strange looking medallion hanging around the other blue hedgehog's neck and he shook his face.

"How did you-?" The other began, but cut himself off, clenching his jaw shut. He whipped his head toward the green and pink adolescents. "Don't trust this guy." He commanded loudly as he stood, his expression dark.

Sonic rose as well, keeping his eyes trained on the smaller blue form of the other. He was short, shorter than the ten-year-old Sonic was used to being around, and his quills ran straight down his head and back in a line, instead of being clustered on his head and back in two rows. The medallion hanging around his neck was some sort of guitar with two necks; he couldn't stop staring at it.

"But Son-" The girl tried to speak, only to be silenced with a glare.

"No, Sonia." The other Sonic barked, hand instinctually raising to clutch his necklace. The female bristled at the command, but she didn't speak.

"Hey man," Twenty year old Sonic spoke, glaring at the other blue hedgehog. "I don't like the way you're talking to the lady."

"Oh, shut up." The other hedgehog spoke, his fist tightening around his pendant. "I don't know who you are and I'm really not in the mood to deal wit-!" He was cut off as Sonic – finally getting tired of his grating voice – charged at the small blue hedgehog, knocking him flat with a well placed hand to the chest.

The other sputtered before leveling his attacker with a glare, his hands finally tightening enough around his medallion to activate it.

With the sound of an extremely obnoxious guitar rip, said instrument sprang to life in the little hedgehog's hands with a bright flash of multi-colored light. The guitar was one of the strangest things Sonic had ever seen with the soft swoops of a hedgehog's quills on the end of the soundboard. The guitar itself was probably a guitar/bass combo, because of its two necks. The longer of the two necks was actually broken into two, further confusing the other hedgehog. He watched, dumbfounded, as the smaller hedgehog ran expert fingers over the strings, ripping through some scales. Once he was finished he smirked, turning a knob and leveling his attacker with a menacing glare. The now musically-equipped hedgehog curled his fingers toward the other in an open greeting of attack.

However, his opponent couldn't attack; he was too busy laughing.

o0o

Eggman was never one to snarl, though he did growl quite a bit.

His robots knew better than to be around whenever he growled, because it usually meant that whichever of them was closest to him would probably go sailing toward a wall or be smashed with a well placed wrench.

So when its master actually snarled, Orbot was halfway across the room in seconds, its programming making its survival more important than anything.

"Orbot!"

Unless it was given a direct order.

The small robot careened to a halt, raising its hands to help protect its face from attack. "Yes, sir?"

"Where is Sonic?" The man's face was red, livid. Orbot scooted backward a little more.

"Data says that we lost track of priority one hedgehogs when you stopped to watch the death of Sonic at the hands of Mephiles."

"And why did you let me watch that when you knew that we would lose Sonic's position in the temporal displacement?"

"You looked so happy, doctor…"

Eggman glared at his robot, snarling under his breath again. "Call no man happy before he dies, Orbot." He commanded, turning back to his computer. "Now get over here and help me find Sonic, or you won't see tomorrow."

Never had Orbot rushed so quickly to its creator's side.

o0o

Eggman sighed, as, two hours later, there was still no sign of Sonic.

He had checked every dimension that the hedgehog could have been transported to, from one where everything was made of strange geometric shapes, to another where everyone he knew – even Sonic himself – had been the opposite gender (that one had given him bad feelings and he had quickly switched to a different one). The most recent dimension he had checked was one where Sonic was nothing more than an alternate personality for a small hedgehog named Nick.

With a sigh, he rubbed at his eyes, pushing his glasses away for half a second. Glancing down at the robot at his side, he narrowed his eyes. "Find anything useful, Orbot?" He questioned, glaring at his small slave.

"I think I've locked onto a small Chaos signature matching Sonic's." It responded, fingers flying over the keyboard in front of it. "This dimension was hidden behind one facing the opposite direction, obscuring it from view."

"Which Sonic?" Eggman demanded.

"The younger, sir."

"Full screen."

"Right away, doctor."

The image on the screen flickered before settling on a large mansion. The camera zoomed through the walls and settled just inside the front door, where the ten year old incarnation of Sonic was standing next to a slightly older version of himself. He was staring at a large multi-colored cast of others, almost all of them having an incarnation in the doctor's own world. There was Tails, Amy, Cream, and Knuckles – though the echidna looked like he didn't want to be there – as well as two humans that the evil man didn't recognize, one a young boy and the other an old man.

The taller Sonic was explaining something to his friends, waving his arms toward the ten year old and Eggman crinkled his brow.

"Orbot." He commanded.

"Sir?"

"Pull him out. The dimensional transporter has failed. He was supposed to replace the other Sonic, not team up with him." Eggman sniffed. "We'll have to try again later."

"Shall I have the Eggpawns place him back into suspended animation?"

The doctor waved his hand. "Just put him in the low security cell. He'll break out within the hour, but I can't afford to waste resources on keeping him contained." He paused. "Let him get a good look at the dimensional transporter." His face was calculating and he tapped his fingers on the panel in front of him. "That way, he'll tell his little fox friend."

"But sir-"

"In fact," Eggman continued, his face lighting up as his brain clicked on a plan, "get the base ready for evacuation. Once we find the older Sonic, we're leaving."

"But why doctor?" Orbot had computed through every possible reasoning its master could have taken, and it was still confused.

"Because," Eggman's face was dark as he pressed a button on the desk. Behind him a giant tube rose from the ground, whatever was inside being obscured by smoke, "two Sonic the Hedgehogs is a problem, but if we leave the base, the fox will see the dimensional transporter and it will help him figure out a way to get the younger Sonic back to his own time." He cackled low in his throat, sweeping a hand toward the tube. "And then there will only be one Sonic, against two Ivo Robotniks!"

Orbot turned and, if it was capable of such an action, it would have gasped. In the giant cryogenic cylinder that had just risen from the confines of the floor was another Doctor Eggman, this one younger looking, with a different outfit on, but still its master. The mustache, the smirk on the face… Orbot resisted the urge to cower behind its master.

"Begin awakening process." Eggman commanded, pushing another button. In the tube, the ice started to melt away. "Orbot, find the older Sonic. Pull him out. Place him in the same cell as his younger self. I will order the Eggpawns to begin evacuation."

o0o

"So, you're telling me that I'm a triplet." Three nods. "And we have a band." Three more nods. "And I'm a prince?" Nods from the triplets.

"Woah." Sonic sat back. "This is crazy."

"What about you?" The other Sonic asked, favoring his right foot as he walked over.

After Sonic's laughing spell had ended, the other hedgehog had tried to attack him with that guitar. He had been slightly surprised when a laser shot out, but he had dodged that easily, spinning right into the instrument-wielding hedgehog, sending him flying into a tree. His ankle had cracked against it, and the fight had diffused seconds later as the guitar disappeared.

"I'm solo." Sonic answered bluntly, laying back on the ground. "Well, I mean, I've got no family, besides this small fox kit. He's like my little bro, but not exactly blood related."

Sonia and Manic – his siblings – looked a little taken aback at that. "You mean we don't exist where you're from?" Manic asked.

Sonic shrugged. "Dunno. You could. I've never met you though. Odds are, you're not related to me if you do."

Sonic sat up then, something in the pit of his stomach stirring. "Hey, you got any food? I'm starving."

Sonia laughed. "Well, he's defiantly Sonic."

"Yeah," Manic replied, "only you would be worried about food in the middle of nowhere like this!"

Sonic smirked, rolling his eyes. "Yeah well-" He cut off as the tug came at his abdomen again. "What the-"

He cut off as the world suddenly swirled around him and the three hedgehogs before him disappeared in a flash of black. Ah, too bad. He thought to himself as his mind started to shut down, the alarmed squawks of the other three hedgehogs the last thing he heard. That was a pretty interesting world.

His vision went dark completely.

After what seemed like seconds, Sonic opened his eyes again to unfamiliar surroundings. With a groan, he sat up, rubbing his head.

"You're awake." A slight accented voice welcomed him into the world of the living and he whipped his head toward the source. When his younger self met his eyes, he grinned. "Now we can get out of here." The little hedgehog gestured to a spindash'd hole in the bars meant to be holding them in the cell.

Sonic smirked, pushing himself onto his feet. "Eggman's not even trying, is he?"

Mini-Sonic shook his head. "Whole place is deserted, through there's a lot of energy being funneled into the middle of the base."

The older hedgehog nodded. "Guess we'll have to head there first. Who knows what we'll find?" He gestured at the hole. "You first, little me."

"Race ya to the Egghead!"

*Google translate, probably wrong. "Hey, slow down! Where're you going?"

This one suffered from 'Hikari-didn't-plan-ahead' syndrome. That's why it's so choppy and awful.

You know I'm a daring (or just crazy) writer when I put four Sonics into one chapter. First time writing Sonia and Manic! WHOO-AH!

Announcements time!

My tumblr has been updated.

With a rant.

Don't go read it if you're turned off by rants.

Which brings me to another issue I need to address (AGAIN. rageface).

I would like to remind my readers (for the like, fifth time) to not review with comments about the notes. That is why there's a Private Messaging system (PM) on this site. Writing reviews and only addressing the notes is a surefire way to get me to block you. I'm not kidding. I run a system. You do it, there goes your shot. Do it again and I'll block you. We good?

But please, if you're reviewing and you wrote all kinds of things about story (I liked the way you did this but hated this. This is good but you could do this to make it better!) and you feel like you need to tell me something about a note, go for it. Just don't review only to comment on the notes. It jacks up the review count artificially and makes me upset.

Sigh. I'm getting tired of writing the same note over and over again and sounding so rude.

On that same tack, I would like thank all of my reviewers for your kind words! I don't think this thing would still be in progress with you.

I think that's it for announcements.

Have an awesome day!

Please review?