*Warning* Heavy Trigger warnings for abuse at the end of this chapter. Robotnik is a monster of a jerk after all.

Hedgehog Under Glass Part 1

The Freedom Fighters stood in front of a burning Robotropolis. Robotnik had been defeated. Now peace could return to the world. Sally cheered as Rotor set up a camera in front of Sally, Tails, Antoine, and Sonic. "Sonic the Hedgehog has won the war against Robotnik!"

"So what are we," Antoine grumbled, feeling unappreciated. "Zee cannon foddaire?"

Rotor smiled as he held up the flash powder camera he had found. "Say 'Cheese!'"

Sonic just grinned. "Mozzarella!"

With a large ka-boom, the picture was taken, and Rotor looked to be covered in smoke and dust. Ordinarily, a small human/overlander would have been there to take the picture or dust off Rotor, but he didn't appear as he would have. "Whoops!" Rotor chuckled. "Too much flash powder."

"I can't believe we've beaten Robotnik!" Tails shouted with glee.

"Hey, was there any doubt with me on the team?" Sonic smirked, feeling like he was forgetting something, but it wasn't bothering him too much at the moment.

Sally smiled happily, wondering what to do with all their free time now. "It's almost too good to be true!" She felt a small nagging feeling that she should be worried about something though.

"So?! Where do we go from here?" Antoine asked with a huff, also feeling something was missing, but not quite being able to put his finger on it.

After what seems like months…

"Shake a leg, Sonic, or you'll be late for your own wedding!" Tails called.

Sonic rubbed his head before adjusting his tie. "Shame I'm the groom, cause I'm obviously the best man!" Sonic joked. 'Collin… you'd say I was too young… where are you anyway?' Sonic had finally realized that his cousin wasn't at the scene, and he felt a gut clenching feeling in him as he worried about the human. He pushed it off to get to his wedding.

With Sally, Bunnie was helping her with her dress. "Ah declare, Princess, if y'all ain't the prettiest bride!"

"Do you really think so, Bunnie? This gown… doesn't seem to… fit quite right…" Sally frowned as she looked at herself in the mirror and could almost see a shadow in a cloak behind her that was shaking it's head. When she turned around, all she saw was Bunnie.

Antoine was sitting in his hut, grumbling about how the princess would be better off marrying him. Something in him reminded him that Collin Hedgehog would have commented on how they all were too young for this nonsense.

At the wedding, Rotor was playing the part of officiary. Sonic smiled as he looked at Sally in her dress. "If only Robotnik could see us now! He'd be so angry." Sonic chuckled.

"Oh, but I can see you, my little blue friend! I can see all of you!" came the dark laughter, just out of the Freedom Fighters ear shot. Tapping on glass was a gloved hand as it watched the events. "Trapped like a fly in a web… by my most fiendish plot to date!" Robotnik laughed as he and his robotic cronies watched the images of the Freedom Fighters in a glass dome while their bodies were in tubes nearby! "I've finally got the hedgehog right where I want him!" Robotnik chuckled darkly as he leered closer to the dome. "Under Glass!" The mad tyrant looked at his mechanical hench-bots with glee and pride. "My Master Plan was a model of insidious simplicity! So simple, even the hired help couldn't mess it up! As Easy as ABC even!" He started reminiscing on how he had done it. "A: Lure Sonic and the Freedom Fighters to Sleepy Hollow under false pretenses…" He had used a Free Chili Dogs sign sending them all to Sleepy Hollow. "B: Fill Sleepy Hollow with Sleeping Gas…" Scratch and Grounder had used the sleeping gas from behind a bush. Collin Hedgehog had almost caught them as he had been coming to warn the Freedom Fighters of it being a trap, but had been too late. He had spotted his downed friends and was about to attack the robots, but was too late to do anything, as the gas had gone through his cloak that he had tried to use as a mask. Robotnik had been very pleased about this result. "C: and, it was good night sweet hedgehog! With the Freedom Fighters in La-la land, it was child's play to move the slumber party to Robotropolis…" He looked at the containers that had the sleeping Freedom Fighters inside, save for Collin, who was strapped to a table with sleeping gas/oxygen mask taped over him. "Where they'll sleep to their hearts content… forever!"

Crabmeat was confused though. "Why don't we just dispose of them and be done with it?" He was eyeing Collin and Sonic especially, as the two Hedgehog cousins were quite dangerous.

"Because, dear Crabmeat…" Robotnik grinned creepily. "What I have in store is far more evil…" He indicated to the complex machines hooked up to Sonic and the majority of the Freedom Fighters. "and much more fun! Now, after fitting Sonic, and his playmates, with these special virtual reality helmets, and plugging them into my main computer, we'll force-feed them their fondest wishes and wildest dreams with my new exclusive User-Friendly Program!" He then looked at the unconscious overlander who was strapped to the table. "As for Snively, well… I've already started something with him, and I fully plan to finish it… after of course, I start up my war machines to destroy everything. Since Sonic and his friends are in a new reality that is better than life, they can't tell the difference and have no reason to escape! Ooooh, I'm such a genius, I even scare myself! But enough fun and mind games! Time to get down to business! There's a whole wide world left to conquer…" Robotnik flipped a switch, turning on some mechanized spiked bulldozers. "And my war machines are more than up to the task! They shall roll over the face of mobius, crushing anything and anyone in their way!" He started to laugh darkly. "Those who survive shall be robotosized… and my dream of a perfect, ordered society shall come to pass… save for that piece of chaos under glass!" He gave a fake sigh as he walked out of the room. "Alas, perfection has its price!" He marched out happily with the mobile table that Collin was on, planning on harming his poor nephew, no doubt. "Make sure you turn off the light on the way out, Crabmeat!"

Back in the dome…

The wedding was getting to the "I Do" part when things started getting funky. Robotnik's user friendly program was just too friendly. Antoine had somehow ended up as the groom of the wedding and the program was glitching. A door even appeared and out of it came a blue hedgehog with a white mustache and white eyebrows who was wearing an old workman's jacket, and a small dog with brown and yellow fur.

Sonic was quite confused. "Uncle Chuck? Where's Collin? How are you here? And… derobotosized? How is this all possible?"

The blue hedgehog in question chuckled. "Everything is possible in the user-friendly world of virtual reality!" Sonic's eyes widened in shock as his mind realized that if that was the case, then Collin wasn't with them! They were all in real trouble!

Part 2

The world glitched again, and Chuck and Muttski the dog were now sitting upside down. "What's wrong, Sonic? You look confused."

"I am confused, Uncle Chuck!" Sonic groaned as he looked around. He felt like he had been put into a wonky piece of art, what with all the melting clocks around him. "Antoine gets the girl! I'm a janitor at my own wedding! Collin's missing and no one's worried! You're not a robot! And these melting clocks are driving me crazy! What I need are some easy answers!"

"Easy enough!" with a pop, the world looked like normal and Chuck was standing in a booth that was labeled "Free Easy Answers!" The old hedgehog smirked, "Ask away!"

One free easy answer later…

Sonic was angry. "So that's it! I should've known! If a world looks to good to be true, it probably isn't! That means you're not the real Uncle Chuck! Just a remarkable simulation!" Sonic turned towards a blank area. "Time to learn if this place is as User-friendly as it seems!" He snapped his fingers. "Bingo!" A terminal popped up. "Now to reach out and touch someone." Sonic started typing away quickly, hoping to be fast enough for his needs. "Let's see what good ol' doc Robotnik is up to out in the "real" world!" What he saw made him recoil in shock and disgust. "OH MY GOSH!"

Collin Hedgehog was strapped to a table, his shirt open, a sleeping mask that had some oxygen was strapped to his face, and in his chest, not only was there some heavy scarring and bleeding, but there was a chaos emerald in it! And it was glowing a sickly green as it was attached to a machine! Robotnik was sitting and watching a computer screen that had his war machines flattening the forests!

"Collin's hurt bad! And Robotnik's machines… flattening all of Mobius! We've got to stop him!" Sonic turned to see his friends were happy in this life though, weird as it was. "But all my friends are so happy here! UGH! Is it right to force them to leave?" He then looked at Chuck and Muttski. "And I've finally got Uncle Chuck and Muttski back, or at least a couple of reasonable facsimiles… but it would cost me Collin and the rest of the world! UGH! WHAT AM I GONNA DO?!"

The virtual version of Charles Hedgehog just smirked. "Hehe, I don't need to tell you, nephew. You already know!"

Sonic nodded and cracked his knuckles. "Yeah! You're right! I do! Time to get hacking!"

Meanwhile, in the outside world…

The sleeping gas had stopped feeding into Collin Hedgehog. He was still out of it, but he would soon awaken, and no one would notice right away. Robotnik was too busy worrying about the sudden change of his war machines on his screen. "WAIT! The war machines have reversed course! I didn't order this!"

The screen started to glitch with the words "Do not adjust your reality!" reading across it. "You didn't, but I did!" came Sonic's voice.

"Wha?"

The screen cleared up to reveal Sonic wearing 3-D glasses like for movies. "I control the tint, I control the contrast… but most importantly, I control your war machines, Doc!"

"Ye gads! Sonic to the max!"

"They're handy gadgets!" Sonic's screen split to show the war machines coming towards Robotropolis. "No homeowner should be without one! They slice, dice, grind and flatten entire cities, if need be!" Sonic glared now at Robotnik. "So if you don't want a free demonstration, you'd better free the Freedom Fighters and Fast! Including Collin, fatso!"

"That blasted Hedgehog! He's left me no choice!" He pushed a few buttons. "Junior, take Snively down to the Freedom Fighters before we're destroyed."

Junior showed up and lifted his limp overlander cousin easily, though he had to lose the bloody and torn shirt to do so properly. He carried the unconscious overlander down over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes while the virtual reality program dumped the others.

"SPLOOSH!"

"WHOA! Better than the Zoot-chute!" Tails rubbed his head as he woke up.

"Ugh! I've been slimed!" Groaned Sally. She looked around for Sonic and Collin. "Where's Sonic and Collin?"

Sonic appeared on a screen. "Don't you worry, never fear! One final task…" He made the war machines crash into each other… "And I'm outta here!"

As the Freedom Fighters ran out, Sally and her group ran into Junior. "I believe he goes with you." Junior said in a neutral voice. Sally's eyes widened in shock at the condition poor Collin was in.

"What the… what did you do to him!?" She was horrified. Antoine himself barely managed to not puke at the sight, and Tails was just shocked. The young group had never seen Collin so beaten looking, so pale, so… injured and almost literally green! His shirt was off, showing a lot of scars on his body, as well as blood that was starting to dry on him, not just his chest where the emerald was horribly sticking out of him, but also on his arms and back as though someone had tried to cut him up like a dissection project.

Junior shrugged as Rotor took Collin from him and cradled the small overlander, as though to protect him from further harm. "I know pops tried to get the emerald out of him, but that's about it other than hooking him up to a machine to try and drain him of the emerald's energy… I think that things been in him for longer than I've been built, sorry." With that, Junior went to go clean up the mess he knew would be upstairs.

The group soon met Sonic outside. Sally was the first to greet him, as Rotor was holding Collin while Antoine checked him over. The sleeping gas still had been affecting him. "SONIC! You're here! I was afraid you might stay behind forever!"

Sonic screeched to a stop. "Virtual reality is a nice place to visit Sally, but I wouldn't want to live there… at least on Robotnik's terms!"

"What about Uncle Chuck?" Tails asked with concern.

Sonic looked at him and then at the unconscious overlander in Rotor's arms. "I'll get him back… and when I do… it'll be for keeps! Come on, let's get Collin home."

A few hours later, in Knothole…

"Ugghhhh…" came the groan of an overly pale overlander with shaggy brown hair as he sat up in his leaf bed. "S…Sonic? S…Sally? Ch…Children?" He looked around slowly, feeling dizzy. Just before he could fall back onto his bed, a hand caught him and steadied him.

"Easy, cousin. I got you." Collin's blue eyes met Sonic's green. Collin sighed in relief. "How ya feeling?"

"Tired… sleep gas… at sleepy hollow… so… painfully obvious…" Collin wheezed.

"Yeah, that one's on me… sorry." Sonic winced as how pitiful Collin sounded.

"We got out?"

"Yeah, we got out…" He leaned Collin against the side of his cavern wall. "Collin… what happened to you…?"

"What do you mean? I don't r…remember after getting to the hollow…" Collin was having a little trouble getting his thoughts together. Sonic gave him a razzleberry. "Thanks…" Collin ate the berry with no complaint and some of his wounds started to heal up in front of the hedgehog, but not all… it was terrifying for him to not be able to remember something though.

"Collin… you have a giant chaos emerald in your chest… right where your heart should be… and you have horrible scars all over your body…"

"Oh…" He looked down and spotted the green glowing emerald that usually was hidden under his skin. It was surrounded by a thin layer of blood and skin now as the Razzleberry and the emerald started to seal him back up and cover the jewel again. "Huh… so that's where that went…heh… man, Julian must be annoyed with me…" Collin looked to be in a daze, as though he wasn't really thinking about what he was saying. He didn't even look at the scars, as the emerald held his attention more.

"Collin…" Sonic had a serious face. "This isn't funny. What happened to you…?"

Collin managed to look at Sonic, though he still felt dizzy. "If you… you must know… Journal 1, month six… I'm sorry, Sonic… I… I'm still…"

"That's okay, get some rest… I'll find it…" Collin nodded as he laid back down on his bed of leaves. He'd be out again for some time. When he woke up, he'd be disgusted and horrified with himself for letting Sonic read that particular journal; the first and earliest recollections he had, and the first proofs of Dr. Robotnik's true evil, and of the pain that was Collin's life without the Hedgehog Family. Sonic would call on Dr. Quack to check Collin over better since the boy was able to wake up now.

Sonic raced over to Collin's private library and found the journal Collin was talking about. His eyes widened like saucers after only a few pages and he slammed the book shut. "No wonder he doesn't talk about that stuff… or usually let us look through it… jeez…" He looked back towards Collin's room with some fear and amazement about his adopted cousin. "Just how much hell has he faced to live this long?"