At first, Coastal Village was quiet. That's how it usually was, since the town wasn't known for its excitement. But that changed when a hovercraft, its sole occupant being a tall, round human. Behind the craft came a half-dozen robots; two resembled birds, flying on either side, and four ladybug-like robots followed along the road.
In the village square, a few townsfolk saw the robots approaching and ran for cover. All except for one, who started walking forwards. The blue hedgehog flicked his green eyes across the robots assembled, then at the rotund human leading them, before both parties came to a stop.
"Sonic the hedgehog! I was hoping I'd see you here," the human said, giving a mocking smile. I was hoping I could speak with your mayoress and… persuade her to reconsider my offer."
"She's busy," responded the hedgehog, Sonic. "B'sides, there's no way she'd reconsider, Eggman, and some Motobugs and Balkiries won't scare her."
Eggman snarled, pressing a button on his console as the robots all turned to face his foe. Sonic looked from the human to the different robots, then charged forward in a burst of speed. One of the Motobugs charged at him as he did this, but it didn't have as much time to build up speed, and was smashed to bits. The rest of the bugs circled him, trying to get close enough to stick their claws into him, but the hedgehog was able to use his speed to dodge them. A well-timed kick sent two of them into each other, putting them both out of action, as Sonic grabbed onto the final Motobug. It was surprisingly light enough for him to lift off the ground, which enabled him to throw it into a Balkiry, bringing them both down.
"He shoots, he scores!" he taunted, causing Eggman to growl.
"Impossible, these robots are designed to be durable! How are you destroying them like mere toys?"
"Maybe you should go back to the drawing bo-OOOHHHFF!"
Sonic was cut off by the second Balkiry, which dove beak-first into his stomach. He snarled, ignoring the pain in his middle, as he grabbed at its head. Digging his fingernails into a visible seam, he tore the beak off, then began pulling out anything which looked important. This made the robot stop functioning, and it began to nosedive towards the ground. Sonic managed to get on top, shielding himself from the ground, but his left arm was on the underside of the Balkiry as it impacted, gritting his teeth to keep from screaming out in pain.
"Oh, that sounds angelic," sneered Eggman, lowering his craft closer to the fallen hedgehog. "You have quite a mouth, I'll enjoy silencing it."
"I'm surprised you have the guts to do any dirty work yourself," coughed Sonic, who would have lifted himself off the ground before winding in pain.
"For you, I'll make an exception." Eggman reached for something in his craft, before noticing the crowd beginning to form. "Rrgh, too many witnesses… Don't think this is over, Sonic! Once you're dealt with, this town will be mine!"
The hovercraft shot off into the distance, a white-furred mouse in a periwinkle shirt and denim shorts appeared next to the hedgehog-much to the surprise of the crowd.
"Sonic, are you okay?" she asked, rolling him onto his back. A pained grunt was her only response. "Okay, I'll get that thing off you, then I'm taking you to the hospital."
The doctor's diagnosis wasn't very uplifting-two fractured ribs, and his left arm was broken. Sonic was relieved his speed didn't extend to just movement, as his injuries would heal faster than most regular Mobians. But the ride back home was awkward, with his foster parents not even saying anything.
Not when they picked him up.
Not when they got home.
Not even when they were eating dinner.
The only noises were utensils clacking against plates and the local news station playing in the living room.
"...itement rocked Coastal Village this afternoon, as Doctor 'Eggman', founder of Eggman Industries, paid a visit with a squad of robots, before being repelled by local Sonic the hedgehog. A teena-"
"Why do you do it, Sonic?" The hedgehog looked to the seat across from him, where his foster father stared at him with a stern look. He was a cat, with grays slowly starting to overcome his teal fur. "What were you thinking, trying to challenge him?"
"Here's what I was thinking, Darren: I was thinking that some walking egg wanted to ruin my town, so I stopped him."
"And you don't think we have anything that could deal with troublemakers?"
"Sonic, I think what he's trying to say is that if the doctor causes trouble, then the proper authorities can deal with it," said his foster mother, Tara, another cat with a deeper blue fur. "Mirage won't be there to save you if you get hurt again."
"Doesn't mean I won't try to be, mom," the mouse from before, Mirage, commented. "Still, a little 'thanks' for my work wouldn't hurt, blue."
"Yeah, yeah," said Sonic dismissively, getting up from the table. "If you need me, I'll be in my room."
The hedgehog was away before anyone could stop him. Darren sighed, placing his palm on his cheek. "I try to make him feel welcome, and he keeps being dismissive."
Tara rubbed his shoulder sympathetically, while Mirage glanced in the direction of Sonic's bedroom.
The EggDome served as the headquarters of Eggman Industries. Sitting in the center of a desert, the massive structure towered over the natural rock formations, multiple chimneys spewing smoke into the air. The hallways were lined with many highly-selling products, from simple blenders and cameras, to 75-inch TVs and a Nebula drone. Eggman took care of business within his office, an expansive room covered from wall to wall with computer screens.
Sitting at his desk in the center of it all, the doctor looked over the news reports from earlier that day. "...I had no idea what he'd do. I seriously thought that Egg-guy was gonna kill the hedgehog."
"Following this event, activists are urging consumers to boycott Eggman Industries and its subsidiaries…"
"Switch it off!" snapped Eggman, rubbing his forehead as the news report went away. "I sell products on every continent, I have more reach than any company in the world, and yet I can't get that one little town to submit."
"I have analyzed the commentary on your attempted negotiations," said the voice of his computer, projecting a number of social media comments. "Ninety-two percent of comments reportedly state that the models you used were 'not threatening' and 'a joke.'"
"A joke?" repeated Eggman, laughing. "Hoho, I've already had to blunt the beak of the Balkiry twice due to safety complaints, who are they calling 'not threatening'?"
"You, sir."
The human crossed his arms, deep in thought. As he eyed a list detailing all the markets his company had a foothold in, inspiration struck. "Hmm… if they want something threatening, I can give it to them," he pondered. "Computer, bring me some coffee, I'll be pulling an all-nighter."
Pulling up a custom-made holographic design program, Eggman began designing a new robot. And as the pieces came together, and the night burned away, a wicked smile formed under his mustache.
Sonic's bedroom was sparsely decorated, and even his bedsheets looked relatively plain. He sat on top of them, throwing a baseball into the air and catching it. The door opening distracted him, causing the ball to land in the center of his face.
"Owww," he groaned, looking over as the door opened, yet he saw nobody step through it. "What's the point in disappearing if you can't walk through doors, Mirage?"
The mouse appeared at that moment, sitting down on the edge of his bed. "I was hoping you'd be too deep in your angst zone not to notice," she teased, before taking on a more serious tone. "You know they care about you, right?"
"First I've heard of it. All Darren wants to do is keep me from doing anything fun."
"That's not true, he just doesn't want you taking unnecessary risks."
"Same difference, right? Does he really think our cops could do anything about Eggman?"
"Look, Sonic, just because you look blue doesn't mean you have to feel it, and make everyone else feel it," said Mirage, her tone making the hedgehog lean up. "I'm trying to be here for you, but if you keep acting like that you won't have anyone on your side."
"I already have no one on my side, that's why I'm in foster care," sighed Sonic.
He would have said something else, but a loud noise from outside interrupted him. Curiously walking over to the window, he lifted the blinds to find a giant light shining down somewhere behind the house, and he could now identify the noise as an engine of some kind.
"Does this guy not realize it's half-past nine at night?" the hedgehog complained.
"Look, if you don't like the noise, then I'll go to them-"
"No, I'm gonna talk to them. It'll give me a chance to get some fresh air, anyway."
Once again, Sonic was off before he could listen to any feedback.
It wasn't hard to find the source of the light, and soon Sonic reached the house it was coming from. To his surprise, he found a modest house off to the side of a giant aircraft hangar.
"Huh," was all he had to say. Still, he came down to complain about the noise, and that was what he planned to do.
Walking up to the door of the house, he knocked on the door repeatedly, hoping someone would answer it; but there was no response, so he stopped. Perhaps whoever was inside couldn't hear anything over the sound of that engine either, so instead he went to the door of the hangar and began rapping his knuckles at it. After a few moments, he could hear the engine switch off, someone approaching the door. He stood back, expecting some gruff older guy to come out and yell accusations at him, nothing he wasn't used to.
What he wasn't expecting was for some fox kid to answer the door, pulling goggles away from his eyes. "Can I help you, sir?" he asked.
Sonic blinked, taking a moment to find his words. "Yeah, you can, kid," he responded. "You can find your parents or whoever's messing with that engine, and tell them that some people are trying to sleep."
"Oh, sorry about that," the fox apologized, sheepishly running a hand through his hair. "I didn't realize it was that loud. Don't worry, I think I'm done for tonight."
"What do you mean, 'you're done'?" the hedgehog asked. "Wait. So… it was you running that thing?"
"Yeah, it's a custom Prower-V8 designed by my gra-"
"That's nice, don't care." Sonic didn't seem to notice the fox deflating from this remark. "Look, just keep the noise down, or just don't work with that thing when everyone else is trying to sleep, 'kay?
"Okay, I'll be quiet," said the fox, closing the door before Sonic could say anything else.
As the hedgehog walked away, he could hear the light being switched off behind him, the area quickly becoming dark. He was pleased that things had gone quiet, but he couldn't help but think about his encounter. That little runt was operating an engine from an airplane hangar? Where were his parents? ...had he been too harsh on the kid?
"If I've got time to worry, I've got time to run," Sonic shrugged to himself, before checking his watch. 9:48. "Never mind, Darren's gonna flip if I'm out past ten."
If he remembered by morning, he'd apologize. If he went out early enough, he'd avoid Mirage and her guilt tripping.
"Here's to tomorrow," he shrugged, before speeding home.
And here we are, at the start of a brand new Sonic story. This partially came about as a result of me reading up on the creation of Sonic Boom, and how one concept would involve Sonic learning to work with others. I thought that sounded neat, so here we are. Things will be a bit different from regular Sonic stuff, and even from my previous Sonic story. But anyway, let me know what you guys think, and I'll see you in the next chapter!