Chapter 1
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"You were supposed to protect us."
"You weren't fast enough."
"Why didn't you stop him like you always did?"
"You're a failure!"
"Real heroes don't fail!"
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At this point, Sonic had heard it all. Despite having saved the day many times before, he messed up a single time and it caused his entire life, his whole herodom as the 'blue blur' to be thrown into question. No matter what he'd done in the past, it only took this one time for all of it to be forgotten by the public. Station Square may have been his home, but it was a city full of humans. For an anthropomorphic hedgehog, it was often uncomfortable, making him feel like he didn't fit in anywhere. Being a hero, a saviour of the people, that was what made him feel useful, wanted. Unable to fulfill that position, he felt lost. For Sonic, what was the point of putting forth an effort to be a good guy if people merely degraded you for failing?
It all started a week ago whenever he was in the middle of a fairly common battle with his tubby arch-enemy, a middle-aged human known as Dr. Robotnik. The doctor, or 'Eggman' as he was sarcastically referred to by his enemies due to his rotund shape, was a master in Robotic Engineering. Ivo Robotnik is a prodigy. His family tree is filled with rocket scientists and mathematical geniuses; his family's last name reflected that.
For all the intellect, for as long as Sonic has known him, Dr. Robotnik has been hell-bent on dominating the world. The man dreams of creating a totalitarian regime. Eggman Empire. Generally speaking, he does his best to proceed with that plan by using his scientific expertise, constructing killer robots, war machines, doomsday weapons and committing cyberattacks that could cripple a first world nation's economy. Considering all of this, it's never been a surprise to Sonic that he had to deal with mechanical monstrosities; such as Eggman in a 30 foot (9 meter) mecha that bore a strong resemblance to the mad doctor himself. The Death Egg Robot.
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[Time - 3:45 P.M.]
[Date - June 12, 21XX]
(Location - Station Square, Downtown District)
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"Come on, Eggman!" Sonic bumptiously shouted toward the evil genius as he ran around the feet of the Death Egg Robot, completely avoiding any of its attacks. "We've been through this before! You should know by now that I'm just going to destroy your robots, no matter how tall you make them!"
Dr. Robotnik cackled through the intercom of the D.E.R. Sonic was super fast, yet the giant mecha was nearly able to keep up by rotating its torso a full 360 degrees. Using his smarts, he tried to predict where Sonic would be prior to directing the mecha to punch the ground, its large metal fist impacting the pavement with enough force to smash into the asphalt, just barely missing the blue hedgehog. "You think I don't know that?" Retracting the Death Egg Robot's arm from the ground, he said "I just wonder if you know the same about me? Don't you see? I'll never give up, no matter what you and your freaky furry friends say or do, I'll always be back!" Rapidly pulling levers and pressing buttons, he commanded the D.E.R. to reel its right foot backward in preparation for a kick.
"Like I said, I'll just foil your plans!" Sonic laughed as he very easily avoided the giant robot's kick.
"Until that one time that you don't, Sonic! That's all it's going to take!" Dr. Robotnik spat back as he made the D.E.R. fire off a barrage of miniature seeker missiles.
The missiles had their own form of artificial intelligence. Their guidance chip allowed them to target Sonic and follow his every move. 'I hate these things.' Sonic thought as he ran forward, then dashed up the side of a building. Only one missile hit the building; the others succeeded in following him upward.
"Take this!" Dr. Robotnik yelled through the mecha's intercom system as he made it launch eight drones, all of which immediately went after the blue hedgehog.
Sonic reached the top of the building and sprinted across the roof as fast as he could. Looking behind himself, he saw that there were about seven of the miniature seeker missiles still hot on his trail. 'Dammit.' He mentally cursed the situation. Thinking up a solution on the spot, he kept running, hopping off the edge of the building before sliding down the side. When he reached the bottom, he took off down the street.
Busting through the building like a mechanical hulk, Dr. Robotnik caused the whole structure to collapse down to rubble so that he could catch up with Sonic. "Where do you think you're going, huh!?"
'God, I hope nobody was in there.' Sonic prayed as he continued to avoid the missiles.
All around them, people were mostly evacuating. Citizens knew how dangerous Eggman could be and were either staying indoors or running away. Nonetheless, there were always bystanders, people who were merely walking down the streets or driving in their cars, unaware of what was happening around them. Sonic had to be extra careful not to lead the missiles into an innocent civilian; which wasn't totally easy whenever you're capable of sprinting at over a hundred miles per hour (160+ Kmh).
Dr. Robotnik whistled through the intercom as if he were calling to a pack of dogs. "Here boys! Sic him! Sic him!" He laughed maniacally.
The drones the mad doctor had previously released came around the corners of other offices and stores, cutting Sonic off by appearing in front of him. He slid to a halt right as the flying drones shot at him with bullets. The blue blur evaded with a somersault, yet only by the skin of his teeth. He heard several bullets whiz by his head while one quite literally grazed him just enough to singe a strip of fur off his arm. To Sonic's surprise and to Dr. Robotnik's dismay, the missiles were unable to redirect in time, causing them to impact three of the drones, a fire hydrant and a parked car, the latter of which bursted into flames. The oversight infuriated Eggman but made Sonic laugh.
"Ha! You're not as smart as you think you are, Baldy McNosehair!" Sonic quipped in advance of taking off down the road again. He had to dodge a police car that seemed to be responding to the commotion. Bravery knew no bounds. Unfortunately, Sonic knew it wouldn't account too much, which made him spin around to help. As expected, as soon as the cop car pulled up and the police officers got out, taking aim at Eggman, they were taken off their feet and blown ten feet (3m) away by the mecha stomping on their car, flattening it into a metal pancake. Like the hero he is, Sonic retrieved the officers and drug into an alleyway at high speeds. "Leave this to me, guys!"
"What's this?" Dr. Robotnik taunted as the eyes of the Death Egg Robot lit up, indicating it was charging up for an electrical attack. "You're getting the police involved now? What happened to your friends? Did someone have a little break-up?"
Sonic laughed as he ran up a pillar to an underpass, pouncing off it in order to grab one of the drones right out of the sky. Spinning in mid-air, he managed to throw the disoriented drone at the D.E.R. nailing it right in the face with a small explosion that barely dented its big metal nose. "You're full of yourself! My friends would never leave me, just like I'd never leave them! I'm not going to hold it against my best friend for taking a course in G.U.N.'s Engineering Core."
"That's one stupid fox down, how about the others?" Eggman acted like he gave a flying crap about them as he made the Death Egg Robot jump up, landing on the ground while discharging an electrical shockwave that was conducted into nearby objects.
Sonic had to cover his face as windows of buildings blew out, even vehicle tires exploded. He grit his teeth as he replied. "I don't know, but all that matters is that you're dealing with me right now! I can take you down by myself, like I've done plenty of times before!" Running up the side of a nearby building, he bounced off a window pane in order to strike against the chest of the Death Egg Robot. After tagging the giant mech in the torso, Sonic spun up toward its head where Eggman was located. Moving at the speed he was, his quills acted like little needles that stuck into the metal of the robot, giving him the traction he needed to move on a vertical surface. "Just… like… I'm about to do… NOW!" Jumping up as high as he could, the blue blur grabbed the last drone out of the sky and held onto it as it proceeded to open fire, forcing its bullets to crack open the glass on the right eye of the giant mech.
Dr. Robotnik made the Death Egg Robot rotate, spinning its torso backward to avoid further attacks. The chubby human countered the attack with a swat of the robot's hand, smacking Sonic out of the sky. "You little runt!"
The hedgehog hit the ground hard, momentarily taking his breath away while the drone he held blew up beside him. Eggman made the giant mecha lift its foot up with the intention of stomping on the little bastard. Sonic, however, rolled out from beneath its big boot just in time.
'That's it…' Sonic angrily contemplated 'I've got to end this right now before someone gets hurt.'
"How about we have some more fun!?" Dr. Robotnik ranted like a lunatic as he released the D.E.R.s final miniature seeker missile barrage. "I love these things! Too bad they cost 85,000 thousand dollars a pop! Hahaha!"
Sonic ignored the mad doctor's prattling, choosing to focus on running in a circle around the legs of the giant mecha. Those seeker missiles did the same thing the previous ones did, they followed him using a guidance chip. Thankfully, he knew they were not perfect. They could be avoided or even fooled; he planned to do just that to use them to his advantage. With the missiles hot on his tail, Sonic dashed between the D.E.R.s legs. Eggman's reaction to the pelvic intrusion was to try and grab the hedgehog out from under him. As soon as the mechas hand came down, Sonic turned around in order to run up its arm. Jumping from its arm to its chest, he held there as long as he could until he lost his grip. Precisely before he fell, he saw the missiles coming at him; yet when he fell, they all made a series of impacts upon the Death Egg Robot's chest.
The Death Egg Robot nearly fell over backward from the force of its own weapons being used against it. As Dr. Robotnik struggled to keep the big robot on its feet, Sonic took the chance to run fast enough to bounce off the roof of a parked van, once again targeting the chest of the D.E.R. so he could use the momentum to climb up toward the unsightly head of the mecha. When the hedgehog was up high enough, he lunged upward, grasping onto the metal nose of the robot's face. Spinning around like a gymnast, he flung himself at the weakened glass lens making up its eye. The cracks spiderwebbed when Sonic hit the lens with all his might. He held on, finding enough footing to allow him to punch at the glass until it began to bust.
"Get off me, you rat!" Dr. Eggman hollered as he made the mecha grab at Sonic, not caring in the least that it broke off the robot's nose as he did so. "Get off, I said! GET OFF!" Swiping down the side of the Death Egg Robot's face, he managed to sling the hedgehog away, but the blue blur refused to retreat.
'Gotta go fast…' Sonic chuckled to himself while running in a circle again, making the D.E.R. rotate as quickly as it could to try and keep up with him. Once he had that same level of needed momentum, he jumped up at a streetlight, grabbed onto it and swung himself at the big mecha. Eggman tried to grab him, but the blue blur slipped between the robot's fingers, leaving Sonic to run up its arm in advance of hopping from its shoulder. Giving it everything he had in him, he collided with the spiderwebbed lens of the Death Egg Robot's eye. Due to the force Sonic had as well as the weakened integrity of the lens, it instantly shattered to pieces, allowing him to pierce through the eye into the control room where Dr. Robotnik was piloting the mechanical monstrosity. "Hi there, Egghead! Long time no see! You should know I'm not much for long-distance relationships, so I hope you don't mind that I had to come up and see you for myself!"
"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY OFFICE!" Dr. Robotnik screamed as he thrusted levers forward, apparently making the mecha take off running before he stood up to fight Sonic.
"Be nice!" Sonic jested as he started spinning around the control room, breaking buttons, snapping levers and destroying cables, anything that would cause the D.E.R. to malfunction or simply be inoperable. "It's considered courteous to be polite to your guests!"
"STOP IT! STOP IT!" Dr. Robotnik shouted before trying to take aim at the pesky hedgehog with a laser pistol designed to mimic the appearance of an antiquated German luger. "I'LL KILL YOU!"
"You don't have the guts." Sonic provoked him, proceeding to dodge each laser blast.
For Dr. Robotnik, it frustrated him worse to realize he only served to further damage the cockpit of the Death Egg Robot. Each laser blast that missed Sonic struck a control panel. This went on for a good minute until the laser pistol was out of ammo. By that point, everything other than the control terminal Eggman stood at was destroyed beyond repair; thanks in part to both of their efforts. Robotnik saw what he had done and it made him foam at the mouth, seething with anger while still holding onto an empty laser luger.
Sonic ambled closer with a grin on his face. "I told you it would play out this way, you big cheeseball." He crossed his arms and tapped his foot as he stared at the enraged doctor. "How do you wanna do this; the easy way or the hard way?"
Dr. Robotnik slowly gazed around the room, stared out the window/eyes of the Death Egg Robot, only to suddenly show a calm smile of his own. His mood changed drastically. He even dropped the gun. His smile stayed for a few moments before he bursted out into laughter. "You really think you're the hero, huh?"
Sonic raised an eyebrow as he took a defensive stance, unsure of what Eggman might have up his sleeve. "I sure don't consider myself the villain."
Robotnik continued to laugh as he sat back down in the seat in front of the only undestroyed control panel. "You can't always win forever, Sonic. Same as how I won't always lose." Lifting a small plastic plate up from the controls, he pressed the red button beneath it, which seemed to open a hatch on the ceiling of the Death Egg Robot. "Let's see what the public thinks you are after I do this!" A mere second after the button was pressed, his seat shot up into the air, revealing it to be none other than his infamous Egg Mobile. The Egg Mobile had been the central control terminal, plus it served as a more advanced ejection seat, a true escape-pod. He laughed menacingly as he rocketed up into the sky, several hundred feet above Sonic and the now out of control D.E.R.
Sonic looked back at the lens of the Death Egg Robot to try and see what Eggman was talking about. Unfortunately, the moment he turned his head, something came crashing through the head of mecha, quite literally shaving off the top half of its head. Sonic ducked in case there was more, but he didn't get injured. Now, without the top half of the mecha's head, he could see where the mechanical monstrosity was headed for; the sight of which made chills go down his spine. What had come crashing through the control room was an off-ramp to a highway, a highway it was about to crash into a structural support beam of. Looking around at all the control panels, he desperately tried to find anything that was destroyed. He hoped he'd find something that could stop the out of control mecha. To his dismay, he didn't see anything other than his own demise if he stayed aboard much longer.
"That son-of-a…" Without wasting anymore time, as the Death Egg Robot came less than fifty feet (15m) from the structural support beam of the highway overpass, Sonic abandoned the mecha, leaping out of its control room prior to bouncing off its back.
Landing safely on the ground, the blue blur looked back and ran after it in hopes he could figure out another way to stop it. This just wasn't his day, however, as the giant mecha collided with the structural support beam, bursting through it as the highway overpass above head collapsed. With the highway crumbling, giant chunks of it came crashing down, smashing the Death Egg Robot and forcing it to the ground. In spite of being on its back, the machine's feet continued to flail as its programming kept it running until the D.E.R. ran out of power. Although the main threat was finally done, the fallen highway proved to be heavily damaged. He could hear a bunch of people screaming from within the rubble.
"Oh my god, he's dead!" One person yelled.
"My wife! Please, someone help my wife!" Another shouted.
"There's kids in that school bus! Does anybody have a fire extinguisher!?" A brave victim hollered while attempting to save others.
Sonic's eyes widened in shock as he bore witness to the sudden devastation, all of which was caused by an out-of-control robot. Many people were in the process of evacuating whenever the three hundred foot (90m) stretch of highway crumbled, causing people to be trapped in rubble alongside the malfunctioning mecha. An entire school bus full of children screamed for help as they were trapped underneath a support pillar. A van loaded with people trying to flee was completely crushed by chunks of the overpass, blood and oil mixing together as it slowly flowed into the nearby storm drain. Numerous bystanders were already trying to pull pieces of the highway off the school bus, desperately trying to free the children from being trapped before it caught on fire.
"Call 911!" A woman cried.
Ambulance, fire trucks as well as police sirens could be heard from off in the distance. Emergency Response Teams were enroute at that very moment. With everything going on around him, the death and destruction, it was all too much for the blue blur who wasn't even a full-fledged adult yet. His hands shook and tears formed in his eyes as he took off running away from the scene as fast as he could. "What have I done!? What have I done!?" He said aloud while fleeing. For the time being, all he could think of to do was run, run until all he could hear was the wind in his ears and his own throbbing heartbeat.
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[Time - 4:15 P.M.]
[Date - June 19th, 21XX]
(Location - Station Square, Casino District, Casinopolis)
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A week after the accident, things have changed and not for the better. Sonic's status as an unstoppable hero waned significantly. What little stress wasn't being added by public opinion, he was making worse with his own thoughts. When he wasn't being harassed because of his failure, he was busy taking it out on himself, trying his hardest to sleep away the painful memories of innocent civilians crying in bloody terror. Occasionally he'd go to Twinkle Park just to watch people smile while going about their happy day. It was a good reminder that humanity wasn't completely evil. No matter their harsh words, he knew that most of them just wanted to live a normal life.
"Freak!" A human passing by in a car shouted out the window at him. "Go back where you came from!"
This time, he had chosen to go to Casinopolis, but it already seemed as if he'd made the wrong decision. As soon as he'd shown his face, people were being rather rude to him. He kept trying to ignore it though, ignore it and go about his day, hoping that they would soon forget, forgive or ideally both.
Earlier in the day, he had received a text from Amy Rose, asking him if he wanted to meet up somewhere to grab a bite to eat together. His mood was far from wanting to be out on a date, especially with Amy. She annoyed him with her peppy attitude and head-over-heel crush for him that made her go bonkers with jealousy. Most of the time, she was nothing more to him than a horny twerp looking to get it on with a hero figure; she even bothered him by constantly needing to be rescued. Sometimes, however, he also knew deep down that she was truly interested in his well being. During a time like this, he began wondering if he should let her into his life instead of always pushing her away. He could use a person willing to give him love right now, instead of yelling in his face that he failed.
"I don't want to see your face!" A different human, a woman yelled at him as her husband flipped him off.
"My mother died in that overpass collapse, you jerk!" A younger guy hollered. "Why haven't you just killed that bastard Eggman? None of this would have happened if you just took him out long ago!"
While Sonic leaned against the wall to the side of the Casinopolis, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a couple of burly security guards approaching him. 'Great…' He thought. 'What do these guys want? To make me feel worse? As if that's even possible.'
Before long, the two guards had made it over to him and one cleared his voice to get Sonic's attention. "Sir, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave the premise."
"What?" Sonic questioned him. "Why? I haven't done anything wrong."
"You're upsetting people." The other guard replied.
"I'm just standing here." Sonic retorted. "How can that upset anybody?"
The security guard looked over at his partner, placing his hand on his holstered pistol before responding "Sir, you've been asked to leave the premise. Leave now, or we'll be forced to detain you and call the police."
"Oh, you think you can catch me, big man? You're not even a real cop, so don't go acting like you have any authority over me beyond right in front of your Casinopolis… which, for your fucking information, I've saved a number of times!" Sonic's frustration showed through.
"SIR!" The security guard raised his voice.
Sonic chose to just wave them off before walking away like they wanted. "ALRIGHT! Fine, I'm leaving! I'm leaving! Sheesh."
Darting a block away, he stopped and looked back to make sure he wasn't really being followed. He didn't truly expect to be, however he had become quite paranoid after all the crap he'd been given by those he once saved. Once it looked as if the coast was clear, he pulled out his cellphone, taking a look at that message Amy had sent him earlier. His hand trembled, causing him to struggle to write a reply to her. Nonetheless, he managed to type 'Hey, Amy. If you want to meet up, that would be cool. I guess. We could grab a burger or hotdog, I don't care.' in his typical laid back fashion. He'd finally caved in, needing any form of contact with a person willing to be kind to him.
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Sonic arrived at the Burger Shop in the City Hall District within a flash after sending that message to Amy. He was surprised to see her already there, yet at the same time, not surprised seeing as how he was dealing with a fanatic that's obsessed with him. Thankfully, it didn't look like the Burger Shop was overly busy. At this time of day, there were only a few people there.
"Hey! Sonic!" She called out to him, waving her hand with a wide smile as soon as she spotted him. The pink hedgehog was a tad smaller than him and always wore her signature red dress as well as her red boots. It was obvious she'd gussied up to come see him as her long pink quills were freshly styled. "I'm over here!"
The blue hedgehog came closer, smiling back nervously as he anxiously scratched the back of his head. "Hey, Amy… Wow, you got here really fast."
Amy tried to hide her flushed cheeks, clearly embarrassed at the fact that she had sped over here so fast she beat him to it. "Oh… Yeah…" She giggled. "I was around, so… you know." Although she hoped it was subtle, she couldn't help other than to gaze upon her childhood crush. Even during such a bad time like this, he was still incredibly handsome to her. She loved him so much. Being aware of his sour attitude, in addition to the way people had been treating him, she had asked him out today to share good news with him, hoping it would help him cheer up.
"Okay…" Sonic said bluntly, not paying much attention to her affectionate stares. "Come on, let's go get a couple of burgers or shakes."
Amy's tail wagged back and forth, rustling against her dress as she blindly misread the moment, merely praying she could get Sonic to lighten up. "O-Or, maybe we could share a shake? I'm sure that would be a bit cheaper too… If that matters to you."
Sonic rolled his eyes as he walked into the Burger Shop, holding the door for her, which made the pink hedgehog's heart pulse thinking he was being chivalrous. "Sure, whatever."
The Burger Shop was quaint, built to look like an Old World 1950's diner. Booths lined the walls of the place. There was a bar with stools, behind that there was the open kitchen with cooks in white aprons shuffling around to serve food. Oldies music blasted through an old flashing jukebox as the smell of sizzling synthetic beef permeated the air. "Can I help you?" A woman bussing tables inquired.
"Yeah, I'd like a table for two." Sonic replied.
"Hey, wait a second…" The waitress stopped them. "Aren't you Sonic the Hedgehog?"
Amy narrowed her eyes as she looked over at Sonic. To her shock, the blue hedgehog shook his head no.
"Oh, umm… No, I get that a lot. My name is… uhh, Dexter." Sonic spoke.
Even though Amy felt like her jaw dropped to the floor, she remained calm, not holding against him for denying who he truly was. She figured he probably just didn't want to deal with a big commotion, playing it off as if he didn't want to start an argument in front of her. "Yeah." She butted in as she grabbed onto Sonic's arm, pulling him into a hug. "We're here together, Dexter and I. We just started dating!"
The waitress smiled wide. "Congratulations, you two look like a cute couple. Let's go find you two lovebirds a table." She grabbed two menus in advance of leading them toward an empty table that had also been recently cleaned. "How about this one?"
Amy nodded and tugged Sonic down into the seat next to her.
"Can I start you two off with a cold drink?" The waitress asked after setting the menus down.
"Water's good for me." Sonic said as he tried to take his arm out of Amy's embrace.
Amy merely pulled him close enough that he could smell her perfume, refusing to release his arm. "I'll have the Shirley Temple. I love those."
"Good choice. We have the best Shirley Temples." The waitress replied prior to walking away to deal with other patrons.
Sitting back against the comfy diner seat, Sonic closed his eyes, trying his hardest to take his mind off things. For the first time since he had his disastrous encounter with Eggman a week ago, he found himself in the company of a friend. It didn't even matter that it was Amy, the obsessive stalker. Anybody that was nice to him was better than the piss heads he'd been dealing with. On the other hand, as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw the pink hedgehog staring at him diligently, making him ask. "What?"
Amy snickered. "You… What's up with the pretending?" She questioned. "Dexter?"
Sonic made a hard swallow as he exhaled. He didn't want to talk about it, but since he was here and she asked, he figured he might as well clue her in on his current situation. He just didn't want to do it right now. Instead, he did what he always did; deflected and re-directed. "If I remember correctly, you were the one who made up that name… a fake boyfriend to try and make me jealous."
Even though she pouted, she also smirked, having the perfect rebuttal. "You remember that!? Oh my god…" Giggling, she kept talking. "The only reason why you remember that is because you like me."
"What?" He held back a smile, trying to seem cool. "No way, it was just really annoying hearing you talk about some guy who didn't even exist."
Amy scooted closer, not satisfied with the closeness of their proximity until the sides of their legs were touching. In her heart, despite him joking and blowing all her flirts off, she still deeply believed that the blue blur had feelings for her too. "Suuuure." She exaggerated teasingly. "You know, you can lighten up, Sonic. I'm not going to bite you or suck your blood. I just want to have a nice lunch with you and share some good news."
Sonic tried to keep smiling, yet he found it swiftly disappearing as he thought about the term 'good news'. He wished he could have some good news of his own instead of the constant misery he'd been going through. It was that reason he had been going to happy places, trying with all his might to find it contagious, to catch that happiness again.
"Sonic?" Amy asked after noticing his diminished smile as well as his change of demeanour. "What's the matter?"
He shook his head, bringing himself back to reality. "N-Nothing. It's nothing."
Amy didn't take that for an answer, choosing to stare him down instead. "Sonic. Just tell me, come on."
"I don't want to talk about it." Sonic tried to push the conversation onto something else.
"You need to." Amy replied as she scooted a tad away from him, understanding that she needed to provide help, not flirts. Her eyebrows furrowed as she put her hand on his, squeezing it gently. "I know I can be a bit of an airhead from time to time, just know that I'm always going to be here for you if you're going through a tough time. I don't mind helping you figure things out, or even just being there for you."
The blue blur wanted to pull his hand out from under hers, however, he found himself unable to do so. Due to all of the hatred he'd experienced, all he could do was break down into tears. Immediately, he tried to hide it, covering his face with his free gloved hand. Still, it was obvious what he was doing based on the way his shoulder jolted up and down. Once a tear fell onto the leather of the booth seat, he knew he couldn't conceal it anylonger. "I Just…" He struggled to speak over a wavering voice. "I miss Tails." He squeaked out, revealing only a portion of what was truly bothering him. "I'm so lonely."
Seeing him in such a state, Amy tried to cheer him up. "Sonic… It's going to be okay. Tails will be back before you know it. He's just on an adventure to learn more about engineering." Hearing that, Sonic broke down into more tears. Now she knew that it was more than that. She could tell that he didn't merely want Tails to hang out with like a regular night. She knew that her hero needed a companion to encourage him when times were hard. On the other hand, right now, she also knew that there was more bothering him than lacking his young fox ally. "There's more to this, isn't there? You're not just crying because you miss Tails, are you?"
He swiftly nodded, confirming her suspicions. "You're right… I just can't take it, Amy." A depressed whine broke through his hidden veil, proving exactly how upset he is. "I can't take the way I'm being treated by all of these people. All of these humans who used to think of me as man of the hour, now they think of me as public enemy number one! I don't know what to do anymore. It's like, I screwed up on one fight and now everybody hates me; they don't care about anything I did in the past, only this one failure."
Amy laid her hand on Sonic's shoulder, squeezing it gently. "You didn't screw up. I'm telling you, Sonic, you didn't screw up. Everything that happened that day was Eggman's fault. You were simply dealing with the consequences of evil running rampant."
"But, I was supposed to stop that robot…" He retorted, explaining how he felt. "It's my fault that I couldn't stop it from taking out that highway. All of those people, those kids… All of them died because of me."
"No… That's not true." Amy grabbed his wrist, trying to let him know how serious she was. Although she had never seen her idol in a state of misery such as this, she knew it was up to her to help him get better. "Like I said, if there's anyone you should blame, it ought to be Eggman. Those people died because he wanted you to suffer. He wanted you to go through all of this, he knew he could manipulate the masses. Don't let him win."
"How?" Sonic asked. "He's already won. I'm nothing if all the people despise me."
Amy shook her head and wrapped her arm around his shoulder. "That's not true either. He can only win if you let him win. Plus, you're still a hero, no matter what public opinion is. They don't know the truth like we do."
For the next minute, Sonic silently cried tears of great despair. His heart felt swollen and his soul marred with unconfidence. It wasn't the best place to do it, in the middle of a burger shop where all the customers could see him, but he couldn't help it. The emotions were at long last coming out whether he wanted them to or not. Despite trying to not make a scene, he did eventually have to blow his nose into a napkin. Tears had caused his sinuses to become clogged. Throwing the napkin onto the table after he was done, he did what he never in his life imagined he'd do. He chose to willingly hug Amy and he didn't even care. Feeling her warmth and her arms as they wrapped around him, it was all he needed to get a fleeting moment of clarity, enough for him to know that there were still a few who genuinely cared about him. "Thank you." He sniffled.
The pink hedgehog smiled softly while returning the hug. "You're welcome, Sonic."
When the waitress eventually came back to their table with their drinks, Sonic automatically pulled away from Amy, embarrassed at the fact that he had divulged so many emotions to her. "Here's your water…" The waitress said as she placed a tall cup of cold water in front of Sonic. "And here is your Shirely Temple." She finished while placing a tall glass of carbonated pink drink in front of Amy. "Are you ready to order, or do you need more time?"
"Can I just get two plain burgers?" Amy said, speaking for both of them.
The waitress nodded in advance of walking away. "Sure thing."
Sonic pursed his lips and sniffled as he asked "A plain burger? What's up with that?"
Amy giggled and poked a bit of fun at him so she could lighten the mood. "You hush. You'll get what you'll get and you'll like it."
Sonic didn't register how much he was enjoying his time with Amy. Although he would die before he would possibly consider this a date, he wasn't able to deny the fact that he was definitely feeling better in her presence, far better than he was previously. With his mood lightening up, he tried to relax. He leaned back in the booth as Amy watched every move he made. "So, you said you had good news?" The blue blur chose to ask, wanting to talk about a topic other than himself for a while.
Amy shrugged her shoulders while attempting to avoid the question. It bothered her that her hero was so upset and the last thing she wanted to do was agitate him further. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."
Knowing that she did have something to tell him, the blue hedgehog feigned a smile to convince her. "It's okay, just tell me."
Following a gentle gulp of Shirley Temple, she decided to tell him, hoping that it would assist in cheering him up. "Well…" She smiled wider as it all flooded her brain with endorphins to be aware of what she had succeeded in doing. "I got accepted for a spot in the boxercise adventure!"
"What's that?" Sonic asked in confusion.
Amy grunted, then nudged him in the side with her elbow, acting as if he were already her boyfriend. "You didn't pay attention did you? I told you about it several times now." She giggled prior to continuing. "I told you that I had signed up for a trip around the country, touring different dojos, learning from masters from all around the world! I still can't believe I won, it doesn't seem real!"
Sonic raised an eyebrow as he wondered when she did this. He wanted to smack himself for not paying enough attention to her before now. There was no doubt that he would've known precisely what she was talking about had he simply paid her a lick of regard. "That's great! When do you start?"
"In like a week!" Amy exclaimed, oblivious to what she was about to cause.
Knowing now that she was going to go on an adventure of her own in a matter of a few days, Sonic's smile gradually disappeared, returning to that solemn look. "You said you'll be traveling around the world?"
Amy drank more of her Shirley Temple as she grinned wide, ecstatic that she was accepted into an exclusive group. "Yeah! First our class is going to go around the United Federation here, touring big cities to meet all kinds of Senseis who can help me improve my skill! If I place first in a contest at the end, I could be eligible to visit Great China, Japan, The United Republic of Whole Korea and Vietnam so I can learn more martial arts! I'm so friggin' excited! Yes! Yes! Yes!"
"A week, huh?" Was all Sonic managed to say, his eyes drifting down toward his feet.
"Yeah!" She exclaimed, still utterly oblivious to his deteriorating mindset. It took her crush scooting away for her to realize what he was thinking. "Oh… But, with all the stuff that's going on lately… I didn't mind coming to see you today because I've been meaning to ask if it's okay for me to go."
"What?" Sonic shook his head. "You don't have to ask my permission."
Amy gave a worried look as she said "I'm asking because I don't want to leave you alone."
Without any warning, he stood up from the booth. "You don't have to worry about me, Amy. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm a hero and the last thing a hero would want to do is take away opportunities from you that you've been interested in for years." Following that declaration, he started walking away, not wanting to sit around or look her in the eyes any longer. His heart felt heavy, hurting again. All he wanted to do was get out of this burger shop so he could run. He needed to run.
"Sonic?" Amy asked with deep concern in her eyes. "Sonic?! Please, where are you going!?"
"Don't worry about me." Sonic responded once he got to the door of the burger shop. "Just be happy, Amy."
"Don't go!" She hopped up from the table and chased after him. Unfortunately, he was too fast for her. He managed to run out the door, booking it halfway down the street before she could even reach the front of the restaurant. "I can help you!" She hollered with her hands by her mouth to project her voice louder, hoping it would get to him. After a bit, she knew from experience that he wasn't coming back. Shaking her fist in frustration, she despondently walked back into the burger shop, returning to the booth where the waitress was now bringing out the two plain burgers the pink hedgehog had ordered.
"I saw what happened." The waitress spoke. "It's not any of my business, but you'll move on. There's plenty of fish in the sea."
Amy sighed in dejection while also mentally refusing to give up. Sonic had always been there for her, to help her, so she planned to be there for him during this, no matter if she missed the opportunity of a lifetime. What mattered most to her was her Sonikku.
"You're still going to have to pay for both of those burgers and drinks." The waitress broke her out of thought once more.
Amy gently bit her lower lip as her upper lip twitched, clearly bothered by the human. "Yeah… I know."
.
Running at the speed of sound amongst the streets of Station Square, Sonic was desperate to outrun his own thoughts. He hated reflecting upon the fact that all of his most trusted friends were going away, moving on from him to focus on their own lives. Even though he knew they were individuals who had private lives of their own, deep down, he had always hoped they would stick around longer, especially not choosing to leave him during such a horrendous time such as this. All he could think about was Tails working on some invention, showing it to executives at G.U.N. or Amy happily touring the world while he himself was suffering. They would never know the pain he was experiencing, never know how much he needed them and they weren't there for him.
Moving as fast as he was, he had to avoid traffic. It was fairly easy for him and yet he found it a bit difficult seeing as how his mind was another place entirely. He couldn't manage to fully focus on where he was sprinting. A few cars he had to either jump over, run atop or slide beneath in order to avoid colliding with.
As therapeutic as going super fast was, he knew that he couldn't keep going forever. He could run to another city on the opposite side of the continent before actually getting tired. Nonetheless, fatigue wasn't what he was running from, nor was it why he wanted nothing more than to keep feeling the wind flowing between his fur in addition to the ground passing by his feet. Thus, once he saw a liquor store, he decided to end his speed express in exchange for a prayer to potentially drown his worries.
Liquor Station, it was called. A horrible name, same as the majority of establishments around here. Coming to a stop in front of the place, he wiped the tears from his eyes. Opening the door to the business, he walked inside a liquor store for the first time in his whole life.
"Hi there, welcome to Liquor Sta-..." The man at the counter began saying prior to cutting himself off whenever his eyes landed on Sonic. "You… What do you want?"
Sonic's teeth seemed to move on their own, gritting so tight he had to speak through them. "I'm just here to buy. I'm not looking for trouble, I swear." The owner of the store kept a close eye on him as the blue hedgehog looked around at the signs. Never having been in a place like this, he wasn't even sure what he was looking for. In fact, he'd never gone so far as to have more than a sip of beer. He didn't know the difference in any of the hard liquors. Whiskey, Vodka, Scotch, Bourbon, Brandy; the shelves were packed full of any brand imaginable and he had no clue as to what did what. "What here will get you drunk?"
"What are you, stupid?" The owner jeered. "Pick anything in here, it'll get you drunk."
Grabbing a bottle of Vodka off the shelf, Sonic blinked at the price before handing over the money at the register.
"Can I see your I.D.?" The owner asked.
Sonic lifted his eyebrow, suddenly realizing that he both, had no I.D. nor was he technically of legal drinking age. He just wanted to forget the world and didn't even consider the fact that he had to show a driver's license. "An I.D.?"
The owner tried to hold back a sigh, but he failed rather miserably. "I.D. , You know, identification."
"Come on, I'm a hero." Sonic made an attempt at weaseling his way past the process. "Can't you just take my money and let me go?"
Starting to realize that Sonic wasn't going to be able to hand over a form of identification, the owner of the Liquor Station took the bottle of Vodka out of the hedgehog's hands, placing it on the counter. "Look, you need a I.D. for me to be able to sell you this. If you don't have one, then scram. I'm not about to lose my liquor license over an anthro like you."
Hearing an insult, Sonic's eye twitched. He couldn't hold back from showing his displeasure at such rudeness following a really horrible day. Anger surfaced rather quickly. Instinctively, he found himself bearing his fangs at the threat. "Really!? You're going to do this!? Now?!"
Witnessing the sudden aggression, the owner changed his tune while trying to remain in charge of the situation. "Sir, why don't you just leave?"
"So, now I'm a sir?" Sonic fiercely spat. "Now I'm a sir. I used to be a hero and now I've been reduced to the common 'sir'." He chuckled like a crackpot, feeling his sanity swirling down the black hole invading his mind. "I guess I should be happy you didn't call me anthro again. But, let me guess, you didn't mean to say that, huh?"
"Sir…" The owner repeated as he took a step back.
In the blink of an eye, Sonic flipped the guy off and vanished from the store, the door having opened as well as closed being the only sign that he was there. That, plus once the human glanced down at the counter with the intent of returning the Vodka, he saw that it too was gone, snatched out from beneath his eyes without him noticing.
.
Seeking refuge in an alleyway, Sonic sniffled, wiped the tears from his eyes and then sat down against the wall with the bottle of Vodka in his hand. Upon opening the bottle, he found it didn't have much of a smell, yet a truly wicked taste for a teenager who never drank before. "Whoa… Wow, that's… That is bad." He coughed, making a face at the horrible taste. "Yuck." Still, feeling all that emotional pain swelling up in his injured heart, he couldn't resist taking the biggest swig possible. It burned his throat like hell and he gagged a few times. He even had to wipe a strand of spit from his lower lip. "Why do people drink? This is really disgusting…" Spitting on the ground, he twisted the cap back on, thinking 'I better feel something from this other than heartburn.'
A bag of garbage suddenly fell onto the trashcan next to him, falling from an apartment above.
"HEY!" Sonic stood up, shouting upward at the window a lady was standing at. "I'M STANDING HERE!"
The woman leaned out the window and yelled back at him. "Get out of the street you fuckin' bum!"
"Screw you! I was here before you dropped that bag of crap!" Sonic asserted his dominance while already untwisting the cap to the Vodka for another go at it.
"You should get in that trash, it's where you belong!" The woman hissed in advance of closing the window as well as pulling the curtains.
Not being able to win an argument against a person who already walked away, the only thing he could do was take another big gulp of the Vodka. That garbage stunk pretty bad. He wanted to seek a bit of refuge prior to heading back home to his apartment, but the stench was going to run him off prematurely. Following several more long drinks from the bottle of alcohol, he screwed the cap back on and chucked it up at the rude human's window, dashing away the moment it made impact, shattering upon the glass. "What a bitch."
.
Racing down the sidewalks of Station Square, the blue blur noticed his movements becoming sloppy. His feet stumbled more than they ever had in his entire life. The way his face felt warm, his eyes feeling heavy, mind cloudy and dizzy, he knew for sure that he was experiencing at least a partial buzz from the alcohol he'd consumed. Were he not a professional runner, he likely would have collided with a random citizen going about their business. A few people he got close enough to spook; it didn't really matter to him at this point. The only thing on his mind were the events taking place earlier. It was still stinging his soul to be aware all of his friends were practically abandoning him during the worst tribulations he had ever faced.
Sonic nearly smacked his head on a stop sign. He tried to move over more onto the sidewalk, but overcorrected, causing him to lose his footing. Tripping, he slid a few feet in advance of rolling into the brick wall of an upscale clothing store. In spite of hitting the wall fairly hard, he bounced backward. Resuming the run, he knocked three people over; an older lady and a younger couple holding hands. "I'm sorry!" He shouted without stopping. 'Dammit.'
The people he knocked over all stood up to yell at him, but he was far enough away by then that he couldn't hear a word they said. All that was on his mind was sprinting as fast as he possibly could. Like before, he wasn't focusing his best; thus, when he came to a crosswalk, he was nearly struck by a passing car. The car slammed on their breaks after Sonic had already shot past, causing it to come a hair width from being rear-ended by the driver behind them. Sonic did slow down long enough to ensure nobody was hurt, after that however, he resumed his speedy escapade.
"HEY YOU!" A police officer hollered at him while coming after him in an old fashioned Waku-Waku patrol car. "S.S.P.D. STOP RIGHT THERE!"
Hearing the sirens behind him, Sonic decided to run even faster. The last thing he wanted was to be captured by the Station Square Police Department, only to be charged with public intoxication while moving quicker than any vehicle could move. He turned his head to look at the cop, he saw a stoic expression hidden behind reflective aviator shades. Knowing what was coming based upon that typical authoritarian look, he took evasive action, dipping into traffic in order to swerve in and out between cars. The pursuing officer chased after him to the best of his human abilities. Sonic would have been impressed at his capabilities were he not drunk as well as being chased by the guy.
"LAST CHANCE!" The cop ordered as he picked up more speed, thinning the distance between the two of them. His Waku-Waku patrol car was being pushed to its absolute limit. Being an older model, it just didn't have the capacity to accelerate or be as quick as the newer Interceptor models. "STOP RUNNING AND PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD! NOW!"
Gazing around at traffic, Sonic made a rash decision. He veered into the oncoming lane, racing alongside the cars coming the opposite direction as him.
The police officer blared his horn to alert traffic to the intrusion, yet was unable to catch up to Sonic with the oncoming horde of vehicles coming straight at him. He was forced to give up pursuit as the cop would become more of a hazard to others than it was worth to catch the blue blur. "DAMN YOU! He cussed as the hedgehog made off down the road.
'What is wrong with people!?' Sonic asked himself as he continued swerving in and out of traffic, repeatedly hopping from the oncoming to the ongoing lane in hopes of keeping the police officer off his trail. He knew the cop had a radio, but hopefully he could change course so they wouldn't be able to guess where he was heading. 'It's like everyone wants me dead now. Civilians, police… What next? Am I going to be fighting off the military too?'
Ditching the surface streets, Sonic darted off into an alleyway, figuring that would throw anybody off his scent. Ducking behind a dumpster, he ignored the revolting smell for once and merely waited, staying there until he heard the sirens of that same cop come and go past. He remained hidden a good five minutes after that, ensuring that he was safe to come out without being seen by anybody he had previously been around. When he eventually did come out, he found himself further afflicted by the Vodka.
He was surprised that he felt the effects so soon after consuming it. In a way, he wasn't sure he'd feel it at all seeing as how he'd never done any of it before today. Tipsy as he was, he was aware of the fact that he needed to get out of public places. He needed to go home, he just didn't want to. Part of him knew that if he went home, he was just going to be miserable, stuck alone with his own pathetic thoughts.
'What am I going to do?' The blue blur tried rationalizing with himself. 'Everybody is either leaving or gone. I need a person to talk to.' Before long, his eyes lit up with an idea. From talking with friends earlier, he recalled hearing that Vanilla and Cream had been in town for a pageant. It was true that he didn't particularly want Cream, a young girl, to witness her idol in a state of drunkenness; he had a feeling that Vanilla might be able to help him. After all, he was always told that adults were more mature than kids or teenagers, so it made sense that she would have a method of her own for dealing with such strife. 'Vanilla and Cream are at the Station Square Hotel. I should go see them. They've always treated me like family. It would be nice to have people that love me for who I am, no matter what mistakes I make.'
Peeking his head out from around the corner to the alleyway, the hedgehog made sure the coast was totally clear in advance of revealing himself. Coming out of the alleyway, he started walking toward the hotel. It wasn't too far away, but being drunk was making time seem to tick by very slowly. His feet felt like they were getting heavier by the second. Bright lights shining in his eyes; anything that twinkled was trying to give him a headache.
As soon as Sonic noticed people looking at him strangely, giving him a funny eye, he bolted toward the hotel. Following ten minutes of running, he soon made it to the hotel. He felt thankful too, for his stomach was twisting into a knot, causing him to feel nausea. It was probably from the alcohol without having eaten any form of food recently. Nonetheless, after a brief rest outside the building, he walked inside. He was ready to get out of the public view; considering what had happened to him or what had been said to him each time he'd been seen today, he never wanted them to see him again as well as vice versa.
Going up to the door, the doorman opened the door for him. Sonic nodded sullenly, appreciating a human that was still willing to treat him with respect. Once inside, he walked over to the reception desk. A woman sat in a chair as she stared at a computer screen on her desk. Although he had never visited anybody at this particular hotel, he figured the receptionist would know what room Vanilla and Cream were renting. "E-Excuse me, Ma'am." He cleared his throat and then tried to say as normal sounding as he could. "Could you tell me which room a guest is in?"
The receptionist didn't even look up at him prior to saying. "See the manager."
"I'm just looking for the room number, I can find it from there." Sonic reiterated.
Making an annoyed grunt, the woman spoke to him like he was bothering her and had been all day. "Sir, if you want to find out which room a guest is in, you'll have to see the manager. I'm not authorized to give you that information."
Sonic waved her off, choosing not to deal with her crumby attitude. He ignored her and walked away. Making his way over to the manager of the hotel behind a different desk, he told the guy the exact same thing he told the receptionist. "Could you tell me which room a guest is in, please?"
Spinning around in his chair, he looked at Sonic square in the eye before asking him. "Who are you looking for?"
Seeing progress being made, Sonic told him. "I'm looking for Vanilla the Rabbit. I heard she was staying here."
The manager nodded slowly in advance of looking in his computer system. He whistled a tune until he found the name on his list. Unfortunately, he didn't tell Sonic the number like he wanted. The manager picked up the hotel phone first and dialed the number. Sonic waited, watching the human yawn and look around the room before the phone call went through. Upon the other end of the phone signal being picked up, the manager put on a phony nice sounding voice so he could sound professional. "Hello, Vanilla?" Following a moment, he smiled "Yes, this is the manager. I have Sonic the Hedgehog down here in the lobby. He wants to know if I could give him your room number so he could make a visit." The guy's eyes shifted a bit before he smiled again and gave a fake laugh. "Yes, Ma'am. I was just making sure. I'll do that… Uh-huh, you have a good afternoon."
Hanging up the phone, the manager looked up at Sonic and gave him the information. "She's in room 749. That's on the seventh floor."
Sonic gave the guy a thumbs up. He didn't even thank him before walking away since the guy should have known he wasn't a bad guy planning to hurt Vanilla or Cream. In the hedgehog's opinion, the human only checked with Vanilla because he didn't trust him as a hero anymore. That level of trustworthiness had vanished along with his status.
He set all of that aside as he went to the elevator. Pressing the button, it only took a few seconds for it to arrive at the lobby. Going inside, he pressed the seventh floor button and then the close door button, not wanting to wait around in case anybody decided to join him. The doors slid closed and the elevator went up to the seventh floor.
Arriving at the seventh floor, he exited the elevator to follow the signs down the hallway, looking for room number 749. Once he found it, he knocked on the door, praying that Vanilla would be there as he had already forgotten that the manager called to check. He figured that there was always the chance that her and Cream could be out elsewhere doing their own things. So, waiting was all he could do to find out. 'What am I going to do if she's not there?' He thought while waiting. 'Who else am I going to go to? Knuckles? No, he's all the way out in the Mystic Ruins… God, I hope she's here. I really need some motherly advice."
Rustling from behind the door made the hedgehog get his hopes back up. Sure enough, he heard the lock unlatching. It creaked open before Vanilla poked her head out. Once her eyes landed on Sonic, she smiled, her big long ears flopping just from walking. "Hi there, Sonic!" She exclaimed rather excitedly to see him. "Cream's in the shower right now, but if you want to come in and relax for a bit, you can come to dinner with us. We'd love to catch up with you. It's been a bit."
"V-Vanilla…" Sonic sniffled sadly.
The mature rabbit's demeanour changed as she saw the hedgehog in a state of depression. "Sonic? What's wrong?"
"I need your help, Vanilla. I don't know what to do." Sonic let it all pour out. "I can't take it anymore. This city is driving me insane!"
Vanilla furrowed her brow while looking back into her hotel room, likely looking to see if Cream was around. Her daughter must have still been in the shower. Cheese the Chao, their pet, was all that was there, laying up on the bed. "Have you been drinking, Sonic?" She asked after returning her attention to him.
Sonic's lip quivered as he nodded slowly. "Yeah… I know it was bad b-but-..."
"Why don't you get a room here and sleep it off, okay?" She answered. "I'll call down to the manager and get you set up with one."
Confused and still needing to get things off his chest, Sonic shook his head. "I just need to talk to you, I need some advice."
Vanilla started closing the door back, making Sonic's jaw drop in disbelief. It looked like she was about to reject him. She could see that he was hurt by her actions, so she tried to explain it to him. "I'm not trying to be rude to you. I just don't want Cream being exposed to drunkenness. Besides, you look like you're ready to pass out. You probably won't absorb much of anything I'd tell you anyway."
The door to the bathroom inside the hotel room suddenly opened. "Who's that, Mommy?" Cream's voice inquired.
Vanilla smiled at her and lied "Just room service. Get your dress on, we're going to go out to eat in a while." Turning back to Sonic, she very gently pushed him back away from the door, only to have him stumble back due to lack of balance. "Go back downstairs, okay?" She said to him. "Rest in the lobby until the manager finds you." Following that, she closed the door.
Sonic just stood there staring in utter disbelief. He stayed there in front of the door for a while, debating whether or not to bang on it and chew her out for rejecting him like she did. Eventually he chose not to. She had always been nice to him previously. He didn't want her to wind up hating him. After another minute of blinking while wobbling back and forth, he turned around and left. As he got back in the elevator, all that happened started setting into his head. His sadness, his despair, it made him feel like he'd lost yet another friend who used to do anything for him. The frustration and anger made him blow her off just like he did Amy. He wasn't going to sleep this off. He needed to run again.
.
.
[Time - 7:30 P.M.]
(Location - Station Square, Central District)
.
Now that he was unable to find anybody at all that would be willing to help him through this demoralizing phase, Sonic was back outside. He still didn't want to go home. Be it stubbornness or the fact that he was severely saddened, he just couldn't make himself go back to his apartment. His subconscious would rather sleep out on the streets than in his own bed right now.
"Why?!" He shouted up to the heavens, demanding an answer. "Why did this happen to me!?"
"What's your problem, buddy?" A passer-by sarcastically scoffed.
"Go your drunk ass home." Another proclaimed.
Sonic gave them a fierce look before running another block down, stopping in front of a bench overlooking a small park. His heart was beating swifter than a hummingbirds. He had to take a break and chose to do so on the bench. Sitting down, he immediately put his head in his hands and began crying. A couple of people walked by him, but they were either kind enough or didn't care enough to say anything to him. He didn't even acknowledge them. His body needed to let it out and that's what it planned to do. Tears poured freely as he smothered his face in his own palms.
"I hate these people." He choked out with red puffy eyes. A part of his mind knew that he didn't mean that. It was obvious he didn't hate the human populace by the number of times he had saved it. "What is wrong with them?" He kept asking himself, wishing the answer would be magically bestowed upon him
"Hey you!" An unknown individual yelled out to him.
"Oh my god…" Sonic scoffed with his head still hidden in the palms of his hands. "If I hear one more person yell 'hey you' to me, I'm going to scream until I explode."
"Shut the fuck up!" The strange voice cursed at him.
Sonic looked up to see what the commotion was, only to see a gang of ruffians leering around him. Five humans of different ethnicities and a woman had him surrounded. They donned relatively dark clothing with purple bandanas wrapped around their faces, an instant red flag. To Sonic's dismay, despite most likely being far faster than them on a normal basis, getting the jump on him while he was desperate and drunk had him concerned for his safety. Being scared so suddenly made his heart sink. "W-Who are you? What do you want?"
An abruptly excruciating blow to the back of the head sent Sonic flailing to the hard ground. Stars invaded his vision, leaving little flashing white specks as the stars spun around in circles. He automatically felt the back of his head on instinct, feeling past his quills to where he could feel blood coming out of his scalp.
"Piece of shit, Anthro." One of the bullies remarked ahead of kicking Sonic in his rib cage with a steel toe boot, forcing the air out of the poor hedgehog's lungs.
"We don't want your kind around here!" The woman took a drag off her tobacco, hawked up a vile yellow loogie onto Sonic's chest and flicked the burning cigarette butt at him. "Go back were you came from, or better yet just kill yourself!"
"P-Please…" Sonic begged while trying to crawl away. "I'm sorry."
One of the gang members passed around baseball bats to the others in broad daylight, revealing the cause of what knocked him off the bench in the first place as well as what they planned to take him out with. They didn't seem to care that they were doing this in the open during public hours. For an odd reason, it didn't seem like anybody else was around at all. "We don't need animals saving humans!" That guy yelled. "We can save ourselves!"
"I'm sorry!" Sonic cried. "Please, I'm just a kid!"
The group looked at one another before laughing. One of them removed a bag from his pocket prior to tossing it at Sonic. He sneered before saying "If you don't want us to kill you, you'll eat that whole bag with a smile."
Sonic grabbed the bag and examined it, seeing it was filled with half-rotten seeds and shriveled fruits with mold on them. He coughed up a strand of blood and he felt like puking, but survival mode made him try his best to keep on. "What is… What is this?"
"It's hamster food. Eat it." The woman demanded. "You're nothing more than a fucking hamster! You think you're better, faster, stronger and smarter than us? Well you're not! Eat it, ya little hamster!"
Although it was gross, Sonic did what he had to in order to not get killed. He took a scoop of the rotten seeds out of the bag and quickly crammed them in his mouth without thinking. Chewing, it tasted more foul than the alcohol ever could; like spoiled dirt that had been crapped out by a random creature. He gagged, but managed to swallow it.
The group of human's laughed more in advance of encroaching upon him.
He spat out the rotten seeds and tried crawling away, even yelling for help. "No… please… Help! HELP! SOMEBODY! I did what you asked me to do, please don't!"
As soon as he tried to get up to run away, the streetgang started wailing on him. He hit the ground again and covered his head as they hit his arms, legs and torso with baseball bats. They laughed with every blow they made, acting worse than a maniac. Sonic screamed out in agony, curling up into the fetal position to try and protect himself more from sustaining traumatic damage. He wished he would faint, but his body felt every smack of their bats. A snapping sound occurred and a horrible mind-numbing pain ran through his arm. He knew they broke his arm and couldn't do anything other than beg for his life as they repeatedly hit him.
"ENOUGH!" A booming voice from behind commanded them to stop.
"Eggman!" The thug exclaimed after seeing the mad doctor hovering in his favourite mode of transportation. "What are you doing here?"
His friend stepped forth with a bewildered expression plastered on his face. "I thought yo-..." Unable to complete his sentence, the gangster's mouth suddenly hung open and his eyes went cross due to a bullet piercing his brain.
The other henchmen reacted in shock to seeing their buddy struck between the eyes from a well placed shot by Eggman's Egg Mobile. "WHAT THE FUCK!? WHY DID YOU DO THAT!?" Their leader screamed with veins bulging in his neck. "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO PA-..."
Not letting the thug finish either, Eggman lifted his laser luger, firing it at the leader's throat. That laser beam struck the hoodlum right in the trachea, instantly incinerating the surrounding skin, melting a hole all the way down to the bone as blood sprayed out onto the concrete sidewalk. Regardless of being a big man, the guy grabbed at his disintegrating throat. He made disgusting gurgling sounds as he fell to his knees, then to the ground. Movement ceased in only ten seconds.
Witnessing the murder of their leader, the other gangbangers raised their weapons with the intention of opening fire. The group wasn't able to so much as fire a single bullet. They didn't expect to be mowed down by the Egg Mobile. Without warning, it shot at them similar to a machine gun. Both barrels on the side of the personal hover car rapidly pistoned back-and-forth as they released lead bullets in massacre-like fashion. Each gangster was mowed down as if they were nothing other than fleshy targets; their bodies hitting the ground with a thud. Blood pooled in the cracks of the sidewalk as they all took their last gasp of breath.
Sonic, nearing unconsciousness, struggled to see who it was that saved him. His precious red life-fluid dripped from his nose, ears and mouth. With blurry vision from his swollen black eyes, he stared up at Dr. Robotnik, not knowing or realizing who he was in the least. Feeling himself fading to and from reality, he worried that he may have a concussion. He knew he shouldn't go to sleep if he did have one, but his injuries mandated a passout to prevent further damage. Never before now had he condoned killing. Nonetheless, the last thing he managed to do preceding the cold dark black veil closing upon his eyes, was spit blood so he could give his appreciation to his saviour, the only person in the city that helped him. "Thank you."
The mad doctor sighed as a frown formed upon his lips. "You don't have to thank me." He replied even though the blue hedgehog had fallen unconscious. It seemed as if the fat human were becoming sad, however that frown soon turned into a malicious grin far more suitable for the face of an evil villain. "We have a lot of work to do. You can thank me after it's all over and done with." Pressing a button on the control console of the Egg Mobile, a hydraulic reacher extended from beneath it. Using a joystick off to the side of him, Dr. Robotnik controlled the reacher, maneuvering it down to the ground where he was able to gently grab Sonic with its tri-claw.
Lifting the broken hedgehog off the sidewalk, he slid his finger across a touchscreen to select different options available to him. Following the input of several commands, the Egg Mobile started scanning Sonic's body. A probe protruded from the bottom as well, this one a small sensor bar that circled around the reacher on a predetermined track. Were he awake, the blue blur would be surprised to know that it wasn't for a nefarious reason either. The scanning turned out to be a medical procedure conducted to examine the severity of his wounds.
Once the sensor probe ceased scanning, Eggman was instantaneously sent an X-Ray to the touch screen. "Those punks really roughed you up." He spoke while examining the ghastly image on the monitor. There wasn't much time to stare at the picture though. Off in the distance, he heard numerous police sirens quickly converging on his position. "And, here come the Po-Po." Dr. Robotnik rolled his eyes at the nuisance. Most people would take a person, be it human, animal or anthro, to a hospital if they looked as mangled as Sonic currently did. Eggman knew otherwise. He knew he couldn't take him to a public emergency center without arousing suspicion. Not having any other choice, he made the best choice available. Leaving the dead bodies of the gang behind, he ascended up into the sky and flew off toward the ocean. "Let's get you to the Egg Carrier."