To the Present

by Kumarisan

In their present time, the brothers meet after an unholy pact revies itself. *authors note* This probably won't make sense if you haven't read the epic

                           Yuo Sape Resurrection

            It was late on the watchtower and Tails was bored and tired, because he had stayed up the previous night playing video games on Nicole. Bunnie had caught him but didn't tell anyone, but made him promise to drink her coffee while he was on watch. Tails drank it slowly and it kept him awake, but bored. Under normal circumstances, Tails would have never been given late night duty, but he had proved to be quite the mature cub in the past few months, and Sally decided to reward the fox with a bit more responsibility. After all, who else would see more work as a reward? Dr. Robotnik had been very busy lately, with the resistance being apprehended in record numbers lately. Intelligence showed that the amount of power consumption coming from Robotropolis had increased in the past week due to the number of times the roboticizer was used. No one could understand why the evil genius's luck had been so good, or in the freedom fighter's case, bad all of a sudden. No one doubted the intelligence of Robotnik, but they knew how hard it was for him to navigate the forest's mazes. Tails yawned. He'd rather be sleeping, right now so when Knuckles came in the morning they could race all the way to the floating island. But he wanted to prove to the others that he was responsible, and to do that, he needed to complete this task, dull as it was. It wasn't like anyone could ever stumble upon Knothole, even if they tried to. Suddenly, a red bird landed on his post, distracting the fox cub's thoughts. "Um…are you lost or something?" Tails stammered, surprised. He had never seen a flicky anywhere but that Island off the south coast. The bird smiled. "Hiya!" he said in a cheerful voice. "Uh, hey. Are you lost?" Tails repeated in a firmer voice, trying to sound older than he was. The bird moved closer to Tails. "It depends on your definition of lost. I don't exactly know where I am, but I was looking for you, so I guess you can say I am, and I'm not lost." He answered, flashing a big grin across his beak. Tail's eyes widened. "You were looking for me? But I've never seen you before!" The bird laughed. "I've never seen a fox with two tails before, so I guess this makes it a night of firsts! But seriously, I was looking for a few stray animals to recruit. These are dangerous times, ya know?" The bird was being awful polite, but Tails kept his guard up. "Recruit?" he inquired. "Yeah, there's strength in numbers, and you're pretty young to be out in these woods all alone. So maybe you'd wanna join my crew!" Tails' attention turned towards the rope ladder, as he felt someone scaling the tower. He gulped when he saw a bulky timber wolf ascend into the platform. The wolf's face was scarred and he had a menacing demeanor. He smiled slyly when he saw Tails. "I thought I smelled fresh meat." he uttered in a chilling tone. Tails grabbed his telescope like a weapon, which made the wolf let out a cruel snicker. "What do you guys want from me?" Tails demanded, hoping that he didn't sound as frightened as he was. "Kid," The wolf said gruffly, "I'm not one for pointless introductions, so I'm gonna give you one of two options. One, you join the ranks of Yuo Sape and live like a king, or two, you turn down my offer and become a part of our quota for the week." The bird chimed in as if on key. "Quota- our recent re-allegiance with Dr. Robotnik. We provide him with seven fresh animals a week and he doesn't roboticize us. A nice trade off, considering there is no other alternative. Of course when business looks bad, we use stock from among our ranks to fill the quota, but that only adds to the 'eliteness' of our crew." Tails gripped his telescope even harder, fearing the painfully obvious would happen. "So whaddaya say, kid? I think you'd be an excellent addition to the 'freak show' section of Yuo Sape." The wolf added coldly. Tails could feel the tears welling up in his eyes. Even though he was eight years old, no one had ever called him a freak before. "Here's an offer for you guys!" he piped, imitating his hero. "You get out of my tower, crawl back under the wrong you came out from and I won't have to break this nice telescope over your heads!" the wolf and the bird looked at each other. "You got some real guts kid." The wolf admitted, patting Tails on the head. Before Tails cold respond, the wolf grabbed him by his neck and tossed him out of the tower. The kitsume fox had just enough time to rev up before he hit the ground. Before he could escape, the bird came from out of nowhere and pecked him in the eye. Tails fell to the grass grabbing his face, but as soon as he touched the ground he was pinned to it by the wolf. With his one good eye, Tails watched in horror as the wolf's evil smirk turned into a vicious, toothy grin. Tails noticed a hint of blood on the wolf's breath and struggled to free himself from his grasp. "The name's Kiyoti, Kiyoti Kim. You're brave, but you're too stupid to be a part of Yuo Sape." The wolf stated. "Hey Leo, what do we do to stupid animals?" the bird flew with viewing distance of Tails. "Break 'em!" the bird laughed. Kiyoti pulled out a blindfold and tied it around Tails' eyes. After beating the fox for a few minutes, Kiyoti took off the blindfold. Tails had already lost consciousness and quite a bit of blood. Leo looked over the fallen cub. "Gruesome. I guess you're not used to roughing up kids, are ya?" Kiyoti frowned. "He'll never make it to Robotnik in this state, and he's no good to us dead." Kiyoti thought aloud. "Leave 'em here." Leo suggested. "We'll come back tomorrow and see if he's still around. If he's alive, we'll give him to the good doctor. We've already made quota this week anyway." Kiyoti dusted himself off, quite proud of himself. "Yeah. Let's go." The two left as quickly as they came.

            "Hey Sonic, get up, will ya? It's half past 8!" The blue hedgehog groaned. He had a rule about not waking up before 10am, but everyone seemed to disregard it. "Gimme two more hours, Rote, geez!" he managed to say between yawns. Rotor rolled his eyes. For someone with so much energy, Sonic could sure be a lazy animal. "You can go right back to sleep after I finish asking you something." Rotor replied, not moving. Sonic opened an eye. "Have you seen Tails at all today?" Sonic's eyes widened. He jumped out of bed at the mention of his sidekick. "Why, isn't he asleep now?!" Sonic demanded, looking at the empty cot at the other side of the hut. "Where is he?!" "I thought he forgot to sign out from guard duty again, but if he's not here with you, he's probably fallen asleep at his post.  I'll go relieve him. Poor kid couldn't handle the hours I guess. Go back to sleep Sonic, I got it from here." Rotor answered, leaving Sonic's hut. Sonic sighed and sat down in his bed. He hated when someone played with his emotions with false alarms. He wasn't serious about much, but NO one messed with Tails. 

            Rotor casually strolled to the lookout tower, assuring himself that Tails had simply fallen asleep. He would have probably done the same thing if he were only eight years old and bored to tears, being on watch for a ten-hour shift. Arriving at the tower, Rotor whistled the secret sign to relieve someone on guard duty. There was no audible response. "Okay Tails! Nap time's over! We gotta get you to bed before Sally finds out you were sleeping on the job!" Rotor shouted, hoping this would stir Tails. Still nothing. As Rotor began to approach the tower his eye caught something orange under a pile of leaves. Curious, the walrus walked closer to investigate. When he realized what he saw, his jaw dropped. It was a young kitsume fox bleeding from the head and stomach. "Tails, no!" he yelled, cradling the cub in his arms. He took off as fast as he could. Destination: Dr. Fiir.

           

            Dr. Fiir was usually the calm one of the group as most physicians are. Never before had any Freedom Fighters heard him raise his voice in shock or anger. "Doesn't anyone know who did this?!" he demanded as he began to elevate Tails' neck. Rotor looked at the ground, sheepishly. "I thought he had fallen asleep and fell out of the tower." He stated. Dr. Fiir exposed Tails' chest. "A simple fall wouldn't do this. These are bites, scratch marks and paw prints all over him. You don't break a few ribs by falling out of a tree. Some…animal did this." "There wasn't anyone around when I got there." "Of course there wasn't anyone there, Rotor! But didn't you at least check to see any tracks?!" Sonic growled, entering the room. Dr. Fiir raised his paw and then pointed to the door. "Only one outburst is allowed per crisis and I used it up already, Sonic. I know Tails is like a brother to you, but if you want me to be able to help him, I need peace in my O.R. Later on you can be by his side, but right now I want you to alert the others to stay in their huts for the rest of the evening. I need my space." Sonic opened his mouth to protest, but the doctor looked sharply at him, eyes narrowing. Slowly, Sonic turned around and left the hut. "You'd better go follow him." Dr. Fiir said, addressing Rotor. "He's not leaving to tell the others, he's leaving to kill someone." Rotor looked out the door and saw the inevitable- two fiery streaks where Sonic peeled out into the Great Forest. The walrus sighed and ran off to alert Sally and the others of the situation.

            Sonic was livid. Seeing his protégé unconscious on a hospital bed with bruises all over made his blood boil. He wasn't sure who beat Tails, but he was determined to find out. Instinct told him to go to the scene of the crime, the lookout tower. When he arrived, he saw a red echidna studying the ground. "These tracks are fresh, but the blood is not." Knuckles thought aloud, not realizing he was no longer alone. "Whoever did this acted quickly at the beginning of his shift, but waited until recently to leave…" Sonic walked towards Knuckles, eyes stinging with angry tears. "You! Why're you here?!" the hedgehog demanded. Knuckles glanced up. "Hey." He replied, not moving. "Your memory is as short as your temper, Sonic. Remember what today is? I was going to take Tails to the Floating Island today so we could work on his flying for a week." Sonic hit his head. Duh! That's what Tails had been talking about all month! "But how did you know about his attack?" he inquired, confused. Knuckles looked at Sonic, wide eyed. "This was him?!" he demanded, jumping into an erect position. "I was just on my way to your hut to pick him up when I saw this. Why'd you put him on guard duty?" "…" Knuckles groaned. "Dammit, never mind that, we gotta find out who did this!" the echidna ordered, getting down again to finish examining the footprints. Sonic joined him. "It looks like a timber wolf, but it's slightly bigger." Knuckles informed his rival. "Right over there is where Tails must've been attacked." he added; pointing to the spot Some of Tails' fur and blood lay. "But you said the blood has been there for awhile, but the tracks are practically new." Sonic stated. "What took whoever it was so long to leave?" "It's possible," Knuckles pondered. "That the wolf came back again later on in the night. For what, I'm not sure, but we've gotta pursue now if we wanna catch whoever it was." The two headed off, following the tracks that never seemed to fade. "This isn't a good sign, Sonic!" Knuckles called while they were running. "Whaddaya mean, Knux?" "The tracks aren't even hard to see! It's almost as if it's a trap." Sonic gritted his teeth. He didn't care if it was a trap. Whoever hurt his friend would pay. Eventually, they came to a lake where the tracks abruptly stopped. This reminded Knuckles of a cheesy campfire story he once heard. Unsure of himself, Knuckles observed the land. They were in unfamiliar territory, and they knew this. "…So now what???" Sonic asked his escort impatiently.  As if on cue, a mammoth timber wolf revealed himself from his hiding place. "Hello there!" the wolf spoke. "Would you by any chance be willing to donate a little something to the Yuo Sape survival fund?" Knuckles, who had done much research on the history of Mobius, knew of the Yuo Sape organization. "Yuo Sape?!" he demanded. "But that's impossible!" Kiyoti took a step toward Knuckles. "An educated echidna, hmm? Now that's something I thought I would never see!" the wolf laughed. Sonic took a step forward and spoke up. "You hurt Tails, didn't you?" he demanded. "His name is "Tails"?" Kiyoti chuckled. "How stupid! Heh heh heh." There was something evil about the wolf's laugh that sent chills down Knuckles' spine. Suddenly he noticed that the wolf's friends had surrounded him and Sonic. A couple coyotes, an ocelot, a few wolves, and large cougar began to circle them, preparing to attack. Knuckles was the first to react. Leaping forward, he surveyed the ground around him. The two were hopelessly outnumbered. As he contemplated his next action, he glanced at Sonic who was violently shaking. "You're all gonna pay!" Sonic shouted, revving up his legs, preparing to spin dash the wolf. Leo flew down from his perch in the tree onto Kiyoti's shoulder. "Hold on a minute! We have to introduce ourselves!" Leo scolded. "I'm Leo, and this is my buddy Kiyoti! He's the leader if you didn't guess. Oh and the guys that have surrounded you? Starting from the echidna's right, there's Lester, Bassi, Germin, Fife, Will," "Enough, Leo." Kiyoti ordered. He beckoned Sonic to attack. Before Knuckles could protest, Sonic somersaulted his way into the huge wolf, knocking Kiyoti down. But before Sonic could make another move, the cougar intervened, grabbing Sonic from behind and put him in a restraining hold, trapping the hedgehog's neck in the his muscular arms. Sonic glanced over at Knuckles who was fighting off the coyotes and the ocelot. They quickly overpowered him, as each attacker had a significant height and weight advantage over the Floating Island native. Kiyoti grabbed Sonic's face and forced the hedgehog to look him in the eyes. With the extra pressure the cougar applied to the hold, Sonic's adrenaline quickly faded. "I want to remember this look on your face, hedgie!" Kiyoti taunted. "When Robotnik roboticizes what's left of you, I'll always remember how scared you look as flesh and bone!" Sonic attempt to struggle, but it took everything in him just to be able to breathe. Amidst his fight with the pack of killers, Knuckles could see Sonic just a few feet away from him. Sonic's body began to grow limp the longer the cougar held him. This distraction gave his attackers an open window and hey seized this opportunity, wrestling the echidna to the ground. Kiyoti walked over to Knuckles and spat on him. "You're a long way from home, aren't you, guardian?" Kiyoti teased. Knuckles struggled to break free of the animal's grip, but Kiyoti stomped on his chest repeatedly until he lay very still. "I remember the last time I killed an echidna…she never even screamed. Kind of like you. I salute you, Guardian of the Floating Island." Kiyoti snarled, lifting his foot above Knuckle's head. Suddenly, the wolf stopped, reached for his back and fell to the ground. Knuckles looked over, assuming Sonic had broke free and buzz sawed Kiyoti's back. The cougar was out cold on the floor. "So Sonic saved me, huh?" the echidna thought. But no, Sonic was lying not too far from the cougar. Suddenly, Knuckles' assailants flew off of him, one by one. An awesome force was assaulting the animals mercilessly, and all Knuckles could see, even with his trained eyes was a dark streak followed by blood flying everywhere. After the last member of Yuo Sape was defeated, Knuckles saw the dark streak turn into a cat, a bit taller than himself. Unsure of himself, Knuckles cringed, trying to sit up. The cat noticed, and approached him. "You Locke's son?" The cat inquired in a dark, hushed tone that Knuckles could barely make out. Knuckles nodded, unable to speak. The cat relaxed his guard. "Hold On, I'll get you help then." With that, the cat turned and looked at Sonic who had already passed out. He knelt down and cradled Sonic in his arms. Suddenly, Kiyoti stirred. From his pants pocket, he pulled out a small vial and a hideous looking spike glove. Kiyoti proceeded to pour the contents of the vial on the glove. It made a frightening hissing sound that Knuckles' sensitive ears could barely pick up. Knuckles looked over at the mysterious cat who was trying to revive Sonic, totally unaware of Kiyoti's consciousness. Knuckles opened his mouth to warn the cat, but no sound escaped. He watched in horror as Kiyoti crept closer to the cat and Sonic, glove armed and basted with the liquid. In a final attempt to warn the cat, Knuckles tossed a pebble into the lake, causing a small splash. The cat turned in time to dodge Kiyoti's glove, but Sonic's weight made him trip, and he landed on his back. Kiyoti glared at the cat and thrust the glove into his chest. The cat winced in pain, but did not allow the glove to stick in him. He grabbed Kiyoti's arm and twisted it in opposite directions until he heard a gruesome snap. Kiyoti cringed, seeing his bone jutting out of his arm and retreated with Leo, leaving the rest of Yuo Sape at the lake. The cat looked down at Sonic who started to cough. He smiled weakly, and then looked over at Knuckles. "You gonna be alright?" he asked, concerned. Knuckles held a thumb up. "Good." The cat acknowledged his signal and sat on the ground. He lost consciousness almost instantly.  Just then, Rotor and Bunnie came running onto the scene and gasped after seeing all the blood. Relieved, Knuckles passed out. Sonic pointed at fallen cat. "He's with us." He managed to say before he too lost consciousness. It had been a long morning.

             Sonic woke up in his hut with a brace around his neck. He had the biggest headache he'd ever experienced and cringed in pain as he got out of his bed. "Should've just stayed asleep today." He thought, making his was to Dr. Fiir's infirmary. Opening the door to Dr. Fiir's hut, the scene reminded Sonic of the first day Robotnik took over Mobotropolis. Knuckles' ribs were taped up, Tails was limping around in crutches, and everyone was crowded around the hospital bed, which held the mysterious cat that saved him and Knuckles earlier. Tails noticed him first. "Hey Sonic! You're up!" he exclaimed. The others looked at him and gave indistinct greetings. Sonic walked over to Tails and gave him an uncharacteristic hug. "Ya gave us a scare, big guy!" Sonic admitted. "What happened?" Tails looked down, and Rotor led Sonic out of the hut. "What's going on, Rotor?" Sonic demanded, wanting to be with his friends. "Tails is a bit embarrassed about what happened. He got distracted by a bird and blindfolded by a huge wolf that jumped him." "Sonic's eyes began to burn with rage, until it hurt... "Kiyoti!" Sonic said, slowly, remembering the wolf's evil laugh. Rotor cocked his head. "Did you say it was a coyote?" Sonic looked at Rotor. "Ki-yo-ti. That's his name." He informed Rotor, pushing past him and entering the hut again. "How's the ribs, Knux?" "Ever had a pin stuck in your chest, and then you fell on it?" "Yeah, actually." Sonic said, remembering his last birthday party. "Multiply that pain by Robotnik's weight, and you've got my answer." Sonic walked over to the bed and looked at the cat. A disgusting hole was in the place where the glove entered. Sonic couldn't bear to look at it… that claw was meant for him. "He could make it, Sonic. There's always a chance." Dr. Fiir spoke up. "We didn't even know him. Why'd he do this?" Knuckles thought. "We should probably get some lunch, and let the medicine do its job. Everybody but Sonic and Knuckles left. They stared at each other and then the cat. "This kinda makes you think twice about a lot of things…" Knuckles spoke up. Sonic kept his eyes on the cat. "How so?" "Well, you're the fastest thing alive and I've been training since I was three years old to defend an entire island. And yet, here we are, getting jumped by an old school gang and being saved by someone we've never seen before." "It's a humbling experience." Sonic admitted, sitting on a chair. "I'll say. I couldn't even keep up with his moves! I could only dream of being that fast." "It was an off day for me guys, sorry I got there so late." the cat said weakly. Everyone who had been listening rushed in to see the cat. He frowned at all the sudden attention. "Hey man, I can't thank you enough for bailing us out. My name's Knuckles. This is Sonic, that's Sally, Bunny, Rotor, Tails, and Dr. Fiir." Knuckles extended a glove to the cat who gently shook it.  "What's your name and why'd you help us?" Sonic asked, unaware of how rude he sounded. The cat smiled. "I'm Raja, and is it a crime to do good around here?" he answered. "Well, we were just awed by the way you could take out that gang single handedly. " explained Knuckles. "The trick is to become one with your supernatural powers and focus on the evil around you. Now what's a cat got to do around here to get some jelly beans?"

           

            After eating a meal prepared by Bunnie and Antoine, Raja was strong enough to stand up. "I highly recommend that you not push your recovery process so hastily." Dr. Fiir warned. "That toxin I removed from your body would have killed anyone else in less than an hour. Your immune system is like nothing I've ever seen!" Raja smiled. "We all bleed and we all die, doc. No one's invincible. At least not yet." He responded, taking the doctor's advice and sitting back down. Raja looked uncomfortably at everyone who was starring intently at him, wondering what his next move might be. "I supposed this would be the appropriate time to tell you my life story, since you're so eager to know, but too cautious to ask." Raja thought aloud. Everyone nodded in unison and waited for Raja to continue. "Well," Raja began. "It's like this. I grew up in the Mobian Mafia, an organization you probably know nothing about. After Robotnik came into power and began destroying cities left and right, the mafia planned on taking him out at his capital. I was young and inexperienced and had to stay home, but our best mafiosos went to penetrate his fortress and assassinate him before it was too late." Raja's eyes lowered. "They... weren't successful. Robotnik caught them all and robotisized most of them to death, as the roboticizer had not been perfected at that point in time.  The ones that survived the tests became agents of evil rounding up villagers and killing them. When our home zone was up to be destroyed, the small remainder of us went into action and stopped the robots from taking over our town, but in the end, we had saved a barren wasteland. After the final battle that made the robots retreat, there were only about five of us remaining in the Mobian Mafia. I was one of the lucky ones. " So do you know where the other four are?" Sally asked. "As soon as the takeover was complete, my sensei took me into the wilderness to train me in the art of Kaperashu. I've been training for the past six years or so in complete solitude, as my master died before he could finish instructing me. But now that I have mastered Kaperashu as much as I possibly could, I can relieve myself of my solitude." Raja explained. "From the few I remember that survived, I think I remember Fang the best. He's this weasel and he was very ambitious back in the days. I don't really know what happened to him." "We do!" everyone else said in unison. "Yep, we know ol' Nack all too well." Sonic said.  "Nack huh? That was his middle name…He was our hit man, and the best there was. He was also my friend. I'd sure like to see him again." Raja sighed. "Nack's a bounty hunter now. He told us he didn't have too many friends." Sally said. "All that weasel likes is money!" Bunnie commented. "Well, he's misunderstood." At that, Raja slowly rose to his feet. "How much do I owe you for fixing me up?" he inquired. "Don't be ridiculous! You saved Sonic and Knuckles. That should be enough." Dr. Fiir informed his patient. Raja looked uneasily at Sonic. "Maurice? Hmm…" he mumbled to himself. Then he took off. Everyone heard him, but no one believed it.

            "There is no way he could have known my dad, Sal!" Sonic yelled beginning to pace around Sally's hut. "Well think about it Sonic. He was in a suburb of Mobotropolis and was in the Mobian Mafia. When my father tried to put us under the protection of them they had already been crushed. He knew Nack, and your father knew Nack's father." Sally stated. "If he really knew my father, why did he run away?"  "If he didn't know your father, why did he save you?" There was a long pause. Sonic frowned. Something wasn't right and he wasn't good at putting pieces of a puzzle together. His earliest memories dated back only to when he was living with his uncle, who barely mentioned his father to him. Or maybe Sonic forgot because he couldn't accept his father being gone. All of a sudden, Bunnie slammed open the door, breaking Sonic's concentration. "Nack's been thrashed!" she exclaimed.

            The three made their way to the O.R. to find Dr. Fiir working feverishly to save Nack's life. Tails was assisting the doc, sterilizing some instruments. Sonic looked at the fallen weasel and nearly lost his lunch. He had never seen anything like this before. Nack looked like a freshly skinned carcass in Dr. Robotnik's slaughterhouse. Sonic shivered, remembering that hellish location. Dr. Fiir glanced up, acknowledging the three. "When I signed on to contract out in your group, I wasn't aware there would be more medical emergencies a day than we had in a week back in my village!" the doctor joked. "Is he?" "It looks a whole lot worse than he actually is hurt, if that's any consolation. Once I plug this tube into him, we can begin a transfusion. That should give him enough energy to survive surgery. All of his ribs are cracked and his trachea is swollen. I've gotta break into him and take out the shards of bone before they rip his internal organs apart." Sally left the room, as this was too much for her. Bunnie quickly followed. "Who found him?" Sonic asked, not knowing what else to say. "No one. He just kinda crawled up to the lookout tower and Rotor brought him here. I tell ya, too many animals know where that tower is nowadays!" Sonic clenched his fists. First Tails, then he and Knux, now Nack… who would be next??? Dr. Fiir noticed the anger in Sonic and quickly diverted his attention. "Sonic, are you healthy enough to run?" Sonic nodded. "I need you to get me some Echinacea herbs so I can begin the surgery." The hedgehog nodded and left. Five seconds later he was back with the plant. "Dr. Fiir smirked. "What took you so long?" he scoffed. "I could decide between purpurea or pallida."

            The night came and Dr. Fiir retired to his quarters, leaving the medicine to do its job. He would operate in the morning, as the herbs would take some time to work their magic so Nack would be strong enough to endure the surgery. Sonic stayed in the room with Nack, watching over him, contemplating the past run-ins the two had. They certainly weren't pleasant memories. Nack had almost killed Sonic on more than one occasion, just trying to make a few bucks. And now he was helping Nack survive. It was amazing how each one was on the exact opposite end of the personality pole, and yet each one was passionately dedicated to their work; Sonic, restoring Mobius, Nack, helping himself. Sonic yawned and closed his eyes.

            Sonic awoke to the sound of Nack coughing. He looked at his watch. He'd been asleep for about two hours. Nack tried to raise his head but couldn't. He tried to say something, but his jaw was too swollen. All he could do was look at Sonic who stared back with the most sorrowful look. Sonic couldn't say anything, so the two exchanged looks until they both fell asleep.

            Morning came too quickly for Sonic. Dr. Fiir woke him, handing him an aspirin to chew on. Sonic looked at it, disgusted. Nack woke up and tried to move again. No such luck. The doctor took out a twelve-inch needle and injected Nack's arm with its contents. This gave Nack just enough energy to sit up in his bed. Before anyone could say anything, Raja entered the hut, holding a small bag. Without a word, he approached Nack and took three beans out of the bag and thrust them into Nack's mouth. As soon as Nack swallowed, his eyes perked up and he was in top physical condition. Raja turned to leave Dr. Fiir astounded, but Sonic blocked the doorway. "When you saw me yesterday, you said "Maurice". That was my father's name, so I'm assuming you knew him." Sonic said, noticing Raja's eyes dilate. "Please tell me who you really are." Raja reached into his pocket and pulled out an old picture. He tossed it to Sonic who looked at it intently. It was a picture of his father and a female kodkod. Maurice was holding her hand. She was holding a sai.  Raja retrieved the picture from Sonic and looked him in the eye. "What was your mother's name?" Sonic closed his eyes. "…Salina." He responded. At this, Raja put his paw on Sonic's shoulder. "Let's take a walk, bro." Raja said in a hushed tone.

             "As far back as I can remember I always lived with my Uncle Chuck before the takeover." Sonic explained. "I never knew my parents except their names. I used to have a picture of them, but it was burned along with the rest of my past in a huge fire the day Uncle Chuck was robotisized. But that picture you have…that's my father! Did you know him?" Raja sat on a rock and inhaled. The air was clean and pure today. A welcome relief to what he was used to. "I didn't know him. I only saw him once. He wasn't allowed in the Neo Green Hill zone because he was an outsider guilty of the forbidden love… my mother. Sonic's heart stopped. "So then that would make you-" "Your half brother." Raja finished. "When dad was my age, he started to date mom. They went out for a few months and mom got pregnant. When the mafia found out, they tried to eliminate dad. Mom made sure they weren't successful, but they never saw each other again. Anyway, after the Great War, dad got over mom and married this hedgehog nurse he used to know. A couple years later they had you. The rest is unimportant." Raja fell silent. "Now wait a minute…" Sonic said in a confused voice. "You don't…look like me! You're a cat!" Raja smiled, realizing he had left that explanation out. "It's very simple, actually." He explained. "In order to keep me, my mother had my DNA medically altered, so that her genes would be dominant, and dad's genes, mixed with panther DNA would be recessive. That's why I'm a cat." "In order to KEEP you?" "The Acornian kingdom had a method of tracking every animal born on Mobius up until you were two years old. They could tell the different species, the clan, the genus, everything. When I was born, there were no hedgehogs in the Mobian Mafia. If they found that mom had a hedgehog, they would get suspicious and investigate. Then they would find out that dad was fraternizing with the enemy and execute him." Raja looked over at the shadows on a rock. "I've got to train for a while. Bye." Before Sonic could protest, Raja disappeared into the forest. Sonic shrugged, having so many unanswered questions. Did Raja ever even meet his father? What was that stuff he gave Nack to make him feel better? How OLD was Raja, anyway? What about this Yuo Sape gang? Sonic's head started to hurt again. But the answers would come eventually. Sonic stood up and returned home.

            Sonic was greeted by the bounty hunter, no doubt on his way to find more trouble. "Hey." "Hey." Before Nack could leave, Sonic pulled him aside. "So?" "Just tryin' to make it, that's all. Yuo Sape made me an offer; I had no choice but to say okay. I went off to find someone to meet the quota, I saw Rotor on the tower, so I took aim. But my small conscience made my accuracy off, and I aborted immediately." Nack looked at the ground. "Anyways, I figured They'd be Po'd if they found out I botched the shot, so I decided to take the low road home. Right before I could make my miraculous disappearance though, Kiyoti and Lester come out of the shadows and they don't look like they wanna have fun. I shot Lester in the foot and took of running, thinking I could outrun a big timber wolf any day. Guess I was wrong. He put a blindfold on me and the next thing I remember, I was crawling towards Knothole. I guess you can figure out the rest. Still can't say why they let me go. I guess they figured I was as good as dead anyway and Robotnik doesn't let the carcasses count for the quota." Sonic thought for a minute. "So where are you off to now?" Nack smiled. "Oh, I'm gonna find a nice cave to sleep in, then I'm going to find this Kiyoti punk and put a bullet in his throat. Then I'm gonna lay low for awhile, and see if I can't find a good price for his hide." Sonic frowned. "Your job is a double edged sword, Nack. I hope you find what you're looking for in life." Nack turned and looked a Sonic with a wicked grin on his face. "Don't worry, Sonic. After I work this conscience problem Out, I'll find you. And I'll be a millionaire!" Sonic watched as Nack ran into the Great Forest. He didn't bother to even respond to that threat. If Nack wanted him, he knew where to get him. But Sonic didn't really believe Nack was as hardcore as he made himself out to be. Sonic smirked. And he thought this summer was going to be dull.