The Realization of Hector Hedgehog
A Story of the Secret Life
Chapter 1
The Miserable Wretch
The night fell upon the city of Roboville like a curse of the devil. The Dark King's castle loomed over the shadows that engulfed the city. As shouts began to echo in the alleys, a young girl appeared, running, sweat and blood pouring down her leg. She was fast, but no match for the robots who followed her.
"Help!!" She screamed as loud as she could. "Help me, someone please!!!"
She kept screaming, but no one heard her pleas. Finally, she found herself at a dead end. Gasping, she turned to see her metallic captors closing in.
"No...no!!!!"
No matter what, she couldn't let them get the information. The computer chip she stole from their master was essential to defeating him, but now....
WHAM!!!!!! Without warning, the robots were suddenly attacked by a flash of lightning. A blurry shape slammed into the enemy, destroying them in an instant. As flames engulfed them, the girl gasped as the blur stopped. It turned to her and held out a hand.
"It's ok, you're safe now. Here, I'll get you out of here, Princess."
The girl gaped at him for a moment, then suddenly gave him a much-needed hug for his accomplishments.
"Oh, Sonic..."
-----
"Um...excuse me, sir...it's your stop."
The conductor frowned as he loomed over the fourth seat in aisle 13 in car 2. He simply sat there, with his suitcase propped up on his lap, his head cocked to the side, his bespeckled eyes cast up dreamily. And he was smiling like an idiot.
"Sir!!" This was the routine he always had to go through. The conductor slapped his shoulder. "It's your stop!!"
"Huh...?!?" The schmuck jerked out of lalaland and looked at the conductor, bewildered. "What's wrong?"
"It's your stop." Same question, same answer.
"Oh..." The schmuck gave the same oops laugh the conductor had expected from him. "Sorry. I should get off."
"Right."
As the schmuck dashed out of the subway, the conductor shook his head in disbelief.
"That kid's got to get his head out of the clouds!!"
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"Hedgehog!!!" The old, fat mushached man,who was sitting in his worker's office, boomed when the kid burst in breathless. "Late again!!! What happened this time!"
"Well, sir..." The hedgehog, gasping for air, had a nerdish middle-toned voice when he spoke. His glasses gleamed as he looked up at his boss. "I was-"
"Wait, don't tell me. You had a problem in the subay. That's the excuse I always hear!!!" The fat man muttered angrily. "I swear, I don't know why the hell I just don't fire you and rid this place of some misery. You had a meeting today, you remember? Aaaargh!!"
"B-b-b-but Mr. Kintobar, that's not until 10:30," the hedgehog protested.
"We at Trade Paperback have pride in our workers being early!!! You should be here earlier," the fat manscreamed, "especially when it comes to deadlines!!!!"
"But..." The hedgehog took out a stack of papers from his suitcase. "I have the whole story done, sir."
He handed the papers over to the fat man. After looking them over for a few minutes, Mr. Kintobar threw his head back and laughed.
"Hahahahahaha!!!" He laughed. "Perfect. Perfect! I knew you'd take my suggestion to put your character into a murder mystery. I am a genius!!! And that's how I get the best work from my workers. Through suggestion!! I'll see you at 10:30!!"
As he slammed the door on the hedgehog, the hedghog slumped into his chair in disgust. Behind him was a studio desk, and on it was a poster that was partially colored. It had a creature that looked just like him, only with no glasses and gloves and shoes.
The hedgehog took his name tag and looked at it. It said "HECTOR HEDGEHOG".
"I hate this..." Hector huffed. "He's always talking about his ideas, and his suggestions when they were all mine to begin with!!"
"We need a variety of stories in your comic!!!" Kintobar slammed his hand down. "I am tired of seeing action and romance!! I want to see something more!!!!"
"Uh, sir..." Hector thought for a moment. "You know, something's stuck onto me for a while..."
"WHAT?!?"
"What if I did a murder mystery?" Hector meekly asked. "I mean, the viceroy gets killed and the hero has to figure it out?"
"OF COURSE!!!" After a moment, Kintobar gave a laugh."That's brilliant!!!!!!!!! Glad I thought of it!"
"Besides, I like my new idea..."
Hector gave a smile when he thought of his hero (based on him, sort of) and his girl (based on the girl of his dreams, whom didn't exist) remeeting each other after the horrid murder of the viceroy. In fact, they kiss. He could almost feel her kissing him...
"Oh, Sonic..." the kiss was long and passionate. "I can't believe that I thought you were dead."
"I can't believe it either..."
"I've got the chip."
"Good." Sonic looked up to the sky. "Then its the key to our victory..."
The two started to walk home in silence. As they went, the princess looked at Sonic.
"Sonic...when this war is over, will you marry me?"
"What?!?" Sonic turned red.
"Would you?"
Sonic walked on for a few seconds, silent. Then, he turned back to the princess and lifted her up off of her feet.
"You know what, Sally?"
"Yiie!! What?"
"I will marry you."
Laughing, he put her down. Their eyes locked as their lips did...
"Hector..."
"Mmmm..." Hector was kissing invisible air. "My beloved..."
"YO!!!"
The skunk smashed Hector's face. Hector was jerked from the girl, and his face landed on the desk.
"You should try kissing Mina, and not air." The skunk folded his arms. "You have a meeting, remember?"
"Oh!!!!!"
Realizing what was at stake, Hector bolted from his room and dashed down the hall. He wasn't as fast as his hero, but he wished he was at times like this. Besides, he had to getthere before...
Too late. Even before he approached the door, Hector could hear the congratulations. He saw as Kintobar shook hands with the board.
"Congratulations!!" On a silk screen was Sonic the Hedgehog #28. "Once again you show your incredible genius..."
Angered by his foolishness, and at the fact that no one was giving credit where credit was due, Hector stormed over to the nearest bathroom and slammed the door.
---------
Hector stepped out of the subway, still angry at himself. The clock said 5:50. If only he wasn't such a wimp...if only he was like Sonic...
It wasn't his fault that he was imaginative. He had always had a great imagination. It was his fault, however, that Kintobar was always stealing the credit for his work, and ha didn't have the balls or the spine to stand up and do something. After all, it was the way he was. He was a loser. A loser with some great ideas.
Hector walked all the way home from the station. He lived with his mother in a comfy two-story house, which had been paid for by his salary as a comic book writer, artist and creator. If he was over eighteen, he wouldn't have to live with her, but he was only sixteen. iAt least Sonic doesn't have to deal with a mother like I do. Or anyone like who's in this world. And if he did, he would-/i
CLICK. A noise caused him to turn around towards a set of bushes, where the sound had come from.
"Who's there?!"
No reply. Hector quickly tiptoed over to the bushes to see if someone was there. Not only was there no one there, he was hit by a shoe that the owner of the bush threw at him.
"Vagabond!!" the woman shouted. "Get out of my rose bushes!!"
"Oh...sorry..."
If Hector had turned to his right, he would have noticed binoculars staring right at him, but instead he dashed for his door, afraid of being pelted by another shoe. He slammed the door and took some gasps for breath. Thank god he got away from those sounds...
---------
"Sonic!!" The two jumped into an oak slide. "Was that..."
"Yes." The two hit the bottom. "It was probably one of his spies."
"What if he was taking a picture of us?"
"I wouldn't matter." Sonic looked at the bush upon peeking out of the slide. "This isn't the real entrance anyways."
The two walked over to a maple tree and entered through an invisible door. They walked down a set of stairs to a door, which Sonic knocked on.
"Rotor...Rotor...let us in!"
"Sonic." Rotor looked out. "Get in here."
The two entered the war room, where a fox, a cat and a bunny sat.
"Knuckles has already left to try to intercept Group B. That was three or four days ago." Rotor looked at the princess. "They're going overseas to try to attempt a covert mission. They might be onto us and the chip already, and they're probably meeting the their leader."
"Then the chip is safe here?"
"Hell no. Sally, Knuckles has asked that you get ready to go. You're also leaving Acorn Kingdom."
"What?"
"Rotor," Sonic looked at the walrus. "Let me go with her."
"I'm sorry, bud, but due to recent events..." Rotor's voice trailed off.
Sonic's head went down. He understood what he meant.
"So there's a chance..."
"Listen," Sally looked at Sonic. "I know how you feel about me. But...trust me. If...if I meet who I think..." she gave a smile. "Don't worry."
"Uh huh." Sonic wasn't feeling any better. It was bad enough that...that...
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"Doof!!!"
Concentration was lifted as Sonic felt hands around his waist.
"Oh, darling!!!!!" Mina squealed as she smothered him. "You're soo late, and we got another present from Mikali and Aunt Grub. It's a lovely silverware set, and I plan on using it the first night we're married!!!"
The two M words he thought he liked but for some deep resentful reason hated came to mind. The first was Mina. The second was marriage. Combined, it was hell on earth.
"Hector!!" His mother, dressed with an odd hatas usual, clapped her hands together. "What in the devil's name is wrong with your face? You look as if you painted yourself with plaster of Paris."
"Oh..." Hector thought fast. "Just Bax. I hate that old cat."
"Shame on you!" Mina's head went down. "I enjoy all cats. I won't forgive you. Unless you say you're sorry."
"I'm sorry."
In about twenty minutes, he was sitting to a soufflet dinner with Mina, Mina's mother (ugh), Geoffrey St. John (double ugh - why couldn't Mina marry him?) and his mother.
"Well I think that pink is such a lovely color for a May wedding." Mina dabbed her face off. "Mrs. Hedgehog, your cooking just gets better everytime you cook it."
"Why thank you!" Hector's mother was just as chipper about the compliment. "I love how nice your hair is!"
"It's wavy. Just for the wedding."
"That's nice."
Hector tried to sound like he was as joyous as he looked down at his food. One, his mother couldn't cook (the soufflet was sticking to the sides and was slightly crunchy), and two, Mina looked like the bride of Frankenstein who recently jammed her finger into a plug socket.
"You know," Geoffrey looked at Hector. "I think that pink would be the perfect color for Heck's tuxedo."
"Of course!!" Mina's mother looked over at Hector's mother. "Why don't we just call that tuxedo place and change the color this instant."
"Mom..."
"Now, don't you fuss, Hector," Hector's mother scolded. "Now, where's that number??"
As the two mothers chatted during their search for the number for the tuxedo place, Hector looked at Geoffrey, his eyes widened with shock.
"How could you?!? You know my mom will do that, too!!"
"Come now, Hector! Geoffrey's just trying to help us with our wedding plans." Mina jumped up and followed the two women. "Oh, mother!! Did you try looking..."
"That's right, Hector." Geoffrey gave Hector a hard pat on the back as he put his dish in the sink. "I just want you to feel absolutely gay on your wedding day."
----------
Hector flopped down onto his soft bed. It had been a long day. First the meeting, then the tuxedo. And people stalking someone. He didn't even want to know.
He looked up onto his wall. There, plastered to it, was a poster of his character. It was a work of genius. And it was his. No one knew, though, that Sonic the Hedgehog, the world's toughest, fastest and coolest superhero, was in fact the creation of Hector Hedgehog, the geeky, meek and overall worthless person, part of that one three-billionth of the population which only exists to be tortured and ridiculed by the other two-billionths. But, it was an achievement that he could be proud of, if the pride was all he had to show for it.
The idea of making Sonic came by in a strange way. He had been in math class a few years back, when he was about eleven. While he should have been taking notes about the integral of e to the x, he had been doodling. He had doodled himself, because he had nothing better to think of. After all, he was an uninteresting person.
Upon finishing, however, he looked upon something that he never thought could come from his pen (or his pencil). Instead of the bespeckled, nerdy, badly-dressed loser with the pudgy round face that the bullies liked to poke fun of, that he had always seen himself as, there instead was a godlike, slender (not that Hector wasn't slender, but he definitely couldn't compete when it came to cat-like bodies), white-teethed, green-eyed creature that looked like he could kill ladies just by thinking of them. On top of all of it, he had no glasses.
The creation had been so spontaneous, Hector couldn't quite explain how he had even gotten the idea. It was as if the pencil had taken a life of its own. But however he got the idea, he secretly quit school and created a nine issue comic, just so he could learn more about his creation. Several copies had been made of each of the nine issues (he still had a copy of all of them hidden in his closet, as well as that first picture), and on of them landed in the hands of Trade Paperback's Julian Kintobar, who hired him on the spot. And took all the credit.
So Sally has to leave Acorn, Hector thought, jerking his mind off of Kintobar before it got there. I wonder how Sonic'll survive...
"Hector?" His mother's face came into the room. "You're going to sleep already?"
"Yeah mom, I'm real tired."
"Well, if you have any trouble, just remember that I'll get you a nice glass of warm milk. Make sure I'm awake, of course. Good night."
His mother shut the door, and Hector went to sleep, dreaming only Sonic dreams.
-----------
As the moon hung over the Hedgehog house, the X Racer quietly pulled in front of the house.
"So this is it."
"That's right." The driver looked into his rearview window at the passenger. "This is where he lives."
"Interesting." The passenger looked down at a picture in its hands. It is of Hector in front of the rose bush. "This is going to be very interesting.
The car silently pulled away. Looking back on the house, the passenger thought of Hector, and the thought of him in bed at this time of night amused him.
"Rest well, Hector Hedgehog." He looked back down at the picture, a sly smile on his face. "You'll definitely need it."
