Disclaimer: Sonic The Hedgehog and all related characters are copyright to SEGA. Lemon the Echidna, Tenchi the Hedgehog and all related characters that don't belong to SEGA belong to me, Zeldafreak-Vikki and my friend, Alyssa the Bat!
CHAPTER ONE - TENCHI
Lemon the Echidna yawned. It was late in the evening and the hospital was rather quiet. Nothing exciting had happened for awhile, ever since her and Rouge the Bat had started working there. Rouge had quit her job as a spy and thief and now worked as a sort of extension of the hospital. When they got too crowded, they'd send patients to Rouge's infirmary, which was in the outskirts of the Capital City and far from any harm. Also, it worked as a rehab centre for any patient who needed a place to heal for a long time or for any other reason. Rouge had been trained as a nurse and was up to the task, along with Knuckles' sister, Lemon.
Lemon came as a sort of surprise to everyone. Knuckles had never told the others about his sister, who was only a year younger than him. She was a pretty echidna, with a yellow head and a red body. She usually wore pretty normal clothes except for when she was at the hospital, then she wore the usual nurse outfit.
She looked over to where Rouge was going through some paperwork and looked away, bored out of her mind. Then she heard the bat gasp and a clanging noise as something hit the desk. She hurried over, half-hoping it was something serious. "What's the matter, Rouge?!" she exclaimed.
Rouge was staring to where a golden ring had hit the desktop, probably fallen from a shelf. Rouge picked it up and in one quick movement, hugged it close, tears appearing. Lemon came next to her, concerned. "What's the matter, Rouge?" she repeated, a little louder.
Rouge looked to her and sniffed, blushing. "I'm sorry, I'm being silly." She chuckled sadly and held the ring out to Lemon to see. "This is all that's left... of that hedgehog from ARK. Did Knuckles tell you about him?" Lemon nodded. She had heard that only a few weeks before, they had lost a friend on the space colony ARK. She had asked Sonic about it but the blue hedgehog had simply turned away, grief obviously eating at him. Knuckles seemed rather upset as well, since it upset Rouge, so Lemon never really got interested and soon forgot the hedgehog's name.
Oh well.
"Rouge!" Both girls jumped as the doctor appeared in the doorway. He was an elderly fox with glasses perched on the end of his snout and he looked positively baffled. "Rouge, some men just brought in a patient. We cannot identify him. Could you come?" Rouge nodded and her and Lemon followed the doctor all the way to Emergency, where a group of fishermen were against the wall, watching anxiously as a nurse was checking over a heart rate machine and an IV. When she saw the doctor and Rouge (Lemon had stayed back), she hurried to them. She sounded relieved.
"Doctor, she said. "We managed to get him breathing again but he still won't wake up. And we couldn't find anyone by his description in our records." The doctor sighed and nodded. "Well, once he wakes up, he'll tell us. For now, we'll see if Rouge knows him." Rouge stepped up to beside the bed and stared, bewildered.
It was a hedgehog. His thin torso, his right arm and several parts of both arms were covered in bandages. Rouge recognized them to be burns. A breathing mask had been placed over his mouth and nose and his eyes were covered with a protective bandage. She feared the worst for his sight. His fur was white, from what she could tell, although some of it had been stained red and most of it has been singed off, hence a blanket was pulled up to his torso. This also served to keep him warm, as he seemed ill as well. Rouge lightly touched his forehead and felt her heart jump. It was on fire!
She decided to look past the damage. From what she could tell, this hedgehog was quite handsome. She leaned closer, as if drawn to him and placed a hand on his chest, which was moving up and down weakly as he breathed uneasily. There was a tuft of white fur there. Some of it had been singed but only around the edges. Rouge ran her hand gently past it, feeling how soft it was. It seemed so familiar...
"Well?" asked the doctor. Rouge looked up. "Well, I don't really recognize him..."
The doctor frowned. "Oh well, we'll just wait for him to wake up." He turned to Lemon. "Would you mind staying by him in case he wakes up?" Lemon nodded, a little nervous at being in charge of someone in such a serious state. Rouge smiled. "I'll stay too."
And so they stayed there, Lemon by the strange hedgehog's side while Rouge walked around, taking to other nurses and helping them out. The fishermen who had brought the hedgehog in explained to Lemon that they had found him floating in the middle of the ocean, which was why he was so sick. After that, they left, leaving their numbers so that they would be notified when the hedgehog woke up.
It was almost morning when the echidna girl spotted the first signs of movement from him. She was just about ready to doze off when she noticed his hand moving slowly. She watched in amazement as the hedgehog began to stir uneasily. Then he reached up slowly with both hands to feel his eyes. Lemon took his hands in hers, and seeing that she had startled him, tried to sound as soothing as possible.
"Don't worry; I'm a friend." she said. "You've been hurt pretty badly and your eyes need a chance to heal so please try not to touch the bandages, ok?"
The hedgehog slowly nodded. He lowered his hands and groaned, in obvious pain. Lemon held the hand nearest to her and squeezed it gently, hoping it comforted him at all. He responded by squeezing hers in return, even though it was very weak and shaky. Lemon slowly smiled and leaned in closer to him, whispering to keep him calm.
"What's your name?" she asked.
The hedgehog opened his mouth to answer and froze. His brow furrowed as he thought hard, searching his brain for his own name. He then seemed deeply confused. His voice was shockingly low and calm, even though weak and fuzzy from the breathing mask.
"I-I don't know."
Lemon started at that. She had been hoping she would finally learn who this hedgehog was. He had obviously been through a terrible ordeal and it had left him with Amnesia. She sighed. "I'll be right back." She got up from her seat and went to where Rouge had fallen asleep at a desk after chatting on the phone with Knuckles. Lemon gently shook her awake.
"Hey, bat-girl," murmured Lemon. "He's awake."
Rouge looked up with her sleepy eyes and sniffed. "Well?" she croaked. "Who is he?"
Lemon looked very disappointed. "He doesn't know. I think he's got Amnesia."
Rouge stared. "Dang." she said. "Alright, I'll take a look at him. Thanks for doing that, Lemon."
Lemon shook her head. "It was nothing."
While Rouge was examining the hedgehog and talking to him, Lemon had the task of calling up those fishermen. While she was contacting them, the doctor happened to be watching her. He walked over to Rouge.
"I think Lemon's actually interested in this one." he said.
Rouge looked over and grinned. "I think so too." She chuckled. "Maybe we should assign her to looking after him. I'll definitely have to take him in at the infirmary, he won't be going anywhere anytime soon." And so they asked.
Lemon agreed.
While Lemon was off doing other work, Rouge questioned the hedgehog after removing the breathing mask.
"Do you remember anything?" she asked, having gotten nothing else out of him.
The hedgehog sighed. "I-I only remember... a name..."
"Is it yours?" asked Rouge, hoping she was close to something.
"...No..."
Rouge growled. "Well, what's the name?"
"..Arashi." replied the hedgehog, looking as puzzled as Rouge did. She told him to get some rest and left, feeling very hot in the face from frustration.
Awhile later, the fishermen came. There were five of them in total, four men and one girl. The girl came as a shock to Lemon. She was a two- tailed fox, just like Miles "Tails" Prower himself! But she was light blue and quite delicate compared to him. Beside her was a very tall and muscular wolf. Following them were a light grey dog, a purple weasel and a very old cheetah. They all walked in, very quiet. The weasel was holding his weather-beaten hat, his chewed up ears lowered. Lemon walked up to them.
"So, you guys found him?"
The wolf stepped forward. "Yes, ma'am. How is he?" They all looked anxiously towards where the hedgehog was lying quite still.
Lemon sighed. "He's pretty bad but the doctor thinks he's going to make it. There's nothing too fatal except he's very sick. You say you found him in the water?"
The old cheetah stepped forward. "Yes, I saw him fall from the sky and hit the water. He fell just as the lightning began to strike."
Lemon stared. "H-He fell from the sky?!" She looked around at them all. "Are you sure?!"
"That is what I saw," confirmed the old man. "I'm not as blind as these young fools."
Lemon blinked. How could a hedgehog fall from the sky? The fishermen followed her at a distance as she walked back to beside the hedgehog. She made sure her voice was calm.
"Hey." She waited until his face was looking in her general direction. "The men who saved you are here to see you."
The hedgehog stirred a bit. The wolf sat down next to Lemon.
"Hey, glad to see you're alive, buddy." He grinned as the hedgehog looked confused. "My name is Tank, we all found you and brought you here."
The hedgehog relaxed. "You called me Tenchi... I remember..."
Tank chuckled. "Oh yeah." He turned to Lemon, who looked puzzled and explained. "Since he fell from the sky, we decided to call him Tenchi. I didn't think he heard us, he was out the whole time."
"Oh, I heard you..." replied the hedgehog. Lemon was surprised by how clear his voice was, even though it was slightly pained.
Tank grinned. "Well, call us when you move him. We'd like to help out..."
"Oh, sure!" Lemon nodded. "Here's the address." She handed him a business card for the infirmary. "And thank-you." She watched as they left and then looked back to the hedgehog. "Wow, you sure made some nice friends."
The hedgehog was silent.
It was a few weeks later, Tenchi's first and second degree burns had healed. They had grafted his skin for the few third-degree burns he had. But he was still very ill. He was too sick to eat anything and the IV only made him weaker and weaker. And his legs were too weak for him to stand. But the wounds were healing fine and Lemon was happy to see he had grown a little healthier from that. His fur had grown back and a little bit of colour had returned to his skin.
But it hadn't been so good for his eyes.
Lemon watched nervously as Rouge sat next to Tenchi's bed, pulling gloves over her hands.
"Are you ready?" she asked. She sounded as nervous as Lemon!
But Tenchi's voice was worse than the two girls combined. "Y-Yes..." He gulped and braced himself.
Rouge gently reached over his face and very smoothly pulled the bandage covering his eyes off.
Lemon hurried over to beside Rouge and both stared. Tenchi's eyes were shut but now they could see he WAS handsome indeed! Lemon sat next to Rouge and both waited as Tenchi slowly got used to having his eyelids exposed after so many weeks of having that bandage on. Then he took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Rouge stared. His eyes were red.
"Tenchi, are your eyes alright??" asked Lemon eagerly.
Tenchi seemed to be staring into space in their general direction. Rouge knew his answer before it was out of his mouth.
"..No..."
He was blind.
After that devastating day, Tenchi was very silent. At night, Lemon thought she heard him crying but saw that he was quite still, silent as the dead in the dark. Once his burns had completely healed, he was moved to Rouge's infirmary, which was the downstairs of her actual house. Lemon had already moved in, happy to be away from Knuckles and her grandfather, who were both very annoying with their "guardian training".
But they were surprised when Tank and his crew came over. The five of them were at the door, Tank at the front. Him and the others seemed very eager to help and Rouge didn't need to admit it, they needed it.
And so they moved in. Tank helped with any equipment that was needed and, even though he wasn't staying there overnight, he was good company at dinner when he brought his wife and two children. The rest of them were single. The only girl, the light blue two-tailed fox, was named Vixy and it turned out she had been born very weak and had always been very small for her age. She was about the same age as Tails and usually helped Lemon and Rouge as nurses, since she had some experience from being frequently sick herself.
Ojiisan was a wise old cheetah. He was the oldest of the crew and usually just sat there, watching. Every once in awhile, he'd talk to Tenchi. Either than that, he was a cook, which was much better than Rouge's burnt food.
Geoffroy was a grey dog and he was the navigator for the crew. He had a British accent and was always very proper. Him and Tenchi became rather good friends because Geoff was usually there when Tenchi was suffering and helped him through it. He was also good at listening, which was good when Tenchi needed to talk to someone.
And then there was Spike. Spike was a weasel and used to hang with Nack the weasel before he was kicked out for stealing from his comrade. He was a thief and was very scruffy-looking. It was a mystery to Lemon how he knew so much about medicine and such.
After time, though, she became quite attached to them all and they were excellent company. Tenchi seemed to enjoy listening to them all talk but he usually tried to pay more attention to Lemon for some reason.
CHAPTER ONE - TENCHI
Lemon the Echidna yawned. It was late in the evening and the hospital was rather quiet. Nothing exciting had happened for awhile, ever since her and Rouge the Bat had started working there. Rouge had quit her job as a spy and thief and now worked as a sort of extension of the hospital. When they got too crowded, they'd send patients to Rouge's infirmary, which was in the outskirts of the Capital City and far from any harm. Also, it worked as a rehab centre for any patient who needed a place to heal for a long time or for any other reason. Rouge had been trained as a nurse and was up to the task, along with Knuckles' sister, Lemon.
Lemon came as a sort of surprise to everyone. Knuckles had never told the others about his sister, who was only a year younger than him. She was a pretty echidna, with a yellow head and a red body. She usually wore pretty normal clothes except for when she was at the hospital, then she wore the usual nurse outfit.
She looked over to where Rouge was going through some paperwork and looked away, bored out of her mind. Then she heard the bat gasp and a clanging noise as something hit the desk. She hurried over, half-hoping it was something serious. "What's the matter, Rouge?!" she exclaimed.
Rouge was staring to where a golden ring had hit the desktop, probably fallen from a shelf. Rouge picked it up and in one quick movement, hugged it close, tears appearing. Lemon came next to her, concerned. "What's the matter, Rouge?" she repeated, a little louder.
Rouge looked to her and sniffed, blushing. "I'm sorry, I'm being silly." She chuckled sadly and held the ring out to Lemon to see. "This is all that's left... of that hedgehog from ARK. Did Knuckles tell you about him?" Lemon nodded. She had heard that only a few weeks before, they had lost a friend on the space colony ARK. She had asked Sonic about it but the blue hedgehog had simply turned away, grief obviously eating at him. Knuckles seemed rather upset as well, since it upset Rouge, so Lemon never really got interested and soon forgot the hedgehog's name.
Oh well.
"Rouge!" Both girls jumped as the doctor appeared in the doorway. He was an elderly fox with glasses perched on the end of his snout and he looked positively baffled. "Rouge, some men just brought in a patient. We cannot identify him. Could you come?" Rouge nodded and her and Lemon followed the doctor all the way to Emergency, where a group of fishermen were against the wall, watching anxiously as a nurse was checking over a heart rate machine and an IV. When she saw the doctor and Rouge (Lemon had stayed back), she hurried to them. She sounded relieved.
"Doctor, she said. "We managed to get him breathing again but he still won't wake up. And we couldn't find anyone by his description in our records." The doctor sighed and nodded. "Well, once he wakes up, he'll tell us. For now, we'll see if Rouge knows him." Rouge stepped up to beside the bed and stared, bewildered.
It was a hedgehog. His thin torso, his right arm and several parts of both arms were covered in bandages. Rouge recognized them to be burns. A breathing mask had been placed over his mouth and nose and his eyes were covered with a protective bandage. She feared the worst for his sight. His fur was white, from what she could tell, although some of it had been stained red and most of it has been singed off, hence a blanket was pulled up to his torso. This also served to keep him warm, as he seemed ill as well. Rouge lightly touched his forehead and felt her heart jump. It was on fire!
She decided to look past the damage. From what she could tell, this hedgehog was quite handsome. She leaned closer, as if drawn to him and placed a hand on his chest, which was moving up and down weakly as he breathed uneasily. There was a tuft of white fur there. Some of it had been singed but only around the edges. Rouge ran her hand gently past it, feeling how soft it was. It seemed so familiar...
"Well?" asked the doctor. Rouge looked up. "Well, I don't really recognize him..."
The doctor frowned. "Oh well, we'll just wait for him to wake up." He turned to Lemon. "Would you mind staying by him in case he wakes up?" Lemon nodded, a little nervous at being in charge of someone in such a serious state. Rouge smiled. "I'll stay too."
And so they stayed there, Lemon by the strange hedgehog's side while Rouge walked around, taking to other nurses and helping them out. The fishermen who had brought the hedgehog in explained to Lemon that they had found him floating in the middle of the ocean, which was why he was so sick. After that, they left, leaving their numbers so that they would be notified when the hedgehog woke up.
It was almost morning when the echidna girl spotted the first signs of movement from him. She was just about ready to doze off when she noticed his hand moving slowly. She watched in amazement as the hedgehog began to stir uneasily. Then he reached up slowly with both hands to feel his eyes. Lemon took his hands in hers, and seeing that she had startled him, tried to sound as soothing as possible.
"Don't worry; I'm a friend." she said. "You've been hurt pretty badly and your eyes need a chance to heal so please try not to touch the bandages, ok?"
The hedgehog slowly nodded. He lowered his hands and groaned, in obvious pain. Lemon held the hand nearest to her and squeezed it gently, hoping it comforted him at all. He responded by squeezing hers in return, even though it was very weak and shaky. Lemon slowly smiled and leaned in closer to him, whispering to keep him calm.
"What's your name?" she asked.
The hedgehog opened his mouth to answer and froze. His brow furrowed as he thought hard, searching his brain for his own name. He then seemed deeply confused. His voice was shockingly low and calm, even though weak and fuzzy from the breathing mask.
"I-I don't know."
Lemon started at that. She had been hoping she would finally learn who this hedgehog was. He had obviously been through a terrible ordeal and it had left him with Amnesia. She sighed. "I'll be right back." She got up from her seat and went to where Rouge had fallen asleep at a desk after chatting on the phone with Knuckles. Lemon gently shook her awake.
"Hey, bat-girl," murmured Lemon. "He's awake."
Rouge looked up with her sleepy eyes and sniffed. "Well?" she croaked. "Who is he?"
Lemon looked very disappointed. "He doesn't know. I think he's got Amnesia."
Rouge stared. "Dang." she said. "Alright, I'll take a look at him. Thanks for doing that, Lemon."
Lemon shook her head. "It was nothing."
While Rouge was examining the hedgehog and talking to him, Lemon had the task of calling up those fishermen. While she was contacting them, the doctor happened to be watching her. He walked over to Rouge.
"I think Lemon's actually interested in this one." he said.
Rouge looked over and grinned. "I think so too." She chuckled. "Maybe we should assign her to looking after him. I'll definitely have to take him in at the infirmary, he won't be going anywhere anytime soon." And so they asked.
Lemon agreed.
While Lemon was off doing other work, Rouge questioned the hedgehog after removing the breathing mask.
"Do you remember anything?" she asked, having gotten nothing else out of him.
The hedgehog sighed. "I-I only remember... a name..."
"Is it yours?" asked Rouge, hoping she was close to something.
"...No..."
Rouge growled. "Well, what's the name?"
"..Arashi." replied the hedgehog, looking as puzzled as Rouge did. She told him to get some rest and left, feeling very hot in the face from frustration.
Awhile later, the fishermen came. There were five of them in total, four men and one girl. The girl came as a shock to Lemon. She was a two- tailed fox, just like Miles "Tails" Prower himself! But she was light blue and quite delicate compared to him. Beside her was a very tall and muscular wolf. Following them were a light grey dog, a purple weasel and a very old cheetah. They all walked in, very quiet. The weasel was holding his weather-beaten hat, his chewed up ears lowered. Lemon walked up to them.
"So, you guys found him?"
The wolf stepped forward. "Yes, ma'am. How is he?" They all looked anxiously towards where the hedgehog was lying quite still.
Lemon sighed. "He's pretty bad but the doctor thinks he's going to make it. There's nothing too fatal except he's very sick. You say you found him in the water?"
The old cheetah stepped forward. "Yes, I saw him fall from the sky and hit the water. He fell just as the lightning began to strike."
Lemon stared. "H-He fell from the sky?!" She looked around at them all. "Are you sure?!"
"That is what I saw," confirmed the old man. "I'm not as blind as these young fools."
Lemon blinked. How could a hedgehog fall from the sky? The fishermen followed her at a distance as she walked back to beside the hedgehog. She made sure her voice was calm.
"Hey." She waited until his face was looking in her general direction. "The men who saved you are here to see you."
The hedgehog stirred a bit. The wolf sat down next to Lemon.
"Hey, glad to see you're alive, buddy." He grinned as the hedgehog looked confused. "My name is Tank, we all found you and brought you here."
The hedgehog relaxed. "You called me Tenchi... I remember..."
Tank chuckled. "Oh yeah." He turned to Lemon, who looked puzzled and explained. "Since he fell from the sky, we decided to call him Tenchi. I didn't think he heard us, he was out the whole time."
"Oh, I heard you..." replied the hedgehog. Lemon was surprised by how clear his voice was, even though it was slightly pained.
Tank grinned. "Well, call us when you move him. We'd like to help out..."
"Oh, sure!" Lemon nodded. "Here's the address." She handed him a business card for the infirmary. "And thank-you." She watched as they left and then looked back to the hedgehog. "Wow, you sure made some nice friends."
The hedgehog was silent.
It was a few weeks later, Tenchi's first and second degree burns had healed. They had grafted his skin for the few third-degree burns he had. But he was still very ill. He was too sick to eat anything and the IV only made him weaker and weaker. And his legs were too weak for him to stand. But the wounds were healing fine and Lemon was happy to see he had grown a little healthier from that. His fur had grown back and a little bit of colour had returned to his skin.
But it hadn't been so good for his eyes.
Lemon watched nervously as Rouge sat next to Tenchi's bed, pulling gloves over her hands.
"Are you ready?" she asked. She sounded as nervous as Lemon!
But Tenchi's voice was worse than the two girls combined. "Y-Yes..." He gulped and braced himself.
Rouge gently reached over his face and very smoothly pulled the bandage covering his eyes off.
Lemon hurried over to beside Rouge and both stared. Tenchi's eyes were shut but now they could see he WAS handsome indeed! Lemon sat next to Rouge and both waited as Tenchi slowly got used to having his eyelids exposed after so many weeks of having that bandage on. Then he took a deep breath and opened his eyes. Rouge stared. His eyes were red.
"Tenchi, are your eyes alright??" asked Lemon eagerly.
Tenchi seemed to be staring into space in their general direction. Rouge knew his answer before it was out of his mouth.
"..No..."
He was blind.
After that devastating day, Tenchi was very silent. At night, Lemon thought she heard him crying but saw that he was quite still, silent as the dead in the dark. Once his burns had completely healed, he was moved to Rouge's infirmary, which was the downstairs of her actual house. Lemon had already moved in, happy to be away from Knuckles and her grandfather, who were both very annoying with their "guardian training".
But they were surprised when Tank and his crew came over. The five of them were at the door, Tank at the front. Him and the others seemed very eager to help and Rouge didn't need to admit it, they needed it.
And so they moved in. Tank helped with any equipment that was needed and, even though he wasn't staying there overnight, he was good company at dinner when he brought his wife and two children. The rest of them were single. The only girl, the light blue two-tailed fox, was named Vixy and it turned out she had been born very weak and had always been very small for her age. She was about the same age as Tails and usually helped Lemon and Rouge as nurses, since she had some experience from being frequently sick herself.
Ojiisan was a wise old cheetah. He was the oldest of the crew and usually just sat there, watching. Every once in awhile, he'd talk to Tenchi. Either than that, he was a cook, which was much better than Rouge's burnt food.
Geoffroy was a grey dog and he was the navigator for the crew. He had a British accent and was always very proper. Him and Tenchi became rather good friends because Geoff was usually there when Tenchi was suffering and helped him through it. He was also good at listening, which was good when Tenchi needed to talk to someone.
And then there was Spike. Spike was a weasel and used to hang with Nack the weasel before he was kicked out for stealing from his comrade. He was a thief and was very scruffy-looking. It was a mystery to Lemon how he knew so much about medicine and such.
After time, though, she became quite attached to them all and they were excellent company. Tenchi seemed to enjoy listening to them all talk but he usually tried to pay more attention to Lemon for some reason.