CHAPTER 5: Campfire Stories

1/12/2022

Sonic set some twigs and leaves down in a circle of small rocks. "These should make for an alright fire," he said. "They better. I'm looking forward to toastin' up these bad boys," Manic replied, waving a bag of marshmallows around. Sonia took the bag and inspected it. As she did this, she began to address her brothers. "I don't think I've had these before, but I'm certain they'll beat what we've had to survive off of the past couple of days. "Sonic let out a small laugh. "Come on, street food isn't that bad!" he replied jokingly. "Yeah. When it isn't actually found on the street."

It had been a couple of days since the incident at The Underground Rock Club. Mobotropolis was on high alert, forcing the trio to escape from the city slower and more discreetly than they'd like, lest they catch the attention of whatever security Robotnik had deployed and give away their hiding spot. As planned, they settled down in a small forest near the city of Jadegully. Even though Robotnik kept a close eye on the city and the area surrounding it, he never cared to investigate this particular forest for whatever reason, making it a good temporary hideout for the three royal siblings.

Sonia then handed the bag back to Manic, giving him a look of suspicion. "…Where'd you get these, anyway?" she asked. Manic put the bag away and began polishing his new drumsticks. "Oh, I stole them." His siblings gasped in shock. "You what?" Manic continued to work on his sticks. "Well, technically I didn't steal them; my sis Lanella stole them, then she got kidnapped before she could do anything, so I went ahead and packed them," he answered. "Man, I hope she's okay…" Manic tacked on sadly.

Sonia and Sonic couldn't believe their brother would steal; let alone hang out with people who stole. "You hang out with thieves?" Sonia asked, mildly disgusted. Manic shrugged. "Well, yeah. Someone's gotta help starving families." He replied very casually. His sister suddenly felt a little bad. "Oh, you were providing for the unfortunate homeless?" she asked emotionally. Manic wasn't particularly amused, frowning slightly. "Not the 'homeless;' I helped people who were where I was or worse, and sometimes they were homeless." Sonia felt embarrassed at this. "I… I didn't mean it like that, I'm sorry." She replied apologetically. "…though sometimes, I did steal for myself, too," her brother confessed with a proud smirk.

The former noble was overcome with a mild distress. "Oh dear, I'm hanging out with a criminal…" Sonic zoomed over, patting her on the back. "Don't worry. You're a criminal now, too!" he told her, blithely. She pushed him back gently. "Don't remind me," she hissed. She then rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Ooogh… Mother will so ground me for—" Sonia stopped abruptly, remembering the fate of Lady Windermere. "…Oh. That's right, she won't." She sighed sadly.

Her brothers looked for a way to change the topic. "Hey, how about I get that fire going," Sonic asked. Sonia perked up at this, nodding. "Yeah, that'd be good! Just one thing…" The young girl glanced around her surroundings. "What are we going to start a fire with?" She said to the blue hedgehog. Her other brother looked up from what he was doing. "I think I've got an idea. You're super strong, right?" Sonia looked at her arms, then back at him. "Yeah, I'd say I'm pretty powerful." Manic tossed her a couple of sticks that rested near the rock he was sitting on. "Rub these together. The friction should like, start a fire," he told her. Sonia grinned. "Smart thinking, Manic!"

Sonia took the two sticks and began rubbing them together, and within moments they burst into a small fire. Sonia let out a small yelp and tossed them into the fire pit. "They burnt up faster than I thought they would! Good thing I'm wearing polyester…" The fire then flared up, providing a nice warmth and light for the three. "Not a moment too soon," Sonic said, relieved. "Looks like evening's coming up fast." Sure enough, the small amount of orange light that shone through the trees began to fade, leaving Sonic and his siblings with just the fire's glow lighting up the surrounding area.

Sonia took her seat on a large rock she had found earlier, as did her brother Sonic.

Her brother then called out to Manic. "Mallow me up, bro!" Manic tossed a marshmallow his way, and Sonic caught it, sticking it onto a twig. He then tossed twigs to his brother and sister. "Let's dig in, guys." After Sonia and Manic put their marshmallows on, the three of them began to cook them over the fire. "…and then you pull it out of the fire and blow out the flames," Manic explained to his sister. "Oh, so it's like a dessert flambé?" Manic looked at his sister with a visible uncertainty. "I… guess?" Sonia chuckled. "It's mainly something done by aristocrats, from what I've seen," she explained to him. She then pulled her marshmallow out and ate it. She smiled widely and hummed.

They ate through about half the bag, washing it down with some bottled water Manic had gotten ahold of. After having the last marshmallow she was going to have, she leaned back and crossed one leg over the other, looking back and forth between her brothers. "So… how about we get to know each other?" She asked. Sonic and Manic looked to each other, then back at her for an elaboration, which Sonia picked up on. "Well, we've been out of each other's lives for a decade-and-a-half; we should fill each other in on what we've been doing, how we've lived!" Manic began to chime in. "Not a bad idea, Sonia. It might also be good to know all this so we can understand each other better so that we can like, be a better team."

Sonic lifted his hand. "I'll go first," he said. "I grew up with two nice parents who lived by a lake. We didn't have a lot, but we didn't have too little, either." Sonia sighed happily. "Sounds like a lovely time." Sonic crossed his arms and looked up. "Yeah, but I never really got to really rev up the way I wanted to. I had to keep my speed under lock and key, until one day…" Sonia sat up nervously. "Until one day what?" she asked. The corners of Sonic's mouth turned down. "It was a couple days after I turned twelve. We were just having a peaceful dinner, and a couple of Robuttnik's mecha-mooks came down to our place and arrested my folks. They told me to run away as fast as I possibly could and get to Uncle Chuck's…"

Manic and Sonia felt bad for their blue brother. "Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry," Sonia apologized to Sonic. He looked at her. "Don't worry 'bout it, sis. We'll get 'em back," he told her reassuringly. He then leaned forward, resting his head on his hand. "Now, how about you tell us about yourself?" Sonia shot up and sat in an elegant, manner-minding way. "Well, I was raised by Lady Windermere, an aristocrat who loved the arts! She taught me how to play piano, how to act, and how to be the graceful young lady I am today!" She told him. The way she said it made it sound like she had rehearsed this.

Manic then laughed. "Yeah, the way you decked that robot's leg was soooo graceful!" His sister scoffed in return. "Well, what was I to do? Play piano at it to death? Even a formerly-wealthy noble such as I knows that'd haven't any effect," she retorted. Sonic chuckled too. "Haven't any effect? Sis, that's so proper of you," he playfully mocked. Sonia rolled her eyes, and got back to her story.

"A little while back, she set me up with Bartleby Montclair, the darling heir of the Montclair family. Once we're both adults, we're to be wed…" she told them. Sonic gagged. "So, you've got a deranged marriage coming up, do you?" Sonia frowned. "That's arranged marriage, blue boy." Manic decided to chime in while toasting an extra marshmallow for himself. "Same difference, bro." Sonia scoffed once more. "Oh hush, Manic. You've never even met the man." Manic ate his marshmallow and began to speak with his mouth full. "Haff you eefen met hmm?" Sonia stood up, putting her hands on her hips. "I have!" Manic dropped his eyelids slightly, and swallowed the marshmallow. "Have you met him more than once?"

Sonia had, but it was a very truncated meeting. She struggled to explain herself, then sat down, defeated. Manic then began drumming quietly on the rock he sat on. "With that aside, I guess it's time for me to drop my history, yo." His siblings leaned in with intrigue as he began to go on. "I was raised by Farrell and some other cool thief dudes. We'd steal stuff from rude upper crust dorks and help out those we knew and cared 'bout with our hauls." Sonia folded her arms with a smirk. "Let me guess, you got a little thief girlfriend somewhere too?" Manic briefly stopped his drumming. "Nah. But sometimes I'd kiss boys from rival thief groups." Sonia sat back normally. "Ah."

"I did that for fifteen years, and now I'm here. And I guess that's like, my story," Manic finished explaining. Sonic sarcastically applauded. "What a rousing monologue, my dear brother. Truly well-spoken." Manic got up and took an equally sarcastic bow. "Why, thank you, dearest brother." Sonia laughed at both of them, briefly dropping her already somewhat-shaky upper class girl façade. "God, you two barely know each other and you're being brotherly dorks already," she told them. The three then broke into a collective chuckle, and then spent some time discussing interests.

Finally, the time came for them to rest and recharge. Sonic got out some old, thin blankets he had taken from the abandoned apartment he had briefly resided in. "I don't want any comments about me being a thief; It doesn't count if you're taking things from a house that belongs to no one," he told his siblings. Sonia tilted her head in confusion. "Sonic, we already know about those. We used them the last couple of nights, remember?" He suddenly remembered this. "Oh, that's… right." He scratched the back of his head. "I guess these last few nights have messed with my head." His sister patted him on the back sweetly. "Don't worry, I get it." The three grabbed their blankets and laid down on the ground. Sonic put the fire out, leaving the three enveloped in almost total darkness. He then told his siblings goodnight. And within an hour, they were out cold.

The triplets had interesting dreams that night. They were happy, yet they made them sad. They kept dreaming about the people they grew up with, about the best memories they had with them, about new experiences they wouldn't get to have. And it hurt them; for they missed their families more than they let each other know. Sonic's dreams especially made his heart ache, as in them, he got to live out a happy birthday with both Chuck and his parents by his side. As happy as the "birthday" was, in his subconscious, it kept making him think about how he lost them both.

But, his mix of melancholy and joy would suddenly be upset by a bizarre shift in the dream. Sonic found himself shrinking in the chair he was sitting in, as his family began to frown. Uncle Chuck got down on his knees, putting his face up in Sonic's personal bubble. He then began to speak in a voice not his own. "Sonic… why didn't you do better that day?" he asked in an alien, booming voice. Sonic tried to tell him that Chuck told him to run, but all that could come out were bizarre, assorted sounds.

"Maybe it's a way for him to show his hate," his mother said in a jarring version of her own voice. Sonic tried to plead his case again, but this time, no sound came out at all. Suddenly, his limbs felt like they were in water, and he found it hard to run. He tried to get to his room, but he was scooped up by Chuck. "Sounds like you need to be grounded for life," Chuck said in a low growl. He somehow managed to stick Sonic to the wall. Sonic felt something bad was coming next. He found himself shrinking even more as Uncle Chuck went to his room to get a pillow. He came back as quickly as he left, and began to swing. Sonic finally figured out how to speak, but it didn't matter, because Uncle Chuck smashed him with the pillow.

Sonic was jolted awake, stifling a scream. Manic was already up; Sonia was about to be. His awake sibling looked at him, concerned. "Hey bro, you okay?" he asked softly. Sonic's heart was racing, but eventually he calmed down enough to answer. "Yeah, just a bad dream… What are you doing up?" Manic stretched his back. "It's morning, man. I'm lettin' Sonia get some beauty sleep because I'd hate to find out whether she gets fussy without it." In an odd, coincidental moment, Sonia woke up.

"I heard that, and I'll tell you now; that's a wise thought," Sonia told him. Before the three could get any further, they heard some screams not too far from where they were. "Hey, do y'all hear that," Sonic asked. Sonia nodded. "Yeah, sounds like there's people in trouble!" "But who's nearby?" Manic asked worriedly. Sonic stroked his chin as he thought. Within moments, he had an answer. "It has to be the city of Jadegully's people; the place isn't too far from here!" Sonic grabbed his siblings' arms. "We can pack this back up in a bit; right now, we gotta juice on over there and see what's up!"

SONIC UNDERGROUND: AMPED