She ran as fast as she could, not knowing where she was going. As she breathlessly passed the ancient forest, which had once been her special friend, the one in whom she could hide in, was replaced with the looming figures shrouded in darkness. It was no home to her not...She had no home now...

"I have to get away" she thought, beginning to panic, "...There has to be some place I can go...! I have to run...! I have to..." Deep in her thoughts, a limb caught her foot, causing her to plummet to the forest floor. She stayed lying on the floor……and slowly began to sob... "Mommy...! Daddy...! Help me, please...!" She remembered her mother's face… She had a soft serenity that she adored...Her father...He was a powerful fighter, but with the most gentle heart anyone had ever known. ...They were her family...her life...Now her life was over... But mommy wouldn't want her to give up. Neither would daddy... "I'll never give up...!" She declared. Suddenly, the sound of shouting and battle cries rang over the forest. They were coming.

She was running faster now, with such a speed she'd never known. She had to get away. She couldn't let them catch her, she couldn't be killed. It was getting louder now, almost deafening. They were gaining on her; she looked over her shoulder to see the bloodthirsty Echidnas smiling in rage at her. But this only made her run faster, try harder. She could almost imagine herself surviving this, growing up to be a strong, beautiful woman. Her dreams were crushed when she saw the dark wall of trees that hovered over her. She tried to claw her way through the forest, but to no avail. The Echidna's dark figures appeared in front of her, and a cold sweat began to run down her flushed cheeks, soaking into her white fur. "Heh...You've given us quite a run little girl..." the Echidna leader chuckled, "But now, it's time to end it!" "Noooooooooooooooo!"

Lea awoke in a cold sweat, gasping for air. She slowly looked into space, trying to situate herself. She was inside in a circular room, all painted a light blue. She gently held onto the dark blue sheets that were tangled around her legs… She slowly looked around seeing her bookshelf, writing desk, dresser, and her end table. Everything was exactly the way she left it… Outside her window it was dark; she looked over to her clock, which read 12:30 A.M.

"Heh, seems like I'm ahead of schedule today..." She gave a pained laugh as she buried her head in her hands, chuckling at how foolish she was: how foolish this whole thing was. She had the same dream, was in same bed, in the same room, in the same house, that she had been for many years of her life. As she plopped her feet onto the bluish-black carpet, slowly trying to get herself to realize she wasn't six anymore, she was sixteen! It had been ten years since her parent's death; he should have been over this a long time ago... But she hadn't…… She mentally shook herself, and got ready to take a shower like she always did. She looked at the steam rising from the bath and thought; since the warm water seemed to relax her, and she seemed more disturbed by the dream than usual, it would be ok to take a longer one than usual. Usually it only took half an hour, but today she felt like taking an hour and a half.

As she got out of the shower, she frowned at herself. "It doesn't matter now" She put on her pink v-neck tank and brown-green parachute pants. "These dreams will probably go on for all your life...and there's nothing you can do about it..." "There's nothing you can do about it"...……….she didn't care much for that saying. In fact, she hated that saying.

She slowly made her way down the stairs, almost forgetting to put on her portable-jetpack, and all the other stuff her brother gave her to lug around. Almost all of the inventions that Slash made, that actually worked, were made to "protect" her. She remembered the little inside joke that she and her brother had about the "plasma bubble." Slash had just made some new things for Lea to try out, and she chuckled, "Man, Slash! Grappling hooks, ray guns, smoke bombs, pepper spray? What are ya gonna do next, put me in a plastic bubble?" Lea began laughing uncontrollable, that is until Slash broke in,

"Does a plasma bubble count?" He had his finger directly above a little remote, and then pressed it.

"What?" In a split second, a huge bubble of blue energy formed around Lea. "Ha, ha, very funny. Now get me out of this stupid thing." Lea growled, growing more and more irritated by the second.

"Ok, ok, I'll let ya go." Slash chuckled, pressing the button on the remote again. Yep, that was Slash….He could make weapons and ammo out of anything, for almost any occasion. Heck, even the stupid jet-pack could probably kill someone if you really tried! The only thing that Slash hadn't tweaked were her combat boots, which she slipped comfortably on her feet as she stumbled down the stairs. Sometimes she wanted to smack him for being so darn protective, but he was all she had let now: she couldn't bare losing her big brother.

As she walked down the stairs, she saw Slash at the table, with a huge mug of coffee and a doughnut. As usual he was trying to balance his mug in his hand while munching on his doughnut. His muscle shirt and brown baggy pants where all covered in little crumbs brown crumbs, which he apparently didn't notice. (Or for the moment, didn't care…) Even his black finger-gloves had little doughnut crumbs stuck to them.

"Slash!" she yelled playfully, "How many times I gotta tell ya to use the table instead of trying to balance your breakfast in the air! (And have you ever heard of napkins?) Its there for a reason you know!"

"Hm? Aw, don't worry sis! I won't spill a-" the mug toppled over, shattering into a thousand pieces. "...drop..." He finished, trying not to slap himself the face. Not only was the floor dark brown, but so were his steal cleated, steal toed boots were bleached a darker brown. (So to Slash, that wasn't much of a catastrophe…)

"Ok, hold on..." Lea groaned, stomping off to get the broom. Grabbing the broom from beside the fridge, she began to wipe up the pieces. Then she shoed him out of the kitchen so she could mop the coffee off the floor. As Slash looked on, watching Lea mop up the tiled floor, he smiled sheepishly and gave a little "Sorry sis…" That was her brother: twenty years old with the maturity of a ten year old. It reminded her of once when Slash was making fun of Amy and Sonic going on an official "date." As she was scolding him, he declared;

"All geniuses have a quark of some kind! Mine's just not acting my age!" With a wink, he was off tinkering in his part of the base. He always seemed to use that lab of his as a scape-goat, but she wasn't concerned as long as they got missions done...

"Okay!" Slash yelled, hopping out of his chair. "We got breakfast, now who's up for mission practice?"

"For your information, you had breakfast so you should go to mission practice..." Although she would have said this in a heartbeat, Slash seemed so enthusiastic and happy, so she loosened up a bit.

"S-Sure," She stammered "who's the runner this time?"

"YOU ARE!" He laughed, running down the hall. She could have guessed…. She dragged along behind Slash, who was already in front of the light switch, looking at it intently.