Boy! You're the one! I want you to want me! And if you want, then boy you got me! There's nothing I, no, I wouldn't do! I wouldn't do! Just to get up next to you!
"Oh, I just love this song!" Amy squealed as she danced to the lyrics with Cream and Cheese next to her. "It reminds me so much of my love for Sonic."
"It certainly has a nice, danceable beat to it." Cream smiled.
"Chao, chao!" Cheese agreed.
"Amy, do you think you can turn that down? I can hear it all the way up on the roof." Sonic groaned as he walked into the Thorndyke living room, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Oh, Sonic!" Amy cried out excitedly, running up to her self-proclaimed boyfriend. Said hedgehog didn't have a chance to escape before she wrapped her hands around his wrists and pulled him to her. "Come dance with me. I claim this song from me to you."
Sonic groaned but went with her anyway, dancing around the living room with her and Cream and Cheese. He had to admit, as the song continued, it was very catchy, and he couldn't place it, but the singer almost sounded familiar too.
"Hey, Amy," He started. "By chance do you know who sings this song?"
"I don't know the artist by name," Amy shrugged. "But she has a lot of songs like these. Why?"
"I don't know," Sonic frowned as he twirled the pink hedgehog. "She just sounds… familiar."
At that moment, the telephone in the kitchen started ringing. Mrs. Thorndyke and her husband were home on break for a few days. She was in the kitchen, helping Ella with supper when the phone started to ring so she decided to take it upon herself to answer it.
"Hello?" She said into the receiver. A pause. "Yes, this is the Thorndyke residence." Another pause, then a smile. "Oh is that so?" Another pause. "Well, he's right in the living room. I can go fetch him real quick. I'm sure he'll be ecstatic to hear your voice. One moment."
With that, Mrs. Thorndyke laid a hand over the receiver and leaned into the living room, where Sonic, Amy, Cream and Cheese were still dancing, but to a new song this time.
What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Stand a little taller! Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone! What doesn't kill you makes a fighter! Footsteps even lighter! Doesn't mean I'm over 'cause you're gone! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger, stronger! Just me, myself and I! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! Stand a little taller! Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone!
"Sonic," Mrs. Thorndyke called to the blue hedgehog, who immediately stopped dancing to give her his full attention. "You have a phone call, sweetie."
"From who?" Sonic frowned as he walked up to her, Amy turning the music down so it wasn't disturbing the phone call.
"I'll leave that as a surprise." Mrs. Thorndyke giggled, handing him the receiver. "But I'm sure you'll be delighted, if not excited."
With that, Mrs. Thorndyke walked away to give him some privacy, still smiling. Sonic shook his head and brought the phone up to his ear.
"Hello, Sonic the Hedgehog speaking."
"Sonic!" An excited female voice cried on the other end. "Oh, it's been so long. You have no idea how good it is to hear your voice."
Sonic was confused. Who was this person? And why did she sound so familiar?
"I'm sorry but, who is this?" He asked. His response was a sharp gasp.
"Why Sonic! I get that it's been almost 4 years, but surely you would recognize the voice of family."
And then suddenly, Sonic's mind clicked, and he knew exactly who was talking to him, and why her voice sounded so familiar. His eyes became watery with tears of joy as he smiled into the phone.
"Star?" He whispered. "Star, is that you?"
"Yes, Sonic, it is I, Star the Hedgehog, your older twin sister."
"Pfft, you're only older by 15 minutes." Sonic laughed, his tears rolling freely down his face. "Star, you have no idea how good it is to hear from you. It's been too long, sis'!"
"I agree, way too long." Star chuckled on the other end. "It's good to hear from you too, little brother."
"But wait, how did you get this number?" Sonic frowned, sure that last time he checked, Star was still on Mobias, and this was an Earth phone number.
"Haven't you ever heard of a phonebook, Sonic? Mobias isn't the only one who has them, Earth does too."
"Wait…" Sonic's eyes widened as realization clicked on. "Does that mean that… Star… are you…"
"Trapped on Earth too? You guess correctly, bro."
"B-B-But how?! You were nowhere near the Chaos Control that brought us here!"
"... Actually, I was Sonic. Call it a wrong place wrong time kind of thing, but I was like 10 miles away when the Chaos Control happened. … I was coming to see you… because I had missed you."
At these news, Sonic lost his grip on the phone and it dropped from his hand, his face written in complete shock.
He couldn't believe that by some dumb luck chance, his sister had gotten caught up in the blast.
"Sonic?" Star's voice came from the dropped phone. "Hello? Little bro'? You still there? HELLO!"
Shaking his head, Sonic quickly snapped out of it and snatched the receiver from the floor, hastily bringing it back up to his ear.
"I'm sorry Star I just… I can't believe you got caught up in that. I'm so sorry, sis."
"Hey, don't be sorry. It's my own fault for not calling ahead, but I wanted to surprise you. The good news is I don't think there were any other casualties. At least, not from what I heard. Seems only me, you, and those friends of yours I keep hearing about were hit. Oh, and Eggman too."
"Well, that's good, I guess." Sonic sighed in relief, then smiled. "So, what made you want to call me? Is it because you wanted me to know you were trapped too?"
"Well that, and…"
"And what?"
"Sonic, you live in New York, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"Well… you know how I've always wanted to be a singer-songwriter?"
"Yeah."
"Well bro', guess that little accident was actually more of a blessing for me."
"What do you mean?"
"What I mean is that my dream came true!" Star cried excitedly. "I met this human producer named Drake while I was singing to myself one day, and he wanted me to perform a cover song for him. So I did and he signed me right afterwards! Anyways, I'm on my first tour right now and my next stop is New York!"
"That's amazingly brilliant, Star!" Sonic cried out, having a hard time controlling his excitement. He was so hyped up now, that the more he showed his excitement, the more attention he was gaining from the other residents of the mansion, but he didn't notice. At these new set of news, he also realized why the singer on Amy's radio sounded familiar too. It was his sister! "I always knew you could do it."
"You never doubted me for a second, little bro'. You've always been so supportive. Anybody would be lucky to have you as a little brother."
"Aw, thanks sis'." Sonic blushed, smiling into the phone. "So, when are you coming up? And, where's the concert being held at?"
"I'll be there tomorrow, at the New York City Park. I hope to see you there. I gotta go now. Drake wants me to practice my new song some more. Bye Sonic."
"Bye Star."
And with that, both hedgehogs hung up.
Sonic couldn't help himself. He squealed in excitement and jumped with joy, his spirits lifted high at the chance of seeing his long lost twin sister again. It has been so long since he had last seen her. The last goodbye they had was almost 4 years ago, on their 16th birthday.
Star had given him a wonderful birthday present, a song that she wrote just for him, and he loved every minute of it. His heart, however, was broken that day as well, as Star announced that she was going off on her own to pursue her dreams of being a singer-songwriter.
Of course, like a good little brother, Sonic supported her all the way.
He would miss her… he did miss her… but he knew that one day, Star would achieve her dreams, and they would see each other again.
Remembering these memories made Sonic's heart tighten as he tried not to cry, from both sadness and joy.
Sadness because he had missed his sister so much, but joy because he will get to see her again.
"Sonic, are you alright, sweetie?" Mrs. Thorndyke asked in concern when she walked in to see the blue hedgehog looking a bit crestfallen.
"Yes, Mrs. Thorndyke." Sonic nonchalantly wiped his nose as he smiled. "I'm just so happy."
"I thought you would be." Mrs. Thorndyke gave a warm smile back.
"But what are you so happy about?" Tails asked curiously. "Who was that on the phone?"
Sonic blushed and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. He had never told anyone about his sister before, the memory of her leaving was just too painful to bear. But now that there was a chance of seeing her again, he didn't feel so self conscious to talk about her now.
"Well, believe it or not, Tails, but THAT was an old family member of mine that left our family on our 16th birthday."
"Our 16th birthday?" Amy frowned in confusion.
"Yes Amy, our, because the person on the phone just now, was my older twin sister, Star the Hedgehog!"
"EEKK!" Cream cried excitedly as she jumped into Sonic's arms and gave him a big hug. "That's so exciting Mr. Sonic! I didn't know you had a twin sister!"
"I usually don't like to talk about her." Sonic admitted sadly, his ears lowering to his head.
"Why's that?" Chris asked.
"Well, because like I said, Star left our family when we turned 16. I haven't seen her since. Talking about her always brings back that painful memory."
Sonic sighed sadly, the memory of Star's departure playing behind his eyes now. It hurt so much. The bond between them was strong, stretching out far so that they were always connected, no matter how far apart they were. But it still hurt to think about it.
Everyone in the room witnessed the solemn expression on the hedgehog's face and thought better of asking about it. Well, everyone but Knuckles.
"Why did she leave to begin with?" He frowned, crossing his arms over his chest. "Got tired of life at home? Overbearing uncle? Or maybe she was just embarrassed to be known as the twin of a reckless immature hedgehog with an IQ of a box of crayons!"
"Knuckles!" Tails, Amy, Chris, Cream, Ella, and Mrs. Thorndyke gasped.
Sonic was shocked. He knew he and the echidna didn't really get along all that great, but he never would've expected him to attack him with such a personal topic.
It actually really hurt more than Star's leaving.
"N-No! It was nothing like that!" He stuttered in shock, tears slowly filling his eyes as he tried to keep them back. "Star had a great life with us, and Uncle Chuck gave us as much free range as he possibly could while still keeping us safe. If he was overbearing, he never would've let her leave in the first place. And she didn't leave because she was embarrassed by me, oh Chaos I hope not! Star and I… we had such a strong bond, dare I say it was stronger than the bond between Tails and I! She was never embarrassed of me, and I was never embarrassed of her! You can't just say those things, Knuckles! Not after I just heard her voice for the first time after almost 4 years! You have no idea how much I miss her!"
At this point, Sonic had lost the battle and was sobbing, tears rolling down his face. His body trembled with each chest rattling breath he took, trying to get his emotions under control again, which only made him cry more.
The others gave Knuckles the most hateful glare he has ever seen. Even more deadly than Shadow's. He looked back at the sobbing hedgehog and sighed, feeling very awful for what he said. He didn't mean to upset him so much. He began to think about how he would feel if Sonic said such things about his family, and only felt worse.
No, this wasn't fair. It was obvious that Sonic missed his sister dearly. Just as much as the echidna missed his own family.
Knuckles sighed as he approached the weeping hedgehog, wrapping his arms around him in a tight, comforting hug. Sonic immediately stopped crying and gasped, surprised by Knuckles' actions.
"I'm sorry, Sonic." He whispered. "I didn't mean to hurt you like that. I shouldn't have said those things. It was wrong of me to assume like that. I'm sorry."
Sonic stood stiff rigid as Knuckles hugged him and apologized. Slowly, Sonic began to smile and he hugged back, burying his tear streaked face into the echidna's shoulder.
"It's ok, Knux, I forgive you." Sonic sniffed. "I just really miss her."
"I understand."
Silence hung in the air, no one dared to make a single sound, afraid that if they did, they would shatter this heartwarming moment between the two frenemies. A few more minutes passed before Sonic finally pulled away, wiping any stray tears away from his eyes.
"Are you ok now?" Knuckles asked, holding onto the hedgehog's shoulders in case he needed to pull him into another hug.
"Yeah," Sonic sighed with a smile. "I'm fine." Then he frowned, giving another sigh. "But if you really wanna know why she left, I'll tell you."
"Sonic you don't have to."
"I want to. You deserve to know. You all do. You see, Star left the family because she wanted to pursue her dreams of being a singer-songwriter. She's very talented, and apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks so."
"What do you mean?" Chris asked.
"What I mean is that her dream came true!" Sonic cried happily. "She met this human producer named Drake who signed her. And now she's on tour, and her next stop is here in New York at the city park tomorrow!"
"That's so exciting!" Cream squealed.
"Chow, chow!" Cheese agreed.
"But wait!" Tails gasped. "How did she get to earth in the first place?"
"Well, that's a funny story now isn't it?" Sonic chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of his neck again. "Apparently, according to her, the Chaos Control that brought us here, also brought her here."
"But how? She was nowhere near Eggman's base when it happened." Tails shook his head.
"According to her, it was wrong place wrong time. She was only ten miles away."
The others were silent upon this. Stunned to their very core. How could she have been so close, yet so far?!
"Yeah, I didn't believe it either." Sonic shook his head. "But how else could Star be here if it weren't true?"
The others had to admit, he had a point.
"Anyways," Sonic continued, turning to Mrs. Thorndyke. "As I said before, it's been nearly 4 years since I've seen her, and she's coming tomorrow for her concert. Mrs. Thorndyke, can we please go to the city park tomorrow to see my sister? I really, really miss her."
"Of course, Sonic!" Mrs. Thorndyke didn't even hesitate. "In fact, we can all go! A nice day at the park and a chance to meet your sister sounds like a wonderful idea!"
Sonic couldn't help himself.
He legit pulled an Amy move as he squealed with delight and jumped into the human's arms, hugging her tightly. Mrs. Thorndyke laughed as she held him up and hugged back.
"Oh thank you so much, Mrs. Thorndyke!" He squealed. "I can't wait for you all to meet her!"
"And we can't wait to meet her either." Chris chuckled, curious to see just how identical the hedgehog twins were.