11: Cream

"So… how exactly am I gonna make an entrance?" Sonic asked.

"You could just walk in and say 'hi' you know…" Tangle sighed.

"Yeah, but I am showing up to her birthday for the first time in fifteen years… it has to be dramatic!" Sonic explained. "I want one dramatic entrance, ok!"

"Ok… so you can figure it out yourself then." Tangle said. "Good luck with that."

"Ugh, fine." Sonic said, then he noticed something.

"Hmmmm…"

Skye was currently sitting in the back yard, in deep thought.

"Hey Skye! What's going on?" Sonic asked his nephew.

"… I wawted to give Ms. Cweam a pwesent for her biwthday, but I don't know what to give her…" Skye answered.

"Hmm… that does sound like a problem…" Sonic said before looking around. Then, he got an idea.

"Hey Tails! I'm taking Skye out for a bit!" Sonic called over.

"Oh, ok? What for?" Tails asked.

Sonic then went over and whispered into the fox's ear.

"Oh, that sounds like a great idea!" Tails said. "Go on, have fun! But be back in time for dinner."

"You got it!" Sonic said before lifting Skye up onto his shoulders. "Hang on tight Skye!"

And with that, Sonic sped off to spend the day with his nephew.

—

The Next Day, Cream's house

"So, Cream moved out huh?" Sonic asked as the house came into view.

"Yeah, Vanilla was a wreck on moving day though." Tails said, then followed Sonic's gaze as he noticed that Vanilla's house was less than a mile away.

"Well, guess she wanted to stay close to her roots, huh?" Sonic said with a laugh. "Anyways, Skye, you know what to do, right?"

"Yeah! Just give her the pwesent and say 'Happy Biwthday!' Wight?" Skye asked.

"That's right!" Sonic said before hopping into a nearby bush. "Good luck!"

And with that, the Prowers walked up to the front door and knocked. Only for Gemerl to answer.

"Greetings Prowers."

"Hey Gemerl, is Cream around?" Tails asked.

"Yes, however, I must inquire about the lifeform in that bush." The robot asked as he pointed to the bush that Sonic was hiding in.

"It's a surprise, trust us, Cream will love it." Tangle said. "Speaking of, can you go get her?"

"Affirmative." Gemerl said before walking away.

After a moment, Cream came to the door.

"Hey you three! It's great to see you!" Cream said before pulling Tails and Tangle into a hug.

When the three separated, Tails looked towards Skye. "Happy Birthday Cream, I think Skye got something for you?"

"Oh! Uh, wight." Skye said before pulling out the present. "Happy Biwthday Ms. Cweam!"

In his hands was a crown, a crown of flowers.

"Oh, thank you so much Skye!" Cream said before pulled the boy into a hug. When they separated, she noticed something.

"Wait… these are sunflowers… right?" Cream asked.

"You're the flower expert." Tails said.

"You don't need to be one to recognize sunflowers Tails…anyways, it's just that, whenever I gave Sonic a flower crown when I was younger, he would give me one just like this as thank you." Cream explained. "It's even made with the same, sloppy method that Sonic always did."

"Yeah, I know!" Skye said with a smile.

"But… how? How do you know that? The only one who knew about that was…"

"Cause I told him about it." Said a voice from behind her.

Cream turned around to see Sonic grinning.

"… Gemerl?" Cream said. "Eliminate the imposter."

"…"

"Why aren't you…?"

"I must inquire as to what imposter you wish for me to eliminate." Gemerl said.

"Uh, the Sonic one?"

"There is no such thing in the premises."

"What? But that would mean…" Cream said as she began to realize what was happening.

And she suddenly leapt at the hedgehog and gave him a hug.

"Sonic!" Cream shouted.

"Whoa! Easy there!" Sonic said. "And what happened to calling me 'Mr. Sonic?'"

"Oh… uh…" Cream said as she separated from the hedgehog. "Sorry, Mr. Sonic."

"Nah, it's fine, you're older than me now anyways."

"Wait, what?" Cream asked.

"We'll explain inside. Come on!" Sonic said. "Oh, and Happy Birthday! I hope you don't mind that I didn't bring a gift."

"It's fine! You being here is enough!" Cream said.

"Well, let's get to it!" Sonic said as everyone went inside.

And with that, the party began. Little by little, more and more friends began to arrive. While most of them Sonic had already met with, there were a couple of people that were pleasantly surprised at the hedgehog's presence, like Jewel and Vanilla.

"AH! GHOST SONIC!" Jewel shouted as she hid behind a laughing Tangle.

"Relax, it's the real Sonic." Tangle said. "Turns out he time traveled."

"O-oh! Well, it's good to see you again Sonic!" Jewel said.

"Good to see you too Jewel." Sonic said. "Glad to see you haven't changed much."

"Well, not everyone is gonna change as much as Tangle here." Jewel said. "She is a lot less impulsive now, in case you didn't notice."

"Yeah, I guess the whole treasure hunting with Knuckles thing did that." Sonic said.

"Well, that and having Skye." Jewel said.

"True enough." Sonic said. "By the way, I heard about the old museum. I'm sorry that had to happen to you."

"It's fine, we managed to make the new one bigger and better, so I guess it was all for the best." Jewel said. "You should come by and take a look some time!"

"I think I will." Sonic said.

The two continued to talk like this for a bit before going to see the others.

And he was pleasantly surprised at a new arrival.

"Blaze?!" Sonic asked when he saw the cat walk into the room.

"Sonic?! You're alive?!" Blaze asked, equally surprised.

"Yeah, long story short, time travel." Sonic explained.

"Oh… well, that's different from my theory by a long shot…" Blaze said.

"And that was?"

"Truth be told, I thought you traveled to my dimension." Blaze explained. "I spent a good bit of time with Marine island hopping, hoping to find you and Eggman."

"Yeah, I can see why you would think that." Sonic said. "Sorry to make you go through all of that effort, only for me to not end up being there."

"It's not a problem. I was happy to at least help." Blaze said.

"So, other than looking for me, what else have you been up to?" Sonic asked.

"Mostly the same stuff. Keeping the peace, guarding the Sol Emeralds, the usual." Blaze explained.

"That's right, you still had Eggman Nega to deal with, didn't you?" Sonic asked.

"Yeah, thankfully he never tried to come here though." Blaze said.

"That's good. Well, I should let you go see Cream, she'd probably be really happy to see you." Sonic said.

"Of course, we will talk more later." Blaze said before walking off.

Sonic then went to chat with some more friends, eventually making his way over to Tangle.

"So, Tails told me about this time that you were in a space amusement park…" Tangle said. "Did you really talk to a dead robot?"

"Uh… yeah… not my greatest moment…" Sonic groaned out.

"Don't worry about it, we all have days like that." Tangle said with a playful nudge.

"Where's Skye by the way?" Sonic asked.

"He's in the back playing with Cheese and Chacola." Tangle responded.

"That's good. Surprised that those two didn't really change at all…" Sonic said.

"Chao Reincarnation I think Cream said it was? She takes really good care of them, so they do it a lot she said." Tangle explained. "I have no idea what any of that means to be honest."

"Yeah, should of figured that much." Sonic said.

"Now, don't you forget your promise!" Tangle said. "Right when we get home and put Skye to bed, you're talking to us!"

"Yeah yeah, I know." Sonic said.

Then, they heard a scream.

"What was that?!" Jewel asked.

"Sounds like it came from… oh no." Tails said before he and Tangle rushed to the back yard, with Sonic close behind them.

It's been years since they had a real threat to deal with.

This was the one occasion that they would let their guard down.

And they were already regretting it.

Cause standing in front of them was Eggman, piloting a giant mech. And inside the mech's chest, was Skye.

End of Chapter 11

So, Eggman's here now, and he has Skye… ruh roh.

This is it folks! The final battle is about to begin! It's everyone vs Eggman!

This chapter is actually special to me, as it is is officially the last chapter I had to finish writing! Yup! I am all done!… Yeah, I go out of order sometimes.

Anyways, about this chapter. It really was less about Cream and more about the party. We already found out about her being a florist during the Skye minichapter, so all that really needed to be said was that she moved out. I can't imagine her living too far away from her mother though, so I included that little gag at the beginning.

We did get to catch up with Blaze though! I didn't really have too much with her planned, in fact her addition was a last minute thing I made a couple of days ago, so I didn't want to make a whole chapter for her… nor would I know how to do so, so I put her here. It made the most sense to have her be at Cream's birthday, considering the friendship they made during Sonic Rush.

I also wanted to have Jewel here for a bit, so I figured a small reunion with them was in order.

In case you're wondering about Vanilla, I like to imagine that Sonic was gonna talk to her, but didn't get the chance before Eggman came into the picture.

Not really much left to say, so I will see you tomorrow for the grand finale: Sonic and Eggman