Party dudes
It was a sunny day, and no cloud on the sky was to be seen. Peaceful, I should say. Knuckles and Tails were hanging out near Mako Island on the boat that the echidna owned.
The fox was reading a book about mithical sea creatures, memorizing every single word. Knuckles was relaxing, laying on his back in the bright sun until... .
'Riingg!'
"Knuckles, answer the phone." Tails said, not even bothering to look away from his book.
The echidna grunted disturbed and took off his sun glasses. He picked up the phone and stood up.
"Hello?" he asked. "Yeah, just a second. It's for you." Knuckles said and stretched his arm above the water, holding the phone. Something, or better someone, grabbed the edge of the boat and and grabbed the mobile.
Silver. He came there for a swim earlier that day and Tails and Knuckles were there to keep him company. Shadow was busy that morning and Sonic was still trying to get accustomed to the whole thing, so Silver didn't really had anyone else to hang around with.
"Hello?"
"So did you decided what time for the party tonight?" Sonic asked from the other side.
"I don't know..."
"But Silver! This is a tradition we're talking about!" the blue hedgehog lectured.
"Yeah, but, I just don't know how I am supposed to hold the party this year." Silver answered. "Not with the... recent developments..."
"Well lookie here, I get a new job, and you can't host a simple party?"
"Your new job?"
Knuckles looked at Silver surprised.
"The dolphin tank at the Marine Park?"
Tails dropped the book, shocked.
"Yes Silver, of course the tank is full of water, their dolphins. And yes, I remember what water does to me, but I'm not going to let that run my life." Sonic explained.
He was on his first day at the job and he really didn't want to screw up. The conversation with Silver was interrupted when his boss entered the room and with a gentle 'Sonic!', the blue hedgehog knew that it was time for his first assignment.
Her name was, coincidentally, Marine. She had big sky blue eyes and two brown pony tails, tied up with golden hair bands. (A. N. I guess that's what they are...Correct me if I am wrong.) She wore a green sleeveless top, black leggings and lime green shoes.
"Look, Silver, I really got to go. I'll call you later!"
Marine looked at Sonic while he was putting on rubber gloves and a bathing cap.
"Are you alright Sonic?" she asked a bit worried.
"Yup! Ready when you are!" came the prompt answer.
Marine nodded and Sonic followed her with the fish buckets in his hands.
Now, back to our other friends.
"He can be so stubborn sometimes." Silver sighted and handed the phone back to Knuckles.Tails picked up the book and Silver stretched to see more.
"Do you really think that is going to help?"
"Well yeah, I've learned a lot from this book." Tails answered. "First, not only hedgehogs can have fish tails, but also other species. If we had to generalize, we would call them mermobians. But the merhogs count as some of the most powerful species and plus, you look way cooler than them, and they don't have awesome water powers! But, still no answer of why you became merehogs in the first place."
Silver looked at the island behind him.
"Then that means there is only one place where we can find answers."
"Mako Island?" Knuckles asked a bit confused.
"I bet that's where it happened. If there is a place where we can get some information about why we became merhogs, it's there."
"Well then, we'll just go there and..." Knuckles cheerfully said but was quickly interrupted.
"No, I'm going there alone."
"Are you sure that is a good i..." Tails tried to say, but Silver made a back flip and dived back into the water, splashing both Tails and Knuckles.
"... dea." the kitsune sighted.
Silver was now headed for the underwater entrance that he, Sonic and Shadow used to get out of the moon pool cave. He was thinking of all the things that could've possibly changed them and by the time he reached the entrance, none of his ideas were plausible. Suddenly, he stopped. The light from something shiny cought his eyes.
From there, it looked like a piece of blue glass. He swam closer. Silver was a bit surprised to see that it was anything but a piece of glass. It was a locket with silver fiber rope and a perfectly polished blue gem on the top. There was no photo inside it, just some sand, and due to the fact that it was half buried, it must have been there for a pretty long time. Pretty odd for something like this to make its way here.
Silver also had other questions, but since there was nobody to answer them, he shaked them away and swam at the surface of the moon pool with the locket in his hands.
That day, the Marine Park was hosting a public dolphin show. The crowds were hyped, clapping their hands at every single back flip. So Sonic was going to have a pretty busy first day. He had to get a couple of fish buckets to prepare for three different dolphin trainers,which unfortunately, were right next to the big basin.
He peeked through the door at the dolphins and at the water they were splashing everywhere. Sonic took a deep breath and clenched his fists around the bucket handles.
'I mean, all I have to do is go and leave the buckets there. I'll be fast and everything will be fine.'
He stepped outside and he quickly placed the fish buckets on the ground next to the first dolphin trainer that he knew requested them and left as fast as he could.
'Welp, I did it! That wasn't so bad. One done, two to go.'
He started to place the fish in the water with a, but one wrong move and the water splashed his arms and face! Sonic instinctively backed off but it was to late for that now. He grabbed the nearest towel, only to find out it was completely soaked. Panicked, he looked around for anything he could use to get dry but a few seconds later he found himself with a towel in his arms.
"Try this!" someone said.
Sonic looked in the direction the voice was coming from while drying out the water on his face. It was a peach colored echidna, about fifty years old. Her eyes were deep blue and the large smile on her face evidenced her weird accessories, like the big blue bracelets around her wrists and the golden plated indian crown on her forehead. Her clothes were basic and white and warped around some of her dreadlocks she wore white felt ribbons like in the ancient tribes.
"Yeah... Thanks." Sonic said, still looking at the echidna. "I... I just had salt water in my eyes."
"It does sting, doesn't it?" she responded. "But not when you are actually under it!"
Sonic just stared at her confused while she gave him another smile. The door suddenly opened looked around.
"Sonic, hurry up, we need you!"
Sonic looked at her and then at the spot the echidna was. She was gone.
At house
"Looks like a normal necklace to me!" Tails stated and handed back the locket to Silver.
"What ever was in there it's long lost. But I found it at the bottom of the moon pool! It's got to be important."
"Why don't you find some sports tape to match it?" Shadow sarcastically asked.
"I'm trying to find some answers here!" Silver argued.
"Settle down, guys!" Tails intervened. "It still doesn't explain why you guys became merehogs."
"See!"
"But, I think I am just about to find out wich liquids won't turn you into fish!"
The kitsune started to pull out bottles with spray lids containing different substances. When Shadow wasn't looking, he sprayed his arm with one of them. The ebony hedgehog shot him with a surprised glare and immediately made a grimaced, disgusted.
"Ugh, what is this stuff?!" Shadow asked intrigued.
Tails ignored him and looked at his wrist watch.
"Six, five, four, three, two, one!"
All three of them exchanged glares, but nothing changed. Tails smiled, grabbed a notebook and started writing.
"Alright... So mostly vegetable oil... No change. Interesting."
This continued on for a longer time. Tails was spraying random things on Shadow's arm like dishwasher and honey, wich Tails insisted it must be a liquid, even though he earned a free death glare from Shadow. He's a good guy.
But since it was so incredibly pathetic in Shadow's point of view, a half of hour later, he borrowed a book from Silver and started reading. The ivory hedgehog on the other hand, was talking to someone on the phone.
"Yes. Thanks mom, love you!"
"Is it about the party again?" Tails asked.
"What?" Shadow jumped.
"Well... Every year, my mom throws this party for me. Only that this year it's not happening." Silver explained. "There are going to be a lot of people, and I don't want drinks spilling and tails appearing. It's usually a party for the members of the swim team, but because I'm not part of it anymore, I can invite some others too."
"And when was this party supposed to be?"
"Tonight."
"Perfect!" Shadow said.
"Why would it be?" Silver asked.
"I hate parties."Shadow confessed with a sadistic smile.
"It's a slumber party, not any party. " Tails clarified.
Without warning, Tails used another one of his sprays, this time on both hedgehogs.
"Tails!" Silver exclaimed and alertly dried up whatever was on his leg.
Instead, Shadow made a pause and looked at his ivory friend.
"So a slumber party ai? That could be ok-ish. We could..."
Without managing to finish his last sentence, Shadow was ingulfed by sparkles and he transformed into his merhog form. He blinked a couple times surprised and looked at his tail.
Tails frowned and wrote in his notebook.
"That had 32% water content."
"You ok, Shad?" Silver asked, trying not to laugh.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks Tails." Shadow smiled, but Tails earned his second death glare for the day.
It was three o' clock, and it was the end of Sonic first day of work. He still had a tone of question marks about the incident with the peach echidna tough and he was planning on discussing that with his friends, but when he exited the park someone covered his eyes from behind.
"Guess who!" a sweet voice said.
"Amy?" Sonic laughed.
Amy giggled and took her hands off Sonic's eyes. She shuffled to the side and smiled sweetly.
"Hiii!"
"Amy, what are you doing here?" Sonic said.
"Well, I passed by your house this morning, and I thought I'd drop in and say hi! But then you mother told me that you got a new job at the Marine Park, so I came here to congratulate you!"
"Well, thanks!"
"But I was a bit surprised when I found out that you choose the Marine Park to get a job from all places. So, maybe you wouldn't mind explaining?" Amy asked.
"Well... About that... There is something that happened today, a little incident..."
Amy's eyes widened.
"You mean you got wet!?" she shrieked, but then she realized that she said that out loud and everyone around was looking at them weirdly.
"Sorry..." she whispered. "What happened?"
"Look, it was just a drop, but then this woman appeared out of nowhere!"
"What woman?"
"She was an echidna." Sonic sighted. "And she knows something. I don't know how, but she knew it was dangerous for me to get wet."
"Are going to talk about this with Silver and Shadow?" Amy asked.
"I'll have to... Eventually."
At Marble Café
"It was just a drop! I wiped it straight off, nothing happened! I took precautions."
After Sonic told Silver and Shadow what happened, all hell broke loose with Silver.
"I told you that we should've discussed this further!" Silver said harshly.
"I can do this job!" Sonic argued. "I'm not going to be scared of every single drop I see! And what would discussing prove? That you're scared of hosting your own party?"
"As crazy as this sounds, I agree with Sonic." Shadow raised his finger. "Just this once."
Silver stared at Sonic and Shadow for a few moments, than growled in defeat and buried his face into his hands. It was then when Sonic noticed the locket Silver was wearing.
"Hey, where'd you get that?" Sonic asked.
Silver raised his head and then looked down at his locket.
"The moon pool... On Mako Island."
"It looks really cool."
Silver bit his bottom lip and stared down at his phone. His mom was just a touch away. He's made up his mind.
"Hi mom! You should start texting the invitations for the party. Yes, all the people on the list... Plus Shadow." Silver smiled playfully to Shadow and hung up. "Sonic's right. I should have the party after all."
Shadow was still giving Silver the 'I'm gonna kill you later' look.
A plater of drinks was placed in front of them. Rouge.
"Three frozen cokes." She smiled.
"What for?" Shadow asked while Sonic grabbed on of them.
"Well you look thirsty." Rouge said and she sat down next to Matt.
Sonic took a sip and as immediately as Sonic choked, the duo started laughing.
"Prune juice?" Silver asked, not at all surprised.
"Prune juice." Sonic confirmed.
"Real mature Rouge, real mature." Shadow commented.
Suddenly, phones started beeping around the café.
"Silver's slumber party is on!"
Everyone that got an invitation was excited. Not Rouge and Matt though.
"So it's on." Rouge stated.
"I didn't want to go to that stupid party anyway." Matt crossed his arms.
"Come on! Who needs an invitation?"
In the evening
"Are you sure that alfalfa juice and cucumber smoothie is really what you want to go with?"
Sonic was helping Silver with the party because he was more of a close friend to Silver than others so he wasn't really a guest. Besides, Sonic insisted that it would be much faster if he would help. The room was filled with pillows, bean bags and snacks. The atmosphere was casual, it just needed the guests to add a little bit of spice.
"Why is that?" Silver asked Sonic while placing some more pillows.
"Well I thought that now you've quit the swimming team, you could try something new!" Sonic said.
"Like what?"
"Sugar?"
"Yeah, sure! Let's just have chocolate milk cream with marshmallows. And you know I only like chocolate soy milk! But... Are you sure people are going to go for these?" Silver said, showing one of the many bottles on the table.
"Yeah, sure, people are gonna love 'em!" Sonic smiled grabbing one of them. "Individual bottles. Any spillage? Contained!"
"And what about the towels?" the ivory hedgehog asked.
Sonic shrugged.
"Just say your mom was doing the washing."
Right then, Silver's mother, Elizabeth, came into seeing, and took a glance at the room. She placed her hands together.
"The room looks great!" she congratulate. "Don't worry, I'm not going to stick around. There's sushi for starters and soy and tofu burgers for mains, and Silver, you might want to think about putting away those towels."
"Thanks mom!" Silver smiled when the doorbell rang.
"I'll make myself scares, have fun!" Elizabeth said and left.
Silver ran to the door and opened it.
"Hey guys! Right on time, come in!"
Everyone entered the house greeting Silver. Among them were also Tails, Knuckles and Shadow. Once everyone got comfortable and started chatting, Silver grabbed a plater with fruits and walked to some of his old friends from the swimming team, Tyler and Andy.
Tyler was an lime green hedgehog with purple eyes and Andy was yellow cat with oak green eyes.
"Grapes anyone?"
"Oh, your mom still serves healthy food?" Tyler asked.
Silver shrugged.
"I may not be on the swim team anymore but I still eat properly."
"I'm always lagging in the morning and I have to be up at five for training." Andy complained. "So is Mark, so is Jason..."
"Don't worry, I've set up a quiet room upstairs for anyone who has to crash early."
"That's our Silver!" Tyler said. "We so miss you on the swim team!"
"I still swim.. Occasionally."
"And these are so awesome." Andy smiled, grabbing one of the juice bottles.
A little later, everyone was playing board games or reading. Shadow was looking at them sceptically.
"What have you done to me." Shadow whispered menacingly.
"Come on, it's not that bad!" Silver said.
With absolute perfect timing, the doorbell rang again and the door opened revealing Rouge and Matt. The fox had his arms crossed.
"You were saying?"Shadow mumbled to Silver.
"I don't know what number you sent my invitation to, but it managed to lost."
"So how about joining in?" Shadow said sarcastically.
Silver, instead, slightly hit Shadow with his elbow and put on a fake smile.
"Glad you could make it."
Silver's mom was just walking down the stairs when she saw Rouge.
"Rouge! Fancy seeing you here! It's been so long! And Matthew! I haven't seen you in ages!" she said hugging him.
Shadow huffed.
"I can't stand these two." He looked at Silver. "Wanna kick them out?"
"No." Silver sighted. "I don't want to make a scene in front of my mom."
They walked closer to the trio and Rouge saw Silver.
"Your mom had invited us to stay with!" she said grinning.
"I hope there's enough food."
"Well they must have thought the same thing, because, they've brought contributions." Elizabeth stated.
Rouge showed them a plater.
"Pastries. They're fresh!"
Silver gritted his teeth in a smile, though he felt like a vein was popping in his head, causing his eye to twitch.
"Mom, can we have a word please?"
"Sure!"
Silver grabbed his mother's hand and dragged her into the hallway.
"Mom! They weren't invited!" Silver said with gritted teeth.
"But their here now!"
"And you asked them to stay!"
"Look." Elizabeth tried to calm down her son. "I know you and Rouge aren't as close as you used to be, but she is still a family friend! She's a lovely young girl. Now, I have to go, have fun darling!"
Silver was left totally surprised. He thought that maybe his mom was going to stay on his side but... Nope.
"Hey, we should play Truth and Dare!" somebody said.
Everyone agreed, except for Shadow, wich just stranded in a corner of the room with his arms crossed.
"This is going to be a parallel universe." he murmured.
After the game, wich Shadow didn't participate to, Andy said:
"Hey Silver! Why don't you show us your necklace?"
Silver smiled and took the locket off so everyone could see it. He received a lot of compliments like 'it's so cool!' or 'I wish I could have one!' but Silver noticed that Rouge was giving him an very weird look. To be fair, she was kinda scaring him.
He swallowed and stood up.
" I'm... Going to get some more pillows."
He placed the locket on the table went up stairs in a hurry. There were a few moments of awkward silence in the room when someone yelled:
"Towel fight!"
Almost everyone grabbed one of the towels that were in the and started swinging them around. Shadow puffed and walked into the hallway, so he would stay out of that mess.
Rouge observed very carefully the locket from a distance. She simply shoved Matt with her elbow. Yet he did not show her any attention. He was to busy with his phone. Rouge glanced at the locket once more and bit her lip.
'I don't need help anyway.' she said to herself.
While all this was happening, Sonic noticed that Tyler was struggling with a juice container that was on the snack table. He walked over to him.
"What's the problem?" he asked.
"It's just about empty..." Tyler answered.
"Let me help you." Sonic said, grabbing the container, pulling towards him.
"No I can manage." Tyler assured, pulling it back. Accidentally, he pressed the button, letting some juice pour on Sonic's hand. Sonic gasped and instinctively backed off.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!" Tyler apologized.
Tails noticed the situation and hurried over to him.
"Sonic..."
Sonic gave him a desperate look and Tails looked around for a towel or something. He saw a wardrobe in the corner of the room.
"The closet!" Tails shrieked.
Much to Tyler's confusing, Sonic speeded through the crowd, opened the wardrobe and slammed the door behind him.
All of the party participants, stopped fighting and some of them glanced weirdly at the wardrobe. Rouge realized that they might notice her so she got away from the table that the locket was on.
Knuckles saw Sonic speeding by and when Tails got near him, he leaned over to the kitsune.
"Did he..."
"Yes!" Tails hissed.
Andy took a few steps towards the wardrobe and knocked.
"Sonic? Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine!" a muffled answer came. "Don't worry about me!"
"Sonic? Is he ok?" Andy tried to open the door, but Knuckles jumped towards and grabbed his wrist.
"Hey!" the cat said intrigued. "Let go!"
Though it was no help, since the door opened by itself and Sonic fell face first into a bean bag, causing the guests to chuckle and Tails and Knuckles to sweat drop. Sonic was wrapped head to toe into a black sleeping bag, something Rouge found highly unusual. Sonic took his face off the bag and looked up with an awkward smirk.
"How about we get comfy and hit the DVD's, huh?"
Tyler smiled.
"I have an idea!"
He took another sleeping bag and wrapped himself up. He told the others to sling him up and down and they agreed. Sonic almost sighted in relief. He was careful to cover both his tail and his extra accessories. He didn't have enough time to take them off. Rouge's mind on the other hand, was still thinking how to get her hands on that locket.
"Hey, after all, this was Sonic's idea, why don't we give him a try?"
Sonic's eyes widened as the others agreed and started to gather around him. Tails had to intervene before they realize what's going on.
"He's heavier than he looks! You can risk of severe spinal injury!"
"Yeah! What he said!" Knuckles took Tails's part and tried to pull the crowd away from Sonic.
Nobody gave them any attention.
"I suffer from motion sickness!" Sonic tried. "And air sickness!"
"Says the one that can break the sound barrer on foot!" Somebody laughed.
Rouge smirked. Now was her chance. No one was looking at her. But Sonic, seeing that he was out of options, desperately made a sign with his hand and all the juice bottles and containers exploded, raining juice on Rouge and Matt! On Rouge, because she was close to the table, and on Matt because he was sitting near the table. They both yelled in surprise while the group of guests turned their attention to them.
Up stairs, Silver heard screaming and rushed down with a bunch of pillows floating behind him. When he got there however, they all dropped and Silver stared dumbfounded at an angry Matthew and a wet and surprised Rouge. Once he got the idea he rubbed his eyes and sighted.
"Again?"
Each of the others gave him a questioning look and Silver was forced to find an explanation.
"Every time this room gets hot and... full of people, something just 'happens' to the air pressure and 'bang!' there go the drinks!"
"These drinks. Just ruined. MY. NEW. PHONE!" Matt screamed at Silver, showing him his now mel functioning phone. "I'M GETTING OUT OF HERE!"
Matt walked, stomping, to the front door and slammed it so hard it startled everyone.
Rouge also gave him an angry look.
"Thanks for the shower, Silver!"
Silver then realized that Sonic was missing. He looked at Tails and the kitsune slightly tilted his head to the bathroom. Silver understood what happened.
'Oh no...'
Sonic was in the bathroom, drying his tail with a hair dryer. That was way closer than he would like to admit, but he was thankful for Tails and Knuckles. They were the ones that helped him get there unnoticed, though they had to return before anyone sees their gone.
A knock was heard on the door. Sonic stopped the dryer, but was relieved to hear Silver's voice.
"Sonic! It's me! Open up!"
The blue hedgehog opened the door and Silver entered with a bunch of towels.
Back in the living room, Rouge was trying to dry the make up on her face. She couldn't believe she came to this party for nothing. Well, almost nothing.
"This has to be the worst party I have ever been to!" she said angrily. "Thanks for three hours of my life I'll never get back!"
Rouge pretended to leave, but she swiftly grabbed the locket from the table and walked into the hallway. Nobody saw her do that. Or so she thought.
Before she could get to the door, Shadow blocked her way. He was so quiet all that time that everyone forgot about him.
"Give it back." he demanded.
"Give what back?"
"Don't play stupid with me! You know what I'm talking about!"
"Get out of my way!"
Rouge tried to walk past him but unfortunately, Shadow bumped intentionally into her, causing Rouge to drop the necklace. The ebony hedgehog kneeled down and pulled it up.
The bat bit her bottom lip.
"I have better things to do with my time. Ciao!"
Rouge was about to open the door when she heard Shadow behind her.
"Thief."
She giggled and smiled superiorly towards him.
"Get over it. It's your word against mine, and no one is going to believe you! Some people my even think that you took it! See ya!"
"Rouge had some nerve taking this..."
Silver, Sonic and Shadow were sitting on the ground, a little farther than the others, discussing what happened.
"Should we tell everyone?" Sonic asked.
"No. As she said, it's my word against hers." Shadow sighted.
"Hey guys!" Tails called. "Come on! We're playing Monopoly!"
"Should we join?" Silver asked.
Shadow hesitated a little.
"Well... If it's Monopoly... It can't be that bad."
Silver and Sonic smiled, happy that they finally convinced him. While Shadow was joining the game, Silver handed the locket to Sonic.
"I think this will be safe with you."
Sonic looked surprised, but he rejected.
"What? No! You found it, you...!"
"And I nearly managed to get it stolen!" Silver was a bit hesitant. "I know how much you like it and, you know what? You were right to get the job at the Marine Park. We can't just be scared of every single drop we see."
"But why give it to me?" the blue hedgehog asked.
Silver smirked. He knew the answer to this one.
"Whoever can hide a merhog tail in the middle of a party? I think it has what it takes to take care of this."
They both smiled at each other and then walked to the others to join the game.
In the morning
"Keep up the good work Sonic! Your really starting to fit in here!"
That was a compliment Sonic received from Marine that morning. He was happy that everything worked out. He was still in the job, he had the locket and nothing could possibly...
Her...
It was her. The echidna Sonic had met the other day. She was right there. Standing on a bridge, looking at the water.
Slowly, Sonic put down the buckets he was carrying and walked closer to her. He didn't wanted to scare her off, so he had to be gentle. But she noticed him all by herself, and gave one of her trademark smiles.
He was now right next to her. The smile on her face cracked at the sight of the locket Sonic was wearing.
"You found it. At the bottom of the moon pool didn't you?" she asked with a note of happiness in her voice. "On Mako Island."
"I... "
"That's where Julie-Su lost it... Thirty three years ago."
"That means that..." Sonic tried to speak, but she cut him off.
"It means that I'm fifty years old! But I don't look older than forty nine, do I?"
"That's not what I meant.."
"I know what you meant! What's your name again?"
"Sonic." that was the first complete sentence he managed to say till now.
"You've got spirit Sonic! Enjoy it! Enjoy all you can! You and your friends... Maybe, you'll be alright." She finished softly, touching the locket like it was made of glass.
She gave another smile and started to walk away.
Sonic was so surprised that he couldn't register everything until the echidna cut the corner of a building.
"Wait!"
Sonic started to run after her at full speed. When he got to the place where she was supposed to be, she was, yet again, gone.
Aaaand, done. Sorry for the slow updates, my life is kinda busy right now. I write when I can.
So you might have seen that I mentioned Julie - Su here. You might wonder if there are going to be other archie characters too. Well, no. Sorry to disappoint you, but I needed another girl echidna. Yes, Tikal is going over Mrs. Chattam and Julie - Su is over Gracie. I'll leave you to guess wich character will go over Julia.
Please review, it helps me out a lot and until next time! Take care.