See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer
Chapter 13: The School of Hard Knocks (Ten years later)
It was a partly sunny day on Mobius; Sonic was awoken that morning by not only his alarm clock but by the sound of loud crying, he got up from his bed and walked downstairs to the kitchen. He pulled out a baby bottle from the cabinet and filled it with milk before placing it into a pot of water, and placed it on the stove. Once the water was boiling, Sonic pulled the bottle out of the pot and tested the temperature on his arm.
Once he was sure it was warm enough, Sonic walked back upstairs into another room with a door decorated in blue flowers; inside the room was a changing table, a playpen full of toys and a crib with a moon and stars mobile. Inside the crib was a male baby hedgehog with light blue fur and a sprout of magenta colored hair on his head, "It's okay, SJ. Daddy's here and he's got your breakfast", said Sonic as he gave the baby hedgehog the bottle of milk.
And yes, that's right, Sonic and Amy had another child, another boy named SJ (short for Sonic Jr.); Amy had gotten pregnant a month ago and gave birth two weeks after the twins tenth birthday, and even though she thought it was cliche, she agreed to let Sonic name their second son after himself.
There was one thing they agreed on: three kids was enough for them, so Sonic went and got a vasectomy so he and Amy wouldn't accidentally have anymore children; the others did ask if he was serious and he surprised them when he explained that he was already a stay-at-home Dad, it was already too much taking care of the twins while Amy worked at an advertising firm, so now that they had another baby, they decided that three was enough.
Also, Sonic explained that in spite of his surgery, he donated his sperm cells beforehand so if Amy did decide she wanted another baby after theirs grew up, then she could, and if not, then at least another couple who couldn't have children would have the opportunity to do so.
Anyway, after giving SJ his bottle of milk, Sonic walked over to the twins' room; he knocked on the door three times, "Kids! Wake up! It's time for school, and don't forget, your Show and Tell project is due today", he called out. Sonic waited a second before the door opened and the twins walked out holding their toothbrushes, the two of them raced to the bathroom. Speedy and Turbo were eleven years old and in the fifth grade, and that morning they had a Show and Tell project to due for their class; as the two grew, they developed a competitive rivalry between them and it was based on who was fastest.
Yes, it was pretty funny and ridiculous that the children of Sonic the Hedgehog would compete over who was the fastest but it was true; the twins never accepted when either Maria or Finn or Ruby-Emerald told them that they were just as fast if not faster than their father, and they'd always have races to see who's faster. But it was all in good fun because at the end of the day they loved each other and would always stick together like siblings do.
The twins walked downstairs where Amy was making breakfast, just then there was a knock at the door; Amy opened it and saw Silver standing outside, "Good morning, Silver", she said. "Morning, Amy. I'm here to take SJ for the morning like we arranged", he said. You see, Speedy and Turbo's Show and Tell project was for their Dad to change into his werehog form and come to class while the twins them the story of how he saved the planet from Eggman and Dark Gaia, so Silver agreed to watch SJ until they were done presenting their project and Sonic would leave.
Silver walked over to the bouncy swing in the living room and picked up the baby hedgehog, placing him in his stroller and grabbing his baby bag. "Now remember Silver: use the organic baby powder when you change SJ's diaper, and he likes apple/carrot mush. Oh and—"
"Amy, my daughter was once a baby too, you know. Also, it's only for the morning. I promise he'll be fine, we'll see you later. Say bye to Mommy, SJ", said Silver. SJ looked up at Amy and muttered his incoherent baby babbling before he and Silver left the house.
Meanwhile on Angel Island, Ruby-Emerald, who was also eleven years old, was carefully placing something onto a wagon as Rouge was getting ready for work. "Hey there kiddo, ready to show off your Show and Tell project?", asked Knuckles. Ruby smiled as she patted something on the wagon hidden under a white tablecloth, "Yup! My project is coolest ever, Daddy", she said. Suddenly, Shadow appeared with Maria, who was thirteen, in a flash of light. "I'm here to pick up Rouge and Ruby", said Shadow.
Since Rouge worked at the same place he did and Maria and Ruby went to the same school, Shadow resolved to Chaos Control over to Angel Island and pick them up to save time; Knuckles said goodbye to his wife and daughter before they vanished. When they reappeared, they were right outside the schoolyard; the school was called "Sunset Heights Academy for Youngsters", it was a school for both Human and Mobian children.
It's important to know this because back in the old days, when Humans and Mobians still had biased prejudice against each other, the schools were separated based on the two races, but after a few years and a couple of laws were passed, the schools were merged; "Sunset Heights Academy for Youngsters" was one of these schools, it was a five story building that accommodated grades from Kindergarten to Twelfth Grade.
Maria and Ruby arrived just in time to run into Finn, Sonic and the twins, and to say hello before heading off to their respective classrooms; they all raced to class just as the bell rang signifying the start of the day.
"And that is the story of how our Dad teamed up with Light Gaia, defeated Dr. Eggman and Dark Gaia, and saved the world", said Speedy as he and his sister concluded their presentation.
The whole time, Sonic sat next to them in his werehog, listening as his kids regaled their classmates with the tale of one of his many adventures in saving the world; at the same time, all the other kids looked at Sonic with a mix of wonder and curiosity rather than fear, which made him question why he had to be on a leash, but the teacher, a pudgy middle aged female magpie, explained that despite knowing who he is, she was still concerned for her students' safety.
"Thank you, Speedy and Turbo, for that very interesting story about your father's adventure to put our planet back together. Now class, do any of you have any questions for Mr. Hedgehog or your classmates?", said the teacher. A little raccoon girl raised her hand, "Mr. Sonic, did it hurt you when you first transformed?", she asked. Sonic smiled, "Well at first, it was a little painful. I mean, it felt like my bones were being twisted and reshaped like a piece of bread dough, but after I got used to this power it stopped hurting. Now it feels very natural", he said.
Then a little badger boy raised his hand, "Mr. Sonic, do you miss your friend Light Gaia?", he asked. Sonic smiled solemnly, "Well, at first I called him "Chip" because he didn't remember who he was and he really seemed to like chocolate ice cream, so I gave him that name. In answer to your question: I do miss him, I know that since he lives within the planet and only wakes up every 10,000 years it means I'll never get to see him again, but I'll never forget the good times we had and even if I can't see him, I know he's still with me whenever I go", he said.
One more child, a shrew girl with pink glasses, raised her hand. "Um...Mr. Sonic...can I...can I...pet your fur?", she asked nervously. Sonic let out a small laugh, "Don't be so scared, kiddo, I'm still the same cool guy under all this rugged fur. You can pet my fur if you want", he said. The little shrew slowly walked up and patted the rough fur on his forearm before she said thank you and sat back down.
"Now then, Speedy and Turbo, please take your seats. We have one more presentation before lunch period. And thank you Mr. Hedgehog for taking the time to come to our class today", said the teacher. Sonic smiled as he changed back to his normal form, "No prob, teach. Kids, I'll be back to get you at 3:00. I gotta go get your brother from Silver, see ya", he said before zooming out of the school building and down the street.
"Alright now onto our last presentation: Ms. Echidna/Bat, would you please step forward and present your Show and Tell project", said the teacher. Ruby-Emerald nervously stepped to the front of the class pulling her wagon. At the front of the classroom, she pulled the tarp off the wagon to reveal a large white egg sitting in a bed of grass, "For my Show and Tell project, I brought the Chao egg that my Dad gave to me as a birthday present. But there's more to it than just my soon-to-be new pet, my Dad wants to train me for when I take over guarding the Master Emerald some day.
"If I do a good job guarding over my Chao egg, then I'll be a great guardian of the Master Emerald and I can't wait to guard when I'm a grown up. My Dad is a respected hero because of his duty to guard the emerald, something our ancestors have done for generations. Now, anybody have any questions for me?", she said.
A beaver girl with braces raised her hand, "Where did your Dad find the Chao egg?", she asked. "On Angel Island, that floating island in the sky where me and parents live, there's a Chao garden deep within the forest. My Dad went looking through the forest for a present for me and he found the egg at the base of a tree. The Chao in the garden let him have the egg and he gave it to me for my tenth birthday", said Ruby.
Then a rather sour faced mouse boy raised his hand, "So when you grow up, you plan on spending your life freeloading on a floating island, looking after some giant green rock while the rest of us down on the surface make a real living?!", he asked rather rudely. "Now Thomas, that's not a very nice thing to say. Ruby-Emerald's father has done many good things in the past for everyone on this planet; you're too young to remember but Dr. Eggman had once stole that emerald which caused Angel Island to fall into the ocean and flood the city of Station Square, and if it wasn't for the efforts of Mr. Echidna and his friends, many innocent people would've lost their lives. Please be respectful with your questions next time", said the teacher.
Soon the bell for lunch rang and everyone filed out and walked towards the lunchroom, Ruby decided to pull her wagon holding her Chao egg with her so she could keep a better eye on it but what she didn't notice was the mouse boy, Thomas, staring at her with a look of contempt.
You see, Thomas' parents are quite rich and well known, with his mother being a famous fashion designer and his father being the CEO of a major technology company called Flotech; both of his parents have made great advances in the fields of technology and fashion, and Thomas thought he'd instantly become popular in school if he bragged about his rich and famous parents. It worked for a while as half the class was jealous of his wealth while the other half thought he was cool, but that all changed when Speedy, Turbo, Ruby-Emerald and Finn were brought to school by their parents. Upon finding out they were the very children of famous heroes, they became the talk of the class, even though they were very humble about it and didn't really like all the attention.
And it's the kids' modesty that made Thomas so angry with them because he misinterpreted that modesty as them loving the attention and soaking it up, basically rubbing their parents' fame in his face, but out of the four of them, Thomas hated Ruby the most. Why? It was because she lived on a floating island devoid of anything industrial, and where Ruby and her parents basically live like "hippies" getting what they need from the forest. Thomas believed that because Ruby and her family chose to live in a place devoid of technology was an insult to his father who was famous for starting a company that has made many technological breakthroughs.
In reality, Ruby doesn't live entirely without the influence of technology; in the cottage she and Rouge sleep in, the only basic forms of tech they have is a bathroom with indoor plumbing, a flat top griddle in the kitchen and a flat screen tv in the living room. And Rouge is really the only one who uses the tv to watch her favorite shows or the news, the only time Ruby ever used the tv was to watch nature documentaries, every other time she'd spent the day playing in the forest.
Ruby-Emerald sat next to her Chao egg, nuzzling it lovingly with her snout just as she was suddenly approached by Thomas; he stared down at her with a look of contempt, which actually started to scare her. "Um...can I help you with something?", she asked. Thomas sneered as he lunged forward and grabbed her Chao egg, "Hey! Gimme back my Chao egg!", Ruby shouted but Thomas held the egg high above his head while holding her back with his foot. "No! Not until you apologize!", he shouted.
Now Ruby was confused, "Apologize? For what? What did I do? I don't even know you!", she said. This made Thomas angrier, "Exactly! It's because of you and your stupid friends' parents that nobody knows about me, my parents are famous icons of the technology and fashion industry, yet all anyone can talk about is your parents saving the world and maybe the universe. Who cares! And yet, you all act so modest as if you think you're better than me, better than the rest of us!
"Especially you! You plan on spending your life dawdling around on some floating island, protecting some stupid magic rock while the rest of us down here have to stress ourselves out working real jobs. You've got no business thinking you're better than me when your family are nothing but hobos!", he spouted. Now Ruby was getting angry, "Hey! Maybe you need to apologize to me and my friends! It's not our fault our parents are more famous than your parents, we weren't even around when they went on all their adventures, but that doesn't mean you can just insult us and our way of life! If it wasn't for our parents, your parents probably wouldn't even be alive and that means neither would you be. They do an important job so be respectful and grateful!", she said.
Thomas growled angrily, "Respectful and grateful?! You wanna what think of respect? You wanna know what I think?!", he shouted as he threw the Chao egg and it was smashed to pieces on the blacktop. The sound caught the attention of the other kids, who were spectating another race Speedy and Turbo were having, and they rushed over to see what was going on. Ruby's eyes widened as she fell to her knees and stared at splattered mess of egg yolk and shell pieces.
Everything went dark and quiet around her, her heart was racing, there was a sharp ringing in her ears and her breath hitched; Ruby suddenly felt a burning, intense sense of rage as a sudden jolt of energy swarmed through her body.
Back on Angel Island, Knuckles was leaning against the Master Emerald taking a small nap when he suddenly shot awake after feeling a burst of dark energy shoot up his spine; a bright light caught his attention and he turned around to see the Master Emerald was glowing a rather fierce light. "Master Emerald, what's happening? What is this...angry energy I'm feeling radiating from you?", he asked. Knuckles looked into the surface of the Master Emerald as it displayed an image for him to see, and when he saw it, his stomach dropped.
Back on the school playground, Ruby's body began glowing brightly as she trembled; the other children backed away slowly out of fear, Thomas especially, but her friends tried to approach her to see what was wrong. Suddenly a burst of energy erupted from Ruby as her fur changed from pink to dark magenta, her hands were balled up into tight fists, her wings were fully extended and when she lifted her head up, her eyes had turned red.
Everyone backed away fearfully as Ruby turned her gaze towards Thomas, she then flew towards him and punched him square in the face sending him flying through the air and into the swing set; Ruby then started stalking over to him but was blocked by Speedy and Turbo, "Ruby, no! Don't beat up Thomas!", pleaded Speedy. "Yeah, I mean he did break your Chao egg but you can't beat him up! He's just a bully, he's not worth it and if you beat him up, you'll be no better than him!", said Turbo.
Ruby stopped and looked at the twins in frightened confusion, she was almost considering what they said...until Thomas stood up holding his face, picked up a rock and threw it at Ruby. It flew over the twins and smacked harshly against Ruby's forehead, cutting it slightly and causing her to bleed; Ruby growled angrily as she pushed Speedy and Turbo out of the way and flew towards Thomas, she grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and started tossing him around like a rag doll.
"Finn, stop her! Before she does something bad!", shouted Turbo. Finn ran towards Ruby and used his illusion power to trapped her inside a red cube; Ruby screamed as she pounded against the sides of the cube, trying to escape but because he had been practicing, Finn's powers were much stronger than when he was a baby and he had more control over them. Ruby continued to try to escape, but soon her energy was spent and she slowly slid down to the floor of the cube, breathing heavily.
An hour later, Rouge was sitting outside of the principal's office along with Thomas' parents; Ruby and Thomas themselves were in the nurse's office because the former had lost consciousness after she had calmed down and the former had a concussion as well as several bruises. The school secretary called them into the room, inside said room stood Sonic and his kids as well as Infinite and his son, "Now then, I've spoken with the children of Mr. Hedgehog and Mr. Jackal. Mr. and Mrs. Mouser, they've informed me that your son was actively antagonizing Mrs. Bat's daughter and then proceeded to vandalize her property by destroying a Chao egg she had brought to school for her Show and Tell project.
"Mrs. Bat, your daughter had then...what I can best describe as...flew into a fit of rage and attacked Thomas. Both of your children have broken several school rules, and we cannot let that slide, but given the circumstances, my final decision on the matter is this: Mrs. Bat, since this is the first time your daughter has broken the rules, her punishment will be one week suspension and one week of detention; Mr. and Mrs. Mouser, this is not the first time your son has been a troublemaker but this time he went too far and so his punishment will be two weeks of suspension and three months of detention. There's no getting around it and I can't stress this enough: if Thomas does something like this one more time, he will be expelled. That is all, you may go", said the principal.
Rouge and Thomas' parents walked over to the nurse's office to collect their children, Thomas walked towards his mother and father while holding an ice pack to his face; his parents looked at him with a mixture of disappointment and concern, they couldn't understand why there son, whom they'd always make the time to be with and whom they loved, would turn out to be such a bully. As they walked away, Rouge walked over to Ruby, who looked up at her mother with a river of tears cascading from her eyes. "Oh baby...it's okay, Mommy's here", Rouge said as she gently picked Ruby up and held her close to body as the young echidna/bat sobbed.
Rouge appeared back home with Ruby after Shadow teleported her there on his way home, as she walked towards her cottage, Knuckles immediately ran towards them. Ruby turned to look at her father, and began crying even harder; she jumped out of Rouge's arms and grabbed Knuckles by the waist, "I'm sorry, Daddy! I'm sorry, I couldn't protect my egg! And then I attacked him...I was so angry! I'm sorry, Daddy!", she sobbed.
Knuckles told Ruby to go to her room while he spoke with Rouge, she explained what happened, that Thomas had smashed her Chao egg and how she flew into a super powered fit of rage and attacked him, before Finn stopped her. Knuckles now realized why the Master Emerald was glowing earlier, "It seems that Ruby has chaos powers now, too. And their tied to the Master Emerald, that's why it's was glowing before; it must've been reacting to her emotions, but then it stopped after she calmed down", he said. Rouge looked towards the cottage in concern, "The poor dear is so scared, and she seems to think the whole thing is her fault. We should go talk to her", she said.
The two of them walked into the cottage and headed towards Ruby's room, where they saw her lying sadly in her bed hugging her pillow; Knuckles and Rouge sat the foot of her bed, looking at her with sadness and concern. "Aww, sweetie its okay. You didn't do anything wrong, it was all that Thomas boy's fault. He shouldn't have been picking on you nor should he have smashed your Chao egg. And as for you attacking him, don't worry about it, you had no control over that. You've got special powers and you just don't how to control them yet, your Daddy can help you get better", said Rouge.
Ruby looked up at her parents and crawled over to them, resting her head on Rouge's lap while Knuckles gently rubbed her head. "Mommy...Daddy...do you still love me?", she asked. Rouge and Knuckles were taken aback, "Ruby, sweetie, of course we still love you. Your mother and I will never stop loving you, no matter what you do. Even after today, your mother and I still love you and we promise to always be there to help you and keep you safe, and if something like this happens again, we'll take care of it", said Knuckles.
Ruby sighed as Knuckles continued to rub her head until she was lulled into a peaceful slumber, Rouge and Knuckles tucked her into bed, giving her a kiss on the forehead before walking out of the room.
Author's Note: That ends for Chapter 13, and now its seems Ruby-Emerald has a dark form of her own but it'll take time for her to learn to control these chaos powers. Next time, a mysterious being observes our heroes and starts moving to conduct some sort of plan, part of which involves trepassing on another dimension. Who is it? What's their plan? Find out next time in Chapter 14; until then, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out!