A/N: Here goes the third chapter and the drama finally begins. I divided it into two segments. Hope you enjoy reading.

N/B: Age of Sonic characters who will be highlighted in the story:

Sonic: 16 years

Shadow: 17 years (Physically), 50+ actually

Silver: 15 years

Scourge: 16 years

Mephiles: 17 years (Physically), Ageless actually

Amy: 15 years

Manic: 14 years

Knuckles: 17 years

Tails: 14 years

Rouge: 18 years

Fiona: 16 years

Rosy: 15 years

Fleetway: 19 years (Fleetway is an individual character in this story)

Seelkadoom: 17 years (Sonic RPG)

Nazo: 16 years (sonic Nazo Unleashed)

Venice: 15 years (Prototype of Silver)

Infinite: 18 years (Physically)

Zonic: 17 years

Heights:

All the male hedgehogs (Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Scourge, Mephiles, Manic, Fleetway, Nazo, Venice, Seelkadoom), Metal Sonic: 3'3" ft/ 100 cm (Except Zonic)

All the female hedgehogs (Amy, Rosy, Maria): 2'11" ft /90 cm

***To compare with the protagonist, go back to the N/B of previous chapter.

Bittersweet Encounter: Part A

Sierra's P.O.V:

I was in ultimate rage. Yes, Ceska warned me but still I believed that my mother might consider to include at least one human, no matter young or old, man or woman...just a human was all I needed to stay with while being away from my people. Because, I knew from the beginning that I would not stand with any alien. My snake friend told about two Mobians, and on the final day of sorting the inter-species group, I got to know that the reality was even more uglier. Not only there would be no human, but also there were going to be FOUR aliens, yes double of Ceska's assumption. And what I heard from Zord was that, all of them were Mobian Male hedgehogs... Well, yes, I did something wrong by hurting two humans while rescuing Lindi, but mom was taking this way too far! So I did not wait to confront her as I rushed into the ministry, not caring what people would think to see me like this. But the space was very huge and I did not have any idea where my mother might be, probably she was having meeting with the officials. Yet, I kept searching while planning for how to get away from this. But I did not want to get caught. The lower floors were crowded with human officers, so I quickly went up by spinning. Then suddenly, I noticed something on the ground floor from up. By looking closely, I identified my two besties and my bodyguard. But the others...

General P.O.V:

The six Mobians and the two Liminals followed the centaur as Zord was the only one who knew where their queen would be. After walking a while, they finally reached their destination. At the doorway there was a familiar female G.U.N officer.

"Hello Topaz," Rouge said, "Is this the right place where they are?"

"Yes, everyone is waiting for you guys."

All of them entered a very big room. Inside, there were some people sitting. The Mobians could recognize the commander of G.U.N along with some high-ranked officers from both G.U.N and the government. But then something else, caught their attention...a small child like someone was at the center.

The centaur Zord finally cleared about the small person, "Your Highness, please meet the personnel from planet Mobius."

In response, the 'small' female human got off from her seat before coming to them. When she came closer, then finally the Mobians had a good view. She stood slightly smaller than the Mobians. Her face looked like a beautiful human woman of mid-thirty. She had long light brown hair with two small but edgy strands at two sides, which reminded of hedgehog quills. Besides, above her head, a pair of ears were seen which were exactly same as a hedgehog. She had greenish blue eyes and was wearing a gorgeous green dress along with a pair of fishnet gloves which indicated her royalty, but the gold tiara on her head confirmed it. She was also pretty voluptuous despite of her small stature, even more than Vanilla the rabbit who was the bustiest among the Mobian females Sonic and his friends knew. Rather than, Phelix the bird, Ceska the snake or Zord the horse, this new type liminal had the closest features like humans except for her height. She had a welcoming smile which actually impressed the Mobians.

"Welcome." She greeted. "Did your trip go well?"

"Yes, thank you for asking..." Sonic replied, "...mam.", not being sure whether his assumption was right or wrong.

"Oh...my apologies for not introducing myself. I'm the queen of the liminals, my name is Lilith Lily. I'm a hog-woman or, liminal from hedgehog species." She then looked at the female Mobian, "Are you the one who I talked over telephone?"

"Yes, mam." The bat politely replied, "I'm Rouge the bat."

"I personally thank you for cooperating us by convincing your friends."

"I'm also glad to get to know about liminals."

Lilith then noticed the only bird Mobian, "Are you Mr. Jet?"

No answer.

"Um...hello?"

Jet was so in awe to see all of this that he lost himself for a while, until Scourge poked him.

"Uh, sorry. Yes, I'm Jet the hawk."

"Since I noticed Phelix with you, I assume that you two already met."

"Yes, Your Highness. I bumped into them." Phelix replied bashfully.

"So, as you're already informed, you two and another two from humans will be staying together for six months as a part of inter-species cultural exchange program." Lilith turned around to call someone, then the anthropes could see a light brown tail poking out from her dress, which was like a hedgehog tail. Now there was no doubt the queen's sharing hedgehog traits. A human couple came over, "Hi there, I'm Robert Nelson and this is my wife Julia. You and Phelix will be staying at my house."

"Both of you're very sweet." Julia said.

"Tha-thank you, Mrs. Nelson." Phelix stuttered. Jet also blushed.

"Okay, Your Majesty, we'll be on our way then." Robert said.

"Uh, Mr. Nelson." Phelix said, "The princess is not here yet. She'll get angry if I leave without seeing her."

"In that case, me and Julia will be waiting for you two in the car." With that the couple left when the queen nodded.

"Well, before you leave I should tell you something." Lilith then turned to Jet and Phelix. "In the earth, human people are already habituated with our kinds, so I believe other participants won't have much problems to get along. So, I hope you'll get habituated with us, Mr. Jet. Besides, Phelix is a very sweet and well-mannered girl, she is my daughter's best friend. I can tell you two will get along well."

"I'll try my best." Jet said.

"And...I'm pleased that four of you made it to join here." Now the liminal hedgehog queen turned to the four mobian hedgehogs. "I was worrying about you turning down my invitation to attend this program."

"Honestly, I was thinking at first but now I'm glad that I did not." Sonic scratched his head, "Anyway, I'm-..."

"I know who you are, Mr. Sonic." Lilith smiled, "Who doesn't know about you? And I'm impressed on you too, Mr. Shadow." She addressed the black hedgehog.

"Thank you, Queen Lilith." Shadow said.

"Mr. Silver, we were at Soleanna to help their people during the Solaris disaster. That's how I noticed you."

"You were?" Silver was surprised.

"Yes, but in private. I sent my troops mainly to help the civilians to escort them into safe place. That's why, you didn't notice us. Besides, the timeline was reset, so no one remembered about us."

"Wait..." Sonic was shocked, "When the time was reset...that didn't effect on you guys?!"

"That's one of the differences between us and the humans." Lilith informed, "We have some more capabilities than humans, smaller or not."

Now Scourge was feeling uncomfortable, among the four hedgehogs, only he had no records to impress someone, but to depress. He kept silent, until,

"Mr. Scourge, there's no need to feel ashamed now." The queen noticed him, "I've learnt that your capabilities are equal as Mr. Sonic, but they've been wasted, I guess. You're here because one of the No-Zone officers contacted us and sent us your profile."

"Eh...who?"

"She didn't exactly told her name. She just said that you might need some counseling to get over previous life. We only talked to her through an inter-dimensional holographic screen. You're the son of a famous politician and your parents were not quite friendly with you, which lead you to-..."

"Madam queen..." The green hedgehog was annoyed now, "I would prefer if you don't bring my background now. I think I know who contacted you, but I'm here only because for one, I want to get rid off that hellhole and for two, maybe I'm tired of my previous life. So yeah, I've done nothing to brag about myself unlike these trio." Scourge actually had no idea which No-Zone police would do that. But he decided to think about it later.

Lilith was not fazed, as she was wise enough to realize the feeling of an outcast. "I appreciate that you cleared your mind. And whatever happened, just let go. Maybe now there's a chance for you to become a hero too." In reply, the green anthrope just stared her questioningly. What did the liminal queen mean? But then...he sensed something behind.

Before anyone could say anything further, Shadow teleported from his position to another location, which was Silver's side. The ivory hedgehog was startled but noticed the ebony appearing right beside him, so something must be at his other side.

Sonic was standing beside his green rival, who warned him, "Watch your behind, Blue."

With that, everyone heard a spinning sound before something flew in the space between Sonic, Scourge and Silver, Shadow. Everyone watched in horror as...it was nothing other than the reddish spinning fan or rather whirlpool, which had been seen earlier. It started to twirl around the four hedgehogs in an attacking motion. Before the quartet made a counter attack, they noticed the others were totally indifferent as if it was nothing threatening, specially the queen sighed in annoyance,

"Stop that, Sierra. That's not how a princess acts."

That's when the Mobian hedgehogs remembered what the snake girl Ceska mentioned earlier. But it got finally clear, when the thing stopped twirling before landing beside the queen, facing opposite. It was just another hedgehog liminal female as she stood same as Lilith. Since she was back facing to the Mobians so they only could see her behind. She had long crimson red hair glossing in the lights that reached her waist, and unlike Lilith, her hair bore the signs to be hedgehog quills as there were spiky layers allover her hair...which made sense how the human guards of the research center lost their legs by a cutting saw last year. She was wearing a red layered skirt, and above it, a hedgehog tail was seen poking out which was red same as her hair. Then the Mobian hedgehogs could not help but noticed the bouncy bums under her tail and small portion of her milky thighs under her skirt.

"Mother dear, you know it very well that I'm not your average princess...neither an average hedgehog beast!" With that the newcomer finally turned around. And the world seemed to be stopped for the male hedgehogs there, as they did not expect their new housemate as someone like this...

The girl resembled her mother by face. But their hairstyles distinguished them. Contrasting to the brunette queen's neat and tidy hair just with two spiky strands, her redhead daughter's hair looked messier because of her fringe bangs and those numerous sharp and edgy layers. Her red ears above head also reminded about her status as hedgehog. Her skin was fair and satiny and lips were peach pink. Unlike her mother's green-blue, her eyes were pure azure blue like deep ocean water, and were thickened with full long dark lashes. Along with her facial beauty and bulbous hips, she had voluminous and perky breasts and thin waist but her curves were well-proportioned to her small height. She was wearing a white sleeveless coat over a white medieval top and white arm length gloves, and white thigh high socks and white knee-boots with red cross-straps under her red mini skirt. Phelix and Ceska were undoubtedly beautiful, but the princess hedgehog just stood out from them.

May not be a furry...but this hedgehog girl is a magnet for any kind of male...no matter humans or Mobians, or elsewhere. And there she was the princess of the liminals, and soon-to-be housemates of four male hedgehogs from Mobius.

"Wow...!"

Silver gasped as soon as he failed to cover his admiration for the beautiful red hair, smooth skin with no fur and azure human eyes. Shadow just locked his own red eyes on her blue ones...as they reminded him of Maria's human form. Besides, his mind also twitched to remember the video, the hedgehog queen might be soft and kind-hearted towards other species but her daughter seemed to be exactly opposite. Sonic was having similar thoughts as he particularly noted the new type of 'spin dash', which seemed pretty dangerous. The liminal princess was definitely capable to put a fight with him. Then he acknowledged the word she just threw, 'hedgehog beasts'. Of course, it was thrown for him and his team. Sonic's trance broke to hear Scourge murmuring,

"Isn't that Zierra...the elite cop from No Zone?!"

Sierra's P.O.V:

When I said about me being not any average hedgehog, I meant to insult those Mobian aliens who were supposed to be something furry and hideous. But what I saw turning my head around, made me slightly startled. The creatures were furry but...not hideous that I expected.

I saw six figures that were not anything like humans or liminals, but clearly taller than me. First my eyes laid on the only female among the group, who was possibly the bat working in G.U.N I heard about. She had teal eyes, white furs on her head and ears but rest of her body had no fur and was deep tan in color. Her eyes had mascara, blue eye-shadow and lips had dark pink lipstick on them but she was pretty. The second one looked like a bird as I identified the beak, probably the hawk who was supposed to be Phelix's housemate. But he had no wings like my friend or any regular bird, instead he had hands covered with white gloves. He had green feather allover his body with a white patch on his chest. He had blue eyes and his feathers formed a mohawk style above his head. He was wearing a pair of yellow sunglasses and red shoes.

"Excuse me, please. May I know who you're referring as 'beasts'?!"

From the corner of my eyes, I noticed the speaker to who, the young male voice belonged to. I could tell that hurt his ego as he was possibly the most popular Mobian I heard about, since everyone talked nonstop about a certain blue hedgehog from Mobius. And there he was, having royal blue fur allover his body except on his peach muzzle, chest and hands. He had sparkling green eyes and long messy quills covered his head and back. His attire were a brown scarf around his neck, the gloves on his hands, some bandages (I wondered why) around his legs and hands and red-white sneakers with white cuffs that seemed to be high-tech. In fact, the male ones here did not seem to wear any clothing, but only shoes and gloves. I found points to piss them off.

"It's rude to keep silent when someone talks to you, Princess." My mother coldly said.

"But mom, I'm trying to find the person who spoke up."

"I'm right here." He pointed himself. "I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm the speediest Mobian. I'm the one who took care of the demons that invaded here."

"Well, you're not the only one, Sonic." Someone else spoke up who I ignored. Because, I was already pissed by the narcissistic statement.

I finally looked directly at the blue hedgehog and his companions, before giving a disgusted stare, "Mom...you didn't need to be so secretive about that you would bring me a zoo for this exchange program. On top of that, one animal looks severely injured with its bandages allover."

"Sierra...!" My mom groaned lowly trying to keep patience. "Don't make me scold you in front of everyone!"

"Well, you just did that." I shrugged, but got angry as I started to figure something out.

"And for your inquiry, this is called sports tapes." The hedgehog said, clearly sounding annoyed. Well, he deserved that, I guess.

"Before you get introduced with them, I suppose you should say a bye to your friends." Mom said.

"Alright Sier, take care." Phelix hugged me while whispering, "And I think your housemates are nice. So, please don't be rude with them."

"I'll see about that, Phel." I bitterly said. Finally, my harpy friend left with the Mobian hawk. But Cesk stayed as both of us wanted to talk to cool myself down later.

"I'm so sorry about that." I heard my mother apologize to the Mobians, I just looked away with a snort.

"It's alright, mam." I heard another male voice, "The princess isn't habituated to see beings like us and it'll be hard for her to leave her mother and friends to go with us." I could not help but noticed him. This hedgehog was with light silverish body fur and like the green hawk, his chest area was covered by pure white fur but the albino hog's chest fur seemed thicker and fluffier and spread from neckline to lower chest. He had fawn muzzle and sharp golden eyes with dark streaks around them. But his most distinctive feature was his quills. He had two large arch-shaped spike like quills or spines behind his head and five spines distinctly on his forehead in a crown style, along a few small ones on his back. He had white gloves and golden ring bracelets with cyan accent in both hands. His boots contained white, blue and cyan color combo but also had golden rings on top along with a red gem on each. Despite of his crown quills, he overall looked kinda...adorable. Specially, his cheeky smile and his white fluffy chest gave me the instinct to cuddle him like a stuffed doll. I quickly hardened my face back as I realized I was thinking something wrong.

"Then...care to enlighten me about yourselves, Mr. Smart-talk hedgehog?"

"Uh...it's Silver." His smile dropped by nervousness.

"What silver?"

"I'm Silver."

"I'm not blind so I can see that you're silver." I sneered, wanting to embarrass him more.

"I mean...my name is Silver, Silver the Hedgehog."

"Potleaf-head over there, you're only annoying her. We need to convince her that we're no different than any civilized species, right princess?" A new male voice cockily spoke up, and what my eyes darted at, was like a color swapped version of Sonic. As he looked a lot like the blue hedgehog by quill pattern and muzzle but with emerald colored fur and cerulean eyes. His looks were edgier and quills were messier compared to Sonic, I wondered if those two were related. And unlike the rest four Mobian boys, this one actually carried some clothing which was a black leather jacket with flames design on each sleeve. Two of his quill spines came out through the jacket holes. He seemed to be better built than other hedgehogs as I saw his muscle flex through his jacket. He also had a pair of red sunglasses on his head, white gloves and green-black sneakers. Through his slight smirk, I could see sharp razor like teeth, which was absent in Sonic and Silver. Finally I found myself looking at his well-toned peach chest, which had two deep scars on it. He was the only one among the four, who gave me the impression of a bad boy.

"It's Scourge the king Hedgehog, babe." Yeah, I was right.

"You might want to notice where you're at now, Scourge." I saw Silver getting annoyed by the word to me. "And it's ex-king."

"Right, because it's you who look like a royal here..." I snapped at Silver, "With that crown head of yours."

Ignoring an utterly upset albino hedgehog, I turned to the green one, "And nice try with that flirt, punk."

"At least the princess is convinced that we're more than average hedgehogs. Since she is checking out my 6-pack abs..."

Ooops...! Scourge caught me there. I heard my mother chuckling amusedly. Well, she knew me better than anyone else. "Whatever, I was just wondering how you got those scars." I tried to control my blush by turning to the last hedgehog who stood beside Silver. His fur was jet black in color, and he also got another unique hairstyle, er- quill-style, but not weird as Silver. His dark quills on head were curved at all side, making it look like...butterfly(?) But he had red streaks on his quills, around the edges of his eyes and on his arms and legs. His eyes were crimson red which was the color of my hair and had thick white fur on his chest, but lesser than Silver. And he was the only hedgehog there with tan muzzle. His attire included white gloves with red backs which had long red and black cuffs. His shoes looked much like skater shoes with large red tongues, detailed red and black cuffs. He also wore golden ring bracelets around his wrists and ankles that fastened his gloves and shoes. He had an incredibly unamused (-_-) look on his face and something told me that he was more matured or at least older than the other hedgehogs. His red orbs finally met my blue ones,

"I'm Shadow the Hedgehog." His voice was deep and husky. He didn't seem interested to talk to me for obvious reason. But I always find ways to piss whoever I want,

"Everyone here is well-aware about what you guys are. So, it's annoying to hear 'the hedgehog' repeatedly after each of your name like it's your surname." I shrugged.

"It's our way to introduce ourselves..." As expected, he was irritated. "To ensure our identity. But, I guess you're the one who needs to clarify yourself like that, since you're a more human less hedgehog.

"Maybe we share same species..." His blunt reply just aroused my fiery persona. "But alien beasts like you people can never be any match with me!"

"Enough, Princess!" My mother finally broke into anger as she harshly grabbed my arm, "I assume that you're insulting them to drive away. But you're actually insulting your mother, because I had to go through a lot to invite them over here! And you're also dishonoring yourself as a princess, Sierra!"

"Oh am I, mother dear?!" I snorted getting my arm away from her grasp, "And is this more dishonorable than hiring some alien super heroes to watch over your own daughter because she has become a threat for everyone by rescuing her friend?!" Finally, I shot the real reason of my anger.

General P.O.V:

The irritated four Mobian hedgehogs turned over as they suddenly saw the outburst of the half-hedgehog princess.

"It's...it's not like that!" Lilith gasped.

"It IS like that, mom!" She replied in rage, "And both of us know it didn't start because of Lindi. Humans always despised us from the beginning that's why we hid ourselves for long. But they were sooo in love with these alien creatures, maybe because they look adorable and we look ugly with our hybrid features!" She pointed towards the four Mobians, "But that was okay with me because we were in peace to be left alone, but the humans didn't cease back from us, that's how Lindi was kidnapped to be displayed at zoo! Probably this is the reason evil liminals have killed humans because that's how we all have been being treated from the beginning...just as creatures for entertainment or research, not as persons or beings like these outsiders. You can feel that how humiliating it is when we get this kind of treatment being residents of same planet, where these aliens from different planet become popular here! That's why I wanted to teach them a proper lesson! I could have completely destroyed the last security camera at the research center while bringing Lindi back, but I left its recording unharmed, to let the humans know that if they were nice with us...they would never have needed any alien hero to save their own planet! But I was mostly upset when you went to truce with the humans AND the aliens! And it's pretty much sure these human officials made you to select these hedgehogs for me because they already labeled me as threat and you accepted their request with pleasure. Why would you do that?! Was that us who started this all?! Don't you think you just dishonored all of us liminals...?! Don't you think you dishonored yourself as a ruler?! Didn't you care how your daughter would feel-...?!"

Slap!

She stopped but did not look at her mother, who gasped after slapping her daughter in front of a group of human and mobian people. The young hog girl did not exactly sob but the mobian hedgehogs in front of her, could see angry tears flowing from azure blue eyes. She just clenched her teeth before, rushing out over their heads by her whirlpool spin dash.

"I'm going after her!" Ceska said before following her friend.

After a moment of shock, the G.U.N commander spoke up, "I'm so sorry, Your Highness."

"Please don't apologize." Lilith tried to hold back the escaping tears from her green-blue eyes. "You didn't know anything about us. So, no one here needs to blame themselves. It's just some matters between me and my daughter. I'm extremely sorry that Sierra embarrassed you all. Specially..." She turned to the four hedgehogs, "You boys. I thought that my daughter might get over her hatred when she gets to know you. But looks like, I was wrong. So..." She wiped her tears, "If you would like, you can dismiss yourselves from this program and return to your own planet."

Few minutes later:

Sierra's P.O.V:

I did not want to cry in front of them, so I just rushed out aimlessly. I stopped when I was bumped against a tree, followed by getting a huge pain. But that was nothing compared to the pain in my heart. I sat down and cried myself a while. When I caught myself up, I noticed that I was pretty away from the city and...was in a deserted woodland. But that was nothing worrisome. I noted the way of the city, but I wanted to be alone for a while. Well, my solitude did not last long.

"So, here you are, Princess."

I looked here and there but found nothing. Then I saw some colorful liquid on the ground, which was pretty uncommon. But I knew what it was...a slime. My assumption turned out right when it formed as a liminal slime girl. Well, we have slims in our kingdom, but I could tell this one was something evil.

"Who're you?" I calmly spat, "I never saw you in our region. But if you're here to join that so called cultural program...the city is over there."

"Hahaha...I would be that stupid to join there if I were from your reign." The slime girl replied. "My name is Sei."

Right, I never heard the name in our realm. So, she was either just an outsider, or...

"Then...did you just follow me here?!" I grumbled sensing something dangerous.

"Of course...after all, you're the gem that we've been hunting for years."

What the...?! Before I could express anything, I heard heavy thuds on the ground from my behind. I froze what I saw turning back, a gigantic male liminal with lower-half like...a beetle!

As per Zord informed me...Insect Liminals are the evil ones...!

"You managed to get here, Vex." Sei said. "What should we do with her now?"

"Who the hell are you two?!" I covered my rising fear by angrily yelling, "And what do you want with me?!"

The beetle-man stared me in a maniac way. But the first thing he said was,

"So, the rumor was true... Crimson and Lilith indeed got a child who is possessing the ruby of her father. I can finally see why our bitch of an arachne leader was madly after this girl for years. Too bad the poor hedgy queen won't be able to save her daughter even after she brought those heroic hedgehogs from Mobius."

I guess I felt my gut wrench when I heard that.

A/N: Did that leave you eager for more? Please let me know through the reviews.