Hi guys, here is finally the newest chapter! Sorry for the wait, not only is the chapter very long, I also had a lot of stress and - as a result - writer's block (...yay...). You probably already noticed, that I used my writer's block to reduce the number of chapters by fusing them together.

Anyway, please enjoy the newest chapter! As you might remember, I needed to split this chapter here and the one before, so don't be surprised, that chapter 7 does start a little blunt...


7: Family bonds

"Hm?" Sonic perked up suddenly upon hearing a loud, insistent ringing coming from the foyer, that they had just reached. A small whimper was mixing into it, as well as a low growl, that sounded familiar somehow.

Just a few seconds later, they stepped fully in the foyer – to see a strange sight. The first thing Sonic noticed was Shadow, standing with crossed arms opposite of the hallway they had just left. He stood in a ray of red light, making it look, as if he was under a single switched on lamp with a red light bulb. Something told him though, that leaving this particular spot wouldn't be as easy, as it looked right now.

Shadow growled again silently while he watched, which explained, why Sonic had thought before, that the sound had been familiar...

Rouge was sitting with crossed arms and legs on one of the chairs in the front row, the closest to Shadow, to be precise, which was conveniently the furthest away from the tall human man with the neatly combed, short and white hair, who stood between the front rows of chairs and was fixated by Shadow. His back was straight, his heels touching and his arms held behind his back, bent at the elbows. His shirt was tucked neatly in his ironed pants and his black shoes were polished. Still, despite the obvious military neatness, the former Commander Abraham Towers looked simply odd without his uniform.

Behind him, glaring daggers at his back, stood Mighty, hunched over a little and having a hand on his chest, as if he was hurting there. Judging by his glare, the former Commander hadn't been welcome and had made his way into the building by force and most likely by using violence against the armadillo.

The human ignored the mobian behind him and looked forwards, having a glaring match with Mephiles, who stood on Mali's desk. Even with the additional height, the dark seme needed to tip his head back a fraction to look him directly in the eyes.

Next to the desk stood another human, seemingly much older and definitely quite a bit smaller than the Commander, with short, neatly combed, thin and white hair on his head, pale, wrinkled skin and dark brown eyes, wearing a black jacket and light gray, long pants, both articles of clothing rivaling Towers' in neatness, and those looked, as if they couldn't even wrinkle, if they tried. He was standing upright, his left hand behind his back, his right arm outstretched in front of him, bent up at the elbow, his hand balancing a round, black plastic tray, with a single glass of water on it and a small white package next to it, on the fingertips. Although he had to have cramps in his fingers or right arm in this position, he didn't even tremble a bit.

Another whimper let Sonic whip around. Just a step away from the entrance to the hallway, stood John, every muscle in his body tensed, while looking at the former Commander with anger and hatred.

The whimper sounded again and Sonic looked down to see Happy clinging tightly to John's leg, his claws digging deep in his flesh, the jeans clothing the leg showing fresh red spots, where he had drawn blood. He had clenched his eyes shut, his quills puffed and fawned out. He was trembling like a leaf, as if he had been replaced by a clone with a completely opposite character. What was wrong with him!?

Sonic was just done with accessing the room's occupants, when Kylie moved swiftly past him and towards John and Happy.

She stopped next to John and pointed at the Commander, without turning around to him. "Not a word!," she hissed, and really, when Sonic turned to him, the man had just opened his mouth and closed it slowly again. Kylie had apparently other priorities here.

The woman knelt down next to Happy. "Hey, Happy, it's me, Kylie. Do you remember me?," she asked gently.

At first, nothing happened, but then, Happy moved his head a little, showing the tiniest nod. "That's good.," Kylie praised, as if he had just done something impossibly difficult. "Now, can you please let go?" The hedgehog shook his head quickly, holding on tighter, which caused John to wince a little.

Kylie didn't miss a beat, she stretched out her arm and waved Sonic closer, without looking at him. Raising a brow, he obeyed and came closer, until he was just one step behind her.

"Hey, Happy, Sonic is here.," Kylie explained, as if he hadn't been there the whole time. "Would you like to go to him?"

This time, Happy nodded, which surprised Sonic. They barely knew each other! Why would he trust him?

"Okay then." Carefully, Kylie grabbed the hedgehog, cutting and stabbing her palms, wrists and arms at his quills in the process, when she reached around his back to get to his sides, but not stopping. Grabbing his sides, she gently lifted him up and off John's leg, who sighed silently in relief.

Happy hung lifelessly in her grip, but the second she turned around on her knees and the red furred male was close enough to Sonic, he reached quickly out to him and clung to him with his arms and legs around his torso, so tightly, that the hero was pretty breathless for a second.

If Eggman ever wanted to stop him from running, he should just scare the hell out of Happy and latch him to his legs, the red hedgehog had a death grip beyond compare. Not even Amy could compete – and that was saying something.

Kylie chuckled. "Happy, Sonic needs to breathe.," she said, as if talking with a small child, that didn't understand yet, that real animals weren't plushies and shouldn't be hugged so hard. It worked, he lessened his grip a little, so that Sonic could get air in his lungs again.

He breathed in as deeply as currently possible, looking at the same time over to Shadow, who was watching the interaction closely and whose eyelid twitched a little upon seeing Sonic this close to someone else.

Choosing to ignore it for now, he watched, how Kylie stood up. "John, get this telephone to shut up.," she ordered. "Sure." Still a little limping, but this time in pain, John made his way over to the desk.

"Your aspirin, sir.," the old man said the second he was close enough, performing a bow and holding out the tray towards him, still showing no strain. "Thanks." John took both items off the tray, while passing the man.

"Would you require anything else, sir?," the old man asked politely, still bowing. "No, thank you. You may go.," John explained, while going behind the desk. "Thank you, sir." And the old man bowed a little deeper, before he straightened, turned sharply and left the foyer.

Sonic blinked in surprise, when he felt Happy letting loose a little bit more in what seemed to be relief, when the butler's steps had disappeared.

John placed the items on the desk and went to answer the phone, but talked in a hushed voice with whoever was on the other end of the line, so that he wouldn't disturb the others in the room.

Meanwhile, Kylie went towards the middle of the foyer. "Mephiles, are you here because of an emergency?," she asked calmly.

"No.," the male replied, not diverting his attention in the slightest. Two tentacles shot out of his shadow and wrapped around the woman's hands up to her elbows, healing the wounds caused by Happy, before disappearing again.

"Thanks. Please round up Happy's boyfriends now, will you?" "All of them?," Mephiles asked, for the first time looking at the woman.

"Yeah. At the same time, please. And don't tell them, why they should come. Just tell them, that I need them here." "Alright." And the male disappeared. Sonic blinked at her. Boyfriends? As in... more than one?

"I'll come to you in a minute, okay?," Kylie told Shadow, who had his eyes glued to Sonic and didn't acknowledge her.

"Rouge, would you require anything?," she asked the bat. "I have the feeling, that I'll need a bit of popcorn, soon.," the bat smirked, turning, so that she could see Kylie and the Commander.

Bending to the side to look around the Commander, without acknowledging the man at all, Kylie looked at Mighty. "Everything okay?," she asked.

"Yeah, he...just got me by surprise.," the armadillo replied, angrily glaring, but otherwise keeping his composure. He was probably more mad at himself, than anybody else, for being unable to stop the older human. "No problem, really. Do you need any help?," Kylie asked kindly.

Almost immediately, the mobian straightened, taking his hand off his chest. "I'm fine.," he growled determinedly.

"Okay. You may go, if you like.," Kylie told him. Just nodding and scowling one last time at the man, Mighty turned on his heel and marched out.

Before the woman could turn to the human man, a cold light filled the room briefly and Mephiles appeared with three other hedgehogs in tow in the middle of the room.

Sonic looked at them. One had brown fur and black eyes, looking distrustfully at Kylie, the second had dark green fur and light brown eyes, having his arms crossed in front of his chest and the third had lavender fur and marginally darker eyes of the same color and was fidgeting nervously. He wasn't quite sure, but he had the feeling, that the third one was an uke and the other two semes.

"Why did you bring us here?," the green seme asked with a neutral voice. "Could you please take care of Happy?," Kylie replied, pointing to Sonic. The three whipped around to the hero, needing less than a second to recognize the light red fur and quickly dashed over to him.

Sonic expected an attack, at least from the semes, but they came to a stop a few feet away from him, with the green seme as the only one stepping slowly closer. "Happy? Hey, Happy...," he called gently.

The reaction was instant – somehow, Happy managed to let go of Sonic, turn around and quickly latch to the other in one fluid movement.

Sonic swore, that he heard something crack in the other hedgehog's back where Happy hugged him, shaking badly, but the seme just freed his hands from the grip and started to gently pet his boyfriend's quills with one, while he carefully supported his behind with the other. The brown furred seme came to his side and cooed reassurances to the scared, red furred hedgehog.

Carefully, the two hedgehogs turned to the right in a synchronous movement and went slowly away and out of the foyer, while the lavender hedgehog went towards Sonic. "Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you, for taking care of him.," he apologized and thanked him with a polite bow, before rushing after the trio, joining the brown furred hedgehog in his pursuit of trying to calm Happy down. Soon, they were out of sight.

"Thank you, Mephiles. Good work, as always.," Kylie praised, once they were gone, before turning to Towers, whose face had a very ugly red-violet coloring by now and was distorted in rage. Apparently, he didn't like, that Kylie was taking care of everyone else first.

"Now, what do you want?," she asked, sounding bored and annoyed at the same time, as if talking with him was preventing her from doing important things.

"You never answered my letters.," the man growled, seeming to fight to get a hold of himself. It was quite obvious, that he wanted to strangle her.

"I never answer threatening letters. Thanks for the black roses with the fake blood, by the way, my bin never looked fancier.," Kylie added with a smirk.

Towers' brow twitched. "Don't try to fool me! I want to know NOW, what you did to the Island!," he hissed.

Sonic's ear turned a little at that. Kylie apparently kept all information concerning this close to herself, but Towers had come to his own conclusions about this matter.

Shadow had never before seen the usually cold and collected Commander (former Commander now) this anxious and – dare he say it – lost. As if the only shred of sanity he had left was clinging to the landmass he tried so desperately to get information about. As if learning something about it would change anything for him. What, did he believe, that he would be employed again at GUN if he presented the Island's current location? Since when was he a dreamer?

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I have no idea, what happened to it.," Kylie replied, her words sounding true. Sonic had the feeling, that she had just no idea, how exactly Shy had destroyed the Island and was now referring to this.

"You think, that I would believe that?," Towers snarled, before coming uncomfortably close to the woman, whispering so silently, that the mobians had to strain their hearing to listen, "I would be very careful, Dr. Ellen, don't try to fool me, or you will see a very ugly side of me!," he threatened.

"Uglier than your normal face?," Mephiles asked with a raised brow. Towers sneered down on him, before turning back to Kylie. "You can't lie to me, I know, that you know more about this and I'm absolutely sure, that you were the one responsible for me getting fired, too!," he hissed.

"Now you are definitely leaving reality. I was in jail, when you were fired, in case you forgot. I didn't even know, that you weren't Commander anymore, until I met Topaz in said jail.," Kylie frowned.

Towers' eyes gleamed at the name and he grabbed her arm, hard. "You know this woman!?," he hissed, dragging the female closer with a hard tug, that almost made her lose her balance.

"Let go, you're hurting me.," Kylie stated calmly, having caught herself almost instantly. Mephiles, Sonic and Rouge got simultaneously ready to pry him off, but it was a fourth person, who got him to do just that.

Towers just applied more pressure to Kylie's arm, when something large and brown hit the man in the back of his head so hard, that he let go and jerked forward and would have fallen against the quickly retreating woman, if it wouldn't have been for the transparent wall, that seemed to be out of violet glass and that was suddenly between both humans.

Towers slammed against it and slid it slowly down, his face getting contorted comically. The absence of a squeaking sound accompanying the movement revealed, that the wall wasn't out of glass. Shadow felt, that it was out of energy, for sure Mephiles' doing.

Towers crumbled to an ungraceful heap on the ground finally, the wall disappearing, once he had landed. The thing, that had hit him before, had fallen off his back during the impact with the floor. To everyone's surprise, it was a brown backpack, that looked quite worn.

Looking in the direction, from that the 'projectile' had come, Sonic saw a lean teenager with black hair at shoulder length, standing in the entrance. He wore a ripped blue t-shirt, that looked, as if he had had a fight of some sort. His black jeans also had a few rips in the fabric and his knees behind the tears were scraped. On his cheek was a slightly bleeding cut, and a bruise, too. His eyes had an interesting coloring, brown with icy blue specks, like ice flowers blooming on tree bark.

He had his pale skinned arm outstretched still, showing, that he had thrown the object and he stayed in that position, until the ex-Commander had gathered his bearings, pulled himself up on his hands and knees and turned around to the attacker. A thin trail of blood trickled down his chin from his bottom lip, he had probably busted it.

Seeing, that he had the wanted attention, the teen smirked, satisfied, and put his hands slowly in the pockets of his pants, stalking closer.

He went around the still kneeling Towers, grabbed his bag and opened it. Rummaging a little, he pulled out a rather large and thick book and weighed it on his hand. "As I thought, math. Tends to give others headaches since the beginning of schools.," he stated with mock professionalism and put the book back, shouldering the bag afterwards, grinning with a challenge in his eyes down on his 'victim'.

Towers glared and stood up quickly, facing the boy, who was just a centimeter or two smaller and who smirked coolly in his face.

"You little brat! Didn't your parents teach you, how to treat people with authority!? I demand to know the name, address and phone number of your parents, NOW! I will make sure, that you will regret the day you were born!," he ordered and added, seething and his voice laced with the tone Shadow knew all too well – it was the one, that he always used towards people he hated.

The teen smiled overly friendly. "But of course, sir. I can even save us both some time and do what you asked of me with four syllables alone.," he said, shifting his eyes to something behind the man, his expression softening. "Hi mom, I'm home!," he called, waving.

Towers' jaw dropped and he whipped around to Kylie, who smiled with the exact same expression on her face. "Hi, sweetie. How was school?," she asked, as if her son hadn't just thrown his schoolbag at another person in front of her eyes. "Same old.," Alex shrugged. Towers just looked from one to the other, speechless.

Sonic was surprised, that he didn't notice that earlier. Alex looked pretty much like his mother, besides the blue specks in his eyes and the shape of his chin and nose, that he had probably inherited from his father.

Shadow, who could, unlike Sonic, see Towers' face, smirked upon watching him go pale gradually. His thought process was quite obvious: he was outnumbered, two Ellens against one Towers. If he would stay any longer, he would embarrass himself beyond repair, the two would make sure of that – and this audience (ANY audience) would never forget the spectacle...

"This isn't over, Dr. Ellen!," he snarled, before he pretty much fled the building, far faster, than anyone would have expected from him.

"I get now, why you can't stand this guy." Alex commented neutrally, watching the retreating form, before turning to his mother, taking and lifting her arm, pushing up the sleeve and revealing an angry red bruise in the form of a hand on it.

"You know, that we will have a lengthy conversation about that later, right?," Kylie asked just as emotionlessly, while Mephiles healed the wound, getting a grateful nod of the woman.

The teen shrugged. "Worth it. By the way, the rascals are in the kitchen, probably looking for sugar. Silver joined them.," he added, looking around his mother at Mephiles, who grimaced. "Great."

"Something wrong with that?," Sonic wondered, coming closer. He noticed, that Alex suddenly fidgeted and turned rather red, avoiding his general direction.

"Kind of. Silver tends to have sugar rushs, when he eats too much candy. He then gets rather hyperactive and it can take up to two hours to get him to calm down. Last time, he escaped Mephiles and he almost tore the Shelter and the city apart searching for him – to find him sleeping peacefully under a tree.," Kylie smirked. "Yeah, it was very funny.," Mephiles snarled, earning snickers from Alex.

"I thought so. Nicole?," Kylie called loudly. A spot next to Sonic started to glow, and the slightly distorted image of a lynx girl with black hair, dark eyes and in a purple dress appeared. She wasn't wearing gloves, or shoes, but the black fur on her hands and feet, contrasting with her otherwise light brown fur, made up for that. "You called?," she asked with the same voice Sonic had heard before.

"Didn't know, that you had a body, too!," he stated, before he had realized it. The girl turned red and looked away, seemingly ashamed.

"Sonic, that isn't a real...substantial body, you see? This is a hologram, an avatar, to be precise. Nicole created it together with the ukes, so she isn't a faceless voice all the time. This way, she is also able to learn more about expressing feelings.," Kylie explained.

"...Okay. Well, your...er...not-substantial body is...er..." Sonic wasn't quite sure, if he could compliment an artificial being the way he would do towards a real person.

Alex caught on first. "Nicole, Sonic is complimenting your choice of avatar.," he told her.

The AI didn't miss a beat. She performed a polite bow towards Sonic. "Thank you for the compliment.," she thanked him, although he had – technically – not given her one, Alex had merely stated the obvious.

"Er... nevermind.," Sonic caught himself. He turned to Alex. "Thanks, I was a little lost there.," he grinned.

Alex turned a darker red. "N-no problem. I...er...you know...er...I-er...need to...well..." Still stammering nonsense, he pretty much fled the foyer, down a hallway.

"Did I say something wrong?," Sonic asked Kylie, who smiled fondly after her son. She chuckled and shook her head. "No, nothing like that. Remember, how I told you, that you are my children's hero? Hasn't changed for Alex. He's probably leaping over the moon with joy for being able to help you." "With my words?" "Imagine a fan girl in his place."

"Oh. Okay, yeah, I get your point." Sonic nodded. If Amy – during her worst times – would have ever been able to help him out, when he was at a loss for words, she would have never let him forget it.

"Nicole, would you please release Shadow out of your custody?," Kylie turned to the artificial girl.

She shook her head. "I can't. My programming doesn't allow me to just set free people, who try to attack or harm my system. I have to keep the person in custody, until the police is here.," she explained, her answer sounded monotone, like recorded.

Kylie facepalmed. "Right, I forgot about that.," she sighed, walking over to Shadow and crossing her arms in front of him. "Okay, what did you do? Nicole is actually quite lenient, so you have probably done something pretty bad.," she questioned.

Shadow crossed his arms, too, and huffed. "Rouge and I returned and nobody was there. I didn't want to wait, so I tried to hack myself in the system here to find the way to your office."

"Fantastic.," Kylie grumbled. She turned to Rouge. "Couldn't you try to stop him?," she asked her. "Stop him from trying to find out about Sonic's possibly current location?" The bat raised a brow. "Did you ever try to stop an erupting volcano from spewing lava?" "That bad?" "Uhuh."

"I'm still listening, you know?," Shadow growled annoyed. Sonic bit his lip, so he wouldn't join the two females in their laughter at his mate. His exasperation was kind of cute.

When Kylie had recovered, she turned to Nicole, who waited patiently. "Nicole, enter: Name: Ellen, Kylie, password: 450310 5423554 8093.," she stated clearly.

Nicole's eyes shone golden for a second. "Data correct. What can I do for you, Dr. Ellen?," she asked with this monotone voice. "Release Shadow out of your custody." "Of course." The red light disappeared and Shadow stepped away from the spot, as if he didn't trust it to not appear again.

"Cool, how did you do this?," Sonic asked. "John and I have master passwords. If we aren't agreeing with Nicole's programming, we can override a part of it temporarily with these. I figured, that this was easier, than organizing some actors dressed up as police officers.," Kylie grinned.

Sonic grinned back. He noticed a flash of black from the corner of his eye suddenly and found himself in the next second at the opposite side of the foyer.

Where he had stood, was Shadow, looking around confused, before he spotted his mate again.

"Shad, you know, that I'm currently not too fond of closeness!," Sonic growled. "Really!? Because this red hedgehog didn't keep a distance, if I recall correctly.," Shadow hissed.

Sonic winced. He got, that Kylie had wanted to help Happy and John quickly – although he had still no idea, why the male had trusted him this fast in his fear, even if he was a hero –, but this move hadn't helped easing the tension between him and Shadow.

"You got that wrong, Shadow. Happy, the red hedgehog, is a healer. Sonic's instincts won't ever push him away, since he can help him. No mobian in the whole world would avoid him, ever.," Kylie explained, trying to help them both.

So that was the reason, why his instincts had had no problem with Happy! Well, Sonic figured, that it was better, than his stranger-theory.

"I could help him, too!," Shadow snarled up to the woman. "Not like Happy can, no.," Kylie told him strictly.

Shadow's quills raised. "Who are YOU to tell me what I can and what not?," he growled dangerously.

Sonic felt some kind of poking in his skull watching this interaction and he recognized it as the feeling he often got, when Shadow did something he didn't approve of. Was this Instinct Sonic? Well, just one way to find it out.

Instead of determinedly ignoring the poking like always, he just let it be and it felt almost immediately, as if completely new, yet familiar feelings filled him, as if he was gently pushed to the side, yet remained, where he was, as if words were placed on his tongue, volume and tone included, as if his muscles got scripts embedded in them, giving them a moving pattern to follow, almost like a choreography. It was a strange, but welcomed feeling.

Without missing a beat, he opened his mouth and barked, "SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG!" All occupants of the room whipped around to the hero, who was a little startled himself by the outburst. Instinct Sonic was apparently a little frustrated for being neglected for so long.

He marched towards the seme. "Listen here, Kylie is MY friend – and yours, too, in case you forgot! I don't want you to EVER talk like that with her again, or you will sleep alone, as soon as I'm better, for as long as I see fit, got it?"

Shadow looked at him, genuinely surprised by the threat, before his glare hardened and his back straightened. "Really? And where will you sleep? Don't deny, that you like it to be in my arms! Who will you cuddle with instead?," he asked in a cold, challenging tone.

Conscious Sonic was a little taken aback by the icy tone, but Instinct Sonic knew, that Instinct Shadow had taken over, and also, that the seme wasn't aware yet, that he dealt with another side of his uke – and therefore didn't even falter.

He stood now as close to his boyfriend as possible, who seemed rather confident, that the hero would cave soon. "At Silver's, I'm sure, he wouldn't mind.," Sonic answered easily and turned his head to Mephiles, expecting a reaction.

Said dark being sighed and nodded. "He wouldn't, indeed.," he admitted, feeling the urge to answer the Alpha everything truthfully.

"I won't let you be in the same room with this criminal!," Shadow shouted, pointing at Mephiles, who just faked a yawn.

Sonic whipped back around to him, his glare darkened. "Are you assuming, that I couldn't take on Mephiles and win?," he growled, his voice deadly calm.

Mephiles raised a brow. An interesting question. From what he had seen on the Island, Sonic could definitely become a challenge...

Shadow's eyes had widened at the question. He swallowed, his fists balling, sweat collecting on his brow, his eyes looking eventually down. The answer behind this behavior was clear.

Sonic growled lowly, both of his personalities pissed off now. Although it went against Instinct Sonic's being, Conscious Sonic forced himself to walk forwards, feeling, that it needed to be done. He needed to prove to both sides of Shadow, that he was strong – and conquering his instincts was ideal for this, since it was harder, than fighting the biggest fear. For some, it was impossible.

Sonic had reached Shadow and before both had realized it, he had grabbed his chestfur and pulled him so close, that their noses touched. Instinct Sonic had adapted to the so far forbidden closeness, it seemed, because this hadn't been Conscious Sonic's doing, and his next words rolled effortlessly off his tongue again.

"I want you to listen closely. You have neither the right, nor the capability to judge me. You have never seen me giving 110 percent for Mobius, so don't think, that you can just determine for me, who I could beat."

With a small push, Sonic let go of Shadow. "You first questioned my loyalty to you – and now my strength, all in one day. One more slip-up of yours of whatever kind, and you can bunk with Rouge for a month, did I make myself clear?," he growled. Shadow nodded, his eyes wide.

Sonic looked him up and down, trying to estimate, if Shadow would listen to him. "Go now, and take a shower.," he eventually ordered. "What?," Shadow asked confused. "That wasn't a suggestion. A hot, long shower – and clean the bathroom, hallway and kitchen afterwards.," Sonic stressed.

Shadow just stared at him, before his nose twitched. "Sonic, why do you smell like fi-?" "Go already!," Sonic barked and Shadow actually flinched a little, before he disappeared.

Sonic took a deep breath, feeling Instinct Sonic retreat in a far corner of his mind again. Breathing out, he smiled up at Kylie. "Thanks for the advice, I wasn't half bad now, huh?," he grinned proudly.

"You were amazing.," Kylie smiled back, but internally, she was frowning: she had absolutely NO idea, why Sonic wanted Shadow to shower and clean these rooms. Showering was neither a reward, nor a punishment, just part of the personal hygiene, there would be no sense in denying or enabling this, since the partner wouldn't gain anything out of an overly clean (unless he/she had a phobia of bacteria) or overly dirty mate.

The cleaning of rooms, however, could be both, reward, or punishment. Cleaning up rooms like the bathroom, or the kitchen, were annoying tasks and semes usually had to do them, when it was their fault, that the cleaning had become necessary in the first place. The cleaning of the bedroom, the office of their mate or the room(s) of the child(ren) on the other hand were rewards in disguise. They showed the trust, that the partner had in the seme and this task also gave them the chance to prove, that they could be reliable and caring, by for example decorating the room differently, or something along those lines. If they did their task well, they could expect another reward later...

Letting Shadow clean these particular rooms would be a punishment, even though he wouldn't need much time with his speed and all, but it would be only fair to tell him, why he had to do that. Had Sonic forgotten this part?

Instinct Sonic wouldn't, she could imagine that much. Some scientists were convinced, that the most basic parts of the instincts in a mobian were far older, than the mobian him- or herself and therefore more mature and pedantic, less prone to mistakes of any kind. There was a deeper meaning to this order, but she couldn't figure it out.

"By the way, I wanted to thank you, Nicole.," Sonic turned to the AI, who still was in the middle of the foyer, apparently waiting for some kind of sign, that she could go. "You warned us, before this seme smashed in the desk, correct?"

The lynx girl nodded. "I learned recently about the concept of caring and paying back. After trying for weeks to kill you, I wanted to make it up to you. I'm...sorry." Her last two words sounded strange, as if she had never before said them. She even looked at Kylie, who just nodded silently, as if confirming to her, that she had spoken the right words.

"Thanks for all your help, Nicole. You can retreat now.," Kylie told her. With a bow, Nicole disappeared, the spot she had stood on becoming dark again.

Sonic turned to her, just when the light Nicole had stood on had faded. "Does she really think, that she needs to make something like that up to me? I mean, she didn't REALLY try to kill me!," he argued.

"Eggman built many robots based on her analysis, so I guess that counts. Nicole deactivated them all, before he could use them, by the way, when she learned the principle of 'revenge'.," Kylie smirked.

Sonic joined her, imagining Eggman's flabbergasted face upon realizing, that his probably most favorite and potential weapons weren't usable anymore.

"Would you listen for- ARGGGH!," John brought in this moment attention to him, when he pretty much screamed in the telephone, before throwing it forcefully on the desk in pure frustration.

Breathing heavily, he looked up to see the odd looks he got by the other occupants of the room.

"Problems?," Kylie asked with a raised brow. "Yes, I'm trying to get Shy here, so that she can help me – but she doesn't even let me speak one stupid sentence!," John growled, glaring in the direction of the thrown telephone, as if it was its fault.

"With what do you need help?," Sonic asked. The young man rubbed his face with both of his hands in exhausted frustration.

"She's the best, when it comes to tracking people and she needs to find an uke named Lunar for me.," he explained, his words slightly muffled.

"Is his boyfriend finally tired of being stuck in his gravity field?," Kylie asked, connecting dots immediately, it seemed. "No, that's not the problem. Sonic's friend, the echidna, got somehow stuck in it, too.," John replied, letting his arms fall.

"Is that dangerous?," Sonic asked immediately, growing worried. John looked up and smirked. "Try hilarious. Nicole, would you show him?," he called loudly.

"Yes." Nicole appeared again at the same spot, as before, just like a big blue screen in front of her, hovering in front of the AI and Sonic stepped closer to it.

He clasped a hand in front of his mouth. Hilarious didn't even begin to describe it! He saw Knuckles and a hedgehog with gray fur, moving around an invisible middle, as if they were on a carousel ride in what seemed to be the upper corner of a well-lit room. They were always opposite of each other and also facing opposite directions. Knuckles had his arms crossed and was scowling at nothing in particular, while the other was sitting like in an armchair, reading a book. It would only be funnier with a fitting melody playing to that spectacle, but oh well, you couldn't have everything.

"How did he even get up there?," Kylie asked, grinning, while Sonic was still fighting his laughter and Rouge snorted and laughed from where she sat. "Apparently, one of the inventions backfired, and the echidna was in the way, he got thrown through the air and landed in it. Mali is stuck down there, they got their hands on her chair, so I have to find Lunar. He isn't anywhere in the Shelter, though, so I need Shy.," John finished with a growl.

"I see." Kylie pulled out her mobile and, after a few pressed buttons, she already had a connection. "Hey, Shy, mind coming here for a sec?"

She hadn't even have the chance to hang up, before Shy appeared in the middle of the room, getting angry, unintelligible stuttering from John. His hands made a wringing motion, as if he wanted to strangle her from afar. "What is it?," she asked, bored, ignoring the man behind her.

"Could you please find Lunar for me?," Kylie asked friendly. The girl raised a brow, looking around and spotting the screen with Knuckles and the hedgehog on it. The corner of her mouth twitched upwards in amusement. "No problem.," she eventually shrugged and disappeared. Mephiles did disappear, too, without anyone noticing it.

"What is Knuckles doing down there anyway?," Kylie asked, once she was gone. "Beats me.," John shrugged.

"If I may?," Nicole piped up and everyone turned to her. "Apparently, Mist scared the group around the echidna a bit and they preferred to stay with Mali in the foyer. After some deliveries came and Mali wanted to bring them down to the Garage, they decided to join her.," she explained.

Kylie nodded in understanding and Nicole seemed to see this at her sign to disappear, together with the screen.

"Who is Mist?," Sonic asked. "A friendly ghost, who often hangs out in my office. He scares people, who enter it without someone he knows accompanying them, in case they aren't supposed to be there. He hasn't been around in weeks, so I guess, that Mali simply forgot to enter first to show him, that they mean no harm.," Kylie explained.

"What was wrong with Happy earlier?," Sonic asked further, not having forgotten his strange behavior.

The woman didn't need to think twice about what he meant. She sighed sadly. "Happy is deathly afraid of humans. Mali, John and I are the only exceptions. He's wary of everyone else working here." That would explain, why he was a little more relaxed, after this butler had left. "He's been on the Island, too, then, correct?," Sonic clarified.

Kylie shook her head, much to his surprise. "For some people, there are greater monsters, than Perringten and Eggman in this world.," the woman just told him, her tone indicating, that she wouldn't tell him more about Happy's story.

"And what about this hedgehog having three boyfriends at the same time?," Rouge piped up, making Sonic and Kylie turn to her, where she still sat. "Oh, that. It's nothing too unusual, hedgehogs are polygamous.," Kylie shrugged.

"Really?," Rouge asked, shifting her attention to Sonic, who blinked up at Kylie, apparently not familiar with the word.

"It means, that many hedgehogs have more than one partner at the same time, just like Happy.," Kylie explained calmly.

Sonic's jaw fell and he noticed Rouge's eyes on him. "W-Wait a second, I'm not-!," he started to defend himself frantically.

"Now now, Rouge, that doesn't mean, that all hedgehogs whore around.," Kylie told the bat. "Polygamy means for mobians most of the time just, that they are able to move on and get another mate, should the first one die. It's opposite to monogamy, that mostly bird mobians are known for. If something happens to their partners and they die, they stay single until their own death. However, it also happens, that some mobians – especially hedgehogs – don't feel...complete with just one partner, so they have two, or more. But they stay loyal to every single one of their partners.," she added sternly, looking at Rouge.

"Why especially hedgehogs?," Sonic wondered. "Back in older days, the number of hedgehogs had been reduced drastically, due to an epidemic. There were at times not even a dozen hedgehogs left in a colony and most of them were semes. Those, who wanted to reproduce, needed to share the remaining females and later the ukes, until the population had recovered and couples out of two people were reasonable again. And well, reproduction had been everyone's main goal back then. This principle of sharing the partner is embedded in your systems and instincts, but in at least half of you hedgehogs it had been reduced to the point, where you don't feel the need to have a third party in your relationship. I'm pretty sure, that you and Shadow belong to those, who have no interest in anyone, but each other."

"So, when I'm dead, will Shadow ever have another mate?," Sonic asked. Kylie felt another wave of murdering Shadow-thoughts come up, but restrained herself. "Most semes, who live monogamous, don't want another partner, when their mate died.," she reluctantly explained. It wasn't a lie, so she wasn't lying to Sonic, right? ...She just hoped, that he would see it also like this, when he would finally know the truth. ...If he would ever, that was.

Sonic didn't suspect a thing, he just nodded in acceptance, frowning in thought. "How is Happy handling three of them? I mean, this purple one is apparently an uke, but the others are semes, aren't they difficult?," he asked thoughtfully.

"Not like Shadow is currently, no. They have an inner hierarchy, that they follow unconsciously, like all couples have it. They know by instinct, who has which right and place in this relationship and they arrange themselves accordingly. It is a great help, that Happy is a Playful uke. Those kept the harmony in colonies with their distracting behavior and they do the same with their partners in relationships. Those four have their own system and balance, something you two need to build out first. Don't worry, you're on a good way.," Kylie soothed.

That moment, Shy appeared, having a midnight black hedgehog with small white dots on his fur with her. It was a rare color pattern his fur had, looking, as if the golden eyed male had been cut straight out of the starry night sky.

"What took you so long?," John asked as some kind of greeting. Shy whipped around to him and John's left sleeve suddenly caught fire. The young man gave a shout of fear and quickly poured the water the butler had given him before over it, sighing in relief, when the flames got extinguished.

The girl just huffed and turned around to Kylie. "Here he is, bye." With that, she disappeared, leaving everyone to wonder, why her mood had dampened so much this quickly...


A few minutes earlier:

Similar to Shadow, Mephiles could link his aura with the one of another being and had therefore no problem with following the human girl.

Her method of moving was interesting, she transported herself above the ground, wrapped in light and a curtain out of hot air, disguising herself this way, her own aura like millions of feelers of different lengths feeling carefully all around her, trying to find the aura she needed.

When she had found it finally, she brought herself to a secluded side alley to not scare the male with her sudden appearance. Experience taught her, that scared hedgehogs weren't something anyone wanted.

Mephiles appeared a few meter away from her, knowing better than anyone, that he was the last person she wanted to ever see again.

He wasn't surprised therefore, that he was greeted with a lance out of pure light, gracing his side and embedding itself in the wall behind him. He felt his flesh burning, where it touched him, but he didn't show any sign of pain or tried to move away. He wouldn't die from it anyway, even if it would pierce him completely – and Silver loved to trace his scars for hours if bored, so he gladly added new ones to the older.

"What do you want!?," the girl seethed. "I told Emma to keep away from your mate, but I can't keep a leash on her all the time, so don't blame me for hanging out with Silver still from time to time!"

It wasn't a surprise, that she immediately assumed, that he had come because of this – they had had quite a battle about this topic after all (okay, maybe talking first would have saved them both the trouble, but he really wasn't a diplomat...).

"I'm not here because of that." "Obviously, or I would be already on the verge of death. Again.," the girl spat.

"Is it my fault, that humans are so damn delica-?" The dark being was interrupted, when he was thrown in the wall behind him by something, that had looked like a giant fist out of dust. Judging by the countless burn wounds littering his front suddenly and forcing his left eye shut, she had layered it with her light before hitting him. He took it in a stride, though, and just freed himself out of the bricks.

He had already noticed, that references to the weakness of humans set the girl off, but he had yet to understand, why.

Dusting himself off, while the wounds began to heal, he looked the girl up and down, seeing her tense posture and her lost stare, directed to the side.

Then, she blinked, her eyes focusing again, and she turned around to him sharply. "Why are you here!?," she snapped, clearly fed up with him. "Are you followed by someone?," Mephiles brought his question to the point.

Shy stiffened, actually backing off. "What!?," she asked, completely surprised. "Your other sister was with Silver in a room and woke him with her scream. She played it down, but I found a gray, faded aura around her, indicating, that there had been someone else in the room, watching her.," the dark male elaborated.

He paused and looked at the girl, who seemed paler than usual, her eyes wide open, as if a monster was standing right behind him.

"This aura...," the girl eventually started, having pulled herself together so far, but her voice was trembling and her body shaking badly. "Did it look as gray as a cloud during a thunderstorm? As gray as a sewer rat's fur? As gray as a gravestone? As gray as the ground we stand on right now?," she asked, not looking at him, but at her feet.

Mephiles raised a brow. She described several nuances of gray here, so she knew apparently, that the nuance of an aura was different for each person, not even twins had the same nuance, if even the color was identical. The nuance and color of an aura were close to a fingerprint – individual. Only the way how feelings changed the nuance of an aura was the same for everyone. Frowning, he tried to remember the exact nuance. "I guess, the rat comes the closest.," he finally decided.

Shy nodded calmly, too calmly for the dark being's tastes. He changed his sight, but was surprised to see, that she didn't have an aura anymore. She masked it carefully, which made it impossible for him to see, what was going on in her now. He scowled, irritated.

The girl turned around to walk out of the alley, but stopped after a step. "I can reassure you.," she stated, still with her back to him. "The owner of this aura wasn't after Silver and I highly doubt, that he ever will be."

With that, she left the alley and walked straight in the restaurant, in that she had located the uke she had been searching for.

Mephiles stayed in the shadow of the alley, staring after her in surprise – mostly the surprise, that he let her go this easily. That SO answered all of his questions for Chaos' sake!

He started to believe, that all humans were infuriating, but maybe this was just the case for the ones he dealt with all the time.


Back to the present:

"May I ask, for what I'm here? Shy wasn't...very helpful in this department.," the uke, who was apparently Lunar, asked. "We have a problem with your gravity field.," Kylie told him.

The golden eyes narrowed. "Well, that's too bad for him, but I won't get him out of there, until I hear an apology.," he growled, crossing his arms angrily. "I'm afraid, you will have to. Another person got stuck in it.," Kylie explained.

Lunar gasped and his hands flew in front of his mouth in shock. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen, I always install them out of reach!," he scrambled to apologize.

"Lunar, I'm not mad, I only ask you to stop your field.," Kylie soothed.

It wondered Sonic a little, that several people, like Rio and now Lunar, seemed intimidated by Kylie and immediately tried to apologize, when they had the feeling, that she could became mad – just to agree to all of her suggestions as soon as she had spoken them out. Was she as a human this scary?

"Of course, right away.," the male nodded quickly, just as Sonic had expected it. "Good. Then come, let's go. Bye, John!," Kylie waved as they made their way towards a hallway. Sonic accompanied them, while Rouge stayed, where she had been the whole time. "Don't forget the crowbar!," John waved after them lazily, his sleeve a burnt black.

"A crowbar?," Sonic repeated, while they turned around a corner and went towards a big elevator ahead of them. Kylie chuckled. "To pry Tails away from the others.," she smirked.

"That bad?," Sonic asked, while they entered the spacious elevator cabin. Lunar thankfully kept a distance to Sonic unconsciously.

"He'll meet a lot of soulmates, who can actually understand his technology-'blah blah'. What do you think?," she asked back.

Sonic nodded in thought. Although Tails most of the time didn't show it, he could become pretty annoyed and frustrated with having to spell most things out to his friends, or trying to find an easier explanation for what his newest invention was good for, or how Eggman's newest future scrap metal worked in detail.

Usually, he did this without having to think about it, being used to simplify everything, but sometimes, he became aware again of how much more intelligent he was in comparison to everyone else around him. He could definitely need a friend, who was on his wavelength, at least from time to time.

Sonic raised a brow, when he saw Kylie press the number -6 on the panel and how its top above the buttons moved to the side to reveal a small screen and an as small keyboard. Kylie typed in a few numbers and letters, before the panel shut again and the elevator started to move.

"Er...Kylie?," Sonic asked, confused. Why did she do that? "We need to take special measures for this place, since our first Garage had blown up due to an accident. We keep its new location therefore underground and locked with a password. It is changed every day, so that no innocents can go into it – least of all children.," she explained.

"I don't know, if that's enough – most of them are acting like children at Christmas morning, after all.," Lunar mumbled, looking straight ahead at the doors.

"He forgot a date of yours again, didn't he?," Kylie asked dryly. "You bet he did – for the third time already! I don't know, why I still love this idiot.," he grumbled, the last bit more to himself.

"Yeah, love is a strange thing. Maybe you should take different measures to get his attention. He didn't seem to mind the gravity field too much."

"Oh, he would have – I planned to let him be stuck in there for a whole week. Too bad, that I need to dissolve it now.," Lunar sighed.

"You two should really talk with each other." "As if he would listen.," Lunar shook his head. "I might have an idea for that," Kylie grinned, just when the elevator stopped and the doors opened.


They stepped out and Sonic's jaw just dropped. They stood in a giant hall, looking bigger than an airplane hangar, that could hold a dozen airplanes in it. The ceiling was high and half-round. It and the walls as well as the floor seemed out of metal.

In the room were tables out of wood, standing here and there and forming an organized mess, with small and big devices on them, that seemed all to be in different stages of construction, and the rest of the tables' tops littered with different tools each.

At some tables were people sitting – to Sonic's surprise, not alone hedgehogs, but other mobians and even humans, too – and working on a device each, reading blueprints like Tails had them to the dozen, or arguing with others. He even saw Alex, quietly and alone tinkering at a table, too concentrated to notice them entering.

Sonic looked around to see a rather large crowd to his left, the people standing so close to each other,that they were blocking all sight of its middle.

Stepping a bit closer to the crowd, Sonic picked up a familiar voice, "-and if you calibrate it like...that!," there was a small pause, accompanied by a metallic sound, "You can upgrade its speed by 50%.," Sonic heard Tails explain proudly. A chorus of 'Oh!'s and 'Ah!'s was audible afterwards.

"It doesn't need to be faster!," they heard Mali shout from somewhere in the crowd. She sounded exasperated, as if she had mostly given up on saying this repeatedly.

"Alright, guys, the show is over.," Kylie said loudly, clapping her hands and making her way through the crowd, dispersing it, while Sonic and Lunar stayed, where they were.

After most of the people had gone away, Sonic could see his brother, oil stains in his fur and his trusted Miles Electric in hand. He stood next to what looked like Mali's wheelchair, different wires poking out of its back, several small parts of it and also tools littered around it.

Mali sat a little behind him, stretched out on her side on a sunbed-like, cushioned chair, sipping some pink fluid through a straw from a glass in her hand with a scowl on her face.

Amy sat next to her feet, her elbows on her knees and her face held in her hands, looking bored and pretty much in her own world, having detached herself from consciousness out of pure boredom.

"Okay, whoever made a puzzle out of Mali's chair, will put it together again and her in it, now.," Kylie ordered with a smile.

"On it!," Tails and a hedgehog with white, also oil stained fur, who seemed about his age, cheered and went right to it. Two older hedgehogs stayed around, for sure waiting to lift Mali back in her chair.

Sonic noticed, that Tails and the white furred hedgehog were working perfectly synchronous and chattering animatedly in the process. He had made a new friend, huh?

In no time, Mali's chair was fixed and Sonic kept looking at the two younger mobians, so the young woman wouldn't have an audience, while being lifted in it.

"SONIC!" Tails and Amy had at the same time noticed him and quickly ran over to him, Tails dragging his new friend with him. Thankfully, they kept the distance still, out of a habit.

It worried him a little, that Amy had a strange gleam in her eyes, that he had last seen, before he had been outed as an uke. Choosing to ignore it, he turned to the white hedgehog, who looked shyly up at Sonic, reminding him of Tails, when he had been younger.

"Sonic, that's my new friend, Snow. Snow, that's Sonic, my adoptive brother.," Tails introduced proudly.

"Hi!," Sonic greeted friendly. Snow's name fitted him wonderfully, with his pure, white fur, the silver, shining tips on his bent down head quills, that looked like icicles, and his dark blue eyes.

He blushed hotly upon seeing Sonic, grabbed one of Tails' tails in what seemed to be an unconscious movement and started to fiddle with the tip, while he looked to the ground. "H-hi, I-I'm Snow. I-I'm a big f-fan...," he stuttered.

Lunar, who had waited next to Sonic, chuckled and walked over to him, raising his hand and gently tapping the younger on the top of his head, which caused him to let go of the tail and look up at him, seemingly confused.

The uke smiled down on him, before turning to Tails. "Sorry about that, he always starts to fiddle, when he's nervous – and he usually doesn't notice, what he fiddles with. Once, it was the hem of the dress of a random female passing by...that was a hard one to explain.," he apologized, blushing at the last part.

Tails chuckled, his tails swaying, as if trying to prove, that Snow hadn't inflicted any damage. "It's alright, they are used to it, I used to do this fiddling, too.," he replied.

"Well, my tail isn't long enough to do that!," Snow defended himself with a pout, which caused the other three males to laugh, Snow joining them. Amy was too busy with staring at Sonic to notice anything, that was spoken about.

Snow calmed down first, grabbed Lunar's wrist and pulled him closer. "Tails, that is my big brother, Lunar. Lunar, this is my new bestest friend, Tails.," he introduced them.

Tails blushed a little, while Lunar chuckled and bent down to their eye level. "Hello Tails, it's nice to meet you. And congrats – Snow has never before considered someone this fast as his best friend.," he smiled.

"Bestest!," Snow corrected immediately. "Of course, how could I forget that?," Lunar agreed and rolled his eyes, straightening.

"Lunar is so cool, he can create gravity fields! In those, he can play with gravity and make all things heavier or lighter, it's amazing!," Snow beamed at Tails.

"Snow, we talked about this. You – and your friends – won't use my abilities for games.," Lunar scolded. "Aaaawww, but-!," Snow started to protest.

"Did you ever test your restraints?," Tails asked quickly. The brothers looked at him. "Huh?" "I mean, did you ever test, how easily you can manipulate gravity? How heavy or light you can make things? And how long you can keep a gravity field of a certain size up? I could build some gadgets, with that I can measure the exact effort and accuracy you need.," he offered.

Sonic smirked. This way, Tails had convinced him once to let him do several tests concerning his speed. ...He still got him to test all of his gadgets for him this way.

Snow, who caught up to what he was trying to do, too, nodded vigorously at his brother, trying to convince him.

Lunar frowned at them, before closing his eyes and sighing. "FINE! But I'm busy until next week and need to check my agenda first. I'll let Snow know, I'm sure, that you have already exchanged your contact data.," he gave up.

Both young mobians gasped. "Oh, we almost forgot that!," they exclaimed and Snow scurried away, starting to search through the tables frantically and at a rapid pace.

Lunar shook his head. "Next to Alex, Snow!," he called and the white furred male quickly ran over to the human teen, grabbing a sticky note and a pen, before returning and scribbling something on the piece of paper, giving it Tails afterwards. "Here, my number and address.," he explained quickly.

Tails took the note and looked down on it, sweatdropping. "Er..." Lunar took the note from him and the pen from Snow and wrote something on the other side of the paper, before giving it back to the fox. "And that's our number and address in a readable writing.," he smirked. Snow crossed his arms and grumbled to himself.

"Feel free to call, whenever you like.," Lunar added, waved and turned, walking in the opposite direction. As Sonic could see now, in the top corner, that he was moving towards, were Knuckles and this other seme.

"What's Knuckles doing there?," Tails wondered loudly, apparently only now spotting him. "Looks, as if he's stuck in one of my brother's gravity fields. Crazy guy.," Snow commented.

Sonic wasn't surprised, that both of them didn't notice that. They were so much alike, that they obviously both tended to block out everything, when they worked, or tinkered, just like he knew it from Tails.

The other mobians made some space for Lunar and watched, how the male stepped forwards, until he was almost under the two semes. He stretched his hand out towards his field and it apparently sunk down to him, since the two semes did exactly that, without moving from their positions. A snap of his fingers, and the two fell and landed on their feet.

Knuckles didn't look too happy and without a word, he just marched past the uke, hellbent on ignoring and forgetting the embarrassing incident.

The seme, instead, closed his book, his face a neutral mask. "It didn't take you long.," he mentioned emotionlessly.

Lunar looked ready to blow up at him, but Kylie was quicker. "Will, could you do me a favor, please?," she asked, coming over to the two. "Hm? Sure, what is it?," he asked, looking at her with the same neutral expression.

"Would you do some grocery shopping for me? I'll be too busy for this, I'm afraid.," Kylie explained, giving him a large piece of paper, that looked, as if it had been written on on both of its sides in small writing and from that Sonic had no idea, where she had gotten it from so suddenly.

"Yeah, okay." The seme, apparently Will, took the paper without complaints. "Oh, and take Lunar with you, please, he knows, what brands I prefer.," Kylie added quickly.

"Alright.," Will shrugged and went off. Lunar followed him, whispering a 'Thank you' at Kylie, while passing her. Kylie bent down and murmured something quickly in his ear. Lunar grinned, nodded and ran after his boyfriend. Kylie smiled after them, before returning to Sonic and his friends.

Snow was gone again, searching for something else, it seemed, judging by his frantic racing between the tables.

Sonic had his attention on the human woman, as soon, as she was close to him. "How did this work?," he asked, meaning Will and Lunar. "Will is of the Dutiful type. They need tasks almost all the time, or they don't even move. Involving their mates in their duties is the only way for them to get them to interact with them."

"...Not a good relationship...," Sonic stated reluctantly. "As long as they are boyfriends, yes. However, as soon, as they are mates, he will see his partner's happiness as his priority-task and act like a completely normal guy towards his mate and his children. No other task can ever replace this one, or become more important."

"Then...why aren't they together like this already?" "Lunar's of the Careful type, who take up to sometimes two years to choose their partners after having first dated them. Will has yet to prove to him, that he is worth a lifelong relationship. Don't ask me, how exactly he can prove this – it's always different for each Careful type."

Sonic nodded in thought. "And what did you tell him, before he left?," he couldn't help, but ask. "That his family won't need to do grocery shopping for at least a month – I asked him to take all they will buy to his home, I don't need the stuff.," she grinned, Sonic mimicking her.

Knuckles cleared his throat to get their attention. "Can we go now?," he growled, obviously wanting to leave this place, before he got stuck somewhere else.

"Aaawww, do you have to?," Snow asked, coming to stand in front of Kylie, his hands behind his back.

Kylie smiled and went to sit on her ankles, to be closer to his eye level. "I'm afraid so, Snow, sorry. I need to work, you know?"

The young hedgehog bit his lip for a second, before he smiled bravely. "Okay. Here, this is for you!" He pulled his arms out from behind his back and presented her something, that looked like a mechanic blossom with a green painted, square shaped bottom and pink painted 'petals' out of several different segments, wrapping lightly around each other, imitating a real blossom.

"Wow.," Kylie whistled, impressed, and carefully pressed a button on the green part. Immediately, the petals opened with a tiny creak and semi-stiff movements, revealing a glass ball in their middle, about twice the size of a marble, that shone in all colors of the rainbow. "Oh, it's beautiful, thank you so much, Snow.," Kylie thanked him, gently petting his head, after closing the flower again, so nothing would break off accidentally.

The young boy giggled happily. "Next time, I'll make a much bigger one!" He stretched out his arms, indicating, that his next mechanic flower would be bigger and taller than him.

"And how will you get it out of here?," Kylie asked, amused. "Er..." Snow scratched his quills in thought, frowning. "No idea.," he finally admitted.

Kylie chuckled and started to scratch behind his ear, making him purr and lean into her touch. "You don't need to make a bigger one, this one here is just perfect. I'm sure, that you have a thousand other ideas, focus on those, okay?"

Snow grinned and saluted playfully. "Yes, mam!" "Good. I'll see you later, bye.," Kylie grinned back.

"Bye!," Snow waved happily, before running over to Alex, who pulled a stool beside him out from under the table in a seemingly practiced movement. Without hesitation, Snow plopped on it and began to chatter animatedly with him. Although Alex seemed rather quiet from what Sonic could see, the younger just continued to talk with him happily.

"Come on, let's go.," Kylie said silently, stood up and they went to the elevator, Amy trotting like hypnotized after them, staring at Sonic still. "May I look at this flower?," Tails asked on the way. "In a minute.," the woman smiled.

Once the elevator doors had closed, she handed him the object. "Here. Sorry to have you waiting, but Snow always gets jealous, when someone besides the intended has his presents in hands – even his bestest friend.," she added with a smirk, making Tails blush at the unofficial title.

"Why did he give you this thing anyway? Is today your birthday, or something like that?," Knuckles asked, while Tails examined the invention carefully.

"No, nothing like that. Snow loves it to gift mothers his inventions." "Mothers? So, Vanilla, too?," Sonic asked, confused as to why only mothers.

"And others, yes. Snow lost his mother three years ago due to an accident. He never saw it happening, her crippled form in hospital, or her body, before it got cremated, so he never had a chance to properly say goodbye and accept her death for himself. He has since then a strong attachment to female mothers – his mother had been also a female – and tries to gain their praise and loving warmth, that he lacks since his mother's death. Of course, we provide him with plenty of both here.," she ended with a smile.

"He must have worked for weeks on this.," Tails mused, carefully turning the flower to all sides, admiring the paintwork.

"How come, that Lunar isn't like Snow, then? He had lost his mother, too, hadn't he?," Sonic wondered.

"Lunar lost his mother shortly after he had been born. His father needed someone, who could raise the child, since he had no idea how, and he was lucky to find a female, who had lost her child a week after birth and could nurse and raise little Lunar like her own son. Seven years later, she became pregnant again and Lunar didn't fail to notice, how different his brother looked in comparison to himself. His father explained to him then, that they were just half-brothers. He loved his stepmother, just like he loves his brother, but when she died, his feelings didn't run THIS deep. His instincts never attached fully to her, so he didn't grieve too much."

"Does Snow know, that Lunar isn't his real brother?," Knuckles asked. "He came to that conclusion, when he had been three."

Sonic and Knuckles both stared at her. "He's as intelligent as Tails, so he didn't need much time to realize, that Lunar and their mother had nothing in common. But as you can see, this fact doesn't stop him from calling Lunar his brother, and not his half-brother. He is his big idol and he loves him very much.," Kylie grinned.

The elevator stopped, but, as Sonic saw, two floors under the one, where the foyer was. The door opened and revealed the turquoise furred cat from earlier behind it. She was having a black eye now and her nose was bleeding a bit. She looked surprised for a second, before she caught herself and entered. She looked at the panel, but didn't press a button, they were apparently going to her floor.

"Do I want to know, what happened?," Kylie asked with a raised brow. "Eh...probably not, no.," DJ grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head. "By the way, we should later talk about you playing with my scanner.," Kylie deadpanned. "Er..." DJ turned red and quickly looked away. She noticed Tails and started to giggle.

"Huh?," Tails asked, confused. "You look like a golden dalmatian!," DJ giggled, pointing at the oil stains in his fur.

The three male mobians looked at it. "Oh." They were so used to Tails' fur stained with all kinds of dirt and mechanic-related fluids, that they didn't realize, how it had to look for others, who weren't used to it.

"Want me to clean it for you?," DJ offered. "DJ...," Kylie growled warningly. The cat rolled her eyes. "Relax, I trained since last time. I promise, nothing will happen.," she reassured.

Kylie stared at her, her eyes narrowing, before sighing. "You better be extra careful.," she grumbled, giving her permission this way.

"You bet!," DJ grinned broadly and went closer to Tails, who shuffled back, holding Snow's invention like a shield in front of him. He didn't like, how the talk had went and he definitely didn't trust her.

In mere seconds, Knuckles and Amy, who was – for now – mentally with them again, were between DJ and the fox. "Hands off him!," the echidna snarled. "Who said, that I'm going to touch him?," the cat grinned, before her contours suddenly blurred – or that was, what Sonic was seeing.

Knuckles and Amy, however, looked around, confused, getting out of their fighting stances, as if they couldn't see the girl at all.

DJ moved forward and Sonic wasn't sure, if she slipped through a gap between the two, or through them. In front of Tails, who apparently couldn't detect her either, she stopped and stretched out her hand, letting it hover over one of his stains. He watched, how Tails' fur stood straight, while the stains just vanished one by one, when the girl's hand moved over them.

When she was done, her contours became sharp and clear again and Tails jumped back in shock, as if she had warped in front of him, while Amy and Knuckles whipped around to her. "How?," was all Knuckles could say.

DJ smirked. "Who knows~?," she asked with a singsong-voice, when the elevator stopped and the door opened.

She turned around and went out of the elevator, her eyes brushing over Sonic and her lips forming a knowing smirk, while she passed him. Amy and Knuckles backed off from her, while she passed them, they were a little intimidated by her strange ability. The cat stopped outside of the cabin and turned around to the hero halfway. "I'll tell Mina, that you said 'Hi'. You didn't, but she'll be happy to hear it – and I love to make her happy. Bye!" Waving, she turned back to walk away.

"What a strange girl.," Knuckles growled. Sonic just wanted to ask Kylie, what DJ's powers were, that she apparently had, when he heard a voice thundering towards them, that was quite familiar: "YOU WILL ANSWER ME, NOW!"


Sonic sighed. "Meet you in the foyer.," he grumbled, before dashing off towards exactly this room, to find his boyfriend – with freshly washed fur and quills – leaning over Mali's desk and touching noses with said human. Sonic hadn't noticed, when she had left the Garage. John was gone from sight.

"Sorry, but I don't answer questions, that are formulated like this. Politeness shouldn't be something you need to ask for, wouldn't you agree?," Mali replied calmly.

Shadow looked ready to tear out her throat, when Sonic cleared his own. The hedgehog whipped around to him and swallowed dryly, when he recognized him, looking rather... scared. Not scared of him like one would be scared of a monster, but as scared as someone, who had no idea about what his mate's next step would be.

Letting out Instinct Sonic had confused both of Shadow's personalities and they needed time to get used and familiar with their counterparts, instead of the opposite ones. Until they had arranged themselves, Sonic – and Shadow – would surprise their partner in more ways than just a good one, and definitely more than once.

"Shadow, leave Mali alone. What is the problem anyway?," Sonic ordered and asked. "Nothing, I guess.," Shadow quickly gave up and jumped off the desk.

Sonic rolled his eyes. "Shad, this isn't a battlefield, you don't need to worry about me all the time.," he effortlessly understood his boyfriend's motive. Instinct Sonic decided to let him add, "...unless you want me to bunk with Silver for a month – or maybe you'd prefer, if it was Happy?"

Conscious Sonic had no idea, why he had mentioned Happy, but Shadow's expression, that suddenly bordered to horror, let him take a wild guess: he apparently didn't like, that Happy had been this close to him earlier and the mere thought of him repeating that had to be like a nightmare coming true for the seme.

Sonic couldn't know, that Instinct and Conscious Shadow had had enough time to analyze Silver sufficiently. Both knew, that he was trustworthy, while Happy was completely new and therefore a potential danger. The two halves of the agent's personality were clever enough not to mention it, though, still remembering Sonic's reaction to their slightest doubt concerning his chances against Mephiles.

"I-I'll keep that in mind.," Shadow quickly tried to appease him. "Good.," Sonic nodded, just when Kylie and the others came to them. Kylie carried Snow's invention again, having it probably pried out of his brother's hands.

"I'll be in my office now, please don't let any calls through – unless they are important. Also, I'm expecting some test results, mostly from Thilo. Please bring them to me as soon as possible.," Kylie instructed Mali. "Of course, Dr. Ellen.," the woman smiled.

"Thank you. And here." She pulled out the sticky note from earlier and gave it Mali. "Please let Nicole do some calculations for this, okay?"

"Sure." Mali looked at the note, but didn't ask any questions, so the information on it was sufficient enough – or Mali could fill in the gaps on her own.

"Alright, let's go." Kylie waved them to follow her. The mobians nodded and followed the human, even Rouge, who had waited for Shadow in the foyer the whole time.


The walk towards the office was a quiet one, nobody spoke, until they reached the room. Only now, Tails noticed a few chairs on the other side of the door, apparently, to make waiting outside more comfortable, and on one of them the yellow hedgehog Zen, who was curled up, reading a book. He didn't even notice, that they were arriving, too engrossed in the pages.

Ignoring Zen, Kylie opened the door. "Mist? Are you there?," she called inside, but there was no ghost appearing, or books flying out of the shelf, so he was probably gone. Just to be safe, Kylie entered first, asking Sonic, who walked in last, to close the door.

After a last look at Zen, who was thankfully not accompanied by his horrifying twin this time, Sonic did so and came to sit on a chair in front of Kylie's desk, that had been moved in a way, that it was next to, yet away from Shadow's, just in the right distance.

Instinct Sonic wasn't impressed and refused to reward Shadow with a smile and a 'Thank you', but Conscious Sonic had no problem with that, liking, how Conscious Shadow blushed at his words and mimic. It was adorable. He was sure, that Instinct Shadow was pleased as well.

"Er...Kylie, are there already some results from your examinations?," Tails, who sat in the second row between Sonic and Shadow, asked carefully. "There are, but all negative, which is good, because it means, that there is no damage done to his head or insides. The test results we await now will hopefully help me understand his symptoms."

"Hopefully?! And if not!?," Shadow snarled. "How about we cross this bridge, when it comes to it?," Kylie replied, surprisingly enough shutting Shadow up. "While we wait," the woman continued, "I would love to explain something important to you, that is called 'Hierarchy of Hedgehogs'."

"Really!?," Tails asked excitedly and when Sonic turned to him, he saw, that his eyes were sparkling, as if his birthday and Christmas would be celebrated today. Noticing the odd looks he received from everyone, he turned beet red. "S-Sorry, I just found this term several times, when I researched, before and after the Island, but I never found a real explanation... for quite a few things, I'm afraid...," he admitted sheepishly.

"No surprise there, most of the books concerning ukes outside the Shelter are fairy tales at best, if even. How about a deal? I'll tell you, what I have to say – and then you can ask me all questions bothering you. Er... at least, until 8 pm. I'm always bringing Van to bed to this time and end my day with paperwork.," she quickly added, since she had no idea, how many questions would come.

Tails nodded quickly. "Of course, no problem.," he reassured. That would give him several hours for getting answers.

"Good." Kylie pulled out some kind of chart from behind her desk. On it was a pyramid-like structure, that was built out of four lines of little, colorful squares. The bottom line showed four different shades of brown, the one above it the colors red, blue and yellow, the next two squares were of a silver and a golden color and the top being black with a white question mark in it.

"This here is the Hierarchy of the ukes and females in hedgehog colonies. Until today, your instincts keep this hierarchy unconsciously.", she started.

"And what about the semes?," Shadow asked with a raised brow. "They have a so called 'Dynamic Hierarchy'. That means, that they orientate themselves after their mates. If a seme has a partner, who is a Delta, he is also considered one, if they break up and he dates a Gamma, he is automatically 'upgraded'. They do have a certain system, based on their appearance, until they are mated. This system is divided in classes, just like the hierarchy of ukes and females, but it isn't formed like a pyramid. If I had a picture like this one here for semes, then it would consist out of one square at the bottom and a long line of twelve more above it, all equal."

"Why would there be only one at the the bottom?," Tails wondered. "This are the semes, who have no special powers since birth. It is quite known, that Chaos Energy, the source of all the different abilities you mobians – and in rarer cases we humans – have, has an influence on the appearance. Most people with special abilities have colorful fur, scales or feathers, those without them seem rather...ordinary, which has a reason, too – they can hide easier, since they have usually no other way of defending themselves. In the case of hedgehogs, they have usually brown or gray fur, when they belong to those, no matter if uke, female, or seme."

"What about those other classes? I mean, why are they divided in those, when the semes are equally anyway?," Rouge asked with a raised brow.

"Each seme-class is connected with certain values. Shadow, for example, belongs to the – and I'm not making that up – the 'Shadow Class'. Those have all mostly black fur and are known as silent hunters and efficient warriors. They are seen as great potential fathers and mates and in older days, during the times of the colonies, they were pretty much wanted by every uke or female."

"Mephiles belongs also to the Shadow Class?," Shadow asked. "Indeed." "What about Fleetway?," he asked about the only other seme he cared to know about. "He belongs to the Lightning Class. They have light yellow fur, are too quick in their judgment and can easily become very dangerous for others..."

"You've got to be kidding me! Are you implying, that Fleetway might be stronger than me!?," Shadow shouted angrily, jumping up and slamming his hands on her desk in rage. He – and less dangerous than Fleetway!? He saw that as a personal insult!

Kylie barely twitched at his outburst. "The only reason, why semes like Fleetway are considered as more dangerous, is, because those are unpredictable. If someone would harm Sonic or Silver, it is pretty much clear, that you and Mephiles will kill the attacker, if not stopped. If the mate of a seme of the 'Lightning Class' gets purposefully hurt, it is impossible to foresee, how he will react. It ranges from the torture of the attacker to the genocide of the attacker's complete race."

The mobians stared at her with dropped jaws. "Don't worry, the Lightning Class is the smallest of all, there are roughly 50 of them all over the world and most mobians know, that they shouldn't mess with them – unless they have a good reason, of course.," she added, looking at Shadow, who reluctantly sat down again, not turning to Sonic, since he knew, that he would see disapproval for his actions in his eyes, if he did.

Kylie placed the chart on her desk and held it upright with her hand, so that everyone could see it.

"This here is the general pattern of the Hierarchy. Unlike the semes, ukes can't change their rank, they are born into it. Most of the time, though, it's not that bad, almost all colonies treated all parts of the Hierarchy equally and nowadays, it doesn't have that much influence. The bottom of this Hierarchy is formed by the Deltas, also called the Earth Class. As I said, these hedgehogs have either brown, or gray fur and no special powers. The semes, who have no powers either, are of the Autumn Class. These classes make out about 50% of the entire hedgehog race." She pointed to the bottom row while saying this.

"Next we have the Gammas, also called the Rainbow Class, who make about 30% of the hedgehog race. They have fur with bright colors and almost all special powers. They are mainly responsible for the protection of the young, together with the semes."

"Sonic and I are both Gammas, right!?," Amy asked excitedly, not even noticing, that she had interrupted the woman. Kylie just smiled, but it was enough for Amy, she grinned triumphantly at Sonic, who rather ignored her. She seemed to think, that that fact alone had to mean something.

"Next we have the Betas, the Noble Class. They have always fur of a pure silver, golden or white color and it's characteristic for them, that they have only in rare cases a second color mixed in their fur. They are stronger than the Gammas and protect the colony like the semes do. The Shadow Class often pairs up with them, by the way.," Kylie continued.

"So Silver is a Beta.," Sonic thought. It gave him a slight pinch, that Silver would be stronger than him one day, but not much.

"Last, we have the Alpha. Just one strong uke or female, who has authority over all other hedgehogs of the colony and protects every single one of them."

Kylie paused for a second. "The reason, why I told you this, is simple: Sonic, you are an Alpha.," she announced with a clear voice and looked said hedgehog dead in the eye.


Sonic's mouth dropped open and his head was pounding angrily, while he desperately tried to process that.

"I'm...what?," he managed to ask after several minutes of silence. "You are an Alpha.," Kylie repeated patiently. "B-but, I thought, that I was a Gamma!" Helplessly, Sonic gestured towards Amy behind him. "Oh, Alphas always look like a Beta, Gamma, or Delta, that's, why this square doesn't have its own color.," Kylie explained easily, not even having to think about it.

"B-but what makes you think, that I of all people am an Alpha?," Sonic asked, feeling, that he started to sweat.

"Well, for one, hedgehogs are prey mobians. If there's a danger, like Eggman attacking, for example, their first impulse is it to flee. Only Alphas jump immediately in the danger – with a big grin on their faces.," she chuckled.

"Well, maybe my instincts just don't work this way...," Sonic tried to explain himself out of Kylie's assumption.

Kylie sighed. She should have known, that Sonic wouldn't be this accepting. "Tails, Amy, would you please block your ears for a sec?"

"Why?," both asked simultaneously. "I need to explain something to Sonic, that you can't handle, yet. I'll give you a sign, when it is alright to listen again." She raised her thumb to show them the mentioned sign.

Both mobians scowled, but obeyed, keeping their eyes glued on her, either to try and read her lips, or to not miss the sign.

"Sonic, I will need to reveal a few things happening on the Island. Is it okay, that Knuckles and Rouge will listen?," Kylie asked.

Sonic blinked at first, surprised, but then, he nodded. He trusted Knuckles completely and as secretive, as Rouge was, she wouldn't talk about what she would hear with another person.

"Alright. The one, who found out about you being an Alpha, had been Perringten." Sonic and Shadow went stiff upon hearing that name. "Perringten had already heard of the Hierarchy long, before he had begun with the Island-project. He had collected a lot of data about it and had been able to categorize you accordingly. He had come to the conclusion, that you are an Alpha mostly, because of your behavior in emergency-situations, but there had been more. He found out, that your body is producing a pheromone, that only Alphas produce and give out. It tells every seme smelling it, that you already have a mate and to stay away. This pheromone is absolutely unique, only Alphas produce it. To top it off, Perringten found a large reservoir of Chaos Energy in you, that no other hedgehog of any rank has."

"A reservoir?," Sonic wondered. "Every mobian has more Chaos Energy in him or her, than what they are actively using. They usually set it free in emergencies only, which – for some people – never happens. If you would compare the amount of energy with that of water, then most mobians have a carafe full of extra-Chaos Energy at their disposal. Gammas have a 10-liter bucket, filled to the brim, Betas and most semes a filled bathtub, also filled to the brim and Alphas like you have a lake after a rain period – usually overflowing. When Perringten's men tried to measure your energy once, their instruments pretty much exploded in their faces." "Serves them right.," Shadow growled.

"Do you understand now, why you are categorized as an Alpha?," Kylie asked, ignoring Shadow.

Sonic nodded, frowning. He understood now, too why the scared Happy – and, if he thought further back, many others in the past – had trusted him so easily. He had apparently something, that identified him as a trustworthy Alpha. "So, do you want me to -what? build a colony, or something like that?," he asked, his whole body tense.

Kylie chuckled, while giving Tails and Amy the sign to listen in again. "Sonic, you are already sitting in a part of your colony.," she smiled.

"I do?" Sonic actually tempted to look around, as if he would then see other people there. "But – besides Amy and Shads – they aren't hedgehogs!," he protested at the same time, as Knuckles growled, "I won't listen to him, ever!".

"Nobody said they have to be hedgehogs – or that you have to.," Kylie reacted to both of their protests with one sentence. "While many mobians preferred to stay among their own kind, hedgehogs gladly accepted other races in their middle, even humans at times. And Alphas have each a different way to 'rule' over their colonies. Some are very strict and demand respect, seeing them as their people, pretty much their servants, others see their colonies as one big family. I'm very sure, that Sonic belongs to those. He sees you all as family and respects you all equally, while earning himself your respect individually." Knuckles just stared at her, his jaw slack.

"What kind of Alpha are you, then?," Sonic asked. This surprised Kylie actually, but she recovered quickly. "You're right, I am an Alpha, too, for this colony named the Uke Shelter. I am mostly like you behavior-wise, but since I am a human, it takes me more time to earn the trust of my colony. For you, it's something natural, that you don't even need to think about, but for me, it's a daily struggle – that I love nonetheless.," she ended with a grin. After all, the struggle was worth it.

"How come, that Alphas look like ukes of another rank?," Rouge asked, interested. "It's for safety reasons. I read once the real story of an assassin called Jack the Wolf, who lived, when there had been still colonies. He had been assigned to kill the Alpha of a hedgehog colony."

"Why?," Tails wondered. "It wasn't written there, but to this time, territory wars were quite common. Whoever hired him, probably wanted to drive the hedgehogs away to live on their land and without their Alpha, it would have worked. Jack did his job well, he spied on the Alpha for weeks and found out quickly, that he was pregnant and therefore very moody. He waited for him to kick out his seme for the night, before he made his way stealthily in the Alpha's bedroom, to kill him in his sleep. When he entered the bedroom, however, he almost got a heart attack upon seeing not one, but ten hedgehogs sleeping there on the spacious bed. All having the same fur color, the same quill style and all pregnant. They slept so close to each other, that their scents mingled with each other. Jack knew, that he would need to guess, but if he killed one, he would wake the other nine and they wouldn't hesitate to kill him in return."

"What did he do?," Tails asked curiously. "Since he lived to tell the tale, he did the only thing reasonable – he left the way he had come."

"Why didn't he see these hedgehogs enter?" "He couldn't. Most prey mobians built several exits in their houses or huts – obvious and secret ones. Whenever night fell and the Alpha didn't want his seme around, he let in hedgehogs, that looked like him, through a secret tunnel, to hide in the mass."

"And if the Alpha would have had an unique fur color, that barely someone else had? Then this trick wouldn't have worked, would it?," Rouge wondered.

"This never happened. In fact, there were miraculously born many children after the new Alpha, who had the same fur color and shade. Some scientists presume, that the life in the colony is responsible for that. It had an impact on the DNA and behavior of the hedgehogs and caused them to have certain color patterns of their fur and imitate his life choices. For example, they felt the urge to become pregnant, when their Alpha looked for a mate. I even read a story, in that several ukes looking like their Alpha even poisoned themselves, when said Alpha had been poisoned as well. Also, there are reports, that in one colony, all ukes were born with purple fur, no matter, what their parents had looked like, because their Alpha had had purple fur, too. Apparently this had been a measure to protect the Alpha."

"But we don't have colonies anymore! I mean, are there still Alphas?," Tails asked confused.

"Yeah, there are. Just like Sonic, they create their own unusual colonies and have therefore often jobs, in that they are the boss of several people, like CEO, director, etc. Since this aren't real colonies, this influence I spoke of before won't be in effect. This also goes for you. So don't worry about getting blue furred offspring or becoming speed-fanatics.," she joked. "You better hope so.," Knuckles grumbled under his breath.

"Does Sonic being an Alpha change anything?," Tails asked curiously. "Not much, but he will definitely come more often here. The Shelter is, as already mentioned, like a colony and I'm its Alpha. Since I'm human and lack the necessary instincts, Sonic will feel the need to check up on this place regularly, probably for as long as it exists. Also, there will always be semes trying to hit on him."

"Even though he has a mate?," Shadow asked with a silent growl. "Especially because he has a mate.," Kylie corrected. "An Alpha in a relationship shows them, that he – or she – is generally ready for a mate. Many try to prove to the Alpha, that they might be a better choice than his or her actual mate."

"You mean, all those guys trying to hit on me...?," Sonic trailed off with wide eyes. He had thought, that it had been connected with the Island, but this was something else – and definitely not something, that would cancel itself out, then.

"Let me guess, you let Shadow chase them away? Next time, do it yourself. Let Instinct Sonic do the talking and acting, it'll chase them off for real – or at least lets them change tactics."

"Change tactics?," Sonic asked. "Their first tries had been for sure quite plump, because of your reputation as hero, that comes naturally with some prejudices. When you cast them off, they will think of another strategy."

"So they will try to attack Sonic.," Shadow concluded, hissing. "Shadow this isn't Paradise. Most of the semes trying to flirt with Sonic won't be high – and the exceptions, who will be, won't attack him. As a mature Alpha, Sonic's scent, mixed with the previously mentioned pheromones, will tell them, that they shouldn't mess with him and keep their hands to themselves. Instead, they will try to convince him, that they are better suited to be the Alpha's mate by showing, that they are strong, smart and a thousand other things. Don't worry, it will be mostly annoying, nothing more. Most semes get the message after the second or third turn down."

"Is there no way around it?," Sonic asked, with a silent beg in his voice. He REALLY didn't want to know, how many semes were interested in him! Especially, since not alone hedgehogs had shown interest...

"There are four ways I know. The first is pregnancy – no male, who you don't know, would approach you, until you have given birth. Ukes can get very dangerous, when they protect their young. The second way is wearing something, that has Shadow's scent strongly on it, like a scarf, a pullover, something like that. It will tell every seme approaching you, that you are taken – and don't intend on changing this fact. It won't stop all of the semes, but most of them. The third way is going out and doing something with another seme, who is your friend, in public. It'll give other interested semes the impression, that you already have a new boyfriend and this will let the less confident ones back off. The fourth way is a herb, that wards off semes. They can't smell it without feeling sick. The only problem with it is, that it will ward off EVERY seme, also the ones, that you'll want close to yourself. Also, you will need to take a long shower, before you can go close to Shadow – or another seme – again."

"Is that the same herb, that is in the bathroom doors?," Tails asked curiously. "You heard of that? Yes, indeed it is."

Sonic remembered the discomfort it had caused Shadow and Knuckles before. "I'll consider it, if I can't keep them at bay otherwise.," he decided.

"Alright th-" A ringing interrupted Kylie and she pulled out her mobile, looking at the screen, before answering. She didn't speak, just listened for a few seconds, before hanging up and standing up.

"Sorry, I need to attend a little issue for a few minutes. I'll be back shortly, feel yourself at home, okay? And if you need something, Mali's number is under her name in the phone.," she explained, pointing at said device on the desk, almost hidden behind a mountain of files.

"Can I go through some of the books?," Tails asked quickly, before she could leave. "Sure, just please put them back where you got them from – they are in a specific order.," Kylie explained. "Of course.," the male nodded and the woman left, closing the door behind her.

Shadow looked over at Sonic to see him deep in thought. "How are you holding up?," he asked lowly.

A blue ear twitched and turned to him. "I'm not sure, to be honest. This Alpha-thing is big news. I don't think, that I like it.," Sonic replied silently, looking at Kylie's desk without seeing it.

"All the future flirts?," Shadow wondered. Sonic scoffed. "The responsibility. I can handle the flirts, but being an Alpha is like putting mountains on my shoulders."

"You think?," Shadow asked. Sonic shrugged. "I'm not sure, what being an Alpha really means. If I can live up to the title. Being a hero is hard enough, to lead so many people... Not sure, if I could do that."

"I'm sure, that you can. You are always there for your friends without having to think about it. I'm certain, that this new bit of information from Kylie won't change you in the slightest, you're too strong.," Shadow stated, as if it was a law of nature. Sonic whipped around and stared at him, surprised. Not a single shred of uncertainty or doubt was in his ruby eyes.

After the first shock, he grinned. "You're sometimes too sweet, Shads." He loved the blush his words caused. He would love to kiss him right now, but Instinct Sonic protested harshly, making his headache worse.

The mobians jumped, when the door got thrown open suddenly and shouts of 'Mama!' echoed through the room.

Sonic turned around to see a young human girl, a young hedgehog, a young mouse and a familiar rabbit and silver colored hedgehog standing there, looking surprised, that Kylie wasn't in the room.

The human girl was without a doubt Kylie's daughter, Vanessa. She had the face and black hair of her mother, that was tied into two pigtails with dark green ribbons on both sides of her head. She had icy blue eyes, most likely her father's, and wore a light green summer dress and matching sandals.

The hedgehog was a girl, with light pink fur, the color closer to white, than to pink, actually, and light olive green eyes. She wore a white dress with short sleeves and red sandals. Her bent down quills were bound in two pigtails, looking similar to Vanessa's. Golden rings decorated her thin wrists, they were almost too big for her and seemed ready to slip off her every minute now. For some reason, Sonic had the feeling, that he had seen the girl somewhere already...

The mouse was also female and Sonic recognized her, she was one of the two girls running after Mighty and Shy on that picture in the newspaper. She wore a clean orange dress with a slightly darker ribbon, tied around her waist and ending in a bow at her right side. She also had a matching bow close to the tip of her tail, but neither shoes, nor gloves. Around her wrists were also ribbons with bows of a silver color.

Cream had Cheese in her arm and was accompanied by a dog with gray fur and pointy ears, who reached her waist easily.

Sonic hoped, that it was a dog for real, because it looked rather...wolfish, especially with the yellow eyes, that seemed fixated on him. Silver just poked in his head, looking surprised... and for some reason worried.

"I thought, your mama was here?," the mouse finally broke the silence, that had reigned for a few minutes.

"Usually, she is.," Vanessa replied with a pout. "Huh?," she asked and looked down, when she felt the hedgehog girl cling to the back of her dress. Although there seemed to be only about two years of age between the two girls, the mobian was just about half of the human's size. She used the taller girl as a hiding spot, it seemed, since she was trembling and had her eyes screwed shut in fear.

Just now, Vanessa seemed to notice the room's occupants. She stared for a good minute at Sonic, her jaw dropped, before returning to her scared friend, when she whimpered a little.

"Hope, they are just mobians, normal people. Mama wouldn't let them in, if they were bad, you KNOW that.," she tried to reassure the younger, but Hope didn't seem to listen, she just shook her head, hiding more.

Sonic's eyes widened, when he saw, that something white soundlessly appeared next to the hedgehog girl. It was a mature hedgehog with white fur, who was halfway transparent. This was apparently Mist, the friendly ghost 'living' in Kylie's office. He didn't seem scary at all, but it didn't seem, as if he was aiming for that effect, either.

Smiling, he bent down and gently moved his hand over Hope's head. Although he didn't touch her – which was probably not even possible, if he tried – Hope looked up, as if she had felt it. Her whole face lit up.

"Oh, Mist, you're back!," she cheered happily, turning fully around to him, letting go of Vanessa. The ghost smiled, not saying anything. Sonic wasn't even sure, if Mist could actually speak. Hope and the others obviously didn't expect him to, they happily greeted him, accepting his smile as his only response without a problem.

"Look, what I drew!," Hope said happily, pulling a piece of paper out of her backpack and showing it to the ghost. "See, I drew you, too, because you're part of my family!," she explained, pointing on something in the drawing Sonic couldn't see.

Mist looked sadder at hearing that, but he quickly covered his apparently dampened mood up and just showed her a happy smile, when the girl looked up again. "Everyone said, that I can draw really good! Do you think, that they are right?," Hope asked excitedly. Mist grinned at her and nodded, petting her head like he had before. It made the girl beam happily.

"Waah, Silver!," Vanessa suddenly shrieked, making Sonic jump and whip around to see her being held in midair by Silver's psychokinesis, that formed a bubble around her. She was closer to him now, he had been too caught up in Mist's and Hope's talk to notice her approaching.

"Silver, you're MEAN!," the girl screamed with such a high pitched voice, that all mobians winced.

"Sorry, but I only mean well.," Silver tried to soothe her, bringing her closer to himself with his powers.

"Why!? I finally meet Sonic the Hedgehog! You know, how much I dreamed of this day!," the girl complained, her arms crossed. Apparently, Silver didn't hold her body, but just the air around her, since she could still move.

"I know, Van, I know, but the problem is, that...er..." Silver frowned a little, seemingly trying desperately to think of a good reason, since the truth was apparently not an option. Suddenly, his face lit up, he had obviously an idea. "Because Sonic ate raspberries recently!," he exclaimed victoriously.

Sonic blinked. What kind of lie was this? He had already figured, that Silver was preventing Vanessa from touching him, but this seemed to be the most ridiculous way to achieve this.

Vanessa looked at the Beta, before throwing her head back, looking at the ceiling. "That's so totally unfair!," she grumbled.

Gently, Silver let her down on her feet. "Maybe you can't touch him, but you can still talk. Just...er...keep a distance. You know, just to be safe.," he tried to cheer her up.

"Yeah, yeah.," the girl sighed and went to Sonic, unintentionally keeping the distance the hero was comfortable with.

"Hi, I'm Vanessa Ellen.," she introduced herself with a voice so sad, as if her beloved pet had just died.

"Why so glum?," Sonic asked gently. "I have always wanted to hug you, just once, but I can forget that now.," she sighed. "Because I ate raspberries?," Sonic wondered, playing along with Silver's lie.

"Yeah. I'm very allergic to raspberries. One drop of their juice on your fur with me touching it or a whiff of it in your breath with me breathing it in, and my face will swell like a balloon and I won't be able to breathe, unless I get an injection with...some stuff.," she ended, frowning, obviously not remembering the exact name of her medicament against allergies.

"That's a severe reaction.," Tails commented from where he stood in front of the bookshelf, an open book in his hands.

"I know, right?," Vanessa replied sadly. "Mama and Alex and Hope and nobody interacting with me can't ever eat raspberries, unless I'm not present for the next 24 hours. I hate being a burden to them.," she added, sounding pretty depressed, which just didn't suit a girl of her age.

"I don't think, that they see you as a burden. They love you all very much.," Sonic tried to calm her down.

Vanessa took a deep breath and forced a brave smile. "I know, thank you. Oh, did you meet my sister, yet?," she asked at once, with a big grin.

Before Sonic could process, that Kylie had apparently two daughters, Vanessa had turned around and pulled the startled Hope over to them. "Come on, introduce yourself!," she encouraged, before the girl had realized, what had happened. Blinking at the human girl, Hope turned around to Sonic, blushing insecurely. "H-Hi. I-I'm Hope Ellen. Nice to meet you, I guess.," she mumbled.

While Vanessa berated her, that the 'I guess' at the end of her sentence was inappropriate, the mobians around Sonic tried to process that fact.

Kylie had adopted a mobian hedgehog? This was more than just unusual, it was never heard of! Humans and mobians were too different for a human to try and raise a mobian – or the other way round. How had Kylie thought this would work? There would be things like grooming or quill care, that she couldn't teach a hedgehog, because she didn't have fur, or quills. Or mobian instincts – wasn't she aware of the fact, that humans didn't have them? How was she supposed to explain them to her?

"Who are your real parents?," Shadow's voice cut through the talk of the girls. Both turned to him.

Hope blinked up at the hedgehog, who was towering over her, piercing her with glowing eyes. "Mama is my parent.," she answered confused, her head tilted to the side. "No, she isn't. I'm talking about your real parents.," Shadow growled.

"Like you're one to talk.," an icy voice said from the doorway and when the friends turned around, they saw Alex leaning in the door frame. "As far as I'm concerned, YOU don't have something, that you could call 'parents', correct?" His voice was as cold as his glare. "How would you know that?," Shadow asked angrily. Alex smirked. "I have my ways."

"Lexy!," Hope cried and ran to him. Alex immediately bent down and picked her up, when she jumped into his chest. "Mama is my mama, right?," the girl sobbed, looking up at him with teary eyes.

The teen's glare softened. "But of course she is and you're our sister." He hugged her gently, the young girl pretty much swallowed by his form. "Remember, what mom told you once? We are a family, no matter, who says the opposite. Our blood is red," He showed her the clotted cut on his cheek, "our hearts beat synchronously," Hope placed her ear against his chest, while having one of her hands over her own heart, listening and feeling with closed eyes for a few seconds, before listening further to his words, "and we dream the same dreams." The girl giggled, apparently remembering some funny memory at hearing that. "That's enough, don't you think?," Alex ended, smiling. Hope looked up to him again and nodded, sniffing a little still.

Alex smiled down on her and petted her quills gently. "How about some ice cream? I'll pay!," he grinned. Hope wiped away her tears. "Ch-Chocolate ice cream?," she sniffed. "Of course. Everything for our little princess."

Hope giggled again. Giving her a small peck on the forehead, Alex let her down. "Do you two want to join us?," he asked Cream and Silver, who had anxiously followed the conversation.

"Um...are you sure?," the bunny asked. "Sure, I have enough money – unless one of you decides to try out every sort of ice cream there is. Then... I'll have a problem.," he admitted sheepishly.

The two mobians laughed. "Okay, thank you!," Silver grinned happily. "How about you two go and inform Cream's mother? I'm sure, that you're faster, when you use Silver's psychokinesis – and don't forget to inform Mephiles.," he suggested and added.

"Okay, come on!," Silver cheered and let Cream, Hope and himself hover, the girls giggling happily.

The wolf...dog, whatever... was also hovering, but then it whined and Silver let him go again, placing him carefully on his paws. "Sorry, Curi.," he apologized.

The wolfish dog just barked at him in what seemed to be acceptance and scratched his ear. "Go ahead, we'll meet you in the foyer!," Alex waved and the trio took off, waving, too.

Once they were gone, Alex whipped around to Shadow, his eyes ablaze with fury. "Van, go to the foyer.," he ordered coldly.

Looking to the girl, Sonic noticed, that she was also staring at Shadow, tears in her slightly red eyes, that looked like burning ice now. She didn't move, ignoring her brother.

"Emma?," Alex tried further, but the mouse girl, that everyone had temporarily forgotten, stared without listening at Knuckles, as if he was abstract art. The echidna, who had only now become aware of her staring, waved his hand in front of her face, but she didn't even blink.

"Fantastic.," the male teen grumbled, before marching past the mouse and his sister towards Shadow, hovering over him like he had before with Hope. "Listen here, if you so much as look at Hope one more time, you will wish, that you have never been mixed together in your space-laboratory, did I make myself clear?," he growled lowly, his voice too low for Vanessa to hear it.

Shadow's eyes widened. "How do you know that?," he asked with a hiss. Alex smirked coldly. "Oh, I have my resources – and they know a LOT more. You wouldn't like it, if I would publish them, would you? Could happen, that somebody actually finds a weakness of the 'Ultimate Lifeform'."

"I have no weakness!," Shadow hissed. "Everything has a weakness and I GLADLY spend the rest of my life finding yours. I happen to know a certain seme of the Shadow Class, who would for sure assist me..."

"You don't threaten me, human!," Shadow snarled, when a sharp bark let everyone jump and whip around to the dog, who was for some reason standing in the middle of the room now and was barking at the surprised Sonic, who had stood up, when the situation had become pretty tense, to deescalate it somehow. Its yellow eyes were gleaming dangerously and it looked ready to attack every second now.

"Curi, enough, don't kill the hero.," a bored voice said and they looked to the door to see Scythe there. The animal immediately backed off, running to her.

"See, this is, why I don't want to leave my office for long. There ALWAYS happens something, when I'm away.," Kylie told her, appearing next to the tall hedgette with her arms crossed.

"At least there aren't some people doing 'you know what' on your desk again.," Scythe shrugged, kneeling on the ground to pet Curi.

"I would actually prefer that.," Kylie sighed and made her way in the room. She petted Emma's head while passing her, which let the mouse blink and look around, as if she had no idea, where she was.

Reaching her son, who avoided her glare, Kylie looked at Shadow. "Shadow, maybe you should go and get some fresh air.," she suggested. As heated, as the situation had become, distance was probably the best way to cool all parties down.

Shadow's quills bristled. "You dare to-" "Mephiles.," Kylie interrupted him and said seme appeared behind her. "Yes?" "Keep Shadow with you for a bit, will you – and please don't kill him, okay?," Kylie quickly added.

"Very well." Black tentacles grabbed the agent's neck and arms and they vanished, before he could even give a noise of protest.

"Good. Now, Alex, I get, why you did that, but I don't want to hear you say words like these ever again."

"Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. I...er...got a little distracted, I guess.," Alex grimaced. "Understandable, but don't let it happen again.," Kylie told him.

"Yeah." The teen nodded. "Alright. As far as I remember, you have invited a few kids to ice cream. Don't let them wait – or they get angry.," Kylie grinned. Alex smirked. "Sure. Are you coming, Van?," he asked his sister, but she didn't answer.

Her head hung low, a shadow was over her face and she was trembling hard. Her teeth were gnawing her bottom lip and tears ran down her cheeks. "M-Mama.," she whispered.

"Yes?," Kylie asked, kneeling down next to her with a worried expression. "A-are we bad people?," Van asked, meekly.

"No, why do you ask?," her mother replied, surprised. "Th-then wh-why does e-everyone hate us?," she asked, crying a little harder. "Everyone at school says, that we're not normal and the people in the city say, that we're monsters and even...even papa s-said, that H-Hope-"

"Who cares about what this bastard says!?," Alex snarled harshly, making her flinch and cry harder.

"Alex, don't talk like this with your sister.," Kylie scolded, before taking Vanessa in her arms, gently running her hand over her back soothingly. "You're right, that many people are currently against us – and I'm sorry, that I couldn't protect you from that as much as I had wanted. Remember how I told you, that what we are doing is unique? You see, humans fear, what they don't understand and many can't understand, that we just want to love Hope, no matter, who she is. And now, I want you to listen, okay?"

Vanessa sniffed and nodded, snuggling closer to her. "There will always be people against you. Against your style, against your opinion, against your ideas or choices. It won't be always this many people, don't worry and I want you to remember always, that you will get over those hardships, okay? Just remember, that one day, the hardships will be over and you will be accepted. And your family and true friends will always be there for you." The young girl nodded hesitantly, the topic apparently a little overwhelming for her.

"Do you love Hope?," Kylie asked with a smile, gently loosening her hold to look down on her daughter. "Of course, I love her more, than Alex! Sisters are far better, than brothers!," Vanessa immediately replied, causing her mother to chuckle. "Wow, thanks, Van, I feel so loved right now.," Alex sighed sarcastically.

Ignoring him, Kylie gently tapped her daughter's chest. "Keep this love you feel right now exactly in there and whenever someone criticizes you for it, just remember, that Hope will always be home to greet you, even after the most horrible day."

Vanessa nodded, seemingly in thought. "Will... the people understand...one day?," she asked hesitantly. "Some will, others won't. You can't force your opinion on others, you can only show them yours and let them decide, if they want to follow it, or not." Vanessa frowned, trying to understand this.

Kylie smiled and gently stroke her head. "Don't worry, you don't need to concern yourself with that, yet. If anyone gets mean towards you again, just let me know and I take care of it, okay?"

"Or Alex does it!," Vanessa added with a big grin. "Or Alex, true.," Kylie agreed. "Or Mali. Or DJ! Oh, or Mighty! Or Scythe! And Curi!" Grinning, she looked over her mother's shoulder at the duo. Scythe looked up at being addressed, found the light blue eyes and smirked. "Sure, one word of you and I'll be there."

Vanessa giggled. "See? You have so many friends to help you – and your family, too.," Kylie grinned.

The girl nodded, much happier now. She let herself out of her mother's arms, but stilled, when she came face to face with Sonic.

She bit her lip, before she stammered, "I...a-are you...I... I mean...is Hope...okay for you?" Sonic blinked, before realizing, what she meant.

He paused for a second, thinking. Then, he smiled. "I'll be honest, you surprised me a little there, but I'm having an adopted brother, too, so I understand you. And you are really a great family together. Hope is lucky to have you."

Vanessa blushed in joy and seemed tempted to hug him, but hugged her mother instead, thankfully.

"And we're happy and lucky and thankful to have Hope. She's an angel.," Alex mused. "And me?," Vanessa asked with a pout. "A brat of course.," Alex smirked. Van scowled and stuck out her tongue at him.

"Enough. Now, you two, don't let your friends wait any longer.," Kylie stopped the fight, before it could start.

"Okay! Come on, Emma, race you!," Vanessa cheered and the two girls almost ran Scythe over on their way outside.

"She cries – and two seconds later, she's happy again. My sister will conquer the planet.," Alex shook his head. "She is a strong little girl, true. By the way, I expect, that you apologize to Shadow.," Kylie replied.

"Yeah, not going to happen." His eyes slipped over to Sonic, who raised a brow. "Sorry, but I can't stand guys, who are too narrow-minded to give something unusual a chance. And I honestly don't care, what his past looked like – I'm not ashamed for speaking my mind. And that's final!" With that, he stormed out of the room.

"I'm not sure, if I should be proud, or angry.," Kylie shook her head after him. "Go for proud, he has a strong will, just like you.," Scythe replied for her and stood up with Curi in her arms. "I'll be going then."

"Yeah, thank you, for everything.," Kylie replied. "No problem. Call me for anything." Waving, Scythe turned to her left, going deeper in the building, passing Zen on her way.

Said hedgehog looked up just long enough to see the yellow eyes of the animal staring at the seat next to him, until it couldn't see it anymore from its position. "Hm, interesting.," Zen thought, before returning to his book.

In her office, Kylie took a deep breath. "Sorry for all the stress here. I'll step out for a minute and be right back, alright?," she apologized. "Don't you think, that you have something to explain?," Knuckles growled.

Kylie smiled. "I adopted Hope two years ago – and this is all I will say for as long as Tails and Amy are present. Excuse me for a minute." With that, she exited her office and closed the door.

She leaned against the wood of said door, just when she had closed it, taking a second to collect herself.

"Mist?," she eventually called silently. A silver shine appeared on one of the seats next to Zen. Kylie moved over to see the ghost sit there, shining in a dark silver, a murderous glare in his teary eyes. The silvery tears running down his cheeks pooled between his feet to a puddle, that moved, as if something wanted to rise out of it.

"Mist." She knelt down in front of him. "I know, that my friend upset you, but I assure you, he didn't mean it. Shadow grew up around humans. Although he had friends there, most saw him just as an experiment. After what happened on the Island, I don't blame him for assuming, that I have something evil in mind for our little Hope. Do you understand?," Kylie asked, gently.

Mist looked at her, scowled and turned his head away, but the silvery fluid disappeared and so did he, probably to calm down.

"These mobians just love to shake up my life, don't they?," Kylie thought, allowing herself a small burst of annoyance, before brushing her ponytail off her shoulder and straightening.

"Mephiles?," she called and the seme appeared, together with Shadow, who he held with his tentacles like before. Both had bruises and cuts littering their bodies, that were already in the process of healing. Shadow was also covered partly by something, that looked like ice.

"I'm not going to ask. Thanks for your help, Mephiles, you can release him now.," Kylie ordered.

Shadow glared at her, when he was released and Mephiles' presence – and Sonic's predictable fury – seemed to be the only things stopping him from attacking the woman. "How does this boy know about my past?," he accused. "I didn't tell him anything, although I could, I know probably more about you, than Alex. To answer your question, he hacked into the GUN systems.," Kylie immediately cut off his assumptions. She would never gossip about her friends, not even with her son.

"And how would you know something about me?" "Mephiles thought I should know.," Kylie grumbled at the dark seme, who shrugged. "You wanted to know."

"Not about the splitting headache, that came with it. I was bedridden for three days – do you have any idea, what that means for a single mother!?"

"How do YOU know of my past!?," Shadow snarled at his non-related twin, interrupting the fight between the two.

"Remember, I stole your shadow. Did you really THINK, that I just stole your body's information with it? I know every single bit of your past, project Shadow.," Mephiles smirked. "Then why did you never use it against me?," Shadow growled. He could have easily used information about Maria to catch him off guard and win the fight! Why wouldn't he?

"Where would have been the fun in that? I prefer to destroy my opponents' bodies first and then their souls. The moment you are nothing but a writhing pile of flesh in front of me, I gladly torture you with your past.," the other seme sneered.

"Mephiles, enough. One more word and you will spend tomorrow with playing tea party with Cream and Vanessa.," Kylie deadpanned and to Shadow's surprise, the seme seemed to be slightly threatened, if his sudden disappearance was anything to go by.

"Shadow, I never wanted to know about your past, but Mephiles didn't know that, he planted the memories in my brain before I knew it, when he had the feeling I could need it. He would take them away again, but getting rid of that mass would damage my brain in ways nobody can foresee.," the woman apologized.

Shadow looked at her, before averting his gaze and sighing. "I don't like, that you and Sonic get along this well, but don't think, that I see you as a bad person.," he stated with some obvious difficulties.

Kylie smiled. Seemed, as if that was as close to a declaration of friendship as he could get. "Thanks, Shadow. And really, Sonic is just my friend. I actually see him as some kind of mix out of a hyperactive son and a best friend.," he chuckled. Shadow just nodded.

The woman contemplated speaking now with him over Sonic's immortality, but Zen was close and although he could lose himself in his books, he was also an attentive listener. Not to mention, that Sonic – or someone of his friends – were bound to get anxious and burst in their conversation at some point.

"Do you want to freshen up a bit, before you return to the others?," she asked instead, pointing to the blood in his fur, that looked out of place, since his wounds had already healed without a problem. The strange ice was gone, too, most likely already melted. "Meet you there.," Shadow smirked and vanished, while Kylie went back in her office.


Under the curious glances of her friends, she walked back behind her desk, sitting down. "Alright, sorry again for all the chaos. If you want to, we can pick up our talk from before I had been called."

"Shouldn't you return Shadow before we do that?," Rouge asked with crossed arms. "I already did, but he needs to freshen up after being with Mephiles for a few minutes.," Kylie grinned. "Now, do you have any ques-"

"Me!" At once, Amy was sitting on her knees on the human's desk, touching noses with the startled woman. "Er...yes?," Kylie asked. "Is it true, that ukes can also mate females!?," Amy asked with shining eyes, speaking almost too fast to catch her question.

"Well, since ukes can father children as semes do, yes, but how do YOU know that?," the woman asked, surprised. "Oh, this Rio asked me out and when I asked, why he wanted to do this, being an uke and all, he told me this.," Amy explained quickly. "Ah, I see. And did you answer him?" "What do you mean?," the pinkette asked, blinking cluelessly.

"Forget it." Kylie shook her head. Poor Rio. She knew, that he was crushing a bit on Amy as his saving angel, so he was probably put out now.

"So if it's true, Sonic and I can marry, right!?," the hedgette cheered. "I'm afraid, no." Sonic breathed out in relief at that, while Amy's face fell. "W-What!? WHY!?," she practically screamed, making Kylie wince.

Gently, she pushed Amy a little back. "While it's true, that many ukes of the Delta-rank, quite a few of the Gamma-rank and even a few of the Beta-rank date females, among the Alphas only the females ever consider doing this, never the ukes."

"W-what!?," the pink furred hedgehog raged. "But that doesn't make any sense!" "Yes, it does. Alpha ukes won't ever mate a female, because their instincts fear for a pregnancy. Even now, Alphas refuse to ever date a female because of their instincts."

"W-well, we don't need to have kids...," Amy tried to bargain, as if convincing Kylie was the last obstacle between her and Sonic. "I'm afraid, Sonic's instincts will demand offspring, to create a new Alpha."

"What would be wrong with me becoming Sonic's mate!? I'm sure, that I could bear his child!," Amy practically whined.

Kylie sighed. "Okay, I'll formulate it differently, then. Sonic is for you a hero, correct? So to say a 'knight in shining armor', who always comes for you, when you need help. This is, what you expect of him to be as a mate, too, am I right?," the woman asked.

"Well, yes, of course.," Amy replied, confused as to why she was stating the obvious. "I see. Then you'll hate the next part. Because this isn't, how Sonic will work as a mate."

"W-what!?," Amy asked perplexed. "Alphas always choose mates, who they deem as equally strong or even remotely stronger than themselves and that for two reasons. Reason one: sooner or later, they will be pregnant and need the protection of their mates during that time. Reason two: Alphas care about everyone – but not their mates."

"H-Huh!?," Amy gasped. "Of course they do, but in normal situations, not during emergencies. If for example Eggman would send out two very dangerous robots and send one after a city and one after Shadow, Sonic would ALWAYS go after the one attacking the city. He needs to be able to trust Shadow to handle himself, even if the enemy seems to be almighty. That means, if you, by whatever twisted miracle, would become Sonic's mate, you won't ever be able to count on his help again, if someone else is in danger at the same time.," Kylie told her.

"B-but-" Tears bubbled up in her eyes, while she tried desperately to think about another argument, but she came up empty-handed with every try.

"I HATE YOU!," she suddenly screamed at nobody in particular, turned around, jumped off the desk and ran out of the room, almost running over Shadow, who conveniently opened the door, when she reached it, but he just stepped back to let her pass.

"Did I miss something?," the seme asked, while entering and closing the door. He didn't deny, that he was kind of glad to see the annoying girl as far away as possible from Sonic.

"Weren't you a little harsh?," Knuckles frowned, ignoring the dark hedgehog – and earning groans from Rouge and Kylie.

"What?," he asked confused. "That's the talking of a man, who has NO idea about women.," the bat shook her head.

"No, Knuckles, it was good to be this harsh. You shouldn't play with a girl's heart and leave a bit of hope in there. It's like cutting off the dead or diseased parts of a plant, then you don't leave anything remotely sick or dead on it, do you? Amy is heartbroken, true, but she will heal in time, just like a cut plant will grow again. Leaving any kind of hope in her heart, that she and Sonic could ever be together, would have been worse.," Kylie explained.

"Save your breath, Kylie, I don't think, that you'll get it in this thick skull of his.," Rouge huffed, causing Knuckles to growl.

"Should she be alone right now?," Sonic asked, concerned. "Sonic, here, she won't ever be alone. There will be more people to comfort her, than she'll possibly want. I know, that you want to comfort her, too, but right now, you are the last person she wants to see. It's not for forever.," she soothed, when Sonic became very worried. "Don't worry, it'll pass. She'll cry, eat her own weight in ice cream, curse the whole world, sew voodoo-dolls of you and Shadow and mistreat them with needles, break a few things and cry some more, but she'll eventually calm down, go on and be part of your friends again."

"Did you have such a heartbreak once?," Rouge asked with a raised brow. Kylie seemed to be awfully good informed about that...

"Thankfully, no, but a big part of my female friends. I had a lot of time and occasions to study this phenomenon, so to say.," Kylie replied.

"I don't think, that Sonic would just leave Shadow to fend for himself, though...," Tails stated thoughtfully, while the agent took his seat again. "I let the reality sound harsher, than it really is, to get the point across, but not by much. The truth is, if Eggman ever attacked a city and Shadow at the same time, Sonic's instincts would know instantly, if Shadow needs help, or if he can handle himself. If he seems to have a hard time, he will probably try to help at both fronts – something, he could pull off with his speed. If Sonic, however, had to decide between Shadow and someone of his colony, like you, for example, he would always choose you...unless your emergency is smaller, than Shadow's, of course." Tails flushed a little upon her words.

He just wanted to ask something else, when a hesitant knock sounded on her door. "Come in!," Kylie called and the door opened slowly with the mongoose girl from earlier sticking in her head. "Doctor Ellen? I...I have the test results you asked for.," she explained, keeping her eyes away from Sonic's direction. "That's great, bring them in, please.," Kylie smiled friendly.

Still unsure, Mina entered, a file in her hand, that she held in front of herself like a protective shield, while inching her way in, as if her legs were out of lead.

Shadow, impatient to get answers, darted for it, but the girl gave a startled squeak, ducked and rushed around him and behind Kylie's chair, peeking out from her hiding place nervously. It took the surprised seme – as well as Knuckles, Rouge and Tails – a good minute to find the girl again.

"Shadow, behave yourself. This is no way to treat a lady.," Kylie scolded, before turning to the mongoose. "Thank you, Mina." She took the file and the girl rushed out, keeping her eyes down and making a bow around Shadow as much as possible. Kylie was already reading the file, highly concentrated.

It was silent for a few minutes, before Tails decided to break this silence. "S-So?," he asked carefully.

"Huh!?," Kylie snapped to attention. "Oh, I'm sorry, I got a little distracted. Thilo added an incomplete profile of Sonic and he likes it to put in difficult words instead of the easier synonyms."

"Why did he make a profile of me anyway?," Sonic asked with a raised brow. "Pure curiosity of mine. I'll be honest, I had a slight idea already of what might be wrong, but the hallucinations and the distance you kept to everyone but me and Happy just didn't add up..."

"What do you mean 'distance you kept to everyone but me'!?," the very angry Shadow interrupted in a dangerously calm voice.

Kylie smiled, but didn't answer and just turned to Sonic. "Sonic, what you are having, isn't contagious."

She hadn't even ended, before Shadow found himself with a blue hedgehog settled on his lap, cuddling as close as possible to him, the smallest of purrs escaping his throat. Out of a reflex, the seme raised his arms to hug him, but stopped halfway, unsure, if it was allowed, or if it would drive Sonic away again.

Kylie chuckled. "Enjoy it, Sonic and you suffered the most from the separation. This is his way of making it up to you and catching up with all the missed touches and bonding moments."

Immediately, Shadow hugged his mate tightly, as if he could disappear, if his grip was too loose, enjoying every second.

"Contagious?," Tails asked, after having digested, that his brother allowed physical contact again. "You mean, he thought, that we would get the same, if he didn't distance himself from us?"

"Yes. I'm surprised I didn't understand this earlier. It is actually quite common for Alphas to distance themselves from their colonies, when they feel sick. They only let healers in their range, because they trust them to help them and because healers can't get sick. Their special, always active Chaos Energy prevents them from getting infections and illnesses.," Kylie explained.

She felt a little stupid, actually, that she had needed Thilo to figure this out. She had even read something about Alphas burying themselves alive, when they became ill and the colony's healer was clueless about the cure, to prevent a contagion of the colony. She had been probably Sonic's last hope – not, that he was aware of that consciously. If she hadn't found anything, he would have been pushed to commit suicide by his instincts to protect the others.

Shadow could now understand, why Sonic had ordered him to shower with hot water and to clean these three rooms – he would need to cross the hallway to go from the bathroom to the kitchen, where the cleaning supplies were. He had wanted to prevent any bacteria from spreading and infect him, or the fox. It wondered him a little, that he didn't consider his Chaos Control – which would have spared him the cleaning of the hallway – but he could chalk it up to his mental exhaustion.

"Did Sonic have no problem with you being close, because he saw you as a healer, too?," Rouge asked.

"No, nothing like that. I'm also an Alpha, Sonic's instincts knew that and trusted me to be able to handle it."

"And not me!?," Shadow asked, offended. "According to your instincts, there isn't something like an Ultimate Lifeform, you are just a seme out of many in front of them. See it like that: Sonic cared more about your welfare, than mine.," Kylie replied. This pleased the seme greatly.

Sonic could imagine, that since his instincts had latched to Conscious Shadow, he had a hard time with assessing his true capabilities, just like Instinct Shadow had with him.

"So...Sonic is sick?," Tails asked confused. "No, not in the traditional sense. The reason, why he has all those symptoms, is for one, that his body tries to tell him, that something is wrong and he NEEDS a healer, or doctor. The second reason is, that his body tries to fight something it thinks is an illness."

Tails nodded in thought. Sonic really had had symptoms that served to get rid of a virus, like fevers or vomiting, while the eating of vegetables and fruit as well as the long sleeping were meant to give his immune system a boost with extra vitamins and energy. In retrospective, it all made sense now.

"And what is wrong with him?," Knuckles asked impatiently. Kylie worried her lip, seeming to think about a way to tell them. Finally, she took a deep breath. "Try as I might, you'll need to cover your ears again. I don't want to risk traumatizing you – and I'll leave it to Sonic this time to decide, if you can handle it.," she stated towards Tails.

Sonic looked surprised, while Tails made sure, that he could see his brother easily and covered his ears.

"Alright, now, on the Island, while you, Silver and Scourge as well as your semes had been in this cell, Perringten let it flood all the time with a mixture out of oxygen – so you could breathe, of course – and a drug in gas-form, that was based on your blood, Sonic. Perringten knew, as I already said, that you are an Alpha and he needed you drugged all the time to keep you as weak as possible. Although he never understood, what an Alpha is, he had some clues, that an angry, strong Alpha is bad for his plans.

This drug got accepted by your system as easy as a body cell of yours and most of the substances it had been mixed out of got treated like parts of your nourishment. Your body treated this stuff like vitamins, minerals and trace elements and started to store it away in your body cells, where they still reside, since they had no use for your body. Here, this are the traces of the drug the scan found." Kylie held out a piece of paper for Sonic to take.

He grabbed it and held it in front of his face. His eyes widened. On the paper was a white, with black outlined silhouette of him – and it was filled with bluish-black dots all over. They seemed to center in his stomach, some were in what he presumed were his lungs, in his arms and legs were thankfully only a few. What worried him were the dots forming a line from his neck to the other end of his lower body. His spine.

"I don't get it. Sonic had this stuff in him for almost two years now – why is he only now showing these symptoms? Why not earlier?," Knuckles asked.

"Wow, that... was a surprisingly clever question.," Rouge gaped. "Wha-? Watch it, bat!," Knuckles spat angrily.

"The answer to that will be surprising as well.," Kylie cut them off. "All hedgehog ukes and females, who are in the right age to breed, go through some kind of 'inner check up' about two months before their mating season starts. It's a measure the epidemic made necessary, I guess. Basically, the number of white cells in your blood enhances temporarily, searching for any kind of virus or bacteria to either destroy it, or to alert the owner of the body, if they can't, which is rare."

"Surprise is correct – I haven't ever heard of something like this.," Rouge stated with wide eyes.

"I bet, it isn't a very well-known fact. 99% of those yearly processes happen silently anyway, so they don't need to know it. The chance for ever having a problem is very low after all, they usually start and end without any sign for the owner of the checked body. Only in 1% of all cases do the females or ukes feel a little discomfort and then they usually go to doctors or healers – and don't wait for two weeks.," Kylie added with a pointed glare at Sonic, who looked away from her. Shadow growled warningly, pulling his mate a little closer.

Kylie rolled her eyes. "The drugs in Sonic's body have no influence on him, they are just dead weight, without harming him... well, if he was an old hedgehog, I would be more concerned, but not when he's this young. Should he become pregnant, however, the child or children would suffer severe damage, or even die. Since almost your whole womb is infested, your immune system rang an alarm."

"So this is just for making sure, that Sonic – or any other female or uke for that matter – can conceive and carry?," Rouge asked.

"And survives the mating. Some females have the problem of a 'twisted womb', that can actually lead to death during mating. Ukes run this risk far less, if at all. And before you ask – I would have found something like that during the examination.," she interrupted Shadow right before he could ask.

"So, can you remove the stuff?," Sonic asked, looking back at her. "Yes, we can, in two steps. Step one is a bath with a special herbal essence. The microscopic particles in the essence will pass your body's borders through your skin, eyes and lungs and spread through it with your bloodstream, disassemble the remains of the drugs into harmless products and allow your body to get rid of them like it does with all other things it doesn't need anymore in you. Nicole estimated, that it should take you about two to three baths to get rid of most of it. The problem after that is your spine, a good part of the drugs' remains resides in your bone marrow, no bath in the world could help with that. Instead, we'll ask Happy for help. He might be actually be able to help you."

"Might?," Sonic asked, trying to ignore the fact, that he had to sit in a tub filled with water for who knew how long. He knew, why he preferred showers.

"Well, modern medicine is at a loss, so I'm putting all my hope in Happy. He is the best healer here and he might have an idea I haven't thought about, yet. It definitely needs to go, too, since every little rest of it could in the worst case wander towards your womb again, or become harmful over time."

"How do you even know, that the bath will help?," Shadow asked distrustfully. "Maybe it will make everything worse!"

"Thanks a lot for your trust, Shadow." Kylie rolled her eyes again. "We already had two of those cases, so we know, that it works. As you might remember, Sonic hadn't been alone in this cell. While you semes automatically dissolved the drugs, Silver and Scourge didn't have this much luck, but since they weren't the ones the drug had been designed for, their bodies didn't absorb that much. When they decided to live here and got checked through for any illnesses, I found small amounts of the drugs' remains in them, that they hadn't located, yet. One bath for each of them was enough to get the drugs out of them. Nicole considered their previous amounts of drug-remains, Sonic's and his metabolism to calculate how many baths and what amount of bath essence he'll need."

Sonic nodded in thought at hearing that and eventually gave Tails a sign to listen again. He explained his brother the reason for his symptoms, but left out, why they had started right now. He would have a talk about the bees and the birds later – if it was even necessary. Tails knew – thanks to his research for Sonic and about ukes – probably more about this topic, than he himself.

At the end of his report, Tails frowned. "I can't believe I never found this, I scanned Sonic repeatedly in the last two years!," he berated himself.

"You never looked for something like that, for something so tiny, don't blame yourself. The important part is, that we found it and know a way to cure it.," Kylie soothed.

Tails frowned still, deep in thought. "Kylie? Why...has nobody heard of ukes before two years ago? I thought about it already many times, but I just can't imagine any reason.," he explained after asking his question.

"That's a good question. You see, ukes had been, in earlier days, long before the colonies fused together to cities and towns, worshiped like gods. They were seen as the 'best of both worlds', combining the strength and calm mind of the male and the fertility and empathy of the female. There were statues of pregnant males everywhere for a period of time, when other species imagined their own gods as ukes.

After a few centuries, however, the colonies dissolved naturally. Less and less Alphas were born and the colonies were without a leader after the current Alpha had died. Since this happened shortly after each other to different species, they started to live together. It was most likely after the hedgehogs' example, though. One by one, the colonies became cities all over the world and the former colony hierarchies changed to new ones for all of the city inhabitants, since so many different species were now living together.

At first, the hedgehogs' hierarchy was the example for all of them, but over a few generations, the people organized themselves differently. Most people on our continent had, according to this new, two-part-hierarchy, the lowest status and only a small rest of the society was seen as noble due to their wealth and with that superior. The rich people alone were allowed to get educated, which costed a lot of goods and later money back then, while the peasants and workers, who built the lower part in the hierarchy, had to learn everything they needed from their parents and older siblings, neighbors, or colleagues.

Naturally, wisdom was rare among the poor people and superstitions widely spread. Science didn't actually exist back then yet and the people couldn't understand natural phenomenons, or when something diverted from what little they knew. They explained unusual things with the doing of gods or monsters, most of all the devil. When they saw a pregnant male hedgehog, they immediately thought, that he was the lover of the devil and therefore needed to be killed, before the devil's spawn could be born. They didn't believe the hedgehogs, that it was completely natural for them and only for their specie. Many ukes and their unborn young fell victim to the superstitions and got killed, or cruelly tortured to death to get them to reveal the identity of the father, the devil. From what I know, only a few ukes named their semes, all the others died staying silent. Some towns even went so far and forced all male hedgehogs to go through an examination, that would reveal them as ukes by some thought-out indicators. The ukes living there fled in other cities or towns, that wouldn't hunt them, until they became visibly pregnant."

"What did the ukes do?," Tails asked, his eyes wide. "They had no other choice, when they became pregnant, which they couldn't avoid sometimes during mating season, they hid their growing bellies and their other ailments and when they went into labor, they made their way into the woods to try and give birth on their own. If they and the young survived, they would usually go into another village and pretend to be the father of the child, or children, who lost their mother in childbirth and let a female, a wet nurse, feed and raise them, while he built himself a new life, pretending to be a seme. They never revealed to their children, that they were their mothers and tried to get their sons to have only females as partners, so they wouldn't ever get pregnant themselves. Little by little, ukes disappeared out of everyone's memory, hedgehogs or not, and in the time span of a few more centuries, they were completely forgotten."

"Why...did the ukes not survive the birth?," Tails asked with a fearful voice, having apparently focused on that. It was clear, what he thought – Sonic could become pregnant, would he die, too, if he became it?

Kylie's eyes softened at seeing his fear. "Come here for a sec, please?," she asked gently. Reluctantly, Tails slid off his chair and went around her desk and to her. Carefully, the woman wrapped her arms around him and lifted him up on her lap, holding him in a gentle, motherly hug, allowing him to lean against her for reassurance.

"Back then, the hygienic situation had been catastrophic and most of the ukes had been completely alone with the pregnancy. They didn't know, what to do, when they were in labor, they only had their instincts to depend on, no help or guidance in any way. Nowadays, people like Sonic can turn to many experts all around the world, so whenever he decides to carry, he'll be in the best hands possible.," Kylie soothed.

Tails nodded silently. "The thought of pregnancy is pretty scary, huh?," she asked with empathy. Tails bit his lip, blushing and his ears pressing to his skull, his tails wrapping around him.

Smiling, Kylie gently stroke his head. "It's okay, I'm pretty sure, that it is the same for Sonic. Want me to tell you a little about how it could be like, should Sonic become pregnant?"

All three brothers in the room felt heat creep up their cheeks at hearing that, but Tails nodded reluctantly. Bryan's lies from about two years ago and the less than trustworthy, contradicting each other bits of information he had managed to gather so far had made him insecure and he needed some truthful statements now.

"Alright. Let's see, should he ever become pregnant, he won't run for as long as he carries, because for one, his instincts will warn him from trying to do anything strenuous, as this could harm the unborn young, and second, he will feel as sick as he does currently. In the first month, he will probably become sick in the mornings, but the intervals are always different – he might even just become sick once and that's it. Since he's an Alpha, I'm pretty sure, that he won't vomit very often. His behavior won't change much, but he will think a second time before doing something, that might be dangerous.

In the second month, he will feel hungrier and more tired. There will be days, when he won't even move from his bed and sleep for up to twelve hours straight and eat twice or even trice as much as usual. He will have strange cravings, that he won't eat normally and become more moody. He might snap at you for something trivial, or for something you didn't even do. Don't take it personal, he will feel horrible afterwards.

In the third month, Sonic will need the help of Shadow to move around and sleep even longer, or have several naps during the day. You will be one of the few people he will still tolerate around himself. People, who he doesn't know this well, will be growled at, or attacked. Also, he will start to build a nest out of his bed, soften it, so the young have a nice place to stay in. Don't try to tell him, that the child or children have a room and crib already, he won't listen to it. After giving birth, Sonic won't let anyone close to his young for a week, not even you – and Shadow only to provide him with food and water. After that, you can see the little ones, who will one day call you 'Uncle Tails'.," Kylie ended with a smile.

Tails blushed deeply at that, hiding more in his tails, while Sonic couldn't help a smile of his own. Tails would be a great uncle, he knew that already.

"Anymore questions?," Kylie asked, letting the still flustered fox off her lap, when he had started to squirm.

"Yeah. Sonic had been examined by at least a thousand doctors all over the world – why had nobody ever told him, that he has a womb in him?," Tails wondered, as if thinking out loud.

Sonic's ear twitched. He was right, no one had ever mentioned something like that – and he had been probably in every hospital on the planet already.

"Well, besides the fact, that for sure not all of them needed to examine his lower body, I'm pretty convinced, that most of the remaining ones discovering it just didn't know, what it was. The womb of mobians looks slightly different for each species, it could have been, that they had never seen a hedgehog's womb, especially, when they weren't gynecologists. Besides, you don't really look for a womb in a male, or immediately think, that there has to be one. They could have thought, that is was some kind of second bladder or another stomach, or something like that. A second organ, in addition to the first. That wouldn't have been this bad, or an overly rare phenomenon. At least 40% of all living beings on Mobius have an additional organ. That are just natural happenings and I don't blame the doctors you had met so far for assuming, that Sonic has a second stomach there. Say, did some doctors want to do some further examinations on Sonic?," she asked.

"Almost all, but Sonic barely holds still for the basic examination and was usually gone, before they had ended. Wasn't it irresponsible to not tell Sonic, that there is something else in him?," Tails asked, a little upset, sitting by now on his brother's vacant chair to be closer to him.

"Most of them probably didn't want to worry you. The womb was there, but it didn't influence anything. Sonic didn't have problems with it and it was healthy, neither dying, nor infected or in any way threatening to get infected in the long run. Trying to remove it would have been unnecessary and maybe even risky. I can imagine, that the doctors made a note in Sonic's file for their colleagues to know, that there is something, that has no real function and isn't threatening either. It would give your doctors a hint of where to look, should something be wrong with you without an outer indicator.," Kylie explained, using her own thinking for the answer.

"That explains Sonic, but what with all the other ukes, who became pregnant? Shouldn't this have become public, when a male had become pregnant in the last centuries?," Rouge asked.

Kylie sighed and brushed back a loose strand. "I rather answer that later. Tails, do you have any questions, before the adult-talk starts?"

Tails frowned at her answer – or lack of that –, before thinking about a question bothering him for a while now. He just had no idea, how he should formulate it. "It's just...Bryan said, that Sonic was acting weak because of his instincts. I know, that it was because of the drugs, but...will Sonic...well...?" He stopped, biting his lip.

Kylie smiled, understanding him. "It is true, that some mobians indeed change their behavior around mating season, but not their character, no mobian with or without a partner will do that. Mature mobians will, however, start to build a nest out of their beds around their mating season to show, that they are ready for offspring. It's an unconscious doing, triggered by their instincts. They will do this during a pregnancy, too, for the young."

"Will I do that, too?," Tails asked, curious. "Er... as far as I know, the nest-making is part of the instincts of prey females and ukes and predator males, so it might be, that you do that, yes."

"Why these exactly?," Sonic wondered. "Prey mobians built their nests carefully, making sure to reach perfection. This way, they showed, that they would be perfect mothers and therefore great mates and hoped to attract semes. You already have your mate, so don't worry about it. Should you become pregnant, then you'll build a nest, too, as I already said. It might be, that you become as pedantic, too, since it'll be for your young."

"Are the semes building traps here because of that?," Knuckles wondered. "Yes. The nest-building is the way of prey females and ukes to show, how good they would care for their young, while the prey semes show their potential mates, that they are strong enough to provide and protect a family – and some try this with traps, while others have other ways."

"And predator mobians?," Tails asked, curiously. "Predators lived far more dangerous, since there were humans and prey mobians after them, to eliminate them, before they could kill them. It was therefore the males' job to find a suitable hiding spot, usually a cave, or something like that, where they could raise the young safely. When you come of age, you will probably look for secluded living areas and even consider living in a cave." Seeing Tails' worried expression (technology didn't work very well in caves), she added, "Don't worry, you can suppress these instincts easily enough, since you don't feel threatened all the time like the predators did in older days. They barely got a break."

Tails nodded in thought. "And what about predator females? How do they attract their mates?," Rouge wondered. "By showing, that they are strong. They needed to prove, that they would protect the young, even if the seme should die." The mobians frowned at that, but the woman wasn't surprised, that they couldn't follow this train of thought – Tails was still young, and the others prey mobians, after all.

"Any other questions?," Kylie asked. The fox frowned, but eventually shook his head. For now, he needed to process a lot.

"Alright. How about you go back to the Garage then, and spend some more time with Snow?," Kylie suggested, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen and starting to write on it.

Tails' eyes lit up at the prospect, but then dulled again. "But...Mali said, that people under 18 need to absolve a special test, before they can hope to get permission to enter and work in the Garage without someone accompanying them all the time – and that test takes a whole week!," he argued.

"Oh, I know that, I made this rule, after all. That's, why I know the second way to get a free ticket to the Garage."

She put the pen aside and grabbed something hidden behind a staple of files, pressing it in the lower part of the paper. When she took it off, there was an inky, strangely formed dot on it – a mark from a rubber stamp.

"You get the permission by the director herself.," she continued, holding the piece of paper out to him. Tails took it and Sonic, whose curiosity was stronger than his need for Shad's warmth – for now –, leaned over and looked at the paper, too.

I, Dr. Kylie Ellen, allow Miles 'Tails' Prower unlimited access to the Garage for as long as he wishes to be there. This allowance has no expiration date.

, could be read on the paper, followed by her signature and mark, containing her name and the name of the Shelter as well as some kind of crest, showing a human hand, held protectively over a feral hedgehog, that sat on a gloved, probably mobian hand.

At once, Tails jumped up and over the desk to hug Kylie. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!," he cheered, before dashing out of the room, the door slamming shut behind him.

"I haven't seen him this happy, since I adopted him.," Sonic grinned fondly at the door, behind that Tails had disappeared, although he was for sure already gone.

"I bet, his reaction gave him a little away there.," Kylie chuckled, before taking a deep breath. "Alright, now I want to talk with you about some topics, that aren't suited for children and I rather don't want Tails and Amy to listen to this. I need to tell you some things, since you all deserve to know them." She straightened, steeling herself obviously. "Let's talk. About the Island.," she started.


And... done! Thanks for reading!

I realized, while I read the older chapters to put them together, that I was pretty much bombarding you with information... ...Sorry for that. -.-". I'm still in the process of creating the basic plot for my story, that's why there is so much information currently, but I should be done with that soon... Er...with chapter 10 at the very latest, I guess... After that, you'll get more story and less information, promise.

Anyway, have a nice weekend!