Chapter Nine

VioletAssassin, you're too sweet! Yes, I'm excited for Sonic too!

Josh: You're excited?! This guy freakin' saved me! TWICE! I'm glad to finally meet him!

...Yes, well, anyways.

.5, I'm writing more! Just for you! ...And... well, everybody else who's reading this, but mostly for you! ;D

Josh: Quit flirting!

Who says I'm flirting?

Josh: Well, the wink at the end isn't making me any less suspicious. How do you even know Booboo's a girl?

Well, in the way she acts and writes! Plus, no guy I know asks me to "pwease" right a story. That's a girls only move.

Josh: ...Did the internet tell you that.

Yes.

Josh: Oh boy... okay, come here, you and me are going to have a little talk.

Sonic the Hedgehog?! The Sonic the Hedgehog is talking to me? Look, I don't care who your favorite character is, when Sonic the Hedgehog is talking right to you, you can't help but feel giddy!

"Dude, are you okay? You don't look to good..." Sonic asked, walking towards me.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine." I managed to stammer. "It's just really nice to meet you. It's not everyday you not only get to meet, but get saved twice by someone you've almost idolized since you were six." Yes, Tails was my favorite character, but I never really considered Sonic a character. He was more like a big brother to me, and we would even hold imaginary conversations! (Which scared the heck out of my parents for a while. They thought we were having a Poltergeist moment.) So, naturally, I was way more excited to see him.

"Idolized?" Sonic asked, looking a bit scared.

"Uh, let me explain..." I sat down on the rock I was just sitting at and motioned for him to sit next to me. He obeyed.

"So, any place you want me to start specifically? When I fell out of the tower, what I was doing in it?" I asked.

"Just from the beginning. Like, who are you exactly?" Sonic answered.

"Oh, that far back. Well, I'm Joshua, but you can call me Josh. I've lived alone with my little brother Jacob for about a year now. Our parents died in a shooting about... what day is it today?"

"Uh..." Sonic looked a bit dazed at the news that our parents were dead. "It's the 22nd I think." I went quiet.

"...This is the anniversary of the shooting..." I said. I started to cry a bit. "S-sorry. I usually do pretty well with their death. I just remember that they're somewhere better... but today is... well it's hard." I laughed a bit. "Shoot, I shouldn't be crying, there's still a lot of story to go through."

"Hey, let it out. From the looks of things, you've been holding it in for a bit." Sonic looked at me with sympathy and compassion. "Just take your time."

"No, no, I'm fine. I did my crying a while ago. I'll cry later, maybe tonight. I don't want to trouble you or whatever." I said, wiping my eyes, laughing a bit as I went.

"It wouldn't be any trouble to me." Sonic said, giving a bit of a smile.

"Thank you, that's kind. No, I'm okay. Phew." I let out a sigh to calm me down. "Y'know, I'll be crying again really soon. ...Hey, I thought you didn't like tears."

"Yeah, but I can tell when it's needed. How'd you know that?"

"I'll explain after the sob story, it'll give us something to laugh at afterwords."

Sonic nodded, then motioned for me to continue.

After taking some more deep breaths, I continued my sad tale.

"Well, it was after work. I was going home, when I get this text from my thirteen year old brother Jacob. And that was pretty normal, he usually wants to eat ice cream or something to that effect. I look at the text, and all it said was 'help' in big capital letters. I ran home, but by then, he was gone. All that was left was a note with Eggman's logo on it, and the green Chaos Emerald. I didn't know what to do. I couldn't call him, text him, yell for him. I was sunk. Then the robots came. They took the Emerald and knocked me out. I awoke in a cell, and right across from my cell was another one. I could see Jacob in the back. He looked so scared, and weak, a-and-" I stopped for a moment to choke back a sob. I calmed down a little bit before I continued. "Eggman dragged us into a big control room. He put me in a glass box, and he strapped Jacob in the middle of this red ring. He explained a part of his plot, although I think there was more. He said that he had found a way to power up each Chaos Emerald with emotion. He said he had every one of them except for anger, from the red emerald, and fear from the green emerald. Well, knowing Jacob, he of course supplied plenty of anger. Eggman somehow figured out how to channel the emotions through the ring Jacob was in into the Emeralds. The box I was in did the same thing. Anyways, all he needed now was fear, so he decided to get it from me."

"What did he do to you?" Sonic asked, clenching his fists.

"Nothing, he did nothing to me, but he-" Already in a fragile state, this time I couldn't hold back the tears and sobs. "He t-tried to kill my br-brother." His tortured scream seemed to echo across the land, rocketing through time, just to remind me of that horrifying moment. I covered my head, not bearing to be able to stand the scream, but I could still hear it. It was deafening. I squeezed my eyes shut and bent over. I felt like I was in pain. But it did little, it almost made everything worse. With my eyes closed, the scene played like a projector on my eyelids. I could see his back arch, his face contorted in agony, the shocks as they pressed into his back. It was too much to take. Then a pair of hands gently took my shoulders and sat me back up, pulling me away from the scene. I opened my eyes and turned to Sonic, who looked at me with sad eyes. I was sobbing uncontrollably, my eyes were probably really puffy, and I just looked like a mess, and felt even worse. I didn't really have control over what happened next. I looked at this person, this amazing person that I looked up to, who I considered a big brother... I lept at him, hugged him, and cried. After a moment of surprise, he returned the hug. Now, I know what you're thinking. Awkward. But, honestly, it wasn't. It wasn't romantic in any way, it was more like a hug you would give to a crying sibling of your own. It felt... like my dad a bit. I cried for a while longer, before Sonic sat me back up. I dried my eyes, taking deep calming breaths.

"S-sorry about your shoulder." I apologized, motioning to his now tear soaked fur.

"Don't worry about it. Do you want to stop, or can you keep going?" Sonic asked me, his voice full of concern. "If you want to stop, by all means."

"No, I need to finish, I'm not even at the good part yet." I said, blinking to try to get used to the light again. "Um, where was I?"

"Eggman was getting you to show fear."

"Right. Okay, so, he got what he was looking for. I was really afraid that he was going to kill my brother. So I tried something crazy. I started praying to the Master Emerald. Just then, the green emerald that I was fueling came crashing through the glass. I used Chaos Blast to blow up the control room and grab Jacob. Just before we were able to use Chaos Control, Eggman grabbed me. Jacob was teleported to... wherever Blaze and Silver live, and I was dropped out of a tower. Then you caught me." I finished. I had finished crying, thankfully, and I now looked at Sonic with a smile on my face. "Now to answer your question of how I know so much about you."

Time Skip

"What? You're kidding!" Sonic said, looking wide eyed at me. We were walking back to base, picking up any rings we could find along the way.

"It's true, there are a ton of fans out there who really want to see you and Amy together. Well, you and Amy, as well as Shadow, Silver-"

"Okay I get it!" Sonic interrupted. We both shivered a bit, as I thought back to, and he imagined, all of the fanfiction that involved him getting... romantic. "You would never write that kind of stuff right?" Sonic asked me.

"I dunno, I might have dabble- there's one." I picked up the ring. "Jacob would be the more likely of the two of us. But I promise you, neither of us would pair you with someone romantically." I said, raising my right arm as if I were swearing on the Bible. Sonic looked relieved. "...Um... what happened back at the rock... when I hugged you... was that romantic?" I asked, a bit nervous. I hoped he would say no.

"Did you consider it romantic?" Sonic asked me, laughing a bit.

"No." I answered.

"I didn't either. Friends hug every now and then, it's the fact of life. Although, from what you told me, I'm more along the lines of a 'big brother' to you." Sonic said.

"...Do you mind?" I asked, a little embarrassed.

"No, not at all, as long as you don't mind if I do this!" He said, as he pushed me to the side. I pushed him back before he put his arm around my neck and gave me a noogie. I tried to push him off, but I was laughing to hard at that point to really care. Sonic let go of me and mussed up my hair a bit. I brushed his hand off and smoothed it out. I felt happy. Absolutely, unexplainably, verging on psychotic happy. I had a big brother... well, so to speak.

"I still won't get over the fact that I'm as tall as my big brother though. Geez man, I thought I would never find someone else who's six foot three!" I said.

"Six foot three? Take off three feet and you got me on the dot!" Sonic replied.

"...say what?"

"Yeah, I hate to say it man, but somehow, you've shrunk!" Sonic said with a shrug. I shrugged back.

"Could be worse, right?" I said. We both laughed a bit.

"Sonic?"

"Yeah?"

"Thank you."

"No problem bud." He said, patting my shoulder. I smiled at Sonic, before picking up a ring that was right in front of him. I smiled mischievously before racing off to collect more. Sonic chuckled and shook his head a bit before racing off after me.

End of Chapter Nine

Well that was fun to write.

Josh: Finally, a chapter you actually did a good job on!

Sonic: Hey, go easy on him, at least he's actually writing about you!

Thank you Sonic!

Josh: What?! Don't side with him!

Sonic: I'm not taking sides, I'm just stating the facts. I will say, he could be a lot nicer to you Josh.

Josh: See, someone agrees!

Uh, be sure to R&R guys! See you later!