SonicANIME2010 here, bringing in the aftermath chapter to the Little Planet arc of Lyrical Familiar. I will use this chapter to start clearing up any loose ends while the next one will bridge into A's. While the next one won't go directly into A's, it'll start setting things up so I can start the A's arc in the following chapter. After this chapter, I believe I'll go on a hiatus of sorts and finish up the current arcs on the other two stories I have been working on. Let's do it!

[Earth: Japan]
[South Island: Never Lake]
[Local Time: 1107 hours]
[No BGM]

"What a way to celebrate a birthday" Sonic quipped in annoyance as he took in the situation, "And it's not even over yet"

The young blue hedgehog had good cause for his feelings on the current situation. He, Nanoha, Fate, Arf, Alicia and Amy Rose were surrounded by a fair number of the local animal residents of South Island. Apparently the animals may have either missed the light show that Little Planet had put on prior to disappearing or didn't care enough to focus on it rather than the human majority of the party before them. As they had surrounded the group after Little Planet had disappeared, the latter was most likely probable.

"Today was your birthday?" Alicia Testarossa, who up until a few hours ago was a stray from Little Planet and was unaware of anything that had happened within the past 26 years that was her tenure on the planet, was somewhat surprised at what her blue ally had said.

"Yup" Sonic confirmed with little more than a shrug of his shoulders, "It started great with the amusing wake-up call, but having to deal with Eggman had a sour note."

While Alicia noticed the blushing reactions from Nanoha, Fate and Arf at Sonic's statement, any comment she had thought of was never voiced at the time. Several bird caws and dog growls had served as a reminder to the current situation.

"Yes I know you're still there" Sonic suddenly shot a glare at a fair few of them, "You don't need to remind us of that."

"Um..." Nanoha couldn't help but inquire of Sonic, Arf and Amy as they were more animal-like of the group, "Could you understand what they're saying? Maybe we could negotiate something peacefully."

"I kinda understand their language…" Amy Rose nodded with little confidence, "But they're speaking in a dialect that's too fast for me to make out."

"I think I can understand them a little better" Arf noted, but wasn't any more confident, considering she was far too "foreign" of an wolf to be of much use in terms of being diplomatic with the South Island animals, "But there's no way they'll listen to me."

"Guess that just leaves me" The blue hedgehog noted about himself in annoyance, "I understand them perfectly, but this will be tricky."

"Try to get them to get a spokesperson" Nanoha suggested with some growing confidence, knowing how powerful convincing the right person in your favor can be, "If you can reason with them, they could get the others to back off."

"I was thinking that too" Sonic nodded in confirmation and quickly set to do just that. Just about wondering how in the world he got into the middle of all of this, 'This will be fun...'

[OP: "Innocent Starter" Nana Mizuki]

Sonic the Hedgehog: Lyrical Familiar
Chapter 22
Epilogue of a Planet

[South Island: Never Lake]
[Local Time: 1110 hours]
[BGM: "eeto desu ne" Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha OST]

Despite the mass number of South Islanders that had surrounded the group, it didn't take long for a spokesperson to come forth to be able to initiate any form of negotiations. The representative was a brown female squirrel who appeared to carry herself quite appropriately despite holding little to no form of humanity like Sonic or Amy.

As Arf had come in second in the way of recognizing the shared animal "tongue" that Sonic was able to understand from the South Islanders, she was quickly given the task of interpreting what they say to Nanoha, Fate, Alicia and Amy Rose. If nothing else, the situation would've been most humorous if not for the gravity of the situation.

The hilarity was furthered when Sonic and the squirrel started "speaking", or to the human ears, trading cute squeaking noises. Regardless of whatever came from these "negotiations" there was little doubt that Sonic would take a hit or two to his pride.

"Alright, the squirrel started off by asking Sonic where he has been since "the evil Human" attacked the main island." Arf translated in almost a play-by-play format, "While Sonic replied that he had been on a self-imposed "vacation" to visit the world."

"I think we can assume that the "evil Human" she's talking about is Eggman" Nanoha commented in reference and to help Alicia, Fate and Arf in understanding some of the context, "A week or so before I met Yuuno, Doctor Eggman tried to take over South Island with a fleet of robots; and Sonic had stopped him"

"Arf and I caught a little bit of that story on the local news from the apartment building we had when we had first arrived" Fate noted in memory, but was quick to shrug as if it had mattered little to her, "But at the time neither he nor the story held much relevance to our goals so we had little interest in getting involved."

"They're arguing now, this didn't take long" Arf would really have liked to say she was surprised, but in reality, she wasn't, "She's asking Sonic why he has brought humans to the island, especially with the "evil Human's" actions still fresh on everyone's minds. Sonic just countered with sarcastically asking if she and the others had missed Little Planet lighting up like fireworks in the middle of summer."

"Japan has festivals during the summer almost every weekend" Nanoha elaborated a speculation of what her familiar was referring to, "These festivals have fireworks shows and they're really beautiful to see."

"I think I'd like to see that sometime" Fate was honestly interested in the idea, although it was also arguable that she was also just as interested in seeing said festivals with Nanoha.

"I'd really like to take you there too" Nanoha easily agreed to the idea as well and was quite happy to think about being able to take her new friends out to have fun and watch fireworks at a festival, granted they were going to be in Japan, "I hope you can stay here for the summer."

"I hope so too" Fate agreed, making a small mental note to ask a certain admiral about it later.

"Don't forget me" Alicia cut in, more-or-less amused with seeing her new "younger" sister practically falling head-over-heels for the cute brunette in white; had anyone been paying more attention, they might have made a little note to keep a closer eye on her.

Before Nanoha could say anything to assure Alicia that she wouldn't be forgotten, the blue hedgehog of her familiar acting as a negotiator had quickly rushed over and gripped his mistress by the wrist and taken her over to the spokes-squirrel. Nanoha, for the most part had the sense to appear surprised, but recovered enough to smile cutely and presentable.

"This is a human girl who saved my life on the first night I came to the human land" The blue hedgehog switched to the Japanese language, knowing the squirrel and the other animals had the ability to at least understand it even if they couldn't speak it, "She didn't have to do it, but she did out of the goodness of her heart."

The squirrel gave a suspicious glance to the human girl in white. Suspicion that was well understood, though and she'd size the girl up before speaking in her squeaky tongue to the blue hedgehog in an interrogative manner. Her question was only understood by the hedgehog and Arf, but the others present could note a slight absence of malice.

"She wants to hear that from you, Nanoha-chan" Sonic translated to his mage, "They don't need to know about the specifics, but if you tell them your motives and show them how pure your intentions are, you should be fine."

"Eh? Are you sure?" The girl didn't seem quite confident as she inquired of the hedgehog, but when she saw the serious look in his eyes that wouldn't take any negative answer she'd sigh and take a step forward, "Ano… I know that you guys aren't quite fond of us humans…"

Annoyance dipped into the squirrel's expression as she squeaked. There was no need for Sonic or Arf to translate what she had said that time. Everyone present, even Fate, couldn't help but slap their respective hands, paws, talons, etc. against their foreheads in exasperation.

"But not all humans are like that! Not all of us are mean or have some drive for conquest" The girl, undeterred by the annoyed reaction, kept up with the attempt of making her case, "Eggman was just a bad egg out of the bunch."

The unintentional joke on Nanoha's part earned her a few amused reactions from the rest of the group, but it was likely that she didn't notice or realize the joke she had made. The other animals of the group had slowly started to absorb the words the human girl had said, but as the squirrel could attest to, it was still a long way from fully convincing them all.

[BGM Insert: "Rydia's Theme" Final Fantasy IV (DS/PSP)]

"Sonic-kun's met a lot of humans in Japan and none of them, my friends and family included, could condone the actions that Doctor Eggman has taken against you" The girl continued with the aforementioned blue hedgehog nodding along in agreement. "Sonic-kun was stubborn to accept their pity, but we all felt sorry that Eggman had to attack your peaceful, beautiful lands."

Nanoha paused for a moment to catch her breath and form her thoughts. She wasn't exactly prepared to handle being put on the spot in the current situation, so she no doubt had to improvise in any way she could. To her surprise, the other animals had appeared to ease up on their hostilities, making it evident that while the animals may not be able to speak her tongue, they were able to understand most of the words or at least the feelings behind them.

"Please..." Nanoha said after her pause, loud enough for all to hear, including the slowly-turning squirrel, "I know there's a way we can all get along, but this isn't the way. We don't want to hurt you, so please"

The squirrel, whom everyone was trying to convince took in the human's words and looked about her kin. Seeing the confused looks on their expressions, she sent a neutral gaze at the two blondes and oversized wolf. The trio had nothing to say, merely shrugging in indifference, not like they had much to add, the world was alien to them.

With a small shrug, the squirrel let out a series of squeaks to the others present. Though only Sonic and Arf could understand them, the fact that neither hedgehog nor wolf had reacted in a defensive manner was a good sign. Sure enough the animals slowly began to retreat and break off the formation that was set for the ambush.

"Thank you" Nanoha said with a polite bow in gratitude. The squirrel would look at her with an expression of surprise before shrugging and joining her kin in going off to attend to whatever business they had.

"Well…" Sonic broke his brief silence with a word and a shrug, "That was interesting."

"Yeah..." Nanoha herself wasn't quite sure what to make of their situation or the resolution either.

"At any rate, Lindy-san's expecting us" Fate noted, "And we're late."

The mages and familiars had prepared themselves for a quick flight over to the Harlaown residence in Uminari. However, a certain pink hedgehog was not about to allow them to forget about her.

"Hey!" Amy Rose called out as the others had prepared their own variants of flight spells, "You're not going to just leave me behind, are you?"

"Why not?" Alicia was the first to ask. The shortest human of the group turned and faced the pink hedgehog with an unnerving look of annoyance on her face, "Why should we let you come with us?"

"I helped you out, didn't I?" The pink hedgehog countered quickly, "Shouldn't that convince you?"

"Half of the time you were kidnapped and the other half was spent giving Sonic weird looks" Alicia replied flatly again, her face in a bit of a deadpan, though she was unable to hide her annoyance, "While you did help us through Baldy Nosehair's base, we probably could've found our own way in without your help"

"Well, maybe Sonic will vouch for me" The pink hedgehog grinned and looked in the direction of where she last saw her blue idol, "Right. Sonic?"

Not only did she receive no answer, but the hedgehog he had tried to ask was actually nowhere in sight. He wasn't the only one missing as well, as Nanoha too was missing from her line of sight. Not that it was particularly a negative thing for Amy; it would've probably given here a better chance at acquainting herself with her idol.

Completely confused, Amy turned around to face the short human she had just spoken with, only to find her missing as well. In fact, everyone she had just been with had vanished. She frantically spent the next few seconds turning her head back and forth in hopes of finding the group her idol was in. No dice, they were gone.

"Wait, Sonic!" The pink hedgehog shouted her idol's name out into the sky, but she was basically talking to the air and was given no response other than the sound of her voice echoing off some of the mountain faces. If the ones she called out to had heard, they pretended not to notice.

[Uminari City, Japan]
[Residential District: Harlaown Residence]
[Local Time: 1130 hours]
[BGM: "Welcome to Our Town" Final Fantasy IV (DS/PSP)]

The group of five had sped so fast in their flight over to the admiral's residence in the city that they had to put a fair amount of effort into braking to avoid crashing into the house. After they arrived, the next minute or so was spent to catch their breaths and regain their respective senses. After all, it wouldn't do for the group to meet Lindy out of breath and exhausted. And for Alicia, it was her first time meeting the aforementioned admiral and a good first impression would make the introductions go much more smoothly.

Upon entering the house, the group of five found the admiral that they were to report to calmly seated on a couch in the living room. She didn't appear to have been there for long as there was a cup of freshly poured tea in her hand and a calm look on her face.

"Welcome back, everyone" Sure enough; the woman calmly greeted the returning mages and familiars with a soft, calm expression, "Congratulations on a job well done"

"Sorry we couldn't get here earlier" Sonic was quick to make an apology, hoping it would do some good in the event that the woman's calm demeanor wasn't enough to save them from a tardiness lecture, "Some of the locals wanted to ambush us and say 'hi'."

"I suspected as much" The woman merely nodded and explained her reasoning, "They were rather territorial with the local authorities that were sent there from Japan if I read the dispatch correctly. It was only the fact that they humans had kept their distance and stayed out of anyone's way that kept things from escalating."

"I think Eggman's attack on Little Planet did that job though" the blue hedgehog went on, "But we actually managed to calm them down without blasting them to a fifth dimension."

"Good" Lindy nodded, "And who persuaded them?"

"Well I did first as I was the only one among us who could listen to their tongue flawlessly" Sonic replied, "Then I had Nanoha-chan take over."

"And judging from your faces, I'm guessing she persuaded them without violence" The woman queried. The others nodded firmly and truthfully, which drew a nod from her as well, "Excellent, Eggman's actions have given us humans a bad name with them. Taking any violent action would've escalated tensions further.

"Anyways, I understand there's someone new for me to meet?" Lindy was quick to change the topic to a more joyous one, "Someone whose aid was crucial in resolving this little incident?"

"Yes, ma'am" Alicia took the unspoken cue and stepped forward. She had done her best to appear polite and formal, "I was living on Little Planet at the time, and when I saw them fighting to keep the enemies off the planet I joined them."

"And you would be the real Alicia Testarossa if my understanding is correct?" The woman went on with the same topic, hoping to actually confirm Alicia's identity as genuine. The little girl had nodded in firm, honest agreement, which aided Lindy in doing so.

"I am honored to meet your acquaintance and would like to thank you in providing assistance." Lindy gave a friendly smile to the shorter blonde, "And it's nice to see that you've been alive all this time. As you probably gathered from the others, there's been some "issues" regarding your mother."

"Yeah, I heard" Alicia nodded with a frown, "And I'd rather not see her right now. At least not until I've had some time to get used to everything."

"I wasn't going to let you go anyways" Lindy affirmed understandably, "I plan on leaving for Mid-Childa tomorrow and deal with the fallout from this incident."

"What about Fate-chan and Arf-san?" Nanoha asked with concern, "Wasn't it because of this incident that they were allowed to stay here in the first place?"

"Correct, however since Precia was arrested, the Bureau's justice department wouldn't have much need to go after Fate and Arf as they were unwilling accomplices" The woman dismissed the concern away rather easily, "There is a slight chance they may be called as witnesses for the prosecution in a trial, but I'm going to make them work for it."

"How?" Sonic didn't miss that familiar look of mischief that graced the admiral's face.

"Aside from the crew that's flying the Arthra, I'm going alone." The woman explained her idea, "With the Arthra flying at a controlled speed, it'll take at least a day to get to Mid-Childa from this planet. And if either the prosecution or defense wants their testimony, they'll have to take the long flight to get here and back. Complicating matters more, this is a Non-Administrated World with little Bureau presence, so they'll have to use their own means of transportation."

"So it's a lot of running around." Sonic summed up the idea and couldn't help but chuckle in the genius, "Nice"

"It won't deter them, but it'll be a troublesome nuisance" Lindy noted, "I'll be leaving Chrono and Amy (Limietta) here to watch over things. Fate, Arf and Alicia can either stay here or with Nanoha's family if they don't mind an extra houseguest."

"I don't think my family will mind" Nanoha said thoughtfully, "We just had a sleepover with Arisa-chan and Suzuka-chan.

"And I really want to spend more time with Fate-chan and Alicia-chan too" The girl added with cheerful delight as she sent the aforementioned two a cute, friendly expression, "So I'm open to the idea of them staying too."

Arf and Sonic both hide their amusement at the matching expressions that Fate and Alicia had after the brunette's seemingly innocent statement, which, if taken in another context, could've been seen quite romantically. Lindy was amused; but still felt that the brunette probably should be more aware of what she was saying.

At any rate, with her plan set, the admiral dismissed the 5 to enjoy the rest of the day. She wanted to make sure the Arthra was set for the trip home among other things and she didn't with to trouble the kids more than she needed to. Among the arrangements and assurances she needed was with Nanoha's family and making sure they wouldn't mind taking in Fate and Alicia while she was gone. She had confidence though and knew that Nanoha and Sonic would be able to vouch for them.

The rest of the day was spent in peace and Sonic was given arguably the best birthday party he ever had. There were no presents to be exchanged or even a need for them. Just the simple time spent with friends was good enough for the blue hero.

[The next day]
[No BGM]

It was a silent and rather peaceful sendoff that greeted Lindy Harlaown as she waved goodbye before setting off for Mid-Childa. Her confidence was well placed as the Takamachi family easily agreed to take care of the Testarossa siblings while she was away at work. While it was a relief, there were still far more serious matters that required her thoughts.

There was one question that stood out to the teal-haired admiral as she sat in the captain's chair of her ship. One question that would plague her mind for the rest of the flight over and even when she landed. It was a gravely serious manner and it could very well have just as serious ramifications. What was this question, one might ask? It was quite simple.

'How do I tell Precia that her biological daughter has been found?'

[To Be Continued!]

[Ending: "Little Wish ~Lyrical Step" Yukari Tamura]

[End of Chapter 22]

Author's Notes: Shorter chapter, yes with a few less scenes. But pressed for time as it is and I needed to get something out. At any rate, I recovered with this lovely little cliffy!