Knothole Village

The sun was setting as Sonic walked into Brookshire's house. He had spent the day rebuilding the houses that had been damaged, while under the adoring gaze of the young two tailed fox who invited him to stay at his house. His caretaker was the elderly badger that had tried to get him away during the attack. Fortunately, those who had been tranquilized had come out of it with no visible side effects and only minor injuries had been inflicted. Brookshire smiled as Sonic walked in.

"I don't know how we will be able to thank you."

"I don't need any thanks. I am happy to help."

Brookshire motioned from the hedgehog to sit at a small table. "You saved us from a terrible fate and repaired much of the damage in less than a day." He set a wooden cup on the table and filled it with apple juice. "I'm afraid we don't have the more popular drinks the kids like on the mainland."

"I'm sixteen, but this is fine. To tell you the truth, fruit juice was all me and my Uncle Chuck had other than water."

"Chuck?" The badger sat down near Sonic. "Your uncle's name wouldn't happen to be Charles Hedgehog?"

"Yeah. You knew him?"

"Few who fought in The Great War hadn't heard about him. He was one of our greatest scientist. He along with the human, Julian were the keys to our victory and obtaining peace. He vanished shortly after the war around the same time as the …" Brookshire stopped and frowned. "Sorry."

"It's alright. I'm aware of the Hedgehog Massacre. Most hedgehogs remained in one village and they were wiped out by something unidentified. We lived on a small island south from here. He said that we needed to remain hidden from something terrible, but he never said what that thing was. I was content with that for a while."

"What changed?"

"About a year ago, he vanished. So I got in our biplane and came to look for him."

"I am sorry I forced you to bring it up."

Sonic smiled. "Uncle Chuck always told me to keep a positive mood about everything. No one ever got anything done by dwelling on things." Sonic glanced around. "I seem to have lost my little shadow."

Sensing the desire to change the subject, Brookshire responded. "Miles is asleep in his room. He came in about an hour ago, exhausted."

"Little guy has been through a lot. What happened to his parents?"

"Both fought in the war and both fell. My late wife was his godmother so we looked after the infant. We were happy to do it since we didn't have any children of our own. She passed away about two years ago. I came here to give him a peaceful and quiet life." Brookshire sighed. "That boy deserves more than he has received."

"Any idea why the village was attacked?"

"The peace between us and the humans is strenuous at best. Many of them see us as little more than large animals. It is hard to convince them otherwise when smaller and less developed members of our species exists in their own territory. Our ambassador is a rabbit and when he went to meet with the human ambassador, the human's daughter was there and she just happened to have a pet rabbit. Needless to say, the meeting did not go well."

"Sorry I asked." Sonic drank his juice. "This stuff is awesome."

"Traditionally made." The badger poured him another cup. "So how long do you plan on staying? You are more than welcome to stay here as long as you like."

"It depends on how long it takes me to fix my plane."

"Is something wrong with it?"

"My uncle taught me how to fly, but did quite get to the part on how to land. I hid it under some brush a few miles away."

"We may like to keep it simple here, but there are plenty of former mechanics and other skilled mobians that came here to retire. Tomorrow morning we'll get you airborne."

"Thanks."

"So how fast can you run?"

"Not sure." Sonic and Miles were walking through the forest, towards Sonic's hidden plane. After a good night's rest, Miles had more than enough energy to ask Sonic hundreds of questions. "I can run across water when I am near my max."

"So based on your size and estimated weight." The two-tailed fox mumbled a bit as he seemed to do some calculations in his head. "I'd say about 70 miles per hour."

Sonic laughed a bit. "You did all that in your head. That is kind of cool."

"I guess." Miles sighed.

"Something wrong?"

"The kids pick on me for it. That and my name."

"Your name?"

"Miles. I wish I had a cool name like yours."

"Hey, my uncle is the smartest person I know and he is way past cool."

"Really?"

"Yep." Sonic stopped long enough to show Miles one of the sneakers he was wearing. "I was constantly going through shoes when I was your age. He forged these out of gold rings. Not only do they not show any wear or tear, they even grow with my feat."

"That is awesome."

"So don't let having a big brain get you down. And your name is fine, just need a good nickname." Sonic rubbed his chin and closed his eyes like he was in deep thought. "How about Tails?"

"But they make fun of my tails."

Sonic lightly punched him in the shoulder. "They're just jealous. It makes you unique and stand out. As far as I am aware, I am the only hedgehog with blue fur. My uncle had grey and my parents had brown."

"Then why not call yourself blue?"

Sonic smirked and shot forward at high speed and a small sonic boom went off as he came back. "I think Sonic is more accurate title."

"How did you do that? You would have needed to go over 700 miles per hour."

"I can push myself to go that fast for a short while." Sonic took a few deep breaths. "But it does take a bit out of me." He looked around and nodded. "This is it." He walked over to what looked like a large bush. He ran around it fast enough to create a vortex and the brush was blown away, revealing the plane. It was primarily red with a white stripe on the tail. A pair of lower wings with a longer single one resting just above the pilot seat. The propeller was broken and there was a large gash in one of the lower rings. "I swore it looked better yesterday."

"What happened to it?"

Before Sonic could answer him, a female's voice issued from the plane. "He forgot to charge the fuel cells. Again!"

Miles ran toward the source of the voice. "Who was that?"

"That would be me." A small dome of light on the controls flashed whenever the voice spoke. "My name is Nicole. I am an AI developed by Charles Hedgehog."

"Artificial Intelligence?" Miles climbed into the pilot seat. "I thought that was impossible."

"Sadly I am not fully aware of what my father went through in order to develop my program, but if you would like, I could describe my how my higher processes operate along with my hardware specs."

"Nicole!" Sonic leaned against the plane. "Don't bore the poor boy."

"But this is neat."

"If you say so." Sonic opened up a small storage compartment and pulled out a length of rope. "We grew up together and I could barely stay awake through her science talk."

"She grew up?"

"I am right here, Miles." Nicole chimed in. "And yes, when I was brought online for the first time, my intelligence was little more than a toddlers. My father instructed me as he did Sonic and only allowed me to download information directly when I had matured."

"Father? You consider Sonic's uncle your father."

"He treated me with the same devotion as he did Sonic. How could I simply call him creator?"

Sonic whistled. "Sorry to interrupt." He had tied one end of the rope to the plane and the other end was wrapped around his waist. "But you might want to hang on Miles."

"Ok, but call me Tails."

It only took Sonic a few minutes to tow his plane to the village. A small group of villagers were waiting for him. They had gathered as many tools as they could find and began to get to work when the plane was brought to a stop.

Sonic untethered himself from the plane as Brookshire approached. "Hey, good news. It appears you have the day off. Tails will be entertained for the rest of the day."

"Tails?"

"Miles' new nickname. He seems to like it."

The badger nodded. "You must come with me. We need your help again?"

"Sure."

Brookshire led Sonic to his house. A coyote who looked no older than Sonic was laying on a couch. He was dressed in what appeared to a dirty military uniform.

"What happened?"

Brookshire picked up a pitcher of water and filled a cup. "He ran into the village about an hour ago. His uniform is similar to the royal guard of the Acorn Family. He was too exhausted to speak, but he appears to be coming around." Brookshire helped the young mobian to sit up and drink the water. "Take your time."

"There is no time." The coyote gulped down the water. "My name is Antoine D'Coolette, I am a squire in the royal army." He coughed several times. "The princess, she is in danger."

"Princess?" Sonic looked to Brookshire.

"Princess Sally Acorn. But what is the royal princess doing so far from the capital?"

"The dig at the ruins. We were attacked by strange machines."

Brookshire shook his head. "The ruins are on the far side of the island. An archaeological team was looking for artifacts. I had forgotten about them until now. We can call the main island, but it will take them a day to get here. Will you help her?"

Sonic smirked. "Sure! How often do you get a chance to save a princess?"