Chapter 1
"No way!" Tails merely arched an eyebrow at Sonic's sudden interruption. "There is absolutely positively no way I'm going show up at the ball for Amy's birthday. I won't survive through the first song if I go there. Last time she hugged me I passed out and woke up to her trying to bully a priest into marrying us. If she manages to get a hold of me again I'll probably die or worse..."
Tails grinned stifling a laugh at Sonic's outburst, "You done ranting yet?"
"You have no sympathy, do you?" Sonic made a face that could only be described as sulking, something he would never admit to doing, "But she squeezes when she hugs, and it hurts," he tried not to whine but his voice wavered slightly and managed to raise it's pitch by a couple of notes so it sounded more complaining than he would have liked.
"So don't let her hug you," Tails finally decided to let up on him a bit, "It's a mascaraed so everyone will be wearing masks. She may not even recognize you. You have grown a bit taller. Why are you so determined to avoid her anyway? Her way of showing affection towards you will only get more violent the longer you evade her."
Sonic frowned with a glance at him then proceeded to pretend to stare out the window. If only he knew. I hate lying to them but it's too much of a risk to their safety to tell them the truth. "She's a teenage girl. They usually change crushes every few weeks, she'll find someone better and then she'll completely ignore me." And hopefully never have to get her heart broken... "Then I'll have nothing to to worry about." There were several loud bangs and creaking sounds as Eggman tried to pick a fight with him for the third time that week. "Well... almost nothing, give me a minute to deal with him." He walked to the door with a simple grace that appeared as natural to him as was his speed although on anyone else it would seem awkward and gawky.
"Just promise you'll go," Tails called as Sonic began to open the door. Sonic simply stopped the movement and looked over his shoulder.
"Fine, but she won't recognize me if I was ten inches from her nose," and with that the door flung open and he stepped out into the brilliant glare of the late morning light.
Eggman cursed for perhaps the dozenth time that day since his return. Nothing had gone according to plan during his attack. Entering that yard was like entering a spiders web, too many places to get caught with all that greenery. There was no way to break free of the vines and they wouldn't burn. Sonic himself may as well have been the spider closing in on it's prey, the way he moved straight through the long grass and vines as if they didn't exist. They didn't catch on his legs or ensnare his feet and hands as he moved and they seemed perfectly unharmed in his wake. That creature was completely unnatural. When Eggman's robots tried to raise guns and missiles, he took them out with no effort at all handing them back the pile of ruble to take back with them. By then Eggman was forced to retreat once again and come up with a new plan. Two years, just thinking about it made him angry. Two years of repeated loosing to that blasted hedgehog. He cursed yet again. A slightly muffled thump brought him out of his revery in time to hear a hurried apology from one of his bots. The fallen volume was an old encyclopedia on gods and goddesses he had pick up at a younger age. The page it fell open on was a painting that brought a vague familiarity to his mind.
"Wait! Give me that book," he stood up rapidly and strode toward the bot, snatching the book away from it's hands and returning to his desk to read. This is it! He stopped on a painting depicting the royal family. It was a vague image but the young face was obvious in it's similarity. So it seems that your secret is revealed, Sonic the hedgehog.