Welcome back to Sonic Chronicles! Thank you to Issun the Wandering Writer for my first ever review, I'm glad you liked the start. Also many thanks to Prowerboy for his support. As promised, Chapter 2 shines some light on Sonic's pre-hero family life. A small side note: most of the mentioned family members are from the Sonic Underground cartoon. If you believe that this cartoon was a crime against hedgehogness, don't worry: the backstory is completely different, and the characters won't be making much of an appearance after this chapter. BTW, the shoes that Sonic's described as wearing aren't his trademark red and white sneakers. The reason for this will become clear as the story progresses. The shoes described are based aesthetically on the time travel shoes from AoStH.
TIME: 12 April 3324
PLACE: Suburbs of Emerald Town, South Island
"It's alive! It's alive!" The badly miscast mad scientist on the TV set cackled insanely as his enormous robot lurched upright from the stereotypical oak slab surrounded by Tesla coils. Lounging on a nearby sofa, a blue hedgehog gave an exaggerated yawn. "What a load of rubbish!"
The blue hedgehog looked to be about fourteen. His quills were swept back and downward in a trendy cut, popular among young Mobian hedgehogs. His eyes were bright green, and he had a hairless patch of tan skin on his belly. His muzzle was also tan, and it seemed to bear a near-permanent cheeky smirk. His only clothing was a pair of white gloves, white socks, and a pair of red, yellow and black trainers.
Another hedgehog sat next to him on the sofa. This one was female, around sixteen or so, and a bright magenta colour. Her quills were also styled in a reverse downward sweep, but a forward-swept cowlick of pink hair sprouted from between her ears. Her eyes were a deep golden brown colour, and she wore a crescent shaped necklace. She was dressed in a maroon short-sleeved blouse with gold trim, a navy blue miniskirt, black elbow length gloves and black thigh boots. She looked up from the notebook she was taking notes in and shot an irritated glare at the blue hedgehog, who was nudging her to get her attention.
"Maurice, will you please leave me alone! I have to get this preliminary essay in for my media studies class, and I'd get it done a lot faster without you bugging me!" The blue hedgehog scowled, annoyed. "Sonia, I keep telling you! Call me Sonic!"
"Not a chance, Maurice Ogilvie Hedgehog." Sonia gave him a slightly malicious grin. "Just because you picked up a stupid nickname doesn't mean I have to call you by it."
Sonic/Maurice sulked. "Of all the family unit combinations I could have ended up with after the custody battle, I had to get stuck with you, Sonia." Sonic recalled the somewhat twisted web of relationships that the Hedgehog family had suffered over recent years. Sonic had been one of three children born to Jules and Bernice. His siblings were his older sister, Sonia, and his younger brother, Manik. However, over the years that the young hedgehogs had grown up, there had been a cooling of their parent's relationship. Eventually, after a particularly vicious argument, Jules and Bernice had split up. While Jules took off with his new girlfriend, Alina, a purple hedgehog who claimed to be of a noble bloodline, Bernice sought comfort with Jules' older brother, Charles, a noted scientist. After a long and complex custody battle, Sonic and Sonia opted to stay with Charles and Bernice, while Manik opted to join Jules and Alina.
"You had to go there, didn't you?" Sonia replied, unamused. "Now, as I am obviously not going to get any peace until I hear you out, what did you want?"
"Heh… I just wanted to point out that that bozo…" Sonic jabbed a thumb at the TV, which was now showing the mad scientist flailing a flaming torch around as the robot monster advanced on him menacingly. "…sounds just like that Robotnik guy on the news a couple of years back! You remember, the one who caused chaos, blew up the courtroom in Empire City and then escaped?"
"Oh, for heaven's sake, Maurice, just grow up! I don't find jokes about terrorists at all funny." Sonia turned back to her notebook in disgust. Sonic just shrugged. "Whatever. Now, can we give up on this black and white garbage and watch something else?" Without waiting for an answer, Sonic snatched up the remote and stopped the film in the Blu-Ray drive. The TV switched back to the music channel it had previously been set to, and Sonia clapped her hands over her ears as heavy rock music poured from the speakers. Onscreen, a leopard, a bulldog and a goat pounded their instruments mercilessly while a rabbit with numerous studs and rings in his long ears yelled gibberish down his microphone. Sonic leapt off the sofa and started break-dancing, singing along at the top of his voice. Fortunately for Sonia, her acoustic torment was brief, as the TV switched off. An acrid smell of burning plastic came from the plug.
"Bravo, little brother." Sonia said snidely. "Your chosen music was so awful, even the TV committed suicide to get away from it." Sonic gave his sister a sour look. "Don't try and pin this on me, Sis. I bet Uncle Chuck blew every fuse in the house with one of his wacky experiments again." Sonic walked over to the light switch and flicked it. Nothing happened. "See?" Sonic declared triumphantly. "Uncle Chuck's nuked the fuse box again! I'm going down to his workshop to give him a piece of my mind!"
"Maurice, are you sure that's a good idea?" Sonia started to ask, but Sonic was already out of the back door. Sonia sighed and followed her younger brother at a more restrained pace. Walking out into the garden, Sonia looked towards Charles' scientific workshop, a large building at the bottom of the garden resembling a cross between a conservatory and a nuclear bunker. She noticed, with some alarm, that there was a large and impressive car parked in the driveway, and that Sonic was shouting at a skunk who was standing in front of the workshop and blocking Sonic's entry. Rushing over, Sonia dragged the irate Sonic away from the bemused-looking skunk. "Hey, what are you doing, Sonia?" Sonic declared angrily. "This bozo won't let me in to see Uncle Chuck!"
"Maurice, you're an idiot." Sonia hissed quietly. "Look at what he's wearing." Sonic looked the skunk over. He was dressed in a dark grey military uniform of boots, trousers, jacket and beret. Two gold studs adorned his lapels, and a purple band ran round his sleeves near the cuffs.
"Yeah, nice duds. So what?" Sonic asked. Sonia sighed and buried her face in her hands. "Only you, Maurice. Only you would pick a fight with a lieutenant in the King's Royal Guards." Sonic's eyes widened enormously. "Uh-oh."
"Uh-oh is right, Maurice. Be sure to write and tell me how they decorate the royal dungeons." Sonic was saved any more embarrassment as the door to the workshop swung wide and two figures emerged. The first was a hedgehog in his mid-sixties. Perhaps once he had been the rich cobalt blue colour of Sonic, but age had reduced his colour to a faded light blue. Otherwise, he greatly resembled his nephew, although he had large bushy grey eyebrows and a large grey handlebar moustache. The other figure was a male chipmunk in his mid-fifties. He too had a grey moustache, although it was smaller and neater than the hedgehog's. He was wearing a very ornate red and blue coat and, despite his stern demeanour, had a humorous twinkle in his brown eyes.
"Everything all right, Lieutenant St. John?" The chipmunk asked in a deep, mellow voice. The skunk came to attention and saluted. "No problem, your majesty. The natives are a bit restless, that's all." Lieutenant St. John indicated Sonic and Sonia. The older hedgehog groaned a little at the sight of his young relatives. He turned to address the chipmunk. "King Acorn, may I introduce my niece, Sonia, and my nephew, Maurice Ogilvie, although he prefers it if people call him by his nickname of 'Sonic. '"
The monarch of the Mobian kingdoms smiled knowingly. "The young certainly like their nicknames. A few years back, for some reason, Sally decided that she wouldn't answer to any name other than 'Bean'. Fortunately she grew out of it. Can you really imagine a future queen with a name like that? 'Queen Bean Acorn the first.' I hardly think that would go over well with the councillors!" The small group laughed at King Acorn's story. The king then crouched slightly to address Sonic and Sonia. "I just need to discuss a couple of things with your uncle, you two. You can have him back in about five minutes."
"Yes, your majesty." Sonia curtseyed politely and started dragging Sonic back to the house before he blurted out anything likely to cause trouble. King Acorn chuckled as he watched them go. "They're so much like Elias and Sally it's uncanny, Charles."
"That they are." Charles the hedgehog grinned back. "I'm sorry about the energy detection device shorting out, your majesty. I really thought I'd cracked it this time." King Acorn clapped Charles on the back in a comradely way. "Live and learn, Chuck. And please drop the 'your majesty' bit. We've known each other long enough for you to call me Max." King Max sighed deeply, suddenly seeming depressed. "Pity about the energy detector, though. We need to find the man somehow."
"Forgive me for saying it, Max, but why can't we just let the United Federation clean up their own mess? Isn't he their problem?" Charles asked. Max laughed humourlessly. "Yes, well, that's part of the great and convoluted game of politics. It wasn't that long ago in history that the Acorn Kingdom and the United Federation were tearing each other apart in total war. We may ostensibly be allies now, but this business is clearly a case of 'you scratch our back, or we'll stick a knife in yours.'" King Max leaned back against the wall of the workshop, relaxing slightly. "You sure you wouldn't rather use the workshops at the palace, Charles? We've got cyclotrons, laser levels, electron microscopes… To you, it'd be candy land." Charles smiled knowingly at the king. "I think I'll pass, Max. You know a large, well-ordered workshop isn't really my thing." The two old friends shared the private joke. Both knew full well that Charles' workshops always resembled a dumping ground for electrical equipment. "I'll see you as soon as my schedule allows, Chuck. Let me know if you make any progress." King Max shook Charles' hand. "See you soon, Max. Give my love to Alicia and the kids."Charles replied. The two friends went their separate ways. Only when King Max was safely in the rear seat of his limo did he pull a dog-eared leaflet from his pocket and study it thoughtfully.
The leaflet was dominated by a criminal-record photo of a fat man with a huge moustache and small round glasses. Underneath, in bold block capitals were the words: "WANTED: DR. IVO JULIAN ROBOTNIK, A.K.A DR. EGGMAN. WANTED IN CONNECTION WITH CRIMES AGAINST THE STATE OF THE UNITED FEDERATION. WARNING. THIS MAN IS DANGEROUS. IF SEEN, IMMEDIATELY CONTACT YOUR NEAREST G.U.N. OR ACORN ROYAL GUARD OUTPOST."
Join us next time on Sonic Chronicles as King Max makes a diplomatic visit to the third great superpower of Mobius (and I bet you were thinking it was just the Acorn Kingdom and the United Federation!) See if you can guess who the third Mobian superpower is. I may even offer a small prize (OC inclusion in the story as a minor character) if anyone guesses correctly...