Chapter 1: A blazing beginning.
Author's notes: So this is the first story I have ever written featuring a beloved character Sega seems to have forgotten over the years. A character with one of the most catchy theme tunes ever written in any Sonic game (Vela Nova). One of the best written female characters in the entire Sonic series, and a far better written princess than the infamously disliked princess Elise of Sonic 006.
In some ways, princess Blaze is superior even to princess Sally Acorn. Her dedication to the safety of her world, her interesting character arc, and her incredibly interesting superpower of being able to control fire all make Blaze an incredible and underrated character, perhaps only second to Maria Robotnik in how underused she is.
However unlike Princess Sally, she is an outcast to her own people who despise her even when she has protected them countless times from their own poor decisions.
In addition, Blaze's relationship with Marine the Raccoon is a very interesting and adoreable one. While they did not start off on the best of terms unlike with Sonic and Tails, many fans postulate that Blaze and Marine became much closer after the events of Sonic Rush.
This makes them the Sonic series' third hero-sidekick combo after Sonic-Tails, and Amy-Cream.
I also think Blaze's powers and fighting style are very cool.
Instead of charging forward to punch and kick at melee range like Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy; Blaze prefers to stay at a distance and pelt her enemies with fireballs. Which makes her the series' first ranged fighter, which is very interesting.
In many of Sega's works, it is frequently hinted that Blaze is one of the females that Sonic has consistently felt close to. Moreso than Sally or Amy. Sonic helped Blaze overcome her fear of her own fire powers, and helped her realize her true potential. Yet Blaze is sadly the character Sonic has the most difficulty accessing, since they live in different universes which very rarely connect.
While Sonic can always choose to hang out with Amy whenever he chooses, and can always take a short trip to the Acorn Kingdom to see Sally again, he can only see Blaze when her world is in danger and the Sol Emeralds call Sonic to her world once again. Which is very rare.
Sonic even has easier access to Chris and Helen's world, since all he has to do is gather all seven Chaos Emeralds, which is a far easier task since he at least has some control over when and where he will find the Chaos Emeralds. Furthermore, Chris states in the last season of Sonic X that he is building a portal that will allow easy transport between his and Sonic's world.
So with all this being said, thank you for reading and on with the story. What would Sonic X look like if Blaze was a part of it?
Blaze's point of view.
"Wake up."
Uhh my head. It hurts so badly. Why does it hurt so much?
From what I recalled, the Sol Emeralds had not been threatened for quite some time now since Sonic left.
Sonic... The one kindred spirit who actually understood my burden of being born royalty and with supernatural powers I never asked to have. Sonic. The eternal hope. The blue hero who's smile shines brighter than any star in this galaxy, or any galaxy.
Sonic. The one good thing that the Sol Emeralds gave me in my wretched life of difficulties and deceptions. The wise sage who came in my time of need, to rescue a wayward traveller from her own harmful self-delusions. Self-delusions which were putting the kingdom she was sworn to protect into jeapardy.
"Blaze please wake up!" The sweet voice from before pleaded with me once again. A voice that sounded like the purest nectar and rang like heavenly music to my ears.
I blinked a few times. For some reason, my vision was very blurry this misty morning. This wasn't right. As a forest cat, I was generally known for the impressive distance I could see and the ability to operate reasonably well even in the darkest night. So for me to be so unable to properly open my eyes to make out the small, shaking figure looking over me was very strange.
This wasn't right. Something was wrong.
Once again I asked the rhetorical question which would elucidate everything in perfect detail, if I could just find the answer to it. What happened last night?
"Oh gosh, please!" The figure hovering above me shrieked with painful desperation, as my eyes slowly slid wide open from their sore state. I had clearly not had a good night's sleep, whatever the reason and I felt incredibly woozy.
The room around me seemed to be spinning in circles like a merry-go-round, and it took all my composure not to vomit.
The blurs around the small, hazel figure above me finally cleared to show me the panicked and grief-stricken face of Marine the Raccoon, who had already taken the initiative of placing a fresh icepack on my ringing forehead. The coldness of this crude medicinal instrument had its intended effect, and I instantly felt almost all my senses come back online from the groggy state they had been in just a second ago.
Marine gasped in relief, as she clasped both my limp lilac paws with her own brown ones. "Blaze. Thank goodness. You're awake!"
"Uh huh." I groggily replied, still unable to fully clear away the mental block clouding my judgement. "Marine. It's okay. I'm okay. Thank you for taking care of me."
"It's no trouble. Blaze. You're my hero." Marine gratefully sang, almost like a song. "It's the least I can do."
"Uh. Marine. Can I please ask you a question?" I gently piped, knowing that once Marine started singing my praises in her overzealous manner; it would take a long time for her to stop.
"Fire away." She agreed, blushing slightly in shame for accidentally patronizing me. In the time since Sonic left my universe to return to his own universe with his own friends, Marine and I had grown incredibly close. United by our mutual respect for the noble hero who'd so selflessly risked his life for the greater good of a new land he'd never even seen before.
Sonic brought even bitter foes close together, while his sworn enemy Dr Eggman sought to tear apart even the dearest of friends. It was for this reason that I vowed to incinerate Eggman with my own flames if he ever set foot in my peaceful kingdom ever again.
I hated my fire powers which I had been granted from birth with a fiery passion, but I did have to admit that they sometimes had their uses. Uses such as punishing meddling criminals for sticking their heads where they didn't belong.
But Eggman was definitely a story for another time, when my head was steady and my sight was clear.
"What happened last night?" I asked, slowly getting up into a standing position from my place on a makeshift bed thrown over a wooden floor. It was surprisingly comfortable to sleep on the hard surface of Marine's humble boat, which I had failed to tell apart from my own much more comfortable bed until just now.
Marine's eyes filled with fear as she took a deep breath to compose herself. Somehow despite the obvious distress that my seemingly harmless question had brought upon her, she managed to look me squarely in the eye.
Marine was not typically known for her seriousness, as she floated through life like a coconut bobbing down the river she spent most of her days sailing up and down. So it came as a real shock for her to adopt this hard and grave manner, even around me.
"You got drunk in a bar." Marine explained gravely. "You started dancing on the table after you had one shrimp cocktail too many, and then you fell off the table and passed out."
"I did what?" I asked, incredulous that the pre-eminent noble of the Sol dimension would stoop to such a despicable depth. I took my duties as royalty very seriously, and to hear Marine state that I had committed such dishonorable acts of self-degredation, shook me to my bone.
"Before you got to that point, Blaze; you started throwing glasses at the wall and you even set fire to one of the velvet curtains in the bar with your fire powers." Marine continued sadly, hand on her heart to let me know that she was telling me the truth, the whole truth and nothing else. "I had to beg the bartender not to haul you to jail, and to let me keep you at my place until you got better. Which is why you're here now. You were in no condition to walk back to your own home, so I had to drag you here in a wheelbarrow."
"D, did I hurt anyone? Please tell me I at least didn't accidentally burn anyone." I begged, sinking to my knees and looking at both my hands before hanging my head in shame. With great power came great responsibility, and I had really sunk to a new low if what Marine said was true.
Which it certainly was, since Marine was not the type to lie or to lie well even when she tried.
A ghost of a smile came to Marine's anguished face as she lightly shook her head. "No Blaze. Thankfully you didn't burn anyone. The fire you started was quickly put out by me, using a bottle of rum that I happened to have my hands on. No one was injured, and it was only because no one was injured that I was able to beg the bartender to let you off the hook just this one time."
I sighed quietly in relief, as I wiped a few beads of sweat from my very hot brow. At least no one was hurt. At least that was one of my moral codes that I had not yet broken.
"B, but why was I in a bar getting drunk in the first place?" I very cautiously asked, continuing to rub my head. I had really hurt myself badly with my fall from grace. A smattering of fragmented memories were coming back to me now that I was slowly becoming more awake in the morning sunlight shining through the cabin's windows, but I still needed a bit more information before I could piece together every piece of this mystery.
It was Marine's turn to sigh. A deep, long and painful sigh. As if every word she had spoken thus far was draining what little joy and color she had left in her monotonous and miserable life devoid of all charm and excitement. While I frequently railed against the evil of war and conflict, even I had no choice but to concede that peace in my region could feel stifling from time to time.
Especially without Sonic by my side to make my days worthwhile.
"Well?" I asked Marine once again, knowing that she was trying her best to hide from my question for as long as possible.
Marine scowled sadly. "Well Blaze. You've been doing it a lot recently. Ever since Sonic left us last time, you've not been yourself."
Tears formed in her crystal blue eyes, and she quickly blinked them away. "Something's happened to you Blaze. Something bad. I don't know how to explain it to you. But the one thing I can be sure of; is that the Blaze who fought alongside Sonic to protect the Sol Emeralds from that nasty jerk Dr Eggman, is not the same Blaze that now stands before me."
A faint pain began to form in my chest. A pain that I knew only the Devil himself could possibly inflict upon me.
I knew I had fallen far from grace. That I had a long way to go before I could earn true and worthy respect from my people. That my time with Sonic was a start to my recovery, but not the end.
Loneliness was a slow and insidious killer. And I had become its next victim without realizing it.
From a lonely childhood where I lost both my parents to a horde of green-eyed bandits who would stop at nothing to grasp the power of the sacred Sol Emeralds, my growing sense of emptiness had only worsened as I got older. I had hoped in the past that I would eventually grow out of my cold and isolated ways, but alas; there were some wounds that time could never heal.
"Marine. Thank you. For everything." I whispered, unable to muster the energy to say anything else as I felt another horrible headache overtake my senses.
Marine the Raccoon's point of view.
Excerpt from the novel The many heroic feats of Princess Blaze Emmy Solaris. By Marine Isabel Sparrow. Page 6. Chapter 1.
One day the citizens in the Sol kingdom were wailing in great despair. A solar eclipse had completely blackened the sky, and all the folks were deathly frightened. Others complained of being unable to write or work to keep the Kingdom's key industries going.
The Solar Eclipse had also taken out the Kingdom's key power source of Solar power, leaving no electricity to do anything.
"What the heck are we supposed to do now?" Yelled a duck-billed platypus as he stamped his foot in frustration. Riots were everywhere and everyone was in a state of complete panic, when all of a sudden out come their princess Blaze the cat.
"When you cannot turn on the light" She chided them gently. "Turn off the darkness instead." She used her flames to provide a beautiful, glowing source of light so that the citizens could keep warm and see clearly through all the darkness until the sun came out once again.
...
One day when Blaze the Cat was out patrolling the forests near the Sol Temple, she was bitten by a large and poisonous snake. However, she did not die. Nor was she even seriously wounded. Instead, the evil snake was ruined by it's greed, for it died in unbearable agony three days later, killed by touching the invisible holy barrier that engulfed Blaze at all times.
...
At a small fishing village on the outskirts of the kingdom, everyone was screaming as a massive fire spread through the streets. They tried throwing buckets of water collected from the river at the growing flames, to no avail. Then Blaze the Cat threw a carton of Petrol on the fire, and it instantly died down into nothingness.
The Village Mayor recieved a massive ceremony with cakes and everything, while Blaze the Cat was shunted away without so much as a thank-you.
...
Blaze the Cat has no backspace button on her typewriter, because she never makes mistakes. Not even when writing sentimental thank-you letters to her loved ones. If she actually had any loved ones left alive. Sigh.
...
Princess Blaze knows Sonic's secret. Princess Sally and Elise, do not.
...
When Blaze does push-ups to keep fit, she doesn't push herself up. She pushes the planet down.
...
Princess Blaze actually died from a cliff fall two years ago, when trying to track down a very cunning Jewel thief. But the cowardly Grim Reaper is still working up the courage to take Blaze's soul away from her body.
...
Blaze can set ants on fire. At night. With no sun and without a magnifying glass!
(End of excerpt from novel).
...
It is said that when Sonic the hedgehog came into the Sol Dimension under mysterious circumstances, the sun shone brighter on that day than any day before. And that the sun's light dimmed a little when he departed as mysteriously as he came.
People wondered why a complete stranger would choose to risk his life to help a new land of strangers who were complete aliens to him.
Was it out of his heroism? Out of pity for a dying world almost destroyed by its own hubris? Both?
Or was it neither, and perhaps Sonic merely viewed the entire ordeal as some sort of game. Perhaps disasters on such a grand scale were merely minor inconveniences back where Sonic came from.
"Sometimes I wonder how well I really know myself." Blaze once heard him say to her. "Or perhaps it is just my luck to always be where Eggman the egghead is hatching his next devious scheme."
Sonic didn't stay for a feast and party which Blaze planned to host in his honor with the little money she had saved up from a life of frugal spending. Before I could get to properly thank him one final time after our world was safe, a bright green light enveloped the blue hedgehog and he was gone as quickly as he came.
Whatever the reason, Sonic was the bravest hero of us all. A true hero that the Sol Kingdom did not deserve, but certainly the one it needed.
Now that he was gone, Blaze had realized too late that her love for him was strong. A brief peek at the sketchbook the lilac cat carried around with her, showed me that it was full of pictures of Sonic. Sometimes alone, sometimes by her side. I never told Blaze that I saw this, for I knew that it was rude to intrude on a lady's privacy according to both the Sailor's honor and pirate's code that I strictly adhered to.
The events from last night can be described only as the writings on the wall. A frightful night in a series of horrific nights for me.
Blaze had not been in a happy place since losing Sonic. She had began searching for ways to pierce the viel seperating her world and Sonic's. Thus far, none of her attempts had been succesful. Worse still, Blaze's constant tampering with the Arcane had damaged her mind in ways words alone could not begin to describe.
First she tried guided meditation to quell her jangled nerves. Then she turned to sleeping for hours on end, sometimes until the sun set and the moon rose. Where she came out of her chambers clad in a black cloak and cowl, like the vampire Count Dracula exiting his castle to search for more hapless humans to prey on to maintain his immortality.
When these methods failed to quell her growing depression, Blaze turned to drinking which soon became excessive drinking. One drink became two. Two became four. Four became eight.
Which ended with her dancing on the bar table until it broke in two, sending her careening to the dirty tavern floor reeking of alcohol.
It was only through paying the bartender; a rough and thoroughly unpleasant purple walrus with very dirty protruding jaws, that I was able to get Blaze out of there before she could be sent to the cat-house.
It was as I took a step back to give Blaze some time to pull herself together, I once again became flooded with guilty memories of how ungrateful and cruel I had been to the compassionate and responsible ruler of our fair land. I used to be a cruel joker who played practical pranks on Blaze until she was at her wit's end.
Of all of Sonic's heroic feats, the one kind action he was never given credit for was the way he redeemed me. How he helped me to see the ways in which my pranks could go too far. How he taught me to be more appreciative towards Blaze, who worked day and night for the good of her people. Myself included.
So I turned away from my wicked ways, and did my utmost to be of assistance to Blaze in her trying time. I abandoned my previous lifestyle of petty theivery, and started to make an honest living by converting my filthy pirate galley into a squeaky-clean Merchantman. Sonic was kind enough to leave me some of the treasure he found while traversing my world, as reward for my part in helping him bring Dr Eggman to justice.
It was on that day when Marine Isabel Sparrow learned that there was a key distinction between those who were falling, and those who had fallen. I changed my ways while I still had the chance, while Eggman stubbornly refused to let go of his flaws even as they brought about his downfall. This day would henceforth be known throughout the Sol Kingdom as "the day of the hedgehog".
A day which would be celebrated every year, with a grand feast and festival to honor the extra-terrestrial blue hero whose name would never die in our hearts so long as there were stars in the sky. For our land and kingdom, this marked a joyous occasion of heavenly delights and heartwarming unity as even the most bitter enemies put aside their grudges for just a single day.
For Blaze, this festival was but a painful reminder of her lost-love who was destined never to return. Not unless another miracle outside of her control happened.
Our pointless rumination session was cut short by the loud ringing of a nearby bell, which sooned turned to multiple bells. Panicked cries could be heard amid the metallic rings which seemed to shake the very ship we were situated abroad. Being a raccoon with very sensitive hearing, I had to cover my ears and Blaze had to do likewise to avoid being deafened by such a racket.
It was not until several seconds later when we had gotten over the shock of such a sudden signal, that Blaze hastily began to sprint for the door out of the room while gesturing with her hand for me to follow.
I nodded candidly, and we both dashed as quickly as our legs would carry us off of my ship and into a nearby wharf where several fishermen were scurrying around hastily with no apparent direction, rhyme or reason.
"Um. Excuse me but what's going on?" Blaze anxiously asked, still gently caressing her incredibly sore head with her right hand.
From the crowd of panicking civillians, a single male raccoon slightly larger than myself ceased in his maddened dash to regard his lady royal highness with a look of guarded respect. "The Sol temple is under attack" He quietly but anxiously replied, as he coldly leered at us at while keeping at arms length as if we were poisonous pufferfish lethal to the touch. "The perpetrator has already killed the temple guards by disembowling them, and has taken the entire collection of Sol emeralds away."
Blaze's usually placid expression of regal calmness seemed to slip ever so slightly for the briefest of moments in response to the raccoon's devestating report.
"My sincerest apologies for this disaster." She said to him in the most soft and soothing tone she could muster up in her worried state. "If it is not too much trouble sir. Could you please tell us where this criminal was like, and where they last seen heading. This information will be very useful for me to stop this criminal before he can cause any more pain."
The raccoon's gaze slid betweeen me and Blaze, sizing us up. It was readily apparent that he immensely disliked royalty and piracy in all of their many guises. The look of pure hatred with which he regarded Blaze did not soften in the slightest when it turned to me. Such was the price in life I had to pay for being a former pirate devoid of morality.
Very relucantly with a sigh, the raccoon finally deigned to reply to Blaze as the last of the fishermen left the scene. He did not speak until their footsteps had completely died away.
"The thief was last seen heading south, towards glacial ridge. He or she had a grey, metal mask covering their face and a dark cape full of white symbols. They were about twice your height, and said nothing at all. They wielded a big silver scythe as their weapon. That is all I know from what I've been told."
"Thank you for your information, kind sir." Blaze demurely purred, bowing her head for the commoner far below her in rank, stature and morality of character. "Myself and my noble assistant Marine will do all we can to bring this felon to justice."
"Aye." I agreed, with a shaky salute in which I touched my brow with my right hand.
If the raccoon felt at all relieved by our solemn promise to track down the dangerous terrorist now menacing his land, he certainly didn't show it. He merely cursed under his breath as he slunk away in the same general direction as the group of villagers who had long since left us.
We were very much all alone again, and we had our work cut out for us.
Sonic was not here to back us up this time, and it was time to rely on our own self-sufficiency and wits once more.
"Well Blaze, let's go." I suggested, only to find that she had already taken several quick strides in the opposite direction as to where the crowd had headed.
"Wait for me!" I anxiously cried as I just barely managed to keep pace with the sprinting lilac cat blazing a trail down the cobbled road before us. Though not as quick as Sonic, Blaze's incredibly footspeed, both in sporting contests and when she went hunting; was nothing short of breathtaking. Such was the advantage of being born part cat.
"Who do you suppose would commit such heinous actions?" I asked between puffs of exhausation as we ran side by side in the direction where the thief daring enough to pilfer the most precious artifacts in all of the Sol dimension, was apparently last seen heading.
"Whoever it is, they're about to feel the power of flame if they do not immediately return the Sol Emeralds to their rightful place." Blaze curtly replied. "Less talking and more running Marine. We need to conserve our strength and concentration for whatever hideous battle awaits us next."
I could merely grunt in acknowledgement of Blaze's shrewd observation, as we continued our pursuit of the Sol Emeralds. The last time they were tampered with, it had nearly brought the end of the world as we knew it. We could not afford such a risk ever again. We should have been more careful, but sometimes even the most caring ruler slipped up.
I really wished Sonic were here right about now.
About half an hour later of nonstop running, we had arrived at our destination. The daunting crags of the one place in the Sol Kingdom untouched by the blissful rays of the benevolent solar entity known as the sun. Glacier ridge was an icy area in the midst of several mountains whose tops could not be seen from ground level, as they stretched beyond even the clouds. A nearby volcano which was almost always active, spewed forth a thick plume of smoke in the distance.
The volcanic ash cloud in question, safely ensured very little if any sunlight would ever reach the frozen steppes which we were now struggling not to skid on, ensuring they would remain iced up until the end of time itself. It was not a pleasant place to spend a day off. It was not a pleasant place to be at all.
Glaical ridge: the second most terrifying district in the entirety of the Sol Kingdom apart from it's even worse neighbor; magma crater.
"This place, gives me chills." Blaze muttered with a slight shiver. Her fire powers gave her innate protection from most forms of cold, and so this statement coming from the firebending cat carried great weight. "Let's find this jewel thief before they can do any further damage with the Sol Emeralds, Marine."
"Right behind you. Admiral." I cheerily remarked with a small salute, only to invoke an annoyed frown from the no-nonsense noble. The sole remaining noble of the Sol royal lineage.
"Don't call me that. I'm not your Admiral and this isn't your ship or some sort of game. Marine. Be serious. This is serious." Blaze harshly admonished me, her voice soft and dangerous.
"Sorry Blaze." I immediately replied with a light bow as I struggled not to slip on the icy path we were now trudging up in cold fear. Whoever this perpetrator was, they must have been pretty darn resilient to be able to brave this trecharous trail of frost and snow.
Neither of us knew it yet, but we had just taken the first step into kingdom come. We had already put one foot in the grave when we made the decision to come at such short notice into this icy tomb. A place of coldness, which directly opposed Blaze's fire powers and preference for heat.
This would be the last time we'd see the sunny skies of Blaze's kingdom for quite a while.
Blaze had many supernatural capabilities, but predicting the future was not one of them. She possesed a varied hoard of ancient and often dangerous artefacts. But a crystal ball was nowhere in her collection.
As an old saying my own adoreable mama taught me when I was but a tiny little baby; Que sera sera.
It means whatever will be will be.
It meant the future was not ours to see.
Everything seemed alright. Until it wasn't alright.
We had gone very far south, and yet the situation was about to take another turn even further south.
As every learned sailor, navigator and privateer know all too well; the winds of life were never completely predictable. Everything that you knew and loved one moment, could come crashing down in a cloud of smoke and screams the next.
Helen Priestly's point of view.
"So class. Today, we will be studying the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, two essential victories which marked the turning point of World War 2 for the allied forces." The tall, blonde man in a sauve blue one-piece suit stated with addled enthusiasm, not at all wincing from the brutality of his statement. "So if you all please open your History textbooks to page 309, we will begin today's lesson from where we left off two days ago."
My three best friends who were coincidentally the students seated closest to me, immediately leapt to obey the teacher's commands without hesitation.
However I was not so quick to follow my brilliantly qualified teacher's instructions. It was not because I had bad hands; my disabled position as a paraplegic only affected my legs but I could move my two hands about just as well as any healthy person.
Without my hands, I'd be completely confined to a life of lonely helplessness; unable to even push myself in my wheelchair when my parents were busy and I was away from my friends at school.
I took the time every day to thank fate for only depriving me of my legs, but leaving my hands perfectly intact. Though this practice kept me sane for the most part, it still felt awful for me not to be able to get about as quickly as the other children around me who were strong and whole.
I was slow to turn the pages as I was ordered, since a part of me felt guilty about the subjects we were being forced to study in preperation for our very important end of year exams. I was a strict purveyor of pacifism, both as a result of my faith and my personal life experiences.
Furthermore, I was a hardcore Anime watcher and Anime fan. And since Anime was a form of media created primarily in Japan which primarily adopted elements of Japanese cultural into a digital format for my viewing pleasure, it hurt especially for me to have to learn about an event of such sheer destruction; even if it was only an event long past.
I was normally considered a relatively good student, by my friends standards at least. Not quite able to reliably achieve the streak of Straight grade A's, which came naturally to the two redheads sitting either side of me named Frances Garcia and Christopher Thorndyke.
But also thankfully never hitting the rock bottom represented by an unbroken string of grade C's, which constantly burdened the mind of the Ethiopian raven hair seated just left of the ever fabolous looking Frances Garcia.
His name was Danny Darnell, and he was far more concerned with building his muscles and engaging in harsh physical training than he was in getting good grades to pander to a corrupted society he personally had no faith in.
His dream was to be a wrestling instructor after all, and in his words "Mohammed Ali didn't get to the high point he got to by doing sums in people's heads."
To B or not to B. That was the question for me. For the past three years that I could recall, the answer had been a resounding yes. This unspectacular but steady stream of results; ensured that my ability to pass onto the next grade was never in doubt.
It ensured that I would not hit the slums begging for a crust of bread the second I left school to pursue a future, which would burden poor daddy even more than he already was with trying to pay for my increasing medical bills and another wheelchair to replace the one I was now using, and which had nearly broken its wheels with how often I moved it around to try and explore the wonderful spots of nature around the city when the weather was good.
Most importantly for me however, it ensured that I would always retain access to the same classroom that my best friend in the whole wide world used, and be able to sit next to him in every lesson we shared. While I loved all my friends and was grateful to each and everyone of them, there was something in the way Christopher rolled his eyes which took me back to a better time.
Something in the way Christopher spoke to me in calm soothing tones, and something in the way he blushed so cutely whenever he saw me. It made me think there was hope in my bleak future as a paraplegic unable to properly walk, and could therefore never match speed with the new biggest hero celebrity on the block.
Sonic, a talking blue hedgehog that stood at the same height as any human, had arrived in our city just a fortnight ago. His welcome to Station Square had been far from pleasant. Police officers, the FBI and even the army had been called in to exterminate "the alien menace that outsped even Star Racer Sam Speed's fastest formula 1 sport car by a mile".
The attitude the cops took towards Sonic and his pals at first, perfectly mirrored the fatal flaw of humanity which I had tried my whole life to overlook or at least ignore. Which was the fact that we humans did not like what we did not understand, whether it was good or bad.
It was a flaw which even I was guilty of, to a degree. It was an unavoidable mistake the human race had repeated throughout the entirety of human history. It was the one thing I took away from my least favorite subject in school, if I took nothing else away.
But Christopher (who insisted time and again that people just call him Chris because it was simpler and sweeter) did not have this fault. He did not turn away from Sonic in his hour of need, simply for being a blue hedgehog unlike any seen before.
Chris rescued Sonic from his swimming pool of doom, after Sonic fled there to try and hide from certain death by the US armed forces. He gave Sonic's friends sanctuary in his mansion, proving that he was not merely another wealthy snob unlike the jerks he was forced to be in contact with during his Kindergarten days that he never liked to talk about.
While they all went to expensive private colleges for the elite, Chris chose a public school which was free of charge. So he could be like everyone else. So he could become a part of mine, Frances' and Danny's lives as a force of good and an agent of change.
To cut a long story short, before we met Chris during the second year of our time in "Station Square primary school"; everyone treated us as they pleased. We were seen as second-class outsiders not worthy of the approval of our peers, our teachers or the formerly very corrupt principal who'd do anything to make a quick buck.
But after Chris came, we gained rights. The bad teachers were fired, the bullies were expelled and a much better principal took the place of the old meanie that we all collectively agreed not to talk about. We were treated much better, thanks to Chris.
Chris was a hero, who did not know himself to be a hero. A kind soul unaware of the extent his kindness had benifited mankind. While I had to stifle big yawns just to concentrate on studying the historical events which were probably not even accurately recorded, having Chris in the seat beside me gave me the willpower to bear it all.
World war 2 was an event of the bygone past. While Chris and my other friends were gifts of the beautiful presents. Lovely gifts life had given me to compensate for robbing me of the use of my legs at a young age.
The teacher looking away from me to read some notes from the blackboard gave me a chance to reflect on all that had gone on in the past few days, aside from the constant fights Sonic's gang had to engage in against a new evil doctor and his robotic army. A new criminal who had quickly been placed on the FBI's top watchlist. A downright unpleasant man known only as "Dr Eggman", his true name a mystery for all.
Frances hadn't been herself lately. With her father still busily engaged in commanding his squadron of US marines against terrorists on the Southern border and her mother busy reporting the news of said war to the public so as to retain morale in this trying time, she had started to feel the same loneliness plaguing Chris, me and Danny.
Absent parents who meant well but simply never had time for us, was the shared problem for the four of us. While the rest of us took this better than Chris, it did not mean that we weren't also fighting our own battles with depression.
We were just better actors. More convincing pretenders than Chris, which was ironic in a very dark sense with Chris's mother being the world-renowned movie star Lindsey Thorndyke. Though sadly, this came at the cost of the three of us being far less empathetic than Chris, as by numbing ourselves to the pain of isolation; we had also numbed our ability to relate to others or engage in friendly conversations which did not feel awkward and forced.
Frances had also been dealing with the crippling loss of her beloved house cat, which had been with her for about eight years before passing away from bowel cancer. He was a white and brown tabby which loved to climb up trees, catch fish from rivers and sit on Frances' lap when he sensed she was under the weather.
He was called Sabu, and his name was now nothing more than an inscription on the wooden cross that Frances put over the spot in her garden where she buried him. While she had done a very good job hiding her grief from everyone, I could tell that she was just a little resentful at Chris for having gained four soft and cuddly animal friends at the same time she lost her sole animal companion.
It was in the way she trembled before us, and discreetly gritted her teeth when she saw Chris. Her concealment of her secret jealousy for Chris's stroke of good fortune, was made even easier by the fact that Frances was a girl of few words.
Frances was like a ninja in the night. Like a spy ala James Bond. Like Darth Vader when he was calm and wasn't commanding his stormtrooper army to crush the rebellion once and for all.
Sonic's life had not been going so well either, according to what Chris told me. He had been struggling to come to terms with his feelings for his longtime girlfriend Amy, whom he deeply loved but was also afraid of. Part of this unease came in the fact that Sonic still faithfully rememberd the time he spent with two of his previous girlfriends.
One was named Princess Sally Acorn, the queen of the Acorn Kingdom. She preferred to call herself Princess however since she shared Sonic's idealogy of personal freedom above all else, as well as Sonic's sentiment that royal titles were just titles which should not be taken too seriously by either the bearer of said title or their subjects.
The other one was known as Princess Blaze. She was said to be the polar opposite of Princess Sally. Responsible and rule bound. Hot-tempered and repressed. Stiff and quiet in most social confrontations. Blaze was also immensely disliked by her own Kingdom, the Sol Kingdom. While Sally was viewed as a legendary heroine with a soaring level popularity that rivalled Sonic's, Blaze was revilled by all who crossed her path on her worst days, and treated as a necessary evil on her best days,
While Sonic had no worries that Sally was pulling through her rulership just fine with Dr Eggman soundly driven from her land, his confidence in Blaze's current state was not so fine. He was deeply anxious as to how Blaze was doing, since she did not seem to be in the best state when he had been forced to leave her behind without much of a proper farewell.
Amy sensed that Sonic's attention was not completely aimed at her, and was not exactly taking this well.
"Helen. Since you've not had a turn yet, please answer for us this next question." The tall blonde teacher Mr Stewart coolly ordered me, snapping me from my self-induced trance. These were common for me since my medical condition which made me unable to walk, also made me tire more easily than most. "What are the names of the two nuclear bombs that America dropped on Japan during the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki?"
"Uh. Uh. Uh" I stammered, getting more nervous with every passing second my brain failed to generate a response to this sudden inquiry that I was ill prepared to handle.
Time seemed to slow to a blur, as Chris gently tapped my right arm with his left finger and cleverly mouthed a phrase.
Oh Chris. You always came through for me when it mattered most. How badly misunderstood you were by the cold, cruel world around you.
"Fat boy and Little man. Uh sir." I answered, doing my best to look as detatched from Chris as possible so as not to give the game away. Sometimes I wondered if the entire reason myself and Danny had not had to repeat a single year of school yet, was solely because of Chris's timely interventions for us.
Mr Stewart nodded approvingly and gave a thumbs up.
"Brilliant job. Helen. It seems that you too have been paying very close attention, and I deeply respect that. You'll also have no problem passing the upcoming phase test with flying colors. Bravo."
"Uh. Thanks sir. That's very nice of you." I replied, every muscle in my neck tingling with pain.
"Thank you Chris. You're the best." I mouthed back to Chris the second Mr Stewart's back was turned to us. He was an excellent new teacher, and I had no intentions of seeming uninterested in the very complex lesson he was taking great pains to deliver to us for our benefit.
"You're welcome." Chris said wordlessly with a light rub on his head and a shy grin. He too deeply respected our new teacher.
By lightly pinching my arm every few minutes, I was able to remain awake for the final part of the almost over lesson and to still have my eyes just barely open when the final bell rang. It helped that Frances was given most of the remaining questions, and that she expertly answered every single one with absolute correctness and with her angelic voice which could wake coma patients.
Then Danny pushed me in my wheelchair through the halls, and down the ramps until we were out in the school courtyard, and on much more level ground where it was much easier for me to wheel myself the rest of the way home. "It's nothing Helen. I'm happy to help you and it's good exercise for my upper biceps." He replied when I asked him about whether it hurt him to push so much weight by himself. But I could tell it exhausted him quite a bit, when he left huffing and puffing with a slight gait in his steps.
Frances, Danny and Chris. Three wonderful helpers who gave me everything, when I had nothing to give them in return.
As I wheeled myself home, I said a silent prayer for Frances' to soon get over the tragic loss of Sabu her adoreable Tabby cat, and for Sonic and Amy's rocky relationship to get better before they did something they'd both regret forever.
I sometimes wondered if any of my prayers actually worked, but I guessed it was the thought that counted.
It was perhaps the one good thing I could offer my friends, since my family was poor and my body was weak.
As I looked to the sky and saw grey clouds gathering overhead, I had a faint premonition of a dark omen; that something terrific and terrible all at the same time was about to happen.
A miracle and a catastrophe. A blessing and a curse.
But I would just have to wait and see what it was.
...
Thanks for reading the first chapter. I hoped you enjoyed it. Please review and fav if you like it and you want me to continue.
I always wanted to see more of both Station Square and Blaze's kingdom. I feel they were both very interesting locations with a ton of potential which went underused by the writing team at Sonic.
I also always wanted to see Blaze the Cat, and Marine the Raccoon in Sonic X's anime artwork style. They would have looked absolutely stunning. Even Vector, Espio and Charmy were in Sonic X, and they were not major characters. Since Blaze and Marine appeared at roughly the same time, I really think it would have been interesting for her to be transported to Chris's world as well.
Also, I really like Amy. Amy is the character who actually got me re-invested into Sonic after I dropped it, and I do think Sonic loves Amy but is a bit afraid of committing to a long-term relationship in his current state. The only female characters that come above Amy for me are Maria and Helen, but that might just be because I have a preference for human characters in Media as opposed to animal or alien characters.