Chapter Eleven:
Life won't wait
All things considering, giving near heart-attacks seemed to come with Sonic, even though he didn't really mean to scare his new sister. From that first unforgettable meeting, to finding out Sonic's guilty love of kitty crunchies, to when they found out the hard way that sonic couldn't handle rum and coke, and most of all, after a few months where Sonic felt like he could run again without any pain.
It was a sudden impulse that he had, the hedgehog decided that he didn't want to ride on the motorcycle anymore and just hopped off. Sonic had let go of Jessy, having been just shy of lounging as he stayed streamlined, a side effect of being exposed to wind. Planting his hands on the seat, Sonic shifted his weight to brace on his hands to be able to shoot back for room.
Jessy tried to look back, "What's wrong?" She asked, using more the communications system in her helmet. It was linked to not just the sensors in body suit and motorcycle, but also her phone and the walky-talky like device she had customize to fit in Sonic's ear.
"Nothing's wrong," Sonic said and he pushed off, "Just want to run." He flung up his legs free to either side, lifting to balance for a moment on his hands only.
Then, the world slowed down.
At least for Sonic as his body, and more importantly his mind shifted gears so to say, the world taking a copper tone tint. Everything wasn't stopped, it was still moving as the hedgehog didn't want to move quiet that fast. He braced and lifted up on his hands now, legs tossed up and to the sides to be clear as the hedgehog let the motorcycle move clear and out from under him.
Counting each step until he was running smoothly at five, Sonic couldn't help almost luxuriating in the feeling. Of moving, running that just barely too-much exercise feeling from the last month, almost two being basically lazy while healing. Now muscles woke back up, remembered how to run at speed, not just having quick reflexes to catch things.
It was... awesome!
The wind in his face, through his quills and thickening winter fur (that bug he just ate, not as good as his crunchies), the strain in his legs and chest as they stretched and worked.
Sonic turned to grin at Jessy, to share, but his smile faltered as she was just staring at him. The helmet preventing Sonic from seeing the gaping look, as the woman was going around eighty miles an hour on these near abandon highways (to take a longer rout to her grandfather's, to let Sonic enjoy a ride).
Sonic was keeping pace with her.
Easily!
If they hadn't been the only ones on the road at the time, Jessy latter would be sure she would have crashed into someone and cause a pile up as she just stared at the blue hedgehog. As it was her motorcycle started to drift to the left as she stared. Enough that Sonic moved over, grasping one handle bar and reached with his left hand to grab the middle, pulling the vehicle back into its lane.
Hold it while the human recovered from the shock of what just happened- having been expecting something resembling massively road rashed hedgehog, not this.
Finnally, Jessy blurted out, "What the hell?"
"I said I was fast!" Sonic started to smile again, the device on his throat transferring his words over the wind.
"...that... the hell...?" The mechanic was trying to wrap her mind around what was going on. It took only a few minutes for the human to get her wits back into place, and not to need Sonic's support to keep herself up right.
Then as things seem to calm down, the impulse to show off happened. Speeding up and back, jumping and spinning, then catching up. Sonic did a sideways just, flipping and landing on the side of the road. He looked down to watch his feet, likely one of the only few that could see them clearly, as he turned to run backwards. That took a bit more concentration to maintain speed and react to any minor stumbles over rocks.
Jessy wasn't fully sure if she wasn't still in bed, with Sonic using her as a heat sorce and thus spawning this whole thing as a dream. But at the sae time was impressed, dream or no, that just... "Sonic look out!" Jessy yelled as she spotted the danger, but a few moments too late.
"What?" Sonic twisted around to face forward, just in time to run head-long into a speed limit sign. "Uhp!" the hedgehog anthro grunted as his momentum through him, and the sign tumbling off. The hedgehog reflexively curled up and hit the ground rolling. Bouncing and wincing at the damage more to his pride then body with the protection of quills, Sonic rolled into the ditch.
He whined at the cold mud in his fur, and that meant another bath before, and uncurled enough to point at the sky. "I'm okay!" Sonic yelled, getting up to brush himself off as Jessy left skid marks on the road as she slowed enough to spine around without throwing herself.
"Sonic!"
"I'm okay, just... ran into a speed limit sign..." Sonic sighed.
"How can you be alright?" Jessy demanded as she stopped on the gravel shoulder and hopped off to check the anthro over herself.
"I don't know, I just am." Sonic paused and added, "I've done that before."
"You...ran into a speed limit sign...?" The woman asked, holding Sonic by the shoulders.
Sonic gave a half powered smile, "Yeah."
"A speed limit sign."
"Yep."
The two stared at each other for a full thirty seconds, at a lose of what to do after all of that. Then, Jessy did the only thing she could do, as much to release tension from that just off the motorcycle.
She laughed.
Sonic pouted but the raw oddity of the whole situation soon had him smiling and joining in laughing. Even if it meant now that Jessy would never stop teasing him about the irony of this every time he went for a run.
That had been a month ago, and Sonic had been showing off his talents as fast as his body would let him go, as well as the winter weather. Sometimes he pushed himself a little too much, coming home with a limp for a day or to sleep it off, but that was just who he was as Jessy was learning.
The family get-togethers, the Dinners happened once a month to some bigger ones used as a beacon to bring those on their wander years back for at least a night or two, for visiting and to hear new stories. As well as the hearing of older adventures and family myths and tales of the clan from the elderly matriarch.
These times, in a word, were chaos.
Total chaos.
There just wasn't any other word for it. It was all Sonic could think of to call the dinners. Kids, from six to adults, were dashing from one side of the yard/field and then back in a race, other games that wheren't affected by the weather, or sneaking food from the pantry to share with those playing outside. Some mothers, aunts and grandmothers were inside making dinner for every one present. Fathers, uncles and grandfathers were either inside talking to one another or out with the younger generations in the filed to make sure things didn't get too rough, and to keep an eye on the younger kids.
But the energy and activity wouldn't really stop. Even last night, and the night before that, everyone had stayed up late, talking or playing games.
Yet, there was an undertone that Sonic had picked up from the older humans in these times. It was like they knew that they were going to lose something, or rather, someone would soon leave and they may never see him or her again. At least not for a very, very long time...
The Anthro hedgehog shaded his eyes, taking a break from playing with Jessy's younger siblings and cousins. Oh, he wasn't tired in the least, and found he really did love playing with the kids, but at the moment it was more fun to watch Jessy get stuck under a dog-pile of youths. All of which wanted her to take them on a ride on her motorcycle.
Sonic glanced back at the house, seeing that Jessy's mother, Jessica Alison Binger, was also watching the hord, but mostly her eldest and only daughter. Her dark blue eyes were sad as she watched, like she was missing her child already.
What was it that Jessy said about her family being 'cursed'? Something about a wander year (years?) and just... up and leaving when her age. Was that what everyone here was worrying about? When Jessy would leave on her own wander years and not come back like those two older brothers?
Sonic glanced back at the kids, seeing that they had gotten off of Jessy who was walking back to the house with two of her manylittle brothers. All three paused as a new car rolled into the driveway. They eyed it critically, and then the younger two yelled as Jessy yelped in turn.
"IT'S AUNTY MINI!" one of the boys shouted as the siblings ran back out into the field. The shouted warning had an instantaneous reaction with the others, who gave their own versus yelps and yells before scattering even farther into the field and forest beyond.
"Come on Bro!" Jessy said, grabbing Sonic's arm as she ran by, almost bodily dragged him with her. "We have to go! Quick, this way!"
"Quick?" Sonic said with a quirked eyebrow, he glanced behind him but the car had driven around the house so he could no longer see it. He shook his head, "You call this quick Jes'?" He demanded and, taking three long strides, he hocked his arm under Jessy's legs as he picked her up, "This is quick!"
"GAH!" Jessy yelped once again as she wrapped her arms around the Anthro hedgehog's neck as he picked up speed.
"Hang on!" Sonic said smirking as he raced out of the field, some of the kids calling after.
"What do you think I'm doing!" the mechanic demanded, hiding her face from the wind, "Taking a nap!?"
"Well, you did stay up late last night…"
"Dork!"
The yank of his ear was worth it, in Sonic's opinion. Not that that wasn't a new thing, whenever the blue and brown hedgehog did something stupid now Jessy had no qualms about giving him an ear-pull. As Sonic couldn't easily be giving a back-of-the-head smack like her younger brothers. He didn't mind all things considering, because it meant that someone cared enough about him to worry, and let Sonic know when he was doing something maybe he shouldn't.
In this way, at least as long as they heard the warning in time, both Sonic and Jessy managed to avoid Aunt Mini. Normally there was a fair warning for Sonic at least, the family not wanting him to be subjected to anymore stress from those interactions.
Successful escapes from not just from Jessy's aunt, but from chaos of a bit too much family they ended up in one of two places. One being a park like place on their grandfather's property, the other being a nearby cafe that sold lunches. It took some time over the winter before the employees and the other costumers got used to Sonic. The first few interactions going something like this...
"I'll take an iced mocha and a bagel with cream cheese, please." Jessy asked a woman that was behind a counter, digging into her wallet. Beside her, Sonic had a toothy grin as he stepped forward next.
"I'll have five chilly dogs!" The anthro looked over at the display of baked good, looking for meat rolls.
"Five?" The woman blinked staring at the anthro and then glanced over at the mechanic.
"Yes please." Sonic nodded, bouncing on the balls of his feet with compressed energy.
"Trust me," Jessy said seeing the other woman's baffled look, "He can put away a hellava lot more than just that." She pushed Sonic on the side of the head in play.
"Okay..." The waitress blinked.
"Claim a table would you Sonic? I'll get the food." Jessy said pointing to the side of the café that didn't have as many people in it.
"I didn't know there was Anthros this far north Miss." The waitress said, trying to get another look at Sonic as he left.
"Just coz' they don't come up often doesn't mean they can't." Jessy frowned and arched an eyebrow in a pointed.
"Oh right." The blond flushed, "Your order will be ready in a few minutes."
Shaking her head Jessy grabbed a root beer for Sonic and paid for everything before she walked over to where the hedgehog was sitting at a booth, tapping a foot impatiently.
"So what did your mom want from the store again?" he asked, referring to the phone call Jessy had gotten on her cell phone just after the two had left her Grandfather's place.
"Umm..." Jessy looked up, searching her memory, "Milk, more chicken and, uhh, cheese I think. Or was it barbeque sauce?"
"I think it was cheese." Sonic tilted one ear up and flattened the other
"Okay, cheese it is."
The two continued to talk, mostly about the last few days and what was going too happened after this weekend was over. Neither paying any attention to the few stares they were getting, though, they should have just a little. It might have saved them a great deal of hassle later on. As Sonic made it onto the internet more than a few times because of his oddity of being an Anthro in this place over the winter.
Also more than once over the winter, Sonic seemed to fully embrace the consent of hibernating. Conveniently through most of the worst of the storms he was out like a light for a day or three.
But not all the storms could Sonic get away with this, and it seemed to trigger the same nightmare. One he wrote down every time it happed on Jessy's urging, to see if any details changed as well as to help calm the anthro down after these nightmares, like what he did with memory flashbacks.
There wasn't enough of the snippets of Sonic's past to put together who he had been the year before, yet soon the hedgehog with all the distractions of the word found himself less and less concerned with the past.
In that winter, he was adopted into the Nomadic Nations at their New Year's celebration when a large convoy moved past in a migration south and to a Zone called Soleanna. It was almost at the same time as the Christmas holiday, so Sonic got a few surprise gifts and helped Jessy with making and baking gifts (and taste testing the goods of course).
Sonic learn quiet a lot by watching and helping Jessy while she worked not just on motor cycles but several gas and power stone powered vehicles. More often than not in the weekday days, the two where in the work shop over the winter and into spring.
Yet always there was that one nightmare that kept coming back, to the point that in those minutes after waking in the dark, Sonic wondered if it was more than a dream. One time when spring was struggling to take a fully hold, both Sonic and Jessy were camped out in the bunkhouse on their grandfather's property, staying the night as game of Pictionary and other such games had gone far longer than expected. The always started the same way, seeming both so familiar and different at the same time.
It was like watching a story or movie of someone else.
And it started, honestly rather boring...
Because for all rights and purposes the project should have gone off without any more hitches or glitches at this point in time. He knew this, because they (they?) had worked out the earlier problems as well as being able to snip most others at the bud.
The processes were working, most of all the subjects that went through the procedure where surviving.
Most.
He had heard about the roomers of the mass experiments, like everyone else had. Especially those of Ark and Amazon projects, but only the later had any investigations. Just remains were found, no living subjects, only traces before they were lost in the jungle zone.
But life, as well as fate, had a funny way of chucking curve balls that no one would or could possibly see coming; especially when the something was extremely important.
Anomalies were the bane of all those who studied science, specifically the science of genetic manipulations. No matter how many times you go over something or prefect it something would happen. After all, Murphy's Law not only demanded it but would enforce it, sometimes in the most unpredictable ways. Scott (that name, that name he knew that name) was one of those anomalies, not intentionally though, but accidences are never on propose and hardly predictable.
This man had been a marine, one that had been assigned to a shift of simple guard duty. It didn't matter that he was in a top secret base, or how important the projects were that happened behind him and likely under his feet- hell for all he knew something like an apocalyptic super robot transforming race could be being created behind an invisible field of awesome science he didn't understand that floated in the sky above.
It.
Was.
Guard duty.
Blah. Scott thought as he resisted the urge to sigh and just took a moment to reflect on how much he hated guard duty, as most did. You just stood there trying to look imposing to the randomly passing lizard, not really doing anything. You just stand there, and stand there, and stand around some more. Maybe get a Look from this or that person that wasn't military. Then stand there a little more...
It was frigging boring for Chaos' sake, that's what it was.
However, it might have been better to just stand there then what happened when he volunteered to do the walk about the outside of the labs. Because Scott preferred to move around if not on patrol or scouting duty.
If Scott hadn't done that then he would have been spared much pain, physically and mentally. Then again, if he hadn't gone then he would not have been, in essence and perhaps physically in some ways, freed. Despite how corny that may seem it would turn out to be very true... though in this dream like state nether ne, nor the dreamer was aware of this.
From one step as the guard, to the next the boring dream surged into that nightmare of whit-hot pain. Something that burned and dissolved. It shifted and changed his body. It drowned and engulfed him completely.
"Run..."
It was always changing with that burning pain there through it all. That eternity that lasted no more than five minutes even though it seemed like five million years.
"Get away from here...!"
Parts evaporated and others grew, lengthened and became harder.
"Run!"
Thoughts changed too. Some things becoming less important as others surged to the forefront of his mind. Still other thought and memories faded away into noting, forever lost.
"Escape."
Dilated green eyes opened and stared ahead in the ever lasting whiteness that surrounded him.
"Get out of here!"
Those same eyes became clearer, sharper as the rest of his form changed.
"RUUUN!"
Sonic's eyes snapped open and he gave a strangled sound that was half yell, half sob and he fought against the blankets that where tangled up in his limbs and quills.
"Sonic?" Jessy lifted her head, jerking awake herself as the anthro in the bunk next to her's cried out. She stared at him before jerking again. "Sonic!" A hand grabbed his shoulder and the hedgehog gave a yelp and tried again to get free from his tangle.
"Sonic! Calm down, its Jessy..." Wincing as a few of his quills scraped her cheek, hands and arms as Jessy all but crawled over the bunks to pounce on the somewhat smaller Anthro. The woman wrapped her arms around him and under his ridged quills in a tight hug before yelling just loud enough in a fuzzy ear, "Sonic!"
He gasped gripping the fabric of the human's pajamas as the hedgehog slowly came back to the awareness of where he was: The bunk room Sonic and Jessy were sharing as they stayed at her grandfather's. The still too fresh memory of the dream (nightmare? ...memory?) made the blue anthro shiver, his long quills rattling slightly as he pushed his face into his friend's shoulder.
Jessy looked down at her now brother...was he crying? He's scared. She thought, seeing how the hedgehog hid both his face and belly from the world and whatever had scared him. That must have been some nightmare.
"Hey...shhhh, its okay Sonic. It was just a dream." The woman said tightening her hug when Sonic's grip didn't loosen and rocked a little, shifting to stretch out beside him. Big sister and hints of maternal instincts kicking in as she freed a hand to rub behind one of Sonic's ears, but stayed in that tight cuddle that helped in this almost rare reaction, "Shhh, it's over bro, it's was just a dream. It can't hurt you now."
Sonic kept his eyes closed as he shook his head against Jessy's shoulder, "Wasn't." he mumbled into the shirt. Jessy paused and looked down at him again. Then she rested her head by his ear and began to rock again, knowing that the Anthro needed reassurance to calm down.
Queen's note- okay, I hope this chapter works out well, I'm covering the winter and spring to get into the next part of the story. If you read the original story you might know what's coming up nest!
Thank you for all those that reviewed! And replies...
ChojisGirl-
That is, IF mister grumpy gets the chance. Jessy's not afraid to whoop a few butts, but I'll try to add a few things in for you with a jelouse echidna in "Never been down this Road" for you
Christiansoldier5-
A new reviewer! As far as I can tell ^^ ...'attack on titan'? I hope this chapter clears up the confusion a bit, or fills in some gapes, but if not let me know and I can send you a PM. But no, this is not a Sonic-X re-do by any means (though I will admit to doing a world jump like that later on to poke fun at the Sonic-X show because I love cross overs, yet that's about story 11 in the Road Saga ark)
I'm also so glad you liked the start, and I hope you like the rest of the story too!
Starstruckeyes-
You may, in fact, say that. Glad to get that reaction out of someone it was what I was aiming for
Elementofchaos73-
Yes, I probably did. Glade you like the story, and the phone conversation, I have to laugh because you sound (as much as one can sound by way of text) surprised at the story being well written. lol this is actually a re-write, I'm been adding parts chapters and smoothing out the whole thing to hopefully look a hundred times better.
I'm hoping to get this and the rest of the ark done by New Year's, or at least the first three stories.