Chapter 1 - Five Friends

A gloved hand grabbed the doorknob and twisted once. The wooden door flew open at super speed, making a loud bang on the outside wall of another average house in Emerald Village.

"Honestly, Sonic, could you just try to be at least a little bit more careful?" Bernadette 'Bernie' Hedgehog scolded her eldest son.

"Aw, relax, Mum!" Sonic grinned with his usual carefree attitude. Sonic was, as his last name suggested, a hedgehog, a little over sixteen years old. He had the same bright blue fur as his parents and his arms, stomach, the insides of his ears and the area around his mouth were all a tan skin tone in the way that was normal for a hedgehog. Being a guy, Sonic didn't wear clothes, a typical feature of Mobian culture. He simply wore a pair of white gloves, a long-lasting trend in his small hometown, and a pair of shoes. Now here is the interesting part. Sonic was extremely athletic and a little hyperactive. The combination of these two factors meant that he spent a lot of his spare time running around, and for a few years, this was a problem - it was rare for the soles of his sneakers to last more than a month. But then a solution was found. A special pair of shoes was made for Sonic by his uncle, a part-time inventor. These shoes were incredibly durable and had been specifically designed to reduce friction. Sonic always chose the exact same appearance: red, with gold buckles attached to white straps. His eyes were the same emerald-like colour that gave the Green Hill Zone its unforgettable name, and they flicked impatiently from the door to outside to his mum.

"This door hits the wall all the time!" Sonic continued, making it obvious he wanted to leave in a hurry.

"That's exactly why I don't want you doing any more damage!" Bernie shot back. She was used to her son's backchat and had quite a few snappy comebacks stored underneath her straight blonde hair.

Sonic was quick to pull out all the 'impatience' body language. He tapped his foot and crossed his arms. Rolling his eyes, he sighed, "Look, Mum, I love you and all of that stuff. Can I go now? I know that I normally go later than Sonia and Manik, but that doesn't mean I leave at sunset. I need to be real fast or I'll be super late!"

Bernie smiled. "I love you too, honey. Here's your bag. Have a great day!" she said, handing Sonic a slightly faded red and blue backpack. "Oh, and could you tell Mrs. Prower that I'll return her book a little later than expected?" Sonic nodded, took his bag, waved, and raced off. In just a few minutes, he screeched to a stop between two houses, one small and with a somewhat lonely, dismal appearance, the other noticeably bigger and overgrown with weeds. Sonic knocked first on the front door of the smaller house, then the bigger one. He paced from side to side constantly - he hated waiting. After the almost torturous delay of seven long, painful seconds, the lonely house's door opened to reveal one of Sonic's friends, Shadow.

Shadow looked as if he wouldn't particularly mind strangling somebody and was holding a black bag with red straps in one tensely clenched hand. By the looks of it, he had only just got up and had his breakfast, and he wasn't fully awake yet. It may seem as if Shadow had gotten off to a bad start, but it was normal for him to be in this sort of mood. Like Sonic, Shadow was a sixteen-year-old hedgehog, but a lot more serious and perhaps a little dark-natured. He was almost entirely pure black, except for red streaks on his arms, legs and individual spines, those spines curved back and upwards a little in a somewhat interesting pattern. Although his ears and face had the normal hedgehog markings, Shadow wasn't quite the same as most of his kind when it came to looks - he had a white explosion of fur on his chest instead of the regular smooth circle, and his arms were the same black with red as the rest of him. His eyes were the bright scarlet colour of blood, which may seem unusual (not to mention a little creepy), but is one of many seemingly strange but actually fairly normal eye colours in Mobians. A similarly red stripe framed his eyes, like permanent eye makeup. Shadow wore the common white gloves, but with his own personal touch: they were black around the wrist and had an extra touch of red, which stopped just in time to make room for gold armbands. His socks had a similar pattern around the ankles, but the rest was hidden by his shoes, which were a slightly stained white with red around the edges. These shoes had small wheels concealed in their soles, giving Shadow a bit of a speed boost and a tendency to move around as if skating.

"Looks like somebody's having a bad day," Sonic greeted Shadow with a hint of sarcasm.

"If you value your life, you'll shut up," Shadow sleepily fired back, in his normal straight-to-the-point way. "Then again, in some cases I doubt you're intelligent enough to do so."

"Hey!" Sonic retorted defensively. "My mama didn't raise no fool except for Manik!"

The two hedgehogs were about to start another of their infamous '2-minute wars' when they were interrupted by the unmistakeable creaking sound of a door opening.

"Kneecaps, get off my leg… I have to go… Seriously, you're like two years old, not two months… Knecapeon! Get the heck off!"

It was Knuckles, another of Sonic's friends and Shadow's neighbour. And by the looks of it, his half-brother Knecapeon (or 'Kneecaps') had come with him. Knuckles was a 15-year-old echidna. He was mostly red, but with a pale skin tone around his mouth and a white ring curving across his chest. His spines were long and pointed downwards, hiding his ears and laying casually on his back. Knuckles had dark purple eyes, another unusual-looking but actually quite common eye colour for Mobians. Something that most people noticed almost immediately about Knuckles were his gloves - they followed the 'white' trend, but each had two small spikes on them, sticking out from his fists. This wasn't a fashion statement, but the result of a physical mutation he had been born with. Knuckles wore gloves not because he was into the trend, but to trick others into thinking his spikes were just a cool accessory. It worked, too. His green socks were mostly hidden by red shoes with a wide yellow band across the middle. A grey rectangular shape with a pattern similar to LEGO bricks (COPYRIGHT CLAIMS LOL) protruded from the yellow stripe, and at this particular moment, a 2-year-old with a fairly similar appearance in a blue onesie was hanging off Knuckles' leg.

"For the last time, Kneecaps, GET OFF ME!" Knuckles growled, starting to lose his temper.

"No wa, na-na!" Kneecaps responded. Sonic and Shadow were about to stop laughing and start helping when Knuckles' mother Lara-Le stepped outside and beat them to it.

"Come inside, sweetie," she said to her youngest son as she gently prised him off Knuckles' leg. "Knuckles has to go now, you need to say bye-bye." Noticing Sonic and Shadow, she said a cheerful "Hi!" as she finally freed Knuckles. Kneecaps saw the two hedgehogs and waved frantically in the way that toddlers do.

"Hi-hi, sa-na an sa-do!" he said to Sonic and Shadow, who waved back. Knuckles rubbed his leg and went to join his friends.

"Hey, Knux," Sonic grinned at his friend.

"You know, you could have helped back there," Knuckles pointed out as he swung his bright green backpack casually over one shoulder.

"Or we could've put it on the internet in the form of a video," Shadow said.

"You WHAT?!"

Sonic laughed so hard he practically fell over. Knuckles, however, didn't appreciate the funny side of this, and he looked through his friends' phones three times each before figuring out that Shadow had been joking. After Shadow escaped being knocked out, Sonic started to run up the street and around the corner. "Let's go, you guys!" he called. "Tails and Amy are probably waiting."

"Yeah, waiting for their alarms to go off," Shadow muttered, still tired, but skated after his friends anyway.

After a few more minutes of walking and a heated three-way debate over whether speed, strength or teleportation was the best at kicking butt, Sonic, Shadow and Knuckles stopped at a two-storey house with a neat garden. Sonic pressed a finger on the doorbell and stepped back. There was the sound of footsteps, then the door opened to reveal Tails.

Tails might have only been twelve, but he was easily Sonic's best friend. He was a fox, and an extremely smart one - so smart, in fact, that he had been pushed forwards from Year 6 with the rest of the kids of his age to Year 10 with the 16-year-olds like Sonic and Shadow. Tails' fur was a yellow-orange colour that turned white as snow in the normal 'fox' places: around the mouth, inside the ears, on the stomach and at the end of the tail. 'Tails' wasn't his real name (it was actually Miles), but a friendly nickname given due to the feature that set him apart - Tails had two tails. His eyes were the light blue of a peaceful, cloudless sky, except a bit lighter. The fur on Tails' forehead grew longer in certain places, so that he had a fringe of three spikes that occasionally fell in his eyes. He wore plain white gloves, almost identical to Sonic's, and simple canvas shoes that were half red and half white.

"Hi guys!" Tails said happily. He seemed to be in a fairly good mood. A navy blue schoolbag sat neatly on his back, obviously packed and ready to go. "So, are we gonna get going now?"

Suddenly, Tails' mum Rosemary Prower appeared behind him. "Hey there, honey," she smiled as she ruffled her son's fur. A hint of red glowed through the white fur on Tails' face.

"Mum, stop, I'm not five anymore!" Tails protested, trying to escape.

"I know," Rosemary sighed. "Have a great day!" Without warning, she pulled Tails into a tight and embarrassing hug. Tails went red again. He pulled himself to freedom and quickly ran outside. Sonic, Knuckles and Shadow followed, holding in laughter and sprinting to keep up. When Tails wanted to get out of something, he could almost move faster than Sonic.

When they were a safe distance away, Tails asked, "Why does my mum have to be so embarrassing? Cos I can't figure it out, and my IQ is 200-ish even when you don't take age into account."

"Hey, chill out, my mum's worse," Knuckles argued, shuddering at the memory. "Remember that time about a year back when she accidentally put Kneecaps' baby food in my lunchbox?"

Sonic laughed. "It might have sucked for you, but it was hilarious for the rest of us." He immediately regretted saying this when a spiked fist slammed into his right arm. "Ow! Dude, I was joking! You didn't have to physically damage me permanently!"

"That's why I didn't, you just have to stop being so weak!" Knuckles shot back. He and Sonic started to argue, back and forth, until Shadow interrupted them.

"FOR THE LOVE OF MOBIUS, CAN YOU TWO JUST SHUT UP!" he yelled. The group instantly fell silent, the usual reaction when Shadow flipped out.

"Geez, touchy," Sonic muttered, earning an angry jab in the ribs from Shadow's elbow. "Wow, is it Beat Up Sonic Day today?!"

The foursome continued walking, discussing their holidays and occasionally arguing a little, although Shadow didn't end up freaking out a second time. Soon, the friends were approaching a massive house with flowers blooming in the front garden. Somebody in the house called out, "Hey, your boyfriends are here!" and was responded to with "For the billionth time, they're just friends who are boys!" The muffled sound of footsteps was heard, then the front door flew open (almost smacking Shadow in the face) and Amy stood there, dragging a grey roller bag behind her.

Amy was the only girl in the small friendship group, but in no way the least useful. She could easily be considered extremely pretty, but she didn't use her looks to gain popularity like the stereotype suggests. Like two of her friends, Amy was a hedgehog, somewhere between 13 and 14 years old. She was a soft pink colour with the normal hedgehog markings and eyes of a sort of grey-green. These eyes were framed with the thick eyelashes that are the most tell-tale feature of female Mobians. Amy's short spines hung down on her shoulders, like a short, neat haircut. On the subject of hair, she had a wild, shortish fringe kept under control by a red headband. True to Mobian culture, Amy wore clothing - to be specific, a red dress with white edging around the bottom. She was the type of person who kept several copies of the same outfit, so she nearly always wore the same thing. Amy also followed the 'white gloves' trend. Hers had the extra touch of fake-gold bracelets firmly tightened around her wrists. She wore knee-high red boots with a white stripe down the middle, the perfect match for her outfit.

"Hi there, guys!" Amy said cheerfully, blushing slightly. She didn't want to admit it, but Amy had a massive crush on Sonic. And, well, to be honest, she didn't really need to say anything. "So, uh, should we get going?" Before Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow had time to answer, Amy was walking away. She was too late, though. Her older sister Amanda stepped into the doorway just as her male friends started to follow.

"Heya, Amy and boyfriends," she greeted them, her arms folded as usual and the slightest trace of a smirk that could always be seen on her face. Amanda looked a lot like Amy, but her eyes were blue instead of green, her fringe was neatly brushed to one side, and today she was wearing a notably short green dress and shiny black high heels. Her comment caused Sonic, Shadow, Knuckles and Tails to go slightly red and Amy to go even redder.

"Hi Mandy I really need to go now they're just friends okay bye," Amy said quickly. She had never gotten along that well with her eighteen-year-old sister.

Amanda decided to let her go. "Okay, Ames. Have a good day and all that junk. Rainbow's gonna be here soon and I don't want her seeing me with my little sis and her 'just friends'. Go on, skedaddle," she replied. With that, she turned around and walked back inside, giving Amy a much-needed chance to escape.

Once they were out of earshot of her house, Amy said, "Sorry about that, guys. You know what Amanda's like."

Sonic shrugged. "Hey, I live with Sonia and Manik Hedgehog. They make Amanda look like she worships you," he explained. "And hey, being the oldest is way harder. You have to watch your younger siblings get away with stuff that you wouldn't have even dared to try at their age. And don't even get me started on responsibility. You get the blame for everything. Food on the expensive new couch? What kind of a cruel, heartless family member could do this to us? Hey, I have an idea, let's all point at Sonic for no obvious reason."

Amy laughed. "Maybe you're right."

"Definitely he's right," Knuckles butted in. "One word: Knecapeon.

"

Tails smiled. "Ha, I'm an only child. No annoying siblings for Miles Prower, commonly known as Tails. Suffer, lower mortals!" Laughter broke out through the group on another peaceful and fun day in the small but amazing Emerald Village.

Sonic yawned. "Well, first day back at school! Who's not excited?" he asked sarcastically. Everyone raised a hand. Knuckles raised two - he had been held back twice to Amy's year level. Tails hesitated for a split second, then put his hand in the air. Amy clapped and Tails just shrugged. The friends laughed and kept on walking, unaware that adventure was just around the corner.

Sonic Hedgehog - fast-moving and quick-witted, slightly arrogant but mostly heroic. Miles 'Tails' Prower - smart, logical, sometimes nervous but always friendly. Knuckles Guardian - strong both physically and mentally, gullible in some ways but experienced in others. Amy Rose - powerful, passionate, overprotective and yet respectful. And Shadow Kintobor - the strong and silent type, a dangerous enemy but a powerful ally. Five friends with different personalities, abilities and traits. A perfect team of heroes, you might say. And you're right. But why exactly, and how? Well, that's a good question. But it's one for another chapter…