Brother of Mine

Disclaimer: Never owned Sonic the Hedgehog, probably never will.

Chapter 2: No happiness for freaks

The sun slowly peeked over the white horizon in West Side city as its inhabitants were beginning to wake up and prepare for their daily duties. It was quite peaceful due to the fact that few people were outside. But although it seemed very peaceful, one person in particular would consider it to be the complete opposite of that.

The sunlight shone straight through the trees, landing on his closed eyes. A low groan was heard before the fox's eyes began to flutter open. An act he immediately regretted.

"GAHHH!" Miles shouted as he suddenly realized the pain he was in. His right eye was black and swollen with dry blood around the edges. Upon trying to cover his eye with his left hand, he quickly winced and placed it back down due to an insurmountable pain that shot through his left elbow upon moving. His back bent downwards and felt like it was burning pure hellfire. His legs refused to obey him for some reason and his tails felt like they were trapped underneath him.

The worst part however, was his head. It felt as if he had a deathly migraine, and with every thought that passed through his mind, his skull felt like it would split further apart. Even without touching it, Miles could tell that there were numerous bumps from where the bullies had hit him. The pain was becoming more and more unbearable as he slowly regained conscience.

Knowing that the pain wasn't going away anytime soon, Miles began to force himself up. The moment he did however, his entire body felts as if it had just been struck by numerous strikes of lightning. He opened his mouth to scream, but no sound came out. His throat was raspy, too dry to make a sound. Tears formed at the edges of his eyes, not wanting to bear this pain any longer.

Minutes went by and not a movement was made by the young fox. He wanted to stay there and just not move but he knew he would have to. He knew he had to make it back to his home in order to bandage his wounds so they wouldn't get infected. He knew that if he stayed here, they would come back and beat him up again.

Steeling his resolve, he slowly raised his hands until they grabbed hold of the edge of the hole he was in. Taking deep breaths, he slowly began to lift himself out of the hole. As soon as he did however, pain ran through his entire body once again. His eyes shot wide open, only adding to his suffering. Acting only on pure adrenaline now, the beaten kitsune lurched forward out of the hole and fell, face first into a pile of snow.

The cold snow shocked his sense back and he immediately tried to stand back up, only for his legs to give out instantly from under him sending him back to the ground in a withering heap. Gritting his teeth in agony, Miles rolled himself over until he was lying on his back. Straining his eyes open again, he saw that what he fell out of wasn't a hole, but a garbage can.

Fury was evident in his eyes as he remembered what had happened. How could they do this?! I gave them something but they beat me more than ever before! He mentally screamed.

It was then that he noticed the condition his legs were in. His left leg was only bruised in some areas but his right leg was near unrecognizable. Blood seeped down the entire leg like a crimson waterfall, staining his fur in dirt and grim. His foot hung limply, not moving at all despite his command. The worst part however was his knee. The area was almost completely black with areas of blue. Upon trying to lift his leg up, a sickening crack could be heard coming from his knee.

The sight itself almost made the young fox throw up his dinner from yesterday, not like it was much anyway. Holding back the urge to puke, Miles knew he had to make it back to his home and fast. If anyone found him like this, anyone at all, he knew it would probably be his end. Reason being that nobody liked him. The hospital, which was supposed to heal injured and sick, turned him away at every chance they got. Private Doctors usually pretended he wasn't there until he left. He knew that nobody was coming to help him. If anything, the kids from yesterday would come back and see him still here and beat him up again.

Slowly, Miles stood on his left leg, almost falling as he did so because of the pain. But he knew he had to move, he had to get out of there. He carefully twisted his head around to find out where he was. Surrounding him were trees covered in snow for as far as his eye could see. A bit farther in the distance behind him was the playground, empty like a frozen, barren wasteland.

Miles began limping ever so slowly in the opposite direction of the playground. His thoughts darted back to the bullies from yesterday. Why didn't he listen to his instinct and just run away? Why did he have to panic and reveal that he eavesdropped on them? Why couldn't they just accept his gift and leave him alone?

Knowing that these questions weren't going to be answered any time soon, the badly injured fox dismissed the thoughts and gingerly held his hand up to nurse his aching head. The bumps were numerous, one of them frighteningly large as he winced upon feeling his hand make contact with it.

The walk back to his home was long and painful. He fell down several times but was more or less cushioned by the snow. In the distance, he could faintly make out the rock that formed his living quarters. No matter how much it hurt, he had to make it back. He couldn't rest until he was safe from them, safe from the kids, the adults, and everyone else on this god forsaken island.

Fear encompassed his tiny frame, compelling him to keep moving. However with each step he took, his will diminished. It was becoming unbearable. What was supposed to be a fifteen minute run was now an hour long struggle. But it was so close, his home, his safe haven.

Finally the poor fox found himself in front of the rock, slowly climbing in as to not hurt himself further. At long last, he was home.

Reaching over to a corner, his hand grasped the straps of a small red backpack. Quickly opening it up, Miles pulled out numerous medical supplies which he had collected from local pharmacies. He slowly poured out a clear liquid and applied it to his wounds, clenching his teeth until a bit of blood escaped due to the stinging sensation over his entire body from the disinfectant. Letting out the breath he was holding, the young fox then began wrapping his wounds with gauze using several packs in the process.

He sighed in relief as the pain was now mostly tolerable. He laid his head back against a smooth rock and shut his eyes, resting his aching body.

That is when it started. It first began with a single tear that rolled down his bloody cheek and muzzle. Then another tear rolled down. Quickly following it was a cascade of the young fox's tears, falling down his face and onto the ground.

It's not fair! He mentally screamed at himself. Why do they get to beat me up? Why do they get to be happy? Don't I deserve happiness of my own? The thoughts only furthered his sadness as he was now sobbing into his bruised hands.

The only sounds that could be heard now were the quiet cries of a young fox. But he didn't care. He didn't care if somebody found him crying, it just didn't matter right now.

Don't I deserve happiness?

Loud clanging could be heard throughout the entire city. One might wonder where the noise came from, but to the inhabitants of the city, it was just another regular day. For this city was different, entirely different in fact, from other cities. Reason being, this city was inhabited only by robots.

Buildings stretched as far as the eye could see. The streets were lined with the metallic monstrosities, all with guns of different sizes. The red eyes of the metallic creatures were enough to scare anyone into a nightmare. The city itself was dark with few light sources such as lamps periodically lining the streets. In the very centre of the city was a large iron fortress, towering over all the other buildings in sight. Red lights were cast from the fortress, enveloping the entire city in an eerie red glow.

It is here where the infamous Dr. Ivo Robotnik has set up his base of operations, the famous ruler of the Robotnik Empire, an empire which controls half of the entire world of Mobius including the powerful Kingdom of Acorn. This is the capital of the Robotnik Empire and home to Robotnik himself, Robotropolis.

Currently, the mad doctor was scheming once again, creating plans on how he would go about taking over the other half of Mobius.

"Dr. Robotnik!" A short balding male cried out. A few hairs sprouted out of his head, much to his dismay. He wore a white lab coat over a plain shirt and pants as he ran towards a large fat man.

"Yes Snively?" The larger man responded. He donned a red, black, and yellow suit that covered most of his entire body with similar styled boots and gloves. Unlike the shorter male, Robotnik was completely bald, the only hair coming from his moustache that pointed upwards. "I do hope you're not wasting my time." He spoke overbearingly.

Snively panted as if he had just run a marathon. Ignoring the Doctor's remark, he continued, "Sonic the Hedgehog has been spotted by one of our followers! Apparently, he's on West Side Island taking a vacation." Snively spoke quickly before grinning mischievously. "The best part is, his plane has broken down meaning there is no way for him to make it off the island until he gets it fixed!"

Robotnik visibly smirked at that. His most formidable arch enemy, Sonic the Hedgehog, stranded on an island surrounded by water? Oh this was too good to be true. Turning towards Snively, Robotnik thought of the joy he would feel after ridding the world of that blue hedgehog. "Very good Snively…Tell that follower to make sure that that Hedgehog's plane is not fixed." He uttered the word Hedgehog with pure hatred.

Still surprised that the mad Doctor somewhat complimented him, Snively ran off leaving the fat man behind. Taking a few steps towards his supercomputer, Robotnik began forwarding his plans to one of his robotic generals.

Oh yes, this will be wonderful…

Back on West Side Island, a young kitsune was finally beginning to stir from his slumber. It had been three days since the beating and he had not moved once since returning home.

"Ooh…my head…" He muttered while lifting a hand up to ease his aching head. Slowly prying his eyes awake, the young fox could faintly see the inside of his makeshift home. Lifting his head up, he could tell that it was dark out from the sky's midnight blue color. Whether it was early in the morning or just turning night, he didn't know.

A low grumble resounded from his stomach, prompting him to rub it soothingly. Not knowing how much time had passed since he passed out, the fox could only guess how long it had been since he ate something. His stomach grumbled again with an even greater ferocity.

Knowing that food wasn't going to come out of the sky and land in his hands, Miles stood up to test how much he had recovered. The answer came to him quickly as he fell back down hard on the unforgiving rocks with a loud yelp and let out a silent whimper. After a few minutes, the yellow fox decided to try another time, this time putting most of his weight on his left leg instead of his right. Seeing that the pain was now more or less tolerable, he began to lift himself slowly out of the stone cold alcove.

Finally getting a chance to view the outside, Miles quickly deduced that it was going to get darker from the sun's rapidly setting movements. Feeling content with that fact, he slowly started limping away from the rock, speeding up to a comfortable pace using what strength he had left. Looking down at the ground, the snow which was waist high prior to the incident was now only around his shoes. Silently thanking the heavens for melting away all the snow so he didn't have to trudge through it, the young fox continued walking through the thick foliage of trees. He didn't know where he was heading. The only thing leading him was his nose which caught the sweet scent of food somewhere in the distance.

Carefully walking through the quiet forest, taking extra caution not to make even a sound, the young fox limped through the forest until he made it through the last of the trees. Finding himself now on the snow-free beach, Miles looked around, taking in his surroundings. He rarely came to the beach; too many kids often came here to play in the sand. Now that it was night however, there wasn't a single sound. Taking in the fresh air, the young kitsune felt at peace here. There were no kids, no parents, no adults, no rules, nothing except him and nature.

A low grumbling sound from his stomach snapped the kitsune out of his trance as he quickly remembered what he came here for. Using his strong sense of smell, the young fox sniffed the air and began looking around. His eyes landed on a black mass in the distance, too far and dark to make out what it was with his black eye. Hoping that that was where the food was, he began limping in the direction of the black object.

It only took him a few minutes to reach the black object which he now noticed was a small biplane. His excitement got the best of him as he began moving even faster to the plane. Holding his hand up, he could feel the metallic sheets, the nails and screws that kept the plane together, and the smoothness of the paint job. Never before had he seen a plane this close before! It was like a dream come true. Oh how much he wished he could take a look at its inner frame, the controls, maybe even see if he could fly the plane! Suddenly, however, he was pulled out of his excitement by a loud sound. Upon hearing it again, he quickly realized that it was the sound of snoring.

Being the utmost quiet he had ever been, Miles took a look and glanced around the aircraft. There, on the ground was a young blue hedgehog probably a few years older than him. Miles gulped. He could smell the food coming from the plane so strongly that he could pretty much taste it. But then there was the hedgehog. If he was caught, that would surely be the end of him. In his current condition, running, much less walking, wasn't even a valid option. But he also needed food at that very moment. Maybe the hedgehog would pity him and not beat him for stealing?

Recounting his history of stealing food, that probably wasn't going to happen.

Knowing that the more he waited, the less energy he would have to do this, the young fox carefully climbed onto the airplane with a single thought: forgive me.

There was no going back now. He knew that.

Glancing over the edge of the plane to make sure the hedgehog was still sleeping, Miles carefully lifted up an unlocked hatch behind the driver's seat revealing all sorts of objects. Sniffing the air once again, the he began taking out wrenches, screwdrivers, and other nuts and bolts and cautiously placed them behind him on the wing of the aircraft. The food was so close his mouth began watering with what remaining water was left!

Licking his lips in excitement, the hungry little fox began taking things out at a more rapid pace. He could feel the compartment emptying and reached further in until he could feel a plastic bag. Questioning why anyone would store food in the furthest part of the compartment, the fox pulled the bag out making sure it didn't cause too much noise. Opening the bag, his eyes sparkled at the sight of the pieces of bread that looked as if they were brand new. Not being able to resist, Miles snatched one out of the bag and took a huge bite into it. His eyes lit up in pure joy at the taste. It was wondrous, a million times better than the molded bread he found in garbage cans.

Taking a step back, Miles suddenly froze as his foot came in contact with a piece of metal. His eyes widened as he realized what he just did. Dropping the bag of bread onto the wing of the plane faster than a lightning strike, he spun around and thrust his hands forwards in an effort to grab the falling wrench, whimpering from the pain at the sudden movement. He let out a sigh of relief before listening for the snores of the blue hedgehog. The sound came momentarily after, relaxing the young kitsune, the thought of him getting caught being cast back into the back of his mind. Placing the wrench down on the wing of the plane, Miles turned back around and picked up the dropped bag of bread and took out another piece. "What are you doing?"

Miles spun around while also trying to move away from the voice so quickly that he lost his balance and tripped over his own feet causing him to come crashing down onto the sand. The sudden movement also knocked a few of the tools down with him as they all came down, crashing into different parts of his body. A large wrench plummeted, dropping right onto his stomach causing his eyes to widen in pain.

"AHHHHH!" he screeched at the top of his lungs as tears began emerging from his eyes, wincing from the sudden weight that smashed into his stomach along with the pain that accompanied it. Never before had he felt so unlucky.

When his screaming had stopped, the young crying fox curled himself into a ball with his tails despite feeling like he was going to throw up, silently crying into his hands. He wanted it to all end, wanted the pain to go away. "J-just get it over with…" He muttered so quietly that the hedgehog could barely hear it.

The blue figure only stood behind the fox during the whole ordeal. Upon hearing the scream the fox gave out, he felt bad that he spooked the kid so much that he fell. Taking this time to look over the fox, he curiously noticed that he had a black eye and bandages covered his legs, chest, arms, head, and tails. Wait a second, tails? Double checking just to make sure that he wasn't hallucinating, the hedgehog was surprised to see that it was true. The fox did have two tails.

Seeing that the fox was now silently crying, the hedgehog moved in closer to the fox, putting a hand on his shoulder. He could feel the fox tense upon contact but decided to ignore it for now. He had never comforted a crying child before; he never had a need to. He had no siblings to take care of and no parents to take care of him. "You okay kid?" he asked, unsure of what to do.

The fox continued sobbing and turned away from him. Knowing that this was partially his fault, the young hedgehog searched for ideas of how to help the much younger fox. Taking a glance to the side, he noticed that his bag of bread was dropped on the ground nearby. Realizing that that was what the fox was looking for, he swiftly took one out and gently nudged it into the fox's hands.

Uncovering his face for a moment, the fox's eyes widened upon seeing the piece of bread and quickly took it from the hedgehog and wolfed it down faster than he could blink. The hedgehog saw this and gave another piece to the younger fox. The same thing happened, although this time the fox ate it even faster.

The hedgehog grinned before gently tossing the entire bag over to him much to the fox's delight. Miles knew better than to accept food from strangers but right now it didn't matter. He dismissed all logic and reasoning in favor of calming his groaning stomach.

It didn't take long for the fox to finish all the bread, afterwards which the hedgehog stood up and dusted himself off. "You're welcome." He said kindly and with pride.

"W-why?"

"Huh?" He responded, not completely expecting the young fox's response.

"W-why did y-you give me all your f-food?" The kitsune asked sadly. He knew he was in deep trouble now. He had nothing to repay the hedgehog with. No money, no belongings, no nothing. "I don't even have anything to repay you with…"

The hedgehog only chuckled at that much to the fox's confusion. "Don't have to worry about that little buddy; I have plenty of money already." He reassured the fox. "The name's Sonic by the way."

Miles was still hesitant about this. How many times had a stranger come up and offered him something only to take it back (painfully mind you) later on? How did he know he could trust the blue hedgehog? He had never seen him before and judging by the plane, he didn't live here. So why had he come here, of all places?

He began to slowly stand up while keeping Sonic at a bit more than an arm's length away. When he was almost fully standing, a crippling pain shot through his right side causing him to crash back onto the ground with a bloodcurdling scream, gently nurturing his aching knee whilst cursing at himself for putting too much weight on his right side.

Sonic saw this and was at his side in a flash, putting his arm on the young kitsune's shoulder as a sign of comfort. This only lead the fox to quickly pull away and use his left hand to swat Sonic's hand away before another shot of pain coursed through his left side as he shut his eyes tightly and began squeezing his left elbow, biting his lip so he didn't scream again. The young fox realized that he wouldn't be able to get away and just laid there, eyes shut tight waiting for the inevitable.

Sonic's heart dropped at the sight of such a young child in so much pain. He knew that he wouldn't be able to move the suffering fox without causing more trouble and the fox didn't seem to want him near him in the first place. A feeling he never wanted to feel slowly crept up on him, the feeling of helplessness. All he could do was watch the young fox quietly sob while curled up in a ball. He swore he would never feel this way again just a few years ago yet here he was, unable to help, unable to comfort, unable to do anything.

Taking a deep breath, Sonic sat down leaning his back against his plane, all the while staring at the fox. He couldn't have been more than four years old. But what four year old had this many injuries and this many bandages?

Minutes go by but he's still awake, watching over the young kitsune. All of a sudden, he hears a low snoring in place of the quiet sobs originating from the fox moments ago. Realizing that the kitsune was now asleep, Sonic felt a sense of relief wash over him, knowing that the kid was no longer in as much pain. With that in mind, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep beside the younger fox.

Unbeknownst to him however, was the fact that the fox was not asleep. Miles was scared, deathly scared. He couldn't run, couldn't fly away. This Sonic person could easily beat him up, kidnap him, even kill him if he wanted. But he didn't. So he began fake snoring to see what the hedgehog would do, only to be shocked when he too began snoring.. There was no way Sonic could have known that he was still awake. He could have taken him right then and there while the young fox was sleeping, but he didn't. He didn't take him, didn't put him on the plane and just fly away, didn't beat him, or hurt him. If anything, he could have been trying to comfort him. Wariness began to overtake him as his eyes slowly closed without enough energy to remain awake.

Why? was his only thought before the realm of darkness overtook him.