They drove up to the mountain, as Sonic was just remembering his surroundings, Tails spoke up.

"Knuckles, check the sky for drones. We wouldn't want to be spotted."

"Got it." Knuckles twisted around in his seat and opened up the trunk of the open-roof car. Curious, sonic looked back to see what Knuckles was doing. From the trunk, Knuckles pulled out a metallic box, and then put it down on his lap. He opened it, as Sonic watched with fascination.

From the box, Knuckles produced a machine, and as soon as knuckles put it on the seat between him and Sonic, it expanded, a tube protruding out of the middle, pointing towards the sky. The base of it extended down, resting on the floor, it seemed to be the heaviest and most intricate part of the machine. Knuckles took out something else from the box. sonic recoiled in fear, leaning as far away from knuckles as possible. It was bombs. Sonic stayed silent but watched frozen in confusion and fear as knuckles put the small, dimly glowing balls into the tube of the device.

"What? What are you doing?" Sonic finally asked as they got closer and closer to the mountain of Angel Island. "where are we going anyway?" Green Hill was no where near Angel Island, why were they going deeper into the island?

"Calm down , I'm just getting ready in case we're attacked." Knuckles shrugged, now looking at a computer in the box.

"Why do you need those bombs?"

"We're going home." Tails explained. "Those aren't really bombs, they use electromagnetic energy to disrupt radars. If there's some sort of surveillance drone around, we need to block its signal so it won't be able to detect us." Well, that wasn't much better but…

"These are bombs!" Knuckles said, all too chipper, and he produced slightly different looking metallic objects from the box and showed them off to Sonic. Sonic felt fear shoot up his spine.

Knuckles laughed at him as Sonic weakly gripped the sides of the car, holding on for dear life. This was all too much in one night, he felt like he might puke again. He tried to regain his senses. He turned to tails for answers.

"What the heck are we doing with bombs in this car!?" Sonic nearly shouted but it made his throat really hurt. Tails glanced backwards.

"Knuckles, cut him a break, he's still recovering!"

" I don't remember you being such a sissy, Sonic!" Knuckles laughed.

"Answer my question, why do we have bombs?!" Sonic kept a strong grip on the side of the car, but he was feeling dizzy again and he felt like he might be sick. He was being tossed around by the car now, he hadn't even noticed when the road got so bumpy. He was also starting to feel achy all over.

"We need them to protect ourselves from Robotnik." Tails explained.

"Eggman?! We don't need bombs for Eggman! "

Tails and knuckles were really quiet all of a sudden.

"I see one, west of us by a 50 degree margin, about 10 to 20 kilometers, permission to fire?" Knuckles said, reading off of the screen.

"Go for it. Lets be safe." Tails nodded.

"firing 3." Knuckles fiddled with the machine. The cannon shifted down and to the left a little with mechanical whirring and a metallic thunk. "and 1,2,3…" with a crisp crack, 3 of the ball things shot out of the cannon and into the air, past the canopy of trees, and disappeared out of sight. "Got it."

Knuckles started to put away the cannon, folding it up, clearing up the seat, stuffing it away in the box.

"You don't really need bombs for Eggman, right?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

Tails looked back at Sonic, locking eyes with him. His expression was so unreadable, and raw. Tails looked all at once scared, sympathetic, and furious. Sonic blinked. was Tails mad at him? Why? Apparently his confusion showed, because Tails was scowling as he turned back to the road.

"Come on, not old egghead!"

Knuckles turned away, looking out into the woods.

"He's a lunatic, nothing more. He couldn't actually hurt anyone."

As Sonic said this. Tails slammed on the brake. Sonic lurched forward, smacking is chest on the seat in front of him, hard. It wasn't cushioned enough, cause he felt the air exit his lungs and he hurt all over. He lurched back to the seat, coughing and hacking. Trying to catch his breath, gasping for air. He still felt dizzy, like he might puke, and his body hurt all over. But now he was just getting more and more dizzy, he felt his consciousness swimming as he tried to breathe.

Tails didn't look back, but he seemed satisfied that Sonic had gotten the wind knocked out of him and he could no longer talk. Tails accelerated again and regained the pace.

Knuckles looked over to Sonic, watching him slowly recover. He wanted to say something, but held his tongue, worried about what Sonic would say next.

Sonic eventually managed to slow his breathing to long, laborious gasping. With enough room for him to speak, the first thing he could think to say.

"Sorry." He took a break to cough until he could say a full sentence. "I'll shut up about it."

"Yeah, I'm sorry too…" Said Tails. "It's okay, you didn't know."

" Jeeze Sonic, you're being sort of a drama queen, you okay?" Knuckles finally spoke up.

"Well, I should have been wearing a seat belt." Sonic weakly chuckled between coughs. That made Knuckles smile a little.

They sat in silence for a long while as Sonic started to breathe normally again. When suddenly, the car approached a steep cliff in the mountain, he nearly panicked, thinking there were about to crash into the cliff wall, when suddenly they drove through it, like a hologram. Sonic looked back and saw the inside of the cave wall that they just drove through. They were in a tunnel, dimly lit by ceiling and floor lights with a warm glow. It looked pretty, and the air was earthy and cool, a little more stuffy than it was outside, but this wasn't home.

"Okay, if this is another thing I shouldn't talk about. I understand but, where exactly are we going?"

"What do you mean?" asked tails.

"I thought you said we were going home."

"We are." Said knuckles.

"Ohh, sorry, well, we relocated to um… Angel Island." Tails said.

"Relocated? What about Green Hill?"

"We built a whole city inside the big mountain on angel island to hide us. The Freedom Fighters protect it from Eggman." Knuckles said as he leaned back in his seat.

"I think you might learn to like it here, there's not much free space, but there is plenty to do." Tails said.

"is that so?" Sonic pondered, he felt like he didn't really understand but, its not like he really had the energy to question them too much right now.

Just then the tunnel ended and gave way to a giant cave, illuminated along the walls, but mostly by streetlights, buildings and windows glowing with warm light, illuminating the rocky mountain.

"whoa!" Sonic sat upright in his seat, looking out over the earthy cityscape. The buildings were made mostly of rock and some metal. There were giant flat screens on high building broadcasting news programs and TV shows. The downtown area was surrounded by smaller residential buildings, there were shops, people every where and illuminated windows. even from far away he could tell the town was bustling.

"This is incredible…"

"Glad you like it!" Knuckles smiled.

"Angel Island's largest mountain is actually a dormant volcano. So, the inside was already mostly hollow, the geothermal energy is what powers the city and keeps it warm, even in winter!" Tails explained.

"Life goes on here, even though we're in hiding."

"This is super impressive guys!" Sonic looked around ,trying to take in everything at once, his head spinning. " Who's idea was it, building a hidden city in a volcano? I bet it was you Tails." Sonic chuckled and patted Tails on the head.

"Well, actually the whole thing was Amy's idea." Tails looked a little embarrassed.

"What?! Amy?" Sonic's eyes widened, he leaned back in his seat. Knuckles laughed.

"A lot changed since you left! She's the leader of the Freedom Fighters!" Knuckles explained.

"What?! What about Sally?"

"She… was leader for a while, but eventually, she made Amy the leader. It's a long story."Tails said.

"Why did she make Amy the leader? Sally is a princess! She has, you know, experience."

"You didn't have leadership experience while you were leader." Tails pointed out.

Sonic stumbled.

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Besides, its really complicated." Tails sighed.

Sonic was about to interject when Tails pulled into a parking lot.

"No vehicles past this point. Come on guys, let's walk. Were gonna take the shortcut back to the base." Tails parked the car and turned it off. he swung open the door and hopped out. Knuckles followed suit.

Sonic confidently opened the door, and stepped down to the gravelly ground, to no avail. His knees immediately buckled, he tumbled forward, face down into the dirt. his feet were sore and achy. His shoes were too small… Knuckles and Tails glanced his way then looked concernedly at each other.

"I'm okay!"Sonic called out. He sat on the ground, and took off his socks and shoes, which were soaking wet and way too tight.

The gravel was like broken glass on his soft skin, and having to stand on it felt horrible. He held himself upright on the car as he slowly adjusted to putting weight on his paws again. Well, he got his left leg to work, but his right leg was refusing to work correctly.

"You're still recovering… If you want we can help you out." Tails walked over to Sonic.

"Nah, I'm fine, just give me a minute to uh… figure out how to do this."

It was supposed to be easy, just one foot in front of the other. But his body was feeling really different, the last time he ran didn't feel like it was too long ago, but he just couldn't remember what if felt like to walk. Eventually he was pretty sure he got the hang of it.

"Okay. here I go." He took a deep breath and stepped away from the car, letting go of it and putting his weight on his feet. The bottoms of his feet screamed in pain and his knees gave out immediately, once again throwing him down to the ground.

"Here" knuckles ran around to his side and picked him up from under his arm on the opposite side.

"No,I don't need your help…" Sonic tried to insist. "Get off of me!"But as soon as knuckles let him go, he dropped to the ground again. He tried to pick himself up, but his body felt so much heavier than he remembered. Being crumpled on the gravel made him realize how tired he was and how much his stomach hurt with hunger. He felt pathetic, having to rest and catch his breath sitting on the ground with his arms limply hanging. he sighed hopelessly.

"Your muscles atrophied while you were comatose… " Tails looked down to him, sympathetically."So you aren't as strong as you used to be."

Knuckles picked sonic up off the ground again by his shoulders.

"Come on buddy, we've all had a long night, we gotta get you home."

"Okay… Fine." Sonic accepted defeat.

"Man, you're even lighter than I remember." Knuckles said.

"Don't push it." Warned Sonic.

"Good evening, officer…" Tails greeted the guard in the booth by the exit, an aging man, a mouse.

"Ah Tails, Knuckles, nice to see you back. Anything to report?"

"We used three of the electric blockers in the trunk on a drone. And the back seat is a little slimy. But, uh, other than that nothing unusual."

"You brought back a third?"

"Yes, we found him on the outside."

"Someone from this city, or an outside camp, perhaps?"

"Well… no, he was all alone."

The guard craned his neck to look at Sonic. He was sounding increasingly more concerned with every question.

"Well, is he hurt?" he asked, looking at Sonic, being held up by Knuckles.

"No, but he's weak."Tails shook his head.

"Son, if I'm not mistaken, that boy looks exactly like Sonic the Hedgehog." The man's tone became someone suspicious. Sonic looked proudly at the old man. Well , as proudly as he could.

"Uh… no sir I think you are—"Tails started to say.

"You bet I am, old man, I am Sonic the Hedgehog." Sonic called out, as loud as he could muster, holding his head as high as he could and looking confidently at the old man. He was gonna get his life back. Spread the news, the blue blur is back! He locked eyes with the old man, but his face was obscured by glasses. The man turned slowly back to tails, acting as if he hadn't seen or heard that.

"… Where do you intend to take this young man?"

"Well, we aren't sure. We'll probably take him back to the base so the freedom fighters can watch over him."

"Son," he leaned forward and tilted his glasses " you're sure that's actually Sonic the Hedgehog?"

"We're pretty sure… But I guess we don't really know for sure, he might not be."

"Well, then I guess there's no helping it. Do what you will."

"Thanks officer." Tails said, proceeding past the gate.

"Word of advice, Mr. Hedgehog." the old man spoke to Sonic, leaning in as he passed. "Pretending to be Sonic may garner sympathy from them, but you may find yourself not so willing to go impersonating Sonic in public. "

"Yeah, right." Sonic sighed, rolling his eyes.

They walked along for quite a ways. And eventually the narrow road evened out to a cool, smooth rock road. now Sonic could practice putting weight on his feet without puncturing the bottoms of his paws. Tails was now supporting his other side, and Sonic slowly was able to put more and more weight on his feet. Practicing, one foot in front of the other, one two, one two.

And the downtown of the city got closer and closer, brighter and brighter. Everything else that happened would soon be far behind him. As soon as he could walk on his own, it wouldn't be long before he could run on his own. Then he would be back to his old self. But they kept walking until they were in the down town area and Sonic still couldn't walk on his own, even if he found he could support himself standing, when he tried to move his knees would give up.

They suddenly stopped in the center of the square.

"this is the town square." Tails said. "you wanna try to walk a bit here? it probably has the most open space."

"yeah" Sonic said, but as soon as he looked up from his feet, his stomach lurched. Bright lights, all the loud voices of people talking... everyone was staring at him and talking around him.

"that guy… who is he? I've never seen him before."

"Why is he with tails and knuckles?"

"Doesn't he looks just like Sonic the Hedgehog?"

"no way, that's gotta be him, the real Sonic the Hedgehog."

"that cant be Sonic. Sonic is dead."

"if It is Sonic he sure has a lot of nerve"

"who cares if it is him or it isn't, what is he doing?"

"why is he here?"

"traitor!"

"traitor!"

"you left us all behind!" it escalated to shouting at him.

It was all too much. He groaned as his head started aching and swimming, he felt like he was gonna lose consciousness again, as the contents of his stomach boiled. With a yelp, he lost tails's and knuckles's support and was on his feet, standing, at first, then losing his balance and stumbling forward, moving his legs without being able to keep up. Bumping into things before collapsing on the ground.

at least he caught himself with his arms, but he was weak, holding himself up stung his arms. He stayed there for a second, regaining a sense of the world around him. He looked up and everyone was staring at him. Not a single person he recognized, city lights, voices getting louder and louder, blurring together into an unclear mess of sensory input. He felt the remaining contents of his stomach fight with him and then all at once rocket up his throat.

Not here, not in front of everyone… his mouth opened and the watery syrupy stuff from before shot out of his mouth and landed on the ground. He fell over, pushing himself only so he wouldn't land on the puke, but giving up on supporting himself much longer. How pathetic. What an entrance. He closed his eyes and felt tears develop behind his eyelids.

This wasn't what he imagined.

Suddenly everyone crowded around him, shouting and yelling about him. He felt like he was regaining some sense, but he didn't want to. He just wanted to pass out and not have to know what was going on.

"what do you have to say for yourself?!"

"sorry…I'm sorry." he uttered weakly, in a vain attempt to make them turn a blind eye.

Then he felt a paw on his shoulder.

"Sonic, you'll be okay." It was Tails's voice.

"everyone give him some space." He heard Knuckles.

"come on." Tails grabbed him under his torso and pulled him up with some effort. Knuckles then came around and supported the other side. Sonic still didn't want to open his eyes.

"Sonic—" Tails tried to tell him something. But he felt them all stop moving.

"Answer the question." There was an unfamiliar voice in front of them. Sonic slowly opened his eyes.

"Is that the real Sonic the Hedgehog?"

There was a wall of strangers in front of them.

"…yes. It is." Replied Knuckles. "he's just not in good condition."

"if Sonic the Hedgehog is truly alive then where the hell was he for the past ten years!?" the woman, a koala, leading the mob of people . "Where was Sonic the Hedgehog while our families were being slaughtered by Robotnik's fleet?"

"he was… being imprisoned by Eggman-" Tails started.

"Bull honkey!" an old man yelled from further back. "the freedom fighters have searched every nook and cranny of every one of Eggman's prisons for Sonic, you know that better than any one!"

"so where was he really?"

Sonic tried to tune out the yelling and shut his eyes, but his attention was called when knuckles let go of him and spoke up.

"that's enough!" the crowd quieted down.

"listen, we don't know how it happened but Sonic really was being imprisoned by Eggman. And he's in bad shape. We need to take him back to the freedom fighters and—" the crowd started up again.

"we cant trust the Freedom Fighters with him!"

"he doesn't belong with them anymore!"

"he'll ruin everything!"

"let me finish!" Knuckles roared. The crowd was hushed once more. "the Freedom Fighters will come up with a plan regarding what we should do with him. Weather we should keep him around or not. Once he has recovered we can release information on what happened, and until then, I want you all to forget what you've seen, nothing can be done about it until we hear from general Rose!" he took a deep breath "I repeat, we are taking him to general Rose until we decide what to do."

That seemed to calm everyone down.

"Well. I'm sure that Ms. Rose will make the right decision." sighed the koala. "fine…"

The crowd finally dispersed, knuckles picked up Sonic again ,and they continued on their way, but Sonic could feel lingering stares.

"yeesh, im so sorry Sonic. I didn't think that would happen." Admitted Tails

"A lot happened since you left. You're not really the hero you once were." Said Knuckles.

"but I'm not… a traitor, I didn't leave, I just…." He had a hard time talking.

"We know Sonic, they just… " tails trailed off.

"hey, come on, we can chat once we get back to the base." Knuckles said.

"sorry for throwing up though…" Sonic grumbled. The other two didn't really respond.

"well, at least I walked on my own for a bit."

They all chuckled a little.

That was a start.

End of chapter 2.

Ok that was a little long, and sorta over dramatic. But, thank you for reading it anyway.

So yeah, that's basically the setup.

Sonic is just such an asshole, I love to beat him up in my stories, it's just how I express my affection, ya feel? No? that's ok, this is a coming of age story.

Also freedom fighters is pretty much gonna refer to sonic and his friends as a group, except they're also like a military? Even though I don't really know what the freedom fighter's deal is in canon? do the freedom fighters have a leader even? is it sonic or sally? shrug.

So yeah, next time, sonic reunites with the freedom fighters! Look forward to it!