The elevator was nearing the top floor as Tails and the others waited patiently for it to stop.
"We're almost to the top. Hang on, Sonic…" He whispered.
Once it did, they jumped into the vent and started running down to the nearest vent cover.
"Come on, guys! We're almost there!" Knuckles said.
"How would we know where to find him?" Blaze questioned.
Before anyone could respond, the sound of the blue hedgehog's laughter echoed throughout the vents, catching the attention of the rescue party. Tails' excitement sky-rocketed at the voice.
"Sonic! It's him! Come on!"
He ran faster and faster to the source, almost leaving everyone in the dust. The team tried to follow and after they made a sharp turn, they saw Tails gripping the cover that separates them from the room. They tried to see past it, but their view was obstructed by not only the cover, the one they were looking for was behind a few boxes or foam insulation.
"Tails, can you see him?" Amy whispered.
"No, not really."
"What's happening?" Silver said.
Shadow pushed aside the white hedgehog to get a closer look and noticed a pink figure towering over a blue one with a green one standing by them laughing.
"They're torturing him. We have to get through, now!"
The black and red striped hedgehog tried to push through, but the screw was interfering.
"It's no use!" Silver exclaimed. "That screw is preventing us from opening the cover. Is there any other way in?"
"Wait-" Amy interrupted. "Look! The screw is loose, we might be able to force it out."
"How?" Tails asked with his head crooked.
The pink hedgehog moved back behind them all and turned around.
"We could use our speed to ram it! The force from all of us should be enough to push the screw out. Come on, hurry! We have to save Sonic!"
Tails agreed and followed her lead. Soon, all were behind her, ready to run.
"On three. One… Two… Three!"
They all ran as fast as they could towards the end. As Amy said, the screw holding the cover in place gave in and they all bursted into the room and fell over in front of everyone. Once the blue hedgehog recognized the intruders, he picked himself up and ran to them.
"Tails? Amy? Guys! How did you find me-?"
"Get down!"
Shadow grabbed Sonic and basically threw him behind the others as he readied himself for a battle as so did others.
"H-hey! Whatcha do that for?" He barked.
"We're here to save you, Sonic!" Knuckles growled as he stared at the thought to be kidnappers.
"What? Wait wait wait, hold on! They didn't kidnap me. They're my family!"
"What?!" Everyone gasped.
"Look… The thing is I'm a rare Sonic action figure. And these guys are part of the Sonic Underground. Over there is my mother I never knew I had. Those two behind her are bounty hunters hired by that dictator there." Sonic pointed at Robotnik
"Sonic, what are you talking about?" The fox asked.
"What am I talking about? Sonic Underground! Oh, it was this awesome show and me and my sibs were the stars."
Sonic moved over to the abandoned TV remote lying on the ground and turned it on to reveal an episode already playing.
"See? Look! It's me!"
"This is weirding me out…" Silver said with his head tilted.
"Tails, it was an international thing! There was all kinds of merch that got packed up- Oh, you should've seen it!"
Shadow shook his head and scoffed at Sonic's fascination.
"Sonic, enough of this nonsense!" He stormed over to the blue hedgehog and grabbed his arm, "Now, let's go!"
Sonic pulled back after he gained his footing from being dragged and paused. The sudden reaction slightly stunned the black hedgehog.
"Shadow…" Sonic sighed, "I can't go, I can't abandon them. They need me to get into this museum. Without me, they might end up back in storage. Maybe forever…"
Shadow shook his head in frustration, there was no way he was actually against this.
"Sonic, you are not a collector's item. You are a toy!"
Silence filled the room, no one could break it in fear of making everything worse. Tails decided to relieve them of that fear by speaking up himself.
"Sonic, please come back. You belong back in Scott's room."
"Belong…? Belong?!" Sonic snapped. "You wanna talk about where I belong, Miles Prower?"
The young fox was shocked to hear his full name like that, but tried to walk up to his best friend and place his hand on the hedgehog's shoulder.
"Sonic-"
He immediately pushed off his hand and got angrier, only fueling his rage.
"I've been asking myself that question for years and now I finally have an answer. I belong here, with my family! I never belonged with you, Miles! EVER!"
The sudden scream made everyone flinch, Sonic never acted this way before, not even to Tails. The fox was so taken aback, that once those words finally settled in his head, he ran back towards the vent.
"Tails! Wait…" Knuckles cried out, only for it to fall on deaf ears.
Everyone had their eyes back on Sonic, even his family as they stared from behind him. He felt so much guilt rise up in his chest. Amy snuck up in front of him and gave a death glare almost as if she were in tears.
"I can't believe ANY Sonic would talk to Tails like that!"
She wouldn't look at him any longer as she had her back towards him and walked back to the vent.
"Let's go." Shadow grunted.
"But, what about-" Blaze tried to ask.
"He's not coming with us." He interrupted.
"But, Scott is coming home tonight, isn't he?" Knuckles said.
"Then, we better make sure we're there waiting for him."
He stood next to the vent as he saw the rabbit family step in first, then the purple cat with the silver white hedgehog, finally the pink hedgehog and red echidna. The leader stayed and gave one last look to his "faker" rival. Sonic frowned even more…
"I don't have a choice, Shadow. This is my only chance…"
"To do what, Sonic? Be put in a glass cage and be watched like an animal? Some life that must be…"
He turned and stepped into the vent, grabbing a hold on the cover. He then slammed the cover hard and the sound of the impact echoed inside and outside. Sonic only stared as they all left, confused on what actually just happened. Did he really just abandon all his friends he knew for years just to be in a museum with his family he just met for a day?
"Sonic?" Sonia whispered from behind.
He turned around slowly and walked away from the others. Robotnik's box was slowly pushed between him and his family by Sleet and Dingo.
"Good going, hedgehog. I thought they would never leave."
Sonic didn't reply as he continued walking, the memory of his friends kept invading his mind. Then, the sound of the TV changed. It switched from his show to some kind of montage of his past. He stopped and his eyes locked onto the screen as a sad song started to play as it viewed clips from shows he had never seen before, but it also had him as the star…
"Good times and bad times. I can count on being with you. I thank you for staying so true."
"Sonic?" Manic tried to call his brother, but he didn't respond. He just continued walking until he sat down on a nearby roll of tape and watched.
"My life will go on a long time. Have to catch up when I see you. And you are my reason I can make it through."
On the screen, it showed himself fighting robots with not only his family, but other scenes of him with a group of friends he never saw before. One was maybe a walrus and another was a bunny with robotic limbs. Then, a squirrel character showed up and kissed him on the cheek. Was she someone his character was in love with?
"I will give my word that I will come in time to rescue. My heart will always be with you."
Finally, a familiar character showed up. He didn't recognize him at first, but his two tails instantly made him remember…
"I'm so glad I met you being with me wherever. We're made for each other forever…"
It was him, Tails was meant to be with him all along no matter what. He looked down and lifted his foot. On his small little plastic shoe, the bottom had a name written on it.
'Scott'
"I know life can be tough on you time and time again."
He shouldn't have done that, he betrayed his own friends for his gain.
"Laughter maybe gone 'way."
He abandoned Scott and he forgot the most important thing…
"I will wipe away my tears tomorrow. Life must go on, that's the reason that you travel away."
"What am I doing?"
He got up and started running to the vent, completely ignoring the others beside him.
"Shadow! Tails! Wait!" He screamed.
"Sonic, where are you going?" Aleena spoke.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but you're right Robotnik. I can't stop Scott from growing up, but I would never miss it for anything."
"You can't, Hedgehog! You're making a big mistake!" Robotnik shouted.
He didn't listen as he lifted the cover and shouted into the void of the vent.
"Tails!"
Everyone paused and the two tailed fox spun his head around, hope appearing in his heart.
"Sonic?!"
"I'm coming with you!" He was about half way in the vent before another idea popped into his head.
"Wait a minute… Hold on, I'll be back in a Sonic second!"
Tails smiled from ear to ear at the sound, Sonic was coming back! He was coming back home!
Sonic raced back to his family who were still in confusion of what his intentions were.
"Hey, Sibs. Come with me."
"What?!" Sonia and Manic screamed.
"Come on, Scott will play with all of us. No doubt in my mind!"
"Bro… I don't know-" Manic mumbled, unsure of what to think.
"Wouldn't you do anything just to have one more day with your owners? This is what it's all about! To make a child happy, you all know it!"
He looked past his siblings and walked to the box his mother was trapped in.
"Mom, are you with me?"
Aleena just stood there in thought, but after giving it some thought, she decided what to say.
"I'd hate to be separated just when we reunited… and a chance to be free of my box sounds wonderful."
Sonic nodded as he turned and moved over towards the bounty hunters.
"I know you two hate me and my family, but I'm extending my invitation to both of you…" He tried to look at the dictator, but his box was facing away. He grabbed the side and flung it around to face everyone.
"Robotnik, How about you-?"
Once the box faced them all, no one was inside. The flap that sealed the box was open and everyone gasped. Next a loud bang was heard from the vent. It was Robotnik himself sealing the vent! It looks like he grabbed some kind of attachment from his box and used it to tighten the screw.
"Robotnik?!" Sonia gasped.
"You're out of your box!" Sonic yelled.
He tightened the screw hard before turning around to face them.
"I've tried to reason with you, Sonic. But you forced me to take this action." The robotic ruler went over to the remote and forcefully stomped on the power button which shut the TV off behind him.
"But why? You just cut off our only way to be free!" Manic yelled.
"Now, we have an eternity to spend together in the museum. Let's not start off pointing fingers, shall we?"
"You really are a RoBUTTnik, aren't you?" Sonic quipped.
"Robotnik, this isn't fair!" Aleena scolded.
"Fair?!" Robotnik fumed. "I'll tell you what's not fair. Spending a lifetime, on a clearance shelf, watching every other toy being sold."
There was only silence as they tried to process what he just revealed. Sonic looked puzzled as something else came to mind. He looked over to his mother and wondered, 'Did she go through that too?'
"And now my waiting has paid off, and no hand me down hedgehog figure is gonna mess it up for me now!"
He picked up his own box and threw it back into its foam casing, but he didn't stop there, he stormed over to Aleena and tried to throw her into her casing as well!
"Oh no you don't!" Sonia said before pushing the dictator away. "You don't touch her!"
That defensive move was met with a back hand to her face. She fell to the ground, shocked at what he just did.
"Alright, that does it!" Manic screamed.
Manic tried to defend his family but no matter how he tried, Robotnik was able to block and counter. He held back as to not break the hedgehog figure so he could still be shipped to the museum.
Sonic wanted to fight as well, but remembered that his friends were still on the other side of the grate.
"Tails!" He whispered.
He ran over and tried to pull it off with all his strength.
"Tails! Help! Guys!"
After the green hedgehog was neutralized, Robotnik saw Sonic and scoffed. He was able to complete his original intention and Aleena was secured in place.
"It's too late, Hedgehog. That stupid Miles 'Per Hour' can't help you."
"His name is Miles Prower!" Sonic corrected.
"Whatever!" He jumped into his box and mumbled something just before he sealed himself in. "I've always hated those modern figures…"
Sonic struggled to remove the screw as his friends showed up. He gave up and tried to pull it off again.
"It's stuck! What now?"
Shadow tried to push the grate open while Sonic was pulling and Tails tried to see if he could try to unscrew it himself, but failed when it was too far in.
A loud bang halted their efforts as the sound of footsteps came closer.
"It's Kevin!" Sonic whispered.
Sonia, Manic, Sleet, and Dingo all ran and jumped into their spots, but Sonic didn't have enough time. As the door opened, Sonic had to go limp on the floor.
"Look at the time! I can't believe I'm going to be late for the flight! I can't miss it!"
Kevin kneeled down and started to pack everyone in the case. First was Sonia and Manic, then Sleet and Dingo, Aleena, and finally Sonic as he placed him back with Robotnik. He did some final checks as he shut the case.
"Do I have everything? Keys? Wallet? Tickets? Passport? Yeah, I've got everything, I've got to get out of here now!"
He placed the case containing the captured figures on top of a few boxes on the trolley as he headed out the door. He kept mumbling to himself about being late as he shut the door, leaving the room.
Everyone in the vent was in shock, did they just fail their mission? Was Sonic gone forever? Some started to feel guilt and others stood in silence. Except for Tails,
"Quick!" He shouted. "To the elevator!"
He ran past everyone who soon followed down the vent in hopes of reaching it in time.
"Hang on, Sonic… We're coming!" Tails whispered.