Sonic in Between.
Author's Note: Another mini story at your service! It's nothing much, but has a bit of sad but comforting moments. But warning in advance: This one-shot has spoilers for "Sun the Hedgehog" which I still plan on getting back to. Just have to get over the writer's block on that.
If you wish to avoid that and wait for the rest of that story to be finished, you can skip this chapter/one-shot for the next one when I get the chance to get to it.
Summary of Story 11: After a teenage Tenrec who is self-centered, arrogant, brash, and taking life and friends for granted while reminded of his own past recklessness finds a mech suit which is slowly taking over his mind, Sonic and his friends must find a way to save the Tenrec before it's too late while he begins to question if he is still capable of being a hero.
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Test of the Heart.
Three days passed since the Movie-Production Contest and everything went back to normal, and Sonic's group decided to continue sticking around in case Tobrokin decides to cause more trouble. Besides taking out the Eggman-Wanna-Be's robots which were far much easier to handle two days ago, the thief did somewhat behave himself for benefit. But today was a different story.
Even though things had taken a turn for the better and the heroes were asked for autographs for not just being heroes but also for their roles in Kairi's movie they helped make, today wasn't all that sunshines and rainbows.
"Sure was a busy last couple of weeks, huh?" Manny remarked, happily walking along the village.
"Between giant grasshoppers, Argo acting more of a lame Ro-butt-nik, saving the you-know-what, and helping Kairi with her movie, it has been admittedly fun." Sun remarked, smirking.
"So, you guys are going to be hanging around for another few days, right?" The aforementioned yellow hedgehog turned to six visitors, being Sun, Star, Knuckles, Tails, Amy and Sonic, whom most of them nodded.
"Yeah, and with the weather being too windy, I want to be sure Angel Island would be safe before it moves again. Might head back there after lunch, just in case." Knuckles replied.
"But you can sure we'll be back to visit again soon. Right, Sonic?" Tails happily added, turning to the blue hedgehog in question, but blinked in confusion when his older hedgehog brother didn't seem to respond. "Huh? Sonic?"
What the group of friends didn't even realize was that Sonic wasn't even listening to the whole conversation. Instead, the usually happy, perky, adventurous, cheerful and confident hero yawned and looked to be very sleepy and a little scared.
The reason for this was because last night he had a terrible nightmare: One where Eggman was still alive, destroyed half of a city and despite that Sonic managed to defeat him as well as the shocking aid of Argo who demanded for revenge, while he had been cheered on by his friends and some of the people, most of the citizens in the dream criticized him terribly.
Sonic had woken up nearly screaming in terror, pleading that he hadn't meant any harm, panting and covered in sweat before he realized it had been just another terrible dream. He hadn't had a nightmare of Eggman since the Flames of Nightmares during the Solaris Crisis almost two months ago. Still, the words had echoed, and the fifteen year old just couldn't get back to sleep.
"Sonic, are you listening?" Tails asked a bit louder.
"Huh?" Sonic blinked sleepily, before he rubbed his eyes and muttered apologetically. "Sorry, had a nightmare last night and I couldn't get back to sleep."
"Do you want to head back to the hotel?" Amy suggested softly, concerned for her 'boyfriend'.
"Nah, I'll be fine. Might go for run later in the jungle or somethin'." The blue hedgehog shook his head, smiling in gratitude and smirking to reassure his friends that he was okay. Though deep down he felt more than a little freaked out. Especially when the nightmares unfortunately reminded him of his past mistakes which made his heart sink a little.
Feeling as though he was right back to square one, the cobalt speedster felt rising guilt surge up into his chest. Like his new battles against Tobrokin was just the trigger of what could happen unless he did something about it soon.
Their conversation was cut off when they heard a loud noise that caught heroes' attentions and saw that there was another group of teenagers nearby that were all rowdy and mischievous: From what Sonic and his friends could make out, it was a group of five-A male grey wolf pretty short but around Knuckles' age, grey fur with white muzzle and chest, a male black and white badger with lemon-green eyes, a male bulky, tall but very dim-witted dark purple armadillo, a female red-brown Fennec with a laptop and glasses, and finally, a light-cyan blue-green male Tenrec, around the same age as Sonic, and the one that caught the hedgehog's attention...and not in a good way.
"And so I said, 'Hey, you know that you will never be able to stop me, punk!'" The Tenrec laughed, only making the dumb armadillo gaze at him laughing even though he didn't understand why, but the rest of the group, looking a bit annoyed, smirked and chuckled none the less.
"Hey, check this out!" The stupid armadillo grinned, scrunching up his napkin as the group had ordered a take-out from the Meh Burger and tossed it towards the trash can near a building, where it landed perfectly and he cheered on excitedly. "Yeah! Score one for Nicky the Armadillo!"
But the cyan Mobian just grinned, scoffing. "Please, Nicko. I can do one better: With my eyes closed. Watch and observe, my fellow Skill Masters."
Closing his eyes to make his point, The Tenrec smirked while scruching up his napkin and tossed it behind him confidently. True to his prediction, it landed perfectly which amazed his friends who all cheered and celebrated with a high-five.
"That was, like, perfectly skilled and coordinated, Thunder!"
"Hey, I'm the Master of Skills. They don't call me Thunder Tenrec for nothing. I'm the best and there's nothing to worry about what so ever!" The Tenrec, identified as Thunder Tenrec, shrugged nonchalantly, prompting laughter from his friends.
The more Sonic listened but tried not to get the rowdy and misbehaving group's attention, the more he uncomfortably could see himself in Thunder: Overly confident, cocky, brash, arrogant, self-centered...Many of those things that made Sonic the Hedgehog mentally shudder as he remembered how he was like that before the disasterous adventures against Dark Gaia, one where he learned his lesson the hard way.
"Ahem!" A female adult voice grunted loudly, getting the mischief group, and unintentionally, Sonic's, attention before the Tenrec and his friends looked behind them to see a female Walrus who was nearby feeding her baby with a bottle on a bench, glaring at them. "The village with people around is no place for such behavior!"
"In all the fairness, the village is pretty small and boring. What we need is more action." Thunder pointed out with a shrug, not seeing what the problem is.
"How can you call yourselves Skill Masters when you exhibit bad judgement and behavior?" The Walrus Mother grunted disapprovingly, as the blue hedgehog, worried that she could be staring at his back, politely and quickly attempted to not notice. Thankfully she didn't seem to notice him or his friends at the moment. "You should take example from Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends. They are very well behaved and more of role models."
"Hey, Sonic may be the hero of Mobius, but I'm more cool, super, more skillful than he is!" The Tenrec grinned widely in that arrogant personality that he has.
'That's the biggest understatement of the year.' Sonic thought to himself, a twinge of guilt and his stomach churning over it. He was disgusted with Thunder's behavior, but he didn't want to cause a huge fight in the middle of the village. That would only lead to a bad example.
Deciding to leave the place, the mother picked up her baby who giggled and waved his arms about playfully. "Come on, sweetie. Let's go find a precarious ledge for you to play on."
With that, she left and the Tenrec's group shared a glance before chuckling sheepishly over their bad example. Thunder then half-whispered, unaware that Sonic was still listening. "You know, she's right. We shouldn't be messing around here..." He then grinned. "So let's mess around at the beach! Who wants to play Mobian-Cannon ball?"
"ME!" His friends all raised their hands, and they all dashed away, accidentally knocking over another trash can which spilled onto the ground and shocking the other villagers, including Sonic and his friends who, still trying to get his attention, jumped slightly startled before they noticed what has happened.
"Looks like the Thunder Risk Squad's at it again." Sophia deadpanned, with a dull expression after a moment or two of awkward silence.
"Man, those guys think they're the most talented guys on Mobius, showing and goofing off in a dangerous way. I'm surprised they haven't hurt themselves and landed in a hospital yet." Manny sighed, grumpily.
"How long have those guys been at this sort of thing?" Knuckles asked, skeptically. He had known that Sonic took a lot of risks and dare-devil stunts, but the way how that Tenrec and his group acted...they were like a million times worse.
"That's a mystery in everyone's minds." Kairi sighed, exasperated.
"I think they should learn some common sense of safety and logic." Amy frowned in disapprovement, her arms folded. "Who does that Tenrec think he is, saying that Sonic isn't better than him?"
"Not to mention the mess they just made." Tails remarked, as he watched sympathetically as one of the town's citizens, a florist, a female Mobian Beaver pick up the mess in front of her building with a grumble nobody could hear.
"I'm gonna help that poor lady with the mess. She can't pick it all up by herself." Sonic announced, after seeing the cleaner struggle with the huge piles of wasted food before he stood up and approached, while failing to see that his best friends and the others noticed that he wasn't sounding too...happy today, besides the tiredness due to the lack of sleep.
"Sonic?" Star blinked, confused and quickly growing concerned.
As the young florist, who was actually in her mid-twenties, was struggling with the big mess, picking up the discarded food half eaten-food and trash into the trash bag, the blue hedgehog hurried over and knelt in front of her. "Here, let me help ya'."
"Huh? Oh!" The female Beaver blinked in surprise to see the teenage hedgehog picking up the mess and gently placing them into the bag, stunned by his kindness and generosity. "Why, thank you, Mr. Sonic. It's really rare for costumers to clean up after themselves, let alone cleaning up after other people's mess."
"No problem. I just like to help, and you can call me Sonic." Sonic shrugged with a soft smile.
"You're so sweet, and have such good behavior. I wish those Thunder Risk Squad took your example of being a role model." The florist smiled warmly earning an embarrassed chuckle and a blush from the hero of Mobius.
"I-I'm not the only one who has good behavior and I'm no good in being a role model either." He replied, sheepishly. "My friends are probably just as sweet and kind and behaved as me."
'Well, maybe Knuckles could use some work with his head and temper, but still...The guy has a good heart.' The blue hedgehog thought to himself, but didn't say it out loud.
As if on cue, Tails and the others, feeling bad for leaving their friend to clean up, quickly joined in helping Sonic and the floureist to help clean up the mess while some of the other villagers were quite surprised to see this as well even though it was really her job to do so, but the fact that the group were actually volunteering to thelp made them feel quite positive with their well-meaning behavior and benevolent hearts.
"Even though it is the job for the cleaners, I'm surprised that Sonic and those other young people even offer to help." A mother Bandicoot remarked, smiling.
"That's what I call the true meaning of role models." A male Hippo smirked with a nod.
"I wish that Thunder Tenrec and his crew learned from them." Said a male cat, shaking his head in sheer annoyance. "That Tenrec is arrogant, self-centered, brash, and takes everything for granted! He probably doesn't even care that he'll hurt himself and his friends one day!"
What that cat didn't even realize was that Sonic, busy finishing up with the cleaning, mentally flinched while managing to avoid in doing so physically. His stomach twisted and turned uncomfortably and his heart sank faster than he would like a rock and even though the cat was talking about Thunder which he couldn't blame him for the guy's rude behavior, the blue hedgehog felt as though it were directed right at him like a knife stabbing him several times.
Arrogant, self-centered, brash, taking everything for granted...Everything including being far too impatient for his own good that Sonic the Hedgehog never even realized until now was what he was. He had a lot of confidence, yes, and he cared deeply for his friends and for the world...but his attitude got him into all kinds of trouble. Last night's nightmare seemingly decided to cruelly remind him of that.
After helping clean up, Sonic and his friends continued along the way while discussing on what just transferred.
"I can't believe those creeps would just misbehave terribly and then leave the trash in front of a beautiful flower shop in such a mess!" Amy grunted with her cheeks puffed up, grumbling away. "Didn't they learn anything about manners?"
"Not Thunder Tenrec." Manny sighed, knowingly, his hands behind his head.
"He's always been like that. I'm surprised he and his friends came back from Summer Camp at the mainland." Kairi shook her head, while wishing for the Thunder Risk Squad to stop making silly and dangerous stunts.
"They probably got kicked out early this year." Sophia pointed out with a sigh. "Those guys are more for playing around than anything else."
"Even though Sonic did take risks at lot, even he's careful and helps out people more than fooling around all the time." Knuckles stated, shrugging a little sheepishly as he realized that, all this time and he had questioned his younger friend's actions throughout the years. "Took me this long to finally figure it out."
"Yeah, and he doesn't play around with food or stuff like that." Tails nodded in agreement smiling, turning to his still troubled big brother. "Right?"
"Uh...Yeah, right. You know me, I've always done my best to be a nice guy." The blue hedgehog in question, trying not to let the words from his dreams or back at the restaurants get to him, shrugged with a fake smile.
Again, his friends began to notice how he seemed to be quite off today, which they saw but didn't get the chance to speak to him about what was wrong when Thunder's group made such a loud commotion.
"Hey, you doing okay?" Sun asked, worriedly as he and the others slowed to a stop.
Sonic paused while remaining silent for a little bit and, not feeling too good right now, decided that he needed to clear his head until he was ready to talk about his inner turmoil. He didn't want to worry his friends and family, especially out in the public. The words of what the other villagers said rang in his mind.
"...I'm surprised that Sonic and those other young people even offer to help." A mother Bandicoot remarked, smiling.
"That's what I call the true meaning of role models." A male Hippo smirked with a nod.
"I wish that Thunder Tenrec and his crew learn from them." Said a male cat, shaking his head in sheer annoyance. "That Tenrec is arrogant, self-centered, brash, and takes everything for granted! He probably doesn't even care that he'll hurt himself and his friends one day!"
"I'm okay. I...I'm gonna go for a run. I'll meet you guys at Gaiver's house." Sonic announced and promised, before waving a goodbye and dashed off while careful not to go too fast and knock anything over, leaving his friends confused and worried for his well-fare.
Tails and the others all shared concerned glances as they all began to wonder what has gotten their heroic and seemingly recovering friend in such a sad mood today. Something must be up, and they all equally hoped that they can fix it or it wasn't as bad as they feared.
Meanwhile, at the beach, Thunder and his friends including Nicko, were all fooling around playing with dangerous stunts such. They were playing with a circus cannon from out of nowhere and...shooting themselves into trash cans, to which the Fennec girl was about to have her turn when the Badger had gone a bit too far and crash landed into the ground while creating a shallow hole shaped like him.
"Ooh! Burn! That's gotta take a few points off of that baby." Thunder winced with slight sympathy at first, before he shrugged with a smirk nonchalantly. "Ah well, he'll be fine. Ready, Alex?"
"Definitely ready." Alex the Fennec smirked confidently.
"Great! Start firin', Nicky!" The Tenrec grinned, and Nicko smirked back, ready to push the button as the leader of the Thunder Risk Squad began the countdown when...
"Hey, guys! You should check this out!" The Badger, a bit scathed, but otherwise okay, hurried over excitedly, causing his other four friends to pause and look at him. "You won't believe what I just found! Up in that cave over there!"
"What cave?" The Wolf asked, skeptically with a raised eyebrow.
Five minutes later...
The group of mischief makers(1) followed the Badger into the cave he crash landed into and, having been curious about it, discovered something he knew he should show off his friends. Fortunately, Alex was known for being a good ancient translator.
"So, what's with all of these scribbles? Do they say anything good?" Nicko asked, curiously with a shrug.
"Hmmm..." The young Fennec murmured thoughtfully, before reading the ancient transcription and translated aloud. "Beware of the Mind-Controlling Device Suit, or all shall fall to the corruption."
"What does THAT mean?" The Armadillo asked, dumbfounded. The other boys didn't seem to have any sort of clue either.
"Whoa!" Thunder's voice echoed, causing his friends to turn their gaze as he spotted something slumped against the wall. "Check this cool mech out!"
Alex, Nicko, the Badger and the Wolf hurried over to see what their friend as found. To their interest and amazement, it appeared to be some sort of mech suit of ancient technology of some kind, fitted to have anybody sit and control it.
"Dude, it's just an old broken mech suit. What's so cool about this piece of junk?" The Wolf deadpanned with a sweat drop.
"Hey, this ain't any old suit. It looks just like me!" Thunder pointed out excitedly with a chuckle, getting up close and personal. Then without thinking, the teenage Tenrec climbs into the suit and makes himself comfortable within it. To his and everyone else's surprise it powered up the moment he was in and as though thinking about it, it stood up with him at the controls. "Oh, nice! I gotta hand it to the old ancient boring guys, this baby is a swag!"
"Interesting. It seems to be powered by whoever sits in it with very impressive touch-technology." Alex said thoughtfully, before suggesting. "I think I should test this out."
"Sounds good to me. Let's take this thing home!" Thunder declared, cackling away in excitement. "Imagine all of the fun stuff we can do with this thing!"
"Yeah, everybody would wanna come try this thing out and then some!" The Badger exclaimed in agreement, grinning away.
But as the group of reckless teens cheered on before heading out of the cave, none of them were fully aware that the Tenrec felt a little bit dazed and his eyes were seemingly glowing in red...along with the suit. This was just the beginning of several problems that were about to be made.
Finding himself along away from the village, Sonic sighed as he slowed down once he was alone to think, and try and figure out how to fix it. The blue hedgehog felt bad for not telling them about his problem, but he didn't want to worry the others about his issues. He walked along the shores of the beach, gaze low, heart aching, guilt eating at his soul, his thoughts onto his dreams as well as everything he has been through.
The fifteen year old remembered the times when he had been a bad example of being a hero: Taunting Eggman and his robots in childish ways, playing along in battles, even against Knuckles during their misunderstood matches, making quite a few bad comments at the Iron Empire and other evil villains that could've gotten him killed if it weren't for his friends, not being able to swim, causing mistakes before things could get even better, not thinking straight of preventing his enemies from making things worse...
"Maybe I'm just not fit to be a hero after all." Sonic whispered to himself, somberly. "Knuckles is right. All I've ever done was play around and not take things really seriously when I should've." He then sighed after stopping, and placed a hand to his head. "What kind of person does that when they're supposed to help other people without messing things up? Some role model I make."
Tears threatened to form and spill from his eyes, the traumatized cobalt hero sniffled.
"Guess I've...been making a heck of a lot of bad examples all along. I ended up like Dad, being a soldier but untrained, unemployed, having too much fun...and...and messing up a whole lot." The blue hedgehog muttered to himself, gaze low, emotionally in pain, a full realization that hit him so hard that he was right back to square one like he had been four and a half months ago.
Throat feeling hot with the rawness, Sonic felt miserable and thankful that there was nobody else around, the blue hedgehog gave out a solemn sigh walked a bit further away from the shores and sat on the ground leaning against a tree with a somber look on his muzzle, and a broken heart of pure realization, silently beginning to cry but managed to stop himself from doing so. "I keep getting everybody I love hurt, no matter how hard I try to protect them...I'm the worst Mobian on the planet..."
Now feeling miserable and thankful that there was nobody else around, the blue hedgehog gave out a solemn sigh, hugging his knees while gazing up at the clouds, watching them drift by slowly, peacefully and not a single sign of a storm coming which was one good thing about today. He felt terrible.
Sniffling, Sonic wiped away his tears as his self-ridden guilt began to increase. Even though Eggman was gone, and the teenage hero had always been so pure of goodness that he refused to kill even his worst enemies, sometimes he had to wonder if in order to prevent anything terrible happening that was out of his control, he would have...
Open up his heart to the darkness a little bit.
Though the instant he thought of that, the blue hedgehog quickly shook his head to rid of that thought. Everybody counted on him, and he hated the idea of letting other people down, whether they were his closest friends and family, or strangers who have their own families to take care of, and the whole world itself for that matter. Plus he didn't like the idea of going down the dark path of killing anyone. Destroying robots, yeah. Defeating monsters made out of darkness, or the Black Arms, awful as the blue hedgehog felt for ending life but they were pure evil, so, yeah. But life that still had some good and were not pure monsters?
Absolutely not.
"Man, that nightmare really did a number on me. Maybe I should take some role model lessons or something. Or the next time Tobrokin attacks I send him straight to jail so he doesn't end up really becoming the new Eggman."
The latter idea seemed more of an appealing idea than learning how to be a role model. Plus, who really did teach that sort of stuff, anyway?
"Maybe I should tell the others. I mean, sure I'm not always the best guy when it comes to my attitude...Not to mention sometimes I...I can be pretty arrogant, brash, self-centered, taking everything for granted when I didn't mean to." Sonic sighed, rubbing his head, feeling so guilty that his heart ached over his cockiness a lot of times before.
As the sad young cobalt teen sat there, he hadn't even realized that a shadow loomed over him nor did he sense any kind of danger from the newcomer.
"And what makes you think you are arrogant, self-centered, brash and selfish, young hedgehog?" An unfamiliar voice, deep, a bit suspicious and creepy, but none the less wise.
"Huh?" Sonic blinked, startled before looking up to his right and saw a Mobian Panda wearing some kind of robe caped around his shoulders, a wooden stick with topaz coloured eyes. The blue hedgehog leaned back a little, surprised. "Whoa! Uh...Hi there. Who are you?"
The Panda chuckled that creeped the fifteen year old out, but made no attempts to attack and held a soft smile. "I am but just a wanderer of this island. You may call me Pan. I know that you're Sonic the Hedgehog, the world re-own hero of Mobius."
"Um...pleasure to meetcha, Pan." The hero of Mobius greeted nervously while trying to hide it. He then sighed and shrugged. "Sorry, it's just, well, things had been pretty crazy lately. Sonic looked away, somber once more. "I've tried to make up my mistakes in the past, keep moving forward and never look back, but a nightmare last night had it catch up to me. I keep putting my friends in danger."
"They are in more danger if you are not there to protect them." Pan, the Panda, pointed out with a frown, as though not understanding why the azure hedgehog was doubting himself.
"Hmmm...You got a point." Sonic sighed, admitting as he didn't make any attempts to hide his shame. "I never even realized how much I took everything for granted, or the fact that I've been acting like a jerk. But at the same time, I didn't want to be a killer. I fought Eggman and other evil villains to protect the world, but I never asked to be a hero. Before he showed up, I just wanted to have real friends, and to see the world. But a lot of times in the past, I fight just for fun, my pride causes more harm than anything else...What kind of hero...does that make me?"
"That is where you are wrong, child." Pan informed him, shaking his head. He continued boldly. "Your past makes you who you are. Your desire for friends and adventure are what makes your heart pure. You wished to meet new people to share you life with, and travel to places to see and learn of different cultures, and upon realizing what Dr. Eggman intended to do to the world, you did not want all of that to change, and as far as I can see, you did not wish to see others get hurt or killed or even enslaved by that madman."
When Sonic didn't respond, Pan added. "And upon meeting your friends, you wished to keep them safe from danger, while acknowledging of their own lifestyles, helped them grow into the people because of your friendship within them, and they in turn helped you understand life even more. You are noble and always risk your life to save our planet. Even heroes make mistakes, but they can only learn from them by doing what they believe they should."
Sonic was quite surprised to hear this coming from a stranger he hardly knew and just met, but acted as though the guy knew him for his whole life and such...the words held a strong meaning. He began to remember all of the good times he shared with his friends, and the good things he did throughout the years, and the good deeds he did while worrying about them, yet always remaining positive to himself and to those who deserve more credit than he ever did.
'Everything we all did together...Even before I realized how reckless I could be...' Sonic thought to himself, his eyes mentally widening as he remembered now:
He'd encourage and protect Tails who had a heart of gold, and was brave, kind, smart and fun, using his skills of machinery which helped out quite a lot. Amy was brave and determined, Sonic would do anything to keep her safe. Knuckles, for all of his gullibility, was noble and loyal to fault. Cream was a sweetheart and Cheese was cute, both of them being the light that shone everybody's day. Chris Thorndyke, while a human, was brave and caring himself, helping out a lot.
Long before the crisis with Dark Gaia happened, and while Sonic did do some reckless things, and childish moments, from the beginning of his life as a hero, he cared more about others than himself, yet was still able to be himself and not once were there too much problems. Most of those taunts were towards his enemies, especially Eggman who only cared about himself. The blue hedgehog fought him to prevent the evil scientist from hurting others, but never had the heart to be a killer.
Even now, he still longed to protect and be with the people he loved while having his private moments from time to time, having fun by going on adventures, helping out people who were in trouble or needed help, supporting and caring for those who are sad and need comfort. The cobalt Mobian wasn't a perfect person...but that never fazed him before.
'Even Chip knew that too...Because...' His thoughts continued as a memory of what his dear friend said to him before their and Sun's arrival at Eggman's Eggmanland Theme Park base.
"Because you love the planet so much, you've taken the responsibility of protecting it from evil solely onto your shoulders. Your love for the world and it's people is so strong that you have taken upon yourself to be it's guardian, it's protector, it's savior, it's defender. The hero of all Mobius."
Smiling as Sonic realized the truth now, and that the nightmares just made him forget that, he began to feel better before nodding.
"Guess I forgot that, no thanks to the Eggman nightmare. I just hate letting other people down or them and my family and friends getting hurt." Sonic finally responded, feeling his heart begin to ease a little.
Pan was satisfied with the hedgehog's honest response, and nodded in approval. "Remember, Sonic, memories can form into nightmares, as do our fears. But you are not alone, and never question your heart. You're still young, so live your life to it's fullest with the ones you truly love. They will always be there for you, as you are there for them, especially deep within your heart."
"Right, you got it." Sonic nodded, now starting to feel better, and looked up with a smile. "Thanks for the advice Paaaaa...Huh?"
He blinked in surprise to find that Pan the Panda suddenly wasn't there, as though he just disappeared. Where'd he go? Did Sonic just...imagine some guy who was talking sense into him? Had the blue hedgehog been hallucinating? But, how was it possible? The teenage hero swore he'd never seen him before or else he would've known because of hallucinations with Chip and the Werehog nearly three months ago.
"That's weird. Was I talking to a ghost or somethin'?" The hero of Mobius raised an eye-ridge.
Suddenly before he could question this even further, he could hear the distant loud screams coming from the village which made the cobalt hedgehog softly gasp and spun around to see where it was coming from. Narrowing his eyes as he sensed that something was wrong, Sonic stood and quickly sped into action with all thoughts of his nightmare as well as deciding to worry about the weirdness of either talking to a hallucination, or a ghost later.
By the time he arrived back at the village, Sonic heard Tails call out his name which made the teenage Mobian turn to see his little brother, along with a frantic Amy, the concerned Knuckles and Sun, and the deeply worried Manny, Star, Kairi and Sophia, all of them racing towards the blue hedgehog.
Seeing them like this instantly told Sonic that something bad was happening.
"Guys? What's goin' on?" He asked. One thing the blue hedgehog did know, however, was that Pan was right, and judging by his friends' expressions he had to keep on following what his heart told him.
"We just heard the loud screaming and yelling and machine parts!" Star exclaimed, worriedly.
"And I think I know the answer to that one." Sun murmured when he looked ahead to see what was going on with a sheer annoyed expression.
When Sonic and the rest of the group looked to see what was going on, their eyes widened in shock and disbelief to see the Thunder Risk Squad all standing by with a young kind Wolf having accidentally thrown a volleyball at, strangely enough, Thunder Tenrec in a weird looking mech suit, only for the now agressive tenrec to deflate the ball and was about to grab hold of the poor guy in the robot's hand.
"What is that!?" Amy exclaimed, unable to believe what she was seeing.
"It looks...like some kind of ancient mech suit. But I don't understand where it came from or why that guy is controlling it!" Tails said worriedly. Not to mention he was more than a little scared, but he tried his best to shove down the fear.
Seeing how the innocent wolf was about to get caught with Thunder's intentions to thrust him onto the ground, much to everyone's horror, Sonic hissed angrily while clutching his fist that people were getting hurt because of one selfish guy, before he immediately took action and raced over to stop him. The blue hedgehog snatched the wolf away into his arms and stopped just in front of the library.
"Are you okay?" The cobalt speedster asked instantly, concerned.
"Uh, y-yeah. Thanks, Sonic." The wolf, named Wolfie, nodded shakily as the hero of Mobius gently set him down.
"Stay here. I got a feelin' that guy's suit is more trouble than it looks." Sonic firmly instructed which earned him a terrified but understanding nod, before the fifteen year old glared back up at Thunder who, having seen him, growled aggressively.
But what caught Sonic off-guard was how the guy's eyes were glowing red: Earlier when he first saw him in the Meh Burger, his eyes were ocean blue. Not like now. Plus the way how the suit was giving off the terrifying red aura which made the hedgehog's insides squirm like worms wriggling through his entire body, he knew in that instant that something was wrong, and judging by the Tenrec's twice as reckless friends, they seemed to notice as well. Pushing that thought aside, he quickly sped over and stood before the suited Tenrec with a frown.
"I don't know what this is all about, but you're really pushing it too far, buddy!" Sonic began angrily, as Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Sun, Star, Manny, Kairi and Sophia quickly joined him with glares of their own while also noticing the redness in the tenrec's eyes.
"Hey, look who's still in town: Sonic the Hedgehog! The second most awesomest guy on the planet!" Thunder mockingly announced upon noticing the blue hedgehog, prompting his friends to grin in amusement...except for Nicky "Nicko" the Armadillo, who's eyes sparkled in excitement.
"No way! THE Sonic himself!? Oh man, oh man, oh man! The hero's still here! This is so cool!" The purple Armadillo jumped up and down excitedly like a squealing teenage girl or a five year old boy who was getting excited for a new expensive toy. He then leaned over to the hedgehog and held a note book that was cobalt blue, and the top of it was shaped like Sonic's quills, and a Sonic-themed pen. "Can I get your autograph!? Please please please please pleeeeeeeaaaase!"
"Whoa, whoa! Slow down there, big guy!" Sonic held up his hands, sweat dropping over the guy's overly enthusiasm as he wondered if the Armadillo was really as dimwitted when he was on Thunder's side. "I'd be happy to sign up, but could you calm down just a little bit, please? Gotta figure out what's wrong with your friend here, first."
"Oh, Thunder?" Nicko blinked, before surprisingly getting the picture and turned around before wincing and shrugged. "Yeeeeeaaaah, me, Alex, Marco and Blake noticed he's been acting totally weird since he got that new cool suit."
"Hmmm...You know what? I think you're right, 'cause I don't like how that suit's lookin' and the fact that his eyes are red is creepy." Sonic conceded after a moment, before glaring back up at the Tenrec. "Especially when you're randomly attacking people like that. I heard that you and your friends are reckless and trouble, but this is taking it way too far!"
"Pfft! Please, I'm the awesomest and the number one skilled guy on the planet!" Thunder scoffed, not believing it for a second with a cold tone that indicated he didn't care about other people's well being.
To his shock and surprise, Alex frowned deeply and examined the suit before her eyes widened in realization. "I think this is what the ancient moral was talking about. That suit may hold some kind of symbiont technology which takes over the host. That's why you're acting very aggressive since we found it a few hours ago."
"Wow, I can't believe it." The Tenrec grunted, narrowing his eyes at his own friends in growing disgust.
"You found that weird robot suit?" Manny asked, incredulously.
"And...taking over the host? How does that work?" Sun blinked, dumbfounded.
"Symbiont technology...it must be a very powerful A.I from ancient people she's talking about." Tails realized after thinking about what Alex just said, quickly becoming scared. "I'm not sure how or where they found it, but it must be more advanced than even Eggman's tech."
The group all gasped in horror, as Sonic then thought back to the times when mind control came into play: Eggman's mind control weapon created to suck dry the Wisps for the Hyper-Go-Ons, and the Scepter of illusions in Tesrod Village.
Oh, Chaos! Not this again! Sonic's heart dropped into his stomach over the terrifying memories: Tails being briefly taken over, the people of Tesrod Village hypnotized like zombies, all looking lifeless in the eyes...The knowledge of this evil suit created by twisted ancient people in the past made the blue hedgehog and, judging by the shaking of his little brother's sweet, beautiful blue pupils, now understand this was one more reason for the evil scientist to not be alive anymore. Both brothers could only imagine if Eggman got his hands on it, if not taken over to become worse himself.
'Oh...man...It'll be like...like my nightmares ten times as worse!' Sonic thought to himself, trying to fight off the urge to whimper and now knew, without a doubt, he had to save Thunder Tenrec and break him free from the mind control before he would end up suffering the same fate as Eggman, Julius, Kaiser and Julian.
He didn't want a reckless but not evil Mobian's death on his conscious.
"No, I mean I can't believe the four of you call yourselves my friends." Thunder growled darkly, shocking his group as well as the heroes. "You've always been for safety which is why we don't always get to do all the fun, and yet you sided with those goody goodies to take my suit away!"
"Wait, that thing is brain-washing you! You gotta get out of it!" Sonic cried out warningly.
"NO! Nobody's going to take my suit away, you blue twerp! None of you twerps will!" The increasingly corrupted Mobian snarled furiously, ignoring his 'former friends' protests to stop.
"Okay...In retrospect, finding that suit was one of the worst ideas ever." The wolf, who was Marco, muttered with slight concern.
"That's just great. An ancient weaponized suit and that idiotic tenrec gets himself possessed!" Knuckles grunted in deep worry.
'Thunder...You're even more arrogant, self-centered, brash and selfish than me, but that suit is only making you worse.' The blue hedgehog thought, fearing that unless they found a way to get the suit away from Thunder, the tenrec was only going to cause more harm. If not become unwittingly evil.
"C'mon, guys! We gotta think of something quick before Thunder uses that suit to hurt people!" Sonic, with strong determination, informed his friends who all nodded in agreement.
Unbeknownst to the two groups, Argo, Hexbot and Elbot were listening in from around the corner and the mad inventor gazed at how strong the mech was with Thunder inside it.
"What a marvelous creation! Did you see how that reckless tenrec is causing havoc for that hedgehog and his friends?" Tobrokin whispered, snickering as he rubbed his hands before turning to his two robots. "If I can formate a plan to trick Thunder into forming a partnership to hold the Mayor for ransom, I'll figure out how to steal that suit so I can have the power to drive everybody out and build my theme park!"
But the two robots weren't too keen on the idea as Hexbot gulped, both of them flinching in fright. "I don't think that's the greatest idea, boss."
"And why not?" The thief asked, skeptically with his hands on his hips.
"Because Thunder has heard everything you just said and Sonic and his friends and those other guys are right there!" Hexbot exclaimed, pointing behind his creator while Elbot nearly broke apart in panic.
Jumping in fright over this when he heard Thunder clear his throat, Tobrokin whirled around quickly and flinched when the Tenrec loomed over him, and Sonic's group and the rest of the Risk Squad were stunned to have noticed this, while trying to figure out how to get the Mobian out of the mech suit.
"You're just like all others. A twerp out for my precious suit!" Thunder shouted, his glowing eyes flaring in pure controlled anger, not a single remorse shown as the machine's power was making him cause harm without care.
"No no! I was erm, just testing out my dopey assistants' loyalty! I wanted to see if they thought I was foolish enough to do such a reckless thing!" Tobrokin lied fearfully, before picking up a stick and whacked Hexbot and Elbot on the heads, scolding. "Bad robots!"
That only made the Sonic Heroes, their friends and the Thunder Risk Squad sweat drop incredulously with skeptical and exasperated expressions.
"I'll never understand losers like him." Sun grumbled, getting all weirded out by Tobrokin's childish behavior. 'Man, talk about a big clown and baby.'
"This is sad." Knuckles sighed, silently pleading for this to be a nightmare.
"And totally ridiculous." Sophia sighed in agreement.
Thunder just glared before he shouted and stomped at Tobrokin and his robots who all let out high-pitched girly screams, then ran away for their lives as they quickly fled to the Frog Mobile and flew away. Deciding that chasing after the trio of clowns wasn't worth it, the posessed Thunder spun around just as the mayor and the citizens all gazed in horror while Sonic's group quickly stood in front of them to protect the innocent people.
"Now that one twerp is out of the way, time to deal with the rest." The brain-washed Tenrec chuckled manically, taking one thunderous step as he then snarled at the shocked Mayor. "Today marks a new day, Mr. Mayor. You will pay me a handsome amount of cash or else I will destroy this village! Cough up the dough, or else I will end your miserable lives!"
"Y-Your ridiculous suit doesn't scare me!" The Mayor nervously stuttered, trying to hide his fear despite that he was utterly terrified.
"Is that so?" Thunder grinned evilly in amusement.
Having enough of this and quickly telling his friends to get the citizens to safety, Sonic sped over and stood protectively in front of the mayor while glaring at the tenrec. "I can't let you do this, Thunder!"
"You think you can stop me, you second-ranked twerp?" The tenrec questioned skeptically, raising a fits to crush the blue hedgehog. "You just want my suit to make yourself more powerful than you already are!"
"This isn't about your stupid mech suit, Thunder! It's about people's safety! I don't need a tin-canned costume to make me strong in my heart. I've got something much more important that I'll always try to protect!" Sonic declared bravely, clutching his fist. "Something that you've taken for granted way too much and now you're hurting them without thinking of the consenquences."
"And what is that?"
Sonic smirked, saying with all of his heart while feeling his confidence beginning to return. "My friends, and my family. I love them so much and that'll never change. Even far apart, together in our thoughts we're all a team, and saving the world means a brighter future for everybody in it. Unlike you, I learned from my own mistakes and they were always there for me, because they're just as much of heroes than I am."
"Ha ha ha ha ha!" Thunder just laughed, as though finding this to be ridiculous. "You're even lower ranked if you give others credit, Sonic. In that case, I'll take you out first!"
"Bring it on!"
The possessed Tenrec made the first move, except Sonic quickly moved the shocked Mayor out of the way and carefully placed him to where the other people were, before the blue hedgehog nodded at the beaver and then along with Knuckles and Sun, sped up to fight against Thunder to try and get him out of the suit while Tails, Amy, Manny, Star, Sophia, Kairi, and the rest of the Risk Squad attempted to quickly figure out how to save Thunder and get him out of the suit.
"He makes better speeches and is truthful to them than I am." The Mayor muttered dumbly, feeling a tad jealous of the young teenage hedgehog while stunned that Sonic had also saved his life.
Sonic sped out of the way when Thunder attempted to punch him with the suit's hand, before the former used his Spin Dash to try and knock him over, being so fast that he caused the brain-washed tenrec to cry out in alarm as he stumbled. Furious, the cyan Mobian used the suit's power to fire lasers which forced the blue hedgehog to leap out of the way, just as Sun and Knuckles both made to attack it. However, to the trio's shock, Thunder somehow managed to have the suit to power up a shield which knocked the orange hedgehog and red echidna back, much to Sonic's horror.
"Sun! Knuckles!" The hero of Mobius screamed out, racing over and caught them both into his arms while he ended up leaping and skid onto his back, sliding to a stop on the ground. He hissed at his injury but ignored it with his two friends on top of him, not only build for strength like the guardian. "A-Are you guys, okay?"
"Ugh...That suit has more shields than Buttnik's robots." Sun grunted, panting slightly.
"Yeah, didn't see that one comin'. What's that thing made of?" Knuckles lamented in disbelief while wincing a little. He's going to be feeling a bit bruised in the morning.
Very relieved that they were alright, Sonic and his two friends got up before they leaped back when Thunder attempted to attack again, forcing the trio to head to the bench as Tails' group quickly tried to figure out the machine's blueprints that Alex scanned with her hologram detector earlier.
"This is the suit I managed to scan, and it is brain-washing Thunder's mind. I hate to admit it, but, I never thought this would happen. He isn't the same Thunder that we knew." The Fennec lamented in guilt, as for the first time in her and the others' lives, they were terrified and despite being the Skill Masters, they had no skills in combat what-so-ever.
"Well, it teaches you all a lesson for being so arrogant! This never would've happened if you paid attention to the dangers and ended up in this mess!" Amy scolded heatedly, glaring at the Risk Squad who, shocked when they realized she was right, lowered their gazes as they now feared in losing Thunder.
"We'll worry about scolding these guys later. Right now, we gotta save Thunder." Sonic, who had arrived with Sun and Knuckles, reminded. He then turned to his little brother, asking urgently. "Tails, any idea how to get him out of that thing?"
"According to Alex's blueprints, the shield is on all sides of the suit. But while it's charging it's blaster to the maximum, it draws the reserve power from the shields, momentarily disarming the shields and the symbiont chip is inside the cockpit." Tails explained.
"So we all have to is get into the cockpit and get the chip out, then Thunder will return to normal." Star realized, putting the pieces together and the two-tailed fox cub nodded.
Despite that he didn't want to put them into any further danger, Sonic reminded himself that even with Knuckles and Sun with him, and being confident in handling this himself, he would need all the help he could get and that he had to do his best to keep them safe as well.
"We're gonna need to work on a distraction and then get into the cockpit." Sonic responded, before he and his friends formed a plan. "Tails, Sun, Knux, Ames, you guys are with me. Manny, you, the girls, and Thunder's friends make sure he doesn't get to the villagers."
"Can do, my man!" Manny replied readily.
Nodding as the plan is formed, before the cobalt speedster nodded to his group who returned it, and then he raced back into the battlefield just as Thunder was about to track them down and looked for them. Sonic then let out a whistle to his attention, which worked as the Tenrec turned to see the blue hedgehog smirking confidently at him. Grinning back, the possessed Mobian made to grab him, but Sonic, having an idea, raced away from the village which forced the Tenrec to follow him, unaware that Tails, Amy, Knuckles and Sun followed. Once they were away from the citizens and into the open area, Sonic stopped before turning to face his opponent and raced around Thunder so fast using his legendary speed that the tenrec had trouble keeping up with him as he repeatedly fired the lasers, unknowingly lowering the shield's power.
After repeatedly failing while whirling around to try and catch Sonic in the opened firing line or grabbing him with the mech's hands, Thunder began to get so dizzy with imaginary stars and flickies circling around his head. This allowed the fifteen year old's friends to use this to the advantage.
Both Knuckles and Sun charged with battle cries, the echidna using his powerful punches to smash one of the arms, while the orange hedgehog used a Spin Dash, damaging the other. Once Sonic was out of the way, Tails used a Spin Dash himself to bash the robot back, Amy hitting it repeatedly with her Piko Piko Hammer, and the blue hedgehog himself successfully giving it several kicks on the head.
"Gah! Stop it, you twerps! You're ruining my suit!" Thunder screamed furiously, attempting to grab them again, but because it was damaged due to the shields being down, he was in more trouble than he anticipated.
"Time to wrap this up!" Sonic declared after he and the others landed. Without allowing the robot to recover, the hero of Mobius chuckled with a confident smirk, feeling like his old self again without realizing it. "Tails?"
"Got it!" Tails nodded in relief and confidence, grabbing hold of his big brother's arms and flew up into the sky, before they both soared towards the suit, both of them landing into the cockpit. While Sonic forced the squirming Thunder down with some slight struggle, the nine year old kit quickly scanned the suit's cockpit and then found he was looking for.
Tails reached into the slot and pulled out some sort of chip which powered down the machine, disabling it and mech suit's energy dying out. This resulted in Thunder to stop squirming and his eyes returning to normal, slumping before blinking in confusion.
"Thunder, are you okay?" Sonic asked, worriedly, loosening his grip on the Tenrec's shoulders but still held him in place just in case.
"Ugh...W-what? What happened?" Thunder groaned, dazed as he held a hand to his head. "I couldn't think straight. Nothing made sense."
"The suit's power was brain-washing you into doing all sorts of crazy things." The blue hedgehog explained, relaxing in relief once he and his best friend/little brother knew that the Tenrec was back to normal.
"But you don't have to worry about that anymore." Tails reassured, before tossing the chip to the ground where Amy, nodding as she understood what to do, smashed it into pieces with her Hammer.
"Wait, I was...brain-washed by this suit?" The confused tenrec blinked, before lowering his gaze thoughtfully. "How come I don't remember?"
"Um...Sometimes that sort of thing can't be remembered. Let's just leave it that." Sonic replied, a little uneasily as he and Tails shared concerned looks.
"I don't know what came over me. All I remember was getting into this thing and then...everything was a blur. It was weird, cold and creepy, like I was someplace else stuck and I couldn't get out." Thunder shuddered over that, unable to hide the fact that for the first time in his life, he'd been terrified.
"It's gonna be alright, pal. It's all over. But next time, don't touch things that are old and ancient. 'Cause you never know that they might cause more damage than anything else." Sonic smiled softly, before frowning firmly. "And take my advice, Thunder: Don't take your friends for granted. You can replace stuff like suits, but you can't replace the people in your life. Got it?"
Shocked and, beginning to realize that he hadn't even thought of that or even thinking about losing his own friends, for the first time in his life, he felt guilty for having done so. With a sigh, Thunder nodded before blinking in surprise when the blue hedgehog placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"Remember that, okay? 'Cause even tough guys need help once in awhile." The fifteen year old added, smiling softly again, and surprisingly, earned a soft smile in return as the other teenage Mobian nodded.
The two then gently held each other's hands for Sonic and Tails to help Thunder out of the mech suit, and symbolized surprisingly deep gratitude from the tenrec.
By the time Sonic, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Sun and Thunder reunited with the others in the village after destroying the suit completely just to make sure something like what occurred today won't happen again in the future, the tenrec was embraced by his friends who to his surprise had been worried about him. Remembering little yet knowing he caused a lot more trouble than he intended, the guilt-ridden teenage tenrec apologized and, taking the blue hedgehog's advice, decided to be a little more careful from now on.
Sonic in the meantime smiled happily upon seeing this along with his best friends and family. For the first time in ages, he felt his heart fully healed and he smiled in relief. Despite that he knew Argo would come back to be the main problem in the near future, nobody was seriously hurt even though he felt guilty for the Thunder Risk Squad having caused trouble by finding the suit, and no buildings were that damaged...
The day was saved again.
"All in the day's work." The hero of Mobius grinned, before turning to the crowd who glared at the Thunder Risk Squad, but calmed down when Sonic turned his attention to them.
"Is everybody alright?" Sonic asked almost immediately after praising and thanking Tails, Amy, Knuckles and Sun who either beamed with smiles, or just nodded with smirks, looking glad that he seemed to have gotten over whatever had upset him earlier. In a way, he was glad too.
That talk with...Pan the Panda the ghost, hallucination or whatever he was, actually seemed to help for some reason. Whoever that guy was, Sonic hoped he would see him again so he could thank him for helping him get back to his feet.
To his relief most of the crowd responded that they were all safe and cheered on happily for the group's heroic deeds.
"Thank goodness you and your friends have saved us all, Sonic! You truly are heroes!" The Walrus mother from earlier said happily, and her baby happily clapped excitedly.
"We cannot thank you enough, Sonic." The mother Bandicoot added, warmly.
As the praises from most of the people went on, which not only made Sonic's group either relieved, bashful or just simply happy, but it soothed and healed the blue hedgehog's heart as he felt all negativity from his doubts, fears and the troubles of his nightmare fade away. No one hated him or the people he loved.
"It was nothin'. Plus, it was all about the great effort in teamwork." Sonic shrugged, carefully pulling his friends to surrounding, adding with a warm, bright and happy smile. "And awesome friends and family, too. I mean, they deserve more credit than me. We all have different skills and personality, but those only bring us closer together, and spending a lot of time together, helping others, saving the world and even when we're not together physically, we're with each other in spirit...and in our hearts."
"Aw, Sonic..." Tails blushed, feeling embarrassed yet happy over his best friend/big brother's compliment and relieved that the azure hedgehog was bright and cheerful again.
"Sonic, that is one of the most sweetest things I've ever heard." Amy beamed happily, her eyes twinkling as her love for her 'boyfriend' surged through the roof and then some.
"Thanks, buddy." Knuckles whispered, though a little embarrassed but decided that, after what his younger friend had been through, decided to give the blue hedgehog his wordful gratitude and push back his pride. Just this once.
"Thanks, bro." Sun added.
"That's so sweet." Star muttered happily.
"Love that way of thinkin', dude." Manny grinned with a wink.
"I agree." Kairi nodded.
"Me too!" Sophia waved her hand happily.
"You're the best thing that's ever happened to us, big bro, and we love you." The two-tailed fox said, melting not just his older brother's heart, but the hearts of everybody else too as the rest of the group nodded in agreement.
It almost brought Sonic to tears as he said. "Thanks, li'l bro. I love you guys too." They all then shared(despite that Knuckles felt embarrassed by it) a group hug with laughter and joy.
"Awwwwww..." Most of the group cooed, some of them looking very emotional and one beaver guy ended up bawling his eyes out, and the kids smiled happily at just how close their heroes were to each other like a family that even the younsters shared a glance before happily having a group hug of them own.
Even the Thunder Risk Squad were amazed at how the confident, cocky, brave, adventure-loving and speedy hero could have such a soft side that was rarely seen even in public before the tenrec and his friends shared sympathetic, and realized expressions that this was what they took for granted for each other: Their friendship over dangerous fun until today. If it hadn't been for Sonic and his group, they would have been killed.
An hour later, the Sonic Heroes and their friends helped to clean up the mess and to their surprise, the remorseful Thunder Risk Squad did the same to make up for their wrong-doings, especially Thunder, though nothing changed for them as they still planned on having reckless fun along the way.
While everyone felt nervous for Tobrokin's next attack, Sonic was confident to get him arrested next time should he attack again, not wanting to make the same mistakes with Eggman.
During that time, Sonic confessed to his friends on why he felt down today, and the unusual conversation with a ghost.
"So that's why weren't feeling alright besides the lack of sleep." Tails realized, his heart aching as did the hearts of the others once Sonic had finished.
"Yeah. Today kinda came too close for comfort." The blue hedgehog nodded, sighing while scratching the top of his head. "I mean, sure I liked danger in the past and I know that even I can be arrogant, and self-centred a lot of times. Not to mention for not really realizing the dangers."
Sonic closed his eyes before opening them again, and deeply responded with his heart. "I'm really sorry for not telling you guys sooner."
Now knowing how the hedgehog's nightmare almost brought him back to his depression and misguided guilt, all of his friends shared concerned glances, before Knuckles, of all people, placed a comforting hand onto the younger teen's shoulder, causing Sonic to gaze up at him in surprise.
"Nightmares are unpredictable, Sonic. Sometimes they do bring back bad memories and make us feel down, but that doesn't mean you can't turn to others for support or remember the good memories and the lessons you learned, right? You taught me that a long time ago." The red echidna responded, smiling warmly at his younger friend. "It's okay that you were worried about not telling us, but don't forget that we're here for you."
"Knuckles' right, Sonic." Amy said warmly, coming over and actually giving the cobalt teenager a soft and very comforting hug with a soft purr. "Whenever you feel down, don't hesitate to seek comfort from us, okay?"
"We knew something was wrong, but we want to help you out, big bro. Just like you have done for us." Tails added in agreement, joinining to give Sonic a loving hug and wanting to give out all of his heart to his older sibling.
Sun, Star, and even Manny, Kairi and Sophia gave their own agreements, melting Sonic's heart even further as he knew from there on then, he was never alone. He vowed from that point on to never take his friends or life for granted, because life of an adventure was more fun knowing that he can come home to them, or they would share adventures together, or just hang out relaxing reflecting the good times and look forward for the future.
"Aw, guys...You're the best." Sonic, nearly brought to tears, replied emotionally, and happily declared. "C'mon, let's have another group hug, just for the heck of it!"
While the Guardian of the Master Emerald felt embarrassed by it, and Sun blushed sheepishly, even they joined on as the rest of the group of friends all laughed and cheered, their bond closer than ever and Sonic the Hedgehog's doubts and fears were blown away, replaced by his positive feelings and attitude as he would continue his life as the hero of Mobius, not as a role model, but as for who he really is with the best friends and family he could ever dream of.
It made him realize that he had been wrong: Sonic was never as arrogant, self-centered, or brash as he thought he was, nothing like Thunder Tenrec. For years, the blue hedgehog cherished his life and his friends and family, always cared for them, having been worried for their safeties when it would be too much for them, the good things they shared, the comfort, the victories, reunions, and even now he realized that he wasn't as reckless as he thought he was.
This was the lesson he would always remember and now he was finally and fully recovered from his negative traumas.
Unbeknownst to Sonic and his friends, they were being watched through a magical large orb viewing from another dimension of stars, twilight and crumbling continents of other worlds floating about, by a colossal, Dark Gaia-sized giant panda with glowing cyan eyes that had no pupils, a cyan-glowing symbol glowing in the middle of his chest, silver crystal like cuffs on his wrists, and a belt around his waist.
Beside him was a tall lavender hedgehog who strongly resembled to Staria Amantha, only she had long hair down to her lower back, wearing a long, beautiful glittering white gown and high-heeled shoes, and was floating with a magical staff giving her the power to levitate: This was Amaris, Star's biological older sister and the heir to the Twilight Cage throne.
"EXCELLENT. THE BLUE CHILD NO LONGER HOLDS ANY NEGATIVITY. JUST AS I PREDICTED, FROM THE BROTHER OF THE COSMOS SAPPHIRES' CHOSEN ONE." The giant panda grinned, utterly pleased with the results.
"Yes, Sonic the Hedgehog no longer bears the fears of the nightmare you created for him that night." Amaris nodded in agreement, before frowning in disappointment and hint of annoyance. "But Master Marcus, you broke a few of your own rules: You gave Sonic the nightmare to test him, you approached him under the disguise of Pan the Panda, and then you observed him through this trial to see if he can accomplish this or not without him or Sun the Hedgehog or my younger sister from ever knowing. Why did you do that?"
Marcus, the master of the Twilight Cage and God of Judgement, snickered in what people would assumement was evil laughter, but in reality it was more of his twisted sense of humor.
"TO TEST THE CHILDREN OF MOBIUS, ONE HAS TO DO SO WITHOUT THEM BREAKING THE RULES THEMSELVES." Marcus grinned before he turned his gaze back to the viewing point, adding cheekily. "ALSO, EVEN A GOD MUST HAVE A SENSE OF HUMOR. I ACTUALLY HOPE FOR OUR CHOSENS AND EVEN SONIC TO COME AND VISIT ONE DAY FOR SOME FUN."
This only caused the Twilight Cage Princess to roll her eyes with exasperation. "You are so arrogant, self-centered and brash, Master."
"ONLY BECAUSE I GET BORED SOMETIMES." The giant Panda shrugged nonchalantly, causing his apprentice to sigh once more.
Sometimes being around the God of Judgement can be a burden.
Sonic's Next Adventure Awaits...
A/N: This took me ages to get right, but with Sonic having unknowingly passed a test, he and his friends uncovering the truth about the platypus, and now he is back to his happy self, what new adventures await for him, only time will tell.
(1) Based on the underrated Nintendo 64 game Mischief Makers.
Marcus is based on Feist from the Sonic Archie Comics, and he will(Spoilers) make his debut in Sun the Hedgehog along with my other new OC character. Here in this universe, he guards the Twilight Cage with some of his personality traits remaining but for a different reason.
The next part will be a one-shot story that I've wanted to get to for this story for ages, which could potentially be the final part of the Seaside Island adventure, or not. We'll see what happens until then(if my computer and fanfiction are still here. -_-;)
See you later!