Sonic in Between.
Author's Note: Struggling to come up with another one-shot story, I finally came up with something that's based on another anime series I still love even to this day...and I'm once again in a giant mood. (Shrugs sheepishly) So, here it is!
Oh, and it's kind of also a Christmas Special as well.
Summary of Story 13-Part 1: *Set three weeks before the events of Sonic's Space-Time Adventure* Things were relatively calm and peaceful following the adventures on Seaside Island. And during a babysitting duty for Cream and Cheese, they, Sonic and Tails recall one of their adventures where they learned that seeing is not always believing.
I don't own Sonic the Hedgehog. All rights belong to Sega. I only own the OCs.
Sonic Tales: A Gigantic Christmas-P1.
It was so nice to be able to finally relax for once, Sonic had thought. It was three weeks since he, Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Sun and Star had their adventures on Seaside Island for nearly a month, and since the arrest of Sir Argo Barry Tobrokin, the hero of Mobius fully believed that things were now so peaceful he can be himself again.
Even though he knew he had to be ready for the next possible dangerous threat of other villains out there waiting to strike, the soon-to-be-sixteen year old felt he and his friends/family can do anything. But for now, it was all calm and yet excitement filled up in everyone. Because his birthday was in two weeks time and Sonic had won a race against Shadow a couple weeks earlier.
But at the moment Sonic and Tails had agreed to babysit Cream and Cheese as Vanilla was called in for a high-school reunion despite that Mobians didn't need to attend as humans do even though some still went regardless. She wouldn't be back into tomorrow morning and right now after the four friends had dinner with Amy also out due to some shopping and other important things and the Chaotix were out on a case, it left the two adoptive brothers to watch over the now seven year old girl and her precious Chao friend who was once again in his best Mobian friend's arms.
"..."And so Jack and his Mother were never poor again, the Kingdom was saved with the Giant now gone, and they all lived happily ever after. The End"." Sonic had just finished reading the story of Jack and the Beanstalk to the young rabbit girl and Cheese sitting by his right with Tails by his other side, all four of them sitting on the couch in the living room in the middle of the night.
"That was such a wonderful story. I'm so glad Mr. Jack and his Mother won't go hungry anymore." Cream said happily, loving it whenever Sonic or Amy tell her and Cheese any kind of stories.
"Chao, chao chao!" Cheese beamed, waving his cute little arms.
"It's always one of my favorite stories, too. Scary at times, but at least they all have happy endings." Tails agreed, and while he was a little too old for fairytales and being a young inventor, but it was nice to read fictional stuff once in a while.
"No doubt about that, and like all stories, we're having our own happily ever after too." Sonic chuckled half-teasingly with a wide grin. It made his younger friends giggle, pleased to see the teenage hedgehog fully back to his normal self.
In fact, they and the rest of their friends have never seen him so happy and full of life in months or even in their whole lives. Almost like the incident with the Dark Gaia crisis never even happened.
"Mr. Sonic?" Cream then asked curiously, earning a puzzled 'Hm?' from her older friend. "Do you think I'll be able to meet Mr. Gaiver? He sounds much nicer than Mr. Julius, and he sounds like he's a real nice giant like those people on that Island they lived on."
At first both Sonic and Tails were confused on what their youngest friend had meant, before the two brothers remembered and shared a surprised smile.
"The Mobalons!" They both chorused in unison.
"I almost forgot about them!" Sonic snapped his fingers in recollection, smiling at the thought as he gazed up at the ceiling. "Man, it feels like forever since we last saw them."
"They sure were scary at first with all of their impressive machines, but they did have their reason." Tails added with a nod. "Remember when we first met them?"
"Sure do. That was an adventure none of us or even Eggman would ever really forget." The hero of Mobius nodded in agreement, smiling as he and his friends thought back to an adventure that took place sometime ago.
Long before the Black Arms showed up.
Several Months ago: Two months before the events of "Shadow the Hedgehog"...
A pleasent warm feeling surged into Sonic's body, heart and soul, as he relaxed reclining on the wings of the X Tornado that took to the skies. Today, the hero of Mobius and his friends, Tails who was piloting of course, Amy who was reading a guidebook, Cream and Cheese who were happily gazing at their surroundings, and surprisingly enough, Knuckles who, protesting at first, reluctantly agreed to join in, were all sailing towards Christmas Island, a beautiful holiday resort to celebrate the best holiday of the year.
Not to mention that they were to meet with Sonic and Tails' parents to celebrate Christmas, while Cream's mother Vanilla went there a day early to set up a 'special' surprise, and the little girl herself decided to join her friends as she agreed to not let the surprise be spoiled.
Along the way, Sonic was singing to himself happily.
"Sonic...!" Knuckles grunted, annoyed with the fifteen year old's singing. "Can't you just sing in your head?"
"What? There's no need to be Mr. Grumpy. It's Christmas in five days, and I wanna spread out the holiday cheer." The blue hedgehog grinned, opening on eye. "Besides, I know that I'm not a good singer, but at least I do a better job at it than poor Vector."
That, as much as the red echidna hated to admit it, was a good point. "Yeah, well...I would've been a lot more at ease to be guarding the Master Emerald this year."
"You guard that giant magic rock of yours virtually 24/7, Knux. What difference would it make if you stayed there again this year?" Sonic pointed out.
"Nothing wrong with that. That's how I spent Christmas my whole life, until you and Tails gave me the first presents. I appreciate it but...I just feel a little uncomfortable joining the party this year." Knuckles shrugged nonchalantly.
'Geez, talk about a Bah Humbug. He could've at least invited us to bring the party over.' The fifteen year old rolled his eyes, but decided to let it slide and went back to relaxing, snoozing a little.
"Hey, guys." Tails announced, sounding excited. "We'll be at Christmas Island in the next few hours, so it shouldn't be any much longer."
"Sweet! That'll bring in the Christmas Cheer!" Sonic half-teasingly said happily, making Knuckles sweat drop with a deadpanned expression.
"I've always wanted to go to Christmas Island. They say that it has the most beautiful pine trees that is covered in snow during this time of year, and all of the decorations and lights make it even more magical." Amy said happily, placing the guidebook to her chest as she sighed. "Oooh...It will be so romantic."
She then giggled as a happy thought came to mind. 'Especially when me and Sonic will be under the mistletoe, sharing our Christmas Kiss!'
The pink hedgehog couldn't help but imagine being under one of the beautifully decorated trees where she and Sonic would gaze at each other lovingly, a mistletoe hanging just above their heads on one of the branches, snow gently descending from the sky, and the two hedgehogs leaning in close for a wonderful Christmas kiss.
"...Ooooh! A few hours can't pass fast enough!" The twelve year old girl half-shouted in glee, blushing at the thought.
"We'll have lots of fun on Christmas Island. We can build pretty Snowmen, and play catching snowflakes!" Cream remarked happily, gazing at her little Chao. "Doesn't that sound like fun, Cheese?"
"Chao chao, Chao! Chao!" The said Chao chirped.
"Ah, yeah. The annual time playing in the snow. Snowball fights, sliding down slopes, snowboarding, you name it. I love winter, especially around Christmas." Sonic smiled in content over the thoughts of having fun, once again softly singing.
'He's in a fine form of singing today.' Knuckles thought to himself, slumping in dejection. This was going to be a long few days, he just knew it.
Suddenly Amy noticed something on the radar and gasped in shock, quickly getting her friends' attentions as she cried out. "Tails! We got incoming trouble!"
Gasping in shock, Tails and the rest of the group looked over their shoulders, their eyes widening in dismay with the younger Mobians and Cheese screaming. Because as usual chasing after them was none other than Dr. Eggman in his latest Egg Fort 3...or was it 4 or 5? Hard to keep track with how the evil scientist would recyle his own machines and vessels.
"Well, it looks like the Grinch in Egg-Yolk has come out to play." Sonic smirked confidently, standing up as he began preparing himself for another battle. Unwilling to allow his old time enemy to ruin Christmas.
"Just great! Why now of all times?" Knuckles grunted in frustration, getting ready to fight himself.
Within the ship, the evil scientist himself laughed manically. "Oh ho ho ho! We've caught them off-guard! Fire, NOW!"
"Yes, sir!" Decoe and Bocoe, at the controls, quickly had the ship to fire at the X Tornado.
"Hang on!" Tails exclaimed, quickly maneuvering his plane to the side and successfully avoided in getting hit.
He then turned around and opened fire at the remaining missiles, destroying them with ease aided by Sonic who chuckled and used his Homing Attack to bash some away to collide with each other, and Knuckles punched several more, to which the Missiles ended up crashing into the side and bottom of Eggman's ship, much to the mad doctor's dismay as he and his robots all screamed in horror. Amy had also climbed out despite her friends' protests and summoned her Hammer, ready to fight.
"We're here for a Christmas Vacation and we're not gonna let you ruin it, Eggman!" The pink hedgehog snarled angrily, thrusting her weapon with all her might and bashing about at least five missiles back which ended up crashing into the ones Sonic and Knuckles were also knocking away or destroying.
"Get them!" Eggman shouted impatiently, only to have pretty much all of his missiles destroyed by his young enemies who weren't even getting hurt or the X Tornado being damaged at all.
"Yeah, alright!" Amy cheered happily with Tails, Cream and Cheese celebrating despite that the battle wasn't over yet.
"Ha ha! How'd you like that for an early Christmas Present?" Sonic called out mockingly.
"Don't think you can get away that easy, you insufferable rodent!" Eggman growled furiously, pounding his fists onto the dashboard. "Once I'm through with you, this year the holidays will have a brand NEW Christmas Spirit!"
That only made the teenage hedgehog laugh over the lame threat. "Aww...I'm hurt." He pretended to sound really sad, before shrugging nonchalantly. "Ah well, looks like you're gonna be getting a giant stocking of coal this year, 'cause you're seriously on top of Santa's Naughty List, Dr. Egg-Nog."
The comment alone made all of Sonic's friends, even Knuckles surprisingly enough, to burst out laughing.
"Well, time to finish this! Merry Christmas and a Happy Flight to You!" Sonic snickered, before he jumped and with Tails shooting out a Power Ring to him, the blue hedgehog glowed in blue aura, super charged and used the extra boost of his Homing Attack straight towards the Egg Fort.
"GAH! Quick, fire!" Eggman screamed, panicking while Decoe nearly broke apart in terror.
"Too late!" Bocoe exclaimed in dismay, knowing nothing was going to stop Sonic now.
"Uh-oh!" Bokkun gulped, nervously.
Almost instantly Sonic burst straight through the ship, smashing his way to the engine room and destroying everything in his path before coming straight back out and landed neatly onto the X Tornado's wing once again, while the larger airship began to break apart and explode, descending towards an island nobody even noticed yet during the sudden flight battle.
"Oh nooooooo!" The evil scientist screamed, holding for dear life.
"We're going to craaaash!" Decoe and Bocoe screamed, hugging each other as they feared this was the end of them.
"Mayday! Mayday!" Bokkun exclaimed, bawling his eyes out.
"Bye bye!" Sonic gave out a taunting wave, as he and his friends were about to fly away to peacefully continue their journey.
Unfortunately the group then noticed one part of the Egg Fort about to descend straight towards them, making Sonic and his friends gave out shocked and horrified cries of alarm, and before Tails could move the plane out of the way, the piece exploded far too close to them which caused the X Tornado to tilt violently to the side and descending towards the island themselves.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" All six friends screamed while Sonic and Knuckles both tried to hold on, the former quickly taking hold of Amy's hand when she screamed out his name and nearly fell off herself.
Yet the three ended up losing their grip and fell down towards one part of the island below, screaming while Tails, Cream and Cheese were falling dangerously to another part.
"Sonic! Amy! Knuckles!" Tails screamed in dismay, while forced to make an emergency landing and Cream and Cheese looking absolutely horrified.
All of them unaware that the entire air-battle was witnessed...by mysterious giant figures hidden in huge caves in the mountain range as the island itself was the side of Angel Island, gleaming red eyes gazing at the outside world with evil and heated glares.
After the hard landing and losing consciousness around an hour later or a bit less, Sonic, Knuckles and Amy were sprawled onto the shores of the beach. Despite it being winter, islands like these never have much of snow due to the tropical weather. The teenage hedgehog then let out a weak groan as he finally began to awaken, and pushed himself up.
"Ugh...Ouch. I feel like I've been hit by a giant Christmas Cracker." Sonic grumbled, rubbing his head that ached a little. He then noticed two of his friends laying there and softly gasped, crawling over to his self-proclaimed girlfriend to get her and Knuckles to wake up. "Amy! Are you okay? Yo, Knux!"
Much to his relief, Amy and the Guardian slowly awakened before they managed to sit on their knees, the pink hedgehog shaking her head, before they all realized where they were. "This doesn't look like Christmas Island."
"Yeah, how did we not notice it before?" Knuckles agreed, puzzled.
"Good question. Guess we haven't noticed since Eggman interrupted our flight plans." The blue hedgehog shrugged, looking around at the unfamiliar territory. "What is this place? It doesn't look like Seaside Island either."
"Then where the heck are we?" Amy asked, before noticing they were missing certain friends and began to get worried. "Do you think Tails, Cream and Cheese are okay?"
Despite sharing her concerns over their little brother and sister and cute Chao, Sonic felt positive that their youngest friends were alright given Tails' history in landing badly damaged planes and make it out alive.
"I'm sure they're fine. The X Tornado might be a bit damaged, but if I know Tails, he'll land that baby somewhere safe around here and get started on repairing it. All we gotta do is find them, wait for the plane to be fixed and we can continue our way to Christmas Island." The fifteen year old reassured with a warm smile.
"Yeah, but we don't know this island, so it could have inhabits not willing to welcome visitors. Or other kinds of dangerous threats lurking somewhere waiting to ambush us." Knuckles on the other hand warned, standing up with caution while Sonic helped Amy to stand.
"Do you think this island is dangerous?" Amy questioned, not getting a bit scared. "Like, if he's right, then what if there are monsters or cannibals or hungry predators waiting to eat us?"
Sonic, while a bit worried over the more logical threats of dangerous Mobini animals or residents of this island, rolled his eyes. "Gimme a break. I bet this place is just deserted or maybe the people here are really nice and can help us. There's no way we're gonna find out by just standin' here. C'mon, let's get goin'."
Taking the lead, Sonic decided to run at the more normal pace to allow his two friends to keep up with him, with a nervous but comforted Amy and the annoyed and on-edge Knuckles following.
"If I ever run into a crazy adventure like this again, it'll be too soon." The red echidna grumbled under his breath.
But what the three friends didn't realize was that the sixteen year old was more right than any of them could imagine.
Meanwhile, on another part of the island, the Egg Fort was so badly damaged that it literally broke into several pieces and it's creator and robots went flying out of it to the point of crash landing onto the beach themselves. Decoe and Bocoe were knocked out comically sprawled, while Eggman was lying flat on his back.
Just then, a little Mobini crab came skitting until it noticed the unconscious, overweight human, before it poked at his leg to check. Seeing that Eggman wasn't getting up and believing he is dead, the little crab gleamed it's eye before climbing up onto his body towards his face, eying his big nose...and...
Pinched it with it's claw really hard...awakening Eggman who felt the agonizing pain.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Eggman's scream echoed through out the whole island that he jumped up to his feet, grabbing the now shocked and terrified crab who held on more lightly, and pulled hard to yank it off. "You cursed little pincher! Let go of my nose!"
He ended up dancing around like a lunatic trying to get the crab off of his face, running all over the beach yelping and screaming like a baby, before the evil scientist finally managed to succeed and flung the little laughing crab who landed into the ocean in a splash.
"Owowow...My beautiful face..." Eggman complained, rubbing his now red nose which began to make him look a bit like Rudulof the Red Nosed Reindeer, while Decoe and Bocoe yelped as the screaming had managed to get them back to function.
But when they saw their creator in a bit of a predicument, the two robots shared an uneasy glance, before Decoe attempted to ask, very nervously. "Are you alright, Dr. Eggman?"
"Do I look okay to you!?" Eggman, clearly frustrated, shouted right at their faces once he heard one of his useless creations ask such a ridiculous question, causing them to jump and fall back onto the sand in fright. "Not only that meddeling Sonic and his friends have ruined my plans again, and my nose was pinched by a crab ready to be served, but my Egg Fort is in such a wreck and we're stranded on this clearly deserted island!"
"W-Well, on the bright side, at least we didn't land in the ocean. That would have been the end of you all together." Bocoe attempted to lighten the mood.
"Which means you still have a 100% chance of survival to attack Sonic again, and we can always build a raft to get off." Decoe added with a sheepish shrug. "There's plently of trees and material once we know where to look."
As much as Eggman hated to admit it, his servants did make a good point, because as long as he was still alive, the evil scientist will continue his plots to rule Mobius and get rid of Sonic once and for all.
"I suppose you're right." The mad doctor sighed, folding his arms. He then grinned wickedly. "Who knows? Maybe we can make this place the perfect location for my new secret base. All we have to do is find the remains of the Egg Fort and get straight to work! That way, while those brats are recovering, we can make an easy ambush so that they will never leave alive!"
'That could work too...' The two robots deadpanned to themselves with dull expressions. They had to speak up with their voice boxes, didn't they?
This was going to be a long day...or a month, depending.
"By the way, where's Bokkun?" Eggman questioned.
"He must've fallen out and landed somewhere in the jungle or something." Decoe shrugged tiredly.
"He'll find his own way out since he can fly whereas we cannot." Bocoe added, not really caring about the smaller message-bot.
"You're right, he'll be fine. We have more important matters in our hands: NOW GET MOVING!" Eggman ordered harshly.
Yet the evil trio were unaware that something was spying on them in the trees, before taking off to somewhere within the jungle itself.
At another part of the beach, Tails had managed to land the X Tornado safely and was now in the progress of fixing it, while Cream and Cheese were sitting back a Palm Tree, looking very worried for the welfare of Sonic, Amy and Knuckles.
"There we go! I got it fixed up, but we're gonna have to used the X Cyclone mode to get by and find the others before I can repair the wing." Tails announced, closing up the hatch and leaped off.
"Do you think Mr. Sonic, Amy and Mr. Knuckles will be okay?" Cream asked, beginning to fear for the worse.
"I'm sure they're okay, Cream. With any luck, they most likely landed somewhere here on this island." The two-tailed fox cub reassured, though it was more to try and get both his friends and himself to calm down. Because deep down, he was very worried about his older brother and friends as well.
But he couldn't fail Sonic in taking care of the little six year old girl and Chao, and until they found their older friends, Tails had to be brave in order to keep the youngsters safe.
"But...Where are we? Is this Christmas Island?" The youngest Mobian asked, glancing around with Cheese.
"Hmmm...Nope, because none of these are Pine trees. And we haven't seen any ports or nearby towns, so this island is most likely deserted. It's pretty big, though. It'll take a while for us to find our friends, but with any luck, we'll be able to." The eight year old kit explained, glancing around their surroundings.
Despite still feeling worried about their friends, Cream knew that sitting here wasn't going to help find them, so she decided to try and take Tails' word for it and nodded. "Maybe this isn't isn't deserted. There might other people here who can help us."
"Chao chao, chao, chao, chao." Cheese agreed positively.
"Yeah! Let's get going." Tails nodded.
Though when Tails, Cream and Cheese boarded the X Cyclone and began their search through the jungle of this island, relatively safe from any signs of danger, they were beginning to not be as positive as they would have hoped. Since it had already been the afternoon the time they made the emergency landing, the young Mobians and little Chao ended up searching even as the sun went down and the moon was high in the sky.
"Man, this place is so big finding Sonic, Amy and Knuckles is harder than I thought." Tails couldn't help but give out a dismayed remark, thankful that the X Tornado/Cyclone was built with LED-Headlights to help see through the dark.
"It's very dark here in the forest. Do you think our friends will be able to see?" Cream asked, nervously with Cheese chirping, a little scared.
"If they find a tree branch to make a torch, then most likely. Either that or if Sonic and Amy either have a flash-light on them. Knuckles is used to this sort of thing, so this wouldn't bother him so much, and Sonic likes a real good challenge. Plus Amy's tough, this wouldn't scare her either." The two-tailed fox replied.
Just then, as they moved towards a small clearing to continue their search or at least find a decent place to make camp for the night, they heard the annoying laughter of a high-pitched voice, causing Tails to stop the X Cyclone and he, Cream and Cheese looked up to find, to their dismay, Bokkun who had managed to survive and landed in front of them.
"Awwww...Not you again." Tails complained. Of all the people, or in this case, robots, to find, it had to be the annoying Bomb-Loving pipsqueak.
"Looks like I've found ya's first! You guys aren't Dr. Eggman, but at least I found somebody." Bokkun greeted proudly, his hands on his hips.
"And we were hoping to find Sonic and the others first before we ran into you or Eggman." The two-tailed fox deadpanned. Of all the people he, Cream and Cheese had to run into, it was one of the most annoying robots the evil scientist had created.
"Did you get lost from Dr. Eggman, Bokkun?" Cream asked, curiously.
"You want to know about that?" Tails asked, incredulously at his younger friend.
"Just asking."
Hearing the sweet, gentle and kind voice that belonged to the little six year old rabbit girl, whom was unaware that the small robot still had a crush on her, Bokkun tried not to flinch before realizing what she meant, and sighed hopelessly, prodding his fingers together in sadness.
"Yeah, we all fell out of the Egg Fort 6 after you guys trashed it. I found myself lost in this jungle and searched everywhere for Dr. Eggman." The message bot confessed, before perking up happily. "Oh well! At least I got some company, and better you than Sonic, Knuckles, and especially Decoe and Bocoe! Ha ha ha ha ha!"
"Gee...We're flattered." The eight year old fox sweat dropped, before sighing as he realized that despite Bokkun could fly away on his own, the little robot could blackmail them and alert Eggman into how the younger Mobians were separated from their older friends. To avoid all of that, Tails knew Bokkun had to stay with them and that meant reluctant allience.
"Okay, here's how it's gonna work. If we wanna find our friends and Dr. Eggman, we'll have to stick together and agree to form a truce." Tails finally said, gazing firmly at Bokkun who blinked in confusion, and Cream and Cheese both stared in surprise. "While you're with us, Bokkun, I don't want any trouble, and that means no bombs, pranks, exploding TVs, or being mischief, okay? Captain's orders of the X Tornado."
While Cream thought it was a good idea, Bokkun pouted and folded his arms. "I'd oughta be crazy to truce with you! You ain't gonna boss me around, foxy!"
"Fine! Then we won't help you find Eggman!" Tails frowned, closing his eyes.
But before Bokkun could even consider on taking his leave, Cream, disappointed that this wasn't working out at all and wanting to help even if Bokkun did work for the evil scientist, sadly muttered. "Please, Bokkun. We really want to find our friends, and we could use your help, and even though Dr. Eggman is mean and horrible, you want to find him and this is a pretty big island. You could end up lost or left behind all by yourself."
To Tails' and Cheese' surprise, that got to Bokkun who, unable to resist in saying no to his secret crush once again, moaned in despair childishly. "He always leaves me behind anyway! And I'm running out of fuel and batteries for my jet pack!"
"So, what's it gonna be? If you promise to behave yourself, we won't let you get left behind, robot or not." Tails questioned once again, narrowing his eyes at the bot.
Realizing he had no choice and, really, being stuck on this creepy island in the dark without help did make his hard drive grow cold, Bokkun sighed in defeat. "Okay...You got a deal." He then fingered his palm, thinking to himself. 'Sometimes I wish I was a Mobian.'
"Thank you, Bokkun." Cream smiled happily, with Cheese chirping in relief.
'Boy, he's really the weirdest robot ever.' The two-tailed fox cub thought to himself, not sure what to make of it. He always questioned on why Eggman would make Bokkun, Decoe and Bocoe with strong A.I and personality.
Ha ha ha ha ha! I still wondered that about myself!" Sonic lightly laughed once Tails and Cream told him this part again.
"Well, I guess we'll never find out now, huh?" Tails shrugged, admittedly feeling a bit sorry for Bokkun even if he was a robot.
"I wish Bokkun wasn't with Dr. Eggman. Maybe we could've been friends." Cream sighed, as the rememberance that all of the evil man's robots were gone for good.
Hearing this made Sonic blink in shock, before lowering his gaze as he remembered that he hasn't even thought of what became of Decoe, Bocoe, Bokkun, Orbot and Cubot. His heart sank as he then figured that they all must've been eaten by the Nega-Mother Wisp before she swallowed Eggman whole, unable to escape the destruction of the Intersteller Amusement Park.
"Yeah, he was more like a kid than a robot. Guess he's the closest thing that was kind of like Shadow when you think about it." The blue hedgehog sighed, shrugging with a sad smile. "Anyway, didn't you guys mention camping out that night?"
"Yeah. It was getting pretty late and we were hungry, so we decided to find a safe location." Tails nodded...before sweat dropping sheepishly. "Except, it didn't go according to plan."
About half an hour later, after agreeing to form a truce to locate their missing companions, Tails, Cream and Cheese, and Bokkun continued their search until they all got hungry, and seeing that it was getting dark, they decided to make camp for the night. Fortunately, they found safe and delicious kinds of fruit, before setting up a camp fire and ate. So far the little robot kept to his promise in behaving himself and munched on a banana and an apple.
"This island may be big and deserted, at least there's plenty of food." Bokkun remarked happily, before taking another big bite out of his meal.
"Hey, Bokkun. I've been wondering about something for a while." Tails began, a bit awkwardly and with caution.
"About what?" The small robot asked, curiously.
"If you were created at the same time as Decoe and Bocoe, how come you guys don't get on so well?" The young fox cub asked.
Caught slightly off-guard by the honest question, Bokkun then shrugged and grumbled. "That's because unlike me who has at least some sort of fun, all they care about is slacking off and complaining even by doing hard work. They like boring ice shows, and just because they're taller doesn't mean they're smarter, and they fool around behind Dr. Eggman's back."
"Sounds like you guys are tough rivals, huh?" That the two-tailed fox didn't expect to hear.
"That sounds really sad how Decoe, Bocoe and even Dr. Eggman treat you." Cream said sympathetically.
"Yeah...The doctor is scary when you disobey him. If a robot does something so wrong it makes him so mad, it destroys them without second that. That's why I gotta do my job so I don't end up being turned into useless scrap." The little robot shuddered over the thought. "He even dismantled the Game-Bot and turned it into the Kissing Robot I delivered to Sonic to force him to race."
"Eggman did what!?" Tails exclaimed, horrified. Now that was scary!
"Say what!? That's where that gross Kissing Robot came from!?" Sonic exclaimed. He didn't remember hearing this part.
"Sorry...I forgot to mention it. But yeah, Bokkun told us that the Kissing Robot was originally a Game Robot that Eggman created to play against...and kept on winning at games like Chess." Tails apologetically shrugged.
"Man...Talk about a sore loser." The blue hedgehog sweat dropped.
"It was because the doctor lost to a game a chess and he hates losing." Bokkun shrugged.
'Man...Eggman's more of a loser than I thought. He can't even win in a simple game of chess.' Tails thought to himself, once again sweat dropping.
"Awww...Poor Mr. Game-Bot." Cream murmured sadly.
"Chao..." Cheese chirped in agreement.
"Yeah, I liked him that way better than being a Kissing Robot...Especially when he kissed me. Yuck!" The little robot cringed over the memory.
Just then, there was a rustling noise coming from the bushes close by which caught the four youngsters' attentions, Tails, his friends and robotic enemy turning quickly in alarm and confusion. The noise got a bit louder which made the group nervous, half-hoping it was Sonic, Amy and Knuckles, half-expecting Dr. Eggman which would unfortunately have the two-tailed kit and his group captured, half-fearing it was something more dangerous.
"Is anybody there?" Tails spoke up, nervously getting up to investigate.
Instead of getting an English response, something red and slightly blinking emerged from the leaves which made the eight year old cub flinch in fright, Cream and Cheese nearly screaming, and Bokkun panicking...only for a lone Mobini animal to emerge with red nose, antlers, a bit of white polka dots on it's body making a cute noise as it flinched in fear itself.
"Huh?" The group blinked, now bewildered.
Cream, however, was the first to recover and approached in awe, a beaming smile forming. "Wow! It's a Reindeer!"
"Chao chao?" Cheese hovered curiously, never having seen a real life reindeer before.
"With a glowing red nose? How can this be? It couldn't be..." Tails trailed off, shrugging as a crazy idea formed in his mind, before turning suspiciously to Bokkun who was just as clueless.
"Hey, don't look at me!" Bokkun glared at the fox back, feeling insult as he instantly knew what the young cub was about to say. "That isn't a robot and Dr. Eggman didn't talk about making anything ridiculous like a reindeer with a glowing nose like Rudolf."
"Bokkun is right, Tails. This is the real Rudolf!" Cream agreed, much to the two boys' confusion as she went up closer to the cute reindeer, and they were surprise to see that she was already gently giving the creature a pat on his side.
The Mobini, sensing that she and Cheese were very nice, smiled and nuzzled at the Mobian rabbit girl's face, making Cream giggle at the tickling sensation.
"Uh...Cream? How do you know that?" Tails shrugged, raising an eyebrow skeptically. 'This can't be the real Rudolf. I may still be a kid and Santa has gotta be real, but there's no way Rudolf would be here on this island a few days before Christmas.'
"His name is on his collar. See?"
Now curious while blinking, Tails walked up a bit closer while even Bokkun was now wanting to know and checked the name to investigate. To their astonishment, the name Ruldolf was written on the red collor with jingle bells, painted in gold.
"I don't believe it...! It IS Rudolf, one of Santa's Reindeers!" The eight year old cub exclaimed, shocked and amazed. Who would have thought that one of twelve Reindeer belonging to Santa Claus himself was indeed real, and here on this mysterious island?
"I don't get it. I thought it was a kid's story and Reindeers can't fly! What's one with a glowing red nose doing here on this dingy island?" Bokkun asked, still very skeptical.
"Stranger things have happened, and I'm not just talking about me being born with two tails." Tails half-sarcastically pointed out.
The small robot stared at him with a deadpanned expression. "Who cares about your flying tails, foxy? You're still a Mobian and still one Dr. Eggman's enemies!"
"I wonder why Mr. Ruldolf is here? Maybe he got lost from Mr. Santa." Cream murmured thoughtfully in sadness. "If he's here, then maybe Santa Claus will come looking for him."
"Chao chao, chao, chao chao." Cheese squeaked in agreement, while Rudolf did begin to look sad as he knew that the young Mobian girl was right.
"Maybe we should do some more investigating just in case. I know it's late, but this could be a serious problem." Tails deduced, knowing that this mystery had just gotten bigger.
The group of now five agreed to this plan despite Bokkun's reluctance, with the young Reindeer quickly showing that he can indeed fly and if the situation was different, Tails, Cream and Cheese would be very amazed despite flying themselves with Bokkun, dumbfounded at first, following as much as his almost out of fueled jet pack could carry him, quickly boarded into the eight year old's vessel, with Tails and Cream offering the amazed young Reindeer to ride with them, much to his surprise.
The X Cyclone roared to life and with Tails telling his companions to hold on, the group quickly marched away in his vessel deep into woods, hoping to find their friends as well as Santa, now even more worried for their safeties.
'Sonic...Where are you?' Tails thought pleadingly, praying that his big brother and other two friends were alright.
Meanwhile, in another part of the woods, Sonic, Amy and Knuckles still had no luck in locating their younger friends and fully unaware of the dangers that came on this island. Instead, they kept searching while the blue hedgehog, deeply concerned about his little brother, little sister-like-figure and Chao friend, kept his hopes and positive attitude up as he knew that they would be found sooner or later.
And if Eggman has them, the hero of Mobius would come to their rescue like he always does.
"~Deck the halls with Dr. Eggman, Falalala, lalala. Time to ruin his stupid Egg-Plan, Falalala, lalala~" Sonic was singing once again, this time a parody to make fun at the evil scientist once again. "~Let's go smash up his giant robot, Falala, lalala. Thus it ends his dumb old evil plot, Falala lalala~"
While Amy couldn't stop laughing over the silly parody of one of the traditional songs to insult the evil scientist, and it made her heart leap in Christmas Joy that Sonic was such a good singer despite the blue hedgehog denying it, Knuckles rolled his eyes over the irony of Sonic's optimism over the situation they were all stuck in. Yet even he couldn't quite fully hide the amused smirk of the song if it meant mocking Eggman.
"Sonic, you really are so silly. Now I can't listen that old beautiful song without thinking about Eggman being teased at again." Amy remarked, giggling.
"Hey, now, it ain't any more fun without mocking O'l Egghead." Sonic chuckled with a shrug, smirking. "I'm more concerned about him dressing up as Santa Claus one day."
"That would be terrifying." Knuckles deadpanned with a sweat drop, before he sighed impatiently. "Sonic, I understand how you're trying to lighten the mood with the Christmas Spirit stuff, but can we please focus on finding Tails, Cream and Cheese and get outta here? Before Eggman shows up wanting to kill you if he hears that?"
"You worry too much, Knuckles, ol' buddy. Sure, I'm concerned about the kids, but we can handle that Big Nosed-Egg-Nog, no problem." The teenage hedgehog reassured calmly.
"And for all we know, Eggman is probably floating in the ocean somewhere far from the islands. I wouldn't worry about that stupid old man." The twelve year old girl added, despite her deep concerns as well. But she trusted in Sonic's faith as things always turned out good in the end.
Just then, her left boot gently hit something on the ground that felt a bit too soft to be a rock, getting her attention. Confused, Amy paused in her steps before noticing what was on the ground and blinked in confusion, getting the attention of the two boys who now stopped in their tracks as well.
"What's up, Amy?" Sonic asked, curiously.
"This boot. What's a boot doing here?" The pink hedgehog murmured, picking it up and held in in confusion.
Now curious over the mysterious black boot, Sonic and Knuckles before the former shrugged as an idea came to him. "Maybe this island isn't as deserted as we thought. There might be people here."
"Or it could be someone else got stranded on this island." Knuckles suggested.
"Hmmm...You know what? That makes sense too." Sonic hummed in agreement.
"Whoever this belonged to, I'm surprised they kept it nice and clean. It's like it got here yesterday or something. Hmmm...Let's see..." Amy turned the boot back and forth and sideways to find a name of it's owner...only to spot something and gasped in shock and disbelief. "No way! It can't be!"
"What!? What is it, Ames?" Sonic asked, getting to closer to see what made his self-proclaimed girlfriend react as such.
"You're not gonna believe this but I think...I think this boot belongs to Santa Claus!"
"Say what?" Now the blue hedgehog blinked, dumbfounded.
"To Santa Claus?" The Master Emerald Guardian asked, skeptical over the claim. He has heard of the magical gift-giving man himself, but he thought it was all just for children.
"Look at this at his sole." Amy instructed, making the boys look. "His name is written on it."
True to her word, Santa's full name was written in white and golden writing just behind the heel, along with his trademark saying "Ho Ho Ho" beneath it.
"No way...!" Sonic leaned back in shock, before he scratched his head as he felt dumbfounded about all of this. "Nah, this can't be real. I bet this is just some guy's costume making people believe he's the real Santa. Especially to little kids."
"But, where exactly did it come from?" The sixteen year old echidna folded his arms, his suspicions increasing by the second. "I don't like this."
"It sounds crazy and I know that we're all too old to believe this, but maybe Santa really is real and he could be in trouble." Amy remarked, begining to think that maybe this island really wasn't as safe as Sonic had claimed earlier.
"Amy, come on. I know for the fact that Santa's not real. I've known this since I was five years old." The hero of Mobius reaffirmed, still finding this discovery unbelievable, much to the surprise of his friends. He shrugged a little sadly as a memory came back to him. "Especially when I accidentally spotted Uncle Chuck dressed up as Santa one Christmas."
Flash-Back: Ten Years ago...
A five year old Sonic, unable to hold in his excitement as he had planned it all month, pretended to be asleep and beamed excitedly when he thought he heard the sounds of the bells jingling on Santa's sleigh, snuck out of bed to catch the glimpse of the big man in red himself. He had been warned that Santa may not visit if he was awake, but there was no way he would know, right?
The little hedgehog tiptoed out of his room and downstairs without waking his parents and uncle, when he heard a familiar yelp and thud. Blinking in surprise and at first thought that Santa might've fallen, Sonic sped up a little to see if he could help the magical man out. But when he got to his living room, his eyes widened in shock with a soft gasp to see not Santa Claus himself.
But Uncle Chuck who, upon attempting to put on the Santa Suit without making too much noise, ended up tripping in the pants and fell into the couch and rubbed his head, grumbling only to notice his nephew peering around the corner and flinched.
"Uh-oh..." The older hedgehog murmured worriedly and in guilt.
"When I saw that it was Uncle Chuck wearing the costume, I felt so upset that I couldn't believe my own family would trick me. But when I was about to cry and even had thoughts of running away, Unc' approached me with the deepest apology he would ever give and handed me my Christmas Present, which was one of the things I really wanted at the time."
Heartbroken that his family had lied to him, little Sonic sniffled that the truth came out, that Santa was never real but a bedtime story. How could his family lie to him? And how many more families had actually lied to their children? Did it happen all the time? The five year old hedgehog felt so angry that he thought of leaving and was about to cry, his Uncle, with an aching and guilt-ridden heart, picked up one of the presents and knelt before his nephew, silently patting the child on the head.
When Sonic looked up with the look of betrayal, his lips trembling, big fat tears threatening to fall free from his adorable Emerald eyes, Sir Charles Hedgehog murmured a deep apology for lying and wanting to make the child happy, opened up the box that had the child's name on it. At first Sonic felt he was going to be majorly disappointed, his eyes widened when he saw what the gift was: It was the cobalt blue teddy bear he wanted.
"My...My Teddy?" Sonic squeaked in stunned awe, reluctantly picking up his present out of the box and held it's soft and fluffy form, before gazing up at his uncle who smiled apologetically.
"It's our gift to you, Sonny. We just wanted you to be happy." Uncle Chuck whispered.
"It was then I realized that all that time it had been my parents and uncle who gave me so much because they wanted me to be happy and live a great life. Plus, at that time it made me feel so safe that I felt awful for being ungrateful. Even as a kid, seeing them smile made me more happy than anything else in the world."
His eyes widening as Sonic realized how much his family deeply loved him, and, they must have gone through all the trouble getting the toy he wanted, now the five year old felt terrible for thinking they didn't care when they did, even if they lied, but they didn't want to spoil the surprise. Smiling emotionally as he felt a whole lot better already, and that getting presents from his Mommy, Daddy and Uncle was much better than some stranger coming into the house handing out stuff, the little hedgehog leaped into his Uncle's arms, apologizing while Sir Charles returned the embrace deeply, gently giving the child a kiss on the head.
"I love you, Uncle Chuck." Sonic whispered, snuggling into his beloved uncle's arms while cuddling his teddy bear which meant so much more now, because it was gifted not by the Urban Legendary Santa.
But by his family he loved the most.
"I love you too, Sonny. Merry Christmas." Uncle Chuck whispered in return.
End of Flash-Back:
"Since then, I began to fully understand how much my family cares for me and for others, that I started wanting stuff less and hang out with them and make friends even more." Sonic concluded, shrugging with a sad smile, resisting the urge to bite his lip as the urge to cry over the memory of his late uncle came back to him. He lowered his gaze, admitting. "It's actually kinda one of the reasons why I'm the way I am today."
He looked back up at his two friends, smiling warmly. "Seeing people smile and happy makes me happy, more than anything else. I devoted my life to it."
By the time the blue hedgehog finished his story, Amy was struggling not to cry over the emotional past her 'boyfriend' had just stared yet unable to stop the tears from falling from her eyes, while Knuckles felt his chest ache and lowered his gaze.
To think that Sonic had shared a cherished memory of his Uncle, who was one of the main reasons why the teenage hedgehog was who he is now, the red echidna felt a pang of sadness form as well as a bit of jealousy. Family...relatives whom Sonic had grown up with despite that Sir Charles had died nine years earlier, those were the things the Guardian of the Master Emerald never really had, but in his early childhood, had always wanted but never got it.
"That's why I love Christmas, not just for presents since they're just stuff. But because I can hang out with you guys, Tails, my folks, everybody. I want everybody to share that same Christmas Family Spirit." The fifteen year old softly chuckled.
"Oh, Sonic..." Amy whispered, sniffling before wiping away her tears and smiled emotionally. "You always tend to spoil your own surprises we give you, right?"
"Hey, you know that I can't help not liking to wait. Whenever something's going on, I gotta investigate." Sonic chuckled, smirking. "Besides, where's the fun in not knowing or knowing if something just comes out on you, like Eggman's boring lame ambushes?"
THUD!
A sudden loud thud of something landing right behind them caused Sonic, Amy and Knuckles flinch in fright with gasps of alarm and fear, before looking over their shoulders and their eyes widened in horror when they saw...a 76 foot tall giant purple Hawk dressed in an wooden armor, sparking electricity on it's body and glaring down at the three young Mobians.
"AH! What the!?" Sonic and Knuckles both exclaimed.
"A-A-A giant Mobian!?" Amy screamed in terror.
"MORTALS..." The massive creature began in a deep voice.
"...I spoke too soon." Sonic sheepishly conceded to Amy and Knuckles who both gave him fearful and super annoyed looks for jinxing them.
"LEAVE THIS ISLAND...OR PERISH AS OUR DELICACIES." The giant Hawk continued.
Hearing this made the three Mobians horrified that there were giants that eat people and realized that it was not just them who were in grave danger, but also their missing friends. Sonic and his companions felt their hearts drop as the sheer terror that Tails' group were captured by these massive inhabits began to fill them. Narrowing his eyes as he now felt horrible for assuming that everything was fine on this island, Sonic braced himself to at least distract this creature.
"We'll go, but we're kinda busy at the moment. So...Sorry to do this!" Sonic declared, before he quickly used his Homing Attack and bashed against the giant who stumbled backwards in alarm, but to hedgehog's shock he hit it with a loud clang as though he was hitting a robot.
Fortunately, Knuckles charged and rapid punched at the giant's legs, causing the Hawk to stumble and yelp before crashing onto the ground with a loud thud.
"Let's get outta here!" The blue hedgehog shouted after he and the echidna landed, before Sonic grabbed hold of both of his friends' wrists and sped off to find a place a hide and crash for the night. As he ran and by the time the giant got up, the trio were long gone, the hedgehog thought to himself about the youngest Mobians and Chao still all alone on the island.
'Tails, Cream and Cheese...Be careful. Please, stick together and find a place to hide. We're comin' to save you. I promise!' Sonic prayed, narrowing his eyes, determined to find his little brother and sister and Chao friend.
Little did everybody know was that the dangers on this island would be far more unexpected than any of them would have thought. Will Sonic and his friends make reunite and make it in time to Christmas Island?
To be Continued!
A/N: I was hoping to avoid in turning this into a two-parter, but unfortunately, the words became far too long for this chapter, so I had to break it up to avoid in making this a super-long page. Hopefully part two will come out by Friday if we're lucky.
See you later!