Sonic '23: In Search of Truth

Sonic's Story

Chapter I

Something from a Fairytale

Christmas in Soleanna was a magical time. The walkways were covered by blankets of snow, the city was filled with colour-changing fairy lights and sky lanterns, the water was slightly frozen giving it a glittering quality, and a humongous Christmas tree stood tall and proud in the middle of the city square. Today, the 1st of December, was the day that Princess Elise III was going to turn on the Christmas lights. She'd remembered her excitement at being asked to do it; it'd been something she'd dreamed of ever since she was a little girl, and now, she was finally going to make that girl's dreams come true. It was like something from a fairytale, only it was real. There was just one thing that was bugging her…

"My daughter? What's wrong?" the Duke, Elise's father, had questioned earlier that day. She'd woken up to find him stood beside her bed, looking extremely worried.

"Father? What are you doing here?" Elise asked.

"I… I thought I heard you shouting in your sleep. So I came into your room, and… well… you were yelling, crying almost," the Duke revealed.

"W-what did I say?" the Princess wondered.

"Something like… Sonic. Or maybe Sonis. I couldn't make out the word properly, but that's what it sounded like. And then you screamed a 'No!', just a few minutes ago. Were you having a nightmare?" the Duke said. The truth was that she had – it'd been a… strange dream, rather than a bad one, in all actuality.

"Yes, father. But I'm fine now. My God, it was weird…" Elise mumbled.

"How weird?" the Duke chuckled.

"I dreamt that there was this like, blue hedgehog that could talk to me! And we became friends, or… something, but then he died… I think. I can't remember properly, it's all a blur now to be honest," the princess explained. "But it doesn't matter."

"Good. I will make you some breakfast. Pancakes alright?" the Duke offered.

"Pancakes are great, thank you," Elise replied with a small, half-hearted smile. She couldn't help but feel a bit out of place; even though she knew it was just a dream, it had seemed so real, as if it was more of a vision than a dream. But it couldn't be, right? A talking, blue, anthropomorphic, human-acting hedgehog? Things as crazy as that only existed in dreams.

It had been a mostly normal day since then, consisting of just the usual royal duties that were always on the agenda. The duties she performed were so similar all the time that Elise was beginning to feel like she was living in a Groundhog Day situation. Thankfully, the lighting of the tree in the evening would provide a welcome change, at least for today, before it was back to the same old, same old. Every year Soleanna's celebrities would turn the Christmas lights on the tree – she recalled Sonic Man doing it last year, in an attempt to perform the 'fastest switch-on ever' (she also recalled that it hadn't worked, and he'd narrowly missed the record). Now, it was her time.

It was 7 p.m., and the sky was a beautiful navy blue lit up with glimmering stars, the perfect atmosphere for this, in Elise's opinion. It was freezing but she didn't mind that – after all, it was December, and it got cold in winter, even in coastal cities like Soleanna that were commonly thought of as warm places. She had on a big, fluffy, pink coat that helped protect her from the temperature as she arrived at the city square. Crowds began to cheer as she and her father walked up to the tree, via the pathway that was barricaded from the spectators. The pair of royals smiled and waved happily at the crowds, and Elise even greeted a couple of them with a kind "Hello!" as they slowly approached the tree. Before she knew it, the moment had arrived – she stared up at the grandiose tree, topped by the legendary Star of Soleanna, an ornament with numerous urban myths connected to its existence. After a few moments, Elise picked up the switch that had been lying on the ground, and the crowd started to chant the countdown to turning the lights on.

"10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…" Elise's finger hovered over the button. "0!" the citizens rallied joyously, as Elise clicked the button and the tree's lights shimmered into action, vibrant shades of purple, green, red, blue, orange, yellow and all sorts of other colours lighting up the streets and city square. Elise and her father gazed at the spectacle in amazement, even though they'd seen it already numerous times. It was such a special occasion for the town, one in which everyone united, put their differences aside and simply had a great time. The only other time they did that was the Festival of the Sun.

Suddenly, Elise saw something… bizarre, to say the least.

"Father, look!" she instructed, pointing at the part of the sky directly above where the Star of Soleanna was positioned, which was now completely covered by black clouds. But then she saw something else – something was emerging from the dark clouds. It appeared to be… a dreadnought? "W-what is that?" she stuttered.

"It looks like… a ship!" said the Duke.

"I… I think it is…" his daughter murmured nervously. "What is it doing here?" she added, but before her father could reply, a missile came hurtling down from where the ship was positioned. "Everybody run!" she bellowed, but it was too late, as the missile crashed into the walkway, just avoiding her. The explosion on its impact caused Elise to be thrown back, and her head hit the tree.

"Elise! Are you alright?!" yelped the Duke.

"Ow… uhh…" Elise wheezed, rubbing the back of her head. "Y…yeah… dad…" she said. She could hear her people screaming in terror in the background, and she could see them all dashing about in a mad rush to escape from the danger. Just then, the dreadnought lowered itself next to the Christmas tree, and somebody hopped out of it, on a hovering platform which softly floated to the ground.

"Who are you? What do you want from us?!" the Duke demanded.

"Greetings, Duke John and Princess Elise. I am Dr. Eggman. I don't mean to cause any trouble, I'm just here for a certain… tree ornament," the man, who was tall but quite fat, with a bald head, a long, thick brown moustache, and glasses said, smiling.

"The Star of Soleanna? Why?!" the Duke asked.

"I believe you know exactly why, Duke," Eggman resonded. "Now, we can do this the easy way, whereby you just hand me the Star, or we can do this the hard way. It's your decision."

"I choose the hard way… well, the hard way for you, anyway," a voice intruded. Elise, her head still throbbing from her collision, peered up to see… no. It couldn't be. A talking, blue, anthropomorphic, human-acting hedgehog! The hedgehog glanced at the princess and smiled.

"Grr… Sonic. I thought you were gonna turn up. I must say, though, I'm a little disappointed, I thought you would've been here earlier. Oh well, not to worry; my mechs can take care of you no matter what time it is, I'm sure!" the doctor cackled menacingly. Roughly twelve greyish blue mechs jumped out of the ship the moment he said that as if they'd rehearsed it. They all landed in front of Elise and her father. Elise yelped in panic, and her father scrambled to her before wrapping her in a protective hug; even if she was fully-grown now, Elise would always be his little girl.

"Don't worry, princess! I've got this," Sonic assured calmly, winking at her. Elise was about to tell him to 'Wait!', however, before she could, the mechs started blasting at the blue hedgehog ferociously, intent on eliminating their target.

"No!" Elise shouted, worrying about Sonic – she knew there was something… odd going on here, the fact that she'd recently been having visions of this creature only for him to appear in real life before her very eyes could not be down to coincidence, could it? She wanted answers; if he was killed by these mechs, she suspected she'd never get them. She thought it was too late when they'd fired anyway, though. She closed her eyes in terror, praying that this was somehow just another dream, and that when she opened them, she'd wake up. When she did open her eyes, she didn't wake up. Instead, she saw Sonic, proudly standing with his hands on his hips, surrounded by a pile of broken-down mechanoids.

"Oh my God… How… how did you…?" Elise mumbled.

"Survive? Please, those droids were a piece of cake," Sonic said, casually brushing himself off. "Hey, Eggman! If you ever actually, y'know, wanna kill me one of these days, you should really try harder than that pathetic display…" he called up to where Eggman was, at the top of the tree – amidst all the chaos, the doctor had moved up there using his hovering platform.

"Yes, yes, I'd love to stay and chat, but as you can see… I'm about to get the Star!" the doctor taunted, reaching his hand out to the precious ornament. He swiped it off viciously.

"Oh no!" Elise cried out. "He can't be allowed to take that!"

"Don't worry, princess. I won't let him," Sonic claimed confidently.

"But I just did. Thank you, your highness. This has been a really… fun experience. See ya later!" Eggman chortled wickedly as he floated back into his dreadnought, which immediately began flying away the moment he got inside it. Sonic could still hear his never-ending evil laugh even when the ship travelled through the skies, miles and miles away.

"Oh no! What are we gonna do?" Elise panicked.

"Leave it to me, princess!" Sonic said.

"But, he could fly to the other side of the world in that thing, Sonic!" she said. The hedgehog snickered.

"That's not a problem, princess. Just trust me," he urged. "Besides, even if he does fly to the other side of the world, I can find out exactly where to. I just need to contact a friend to do so…" Sonic planned. Tails had, about 5 months ago during a recon operation, cleverly placed a tracker on board Eggman's capital ship – wherever he went, Sonic would find out. It was how he knew he'd been coming to Soleanna in the first place. Unfortunately, Tails had decided to stay back, rather than come with him, this time. From what Sonic remembered, it was due to him having to fix some other device. Hopefully, the clever fox would've fixed it by now, as Sonic needed his help. "Is there any way I could communicate with my friend around here?" Sonic asked. Elise thought hard for a second.

"I mean, there's the old radio tower… but I doubt that'll be of any use to you…" she suggested.

"Great! That'll be perfect. Tails usually has some sort of radio device with him," Sonic mentioned.

"Really?" Elise uttered in surprise.

"Yeah. I'll head there right away," the hedgehog decided.

"Wait, Sonic! I'll come with you," Elise said. Normally, had a human offered to join him, Sonic would've said no as it would be too dangerous – but he knew Elise, even if she didn't really remember him, and he knew she was a useful person to have around, and that the pair could make a good team. There was, of course, another reason that Sonic was happy to let her come along, but he'd rather not have thought about that at that moment. Sonic smiled.

"Alright," he nodded willingly. Elise turned to her father to make sure he was OK.

"Father, are you OK?" she said.

"I'm fine, Elise. But are you sure that this a good idea? I don't like the idea of you getting into trouble…" John sighed.

"I'll be alright, dad. I know it's easier said than done, but don't worry about me; I can handle myself; I promise. Would you be okay staying back to look out for the people of the city?" Elise asked.

"Yes, Elise. You are doing the harder job, showing this young… hedgehog… to the radio tower – I warn you both to be careful, it hasn't been maintained for years and it may be treacherous up there…" her father informed.

"We will, your highness. And I will keep your daughter safe, I guarantee," Sonic reassured him. Elise smiled warmly, comforted by his words; she didn't exactly know why, but deep down, she trusted Sonic already.

"Goodbye for now, father," she said, giving him a cuddle this time.

"Goodbye for now, Elise…" he whispered. "Come back soon." And with that, Elise let go of her dad, and walked away with Sonic – something in the back of her mind told her that this journey was going to be eye-opening, in more than one way…