Fourteen Years Ago...
?, ?
Night
A scared and anxious little blue hedgehog stumbles upon an area around some ancient ruins with no clue or sense of direction.
Trying to survive in a scary new world as an orphaned, homeless five year old with no Uncle Chuck or his beloved Muttski around to comfort him. He is all alone on an island he doesn't know too well and having to fend for himself. The young bluester would have loved this level of independence given to him but his mind wasn't thinking about that.
It's been around half a week since the Kingdom of Acorn was suddenly taken over by the treacherous Warlord Julian Kintobor who now calls himself Doctor Robotnik and the hedgehog's escape from the now-conquered Mobotropolis to this unfamiliar green island.
He didn't know why exactly he chose to land here but anywhere away from that black-eyed mustached monster is worlds better than getting roboticized by him.
On top of that, the red biplane he had "borrowed" and used to get here had suffered a rough landing that made leaving the island impossible without any access to means of getting it repaired which meant that he was effectively left stranded.
He wasn't sure of the current fates of Sally Acorn and the other children that were evacuated from the capital by Colonel Tig Stripes' group but hoped they had all made it out okay. The thought of him being one of the only survivors of the hostile takeover by virtue of him getting separated from everyone else didn't sit well with him. He had already lost enough as it is.
The young hedgehog wandered through the old overgrown ancient ruins in his efforts to find the nearest civilization and the blanket of darkness of the night didn't help make it any easier to navigate these grounds. While in the middle of his silent lament, the ground beneath his feet suddenly collapses and falls into the hole before landing in a body of water below with a loud splash.
He swims frantically back up to the surface and flails around in a fit of panic, trying to keep his head above water while scrambling to find any piece of solid ground nearby before he'd sink like a rock. "HELP! HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!"
Feeling himself growing exhausted from his own hunger and his shriekings seemingly going unheard, the little hedgehog sinks into the cold waters. Staring up at the hole in the ceiling as he sees a silhouette shape appearing and swooping down at him in the midst of the five year old losing consciousness...
Uncle Chuck's, New Mobotropolis
Morning
"...Café Émile. A small cafe striving for excellence." Sonic says the name of the cafe that Gadget's parents own on his tongue and leaning into his worldly linguistic knowledge. "Maybe I should give that place a visit whenever I'm over in Golden Bay City someday. Been meaning to get around to checking it out."
The nineteen year old Sonic is dressed in his blue jeans, a red sweater, white sneakers and a pair of glasses. The hedgehog remarked to Gadget that people in public would ignore him and rarely recognise him in his civilian attire. Something that's coming in handy given the current unpopularity around him right now.
He's seated in a diner booth with Gadget, Penelope, Johnny, Tails and Sally; all dressed in civilian clothing for some anonymity from the public.
Gadget took a sip out of his glass. "I can give you a tour around the city if you ever decide to go there. Show you the sights besides the famed Golden Bay Bridge."
"I'll hit you up if I ever feel the urge to go see your home city in person and you won't have to pay for a ticket to go see your family." Sonic said with a grin. "Though, didn't you say you were going to see them this Christmas?"
"Been putting it on the back burner with everything that's been going on lately and trying to land a job around here." The wolf scratches his ear. "Having no luck there so far…"
"You could apply here. My uncle would be more than happy to give you the job if you ask."
Gadget shook his head with a quiet sigh. "Last thing I want to do is tank your uncle's business just by having me around. The public is not exactly on our side with I.G.N dragging our names through the dirt."
"The thing with I.G.N is that they're a tabloid group who see themselves as a legit news organization and they are opportunists looking to get the most eyes on them as possible. Get a lot of clicks." Sally explained to the wolf as someone who sees I.G.N as a prime example of yellow journalism. "In the past, they would make up all kinds of claims from me and Amy hating each other's guts to claiming Geoffrey might have committed unchristian things with someone younger than him."
Having to carefully word the last part of her statement with Tails around but the wolf understood what she meant by it. He has heard some pretty egregious statements made by I.G.N.
Their initial coverage of the ARK incident when Sonic was being blamed for the crimes of the then-unknown Shadow comes immediately to mind for him over how aggressively they ran with the Sonic the Public Menace narrative including having a whole segment detailing Sonic's supposed past instances of running afoul of the law while leaving out crucial details behind said incidents and only stopping because of what happened later on that took the world by storm.
"I personally dislike Geoffrey as a person because of what he has done and how he carries himself but even I thought that's pretty slanderous of them to insinuate he's that kind of guy." Sonic commented and admitted his issues with Geoffrey upfront to Gadget. "I think they had to quickly issue a retraction because in Penelope's own words, they realized they could get in serious legal trouble for it. Never got an apology for all the things they've said about me though."
"Let's face it, they just have it out for you." Johnny said to Sonic, making his point about I.G.N. "They need you more than you need them and everyone will be forgetting that incident with you in about a month or two. People just love some trashy sensationalism to gossip over."
"And what about the rest of you guys?"
"We've faced enough hardships in our lives that having strangers on the streets throw pejorative insults at us doesn't have the same power on us as it would if we were new to this." Sally then adds; "Saying that though, the impact and effect would differ from person to person. For us that's been in the field for years, we'd turn out this white noise."
Looking over to Gadget, gesturing to him. "For Mister Amamiya here who I presume would have been raised through the Yamatoese tradition and he can correct me here, that kind of treatment has the same effect as being a member of the Burakumin in Old World Japan."
Johnny cocked a confused brow. "A what?"
"A group of people who are descended from Pre-Meiji executioners, butchers and other occupations that have a connection to death and death is a major source of kegare which is basically spiritual uncleanliness or the equivalent of sin to put it simply." Gadget explained solemnly. "Treated as social outcasts and often discriminated against throughout recorded history. All because their ancestors' profession goes against the values of Shintoism."
Sonic looks to Tails to use an example to illustrate the wolf's point for the others not too familiar with the inner workings of Yamatoese culture. "Imagine being treated like Tails was by his bullies except it's over the fact your great grandfather had worked as a mortician, there are laws that are unfair to you and being told constantly that you belong in the muds, not in the skies. Barely regarded as a person in their eyes despite looking exactly like them and having your future taken away by them with no say on the matter."
Penelope shook her head. "I think it's both stupid and cruel to do that to people just because of their ancestors' occupations."
"As constant as the concept of law and order, there'll always be a group of people who lie at the bottom of the totem pole for all those above to dunk on them to help feel better about themselves. In a world full of winners and utopias, someone has to be the loser that cleans the toilets." Gadget lets his realist side show through his words. The words hang heavily in the air.
Seeing as how heavy the subject matter is for what is supposed to be a casual hangout, Johnny piped in with a more lighthearted question for both Gadget and Penelope. "Seeing as both of ya knew one another as little lads, got any hilarious anecdotes for us?"
"There was this time we found this abandoned shopping trolley and decided to use it on a hill like it was a go-kart. Pretty fun despite the risk of tipping." Penelope recalls a summer memory with Gadget, looking over to him. "But when he had his fourth go with the trolley, things escalated when he rolled down a little quickly where we were and went past the safety line we had… And traveling right down a steep hill at crazy speeds while I chased after him on a bicycle."
Gadget shudders at the memory. "Ugh. It was one of the most terrifying experiences of my life and probably took years off my life…"
Tails cocked a brow. "More terrifying than Infinite?"
"As dangerous as he was, speeding down a steep hill that's got tram lines and traffic is what terrors are made of."
"And you did run over that bank robber's feet on the way down to the coast. Guy was outrunning the cops that were chasing him." Penelope added with faint amusement at the memory. "Luckily, his one-man soapbox race came to a stop when he crashed into the back of a pillow truck. The other kids thought you were the most badass pup around."
"That's because you told them all that I wanted to ride dangerously the Max Power Way to stop that crook and was yelling in adrenaline excitement the whole way through!"
"It was more than enough to prove to them you ain't no chicken and had to make up a story when they asked me about what happened once it made the news. Make you look cooler to them." The platypus shrugged her shoulders. "There's also the fact your parents would have blown a big gasket if they knew what really happened."
"Looks like you were destined for Badass City even at a young age." Sonic gives a toothy smile at the wolf and jestfully makes an offhand comment. "Someday Buddy, we've got to have a race down that hill. My board versus your trolley."
"I don't think he'd want to relive that nightmare again." Tails said unsurely to his blue brother who just shrugs.
"Gotta give him points for making it out unscathed."
"Yeah..." Johnny nodded in agreement. "Unlike the time when you went on a trolley with fireworks strapped to it and got yourself hurt that day."
Sonic defended himself. "It was a slow day and felt like trying out some stunts on a trolley. A bunch of us were having a go at it, not just me."
"And you're the one who crashed it right into a fruit cart. A fruit cart full of grapes no less." Sally shook her head. "I don't know what possessed you that day but it certainly didn't pay off for you and Antoine wasn't long in ridiculing you over it."
"And if I remember correctly, Fiona had to give you some first aid that day." Johnny added with Sonic and Tails' smiles faltering at the mention of her name. The wolf looked at his friends in confusion and curious as to who Johnny was on about.
"Fiona who?" Gadget enquired. "Is she one of your old teammates I haven't gotten to meet yet?"
"Was one of our teammates." Sally was quick to answer his question. "Fiona Fox is someone who—"
"Thought that she had found a place to belong with us but didn't find us as great company." Sonic abruptly cuts in, gazing hard at the curious wolf and sounding very serious with the subject of Fiona Fox. "Had once caused some real friction between me and Tails here. She's long gone now. Ran off with a green hedgehog that looks like me and I'm not referring to Manic here either."
"It is a long and messy story from two years ago." Johnny told Gadget with no humor behind his words. "What you need to know about her is that she had once worked as our team medic, has a criminal past before she had even joined us and an enemy of ours ever since she stabbed us all in the back for that green wanker Scourge who she apparently prefers him to our Sonic here. There is also the fact she assaulted Tails on her way out..."
Tails visibly winced at the memory; remembering the big smirk on that vixen's face as he got backhanded hard by her after making a tearful plea to her. "I thought she was really one of us…"
"We all thought the same." Johnny shakes his head with a sigh. "Some people are just inherently bad at their core."
"Or he got to her and led her astray from us." Sonic curtly countered the rabbit's point. "It wasn't exactly hard for him to win her over when we gave her the cold shoulder the moment we all found out about her past. We were a lot more arrogant and prone to overconfidence in ourselves after Julian had kicked the bucket. We were really high on ourselves back in 3237."
Sally looked over to Sonic in concern. "Sonic?"
"Think about it. We all made some dumb choices that year and a number of problems that happened were at least caused by our own decision making." The hedgehog elaborated on his point to her and everyone else at the table. "Fiona betraying us was as much his fault as it was ours' and I… Had let her down twice."
Johnny disagreed with the assessment. "No. She let you down because she had you believing that you were both grand with each other while she held onto that grudge of hers'. None of it would have happened if she had learned to trust us more."
"It's easy for us to demonize her when we aren't looking at it from her perspective and when she does things to justify your negative opinions of her. Easy to forget she's a person as well. For all we know, she's being gaslighted and manipulated by him into believing a lie." Sonic retorted a little more firmly than intended. 'And us being a pack of jerks over her secret…'
"No offense mate but where is this all coming from and when did you start caring what others think? You never seemed to display these opinions about the matter before until now."
"There's this thing called self-reflection and I recently learned to try seeing the whole situation from her perspective. Attempt to understand why Fiona Fox did what she did." Sonic answered back with his arms crossed. "See that maybe our detractors aren't entirely wrong in their assessment of us and actually look at what we're doing from their point of view. We do have this habit of thinking we're always in the right and that everyone who doesn't agree with us is wrong..."
Looking over to Gadget as he continued. "Besides, you're the one who brought her up in the first place and even if you didn't; it was inevitably gonna come up eventually. Better for our new guy here to know about it from us first instead of hearing about it from those schmucks. Let him know that we're not above screwing up ourselves. He deserves that much from us."
"What's in the past is in the past. The best we can all do is learn from our mistakes and avoid repeating those mistakes in the future." Sally makes her statement with Tails nodding in agreement. "Never looking back is more of your style."
He snapped awake after being resuscitated and coughed out the water from his lungs. Finding himself back on the surface away from the watery depths below.
"You okay little one?" A feminine voice spoke to him. The voice of his rescuer.
He looked up and was almost taken aback when he saw that a blue-eyed white-faced purple-brown owl in gold armor was speaking to him. Looking at him with concern.
The female owl continued, pointing to a hole on the ground that he had fallen through. "Heard you screaming down there in that hole and you are lucky that you fell into the water down there. Don't you know this old temple site is a hazardous place to wander around in?"
"I-I'm not from around here…" The five year old hedgehog mumbled out his words to the adult, a little intimidated by her presence. "W-Where am I?"
"You are on South Island and this is Labyrinth Zone. Home to an ancient order." The owl told him, looking the soaken blue hedgehog over. "If you don't know the name of your island or how treacherous this place is, then you must be from another island. West Side Island?"
"N-No. I came in f-from Northamer…" He told her sadly. "From Mobotropolis..."
"Wait, Mobotropolis you say?" The owl's eyes widened at the info. "Where are your parents? They might be worried sick about you."
The child's face fell in a very sad frown, thinking of his uncle and dog. "A real wicked and mean man calling himself Doctor Robotnik took my u-uncle and my beloved pet dog Muttski along with e-everyone else his robots had captured in the capital to be turned into r-robot slaves…"
The hedgehog's eyes waters up as he choked back a sob, trying not to burst into tears in front of a stranger. The owl looked on sympathetically. She had heard the news from the mainland about the Kingdom of Acorn being taken over by its former Warlord and his robots.
This blue orphan's presence on the island is definite proof that the kingdom's sudden fall to the newly formed Robotnik Empire isn't a hoax but a horrifying reality and the end of the Great War wasn't too long ago. The world didn't even get time to rebuild itself before that man decided to avariciously seek out his ambitions.
"Come with me." The owl kneels down to the little hedgehog, reaching out a hand to him. "Let's go and get you dried up before you start catching a cold..."
"As long as there's always a tomorrow, change is always possible." Charles interjects as he comes over to join them since he's on a break, having overheard the conversation. "Destiny is a suggestion, not a commandment. That's always been our family motto for centuries."
"That and a bit of inherited stubbornness." Sonic quipped before gesturing over to Gadget. "Buddy here is worried that if you were to hire him, he'll bring down your business just because of what some schmoes are saying about him. He's had a few people turn him down because of them."
Gadget stammers. "S-Sonic!"
"It's their loss. I could care less what the public majority have to say. I judge a person by the quality of their character, the values they practice and how they conduct themselves in general, not by popular opinion." Charles voiced his thoughts, nodding to the young wolf. "If you want me to give you a job, I'll be more than happy to oblige."
"I just don't want to drag down your business..."
"If some of my customers have that much of a problem with you because of what some disingenuous tabloid rag is saying about you, they know where the exit is." The senior hedgehog replied back, pointing a thumb at the diner entrance. "You are always welcome here and the same goes for the rest of you here."
Gadget is thankful that Sir Charles is willing to accept him despite what's been going on recently. "Thank you sir. I will get you my CV once I have it done."
"And he'll make you proud." Penelope adds. "Give you one-hundred percent."
"Of what, his wages or his company shares?" Johnny jokingly remarks. Earning some chuckles at the table.
"The Amamiyas are not ones for doing anything by halves." The platypus clarifies, an arm around the ever bashful Gadget's shoulder. "They take pride in their hard work and their service to others but never licks no boots."
Sonic smirked. "No one was doubting them Penelope… After all, who are you to doubt El Buddy?"
"Hamlin?"
"Besides him."
"Here you go." A metallic blue robian hedgehog came over to the booth to set down two big plates of chili-dogs in front of Sonic and Gadget with a smile. "Two plates of our famous chili-dogs as ordered."
"Thanks dad." Sonic grabs a chili-dog and takes a bite out of it while Gadget stares at the robotic hedgehog who returned the same stare. The wolf nearly mistook him for Mecha Sonic.
"This is my brother Jules. I'm sure my nephew has told you about him." Charles explained to the amazed lupine. "He was the first to undergo the Roboticizer after suffering a head wound during a mission in the Great War."
"Gave me a splitting headache." Jules lightheartedly jokes about his own life-threatening condition. "You look as if you've never seen a Robian in your life."
"Uh, well…" Gadget scratches his neck. "I've often heard about Robians from where I used to live but you're the first one I've actually seen up close."
"Pleased to be the first." The metal hedgehog nodded graciously, eyeing the glasses on the wolf's face. "Almost mistook you for my son here with those glasses of yours'."
Gadget snapped his gaze at Sonic in astonishment. "You wore glasses?"
"It was a long, long time ago. Long before I became the blue hedgehog that you see today." Sonic responded casually after swallowing up his second chili-dog. "Initially I had less than perfect vision at first but because of either my own developing powers or because of Doctor Ovi Kintobor, I've outgrown the need for them."
"I'm thinking it's a mix of both." Charles commented. "I wouldn't put it past my late friend to be responsible for your excellent vision today. You both did got on like peas in a pod."
"He was always a humanitarian at his core like Gerald was. Everything that Robuttnik ain't. Too bad he ain't around today to see what the world's become and all the good we've made since..."
Tails asked Charlies out of curiosity. "Whatever happened to him? He seemingly vanished around the late stages of the Great War."
"There was a device of his called R.O.C.C that exploded in his lab one day and he took the brunt of the blast that left him badly injured. Likely perished from it since I never saw him again after the accident."
"R.O.C.C?" Penelope wondered.
Sonic was quick to explain the acronym. "Retro-Orbital Chaos Compressor. Built to harness the power of the Chaos Emeralds to absorb all of the negative energies of the world and contain them in the emeralds to possibly eradicate all of evil or at least reduce the amount of negativity that exists in the world including aggression. That's roughly what he had explained to young me."
"He must have meant a lot to you to even remember that by heart."
Sonic smiled ruefully. "Ovi always saw the good in everyone. One out of a handful of people in my early life that helped shape me into who I am today and you now know one piece of my origin story."
"And like the superhero Dark Bat, there's always more to the backstory. Retcons and all that jazz." Tails added humorously, glancing at Sonic. "We probably know a lot about your life in the nineteen years you've been around for but there's a gap in your backstory."
Sonic reaches over to ruffle Tails' tuffs with his free hand while Jules goes to serve the other tables in the diner and Penelope heads to the Ladies' Room. "Well my good brainiac brother, mind sharing with the class here what that is?"
"Jules and Charles here know you for reasons that are obvious to anyone around here. Sally and Johnny both knew you from childhood. I've known you since we first met on West Side Island about ten years ago. Penelope and Gadget both know you after you became famous." Tails gestured to the present company at the table. "What we don't know much about is the gap between you escaping from the Old Mobotropolis in 3225 and you reemerging in 3228 over at South Island where you had your first bouts with Doctor Eggman."
Johnny was just as curious. "Yeah. You almost never talk about what you were up to in those three years."
Sonic was quick to shrug his shoulders. "Not much interesting stuff happened in the intervening years other than me learning how to hone in on my own set of combat skills that I would use in my early adventures. Think a training montage with a music track and showing a passage of time. That's why I don't talk about those years much and like most Dark Bat adaptations, it's the kind of stuff that gets glossed over in the grand scheme of things."
"And like our favorite Prince of Peace, people wonder what exactly went on in those missing years even if they might not be all that interesting in reality compared to the mystery attached to them." Sally points out. "Even that crazed fanboy of yours' wrote his fanfiction about your missing years."
"Said fanfiction is based on assumptions, not based on any factual accounts and I'd say it's one of the worst written things I ever read… Except I've read through Chao In Space: Aftermath Trilogy and those books are straight up diabolical. James Zahn, that author ain't." Sonic had to stop himself from launching into another rant about his hatred for those books and stay on topic. "We all have our quiet years."
"I must admit that it is curious how you've changed in those three years you were gone for. You were quite a different child then." Charles stated. Having vivid memories of how Sonic had behaved as a more reserved and shy child prior to the formation of the Robotnik Empire.
"That's because the world as I had known it changed thanks to one man." Sonic responded evenly, having up a half-eaten chili-dog in hand. "I changed because I grew up from a little kid to a rebel fighting against tyranny. If no one else could take the fight to Julian and survive, who else could?"
"I suppose you have a point there. It's just that I still can't believe what a change you went through in those few years we were separated for." Charlies checks his watch and sees as his break's nearly up. "Anywho, I need to get back to work. You kids enjoy yourselves."
"Alright Chuck. I'll see ya later." Sonic gave his uncle a parting smile as the older hedgehog went back to his job after bidding his nephew's friends a good day and the nineteen year old turned to Gadget. "You've met both my uncle and father which just leaves my mother left for you to meet."
"From what Sir Charles said, it sounds like your father was a soldier of the Great War."
"He was and he's also a pilot too." Sonic explained his father's military service. "You know the Hedgehog Squadron? He was a member of that group during their heyday."
"The Hedgehog Air Squadron?" Gadget got a nod from Sonic, having heard of the group due to their fame. "By any chance were you named after their late ace pilot Sonic Joe?"
Sonic Joe, a hedgehog who's been revered by fellow aviators around the world as one of the greatest that ever sat in the pilot's seat. Having tragically met his demise in a plane accident prior to the start of the Great War and before Sonic was born.
"Nah and before you ask; the original Tornado didn't belong either to him or dad. It just so happened to be the one that I took to escape to South Island."
"Why South Island?"
"...When you're a child seeing your world coming down and your survival instincts kick in, you don't tend to think everything through. Guess I figured I'd be safer anywhere out of Julian's reach. I wasn't strong enough to take him at that age." Sonic answered with a shrug and having given Gadget a lot more insight into his hero's life than he ever thought he would. "Had to go the long way in being ready to fight evil like Dark Bat had to learn several forms in his war against crime."
Penelope eventually came back to the booth. "Did I miss anything?"
"Just Sonic's usual ramblings." Johnny joked with the hedgehog doing a mock offended look.
"Gasp! I thought we were both cool dudes?"
"Depending on what one considers cool."
"Well, I'm sure Sticks can provide an answer to that one if we're to ask her."
"She would think both of you are more silly than cool from what I know of her personally." Sally remarked to the pair and got a smirk from Sonic.
"We never paid to go to clown college."
"If she were here, she'd say you both went in for free."
"A clown can be handsome and cool as a tiger." Sonic said with Sally and Tails tittering to themselves.
"Talk about Sonic's least expected sentence of the year…" Penelope turned her head to Gadget. "Speaking of tigers, how's your crush been doing these days?"
Gadget mindlessly plays with his straw. "Last time I saw her, she seemed to be doing okay with herself but that's before I went off to South Island. Probably moved on with her life..."
"And you didn't even think to get her number beforehand?!"
"Oh?" Sonic cocked a brow, smiling knowingly at Gadget. "And just who is this crush of his'?"
"Tatiana Tiger. Went to school with us and a nice girl from what I can remember of her. Seen as the envy of most girls in her year and Akira here had a big crush on her."
"T-That was years ago!" Gadget huffed indignantly. "And if I recall, you had a crush on Luke Periwinkle yourself!"
"So?" The platypus smiled coyly. "Difference is your crush isn't behind a screen and your big sis here is well aware of how much you like her but could never muster the courage to confess to her pretty face even with my encouragement~"
"That's rather cute." Sally smiled at that. "A few of our members have been in that same spot like Amamiya has."
"Yeah. Just ask Tails here about his troubles with Zooey during our vacation over at Bygone Island." Sonic pointed his thumb at Tails. The fox blushing from being put on the spot.
"Sonic!"
"What? We know how much you like Zooey and the struggle to ask her out." The hedgehog said nonchalantly. "You even asked me for advice once."
"And like the rest of Team Sonic's dating tips, they didn't help me much and Eggman of all people who gave me the most useful one by being myself with her!" Tails points out.
"Please, Mr. Egghead ain't exactly Mr. Plow himself."
The innuendo flew over Tails' head. "I don't know what Mr. Plow has to do with any of this but his only mistress is Science herself."
"And don't act like you haven't been there yourself once." Sally said to Sonic with a knowing smirk and the hedgehog knew what she meant by it. "If I remember, there was that time—"
"Not in front of the child!" Sonic interrupted with Tails furrowing his brow in annoyance.
"I'm not a child! I'm a teenager old enough to drink coffee!"
"Tails. Your mother would kill us and make stew out of us if you learned something before you're old enough to be able to know about it."
"Really? Discussing aged eighteen and above subjects in front of me out of everything is where you draw the line? Shadow was literally going around saying damn—"
"Language Tails. Every bad word you say makes each strand of Jimmy Robinson's hair disappear." Sonic chided him much to Penelope and Sally's laughter. The hedgehog finishing up his plate of food.
"It's not the battles or the adventures, it's craic like these that makes it worth joining the team." Johnny says to Gadget, the wolf in the middle of eating a chili-dog. "It's never a dull day in the quiet periods. There's that time we were having lunch at this very diner and out of nowhere, Sonic suddenly declares that he's going to become a clown. Saying we've kept him down long enough."
"I said I was going to become a jester Johnny. There is a distinct difference between the two. One acts as a bumbling fool and giving people cream pies, one's a speaker of truths under the guise of a fool and sharp on the uptake." Sonic corrected and insisted on the right terminology. "And it wasn't that out of the blue…"
Gadget sat back and listened away to the conversation at the table. Learning a lot more about his teammates today including when Sally went through her blonde phase and the time she was as pink as Amy Rose as Sonic teasingly puts it while hearing how his childhood friend had managed since he last saw her years ago.
In a way, he felt like he really is among friends who aren't afraid to razz each other while knowing their boundaries and all having a good laugh together. How special he feels to actually be allowed to know that much about his heroes as people including learning Sonic's real name. Enough to help him to feel like he's really one of them.
While chatting away at the table, Sonic thought about both his uncle's and Tails' earlier questions. Letting the memories flow through his mind and remembering when he wasn't the hedgehog he would eventually become. A little frightened child trying to survive in a world turned upside down and an orphan uprooted from the life he once knew.
Inside a homely and somewhat secluded hut, the owl just threw in one last log to a fire she lit up at the fireplace. "It should warm you up in a few minutes."
"T-Thank you…" The hedgehog huddled up near the warm glowing amber and wrapped the blanket around himself for warmth. Staring at the flames.
"Apologies if the hut isn't quite as homely as your own. I don't often get that many visitors up here." The owner of the hut apologized, going off to grab some food for the young houseguest. "Might I ask what you were doing back there?"
"I… I was trying to find food and shelter after crashing here. Didn't know where I was and just went around hoping to find civilization around here." He told her. "Is it just you around here?"
"There are several settlements scattered throughout South Island. There's Sparkling Zone, Gigaopolis and Sunset City as the big ones as well as smaller ones like the town of Green Hills over in Green Hill Zone. You must have landed somewhere around a less charted part of the island near the Labyrinth Zone."
"You go to those places?"
"Only if I have to. Otherwise, I prefer the wilderness to concrete jungles." The female owl returned with a plate of food including an apple and a cup of water before handing them to the child. "Here. Hope you don't mind the selectio—"
The little hedgehog ravenously gobbles up the apple and everything else on the plate so quickly that she thought the foods were blinking out of existence. Only leftovers like the apple core were left to prove they once existed.
He'd shyly hand her back the plate in a quiet voice. "Thank you…"
"Oh dear…" She now realized the severity of the young mobian's situation and set aside the plate to sit up next to him. "Were you really that hungry?"
"I-I didn't want to g-get captured by those Badniks of his' a-and I got separated f-from the evacuation group that all my friends were with…" The five year old frowned to himself. "Either they all made it to safety or got captured but I was too much of a scaredy-cat to go back and look for them…"
The adult mobian assured him gently. "You're no scaredy-cat for not wanting to risk capture. You acted out of an instinct for survival and it brought you here. It's only natural that you felt afraid."
"I'm sick of feeling helpless!" The child voices his frustrations out to her as she's the only soul around to lend an ear to him. "I just wish I could be stronger and faster. Be able to stand up to that evil man and his machines. Free everyone from his hold including Uncle Chuck."
"Neither of us have the power to take on an entire empire. Not against one made of legions of machines and when resistance is too disorganized to fight it." The owl told him but not talking down to him as much as she is letting him know the difficulty such a mission entails. "It would be nigh impossible to dare take them directly. Futile unless there is a way."
"Then… Then I'll find that way somehow because I would rather fly into the sun than to ever acknowledge that blob of a man as ruler of the world." The hedgehog's brow furrowed into a determined one. "My uncle had told me that once upon a time ago, people of history thought reaching the moon was impossible but they eventually figured a way to get there."
"You're young. You don't have the life experience the adults have and war is not something a child should be getting intimately familiar with."
"It'll be a matter of time before he sets his sights on this island and I'd rather be ready for him when he comes over. I just need the training." The child looked up to her, eyes not that of a kid but of someone who's come to his own conclusion. "All I want to do is stop his reign of terror and make him pay for his ways."
She had initially taken him for a scared runaway. This person has lost everything and his life changed forever. Whether it's due to his near-death encounter with the water or something much deeper, it appears to her that he has nothing to lose.
"No. What you need is stability in your new life because vengeance for some is a path that can easily lead towards one's own corruption. One that gives way to far darker temptations and ultimately the poisoning of one's own grip on the self." The owl shook her head. "I can help train you both in combat and finding your balance."
"What balance?"
"The balance that gives us clarity, composure and control. With a state of zen, you can overcome any challenges in your way and find peace within yourself." She told him gently and calmly, the hedgehog taking in her words. "What's your name, little one?"
He contemplated for a moment. His old life and everything he was then ended thanks to Robotnik. The name he's been born with, the personality he had and everything he ever was are all attached to that old chapter. The hedgehog he once was.
Here on South Island, he's a new hedgehog with a new attitude on life. Just needs a name to go with the new identity. Who he'll be from now on.
The child looks up to her. "I am… I am Sonic the Hedgehog."
To him, Sonic the Hedgehog is someone who ain't going to dwell on the past and be the fastest thing alive...
Author's Notes: It was just a bunch of friends hanging out at a diner before it slowly morphed into what it is now. Both Sonic and Gadget have their own backgrounds being expanded on. All coming about as I was writing along and establishing their respective histories.
With these lore details established, there's a lot more on Sonic's past and his own family than before. Flashbacks included.
What do you think? Leave your thoughts in the reviews and I'll see you all another time.