Spring Yard
"The name's Bunnie Rabbot. Written as Rab-bot, but was pronounced Rah-bow." Bunnie introduces herself as the hedgehog girl listens.
"Really? And what about this young man?" The hedgehog girl asked.
Sonic turns to her while leaning back and points at himself with his thumb.
"Heh. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog, a guy that goes on adventures."
"Ooh. I like your style, blue boy. I'm Breezie the Hedgehog, it's nice to be acquainted with the two of you." Breezie, the hedgehog girl, bows after introducing herself.
Breezie can see why Sonic and Bunnie are saving those in a capsule, leading her to lean closer to the duo.
"You're lucky to have me here. We might crash into my place for the night."
"Sure thing. Whaddya think, Mr. Sonic?" Bunnie asks.
"Eh, sure. I need somewhere quieter." Yawned Sonic.
While waiting, Sonic and his group are in an amusement park as they see parents and children playing in the springs and going on rides.
To Sonic's right, he sees a blue bird eating bread while staring at him.
Before Sonic raises his hand to pat the bird, it flies off as Sonic frowns and watches the family playing together.
What doesn't help is Sonic and Bunnie's loss of their families, making them lower their heads as Sonic envisioned his parents and his little sister with him, whereas Bunnie envisioned her uncle and aunt with her.
Bunnie grunts while wiping her eyes with her arm, even Sonic is silent while looking down and sulking.
Things would've been simpler if Eggman hadn't destroyed their homes.
"He's here!" Breezie calls which had Sonic and Bunnie lifting their heads up with surprise.
This time it's a limousine as if someone's here to see the group.
The window slides down as it reveals to be a green opossum in a white bucket hat and a purple fur coat.
"Daddy!" Breezie cheers with excitement while leaning on a limousine.
"Daddy?" Sonic and Bunnie look at each other out of confusion, hearing a hedgehog calling an opossum her father.
The opossum's black sclera is creeping Sonic and Bunnie out as if he's not normal.
"Get in. Take the bodies with you." Said the opossum.
"Sure. Come on, you two, your friends do need to sleep somewhere comfortable." Breezie said while opening the limo door.
Not just Sonic, Bunnie and Breezie, but the chipmunk girl, the rabbit boy and Tekno are being put in a limousine as if they're being taken somewhere safe.
Finally, the limousine moves with a single adult with a bunch of children he's surrounded by.
"Golly, this limo sure smells nice." Bunnie complements the scent of the vehicle.
"So, you're Breezie's dad, right?" Sonic asks with curiosity.
"Hmph. Of course. I raised the kid." The opossum answers.
"Really?" Bunnie asked with surprise, only for her to see Breezie fall asleep by leaning on the opossum man.
"Yeah. Notice how she calls me 'daddy?' That's because I adopted her." The opossum reveals who Breezie was.
Both Sonic and Bunnie are speechless while seeing why Breezie calls the opossum her father.
"Ahem! It seems we haven't been introduced yet. I'm Clutch the Opossum. I do business and raise children with care." Clutch the Opossum grins, even though he already has a revealing golden tooth, raising his hand towards Sonic and Bunnie. "You must be Bunnie Rabbot and this one over there is Nicky the Hedgehog?"
"That's Sonic to you, buddy." Sonic corrects Clutch while looking at him funny.
"You're right, but Mr. Sonic wants to be called Sonic rather than his real name." Bunnie points out.
"I see. You kids must've been hurt after what Dr. Eggman has done." Clutch sighs while pitying those he met.
"Yeah." Bunnie agreed.
"So where's that mansion?" Sonic asked while leaning on the seat.
"We're here." Clutch confirms their location as Sonic looks out of the window.
Sonic and Bunnie are left in awe after seeing a large building that rich people live in.
"Come with me. Tomorrow, we'll talk about your situation." Clutch picks up Breezie and nods to a couple of guys picking up more kids as Sonic and Bunnie are following.
Inside the mansion, Sonic and Bunnie are surprised to see how big and posh this building was, even there's maids that are anthropomorphic creatures like Sonic and others.
"Welcome to my mansion. Please, children, make yourselves at home." Clutch welcomes the duo while taking off his coat and hat as he appears to be a green furred opossum in a white blazer.
"Hold on a moment, gramps.what are you going to do with us?" Sonic asks while suspicious of Clutch himself.
"Paranoid little hedgehog… I'm only keeping you two here for safety. As I said, we'll discuss things tomorrow." Clutch calmly said while leaving Sonic and Bunnie to be escorted to their new rooms.
"Wait, Mr. Clutch!" Bunnie has something to say, but was dismissed as well as Sonic.
"I hope you kids get well tomorrow. Goodnight." Clutch leaves while Sonic and Bunnie are left in the same bedroom together.
In the end, Sonic and Bunnie are now alone together as Sonic sits by the door and sulks.
"I wonder if tomorrow is going to be better…" Bunnie is worried about what'll happen after what they went through earlier.
"Bunnie. What is this cause you're on about earlier?" Sonic asks.
"Oh that? Well, originally, I was thinking if you can join the freedom fighters that Sal has created. I realised that you're the real definition of a freedom fighter. But still will you join our cause?" Bunnie persuades Sonic to join while sitting down on her knees in front of Sonic.
Sonic has his choice as he closes his eyes and then looks at Bunnie with a serious look.
"Bunnie. I'll help you, but I'm not going to be a part of your cause. I fight my own fights." Sonic concludes his answer with honesty.
Bunnie can see why as she sighs and rubs Sonic's face.
"At least you're honest about that. Thank you, Mr. Sonic."
Finally, Sonic and Bunnie calms down as Bunnie puts her forehead onto Sonic's with a smile.
Even Sonic blushed with embarrassment while he looked away.
At least their night is peaceful, meaning they can sleep for the rest of the night.
In a living room, placing Breezie on a sofa and covering her in a blanket, Clutch pulls out his phone as the phone rings.
"Dr. Robotnik."
[Clutch! I have Scratch coming back empty-handed! No chaos emeralds, no employees and no hedgehog!] Eggman lets out a rant through the phone after what happened to Scratch at Marble.
[That's right! You tell him, boss, baha-hahaaa!] Scratch laughs.
[You're no better, you worthless tin can!] Eggman snaps, leading Clutch to chuckle. [And what's so funny!?]
"Doctor, do you have any idea what you have done, right?" Clutch asks calmly while sitting on his chair.
[Yeah! Breezie's a liability to my army!] Eggman growls.
"You watch that tongue of yours, doctor, you shouldn't be saying that about my daughter." Clutch speaks out bluntly while still calm.
[Whatever!]
This led to Clutch smirking, standing up and rub Breezie's face and then looking at the money he made.
"I must say a fairytale coming to life is a good thing."
[What are you talking about?] Eggman is confused.
"An old fairytale written by the famous Mary Garnet. Without a Sonic, there's no Eggman. While everyone views you as the fairytale villain, I say you're just half a character to set the play." Clutch explains his reason why he's all for it.
[Implying that little pipsqueak Nicky should fight back when I'm in the middle of making my utopia!?] Eggman exclaimed.
"Hehehe. Oh, doctor, a reminder that your ego is about to be your downfall. Big ideas, bigger ego." Clutch chuckles, hearing a low growl through his phone. "Also, if anything bad happens to Breezie, then you know what my boys will do to you. Not that she's with you anymore."
[First, the chaos emeralds, then my minions and now my source for power. Rgh! Whatever! When I meet those furballs, I'll be the one to have the last laugh! We'll see if your little fairytale comes true!] Eggman finally hangs up as well as Clutch, making Clutch smirk.
"That's right, doctor, the fairytale will come true." Clutch says while sitting back on his chair and moving his eyes. "The chaos emeralds are somewhere. Do that and I'll reward you."
"Sweet. You better pay me when this is over, old man." A purple and white furred jerboa pulls up his stetson hat with an eager grin.
As the jerboa boy leaves, Clutch looks out the large window as he frowns while thinking about the inevitable truth behind Sonic himself and how he's the perfect candidate to face Eggman.
Breezie is still in peaceful slumber as Clutch smiles.
20XX July 4th
Early in the morning, the mansion is still quiet and the ones awake are Sonic and Bunnie, leading them to leave their rooms in search of Clutch as a need for answers.
While walking, Bunnie stops after hearing whispers from behind, only for her to jolt up and quickly run towards Sonic and continue walking with him.
Finally, the room was found as the door opened.
"Mr. Clutch?" Bunnie calls while entering with Sonic.
"Hey, gramps, are you there?" Sonic also calls while looking left and right.
"Ssh. She's asleep." Clutch whispers, letting Sonic and Bunnie sit down on each chair.
Sonic folds his arms while still glaring at Clutch, waiting for answers.
"Now let us discuss multiple things. I would like to thank you two for rescuing my daughter."
"It's no problem, mister. We're happy to help anyone in need." Bunnie giggles.
"Although you did save her, I'd like to have some answers. Sonic." Clutch looks at Sonic after knowing what he heard from Eggman.
"What?" Sonic is listening.
"I heard you got a couple of chaos emeralds. May I see them?" Clutch is hoping Eggman's right about the chaos emeralds.
Reluctantly, Sonic reveals 2 gemstones that Scratch lost earlier.
"Blue and red. I knew the day would come." Said Clutch, closing his eyes as he predicted.
"Huh?" Sonic and Bunnie are confused.
"These gemstones are the key to grant miracles. What they have is infinite power and mystical energy. It seems Dr. Eggman is using it for his own selfish needs, but there's a flaw to it." Clutch raises his finger.
"What's that?" Bunnie asks.
"They reject the power for evil, meaning the doctor's chance of using their power is very slim which is a perfect opportunity to take them from him. But they're also power sources that can be used as ultimate weapons of mass destruction." Clutch continues.
Sonic and Bunnie are silent while hearing the purposes of the chaos emeralds.
"Their origin is a mystery, meaning there's no questions nor answers to these, but they're the key to grant miracles." Clutch concludes and reveals the purple emerald from his hand and places it in front of Sonic and Bunnie. "3 emeralds, 4 to go."
"Four!?" Bunnie exclaimed.
"Wait, shouldn't there be 6 that Bunnie told me?" Sonic is more confused about the amount of emeralds there are.
"Apparently, there's more than 6. These things can manifest themselves as if they're sentient." Clutch explained.
"In other words, one of them is missing?" Bunnie is unsure if it's true.
"Not missing, but hidden somewhere, even it could be inside one of you two." Clutch reveals the truth behind the 7th chaos emerald.
Sonic and Bunnie look at each other and then themselves, still no emerald.
"Moving on, have you ever heard of the author of the fairytale, Mary Garnet?" Clutch asks.
"I heard." Sonic said as Bunnie quickly turned towards Sonic. "She wrote Sonic: the Hedgehog who runs faster than the sound. If anything, you're looking at the real deal." Sonic points at himself while revealing he's the fairytale.
This had Clutch laughing as he can see Sonic's arrogance, even worse, he's amused by the way Sonic speaks.
"What's so funny, gramps?" Sonic asked.
"Listen up, little 'Nicky,' the things you say are just absurd. Here's how I burst your little bubble: you're not 18, you're just an ordinary kid that's too kind, even trying too hard to have an attitude, you're too slow, you do have a strong sense of justice, but you caved in to demands like an obedient little dog." Clutch calls out as Bunnie gasps out of shock, even Sonic is intimidated to the point that he's speechless.
"Mr. Clutch, wait!" Before Bunnie intervenes, Clutch angrily hisses as Bunnie shrieks and jumps back out of shock and fear.
"Where was I? Oh yes, an obedient little dog you are. You may be impatient, not too attentive and loyal to friends, even strangers, but you're just a kid that doesn't know anything, even beauty and nature dies off, you're never independent and have a lack of confidence and courage. In the end, you're just too slow." Clutch concludes as Sonic falls to his backside out of fear and shock, realising that Clutch has caught Sonic's mentality.
Bunnie hugs Sonic as Clutch is standing straight and looks at both Sonic and Bunnie.
"Sonic the Hedgehog, if you want to be that fairytale, then stop thinking about being one and be who you really are. You can leave now." Clutch finishes his speech as Bunny lifts Sonic from the floor.
After the door closes, Clutch smirks as he's about to wait for the outcome and then look at Breezie sleeping.
"Rise and shine, little hedgehog."
As for Sonic and Bunnie, Sonic is still shocked after the truth hits him.
"Mr. Sonic…"
"But… I… Ngh!" Sonic then runs off as fast as he could as Bunnie raises her arm, but is unable to outrun Sonic himself.
"Ah…"
"Please understand, miss. Bunnie. There's greater potential in Sonic. I need you to keep a secret." Clutch appears as Bunnie turns around, only for Bunnie herself to listen to Clutch's whisper.
"Really!?" Bunnie gasped.
Clutch nods.
Bunnie can tell why he needed Sonic to accept his status and find out who he truly was.
What Bunnie needs to do is to help Sonic to cheer up and continue moving forward.
