Note: This fic reflects a head-canon that Advance 2 is set after Adventure 2. Something that will be more noticeable the further along we go.
In a forest clearing not too far from civilization, a blue mobian hedgehog with white gloves and red shoes sat underneath the shade of a large tree surrounded by various birds and small animals. With his eyes closed and a content look on his face, one would be forgiven for assuming that the teenage hedgehog was sleeping.
In truth, the legendary hero Sonic the Hedgehog rarely slept for more than a few hours every couple of days. The energy that gave him his trademark super speed made sure of that.
Sonic was however taking a short break after his last adventure; when he had fallen into an abandoned mine and found one of the seven Chaos Emeralds. Sonic had kept his eye out for the mystical gems after they had scattered in the wake of the Space Colony Ark crisis, so he was glad to find one. Unfortunately the emerald's green mystical light had also attracted the giant worm-like monster that had forced the mine to be abandoned in the first place.
After a harrowing escape from that, Sonic was content to just enjoy the sounds of the world around him for a while. Whether it was a peaceful forest or a chaotic city, Sonic sometimes just enjoyed opening his ears to the world around him. Besides, a loud noise or misspoken word could always be the start of his next adventure.
Sure enough, right as Sonic was preparing to get up and back on the road, he heard what sounded like a little girl screaming at the top of her lungs. Before any of the small animals in the forest knew what happened Sonic sped out of the clearing. Leaving nothing but a gust of wind following a blue streak that began moving through the forest.
Sonic came to a sheer cliff and used the incline of a nearby hill to shoot himself up it. As he flew up, Sonic wondered what could have caused such a scream. Someone being merely frightened? Or actually threatened by something? Either way the quick hedgehog was prepared for whatever was thrown his way.
As Sonic reached the top of the cliff he got the answer to his musing, a bee-like drone targeted Sonic and charged the cannon on its tail to take Sonic out. The drone didn't even get the chance to regret its actions as Sonic used the momentum of climbing over the cliff and entered his ball state. Sonic's weight slamming into it, combined with his ball form's buzzsaw like qualities, destroyed the drone in one hit.
Sonic turned to examine his work and recognized the drone he destroyed as a Buzz Bomber. Just one of a variety of badnik drones created by his arch-nemesis Dr. Eggman, their animal looking forms being some bizarre metallic mockery of nature. Sonic frowned, he had truly hoped helping to save the world not too long ago had helped Eggman turn over a new leaf. But badniks in the area combined with what sounded like a child screaming seemed to indicate otherwise.
As if on cue Sonic heard the girl scream again and took off, once more leaving a blue streak in his wake.
As Sonic blasted through the forest the number of badniks grew, turning the entire place into a deadly obstacle course. Rhino bots tried to trip him up, bee drones tried to strike him from the air, and monkey bots hung from the trees tossing coconut shaped bombs. The spike traps Eggman liked to add to his areas of occupation to trip up Sonic didn't help matters either, ever since their first battle the spikes had been a literal pain in his butt. For Sonic however this was his true comfort zone; jumping, leaping, and even grinding through the forest on Eggman's equipment. Smashing whatever robots got in his way before they could so much as detect him. Danger was never more than a second away and Sonic lived for the thrill of it.
It helped that every few seconds Sonic would hear that little girl screaming again, louder each time. The screaming served as both motivation and a form of radar that helped Sonic close in on his target, which was in another forest clearing. Sonic saw the source was a young cream-colored bunny girl crying her eyes out and occasionally screaming. And Sonic couldn't blame her given she held tightly in a metallic hand that protruded from a tall crimson red ATV.
And sure enough, there was Dr. Eggman's fat, bald, and mustached form sitting in the driver seat. The Doctor always tried to look regal with his gold pinned red suit and coatails. But it was always hard for Sonic to take him seriously. Especially when he was yelling at a little girl who was crying her eyes out, "Last chance, brat. Give me what you stole!"
"Or else I'll pop the life from you." The mad doctor added in a low growl as the girl's cries turned into screams again.
That was enough for Sonic to act, whatever Eggman wanted was usually hazardous for the health of the planet. The fact that he threatening to kill a little girl for it was just an added hint of depravity. Sonic ran right front of Eggman's ATV and began mockingly lecturing the doctor with a cocky grin, "Ya know Egghead, kids tend to be more cooperative if you're not squeezing them."
The girls screaming abated to simple crying as both gazed down at Sonic. Eggman's glasses hid his eyes but his long brown mustache's movements showed that Sonic's arrival had grated on him, "You are the last thing I need, rodent."
"Aww, and here I thought you were counting the days since you last saw me." Sonic mocked with a flick of his nose.
Eggman growled, "I only count the days until I crush you with my own hands."
"Your own hands huh?" Sonic smirked, "Surely I thought you'd try unleashing some world destroying calamity again. Third times a charm and all that."
Eggman huffed, "I'll deal with you and your incessant illogical rambling later, rodent. This girl has stolen my prize and I intend to get it back, one way or another."
Before Sonic could react, Eggman shifted his ATV into reverse and beat a hasty retreat through the forest. The girl began to scream for help as she was taken along with it.
"Oh no you don't!" Sonic cried as he gave chase through the forest. As Sonic gained on Eggman both combatants sped out of the forest and into a long grassy plain. At the end of which Sonic could make out the silhouette of a small village by a lake. Sonic knew he had to end this fight fast before they reached it or this fight risked having a body count.
Sonic got behind the giant ATV but as he was about to shout some words of reassurance to the captive girl, a second mechanical arm burst out of the ATV. This arm however didn't have a hand, just a giant hammer that it raised to crush Sonic. The speedster didn't even pretend to give it a chance, running under the hammer as it slammed into the ground. Switching to his ballform Sonic began cutting into the exposed underbelly of the ATV, messing up its drive-train and causing it to jump a bit. Sonic fell from his attack, narrowly avoiding a second hasty blow from the hammer.
As Sonic reoriented himself he shouted at Eggman, "Hey isn't this Amy's thing? Does Amy know you're stealing her thing?"
Eggman responded by attempting to sweep the hammer at Sonic. It almost caught Sonic off guard but he was quick enough to leap over the hammer and slam into the ATV again, causing it to jump once more and throw Sonic off.
"Maybe you should ask Amy for lessons on using that hammer correctly!" Sonic said with a cheeky grin as he approached the ATV for another attack.
Sonic saw Eggman getting more frustrated as he began fumbling with the console. Normally that was Sonic's intent with his quips, a flustered Eggman didn't think straight. This time however the result wasn't what Sonic hoped as the hammer began rapidly striking the ground all over the place, serving as a sort of makeshift shield. The hedgehog had no choice but to pull back before he was crushed by a lucky blow. As Sonic saw the berserk hammer and the village getting closer by the moment his brow furrowed. There was no more time for joking around, this fight had to end now. Especially because Eggman was now in a mood where he'd take out his anger on innocent people thanks to Sonic's cocky prodding.
Sonic saw that the slamming had no pattern to exploit but realized the hammer's arm wasn't protected at all. The heroic hedgehog picked up his speed and ran around the ATV rapidly, going so fast that the ATV couldn't effectively rotate to target him. Once Sonic was sure the ATV couldn't face him he sliced the hammer arm in half and in the same movement slammed into the ATV and ripped right through its drive-train. Finally cutting the train apart and forcing it to stop as it also began to detonate, various tiny explosions beginning to occur all across it.
"Don't think you've won this fight you rodent!" Eggman shouted as he detached his hovercraft from the ATV and fled towards the village.
Sonic didn't know if the Doctor was going to attack the village or was simply fleeing in that direction and he was tempted to pursue. But he also had a little girl to save from being caught up in a fireball. So he sliced through the metal arm holding the girl and caused it to drop her. Before she could hit the ground however, Sonic scooped her up in his arms and beat feet away from the ATV. Just a second later a final fireball claimed the vehicle and left only various pieces surrounding a bit of scorched earth.
Sonic looked to the village and didn't see any badniks or giant robots converging on it, causing him to breathe a sigh of relief. Eggman really was just retreating to lick his wounds and the day had been saved for real. So the hedgehog looked down at the little bunny girl in his arms, her gloved hands shakily covering her crying eyes, and softly said, "You can open your eyes now. You're safe."
The girl slowly moved her hands from her eyes, her fear and tears slowly evaporating as she looked up at Sonic with a mixture of relief and awe with her wide brown eyes. Sonic could see she wasn't physically hurt but meeting Dr. Eggman tended to leave even grown adults a bit shaken so he asked, "Are you okay?"
"I- I'm okay now." the girl replied sweetly and Sonic gently put her down on her feet. As she straightened out her knee length orange dress Sonic finally got a good look at the girl, she was positively tiny compared to Sonic, only coming up to his stomach. The way she looked up at him, with wide eyes and an expression of confused innocence, told the teenage hedgehog that this girl was just a child. Which confused him, going after children wasn't something Eggman's usual MO unless he had a reason.
Sonic knelt down to face her and asked as softly as he could, "Do you mind if I ask what Eggman said you stole? I'm not accusing you, but the Doc doesn't do anything without motive."
The girl produced out a blue Chaos Emerald, "I think he might have meant this. I found it a few days ago in the woods." At that her voice started to waver, "But that mean man grabbed me and said I stole it." Before Sonic could do anything she started tearing up again, "I didn't know what he was talking about at the time and he was being so mean and loud, I didn't know what to do."
Sonic put a reassuring hand on her shoulder as she started to cry, "Don't worry, the Doc's just a mean bully who thinks everything he's interested in belongs to him. It wasn't actually his." Sonic produced the green emerald he had gotten earlier in the day to prove his point, "These two emeralds are part of a set of seven. They're all very powerful if bought together and Eggman wants that power for himself."
The girl recomposed herself slowly, "So I didn't steal anything?"
"Pretty much, the Chaos Emeralds don't really have an owner." Sonic explained, "If you use them together they fly away right after."
"That's strange." the girl added as she examined her emerald. Something Sonic agreed with, "It is, but it makes abusing their power much harder for guys like Eggman."
The girl's face suddenly got inquisitive, "You said that mean man's name was Eggman?"
Sonic nodded as the girl lit up with a bit of excitement. Sonic knew what was coming next as the girl said, "Then you must be Mister Sonic!"
The famed hedgehog was a bit caught off guard by the "Mister" added to his name. But he still stood up and rubbed his nose, "The one and only, and you are?"
"My name is Cream." the girl replied before a look of shock came over her, "Oh, I completely forgot."
Before Sonic could say anything Cream bowed, "Thank you for saving me, Mr. Sonic."
"Um, you're welcome," Sonic said, a little confused at how polite and formal this girl was. No one had ever really bowed in his presence before and he didn't much care for it if he was being honest. But there was no sense in objecting to someone trying to be polite, no matter who weird it felt. So Sonic chose to change the conversation topic, "Do you live far from here Cream?"
Cream shook her head, "No, my mother and I live in the nearby village."
"Then how about I walk you home?" Sonic said, reaching out his hand for Cream to take. Cream almost took his hand but suddenly pulled back and began looking around, slightly panicked, "Wait, where's Cheese?"
Sonic thought for a moment she had been referring to food and was a tad confused. Then he saw the tiny light blue bulbous figure of a Chao come flying out of the forest crying.
"Cheese!" Cream cried, opening her arms for the Chao to fly into and gripping it in a tight hug as it did a very rapid and worried cry of "Chao chao chao!"
Cream moved Cheese from their hug and gestured to Sonic, "I'm alright Cheese, Mr. Sonic here saved me."
Cheese flew up to the hedgehog, allowing Sonic to see that the chao was wearing a bow tie. Sonic knew people like to put accessories on their chao but he had never seen one wear a bow tie. It looked almost formal in a way.
Cheese looked at Sonic with slight suspicion before Cream grabbed him, "Now Cheese, we shouldn't be rude. This is Mr. Sonic, we know about him; he's always on the news saving people and stopping bullies."
Cheese looked at Sonic and his expression lit up, with Cream again apologizing, "I'm so sorry about Cheese, he gets really protective."
"It's fine. Now, how about I walk you both home?" Sonic said, reaching out his hand for Cream to take. The rabbit girl took his hand with a polite thank you and the two began heading back to the village with Cheese floating close behind.
After a short walk the two had arrived at the small village as people began to slowly come out of their homes. The commotion between Sonic and Eggman had caused them to hide in their homes for fear that the fight would come to their village. Most of them looked warily at Sonic as Cream guided him to a row of houses not far from the town center.
Sonic put his hand above his eyes as if to focus, "Alright kiddo, which house is yours?"
"It's just a little up the road," Cream said as she pointed to a nondescript white house about five houses down.
"Then lead the way." Sonic said as he let go of Cream's hand and followed as she began proudly marching home with Cheese right behind her. As the two approached Cream's home however, Sonic saw something out of the ordinary on the short path from the road to Cream's house. A wicker basket of food knocked over with all sorts of vegetables and bread spilling out.
Cream noticed it too and broke into a short jog; Sonic picking up the pace behind her as a pit began forming in his stomach. Cream knelt beside the basket, "This is weird, I've never seen mother leave a basket just lying on the ground or be so careless with food."
The pit in Sonic's stomach moved all over his body as he saw something hastily attached to the front door of the house. Some sort of circular grey metal device with a glowing blue circle.
Sonic grabbed it as Cream walked up, "What is it?"
"I don't know." Sonic muttered as he looked it over, trying to find some sort of button.
Cream opened the door and walked inside nervously, "Mother, we're home." No response came and the little girl's fear became apparent, "Mother? Chocola? Where are you?"
Right when Cream said that, Sonic found a small little button on the side of the device and pressed it. An action Sonic would regret as the device began emitting a hologram, one that made his heart drop as soon as he saw it.
Grinning and stroking his long mustache as if to mock Sonic, was a hologram of Dr. Eggman.
This is a fan-fic I have running on AO3 as well, but I figured crossposting wouldn't hurt. I'll be updating this daily until it's caught up with the AO3 version.