Chapter 1: Normality Gone Wrong
Everything started on what seemed like a normal day. Sun shining brightly in the sky, kids running around having fun, and, of course, a certain Doctor wreaking havoc downtown. Generally, people chose to ignore his pitiful attempts of “domination” as he always landed flat on his face when it came to brilliant plans to enslave the world. As he was doing his usual spiel, hardly anyone batted an eye at him and kept about their business.
“Argh, why won’t they listen to me?! I’m threatening right?! I’ve blown up the planet and half of the moon for Pete’s sake!” Eggman yelled in frustration as no one listened to him.
“I’m sorry boss, did you say something?” Orbot inquired nonchalantly lying next to the seat of the egg mobile.
“Even you don’t listen to me!”
“For the record,” Orbot said getting up, “none of your plans have ever been successful, and when you DO come close a certain someone always gets in your way. By the way, how DID the moon get fixed?”
“Oh come on, I’ve had a couple of successful plans! And I have no idea how the moon got fixed.”
“Oh really? Then name 5.”
“Uh, there was that time I robbed that bank?” Eggman said scratching his moustache.
“Oh wow, you broke into a bank. You want a headline on the 6 o’clock news?” Orbot said with heavy sarcasm.
“Oh shut up, I don’t see you doing any better!”
“That’s because I’m a tiny little robot, you didn’t even give me legs!”
Eggman let out a deep sigh. Had he really become such a washed out villain?
Just as he was about to put away his latest gadget, he heard the mocking tone of the only person that could drive him insane.
“Well well, what do we have here? I’m surprised you’d be showing your butt around here so soon Egghead!” Sonic called out from the top of a nearby building as Tails landed next to him.
“Ha ha, nice one Sonic!” Tails said giving him a high five.
“Oh great, just who I wanted to see.” Eggman said rolling his eyes.
“So what ‘great’ plan do you have in store for us today? An army of robots? A giant missile or laser? Or are you just gonna give up before we kick your sorry behind?” Sonic mocked.
As Eggman readied himself to banter with Sonic, he spotted a rather familiar figure walking in the street below.
“Well hello there Shadow.” Eggman said floating down to him.
“What the hell do you want fatman?” Shadow said as Sonic and Tails jumped down to the street.
“Oh nothing, I was just wondering if you’d want to team up, for old time’s sake?”
“Not on your life.” Shadow said as Amy came running up to him.
“Amy? What are you doing here, and with Shadow?” Sonic asked.
“Oh I’m following him around now since you’re such a pain in the butt.” Amy said sticking her tongue out at Sonic.
“I told you to stop following me woman.” Shadow said as Amy came up to him.
As Shadow and Amy bickered with each other, Eggman was quickly becoming annoyed with the fact that he was, once again, being completely ignored. “Oh come on! Won’t anyone take this seriously!?”
“Hard to take someone like you serious, especially with a name like Eggman.” Sonic said with a snarky smirk as Tails snickered behind him.
By this point Eggman was getting fed up with everything and was nearing his breaking point. “Alright I’ve had enough of this!” He yelled holding up some type of cannon.
“Pssh, and what’s that supposed to do?” Sonic said not feeling threatened in the slightest as Shadow and Amy looked up at Eggman.
“I-honestly have no idea. Orbot what exactly does this thing do again?”
“How should I know? You’re the one that built the stupid thing!”
“Seeing as this is getting nowhere fast, I think I’ll be off.” Shadow said walking away with Amy tagging closely behind.
“Oh no you don’t! No one disrespects me and gets away with it!” Eggman said aiming the weapon at Amy and pulled the trigger.
“Amy, look out!” Shadow jumped in front of Amy and took the shot straight to the face.
“SHADOW!” Amy yelled as Shadow fell to the ground.
“Oh my god!” Sonic and Tails said in unison.
“And now for the girl.” Eggman grinned maniacally and fired at her.
Amy was too distracted and received a shot to the back of the neck and fell limply on top of Shadow.
“AMY! You’ll pay for that Egghead!” Sonic yelled angrily and shook Amy a bit.
Tails flew straight for Eggman and managed to dodge a couple shots before reaching his egg mobile. “End of the line you big fat jerk!”
“I don’t think so.” Eggman said sucker punching Tails right in the jaw knocking him off the egg mobile.
Tails hit the ground with a thud and rubbed his face. “Hey, you can’t punch a kid! That’s child abuse!”
“Oh like I care! Now, time to join your friends!” Eggman said firing a shot directly at Tails.
“Tails, NO!” Sonic yelled jumping in front of the line of fire taking a hit to his chest.
“SONIC!” Tails screamed with tears in his eyes.
“I’d like to say it’s been a pleasure knowing you, but it really hasn’t.” Eggman said aiming the gun at Tails.
“You’ll pay for this.” Tails said before blacking out after a shot to the gut.
“Yes! Yes! I’ve finally beaten them! Woo!” Eggman cheered and danced a little. He floated closer to the ground and hopped out to see what his invention had really done.
“It looks like they’re only unconscious.” Orbot said inspecting Shadow’s face which didn’t have even a scratch on it.
“Unconscious! That’s all this stupid thing does! What a piece of junk!” Eggman said taking a glowing object out of the gun and threw it to the ground stomping on it until it shattered into a hundred little pieces. “Oh well, at least I still have this chaos emerald.”
“And to think, not a soul even witnessed your triumph.” Orbot said hopping into the egg mobile.
“What are you talking about? There were tons of people here just a minute-” Eggman said trailing off as he noticed the square had become completely desolate. “Ugh, let’s just get out of here before they wake up.”
With Orbot in tow, Eggman flew off into the distance leaving Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Shadow passed out on the sidewalk.
A few minutes later, Cream and her mother Vanilla happened to be walking by each with shopping bags in their hands.
“Wow, this place is totally deserted!” Cream said fighting the wind.
“Well the wind did pick up and it got a bit chilly, maybe everyone decided to head elsewhere?” Vanilla said looking around until she spotted something across the street.
“You see something mom?” Cream asked standing on her toes to get a good look.
Vanilla’s face went pale. She dropped her bags and ran over to the other side of the street. Cream ran after her mother and gasped at what she saw.
“Oh my gosh, are they okay?!” Cream asked her mother who was frantically digging through her bag for her phone.
“Got it!” Vanilla said yanking the phone free from the clutter of her purse. “I’m going to call an ambulance, you sit tight okay Cream?”
Vanilla quickly dialed 911 and within 10 minutes, several ambulances pulled up to the curb. By this time people had seen the ambulances and started to crowd the square again eager to see what the commotion was about.
“Ma’am, do you know what happened here?” A head EMT asked Vanilla who had taken a seat on the curb.
“I have no idea what happened, I was just shopping with my daughter and found them like this.” She explained to the man.
“I see, well fortunately it seems none of them sustained any serious injuries. We’ll have to take them to the hospital just to make sure though.” He said as Tails was loaded into an ambulance.
“That’s the last of them!” A female EMT called as she pushed Tails inside.
“Alright everyone, let’s get these guys to the hospital!” The man called.
“Do you mind if we tag along with you? They’re very dear friends of mine and I want to make sure they’re alright.” Vanilla asked standing up.
The man thought about it for a moment. “Hmm, alright. I don’t see any harm in it, climb in the back please.” He said leading them to the ambulance that Tails had been loaded into.
Vanilla and Cream sat across from 2 other EMTs and began the bumpy ride to the hospital.
Elsewhere, Knuckles happened to be in Station Square that day and was enjoying his lunch at a local diner.
“Ah grapes, my all-time favorite.” He said popping a couple in his mouth.
“Hey, turn the TV up a little!” Another man called from a table in the back.
The man behind the counter turned the volume up a ways grabbing Knuckles’s attention.
“Authorities are still looking into who is responsible for the attack, in the meantime the 4 injured individuals are being transported to the Station Square hospital as we speak. So far, only these 4 have been injured; the famous hero Sonic the Hedgehog, his young friend Miles Tails Prower, Amy Rose, and Shadow the Hedgehog. We’ll have more on this story later this evening.”
Knuckles spat out his coffee spraying the man behind the counter in the process. “Oh, uh, sorry dude.” He apologized to the man who had an annoyed look on his face. The man sighed and started wiping himself off as Knuckles bolted for the door.
“Hey! You’ve gotta pay for that!” The man motioned to the empty plate.
“Oh, sorry ‘bout that.” Knuckles apologized and dumped a couple rings onto the table and ran out of the diner. Fortunately, he knew exactly where the hospital was on account of being there himself more times than he could count and ran as fast as he could.
Back at the hospital, Vanilla and Cream sat in the waiting room as the doctor checked over everyone. Vanilla had started reading a magazine while Cream was having fun with some coloring books. After a few minutes of waiting, Knuckles came rushing in and made a beeline for the front desk.
“Can I help you?” The lady at the desk asked him.
“Yeah, do you have any patients by the names Sonic or Tails?”
“Ah yes, they just came in about 20 minutes ago. The doctor is still seeing them right now so you’ll have to wait.”
“Knuckles, over here!” Vanilla called as Knuckles turned around.
“Vanilla? Why are you here?” He asked sitting next to her.
“I’m the one who called to have them brought here, well Cream and I.” She said motioning to Cream who was still busy with her coloring books.
“I hope they’re alright.” Knuckles sighed.
“I’m sure they’ll be just fine, the EMTs said that they hadn’t sustained any serious injuries.” Vanilla said as the doctor came into the waiting room.
“Are you Ms. Vanilla?” He asked walking over to where she was sitting.
“Why yes I am. Is there something wrong?”
“No, your friends are going to be just fine. You can come back and see them now.” He said leading them to the door.
Cream followed her mother and Knuckles through the door along with the doctor. The doctor led them into a large room where Sonic, Tails, Amy, and Shadow were all sleeping.
“I’m not sure when they’ll wake up, but they’ve only suffered from a concussion, nothing too bad. Although the young boy had a bit of a bruise on his jaw and backside, again nothing serious.”
“Are they in any shape to go back home?” Vanilla asked.
“Of course, there’s no need to keep them here any longer than necessary. Although you’ll have to take them home yourselves, we can help you carry them into your car if you want.”
“I’ll call Rouge and have her pick my van up and drive it here.” Vanilla said stepping out of the room for a moment.
“Man these guys really took a beating, wonder what happened to them.” Knuckles said looking at Tails’s swollen jaw.
“Rouge should be here in a few, we can just sit tight until she gets here.” Vanilla said walking back into the room.
“You really trust her not to steal your car?” Knuckles asked.
“Of course I trust her, we’re actually pretty good friends. Plus she steals gems, not cars.” Vanilla smiled.
“If you say so.” Knuckles rolled his eyes.
After a few minutes of waiting, Rouge waltzed into the room in her usual fashion.
“Well hey there guys, how’s it going?” Rouge said.
“You brought the van?” Vanilla asked.
“Yup, it’s sitting right out front.” Rouge said noticing Knuckles. “Didn’t think you’d be here big red.”
“You think I wouldn’t be there for my friends? Besides, weren’t you worried about Shadow?”
“A bit, but he’s been through worse.” She shrugged. “Now how are we gonna get these guys out of here?”
“I’ll carry them out to the van, you guys can wait in the car.” Knuckles said hefting Sonic onto his shoulders.
“Just be careful with them, they don’t need any more bumps on the head.” Rouge told him.
Knuckles carefully carried each of them to the van and with the help of Vanilla and Rouge got them situated into the back seat.
“Sorry Knuckles, looks like there isn’t enough room for you in here.” Vanilla said closing the back door.
“That’s okay, I’ll just ride on the top.” Knuckles jumped into the top of the van.
“Just don’t put any holes in the roof.” Vanilla closed the door and started the car.
After half an hour of driving, the group made it back to Vanilla’s home and repeated the same process and set the unconscious bunch into a spare bedroom with 2 beds. Knuckles put Sonic and Tails onto one bed and Shadow and Amy on the other. He wiped some sweat from his forehead and sat on the floor for a bit.
“Taking a break?” Rouge asked.
“I didn’t realize how much Sonic actually weighed, he needs to lay off the chilidogs. Tails too for that matter.”
“Looks like Sonic’s coming around.” Rouge said as Sonic started moving a bit.
Knuckles stood over Sonic as the hedgehog opened his eyes. “Hey there, you feeling okay Sonic?”
“Ga?” Sonic relied sticking his thumb in his mouth.
“Oh god.” Knuckles breathed. “Don’t tell me.”
“What? Is something….wrong?” Rouge asked confused seeing Sonic sucking his thumb. “Uh, I’m assuming that’s not normal?”
Knuckles stood there with his mouth open as a wet spot formed on the bed sheets around Sonic’s crotch. “No, that’s definitely NOT normal.”
