'Before he was famous, and long before he passed into heroic myth, the legendary Sonic the Hedgehog was a boy not really unlike any other his age in most regards. However, even in his youth, Sonic somehow found his way into the center stage of history, perhaps immutable destiny's way of foreshadowing his life to come. Make no mistake, though there may be many players in the tale, this story is very much still about him. We cannot discuss that time in history without discussing both Sonic and his remarkable life, for though he helped to create so much of that turbulent time's important history, he observed even more of it still.'
~Excerpt from 'The Truth in Shades of Blue: A Biography of Sonic the Hedgehog', by Professor Amrin Brannock
The Mobian Chronicles Book I PROLOGUE:'The Fastest Thing Alive'
In the wealthy Green District of beautiful Mobotropolis there had long stood a stately mansion at 226 Marble Street. Once a place of great publicity and celebrity, it had fallen into quiet normalcy with the untimely death of the house's builder and master and his wife, several years prior. Now the Hedgehog Estate was just another building on a street of equally impressive manors, its ivy-covered iron fences and verdant garden lawn still maintained by a retinue of loyal groundskeepers, its beautiful red-bricked exterior freckled by the little patches of moss and lichen that find such buildings as they age. But, in spite of the beauty of the house, the spark of brilliance and nobility that once made it shine as a beacon in the city was years gone.
The servants still carried out their daily chores with relative content, hidden away and forgotten by the public eye now that their flamboyant and famous master, Sir Jules Hedgehog, was gone. In some rooms, rustic wooden tables were still piled with the blueprints and half-done prototypes born of he and his wife's shared genius, now only left out because of reverence. The grand piano in the foyer was silent, out of tune and unplayable for years. Try as they might, the numerous maids simply couldn't keep the dust at bay. It found its way onto everything every day, adding a layer of age and finality to every quiet room, almost as if the house itself wanted to turn to dust without Sir Jules and Lady Bernadette. Indeed, it might have, were it not for one last little beacon of potential that lived within it.
The sun had just found its way into a bedroom window of the spacious Hedgehog Estate just as its occupant stirred awake. With a yawn and a stretch, the blue hedgehog boy sat up and turned, his bare feet coming to rest on the plush red carpet with a quiet thump. Sonic Maurice Hedgehog, age seven, was a enigma among Mobian children; at the same time the most mature, yet irresponsible boy most of them knew. "Shoes..." he mumbled, still drowsy as he reached under his bed to feel for the special frictionless shoes his late father had made for him. As his fingers hooked under the buckle of one, his hand felt the crumple of paper inside as he pulled it out from under the bed.
Sure enough, Uncle Charles had left him a note in his shoes again. It was the first thing he reached for in the mornings, so his uncle had found out he was more likely to read the note sooner if it was in a shoe instead of on the nightstand, or the mirror. The blue-quilled hedgehog boy rubbed the drowsiness from his emerald-green eyes and unfolded the brown parchment with a soft rustle, reading it aloud to himself in a poor imitation of his uncle's voice.
"My boy,
Don't forget that you have class at six-thirty sharp. Rosie will be furious with me if she has to keep the class waiting on you one more time. There's five mobium on the nightstand to get you a breakfast at the market on your way. Please don't turn up late for class... again.
~Uncle Chuck"
Sir Charles Hedgehog, or 'Uncle Chuck' where Sonic was concerned, inherited both Jules' estate and child and had since tried to balance his own career as an equally brilliant inventor with his new unexpected role as a surrogate father. He loved his orphaned nephew dearly, but he was rarely home. His work kept him busy and the estate was difficult for him to live in, with so many of the memories and ghosts that haunt old men in difficult times. Notes left in Sonic's shoes, 'footnotes', as they jokingly called them, were their chief means of communication.
Sonic sat the note on his nightstand as he grabbed his white gloves off it and slipped them on, tucking the large copper coin that was with them into a pocket on the back of one of his gloves. He glanced back at the note as he tightened his gloves, suddenly realizing that there was more to the message on the back of the little sheet of paper.
P.S. I really mean it, Sonic. Don't be late this time, or else I am grounding you until you're even older than me.
"Oh man! What time is it, anyway?" He asked himself rhetorically, stepping comfortably into his red and white shoes as he bent over to fasten the buckles. A quick glance at the clock on his wall woke him up better than anything else could this particular morning; class was starting in just over a minute!
"I overslept!" Sonic burst out of his room, arms flailing in a panic, rolling and tumbling down the long, carpeted foyer staircase as he struggled to get his other shoe on. “Aaah! Oof! Ow!” He stumbled up to his feet, shoes buckled as he raced into the main hall. A flying somersault sent him over the head of one of the butler in the lobby, and he bounced of the shoulders of one of the many maids, launching himself out the large double doors of his uncle's estate. He had to hurry, there was no running in the house, but despite his great haste and the chaos he caused, what he was doing did not count as Sonic actually 'running' in the eyes of he and his uncle.
For an ordinary child, reaching his teacher in the remaining, fleeting moments he had would prove impossible, but Sonic was far from an ordinary child. Born with a unique and mysterious genetic defect that hobbled his legs, he'd have been doomed by fate to a life without walking had his father not intervened.
Jules Hedgehog, brilliant inventor and scientist that he was, designed a pair of frictionless shoes for his son to reduce the effort and strain of walking. An unexpected side effect of the frictionless shoes let the boy run at athletic speeds despite what should have been an inability, and when his crippling condition surprisingly corrected itself a few years into his life, he found he could attain speeds beyond reason; far in excess of what the Mobian body was intended to run at. For Sonic the Hedgehog, there were no impossible distances, no unattainable times.
"Oh, man, grounded forever! Forever! I gotta juice out of here!" Though his uncle frowned on what the hedgehog referred to colloquially as 'juicing', the young hedgehog had a feeling he'd disapprove even more if Rosie told him about his nephew being late to class yet again. With a short sprint down the winding lawn path in order to get his frictionless run started, Sonic burst into a breakneck speed, rocketing out of the estate grounds and vaulting over the ornate metal gate in a blurring fast motion, running for his classes as if his social life depended upon it. "I'm gonna be-"
--- --- ---
Elsewhere in the city, in the packed side streets of the famed Market Square, a fruit vendor was doing his best to attract early-morning shoppers. "Come one, come all!" The middle-aged badger shouted, waving an arm and pointing to his fruit stand as he went through the same sales pitch he had delivered over and over for years. "Fresh fruit right here! Hand picked from the Garden of Life just this morning, get them while they're ripe!"
His pitch managed to attract a customer, a teenage squirrel girl who greeted him and began digging in her money pouch. "I'd like one of those red ones over there. How much are they, today?"
"Only a mere five mobium each, ma'am." The vendor tipped his blue cap to her... then perked an ear. "Say, do you hear something?" he inquired, as he held out one of the smooth red fruits for her.
She paused, perking her pointed tawny ears and swiveling them to the sides of her head, searching for something out of the ordinary in the usual bustle of the marketplace."..No, I don't hear any... wait, what's that sound?" Both she and the fruit vendor turned to look down the cobblestone street to see a rising cloud of dust rapidly approaching, with a faint voice of a young boy growing louder as it approached.
The voice became louder as a blue streak ripped by them, sending loose street debris and dust scooting down the path in its wake.
"What was that?!" the merchant asked, picking up his cap from the ground where it had fallen, the mystery voice fading away in to the distance. into the distance. "Hey! Where'd that fruit go? I had it in my hand just a..." The red fruit in his hand had vanished; in its place was a five-mobium coin.
--- --- ---
Sonic sped through the city, rocketing down side streets and alleyways, bouncing off of buildings and weaving through the bustling morning crowd at hundreds of miles an hour. As he raced through the winding, idyllic paths of his beloved hometown, he gobbled down his breakfast fruit in three large bites before winding up his arm and pitching the inedible core into a trash bin as he passed one by; the thunderous tone of the core striking against metal startling passersby, who held out hands or looked up in search of what they assumed was an incoming rain storm. Finding only clear skies, they shrugged and went about their business.
“Yaaahoooooo!" Sonic cheered at one one but himself; he was getting close now. He could see the gleam of the morning sun highlighting the face of the clock tower at Castle Acorn, and the vastly exaggerated shadows of its hands showed that he still had almost half a minute left. He turned on a dime without losing any of his fantastic momentum, leaping up to kick off of a wall and onto a set of rooftops, undoubtedly waking up the residents below him as his blurry feet hammered along their roofing tiles on his way to the Forum Gardens and the majestic clock tower where his teacher was likely waiting on him.
--- --- ---
Meanwhile, in the cosmopolitan city's Forum Gardens, Mobotropolis' most brilliant minds, Sonic's uncle among them, were assembling for a special meeting.
"Oh yes, I am truly sorry, but I do think this meeting will be well worth the time." Another blue hedgehog, Sonic's Uncle Charles stood prominently amidst his colleagues, one hand smoothing his flowing white mustache, the other resting on his cane, as he attempted to assuage the early morning bitterness of his colleagues.
“Why can't you have breakthroughs during normal work hours, Charles?” A disheveled looking rabbit tried to groom some order into his messy hair with one hand as he passed by the dignified hedgehog scientist. Another member of the group, an elderly white mouse, handed him a cup of strong coffee.
"Julian and I have been collaborating to fix the roboticizer's problems these past few weeks,” Sir Charles explained, ignoring the derision of his colleague. “I'm confident that the presentation we have prepared today will-" The old hedgehog abruptly fell silent, fumbling gently for his spectacles to take a better look at the glint on the distant rooftops that had caught his eye. "Oh, no... here he comes, save the papers!" Sir Charles scooped up a handful of blueprints and clutched them tightly to his chest, closing his eyes and gritting his teeth as another of his colleagues, a squirrel in a white coat, threw himself upon a large stack of papers.
Almost the entire assembly flew into panic, scrambling to gather, secure, or otherwise restrain every lose object in reach integral to their research and presentations. A split-second later, Sonic the Hedgehog tore through the area at the speed of sound, the shock wave in his wake sending papers and models blowing and rolling about the forum. Of all assembled in the Forum Gardens only one figure, a tall tiger in a black suit, stood unmoved; only brushing a mote of dust off his sleeve before returning to his silent and statuesque pose, hands folded, staring at nothing in particular through his dark glasses.
Once the roar of air passed them by, Sir Charles stood up and fixed his windblown quills and clothing, looking sheepishly back at the other forum-goers, one of which put a hand on his shoulder, and looked him squarely in the eye. "Please make him stop doing that..."
--- --- ---
"Five seconds!" Sonic exclaimed, looking up the tower at the clock as he raced straight up the sheer face of the structure fine gray stonework, counting down the seconds he had left to reach the top. If he was even a second late, Rosie would show him no mercy this time.
"Five seconds." Atop the clock tower, on an observation deck a few meters below the towering clock face, a young ground squirrel girl of similar age to Sonic, but dressed in a lavish gown and tiara looked up at the massive clock and smiled to herself. "He's going to be late again, Rosie." She perked her ears to listen to the rumbling ticks of the seconds passing by above her.
Next to her, an elderly chipmunk in flowing, earth-toned robes sighed and shook her head slowly. "Why is that boy always late..."
Suddenly, a blue flash shot up past the railing of the tower, landing on the face of the clock. The blurry figure slowed down as it slid down the steep angle of nearby decorative railings, landing beside the two and unrolling to reveal the blue hedgehog just moments before the clock gave a heavy, mechanical 'tock', shifting its massive minute hand to the thirty minute mark with grim finality. The mighty tower's inner mechanisms gave out six long chimes and a shorter one. "Way past cool! I'm the best!" Sonic thrust his arms in the air as he fell backwards onto his backside and sat there to catch his breath.
Rosie stared at him incredulously. "Sonic, where did you come from? How in the world did you... oh no! Surely you didn't!" She leaned over the rails to look down at the chaos in the Forum Gardens as the tiny people far below ran about collecting their windblown papers and equipment.
"Hey Sally!" Sonic exclaimed. "I did it!"
“Did what, silly?” Sally shook her head at her friend, chiding him playfully. “Make a big mess?” The young princess joined her matron in looking down and marveling at the sheer havoc the hedgehog had wrought in the Forum Gardens yet again. She giggled and shook her head. "Boy did you ever, Sonic."
“But!” Sonic interjected, still sitting on the floor of the observation deck. “Wait a sec, I was on time for class! That's what matters!”
“Sonic...” Rosie stepped back from the rails, removing her glasses and massaging the bridge of her nose in exasperation. “I had hoped you'd arrive on the regular time, but today was the only day I would not have punished tardiness. Class has been postponed. There's a meeting of the Scientific Council this morning, and we can't use the Forum Gardens until they're done. Didn't you notice it? You know, the one you ran through?”
“Oh, yeah!” Sonic nodded, eager to be right about something, at least. “I saw it! I said hi to Uncle Chuck, but I don't think he heard me. I was goin' pretty fast.” He paused to get up and dust himself off from the long run. “So... I'm not in trouble right?”
Rosie sighed and rested her elbows on the railing again, her head in her hands. “I didn't have gray hairs before this boy...”
“Aww, c'mon, Rosie.” Sally stuck up for her friend, running over to him as fast as her gown and shoes would allow. “He didn't know any better, right?” She faced her tutor with all the capricious indignance a girl her age could muster. “And he was on time...”
“Oh... all right.” Rosie relented, straightening her aging back with some difficulty and turning to face the children, a finger raised in her usual lecture pose. “I will inform Sir Charles that you arrived on time for regular class. You will not be punished for tardiness.”
Sally cheered. Sonic leapt skyward with an arm raised triumphantly and shouted his victory over the Mobian disciplinary system.
“However...” Rosie's voice took a slightly ominous twinge to it, “it is entirely up to him if you will be punished for bowling over the entire Scientific Council in your attempt to make it here on time. Again.”
A dark pallor of doom settled over the hedgehog boy as his fate became clear. His quills and ears flattened out. His shoulders and head slumped. The princess, his stalwart companion and often-fellow troublemaker, saw a losing battle and discreetly stepped a few feet aside of him, opting to curtsy and smile sweetly at her teacher instead of champion his cause.“... Aww maaan...”
It's the height of the Great War, and a younger Sonic lives an insulated life, concerned only with the daily worries of being a child; school, friends, and getting into trouble without getting caught. Although his world is going to soon grow up a lot faster than he can, he is oblivious to the pain of the war, and the constant political intrigue of the kingdom, at least for now. His main concern in this troubled world on the verge of decline... is getting to class before he's grounded!
(You should read the chapter before reading the rest of this description! Think of this section as a 'director's commentary' of sorts.)
In my opinion, it is a critical thing to begin with something a bit more light-hearted when starting a dramatic story of this size. It draws readers in and gives them a comfortable feeling in the world; an emotional investment that will carry them through the drama to come. That's also why Mobotropolis is a bit overly shiny and sunny and perfect in this particular chapter. In reality, it's not; at least, in the reality of the story, but to Sonic's eyes, things are skewed in favor of his carefree nature.
There's two major schools of thought I weighed when deciding what to do with the prologue; one, I should make it totally unrelated to the story at large, or two, make it introductory and explanatory. I opted to leave the introduction for the next chapter, and make this more of a beginning. Sonic's day begins, the story begins, etc. Sonic's probably a lot younger than most people have seen him, (though he'll get older as the story goes on) but he's much the same character he's always been. My explanation was that since Mobians have such large heads, they have larger brains and develop faster mentally; so despite being physically a five-year-old for now, Sonic is closer mentally to a ten-year-old or so in human terms and the same goes for his other friends. It let me balance out the childish characteristics I needed with the ability to have our hero move the plot when the situation demands. This was particularly an important thing, as a stock toddler is really not very interesting, and lacks the personality and mental development to meaningfully interact in a drama of this size.
(Sonic and co. are the property of SEGA. Thumbnail icon graciously made by
I particularly enjoy the narrative you used to set up the prologue here. It paints a picture in my head of the setting, based on elements I'd associate with the words used and what I know of Sonic the Hedgehog - which isn't much, admittedly. You're really good at building a setting. I could stand to learn from that.
I particularly enjoy the narrative you used to set up the prologue here. It paints a picture in my h
