There's some sort of commotion. the Wachowskis go to check it out. A lot of stuff is smashed, there's burn marks on the road. Someone must have been going way over the speed limit. Tom asks around to try to find out what happened. Sonic notices that people are looking at him weird--whispering to each other. He can't quite make out what. Then, he turns and gasps when he sees Commander Walters.
Tom also notices him there, walking over. "Olive Garden Guy? What's going on?" Tails comes over as well. "I don't know what happened here, but it seems like a robbery, that was also part of something bigger." Noticing Commander Walter, he exclaimed, "Oh no, not that guy again." Noticing Knuckles' confused expression, he explained, "he kidnapped me and Sonic one time."
Walters said, "Don't worry, I'm only here to shed a little light on this case." He pulled out a tablet and brought up a video, turning it to show Tom.
The video showed something zipping around in the building that was robbed, smashing into guards, pausing only for a second half off-screen to pick up something small and green. Then, it jumped out a window.
Sonic rewound and paused to when it stopped. He could see a form sort of like his, but the quills were brushed up instead of down. "That guy looks sort of like--" he was interrupted by a hand being placed on his shoulder. He looked up to see another G.U.N. guy in police armor. He was about to ask what was going on when he got an answer.
"Sonic the Hedgehog, you are under arrest."
"What?!" Exclaimed Maddie. Walters remained calm. "You saw the video." Tails jumped in. "Sonic would never do that!" "I agree," said Wade's voice. The family turned to see the honorary uncle emerge from the crowd. "Sonic wouldn't steal something. At the very least, he'd leave some money for it after breaking in."
But someone in the crowd shouted, "It has to be him, what are the odds of there being two alien hedgehog that can run at the speed of sound?" Tails yelled back at her, "Me and Knuckles got here, didn't we?"
Then everybody started shouting at each other all at once. Half the people thought Sonic was too nice to do something like this, half thought it had to be him. Who else could it be?
Finally, Commander Walter yelled, "Enough of that!" The crowd fell silent. "Come on, Sonic." He said, putting a hand on Sonic's back to direct him to a black car behind him.
But Sonic turned back to his family "You can't just let him do this!" he exclaimed desperately. His eyes darted around the scene. He turned to Tom. "Dad, you don't actually think I'd do something like this, right?"
Sonic wasn't sure what he expected his adoptive father to say. What came out of his mouth definitely wasn't it.
Tom actually didn't know. It couldn't have been Sonic...but at the same time, it couldn't have not been him. The look on the hedgehog's face that followed his statement--a combination of shock, hurt, and hopelessness broke Tom's heart. But before he could say anything else, Walters was pushing Sonic toward the car.
Sonic cast one hopeless look back to the Wachowskis. He saw Tails staring in disbelief, Knuckles simply confused, and Tom turning away, while Maddie put her arm around him, trying to comfort him.
Tails, Knuckles, and Wade couldn't pull their eyes away as the black car drove away.
That night, Tails and Knuckles walked into their attic bedroom
"You mean you actually think Sonic robbed that place?!"
Knuckles explained, "I saw no evidence otherwise."
Tails didn't let up. "The guy in the video wasn't even the same color as Sonic! They were black, glowing orangish!"
"Could have been a poor quality camera." Knuckles positioned himself in front of a punching bag Maddie has bought when he moved in, deciding he needed a better way to "train" than turning the living room into a gladiator pit. Pow.
"I thought we knew Sonic better than this!" Tails continued. Knuckles didn't respond, other than unleashing another punch.
"It couldn't have been him, Knuckles! What makes you think he would want to do this?"
"I can't believe that even though you know Sonic would do anything to protect this town and the people who live here, you still think-"
And with one mighty swing, the bag came free of its pole and flew across the room.
Maddie was in the room shortly later. "Did someone get hurt, or did Knuckles just break his punching bag again?!" Tails pointed to the bag on the other side of the room. Maddie sighed. "I'll fix that in the morning. Or get one more Knuckles-proof." She climbed down the ladder.
Knuckles waited until she was out of earshot before saying, "I don't want to believe Sonic is a criminal, Tails. But with the information we have now, my honor will not let me believe otherwise. Nobody who knows Sonic would want to think he's bad."
Tails nodded. Most of the people against him were people who didn't know Sonic very well. But something Knuckles had said gave him an idea.
"Let's get some sleep. We can figure this out in the morning."
Tails hopped into his bed. He liked the way that the beds themselves had the color of the brother one to right, except Knuckles, since he was the furthest right, and the blankets were the color of the mobian sleeping under them. But I wasn't really the same looking to his right and not not seeing the blue hedgehog sleeping on his side.
Of course, he didn't actually plan on falling asleep. He waited until he was reasonably sure Knuckles was asleep, then, quietly as he could, he gathered some gadgets in his yellow backpack. Camera? Good idea. Electronic notepad? Definitely. Laser gun? He paused on that one, but decided to bring it just in case he ran into the real culprit.
Tails wasn't sure weather flying or walking to the door would be quieter. He put one foot forward and--creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak. Oops. Flying it was.
He spun his tails and lifted off. It did make a faint whippa-whippa-whippa-whippa noise, but it seemed quieter than the creaky floor. he landed in front of the door and reached out to turn the handle--
Crap. Knuckles was awake.
Tails turned around. "I was just, uh..."
"Save it. I know you want to go and collect evidence to prove Sonic's innocence, but you're not--"
"Knuckles, it's not like I'm trying to bust him out of jail or something!"
Knuckles gave him a look. "Let me finish. You're not going, without me."
This surprised Tails. "Wait, really?"
Knuckles grinned. "I said I don't want to believe Sonic is a criminal. This is my chance not to."
Tails was so happy he could hug Knuckles. "Let's go." He reached for the handle again--
The fox turned around. "What now?"
Knuckles was dead serious. "If we go that way, we risk waking the Donut Lord and Lady of Pretzels. I suggest an alternate way out of the house."
"How? The room only has one door."
Knuckles looked up at the ceiling, Tails' eyes followed. When he saw the skylight, he knew exactly what Knuckles was thinking of.
"I see what you're getting at..." he announced. He flew upward, pushing it open before going back down to pick up Knuckles.
They touched down in the yard. "Whew," breathed Tails. "You're still heavy."
"Irrelevant," proclaimed Knuckles. "We must prove the hedgehog innocent!"
Having caught his breath, Tails nodded. The two ran off into town.
Sonic was sitting in a cell. There were no bars, but there was a large blue force field across the entrance preventing him from leaving. The feeling that spawned when Tom said he didn't know hadn't left yet.
Sonic tried not to get mad at Tom. It wasn't his fault. He saw something out of context. But Sonic had a lot of anger inside right now, and it needed to go somewhere.
He was torn between giving it to G.U.N. and the doppelganger in the video, but before he could make a conclusion, someone was knocking on the cell.
Well, the wall just beside the force field. Sonic could still hear it.
"What." he said, still rather angry.
"Commander Walters would like a word with you."
Sonic turned away. "I don't think we have anything to say to each other."
"It's not something you have a say in," said the guy, putting in a code to disable the force field.
Sonic got up and followed the agent. What was the Olive garden guy going to say? Sonic was pretty sure he was just going to be terminated or something.
After what felt like forever, he arrived at a room with a table that had two chairs opposite each other. One was occupied by Walters, the other was empty.
He got up from the floor. A year or two ago, he would have made that mistake due to not understanding Earth customs. This time it was more an act of resistance.
Once Sonic was seated in the correct place, Walter began talking. "Now, I know we've-"
"You're going to terminate me, aren't you?"
There were a few moments of silence between the hedgehog and the human. Sonic was sure it was because he'd called his bluff.
Sonic raised his eyebrow. Was this a lie?
"I know we've had minor disagreements in the past-"
"You threw an electric net on me!"
"Okay, not so minor. the point is, I need your help."
Sonic continued to stare. "You, a commander of a secret government organization, need help from me, a 13 year old child."
"With super-speed and lightning powers. Any more interruptions before I go on?"
Sonic's expression didn't change. "I wasn't the one who robbed that place."
"I guess I can se--wait. You know?"
"Did...did you know from the start?"
"And..." Sonic felt his fury coming to the surface. "And you arrested me anyway!?!"
Sonic stood up. "Everybody in my hometown thinks I'm a criminal! I'm a wanted hog, and-and my own dad thinks I'm a thief!" Sonic could feel tears seeping into the corner of his eyes, and lighting began to coarse over his body. "My life just got totally uprooted, and you mean to tell me it was all because of something YOU KNEW WAS A LIE THE ENTIRE TIME!?!?"
Throughout Sonic's little speech, Walters stayed calm. "Do you think you have it out of your system yet?"
Sonic sat back down. "I think I'm good."
"The thing is, this isn't the only time that this thief has struck." He turned to the wall, which had a screen that now had a map of the world with red dots on it, presumably;y where this other hedgehog had been spotted. "He's been all over the world, causing chaos. The public was beginning to get angry, they needed to hear something good so they'd know we're protecting them."
Sonic shook his head. "So when they think you've solved the problem, but this guy goes at it again, what then? You've just made it worse for yourself."
"He's not going to," said Commander Walters. "Because of you."
"See, he's related to an abandoned program called Project Shadow, the quest to create the ultimate weapon. However, the scientist in charge went off the plan. It became too dangerous and too hard to control. We had to shut down the program and seal the project away."
"However, your acquaintance Robotnik has attempted to get the weapon for himself. In the wrong hands it could be extremely dangerous. Hell, It could be devastating in the right hands." He turned back to Sonic. "That's why we need you to get Project Shadow and bring to us so we can destroy it once and for all."
Sonic thought about it. "I'm usually don't help people who frame me for robbery and destroy my father's trust in me."
Walters said, "We didn't expect you to do this for free, of course. We expected you to be angry at our methods of getting you here. So, we do have compensation for helping us."
Sonic said nothing, but his face showed he was interested in the reward.
"We'll give you ID and adoption certificates. You and your friends live here on Earth legally, and Gardian Units of Nations won't be able to bother you."
Sonic turned away, thinking. Being able to not have to hide from the world, because no one would bother him about being there illegally. The Wachowskis weren't able to use things like commercial airlines right now because the kids didn't have ID. Tom probably was still mad because he thought Sonic was a robber, but would making himself and his brothers safe ease that? Tom wouldn't be sticking his neck out to take care of them any longer...
Sonic turned back to the commander. "Deal."
stormborns
dededos
snowghoul
vaporwave
andulkaphoto
annaxmalina
prguitarman
gummygunk
baratheonpilled
