Return to the Underground

Reunion

A/N: Everyone is 3-4 years older in this than usual. For example, Sonic, Sonia, Manic, and Shadow are 18, Tails is 12, Amy is 15, and Cream is 10.

He picked up the robot's head, looking into the black sockets that had once held the glow of life. If you could really call it life.
Sonic felt the hateful gaze coming from the doctor to his right and turned to meet his eyes. He couldn't actually see his eyes, no one really has since he left Robotropolis, but he could imagine what they looked like. Especially right now.
"Why, you...! You little...!"
Sonic cocked an eyebrow up at Eggman. "You going to finish any of those sentences?"
He growled in response. Orbot retracted into his ball form and Cubot jumped off the animal containment unit and back onto the Eggmobile next to Orbot, then also retracted. This wasn't going to be pretty.
"YOU LITTLE BRAT! YOU HAVE GOTTEN IN MY WAY FOR THE LAST TIME! I WILL GET YOU!" He started to fly away. "HEDGEHOG!"
Sonic sighed, then, using the head as a soccer ball, kicked it to hit Eggman's engines, making him smoke and swerve out of control. They could hear yelling from the vehicle as it spun out into the distance.
"Does he have to say that every time?"
Suddenly, he had arms gripping him tight around the waist. He looked down to see his sister, crying so hard it looked like rivers were flowing down her eyes onto his chest. He didn't mind though. He put his arms around her, propping her up slightly. Then, Manic ran up, panting but smiling, and joined the hug.
The Sonic Underground was back!

They stood together for several minutes just enjoying each other. They could have stayed there for hours. They had been separated for such a long time that they had lost hope of ever seeing each other again. Should have known better.
Shadow decided to stay back. He didn't really know Sonia or Manic, so it would be awkward to join in the family hug. Plus, he decided the triplets needed some space.
They did eventually tear apart. Sonia was still crying and it was easy to see Manic had moisture in his eyes too. As did Sonic.
He couldn't believe this was real! "Are you guys okay?"
They nodded, still shaken up. "A lot better now." Sonia gripped Sonic's hand.
He smiled and squeezed his sister's hand. "Good." Then he remembered the audience and looked over to his friends, who all had goofy grins plastered on their faces, except Shadow. "Wipe those silly grins of your faces." He was smiling when he said it so, of course, it had no effect. It just made everyone laugh. Including his siblings. "I take it you introduced yourselves, right?"
Manic beamed at his brother. "Yep."
The bushes nearby rustled, making them jump. Sonic figured out who it was very quickly though. "Took you long enough, Knux."
The red echidna walked out of the plants, brushing off leaves, and obviously not paying any attention, since he hadn't noticed Sonia or Manic. "What took me so long was about fifteen dozen robots. Next time you come up with the plan, I would like a bigger job than destroy the robots Eggman calls." He looked up and froze.
"Man, you're slow."
"Knuckles!"
The guardian jogged over to his old friends with a large smile on his face. "Hey! Long time no see!"
Manic was practically jumping for joy. "Man, that thing with the Chaos Energy transporter thing did send you here."
Both Sonic and Knuckles whirled around to him.
"Chaos Energy?" they asked in unison.
The green hedgehog's expression changed to confused. "Um... Yeah?"
Sonic held up his hand, a sign to drop it. "Nothing. We'll talk about it later." He started walking toward his friends, dragging Sonia along. "Come on, let's head back to the party. I've got lots to tell you guys."
Unfortunately, Sonic had forgotten about his arm. That is, until he walked over to his friends.
They made it over to the group, who despite Sonic's scold, still had goofy grins on their faces. Tails had landed the plane behind everyone and was now at the front of the group. Sonic ruffled his bangs when he came up to him. Shadow marched over to the cobalt hedgehog, a stern look on his face.
'Oh no...'
Shadow grabbed Sonic's hurt arm. His expression softened greatly as he inspected the wound. "I knew I should have turned that robot into scrap metal... Look what he did to you..."
"It's just a scratch, Shads..." Sonic insisted.
Sonia moved to look at the arm in question. Her eyes widened. "Sonic!"
Tails ran back to the Tornado, almost there "I think there's a first-aid kit in the Tornado!"
Sonic took a step to stop him, but, remembering his sister holding his hand, stopped. "Tails! I'm fine. It's no big deal."
Tails had found the first-aid and was on his way back to his friend.
"You call that no big deal?" Shadow spat. To be honest, his arm felt like it was on fire; the blood streaming down it added to the effect.
"Shadow, you drink my blood every three days," Sonic snorted, making sure no one else heard him.
"That's different," Shadow hissed.
"Sonic! Why didn't you say anything! You're hurt! Bad! When did that even happen? When you were fighting that weird, robot version of yourself?" Sonia's grip on his hand tightened as she yelled at him. He knew it was more out of worry than anger. "Ohh... that's a lot of blood."
The injured hero gripped his sister's hand tighter and gave her a small smile, trying to show her that he was fine. His siblings stopped yelling at him, though they still didn't seem happy about his arm. Sonic looked down at the fox who was currently wrapping his arm in gauze.
"Do you always have to be a tough guy when it comes to this stuff?" he asked, securing the gauze in place.
"Yes."
That did get a small chuckle out of the kit, but it was obvious he was way worried.
"I'm fine, buddy," Sonic tried to reassure. "I went through that battle with this and I'm still standing."
"You went through the entire battle with that?!"
Sonic winced at Sonia's raised voice. "Ummm..." He tried to think of something to say, but, for once, he came up blank.
"Why did you do that?"
This he knew how to reply to. "I was making sure he didn't try to attack you guys."
She instantly fell silent. She didn't expect that. She should have. "Ummm..."
Sonic laughed. "It's fine, sis. I get that speech a lot from these guys." He pointed back to his circle of friends standing behind them. "Shadow usually swears at me; Amy tends to bring out the hammer." He rubbed the back of his head, remembering.
Pretty much the entire group cracked up at this. Amy just started turning the said hammer in her hands, making Sonic a bit nervous. Even Sonia had smiled at the thought of her brother getting a hammer to the head by the pink hedgehog.
"Done."
Sonic looked down at Tails' handy work. The white gauze was already partly red, but did seem to be slowing the flow of blood. And it did feel slightly better. "Thanks, Tails. Let's get back to the party, shall we?"
Manic hooked his arm around his brother's neck. "Sounds cool to me. We could use some chill time."
"Sweet." He grabbed his brother and adopted little brother and started pushing them toward the picnic. "Let's go before you find any other injuries on me."
Sonia looked at him with fake suspicion (most of her anger was gone), "You don't have any more do you?"
"Probably."
"Knux!"
Another bout of laughter started up and Cheese took his spot on Sonic's head. Sonic rolled his eyes to the sky, smiling.
'This really is the best birthday ever.'
Shadow narrowed his ruby eyes. "You better not have any more injuries, Faker."
"Faker?" Sonia asked.
Sonic rolled his eyes. "It's just his nickname for me. Long story."