Return to the Underground

Roboticization

The outside was dark and silent. Nothing stirred except the wind through the roads. Steady streams of light rained down from tall light posts, towering high over the streets. The only thing to show life was indoors.
Inside the safety of their hideout, four hedgehogs and a fox settled down in the warm living room, glad to be together.
Tails was already asleep, using Sonic as a pillow. His tails twitched, a sign of dreaming. He was out like a light.
The others were wide awake. Sonia was sitting in the dark green armchair that stood next to the couch. Manic had relaxed down on the floor across from Sonic, Shadow, and Tails. They had gotten back after hours of storytelling and basically just having fun with their friends. Like the day in the park, but a more 'if you go outside, you'll get caught and become a mindless slave' setting.
"So." Manic sat up straight, eager to start things off. "We told you about what's been goin' on here. Now it's your turn."
Sonia quickly agreed with him. "Yeah. You didn't tell us much at your party and the road trip. What you been up to, bro?"
"Lots of things." Where could he start? So many adventures, so little time. "How 'bout I start with my very first adventure?" The two nodded vigorously. Shadow sat up a bit straighter, his interest piqued. He never really knew much about his first adventure through Green Hill. "Well, the first place I ever explored after the incident was Green Hill Zone; that area we had my birthday party in. I ran around for quite some time before I was interrupted by some robots: Motobugs. They just tried to run me over, but still, they couldn't be up to any good. I destroyed them and when I turned to leave, I heard chirping. Eggman puts animals in his robots as living batteries!" Sonia shook her head next to him, showing disapproval with the bots. Shadow tsked, expressing his own disapproval at the Doctor's methods. "The little Flicky that had been trapped in it lead me to were Egghead was gathering up the animals and putting them in this containment capsule. After fighting him, (he had a wrecking ball on his Eggmobile. A wrecking ball. Don't know why he picked that but, hey. His attempt to kill me, his decisions) I opened the capsule and a bunch of animals jumped out. One of the rabbits grabbed my medallion, so I kept it in my quills. I went through a bunch of different Zones before I defeated him once and for all. Of course, he came back; that's when I met Tails." The hedgehog softly ruffled the fox's bangs, trying not to wake him up.
Sonia leaned forward. "He's pretty young for that type of stuff, don't you think? He's still young enough to be in Sanctuary."
Sonic didn't like that idea. He couldn't think about anyone but him taking care of his little brother, so he changed the topic to something they had always bothered him about. "Hey, we were even younger back then. Besides, I started out just as young. When I went to go live with Uncle Chuck."
The three's eyebrows shot up. Was he really going to talk about this? Every time they tried to get him to talk about his adoptive parents, he would always change the subject. Which made it the perfect way to change the subject.
"I don't remember everything since I was so little when it happened, but I remember my dad, I mean adoptive dad, grabbed me out of bed and dragged me to the front door." He had his audience hooked. "He told me to rev as fast as I could. He usually told me not to rev, since it was easy to lose me and I would break things a lot when I did." He let the memories bubble up from the depths of his mind. "My mom told me they loved me and I ran into the forest. Then, I heard a bunch of noise from back at the house and when I turned back the entire place was up in flames. I didn't see our dog, Muttski, so I guess they either got 'im or he ran off. Chuck showed up and I sort of broke down." He closed his eyes, the memories of his childhood coming back. The chilidogs, the attempts to get him in the bath, his homemade guitar he would play. It all washed over him in one huge wave.
A hand was placed on his shoulder and an arm was wrapped around him. He opened his eyes to see his sister with her hand resting on his shoulder, his brother right behind her, both with encouraging (and slightly apologetic) smiles, and his older brother with his arm wrapped around his shoulders, giving him a comforting look.
What he didn't know was there was another spectator to his story. Tails had started to wake up when he had started telling the story. It took all the fox's strength not to release the built up moisture in his eyes, giving away his position. He couldn't believe Sonic had gone through that at his age. The same age that Tails had been when he met Sonic. He wanted to talk to him about it, but as sleep drifted upon him once again, he decided to wait 'til morning.

Morning seemed to come a lot shorter that night. The sun broke through the span of buildings, covering the gray city in an orange-red tint.
Tails stirred soon after the blanket of light covered the city. He noticed that he was still on the couch with his hedgehog pillow. Sonic must have not wanted to wake him up by moving. Sonic himself was using Shadow as a pillow, his face buried in his soft, fluffy, chest fur.
Being a notoriously light sleeper, Shadow apparently sensed that Tails was awake and half-opened his eyes.
The fox yawned. Shadow gently stirred Sonic from his slumber by puffing up his chest. "Hey there, buddy. Sleep all right?" He sat up, getting off of Shadow.
"Yeah." How to bring up that story from last night... Might as well just be upfront. "Hey, Sonic?"
"Yeah?"
"Last night, after we got back from Freedom HQ and I fell asleep, I kind of woke up at some point and I heard you tell a story." Sonic stayed quiet, gazing calmly at the fox. "It was all true, right?"
He slowly nodded. "Yeah, it's true. They were taken to get roboticized; I haven't seen them anywhere in the city, though." He saw how Tails' ears dropped and his shoulders slightly slumped. "Hey, at least my dog is out there. Muttski's probably tearin' up some SWAT-butt or somethin'. Like owner like dog."
The fox and Shadow chuckled softly at the hedgehog's joke. By now he knew his little brother. He knew how to make him laugh and cheer him up. It was a sixth sense to him.
"Hey, guys." The three turned to see Sonia and Manic walking toward the couch. "What's up?"
"Not much," Sonic leaned back and laid his arm on Tails' shoulder, Shadow doing the same with Sonic.
The fox visibly relaxed, then yawned. "What time is it?"
Manic turned toward the clock. "Err, 7:30 AM."
Tails yawned again and plopped down on Sonic's lap. Manic sat down right beside his brother. "How can you be so tired? Last I saw, you wereout."
"He's always tired in the morning." The blue hedgehog gazed down at the young fox in his lap and smiled. "He probably could sleep for an entire day and still be tired."
"Well, I remember you not being much better." Sonia leaned over the back of the sofa between her brothers.
"Heh. Can't argue with that. Although, Shadow's worse."
"I'm doing better!" Shadow spat.
A loud beeping went off behind them, making the drowsy kitsune alert and the hedgehogs curious. Sonia walked over to the large screen hidden in the wall and brought up the cause of the beeping.
"How many hidden computers do you guys have?"
"Just those two." Sonic looked over to his brother. "Right?"
Manic nodded. "Right."
"Guys!" Cyrus' voice made the four turn. "We have a big problem!"
Sonic, Tails, and Manic instantly jumped up and ran to the monitor. Shadow followed, moving a bit slower. "What's wrong, Cyrus?"
"As we speak, a group of citizens is being transported for roboticization." He took a deep breath, stabilizing both his breathing and his thoughts. "Guys, it's the biggest roboticization group ever."