Return to Robotropolis

A Not-So-Happy 18th Birthday

The place was a mess. There were nuts and bolts scattered all around the floor, not to mention all the tools everywhere. On the table, the couch, some had even gotten in the beds somehow! Luckily, there were enough tools gathered in one place for a certain two-tailed fox to work on his plane, the Tornado.
Of course, the plane wasn't actually his. He was only twelve; he couldn't buy a plane on his own. No, the red-and-white plane belonged to his best friend, who was sitting next to the young fox, handing him tools as he asked for them.
"Screwdriver, please."
"Here ya go."
Next to the red bi-plane was the blue-and-yellow plane the fox had built himself. He called it the Tornado 2. (He was pretty young when he made and named it) He had already done a check on that one. There were other devices around the workshop too; he had either been building it or taking it apart.
The kit was simply a prodigy. He had an IQ of over 300. He was often bullied until his best friend and role model came along and changed everything. Now he had tons of friends and a lot more self-confidence because of him.
"Wrench."
"Wrench."
Finally he screwed in the last bolt. He was done!
As he started to sit up, he forgot that he was still partly under the plane and banged his head into the hard, metal structure. "Ow!"
"You okay, Tails?"
The bruised fox looked at his friend. "I'm fine, Sonic. Just a bruise."
Said hedgehog smiled and looked closely at the now-purple spot on the fox's head. "Yeah, you're right. I've had worse."
Tails got a devilish smile on his face. "From Amy, right?"
Sonic gave an exhausted sigh and smiled right back at the fox. "Yes, from Amy."
This caused the two to have a giggling fit before they heard the door open and footsteps running toward them. Sonic peeked around the corner to find the exact person they were talking about. A pink hedgehog in a red dress and boots with white lining sprinting toward the hangar.
"I think we jinxed it," he whispered as his friend came to see their guest as well.
This got a quiet giggle out of the fox before he went up to the pink hedgehog. "Hey, Amy. What's goin' on?"
"Oh! Tails! Thereyouguysare! EveryoneswaitingforyouguysatGreenHillZone! We'rehavingapicnic;youguyshavetocome," she started to take a breath which is where Sonic decided to cut in.
"Amy, calm down! We can't understand you when you talk like that!"
"I think I heard 'picnic' and 'Green Hill Zone'."
The over-excited hedgehog nodded. "Yeah. I was saying that everyone is at Green Hill Zone having a picnic. They're all waiting for you guys."
"Now that I can understand." Sonic rushed out of the door, then peeped back in. "You guys coming?"
"Ha ha ha! Wait for us, Sonic!" Tails started spinning his namesakes and flew off after the high-speed hedgehog.
"Wait for me, guys!"

It didn't take long for the heroes to reach the picnic area. After all, they were known for their speed above all else. At least Sonic was. He was the first to arrive.
He skidded to a stop a few feet away from his friends, trying not to ram into one of them. When he did come to a complete stop, he was a bit shocked.
"Happy birthday!"
The birthday boy broke out laughing as his surprise soon dispersed. "I had almost forgotten it was my birthday! Thanks, guys!" His two-tailed friend arrived, only to be caught in a headlock from his best friend. "You knew about this, didn't you?"
"Of course!" he managed to say through his laughter. "I was the one who planned it!"
Sonic finally released Tails with a huge smile plastered on his face. "And how did I not notice you planning this party?"
"You were always on one of your runs when I started the planning."
"Of course." He looked around at his surprise party, he saw the Chaotix. Charmy Bee looked like he had already drunk half of the punch. Vector the Crocodile was getting on to him for something (probably drinking half of the punch). Espio the Chameleon was just trying to look less embarrassed than he was. Luckily, he was a ninja, so that was easy for him, for the most part anyway.
Blaze the Cat, a princess with pyrokinesis from another dimension and guardian of the Sol Emeralds, was talking to Silver the Hedgehog, a hedgehog from the future with psychokinesis.
Next to them was Cream the Rabbit, Cheese the Chao, and Vanilla the Rabbit standing next to the snacks. Cheese was holding a cupcake, with the small orb above his head in the shape of a heart. Cream also had a cupcake and had obviously been nibbling it as she had small splotches of icing around her mouth. Vanilla was tentatively fusing over her child, wiping her mouth of crumbs and icing. She gave a friendly smile to Sonic as she saw him looking their way. "Happy birthday, dear."
"Thanks, Vanilla."
A glint caught the corner of the hedgehog's eye and he looked toward it to see E-123 Omega, the Eggman robot gone good. On top of the massive robot was Rouge the Bat, a GUN agent that took up treasure hunting as a hobby. Although she did like to try to steal the Master Emerald from Knuckles a lot. Probably so she could flirt with him. She gave Sonic a flirty wink as he glanced over. Sonic simply rolled his eyes affectionately and raised his hand in greeting. Behind the robot was what caught Sonic's attention the most. Standing with his arms crossed and his back turned to the crowd, was Shadow the Hedgehog.
Sonic leaned over to Tails. "How'd you get Shads to come?"
The fox just shrugged. "I didn't. Rouge must have dragged him along."
"Heh heh."
He looked over to the lake to see Amy had arrived and was talking to Big the Cat with his friend, Froggy. The large purple cat had his fishing pole out and cast into the lake.
'Does he do anything besides fishing?' Sonic thought as he gazed along the water's surface. He then remembered the friendly cat helping Amy and Cream in their adventure with Metal Overlord. 'Guess he does.'
Knuckles the Echidna came up to his side and patted Sonic on the back. "Happy birthday, hedgehog." He then held out his fist for a fist-bump.
"Thanks, Knux." He returned the gesture. "Let's hope no monsters decide to come crash the party this time."
The echidna gave a short chuckle and walked to the rest of the group with Sonic and Tails right in step.
An hour later, the party was still going. The friends were talking and laughing; they had even gotten Shadow to race at one point. They were just enjoying themselves.
Sonic, at the moment, was talking with Tails and Amy. Amy actually hadn't been clinging to Sonic that much during the party. He just guessed she had been too busy talking to everyone else to constantly hand on him. She was his friend, but she tended to let her crush on him go a little far. She actually could be good company if she wasn't always trying to get you to marry her.
"How could you forget your own birthday, Sonic?" Tails asked.
"Yeah. Especially after your last one," Amy added.
Sonic shrugged. "I don't really know. I guess I just... forgot."
The three cracked up. "I'd think a giant black monster that eats time and space would be memorable enough," Tails managed through his laughter.
"Because none of the stuff I do isn't memorable enough already?"
"Like genies in books or a giant death laser threatening the earth?"
"Or a god of destruction made of water destroying the city, the planet breaking apart and you turning into a werehog, maybe a tornado carrying us off onto another dimension?"
Sonic raised his hands in effort to stop the two. "Okay! Okay! I get it." He let out a giggle.
Suddenly, a loud roar echoed throughout the Zone. Looking up, the group could see what looked like a large dragon flying toward the party a few miles away. Looking closely, you could just see a small dot floating beside it. The Eggmobile.
"Again? Can't that egghead just chill for one day? Oh, well." The hedgehog started stretching, gazing at the large robot in the distance. "This might be fun!"
All the guests stood ready behind him. They knew that they were in for a fight. Of course, with all of them there, it couldn't be that hard. They'd been through thick and thin together. Heck, they've thought that another of them was dead before. They could handle this thing.
It didn't take long for the scientist to reach him. That robot moved pretty quickly considering how much metal was used to build it. It was about four stories high, not including the tail. That was three miles in length on its own. The body was split into different parts, probably so it could move easier. It also had small separate squares of metal arranged around it.
'Doors,' Sonic realized. They were hatches for weaponry. The head was straight edged; it had no curves in it what-so-ever. It was like he had spent so much time on the rest of the body that he had to rush the head just to have it ready for the party. The entire thing was painted a bright red, the only exceptions being its stomach and snout, which were a deep black.
"Hedgehog!"
Said hedgehog placed his hands on his hips and gazed up at the doctor with a bored look on his face. Although, his eyes revealed the excitement in those emerald irises. "What, no 'Happy birthday' or 'Hello, how are you'? That's a bit rude, wouldn't you say?"
Eggman scowled at the blue blur with pure hate reflecting off of his small, round glasses. "I'm so sorry, hedgehog. Happy. Birthday."
Sonic was slightly confused at his reply. He had expected old Egghead to make some rude retort. Something was going on. And he could bet he wasn't going to like it.
The mad doctor confirmed his suspicions just a moment later. "But it's not just your birthday, now is it?"
Knuckles came up to his friend when he saw him tense up. Putting a hand on his shoulder, he glared up at the egg-shaped man in his hover craft. "Beat it, Egghead. I don't remember us inviting you to the party." Hate dripped out of his voice.
"Oh? Am I getting on your nerves? Good. That's just what I came here for." The dictator's dragon let out a roar. "And I'm not done!"
Sonic scowled at his nemesis. Did he really have to do this now of all days? He already had problems with his past every once in a while, but Eggman had never brought it up. Why would he now? There were plenty of other ways to get on his nerves. Most involved water. Of all times, he chose to pick his birthday party, with all his friends. All his friends...
He never told them! The only one who knew was Knuckles and that was only because he was part of it. It's not like it's the easiest thing to explain. Especially after so long. Oh, man! He was in big trouble now.
"You never told them, did you?" Eggman's voice took him out of his thoughts. "Although I can't blame you. Something like that is probably better kept a secret."
The hedgehog glanced behind him to his friends. They all looked utterly confused. Amy stepped up. "What are you talking about?"
"His family, of course!"
"Huh?"
The doctor held out a hand towards Sonic, a wicked grin on his face. "How much has this little pest actually told about his past?" No one answered him. "That's what I thought." He signaled to his dragon-bot to attack.
All party-goers scattered as the attack dragon shot flames toward the group. Amy landed closest to Sonic. "Sonic, what was he talking about?!"
The blue blur physically winced when he heard her question. "Listen. Amy." Another blast of fire came toward them. "I'll explain later! Right now, we need to get rid of that thing!"
The only reply was a short nod. He felt really bad about lying to his friends, but at the moment, the bigger concern was the giant robot trying to kill them.
Suddenly, he had an idea. "Everyone! Try to distract it! Amy, come with me." Not checking to see if the others heard him, he grabbed Amy and ran to the top of a loop close by.
Amy rested her hammer on the ground and looked at her so-called-'boyfriend' with a curious look in her eyes. "What's going on in that head of yours, Sonic?"
Said hedgehog was looking toward the battle, calculating distances. He didn't even hear her question. "I think that this is high enough."
"Sonic!"
The sudden yell made him jump almost ten feet in the air from surprise. "Wha-! Uh... Sorry, Amy." He smiled nervously.
The pink hedgehog sighed. He never listens. "What's your plan here?"
Sonic perked. "Oh!" He pointed back to the picnic. "From here, I might be able to hit him, but I need a little boost to reach it. Think you could hit me that far?"
The hammer-happy girl held up her hammer. "I can hit you there and back." She gave him a wink.
He rolled his eyes with his back turned toward her. He didn't want any bruises from that hammer of hers. "Great. Get ready." He started spinning, going faster and faster, until he was only a blue ball. A very deadly blue ball. "Now!"
She hit him as hard as she could. Of course, it didn't hurt him. Not much ever hurt him during a spin dash. That made it perfect for combo attacks. Either Knuckles would punch or kick him, or Amy would hit him with her Piko Piko Hammer to launch him with double the force.
He was right about the height. He hit it square on the head, knocking it off. It landed near Vector and Blaze, who had been shooting their own flames at the bot to keep its attention. The crocodile and cat fell on their rumps in their effort to dodge the metal head. They sighed in relief right before it exploded, covering them with black soot.
The hedgehog came out of his spin, landing a few feet from the decapitated robot. There wasn't a single scratch on him.
The robot, on the other hand, wasn't doing too well. After the blue wrecking ball took its head off, the creation just floated there for a second, like it was thinking about what just happened. (Of course it couldn't; Sonic had taken its head off) Then, after a few sparks of electricity, it burst into flames, falling towards the group. In fact, the fall was angled toward the Eggmobile.
"NO, NO, NO, NO! THIS ISN'T THE END, HEDGEHOG! I'LL GET YOU YET!" For such a big man, he sure could move fast. He was long gone by the time Amy got back.
She waved her hand in front of her face in an effort to keep the smoke out of her face. "Now," she turned to Sonic. "What was he talking about?!"
His expression immediately fell. He looked away, not just from Amy, but from all his friends. Tails slowly inched forward. "Sonic?"
"I'm sorry, okay?!"
The young fox was taken aback at his big brother's sudden burst. He had never done that. Not to Knuckles, not even at Eggman. Nobody. Tails knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help it. Eggman was right when he said they didn't know much about his past. He would always change the subject when someone brought it up.
Sonic looked down at his shoes. "Sorry, Tails. It's just-" He stopped, glancing to Knuckles for support. Unfortunately, the echidna just shrugged, not sure of what to do.
Tails realized what that meant. "Knuckles, do you know something about this?"
He sadly nodded. Although, he didn't look nearly as miserable as Sonic. The blue hedgehog had his ears folded down; he wasn't meeting anyone's eyes either. His shoulders slumped and he had his arms across his chest. There was what seemed like a film over his emerald eyes, like he was on the verge of tears.
All his friends felt guilty, even Shadow felt bad. This was his birthday and he was spending it being interrogated about his past, which was obviously a touchy subject for him. He was about to cry for goodness sake! He was supposed to be having fun with his friends, not telling them his deepest secret. But curiosity got the better of them. If it was this bad, they wanted to help, but they couldn't do that if he just kept it to himself.
Tails walked up to his best friend to stand right next to him. "Sonic. What happened?"
The not-so-happy birthday boy finally made eye contact, and it broke Tails' heart. He had never seen the hedgehog so defeated. So many emotions were swimming in his eyes. Misery, sadness, regret, longing; all of his emotions were negative. No one knew of anytime that Sonic had ever actually shown these types of emotions. Until now.
Sonic suddenly couldn't handle his emotions anymore.
"I'm so sorry... Just leave me alone..." Sonic whispered as his tears started to run down his cheeks. Without another word, he bolted off at supersonic speed, leaving a sonic boom in his wake.
"Sonic! Come back!" But Sonic was already long gone. Tails' ears folded down. He couldn't help feeling like he had caused Sonic's pain at the moment.

As he ran, Sonic let his tears stream down his face and trail behind him. He ran for hours, never stopping or changing direction. When the sun started to go down, he finally slowed and came to a stop next to a small stream.
He had stopped crying hours ago, but he still had tear stains on his face. He splashed some water from the stream onto his face to wash off the tear stains. Afterwards, he looked around and took in his surroundings. They were hauntingly familiar.
Knowing exactly where he was, the blue blur took off in the same direction he had been running in all day. As he ran towards his unplanned and surprise destination, Sonic felt a small flicker of hope in his chest, which started to grow as he saw it on the darkening horizon.