Return to the Underground

Robotropolis

Bang! 'Dang it! That probably wasn't the best thing to drop.'
Sonic picked up the piece of equipment that he had dropped and turned it, checking for any damage. He didn't notice any. Tails would be able to see it if he did, anyway.
He brought it over to where the fox was busy setting up all his equipment for the readings. "I heard you drop it, Sonic." The hedgehog jumped at the recognition. "You didn't break it, did you?"
He shook his head, then, realizing he was still looking down at his work, said, "No."
Sonia was hovering near the mechanic, helping the fox whenever he asked. Shadow was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, helping whenever he was asked. "So clumsy."
The 'clumsy' hedgehog decided to ignore his big brother's comment. "Where did Manic go? He was supposed to be helping us."
"I think he made a run out to the house." Sonia propped up a piece of machinery that was slightly lopsided. "He should be back any time now."
"And he is." They all turned to the green hedgehog's voice. "This the right thing?"
Tails brought himself out of his work and gazed up to the piece of equipment he carrying. "Yep." He pointed to spot a few away from where he was sitting. "Put it there, please."
"Right." He trudged to the spot with the heavy device placing on the ground. "That would have been a lot easier if I had my hover board."
Sonic snapped his fingers, startling the people around him, except Shadow. "That reminds me! Hold on a sec."
He dashed off, letting a rush of wind envelop all behind him. "He messed up my hair!" Sonia complained.
"Wonder what he meant when he said I reminded him of something. What's he doin'?"
Tails and Shadow smiled to themselves. They had a good idea about what Sonic was getting. Manic had talked about his hover board...
Suddenly a gust of wind swept the area, messing Sonia's hair up even more. "Sonic! Stop running around!"
"Who said anything about running?"
"Huh?" The two looked up to see Sonic floating on a board much like Manic's hover board, but longer and blue. Sonic, himself, had a pair of sunglasses placed on his head. "Cool!"
"You did get your Extreme Gear." Tails looked back up from the equipment.
"Extreme Gear?" Manic was already up to Sonic, examining the Gear.
Sonic jumped down and held out the board so that his brother could see more clearly. "Yeah. This one is customized just for me. We had a couple adventures with these things."
"So let me guess. You the champ?" Sonia came up to view the Gear alongside her brother.
"Yep. Although, Jet would like to disagree."
Tails laughed and Shadow just looked disgusted at the mention of the hawk. The others just gave him a blank look. "Who?"
"Just someone we know." He walked over to Tails' spot. "Another speed demon, like me."
"Got it!" Tails' sudden outburst made all four hedgehogs jump. "Sorry, guys. The equipment is up and ready to go."
"Sweet! Start 'er up!" Sonic exclaimed.
"Shouldn't we tell your friends we're leaving?" Sonia asked.
"Don't worry," Sonic reassured her. "I left a note in the house. We're all set."

Back at the house, a loud knock echoed from the door. It repeated itself multiple times before the one responsible slowly creaked the door open.
"Sonic? Tails? Shadow?"
The intruder cautiously made her way into the house, looking around for her friends. She made her way to the living room and saw a small sheet of paper on the coffee table. She picked it up when she saw that it was signed by Sonic.
Dear everyone,
Me, Tails, Shadow, Sonia, and Manic are going to back to Robotropolis. I'll get back whenever I can. Hold down the fort while I'm gone, okay?
~Sonic
P.S. Amy, I know you're probably the one reading this; please refrain from using your hammer on me when I get back for not bringing you. And tell the others 'bout me leaving too. Thx!
"Hmph!" She already had her hammer out.

"All right. I think I've got the area you guys were teleported from." The prodigy turned to Sonic and Shadow. "Your turn."
"How you plannin' to get us there, bros?" Manic asked while he played around with his brother's Extreme Gear.
"Come over here and we'll show you." They did as they were told and walked over to the hedgehogs. "Grab onto our arms." They did so, but with a confused expression painted on their faces. Sonic and Shadow took out a blue Emerald and a red Emerald, respectively, from their quills and focused on their energy, feeling the power flow through them. "Chaos Control!"
A bright light enveloped them, sending them to their location. Actually, a few feet above their location. When the light faded, they all thudded onto the floor.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry! Haven't done that in a really long time." Sonic had face-planted into the hard stone floor. "I think my nose might have been flattened to my face." He rubbed the sore spot.
Tails giggled at his friend. He had landed on his behind, so he wasn't hurt as much. Sonia and Manic laughed too. They had also landed on their butts and thought it was hilarious that Sonic hadn't. Shadow, however, had landed on his feet, having anticipated the landing. He shook his head, but had a faint smile on his face.
"Hey, bro." Manic had finally stopped laughing, "How'd you guys do that?"
"It's a trick I picked up from Shadow." He stood up and stretched his limbs. "It's called Chaos Control. I haven't used it in a while though, so I'm a bit rusty."
"I can see that."
"Ha ha," he gave Manic a push, "Very funny. Let's see you do it, smart mouth."
The smart mouth smiled mischievously, but the smile quickly faded when he tried to figure out how they did it.
"Next time, let me handle the Chaos Control," Shadow advised.
Sonic chuckled, somewhat nervously. "You always were better at it."
Shadow chuckled.
'That light. It was almost exactly the same as that day.' He looked over to his brothers. It didn't seem like there was anything wrong with either of them. This 'Chaos Control'; was it how Sonic had been taken away from them? He moved his gaze over to his sister. The same conclusion was reflecting in her eyes.
"So, are we in this 'Oracle's' cave?"
Shadow's voice brought him out of his trance. "Um, yeah. I think so."
Sonic gave him a sidelong look. "You okay, bro?"
"Yeah. Just thinking."
He raised an eyebrow, but not in a disbelieving way. More like a mocking way. "And you were getting onto me about thinking too hard."
"Greetings."
The five started spinning, looking for the voice. "He seems to have a thing for greeting without seeing."
At that moment, he appeared right in the middle of them, surrounded by a green light. "It adds to the effect." He turned to Sonic. "It's good to see you again, young hedgehog."
"You too, Orc."
"You've come to see your friends again, correct?"
He blinked. "Not to sound disrespectful but, DUH!"
"So respectful."
He gave his sister a death glare, making her laugh.
'Note to self,' he thought. 'Death glares do not work on siblings.'
"You do realize you will have to go back."
Sonic snapped his head back to the prophet. "Yeah. Yeah, I know." His eyes widened. 'Does he know about Eggman?'
The Oracle, as if reading his mind, nodded. Not enough for his siblings to notice, but enough for him. "Do you mind if I talk to you and Shadow in private?"
Shadow jumped slightly at hearing his name. 'How does he know my name? ...Does he know about Professor Robotnik and Maria?'
The hedgehog quickly shook his head and then followed him to an area that they could talk, Shadow following a bit hesitantly. They heard Manic behind them ask, "What's that about?"
When they got to the secluded section of the cave, the Oracle wasted no time getting to the subject. "You are going to have to tell them eventually."
"I know!" He covered his eyes with his hands. "It's just- I don't know how to tell them. We just found each other again. I don't want to ruin it for them."
Shadow wrapped his arm around Sonic and comfortingly rubbed his back as he nuzzled his cheek.
"I understand how you feel." He placed a hand on the teen's shoulder. "Take your time. But not too much time."
"Not too much time?"
"You will see soon."
"Why did you ask me to come over here?" Shadow asked, a slight growl in his voice.
"I have a gift for you."
The Oracle's hands lit up with magic and he sent it at Shadow. Shadow jumped back in alarm as the magic formed around his neck and turned red. As the glow faded, a medallion nearly identical to Sonic's appeared. The only difference was that the middle and bottom 'quills' turned upwards, like his own. Shadow stared in awe at the crystal that now rested against his chest fur.
"This medallion belongs to you now. You are a member of the Royal Family, after all."
Shadow nodded humbly, looking slightly sheepish. "Thank you."
He directed them back to the group. "Now, you should enjoy being with your family."
Sonic noticed how he didn't add 'and friends' to his sentence. He's never met Tails before or Shadow, for that matter. How would he know how close they- "You've been watching me."
The prophet smiled and gave one nod to the hedgehog, "You've gotten smarter, Sonic."
The Blue Blur smirked. "Thanks. For the complement and for watchin' over me." He started making his way back with Shadow, but stopped. "Did- Did my mother watch too?"
The Oracle gave him a warm smile. "Yes. Yes, she did. Whenever she could."
He smiled. "Well, I've got an album full of pictures from when she couldn't." He thought of something. "Um. She didn't see the whole werehog incident, did she?"
"The what?"
"Never mind!" He dashed back to his friends, followed by Shadow, leaving an astonished Oracle behind. "Hey, guys."
"Hey. Why'd he want to talk to you guys?" Manic asked upon their arrival.
"Nothin' big."
Shadow lightly touched his new medallion. "He did give me this."
"Cool! You have your own medallion now!"
Sonic started hopping from foot to foot. "Let's get goin'. It's freezing up here!"
"Well, maybe if you wore more than sneakers and gloves..." Sonia started toward the exit.
"Right. Should have brought a scarf." He made Tails, Shadow, and Manic laugh at least, or chuckle in Shadow's case.
Sonia thought it was funny, but it was also irritating. Basically a description of the blue hedgehog. She kept her mouth shut, shaking her head.
The snow was just as high as when the two left, minus the snowstorm.
Manic's hover board was right where he left it. When Sonic got a mischievous glint in his eyes, Manic stopped him. "Already did it. Got double the snow piled back on me."
"Dang." He looked over to their sister, who was talking with Tails. Then, Manic threw a handful of snow in his face. "Hey!"
The green hedgehog ran off, grabbing his board and riding toward the van. Sonic set off after him, showering Sonia, Shadow, and Tails in a blanket of snow. "Sonic!"
He didn't really notice her yelling at him. He caught up to his brother and tackled him to the ground, then proceeded to shovel snow onto his head. "Cut it out!"
"No way, Manic! This is what you get for that snow in my face!"
They both grunted as they were suddenly crushed by Shadow. The black hedgehog chuckled as his little brothers glared up at him.
A layer of snow suddenly enveloped the three and they looked up to see Tails snickering up above them. Sonic and Shadow rolled their eyes. Manic gawked. "You can fly?!"
Tails slowly floated back down to the hedgehogs as Shadow rolled to the side, letting the other two boars get up. "Didn't we tell you?" He looked over to Sonic. "We did mention it, didn't we?"
"Uh." He thought for a moment. "I don't think we did, buddy."
"We didn't," Shadow confirmed.
Sonia had walked up and was staring just like Manic. "How did you do that?"
"I just spin my tails." He turned so they could see. "See? I take Sonic and Shadow up all the time."
The two looked to Tails, then Sonic, and back again, disbelief obvious. Tails was only twelve. How could he support two eighteen-year-olds using only his tails?
"They don't believe us," Sonic noted. "Shall we show them?"
"Let's."
"Heh."
Sonic and Shadow backed up a few feet, then jumped up into the air where Tails was ready to catch them, which he easily did. Sonia and Manic practically had heart attacks, until he flew sixteen feet up into the air. "Whoa! That's awesome!"
"Have you always been able to do that?"
"As far back as I can remember." He dropped Sonic and Shadow down by where they had jumped from. "It comes in handy a lot."
"Including pranks." Sonic threw a large snowball at his best friend, which Shadow laughed at. "Now we're even."
Manic chuckled and ran over to the van. "Come on! Let's get this thing movin'!"
"To Robotropolis!" Sonic rushed to the van, leaving a spray of snow in his wake, followed by Shadow.
Sonia (given up on yelling at him) growled and followed the two with Tails right above her.