Chapter Text
A dark egg shaped object steadily glided through the temperate ocean air, crowned by a pair of spectacles glinting in the last rays of twilight. Accompanying the craft was a legion of buzzing insectoid robots and other assorted mobile structures. A large bristled mustache bounced beneath the spectacles as Dr. Ivo Robotnik began giggling uncontrollably, which progressed to a hooting belly laugh as anticipation for the thrill of conquest overcame him. The hum of the buzzbombers' wings didn’t quite drown out the mad cackling.
The situation on West Side Island had stabilized enough to continue on schedule without his oversight, so the opportunity to conquer the neighboring islands and expand his territory was finally ripe for the taking. Robotnik had to act fast. Any time he wasted was time the nations had to find out what he was doing and rally against him. The Robotnik Empire’s first blitz was underway.
The laughter ceased. “They won’t know what hit them.”
Nicholas Maurice Hedgehog shoveled the oatmeal into his mouth with childish enthusiasm. It wasn’t his favorite breakfast dish, that honor went to racing stripe bacon, but he loved the way his mom mixed the grainy mush with diced apples and cinnamon.
“How’s my little blue guy?” his old man asked as he strolled by behind Nicky’s chair, wearing his old leather flight jacket.
“M-...Mhm!” Nicky nodded with his mouth full.
“Hey big bro! When are you leaving?”, a much younger blonde hedgehog girl asked. Nicky gulped down his mouthful of oatmeal.
“As soon as I can Tania, I might be late for school again today!”
“Awww, well bye Nicky.”
“Dear, have you noticed the phone isn’t working?” the man of the house, Paul Jules Hedgehog, inquired, “I was gonna give Chuck a call and ask how things were going on West Side. We haven’t spoken in a few weeks-” His wife, Brenda Bernie Hedgehog, was preoccupied and didn’t quite hear.
“Oh Nickyyy…” she chimed as he put on his backpack. “You almost forgot your glasses.”
“Oh- yeah, silly me...” he responded halfheartedly as she placed the thick black frames on his face. His cheeks flushed red as his mother clasped her hands and gave him a look as if she was seeing a baby unicorn covered in sprinkles.
“Alright, bye everyone!” The ten year old hedgehog headed out the door of the comically small house (as it was built for people around three to four feet tall), and began whistling an aimless tune.
Christmas Island wasn’t too hot this time of year, but the days when he could comfortably wear his favorite red sweater emblazoned with his first initial would be gone soon. The town sharing the island’s name was small, as it was limited by the small amount of land. It was, however, connected by bridge to the much larger South Island, as well as a volcanic outcrop known as Rock Island. Houses of various sizes diffusely dotted the neighborhood, inhabited by humans and mobians alike. Altogether, the island was home to just a few hundred residents.
After a few minutes of walking, the morning sun ceased warming Nicky’s blue spines as his whistling slowly petered out. The shadow cast on his back stretched forward from three larger menacing shapes.
“AntANTaaant- ANTON VERUKA!!!” Nicky shrieked after turning to see.
“Hear that boys?” The twelve year old punk lizard in front casually addressed the monkey and the squirrel at his sides, “Nicky-boy remembers my name! We must be gettin’ too friendly. …Hows about you two go get acquainted with him, yeah?”
“Our pleasure,” they recited as they lurched forward to grab Nicky. He couldn’t move in time to escape.
“W-wait, I’ll give you my lunch money, just let me go!” Nicky protested.
Anton gave a confused, derisive look. “You think I’m a goof or somethin? Our school is too small for a cafeteria, wise-guy. The shack has three rooms! Three! You don’t got no money. Now dunk ‘im boys!” He gestured to a puddle of mud on the edge of the dirt path with a flowing garden hose protruding from the center.
“NO!” Nicky exclaimed. “Leave,” He swiped his spiny head left and right, “ME,” scratching the monkey close to the eye, “ALONE!” the monkey screeched in pain as the squirrel let go of Nicky to avoid the attacks.
Anton swiftly swooped in and firmly clutched the tuft of hair on Nicky’s forehead. “Ah, right, gotta watch the quills,” He grinned sadistically. As Anton dragged Nicky towards the mud, the monkey was squinting and nursing his scratch.
Suddenly, “ANTOOON!” a gruff voice sounded from further down the path:
Nicky craned his head to look, and with stars in his eyes proclaimed, “It’s Mighty!”
Anton and his cohorts looked up in shock to see Martin James Armadillo approaching.
“Anton, I swear if you don’t stop that right now…” the red plated armadillo growled as he attempted to close the distance between them.
Anton flinched. “AH FRICK, IT’S MARTY!”
“IT’S MIGHTY, YOU PEABRAIN!” came the reply from their pursuer.
“Let’s make ourselves scarce fellas, but first…” Anton hastily shoved Nicky in the mud before turning tail to run. “You ‘hogs like the mud, right?”
“ANTOOOOOOOOOON!!!!” Mighty bellowed. He stopped running when he spied a boulder near the path, easily the size of himself or larger. With rage in his eyes he tightly grasped it, pried it out of the soil, and lifted it above his head.
With a loud “GURAAAAH!”, he launched that sucker straight at the fleeing hoodlums. The stone landed between the three bullies with a great crash. The resulting shockwave sent them flying into the distance.
A younger magenta spined hedgehog girl stared at Mighty from across the path, her surprised facial expression masked by her thick glasses.
“Nicky, are you alright?” Mighty ran over to check on his mud caked friend. His sweater and gloves were soaked with liquid earth, his fur and spines were a mess, his glasses were hanging at an angle, and he was holding back tears.
Nicky tried as hard as he could not to cry in front of his hero. He sniffled and straightened his glasses. "Ye-yeah, I'll be f-fine Mighty." Nicky wished he was strong like his friend.
It was then that he noticed Amelia Rose standing nearby. "Oh, h-hey Amy, did you still wanna go play on the beach after school?"
"Sorry Nicky, I don't have eyes for crybabies like you. I've moved on," she said dismissively. "I've decided I LOOOVE Mighty! He's so strong and doesn't afraid of anything!" She squealed as she ran over to embrace Mighty. Was her grammar bad on purpose?
"LOVE?!" Nicky yelled in shock as the tears he was holding back practically sprayed out of his eyes. They were just kids. He thought they were friends!
"Uh, I appreciate your compliments," Mighty said, "but how could you just toss your friend in the trash like that?" He grabbed her by the collar. "Come back when you can say sorry!" He yelled, throwing her into the distance.
"Wooow, so strong!" She gushed as she flew away flipping end over end, then vanished with a twinkle.
Mighty reached towards Nicky as if to lay a sympathetic hand on his shoulder, but quickly swiped his glasses to the ground instead. "And what's with the glasses huh? You don't have bad eyes or anyth-", he observed them closer. "Wait, these don't even have lenses!"
"Oh, uh, mom said they make me look cute, " Nicky admitted shyly.
"Alright, well ditch ‘em! They're attracting trouble! At least don't make things harder for me until you learn to defend yourself!” Mighty sighed, "Well anyway let's hurry to school. You can clean up in the bathroom."
"Can’t I just use the hose right there?"
"If you show up covered in mud, the teacher might excuse us for being tardy!"
Once they reached the tiny schoolhouse on top of the hill by the coast, Nicky noticed something odd about Rock Island on the horizon.
"Huh? I don't remember that being there… WHAT IS THAT THING?!" he yelled with his eyes as wide as dinner plates.
"Looks like a tower is coming out of the old volcano. That definitely wasn't there yesterday…" Mighty observed. Looming over Rock Island was a tower, taller than the island was wide, with a ring encircling the top and a steeple protruding from the center.
"Wazzup guys?" A cheerful voice from above greeted them.
"For once it's not you, Ray. Take a look." Mighty said.
"Oooh, wazzat?" The fair-furred flying squirrel Raymond Chestnut asked as he landed.
"I dunno, wanna go check it out after school?"
"Yeah!"
Nicky stood in fearful silence at this.
Inside the schoolhouse, the human teacher Mrs. Valentine inquired, "Anton giving you trouble again?"
"Yeah, lemme go clean up."
"Sure thing."
His fellow students all snickered.
After a few minutes of scrubbing near the sink, Nicky was clean, but his beloved sweater would be wet for hours. He hung it up on the towel rack to dry as crashes and screaming could be heard from the classroom.
Before Nicky could make a single guess about the cause, a heavy round object barreled through the doorway, knocking the door wide open, and tackled Nicky against the opposite wall.
“GUH!” Nicky shook his head and got a look at his attacker.
He saw a brightly colored robotic beetle with large angry eyes balancing on a single wheel. Its small front facing claws flexed menacingly.
That was enough for Nicky to decide he was better off curling up in a defensive ball of spikes in the corner. "Waah! Don't hurt me!" He cried.
The motobug rammed against his spines at top speed and immediately burst into pieces when it was punctured by his natural weapons. A small earth squirrel plopped to the ground from inside the metallic shell.
Before Nicky could question that detail, he noticed flames and other crablike robots wreaking havoc in the now empty classroom. He slammed the bathroom door closed again, taking care to lock it as the squirrel from inside the motobug casually hopped up onto his shoulder.
"NOPE, NOOOPE! I knew that tower was bad news! They must have come from there!"
"Nicky!" He faintly heard from outside the bathroom window. Then the door caved in as it was blasted by stun bolts from inside the crabmeat’s claws. Nicky backed into the corner again as loud banging was heard from the window. The crabmeat advanced into the room on its six robotic legs, taking aim with its stun gun claws at the cowering hedgehog boy.
Theatrically overplayed heroic laughter rang out as a large red orb crashed through the window and crushed the crabmeat out of commission, uncurling to reveal Mighty. He flexed all of his muscles, flared out his ears, and struck a pose, shouting “It’s okay now! Why? BECAUSE I AM HERE!” repeating the catchphrase of some old comic book character with a similar name to his. ‘All-Mighty’ or something like that.
“...And you shouldn’t be here!” he said loudly, grabbing Nicky by the neck and tossing him out the broken window to safety.
“Ack, what’s going on Mighty?” Nicky asked as the small rescued animals hopped away.
“I saw everyone get carried away by those robots. I tried saving them but there were too many of them coming at us! I held them off long enough for Ray to escape though. You lucked out, barricading yourself in the bathroom like that is what saved you.”
He looked down at the scene of absolute bedlam that was Christmas town. The badniks were everywhere, homes and businesses were going up in flames. It looked like a war zone. Maybe it was, albeit one-sided.
“So…” Mighty declared. “This is a problem.”