Chapter Text
“ Maybe you should stay in bed Green Hill. Looks like this storm may stick with us for a while. If you’re looking to stay dry, the local high school is performing Romeo and Juliet tonight. ” Tails turns off the radio in Sonic’s hospital room. “What did you want to show me?”
Sonic grabs his phone and starts playing to voicemail. “ Sonic, you have to listen to me very carefully. ” Knuckles starts, “ Amy and I have been captured and they want you to come to the Ark… alone. It’s a trap! Stay aw… ” The warrior's voice becomes muffled as someone takes the phone. Sage’s voice is the next to be heard. “ It appears things have grown awkward, Mr. Wachowski. Meet me in the alley beside the theater if you ever want to see your friends again. ”
“ DON’T OPEN THE BRIDGE! ” Amy shouts in the background. “ Under no… ” Knuckles starts, but it’s cut off by the end of the voicemail. “I’ve listened to it a hundred times now, and I still don’t know what to do.” Sonic sighs. “You’re not alone, Sonic.”
“Sage said I had to be alone. If I’m not, what do you think they’ll do to Ames and Knux?”
“They both told you not to do it.” Tails argues. “Enough of my friends have gotten hurt because of me. No more.” Tails sighs. “It’s your call. Here.” He hands over the amulet. “I picked it up before they dragged you away.” They stand there in heavy silence for a moment. And Sonic tries to decide what he’s supposed to do.
“Hey boys.” Tom walks in. “Hey dad.” They both say. Tom walks to his youngest and squats down to his level. “Hey bud, can I talk to your brother for a moment?” Tails looks over and Sonic nods, so Tails leaves. “You have good friends. One even stayed all night.” Tom comments. “Yeah, Tails is pretty great. Too bad Knuckles is sick.” Sonic cringes inside. Knuckles isn’t sick but he probably isn’t okay. “I wasn’t referring to him. I believe he said his name was Shadow. He was there during the attack.” Sonic’s mouth drops slightly in surprise.
His dad sits on the edge of the bed and gets that grave look on his face that tells Sonic he’s about to really hate this conversation. “We are going to talk and I want the truth. What were you doing in the woods?”
“Well Shadow and I were running lines for the show tonight, you know. I got some pre-show jitters. But we thought we heard Maria crying outside and ran out to find a crazy band of racoons. And they were not happy that we were close to their baby. So…”
“Those aren’t racoon scratches.”
“I swear. Ask Shadow and Tails.”
“Stop lying!” Tom cries. Sonic looks away. “You come home from school covered in bruises, you're sneaking out in the middle of the night, and get arrested?”
“I know you’re angry.” Sonic tries. “I’m not angry. I am terrified. I want to know what is going on with my son. My sons.” Sonic looks away again, and Tom sighs and pulls something out of his pocket. “I found this.” He shows Sonic’s letter. “Why is it sealed?” Sonic asks. “Whatever is going on, whatever you're afraid to say, I want you to tell me, face to face.” Sonic pulls away when Tom tries to offer physical comfort. “Fine. Your doctor has discharged you. I have to get back to the station. Go home with your brother. I’ll be back in time for the play.”
“I’m sorry, dad.” Sonic says as he walks out of the room.
“I don’t understand. Why do you need to go it alone?” Blaze asks while Sonic digs through the kitchen cabinets. “Because this is the only way it will work. I’m asking you to trust me on this, Blaze.”
“I do trust you. But I also fear for you. Your reasoning, while admirable, is sending you walking into a den of death.”
“I’d do the same for you.” Sonic keeps looking in the stunned silence he’s left the cat in. “Do you remember what you’re gonna tell Sticks and Tails when they start to wonder where I am?”
“Yes.”
Sonic cheers when he finds what he was looking for. He stuffs it in his backpack and goes to the garage with Blaze in tow. He grabs his bike and his helmet. As the garage opens he turns back to his friend. “If anything goes wrong I want you to know that I hope you become the next Mobianhunter.”
“I hope it won’t come to that.” Sonic runs over and gives her a quick hug before grabbing his bike and setting off into the storm.
Sonic stops on the side of the road when he hears his phone start to ring. “Hey Shads.”
“We have a big problem, Sonic.” Shadow says. Someone knocks on the dressing room door and he tries to finish putting on his costume at the same time. “Is Sonic in there? We go on in an hour.” Ms. Andrews says from the other side. “Give me a minute.” He tells the teacher. “I told you I would act like everything is normal but that's hard when I need to put on a play and Romeo isn’t here.”
“ Remember when I told you some of my friends are Mobians? ”
“What’s going on?” Shadow asks. “ I need you to buy me some time. I promise I will be there in time, but two people I care about need my help. ”
“I’ll do what I can.” Shadow relents. “ Thanks. And I promise to sit down and explain things in great detail. ”
“I’m holding you to that.” Sonic hangs up and Shadow sighs. He needs to think of something to get Andrews off his back.
He does his best Sonic impression, “ I’ll get to hold this over you forever. ” He goes back to his own voice. “Please, you aren’t doing me some big favor. Come on Shad’s, don’t be like that. It’s okay to admit you need me. You need me. Sure, I’m big enough to admit that. But, not as much as you need me. ” He hears footsteps walking away and tries to come up with some more dialogue for when she comes back. This is going to be a long night.
Sonic waits in the alley and wants to complain about getting soaked. He might as well have jumped in the bath like this and gotten less wet.
When a bus goes by, Sage appears suddenly when it’s gone past. Sonic sighs at the dramatics. “So we’re being dramatic today? I thought the play was later tonight.” Sage smiles. “You did come alone.” She starts walking closer. “This just might be the first time you’ve followed my instructions to the letter. You’re learning.”
“Where are they?” Sonic decides to get down to business. But something jumps on his back, a pixie and grabs the amulet out of his pocket. “Is it the real one?” Sage asks. The pixie nods after trying to take a bite out of it.
“It seems that all is in order. Follow me. This will be over soon.”
As they walk, they start getting closer to the last place Sonic expected the Ark to be. “The museum? It was here the whole time?” Sonic asks. “We knew it would be the last place you’d look.”
“Being left out and tied up is starting to get annoying.” Knuckles grumbles. “He won’t come! Sonic has been trained as a true mobianhunter.” Amy tells the Mobians and pixies. They two of them have been tied back to back and hung from the ceiling above the Ark.
After she finished, Sage leads Sonic through the curtain in her Mobian form. “Under no circumstances! I told you under no circumstances!” Knuckles chides him. “You shouldn’t be here.” Amy adds. “You promised we’d build that Vespa together.” Sonic smiles at them.
“Open the Ark.” Mephilies says, holding a sword to his brother's neck. “I will not ask again.”
Sonic goes to climb the crates that have been turned into steps as Knuckles and Amy beg him not to do this. “For the glory of Merlina not another step!” Amy shouts when he is a few inches away.
But then there's an electronic beeping. “He’s wearing a tracking device!” Silver shouts. “You said the Mobianhunter needed to be here. But you forgot something, we are Mobianhunters!”
Sticks pulls the curtain down to reveal her, Blaze, and Tails. Tails is in some sort of scraped together armor and holding a baseball bat and one of his devices. “I am Tails Wachowksi. Brother of Sonic and Knuckles. Fan of hard rock!” He taps something on his device and rock music starts playing ( AN: I would turn it on here but I imagined Undefeatable, Break Through it All, or Fist Bump playing in the background ). “For the Glory of Merlina, Daylight is mine to command!” Sonic activates his sword just in time for Mephilies to try to strike him. Blaze drops in from above and takes him on head to head. Using her strength to hold him in place and burn his hands. “You will suffer for Charles' death!”
“Let’s get them!” Tails shouts and goes after Silver while Sticks goes after Silver. “You are in way over your–” Silver stops in his tracks and falls over and Tails stands over him to gloat. “Rule number 3!”
Sonic climbs higher to get to his friends. “Way to go Sonic! You lead them right to us!” Amy shouts. Sonic turns in time to stop a pixie from attacking him. As more begin to attack he turns to his brother. “Tails! Get Knux and Ames!”
“On it!”
“You can do it Tails! Just like we practiced!” Sticks shouts from where she’s fighting Sage. Before Sonic can ask ‘do what?’ Tails begins to spin his namesakes and starts to fly. “Dude, did you turn your butt into a helicopter!?” Sonic shouts while he fights more pixies. “Pretty cool right!”
“That’s my brother!” Knuckles shouts with laughter and Tails begins to use a knife to cut the rope.
Stick's opponent had been replaced. While Sage was elsewhere, she had to fight Silver. One of his swords hit a pillar, causing Sticks to change direction. She leaps up, climbing up another pillar on the balcony and running through the hall. Silver uses his powers to make it up and come at her with his sword tornado. She continued to run but threw banners behind her. “So this is how a pacifist fights.” He taunts. Sticks smiles. “This is!” She shouts, grabbing another banner just as a pixie jumps on it, throws it at her opponent. When he slices it he slices through the pixie. “Not again!” Silver shouts as the pixies begin to attack him.
Sonic turns in time to black Sage from hitting him with a sword of her own. The two somehow manage to stay on the slim platform. Blaze and Mephilies run into the makeshift staircase, causing it to fall. Sonic jumps to the bridge to avoid going down with it, with Sage on his heel.
“Are you using the sharp side?” Amy asks Tails. “It’s a double edge knife.” He argues. “But father only sharpens the one side.” Knuckles reminds him. The boy turns it over and begins to slice again. “I knew that.”
Mephilies gets in an undercut and sends Blaze to the ground, before he can get a hit she punches him from the side, sending him into the wall.
Sticks jumps in the way of Mephilies as he’s about to go back for Blaze. She begins to defend herself from the large mobian.
Blaze moves to help Sonic but Silver jumps in her way. “Care to rekindle what we had?” He asks. “Rekindle this!” She shouts and throws a fireball at him. He dodges and they get locked in a fight of their own.
“If my father were to see you now! You were his general! And now you’ve become nothing but a pet!” Mephilies taunts. “Held on a leash. A pacifist! What a joke!” Sticks unleashes a battle cry and pushes back harder.
Sonic gets knocked to the ground and Sage tries to stab him in the head, but he dodges. He jumps to the rope, cuts his friends down, and uses his momentum to swing on the rope back around to his teacher.
“Alright, let’s do this!” Knuckles shouts as he and Amy get untied by Tails.
Sonic tries to land a hit but gets kicked to the ground. She picks him up by the back of his neck and grabs his hand, using it to pull the amulet off his own body. He tries to get away but she pushes him to the edge of the bridge and uses him to place the amulet in it’s spot. “NO! NO NO!” He shouts as the bridge begins to open a portal and once it does it begins to suck everything in. Any debris from the fight, along with mobians and humans.
Blaze gets Silver pinned against the wall when she realizes the bridge has opened. Silver cackles with glee. Her world goes into slow motion. She throws Silver to the side and jumps to the bridge as fast as she can. She uses fire to propel her and begins to try to pull the amulet out.
Silver jumps on her back but a blast of the amulets power sends him off, and too close to the portal and he’s sucked into Lost Hex. The thing just won’t move.
Sonic uses Sage’s distraction to flip the pin. “Let go Blaze! Let go!”
“Don’t let go!” Sage shouts. Before Mephilies can stop her, she does. And the world goes white. Sonic makes it out of the pile of rock that used to be the Ark. And he sees the others scattered in varying degrees of consciousness. No Sage or Mephilies in sight.
Then he notices Blaze’ arm has turned to stone. He runs over to her, thinking she might be dying. As soon as he makes it her arm crumbles to dust, and his amulet is left in the rubble. “I would hand you the amulet,” Blaze starts. “You’re alive!” Sonic cheers and hugs her to the best of his ability.
Behind him, he hears Mephilies roar. “We have to go!” Amy says. The Mobianhunters make a break for it. Amy opens a hatch and they all look down. “No way am I jumping into the sewers, that is disgusting!” Sonic protests. Then Mephilies roars again, and the sword of metal being unsheathed sends a chill down Sonic’s spin. “Alright, sewers it is.” They all jump in. Sticks grabs onto something and grabs Blaze, Amy, and Tails and Knuckles grab on as well. But Sonic misses and he begins to panic. Maybe he should have mentioned that he can’t swim.
He sees Mephilies coming towards him and fights the urge to scream. He manages to slip through a grate and out into the canal. The current is strong but he’s able to touch the ground enough to get himself above water. When he’s under the bridge he’s able to grab on and climb out of the water and hold onto the scaffolding. He gasps for breath but he hears a chuckle behind him. “Yet another hunter killed under the same bridge.”
“For the glory of Merlina daylight is mine to command!” He says as quickly as he can, getting his armor back just as he’s punched and knocked into one of the bridge supports. Sonic starts to run but can’t go anywhere. The canal is filled and just getting higher. And the sun was beginning to set. “Daylight is fading.” Mephilies cackled as he approached. “You sure about that?” Sonic asks and summons his sword.
Mephilies leaps at him, and Sonic lets out a battle cry as their swords collide, create a burst of blue light. They fight for dominance, but Sonic’s grip begins to falter from the force of Mephilies swing. Sonic jumps and tries to avoid being sent into the water below. Mephilies screams when he’s hit with the light of the fading sun. But finds ways to remain in the shadows. Mephilies jumps in front of him and their swords meet again. The Black Arms blade pierced the metal of the bridge, and Sonic ran up it, kicking himself off the beasts head and slashing him the back. Mephilies cries in pain to turn, only to find that Sonic is nowhere to be found. Sonic hans from below, just above the water, and tries not to panic.
“You want to know where the baby girl is, don’t you.” Mephilies asks. Sonic gulps. It’s a trap. He knows it’s a trap. But being able to get Maria back… “I can give her back to you.”
Sonic climbs back up onto the metal. Before he can make an attack, Mephilies turns, pulling him off the ground, holding him up by his wrist as he prepares to make a killing blow. “If you kill me then the amulet will never be able to open the Bridge.” Sonic tries to save his life. “There will always be other hunters.”
Sonic raises his feet to avoid Mephilies blade. He kicks the mobian in the face before spawning his sword in his other hand and swinging back. He was able to cut himself out of Mephilies grip while the mobian screamed at his sliced forearm.
“You want to see dad, understandable. But we don’t always get what we want.” The Mobianhunter told his foe. Clearly the taunt had hit a nerve, with a roar of anger he charges. Overpowered, Sonic did his best to escape until he hit the edge, his sword plunging into the concrete easily, his body flying over the side and dangling over the rushing flood, cornered by death. Mephilies stepped up, with the makings of a satisfied grin plastered on his face. “I was hoping your death would be more entertaining.” Sonic decided to take a risk and let his sword evaporate, but Mephilies decided to grab him despite the damage to his own body and pin him against the bridge supports. “The amulet should never have chosen a human.” He taunted and dragged Sonic’s body up the pole, causing sparks and sending painful shocks down the boy’s spine. He cried out in pain as his body went stiff and began to twitch.
“Sonic!” Tails cried from the shore where his friends were watching. “Just in time to see their Mobianhunter die.” Mephilies laughs. “But I’m not mobian.” Sonic smirks and grabs his amulet, pulling it from his body with a fierce cry, the protection of the armor fading but allowing Sonic to sleep through the mobian’s grip. He landed and donned his armor again, shocking his enemy. Without hesitation, Sonic pushes his hand into the beasts chest, summoning his sword. The Black Arms cries out in pain as he is slain at his core. Sonic pushes him towards the sun and pulls his sword out. “That’s daylight for you.” Sonic taunts as watches as his foe falls into the canal, now made entirely of stone.
Sonic sighs and slumps over, trying to catch his breath.
Sage pulls herself out of the rubble in shock. Everything she had worked for, everything she had built, wiped out in an instant.
“You’re alive!” Tails cheered with Knuckles as they ran towards him on the top of the bridge. Every one of his friends created a group hug and he laughed with joy. “I can’t believe it!” Sticks cheers. “You have just done the impossible.” Blaze tells him. “I am so proud of you.” Amy whispers. “That was amazing!” Tails cheers.
“You also have a play to be at in fifteen minutes.” Knuckles reminds him. “Oh no the play.”
“Leave the Ark to us, We’ll take care of…” Amy is interrupted by Mephilies appearing, nearly killing Tails, albiet weakly. Tails begins to cry in panic, before he can take the swing he’s punches in the face by none other than Sticks. “What about your oath?” Tails asks. “You’re life is more important. I’m not a pet. I’m a wingman.” She holds out a fist and Tails completes the power bump.
“Now, let’s take care of the bridge and make sure it never opens again.” Amy says with a clap. “And the play must go on.” She adds to Sonic with a wink.
Sonic tries to hold his breath as still as possible on the ‘stone’ block with Shadow sitting next to him. Afterall, he’s supposed to be dead. “What’s here? A cup closed in my true love’s hand? Poison, I see, hath been his timeless end. Oh churl, drunk all, and left no friendly drop to help me after! I will kiss thy lips. Haply some poison yet doth hang on them, to make me die with a restorative.” Sonic feels their lips connect and he has to fight the urge to chase after when he pulls away. “They lips are warm. Yea, noise? Then I’ll be brief. O, happy dagger, This is they sheath. There rust, and let me die.”
“I didn’t know they both died. What kind of a story is this.” Knuckles hisses to his brother. “Shush.”
“A glooming peace this morning with it brings.” Ray starts his line. “The sun for sorrow will not show his head. Go hence to have more talk of these sad things. Some shall be pardoned and some punished. For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and his Romeo.”
The curtain closes as the applause begin.
Shadow helps Sonic off of the block. “We survived the play.” Sonic sighs with relief. “Really, I thought we just died.” Shadow jokes, causing Sonic to laugh. “You actually showed up.”
“Well, I did make a promise.” He smirks. “And I promise we will get Maria home, even if it means I have to go to Lost Hex myself.” Shadow smiles as they grab each others hand and the curtain opens for them to bow with the rest of the cast. “You mean we will bring her home.” Shadow corrects.
Sonic cheers with the rest of the party in the Market. The celebration is great. Even Vanilla seems happy. She even congratulates him. And she believes in him. And holy shit does it feel good. “So, did that amulet help you find that adventure?” Knuckles asks. “Nah.” He says. Knuckles chokes on his drink. “How?” Tails asks. “You guys did.” He tells them with a wink.
Chocola cheers to himself. He’s found the nursery. “CHAO CHAO!”