Sonic Series Fan Fiction / Sonic X Fan Fiction ❯ What They Call Growing Up ❯ Changes ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: CJ the Cheetah, Jessie the Cat and the children belong to me. Everyone else belongs to SEGA, Sonic Project, DiC or whoever created them.

 

Summary:Not even the Sonic gang can remain children forever. What happens when they settle down? Contains characters from all of the universes. Bears no reference to War of Hearts or Birth of the Heroes. There is a lot of romance, adventure, divorce, pregnancy etc.

 

I don't forgive flamers unless they apologize, because they don't deserve to be forgiven unless they know they're wrong. This one thought that flaming me was the right thing to do. He or she does not deserve forgiveness in my opinion, because what he or she said hurt my feelings. People need to understand that I do have them. Flamers are sick, vile, immature people who seriously need to grow up. I grew up. I moved on from that. All I ask is that people stop moaning about things that I used to do, because it's in the past, and this is the present. I know what I did back then was wrong.

This may not follow what happened in Archie. I don't really read Archie at all, I just look at scans. Since this is an AU though, it shouldn't really matter.

 

What They Call Growing Up

 

She could still remember the hunger vaguely tearing at her stomach, chewing on her insides, leading her to go out of her mind. If she hadn't had used her initiative, she'd probably have remained trapped in that cell, rotting away, possibly even laying dead by now. Even her fur had smelt of rotten eggs at that time.

 

She remembered having to use her own hands to dig her way out of imprisonment. She still bore the scars, from the palm of her hand to the tips of her fingers. She remembered having sharp contact with tree branches and often broken pieces of metal, possibly courtesy of Robotnik.

When she eventually broke the surface outside the prison, she travelled north, regardless of how weak her legs felt, regardless of the starvation. Though when she had needed help, it had arrived in the young form of a female purple weasel, dressed in brown. She helped her to the next village, even going as far as to meet an old friend along the way. Once there, she had fully decided to become a Freedom Fighter. She loved her own freedom and had refused to have it taken away from her by one man, no matter how evil or powerful he was. She knew then and there that she had to stop him, to prevent the same thing that had happened to her from happening to someone else.

 

She had been nearly eleven years old when that had happened. Eleven seemed pretty young for a Freedom Fighter, yet Mercia employed Freedom Fighters aged ten or over. There was only one the leader refused to employ, and when the going got tough, he sent that person away to safety.

 

She didn't know quite how she had got here or why. The leader of the Freedom Fighters in Mercia had got on her nerves, she knew that much. To her, he was just a complex person to work out, and seemed to take all the hard routes to success when there were perfectly straightforward ones. His attitude had cost nearly all his Freedom Fighters their lives. Some were sent to the roboticizer, others were merely shot on the spot by the High Sheriff, one of Robotnik's under bosses. It was then that she made the decision to flee and work with a safer leader.

 

Sally Acorn, to her, was as safe as they came.

 

“Ah, Fiona, just the person I wanted to see.”

 

She raised her eyes from her book, breaking away from her harsh thoughts, and paid the princess her full attention, “Yes, princess?”

 

Sally Acorn chuckled lightly, “Oh please, call me Sally. Everyone else does.”

 

The teenage vixen nodded in agreement to Sally's request, allowing the princess to continue, “Today's the day we introduce you to the rest of Brain Trust, seeing as there is a meeting today, I think the time would be appropriate for you to meet the rest of the members.”

 

Once again, the vixen nodded in agreement. A part of her almost burst with excitement about it, yet another part of her felt a little anxious, wondering whether or not they would accept her. Not that she really cared that much, but she didn't want to alienate herself from everyone before she had even started.

 

“Shall we go then?”

 

Once again nodding, she followed the princess out of the room towards a nearby hut.

 

XXX

 

Narrowing his eyes, Knuckles the Echidna folded his arms. This wasn't good at all. He had been tracing Robotnik's movements intently from Angel Island on top of guarding the important emeralds which would one day predict the fate of planet Mobius. There were eight in all, seven of which were small, and each glowed a different colour. The eighth one stood taller than the rest of them, watching over the smaller ones.

 

“He's up to no good,” the ruby red echidna grumbled to himself, his arms folded, “I just know it.”

 

“Will you relax?” jibed a somewhat sarcastic female voice from behind him, “We can handle whatever the rotten egg dishes out. We have bigger problems to worry about.”

 

Knuckles threw the owner of the voice, a deep pink echidna with tough violet eyes, a dirty glare, “Like what exactly?”

 

“Your brother,” the female smart-aleck replied in a dark tone, “He's getting completely out of hand again.”

 

Knuckles shrugged in an attitude which clearly suggested that he couldn't care less about the attitude of his younger half-brother, who was born to his mother and stepfather Wynmacher a year before, “As long as Kneecaps isn't bothering me, I don't give a damn.”

 

“Well how can he bother you if you're stuck up here all day?” Julie-Su argued, a brief smirk crossing her face, “I've a funny feeling that guarding those emeralds is the perfect excuse for you to get away from him.”

 

“It's a serious duty,” the male echidna said firmly, “My personal life has no say in it whatsoever. One day these emeralds will decide the fate of our planet and until that day comes, I must protect them at all costs.”

 

Julie-Su sighed in exasperation, “You are too serious sometimes. You need to learn how to lighten up a little.”

 

Knuckles said nothing to that statement, though he knew she was perfectly correct. He knew he had the tendency to remain firm and stiff like a mountain standing tall, forever taking things seriously and rejecting any form of fun that could possibly threaten his duty to protect the emeralds. He was almost the opposite of Sonic, who could never sit still for even a second without whining about how bored he was and who never seemed to take things seriously. It was almost fact that Knuckles found himself fairly smug about his differences to his blue rival, yet there was always a small longing within him that he taught himself not to listen to. The longing to be as free as Sonic was…

 

It seemed that Sonic had everything a guy could possibly want; a carefree life where he never felt worries no matter how bad the situation appeared, the beautiful Princess Sally on his arm, and no duties to tie him down. It all sent the red echidna into frustration sometimes. He knew he could never have what Sonic had, even though it never stopped him wishing. He had felt freedom as a child when his biological father guarded the emeralds, and the feeling still flowed through Knuckles' veins, aching to be felt again.

 

Then there was Sally Acorn. She wasn't a patch on Julie-Su; her personality was nowhere near as exciting, and she would probably never have had the effect on him that Julie-Su had placed. But he still remembered the times before his father was killed, back in the days he was free to have whatever fun he desired… he recalled visiting the princess often as a child. He generally had a lot of fun playing games and chatting with her enthusiastically once he had come out of his shell. Adding to that, she would probably be the only person to understand the feeling of being chained down by a duty. She was the princess, after all.

 

“Knuckles?”

 

The male broke out of his thoughts abruptly, turning to throw a short glare at Julie-Su, who merely pointed towards the alarm.

 

“An intruder?” Knuckles questioned to himself, his eyes narrowed. Indeed, the silent alarm had been set off; normally it only happened in the case of intruders. He had asked Tails to set it up after the first time he met Robotnik, after he had tricked him, after he had humiliated him…

 

“Seems so,” his girlfriend shrugged, another smirk crossing her face, “Want me to deal with it?”

 

Knuckles shrugged. He could always do what he had done last time; steal away himself to confront the intruder, therefore placing the risk of the emeralds being stolen. He shook his head suddenly; no. He had learnt his lesson. He was needed by the emeralds. Looking up at Julie-Su, he nodded shortly, “Be careful. It might be one of Robotnik's stooges.”

 

Julie-Su gave Knuckles a cheeky grin and a thumbs-up before heading off towards the edge of the island.

 

XXX

 

He had known that she would one day recognize him. Ever since he had clapped eyes on her, he had known they would most certainly meet. But he did not expect all these complicated emotions roaming around inside of him at such a fast rate. It was almost maddening for someone as young as him.

 

His eyes watched her intently as Sally introduced her to everyone. She merely stood there, with an almost cool head, raising a hand to everyone. She even looked almost bored.

 

`How can she make it look so easy?' the two-tailed fox queried to himself. He remembered very well what his reaction was to being introduced to Brain Trust. He had stood there, shyly, giving everyone tiny little waves. It certainly hadn't been easy.

 

“And this is Tails.”

 

The fox broke out of his thoughts, and glanced up timidly at the taller vixen, who was clearly now being introduced to the members of Brain Trust separately. She was hot red in fur colour, and her eyes shone an excellent sapphire blue. A smile crossed her teenage face as she looked at him, almost softening.

 

“We've met before,” she said softly, clearly remembering the events of breakfast, “You waved at me.”

 

Tails blushed furiously, almost wishing he would sink through the floor and disappear from the world. He had never felt more embarrassed. He gulped out, “Yeah…”

 

Soon enough Sally led her away to introduce her to the rest of the Trust, to which Tails tried to slow his intense heart rate down. He had honestly never known that girls had that effect on males. He knew Sonic had the tendency to show off sometimes in front of Sally, possibly because of his relationship with her. But he never knew it applied to all males, even the ones that didn't live up to certain expectations, which Sonic seemed to meet without fail.

 

He certainly could never live up to those expectations. A feeling of hollowness swept through the young fox's body as he realized the chances of winning Fiona Fox's heart were minimum for she would most likely see a child begging for attention instead of a blossoming young man looking for love.

 

But there wasn't any harm in trying though…