Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Back at it again with another batch of second borns. Once again, not the kind of story where the prince saves the princess. This time we have Sonic, but that’s not his actual name. His birth name is Maurice, he just prefers the name Sonic, and it describes him perfectly. He’s always been fast, faster than most. 

Sonic doesn’t hate being a royal, he’s fine with the title, but the stuff that comes with it is not his favorite. The stuffy parties, the lessons, the school, his queen sister. His mother died when he was young, and his 16-year-old sister assumed the throne, and at one year younger, he really did not appreciate being bossed around by her. One thing he didn’t mind was the family he had. He loves his sister, really, he did, but he would say his younger brother was his favorite. The genius of the family. That was another thing Sonic didn’t like, being the middle. His sister, Amy, was the queen and was actually good at what she did. His eight-year-old brother, Miles (lovingly dubbed by Sonic as Tails (for reasons unbeknownst to anyone else)) was the genius, a master strategist and an amazing advisor the queen. And what was Sonic, the middle child who couldn’t stay still and was constantly dubbed by the media “an embarrassment to the throne” with his running around, never sitting still, and somehow always caused a disaster at parties. His sister would always chastise them for it, but Sonic knew it all the same. Sonic would pretend not to care, but he did. He wanted people to like him just as much as they liked his siblings. He was determined to do something great, something worthwhile, something… heroic. So, he learned to run, and boy could this kid run. He was as close to a blur as a human could get, after some time it almost seemed inhuman how fast he could run. But it was never enough.

One day, while trying to figure out pethagren theorem in his room, just about ready to give up, his sister and brother walked in. “Tails, Ames. What’s up.”

“I told you to call him Miles. And my name is Amy.” His sister said, already annoyed. “It’s fine Amy, I don’t mind.” Tails said behind his sister. “Tough crowd today. What’s wrong?” His sister handed him a letter, already opened. It was addressed to her, so she didn’t violate anything by opening it, but he felt bad about looking at it. “Well, open it.” He did. “SUMMER SCHOOL!” He shouted. “This is your own fault, and you're not getting out of it.” Amy told him. “But this is crazy. My grades aren’t that bad.” He insisted. And they weren’t, if you considered his highest grade of C and lowest of F good grades (in his defense royal school was hard!). “You’ll be staying on campus with the other students.”

“BS!” Sonic shouted and tossed everything into the air that was on his desk. “A prince doesn’t cuss.”

“But I didn’t.”

“Yeah!” Tails shouted. “Or curse or use abbreviated versions of such things.” Amy corrected. Sonic scowled. “I want to go to summer school.” Tails grumbled. “You better get packing; you leave in two days for Illyria.” Amy said and walked out. “As you command your royal highness.” Sonic snapped. “I heard that!” Amy said on her way out. “Good.” Sonic told her. “Come on, Sonic. I’ll help you pack.” Tails told him. Sonic smiled at his brother. At least they had each other when Amy was insufferable.

The doctor worked furiously, preparing his machines for his potential takeover run a few months. The queen's 17th birthday party. Everyone of any importance would be there, and he was ready for it. He was going to take the world.

“You’ll have to let me know if you meet anyone cool. Or really smart. Or anyone noteworthy. Or anyone famous.”

“Tails, it’s going to be a class of royalty. They’re all famous.” Tails looked down. “But I’ll let you know. I’ll take a hidden back up phone just in case.” Sonic told his brother and ruffled his hair, causing those three strands that Amy always tried to keep under control to come out. "What am I going to do while you're gone?" Tails asked solemnly. "You'll help Ames run the country like usual. It may not be as exciting without the best brother ever around, but hey, I'm sure you and Amy'll make it work." The brothers look at each other. "And hey, I still have a little over 24 hours, we can still do something together."

"I could show you my newest invention. I call it...." Sonic listened half-heartedly to his kid brother talk about his invention. After a while, Sonic just stopped trying to understand what Tails was saying, it was ridiculously hard.

"Come on, I'll show you." The boy grabbed his brother's hand and started running down the halls. They ran past servants and a few politicians, right into Amy. The three of them fell onto the floor. "Maurice!" Amy shouted. "It wasn't his fault, I'm the one who was running." Tails tried to defend. "But if he had truly wanted, he could have stopped you."

"It's fine, no one is hurt." Sonic told his sister. She just glared at him. She stood up and dusted herself off. "Get up." She told them. They did. "Walk to where you're going." She told them annoyed and walked away. "Come on buddy, let's go." Sonic told his brother. Sometimes, Sonic just didn't get his sister. 

The car pulled up to the hangar and Sonic got out. He really did not want to leave. Six weeks of school away from home was not his idea of a good summer vacation. "Bye Sonic." Tails said and hugged his brother. Amy didn't even correct him. Sonic hugged back and didn't want to let go. His sister stepped closer and hugged him too. He was not expecting a public display of their love for each other. "Be safe, be good, don't run away, and don't die of boredom." She told him. He smiled. "I will." He told her. She let him go and he walked over to the jet. His siblings waved to him as he walked onto the plane. This was going to be a long summer.

Sonic opened the door to the classroom he was directed to go to and walked. The first thing he noticed was that he wasn't alone. "Faker." Sonic said to his old school rival. The prince in question scoffed. "Why did you have to be here?" Shadow asked in frustration. "I could ask you the same thing."

"Watch out everyone, they're about to make out." Rouge teased. "WE ARE NOT!" They both shouted at the girl. Sonic noticed that she wasn't wearing he usual sleeveless shirts, but she was wearing a jacket. This threw him for a loop. "What do you say handsome, should we do the same?" Rouge turned to Knuckles. "You're batshit crazy, (AN: yes, that was a joke) I don't even know you." Knuckles told her. She just smirked at him. "I feel like we're intruding upon something." The princess with purple hair turned to the boy next to her. Sonic just noticed the two of them. "I don't like it." The boy told her. "Sorry if you feel left out. I'm Rouge. The grumpy pants is Shadow. That one is Sonic. And this handsome devil is rich and doesn't know how to protect his belongings." Rouge said and showed everyone a phone. Knuckles swiped it. "Don't steal from me." He told her. She just smirked. 

"Hello class." A man walked in. "Everyone take a seat and we'll get started." The man quickly rushed to the front of the room. "My name is Mr. Marrow, but you can call me James. A little bit about me. I have a fiancé named Henry, an iguana named Jeff, and a severe gluten allergy. Give me anything with gluten and I'm as good as dead. Get ready, because we are going to have fun this summer."

"Seriously?" Rouge asked annoyed. "Yeah. Here's a quick question for you, why do you think you're here? Prince Silver?"

"Well, I was walking in the cafeteria and somehow every lunch I walked past turned onto its owner, and everyone thought it was on purpose, so this is my detention." The boy in the back told him. "Incorrect! Prince Shadow?"

"I'm anti-social so the principal said that I should come and try to make some friends."

"Incorrect! Princess Blaze?"

"I'm here because my parents told me there would be extra credit." The girl next to Silver said. "Once again, wrong. Any other guesses? Prince Maurice."

"I actually go by Sonic."

"Alright Sonic, do you have a guess?"

"That whatever I say is going to be wrong."

"Correct." James looked at the classroom of six students. "The reasons all of you were sent to 'summer school' were stories to get you here without arousing the suspicion of those around you."

"So, what are we doing, because I didn't leave my duties to have a prank played on my for TV." Knuckles groaned. "No, but it would be cool to be a TV show host. However, I'm a prince. A second-born royal, just like the rest of you. Our siblings are the heirs and we're the spares. Powerless and without purpose, at least that's what everyone thinks." James takes the shock of the students in as another one of him steps out of his body. Having learned from experience, he has two more clones appear as well. "My brother would go nuts." Sonic says. "Here's the deal." Clone one says. "There's a special gene that only appears in the second-borns of royal bloodlines." Clone three tells them. "A gene that gives some of us extraordinary abilities that manifest right around your age."

"So, we have superpowers?" Shadow clarifies. "Bingo. Your abilities are unique to you and to you alone." Clone two says. "You're here to harness your abilities to use as members of the secret society of second born royals." The original James says. "Yeah, we know it's a mouthful." Clone one says. James goes back to be just one. "There is a catch. No one can know we exist. Not even your families, unless it is approved by the head of the society, which is why I must take your phones for the immediate at not temporary future." James started walking around with a basket and taking phones from each person. "Do you mean, like, the whole summer?" Rouge asked. "Indeed." He said. "So, are you not the head of the society?" Knuckles asks and hands his phone over. "I am." I woman says behind them. Everyone turns and looks and sees the old queen of Illyria. 

"Welcome to the Secret Society training program. For thousands of years, second-borns like you and myself have protected our kingdoms from threats, assassins, and international criminals. We work in secret. Our rewards? Lives saved; order restored. The next six weeks will be challenging. You may doubt you have what it takes, but whatever obstacles you face, nothing is impossible. Those of you who have what it takes will join the society. Those who don't will return to your kingdoms. You'll be stripped of your powers and memories altered to erase any recollection of your training. Good luck." The former queen walked out. "Alright recruits, follow me." James told them.

Everyone is handed a blue one piece suit and is told to put it on. After everyone is dressed, they are shuffled into a white blank room. 

"Now, I know what you're all asking. You all want to know what your powers are, and as curious as I am, we'll get to that in a minute. First, a little tradition. I promise you'll like it." James hits some buttons on the tablet he was holding. The room transformed into an obstacle course with something at the end of the room. "Super basic, all you have to do is get from here, to there. First person who gets to the pyramid gets a prize."

"That's all?" Knuckles asks. "Yep." James said. "But that's so easy?" Sonic said but then he hears something fire. He moves just before a beam hits him. "THERE ARE LASERS!" Rouge shouts. "Lesson one, expect the unexpected." Everyone just stares at him. "Well, what are you waiting for, a royal invitation. Go." James tells them and everyone starts running. "FYI, the lasers hurt." He says. Knuckles gets hit and falls down. He quickly gets back up. "I'm going to beat you, faker." Sonic taunts. "You wish." Shadow taunts right back. Sonic moves in a blur of blue before he gets hit. "No fair, he has super speed." Rouge complains. "And this suit is so uncomfortable." 

"You'll get used to it." James tells her. Knuckles gets knocked by a laser into an obstacle and makes a big dent. "Knuckles, try to lift that." Sonic tells him and hides behind something. "Why would I do that?" He asks. "Just trust me." Sonic shouts. Knuckles does as instructed and lifts it with ease. "Super strength." Rouge observes. Shadow ducks and flexes his fist, when he does, a spear of light appears in his hand. "Cool." He says. "Anyone else figured out their powers?" Silver asks. He puts his hands in front of his face as a laser comes toward him. It ends up surround by a blue light and freezes. "Psychokinesis!" Blaze shouts. "Cool." Silver lets his guard down and the laser hits him and he's down on the ground, unable to get up. "I hate this." He says from the ground. "Silver's down for the count!" James shouts. Shadow gets up and starts running but is hit by a laser. Sonic stands up and starts laughing at him. He gets hit by a laser. "Lesson two, be aware of your surroundings."

"You know it would be a lot more helpful to have the lessons before we were incapacitated." Shadow said. "Well, that would defeat the whole purpose." James tells him, smirk evident in his voice. "Alright, Blaze, Rouge, and Knuckles are still up, can they make it?"

"Was that a challenge?" Knuckles asks. "Knux, this whole thing has been a challenge." Sonic says. Knuckles bounds over his cover and starts booking it for the pyramid but gets hit and is down. "Blaze and Rouge are the last ones standing." 

"Oh, screw it." Rouge says and pulls a knife out from seemingly nowhere. She finds a spot on her back and makes two incisions in the fabric. She pulls out two wings. "Is that her power?" Sonic asks. "Yeah, that would be it." James says in shock.  She unfolds the bat-like wings and then starts trying to fly, but a laser hits her back, and she falls to the ground. Blaze looks on, determination growing on her features. She starts running, dodging, ducking, and bounding with cat-like grace. As she came to the home stretch, her powers must have kicked in as she was almost hit with a laser, because she extended her hands to touch the pyramid and she lit it on fire. In her shock, she allowed herself to be hit by the laser. James grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the fire. 

“Well, that’s not the worst I’ve ever seen. Good job everyone. I’m gonna have you go out and sit on the benches for a second and recover.” Everyone got up that could. Blaze, Rouge, and Sonic were still incapacitated so someone had to carry, that someone being Knuckles. “But why must I carry all of them.”

“Cause you have super strength.” Silver nonchalantly replied. “Could someone take Rouge, I don’t want to carry her.” Knuckles complained. “Too bad.” Shadow told him. Knuckles grumbled while grabbing each of them. He slung a very limp Sonic over his shoulder, then he did the same with Blaze. Then he bridal carried Rouge. “Oh, you do care.” Rouge teased. “Hardly, I don’t want your wings to poke me in the back of the head.”

“What about us!” Sonic complained loudly. “Apparently, your other option is dragging yourself.” Knuckles told him. Sonic grumbled and Knuckles walked out of the room after Silver and Shadow. Knuckles set Rouge on a seat, then set Blaze down next to Silver, the dropped Sonic on a seat. “Ow!” Sonic said. “That didn’t hurt.” Knuckles told him. “Says you.” Sonic protested. 

“How long have you had wings?” Sonic asks. “I woke up with them three days ago.” Rouge says. “That’s so cool.” Sonic tells her. “Maybe to you, you haven’t had to be sleeping with them.” Rouge says and rubs them. “Besides, you got super speed. With all your running you’d think you’d be more excited.” Rouge said. "I guess, but it is a little cliche right? I mean, strength, speed, fire, and some kind of floaty magic,"

"Psychokinesis." Shadow says, Sonic ignores him. ", those are classics, but wings and that light weapon thingy, now those are cool." Shadow just rolls his eyes and doesn't even bother correcting his rival this time. "I wonder what other kinds of powers people have."

"I could tell you." James walks towards the group. "Yes please!" Sonic says excited. "Well, in my last class, I had five students. There was an invisible girl, a boy who could control bugs, a super sensed student, there was also a kid who could make people do whatever he told them."

"I wish I had that power, then I'd tell Sonic to shut up." Shadow said. "I'd tell you to run yourself ragged."

"I'd tell you both to kiss so we can move on with our lives." Rouge said. "SHUT UP!" They both turned red and shouted at her. "But that's only four." Blaze said. Everyone turned to her. "Mr. Marrow only said four powers, he said he had five students." They all turned to the teacher. "There was an also a student who defected. She can take other people's power and make it her own temporarily through physical contact."

"So, she takes your power and duplicates it?" Knuckles asks. "No, if she touches you, your powerless and she has your power." James corrects. No one seems to like that prospect. "Well, with that wonderful thought, let's get you all settled into your rooms." He smiled at them. No one liked that look. "Boys, you're all bunking together. Girls, you're bunking together. Off you go." He said and walked away from the flabbergasted group. "No." Sonic said. "I don't wanna share." Silver complained. "That's stupid!" Rouge shouted. "It's probably so we bond." Blaze told everyone. "That doesn't make me want to share." Sonic told her. "Especially with him." Sonic said and pointed at Shadow. "Feeling's mutual faker." 

"All of you go to bed! Tomorrow's training will be much harder than todays!" They hear James shout at them. "Today was horrible! How can it be harder?" Sonic asked. "You've just tempted the universe. Tomorrow is gonna suck for you." Silver says. 

"Can everyone walk yet?" Knuckles asks annoyed with the world. Everyone can stand so they all go to find the rooms. 

"I want a top bunk." Sonic complains. Silver took one, Shadow currently trying to take the other. "I'm trying to stay as far from you as possible, no dice." Shadow tells him. Sonic runs and tries to get there first, but he's pushed down by Shadow. "Fine, whatever, at least I don't have to look at your stupid face." He says. "Whatever." Shadow tells him. Sonic huffs and sits on the bottom bunk. Knuckles sits across from him. 

Knuckles and Sonic, despite their arguments and rocky start, we're actually pretty good friends. They didn't always get along, Knuckles thought that Sonic was too cocky, and Sonic thought that Knuckles could be too hard-headed, but they could consider each other best friends, besides Tails of course. Which is why Knuckles, for all his thick-headed-ness, noticed immediately that there was more too Sonic's disappointment than not getting the top bunk. This is why Knuckles, in his impulsiveness, picked up Sonic by the back of his suit, despite his protests, and brought him into the hall. 

Knuckles set Sonic down and stood him up. Knuckles crossed his arms and glared at his friend. "Talk." He said simply. "About what?" Sonic asked. "You're a chatter box, figure it out."

"I could talk about anything. I could talk about today or yesterday or tomorrow or Tails or you or Amy or anything and we both know you will quickly get annoyed when I don't talk about what you want me to talk about so just tell me what you want me to talk about." Sonic huffed in one breath. "Shadow." Knuckles said simply. "He's a jerk." Sonic said simply and put his hands on his hips in indignation. Knuckles simply raised his eyebrow to show that he didn't buy it. "Is this about the bed thing. Because he was being unreasonable. It's not my fault if he's a stubborn blockhead. Just because he's cool and hot doesn't mean he can get whatever he wants. I mean seriously, what's his problem with me?"

"You continuously insult him." Knuckles told his friend. "Which is clearly because you can't deal with the feelings you have for him." Sonic turned to his friend a red flustered mess. "I do not have feelings for him."

"Every interaction you've had to today and the one's I've seen recently say otherwise." Knuckles glared at the speedster. "Besides, you just called him hot." Sonic turned a new shade of red, about as red as Knuckles hair. "I did?"

"You did."

"Oh, chaos."

"Now that that's sorted out, no more feelings for the day. That's your sister's forte and I don't like it." Knuckles started walking towards the door. Sonic just stood there, breathing slowly, covering his very red face. "Dude, pull yourself together." Knuckles said. "I can't."

"Run around the hall real quick, that usually helps you." Sonic did just that. He just ran the halls of the school, not his top speed, but a decent one.

The door closed behind Knuckles and Sonic, and Silver turned to his other roommate. Something was going on between everyone and he was determined to figure it out. "Why do you two call each other faker?" Shadow just sighed. "It feels like there's a story there and I'm just curious." Silver tried to say. No reply. "We're going to be in the same room together for six weeks. Not to mention training, breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Might as well get to know each other so it's more bearable, right." Silver made the well reason argument to someone who was increasingly feeling like talking to a brick wall.

"A couple years ago, before we actually met, I snuck into the school and stole a jewel that was rumored to have healing properties. I was naive and stupid and didn't realize that it was a joke. No one could tell it was me on the security camera, because I hadn't officially had my first day of school. Sonic was blamed and we've been calling each other our fake ever since, especially when it became clear how evenly matched we were."

"Why did you want the gem?"

"To help my sister."

"Princess Maria?"

"Yes." Silver new about the princess's sickness. She had NIDS. Doctors we're surprised she had made it as far as she had. It made sense that he wanted to help his sister. "How did you steal it without getting caught? Was there not security?"

"Rouge." Came the simple response. "Your friend with the bat wings?"

"We aren't friends. We are business acquaintances."

"Business acquaintances?"

"Our kingdoms neighbor each other. They've been conducting trade between each other for centuries." Silver nodded, even though he didn't know if it was seen. "So, you don't like Sonic?"

"We just don't get along." Shadow said. "So, you do like him." Silver sat up. "I didn't say that."

"But when I asked if you didn't like him, you said that you just don't get along."

"We don't."

"But..."

"I'm done with this conversation."

"I don't..."

"Done."

"Bu..."

"Let. It. Go." Shadow enunciated every word, effectively ending the conversation. Shadow turned onto his side and closed his eyes, trying to do exactly what James asked. Silver was not satisfied. "Before today, did you have an inkling that you might be special."

"You talk almost as much as Sonic, you know that." Shadow said annoyed. "He didn't talk very much today?"

"Yeah, well, we were all busy getting our asses kicked."

"Fair enough." There was a long pause. "One time, about a month ago, when I got really mad, something shot out of my hand. Didn't know what it was. Broke a vase in the castle. I was alone so no one saw. Figured I was dreaming or hallucinating. What about you?"

"Lunchroom incident. I actually thought everyone did it to get me in trouble, guess not." The door opened and Knuckles walked in and laid on his bed. "Where's Sonic?" Silver asked. "He's running through the halls, said he needed to clear his head."

"Is he okay?"

"He's fine, like I said, he just needed to clear his head." Silver laid back down. He started thinking to himself. "Of course, I got stuck with the two least talkative people here alone. Wonder how Blaze is doing?"

Blaze, was, in fact, not doing great. "I mean I don't get it. Why do you have to make these suits so constricting. You would think they would make them better suited for movement." Blaze wanted to be polite, but Rouge would not stop talking. She had been talking for most of the thirty minutes they had been together. "The suits have most likely been specifically designed in order to protect and serve the wearer."

"They could still be more comfortable." Rouge said. Blaze got off her bed and started looking through, he admittedly limited, luggage. "That's not very much stuff." Rouge commented and went over to her five suitcases. "You don't need much; we can do laundry." Blaze told her. Rouge scoffed. "Hun, just because you can doesn't mean you can't have a plethora of outfits."

"We'll probably mostly be wearing our training suits, so it doesn't matter." Rouge shrugged. "I'll probably have to get mine modified, wings and all."

"Did it hurt when they grew in?" Blaze caught herself asking the question before she could even blink. She wanted to apologize and take it back, but Rouge started answering before she could. "A little, but I didn't notice until three days ago that it wasn't just some back pain. Now it's just a pain in the butt to try and control 'em. Sometimes it's like they have a mind of their own. They also make it hard to find a comfortable sleeping position. But what about you and your fire powers, that's pretty cool, huh?"

"It seems a little destructive." Blaze said quietly. "Well, hey." Rouge put a hand on her roommate's shoulder. "That's why we're here right? To learn how to control our powers and stuff. I'm sure that by the end of the six weeks you'll be the best in the class. Just don't tell Shadow I said that." She whispered the last part, almost as if the boy in question would hear. Blaze couldn't help but laugh a little. "Let's get ready for bed, yeah." Rouge said and walked back over to her stuff. Blaze smiled. "Maybe this won't be so bad." She thought to herself.

Sonic laid on the roof, looking at the stars. He felt his back up phone buzz and grabbed it from his pocket. "Why even have the pocket if we're not supposed to have phones?" He found himself asking. He looked and saw a text from his brother. 

Tails: How was your day?

Sonic found himself writing everything that had happened that day but remembered that he wasn't supposed to talk about it.

Tails: Anything cool happen?

"The coolest. You would love it." Sonic said out loud, to hopefully ease the guilt of what he was about to do. 

Sonic: Just boring school stuff. Knuckles is here though, so that's nice

Tails: Tell him hi for me. Anyone else?

Sonic: Shadow |P

Tails: You mean your long-time crush

Sonic: I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH ON HIM

Tails: Whatever you say, anyone else

Sonic: Well Rouge is here. Also, two royals I hadn't met before today. Their names are Blaze and Silver.

Tails: Well, if I know you, you'll be friends with them in no time

Tails: Amy is telling me to go to bed, goodnight, Sonic

Sonic: night tails

Sonic turned off his phone and looked back up at the sky. He decided it was time to go back to his room. He ran and (he did not get lost, definitely not) found the door to his room and found everyone else asleep. He climbed into his stupid bottom bunk and closed his eyes.

Chapter Text

The door slammed open, waking up all four boys. "Time to get up and dressed. You got to eat and then we'll start your first day of training." James said. Sonic looked at the alarm clock set up in the room. It was five am. He groaned. "It's summer, can't we sleep a little longer?" He asked. "Nope." James said and walked away, presumably to wake up the girls. 

The other three boys got up right away and started putting on their suits. Sonic took his dear sweet time and complained, a lot. "Stop whining." Knuckles finally snapped. Sonic groaned. Shadow was the first out the door and headed towards the cafeteria. Silver quickly followed. Knuckles waited for Sonic, who rushed a little bit when he saw that his friend was waiting for him. 

They walked to the cafeteria. Sonic started rambling to Knuckles. "I bet you'll do some weightlifting to get stronger. Maybe I'll run on the track. Or the treadmill. How long do you think before I can go faster than it can. Two, three days. Oh, I bet that we'll have to eat some really gross stuff to prepare our bodies." They finally arrived in the cafeteria to find everyone there. James made them all sit at the same table. He put some trays with school food in front of them. So not exactly what Sonic had been expecting. "Eat up, you got a long day ahead." James told them. They did exactly that, while listening to Sonic ramble about the training they may have to go through. "I wonder how good we will all be able to get with our powers. I wonder if Knuckles will be able to lift a whole building. Or Rouge might be able to fly for miles. I bet I'll be able to go faster than the speed of light. Shadow could probably make twenty spears at once. And Silver might be able to use his powers to fly. And, and Blaze could set herself and fire and not get burned. How cool would that be. Or maybe, she could even breathe flames like a dragon."

"Honey, you need to slow down." Rouge told him. "Have some food." She pushed a tray toward him, and he started actually eating.

James walked over to the small group of students. "Today, we officially start your training. Learning to use your powers is all about focus, concentration, and precision. Right now, your powers are controlled by your hormones, stressful situation, adrenaline, peer pressure, social anxiety, attraction, even the music you listen to. Now that we know what your powers are, training is about learning to control them."

"How?" Blaze asked. James smiled at her. "Practice."

James brought them all out to the yard where targets were set up for practice. "Grab a bow and a quiver of arrows." James instructed. Each student did as they were told and stood in front of a target. "Get the bullseye." He told them. Each of them started trying to hit the target. Blaze and Shadow were the only ones who had even held a bow and arrow before. They both hit the target but neither of them could get the bullseye. Sonic couldn't even get the target. He kept hitting the trees. At one point, he hit Knuckles target, which was the one next to his. 

James told them he was going to pull them into their own spaces to practice their individual powers. Sonic was pulled onto the outdoor track. "So what, do I just run. Easy." Sonic said. "You haven't even begun to scratch the surface of your power. What's your mile record?" James asked. "About 2 minutes and 30 seconds I think."

"Amateur hour. I want you to run around the track four times and then stop here." James pointed to a cone a little bit ahead of where Sonic was starting. Sonic stretched and prepared for his run. "On your mark, get set, go." James said and Sonic started. He was around the track in a blur of blue. He stopped where he was told. James clicked his tongue. "1:54.38, come on you can do better than that." Sonic went back to the starting spot. "GO!" He started. "1:33.53, not bad. Let's try again."

"Right now, you've only formed your weapon under adrenaline filled circumstance, but you have to be able to do it like that." James said and snapped his fingers. "That doesn't explain why I'm sitting on a yoga mat." Shadow said in annoyance. "Because even if you are at peace, you have to be able to use your powers. Form your spear." Shadow scoffed. He flexed his hand to show his teacher that he could do it, but nothing happened. He tried again. He was getting annoyed, and even that wasn't helping. "Aren't you going to give me some advice?" Shadow asked as he tried again. "Lesson number three, the best teacher is experience." James said watching. Shadow continued to try. 

"Alright, what've you got for me James?" Silver asked as he was led to a room. "You are easily startled, are you not?" James asks. "Well, I guess." James opens the door to the room and walks in, Silver following behind. In it, there's a bunch of objects and a cushion in the middle. "Take a seat." Silver sits on the pillow. "Your job, is to keep one object in the air, no matter what."

"No matter what?" Silver asks skeptically. "Yep."

"Are there lasers?" He stuttered. "No." James assured him. Silver looked around the room. He saw a strange cup and decided to use that. He focused on it. A blue light enveloped it, and it floated. He focused on it. letting it float there. Then he heard a horn honk behind him. "CHAOS!" Silver shouted, he lost focus and the cup, and it fell to the floor and shattered. “In battle, things will be happening all around you, you can't lose your focus." Silver groaned. Of course his training involved been scared half to death every ten seconds.

"So, what's my training? Weightlifting, punching stuff, working out?" Knuckles followed his teacher. "None of the above." James told him. James opened the door a regular classroom. "Much of your power is about control. You already lift weights for fun, right?" Knuckles nodded. "But how many phones have you broken this month?" James asked him. "I don't wanna talk about it." Knuckles grumbled. James handed him a tablet. "I don't understand." Knuckles looked at his teacher. James smiled and grabbed a box full of very similar looking assortment of iPads and tablets alike. "You're going to sit here and play games." Knuckles just stared. "What does this have to...."

"Well, if you can get angry, or even just play with these fragile things and not break them, I'll know you're in control of your powers and you're not letting your strength take over you." Knuckles tried to press the on button, but as he had done many times over the last month, the thing immediately shattered under his grip. James just gave him a look that said, 'I told you so'. Knuckles didn't like this, at all.

Blaze was sitting a completely empty room, with only a torch in the middle. "Mr. Marrow, I don't understand."

"I told you that you can call me James."

"I understand that Mr. Marrow, but I feel more comfortable this way. But what are we doing here?"

"I want you to light the torch." Blaze just stared at her teacher. That was it? "Just light it up." Blaze walked over to it and tried to spark something, but no matter what hand gestures, kicks, or even straight touching the torch lit it on fire. "Let's just keep trying." Mr. Marrow told her.

Rouge was currently standing on top of the school, and not liking where this was going. "I have two ideas to teach you to use your wings, so we'll start with the stick."

"The stick?" Rouge inquired. "An old saying for how to motivate someone to do something. There's the carrot and there's the stick. A reward for a good job or a consequence for a bad job."

"So, we're starting with the stick." Rouge was increasingly not liking her situation. James put a hand on her back and led her to the edge of the building. She looked down and saw a whole bunch of padding. Rouge had gotten pretty good at gauging distances in her time treasure hunting (much to her family's behest) and she would say this was a good 10-foot drop. With all the padding down there, it wouldn't kill her to fall from this height, and she didn't think she would break a bone, but it certainly wouldn't feel good. She felt a hand on her back and realized what was about to happen. She looked at her teacher in horror as he pushed her off the building. She tried to fly, but to no avail. All she did was slow her fall. "Come back up here and we'll try again!" James shouted at her. "NO WAY! I WANT THE CARROT!" She shouted right back. She was not going to fall of a building to try to test her powers every five minutes. 

James led her to a room that looked like a vault. He opened it up and in the middle was the biggest emerald Rouge had ever seen in her life. It was about three feet tall and if she guessed had a 1 1/2-foot radius, but from her perspective, it was hard to tell. "This vault can sense if something touches the floor, ceiling, or walls outside of that red circle." Rouge looked to where James was pointing. There was a circle about a foot in radius right outside of the platform where the emerald was. "No gear, get the emerald and don't get caught. There are traps that will spring if the sensors are triggered. When we aren't in here, in case you were thinking of trying to get the gem later, there are also laser traps and inferred sensors, so it is pointless." Rouge was not happy with this information, but she had hope. She did a quick stretch and flexed her wings. She tried to launch but ended up falling on the floor, and a net landed on top of her. This was going to be a long day.

Chapter Text

Everyone was led back to the cafeteria for lunch by their individual James clone. They all sat down, already frustrated, exhausted, and done with the whole thing. “Why is everything so fragile?” Knuckles asked and took a bite out of a now slightly crushed apple. “I’m just tired of continuing to do the same thing. One can only run the same track so many times before it gets boring.” 

“At least you can get your powers to work.” Blaze grumbled. “Yeah, well, at least you weren’t all startled by loud noises every five seconds.” Silver slumped over. “Let’s stop comparing.” Shadow growled. “Because I win worst training.” Rouge jumped out of her seat. “None of you got pushed off the school.” She said and smirked at the flabbergasted faces of her peers. “Rouge wins.” Sonic speedily spoke, earning agreements from those around him. “How high?” Shadow asked. “About 10 feet.” Knuckles let out a whistle. “How are you not broken? Did you fly?” Rouge sat back down. “I did not. But there was a lot of padding in the area. I also only got pushed off once. Then I asked for the carrot.” 

“What carrot? I do not understand.” Knuckles mused. “It was a reference to something James said earlier.” She explained the carrot and the stick reference. “And now I would really like to get my hands on that emerald. It’s the biggest gem I’ve ever seen.” Knuckles scoffed. “I guarantee that it isn’t the biggest.” 

“You should see the emerald Knuckles and Tikal and the guardian of in their kingdom. It’s huge! It’s bigger than Knuckles himself.” Knuckles facepalmed. “What?” Sonic asked. “Don’t tell the jewel thief ya dimwit.” Knuckles growled at his friend. “I am not a dimwit.” Sonic defended. “Agreed.” Shadow smirked. “You're an idiot.” Sonic looked at them both in offense. “I am none of the above!”

“Do you prefer moron?” Silver teased. “Do you prefer smartass.” Sonic fired. “Okay, that’s enough of that.” Blaze said and stood up, marking the end of the conversation. “Students, report to the library.” An announcement came on. Everyone quickly ate the rest of their lunch and began the walk to the library.

They were all arguing, over what, no one could tell you, as they walked in. James watched for a second before letting out a loud whistle that got everyone's attention. James took a big inhale before he got the backlash from what he was about to do. "It is clear to me that the six of you don't get along well, would I be correct?" Each student voiced their agreement for their statement. But then they each started to express how it wasn't their fault. "You're all to blame." James told them. Effectively shutting all of them up. "Which is why you're all going to play..."

"If it's trust falls, I call Knuckle's as my partner." Sonic quickly said. "You don't play 'trust falls'." Knuckles told his friend. "But it is a team building exercise."

"If you would let me finish." James told them. "You're playing killer bunnies." He handed Blaze the game box. "But why?" Silver asked. "Team bonding."

"By pitting us against each other?" Rouge skeptically asked. "It's a kid's game. It doesn't matter who wins or who loses, it's a game. It's supposed to be fun. Play a round and then you can all go to bed." James told them. The all looked at each other. They found a table and set up the game. 

"HA! Your bunny gets taken by the mother ship." Sonic teased Shadow. Sonic wasn't even the one who was taking Shadow's bunny. That was, in fact, Rouge. "Shut up, faker. At least I have a carrot."

"I had one, but Blaze took it."

"Would you stop it." Silver asked. "Just for that, you have to feed your bunnies 5 cabbages and 5 waters, each." Sonic said and placed the card from his run deck. Silver looked at the card flabbergasted. 

James watched from off to the side. "Maybe this was a bad idea." He said to himself as Knuckles accidently broke off a piece of the table when he got another unfortunate event.

By the end of the game, the group seemed to like each other less (if that was even possible). Rouge had won with carrot number 9, but Knuckles swore up and down that he had had the carrot before they started flipping through the carrots that it wasn't. He said that Rouge had taken it and started a fight between the group. Whether Rouge had taken it during the game or not remained a mystery and would forever remain so (she did).

The next morning did not go much better. Sonic got faster by only a few seconds. Rouge couldn't get more than a few feet in before falling to the ground. Knuckles broke ten iPads. Blaze still couldn't get the torch to light. Silver dropped a large number of items and insisted that he had aged ten years with the number of heart attacks James had given him. Shadow had had no success. And they still didn't like each other very much. Rouge insisted she and Shadow were friends, but he said he only tolerated her. Knuckles and Sonic were friends, as were Silver and Blaze. Rouge and Blaze seemed to be forming some kind of relationship. But nothing else changed.

Nothing changed in the first week, and James was starting to become concerned. At this point in time, the situation and forced other groups to form some kind of bond, no matter how thin and rocky it was at the start, but nothing was changing in this group, no matter how many games he sat them down and made them play. Not only had he made them play killer bunnies, but there were also rounds of phase ten, go fish, funglish, codenames, qwirkle, up and down, clue, and Mario Kart. None of which helped. He didn't see forcing them to talk out their feelings going much better, but he did have one other idea.

Chapter Text

After another failed attempt to get everyone to hit a bullseye (a feat no one had yet accomplished) James asked them all to go to room 203 but told them to take the elevator. Even if it was a weird instruction, the group decided to follow it. Everyone got onto the elevator, and they pressed the button to get to the second floor.

"Why do you think James said to take the elevator?" Silver asked the previously unspoken question. "Maybe something's wrong with stairs?" Sonic said. "All the stairs?" Shadow raised his eyebrow. "Well, I don't see you coming up with an explanation." Sonic threw his hands in the air. As he did, the elevator came to a quick stop, making everyone fall to the floor. "Rouge, your wing is poking me." Shadow told her in annoyance. "Maybe you're poking my wing!" She grumbled. "Everyone get up." Blaze commanded. 

There was a beep of an intercom coming online. "See, if you had all cooperated with each other instead of being at each other's throat, I wouldn't have had to do this." James's voice came on. Shadow found the security camera and glared at it, correctly assuming that James was watching them. "What did you do?" He growls dangerously. "Stopped the elevator where you can't get out." Came the reply. "WHAT!" All six shout. "How long are we going to be stuck here?" Knuckles asks. "As long as I say." James told them. "You trapped us in a confined space with Sonic! He can't stay still to save his life!" Rouge shouts throwing her hands up in defeat. "She's being mean but she's right!" Sonic stared at the camera. "I'm gonna die in here."

"Knuckles, open the door." Blaze tells him. Knuckles did as he was told but was faced with a wall. "He knew exactly where to stop it so we couldn't get out." Silver says. "Shadow, put me on your shoulders." Sonic tells him. "What?"

"Just trust me."

"I don't trust you at all."

"Yeah, well, you want out or not." Shadow thought for a moment before kneeling down so Sonic could climb onto his shoulders. Sonic reached for the ceiling and pressed on the tiles. "What are you doing?" Shadow asked him. "Saw this in a few movies." Comes the reply and Sonic succeeds in finding the elevator tile that gives access to the outside of the elevator. When he pushes it, it opens enough to show that’s what it is supposed to be, but it doesn’t open up enough for a human to fit through. “Well, that idea was a bust.” Sonic says. “So does that mean you can get off me know?” Shadow asks. “I mean I guess but…” Shadow knocks him off his back, and Sonic falls into Knuckles waiting arms. Sonic just looks at Knuckles. “Do I even weigh anything to you?” Sonic asks. “No, it’s like holding a couple of grapes.” Knuckles puts Sonic down. “Now what?” Silver asks. “Guess we’re stuck until James lets us out.” Rouge says. Sonic sits down on the floor and leans against the wall. “What are you doing?” Blaze asks him. “I’m not gonna stand for hours on end waiting for James to let us out. At least we can rest our weary bones, cause I don’t know about you but the last week has been exhausting.” There were murmurs of agreement and everyone sat down. 

“What do you think James wants us to do?” Silver asks everyone. “Probably another dumb bonding idea.” Shadow tells him. “How does this…” Rouge gestures to the whole room, “get us to bond?” 

“We’re all stuck in a confined space with James being our only way out. We all already worked together to try to get out, even if our attempts were fruitless.” Blaze told her. There seemed to be a silent agreement between the group. 

“We should play a game.” Sonic suggested after what felt like hours (it was three minutes since Blaze spoke and ten since they were trapped). “Absolutely not.” Shadow replied. “Don’t be a party pooper.” Rouge complained. “I won’t.”

“Well, we got to do something, because sitting in silence probably won’t make James let us out.” Sonic reasoned. “Please tell me you don’t want to play what I think you want to play.” Knuckles groaned. “I say we okay truth or dare.” Rouge told everyone, to which Shadow and Knuckles voiced their displeasure. “Let’s take vote. Those who say we should play truth or dare, raise your hand.” Sonic and Rouge raised their hand. After a moment, Silver raised his hand. “All those against.” Knuckles and Shadow raised their hands. “You’ve been outvoted.” Sonic told them smugly. “Blaze didn’t vote.” Knuckles pointed out. “Because I don’t care either way.” She tells him. “Fine! Rouge, truth or dare.” Knuckles turns to her. “Truth.”

“Did you steal that carrot from me when we played killer bunnies?” She looked at him in shock. “Are you still on that?” Rouge asks. “Knux, that was six days ago.” Sonic says. “I must know.” He tells his friend. “Yeah, I did.” 

“HAHA! I TOLD YOU ALL! I WON THAT GAME!” Knuckles says. “Congratulations.” Rouge says sarcastically. 

“Shadow, truth or dare.” Rouge looks at her friend. For a minute he doesn’t grace her with a reply. “Don’t tell me you're chickening out.” Sonic taunts. Shadow glares at him. “Dare.” Shadow says, not letting go of his death glare on Sonic. “Compliment Sonic.” Rouge says simply. Everyone looks at her in surprise. “That’s it?” Silver asks. “I can’t wait to see this.” Knuckles turns and looks. Shadow looks at Sonic, contemplating what to say. Shadow could say a lot of things. He could say that he likes Sonics determination, his hair, his speed, his ability to always know exactly what to say. He could compliment Sonic’s eyes, his hard-working nature, literally anything but his cockiness.

Sonic watched as Shadow was swimming in his thoughts. He began to fear that his rival wouldn’t even be able to come up with anything, and he didn’t like that idea. Expecting the worse, he didn’t expect, “You have eyes.” Sonic blinked and watched as Shadows face flushed red. Rouge couldn’t hold in her laughter, Knuckles let out a laugh, Silver laughed a little, and Blaze snorted (to which she would later deny). Sonic just stared. What was he supposed to say? “Thank you?” He questioned. “That’s not what I meant.” Shadow said. “I’d be concerned if it was.” Rouge said. Shadow gave her a death glare. “I meant to say you have nice eyes.” Shadow didn’t even look at Sonic, but if he had, he would see a very flustered one. Sonics face was almost as red as Knuckles hair. Knuckles gave him a look that said, “I told you so.” Sonic looked away. “Thanks.” Sonic muttered. After a moment of awkward silence, Rouge spoke up. “Shadow, it’s your turn to target someone.” 

“Knuckles.”

“Dare, I am not afraid of your pathetic dares.” Knuckles challenged. Shadow glared and thought for a moment. He wanted to make him pay for his words. And he came up with a great way to make Rouge pay for her previous date as well. “Rouge has to sit on your lap for the rest of the game.” They both looked at him, jaws hitting the floor. “Absolutely not!” Rouge looks at him. “I refuse.” Knuckles stated. “I thought you weren’t afraid.” Silver taunts Knuckles. “I’m not, I just don’t want to. And she doesn’t either, so it doesn’t work.” He reasoned. “Would you rather it be the other way around?” Shadow questioned. “That’s even worse!” Rouge shouted. Sonic was dying of laughter. “You certainly both seem afraid.” He cackled. This broke something in both of them. They looked at each other. Knuckles crisscrossed his legs and picked up Rouge and placed her there. “I can move myself.” Rouge told him. “And I must prove that I am indeed not afraid.” Rouge laid back against him, choosing to at least be somewhat comfortable. Knuckles face flushed for a millisecond, but Sonic caught it, and he was totally going to bring it up later. 

"Sonic, truth or dare?" Knuckles looked at his friend. "Dare." He said trying to catch his breath after laughing so hard. "Pretend to be Amy until your next turn." Sonic smiled for a millisecond, because he was going to enjoy this. He did his best impression of her voice "How dare you ask me play this game. A queen would never do such a thing." He sat up tall, crossed his arms, and did his best frown, causing the group laugh. "Because a queen doesn't participate in such games, I will not ask Princess Blaze if she would rather do a truth or a dare." Blaze looked at him confused. "That's his work around." Knuckles told her. "Oh, uh, truth." She shrugged. Sonic was a little disappointed, because there were so many good questions he could ask if he wasn't pretending to be Amy. He thought for a minute about what Amy would ask. "Who do you have a crush on?" He asked, still trying to do his best impression of his sister. Blaze paused. "I don't really know?" She said, clearly unsure of her answer. 

Blaze turned to Silver. "Dare." He said, answering the unspoken question. "Share your best pick-up line." Silver thought for a second. "Are you on beautiful on the inside as you are on the outside?" Sonic made a note of that one for later. 

"Alright, Shadow. Truth or dare?"

"How is it already back to me?" He asked. "Because I said so." Silver smirked. "Dare." Shadow told. "Tell us your darkest secret." 

"Isn't that more of a truth?" Rouge asks. "No, I'm not asking him what his darkest secret is, I'm telling him to tell us his darkest secret."

"No." Shadow says. "Are you chicken?" Silver taunts. "I'm not, I'm just not telling you my darkest secret. I'd rather lick my own foot than tell you all my darkest secret." Silver started making chicken sounds. Shadow quickly tried to think of something, anything, to get them off his back. "I'm only half royal."

"That's not a secret." Silver says, feeling cheated. Shadow shrugs. "Rouge?"

"Dare."

"Pull out your phone."

"What?"

"I know you have it. Pull it out." Rouge frowns and pulls out her phone. "ROUGE!" James is heard on the speaker. "Yeah, well, if you didn't want it stolen you shouldn't just leave them in your room. And it's not like I gave any confidential information." She frowns and crosses her arms. 

"Alright Handsome, truth or dare."

"Dare."

"Give me a wing and back massage until your next turn." Knuckles frowns at her. "This week has been a struggle and sitting against you hasn't been amazing for my wings, so yes, I am daring you to give me a massage." After a bit more glaring, Knuckles obliged, and Rouge melted into the touch. "Blaze?"

"Truth."

"How do you feel about James?"

"In this moment, he is not my favorite person, but when we aren't trapped in the elevator, I would say he's fine." 

"It's for your own good." James said over the intercom. The group chose to ignore him. "Sonic?" Blaze asked. "I'll go with... dare." Sonic pretended to mull it over, happy he could finally stop pretending to be his sister. She was thinking when Silver whispered something in her ear. She looked at him. He smiled. Skeptically she looked back at Sonic. "Silver says..."

"No, Silver does not say." He defended. "But you did say." She turns to him. "Silver did not say that your dare is to give Shadow a kiss on the cheek."

"I'm confused." Sonic says. "Your dare is to give Shadow a kiss on the cheek." She points to her own cheek to emphasize her point. Sonic flushes red, had he been looking, he would have seen that Shadow did as well. He wasn't going to back down, so he scooted close enough to lean in and quickly give Shadow a peck on the cheek, leaving both of them very red in face. Sonic scooted back to his corner. Leaving the rest of the group snickering quietly. 

"How long have we been here anyway?" Sonic asks. "You guys haven't even hit the twenty-minute mark." James tells them over the intercom. Sonic groans. "Let's just keep playing, then maybe I can stop massaging Rouge." Knuckles grumbles. "And you're doing excellent by the way." Rouge told him. "Silver, truth or dare?"

"I'll go with truth."

"What's the scariest thing in the world?"

"Spiders. I hate spiders." He shivers. "It's true. One time he started a fire in his castle to get rid of one."

"I thought we agreed to never speak of that again." Silver looks at Blaze offended. "It's funny." She tells him. "Rouge, truth or dare." Silver says, wanting to move on. "I'll do truth."

"Have you had your first kiss?"

"Yes." She says simply. "Shadow, truth or dare?"

"Dare."

"Show us how far you've gotten in your training." Shadow grumbled. He flexed his fist, and a very tiny spear (like three inches tall) came out. "Hey James, truth or dare?" Shadow asks the camera. "Uh, dare."

"I dare you to let us go!" He shouts. "Fair enough." The elevator starts moving. The six of them start cheering. "You know, we should do this again sometime. The truth or dare cliche, not the getting trapped in an elevator." Sonic says. "That doesn't sound horrible." Shadow says. Sonic looks at his rival in shock. "Yeah, I know, I can't believe I said it either." The group let's out a laugh and the door to the elevator opens. "I'm hungry, anyone else want some food?" Knuckles asks. "I could eat." Silver says. "Agreed." Blaze says and they head towards the cafeteria.

Chapter Text

After a meal and an actually pleasant conversation, James made the group go back to their individual training.

Rouge glared at the gem in the middle of the vault. She really wanted it, but the only way across was to fly, and this was something that she hadn’t been able to do for more than a few feet. And James kept dragging her back to the start when she failed. It was becoming an increasing frustration and she felt like she wasn’t making a lot of progress.

Blaze couldn’t figure it out. She couldn’t get her powers to work. Blaze had always been good at academics. She was a fast learner and there was never a challenge that she couldn’t overcome. But this was seeming like it might be the first and it frustrated her to no end. She felt like there might be something stopping her, like metaphorical or physical roadblock, but she couldn’t figure this out for the life of her.

Knuckles broke another iPad and was frustrated enough by the dumb exercise to end up accidentally on purpose break the table.

For some reason, the rate at which Sonic got faster was slowing down, which didn’t make sense because speed was his thing. He was able a go a mile in 30 seconds, but it wasn’t fast enough. He could feel it in his bones that he could go faster if he kept pushing himself.

The only explanation for his continued struggle was that James was messing with him. Because Shadow genuinely couldn’t fathom what was causing him trouble forming his spear. It didn’t make any sense to him. It made him want to spear James, but he couldn’t even make a spear to do it.

Silver laid on the floor, breathing heavily after another scare, this time, it was the sound of a fire alarm blasting through the room, causing him to drop another porcelain cup. Silver new that another scare would be the one to kill his poor heart.

James watched each of his students struggle. They didn’t know it, but they were doing great. They were getting better. They were only a week in and their progress was amazing, but what James did know, was that they needed a little bit of help.

"Rouge, how have you been using your wings?" Rouge was currently being dragged back to the start. "I don't understand?"

"How have you been trying to fly?"

"I mean, I guess I was trying to copy a bird?"

"Do these look like bird wings to you?" Rouge paused. "After further investigation, I believe they are modeled after bat wings. You're going to take a break from flying and do some research."

"On?"

"How bats fly." Rouge paused. In the end, it did make sense that she didn't have wings like a bird so she shouldn't try to fly like a bird. It might help.

"What's the problem?" James asks Blaze. She's sitting against the wall, trying to light the torch with her glare. "It's not working."

"That's surprising. I would have burst into flames with the way you're glaring at it." A glare which was now directed at James. "I think that maybe you need to stop willing it to be on fire and start thinking it is on fire."

"Huh?"

"Look at it and visualize what you want it to do." 

"I have been, it's not working."

"You're overthinking it. Create a picture in your mind of it being on fire." He told her. She thought about it. She hadn't actually tried that. She had just tried to will the fire into existence. Blaze got up and walked over to the torch. Closing her eyes, she created a mental picture of the torch on fire. When she opened her eyes, there it was. Fire. She started cheering. "Thank you, Mr. Marrow." He smiled at her. "Keep practicing." He smiled back.

"Knuckles, you need to not get so frustrated. This is the fifth table you've broken." James told the boy. Knuckles sighed, about ready to give up. "Why is everything so damn fragile?"

"So is Rouge fragile?" James asked. Knuckles faced flushed red. "What?"

"Today, in the elevator, you didn't break her." Knuckles stared at his teacher. "Huh?"

"When you picked her up. Or when she made you give her a massage. You didn't break her. I don't see how this is much different." Knuckles took in this new information. He hadn't ever broken a person (except on purpose, but that was one time and the kid totally deserved it and it was only the kid's leg), only inanimate objects. "Just handle this," James placed a new device in front of Knuckles, "with the same care you would a human and don't think about it too much." Knuckles took a deep breath. He turned it on and not even a crack. He started playing that game with the little Disney characters that were also stuffed toys that he couldn't pronounce (Tsum Tsum Knuckles, it's called Disney Tsum Tsum). Nothing happened and he could have cheered. 

James watched as Sonic continued to practice. His best time was 24.5 seconds. But James knew Sonic could do better, and so did he, so he kept working. Sonic stopped and grabbed some water. He decreased his time by a second. "You need to decrease drag." James told Sonic. "How do I do that?"

"Don't stand straight, bend down. It's like the difference between a truck and a race car. Let the wind go over you." Sonic thought for a moment. Like a race car. Sonic got back to the track and prepared to go. James called him and Sonic followed his teacher's instructions, and for Sonic, that meant doing something very similar to a Naruto run. Sonic came to a stop at the cones and James stopped the timer. "How'd I do?" James smiled at him. "14.3 seconds." He did a jump for joy with a fist pump. 

Shadow was prepared to strangle the clone of James that was watching him and not saying anything helpful. "I understand your trying to teach me something by making me do it myself, but couldn't you just give a little more than 'use your powers'." 

"You can't just will your powers to work. That work's for some people but not for everyone. I personally imagine a switch." Another James appeared. So, Shadow had the real James today, that kind of made the will to strangle him even greater. "A switch?"

"You know, like a light switch, but for your powers. Flip the switch and the power comes on. Flip it and it turns off." Shadow considered this. He didn't have any better ideas. He thought of a light switch. He flipped the switch. When he opened his eyes, he was holding a large glowing spear of light. "What do you want to call your power?" James asked him. Shadow threw it at the wall and a small explosion occurred. "Chaos spear." 

Silver was waiting, listening. He heard the sound and was startled, but he turned to look at the object and caught it before it hit ground. "Pretty good. It's okay to be startled, you just have to work on staying focused. You're getting much better." James gave him a pat on the back. And Silver didn't even drop the cup.

The next morning, James woke everyone up at exactly the same time as every morning. Each of the students had gotten a morning routine down, but Sonic still grumbled about having to wake up so early. After everyone down for breakfast, each of the students began talking about the progress they made yesterday. "I'm almost under a mile in ten seconds." Sonic told everyone excitedly. "I think I finally have a grasp on how to use my wings." Rouge told them. "I didn't drop my cup." Silver smiled. "I didn't break and iPad for six hours yesterday."

"What about you Blaze?" Silver asks his friend. Blaze smiles and holds out her hand. After a second, a small flame appears. "That's so cool!" Sonic says excitedly. Shadow holds out his own hand to show off his chaos spear. Sonic and everyone else stare in awe. "Shadow, that's amazing!" Sonic says excitedly. A small blush graces Shadow's face. 

"Class, follow me!" James says and starts walking away. They start following him. Sonic starts recognizing where they are, and he doesn't like it one bit. James opens the door to the school pool. "What's this?" Silver asks. James grabs a bag from the side of the pool. He tosses something to each of the kids. "Swimsuits?" Blaze asks. "You get a pool day." James told them. Sonic didn't like this at all. "And it's required." Not one bit. The group looked at each other and shrugged. They all went to the locker rooms to change. Sonic was taking his dear sweet time. Silver and Shadow thought nothing of it, because they didn't know, but Knuckles did. Once they left, Knuckles turned to his friend. "Are you going to be okay?"

"I'll be fine. I'll stay in the shallow end, or I'll only still my feet in. We don't have to make a big deal out of this. Clearly James is just trying to give us an actually fun activity to bond over." Sonic finished tying the strings of the blue swim trunks James had given him and Knuckles and him walked out. 

When they got out, Rouge was splashing everyone. Shadow finally got annoyed with the barrage of splashes, tackled Rouge and forced her under for a few seconds. She came back up and started laughing. "Come on guys, the water feels great." Silver says when he sees them. Knuckles jumps on in. Sonic hesitates. Knuckles, Rouge, Silver, and Blaze start a water fight, but Shadow notices that Sonic hasn't come in. Shadow looks at Sonic and raises his eyebrow, silently asking what's wrong. Sonic looks at him and flashes a cocky grin. Sonic cannonballs into the pool where he knows where he can stand up. He's careful to not let fear overtake him and comes up ends up splashing Shadow in the face accidentally on purpose. 

"Let's play chicken!" Silver shouts. "What?" Blaze asks. "How do you not know what chicken is?" Rouge asks. "I don't." Shadow says. "You'll love it. It's a battle game. Let's get into teams."

"I found my teammate." Rouge says and uses her waist to bump Knuckles. "I was afraid of that." He says. Silver and Blaze just share a glance and smile. "I guess that leaves us Shads."

"Never call me that again." Shadow glares at Sonic. "Just copy us." Rouge says. Knuckles bends down and Rouge climbs on his shoulders. Blaze gets on Silver's shoulders. Sonic walks over to Shadow and, somewhat begrudgingly, Shadow let's Sonic climb on his shoulders. "Now what?" Shadow asks. "We try to knock the other teams down." Sonic says. "That, I can do." Shadow says. All three teams start pushing each other, all laughing their heads off the whole time. 

No team noticed, but Shadow and Sonic were inching closer and closer to the deep end of the pool. Blaze and Rouge got the upper hand, knocking Sonic off of Shadow and Shadow into the water. Shadow quickly resurfaced a let out a small laugh. The other two teams were fighting. Shadow waited for what felt like ages for Sonic to resurface. "Guys." Shadow said after a minute. Everyone else was too busy playing and James had left the room. "GUYS!" He shouts. Everyone turns to him. "Sonic hasn't resurfaced."

Chapter Text

"GUYS!" He shouts. Everyone turns to him. "Sonic hasn't resurfaced." Knuckles face visibly pales. "Rouge, get off me."

"What, why?"

"SONIC CAN'T SWIM!" Knuckles starts trying to get Rouge off of him, but Shadow has already dived to find Sonic. As Shadow saw him, Sonic let out his final air bubbles. Shadow grabbed Sonic and swam back to the surface. He heaved Sonic onto the side of pool and quickly pulled himself up. Shadow checked for a heartbeat. He couldn't hear one, and Sonic wasn't breathing. Shadow began performing CPR. One. Two. Three. Four. He did thirty palpitations and then two rescue breaths. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. After thirty more palpitations, Shadow was growing concerned. He performed two rescue breaths again. He began performing thirty more palpitations. "Faker, I swear that if you die, I will never let you live it down." Two rescue breaths. Shadow felt like crying. He began performing palpitations again. "Damn it Sonic, I will let you call me whatever you want if you just BREATHE!" This sparked something in Sonic because he started coughing up water. Shadow sighed in relief and turned Sonic onto his side so he wouldn't swallow anymore water. 

"Why didn't anyone say he couldn't swim?" Blaze asked. "Because he's embarrassed by it." Knuckles said. "Someone should go get James." Silver says. "On it." Rouge says. She leaves the room. Sonic sits up. "You need to keep laying on your side." Shadow tells him. "What happened?" Sonic asks, ignoring Shadow. "So, help me Sonic, lay back down on your side." Shadow tells him. "Not until you tell me what happened."

"You almost died. You stopped breathing and your heart stopped beating." Shadow tells him. Sonic lays back down on his side like he was told. "Sorry." He says quietly. "You don't need to be sorry." Knuckles tells him. "It's our fault. We shouldn't have pushed you so hard. Had it been Rouge or Blaze and they hit their head it would have been just as bad." 

Rouge comes running back in with James. "You can't swim?" James asks Sonic. "No."

"And you didn't think you should bring this up?"

"Thought I could handle it." James facepalms. "Has he coughed up the water?" James asks. "I think so, can't be sure if he got all of it." Shadow tells him. "Let's get you to the nurses office." James says and helps Sonic stand up. "I thought no one was here?" Sonic asks. "There isn't, but I could better help you there." Sonic was still pretty discombobulated, so Shadow slung his other arm over his own shoulder and helped James get Sonic to the office. The rest of the group followed, concerned about their friend. 

James started running around the nurse's office looking for different things. "You really scared us." Silver tells Sonic. "My bad."

"I think you scared Shadow the most." Rouge teases. "I wasn't scared." Sonic got kind of sad for a moment. "I knew he'd be fine." He finishes. "It didn't sound like it." Rouge teases. "I'm inclined to agree. Your tone and phrases to the unconscious Sonic made it seem like you were very concerned."

"I wasn't. He doesn't know how to give up, I knew he'd be fine."

"You told him if he died, you'd never let him live it down." Knuckles says. "So, it's true." Sonic was fighting the urge to laugh. "You called him by his name once. You never do that." Silver said. "That doesn't mean anything." Shadow was starting to blush a little. "You said, and I quote 'Damn it Sonic, I will let you call me whatever you want if you just breathe.'" Rouge said. Sonic started laughing. Shadow was frowning, but the red that graced his cheeks gave away that it was true. "Whatever I want?" Sonic asks. "I didn't mean it." Shadow says. "Your tone implied otherwise." Blaze tells him. "Aw, Shads." Sonic says. "I told you not to call me that."

"Alright, well, let me just go throw myself back in the pool." Sonic says and tries to stand. "NO!" Everyone shouts, even Shadow. "Never go in the pool again and I will allow you to call me that." He emphasizes the last word venomously. "What else could I call you?" Sonic says to himself. Sonic sees a very good opportunity to flirt. "How about faker?"

"Don't you call me that already?" Shadow was confused, but smirk that appeared on Sonic's feature's showed that he wasn't done. "Grumpy," Shadow frowned, of course that's why he was smirking, dumb tease. ", loner, rival, idiot,"

"I do not appreciate being insulted." Shadow glared at Sonic, but Sonic's increasing smirk showed that he wasn't done teasing. ", handsome," Shadow didn't see that coming and wasn't able to stop the blush from reaching his cheeks. Sonic got up and started walking close to where Shadow was leaning against the wall. ", honey, sweetheart,"

"I don't think..." Shadow was feeling very flustered, and he wasn't sure if he liked it. ", sweetie, love, good-looking, darling," Shadow didn't think he liked the glint that flashed in Sonic's eyes as he got right into Shadow's face and whispered ", mine." After a moment of shock, Shadow reacted. "Okay, well, looks like you're feeling better. I'm just gonna go practice my archery." Shadow weaved away from the wall and walked out of the room. Once out he started running to his room. His face was hot, and he had no idea how red his face was. Once he got to the room he climbed into bed. He realized he was getting water all over his bed and he realized he had been shirtless the whole time. So naturally, he screamed into his pillow.

Sonic watched as Shadow speed walked out of the room. He felt a little disappointed, but at the same time he couldn't exactly fathom what came over him. After a few seconds, Rouge burst out laughing. "Oh man, you really flustered him." She finally giggled. "That wasn't the goal." Sonic said. "Then what was the goal?" Silver asks. "You know, I'm not exactly sure." Sonic looked at the group. The four of them looked at each other and then they all burst out laughing. "What, what's so funny?" Sonic asks offended that he's not a part of the joke. "You're both idiots." Knuckles told Sonic. Sonic frowned.

Shadow had finished screaming in frustration into his pillow and thought that he should probably go find his suit. He put on his regular clothes so that at least he wasn't walking around everywhere in his swimsuit. He didn't want anyone to see him because he was still trying to recover from Sonic being a flirt. The word 'mine' kept echoing in his mind. Every time he heard the word echo in Sonic's voice, he felt his face grow a deeper shade of red. Shadow knew why it flustered him so, he just chose to ignore it, but it was getting harder and harder to ignore. 

The other day when Silver dared Shadow to tell his biggest secret, Shadow (obviously) lied. What's the actual biggest secret you ask, simple. Shadow had a crush on Sonic. He'd known he had a crush on the blue idiot for a while. A little over a year ago, Shadow saw Sonic smile at school. A genuine smile, one of those that he used to hate. He used to hate everything about Sonic, but it seemed like a switch had flicked in his brain. The tapping of Sonic's foot that he used to hate, didn't bother him one day. Then Sonic's laugh, he realized kind of liked it. Then Shadow started to notice other things. Like how determined Sonic was. He noticed that somehow Sonic always knew exactly what to say in any situation. Whether it was taunting an opponent or comforting a friend. Then he noticed that Sonic was always working hard. Then Shadow saw Sonic smile. A genuine smile and not a cocky grin and Shadow thought it was adorable. That's when he knew that he had a crush on Sonic. That meant that Sonic's behavior today made Shadow feel a few things: flustered (a feeling he still wasn't sure about), frustrated, elated, like Rouge had said something, and like he wanted to grab Sonic's face and kiss him. 

Shadow arrived at the pool and opened the door. He went into the locker room. He grabbed his uniform and walked back out. When he opened to door, Rouge was standing there, hands on her hips. "You're an idiot." She bluntly stated. "What did I do?"

"You just walked away from an amazing opportunity."

"An opportunity to what, make a fool of myself?"

"No, to make him yours." He heard Sonic's voice in his head "mine" and turned red again. "He was just flirting, it's what he does." 

"He does not. Have you seen the way he acts with the others. He doesn't do that."

"He's just a natural flirt like you. It doesn't mean a thing."

"He called you sweetheart?" She stares at her friend. "He called me a lot of things."

"Like darling."

"Like grumpy."

"Handsome."

"Idiot."

"Honey!"

"Faker!"

"Darling."

"Loner."

"He called you his." The voice echoed again 'mine'. Shadow couldn't even argue back. "Aha!" Rouge said. "Don't pretend like you're doing better your highness." Rouge stared at him. "Knuckles."

"We're just messing around." She defends. "The blush on your face says otherwise."

"We're just two idiots who like two other idiots huh?" Rouge chuckles. "That sounds about right. Except I'm not an idiot."

"You literally ran out of the room where your crush was flirting with you." He wanted to argue but couldn't come up with a good one. "He hates me doesn't he." Shadow said, sounding defeated. "I think he himself is a bit confused. I don't think he understands any of this." She gestured to all of Shadow. "He even said he doesn't know why he did what he did."

"I told you, because he's a flirt who likes to mess with me."

"I think because he doesn't understand how he's feeling." Shadow scoffed. "I'm going to bed."

"Goodnight at 4 pm." Shadow just walked out and back to his, thankfully, empty dorm room.

Sonic was still reeling from what he had just done. "Why did I do that? Why? What's wrong with me?" He asked himself. "You're a moron." Knuckles told him. The others had left the med bay. James had finally found whatever he had been looking for and walked over to Sonic. He took Sonic's temperature. "Well, you're not running a fever or too cold. So that's one thing we don't have to worry about, but we'll still have to be careful for the next 48 hours. Monitor you and make sure that you're still breathing normally and that nothing happens to your heart." James grabbed the stethoscope and put it on Sonic's chest. "Why is your heart beating so fast?"

"The doctors at home have always said I had an unusual heartbeat." Sonic replied. "That's not the only reason." Knuckles teased. Sonic punched his friend in the arm. "What's the other reason."

"There's no other reason." Sonic insisted. James turned to Knuckles. "Was it Shadow?"

"Yep." Sonic stared at James, mouth open, face a light shade of pink. "I'm not oblivious, unlike you." James said and put the stethoscope on Sonic's back. "Deep inhale." Sonic complied. Then he exhaled. James moved the stethoscope and Sonic did it again. "Did they kiss or something?" James asks. "No, Sonic just decided to be a big flirt."

"It wasn't flirting, it was teasing, as rival's do."

"You called his handsome." Knuckles says. "I called him a lot of things."

"Someone needs to back up and explain what happened." James says. Knuckles explained what happened to James back at the pool. "I didn't know he had it in him." James says. "Yeah, well, I started using to power that was bestowed upon me in the rightful manner."

"By calling him sweetheart." Knuckles chuckled.

"Again, I called him a lot of things. It was to see what kind of reaction I could get." Sonic threw his hands in the air. "No, it wasn't." Knuckles says. "Because if it was, I will clock you." Sonic looked away. "I still don't know why I did it, okay! It was like and invisible force possessed me."

"It's called a crush." James told him. "No, it isn't." He was becoming less and less sure about how he felt about Shadow. Did he like Shadow? "What did he call Shadow?" James asks Knuckles. "The good stuff or all of it?"

"We'll go with all of it." Sonic didn't like this. "Shads, grumpy, loner, rival, idiot,"

"How do you even remember all of this?" Sonic asked. ", handsome, honey, sweetheart, sweetie, love, good-looking, darling, and his." The word 'mine' start echoing in Sonic's mind. He really had no idea why that had come out of his mouth, but he liked it. He wanted to say it again. 

James was laughing so hard. "You two need serious help." James told him. "We do not."

"You're oblivious." James told him. "I am not."

"I think the only one who is close to your level of romantic struggle is Knuckles."

"I am not struggling. I don't even like anyone."

"What about Rouge?"

"She's absolutely batty."

Sonic decided to take back over general ridicule. "The blush on your face whenever she gets close says otherwise."

"I do no such thing."

"You do too."

"I don't."

"You do!"

"At least I'm not denying my feelings for someone after getting all up in their face and calling them mine."

"Sonic was in his face." Sonic was reaching new levels of red. "I wasn't in his face."

"You were! Your noses were inches away."

"Yeah, well, I didn't choose him for chicken!"

"I didn't either. Rouge chose me!" James sighed heavily as the boys continued to argue about who was more helpless all the while denying that they had a crush at all, and they totally, most definitely did.

Sonic was forced into bed and told that he had to stay there and rest for two days. He didn't like it at all, but he decided it would give him time to think. Did he like Shadow? That was the question (and the answer was yes, you freaking moron, seriously). When everyone left in the morning for their training, Sonic pulled out his phone. When he turned on the screen, he saw 15 missed messages from his brother. Sonic realized he hadn't talked to his brother since the first day and he was feeling really, very, guilty. He looked at the messages

Tails: How was the second day?

Tails: Hey, you still up?

next day

Tails: You okay?

Tails: I'm starting to get worried

Tails: Are you alive?

next day

Tails: Is something wrong?

Tails: Did I do something?

next day

Tails: Hey

next day

Tails: Sonic, are you there?

next day

Tails: Sonic, I'm getting worried

Tails: are you okay

Tails: Did something happen

next day

Tails: do you just not want to talk to me?

Tails: because I can leave you alone?

Tails: if you want to talk, I'm still here

The last message was three days ago. Sonic between training and everything else going on he had totally forgotten to text his brother, and Sonic was feeling super guilty. Making sure he was alone, Sonic pressed the call button. After three rings, his brother picked up the phone. "Hey." Tails sounded sad. "Hey Tails."

"You know Amy doesn't like it when you call me that." Sonic now knew that Tails was really hurt. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to ignore you. A lot has been happening and I just..."

"It's fine Sonic." At least Tails wasn't mad enough to call him by his birth name. Sonic wanted to make up for ignoring his baby brother by telling him everything, but he still couldn't do that. Besides, what if he didn't actually graduate training? "Is there something you wanted to talk about?" Tails asked. "I just realized that we hadn't talked in a while and wanted to see how you were doing."

"I'm doing okay. Amy is running herself ragged preparing for her 17th birthday party in a month. I've been busy planning for it. I actually was asked to build some security bots and I was working on that when you called. What have you been doing? Shouldn't you be in class?"

"My teacher is making me rest today and tomorrow. He's been keeping us really busy with class and different activities and it's really kind of exhausting."

"What kinds of activities?"

"Well, we have a very small class, and he wants us all to bond and when we just kept arguing the teacher trapped us all in the elevator."

"Is that even legal?" Tails was concerned. "Well, it worked. Now all six of us get along pretty well. We played truth or dare in the elevator that day. We've also been having our meals together, playing archery in the yard, and we went swimming yesterday."

"But you can't swim."

"And now everyone knows it." Sonic says, clearly embarrassed. "Well, you could have just stayed in the shallow end."

"That was the plan, but life doesn't work like that, especially when you're playing chicken." There was a pause on the other end. "Sonic... what happened?" Tails was starting to put the dots together of why Sonic had to rest for so long. "I got knocked off and drowned."

"SONIC!"

"I know, I know. But I'm fine now. Everything is under control, mostly." 

"Who there even knows CPR?"

"Shadow."

"Shadow performed CPR on you?"

"Yes." Tails started laughing his head off. "Is not that funny."

"Oh, but it is. Did you ever consider that that meant your lips touched?" Sonic paused. He had not considered this, and now it was all he was thinking about. Tails continued to laugh. "Oh man, what happened after that?"

"I got a check-up."

"If I asked Knuckles, would he say the same thing?"

"No."

"That's what I thought." This opened the perfect door to vent to Tails about how he was feeling, but he almost didn't want to. "What happened?" Tails asks. "Well, turns out, while doing chest compressions, Shadow may have said some things?"

"What, did he say, 'I love you'?" Tails teased. "NO." Tails laughed again. "Knuckles, Rouge, Silver, and Blaze told me that he told me that if I died that he would never let me live it down and that if I would just breathe, I could call him whatever I want."

"And I'm assuming you used this information to your advantage."

"Yes."

"What did you call him?"

"Doesn't matter." 

"Uh huh. If I called Knuckles, would he say the same."

"Knuckles wouldn't even be able to pick up because we're not supposed to have our phones."

"Ah, that explains why you haven't really texted."

"I just keep forgetting I have it."

"That makes sense. Now that I know I won't be offended if I don't get another call or text for a while. Just try to make sure to let me know your alive."

"I will."

"Good."

"But about Shadow..."

"Tails!"

"Doctor, are you positive about this scheme?" The red robot with the round head asked. "Yeah, and are you sure about the plan?" The yellow robot with the square head asked. "Quiet you morons. This plan is genius." The doctor told them and wacked the round one on the head with a magazine. "This will work, and I will rule."

Shadow was putting everything into his training, if only so he didn't have time to think about a certain word that was spoken from a certain person. Today, he was doing target practice with his chaos spears (since he could now actually form them). He was hitting every target with everything he had. He didn't always get the bullseye, but he did actually hit all of the targets every time. 

James watched from the sides as Shadow hit every target. Eventually, the targets couldn't take the onslaught of chaos spears and turned to ash. Once all of the targets were decimated, Shadow began to hit the wall. "That's enough for today." James said. "No, I need to keep training." Shadow said. "No you don't. You're done for the day." James started pushing Shadow out the door. "Go talk to Rouge or something."

"No."

"I command you to go talk to Rouge." Shadow didn't like it, but if it got James off his back, he would. He started wandering the halls looking for her. "Shadow!" He heard behind him. He turned around and saw Rouge walking towards him. "Look what I got." She shows him a large green emerald. "I finally got it." She says. "Congrats."

"James told me to come find you. What's up?"

"I'm supposed to talk to you."

"Oof. You must hate that." She smirked at him. "I'd much rather be training, but for some reason, James told me enough."

"Maybe we should talk about your feelings."

"No." He crossed his arms and glared at her. "I don't know, seems like a smart idea to me."

"It's a terrible idea." Then they started arguing back and forth about whether or not it was a good or bad idea to talk about feelings.

After a day of rest for the whole group, James deemed Sonic ready to resume training. Sonic noticed, however, that Shadow was avoiding him. Every time Sonic looked at him Shadow would turn away. This really bothered Sonic, and he didn't know why (because you like him, idiot). Sonic thought back to the rest of his conversation of Tails. 

"Why won't you just admit to yourself you like him?" Tails had asked. "Because I don't"

"But you do. Somewhere inside you know it. All the signs are there. You heart rate elevates, your face flushes..."

"Because I don't think he likes me."

"So, you do like him?" There was a long pause. "Yeah, yeah I do.”

He guessed that that is why it bothered him, being ignored by the guy that he just realized he had a crush on (about darn time). 

"Hey James." The girl on the other end said after the fourth ring. "I have a mission for you guys."

"About time!" A boy on the other end shouted. "Stop it." The first girl said. "No, you shut up." Now the girl couldn't talk. "Tuma, let her talk."

"Fine, talk as you please Sam."

"What's the mission James?" Sam asked. "Do the four of you remember the night during your training where I woke you all up to go guard those fake crown jewels?"

"Wait a second?" He heard another boy on the phone. "Tonight, same place. All four of you, dress in all black. You can wear earpieces so you can talk to each other." He heard the four of them cheer.

Chapter Text

Sonic was lying in bed, thinking. An alarm started sounding startling everyone awake. "Attention trainees, suit up and meet in the loading dock immediately." The boys all got up and quickly got dressed and ran to the loading dock where James and the girls were waiting. "Everyone in. Let's go, let's go, let's go." They all hopped into the truck waiting of them and strapped in. "There's been a break in at the royal treasury. If the thieves steal the crown jewels, they could be sold on the black market for billions to buy weapons of mass destruction."

"No pressure." Rouge commented. "Protect the jewels at all costs. And don't take them." James looked at Rouge as he said that last bit. James leads them to the room with the jewels. Something seemed off about this whole thing to Shadow, but he didn't say anything. 

When they arrived at the jewel room, the group stared at everything in awe. "These are amazing." Rouge says. James leaves, saying this is their mission, and he has to go inform the head of the society. Silver starts swatting at something by his face. "Silver, what's wrong?"

"I keep hearing a buzzing by my face." He continues to swat. Blaze starts walking away. "Blaze, where are you going?" Silver asks her. "I don't know. I heard something say follow and now my legs are moving on their own." She says concerned. Silver starts running after her. Knuckles starts looking around the room. "I saw something, I'm going to go investigate." He says and runs away. "I'm not going to let him go alone." Rouge says. "You two stay here." She says and runs after Knuckles.

Shadow and Sonic look at each other and blush. They both stand there in silence. Sonic begins tapping his foot, a habit he doesn't know he has, he just does it. After a minute, Sonic decides he can't take the silence. "I wanted to thank you." Sonic says. "For what?" Shadow asks and tilts his head. 'Cute.' Sonic thinks to himself. "For saving me the other day. I never got to thank you."

"Oh, you're welcome." Then the room turns to awkward silence, again. "You know, I meant what I said."

"About?" Shadow asks. "The stuff I called you."

"What, like idiot?"

"No, the insults were me teasing, but I meant the other stuff. The pet-names I mean." Shadow's face was getting really red. Sonic was feeling a little bit bold, and Shadow didn't seem to mind it the other day. Sonic got close, noses almost touching, he could feel his own face heating up, but he was feeling brave. "How would you like it if I called you mine?" Sonic leaned in a little more and tilted his head, about to kiss the boy in front of him. "Stop." Shadow said. Sonic pulled back, a little hurt. "What?"

"I said stop. If you don't mean it, stop it. This isn't the way to mess with me." He sounded upset, hurt even. "How do you know I don't mean it?" Sonic was hurt that Shadow thought that he would do this if he didn't like him. "I don't. I'm not sure anymore." Shadow sounded so vulnerable. He didn't like saying this stuff, but something about Sonic made him do a lot of stuff he didn't like. "Shadow, I like you. I like you a lot. I want you to be mine and I want you to call me yours." Shadow dropped any reservation he had out the window and grabbed Sonic's face, putting their lips together. After a moment of shock, they both melted into the kiss. This wasn't like the rest of whatever relationship they had, this kiss was sweet and gentle, just a way to express how they both felt. But the thing about these types of kisses, someone always wants more. Shadow seemed to be trying to be gentle, but Sonic was having none of that. Sonic wanted to bring him closer. Sonic brought their bodies together and began fighting Shadow for control of the kiss. Shadow wasn't giving up and fought back, and he had the upper hand. 

Unfortunately, someone decided to walk back in at that moment. "I'm very happy for both of you," Rouge told them annoyed. They pulled their faces apart in shock, now both blushing panting messes, ", but WE'RE KIND OF IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING YOU KNOW!" They both mumbled that they were sorry. "Yeah, yeah, just guard the jewels. We have to impress James."

"Where's Knuckles?"

"I don't know, I can't find him." Just then, a person about Shadow's height dropped in and another person seemed to appear out of the nowhere. "You," A deeper voice came from the taller of the two as they pointed to Rouge, "give us the jewels." Rouge began to comply with the request, walking over to the jewels. "Rouge, what are you doing?" Shadow asked. "I don't know?" She says concerned. Shadow tackles the one that commanded Rouge to do that. Sonic began to fight the other one. But they disappeared, then he got hit from behind and he fell to the ground. "This one can turn invisible." Sonic shouted. "Where, are Blaze, Silver, and Knuckles?" Shadow asks as he charges a spear to throw at his assailant. Rouge seems to have dropped out of whatever trance had taken her over. She began helping Sonic try to find the invisible person. A swarm of bugs began to surround Sonic and Rouge. Shadow threw his spear, and his enemy dodged it. 

Blaze and Silver came running in one door. Knuckles came into room from the other. "These guys have powers!" Knuckles shouted. "This one could see and hear me coming from a mile away." He says and tries to punch the person who's run up behind him but the person dodges. Shadow keeps fighting but he starts putting pieces together. "Guys! This is a trick!" He shouts. "What do you mean it's a trick?" Knuckles asks. "Think about it. What did James tell us about on our first day?"

"His previous students!" Blaze shouts as he puts it together. "Hear that guys, James talks about us." The person Knuckles is trying to attack says. "Not surprised, we are pretty awesome." The person attacking Shadow says. Sonic crumples over. A person appears behind him. "Us, yes, you, not so much." Shadow powers up a spear and throws it, the person dodges. "Haven't I grown on you yet?" They ask. "Like a fungus." The person Knuckles is with says. "Come on guys, do we have to do this every single time?" The person attacking Blaze and Silver says. "The four of you talk too much." Shadow complains and trips his assailant. "Yeah, this is a battle." Blaze says and throws a flame at her and Silver's assailant. "So, this is all a test." Knuckles asks and throws another punch. James opens the door to the room, and everything stops. "It was." He walks in. The four assailants stand up and walk next to James. They pull off their masks to reveal the faces of James four former trainees. "Trainees, meet graduates Sam, Tuma, Roxanne, and Mateo." The group notices that Roxanne and Mateo are holding hands. "Grads, meet my current students. Silver, Blaze, Rouge, Knuckles, Sonic, and Shadow."

"They didn't do half bad." Tuma says. "They did better than we did." Sam says. "We did?" Sonic asks. "They failed." James says. "You guys protected the jewels, but you allowed yourselves to be separated and vulnerable." James glares at Sonic and Shadow, who turn away blushing. "What did they do after we left?" Knuckles asks James. "They kissed." Rouge says. Everyone turns to them. "About time." Silver finally says. "Not the best timing." James says. "I think they're cute." Roxanne coos. "Are not." Shadow says. James facepalms. "My goodness." He states. "I'm going back to bed." Silver says. James leads everyone in the room to the car to go back to the school.

Chapter Text

Sonic awoke the next morning to a buzzing in his pocket. He looked at the time and saw that it was 4 am here. But her realized back home it was around ten, which is probably why Tails was calling him. Sonic quickly and quietly walked into bathroom. "Hey Tails, what's up?" Sonic asked. "Okay, so, don't be mad, but I'm flying to see you."

"What?" Sonic asked his brother. "Okay, I know that I'm not supposed to and you're probably very busy. But what you told me about the other day had me really worried so Amy said that I could come and visit and just make sure you were okay. She also told me if anyone gives me any crap about it that I should call her and she'll come right over and put a stop to it." Sonic was freaking out inside. This wasn't good. "When will you get here?"

"In three hours."

"I'll see you then buddy."

"See you soon." Tails hung up. Sonic immediately began running to James' room. "James, James, James!" Sonic knocked on the door. James opened the door. "Sonic?" James asked. "What's wrong?"

"I maybe, sort of, messed up?"

"Do you mean last night? You did mess up by letting your guard down but in the end, it worked out okay. You kept the jewels safe, but had it been a real-life situation it might have turned out a little differently."

"No, not that. However, Shadow and I probably need to have a talk, but that's not what I meant."

"Then what did you mean?"

Sonic took a deep breath. "AtthebeggingingofthesixweeksImayhavehadabackupphonethatIkepttotalktomybrother." He took another breathe. "IpromiseIdidn'ttellhimanythingthatIshouldn'tbut," Sonic took another breathe, "ItoldhimabouthowIdrownedandhegotreallyworriedandso," Sonic took another breathe, "mysisterpulledsomestringsandhe'llbehereinthreehours."

"I only understood half of what you said." Sonic repeated himself slower. "Okay, we'll talk about the phone thing later, right now, we have to protect our secret. Sam, Roxanne, Mateo, and Tuma are still here so we can use them as teachers. We'll have to wake your friends and get them to help us set up to trick your brother into thinking this is actually summer school. You'll have to catch us all up on exactly what he knows so we can all get our stories straight. Get the boys to room 203, I'll get everyone else. Tell them to wear regular clothes." Sonic nodded and sped back to his dorm room. When he got in there, he turned on the light, causing the other three to groan in annoyance. "Sonic, s'too early for th'nonsense." Knuckles groaned and turned to try to get away from the light. "It's about Tails!" Sonic shouted. Knuckles sat up. "Is he okay?"

"What, he's fine." Knuckles groaned. "It's just that he's coming here, in a few hours!" All three boys sat up. "What? He'll figure things out in ten seconds flat." Knuckles said. "Who's Tails?" Silver asked. "And why is his name Tails? And why is he coming?" Shadow asked. "My brother. His actual name is Miles, but Tails is my nickname for him. I'll explain that later, but we got to get to room 203. James said that we should wear regular clothes." Everyone got out of bed and started getting ready for the arrival of one tiny genius. 

"James, seriously, you got us up at midnight for that test and now it's five am. Why are we up?" Sam asked as the boys walked into the room. "I think Sonic should explain, since it is his fault after all." Everyone turned to Sonic. "What did you do?" Rouge asks. "You know when James took our phones a while back?" There were nods. "Well, I may have had a back-up phone."

"Dude, same." Sam said. "You had a phone the whole time you were here?" James asks Sam. "Cause apparently I'm better at not getting caught. Are you surprised?" James frowned. "I'm checking people for back up phones from now on." He says to himself. "Well, I've been talking to my brother. He still thinks I'm in summer school and not at a top-secret royal training for superheroes. But when I was forced into bed..." The four who didn't know why looked at James. ", I had nothing better to do so I called him, and I told him things that I didn't think would put us in danger. But apparently hearing about the elevator incident, me drowning, and my previous radio silence caused him some major anxiety, so my sister pulled some strings somehow and he's coming here to visit me."

"Elevator incident?" Roxanne asked. "Drowned?" Mateo looked concerned. "Can't swim." Sonic shrugged. "Well, I suggest we all kick Sonic out." Knuckles said. Everyone turned to him. "He's doomed us all by bringing Tails here."

"Tails?" Everyone asked. "It's his nickname." Sonic said. "How are we doomed?" James asked. "Yeah, isn't the youngest prince 8?" Rouge asked. "An 8-year-old with an IQ of 300." Knuckles said. Everyone turned to Sonic. "I said I'm sorry." He says. "Here's the plan." James says. Everyone turns to him. "We have to pretend that this is actually just summer school. Sonic needs to tell us what his brother knows so we all have our stories straight. Then we need to make everything seem like it's just a normal summer school. Tuma, Sam, Mateo, Roxanne, and I will pretend to be teachers."

"I hate undercover missions." Tuma complains. "The rest of you will be regular students. So Rouge, you'll have to cover your wings, no suits, and no powers." 

"How long do we have till he gets here?" Blaze asks. "He's landing in 2 hours." Sonic tells everyone. They all begin a panic induced scramble. 

Sonic waited by the front of the school for his brother to pull up. Without realizing, he began doing his foot-tapping thing. Knuckles walked up beside him. "You need to stop that. He'll know somethings up."

"Stop what?"

"The foot tapping."

"Foot tapping?"

"You tap your foot when you're nervous or you need to let out energy. Everyone knows it." Sonic looked at his foot and saw that it was, indeed, tapping. He stopped. "Maybe I'm just bored." He huffed. "You're nervous and he'll know immediately." For a while they just stood in silence waiting for the car to pull up. "So, you kissed?" Knuckles asked, no longer able to hide his curiosity. Sonic blushed at the question, hard. "I'll take that as a yes. I'm happy for you, I really am, but why in the middle of a potentially hazardous situation?" Knuckles pinched the bridge of his nose. "I don't know, it just kind of, happened, I guess. And he kissed me actually."

"Huh, good for him."

"But I started it."

"But he finished it." Knuckles argued. Sonic had no good retort, so they stood there in silence again, Sonic taking special care not to tap his foot.

Finally, a car pulls up and Tails hopes out, a suitcase behind him. "Sonic!" He shouts. "Tails!" Sonic forgets all his fears and goes and hugs his brother. They let go of each other. "Hi Knuckles!" Tails shouts from the bottom of the stairs. "Hello Miles."

"I told you that you can call me Tails."

"Hello Tails." The boy smiles. "Come on Sonic." Tails says. Sonic follows behind his brother. "Hey Knuckles, I have a question."

"Shoot." They open the doors. "What did Sonic do with the knowledge of what Shadow said by the pool?" Knuckles started laughing. Sonic frowned and started blushing. Tails looked at his brother. "So he did do something." Tails says when he notices Sonic's red face. "Oh totally." Silver walks up to the group. "Hi, I'm Silver." He says. Tails extends his hand and Silver shakes it. "I'm Miles, but my friends call my Tails."

"Nice to meet you, Tails." They stop shaking hands. "So, what did he do?"

"Alright, that's enough." Sonic says and begins pushing his brother towards the dorms. "Time to get you set up in a room."

"Oh, come on, shouldn't he know so he can tease you?" Silver asks as they walk away. "Yes, yes I should." Tails says. "No, no you shouldn't."

"Don't be a donut hole."

"You're a donut hole." Tails started fighting being pushed, so Sonic picked him up and put him on his shoulders. "No fair." Tails complained. "Totally fair." Sonic smirked. They began walking towards the dorms. "So what time do classes start?" Tails asked after minute. "They start at ten." It was the time previously agreed upon by the group. James suggested that it would give them more time to set up classrooms and prepare the 'teachers'. "That's nice, you get to sleep in."

"Yep." Sonic was excited to sleep in while his brother was here. It had been exhausting getting up so early every morning. "Anything new since we talked before this morning?"

"Well..." Sonic started blushing. "What'd you do?" Tails asked. 

"Is this your brother?" They heard a sing song voice, so the boys looked ahead and saw Rouge coming toward them. She was wearing the same jacket that she wore on the first day. "He's adorable."

"I'm not adorable."

"You are adorable." Sonic said. Tails huffed. "Maybe you can be more helpful than this donut hole. He refuses to tell me what things he's done with his feelings." Tails says. "Ah, so he didn't tell you that he called Shadow a bunch of pet-names after the pool incident." 

"You didn't?" Tails looked down at his brother, who was currently turning red with embarrassment. "You did. What did he say?"

"I think the most memorable was 'mine'."

"DUDE!" Tails looked at his brother. "Well, let's move on from this embarrassing topic of conversation."

"Would rather talk about how..."

"No I would not." Sonic said and began speed walking away, resisting the urge to run at top speed. "Sonic, what did you do?"

"Doesn't matter."

"It very clearly does."

"I'll tell you when you're older." Tails whined. "You didn't, biology?"

"Tails!" Sonic shouted. "I'm just saying that it's a logical conclusion based on the evidence that I have."

"No, no, no, no no no no no no no no no. No, no, no, no. nooooooo. No."

"Then what did you do."

"We kissed."

"You kissed?"

"Yes."

"Good for you." Sonic opened the door to the room next to his where James had to him to put Tails. "This is where you'll be staying at night." Sonic grabbed his brother and lifted him down. "Sweet. Where are you?"

"Next door. So's Knux and Silver if you're looking for them."

"So when can I meet everyone?" Tails asked and set his suitcase on a bed. "Right now." Sonic said and smiled. Tails smiled back. "Let's go see if we can find everyone." Sonic said. "Wanna ride on my shoulders again?"

"Nah, I'll walk." They walk out of the dorm room and back to where Knuckles, Silver, and Rouge are talking. "Hey guys!" Sonic says. They wave to him. "Where are the other two?" Sonic asks. The three of them shrug. "Why, wanna see your boyfriend?" Rouge teases. Sonic blushes hard. "I don't think we've actually defined our relationship, but Tails wanted to meet everyone."

"They might be at breakfast, let's go see." Rouge says. As a habit, Rouge spends a lot of time practicing by flying through the tall halls, and she and Sonic race (Sonic always wins) which is why Rouge tries to jump to take off but falls because 1. her wings are covered and 2. she realized she was with Tails. "You okay?" Tails asks concerned. "Me, I'm fine, I just tripped." This wasn't the first suspicious thing Tails had noticed. Sonic kept tapping his foot, which was something he often did when he was nervous. He noticed as well that Knuckles was walking more carefully than usual. But Tails saw that this wasn't a regular trip, for some reason, she had tried to jump forward horizontally. Something suspicious was going, and he was determined to figure it out.

The group arrived in the cafeteria and found Blaze talking to James. "That doesn't look like Shadow?" Tails said. "That's our main teacher, Mr. Marrow, but we all call him James." Sonic explained. James and Blaze both turned when their heads when they noticed the group coming. "You must be Miles." Blaze said. Tails extended his hand. "My friends call me Tails." He smiles. Blaze shakes his hand. "I'm Blaze. It's very nice to meet you." 

"Nice to meet you too." He smiles. "Breakfast?" Sonic asks James. Behind him, James points to a bar of breakfast foods. "Thought we'd do something special with our special guest." Sonic quickly loads up his plate. Tails notices that Sonic is faster at everything than the last time they saw each other. James puts a hand on Sonic's shoulder and Sonic slows down a little. "Suspicious." He thought. Everyone loaded their plates, and they sat down. Tails asked questions and the group did their best to answer in non-suspicious ways. "What are you guys learning about?"

"You know, just the usual stuff." Silver said. "What's your favorite class?" 

"Meals." Sonic joked. "What's been you're favorite thing you've learned."

"I liked learning about bats." Rouge says. "What caused the elevator incident."

"James." They all say. "But why?"

"So they didn't kill each other." James says. "Where's Shadow?" 

"Hasn't appeared yet." Knuckles says. "I'm right here." Shadow says and walks into the cafeteria. "I was just working out." He says. He grabs some food and sits down at the empty seat at the table, right next to Sonic. After a minute of being flustered, Sonic drops his right hand to his side and starts eating with his left. Shadow takes the hint and drops his hand to his side. The others at the table are too busy talking to Tails to notice the increase in how red both their faces are as they interlock their hands. 

"It's time to get to class." Blaze says and everyone follows suit. 

James starts teaching them a math lesson and Sonic was ready to fall asleep. Tails was actually taking notes. Sonic wanted to be anywhere but this class at this moment. He kind of wanted to shout about the secret society so that he could go back to his training and not listening to a lesson about trigonometry. After an hour, a bell rang, signaling the start of a new class. James walked out and Roxanne walked in.

Tails noticed this new teacher was a little sweaty. He didn't know if she was nervous or if she was too warm. It could have been either. But this teacher also seemed kind of young to be a teacher. But then again, he was young to have already graduated high school and earn a masters. 

Roxanne was trying really hard to seem like everything was fine. She gave a world history lesson about the second world war. Sonic was going to fall asleep at the rate of boringness that these guys were spouting. Tails continued taking notes about whatever Roxanne was saying. He even corrected her once. 

Tails watched and took notice of everything Roxanne did. At one point, he could have sworn her hand just disappeared. When he blinked the hand was back, he thought for a second he hallucinated. 

More problems arose when Mateo walked in to teach English. He just struggled to keep calm. Undercover missions were not his forte, it made him nervous. 

When Sam walked in for a science lesson, Tails noticed that she was definitely different, the way she walked, the way she spoke, and the way she carried herself. She had a confidence that the two previous ones lacked. Sam was writing something on the board while Sonic passed a note to Shadow who was sitting behind Sonic and Tails. "Sonic, if you want to pass notes, you can do it in someone else's class." Sam did her best teacher voice (actually impersonating a teacher she had had before). "Sorry." He said. She finished writing on the board and showed them a model of DNA. Tails couldn't fathom how she had known they were passing note. They were so quiet. It was almost as if she had eyes in the back of her head, but that wasn't possible. He'd never seen a teacher do that to someone unless they saw it with their own eyes. 

When the next class started, Tuma walked in. Tails noticed that this guy carried himself like he belonged wherever he was. It was different than the confidence that Sam carried, it was more of a self-assurance. Sonic had a feeling that this class wasn't going to end well. Tuma sat in the desk and put his feet up. "This is your time do whatever homework you were given." Sonic pulled some paper from somewhere (where, Tails didn't know) and began to work on it. Tails leaned back and started observing. Tuma was working on something on a computer. Knuckles started looking at what Rouge was working on and started asking her questions. Tuma looked at them. "You two, stop talking." They immediately obeyed. Something about it seemed off to Tails. Tails wanted to do a quick experiment. Tails got up and walked to the teacher. "Sir, I'm kind of shy, and I'm curious as to the relationship of Knuckles and Rouge. Could you tell them to tell the class." Tuma looked at the kid. This kid just seemed to be curious (and he was, just not in the way Tuma thought), he didn't see anything wrong here. "Hey Rouge, tell me, how do you feel about Knuckles?"

"He's more handsome than jewels and very interesting. I like how sometimes he seems smart and sometimes not so much, it keeps it interesting. I like his charm, his strength, and determination. I like him a lot and I would very much like to go on a date with him." She said and immediately blushed turning away from the boy she just confessed to. "Hey Knuckles, tell me, how do you feel about Rouge?" 

"I like her a lot as well. She is smart, beautiful, crafty, and much more, and I think that despite how much I dislike being flustered I would like to go on a date with her as well." They both looked away from each other, multiple shades of red. Tails didn't know Rouge, but he did know Knuckles, and Knuckles wouldn't say something like that in front of all of those people of his own free will. That, plus everything else he had seen, he knew something was wrong. He could investigate himself and try to figure it out, but what he did next seemed easier. 

For an eight-year-old, Tails was actually pretty strong, the only one who knew this was Sonic. He supposed it came with the inventing territory. This is why Tails stomped over to his brother, grabbed his ear, and started dragging him into the hall, all the while Sonic kept saying 'ow'. "Did he just do that?" Blaze asks. "What's happening?" Tuma asks. "Well, he knows, we're doomed." Knuckles says, still trying to recover from his impromptu confession.

Tails let go of his brother once they were in the hall and the door closed. "What are you hiding?"

Chapter Text

"What are you hiding?" Sonic looked at his brother. He hadn't expected him to figure it out this quickly. He really thought they had done a good job. "I'm not hiding anything." Sonic insisted. "The evidence says otherwise."

"What evidence?"

"Knuckles nervousness, your nervousness,"

"Those are just circumstantial."

"Rouge's jacket doesn't match the rest of her outfit,"

"That doesn't mean anything. You don't even know her."

"Rouge's 'trip' that was her clearly jumping for some reason,"

"People fall all the time."

"Your speed at getting breakfast,"

"I'm always fast."

", not that fast, the answers at breakfast were suspiciously vague, Ms. Roxanne's hand just disappeared,"

"I think your eyes are playing tricks on you."

", Mr. Mateo was nervous,"

"He's always nervous."

", Ms. Sam caught you and Shadow passing the note,"

"That's just a teacher power."

", and finally Knuckles never would have said that in front of all of those people if he had chosen too. Mr. Tuma somehow got you all to do exactly what he said, and I want to know why."

"It's a teacher power." Sonic says. "Your voice keeps cracking." Tails says. He puts his hand on his hip and stares his brother down, waiting for him to crack. "So, are you just going to keep lying?" Tails asks. "I'm not lying." Sonic says. "Right, and if I open this door, I won't find that your friends have been listening to this whole conversation." Tails opens the door, and to prove his point, everyone falls to the ground in a pile. "What are you hiding Maurice?" Tails asks him. Sonic was hurt, and he knew that his brother was hurt. He was only called Maurice when Tails was truly mad or upset. James and the others walked around the corner to find the scene. Tails actually looked like he was about to cry. Tails never meant to make his baby face, he always would try to avoid it, but he was making it and Sonic was cracking. "Sonic's gonna crack." Knuckles says. "I don't want to hide anything from you." Sonic tells his brother. "But you are, you just admitted it. What happened? You always tell me everything?" Tails was sounding more and more hurt by the second. "Don't do it Sonic." Rouge says. "Oh, so they're in on the secret too. Are your new friends just better than me?" Tails now most definitely had tears in his eyes. "I want to tell you, but I can't."

"Why? We're you ordered not to, or it is it as Amy told me once and you've just grown apart from me. If we're not best friends anymore just say that." Sonic was going to kill Amy. "That's, that's not it at all. I promise. I'm asking you to trust me."

"Yeah, well, I don't know if I do anymore." Sonic stood there, flabbergasted. Tails had tears running down his face. "Last chance Maurice. Stop lying, tell me the truth, or I'm leaving and I'm telling Amy." Sonic opened his mouth but before he could speak, he was tackled from behind. "Get him!" Sam shouted. Sonic realized Mateo was the one on top of him. "Tails, I'm sorry." Sonic said and began to fight. "I'm not lying, I'm more just withholding the full truth." 

"Tuma, tell him to stop talking!" Sam said and jumped on Sonic. Roxanne joined and helped hold him on the ground. Sonic struggled to try to get up from his belly where he was being held on the ground by the other three. "Sonic, not another word." Sonic tried to open his mouth and finish, but no words came out. "And none of you take a step towards him." Tails noticed that Silver, Shadow, Blaze, Rouge, and Knuckles were trying to get to Sonic. Tails looked back at his brother and Sonic at him and noticed that Tails was shaking. Sonic pointed to his throat then made a poof motion with his hands. "Come on guys, get off of him." Knuckles says. "And give him back his voice." Silver says. "What happened to Sonic's voice?" Tails turned and asked. Had he been able to do so, Sonic would have sighed in relief at hearing his brother use his nickname. Sonic pointed Shadow then to Tails then to the hall. Shadow looked at Sonic, confused, not because he didn't understand, but because he couldn't move. Tails understood what his brother was asking and didn't like it. "Please, just let me help and tell me what's going on." Tails begged. James did the longest sigh of his life. "You will be sworn to secrecy, you can't say anything about what you learn." Tails looked at the man. "Fine." He says. "Tuma." James says. "You can have your voice back, Sonic. And the rest of you move." 

"Oh, thank goodness, Shads, how do you go so long without talking, that was agony, seriously." Knuckles walks over and grabs everyone off of Sonic then gently helps his friend stand up. "Thanks, Knux."

"You're welcome." Sonic walked up to his brother and bent down so that they were on eye level. "Tails, I'm really sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you. I really really didn't. I think you'll understand once James explains everything. Just know that I'm really sorry that I hurt you." Tails hugged his brother. "I know." He says. They let go of each other and Sonic looks to James. "Let's go sit in the classroom." James says. Everyone follows him in.

"So, everyone here has superpowers because they are a second born royal. You are all part of secret society or part of the training program and summer school was a ruse to get Sonic and the others here to discover their powers and get better with them. The families of the secret society are not allowed to know without special permission from the head of the society but I'm an exception because of everything that I saw. Do I have this right?" Tails asked. Everyone nodded. 

"So, what are everyone's powers?" He asks excited. Sonic smiles and starts running around in a blue streak around the room. "You have super speed!" Tails says excited. "That I do." He tells his brother. 

Blaze showed a little flame dancing in her palm. "Pyrokinesis." Tails says and watches as Blaze crushes the flame. "I thought that's what my power was called?" Silver says. "No, yours is psychokinesis." Blaze tells him. "Wait, really? I wanna see!" Tails says. Silver smiles at the boy and concentrates on his chair, making it float a few inches in the air. "Cooooool." 

Knuckles picks up the table. "You have super strength!" Tails says. Knuckles nods.

 "What can Rouge do?" Tails asks. Rouge smiles and takes of her jacket, revealing her wings. Tails looks at them, mouth agape. He walks up to he and looks at them closely. "These look like bat wings." He says. "That's what we think their supposed to be." Rouge tells him. Rouge boops his nose with her wing and he giggles.

 "Shads?" Sonic asks. Shadow charges his spear and Tails runs over to look at it. "It looks like it's made of pure energy." He says excitedly. "I call it a chaos spear." He says and throws it at the wall, causing a tiny explosion. 

"Wait, what can they do?" Tails asks and points to the five not-students. "I have super senses." Sam says. "That's how you were able to catch them passing the note." Tails says. Sam nods. Roxanne turns invisible. "These are so cool." Tails said. "I think I figured yours out though." Tails says and points to Tuma. "People do whatever you tell them." Tuma winks at him. "So, what do you do?" Tails turns to Mateo. Mateo holds his hand out Tails face is surrounded by butterflies. "You control butterflies?" Tails says. "All bugs actually." He shrugs. "That just leaves you." Tail says and turns to James. James creates some copies of himself. Tails walks up and tries to see if they are a hologram by touching one, when he feels what seems like a human under his karate chop, he gasps. "You can make clones of yourself!" James smiles at the kid and nods. 

"No wonder you couldn't tell me Sonic, this is awesome!" Tails says and then starts asking five hundred different questions. "What is your limit on your powers? Is there a limit to how much you can use them or how long you can use them for? When do they develop? Are powers unique or can multiple people have them? What are other powers that people have?" The list just continued.

"Orbot, Cubot!" The Doctor shouted. "Yes doctor?" The red one, now known as Orbot asks. "Bring me my tools." The doctor was going to succeed, he had to, because he wanted to rule, and prove him wrong.    

Chapter Text

Tails insisted on getting up the next morning and watching each person train. So when they were woken up at five am, he was up. The group of seven ate their food and went to go train.

Tails watched his brother run the track at top speed. He completed a mile in ten seconds. "That's so cool!" Tails said. "We always knew I was born to run." Sonic says to his brother. And grabs a water bottle. "Go 5 miles, ready, set go." James says and Sonic is off. "It looks like you have him reducing drag and practicing, but have you considered a better diet and weight training?" Tails asks. James looks at the kid. "More sleep would also help. Along with stretches and recovery time." 

Sonic jogs up to them. "Whatca guys talking about?"

"How to help you run faster." Tails says. "But I'm already fast." Sonic says. "But you could always be faster." James says. "Hey, do you think you could help improve the others as well?" James asks. Tails smiles and nods.

 James takes Tails to where Rouge is flying through the halls. Another James appears and the one he was just with goes back to Sonic. Tails watches Rouge, but notices something. "Rouge is constantly flapping her wings. That's not necessary and will tire her out faster. She would be much better off flapping everyone once in a while. Like riding a bike. Peddling only often enough that you stay balanced while making it so you can go long distances without getting as tired."

"Solid advice, thanks buddy." Rouge says. Tails hadn't even seen her land. Rouge gives him a quick kiss on the cheek. "No problem." Tails says. 

"Now let's see if you can't help Silver." James says and takes Tails to the room where Silver is practicing. At the sound of the door opening, Silver loses concentration, turns around, and drops the cup. He cringes at the sound of the cup falling. "Chaos." He says. "It appears you have a problem with concentration, or at least not getting distracted from your task." Tails says. Silver nods. "I'm doing okay, but really loud sounds still startle me enough to make me lose concentration and sitting here anticipating it isn't helping." He complains. "There are many things you can do to increase your ability to concentrate. There are brain puzzles, meditation, exercise, video games, and sleep." Silver smiled. "Thank Tails." He says. "I'll try those." Silver lays down right there and closes his eyes. 

Tails is taken to see Knuckles, who just broke his first iPad of the day. "Ah, learning to control strength." Tails says. "Yes." Knuckles says and follows the routine of grabbing another tablet. "What causes you to break the thing."

"I guess I get angry."

"Try taking deep breathes to control your anger." Tails watched as Knuckles reloaded the game. He played a round and started to get frustrated but took some deep breathes and was able to not break it. 

Tails was then taken to see Blaze. She was currently working on making bigger flames. "Have you tried taking bigger breaths?" Tails asks. She looks at him confused. "A basic flame is made up of carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen, and oxygen. You may be able to make a bigger flame is you add carbon dioxide and oxygen through breath." Blaze holds out her hand and makes a small flame. She takes a deep breath in causing the flame to grow larger, when she takes a breath out, it gets smaller again. "Thank you for your help, Miles."

"You can call me Tails." He says. "Is that what you would prefer?"

"Yes."

"Thank you, Tails." She corrects herself and begins practicing with this new technique. Tails was then taken to see Shadow. He was throwing spears at the targets and was pretty accurate. Tails thought that if he could be faster, he would do even better. Tails got an idea. Tails looked at Shadow practicing. "Hey Shadow!" Tails shouts. James had told him to expect the little genius to come around and give him some advice to improve, he didn't expect "What's your shoe size?" Shadow stares at the kid for a second. "10?" He says confused. "Alright, give me like an hour and I'll be back." Tails says.

"James, where is the welding classroom?" Tails asks. James shows him. Tails says thank you and runs to his room. Tails had been working on a project that would have helped his brother go faster but looked like he didn't need it anymore. Tails found the bag he was looking for. He opened it up to find the almost finished rocket skates. He grabbed them and ran to the welding room. He began to work and attached the last bit of circuitry. Then he grabbed some spray paint he found. He tapped up what he didn't want covered in the red paint. Blue didn't really seem like Shadow's thing, so he decided to make them red. 

When he was done, he rushed back to where Shadow was. "Alright, I think I have something to help you, but you only get them on two conditions." Shadow nodded. "Take good care of these because of I worked hard on them." Shadow nods. "And take even better care of my brother." Shadow smiled at the kid. "I promise." Tails smiled and brought the shoes out from behind his back. "They're rocket skates. They'll allow you to go faster. Their controlled by your mind. Just think what you want them to do, and they'll help you do it. I mean, well, there are some things they can't do, but if it is within their functionality, they will do it. This way, you may even be able to race Sonic and have it be pretty fair." Shadow smiled at the kid and took the shoes that were being handed to him. He took off the ones that he was wearing and put the new pair on. They felt a little heavy, but he supposed that the metal had something to do with that. "Just think of hovering an inch or two off of the ground." Tails says. Shadow commands the shoes to do so, and when they try, he immediately falls over from lack of balance. "They'll take a while to get used to." Tails says. Shadow nods. He gets back up and succeeds in turning them on and not falling on his face. Tails starts cheering. "They work!" He shouts. 

Shadow starts using them to speed around the room. Tails giggled happily seeing his invention work so well. Shadow used them like skates to go faster, it took him a minute to get the hang of it, but he did get it. Then he dashed out of the room, determined to taste the invention to the fullest. He finds exactly what he's looking for, the track. Sonic was currently trying to beat his best time of 4.3 seconds. Shadow caught up to him and smirked at Sonic's utterly gob smacked expression. "How?" Sonic asks. "Your brother." He says. Sonic looks at Shadow's feet and see's the rocket skates. "You up for a race Shads." Sonic smirks. "Where?" 

"To the cafeteria."

"Ready, set, go." Shadow says. And their off, each one not being able to stay in front of the other for long, but with more practice, Sonic ultimately wins the race. "Alright, take that Shads." Sonic says. "Congrats." Shadow fondly rolls his eyes at Sonic's cheering. 

Sonic paused and cheered. Sonic and Shadow looked away from each other, blushing. Sonic rubbed the back of his neck and got the courage to ask the question he had been asking himself for the past day and a half. "Hey Shadow, could I ask you something?"

"Do you mean another something, because you just did." Shadow teased. "Yes, I mean another something." Sonic said. Shadow let out a snort. "I'm trying to be serious for once." Sonic says frustrated. Shadow smiles at him. "Ask away."

"What are we?"

"Care to elaborate."

"The two of us. What are we now?" Shadow paused. He'd thought about this question a lot too. "I don't know. I think we get to choose."

"Well, what do you want to be?" Sonic asked. "I don't think we can be rivals anymore. And I'm pretty sure I don't like you as a friend." Shadow said. "I think I know what you mean." Sonic says. "So..." Shadow says. "So..." 

"Do you, maybe," Shadow tries. Sonic wants to wait for him to finish, but it's clear that the boy in front of him is struggling. "Do you want to be my boyfriend?" Sonic asks. Shadow blushes, hard, to the point where his face is almost the same color as the stripes in his hair. "I would like that." He says. They just stand there for a second, not knowing what to do next. "What now?" Shadow asks. Sonic shrugs. "We could kiss." He says. "I think I'd like that." Shadow says, trying not to let his voice crack. After a moment of hesitation, they both lean and melt into a gentle kiss that perfectly conveys what they've been feeling. While it isn't said, the message is there 'I love you'. 

The Doctor finishes the project he was working on with a triumphant evil laugh. "Ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho-ho" He cackles. Orbot and Cubot watch from around the corner. "I think he means business this time." Orbot says. Cubot nods. 

Amy was hard at work, preparing for her 17th birthday party in a few weeks. It was supposed to be a huge celebration, and as tradition states, she would be recrowned as the queen. Everything had to be perfect, and without her best advisor here at the moment, things were just more stressful. 

A few weeks ago, she got word from King Gerald that his grandson, Lord Eggman, had escaped prison and the notes he left in his cell indicated he was coming for the Emerald Coast, her kingdom. Another stressor on top of her pile of duties. Not to mention her brothers. Sonic was in summer school and Tails had been so upset and the depression over his big brother big gone had only increased over the days. Amy finally decided to send Miles to see Sonic (she's been trying to refer to her brother by his preferred name in private). 

"Which fabric would you like for the tablecloths?" A servant came up to Amy. Amy pointed to the pink one and sighed. This was a lot, even for her.

Rouge watched as her two boys awkwardly got together from the ceiling. She felt something beside her and looked over to find Silver. She stifled a shriek. "What are you doing?" He whispered. "Spying." She whispered back. "Oh, what happened?" 

"They're a couple now."

"About time." He smiled, a little too loudly because Sonic and Shadow looked up at them. "Are you spying on us?" Shadow asked. "No." Rouge said at the same time Silver said "Yes." If a glare could kill, Shadow would be charged for first degree murder of Rouge. "I was just curious. Congrats by the way." She smirked. This rendered Shadow glareless and speechless. "You two should just come down." Sonic says. Rouge jumps and slows her fall with her powerful wings. Silver floats down. Rouge walks up to them and slings her arms around Sonic and Shadows shoulders. "I'm so proud of you guys." She tells them. "What did they do?" Knuckles walks in. "Guess it's time for lunch." Sonic thinks. "They're an official couple now!" Rouge says. "Congratulations." Blaze says. Knuckles walks up to Shadow and stares at him intently. "My condolences." He says. He only starts laughing when he sees his friends offended face. "Be nice Knuckles." Tails says. "Except, I think you and I have to give him the shovel talk." Tails whispered to Knuckles. "Oh, good point." Knuckles said. 

"Hey Blue, I need to talk to you for just a second." Rouge said and smiled but it didn't quite reach her eyes and caused Sonic to gulp. "Rouge." Shadow warned. "It's alright." Sonic said. "Besides, Knuckles and I have to talk to you as well." Tails said. Each boy was pulled into a separate corner of the large cafeteria. "Which one should we join?" Silver asked. "I suggest neither, as to not upset anyone. We can talk to them both later if we must." Blaze said and watched. "You make a good point."

"What can I do for you Rouge?"

"Well Blue, I'm going to give it to you straight. If you hurt Shadow, I find every way I can to hurt you. Let's not forget I'm a pretty good spy, you didn't know I was watching until Silver blew my cover. I will not hesitate to hurt you because whether Shadow likes it or not, he is my best friend."

"I understand." Sonic says. "That also means you have to make sure he is happy." She says. "I know."

"Just making sure, Blue."

"Blue?"

"I finally came up with a nickname for you." She smirked. "I like it."

"Good, now let's talk about Shadow."

"Oh yeah, tell me about some of his favorite things."

"Well, to start, he really loves cats, especially kittens."

"Alright, what is it?" Shadow asks. "We just need to set some ground rules about dating Sonic." Shadow didn't even bat an eye. He wasn't worried. "Is this the shovel talk?" He asked coolly. "Look at that Knux, he's smart." Tails says, smirking in a way that doesn't totally fit his face. Shadow didn't like the way the two of them were looking at him. "Hurt my brother..."

"And my best friend..." Knuckles chimed in. "And I will use the same knowledge that allowed me to use paper clips and laundry detergent to program a computer to have Knuckles here pull you apart so that I can turn you into a toaster oven." The kid looked completely serious. Whatever smirk he had been wearing completely gone. Shadow stared at the two of them wide eyed. "What happened to the talk we had like twenty minutes ago?" Shadow asked. "Oh, that still applies. But that was before the two of you were actually together. Now it's official. I just wanted to make myself clear."

"I won't pull you apart though until you've been thoroughly hammered into the ground." Knuckles added with a glare. "Understood." Shadow replied, keeping his cool. "Good." The two of them said at the same time. "So what do you want to know about Sonic?" Tails asked, all malice out of his tone, now bouncing up and down excitedly. "What's his favorite color?" Shadow was unsure and his voice showed it. "He likes blue and red." Knuckles replied. "What's his favorite animal?" Shadow asked. "Hedgehogs." Tails replied. 

"They've been talking for a while now." Silver says to Blaze as the two of them eat their food. "I'm sure they are just making whatever threats they are making clear." Blaze says and takes a sip of her tea. "Tails is bouncing up and down now."

"I have no idea then Silver."

"How is this stuff even supposed to go."

"How should I know?"

"I don't know."

"Just eat your food, Silver."

"Okay."

The group reconvened and ate their lunch together as if nothing had changed. After their food they each went back to their individual training. Shadow and Sonic, however, could barely focus. They were too wrapped up in their thoughts of each other to focus on their actual training. Shadow wasn't able to get any bullseyes with his chaos spears and Sonic kept losing focus, running of the track, and into the lights. 

"What is going on with you?" James asked Sonic as he inspected the kid for a concussion. "I'm just lost in thought."

"I'm very happy for you and Shadow but the two of you need to focus. This is still important. This is the tenth time you've ran into this same pole." James gestures to said pole to make his point. "I know, I know. I just..."

"I get it. I understand you really like him and right now your brain is going five hundred miles an hour. But I need you to focus on the here and now."

"Alright." Sonic grumbled. "Five laps without running into a pole in a row and you can go to dinner. But you have to not do it at your fastest." Sonic hated these exercises too. He knew it was about control, but his legs always itched to go faster when they did this. He started running. "Your feet are blurring." James shouted at him. Sonic grumbled and slowed down. Watching his feet and in front of him, he didn't actually get to think about Shadow because his brain was so busy trying to not run into stuff.

"You can't lose focus." James tells Shadow. "I'm not, I'm just not used to the shoes Tails gave me yet." Shadow tried to excuse himself. The look on James's face showed that he did not believe any of that nonsense. "Hit the bullseye then." Shadow tried but he missed by a few inches. "Hit the bullseye, then you can leave for the day." Shadow spent the next ten minutes trying to hit the bullseye. "Are you ready to admit your distracted yet?" James asked. "I do not get distracted." Shadow seethed. "Oh, hey Sonic." Shadow turned, falling for it. He turned back to his teacher, red with anger, embarrassment, and just plain blushing. "Fine." He consented. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch that."

"I may be a little distracted." Shadow growled. "That's what I thought. It's time for dinner. Go." James pointed to the door and Shadow barely resisted the urge to stomp out the door. 

Chapter Text

The next morning, Sonic got up early. He decided he wanted to do something special for his boyfriend. Sonic paused on his way to the cafeteria. Even just thinking the word boyfriend sent uncontrollable butterflies flying in his stomach and a blush to his cheeks. He continued to the cafeteria. After scavenging in the school kitchen cabinets, he found what he was looking for, a can of coffee beans. Rouge had told Sonic yesterday that Shadow liked to snack on them. After thinking about it Sonic had realized he'd seen Shadow do so a couple of times during class. 

Now we know what you're thinking, no Sonic wasn't trying to celebrate their 'one day-aversry'. He just wanted to spoil his boyfriend. Shadow walked into the cafeteria and saw Sonic. "You're up early." He said surprised. "Because I wanted to get you a special treat." Sonic said and shook the can of coffee beans. "Oh. Thanks." Shadow said and blushed. Sonic smiled and handed him the can. "This isn't to celebrate us being together for a day, is it?" Shadow asked before opening the can. "Nope, it's just to spoil my boyfriend." Shadow was speechless. Who knew Sonic could be so sweet? Shadow plopped a few of the beans in his mouth and savored the bitter-sweet taste. Sonic gave Shadow a kiss on the cheek. Shadow smiled. "Thanks." Shadow said. "Of course." Sonic told him. Shadow gave Sonic a kiss as well, rendering the usually chatty boy speechless. And both smiled like idiots.

Amy pulled out her phone. She wanted to check up on her brothers. "Hello?" She heard her baby brother's sleepy voice. "Hi Miles."

"Amy!" He said excitedly. "How's everything going at home?"

"Well, the preparations for the party and recrowning are in full swing. Search parties are still under way across the country. But I was more interested in how things are going with you two. Did you get any trouble?" There was a pause and Amy heard her brother's breath hitch. "No. I didn't get any trouble. Sonic is fine. He just wasn't supposed to have his phone which is why he wasn't able to call. He is physically and mentally fine. We're still friends."

"You told me that he had some new friends. Have you met them?"

"Yeah. Prince Silver, Prince Shadow, Princess Rouge, and Princess Blaze."

"I thought he already knew Shadow and Rouge?"

"Well, he wasn't friends with them before." 

"Good for him. Glad to know that he is working on being more diplomatic." Tails chuckled on the other end of the phone. "You should see him. He's so happy here." 

"Really, I thought he'd hate the classes?" Amy was so confused. "Well, he does. But he likes the people. They also have a track that's been enjoying running on."

"So what have you been doing while he's been in class."

"I come to class with him, or I sit and tinker until he gets back." 

Amy heard a soft knock on the other end along with a soft unfamiliar feminine voice. "Rouge says it's time for breakfast. I've got to go. Bye Amy."

"Just one thing before you end the call, tell Sonic that he can invite all his new friends to the party." Amy said. "You got it. I'll let him know." And Tails hung up.

"You coming?" Rouge asked. "Yeah, my sister just called, and I knew if I didn't answer she would become suspicious." He replied and got up. With a stretch and yawn Tails got out of bed. "Oh my gosh, you're adorable!" Rouge said. "I am not." He squeaked. "Awwww." Tails blushed in embarrassment. "Let's just go get food."

"Alright." They started walking in silence. Tails decided to use this as an opportunity. "So what about you Knuckles."

"What about me and Knuckles."

"Well now my brother and Shadow are together. So what about you and Knuckles."

"We're just friends."

"Bull shit!"

"Watch your language."

"Not when your spouting absolute BS!"

"It's not absolute BS."

"It is and you know it."

"That is enough of this conversation." Rouge crossed her arms, pissed and embarrassed. "You know I'm right." Tails insisted. "You're not."

"You both confessed."

"Not by choice."

"AH HA!" Tails shouted. Rouge paused, realizing her mistake. "I was right and you just admitted it."

"I admitted nothing."

"You did, I heard it." Rouge just scoffed. 

"Sonic is up early, is it backwards day?" Silver asked when he came down. "I just wanted to do something nice for my boyfriend." Sonic said. "That doesn't change the fact that you were the first awake. That never happens."

"Because no one should have to be awake this early in the morning." Sonic groaned. "It would be nice to sleep a little more." Silver admitted. Knuckles walked in. "I think I need to go back to bed because Sonic is awake before me, so I must be dreaming." 

"Would everyone please stop commenting on the fact that I am awake!" Sonic screamed at the world. "It is nice to see you up before me Sonic. Shows your commitment." Blaze said as she walked in, oblivious to the boy's previous declaration. Sonic double facepalmed and groaned. Shadow let out a chuckle. "I'm glad this is so amusing." Sonic said annoyed. "You're adorable, you know that." Shadow said. Sonic stared at his boyfriend in shock. 

"Are we in an alternate dimension? Or did my brother get replaced?" Tails teased when he walked in with Rouge. Sonic screamed in annoyance. 

Lord Eggman looked at his creation. His plan was coming together nicely. Now he just had to make a black-market phone call. Sure, he was an evil genius, but every evil genius has a lacky or two. And he knew about a lacky that was seeking jobs, and he had the perfect job for her.

"Today, things are going to be a little bit different." James walked in. "You guys are all doing pretty well with your own individual powers, but there are other aspects you are not doing as well at. Including archery. So that's where we're starting."

Outside, each member of the class continued to try and get a bullseye. Shadow got it first try, but that was chalked up to the fact that he had previously been working with targets in his own individual training.

Sonic, always being close to Shadow, hit the bullseye next. He hooped and hollered, starling Silver into hitting an arrow right below and now very startled bird. "Sorry Mr. Bird, my bad." Silver shouted at the bird. "Silver, it's a bird." Blaze told her friend. "I can still apologize." The boy insisted. 

Knuckles pulled the string back just a little too far, snapping it. He cursed and Sonic gasped exaggeratedly, covering his little brother's ears. "Not in front of the small child Knux."

"But you say stuff like that all the time." Tails protested, pulling his brother's hands off his face. "That's different, it's my job to corrupt you, not Knuckles." 

"Fair point." Tails said. "The two of you are ridiculous." Knuckles said and grabbed a new bow. "Not as ridiculous as you." Rouge said and fired another arrow, narrowly missing the bullseye. Knuckles grunted. He grabbed an arrow, and luckily, hit his target, the bullseye. "At least I didn't miss." Rouge smirked. "What do you want, a prize. I'll give you a prize." Knuckles felt his breath hitch in his throat when Rouge grabbed his chin. She looked like she was leaning in to give him a peck on the lips, but at the last second, she turned his face so she actually gave him a kiss on the cheek. The whole interaction left Knuckles an extra red, extra blushy, extra confused mess. Tails groaned. Blaze sighed. Sonic turned to his boyfriend. "Were we ever like that?"

"Literally a day ago." Shadow replied. "Oh, but that's ages."

"Not even 24 hours."

"That's like a bagillion in Sonic years."

"Bagillion isn't even a number Sonic." Tails told his brother. "That's because time in Sonic years is unquantifiable." 

"When did you learn that word?" Tails asks. "I may be an idiot but I'm not dumb." 

Knuckles just stared at the smirk girl in front of him. "Bat got your tongue handsome?" Rouge asked, leaning on her bow. Knuckles could say without a doubt, that he had no idea what in the world he was feeling at this moment in time. Absolutely zero clue (You idiot, it's love).

Rouge could say with one hundred percent confidence that her only regret was not taking the opportunity she had present herself to give the boy an actual kiss. 

Silver and Blaze could both say with all certainty that their friends all needed serious help. Like, very serious help, because they were all helpless, hopeless, and dumb (you two are no better).

She was just waiting for someone to take her up on her offer for her... special... services. All she needed was for the burner to ring with the buyer. Just as she was about to give up waiting for the day, the phone began to ring. She picked it up. In her thick accent, she answered "May I help you."

"October, November, December." Came the reply of the man on the other end. "Speak." She told him, knowing that's to code she had given to her buyers. "My name is Lord Eggman, and I am in need of your unique talents."

"If you weren't, I doubt you would have called."

"That would be correct."

"You know my price."

"It's a price I'm willing to pay."

"Then let us discuss the details of your mission." The girl smiled to herself. "Gladly." Eggman told her. 

"There are certain powers that can affect you, take Tuma's power for example. You have to learn how to resist those kinds of powers. Which is why Prince Tuma is here to help us." James explained. The students groaned. "Is resisting Tuma's power even possible?"

"With enough will. I've seen it done before." Tuma told them and grimaced at the memory. Each of the students had the same thought, "This is not going to be a fun afternoon." 

"Who would like to go first?" James asked. Shadow, being one to never back down from a challenge, raised his hand. "Alright Shadow, let's see if you can resist." Shadow believed himself to have a strong will, and that belief was about to be tested. "Prince Shadow," Tuma started. "Don't be too mean." James told Tuma. Tuma just rolled his eyes. "Shadow, slap yourself." Unable to stop it, Shadow raised his hand to his face and hit it, hard. "Ow." He said out of reflex as well as genuine pain. Tuma tsked. "Like you could do better." Shadow said. "You're right, he can't." James said. "So why are we doing this?" Shadow asked and rubbed his cheek. "Because I'm learning from my mistakes as a teacher and adapting." James replied. 

"Rouge, tell me something that you agreed to never tell anyone."

"One time when Shadow was in my family's kingdom," Shadow was shouting at her to stop, almost begging at this point. ", he asked if he could test something on me. I figured it would be a pick-up line or something. Well, he grabbed my face and kissed me. I thought he liked me and that was gonna be way weird. But it was a quick kiss and when he pulled away, he said 'nope, definitely gay.'" Sonic looked at his boyfriend and was trying really hard to stifle a laugh. Silver let out a chuckle, as did Knuckles. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up. Like your coming to terms to your sexuality is any better." Shadow looked at Sonic. "I can tell you a great coming out story!" Tails says. "Sonic and I were looking at some pictures of animals in a textbook and we came across a picture of bison. Sonic said, 'Tails'" current Sonic was begging his brother to stop this torment, but Tails and everyone else was ignoring him. "'you wanna know what you and this buffalo have in common, you also have bi-son.' I told him I didn't have a son and he realized his mistake."

"Taaaaaaaaaaaiillssssss." Sonic protested. But Sonic's protests were quickly drowned out when he heard his boyfriend give one of his rare laughs. Previous humiliation now forgotten, Sonic smiled. 

"Back to training." James said. "Sonic, kiss Shadow." Possessed by Tuma's power, Sonic grabbed the fabric of Shadow's suit and pulled him closer, forcefully gracing his lips with the feeling of his boyfriends. Shadow, despite the fact that it was a command, melted quickly into the kiss. Sonic moved his hands to Shadow's neck, in an attempt to get their body's closer together. Before Sonic could take things any further, Silver shouted "Get a room!" Pulling both boys out of the moment. "Tuma." James warned. "What, I was curious."

"Next person."

"Blaze, tell your crush you like them."

"No." She replied. Tuma stood there, shocked for a second. "Would you stop doing personal stuff." James told him. "I like the drama." Tuma told his teacher. "Blaze, do a silly dance."

"No."

"I guess she already is resistant to your powers." James said. Silver stared at his friend in awe. "Blaze, that's amazing!"

"Thank you, Silver. I guess once was enough for me." 

"Was that a joke?" Silver asked. "Yes." She said unsure. "You never cease to amaze me, Blaze." Blaze stared at her friend. She got those little butterflies in her stomach again, a feeling she very much disliked, but Silver's smile was contagious, causing her to smile as well (Blaaaaaaaaaazeeeeeeee).

"Silver, tell Blaze what you think the best part about her is."

"If I had to choose just one, I would say her determination." He blushed a little. An act that didn't go unnoticed by his other friends. "So, the only person right now who can resist is Blaze." Tuma took note. "What about me!" Knuckles shouted. "On a scale of one to ten, ten being as bad as it can possibly get and one being happy, tell me how disappointed you were when Rouge didn't give you an actual kiss."

"A ten." He blurted out and immediately covered his mouth, regretting having said anything. "I stand by what I said."

"Can we please end this embarrassing training session." Shadow asked. "Go get some food." James told them and each of them ran to the cafeteria. "Things you never wanted to admit am I right." Rouge joked. "Yours wasn't that embarrassing Rouge, that was embarrassing for me." Shadow turned to the girl that he would never admit was his friend. "That's a really dumb first kiss story, you know that." Rouge said and flicked the prince's ear. In turn, the later gave the former one of his signature death glares. "Let's just pretend that didn't happen." Sonic said. The whole group agreed. 

Her mission started with careful observation of her foes. This Eggman had informed her that he knew of the Secret Societies existence, and that he knew they may interfere with his plans. It had come to his attention that there were some new recruits, and her mission started with a covert operation. Gathering intel. She needed to know more about these recruits, because experience had taught her that it was usually the least experienced that had saving the world 'thrust upon them' (always the children am I right). She gagged at the thought. 

She arrived at the school where she knew that training was taking place It was about dinner time, so she took this opportunity to do some snooping. She set up some security cameras in bedrooms. Then she found the rooms where it appeared the new recruits were training and set some cameras up in there as well. She then carefully snuck around, placing a security camera in James' room and one in the cafeteria, where she saw her foes. At the table was a group of seven. One of them appeared to be way too young, so she took special note of him, choosing to have a look into that later. In the rafters she watched the group. In a way, they reminder her much of the way her old group had acted once. She stifled a scoff at the thought. Who needed friends anyway. She looked at her adversaries. There was a boy with ivory hair that, in her opinion, had too much black eyeliner on, and it made his eyes look more yellow than they really probably were. There was another boy with excessive amounts of eyeliner, but this time in red. He also had black hair dyed with streaks of red and red eyes. He was holding the hand of a boy with blue hair and green eyes, talking a lot with exaggerated gestures and hand movements. Then there was a boy with bright red dreadlocks and violet eyes. Then one that really caught her attention, a girl with white hair, teal eyes, and what appeared to be the wings of a bat. Then there was one last girl, she had purple hair and yellow eyes, and appeared to be deep in thought. 

The girl in rafters felt her breath hitch in her throat when James walked in with Tuma, Roxanne, Mateo, and Sam. This really complicated things for her, and she really hoped to every deity in existence that they would only be here for a short while.

"We should do something fun tonight." Sonic said over dinner. "What did you have in mind." Rouge said with a teasing smile. "I was thinking a game like in the good ol days."

"When we were all fighting all the time?" Shadow questioned. "You know, I didn't think about that. But you have to admit, looking back, those were pretty fun." Sonic said. The table nodded in agreement. "What game did you have in mind?" Blaze asked. "I was thinking Killer Bunnies again."

"I will play as long as Rouge promises not to cheat again." The girl in question was glaring at something on the ceiling. "Rouge." Shadow said. "Huh?" The girl looked at her friend. "Sorry, I thought I saw something, what did you say?"

"They want to play killer bunnies, but Knuckles would like you to promise not to cheat."

"Oh, yeah, I promise." Rouge glared back up at the ceiling but saw nothing. She chalked it up to some sort of bug on something she just imagined. But her gut instincts said that it was more. No one else seemed bothered, so she didn't say anything as they walked into library.

She didn't like this; it didn't matter how scarce she made herself in her following, the girl with the bat wings somehow seemed to know that she was there or was at least suspicious. And she didn't like that. Everything would be compromised. Everything she had built, everything she wanted, everything she had worked for, everything would be ruined if she got caught. And she could not let that happen.

The whole time they played, Rouge was very distracted. In reality, she was on edge watching for whatever made what she called her 'spy instincts' tingle. Something was doing it, she knew that. But to everyone else, she just to seemed to be really distracted. She didn't even attempt to swipe the winning carrot, which Knuckles had. After the game was over, Rouge was still staring at the ceiling with a steely glare.

 The whole group attempted to get her attention to no avail. "Rouge." Blaze said. Nothing. "Rouge!" Silver tried. "Rouggggggee." Tails tried. Knuckles put on his best flirty face, which was admittedly not good, and took at play out of the girl's book and went "Hey beautiful." Nothing. She didn't even blink. "I got nothing."

"Rouge, will you pay attention." Shadow asked. "Rouge, I admit it, you're best friend, alright!" Not even that got her attention. "Wow, something must really be bothering her." Shadow said. "Guys, guys, you're all missing the obvious solution here." Sonic said. Before anyone could ask what he meant, he walked right up to Rouge, got right up to her ear, took a deep breath and shouted, "HEY ROUGE!" She screamed and fell off her chair. "Would you at least try to get my attention some other way before you do that."

"We did, we've spent the last ten minutes trying to get your attention." Knuckles told her, clearly annoyed. "What is so important that you need my attention?" She asked and got off the floor, dusting herself off. "What's so important that it needs your undivided attention?" Tails asked. "It doesn't matter." She murmured. "Clearly it does, not is Shadow admitting that you are his best friend pulled you out of your trance." Blaze told her. Rouge turned to her now sheepish friend. "You finally admitted it and I didn't even get to hear it." She said. "I'm not saying it again." Shadow told her. "So, you did say it." Rouge squealed and ran to Shadow, giving him a hug. "This changes nothing." Shadow insists to her. "Oh, this changes everything. Because now I know you like me." Rouge let go of her friend. "If I didn't like you, don't you think I would have said something." 

"The exciting thing about you is I never know." She smirked. "I certainly wasn't expecting you to be my first kiss." Rouge teasingly flicked his nose. Sonic let out a snort. "I thought we already established that you were no better off than me." Shadow told his boyfriend. "That doesn't make it any less funny." 

"This is too much." Silver said. "I'm going to bed." He told them. "Your just jealous because I have a hot boyfriend and you don't." Sonic yelled as Silver walked out. "Yeah, yeah." The later responded. "I can't deal with this." Knuckles said and followed after Silver quickly. "It is probably time to hit the hay." Sonic said and grabbed Shadows hand, going to the room for some sleep. Tails quickly followed as well as Blaze. Rouge took one last look at the rafters before following everyone else.

Chapter Text

Rouge laid in bed. For some reason, she couldn't sleep. Something was bothering her. Keeping her awake. She couldn't put her finger on it. She had a feeling that it had something to do with what she saw in the corner of her eye and the feeling of being watched for the last few hours. She couldn't take it anymore and got out of bed. As her feet hit the cold floor, she realized she didn't know why she got out of bed. She decided to go get a glass of water, hoping it would help. She walked the halls of the school. The eerie quiet only put Rouge more on edge. 

She would, however, thank he lucky stars later that it was quiet or else she might not have heard the quiet footsteps following her. As tempting as it was to confront the stalker, Rouge knew better. It was best to pretend that she didn't know the person was there. So, she continued on her journey to get some water. After grabbing the water, she went back to her room and laid back in her bed. The person didn't come into the room, leading her to believe that there was some kind of surveillance in the room. The eyes that she trained to spot things that others could not, did indeed spot the small glint in the corner that wasn't there this morning. She knew it was a camera. She stayed in the same position but didn't look at the camera. She didn't want whoever was watching to know that she found the camera. But what she wanted to know was how this person knew about the classes that were going on here. 

At breakfast in the morning, Sonic was the last one there per usual. Rouge was currently trying to work out a way to warn everyone that they were being watched without tipping of their little spy. Something was going on and she didn't like it, not at all. 

Shadow noticed that she was still distracted, and having finally declared their friendship, he was determined to figure out what was wrong. Rouge beckoned for him to follow her after breakfast, and he did. Rouge at in a chair in the corner, with her back to the security camera. She had typed a message on her hidden phone earlier, in the bathroom after searching in their for security cameras. “I have a problem. I have a crush on Knuckles.” At the same exact time, she had pulled out her phone in a way that couldn’t be detected by the camera and showed Shadow the message, ‘we are being watched. Try not to raise suspicion. Discreetly respond to what I said.’ Shadow raised his brow. “Really?”

“Uh huh.”

“Well I think the best thing to do would be to confront him.”

“By myself?” She asked.

“No, I’m going to help. And I’m sure the others would help to. Once you tell the others how nervous you are. I will just explain the situation to our group. We can leave James and the other four out of it.”

“Agreed. Let’s not tell them about our personal stuff if we don’t have to.”

“So is this what was bothering you? Yesterday I mean.”

“Yeah. It’s kind of a lot having a crush on someone.”

“Agreed.” 

“Tonight.”

“Tonight.”

After a long day of training and having gotten no sleep the previous night, Rouge was tempted to call the whole thing off and try to get some sleep, but with what she knew, she knew that she wouldn’t be able to sleep at all. No, she has to figure out what was going on here and now. She sat in the large entrance to the school. Where she and Shadow had agreed to meet for this. Currently, he was grabbing the rest of their group. Rouge just hoped that the person watching them hadn’t been tipped off. The others walked in. The group of five (they had decided to leave Tails out for his own safety) walked into the room, with all six of them in their pajamas. This was a decision Rouge was now regretting. Shadow nodded to Rouge and Rouge nodded back. “Alright Rouge, what’s wrong. Shadow said it was urgent.” Silver yawned. The girl turned to look at the ceiling. “Come on out. I know your there!” 

The Rouge girl knew, and this was something she could not allow. “Rouge, what in the world are you talking about?” The boy named Sonic asked sleepily. The girl pulled out her knife. She did not like doing this, but they could not be allowed to live.

“Rouge, you're scaring me.” Silver said and Rouge shouted at the ceiling again. “Yeah, well be scared.” Rouge turned around and looked at just the wrong time, because a person jumped down from the rafters, attempting to stab Rouge with a knife. Rouge dodged just in time, giving the assailant a round house kick in the face.

The other five got into fighting stances, as Rouge attempted to stop the assailant, a brown-haired girl with a skinny and tall build from stabbing her in the heart. “I could use some help guys.” Rouge said to her friends. Shadow was the first to jump in, knocking the assailant away with his own body, then kicking her in the gut. He was regretting not putting on his rocket shoes, because this fight would be over now. He was now the target of the assailant, who attempted to stab him. The others joined the fight, trying to stop the assailant. But it was hard for six people to hit one person, and it was hard for one person to avoid six simultaneous attacks.

The assailant seemed to realize she was going to lose, but randomly, she touched Sonic's shoulder, then with great speed identical to Sonics, sped around the school as came up behind them, kicking Silver to the ground. They tried to catch her, but she was too fast. “Sonic, what’s are you doing, run after her!” Rouge demanded. He was trying, but he could only go so fast right now. “This is as fast as my legs are letting me go. What is this madness.” The girl came around again, and Sonic narrowly dodged the knife attack, because for some reason his speed was gone. “James’ fifth student.” Blaze said in horror. “What?” Shadow asked and tried to chaos spear the girl. “His fifth student. The one that trained with the other four.” Blaze said as the group huddled together, their backs to each other to try to see the assailant from all sides. “She could take other people's powers!” Silver said in realization. “What the hell have we gotten ourselves into!” Knuckles shouted. “We need James!” Shadow said. He didn’t like this, he really thought the six of them could handle it, but he was starting to think this was beyond their skill level. Rouge unfurled her wings and took off. She booked to James room. Hoping to Chaos she could get him and get back in time. What had she done?

James awoke to the sound of someone screaming his name from down the hall. James lazily slung his legs over the bed. He figured it was something like that time Sonic came to his room in the middle of the night. He walked out of his room to find Rouge wrestling someone on the ground, trying to not get stabbed, holding the hand with a knife just above her heart. James knew the girl that Rouge was wrestling. “January?” He asked. She smiled at him devilishly, “Hello James.” She said in the unmistakable accent of his former student. “Rouge don’t let her touch you!” James shouted and ran to them, kicking January off. January sped off, with Sonics speed. James looked at Rouge, shocked. “I’m sorry okay!” She told him. “I need you to go get the others, they would be the most helpful in this situation. Go.” James said and ran after January.

The group of five laid in wait. “How long will she hold my speed?” Sonic asked. “Hopefully not long.” Shadow said. He didn’t like having his boyfriend be without his main defense. For a moment, nothing happened, but none of them dared let their guard down. Each of those that still had powers at the ready to use them. 

The girl sped past them. Slicing Knuckles arm, which is better for him then the abdomen that he had blocked her from slicing. Knuckles screamed in pain. As she sped by Silver used his powers to stop her, but it was short lived, because she grabbed an air horn out of her pocket, playing the sound, startling Silver, and he dropped her. The girl sped and touched Silver, taking his power but giving Sonic back his speed. She used Silvers power to hold everyone of them in place. “I deeply apologize for what I’m about to do, but business is business, and I have a deal to uphold.” She said. She grabbed her knife and prepared to stab Blaze. Silver screamed and cried. Blaze tensed but made no move, knowing it was useless. “Take me instead! Take me first! Don’t hurt her!” Silver shouted, begging the girl not to hurt his best friend. Tears steamed down his face. The girl raised her knife, and before she could get Blaze in the heart, she was knocked from behind by an invisible force right behind her knees. She missed Blaze’s heart, instead getting Blaze’s thigh, causing her to scream. Silver rushed over to his friend as they were dropped.

“Hello Roxanne.” The girl said. “January.” Roxanne appeared and punched January in the face. Knocking her further to the ground. January quickly turned from the stomach to her back, kicking Roxanne in the stomach. “January, pause.” January appeared to be frozen in place by Tuma’s command. Sam appeared from the shadows with a collar of some kind and went to place it around January’s neck. “You know Sam, I had more than one teacher.” January said, moving her arm, stopping Sam, Tuma, and Roxanne with Silver’s power. “And Edmund,” she annunciated the name, “was even better than James.” She grabbed the collar from Sam’s hands and when she was rushed by Tuma, she kicked him in the abdomen, causing him to fall over. She was rushed by Sonic, which she stopped and then placed the collar around his neck. Sonic tried to pull it off. Shadow tried to throw some chaos spears at her, but she effectively dodged each one. She caught one with her stolen power and turned it, facing it towards the one who threw it. “How much would you bet that this is very, very painful.” She smiled but it wasn’t a smile of joy, it was a smile of malice. Sonic screamed at January not to hurt Shadow. But January launched the spear, only missing Shadow because of his skillful dodge. Knuckles tried to punch her, but she stopped him with Silvers power. “You know what the problem with all of you is, your attachment. Look at you. Incapacitated two people with one. You begged me not to hurt each other. It makes you weak. And I think this,” she flicked her hand, causing a crying, panicked, and tied up Tails to float out of the next room into the one they were currently fighting in, “just further proves my point.” Sonic screamed. “Don’t you hurt my brother you monster! You let him go, let him go right now!”

“Sonic! Save me! Please!” Tails begged. “I guarantee his safety if you all surrender, drop to your knees, hands behind your head. If not, I will use the powers I stole to crush him.” She let everyone but Tails go. She was letting them choose.

Chapter Text

Rouge watched from the balcony with James and Mateo as the scene before her unfolded. Everyone complied. They put their hands behind their head and knelt on the ground. Even Blaze who was clearly in pain. “What now?" Rouge whispered urgently to James. "If we attack, she'll hurt Miles. "Sonic, what is going on? Who is this? Please don't let her hurt me." Tails said while Sonic gave assurances. "It's okay, Tails. We're okay. We're going to be okay. Everything will be okay. I'll make sure your safe, I promise."

"Will you two shut it!" January shouted, causing Tails to cry more. "If I use my power, we will we just remind her that there are more of us." Mateo said. "One more minute." James said. "What?" Rouge and Mateo asked at the same time. "We just have to wait one more minute. Then she should lose Silver's power." Rouge began counting the seconds as January pulled another knife out of her pocket. "I do deeply apologize for this. It isn't in my nature to kill. Because that would make me a villain, and I'm not a villain. I'm just doing what's best for my kingdom."

"But you are a villain." Sonic says. "35, 34, 33," James counts quietly. "I am not!" January temporarily loses her cool demeanor. "30, 29, 28," January regains her composure and then seems to begin to contemplate. "May as well put you out of your current misery." January says and turns to Blaze. She doesn't seem bothered. Silver, however, is pissed. "Don't you touch her."

"19,18,17,"

"Would you rather I kill you first?" January asked the boy. "Yes." He responded without hesitation. "You idiot." Blaze hissed. "Don't you dare." She told him and January. "9, 8, 7,"

"I don't really care which of you dies first, so we will just go with my original plan, unless you want the child to die too."

"3, 2, 1." James finishes his count down and the only things that happens is that Tails starts screaming in agony as January squeezes and then to further make her point, throws a knife in Tails direction, grazing his cheek. "Nothing is happening." Rouge whisper shouts. James looks shocked. "I was so sure." He says. "I'll go first, just don't hurt my brother any more." Sonic begs. January walks over to him. Prepared to strike. January steps behind him, prepared to slit his throat. "Can I just, say one last thing." Sonic asks. "I suppose so." January relents. "I'm sorry Tails. I love you. And Shads, I love you." Sonic lets the tears run freely. "I love you too." Shadow replies, crying as well.

 Before January can finish what she started, Rouge decides she can't take it anymore and dives at her, launching her across the room. January loses concentration and Tails falls to the floor. "What took you so long?" Shadow asks, almost sobbing. "Ask James." Rouge says and punches January in the face while also dodging the knife. Rouge knocks the knife out of January's hand with her foot. James comes down from the balcony, as does Mateo, with a swarm of bugs which he uses to attack January. Mostly mosquitos. Sam gets the collar off of Sonic and Sonic rushes over and puts it on January. Then he runs over, unties his brother, and ties January. Tuma, Roxanne, Mateo, and Sam take over with January. Grabbing actual handcuffs and arresting her.

 After a few seconds, EMT's and other Secret Society members rush in to finish up. Sam and her group escort January outside. Blaze, Knuckles, and Tails are escorted outside by EMT's for treatment. The others, who are not actually bleeding, are seen as less of a priority. But after it is determined that Knuckles, Blaze, and Tails need an actual hospital, they are all loaded into an ambulance and taken to the nearest hospital. 

Sonic and Silver pass each other again and again as the pass and wait for news of their loved ones. "Would you two stop that." Shadow grumbled. They both mumble their apologies. "We're just worried you know." Sonic says sadly. Shadow stands up and gives Sonic a hug. "I know. But pacing isn't going to help anyone."

"He's probably traumatized." Sonic mumbles into Shadow's chest. "He'll be okay." Shadow says. "Knuckles wound was big."

"He's strong."

"Blaze was stabbed in the leg."

"She's one of the most determined people I know. She knelt there with us, with a knife still in her leg no less."

"Yeah, yeah. She'll make it. She'll be fine." Silver tried to reassure himself. Shadow sighed and waved Silver over. Silver toddled over to Shadow and enjoyed the comforting and awkward pat that Shadow gave him. "This is all my fault." Rouge said finally. The three boys turned to her. "What?" They all asked. "If I had just gone to James, or not even done anything in the first place this never would have happened."

"How is any of this your fault?" Silver asked. "You're not January. You didn't come to our school and spy on us. You didn't set up cameras to learn our secrets. You didn't come down from the ceiling and try to kill us. You didn't steal Sonic's power. You didn't steal my power. You didn't stab Blaze. You didn't cut Knuckles. You didn't threaten Tails. All you did was save us." Shadow tells her. Rouge starts to cry. Shadow sighs and waves her over as well. Rouge runs and gets a hug from her friend as well. Shadow comforts the three other teens as the cry and worry about the fate of their friends.

When James walked around from the corner, he found Shadow holding Rouge on his left, Silver on his right, and Sonic in the middle, all three of them crying, and Shadow appeared to be trying to hold it together. "Sonic, the doctor said you can go see Tails." Sonic dried his tears and followed James. "Wait, what about Blaze and Knuckles?" Silver asked. "Knuckles is almost done getting his stitches and Blaze is still in surgery. But if you're wondering if she's gonna live, yes, she is going to live, she just won't be able to walk for a while." Silver sighed in relief. 

Sonic walked with James to the room where Tails was. "Hi Sonic." Tails said. "Hey buddy. How you feeling?"

"I feel greaaaaat. When we got here, they rushed me into this room and then they gave me a shot and after that I felt fiiiiiine."

"What did they give him?" Sonic asks James. "No clue. Not one." Sonic sighs and grabs a chair and sits next to his brother. "I'm sorry Tails."

"Why are you sorry?" His baby brother asks a little too cheerfully. "I couldn't protect you. I really tried and I couldn't." He brother patted his cheek. "I'm fine, see." Tails smiled. Sonic smiled back, but it was a weak one. Tails let out a yawn and laid down in the hospital bed. "I'm going to sleep now." Tails said and was out like a light. Sonic watched his brother for a minute. Sonic knew that the doctors had said that Tails was fine, but Sonic just wanted the assurance that his little brother was alive. Sonic tried to assure himself that his fear was ridiculous. His brother had received a squeeze and a cut. But he just couldn't do it. He couldn't let go of the feeling that almost everyone he cared about had been in danger of dying. He himself had been mere inches from being killed. He shivered at the thought. Silver, Blaze, Knuckles, Rouge, Tails, and Shadow had all almost died tonight, and he was terrified.

"Blaze is asleep but the doctor said you could go wait in her room for her to wake up." James told Silver. Silver got out of the seat and followed James. He was honest to goodness terrified for his friend. Her life had almost been taken multiple times and she had suffered a severe stab wound. Even someone as strong as Blaze was bound to be a least a little shaken up. Heck, he was shaken, and it wasn't even him that had been stabbed (even though his life was also threatened, but we digress). 

Silver opened the door and saw Blaze sleeping peacefully. He sat on a couch on the side of the room facing towards the door. He watched Blaze breath. He took her in. He hair was a mess. It's elastic having long been removed. It fell over her face in large strands. Her bangs were flat over her face, almost covering her eyes. She was in a hospital gown, in a color that didn't quite suit her skin tone. She was a little paler than usual, probably because of the blood she lost and the blood that had been put back into her body by the doctors, and just the general shock that her body would be experiencing. As peaceful as Blaze looked to an outsider Silver knew better. There was one tiny crease in her brow, one that had taken him years to ever be able to see. Silver walked over to her and moved her bangs out of her face. She always hated when the fell in her eyes. When he got closer, he saw some tears bad stained her cheeks. He wiped away what he could, but he didn’t want her to get mad if she work ups and  he was touching her, it had never happened before, but Silver was always trying to please.

 Silver walked into the bathroom and decided to splash his face with some cold water. After doing so, he looked at himself in the mirror. He didn’t want to sugar coat it, he looked like shit. It was clear he had been up all night from the bags forming under his eyes, and the fact that his eyes were red from crying didn’t help. His eyeliner was everywhere. His face was streaked with tears, and the eyeliner his tears had taken with it made them more prominent. His hair looked like crap too. It stuck out everywhere. Not to mention he was wearing sweatpants and a worn t-shirt. He also has a bruise forming on the left side of his face. He wasn’t really sure how it happened, but it was clearly there. So yes, he looked like shit. After using cold water to wipe his face as clean as he could, he walked back into Blazes hospital room.

After sitting down, he watched her chest rise and fall. The heart monitor connected to her helped assure him that she was breathing. He didn’t have much to do sitting there, and he didn’t really want to sleep right now, so her decided to think. These last 3 weeks had made him question a lot of things. His sanity, his grasp on reality, his vow to not murder James, the way he felt about more friends, his grasp of how the world worked, what he wanted in his life, and finally, his feelings for his best friend. What was Blaze to him? He wasn't totally sure until tonight, and what he knew now kind of terrified him. He was in love with his best friend.

Rouge and Shadow sat and waited. They were waiting for a lot of things. Shadow had his eyes closed and leaned against the wall. Rouge was leaning forward, playing with an imaginary piece of lint on her pajama pants. "What's wrong." Shadow asked. "I know you meant what you said earlier, because of all the things you are, dishonest is not one of them. You also aren't great at the comforting thing, so you meant what you said. But I still can't help but feel that this whole situation is my fault." She confided in her friend. "And in the end, I also know that each one of us was inches away from getting killed. Especially Tails. How can Sonic not blame me?"

"Because I told you earlier, this wasn't your fault." Rouge didn't reply. Shadow put and hand on her shoulder, getting her to look at him. "We could play the blame game all night long. It's your fault for telling her you knew she was there, it was my fault for convincing you to not go to James because I thought we could handle it, it's James's fault for being so lax with security, it's Sam's, Mateo's, Tuma's and Roxanne's fault for ticking her off, it's Knuckles fault for letting his guard down. I could keep going. But in the end, I stand by what I said. This was a situation beyond our control. January made her choice. She chose to come and spy. She chose to attack. She chose to attempt to kill. She chose to kidnapped Tails. She chose to stab at Blaze. She chose to hurt Knuckles. She chose to steal our powers. All of those choices were hers and hers alone. You can keep blaming yourself, but for all we know, you saved us from being killed in our sleep, you could have saved many secrets, heck, even after things went off the rails we only survived because you attacked at the right moment. So, stop blaming yourself. It won't do any good for you or anyone else, because in the end, whatever mistakes you made were righted." Rouge stared at Shadow, flabbergasted. "Do you think the others blame me?"

"I think you're the only one who blames you." Rouge smiled tearfully at her friend. "When did you get good at this stuff?"

"No idea." Rouge let out a laugh. James came around the corner again. "Doctors have attempted to sedate him, but it didn't work great. They were finally able to finish his stitches. Some of what he says doesn't make a lot of sense, but you can go see him and the others eventually. But Knuckles is currently the only one awake." James told them. Rouge got up and followed James. Shadow followed behind. "I was actually wondering if you could take me to Sonic?" Shadow said. "Yeah, I can do that." James said. James showed Rouge the door and she opened it. Knuckles was currently arguing with a nurse about having an IV. "You need it, you've been heavily sedated, and your arm is deeply infected by the wound."

"I need no such thing woman! I am the prince of the Echidna tribe. My sister and I have dedicated our lives to preserving our kingdom and our family's legacy." 

"Knucklehead." Rouge said from the door. The nurse and the boy in question turned to her. "Just accept the IV and move on." Reluctantly, he agreed. "I must do one thing first." Knuckles told the nurse. "What?" She asked. Knuckles got out of bed, much to the nurse's behest, who tried to get him to get back in bed. "Ma'am, it is my arm. I do not currently need to be in bed. I have something important to do." Knuckles walked up to Rouge. "Princess Rouge. We almost just died." He began his speech. "I think we established that." She raised her eyebrow. "Give me a second, I'm trying to be serious and eloquent." Rouge paused. What was he going on about? "Princess Rouge, we almost just died. Tails, Blaze and I ended up in the hospital. We are all probably traumatized."

"Thank you for summing it up. I didn't already feel guilty." Rouge said. "Well, don't. Because you saved our lives. I would probably not be standing here without you. Turns out that January had a slow painful poison in those knives, and it is now out of my system. But had I not been given medical attention when I did, I would not have been as okay. But I am a strong warrior, prince or not, so I think I would have been fine. But that is not the point." Rouge looked at him. "Then what is the point, handsome?"

"Look. When we first met in that classroom, you chose to flirt with and annoy the hell out of me. And as our group has grown closer, your efforts to do so have seemed to only increase."

"I'm glad I annoy you." Rouge rolled her eyes. "I'm not done. Give me a minute, I told you I have a point."

"Could you move it along then?"

"I just, want to make sure I say this right." He said sheepishly. "I think it started that day in the elevator, but I can't be sure. But the truth is Rouge, I like you. I like you a lot. I like you like more than a friend. I like like you, and I don't know how to deal with it. I like your sly grin when you know something we don't. I like the way your eyes shine. I like the glint you get in your eye when your about to say something that will fluster me, make me mad, or someone else mad. I like the way your voice sounds. I like that always have a comeback. I like your determination. I like how observant you are. I like how crafty you are. I like how smart you are. And I think you are beautiful every time I see you, even now after we've just had a near death experience in our pajamas. And tonight, when January was about to kill us, I thought I would never get the chance to tell you, so I'm saying it now." Knuckles face was about as red as his hair as he said this, and Rouge wasn't much better off. She was shocked. "When Tails first arrived, he tricked Tuma into asking us how we felt about each other. You admitted that on some level you liked me, and I admitted the same, whether it was by choice or not. And we both said that we would like to go on a date with the other, and if you still feel the same, I would like to take you on a date. So will you go on a date with me?" Rouge stood on her tiptoes, giving Knuckles a kiss on the nose, the likes of which caused a certain knucklehead to go two shades of red darker in the face. "I would like that very much." She told him and flashed him her signature smile. He had the biggest grin on his face that anyone had ever seen on him. 

"Will you get into your bed now?" The nurse asked. "Way to ruin the moment lady," Rouge said. "Apologies, but it is for the best." The nurse said. Knuckles sighed and climbing back into bed. Begrudgingly accepting the IV. "Would you like to stay?" Knuckles asked Rouge. "I would love that." She told him and sat on the corner couch. They both smiled like idiots.

Shadow walked in to find his boyfriend watching his little brother sleep with his back to the door. "Sonic." Shadow said. He turned around. "Hey Shads." He smiled weakly. "How are you?" Shadow asked, seemingly unsure, rubbing the nape of his neck. "I'm fine." Sonic turned around and started watching his brother sleep again. "I understand that I'm not the best at reading others, but I'd like to think that I know you better than that. Which is why I'm pretty sure you're lying."

"Why would I be lying? How could I not be fine? I just went through a life-or-death fight for the first time. Just about everyone I cared about was in the line of fire. Turns out all of the knives were laced with poison that caused a slow and painful death. My brother/best friend and my other best friend are in the hospital. I almost lost all of you. I almost died to save my brother. My best weapon was taken from me with a small touch. And finally, this first time I told my boyfriend I loved him was because I was convinced we were both about to die. So, yeah, why would I not be fine?" Shadow just stood there, thoroughly unconvinced. Shadow walked around the hard hospital couch in the corner of the room and sat down. He patted the spot next to him and Sonic took the hint, sitting next to his boyfriend. Shadow not really sure what to do at this point, started rubbing Sonic's back. Sonic leaned into the touch and into the former. "I'm not fine."

"I know."

"I'm downright terrified."

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Sonic looked up at Shadow, surprised. "But nothing scares you?" Shadow creased his brow in confusion. "Everyone is scared of something. No one is immune to fear, despite what they might tell you."

"So what are you scared of?"

"I almost just lost you after I got you, and after you said you loved me, I was terrified."

"Well, if what you say is true, and everyone is scared of something, you must have had some fear before tonight. So what is it?"

"Hospitals." Shadow admitted sheepishly. Sonic looked around them. "We are in a hospital, how are you not freaking out?"

"Courage is not the absence of fear, merely the ability to look fear in the eye and face it anyway." Sonic stared at his boyfriend. "Where did you steal that from?"

"My sister, who probably heard it somewhere else." Shadow admitted. Now that Maria was mentioned, Shadow's fear of hospitals made sense. He'd probably been to many ever sense he was little and seeing someone you cared about hooked up to a bunch of machines was not pleasant, even as a teen. "Thank you, for being here with me."

"When I said I love you back, it meant something, and now that we hare here and alive, it means more. I will always be here to protect you, I'm here for you. We are partners, and that means we help each other, right?" Sonic gave Shadow a quick kiss, leaving him flustered. "I guess it does." Sonic smiled. The two of them sat there for a minute, just holding each other close. "Hey Shads?"

"Yes."

"I love you."

"I love you too, Sonic."

James decided to do a round to check on all of his students. He looked into Tails' room. Tails, Sonic, and Shadow were all sleeping, exhausted by the events of the night. Sonic and Shadow were snuggling on the small couch in the corner. 

When James opened the door to Knuckles room, he saw Knuckles and Rouge talking about some kind activity. To James, it almost sounded like they were planning a date.

James then looked in Blaze's room. Blaze was sleeping, but not Silver. Silver was mumbling something to himself and watching his friend's chest rise and fall. To James, it looked almost as if Silver was trying to convince himself that his best friend was still alive. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard what Silver was mumbling. "It's okay, she's okay, she's alive, she's okay, it's okay. This is fine. She's fine. It's okay, she's okay. We're gonna be okay." James decided that he should probably intervene. James sat down next to Silver, who didn't even seem to register the new presence. "Silver." James said. Silver looked at him. "She's okay." James put a hand on Silver's shoulder. "I know. I mean, logically I know. But there is that part of me that's wondering if she didn't die back at the school. Or if she isn't gonna die at any second. Especially after learning that the dagger was laced with poison. And I know that there are a whole bunch of problems that could arise for her after this whole ordeal. And this whole thing was freaking traumatizing. I almost died multiple times."

"And just maybe you have a small crush on her?" James asked. "I don't see how that's currently relevant."

"That wasn't denial."

"I wasn't trying to."

"How long?"

"Don't know." Silver shrugged. "But tonight is when I truly realized it."

"When you going to tell her?"

"Probably no time soon." Silver turned away from Blaze long enough to show James that he was listening by making a little bit of eye contact. But he didn't look at his teacher long, turning his attention back to Blaze. James rolled his eyes to himself. Teenagers making things complicated, all six of them. “Why?” James asked, pretty sure he already knew the answer. “I don’t want to ruin our friendship.” James rolled his eyes, yeah, he knew the answer. “How do you know she doesn’t feel the same?”

“I don’t. She’s very good at not telling people how she feels. Sometimes I can figure it out, but she tells me it’s a princess’s duty to her people to act like nothing is wrong even when the world is crumbling. She’s very good at hiding how she feels." He sadly stated, and it sounded like he was on the verge of tears. James let out a sigh. Despite being in a happy and stable relationship, giving relationship advice was not his forte, especially in this kind of situation. He'd never started out being in love with his best friend, his love becoming his best friend had come later. "I think that no matter what happens, you'll have friends old and new with you the whole way." Silver turned to his teacher. The warm smile encouraged him to give a small one in return. "You should get some sleep." James said and stood up. "I don't know if I can." Silver looked at his feet for a second. "At least try to close your eyes." Silver nodded, not looking up from his feet. James walked out of the room. 

In the past, it had been him in one of these rooms, in one of these beds, recovering from being attacked, but what do you do when it's your students?

Blaze opened her eyes, and the burning she had felt in her leg earlier had dulled to a light stabbing pain instead. She looked around and realized that she was in a hospital room. She looked down and saw that her leg was wrapped up. She assumed they must have done some kind of operation, considering the wound that had been afflicted upon her. She had known the stab wound was deep. The only reason she hadn't been bleeding more was because she left the dagger in her leg. She looked around the room, there were only two differences between this room and a standard hospital room was the size and her friend. 

"Silver?" She asked. He looked up from whatever he was thinking about and smiled widely, but it didn't quite fit the red eyes and tear-stained cheeks that he was wearing. "You look like crap." She told him. He laughed. "Two jokes in one week, that's a new record for you." Blaze smiled. "Why do I get the feeling that you have not slept." Silver looked down. "Because I haven't." He whispered, barely audible. "Silver." She scorned. "I was worried!"

"That is no excuse. Come here." She pushed herself into a sitting position with her hands. Silver walked over and sat on her bed, facing away from her. "What's wrong?" She asked him. "We almost all died."

"And you are scared." Blaze finished for him, and he nodded. "We are fine now. I am alive and well. My leg will heal in a few weeks. It is safe to infer that Princess January will be put behind bars and officially stripped of her title. Samantha, Tuma, Roxanne, and Mateo will make sure that she cannot hurt us." Silver sighed. "Blaze, I am fifteen years old. You are fifteen years old. I guess I kind of always knew death was a thing in the back of my mind. I mean, I never met my parents. My kingdom is currently under a regent. Much to his disgruntlement, my brother is preparing to take the throne, no matter how much he and his friends try to fight it. But until tonight, I don't think I had truly considered that death could be coming for me, or for you, or for Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, or anyone else really. It just... became reality." Blaze put a hand on Silver's shoulder. "I'm fine. See!" She smiled. Silver thought the exaggerated and wide smiled didn't quite suit her, but he did appreciate the gesture. "Now lay down." Blaze commanded. He looked at her. "You have to sleep. And when were younger you always slept better when you knew there was someone next to you. So I'm telling you to lay here next to me and sleep." Silver hesitantly scooted more onto the bed but was very careful not to touch Blaze. Blaze sighed. "Silver."

"I don't want to hurt you."

"It's my leg on my other side." She grabbed his torso and pulled him closer. His breath hitched. She took in the comforting scent of sandalwood that he always had. She started ruffling his hair, something she knew he found comforting. He sighed and leaned his head on hers. He sighed, perfectly content. Blaze wouldn't admit it, but it was nice feeling his chest rise and fall, knowing that he was breathing and there next to her. Quickly, Silver's breathing relaxed and steady and she knew he was asleep, and she let herself fall into sleep as well.

Chapter Text

After two weeks of recovery, everyone was allowed to return to the school. The Head of the Society did assign some security to the school, they just remained outside the school however, but the kids didn't know how to feel about them being there. Amy called Tails to return home, she needed his help with some final prep she had said. Tails informed Sonic that everyone was invited to the party before he left. Sonic didn't really want his brother to leave, even two weeks after the night and everyone was still pretty rattled. Sonic had never felt like people he carried about were closer to death than he did after that night. 

Knuckles and Rouge had decided that the party could be their first date, and they were both nervous and excited. Rouge couldn't stop talking to Shadow or Blaze about it. Silver honestly felt jealous, not of Knuckles, but of Knuxouge, which is what Sonic had said their ship name was. He wanted that with Blaze, but he was terrified of messing something up. Every time Blaze saw Silver, she got these butterflies she didn't understand. She didn't understand anything she was feeling towards her friend anymore, but she pretended everything was fine. Sonic and Shadow were their usual selves. They enjoyed each other's company. When either of them woke up from a nightmare, they would stay up with the other until they fell back asleep. 

None of them could shake this feeling like something was still wrong. It felt like something was coming for them. And none of them liked it. Sonic and Shadow weren't the only ones plagued by nightmares. Sonic would wake up screaming. Shadow would wake up sobbing. Knuckles would wake up with tears streaming down his face and then pretend nothing was wrong, not telling anyone. Silver would wake up, remembering every detail of his nightmare, no sound, no tears, just shaking with fear. Rouge would wake gasping, with tears, but she could never recall any details of what she saw in her dream. Blaze would wake up by sitting up in bed, heart racing, and her stitched up leg stinging. And they all hated it, but none of them talked about it. They all knew the others were scared, and they didn't want to show the others that they themselves were scared, but it was useless, because they all knew. 

Silver opened his eyes, heart racing. He tried to close his eyes again, but every time he did, he saw it again. He looked at his hands and felt like crying, because he saw it again as well. He wanted to cry, but he also didn't want to wake his friends. Looking at his hands, he saw her blood. He closed his eyes and saw her lifeless body lying in his arms. He didn't understand. None of this seemed fair to him, and he hated it. So, he sat up and hugged his knees to his chest and just chose to play with his blanket, trying not to think about his nightmare. He didn't realize it, but he was crying, loudly.

 "Silver?" He turned to the sound of his name. He saw Sonic, sitting up in bed. Silver turned away. He knew Sonic would just try to get him to talk about it, and he did not want to talk about it. As predicted the next words out of Sonic's mouth were "Do you want to talk about it." Silver shook his head, not trusting himself to speak. "Do you want me to leave you alone." Silver thought for a second. Being alone would mean his brain would just think, and he didn't really want his thoughts running. He slowly shook his head. Sonic climbed up and sat on the end on Silver's bed. 

"Would you like me to just ramble to occupy your thoughts, I could also just sit here if you would like too not be alone." Silver still didn't trust his voice to not quiver, shake, cry, or even just tell everything that happened in his nightmare, so he held up a one, and Sonic understood. Silver knew Sonic could ramble when he wanted, or even when he didn't, but it turned out that Sonic could talk about nothing for forever. He talked about movies, then tv shows, then toothpaste, then cereal, then food, then fairytales, then his general disdain for books, then he started talking Tails. "And one time, Tails and I got really, really mad at each other while in his workshop. He picked up a tool and started chasing me with it, well I grabbed a different tool and then chased him, and we started to sword fight with them. We started laughing so hard that too this day, neither of us can remember what exactly we were mad at each other about, just the aftermath." Sonic looked over to see Silver, now snoring. 

"So why were you awake?" Shadow asked, startling the crap out of Sonic. "How long?" Sonic asked. "Since the moment Silver started crying." 

"Nightmare."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"Same thing. January standing over all of you, Tails, and Amy's dead bodies, cackling like a maniac. What about you?"

"I'm just a light sleeper." This was true actually, Shadow had actually been having a very nice dream, more of a memory, of playing in the halls with his sister. Sonic looked sceptic, but left it alone, choosing to trust. "Do you want me to hold you?" Shadow asked. Sonic nodded. So, he climbed down and so did Shadow. Shadow grabbed his boyfriend. Sonic didn't hesitate to literally jump into his prince's arms, wrapping his arms around Shadow's neck and legs around Shadow's torso. Shadow cradled his boyfriend and walked over to the bed, sitting down, holding the sobbing Sonic. Shadow began rubbing circles on Sonic's back. They sat there for a while, letting Sonic let out his feelings in tears. 

Knuckles woke up, tears streaming down his face like usual. He looked over and saw Sonic and Shadow, snuggled together. Knuckles wiped his tears, because crying was not something he did. He was the strong one. Everyone else could cry, but he couldn't. He was supposed to be the strong one, and those who were strong were not supposed to let others know that they felt weak. Because every time he fell asleep, he felt the same weakness he felt that night, saw everything he saw that night. He couldn't save them. He couldn't save Sonic, his best friend. He couldn't save Tails, who was the second closest (Sonic being the first) to having a little brother. He couldn't save Silver, Blaze, or Shadow, the people he had just started to think of as friends. He couldn't save Rouge, the girl that he liked. And he couldn't save himself. He couldn't save anyone, and that certainly did not terrify him.

Blaze woke up. She was strong, so what she saw didn't matter. It didn't matter that in her dream she watched as Silver screamed for her help. It didn't matter the January held a gun to his head. And it didn't matter that as she ran to save him, he only got further. And it didn't matter that by the time she got close enough to touch him, January smiled and shot him. And it didn't matter that Silver fell into her arms, closing his eyes for the last time as he whispered words that she knew he would never actually say in life, no matter how many times she wished it. Because now she was thinking she knew what those butterflies were in her stomach when he smiled. And it didn't matter that she didn't get a chance to say it back, because now she was thinking that she did. And it didn't matter that as she thought about how much it didn't matter that she was crying silent tears. None of it mattered, because Silver didn't love her like she loved him. So, none of it mattered.

This was nightly routine at this point. Rouge got up and stretched her wings to calm her racing heart. She looked over to find a sleeping Blaze crying again. According to Shadow, the boy's room wasn't much better. And none of them knew what to do. And not matter how many times she told herself it wasn't her fault, that something like this would have happened anyway, no matter how many times Shadow told her isn't her fault, no matter how many times any of them did, the guilt still weighed on her heart. And it was a truly horrible feeling.

Sonic looked around the ballroom, on fire. It was pure commotion. He didn't know why. But he came across a skeleton that looked suspiciously like Knuckles. Then one that seemed like it could be Rouge. Then Silver. Then one that looked like it could be Blaze. Then Tails. Then Amy. Then James. And then Shadow started limping towards him. "You're alive!" Sonic shouted and started running towards Shadow. "Why couldn't you save us?" Shadow asked.

Sonic woke up screaming. He could barely register someone trying to sooth him. After a minute of sobbing into the persons shoulder, he saw it was Shadow. This was the second nightmare in one night. "It's okay. It was just a nightmare. It wasn't real. I'm here. We're okay. We're all alive."

"I just want to sleep again." Sonic sobbed. Shadow held on tighter as Sonic sobbed harder into his shoulder, saying he just wanted to sleep without fear of having a nightmare.

James opened the door and the death glare he got from Shadow would have floored just about anyone else. "Seriously, none of you are awake." Sonic turned and looked at his teacher and the look his student gave him broke his heart. James saw Knuckles was still asleep and Silver wasn't even laying down, he was laying on his knees and hugging them to his chest. James sighed. "You guys can sleep in today." He said and closed the door.

James went to go see the girls. Neither of them were awake. He closed the door again. He was kind of at a loss for what to do for his students. And they definitely didn't want his help. He was tempted to sneak them all melatonin with dinner.

Knuckles woke to the sound of Shadow whispering soothing nothings to Sonic as he sobbed. For the most part, Knuckles was up the moment he was awake, but his body was so tired from nightmares that he decided to let go of that and turn over and go back to sleep.

James decided to do a few things to try to help his students. And in case you were concerned, sneaking melatonin in the student's food was not any of those ideas. First, he was going to give them their phones for a few hours. Two, he was going to give them a free day. Three, he grabbed some sleeping bags and set up a room for the six of them to have a sleep over together tonight, because it seemed like they needed each other right now.

Sonic didn't let go of Shadow, even after all of the tears had fallen. He didn't want to, because he feared that would mean Shadow was actually gone. Shadow ran his fingers through Sonic's hair. Sonic enjoyed the feeling and eventually sighed in contentment. "Do you think James will come back sometime soon and make us get up?" Sonic looked up and Shadow. "The clock says its eight am, if he hasn't come back yet, I think he's just letting us get up when we are ready." Sonic snuggled back into Shadows chest. "I'll take that to mean you are not ready."

"I am not." Shadow let out a chuckle. He started running his fingers through Sonic's hair again. It was surprisingly soft at the moment. "I'm surprised Knuckles or Silver hasn't woken up." Sonic said after a while. "I think we are all exhausted." Sonic chuckled but it was a soulless one. "I do not want to train today."

"Why?" Shadow found himself asking. "Just don't feel like it." Sonic shrugged. Shadow hummed in understanding. "Besides, you're a comfy pillow." Sonic looked at his boyfriend and watched him blush hard. Sonic laughed heartily. Shadow, playfully, rolled his eyes.

Silver's back ached and his cheek felt like it was on fire. He opened his eyes and realized he fell asleep and had stayed asleep in the exact position he had been listening to Sonic in, which was a very poor decision on his part. Silver let out a groan as he sat up and stretched his back. When he opened his eyes he saw how light it was outside. He looked down and saw Sonic and Shadow, awake and cuddling on Sonic’s bed. “Hey guys, what time is it?” Sonic and Shadow looked up at Silver, startled. Shadow then looked at the clock. “8:56 am” Sonic looked at his boyfriend. “Why don’t you just say 9 in the morning?”

“It isn’t 9, it was 8:56.” Sonic facepalmed but he also smiled like an idiot. Silver stretched and laid down to try to help his back. And it did. “So how come James didn’t come to wake us up?” Silver turned on his side to look at his friends. “He did, but after standing in the doorway he said we could sleep in. So Shadow and I have just been snuggling here and letting you guys sleep.”

“And the two of you did nothing more?” Silver teased. “I cried.” Sonic shrugged. That had honestly not been the reaction Silver was expecting. He had expected the two of them to be flustered. Not Sonic admitting to crying. Shadow kissed Sonics forehead in comfort. “Sorry.” Silver whispered. “Don’t worry about it.” Sonic smiled. They sat in silence for a while. “Is the Knucklehead up?” Silver asked. Sonic looked over then back to Silver. “Uh uh. It’s surprising honestly.” Silver hummed in response. He knew everyone was bad, but not this bad. He let out a sigh and rubbed his hands through his hair. He didn’t really know what to do anymore, and he didn’t like it.

Chapter Text

Shadow decides to go see what James is up too, not trusting the fact that he hasn't come back, and it is after 10 am. The fact that Knuckles was still asleep, and Rouge hadn't come to find them didn't help not set his nerves more on edge then they already were.

Shadow wandered around the school and found James in a random hall way. “How’s Sonic?” James asked as he appeared to be cleaning. “He’s been better. I think right now he, Silver and I are wondering why you haven’t come to get us to train?”

James looked at his student. “What, does Knuckles not care?” James teased. “Actually, he is still asleep.” James smiled faltered. “That’s okay, there’s no class today. You all need more time to rest. There’s food in the cafeteria when you guys want it." James said and got back to cleaning. "When you're all up and done eating, meet me in the room Silver usually trains in." Shadow nodded to his teacher and walked back to the room.

Knuckles was stayed fast asleep when Shadow left. "Do you think he's okay?" Silver asked. "Silv, I don't think any of us are okay." Silver tilted his head like a confused puppy. "Silv?" He asked. "Well, I have a nickname for the other two, didn't want to leave you out." Silver smiled at his friend. "Silv, I like it." Sonic smiled brighter, glad he could make Silver smile a little more too. He hadn't liked all the frowning faces, but he didn't say anything because he was frowning too. "What should we talk about until Shadow gets back?" Sonic thought about the question for a minute. "We could talk about our families?" Silver flinched. "Hey, we don't have to touch on a sore subject. Do you not like your family or something?"

"My parents died a few years ago. My brother and I don't really get along."

"That must be really difficult." Sonic grew sad thinking about what it would be like to not get along with his siblings. Sure, he and Amy fought all the time, but he wouldn't say that they don't get along. "I learned to deal. Besides, Blaze and I are in the same boat, so we just grew closer because of it."

"What do you mean?"

"Sonic, could we talk about something else?"

"Yeah, sure. Sorry." Silver took a second to respond. "It's okay. Maybe I'll talk about it later. Just, I'm too drained to talk about him right now."

"Want to talk about Blaze?" Sonic says, suddenly getting an idea. "What about her?" Silver tilts his head like a confused puppy again. "That you like her." Silver squints. "Why would I not like her, she is my friend." Sonic face palms. "You are dense."

"I am genuinely confused!"

"He meant that you have a crush on her." Knuckles says, the new voice startling the other two boys and causing them to scream. Then Shadow slams the door open, chaos spear at the ready, and for the second time, Silver and Sonic let out shrieks of terror. "Would you two stop that." Knuckles says. Shadow sighs and lets the spear fade. "I thought someone broke in." He admits when his boyfriend gives him a questioning look. "We fine physically, but I got so startled by the two of you that I think my soul temporarily left my body." Silver says and clutches his heart. 

"James said there's food." Shadow tells them. "Just a sec Shads, we were just about to talk about..." Sonic is interrupted. "Oh, look at the time. I'm hungry, are you hungry. I certainly am. Let's go get breakfast." Silver jumps off his bed and runs out of the room. "What the hell was that?" Shadow asks. "I think he was tired of Sonic's personal questions." Knuckles replies. Sonic dashes out of the room and comes to a stop in front of Silver, who skids to a stop and falls on the ground. "Why are you avoiding this?" Sonic asked. "Cause maybe I don't want to talk about it."

"I feel like you are avoiding this on purpose." Silver glared at Sonic. "That is exactly what one does when they don't want to talk about something."

"You've only not answer two of my questions, ever, and I want to know why."

"I can have secrets."

"It doesn't make sense."

"It makes sense. It makes perfect sense. I don't want to talk about it because reasons and you keep pestering me when I'm not ready to talk about it." Sonic softened his gaze. "Maybe pushing wasn't the right way to go about this." Sonic thought to himself (yeah no duh). Sonic let out a sigh. "You're right. I'm sorry." Sonic extended his hand to help Silver off the ground. Silver accepted the hand. "I'm sorry Silv." Silver smiled at Sonic. "I accept your apology Sonic, and I forgive you." Sonic smiled. Knuckles and Shadow caught up to them. "Let's go get some food." Sonic told them and started walking. "Last one there is a rotten egg." He shouted and booked it. Shadow quickly racing after him in another blur of color. Silver and Knuckles looked at each other. "Well I don't want to be a rotten egg." Silver said and started running. Knuckles rolled his eyes but ran too.

Blaze got up to a note from her teacher. It told her that they had the day off, that they could go down to breakfast when they were ready. Blaze looked over to find Rouge still asleep. Blaze saw that it was 10:30 and didn't dare let Rouge sleep much longer. She got up and got herself dressed. Then went over to Rouge and tapped her shoulder. Rouge immediately opened her eyes. "What time is it?" She asked. "It is 10:37." Rouge looked at her friend. "You and Shadow." She rolled her eyes. "I don't understand." She said. "You both say the exact time. You could have just said that it was like 10:40." Blaze rolled her eyes. "So you are a light sleeper." Rouge stretched her wings and arms. "Well, someone in my family had to be."

"What do you mean?" Blaze asked. "Trying to wake my sister is like trying to wake the dead." Blaze hummed in understanding. "Why?"

"Don't know." She replied. "She's just a really heavy sleeper."

"Do you have a good relationship with your sister?" She asked. Rouge looked suspiciously at Blaze. "I would say for the most part yes. We fight sometimes, we yell at each other, we do stuff to piss the other off, but in the end, we have that bond of sisterhood, I guess. I mean, I know that the moment I tell her about Knuckles she'll get all up in his face and declare that if he hurts me, she'll hunt him down and kill him, and she'll mean it too." Blaze smiled. "That must be nice."

"You have an older sibling right, I mean, obviously since you're hear as the second born. But what are they like?"

"I have a sister. We do not have that same relationship. We do not get along. Much like how Silver and his brother do not get along." Rouge looked at her friend sadly. "Well, maybe we aren't sisters by blood, but we could be like sisters." Blaze looked confused. "Starting with that juicy gossip about you and Silver."

"What about me and Silver?"

"Well, how you feel about him." Blaze narrowed her gaze. "He is my friend."

"And..." Rouge encouraged. "That's it. He is my friend." Rouge facepalmed. "I need food." Blaze extended her hand and helped Rouge up. "Then let's go get food."

The boys ate their food in silence. Knuckles was particularly grumpy at being named the 'rotten egg'. The girls walked in and grabbed some food as well and sat to eat with them. "You know what I didn't think about?" Silver finally said after a while of silence. "In three days at that party for Amy, when James is letting us go away for a few days, there's probably going to be a lot of important guests there." 

"Well sure." Sonic said. "She will be recoronated, as is tradition in our kingdom until she turns 18, so it's an important party. Lots of pompous dignitaries, stuffy advisors,"

"And heirs?" Blaze asked, finally realizing where Silver was going with this. "Oh yeah! I bet all of your siblings will be there. It'll be nice to meet them all." Sonic said smiling. Not realizing the panic that went through Blaze and Silver. "Will there be, I don't know, things of extreme monetary value?" Blaze asked. "Maybe. There's the crown I guess." He said and took a bite of food. Blaze and Silver shared a look. "I don't see why that's important, though." Sonic finished with food in his mouth. "Sonic, don't talk with food in your mouth." Knuckles scolded. "Do I need to tell your sister that you were bossing me around again."

"Well, what would Amy do if I told her that you just threatened to tattle-tell and spoke with food in your mouth." Sonic immediately shut up. "Is there something the two of you aren't telling us?" Shadow asked, giving them his signature glare. Silver was about to crack when Blaze answered. "It is nothing you should concern yourself with." And ate more of her food. No one was convinced, but they let the subject drop. "Wait, Knuckles, I should warn you about my sister." Rouge said. "I guarantee you that there is nothing that she could say that will make me fear her."

"You do realize she is a future queen, right?" Shadow asked. "As is my sister. And yet she is a gently and kind soul, one that chooses to not resort to violence. The most she will do is tell you to be nice to me."

"Yeah, well, my sister is very seriously petty." Rouge said, very seriously. Shadow snorted. "What's so funny?" Sonic asked. "The fact that that's exactly how Bee would describe herself." Shadow told him. "Bee?" 

"Rouge's sister." He clarified. Knuckles snorted. "I am not afraid. What can she do, fight me?" Shadow and Rouge shared a look. "She probably would." Rouge shrugged. Sonic laughed. "But Knuckles would win, huh Knux." He shrugged. "I probably could if I was willing to fight her."

"Please don't." Rouge said. "I would pay money to see that." Shadow said. Rouge flicked Shadow's ear and he rubbed the spot while glaring at her. Sonic just laughed. "I do have to say though, I am excited to meet your sister." Sonic told his boyfriend. "She'll love you." He smiled, and Sonic returned it. "So sappy." Rouge teased her friends. Shadow flicked her ear in return. "Okay, but Rouge, exactly how petty is your sister?" Sonic asked. "One time while Shadow and Maria were over, Maria and I noticed that they both make the same face when they glare."

"We don't." Shadow insisted. "And in retaliation she took a marker and gave him a unibrow, then proceeded to do the same to me. She did nothing to Maria because she could never touch her." Sonic giggled imagining his boyfriend with a unibrow drawn on his face. "Yeah, well, I beat her at chess ten times that same day."

"And she flipped the board." Sonic couldn't stop laughing, as well as Silver and Blaze. "So, those are exactly as you said, petty." Knuckles said. "Those don't do any harm." Shadow glared. "That thing didn't come off for like a week."

"Small, petty crimes." Knuckles insisted. "Those are what involved her, I never said what she did involving me."

"I must hear more! These are hilarious." Sonic said. "Once walking through the kingdom, people didn't realize who we were and so a group of girls started insulting my clothes, so she threw mud at all of them. She was in so much trouble." Rouge smiled. "Or that time when Shadow kissed me, she got really, really mad at him,"

"Why are giving all the stories that involve me?" Shadow asked. "Because they're the best ones. Anyway, she got so made that spray painted his whole motorcycle pink."

"And yet she still insists that it wasn't her." 

"You have a motorcycle?" Sonic asked Shadow. "Yeah." He said. "You have got to take me for a ride sometime." Sonic excitedly insisted. Shadow nodded. "It was totally her." Rouge says. "What about you Knux, got any fun stories to share of your sister?" Sonic asked. He thought for a second. "She is a wonderful storyteller. She once told me a story of a fast heroic blue hedgehog who was able to tame perfect chaos." He said. "Why blue?" Silver asked. "And why hedgehog?" Blaze asked. Knuckles shrugged. "It was a story I really enjoyed listening to growing up. She is also very caring. One time she found out that these business owners had taken some Chao from their garden to study. She stormed in there, saved all the chao, and brought them back to the tribe. Those chao haven't left her side since."

"Those guys are cute." Sonic said. "What are chao?" Rouge asked. "They are these little creatures that live on Angel Island. Maybe I can show you some sometime." Knuckles smiled, blushing a little. "I'd love to see them. And maybe see that precious gem Sonic mentioned some time ago." She smirked. Knuckles glared at her. "Don't even think about it."

"What? Me? I have no idea what you're implying." Her smirk grew larger. "You know what I'm implying." He said. And that is how they continued to spend the day. Swapping stories of childhood in the cafeteria.

Shadow looked a the clock and saw that it was 4 pm. "I totally forgot!" Shadow said. "Forgot what?" Sonic asked. "James asked us to meet him in the room where Silver trains when we were done with our food." 

"Well, maybe we should go then." Rouge says and stands. "Don't want to keep James waiting any longer." Silver leads the way to his training room. They find James standing in the middle of the room with a box. "Took you long enough." He says. "Sorry." They all mutter. "What in the box?" Sonic asks. James takes out a phone. "Thought you guys might want to have these back for a couple hours." Everyone grabs their phone. "What's with the sleeping bags?" Silver asks when he notices them. "Thought you guys could have a sleep over. Make it a better night. You have to have had at least one good night's sleep before that party." The small group murmurs in agreement. So, the group grabbed a sleeping bag each and rolled them out. They each laid on their sleeping bag and started scrolling through their phones to see what they missed.

Around 9, James walked back in with some water bottles, some pillows, and a bottle. "What's in the bottle?" Sonic asked. "Over the counter sleep meds." He said. The kids all voiced their protests. "Don't deny that none of you have been sleeping. You have all been walking up in the middle of the night with nightmares. This is just to help you stay asleep." Knuckles stood up. 'Might as well set an example as the strong one.' He thought as he took the sleep aid with a gulp of water. "Come on Sonic, you've been sleeping horribly." Shadow said. "I've been sleeping fine."

"Sonic." Shadow said, voice dangerously low. Sonic couldn't even look at Shadow. Shadow decided to pull out his best weapon. He put his hand on Sonic's shoulder, causing him to turn his head and look. "Please?" Shadow said. Sonic felt like putty at this moment. "Alright." He says. "But only because you said please." He said as he accepted the sleep aid and a bottle of water from James. "You're turn." Sonic said. "No." Shadow said, ever stubborn and refusing to accept help. "I'll make you a deal. Arm wrestle. I win, you take the meds. You win, I let it drop." Shadow thought for a second. He thought his chances were pretty good. They found a table. "Knux, you referee." Sonic says. He stands and watches them. "No tickling." Knuckles says. They both nod. "Don't lift your elbows off the table, and no outside help." They nod again. Good thing Sonic's plan would still work. "GO!" Knuckles says and Shadow has the lead on Sonic. Sonic just smirks. Shadow doesn't understand because he is about to lose. Sonic quickly leans over and give Shadow a peck on the lips, leaving Shadow stunned and allowing for Sonic to win. A very red Shadow looks at Knuckles. "Isn't that cheating." Knuckles thinks back to his rules. "No, he kept all the rules." Sonic handed Shadow a pill and a bottle of water. Knowing he lost, albeit not fair or square, he takes the pill he was given. 

Blaze and Silver appear to argue. Rouge, not wanting to be bested by her crush or her friends, grabs the pill willingly and takes it. Silver and Blaze both extend their hands to James, who hands them the items. And with that, everyone has taken their medication. "Goodnight." James tells them. Theirs a chorus of goodnights. The group all lays in their sleeping bags and prepare for sleep. 

Chapter Text

After that, the next two days went by fairly quickly. There were preparations made everywhere for the party. Tails was trying to calm a particularly irritable Amy, Sonic and co were trying to figure out what to wear, much to Sonic’s behest, and Eggman, well he was just ready.

Sonic and his friends boarded the plane to go back to the Emerald Isles. Their teacher, however, had opted to stay behind. But the excitement for most of them was there. Silver, however, was nervous for what would happen when they found out about his brother and likewise for Blaze.

Sonic took a moment to admire all of their outfits. Blaze was in a simple teal dress with flowy scalloped sleeves and skirt that flowed out and barely touched the floor. Rouge was wearing a strapless black dress that feel to the floor but had a slit on the right side. She wore a heart necklace that was just barely long enough to not wrap around her neck tightly that James had gotten from individual in the society that could create illusions to create an illusion that her wings weren’t there as long as she wore it, and they stood still. Knuckles wore a wine-red suit and black dress shirt with a traditional echidna golden band around his neck and dreadlocks. Silver was wearing a dark navy suit with a purple tie that had a yellow swirly pattern on it, for which Sonic had relentlessly teased that the color was a lot like Blaze. Sonic himself wore a black suit, white dress shirt, and a tie that was suspiciously the same color as his boyfriend's hair stripes. And Sonic couldn’t get over how his boyfriend looked. He was wearing a black suit with a royal blue dress shirt. Sonic noticed that Shadow left the top two buttons undone. Every time he looked at his boyfriend Sonic thought 'damn, is that my hot boyfriend?' 

Silver was currently thinking to his conversation with Blaze earlier. 

“Silver, you can’t put your hair like that.” She told him. “Why not?” He was about to spike it up. “This is a formal party, and we have to looker nicer than usual.” 

“I don’t get why that means I can’t spike my hair?” Blaze reached and started fluffing his hair and parting, so it looked just right. “You’re so naive.” She chuckled. “But that’s I guess that’s one of the things I love about you.”

There were so many reasons she could have said that. Some sent a sinking feeling in his stomach while others brought a whirlwind of butterflies. It could have been a slip of the tongue, she could have meant like a friend loves a friend, or it could have meant more, or it could have meant nothing (you donut hole, she likes you), and he didn't much like that thought.

When the got to the palace, they opened the doors to find the party already started. Tails immediately ran to Sonic, in a black suit with a white shirt and a black bow tie. “Sonic!” They wrapped each other in a hug. The group started walking around but stuck together. “Rouge!” A girl shouted, and it sounded angry. “Your majesty please.” Another girl said. “Don’t ‘your majesty’ me. I deserve an explanation.”

"Bee." The second girl said. "Nope." Came the reply as the duo walked up to Rouge and the one stood in front of her arms crossed, glare on her face. She had tan skin and purple hair done up in a large bun and was about the same height as Sonic. She was wearing a blue dress with silver accents. It was a sweetheart neckline, bell sleeves, and a large hoop skirt. Sonic looked at the glare on her face and did a double take. “And Aubrey, write a note for me, no one should have to wear fancy dresses to parties that doesn't want to.” The girl next to her smiled a knowing smile and nodded while also rolling her eyes. She was a little paler, about the same height as Shadow, and also had brown hair that was died pink at its ends and was curled to just above her shoulders. She wore glasses as well.  She was wearing a red dress that has an off the shoulder neckline and fell just above her knees. And she carried a sword in its scabbard. “Well Rouge. You get sent to summer school and don’t answer calls on text for weeks. What happened?” She asked, now sounding a little more concerned than angry. “We got our phones taken away.” She explained. The girl looked unconvinced. “We did. On the first day our teachers took our phones.” Shadow told her. Sonic looked at her glare. He felt his signature smirk come one his face. “You must be Shadow’s sister.” Sonic said, even though he knew it was a lie. “Why? We don’t look alike!” The girl shouted. The girl next to her spoke up “But you do.” 

“Screw you.” The girl with purple hair accusingly points her finger at the girl next to her. The girl whispered something in her ear that warranted a slap in the back of the head, leaving the second girl laughing. “You must be Bee.” Knuckles said extending his hand. Bee took his hand and shook it. “And you are?” She asked. “Knuckles.” He replied simply. “Oh, Tikal’s brother.” She said snapping as she figured it out. He nodded. “And he’s also my date today.” Rouge said and linked arms with him. Bee sharpened her gaze. “There are a few things you should know about dating my sister.” Rouge rolled her eyes. “You should know that no one hurts my family and gets away with it.” 

“You’d still owe me for my bike.” Shadow said. “You can’t prove it was me.” She said, turning her attention back to Knuckles. “The thing is, I know at least 5 ways to kill you and get away with it, and I have diplomatic immunity in 46 countries, including this one.” Knuckles was unfazed, he just nodded. “Now my knight,” she turned to the girl next to her, “I need food before I do a lot more social interaction. Come with me.” The girl rolled her eyes. “I’d rather not deal with a hangry Bee.” The girl said. “No, we wouldn’t want that.” Rouge replied. “You can both suck it.” She told them. “And don’t you dare.” She turned to the girl as she grabbed her arm and dragged her to the buffet table. “Who was that girl with your sister?” Silver asked. “Sir Aubrey. My sisters knight, protector, and best friend.” Everyone looked at her. “They still have those?” Sonic asked. “Every monarch has at least one in our kingdom. It’s a lifetime post and a very honorable one. I personally don’t want one. They have to be with you almost all the time. It sounds exhausting.” She explained. 

“You know, food sounds pretty good right about now.” Silver said and tried to push everyone towards the buffet table, a person, one Sonic didn’t like walked up to their group. “Silvester!” Jet exclaimed and hit Silver on the back. “That’s not even close to my real name.” Silver said. “Come off it baby bro. I’m just happy to see you.” Jet didn’t like he had put in any effort to dress up nicer. “Jet…” Shadow started, “is your brother?” Sonic finished the question. Silver grunted as Jet used his head for an arm support. “Shadow, Sonic, you're not still mad about that race at school, are you?” He smirked at the frowns and glares the two boys gave him. “But how?” Rouge asked. “You are you. And he’s…”

“Absolutely awesome.” Jet finished. “An ass.” Sonic said. “I feel like I’m missing something.” Knuckles was so confused. “You missed an awesome race my friend.” Jet says. “I am not your friend.” 

“You don’t look related?” Shadow pointed out. “Who said families have look similar.” Jet goaded, trying to get a rise out of Shadow. “Spray tan and hair dye.” Silver outed his brother, who gave an offended gasp that sounded almost like squawk. Sonic started laughing. “Laugh it up, but I still beat you for the title of fastest thing alive.”

“You cheated.” Sonic says. “Seriously, can someone tell me what happened?” Knuckles pleaded. “Sonic was bragging about how fast he is, and I just decided to put him in his place.” 

“By challenging me and Shadow to a race. And we ran.”

“That was never part of the rules.” Jet smirks. “He used his hover board.” Knuckles looks at Jet, aghast. “Dishonorable.” Jet didn’t seem to care. “Still won.”

“Maybe you should just go find Wave.” Blaze said. Jet gave them one last smirk and wink before walking off. “I don’t like him.” Silver said. Blaze patted his shoulder. “Or any of the Rogues.” He added. “The who?” Tails asked. “It’s what my brother, Wave, and Storm call themselves. The Babylonian Rogues.” Silver scoffed. “Dumb name if you ask me.” Rouge said. The group nodded in agreement. 

A giggling Bee ran up to Rouge. "Rouge, save me, my knight has turned against me." Aubrey came chasing her. Bee noticed something though and stopped her giggling. "Wait, Rouge, they're holding hands." She said and pointed to Shadow and Sonic's hands. "Awwww." Aubrey says. "Oooooh." Bee says at the same time. The two boys blush hard. "I got to go get Maria!" Bee says. She walks off and comes back with the blonde girl linked arms. Her condition had gotten better over the years, and she could now enjoy parties like these for a good amount of time, though she did occasionally have to leave early. But that did mean she had grown a lot. She was a few inches taller than Sonic, and her hair color had darkened ever so slightly and was currently braided and lead to a bun on the back of her head. She's wearing a sky-blue v-neckline, ball gown with puffed sleeves. Maria smiles brightly when she sees her brother and the two of them hug. "There's someone I want you to meet." Shadow says. Sonic waves. "Hello." Maria says. "This is my boyfriend, Sonic." Maria walks up to him, he doesn't expect a hug, but that is what he gets. "It's nice to meet you Sonic." He says. "Nice to meet you too." He says and hugs back. "Why can't you do that?" Rouge asks her sister. "I'm not a hugger, you know this." She says. Maria let's go of Sonic. "So, tell me everything you two. What changed? How'd you get together? How long has it been?" She asked. Sonic and Shadow give an abbreviated version of the story, their friends chiming in if they missed a detail. They did however, all leave out a few details, the ones about them being super powered and the secret society. "I'm so happy for you two." Maria tells them. 

Bee turns to her sister. "See, now there is a large noticeable difference between me and Shadow. I'm forever single." 

"Not true." Aubrey tells her. "Oh, Bee, don't say that you'll find someone." Maria says and gives her a side hug. 

"Blaze." A girl shouts. It's Wave, and she made no effort to dress nicer than usual. Bee immediately tenses and Aubrey grabs her sword, but not pulling it out of its scabbard. "Jet told me you were here, thought I'd come say hi, it is a big day after all." The smile on her face and the way she enunciated that last part of the sentence, almost made it sound like she knew something the rest of them didn't. "This outfit is not becoming of a future queen." Blaze told her, gesturing to all of Wave. The older girl just laughed it off. "You know I never wanted that. Besides, it's better to look cool than look fancy." She said as she took something from a plate as a waiter walked by and stuffed whole into her mouth. Wave gave the whole group a wink, gaze lingering a little too long on everyone for anyone's comfort before walking away. 

Just when the group was about to talk about the encounter with Wave, Tikal came and tackled her brother from behind, but it didn't knock him over. Tikal was sporting her usual crown, necklace, and shirt, but she had a much longer version of her usual skirt that opened in middle just below where her knees would be. "Knuckles!" She said. "Hey Tikal." He said. "How have you been?" She asked. "It's been good." He smiled at his sister. "I'm glad. I know you were worried when you got sent to summer school in person, but I'm glad you're good." She told him. There was idle chit chat from the now larger group. Sonic talked to Maria about Shadow, because she wanted to know that her brother was in good hands. Bee made sure to tell Knuckles again that he would not live if he broke her sister's heart. Knuckles wanted to laugh, mostly because he was certain he could take the much shorter and clearly less strong girl, but he figured that wouldn't earn him many brownie points. Rouge and Tikal were introduced and got along immediately. Tikal was especially eager when she heard about Rouge's fascination with gems. Tails caught up with Silver and Blaze. Conversations with Jet and Wave soon forgotten. 

"Sparrow to Hawk."

"Hawk listening, what's up Sparrow." He responded and tried to be sneaky about it, simultaneously pick pocketing a few of the guests. He admired a bracelet he just got. "They were totally tense when I talked to them."

"That doesn't matter." The doctor came up. "As long as they are distracted long enough for Winter and Albatross."

"Cool your jet's doc." Jet said and grabbed a diamond necklace from a woman. "Everything is under control. They don't suspect a damn thing."

"Would you watch your language." The doctor said. Even though he knew the doctor couldn't see it, he rolled his eyes. "Whatever" he grumbled. "Hawk! Stop pickpocketing and start participating in the plan!" The doctor said over the communicator as Jet grabbed a pearl necklace off of someone. "Would you relax." He grumbled into the earpiece. "Just taking a few souvenirs." He grinned as he took a wad of cash from a woman's purse. "Besides Doc, it's not likes it a very complicated plan." Jet heard Sparrow, aka Wave, on the other end. "Just because I didn't tell you all of the complicated parts doesn't mean it's not a complicated, complex, and layered plan!" The doctor defended. Jet just rolled his eyes again. He grabbed the device and planted it on breaker box in the hall, quickly sneaking back into the party. "Finally, someone listens." The doctor complained, and something that sounded like a mechanical 'ow' could be heard on the other end of the line. "Albatross to Hawk."

"You report to me!" The doctor started shouting again. "Albatross to doctor." The new and deep voice sounded. "I got her."

James was humming a made-up tune and programming the next simulation for his students to try when they got back. As he did, he felt his phone buzz in his pocket. "Hello?" He asked. "JAMES!" He heard Roxanne shout. "Just keep running!" Tuma shouted. James stood up. "What's wrong?" He urgently asked. "January escaped of this big guy wearing all black, but we can see his grey hair. They set up some kind of device that took down Sam. She's unconscious and Tuma is carrying her. They set more and they could go off at any moment. But they both said something about a party! You have to warn them." 

"I'm on it." James said. 

Sonic felt his phone vibrate and reached to grab it but was interrupted when all of the guests were asked to look to the front of the room where his sister stood. She was wearing a cream colored dress with a ridiculously large hoop skirt. Soon, Sonic was too focused on the scene in front of him to notice it. No one was able to notice the vibrating in their pocket either, and James, a few hours away by plane, was becoming exceedingly desperate. 

—————

January scoffed as her ‘rescuer’ took off his mask and black suit. “This is the best the doctor could do?” She rhetorically asked. “I got you out didn’t I.” He said and tossed her something which she quickly caught without even batting an eye. It was a communication device. She put it in her ear. “Albatross to Doctor again.” The boy in front of her said. She heard in both the device and in person. “She’s online.” He finished. “Excellent.” She heard the doctor say. “Welcome Winter.” He said. “Winter is the best you could come up with?” She asked him annoyed. “Don’t question my genius!” The doctor shouted. “Do you really have to yell, we can hear you just fine.” She heard another boy on the other end of the line. “Quickly, use the teleportation device and get back here so we can execute the plan.” The doctor said and ‘Albatross’ got a device out of his pocket. He pressed a button and they were just outside the ballroom.

Chapter Text

Sonic hated these ceremonies. The officiate present just keep dragging on and on and on. He didn't even know what was being said at this point. He just didn't care. After what felt like an eternity (it was ten minutes, which is admittedly pretty long but still). Amy stood and Sonic thought they were going to put the crown on her head and call it a day but no, she started talking. "Are you even listening?" Shadow whispered. "Not one bit." Sonic replied. Shadow smiled and rolled his eyes. Sonic could have sworn he started hearing one of the members of her council snoring and he wanted to laugh, but stifled it into a muffled snort, disguised in a cough. 

He felt his foot start tapping but quickly stopped it, ever since Knuckles had told him about it, he had tried to be conscious of it. In his boredom he started looking at ceiling taking in every paint stroke of the large mural of his ancestors. Honestly, he had always found all of the eyes watching him creepy, and that didn't change at this moment. He started looking around the room when he noticed something outside the window. Just as his sister turned to kneel and have the crown placed on her head, he saw something that looked a lot like a drone outside the window looking like it was about to do something. He acted quickly, running at top speed to his sister and tackling her to the ground just as the bullet fired, shattering the window and missing Sonic and his sister. People began to panic; screams could be heard all throughout the room. Then that same window shattered more as a man in what Sonic thought looked like a flying egg without its top half. The man had a bald head, giant mustache, and glasses that made it so you couldn't see his eyes. Next to him were two robots, a red one with a round head, and a yellow one with a cube head. "Lord Robotnik." Amy said, standing up. "This will not stand, how dare you come in here and attempt assassination." 

"Oh please, that was just a distraction." He said and the lights went out, there was now a full-blown panic as people tried to flee the scene. Sonic felt someone grab him in the dark, holding his arms to his sides and legs above the ground. When the lights came back on, Jet was holding a knife to his sister's throat, and Wave was holding Tails under her arm as he hit and screamed. This led Sonic to the assumption that Storm was holding him. "And it's Doctor Eggman your highness." He said while stroking his mustache. Sonic rolled his eyes at the stereotypical villain. Sonic looked over and saw the worry in his friend's eyes. He could tell that wanted to attack, but there were a lot of problems with that. It could put the three of them in danger, it would expose them, the society, and their powers, this Eggman might do something if they were to attack, not to mention that his sister was being held with a knife to her throat. "Now your royal majesty," Eggman said, flying what Sonic was now referring to as the eggmobile, closer. "You have a few choices. You hand your kingdom over to me willingly or I take it by force after I kill both of your brothers." Tails stopped fighting long enough to look scared. "So, what's it going to be?" Sonic start thinking and he had an idea. "Hey Egghead!" Everyone turned to look at him. "I've got a third option for you." He said. "You let us go and I don't kick your butt." Eggman just scoffed. "I don't think you're in any position to do that." Sonic smirked. "That's what you think." Sonic enacted his plan. He used his weight to knock Storm forward away from his center of gravity, enough that he could touch the ground and then flip Storm over him and onto the ground, knocking the wind out of his captor. He dashed at Jet, ripping the knife away, kicking him in the back to where he fell over, and then punching Wave in the gut, leaving her breathless as well, jumped onto the Eggmobile, and held the knife to Eggman's throat, all in the span of less than five seconds.

 "So, what's it gonna be?" Sonic smirked at his enemy, who smiled back at him mischievously. "January." Eggman said. Sonic turned to look at his friends, newer and the five he had gotten to know this summer, all being held at the point of a chaos spear created by January. "Drop the knife." Eggman told Sonic. He listened. Jet grabbed Sonic's hands holding them behind him. And that's when someone else made their move. January screamed as she was stabbed by a sword in the shoulder by that knight, Aubrey, making her lose her chaos spear, allowing for Sonic to turn and kick Jet in the face. "Next time, I will not hesitate to hit your heart." The knight said.

 "Everyone out!" Amy ordered, and the crowd started making a dash for the doors. Shadow, Silver, Blaze, Rouge, and Knuckles all ran to the stairs as fast as they could as Sonic fought the Rogues on his own. January was incapacitated, and currently being held in cuffs by the knight. Shadow was the first to make it there, aiming a chaos spear at Jet, who dodged the attack. Knuckles and Storm began a fist fight, seemingly evenly matched. Knuckles got in a hit at Storm's stomach, knocking the much larger boy over, struggling for breath again. Wave was quickly stopped by Silver, holding her in the air. 

Eggman seemed to realize that his team was about to lose. "Rogues!" He shouted. "It's time for our tactical retreat!" He said as Jet ran, grabbed Wave out of Silver's hold, and the two of them grabbed onto the side of Eggmobile, Storm joining them soon after with Knuckles trying to give chase, but Eggman decided to fly out of reach. "Robots attack!" Eggman said and an onslaught of drones came in from the previously broken and now broken windows. Silver created a psychonetic shield around the group of 8. "By the way Silv and Blaze." They heard Jet. Silver focused on protecting them from the onslaught of bullets. "Wave and I abdicate our thrones." He laughed. "Enjoy that bullshit." Wave finished. "This is not the end Prince Maurice!" Eggman shouted. "It's Sonic, Egghead!" 

"Eggman! You know my name is Eggman!" He shouted and flew out the window. Sonic figured this wasn't the end of the attack because bullet's continued to fire and Silver was struggling to hold the shield. "Maurice." Amy put on her big sister voice. "What is going on?"

Chapter Text

"What is going on?" She shouted. "I promise I will explain everything when we get out of this, but this isn't a good time." Sonic turned to the group. "I have an idea, but first we all run with Silver creating the shield to the door so Amy and Tails can get safely out."

"Absolutely not!" Amy and Tails shouted. "That wasn't a request. You're not safe, you don't have the skills to protect yourselves. I can't let you put yourselves in danger. Amy, for once I'm trying to be responsible." He pleaded with his sister. Something about what he said must have convinced her because she softened her gaze and nodded. She grabbed her baby brother, who began to protest. "Knuckles, you grab Silver, Silver you focus on keeping the shield up long enough to get them to the door. We all run and protect them. Let's go." Everyone nodded and began to follow the directions. Silver was glad he didn't have to focus on running and keeping up this barrier that he didn't even know he could make until today. The made it to the door and Silver focused on parting the barrier by the door just enough for them to get out. Once they were out of the door and in the hands of security, they six turned back to see what they could do. "Sonic!" He heard his sister shout. He turned to look at her. "I'm proud of you!" She told him and smiled. A large grin spread on his face. "I'll see you later." He told her and followed his friends. 

"Now what?" Knuckles asked. "We fight, take down as many drones as we can and hopefully someone else shows up to help." He said. They all nodded in understanding. Everyone got into a fighting stance, surrounding Silver to prepare to protect him in case he needed to catch his breath. "Drop it." Sonic commanded and Silver dropped his hands, catching his breath as the rest of the team started destroying as many of the thousand drones that surrounded them as they could. Sonic dashed through them, punching when he could and redirecting bullets from his friends to the drones. Shadow fired spears left and right, usually destroying more than one drone at a time. Knuckles punched as may drones as he could. Blaze set them on fire. Rouge attacked drones from above, spinning so fast as she came down that she was like a large drill. Eventually Silver caught his breath and began to help in the fight. All the while they each tried to avoid bullet's, lasers, and destroyed drones.

Blaze hit some more drones with fire. Silver used his psychokinesis to whack two of them into each other. "Blaze, I have something I have to say." Silver said, destroying another drone. Blaze dodged a blast from another. "Silver, I don't know if this is the best time." Blaze told him. "I, I get that. I do, but there is one thing." Silver dodged another blast. "You can do it Silver!" Sonic shouted encouragingly as he ran and punched some drones. "Can you say it while we fight?" Blaze asked. "Yes." Silver paused long enough to launch one drone back into another five. "Blaze, I've been doing a lot of thinking." Blaze launched another blast from her hand. "And well, you see..." Silver dodged laser. "I don't really know how to put this into words." He told her. He was losing courage. "Come on Silver, you got this!" Knuckles shouted to his friend as he destroyed some more drones with his fists. "Blaze, I love you!" Silver shouted. "I love like I want to go on long romantic walks with you, I want to hold your hand, I want to take you on dates, and I kind of want to kiss you." He finished his admission very red in the face and now fidgeting with his tie. Blaze walked up to him, now seemingly oblivious to the onslaught of attacks. Blaze gently grabbed his face. "I love you too." She said and then she kissed him. "Come on guys! Not the time!" Shadow shouted and threw a few chaos spears to take down some drones that were going to attack them. Silver and Blaze moved in perfect sync with each other, taking in every second of their kiss, oblivious to the world around them. Silver grabbed Blazes hand on his face and the interlaced their fingers, drinking everything in. After a minute, they both needed some air. Silver smiled like an absolutely lovesick idiot and Blaze smiled like a lovestruck fool. "Blaze, in case we don't make it today, I just needed you to know, and I wanted to know, and I wanted to know if you would be my girlfriend."

"Yes." She said simply and smiled wider. Silver did too and they quickly gave each other another kiss. "Guys!" Rouge shouted. They both looked over and their four friends fighting. "Oh yeah!" Silver said. "Sorry!" Blaze said. They let go of each other and ran to keep fighting.

Sonic was starting to lose hope. It felt like for every destroyed drone there was five more. He didn't know what to do except keep fighting. But this was only his second real fight, and this time there was no James, no Society Members, and there was more than one target, and they all had artificial intelligence. It took Sonic a minute to notice, but a drone was aiming directly at Shadow's heart. He knew he wouldn't be able to redirect the bullet in time, he wasn't going to be fast enough, but would be fast enough for this.

Chapter Text

He knew he wouldn't be able to redirect the bullet in time, he wasn't going to be fast enough, but would be fast enough for this.

 He ran to Shadow and knocked him over to the ground. Shadow looked at him, about to ask why the hell he did that, but that's when he saw the blood. Shadow looked up at his boyfriend's face as he smiled at him. Shadow looked on in horror as blood came from the area to the right of Sonic's heart and began to stain the shirt, quickly becoming more red. "It's okay, I'm just glad I got to save you." Sonic said, his eyes rolled into the back of his head, and he collapsed on the ground. Shadow rushed over to him, checking his pulse and felt it slowing. Shadow couldn't take it, he was more than mad, he was furious. So, he screamed, and as he did, thousands of chaos spears shot from his body, destroying every last drone as Knuckles, Rouge, Blaze, and Silver did their best to avoid their friend's fury.

 "Shadow!" Rouge shouted. He looked at her, eye's glowing. "We can still save him, there's still time!" She said. Shadow grabbed Sonic's unconscious body rushed outside. There were some EMT's who took him immediately, Shadow rushing to follow after. Amy and Tails saw their brother, and both began to sob. They saw James and the former Queen running towards them with back up. Knuckles stopped them and told them about what had happened. The EMT's loaded Sonic into an Ambulance where he would need emergency surgery. Tails, Amy, and Shadow got in the Ambulance with him. Silver, Blaze, Knuckles, Rouge, and James watched as they raced towards the hospital. Their siblings each ran up to them, checking to make sure that they were okay. A few Society members took January from Aubrey. Maria asked what happened to Sonic and no one knew what to say. "He was shot." Rouge finally said after a while. "How? He was like a blur in there, surely, he was fast enough to avoid it?" Tikal asked. "Knuckles?" She asked. "He did it to save Shadow's life." There was a collective sharp intake of breath. Maria looked to where they ambulance had long since turned. "He must be devastated." She said, tears in her voice. "Come on." James said. The teens all turned to him. "We'll go to the hospital." He said and loaded every last one of them into the truck, silently blaming himself for not getting here in time.

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Amy held her baby brother as he sobbed. She rubbed his back and kept whispering that it was going to be okay. The problem was that she wasn't actually sure if it was going to be okay. Shadow sat next to her, holding back tears. There was a part of her that wanted to blame him. Shadow had told them what had happened, that Sonic had sacrificed himself for Shadow. Amy really wanted to blame Shadow, but she knew that it wouldn't have mattered who it was, Shadow, Miles, herself, Knuckles, or anyone else. She knew her brother and he would have done it for anyone. It just so happened that this time he literally took the bullet for Shadow. Guilt was written all over his face. She wanted to grab his hand, to reassure him to, but his hands were currently occupied being crossed. So, she put his hand on his shoulder. He looked at her. "No matter what, it will be okay." She told him. He just nodded a started looking back into space.

 It became clear that Sonic meant more to Shadow than a friend to a friend. And she had a feeling that Sonic felt the same. She wanted to ask but figured this wasn't the best time. So she continued to sit there in this gigantic dress, holding her baby brother as he sobbed in the hallway of the hospital.

Chapter Text

The large group was told that, at least for now, they would have to wait in the waiting room. Worry was etched on everyone's faces. Silver and Blaze holding each other's hands in comfort. Knuckles held Rouge. Maria began reading a magazine. Bee couldn't stop her leg from bouncing as Aubrey held her. Tikal was biting her nails. James sat watching, waiting, and listening. For the most part they sat in silence, the occasional cry could be heard, but no one dared ask any of the questions that they had. 

A doctor walked up to Amy, Tails, and Shadow as they waited outside of the surgery room. "He just got out of surgery, and he is currently stable. He's still asleep but I can take you to his room." Amy and Shadow stood. Shadow turned to Amy. "If you would like, I could carry him." He said, nodding to Tails. Amy shook her head. "I've got him." She said as Tails clung to her. They followed the nurse to Sonic's room. They walked in and it looked almost exactly identical to the one Tails, Blaze, and Knuckles had a been in not too long ago.

Sonic was laid in the bed, which was elevated slightly. He had an IV drip in his arm, was hooked up to a breathing machine, and a machine that tracked his heart rate and oxygen levels. None of them liked seeing him hooked to all of these machines. "Do you want to let anyone else in your majesty?" The doctor asked Amy's. She sighed, looking at her brother. "He has four really good friends out there, I think they should be here, but too much more than that and it might overwhelm him when he wakes up." She looked at the doctor. "Shadow here can tell you their names better than I can." The doctor look expectantly at Shadow. "Knuckles, Rouge, Silver, and Blaze." He said. The doctor nodded then walked away. The trio watched for a while as Sonic's chest rose and fell. 

After a few minutes the doctor opened the door and the four requested people walked in. They sat in silence, listening to the steady beeping of the heart monitor. They sat there for what felt like hours (it was about as long as the speech the officiate gave earlier) before Sonic did anything other than breath. Slowly, he blinked his eyes opened as everyone looked at him in anticipation. He noticed everyone's red eyes and let out a weak chuckle "You all look like you're at someone's funeral." He said weakly. Tails, Silver, and Rouge laughed. Amy shook her head while Shadow rolled his eyes. Blaze and Knuckles, ever the warriors, just smiled. 

Tails walked over to his brother's bed side and gave a gentle but slightly awkward hug. Sonic gave his hair a quick ruffle. "Maurice, you were reckless and idiotic," Amy began scolding. "I'm sorry." He weakly replied. "I wasn't finished." She said. "I'm just so happy you're okay." She said as tears began to run down her cheeks. Sonic smiled at her. 

Sonic looked at his friends. "What happened to the drones?" He asked. "Shadow destroyed them." Knuckles said. "All of them?" Sonic asked. "All of them." The four in front of him replied. Sonic looked over at his boyfriend, in awe. "How?" He asked. "I was mad." He replied. Sonic looked down. "At me?" He asked. "A little." Shadow said. "But mostly at Ivo for causing the whole thing. I was also afraid." He said the last sentence quietly. "I'm sorry I scared you." Sonic apologized. "I just don't understand. That should be in that bed, not you, so why did you do it?" He asked. Sonic smiled and extended his hand. Shadow took it and gave it a squeeze. Sonic pulled Shadow's hand, successfully pulling him close enough that he grabbed Shadow's face and gave him a kiss. "Well that answer's that question." Amy thought to herself. Sonic pulled back and looked at Shadow with heart eyes. "Because I love you." He replied. Shadow sighed. "Please never scare me like that again." Sonic hummed. "I'll try." He said and gave Shadow another kiss. 

The doctor opened the door. "No kissing! You're supposed to be laying down!" Sonic pulled away. "Yeah, yeah, whatever." He said and laid back down. "I'll go let everyone know that you're awake." Rouge said and walked out with Knuckles in tow, not wanting to let go of the other's hand. Sonic smiled at his friends. That's when he knew he was going to be alright.

Chapter Text

Sonic sat with Shadow, Blaze, Silver, Knuckles, Rouge, Tails, and James at the front of the large living space in Amy's castle as they finished explaining the whole situation to Tikal, Maria, Bee, Aubrey, and Amy. They were all in various stages of shock. "Are you all okay?" Maria was the first to speak up. "We're fine." Shadow told her. Bee took a deep inhale, "What the quiznak." She finally spoke. "What in the world does that mean?" Amy asked. "Nothing good." Aubrey said. "I hope you understand that this has to remain a secret." James said. The five girls nodded. "I have... so many questions." Bee said. "As do I." Amy said. "Starting with why in the world did you think it was a good idea to be in a pool?" Amy almost yelled at her brother. He shrugged. "Who knows." He said. "You." Bee said under her breath. "What are Blaze and Silver going to do now that they are the heirs?" Maria asked. They looked at each other. "We don't really know." They said at the same time. The four older siblings all looked at each other. "Just know," Maria started the statement, "that no matter what," Tikal spoke up next, "that the four of us," Bee said, "and me," Aubrey added, "will be here for you." Amy said. That's when the group hug started. "No group hugs." Shadow said. "Can't escape it now." Knuckles said. "But do I have to be suffocated in the middle of it?" Bee asked. The group began to laugh as James watched. Sonic looked at his teacher and smiled at him. James smiled back. 

James phone began to ring. The group broke the hug as their teacher listened to the phone. "There's been a sighting of the Rogues and the six of you have been assigned to go investigate." James told them. The group smiled at each other. "Well, what are you waiting for, a royal invitation, let's go." James said. The six of them laughed as they left. The five girls began to talk, about what, Sonic didn't really know, nor did he care. He looked back at his sister who looked at him. Yeah, they didn't always get along, but in that moment, the shared a wink and a promise that they would always be there for each other. "Come on Sonic!" Knuckles shouted. "You're supposed to be the fastest after all." Shadow taunted no malice in his voice. He smiled at his friends. "I'm comin'!" He said and ran after them, ready for whatever was next. There was a lot he still didn't know. Sometimes he and his friends still struggled to sleep at night, Eggman was out there and so were the Rogues, but the thing about the future is that it is usually uncertain. And Sonic knew, that as long as he had his boyfriend, his friends, and his siblings by his side, he could face the world.

The end

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