Chapter Text
“Come on Sonic. You’re- I’m going to be late.” Tom called by the door. He was already in uniform, and he doesn’t understand how Sonic takes so long to get ready, when all he wears are gloves and shoes. He glanced at his watch, 7:49. Looks like Sonic is going to have to walk from the precinct to the school this morning. Tom has no problem with dropping Sonic off at the school, but since he has to be at the station by 8 and Sonic has to be at school by 8:15, if Sonic isn’t ready in time, then he can’t drop him off directly at the school. Which is going to happen this morning. It’s not that big of an issue, since the school is close by.
“Coming.” Sonics voice drifted from the kitchen.
Tom just rolled his eyes, that was Sonic speak for 5 more minutes. “At this rate, the dead would move faster.” There was no response to that. Finally, after another minute Sonic walked to the front door. He grabbed his bookbag and walked past Tom to open the door.
“What’s taking you so long?” He said after he walked outside. Sonic turned to face Tom and put a hand on his hip.
“Alexa, turn off the lights.” Tom had a smart appliance system recently installed, Sonic just rolled his eyes but smiled at that, he thought it was cool but kinda corny .“You know-“ Tom walked out the door before closing and locking it. Maddie had already left for an early appointment. “-I could arrest you.” Tom remembers the first time he joked about arresting Sonic. It was around a month after the adoption, and they were making such good progress with Sonic. Well, he got a call from Sonic’s school because apparently Sonic got into a scuffle. He was a little bit confused because he thought the mobian didn’t have a single violent bone in his body. When he got there, he discovered the reason was because Sonic was standing up for a little mobian fox. It was hard to be upset with Sonic, so he let it go. He needed to stop by the station to grab something, so he made a joke about putting Sonic behind bars. Which was not his best idea. The blue hedgehog had a meltdown because he actually thought that he was about to be imprisoned. Tom felt really guilty, so when he finally calmed Sonic down. They went to go get ice cream. Sonic still told on him to Maddie, and he slept on the couch for the night. It’s just nice that he got to the point where he can make jokes like that with Sonic.
“Then you would be extra late to your job since I won’t go peacefully!”
“Resisting arrest? You’re breaking my heart.”
“Hmm” They started their walk to the car. It was in peaceful silence. Sonic got into the passenger side while Tom got into the drivers’ side, of course. Soon they were on the road, it was like a 5-minute drive to get to town. Tom glanced at Sonic through the corner of his eyes.
“You know I’m proud of you, right?”
Sonic didn’t look at Tom; he considered making a joke but decided against it. “I-I do.” Sonic felt his chest swell up with an emotion he couldn’t quite place. It’s a new feeling that makes him feel light as air.
“With that out of the way. You’re going to have to walk the rest of the way to school.” Tom informed Sonic, as the clock read 7:58.
“Okay.” Sonic frowned at that. Although he’s not upset because he knows it is technically his own fault. He then looked out the window as they pulled into the little parking lot at the police station. Tom turned off the ignition. They both opened the door and got out of the car.
Monitoring potential asset: …
Mapping out interception: …
“Well bud. Have a good day at school and walk carefully. Look both ways.” Tom was sure to shoot Sonic a look.
“I always look both ways.” And it’s true, Sonic always looks both ways. “I’ll see you later.” With that, Sonic started his walk to school. It’s like a 10-minute walk for him, 8 minutes if he had longer legs. He walked in silence. The occasional car passed by him. He couldn’t wait to talk to Tails about the progress he made on his base last night. He smiled when he thought about his recently declared best friend. They were just friends, but then it came up in conversation about how Tails likes Galactic Base Builder too. And that solidified the best friend status. Sure, he made other friends too, but none of them play Galactic Base Builder so it’s an easy choice for best friend. He continued his walk; up ahead was a crosswalk, but it was green.
Contacting potential asset: …
*ring*ring*ring
Sonic’s ears twitched at the pay phone on the sidewalk ringed. He stopped walking to look around, and when he didn’t see someone. He just shrugged and continued to walk. Ignoring the ringing phone. It’s none of his business. It stopped ringing just before he got to the crosswalk.
Unexpected outcome: …
Recontacting potential asset:…
Just before Sonic could actual ly cross the crosswalk, the light turned red. He stopped in his tracks, as a couple of vehicles made their turn. He pressed the button to change the light.
*ring*ring*ring
Sonics ears once again twitched towards the loud ringing of the phone. He still ignored it. After waiting for like 30 seconds, he started to mash the button. Yet, it did not turn green. There weren’t even any cars! His fist clenched as the payphone would not stop ringing. When another 30 seconds passed, he considered just walking across. After all, there weren’t any cars. He bit his lip at the thought. He couldn’t bring himself to do it, but he was done with the ringing. He marched over to the phone. Sonic reached out with a gloved hand and grabbed the phone before bringing it to his mouth. He was about to tell whoever was doing this a piece of his mind.
“Can yo-“ A somewhat uncanny voice begun to speak, but Sonic quickly interrupted.
“Stop!” He then hung the phone back up. He didn’t have time for any nonsense, he had school too attend.
Reevaluating options: …
He turned back to the crosswalk, and it finally turned green. “Finally.” He then crossed it and a couple of minutes later, he made it to his high school. The entrance and hall, while nowhere as crowded as his previous school in Ney York. Still had all kinds of teens. Humans and mobians. Sonic much preferred this school then the previous one because for the most part, there aren’t any bullies. Sure, there are a couple of outliers, but it’s not bad like his past experience. He made his way down the tiled hallway. There were lockers on the wall, but they weren’t in use. He passed humans, hedgehogs, foxes, cats, all kinds of mobians. He soon found his way to his first period class, math. He took his seat by Amy, a pink hedgehog that made him her friend.
“Hey Sonic.” She over exaggerated a look at the clock on the wall. “Almost late today. What happened?”
Sonic felt his cheeks heat up under his fur. It was definitely because of almost being late, nothing else. “It’s not my fault.” She blinked at him. “Okay it is. But there was plotting against me!” Now that Sonic thought about it. It was suspicious that the cross walk was red for so long.
“Plotting? No offense, but I can’t think of anyone who would ‘plot’ against you.” Amy informed the azure hedgehog.
Monitoring potential asset: …
“You don’t know that. I had enemies back in New York.” Now, what happened to Sonic in New York, did in fact scare him. But since then, he’s learned to appreciate it for giving him this new life. And bragging about how a gang was after him. Even if his friends cast doubt on him.
“Okay. Let’s say you actually do have enemies like you’ve been saying. How did they almost make you late?” She raised a eyebrow at Sonic.
Sonic opened his mouth but closed it. He just realized that actually saying that the ‘plot’ against him was a traffic light being red. Even if it was red for an unnatural amount of time. Was a little bit silly. “Uhmm.” He needs to think of some intelligent to say. “There was a phone call?” Close enough.
“What are y-“ She was cut off as the teacher began the class. She sent him a look that said this will be discussed later. Sonic pretended he didn’t see her as he turned his attention to the front of the class. The teacher droned on for a little while, until the classroom phone rang. The teacher just rolled his eyes but went to go pick it up.
“Yes? This is Mr. Calvin.” His face scrunched up with confusion before settling into a mask of indifference. “Sonic. It’s for you.” He said with a shrug.
Sonic’s cheeks once again flushed from embarrassment, as most of the students turned to look at him. Although he did feel slightly vindicated, he shot Amy a pointed look as he got up to walk to the phone. He reached the teacher’s desk and was handed the phone. The teacher just went straight back to teaching.
“Hello?”
A distorted voice that sounded slightly familiar, but Sonic couldn’t place it, crackled through, “Can you hear me?”
What kind of question was that? Of course, Sonic could hear him! “Yeah. What do you want?” Straight to the point, Sonic had math notes he needed to get back to writing down.
“King Omega-Gamma, Micheal Romeo-Sie-“ Sonic didn’t hear the rest because he hung up the phone. The teacher looked over at him, but Sonic just shrugged. He didn’t know what that was about. Sonic walked back to his seat, giving Amy the exact same shrug when she shot him a questioning look.
Failure to inform potential asset: …
Approaching new strategy: …
Strategy in action: …
The rest of math class, and subsequently the next couple of classes until lunch flew by. He didn’t have any close friends in the 2 classes after 1st period, but the majority of his friend group had the same lunch. And that is where he is now. Sonic just got his lunch from the café and sat down at the table with Tails, Amy, and Knuckles. Tails was the first to greet him.
“Hey Sonic. Did you see that Galactic Space Builders is having a special online event?” The orange and white furred fox informed Sonic.
“No, I didn’t. But I don’t play online.” It’s true. Sonic hates online games, and only plays single player or just with Tails. Because every time he plays online, his base gets raided!
“Well, all you have to do is play for like 30 minutes and you unlock a new skin for singleplayer.”
“That’s not that bad, I guess.” Well, if it’s just for 30 minutes then Sonic decided he would complete it.
“What are you two talking about?” Knuckles spoke up. He knows they are talking about a video game, but not much else.
Amy spoke up first, “Their silly little game.”
Tails was the first to defend Galactic Space builders, “It’s not silly.”
Sonic followed up with, “Yeah Amy, maybe if you played it t-then you would like it.” Sonic doesn’t understand how anyone can think so poorly of GSB.
“I’m good.” After Amy said that, the table quieted down as they began to eat; The background noise of the cafeteria filled up the silence. After a little while, Amy brought up the phone call Sonic received earlier in 1st period. “So Sonic.” She waited till he looked at her. “What was that phone call about in math?”
“I don’t know. It was some weird dude.” Sonic answered truthfully. He really did have no clue what it was about.
Knuckles spoke up, “What phone call.” As Tails also spoke up.
“Weird dude?”
“The phone rang during math, and the teacher said it was for me. But when I answered it. It was like some scam caller.”
“But what did he actually say?” Amy asked, she couldn’t help it, she was curious.
“Something-something Michael. I don’t really remember.” It’s true. Sonic thought it was weird but didn’t put any effort into thinking about it.
“You can’t remember a phone call from this morning? Not surprising.” Knuckles teased Sonic. The echidna smiled at the hedgehog.
“Actually Knuckles. I think Sonic has a great memory.” Tails came to the defense of Sonic. Knuckles just rolled his eyes at the fox’s admission.
“Thanks Tails. And I didn’t remember it because it was dumb. Like you, Knuckles.”
“I could pummel you.” Knuckles threatened Sonic in good nature. The larger male could, of course, beat Sonic up. But he would never do that.
“You would have to catch me. Which of course, you wouldn’t be able too.” Sonic defended himself, though, he doesn’t actually know if he is faster than Knuckles. Since Knuckles is more ‘active’ than Sonic, but he would never admit that.
“I get it. You two are dumb and dumber.” Amy cut in before Knuckles.
“Actually Amy, Sonic is pretty sma-“ Tails once again came to Sonic’s defense, but Amy cut him off.
“Alright Tails. That’s enough.”
“At least I don’t spend all my times playing dumb video games.” Knuckles was too focused on getting a win over Sonic, that he didn’t care what Amy just said.
“Well, at least I don’t have giant hands!”
“You take that back!”
“No! Not until you apologize for calling Galactic Space builders dumb.” No one insulted GSB on his watch.
Knuckles crossed his arms as he eyed the smaller male, “I am not going to apologize for calling a game dumb.”
“That’s-That’s.” Sonic shook his head. “That’s actually reasonable.” It is a little bit silly to demand an apology.
Amy raised both brows before relaxing them, “Now that that’s out the way. Can we discuss something reasonable?” And they did. For the next 15 minutes until lunch was over. The rest of the day went rather quickly in Sonic’s opinion, before he rode the bus home. He doesn’t take it in the morning because he would never be up in time. When he arrived home, he first got a snack and ate it. Then he took Ozzie out for a walk. Though it was more like Ozzie bringing Sonic for a walk, as he was the one being dragged around. After the dog finished his business. Sonic wrangled him back inside. Now, he had a choice to ponder, he could begin his homework, or… he could play GSB; The answer was quite clear; besides, he can always do homework later.
He walked up the stairs and booted up the game. He would complete the challenge first, then go back to his single player world. He set his plan in motion. He joined an online world and started to make the beginnings of a base. After all, he might as well play, even if he won’t touch this world ever again. That is when another player made their presence known. And Sonics jaw almost dropped, it was a max level player. He wasn’t even aware that max level could be reached. A request for a chat, popped up, and before he could accept it, the request accepted itself.
“Hello?” Sonic might as well engage.
“Can you hear me?” It was the same voice from earlier!
“W-What are you? Some kind of hacker?” Sonic accused the voice. He was honestly a little creeped out.
“King Omega-Gamma, Micheal Romeo-Sierra, Poe-Zulu-November.”
Uhh, What? “What are you talking about?!” Sonic did not like this randomness.
“In danger. Printed list.” After that the other player just completely disappeared.
“Uhh. Okay? That was weird.” Sonic mumbled under his breath. He wasn’t about to let that ruin his experience. Unfortunately for Sonic, the decision to play would be taken out of his hands.
Out of nowhere, Sonic’s game just crashed. “Come on!” He then tried to load the game back on, but every time he tried to click on the game. It kept clicking off by itself. Sonic, to say the least, was getting upset. “What’s the…” Then the tv just turned off. Sonic scoffed and went to turn it back on, but before he could, the overhead lights began to flash on and off. Sonic would forever deny the squeak he made, as he jumped. His heart pounded in his chest slightly before he calmed down. It was probably just Tom messing with him, again. But… Sonic grabbed his phone from his desk and called Tom. He wanted to make sure.
Intercepting phone call: …
Reviewing conversations: …
Cloning voice: …
“Hey buddy. Everything okay?”
“It will be if you’d stop messing with me!”
“What are you talking about?”
Sonic paused at the confusion, his eyes narrowed, “The lights! They keep turning on and off.”
“Oh. That? It could just be an update.” ‘Tom’ reassured Sonic.
“An update?”
“Yeah, nothing to worry about.”
“If you say so.”
“See you later.”
“Bye.” Sonic ended the phone call. He didn’t know why the lighting system needed an update, but he supposes it makes sense. Though, it was still flashing. He was curious if all the lights were flashing, so he exited his room and entered the hallway, where it was also flashing. But when he turned around, the light in his room stopped flashing, while the one in the hallway kept on. “Uhmm.” This was getting back into the creepy stage. Then, it turned off. Sonic could hear the blood rushing around his ears. The light turned on, at the end of the hallway, at the stairway. Sonic just stared. He could still go back to his room, but he had a morbid curiosity; he was beginning to believe this wasn’t an update. He made his way to the stairway, tiptoeing. When he reached it, the lights once again turned off, and turned back on at the bottom of the stairs. He creeped down the stairs, ears twitching, as they tried to hear anything out of the ordinary. Once he reached the bottom, he followed the light until it led him into the living room. Where, it cut off completely, the only light coming from the windows. Sonic’s little heart was hammering in his chest. Then, the printer just suddenly turned on and started to print something. “Gah!” Once again, Sonic would deny ever making such a sound.
He walked towards the printer and grabbed the piece of paper that shot out of it. It read, ‘King Omega-Gamma, Micheal Romeo-Sierra, Poe-Zulu-November.’ Sonic squinted as he read it, he knew this from somewhere. His eyes widened in remembrance. This was what the dude said in the game! Now he is officially freaked out. Didn’t the dude say something about danger? Sonic paced as he thought about what to do next. That is when the front door opened and in walked Maddie.
Maddie will admit that she was a little surprised to see Sonic standing in the ‘dark’, but she didn’t show any outwards signs of confusion. She knows how badly that can go, as she reminisced. A couple of days after Sonic moved in, she went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. She used her phone for a flashlight because the lights currently didn’t work, because her husband tried to replace them with smart lights without any help. Needless to say, they were without lights for a couple days until someone qualified could come in and fix it. So, she put her phone down, to drink the water, and that is when she noticed two beady eyes staring at her from a little bit away. She knew it wasn’t Ozzie, and in her tired mind, she didn’t even think about Sonic. So, she screamed and threw the glass at the eyes. Which happened to be Sonic, as he too was getting something to drink. He had just been too scared to say anything because he didn’t want to get in trouble for being up. She still feels guilty for it, but Sonic seems to have forgotten it.
“Hey Sonic. What are you -uhh- doing in the dark?”
“Uhmm. Nothing.”
“Oh. Okay then.” They stared at each other before Maddie went to put her purse and car keys away.
Sonic walked over to Maddie and wrapped his arms around her waist. He didn’t care if it was seen as clingy. He had a long time of no parents to make up for. He nuzzled against her side, as she brought her hand down and scratched the top of his head. “How was school today?”
“It was good.” Sonic could, quite frankly, stay like this forever but he had things to do. He unwrapped his arms and stepped back; he reached his hands up to smooth his fur out.
“Let me.” And Sonic did. Her hands patted down the ruffled fur. She then noticed the paper in his hands. “What’s the paper for?”
“Oh. Uhm.” Sonic knew he should tell her about what happened, but the voice did say danger. And while that should be an even greater motivation to tell her, he decided, in his infinite wisdom, to keep it a secret for now. After all, it be nothing. “it’s nothing.”
Maddie raised a brow but didn’t say anything. “Alright then. Can I assume that you already started on your homework?”
“Uhh. If yes is no, then yes.” Sonic smiled up at her in what he thought was a disarming smile.
“Nu-uh. Your cuteness won’t get you out of homework.”
“Fine. Will you help me?” Sonic didn’t need the help. He was a smart kid, but Maddie would never say no to him.
“Sure thing. Just give me a couple of minutes.” With that, Sonic brought his book bag to the kitchen table, where he and Maddie would work on it for the next hour or so.
Monitoring situation: …
“Did you get the number?”
“I did.”
“You know your target?”
“I do.”
“Very well then. Your country thanks you for your service, Shadow.”