Chapter Text
The moment Tom’s feet hit the metallic floor, the sinking feeling in his gut grows tenfold.
The transmission the doctor had sent still rang fresh in his mind. It had been about ten hours, and he’d only heard it from once, from the little fox’s gadget, but he could still recall it word for word. The exact pacing, inflection, every pause for breath.
“ Dear Thomas Micheal Wachowski and the rest of your annoying crayon colored troupe,
I have never heard of such hypocrisy in my life as your earlier pledge to protect those whom you are traveling with. Perhaps you should retake your english classes. Either way, I have your little blue pincushion here with me, and if you want to give him a proper burial, I recommend you bring yourselves to me . The doors will be open, respectfully awaiting your arrival.
Your’s truly,
Doctor Ivo Robotnik.”
The statement was a threat. And only a threat. Nothing more, nothing less. But still the butterflies in his stomach fluttered anxiously against the walls.
It had been the last emerald. It was on Earth, albeit right in the center of an active volcano, but they'd had the foresight to get out of there before the lava, that the emerald had been previously holding back, became a problem.
They were a rather ridiculous group. Two humans, a hedgehog, a fox, an echidna, and a mad scientist chasing them down in a massive flying ship.
The chase was on immediately, beginning in a cacophony of explosions, screams, and gunfire. They had eventually split apart into the streets of New York as they were set ablaze, playing a frantic game of hot potato with the emerald to keep it out of the Doctor's trigger happy hands. Robotnik was firing left and right, annihilating anything that moved to keep it from interfering.
Tom and Maddie had broken for an alleyway with the glowing chaos emerald in hand. Maddie had grown up here, she knew the streets well. “Here!” She grabbed her husband by the wrist and yanked him into an alley that would be a shortcut to a place too narrow for Robotnik to follow.
They didn't even get halfway through.
A small missile shot past the two, whizzing by like a mosquito and detonating into the concrete wall at their flank. The resulting blast was disproportionately large, cleaving the structure nearly in half and sending a hulking pile of rubble into their path.
Tom pulled Maddie away from the explosion and shielded his eyes. They'd both turned to run in the other direction, only to be met with the looming presence and stark white paneling of the machine that had been chasing them.
“Hello Thomas, Collateral Damage, I would say it’s a pleasure to meet you again, but it isn’t,” Robotnik sneered, leaning forward above his control panel, “What is a pleasure is knowing that I’ve reduced you two to exactly two options. Shall I list them for you?” Robotnik didn’t wait for them to reply.
“Give me the emerald,” he said, “Or I’ll give those bricks behind you a fresh coat of paint. How do you think red would look?”
“I don’t think either of those things are gonna happen, buddy,” Tom growled, “At the very least you’re gonna have to look somewhere else for your rock collection.”
“Are you sure? Or has your gradual loss of intelligence culminated in the destruction of your sense of self preservation?” A single gun popped out of the bottom of the craft, aimed directly at Tom.
“Go to Hell, Robotnik,” Maddie snarled.
Robotnik frowned, “Oh, well. Pity it had to come to this... For you, anyway. I, however, am going to enjoy this very much.”
Tom barely had time to flinch before a blue blur dashed in front of him. The bullet was gone. Sonic uncurled mid-air and skidded across the concrete, one hand on the ground, the other pressed against his side. All eyes locked on him. The doctor grinned at his expression, though Tom and Maddie weren't at the right angle to see it themselves.
The hedgehog melted into a streak once more, bashing into the front of the machine and sending it into a brief tailspin. The doctor cursed wildly, yanking joysticks and slamming down on buttons to get the aircraft under control.
“You guys go back, I got this!” Sonic yelled, pulling a ring from his finger and tossing it behind him. It would take them and the emerald to Green Hills, back home.
Tom braced himself for impact while the Doctor recovered. “We’re not gonna leave you behind!”
The look Sonic gives them is odd. He smiles, but it looks… Pained. With a motion that looked like it took a lot more effort than what he could usually pull off, Sonic leapt and tackled them through the portal.
Maddie was the first to get back up, but the sight beyond froze her.
Sonic smiled and gave her a thumbs up, only now letting the dark smear of red across his side be visible, “I’ll be okay.”
Maddie had screamed something, maybe his name, maybe the Doctor’s. Either way, the ring dissipated into mist between her fingers.
“Mr. Wac-Tom?”
The fox’s voice reels him back into reality. Tom blinks and looks down at Miles, who is staring at him with a concerned expression. The device in his hands beeps monotonously as his two tails wave gently behind him. Mentally shaking himself, Tom gives the fox a smile, “I’m fine. Thanks.”
Miles’s bright blue gaze doesn’t waver.
The echidna-- Knuckles? “Miles” seemed to be the only one who followed standard naming conventions-- remained silent and stoic, holding the bag of emeralds close. They’d just gone crawling around the practical ends of the universe for them; Tom could understand his protectiveness.
As Knuckles snorts and pushes on ahead, Tom and the fox fall into rhythm behind him. The echo of footsteps is the only sound for a while as they continue down the long winded hallway. Lights and screens blink as they pass by, and a security camera swivels to watch them.
When did Eggman find the time and materials to make all this? Despite the guy being absolutely bat shit insane, Tom had to admit: the man was a genius. Not to mention stubborn to a fault.
The sound of quick periodic swish ing reaches his ears. Miles’s tails twist up, unwind uselessly, then repeat. Huh, Tom thinks. Maybe he’s just as worried as I am .
Tom clears his throat, “Hey, he’s strong. I’m sure Sonic’s fine.” The sheriff isn’t entirely who he’s trying to convince: him or Miles. “We just have to trust him.”
The fox hums. “I do trust, Sonic. I do. It’s just,” his hands fidget. “It’s Eggman I don’t trust.”
Tom doesn’t know how to respond to that.
Eventually, they come into a wide room, circular, with solid walls and a window directly on the other side, the glass of which might just be a full inch thick. The room is massive, and it's empty state makes it seem even larger. The doors behind them slide close with a hiss.
Tom itches his arms, the room making him feel the opposite of claustrophobic. No place to hide, no place to go, nothing to protect themselves with. It gives him the feel of a gladiator ring. And from the way Knuckles stands, it’s not just him.
“Prower,” the echidna says with a biting tone. “Are you sure he’s here?” Miles startles to, punching in a couple sequences into his handheld machine.
“Uh, it says he’s here, but…” The room seems to mock them in its emptiness.
Then it literally begins to mock them. The sound of crazed laughter reverberates throughout, putting the group on edge.
“ So nice of you to make it, Thomas. ”
Projected onto the window is the face of the mad scientist himself, bald head and wild mustache and all. He’s wearing his goggles, apparently still cracked from the group's last encounter with the doctor. Hands steepled together under his chin, Robotnik speaks with a deranged tilt:
“ Welcome to my humble abode, as the common people say. I sure do hope the journey was long and painful while it lasted, because it’s about to get a lot worse. ”
“Enough with the small talk, Eggman. Where’s Sonic?” Knuckles growls.
He’s pointedly ignored by the man. “ And you brought the Chaos emeralds with you, how splendid! And you did all that work too, I would almost feel bad except I don't. ” The sudden seriousness in the man’s voice is gone as quickly as it appeared. “ But I digress. What kind of host would I be if I didn’t have a welcome party just for you! ”
At that moment, the hiss and cranks of machinery fill the room. The ceiling splits open, a ball of wires with something in the center slowly descends. The scientist continues:
“ You know, I had a hard time deciding what exactly to welcome you all here with. At first I thought ‘ Are they really worth all this trouble? ’” The ‘ball’ touched down a few feet away from where the group stood. “but then I remembered that I hate all of you with an unbridled passion of unequal quality to your own hatred towards me . So, I decided to bring out my passion project!”
The thick metallic bundle of vines abruptly click and snap, flinging themselves out of wherever they were attached. They wriggle and twist like snakes as all but one shoots back upwards into the ceiling. With a soft sssh , the ceiling seals.
“ And just as excited as I am to show him off, he’s just as excited to meet you!”
“M-Mr. Wachowski?” Miles drags Tom’s attention back down to the thing in front of them. A chill runs down the sheriff’s spine as he realizes exactly what he’s looking at.
“Say hello to my brand new prototype…”
Its large blue head pops up sharply, red eyes flashing.
“... Metal Sonic.”
Metal Sonic’s gaze is unflinching, regarding each of them with a cold, calculating stare that never would've been on the face of the boy it resembled so closely. It’s even been painted the same striking shade of blue.
Tom can’t help the anger that rises in his chest; this was not Sonic.
Knuckles, looking just as pissed off as him, takes a forceful step forward. “ Eggman- ”
The doctor clicks his tongue. “ I wouldn’t do that if I were you, alien. You’re holding some very, very important gems, and it would be a shame if they got into the wrong hands. ” The echidna growls, but stays where he is. “ Good! Now, let me finish and then I’ll leave you all to your own devices.
“ Now you’re all probably wondering where your blue annoying friend is. It turns out that this machine needs a high amount of energy to go at the super sonic speeds that creature runs. All that power has to come from somewhere and no normal battery would be able to produce that much energy. And, well, wouldn’t you know it-”
A panel on the wall beyond the glass slides to the side, and there's Sonic. The group cries his name in unison.
“- I found one! And all thanks to your friend’s ‘noble’ sacrifice.”
The hedgehog is cuffed to an upright table by his wrists and ankles, hooked up to several machines through needles stuck into his arms and electrodes applied to his chest and head. He's deathly still, not even offering a gentle rise and fall of his chest to ease Tom's worries, and then it happens.
His quills shudder, gentle sparks arcing between them, and then he lights up all at once in a grand blaze of electricity. Sonic convulses violently, glazed eyes flying open as the lightning dances across his body, lighting up his nervous system. It almost looks like he's struggling against his restraints. " As you can see here, all I need to do is stimulate his cells and his body just makes the stuff! ” Robotnik says, several machines whirring to life as he speaks. “ Who cares if he's brain dead, he'll live on with an actual purpose …”
Once the horrid display is over, Sonic falls limp again as the robot stands up straight.
“... A battery for someone else to use. "
Tom grinds his teeth, digging his nails into his palms. He wants nothing more than to push aside that robotic fake and save the poor kid that had grown a special place in his heart, but the way the doctor is grinning has him doubting it’ll be that easy.
“ Now then! Now that introductions are out of the way, Metal,“— The thing’s head tilts towards it’s master. — “Retrieve the emeralds and deal with them; in whatever order you please.” Robotnik waves his fingers in a scraggly fashion, giggling maniacally. “ Ta-tah~!”
The video blips out, and the metal Sonic rushes them at high speed. Instead of running like his organic counterpart, a jet engine strapped to its back roars to life, practically deafening in the metal room.
Tom drops into a roll and Miles takes to the sky. However, Knuckles stands his ground and catches the speeding rocket. His shoes dig into the ground but he stays firm. Struggling against the unceasing force, the echidna grinds out: “P-Prower! The Emeralds!”
“Right!” The fox swoops down and grabs the bag.
Unfortunately, this also grabs the robot’s attention. With sharp clawed hands, Metal Sonic grips Knuckles’s wrists and flings him to the side with little effort. The echidna somersaults along the floor before righting himself and stopping.
The robot is quick to the air and swipes at the flying fox. Miles swiftly ducks and dodges Metal’s attacks, the bag nearly clipped several times. Realizing he couldn’t keep this up for long, Miles does a quick spin, his twin tails hitting the robot with enough force to knock it off balance, and chucks the bag at Tom. “Mr. Wachowski! Catch!”
The sheriff snatches the bag, holding it close as Metal’s eyes focus in on him. The robot’s eyes flicker and glitch out fleetingly, the strange game of hot potato seeming to be frustrating it. It tries to charge him, but suddenly halts in mid air.
Beeping curiously, Metal’s head independently turns around; it’s Knuckles, pulling back on the single wire that was still tethered to the robot.
“Why don’t you pick on someone your own size, buckethead,” and with a mighty growl, the echidna slams the robotic copy into the side of the room, denting a solid impression into the wall.
As the robot slowly recovers, Miles scans the room for anything they can use to disable the metal Sonic. “Knuckles! Can you break the wire?” he yells.
Grabbing two parts of it, the echidna pulls and bites viciously into the tether, hoping to somehow snap it. “Grr, no good! Thing’s reinforced!”
“Darn it!” Miles abruptly flies higher when a metal blur lunges for him. Metal pauses, before suddenly seizing up as electricity runs over its body. Sonic, still strapped to the table, lights up as well. At that moment, a lightbulb goes off in the fox’s head. “Mr. Wachowski! If we free Sonic, he’ll no longer have a power source!”
Tom nods. “On it!” Clutching the emeralds close, the sheriff runs to the glass. The panel was about as thick as it looked, this wouldn’t be something he could just kick through.
He bangs on it a couple times, calling out the hedgehog’s name; nothing. As the power dies down, Sonic doesn’t even twitch. Cursing, he drops the bag and pulls out the gun out of its belt holster. He fires with wild abandon, but the bullets don’t even clear the glass.
“Miles!” Tom calls, glancing frantically between the fox and the recovering machine, “I can’t break it like this, it’s way too thick!”
Knuckles growls, gathering the cord in his hands, “Step back, I got it!”
The echidna didn’t have the advantage of speed, but he was certainly strong enough to yank the robot by the cord and gather up a length of it in his hands. He swings it like a lasso, the slow pickup giving Tom enough time to dive out of the way as he released the wire.
Metal lets out several beeps of distress as it crashes through the panel. The glass shatters into a shower of reflective confetti in its wake. It would've been beautiful if any of them had the idea to sit back and watch. Miles springs into action, flying over and searching the machinery for some kind of off switch. When he doesn’t find one, Tom nudges him to the side, gathering a handful of wires from the control panel and yanking with all his might.
Sparks fly and cords snap as the bundle comes off in his hands, Metal goes rigid as several lights on the panel and surrounding generators flick off all at once, and it seems to realize it’s fighting a losing battle.
The machine lets out a whirr almost comparable to a snarl, but a loud BANG! sharply cuts off its advance. A hole opens up in the cobalt metal, electricity arcing between exposed wires, and Metal falls into a heap on the floor.
Tom lowers his pistol shakily, staring at it to make sure it’s really down, then nods as he holsters the weapon and runs up to Sonic. “Help me get him down,” he calls back to Miles and Knuckles, who still look a little startled.
The electrodes and needles stuck to fur and buried in skin come off easily, almost too easily for all the havoc they’ve caused. Sonic falls limp into Tom’s arms when the cuffs strapping him to the table release at the press of a button on the side. He hurriedly pulls him close, eyes widening in growing disbelief as he realizes something about the hedgehog in his arms.
He’s cold.
“No… No, no, nononononono,” he mutters, sweeping aside broken glass to lay him gently on the ground and start chest compressions. One, two, three, four, what was that song again? Stayin’ Alive? He’d laugh if every second the kid didn’t start breathing was another piece of jagged glass embedded in his heart. He remembers the last time he was in this position, when a multi-layered contraption culminated in a massive explosion that should not have been contained in such a small drone, “Come on kid, you’ve been hit worse. Come on, please, please breathe. ”
The fox’s soft footsteps draw his attention. He’s sniffling, ears flattened against his head as he gives Tom a pleading look, “M-Mr. Wachowski, it’s… We’re too late.” Tails’s eyes water, a gloved hand scrubs at his face as he tries to keep his composure.
“... No, no, there’s gotta be something we can do,” Tom says, barely realizing that his heartbeat is starting to spike. “He’s not-- We
have
to be able to help him. I’m.. I can’t just.. I can’t just
leave
him.”
He’d have to tell Maddie. Tell her that he failed. Failed to keep him safe like… Like he promised.
They were going to surprise him with adoption papers when they got home. He had been with them for so long, they wanted to make it official. The legal hoops and cover-ups and surveys with increasingly outlandish questions would’ve been worth it just to be able to give him their last name.
He always thought Sonic Wachowski had a nice ring to it, they would have had to ask him to pick a middle name.
Tom gently shakes Sonic, silently pleading with his unresponsive body, he jokes, like the humor he was so fond of would bring him back, “Y-You’re just… Just gonna put us through all this trouble to make you a room, feed you our food, make us read stories to you at night, watch movies together, and make you a member of our family and you, you just...you can’t just-” he can’t bring himself to finish the sentence. It lodges in his throat, and he covers his face in his hands as reality begins to bleed through his denial.
“The--The emeralds!” He realizes, motioning to the ever vigilant Knuckles, who narrows his eyes and holds the bag closer, “They’ve gotta be able to help, right?” They had to be able to help, or he wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
Knuckles pauses, then slowly hands him the emeralds. Tom’s rush to grab them would have rivaled Sonic’s. He emptied the bag into his hands, shifting to cradle them in one arm while he moved to execute his probably fruitless idea.
Tom knows he probably looks insane, and he’s probably driving himself insane with all the effort it takes not to break down right then and there, but he’s already arranged the emeralds in a rough circle and set Sonic in the center by the time he allows himself to think “This might not work.”
He considers for a moment that he should step back and watch, but he’s not leaving him behind again. Tom sits there right with Sonic, cradling him close and muttering “It’s gonna be okay, you’ll be okay, we’ll all get home alright,” and after a while he forgets if he’s reassuring Sonic or himself. He forgets if it matters, because the only one alive enough to hear it isn’t feeling any better.
He looks up at the cold, uncaring ceiling of the facility, his eyes burning from tears or the harsh fluorescents or both, and whispers. To whatever god allowed this to happen, the emeralds, Sonic, he isn’t sure, he doesn’t care, “... Please. Please help me.”
For a brief second, nothing happens. The soul-crushing weight of guilt and anguish tear into his chest like rusty knives. Like the claws of the machine powered by the body in his hands.
Languidly, lights begin to warm and blink into his field of vision. Knuckles whispers, “The emeralds, they’re responding to your plea.” The gems shudder and twinkle, pulling themselves from the ground beneath to circle around Tom and Sonic. The sheriff’s eyes burn as thoughts form in his mind, thoughts that were not his own.
What do you request from us?
Tom falters, the answer stuck in his sore throat. His jaw clicks, opening and closing uselessly as he tries to find the words. He swallows roughly, hugging Sonic’s limp body closer.
The emeralds patiently judge.
Tears obscuring his vision, his voice croaking and splitting his vocal cords wide open, he responds:
“... Please just… Don’t let me lose him.”
The sheriff pushes his cheek into the hedgehog’s soft fur. “... Please. Not my son.”
For several seconds, the emeralds float agonizingly silent. Seconds that may as well have been years. Then, they glow brighter and brighter, slowly rotating in a dizzying carousel that hurts his eyes as it accelerates, but the energy radiating off of them and rippling through the air is oddly comforting.
… It is done.
The body in his hands grows warmer. Warm enough to be alive, then almost hot enough to burn, but he can’t bring himself to let go even as the heat becomes unbearable and the light forces his eyes shut.
“... D-.. Donut Lord?”
He knows that voice. That’s his son’s voice.
It’s croaky and barely there, but it’s his .
The light is still too bright to open his eyes, but he hugs the hedgehog closer, who slowly hugs back. Around his shoulders, tight, warm, and very much real.
Tom can’t help the sob that escapes him. “Y-you’re alright!”
Sonic shakes, laughter . “I told ya I’d be okay! What? Didn’t believe me?”
It slowly dims and the sheriff blearily opens his eyes. The hedgehog pulls away, his fur now a shining gold and ruby eyes bright and full of life . Tom’s cheeks hurt from smiling and has to restrain himself from pulling Sonic close again when Miles tackles him in a hug.
As the hedgehog attempts to calm down the kit (“Hey, Tails! Hey, look I’m alright. What’s got you so worked up…”), Tom watches Knuckles come up to stand beside him, a smile gracing his muzzle.
After a brief silence: “How’d you know it would work?”
Tom blinks. “What?”
“The emeralds. How’d you know they would respond to you?”
The sheriff breathes out a laugh. “I-I didn’t. I was honestly just grasping at straws.
“I guess I had just gotten so used to him that I couldn’t… Couldn’t imagine a world without him anymore.”
The echidna snorts incredulously. “Wish I had that kind of hope...”
“Alright, alright, enough of all this crying, yeah?” Sonic called, a devilish grin spreading across his glowing muzzle, “Lets kick Eggbutt’s butt!”
Tom grinned right back, ruffling Sonic’s upturned quills. Yeah, he’d like to punch the sunnovabitch in the face again. Robotnik wouldn’t know what hit him.
No one touches his son and gets away with it.