Chapter Text
It was an early Saturday morning for the Wachowskis, it was Tom’s day off and Maddie was able to use one of her sick days so they all would be able to spend some time together as a family. Maddie was attempting to gently wake up the kids whilst Tom was at the stove preparing a big hearty breakfast to prepare for the day.
It had been a couple of months since everything that had happened after Eggman returned. Eggman’s body was found and pronounced dead, his agent was found, pleaded mental instability and is now in a ward, and Maddie and Tom had taken in Knuckles and Tails. It took a while for them to warm up to the new parental figures in their lives due to their respective traumas but with enough love, support, and therapy, they felt comfortable enough to label the pair their parents. It took Sonic a while to warm up to his new siblings, with him going from an only child to having to split the attention three ways, but he got through it, now ecstatic about his big family. Schooling had been organised for both Sonic and Tails, who were both extremely excited for very different reasons, whereas Knuckles was sadly unable to attend but was working very hard with many tutoring sessions, to catch up. Sonic was placed on the local baseball team where the whole family would come out and support him an embarrassing amount according to the blue hedgehog, and Tom and Maddie were looking for a non-contact sport that Knuckles could possibly participate in. The pair were able to get set shifts so they were finally able to keep a set routine, and everything seemed perfect.
The first one to arrive in the kitchen is Knuckles, his spines and fur slightly askew and a yawn erupting from his throat as he trudged in and immediately going to the fridge, grabbing out a carton of juice and drinking straight from it. Tom turns his head slightly, seeing bright red and knowing immediately who it was. Even though it was obvious beforehand due to the extremely heavy footsteps and the fact that no one else drank straight out of the carton, other than Sonic but he was completely aware of Earthly etiquette, unlike Knuckles who was still learning.
“Hey bud, no drinking straight out of the carton, that's what glasses are for.”
“Why?”
“Because you can spread germs”
“Father, are you insinuating that I have DISEASES?”
“What? No I-”
“Ewww Knuckles! Are you drinking out of the carton again?” Tails exclaims as he waddles into the room, dragging a blanket along with him even though it's late spring. Tom raised his eyebrows towards Knuckles at that remark
“I don’t have diseases!” The echidna announces getting visibly defensive as his father just groans as he goes back to making breakfast, already admitting defeat due to going through this many times before. He turns off the heat on the stove, moving the pan to the other hot plate.
“Tails, Knucks, can you set the table for me? And make sure to grab cups!”
“And why exactly are we emphasising the need for cups?” Maddie chuckles as she walks in, a certain blue hedgehog in tow, practically being dragged by the baseball-themed blanket wrapped around him in some act of rebellion.
“Because a certain someone still doesn't understand why we need to use cups”
“MOTHER THEY ARE INSINUATING I HAVE DISEASES!” Knuckles points accusingly to his father, as Maddie continues to giggle as she walks over to her red son and kisses him on the top of the head.
“We aren't saying you have diseases dear, we just don't want to risk anything spreading” She explains as she pets his head lovingly.
“And I don't want your backwash either!” The blue one shouts from a tiny opening in his cocoon. Tom walks past, food in one hand, the other hand grabbing the blanket and yanking it hard with a smirk plastered on his face, sending the hedgehog spinning. “Time to wake up kiddo!”
“DAAAAD!”
Maddie lets out something between a chuckle and a sigh as she walks over to her husband and kisses his cheek. “Dear please don't make our kids sick before breakfast, now everyone sit down, we need to eat quickly if we want to actually want to spend the whole day out.''
A unanimous cheer erupts between the three children.
…
Tom came downstairs to Tails, who was sitting on his usual bar stool in the kitchen, packing his bag full of gadgets.
They all had unintentionally designated spots for each other and stuck to it ever since, greatly amusing their parents.
He put his hand on the little fox's shoulder with an amused smile. "You know bud, you don't need to bring all this stuff"
The kit looks up at him and returns the smile, about to explain himself, but a certain blue hedgehog comes barreling down the stairs, baseball bat and helmet in tow. Almost knocking down picture frames and ornaments on the way, bringing a giggle out of Tails.
"Yeah, dude come on !! It's time to go" he says, dragging out the ‘o’, as he's practically bouncing off the walls. Tom with perfect timing, from much experience, grappled him up, held him under his arm and pushed the helmet down, chuckling.
"What have I told you about running around the house young man?" he exclaimed ruffling his helmet around whilst the speedster tries to push away his hand and escape from the human's grip, laughing all the while.
Around the same time, Maddie, and Knuckles, who were carrying the esky with an assortment of drinks and the emerald, arrived inside from the newly rebuilt shed.
Luckily, the government officials working on the Robotnik case were more courteous when it came to the reimbursement for the damages than last time. With it they were able to rebuild the destroyed walls within the house which the family had a blast painting, a photo of them all covered in paint with big smiles plastered on their faces hanging up on one of the walls. They designed and built a new and improved shed, with much more space than the one before. With Tails assistance, they were able to create a little workshop for him to be able to express himself, whilst also having a place to store everything that couldn't fit into the house, especially after Knuckles moved into the basement. After the house and shed were finished, the boys would be found constantly out in the yard during the warmer months working on projects together, evident by the new swinging chair on their back porch.
"Cold box with drinks and emerald acquired!" The Echidna states confidently whilst holding the esky up and slamming it on the kitchen counter, hopping onto the stool next to Tails, earning a chuckle from their mother.
"Perfect! So if that is all then we should be ready to-"
Suddenly, a rustling noise followed by a crash interrupts Tom's speech. They all freeze and look towards the bins outside, seeing one of them knocked over.
"Are the raccoons back again? I thought those traps would work.." Tails muttered, looking down at the kitchen counter slightly dejected.
Maddie gives him a side hug, "They worked great sweetie I promise, 'cause I'm sure that was too big to be a raccoon, and too fast".
"A trespasser then!" Their red son slams his fist on the counter, sounding like it was dangerously close to cracking the marble, supported by Maddie’s slightly worried chuckle. She placed her hand on his fist with a kind motherly 'don't you dare ever do that shit again' type look.
Sonic's ears perk up at this information, and he manages to struggle out of his father's grip while he's distracted. "Nothing that Blue Justice can’t handle!” He states before he zooms out to the front yard and to the bins.
When he got there, there was no sign of rummaging or scavenging in the bins, it just simply toppled over. Next thing he knows, the rest of the family has joined him outside, all looking just as confused as the hedgehog. Knuckles takes the initiative and puts the bin back where it's supposed to be, whilst Tails and Maddie pick up some of the trash that fell out, which luckily wasn't much as it was mostly in garbage bags.
“Ya know, the last time that this happened, a certain hedgehog showed up” Tom states as he looks down to Sonic with a slight smirk. Maddie chuckles slightly at Sonic’s sudden playful glare at the male human.
Suddenly out of the corner of Sonic's eye, he saw a blur of black? or was it red or even yellow? He couldn’t exactly tell, but what he could tell was that it was fast, almost as fast as he was, and he wanted to know what, or who it was. Before he could think he rushes after it, blowing past Tom, almost knocking him over, his voice shouting for the hedgehog behind him, but to Sonic, it is only heard as muffled noise.
He runs across the plains of Green Hill, the beautiful scenery passing by him as a blur, keeping his eyes fixed on his target. He notices little details about them, like how they don’t seem to be running but skating? And their shoes seem to be giving them a boost of some kind judging by the flame-like effects emitting from them.
Before he knows it he has arrived at a small cottage on the other side of town, right at the outskirts.
He had heard his parents talk about how there was a new person moving into town, but there was no information on who they were. Apparently, the real estate wasn’t handled by the agent in Green Hill, and any information that they had got was confidential, which made Sonic fear the worst. Whether that be Robotnik or some type of GUN agent, he didn't want ANY of it to ruin the perfect life his family made together.
As Sonic looked up at the roof, expecting his worst fears to come true, he saw someone that looked just like him.
A hedgehog.
But that seemed to be the only thing they had in common. This hedgehog had clean black quills and fur, making Sonic look like a grot in comparison, noting that he needed to ask him how he got it to look like that. He had clear red stripes that seemed too perfect to be natural, and chunky shoes and gloves with what looked like rings around his wrists and ankles. To Sonic he seemed a little too emo, especially compared to the soft cottagecore aesthetic of the property, but he shrugged it off.
The new hedgehog had a snarl on his face and a growl erupting from his throat, his quills lifted and his stance lowered, still having the height advantage due to being on top of the roof.
Sonic stands there, finally processing the situation, turning his shock into excitement, completely forgetting that this hedgehog had seemingly been spying on them just a minute ago. Every bit of fear and worry dissipates immediately, even as the creature he is excited about looks like it would pounce at any sudden movement.
“You’re... Just like me!” The blue hedgehog exclaims, ecstatic, running up to the top of the roof. At full speed, he rushes all around the new hedgehog, asking him millions upon millions of questions, practically vibrating. Just as he is about to stop, the hedgehog finally processes what is happening and punches Sonic full force away from him. He flies off the roof and skids across the pavement and lawn, almost flying into an immaculate rose bush but clearly wilting slightly due to the near summer heat.
He groans as he slowly gets up, covered in skid marks and a clear red mark on his chest.
“I guess we are doing thi-” Sonic starts, but is very rudely interrupted by the hedgehog coming at him with a spin dash and, again, knocking him on his ass, and into a tree, hitting his back with an impact that could most likely be heard all throughout Green Hill.
“You talk too much.” The hedgehog stated, still keeping somewhat of a distance away, seemingly expecting an attack.
He would be correct as Sonic was able to pick himself up relatively quickly after such an intense impact, knowing damn well he's gonna feel the consequences for the next couple of days. He sends off in a spin dash towards the now-seen enemy hedgehog. “Well maybe you don't talk enough!”
He just glares at Sonic as he returns the gesture, them colliding a few times before the blue hedgehog accidentally gets hit towards the cottage. Luckily, the enemy is able to quickly recover from the collision and kick Sonic away from the house before he crashes into it, hitting dangerously close to his eye. “Be. Careful.” the dark hedgehog growls with a very protective tone.
A look of confusion flashes across Sonic's face as he is rubbing the place where he was kicked. “But you're the one that hit me towards it?!” he states with a clear amount of frustration in his voice.
Realisation flashes on the darker one's face as he sees his mistake, but it is only seen for less than a second before it turns into anger and a sharp glare toward Sonic as he launches himself toward him once again.
…
Unbeknownst to the pair of squabbling rodents, a young woman was working in her lab, just under the surface where they were. She was not able to hear them at first due to the music blasting in her ears from her homemade noise-cancelling headphones.
As she is writing down formulas and working out equations, she hears a loud crack of a tree and pauses, looking up towards the ceiling when she feels the room shake.
“What the hell..” She states as she runs through the many different possibilities in her mind.
Traffic? No. Definitely too loud.
Tree getting cut down? Better not be. cause if the sound is that close and that loud then it's definitely on her property.
The cats? If it was then she may have to question if they were aliens along with Shadow…
Shadow? Nah he wouldn't cause that much trouble... would he? Maybe if there was an intruder.. or maybe a trespasser, or someone that she didn't make him aware of that looked really suspicious. She notes in her mind to bring that up again with his psychiatrist the next time they meet. Either way, he knows to alert her first in some way rather than attack without thinking.
No matter the reason she still removes her goggles from her forehead, placing them on the extremely cluttered desk, and makes her way to the elevator up to the backyard. The exit rises up from under the angel statue in the middle of the garden, and she steps out. Her lab coat is still on, flowing slightly along with her blue summer dress from the light spring breeze, with her cane by her side.
As she walks through the back door of the cottage she notices a loud voice shouting snarky remarks and a gruff voice that she can recognise immediately making small comments back, obviously not wanting to talk. She sighs as soon as she recognizes the second voice and assumes she knows the first one just from government officials.
She had been told about the Wachowski family in as much detail as her supervisor had access to. About the young couple, about the terrorist allegations towards Tom during his first encounter with Sonic, about said young hedgehog and his now siblings as the couple were luckily able to adopt them all without too much push back, and of course, about their battles with her cousin.
This is what had worried her the most about moving to Green Hill.
She barely had a choice in the matter in the first place with the government wanting to keep all the known aliens in the same space. Whilst she somewhat understood why, it also put her in an extremely uncomfortable position.
Her family name had already been tarnished due to her grandfather's downfall into insanity and even more now with her cousin's recent actions, which were actually somewhat open to the public compared to Gerald's.
And now she's been placed in an environment where everyone has been extremely affected by these actions in some way, directly or indirectly.
Even though she isn't anything like her cousin, and resents him completely, purposely choosing to never make herself known to him during the time that he was alive. She still understands why people would resent her as well if they ever learnt her last name.
Pushing that fear aside for the time being, taking a deep breath, she opens the front door and steps out onto the porch, getting a full view of the situation at hand.
…
As the darker hedgehog is about to land another strike on the lighter, a loud “HEY” sounds out from the house. Both boys turn to see a young blonde woman standing at the doorway, Sonic not recognising her, looking over to the other and seeing him slightly wide-eyed, frozen in place. The blue menace of a hedgehog sees this as an opportunity and lands one last spin dash on the other, sending him into a tree, and causing him to get a large cut underneath his eye.
“SONIC.”
A voice that Sonic definitely recognised erupted from the driveway. Sonic slowly turned to see that his mother had gathered the family into the truck, including Ozzie, and driven them over to the small cottage across town.
Sonic's ears dropped. “IT WAS HIS FAULT!” He shouts as he points accusingly, as the other is picking himself up from the base of the tree, glaring at Sonic with his gloved hand over his cut.
Maddie runs over to her son, checking his wounds and for any broken bones.
The blonde just sighs, sounding like she had been through this many times before, “I'll go get the first aid kit”. Just as she opens the door a grey tabby bolts out, sprinting towards the dog in the back of the truck. Just as Tom was finished getting the two children out of the truck, he scooped up the cat before it could reach Ozzie. It showing no signs of aggression but more excitement and curiosity.
Both he and Maddie take note of the fact that it only had a nub for a left arm, it trying to paw at Tom with the nub, forgetting about the fact that it didn’t have one.
Tom chuckles as he pets the cat slightly, “I'm guessing this one's yours?”
“Yes! Thank you!” She exclaims as she giggles slightly.
Tom walks up and passes her the feline who starts to struggle in her arms, “Oop yep, still don't like me very much”, passing it onto the darker hedgehog who had joined her by her side, “Shadow, you take Zelda”. The cat practically jumps onto his shoulder, being mindful of the spines.
The man notes the name of the hedgehog in his head as he holds his hand out for a handshake with a grin on his face.
“I'm Tom Wachowski”
She shakes his hand, reciprocating the smile. “The sheriff, so I've heard”
He nods and chuckles, “And you are?”
A flash of fear washes over her face which everyone notices, but all unanimously choose to ignore.
She gains her composure as fast as it falters and gives the warmest smile she could muster as the panic starts to set in.
“Maria.”
…
The two families could be seen seated in the backyard, due to a lack of space on the front porch. Shadow and Sonic being forced to sit down next to each other, as Knuckles and Tails play around with Ozzie in the backyard, with Maria apologising that she didn't have anything that they could play with. Maria and Tom are seen patching up Sonic's grazes that are littered all over his body with Sonic holding and ice pack up to his eye, as Maddie is stitching up a clearly uncomfortable Shadow, as shown by his lack of eye contact, and constant fidgeting with his rings and constant petting of Zelda, who had opted to sit on her owner's lap instead of play.
“Now. What happened?” Maddie stated sternly as she put a bandaid over Shadow's stitches.
“He was sneaking around the house!” Sonic shouted, Shadow flinching and his ears flattening at the loud noise.
“Shadow?” Maria looks at Shadow with a confused look, him practically sinking down in his seat in shame.
“Shadow.. we've talked about this”
He just looks down at Zelda dejected, picking dirt out of her fur. The blonde just sighs, still looking towards Shadow, “And how did the fight happen, and how did it happen here?”
“Well–” Sonic starts before his mother does a shh motion towards him. “We want to get both sides kiddo” Tom pats him on the arm and smiles, the blue hedgehog huffing, crossing his arms in frustration.
Shadow shifts slightly in his seat, lightly smirking at Sonic's annoyance and silence, Maria notices this and glares at him.
Shadow explained the situation almost verbatim, choosing to leave out the heartless banter.
“Well maybe you should've attacked me!”
“Well maybe YOU should learn some personal space.”
“WELL MAYBE-”
“ENOUGH!” Maddie shouts over the boys, everyone pausing what they are doing and looking over at the mother, even Ozzie drops down on the floor with a whine. Both Maria and Shadow flinch hard, a yellow spark appearing around him, and suddenly Shadow is sitting next to Maria, taking the cat with him.
Sonic stares in complete shock, Maddie looks down at the spot where the hedgehog used to be and back to his new position, and Tom just sits there impressed.
“Woah.” Is all that Sonic can say.
Everyone just sits there, not knowing what to say. Shadow feels the tension building, the desperation to leave growing more and more. Maria seems to notice this and wraps her arm around him, dipping her head down to his height. The other three on the porch can't hear much, only hearing things like “Are you okay?” and “Can you go back?”. The next thing they know, Shadow is back next to Sonic and Maddie, Zelda still on his lap, but now trying to climb up onto his shoulder, him scratching her back.
Tom lets out a sigh of relief as Maddie shifts in her seat, “Sorry dear, I should'nt've been that loud, but you two were getting too aggressive, I couldn't risk anything.”
Shadow nods slightly, letting out a small “I understand”
“Now, I need you two to hurry up and apologise to each other because the adults need to talk, okay?”
They both nod and let out half-assed apologies, and walk off, Sonic joining Knuckles and Tails, and Shadow quickly walking inside and grabbing some treats for the cat, before pausing and popping his head back out. “Is your dog allowed treats?” He says, voice still quiet. “His name is Ozzie, and yes he is,” Tom says with a smile.
Suddenly, a young kitten comes barreling out the door, wobbling about as it attempts to run, falling on its face. Shadow quickly scoops up the kitten in his hand, the kitten making its emotions about the situation known as it lets out a banshee scream of a meow. Shadow looks towards Maria, “Wanna feed him now?”. She nods as Shadow passes her the kitten and the squeezy food packet, and he goes back inside, grabs the rest of the treats and goes over to the animals and aliens, letting them feed Zelda some treats.
Maria places the kitten on her lap, keeping a hand on him and she tears open the food packet with her teeth, she giggles as she sees Tom looking at the kitten confused and the other boys in the middle of filling both animals up with treats coming over to see the kitten.
“Don't worry, you can ask about him”
Knuckles perks up, “Why is he so unstable?”
“Cerebellar hypoplasia I'm guessing?” Maddie says, as Maria feeds him, the cat vocally nomming away at the food, Tails practically melting at the sight.
Maria nods with a big smile, “Yep!”, looking a bit too happy for someone who just confirmed that her kitten has an underdeveloped brain.
“What's that?” Tails asks with a tilt of his head, looking between both Maria and Maddie, not sure who to ask. The blonde visibly perks up as Maddie looks towards her, sensing her excitement when the question is asked.
As she's explaining to the boys, Maddie is able to see the light in her eyes grow brighter, her passion for the topic in full bloom. She looks over to Shadow and sees that he obviously is able to see it as well. The boys try to understand, with Tails understanding completely, whereas Knuckles falls behind on some parts, but all three get the gist.
The boys go back to playing around, Tom joining them, and Maria finishes feeding the kitten, which they had been told was called Link. Both Tom and Maddie chuckled, whereas their three boys hadn't gotten the reference, with Maria insisting that boys need to learn about 'the beauty and mystical wonder of The Legend of Zelda' as she put it.
She keeps the kitten on her lap, now having a quick nap due to being all full, smiling softly as she gently strokes its fur.
Maddie smiles at the sight and giggles slightly at the thought she just had.
The blonde looks up at her and cocks her head slightly, giggling slightly, 'what's so funny?'
She sighs fondly, “It's just the fact that you know more than I do and I'm a vet”, letting out more chuckles, this time Maria fully joining her, both laugh, joining together into a perfect symphony, not the prettiest, but perfect.
“Well I am a biologist so I do kinda have to know my stuff,” She says with one last giggle.
“Really? Huh, you know, you do seem like a biology type”
“It would also explain the lab coat!” Tom shouts from across the yard, holding Sonic upside-down by the ankle, screams and giggles filling the air, along with the chorus of 'Put me down!’s.
Maria looks down at her clothes, seeing the lab coat still present over her dress. “Oh! I didn't even realise I still had it on!” She chuckles as she gets up with the help of her cane, and quickly puts it on a hook inside, right next to the back door.
“Hon please put our kid down, I don't want him getting brain damage”
“He won't get brain damage, see! He's tough!” He says as he shakes him around a bit, the solo of giggles growing into harmony from them all, except their Mother.
“Tom.” Maddie says sternly.
He quickly recognises her tone and flips the kid right up and puts him down, ruffling his quills after.
“Moooooom!” Sonic says with a whine, “I won't get brain damage!”
“Exactly, because brother you do not have a brain to begin with!” Knuckles says with pride at his ‘sick burn' as Sonic would put it.
Shadow chuckles at that one, along with Tails, Tom, and Maddie who is trying to hide it behind her hand.
“HEY!”
Maria watches the young family, with a slight smile, but also an air of sadness surrounding her. As Maddie turns around, she notices this, “Hey, you okay?”
The blonde snaps out of the little trance she is in, immediately going back to the warm personality she has portrayed beforehand. “Yeah yeah, I'm fine!”. Maddie looks a little sceptical but decides that it would be something for a later date if this ever happened again.
“So, biology, do you have your doctorate or?”
“Yes! I also have my PhD in physics!” She says with a smile that even the sun would shield its eyes from, practically bouncing in her seat.
“So you're Dr. Maria?”
She nods excitedly, but just as she is about to respond, Sonic pipes in, sprinting to the benches, pulling himself up slightly so he can see over the table fully.
“Soooo are we ever gonna learn your last name or is that a little mysterious thing you've got goin' on, cause if it is you aren't doing too well cause you've already told us a lo-”
Maddie quickly covers his mouth, and looks at him with the most ‘shut the hell up or I'm gonna smack you to next week’ type look, not like she would ever dream of hitting her children. Shadow quickly looks over at the situation at hand.
Maria visibly gets more tense as the panic sets in. Just the thought of having to tell them her last name makes her feel like she's going faint. She almost would rather do that than actually be in this situation.
She swallows hard, and takes a deep breath, finally admitting to herself that this needs to happen now. Keeping this from them could make it look like she was affiliated with him , or even worse, working for him, which is the complete OPPOSITE of what she wants.
“Well.. uh…”
Suddenly Tom comes over, “Please don't feel pressured to tell us, Sonic is just a bit curious sometimes.. and a bit insensitive”. A muffled noise comes from the dark-haired woman's hand as the blue hedgehog protests. Just from that, the tension dissipated in an instant, allowing Maria to let out what sounded like a laugh and a sigh, feeling much more comfortable than before.
“No, no it's okay, it's probably better if I tell you guys, it will cause fewer problems in the long run I guess..”
They all look confused.
“Well I mean like, it kinda means that I would be related to someone who has done horrible things and I just don't want you guys to assume that I am like that person, but also I would understand if you didn't want to talk to me because of it even though the only affiliation I have with them is the fact that we are blood-related and-”
Maddie rests her hand over the panicking blondes. “If this is getting you this stressed out, then-”
“It's Robotnik.”
Silence.
All she was met with was silence.
The only thing that could be heard was the sound of the breeze and the light purrs of the sleeping kitten on her lap, who she seemed to be intensely focused on, slowly taking her hand out from under Maddies.
She looks over to Shadow, whose quills are slowly starting to rise, expecting the worst. Her face was full of sadness and panic, Shadow reciprocated a similar look, knowing how excited she was to meet people who were actually somewhat similar to her.
“So…” Tom decides to break the silence, keeping an eye on the children to make sure they don't say anything out of line. “You don't have any connections with him at all..?”
Maria looks up towards him. “None. The only connection we have ever had is the fact that we were cousins, but he never knew I existed, which was my decision.”
Knuckles looks conflicted as he walks up closer to the table, “What are your intentions when it comes to relocating here?”
'Well, I was asked to by the government, as both Shadow and I work there. It's just so all the known aliens can be kept in one place.”
Sonic pipes up again, able to remove his mother's hand away from his mouth during their moment of shock, “And how do we know you're telling the truth?”, a look of suspicion on his face as he narrows his eyes at her.
“Or the government?” Tom adds.
“This will have to be something you guys will just have to trust me on, I know their intentions.”
“You sure?”
She smirks, “I think you underestimate my position of power, Sheriff”
At this comment, Shadow’s quills lay back down, him gently petting them back to fix them, as he relaxes. Unlike Tom, who raises his eyebrows in slight shock and suspicion.
Maddie slowly looked up from where she was picking at her slightly ripped skinny jeans, a confused look plastered on her face. “Wait a minute..”, everyone looks over at her, “how old are you?”
“26, why?”
“And how old was Robotnik when he passed?”
“Uhhhh somewhere in his early 50's I think, I'm not too sure, again, why?”
“So how does that work? If you are in your 20's and him in his 50's then that means your side of the family would have had to be alive when he was. How did he not find out about you guys?”
Maria just stares at her, realising that she's onto something, not expecting someone to pick up on that hole in her story.
Tails toddles over, Ozzie following him. “Hmm especially since he worked for the government as well, surely he had to at least search for his family members?”
“It is what any normal person would do” Knuckles states.
“Then again, he wasn't exactly normal.” Tom pipes in.
The blonde quickly looks over to Shadow for any kind of assistance, trying her best not to freak out about possibly having to explain the long and complicated history of her past on a random Saturday afternoon with no preparation, to people she barely knows. He quickly looks up at the sky before tapping on his wrist, her quickly realising and checking her phone to see that it was getting late.
Tom notices her panic and also checks his phone, noticing that most of the day has gone by, tapping Maddie to signal that it's time to go.
“Well,” She slaps her hands on her thighs as she gets up. “We would love to stay and talk, but it's getting late and we” She grabs onto Sonics shoulder putting him into a side hug, 'have a park to get to'
“But mother, look!”
They all look over and see Knuckles holding Zelda perfectly, the cat purring. Shadow standing next to him, keeping an eye on the tabby just in case she decides to act out.
“The feline likes me! And the darker hedgehog said that it doesn't like anyone else! I'M THE CHOSEN ONE!” Due to the loud noises, the cat starts shifting, Shadow quickly moving over to pet her, chuckling slightly. Maria smiles at this, before grabbing her cane and getting herself up, holding the kitten in her hand.
“I'm sorry boys but I have stuff that I have to do today also” She giggles.
“But I think we will keep in touch, so we can all meet up again” Tom says looking over at Maria, who smiles brightly and nods.
They exchange numbers and go out to the front porch. Knuckles returns the cat with a sad expression as he gives her one last scratch behind the ears. Tails went up to Maria and petted Link gently, also saying his goodbyes.
Sonic goes up to Shadow, “Man we gotta compete again! I've never had someone as fast as me before!”
“No fights!” Maddie shouts out from the car, buckling Tails and Knuckles in.
“Ugh fine!”
“Only if you are ready to get destroyed.” Shadow states in his usual gruff voice.
"HA! IN YOUR DREAMS!" The blue hedgehog shouts as he runs over to the car, Ozzie following him, jumping onto the back of the truck.
…
As Tom is driving, Sonic is yapping about Shadow.
"Did you see those stripes!"
"We did kiddo"
"And the rings!"
"Yup."
"And he is just as fast as me!"
"But obviously not as strong as me, his arms were like twigs!" Knuckles exclaims.
"Well technically if he was as buff as you, then he wouldn't be as fast as Sonic" Tails joins in.
"Ahah! Then I am still superior!"
"That's not what I.."
"Knuckles, what did I tell you about the whole superiority thing?"
"Sorry mother.. it is not my fault my siblings can not handle the truth!" He exclaims as he pounds his fists on his legs.
Maddie just sighs as she looks over to Tom, "Do you trust them?"
"Hm?" He says, still focusing on the road.
"Maria and Shadow."
"Hmm I mean yeah, I guess. We don't know them too well but they seem really nice, well.. Maria does, the hedgehog looks a little angsty, I don't want him and Sonic fighting to become a regular thing, ya know? Why, don't you?"
She looks back to the children, seeing them playing around together, excited about the park.
"I dunno, I can't help but feel like something is up, like how Robotnik didn't know about her side of the family. It just.. doesn't make sense."
"Well it is our first time meeting them, it's understandable that she doesn't want to go into detail about her family life, especially after being so panicked about telling us that she is a part of that family"
He places his hand on her thigh.
"Give them a chance, how often is it that we find a family that is anything like ours"
They both chuckle.
"Mother?"
"Yes, dear?"
"May we introduce a kitten into the family?"
…
Both Maria and Shadow wave as the family drives off. Once they are out of sight, Maria looks down at Shadow with a big smile. He looks up at her with a confused look.
"What?"
"Thank you."
He looks even more confused.
"Even though you didn't mean to, and we will be having a big discussion about the whole spying thing-"
"By we, you mean with the psychiatrist right?" He says with a gruff tone.
"Yep." He huffs in annoyance. "Even though this happened because of that, I finally got to meet the people I would have never gotten the confidence to actually meet myself. So.. Thank you" She gives the warmest smile she can muster as she gives him a side hug.
"This will be good for you, M" A small smile plastered on his face.
"It will be good for you too! Probably even better. You need this just as much as I do."
She smiles as she pets his quills.
"This will be perfect for both of us."