Underground X (*Straight Sonadow*)

A Not-So-Happy Birthday Surprise

It didn't take long for the heroes to reach the picnic area. After all, they were known for their speed above all else. At least, Sonica was. She was the first to arrive.
Sonica skidded to a stop a few feet away from her friends, trying not to ram into one of them. When she did come to a complete stop, and after dusting off her red-and-white skort and cropped tank top, she was a bit shocked.
"Happy birthday!"
The birthday girl broke out laughing as her surprise soon dispersed. "I had almost forgotten it was my birthday! Thanks, guys!" Her two-tailed friend arrived, only to be caught in a headlock from his best friend. "You knew about this, didn't you?"
"Of course!" he managed to say through his laughter. "I was the one who planned it!"
Sonica finally released Tails with a huge smile plastered on her face. "And how did I not notice you planning this party?"
"You were always on one of your runs when I started the planning."
"Of course." She looked around at her surprise party; she saw the Chaotix. Charmy Bee looked like he had already drunk half of the punch. Vector the Crocodile was getting onto him for something (probably drinking half of the punch). Espio the Chameleon was just trying to look less embarrassed than he was. Luckily, he was a ninja, so that was easy for him, for the most part anyway.
Blaze the Cat, a princess with pyrokinesis from another dimension and guardian of the Sol Emeralds, was talking to Silver the Hedgehog, a hedgehog from the future with psychokinesis.
Next to them was Cream the Rabbit, Cheese the Chao, Chocola the Chao, and Vanilla the Rabbit standing next to the snacks. Cheese and Chocola were both holding a cupcake, with the small orb above their heads in the shape of a heart. Cream also had a cupcake and had obviously been nibbling it as she had small splotches of icing around her mouth. Vanilla was tentatively fusing over her child, wiping her mouth of crumbs and icing. She gave a friendly smile to Sonica as she saw her looking their way. "Happy birthday, dear."
"Thanks, Vanilla."
A glint caught the corner of the hedgehog's eye and she looked toward it to see E-123 Omega, the Eggman robot gone good. On top of the massive robot was Rouge the Bat, a GUN agent that took up treasure hunting as a hobby. Although she did like to try to steal the Master Emerald from Knuckles a lot. Probably so she could flirt with him. She gave Sonica a playful wink as she glanced over. Sonica simply rolled her eyes affectionately and raised her hand in greeting. Behind the robot was what caught her attention the most. Standing with his arms crossed and his back turned to the crowd, was her boyfriend, Shadow the Hedgehog. Feeling her gaze, he turned his head and gave her a soft, loving smile. She gave a brief smile back.
Sonica leaned over to Tails. "How'd you get Shads to come?"
The fox just shrugged. "I didn't. Rouge must have dragged him along."
"Heh."
She looked over to the lake to see Amy had arrived and was talking to Big the Cat with his friend, Froggy. The large purple cat had his fishing pole out and cast into the lake.
'Does he do anything besides fishing?' Sonica thought as she gazed along the water's surface. She then remembered the friendly cat helping Amy and Cream in their adventure with Metal Overlord. 'Guess he does.'
Knuckles the Echidna came up to her side and patted Sonica on the back. "Happy birthday, hedgehog." He then held out his fist for a fist-bump.
"Thanks, Knux." She returned the gesture. "Let's hope no monsters decide to come crash the party this time."
The echidna gave a short chuckle and walked to the rest of the group with Sonica and Tails right in step.

An hour later, the party was still going. The friends were talking and laughing; they had even gotten Shadow to race at one point. They were just enjoying themselves. Sonica, at the moment, was talking with Tails and Amy.
"How could you forget your own birthday, Sonica?" Tails asked.
"Yeah. Especially after your last one," Amy added.
Sonica shrugged. "I don't really know. I guess I just... forgot."
The three cracked up.
"I'd think a giant black monster that eats time and space would be memorable enough," Tails managed through his laughter.
"Because none of the stuff I do isn't memorable enough already?"
"Like genies in books or a giant death laser threatening Mobius?"
"Or a god of destruction made of water destroying the city, the planet breaking apart and you turning into a werehog, maybe a tornado carrying us off onto another dimension?"
Sonica raised her hands in effort to stop her best friends. "Okay! Okay! I get it." She let out a giggle.
Suddenly, a loud roar echoed throughout the Zone. Looking up, the group could see what looked like a large dragon flying toward the party a few miles away. Looking closely, you could just see a small dot floating beside it. The Eggmobile.
"Again? Can't that Egghead just chill for one day? Oh, well." The sow started stretching, gazing at the large robot in the distance. "This might be fun!"
All the guests stood ready behind her. They knew that they were in for a fight. Of course, with all of them there, it couldn't be that hard. They'd been through thick and thin together. Heck, they've thought that another of them was dead before. They could handle this thing.
It didn't take long for the scientist to reach her. That robot moved pretty quickly considering how much metal was used to build it. It was about four stories high, not including the tail. That was three miles in length on its own. The body was split into different parts, probably so it could move easier. It also had small separate squares of metal arranged around it.
'Doors,' Sonica realized. They were hatches for weaponry. The head was straight edged; it had no curves in it whatsoever. It was like he had spent so much time on the rest of the body that he had to rush the head just to have it ready for the party. The entire thing was painted a bright red, the only exceptions being its stomach and snout, which were a deep black.
"Hedgehog!"
Said hedgehog placed her hands on her hips and gazed up at the doctor with a bored look on her face. Although, her eyes revealed the excitement in those emerald irises. "What, no 'Happy birthday' or 'Hello, how are you'? That's a bit rude, wouldn't you say?"
Eggman scowled at the Blue Blur with pure hate reflecting off of his small, round glasses. "I'm so sorry, hedgehog. Happy. Birthday."
Sonica was slightly confused at his reply. She had expected old Egghead to make some rude retort. Something was going on. And she could bet she wasn't going to like it.
The mad doctor confirmed her suspicions just a moment later. "But it's not just your birthday, now is it?"
Knuckles came up to his friend when he saw her tense up. Putting a hand on her shoulder, he glared up at the egg-shaped man in his hover craft. "Beat it, Egghead. I don't remember us inviting you to the party." Hate dripped out of his voice.
"Oh? Am I getting on your nerves? Good. That's just what I came here for." The dictator's dragon let out a roar. "And I'm not done!"
Sonica scowled at her nemesis. Did he really have to do this now of all days? She already had problems with her past every once in a while, but Eggman had never brought it up. Why would he now? There were plenty of other ways to get on her nerves. Most involved water. Of all times, he chose to pick her birthday party, with all her friends. All her friends...
She never told them! The only one who knew was Knuckles and that was only because he was part of it. It's not like it's the easiest thing to explain. Especially after so long. Revealing her real gender was easier than this! Oh, man! She was in big trouble now.
"You never told them, did you?" Eggman's voice took her out of her thoughts. "Although I can't blame you. Something like that is probably better kept a secret."
The hedgehog glanced behind her to her friends. They all looked utterly confused. Amy stepped up. "What are you talking about?"
"Her family, of course!"
"Huh?"
The doctor held out a hand towards Sonica, a wicked grin on his face. "How much has this little pest actually told about her past?" No one answered him. "That's what I thought." He signaled to his dragon-bot to attack.
All party-goers scattered as the attack dragon shot flames toward the group. Amy landed closest to Sonica. "Sonica, what was he talking about?!"
The blue blur physically winced when she heard her question. "Listen. Amy." Another blast of fire came toward them. "I'll explain later! Right now, we need to get rid of that thing!"
The only reply was a short nod. She felt really bad about lying to her friends, but at the moment, the bigger concern was the giant robot trying to kill them.
Suddenly, she had an idea. "Everyone! Try to distract it! Amy, come with me." Not checking to see if the others heard her, she grabbed Amy and ran to the top of a loop close by.
Amy rested her hammer on the ground and looked at her best friend with a curious look in her eyes. "What's going on in that head of yours, Sonica?"
Said hedgehog was looking toward the battle, calculating distances. She didn't even hear her question. "I think that this is high enough."
"Sonica!"
The sudden yell made her jump almost ten feet in the air from surprise. "Wha-! Uh... Sorry, Amy." She smiled nervously as she smoothed down the skirt portion of her skort.
The pink hedgehog sighed. She never listens. "What's your plan here?"
Sonica perked. "Oh!" She pointed back to the picnic. "From here, I might be able to hit him, but I need a little boost to reach it. Think you could hit me that far?"
The hammer-happy girl held up her hammer. "I can hit you there and back." She gave her a wink.
She rolled her eyes with her back turned toward her. She didn't want any bruises from that hammer of hers. "Great. Get ready." She started spinning, going faster and faster, until she was only a blue ball. A very deadly blue ball. "Now!"
She hit her as hard as she could. Of course, it didn't hurt her. Not much ever hurt her during a spin dash. That made it perfect for combo attacks. Either Knuckles would punch or kick her, or Amy would hit her with her Piko Piko Hammer to launch her with double the force.
She was right about the height. She hit it square on the head, knocking it off. It landed near Vector and Blaze, who had been shooting their own flames at the bot to keep its attention. The crocodile and cat fell on their rumps in their effort to dodge the metal head. They sighed in relief right before it exploded, covering them with black soot.
The hedgehog came out of her spin, landing a few feet from the decapitated robot. There wasn't a single scratch on her.
The robot, on the other hand, wasn't doing too well. After the blue wrecking ball took its head off, the creation just floated there for a second, like it was thinking about what just happened. (Of course it couldn't; Sonica had taken its head off.) Then, after a few sparks of electricity, it burst into flames, falling towards the group. In fact, the fall was angled toward the Eggmobile.
"NO, NO, NO, NO! THIS ISN'T THE END, HEDGEHOG! I'LL GET YOU YET!" For such a big man, he sure could move fast. He was long gone by the time Amy got back.
She waved her hand in front of her face in an effort to keep the smoke out of her face. "Now," she turned to Sonica. "What was he talking about?!"
Her expression immediately fell. She looked away, not just from Amy, but from all her friends. Tails slowly inched forward. "Sonica?"
"I'm sorry, okay?!"
The young fox was taken aback at his big sister's sudden burst. She had never done that. Not to Knuckles, not to Shadow, not even at Eggman. Nobody. Tails knew it was wrong, but he couldn't help it. Eggman was right when he said they didn't know much about her past. She would always change the subject when someone brought it up.
Sonica looked down at her shoes. "Sorry, Tails. It's just-" She stopped, glancing to Knuckles for support. Unfortunately, the echidna just shrugged, not sure of what to do. Shadow wanted to comfort his girlfriend, but if he did that, people would get confused and suspicious.
Tails realized what that meant. "Knuckles, do you know something about this?"
He sadly nodded. Although, he didn't look nearly as miserable as Sonica. The blue hedgehog had her ears folded down; she wasn't meeting anyone's eyes either. Her shoulders slumped and she had her arms across her chest. There was what seemed like a film over her emerald eyes, like she was on the verge of tears.
All her friends felt guilty. It broke Shadow's heart to see his girlfriend so upset. This was her birthday and she was spending it being interrogated about her past, which was obviously a touchy subject for her. She was about to cry for goodness sake! She was supposed to be having fun with her friends, not telling them her deepest secret. But curiosity got the better of them. If it was this bad, they wanted to help, but they couldn't do that if she just kept it to herself.
Tails walked up to his best friend to stand right next to her. "Sonic. What happened?"
The not-so-happy birthday girl finally made eye contact, and it broke Tails' heart. He had never seen the sow so defeated. So many emotions were swimming in her eyes. Misery, sadness, regret, longing; all of her emotions were negative. No one knew of anytime that Sonica had ever actually shown these types of emotions. Until now.
"All right, guys. It's a long story, so you better get comfortable."