Sonadow - The Island

3: The uke institute

A few days later, Tails and Knuckles stood in front of the gates of a giant building on the outskirts of a city.

They had, after long discussions, agreed to visit this institution they had heard about, to ask for advice.

Sonic had wanted to come, too, but he had gotten ill with a fever thanks to the stress, the sleep deprivation and the undernourishment of the last days. Amy was at home with him and cared for him, while the boys would check out this place.

Tails worried the high fence out of metal and the high voltage-sign next to the gates, above that, on a flat bow out of green painted metal, were the words 'Uke Institute' written with white painted metal letters. The, higher than a mobian, gate was closed and they couldn't open it.

Knuckles pressed the button with the sign bell over it next to the gate and nearly immediately, there was a voice coming through the speaker.

"Hello, this is the uke institute, how may I help you?," a friendly voice – that simply didn't fit to a place like this – asked. "Er...this is Knuckles the Echidna and Miles Prower, we'd like to ask a few questions." Careful as Knuckles was, he didn't mention Sonic.

"One moment, please." After a minute, the voice spoke up again. "You are in luck, the director has time for you. Please step through the gates, the director will welcome you personally. Have a nice day."

"Er...thanks?," Knuckles replied and the gates opened without a sound. Carefully, they stepped through them and jumped a little, when the gates closed shortly after, behind them with a rattle.

"This is more a prison.," Knuckles muttered, while they went along a dirt path up the hill where the building was.

To their great surprise, a young human man in his mid-twenties awaited them. He had brown hair and blue eyes. Immediately, the two mobians were even more on guard. "YOU are the director here?," Knuckles asked, not hiding his suspicion.

The human chuckled. "You would be surprised, how often I heard that already. My name is Prof. Bryan. You want to take a look around, am I correct?," he asked. "Well, we just wanted to ask for an advice...," Tails said, insecure.

"Ah, I see. Of course, I'll be happy to help out! Why don't we take a seat?" The man motioned to a bench in the shadow of a tree not too far away from them on the lawn.

"Your office's too far away?," Knuckles growled, still suspicious. "No, not at all, but the air conditioner is broken, it's like a desert in there. I think, it won't be too comfortable with your furs.," Bryan answered. Well, he had a point. It was warm enough outside, inside a room, it would be worse.

Reluctantly, the boys sat down on the bench with the human. "It is like that, our friend is an uke – and since a few weeks, he suddenly acts weird. He's scared, doesn't eat or sleep and he is swarmed by semes. Why is he acting like that? And what can we do against it?," Tails asked.

"Hm..." Bryan thought hard. "I guess your friend got lately in the right age to be bred. All ukes go through this."

"B-bred? L-like in...?" Tails and Knuckles paled. "Oh, you didn't know? All ukes are able to get pregnant and bear children."

"I-I...d-don't understand.," Knuckles stammered and Tails looked a little green. This wasn't in ANY of the books he read! Well, that explained, why ukes didn't have female partners, Tails figured. They still tried to wrap their minds around this whole thing, when Prof. Bryan continued.

"It's easily explained. In the earlier days, thousands of years ago, there had been a disease, that only affected mobian hedgehogs all over the world. Until now, it is unclear, where this disease came from, but it is well-known, that it was fatal. The male adult hedgehogs could fight it off, but most of the females and all of the children couldn't and died. As only a few females were left and hedgehogs were about to get extinct in a few years, nature took over and among the next offspring were a few male herms, meaning males with a vagina and a penis. As they were more resistant to diseases and also more fertile than females, they managed to spread their kind further. However, at some point, the reproductive system of those herms changed and the vagina disappeared, while having still the reproductive system of a female in them. That's about anatomy and that's, why nobody guesses this at first. Anyway, there are many evidences, that ukes change their behavior, when mating season approaches and they are old enough to breed. They eat less and get jumpier. That way they appear weak and are attractive to semes."