A flash of orange... of pink... a touch of grey-blue... a smattering of white cloud... Every sunset was a painting.
On a calm evening, it evoked peace and serenity.
This was not a calm evening.
Julius Hedgehog hissed as a thorn bush scratched his face but he paid it no further mind as he thundered on, beating the ground as he ran, desperately wishing that he could be faster. He could feel the vibrations as, somewhere far behind him, a hoard of robots were invading towards his village.
Entering the village, he called out to his neighbors to hide their families, to keep hidden, to make a run for their bomb shelters. They weren't prepared for an onslaught such as this.
He wound his way around the cottages until he made a bee-line for the cottage underneath the maple tree - his home.
His wife, radiant in the early stages of pregnancy, was waiting at the door, a shawl wrapped around her shoulders.
"Julius!" she cried as her husband barrelled through the door and slammed it shut behind him, already hurrying to put up blackouts in their windows and yanking the curtains closed.
"Don't worry, love, keep calm," he soothed, lighting candles and taking Aleena into his arms, moving her away towards the easy chair, trying to keep her as comfortable as possible, "I'm here," he told her gently, stroking her quills, "I've got you."
Aleena was terrified. Word had reached them that a legion of metal monstrocities had beseiged them, surrounding the village territory, and yet that had still left them no time to flee.
"...The babies..." Aleena gulped, holding her stomach protectively where her three unborn hoglets were safely growing. The embryos were still very small, hardly the size of a sunflower seed, she had been told.
They were fragile. She couldn't bear it if anything happened for her to miscarry.
"Just breathe," her husband continued to comfort her, "I won't let anyone put a finger on you."
"Who is it?" she asked, dreading the answer.
Jules face clouded. "It's a Robotnik."
Aleena felt her quills prickle.
"Why haven't they all been caught?" she moaned, burying her face in Jules' fur.
The light blue hedgehog shrugged.
"The brothers are tricky," he reasoned, "One of them's a doctor, remember? And he's the one attacking."
The Robotnik family were a plague and Dr Ivo Robotnik was the most ferocious cancer cell of the whole lot.
"What do we do, Jules?" Aleena said, her voice quivering from nerves. She was grateful for Jules' strong presence as he held her although even she could tell that he was frightened.
"It's going to be okay," he told her, "But we have to get out of here."
Aleena reached into the folds of her shawl. When she drew her hand back, the area glowed with a mesmerising deep blue shine.
"They're here for the Chaos Emerald, aren't they?" she swallowed, her pupils dilating at the presence of her family heirloom.
"Can't imagine Dr Robotnik would be here about some forgotten monarchy," Jules hummed, touching the emerald gently, "It has to be the Chaos Emerald. We have to get it someplace safe." He looked up and moved to hide the emerald back in his wife's shawl. "If they've found a way of tracking the energy signature, then the only place we can try is Angel Island."
Aleena looked up in surprise.
"You mean the floating isle?" she breathed, "But the echidnas are long gone. Their species died out many years ago. They're extinct."
"There must be something guarding the Master Emerald up there," Jules argued quietly, trying to ignore the distant pounding of heavy feet upon the ground, "Even if there isn't, the Chaos Temple will shroud the energy from being detected and hardly anyone even knows Angel Island exists. The 7 Chaos Emeralds ought to be kept there anyway. It's the only safe place we've got."
Aleena gnawed her lip but nodded. They had to find a way to escape and get out with the emerald. If Robotnik got his hands on it...
Suddenly there was a clank of metal and the front door shattered, disintegrating into thousands of wood splinters.
"Jules!" Aleena screeched, jumping to her feet and sheperded away from the door by her husband.
Sat in a round, floating, metal contraption was a human with a wide moustache and twistedly repulsive black and red eyes: Dr Robotnik before he became the insane, delusional, Sonic-loathing Dr Eggman.
"Good evening," he greeted, his contraption - which would one day be called the Eggmobile - humming loudly, "It's late so I won't hassel you long. The emerald?"
Aleena played the part of the terrified housewife while Jules became the well-rehearsed country-bumpkin husband.
"What are you talking about?" he asked, his face awash with innocent terror.
"Don't play that game," Robotnik snarled, "I know it's here. Where is it?"
"We don't know what you mean! Please, sir, what is going on?"
"Ah," the scientist chuckled, "This old charade..." He had to admit, the acting was very good. "Very well," he shrugged, "I'll have my robots reduce your home to rubble, brick by brick, looking for that emerald."
Staying in character, Julius gave a bewildered, plea-ridden cry. "No! Please!" he begged, "Please, sir, my wife...she's... She's..." Robotnik glanced over to the female hedgehog. She had one paw clutching at her shawl while the other was resting on her slightly swollen abdomen.
"Oh, I see," Robotnik smiled, almost affectionately, "I understand. Congratulations. First child?"
Jules trod carefully.
"First litter," he nodded.
"Oh yes, of course. Litter," Robotnik grunted, "How many?"
"...Three," Aleena squeaked, before anyone else said anything. She could remember the doctor telling her that there were three inside her, growing together. She had been overjoyed.
"Triplets?" Robotnik beamed, "How marvellous! I'm sure you're both very proud."
Jules moved closer to Aleena, positioning himself so that he was at the best angle to sweep his wife up and make a run for the back door if the danger grew too great.
"In which case," Robotnik went on, "it really doesn't have to go like this. Just hand over the emerald and I'll make sure you both can keep your brood."
Aleena gripped her husband by the arm.
"Get away!" Jules cried, still coming across as a frightened milksop, "We haven't got an emerald."
"No?" Robotnik grinned, bringing his craft to a gentle rest outside the door and stepping from it. "How ignorant do you think I am?" he asked, his sinister voice sighed, "I'm no fool. Your wife, Aleena, is the last descendent of the Royal Hedgehog line and you, Mr Julius, you come from a line equally as long of devoted Royal Knights, yes?"
Aleena could feel the Chaos Emerald stir.
"More interestingly is the fact that you are both pure-bred hedgehogs. No cross-species marriages in your history at all. That's rare."
Aleena could sense the energy building.
"The point I'm making is that it wasn't very difficult to pinpoint you both down and discover that the tradition of having a Chaos Emerald in the keeping of the Royal Family is still going strong."
It was reacting to Aleena's emotions.
"You have an emerald here. Now hand it over."
It could sense the danger!
"...Aleena..." Jules growled from the corner of his mouth, his own quills tingling at the Chaos energy, "get out the house."
It stung against her palms!
"I really wouldn't try that," Robotnik warned, folding his arms, "My forces have you surrounded and, being robots, they won't feel any remorse at shooting down an expectant mother."
Aleena's heartbeat was quickening and the Chaos Energy was rising...
"You're a monster!" the young mother gasped, panic beginning to overwhelm her.
This wasn't good for her babies. Julies knew this. Aleena was working herself up into a state and it was now too risky, what with Robotnik, the children and the fact that she had a Chaos Emerald close to hand.
"...You won't touch my wife?" he asked, dropping the pretence now, "Nor will you harm my future children?" Robotnik sighed patiently, an estrained smile still on his face.
"I only want the Chaos Emerald. I have NO interest in you, your wife..." he gave a chuckle, "...or ANY of your unborn babies." He ran a hand through his moustache. "Hedgehogs are of NO interest to me."
The emerald's power was still growing. The negativity in the room was almost unbearable for the emerald to take. With the risk of three unborn lives in the balance, the fear of the mother and father were so strong that it was tainting the Chaos Emerald, feeding it unparallel amounts of strong panic-induced emotion.
"Julius..." Aleena whimpered, clutching at her husband, "No..."
Jules was torn. More than anything, he only wished to see that his wife was safe and that his future sons or daughters were going to be okay.
"...We would be betraying our ancestors and our legacy if we gave you the Emerald," he reasoned breathlessly, beginning to shake as he began to feel the Chaos Emerald's feedback. It was like a ticking time bomb - one that was ready to go off at the slightest rise of negative emotion. He had to stay calm.
"There won't be a legacy if you deny me one more time," Robotnik pointed out, dropping his smile, "Your line will die with you. I can personally make sure of that."
Aleena gave a quiet gasp as the emerald began to shine, pulsing against her skin and burning her.
"...You can search the house but you won't find the emerald," Jules shouted, masking his wife's discomfort and putting on the brave face.
Robotnik cocked an eyebrow and peered round him.
"...Because she has it," he cackled, pulling a gun from his jacket and pointing it in Aleena's direction.
Time shuddered to a standstill.
There was a bang but no-one knew if it was the gun in Robotnik's hand... or the detonation of the Chaos Emerald.
Like lava spewing forth from the crater of a volcano, the brilliant blue Chaos Emerald poured out its energy, fizzing away into nothing while in the grip of a screaming, pain-wracked pregnant woman.
"ALEENA!" Julius' voice sounded.
The world had deafened the occupants of the room, however. Background noise was silenced as if underwater while the Chaos Emerald, the glow of which bathed them all in a blue radiance, continued to unleash its full power against the unprotected individuals closest to it.
Robotnik was blinded.
The force of the explosion threw him back against his flying contraption whereupon he sat, limply, watching the scene before him with his mouth agog and a ringing in his ears.
Jules was sent hurling across the room, snapping the wooden mantlepiece from the fireplace clean off.
The walls blasted outwards, burying the robots that were waiting around on standby. The ceiling would have caved in on them had the explosive force of the Chaos Emerald not repelled it away.
The only thing that could be seen of Aleena was the engulphing blue light, surrounding her, smothering her, drowning her in its core.
Neither Robotnik or Jules could look at her for her very body had become a blazing white light, too hot, too powerful to look at without burning your eyes into permenant blindness.
The Emerald simply wasn't there anymore. It had dissolved into its own light, bombarding Aleena over and over again, seeking protection.
Seeking a host.
Aleena felt nothing but the burning energy flowing through her veins and down into her abdomen, searching, not for her... but for something far more precious.
In a matter of seconds, it was all over.
The blue light dissipated, the white energy faded into Aleena's body and everyone was able to open their eyes, just as the last remnants of the Chaos energy drained away.
Robotnik stared, dumbfounded.
Jules, responding through adrenaline and aching all over, sprinted across the room and swept his shell-shocked wife into his arms, dashing for the forest as quickly as he possibly could, cradling the weeping woman to his chest while his own tears began to cascade down his face.
Robotnik, still feeling the residue Chaos energy sting his skin, cautiously got up, his legs wobbling as he put his full body weight upon his craft, his eyes hurting him so much that he had to root around in his pocket for a pair of tinted glasses. With the glasses in place, he was able to see a little better.
"That was raw Chaos power," he stammered to himself, "Raw Chaos power. How..." he looked around him at the devastation.
The maple tree had been disintegrated and any other trees were uprooted and split into pieces. The nearest buildings were crumbling into rubble while the occupants, having smartly fled the moment Robotnik had left them alone, were nowhere to be seen.
"How in the world am I still alive?" the scientist murmured, "We should be... I mean..."
He couldn't think straight.
His robots were fizzing and sparking, their circuits fried by the Chaos Energy output. He had never seen a Chaos Explosion on quite that large a magnitude. Any living thing ought to have been obliterated in a heartbeat. But they weren't.
"Unless..." Robotnik murmured and his eyes widenened. "...Unless the Chaos energy found an appropriate host vessel in time. But..."
He shook his head and checked his energy tracker. Apart from the residue Chaos Energy, it told him nothing about the Chaos Emerald itself. It was as though the emerald had been destroyed, its physical form just - gone!
Cursing, Robotnik scrambled back into his craft. It would take months, maybe years for the Chaos Emerald to reform itself.
But what of Aleena? What had happened to her?
"I don't know what the answer is going to be," Robotnik snarled to himself, "but whatever it is, it's resting with her. Dead or alive, it's inside Aleena."
- - - - -
"J...Ju-Julius...I..."
"Shh, shh, don't talk," Jules murmured, "Keep breathing."
"Th-The... the babies..." Aleena wept, curled up into a fetal position in her husband's arms, aware that her rigid spines were most likely hurting him.
"It's going to be okay, sweetheart," Jules gulped, not entirely believing it himself, "It's going to be okay. I'm going to find help."
Aleena gave another pained howl.
"They... The babies..." she sobbed, "They'll be d...d-ead!"
"Aleena..." Jules said, giving way to his own tears, "No, I won't believe it. I'm finding you a doctor."
On and on he ran, calling for help, trying to find a settlement, a physician, anyone. All the while his wife continued to cry, mourning her loss.
"My babies are dead."
- - - - -
"They're alive!"
Jules and Aleena couldn't believe what had been said.
"What?" Jules breathed, daring to hope he had heard correctly.
"I'm detecting a heartbeat," the doctor confirmed, holding a stethoscope close to Aleena's stomach.
They had yet to invent very advanced scanners but the doctors of South Island and of Christmas Isle were very competent in their jobs and it was amazing what they could discover by just listening to a pregnant woman's tummy.
Aleena's face was still tear-stained and her eyes were still swollen. "How many?" she asked, her voice hitching. Her heart was already broken, anticipating the news that the Chaos energy had completely destroyed her growing children.
The doctor, a handsome tan and white beagle dog, closed his eyes and concentrated hard.
"...I'm picking up two," he revealed, still moving the stethoscope around.
While it was relieving news to hear that they still had two children, Aleena could not prevent fresh hot tears spilling from her eyes.
"...We lost one," she sobbed, gripping her distraught husband's hand.
"Aleena..." Jules breathed painfully, kissing his suffering wife, "...honey..."
"We lost one!" she went on to cry, "It's all my fault!"
"No... no, it's not," Jules adamantly denied, attempting to hold his own grief back, "It's Robotnik's fault. You are not to blame. Robotnik is the murderer, not you."
Aleena shook her head, resting her head back against the tear-soaked pillow.
"...W-Which one?" she wondered out loud, "Which one... Which one died?"
Which one would she never get to know? Never get to hold in her arms? Never get to enjoy life?
The doctor had begun to frown, his stethoscope moving and changing positions and pressing against Aleena's fur with confidence.
"...I...I wouldn't mourn just yet, Mr and Mrs Hedgehog..." he said in a soft voice.
Hope flared up like a young flame on dry grass.
"What?" Jules whispered, wishing to dare once more.
The doctor stood back up, a smile on his face, giving a satisfied nod.
"...I've found the third heartbeat. All three are alive."