Hihi! ^_^ Guess who's here? It is moi! Yeah, I've been gone for a bit, but I'm back. I've had some major writer's block since November. I still do, actually, but this is actually a story that I had written a while back. I'm migrating this over from my Camobamo1 profile, and it's a rewrite of a story that I had written in March of last year. There's no yaoi for a while in here, and where I'm planning to put it, there's only gonna be a bit of it, so you guys are gonna be reading a yaoi-less story from me. XD That doesn't happen very often. Anyway, enjoy the story, and I'm actually keeping my old author's notes just because.

Hello, hello, hello! ^_^ I am back! Who's happy? I know I am! I'm finally here with the first chapter in the rewrite of Sonic: Before Heroism! Yay! So, this version is supposed to be a lot darker, and this time, it's narrated from Sonic's POV. I hope you enjoy!

Before Heroism

Chapter One

Ugh… School… Why does it have to be a school day? I wanna be at home right now, relaxing… and instead I have to sit through a whole eight hours of school… Oh, well! At least my mom said my best friend can come over after school! I at least have that to look forward to!

I get to the outside of the school building, and a vermillion raccoon is waiting right there for me. Meet my best friend, Vermillion, everyone! Or should I say Milly. He likes to be called Milly.

"Hey, Milly!"

He turns his head to me and looks at me with his blue eyes before smiling. "Hey, Ogie!"

"Ya glad it's Friday? I know I am 'cause you get to come over tonight!"

Somehow, his smile grows even wider. "She said yes? That's great!"

"Yup! We're so playing some Melee when we get home!" Super Smash Bros. Melee is one of our favorite games to play. Milly almost always wins, but I still think it's fun.

"So… Er… Did you, by chance, do the math homework?" I ask with a sheepish grin on my face.

The vermillion raccoon chuckles. "Lemme guess, you didn't do it."

"Nope! Could you give me the answers? Please? Pretty please?"

He shakes his head, and I already know his answer before he says, "No, Ogilvie. I may be your friend, but that doesn't entail that I'll give you my answers. It's your own fault you didn't do the homework."

"Oh, come on! Just this once? I promise to do it from now on!"

"No means no." Aww, man… And I was really hoping he'd give in. Then again, he is Milly. He's not one to give in to other people's desires unless he agrees with them. That's one of the things I like about him. "And besides, I know you'll still forget it every once in a while, anyway. You always have even after you've promised that you wouldn't."

"You know me too well."

"And that's a bad thing why?"

"I'm not saying it's a bad thing. I'm just saying that it can be annoying."

Just then, the bell rings, which means we've got five minutes to get to our classroom. We start walking up there, and I ask Milly, "So, what about you? Has anybody tried to adopt you this week?" Milly's an orphan. His parents left him and his late twin brother on the steps of an orphanage with only their names on notes. It's kinda sad, really, that he never knew his parents.

He shakes his head in reply to my question. "Unfortunately not, and at nine years old, I'm starting to get to the age that people don't really want to adopt at. It stinks that I might never have a real family…"

I put my arm around his shoulder. "Hey, you've got me, Sam, and my parents. Even though we can't adopt you, we still think of you as family." I really wish we could adopt him. Heck, getting to see my best friend every day would be awesome, but my mom is already having a tough time as it is, since she has to support me and my little brother, Sam, with a meager job.

He smiles. "I know. No use in getting depressed, huh?"

I nod. "Right. Like I always say, be happy; it's the secret to all life's problems."

We soon make it to class, and we sit down in our assigned seats. I look up at the board, and it's just my luck that the first subject today is math. How awesome… The bell rings, and the boring school day begins…

~Before Heroism~

I sigh in relief as Milly and I walk out of the school building. "Boy, am I glad that's over. I hate Social Studies. It's so boring."

"Ogie, you think everything that has to do with school is boring except PE."

"And? I'd rather run than learn about the history of Christmas Island and the United Federation." Running is one of my favorite things to do ever. It clears my mind and helps me feel better when I'm having a rough time.

"It's important to know all that stuff."

"Says who?"

"Says anyone who wants to be successful when they get into high school and college."

"Dude, high school is six years away. Why would I be worrying about that now?" Focus on the here and the now. Don't think too much about the future and don't dwell on the past. That's what my dad always tells me.

"You've got a good childhood ahead of you," he usually says. "Make good use of it." I admire my father, but he's not home that often, so I don't get to see him too much. I wish I did… He's in the United Federation Army, and he's gone for long periods of time, sometimes even months, and what's worse is that the country's at war right now, so he can't come home… I miss him…

I guess my face is showing what I'm thinking about, because Milly asks, "Ogie, are you okay? You don't look too good."

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm just thinking about my dad. That's all."

"Don't worry about it. I'm sure he'll come back unscathed in no time."

After he says that to me, I hear someone shout, "Hey, Ogie! Wait up!" I turn around to see my little brother, Sam, running toward the two of us. You probably wouldn't guess that the two of us are related since we don't look anything alike. I have blue fur, and he has brown fur. Even our eye color isn't the same; I have green eyes, and he has blue eyes. My parents don't have blue fur, either, although my dad has green eyes. They say that my blue fur is a mutation of some sort. Cool mutation, if you ask me.

"Heya, li'l bud!" I exclaim as he catches up with us.

He smiles at me and looks at me with almost pure admiration as he says, "I drew a picture for you!"

"Really? Well, let's see it." He nods and sets his backpack on the ground before digging through it and pulling out a piece of art paper. On the paper is a blue hedgehog with green eyes smirking in front of a trashed robot. The title of the piece is apparently "Sonic the Hedgehog".

"I think that's what you'd be like if you were a superhero, big brother!" He points to the title. "That'd be your name, 'cause you're really fast." What he means by really fast is that I can run several hundred miles an hour. I don't know why or how I can do that, but it's nice being able to run that fast.

I ruffle the fur on the top of Sam's head and reply, "Aww, thanks, li'l bud!" as he chuckles. "Now, let's head home. I'm sure mom would love to see that picture."

"'Kay!" Soon after he says that, right as we're about to start walking, a small teal hedgehog dressed in a black t-shirt and shorts runs up to us. His name is Max, and he's our next-door neighbor and one of Sam's classmates in the first grade class. He's a shy li'l guy who has Asperger's syndrome. It's some form of autism.

"C-c-can I… w-w-w-walk home with… with you guys?" He stutters a lot, and he isn't good in social situations. His eye contact is almost nonexistent, too, but he's still a sweet kid.

"Of course," I reply. "You don't need to ask." And that makes four of us now. Pretty big crowd just for walking home. Oh, well.

As we approach the house, though, it smells like a campfire almost. I don't know who'd be camping this far into the city, but they surely wouldn't light a fire in the middle of September during the afternoon. People sure are a mystery to me. We keep getting closer, and it becomes clear that the smell is coming from the direction of our house, or at least our block. Soon enough, we arrive on our block, and I see a house on fire a little ways up…

Wait a second… Isn't that…? "Oh, my God… That's our house!"

All of us rush up to the house, and I'm the first one there… Oh, God… Oh, God… No… I begin to hear sirens in the distance. Someone must've already called 911. Thank Chaos, but… I think… I think our mom… I think she's still in there! My worries are confirmed when I hear a loud cough coming from inside the house. "Mom!" I scream at the top of my lungs, and I'm about to rush in there, but I feel someone grab my arm. "The heck?! Milly?! What are you doing?! My mom's in there! She's in the fire!" I struggle against his grasp, but I can't break free.

"I realize that, but you're not going in there!"

"I have to! She's probably trapped in there with no way to get out! I'm not gonna just stand here and let her die!" I have to get in there! I just have to! There's no way I'm gonna sit on my butt and wait for some miracle to happen!

"There's not much you can do! Not without putting yourself in the same risk that she's in!"

I keep struggling. "I get that, but I. Don't. Care! Now lemme go!" Finally, I manage to break free and rush inside the house.

"Ogie! Get back out here, you idiot! Ogilvie!" Sorry, Milly, but I can't just sit back. As I get into the house, I can almost immediately feel the searing heat from the flames surrounding me.

"Mom!" I call, inhaling smoke as I do. "Mom!" I start coughing a bit as I wander through the house, trying to make my way through it without coming in direct contact with the fire, although that's a difficult task. "Mom, where are you?!" I can barely see anything. The smoke is making my eyes tear up like crazy, and my lungs are starting to get a bit too much of that same smoke in them.

After a minute or two of walking around, I hear a sequence of loud coughs coming from my parents' room upstairs. That must be her! I rush up the stairs, thankful to finally know where she is, but I end up tripping on the stairs… Oh, my God! Did I just land on fire?! This hurts like nothing else that I've ever felt! I start patting myself on the stomach as I cry out in pain, but without any protection on my hands, I don't manage to snuff the fire out without burning them, too…

Tears caused by both pain and smoke are welling up so much in my eyes that I can only see blurs. When I arrive in my parents' room, I see my mom half sitting, half laying on the floor with fiery debris blocking her way to the stairwell. "Mom!"

She looks up at me, just as teary-eyed as I am. "Ogilvie… You need to get…" she starts coughing for about five seconds, "out… out of here… I'm not… gonna be able to make it, honey…"

"What…? What are you… talking about, Mom? Of course… you're gonna make it… You've gotta…!" She can't give up like that. She just can't…

"Take care of… little Sammy… Okay, big boy…?"

"Mom, I'm not leaving without you…!" I start coughing for a good few seconds. I'm not gonna last much longer, and neither is she. I've gotta find some way to get her out of here.

"Ogie, you have to…" Her blue eyes look straight into my own green eyes, and the look she gives me… She knows she's not making it out of this alive… Why…? Why on Mobius is this happening…?! I know that my mom's about to die, but I can't do a single thing about it! I'm so useless! I'm a useless eight-year-old kid who can't do a damn thing to save his own mother!

Before I can even say good-bye, a piece of the roof collapses in on the house, and it falls right on her… "MOM!" I scream as loudly as I can, but my voice is so hoarse that I can barely manage to get it out…

I need to get out of here, now… She wanted me to be safe… I run down the stairs, but I trip once again, and… Oh, my head… Jeez… That… hurt…

"Whoa! Hey, this kid is still alive!"

"What? O-Ogie's still alive!"

These people sound surprised and overjoyed… and I think one of them is Sam… Why are they so happy? What happened…? I feel so woozy… I try to open my eyes, but I can't seem to… Jeez, what on Mobius happened…? I'm so confused right now… And I can feel myself slipping back into unconsciousness…

So? How'd ya like it? Was it good? I hope it was! I put a lot of effort into this one! Well, hopefully this story will be seeing much more frequent updates than I've been giving you lately. See ya next time! Auf wiedersehen!

-Camobamo1

So, I pretty much would have put the same spiel here as on my old A/N. XD Auf wiedersehen!

-Tails Luv-er