I'm so sorry if anyone's OOC.
I'm still trying to find my own footing, and I had most ideas about Shadow, but he's yet to show up.
I hope he'll be worth the wait though!!
I'm writing these kind of slowly, but I'm trying 😭
Sorry 🥺

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"... 'Meh Burger'?" You asked, rather confused.

You'd... heard the group talk about it before, but shrugged it off, figuring it wasn't anything of note.

And now, they were inviting you to go there.

In public.

With others around you.

Somehow, you didn't feel that was a good idea.

And with a name like 'Meh Burger', you felt it was an even worse idea.

"Yeah! It's a good excuse to get out of the house. You've been cooped up here since we found you. Maybe getting you out will jog your memory?" Said Amy, seemingly excited about the idea of taking you out to see the village.

"I don't know..." You mumbled, rubbing your arm.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun!" She exclaimed, grabbing your hands as she began urging you outside.

So that'd explain why she'd brought home a new dress for you...

It felt like a bad idea, but... she was so eager to show you the village. Who were you to let her down?

You sighed, but smiled slightly and relented.

"Okay."

Everything was new to you in Hedgehog Village.

The sights, the smells, the various animals roaming around...

Nothing seemed to awaken any memories. It brought you a bit down, but Amy was there to comfort you, which you greatly appreciated.

The others joined you and Amy for lunch at 'Meh Burger', and... well, their food lived up to the name.

Painfully average.

No real flavour. Ugh... you barely touched your food at all.

The group was talking about something, though you'd largely tuned it out as you stared a hole through the mediocre burger before you.

Huh? You thought, quickly turning your head away to your left.

You could have sworn you just saw something...

"Hey, you alright?" Asked Sonic, the group turning their heads toward you.

You held up your hands and waved them, smiling a bit awkwardly.

"I'm fine! Really." Though, you couldn't help but wonder what you'd just seen.

A black figure out of the corner of your eye.

You shook it off.

The group were in the middle of eating their... uh, 'food', when there was a loud explosion nearby.

A man flew in on what you assumed to be a robot of sorts, remembering the group had talked about him before.

'Dr. Eggman', was it?

Villain or not, he'd saved you from that painfully average food.

"Bun, come with me!" Amy said, quickly leading you to somewhere you had less risk of getting hurt.

You watched from underneath a tree as they made quick work of Eggman, destroying his robots as they had so many times before.

You'd think he'd give up at some point...

Or had he already tried?

You weren't sure.

Though... watching Sonic, you couldn't help but to squint your eyes a bit.

He looked familiar, somehow... but how exactly?

The way he became a spinning ball and attacked Eggman... you'd seen something similar before.

His speed when he ran, though it felt different to what you knew.

"Y/N..." You heard a voice say a name familiar, yet unfamiliar to you.

And that voice... ack, your head hurt.

You tried to shake it off just as the group finished with Eggman, sending him away back to his lair.

That was weird.

And what a strange man too.

He seemed like a threat, yet not.

With Sonic and his friends to beat him down every time, it wasn't surprising he never got that far.

The group made their way to you as you stepped out from underneath the tree, a small smile on your lips.

"That was impressive." You said quietly, rubbing your arm.

Despite your best efforts, the voice still rang in your head.

Where had you heard it?

You didn't remember anything, and it sure as heck didn't match any of the voices in the group.

Whatever the case, you were just glad you no longer had to eat that average food.

Was it even food?

Eh... maybe?

You didn't care to come back any time soon.

You returned to Sonic's shack not long after, somewhat on edge from earlier.

Not so much Eggman as the seemingly random name you heard in your head.

You sighed quietly.

Sonic and Tails were watching TV, Amy was out shopping, Sticks was in her own home, and Knuckles seemed to be playing a new game system.

Handheld, though judging by his occasional grumbling, he was having issues.

You couldn't help but to peek at what he was doing, wondering why he was seemingly displeased.

"What's wrong, Knuckles?" You asked, tilting your head to the side.

"I can't get past this level." He grumbled, pressing several of the buttons on the system, before failing the level.

Seemingly again, as he'd reacted like that several times.

You watched him restart the level, and a text box popped up before it began.

'Collect all twelve crystals!' it said.

Though Knuckles ran around the level, even missing some of the said crystals.

Did he... miss the text box? You wondered, watching him restart the level yet again.

"Those things." You said, pointing to a blue cluster of crystals.

"The text box said to collect them, I think." Knuckles stared at the screen, before running his character over to said cluster, and a satisfying 'ding' was heard.

"Oh so that's why they made that noise." With how he said that, it was as if he'd had an epiphany, and soon, he completed the first level.

"Hey, I did it!" He said proudly, and you couldn't help but to smile.

Though, when the next text box came up, the same problem occurred.

"Oh, that one wants you to find six gold bars." You said, watching as Knuckles moved his character to a gold bar.

A few minutes of this passed, you reading out the objective and Knuckles completing it shortly thereafter.

"Thanks for your help, Bun. I appreciate it." He said, tapping away on his game.

"I can't read, so." Oh. That would explain it, actually...

"Would you... like to learn?" You asked, albeit a bit sheepishly.

"It'd help you with your games." Knuckles seemed to consider this.

Usually he just went with what looked the coolest when it came to items, but if he could actually read what they did, maybe he could get an edge...

"Sure!"

And so, you sat with Knuckles every evening to read something, though it generally had to do with games.

You tried having him read an actual book, though the poor guy just fell asleep not ten minutes into it.

Still, at his own pace, he learned, and soon, he could read simple sentences from gaming magazines.

As you spent more and more time with the group of five, the feeling of unease gradually became less prominent, becoming more and more comfortable with them.

Amy seemed to thoroughly enjoy your company, especially with how you never complained about cleaning.

Still... you wondered who you were and where you came from.

Would you ever find out?

Only time would tell.

But you hoped it'd hurry itself up a bit.

Just a bit.