Unlikely Friends

Chapter 3

By: Soniclover28

He didn't know how long he'd been running—it could've been a few hours or a few minutes. The world was starting to blur—his feet were starting to feel numb. His eyes were getting heavy—the running was pumping it faster through his system; he could feel it. The dart he'd been shot with had had some type of narcotic in it—like when the Kraang had captured him.

He needed to find a place to hide—shelter until the poison wore off.

Sonic had happened to look down at the sidewalk when he thought he spotted someone familiar. The kid had brown hair and a red and white long sleeved shirt. Jeans and tennis shoes. He backtracked, got another fuzzy look at the figure.

"Chris?" He breathed.

But that didn't make any sense—Station Square didn't exist here.

"Chris!" Sonic yelled. The kid gave no indication he'd heard him, and the hedgehog ducked down behind the short concrete border around the rooftop. He needed to stay hidden.

But he needed to know if that was Chris.

He peeked over the edge again, and when his eyes finally focused, Sonic's heart sunk. That wasn't Chris at all. His eyes weren't blue like Chris', nor was the hair as ruffled and as light as the boy's Sonic remembered.

Sonic shook his head.

A place to hide.

He needed to find a place to hide.

Sonic sighed and launched himself to the next rooftop.

April was just about to close the window to her bedroom when she caught a glimpse of a figure hop from her building to the one beside hers. She recognized the blue form of one of the aliens the turtles had rescued.

"Hey!" The guy stopped, tensed. "Over here—it's me, April!"

The figure still looked alert when he turned and met April's blue eyes. He seemed to visibly relax and hop back off of the other building's roof, hard enough to catch himself on the fire escape that started at April's window.

April frowned as she saw that the hedgehog looked worn—his fur was ruffled and his eyes looked extremely tired. Alarm shot through her.

"What happened? Come in," she invited, and the creature gave her a tired smile and crawled into the bedroom.

"We, uh, got into some trouble," He slurred. April's eyebrows drew forward at the disoriented tone he had. "They tagged me with…with somethin'—made me real weird."

"Who's they?"

"I… I, uh…a wolf—this snake… somethin' about a strawberry…" He mumbled, and swayed on his feet. April put her hands on the blue hero's shoulders. His drooping head slowly came to look up at her again.

"Here, lie down—I'll call the others," April said. The hedgehog nodded and April helped him to her bed, where he laid down on his side with his back towards her.

Leo. She needed to call Leo.

"Are they gone?" The blue-banded turtle whispered.

"I don't know. Let's give it about ten more minutes. I'll shoot Mikey and Donnie a text to see if they got home alright," Raph replied.

Just then, Leo's T-phone started buzzing on his hip, making the two turtles jump. He slid it out of his belt and looked to see that April was calling him. He clicked the green icon to answer the phone.

"Hello?"

"Leo? Are you guys okay? What happened?"

"Uhm… well, we ran into some trouble. We were on patrol and we got ambushed by some of Shredder's goons," Leo paused. "How'd you know something happened?"

"One of your new friends ran by here and he looked really bad. He's asleep now, I think. He wasn't making any sense earlier, either."

"Mikey and Donnie are on their way home; they're in the sewers," Raph whispered to Leo. The older turtle nodded before replying to April.

"Okay, April, Donnie will be over there in a bit to pick him up—thanks for calling us."

"Anytime."

Raph sent another text off before sneaking out from behind the dumpster and moving the manhole cover as quietly as possible. He motioned for Leo to quickly jump down the hole, to which the turtle complied. Raph followed him, and slid the manhole cover shut.

"Sonic's at April's place," Donnie announced to the two Mobians he was in the tunnels with.

"What?"

"Somehow Sonic wound up at April's place—he's there now. Raph wants us to go pick him up," Donnie explained.

Tails and Knuckles glanced at each other.

"Well, lead the way," Knuckles said, and Donnie nodded and started jogging off and taking another turn in the sewers. The Mobians followed him for about half an hour before they all finally came to the surface and up the fire escape to April's window. Donnie knocked lightly, and it didn't take long before April came to greet them.

"Come in, guys," She said. She was in her pajamas, but she looked wide awake.

"Thanks, April," Donnie said, and the group clambered through the red-headed girl's window.

April's room seemed normal enough to the Mobians—a dresser, posters on the wall, soft carpet that was stained in a few places, and clothes scattered about the floor. What wasn't normal, however, was the bundle of blue quills lying on top of April's bed.

"Sonic?" Tails said, stepping closer to the bed. The hedgehog's back was turned towards the fox, his side moving up and down in a slow, calm rhythm. His ears were limp, creased in odd ways against his head while his quills were relaxed and hanging down instead of pointing straight out.

"Sonic," Tails called again when he didn't get a response. The hedgehog remained quiet, and Tails placed a hand on his shoulder and shook him lightly.

"He's completely out," Knuckles observed, his eyebrows rising a bit. He crossed his arms. "Great, I get to carry him, again."

"I've been keeping an eye on him," April said, "He hasn't moved since he laid down."

The moonlight filtered through the blinds on April's window, casting stripes on the small group standing in the bedroom.

"Thanks, April—we'll bring him back to the lair and I'll run some tests to see what he was injected with. It was most likely just a sleeping agent so that Shredder could catch them easier," Donnie explained.

"What would Shredder want with them? How did he even know about them in the first place?" April questioned.

"Well, uh…" Donnie stuttered, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "We were on patrol for a while and… I think maybe one of Shredder's spies saw us, or something."

"So, when an alien race comes to your world, the first thing you do is take them to the surface for everyone to see?" April asked, throwing her hands up in exasperation.

"We were bored," Knuckles said easily, shrugging.

April rolled her eyes.

"We should probably get going," Donnie said, "The others are probably back at the lair already."

"Right."

"Thanks again, April—what would we do without you?" Donnie smiled while he pulled out his T-phone and sent his brothers a text.

April's annoyed demeanor melted at that, and a small smile graced her lips.

"Yeah, thanks," Tails nodded at her, "Who knows what could have happened?"

"Don't mention it," She said, watching as Knuckles scooped up the sleeping hedgehog and started towards the window. "Just call me if you guys need anything."

"We will," Donnie said, and, after Tails and Knuckles were through the window, Donnie smiled at her one last time before following them.

"We're back!"

The shout echoed through the quiet lair, though it didn't last long. Leo, Raph, Amy, Mikey and Splinter came to meet Donnie's call, and they all stopped in the pit of the lair.

Sonic had his arm wrapped around Knuckles' shoulder, leaning on him heavily despite trying to stand on his own. He'd finally woken up about twenty minutes into the trek back from April's house, though he was disoriented and he couldn't seem to find his footing.

"Sonic!" Amy cried, and jumped over the couch in the pit to land right in front of the hedgehog. "You're back!" She smiled. It melted away when she realized the state her hero was in, and she frowned, instead. "What's wrong?"

"He's a little out of it," Tails explained, watching as Sonic blinked heavily and one of his limp ears rose, swiveled, and fell down again. "The stuff they got him with really did a number, or two."

"April said she found him wandering on top of the roofs—she spotted him from her window and let him inside," Donnie said as Knuckles helped Sonic onto the couch, watching as he blinked in confusion before looking at all of the eyes staring at him.

"Uhm…" He slurred, his eyebrows creasing and his quills gradually starting to bristle.

"Hey," Amy said in surprise, "Sonic, it's alright—you're safe." She slowly lowered herself onto the couch beside him, taking in the cloudy eyes and heavy eye-lids.

"Perhaps it would be best if we left him to rest. Making him nervous will not help us," Splinter said, his brown eyes meeting momentarily with emerald green ones. He turned to his yawning freckled son. "We all should get some rest."

"I need to see what was in that dart Sonic got shot with. I'll take a sample and leave him alone for the rest of the night," Donnie said. Splinter nodded at this, and the purple-banded turtle sprinted to his lab and reappeared again with a syringe and cotton swab in hand.

He swabbed Sonic's arm, stuck the needle in, and pulled back on the trigger as the blood filled the syringe. He took the needle out, and swabbed Sonic's arm clean before the hedgehog even had time to realize he'd been pricked.

The group soon disbanded—the turtles headed to their rooms, Splinter to his room and the Mobians stayed in the pit of the lair. Knuckles settled back into the beanbag chair he'd been using, crossing his arms behind his head. Tails curled into the corner of the couch, wrapping his namesakes around himself and watching Sonic, who was already asleep on a pillow and underneath a blanket. Amy tugged her own blanket around herself, settling on the opposite side of the couch before her eyes grew heavy and she eventually fell asleep. Tails watched his brother sleep for as long as his heavy eyes would let him, and soon, he, too, fell asleep.

Unfortunately, that was a big mistake.