They had been found.

Jules burst into the house, his face drawn and pale. "Aleena!" he shouted, turning the house upside down in an attempt to find bags, supplies, anything. "Aleena!" he shouted again, "Children! All of you!"

From the kitchen appeared a raspberry coloured hedgehog with long, elegant quills and a bewildered expression on her face. "What's the matter?" she asked her husband, "What in Chaos is the matter?"

The terror of her normally calm husband unnerved her to the core and his eyes, his strong green eyes, were ablaze with anger.

"They've found us," he practically choked, "They're coming for him."

Aleena had to seize the doorframe to prevent herself from falling. Her eyes drifted up the stairs were one hoglet, the same colour as her mother, had frozen in mid-step, tears pooling in her eyes.

"Sonia, darling, grab your bag and your brothers. We're leaving," Jules said, calmly but firmly.

Aleena dashed past him to help her children, trembling with rage and fear.

The pale blue hedgehog simply continued throwing things in a bag, desperate to put as much distance as he could between his family and this accursed area. Ever since the birth of the triplets, Jules had been living a life on the run, hiding his precious family away from sinister forces - now it was all starting to catch up with them and there was little time to waste. If any.

"You can't keep him forever," a voice echoed in the back of his head, a malevolent sound from the day that should have been one of merriment for he and his wife, "Try and hide him all you like. But we'll come for your son one day. You can't keep him."

Hot tears of fury stung the hedgehog with the sky blue fur.

"You're leaving?" a deep voice echoed from the front door, "Oh such a shame. I was hoping to have a word before you left."

It was the same voice from his memories.

Silhouetted in the door, an ominous black shape, stood a man. A skinny, grotesque sort of man, with sharp eyes, a sharp nose, sharp fingers and a sharp tongue. He had not a single hair upon his head and yet he sported a thick orangey brown goatee.

Jules took one look at him and felt his quills sharpen. "Get out of my house!" he screeched, instinctively moving to block the staircase as his eyes flashed with green fire, "Crawl back to that hell-hole you were spewed from and stay there!"

The man, dressed in a long white coat, smiled sickly. "Such eloquent words," he chuckled, "I say that sarcastically, of course; whoever heard of an eloquent animal?"

Jules openly glared.

The man's smile dropped slightly but his gaze bored into the light blue hedeghog with hatred and evil. "How's the family?" he asked slowly and deliberately. He could see it now; while Julius Hedgehog spoke and acted like someone with guts, when it came to the safety of his family, he became as yellow-livered as a plump hen.

"Get out," Jules swallowed, balling his fists and beginning to tremble.

The man raised his bushy eyebrows and narrowed his gaze.

His souless, black gaze.

"Now I think we both know that's not going to happen," he purred, holding his hands behind him and tilting his head to one size like some hungry reptile, "I haven't spent these last few years tracking you all down to merely pop my head round the door and ask how you were all doing. Although, while I'm here, how ARE you all doing? He must be getting quite big now, am I right? Let's see... 5 years old? 6?"

"Julius?" Aleena appeared down the stairs, freezing in horror at the sight before her.

"Aleena, good afternoon," their unwelcome guest greeted politely, "My word, still as lovely as ever, aren't you? That's coming from one who is a very poor judge of hedgehog beauty."

But Aleena knew this man was not here for pleasentaries. "Please..." she wept, her knees failing her, "...Please don't."

Unfortunately, the man had very little compassion in his heart, if the organ that was beating in his chest could even be called that. "Shall we make this brief?" he grinned, "The house is surrounded and after the merry chase you've lead us on I am in no mood for games or compromises." He turned his cruel gaze to Aleena. "If his things are packed already then just send him down and we'll leave in peace. Nobody has to die today."

That was when they all heard the growl eminating from Jules' throat.

"You'll be dead once I get my hands on your throat, Robotnik," the hedgehog promised.

Ira Robotnik, the younger brother to the greatly feared Ivo Robotnik, looked nerved for a moment before masking it with amusement as he glanced up the staircase. "Now, Julius," he chastised, "not in front of children."

An ice coursed through Julius and Aleena as they immediately looked up to the landing.

Sonia was there, white with fear, a little toothbrush in her paws.

"Sonia! Inside the nursery, quick!" Aleena cried, her startled voice causing the young hoglet to bolt.

The slam of a door was heard shortly after.

Ira was still smiling. "Last time I saw your daughter she was smaller than my hand," he mused.

"Don't you dare talk about my daughter!" Jules warned, baring his teeth and hunching his shoulders so that his spines bristled.

"Of course. We're getting off topic. We were talking about your son," Ira Robotnik nodded, "Aleena, my dear, would you call for him?"

"You're not taking him!" Jules roared, stepping forward, torn between spiking the intruder to death or protecting his family.

Ira closed his eyes and smiled to himself. "Am I not?" he chuckled darkly.

As though in reply, there came a series of screams from upstairs and three hoglets came scurrying down to cling to their mother who sheltered them with her body as two armed thugs drifted into view on the landing. Baring her full back of spines to the intruders, Aleena cuddled her litter to her tummy, breathing heavily while Jules sprang up the first two steps to shield them on the other side.

Ira's sinister eyes gleamed hungrily as he came slowly forward, peering round Jules to the three hoglets that were trying to hide from the frightening men.

Sonia was the first of the triplets to be born, the same colouring as her beautiful mother.

Then it had been Manic, green like his paternal grandmother.

Then the last hoglet to be born...

"There he is!" Ira smiled, circling round like a vulture, "Now just stay still... Let Uncle Robotnik get a good look at you..."

Sonic was the one he was after, the hoglet with the electric blue fur.

He was the special one.

He may have turned out the same colour as his father had a certain accident not happened in the womb...

"No, you stay away!" Jules shouted, a hand reaching round to grab his blue son, "You hear me?"

"Such a handsome boy," Ira admired, ignoring Jules. His gaze then lowered and an evil smile crossed his face, "And those legs..."

At that, Jules finally snapped.

He leapt at the madman, teeth bared, scratching and kicking for all he was worth. "Sonic, run! Kids, all of you, run!" he screeched over his shoulder, "Get out of here! Don't look back!"

Aleena pushed the three of them as she turned and started pummling the two thugs at the top of the stairs.

Ignited by fear, the triplets hurried down and made a break for the front door.

As Sonia and Manic disappeared outside, Sonic paused, turning to see what was becoming of his parents.

"Just run Sonic!" Jules shouted as he was thrown to the floor, "Never stop running!"

And so Sonic ran. With an ear throbbing bang, the little blue hedgehog was gone, vanishing into the forest, calling desperately for his siblings with tears streaming down his face.

He wasn't going to be seeing his siblings again.

They were chased after by the team waiting for them outside and cartered straight back home by the scruffs of their necks to their badly beaten parents where they would 'be dealt with'.

Jules was broken and bleeding. He lay on his side panting and grasping the carpet with torn gloves as Aleena, equally as battered, made a point of cradling her remaining hoglets, praying that her third had gained enough distance.

"Well?" Ira, nursing a wound to the temple, demanded as muscular bear in leather came in.

"S'rry, boss," it grunted to him, "Lil' hog lon' gone."

Ira Robotnik was seething. His were pools of fire when he glared down at Sonic's father on the floor. "You've only delayed things, Julius," he growled, "We'll get your son one day. I can promise you that."

Jules was losing consciousness. His head throbbed and he could feel his lungs rattling as he lay in the blood-stained carpet. "And you'll die in just the way you deserve," he croaked, holding Ira's glare, "You and that brother of yours. I can promise you THAT!"

"You're not in any condition to be promising anything."

"Tell him..." Jules breathed, "...Tell Ivo Robotnik... Tell him that my son will never be his. He'll grow to be... a powerful being... but not a weapon..."

Ira crouched down closer to the hedgehog's face. "Do you really think you should be wasting your last breaths, hedgehog?" he asked quietly.

He could see the light fading from Jules' eyes.

"Only to tell you," Jules now sighed, "that you won't have Sonic. He's a child of chaos. He's the embodiment of the wind. And...and nothing...can catch...the wind..."

The hedgehog then gave a shuddered breath and went still, his life ebbed clean away.

Aleena wept into her children's fur, now foreseeing that they were all doomed.

Ira sneered down at the dead hedgehog. "...We shall see," he murmured and then stood up, casting one look around the house which was now teaming with his men, some searching the place and some standing over the hedgehog family with their guns pointed at them.

Straighening his coat, Ira gave the last three hedgehogs a remorseless scoff.

"Shoot them."

The sun was setting and still Sonic ran.

He couldn't see where he was going for the tears in his eyes blinded him.

He eventually came to a stop when he collided with a tree and sank to the ground, the only pain being the pain of being all alone. He had called and called for his brother and sister. Over and over he had shouted their names, hoping that his littermates were out there, that they would hear him and come for him.

But they didn't and, deep in his heart, Sonic knew they never would.

"Sir? You want us to send out a search party?" one thug asked, cautiously approaching Ira Robotnik.

Ira was silent for a moment, staring out at the forest with an unreadable expression.

"No," he then mumbled, "We're returning to my brother. He needs to know about this."

"But... But Sir," the man continued, "What if we never find him?"

Ira let out a sinister laugh. "As though one little hoglet can look after himself out there," he chortled, "He can run as fast as he like but he can't run forever. He'll find a village or something. He'll let his guard down. Then we'll get him."

Something caught Ira's eye down on the ground and he stooped to retrieve it, revealing a small blue quill between his fingers.

He smiled.

"The world feared power once... It's time they learnt to fear it again. We'll show them what true fear is, won't we?"