Author's Note: First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to read into this! Now this isn't all of chapter one, but I'm busy obsessively editing the rest of it! Think of this as a trial run!

Thanks!

Part One- War and Heroes

1939- London and Berlin

Night had long fallen over the city of Berlin when a dark colored car pulled up to the front of the Bahnhof. Three figures then emerged from the car. The two shorter figures kept their hoods raised so as to conceal their faces. The tallest figure, a man in his fifties with a graying cat-like mustache, hurriedly pulled three medium sized bags out of the trunk and threw two of them toward the two shorter figures. Immediately he began to walk toward the entrance to the train station. The taller of the two hooded figures dragged the smaller one along.

"Where are we going?" the smaller one whispered in German. His voice was that of a young boy's.

"London, I've already said that…now sh!" the taller one, a girl replied. She was older, around twelve years old.

"Why?" the boy asked.

"Shh! Quiet!"

„Why?!" he asked again.

"Schatten! Scarlett! Quiet, you both," he whispered angrily.

Scarlett shot Schatten an angry glare and set her bags down. Schatten looked up, waiting for someone to say something else. They were both towered over him.

A train pulled up to one of the two tracks, bringing with it a strong gust of wind. Scarlett grabbed Schatten's hand and stuffed a ticket into it. "Hold on to this and do not let it out of your sight, understand?" Schatten nodded and tightly grasped the ticket. Once Scarlett was satisfied that the ticket was safe, she picked her bags back up and began to slowly follow the doctor toward one of the many open compartments. Schatten then hastily slung his bag over his shoulder and ran after his sister.

As he tried to catch up to his sister, Schatten noticed that the few people in the train station were staring at him. He quickly tilted his face down as Scarlett had told him to do before they had left for the train station.

Schatten and his sister entered the queue behind the doctor. Scarlett reached back and pulled Schatten up to her place. Her hand did not leave his shoulder until they reached a uniformed man taking tickets. His eyes scanned both of them in disbelief. He had heard of these human-like hedgehogs, but had never seen one in person. Scarlett handed her ticket to him, ignoring the curious looks, and looked down at the ticket in Schatten's fist. The uniformed man barely glanced at her ticket and gestured to his right. His eyes averted down toward Schatten. "Give him the ticket," Scarlett whispered.

Schatten quickly handed over his ticket. After quickly glancing at it, as he did with Scarlett's ticket, he handed it back to Schatten and again gestured to his right. Scarlett grabbed Schatten's shoulder again and led him into their compartment.

They sat down beside the doctor at a table with two tan colored cushioned benches on either side. Silence dominated the rest of the train ride. Scarlett sat with her legs crossed, reading a book while the doctor snoozed. Schatten was content to gaze out the window at the landscape rushing by while wondering if they were in London yet even though he was not sure what London was. Brick buildings began to rush by and Schatten began to see more and more people and cars in the streets. Was this London? It was like Berlin, but so different. He wanted to ask someone if this really was London, but was afraid to bother anyone, especially the doctor.

"Are we in London yet?" Schatten quietly asked his sister.

Scarlett looked up from her book and snickered, "No, we will have to cross the English Channel before we get to London. We're going to Hamburg first." Schatten's eyes widened in dread and then slouched down into his seat. He was hoping for a short trip.

As the train finally began to stop, Scarlett turned to Schatten and pulled his hood down. She yanked his scarf away from his neck and began to rewrap it around him, covering the bottom half of his face. As she finished tucking the scarf in she pulled up his hood again and said sternly, "keep this up and make sure your hood is in place. No one must see us." She then continued to readjust her scarf so as to conceal her face.

The doctor rushed them off of the train and through the dark streets toward a small isolated dock. Schatten began to slow down, tired from carrying the bag and staying up so late. Just as his steps became slower, though, Scarlett yanked him forward again, urging him to keep up. At the end of the dock was a small fishing boat. Scarlett looked up and asked, "Is this what we're taking to England?"

The doctor nodded and said quietly, "A friend from England has agreed to take us there."

"Is it safe?" Scarlett asked, looking slightly disgusted at the tiny boat. The doctor did not answer, but continued toward the end of the dock. Schatten looked up anxiously, sensing Scarlett's concern then followed her as she nodded to move on.

On board the small boat, Schatten and his sister huddled in the back of the one room on board. At the front, near the wheel, the two humans conversed in English as Schatten looked on, listening to them. The boat dipped up and down as black waves pounded against the side of the boat.

"Scarlett- do you think we'll have to speak English?" Schatten asked. Scarlett didn't answer, she massaged her temple while holding on to a wooden window sill. "Scarlett?" Still no answer. He reached over and tugged on the sleeve of her jacket.

"Was denn, Schatten?" Scarlett snapped.

"Do you think we'll have to speak English?" he asked again

Scarlett scoffed and turned her head away, "Don't ask stupid questions, Schatten." Schatten then lowered his head and played with the zipper on his coat. Eventually the soft darkness and the rocking waves lured him to sleep.

The glow of orange sun lit up the room and shined into Schatten's eyes. He blinked and then turned away from the glare. With his hand shielding his eyes from the sun, Schatten looked around. Only the Englishman was still awake. Around him and where the doctor sat slumped over in a chair, were empty bottles of beer and trash. Across from him, Scarlett was curled up, using her jacket as a blanket.

Schatten slowly stood up and stretched his arms out; white dots appeared as his eyes still tried to adjust. He took a few steps toward the door and the Englishman turned his head around and glanced at Schatten. He grumbled and refocused his attention and Schatten slowly opened up the door, waiting to see if the Englishman would stop him. As he closed the door behind him a cool gust blew into him and rushed down his spine. It was cold on the deck, but not unpleasant. Schatten walked carefully across the damp surface to the back of the boat. At the back of the boat, Schatten looked into the control room and could still see his sister with her jacket almost covering her entire body. Schatten then sat down with his back against the wall and watched as the red and orange sun came up over the horizon.

They were going to a British research base. It was a severe looking structure made of plain gray bricks. An address was painted by the door, but no other signs gave any clue what the building was. The two hedgehogs followed the doctor in. Inside, the base was just as barren with brick walls that were painted with dirty looking white paint. The cold hallways were artificially lit with dim lamps that hung weakly from the ceiling. An older doctor in a stained lab coat welcomed the doctor in English. Schatten and Scarlett followed silently. They climbed the stairs up to an identical looking second floor and stopped in front of two small, plain rooms. The British doctor muttered something to the doctor and the doctor repeated in German, "These are your rooms." The British doctor continued, and the doctor continued to translate. "You may not go into other rooms. Bathrooms are down the corridor and are marked. You will eat in the dining hall at the set times. The next meal time is at 5." The two doctors then continued down the corridor, chatting as they walked, leaving Scarlett and Schatten behind to unpack.

Schatten though didn't feel like unpacking the few belongings he'd had time to salvage before leaving. Instead he immediately ran into Scarlett's room. He sat on her bed and watched silently as she unpacked everything. Her dresses, skirts and blouses were folded neatly and put into the wooden drawers. Scarlett quietly hummed to herself as she unpacked. He noticed the ever present rosary on the plain, cedar desk."Why are we here?" Schatten asked, his feet dangling off of her bed.

"Haven't I already explained this?" Scarlett replied softly. Schatten remembered that she had already told him why they had to leave, but he still didn't understand entirely. He could sense that she was not telling him something. "It is terrible…" Scarlett started.

"What is terrible?" he pressed.

"That we had to leave. But things were turning bad for the doctor," She said darkly. Schatten sat silent, he didn't want to ask what that meant, but he had an idea.

"Is Maria coming here too?" he asked, he'd only met Maria Robotnik a couple of times, but they were the same age. Schatten very rarely spoke to anyone near his age.

Scarlett smirked and looked up from her suitcase, "I thought you didn't like Maria."

Schatten, taken aback, muttered, "I don't-I was just wondering."

Scarlett laughed and said, "I heard that she might be joining us soon, yes."

Schatten was silent for a second, then noticed a book on her desk, "What's that?"

"Oh…" Scarlett looked at what Schatten was gesturing towards, "It's only an English book."

"Darf ich es lesen?" Schatten asked, scurrying over to look at the words he didn't understand. Schatten opened up to a page with a reading excerpt. He tried to pronounce the words in his head.

"Can you speak to me in English?" Schatten asked and looked at Scarlett expectantly. "Hmmm….Do you want to eat?"

"What did you say?"

"Möchtest du essen?"

"Ja, but don't we have to wait?"

"Perhaps we can convince the doctor otherwise…What would you like?"

"London food!" Schatten replied.

"Alright, London food," Scarlett said and nodded, not sure what London food was.