Chapter Text
Spring. The season most mobians dread. It is the time where omegas suffer heat and alphas go wild during rut. Humans are envied for being able to live their lives without ranks. Some mobians were lucky. Skipping a few springs by being a late bloomer.
Sonic’s rank is unknown. He had missed many seasons. The hero's weakness was not spring. While his teammates suffered, Sonic didn’t break a sweat during the fighting. His senses were centered. His body wasn’t burning. His instincts weren’t interrupting his thoughts.
“Missed me, Eggy!” Sonic laughed, circling the doctor’s newest robot. Its program tried to comprehend the hero’s speed as he blurred by. It stood still to charge a strike. It was solely focused on the blue hedgehog, giving the team the chance to perform an attack.
“Gr!” Shadow looked scruffy. Furious, he charged towards the robot. The ebony hedgehog had sparks of chaos energy shooting across his fur. It was a sign of his unease due to his unbalanced hormones. It was April, the start of hedgehog mating season. The alpha had entered his yearly early rut. It turned him into a ticking time bomb.
Knuckles shook the ground as he slammed his fists against the rough terrain. The robot had to shift its balance. The echidna wasn’t in such a bad state. He hadn’t entered his rut, yet. For echidna mating season started in May. The alpha had it tough during ruts since he was in solitude on an floating island.
Rouge flapped her wings and flew down, sticking her sharpened heel in the robot. She was calm and collected. Bats mating season wasn’t during spring but in autumn, beginning in August. The alpha has gotten out of her rut during winter.
Amy ran past her, hammer in hand. She held it high and slammed it against the robot. It tipped over. Her rank was unknown. Because she hadn’t taken a rank test this year yet. Mobians usually got those at the start of their mating season. If she matured this year, she was ahead of Sonic by three whole years.
Sonic rolled up and rammed through the robot, denting the metal till important bits were damaged. The robot short-circuited. Shadow lunged and charged a chaos spear. That was the end of the robot.
Eggman retreated, shouting some scandals. Sonic grinned a sly grin as he put a hand on his hip. “This was tedious, team.” The blue hedgehog bothered his alpha friends with his speech. That grin didn’t fade.
“Tedious-?!” Shadow snapped. “I can’t wait to see you suffer during spring, hedgehog.” He took scurry steps towards the hero.
Sonic laughed and stepped away from the alpha, putting his arms behind his head. “It is too easy to trigger you during rut, Shads.”
The ebony hedgehog snarled and snatched Sonic’s arm before slamming him against the ground. As said before, he is a ticking time bomb. “Fight me-!” The rut was causing restless tension.
The hero pulled a face of discomfort at the impact. But then his grin got wider as he looked up at the alpha who loomed over him. “You are on!” Swiftly, Sonic rolled over his back and pulled his legs in to kick Shadow in the chest, making him stumble back. “Catch me if you can!” He performed a tuck and roll before getting to his feet and pushing forward to start a sprint.
Shadow only needed a second to recover from the blow before he went after the blue hedgehog.
“Sonic- Wait! We were supposed to get our test today!” Amy called out after her friend. But the two males were long gone. “He is not coming back.” She chuckled and shook her head.
Rouge landed next to her. “Testing is today? I cannot wait to hear your rank!” The bat clapped her hands together.
“I hope today is the day!” Amy smiled at the alpha. “I hope Sonic’s too-” She rubbed her arm. “I was hoping to go with Sonic. I feel nervous.”
“Nervous? Oh darling that needle won’t hurt you.” Rouge laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder. “I didn’t know you had a fear for needles.”
“I don’t. That is not it, but…” The pink hedgehog sighed, unsure whether to speak up. “You are all alphas. I don’t want to end up being an omega and having to leave the team.”
“Leave the team? Nonsense.” The alpha gave her an assuring smile. “Your rank does not matter to me. We are friends, a team, and no ranks will break that.”
“Rouge. You don’t understand-” Amy let out another sigh. Surely the alpha bat were to understand. “You are an alpha, Knuckles is an alpha, Shadow is an alpha. You are all unmated. You can’t put an omega with all of you. That is asking for trouble.”
“…I get your point. But if you were to be an omega, you will figure something out. I ain’t losing my friend over that.” Rouge patted her shoulder with good intent. “Besides, it will be a lot easier for us the sooner you are mated to Sonic~” She gave the pink hedgehog a wide smirk which made her blush.
“Uh- H-He keeps refusing me.” Amy whined. She had always imagined herself and Sonic ending up together. She had romanticized her as Sonic’s omega while he was her alpha. “And I would rather not be… an omega.”
“Then why don’t we find out? To the test station!” Rouge didn’t want to put any unnecessary thoughts on Amy while it was possible that her rank was already known.
“Wait- What about Sonic? He needs to go testing too-!” Amy protested as Rouge dragged her along.
The alpha laughed. “Big Blue won’t be due for another decade.” Amy laughed along with her. She was most likely right.
-
A blue blur passed through the town, cutting through alleys to get to the open field behind. Sonic preferred to not fight Shadow in crowded areas. A red blur was on his tail, following every movement. Though not with precision. Shadow’s senses were off.
The two sped out of town, into the field where they could get up to speed. The blurs clashed against each other, pushing the other away like pinballs.
“Come on, Shadow. I thought you were better than this.” The grin plastered on Sonic’s face was wide. He quick stepped out of the way as Shadow charged at him.
The alpha’s irises were narrowing. And the snarl that left him was dangerous. Instinct was overriding his ability to reason with himself. There was no reason for this fight other than needing to blow off steam and get control. His pheromones were threatening the air.
Sonic inhaled and a shudder went through him. That had never happened before. “Gah-!” He lost his focus for a moment but that was enough for Shadow to tackle him. The two hedgehogs wrestled on the ground, snarling and shouting to get the upper hand.
“I got you down!” Sonic declared but then felt a hand gripping his quills and shoving his face in the dirt while Shadow’s body twisted away from below him.
“Think again, Faker.” The alpha’s voice was vicious. He was not going to accept being defeated, not during his rut. He pushed his knee against Sonic’s spine, making the hedgehog whine. Sonic tensed as he felt an airshoe between his legs as Shadow scooted his knee higher up his back. His other hand grabbed Sonic’s wrist to angle his arm to get to his neck, searching for his scent gland. He released more pheromones to get a reply.
Sonic shook his head as he shuddered again. “Shadow.” Why did that weaken him? He knew about the alpha’s pheromones but that never affected him since he has no secondary gender yet.
Shadow nuzzled his muzzle against the scent gland. He inhaled the scent that had been faintly hanging around during their brawl. “Omega.” There was a rumble in Shadow’s rooting voice.
“That is enough. That is your rut talking. Now get off.” Sonic only tolerated so much with the alpha’s rut. And being called an omega for losing a fight was not to be tolerated.
Shadow growled, displeased with the order. He was the alpha, he was to order. “No.”
“Dude, get off!”
The alpha stared at him as he snapped out of it. He got up, dusting himself off while the blue hedgehog got back on his footing. “Get yourself tested, Faker.”
“I was going to till you told me to fight you.” Sonic whined as he traced over his spine. “Dude, harsh.” He turned to face the alpha. “And don’t ever call me an omega again.” He let out a sharp snarl that had Shadow’s quills bristling in alert. He looked at him for a moment before narrowing his eyes, that felt like a challenge.
Sonic huffed and disappeared as a blur, to catch up with Amy for their appointments. He got to the testing station. “Sonic, over here!” He got called over by Rouge in the waiting area. He hopped over to her and Amy.
“Geez, Ames, you look awful.” He commented much to Amy’s annoyance. Her blood had been taken. She was waiting for the test results. “You will be fine.” Sonic placed a hand on her shoulder.
“You missed your appointment.” Amy replied. “We tried rebooking it for you but the station is full this week.”
“Welp. There goes the time limit of free testing.” The blue hedgehog groaned. At the beginning of spring, the government set up testing stations in the cities for free testing. He didn’t want to pay for testing since it wasn’t cheap and he wasn’t made out of money. He got what he got collecting throughout adventures. “Oh well, there is always next year.”
“Uh, I think you should get tested.” Amy frowned, that was her opinion. With Sonic’s lag of growth in his secondary gender, it was critical for his health to be tested each year.
“I will be fine. Nothing will turn up anyway.” Sonic brushed it off like it was nothing.
“Amy Rose?” A nurse walked up to the three. “Congratulations, you got your secondary gender.” She smiled as she handed her the results on paper.
Amy looked over the paper. Rouge and Sonic were peeking over her shoulder.
Beta.
“Wow, Ames! That is awesome!” Sonic patted her back. “Look at you, ahead of me.”
Amy frowned at the paper. It was bothering her. That she wasn’t an omega as she had romanticized? No. That wasn’t it. Definitely not it. Being an omega was horrible.
“I wanted to be an alpha, like you.” Amy pouted as she looked up at Rouge. “The whole team is made up of alphas. And now I am just a low rank beta.” She clenched the sheet.
“Oh, no, darling. You swing that hammer unlike any of us! You are no less because you are a beta. That is norm. That the rest of us are alphas is extraordinary. But that doesn’t make you as a beta any less extraordinary. I mean, you carry that hammer like it weighs nothing. I can’t even lift it. Me, an alpha. So don’t you dare undersell yourself.” Rouge smiled sweetly at the beta.
“Thank you Rouge!” Amy jumped up to wrap her arms around her friend. Sonic stepped to the side, arms crossed as he smiled at the two.
‘Omega.’
He heard Shadow’s voice in the back of his mind. He wasn’t able to shake it off. “Excuse me.” He approached the nurse as she was leaving. “You don’t have any time for a missed appointment?”
“Uh,” Usually the answer was no. But this was Sonic. Surely something was able to be done. “Why don’t you wait around? If someone doesn’t show up, you can have their time.”
“Wait around? As in sit around?” Sonic swallowed as the nurse nodded. “S-Sure. I can manage.” He wasn’t the type to sit still. “Why don’t we celebrate this later?” He turned to the girl with a smile. “I will be here waiting while you can get the team together and celebrate your reveal.” Amy’s eyes gleamed with excitement. She had forgotten she wanted to do a reveal party.
“Yes!” The beta took Rouge’s hand to pull her along. “Come on Rouge, no wasting time!”
Sonic sighed and sat down on one of the chairs. He tapped his foot against the floor in impatience. It was a waiting game. The nurse kept coming by to tell him he was being kept in mind. But the testing station was closing soon and there was still no time for him.
“I am truly sorry but we will be closing.” The nurse felt awful having to turn away the hero. Especially after having him sit there for so long.
“Eh, it happens.” Sonic got up and stretched, he was not made to be seated. There were a few patients left waiting for their test results. A doctor came out of the room and saw the nurse with the hero.
“Is something the matter?”
“He missed his appointment since he was fighting Eggman. He was waiting, hoping we may have some time today. I was about to turn him away since you said we were closing.” The nurse explained with a sheepish smile.
"Nonsense!” The doctor exclaimed. “You didn’t tell me it was for the hero of mobius! I make time for him any time! Come on in boy.” He opened the door to the room. Sonic perked up, finally. The sitting hadn’t been for nothing. He followed the doctor in the room and took a seat when told. He presented his arm and a sample was taken for testing.
“You are years behind your growth. So much for the fastest thing alive.” The doctor tried to make small talk while he sent the blood off to be tested.
Sonic laughed. “Tell me about it. How uncharacteristic of me.” By now, it didn’t bother him that he was slow in his growth. It meant he didn’t suffer the season.
The doctor left to get the test result on paper. That lightened atmosphere was gone once he set his foot back in the room. He stared at the paper in his hands. Sonic wasn’t able to read his expression but he sensed the change in the room.
“Everything okay doc? Another blank?”
“Uh,” The doctor stammered. “Let’s take another blood sample to be sure.” Sonic tilted his head as his ear flickered, but he held out his arm. Two more tubes were pulled from his veins. Then the doctor disappeared again.
‘Omega.’
Slowly but surely Sonic felt anxiety building up in his stomach. His ear kept flickering which showed his unease. “Relax, Sonic. It is just a blank.” He told him.
The door opened and the doctor walked in, holding three separate test results. He looked from the papers up to Sonic with a sorrowful expression. “I… I am sorry.”
Sonic took the paper and read the bold letters.
OMEGA.
“No…” He looked at the next paper.
OMEGA.
“Nonono!” And the next.
OMEGA.
At that moment, it was as if his world came crashing down.