Military operatives are searching the woods, all of them armed with either guns, dogs, and drones. Sonic is watching them from a tree branch, panicking.
"Okay, okay. Everything is fine...You played some baseball, got a little upset, lightning shot out of your butt and now they're coming after you."
He speeds back into his cave, trying to figure out what to do first.
"Alright, alright, Earth isn't safe anymore. Time for plan B, Mushroomville. But I gotta take my stuff! Okay, essential items only." He quickly puts stuff into a backpack.
"Toothbrush, toothpaste, hair gel, nightlight, funny hat, this half eaten cantaloupe. Oh, and my scented candle. My entire comic book collection. Bean bag chair. Can a bean bag chair fit in a backpack? No, no, no, of course not, that's stupid. Okay, what else?"
He checks over everything and deems that he has everything he needs.
"Okay, what else? The rings! The rings, yes, of course!" He pulls out a golden ring. "Here we go, ring time. Mushroom planet, here I come."
Before he could throw it, he hears dogs and drones, who are unfortunately closing in on him.
"Oh no. They're right outside, I gotta go somewhere else."
As he's leaving, he glances back and gets a sad look in his eyes. For 10 years, this had been his home and now he's leaving it behind...
"Goodbye, cave."
In the Wachowski house, Tom's phone rings while he's marking things down on a map. He sees that it's Maddie calling and he answers the phone.
"Hey!"
"Hey!" She greets him back.
"Whatcha doing?"
Maddie is in her sister's house with her niece Jojo. She's coloring while her sister and Jojo are buidling something apparently. "Just coloring with Jojo and Rachel. Is Sophia still at school?"
"Ah, that sounds...half fun. And yeah, she is," He looks at his watch. "Should be getting home from school soon, today's a half day apparently because of something. And speaking of something, exciting stuff here. We had a power outage. The whole town went dark. It was like a sign telling me to get out of dodge."
"Wade must have lost his mind," Maddie chuckles a bit, standing up.
"Yeah. And he does not have much to lose. How's your sister? Did she convince you to leave me yet?"
For some reason, Maddie's sister Rachel doesn't like Tom. And because she doesn't like Tom, she's not too nice towards Sophia either.
"No, but she did tell me to check your phone for dating apps."
"The only apps on my phone are the ones that came with it," Tom replies back. "And the Olive Garden."
"Ah. Because when you're there..."
"You're family," Tom finishes for her and then hears something outside. "No way." He looks out the window towards the garage. It wasn't his daughter coming home, but it definitely was something. "The raccoons are back. And they are in for a surprise." He opens up a drawer, searching for something.
"Your surprise better not be my tranquilizer gun," Maddie warns him. "They're just hungry. And also, that's for bears."
He takes out the gun anyway and checks to see if it's loaded. "Good. Now I know it'll work."
"Tom!" She calls out at him.
"I'm kidding. I'm just gonna use it to scare 'em," He assures her; if he actually shot at them, she and their daughter would never let him live it down. "Possibly to death," He mutters under his breath as he heads for the door. "Love you honey, bye! I'll say hi to Sophia for you!"
"Tom-"
He hangs up the phone, scooping up some cake with his finger and licking it.
Maddie turns to Rachel. "D-I-V-O-R-C-E," She simply spells to emphasize her point.
Sonic had climbed through the window, which was what Tom heard. He's inside the garage, with his dirty shoes getting onto Tom's workbench. "Okay, I'm in," He gets down onto the floor from the workbench. "With minimal damage to Donut Lord's property." He reaches into his satchel and pulls out a ring. "Here we go. It didn't work out on Earth, but that's okay! You're going to a safe world. A nice, safe world filled with mushrooms—mushrooms that'll be your only friends," He falters once he realizes that fact. "That sounds awful. I can't do this! You have to do it. There's no other option."
He takes a deep breath, looking at the ring. "Alright."
The hedgehog is about to toss it when the garage door barges open and Tom comes in with the tranquilizer gun. He's also got a flashlight while he's scooping the area.
"SFPD, pending background check! Paws in the air!" He points the gun and flashlight at Sonic, who is surprised to say the least.
"Uhh...meow?"
Tom screams loudly and Sonic reacts in the same way. Tom fires the gun and a dart gets Sonic in the leg.
"Ow!"
He starts to feel woozy and he reads the San Francisco logo from Tom's shirt.
"San...Francisco?"
Unfortunately, he drops the ring he's holding and it rolls onto the floor. Tom watches as it spins around, opening up a portal on top of a building in San Francisco right in the middle of the floor. He opens his mouth in shock, dropping the tranq gun. Sonic wobbles a bit and then he falls unconscious. He drops the entire bag of rings into the portal, and they land on the roof of the building. Then the portal begins to close.
"No..." He calls out wearily before closing his eyes.
Tom is still in shock, wondering what just happened. "...What?"
After bringing him back into his house, he had put Sonic in Ozzy's dog cage. Tom reaches in with a spatula and gently pokes at him. He moves his head a little, examining his blue fur. He moves away the spatula and holds up the blue quill that he found not too long ago.
"The Blue Devil," He whispers in realization.
He walks up to the counter, wondering what the heck to do. While he's thinking, Sonic crawls out of the cage, regaining consciousness. Tom grabs his phone, turns to the cage, and stumbles back in surprise to see the hedgehog standing up.
"Donut Lord?"
"It can talk," Tom says in shock. "...You're not...you're not here to abduct me, are you?"
"You abducted ME!" Sonic accuses him.
"...Okay, that's a fair point," Tom agrees after thinking about it. After all, Sonic was the one put into a cage... "What are you? Why are you hiding out in my garage?"
"I-I needed somewhere safe. And you're the only person I could think of, Donut Lord," Sonic tells him.
"Why do you keep calling me Donut Lord?" Tom demands to him.
"Cause you talk to donuts and then eat them if they get out of line," The hedgehog simply explains.
"Again, fair."
"Wait, wait, wait," Sonic shakes his head, trying to recall what happened. "Where are all the mushrooms? Why am I still on Earth? What is—oh no! I lost my rings!"
"What?!" The man just asks in confusion; he has no idea what Sonic is even talking about.
Then the both of them hear a low rumble, coming from Dr. Robotnik's truck. "What's happening? Is this your mother ship? I'm not in the mood to get probed."
"You think you're worried? I'm not even wearing pants!" Sonic states while Tom looks outside to see the truck parking.
"What the..."
Sonic looks out the window as well and yelps, covering the window with the curtain. "They're coming for me!"
"Who's coming for you? What's that got to do with me?" Tom wonders, glancing towards outside.
"I don't have time to explain, but you have to help me!" Sonic pleads with the man.
"No, I don't!" Tom answers incredibly and in disbelief. "Why?"
"Well, my legs, which normally would be classified as lethal weapons, feel like spaghetti. I need your help. Please. It's life or death."
He glances back at the hedgehog, remembering the conversation he had with Maddie. He did want to help someone who was in a life or death situation...that's what he aspires to do, after all. Even if he wasn't expecting this.
He lets out a sigh and decides to help him. "Fine. Come with me," He walks out and Sonic tries to leave, only to faceplant into the floor because of his legs.
"Uh, little help?"
Robotnik examines more footprints left by Sonic right outside the house. He examines them with his glove, and they match the same footprint he found in the woods.
Tom places Sonic in the attic. "Alright, stay here. And be quiet," He warns the hedgehog.
"Good plan. Great plan! We're already working so well together! Practically finishing each other's sentences."
Tom decides not to comment and closes the door behind him. "Okay, bye."
Tom opens the door and steps out to see Robotnik on the walkway. "Hello there! Can I help you?" He greets, though keeps in mind to be cautious of this guy.
Robotnik stands up and walks over to him. "Good morning, my rural chum," He waves to Tom. "I'm...from the power company, investigating the blackout. If you don't mind, I'd like to take a few readings inside your house?"
"No kidding? You're from the power company?" Tom feigns surprise at him. "Oh, you must know my buddy Spencer. We play softball together."
"Ah, Spence," Robotnik says fondly, smiling. "He's a good man..."
"Yeah. Come on in!" Tom gestures to inside.
"Great," Robotnik walks up the steps.
"Take all the readings you need. Except-" He blocks Robotnik from coming in. "Doesn't the power company usually take their readings from outside the house? That way, they can check them even if you're not home. Also, my buddy Spencer works for the gas company, and he's more of an Ultimate Frisbee guy, and should I mention that if you knew him, you'd know my daughter because he babysat her. So, you wanna tell me why you think I'm dumb enough to just let you walk inside my house?"
Robotnik pauses and puts a hand behind his back. He uses his glove to send his drones into the house. "I'm sorry, Mister..."
"Wachowski. But everyone just calls me Tom. Except my dentist, he calls me Tim. But it's gone on for so long that it would just be weird if I corrected him."
"Well, Tom whose dentist calls him Tim...you may have noticed that this entire town has been experiencing a power outage," He turns away and Tom glances over his shoulder.
"Yup, no lights. Picked up on that."
"20 minutes ago, I tracked an energy pulse with a similar signature to the one that caused that disruption," Robotnik explains as the drones enter the house. They come in from windows and the chimney. One of them goes into the attic, scanning the room. Sonic watches it while standing in front of the wall. He peeks around the corner, watching the drone carefully.
"Listen, uh, Mister..."
"Doctor," Robotnik corrects him. "Dr. Robotnik. But my dentist calls me Rob."
"Hm. Look, uh, Dr. Robotskeez. Um, I'm sure what you're here for is very serious, but it's got nothing to do with me. You can ask anyone in town. Everyone knows me."
"I bet they do. I'm sure you're hella popular with the Jebs and Merles and Billy Bobs in this glorified gas-station rest stop. Betcha go way back to the days of tippin' cows and playin' in a jug band!" He imitates a jug band player. "And maybe someday you'll achieve your goal of getting a Costco card or adopting a Labradoodle. But the reality is, I surpassed everything you're ever going to do...before I was a toddler. I was spitting out formulas while you were still spitting up formula."
"I was breast fed, actually," Tom informs him.
"Nice. Rub that in my orphan face. Mr. Wachowski, are you familiar with US Code 904, Title 10, Article 104?"
"...Yeah, who isn't-"
"Anyone who attempts to aid an enemy of the United States shall suffer death. And if I'm the one that catches you, it'll be even worse," Robotnik warns him.
"...Worse than death?"
However, unfortunately for him, he didn't know that Sophia was almost home as she drives her car...
Angel: Damn, now I wanna go to Olive Garden. And yes, I love that reference in the movie since I love Italian food.