After pulling to and checking into a motel, Tom prepares to ice his face. "The floors were sticky. The crowd was rough." Sonic jumps up and down from the bed, retelling the story of the bar fight. "And the odds were against us, but there was no stopping Donut Lord, Sunshine, and the Blue Blur!" He places his hands on his hips bravely. Sophia sits on the bed across from him, chuckling.
"You know, that name isn't really intimidating no matter how many times you tell that story."
He speeds over to her and runs his thumb under his nose boastfully. "Scratch another one off my list," He jumps and lands next to Sophia. He crosses that off and Tom sits down on the other bed, holding a makeshift ice pack.
"You are a weird little dude," Tom comments, putting the pack to his face. He gives one to Sonic and Sophia. Sophia puts hers to her forehead in relief. Sonic starts imitating Tom, who's tending to his bruises. "Mm."
"Mm," Sonic copies him. Tom watches him for a second.
"Mm."
"Mm," Sonic smiles a bit and Sophia chuckles.
"Okay."
"So what are we gonna do now?!" The hedgehog asks in excitement.
"I'm gonna pass out watching TV. I think you should too," Tom takes off his shoes.
"But this is my last night on Earth! I wanna soak up every last second!"
"Even hedgehogs about to leave Earth need their sleep," Sophia comments as she stands up, walking away from the bed.
"Alright, well, anything you can find to do in this room, you knock yourself out," Tom tells him as Sophia washes her hands. Sonic glances around the room and speeds around, doing just about anything and everything he could. He makes a mess in the process, zipping in and out of the bathroom. Sophia opens her mouth in shock as she peeks out from the bathroom, looking at him. He's now covered in towels. "Good times."
"I need to get used to that," Sophia murmurs to herself, dragging a hand down her face. Then Sonic lets out a fart and she closes the door so she couldn't smell it.
"Oh, come on," Tom complains at him. He waves a hand in front of his face with a groan. "That's awful. What did you eat?" He lays down on the bed.
"I think it's called a chili dog?"
"You might wanna check your fur on that one, buddy," Tom warns him, Sonic taking off the towel from his head. Sophia steps out of the bathroom freshly clean, her hair a bit wavy after touching it up. "Hey," Tom speaks up. "So, what's this next planet you're supposed to go to like?"
"It's no Earth, I can tell you that," Sonic comments, looking away. "There's no people, just breathable air and giant mushrooms and stuff."
Tom shrugs upon hearing this. "Well, look at it this way. At least you won't be the only fun-guy."
"Oh my god, Dad, really? A Dad joke?" Sophia groans at him. "So lame..."
"No. Don't ever do that again," Sonic seems to agree with her, earning a chuckle from the man as he smiles.
"I liked it."
Sophia rolls her eyes to herself, sitting on the opposite side of the bed. She bends down and takes off her socks.
"...I'm really gonna miss this place," Sonic reveals and she slowly sits up, glancing at him. "I know I have to leave Earth to be safe, but what if Longclaw was wrong?" Her eyes sadden at him as...she kind of doesn't want him to leave either... "Maybe I could have a life here."
Sophia glances over her shoulder, a conflicted look on her face as she looks at her dad. He stays silent and then sits up, deciding to drop the issue. "Alright. We should get some sleep." He gets onto his feet.
"He's right. We're still a long way from San Fransisco," Sophia comments sadly, looking away.
"You guys sleep. Don't worry about me. I'm gonna stay up all night enjoying Earth while I can."
As soon as Tom is turned away, Sonic frowns a bit. He picks up his list and looks at one particular thing on it; which is why he won't let Sophia see it.
'Have a first kiss.'
He wants it from Sophia, but...he wasn't sure if he was pushing boundaries by having those feelings. After all, he appreciates Tom, and he's thinking about kissing his daughter! And she's a human, she'd probably find it weird...
"Sure, kid. As long as we're on the road by 8," Tom states, turning around. He sees Sonic fast asleep. He snores and Sophia sighs, crawling into bed with him. She takes off her glasses and puts them away.
"Goodnight, Dad," She turns away, her back facing Sonic as she closes her eyes. His eyes soften at the two as he walks up to the bed.
"I ate a chili dog. That's why my farts smell," Sonic murmurs in his sleep. Tom pulls up the blanket, tucking the two in. He stares down at the two before picking up the list. Most of it is crossed out, but two things stuck out to him.
'Make a real friend' and 'have a first kiss.'
He hears a groan and looks to see Sonic shifting around. He unconsciously wraps an arm around Sophia's waist, snuggling her. He blinks in surprise, but decides not to comment on it. It didn't hit him until now that something might be going on between the two...which he has to decide whether or not it bothers him...
"Thomas and his daughter Sophia Wachowski, accused of committing an act of domestic terrorism," Tom turns to the TV in shock upon hearing their names. "Both Wachowskis are considered armed and dangerous. Any information regarding their whereabouts should be reported to local authorities immediately."
It's about 3 in the morning as Sophia sits up, yawning. She slowly steps out of bed, sighing to herself. She looks out the window, looking out to the stars. For some reason, she couldn't sleep...something had been nagging her ever since she went to bed...something that she wasn't sure what. Maybe it was her dad's new job, having to move, having to change schools, she didn't know...
She glances back at Sonic and her dad, both fast asleep. Or maybe...it's because of Sonic leaving...
She looks towards the ground, unsure of what to do with all of this. It was happening too much too fast for her liking, and she needed a breather...
She opens the door quietly and steps out. Sonic lifts up an ear and opens his eyes, looking up as she closes the door behind her.
Sophia slowly steps towards the motel pool, looking towards the water. She slowly bends down and dips her feet into the water. She sighs to herself, pinching her nose. "I'm close to graduating high school, and I don't even know what I'm doing with my life. How pathetic is that?"
"That's not pathetic."
She whips around as Sonic walks up to her. "Hey."
"Hi, Sonic. I didn't wake you up, did I?" She asks nervously and he sits down to her.
"Well, yeah, but it's okay. Soph, why do you think your life's pathetic? Your life is awesome! You get to do lots of great things on Earth!" He tells her in disbelief.
"Hm," She smiles weakly at him. "Thanks, and while that may be true...well, my dad wants to pursue his dream," She looks towards the moon and he looks up at it too. "And it requires big changes that I didn't think would happen so soon. But...I don't wanna face them...and yet I have to. He gave up so much for me, and if it's what he wants...I have to make him happy. He worked so hard to give me things I asked for my birthday and to support my mom, and yet...I just feel like I have something more to do in my life, but I don't know what it is...and I don't want to hold him back from his dream, even if I disagree with the results..."
"You don't have to sacrifice your happiness or your own dreams for his," Sonic's eyes sadden at her. "If you tell him, he'd understand."
"No...I can't. It'll crush him," Sophia closes her eyes, trying not to cry. "Sometimes you have to give up things for the ones you love...especially family."
Sonic pauses and looks away. "You know...whenever I saw you, you always had a smile on your face on a sunny day. Even when it was raining. The first time I saw it, I said... 'Wow. Her smile is like the sun that brightens up my day'." She turns to him in surprise and smiles, wiping at her eyes with her arm. "And…well, you still do that now in the moonlight..." She blushes bashfully, pushing a bang behind her ear. "So I'm sure that you'll find a way to be happy despite all that sacrifice."
"Is that why you call me Sunshine?" She asks curiously and he blushes, nodding.
"Well...yeah...because your smile makes everything better for me, like the sunshine from the sky...even now, with your glasses off, you still make me feel less lonely than I was before. And you're pretty without them too."
He covers his mouth quickly and looks away. "Why did you say that, Sonic? You know you wanted to. Oh, but now she thinks I'm creepy!"
"Mm..." She smiles softly upon hearing his explanation. He's just carefree and sweet that she sometimes wished she could be like him. Or at least have that in her life. "Thanks for listening and for cheering me up, Sonic," The girl leans in and kisses his cheek, shocking him. She stands up and walks off. "Come on, let's get some sleep before we hit the road."
"Whoo hoo!" He cheers, his feet speeding up from the kiss on the cheek as he speeds past her into the room. She blinks and giggles at him, entering the room again.
The next morning, Robotnik has arrived at the bar, where a new window was being put in. "Did they say where they were going?" Agent Stone is asking questions to the same guy that went through the window. He has a neck brace around him. He takes the pictures of the two family members and looks at them.
"Maybe. Maybe not. Like I'd ever tell you," He gives him the pictures back to the man. Robotnik pushes his associate aside.
"Stand down, Agent Stone. This well-meaning citizen obviously doesn't understand the urgency of the matter."
The man stands up, towering over Robotnik and looking at him in the eyes. "Really?"
Robotnik just gives him a smug grin, throwing him out the window. "Now that's what I call good cop, bad cop."
They leave the Piston Pit, and Robotnik holds his hand out for a high five. Agent Stone goes for it, only for the doctor to punch him in the gut. "Hoi! Left yourself open."
Agent Stone gasps for air.
They step inside the truck and Robotnik starts speaking. "Judging by the quickest route to San Francisco, the approximate speed of their vehicle and local weather conditions...Robotnik taps into his systems. "They should be right...about...here," He manages to track down Tom's truck.
"That's brilliant, sir," Agent Stone comments at him.
"Thanks...for nothing."
"And what about the Wachowski girl, sir?" The agent asks curiously. The doctor just walks past him and reaches into a compartment that holds the quill after Agent Stone gave it to him earlier.
"As for her...let's just say that it'll be an experience she'll never forget," He plucks a tiny hair from the quill and puts it into a beaker, where smoke comes out of it. He grins as he touches the quill, looking towards the concoction as it boils over and turns pink...
Tom drives past the Siskiyou county line as they have just arrived in California.
"So, what's on your bucket list?" Sonic asks the man curiously, Sophia looking up from her phone.
"Who, me?"
"Yeah. Everyone has a bucket list, right?" The hedgehog glances over his shoulder at the girl, who looks away.
"Um..." She recalls their conversation from last night, and if she says it, her father might be able to guess her reluctance to move.
"Well, sure, but...I mean, you're the one leaving Earth, and I'm not planning on dying anytime soon."
"I'd beg to differ," Sophia mutters while looking at the news. She and her father's faces are plastered all over the internet, and she's been getting frantic texts from her friends all morning...
Sonic chuckles at Tom. "Oh, don't be so sure. Your best friend is a magnet for danger."
"Oh, are you anointing yourself as the bestie?" Tom asks playfully, earning a laugh from Sophia, causing her to forget the news for a minute.
"Mm-hmm."
"A little presumptuous, but-" Sonic narrows his eyes at him and Sophia looks away with a low awkward whistle. "I mean—what, no—I-I like you, of course, but...you know, we're not best friends."
"You tucked me in last night," The hedgehog argues back. Tom just lets out a small chuckle and Sonic waves a hand. "Fine, fine, fine. Best animal friend."
"That would be our dog, Ozzy," Tom corrects him.
"Okay, let's switch over to your daughter, then!" Sonic gestures to the girl, looking back at her. "Sunshine, am I your best friend?"
"Err, well, I do have Maeve and Lila, and I hang out with them a lot..." She rubs the back of her neck and he pouts. She waves her hands rapidly. Seeing that look in his eyes made her want to backtrack to make him feel better. "But you're definitely my best animal friend!"
He smiles upon hearing her answer and she blushes in embarrassment.
"Ouch. Don't think Ozzy's gonna like hearing that," Tom murmurs loud enough to hear, earning a kick to his chair. "Hey!"
The two just laugh at him. "Bucket list!" Sonic changes the subject. "Give it to me! Soph, you go first."
"I, uh...I don't have much on it," She glances towards the window nervously. "But I do know that I want to do something that involves baking. Not sure if I'd open my own business or something like that, but it's definitely high up on there."
"That's it?" He asks in surprise, eyes wide. "But you guys can do all sorts of things!"
"Yeah, but sometimes people just like to keep it...simple, you know?"
"What about finding love?" Sonic questions suddenly, earning wide-eyed looks from both Wachowskis. "Isn't that important too?"
"...Let's move onto Dad!" Sophia laughs awkwardly and he decides to let it go. She really didn't want to answer that in front of her father when she knew that there was...something going on between her and Sonic. Something about him just spoke to her, but she didn't want to know where her father stood on that since...Sonic is a hedgehog, and she's a human. She knew it was weird from the start, but...with each moment with him, she doesn't fear anyone's opinion, really.
"We're talking about this later," He points a finger towards her, earning a facepalm from her as she shakes her head. "Okay, there is one thing. In Green Hills, I've always felt, I don't know, more like a babysitter than a real cop, you know?" Sophia droops as she realizes what he's about to tell Sonic. "So I want a chance to prove myself, under real pressure. I'm gonna move to San Francisco, become a street cop. Of course, I'm gonna wait until after Sophia graduates high school. And, I don't know, see if I have what it takes."
They look over to Sonic, whose jaw is dropped open in both shock and anger. "What? Why-why is your face doing that?"
"Sonic?" Sophia asks in concern, holding out a hand towards him. He slaps it away.
"You're both leaving Green Hills?!" He bursts out and she puts her hand to her heart, closing her eyes sadly.
"Okay..." Tom turns away knowingly.
"B-B-But why?" Sonic stammers out in disbelief. "Why would you leave Green Hills?"
"This may be hard for you to understand, but Green Hills is a small town. It's a very small town," Tom tries to explain to him.
"Uh, it's not small! There are hundreds of people," The hedgehog defends back.
"That's a small town, dude!" Tom replies and Sophia rubs a temple, looking out the window.
"It's a perfect town, and the people need you!"
"Please. I clean out their gutters. I jump start their cars in the winter. They could call anybody to do that," Tom states, all of them failing to realize a few cars following after them.
"Sure, they can call anybody, but they don't. They call you."
Tom pauses and Sonic whips around to Sophia. "And you lied to me! You didn't tell me you were moving!"
"Sonic, I wanted to tell you, but I didn't know how you'd react-"
"How I'd react?" He gestures to himself and she looks away, feeling bad. "You told me you wanted to give up everything for him! And w-we bonded over that! You said you didn't want to face this, and you're letting him do it?!"
"What?" Tom glances back at her and she flinches. "Soph, you don't wanna move?"
"I..." She falters, unsure of what to say now that he knows.
In the truck, Robotnik steps forward as he turns everything on, including a holographic screen. He then is watching the road from Tom's perspective. "Eeny, meeny, miny...mayhem!" He selects a bot and sends it out, and the hologram of the one he chose has a pink substance loaded in. He had placed it there earlier.
As they follow the truck, the red dot eyes the truck in front of them.
"You're not making any sense!" Sonic gets onto his feet.
"Would you calm down?" Tom tries to get him to cool it, but fails.
"You come from a great town with great people and, by my count, zero bad guys trying to kill you! And Sophia herself was only going through this to make you happy because of how great of a dad you were to her! So why are you making her go through with something she doesn't want to do?!"
"Soph, why didn't you just tell me?" Tom demands to her.
"One thing at a time, please!" She squeezes her eyes shut.
The drone car catches up to them.
"Besides, what could possibly be more important than protecting the people you care about?" Sonic asks him and Tom glances back at Sophia, who frowns sadly. He could see by the look on her face that she was suppressing some feelings about the move that she felt like he couldn't tell him...and that she didn't mean to keep it a secret. She was probably going to, in her head, adjust to the move in hopes of getting over these feelings, but...she couldn't.
Tom thinks about what the hedgehog said while Robotnik was arming the drone with a harpoon, which has the pink substance of whatever he created on the tip.
"Look, I-I get your poi-"
The drone car fires through the back window of the truck, and as it does, the tip of the harpoon strikes against Sophia's cheek and she lands against the window with her eyes closed. It latches onto the dashboard, causing both of them to scream. They look back towards outside and see Sophia.
"Sophia!" Sonic shouts in worry.
"Yeah!" Robotnik pumps a fist.