Chapter 3: Dodging and Lost Rings
The next day at the baseball field, the military set up a detachment at the baseball are different military forces and scientists with gadgets and machines to figure out the source of the electrical pulses and the blackouts. Just then, a large black truck slowly pulls into the field. Once it arrives. One of the military forces, Major Bennington notices it. Soon, the black truck comes to a stop.
Major Bennington replies."What the…"
Soon, the large track begins to open up and fold-out a staircase. Once the fold-out staircase is open, a man walks out of the truck. He's an average-sized human. He originally possessed dark brown (almost black) hair, light peach skin, brown eyes, a short mustache and ample stubble across his jawline. His hair was usually combed back, and his mustache was usually thin and dark brown (almost black) with handlebar curls at the ends. The man is known as Dr. Robotnik, the brilliant scientist that the Pentagram assigned to deal with the matter.
A few other men in separate black cars arrive. One of them is Dr. Robotnik's assistant named Agent Stone. An average man with short-cut black hair, brown eyes, light brown skin, and visible facial hair. For attire, he is usually seen wearing a black jacket, navy shirt and a black tie. Robotnik approaches the major and takes his glasses off as the major warily puts his hand on his sidearm holster if needed.
Dr. Robotnik questions, "Are you in charge here?"
Yes, I am-" Major Bennington answers.
But Robotnik interrupts him, "Nope!"
Major Bennington tries to speak, "My-"
Dr. Robotnik interrupts again, "Wrong!"
Major Bennington says, "name-"
Dr. Robotnik interrupts again, "I'm in charge!"
"is Major-" Major Bennington again tries to speak.
Dr. Robotnik interrupts again ,"Me!"
Major Bennington tries to continue, "Ben-"
This time Robotnik says, almost whispering, "I'm in charge."
Then Agent Stone shows Bennington Robotnik's badge.
Robotnik continues, "You've never seen anything like this before. It says I'm the top banana in a world full of hungry little monkeys." the points upward, "Allow me to clarify. "
Then turns his head to the side as he makes a servo noise.
Then says, "In a sequentially ranked hierarchy based on a level of critical importance, the disparity between us is too vast to quantify. Agent Stone?"
"The doctor thinks you're basic," Agent Stone clarifies.
Robotnik holds out his left arm, "I'm initiating a sweep sequence."
He then presses some buttons on his glove control panel, "Ten miles in every direction should suffice."
On the top of Robotnik's truck, multiple hatches open to reveal large egg shaped flying drones, and they are preparing to dispatch.
Dr. Robotnik turns his head and asks. "Is he still looking at me funny?"
"Yes, he is," Agent Stone answers.
"Tell him to stop or I'll pull up his search history," Robotnik says.
"If you don't stop looking at the doctor, he'll take a closer look-" Agent Stone says.
But Major Bennington says, "I'm not deaf."
"And tell him his men report to me now. Blah blah blah… blah blah blah… blah blah blah," Robotnik says.
"Excuse me? Listen, pal, I don't know if you realize-" Major Bennington says.
But Robotnik interrupts him as he turns around, "I'm sorry, Major. What was your name?"
Major Bennington tries to say his name, "Benning-"
But Robotnik says, "Nobody cares! Nobody cares. Listen, Major Nobody-Cares. You know why nobody cares who you are? Because nobody cares about your feeble accomplishments."
He walks to Bennington and walks around him, And nobody cares how proud your mommy is that you're now reading at a third-grade level. Have you finished Charlotte's Web yet? Spoiler alert: she dies in the end. And she leaves a big creepy egg sac."
Soon, he sees his flying drones flying around.
Then Robotnik says in satisfaction, "Ah, my babies! Ooh! Look at what came out of my egg sack! You know what I love about machines?"
Then turns to his drones, "They do what they're told, they follow their programming! They don't need time off to get DRUUNK and put the boat in the water!"
Then turns to face everyone and points to Bennington, "Now, you do what you're told. Stand over there on the edge of your personal abyss…"
Then opens his arms, "and watch my machines do your job."
Bennington walks away in disgruntlement. Then Agent Stone turns to face Robotnik.
Robotnik calls out, "Can you feel it, Stone?"
"I can feel it, Doctor," Agent Stone answers.
"It's evolution, Stone," Robotnik says.
He then presses the buttons on his gloves and clenches his fists, "It's evolution!"
Then sends his drones flying off into the distance and into the forest.
Soon, the drones spread throughout the forest and begin to scan the area for clues or any leads. Soon, one of the drones scans a nearby rock and finds one shoe print. Then another scan the ground to find another shoe print in the dirt.
Back at the baseball diamond, in Robotnik's truck interior, Robotnik is watching and controlling the operation on a giant holographic screen. The screen shows the two different shoe prints. Soon, Agent Stone enters.
Robotnik replies, "Agent Stone?"
"Doctor," Agent Stone says.
"Do you see anything useful in this image?" Dr. Robotnik questions and shows Stone the images of the shoe prints.
"Nothing at all, Doctor," Agent Stone answers.
"Of course you don't. Your eyes weren't expertly trained to spot tracks by the Native American Shadow Wolves," Robotnik says.
Robotnik then presses some buttons on his control panel. Then scoots back a little as the images show what look like unusual feet.
"That's extraordinary," Agent Stone says, impressed.
"No," Robotnik says.
Then continues, "What's extraordinary is I've determined the exact height, weight, and spinal curvature of these creatures, and my computer can't find a single match for them anywhere in Earth's animal kingdom."
He then stands up and faces Stone, "This blackout was not a terrorist attack, and those are no baby bigfoots.
He chuckles and says, "These guys are something else… entirely."
Then says, "Divert all search units to the sight of the footprints. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for me."
Soon enough, the military and drones are now on the search around the area for more clues. While the search is in the area, Sonic spies on them from a distance to see what is happening.
Sonic softly panics, "Okay, okay. Everything is fine. You played some baseball, got a little upset, lightning shot out of your butt, caused your sister to do the same to get you to stop getting upset, and now they're coming for you and your sister!"
Sonic quickly speeds back to the tree trunk home, where Eve is waiting for him.
"What is the status?" Eve asks.
Sonic says to Eve, "All right, all right. Things are looking very bad now. Earth isn't safe anymore. Time for Plan B-Mushroomville."
"Okay. Let's start packing, and remember to bring essentials items, and don't get carried away with your personal stuff," Eve says, and begins to pack her things.
"Essentials, got it," Sonic says.
He then brings zipping around as he packs his stuff, "Okay, toothbrush, toothpaste, hair gel, night-light. Funny hat. This half-eaten cantaloupe. Oh, my scented candle. My entire comic book collection. Beanbag chair. Can a beanbag chair fit in a backpack? No, no, no. Of course not. That's stupid. Okay, what else?"
As Sonic collects his stuff, Eve also collects hers, she brings a few of her clothes, toothbrush, toothpaste, hair brush, hair gel, a few of her accessories like hair ties, a few of her books, mainly notebooks, pencils, color pencils, markers, and crayons. And anything else she might need.
Once Eve has packed her things and turns to Sonic, "Don't forget your rings."
"The rings! The rings, yes, of course!" Sonic quickly says, and grabs it.
Then turns to Eve, "Thanks sis."
Soon, Sonic and Eve have their backpacks and each of them also have a single bag.
"Got everything," Sonic asks.
Eve nods her head, "Yes."
"Alright, here we go. Ring time," Sonic says, and takes one of the rings, "Mushroom planet, here I come."
He is about to toss the ring, but soon sees shadows of the drones, making Sonic and Eve panic.
"Oh, no! They're right outside!" Sonic panics.
"WE can't do it here. They'll find us," Eve says.
"You're right. We gotta go somewhere else," Sonic says.
Sonic and Eve begin to head towards the secret tunnel they made in case of emergency. Well, it's Eve's idea. They both soon take one last look at their home.
" Goodbye, cave," Sonic says.
Then Eve says, "Goodbye."
Soon, the two hedgehogs take their leave and find a different place to open the ring at.
Meanwhile, in the Wachowki residence, Tom is highlighting a trail on the map on the directions to get to San Francisco for the move. Just then, Tom's phone begins ringing and sees Maddie on the Caller ID Screen.
Tom picks up the phone and answers, "Hey!"
"Hey!" Maddie answers on the other line.
"Whatcha doing?" Tom asks.
Maddie is in the residence of her older sister Rachel and her daughter, Jojo.
Rachel is an adult human woman of African-American descent with a slightly hefty build. She possesses brown skin, brown eyes, and less than medium-long black hair that is curled and fuzzy. She wears a wide range of clothing.
Her daughter Jojo is a young and slim human girl of African-American descent. She has hazel eyes, brown skin, and medium-length black hair that is frizzled like an afro.
Maddie is doing some coloring while Rachel is helping Jojo.
"Just coloring with Jojo and Rachel," Maddie says.
At his home, Tom says, "Ah, that sounds half fun. Hey, 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.
At Racehl's residence, Maddie stands up as she says, "Wade must have lost his mind."
At the Wachowski residence, Tom continues, "Yeah. And he does not have much to lose. How's your sister? Did she convince you to leave me yet?"
At Rachel's residence, Maddie says, "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 says.
At the Wachowski residence, Tom adds, "And the Olive Garden."
At Rachel's residence, Maddie says, "Because when you're there…"
"You're family," Tom adds.
Still at his residence, suddenly, he hears a noise coming from outside.
Tom replies, "No way."
Tom looks out through the window to see the garbage cans have fallen over.
The raccoons are back. And they are in for a surprise," Tom says, as he walks to the kitchen and opens a drawer.
At Rachel's residence, Maddie says, "Your surprise better not be my tranquilizer gun. They're just hungry."
At the Wachowski residence, Maddie continues, "And also, that's for bears."
Tom however, grabs Maddie's tranq. gun anyway and cocks it, "Good. Now I know it'll work."
"Tom!" Maddie sternly says.
"I'm kidding. I'm just gonna use it to scare 'em. Possibly to death," Tom says.
At Rachel's residence, Maddie hears Tom say, "Love you, honey. Bye!"
"Tom-" Maddie calls out.
At the Wachowski residence, Tom puts his phone down and prepares to head to the garage, but not before he scoops a piece of cake on his finger and licks it. Then heads to the garage to handle the raccoons.
At Rachen's residence, Maddie simply smiles at her phone and thinks Tom is being silly.
Just then, her sister Rachel spells out, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E."
Meanwhile, in Tom's garage, Sonic and Eve successfully climb through the window and are now inside. However, Sonic accidently on something and breaks it.
"Be careful, Sonic," Eve whispers.
"Alright, alright. The most important thing is that we're in," Sonic whispers.
They both get down from the workbench, and on to the floor.
"With minimal damage to Donut Lord's property," Sonic comments.
"Yeah. I feel bad about us breaking in here, but it's the best we can do on short notice," Eve says.
Sonic then reaches inside his satchel and says, "Alright then, here we go. It didn't work out on Earth, but that's okay! We're going to a safe world. A nice, safe world filled with mushrooms-"
"Yeah. A bunch of smelly mushrooms," Eve says with a sigh.
Sonic sighs and says, "Yeah. And it will really be just the two of us," Sonic says.
The two look sad that they have to leave.
Then Sonic panics, "That sounds awful, I can't do this!"
"I know I don't like the idea either, but we don't really have much of a choice," Eve says.
"You're right. There's no other option," Sonic says.
Sonic takes a deep breath and says, "All right."
Sonic then prepares to toss the ring when he hears the door open to the garage barging open and see Tom come in with a flashlight and pointing the tranquilizer gun.
Tom calls out, "SFPD, pending background check! Paws in the air!"
Tom then points his gun and flashlight at the two stunned hedgehogs.
Sonic nervously says, "Uh... meow?"
This causes Tom to scream loudly, which makes Sonic and Eve scream as well. Tom quickly fires the tranq gun and the dart hits Sonic in his leg.
"Ow!" Sonic yelps.
"Sonic!" Eve panics.
Tom then fires at Eve and it hits her on her arm.
"Ow!" Eve yelps in pain.
Soon, Sonic and Eve begin to lose consciousness.
Sonic soon looks at Tom's shirt and reads "'San… Francisco'?"
Sonic's ring then slips out of Sonic's hand and opens the portal to the top of a large building in San Francisco. Tom becomes bewildered as Sonic and Eve stumble to the ground. Then Sonic accidentally drops his ring satchel through the portal which lands on the roof of the building. The portal soon closes.
"No…" Sonic softly says as he tries to reach for the portal.
Soon the portal closes, and the two hedgehogs have lost consciousness.
Still shocked, Tom questions, "What…?"