The Tour
The roaring engine of Matt's car buzzed loudly down the road as the tires spun across the asphalt. Windows slowly rolled down before the 4 Mobian's widening eyes, Sonic and the others leaned their heads out and gasped.
Matt smiled "Take a look guys; there's a whole new world out there for you. Welcome to Chicago".
Breathless skyscrapers flashed before the dazzled eyes of the four, furry creatures. Thousands of people, hundreds of cars, flashing street lights, beautiful buildings, and a million other sights and sounds too wonderful and bountiful to even begin comprehending. Tails gasped and eagerly pointed to the staggering sight of the enormous Sears Tower building. Even bigger was the sight of the Hancock building, Sonic and Tails stared straight up at it.
Sally's diamond blue eyes sparkled at the sight of the rainbow light colored waterworks that fired from the infamous Buckingham Fountain.
"Absolutely amazing, I've never seen anything as beautiful as that on all of Mobius" Sally exclaimed.
Roaring faces and lights dazzled the bewildered imaginations of the visiting critters, truly, Matt's world was a world unlike anything they could have ever imagined. Bunnie stuck her head out and crooned at the feel of the wind blowing across her ears. The southern belle's furry nose twitched at a plentiful bouquet of delicious scents and smells.
Bunnie hummed "Boy sugar, something sure smells sweeter then a whole hive of honey".
Matt smirked "That's no surprise Bunnie; Chicago has some of the best restaurants around. After a small side trip I'd be more then happy to show you guys around".
The clunking car coughed and hacked, coughing up chunks of smoke and busted car parts as it sputtered it's aching engines across the road. Matt did his best to keep the car's deterioration under wraps. The last thing Matt wanted to do was to cause any more trouble, especially if by some chance Sonic and his friends may NEVER be able to go back home again. Matt managed to park the car stepped out, dropping coins into the parking meter.
"Okay guys, just wear those jackets for now, soon as we get inside you can take them off" Matt said.
Sonic grumbled a bit, struggling with the green kid sized jacket he was forced to put on. Sally chuckled a bit at Sonic as she adjusted her coat. Bunnie groaned as she tugged on the arm sleeve of her purple coat, her mechanical arm got snagged in the sleeve slot.
RIP!
Bunnie gulped "Oops, uh sorry sugar but I uh".
Matt rubbed his face and groaned; Bunnie had ripped the sleeve right off when she pushed her metal arm all the way through. The female rabbit bashfully blushed as she rubbed the back of her ears.
Matt shook his head "Just forget it; those jackets are too small for you guys anyway. There designed for like 6 year olds".
Sonic blinked "Huh? Then why would you have these in the first place?".
The question stunned Matt for a minute, his face turned white and Sonic could have sworn he saw small tears forming in Matt's gray eyes. Matt turned around and quickly recomposed himself.
"Let's just get inside" Matt said cheerfully, or so he sounded.
Sally and Sonic looked at each other in confusion but knowing they could do little about it, shrugged and followed Matt. Bunnie and Tails followed the human as well. The store had a large, yellow, multi colored sign above it, shadowed over by a giant statue of a toy jack-in-the-box. Big red letters spelled out the name of the store. Tails looked at it and tried to read it.
Tails said "FAO Schwartz?".
The building was a massive toy store. Children and parents suffocated the walls of the cramped but colorful store, toys and playful items were stacked and stuffed across every wall and section. Sonic felt kind of nervous being around all these kids, thinking to himself how nuts this place seems to be making these kids.
Sonic asked "Just what is this place?".
Matt replied "It's uh well it's a……it's a toy store".
Sonic blinked "A toy store? Uh thanks for the offer Matt but I don't think video games are gonna get us back home".
Matt groaned "No, no, were not here for that".
"Then what in the Sam heck are we doing here?" Bunnie asked.
Matt ducked down, trying to whisper "Since no one is going to believe you guys are walking talking animals, we've got to make up a cover story. The best I can do is say your kids wearing Halloween costumes. And since you guys are about the size of a kid, I figured kid clothes would fit you best".
Sally nodded "That's a good idea. At least that way we can hide our appearances to a certain degree, without drawing attention to ourselves".
Sonic crossed his arms and frowned "I'm a teenaged hedgehog for crying out loud, and now I've gotta dress like I'm 5 again?".
Sally snapped "Sonic, will you be quiet. We've got to try and blend in here. We don't know how long it's going to take us to get back home, so in the meantime we have got to make due with what we got, ALL RIGHT?".
The princess's firm stone shut Sonic up, despite his silent grumbling. Matt sighed and lead the 4 Mobian's up the escalator to the second floor of the toy store. Matt and the others walked across the electronic, piano floor. A small hallway that had a floor specially coated by a touch activated sound system covered by a plastic carpet designed to look like piano keys.
Sonic gasped as the keys lit up and played a sound as his red sneakers stepped onto them.
"Whoa" Sonic gasped.
Matt smiled "Oh, don't worry about that Sonic. It's a synthesizer built into the floor boards".
The blue hedgehog stared blankly at that statement.
Rubbing his throbbing forehead, Matt tried again "It's a keyboard? You walk on the tiles and they make pretty colors and sounds".
Sonic danced his red sneakers onto the ground a bit more, his eyes and ears were delighted with the musical results. The hedgehog continued to dance and move about. Faster and faster Sonic moved, enjoying each and every colorful musical step.
Sally crossed her arms "Are you done yet, can we go now?".
Sonic smirked "Hang on, I'm really cooking now".
The princess groaned and rubbed her head in annoyance, watching as her boyfriend stupidly amused himself further with the musical toy. Bunnie flexed out her robotic arm and yanked Sonic off the keyboard carpet.
"HEY, come on you guys, I was getting really good at it" Sonic protested.
A few minutes later……
Matt groaned as he stood outside the dressing rooms for the children's clothing department. This was proving to be more difficult then Matt had originally thought, Sonic and Tails were taking an especially long time.
"I feel like a total goof ball" Sonic grumbled.
The hedgehog walked out with a green baseball cap, a dark blue, short sleeved shirt with red sleeves, and a bright neon green pair of shorts. Sally burst with laughter.
Sally giggled "Oh Sonic, that look is DEFINITELY you".
Sonic frowned "Hardy, har, har".
Matt rolled his eyes "Sonic, you've got to find something you like, this is getting ridiculous".
The hedgehog snarled back "Hey give me a break, this is down right embarrassing. Clothes have never been a big thing for most of us".
Matt crossed his arms "Oh don't play that card on me, I don't hear Tails complaining at all".
Sonic raised an eyebrow at that "That's because he hasn't been able to FIT into his clothes long enough to feel embarrassed about them".
"What do you mean?" Matt asked.
Sonic replied "He's been trying to put on the same pair of pants you gave him 20 minutes ago".
Matt nearly screamed as he grabbed at his dark brown hair and ripped at it, grinding his teeth and sputtering silent curse words under his breath. Matt went to the dressing room Tails was in and knocked on it loudly.
Tails shouted "Go away".
Matt replied "Tails, please come out of there, you've been in there for a long time now".
The fox continued to protest "I said go away, I'm not coming out".
"Why not?" Matt asked.
Tails paused briefly before bashfully answering "You're gonna laugh, just go away".
People started to stare and turn their attention towards Matt and Tails, the human laughed nervously as he angrily tried to jerk the dressing door open. Sally barely gazed at the girls clothes. Not a stuffy princess per say, but even the most domestic of girls would fine some of these clothes distasteful.
Sally blinked "Say, this looks kind of cute. Bunnie what do you think?".
The princess held a small blue dress up to her, smiling at the sparkling designs and glittering colors on it. Not bad for a child's outfit, sally thought. Bunnie giggled a bit. The cyborg rabbit was wearing a red scarf with a pair of cut off, jean shorts. Her mechanical legs flexed in the mirror much to Bunnie's delight.
"This world may not exactly be peaches and pie Sally girl, but it sure does have its perks. And I think that'd look real sweet on you" Bunnie said.
WHAM!
Matt finally was able to yank Tails out of the dressing room, despite the fox's infant like resistance. Tails cried and pulled against Matt's arm as he was embarrassed of being seen in the brown pants he was wearing. The dark brown pants were near the point of tearing, due to the fact Tails stuffed both of his twin tails inside the pants.
Matt growled "Were getting these pants, I'm going to pay for them, and then were going straight home".
Tails protested loudly "But I don't wanna".
One of the store clerks groaned as he walked by, wincing at the screeching sounds of Tails child like whimpering.
"I hate it when parents bring their youngest kids to the store, they always cry and scream, control your own kids for Pete's sake" the clerk muttered.
Matt grumbled silently to the clerk's remark as he approached the cash register, he reached into his pocket to remove his wallet. Unknown to Matt, a mother and her 8 year old son were noticing Tails strange behavior. The young boy started to poke his toy plane into Tails behind. The fox cringed; the bulge being poked was where his 2 tails were tightly jammed in.
The boy giggled "HA, HA, look at that, bounce, bounce".
Tails bit his lip and tried not to scream, the more the kid poked the weaker the stitching on the jean shorts became. Sonic growled and Sally whispered at him to just be quiet until they left the store. But as soon as the boy bopped Sonic in the back of his head with his toy plane, Sonic refused to take anymore.
"WILL YOU KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY?" Sonic screamed.
The boy's eyes welled up with tears as the blue hedgehog screamed at him like a savage beast, veins sprouted over Sonic's face like worms. Bunnie and Sally gasped, biting their lips with tension.
Tails gasped "Sonic, you just"
RIP!
The fox blinked as his shorts ripped open and out popped his twin orange tails. The store managers and clerks stared wide eyed at the strange creatures, Matt's wallet dropped to the floor along with his change. The coins clattering sounds echoed loudly in the suddenly silent toy store.
Matt squeaked softly "Oh shit".
To be continued……