"Hey, Sonic, I got you a cell phone!" Chris announced one morning, holding out a cell phone to the blue hedgehog. "This is gonna make things a lot easier."
"Oh, really?" The hedgehog skeptically asked, taking the phone by the antenna and inspecting it in boredom.
"Yeah!" Chris said, excitement in his voice. "Don't you see? Now we'll be able to reach each other right away! Even when you're out on a run! We can talk anywhere now, no sweat!"
Sonic moaned in response.
"Now make sure to leave it on!" Chris winked.
"Hey, Chris! Sonic!"
The door opened, and Penny stared at the young teen, crossing her arms and tapping her foot impatiently. "You know, the others have been waiting in the car for a while."
"Yeah!" Amy said, walking in with her arms crossed.
"Oops!" Chris chuckled nervously, putting his hand to his head, a little embarrassed. "I forgot!"
Sonic glanced at the girls curiously. "Where you guys going?"
"Well..." Penny began, but Amy butted in, interrupting the younger pink and white hedgehog. "Now that we can go out in public, we're heading to Station Square to go shopping. We've spent weeks hunting down Chaos Emeralds, but now it's time to do some bargain hunting. So I'm gonna shop till I drop." She crossed her arms and stared at Sonic in annoyance. "There's no point waiting for you to take me, because I don't know where you are most of the time."
Penny groaned inwardly.
Amy's eyes suddenly widened in excitement about the phone in Sonic's hand and darted over to him. "Oh! We can stay connected all the time!"
"No thanks!" Sonic grinned at her, tossing the cell phone to Penny, who barely caught it before it fell to the ground. Sonic waved at them and zoomed off quickly, leaving Penny a bit startled, wondering what had just happened.
"Wait, Sonic!" Chris called. "What about your cell phone?!"
Sonic zoomed back with a smirk. "Leave a message for me!"
Penny almost laughed on how ironic that sounded. Sonic gave them another wave and sped off, leaving the kids dumbfounded.
"Knowing Sonic, I guess he doesn't like the idea of people bothering him every fifteen seconds, so he desires to be alone while he's on a run." Penny said, calming down a bit and staring at Chris apologetically. "This must be one of those times."
"THEN WHY CAN'T HE BE ALONE WITH ME?!" Amy screamed.
Penny sighed, shaking her head.
"I don't understand why Sonic doesn't want me calling him?" Chris moaned sadly as he gazed at the cell phone in his hands.
"I thought I told you earlier." Penny sighed from the back seat. "Sonic is that type of guy who likes to have plenty of privacy."
Chris glanced back at Penny anxiously. "But what'll we do if there's an emergency? Without a phone, we don't have a way to reach him!"
Tails smiled at the boy. "Don't worry, Chris! No matter where Sonic is, he has a way of showing up when he has to."
"Are you sure?" Chris asked.
"Count on it!" Amy, Penny, Tails, and Cream exclaimed at once, and Cheese chaoed in agreement.
Chris smiled anxiously at them.
When they finally made it to the mall, everyone went on their own separate ways. Ella took Amy, Cream and Cheese to try on some new clothes, which Amy really got into pretty quickly. She grinned as she showed off different outfits she found (I wonder how she managed to find clothes in her size?) and struck a pose with each one.
That moment was soon ruined when she noticed the people staring at her. She stared back. The people quickly ran off, leaving her grumping in annoyance.
Penny ran to the bookstore, soon lost in books, and she had soon found out that other people were looking at her weirdly. She raised her eyes at them and they quickly looked away.
Penny sighed, closing her book. She couldn't read with everyone staring at her. So she decided to find out what Chris and Tails were up to.
She found them, eventually, at the toy store. Chris was happily holding out a toy in his hands, asking Tails about it. Penny walked over to them, her gaze drifting over the crowds of people watching their every move. She shivered, scooting a bit closer to Chris, accidentally knocking into him.
"Sorry!" Penny gasped quickly, sheepishly scooting away.
"No worries." Chris smiled at her. His smile turned into a look o curiosity. "Hey, I thought you were over by the books?"
"I was," Penny said hesitantly. "But I wanted to come and see what you and Tails were up to." She glanced curiously at the toy in his hands. "What type of toy is that?"
Chris grinned, holding out the box to her. "This figure has Kung Fu Kick action!"
"You know that's just what the box is saying, right?" Penny said, her teasing side building up. "It doesn't actually do it. Sure it can do a few moves with the help of a control, but it doesn't do moves like a real ninja."
"How do you know unless we try?"
"You saying we should buy it and test it out?"
"You can if you want to."
Tails glanced up with a chuckle at their bickering, and paused, glancing around him and frowned. "Hey, Chris, Penny..."
The two stopped their cute argument and glanced down at Tails. "What's up?" Penny asked. She glanced up and sweat dropped uncomfortably... people were staring ta them. Again.
Chris glanced around at the crowd of people staring and glanced down at the toy in his hands. "You think they want this toy?"
"They're staring at us!" Tails gulped. He let out a yelp as a toddler grabbed his twin tails and pulled him down, pulling him to his mother with a wide grin on his face. "I want this one! Can we buy it, Mommy?"
The mother smiled, and was about to answer when she saw Tails shivering, whimpering, his eyes wide as he stayed on his side on the floor. Her eyes widened and she pulled her son away from Tails, glancing anxiously at him. "Oh, I'm very sorry."
She ran back to her friend with a gossip smile. "That thing's a real deal. I wonder who taught it to talk. A dog trainer?"
The other woman glanced at her own son with a sour look. "Go up to it and make it say something!"
Penny glared at the two women as she helped Tails rest against the wall. He seemed to calm down, looking slightly relieved that that small frightening fiasco was over.
Chris walked over and kneeled in front of Tails. "Uh, Tails, are you okay?"
Tails glanced up at Penny and Chris and chuckled nervously.
"Chris?" Amy whimpered.
"Yeah?" Chris murmured.
"This is..." Amy didn't know how to put it. "Very weird."
Penny scooted close to Chris, feeling extremely uncomfortable. Ella held Cream and Cheese close as they glanced anxiously around the pairs of eyes staring at them.
"Oh, I'm scared..." Cream whimpered, and Cheese chaoed in response.
"How come everybody keeps staring?!" Tails asked irritably.
Ella glanced at them sympathetically. "You're all big celebrities. Ever since you have knocked out Eggman's base."
"But we didn't go after Dr. Eggman to be famous." Amy pointed out. She smiled. "Of course, if they ask me to appear on TV or magazine covers, I won't let them down."
Tails slightly glared at her.
"I wish I was at home...there'll be less staring there." Penny moaned, curling up in a small ball, trying to hide herself the best she could from the starrers. That seemed impossible...she felt like she was being watched completely.
"Sorry..." Chris sighed. "Guess it'll take a while for people to get used to you guys here."
"I'm not so sure they'll ever get used to having us here." Tails moaned, closing his eyes with a sigh.
"Say cheese!"
Penny let out a yelp along with everyone else as huge flashes of light popped out of nowhere, and she felt anxiety building up in her. She had to get out. She glanced at Ella pleadingly, and Ella nodded. The maid stood up and glared at the photographers. "NO MORE PHOTOGRAPHS!"
Everyone winced and turned away, but there were still some people staring at them.
Chris let out an exasperated sigh and stood up. "Let's try someplace else..."
"Please." Penny moaned. "I can't take it much more..."
Their idea was to go to a different restaurant... a VIP room, it was called. It was a nice quiet one that only celebrities and rich people could go in. Penny was totally happy with that. She hoped they could finally have a chance to relax. She smiled happily to herself as a waiter led them to their table. "Right this way."
Amy glanced back at the crowd of anxious people staring at them, and she began to mock them.
"Come on, Amy!"
Amy stopped what she was doing, gave the crowd a warning look, and quickly hurried after Chris and the others.
Penny breathed in a relaxed sigh as she walked into the room, but that moment was soon ruined as once again they had eyes training on them, and even worse...gossipers.
"Oh, my, they allow pets in here?"
"Instead of escorting those beasts into our dining room and creating a scene, they should check them into the coatroom with the rest of the furs."
Penny ignored them and sat down in between Tails and Chris. Chris smiled proudly at them. "This is a private club, so we won't get hassled!"
He was wrong.
The moment he spoke, a woman patted his arm. "I saw how brave your friends were on TV! May I ask for their pawprints?"
"It's ADORABLE!" a woman with too many rings cooed as she caressed Cheese on the head. The woman with too many rings squealed in excitement. "Oh, what a cutie!"
"Get your hands off me!" Amy shrilled, squirming in their grasp. "I just want to have some lunch!"
"Yeah!" Chris grunted in agreement. "This is supposed to be a fancy restaurant, not a wrestling ring!"
"Ugh..." Tails grunted. "I want to go back home, Chris!"
"Me too!" Cream whimpered, shuddering in Ella's arms.
"Me three!" Penny whimpered, curling up in a tight ball under the table, wrapping her arms around her ears, trying to block the noise.
"Is this your natural color?" A woman smiled as she pulled at Amy's pink quills. Amy chuckled politely a bit until she completely lost it.
"WILL YOU PLEASE GO AWAY?!"
After that fiasco, Penny let out a moan as she slumped in one of the couches in the lounge.
"Our shopping spree was a flop!" Amy complained.
"I never even got to enjoy myself!" Penny whined.
"I'm sure things'll get a lot easier once the people get used to seeing you around!" Chris said, trying to sound reassuring. He glanced out the window and gasped.
"What's wrong, Chris?" Tails asked.
The boy stood up, pointing ahead with wide eyes. "Look!"
The gang hurried to the window, and their eyes widened at the sight of a gigantic ship heading towards them.
"It's Eggman, isn't it?" Chris asked while Penny stared at it in fear.
"That's him." Tails said, narrowing his eyes.
"You losers are about to learn that you can never defeat me!" Eggman chuckled. "I'm like a rubber ball! Every time you try to slap me down, I just keep bouncing back! Since your government attacked me and destroyed my base, I'm going to destroy your city! And rebuilt my headquarters right here!"
Penny watched as robots fell from the bottom of Eggman's ship, destroying every building in its way. Penny and the others quickly ran out of the mall, running to safety.
"There's no where to go!" Tails gasped. "The whole city will be wrecked if this demolition derby keeps up!"
"I sure wish Sonic had kept his cell phone!" Chris gasped.
"Hey!" Tails grinned suddenly, pointing ahead. "Maybe we can get out of here!"
Penny glanced ahead and grinned. "The car! Great idea, Tails!"
The gang tried running to it, but their escape rout was cut short when the robot's giant ball smashed the car to bits. Penny's eyes widened in terror and she clung to Chris as the robots surrounded them. It was about to smash them as well when a familiar blue streak zoomed through the robots, destroying it. The robot sizzled.
"LET'S MOVE IT!" Tails yelled, grabbing Penny's arm and dragging her with him. "HURRY!"
The blue streak zoomed through town, destroying every single one of Eggman's robots. It zoomed to the top of a building and smirked down at them.
Sonic.