See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer

Chapter 2: Together...But Still Alone

(Ten Years Later...)

It was early morning in the forest just outside of the town of Green Hills, within a cave near a waterfall sat a teenage girl sitting on a bean bag chair, reading a book. The girl was Penelope, now seventeen years old and was quite a rather tall and slim teen; she was wearing a black halter top that had a few tips in it, a pair of baggy grey sweatpants and an oversized flannel shirt with the sleeves torn off to make it seem like she was wearing a long, sleeveless jacket. To complete her rather odd ensemble of an outfit, she wore a pair of red flats, an old worn-out denim baseball cap and a golden necklace with a small heart shaped rhinestone at the end of it.

As she sat there reading "A Tale of Two Cities", Penelope heard the sound of wind blowing by hurriedly as well as caught sight of a blue streak zipping by her cave; she smiled as she put down the book and ran outside, just two feet away was the entrance to another cave, this one in the ground. Penelope braved herself as she dropped down into the cave, landing on her feet; she looked up to Sonic, who was now fifteen years old and had grown slightly taller, swinging around on a tire swing built into his cave.

"Hey there, little brother. How was your morning over in town?", she asked. Sonic stopped swinging and looked down at her, "Oh I actually took a run on the highway, saw Donut Lord, and even gave a turtle a ride. I'd invite you too but I don't think you could keep up", he said with a smug grin. Penelope smirked as she grappled Sonic and held him in her arms as she started to tickle him, "Hahahaha! N-n-no, Penny...stop! T-t-that...hahaha...tickles", Sonic chortled.

"Sorry, that's what you get for calling me a slow poke! Never underestimate us normal speed types!", she said jokingly as she tickled the poor hedgehog. The two weren't paying attention, however, and Penelope accidentally kicked over a can that held Sonic's bag of rings, spilling them onto the cave floor. The sound of small bits of metal clanging caught their attention and they looked down to see the rings on the floor.

"Oh no", Sonic said worriedly.

"Bro, I'm sorry. I wasn't looking where I was stepping", Penelope said.

She bent down to help him pick up all of the rings, placing them back into the bag, she then sat up and looked at Sonic. He was gazing at the map that was given to him by Lonclaw, a map of other planets he could escape to if he was ever discovered. Sonic looked at one ring before throwing it into the air, opening a portal to the next planet listed on the map: a planet filled with nothing but giant mushrooms.

Sonic looked at the portal in a displeasing way, "I hate mushrooms", he grumbled. "Me too, but don't worry about that. Nobody is ever going to find out about you! I'll make sure that never happens so we never have to go to that smelly mushroom planet, and we can stay here on Earth for the rest of our lives", said Penelope as she wrapped her arms around Sonic's shoulders, pulling him close to her in a comforting embrace.

A couple of months ago, Sonic explained to Penelope the instructions Longclaw had left for him on that map, that if he was ever discovered, he'd have to "get outta dodge" by warping to another planet, that smelly mushroom planet; Penelope insisted that if it came to that, she'd join him and head to this new planet too. Then the two teens got into an argument about it, with Sonic saying that he didn't want to take Penelope away from such an awesome planet like Earth, that it wasn't fair to her.

Penelope had retorted by saying what was really unfair, not just to her but to the both of them, was separating each other and having to live on separate planets all alone without one another there to keep them company. Penelope had to remind Sonic that they were brother and sister, even though one was human and the other was a 3ft 3in tall talking blue hedgehog, and they were going to stick together no matter what happened.

Sonic was then convinced that she was right, they were all each other had, if he just left to another planet without her, it would be just like how he left Longclaw when he came to Earth. Granted, he was only a child then and Longclaw forced him to leave without her, but he wasn't going to up and abandoned Penelope, the only other person he could call family.

Sonic sighed as he reached up to grasp Penelope's hands, "I know you will, sis. I know you will", he said. The air became thick with melancholy, so Penelope decided to lighten up the mood. "Hey, come check out what I was working on while you were out on your run", she said as she let go of Sonic and climbed out of the cave. Sonic followed after her to see her pull an old bicycle from behind some bushes, "Wow! That's cool!", he said.

"Can you believe some dope just tossed this in the trash because it was just missing a wheel? Well, I found it and screwed it back on, and now its almost good as new. I was thinking you could hop in the basket and we can ride into town together, since you and I always go at separate times", said Penelope. Sonic nodded as he hopped into the bike's basket and sat up as Penelope got on the bike and peddled towards the small town of Green Hills.

When they got there, Sonic zipped up to the roof of a small nearby building while Penelope followed him by climbing up the fire escape; the two sat on the roof, looking down at the center of town, watching the people going on with their day. "Hey Sonic, look! It's our favorite person!", said Penelope. She pointed down at the Donut Lord, a.k.a Tom Wachowski, a local police officer who stood at the intersection holding back traffic to allow a family of ducks to cross the street.

Sonic and Penelope love watching him do his job, giving him the nickname of "Donut Lord" because they've both seen him talking to doughnuts and eating when they'd 'cross him'. After that, they climbed down from the roof and rode the bike down a small path through the woods that led to Tom's house; from where they were hiding in the bushes, they watched as Tom's wife, Maddie, as she was doing her daily yoga routine on the patio of their house.

Sonic had called her "Pretzel Lady" because of how flexible she was, he had attempted to copy her yoga position but only succeeded in hurting himself. Penelope, however, was able to do it perfectly. "How are you and Pretzel Lady so good at this? Were you guys just born without bones?", asked Sonic. Penelope laughed, "No, some people are just flexible. When I was little, I'd always stretch a lot before playing so I guess my body became easier to twist", she said.

The two then got back on the bike and rode back through the woods, this time they almost tripped on a bear trap lying on the ground. Penelope smirked as she looked at it, "Looks like Crazy Carl left another trap for us today", she laughed as did Sonic. Crazy Carl was an old man living in town who had caught small glimpses of Sonic running through the woods with Penelope occasionally tagging along with him. Because of the blue streak he saw when Sonic ran by, Crazy Carl dubbed him "The Blue Devil" and because he only ever saw Penelope's shadow as she ran by, he called her "The Shadow Witch, the Blue Devil's Helper".

Sonic and Penelope loved messing around with him while he tried catching them; one time at night, Sonic had run around setting off all the traps Crazy Carl set up and caused him to get strung up in his own rope trap. When he called out that he knew they were out there and were real, Sonic had replied in the distance that they weren't and Penelope cackled like the wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz just to spook Carl.

Sonic smirked as he kicked the trap to the side, "Ah well, we have fun together", he said. Penelope pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from the pockets of her flannel jacket, she wrote down 'You'll never catch us! You're too slow! ;)' on it before sticking it onto a pointed branch of a nearby tree. Sonic chuckled at the writing before his stomach started growling, "Man! I'm getting hungry!", he said. Penelope had also felt her own stomach rumbling, "Wait by my cave, I'm gonna go get us some lunch", she said.

Sonic went back to the cave as Penelope rode into town on the bike, she stopped behind a pizza shop; the backdoor was open so she quietly slipped into the shop, she spotted a pepperoni pizza sitting inside a box waiting to sent out. As soon as the employee turned around to get something, Penelope quickly and quietly closed the box and ran out of the shop, hopping onto her bike and riding back into the woods.

Yes, Penelope stole food. In fact, half of the things she had were stolen because she had no money to buy them with. As bad as stealing is, Penelope justified her actions to herself because the only things she stole was food and clothing from those donation bins on sidewalks, in other words, she only stole what she and Sonic needed to survive. Things no one would be angry if they disappeared or miss if they were gone.

She came back to the cave and walked inside, setting the pizza onto the table; Sonic, who was reading one of the books she owned, stood up and rushed over to enjoy lunch with his big sister. Of course, Sonic figured Penelope had stolen it much like all the other meals they've eaten in the past, but he knew there was no other way to get food: he wasn't supposed to let anyone see him and Penelope had no money, but it didn't bother him because as long as she didn't steal money or jewelry, it was okay to take food.

Later on in the evening, they snuck back to Tom and Maddie's house as the couple was sitting in their living with their dog, Ozzy, as they were about to watch a movie. "You think they're watching it tonight?", asked Sonic. "Fingers crossed", said Penelope. They both climbed up to the window behind the couch and reached up to the window to see what movie the couple were watching.

"YES!"

They both whispered/shouted as they saw the movie playing on the TV was "Speed" starring Keanu Reeves. "Yes! Keanu, you are a national treasure", said Sonic while Penelope was quietly squealing like a fangirl. The two were both fans of action movies, "Speed" was their favorite; they loved the stunts, the action sequences, and the one liners. Also, Keanu Reeves was one of Penelope's favorite actors.

They looked at the TV and saw the scene where Keanu Reeves' character was talking on a phone, ""Pop quiz, hot shot." Mwah… A classic line!", said Sonic. "It really is such a great line", said Penelope. They stood there watching the movie along with the couple who were unaware of their presence, they saw Tom and Maddie smiling at each other and laughing, looking happy. This made Sonic and Penelope suddenly feel sad, they climbed down from the window and slowly trudged back to their bike and went back home to their caves.

The next day, the two teens biked over to the local baseball field in town just in time to see the little league game; since she was a human just like everyone else, Penelope was able to stand by the gate to watch the game without anyone questioning it. Sonic had to hide beneath the bleachers and watch the game from there so no one would see him, they watched the game with happy smiles on their faces. Penelope had always wanted to play in a game as she was a fan of the sport, although her favorite sport was tennis, and Sonic had always wanted to be part of a team with the fans cheering his name.

After the game was over, the two left but came back later at night; the field was empty but was illuminated by the overhead spotlights, Sonic marveled at the large field while Penelope fiddled around with one of the bats in the nearby storage closet. "Wanna play?", asked Penelope with a smirk. Sonic smirked back.

A few minutes later...

"Bottom of the ninth tie score, and exactly who you want at the plate with the game on the line, Sonic!", said Sonic as he stood at home plate holding a bat and wearing a baseball cap. "But staring him down from the pitcher's mount is the most fearsome southpaw in Green Hills, Penelope Fisher!", said Penelope as she stood at the pitcher's mount wearing a catcher's glove and holding a baseball.

Sonic then zipped over to one of the other plates, making weird noises and gestures before looking at Penelope. "Hit it to the guy in left, he's a real space case", he said. He was referring to...well, himself as he zipped over to another plate and stood there blowing a bubble with gum. Penelope had a pretend look of exasperation on her face, "Ugh, I can't with that guy", she muttered. Sonic then zipped back to home plate as she threw the baseball, he then hit it and began running.

As the baseball flew through the air, Sonic, acting as the clueless player, was sniffing a nearby flower when the ball flew in his direction; he got up and tried to grab it, "I got it, I got it, I got it...", he said as he tried to grab the ball. Penelope ran to get the ball and tried to throw it at Sonic as he ran to home plate, but he slid across the plate before the ball could touch him. "Safe!", shouted Sonic as he acted as the referee before going back to being the player.

"Ha, yes! Yes, yes, yes, yes! I did it!", he shouted as he jumped up and down in excitement. Suddenly, he felt someone pull him into his arms and swing him around; he smiled when saw it Penelope holding him, he hugged her back as they laughed happily while spinning around. Then Penelope turned to the bleachers, "Mom and Dad, did you guys see that?!", she shouted in excitement.

All of a sudden, she and Sonic fell silent as they remembered that they were the only ones on the field; there was no team, there was no fans and even more sadly, there was no Mom or Dad. After realizing what she had just said, Penelope slowly placed Sonic down before slowly trudging over to the chain fence, leaning her back against it as she slowly slid down to the ground before she pulled off her baseball cap. Penelope looked at it, then she gently grasped the necklace around her neck as she suddenly broke down crying.

Sonic looked at her before looking back at the empty field, a strong feeling of sadness tugging at his heart. "We really are alone…all alone, forever...", he muttered in despair. He then took off his cap and started to circle to the baseball field repeatedly; Penelope stopped sobbing as she looked up and saw Sonic running around the field again and again. Suddenly, lightning started to surround the ring as he sped up; the lightning grew more and more intense as he ran faster.

Penelope flinched as one of the lightning bolts flew out and struck her foot, it didn't hurt that much but it did sting a bit. "Sonic, what are you doing? Stop!", she shouted but he didn't hear her. Sonic kept running until he finally leapt into the air, letting out a cry of anguish and releasing the energy. Lightning and a blue shockwave flew out, destroying the field's spotlights, causing a power outage and even destroying a nearby satellite in space. Sonic finally calmed down and looked around in confusion, "I'm sure no one noticed that giant blue explosion, right?", he asked.

Penelope ran up to him, "Sonic! We need to get out of here right now! I don't know whether or not if anyone say that but I think you just caused a power outage in town and soon, people are going to show up here at the field to investigate. And we do NOT wanna stick around for that! Let's go, ride on my bike so no one sees your running streaks", she said. They ran over to the discarded bike, Sonic hopped into the basket while Penelope got on and cycled as fast as she could back to the woods.

Once they were back home, Penelope decided to crash in Sonic's cave with him for the night; they sat on the large bean bag chair together, holding onto each other and clutching a blanket they had draped over themselves. "Sis...I'm sorry...", Sonic muttered as he clung to her tightly while trembling out of fear. Penelope hugged him close as she nuzzled him, "Shhh...its okay, little brother. Don't be scared, you're okay. We're okay", she whispered soothingly.

She held Sonic close to her, rubbing his back while humming a song to him. Sonic felt himself relax as his fear dissipated and he slowly fell asleep, Penelope looked down at him with a loving smile before she looked up at the cave entrance with a look of fear. At least...I hope we're going to be okay, she thought as she too fell asleep.

Author's Note: That's it for Chapter 2, come back soon for Chapter 3. Until then, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out!