See Chapter 1 for Disclaimer
Chapter 5: Emotions and Assistance
The next day, Robotnik's team had arrived at the Piston Pit. Two glaziers were replacing the broken window while Agent Stone interrogated the thug from earlier, the thug was wearing a neck brace. "Did he say where he was going?", asked Agent Stone as he held up a picture of Tom. The thug grabbed the photo and took a closer look, "Maybe, maybe not. Like I'd ever tell you", he said handing it back.
"Stand down, Agent Stone. This well-meaning citizen obviously doesn't understand the urgency of the matter", said Robotnik as he pushed his colleague out of the way. "Really?", said the thug. Robotnik smiled and flung him straight through the new window before he and Stone left the restaurant.
"Now, that's what I call "good cop, bad cop".", said Robotnik as he and Agent Stone got back inside the truck, "Judging by the quickest route to San Francisco, the approximate speed of their vehicle, local weather conditions...they should be...right about...here".
He pushed a few buttons on his computer, now getting a visual on the screen of Tom's car. "That's brilliant, sir", said Agent Stone. "Thanks...for nothing...", muttered Robotnik.
Meanwhile, Tom was driving on the highway as his car passed the border to California; Penelope once again sat in the backseat, quietly playing with her ball-cup toy and listening to the conversation Sonic and Tom were having. "So, what's on your bucket list?", asked Sonic. "Me?", asked Tom. "Yeah. Everyone has a bucket list, right?", said Sonic.
"Well, sure, but...I mean, you're leaving Earth and…I'm not planning on dying anytime soon", said Tom. "Don't we all feel the same...", Penelope muttered. "Oh-ho-ho, don't be so sure. Your best friend is a magnet for danger", said Sonic. Tom laughed, "Oh, already appointing yourself as the bestie. Little presumptuous, but...I mean…what? No, I-I like you and your sis, of course, but...y'know, we're not best friends", he said.
Sonic stared at him, "You tucked me in last night", he said. "He tucked me in too, and took my glasses off for me, which I normally don't forget to take off before sleeping, but I don't that makes him my best friend. Maybe just...a regular friend", said Penelope. Sonic grunted, "Fine, fine, fine. Best animal friends", he said. "That would be my dog Ozzy", said Tom.
Penelope then sat up, "Whoa you have a dog? Can we go see him real quick? I love dogs!", she said. Before Tom could respond, Sonic cut back in. "Okay, let's just drop this increasingly humiliating topic of conversation. Bucket list, give it to me!", he said. Penelope sighed and laid back down, "Fine. I'll ask again later...", she grumbled and went back to playing with her toy.
"Okay, there is one thing. In Green Hills, I've always felt... I don't know, more like a babysitter than a real cop, y'know? So, I want a chance to prove myself, under real pressure. I'm gonna move to San Francisco, become a street cop. And… I don't know, see if I have what it takes", said Tom.
He looked over at Sonic, seeing his face was frozen in disbelief before looking in the rearview mirror to see that not only had Penelope abruptly sat up again, but she too wore an expression of disbelief. "What? Wh-Why are your faces doing that?", he asked them. "Correct me if I'm wrong...but did you just say you're leaving Green Hills?", said Penelope.
"Yes", Tom responded. "B-B-But why? Why would you leave Green Hills?", Sonic questioned. "This may be hard for you to understand, but Green Hills is a small town. It's a very small town", said Tom. Penelope snorted, "I don't think a place with a population of over a hundred people qualifies as a small town", she quipped. "That's a small town, little lady", said Tom. "It's a perfect town and the people need you!", said Sonic. "Please, I clean out their gutters, I jump-start their cars in the winter. They could call anybody to do that", Tom argued. "Sure, they can call anybody, but they don't. They call you", Sonic retorted.
As Tom turns his attention back to the road, Robotnik, inside his mobile lab, raised his arms as several holographic images are turned on. The mastermind stood in the middle of them, he looked at his screen, showing the view of a car on the road. "Hmm… Eeny, meeny, miny… mayhem!", he said as he selected his vehicle: a tank.
Back inside the car, Sonic and Tom were still arguing. "You're not making any sense!", said Sonic standing up in his seat. "Would you calm down?", asked Tom. "You come from a great town with great people and, by my count, zero bad guys trying to kill you!", shouted Sonic. As they were moving along, none of them noticed the tank heading straight for them.
"Besides, what could possibly be more important than protecting the people you care about?", asked Sonic.
Robotnik pressed another button, a pointy spear appears at the top of his mechanical monstrosity; a shot was fired. The harpoon flew through the back window, the seats, straight into the cars's dashboard. Both Sonic and Tom let out startled yells and jumped up, Penelope had also screamed as the harpoon had just barely missed her, but it did managed to take her flannel jacket off her. Tom tried to keep his car straight, shifting lanes and trying to maintain his distance from the tank, but the line tightened. A winch behind the firearm started to reel the car in like a fish.
"You know what?! I was wrong about you! You're not the Donut Lord at all! You're more, like, the Jerk Lord!", shouted Sonic. "Have you noticed the harpoon stuck in our dash?!", shouted Tom. Tom hit the gas, but the spear maintained its grip. When the car slammed against the guardrail, Sonic flew out of his seat. Through his side window, he landed onto the hood of the vehicle. "Sonic!", shouted Tom.
Penelope leaned forward, "Little Bro, I think we should continue this conversation when we're not being attacked by a robo tank! It's kinda important!", she said. "Oh be quiet, Penny! This isn't about you, so what would you know?!", shouted Sonic. Penelope did a double take and looked at him angrily.
"Excuse me, what do you mean I wouldn't know?!", she shouted.
"I was forced from my home! Your home is perfect, which is why I can't understand why Tom is leaving it! Or even you for that matter! Why do you still want to come with me?!"
"Cause you're my little brother, Sonic! I'm not just gonna let you go live on some stinky mushroom planet by yourself!"
"Why do you even care?! Green Hill, and by extension Earth, is a great place to live. Why would you abandon it for me? An alien hedgehog! Huh? Tell me! Why?!"
In the midst of their argument, Sonic hadn't noticed that blue lightning was swarming around his body again just like back in the baseball field.
"BECAUSE IF YOU LEAVE, I'LL BE ALL ALONE AGAIN BECAUSE MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!", screamed Penelope as she started crying. Sonic's eyes widened though the electricity around his body continued to flow. "What...?", he muttered. That was when Tom, who had been trying to lose the tank, noticed the lightning. "Your body!", he shouted at Sonic.
Sonic looked down and finally saw the blue electricity running through his fur, "Oh no, no, no, no! Not again!", he said. "Hey! Hold on!", said Tom. "Why?!", asked Sonic. "Because I'm gonna do this!", Tom replied.
He floored it. The spear flew loose and shattered the window, Penelope screamed as she ducked down to avoid any glass hitting her face. Sonic flew off the hood and, as if in a reflex, performed a spin dash into the pursuing vehicle, destroying it and flipping it onto its side. Tom hit the brake, turning around and drove back to the destroyed machine. "Sonic! Sonic!", he called out. Penelope sat up, "Little Bro, are you okay?!", she shouted.
Sonic unfurled out of his ball form, he was little dizzy, but was able to get back up on his feet. "Guess I had a bonus life...", he grunted before he looked at the tank he wrecked and became excited again, "Oh yeah, baby! Sonic, one! Big tank, zero! I'm sorry, did we get that on camera?!"
Penelope cheered as Tom simply smiled in relief, "How are you not dead?!", he asked. "I have no idea! Do you see me dancing?!", said Sonic. "Yes, I saw you dance...", said Tom. Sonic then turned to the tank, "Is that all you got?!", he asked before zipping back into the car.
"No but thank you for asking", said Robotnik as he was watching from within his mobile lab. He then pushed the holographic image several times and swiped the tank away, revealing a small, spider-like vehicle underneath it. The wheels of the tank are retracting and the spider vehicle fell out and started chasing after the car.
"I think that tank just had a baby...", said Sonic. "If that's the case, then...gross", said Penelope.
A hatch on top of the mechanical spider opened up. Several rotating discs were aimed at the car and fired towards it, skidding over the asphalt. "Um guys...I don't think those are frisbees!", said Penelope. Tom switched lanes, the disc flew over to the car in front of them; the disc latched itself against the underside of the car and shorted it, causing the car to spin and its passengers to scream. Thankfully the passengers inside were alright, their car stopped spinning and Tom drove past them.
Sonic, meanwhile, crawled out of the truck and into the cargo box. "Where you going?", asked Tom. "Just drive the car. I'll take care of this. And if I don't make it, just ditch me. You seem good at that", said Sonic. "If you don't come back, I'm going with you! You're definitely not dying without me!", shouted Penelope.
The spider like robot fired more discs. Sonic ran over to them, grabbed a disc, threw it at another one, using two as skates while grabbing the remaining one. He landed on top of the robot and looked into the lens, his face appearing on Robotnik's screen, startling the mad scientist. "Hey, everyone! Welcome back to my livestream! Today, we're destroying robots! Step one...", said Sonic as he slapped the disc against the top of the spider. It shut down and flew off the road and went up in flames as Sonic zipped back into the car.
"Nicely done", Penelope said as she and Sonic high-fived though what she had said earlier was still rattling around in his head. But they weren't out of the fire just yet: one of the wheels followed the car, controlled by a red-eyed device at the top of it. "We did not do it. Who is this guy?", asked Sonic. "My turn", said Tom as he unlocked his seatbelt and crawled over to the backseat. "Tom! What are you doing?!", shouted Penelope.
"Here. Just keep us going straight. I put in cruise control", said Tom. Penelope jumped into the front seat and grabbed the wheel, "Okay...okay, I can do this. Just like riding my bike...okay this is nothing like riding my bike but I can do this!", she said to herself as she tried to keep the car straight.
Meanwhile, spikes shot out of both sides of the tank wheel; Tom opened the door and tried to knock out the robot with a bat, "Quick suggestion: roll up into a ball and smash him with your body", Sonic called out. Tom tried to hit the robot but almost flew out the car, "Whoa! Where'd you learn how to drive?!", he called out.
"Here, in this truck. It's happening as we speak...Sonic, please hold the book straight! I can't see the words!", said Penelope as she was trying to multitask between driving and reading a driver's manual Sonic found within the car. The robot still tried to puncture the tire, "I can't reach it! Bring him in closer!", shouted Tom.
"What?", shouted Penelope.
"He said bring it in closer!", said Sonic.
"Yeah, bring it in closer! Hit the brakes!", shouted Tom. Penelope looked down and hit the car's brakes, as the car slowed down, the robot slammed against the open door; Tom smiled and, with his bat, slammed it against the robot. It broke down and slid to a stop. Tom whooped as he got back into their car, Penelope jumped back into the backseat and Tom got back in the driver's seat. Okay...if we all survive this...I'm getting my driver's license, thought Penelope as she tried to get her heart to stop racing.
Inside, his mobile lab, Robotnik was growing frustrated by the minute. "OHHH! GIVE ME A BIG...FAT...BREAK!", he shouted.
A tiny drone emerged from the camera hole of the destroyed robot and flew after Tom's car. It caught up rather quickly and hovered outside Sonic's window. Said hedgehog took note of the drone, "Aw, this one is cute. Let's keep 'em", he said pointing at the tiny robot. "I'd rather have a pet skunk than a tiny killer robot, Bro", said Penelope.
Suddenly, the drone began to saw into the car with a laser, sending sparks flying everywhere. "See what did I tell you?", shouted Penelope. The robot quickly sawed around the hood of the car, reaching the front, "Oh come on!", yelled Tom. "How can something so adorable be so terrible?", asked Sonic. "Its always the cute ones you have to watch out for! Why do you think I never let you have that extra donut before bed, Sonic?", said Penelope.
As the drone reached Toms's window, he attempted to wave away the smoke and sparks. In seconds, the robot finished circling the cab of the car. "You got car insurance, right?", asked Sonic. "And if so, please tell us its either Geico or State Farm!", said Penelope. The roof of the car immediately flew off, and the trio cried out as the roof landed on the road behind them. Now the drone flew back over to Sonic, who grabbed it.
"Buzz off!", he said as he snapped the drone in half, only to find the base attached to his gloved hand. It started to beep and blink rhythmically, "That doesn't sound good", he said. "Its gonna explode!", Penelope shouted. "Yeah, beeping is bad! Get rid of it!", shouted Tom. "I'm trying!", said Sonic. "Just throw it out the win... Throw it anywhere!", said Tom. Sonic wildly waved his hand trying to shake the bomb loose, "I can't get it off!", said Sonic.
"Alright, I'm pulling over!", shouted Tom. He swung the car off-road onto a dirt path. Sonic dashed out of the car and desperately attempted to detach the bomb from his hand, even biting it, but now it was attached to his head. "Did I get it?", asked Sonic. "Nope!", said Tom as he and Penelope jumped out of the car.
Tom ran to Sonic, using a cloth he held to pluck the bomb off of Sonic's head, then he flung it into the distance. "It's going, it's going...", Sonic trailed off.
That's when Penelope saw the bomb attached to Tom's hand. "Tom! Your hand!", she shouted. He saw it too and tried to shake it off, but Sonic grabbed it, effectively getting it stuck on him again. The hedgehog attempted to use a screwdriver to pry it loose, "Get off me!", he said. At last, he got the bomb to stick to the screwdriver and laid it on a nearby rock. Sonic then turned back to Tom and Penelope. "Ha ha! Nailed it!", he said.
Penelope heard the bomb beeping faster now, meaning that it was just about to blow and Sonic was still dangerously close to it. "Sonic, look out!", she screamed as she ran to him. She threw her arms around his back protectively just as the bomb went off, and the force knocked her, Sonic and Tom to the ground. When the dust cleared, Tom regained his consciousness; aside for some dirt on his clothes, he was alright.
He looked over to see Sonic and Penelope, lying motionless in the dirt. "Sonic! Penelope!", he shouted as he ran to them. They were both unconscious, with Penelope lying on top of Sonic; Sonic was just a little dirty from the debris, but Penelope had several cuts on her exposed arms. Tom lifted the both of them into his arms, "No, no, no, no, no...", he said in panic.
He pressed his ear to Sonic's chest and then to Penelope's, relieved to hear both their hearts beating. "Hey. C'mon, you're all right. Wake up. Wake up", he said as he shook them but they remained unconscious. Tom carefully carried them, one at a time, and loaded them into the backseat before getting into the driver's seat and drove away.
About half an hour later, Tom arrived at a house in San Francisco; he parked his topless car and got out, running to the backseat. He carefully lifted Penelope up and carried her on his back, doing his best to hold her while draping a blanket over Sonic and lifting him into his arms. "C'mon, kiddos. You're gonna be all right…you'll be all right", Tom whispered.
He carried the two unconscious teens up to the house and knocked on the door, the door opened revealing Maddie's sister, Rachel. "Is Maddie at home? No, it's an emer..."
"No, no, no! Not today! Goodbye! Bye-bye!", said
Rachel as she tried to close the door, but Tom leaned against the wood to get in.
"No, stop! Don't do this!"
"Bye-bye!"
"This is important!"
Their yelling was broken up when Maddie finally came down the stairs, followed by her sister's daughter Jojo, and let Tom in. I am calling the police! No, I am calling the FBI! I am calling the CIA! I am… I am calling your mother!", shouted Rachel. Maddie ignored her and turned to Tom, "Tom, what is going on? You're all over the news, I've been trying to call you..."
"I've ditched my phone, so they couldn't track me", Tom interrupted as he tried not to drop Penelope or Sonic. It was then that Rachel and Maddie noticed the unconscious seventeen year old, "Who...who's that girl? Did...did you kidnap her!", shouted Rachel. "What...no! I didn't kidnap her!", shouted Tom.
Just then, Jojo ran up to Tom. "Uncle Tommy!", the little girl said as she hugged him but was pulled back by her mother. "Now your niece is an accessory to treason and kidnapping! Are you happy?!", shouted Rachel.
Then Ozzy appeared as well, running straight to his owner; he started barking at the wrapped bundle in Tom's arms. "No, no, Ozzy. Please. Stop it, Ozzy! Quit it!", he said as he tried to shoo away his dog. But Ozzy kept barking and began tugging on the blanket, "Ozzy, quit it! No, Ozzy! No, no, no!", said Tom. The sheet was pulled away, revealing Sonic to both sisters and JoJo.
"Oh, catch me, JoJo...", Rachel said as she fainted and fell onto the floor. Tom breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Maddie, who was holding her niece by her shoulders. "Oh, thank God! Can I get a glass of water?", Tom said while chuckling nervously.
A couple of minutes later, Penelope groaned as she slowly opened her eyes; she sat up and saw that she was in a living room, lying on a couch. That was when she noticed the bandages on her arms, "Are...are you gonna rob me?", asked someone.
Penelope looked up to see Rachel, who was tied up in an armchair across from her. "I'm not a crook, so...no. I'm not gonna rob you", she said to Rachel. Just then, Jojo walked into the room, she took a quick glance at Penelope before running up the stairs. "JoJo? Untie your mot... JoJo! Untie Mommy. Sweetie? Jojo?! I have to go to the bathroom...", Rachel said.
"She's your daughter? She's really cute", said Penelope. When Rachel glared at her, Penelope decided that staying quiet was the best option right now. Then, Tom and Maddie walked into the room, closing the sliding door to the kitchen behind them. "Oh hey, s'up Pretzel Lady!", said Penelope.
Maddie looked at her in confusion, "Um...hello, glad to see you're okay. I'm a vet but I did what I could do for those nasty scratches on your arms", she said. Penelope looked at her bandaged arms and then looked back at Maddie with a grateful smile, "Much appreciated! I'm Penelope, I'm Sonic's big sis and before you ask: yes I know he's a hedgehog and therefore yes, we aren't blood related. He's my adopted little brother", she said.
As Maddie stood there talking to Tom, Jojo came back into the room holding a towel, a small stack of clothing and what looked like a large shoebox. "Here you go, I brought you clean clothes and a towel. The bathroom is upstairs if you want to take a shower", she said.
"Really..?", said Penelope as she took the items from the little girl. She looked at them in a mixture of sadness and happiness, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. "No one's ever given me new clothes or offered me a shower before...I gotta check that off my bucket list", she said as she smiled at Jojo who smiled back.
Penelope stood up and walked upstairs, finding the bathroom and walked inside to take a much needed shower. Meanwhile, Sonic, who awake and alright and sporting a new pair of red and white sneakers that Jojo had given him, was in another room talking to Ozzy. "So… You're supposed to be Tom's best friend that he won't shut up about. Well, I don't see the appeal", he said.
The dog then start to lick the hedgehog's face, "Stop, that is very gross", Sonic said chuckling. Jojo sat near them, laughing as she watched the hedgehog and dog interacting with each other. "Uh hey Jojo, can Uncle Tommy get a minute alone with the blue guy?", asked Tom as he came into the room. "Sure, come on Ozzy", said Jojo as she and Ozzy left the room.
Tom went to sit down on a chair, "Cool dog. No wonder he's your best animal friend", said Sonic. "I wanna talk to you for a second, have a seat", said Tom. Sonic walked over and sat next to him, getting comfortable as he looked up at Tom. "So back on the highway...what was that crazy lightning display?", asked Tom.
Sonic frowned, "I don't know. It's only ever happened to me once before, at the baseball field", he said. Tom pondered over that information for a moment, "Baseball field, that's weird. What were you doing?", he asked. "Just...playing baseball with Sis...okay, there might have been some light crying involved, from the both of us, although Penny doesn't have lightning shooting out of her body. My power gets weird when I get emotional", said Sonic.
Tom let out a small laugh, "Yeah well, emotions are powerful things. Humans struggle with them all the time", he said. "I never seen a human shoot lightning outta their butt", said Sonic. "Well maybe that's your superpower. A little time, a little practice...who knows what you can do?", said Tom.
Sonic looked up at him, "I'm sure it's a tough decision for you to leave Green Hills, I'm sorry I was so hard on you", he said. "So...we good?", asked Tom. "Yeah...we're good", Sonic said with a smile.
Just then, Penelope came walking into the room; her hair had this partial wet/towel dry look to it as it hung down in a low ponytail beneath her old baseball cap, and she was wearing a black sleeveless shirt under a blue sleeveless vest, black tights with a white stripe on the sides of the legs, a pair of white gloves with blue cuffs and a pair of blue boots with white buckles.
(Side Note: The outfit Penelope is wearing is the same outfit as Sally Acorn from the Sonic the Hedgehog IDW comics).
"Man, does it feel good to take a shower with warm water for once", she said as she stretched. When she saw that Sonic was alright, she ran over to hug him. "Little Bro, you're okay! Thank God, I didn't think I was able to protect you from the bomb when it went off!", she said as she held him close. Sonic hugged her back until he remembered something, "Sis...we need to talk", he said.
Penelope slowly let go of him and looked to the side, she walked around Tom and sat down next to him on the other side of the sofa. "He's right. Back in the car earlier, you mentioned something about your parents were dead. What did you mean?", asked Tom.
Penelope sighed heavily, "Okay. Sonic, remember when we were kids and you asked me where my family was but I told you we'd talk about it later even though it was never brought up again? Well, I did have parents just like anyone else would. They took such good care of and I loved them so much; one day, on our way home from the beach, another car crashed into us on the highway.
"I was flung out of the car and landed near a tree. I looked the side and saw my parents lying on the ground near me but then I passed out; when I woke up, I was in the hospital with a broken leg. A social worker came in and told me that my parents didn't survive the crash, my Dad having lived long enough to call an ambulance for me before he died. I started crying, the social worker tried her best to comfort me but it didn't help much, I was only seven years old.
"No kid, at any age, should hear that both their parents were dead. A few weeks after I recovered, my social worker brought me back to my house to get my things, telling me that I was being sent to foster care since there was no one else to take care of me. I didn't want to go to foster care, I had heard bad things about it, how kids are either stuck there for their entire lives without being adopted until they get kicked out when they're eighteen or they get adopted by people who mistreat them.
"I didn't want to go through either of that, so I grabbed whatever I could carry and snuck out the backdoor, running away into the woods. I hid myself and my things under a hollowed out log on the floor because a few hours after I ran away, I heard police officers with dogs looking for me. I sat there for hours, not making a sound and trying to breathe quietly. After several hours, the gave up trying to find me and I was able to crawl out of my hiding place.
I wondered around the forest until I found that cave near the waterfall and river, and I made it my new home. I managed to survive on my own by remembering the tips I heard from that survivalist show my Dad used to watch; I had to steal food from the grocery stores, supermarkets, shops or even people's houses so I wouldn't starve. Any clothes I needed, I took from those donation bins on the sidewalks where people leave the clothes they don't need for homeless people.
"Anything else I needed, I scavenged from old scrapyards. Even though I was still alive and doing okay on my own, I was so lonely. Sometimes when I came across animals in the woods like squirrels or turtles or pigeons, I'd feed them while talking to them but they'd just leave. I wanted a friend, someone to talk to, someone to play and laugh with. That was when I found you on that one night, Sonic. You were all alone too, you told me about how you were forced from your home, having to leave behind the closest thing you had to a mother...
"You were just like me and that's why I adopted you as my little brother, I didn't want you to be all alone and I wanted you to be my friend. That's why I decided that if you were discovered, I'd go with you to that mushroom planet...because if you left, then I'd be all alone again. I don't want to be alone again, you're my only family now, Sonic. I love you so much, and if I lost you...", Penelope trailed off as she began crying unable to continue to talk any longer.
Tom looked at her in disbelief, he couldn't believe what he had just heard; Sonic ran around the sofa, throwing his arms around Penelope as he hugged her tightly. "Sis, I'm sorry! I'm sorry about what I said to you before, I didn't know you...you were like me, but worse. At least Longclaw was still alive the last time I saw her, so she's probably okay even though I can never go back to my old home and see her again. Your parents are...just gone, and I thought you didn't care about me all that much. It turns out...you'd be worse off without me", he said.
Penelope smiled as she wiped her eyes and hugged him back, "It's okay, Little Bro. I forgive you, I know we don't always agree but hey, that's what siblings do. I'm just glad that you're okay, that's all that matters to me", she said. Sonic smiled back, "Now let's go get our rings!", he said with determination. Tom got up and walked through the house to find Maddie, "So, my truck still runs, but it's pretty much totalled. You think your sister would mind if we borrowed her car?", he asked her.
"You have got to be kidding me!", Rachel yelled from the other room. Maddie looked back at Tom, "She'll be fine", she said. "Yeah. Let's do that. Sonic, Penelope, let's go!", said Tom. The two teens followed him and Maddie out of the house, the latter grabbing her sister's car keys on the way out.
Rachel, still tied to the chair, looked in the direction of the door in disbelief. "This is my house!", she yelled.
Author's Note: That's it for Chapter 5, come back soon for Chapter 6. Until then, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out!