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Chapter 8: A New Home

The next day, Penelope was helping Tom and Maddie repaint their house, probably to cover up the damage Robotnik had caused earlier. "You got enough there?", asked Tom. "Yes. I just...", Maddie trailed off. "Need any more?", said Tom as he held out his paint roller. "You… Get that away. Oh", said Maddie as she backed away.

Penelope laughed at the two adults as they continued to paint, until someone was heard knocking on the door. Tom opened it, revealing it to be Vice Chairman Walters, holding his hat under his arm. "Mr and Mrs Wachowski?", he asked.

"Yes?", asked Tom.

The chairman pulled an envelope out of his uniform, "A token of appreciation from your government. For keeping quiet about recent incidents, which never occured", he said. The couple laughed while Walters handed the envelope over, "Wow! Wonder what it is...", said Tom. "Money to fix the house?", asked Maddie. "Letter from the President?", asked Tom.

"A trick and its actually a bomb filled with memory erasing gas to make you don't tell anybody about what happened?"

They turned to look at Penelope with questioning expressions, "Sorry...I'm still a little bit shaken up by what happened. I may or may not have any distrust for people who say they're from the Government", she said as she looked to the side awkwardly.

Tom opened up the envelope to find…an Olive Garden gift card. It read "To The Wachowskis, from Uncle Sam" and it was worth fifty bucks.

"Olive Garden?", asked Maddie. Vice Chairman Walters nodded. "Yeah…I was kinda thinking it was something better than the things we said", said Tom. "Have you tried their Never Ending Pasta Bowl? It never ends", said Vice Chairman Walters. Penelope immediately raced to the front door, "Okay forget what I said! Never Ending Pasta Bowl?! I'm so in, I am particularly fond of the giant stuffed shell pasta myself", she said.

"Makes sense...Fancy", said Tom. "Mhmm, mhmm…well, thank you. We appreciate the gesture", said Maddie. "Oh hey, I guess we can close the file on that Robotnik guy, huh? He... just disappeared", said Tom.

"I'm sorry, but, uh... no such person exists, or ever has existed", said Vice Chairman Walters. "I wish that were true", Tom said to Maddie. "I'm just glad "He who shall not be named" is gone for good. The sooner I can forget all about that wackjob, the better!", said Penelope.

Vice Chairman Walters was just about to leave when he remembered something, "You haven't, by any chance, been in contact with a certain… alien creature since the incident, have you? Uncle Sam would love to have a chat with him. Very casual. Brunch, perhaps", he said.

"Oh, you mean the little blue guy? No. No, nothing. Doubt we'll ever hear from him again", said Tom as Maddie nodded in agreement. "Yeah. He was a fun little guy but he had to...hit the ol' cosmic trail so to speak. Gonna be quiet around here without him zipping around", said Penelope.

"Very well", said Vice Chairman Walters. "Okay... Thank you", said Tom as he closed the door. Walters tried to peek inside as the door was closed. The three humans walked back to the living room, "To be honest, I'm pretty pumped about the pasta bowl", said Tom. "I'm just glad he finally left! And here I thought he was gonna stand there all day! Alright, you can come out now!", said Penelope.

Sonic jumped out of his hiding place behind the couch, "So, do you guys wanna watch a movie or what?", he asked. "Sorry, buddy. It's a school night. It's time for you and your sis to go back to your cave", said Maddie. Penelope was confused, "But...we don't even go to school", she said. "Yeah and it's three in the afternoon!", said Sonic.

"You know how you get when you're tired. C'mon", said Tom. "Me? I'm not like anything. Ah, you guys are so uncool...", said Sonic as he walked to the door. "Well to be fair, Sonic, you do get pretty cranky when you don't get enough sleep. I know that from experience...", Penelope laughed as she followed him.

"Hey, buddy. Where are you two going?", asked Tom. Sonic and Penelope turned to him, "You said we have to go back to our cave", said Sonic. "We did", said Tom.

Upstairs, Tom opened the hatchet to the attic. Sonic, standing on the stairs with Penelope standing behind him, looked through it to find that all their belongings were brought over to it. "Oh, my… Are you kidding me? I can't believe it... How did you… It's... It's all here...", Sonic said as he looked around.

Maddie and Tom joined the two upstairs as Sonic, absolutely bursting with joy, looking through his and Penelope's new shared bedroom. He started zipping around the room, "Look at this! Are you kidding? And the beanbag?! No way! Oh-ho-ho! How did you even get this…and you got it all the way over... Oh! I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it!", Sonic shouted as flopped down on his new bed.

Penelope went to sit on her new daybed in another corner of the room, "Yeah this is great but...I get why you made this for Sonic, but why me? Are you guys letting me stay here until I can find a job and get my own place?", she said to Tom and Maddie.

The couple said nothing but smiled at each other, then Maddie walked downstairs and soon came back with a small stack of papers, giving them to Penelope. She looked through the papers, reading them as she slowly came to a realization. "Are...are these what I think they are?", she asked. "Yup, after you told me about losing your parents, Maddie and I had a talk and we decided that we're going to adopt you", said Tom. "So...welcome home", said Maddie.

Penelope suddenly dropped the papers on her bed as tears sprang to her eyes, she stood up and ran over to Tom and Maddie, throwing her arms around them in a hug. "Thank you...thank you...thank you...", she muttered as she cried. Tom and Maddie held her close as she continued crying, Sonic slowly stood up and walked over to them, wrapping his arms around Penelope's waist as he hugged her too.

Eventually, Penelope calmed down and let go of Tom and Maddie, wiping her eyes and looking down at Sonic. "I finally have a family again...I mean, I had you all this time, Little Bro...but now I have an even bigger family. And I couldn't be happier", she said.

The four of them then sat down together on Penelope's daybed, "I couldn't be happier either. Before, I thought that I had to run away and hide to stay safe, but now...I've learned that you can't run away from your problems. Whatever happens next, I'm glad I won't have to face it alone", said Sonic as he smiled at his family.

As they sat there embracing each other, Ozzy had found his way upstairs as well, walking towards them. "Hi Ozzy, how you doing buddy?", said Penelope as she petted the dog. Then Ozzy walked over to Sonic and started licking him, "Oh no, you don't. No second best animal friends allowed in my room. Wait, what are you doing? Stay away from me. Stop it! I'm warning you, I've got nunchucks! Okay, stop! Okay, you can stay!", he said as he started laughing.

Penelope laughed too, "And btw, Little Bro, this is our room and I say that "second best animal friends" are totally allowed...so long as he doesn't chew on my things or make a mess on the floor", she said. Sonic was too busy laughing at Ozzy licking him to really give her a rebuttal to what she said.

That was when a thought suddenly came to Penelope's mind, "Wait...you mentioned school before. Does this mean I have to go to school now?", she said. "Well, you're still a minor and since Maddie and I are adopting you, then that means...yes, you are going to have to go to school. We think it's important that you get a proper education instead just learning things by reading those books you have over and over", said Tom.

Penelope sighed, "Well on the bright side, I'll be at the top of my English class thanks to all the literature I've read over the years", she said. "Hey! Can I go to school too?", Sonic asked excitedly. It was quiet for a moment before everyone shared a good hearted laugh.

Once upon a time, Sonic and Penelope had to live on their own, all alone in the forest because they had no home or family; one had been forced from his home to keep himself safe and the other having ran away after losing her parents because she didn't want to either be left to rot in an orphanage or be adopted by a family that didn't love her.

All they have were each other, and they had to stay hidden to keep each other safe. But after being thrown into an adventure across the states, having fun, making new friends and getting to know more about one another, they finally found a place for themselves in this world and no matter what happens next, they had each other and their new family there to help them.

~The End~

Author's Note: That's the end. Now, Chapter 8 is where the story actually ends, but the next two chapters going up, Chapters 9 and 10, are bonus one-shots that I've decided to do as well. One will take place a few weeks later and the other will take place three years later. So until then, this is SuperKirbyLand234 signing out!