Well, you'll never guess who's going to make an appearance in this chapter. I'm serious ...and no, it's not Locke.

Comments:

Juancastri11: Challenge accepted.

Zosonils: I love Memory as well. That chapter was mostly just for fun and building relations up.

Quantum27: Okay then, I'll have to get it. I've never actually played Risk, but I have watched my cousins play it slightly. Yes, Shadow would be terrifying. I will keep that in mind.

Autumn: You're fine. Glad you enjoyed it.

Let's Rollout! (...I am really ashamed of myself for all of these non-Sonic fandom geek references…)

Sofia's POV:

Out of respect for my Uncle, I didn't leave until the day after my birthday. My luggage was packed, my money in my wallet, and my Uncle was still trying to convince me to stay.

"Sofia, it's dangerous out there! Please, just stay here where it's safe and normal and-"

"Have no idea what in Chaos is going on out in Mobius?" I raised an eyebrow. Gently, I took my uncle's hand. "Calm down, Uncle Chuck," I ignored the flinch. "I'll be fine, I promise."

He took a deep breath and sighed. "I know but... I worry about you. As you said, you don't know what's out there. You've got no idea what Mobius is like right now."

"Which is exactly why I'm leaving." I picked up my bags and was about to head out the door when the bell rang. Briefly wondering who could be coming to visit, I unlatched the screen door. Leaning against the porch, grinning arrogantly, was Bobby.

"Well, hey there, doll face," he said, wiggling his eyebrows. I groaned and was about to slam the door, but he grabbed it and held it firmly open.

"Now come on, I won't bite," he crooned, reaching to stroke a stray hair out of my face. I slapped his hand away hard, and he recoiled.

"Whaddaya want, Bobby?" I hissed, narrowing my eyes.

"You're real cute when you try ta be mad." He smirked cheekily, and my blood boiled.

"Are you just here to annoy me to death? 'Cause if so, mission accomplished." I snarled poisonously.

"Now don't be like that, Sophie! I jes' dropped by ta tell you that Levi James is having a lil' shindig down by the docks t'night, and if you'd like to accompany me. I promise I'll make it worth yer while." He caressed my cheek, and it took every ounce of willpower in me not to judo flip him off the porch. Or into the next county.

"I wouldn't go with you if you paid me." I growled with as much contempt as I could muster. Chaos, I hated him.

"Aw, don't tell me you're still sore over me teasing you way back when!" That infuriating smirk grew bigger, as if this were some big joke. "We was jes' kids then, I didn't mean none of it! Tell ya what- how's about we make amends over some drinks tomorrow night? The bartender's a family friend, he'll let us in. My treat." He inched closer and closer to me until we were less than a millimeter apart.

I almost didn't move I was so shocked. Was he chaos-freakin' serious?

I shoved him away roughly. "Are you kidding me?" I shouted. "You- you think takin' me out ta get wasted and pulling one of your little mind games on me 'll just smooth over you tormenting me for eight years? Heck, I'd prefer if you were still throwing rocks at me!"

"Well, I-"

"Don't you start with me, you womanizing creep!" My voice grew louder and louder. "How d'you even have the gall to suggest I could ever be interested in a chauvinistic jerk like you! The nerve!"

"Sophie, don't be like that," he crooned, that stupid smile still there. "I ain't like that no more. Jes' gimme a chance, I promise I'll be nice. How about next Saturday? There's a movie playing at the theater."

"Well, guess what, Romeo?" I sauntered up close to him, my voice dripping with venom. "I ain't gonna be here this Saturday. Or the one after that. Or the one after that. Y'know why? 'Cause I'm getting out of this stupid town for good, so I don't have to look at your ugly face ever again!"

Bobby looked shocked. "You- you're leaving?"

"You heard me."

"Wh-when?"

"My bus leaves in a half an hour."

His face lit up. "At least let me take you ta the diner fer a proper send off. Anything you want, on me."

"Oooh, I don't think so. I got plans, y'see. I've got target practice to get to before I leave." I turned and yelled into the doorway, "Hey, Uncle Charlie! You got the rifles ready?"

"Rifles? What're you-" Uncle Chuck peered out the door, Bobby waving sheepishly to him. His eyebrows furrowed and he crossed his arms.

"Oh, I see. Yep, I got the rifles right here, Sofia. Care to join us, Bobby? You can hold the targets."

Bobby's smirk began to falter, his eyes darting to the rifle perched in the umbrella holder next to the coat closet.

"Uh, nah, that's okay," he said. "I- I'll jes' be on my way, then…" He began to walk slowly off the porch to the dusty dirt walkway.

"No, no, please, don't be scared now, sonny." said Uncle Chuck, picking up the gun. "Here, lemme show you how it's done."

He pulled the trigger and almost instantly the bullet created a miniature crater right next to Bobby's foot. He yelped, falling backwards and gaping in horror at Uncle Chuck. Chuck fired again, the bullet whizzing past his ear. Bobby stumbled to his feet and took off running.

"Git! That'll teach you ta trespass on my property, ya rotten punk! I said git!" Uncle Chuck kept firing, each time narrowly missing his target by inches. I nearly died laughing at the sight of that creep running for cover. Uncle Chuck kept shooting until Bobby was finally out of sight.

"Uncle Chuck, that was amazing!" I hugged him tightly around the neck. He grinned sheepishly.

"Anything for my favorite niece."

"I'm your only niece."

"That's why you're my favorite." He paused. "That whole thing reminds me…" He disappeared for a minute then reappeared with...was that a handgun?

"Uncle Chuck, I'm not going to need-"

He held up a hand, interrupting, "Sorry Sofia, but I'm putting my foot down for this one. Already got your license, just need you to sign the paper. Relax, you can keep it in your purse. I don't expect you to actually use it, but it's a nice way to scare off boys like Bobby, as you just saw." After his little 'speech' he handed me the handgun.

Very reluctantly, I put it in my purse. I guessed it couldn't hurt to have a weapon other than my self-defense metal rod (I'll tell you later) and my 'intuition'.

I turned back to my suitcases and picked one up, Uncle Chuck taking the other. We climbed into the dusty red pickup truck and drove in amiable silence to the bus station. We got out and walked over to the ticket booth, where I handed a wad of cash to the ticket vendor whose name tag read Alice. As she punched in my information on her computer, I took the moment to look around this rotten town one last time. It felt good to know that I only had a few more minutes before I could leave, maybe forever.

I smiled and turned back to the ticket window where the vendor was waiting with my bus pass. "Thank you, Miss Alice."

"Have a good trip" the squirrel replied in a monotone voice. She motioned for me to move along.

I grabbed my handbag and one of my suitcases; Uncle Chuck had my last case. We walked over to the waiting bus in silence. With a small grunt, he opened the storage area underneath and placed my cases inside.

He turned to me and stared People just walked and shifted around us.

The stations crackly intercom came on, "The nine a.m. bus will be departing shortly. Please purchase your tickets and board the bus."

I smiled. "Well… that's me." A little awkwardly, I hugged my Uncle again. He squeezed me gently, his mouth close to my ear..

"Be safe, Sonia." he whispered, his voice cracking slightly. I'm not sure who was more startled by the name, me or my Uncle. He cleared his throat rather loudly and reached into his pocket; out came a small white envelope, "Here's some money for your trip."

"I thought you said that you wouldn't be giving me any money." I inquired.

He pressed it into my hands, "I changed my mind. You'll need this more than I ever will. Now, get on outta here, ya little daredevil." He sniffed, wiping away a tear.

"Doggone it, Sonia, now you got me being all sentimental." He pushed me lightly towards the bus. "Go... go on. Go find your place in the world."

I tucked the money away in my purse and walked to the bus doors. I handed my pass to the driver who glanced at it and waved me away, handing the pass back. I sat down in a seat in the back of the bus and stared out the window at my Uncle. As the bus pulled away, he raised his hand in farewell. I mirrored the action then sat down. As my town flashed by, I never looked out the window.

There was no reason to.

The many hours of driving blurred together until the bus finally pulled into a stop at a small town that was still pretty far south, but looked newer and larger than some of the other towns that we had driven through. The bus driver informed us that we would have two hours to get lunch and take a look around. Can't say I wasn't grateful for the break- those seats weren't exactly the most comfortable things..

I stepped off the bus and found the nearest city map. The whole town was actually an island with nine bridges connecting it to the mainland. After a few moments, I finally determined to tour the nearest bridge to this stop, Taylor Bridge. It only took about five minutes to get there and I found a hot dog vendor pretty quickly.

"What can I get you, miss?" said the portly vendor, sounding overly bored.

"Um…" I looked at the options on the menu. "Can I get a tofu dog, please? And a small diet soda."

"One tofu dog, coming up." He reached down under the stand and shuffled around something. He pulled out a fully dressed tofu dog on a paper plate and a small cup of diet soda. I thanked the man and paid him, taking my lunch a little further down the bridge. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted an almost empty bench on the right side. One side was empty while a yellow male fox sat on the other side. In his right hand was a half-empty glass beer bottle and a folded up newspaper in his left. After a moment, I determined he was no threat and sat down on the other side of the bench.

My tofu dog was actually quite good, especially since it didn't make me think of canned meat. I swear, Uncle Chuck turned me into a vegetarian just for serving that stuff every single day of my life. After my plate was empty and my soda had been slurped up, I turned my attention back to the man.

He was probably in his mid-forties, maybe early fifties. His eyes were a little unfocused from the alcohol and a permanent scowl etched in his face. His eyes weren't moving while he stared at the paper; he wasn't bothering to even read it. The fox's tail twitched slightly every once in awhile, also another probable side effect from his drink.

"Whatr' you starin' at?" His words were slurred from the drink.

My mind snapped awake as I realized I had been a little rude. "Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I was just… um, thinking." The fox grunted slightly and took another swig from his bottle. It made me feel sort of...uncomfortable.

"Um...isn't it a little early to be drinking?" I asked, eyeing him warily.

"No."

Something told me that the fox was done talking, but I decided to see if he knew anything about Manic. After all, if Manic was running north, he may have passed through the town, or if I was lucky, was actually here. I forced down that hope and inquired to the man, "Er, I don't mean to be rude... but, um, have you ever seen a green hedgehog in town? He'd be about sixteen at this point, my height?"

The man just glared at me, his muddy blue-grey eyes blurry and unfocused. "Why?"

"Well, see, my brother- the green hedgehog- he ran away about six years ago and-"

A small chuckle escaped the fox. "A runaway? Girl, this town for renowned for runaways. People don't stay here long if they don't know how to live. Most either join a gang, jump off a bridge, or run away."

I think my skin turned a shade lighter as I thought about what kind of town would have all of that. "So...you haven't seen him? He may have passed through here."

"Ifff I saw him, I don't 'member him. Now ifff you're done interrogating me, ssscram."

My anger started to boil. "Well there is no need to be rude, Mister…?"

"Prower. Alex Prower. Now get outta here, orrr else."

"Look, Mr. Prower." I said indignantly. "You could just get up and walk away if I'm annoying you that much."

The fox blinked a few times and scowled menacingly. "Sssee here, sweetcheeks, I'm comfortable on my bench. I wasss here first. Now get lost!" He tried to swing his bottle at me in a shooing gesture, but the neck slipped out of his slackened grip, it flying off the bridge and into the muddy green waters. Mr. Prower stared at his empty hand and glared at him. "Now lookit what you did. You owe me a new bottle of whiskey."

I stood up and straightened my skirt. "No, I don't. If you ask me, you need to lay off the drink anyway. Then maybe you wouldn't be such a miserable drunk who sits on a dock all day, drinking his life away! Your family must be worried to death about you."

"My wife's dead, my daughter jumped off this bridge, and my freaky son is a good for nothing runaway off wasting his time with some other crazy freak boy." He waved his newspaper slightly, "See him in the paper every other day for something they did."

My initial reaction was shock. "Oh my Chaos, I am so sorry. I didn't mean-"

"Sorry?" he barked. "Why're ya sorry? Both my kids were failures, especially the boy, the lil' two-tailed freak."

"Two-tailed...what?"

"None of your business, ya rotten snoop. Now get outta here 'fore I really lose my temper." He waved me away and returned to staring blankly at his newspaper.

Are you confused as I am?

Very puzzled, I picked up the remaining trash from my lunch. "Well, maybe he's not such a failure. Maybe if you just talked to him-"

"He'd never talk to me."

"Okay then, write him a letter!" I almost shouted. He was beginning to get on my nerves. "All I see is a communication problem. You're never going to get anywhere with him if all you do is sit on a bench and drink away your problems! This could all be sorted out if you would just try!"

Again, the man scoffed, "I beat up on the brat and told everyone else ta do the same. I chucked him out of my house when he was three. There ain't no 'sorting out' that could fix that." He said it with such a bitterness, I almost believed him. But I have a strong belief that families should stay together and not fall apart, which pushed me to say just one last thing.

"Okay, that might be true, but it never hurts to get up off your backside try, for the love of Chaos! Good day!" I walked away and dumped my garbage in a nearby trash can, then hurried back to the bus stop. During my conversation with the strange fox, I hadn't noticed how the time that had flown by. Luckily, I managed to reach the bus with only minutes to spare.

I walked down the aisle back to my seat next to the window. Outside the foggy glass, I could still see Mr. Prower in the distance, still sitting on the bench. He was hunched over, his face buried in his hands. I couldn't help but smile in spite of myself.

I had gotten through to someone.

I just thought of something… If you take a chili dog and give it to a Mobian pig, would that be considered 'cannibalism'? Same with hamburgers…

Anyway, who enjoyed Mr. Prower? I have a feeling that all of you were yelling at Sonia to punch him in the face. Personally, I wanted too so badly, but decided that we already had enough violence the previous chapter.

Also, did anyone else die of laughter with Uncle Chuck shooting at Bobby? Because I did! (Halo's Note- That was my idea. It was fun to write.)

Anyway, review please!