Sonic yawned as he got up from his hammock. After a quick stretch, he proceeded with his morning routine: a bowl of cereal for breakfast, followed by a nice long run—long for most other people, that is. It was a little windy out, but that didn't bother him. It just meant there were fewer slowpokes to dodge along the way.
After finishing his run, he went into the bathroom for a quick shower. He turned on the water, whistling to himself, then went to the cabinet for a fresh bar of soap. One look in the mirror was enough to kill his good mood.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Who?! What?! Where?!" Eggman shouted as he jolted from his bed.
Orbot and Cubot entered the room. "You hear that too, Boss?" Cubot asked.
"How could I not hear it?" Eggman asked, rubbing his head. Then he perked up a bit. "Wait a minute. That's Sonic's voice. But I haven't even attacked yet. What in the blazes does he have to scream about?"
Sticks and Amy rushed over to Sonic's place the moment they heard his shouts.
"Sonic, what happened?" Amy asked as they came through the door.
Sticks looked around, but the blue hedgehog was nowhere to be found. "Where is he, in the bathroom or somethin'?"
"I guess it wouldn't hurt to check," Amy said, turning down the hallway and knocking on the bathroom door.
"Don't come in here!" Sonic's voice came from the other side.
"What is it? Fleas? Chickenpox? Is your franchise goin' under?" Sticks guessed.
At that moment, Tails entered the house. Knuckles and Joe followed seconds later, Joe using his sheathed sword like a cane.
"Whatever could be going on?" the human asked, trying not to smile.
"Something's wrong with Sonic," Amy informed them, instantly suspicious. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
"We'd better check on him," Knuckles grinned. He grabbed the door and pulled it off its hinges, allowing the group to see what was wrong with their friend.
"No, don't!" Sonic held up his hands to shield himself. At first, they didn't recognize him. The hedgehog before them had bright pink fur.
Amy gasped, "Big brother?"
Sonic's expression went from embarrassed to confused. "What? No, Amy, it's me, Sonic!"
"Sonic? You're my big brother?" Amy frowned.
At this point, Knuckles and Joe couldn't take it anymore and cracked up.
Sticks leapt up and grabbed Joe by the collar. "Alright, fess up! What'd you do?!"
"Hah, okay, it was us!" Knuckles got out through his laughter. "Me and Joe painted Sonic in his sleep."
"What? Why would you do that?" Amy asked.
"Because it's a prank," the two perpetrators answered in sync.
Sonic groaned. "Well, what kind of paint did you use? I wanna get this stuff off me as soon as possible."
"This kind," Knuckles held up a can of paint with Eggman's face on it. "Don't worry. If Eggman's paint is as weak as his robots, then this stuff should come off easy."
"Then how come it didn't come off when I was in the shower?" Sonic asked with a glare.
That made the pranksters pause, with Joe grabbing the can from Knuckles. "'Will never ever come off. That's what makes it reliable,'" Joe read. "In hindsight, we probably should've checked the fine print on this can."
Sticks hopped off him. "You bozos!"
Sonic gawked at them. "Are you kidding me? I can't go out looking like this!" He took a deep breath to calm himself. It didn't work. "Tails, you got anything that can get this paint off?"
"Uh, heh, I can check my lab. I'm sure I'll, heh… Would you mind giving me a minute?" Tails said, barely holding himself together. Exiting the house made no difference since everyone could hear him laughing anyway.
"Okay, okay, easy fix. I just gotta avoid all contact with society for the rest of my life," Sonic surmised.
"I don't know if that'll work," Sticks shook her head. "I don't like bein' around society either, but it's kinda hard to avoid people when you need to do things like eat and defeat Eggman."
"Eggman…" Sonic's eyes widened in horror. "What do I do if he attacks?! He'd never let me live this down!"
"Sonic, you're making too big a deal out of this," Amy tried to soothe him. "You're the hero of the village. No one's going to judge you for one bad dye job."
"Somehow, I doubt that," Joe deadpanned.
"I have an idea," Tails said, having finally composed himself. "We go into town and pass you off as someone else. Maybe no one will recognize you."
"Seems worth a shot. What do you say, Sonic?" Amy asked.
Though he was reluctant, Sonic ultimately agreed. "Okay, fine, let's test it out."
As the gang started to leave the house, Sonic stopped them at the door, singling out Knuckles and Joe.
"Not you two! You're fixing my bathroom door!"
As the rest of the gang headed for town, Joe sighed. "I guess this means I'm fixing the door by myself."
"You saying I can't handle delicate tasks?" Knuckles scoffed. "I could fix that door with one hand tied behind my back."
"Knowing you, that would only make it worse," Joe pointed out.
"You know what?" Sonic said as they approached town. "Maybe I'll just stay in my house after all." Sonic spun around and began walking in the other direction, only for Amy to pull him back.
"At least give it a chance," she insisted, trying to ignore the breeze that was picking up. "Let's just stay for an hour, and then we can go. It's getting cold, anyway."
At that moment, a small turtle man approached them. "Excuse me, sir. This may sound strange, but do I know you? You seem familiar."
Amy answered for Sonic, "That's just a coincidence. This is my cousin, uh, Rob. You don't know this man, do you, Rob?"
Sonic shook his head. To help sell the act, he put on a formal tone of voice, "Uh, no, dear cousin. We've never met."
The turtle nodded. "Oh, my mistake. Carry on."
The group sighed in relief.
"Looks like you were right, Amy," Tails observed. "No one recognizes him."
"Yeah, I'm still not confident about this yet," Sonic crossed his arms. "One guy doesn't prove much."
But as they walked through the village, hardly anyone batted an eye at Sonic, and those who did bought Amy's lie about him being her cousin.
After an hour of walking around, Sonic was finally convinced he could wait out this ordeal without any fuss. Satisfied, the group began making their way back home.
"Now, what'd I tell you, Sonic?" Amy asked.
"Hold on, did you say Sonic?" Comedy Chimp repeated from nearby.
Sonic was instantly filled with dread. "Oh boy, here we go."
Comedy Chimp ran back into town, and in seconds, a whole crowd of people gathered and began cracking up at Sonic's new look.
Sonic, Tails, and Sticks all glared at Amy. The pink hedgehog rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment. "I didn't think I spoke that loud."
"Okay, I'm out," Sonic said as he sped away in a pink blur. The crowd made a noise of disappointment and dispersed just as quickly as they'd assembled.
When he got back to his house, Sonic found Joe trying to repair his bathroom door all by himself. Naturally, the door was in even worse condition than he'd left it in.
"What the heck happened here?" he asked, annoyed.
"Coach tried to show off and this happened," Joe explained. He jabbed a thumb off to the side. "He's serving his time right now."
Sonic followed his friend's thumb and found Knuckles sitting on a stool with a dunce cap on his head. The red echidna was pouting, his arms crossed.
Sonic sighed. "Just keep at it."
He flopped onto the couch and flicked on his TV.
"This is anchorbird Soar the Eagle," the reporter introduced himself. "The biggest news of the day? Sonic the Pinkhog, fashion disaster!"
That was all Sonic cared to hear. He turned off the TV.
"Not one word," he ordered Knuckles and Joe. Deciding a nap in his hammock might help, he announced, "I really don't wanna see anyone for the rest of the day."
"Surprise attack!" came a voice from outside.
"I asked for that," Sonic groaned. He pointed at Knuckles and Joe. "You two go deal with Eggman. I'll fix the bathroom door myself."
Nodding, the two offenders headed outside to confront their recurring foe.
"Alright, what's the deal this time?" asked Joe. "You got some fancy new robot? You invent some fog that turns people inside out?"
Eggman looked put off by the second guess. "What? Ew, no. I heard Sonic's screams of distress from my lair and decided to come see what the trouble was. And I figured, as long as I'm coming over, why not try to destroy you all as per usual?"
"Oh, Sonic was screaming because—mmph!"
Knuckles was cut off by Joe covering his mouth with his hand. "Sonic's already pissed at us. Telling Eggman'll just make it worse," he whispered.
"Oh, you don't have to tell me. I sent a little drone into his house as soon as we started talking," Eggman said casually, tapping his wrist controller. After a moment, he burst out laughing.
With the jig up, Sonic exited his house to confront Eggman with his friends—which only made his nemesis laugh louder.
"Let's just get this over with," he sighed.
As Joe drew his sword and Sonic began spin dashing robots, the rest of their friends showed up to join the battle. As per usual, they smashed up all the bots in no time—but this time, even with his army in pieces, Eggman was still grinning.
"Normally I'd be angry about losing a fight, but nothing can kill my mood today!" he laughed. "Later, Pinky!"
As Eggman flew off, Sonic growled at the nickname. "I'm going back inside. Don't talk to me at all."
Amy frowned before glaring at Knuckles and Joe. "Alright, you two. You caused this mess, so you'd better have some idea of how to fix it."
The human and the echidna looked at each other.
"I have a plan," Knuckles said.
"Me too," Joe replied. "Wanna do our own thing and see whose idea works better?"
Knuckles nodded. "Sounds good."
As the two ran off to enact their respective plans, Tails tried to look on the bright side. "At least they're trying."
Still lounging in his hammock an hour later, Sonic groaned as his friends let themselves in.
"Okay, Sonic, I know you're mad about the paint job, but I figured: we painted you pink, so we can just repaint you," Joe smiled. "How does that sound?"
That made Sonic perk up. "Okay, you've got my attention."
Joe's smile immediately faded a bit. "Unfortunately, the store didn't have any blue paint. What're the odds? Anyway, I got a bunch of other colors, so take your pick."
Sighing, Sonic began looking through the cans. "Okay, yellow, no. Red, no. Green, no." He quickly looked over to his friends who bore those colors. "No offense."
Tails, Knuckles, and Joe all shrugged, so Sonic resumed sifting through the paint. "Hm, black or white? Closer, but still no. Orange, no—oh, hello!"
The last color was indigo, which he settled on.
"Okay, just hold still and we'll have you done in no time," Joe said as he and his accomplice repainted their friend.
"You guys are getting this done awfully fast," Sonic commented.
"That's 'cause this time, we don't have to worry about waking you up," Knuckles pointed out.
When they were done, Sonic looked way less ridiculous.
"And now it's time for my apology present." Knuckles pulled out a box and opened it, revealing a small cake covered with pink frosting. The room went silent—except for Joe, who snickered quietly.
"You get why that doesn't help your case, right?" Sticks asked.
"Yeah, I don't think I ever wanna see pink again, unless it's on her," Sonic pointed at Amy, who, amusingly, turned pink at the comment. Sonic immediately realized what he'd said. "That sounded a little different in my head."
Joe grinned. "Possible future ship aside, you willing to show your face in public again?"
"I do like my chances better with this color," Sonic said, looking himself over.
To test things out, he sped back into the village and stood in a spot where anyone could see him. Person after person passed by, but no one said anything. Although, a police officer did give him a light warning, "No loitering, sir. You're gonna have to move along."
Grinning, Sonic did as he was told, commenting to himself, "Finally, something's going right."
Unfortunately, right as he finished speaking, the wind picked up again and storm clouds gathered overhead. Before he could register that the weather had changed, the sky opened up and rain began pouring down. Before Sonic could find cover, he saw, much to his dismay, that his new paint job was coming undone, leaving him pink once again.
"Seriously?!" he griped. "This paint washes right off but the pink paint doesn't?!"
As if to makes things worse, the rain let up after just a few seconds, prompting everyone to come out of hiding and see that Sonic was pink once again. The sight of him was met with uproarious laughter wherever he went.
Scowling, Sonic headed back home. His friends were surprised to see him back already.
"Wow, you were only gone two minutes," Sticks commented.
"What happened to your new paint?" Amy asked.
Sonic glared at Joe. "It rained. But look at that—I'm still pink."
"I thought it was supposed to be waterproof," Knuckles whispered rather loudly.
Blinking, Joe grabbed one of the paint cans and carefully read it over, "'Warning: wet paint comes off with water'…That seems like something they could've used larger print for."
"You think?" Sonic snarked. "Well, back to Plan A: stay out of sight and out of mind."
Tails spoke up, hoping to talk his friend out of his impending isolation, "Um, aren't you worried about running out of food?"
Sonic didn't answer, simply disappearing in a pink blur. He returned a few seconds later with some snack foods in his arms. "Problem solved."
"Did you pay for those?" Amy asked.
"I left some money on the counter," he said. "Couldn't risk social interaction. This is how I live now." He tore open a bag of chips, glaring at Joe and Knuckles. "I hope you two are happy!"
As the rest of the gang walked around town in low spirits, they quickly noticed that the wind was stronger than ever.
"What's up with all the wind today?" Knuckles wondered aloud.
"I've got a pretty good guess," Sticks answered, pointing off in the distance. The others followed her finger and saw a tornado slowly approaching the village.
"I'll get Sonic," said Amy. "You guys try to handle things in the meantime!"
The rest of the team nodded and headed closer to the tornado. As they did, Amy made a U-turn and went back to Sonic's house, rushing through her friend's door or lack thereof. His house was dark, the curtains drawn and the lights turned off. She had to step over several empty bags of chips to get to him.
"Sonic! Big trouble! There's a tornado heading for the village!"
Sonic gave her a dull look. "Amy, I know you'd like me out of the house, but this isn't a good attempt."
Sighing, Amy walked over to the closest window and threw back the curtains. The formerly blue hedgehog blinked in the bright sunlight, taking in the scene. The wind whistled outside as the two hedgehogs stood in silence, watching the tornado loom over their village.
"Huh," Sonic said finally. "Well, I'm sure you guys can handle it."
"Anyone actually have a plan here?" Sticks asked the group as they stood near the tornado.
"This'll be easy. We just gotta stop one disaster with another," Knuckles said, cracking his namesakes. He punched the ground, causing a small tremor. This naturally did nothing to stop the twister as it advanced on the village.
Tails pulled out a remote control. "There's a drone in my lab that I think can help. I'll just call it here and—" He was cut off when the wind tore the remote from his grasp. "Never mind. I've got nothing."
Joe sighed, "We are so screwed."
Amy was really getting antsy now, correctly guessing that their friends might not be able to deal with a full-blown tornado. "Sonic, please! You wouldn't let the village get destroyed just because you're afraid of being laughed at, right?"
Sonic looked uncertain. "I mean, they could always rebuild the village."
"SONIC!" Amy shouted.
Flinching, Sonic relented, "Okay, okay, I'm going!"
The pink blur raced to the site of the tornado. His friends all cheered at the sight of him, relieved.
"Alright, let's get this over with." Sonic dashed at the tornado and began running circles around it, opposite to the direction it was spinning. He picked up so much speed that the colored trail he left as he ran bled into the tornado, dying it pink.
The rest of the team stared in awe as the tornado's rotation was cancelled out, and the storm dissolved into a light breeze, the air tinged with pink.
Sonic grinned at his handiwork. As if to add to everyone's good mood, without the tornado around, the sky started to clear up, allowing the sun to shine through the clouds.
"Well, glad that's taken care of," the hedgehog commented.
"Yeah! And only one house got sucked in and destroyed!" Knuckles added.
That bit of news made Sonic cringe a bit. Knowing he'd be noticed any second now, he sped back to his house before any villagers could spot him.
The next day saw Sonic lounging with a content smile on his face.
"You seem in better spirits," Amy noted cheerfully.
"Well, for starters, there's the report about the 'pinknado,' which is actually a pretty funny name for something," Sonic explained. "And secondly…I got my sweet revenge."
"We should've seen this coming," Joe deadpanned as he looked in a hand mirror. His once-black hair and mustache were now painted bright pink.
"Yeah," Knuckles agreed, his fur also pink. "Hey, with this many pink guys on the team now, does this make Amy redundant?"
Joe just groaned and rolled his eyes.