I do not own any of this. Paranorman belongs to Laika and Sonic The Hedgehog belongs to Sega.
The sound of a vehicle steadily grew louder near the lonely road that led out of Blithe Hollow, interrupting the birds, bugs, and the other tranquil sounds of nature. A blue-colored van with light orange stripes running down the middle turned a corner and went past the sign that read, "You are now leaving Blithe Hollow; please keep your broomsticks off the road." On the sign, a cartoon crackling witch flew past a full moon with magic dust trailing behind her broom.
The van belonged to Mitch Downe; it was his complete pride and joy that he had fallen in love with, ever since he first saw her with a 'for sale' sign on her windshield at the edge of town. Ever since that fateful day, Mitch spent his allowance and worked multiple jobs in order to fix her up to his own specifications, until she was finally ready to hit the road.
There are only a few ground rules when it comes to riding in his van. 1. Don't track mud. 2. No food that leaves stains, drips, or has sauces that could stain the seats, and 3. No animals on the seats. These are very simple rules that Mitch hopes everyone will be able to respect.
Unfortunately, right now, one of those rules is being broken as upon looking up at the overhead mirror, he saw that blue hedgehog was sitting in the backseat, all comfortable with his feet kicked up. He still didn't know how he agreed to this; one moment he and his brother were standing at their front door greeting this hedgehog, along with the weird kid and his sister who had been acting very strange around him and he didn't know why. Now they were all heading to New York City on some mission to get back the hedgehog's onion rings.
He understands that onion rings are good, but going all the way to New York seems a bit much. Honestly, he recalls that the only reason he's going in the first place is because his brother insisted that a road trip would be fun. Mitch wasn't so sure at first, but then Neil told him that he recently read on an online article that New York had a sale on rare van parts at one of its auto stores. Mitch did have to admit that an exhaust pipe needed to be replaced, and who knows, maybe he'll find a very sweet one in that sale.
Making up his mind at last, they all piled into the van with Courtney happily sitting next to him on the passenger seat, while Sonic, Norman, and Neil situated themselves in the back with the hedgehog sitting in between the two boys.
Currently Courtney is busy running her mouth about mundane topics Mitch wasn't even listening to at this point, the last thing he remembers was something about malls not being in the Amazon or something like that. "Like. I can totally be a good environmentalist. Those poor animals have nowhere to hangout, ya know. I know that I can't barely last a week without a mall trip. You know what I mean right Mitch?"
"Um. Yes?" Mitch answered, though honestly he isn't sure what exactly he is agreeing to in the first place.
"Your muscles are so huge; I bet you can lift anything. Perhaps we could do a workout together, or at least I can cheer you on since I can't lift those heavy weights."
"That would be nice." Mitch shrugged.
Meanwhile in the backseat, Neil couldn't keep his eyes off Sonic, while Norman was just content with looking out the window. "So you really are an alien from outer space?"
"I sure am."
"Awesome! What planet are you from? And have you ever encountered any aliens that look like ET?" Neil also wants to ask him if there are aliens that look like wookies, but he'll ask him that after he answers these current questions of his.
"I'm from a planet called Mobius. It's very much like Earth, except for the fact that animals like me rule the roost. As for myself, I'm from South Island, and let me tell you, it's one of the best places for a speedy guy like me. It has beautiful waterfalls, expansive forests, beautiful plains, sandy beaches, a good supply of loop-de-loops, and large cliffs. As for the second question, I have encountered other aliens, but none that look like ET."
"Wow! That sounds like a tropical paradise." Neil could right now practically see himself relaxing on the sandy beaches of the island with a cool drink of lemonade in his hand with a little bendy straw. Too bad he couldn't go there right now.
"It sure was. I can just remember the mango tree I used to lie underneath on a very hot day." Thinking about it more, the hard hit of homesickness came over Sonic as he leaned himself forward and placed his hands underneath his chin with a small sad smile.
Having listened to Sonic's description of his old home, Norman couldn't help but have a bit of a question running through his mind. The place sounded very interesting, why come to Earth? He had to know, so Norman slowly turned to Sonic. "So why did you leave your home?"
Turning to face him, Sonic instantly felt the unpleasant memories of what had happened on that day. The memory that hit him the most was LongClaw sadly giving him her goodbye before the portal closed on him. "To put it simply, I was very unique among everyone else on my planet."
"What do you mean, Sonic?" Neil asked in concern, as he could already tell that this was going to be a very sad story. Even Courtney and Mitch leaned their heads up to listen, of course, right after Courtney took a break from talking her head off.
"I was born with powers that no one has ever seen before." Suddenly releasing a small chuckle, Sonic then recalls something rather funny. "LongClaw told me I was literally bouncing off the walls shortly after I was born."
"Wait" Courtney suddenly interrupted. "Who's LongClaw?"
"She was an owl, who looked after me throughout my childhood." Sonic sadly replied.
"What happened to your parents?" Mitch asked as it seems rather odd that he was raised by an owl instead of a family of hedgehogs.
"My parents knew that my power was going to attract all sorts of bad guys, so they decided to protect me by any means necessary. The only way for them to do this was to have LongClaw take me in as her apprentice. I've seen them a few times, mainly during my birthday or on special holidays. Perhaps my most favorite family member was my dear old uncle Chuck. If I recall correctly, I believe he enjoyed tinkering with machines."
"He sounds very interesting. I bet he could build a robot." Neil exclaimed.
"But that still doesn't explain on what happened to make you come here." Courtney pointed out.
"Don't worry, I'm getting to it." Sonic reassured before continuing on. "It was one sunny day, and I was returning to LongClaw's hut after picking out a nice flower for her. I guess someone must have seen me earlier, because the next thing I knew, a whole tribe of Echidnas came and attacked, driving us both out of our home. LongClaw tried her best to get away, but one of their arrows struck her, bringing her down. She knew that there was no other choice; they were going to catch us, so she did the only thing she could do to keep me safe. She opened a portal to this world, and while she fought off the advancing tribe. I had to come here alone."
Releasing a low sigh, Sonic found himself looking down at his feet. "The last thing I remember of LongClaw was her saying goodbye to me just before the portal closed off. Ever since then, I've been living all by my self."
The silence that now filled the entire van was very heavy for that had been such a sad story. They couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like to not only be chased out of your home, but also lose someone very close to you on the exact same day. It's absolutely horrible, and it made them all very sympathetic towards Sonic, especially Neil who softly placed his hand on Sonic's shoulder blade. "I'm very sorry you had to experience that Sonic. I'm sure LongClaw is looking out for you wherever she is right now."
"Thanks Curly Hair. You know. I can still see her kind face to this day."
"How long ago did this happen?" Mitch asked, he wasn't sure what an echidna was, but they sounded like something you didn't want to mess with.
"About five years ago."
"Hold the phone." Courtney proclaimed. "You've been alone for literally five years."
"Unfortunately yes. It wasn't fun I tell ya. My first few weeks on Earth was very scary for not only did I have to adjust to a completely new environment, avoid humans, but I also spent the dark nights with no one to snuggle against or comfort me in my time of need." Sonic very much wished that he could forget about those horrible nights, he remembered dearly on spending them wide awake, jumping on every single sound that would come from the darkness. He never wants to experience that time ever again.
"That's like, so totally sad," Courtney said in great sympathy. She could remember when she was once afraid of the dark and it was definitely no fun. Although having that cute Hello Kitty night light did help her a lot.
"I can't hardly imagine experiencing that. It's like a total thriller, monster vibe." Mitch added as he steered the van at a upcoming turn.
"I can definitely tell you guys this. It's no fun being alone." Sonic sadly declared, while unaware that beside him Norman glances back out the window, feeling very unsure of that statement.
Looking up at his computer in the lab, Robotnik carefully studied all possible exits those three fugitives might have gone through. He already deduced that they have most likely already left in a vehicle, so really all he needed to do was check up on every traffic cam that recorded any event within the past half hour.
It wasn't hard to pull off, in fact he'd already done it. All he really had to do was check each frame, until at last he finally found a frame that has a front view of a van with a clear picture of that cheerleader sitting in the passenger seat, seemingly chatting up a storm with some guy who Robotnik could already deduce that he wasn't much in the brain department and was most likely just a typical jock.
"Judging by the time of departure, speed of a van that size, current weather conditions. They're right about-" Pressing a few commands on the keyboard, the computer zoomed in on a real time, 3D image of Mitch's van driving along the road. "here"
There's no doubt that they have a pretty good head start over him, but in the end he will catch them all thanks to his genius mind and his magnificent robots. There was simply no time to waste, he needed to move out in post haste.
"Agent Stone." He called into the com-link.
"Yes doctor."
"Prepare to move out. Our little road trip is just beginning." He wickedly smiled.
"I'm already prepared Doctor. It's a good thing to, it seems that a nasty storm is about to hit." Stone informed.
Storm? There wasn't supposed to be a storm today. The current conditions couldn't create one. Quickly checking in on the local weather radar, Robotnik was astonished to see a rather large storm system coming into this area. How curious, especially since the storm seemed to have originated from here, which is not possible with storms. If he wasn't after that alien creature at this very moment, he would investigate this, but this creature is way too important to simply let pass on. Luckily there's a simple solution to this; he would just simply leave a couple of EggDrones here to monitor the storm, while he sets off for his goal.
"Let's get rolling shall we." Pressing even more commands down on the keyboard, he had four of the drones stay, while the others efficiently went back into the lab as the truck began rolling away from Norman's house.
Up above the storm clouds slowly began to cover up the skies of Blithe Hallow. If people looked closely, they could see a witch-like face peering out from the clouds with this smile on her. What they don't know was that she is currently watching the recently risen zombies, slowly making their way towards town. She made sure that they were going in the right direction by herding them with bolts of lightning striking trees or the ground near them.
It made her smile in joy to see them fleeing in fear; she would love nothing more than to hit them with one shot of her lightning, however, it would be more fun to watch them get torn apart over and over again by the new inhabitants of the village, which she had to admit really did change since her time. From what she could see as she got closer to it, there seemed to be strange, rolling things on the roads, a lot more buildings, but perhaps the thing that changed the most was the image of witches spread out everywhere.
She knows for a fact that the imagery is supposed to be her; it made her angry for how dare they make the tragedy of her death into a joke? She'll flatten this village to the ground for this. Perhaps she will do it after she has her fun, which shouldn't be too long now, what with both the number of villagers walking about and them shuffling ever closer; the entertainment is about to begin.
Unknown to her though, the four EggDrones scanned the readouts of her approaching storm. Their readouts revealed that it was very unusual, with no signs of anything natural about it; in fact, scanning the storm further, the drones picked up that the energy for the storm seemed to be growing stronger towards a wooded area north of here.
Following their programming, the drones flew towards the source of energy, which grew more stronger and stronger as they traveled through the woods. Eventually, they reached the source of the storm's energy, and what they saw through their robotic eyes was a swirling, ghostly tornado emerging from a twisted, crooked tree.
Analyzing it, the drones slowly came in more closer for further details that the doctor would surely love to study. The drones get about 15 feet away from the tree, when the swirling vortex suddenly dissipated into the ground, where shortly afterwards the ghost, (alerted by their presence) emerged out from the tree.
Looking at them, she didn't know what to make of these strange objects that had trespassed into her area. Were they some egg-shaped, metallic monsters?
All she did know was that they are interrupting her fun, and that is something she didn't like at all. It didn't look like that they are smart enough to talk, so she has to retort for a more direct approach. With a simple flick of her wrist, three sharp tree roots erupted out from the ground, impaling two of them with sparks and machinery breaking out in all directions, while their oil dripped down slowly on the wood.
They are some kind of machines? How curious.
The other two drones, alerted by the attack, immediately flew to both of her sides in attack positions. They opened fire on the hostile spector, which did nothing but pass through the confused spirit who could almost laugh as the bullets tickled her. However, it also annoyed her a bit, so with both fingers raised, she shot out bolts of lightning, hitting them dead-center; causing them both to explode.
At last her space was free once again, allowing her to look at the two impaled drones more closely. They were very strange machines, way more advanced than anything she had ever seen before; she wondered who made them?
Suddenly shaking her head in irritation, the ghost realized that she was getting distracted. She would miss the show if she didn't hurry up; after all, the villagers might be starting to attack her accusers right now, and that was something she couldn't afford to miss for a single second.
Quickly, she dissapears back into the tree in a flash. Shortly afterwards; the swirling vortex came roaring back to life and shot up into the stormy skies that still continues to spread throughout much of Blithe Hallow.