"Good mornin', Tails."
Tails yawned. "Good morning, Sonic."
"Ready for another day of adventure?"
"Yeah, but I could really use some breakfast."
Fortunately for Sonic and Tails, there was a retro-style diner named Fudd's Diner not too far from the hostel they were staying at. Since he was still technically a wanted criminal, Sonic disguised himself with a fake mustache, and they took a table near the corner to be less conspicuous.
"Hi, welcome to Fudd's!" said their waitress. "Can I get you two something to drink?"
"I'll have an orange juice," said Tails.
"Ya got any Coke?" asked Sonic.
"Is Pepsi OK?"
Sonic nodded. "That'll be fine."
The waitress left to get their drinks.
"So Sonic, what's our next move?"
Sonic stroked his chin. "That's a good question. I figure since Robuttnik's usin' Shadow to frame me, we gotta figure out a way to prove to everybody that I'm innocent."
"But how?"
Sonic shrugged. "I ain't sure. My best guesses are: 1. We get a picture of me and Shad together, or 2. We tell somebody really powerful about his existence."
Just then, Sonic's Hedgehog Sense tingled, so he looked over at a TV that was set up over the bar, which was tuned to ABC7:
"…In other news, President David Flynn is expected to arrive in Station Square today as part of an initiative to…"
Without question, Sonic knew what he had to do.
"What's up, Sonic?" said Tails.
"Tails, I know exactly how we're gonna prove my innocence."
After finishing their breakfast and paying for it, Sonic and Tails headed out of the diner.
"But how are we going to get anywhere close to the President? We'll be toast if we approach on foot!"
Sonic patted Tails on the shoulder. "Relax, I got an idea!"
"What?"
Sonic pointed to a Red Moondust 1972 Lincoln Continental that was parked nearby.
"Wait…are you suggesting that we steal a car?" said Tails.
"Why not? It oughta help us get close to the President!"
Tails averted his gaze and rubbed the back of his head. "I dunno, that's illegal…"
"Baby, we're wanted criminals! What's one stolen car more or less?"
Tails looked into Sonic's green eyes, and then sighed.
"All right…I'll go along with this plan, but if it doesn't work, then you have to do whatever I want, understood?"
Sonic gave a thumbs up. "Yeah, I can dig it!"
Sonic whipped out a coat hanger from his jacket and stuck it down the car's front passenger side window, using it to unlock the door. Once he did that, he unlocked the driver's door, and Tails hopped in the driver's seat.
"How did you manage to break in so easily?" asked Tails.
"Man, I used to jack car radios and sell 'em quite a bit!"
Tails gave Sonic a blank stare. "Sometimes, the more I get to know about you, the less I actually wanna know."
Despite not being fond of Sonic's criminal past, Tails swept that aside and worked on hotwiring the Lincoln. Soon enough, he got the car started, but he didn't move just yet…
"Sonic, don't forget to buckle up!"
Sonic smiled sheepishly. "I knew that!"
Sonic buckled up his seatbelt, and Tails set his watch communicator to scan radio frequencies for the location of the President's motorcade before putting the car in "Drive" and heading off.
"Ya know, times like this call for some kickin' tunes," said Sonic.
After turning on the radio, Sonic flipped through stations until he found one he wanted…
"You're listening to 95 KLAS, Station Square's ultimate classic rock station! Here's KISS with 'Detroit Rock City'!"
Once the radio began playing that song, Sonic began rocking out, while Tails kept driving.
"Oh yeah! This is way past fly!" said Sonic.
However, not everything would be easy going for them, for at one intersection, they passed by a Station Square PD cruiser. The officers initiated pursuit.
"Tails, we better step on it, man!"
"I'm trying my best!"
"Looks like I'm gonna have to take care of this, then!"
Sonic lowered his window, unbuckled his seatbelt, climbed out of the Lincoln and aimed a Homing Attack at the police car. He struck the car dead-on on its front end, which caused the car to flip forwards through the air and go sailing for a fair distance away before landing on its tail and flipping over. Sonic then returned to the Lincoln.
"How are we doin' so far?" asked Sonic.
"We're getting closer, but we've still got a way to go."
Sonic looked in the rear-view mirror and saw another police car coming after them. "Well, looks like we got a long way!"
Sonic exited the Lincoln again, and this time, he jumped on the roof of the police car and reached into the cabin.
"Hey, what are you doing!?" said the officer driving.
"Makin' sure I don't steer ya wrong!"
Sonic grabbed the steering wheel and steered the cruiser right into a parked taxi, jumping out of the way just in time and returning to the stolen Lincoln.
"Sonic, we may wanna reconsider what we're doing here…" said Tails.
"But if we do that, then Robuttnik and Shadow are gonna win!"
"All right, but if we get arrested again, I'm gonna make you buy me extra-cheesy chili dogs for the rest of our lives!"
"Fair enough!"
This time, two police cars came after them. Once again, Sonic left the relative safety of the Lincoln, but this time, he jumped on the roof of one of the police cars and surfed on top of it. He then did his trademark finger wag at the officers in the other car.
"No no no! You suckas can't touch this!"
The officer in the passenger seat of the other cruiser attempted to touch Sonic, and in a big way: he grabbed the Ithaca 37 shotgun and tried blasting the Blue Blur. However, the latter's Hedgehog Sense alerted him to this, so he dodged the buckshot and steered the police car into the other one, thereby creating a little pileup before rejoining Tails.
"Sonic, are you done destroying police cars yet?"
"That depends. You anywhere close to the prez yet?"
"Just a couple minutes away from Route 280! We better hurry, though: I've been getting a bunch of police transmissions about all the mayhem we've been causing!"
After speeding by another intersection, a couple of motorcycle officers joined the chase, and it wasn't much of a challenge for their Harley-Davidson Electra Glides to catch up to the Lincoln. They proved quite ruthless, too, drawing their service pistols in an attempt to stop Sonic and Tails.
"They're shooting at us!" said Tails.
"Yeah, I can see that!"
Sonic jumped out of the car again and landed on the back of one of the Harleys. He reached out and made a grab for the other motor officer. Ol' Blue succeeded in doing so, and pulled the two of them together, causing them to crash into each other and wipe out. When he returned to the car, his Hedgehog Sense went off again…
"Um…Sonic…"
Sonic looked over as Tails said, and near Route 280 he noticed that there was a roadblock up ahead consisting of a few police cars, a couple of armored cars and a bunch of S.W.A.T. officers with M16s and shotguns.
"Tails, keep drivin'! I'll make an opening for us!"
Sonic jumped out of the car again and ran full speed at the roadblock.
"YOU!" said a S.W.A.T. sergeant over his bullhorn. "Stop right there and get down on your knees with your hands behind your head!"
Sonic kept running.
"All right men, DROP HIM!"
The S.W.A.T. officers opened fire on Sonic, but like Robotnik's Badniks and various G.U.N. troopers, these guys had also trained at the Imperial Marksmanship Academy. Once he got close enough, Sonic curled up into a Spin Attack and rammed one of the armored cars, knocking it back a few yards and causing it to tip over onto its side. Despite having scattered to avoid him, the S.W.A.T. officers swarmed around Sonic and attempted to cuff him, but in doing so, they forgot about Tails, who struck a police car on the rear quarter panel and broke through the roadblock.
"Sorry, guys!" said Sonic. "I wish I could stay, but I gotta blow, Joe!"
Sonic jumped out of the way of the S.W.A.T. officers and rejoined Tails. In little time at all, they caught up with the President's motorcade, but there were a couple of armored cars travelling in the motorcade, and they attempted to use their .50-caliber machine guns to shred the Lincoln. Fortunately, Sonic and Tails managed to avoid the fire long enough to get close to the President's limo, jump out of their car and through the limo's sunroof, where they met with President David Flynn, a brown-haired man of average build.
"What the heck is going on here!?" said President Flynn.
"Mr. President, you don't know either of us, but we're the guys who are gonna save the world from Robuttnik!" said Sonic.
Flynn touched his cheek with his index finger. "So you two know about Dr. Robotnik as well?"
"Know about him? We've whooped his ass three times! Even ask my man Tails!"
"Mr. President, we're not entirely sure what Robotnik is up to this time, but we know that a hedgehog named Shadow tried to frame Sonic and get him arrested by the military!" said Tails.
"Shadow?" Flynn dropped his jaw. "No…you…you can't be referring to Project Shadow!"
"Project Shadow?" said Sonic and Tails.
"It was a top-secret research project carried out on the Space Colony ARK by a scientist named Professor Gerald Robotnik, grandfather of Ivo Robotnik. Our government shut it down because it was deemed too dangerous to be allowed to exist."
Sonic scratched his cheek. "So, Robuttnik had a famous grandpa, huh? Guess bad minds think alike. Any chance he found his way back to this Space Colony ARK?"
Flynn nodded. "One of our agents managed to locate Robotnik and follow him to the ARK along with Shadow. Her plan was to use a few of the Chaos Emeralds as bargaining chips to get in the Doctor's good graces so she could gain further intel regarding his plans."
"How do you suppose he got onto the ARK?" asked Tails.
"Our agent's last known location was at one of the Great Pyramids of Mazuri," said Flynn. "Odds are, Robotnik is using this as a base of operations."
"Then I know just who to call!" Sonic activated his watch communicator. "Knux, come in!"
"What's up, Sonic?"
"Ya make any progress on that bat you were talkin' about?"
"I did. I followed her and Robotnik to one of the Great Pyramids of Mazuri. They took off in a space shuttle."
"Ya still there?"
"I am."
"Then just hold on tight to your dreams! Tails and I are gettin' over there ASAP!"
"Right! Knuckles out."
Sonic turned to Flynn. "If you'll excuse us, Mr. President, Tails and I got some space travellin' to do!"
"Very well. God speed, Sonic the Hedgehog!"
Sonic and Tails hopped out of Flynn's limo, unaware that a mysterious presence was watching them…
"So, those two managed to meet with the President, huh?" said an unknown female voice. "Looks like this game got a whole lot more interesting!"
Criticism is gold. Negativity and nitpicking are pyrite.