Merlene the Hedgehog, Sonic's older sister

by 24airgoodrosa

Two hedgehog siblings have been living on Earth for years until a recent accidental in baseball game. Follow Sonic and his sister, Merlene as they travel along some crazy adventures that will change everything. Especially, when they meet their favorite people, Tom and Maddie. Will they have to leave the planet after they were discovered, or stay here on Earth? Let's find out!

「 General Information 」

Full name

{Merlene Amanda Nightingale}

Nicknames

{Anna, Mandy (by Sonic) Lady Falcon/Lena (by Knuckles), Gale (by Tails), Marlene (by herself)}

Age & birthday

{15/16}

{November 16th, 2004}

Gender

{female}

Sexuality

{straight}

Zodiac Sign

{Scorpios}

Place of birth

{South island, Mobius}

Language

{french, german, irish}

Accent

{Standard american (native accent), new york brooklyn (secondary accent)}

Animal

{hedgehog}

Power{s}

{Animal speedster physiology, electrically enhanced speed, hyper-speed changing, magic, magical telekinesis}

「 Body 」

body build

{mesomorph}

Height & Weight

{ 3'

62 lbs. }

color{s}

{fur: neon blue,

Hair: golden blonde}

Length

{mid-back}

Eye color & shape

{eyes: emerald-kelly green,

Eye shape: round}

Nose & Mouth

{Nose: black}

{Mouth: peach}

Prominent feature

{light freckles}

「 Personality 」

Positive traits

{affectionate, adaptable, cheerful, easy-going, artistic}

Good habits

{discover new places, be more creative, read and write more}

Acts towards family

{sweet, kind, loyal}

Acts towards friends

{sweet, kind, caring, loyal}

Acts towards lover

{sweet, kind, caring, loyal, loving, fun-loving}

「 This or that 」

Extrovert or Introvert?

{ambivert}

Timid or Confident?

{both}

Love or lust?

{love}

Reckless or cautious?

{both, mostly cautious}

Messy or Clean?

{clean}

「 Family 」

Parents

{longclaw the owl (not alive), Tom and Maddie (alive)}

Siblings

{Sonic the hedgehog, Miles "Tails" Prower}

Older brother

{Knuckles the echidna}

「Fighting 」

Acts when fighting

{confident, determine, anger}

「 Dreams & Fears 」

Fears

{losing her friend, Robotnik}

Likes

{friendship, family, sonic}

Dislikes

{broken friendship, losing family, losing sonic}

「Relationship」

Status

{Dating}

「Backstory」

Be specific!

{Merlene don't have any parents. Merlene was found by Longclaw the owl and was raised along with Sonic, her friend and younger brother. She escapes to earth with Sonic to be safe. 10 years later, Sonic is now 13-14 years old and Merlene is now 15 years old. Merlene is like Sonic's friend and older sister. Sonic is like Merlene's friend and younger brother.}

~ Prologue ~

On the day in the city of San Francisco, and three blazing specks of light dash all over the place as one shoots lasers at the other two. An enemy aircraft flying throughout while it's chasing the blue hedgehog and neon blue hedgehog, who are running from the pursuer, Dr. Robotnik, who's in his craft, as the two hedgehogs flee. The scene freezes after an explosion with Sonic and Merlene barely missing it.

"So, I know what you're thinking." Sonic Narrated.

"Why are those two awesome hedgehogs being chased by a madman with a mustache from the Civil War?" Merlene narrated.

The scene unfreezes and Sonic and Merlene continues running and dodging laser blasts from Dr. Robotnik.

"Well, to be honest, it feels like we've been running our whole lives."

"Yep."

"Is this too much? Are we going too fast? It's kind of what we do–well, mostly me–You know what? Let's back up."

The Whole chase going in reverse as well as frames of future clips for a split second each time one passes as Sonic mimics a rewind sound effect.

A green hill came into view and there.

A younger-looking Sonic zipping through the terrain and land of south island.

"This is the island where we're from. It had everything. Sandy beaches, cascading waterfalls, public access to loop-de-loops. And I never had to catch a school bus because I could run across the entire island in less than two seconds. Also, there was no school. I know, pretty sweet island, right?"

Young Sonic runs across a ramp and shoots up into the air.

"Yeah!"

Young Sonic lands back on the ground and continues zipping through his island.

"I was born with extraordinary powers and was told to keep them secret. And like any kid, I did the exact opposite."

Young Sonic runs up some bridges to a small house. He curls into a ball, rolls into the house, jumps up, and playfully bumps Longclaw while she is sleeping, causing her to wake up.

"That's Longclaw. She took care of us."

Young Sonic lands on the ground, now out of ball form, and he is laughing happily.

"She was basically Obi-Wan Kenobi. If Obi-Wan kenobi had a beak and ate mice."

"Sonic, someone could have seen you." Longclaw lightly scolded.

"No one saw me. I'm too fast!" Young Sonic shrugged off.

Suddenly, he was pinned to the ground, making him yelp in surprise. He looked up to see Young Merlene giggling down at him.

"Gotcha, Bro!"

"Hey! No fair! You always catch me by surprise!"

"You may be fast, but not fast enough to get a quick sense that I sneak attacked you!"

"Hmph!"

Young Merlene got off of him with a smile, placing a hand on her hip.

"That's my older sister. She's basically a most skillful and creative one and always follows Longclaw's rules. She can even make a flower curved sculpture at such a young age."

"At least, I know how to be aware of myself and the surroundings."

"Touche."

Young Sonic took a quick notice of Young Merlene's emerald necklace around her neck.

"Almost forgot to mention, my sister was born with the same speed power as me, and with the gift of magic and magical telekinesis. She has a magical amulet that grants her power of precognition, and wouldn't tell me or longclaw where she get it. Very mysterious she is."

"I'd rather like to keep it that way."

"Longclaw is right, though. You should be careful on how you run. It wouldn't take a matter of second for anyone to notice you." Young Merlene said with a frown.

"Relax, sis. Everything is good. And, I wanted to bring you two this."

Young Sonic pulls out a sunflower and peony, he picked from the outside, which makes Longclaw and Merlene happy. Longclaw notices a tribe of echidnas in the trees, aiming their weapons at the trio. She then shuts the door and grabs Sonic and Merlene to protect them.

"Get down!"

The echidnas fire their arrows from their bows and they hit almost every corner of longclaw's house, with one arrow breaking the window, barely missing longclaw, and passing through Sonic's flowers, pinning them to the wood floor.

"Turns out with great power, comes great power-hungry bad guys. And I led them right to us."

"And you should've just listen…"

The echidnas climb through the windows and prepare to attack, but Longclaw, Merlene, and Sonic escape through the back window as the echidnas continue firing arrows at them. Eventually, the leader of the tribe, Pachacamas, fires his arrow and it strikes longclaw, knocking her, Merlene, and Sonicout of the sky and sending them plummeting to the ground. A wounded Longclaw gets up and puts a very concerned Sonic and Merlene on their feet and they look up at her.

"Listen carefully, Sonic and Merlene. You two have powers unlike anything I have ever seen. And that means someone will always want it. Take care of each other and never leave each other's side. The only way to stay safe is to stay hidden."

Longclaw takes a ring from her satchel and tosses it, which opens a portal to another location.

"This world is on the far side of the universe. You should be safe there."

"I don't want to go without you!" Young Sonic said in protest.

"Please! Let's all go together!" Young Merlene pleaded.

"You must."

Longclaw hands Sonic her satchel of rings.

"These rings will be your most important possession."

Longclaw gasps as she hears the echidna tribe getting closer, then she looks back down at Sonic and Merlene.

"If you're ever discovered, use one."

Gently pushes Sonic and Merlene closer to the portal with her wing.

"Never stop running. Now go!"

Sonic and Merlene runs through the portal and looks back, horrified, as Longclaw prepares for attack, and they start running back.

"Longclaw!" They shouted.

Longclaw looks back at Sonic and Merlene, one last time as the echidnas get even closer.

"Goodbye, Sonic and Merlene."

"No!"

Before Sonic and Merlene can get back to Longclaw, the portal disappears.

"Noo!"

Sonic and Merlene now realizes that they're by themselves and must do what Longclaw instructed. Merlene sniffs and gently takes Sonic's hand as they began to leave while picking up the satchel of rings.

~ Chapter 1: Green Hills ~

10 years later…

Behind a welcome sign, we see a Green Hills Sheriff's Department Ford Crown Victoria Police Interceptor patrol car sitting idly by the road and a police officer named Tom Wachowski is holding a speed velocity gun, trying to find speeding drivers passing through, but none are in sight.

"Come on, one car?"

Tom shakes his hand a little from holding the radar gun for too long, and he starts messing around after boredom kicks in, acting like he's actually trying to catch speeding drivers, only to have the side of his face smacked against the radar gun. Finally, Tom puts it aside.

"I'm bored!"

Suddenly, Tom hears his radio and Wade Whipple is on the other end.

"Tom, do you read me? Are you there?"

Tom grabs the microphone and answers back in a joking manner.

"No, Wade, I'm actually on a yacht in Barbados. …With Rihanna."

"O-M-G. That's amazing. Please send pics."

"No, Wade. I'm at the speed trap."

"Already? How did you get back so fast? Barbados is in the ocean!"

"Hang on, I think I got something."

Tom takes his radar gun and aim it at a slow-moving turtle, and the device beeps and shows the target speed of the turtle is 001.

"Hey, buddy! Where's the fire? Got kids living around here!"

The turtle doesn't take much notice as it continues strolling along the road. Tom smiles.

"I thought it was kinda funny. Sorry."

Tom takes his glasses off just as a speeding speck of light passes his patrol car and his radar gun beeps, indicating that the target speed is now 296.

"What?"

Tom checks the radar gun and the road in front of him, only to see nothing, and the blue speck of light speeds by again, setting off Tom's radar gun and showing him the target speed of 300 this time. As Tom fidgets with the radar gun, he doesn't notice a playful Sonic making gestures behind the portal car and this time, Merlene shows up. She looks upset and unamused as she pulled Sonic away by the ear, urging him to get out now before Tom could see them. Tom departs his vehicle and walks along the road, pondering the situation, He then walks over to the grass, noticing something blue and neon blue. He kneels down, picks them up and inspects them. We later learn that it is actually one of Sonic and Merlene's quills. Then, Tom hears Wade on the radio, sounding serious.

"Tom, we need you down on Main Street. There's been a violent gang shoot-out."

As Tom leaves in his patrol car, with his red and blue emergency lights blazing, Wade laughs.

"Just kidding. A duck stole a bagel. But they do need it back."

The turtle from similar is seen still slowly strolling across the road and doesn't seem to notice an oncoming truck approaching. Just then, a blue speck of light speeds past and the turtle is now gone. We see that it was actually Sonic and that he saved the turtle.

"Whoa, buddy! You almost got yourself killed out there. What are you, some kind of adrenaline junkie?"

He gently pats the turtle's head with his finger.

"It must be rough being slow all the time. Tell you what. Today is your lucky day. You coming with, Sis?"

There next to him is Merlene as she's dressed up in her dark violet sleeveless shirt and cherry blossom pink knee-length circular skirt with teal wrist cuffed white gloves, mint green headband on her head with celeste hair band around her golden blonde into a braided ponytail, and her royal purple, navy blue, and light turquoise boots.

"Sure, I may be fast as you."

"Don't stop me now" by Queen plays as Sonic runs at full speed down the road with the turtle in his hands, and the turtle looks like it is enjoying the ride. Not too far behind him is Merlene running.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo! Have you ever felt so alive?!"

Sonic does an airplane impression with the turtle in one hand.

"This is great! You're doing amazing!"

The turtle flies out of his hand.

"Ah!" Merlene yelp in shock and fear to see the turtle gone.

"Oh, geez!"

Sonic runs to retrieve the turtle and runs back.

"Good recovery!"

Sonic speeds through the foothills.

"Whoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!"

Merlene speed up faster. In the woods, Sonic sets the shaking turtle down on the ground after their run. Merlene frowns to see it scared and gently pats its shell to calm it down.

"Let's keep this our little secret, okay? You never saw us. We were never here."

Merlene shook her head with a smile and looked down at the turtle.

"See you, little turtle."

Before she runs off to catch with her younger brother. "Don't Stop Me Now" continues as Sonic speeds through the woods and into his new home in the trunk of a tree and he's having a real blast, mimicking a singer, doing calisthenics, playing guitar, and jumping rope. Merlene comes back and chuckles at the sight and goes to her area where her bed is along with some things she likes. It's not as cool as Sonic's, but it's still good.

"So what did you expect?" Merlene narrated as Sonic is swinging on a tire swing.

"Two dirty little hedgehogs eating berries and struggling to survive? Think again." Sonic narrated.

Reading comic books of the Flash by Sonic while Merlene is reading the chapter book titled "What Remains: A Memoir of Fate, Friendship, and Love" by Carole Radziwill she enjoyed reading. It really moved her.

"Because we are living our best life on Earth. We've got a library,"

Sonic runs inside a dryer like a hamster on a wheel with Merlene doing push-ups and weight lifting.

"Home gym,"

Sonic wearing a ninja headband and brandishes two pairs of nunchucks.

"And a state-of-the art security system."

Sonic waves the nunchucks around until he hits himself.

"A little state-of art security system…" Merlene deadpanned as herself is practicing her sword fight with two of her wooden katanas she crafted, swinging them gracefully.

Sonic then plays ping-pong and has until Longclaw's Ring satchel falls to the ground and several rings, as well as a piece of paper spill out.

"Oh, no!"

Sonic gathers the rings and puts them back with the help of Merlene and then takes a look at the paper, which is actually a map of planets.

"And if we're ever discovered, we'll follow Longclaw's instructions and use these rings to escape to a new planet."

Sonic holds up a Ring to the Map.

"A nice, safe world filled only with mushrooms."

Sonic tosses the ring and it opens up a portal to the Mushroom Planet.

"Gross, smelly mushroom."

"Bleh!"

Sonic now looks annoyed while Merlene covers her nose at the stench.

"I hate mushrooms."

"Ditto…"

Sonic and Merlene reaches a ledge overlooking Green Hills and looks out at the beautiful landscape.

"But let's not worry about all that! This is Green Hills, the greatest place on Earth."

Sonic takes his sister by the hand and then speeds off to the city.

"These are our people, and, dare I say, we are their loveable space creatures."

They stand on top of a building, watching everything, well Sonic mostly watching while Merlene is observing places she wishes to go inside…

"So what if they don't know we exist?"

Tom is then seen holding a donut and then eats it.

"My favorite person is the Donut Lord, protector of this town and defender of all creatures, big and small."

A family of ducks crossing the road and Tom is halting traffic in order to let the ducks cross and he also talks to them.

"Morning! Donald, Daisy, Daffy."

At Wachowski residence, Maddie Wachowski is seen walking to her backyard with a laptop.

"My favorite person of course is Maddie. She's kind and lovable person and cares for animals in need." Merlene narrated.

"Yep. Donut Lord lives with Pretzel lady.

Maddie is practicing yoga.

"Like my sis said. She is super nice to animals and strangely was born without bones."

"I'm pretty sure she's more of a flexible one as people say. And this is pretty nice to relax."

Sonic is watching from behind some bushes and trying to replicate Maddie's poses.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch."

Merlene though is in ease as she easily replicate Maddie's poses without any problems. This made Sonic give his sister a pout.

"Show off…"

Then goes Crazy Carl, holding a crudely drawn pictures of Sonic and Merlene in front of some people and they are laughing hysterically.

"There is one person in town who's actually onto us. He calls me the Blue Devil!"

"And he calls me the neon blue angel since I always help him out of his own traps after many failed attempt to capture us."

"I almost caught them last night." he said to Tom, who just nods, not believing him.

Flashbacks to where Crazy Carl has traps set up all over the place in th forest at night.

"Say hello to Crazy Carl."

Sonic zips by the raps, setting them off, and not one of them catches him. Crazy Carl grows frantic.

"We have fun together."

"You and Crazy Carl had fun together. I'm just worried for that old man."

Crazy Carl ends up getting caught in one of his own traps and is now hanging upside down from a tree.

"I know you're out there! And I know you're real!"

"No, we're not!" Sonic faintly replied back in the distance before laughing at himself.

Merlene in the shadows sighed in dismay and pulled out the fuchsia magical blade she activates from her emerald necklace and threw it at the rope that hang Crazy Carl. It went loose and he falls to the ground with a grunt.

"Thank you, Neon blue Angel!"

"You're welcome!" she said before disappearing.

At night in Wachowski residence interior, Tom and Maddie are sitting on the couch with their dog, Ozzy, eating popcorn and watching a movie.

"Movie night is my favorite."

"Same for me. Though… I prefer something different than that…"

Sonic slowly rises from behind the window and has his fingers crossed and his eyes closed. Merlene comes up next to him, hoping for something else.

"Please, please, please, please."

Sonic opens one eye and sees the movie's title, "Speed," appear on the television. This made Merlene groan at that.

"Yes! Keanu! You are a national treasure."

"Whatever…"

Jack on TV is on the phone.

"When I find you–"

"Pop quiz, hotshot. There's a bomb on the bus." Howard Payne cuts him off.

"Pop quiz, hotshot."

Sonic makes a chef's kiss gesture.

"It's a classic line."

Merlene rolls her eyes at that.

"Basically, we're like a family. Even though we haven't met yet."

In the Psychiatrist's office, Sonic acts as a psychiatrist, speaking in a german accent, wearing glasses, and holding a clipboard and pencil. Merlene is sitting in the chair as a patient as she listens to Sonic's problem.

"You don't zink your prolonged isolation is making you a bit crazy, perhaps?"

"Crazy? Me? No way, Doc. You got me all wrong."

Sonic plays the role of the psychiatrist again as he takes off his glasses.

"And despite all these so-called friends of yours, deep down, you're still rather lonely?" he asked in his normal voice at the end of his sentence.

As Sonic and Merlene leaves for the night, he takes one last look through the window and smiles a little from seeing the Wachowskis enjoy their movie.

"Perhaps afraid you'll be alone forever?"

"He's right though… Sometimes I wish we never stay hidden and live as normal people would do. Living a life without any problem coming their way…"

Sonic frowns and departs as Merlene follows after him, patting his back in comfort.

The next morning, Sonic woke up to find his sister gone. Odd. He wonders where she always gone off too. Everytime she comes back to the cave, she always brings cool stuff she likes that gives her good tastes in things. Like a stack of books, journal, even some music notes he noticed. She also always bring food for herself and Sonic. Girls can be complicated for him to understand.

Meanwhile, Merlene is dressed up in her candy apple red jacket in her banana and apple green pants along with her rose and neon pink shoes as the hood covers her hair, ears, and face where no one will ever see her true form. She goes up to where some homeless people would go and stop there. She brought out her case and opened it to reveal an electric blue guitar.

It was gifted by the man, who doesn't know her identity. His man was Hugh Laurie. She had seen him play that guitar at one time and she was so amazed at his performance that he immediately noticed her and asked her to show him what she got. And she did as she had perfected her guitar skills she had played when was a kid. That's when he saw true potential and let her keep the guitar. Merlene tried to decline his offer, but he insisted and had many other guitars to play.

That's what inspired her to play the music for the world to listen, even if they don't know who she is. She even managed to save money for the living for herself and her brother to stay alive and keep healthy. Right now, she takes out the guitar, turns it on, and gets into her position. She lightly pushes the opened guitar suitcase for the people who are walking past by to place their money in here. Merlene looks around and takes a deep breath before playing the song that she loves to listen to.

Everyone, who're walking by, stops and sees her playing. Some recognize that song and goes there to listen as they were intrigued. One by one, they began to place their money in her suitcase. Merlene doesn't stop there as she keeps playing through all her heart. She loves playing music as she felt calm and in peace. Her emerald necklace began to glow a little from her playing the song. Once she was finished, she did an amazing dramatic bow. Everyone claps and cheers loudly at the amazing show she did. Merlene thanks them for enjoying it and takes her leave as soon as she grabs stuff along with money filled suitcase.

It felt great to have everyone listen to her performance. She wishes to reveal herself, but it will put herself and her brother in danger. Merlene looks to see the sign of the store where foods are stored and goes inside. After she was shopping, she heads back into the woods. She walks there for a while until she stops and looks around to see if anyone is watching before she presses something her brother never know. She holds her grocery bags tight, getting into her position and then speeds off. Merlene zooms through the forest with a cheer, getting a hang of this. She could see everything as she zooms past by the deers, squirrels, etc. Then she stops near the highest edge of the cliff as she takes in the view of Green Hills.

"This is great…"

She looks down at the grocery bags to see the foods are still okay. She looks down at the emerald necklace again as she had a thought for a moment before she places the bags down. Merlene takes a deep breath, mumbling some words, and suddenly, her eyes turned fuchsia. All of her surroundings are gone as everything changed to reveal the empty room full of galaxies.

"Whoa…"

She takes a look at everything in awe. Until her eyes landed on something bright. She slowly walks towards it as she stood face to face to the giant green diamond.

"What?"

Merlene slowly reaches her hand out, curious about his gem. Once she touches it, her body began to glow fuchsia as the room around her brightened up. She blinks with a gasp as her eyes are back to normal and looks around to find herself back in the Green Hill. Merlene felt something tingly and look down to see her hands covered with fuchsia as they swirl around her and the they disappeared.

"...What was that?

She was speechless. Without a word, she picks up the grocery bags and heads back to the cave, knowing she'll have to explain her brother about where she had been gone off to all this time.

~ Chapter 2: Baseball Accident ~

At Baseball diamond, Sonic and Merlene are peeking from behind a tree, watching a baseball game.

"Whoa, the playoffs!" he gasped.

He grabs his sister by the hand again and speeds over to the bleachers to watch the game up close and the players congratulating each other. Later on, everyone packs up and heads for home, leaving the baseball diamond completely empty. Sonic and Merlene are now on the baseball diamond, admiring the beauty of it all.

"Whoa. So cool."

"I know."

Sonic spots some baseball equipment and he plays the role of a batter at home plate.

Merlene notices it.

"Mind if I play too?"

"Sure. You can be the pitcher. You're good at throwing."

Merlene grins and gets to her place as Sonic does the introduction while role-playing other things.

"Bottom of the ninth, tie score. And exactly who you want at the plate with the game on the line–Sonic!"

Sonic gestures to Merlene doing the role of the pitcher for the opposing team.

"But staring him down from the pitcher's mound is the most fearsome southpaw in Green hills–Merlene! She's dangerous I tell you!"

Merlene giggles as Sonic mumbles to himself as a batter.

"Okay. Focus, Sonic. If you win this game, You'll be the most beloved kid in Green Hills."

Sonic now plays the role of an infielder, Sonic does a secret code with his fingers, straightens his cap, slaps his face a few times, does a couple of armpit farts, flaps his hands and cups them against his mouth.

"Hit it to the guy in left! He's a real space case."

Sonic playing the role of the left outfielder, Sonic blows a bubble of gum.

"Ugh, I can't with that guy. How am I related to him?..." Merlene rolled her eyes playfully.

Sonic plays the role of the umpire.

"Hey, batter Sonic. Hey, batter Sonic. "Suh-wing," batter Sonic."

As the pitcher, Merlene throws the ball after getting a signal from Sonic who went back to the batter position as the ball makes its way towards home plate and he hits the ball high. As the outfielder, he smells a flower in the grass and sees the ball.

"I got it, I got it, I got it!"

Sonic tries to catch the ball but is unsuccessful.

"I don't got it."

As the batter, Sonic runs to first base and rounds second while he throws the ball as the outfielder and he dodges the ball in slow motion as the batter and he comes up to third base and plays the role of a teammate.

"Go home! Go home!"

Sonic rounds third base and he plays the umpire again.

"Come on!"

Sonic jumps up and makes a dive for home plate, the umpire catches the ball and he makes it.

"Safe!" Merlene shouted.

Sonic slides to a stop and jumps with joy.

"Ah, yes! Yes, yes, yes! I did it! Did you see that? I did it! I did it."

"Yeah, you did!"

Sonic holds up his hand, and Merlene gives him a high-five. He smiles and goes to the other, but sees no one else as the baseball diamond is completely empty and silent.

"We really are alone. All alone… forever."

"Sonic…" Merlene tried to cheer him up.

"L-Leave me alone. I'll deal."

Sonic whips off the batter helmet and starts running around the perimeter of the baseball diamond at a very fast speed, his anger and sadness increasing and energy building with each lap.

"Sonic? Sonic. Sonic! I think you need to stop! Your power is unbearable for you to control!"

Finally, Sonic lets out a loud yell as a bright blue electromagnetic pulse explodes in the air, causing the lights in the baseball diamond to explode and spreading throughout the entire Pacific Northwest, causing lights everywhere to shut off, and een disabling a satellite in space. This left Merlene in shock at what her brother had done.

"I'm sure no one noticed that giant blue explosion, right?" Sonic smiled nervously.

Merlene immediately smacked him hard in the back of his head.

"Ow!"

"Let's just get out of here!"

Sonic nods and grabs her by the hand and speeds away with her.

At the Police Station Interior, the police station's phone is ringing like crazy and Wade is staring at the machine in terror, and he dials Tom. Tom notices Wade on the Caller ID even in the dark and answers.

"Hey, Wade."

"Hi, Tom. Wade here. What is going on?"

"Well, gosh, I think the power's out."

"Yeah, no dur! The lights are out. The whole town is freaking out. What should I do?"

"Okay, relax. Take a deep breath, Call Gil, see if they can locate the downed line, then call Zim and see if he can get his generator over to the Super Q so the food stays fresh."

Tom notices something blue glowing in the dark.

"Call Zim before Gil? Call Gil–Hello?!"

"I'll call you back."

"Wait, no, no! Wait! Hello? Was that the end of the instructions?

Wade sets his cell phone down after Tom hangs up on him.

"Okay, all right. You can do this. What was the first thing he said to do? Right. Relax."

In Wachowski residence, Tom moves an object aside and sees Sonic's and Merlene's quills glowing bright blue and neon blue in the dark and picks them up and inspects them once more.

THe military has set up a detachment at the baseball diamond and a large black truck slowly pulls in, catching the attention of Major Bennington.

"What the…"

A fold-out staircase opens and sets up as Dr. Robotnik steps out of the truck, wearing heavy sunglasses and an all black suit with red trims on the inside, and he makes his way over to Bennington along with his assistant, Agent Stone. Robotnik approaches the major and takes glasses off as the major warily puts a hand on his sidearm holster in case he needs it.

"Are you in charge here?"

"Yes, I am–"

"Nope!"

"My—"

"Wrong!"

"Name–"

"I'm in charge!"

"Is Major–"

"Me!"

"Ben–"

"I'm in charge."

Dr. Robotnik shows Bennington his badge that is being held by Agent Stone.

"You've never seen anything like this before. It says I'm the top banana in a world full of hungry little monkeys."

He points upward.

"Allows me to clarify."

Dr. Robotnik turns his head to the side while making a servo noise.

"In a sequentially ranked hierarchy based on a level of critical importance, the disparity between us is too vast to quantify. Agent Stone? He said and walked away.

"The doctor thinks you're basic." Agent Stone pointed out.

"I'm initiating a sweep sequence."

Dr. Robotnik presses some buttons on his glove control panel.

"Ten miles in every direction should suffice."

On the top of Robotnik's truck, his flying drones prepare to be dispatched.

"Is he still looking at me funny?

"Yes, he is." Agent Stone replied.

"Tell him to stop or I'll pull up his search history."

"If you don't stop looking at the doctor, he'll take a closer look–"

"I'm not deaf." Major Bennington said through his gritted teeth.

"And tell him his men report to me now. Blah blah blah… blah blah blah… blah blah blah."

"Excuse me? Listen, pal, I don't know if you realize–"

Dr. Robotnik turns to Major Bennington with a look of "I don't give a sh*t."

"I'm sorry, Major. What was your name?"

"Benning–"

"Nobody cares! Nobody cares. Listen, Major Nobody-cares. You know why nobody cares who you are? Because nobody cares about your feeble accomplishments."

He walks up to Bennington and walks around him.

"And nobody cares how proud your mommy is that you're now reading at a third-grade level. Have you finished Charlotte's Web yet? Spoiler alert: she dies in the end. And she leaves a big creepy egg sac."

Dr. Robotnik then sees his drones flying around.

"Ah, my babies! Ohh! Look at what came out of my egg sack! You know what I love about machines?"

He turns to face the drones.

"They do what they're told, they follow their programming! They don't need time off to get DRUUNK and put the boat in the water!

He turns back to face everyone, pointing at Bennington.

"Now, you do what you're told. Stand over there on the edge of your personal abyss… and watch my machines do your job."

A disgruntled Bennington walks away and Agent Stone turns to face Robotnik.

"Can you feel it, Stone?"

"I can feel it, Doctor."

"It's evolution, Stone."

Dr. Robotnik pressing buttons on his gloves, and clenched his fists.

"It's evolution!"

The drones fly off into the distance.

In the woods, the flying drones spread out in the woods and one scans a nearby rock and finds two shoe separate prints on it. Back at his truck, Dr. Robotnik is watching and controlling the operation on a giant holographic screen and Agent Stone enters.

"Agent Stone?"

"Doctor."

"Do you see anything useful in this image?"

Robotnik shows Agent Stone the image of a two separate shoe prints.

"Nothing at all, Doctor."

"Of course you don't. Your eyes weren't expertly trained to spot tracks by the Native American Shadow Wolves."

Robotnik presses some buttons on the control panel and scoots back a little as the image now shows what looks like an unusual foot for the two of them…

"That's extraordinary." Agent Stone said in amazement.

"No. What's extraordinary is I've determined the exact height, weight, and spinal curvature of these creatures, and my computers can't find a single match for it anywhere in Earth's animal kingdom. This blackout was not a terrorist attack, and that's no baby bigfoot. These guys are something else… entirely. Divert all search units to the sight of the footprints. That's one small step for man and woman, one giant leap for me."

Back in the woods, the military and the drones are searching the area while Sonic and Merlene watches from a distance.

"Way to go, Sonic! Now those people are tracking us! Merlene whispered loudly in anger.

"I know. Okay, Okay. Everything is fine. You played some baseball, got a little upset, lighting shot out of your butt, and now they're coming for us!"

"No kidding, Sherlock!"

Sonic grabs her and speeds back to their tree trunk home.

"All right, all right. Earth isn't safe anymore. Time for Plan B–Mushroomville. But i gotta take my stuff. Okay, essential items only. Pack up, sis."

"Already on it."

Sonic zips around while packing while Merlene rapidly shoves some things that are important to her in her cool big new backpack she brought. Her most important items were money (just in case), books, journal, music notes, hooded jackets, blanket, wooden action figures she sculpted, weapon (her two wooden katanas), Sanemi Shinazugawa plushie, and lastly, her guitar case where her electric blue guitar is placed in.

"Okay, toothbrush, toothpaste, hair gel, night-light. Funny hat. This half-eaten cantaloupe. Oh, my scented candle. My entire comic book collection. Beanbag chair. Can a beanbag chair fit in a backpack?"

"Really? Your backpack is literally too small to fit that! Plus, mine is bigger than yours. You could've gotten one like mine."

"Whatever! And you're right! Of course not. That's stupid. Okay, what else? The rings! The rings, yes, of course!"

Sonic wears a red backpack and holds the Ring satchel as Merlene wears her big backpack without any problems and holds her guitar case.

"Here we go. Ring time. Mushroom Planet, here we come."

As Sonic is about to toss the ring, they see the drones flying overhead.

"Oh, no! They're right outside! We gotta go somewhere else."

"Right!"

They take one last look at their home.

"Goodbye, cave."

Then they walk out.

In Wachowski residence, Tom's phone ring while he is marking things down on a map and he sees it is Maddie who's calling and he answers.

"Hey!"

"Hey!" Maddie greeted back.

"Whatcha doing?"

"Just coloring with Jojo and Rachel."

"Ah, that sounds half fun. Hey, exciting stuff here. We had a power outage. The whole town went dark. It was like a sign telling me to get out of Dodge."

"Wade must have lost his mind." Maddie said in a knowing tone.

"Yeah. And he doesn't have much to lose. How's your sister? Did she convince you to leave me yet?"

"No, but she did tell me to check your phone for dating apps."

"The only apps on my phone are the ones that came with it. And the Olive Garden."

"Because when you're there…"

"You're family."

Tom suddenly hears a noise outside.

"No way."

He looks out the window to his garage.

"The raccoons are back. And they are in for a surprise."

Tom opens a drawer.

"Your surprise better not be my tranquilizer gun. They're just hungry. And also, that's for bears."

Tom grabs the tranq gun and cocks it.

"Good. Now I know it'll work."

"Tom!"

"I'm kidding. I'm just gonna use it to scare 'em. Possibly to death. Love you, honey. Bye!"

"Tom–"

Tom then hangs up and scoops a bit of cake on his finger and licks it before walking out to the garage.

Sonic and Merlene has now climbed through the window and is inside Tom's garage, leaving dirt all over the workbench.

"You call that stealth? Merlene deadpanned, but he ignored her.

"Okay, we're in."

Both of them gets down from the workbench and onto the floor.

"With minimal damage to Donut Lord's property."

Sonic reaches into the satchel and pulls out a Ring.

"Here we go. It didn't work out on Earth, but that's okay! We're going to a safe world. A nice, safe world filled with mushrooms–mushrooms that'll be our only friends. That sounds awful, I can't do this!"

"Sonic. I hate this idea as much as you do and I really wanted to stay here, but you have to do it. There's no other option. And we know this will happen one way or another…"

This made Sonic look and took a deep breath.

"Alright."

Sonic prepares to toss the ring when they hear the door to the garage barging open and sees Tom pointing the tranquilizer gun and a flashlight while looking around.

"SFPD, pending background check! Paws in the air!"

Tom points the gun and flashlights at a stunned Sonic and Merlene.

"Uh-oh…" Merlene gulped.

"Uh, meow?" Sonic mowed.

This causes Tom to scream loudly, which makes Sonic and Merlene scream as well, and Tom fires the tranq gun and a dart hits Sonic in his leg.

"Ow!"

"Sonic!" Merlene yelled in alarm.

As Sonic starts losing consciousness, he reads the words on Tom's shirt.

"San… Francisco?"

Sonic drops the Ring and it opens up a portal to the top of the Transamerica building in San Francisco in the middle of the floor and a bewildered Tom watches while Sonic stumbles to the ground and drops his ring satchel through the portal, which lands on the roof of the building. The portal begins to close.

"No…" Sonic groaned through his half consciousness.

"Oh, no!"

Merlene tried to go after the satchel that was dropped, but the portal is now closed, leaving an unconscious Sonic lying on the ground and Tom, still in shock at what he saw.

"What…?"

Suddenly, two wooden katanas were pointed at Tom at both sides of his neck in an "X" mark. He immediately puts his hands in the air instead and drops the tranq gun, seeing Merlene the one as she glare daggers at him. Tom could tell how sharp those swords are and praises her for that good work.

"Easy, easy. I'm not here to hurt you."

"Oh, really? After you seeing us and shooting my brother in the leg is the part of not hurting us?"

"...You're right. And I'm sorry. I'm just confused and scared on what the heck is going on…"

Merlene stared at him for a moment, thinking whether or not she could trust him. Glancing back at her unconscious brother to Tom, who's sweating nervously. Finally, she pulls her wooden blade away from his neck, much to his relief.

"Carry my brother and take us inside your house. We need your help."

~ Chapter 3: Escape ~

Sonic is now inside Ozzy's dog cage, much to Merlene's dismay and Tom gently pokes him with a spatula and moves his head a little. He then hols up Sonic's and Merlene's quill and makes an intriguing discovery.

"The blue devil and the neon blue angel."

"No, duh."

Tom walks to the counter and ponders what he should do, while Merlene walks over to the couch, placing her backpack and her guitar case down, and sits down. She waits and waits for her brother to wake up, not knowing how long that sleeping dart Tom shot with will last. She then sighs, feeling she needs to relax and knowing Sonic is strong. So she opens her case and pulls her guitar and turns it on as she tests it to make sure it's working before she begins to play.

Once she was done, she turns to see the speechless Tom.

"Wow… You play?"

"Well, yeah. You like it?"

"It's… amazing. It's fantastic. Aren't you that Dark Mysterious Angel everyone's been talking about?"

"A what?"

"You didn't know? You're on viral."

Tom showed her a few videos of Merlene herself candy red, banana, apple green, rose, and neon pink disguise playing guitar with the songs they know. They got some good comments about it.

"Wow… I… had no idea."

"Well, you are pretty famous."

"That's… nice to hear."

Just then, Sonic regains consciousness, opens the cage, and tries to stand up. Tom smiles at her and turns back to the cage, but is startled by Sonic.

"Sonic! You're okay!"

Merlene immediately goes over to her brother and hugs him whilst he tries to regains his conscious.

"Donut Lord?" Sonic groaned out.

"You can talk too. You're not… you're not here to abduct me, are you?" Tom said.

"Excuse me?" Merlene glared at him.

"You abducted ME! Sonic pointed out, looking offended.

"Okay, that's a fair point. What are you two? Why were you guys hiding out in my garage?"

"We needed somewhere safe. And you're the only person I could think of, Donut Lord." Sonic said.

"Why do you keep calling me Donut Lord?"

"Cause you talk to donuts and then eat them if they get out of line. Which is weird…" Merlene pointed out.

"Again, fair." Tom said, looking a little embarrassed.

Sonic looked around the house.

"Wait, wait, wait. Where are all the mushrooms? Why are we still on Earth? What is– Oh, no! I lost our Rings!"

"What?!"

Before Merlene could explain, Tom hears a vehicle approaching outside, which is Dr. Robotnik's truck.

"What's happening? Is this your mother ship? I'm not in the mood to get probed."

"You think you're worried? I'm not even wearing pants! Sonic sassed.

Tom looks out the window to see Robotnik's truck parked outside.

"What the…"

Sonic and Merlene looks out as well but yelps and covers the window with the curtains.

"They're coming for us!

"Who's coming for you two? What does that got to do with me? Tom questioned.

"We don't have time to explain, but you have to help us! Merlene pleaded.

"No, I don't! Why?"

"Well, my legs, which normally would be classified as lethal weapons, feel like spaghetti. We need your help. Please. It's life or death." Sonic said.

Tom looks at Sonic and Merlene, then back to the window, then he makes his decision.

"Fine. Come with me."

Tom walks out and Merlene follows after him while Sonic tries to walk, but instead faceplants on the floor after falling off a table.

"Uh, little help?"

Merlene sighs at this and pulls her brother by the leg and drags him through. They then made it to the attic.

"Alright, stay here. And be quiet."

Merlene nodded while Sonic smiled.

"Good plan. Great plan! We're already working so well together! Practically finishing each other's sentences."

Tom walks downstairs, closing the attic door on the way out.

"Okay, bye."

"Real smooth, bro.."

Standing in the doorway, Tom looks out and sees Robotnik on the walkway.

"Hello there! Can I help you?" Tom greeted.

Dr. Robotnik walks over to the steps.

"Good morning, my rural chum. I'm… from the power company, investigating the blackout. If you don't mind, I'd like to take a few readings inside your house?"

"No kidding! You're from the power company? You must know my buddy Spencer. We play softball together."

"Ah, Spence. He's a good man."

"Yeah. Come on in!"

"Great."

Robotnik trots up the steps and onto the porch before being stopped by Tom.

"Take all the readings you need. Except, doesn't the power company usually take their readings from outside the house? That way they can check them even if you're not home. Also, my buddy spencer works for the gas company, and he's more of an ultimate frisbee guy. So, you want to tell me why you think I'm dumb enough to just let you walk inside my house?"

Robotnik puts one hand behind his back and uses his glove controls to send out a couple of his drones to search the house.

"I'm sorry, Mister…"

"Wachowski. But everyone just calls me Tom. Except my dentist, he calls me Tim. But it's gone on for so long that it would be weird if I corrected him."

"Well, Tom Whose Dentist Calls Him Tim, you may have noticed that this entire town has been experiencing a power outage."

"Yep, no lights. Picked up on that."

"Twenty minutes ago, I tracked an energy pulse with a similar signature to the one that caused this disruption."

Some of Robotnik's drones fly into the house via the windows and even the chimney and one scans the attic while Sonic and Merlene watches and tries to stay out of sight.

"Listen, Mister–"

"Doctor. Dr. Robotnik. But my dentist calls me Rob."

"Look, uh, Dr. Robotskeez. Um, I'm sure what you're here for is very serious, but it's got nothing to do with me. You can ask anyone in town. Everyone knows me."

"I bet they do. I'm sure you're hella popular with the Jebs and the Merles and Billy Bobs in this glorified gas-station rest stop. Betcha go way back to the days of tippin' cows and playin' in a jug band!"

Robotnik imitates a jug band player.

"And maybe someday you'll achieve your goal of getting a Costco card or adopting a Labradoodle. But the reality is, I surpassed everything you're ever going to do… before I was a toddler. I was spitting out formulas while you were still spitting up formula."

"I was breastfed, actually."

"Nice. Rub that in my orphan face. Mr. Wachowski, are you familiar with US Code 904, Title 10, Article 104?"

"Yeah, who isn't–"

"Anyone who attempts to aid an enemy of the United States shall suffer death.' And if I'm the one who catches you, it'll be even worse."

"Worse than death?"

Back in the attic, Sonic and Merlene are curled up into a ball to blend in with the other sports balls to avoid detection.

"Okay, I'm a ball, just a normal ball. I'm blending in like a ball."

"Shh, stop talking." Merlene shushed.

"No, you stop talking." Sonic shushed back.

"Be quiet, Sonic!"

"YOU be quiet, Merlene! Oh, I hope they aren't scanning me with X-rays. I had a kind of an embarrassing lunch."

"Ugh… Gross…"

Another flying drone flies into the attic and starts scanning the area and they get closer to the blue and neon blue balls.

"Don't freak out. Don't freak out, don't freak out." Sonic chanted.

The lasers get even closer.

"Don't freak out, don't freak out."

Just before the scanners reach him, he panics.

"I'm freaking out!"

"Sonic! Don't!"

Sonic leaps out of his hiding spot and fumbles out of the attic and rolls down the stairs.

"Why don't you have your staircase carpeted?!"

Sonic rolls into the kitchen and bumps into the counter. Merlene rolls herself away from the lasers and gets out of the attic after uncurling herself and goes after Sonic.

"Compared to what I–"

Robotnik and Tom look for the source of the noise.

"Old pipes." Tom lied.

"Yeah. Probably just the house setting. Nothing to see here!"

Robotnik pushes past Tom and rushes inside to find the source of the noise with Tom behind him.

"Hey!"

Tom and Robotnik find a raccoon on top of the counter, chomping away at the cake.

"Here's the thing. I'm never wrong."

Tom pats Robotnik's shoulder.

"Well, first time for everything, I guess."

Tom walks over to the counter as the raccoon leaves through a doggie door.

"Would you like some cake? I hear raccoons have the cleanest mouths of any animal that routinely eats garbage."

Robotnik chuckles and gives Tom a chagrined look and turns away, only to find two of Sonic and Merlene's quill on the table, and he picks them up, a sinister smirk on his face.

"Look at that. I was right."

He waves his hand down his face.

"Note the lack of surprise."

Robotnik's face turns angry once again.

"Shall we try this again?"

Robotnik whistles to the tune of Richard Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" and an flying drone slowly approaches Tom while Sonic and Merlene are watching underneath the counter and the drone arms its weapons and aims them at Tom. Robotnik strokes two quills as he inches closer to Tom.

"I'm going to give you five seconds to tell me where it is. Five."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Four."

"Hey, tough guy. I'm a cop. And you're threatening an officer."

Tom brandishes his badge.

"How can you threaten somebody who never existed? Three. Come on! Rack your brain! You might be able to come up with some lame excuse to go on living, in two…"

Tom glances at the drone.

"One!"

Sonic and Merlene rushes from beneath the counter. Merlene pulls out two of her wooden katanas and glared at Robotnik.

"Stop right there!"

"Wait! Don't hurt him!"

"AAH!" Robotnik screamed at the sight of the two hedgehogs.

Tom punches Robotnik in the face, knocking him to the ground. A skirmish ensues inside the house with the flying drone firing its weapons everywhere, breaking objects and knocking some over while Tom, Merlene, and Sonic scramble for cover.

This feels excessive!"

Sonic notices the drone and gets an idea.

"Stay behind me."

"Uh, sir?"

Tom notices Sonic is no longer with him, but only Merlene, who points at something. He turns to see him rather, climbing on top of a shelf, preparing to commerce his attack. Tom and Merlene shakes their heads urgently but Sonic just nods and give them a smug look and Sonic jumps onto the drone.

"Hiyah!"

Sonic is now controlling the drone.

"Don't worry, I got it right where I want it!"

Tom and Merlene scrambles for cover while Sonic is having a blast.

"Can you believe Amazon is gonna deliver packages with these things?!"

The drone tries shaking Sonic off.

"This was a horrible plan! What was I thinking?!"

Tom sees Merlene brings cut her wooden katana, ready to strike as Sonic continues to fight the drone but is ultimately thrown off.

"I'm gonna puke!"

Merlene runs out of the cover, jumps over, and slashes the drone with one swing, destroying the machine. Tom then goes to Sonic and carries him out of the house as Merlene sheathes her katana from the back and quickly places guitar back in the case, closes it, and takes it with her and follows after Tom while Sonic is acting loopy from the fight.

"Come on! We gotta get out of here." Tom ordered.

"I know, I know!" Merlene shouted.

"Oh, don't tell me that's all you got! I'm just getting started! Let me know if you want to go round two with the blue!" Sonic said.

Tom puts Sonic in the passenger seat while Merlene sits in the back of where Sonic is sitting and gets into the truck, starts it, and drives away as quickly as possible, just as Agent Stone arrives and he walks inside the house and finds Robotnik on the floor.

"Doctor! Are you okay?"

Agent Stone helps Robotnik to his feet.

"I saw a guy race out of here and thought–"

"That you should stop them? Open your mouth and say you thought that you should stop them."

"No, I thought that maybe I should check to see if you were okay…!"

Robotnik grabs him by his lower jaw and pulls him close.

"You know what's hard about being the smartest person in the world?"

"Everyone else seems stupid."

"Stupid, yes! Way to go! You got that one."

He releases Agent Stone and wipes his gloves on Stone's coat.

"Whatever those creatures are, it's our job to secure them, neutralize them, uncover the source of their power. And if they resists… we take them apart… piece by piece."

Robotnik puts on his broken glasses.

"See what makes them tick. Stone?"

"Doctor?"

"Call Optical Illusions."

He takes off his glasses.

"Tell them I need new frames."

Then tosses his glasses to the floor.

"They know what kind I like."

Robotnik walks away but stops.

"Oh, and bring those two quills."

Then he finally walks out.

"Yes, Doctor."

Sonic, Merlene, and Tom are now riding on the open road in Tom's truck.

"Alright, pals, you two need to start talking right now. Who are you guys? WHAT are you?"

"We're the hedgehogs! I feel like that's obvious. And we're in big trouble." Sonic explained.

"Very big." Merlene added.

"Oh, you're in big trouble? You're not the one who punched some government weirdo back there." Tom sassed.

"You think you have problems? I lost the Rings!" Sonic sassed back.

"Rings? What are you talking about?"

"Okay, Rings are how all advanced cultures travel between worlds. And now ours are on top of a pointy building I've only ever seen on your skintight T-shirt!" Merlene explained with a hint of sass at the end.

This made Tom sound offended.

"Hey."

"So, we'd like you to take me and sis to San Francisco so I can get back the Rings and ue them to go to the Mushroom Planet."

"Mushroom Planet." Tom repeated..

"Yes!"

"Right."

Tom pulls over to the side of the road and opens the passenger side door.

"Okay, pals, out you go."

"Huh?" Merlene raised her eyebrow.

"I'm sorry, what?" Sonic questioned.

"Look, this is the worst possible time for me to get myself into trouble, okay? You asked me to save your life, I saved your life. Now, please, go find your Rings and your mushroom land. Hopefully, I'm gonna wake up in a hospital bed and the doctor's gonna tell me that my colonoscopy was a big success. Okay? So, goodbye."

"Fine…" Merlene sighed.

"Okay. Goodbye." Sonic sighed.

He and Merlene steps out of the truck.

"Goodbye." Tom said and noticed the hedgehog siblings are still standing next to the truck. "Why aren't you two leaving?"

"We don't know where San Francisco is." Sonic and Merlene said in unison.

"It's west." Tom started.

"West?"

"Straight shot, can't miss it."

"Fine. That's cool. We're totally cool saying goodbye now."

Sonic grabs his sister by the hand and speeds off in the direction Tom gave him, but he comes back to the truck, now soaking wet and covered in seaweed with a fish on his head while Merlene looks completely fin and all nice and dry, not knowing her emerald necklace has helped her keep her cry, but not her brother as she tried not to smile at how funny he looks.

"So, as we crashed into the cold, dark water of the pacific, I realized a few things. A, we have no idea where I'm going. B, salt water stings. C, we shouldn't even be on this planet right now, but we are! Why?! Because you shot me!" Sonic ranted.

"I know." Tom nodded, looking away.

"You shot my brother!" Merlene repeated for him.

"Alright, I heard you the first time. You don't have to.. pile it on. Good grief."

Sonic extends his thumb.

"I'm wet. She's not wet."

He extends his index finger.

"I'm cold. She's not cold, and she's all warm."

He then opens his hands.

"There's a fish on my head! And clearly, we're not going to be able to do this on our own. Well, my sister can…"

"Yep. I have to sadly babysit my bro. But he's right. We have no idea where we're going since we've been hiding for so long and you're the only who knows everything."

"Alright, get in the truck."

Sonic's face brightens while Merlene looks surprised.

"Really?"

He shakes himself off really quickly, puffing up his fur, making her snort.

"You're gonna help us?!"

"I guess it is a little bit my fault that all this is happening to you two." Tom said.

"No, not a little bit. Entirely. It is ENTIRELY your fault." Merlene pointed out with a glare.

"Okay, it's entirely my fault. Are you two coming?"

"Yes."

Sonic shakes himself off again, his fur going back to normal and he climbs back into the truck as Merlene sits in the back before he closes the door.

"Road trip! Whoop, whoop!"

"What am I doing?" Tom sighed, already regretting this.

"Doing the right thing. And maybe… things will change to say the least." Merlene stated with a smile.

~ Chapter 4: Bar Fight ~

Tom, Merlene, and Sonic are driving through the foothills, continuing their journey.

"Alright, there's gonna be rules on this trip. Number one, do exactly as I say all the time. Got it?" Tom said.

"Got it." Merlene nodded.

Sonic gives Tom a little salute with his fingers.

"Got it, Donut Lord."

"Would you stop with the 'Donut Lord'?! I have a name. It's Tom."

"I'm Sonic."

"And I'm Merlene."

"Sonic. Merlene. So you're been spying on us all these years?"

"I mean, I wouldn't call it "spying." We were all just hanging out, only we weren't invited and no one knew we were there." Sonic explained.

"It's most likely spying…" Merlene said in a deadpan tone.

"I can't believe Crazy Carl was right all this time!" Tom said in surprise.

"Yeah, you should call him Super Observant Carl instead." Sonic commented.

"Uh-huh."

"Oh, my god, stop the car right now!"

Sonic gets up and leans out the open window, alarming Tom and Merlene.

"What, what?! What?"

"What is it, bro?! Are we in danger?!"

Merlene was about to bring her weapon when they pass a billboard advertising the World's Largest Rubber Band Ball.

"The World's Largest Rubber Band Ball? We gotta see it!" Sonic suggested with excitement.

"Are you serious right now? Merlene exclaimed in disbelief.

"No, no. No, this isn't some fun family road trip, okay? The government wants to dissect you and your sister and arrest me. This is serious." Tom declined.

Sonic gives Tom a smug smile, speeds out of the truck and comes back in the blink of an eye with souvenirs like a baseball cap and some small rubber band balls.

"Eh, you're right. It was lame. Gift shop was cool, though!"

Sonic shows a mouse pad that reads "I Heart Rubber Band Balls" to Tom and Merlene.

"I got you a mouse pad. When are we gonna get there?"

Sonic holds up a paddle ball and plays with it at a very fast speed while looking at Tom with a playful smile.

"We will get there when we get there!"

Sonic continues playing with the paddle ball until Merlene has enough with that annoying batter and snatches the paddle ball away from her brother and snaps it in half, scaring Sonic and Tom.

"I'm never letting you shop any ridiculous things ever…" Merlene glared.

Tom, Merlene, and Sonic pull into a rest stop on the other side of town and the truck pulls up to a fueling station and Tom gets out of the truck and puts a hat on and walks to the other side of the truck.

"Alright, I'm gonna go check in with Wade, see if he knows what's going on." Tom said.

"You're gonna see Wade in that glass thing? What is it, a teleportation box?" Sonic questioned.

Tom looks behind him and back at Sonic and Merlene.

"It's a pay phone. It's mostly for drug dealers and fugitives from the law, which is us. Stay in the car. I don't want anybody seeing you two."

"Ugh, fine." Sonic groaned.

"Don't worry. We'll stay put." Merlene assured.

Tom walks to the pay phone and goes inside. Meanwhile, Sonic is horsing around in the truck, pretending like he is actually driving it and making engine noises, when he spots a large gathering of bikers off to the side and he gasps with wonder before ducking down behind the door. Merlene notices it and gives her brother a look.

"Okay, okay. That is the coolest place on Earth, but you have to stay in the car!"

"Sonic, I know you're excited, but you have to resist and be rational about this."

Sonic slowly peaks his head up to continue watching everything play out in front of him, and it causes him to hyperventilate, fogging up the glass on the window, which he wipes away to keep watching. He's still fighting his excitement by rocking back and forth in the driver's seat.

"Be strong, be strong!"

"Sonic…"

Not taking it anymore, Sonic spots a pair of sunglasses and gets an idea.

"Sonic, don't you dare…" Merlene warned.

"Come on, sis. Have some fun." Sonic pleaded.

"No."

"Plea–"

"No!"

"Pleaaaaasssseee!"

Sonic gives her the puppy eyes, making her groan in defeat.

"What am I going to do with you?"

Meanwhile, Tom is on the phone with Wade.

"Hello. Green Hills Police Department." Wade greeted.

"Wade, it's me." Tom said.

"Hi. I'm so glad that you called. Uh, so, some guys came in asking some questions. Uh, they're a little creepy."

Wade chuckles nervously.

"Kind of reminded me of, uh, the guys from Men in Black, but not as likable or, uh, charming as Will Smith."

"Wait, what kind of questions?"

"Um, questions about… terrorism? Heh, I told them that I've gone ice fishing with Tom. He doesn't know how to make a bomb! He can't even make bait in the cold!"

"Alright, Wade, listen to me. This is really important. Don't tell them that we talked, okay?"

In the Police Station, Wade looks up and sees Dr. Robotnik and Agent Stone staring him down.

"You know, I think they already know."

Dr. Robotnik grabs the phone from Wade.

"Mr. Wachowski."

Hearing his voice, Tom rolled his eyes.

"Ugh, Tom."

"I want you to know that the only person who ever punched me in the face was the school bully. He hit me in the cafeteria, causing a blunt-force contusion to the soft tissue surrounding my orbital bone. Humiliated me in front of the entire school! And you know what I did in response?"

"Uh, I'm assuming that you reported him to the principal's office 'cause, you know, that kind of behavior is really unacceptable." Tom guessed.

"No, I examined the inefficiency of a world where brawn trumped brain, and I used technology to resolve that efficiency. The boy ate his meals through a straw for a year. And I have never lost a fight… until today."

"Hey, hooray for me then, huh?"

"No, because you're about to become the bully with the straw! I'm coming for you, Mr. Wachowski. And when I catch you, I'll–"

Tom hangs up, not wanting to hear another word from him. He then comes back to the truck with a fast food meal.

"Okay, not exactly the healthiest meal, but…"

Notices Sonic and Merlene are no longer in the truck.

"Sonic? Merlene?"

Tom looks over to the biker bar and realizes Sonic and Merlene might be in there.

"No, no, no, no, no!"

Tom sets the meal down on the hood of the truck and rushes to the biker bar. He enters the biker bar, called the Piston Pit, and looks around for Sonic and Merlene, which he finally sees Sonic sitting at a table wearing a cowboy hat, sunglasses, and red shirt. Tom taps Sonic on the shoulder and he turns around, tipping his hat to Tom.

"Howdy, partner!"

"I'm not your partner. Come on. We're leaving. Where's your sister?"

Merlene, in her candy red, banana, apple green, rose, and neon pink outfit wearing a hood over her head, raises a hand to show Tom that she's here right next to Sonic.

"Right here. Sorry I couldn't stop my bro from coming here since he's too excited for his own good."

"But there's a ZZ Top cover band. You gotta see their beards." Sonic said, not wanting to leave just yet.

"You're gonna have to catch 'em some other time. Let's go! Get up!" Tom urged.

"If we stay, I promise I won't say another word for the rest of the trip, starting… now!"

Waitress walks over to Tom, Merlene, and Sonic.

"Welcome to the Piston Pit. What can I get you fellas?"

"Ooh! I want nachos and buffalo wings. Oh, and guac. Funny word isn't it? Guac, guac! Guuaaac! Sonic said with a laugh.

"Hey, no kids allowed in here. What's he got on, some kind of mak?" Waitress said.

Merlene mumbles to herself that she told him and should've gone with a better disguise to be more stealth. She brings her hood down to cover her face more and to ease down her embarrassment her brother brought to himself. Tom quickly explains with a made-up story.

"Oh! He's actually 43 years old and suffers from a very rare skin disease that stunts his growth and makes him look… like-like thar."

"The face, I was born with. The confidence, I picked up along the way." Sonic added.

The waitress smiles.

"Make his a Mello Yellow, please. And Merlene?"

Merlene silently shook her head.

"No thanks."

"Okay."

The waitress walks away as Tom sits down at the table.

"You owe me one."

"I never sat on a barstool before! So squishy! Oh, look at this, it spins!"

Sonic spins around on the barstool.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

"Yes. That's nice." Tom and Merlene said in unison.

"Whaa-ha-ha-ha!"

He then stops spinning.

"I feel sick."

"Are you having fun? Gonna check this off the ol' bucket list, huh? Big night for you." Tom said.

"What's a bucket list?" Merlene asked.

"A bucket list is, uh, it's a list of things you want to do in your life before you, well, kick the bucket."

"Huh… Like performing in front of everyone." Merlene said softly.

"I've never kicked a bucket either! Oh, I gotta make my list!"

Sonic speeds off and grabs a pen and pad and comes back to the table, writing down his list. Merlene though doesn't need it as she has a lot of thoughts in mind.

"Uh-huh! Mm-hmm! Oh, Sonic! Ha- ha! Uh-huh!"

Suddenly, Sonic stops and frowns.

Tom and Merlene notices Sonic's concern.

"What? What's the matter?" Tom asked.

"There's so much stuff I've never done. And now that I'm leaving Earth forever, I guess I missed my chance."

"What he said…" Merlene said slightly looking down.

Tom looks around.

"Well, I guess this is the kind of place you could get a lot of living done in a short period of time. I suppose we can spare an hour."

"What? You're gonna bucket list with me?!"

"Really? You sure?"

"Sure, why not?"

"You won't regret this!" Sonic smiled.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I will."

Tom and Sonic have a blast in the Piston Pit; dancing, playing darts, playing basketball, which Tom uses Sonic as a ball and Sonic uses his fast legs to build up Tom's score as he sits on the hoop ring.

"Ha-ha! New high score!"

Merlene shook her head at his cheating. Sonic and Tom are dancing again.

"Yippee-ki-yay! Ah-ha!"

"Wait a second, is this bull missing a head, or does it have two butts?"

Tom mockingly yawns from seeing Sonic ride the bull.

"This is easy!"

Tom decides to turn up the speed for the mechanical bull by inserting a quarter into the machine and tapping the button for the highest speed. Merlene sees it and begins to laugh along with him as they watch Sonic hold onto it and being thrown around.

"Yee-haw! I'm a cowboy, baby!"

Sonic gets thrown off the bull but speeds back onto it like nothing happened.

"I'm okay!"

Tom and Sonic are dancing again, but Sonic accidentally bumps into a female patron.

"Whoo, yeah!"

The female patron throws a drink in Tom's face, thinking it was him who messed her up. Afterwards, Tom is drying up while Sonic is laughing at Tom's plight while Merlene is shaking her head.

"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up." Tom grumbled.

"Nice work, Romeo!" Sonic joked.

Tom made a sarcastic laughter.

"Glad you're having a good time."

Merlene notices the small stage with a microphone in front of the stool the woman was sitting earlier until she left. Merlene looks down at her guitar case and back to the stage, thinking this through before she made up her mind. She grabs her guitar case and gets over to the small stage. Tom and Sonic notices it.

"Merlene?" Sonic called, looking confused.

Tom though smiles, knowing what going to happen. Merlene sits on the high stool for her to reach the microphone and pulls out her electric guitar. She sets it up and looks at the crowd who are sitting, eating, drinking, or chatting. She takes a deep breath and begins to play the song she had in mind and sings.

Sonic was surprised that his sister can play and sing so well as the people watch her performance. Tom smiles at this. After she was done, everyone claps for her, making her blush in embarrassment and nod to them gratefully. She gets off, grabs her stuff, and comes over to Sonic and Tom. Her brother gives her a hug.

"Wow! Sis! I didn't know you play! Man, I'm having the best time! We're having the best time! I mean, what could go wrong?"

Suddenly, a group of mean-looking patrons approach him, Merlene, and Tom.

"Uh, heh, can we help you?" Tom asked as Merlene got defensive.

"We don't like your kind around here." Thug said.

"Our kind? What kind is that?" Sonic glared.

Merlene slowly got herself into a fighting position with her emerald necklace glowing in the process.

"Hipsters." Thug said, making Sonic gasp and then glare at him.

"How dare you?"

"Hey, you know what? We were just leaving anyway. Weren't we? There's not a problem here." Tom suggested, not like this tension.

"No, no, no, it's okay." Sonic assured.

"No, no, no, we're leaving." Tom shook his head.

"Sonic, you better be careful what you're doing." Merlene warned.

"Relax, sis. I know exactly how to handle this situation."

Sonic grabs a beer bottle, stands up, and clears his throat.

"Pop quiz, hotshot. You just picked a fight with a poorly disguised hedgehog who's seen way too many action movies. What do you do? Ha!"

Sonic jumps up and tries to smash the bottle over the guy's head, but nothing happens. This made Merlene mentally facepalm herself at this..

"Huh! Am I crazy? It's supposed to break, right?"

He tries again, numerous times, his speed increasing as well.

"Bink. Bink, bink. Break, please. Break, please. Break this bottle, please. Please, please, please, please, please!"

"Uh, Sonic?" Tom called.

The guy raises his fist.

"Uh-oh!"

Sonic quickly ducks as the guy goes to punch Tom in the face instead, when Merlene goes in between them and grabs his fist with the help of her power as her hand glows fuchsia. The thug looks at her in shock. She glares at him then twists his arm, making a sick crack and pushing away, which knocks him into more patrons, sparking a bar fight.

"Ho-hoo! Ho-ho-ho!" Sonic grinned.

"Nice going!" Tom scolded as he got into his defensive stance..

"Thanks! It's awesome, right? Alright, who's next? Who wants some? Who do I get to beat up? Hey! Has anybody seen my waitress? Still waiting on those buffalo wings!"

Sonic sees the thug from earlier that Merlene beats up as he fixes his arm before cracking his knuckles after seeing him.

"Why, you!"

Sonic jumps and punches the thug in the face repeatedly in slow motion, somersaults, and lands back on the floor.

"Ha-ha!"

Sonic blows on his fists and the thug turns around and growls aggressively.

"Uh-oh!"

The thug runs to tackle him, but now time seems to have stopped and everything is frozen in place as Sonic's awareness is increased tenfold.

"Really?"

"Boom" by X Ambassadors plays as Sonic runs around the bar and setting up pranks and traps for everyone, even catching a selfie with one of the patrons, eating chili dogs, setting a bear head trophy on the thug from earlier, and getting a boot to the face, Finally, the bar fight ends with everyone getting entangled in Sonic's traps, and Sonic imitates a bull wrestler by using a checkered napkin as the thug runs past him and crashes through the window.

"Ole!"

Only Tom is left standing due to Sonic saving him from the fight along with Merlene, who's about to fight off the guys that attempt to attack her, and found herself sitting in the chair next to Tom. Tom and Merlene looks around at the injured patrons and even sees a patron wrapped in toilet paper fall to the ground, and Sonic sides up alongside them at the bar.

"So, should we get out of here?"

"Yeah, time to go!"

Tom and Sonic rush out of the Piston Pit with Merlene running behind them, carrying her guitar case, and make a beeline for the truck.

"Ha-ha-ha! That was amazing!"

Sonic throws his disguise off to the side as Merlene pulls the hood off from her head.

"Wait a second, did we even pay our tab? It doesn't matter! Watch this, watch this! I always wanted to do this!"

Sonic jumps up and slides across the hood of Tom's truck in slow motion, barely noticing the fast food from earlier, and he slides inside the truck. Merlene swiftly goes through the open window and slides inside to the backseat.

"Ooh-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo!"

"Get 'em!"

Sonic gives them a wave as Merlene salutes them with her tongue sticking out.

"See ya, suckers!"

The bar patrons chase after the truck.

"I can't say for sure, but I think they liked me."

"I don't think so, bro."

"Come on! Don't let 'em get away!" Bar patron said.

Sonic, Merlene, and Tom are now far away from the patrons and they're celebrating their victory with laughs.

"Yes!"

"Yeah!"

"Whoo!"

"Yes!"

"Did you see how much toilet paper I used?! The next person that goes into that bathroom will have nothing to wipe with!" Sonic laughed.

"That would be so gross and embarrassing!" Merlene laughed.

~ Chapter 5: Road chase ~

They are now in a motel.

"The floor were sticky. The crowd was rough."

Sonic is jumping excitedly on a bed while Tom grabs some ice for his and Merlene's bruises as he got punched by some random guy while Merlene had punched off the strong man that made her fist hurt.

"And the odds were against us. But there was no stopping Donut Lord, Neon Blue Angel, and the Blue Blur! Scratch another one off my list."

Sonic scratches off the item on his bucket list. Tom sits down on the bed while Sonic sits on the other one with Merlene next to him.

"You are a weird little dude." Tom commented.

"Tell me about it." Merlene joked.

He hands Sonic and Merlene a makeshift ice pack, and Sonic starts imitating Tom as he tends to his bruises, which makes Tom notice and he gets annoyed. Merlene rolls her eyes at this and winced slightly at the pain on her knuckles from pressing the ice into it.

"Okay." Tom said.

"So, what are we gonna do now?!" Sonic asked excitedly.

"I'm gonna pass out watching TV. I think you should too."

"But this is our last night on Earth! I want to soak up every last second!"

"All right, anything you can find to do in this room, you knock yourself out."

Sonic looks around and zips all over the room, doing pretty much everything he can to amuse himself. Finally, he finishes up with a shower and comes back to the bed wearing towels on his head and body, and slippers on his feet.

"Good times."

Sonic lets out a flatulent sound, which annoys Tom even more and Merlene disgusted at this.

"Ugh! Sonic! Really?!"

'Oh, come on."

Tom waves the air in disgust and lays down in the bed.

"That's awful. What did you eat?"

"I think it's called a… chili dog?" Sonic guessed.

"You might want to check you fur on that one, buddy, Hey, so, what's this next planet you're supposed to go to like?" Tom said.

"It's no Earth, I can tell you that. There's no people, just breathable air and giant mushrooms and stuff. Nasty stuff." Merlene explained.

"Well, look at it this way, at least you won't be the only 'fun-guy'."

"No. don't ever do that again."

"I like it."

Sonic looks around the room.

"I'm really gonna miss this place. I know we have to leave Earth to be safe, but what if Longclaw was wrong? Maybe me and sis could have a life here."

Tom looks at Sonic and Merlene, then gets up.

"Alright. We should get some sleep."

"You sleep. Don't worry about me. I'm gonna stay up all night enjoying Earth while I can!" Sonic reassured.

"Sure, kid. As long as we're on the road by 8:00."

Tom turns a lamp off and he sees Sonic sleeping peacefully while mumbling in his sleep.

"I had a chili dog. That's why my farts smell…"

Tom tucks Sonic in and then he notices his bucket list and sees all but one thing crossed off. The final item on his list, "Make a real friend", is seen, which makes Tom a little concerned inside. His troubles worsen when he hears a news report on the television.

"Thomas Wachowski, accused of committing an act of domestic terrorism. Wachowski is considered armed and dangerous. Any information regarding his whereabouts should be reported to local authorities immediately."

"Pretty bad, huh…" Merlene commented, making Tom realize that she's not asleep.

"I almost forgot about you. So… what did you want to do before you and your brother leave?"

"I always wanted to make a music to have the world listen and to… well… everything. I even wanted to take some fighting lessons if I'm ever going to defend myself. Heck, even some books I want to read."

"What are you reading now?"

Tom gestures to the book in her hand she took out after Sonic fell asleep.

"This one called 'Romeo and Juliet'. It's a very interesting love story. There are 12 different film adaptions of Romeo and Juliet from 1936 to 2013 that I've heard."

"Trust me. You don't want to watch the 1996 version. It's a little too inappropriate." Tom chuckled.

"Noted." Merlene chuckled back, looking at her sleeping brother. "I promise Longclaw that I will always be there for him."

"You really care for him."

"He's the only family I've ever got. Ever since we lost Longclaw, I've been working so hard to make him happy and I wanted to protect him from those that will harm him one day. But sometimes I asked myself if I'm strong enough…"

Merlene grips onto her emerald necklace out of instinct.

"You're already strong enough." Tom assured. "You showed me how determined you are to help Sonic when he needs you the most. Don't forget that. Heck, you caught me off-guard when we first met and you… kinda scared me."

"Kinda runs in the family. And… maybe you're right."

"I sure am. Because you are the most amazing person anyone could ever have and Sonic is lucky to have you."

This made Merlene smile at him before looking back at the sleeping Sonic, letting those words repeat in her mind.

Siskiyou County Line, California

Sonic, Merlene, and Tom are driving into California

"So, what's on your bucket list?" Sonic asked.

"Who, me?" Tom questioned.

"Yeah. Everyone has a bucket list, right?"

"Well, sure, but, I mean, you're the one leaving Earth, and I'm not planning on dying anytime soon."

"Don't be so sure. Your best friend is a magnet for danger."

"Oh, are you appointing yourself as the bestie?"

"Mm-hmm."

"A little presumptuous, but– I mean– What, no– I-I like you, of course, but, you know, we're not best friends."

"You tucked me in last night. You even tucked in sis when she was finished reading her book."

This made Tom chuckle while Merlene look a little embarrassed.

"Fine, fine, fine. Best animal friend." Sonic declared.

"That would be my dog, Ozzy." Tom stated.

"Okay. Let's drop this increasingly humiliating topic of conversation. Bucket list. Give it to me!"

"Okay, there is one thing. In Green Hills, I've always felt, I don't know, more like a babysitter than a real cop, you know? So I want a chance to prove myself, under real pressure. I'm gonna move to San Francisco, become a street cop. And, I don't know, see if I have what it takes."

Tom looks over at Sonic, whose jaw is dropped open in shock. He then looks in the back to see Merlene looks slightly surprised and sad…

"What? Why-why is your face doing that?"

"You're leaving Green Hills?!" Sonic exclaimed.

"Okay."

"B-B-But why? Why would you leave Green Hills?"

"This may be hard for you to understand, but Green Hills is a small town. It's a very small town."

"Uh, it's not small. There are hundreds of people."

"That's a small town, dude!"

"It's a perfect town, and the people need you." Sonic said.

"Yeah. They even treated you like a apart of their family." Merlene added.

"Please, I clean out their gutters, I jump-start their cars in the winter. They could call anybody to do that."

"Sure, they can call anybody, but they don't. They call you."

What they didn't notice is a large battle machine equipped for traveling on roads drives down the road where they are.

"You're not making any sense!" Sonic shouted.

"Would you calm down? Tom asked in annoyance.

"You come from a great town with great people and, by my count, zero bad guys trying to kill you!"

The drone car catches up to Sonic, Merlene, and Tom.

"Besides, what could possibly be more important than protecting the people you care about?" Merlene asked, not wanting this argument to make things worse.

Tom thinks for a second while Dr. Robotnik initiates a weapon for the drone car, a large harpoon. Merlene's necklace glows fuchsia, causing her eyes widened in alarm.

"Look, I get your poi–"

The drone car fires the harpoon straight through the back of the truck and catches the dashboard, making Tom and Sonic yell. Merlene had managed to dodge that harpoon on time if it weren't for her necklace to warn her. Suddenly, her hand glows fuchsia and it brings out her fuchsia whip.

As Tom swerves to yank the harpoon loose, Robotnik activates the drone car's winch and it pulls Tom's truck slowly towards it.

"You know what? I was wrong about you. You're not the Donut Lord at all! You're more like… the Jerk Lord!" Sonic glared.

"Have you noticed the harpoon stuck in our dash?!"

Tom slams on the gas pedal and the harpoon starts coming loose, and Tom slams the truck against a traffic barrier, knocking Sonic out of the truck and onto the windshield.

"Sonic!" Tom and Merlene exclaimed.

Sonic starts radiating blue energy as he kept confronting Tom.

"Me and sis were forced from our home! Your home is perfect, and you're leaving it!" Why would you do that?!"

"Your body!"

"It's glowing again!"

"Oh, no, no, no, no, not again!"

"Hey, hold on!" Tom warned.

"Why?!"

"Because I'm gonna do this!"

Merlene holds onto the seat tight as Tom slams on the gas pedal again and the harpoon lets go of the dashboard and Sonic goes flying before he curls into a Spin Attack and runs into the drone car, releasing an electromagnetic pulse that knocks the drone car on its side. Tom then turns his truck around and drives back to Sonic.

"Sonic!"

Tom notices Sonic in his ball form.

"Sonic!" Merlene yelled in worry.

Sonic uncurls and gets up slowly, groaning.

"Guess I had a bonus life."

He notices the drone car on its side and runs up to it and does a funny dance..

"Oh, yeah, baby! Sonic, one. Big tank, zero. I'm sorry. Did we get that on camera?"

"How are you not dead?" Tom asked with a smile.

"I have no idea! Do you see me dancing?

"Yes, we saw you dancing." Merlene grinned.

"Is that all you got?!" Sonic taunted at the drone car.

Robotnik sends out another robot drone to continue the pursuit.

"Uh-oh."

"Sonic! Get back in the truck!" Tom said.

"You go! I'll catch up!"

Tom drives away and Sonic zips back to the truck and climbs in. He then notices a smaller car drone that just deployed from the damaged drone car.

"I think that tank just had a baby."

The smaller drone car prepares its weapon, a homing mine dispenser, and shoots homing mines at the truck.

"Incoming!"

Tom swerves to avoid being caught in the explosion, and the homing mine heads straight for a minivan ahead of Tom.

"It's my turn!"

"You just had one! It's mine!"

The girl and the boy are fighting over a tablet.

"Hey, stop fighting or I'm taking that thing away!" Father scolded with a warning.

"Yeah, right, Dad."

The homing mine attaches itself underneath the minivan and unleashes an electromagnetic pulse, sending it flying and the family screaming until the minivan stops. Meanwhile, Sonic climbs to the back of Tom's truck.

"Where are you going?"

"Just drive the car. I'll take care of this. And if I don't make it, just ditch me. You seem good at that."

Sonic was about to jump from the back of the truck when Merlene comes up next him and beats him to it. She brings out her whip as it begins to glow electricity and whips it towards the homing mines as they explode. She does the same to the other while kicking one at another, and finally approaches the smaller drone car with a homing mine in her hand and peers right into the robot's camera and starts insulting, which infuriates Robotnik.

"Hey, Robotnik! Hope you're having a good time trying to destroy us. Too bad your ego is about to get shocked like this!"

Merlene slams the homing mine down on the smaller drone car and the electromagnetic pulse sends it veering off course and crashing into hills Sonic watches from inside Tom's truck.

"Yes, we did it!"

Now a new type of robot continues the pursuit.

"We didn't do it. Who is this guy?"

Merlene scoffs and runs back to Tom's truck.

"My turn."

Tom unbuckles himself.

"Here, just keep us going straight. I put us in cruise control."

Tom and Sonic switch seats while Merlene stays in the back outside of the truck to help Tom out.

"Ha-ha, I feel just like Vin Diesel!" Sonic laughed.

Tom reaches for a flashlight.

"It's all about family, Tom."

The segway robot brandishes sharp spikes on both sides of the wheel as it catches up with Tom's truck. Tom opens the door and prepares to attack. He swings the flashlight but the robot dodges. Merlene spins her electric whip and swings it at the robot, but it dodges again.

"Quick suggestion. Roll up into a ball and smash him with your body." Sonic said.

"Whoa! Where'd you learn how to drive?!" Tom asked in shock.

"Here, in this truck. It's happening as we speak!"

Sonic swerves the truck to dodge the robot.

"I can't reach it! Bring him in closer!"

"What?"

"Bring it in closer! Hit the brakes!"

"Oh, you mean this one?"

Sonic steps on the gas pedal instead.

"The other brakes!"

Sonic steps on the brakes and give Tom the opportunity he needs and he swings the flashlight upward, knocking it over.

"Ha-ha! Whoo!" Tom cheered as he climbs back inside the truck.

Merlene made sure the robot is completely destroyed as she throws electric whip towards it, exploding it in the process. It comes back to her like a boomerang and it disappears back into her emerald necklace. This made her look at the gem in wonder and amazement.

Robotnik sends one last robot, a tiny helicopter, and it catches up to Tom's truck.

"Aww, this one is cute. Let's keep him." Sonic cooed.

"I don't think that one is cute.." Merlene said, looking concern.

The helicopter starts slicing through the metal of the truck, working its way around the window frames.

"Oh, come on!" Tom groaned.

"How could something so adorable be so terrible?"

"Don't ask!"

The helicopter is almost done slicing.

"You've got car insurance, right?"

The whole window frame comes loose and flies off, causing Sonic and Tom to scream. Then, Sonic grabs the helicopter.

"Buzz off."

Sonic yanks off the body, but now the core is stuck to his hand and starts beeping like a time bomb.

"That doesn't sound good."

"No, beeping is bad! Get rid of it!" Tom shouted, sounding alarmed.

"I'm trying!"

Sonic tries to shake the bomb off his hand.

"Throw it out the win– throw it anywhere!"

"I can't get it off!"

"Alright, I'm pulling over!"

Tom pulls over and drives a little ways away while Sonic tries to get the bomb off his hand, until he thinks he got rid of it.

"Did I get it?"

Tom notices the bomb struck to Sonic's forehead.

"Nope."

He runs to Sonic with a handkerchief.

"Here, hold still."

Tom pries the bomb off Sonic's head and throws it far away.

"It's going, it's going… it's still here."

Tom holds his hand up and notices the bomb now struck to his hand and tries to shake it off as well but Merlene helps him get it off and got it, and got it stuck in her arm instead. She tries to remove it, but Sonic gets it off her hand and tries prying it off his own hand with a stick.

"Get off me!"

It works as the bomb is now stuck to a large rock.

"Ha-ha! Nailed it!"

Sonic brings out his hand out for a high-five when Merlene notices the bomb is clicking even faster.

"Sonic! Move!"

The bomb explodes, sending Sonic flying and Tom and Merlene jumps off the ground from the shockwave. After the dust settles, they see Sonic laying unconscious on the ground.

"Sonic!"

They run up to Sonic and gently turns him over.

"No, no…"

"Sonic… bro…"

Tom presses his ear against Sonic's chest and looks around.

"Hey, come on. You're alright. Wake up. Wake up."

"Come on, bro. Don't leave me too…" Merlene whimpered.

Meanwhile, in Robotnik's truck interior, Robotnik is panting and breathing heavily with Agent Stone watching.

"Did we get 'em? No, no, there they are. They're real survivors, those three."

Robotnik slowly turns to Agent Stone.

"Can we have a moment?"

Both Robotnik and Agent Stone walk over to a wall.

"Pin yourself to the wall."

Agent Stone does so and Dr. Robotnik presses his face almost very close to Agent Stone's.

"You know, I won't miss you when you're gone. Human beings are unreliable and stupid, and I care very little about them. My machines are diligent, relentless. THEY'RE EVERYTHING TO ME!"

Robotnik notices a blue and neon blue lights glowing from inside Agent Stone's coat and pulls out Sonic's and Merlene's quill and inspects them.

"面白い (Interesting.)"

Robotnik presses the two tips of the quills to his tongue and the energy gives him a shock, making his head twitch violently and causing some headache a little.

"Hmm?"

He tries handing quills to Agent Stone, who looks a little confused.

~ Chapter 6: San Francisco ~

Tom drives Sonic to Rachel's house and carries him to the front door wrapped in a blanket with Merlene following him in her bottle green hooded jacket that covers up her head and face.

"Come on, buddy. You're gonna be alright. You'll be alright."

"He better be or I'll never forgive myself for this."

Tom knocks on the door and Rachel answers.

"Is Maddie here?"

"No, no. Not today. Goodbye!"

Rachel slams the door in Tom's face and he tries to get in.

"It's an emergency!"

"Bye-bye!"

"Rachel, stop! Please! Maddie! Don't do this! This is important!"

Maddie walks in and tries to let Tom in.

"Oh, my god! Rachel, let him in!"

Tom runs inside along with Merlene.

"I am calling the police! No, I am calling the FBI. I am calling the CIA." Rachel ranted.

"Stop, don't do that." Tom exclaimed.

"I am calling your mother!"

"Okay, got it!" Maddie tried to calm her sister.

"Maddie, can we talk?"

"Tom, what's going on?! You're-you're all over the news, I've been trying to call you!"

"I had to ditch my phone so they couldn't track me."

"Ditch his phone?!" Rachel exclaimed.

"Track you?!" Maddie exclaimed in shock.

Merlene felt like this situation isn't helping as she stayed quiet.

Jojo runs up to Tom and hugs him.

"Uncle tommy!"

"Jojo, hey!"

Rachel pulls Jojo away from Tom.

"Now your niece is an accessory to treason!"

"No, she's not." Tom argued.

"Would you calm down? Maddie scolded.

"Calm down?! I willn't calm down!"

Ozzy walks in as Maddie and Rachel argue with each other.

"Enough!"

"Yes, calm down. Stop talking."

Ozzy barks at him.

"No. Ozzy, please. Good to see you, too."

Tom leans forward a little, which almost gives Sonic away. Merlene immediately calms the dog down as she calmly goes over to Ozzy and scratches his chin and pats his head, making him stop barking.

"Oh, Little Lord Baby Jesus! What is that, Tom? Is that plutonium?! Is it emails? Also who's that with you?!" Rachel demanded, seeing Merlene with Ozzy.

"Yes, it's plutonium. Also, this is my friend, Merlene."

He turns to Maddie.

"Can we please go in the other room and talk–"

Ozzy begins to pulls the sleeve of her jacket, making her panic and try to keep her jacket on where her hood covers her head.

"Whoa! Easy boy!"

"Stop it, Ozzy! Quit it!" Tom scolded, noticing this.

"This is why I told you he was no good!" Rachel said.

"I'm not engaging!" Maddie shouted.

"No, Ozzy! Quit it!"

Ozzy starts tugging on her sleeve even harder and everyone is arguing all at once.

"Ozzy, no! Ozzy, no!" Tom scolded again.

Ozzy yanks the jacket off over her head, revealing Merlene. Merlene tries to back away and accidentally pull down the blanket to reveal Tom is carrying the unconscious Sonic and everyone stops talking.

"Oh, catch me, Jojo."

Rachel then faints at the sight of the two hedgehogs.

"Oh, thank god." Tom sighed in relief.

"Hehe… Hi." Merlene awkwardly waved.

Maddie pulls Jojo close to her.

"Can I get a glass of water?" Tom asked.

Meanwhile in Robotnik's truck interior, Robotnik puts on a pair of headphones and opens a music playlist called Tunes of Anarchy on his holographic computer, and the song, "Where Evil Grows" by The Poppy Family plays as he spins around in his chair and begins to analyze Sonic's quill first. He touches some power conductors to the quill, which causes the power inside his lab to go out. Robotnik is now a match to see where he's going and he opens up the breaker panel and turns on the backup power and the music resumes with Robotnik dancing and lights flashing as the quill is inserted into a capsule. He then does the same to Merlene's quill as it gives off the fuchsia energy around it. Robotnik then starts playing holographic videos of a snowcap and a Tyrannosaurus Rex running down the street and dances along with them to fit the theme like skiing down the slopes and running away from the dinosaur. During the T-Rex chase, Robotnik mimics his head getting chomped by the dinosaur and keeps dancing as the lights in his truck flash like strobe-lights. And as Robotnik dances, he doesn't notice Agent Stone dancing with him. Eventually, he does notice and screams as the music and flashing lights stop. Agent Stone hols out two coffee cups.

"I just thought you might like a latte with steamed Austrian goat milk. "

"What do I look like, an imbecile? Of course I want a latte! I LOVE THE WAY YOU MAKE THEM!"

Robotnik and Agent Stone hear a beeping noise and they see the power level of Sonic's quill is at "UNLIMITED", then to Merlene's quill as the level is at "UNKNOWN", making it more powerful, which makes Robotnik smile evilly.

"Ready the prototype. With these kind of power, my machine can finally reach their full potential."

Back in Rachel's house, Sonic is lying unconscious on kitchen table.

"He's gonna be okay, Jojo." Tom assured.

Maddie walks in with her first aid kit.

"Oh, thank god. He's gonna be okay, right?"

"Will he survive?" Merlene asked worriedly.

"I'm a vet, Tom. I don't even know what I'm looking at her. Or her."

"My brother's a hedgehog like me." Merlene explained.

"He talk too?" Maddie asked.

"Yes." Merlene nodded.

"Almost constantly." Tom added.

"Okay."

Maddie feels for Sonic's pulse.

"Holy…"

"What?"

"Is something wrong with her brother?"

"His pulse is super fast."

"That actually might be normal for him. I don't know. You gotta help him, Maddie."

"Please… He's the only brother I even have."

"I don't know his physiology. He doesn't seem to have any broken bones. He's just really banged up."

Maddie takes off Sonic's shoes.

"Oh, look at his poor little feet."

Jojo looks at Sonic's worn-out shoes.

"I always ask him if he needs a new pair of shoes, but he denied it and not listened to me." Merlene sighed, shaking her head.

"Hang in there, buddy. You're gonna be all right." Tom said.

Jojo notices Merlene's necklace as the chains around her neck are becoming rusted and walks out of the kitchen and past Rachel, who is tied up in the living room.

"Jojo? Untie your mother. Jojo! Untie mommy."

Jojo ignores Rachel as she goes upstairs.

"Sweetie. Jojo!"

She looks around.

"I have to go to the bathroom."

"He's gonna be okay, right? He'll snap out of this. He'll wake up soon? Oh, smelling salts! Don't you have, like, vet smelling salts, like, for cats or parakeets or something?" Tom urgently asked.

"No. They don't make cat smelling salts." Maddie shook his head.

"They should."

"I have HUMAN smelling salts in my HUMAN first aid kit."

She opens up the kit and takes out the smelling salts.

"Okay."

She then cracks the capsule and holds it close to Sonic's nose.

"Here we go."

"Come on, buddy." Tom pleaded.

"Please wake up." Merlene pleaded.

As soon as he gets a whiff of the smelling salts, Sonic immediately wakes up and talks very fast.

"Gotta go fast!"

Sonic starts zipping and speeding all over the kitchen before coming to a complete stop back at the table.

"Where am I? What year is it? Is the Rock president?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, buddy, you're okay. Calm down." Tom said.

"Take it easy, bro." Merlene said.

Sonic notices Maddie and smiles.

"Oh, hi, Pretzel Lady!"

"Hi… Tom?" Maddie awkwardly greeted back.

"Yeah?" Tom answered.

"Can I talk to you, please?"

Maddie leads Tom out of the kitchen and faces Tom and Merlene.

"Space hedgehogs, stay there. Try to rest."

She closes the doors.

"Um… okay. Are you going to be alright with all of… this?" Merlene asked, looking concerns.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Maddie waved off.

"You got it. I am great at resting. I rest faster than anybody." Sonic said as the door closes on them.

While Tom and Maddie are talking privately, Merlene jumped up to Sonic and hugged him tight.

"Whoa! Sis! What's wrong?"

He heard her sniffing.

"Don't ever do that again. I thought I lost you…"

Sonic smiled softly and hugged her back.

"I'm not going anywhere. Nothing can stop me."

"You better promise me that you don't do anything reckless like that ever again."

He pulled away from her and pulled out his pinkie finger.

"I promise."

Merlene smiled and locked her pinkie against his.

With Tom and Maddie

"Still talking." Tom said.

"Um, first of all, can we take a moment to acknowledge how under control I've been?" Maddie calmly said.

"Uh, amazing."

"Didn't freak out."

"No."

"Totally calm."

Maddie fist bumps Tom.

"Thank you."

"Second of all… what the heck is going on?! Are those things aliens?!"

"Okay, so, remember how Crazy Carl is always going on about the blue devil and the neon blue angel?"

"The Blue Devil and The Neon Blue Angel! That's them? They're real?"

"Yeah."

"What are they doing here? What are you doing here?"

"I kinda, sorta, shot our little blue friend with your tranq gun. His sister isn't happy and almost tried to kill me."

"No, you didn't."

Maddie and Tom a suspicious look and crosses her arms.

"I didn't mean to. Okay, this is kinda hard for me to explain. And it's gonna sound a little bit crazy. They have to get to the Transamerica building, and I promised I'd take them."

"Uh-uh! Aliens? Maddie, your husband's lost his mind. Use this as an opportunity to leave him. No one would judge you!" Rachel exclaimed.

Back in the kitchen, Jojo returns to Sonic and Merlene and presents him with brand new running shoes in red with white straps.

"So you won't hurt your feet anymore."

"Really?" Sonic asked, looking surprised.

"Uh-huh." Jojo nodded.

"Wow. That's really nice of you. Thank you." Merlene smiled kindly at her.

Sonic takes the shoes.

"No one's ever given me a gift before. I gotta check that off my bucket list."

Sonic tries on the shoes and grows excited over them, which makes Jojo and Merlene happy.

"Alright! Looking good!"

Jojo turns to Merlene.

"Your chains around your neck were rusted so I thought you might need this. Thi is real gold."

She presents her the golden chains.

"Whoa… I… I don't know what to say. Thanks, Jojo."

Jojo smiles cutely at her as Merlene unchained the old necklace from the neck and replaced it with the real gold chain as she attached the emerald to it before placing it back around her neck, liking this new brand.

"Nice. You've got some good taste in jewelry."

"Thank you."

Jojo then notices the guitar case next to Merlene.

"Do you play?"

"Yeah. You wanna hear it?"

Jojo nodded along with Sonic, looking forward to it.

Back to Maddie and Tom

"Okay, you said you wanted to help people in real troubles, right? Well, that's what you're doing. Blue and Neon Blue alien hedgehogs still count as people, right?" Maddie pointed out, getting to the point.

"I think so, too." Tom said.

"Yeah."

"I think."

"Okay."

"I love you. Did I tell you that already?"

Maddie starts leading Tom away.

"I don't deserve you. You know that?"

"I know that." Rachel stated.

Sonic stares at Ozzy.

"So, you're supposed to be Tom's "best friend" that he won't shut up about."

Ozzy has his tongue out.

"Well, I don't see the appeal."

Ozzy walks over to Sonic and starts licking him, which makes him laugh.

"Stop! That is very gross!"

This made Merlene and Jojo laugh. Merlene then begins to play her guitar and sings as Maddie walks downstairs.

"Hey."

"Hey. So, my truck still runs, but it's pretty much totaled. You think your sister would mind if we borrowed her car?" Tom said.

"You have got to be kidding me!" Rachel scoffed.

"She'll be fine." Maddie assured.

"Yeah, let's do that."

"Mm-hmm."

Maddie and Tom walk out, leaving Rachel tied up.

"This is my house!"

Maddie and Tom were about to tell Sonic and Merlene that they're leaving when they heard the music. They look over to see Merlene singing to Sonic, Jojo, and Ozzy as she plays the strings of her guitar.

Once she was done singing and playing, Sonic and Jojo claps at her wonderful performance once again while Ozzy wags his tail in approval. Maddie was surprised at how good she plays. Tom smiles at this, thinking this through as those songs made him rethink his decision about this.

San Francisco, California

Sonic is driving Rachel's beat-up car very dangerously through the streets of San Francisco.

"Coming through! Whoa, now, this is my turn, and I go around him! Sorry! And, perfect park!"

He then parks lopsidedly at the curb.

"What are you, crazy?!" One of the driver shouted.

Tom exits the car.

"Is there anything you didn't hit?"

"Why did we let the alien drive?" Maddie questioned.

"Hey, I got us here. And please, five stars."

Merlene gives Sonic a glare and pokes him straight in the chest.

"You are forever banned from driving."

"Got it.." Sonic gulped.

Sonic, Merlene, Tom, and Maddie stare out at the towering Transamerica building.

"So, this is it?" Sonic asked.

"That's it. That's your pyramid." Tom said.

"Wow, look at that thing!" Sonic awed.

"What happens now?"

As soon as Maddie finishes her question, Sonic speeds away.

"Oh! He's… gone."

"Yep." Tom nodded.

"Mhm." Merlene nodded.

Sonic comes back to Merlene,Tom, and Maddie.

"No good. You need a special key to get to the roof."

"What now?" Maddie asked.

"Time for me to abuse the power entrusted to me." Tom said.

Tom, Merlene, who's in her same candy red hooded jacket, and Maddie walk to the reception desk, with Tom carrying Sonic in a duffle bag. Tom, Merlene, and Maddie nod at each other and they approach the front desk.

"We got a jumper on the roof. Gotta get up there fast or we're gonna have a human pancake on our hands."

Tom produces his badge.

"You came all the way from Montana." Receptionist questioned.

"Yeah. That's how serious it is."

There's a prolonged pause as everyone looks at each other until the receptionist hands Tom the key.

"Okay."

Tom takes the key.

"You just saved a life."

Tom, Merlene, and Maddie wait for the elevator to be taken to the roof of the building. As they wait, a businessman and a businesswoman join them, also waiting.

"How much longer? I can't breathe in here! Hello? Anybody there?" Sonic Shouted through the bag.

"Do you have your child in that bag?" Businesswoman asked in worry.

"No. I mean, yes, it's a child, but it's not mine." Tom denied.

"It not your child?" Businessman asked.

"Relax. I'm a cop, okay? Plus, he likes it in there, don't you, buddy?"

Tom shakes the bag a little.

"Why would I like it in here? This is worse than the dog cage you had me in earlier!"

"Such a kidder." Tom laughed.

Maddie and Merlene laughs with him as Maddie closes the zipper.

"Okay."

"No, I'm scared of the dark! Sonic exclaimed.

The businessman and businesswoman slowly move away.

"Is anybody there?"

"Would you shut up for once?!" Merlene sneered quietly.

Tom, Merlene, Maddie, and Sonic get to the roof of the Transamerica building and they let Sonic out of the duffel bag, who is coughing and gagging and wearing a pair of underwear on his head. Merlene snickers at him, making him glare at her before turning to Tom.

"Ugh! What were you keeping in this bag? A jar of pickled farts?!"

Sonic takes the underwear off his head and stuffs it back into the bag.

'Alright, alright. What are we looking for?" Tom asked.

Sonic sees the Ring satchel and retrieves it and runs back to Tom, Merlene, and Maddie, holding a ring.

"This."

"Okay. What happens now?" Maddie asked.

"Now, all I have to do is think of where I want the other end of the ring to appear, and I throw it." Sonic explained.

"So, that's it? We did it?" Tom asked.

"Yeah… We did." Merlene smiled sadly, standing next to her brother.

"Hey, sorry we didn't get to do everything on your bucket list, pal." Tom apologized.

"It's okay. I did the ones I needed the most." Sonic assured.

"Same for me." Merlene assured.

"You two are so cute." Maddie giggled, gesturing to Tom and Sonic.

"Oh, please. What?"

"We aren't."

"No."

"We aren't cute. We are a couple of loose cannons just living by our own rules."

"Exactly."

This made Merlene cover her mouth to stop her laughter. Maddie gives them a smug look.

"Really?"

"Yeah." Tom quickly said.

"And our rules include expressing heartfelt emotion." Sonic added on.

"If you say so." Maddie shrugged.

"Okay, then." Merlene said.

"Alright. Um, you two guys gotta go, right?" Tom asked.

"Yeah, we gotta go." Sonic frowned.

"I gotta go. We gotta go."

"See– All right, bye-bye."

Sonic and Merlene turns away for a moment, then turns back to Tom and Maddie.

"Just one more thing."

Tom steps forward and kneels down to Sonic's and Merlene's level.

"I'm sorry I was so hard on you. I know it's a tough decision for you to leave Green Hills. Walking away from something you care about has to be painful." Sonic apologized.

"You're not sure you really want to go, huh?" Tom asked.

"We don't want to go, but we can't stay. As long as we're here, we'll put everyone in danger. We can't do that. I just want you to know that these last two days have been the best two days of mine and my brother's life." Merlene said.

Sonic and Merlene smiles and so does Tom as he stands back up and walks back over to Maddie.

"You know, I never thought I'd say this, but, I'm actually gonna miss you, you little blue devil and and neon blue angel."

"We'll miss you too, Donut Lord. Thank you."

"For what?"

"For saving mine and my sis's life."

"We'll never forget you guys. Thanks for everything." Merlene said sadly.

Sonic and Merlene turns away as Sonic reaches into his satchel, and pulls a Ring out. He tosses it, only to have it bounced off of one of Dr. Robotnik's flying drones, and many more of them start closing in on the four.

"Okay, did someone leave their "Find My Phone" on?"

Sonic and Merlene steps back a few feet but stops at the edge of the roof, and they see a flying aircraft overhead, which is Dr. Robotnik's Egg-pod. The ship hovers over to the four and the cockpit opens, revealing Robotnik in an entirely different outfit and with an evil smirk on his face.

"Welcome to San Francisco, Mr. Wachowski. Are you enjoying the calm chowder?"

~ Chapter 7: Sonic and Merlene vs Dr. Robotnik ~

Previously…

Sonic and Merlene steps back a few feet but stops at the edge of the roof, and they see a flying aircraft overhead, which is Dr. Robotnik's Egg-pod. The ship hovers over to the four and the cockpit opens, revealing Robotnik in an entirely different outfit and with an evil smirk on his face.

"Welcome to San Francisco, Mr. Wachowski. Are you enjoying the calm chowder?"

Tom mumbles to Maddie.

"It's the government whack job who keeps trying to kill us."

He the turns to Robotnik.

"Unsuccessfully!"

The remark makes Robotnik scowl.

"Nice of you to swing by on your way to Comic-Con." Tom said.

"Yeah, what are you wearing?" Maddie asked.

"Some sort of jumpsuit?" Merlene joked, making Sonic and Tom snicker.

Dr. Robotnik looks at his suit and then back to the four.

"It's a flight suit, designed to modulate my body temperature and reduce" he finished through clenched teeth. "Drag!"

"Yeah, and you still are one." Tom remarked.

"Oh-hoo! Good one. You are catching fire, Thomas. Oh, and speaking of heat, I see you've taken a lover. Does she have a name, or should we just call her "collateral damage"?"

Dr. Robotnik chuckles and drums the sides of the Egg-pod with glee.

"Hey, watch your mouth! Unless you want a little more of what I gave you earlier."

Tom turns to Maddie again with a slime.

"I punched him in the face."

"You punched him right in the face! It was awesome!" Sonic laughed.

"It was pretty funny!" Merlene laughed.

"The time for talking is over! It's time to push buttons!" Dr. Robotnik shouted through his clenched teeth.

"Your flying eggs are pretty impressive, Mr. Eggma, but let's face it, you'll never catch me or sis!" Sonic mocked.

"Confidence! A fool's substitute for intelligence."

Robotnik opens a button capsule as the energy from Sonic's and Merlene's quills powers the Egg-pod and the flying drones ready their weapons as well.

"That's not good." Sonic commented.

"Sonic, Merlene, I know you two got the super speed and everything, but Maddie and I–" Tom started.

"Totally defenseless? Probably gonna get blown up?" Merlene guessed.

"Pretty much, yeah." Maddie nodded nervously.

"Don't worry. I know exactly what to do."

Sonic jumps up to the side wall and jumps forward, pushing Tom and Maddie off the roof, and they scream.

"Sonic!" Merlene turned to her brother in disbelief.

Sonic raised his hands up in surrender.

"What? I said I know what to do!"

Robotnik looks down from inside the Egg-pod, feigning shock.

"I was not expecting that… But I was expecting not to expect something, so it doesn't count."

The flying drones fire their weapons at Sonic and Merlene, but now time seems to have stopped and everything is frozen in place as Sonic's awareness is increased and he stands there, tapping his foot and looking at his wrist. He grabs frozen Merlene and makes her wrap her arms around his neck for her to hold. He then plays around with some of the missiles and bullets from the Egg-Drone weapons and is able to destroy most of them. But Robotnik pushes the button and the quills fully charges the Egg-pod and grants him supersonic speed. Sonic is makes a shooting hands gesture to two more Egg-Drones, but Robotnik fires a laser blast at the blue hedgehog, which he barely escapes from, causing him to enter slight delirium. Sonic recovers from his trance to find Tom and Maddie still falling with Merlene falling beside him screaming and tries to reach for a Ring.

"Come on!"

Sonic tries air swimming to reach the Ring.

"Come on, come on, come on!"

"Hurry!" Merlene shouted.

Sonic plucks one of his quills out and uses it to grab the Ring and he speeds towards the falling couple and tosses the Ring, opening a portal to a barn for them and they land safely in plies of hay while Sonic loses control.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! No, no, no!"

Sonic hits several tree branches and lands on the ground, rings and rubble scattered everywhere. Merlene manages to grab onto the branch of the tree and landed in a pose.

Sonic recovers from his fall but notices Robotnik hovering in the air. Merlene immediately got into her fighting stance.

"Can I give you two one genius piece of advice? Don't run. It'll only hurt more if you do. And it's bad for joints, they proved it."

"Alright, Eggman. You wanna get fast? Let's get fast!"

Sonic scrambles quickly to gather up all of his Rings and speeds off down the street. Merlene quickly runs before speeding off after her brother.

Dr. Robotnik puts on his flight goggles.

"The hard way it is."

The cockpit to the Egg-pod closes and Robotnik gives chase to Sonic and Merlene, firing laser blasts at them, only to damage certain road sections. He turns left to continue the pursuit.

"That was an illegal left, by the way!"

The same freeze from the beginning of the film is shown and Sonic and Merlene picks up the story.

"So, here we are again! We've been through so much together! Now you understand why there's a psychotic robot doctor chasing a supersonic blue hedgehog and super powerful neon blue hedgehog." Sonic narrated.

"Want to know how it ends? Yeah, me too." Merlene narrated.

The pursuit continues as Sonic and Merlene continues to dodge laser blasts from Robotnik, even sliding under a large trailer to avoid them. Merlene brought out her wooden katanas to deflect every laser blasts that were being thrown at them, not caring if they're beginning to burn since it's made of wood.

"How is this possible?! No one's ever caught up to me before!" Sonic exclaimed.

"It may have something to do with the quill I saw earlier in his jet! He even have my quill!" Merlene exclaimed, pulling out her fuchsia whip for her to swing herself using the light post.

Sonic holds a ring, planning the next location.

Paris, France

A mime is entertaining a little girl and her mother. When the mime makes a circular movement with his hands, a Ring portal opens up behind them, and Sonic and Merlene zips through.

"Coming through!"

"Excuse us!"

Robotnik follows behind and the mime moves out of the way.

"Sacrebleu!" Mime exclaimed.

"Excusez-moi, monsieur!" Robotnik laughed.

China

The pursuit continues along the Great Wall of China.

"Here we go! Room to open it up!"

The trio increase their speed until Sonic tosses another ring, opening a new portal.

"We can't lose him!"

"We just gotta keep going!"

Egypt

Robotnik fires multiple laser blasts from the Egg-pod, destroying century-old monuments in it's wake. Sonic and Merlene skids to a stop in the sand.

"If you can't beat 'em, blind 'em."

Sonic catches up to Robotnik and uses his speed to create a whirlwind of sand, with Merlene following him and helping him by spinning her whip to blow the sand, which disrupts Robotnik's visual contact.

"Lost… visual contact!"

He then sees Sonic and Merlene speed up in the Great Pyramid of Giza.

"You're not allowed up there! It's one of the Seven Wonders!"

Robotnik blasts out of the whirlwind, and just as Sonic opens another ring portal, Merlene noticed Robotnik and tried to activate her power from her emerald necklace as she managed to create a fuchsia crystal-like shield.

Robotnik then fires a laser blast at Sonic and Merlene, sending them flying through the portal and hurtling them onto the streets of Green Hills where Sonic lays motionless and unconscious while Merlene groans at the pain she felt as her shield disappears, leaving her unmoving. Robotnik menacingly appears through the portal as it closes. Tom, Maddie, and the farmer rush to see what the commotion is all about when Robotnik cackles loudly and takes off his flight goggles.

"You two are an astonishing little creatures! It'll be fun to take you back to the lab for a litany of invasive exploratory procedures. Any last words?

With his remaining strength, Sonic spoke up.

"Guac… I like that word…"

Sonic slumps over on the ground and Merlene glares up at Robotnik.

"Screw you, Eggman."

Just then, Tom appears behind Robotnik via a Ring portal.

"I don't hae to tell you how many scientific breakthroughs have been made possible by animal testing. You're being very selfish."

"Going my way?"

Robotnik notices Tom.

"What the—"

Tom punches Robotnik, knocking his flight glasses off his head, and the two start fighting inside the Egg-pod. Robotnik grabs Tom by his shirt.

"Who the hell do you think you are?!"

Tom breaks free and punches Robotnik again and grabs him.

"I'm the Donut Lord, you son of a–"

Tom gets elbowed by Robotnik and he is thrown off the Egg-pod when Robotnik jerks the steering yoke and Tom lands on the ground.

"Autopilot, adjust!"

Robotnik puts his flight goggles back on his head and Maddie rushes to Tom.

"Why? Why would you throw your life away for these… thing? That's why I don't have friends. Next thing you know, you're somebody's best man, they want to have the wedding out of town… Like nobody has anything better to do! Any way, where were we? Oh, yes–you were about to die."

Suddenly, a bullet ricochets off the Egg-pod and we see that it was Wade who fired his gun.

"That's our sheriff you're messing with."

Tom looks up as some of his friends join Wade.

"And our Blue Devil and Neon Blue Angel," Carl holds up a chainsaw.

"Who, as everyone can see, is a very real creature and not at all invented by me!"

Wade gently pushes the chainsaw away.

"Careful. Just–just put it away."

Maddie looks over to an unconscious Sonic and an unmoving, hurt Merlene.

"Tom?"

Tom also sees Sonic unconscious and Merlene hurt in the street, and both of them feel the grief and guilt. He then noticed Merlene's guitar case that was moved away from her along with her two wooden katanas that are now burnt and broken from the blast she took.

"I don't mean to be indelicate here, but someone should get some ice, keep the bodies fresh."

Tom lowers his head.

"They're just silly aliens. They didn't belong here!"

Tom looks over at Robotnik and stand up.

"Those little aliens… knew more about being human… than you ever will. Their names are Sonic and Merlene. This was their home… and they were my friends."

Upon hearing Tom's speech, Sonic immediately opens his eyes and stands up as his body is now supercharged with his energy, not only that but Merlene's body began to heal as the fuchsia energy coming from her necklace is covering her and her body glows light fuchsia, now up and feeling powered, leaving Dr. Robotnik bewildered, and Tom and Maddie smiling.

"He's all yours!"

Tom leads Maddie out of the way.

"Everyone get back!"

Everyone else moves out of the way.

"I think you have something that belongs to us!"

Sonic clenches a fist, which starts to siphon the energy from his quill in Robotnik's Egg-pod until it is no longer glowing and the energy has now been transferred back to Sonic. Merlene did the same as her eyes glowed magenta and the energy from her quill and transferred back to her as they flow into her chest.

"This is our power, and we're not using it to run away anymore. We're using it to protect… our… friends!"

Dr. Robotnik puts on his flight goggles and readies the Egg-pod's concealed weapons, the laser markers pointing at Sonic and Merlene, who sets a start position on the road. Robotnik smirks and fires the weapons and Sonic and Merlene leaps into action, dodging the projectiles and starts to bombard the vehicle with body slams, each barrage increasing in speed until the Egg-pod is now disabled, which infuriates Robotnik.

"Now, you've done it!"

"Guess what, Eggman? We're not leaving Earth. You are!" Merlene grinned.

"Donut Lord?" Sonic called.

Tom nods and takes position behind Robotnik and throws a Ring, opening a portal to the Mushroom Planet. Then, both Robotnik and Sonic and Merlene charge at each other, but with Sonic and Merlene landing a powerful blow to the Egg-pod, sending it and a screaming Dr. Robotnik through the portal and it closes, sealing Robotnik away. The electricity emanating from Sonic fades away along with the fuchsia energy flowing back into Merlene's necklace as her eyes went back to normal Emerald-kelly green, with the crowd cheering for Sonic and Merlene's victory as Tom reunites with them.

"I told you, you got this."

"Hey, WE got this."

Tom holds his hand up for a high-five, which excites Sonic so much, he happily laughs and runs around in a circle at super speed before jumping up and giving Tom a high-five. Tom turns to Merlene for a high-five next, but instead he received a hug from her, surprised him before smiling and hugging her back. Tom hands the Ring satchel back to Sonic.

"I think these belong to you."

"Thank you very much."

Before Tom can give Sonic the Rings, he makes one final "rule".

"No more pushing people off buildings."

"Yeah, Sonic." Merlene glared at him.

"You know I can't promise that." Sonic stated, making her glare even harder.

Tom give the Ring satchel back to Sonic.

"You two did pretty good, space 'hogs'."

"Thanks, Donut Lord." Sonic said.

"You're gonna have to explain this "Donut Lord" thing." Maddie said.

"Nope, sorry." Tom said, making Maddie laugh.

"That's between me and the little guy. Right?"

Sonic nods, while Merlene rolls her eyes.

"We got our own thing, you got your thing with your… sister."

"Oh, my god, my sister." Maddie gasped, forgetting about Rachel.

Meanwhile in Rachel's house, Jojo runs around the house while Rachel is still tied up.

"Gotta go fast! Gotta go fast! Gotta go fast! Gotta go fast!"

"Jojo, put on my Fitbit… So I can at least get some steps." Rachel mumbled.

Back in the night of Green Hills, Montana

"We can never go back there. I kinda feel like I checked the "save a life" box off my bucket list. Now all I want to do is spend my life with the people I care about. I want to check that box." Sonic said.

"Alright, everybody. Nothing to see here. Let's disperse." Wade said, backing everyone away as they go back to their normal routine. "Come on, let's go! You act like you've never seen a fight between an intergalactic space rodents and a robot with a doctorate!"

"Oh, you might need these back."

Maddie brought out her damaged guitar case towards Merlene.

"Thank you, Maddie."

She opens it to see her blue electric guitar safe and sound and unscratched, making her feel relieved.

~ Final Chapter: There's No Place Like Home ~

Everything is back to normal and Tom and Maddie are fixing their house from the attack a couple of days before.

"You got enough there?" he asked.

"Yes, Mr. Manager." She replied.

"Need any more?"

Tom playfully sticks a roller brush in front of Maddie.

"You get that away!"

Suddenly, a knock at the front door. Tom answers it to find Commander Walters on doorstep.

"Mr. and Mrs. Wachowski?"

"Yes?" Tom replied.

Commander Walters reaches into his coat and hands them an envelope.

"A token of appreciation for your government for keeping quiet about recent incidents which never occurred."

"Wow!"

Tom takes the envelope.

"Wonder what it is."

"Money to fix the house?" Maddie guessed.

"Letter from the president?"

"You'll see." Commander Walters said.

"Okay."

Tom opens the envelope, revealing a $50 gift card to Olive Garden.

"Olive Garden." Maddie stated.

"Yeah, heh. The way you said "You'll see" made me think it was something better than the things we said." Tom chuckled.

"Have you tried their Never Ending Pasta Bowl? It never ends!" Commander Walters suggested.

"That sounds… fancy."

"Mm-hmm. Well, thank you. We appreciate the gesture." Maddie said.

"Oh, hey. I guess we can close the file on that Robotnik guy, huh? Just disappeared." Tom asked.

"I'm sorry, but no such person exists or ever has existed."

"I wish that were true."

"You haven't, by any chance, been in contact with a certain two alien creatures since the incident, have you? Uncle Sam would love to have a chat with them. Very casual. Brunch, perhaps." Commander Walters asked, looking around..

"Oh, you mean those two little blue and neon blue fellows? No. No, nothing. No." Tom said.

"Mm-mmm." Maddie shook her head.

"Doubt we'll ever hear from them again."

"Mm-mmm."

"Very well." Commander Walters said.

"Okay. Thank you." Tom said.

"Great." Maddie said.

Commander Walters glances inside the house but Tom slowly closes the door.

"Yep."

Commander Walters tries to peek inside a little more, but the door is now fully closed.

"To be honest, I'm pretty pumped about the pasta bowl."

Tom and Maddie walk into the living room and Sonic and Merlene pokes their head up from behind the couch.

"So, do you guys wanna watch a movie or what?" Sonic suggested.

"Sorry, buddy. It's a school night. It's time for you to go back to your cave." Maddie apologized.

"What?!"

Sonic jumps up from behind and sits on the couch next to Ozzy.

"It's 3:00 in the afternoon!"

"You know how you get when you're tired, come on." Tom urged him.

"He's right, you know." Merlene said, looking fine with the rules.

"Me? I'm not like anything. Ugh, you guys are so uncool!" Sonic groaned.

"Yeah, yeah, we know."

Sonic and Merlene starts making their way to the front door.

"Hey, buddy, where you two going?" Tom asked.

"You said we have to go back to our cave." Sonic pointed out.

"We did."

Tom and Maddie smile. Tom opens the hatch to the attic and they let Sonic and Merlene go in first, and they are visibly surprised that all of their possessions from the cave in the woods are now in the attic.

"Oh, my– Are you kidding me? I can't believe it. How did you– It's– it's all here."

Tom and Maddie climb up as well and Sonic starts zipping around his possessions and furniture with Merlene doing the same but in regular speed as she looks at her books that are started nicely.

"Look at this! Are you kidding?! And the beanbag?! And you got it all the way over–"

Sonic laughs, does a funny dance on his bed and jumps up and down a few times.

"This is amazing!" Merlene laughed, collapsing on her own bed.

"I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it!"

Sonic lays down and then sits up as Tom and Maddie sit next to him as Merlene joins in since her bed is separated from her brother's.

"Well, welcome home." Maddie smiled.

"Thank you, so much." Sonic smiled.

"I'm happy that we met. There's no place like home." Merlene smiled.

As the camera zooms of the attic and shows a bird's eye view of Green Hills, Ozzy starts barking.

"Oh, no, you don't! No second-best animal friends allowed in my room." Sonic said.

Ozzy barks again.

"Wait, what are you doing? Stay away from me! Stop it! I'm warning you, I've got nunchucks! Hey, stop! Okay, you can stay!"

This made Merlene laugh at him.

Meanwhile, in Mushroom Planet

Dr. Robotnik has completely lost his sanity, he is looking zany, and looking at his reflection in a puddle of water as he finishes shaving himself completely bald, and his mustache has long grown-out.

"My grasp on sanity remains… absolute."

He turns his head.

"Isn't that right, Agent Stone?"

He is looking at the stone carving of what is supposed to be Agent Stone. Robotnik picks up the rock.

"Why don't you get a head start?"

He then tosses the rock.

"Do some Rock-Connaissance! HAHAHAHAHA! ROCK-CONNAISSANCE! Come on, that's hilarious!"

Robotnik bumps a mushroom.

"What's the matter with you?!"

He picks up his doctor's log, which reads, DOCTOR'S LOG: DAY 87.

"Here's the "sitch": Uninhabited planet,"

He picks up a large backpack and puts it on his back.

"no resources, no supplies, no apparent way home… A lesser man would die here."

He finally holds up two small canisters housing Sonic and Merlene's quills.

"I'll be home by Christmas."

Robotnik puts the capsule away and puts his flight goggles on and starts imitating a robot, making servo noises with each turn of his body as he walks. He sees the stone carving of Agent Stone again, picks it up, and throws it one last time.

"ROCK-CONNAISSANCE!"

He cackles loudly.

"Come on! Cheer up!"

Back in Green Hills, the leaves began rustling as a Ring portal opens and a yellow two-tailed fox pops out, which is revealed to be Tails, and he is reading the energy levels from Sonic and Merlene from a small handheld device.

"If these reading are accurate, they're here. I found them! I just hope I'm not too late."

Tails uses his tails like a helicopter to fly over the forests and into the town.

~ Epilogue ~

Merlene squirms in her sleep as she toss and turn in her bed, trying to get comfortable. In her dream, she begins to see flashes as she sees a shadow figure, who's short, with two tails and an agile biplane beside him. Then there's a giant tornado with green glow behind ir and it's coming from Green Hills as it showed her the billboard. This made her worry about this as her body begins to sweat. More flashes comes by and he saw another shadow figure, who's tall and muscular, with large, mitten-like gloves and two-spiked knuckles on each hand. She could've sworn she recognize this person from somewhere in her past childhood. Like she knows them… Finally, it revealed the same giant green diamond from before began glowing even brighter than ever.

Before she could do or say anything, an unknown voice called.

"Danger will come… You… are our hope… Stop… him…"

Then a bright light flashes before her eyes, causing her wake up with a gasp. Merlene looks around to find herself in hers and Sonic's attic room. She sighed in relief, feeling the cold sweat on her face. She turned to see her brother sleeping soundly with a snore. Merlene looked down at her emerald necklace and held it, seeing it glowing.

"What was that I saw in my dream?... Who are they?"

She then sighed and lied back down on her bed.

"Whatever I saw must be important."

She glanced at her brother, feeling determined.

"But I'll be ready for anything."

~ Sneak Peek of Sonic 2 Movie ~

Lights flickered on one by one. Cheers were heard and there stood the football field. The golden coin flips high.

"On game day, it all comes down to heads or Tails?" Narrator said.

The coin flips to reveal the friendly, smiley face of Tails. His eyes twinkles like he's winking. The crowd in the bleachers went wild and Tails shows off as he jumps in joy and gives the readers a smile.

"See what we did there?" Sonic asked, zooming in ext to Tails.

"You know it!" Merlene exclaimed, skidding her feet to a stop and standing next to Tails on other side.

A big thud was heard and they turned to see Knuckles landed next to Merlene in a dramatic pose before standing up.

"The showdown begins."

The title shows "Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Big Game Spot". Merlene glances at Knuckles with surprised look on her face as he gives her a wink. Tails looks at Knuckles with unsure look whilst Sonic couldn't care less and turns to the readers with a famous smile. Knuckles glares at Sonic and punches his fists. This made Merlene roll her eyes at this and gives the readers a salute. Tails looks back at the readers, looking confused.

A pair of Sonic's red shoes runs through the ocean in slow motion before he's back to running in speed.

"Sonic the Hedgehog. You're no match for me." Knuckles said in a deep voice.

The ring portal reveals Knuckles the Echidna with a glare on his face as his purple eyes glows.

"Oh, boy…" Sonic mumbled.

In Green Hills, the giant glowing green tornado spins with lightning striking as the G.U.N. soldiers, Commander, Tom, and Maddie standing before it, staring at such destruction.

"This is your moment to be the big hero." Tom said, sitting in the boat.

Sonic's body and eyes glowed bright blue as he clenches his fist, glaring at his rival. Merlene shows next with her eyes glowing magenta, holding her katana and a glowing fuchsia whip as she glare daggers.

Through the fiery smoke, Knuckles appears with a snowboard on his feet and lands with a grunt, catching up to Sonic and Merlene, who're snow boarding.

"Oh, great. The Winter Solider." Sonic said.

"Why am I friends with him in the first place? He's too good!" Merlene groaned, rubbing her face as she snow boards.

Before the chase, Sonic and Merlene did a flip with their snow board as they free fall from the snowy mountain with a cheer. Then they dragged their hand towards the snow of the mountain. Next scene revealed the stairs that leads down the temple that's covered by the waterfalls.

The scene skips to show Knuckles and Robotnik along with the flying egg 'bots, standing in front of the big green beam that's powered by the Master Emerald. Surprisingly, Merlene was also there all tied up next to Knuckles, who's holding her arm rather gently.

"It was my destiny to destroy you."

The scene shows Knuckles and Sonic having a face-off as their body glows. Look like Sonic got to kick Knuckles down as he landed on his back.

"I'm sorry… destroy?!" Merlene questioned in shock.

Glowing Knuckles is now on the rocky ceiling as he glare daggers at Sonic before zooming down. Then it showed Merlene standing in the middle on the top of the temple where the Master Emerald is guarded. Not only that, the one that shocked Merlene the most is those two giant statues of… Longclaw. Sonic and Knuckles fly toward each other and clashes their arms together in a big flash, glaring at each other.

"Work smarter. Not harder." Robotnik advised Knuckles, who looks up at him.

"For once, he's got the point…" Merlene mumbled quietly.

Then, the biplane where Tails is flying with Sonic and Merlene on top of the wings are facing off against the giant robot called the Death Egg. Its eyes glowed green where the chest is glowing also. It begins firing rockets at Sonic, Merlene, and Tails.

"Hang on!" Tails warned before flipping the biplane, dodging them all.

Sonic and Merlene held on tight.

"Whoa!"

"Whoo!"

The rockets behind them exploded.

"Nice one, Tails!" Merlene praised, looking at him over her shoulder.

"That wasn't too bad." Sonic said before laughing.

He was cut off by the last rocket as it knocked him off the biplane. Tails and Merlene snapped their head towards where Sonic was knocked off in shock.

Back to where it all started as Knuckles punched his fists, making them glow bright red and it skips to where he easily punch Sonic down to the ground, creating big red explosion. Then goes Merlene pointing her blade towards the surprising Knuckles, standing protectively in front of the down Sonic.

Finally, back to the temple, Sonic zooms through the hallway, dodging past the activated traps with a serious and determined glare. The end shows the title with the release date.

BONUS

In the theater, Merlene, Sonic, and Tails are watching the Sonic the Hedgehog 2020 Movie in their 3D glasses. Suddenly, Tails heard a thump and turned to see Knuckles in his 3D glasses as he watches with them. But what bothers him is his big glove hand is on the arm rest. Tails tap his fist to get his attention to move. But Knuckles was unfazed and just stare at him before looking back at the screen. Merlene noticed this and frowned. Tails stands up on his seat and with much strength, he tries to move Knuckles' big hand but he was hard as a rock. Knuckles just stares at him like 'really?' Tails' fluffy twin tails accidentally grazes Sonic in the face.

"Hey!"

"Shh!" Tails and Merlene shushed him.

Knuckles' gloved hands glowed bright red and he punched them, giving Sonic and Tails an intimidating glare with a growl. This surprised Merlene and worried for what's gonna happen next. Luckily, about a second later, he looks back at the screen and rests his arms on each arm rests like it was nothing and looking dangerously calm. This left her relieved. Sonic shrugs it off and went back to watching the movie. Tails crossed his arms and sat back down on his seat with a pout, huffing. Shaking her head, Merlene gets out of her seat and walks over to Tails. She gestures him to take her seat instead and switch places. He shook his head in decline, but she gives him a head pat with a little kiss on the head. This made him eventually switch seats with her as he gives her a smile in appreciation. Merlene nods with a smile and sits down between Sonic and Knuckles. Knuckles glances at her and looks away, blushing a little. Merlene gives him a pat on his big gloved hand.

~ Another Sneak Peak of Sonic 2 Movie ~

In Hawaii, the sounds of ukulele was being played as Rachel and her fiance are getting married where the pastor is standing in the middle, speaking the will.

"These rings signify the commitment–"

He was cut off by "Green Hill Zone" ringtone coming from Tom's phone. They all look at him as he struggled to find his phone.

"So help me, Thomas!" Rachel yelled in annoyance.

"Sorry, sorry."

Tom picked it up to see Sonic's profile and answered.

In the middle of the avalanche, Sonic and Merlene are snowboarding while he's holding the unconscious Tails, much to Merlene's worry, as he calls Tom. Merlene looks back at the avalanche that's coming closer.

"Life or death situation! I need you to use the ring to save us. Like, right now."

"Yeah, we have a bit of a problem on our way!"

Merlene sees the Egg Bots flying towards them. She then noticed Knuckles is catching up.

Tom throws the ring to where Rachel and her fiance stand and opened the portal where they can see Sonic, Merlene, and Tails snowboarding away from the avalanche.

Everybody was surprised.

"Snow my God." Rachel gasped.

"Oh. boy." Tom mumbled.

"Incoming!" Sonic warned.

Before he, Merlene, and Tails could get through, Knuckles tackled Merlene to the side as they went rolling, leaving only Sonic and Tails to go as they crashed through the wedding. Everyone moved out of the way as a pile of snow comes through, covering them all.

"Ah, Hawaii." Sonic groaned, sitting up and all covered with snow.

"I just hope we're not too late." Tails said in determination, who's in Green Hills.

"Oh, Lord, there are two of them now." Rachel stuttered, staring at Sonic and Tails.

"What's happening?" Maddie asked with worry.

Tom and Maddie came up to Sonic and Tails.

"Okay, quick version: Robotnik is back."

In space, a big blue explosion was made and a big white egg-shaped ship is coming down to Earth. Robotnik's laughter was echoed as his ship made a safe landing. Robotnik comes in through the coffee shop where Agent Stone worked.

"I've discovered the source of ultimate power."

Robotnik's hands hovered over the floating Master Emerald, feeling the power radiating off of it. Skip to where Robotnik and Knuckles were shown together, with Merlene all tied up as Knuckles held her by the arm rather gently, parting the sea showing the entrance to Master Emerald's lair.

"Oh!" Robotnik exclaimed in surprise.

"Whoa!" Merlene exclaimed, just as surprise as him, making Knuckles smirk at her.

Sonic walks to where Robotnik, Knuckles, and Merlene have gone, eyeing the temple of the Master Emerald.

"We need to get it back or the world is doomed."

In Mushroom Planet, the portal ring showed a shadow figure of Knuckles coming through, eyes glowing red.

In Green Hills, Knuckles crashes through the truck, chasing after Sonic, Tails, and Merlene, who're in the police car with her brother driving.

"You brought some kind of…" Agent Stone started, staring at Knuckles, who walks in.

"Hmm." Knuckles grunted.

"...space porcupine."

Knuckles twisted his arm after Agent Stone held out a hand for him to shake, making him yell in pain and kneel on his knees.

"Ohhh!"

"I am an echidna warrior."

Unfazed, Robotnik takes a sip of the latte Agent Stone made for him. He smacks his lips with a hum.

"Hmm."

"Hedgehogs…"

Tom, Maddie, and G.U.N. Agents stand before the green tornado.

"...it's time to say goodbye to humanity."

G.U.N. Agents held out their weapons at the coffee shop as Robotnik comes out, floating mid-air, his black suit covered in green all powered up by the Master Emerald. He blasted out green lightning towards the vehicles as he tore them apart, creating a Death Egg.

"Welcome…"

Robotnik begins to float, creating a tornado in the process.

"...to the new norm!"

In the ice template, Sonic, Merlene, and Tails walks in towards the statue of Longclaw.

"This is your moment to be the big hero." Tom advised.

Sonic, Merlene, Tails stares up at the statue in disbelief.

"Bad time to say this, but I don't actually have a plan."

"seriously?!"

Merlene reads the ancient words below the statue, eyes and necklace glowing fuchsia, and flips them, knowing the code. It causes the statue to move and raises its wings and the entire room to glow green. Suddenly, the red dot was on Tails' head. Sonic and Merlene noticed it.

"Hey, you got a little something on your–"

Tails taps his head with a finer to find nothing until more red laser dots are pointed at him.

"Uh, guys?"

Merlene pointed at something up ahead. They looked up to see Robotnik riding his Egg Mobile with Knuckles holding onto the side along with the flying Egg Bots.

"Oh, boy." Sonic frowned.

"Someone call an uber? It's cold in here." Robotnik joked.

More red laser dots are pointed at Sonic and Merlene's head. They glare up at Robotnik and Knuckles as they're completely surrounded.

"Let's turn up the heat."

Robotnik presses the button and activated the missile and launched it at them.

"Sonic! Merlene!" Tails shouted.

Sonic and Merlene spin dashes at the Egg Bots and crashes it. It explodes and in slow motion, they caught the parts of it and launches out of the mountains of snow. They uses it as a snowboard as they skid their hands through the snow before placing their feet on it, gliding down the snow.

"Hoo hoo hoo!"

"Yeah, baby!"

Through the fiery smoke, Knuckles appears with a snowboard on his feet and lands with a grunt, catching up to Sonic and Merlene, who're snow boarding.

"Oh, great. The Winter Solider." Sonic said.

"Why am I friends with him in the first place? He's too good!" Merlene groaned, rubbing her face as she snow boards.

Knuckles comes between them and knocks Sonic to the side of the rocky wall. Merlene glares and kicks Knuckles in the stomach, causing him to kneel in pain while snowboarding.

"No one hurts my brother like that!"

In Seattle, Sonic comes inside the truck and kicks the robber off.

"Fear not, citizens."

"You are terrible at this!" Man glared at him.

"Your negative attitude isn't helping." Sonic glared back.

"He's not wrong." Merlene said, looking at the road ahead of them.

"Hey! I'm trying!"

The robber tosses the bomb into the sewer that causes the aters to sprung up. Sonic and Merlene jumps out of the truck and speeds away.

"Ha ha ha haaa!"

Tom and Maddie drive after Sonic and Merlene, who're down and injured from the blow of Death Egg behind them with the Master Emerald just a few feet away from them.

"We stick together. No matter what." Tom said to the injured Sonic and Merlene.

Merlene helps her brother up as he picks up the Emerald before being carried inside the truck by Maddie just as Death Egg was about to step on them.

Knuckles beats down Sonic that causes big red explosion.

Sonic, Merlene, and Tails flying the Tornado towards Death Egg.

"Unlike Merlene, you're unskilled…" Knuckles spoke.

Death Egg begins firing rockets at Sonic, Merlene, and Tails.

"Hang on!" Tails warned before flipping the biplane, dodging them all.

Sonic and Merlene held on tight.

"...untrained…"

Back in Hawaii, Rachel rides the golf cart and spins it around. Explosion and fires were made behind her as she gave a gesture to slicing her neck with a thumb.

Robotnik's body glowed green along with his eyes as he smiles maliciously.

"...unworthy!"

In slow motion, Robotnik dodges to the side for Knuckles to come straight towards Sonic with his fist up, glowing red. Sonic's eyes widened in shock as his fist glowed blue that was meant to punch Robotnik. Merlene comes down the stairs just in time to see what was happening as Sonic crashes through the wall and outside of the house, rolling around in the backyard. He got up, wiping his cheek.

"You forgot one."

Sonic kneels down in his running position, blue lightning coming out from his body. He glares up in determination as his green eyes turn to glowing blue ones.

"Unstoppable."

Sonic runs through the ocean, heading towards the Master Emerald's lair where the green light is.

In mid-air, Sonic punches Knuckles down to the ground, making a big hole. He skids back, managing to hit him as Knuckles landed on his back. Glowing Knuckles is now on the rocky ceiling as he glare daggers at Sonic and kicks himself off. Sonic lets out an angry yell as he flies towards Knuckles with his fist up. Then it showed Merlene standing in the middle on the top of the temple where the Master Emerald is guarded. Sonic and Knuckles fly toward each other and collides their arms together in a big flash, glaring angrily.

"Stand still and die!"

Sonic is dodging Knuckles' rapid punches.

"For a guy named Knuckles, you are really bad at punching."

"I wouldn't say that if I was you." Merlene warned from above the Master Emerald.

Knuckles growled angrily and punched Sonic towards the waterfall before he could land a hit on him. Merlene sighed, shaking her head.

"Told ya."