After about an hour of driving, The Equestria Girls, CMCs, Sonic, and Spike eventually found a small motel for a few hours of sleep, much to Rarity’s chagrin. After checking in and using Pinkie’s emergency cash to pay at the front desk, the gang was divided into small groups to their own rooms: one room for Rarity and Applejack, one for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, one for Pinkie and the CMCs, and last one for Sunset, Twilight, Sonic, and Spike.
After settling in, the gang hung out in Sunset and Twilight’s room to evaluate the situation. For Fluttershy’s case, she was placing some ice she got from the ice tub into the cloth as a makeshift ice pack for Rainbow Dash, much to the Rainbow’s annoyance.
"There you go Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy soothed as she handed an ice pack over to Rainbow. "Just keep holding it over your cheek to reduce the swelling for a while. No exceptions!"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Yes, Mom!" she replied sarcastically before taking the ice pack from Fluttershy and placed it on her right cheek.
Meanwhile, Sonic, no longer wearing his disguise, was retelling his experience during a brawl from the arcade to the girls and Spike from the other side of the room.
"The floors were sticky, the crowd was rough and the odds were against us, but there was no stopping The Rainbooms, the CMCs, and the Blue Blur!" He then sat down and took out his pencil and list from his quills. "Anyway, better scratch another one off my list!"
Sonic immediately drew a line over the words "start a brawl" from his list.
Twilight frowned as she was petting her dog. “But you still haven’t explained how you run so fast! Normally, it’s physically impossible for a living creature to go that fast!”
“Yeah, from the way you take everyone out at the arcade, you were even faster than Rainbow Dash!” Spike added, only to cringe when she felt the person in question were glaring daggers at him. “Uh, no offense.”
Rainbow Dash only grunted in response, putting a bit more pressure on her ice pack.
Sonic simply shrugged. “To tell you the truth, I’m not too sure either. I have this power since I was born, so it felt natural to me.” He then rubbed his chin in a thoughtful pose. “Though, I suppose the best way to describe it… it’s like I can suddenly make everything around me stop time temporarily.”
“Like… pausing a TV show?” Rarity offered.
“Yes… and no,” Sonic replied. “While everything and everyone around me seemed like they stopped, they can still technically move… but really, reaaaaaaallllllllllly slow.”
“Oh! Like Tank?” Pinkie asked with a chirp.
Sonic titled his head. “Tank?”
“Rainbow’s pet tortoise!” Fluttershy clarified for Pinkie.
Sonic faced Rainbow with a curious expression. “You have a pet tortoise?”
Rainbow blinked, taken aback by Sonic's curiosity. “Uh… yes?”
Sonic immediately speeds over to Rainbow with a smile, making the athlete jump.
“Wow, that's so cool!” Sonic exclaimed excitedly. “What’s he like? Why was he named Tank? Is he a fast tortoise?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head and slightly backed away from an excitable hedgehog. "You are one weird little dude," she commented as she placed an ice pack over her cheek.
"We're getting a little off track," Twilight interjected, as she was adjusting her glasses. "So what you're saying is that sometimes you can go so fast, your perception of time slows to a crawl."
Sonic nodded. "Yeah, that's pretty much it!"
Twilight smiled. "I gotta say, Sonic, you are more and more intriguing every single new thing we learn about you and your powers." Her eyes then became wide and shining in curiosity and wonder. "I would love to run some experiments with you to test out your speed… non-life-threatening of course."
"Settle down there Twi," Applejack spoke up. "Ah hate to be that gal, but we still need to focus on our task at hand."
"AJ's right," Sunset added. "We need to get to Manehattan now more than ever. It's bad enough that the government and Tempest are chasing us, now Robotnik knows the secret about our magic and Equestria."
Fluttershy had a worried frown. "Ooh, I don't even want to think about what would happen if they catch us! They're probably going to experiment us to no end and we'll never see our families again!"
Fluttershy whimpered in fear, but she was comforted by Pinkie.
"Don't you worry, Flutter Butter!" Pinkie chirped as she brought her friend into a hug. "They won't catch us. And even if they did, your Auntie Pinkie Pie will be here to protect you."
"...you know that I'm a year older than you, right?" Fluttershy muttered with an annoyed expression.
While the group was having a conversation, Rainbow Dash focused on holding her ice pack on her cheek. Sonic, who was both curious and intrigued with Rainbow’s action, grabbed some of Fluttershy’s spare cloth and placed it on his cheek. Rainbow grunted as she shifted her ice pack around slightly. Sonic copied Rainbow's actions by making a grunting noise and shifting his own "ice pack".
Annoyed by Sonic’s actions, Rainbow placed her ice pack down and gave him a flat look.
"Okay, you went from one weird little dude to one really weird little dude!"
Not bothered by Rainbow’s comment, Sonic eagerly placed his cloth down. "So, what are we gonna do now?"
"Yeah! Are we gonna do some fun stuff like from your slumber parties?" Sweetie Belle asked her sister eagerly.
Rarity let out a tired sigh. "Well I, for one, just gonna pass out watching TV. I'm far too exhausted today." She gave her sister a stern look. "And you should too."
Sweetie frowned. "Aw… do we have to?"
"We're only here to get a quick rest, not to have fun," Applejack cuts in. "We need some energy fer our travels, Sugarcube. So I kindly suggest you get some sleep. And that goes double fer you, Apple Bloom!"
"And you as well, squirt!" Rainbow added while glancing at her surrogate sister.
The CMCs groaned in protest but didn't complain further. Sonic, however, spoke up in protest.
"But this is my last night on Earth! I wanna soak up every last second!"
"Well… you can find something to do in this room," Sunset suggested. "Go ahead and knock yourself out."
Sonic glanced around the room with a smirk, already thinking of many fun possibilities he can do.
Before any of them could blink, Sonic was zipping around the room. Sonic was moving around so fast, they had a hard time keeping track of him. They managed to catch a glimpse of him doing all sorts of activities like messing around with the television from the wall, spinning on a wall painting, pulling many tissues out of a box, popping in and out of one of the dresser’s drawers, holding a pillow fight with himself, and even standing on one of the wall lights above the bed with a lampshade on his head, but was balancing over the ledge.
A second later, Sonic ran into the bathroom, only to come out and cover the room with toilet paper. Then another second, he ran into the bathroom again and closed the door. After various sounds of toilet flushing, teeth brushing, and water running in a span of a second, the bathroom door opened again and the blue blur zoomed out of the bathroom. They finally saw Sonic sitting on the bed next to Rainbow Dash with towels wrapped around his waist and head and wearing one of the motel’s fluffy slippers.
“Good times,” Sonic commented with a relaxed smile.
Everyone smiled and shook their heads, amused at Sonic’s antics. Then they all immediately grimaced in disgust when they heard Sonic “break wind” loudly a second later.
“Ugh! Really!?” Rainbow exclaimed in annoyance.
Rarity immediately pinched her nose with her right hand while fanning the smell away from her with her left hand. "Good heavens! What did you eat!?"
Sonic paused, knitting his eyebrows in thought. "Well, I don't know what it's called, but it's the same stuff I usually had from Crazy Lyra and then Brainiac the other day."
Twilight blinked. "You mean a chili dog?"
"Yeah, that's it!” Sonic cried enthusiastically before licking his lips in satisfaction. “Hmm. Love that stuff!"
Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. "Well, you might wanna check your fur on that one dude!" she said before she resumed her ice pack.
Sunset shook her head before she sat on her bed. “So Sonic, what's this next planet you're supposed to go to like?”
“It's no Earth, I can tell you that,” Sonic sighed as he removed his towel from his head. “There's no people, just breathable air and giant mushrooms and stuff.”
There was silence in the room as everyone stared at the hedgehog with looks of pity and uncertainty. No one said anything until Twilight spoke up.
"Well, look at the bright side,” said Twilight, trying to cheer him up. “At least you won't be the only fungi!"
Twilight glanced at her friends with a smile, expecting to hear a laugh from her clever joke. Unfortunately, all of her friends, including Sonic, had flat expressions before giving her a not-so-great reception from her attempt at humor.
"Oh dear," Fluttershy muttered.
"Boo! Bad mushroom joke!" Rainbow Dash jeered.
"Seriously Twi?" Applejack exclaimed.
"No. Don't ever do that again," Sonic deadpanned.
"I agree. That was terrible!" Spike added.
"Even I thought that joke was lame," Pinkie commented.
Even the CMCs weren’t giving Twilight any mercy.
"Mushroom pun? Seriously?" Scootaloo scoffed.
"Mah puns are better than dat!" Apple Bloom added.
"Yeah, your joke stinks!" said Sweetie Belle.
"Now Sweetie Belle, that's not a nice thing to say,” Rarity scolded before adding, ”Even if her joke does stink!"
Twilight threw her arms up. "Oh c’mon! It's a good one!"
Pinkie shook her head. "Twily, we love you, but leave the jokes to the experts… like me!"
Twilight crossed her arms with a pout. "Hmph! Well, I thought it was funny!"
Sunset patted her friend with a comforting smile. As everyone chuckled at Twilight’s expense, Sonic watched on with a sad smile.
Man, I'm really gonna miss this place. He thought. I know I have to leave Earth to be safe, but what if Longclaw was wrong? Maybe... I could have a life here...
Sonic quickly shook his head. As much as he would love the idea of staying on Earth forever, it was nothing more than sad wishful thinking. He caused enough trouble for himself and these kind girls already. He needs to get his rings soon so that he can leave for both his and these girls’ sake.
Applejack checked the time from the digital clock, which was on the dresser. “Whelp… looks like it’s time for shut-eye. We should all get some sleep so we can be on da road by eight.”
The CMC’s were about to protest again, but after they received a stern glare from their sisters, they relented. Sonic however was not about to give up.
“You sleep. Don't worry about me. I'm gonna stay up all night, enjoying Earth while I ca–”
Before he could finish his sentence, Sonic suddenly collapsed on the mattress of the bed. Before anyone could voice out in concern, they heard a snore coming from a now sleeping blue hedgehog.
Twilight chuckled at the site. "Well… that was quick!"
Fluttershy smiled. "You know, he may be some hedgehog creature, but if you look past all of that, he's just a kid."
"And a cute kid at that!" Pinkie added in agreement.
Applejack nodded before getting up. "Welp, that critter had the right idea. Time to get some shut-eye!"
The girls, sans Sunset and Twilight, followed Applejack out of the room, bidding each other good night before heading to their rooms. With Sonic sleeping in his bed and Spike sleeping on the foot of the other bed, Twilight and Sunset were the only ones who were still awake. As Twilight was heading to bed, Sunset stared at her with a concerned expression.
"You okay Twilight?" Sunset asked.
"Just tired, but nothing like some sleep won’t fix," Twilight responded.
"I mean with everything that happened," Sunset clarified. "With fleeing from our homes, our encounter with Robotnik and Agent Tempest, and that brawl from the arcade."
Twilight sighed as she got under the covers. "I'll admit, it's been stressful and a little scary, but I know with you girls on my side, we'll be fine."
"And what about..." Sunset paused, hesitant for a moment. "Well… you know."
Twilight frowned, knowing what Sunset was referring to. "You mean about finding out that I was adopted?"
Sunset didn’t respond to Twilight, but her silence pretty much answered for her.
Twilight let out a heavy sigh, placing her glasses on a nightstand next to her. "I'm… still processing that, but don't worry about it… I'll be fine."
Sunset furrowed her brows. "Are you sure Twilight? We can still talk about–"
"I said I'm fine!" Twilight snapped.
Sunset flinched, taken aback by Twilight’s harsh response. Seeing Sunset’s hurt expression made Twilight feel guilty for the way she responded to her friend, knowing that Sunset was trying to help her.
"I'm… I'm sorry Sunset," Twilight said solemnly. "I didn’t mean to snap at you. We… had a long day and I'm too tired right now. Can… we talk about this another time?"
Despite wanting to help her friend, Sunset didn’t want to push her either, so she relented and decided to give her some space for now.
"Of course Twilight, I understand," Sunset said gently with a smile. "I'll be here to listen when you are ready to talk, okay?"
"Thank you, Sunset," said Twilight before letting out a yawn. "Well… goodnight."
Before Sunset could say anything, Twilight shut her eyes and immediately turned away from her, causing Sunset to frown.
"Goodnight… Twilight," Sunset said quietly.
Sunset let out a low sigh. She hated that she couldn’t do anything to help her friend, especially when she knew that Twilight was suffering. All she could do for now was to wait and be there for Twilight whenever she needed her. But even so, that doesn’t make her feel any better. She can’t help but blame herself that her friends kept on suffering today all because of her. She wondered if things would work out better for everyone if she hasn’t come here in the first place.
Sunset then remembered Princess Twilight’s offer from earlier. Perhaps, it was probably for the best that she no longer has any purpose in this world soon. As soon as the hedgehog leaves this world after retrieving his rings and then getting out of this mess, she’ll return to Equestria and sealed the portal for good so that she and the Equestria magic will no longer cause any trouble.
Speaking of the hedgehog...
Sunset then turned her head at the sleeping hedgehog, who was just laying haphazardly on the side, muttering something about chili dogs. Shaking her head, Sunset made her way over to him and gently pulled a blanket over him. She then noticed Sonic’s list, which was placed on the nightstand beside him. Curious, Sunset picked up his list and took a peek at it. To her astonishment, nearly everything on his list was crossed out, all except for one, which was in the middle of the list. The only thing on his list that wasn't crossed out, was “make a real friend”.
Sunset’s eyes softened as she stared at the list and then at the sleeping hedgehog with pity. While this hedgehog was a handful, he is easy to get along with once she looks past his appearance. It also helps that he is also very friendly, fun, and funny too… to a certain extent. But at the end of the day, this poor little guy is lonely… and she has her magic to thank for that. That was another thing to add to her never-ending pile of guilt. As much as she wanted to come clean with him right away, she still has to focus on their mission.
Maybe, Sunset thought. If things worked out… perhaps we can be…
"Breaking News!"
Sunset quickly turned her head towards a loud source, which was the TV, and her eyes widened. Instead of a scheduled program, it was some News Show with a gray globe backdrop and the red words “Breaking News” flashing on the screen’s bottom-left corner. What got Sunset’s attention was profile pictures of her and her friends were on screen too.
A young female newscaster, who was wearing a purple dress shirt with long three-tone purple hair, brown eyes, and freckles on both her cheeks began to speak.
“Earlier, a small group of teenage girls are accused of domestic terrorism at Canterlot High and possibly the entire city of Canterlot. The same group was also accused of kidnapping three younger girls, who happened to be siblings to some of the suspects from the same school. Those suspects in question are Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Twilight Sparkle, and Sunset Shimmer. These girls are currently on the run and are considered to be armed and dangerous. Any information regarding their whereabouts should be reported to local authorities immediately. I’m Spotlight Splash and you’re watching Equestria Daily News!”
Sunset felt her heart rate going up and her stomach filled with dread after watching the news. Not only she and her friends have now become the most wanted people in the country, but there is also a huge manhunt underway by the authorities, making their travel to Manehatten much more difficult.
It was right then and there that Sunset realized that the worst has yet to come.
Agent Tempest Shadow has been power walking on a highway for the past several hours. She felt her feet ache with each step, but she kept herself focused and pushed on for the sake of the mission. She thought about flagging down a random driver to hitch a ride a few times but decided against it. The last thing she wanted to do was to get an innocent civilian involved and risk her actions being traced back to base.
Tempest eventually reached the gas station on the outskirts of town. She sighed in relief, glad that she could finally take a short break for her aching feet. Just as Tempest was about to enter the mini-mart, she noticed a huge crowd outside of what appears to be an arcade and restaurant across the gas station. What really caught her attention was that the local authorities and some government agents were also among the crowd.
What happened here? she thought.
Against her better judgment, she decided to make her way over towards the arcade building near the crowd out of curiosity. As she was getting closer, she could hear the people, both teens, and adults, chattering among themselves with bewildered expressions. Tempest suspected that whatever happened here must have riled these people up.
When Tempest spotted one of the agents in front of her, she spoke up.
"Hey, excu–"
Suddenly, a pair of hands popped out of the bushes and then was placed over Tempest’s mouth, keeping her from screaming. Before Tempest could fully process this, she was quickly pulled into the bush, before the other agent could notice her. The other agent turned his head over after hearing a commotion, only to shrug and turned his head back when he saw nothing.
Tempest struggled as she was pulled completely into the bush by an unknown assailant. She repeatedly elbowed and kicked someone behind her, trying to get some creep to let go. Just when she was about to use her advanced defense move, she barely heard the creep in question in a hushed voice.
"Ow! Boss, Boss it's me!"
Tempest stopped struggling when she realized that familiar voice. Her hunch was correct after she turned to see her partner, who was rubbing his sore face and leg with a low painful grunt due to her attacks.
"Grubber!?" Tempest exclaimed. "What are–"
Her question was cut off when Grubber suddenly shushed her, much to her annoyance. He quickly glanced behind him, checking to see if there was anyone who heard them before addressing Tempest again.
"Follow me and be quiet” Grubber whispered. “I’ll explain once we’re away from here."
Grubber turned and ran off before Tempest could say a single word. With a huff, she followed her partner, determined to get to grill him and get the bottom of this. They eventually reached the back of the arcade building where no one was around, finally allowing Tempest to get some answers.
“What the heck is going Grubber!” Tempest hissed quietly, trying to keep herself from screaming. “What are you doing here? You were supposed to be keeping an eye on Robotnik!"
Grubber gave Tempest his deadpan expression as he was listing things off with his fingers. "Well, for one thing, you took my car. It's hard to do my job when you took my only means of transportation."
"...oh," Tempest responded, letting out an awkward cough. "Well… then how did you get here?"
Grubber rolled his eyes. "For your information, I had to call and wait for G.U.N. to send me another vehicle before I trailed after you," he stated, pointing at his new motorbike near the alleyway. "Although, I'm surprised that I got here before you!"
Tempest frowned. "I told you that I can handle it!” she poked Grubber’s chest a few times with little force. “And you still could've gone back to town and followed Robotnik and kept him and his team off of those girls!"
“But Boss, after everything that happened, finding you was my top priority!”
Tempest frowned deeper. "What are you talking about?"
Grubber blinked. "You mean… you haven't heard?"
Tempest cocked an eyebrow. "About what?"
Grubber was silent for a moment as if he was silently debating if he should tell his boss or not. But after receiving a hard glare from Tempest, Grubber relented.
“Robotnik… framed you, boss.”
Tempest’s eyes widened. “What!?”
Grubber flinched from Tempest’s angry shout, avoiding her wrath. “C-c-calm down boss!”
Tempest narrowed her eyes, silently demanding Grubber to start talking, to which he got the message.
“A-after your run-in with him at that one girl’s house, h-he told the higher-ups that you went rogue after knocking him out.” He explained, causing Tempest to growl. He gulped. “He… he claimed that you were after these girls yourself so that you could claim their power.”
Tempest opened her mouth to protest.
“I know, I know… it’s technology ‘magic’,” Grubber quickly cuts in, knowing what she was about to ask. “But Robotnik doesn’t believe in magic. You and I both know that this is all nonsense to him since he’s a science person.”
Tempest shuts her mouth, but her expression tells Grubber to continue.
“A-anyway… He told the higher-ups that you planned to harness all the girls’ powers so that you can use them to overthrow the country… and the world… all so you can take revenge on everyone for how you were treated due to your– um… ‘background’… despite being adopted by Commander Walters.”
With a furious expression, Tempest shook her head. "No! Those are lies! I would never betray them!"
Grubber raised both his palms in front of her. "I know, I know… I believe you!" He insisted. When Tempest calmed down somewhat, Grubber sighed. "He has everyone fooled! The only one who doesn’t fall for his lie was your fath– I mean, Commander Walters. Unfortunately, he was outvoted by the majority of the base, and they ordered your arrest. So I came all this way to warn you before the other agents caught you!"
Tempest tightened her fist in rage. Darn him… he must be framing me on purpose in hopes of me getting captured and arrested, so no one will be in his way!
Tempest breathed through her nose to calm herself slightly. “So that’s why you came out here? Just to warn me?”
Grubber rubbed his neck. “Well… it was part of the reason. You being framed wasn't even the worst of it!" He then took out his cell phone. “Those girls have also made it into the news!”
Tempest’s eyes widened. “They what?”
To demonstrate, Grubber opened the news app on his phone and played the news video that was broadcast earlier before showing it to Tempest.
“Earlier, a small group of teenage girls are accused of domestic terrorism at Canterlot High and possibly the entire city of Canterlot. The same group was also accused of kidnapping three younger girls, who happened to be siblings to some of the suspects from the same school. Those suspects in question–"
"Wha… When did this happen!?" Tempest demanded, nearly shouting.
Grubber shushed her. "It was shortly after you and those girls left town that Robotnik deemed them as high-level threats, making them number one most wanted in the country. He even went as far as feeding the media claims that everything that happened in the city was due to their terrorist plot."
Tempest felt her jaw slack, couldn’t believe what she was hearing. "That's… that's ridiculous! They're just teenage girls!"
"Not according to Robotnik," Grubber said with a sigh. "Especially after seeing them using their 'powers' at one girl's house."
"And what about those three other girls who are with them?" Tempest asked with dread.
"They're the younger siblings to our girls!" Grubber answered. "They somehow got dragged into it and are on Robotnik’s radar as well! He believes anyone who is with them, is just as big of a threat!"
Tempest rubbed one side of her temple with a long sigh. Great. So now their younger sisters are involved in this mess too! This will make things much more complicated.
She shook her head. "Well, regardless of what he 'thinks', that's not how we handle things! We're trying to keep things under wrap, not making noise! He's causing more problems than necessary!"
Grubber nodded. “I agree, but unfortunately, he already convinced G.U.N. to make their 'crimes' public. And to add one more nugget of 'good' news, he traced these girls here when they used one of the public phones near that gas station.”
“They were here!?” Tempest nearly yelled, causing Grubber to shush her again.
“Yes. But it was also reported that they fled the scene after they caused a racket at that Arcade place.”
Once again, Grubber showed Tempest his phone. This time, it was a photo gallery of the inside of the arcade building. However, the photo itself contained a damaged state of the arcade, such as a turned-over machine, broken tables and chairs, and even marks on the walls. Each photo Grubber showed Tempest was worse than the other, causing Tempest’s eyes to widen further as he goes.
"These girls… did all of this!?" Tempest stated quietly in shock.
"Well, yes… and no," Grubber replied as he kept swiping his phone. "While those girls were involved, this whole chaos was caused by some kid."
Tempest blinked. “A… kid?”
“Yes.”
Grubber eventually found what he was looking for on his phone and presented it to Tempest again. “Take a look here. This was recorded by one of the patrons of that place.”
As Grubber pressed play on the video on his phone, Tempest watched carefully as the footage played out in front of her. The footage itself was loud due to the shouting in the background and a little shaky, presuming the video took place during the fight within the arcade. She cringed somewhat as random people threw their fists or hit each other with various items. She wondered where security was when this fight happened and considered giving the owner of the place a piece of her mind.
Suddenly she heard a shout and the footage quickly turned towards two figures in front of her. Both of these figures appeared to be young, except the one who is blonde and wearing a leather jacket is clearly older, assuming to be in his late teens, while the other with a strange outfit looked slightly familiar, but couldn't quite make out because she was only seeing his back. Just as the blonde teen was about to attack the other kid, a second later, the teen with the leather jacket disappeared, and many patrons except the girls and that mysterious kid were on the floor, groaning in pain.
Tempest was taken aback after watching the clip. "What the– what the heck happened!?" She then gave Grubber an annoyed look. "Did you accidentally cut most of the footage?"
Grubber shook his head. "No. This was happening in real-time, boss! There were no edits in this whatsoever."
"...you must be joking!" Tempest deadpanned, hardly believing what she just heard.
"It's the truth!" Grubber insisted. "We interviewed everyone who was there and even checked their recordings on their phones and said the same thing!"
"But that's impossible!" Tempest argued, swiping the phone from Grubber’s hands, much to his chagrin. She then rewatched the video. "How could any of this have happened within a second in real-time?"
To Tempest’s frustration, she watched that same clip on Grubber’s phone repeatedly but couldn't find anything odd within the footage. She was starting to feel impatient as her search was more fruitless by the second. Her sole mission was to track down those girls, not playing around on her partner's phone.
She considered just giving up and gave the phone back to Grubber when she noticed something odd from the footage for a brief second.
“Wait a second…" she muttered before she snapped her attention to her partner. "Grubber, how do you slow down the footage with this thing?"
"You should find that option under 'edits' on the top right of the screen." He instructed.
Tempest did just that and made sure to adjust the speed of the video as low as possible. She waited for a bit as a "minute" video played to a crawl until she finally got to a certain part of the video and paused it. On the screen, it was a selfie photo within a video of a teenage boy, who was upside down with a missing tooth with a dazed expression. But what caught Tempest’s attention was a certain blue creature next to the kid with a thumbs-up and a wink towards the camera. Tempest’s eyes widened when she recognized that creature.
"It's him!" She exclaimed.
She then rewinds the footage to that part with the "kid" in that weird outfit again, confirming her suspicions.
"That’s no kid, it was that blue hedgehog I fought earlier in the woods and the one Robotnik was after!”
Grubber glanced at his phone. “Uh… how can you tell? He looked like a human to me.”
Tempest gave him an incredulous expression. Seriously!? No one saw through that so-called disguise!? It’s almost as bad as mistaking one hedgehog for another by being colorblind! What is the world coming to?
She shook her head. Still, that creature… I knew he was fast when I fought him in the woods earlier, but this… this is unbelievable! I guess that explains why there was a huge commotion here! At least I’m on the right track, but I need to get to those girls before that weasel gets them first!
"How long ago did they flee from this arcade?" Tempest asked suddenly, tossing a phone back to Grubber, who barely caught it.
"A-about approximately a couple of hours ago," he responded.
“Do you know where they’re headed?”
“Someone reported that they were heading east, specifically towards Manehattan.”
Tempest nodded. “Then that’s where I’ll be heading next. With any luck, I’ll find them before he does!”
"What about your… situation, Boss?" Grubber asked.
"This changes nothing," Tempest answered with a grunt. "It would seem that the only thing I can do to convince them that I haven't gone rogue is to catch those girls myself."
"And Robotnik?"
"I'll deal with him once this is over," Tempest growled as she turned away. "For now, continue with your job."
Grubber saluted. “Yes Ma’am!”
Tempest was just about to walk away when Grubber spoke up.
“Oh, and uh… Tempest?" Grubber added with some hesitation. "When this is all over… maybe we can hang out sometime and get some coffee, and maybe even pick up some sponge–”
“Grubber,” Tempest stated in a cold voice, that made Grubber stop talking.
She sighed through her nose. “We talked about this! We are not friends! We are nothing more than associates! I’m your boss, and you work under me! Your job is to do everything I told you to do and then report back to me! We don’t ever socialize outside of work, including going out for coffee or eating some stupid cake! Understood?”
“...understood... boss,” Grubber said quietly.
Without a word, Tempest walked away from Grubber. Just as she was heading out of the alleyway, she paused when she glanced at Grubber’s new motorbike, which was black and red with two long handlebars. Seeing a key in its ignition and need to get to the girls as soon as possible, Tempest decided to put Grubber’s bike into good use.
“I’ll be borrowing this!” Tempest stated as she quickly got on the bike and turned the ignition.
“Hey wait! That’s my bike!” Grubber exclaimed.
Tempest ignored him as the bike roared into life and then she took off down the alley, leaving Grubber behind.
“Hey!” Grubber shouted as he gave chase but then stopped as he watched her drove out of the parking lot and back on Radical Highway.
…
…
…
“What’s with you stealing my ride!?”