Once Pipp opened up the attic door from the ceiling, she climbed up the stairs, leading the blue hedgehog up into the attic.
"Okay, you stay here and be quiet!" Pipp instructed the hedgehog with a serious expression, as she also extended him his backpack, since Zipp had to pull it off to encage Sonic.
Sonic took his backpack and looked at Pipp with a raised eyebrow. "So the plan is for me to stay here until you and your sister get rid of the old man?"
"Our options are hide you here, dress you up like a kid and hope that the guy buys it, or just let him capture you," Pipp pointed out with a bored expression. "Also, you asked for help, and I gave it to you," She added, climbing down the stairs and closing the attic door, leaving him alone.
"...Touché," Sonic said with a neutral expression.
Now that he was completely alone, he putted his backpack at the side of a box and decided to wonder around a bit. Compared to the rest of the house, the attic was pretty small and boring, or simple to put it in a way. While the mansion was fancy, big, colorful and even charming, the attic was small, brown, very dusty and had thousands of boxes around.
"I mean, it's not the worst place I've ever been in, but still..." Sonic told himself. "On the other hand, human Pipp helped me, and I literally said I didn't had a choice, so... I'm not the one who should be complaining," He pointed out to himself, sitting over the box where the backpack was resting and waiting for the sisters to come back.
After reading the analysis from his drones, Robotnik was able to use his data to track down this creature, which lead him to a very well known mansion, essentially because of who lived there. He got out of his truck and walked near the dirt section near the driveway. He hovered his glove over the dirt pile, allowing it to scan the area with its lasers.
Once the scanning is complete, he was able to identify the exact same footprint as the one from the park earlier. He also noticed that these prints were heading towards the house in front of him, leading him to believe that is where this creature was currently hiding.
Then again, this house was well known because of who lived there: Pipp Petals, one of the greatest pop stars in the city, and even the world. Just like Robotnik expected, the place was highly secured, because there where bodyguards dressed in black suits watching all over the place.
'How cliché,' he though, as he pressed some buttons in the pad of his glove, and some small drones came out of his truck, flying towards the body guards. And then, they shoot some kind of sleeping gas that immediately made the guards fell asleep in the ground.
Robotnik smirked, and he used his index finger to melt the lock on the black gate that lead to the mansion. He opened the gate and walked towards the door. However, he noticed another foot print on the ground, so he scanned that one too, and got the exact same result.
"Hey!" A female voice suddenly spoke, while the doctor turned his sight to the main entrance, just to find the other resident of the mansion: Zephyrina Storm. Despite being the heiress for her mother's big company empire, she was the opposite of her sister, because she didn't liked public attention at all. Yet, Robotnik didn't expected her to look so... normal.
"Can I help you?" Zipp asked Robotnik with a slight frown.
"Good morning, my rural chum!" Robotnik said with a fake smile, walking towards her. "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?" Zipp asked, while Robotnik nodded in response. "Oh, you must know my buddy Thunder, we play softball together."
"Ah, Thunder... he's a good man," Robotnik said pausing, as he nervously looked at her.
"Yeah. Oh, come on in!" Zipp said, waving her hand to invite him in.
"Great!" Robotnik said as he quickly walked up the stairs.
"Just, take all the readings you need. Except uh..." Zipp said, and quickly putted her arm at the entrance, blocking Robotnik from entering. "Usually the Power Company usually takes their readings from outside of the house. Also my buddy Thunder actually works as one of the many body guards that you putted to sleep with your weird gas, and he's more of a soccer player than softball kind of guy, so you wanna tell me why you think I'm dumb enough to let you walk inside my house?"
Robotnik glared at her for tricking him, but he got another trick up his sleeve. He put his left hand behind his back and started pressing a few buttons, sending a small version of his drones to scan the house from the inside without Zipp knowing it. In that moment, Pipp arrived at her sister's side, taken a bit back by the sudden and intimidating presence of Robotnik.
As Robotnik talked with the sisters downstairs, Sonic just lay over the box and looked at the ceiling with a bored expression.
"Ugh, what's taking them so long?!" Sonic groaned with frustration. If he was known for something, is that 'patience' isn't his thing, since he's the fastest thing alive and all of that. "I hate to drag them into this, I really do. They may be complete strangers since they're not the Zipp and Pipp I know, and yet I don't want to cause them trouble."
And then, two small drones entered from an open window in the attic and started to scan the whole room, in search for anything suspicious.
Sonic immediately took his backpack and hid behind the box he was lying on and looked at the drones with a frown.
"This is the opposite of hold him back, girls..." Sonic muttered to himself, looking at the small drones.
And then, his feet hit something, and when he turned to see what was it, he saw a baseball bat, which made him smirk as he grabbed the bat and looked back at the drones.
"Perhaps I should have some fun, too!" Sonic stated with a grin.
"I'm sorry, Ms. Storm, Ms. Petals..." Robotnik said on a mocking tone.
"Just Zipp it's okay," Zipp replied with a frown.
"U-Uh, hi..." Pipp replied nervously with a sheepish smile.
"Well Zipp, you may have noticed that this entire city has been experiencing a power outage," Robotnik stated.
"Yep, no lights. Already picked up on that," Zipp replied.
"20 minutes ago, I tracked an energy pulse with a similar signature to the one that caused that disruption," Robotnik explained.
"Listen, uh, Mr..." Pipp said.
"Doctor... Doctor Robotnik." Robotnik said with a smirk, while Pipp nodded. "But my co-workers call me Rob."
"Look uhh... Dr. Robotskis... um, I'm sure what you're here for is really serious and all of that, but it's got nothing to do with us. I mean, you know about us, so I'm pretty sure you can tell that by yourself," Pipp added with a confident smile, while Zipp also smiled as well.
"You bet I do. I'm sure you're hella popular with the 'stream', and 'posts' about stuff people pretend they care at all," Robotnik said with a grin that sent chills on Pipp's spine. "Maybe someday, you'll achieve your goal of retiring peacefully of this life and get time for your so called 'friends' and family, but the reality is: I surpassed everything you're ever going to do!" He yelled at the sisters as he went right up to their faces. "Before I was a toddler, I was spitting out formulas while you were still spitting up formula."
"We were breastfed, actually..." Zipp said with a neutral expression.
"Nice... rub that in my orphan face..." Robotnik said with a smirk, while Zipp rolled her eyes and Pipp putted on a bored expression, both starting to get tired of this dumb conversation. Zipp was about to say for him to leave, but before she could say anything, Robotnik interrupted her. "Ms. Storm, Ms. Petals, are you familiar with the US code 904 title 10 article 104?"
"Mayb––" Zipp tried top say, but...
"Anyone!" Robotnik shouted, startling Pipp and cutting Zipp off. "Who attempts to aid an enemy of the United States shall suffer death!" He said, giving the sisters a stern look and pointing his finger at them. "And if I'm gonna be the one that catches you... It'll be even worse..."
Zipp and Pipp looked at each other confused, and then back at Robotnik. "Worse than death?" Pipp questioned.
Meanwhile, inside the attic, the drones kept scanning around the room, when Sonic suddenly hit one of them with the baseball bat.
"One down, one to go!" Sonic said with a smirk.
The other drone noticed Sonic, and he let out small guns from his sides as he started to shoot him, while Sonic just dodged the bullets and moved around the attic. His feet where at better paste now that he rested them enough, but he was still slower, and yet, he could dodge the bullets easily.
"Alright, little man, time to put you on sleep mode!" Sonic stated, as he jumped over the drone and hit them with the bat. The drone crashed against a wall and got totally destroyed in the process, while Sonic landed over the attics door and cheered. "Take that, you piece of junk!" He said with a smile. "No one messes with Sonic the Hedge–– Whoa!" He cried out suddenly when the door to the attic opened.
As a reflex, Sonic curled into a ball and rolled all the way down stairs, from the third floor of the house, to the main floor, grunting in pain in the process.
"Why don't you have your staircase carpeted?!" Sonic said as he bounced from the wooden stairs before rolling to the living room, knocking a pot in a table that fell and broke into the ground.
"Look, I don't know how well educated you are..." Robotnik stated in a condescending tone. "But what the government usually does to criminals is nothing compared to what I––"
However, the sound of something braking from inside the house called the attention of the three people, while Pipp and Zipp looked nervously at each other.
"Uh… old pipes?" Zipp lied sheepishly.
Robotnik just stared at a bespectacled teen for a moment, studying her expression before he shrugged casually. "Yeah… probably just the house settling," He agreed as he turned around, appearing to be leaving. "Nothing to see here!"
The sisters silently relieved with the outcome, until Robotnik pulled a fast one by quickly turning around and barreling through them before either of them could stop him.
"Hey!" Zipp cried, but Robotnik ignored her.
"You can't go in there!" Pipp shouted with anger, as she and Zipp ran after him.
Robotnik was determined to get to the bottom of it and see what those two girls are hiding. They all eventually reached the living room... just to find a small grey rabbit near a broken pot.
"Here's the thing..." Robotnik spoke, raising his index finger. "I'm never wrong."
Zipp patted his back. "Well, there's the first time for everything!" She remarked with a mocking grin, while Pipp let out a silent sight of relief. "By the way, Pipp, didn't I told you to keep an eye on that rabbit?"
"His name is Floppy, Zipp, and yes, you did," Pipp replied with a smirk, as she grabbed the rabbit, cooed him, and then put him back on his cage.
"Well, I don't appreciate that you barge right into my house just like that, but as you can clearly see..." Zipp stated to Robotnik, as she gestured around the room with her arm. "There's nothing here! Now, I calmly suggest you leave this house immediately! And also, if you leave now, I will act like nothing of this happened and you won't be sued for 'napping' our bodyguards."
"I'm sorry, he did what?" Pipp questioned confused.
Robotnik chuckled before giving a glare at the sisters, and then turned around to leave. However, he stopped suddenly in place, much to the girls' annoyance and confusion. They watched silently as he slightly leaned towards the table as if something caught his eye. His hand slowly reached towards something to pick it up.
Almost immediately afterward, he slowly faced the girls and presented an item to them with a nasty grin. Remember the quill Sonic used before? Well, Robotnik was now grabbing the exact same quill, while Zipp and Pipp looked at the doctor with horror.
"Well look at that? I was right!" The doctor gloated. He then floated his hand over his face. "Note the lack of surprise," His smirk was then replaced with a cold frown. "Shall we try this again?" He asked, now whistling a familiar tune that lead a white drone to enter the house.
And if that wasn't enough, the drone then revealed its two twin machine gun mounts and pointed to the sisters direction.
"Now, ladies..." Robotnik began, as he stroked the quill with his fingers. "I'm going to give you both five seconds… to tell me where it is! Five!"
"W-We don't know what you're talking about!" Pipp sweared with fright.
"Four..." Robotnik kept counting.
"Look buddy, do you even know who you're messing with?!" Zipp tried to stood against him.
"Yeah, two little defenseless girls about to get killed if they don't cooperate! Three!" Robotnik stated, still counting.
Their eyes widened as Zipp nervously looked around, trying to find a way to get out of this situation, while Pipp just hugged her sister in the back, completely terrified.
"COME ON, RACK YOUR BRAINS!" Robotnik shouted. "You might be able to come up with some lame excuse to go on living, in two!"
The sisters just stood there helpless, as Pipp closed her eyes and Zipp glared daggers at Robotnik.
"ONE!" Robotnik finished counting, and then...
"WAIT!" Sonic shouted, as he came out of his hiding spot with his hands up in the air and his backpack on his back. "Don't hurt them!"
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Robotnik screamed in a loud, terrified girly way.
And then, Zipp knocked him out with a punch on his face, while Robotnik fell unconscious in the floor. The drone looked back at the sisters and locked its weapons, getting ready to shoot them. Sonic quickly grabbed the sisters from their hands and moved them to duck behind the couch, shielding themselves from the bullets.
"I'm used to a guy called Robotnik trying to kill me, but this feels excessive!" Sonic exclaimed loudly over the gunfire.
The drone stopped shooting and started to scan the room for any wanted lifeforms.
"Alright, you two stay here while I try to––" Zipp tried to instruct, but as soon as she turned around, she only found Pipp there, because Sonic was nowhere to be seen. "W-Where did he go?!"
"What are you talking ab––" Pipp tried to ask, but once she turned to see Sonic, she also noticed his absence. "Oh no..."
They started to look around, trying to find him, only to see him climbing up a shelf, getting ready to pounce on the drone. Pipp frantically shook her head while Zipp just muttered 'No!' to him, but Sonic gave them a reassuring nod with a thumbs up. The drone in question spotted the side of Zipp's head and was getting ready to fire again, so Sonic took this opportunity to jump on the drone’s back and managed to turn its direction away from the sisters just as it began to fire.
"Yee-haw!" Sonic cheered as it rode on the drone. "Don't worry ladies! I've got it right where I want it!" He assured with a smirk.
The drone spun wildly, trying to shake the hedgehog off as it continued to fire its bullets, hitting family picture frames, some knick-knacks, windows, and pretty much all over the walls.
"It's crazy to think that Amazon wants to deliver packages with these things!" Sonic said excitedly as he continued to ride the drone.
But then, the drone started to run out of bullets, while Sonic felt dizzy and started to struggle, now having difficulties to keep holding the drone in place.
"Okay, now I get why Tails hates when I act without thinking, because this was a terrible idea!" Sonic shouted in fright, and then his face grimaced when he suddenly felt queasy coming from his stomach due to all the spinning. "Aw geez... I'm. Gonna. PUKE!"
"Not in the roof, not in the roof!" Pipp shouted.
"We're in danger of getting killed, and you worry about the roof?!" Zipp scolded her with a frown.
Just as Sonic fell out of the drone, Zipp quickly gets out from behind the couch. She grabbed a chandelier and whacked the drone really hard, as the drone fell to the ground next to a dizzy looking Sonic.
"C'mon! We gotta get out of here!" Zipp shouted urgently as she bent down to pick up Sonic.
"Wait! We're taking him?!" Pipp exclaimed.
"Yes, we are!" Zipp answered forcefully, leaving no room for argument.
"What? Don't tell me that's all you got! I'm just getting started with you, mustache man! Let me know if you wanna go round two with the Blue Blur!" Sonic challenged the broken drone from outside the house.
Zipp quickly got into the garage and headed a black truck, opened the passenger's seat and seated Sonic down. She got inside the truck on the driver's seat, while Pipp entered in the passenger's seat behind. Zipp putted the gear into reverse, stepped on the gas pedal, and drove away from the mansion.
After they escaped, the same mini black vehicles arrived and parked right outside the house. Agent Stone watched the truck leaving only for a second before rushing inside to search for Robotnik. When entering the front door, there were holes everywhere and some destroyed furniture, and then he saw Robotnik on the floor, unconscious.
"Doctor!" Agent Stone exclaimed. He rushed over to his boss and helped him get off the floor. "Doctor, are you okay? I saw those girls race outta here and I thought––"
"That you should stop them?" Robotnik guessed coolly with a glare. Stone's only response was his blank and meekly stare, much to the Doctor's annoyance. "Open your mouth… and say you thought that you should stop them," Robotnik ordered with a growl.
Stone gulped. "No... I thought that maybe I check to see if you were oka––" He tried to say, but then Robotnik stuck his hand into Agent's Stone month and grabbed him by his tongue and jaw. He then roughly pulled Agent Stone forward and forced him to look up into his eyes.
"You know what's hard about being the smartest person in the world?" Robotnik asked in a menacing tone.
"E-Everyone else being stup––" Stone tried to answer, despite that he couldn't move his mouth and could barely speak.
"Stupid!" Robotnik finished for him. "Yes, way to go! You got that one!" He stated, letting go Stone's mouth, much to Stone's relief, and then he wipes his hands clean off his associate's jacket. "Whatever this creature is, it's our job to secure it… neutralize it... uncover the source of its power. And if it resists… we take it apart... piece by piece," Robotnik stated with a grin, as he slowly puts on his glasses.
The doctor paused, and then noticed that the frame of his sunglasses was now ruined after Zipp punched him.
"...Stone?" Robotnik called out.
"Doctor?" Stone replied.
"Call Optical Illusions. Tell 'em I need new frames," He ordered as he tossed his sunglasses behind him. "They know what kind I like," He stated, walking away towards the front door, but then he stopped. "Oh, and bring that quill!" He added while pointing at the item in question that was on the floor before walking out of the house for good.
Agent Stone sighed. "Y-Yes, Doctor," He replied, then slowly picked up the quill from the floor and put it in his jacket pocket before following the doctor.
After ten minutes of driving away, Zipp managed to get herself, her sister and Sonic out of Canterlot City, the place where they lived, and reached the highway.
"Alright buddy, you better start talking right now!" Zipp ordered to Sonic. "Who are you? What are you!?"
"I'm a hedgehog, that's pretty obvious if you ask me," Sonic answered with a bored expression. "And right now? I'm in big trouble..."
"Oh, you're in big trouble? You're not the one who punched some sort of government weirdo back there!" Zipp argued.
"You think you have problems?!" Sonic challenged. "I lost my bag of rings! And losing the rings isn't even what concerns me, is the Chaos Emerald that I stupidly put in the bag!"
"Chaos Emerald? Rings? What are you talking about?!" Pipp asked desperately.
"Okay, look. The rings on the bag are special, because they're not normal rings: They're portals that can take you to any place in the universe that you want," Sonic started to explain. "You saw that yourselves, remember?"
"The giant portal on Pipp's room?" Zipp questioned. "That bag that you dropped had more?!"
"Look at that, the princess became a detective," Sonic said with a mocking grin, while Zipp stared blankly at him. "As for the Chaos Emeralds, they're powerful objects that can turn thoughts into power. It's like asking for a wish: Just focus your energy and you get what you want. And for some reason, your sister had one on her dresser," He pointed out to Zipp, staring at Pipp with a bored expression.
"Pipp, care to explain?" Zipp requested.
"I mean, yesterday, I found a glowing blue emerald," Pipp started to explain. "I was going to give it to Principal Shimmer on school, but I forgot, then the blackout happened last night and I saw the emerald shining and––"
"You found a glowing emerald, and instead of just leave it there or tell anyone, you keep it?!" Zipp asked with concern.
"Girl, she literally said she forgot to give it back," Sonic pointed out with a bored expression, then looked at Pipp with a smirk. "But yeah, you had a magical Emerald from a Hedgehog of another dimension."
"Gosh, this is so much to take in..." Zipp said, feeling a bit stressed.
"And now, that same Emerald is at the top of a building I only saw on a rusty old poster on her room!" Sonic cried out in worry. "Look, you might think I'm crazy or something, but the blackout I accidentally caused last night is the only problem so far I want to give to this world, okay?"
"You caused the blackout?!" The two sisters cried out surprised.
"So that's why that freak is chasing you!" Zipp said, now understanding everything.
"Yup, and now I need you to take me to 'Manehattan', or however it's supposed to be called, so I can get my bag with rings and Chaos Emeralds to leave you two alone forever!" Sonic stated casually.
"Excuse me?!" Pipp said in an offended tone. "Y-You almost made a weirdo kill us!"
"I'm not proud of that either!" Sonic said with a frown. "It was never my intention to drag you two into trouble, okay? I just wanted to grab the Chaos Emerald and leave! Things got out of hand, that's it!"
"Even so, Pipp's got a point!" Zipp stated. "Besides, you still haven't explained why you caused the blackout!"
"It was an accident, okay?!" Sonic groaned. "I just followed a weird drone that stole a Chaos Emerald I recovered. It started to run so fast that I just tried to keep up with that thing, and then electricity came out of my butt, and the second I touched the Emerald... everything was hella dark and a blue explosion happened. But again, it. Was. AN ACCIDENT!"
"I'm sorry, didn't you said you only wanted the Emerald I had?" Pipp questioned confused.
"Um, no?" Sonic said, as if the answer was pretty obvious. "There's seven Emeralds, you just had one, I had 4 of them."
"Did you just said seven?!" Pipp cried out with wide eyes.
"And they would be 5 if it wasn't because I got shoot in my leg!" Sonic said, now frowning at Zipp.
"Okay, that's it!" Zipp shouted with anger, as she parked the truck on the side of the road and turned it off. "Ok pal, out you go."
Sonic blinked a few times before replying. "I'm sorry, what?"
"Zipp!" Pipp scolded her.
"Pipp, this is the worst time in our lives for us to get in trouble!" Zipp resonated. "We're daughters from the most powerful woman on Canterlot City, I am her heiress for her company, and you are one of the most popular pop stars in the world! Don't make me start on everything that can go terribly wrong if we keep going from here!"
Pipp wanted to say something, but she knew Zipp was right, so she decided to stay quiet.
"And besides, you have a concert in three days!" Zipp added suddenly. "You cannot get in trouble, you know?!"
"The concert!" Pipp cried out. "I completely forgot about that!"
"And as for you, weirdo," Zipp told to Sonic, who stared at her blankly. "You asked for help, we helped you, now get lost!"
Sonic still stared at her blankly before finally replying. "Just for the record, you are way more charming as a pegasus," He said, as he opened the door of the truck and got down of it, leaving both Zipp and Pipp confused at the pegasus comment.
But instead of just walking away or something, Sonic just stood there, staring at Zipp with a bored expression.
"Why aren’t you moving?!" Zipp demanded impatiently.
"Oh, you know, maybe because... I don't know where Manehattan is!" Sonic replied with a frown.
Zipp rolled her eyes and pointed behind him. "It's east!"
"East?" Sonic asked as he tilted his head.
"Yes, east!" Pipp snapped as well. "Just go straight shot. You can't miss it!"
Sonic raised his hands. "Okay, okay. Fine! That's cool. I'm totally cool saying goodbye now!"
After that, he runs off at high speeds while the sisters looked in disbelief. A few seconds go by and Sonic came back with his fur all wet, a few seaweed all around him, and a fish on top of his head.
"So! As I crashed into the cold, dark water of the Pacific, I realized a few things," Sonic stated. "A: I have no idea where I'm going. B: I forgot how much saltwater stings. C: I shouldn't even be on your universe right now, but I am. Why?" He then glared daggers at Zipp. "Because you shot me!"
"I know..." Zipp said blankly.
"YOU SHOT ME!" Sonic yelled dramatically.
"Ok! I heard you the first time! You don't have to... pile it on, good grief..." Zipp yelled back before she calmed down and sighed slightly.
"I'm wet. I'm cold. There's a fish on my head! And clearly, I'm not gonna be able to do this on my own!" Sonic pleaded.
Zipp looked back at him as the fish he has on his head falls off. She looked at Pipp, who just shrugged, but deep down she knew Pipp wanted to help him out.
With a sigh, Zipp looked at Sonic again. "Alright, get in the truck."
"Really? You're gonna help me?!" Sonic asked excitedly, shaking off all the water and seaweed off of him, which in result got his fur all poofy.
"I... guess it is a little bit of my fault that all of this is happening to you..." Zipp admitted. "And yours too, Pipp! You were the one with his Emerald, after all."
Pipp was about to complain, but at the end she realized Zipp was right again. "Okay, fair point..."
"Not a little bit. Entirely. It is entirely your fault!" Sonic corrected with a frown.
"Okay, it's entirely our fault. Are you coming or not?" Zipp asked with annoyance.
Sonic looked at the sisters for a moment, and then smiled. "Yes," He replied, shaking his fur back to normal. He hopped back inside the truck and closed the door. "ROAD TRIP! WOO-HOO!" Sonic yelled excitedly, making Pipp giggle a little bit.
"Ugh... What are we doing...?" Zipp questioned with a frown and a bored expression.