Chapter Text
Sonic was getting used to living at home. At his home.
He had parents. Who loved him, and who he loved. Everything was pretty much perfect.
Sure, he had to stop a villain from destroying the town and he was technically still in hiding from the scary government agents, but so far that had only happened once, and all-in-all, his current life was much better than his almost ten years in hiding.
Also, yes, he might sneak out every so often to do hero-work, but he’d only been caught a few times... But it never actually led to anything serious; He could always run away from the danger just as fast as he had jumped in!
Now, instead of being just some weird alien, secretly stalking people from afar, he was a proper teenager, with a happy family, and the occasional secret side-gig as a super-speedy superhero.
Tom was more than happy to let Sonic just be a kid for once. Yes, he might have snuck out a few time to try (and normally fail) at being some kind of wannabe superhero, but he was a good kid, and he deserved to finally have a home and a family to call his own.
Not that he and Maddie were looking to adopt anymore superpowered alien children. They were happy with just the one, thank you very much .
But hey, things don’t always go the way you plan...
Sheriff Wachowski was on duty, sat on a set of stairs, simply enjoying the sunshine and surveying the street and walkers by. His partner, Wade, was just across the street, arguing with a middle-aged woman about her terrible (and illegal) parking space. Tom couldn’t help but smile as he thought about how much his life, and future plans, had changed since just a few months ago.
He had been planning to move to San Francisco. But now he was still here, in his hometown, watching the same argument happen for the fourth time this month, and he couldn’t imagine being anywhere else.
Tom picked up a doughnut from the four pack that sat next to him and took a bite, savouring every bite. He chuckled as the driver angrily tore up the ticket Wade had written her, throwing it out the window and quickly speeding away.
The deputy could only watch as the car turned a corner and Wade trudged back towards his partner in defeat.
“Havin’ much luck?” Tom teases his colleague as he comes to sit down next to him.
Wade places his hands on his chin, elbows on his knees, looking grumpy like a scolded child. “Well, its her fifth parking ticket this month and she hasn’t paid any of them yet, so what do you think?”
Tom can’t help but chuckle again, always amused by their trivial small-town antics.
Wade reaches down to help himself to one of their sweet-treats, but as he feels for it, he looks down, slightly annoyed.
“Hey, what gives?” He grumbles, feeling mildly betrayed. “I thought we were having two each?”
Tom joins him to look at the pack of doughnuts that sat between them and is surprised to see only one remaining, which Wade promptly picks up and bites into. Tom glances around suspiciously.
“Huh, weird…” Then realisation hits him. “Damn, that sneaky little…” He trails off, lightly shaking his head with a smile. At least if Sonic was misbehaving around town that couldn’t mean he was sneaking out to cause mischief (or attempting to be a superhero).
Wade understands a few moments later. “Oh… Is Sonic around today, then?”
“Well, he’s-“ Tom starts to reply, raising his voice slightly at the following inflection. “-supposed to be catching up on his studying !” He lowers back to a normal volume, “But it seems that following his old man around while he’s trying to work was more important on his agenda…”
Now it was Wade’s turn to chuckle. “Eh, it’s not like we’re having a particularly busy day…” He follows up with a crude joke. “I mean, there haven’t been any alien invasions or crazy evil scientists trying to take over the world or anything!”
“Hmph, not yet, anyway…” Tom responds with another slight grin, as the duo finish off their singular snacks in moderate peace before ending their shift.
He would talk to that Blue Devil later…
◎◎◎◎
When Tom arrived home that evening, he was met with the usual upbeat greeting.
“Donut Lord!!” Sonic sped into view, jumping onto the couch and pointing finger guns. “How was work??”
The Sheriff couldn’t help but return the infectious smile, but turned away slightly in an attempt to hide it whilst hanging up his hat on a coat hook.
“Oh, I think you know it was pretty uneventful…” He tried to shoot him a knowing smirk, but Sonic didn’t seem to catch his meaning, simply stating, “Well, duh , Green Hills isn’t exactly full of criminals or anything…”
Tom sighs, but instead of cutting to the point, teases further. “Well, there is definitely a thief in the area...”
Sonics ears prick up and he sits up slightly from his seat. “Wait, a thief?” He sounded genuinely curious, but Tom wasn’t going to be fooled.
“Yeah! You!” He rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. “You know bud, you really shouldn’t spy on me when I’m at work…”
Sonic’s expression gets even more confused, his brow furrowing slightly. “What? I didn’t! I was with Maddie at the clinic pretty much all day…”
“Oh, really?” Tom gives him another glare, raising an eyebrow. “So you weren’t the one who stole two of our donuts?”
At this reveal, Sonic seems genuinely surprised. “Aww, what ??? You had donuts ?” He moaned slightly. “Why didn't you bring any home for me??”
“What?” Tom was quite confused now. “ But…? I figured it must’ve been you…?”
Sonic replies with an indignant scowl. “Uhh, no! Dude, I think I would remember if I’d had donuts today!”
Maddie walks into the room at this crucial moment, and before she can even welcome her husband, Sonic cuts in, “Maddie! Maddie! Tell him I was with you all day today! Oh, and tell him he needs to bring home donuts!” Sonic was slightly excited to not only have someone to backup in his argument, but also at the prospect of potentially getting a treat the next day.
Maddie lets out a slight laugh, shaking her head at his apparent joy. "Well, yeah, he was helping me all day...” She clarifies, now glancing at Tom. “He didn’t leave my side since we had two new litters at the clinic today…”
Tom can only let out a slightly confused, “Huh…” Whilst Sonic forgets about their previous exchange entirely, instead opting to rant about kittens. “Oh yeah! They were sooooo cute!” His beaming face quickly fell as he remembered, “Uhh, except for when I saw one of the cats give birth… That was gross…” He shudders whilst extending the last word slightly as if to exacerbate his point.
Tom couldn’t help but laugh slightly. “That is part of nature, bud…”
“Yeah, well, nature's gross…” Sonic retorted quickly, crossing his arms with a vague huff. He quickly perked up his ears again, before cheekily asking, “So… Are you gunna order us some donuts or…?”
Tom chuckles again, responding curtly. “Not tonight, but maybe, if you’re lucky, I might remember to bring you back some tomorrow…”
Sonic cheers under his breath while pumping his fists towards his chest in muted celebration, but Tom concludes, “If they don’t mysteriously disappear again…”
Sonic huffs, leaning down against the couch. “Urgh, it was probably a bird or something!” He shrugs, feeling slightly singled out at the accusation.
Tom raises his eyebrow in suspicion again. “I think I would’ve noticed if a bird swooped down and stole two giant doughnuts, buddy…”
“Wait, giant donuts?!” Sonic sulks even further down into his seat. “Urghh! You’re killing me!!!”
Both parents chuckle at their kid’s over-dramatic ridiculousness, before continuing on with their evening.
The family enjoyed a delightful dinner together whilst rain began hammering on the windows. It stormed throughout the night, the wind loud and howling, and by morning, the air around Green Hills was thick with morning dew.
Maddie was awake early the following day, returning to the clinic at around 6am to set things up.
The few animals who had stayed overnight seemed slightly antsier than normal, so she tried to make quick work of cleaning their pens, being careful not to spook them any further. Presumably the stormy weather left them slightly rattled, so she was more than happy to give out a few treats here and there to try and calm their nerves.
She gathered a few dirty blankets and towels from their enclosures, and once she had finished all the basic start-up cleaning duties, she picked up the pile and headed to the laundry room. They had created quite a backlog of dirty laundry after forgetting to turn on the washer the previous night, and so, without really looking, she simply threw the blankets she was carrying onto the top of the half-filled laundry basket.
What she wasn’t expecting was to hear the noise of a surprised creature as an unexpected pile of blankets was piled on top of its head.
The squeak the animal made was fearful, and she could hear it scratching at the material. This was followed by a crash, as the laundry basket toppled over, falling down from the washing machine it had been sat on, and over the top of the creature’s head, pinning it in place.
Shocked, Maddie jumped slightly, but quickly leapt into action, slamming on the closet light and forcing her body on top of the laundry basket to keep the creature confined. How the hell had it escaped from the cages? She assumed it must have snuck past her somehow whilst she was cleaning them out, but it was trapped now, so she wasn’t too worried about getting it back to it's proper enclosure.
Panting slightly, she could feel the animal underneath the basket which she was pinning down with her body, as it scrambled desperately in an attempt to get the few remaining blankets off its head. She could hear a few tearing noises as it clawed at the blankets that surrounded it, as well as a vague panicked whimpering, and she felt bad for scaring the poor thing, especially since it was already in a strange place and likely not feeling well, but she wasn’t about to let it escape now.
“Sorry buddy…” She spoke to it as calmly but confidentially as possible, but feeling slightly proud. “But it’s time for you to go back to your cage…”
As soon as the words left her lips, she could feel the creature tense up, and it seemed to give up on its struggling, simply letting out a few more whines and trembling in place. She reached forward to grab the heavy five gallon bottle of laundry detergent that was on the floor next to the washing machine, and dragged it towards her, dumping it on top of the basket to weigh down the animal’s temporary prison.
She sighs in relief, grateful for her luck to have been able to trap the animal in this way; It must have retreated to the warmth of the laundry pile to hide after the storm. How she missed it sneaking past her, she didn’t know, but at least she had been able to deal with it quickly. She leant back from her perch, leaving it weighed down by the heavy bottle instead of her body, and she goes to glance down at the loose animal she had trapped.
But to her immense surprise, rather than being met with the cat or dog she had expected, she instead found herself staring at a ball of messy orange fluff, with signature sneakers sticking out slightly from beneath its body...
This wasn't an escaped patient...
This was another alien like Sonic...