"S-Sonic!" Meowth spluttered "You went straight through that- Metal and glass- Are you... ok?"
"I don't know." Sonic replied honestly through the cheering of the crowd he'd gathered "It's been two whole days and I can't even do one little thing without feeling tired."
"One little thing?" Meowth repeated and shook his head.
"One little thing is one big thing for me." The boy, Ben, stood next to Sonic. He was a little taller than him, but Sonic was used to it. His speed made up for his small size, in his opinion. "I could have been really hurt, but you saved me. What sort of Pokemon are you?" The boy added and glanced at Meowth. "I know what you are, a Meowth. A cat Pokemon. It's pretty cool that you can talk, but..." He frowned at Sonic "I was so sure I knew everything about Pokemon. At least, in the Kanto region."
"I'm not really a Pokemon." Sonic muttered and Ben frowned.
"What did you say?" The boy asked, leaning down slightly to hear him better.
"Uh, well-" Sonic hesitated and then sighed "I was just saying that my name's Sonic."
"Sonic, huh? I've never heard of a sonic Pokemon." Ben looked thoughtful, but Meowth was frowning at Sonic, the hedgehog realised with a jolt. Not in his planning way, either, he was suspicious. "What region have you come from?" Sonic could feel his tiredness creeping up him, making his limbs stiff and achy and the onslaught of questions wasn't helping, but he tried not to let it show as the contents of the cafe began to crowd him.
"I'm not very good with the names..." He murmured, but the crowd protested and pestered him. Quickly, he became very uneasy and backed up, but soon met a wall that forced him to deal with the persistant crowd. "I don't know the names... no, I don't evolve, what are you talking about?... I don't know what type I am... G-gender ratio? What has that got to do with anything?" He looked around for Meowth, but he'd been pushed away somewhere, as well as Ben. He was alone. "Hey, look-" Sonic began, trying to ease the crowd, but then someone leapt in front of him.
"Who cares about all of that stuff? I'm gonna catch it!" The man threw his pokeball, but Sonic jumped to the side and it bounced back to its owner, who tried again. Suddenly, half of the crowd had pokeballs and it was like dodging bullets, which Sonic could do normally, but now he was only just managing, until he leapt up over the crowd to get away. He nearly managed, but someone reached up to grab him and knocked him so that he slid across the cafe floor and slammed into a table. He looked up just in time to see another horde of all sorts of colourful pokeballs and he tensed, closing his eyes and hoping it was all a dream, hating that he was so weak.
There weren't really brightly coloured creatures that came out of these balls.
Eggman never really did this to him.
Eggman never really caught him.
He wasn't a Pokemon.
He wasn't.
I AM NOT A POKEMON!
"BACK OFF!" Jessie snapped viciously and Sonic opened his eyes. Team Rocket had formed a barrier between him and the crowd and the pokeballs had bounced off of them, back to the stunned crowd. "Sonic is our Pokemon. He was just trying to help you people and look how you've treated him."
"A shame too, we were going to help you get rid of your Bagon problem." Meowth stated, causing Jessie and James to glance at him.
"We were?" James repeated, confused, but went along with it after a harsh glance from the cat. "Yes, we were!"
"Now, we won't do it as a favour. We'll have to do it at a price!" Meowth added and the people stared at them, crestfallen. Suddenly, the rumbling from outside disappeared as quickly as it had appeared and the metal barriers moved up and away. The waitress moved over to them and bowed in apology.
"We're very sorry." She murmured and the crowd copied her with a murmur of 'Sorry', but Meowth held his pose until the waitress folded her arms. "Can I show you to Officer Jenny? She's been trying to find something, or someone, to stop them. She'll find a way to pay you, if that's what you're after."
"Oh, sure, lead the way!" James beamed politely and Jessie sighed, but they began to walk with the woman before Meowth called out to them.
"What about Sonic?" He demanded, but Sonic was back on his feet, even if he was a little shaky.
"I'm alright." The hedgehog moved over to Meowth unsteadily "Thanks for helping me out, by the way." He flashed a grin, but Meowth didn't look amused.
"You're alright, huh?" He muttered darkly and pushed him gently, so that he promptly fell over "I thought so, tough guy." Meowth held out his hand "Come on, we're going to find Nurse Joy." Sonic took it, a little annoyed.
"Nurse Joy is all the way back in-" Sonic began, but Meowth silenced him with a look, before calling out to Jessie and James.
"We'll meet up later, by the balloon!" And with that, Team Rocket made like a banana... and split.
"Hmm..." Nurse Joy striked a thoughtful pose before exclaiming "I'll be back after I've run some tests!" And danced from the room. Sonic looked at Meowth from the hospital bed.
"She looks exactly like the other one!" He cried and Meowth frowned at him.
"Well, yeah, but she's completely different. This Nurse Joy is probably some form of cousin to the last one you met, but she's very theatrical. The other one was bold and in a way, quite brave." The cat jumped onto Sonics bed and pointed a finger at him "Earlier you said you weren't really a Pokemon!"
"I'm not." Sonic replied sharply and Meowth lowered his hand in shock.
"What?"
"I'm not a Pokemon. I'm a hedgehog from Mobius. I got stuck in a trap by an evil genius who sent me here to get rid of me and if I don't get back-" Sonic sucked in a breath. He hadn't been thinking about Mobius at all. He'd been so caught up in this new world, that he hadn't stopped for a second to think about what Dr Eggman had planned for his friends. Could they stop him without Sonic? Were they prisoner to him already? "I can't get back without Eggman." His eyes widened with the realisation and he put his head in his hands "All my friends... I'll never see them again. Tails, Knuckles- A-Amy!" He clenched his fists "I never told her that I like her... I never thought Eggman would win like this." Meowth stared at him silently, uncertain what to say to him, when Nurse Joy waltzed back in.
"Tada! A solution, one that will heal his status problem away!" She held out a small yellow bottle to him and he looked up slightly.
"Thanks." He murmured tiredly and took it, drinking it in one gulp. Instantly, he felt refreshed, like he'd just woken up.
"That'll be 600 Pokedollars!" She beamed.
