Sonic X: Penny's Tale: Book One

Mean Machines

Sonic had been running around town, when something had caught Sonic's eye. Curious, the hedgehog dashed towards the sight that had caught his eye.

At the park, there seemed to be a Sonic and Silver Appreciation Day. Fans of the two famous hedgehogs wore their hair in either Sonic or Silver quill styles. Kids ran on races for fun. Why, Sonic and Silver had become so popular, and they didn't know this, but Sonic had seemed to inspire people to take naps in trees!

Someone did a rock art of Sonic and Silver. Others were selling stickers. One man was carving statues of Sonic and Silver.

Sonic had dashed to the park to see what was going on, when he had stopped short.

An elderly woman who had started a painting on the two hedgehogs had spotted Sonic. "Look, everybody!" She said.

"Oh, wow, Sonic's here!" A boy wearing a Sonic hair style said in excitement.

"Where's Silver?!" The crowd asked excitedly, and soon everyone started talking excitedly about Sonic. Soon, they started chasing the hedgehog, and Sonic yelped and ran off.

Mr. Thorndyke sat in his office chair, working the day away.

"Good morning, Mr. Thorndyke." One of his co workers said in agreement.

"Good morning, Suzy." Mr. Thorndyke answered.

"Those documents I mentioned are ready for you if you have the time." Suzy said.

"Ah," Mr. Thorndyke smiled. "Just leave them here, please."

"Yes, sir," Suzy said, and with a snap of her fingers, five people carrying huge stacks of documents walked in and placed the documents on the desk.

Mr. Thorndyke looked shocked at the giant pile. "Hey, what is all this stuff, Suzy?!" He asked. The agents left, and Suzy walked right up to him. "Apparently, our home appliance vision has been absolutely flooded with customer complaint forms." She explained.

"Are you kidding me?!" Mr. Thorndyke looked at her in shock. "This can't be! Why, we've hardly received any complaints about our products before! How could this have happened now?!"

"I think you'd better watch this." Suzy said, and she turned the news on.

"Sonic's popularity seems to be affecting people throughout the city in all sorts of amazing ways. From groups of children playing games of Catch the Hedgehog to adults sleeping on rooftops like their hero, Sonic's fame seems to be really reaching astonishing proportions. In fact, a large number of citizens are leaving their jobs in order to follow their idol. From Station Square Park, I'm Scarlet Garcia, SSTV news."

Mr. Thorndyke burst out laughing. "I knew Sonic was famous, but that's ridiculous!" He continued laughing. He paused. "But what does that have to do with all these complaints, Suzy?"

"As you know, many of our employees are wild about Sonic and Silver, too."

"Mm-hmm."

"Some of them have left the company and started Sonic fan clubs and most of the assembly line workers spend so much time talking about Sonic that their work has become shoddy. And now our customers are complaining like crazy!"

Mr. Thorndyke screamed, clutching his head. This was too much!

"If this keeps up, we might have to go out of business." Suzy said.

"I'm not losing Thorndyke Industries over some silly hedgehogs!" Mr. Thorndyke swore.

His phone rang.