18 Sleeping Giant

It was a peaceful day for flying. Penny smiled as she breathed in the fresh air while riding in the backseat of Tails' plane as he flew.

Knuckles soon flew up next to them. "Dude. Dudette. What's up?" He asked.

"How can you be flying like that?" Tails asked surprised.

"Hah!" Knuckles laughed and pointed down to Sonic. "I'm Sonic powered!"

Penny looked down to see Sonic pulling Knuckles on a leach. She looked more closely and saw a parachute strapped to Knuckles.

Sonic smirked up at Knuckles. "Let's go for a big boy ride!" He zoomed ahead.

"YEAH!" Knuckles cheered happily. He laughed as Sonic's wild running caused Knuckles to smash into the boulders. Penny winced.

"This is fun!" Knuckles laughed. "It's only mildly damaging my kidneys!"

"Use your head on this one!" Sonic smirked, running up to a pile of rocks. Knuckles yelped in pain as he banged into the rock, and Sonic toppled to his back. "You know, in retrospect that might have been bad advice."

"I don't know what retrospect is, but it was bad advice here, too." Knuckles grumbled.

Hearing the sound of falling rocks, Penny looked from the plane to see a giant rock monster slowly emerging from the ground. The creature lifted its head and yawned, glancing at them.

Sonic glanced at the monster. "Huh, maybe it's a friendly gargantuan rock monster."

The monster let out an angry roar, sending Sonic and Knuckles falling. Sonic gulped, glancing back at the monster. "Nope. He's playing into the stereotype."

The monster smashed its hand towards Sonic, but Sonic quickly jumps away.

"Here we come!" Tails announced, flying his plane to help Sonic and Knuckles. The monster batted them away. "There we go!!" Penny yelled, clinging to the plane.

"Keep him busy, Sonic!" Knuckles said, running up. "I'll give you a hand with his feet with my head!"

Knuckles tried to do a headbutt on the monster, but that didn't do anything, but it did cause Knuckles to feel dizzy. Knuckles stumbled a little, muttering, "Yes, Grandma, I will have another gingersnap!"

The monster headed its way towards the city, with Sonic zooming around beside him. The monster kicks a boulder and sends it sailing towards Fastidious Beaver, who is hauling a crate of lemons. Sonic zooms towards him, getting Fastidious safely out of the way. The boulder crushes the cart of lemons, squeezing lemon juice everywhere. Some of it even made it into a bucket.

Sonic chuckled. "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!"

"But, I already had the lemons!" Fastidious said.

"Sonic! Knuckles! What's going on?!" Sticks cried, running up to them along with Amy.

"A giant rock monster is laying waste to the countryside," Sonic smirked, pointing behind him.

"You mean, "a Granier Giganticus is laying waste to the countryside," Amy said, clearing up his messed up sentence.

"Yeah, thanks for clearing that up."

The Granier Giganticus moans, picking up a tree off the ground, throwing it at Sonic and the others. Thankfully, they got out of the way in time. It lands right-side-up, and a bunch of lemons falls on Fastidious Beaver.

"As previously noted: I already had the lemons." Fastidious sighed, glancing at the tree.

Hearing yelling, Sonic turns up to see Tails' plane crashing towards the ground. Penny had her eyes squeezed shut, clinging to the plane. Tails lands the plane, which is smoking. Tails sighs in relief. However, the plane falls into pieces and stops smoking.

Sonic helped Penny out of the plane, glancing a worried look at Tails. Tails turned to him. "Don't worry. It's still covered by the manufacturer's warranty!"

"But you're the manufacturer." Penny pointed out.

"I KNEW I should've given myself a receipt!" Tails grumbled, slamming his fists on his broken plane.

"Uh, guys, rock monster?!" Amy frowned, pointing to the monster ahead of them.

"Oh, right." Sonic nodded. "What do you know about that thing, Amy?"

"Granier Giganticus is a proud race of mountain dwellers from the time of the ancients. No one has seen them in hundreds of years."

"That's not true." Knuckles said. "I just saw one."

The Granier Giganticus sat down on a house but ended up crushing it with its weight.

"He's ignoring the 'you break it, you bought it' sign!" Tails gasped. "He really is a monster!"

"So horrible." Amy sighed. "They were supposed to reupholster my loveseat."

"Really, Amy?" Penny raised her brows at the pink hedgehog. "You're worried about the loveseat?"

Tails studied the monster for a bit before realizing something. "Hey! He's doing what my neighbor's uncle Tannous does when he has insomnia; he can never get comfortable, so he's always fluffing his pillow!"

They watched as the rock monster groaned, knocking off the roof of a house.

"Like that!" Tails said. My neighbor's Uncle Tannous's next move is to get up and get a drink of water!"

On cue, the monster broke apart a well, and a fountain of water sprouted right into the monster's mouth as he took a drink.

"Like that!" Tails said.

The monster yawned, releasing some ducks.

"My neighbor's Uncle Tannous doesn't yawn ducks." Tails said.

"That's kind of like what I have some nights!" Penny said, her eyes showing sympathy for the monster. "Poor thing!"

"Hey, he isn't rampaging!" Sonic said in realization. "You know what he's doing?!"

"Ravaging? Devastating? Marauding? Obliterating?" Sticks asked. "Flinging or scattering to the wings?" She pulled out a thesaurus. "Found this thesaurus in a cranberry bog."

"He's trying to get comfortable." Sonic pointed out. "He can't sleep!"

Sticks flipped through the thesaurus. "Slumber, repose, forty winks..." She smiled as she held up a cranberry. "Ooh, a cranberry!" She smiled, popping it in her mouth.

"We've gotta help him get back to sleep," Sonic said.

"Agreed." Penny nodded.

..............................................................................................

Soon, they followed the Granier Giganticus through the cannons. He soon reaches a massive boulder and relaxes on it. Penny and her friends stopped in front of it.

"I'm no giant-rock-monsterologist, but our guy looks overtired." Sonic pointed out.

"Possibly a whole lot more tired than I am when I have these problems," Penny said, and Sonic nodded in agreement. "You know what helps me get to sleep when I have these nights?" She turned to her friends. "Some soothing piano music. You know, like lullabies."

"Brilliant, Penny!" Amy smiled at the human girl. "Nothing brings up on sleep like a dose of melody sung by a sweet songbird."

A bird floats up to Amy, singing a song. Amy growled at it. "NOT YOU, ME!"

The bird flew off, shrieking.

Amy cleared her throat and started signing. "Hush, little Granifer Giganticus, don't say a word! Amy's gonna buy you a mockingbird!"

The monster stood up, groaned, and ran off, covering his ears.

Amy grumbled. "He's made out of rock. What does he know?"

Penny cleared her throat and started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. The monster hummed, its eyelids slowly closing to Penny's soft singing voice.

"Look, it's working. He's falling asleep!" Sonic pointed at the monster, who indeed was finally lying down in the middle of the cannon path and snoozing peacefully.

Knuckles frowned. "That road is the delivery route for all the deli products that come into the village. If the rock monster sleeps for a thousand years how are we going to get potato salad?!"

"You were seriously just worried about potato salad this whole time?!" Penny frowned at Knuckles. Knuckles glanced at her. "Why should I worry?" He asked. "And also, what are we talking about?"

Penny slapped her head, letting out a small groan of annoyance.

"You know?" Sonic asked. "Giant rock monsters are a pain in the butt." He turned his back towards Penny, holding out his arms. "Penny, keep singing."

Penny hopped on Sonic's back, and Sonic zoomed off. Penny started singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star as he ran. The monster soon stood up and followed them.

Amy frowned as she ran. "Worst. Parade. EVER!"

After a few moments of running, Sonic finally slows down, and the Monster moans, leaning against a cliff, closing his eyes.

"I think it worked!" Penny smiled as Sticks stopped singing. Sonic smiled. "You're right, Pen! It's working!" He turned to the monster, smiling. "Sleep, my large, rocky friend, and dream of larger, gravely girl monsters!"

"Sonic, don't encourage him...." Penny giggled.

However, Eggman flew over, ruining the moment. "Release the Beebots!" He ordered. Orbot, who was wearing a hat and scarf, glanced at him. "Afer you turn your seat and tray table to an upright position."

Eggman glared at Orbot, and Orbot quickly pressed the button. The Beebots swarmed around Rocky in an instant, surrounding him in a net. Irritated, the monster snarled, breaking the net free. Eggman growled at him. "Hey! That was a very expensive honeycomb cage! If you and I are going to subjugate the world for a thousand generations, I need to see a better attitude from you!"

"Give it up, Egg-stain!" Sonic snarled. "We're not letting you capture Rockey!" He turned to the Beebots with a smirk. "Hey, Beebots, follow me!" He took a leap into the air, running around a peak, before hopping over Eggman's mobile. The Beebots don't stop in time and ended up crashing against the Mobile.

Orbot glances at Eggman. "Might be time to turn on the 'fasten seat belt' sign and head back towards the layer."

Eggman and his robots retreated.

"That's right, run for it, freaks!" Sticks hissed.

"Okay, Eggman's gone. Penny, you can start singing again." Sonic said. He turned to where Penny once stood, and his mouth dropped open.

Penny was gone.

"The monster took Penny!" Tails said.

"Then let's go get her," Sonic growled. He ran off with the rest of the gang behind him.

When they were gone, the monster stood up, and in his hand he held Penny. She looked terrified as she tried to escape his grasp, but the monster wanted to hear more of her singing. When he finished climbing, the monster looked down hopefully at Penny.

Penny gulped nervously.

.................................................................................

"I searched the mountains and canons." Sonic frowned as he walked into Tails' workshop. "No sign of Penny. I'm starting to worry..."

"I sourced the coastlines, bupkus." Tails said.

"Sticks and I searched the jungle; zilch." Amy frowned.

"I hope she's okay." Sticks said. "If the monster doesn't let her go, then I'm not going to teach him how to use gelatin to keep monkeys from swarming into his fireplace!"

Everyone stared at Sticks, blinking.

Knuckles appeared at the doorway, smiling and scratching his tummy. "I just finished lunch; nice, fresh potato salad!"

"Knuckles, we can't find Penny!" Tails said. "We searched everywhere."

"Not everywhere..." Knuckles smirked, picking up a vase. He tossed it aside. "Okay, now it's everywhere."

An alarm suddenly started ringing. Tails ran up to it. "That's my Disaterometer!" He said, picking it up. Knuckles glanced at Tails curiously. "Disaterometer?" He asked the kitsune. "What does it do?"

"What do you think something called a "Disaterometer" does?"

"Detects and stores the sound signatures of typhoons, earthquakes, and other disasters?" Knuckles asked. He smiled. "Either that, or it makes snow cones."

The Disaterometer suddenly started playing Penny's singing voice. A second later, a roar is heard, and Penny coughed. "I can't sing forever, you know. I'm losing my voice!"

"Hey, that's Penny!" Tails gasped.

"The rock monster still has her," Sonic said. "Can that thing tell us where she is?"

Tails nodded, switching a few orbs. "Yeah, I can triangulate her location and get a topographic visual representation." He pressed a button, and a map spitted out of the opening.

"And someone mentioned something about snowcones..." Knuckles smiled.

Sonic frowned, looking at the map. "That peak is a mile high, and Tails' plane is out of commission!"

"We've got to find another way!" Amy said.

"But how?" Sticks asked.

.....................................................................................

"I HAD to open my yap." Amy groaned.

"Oh come on," Sticks smiled happily. "It's not that bad!"

Amy, Sticks, Tails, and Knuckles are all tied to Sonic with parachutes, just like from earlier. Sonic ran, pulling them through the sky.

"DOES THIS THING COME WITH A BARF BAG?!" Amy yelled, feeling sick.

"There's Penny!" Tails pointed ahead.

Knuckles and Sticks grabbed Penny out of the monster's grip. Knuckles smirked. "Concert's over, Rockey. You can buy a T-shirt in the lobby!"

Upset by Penny's sudden leaving, the rock monster roars at them. Amy frowned, still looking queasy. "New fun fact about Granifer Giganticus: their breath smells like dead jellyfish!"

Penny smiled happily at her friends. "You guys! Boy am I glad to see you!"

The monster slid down the peak and began running after Penny.

"Now what are we going to do with him?" Knuckles frowned.

"No worries, guys," Sonic smirked, still running. "I have a plan!"

.......................................................................................................

Orbot and Cubot stood by Eggman as he trimmed one of his leaf statues of himself. Cubot smiled. "Hey, boss, who's your leafy lady friend?!"

"Stop flopping your hinges!" Eggman growled at them. "Since you two botched the capture of the rock monster, I need the peace and quiet of my meditation garden to calm my nerves."

"May I say, sir; it's working like a charm." Orbot nods.

Sonic dashed by, blowing away the leaves of Eggman's meditating bush blows off.

Cubot sighed. "Now he'll want us to put the leaves back on! I'll go get the glue gun..."

Rocky suddenly walks up, smashing the bushes.

"HEY!" Eggman snapped. "Do you mind?! Don't stomp on the topiary!"

Then Rocky tosed Eggman's gazebo away, smashing it to bits. Eggman sighed. "Okay, I thought, "don't step on the topiary." also implied, "don't drop a gazebo on it!"

Rocky roared.

"We can't just stand here and watch Eggman's layer get trashed!" Sonic said.

"You know, you're right." Knuckles sighed. He sat down, watching the whole thing. Penny let out a giggle.

"Good news!" Tails said, running up. "The Disaterometer recorded Penny's singing, and I've put it to an endless loop!"

"That is good news," Amy said sarcastically.

"That's great, Tails!" Penny smiled happily.

Tails pressed a button on the Disaterometer, and Penny's singing was soon heard on its radio. Rocky seems happy about this, and he laid down on Eggman's topiary.

Sonic winced. "Sorry about the flowers, Eggie."

Eggman seems annoyed with Penny's singing since it's played on a loop. "HOW LONG MUST I ENDURE THIS?!"

"It takes Granifire Giganticus about a year to fall asleep completely." Amy smiled at him. "But we can always turn it up!"

"No, that won't be necessary," Eggman said.

Sonic picked Penny in his arms, and soon everyone else reattached themselves to Sonic. He zoomed them home.

Eggman sighed. "Ah, well. Maybe I can make a fountain out of his nose." He mused, glancing at Rocky. "A coy pond in his belly button. Cubot! Orbot! Bring me potting soil! EVIL potting soil!"

Next Chapter: Fortress of Squalitude