Disclaimer: Sonic and all related characters © Sega. Happy 20th, Sonikku!
Ball Toss
Tails stared. He knew it wasn't polite to stare, but this time, he just couldn't help it. There he was again. Sonic was tossing his rubber purple ball up and down, up and down again. He couldn't understand what had gotten into his best friend lately.
"Uh, Sonic?" The kitsune mumbled.
The blue hedgehog didn't seem to hear him. He kept tossing his ball...
Up and down, up and down again.
Tails stiffened, tilting his head and raising his voice to be louder. "Sonic!"
Still tossing the ball, Sonic turned. "Hey, Tails! What is it, buddy?"
"Um..." The two-tailed fox began. He paused to think. He didn't know why it bothered him so much that Sonic kept tossing that ball... up and down... but he found it to be highly aggravating. He took a small step backwards and asked, "...Don't you want to do something else?"
Sonic looked thoughtful as he caught his ball and threw it up again. "Uh... Nope!" He grinned, turning his full attention back to his ball. "Not really!"
Tails's eye twitched. It really wasn't normal for anyone to be jealous of an inanimate object.
But he was. Very jealous. The stupid ball was taking quality time away from him and Sonic being together. They were best friends, and they hadn't done anything at all in the last few days…
All because of that stupid, purple, light-up ball…
The kitsune was enraged. He wanted to grab the ball, break it in his hands, and grind the pieces to dust… But that would be an entirely illogical thing to do.
After all, it was just a ball. It hadn't done any harm. Sonic would get bored of it. Any minute now, he might cast it aside. Maybe tomorrow he would want to play. The ball would be forgotten forever, without Tails' help. He just had to give it some time… Tails left the room, going to sleep.
Morning came. The yellow fox slowly opened his eyes, shutting them tightly again to yawn, and sat up. He stretched…
The ball!
The stupid ball! Sonic had to have gotten bored of it by now. Tails dashed out the door, into the living room, only to discover…
The ball was still there. Being tossed up and down…
Up and down…
Amy sighed. "How long has he been throwing that ball up and down?"
"Four days…" Tails groaned.
"How can he stand doing that? Sonic loves to run, but he can't when he's tossing that ball!" Amy complained. "I know my hero! I know him by heart! I have a feeling… that is not Sonic!"
"Not Sonic?" Tails quickly turned to look at Amy. Everything in his expression suggested that the mere suggestion shocked him. "How could it not be Sonic? Five days ago, before he started fooling around with that ball, he was here! Eggman wouldn't be able to formulate a genetic clone of Sonic in less than 24 hours."
"Aha!" Amy grinned.
Tails stared at her, feeling intimidated. Here he was, an eight-year-old genius; now an obsessed, psychotic 12-year-old Sonic fangirl was trying to take control of the situation, jumping conclusions. This could not end well…
She continued, looking very excited. "That's exactly what Eggman wants us to think! He wants us to think Sonic was here five days ago! Maybe even a whole week, when really, he kidnapped Sonic before that and put that clone in place of him!"
Tails flinched nervously. "…And how would he pull that off?"
Amy looked at Tails with disappointment. "You're supposed to be the genius… Look, if Eggman captured Sonic… say… a month ago, and there was at least a week's worth of time in which he was gone, that would have been when Sonic was kidnapped! Then, using the remaining amount of time, he would have made a clone, and sent it over to us to try to trick us!" She laughed. "But we figured it out! We're way ahead of him!"
Tails looked thoughtful. If worded a bit better, Amy had a point. That could very well be the case, but could Eggman really train a clone to act just like Sonic in less than a week? Up until two days ago, he would have easily brushed such a ridiculous suggestion off. But now…
His tails swished as he held one hand up to his chin in though. After a moment, he lowered his hand, making a decision. "But we can't be sure that that's not Sonic… We have to conduct some sort of test."
"Exactly!"
Amy's enthusiasm nearly gave Tails a heart attack. She continued, barely remembering to keep quiet, since the clone might hear them. She did not notice how much she startled her fox friend. "This will be an hard test! The clone will never pass it!" She rushed past Tails.
"W-wait!" He scampered after her, stomach knotting itself.
However, Amy did not wait. She went straight up to Sonic. "Sonic!" She cried loudly and cheerfully.
Sonic, apparently, had not even noticed her come into the house. Upon hearing her unique, high-pitched voice, he almost jumped out of his skin and froze, letting the ball drop and bounce off of him, then bounce to the floor and roll. He almost didn't notice. "U-uh… Hey there Amy…" He glanced in the direction the ball had rolled.
"Hey Sonic? I have a question for you."
Not this again… "No, Amy, I'm not going to marry you…" With frustration, he began to get up from the couch to go get the ball. I'm not ready for commitment when we haven't even dated. I don't even date anyone!
"Not so fast!" She stepped in front of him. "I wasn't going to ask you that."
"…Then you were going to ask for a date?" He sounded unamused.
"No." She stated. However, to Sonic, her grinning suggested otherwise.
"…What were you going to ask, then?"
"Remember when we were at the Casino Night Zone, and…" She began to blabber about romance. Sonic could only stare at her, hardly hearing what she was saying. After awhile, she got to the point and said, "But I don't remember what you asked me. The moment seemed really special, and I want to remember all of it!" She pouted.
Sonic shifted uncomfortably. "I think I asked you why Rouge models her club after that place."
The pink hedgehog blinked. "Oh. Yeah, yeah. But after that, you asked me something else!" She sweatdropped. She had completely forgotten that part of the conversation.
There was a moment of silence as her blue hero pondered over this. Tails watched, already able to figure out that, sadly, this was the real Sonic. "…Oh. I just asked why you don't change your outfit more often."
"That was it!" Amy exclaimed joyously. "Oh, Sonic, you don't know how sweet it was when you told me how nice I looked…" And on she blabbered.
In the meantime, Sonic managed to retrieve his ball and started tossing it again, only half listening as Amy chattered on…
Something greatly worried Tails. Sonic wasn't trying to get away from Amy. All he seemed to care about was the ball…
What's going on?