"Tails, this is dumb. I'm not going to use this ever. Why are we doing it?"
The yellow fox dangled his feet over the wing of the tornado. Sonic had half a suspicion he was wiggling his toes inside the toes of his shoes, but he couldn't see it.
"It's fun. And you need to know how to handle them in case you ever take one out of someone's hands anyway." Tails chuckled. "Now, lean down and balance it on the trash can."
Sonic glared for a second, hoping if he kept it up along enough, his once-follower would relent and submit to his moral superiority. But he didn't. Tails just grinned at him with blue eyes that no longer seemed so innocent.
For a second, he thought about putting it down and running away. He could. He didn't have to do this… but was that any way to treat Tails after all the little fox had done for him? Tails had followed him through thick and thin. He could learn this one thing. It wasn't like he'd ever be obligated to use it…
He knelt down, putting the butt of it up against his shoulder, tipping the side of it into his cheek, his hand on the barrel ahead of him. He rested the barrel on the trash can and felt around the trigger with the fingers of his other hand. It felt so strange, so awkward... yet he could see the balloon with Eggman's face on it through the scope, the crosshairs just below his wicked smile, and that felt right. He pulled his eyes back to see it better.
Then he slid his fingers across and pushed the safety.
"Good. Now aim just above it, and when you breathe out, you'll naturally lower a bit. Then just slowly squeeze the trigger. Don't pull, and don't tense up."
Sonic adjusted the position of it so the crosshairs were just above Eggman's bald head. He checked his hold on everything; he had no idea how much kick it would have. He let out a deep breath, but found the moment to squeeze had gone, and the crosshairs hadn't been moved as much as he expected.
So he held his breath, aimed down, just above where he wanted to hit, and squeezed the trigger gently.
He expected a kick. He expected to feel different somehow. All he heard was two cracks in rapid succession. The balloon was gone. So he'd hit it, then. He didn't want to feel proud, but he found he couldn't help it.
"Not bad."
Sonic reached over and slid the safety back on, then he pulled the rifle away and looked at it, end to end.
"I didn't hit my first target. And it's just fun. You don't have to do it in a combat situation. That isn't your style, and I respect that."
Sonic nodded, biting his lip.
"What's wrong, Sonic?"
"How do you reload this thing?"