Tails' shed was always a relaxing place.
"And that's why it's a great place to eat potato chips," Sonic said, stuffing another bag in his mouth. He never bothered to "tear here" as that just wasted valuable time.
Glancing out the window, he saw his best friend finally reach the doormat.
Two tails spun rapidly in the bitter cold, generating as much heat as possible.
"I wonder how that potato-chip-maker is doing," Tails said, clutching the doorknob and turning it with all his might.
With the winter wind at his back, he slowly pushed the door open.
"Hey, Tails. How ya doing?" Sonic asked in between bites.
Tails nearly switched genders from the shock. Sonic never went into Tails' shed. And, come to think of it, he didn't really like potato chips.
And when he did get an occasional bite, he never rested his feet on the vent to the potato-chip-maker, especially when it was about to-
"It's going to explode!" Tails shrieked.
Ironically, Tails usually shrieked warnings after the hour of grace had passed.
There was no exception here. With a powerful blast, the machine blew up into a billion bits.
All this was too much for the eight-year-old.
"That took me-" he paused to check his last log. First he had to log in, though.
That's silly, he thought to himself. Why do I need a password when I'm the only one that uses this?
"-Four hours!" And he burst out in tears.
"Sorry, little bud..." Sonic said, scrambling all over the room, trying to catch each and every piece and put it on the table. Being the fastest thing alive was nice for this sort of thing, but even with super speed, there was no knowledge on how to put it back together.
He never knew the trauma of working four hours, only to have every last moment of progress shreded to pieces. But maybe an extra "sorry" and a hug would help.
The fox sighed.
"Thanks, Sonic. But I already have a machine that says 'I'm sorry' and hugs me, just for occasions like this."
And just to demostrate, the fox pressed a button in the corner.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm-"
"It's kinda annoying, though. Say," Tails said, forgetting about all his inventions for once. "Why are you here in the first place, Sonic?"
Sonic blushed a bit. "Um... my nose..." he said, pointing to the non-sprouted portion of his face.
Inspecting the area, Tails muttered to himself. "It's... gone."
Tails opened a few desk drawers. As Sonic peered over his friend's shoulder, he saw lots of nuts, bolts, some strands of rubber, and occasional remote controls.
Finally, the fox jumped with joy.
"This is it!"
"What's that?" Sonic asked.
"It's a device that will locate another device that can be programmed to find your nose!"
And as he opened the door, the winter wind blasted in his face, but he was ready for the challenge!
"Say… Tails," Sonic began.
The fox tilted his head, a little curious.
"Does that thing run on Chaos Emeralds?"
"I thought I told you yesterday that I couldn't find any of those."
Sonic shrugged, and the two prepared to embraced the bitter cold outside.
Despite the lack of sunshine or warmth, they searched as much as they could. Both dug in the snow, until their gloves got wet and soggy.
"Is this it?" Tails asked, holding up a twig.
"Doesn't look like it," Sonic said, and turned back to scan the horizon.
Tails inspected the bark around a tree when he heard Sonic shriek. Or at least, he thought it was Sonic. But it couldn't have been him; he was nowhere to be found.
"Sonic? Sonic?"
"Must have been a forest animal," Tails said to himself, and focused his eyes on any apparent debris in the snow. If his eyes had traveled around a bit, perhaps he would have seen a mask that looked just like Sonic's face.
Just as his eyes went back to their duty, he heard a loud "Whoosh!" followed by a light blue strand of light. It flew around the trees several times, before smashing into one.
"Sonic!" Tails said, racing towards him.
The hedgehog laughed, surprised to see Tails out in the cold.
"Hey, ya Tails!" he said, still eager to run.
Tails brushed off a majority of snow on his hair. "Hey! Your nose is back!"
Sonic smiled. "Was it ever gone?"
A question mark formed above the fox's head. This question mark had a bit of weight, and sent him tumbling in the snow.
Sonic followed, making a snow angel.
"We were just searching for your nose…" Tails responded.
"You must have a very vivid imagination! C'mon, let's see what Robotnik is up to!"
And they trampled through the fresh white blanket.
From the outside, Robotnik admired how cleverly camouflaged his nearly-one-hundred-percent-snow fortress was.
"It's practically invisible!" he said, and proved this by accidently smashing into the wall.
Growling, he managed to find the door, and he was immediately greeted by one of his robots.
"Some eggnog, Master Robotnik?" it asked, holding a cup on a metal tray.
The doctor chuckled. Getting a load of eggnog was always the best thing.
"RIGHT NOW!" he roared, ripping the drink out of his robot's grasp, and glugging down every last sip.
But something interrupted his peaceful day.
"Sonic! What's he doing in this miserable weather?" he barked, zooming up countless flights of stairs to arrive at the top story. Completed with a beautiful balcony, computers made out of only ice, and fountains of eggnog, it was his favorite.
This demanded applause from the robot.
After the payment was given, Robotnik smiled to himself. As he looked down, he could see a blue and an orange speck running in the sea of white snow.
"I've planned everything out, perfectly! My computers have calculated Sonic's height, so I measured everything perfectly to make this plan work- to the tip of Sonic's nose!"
But his victory cheer was interrupted by the robot.
"Systems indicate that subject Sonic has no nose."
"What? No nose?" Robotnik flung his arms onto the keyboard, typing in countless equations.
"There. NOW everything is ready."
And as if it was all arranged, Sonic and Tails ran straight where Robotnik wanted them to run- directly underneath two tons of snow, waiting to be launched!
They ran along the building walls, oblivious of any traps. Or the building itself, even after smashing into it a couple of times.
"Ha ha!" Robotnik bellowed, pulling a lever.
But another interruption was made.
"Warning. No chaos emeralds. Chaos Emeralds required to operate."
The doctored growled. "Not now!" he said, flinging the only chaos emerald he had at the robot. But in the process, he pressed the lever too far.
The two tons of snow were still falling directly onto of Sonic, but cannons began firing at the snow, so that it scattered and melted away.
"Say, Sonic!" Tails said from down below.
"You don't think Robuttnik is up to anything, do you?"
Both looked up at the fire and snow straight above them, getting closer, and closer…
"Let's get out of here!" Sonic yelled, grabbing Tails' wrist and ripping through the landscape. They barely avoided the elements.
Up on his tower, Robotnik wasn't too happy.
"It was simple math! Simple math! Simple math!"
Before he could regurgitate his vocal chords with some simple math, the robot handed him another tea cup.
"More eggnog?" it asked.
Relaxed, the doctor grabbed at the contents.
But his aim was off from the prior frustration, and he tore at the robot's metal covering.
"Amy!"
Indeed, it was Amy Rose, and with a Chaos Emerald in her hand. Shedding her robotic skin, she winked at Robotnik and dived off the balcony.
Hastily, the doctor looked down, but couldn't see her.
Amy disappeared.
Rouge pulled off the last pink quill.
Finally, the sixth Chaos Emerald was on her shelf, deep in her secret basement. The disguises worked, although she made a mental note that she should have been more careful.
Where is the seventh?
She didn't want to think of that immediately, though. Finally stuffing the nose-less costume in her trunk, all she wanted to do was party.
Written for the Kelviniana forum Summer's Up challenge.