Tag 53 – Honey, I Shrunk the Hedgehog
Title: Late Night Joyride

Their motivations were innocent enough. They just wanted to fly it at least once.

Or at least, Scratch wanted to fly it at least once. Grounder wasn't allowed, or so Scratch said, as he clambered behind the control yoke. Grounder climbed in behind him, jealous that he wasn't going to get to fly it himself, but thrilled enough at the idea of taking Dr Robotnik's Egg-O-Matic hovercraft out for a midnight expedition. They weren't supposed to, they both knew, though technically they'd never been explicitly told not to. It was an unwritten, unsaid rule, and if it wasn't important enough to be said or written down, then it couldn't have been important enough to follow, right? Right.

So their motivations were innocent enough. Unfortunately, innocent motivations didn't make for controlled flight.

"Slow down, Scratch!" Grounder said, and he pressed his arm-drills into the side of the small aircraft, as though that could suffice as a brake. "You're going to crash!"

"Shut up, Grounder, I am not!" Scratch retorted, even as Dr Robotnik's fortress came into view much faster than either one of them could anticipate. The golden statue loomed dangerously large, and as the seconds ticked by they neared the garage door just enough so that Grounder could make out the individual details on its surface.

"Scratch, you need to use the brake!" Grounder said, and as the Egg-O-Matic hovercraft didn't slow at all, Grounder covered his eyes with his arm-drills. "Scratch!"

"I am, I'm trying, I'm—no!"

The aircraft jolted forward with a burst of speed to accentuate Scratch's howl of despair. Having evidently hit the gas pedal instead of the brake pedal in his panic, the Egg-O-Matic crashed through the garage door and slammed into the floor of the garage, ejecting both of them out and into the wall. The sound was deafening; for a few moments Scratch and Grounder laid there, immobile, wondering if all their pieces were still in tact, or how long it would take Dr Robotnik to wake and come investigate the source of the cacophony.

He didn't. After seven solid minutes of waiting Scratch and Grounder slowly picked themselves up off the floor, looking cautiously toward the door that led into the fortress, and then at the wreck of Dr Robotnik's Egg-O-Matic, and the giant hole in the garage door.

"Good news is, we're still alive," Grounder said after a moment. Scratch grimaced as he stood up.

"Yeah, but not for long if Dr Robotnik finds out about this," he said. He considered the wreckage for a minute before he scowled. "Let's not tell him."

"But won't he find out anyway?" Grounder asked. Scratch scoffed.

"He's gonna find out that this happened, but he doesn't have to know that we did it. Let's blame it on Coconuts." Grounder brightened.

"Oh yeah, good idea! He'll believe Coconuts did it for sure. And it's not like he could get in even more trouble than he's already in, right?"

"Yeah! What's he gonna do, get put on double sewer duty? Ha-HA-haHA!" Scratch started toward the door that led into the fortress, and Grounder rolled after him, guffawing a little himself.