CHAPTER 5
Cutting it close
Sunlight peered through the curtains of the guest room window, resting itself on Sonic's face. He stirred, and turned to his side to get away from it. But, it was too late. Sonic opened his eyes and let out a long, drawn out yawn. He sat up and looked around. The room was dark. Not a sound could be heard throughout the house. Sonic got up, walked out of the room and yawned again. He walked up the stairs to her living room and walked to kitchen. Sonic opened the fridge groaned. It was chock full of cakes and cookies from last night. He dug through all them until he found what he was looking for. He grabbed a milk carton and pulled it out. He then moved to the cabinets and began to dig through them until he found cereal. He got out a bowl and spoon and poured himself a bowl of cereal. He sat down on the couch and turned on the news. He yawned again, and sat back. Sonic looked at the screen and nearly choked on his cereal. On the screen, there was a report of a house on his street in Downtown Station Square on fire. Sonic looked around at the houses next to it, and he froze. The house that was on fire was his flat. He ran upstairs and knocked on Amy's door. He heard a soft groan, and knew she was awake. "Amy, listen. My flats on fire, and I'm going over there to check it out. I'll be right back." Sonic ran downstairs, and heard Amy shout "What?!" Sonic practically kicked down Amy's door and shot off down the street. He ran halfway across the city until he arrived in front of his street. There were cop cars and fire trucks everywhere, and the whole street had woken up and was now crowded around the house. Sonic ran over to his house and looked for the nearest com. "Hey, are you the owner of this house?" Sonic turned around to see a portly walrus in a police uniform looking at him. "Yes, actually, it is. Can you tell what the heck happened here?" Sonic gestured towards the fire, and the officer sighed. "Well, there was a transformer last night, and there was something wrong with the wiring in your house, and naturally those two don't mix, so I think you can figure the rest on your own." Sonic stared at his house. All the wood that reinforced it was now a big pile of ashes, and everything else was charred and black. The cop turned back to Sonic. "Do you have insurance?" Sonic sighed and nodded his head. "Yes sir. It's under the name 'Sonic Hedgehog'." The cop wrote it down and walked back to his cruiser. Sonic looked back at his burning house and groaned. Clean up's going to be a chore, he thought. He then proceeded to give the officer a list of everything he had in there, and once everything was done, he turned to leave. He ran back to Amy's house, and opened the door. Amy was sitting on the couch looking worried, and when she saw him come in, she jumped up and hugged him. "Oh, Sonic! I'm so sorry this happened! But thank god you were over here when it happened. Who knows what would have happened if you were over there?" Amy let go of Sonic, and he mumbled something about nightshift. He sat down on the couch and put his hands on his face. Good Christmas this turned out to be, he thought. First, Amy breaks her leg, then my house catches on fire. What next? Sonic looked up, and realized Amy was still looking at him, clearly worried. Sonic sighed and stood up. "I'm going out." He walked over to the door and left. Amy looked down at her leg, and sighed.
The next morning, Amy was making breakfast in the kitchen when Sonic walked up from the guest room. The room was filled with the smell of frying bacon and eggs, and a waffle maker sat on the counter. Amy was smiling to herself, humming along to some music that was coming from a radio that was perched on a windowsill. Sonic walked in, and Amy smiled at him. "Good morning, Sonic." Sonic, still half asleep, waved to her. "There's coffee in the pot over if you want some." Sonic looked up. "You had me at coffee." Amy giggled as she pulled out a mug for Sonic. As Sonic filled the mug, his phone started to ring. Sonic walked out and took out his phone. "Hello?" "Hey, Sonic. I heard your house caught fire. Are you okay?" Sonic sighed. "Yeah, Tails. I'm fine. I'm at Amy's, so I didn't know until it went live." "That's good. Listen, is it okay if you could come over today? I have something to show you." Sonic, now curious, agreed. "Yeah, I should be able to swing by later." Tails obviously sounded happy. "Sweet! See you there." Tails hung up. He could not wait for Sonic to get there, and he kept smacking himself for the reason. He had forgotten to invite Sonic over on Christmas to give him his present, and today was a perfect day to take it for a spin. He ran to the garage, covered the Tornado-0 with a tarp, and waited.
Sonic ran down the street. Tails did not live too far from Amy, and getting there took no time at all. He knocked on the door and waited for Tails to open it. It didn't take long, and soon enough Tails opened the door. "Sup, buddy?" Sonic asked. "Come to the garage. There's something in there for you." Intrigued, Sonic followed Tails into the garage. Inside was a big machine covered in a brown tarp. "Take the tarp off." Tails urged. Sonic grabbed a fold, and yanked it off. He gasped. "The original Tornado! Where did you find it?" Tails smiled. "I've kept it in storage ever since it crashed. I decided I'd fix it for Christmas. Wanna take it for a spin?" Sonic smiled at Tails. "Oh, you best believe I do." Tails tossed Sonic a pair of goggles, and they hopped into the plane. "It's been awhile since I flown a plane, so I might be a little rusty." Sonic called back to Tails. "It's okay! If anything happens, I can take control from back here!" Sonic turned the ignition, and the plane started moving. It rolled into the driveway and moved down the street. It began to gain momentum, and it took off. It flew smoothly, and Sonic wasn't doing to bad himself. They flew around for a good 10 minutes before landing. "That was amazing, Tails! It flew perfectly!" Tails smiled. "It's nothing, Sonic…" Sonic looked at him and grinned. "Thanks, buddy." It was Tails's turn to smile. "You're welcome, Sonic."