It's a clear blue morning; the wispy clouds are gently floating across the
sky, until a red biplane burst through one of them, splitting it into
several tiny versions of its former self. Inside the cockpit of the plane
was a certain blue hedgehog called Sonic, defender of the people of Mobius
against the evil dictator, Dr. Ivo Robotnik.
This time however, his mission was not to stop one of the Doctor's evil
schemes, but to find the star post in the Tiny Islands Zone, that would
lead him to the red Chaos Emerald, the sixth and final Emerald of the set.
"Why does the star post have to be in those islands, there so damn small it'll take me forever to find them." Sonic complained, peering out of the plane at the ocean below him. A small group of clouds blocked his view for a moment, but when they passed one of the islands belonging to the group came into view. "Then again, maybe not."
He starts to descend and line the plane up to land on the beach of the main island, titling the plane left and right to try and keep it steady, he tried to gently touch the wheels down into the sand, but they just passed straight through it, forcing the hedgehog to take off again, he banked hard right to line himself up for another run, this time he pushed the wheels further into the sand, they dug straight into the soft grains bringing the plane to a sudden halt. Sonic hopped out of the cockpit and checked over the plane, the wheels were now buried under six inches of sand with long trenches behind them.
"Oh man, I really need a boat." Sonic moaned.
He quickly gave up on his half assed attempt at digging it out and ran towards the woods that grew on the edge of the beach, after a few minutes of weaving in and out of the trees and hopping over fallen branches, he eventually comes across a small clearing where he stops to take a short rest. But his relaxation was soon spoiled as he heard some branches snap behind the wall of trees, soon he could hear the hum of several small motors, he readied himself for a fight as Motobugs, Caterkillers and Burrowbots came charging out of the greenery. Sonic immediately jumped into the air, curled into a ball and bounced on the backs of the Motobugs, destroying them and setting free the birds inside, next he picked up a Caterkiller by it's head and swung it round into an approaching Burrowbot. While Sonic was dismantling the small group of badniks, a small figure was watching from the shadows, hiding behind the tree when Sonic looked in its direction.
"That's better, I needed a little workout." Sonic said while jogging on the spot. 'I suppose I better go find that star post.' He thought to himself, before speeding off into the depths of the wood.
He eventually comes across a long path where the trees had been cut down. After spending a short moment on deciding which way to go, he began running along the trail, thankful at not having to avoid the hazardous woodland floor anymore. As he was running he began to hear a strange noise getting louder behind him, it sounded like something was moving through the air at great speed. Sonic looked over his shoulder and saw that something was following him, he couldn't make out what it was, as the sun was directly behind it, but he could make out the silhouette, it was quite small apart from the large rotors that seemed to be keeping it in the air, it also had enough pace to keep up with Sonic at his current speed.
'So Robotnik thinks he can make a Badnik fast enough to keep up with me,' He thought to himself, a little grin creeping onto his face. 'We'll see about that.'
Sonic turned up his speed a notch and accelerated away from the pursuing Badnik. After a few minutes, Sonic came to a full stop and waited for the Badnik to catch up, he'd had his fun with it, now it was time to smash it, but the hedgehog was a little disappointed when it didn't show.
"Looks like I went a little too fast for it." He chuckled to himself. But his laughter quickly faded and died when he heard an engine start in the distance. "My plane!"
Sonic burst through the trees and onto the beach, he ran along the coastline until he reached the place where he had left his biplane, just in time to see it taking it's takeoff run, he chases after it, just managing to grab onto the rudder as the wheels lifted off the ground. Sonic holds on for dear life as the plane starts to circle the island, banking to the right and almost throwing him off. He managed to climb back up and sit on the tail end, a leg either side of the body of the plane, slowly he inched his way up toward the cockpit, but he didn't get far as the plane suddenly went into a loop-the-loop and he slid back, holding onto the plane with his arms and legs wrapped around it until he hit the rudder again.
"Man that smarts." He grumbled, in a bit of discomfort at the speed his backside had stopped his movement.
As the plane levelled out Sonic began working his way up again, only to stop half way when it starts to descend back towards the island again, doing a complete roll on the way down. The plane landed near perfectly on the beach, but that wasn't much comfort to Sonic, who was starting to wish he hadn't grabbed onto his plane in the first place, as his landing was a little bumpy. Once the plane had come to a full stop, Sonic quickly crawled along the bodywork and reached down into the cockpit with one hand, raising the other above his head, ready to hit whatever he grabbed onto, expecting it to be the Badnik that was chasing him earlier. But was shocked by what he pulled out, instead of a badnik, Sonic had grabbed a young fox by the scruff of its neck, he was about half Sonic's size, his fur was bright orange with white patches over his chest, tummy and muzzle, he also had three flicks of fur that sprouted from his forehead. His clothing was not unlike Sonic's, white gloves and red and white trainers with white socks, the only difference being that the fox's trainers were red at the heel and white at the toes, instead of red with a white stripe, and he had buckled strapped around his wrists and ankles, presumably to hold everything in place. The cub was cowering at the site of Sonic's angry looking face and his raised fist. The hedgehog immediately lowered his arm and changed his expression to that of total confusion. "What the." Was all Sonic could think of in the spare of the moment.
The fox showed his face from behind his hands and looked at his capture with a guilty look on his face. He coyly smiled and waved at Sonic, knowing that he was going to be in trouble. Sonic frowned angrily at the cub, who immediately stopped waving and looked down at his dangling feet, folding his ears back and feeling guilty.
"What the hell do you think you were doing flying my plane?" Sonic shouted. The cub whimpered a little at Sonic's raised voice. "I just wanted to try it out," He replied. "I'm really sorry mister, I wont do it again." He continued, getting more and more frightened by the second.
"Just wanted to try it out!" Sonic repeated, exasperated by what he had heard. "You're just a kid, and you think you can fly my plane, and without asking."
The fox frowned; he seemed to take offence to being called 'just a kid'. "I'm four and a half," He shouted back, to him this was quite old. "And I said I won't fly your plane again.unless you want me to?" He finished quite quietly, running a finger over the plane.
"NO!" Sonic blurted out as fast as he could, remembering everything he went through. "You almost killed me up there. Now what's your name?" "Why?" The cub asked, starting to get a little worried again. "Just tell me." Sonic said, beginning to lose his patience. "Do I have to?" The kit whined. "Yes!" Sonic commanded, drumming his fingers on the plane through getting tired of waiting.
"It.It's Miles Prower." He said quickly, hoping that the blue hedgehog wouldn't hear it. But he did, and Sonic started to snigger, then let it out into a loud laugh, pounding his fist against the side of the plane. "Stop it." Miles whined, but Sonic couldn't hear him over his loud guffaws.
Eventually Sonic did stop laughing, until he looked at he fox again and just couldn't help himself, letting out another bellow of laughter, infuriating the cub he was still dangling by the scruff of his neck. Miles started to sulk, putting on the best frown he could, jutting out his bottom lip a little and folding his arms.
"Okay, okay, I'm done." Sonic chuckled, wiping a single tear from his eye. "So where do you live?" Sonic asked while climbing off the plane and plonking miles down in the sand.
"I.I." Miles stuttered, looking down at the sand. "Where are your mom and dad?" Sonic questioned, trying to get the fox to give him an answer.
"I.I don't have any." Came the eventual response. He looked up at Sonic a little teary eyed. "Oh," Sonic said, a little surprised. "So who looks after you?" "I do." Miles replied in almost a whisper. "So no-one looks after you?" Sonic asked, kneeling down in front of the cub, his heart reaching out to him. Miles just closed his eyes and shook his head. "I've been on my own ever since I can remember." He finally explained.
Sonic thought about doing something to help the cub, but knew he couldn't. 'Poor little guy, I wanna' help him, but if I take him somewhere with me, he might get hurt with Robotnik after me all the time.' "I tell you what," Sonic perked up. "I'll let you off this time, just don't try anything like that again, okay?"
"You will, gee thanks, I wont I promise." Miles beamed, showing the first true smile since the two met. "Go on then, run along." Sonic said, ruffling the fox's head fur.
Miles giggled a little before scampering off towards the woods. Sonic turned his attentions to his plane, checking to see if it had taken an damage during Miles' joyride, when he heard several kids shouting behind him. He turned around and witnessed Miles being pushed to the ground by a small gang of youths; they were teasing him about his twin tails, then the fox quickly picked himself up and ran into the woods, crying and closely followed by the gang. Sonic was gob smacked, he couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before, but that wasn't important now, he rushed into the forest after them. It wasn't long before he caught up with the gang, although they couldn't see the fox they were after, they were still shouting out taunts and abuse, knowing that he would hear them. Sonic ran up behind them and at the top of his voice made a scary noise, without even looking to see what it was, all of the kids ran away, leaving Sonic alone with the hidden cub.
He kept as quiet as he could and listened to the sounds around him, and sure enough he picked up a quiet sobbing sound coming from a bush, he slowly walked up to it and parted it down the middle, Miles was sat behind it, facing away from the commotion and hugging his knees. Sonic reached out a hand and gently placed it on the kit's shoulder, Miles squeaked and began to shiver a little, thinking it was one of the other kids, Sonic withdrew his hand, not wanting to scare the cub anymore.
"Hey, its okay," The hedgehog whispered, trying to comfort the fox. "They've gone." "T-they have?" Miles sniffed, turning to face Sonic. "Yeah, it's just me here now." He said, offering to help him up. " You know I didn't even notice you had two tails." He admitted, picking the fox up by his underarms and putting him back on his feet. "And let me tell you something," He continued. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with it." "Th-there isn't?" Miles queried, his voice beginning to perk up a little. "No, I mean it could be a lot worse, you could have a great big wart on the end of your nose or something." Sonic stated, giving the boys nose a little tap. Miles just giggled, already forgetting why he was crying in the first place.
"Hey, I got an idea, how would you like to give me a hand with something?" Asked Sonic. Miles nodded eagerly, and before he knew it, Sonic had grabbed his arm and ran back the way he came, getting back to the beach in seconds. "Wow, that was fast!" Miles exclaimed, still trying to figure out how he got from the woods to the beach in the bat of an eyelid. "Naturally," Sonic said in a cocky tone. "You are looking at the one and only Sonic the hedgehog, the fastest thing on all Mobius. "Wow, you're Sonic the hedgehog, I heard about you, you helped all those animals that got turned into robots, and beat that fat guy." Said the fox, repeating what he'd heard on a radio.
"That's right." Sonic gloated, happy that news of his heroics was spreading. "Now here's what I want you to do. I need to go find the star post that's somewhere on one of these islands, but while I'm gone, I need someone to guard my plane. Do you think you could do that for me?" He asked. "Yeah, don't worry I wont let you down." Miles said confidently. "Oh, wait, is a star post a big pole thing with a picture of a star on it?" Miles enquired. "Yeah, that's it all right." Just managing to figure out the cub's crude description. "I know where it is, it's at the north end of this island, just inside the wood." Miles squeaked, pointing in its direction. "Thanks little guy, that's a big help." Sonic replied, patting Miles on the head. "Well, see you in a few." Sonic said as he prepared himself to speed away. "Oh, and if those kids come back, just tell them whose plane you're looking after. But no flying it, okay!" "Okay." Miles said, looking a little disappointed, moving some sand around with his trainer.
In a flash, Sonic zoomed off along the beach, reaching the north end of the island in a matter of seconds, dashing into the edge of the wood; he almost immediately found the star post he was looking for. He ran around the star post at great speed, activating the warp to the Special Zone, then disappeared inside it. In less than a few minutes Sonic reappeared from the Special Zone, but he was looking a little phased.
"Man, I really hate that place, it always makes me feel so dizzy." He groaned, holding his head and staggering back to the beach. After a quick shake of his head to clear his senses, Sonic rushed back towards his plane, the Tornado. However, when he got there, he wasn't very happy, the engine compartment of his plane was wide open and Miles was inside tinkering with it, he had obviously been looking around the whole plane and had come across a small tool kit in the back, only his lower half visible, his tails wagging with glee. Sonic grabbed the cub by his twin appendages and pulled him from the compartment, his white gloves and fur smudged with oil.
"What did I say about messin' with my plane?" Sonic growled. "B-but you only said I couldn't fly it." Tails defended himself. "You know what I meant." Sonic shouted. "B-but I.I made it go faster." Miles whimpered, hiding behind his raised arms. Sonic's expression changed to that of surprise, but he quickly dismissed the fox's claims. "Yeah right." "But I did, try it if you don't believe me." Miles barked, lowering his arms again.
Sonic decided to give the kit a chance and hopped inside his plane, taking off with considerable pace and zooming over the island like he was in a jet rather than a biplane. When he landed, Sonic was almost speechless.
"See!" Was all Miles had to say, he had taken the time Sonic was in the air to go into the sea and was now clean of oil. "You know, you're pretty smart for your age." The hedgehog commented, hopping out of the cockpit and dropping to one knee in front of the fox. Miles just blushed. Sonic knew that Mobians matured quicker than humans, as most Mobians only lived to around the age of sixty, unlike humans who continue living until they were around eighty, but this kid was even smart for a Mobian.
"S-Sonic.will you be my friend?" Miles stammered. "Uh.sure, if you really want." Sonic replied, not really seeing much to it. Miles beamed a huge smile and wrapped his arms around his new, and only friend. Sonic was taken by surprise by the fox, who was now resting his head against his shoulder; he didn't really know what to do, but he eventually hugged him back, giving him a pat on the back to get him to let go.
"Well," Sonic started. "I got what I was after, so I'll be going, but I promise I'll visit you soon." He continued, starting to get into his plane. "But, can't I come with you?" "Oh, sorry little guy, but I don't want you getting hurt, and I cant afford to have someone slowing me down." Sonic explained, besides, he wasn't to fond of kids, it wasn't that he didn't like them, just that he couldn't stand to be around them twenty-four-seven, all that whining and crying drove him crazy.
"But, I'm not slow, I bet I could beat you in a race." Miles argued, getting a little desperate for ideas. "You really want to come with me that much?" Miles nodded eagerly, almost pleading now. Sonic pondered for a moment, and then grinned slyly when he got an idea. "I tell you what, if you can beat me in a race, then you can come with me, deal?" He said holding his hand out. "Deal." Miles replied excitedly, grabbing Sonic's hand and shaking it. "Just don't be too disappointed when I beat you." Sonic said cockily. Miles just stuck out his tongue.
"Okay, ready set go!" Sonic shouted quickly, zooming off into the distance and leaving Miles in a cloud of sand. Along the way Sonic started to feel sorry for the fox. 'Poor little guy.' He thought. 'He doesn't stand a chance, and I know he's gonna' be really upset when he finally finishes.' Sonic picked up the pace a little, wanting to give himself some time to think of something to say to comfort the boy when he caught up. As he neared the north end of the island though, he slowed to almost a jog, as he was astounded by what he saw. Sat on a rock on the edge of the beach was none other than Miles, swinging his legs and humming a tune to himself.
"Wha.but how, no-one's faster than me." Sonic cried out, his chin almost hitting the floor. "Told ya' I could beat ya'." Miles gloated, grabbing onto his toes and rocking on his tails. "So when are we going?" He asked. Sonic sighed. "Well I suppose I did promise," He started. "But there's no way I'm taking Miles Prower with me, that's too much an uncool name." "B-but you promised you'd take me with you if I beat you." He whined, coming close to tears. "I know, and I will, so how about I call you.Tails!" Sonic suggested. Miles looked back at his appendages and pondered for a moment. "Okay!" "Alright then 'Tails', let's go home." Sonic took Tails back to the plane and began to climb in. "Um.can I fly it back to your place?" Tails asked. Sonic looked at him with daggers. "I'll keep it steady, I promise." "I know I'm gonna' regret this.hop in." He sighed. Tails let out a cheer before leaping head first into the cockpit, then re- righting inside and strapping himself in.
As he started the engine, Sonic climbed up onto the wings and held on tight with one hand, the plane soon started rolling and took to the air with ease. "See, I told you I could keep it steady." Tails gleamed. "That's great Tails," Sonic replied with fake excitement. "But you're going the wrong way, home's that-a-way." He concluded, pointing behind Tails. "Oops."
"Why does the star post have to be in those islands, there so damn small it'll take me forever to find them." Sonic complained, peering out of the plane at the ocean below him. A small group of clouds blocked his view for a moment, but when they passed one of the islands belonging to the group came into view. "Then again, maybe not."
He starts to descend and line the plane up to land on the beach of the main island, titling the plane left and right to try and keep it steady, he tried to gently touch the wheels down into the sand, but they just passed straight through it, forcing the hedgehog to take off again, he banked hard right to line himself up for another run, this time he pushed the wheels further into the sand, they dug straight into the soft grains bringing the plane to a sudden halt. Sonic hopped out of the cockpit and checked over the plane, the wheels were now buried under six inches of sand with long trenches behind them.
"Oh man, I really need a boat." Sonic moaned.
He quickly gave up on his half assed attempt at digging it out and ran towards the woods that grew on the edge of the beach, after a few minutes of weaving in and out of the trees and hopping over fallen branches, he eventually comes across a small clearing where he stops to take a short rest. But his relaxation was soon spoiled as he heard some branches snap behind the wall of trees, soon he could hear the hum of several small motors, he readied himself for a fight as Motobugs, Caterkillers and Burrowbots came charging out of the greenery. Sonic immediately jumped into the air, curled into a ball and bounced on the backs of the Motobugs, destroying them and setting free the birds inside, next he picked up a Caterkiller by it's head and swung it round into an approaching Burrowbot. While Sonic was dismantling the small group of badniks, a small figure was watching from the shadows, hiding behind the tree when Sonic looked in its direction.
"That's better, I needed a little workout." Sonic said while jogging on the spot. 'I suppose I better go find that star post.' He thought to himself, before speeding off into the depths of the wood.
He eventually comes across a long path where the trees had been cut down. After spending a short moment on deciding which way to go, he began running along the trail, thankful at not having to avoid the hazardous woodland floor anymore. As he was running he began to hear a strange noise getting louder behind him, it sounded like something was moving through the air at great speed. Sonic looked over his shoulder and saw that something was following him, he couldn't make out what it was, as the sun was directly behind it, but he could make out the silhouette, it was quite small apart from the large rotors that seemed to be keeping it in the air, it also had enough pace to keep up with Sonic at his current speed.
'So Robotnik thinks he can make a Badnik fast enough to keep up with me,' He thought to himself, a little grin creeping onto his face. 'We'll see about that.'
Sonic turned up his speed a notch and accelerated away from the pursuing Badnik. After a few minutes, Sonic came to a full stop and waited for the Badnik to catch up, he'd had his fun with it, now it was time to smash it, but the hedgehog was a little disappointed when it didn't show.
"Looks like I went a little too fast for it." He chuckled to himself. But his laughter quickly faded and died when he heard an engine start in the distance. "My plane!"
Sonic burst through the trees and onto the beach, he ran along the coastline until he reached the place where he had left his biplane, just in time to see it taking it's takeoff run, he chases after it, just managing to grab onto the rudder as the wheels lifted off the ground. Sonic holds on for dear life as the plane starts to circle the island, banking to the right and almost throwing him off. He managed to climb back up and sit on the tail end, a leg either side of the body of the plane, slowly he inched his way up toward the cockpit, but he didn't get far as the plane suddenly went into a loop-the-loop and he slid back, holding onto the plane with his arms and legs wrapped around it until he hit the rudder again.
"Man that smarts." He grumbled, in a bit of discomfort at the speed his backside had stopped his movement.
As the plane levelled out Sonic began working his way up again, only to stop half way when it starts to descend back towards the island again, doing a complete roll on the way down. The plane landed near perfectly on the beach, but that wasn't much comfort to Sonic, who was starting to wish he hadn't grabbed onto his plane in the first place, as his landing was a little bumpy. Once the plane had come to a full stop, Sonic quickly crawled along the bodywork and reached down into the cockpit with one hand, raising the other above his head, ready to hit whatever he grabbed onto, expecting it to be the Badnik that was chasing him earlier. But was shocked by what he pulled out, instead of a badnik, Sonic had grabbed a young fox by the scruff of its neck, he was about half Sonic's size, his fur was bright orange with white patches over his chest, tummy and muzzle, he also had three flicks of fur that sprouted from his forehead. His clothing was not unlike Sonic's, white gloves and red and white trainers with white socks, the only difference being that the fox's trainers were red at the heel and white at the toes, instead of red with a white stripe, and he had buckled strapped around his wrists and ankles, presumably to hold everything in place. The cub was cowering at the site of Sonic's angry looking face and his raised fist. The hedgehog immediately lowered his arm and changed his expression to that of total confusion. "What the." Was all Sonic could think of in the spare of the moment.
The fox showed his face from behind his hands and looked at his capture with a guilty look on his face. He coyly smiled and waved at Sonic, knowing that he was going to be in trouble. Sonic frowned angrily at the cub, who immediately stopped waving and looked down at his dangling feet, folding his ears back and feeling guilty.
"What the hell do you think you were doing flying my plane?" Sonic shouted. The cub whimpered a little at Sonic's raised voice. "I just wanted to try it out," He replied. "I'm really sorry mister, I wont do it again." He continued, getting more and more frightened by the second.
"Just wanted to try it out!" Sonic repeated, exasperated by what he had heard. "You're just a kid, and you think you can fly my plane, and without asking."
The fox frowned; he seemed to take offence to being called 'just a kid'. "I'm four and a half," He shouted back, to him this was quite old. "And I said I won't fly your plane again.unless you want me to?" He finished quite quietly, running a finger over the plane.
"NO!" Sonic blurted out as fast as he could, remembering everything he went through. "You almost killed me up there. Now what's your name?" "Why?" The cub asked, starting to get a little worried again. "Just tell me." Sonic said, beginning to lose his patience. "Do I have to?" The kit whined. "Yes!" Sonic commanded, drumming his fingers on the plane through getting tired of waiting.
"It.It's Miles Prower." He said quickly, hoping that the blue hedgehog wouldn't hear it. But he did, and Sonic started to snigger, then let it out into a loud laugh, pounding his fist against the side of the plane. "Stop it." Miles whined, but Sonic couldn't hear him over his loud guffaws.
Eventually Sonic did stop laughing, until he looked at he fox again and just couldn't help himself, letting out another bellow of laughter, infuriating the cub he was still dangling by the scruff of his neck. Miles started to sulk, putting on the best frown he could, jutting out his bottom lip a little and folding his arms.
"Okay, okay, I'm done." Sonic chuckled, wiping a single tear from his eye. "So where do you live?" Sonic asked while climbing off the plane and plonking miles down in the sand.
"I.I." Miles stuttered, looking down at the sand. "Where are your mom and dad?" Sonic questioned, trying to get the fox to give him an answer.
"I.I don't have any." Came the eventual response. He looked up at Sonic a little teary eyed. "Oh," Sonic said, a little surprised. "So who looks after you?" "I do." Miles replied in almost a whisper. "So no-one looks after you?" Sonic asked, kneeling down in front of the cub, his heart reaching out to him. Miles just closed his eyes and shook his head. "I've been on my own ever since I can remember." He finally explained.
Sonic thought about doing something to help the cub, but knew he couldn't. 'Poor little guy, I wanna' help him, but if I take him somewhere with me, he might get hurt with Robotnik after me all the time.' "I tell you what," Sonic perked up. "I'll let you off this time, just don't try anything like that again, okay?"
"You will, gee thanks, I wont I promise." Miles beamed, showing the first true smile since the two met. "Go on then, run along." Sonic said, ruffling the fox's head fur.
Miles giggled a little before scampering off towards the woods. Sonic turned his attentions to his plane, checking to see if it had taken an damage during Miles' joyride, when he heard several kids shouting behind him. He turned around and witnessed Miles being pushed to the ground by a small gang of youths; they were teasing him about his twin tails, then the fox quickly picked himself up and ran into the woods, crying and closely followed by the gang. Sonic was gob smacked, he couldn't believe he hadn't noticed it before, but that wasn't important now, he rushed into the forest after them. It wasn't long before he caught up with the gang, although they couldn't see the fox they were after, they were still shouting out taunts and abuse, knowing that he would hear them. Sonic ran up behind them and at the top of his voice made a scary noise, without even looking to see what it was, all of the kids ran away, leaving Sonic alone with the hidden cub.
He kept as quiet as he could and listened to the sounds around him, and sure enough he picked up a quiet sobbing sound coming from a bush, he slowly walked up to it and parted it down the middle, Miles was sat behind it, facing away from the commotion and hugging his knees. Sonic reached out a hand and gently placed it on the kit's shoulder, Miles squeaked and began to shiver a little, thinking it was one of the other kids, Sonic withdrew his hand, not wanting to scare the cub anymore.
"Hey, its okay," The hedgehog whispered, trying to comfort the fox. "They've gone." "T-they have?" Miles sniffed, turning to face Sonic. "Yeah, it's just me here now." He said, offering to help him up. " You know I didn't even notice you had two tails." He admitted, picking the fox up by his underarms and putting him back on his feet. "And let me tell you something," He continued. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with it." "Th-there isn't?" Miles queried, his voice beginning to perk up a little. "No, I mean it could be a lot worse, you could have a great big wart on the end of your nose or something." Sonic stated, giving the boys nose a little tap. Miles just giggled, already forgetting why he was crying in the first place.
"Hey, I got an idea, how would you like to give me a hand with something?" Asked Sonic. Miles nodded eagerly, and before he knew it, Sonic had grabbed his arm and ran back the way he came, getting back to the beach in seconds. "Wow, that was fast!" Miles exclaimed, still trying to figure out how he got from the woods to the beach in the bat of an eyelid. "Naturally," Sonic said in a cocky tone. "You are looking at the one and only Sonic the hedgehog, the fastest thing on all Mobius. "Wow, you're Sonic the hedgehog, I heard about you, you helped all those animals that got turned into robots, and beat that fat guy." Said the fox, repeating what he'd heard on a radio.
"That's right." Sonic gloated, happy that news of his heroics was spreading. "Now here's what I want you to do. I need to go find the star post that's somewhere on one of these islands, but while I'm gone, I need someone to guard my plane. Do you think you could do that for me?" He asked. "Yeah, don't worry I wont let you down." Miles said confidently. "Oh, wait, is a star post a big pole thing with a picture of a star on it?" Miles enquired. "Yeah, that's it all right." Just managing to figure out the cub's crude description. "I know where it is, it's at the north end of this island, just inside the wood." Miles squeaked, pointing in its direction. "Thanks little guy, that's a big help." Sonic replied, patting Miles on the head. "Well, see you in a few." Sonic said as he prepared himself to speed away. "Oh, and if those kids come back, just tell them whose plane you're looking after. But no flying it, okay!" "Okay." Miles said, looking a little disappointed, moving some sand around with his trainer.
In a flash, Sonic zoomed off along the beach, reaching the north end of the island in a matter of seconds, dashing into the edge of the wood; he almost immediately found the star post he was looking for. He ran around the star post at great speed, activating the warp to the Special Zone, then disappeared inside it. In less than a few minutes Sonic reappeared from the Special Zone, but he was looking a little phased.
"Man, I really hate that place, it always makes me feel so dizzy." He groaned, holding his head and staggering back to the beach. After a quick shake of his head to clear his senses, Sonic rushed back towards his plane, the Tornado. However, when he got there, he wasn't very happy, the engine compartment of his plane was wide open and Miles was inside tinkering with it, he had obviously been looking around the whole plane and had come across a small tool kit in the back, only his lower half visible, his tails wagging with glee. Sonic grabbed the cub by his twin appendages and pulled him from the compartment, his white gloves and fur smudged with oil.
"What did I say about messin' with my plane?" Sonic growled. "B-but you only said I couldn't fly it." Tails defended himself. "You know what I meant." Sonic shouted. "B-but I.I made it go faster." Miles whimpered, hiding behind his raised arms. Sonic's expression changed to that of surprise, but he quickly dismissed the fox's claims. "Yeah right." "But I did, try it if you don't believe me." Miles barked, lowering his arms again.
Sonic decided to give the kit a chance and hopped inside his plane, taking off with considerable pace and zooming over the island like he was in a jet rather than a biplane. When he landed, Sonic was almost speechless.
"See!" Was all Miles had to say, he had taken the time Sonic was in the air to go into the sea and was now clean of oil. "You know, you're pretty smart for your age." The hedgehog commented, hopping out of the cockpit and dropping to one knee in front of the fox. Miles just blushed. Sonic knew that Mobians matured quicker than humans, as most Mobians only lived to around the age of sixty, unlike humans who continue living until they were around eighty, but this kid was even smart for a Mobian.
"S-Sonic.will you be my friend?" Miles stammered. "Uh.sure, if you really want." Sonic replied, not really seeing much to it. Miles beamed a huge smile and wrapped his arms around his new, and only friend. Sonic was taken by surprise by the fox, who was now resting his head against his shoulder; he didn't really know what to do, but he eventually hugged him back, giving him a pat on the back to get him to let go.
"Well," Sonic started. "I got what I was after, so I'll be going, but I promise I'll visit you soon." He continued, starting to get into his plane. "But, can't I come with you?" "Oh, sorry little guy, but I don't want you getting hurt, and I cant afford to have someone slowing me down." Sonic explained, besides, he wasn't to fond of kids, it wasn't that he didn't like them, just that he couldn't stand to be around them twenty-four-seven, all that whining and crying drove him crazy.
"But, I'm not slow, I bet I could beat you in a race." Miles argued, getting a little desperate for ideas. "You really want to come with me that much?" Miles nodded eagerly, almost pleading now. Sonic pondered for a moment, and then grinned slyly when he got an idea. "I tell you what, if you can beat me in a race, then you can come with me, deal?" He said holding his hand out. "Deal." Miles replied excitedly, grabbing Sonic's hand and shaking it. "Just don't be too disappointed when I beat you." Sonic said cockily. Miles just stuck out his tongue.
"Okay, ready set go!" Sonic shouted quickly, zooming off into the distance and leaving Miles in a cloud of sand. Along the way Sonic started to feel sorry for the fox. 'Poor little guy.' He thought. 'He doesn't stand a chance, and I know he's gonna' be really upset when he finally finishes.' Sonic picked up the pace a little, wanting to give himself some time to think of something to say to comfort the boy when he caught up. As he neared the north end of the island though, he slowed to almost a jog, as he was astounded by what he saw. Sat on a rock on the edge of the beach was none other than Miles, swinging his legs and humming a tune to himself.
"Wha.but how, no-one's faster than me." Sonic cried out, his chin almost hitting the floor. "Told ya' I could beat ya'." Miles gloated, grabbing onto his toes and rocking on his tails. "So when are we going?" He asked. Sonic sighed. "Well I suppose I did promise," He started. "But there's no way I'm taking Miles Prower with me, that's too much an uncool name." "B-but you promised you'd take me with you if I beat you." He whined, coming close to tears. "I know, and I will, so how about I call you.Tails!" Sonic suggested. Miles looked back at his appendages and pondered for a moment. "Okay!" "Alright then 'Tails', let's go home." Sonic took Tails back to the plane and began to climb in. "Um.can I fly it back to your place?" Tails asked. Sonic looked at him with daggers. "I'll keep it steady, I promise." "I know I'm gonna' regret this.hop in." He sighed. Tails let out a cheer before leaping head first into the cockpit, then re- righting inside and strapping himself in.
As he started the engine, Sonic climbed up onto the wings and held on tight with one hand, the plane soon started rolling and took to the air with ease. "See, I told you I could keep it steady." Tails gleamed. "That's great Tails," Sonic replied with fake excitement. "But you're going the wrong way, home's that-a-way." He concluded, pointing behind Tails. "Oops."