Welcome to my first Sonic fic. Much like everyone else at this site, I don't own Sonic or any of the characters.  Please review.  On with the show!

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Sonic was bored.  It was raining out, so he didn't feel like running outside.

"What's up, Tails?" he said as the fox opened the door.

"Not much, just working on the Tornado's engine." Tails said, gesturing for Sonic to come in out of the rain.

"Oh.  Maybe when you're done, we can play a game of checkers or something, or play video games."

"Probably, but first I need to get the engine work done.  It'll be an hour or so."

"Ok.  I'll find something to do while you work on it."

Tails went back to working on the engine.  Sonic tried to find something to do.  He went online and surfed the net, but found nothing of particular interest. He tried to watch some television, but nothing was on but financial reports, old shows, and infomercials for cooking pans and food savers.

Sonic picked up Tails phone and dialed a number. "Hello?" said a voice on the other side.

"Hey Amy. How're you doin'?" Sonic said.

"Sonic! What a pleasant surprise!"

"I don't have anything to do, so I was wondering if you'd like to see a movie."

Sonic expected to hear squeals of glee and happiness from Amy.

"Sonic, I'd love to, but I've got a dentist appointment in half an hour."

"Oh, OK.  Another time, perhaps."

"OK.  Bye Sonikku!"

Sonic hung up the phone. "Wow, you must be really bored," Tails said as he wiped his gloves using an old rag.

"Hey, she's not that bad to hang with, I guess."

"Sonic, you need a hobby or something."

Tails then went into the garage area. Sonic followed and sat on the ground next to a bookcase of manuals and magazines about machines.  He watched Tails work for a while, but the engine was suspended by metal chains from pulleys on the other side of the Tornado.  Sonic couldn't see the engine or Tails very easily. I really need to get a Game Boy SP, he thought.

Completely bored, Sonic noticed the books next to him. He picked one up and started looking through it.

Sonic wasn't completely clueless about machines. Before he met Tails, he used to change the oil and put gas in the Tornado, and he washed it. He knew how to fly it, but for anything more, he had to take it to a shop and pay someone to work on it.

As he looked though, he read about engine parts. Some of it he already knew, from either Tails, or when destroying Eggman's evil machines. The book filled in some of the gaps. Sonic went through the books, constantly having moments of realization as he found out exactly what parts do and how they work together.

Sonic finished that book and picked up another one.  He had actually found it interesting, and wanted to read more.  After an hour, he decided to get a drink.

"Hey Tails, I'm gonna get a soda.  You want one?"

"Yeah, I could use a drink."

Sonic sped to the refrigerator in the next room and came right back.  He handed one of the cans to Tails and noticed the frustrated look on the young fox's face.

"Somethin' wrong, little bro?"

"I can't get the engine to work!  I've tried changing the oil, cleaning the spark plugs, and checking the fuel line for clogs."

Sonic looked at the engine for about 20 seconds.

"There's your problem."

"What? Where?"

"The spark plugs aren't hooked up to the distributor cap in the right order, so the firing sequence is off."  Sonic switched a few wires around. "There, try it now."

Tails started the engine, and it started up and running perfectly. "Well I'll be," the fox said under his breath.  He turned off the engine and looked at Sonic. "When did you learn about engines?"

"I guess I picked it up from one of your books over there. They're actually pretty interesting, maybe this mechanic stuff isn't so boring after all."  Sonic went back over to the books, took a sip of soda, and went back to reading.

Tails didn't know what to say, so he went back to putting the engine back into the Tornado.