Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters. I really don't even know who the owner is.

The Shoes

Summary: Sonic races across Mobius with Tails straggling behind him, as he thinks about his shoes. R&R.

A week before

"Face it Sonic. You're nothing without those fancy ruby slippers of yours! If not for those accursed things, I could have wiped the floor with you long ago!" called Doctor Robotnik from his half-destroyed floating cruiser.

"What did you say Robotnik?" Sonic yelled. "I hope you don't mean that all those times that I wiped the floor with your fat butt were all flukes and it was really a pair of shoes that did you in!"

"That's not what I mean at all. Or is it?"

Sonic had had enough of this. He quickly shot off into the air at superhedgehog speed and let the spikes on his back slice the hovercraft in half.

"Good. I'll see you next fall, Robotnik!"

It was only then that Robotnik realized that his vehicle was destroyed and he looked on in horror as he descended from the sky. About three seconds of useless screaming were the only sounds that filled the void of his mad plummet to the earth.

At Mobius Pub

"Hahahaha!!! Are you telling me that that idiot Eggman had the nerve to say that you were only the fastest, bravest, most likely to kick his butt citizen on Mobius just because of your shoes? That's ridiculous! What a riot that Robotnik can be when he gets himself goin'! Sheesh!"

"I know I said the same thing, Rickles," mused Sonic after a swig of his raspberry fizz and a munch of his acorn pie. "You'd think for a genius inventor the guy would have some sort of mental problem."

"Yeah," boasted Tails trying to get involved in the conversation. "Just because you wear your shoes every time you fight, doesn't mean that you can't win without them!"

"Errr. Come to think of it, I never have seen Sonic without those shoes," added Nostrous, a small, portly skunk.

"Well he's had them since his grandfather gave them to him all those years ago. Specially designed so that they could keep up with the little tike. If I'm not mistaken, that was right around the time when we all started to realize that Sonic was no ordinary hedgehog."

An agreeable murmur spread through the pub, which was never quiet for more than a few seconds, so soon the noise and clatter arose again.

"Yeah. All those times when he beat those robots...ummm... well I forget their names, but the anorexic Chicken Little and the Happy Meal drill nosed one. He wore the shoes during all of those," said Tails unwittingly adding to Robotnik's argument.

"Hey those guys weren't that bad looking!" yelled Rickles and Nostrous at the same time. Everyone stared at them blankly and they could only look around nervously.

"Not to mention all those conquests of the Chaos Emeralds," chimed in Knuckles in his gruff voice.

"And when he beat Robotnik all those times, he never once took his shoes off!" said Amy.

Sonic could feel the focused glares of the crowd on his body, as if he was a dear caught in tank lights or a porcupine kid who had just ripped his pants for the third time in front of his classmates.

"You know," said Nostrous. "Maybe you could admit that those shoes do have more of an effect than you might think on your, you know, superherodom.

"What are you, crazy?"

"You do use them an awful lot, Sonic. Maybe the good Dr. had a point."

"I don't have to listen to this!"

Sonic took off quickly out the door. The crowd looked on helplessly. Knuckles simply rested his back on a table with his arms crossed. Amy called for her spurned love.

"Please Sonic, come back!"

"Don't worry, Amy. I'll calm him down," said Tails as he flew off to caucus with his perturbed friend.

Present

Here it was a week after and still no one had been able slow Sonic, who was still running, down. Tails had been tailing him, but found it hard to keep up with his wayward friend. Sonic thought madly about his shoes and the effect that they just might have on his performance as Mobius' greatest hero.

"My granddad gave me these shoes on my fifth birthday," Sonic thought to himself.

"There the only ones that are u to your standards, my boy. Use them well."

Visions of his war-torn, burnt, destroyed village flooded Sonic's mind as he ran faster and faster. He had given up his life and happiness. He had given all his time and effort into being a role model. He had vowed to never let anything like what happened to him befall anyone else and here he was on the run from his friends because they had the nerve to question his merit and give it to his shoes? Some friends.

"Wait Sonic!!!"

Sonic heard the voice of his upset comrade calling from behind him. It made Sonic upset as well. To hear his partner's cries. But Sonic had to find some things out for himself now. He had to go his own way for a while.

"I'll be back, Tails," said Sonic quietly to himself. He then stopped briefly and ripped off his white striped shoes and carried them as he ran determined to lose his best friend.

At Dr. Robotnik's Base

"Where are those two idiots?! I've been waiting here for a week. I think I deserve some correspondence! Don't you, drone?!"

The harmless robot lackey quivered in fear at the sight of Robotnik's beet red face.

"Yes y-y-you do, Doctor R-... Robotnik. That's why your most trusted swine are headed up here right this moment."

A sliding door opens and two figures step in. They are Rickles the Aardvark and Nostrous the Skunk.

"We're here, Dr. Sorry to keep you waiting, but "Nostrous" here had to take a..." said the Aardvark in a familiar screech of a voice.

"Shut up! Is the mission complete?"

"Absolutely, sire." Both of the critters reached up to the top of their skulls and pulled down a zipper. The imposters were revealed to be Screech and Grounder.

"Sonic's spirit is officially crushed. He's struck out on his own and in his current condition you should be able to take him down easily."

"Good," snickered Robotnik while rubbing his hands together. "I told you Sonic, without those shoes I could've finished you long ago. Hahaha!!!!"

This isn't as good as some of my others, but no one's reviewing them so I figure I'll swamp this site with stories that way I have to get recognized. Please review this and some of my other stuff.