It was a windy and sunny day at the beach, two of best friends were 'hanging out,' enjoying the weather and watching the waves crash up against the shore. One of them, a cobalt hedgehog with stunning green eyes masked by shades, was leaning back in a folding chair, his arms behind his head. He sighed contently. He felt just perfect at that moment, relaxed as can be. He was just fine without going in the water… as a matter of fact, water… or at least, being in it, terrified him. He couldn't swim - but that didn't mean he didn't enjoy watching it.
His partner on the other hand, "Tails" the two-tailed fox, was quite enjoying his break from mechanics and having quite a bit of fun making sand-castles and writing inscriptions in the wet sand, to see them all be washed away, a new canvas getting ready for an entirely new doodle.

"Hey, Sonic!" Cried the fox in his high-pitched, young voice, "Look, look what I did!"
The blue hedgehog's ear twitched as he lifted his head to view the fox, lifting his shades up as well to squint at what the fox had done. He'd apparently built a rather impressive sand castle - and was beaming. A small sweat drop appeared just below the hedgehog's ear. "...Er, that's really good." He said, a bit baffled himself at the precision used on the sand castle - it was symmetrical in every way. But he didn't expect anything less from Tails, however.
"Thanks!" Tails spurted as he scavenged the area for seashells, trying to find one that matched the one he'd had in his hand; a beautiful spiraled one, with white and brown stripes.

The two were taking a break from their normally busy lives… being heroes wasn't easy, after all. It often left them drained. Having to fight a madman trying to take over the world every two weeks also became very frustrating, and repetitive. They did enjoy helping the citizens, but they enjoyed goofing off more… especially Sonic… Tails just enjoyed making mechanical things. 'Tinkering,' their friend Knuckles referred to it as.

He picked up another shell and examined it closely, Sonic leaning back again in his chair.
"Eggman's been pretty quiet lately… you think he's up to something?" Tails said between looking at the two shells, comparing them in his palms.
"Of course, what else is Egghead good for?" Sonic responded in a snide tone. Tails shrugged. "But what, I wonder." He said mostly to himself, before placing one of the shells back down on the sandy ground, scuttling around to get more.
He continued to crawl on the ground, picking up shells, while straying further and further from his best friend.

"Aha!" He cried out as he found one that caught his attention. He reached out to snatch it, his hand still on the ground as he noticed a looming shadow slowly encircling him. He glanced upwards immediately to see what obstruction was blocking the sunlight, only to see the silhouette of a large blimp. He calmed briefly before he noticed the distinct orange-mustached symbol tattooed on the side of the airship slowly come into vision. This caused him to give a quick gasp. He knew instantly that it was Eggman's… how ironic! He'd only just mentioned him maybe ten minutes before hand.
He continued staring upwards, standing up slowly as he watched the side of the blimp light up with a black screen, blindingly bright yellow letters flashed in a marquee across it. He squinted to read it.
Hohohoho! It's about time for some action, wouldn't you think! I've got a marvelous idea – are you interested in EXTREME GEAR? How about racing? How about being the fastest thing alive? Then, my friends, come to Future City's Extreme Gear Festival! I'll be waiting for you!

Tails stood up slowly, letting go of the seashell that he had just discovered and stepped back. This didn't sound good. Oh, not at all.
He turned tail and scurried back to his 'big brother,' calling out his name in distress.
"So-nic!" He called out, completely forgetting about his sand castle. The hedgehog had already dozed off again, thus was oblivious to the world.
Tails ran up to him, panting a few times before placing a hand on his shoulder, shaking him briefly while repeating his name every few seconds.
This seemed to work, as his eyes opened gradually to look groggily at Tails. He blinked.
"Hey big guy, what's up...?" He questioned Tails' upset look.

Tails looked back to where the airship had been to only find that it had disappeared. Was it a figure of his imagination, he wondered? No, it couldn't have been! Eggman was just sneaky. Sonic asked his question again, feeling that Tails had not noticed he'd asked.
"…I just saw a big blimp over there," Tails pointed as he continued; "it was Eggman's. It said that he was hosting a festival in Future City, and -"
"Future City, huh?" Sonic rubbed his nose with a finger at this, "Sounds like we'll just have to check it out… see what the old idiot's up to. Wouldn't you agree, Tails?" Sonic grinned casually towards his friend, obviously not going to listen to what the distraught fox had to say. Tails just gave a weak sigh.
"…Yeah, I guess so…"