Mobius
Station Square, Metropolis
Late Morning…
The first light of dawn broke through the towering glass buildings of Station Square. Humans and Mobians alike were rising and rushing about in the chaos of a new day, bumping and shoving into each other on the way to their destination. Not out of any actual malice or ill-intent, they simply had places to be and the energy of the city left no one any time to be polite.
The aroma of freshly brewed coffee and pastries wafted from the sheer number of cafes that saw their busiest hours in the morning. Taxis were either in constant motion or deadlocked in traffic as their passengers screamed obscenities at their poor drivers. A street performer with a guitar played a somber melody in a park that stood at the center of several interconnected intersections, a humble hat containing the paltry donations for his performance.
Sonic the Hedgehog looked out the window of his train as it pulled into one of the numerous stations the square was named for. He loved the energy of the city, he loved the hustle and bustle.
He loved the speed of life.
The train operator's voice came on over the intercom, tinny and processed, announcing their arrival at Sonic's destination. From here, it was just a quick fifteen-or-so minute jog to Uncle Chuck's lab.
He absentmindedly scratched his legs as he waited for the train to pull in, his foot tapping out of routine.
For a second, Sonic realized he could have dressed better for the occasion. This was the first time his Uncle invited him to his newest set-up, and here he was wearing a pair of jeans with more than one hole in them and his favorite blue and pink sports jacket. His white sneakers were scuffed and dirty from his frequent jogs.
Then again, he really didn't have any nicer clothes to begin with.
With a mental shrug, Sonic figured the best first impression for Uncle Chuck's coworkers was an honest one. To be perfectly frank, Sonic didn't really know why his Uncle Chuck invited him to his workplace. He was usually pretty good at keeping his work life and his home life with Sonic separate. Mostly because he knew all that sciencey technical mumbo-jumbo went right in one ear and out the other when it came to his nephew.
Sonic felt a quick pang of guilt at that. It took Uncle Chuck a lot of time and money to get Sonic accepted into a good college. Sonic could only imagine how disappointed he was when he unceremoniously dropped out after only a year.
Not that he ever showed that disappointment, oh no. Nothing to ever make his precious nephew feel bad. 'If that's what you want, Sonny-Boy.' his Uncle told him.
He's too good to me. Sonic thought to himself. Indeed, Uncle Chuck had the patience of a saint as Sonic bounced around from job to job, trying his best to help provide for his Uncle just as his Uncle provided for him all his life. Most of those jobs, he was lucky if he lasted a month.
At last, the train pulled up to the station and Sonic stepped out into the hustle and bustle of Station Square. With a sigh, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of headphones attached to his mobile, putting his favorite playlist on shuffle as he took off on a brisk jog down the sidewalk, careful not to bump into any pedestrians as he sang along to the music.
"Rolling around at the speed of sound, got places to go, gotta follow my rainbow-"
—-
Smack dab in the middle of the frantic big-city-energy of Station Square, there lay a sanctuary of greenery and nature at Station Central Park. Tall oaks and willows provided shade and comfort to those looking for a reprieve from the non-stop action of city life. The constant beeping of car horns, while still present, was dulled and distant compared to the chirping sounds of various families of flickies who made the park their home.
Near the edge of the park, there stood a small bus, entirely steel gray in color with the exception of the vibrant and colorful tags and other graffiti that was haphazardly slapped across its frame. On the side of the bus was a decal of a logo, a red heart with stylized letters that read 'Vox Libertas'.
Not ten feet away from the bus, a pink hedgehog wearing a red summer dress sat on a park bench, usually used for picnics and other such gatherings, as she thumbed the page of her book, enjoying the quiet serenity of nature.
That serenity was very quickly demolished as the doors to the bus smashed open and a auburn chipmunk with a head of fiery red hair suddenly ran out the bus and towards a public trash receptacle near the bench. Her hiking boots clomping hard on the dirt ground as she practically sprinted to the bin.
With a dramatic heave, the chipmunk lurched over the bin and spewed her guts out, puking the contents of her stomach all over the day's refuse.
"Oh, hun…" the pink hedgehog offered, giving her friend a look of sympathy. Though she was silently grateful for her friend's short hair, negating any need to hold it back for her.
"Guh… This is so not fair…" the chipmunk groaned just before her stomach lurched again, threatening to bring up even more puke.
"I tried to warn you!" Another voice called out from inside the bus, this one belonging to a dark brown lynx with black stripes, as she leaned against the edge of the bus's door. "I told you that sushi place was no good!"
"It was the only sushi place for miles!" The chipmunk called back. "When a girl has a craving, she gets some damn sushi!"
"And how's that working out for you, Sally?" Her hedgehog friend asked, raising an eyebrow.
Sally was about to respond with another defense… only to suddenly put her head back into the trash bin, giving its insides another fresh coating. "Not… one… word… Amy…"
Amy shook her head as she closed her book and stood up from her seat at the picnic table. She walked over to the bus and called out to their friend inside. "I'm gonna run up to a convenience store and see if I can grab something for her stomach. You'll take care of her until I get back, Nicole?"
The lynx, Nicole, absently waved her hand at Amy, never taking her eyes off of her PDA as she looked through their schedules for the next few days. "I've been taking care of her since we were kids. I'm not about to stop now."
"You're an angel, Nicole." Amy said, leaving her to her work.
"Only on my good days."
With that, Amy turned on the heel of her sandal and walked back over to Sally, still hunched over the trash bin as she placed a gentle hand on her suffering friend's shoulder. "I'll be back with something to fix you up. Hang in there, okay?"
Sally weakly held up a thumbs-up as she groaned. "Hangin…"
Amy gently cupped the side of Sally's head with her hand, pulling her into a kiss on her forehead before turning and leaving her to her… natural processes.
—-
Fifteen-or-so minutes later, Sonic finally found himself on the grounds of the Nathan Morgan R Center. Or rather, the massive building that housed both the R Center and the Nathan Morgan Science Center. One developed new technologies for the betterment of the world, the other displayed those groundbreaking advancements for the public to 'ooh' and 'aah' over.
A bit of nostalgia washed over Sonic as he recalled childhood days of his Uncle Chuck taking him to the Science Center, hoping to instill his love of technology within his young impressionable nephew.
Those visits almost always culminated with a young Sonic more or less treating those trips like visits to an arcade, just with a lot of rocket ship themed games. Course, Uncle Chuck never faulted him over it. The trips made Sonic happy and that was enough for Chuck.
That said, Sonic couldn't recall ever setting foot in the R part of the massive complex. The lobby was massive, with a girder-braced rooftop hanging high over Sonic's head as he passed through the front door. Escalators brought lab-coat wearing scientists, humans and mobians, up and down the multiple open-floor levels of the lobby while various hallways splintered like a spiderweb from the central location, no doubt to various labs working on various projects.
The map of the facility near the entrance to the lobby might as well have been written in Ancient Echidnan to Sonic, and he didn't really feel like getting lost for hours just to find his Uncle's lab.
Instead, he opted to walk up to the front desk and speak to the receptionist directly. A red quokka in a dapper looking suit, diligently typing away at his computer.
Oops, their computer, Sonic mentally corrected himself, seeing the name tag that gave the quokka's name, Barry, as well as their pronouns as They/Them.
Tapping his fingers on the counter to get their attention, Barry looked up from their computer to regard him.
"Hello, how can I- Oh!" Barry started to say, before a look of surprise caught their face.
"Something wrong?" Sonic asked, looking behind him to see if there was anything that could have elicited such a response.
"O-Oh, s-sorry sir, I didn't mean, uh…" Barry stammered as they rubbed the back of their head. Sonic couldn't help but smile at how flustered they were. It was cute.
"It's just… You look exactly like Doctor Charles. I… I have to assume you must be Sonic, then?"
Sonic lit up at that. "Doctor Charles? Oh, you must mean my Uncle Chuck! Heh, yeah, I get my good looks from him. He's… mentioned me to the staff?"
Barry scoffed a little, the tiniest bit of a smile tugging at his mouth. "Mentioned you? Ha, I think we can schedule our calendars to the routine baby pictures. You're pretty much Doctor Charles' favorite topic around the water cooler."
Sonic blushed a little at that. Normally, Sonic did not mind at all being the center of attention, but Uncle Chuck's gushing was a little much at times.
Coughing into his fist, Sonic attempted to steer the conversation back to his goal. "So, uh, anyway, I'm actually here to visit my Unc. He said he had something important to show me in his lab, but this place is built like a maze, so…"
Barry lit up at the thought of being helpful, already jumping up from their chair. "Oh! I can actually take you there myself, if you'd like."
"You sure? I don't want to get in the way of your work…" Sonic said.
"Not at all, this is all part of the job. Plus, I'd love to get to know the man behind all of Doctor Charles' stories." Barry said, seemingly genuinely excited at the prospect.
Sonic gave a nervous chuckle as he allowed Barry to guide him through the complex, mentally preparing himself for the cross-examination of Uncle Chuck's childhood stories.
—-
Reaching the lab, Sonic bade Barry farewell, even managing to score the cute Quokka's phone number for himself as an added bonus. If he had to subject himself to the embarrassment of someone seeing his baby pictures, the least he could do was leverage that for a potential date. Plus, Barry's blushing face at the request was worth it by itself.
Stepping into the lab, Sonic supposed he shouldn't have been surprised by how similar it looked to his Uncle's at-home workshop in their garage, if a bit more clean and sterile. The research lab hummed with the subdued energy of innovation, a constant of electronic whirs and beeps giving the lab a never ending soundtrack of science.
Amidst the organized chaos Sonic was already familiar with from his Uncle's work, he spotted a dozen half-completed projects scattered across various workstations. No doubt abandoned whenever his Uncle was hit with inspiration for a completely different groundbreaking invention.
Funny enough, some of this tech looked… strangely foreign to Sonic. He wasn't a gear-head, by any measure of the word, like his Uncle, but he has seen enough of his Uncle's work to be able to recognize his tech at a glance. Like the signature style of a particular painter compared to other artists.
At least half of the tech in this lab looked… not exactly more primitive than his Uncle's tech, but more… juvenile? Childish? It looked like they were designed more like toys than anything the Nathan Morgan Center would be developing.
At least, that's what they looked like at the outset, but the closer Sonic inspected the inner workings of these 'toys', the more advanced and almost futuristic the tech looked from the inside. Clearly, whoever was responsible for this half of the unfinished projects had a very peculiar aesthetic they preferred.
One 'toy' in particular that caught Sonic's interest was something that looked straight out of a video game. A red cannon-looking apparatus that was apparently designed to be fastened over the user's fist.
"Is this supposed to be a real-life Mega Buster? There's no way this actually works, right?" Sonic mused, poking at the diminutive cannon. Glancing to either side of him, seeing if anyone was watching, Sonic couldn't keep the mischievous grin off his face as he slid his fist into the supposed 'Mega Buster'.
It was a bit of a tight fit, making Sonic wonder what kinda tiny hands the cannon was designed for, but he eventually managed to force his fist into the device, immediately striking a few action poses as he pointed the cannon at imaginary enemies around him.
"Pew! Pew! P-chow! Augh, my flesh!"
"STOP!! What do you think you're doing?!" A shrill voice called out.
Sonic stumbled a bit mid-pose as he looked towards the source of the voice… and had to fight back to urge to 'Aww' at the adorable sight in front of him.
A little fox kit, couldn't be any older than ten, was glaring at him from across the lab. He wore a comically oversized lab-coat over his blue overalls that looked extra adorable when he placed his hands on his hip in an authoritarian gesture, the sleeves of the lab-coat just going past his hands.
"Heh, hey there little dude." Sonic said, waving the hand cannon at the fox kit. "Is it 'bring your child to work day' or something?" He asked before a look of realization crossed his face. "Wait, that's not why I'm here, is it?"
The fox kit looked like he was about to continue admonishing Sonic, which didn't make him look any less adorable to Sonic the way his cheeks puffed out in indignation… until a harsh 'click' suddenly sounded out from inside the hand cannon.
Followed by a series of beeps… that were growing faster by the second.
The anger on the kit's face immediately turned into fear as he rushed over to Sonic… No, not rushed.
He flew to Sonic.
Sonic took a step back in surprise as the kit suddenly jumped into the air… and stayed there as his tails started to spin like helicopter rotors, keeping him aloft as he quickly floated to Sonic in a frenzied haste, panic clear in his eyes.
Oh, he has two tails, Sonic thought to himself.
Wait, he has two tails?!
The two-tailed fox stayed in the air even as he quickly grasped the hand cannon on Sonic's fist, harshly yanking his hand towards him as he quickly drew a screwdriver from one of the pockets of his coat.
"You idiot! What did you do to the T-Buster!?" The fox demanded, already going to work unscrewing a panel from the cannon.
"Nothing! I was just… playing around a little…" Sonic admitted, feeling a little sheepish at being read the riot-act from a grade-schooler.
"Oh, sure, just playing around with a dangerous piece of untested equipment! How did you even get past security? Who sent you?!" The fox said, momentarily pulling the screwdriver away from the cannon to point it threateningly at Sonic's face.
"Woah! Woah! Chill, little dude!" Sonic said, lifting his free hand in surrender. "I'm just here to visit my Uncle Chuck! He invited me!"
"Doctor Charles?" The fox said, going back to… whatever he was doing with the cannon. "You expect me to believe that you're the infamous nephew he's always going on about?"
Sonic flashed his most charming smile, happy that the kid apparently already knew about him. "The one and only Sonic the Hedgehog. Glad to know my reputation precedes me. What, you can't see the ruggedly good looks me and my Uncle share?"
The fox glanced back up at Sonic, shooting him an unimpressed glare. "Hmph. From how much Doctor Charles sings your praises, I was expecting someone who was, y'know, not a complete ignoramus."
"Hey, I'd… probably find that really offensive if I knew what it meant." Sonic said, pouting as the fox continued his work… whatever exactly his work was.
"Hey, so uh… You mind telling me what exactly you're doing with this thing?" Sonic asked, pointing at the cannon still attached to his fist.
"Making sure the T-Buster doesn't explode, taking your hand with it." The fox said, still diligently tinkering with the inner workings of the cannon.
"Oh…"
"EXPLODE!?" Sonic screamed, now desperately trying to remove the cannon from his arm.
"Hold still! If I don't do this right, it'll only make the problem worse!" The fox warned.
Sonic started to bite his fingers on his free hand as he stood stock still, letting the fox do whatever he needed to do.
"Oh, Chaos, who art in Emerald, hallowed be thy name-!" Sonic squeezed his eyes shut and braced himself for the explosion.
"Will you shut up?!" The fox yelled. "I… almost… got it…"
The incessant beeping of the cannon, that had since been growing faster and faster, not doing any favors to Sonic's growing anxiety of what was about to come… finally ceased as the cannon opened up and released Sonic's hand, falling to the floor with a loud 'thud'.
Risking a look, Sonic opened one his eyes and saw his hand was freed from the wicked contraption. He breathed a sigh of relief, flexing his fingers.
"Whoo, thanks for that little buddy! I don't think I would have been able to pull off the pirate look…" Sonic's quipped, still a little shaken from the close call.
The fox kit rolled his eyes as he picked up the cannon, inspecting it for any further damage. "Yeah, well, next time, just keep your mitts to yourself. Why are you even sticking your hands in such dangerous equipment in the first place?"
Suddenly, a good-natured chuckle caught the boys' attention. "My Sonny-Boy never could keep his hands to himself…"
Sonic, smiling at the familiar voice, turned to face his beloved Uncle. Like Sonic said, his Uncle was the spitting image of him, just much older and with much more bushy hair covering his eyebrows, complete with an equally bushy mustache.
The two looked so similar to one another, Sonic wouldn't be surprised if he ended up being a dead-ringer for his Uncle in 30 years.
Just maybe a bit more clean shaven. The mustache worked for his Uncle, but Sonic doubted he'd ever be able to rock such a voluminous stache.
"Hey, Uncle Chuck!" Sonic rushed over to scoop his favorite, and only, Uncle into a bear hug.
"Oh-hoho! Settle down, Sonny-Boy! Your Uncle's got old bones!" Uncle Chuck said, despite returning Sonic's hug. As the two separated, Uncle Chuck gave a glance towards the fox kit still in the room with them, who was still fiddling with his 'toy'.
"I see you've already met my assistant, Miles. Bright young lad, he is."
"Miles, huh?" Sonic said, turning back to the fox now that he finally had a name.
"Miles Prower." Miles said, standoffishly. "Though… most people call me Tails."
Sonic couldn't help but notice the little bit of a bite Miles had for the nickname. "Do you… want to be called Tails?"
Miles, or rather Tails, looked up at Sonic with a bit of surprise, as if he wasn't expecting him to ask such a question.
Sonic couldn't help but wonder if anyone ever asked him that question.
"It's whatever." Tails said, going back to his gadget. "Call me whatever you want."
There it is. Sonic could see the kid's brow furrow and his eyes darken. Immediately, he knew everything he needed to know. Tails wasn't a nickname.
It was an insult.
Sonic glanced at his twin tails, no doubt the source of the moniker, and a sly grin crept across his face.
"Right, because of how cool your tails are. I get it." Sonic said, crossing his arms and nodding his head, sagely.
Tails finally looked up from his cannon to shoot a confused look at Sonic. "… Cool?"
"Yeah, man! The way you fly around with those things? That's friggin awesome, little dude! I can see why you'd name yourself after them. I wish I could do something like that…" Sonic said, laying the praise on thick. Not that what he was saying was in any way untrue.
Either way, Tails was definitely not expecting any praise for his… unique quirk. Sonic definitely saw a slight blush as he quickly turned his attention back to his cannon. "T-Thanks…"
Sonic smiled to himself. The nickname can't hurt him if it's something he can be proud of. Sonic definitely made a note to himself to keep working on that with the little guy.
"So, uh, Uncle Chuck, you said this kid is your assistant? Aren't there, like, labor laws against this kind of thing?" Sonic asked, keeping his voice low so Tails wouldn't hear him. The last thing the kid's ego needed was thinking Sonic didn't believe he belonged in the lab.
Uncle Chuck gave another of his good natured chuckles. "Believe me, if I could make the kid work less, I would. Everything he does is volunteer work for the lab. The Nathan Morgan Center has him on a sort of… let's call it 'work-study internship'."
"So he's a real, bonafide smarty-pants, eh?" Sonic said, following his Uncle as he led him deeper into the lab, leaving Tails to his own devices, both figuratively and literally.
"That young man is a prodigy in every sense of the word. Why, give it another decade, and I'll happily be reporting to him." Uncle Chuck said, clear pride for the young fox beaming in his eyes.
On the one hand, Sonic was happy. Both for Uncle Chuck and for the kid. First off, any kid that smart needed a good role-model to nurture their intelligence in a productive way, and Sonic couldn't think of anyone better for that job than his Uncle. Secondly, Sonic knew his Uncle had always wanted a protege, a young, impressionable mind to shape into a dynamo of science like he was.
On the other hand, that did serve as a bit of a painful reminder over how much Sonic failed to be that protege for his Uncle.
Again, not that Uncle Chuck ever faulted Sonic over it.
Out loud.
Sonic shaked off the melancholy, putting on a smile for his Uncle's sake. "So, why exactly did you invite me out here to begin with, Unc? You said in your message that you had something to show me?"
While Sonic employed it far more often, that trademark mischievous smirk their family was known for suddenly found itself on Uncle Chuck's face. "We have a bit of a surprise for you, Sonny-Boy. Call it an early birthday present."
Early was right, Sonic thought. His birthday was still half a year away. Whatever this 'surprise' was, Uncle Chuck clearly couldn't wait to show it off to his nephew.
The two hedgehogs passed through a door separating the lab from a secondary chamber. The chamber was a circular room with all kinds of pipes and wires spider-webbing around a raised pedestal at the center of the room. Monitors on the wall read out all kinds of technical data and information that Sonic couldn't make heads or tails of if he tried.
Interestingly, it looked like something was supposed to be placed on top of the pedestal… something that was very noticeably missing. Almost like an altar missing an artifact.
Sonic and his Uncle were also not alone in the chamber. Hunched over a computer terminal on the far side of the room was a white cat mobian, her pillowy tail lazily swaying behind her from under her lab-coat. Hearing the pressurized doors to the chamber opening and closing, she looked up from whatever held her attention on the monitor to greet the two hedgehogs, a warm smile on her aged but no less beautiful face.
If Sonic had to guess, he assumed she was probably around the same age as his Uncle.
The white cat stepped forward to greet the two of them. "Ah, so this is the infamous Sonic we've all heard so much about." She said, practically already purring.
"Geez, Unc. Is there anyone in this place you haven't shown my baby pictures to?" Sonic said, rubbing the back of his head.
"Sonic, may I introduce you to Doctor Sawyer." Uncle Chuck said, giving a chaste bow to the elderly woman. "She's one of the center's leading experts in kinetic sciences. And, if I may be honest, she's far more interested in you being here than I was."
Sonic couldn't help but make a bit of a joke at his Uncle's expense. "Uh, I'm flattered, but I think I might be a bit too young for you, lady. Honestly, I was half expecting my Uncle to introduce you as my new auntie."
"SONIC!!" Uncle Chuck yelled, mortified as his face turned cherry-red, not helped by Sonic's snickering.
To her credit, Doctor Sawyer merely gave a mirthful giggle. "Oh, lighten up, Charles. Your Uncle warned me about that sense of humor of yours, young man."
"Yeah, well, if you want the full show, you gotta buy tickets." Sonic said, looking around the chamber. All in all, the only thing of note was the empty pedestal at the center. If this is where his Uncle's 'surprise' was, he didn't see it.
"So, uh, don't get me wrong, I'm always happy to make my Uncle redder than a can of tomatoes, but… I'm really starting to wonder why I'm even here in the first place." Sonic said, now eyeing Doctor Sawyer suspiciously. All joking aside, Sonic was curious about what Uncle Chuck meant about her being 'interested' in having Sonic come here.
Doctor Sawyer leaned against the computer desk jutting out of the wall, crossing her arms. "Well, to get right to the point, I wanted to talk to you about your mo-bility. Specifically, the problems you seem to be having with them."
That… made Sonic's face fall a little bit. He turned back to his Uncle, a bit more uncharacteristically serious. "You… you told her?"
Uncle Chuck merely shrugged, apparently not seeing it as a big deal. "It came up in conversation."
That stung Sonic a bit more than it probably should have. It was one thing for Uncle Chuck to constantly show off baby pictures and tell embarrassing stories about him, but this… this felt more personal. A bigger breach of trust.
It's not like Sonic ever told Uncle Chuck he never wanted him to talk about his mo-bility or keep it a secret… but his Uncle knew how it made him feel to talk about it at all.
"You have a mo-bility!" A familiar young voice called out behind them. It seemed Tails decided to follow them into the chamber after all, flying around from behind Sonic to meet him at eye-level. "I-I have a mo-bility too!"
Despite his little mini-crisis, Sonic couldn't help but give the kid a good-natured chuckle. "Uh, yeah, I can see that." He said, pointing at the rotating appendages keeping Tails aloft.
Tails blushed a bit at that, dropping back down to the floor but still looking up at Sonic with wide-eyes. "I've never met another mobian with a mo-bility before! What's your mo-bility?"
Sonic didn't want to say it, he didn't want to talk about it, he didn't want to acknowledge it. But the kid's wide-eyed gaze was too much for Sonic to bear any more.
"Suprspd…" Sonic grumbled, folding his arms as he tried to make himself look smaller than he was.
"What's that?" Tails asked, clearly not catching it.
Damnit, Sonic thought, did he have to look that cute tilting his head?
Sonic finally took in a breath, held it, and let out before reluctantly saying "Super speed. I can… run really fast."
"Wow, that's so cool!" Tails said, apparently much less moody over having something in common with the blue hedgehog.
"Yeah… It would have been…" Sonic said, flashing a dark look at his Uncle, still a little upset over him blabbing about his mo-bility to a stranger.
"What do you mean?" Tails asked innocently.
"What I mean is I can't actually use my mo-bility." Sonic finally admitted, turning his back on the assembled group in the room. "I can run as fast as I want, but I can't do anything about the friction."
A look of realization suddenly hit Tails like a truck. "Oh… Duh, of course, any extended time in a state of enhanced velocity would wear down your shoes to nothing within a matter of minutes."
"Seconds, if I really push myself." Sonic said, leaving no ambiguity that he has in the past. "And forget just wearing my shoes down. I'd be lucky if they don't catch on fire with how much friction I kick up."
Tails, to his credit, placed a finger under his chin, his scientific mind already seeing this as a problem to be solved. "Have you tried running bare-foot?"
Sonic shuddered. "That's even worse. I have tried it in the past, but…"
Sonic trailed off as the memory of him yelling and crying in pain as Uncle Chuck tended to his bleeding and torn up soles suddenly assaulted his vision.
"… it didn't work."
Sonic turned back to the three scientists (well, two and a half, Sonic thought a little wryly). "So, yeah, it's not exactly 'cool' to have a mo-bility I'm never allowed to use."
And then… Uncle Chuck and Doctor Sawyer smiled, glancing at each other as though they were privy to a joke that only they knew.
"…. What?" Sonic asked, glancing back and forth between the two geezers. Even Tails was giving them a look of confusion, apparently just as in the dark as Sonic.
"Well, that actually has a lot to do with that 'surprise' I told you about, Sonny." Uncle Chuck said, smiling warmly. It was the kind of smile Sonic usually associated with Uncle Chuck giving him a gift on Christmas. "Doctor Sawyer?"
The feline doctor nodded before bending on her knees to reach below the desk she had been leaning against, pulling out a heretofore hidden package, complete with a bow on top.
"Wow, you weren't kidding about the 'present' part…" Sonic said, gingerly accepting the parcel from Doctor Sawyer. He gave the package an experimental shake. Something inside shook around very slightly, meaning it almost took up the entire volume of the box. It was… hefty, but not exactly heavy, whatever it was.
Unable to contain his curiosity any longer, Sonic unwrapped his present and saw… a pair of shoes.
They were very nice shoes, Sonic guessed. A pair of racecar-red sports shoes with a white horizontal stripe going across the top of the shoe. There were no laces or straps of any kind, so Sonic assumed they were some kind of slip-ons.
"Uh… thanks?" Sonic offered. Again, they were perfectly good shoes, and definitely stylish. It wasn't a bad gift by any measure. Sonic was just… expecting something a little more from all the secrecy and fanfare his Uncle had been building up to since he first sent that message.
Doctor Sawyer, apparently sensing Sonic's confusion, stepped up to explain. "When your Uncle first described your mo-bility to me, and its… shortcomings, it immediately sparked my interest."
Sonic looked up as the elderly cat continued. "After all, my entire specialization is in kinetic energy and applications. And if friction was the great limiter to your speed… then the obvious solution was to remove that limiter."
Sonic, true to his nature, didn't fully grasp everything Doctor Sawyer was saying… but the general gist did manage to make it through his thick skull. Enough to make the young hedgehog very excited all of a sudden. "Doc… are you saying…?"
Doctor Sawyer smiled. "Those shoes, young man, are an experimental pair of frictionless shoes. You can run in them at top speed for hours and never once wear them down."
Sonic stared wide-eyed at Doctor Sawyer, no words being enough to convey the huge rush of emotions this revelation suddenly gave Sonic. He slowly turned his gaze back to the shoes which suddenly seemed like the most beautiful, most amazing pairs of kicks in all of existence.
Doctor Sawyer gave a shrug. "Well, almost frictionless. Obviously, if they were actually frictionless, you wouldn't be able to-"
Whatever science mumbo-jumbo Doctor Sawyer was about to say was suddenly cut off by a massive blue tornado running rampant around the chamber. Sonic had completely disappeared, replaced by a blue blur that spun around the room at breakneck speeds before racing out the door.
The package that contained the frictionless shoes fell to the ground, completely empty, next to a pair of dirty white sneakers that had been callously tossed aside.
"Sonny?" Uncle Chuck said.
—-
The overhead light of noon broke through the canopy of towering glass buildings of Station Square, shining directly on top of its citizens, all milling about as they went ahead with yet another average day in the city.
Until a blue streak sped by, kicking up a vortex of a tailwind that sent discarded newspapers flying, some directly in the face of a few passersby who shouted obscenities at the racing blur.
The only thing the blur said in response was a loud, prolonged
"WAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"
—-
As the lunch rush started to slow down, the vendor of a chili dog cart was helping himself to one of his own products, heaping a generous portion of spicy chili on his dog and topping it with the freshest onions and banana peppers food-cart money can buy.
Just as he was about to take a bite out of the delectable morsel, a gust of blue wind suddenly raced past him and he found himself taking a bite out of a ten dollar bill instead of a juicy, delicious chili dog.
"KEEP THE CHANGE!!" The vendor heard a voice call out, echoing on the blue wind.
—-
It took Amy a bit of searching though quite a few bodegas and corner drugstores, but she finally managed to find some good, quality antacids for Sally's tumultuous tummy. Now all she had to do was get back to the park and-
"LOOK OUT, HOT-STUFF!!"
Amy looked up at the unexpected, and very enthusiastic catcall, and yelped in surprise as a blue comet suddenly came barreling down the street towards her. She barely managed to side-step out of the way of the comet as it raced past her.
In that moment, time seemed to slow down as Amy was just able to see the face of a blue-furred hedgehog inside the comet.
A rather handsome hedgehog who shot Amy a flirtatious wink.
And just as quickly as it happened, the comet sped off past the horizon, leaving a shaken up Amy clutching her heart on the sidewalk.
"…. Hot-stuff?" Amy repeated to herself, incredulously.
—-
The blue blur that had been menacing Station Square for the past half-second suddenly raced out, beyond the borders of the city. It raced through the open countryside of the county surrounding the metropolis, through dense and overgrown foliage, all the way to the beachfront, emerald kissed plateaus of Green Hills. The blue blur ran across the plateaus and up-and-down the peculiar natural loopty-loop shaped hills the area was known for before spiraling up one of the more taller peaks among the hills.
Finally, the blur came to a stop at the precipice of the hill as Sonic looked out over the ocean horizon, the sparkling blue waters reflecting the noonday sun, making it seem like Sonic had just discovered the world's largest sapphire that encompassed the entire globe.
A flicky, very much unused to any other creature suddenly coming up to its elevated domain on the top of the hill, landed and perched itself on top of Sonic's head.
Sonic paid the flicky no mind as he glanced down at his new kicks, admiring their flashy red color.
He had to admit, the red looked good on him.
Unable to contain himself any longer, Sonic leapt up and spread his arms wide, whooping In exuberant jubilation.
"BEST!! PRESENT!! EVER!!"
The flicky, apparently upset over how mobile his new perch was, pecked Sonic on the head.
"Ouch! Sorry…"