Zip Zap Zoom ʚɞ Sonic the Hedgehog

ʚɞ Nine - Sharing and Fighting ʚɞ

"So, what's on your bucket list?" Sonic asked during the car ride the next day.

"Who, us?" Tom asked, referring to him and Alex.

"Yeah," Sonic nodded. "Everyone has a bucket list, right?"

"Well, sure, but, I mean, you're the one leaving Earth, and Alex and I aren't planning on dying anytime soon," Tom remarked.

Sonic chuckled at this, "Don't be so sure. Your best friend is a magnet for danger."

"Oh, are you anointing yourself as the bestie?" Tom asked with a hum, to which Sonic nodded. "A little presumptuous, but- I mean-- What, no-- I-I like you, of course, but, you know, we're not best friends."

"You tucked me in last night," Sonic pointed out, making Tom chuckle as he realised Sonic must've only been half-asleep. "Fine, fine, fine. Best animal friend."

"That would be our dog, Ozzy," Tom countered.

"Okay. Let's drop this increasingly humiliating topic of conversation," Sonic announced. "Bucket list. Give it to me!"

"Well... I suppose you've seen me go into the woods a lot," Alex began. Sonic nodded as he faced the girl. "It's for two reasons. To improve my drawing skills and because I want to be a nature artist. Take pictures and draw and paint animals and birds. Stuff like that."

"So that's what you draw in that book," Sonic realised with a smile.

"Yeah," Alex smiled too, showing a page to Sonic. "That was a fox I saw a few months back."

"So how come you don't use your phone to take pictures?" Sonic asked.

"Well, it's a good camera, but when it comes to zooming in and editing, it's not the greatest thing in the world," Alex explained. "I'm hoping to get a proper camera for my birthday."

"Pop it on your wish list then," Tom chimed in. Alex rolled her eyes, but was still smiling.

"What about you?" Sonic asked Tom. "Anything special on your bucket list."

"Okay, there is one thing. In Green Hills, I've always felt, I don't know, more like a babysitter than a real cop, you know?" Tom explained. "So I want a chance to prove myself, under real pressure. I'm gonna move to San Francisco, and become a street cop. And, I don't know, see if I have what it takes."

Tom looks over at Sonic, whose jaw is dropped open in shock. "What? Why-why is your face doing that?"

"You're leaving Green Hills?!" Sonic cried out.

"Oh boy..." Alex mumbled, already having a feeling about where this was going to go.

"B-B-But why? Why would you leave Green Hills?" Sonic asked the two other people in the car.

"This may be hard for you to understand, but Green Hills is a small town," Tom replied. "It's a very small town."

"Uh, it's not small!" Sonic argued. "There are hundreds of people."

"That's a small town, dude!" Tom pointed out.

Sonic wasn't giving up, "It's a perfect town, and the people need you."

"Please, I clean out their gutters, I jump-start their cars in the winter," Tom listed out with a sigh. "They could call anybody to do that."

"Sure, they can call anybody, but they don't," Sonic replied. "They call you. You're not making any sense!"

"Sonic, calm down," Alex tried to keep the hedgehog from exploding with anger.

"You come from a great town with great people and, by my count, zero bad guys trying to kill you!" Sonic continued. "Besides, what could possibly be more important than protecting the people you care about?"