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SISKIYOU COUNTY LINE, CALIFORNIA.

The three protagonists were already up at the appointed time, and they were now all being driven into California. Sonic in the passenger seat, Tom in the driver's seat and [Name] in the back.

They were lounging out on the other seats, their hoverboard on their back, as they were laying on that as well. The [Animal Name's] wrinkled with some frustration, staring up at the roof of the car, as chewing noises were heard from them. They found some chewing gum by the receptionist, when they were departing from the hotel and they thought to snatch off some just to test it out.

Sonic told them how the whole point of it wasn't to swallow it, but to chew it and [Name] was still trying to contemplate this. Of course, the [Colour] mobian didn't give any chewing gum to Sonic, because they're just like that. Breathing out throw their nose, a cold steam came out from there.

As their ear twitched, eyes were half-lidded in a lazy state and the [Animal Name] then sprouted out a question, out-of-the-blue; "What is your bucket list, Thomas?"

"Who, me?" Tom raised a brow in an amused manner, shaking his head. "Also, you've gotta stop calling me that, Tom is fine."

"Of course, I'm talking to you, Thomas."

"Yeah! Everyone has a bucket list, right?" Sonic interjected in, agreeing with the surprisingly laid-back [Animal Name].

"Well, sure, but...I mean; you're both the ones that're leaving Earth, and I'm not planning on dying anytime soon."

"Don't be, so sure! Your best friends are magnets for danger!" Sonic proudly pointed to both himself to [Name], who abruptly sat up and scoffed.

"Oh, so you're anointing not only yourself, but also [Name], as the besties?" Tom impugned, furrowing his temple with slight merriment.

"Mm-hmm."

"Uh-uh-nuh. No-No." [Name] quickly shook their head in denial, standing up on the seat and squished their face between the opening of the driver's seat and the passenger's seat. "[Name] the [Animal Name] warrior doesn't anoint [himself | herself | themselves] into any of the friendship ranges with common enemies."

"You're in the same car, as us and you've managed to not maintain your 'evil schemes' of capturing." Sonic inquired, sticking his tongue out at [Name] in a teasing manner and took a peek at them, a mere grin on his face.

"Hey! They are well-planned out schemes and besides; I have to abide by the rules that Thomas placed upon me himself." [Name] retaliated, before a sense of pride filled them from rules being set down to them.

"That was to stop you from causing chaos...-- Besides, I do like you guys, yes; even you [Name]." Tom side-eyed the persistent [Animal Name], who let out a small huff and pushed their face out from the gap of the seats and fell back down onto where they sat. "But, we're not best friends. Seems a little bit presumptuous."

"You tucked us in last night." Sonic narrowed his eyes in disbelief, raising an invisible brow at the police officer, before he turned to [Name]. "We're best friends! Right, Ice-Spice?"

"Correction, hedgehog: enemies, on pause." The [Colour] mobian leaned forward, still resting and pointed their finger at the blue hedgehog.

"Oh, so last night meant nothing, huh?"

"I-- I do not know, what you're talking about."

"I think, you do, Ice-Spice! Did snuggling up with me still mean that we're enemies--?"

"Silence!" [Name] leapt forward to cover Sonic's mouth from speaking any further, but the hedgehog slyly moved back away from the oncoming action and a small grin knowingly spread onto his face. "Just declare yourself as Thomas's animal best friend-- This conversation never happened!"

"Uh, actually that would be my dog, Ozzy." Tom interrupted, shifting Sonic's focus onto him. The speedster's mouth was open agape, an offended look upon his features.

"Okay, let's drop this increasingly humiliating topic of conversation, where the two of you might end up ganging up on me." The hedgehog huffed, rolling his eyes, as Tom chuckled to himself and a small smirk slipped onto [Name's] lips. "Bucket list. Give it to me!"

The blue hedgehog clicked his finger guns to Tom, edging the police officer on to answer. 

"I, too, demand for you to tell us about your bucket list, Thomas!" [Name] jeered on, leaning forward and nudged roughly at the officer's shoulder.

Tom wavered his hand dismissively, a sigh leaving him and he eventually gave in. "Okay, there is one thing. In Green Hills, I've always felt, I don't know, more like a babysitter than a real cop, y'know?"

[Name] gestured their hand in a 'so-and-so' hand gesture, pouting in agreeance and nodded slowly.

"So, I want a chance to prove myself, under real pressure. I'm gonna move to San Francisco, become a street cop. And, I don't know; see if I have what it takes."

Silence was draped over in the car, as all that was heard among them was the prolonged sound of a chewing gum bubble forming from [Name's] mouth. Only then, did it pop after some time and the pink bubblegum was decorated on their face. "Well, uh, congratulations, Thomas!"

They sent an awkward thumbs-up, and an affirmed nod. Tom smiled at this in gratitude and thanked them. As the [Animal Name] was taking off the bubblegum on their mouth, the police officer faced to witness Sonic's face going through the 5 stages all at once.

"What? Why-Why is your face doing that?" Tom questioned, his right shoulder lifted up slightly to show his dawned confusion, as Sonic's face still remained the same-distraught way.

"You're leaving Green Hills?!" Sonic finally exclaimed out in utter shock.

"I believe, he already made that clear, hedgehog--"

"And, you're okay with him doing that?!" The blue hedgehog turned to [Name], full of disbelief and the [Animal Name] slowly nodded, shrugging to themselves.

"But-But, why?! Why would you agree for him to leave Green Hills, and why would you want to leave Green Hills?!" Sonic's attention wasn't fully away from [Name].

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

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

"Always thought a hundred was a huge number, as a little one. Turns out, it's a little wimp of a number compared to other ones. So, that is initially a small town." [Name] concerted.

"It's a perfect town, and the people need him, [Name]!"

"Please, I clean out their gutters, I jump-start their cars in the Winter. They could call anybody for that." The only human in the car decided to throw in this statement, hoping the hedgehog would understand.

"Sure, they can call anybody for that, but they don't. They call you." The speedster's anger seemed to have simmered down for a bit, as his eyes softened and he looked at the two in hopes of trying to sway them away from their view.

As this fiery feud was arising, a battle-like machinery of a vehicle was slowly gaining on the trio's car. Unfortunately, the three were too occupied to even notice this.

"We are departing from this planet, either way. You're just not making any sense, hedgehog--"

"No-No, both of you guys aren't making any sense!" The hedgehog outbursted, cutting the [Animal Name] off.

Tom was getting quite tired of this already, "Would you calm down?"

"You come from a great town with great people and, by my count, zero bad guys trying to kill you!" Sonic gestured over to [Name], who held an overly-exaggerated offended look.

"Hey! I am on pause from trying to kill you. Don't make me break the pause."

"Besides, what could possibly be more important than protecting the people you care about?"

This question alone caused Tom and [Name] to both ponder on in thought. Both frowned, silence wavering over them all.

Sonic kept his gaze on mainly Tom, hoping for him to even reconsider at this point. [Name] sighed, leaning back and sat themselves down, as the police officer cleared his throat.

"Look, I get your poi--"

Unfortunately, glass shards started flying about in the car, as the three yelled in shock. A harpoon had fired itself onto the dashboard. Though, [Name's] hoverboard was in the way of it, so the harpoon ended up going through the hoverboard and was now stuck upon the dashboard.

The [Animal Name] had some small cuts on their face from the glass shards nipping at them, ignoring the pin-drops of pain. [Name] let out a dramatic 'No!' from seeing the hoverboard now be pierced through.

"My boardie!"

As Tom swerves to yank the harpoon loose, a familiar Dr. Robotnik activates the drone car's winch and it pulls Tom's truck slowly towards him, bringing such victory to himself.

As the car was swaying about in zig-zag motion, Sonic stood up and still wanted to put his point through. "You know what? I was wrong about you two. You're not the Donut Lord at all! You're more like...the Jerk Lord!" The blue hedgehog frowned, before turning to glare at the [Animal Name], who was mourning over the injury of their own hoverboard.

"And, you!"

"Wait, what?" [Name] raised an eye ridge.

"I was also wrong about you. You're not some nice person underneath that mean façade. You're just cold-hearted on your own!"

[Name] bit their tongue in, trying to not laugh right now. 'Don't laugh. Don't laugh. This isn't funny. Not funny. Not funny. Not fu--' 

"You're not, like Elsa or Ice-Spice or TMNT Raph. You're not even Baymax! You're the Royal Jerk! I thought, you'd actually agree with me and be my--"

[Name] breathed in through their nose, collapsing into laughter; "You thought, I'd agree with the common enemy. You really should check on the rulebooks on that one, hedgehog. Why are you getting so worked-up about this, anyways? We're not even friends."

"What?" Sonic's ears pinned d own, uttering that single word out with such terribleness. "But, we're like the LEGO Batman and LEGO Joker."

[Name's] mocking grin disappeared to a serious frown and they let out a small scoff at this, "You really think whatever we have is special?" Sonic slowly nodded at this.

"Yeah! We-We have a connection-- like, a relationship between the two of us, y'know--"

"Wait-Wait, [Name] doesn't do that."

"Do, what?"

"Ships. Relationships. Sonic and [Name] aren't a duo or a thing." They uttered out the second word, wrinkling their nose in distaste. "There is no 'we' or 'us'. I am only on this trip to retrieve something, that is it. That objective is the only thing that means anything to me."

"So-So, nothing else means anything at all to you?" Sonic quivered, fumbling with his gloves and he stared intently at [Name] for an answer.

[Name] leaned back, shaking their head. "If you think, that I'll say that you mean something to me: then, you're wrong. You mean nothing to me. No one does."

Those last two sentences struck Sonic, recoiling back in horror and let out a small whimper. The hedgehog was about to ask 'Did I do anything wrong?', but it seemed that [Name] already answered for him.

What he must've done wrong was even try interact with them in the first place. Maybe, he should stick to hiding out somewhere on his own again.

Frowning, he stared at the ridges of his seat and he slumped down in anguish. He thought, maybe he and [Name] could put the villain and hero dynamic between them, he wanted to even try become friends with [Name].

But, he was wrong on thinking that would ever happen.

[Name] crossed their arms, an annoyed frown on their face and they let out a content huff. This was short-lived from, what Tom yelled next:

"Have you guys noticed a harpoon stuck in our dash?!"