That's What Friends Are For

"That's What Friends Are For" (英雄ソニックを追え！ Eiyū Sonikku wo Oe!?, lit. "Chase the Hero Sonic!") is the fourteenth episode of the anime series, Sonic X. It first aired on 6 July 2003 and 6 December 2003 in Japan and the United States, respectively.

Appearances

 * Sonic the Hedgehog
 * Miles "Tails" Power
 * Amy Rose
 * Cream the Rabbit
 * Cheese
 * Christopher Thorndyke
 * Chuck Thorndyke
 * Helen
 * Ella
 * Mr. Tanaka
 * President
 * Jerome Wise
 * Police officers
 * Doctor Eggman

Japanese version

 * "SONIC DRIVE" - Opening theme
 * "The Shining Road" - Closing theme

English version

 * "Gotta Go Fast" - Opening theme (USA and CAN)
 * "Sonic X" - Opening theme (AUS, NZ and UK)
 * "Gotta Go Fast" (shortened) - Closing theme

Plot

 * For the transcript of this episode, see That's What Friends Are For/Transcript.

Following Eggman's defeat, the episode starts at the White House with Jerome bringing the President exciting news for his upcoming election but the President displays uncertainty regarding Sonic who is the real hero responsible for defeating Eggman. Jerome greatly panics about this as the popularity with Sonic has greatly increased which he could replace the President. Jerome suddenly thought of an idea to host a victory celebration party at the White House and invite Sonic and the media so that the citizens can recognise Sonic and the President to increase popularity for the President so that he can be re-elected. Jerome proceeds to get the preparations ready.

At the Thorndyke Mansion, Chris receives a letter addressed to Sonic from the President that he and his friends are invited to the celebration party in the White House, resulting in Sonic's friends being excited. Sonic however declines the invitation because during the party's schedule, he promises to take his new friend and another one of Chris' classmates, Helen, that they would visit an island where it is said to have a beautiful species of flowers, according to her father. The scene then flashbacks to Sonic's first meeting with Helen by the river leading to that island, where he saw Helen's wheelchair stuck in the mud. Sonic proceeded to rescue her. After greeting each other, Helen told Sonic that she wanted to visit the island. She mentions that her father at one point wanted to take the family to visit the island but he has been too busy working for long hours and has yet to fulfill that promise to this very day. Disheartened, Helen is desperate to go to the island so Sonic agrees to take her. Sonic needs to get his preparations for his trip and runs off.

The party begins with the guests and media at the White House, expecting Sonic's visit. A limousine appears outside and when the passengers Tails, Amy, Cream, Chris and Chuck stepped out, Jerome is surprised that Sonic did not come to the party. Frustrated on not seeing Sonic, the photographers and reporters who are present turn to leave but Jerome prevents them for leaving and asks them to wait in the buffet area, reassuring that Sonic will come. Meanwhile, he orders three government agents to retrieve Sonic. The three government agents visited the Thorndyke Mansion in order to retrieve Sonic but Ella called Mr. Tanaka who takes them out. After hearing about this, Jerome resorted to using the military to capture Sonic by contacting the military secretary. His military division spotted Sonic running back to the Thorndyke Mansion to retrieve a boat. They tried to attack him but Sonic escapes from them. Back at the White House, the photographers and reporters complain about Sonic's absence again, but Jerome kept them company by serving food and drinks.

Sonic and Helen finally started sailing towards the island, but their boat is attacked by the army which forces Sonic to take drastic actions to escape with Helen in his safety onto the island. Despite all of the risks, Helen takes it as a thrill ride of an adventure. Time passed by and at the buffet of the White House, Chris wonders what Sonic is doing. At the island, Helen tells Sonic how much she greatly appreciates the effort of her parents to look after her health but ponders that she could spend more time and have fun with them. Without much time to reflect on this, Sonic discovers that the army has dispatched a squadron of soldiers pursuing them, leaving Sonic and Helen on the run again. They manage to outrun the soldiers to safety and then arrive at the meadow of flowers which Helen's father mentioned about. This is an adorning sight to Sonic and Helen as they see the meadow seemingly covering a large area of land. Sonic proceeds to pick one flower for her but she stopped Sonic from doing so to which he understands to leave the flowers as they are. The soldiers are still persistent enough to capture Sonic so he takes off with Helen again until they seem to be cornered against the edge of the cliff leading to the lake by the authority soldiers. An authority helicopter flies by as well.

Despite being vastly outnumbered, Sonic managed to trick the authority soldiers and the helicopter into firing their hooked weapons together so that they formed a very tight knot, allowing Sonic to use the rope as a path to escort Helen into the helicopter. The pilot of the helicopter tried to grab Sonic but misses and falls out of the helicopter. Sonic quickly grasped the ability to pilot the helicopter and fly away. As it is late, he decides to bring Helen home. Helen pleads for Sonic to visit the White House because the President is waiting for him there and she didn't want to be the cause for not being able to meet with him. Sonic and Helen finally arrive at the party and he meets the President. Excitedly, Jerome asks the cameramen and reporters to come but they are too tired from the long wait and fell asleep, causing Jerome to go haywire while everyone else laughed. In the end, Helen tells the story of her exciting adventure to her parents. As Helen's parents excused themselves to have a private discussion with each other, Helen's mother is touched by her daughter's excitement in which they had not seen for some time while Helen's father notes that he has been working too long and hopefully wishes to take the family on a trip to the island Helen visited soon. The episode ends with Sonic resting on a tree not too far from Helen's house.

Dubbing changes

 * The following scenes have been cut/edited:


 * In the original, the party was "in two days time". In the dub, it was on Thursday.

Trivia

 * The Australian DVD gives the name of this episode as "Cream and Cheese".
 * This is the first episode to feature the new ending song "The Shining Road" for the Japanese version.
 * This is the second episode that Dr. Eggman does not appear in.
 * This episode is the second Sonic-related media to feature drunkenness, the first having been theAdventures of Sonic the Hedgehog episode Hero of the Year.
 * This is the first time the 4Kids Entertainment logo was no longer shown in the PAL version of the series after the ending credits. The TMS Entertainment was still shown after the theme has ended. It remained like that for the rest of the series.[2]