A violent extraterrestrial parasite begins a silent, hostile takeover. It is up to Sonic and the gang to stop it, but at what cost? *Story takes place several years after canon Modern!Sonic. Written by e-vay and one-true-lloyd
It had been two days since the meteor had fallen out of the sky, and everything was going about as normal. The sun was shining, the city was bustling as Mobians rushed to and fro and Dr Eggman was trying to exterminate a hedgehog with a giant death machine; much to the latter’s vexation. Unlike the rest of his friends, he’d spent almost all of the previous day fighting an annoyingly persistent hydra.
“Oh come on Eggman,” Sonic managed to work out the words with a yawn, stretching his shoulders nonchalantly. “You couldn’t have waited until the afternoon to bug me?” He rubbed his eyes at the large mechanical ball with legs. “Your bowling ball on stilts isn’t impressing anyone”
“Shut it!” Eggman shouted back, gripping onto the controls of his hovercraft as he pointed at the new robot, clearly annoyed after yesterday’s failed attempt. “Say what you want! But with this Chaos Emerald powering my newest robot I’m sure to be-“
Suddenly his loud ranting was silenced by a massive explosion, the giant robot turning into a massive fireball. The shockwave shunting Eggman’s vehicle off over the ocean as Sonic and his friends shielded themselves from the blast and searing heat. Even with his arms over his face Sonic could make out the small black silhouette of a figure appearing from the flames. Gracefully leaping from the epicentre of the explosion, turning in mid-air before landing in front of the group as perfectly as a gymnast would dismount a piece of equipment. Her back turned to her friends; who were still recollecting themselves after the sudden explosion. Their eyes slowly focused in on the figure before them. Smoke billowing around made it difficult to pick out small details; the black lace hem of a red skirt, a large hammer and pink fur. As the smoke and their senses cleared they began to piece it together.
“A….Amy?” Whether he was the first to figure it out or just the first to find his voice, Tails broke the sudden silence the beach had fallen into.
Amy span around on the spot, turning to face the group as they stared at her in wide-eyed shock, dusting some of the debris off her top and skirt before swinging her hammer up across her shoulders. “Hope you don’t mind everybody, I really didn’t want to play games with Egghead today.” Smiling sweetly at her friends as they looked at each other, trying to figure out which question to ask first. Almost everything about this scene wasn’t adding up in their own minds.
Before the cogs in their minds could finish coming up with anything, Eggman’s hovercraft burst up through the still thick smoke that was billowing out of the wreckage of his once magnificent creation. “You little brat!” Eggman fumed, too busy glaring at the destroyed machine to notice Amy’s posture stiffen, “I didn’t even get to break out the bells and whistles before you showed up and ruined everything!”
Amy squeezed the handle of her hammer as Eggman ranted in the distance, her smile stiffening into a deep scowl before she quickly whipped around tossing her hammer out of her grip like a missile. As it whistled through the air, black spores swirled around the shaft and hammer itself, warping and changing its shape in mid-flight into a menacing looking battle ready weapon. One side hardened even more whilst the other stretched out into a point, thinning until it was a sickening looking blade.
“Woah!” Eggman screamed as he leapt from his hovercraft seconds before the hammer impacted with it. The device crumpled and flung Orbot and Cubot out before it exploded as well. The hovercraft plummeted down into the ocean with a splash as Eggman and the two bots resurface. Staring at the pink hedgehog on the beach as she glared at them. “Ok well good talk. You win today Sonic! But you haven’t seen the last of- oh forget it” His speech turned into a grumble as he turned and began to swim away as quickly as he could.
“Did you get the Emerald?” Orbot shouted out as he resurfaced above the water
“I thought you did!” Cubot rebutted as he floundered pathetically before remembering he could hover.
“Shut up and keep swimming!” Eggman shouted back at his robotic assistants as they all swam away from Amy’s rage.
Amy however was too busy admiring her newly formed weapon, picking it up out of the sand and twirling it to get all the sand off of it. She ran her fingers along the handle before trailing them along the new bladed edge. She was so deeply contained within her own thoughts she completely forgot about her friends, who were still trying to make sense of everything.
“She could’ve killed him”
“I think she was actually TRYING to kill him”
“Remind me not to get on her bad side…..”
“Did I reset the traps to my house this morning….if that blasted raccoon puts another leaflet through my door I’ll kill him!”
“….wait what happened? I wasn’t paying attention…”
“So….” Knuckles coughed out loud before rubbing his hand into the back of his neck “...What’s with the new wardrobe? And Hammer?”
Amy dusted off some of the sand still clinging to the surface of her hammer as she finally turned to her friends, smiling playfully at Knuckles. “Oh that old get up? I got tired of it. I’m a woman now, I need to start looking the part” She swung the hammer up onto her shoulders while she gave the group a little twirl “what do you think?” her eyes falling onto Sonic who was still struggling to form any words.
“Hiking up your skirt doesn’t make you a woman hun.” Rouge shot back at Amy, her arms crossed as she looked over Amy’s new look. Though Rouge’s own attire was much more revealing, it wasn’t what made her a woman before she could even begin to say anything else, she found her knees buckling under her own weight as Amy’s fist connected with her jaw. Collapsing down onto the sound in a heap, her hand instinctively held the throbbing side of her face before her eyes darted back up to Amy. Glaring daggers at the growling pink hedgehog, her glare holding as Amy’s expression suddenly changed.
The look of pure hate and anger on her face instantly changed into shock, her eyes opened wide and her hands trembled “Oh my god! Rouge I’m sorry!” She reached out to help Rouge before watching as Sonic beat her too it, retreating back as Sonic helped the injured bat.
“Amy what the hell?!” Sonic raised his voice after looking at the already developing bruise on Rouge’s cheek. His brow furrowed as he looked at the shaking girl. This situation was already confusing and now this? He didn’t know what to make of any of it anymore.
“I…I don’t…” The words struggled to come out of her mouth, her eyes looking down at her hands as they shook before flicking back up to look at Sonic and Rouge. The woman clinging onto his arm while her knees struggled to carry her own weight made Amy’s blood boil all over again. Her hackles rose in jealousy before she turned on her heels and ran from the scene. Her body carried her way from the source of her anger as quickly as possible, and her mind raced with thoughts and voices drowned out the world around her.
“What’s wrong with me?! Where did that even come from?! I…can’t remember anything about yesterday…what’s happening to me?”
She was so deep in her thoughts that she had completely lost track of her surroundings, and when she finally took a moment to look around her she realised that she had run from the beach all the way into the forest, faster than she possibly could have a few days ago. “What the….where is all this energy coming from? I’m haven’t even broken a sweat.” She looked over her body as she mused on her current situation, she wasn’t noticeably stronger, nothing was different and yet she felt so much more…alive. A smile spread across her lips as she ran off into the jungle again, heading towards the city while she tested out her newfound strength and stamina. This must be what Sonic felt like, able to run like there was nothing stopping her. Finally she reached the city, stretching her legs by kicking a few parking meters into the sky. “This is amazing!! I’ve never felt like this before, like I can do anything…”
“Oh but you can do anything~”
Amy’s eyes darted around at the sound of the voice, looking all around her to try and find the person who said it but to no avail. “Who said that?” her teeth gritted together and her hackles rising as the voice remained hidden. “Show yourself you creep!” her voice rose and her body started to gently glow while she got angrier.
“Creep?...Aw it insults us…we make it strong, we make it fast and it insults us. Is that anyway to treat a….friend?~” The voice was strange, it’s pitch was gently fluctuating and there was the constant sound of static in the background.
“Friend?” the expression on her face turned quizzical, her eyes still darting around trying to find the person behind the voice. “I don’t even know who you are, you won’t even show your face!”
“Oh but we know it….you….we’ve seen how those others treat you…no respect…no kindness….no love. But we love you….you saved us…helped us…and in return we’ll make it so you never need those liars again!” The voice suddenly rose to a crescendo, a row of televisions in the window next to her suddenly bursting into life. The sudden rise and anger in the voice coupled with the televisions made Amy flinch, recoiling away from the window of the store.
“How can I trust anything you say if you won’t even show yourself” her voice trembled, eyes fixated on the static filled screens. “Show me already!” the muffled sound of static slowly got quieter as it cleared away and each screen’s static was replaced by the image of an eye. The eyes looked around in all directions, rolling around before each one fixated upon Amy. “Is…is that you?” She slowly stepping towards the shop window to peer through the glass more easily “How are you doing that?..”
“We are not of this world, we are beyond the constraints that bind you to your body.” The once static filled voice was clear and smooth, it still fluctuated between pitches at random but it was as if the being was standing right beside Amy. “We are both flesh and machine and can inhabit both. We are a wondrous species. We can make creatures stronger, more so than a millennia of evolution could ever hope to accomplish, and enhance technology beyond its limits. Just like that hammer of yours.” A few of the eyes changed into the shape of Amy’s hammer, showing its transformation from the cute toy like hammer it had once been all the way to the fearsome battle axe it currently was. “But sadly, as great as our powers are, our limited state of being does not allow us to exist on our own. We need a voice to change lives, hands to build wonders. And now we can, all thanks to you. You saved us.”
“Saved you?” Amy looked back into the eyes confused, it was all too much to take in at once. “But how did I save you? I didn’t do anything.” Her eyebrow raised as she eyed the being suspiciously, her eyes flicking between the eyes on the monitors as they looked down at her.
“When we found you...you were so sad...so alone…..just like we were when we first landed on this planet. Poor creature, all alone. You understood us, you let us in….and now...we are with you. We’ll be with you forever Amy.” The eyes on the screen began to merge into one giant eye encompassing all of the monitors. “We’ll never let you be alone again”
Whatever it was, it was saying everything she wanted to hear. Everything she needed to hear. The look of suspicion on her face vanished, replaced by a look of silent hope. Her eyes practically sparkled up at the giant iris in front of her. “You mean that? You really understand what that’s like?”
“Of course Amy...we came from a world filled with others like us. We were never alone…until they came!!” The eye stretched across the screens and became hazy for a moment before it split off into several eyes, the televisions visibly shook for a moment before it reformed into one single eye. Amy flinched from the loud screech that poured out of the speakers before it dropped back to its normal fluctuation again. “Those creatures….they took our friends….took our world and scattered us to the stars...we were all alone….so alone….we never thought we’d find such a strong, beautiful creature who understands us.”
By now Amy was just staring up at the screens, a smile plastered across her face as she absorbed every word it spoke, her gaze mindlessly locked on the screens. “Strong? Beautiful?...me?”
“Of course you….so strong that you can wield that mighty weapon...and so beautiful...we’ll never push you away like that stupid blue one!” The television screens flickered and began to show brief images of Amy wielding her hammer, all grown up and gorgeous before showing an image of Sonic pushing her off him with an annoyed look on his face. “He’ll never understand...but we do….we love you Amy Rose….Please say we’ll be together forever.”
She bit her lip before she smiled up at the screen, nodding fervently. “Yes! Yes we will be!” her eyes were practically shining while she pressed up to the glass of the window to look at the eye before her head fell onto the window with a bump. Her posture became stiff and her fingers twitched gently while the image of the eye slowly dissipates off the screens. Eventually her head raised up and looked at her reflection in the window, black veins spreading over her eyes before sinking back into the whites of her eyes.
“Thank you Amy Rose” her lips curled up into a menacing grin and the creature’s voice slipped out of her lips, hints of Amy’s voice interweaved with its already fluctuating tones. Her posture finally relaxing as she ran off down the street.
"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,"
- William Cosgrove
“Any sign of it?”
“Nothing yet”the researcher sighed as he rested his eyes for a brief moment, lowering his binoculars as his colleague kept scanning the skies “it should breach any moment now th..” snapping his head to the dark night sky as a distant boom filled the silent night. Their eyes watching the small ball of light hurtle through the sky before impacting a few miles further out of the town.
“We’re on!” the second researcher exclaimed happily as they both clambered back into their vehicle and headed towards the crash site. Parking a small distance away before proceeding to the still smoking crater. The small meteorite was very gently glowing as they slid down the newly formed embankment, taking careful steps towards it as they let it cool down.
“I thought it’d be bigger” one of the researchers tilted their head at the small rock.
“Ah well, it’ll make it easier to work on at least.” Shrugging as he found the silver lining of the situation, their sensors had definitely shown it was bigger. Maybe it had broken up on entry. Either way, they had a specimen of space rock to experiment on. As his fellow researcher called up the location of the impact to the main group, his eyes focused in on the meteorite. As it cooled down, he could’ve sworn there was something oozing out of pores in the rock, stepping slowly towards it he could finally make out very faint signs of spore like organisms clung to the inside of the meteorite. “Hey you should come and take a look at this.”
Still on the phone his friend stepped up and peered down at the object of his colleague’s attention, “huh….what is that? Space moss….a fungus?”
“Not a clue…whatever it is though….we should get it back to town as soon as we can because this is the find of the century” he laughed out as he stood up “I can’t wait to tell everyone else about this!” the pair of them climbing out of the crater to await the pickup crew. They were both so excited about the potential of their discovery that they failed to notice, a black trail oozing off the meteorite before twisting its way through the air. Heading away from the two Mobians and towards the light of the nearby city.
You’d never have known the previous night’s events had happened the following morning. All was normal in Mobius. Well, as normal as it can get when you’re home to the world’s fastest hedgehog, a self-proclaimed evil genius and his insane robotic creations. Today, was no different.
The huge robotic claw slammed into the ground, narrowly missing a blue blur streaking around the titanic robotic hydra. Its three long tentacles pounding into the ground in quick succession as it desperately tried to corral its target. “Will you hurry up and smash that blue brat into the dirt already! I gave you three arms for heaven’s sake!” Eggman hollered from his hovering platform. “Crush him! To the left!” the hydra swung mace-like tail down at the constantly moving blur “No the left! The left you stupid machine!!”
It didn’t have any time to react however, attacking with pinpoint precision the spinning streak ripped through each of the robot’s arms in quick succession. “Come on already” Sonic the Hedgehog yawned, zipping back out of the robot’s feet and tail “Let’s get this over with Egghead, I don’t have all day!” He taunted with his almost trademark smirk adorning his features, rolling his eyes as the hydra yet again grew a brand new set of arms as it cleaved off the remains of the latest set he’d ruined.
“It’s going to take as long as it takes you little rodent!” Eggman sat forward, slamming his hands down onto the rims of his platform as he pushed himself over the edge, his voice getting slightly higher in pitch as he screamed down at Sonic “If you would just give up nicely I wouldn’t have to bore my robots to death fighting you!”
“What? Me boring?” Sonic scoffed before laughing “As if!” Leaping up into the air before curling up into a tight ball and beginning his signature attack. Cutting along the ground in a high speed spin, rotating fast enough that his quills may as well be hardened steel for all those unlucky enough to be on the receiving end of the attack. The ball reaching full speed before bouncing into the air, slicing through the hydra’s arms once again with relative ease as he bounced from one to the other, the metal and wiring within the arms sliced cleanly in twain. Skidding back away from the robot as it recoiled from the force of the strikes, regaining it’s footing before yet more arms began to coil out, their claws snapping eagerly down at the hedgehog. As much as he hated to admit it, and he really hated to admit it, but this was starting to grate. “Come on…” he sighed under his breath “I’ve got somewhere I have to be…”
Far away from the battle, a small picnic was set up on top of a hill overlooking the city. It was the perfect spot, with a beautiful view and a delicious looking lunch neatly set up on a picnic cloth. Everything was perfect, except for one small detail. Amy Rose was alone, she wasn’t supposed to be alone. She had her datapad lazily resting in her lap, the article on the shooting star was nothing more than a distraction from the time.
“Meteor blah blah scientific discovery yadda yadda space fungus blah blah” she sighed as she threw the pad to her side before resting her head in her hands and letting out a deep breath “I can’t believe he’s late again!” gritting her teeth and clenching her hands as she pushed herself up onto her feet before screaming out all her frustrations at the top of her lungs “Sonic the Hedgehog you idiot!! I’m going to make you regret this!!”
Her outburst, however, had been the perfect cover for an unknown visitor. A gently twisting, silky spiral of mass ran down the side of the tree besides her, its shapeless form observing her for a moment before it darted forward. Quickly pushing its form into her datapad causing the screen to crackle and fizz with static as it worked into the inner machinery. All of this happened, unbeknownst to Amy who reached down and picked up the datapad as it beeped and buzzed.
Glaring at the device while she picked it up, smacking the side of the pad as her eyes strained at the screen “That better not be him…” tilting the screen to one side, tapping the side of it repeatedly “Hello?” she called out, looking at the sides to make sure it wasn’t damaged or showing any signs or wear, “hello? Helloooooo?” she called out again, recoiling slightly as she suddenly got a reply.
The screen was still crackling and popping, as the voice came through “He-he-hello…” it was a deep voice, so definitely not sonic but the image was still so hazy and fuzzy.
“Shadow?” It was the only person who made sense, he was usually doing something somewhere no one even knew existed, “Is that you Shadow? Something’s wrong with my screen…I can barely see or hear you..” her eyes squinting at the screen as the picture slowly began to clear up a little, the silhouette of Shadow becoming slowly more apparent. His voice coming out through the speakers fuzzy as the static broke randomly.
“We…need……need you….help us…”
“Help?!” Amy’s eyes shot open as she gripped onto the screen “It’s ok Shadow! I’ll go and find Sonic and we can come help you right away! Just tell me whe...” she stopped as the voice began to laugh, the laugh getting louder and clearer as it lasted for a few seconds. Blinking at the screen as she went to speak again, the voice cutting her off before she even had a chance.
“Sonic?!” His voice came through, filled with mocking tones as the static finally stopped, “You pathetic little girl, always running to him but he never runs to you….I should’ve called him….he’d already be on his way….he’d know you’d just get in the way…again” each word digging into Amy’s heart as she listened, she knew it wasn’t true and she couldn’t believe Shadow was saying these things.
“Hey! That’s not fair and yo...” she retorted briefly before she got cut off again, the voice even clearer now as his silhouette became sharper and more defined.
“Fair?!...Oh no what isn’t fair is the way you cling to him when he doesn’t even want to be anywhere near you.” He chided
Amy sniffed as she clutched onto the monitor, images of Sonic’s heroics in the paper appeared on the screen followed by some of their messages. Promises they’d made to meet up and hang out together….all promises that Sonic had broken. “You don’t know what you’re talking about….” She sniffed again gently as tears formed in the corners of her eyes
“No? Tell me Amy…” the voice was calm and gentle as the images on the screen constantly changed to more and more examples of Sonic’s failures as a friend “How is it the “fastest thing alive” is always late? Do you really think he’s too busy? He’s just ignoring you!...I can’t say I blame him really….who’d want to waste their time with a child?” He mocked her, each word carefully chosen to pick directly at the chinks in her armour
Amy’s expression changed from confused to angry in an instant, raising her hammer up to the screen threateningly “I am not! A child anymore!!”
The voice scoffed at her display “Oh really? Is that why you still carry around that pathetic little toy then?
“That….” Amy’s voice got caught in her throat as she glanced over at her hammer, her snarl dropping into an empty stare before she shook her head and steeled herself against Shadow again “Shut up! That’s not true! It’s not!!” She screamed at the datapad before throwing it down at the ground, turning on her heels to run down the hill towards her home as tears finally streamed down her cheeks. The sound of the voice laughing hysterically at her filling her ears as she ran, and as she got further away. The image and sound of Shadow got slowly less clear before breaking down completely, a dark black mass oozing out of the cracks of the device, before it swirled and twisted through the air; following Amy down the hill.
The door to Amy’s house flew open, the pink hedgehog in floods of tears as she runs into her home; throwing her hammer to the side and falling to her knees against the door frame to her living room. Sniffing as she pushed her forehead into the frame, tears running freely down her cheeks as she whispered out to herself “I’m not a child anymore….why does nobody see that?” Reaching up to wipe her eyes with the back of her hand, she opens her eyes and looks into her living room. Sniffling as she scans the room slowly.
Everything was pink, there were stuffed animals in just about every corner of the room, every table was decorated in doilies, little pillows with crude stitching of hearts. She rubbed the tears out of her eyes again before pulling herself to her feet, squeezing the door frame in her hands tightly before pushing herself into the room. Walking around hurriedly as she grabbed anything that looked even remotely childish and throwing it into a bin. As she stuffed the last of it down into the bin, she froze. Looking down at her possessions solemnly, little pangs of nostalgia hitting her as she gazed down at the little pillows she’d found herself falling asleep on all the time, the picture frames she couldn’t remember if she’d made herself or where from thrift stores, the teddy bear she’d cried into when she was little. The nostalgia was brief, and quickly she pulled the bag closed and stomped away. Picking up her hammer as she walks into her room, stopping in front of her vanity table before staring into her own reflection.
‘You mean…nothing to him’ Shadow’s voice ran through her mind again, her lips trembling as he fingers idly clenched and ran over the handle of her hammer.
“I’m nothing special”
The glass of the vanity table’s mirror exploded as Amy’s hammer came crashing into it with full force, shards of glass shattering and spraying out onto the table before the hammer came down again and again. The table splintering into hunks of jagged wood before Amy turned her rage onto the rest of the room, anything within reach felt the full force and strength of Amy Rose as she took out her pain and anguish on her childhood. The last thing the hammer hit, was the floor itself. Dropping it before falling to her hands and knees in exhaustion, Amy started to cry silently. Tears running down her cheeks as she laid in the ruins of her bedroom. Unable to notice the swirling masses forming above and behind her as she gripped onto the handle of her hammer again, unable to discern the voices in her head from the voices in the room. “That kid’s toy…” snarling down at her hammer, she grabbed it roughly before throwing it into the opposite wall as hard as she could. Her own momentum pushing her over, falling back limply to sit against the wall.
Her pants and heart beat pounding in her head, she could only just hear the small crack beside her. Looking down at the noise she saw a picture frame laying on the floor, the frame itself slightly cracked from the fall. Picking it up and turning it over she could see it was a picture of her and Sonic. She was beaming from ear to ear and he….well….he looked like he was being forced to take the picture with her. Looking at it now, if she wasn’t clinging onto him the way she was, he’d probably never have taken the picture with her. Gritting her teeth as she gripped onto the frame, the crack in the glass was perfectly between them. As if she needed any more hints. Any more clues. She finally got the message.
“I hate you…..I hate you! I hate you I hate you!!!” She screamed at the picture, pushing her fingers forcefully into the glass until finally it broke. The sound of the glass shattering filling the air before a short silence followed. That’s when she heard it, the same laugh from before. Looking up she only had a few second to register the swirling mass of black above her before it all went dark. Her body slumped over onto the floor next to the broken picture, the glass above her completely splintered.
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