Please let me just get through these TAT I have exciting things in store to post if I can just get this done so PROMPT REQUESTS ARE PERMANENTLY BANNED! Do not send me any more story ideas, I beggggg. I’m gonna work on my stories again, okay? Okay??? You’ll get your fanfiction and Original juicy stuff just let me breeeathhhheee!!!
-gets an interesting idea for these three combined- Ah, this should be fun :D
It’s hard to describe the majesty of a floating, tropical paradise. The watery droplets of dew from the morning rays dripping down the dangling vines of the waking vegetation bright and early in the morning would have to be the start. Next, the sounds. First is the cooing of Chao and twittering of Flickies weaving through the underbelly of the still but hovering steadily rocky mass all covered in moss.
The water barely reaches the vines, the clouds provide endless moisture, but what might not be expected is the silent wet tears of a very lonely girl. A hedgehog of only a decade and then some, lonesomely agonizing in–less than quiet–pitiful misery upon this sacred wonder of the ancient Echidna world…
“And that’s why I’m sad.” Amy Rose, a usually peppy pink hedgehog spoke to a rather unamused guest to the island: Rouge the Bat.
Known for her treasure-thieving prowess, the young woman’s migraine from the incessant spouting of useless knowledge from this pre-teen’s stuffy nose and emotional outlash was far too draining to be of any ‘cherished interest’ to this seasoned criminal.
No, Rouge only put on a charming facade for the little ‘angel’ on the island… She had her heart set on the Master Emerald… Already having swiped some of the regular Chaos Emeralds–if one can call them anything like ‘ordinary’ these days…–but wanted no witnesses to account the act.
Especially to a hotheaded, surviving son of the last of the Echidna race…
“Deary,” Rouge twitched an eye, hating to be interrupted during a heist, but couldn’t let Amy in on her dastardly plan and grow suspicious of her activities here… ‘Knuckles is gonna be back with Tails and Sonic any minute now… I need a distraction for this girl, and stat.’ She pinched her own nose, trying to soothe over her own temper before playing the older sister. “Ever thought there are other fish in the sea?” She gestured to the side of her, as though to suggest the ‘sea’ below them was plenty big enough for whatever ‘catch’ she wanted.
“Is all this fixation on what Sonic would go for really necessary?” She put one hand under her elbow to tuck it neatly with her fingers as added support, so that her other hand could lightly graze her cheek as she performed her award-winning, mental illusion to keep Amy’s ‘attention’ occupied. “Why not just go fishing?”
Amy went to speak, but suddenly found all her energy drained. “Ohhhh, you’re a woman like me, and you still don’t get it?” She suddenly slumped to her knees, sitting down in her hopeless romantic fit, as Rouge jolted in shock at her response to her.
‘Most girls would complain I wasn’t sensitive enough… She’s saying I don’t have a heart?’ Rouge shook her fist before putting on another smile. ‘If I want to make this quick, I have to be more strategic than that… I have to get rid of her and made my secret exit or I’m pudding in Knuckles’s-... Wait, that’s it!’ Her eyes lit up, and she walked over with a sway of her hips a bit to Amy.
She bent down, placing her hands delicately to her knees, as though talking to a child. “Alright, admittedly, I feel for you girl.” She got back up and walked right past her, keeping Amy’s attention on her… not the Master Emerald close by…
“It might seem strange to hear me admit this… but I, too, have a small dream.” She winked back to Amy, seeing Amy’s head completely turned to look over her shoulder.
“You do?” Amy was intrigued by this, and it made Rouge suddenly stop to ponder…
Her smile dropped, ‘Does this girl… not have any other girls her age to talk to about these things?’ Cursed with a beautifully big heart, Rouge had to face forward and sweat drop. Her natural, kind and doting instincts were not something she normally felt unrestrained. They were usually summoned during times of manipulation… but all at once, Rouge felt her walls tumbling down as Amy’s soft footfalls raced to catch up with her.
Amy’s sweet and naive expression moved around Rouge as she stuck her head out and below her gaze ahead, blinking cutely to hear more. “What kinda dream?” She asked, curiously. “About a boy? Love? Marriage and devotion?” She cupped her face, her eyes beaming…
Rouge could see it… a girl just wanting ‘girl talk’...
‘Well, not like Tails or Sonic would satisfy such needs…’ She closed her eyes, finding a small part of herself to connect to Amy on…
Even if it was… just a small portion… of somewhere deep within her gemstone-obsessed material heart…
“Listen well, Amy.” Her finger came up, ready to instruct the bright-eyed and awestruck little ‘angel’. “Little girls like you have to learn the usual tricks the hard way… but lucky for you, I happen to have changed my mind about you.” She stuck up her chin. Now… Her actual goal was to help this young lady out.
“One day, you’re gonna have men swarming this pathetic little island in hopes of catching your eye, however, you’re telling me you don’t want that, right?”
“Right!” Amy cheered, before… “W-Well… If it means Sonic gets a little uneasy… then…” She pushed her fingers in together, looking away with a slight blush.
‘Huh, so she’s a tiger under all the fluff, huh?’ Rouge put her finger down, raising an eyebrow in almost pride at Amy’s ambition.
“Well, what’s the one thing a man wants more than life itself?” She began to instruct, putting her hands on her hips as Amy tilted her head, thinking that an odd turn of events.
“Wait… what does this have to do with your dream?” She inquired.
“Heh,” Rouge smirked, “Even I know how to catch a man. You want eyes? You’re going to have to be specific about how to target them.” Rouge flexed out her wings, “Like so.” She turned her body and scaled her finger along her thigh… bringing it up to then pop a kiss from her lips, directing it towards Amy. “See? And with a fatal wink…” She winked, “You can get any man on their knees begging for you.”
Amy only blinked her eyes… Then tried to mimic the act but Rouge had to hold back her laughter, realizing the girl was just too ‘cutesy-wutesy’ to pull it off. “PPFTTT… Ehem, M-Maybe we start you off on stage one, huh?” She fanned her hands, “No worries, give it a couple of years, you’ll have it down pat.”
“What a man wants… huh.” Amy was disappointed that she didn’t have the ‘appeal’ like Rouge’s features… but decided to not dwell on it.
She began to think quite hard, comically making Rouge realize she wasn’t one to be disheartened so quickly…
“You’re tough, I’ll give you that much.” Rouge sighed. ‘I don’t have a lot of time… I need to get her off my back and the Master Emerald packed before those three losers show up… What does she see in Sonic, anyway?’ Rouge flapped her wings, also thinking…
“A man… likes a girl who can cook, clean, and…” Amy began to list things out on her fingers, but Rouge just groaned incredibly loudly.
“Borrrrrinnnggg… What era are you from? The 1950s?” She rolled her head around her shoulders, “Even humans know the difference between a slave and a lover.” She then flicked some of the white hair near her cheeks that were protruding out slightly, showing her confidence, “Although… a man who’s my slave and lover doesn’t sound all too bad to me.”
Amy looked perturbed and Rouge just sighed, “Alright, I’ll drop it. Look, sweetie, why not just read up on popular romance tropes?” She blinked her eyes, growing bored of this charade. Her blue-shaded eyelids showing some annoyance at Amy’s innocence. “I feel for you, I really do… But media these days are so free and… accommodating.” She wondered, then…
“Why not just satisfy yourself with a midnight love story?”
Rouge’s smile grew as Amy looked somewhat confused.
“Don’t you watch any dramas? Don’t young girls your age usually get fascinated with fairytales… or something like that, anyway.” She bobbed a hand up and down in the air, now fully turning to give Amy her attention. “Why… aren’t you bored of your own imagination, yourself?”
“My… imagination?” Amy looked down, and for the first time, Rouge could tell she had hurt the girl’s core beliefs in some strange way…
‘Boy, she’s a real fish out of water…’ Rouge sweatdropped, “Alright, alright! I’ll cave in…” She held up her hands as though surrendering, walking over to Amy and holding out her hand to her. “Give me your device.”
“M-My device?” Amy looked uncertain, moving back just a bit.
‘Did I oversell it?’ Rouge wondered, not liking Amy’s sudden signs of distrusting her. “Your little doodad from your cute, nerdy fox friend.” She explained, and Amy’s eyes seemed to flick open wider at the recognition of what she meant.
She pulled out the Miles-Electric.
“Ah, that’s the one.” Rouge started to flip through some online content… “Here, seems age-appropriate enough for ya.” She handed her back the device as Amy scanned over the text.
“My Chaos… Kids these days are outside too much, aren’t they?” Rouge swayed her hand about just as much as her hips tilted while she pretended to wander away from Amy. “Just put your nose in that and maybe you’ll learn a trick or two…”
‘Seemed like an easy enough read through…’ Rouge suddenly had a tinge of worry spike under her neck… an unease at what she might have started… ‘Oh well, she’s bound to find out eventually…’
“You’ll be a great girlfriend someday, Amy… But you ought to know what men are looking for first…” She took one final look over her shoulder, seeing Amy absorbed in her device as her head moved left and right, as though reading through the page and finally turned to sit down and continue.
Rouge gleamed, ‘Perfect..! Now… to get back to the Master Emerald…’
She flew off, taking only one final spin in the air to make sure Amy didn’t notice her ascent into the sky… and headed for the Master Emerald’s post.
… Unfortunately, as Rouge was making her grand escape, Master Emerald in hand, she couldn’t help but take a worried, sweatdropped glance back at the island…
‘Emm… Is she still reading that thing?’ Rouge shook her head, ‘No! Don’t get distracted by the little twerp! She talked your ear off, and for what? Some lousy… stupid… boy she can’t seem to get out of her head?’ Rouge couldn’t focus on the theft, her eyes moved and glossed over the clouds above her… thinking of Knuckles…
As scenes passed through her memories, she smiled like a dumbstruck, head-over-heels girl herself… She kicked her feet out in the air, “AUgh! Fine! I’ll go check on her and once I see she’s perfectly fine reading on her own, I’ll trash the whole nonsense of fretting over her and be done with it all!” She threw the Master Emerald into the Sea… Then dropped the seven Chaos Emeralds after it…
She would know where it was… the tide wasn’t strong enough to move solid rock… Knuckles would never think to look right under his island’s nose to find it, anyway~
She flew back to where she last left Amy, “Amy?” She called out, as it was starting to get dark.
“Gracious…” She put her hand to her bosom, glad to see the girl hadn’t moved much, with Chao dancing or playing around her… as though she had remained stone.
“Hmm? She doesn’t seem-… wait…” Peering down with narrowed eyes, Rouge noticed Amy’s eyes were bloodshot, as though having not blinked in several minutes, with a crazed look of an eternal fixation to them…
She hovered in the air, and with each flap of her wings, twitched as though having not realized she hadn’t even moved once.
‘It… was appropriately rated… right? RIGHT!?’ Rouge swan-dived down and scattered the Chao in her panic, who rushed away as they grabbed their heads and retreated from her mighty gust of wind.
“Amy! Stop reading that this instant!”
Amy looked up, her quills a little uneven and sticking out every which way… “R-Rouge… I haven’t found anything in here that could tell me about how to make Sonic love me… Only that this man is horribly abusive and the girl is dumb for not running away…”
Rouge face-palmed, dragging the hand down her face, “You didn’t have to read it…” She twitched her eyebrow. “If you didn’t see the point of it…”
“Ah-ha… Ha… HA.” Her voice was so robotic, her reaction so strange…
Rouge took the book and pursued through it a bit, flicking her thumb over the screen. “You… You read through so many pages..?” She was already halfway done with the book… “Amy…”
Holding it away from her, she heard the girl speak again. “You said I could find the answer to why Sonic won’t date me in it… but all I found… umm… was reasons why I really like Sonic after all.”
Amy bent slightly forward as Rouge looked back to her, taken aback by such a profoundly kind thing to say… Especially about ‘that’ boy…
Amy closed her eyes, “That boy… in the story… He’s so aggressive and demanding. It’s almost like he’s whining when he doesn’t get his way… The girl is a pushover. She’s timid and doesn’t realize why he’s so invested in her… He has millions upon millions of dollars, but that doesn’t mean anything if she doesn’t love him back.” Amy sighed, “Even Cinderella is a better love story than this…”
Rouge held the device closer to herself, ‘My word… For her to be so young and to already know the toxicity of fake romances…’ She gulped, ‘I… I shouldn’t have judged her so squarely… She may be an angel, but she’s smarter than she appears…’
Rouge genuinely gave up trying to trick Amy, and handed her back the device. “You can delete it, sweetie. Tell me all about why you adore Sonic so.”
Sitting down next to her, Rouge spent the next couple of minutes listening to Amy’s heartfelt confession on why Sonic was such the ideal partner for her. For once, Rouge admired this little girl. “You’re a real sweetheart, Amy. You recognize Sonic’s faults but have weighed his happiness to what you can offer him as well… You thought of him… every step of the way towards the future you feel you both could enjoy and benefit from.” Rouge lowered her head, “Selfishly… I… sort of just want things for myself…” She looked away.
‘I’ve never thought… about what I could offer to Knuckles… Only… what fun it could be.’ She kept her face away from Amy as she admitted that to herself, but heard the passing of a biplane and quickly got up.
“Opp, times up, cutie.” She flapped her wings and winked to Amy. “You can read tons of things in magazines, but not learn a lick. You, Miss Rose, have learned more about what Sonic may need and want in this world and lacks, that you, and only you, could possibly be willing to provide. Your efforts won’t be in vain, if he sees how wonderfully considerate you are of himself… That, I’m almost positive, is enough. Unless, of course, he’s anything short of a real man…” She narrowed her eyes and shook a fist, but then shook her head gently and flew slightly up into the air, “Well… either way… I hope he doesn’t break your heart… Sweet angel… of this lovely, little island in the sky~” She winked and made a cute pose for Amy, “Not all men need a woman like me~” And flew off to dive low and stay out of sight…
Amy is a sobbing mess, her nose running at such nice words from Rouge. She wiped herself up and patted her cheeks, also now hearing the biplane. Rouge’s ears were better at detecting it than her, but now–The Blue Tornado spun an acrobatic tailspin before pulling up to a barrel-roll.
Rouge hides under the island… trying to fight the punches of the wind and stay clinging to the rocky cliffs below…
However, instead of all three of Sonic Heroes landing to the island, Knuckles dismounts and lands like a missile to the ground, plummeting and scaring the Chao into fleeing.
With Knuckles–randomly somewhere–on the island… Rouge decides to wait for nightfall to make her grand escape… otherwise, the sea may glow with the colors of the chaos energy radiating from within the emeralds… which would blow her ultimate cover…
Luckily… the sea is not so clear…
Amy… seeing the plane heading to land at Tails’s workshop, begins to open her text messages…
[Sonic? What would you want… from a girl?]
Simple… sweet… she clicks send. Transferring her heartfelt dreams and desires through such a simple letter upon a screen, she holds her device close to her heart, and looks to the sky…
A slight hum and buzz, and her heart rate accelerates.
“He… He’ll probably say ‘An adventure!’ of something funny like that…” Amy nervously pulled the device away from her chest, bracing herself. “O-Or maybe I was right… someone to cook for him while he’s away… or hold down the fort so he can rest his head somewhere nice and warm… Maybe… someone loving?”
She couldn’t help it… she slid her thumb against the screen to brighten it as words were now typed in response to her own.
Her heart shattered… her eyes shook…
How… How could he… be so…
With such an insensitive, passive, and waving off comment… Amy’s heart is wounded beyond words.
He could have said anything, something sweet or gentle…
But no… could he have not been thinking?
Did he not realize the implications of what he had stated?
Knuckles, while gathering some firewood, bent down to tweeze some dry branches from a dead bush with no leaves when he heard a giant cry in the middle of the jungle.
Flickies flew off in alarm, and he quickly turned around to try and figure out what that was. “H-Huh? A monster..? On my island?” He narrowed his eyes and dropped his firewood, “Hmph.” He stomped aggressively towards the sound, ready to duke it out and prove who the real guardian of this island really was- Ah…
“A-Amy?” He blinked in surprise, putting down his shoulders and untightening his fists.
Sobbing off the side, was a completely torn apart Amy…
Distress wasn’t even the best way to put it…
After scratching his head and nodding a bit at her tearful explanation, Knuckles took out his own Miles-Electric, and tapped the screen as though a child learning an ipad, seeming to text something to Tails.
Back at the workshop, Tails got the message, and looked to Sonic, “Sonic? Did you text something to Amy?”
“Hmm?” Sonic was laying on the curve of a palm tree, relaxing with a leaf in his mouth, swaying a foot below him. “Beats me…” He looked out over the sunset… “Why? Something wrong?” He looked back at Tails, only to see Tails looking concerned at his Miles-Electric.
“Hmm?” Sonic put a hand behind his head, “Oh well.” He went back to trying to take a nap.
After a moment of peaceful seagull singing… Tails’s voice came back, much closer to Sonic than a second ago.
“Did… Did you really tell Amy you didn’t care to think about her?”
“H-huh?” Sonic blinked his eyes open, “No, I would never say something like that.” He held up a hand and then ruffled through his back quills, leaning forward to do so, and pulled out his Miles-Electric. “Hmm… Let’s see here… Ah, here it is. Here!” He tossed it up and Tails scrambled but caught it as Sonic laid back down.
“See? I just answered a silly question she had. Nothing big.” As Sonic went back to relax, Tails gasped.
“Hmm?” Sonic opened another annoyed eye, “Can you keep it somewhat down, buddy? Hard to get any shut-eye with you emoting so much…”
“Soooniicc!!!” Tails’s voice shook all the way down Sonic’s eardrum, rattling his bones down from his spine, and making Sonic jump up to wiggle his pinkie finger into his ear. “You can’t just text someone that without clearing up your ‘tone’ first!” He exclaimed.
“... Hmm? Tone?” Sonic now twitched an eyebrow. “Give me that!” He swiped the Miles-Electric out of Tails’s hands and went to read over what he had half-hazardly written.
“Ohhh!!! Amy must be flipping out real badly by now!” Tails jumped a little on his heels, “Reeling and petrified that you don’t ever want to see her again!”
“... What do you mean..?” Sonic scratched the top of his ‘bruised’ ear… “Looks like I wrote something normal to me.”
“JUST READ IT OUT LOUD!” Tails cried out again, his hands bundled under his chin. “
“What!? I just said I wasn’t really into any of that. I don’t really care what to think when it comes to girls.” He held up the message… but his words were clearly what he ‘meant’ not what he ‘wrote’...
“Ohhh, girls look into stuff like that, Sonic!” Tails was pulling at his side whiskers, pieces of fluff that stuck out of his muzzle. “Knuckles’s just texted that she’s freaking out!”
Sonic scratched his head, “... Oh… Umm… I guess I’ll clear it up, then.” He went to write, but suddenly jumped up on the branch. “It… It won’t let me?”
“Huh?” Tails flew up, checking by clicking a few things… “GAH!!!” He suddenly had his face popping and emoting wildly like a cartoon, “SHE BLOCKED YOU!”
“B-... Blocked me? How? Can I punch back?” Sonic narrowed his sights on the device.
“No! Silly!” Tails face-palmed himself, “It means she… she really does never want to talk to you again!”
Sonic’s head slowly came up from the device.
“Oh, this is really bad, Sonic! She thinks you blew her off!”
Sonic… turned his head to Tails. “Tails… what does that mean?”
Due to Tails’s emotional panic, he didn’t realize Sonic had taken a serious tone just then…
“Gahhh!!! It means she’ll never, ever, forever and a day speak to you again, Sonic! Ohhh… this is bad, really bad! She’s never completely left the team before, Sonic! What if she decides to turn tail and not be any of our friends anymore? Ohhh, you really dug yourself into the trenches now, Sonic… she’s probably fuming and crying and all sorts of stuff Knuckles and I can’t handle… U-Uh… S-Sonic?” Tails blinked as he noticed… Sonic was suddenly… gone?
“GRAHHHH!!!! OH NO!!!” Freaking out that Sonic had abandoned them, Tails quickly went to get his own Miles-Electric and try and comfort Knuckles that he’d find a way to calm Amy down…
“WHAT!? Sonic’s gone!?” Knuckles finally got fed-up waiting on a reply, impatient from having Amy refuse to leave the Island, he ended up calling Tails. “So Sonic really did say all those hurtful things? But didn’t mean it?”
“W-Well… I don’t think he realized what he was texting was so insensitive…” Tails sighed, “Ohhh… He should know by now how Amy feels about him… he should have looked into her message a whole lot more carefully than he really did…” He scratched his head, which made Knuckles scoff.
“Sonic? Careful? The jerk’s got real attitude. I bet he knew what Amy meant and still knocked her off the high horse… just to upset her!” Knuckles folded his arms, video-calling near the base of the Master Emerald’s… Master… Emerald’s… huh?
“Grrr… When I get my hands on that hedgehog… I’ll… I’ll-” Knuckles suddenly looked to realize… “AUGHHHH!!! MY MASTER EMERALD! AND THE CHAOS EMERALDS!?” He spread himself far and then looked back to Tails, “Amy might have snagged them!”
“W-Well, she’s the only one here, right!? Maybe she’s holding them hostage to get Sonic to apologize to her!” He smushed his face right up against the Miles-Electric. “Maybe she’s gonna try and smash them if Sonic doesn’t make up with her!”
“Oh no! You don’t really think Amy would go that far, do you? Besides… I know Amy is strong, but strong enough to crush pure chaos energy?” Tails sweat dropped, “I… I don’t really feel sure enough to believe that…”
“You calling me a liar?!” Knuckles angrily shoved his nose into the Miles-Electric, holding it now.
“W-Woah, calm down! I didn’t say that…” Tails worriedly moved away from the device, even if Knuckles was miles upon miles away… it was still uncomfortable to have his angry face so close to him. “I’ll tell Sonic about the situation, you just hang tight.”
“Oh, I’ll hang alright… HANG AS THE ISLAND DROPS FLATTENED INTO THE SEA!” Knuckles’s roaring voice was cut off as Tails clicked off the call.
“Phew… He’s stubbornly uncooperative when he’s upset, too…” He sighed, “But… If the Island hasn’t fallen yet… then the Emeralds must be close by.” He looked outside, “... I’ve gotta get Sonic to make up with Amy… If she really does know where the Chaos Emeralds and Master Emerald are… then…”
Walking outside, he looked shocked with amazement at Sonic stretching, then practicing a few speedy runs as though…
“You’re… You’re gonna try and jump to the island?”
Sonic didn’t say anything, just kept prepping for the jump.
“W-We could just fly over in the X-Tornado’s new Blue-!” But with the speedy windstorm of the Blue Blur’s wake, Tails was cut off as he lifted his Miles-Electrics to block some of its wild force. Sonic had leapt but just missed the Island… Landing in the sea…
Back on the Island, Amy saw the blue dot splash into the sea, and rose her upper lip, refusing to be concerned. She swished her head to the side, her quills following suit. “Serves him right!” She huffed, “If he drowns… then… then…” She felt her resolve shrinking…
Even a depressed heart couldn’t waver… She threw in her Piko Piko Hammer, “Hmm… I made that one light enough to float. At least he can freeze to death now, hmph!” She folded her arms and waited for the splash…
She heard it… then the gasping of air as Sonic reached up to grab it, clinging to the floating lifeline as the waves crashed against him and the hammer…
The plane flies overhead… while it lands, Rouge realizes Sonic is too close to the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds she had hidden. ‘Shoot.’ She tsk’s out the side of her mouth, scooting along the cliff of the bottom of Angel Island to try and not be spotted by Sonic…
‘Maybe Amy was too good of a distraction…’ She realized… sweatdropping as she sees Knuckles gliding along the bottom of the island, trying to search every nook and cranny of where ‘Amy’ might have hidden the Emeralds…
‘This isn’t good…’ Rouge knows she can’t hide forever… even from that blockhead.
“Amy!” Tails calls out, stopping from his twirling tails lightspeed dash over to her…
He holds back his hand… she looks so depressed… on the edge of the world… her eyes stained from crying so hard.
“Go away, Tails.” She looks back down at Sonic trying to fight the water, treading it with her Piko Piko Hammer keeping him afloat.
“W-Woah!” He holds on as another dark wave crashes over him, the sun fully beginning to disappear now.
Amy’s quills drift in the wind above… an angel watching a mortal suffer…
But she takes no delight in it… she just… doesn’t want to see him at all… but…
“I hope he doesn’t get sick from saying in the water too long…” Even after all that, she still can’t help but care about him.
Tails sighs, “Amy…” He comes cautiously close to her side, but sits down and lets his feet dangle off the side to be beside her. “Sonic didn’t mean it to come off so harshly… Honestly, he didn’t.” He states.
Amy remains silent… “I figured as much.” She admits, and Tails looks surprised.
But, with her saying nothing else, just looking… so forlorn… he looks down to see Sonic looking up at her… as though… expecting something… waiting…
He once again tries to kick back a wave that pushes him a little off course, but tries to flail a bit to keep himself directly under Amy’s gaze…
Who… doesn’t take her eyes off of him…
“... Amy, you care about Sonic an awful lot… I’m sorry, he really doesn’t think that hard about what he says or does… But I know he’s not the kind of guy who goes around breaking girls hearts, either…” He tries to soothe things over, but Amy doesn’t respond… yet again.
Tails looks back down at Sonic, “He’s just… not really the kind to talk about girls… you know?”
“Yeah… I know.” Amy continues to seem unresponsive to his message… So, Tails puts his hands together and tries to dig deeper into his empathy…
“...Amy… Can I ask you something? I hope it doesn’t come off weird… I just… I may be a bit… T-Tactless at these kinds of things…” Rouge was right, these men–no, young boys–really don’t know how to combat something like this.
Amy nods, and he moves his head a little closer and down from her.
“Mean it? You won’t get mad if it comes off badly?”
“Okay… I’ll try my best to not sound insensitive.” He then moves back and takes a deep breath.
“... Is it… really fair to be sad about Sonic… when he’s not exactly something that can be controlled?”
Amy closes her eyes, tearing up.
“... You know he cares about you, don’t you? He cares about all of us. But… Everyone has their element of expertise. Mine is engineering… Knuckles is being a guardian-”
“ROOOUUUGGEEE!!!” Knuckles’s feral cry followed by what sounds like fighting indicates the fifth member of the island being an unwelcomed guest…
Tails sweat drops, “That explains where the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds went.” He slightly finds that amusement… but looks back to see Amy’s eyes trembling in worry about Sonic, still stuck in the sea… still looking at her expectantly.
“Rouge is stealing emeralds.” He teases, but Amy is off in her own world.
“... Doesn’t he know he’ll freeze?” Amy speaks up quietly, as Tails smiles at her genuine love for his friend.
He sighs, “Sonic wouldn’t take the plane… He seemed to silently insist he was going to reach you his own way… If words don’t cut it, I guess he thought his actions would.”
Amy lightly gasped, clutching her heart.
“Sonic enjoys helping others while exploring the vast world around him… I know that no matter what, you have decided to not see Sonic again… but I wonder… if Sonic is challenging that by making sure you do see him, Amy…”
Looking down, the two notice that Sonic is shivering, but still not moving his gaze from Amy…
“It’s just not like Sonic… to not challenge a bet.” He tilts his head, smiling, but wondering if Amy would get upset by a statement like that…
But instead, Amy smiles sweetly to Sonic below. “Yeah… He’s not really one… to let a friend down, is he?”
Tails nodded, “Hmm, hmm. Exactly.” He seemed to get through to her…
Or rather, what Sonic meant finally did.
“But… Being Sonic’s friend can be hard, sometimes… I’m not always sure what he’s thinking…”
“Ah!” Tails got up immediately then, “But I know for a fact he wasn’t saying he didn’t need ‘any’ girl in his world, Amy!” He nodded with big gusts of wind coming out of his nose, determined to help her see… “I’m sure Sonic didn’t mean he didn’t care about you! He wants you in his life! You’re our friend, Amy..!”
Amy finally took her eyes off of Sonic, smiling gently to Tails with the wind still gliding her hair to the side, “Thanks, Tails. You’re a great friend, too!” She beams. “Buuuutt… That doesn’t mean my heart’s not still injured by all this…”
Tails lowered his tightened fists… “Ah, come on, Amy… How much more does Sonic have to do than risk his life to prove he-!”
There’s a sound like water surface being broken, and Amy and Tails suddenly look back down.
They both gasp, seeing Knuckles and Rouge fighting to get to the Master Emerald and Chaos Emeralds below the sea. To avoid their squabble, and also finding a way up, Sonic grabbed Knuckles and climbed onto his big red head, then jumped to Rouge flying and knocking her into the sea. With the added footing now, he was able to reach up and grab a vine, starting to climb up to the main island.
“Should I… go down and help him up?” Tails looks to Amy, being considerate.
She shakes her head, “Nah, if he really wants to talk to me… It’s clear, now, that he’ll find a way.” She closes her eyes with a soft smile, her heart being softened and then opens her eyes to show the girlish crush still very much alive in her eyes. “Besides,... I’ve never seen Sonic having so much fun before in all my life…”
Tails grins, but then looks back to see Sonic really is struggling… He sweatdrops, but decides that this is punishment for nonchalantly replying to Amy like that… but doesn’t really blame Sonic for not understanding what Amy was implying…
He flies below to speak to Sonic, but Amy can’t hear what he’s saying. Explaining what he spoke to Amy about?
Sonic winks while dangling from a vine, giving him a thumbs up and continues his ascent towards the heavens… where a brokenhearted girl awaits his arrival.
It’s dark now… Amy can barely see him… as the sun finally… peeks under the sea to watch Knuckles and Rouge duke it out for the powerful gemstones…
“Amy!” Sonic cries out, as she listens and… decides to open her mouth, though it’s painful to do so… it became so cold suddenly…
“I-I’m here!” She calls back, as she hears a chuckle from below.
“I can’t see you anymore!”
“But… I still know you’re in pain.”
She clutches her heart tighter.
“You sound lonely! Don’t worry, I’m coming!”
“If there’s one thing I know… Especially about you, Amy… Is that you can’t stand the cold!”
“... You’re not gonna give up, are you?”
“B-Because.” She decides to be pitiful… She clutches the grass below her fingers… digging her gloved nails into it. “You don’t really care about girls, right!?”
There was a silence as the wind howled their retort to Amy…
But… Sonic didn’t take the ‘tone’ as rude, though…
“Who’s gonna help you get warm if I don’t, then?”
“Ohhh, you’re like that stupid man in the novel!”
“The one Rouge found for me!” She called out, “Except… you’re also not him… He was rude and insensitive, too. But she was too timid to stand up to him!”
“Yeah! And after he risked his life to save her, he basically demanded that she be his girlfriend!”
“Oh, that’s not good.” His voice sounded closer…
“Yeah! Yeah! I know, right!? So whiny. You would have hated him, too…”
“Doesn’t sound like me at all.”
“No… But you always act like I’m in need of saving!”
“Ohh! That does it, Sonic The Hedgehog!” She stood up, “I’m never speaking to you aga-aaa… ahhh!!!” She felt the wind try and shove her, felt her body twisting as her dress wound around her… but something else wrapped itself around her as well.
Having climbed up the vine, Sonic listened to Amy voice, helping guide him before silently getting up onto the island and rushing to grab her waist.
He pulled her tightly against him as the wind roared its defying might past the two of them…
Amy… felt the shiver of wet fur against her now dampening clothes… and peeked up.
In the dark, it was hard to spot any expression… “W-... Why is it so important?” She bravely asked, “S-Saving my life?”
Sonic’s nose lightly tapped he side of her head, he used it to trace where she was, and found he almost poked her eye trying to figure out where her face was.
She buried her head into his shoulder and chest… not knowing if she wanted that cold nose to find where she was… but it did.
It twitched lightly as though trying to make her laugh, but she stifled it. She refused to be happy for a moment… wanting to hear his reply.
Feeling his lips on her forehead curling, spreading across his own muzzle, he lightly began to reply. “I make it a point never to just walk away… when I know my friend is crying.”
“It… couldn’t wait till morning?” Amy was a sobbing mess again, but she tried desperately to keep that knowledge away from Sonic.
Lightly, Sonic’s gloved hand carefully traced her arm… trying to find her face.
His wet fingers lightly hit the warmth of a tear on her cheek, and cupped her face.
She blushed as he pulled the face slightly up, his nose now tracing below her eye… and hitting her nose.
“Gotcha.” His voice made her melt.
“You can’t even see me.” She reminded him.
“Emm… No, but I can imagine it… And it’s breaking my heart to see you cry, Amy.”
She smiled and let the last of her tears go… warm and wet into Sonic’s already soggy glove, which happily absorbed the tears as he wiped them gently away.
“Whiny, huh?” He stated, “I’ll have to take your word on that, Amy. Sounds like a dreary book.”
Suddenly, before she could respond, Rouge and Knuckles flew over the side of the Island, both tug-o-warring the large Master Emerald which slammed into Sonic and Amy. The two fighting rivals for treasure couldn’t see Amy and Sonic holding one another in the darkness, but Amy was shoved down and heard falling rocks… along with…
“Sonic?” She felt the ground near her, hearing the two battling a bit ahead and more inland towards Angel Island now. “Sonic!?” She felt the edge of the cliff… a hand!
“G-... Grr…” Sonic had been knocked over, but was clinging to the edge of the-
“NOOO!!!” Amy cried out, hearing the rocks give way and feeling his fingers fall with the edge.
The clouds drifted by as a full moon finally spotlighted the two…
Sonic falling… seeing Amy throw herself off the edge of the cliff… flinging herself down from Eden and into the perilous doom of the abyss below…
Sonic’s eyes saw a beautiful sight of love… Like angel wings, Amy’s tears flew and unfurled like a webbed, starlit sky… Behind her, the literal moon made her teary wings a glittering silhouette… a fallen angel… crying out for her hero… jumping to save him.
Her arms outstretched towards him, her emerald eyes shining like chaos energy… Her mouth open wide with his name blaring like a celestial horn…
Then… it was dark… The back of his head crashed into the waves that surrounded him. It hurt, but he was used to hard hits like this… But what about Amy?
The water spread apart because his quills took the buffer of the hit, meaning the water only encompassed her, wrapping around to ensnare them both… but she didn’t take the brute force of the damage.
As Sonic was losing consciousness from the direct hit to his head, he felt himself mouthing–Thank Goodness…
Because Amy didn’t get hurt anymore, thanks to him…
The turbulent was fierce, the waves kept digging their hands and slapping the surface of the sea’s face to keep the two down… sinking deeper and deeper below…
But the Chaos Emeralds… They were still below the water… as Amy felt the last of Sonic’s bubbles hitting her face in the watery darkness… Reaching out but only cutting through ungraspable air pockets…
Finally, she felt an arm, and her spirits soared in her freezing body…
She began to kick up, her open-mouth smile closing to retain what little air it had left.
Then… Sonic’s body began to glow…
They broke through the surface, Amy trying to keep Sonic’s head above water. “Don’t you-! Ahh!” She was hit by a wave, pushing her and Sonic down but she forced her feet to kick against the icy ocean and push Sonic up first.
“PAh!” She spat out sea water, still trying to tread water. “Don’t you leave me, Sonic The Hedgehog!” She cried out, only able to feel his cold and floating body begin to warm up with golden light… “Not before I’ve apologized, and not ever after that!”
In the cold of the water… Sonic smiled.
The water parted as large droplets hung in zero gravity… the seven Chaos Emeralds floated in a rotating circle around Sonic’s rising body… He burst with chaos energy, going Super Sonic.
Amy gasped in awe, before the waves kept beating her downward. “Soni-Emph!” She was carried below, tumbling and spinning before a massive air pocket was formed from Sonic spin-dashing to knock the water into a perfect loop. Amy was now falling through the massive air pocket created by that force… before Sonic unfurled and grabbed her, diving back into the water.
“AUgh!” Rouge held her hurt arm off the side of the Island, Knuckles having won back his family’s sacred duty… guarding the Master Emerald.
“No where to run, Rouge.” Knuckles stood tall and proud, “Give it up, thief.” His condensing tone really irked her.
“Should I?” She smirked, before looking down to see the floating Chaos Emeralds still surrounding Sonic as he pulled Amy out of the water.
“Heh.” She jumped off the edge, “Just proving a dame is still the perfect distraction, Amy…” She flew down… and snatched two of the seven Emeralds…
“Ah!” Amy cried out, seeing her swipe them as Sonic’s Super Form broke, and the two went crashing back into the water.
“ROOUUGGEEE!!!” Knuckles flew down after her, as Tails was back in the plane, also headed to help Knuckles capture Rouge.
Now, Sonic was panicking. He was out of strength, and his body began to go into flight or fight mode.
His feet kicked which only sunk him deeper down… So he tried to let go of Amy, not wanting her to drown with him…
But, surprisingly, She turned around and grabbed his arms, “Stop kicking!” she screamed, and he… even more surprisingly… felt his body go into a calm as it stopped resisting the waves…
Amy pulled his arms up over her shoulders, wrapping him around her neck, and turned around again. “I’ll swim, you just hang on!”
He felt his strength return… his eyes never wavered from their wonder…
Wasn’t… he supposed to make things right? And… save the girl?
As Amy swam against the current constantly pulling them off the course of the shore ahead of them, the wind kept blowing and shoving water into their sides.
But still, Amy persisted.
Sonic thought about it… while cold and his body shutting down from both exhaustion of treading water, climbing vines, and then going Super Sonic only to be forcefully thrown out of that… the Chaos Emeralds scattering yet again as a result… he thought about the kind of woman Amy was.
Her constant breath against the stinging sea… the salty air lapping them to try and push them more out into the sea… but how undeterred she was…
He held close… watching the back of her head… the moon only showing a dark pink as they entered the shadow of the island above…
He realized… how heroic Amy was.
How unyielding… once she set her mind to something, she would accomplish that something, no matter how impossible it seemed to be.
A heart that never stopped beating…
A friend that never stopped trying…
A love… that couldn’t be denied.
“You took the words… right out of my mouth… Amy.” He closed his eyes… his consciousness… making him let go of her.
He heard her voice, pulling him onto the shoreline… the sandy beach offering no aid for the lack of warmth he felt… having let go of her.
Her voice… was like light beckoning to him…
This… felt somewhat familiar… Didn’t he… dive in to save her once before?
That image of her leaping off Angel Island, falling through the sky, the moon as her backdrop and her tears as her invisible wings…
Then… everything went even darker than that beautiful, star-lit blue sky…
Night… it must be the night…
He would just… take a small nap… for all his troubles…
Amy began to panic, pushing back her tears as she tried to rub his motionless body awake. “SONIC!” Her voice was desperate, and not the kind of a hopeless romantic seeking attention.
“SOONIICC!!” It was visceral, her voice carrying up her fears from the deepest reaches of her heart.
“I didn’t mean it, Sonic… I didn’t mean to actually never see you again!” She had seen his impossible feat to try and reach her on Angel Island by nothing more than his own merit and skill… falling short… and still finding a way to make it to her… to hold her… to tell her she’s not alone and he didn’t want her out of his life…
“I never meant to give up on you…” She had no more tears left to cry, continuing to push on his body, waiting for him to stir… “I could never truly leave you, Sonic The Hedgehog…”
There was a little bit of strength left in her, and she used it to lay on his body, and softly cry out, holding his small, thin blue fur in her hands…
“I love you, Sonic The Hedgehog…”
Sonic opened a bit of his eyes, turning a little of his head towards her, smiling cheekily…
“That’s… gotta be the cutest thing I’ve ever heard from a girl… besides-…” He coughed a little, but Amy reeled her head up, amazed he was alive.
“Being told… I’m their hero…”
Scolding him through her wailing weeping, she pushes on him before pulling him up into an embrace.
She carries him on her back to Tails’s workshop, and covers him in blankets with a red, warm water bag situated on the top of his head. He sneezes, but he’s got little blush marks from the warmth. He’s happily bundled up with a warm drink in his hands, as Amy rushes about the couch to try and push the living room table set into a makeshift table to set his hot soup on.
She sneezes, and he reaches out to pull her into his blanket, offering her the warm drink and tucking her in with him…
“The fireplace is warm, Amy.” He seems almost in a lalaland of happiness, his face just straight lines of bliss, his blush marks almost comically chibi, as Amy huffs while Tails comes in from the back room.
He has his boy’s nightie on, a long night cap, and states, “I’m glad you two have made up… Rouge was caught, and we can search the sea for the Chaos Emeralds in the morning… but…”
He tiredly opens his drowsy eyes, “Are you two gonna stay over, or..?”
The following day, Amy continues to take care of Sonic till he’s ripe and ready to go, dashing off out of a window and shocking the two at how speedy his recovery and exit was.
Tails wonders if Amy minds, but sees that her eyes are shining… She doesn’t seem to mind, this time around.
“WHYYY!?!?” Rouge cries out, being pinned by Knuckles, who is actively reading the young adult’s novel Amy was given by Rouge while Rouge is trapped in a makeshift jungle cage…
“Knuckles, darling, you can’t let a girl rot away in this… this…” Chao coo and offer her fruit through the twiggy prison. “Ugh, dirt pile!”
“Quiet you, thief!” He flicks his thumb across the screen, “Oh, man. Come on, dude… You’re not even worth the billionaire companies you own… Your tears are the only priceless thing here, heh. Unbelievable. Slyvia, please, you could do better…”
“Knuckles, why am I being punished for introducing a very typical genre for young girls! … Which you happen to be reading!” She screamed from the other side of the shrine, but on the steps, Knuckles just fans her his mittened-hand…
“Shhh… Shh… Finally, she’s about to stand up to Ceo!”
“Ugh, that’s his profession, not his name!”
“Well, she’s about to C-Em-Out! Hahah! Get it? See-Him-Out the door? Man, I crack myself up! Let me at him, Slyvie. Knuckles will take him out of your life real fast, ahhaha!”
“Oh, brother…” Rouge drops her head as she shakes the twiggy cell bars… “Someone get a lady OUT OF HEREEEE!!!”
