#Sonic gives Tails hope and a desire to be his best

[tails-boogie-board]

Tails' moral code when Sonic is there: :3

Tails' moral code when Sonic leaves for longer than 45 minutes: ;3

#Sonic #tails the fox #miles tails prower #Sonic the hedgehog #They're each others morality pet #Tails makes Sonic think about the world around him and that his actions have consequences #Especially on others. Fine details that get lost #Meanwhile #Sonic gives Tails hope and a desire to be his best #Hes still a good kid but Sonic's influence is why Tails thinks people are trying their best #Which doesn't include morals #Your best self can be evil but people should be true to themselves and in result people fuck up #Except sonic ofc #Be proud of yourself and your skills #On his own tho #“I won't hesitate bitch!” #Tails on his own is more pessimistic and much more opertunistic too #Sonic wouldn't like Tails assuming the worst in people's actions and playing to his own wants #Tails wouldn't cut in line but he'd speed up to be infront of an old lady yknow? #She had a huge cart and old people are slow and Tails only had a few things so it makes sense #Their self control lapses the longer their apart lmaoo they rely on each other #Tho sonics moral code and how it's influenced by Tails wouldn't change even if they haven't seen each other in months

[cutegirlmayra]

Boom Sonamy, Lyric comes back trying to achieve immortality. He needs an exhange of life for a life so a live sacrifice but can't read the rest of the inscription. So he kidnaps Amy again to read the rest of the message otherwise he'll destroy the village and plans to sacrifice her. The gang come to save her and stop Lyric. You can add more to make it more dramatic if you want with a better ending than I can think of ^_^'

I do tend to always just add more, don’t I? XD I’m sorry for those who I’ve taken your idea and ran with my own thoughts on it, but I hope it’s been satisfactory nonetheless! Working a lot lately, so when I do have time to do the Tumblr Prompt Series (also posted on all my writing sites for viewing pleasure!) I usually do something fun but small. I’ll give it my best, Precious Anon!

Also, Lyric is a very… how do I put this… There’s not a whole hecka lot of information on him. I did some research to look back over the games he was in, and even then, it was pretty generic and bland, sorry Lyric fans!

However, sometimes, that’s actually good news. You know why? Shocking, I know! But it means the character is wide open for interpretation and expanding upon them. I won’t be doing that for this fic, necessarily, but I think characters with great potential are usually those that have little information but just enough to peak interest. It’s one of the reasons I felt Amy Rose was a character I could put more lore and backstory on, because although I did study her character, there wasn’t a whole lot on her. It made her a canvas that felt ‘half-full’, able to be influenced and expanded upon.

However, in recent times, Amy Rose and many other characters like her in different franchises (Not necessarily in personality or role, but just the same level of character-depth and lore, I guess?) have really been given love and more games are coming out with better writing quality than ever before! I’m so glad that so many ‘side characters’ are treated as main cast mates, and not just thrown into trope roles anymore.

That being said, you can’t escape the occasional ‘One-time’ appearances like Lyric being a ‘Pops up in maybe Two Games and never again’ villain. But it does leave room for us Fanfiction writers to make some interesting depth to further their small legacy! <3

That being said–TUMBLR PROMPT REQUESTS ARE CLOSED, SHUT DOWN ON INBOX, lolol you were waiting for that, weren’t ya? >:3c

Hugs and blowing kisses, everyone. I’m definitely taking more time to heal from burnout and also work on Fanfiction Edits (Which are coming along nicely, I’m now back to Instincts, for those who are a fan of that one.), Original Stories (Sorry, probably won’t post them tho :( But books are important! lol), and of course, Tumblr Prompt Series so yall know I’m not dead xD

The tumblr inbox for prompt requests will remain down probably for a few more years. I know that upsets a lot of you, but if they ever do open again, I will be blocking ‘Anon’ because I think some people are posting more than the actual limit of how many they can submit. Due to this, I’m overwhelmed with hundreds (not joking, by the way.) of requests that I really don’t want to do? So we’ll be taking time to go back to stories I’ve wanted to write and solo-writing for my fanfictions/other works. I’ve gotta set up stronger boundaries! Haha XD

That being said, please enjoy this Sonic Boom (Feels ancient now) Prompt!

Prompt:

“Ultimate power… Although sounding like sweet nectar to one’s ambitious desires, tends to lead to a faulty conclusion…” A snaky whiplash from his claw-tail sent a impulse reflex through Amy’s spine, causing her to flinch and her ears to withdraw back again.

She was so mad, tied up to a pillar inside an ancient tomb, having been ambushed while excavating what looked like a madman’s attempt at immortal life.

Roughly translated, a doctor related to Eggman, known as Ivo Robotnik had first discovered this tomb and kept it a secret. He researched and found a successful way to immortalize someone… but he failed to interpret the last section of the stone slab’s text…

A life for a life… to give Shadow The Hedgehog, his ultimate creation, immortality–to live and breathe forever in the purpose of curing the world of its vital mistakes and sins–he accidentally let his granddaughter, Maria Robotnik, die in the process…

As she read the inscription, Ivo’s account tells that her life was being drained from her… and eventually, was converted in some miraculous way into what was necessary to mechanically engineer this ancient tomb’s purpose: Infinitely Sustained Life.

Shadow, overwhelmed by the loss of his friend, turned on Ivo Robotnik, and sealed the tomb to never let the tragedy that had befallen here happen again… until now.

‘Opps.’ Amy thought to herself, annoyed by Lyric carrying on with his wicked monologue about being the last of the ancients, having envied and coveted this technology, but had lost before he could even begin to understand it. ‘I’ve been following the late Ivo Robotnik’s work in hopes of finding the ancient world… I didn’t think I’d stumble upon this buttless snake again…’ She sighed quietly, blinking her eyes as though counting subconsciously the seconds before she was to be daringly rescued by her friends.

Again…

‘Why was it always me?’ She grumbled in her thoughts before the second whipping crack of his tail colliding with the ground near her snapped her out of her thoughts again.

“You remain awfully quiet… that’s offssssseting.” He hissed to her side, which made her lean as far right as she could muster, trying to get away from his anciently stanky breath.

“Upsetting,” She appeared to be clarifying, “That I have to have my peaceful afternoon so rudely interrupted by the echoes of a delusional reptilian, but I mean, at least I’m complaining internally.” She smirked up to him, showing she wasn’t trying to help him, she was just making a snarky comeback.

He shook his head, his lips swerving in their rage as he lifted himself up, completely over her cocky and irritating behavior.

“You will read the slab for me!” He smashed down his robotic arm by her, and she had to turn her head away from the dust and flying debris of shattered rock taking off from the impact.

“Like I’d die for you!” She badmouthed back, “Sonic and my friends will be here any minute. Seems you’ve become very fond of our combined butt-whooping, Lyric! I can’t fathom any other reason you’d keep wishing it upon you, unless it truly makes you feel like you even have a butt to whoop.”

“Silence!” He roared up, having the whole of the tomb shake from his vibrating, strong sound before Amy just scoffed.

“Finally, we see snake-eye to hedgehog-eye now.” She leaned back on the pillar she was tied to, taking a nice breath out. “Ah~ Now, to await the inevitable victory-WUOO!” She was yoinked practically up, snapping her restraints around her wasit but her arms still behind her back.

Lyric had taken hold of her head, as she kicked the air and tried to hit him while he held her uncomfortably high.

She could probably be alright, but she couldn’t use her Enerbeam… Nor her Piko-Piko Hammer while her arms were still tied-up, although her legs free.

She could feel the squeezing of his robotic claws digging into her cranium, and for the first time that day, she actually showed the tire and wear of having struggled against him for so long.

Not only did she dig her way carefully as she could in here, trying to preserve the ancient relics to study them later, but she had to fight Lyric, and now…

“If you will not comply…” He pulled her face towards his own, using his tail to grab her legs and keep them tightly clamped together, making sure her struggle just became ten-times harder…

Her eyes were twitching under the pressurized hold the claws had on her head… Looking up as she couldn’t help but show the strain.

“Then you’ll remember an old friend, I’m sure…” He attached a new mind-controller on her, as he let her go and she fell to all fours,... then looked up to show she was fully under his power.

“Perfect~” He chimed, laughing manically, “Now, read it to me!” He slashed his tail against the wall, turning for her to get up and walk towards the slab.

She knelt and held out her two hands to it, reading the rock…

“At last! My robotic empire! To erase the weak and insipid existence of all living organisms…” He slithered and opened his arms to the murals around the tomb. “To eternally strive for perfect power… the influence of which only the vast superiority of machines can dictate! Eggman was a fool to try and rival me… You and your friends were mere insects to my reign! Biting and taunting me, getting in my way to distract me from the ultimate purpose of my recreation!” He twisted the wrist joint of his robotic arm and held up his claw-like hand, admiring it. “Soon, even I shall become fully mechanized! With immortality, I can improve my own being once more! No longer half-complete, a mutated cyborg with still my fleshy prison! But… I shall shed this weakling flesh to become truly–the immortal mechanized god of this new world!” He struck an all-powerful and imposing pose, but an explosion of rocks and rumbling of the tomb’s unstabilized structure shook him out of his gloating aside to himself once more.

“Wh-what? OFFPH!” A red, shiny shoe smushed with great force against his face, crushing it as Sonic sped into the fight, and Shadow rushed to Amy’s side.

“Snap out of it!” He could tell by her faint breathing that she was already losing her life force, the stream of which was moving through the air into the large center dome-like structure above the tomb.

“No… not again..!” Shadow cried out, seeing as Lyric was able to actually combat Sonic, who had tried to pin him down but was flung off of him.

Lyric laughed again with the added strength of immortality slowly being converted into him by the strange process of the powerful stream of light waving through the air, coming out of the ball, to then attach to him like a leash.

“Soon, Sonic, all your friends will contribute to is merely delaying the eventual takeover of this planet..!” Lyric, slithering towards Sonic as he kept backing up, felt his body powering up. “Every muscle in you will eventually wither and die… while mine shall stay immaculate… and whether you continue to prevent me from my destined course of fate or not, sooner or later… You will die.” He lunged into Sonic’s face, who looked horrified at what he was saying. “While I’ll still yet have endless time left in me… to conquer, maim, and entirely transform this pathetic mossy rock into yet another perfect rendition of what I shall become… Immortality pristine, everlasting, and most importantly…” He rose himself up into the air, his tail whipping around underneath him. “A robotic masterpiece..!”

“Amy..!!!” Shadow gripped at her mindcontrolling device on her head, but it was wedged on tightly this time, “Darn it, woman!” He looked to the slab, she was almost done..!

He closed his eyes, realizing what he must do.

“Forgive me… Maria.” He covered Amy’s mouth so she couldn’t speak. “I will have to belay my promise to you… and save this pathetic excuse for a world… if only to bring your perfect idealisms to light… perhaps… another day.”

He lowered his head and read the last of the inscription, which took his immortality and-

The beam redirected.

“WHAT?!” Lyric landed back on the ground, looking at his robotic arms before turning to finally notice Shadow as he held Amy, giving her back her life force…

“NOOO!!!” Lyric began to move quickly towards him, but Sonic thomped him yet again to the ground.

He folded his arms, standing triumphantly over him, “Looks like your brilliant plan at eternal robotization backfired yet again, Lyric! Now, you’re just softly singing the poetic justice of what happens to those who try and metallically make their own butts to be kicked!” He kicked Lyric as he moved forward with a humorous cry of pain from it.

“Shadow?” Sonic then raced to his side, looking at Amy in his arms and having her transferred to his own.

Shadow… slowly shook his head.

Sonic, worried now, looked down at Amy. “Amy?”

She didn’t move… the light breeze from their entrance now sending the wind to move her three bangs.

“... Amy?” There was a long… hard pause…

The air was still, even Lyric pushed up off the ground, holding his push-up position, and looked to see with a swishing tail if immortality could still be his afterall.

Then… her eyes blinked…

“Miss Rose?” The little blonde human girl was bending down to speak to her, as she got up, rubbing her head.

“Wha-... H-huh?” She looked around what seemed like a white space. “Am I… dead?” She looked at the girl, gasping, “Maria Robotnik!?”

The little girl shyly giggled, gently covering her mouth, “Oh, I’m sorry for laughing, this isn’t the time nor place for that.” She then curtsied and offered her her hand, “You’re not dead. I’m giving you my life’s essence… the same essence… that was used to give Shadow his immortal life.”

“W-What?!” Amy scooted away, kicking her feet out from the girl’s hand. “That’s ludicrous! I don’t want eternal life!” She exclaimed, “I… I want to grow old with my friends, and have countless adventures… a family and eventually… make global peace and end world hunger.” She looked down, “Set up an all-women government and prove that we can organize a better democracy and-”

Maria just giggled again, “Many. Big. Dreams.” She gave each word a single note and pause, not necessarily for dramatic flavor or effect, but to show how much they meant to her.

“Many times have I wished for a better world. Bigger and bigger have my heartfelt prayers become. Dreams of an absolution… from misery and fire, to passion and compassion reigning evermore on the earth.” She gently offered her hand to Amy again.

“If you can’t accept an immortal life… then accept entirely your own life. All it’s happenings. Even the mistakes…”

Amy looked at her hand… realizing that without Maria, she would likely never be able to return to life at all…

“Is this… really the only way?” Amy held up her hand, but hesitated, looking sweetly at the girl. “I’m sure… W-We could ask Tails… We could find a way to bring you back!” She formed a fist, “We can reverse what this place has done to you!”

Maria just smiled like the angel she was. “... This is the only way…” She quietly stated, “Come, be at peace. Your friends are waiting for you.”

Amy dropped her head, her hand loosening from a determined fist to an open hand again, and looked at it. “... Dying sure does suck… doesn’t it?” She looked with teary eyes up to the kind, optimistic girl. Her heart wanted to help her, but she was sacrificing herself–yet again–for the greater good.

“Thank you… Maria.” She took her hand… as a white light engulfed them.

“No, Amy Rose. Thank you… for never giving up on the world we live in. In it’s present, so many seek to extend their lives, in fear that they will live to short or not greatly enough. The real life we should long for, is the one we’re currently on right now. With so much possibility, with so many endless adventures to take… When one begins to stop fearing the future, then can we really live and create it at last… the way-...”

“We want to.” Amy finished, as Maria’s voice faded and she opened her actual eyes.

Sonic and Shadow were over her… Shadow having lost his Immortality, but Amy not gaining it.

Instead, Amy had died and Maria used her life force to give it back to her.

Both mortal now, Amy looked from Sonic to Shadow, and held up a hand to grace his cheek, “She’s lovely.” She smiled kindly to him. “Maria was such a beautiful young girl.”

Shadow couldn’t hold it back, and cried.

He ducked his head as her hand came gently off and moved to Sonic’s chest, patting it lightly, “Boy, does that heart never cease to slow down?” She teased, as Sonic sighed in relief.

“Happy to have you back… Ames.” He gave her a fond expression, and she leaned her head into his embracing arms, resting in that soft gaze of sweetness he gave her.

“ARRGGGAHHH!!” Lyric arched his back, crying out in further outrage. “HOW!? You fools! I will return, I will bring a bigger robotic army, I’ll have you ruing the day you-!”

There’s was a large ‘KONK!’ sound as mechanical birds flew around his head while he circled a little in the air and then fell forward, revealing Tails with a large wrench held like a thrown baseball bat, Knuckles with his fists positioned as though they had just hit something as well, and Sticks with her boomerang and one hand on the ground to show she had just caught it.

“Man, to think. We’ve stumbled upon a literal ANCIENT secret governmental conspiracy! Whoo! Glad I’m only living in a time where we have to deal with our modern governmental conspiracies!” She spouted out, looking relieved for some odd reason.

“Oh, hey Bestie!” She waved enthusiastically to Amy, who lightly waved back at her, giggling as she came over.

Completely unaware…

Of what just happened here moments before.

“What were you up to?” She asked, innocently.

Shadow covered his face from the view of the others, as Sonic looked to him and then to Amy, and helped her to lean up more so she could be sitting comfortably as she twisted her torso to address the others, and mostly answer Sticks’s question.

“Changing fate.” She replied, smiling from ear to ear. “And hopefully…”

“Making all of ours a good one.”

#sonic boom prompt #boom!amy #sonic boom #lyric #cutegirlmayra #sonic prompt #rise of lyric #sonic fire and ice #boom!sonic #boom sonamy #sonamy boom #Sonic toon

[prowerprojects]

Hmm, he likely still would be very good at tinkering at least. Maybe refurbishing. (One of my Tails hcs is that he really likes going through the junkyard from time to time and possibly fueled his beginning mechanic skills.) But unlocking how mystic gems work, using them or making equivalents probably be out his league.

Like Nine, I could also picture him wanting to give off Westside, but it took a bit longer since he doesn't have a plane. (Maybe that's where the Sea Fox comes into play. He makes that, finds Cocoa Island and just stays there since there's no anthros or humans there, just Flickies and other wildlife. *Should someone disrupt the peace or even think of setting foot, he'll try his best to get them off and keep them away.) Like Mangey, he probably would be a bit feral, but less bitey unless touched. And knows enough words to get a conversation out. Saaails; maybe Tails expresses an adventurous desire to see more of the world. But is too scared and filled with mistrust leave his safe space.

Yeah! I do think he would have some skill, just not to the degree that canon!Tails has. (It's just one of the things I find interesting, the idea that yeah, growing up fighting Eggman was/is hard, but it also motivated him into developing his skills to match. To the point that nowadays even Eggman himself recognizes them.

I have a little headcanon that Tails had learned a lot by taking apart Eggman's robots during his early days with Sonic. It gave him a good start (In a way Eggman treats him as one of his kids: he's willing to recognize Tails's achievements, but only because he feels like he deserves some credit for them, haha))

Oof. I wonder if he would recognize that he could leave. Or he'd be so traumatized that it would seem like an impossible dream. (He just needs one little push. Just something to give him hope for a better life. But ah... oh well. In another timeline)

(I don't really think Tails would be as feral as Mangey, I mean, Knuckles has lived his whole life on his own, and he's relatively alright. So by Sonic world rules growing up alone on a secluded island doesn't make you feral. And Tails had even already experienced society before. Though he probably would be a bit asocial. But I can totally imagine him wanting more out of life but not wanting to risk losing what he already has)

#tails #sonic #sonic the hedgehog #miles tails prower #tails the fox #project.txt #eggman #project.ask

[nebulous-shatin]

Those days when he dreams - A Sonic Fanfiction

Ao3 Link I did this spontaneously and honestly? I love how it came out.

Dreams. If you were to ask Sonic what he dreaded more when sleeping, it would be dreaming. Nightmares hit hard in the moment and can stay in the back of your mind like a leech, but they never stay forever. They are, after all, only Nightmares. But Dreams… Dreams can be many things; silly things, and weird things. Or they can be hopes, wants, or secret wishes you would never admit to having. While Nightmares show you your fears, Dreams show you your wishes. One you can soothe while the other rots in the back of your mind.

Waking from Nightmares, Sonic could just easily do what he does best. Run. Run until those fibs lose meaning. Until the wind whispers its reassurance of his speed, his strength to protect and defend. All it took was going on a run- varying in its length- to help him wind down and move on with Life as if it had never happened. Waking from Dreams, however, was different. The silly, weird, and unmemorable dreams are easily forgotten and, at most, an easy laugh. But the other kind, the kind of dreams of things you want, long for, desire so desperately, your heart feels like it is breaking to pieces without it- those kinds of dreams seem to linger much longer, hanging over his mind and coating it like honey and showing him things he cannot have, knows he should not want to have. Not him. Never him. Dreams of a cosy house standing steady on a wide meadow, the wind caressing the tall grass surrounding it and flowers dancing with the leaves of the trees. Dreams of lazy mornings, slowly waking up and a warm breakfast with a Brother with no worries. Dreams of stability, safety, warmth, and freedom to live and do what he wanted to since he was a little hoglet. Dreams of running away from the Responsibility of a Hero, a duty he was far too young to bare but no one around able to lift it off his tired shoulders. Dreams of leaving everything and giving his little brother- someone abandoned by the people who should have cared- everything. Everything Sonic never could give; only giving him a war to fight and hardships he never should have to carry in the first place. Those kinds of dreams, the kind he is so ashamed of having, leave him drained. Apathetic. Emotions leave him through the gaping hole where his heart bleeds out, a melancholy draping itself all over him, unescapable no matter how far or fast he runs. No one ever saw him on those days, the days when he questions if it is still worth it. Only Tails has seen him like that, when emotions become unbearable. Tails assumes that he had a nightmare those days, giving him sympathetic eyes and trying to shyly ask what the nightmare was about without pushing him. Sonic lets him assume. His voice escapes him those days- chokes on them-, Tails knows, so he pushes anything they might have planned that day aside and have a rare day just to themselves, where they simply bask in the other's presence, without responsibility or expectations, and simply be brothers. Sonic never corrects him. Besides, those special days are the only thing that helps him those days. Only his dear genius little brother can fix him those days. Those days, a secret held near and dear to his heart, are sometimes the only thing still keeping him together. Sonic never regrets becoming the hero he is today. Nor would he regret meeting the people he had through his adventures and the friends he made along the way. But he can mourn what never can be. Mourn the Life he yearns so strongly for sometimes. Mourn the Life he can never give Tails. Those days when he dreams, all he can do is mourn.

#fanwork #fanfic #one-shot #oneshot #sonic the hedgehog #angst #miles tails prower #only mentioned tho #child trauma

[beevean]

Guess the block button doesn’t do shit.

But you know what? You gave me a good idea :)

First of all, I repropose my pinned post, full of my analyses of levels in ShTH, my Advance 3 speedruns, my fics, and Sonic-related translations I did. I’ve been plenty positive about Sonic, I’d say!

Not enough? Okay. I love my boy. I love Sonic so much. He’s been my childhood friend since I was 8 years old. Sonic games give me joy, they’re fun! Even the ones I personally dislike, I can at least understand why other people might love them. There’s something for everyone! Mastering Sonic games is an unique experience - sure, they’re not peak difficulty, but it still requires skill.

Sonic himself is a great character. He’s the ideal, he’s inspirational, he’s comforting! He wants you to do your best, he makes you feel less alone! Also he’s funny :P

Eggman is one of my favorite villains, he combines cruelty and silliness seamlessly, and he’s so over the top and unapologetic and shameless, he’s almost inspirational in his own right. Tails is relatable in his sweetness and desire to help others more and more. Amy is the heart, the endlessly optimistic normal girl who can keep up with the superpowered boys. Knuckles can also seen as relatable by people who have been alone most of their lives and feel burdened by duties, but still manage to slowly form solid bonds. And that’s just the main characters.

Do I need to say anything about the aesthetic and especially music of Sonic games? Sonic music forged my tastes, it’s not hyperbole.

So I may not like one mediocre comic. So I may have been left disappointed by the writing of one game, although let me tell you, if 2 weeks of mild complaining is enough for you to whine in my inbox, I hope you do the same to the people who wouldn’t shut the fuck up about Forces after 5 years. I get that I can be annoying. But Sonic is still part of my life, and even through the worst of times, I know that no one can take that away from me :)

#sonic the hedgehog #this is not for you dear anon #i don't care about you and your pathetic trolling #but i wanted to change tune because yes i still adore my sonic #no matter what

[gourde]

Hello! I am answering your call for Sonamy asks! :)

I have multiple long-form posts about their relationship (and specifically Sonic's stake in the matter), which I would link to if this wasn't an ask, but I encourage you to read those if you're up for it!

To give you a brief summary though (I promise this is considered "brief" lol), Sonamy works because Sonic and Amy have a few fundamental aspects going for them:

They each offer the other something that completes them: Sonic gives Amy encouragement and inspiration to use her skills for good (emotion, love, and physical prowess), as well as opportunities to actually use her skills with his adventures (and her own). Conversely, Amy gives Sonic a safe place to land and to engage with his emotions, something he struggles immensely with (I'm working on a piece about this, actually). In short, Amy unlocks a lot of Sonic's emotions and helps him feel and navigate them. No other character makes Sonic react with such a wide range of emotions, and no other character allows Sonic to be fully and completely himself--with and without the hero mask.

The relationship (and its romantic qualities) is extremely subtle in nature, which adds to its appeal and sense of depth: I can only truly get behind ships when they go beyond just potential--I need to see it supported by canon, and Sonamy is in the best ways. Sonic and Amy understand each other on such an intricate level that they don't often need to use words to communicate. There's an air of connection that floats between them that, combined with their history, shows exactly what they're thinking--they never state the obvious because they don't need to, which makes the moments where they do state the obvious a lot more impactful. Words aren't wasted between them. Their relationship is described by canon sources (like Sonic Channel, for instance) as nuanced, complicated, and multi-faceted--what looks from the outside as something confusing or otherwise questionable is bathed in layers of meaning for the hedgehogs. Their love is visible (especially from Amy), but the depths of it are private, intimate, and expansive--and that makes it so special.

They have a lot in common, which makes their lifestyles compatible long-term, but they're also not afraid of each other: they both hate boredom and actively seek out adventure (alone and together), they're highly emotionally charged and passionate (positive and negative emotions), and have strong desires for justice and good in the world. At the same time, though, they're not blinded by their affections--Sonic stands up to Amy when he needs to (most recently in Frontiers), and Amy definitely stands up to Sonic when she needs to. In fact, going back to unlocking emotions, Amy is by far the character with the most success in cutting through Sonic's stubbornness and getting him to reconsider something. This willingness to communicate on both fronts is extremely healthy and good for both of them.

Feel free to ask questions! I know I don't provide too many specific examples but I didn't wanna write you a novel! I'll tag my specific relevant posts if you'd like, as well! I hope this helps :)

I see all your points! I just really dislike the whole "Romantic relationship completes the characters!!!" Since I am aroace with no romantic drive. At all. I know I'm not really missing anything in life but kind of seeing that everywhere bothers me... plus I just REALLY like Sonic on his own. Sonic can communicate without words with other characters too, like Tails and Knuckles. THEY'RE ALL FRIENDS!! BUDDIES!!! That super homosexual flaming moment in Frontiers with Knuckles when they were making faces at each other? No words exchanged they just knew. I am a HUGE advocate for being FRIENDS!!!! Friendship rules!!! Not everything has to be romantic.

There's also the thing of I really love Amy and Sonic as characters but it gets very bothersome when Amy's character in fandom stuff is only seen through how she impacts Sonic. She is her own character!! About spreading love!!! FRIENDS!!!! AHOWHAOHGUH

#answered asks

[molinaskies]

Sonic's Next Emotional Arc: Skepticism and Doubt

IDW SPOILERS – Read up to the latest issue (41, at time of writing) or at least issue 40 before reading this.

I keep seeing arguments about how “Sonic and company don’t even seem impacted by the severe stakes of the Metal Virus and the pain they experienced.”

In the nicest way possible, that’s absolute cap. Here’s why:

When I first read Belle’s introduction in the Chao Races arc, I thought Sonic’s standoffish nature towards her (especially how he held his reservations through the following two issues) was out of character for him, but now, I think it makes complete sense (and is genius on the part of Evan Stanley).

Why?

Sonic was waiting for her to turn on him, just like how Mr. Tinker did.

I’ve spoken at length about Sonic’s emotional intelligence, so I would bet real-world money on the fact that Belle’s denial of her creator and her overall appearance clued Sonic in immediately – when he asked about who built her, he was referring to Tinker from the start.

Sonic’s friendly by nature, which is why he’s so chummy with her after Tails makes a case for her. The same idea goes for while they’re in battle, where Sonic’s attention and priorities are heavily shifted. Otherwise, however, notice how he’s crasser with her in his dialogue.

Note the distinct lack of apology from Sonic (by design; an explanation is not an apology and he knows it) and the elliptic pause.

Here, Sonic gives in rather begrudgingly, but his tone changes from actively defensive to teasing (a level down in Sonic’s defence mechanism – “a step above Eggman," I’ll call it), where he’s not comfortable really chatting with her but will riff off her, instead.

Once in the company of his friends, Sonic is more willing to keep her around, especially with someone else. Once again, when Sonic isn’t playing tour guide, his demeanor resets and… he’s confused; lost in thought until Amy requests his attention.

Here, note the realization within Sonic that Belle is here to stay, as well as his apology (with a distinct lack of an explanation – this is especially important).

Sonic finally accepts that Belle will be good for his friends and for their cause, but he doesn’t tell her (or anyone) his thoughts because 1) he senses that Belle 100% is in denial and isn’t ready to face certain facts (something Sonic, himself, is familiar with), and 2) he recognizes that he has no right to instill within Belle the same doubt he’s been living with since issue 1 (at an absolute minimum, too, given the history of this damn hedgehog).

Eggman, during the climax of the Metal Virus arc, has an amazing one-liner that sets up Sonic’s current emotional arc, in which Sonic won’t be so trusting of new faces and new situations. In the moment, Sonic tries to brush it off, but such little details – the retraction of his ears and his sweat – give his genuine discomfort away, because Eggman is right.

Sonic’s biggest desire of Eggman is for him to be a better person – something Sonic knows that Eggman is very seriously capable of, both through the existence of Mr. Tinker upon complete amnesia and by the historically significant grace periods that Eggman goes through to aid the greater good (Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Sonic ’06, and Lost World, to name a few examples).

Side note: reread issue 23. Sonic is genuinely at his most desperate, and it's raw and painful and good. Easily a standout issue in the Metal Virus arc.

Sonic’s choice to spare Mr. Tinker is one he’s done nothing but defend whenever it’s been brought into the discussion, but in private, Sonic doubts his decision and feels immense guilt and responsibility for the losses his friends have seen and experienced to the Metal Virus.

Remember, too, that this comes nearly right after an approximate seven-month war that Sonic’s overzealousness (and subsequent defeat and capture) effectively started. We also see post-Metal Virus that Sonic seems significantly more protective of his friends compared to the start of the comic. He’s hyper-aware of his place in the world and in their lives, and he wants nothing more than to protect them – his somewhat-awkward, non-verbal communication of how much he adores them (Tails and Amy, especially).

Also, a very sweet detail here on the left: Sonic pushes Amy’s and Tails’ heads down to protect them from being waterboarded, and immediately, Amy goes to do the same for Sonic. Those two are so pure in their connection - whatever that means to you - and Amy is best girl (and y’all can @ me lol).

In a way, Sonic’s actions as of late have been the direct cause of a lot of very serious problems, and Sonic isn’t so ready to make another grave mistake. Belle was (and is) a living, walking, talking, and sentient reminder of what could be Sonic’s biggest regret and point of eternal conflict – the point of reflection in which he realized the absolute pain he put his loved ones through.

However, despite all of this, Sonic isn’t ready to give up hope. He’s changing his tactics up a bit, which shows his growing emotional maturity, but he still wants to believe that everyone can be good, that every problem can be solved, and that every person can be redeemed – including himself.

I want to share another excerpt from Japanese Sonic X. At the end of episode 38, after Sonic and Shadow save the planet from the falling ARK with seconds to spare before the point of no return and irreparable damage, this exchange between the president’s aid and the president’s driver (Sam Speed) occurs:

Sonic’s unparalleled optimism has been a core characteristic of his for a long time, and I really like how well the IDW comics have adhered to this fact while enabling Sonic to open up and be a teenager as it’s because of Sonic’s age and development that he experiences such waves of both optimism and doubt.

Sonic has never lived in a floating timeline. He’s grown and regressed and matured through every experience he’s had. He’s a thoughtful, dynamic, intelligent character who doesn’t take anything for granted. At least, not anymore.

(and people say nice things about him – LOL).

#long post #sonic the hedgehog #sonic #sth #sonic idw spoilers #sonic idw #emotional characterization #character analysis #mr tinker #eggman #dr eggman #dynamic characters #belle the tinkerer #miles prower #tails #Amy rose #ivo robotnik #peep the blog i do this kind of thing all the time :)

[bimboamyrose]

On The Scarlett Sea - Part 1 / 2

A ~Pirate~ Metamy Fanfic -  [Link to Part 2]  - [AO3 Link]

Synopsis When the world learns of a secret pirate treasure plundered from the Knuckles Clan’s ancient ruins over 300 years ago, Knuckles enlists the help of his friends, Amy and Tails, to retrieve and hide its most powerful artifact- a mysterious mirror that allows the user to become their most desired self. He isn’t the only one after the treasure, however; As Metal Sonic discovers the existence of the mirror, he forms his own crew of “pirates” to take it for himself. Along the way, he separates Amy from her friends and convinces her to help him make his greatest dream a reality- but what is that, really?

In collaboration with @mmm-asbestos​ & their pirate Metamy AU  Merry Xmas / Happy holidays and stay well~

Part 1

There were few things Knuckles regretted more in life than meeting the self-proclaimed “World's Greatest Thief,” Rouge. As such, Amy knew she was in for a rant the minute she answered his call at the crack of dawn and heard him utter the bat’s name.

“Rouge is in the news!” he yelled into the receiver.

“Wha…” Amy rubbed her eyes. It was still dark out.

“Haven’t you seen the papers this morning?”

“You get newspapers on Angel Island?” she yawned.

“Turn on the news! This is important!”

“Alright, calm down...” Amy slid out of bed sleepily, still yawning as she flipped her living room TV on and threw herself onto the couch groggily. A news channel was running a segment on an archeological discovery that seemed to be making waves. Amy turned it up so Knuckles could hear on the other end.

“The centuries-old hiding place was found by none other than world-famous treasure hunter, Rouge the Bat. The former jewel thief was hired for her skills-”

“Former jewel thief?! Where are they getting their sources?”

“Quiet, I can’t hear!” Amy raised the volume further to drown out his yelling.

“- the discovery of a lifetime! We had an exclusive interview with the mastermind who helped find this historical treasure. Here’s what she had to say:”

Footage of Rouge sitting in a lavish armchair next to a roaring fireplace followed. “Well, you’ll be interested to hear that this isn’t the famed Captain Scarlett's treasure. It was a personal stash of journals and letters her wife left behind.

The camera cut briefly to a reporter sitting across from her. “And we understand that a possible map to the famous pirate’s real treasure was hidden among this?”

“That’s correct. I spent some days analyzing the documents and discovered they contain instructions on how to reach Captain Scarlett’s treasure. There are some hints as to what’s contained at the site as well. I’ll be sailing there with a crew in a few days!”

“Can you give us an idea of what you believe to find there?”

“Untold riches, of course!” Rouge gave a breathy laugh. “And perhaps some old artifacts- I understand she had an interest in ancient cultures,” she waved dismissively. “We’ll find out soon enough- I’m confident it’ll take no time to navigate there.”

“And we’ll be here on land waiting with bated breath for the historical discovery! Now back to-”

Amy muted the TV, her eyes finally adjusting to the dim early morning light. “So she was hired to find some old pirate treasure? Is that what you’re upset about?”

“The treasure she was hired to find happens to contain an ancient Knuckles Clan artifact! You need to get the others and come to Angel Island right away-”

“You’re mad about the possibility that Rouge will find some antique?” 

“Antique! Amy-” she could hear him trying to restrain himself. “Listen to me, if this ‘treasure’ falls into the wrong hands, it’s going to be a mess to clean up. Get Sonic and Tails and come here as soon as you can. They’re not answering my calls and we need to speak in person.”

Amy groaned. It was far too early to be thinking about a new dangerous adventure- especially when they’d just stopped one of Eggman’s plots less than a week earlier. “Fine… at least let me have some breakfast first.”

“Make it quick!” he hung up.

“And they say I’m bossy,” Amy grumbled to herself. Before long, the sun’s rays shone brightly throughout her house and sleeping in no longer sounded comfortable. With a sigh, she got ready for the unexpected day ahead.

-----

“I never knew there was a catacomb under the altar…” Amy held a lantern out in front of her as she climbed down the steps.

“That’s ‘cause it’s a secret,” Knuckles responded gruffly. “Come on, I shouldn’t have to tell you to hurry it up!!”

Sonic and Tails trailed behind in a sleep-deprived state. They’d stayed up until morning playing games and were just getting to bed when Amy pounded on the lab door to retrieve them. She still wasn’t sure how Tails managed to land the plane on Angel Island. “Relax, Knux…” Sonic rubbed his eyes as he followed behind Amy. 

“I’m gonna fall asleep in here…” Tails yawned.

“No sleeping!” Knuckles sealed the entrance and rushed ahead, leading the way. The rest of the group groaned in unison as they followed. 

As they went, Amy noticed a ladybug had hitched a ride on her shoulder. “Aw, wouldn’t want you to get lost down here.” She picked up the small insect on the end of her finger and continued after Knuckles. After coming down a winding staircase and navigating a series of dark corridors, the team arrived in a small room with walls lined with scrolls and small relics with a hard wooden table in the center. Knuckles lit the torches on the walls and sifted through the contents of a stone shelf. 

“I have a flashlight, you know,” Tails remarked.

“No flashlights! You’ll damage the texts.”

Tails mumbled under his breath. “I suppose lighting them on fire is better…”

“Quiet- look at this.” Knuckles brought out a large, yellowed scroll and a wooden box. Spreading the scroll across the table revealed what appeared to be a map of the ocean. “This is a map to that treasure Rouge is after.”

“Wait,” Amy interrupted, “You have one, too?”

Knuckles nodded. “This is Captain Scarlett’s map.”

Sonic leaned over the scroll. “Scarlett? Isn’t that the famous lady-pirate? Why do you have that?” 

“Because,” Knuckles continued, “300 years ago, that damned pirate plundered the Mystic Ruins for its treasure. This map was found by an Echidna scholar over a century ago and it’s been here ever since.”

“So, this isn’t the first time someone finds part of Scarlett’s treasure?” Tails asked.

Knuckles scoffed. “Hardly. My people have been after that stash of letters that Rouge found for decades. We’ve been trying to keep the contents of ‘Scarlet’s’ treasure a secret since it was discovered what it contains- The Stone Mirror.” The others stared blankly at him, the object he was referring to having no meaning to them. He looked at each of them irately before continuing. “Really? Argh, fine; The Stone Mirror is a powerful artifact that can turn the user into their ‘most desired self’- whatever that means. Apparently, old Scarlett used it 300 years ago to become the world’s best pirate or something.”

“So… you want us to help you look for a magic mirror in the middle of the ocean?” Sonic asked.

Knuckles’ brow twitched. “Did you not just hear what I said? What if Eggman got a hold of this thing?!”

“What’s the big deal? We should be able to fly there-”

“No flying. This map is meant to be navigated by sea. Besides,” Knuckles opened the small box to reveal a compass and a crystal eyepiece. “This map only goes so far. We’ll need these once you get to this point to guide the rest of the way.”

“Let me see that,” Tails took the compass in his hands and waved it around the room. “Does this thing work? It doesn’t even point north.”

“It points to where it has to point once you get here,” Knuckles poked at a red X on the map.

“That literally makes no sense.”

“It’s what the scholar wrote down when she discovered this map!”

As they bickered, Amy carefully picked up the map and held it to the light. As it passed in front of a lantern, writing could be seen across one side of the scroll. The little ladybug that had ridden in on Amy’s shoulder flew onto its surface and crawled around. “Guys, look! There’s something written here.” The boys went silent as they leaned in to get a closer look at the neat cursive script. Amy read it aloud. “Hand in hand we sailed to the horizon that faithful evening. I looked into her glassy eyes for guidance as the sky above turned, Scarlett.”

Sonic shook his head. “This lady sounds lost.”

“Maybe,” said Knuckles, “But our best hope is to follow this map and figure it out from there. And get that bug off the map, would ya?” Amy allowed the little red insect to crawl back onto her hand before replacing the map on the table.

“Yeah, all I’m hearing is we’re gonna get ourselves stranded in the ocean. Count me out.”

“Are you serious?!” 

“No way I’m getting on a boat just to get stuck in the middle of the sea,” Sonic crossed his arms stubbornly. “I’ll stay here and look after the Master Emerald.”

“No fair, why do you get to stay?” Tails complained. “I don’t wanna be on a boat, either!”

“I think it sounds fun,” Amy said, watching as the ladybug crawled around on her palm.

“This isn’t a pleasure cruise!” Knuckles yelled.

Tails’ ears drooped. “I’ll say. Sonic’s right, we’re gonna get lost. Don’t you have that scholar’s notes, Knuckles?”

“No.”

“But you know a little about what she wrote; where are they?”

Knuckles grumbled as he crossed his arms. “There was… a small fire…”

“No kidding,” Tails frowned.

“Bah- Will you help me or not? We need to get on a boat ASAP to beat that bat over there- she has all the same information in those documents she found!”

Rolling his eyes, Tails turned back to the map. “Fine. We can take my boat. But I need to take a better look at this map in some proper lighting.”

“Deal,” said Knuckles. “You in, Ames?”

“You can count on me! I already have our costumes planned out,” Amy giggled.

“Costumes…?” It didn’t feel like much of a deal to Tails, who’d just been roped into steering a boat for the next several days in whatever outlandish outfit Amy would choose for him. He rolled up the scroll begrudgingly and gathered the other trinkets into their box. Knuckles turned out the torches as the team spilled out into the corridor and followed him back up to the surface. They all squinted harshly as the mid-morning sun burned their eyes. 

“Here you go,” Amy told the ladybug, placing it on a small flower. “Hope you find your way back home okay.” She watched it crawl around a bit before spreading its wings and buzzing away happily. She smiled as it flew off, pleased that it was able to make it back to the surface with her help. Once it was out of her sight, Amy joined her friends in making their plans to sail off in the next few days.

The shiny little insect flew and flew, ascending far higher and speeding up to a far quicker pace than any ladybug reasonably should. It continued off the edge of Angel Island, floating high above the land, the sea, then the clouds. It didn’t take the ladybug very long to reach its destination, flying into a tiny steel vent and into a cold, metallic fortress. Once aboard the Egg Carrier, it made its way into a small lab where it landed on a steel desk, ready to address its master.

“It is about time you returned…”

The ladybug spread its wings once more, this time flying into the minuscule port on a computer that topped the desk. A video appeared on the screen that took up the wall ahead, displaying a first-person view from the bug’s perspective. It flew toward Amy Rose, landing on her shoulder just as she descended into a secret passage.

A young boy’s voice was heard. “I’m gonna fall asleep in here…” 

“No sleeping!” a gruff voice responded.

“Aw, wouldn’t want you to get lost down here,” Amy could be heard saying before the view changed to  atop her finger.

“Interesting.” Metal Sonic locked his fingers together, resting his chin over his thumbs as he leaned in to listen closely. “What are our little heroes up to now?”

----

The following morning, Eggman raised a brow as he enjoyed his coffee with the early news. A field reporter was live from a marina where a crime was committed earlier that day. The spot at the docks where a historic pirate ship normally floated was empty.

“They just sailed off in her!” a frantic man said on TV. “We had a wedding planned there for this afternoon! What are we supposed to do now?”

The show cut back to the news anchor. “The historic Royal Fortune, the antique pirate ship that still operates tours and events to this day, was stolen early this morning as the thieves marooned the crew on a nearby sandbar. The criminals are described as armored and wearing black hooded cloaks. If anyone has news regarding her whereabouts-”

“Hmm…” Eggman muted the show as he heard a loud, metallic clanking forming from the corridor.  Metal Sonic strode in from outside the floating fortress with two Silver Sonic Prototypes close behind. All were mysteriously clad in black hooded cloaks as the small minions each carried oversized boxes above their heads.

Eggman leaned back in his chair to look out through the open doorway. “Metal, where were you so early?”

The three robots stopped in their tracks as Metal Sonic turned around to address him momentarily. “Out.” He continued forward without another word.

“I gave you the ability to talk so you could use it, you know,” Eggman grumbled. He took another sip as a loud doorway could be heard opening and shutting down the hall. With a sigh, the old man shook his head, wondering what the dark cloaks were about. Why would they hide their identities to steal the stupid ship? What is he even up to? he asked himself before going back to his coffee.

Once in the privacy of Metal Sonic’s lab, boxes were ripped open and long capes were thrown aside. Metal Sonic stood in front of a full-length mirror examining his freshly painted armor, glittering gold accents reflecting the dull fluorescent lighting. Each of the pint-sized prototypes had received chromatic silver paint jobs as well to differentiate them from the dozen or so other identical bots that performed various tasks around the airship. They both sorted through the boxes, throwing various period garments about the room haphazardly.

Clothes were strewn everywhere by the time Metal Sonic noticed the mess they were making. “I told you two to find me something to wear, not wreck my lab!” The identical minions looked at one another blankly. One of them picked a pair of stays up from in front of him and held for his master to observe. Metal snatched the undergarment from the smaller robot’s clamps and threw it aside. “That is not what I meant!” He picked up a nearby book and ripped it open to a page containing an illustration of a pirate captain. “Find me this,” he pointed at the pirate’s jacket gruffly.

His claw made a loud CLANG against his forehead, saluting Metal before stretching an extendable arm across the room to retrieve a navy coat with gold accents that had been tossed aside. Once in his possession, Metal Sonic draped it over his shoulders and examined his reflection once more. “Hmm… A bit restrictive. H3, scissors.” The other lackey robot took the command, fetching a pair of scissors from a drawer and presenting them to his master. Metal proceeded to chop the coat up into little more than an open vest adorned with golden epaulets draped with tassels at each shoulder. He belted the reconstructed jacket around his waist and stared at his reflection. “What do you think? Missing something?”

The two henchmen examined the book’s illustration again. One of them shot up and dove into one of the boxes, returning with a tricorn cap. He extended his arm and placed the hat atop Metal Sonic’s head while the other clapped his bulky claws together. 

“I don’t know…” Metal rested his hands on his hips pensively. “What are you two wearing?”

H3 and his counterpart, H4, looked toward one another with a shrug. They dug through the pile, each digging out a solid-colored scarf. H3 wrapped his blue one around his head like a bandana while H4 tied a red one to his waist. They looked each other up and down for a few moments before deciding in unison to switch their color choices, H3 snatching the red bandana from his brother and pulling it over his head while H4 made a belt of the blue one after ripping it from atop the other’s head. They high-fived to commemorate the decision, their little clamped hands rattling together as they made contact.

“Fine, fine…” Metal waved them off, glancing back at the book once more. The captain sported a sword at his waist. At the bottom of one of the boxes rested an antique cutlass that resembled the one in the drawing, but dulled at the edge. “Yes… This will do.” He picked up the weapon and brandished it ahead of his body “If Sonic’s friends are dressing for the occasion, so shall we!” he cackled. “H4, make sure this gets sharpened,” he barked as he thrust the sword into the minion's hands. “H3, clean up this mess. I have work to do.”

With that, each of the minions loudly saluted Metal Sonic before attending to their tasks. Metal leaned over his desk as the video of the heroes reappeared on the large screen ahead. He was disappointed to learn that he wouldn’t be facing his rival, Sonic- the coward had decided to stay on land. Metal looked from one of their faces to another before settling on Amy Rose’s cheerful expression. “Yes… She will do.” Metal concocted his plan, reveling in the knowledge that once he obtained the Stone Mirror, he would manifest into a form that not Sonic nor his friends could hope to stand a chance against.

Metal had spent much of the last year spying on Sonic and his friends, waiting for an opportunity when he could be one step ahead. He had grown to resent Eggman and his half-baked plans over the years, existing only as an obstacle to the heroes who always seemed to be prepared. Eggman understood this, or at least knew that Metal had begun taking his own initiative when it came to plotting against his rival. When he caught the robot surveilling the team, he made the decision to encourage him, wanting to take advantage of the part of Metal that could think just like his rival. Soon, Metal had been outfitted with a lab of his own and two henchmen to command. Eggman had upgraded him with the ability to speak and emote more expressly not long after, which Metal found both vexing and enthralling, now taking every opportunity to put his thoughts into words.

But Metal ultimately resented this as well as he had no desire to lean on his master. What he yearned for most greatly was to have the independence and autonomy to act on his own. Though Metal wasn’t disloyal to him, Eggman’s incompetence ironically prevented him from accomplishing his objective of eliminating Sonic. Since then, Metal took what he’d been offered as if a birthright and accepted nothing more, opting to source his own necessities. Everything from research to obtaining materials was to be accomplished by him personally- a task he did not take lightly. And because this was the first- no- the only time he would need to defeat his foes, it only made sense to do it in style. 

Perishing the thought that whatever deep-seated programming compelled him to these theatrics was likely due to Eggman’s own influence, Metal had gotten to work studying the life of pirate legend Captain Scarlett. Metal did a poor job at hiding the excitement that befell him as he read everything he could process that regarded pirating. Perhaps it was the high stakes and endless freedom the seafaring criminals seemed to command- and what a very “Sonic” thing to be attracted to. He laughed to himself about his organic counterpart’s apparent fear of the ocean.

Then again, it was probably just the dramatic aesthetics.

The old pirate captain had a flair for the dramatic herself. Metal’s research showed that she often left secret messages in her documents such as the one discovered by Amy Rose in that map of theirs, as well as the letters that had been uncovered. Many of the “mysteries” uncovered through time appeared to be rudimentary puzzles really, it was bewildering how the treasure had remained hidden for so long. Still, he didn’t have a map of his own, and tailing the heroes would only get him so far. Metal knew from past experience that the bubbly girl was rather sympathetic. A savior complex, he thought as he studied his past interactions with her. She was the perfect pawn to manipulate into leading him right to the Stone Mirror. 

The video was paused on a frame of Amy and her sunny smile. He recalled their first meeting when he captured her and how helpless she had been; But the girl had grown strong over the years, impressing even him with her combat technique. Amy decidedly wasn’t one to be taken lightly anymore, and he would have to be cautious. The compassion she showed towards most creatures was her real weakness, one that was easy to take advantage of. He played back a compilation of videos he’s taken of Amy Rose; her beaming complexion, the charismatic giggle in her voice, the tender pleading in her eyes…

None of that matters! He shook the thought from his head. What he really needed to understand were the driving factors behind her empathy. What could he use against her? He fast-forwarded to a scene of her and the rest of the group reminiscing about past adventures.

On-screen, Amy sat between Sonic and Tails in the sand, all enjoying an afternoon together at the beach. Knuckles could be heard off-screen. “Yeah, I still can’t believe Amy convinced that robot to let her go! What was it called again?”

“His name was Gamma. Honestly, he was able to think for himself after we became friends- it didn’t take much to convince him that he could disobey Eggman if he wanted to.” she twirled the front of her spines bashfully.

Sonic laughed. “Well good thing you made friends with him! I nearly turned him to scrap metal.”

“Come on, he did a lot of good before… you know.” There was some sadness in her eyes.

“Yeah,” Sonic agreed. “Hey, maybe you could convince Egg-head to do some good for once, too.” 

Metal paused the video as they laughed together. “He did a lot of good.” Yes, Metal knew exactly how to get the sweet girl on his side- he was confident it wouldn’t take much convincing on his part, either. 

The lab door was suddenly slammed open. “H4, what have I told you about-” Metal paused, faced not with his lackey but with a very animated Eggman.

“Metal! I just saw H4’s new paint job- excellent work! We should outfit all the prototypes with it,” he bellowed. 

Narrowing his eyes, Metal turned back toward the screen to brood silently.

Eggman took a few steps into the room before continuing. “Tell me, though, what’s with all the pirate outfits? You putting on a show?” he feigned ignorance over the stolen ship and nudged the box closest to him with his foot. H3 popped his head out from the pile of clothes within with a clanky salute. “This one too, eh? I like the look.” There was no response from Metal but the quickening hum of his turbine as he grew annoyed at the interruption. “That hat will probably impede your hearing, though…”

He continued taking steps into the room, stopping just behind Metal to join him in looking at the screen ahead. It was still paused on a still of Amy looking cheerful. “Studying our heroes again, are we? You sure seem to like this one... She’s pretty cute.”

Metal whipped around to face him once again, this time with blazing eyes. “What are you-”

“I bet you could kidnap her again easily,” Eggman interrupted with a grin and a snap of his fingers.

“Get out!” Metal roared, rising from his seat.

Eggman laughed heartily. “Alright, alright- tell me if you need anything for your little production!”

As the scientist turned on his heel and made his way back toward the open door, H4 was scuttling in with the now sharpened cutlass held carelessly above him. He came to a skidding halt at the sight of Eggman, bringing his hand up to his forehead and dropping the sword noisily on the steel floor in the process. The man cackled at him, bending down to pick up the weapon and examine it. “Nice sword, not that you need it. Teach your lackeys to be a little more careful with sharp objects, hm?” Eggman tossed the sword to Metal, who caught it effortlessly, rolling his eyes.

“... Fine.” he finally responded before taking his seat again and swiveling back toward the giant monitor. He shut off the program that played back the videos.

“Atta boy.” With that, Eggman made his way out of the room. H4 shot out his arm, slamming his claw against a button that shut the door behind him.

The sword gleamed in the harsh lighting as Metal held it up to inspect. Eggman was correct, of course- Metal didn’t need a weapon- he was one. But the added flourish couldn’t hurt, he thought as he swung it through the air, a small WHIP whispering across the room each time he waved it. Metal wouldn’t admit it even to himself, but his creator had a point about his interest in Amy Rose, as well...

An alert flashed on the screen ahead before he could be forced to think about it. “GPS Tracker Activated”. A map popped up showing a blinking red dot, indicating the location of Tails’ boat.

“Finally…” Metal stood, raising a foot on his chair and brandishing the cutlass proudly. “Prepare the ship- we sail at dawn!”

-----

Amy yawned as she got dressed the following morning. The TV was tuned to the news, where a reporter was commenting on the authorities’ inability to find any leads in the case of the Royal Fortune’s theft. “Weird…” Amy remarked to herself out loud. She was tying a blue ascot around the collar of her dress- a white, long-sleeved piece with blue stripes at the hem and cuffs. She had purchased the sailor suit impulsively with the hopes of going sailing leisurely with her friends, but she supposed a maritime mission was occasion enough. 

Hearing the whistle of a boat in the distance, she quickly pinned on her hat and slung her duffel bag over her shoulder. She lived on the beach and the boys had agreed to meet her there before sailing off. The whistle howled once more and she hurried out of her little shack, running toward the shore. “I’m here already! Quit hollering,” she grumbled. A steel ladder was lowered and she tossed her bag for Knuckles to catch before climbing her way up.

The boat was nothing like the pirate ship she’d seen on TV that morning. It was a sleek white vessel with blue chrome accents that glittered in the early sunlight. The small yacht was equipped with every manner of boating technology that Tails could cram onto it. A door beneath the elevated helm opened to reveal a set of stairs leading down to the main quarters. Knuckles lugged Amy’s bag over his shoulder, beckoning her to the opening.

“Wait! Before you put that away…” Amy unzipped the front pocket.

Knuckles grumbled. “Before I put it away?”

“Yes, thank you for that,” she chuckled, pulling out a pair of themed hats- a sailor’s cap similar to her own, and a white service cap with gold accents. “I figured you guys would prefer these to clothes.”

“Hmm,” Knuckles examined the headwear as she unfurled each one and held them up. “I suppose a captain’s hat would be fitting…” he reached out to take it from her when Tails suddenly interrupted.

“Uh, my ship- If anyone’s captain, it’s me.”

With an incredulous look, Knuckles turned his chin up to address him. “My mission, my hat- I’m captain. You’re navigating.”

“Oh and I suppose this boat’s gonna steer itself?” Tails said in a mocking tone.

“You think I don’t know how to drive a boat?” Knuckles was yelling now.

“Like I’d let you even if you could.”

“Alright,” Amy interrupted, “That’s enough- we have to be on this boat together for the next week. You two better get along!” 

“Fine,” Knuckles crossed his arms. “Who do you think should be captain?”

“Tails,” she responded without hesitation.

“What?!”

Tails snickered from above. “Do you even have a boating license, Knuckles?”

His expression of rage quickly turned blank. His teammates both watched as the gears seemed to turn in his head. “... No.”

Amy and Tails both broke out into a fit of laughter. Knuckles snatched the sailor’s cap from her hand and stomped down the stairs with the duffel bag, grumbling choice words under his breath. “Here you go,” she tossed the captain’s hat up to Tails.

“Thank you,” he smirked triumphantly. “We’re ready to go- let’s let Sonic know before we sail off.” Amy made her way up and stood by him as Tails made a video call on a tablet. Sonic appeared on it a moment later.

“Yo,” he winked. “Looking good, guys.”

“Thank you,” Amy giggled bashfully.

“We’re about to sail,” Tails interjected before she could start chatting. “Everything good on your end?”

“Yep, just me and the Master Emerald. Pretty boring…”

“Don’t let Knuckles hear you say that.”

The three shared a chuckle before Amy and Tails waved to Sonic and signed off. The boat’s ladder ascended from the sand as Tails made the final preparations to sail. Knuckles reemerged from the doorway below as the vessel began moving, shielding his eyes from the sun with his hand.

“Where’s your uniform, skipper?” Tails chortled, noticing that he hadn’t donned the white and blue cap.

“Watch it,” he threatened, eyes fixed on the horizon.

As the boat slid away from the shore and into the open ocean, Tails and Amy chuckled to themselves, ready for the adventure ahead. Unbeknownst to them, however, they weren’t the only ones tracking their whereabouts.

Back at the Egg Carrier, Metal and his lackeys were getting ready to mobilize.

The three bots snuck out of the lab and through the steel corridors, making sure to fly to keep noise to a minimum. It was dark- Eggman either wasn’t up or was too fixated on his work to notice them anyway. Once they reached the outdoor deck, each landed on the edge for a moment, H3 and H4 awaiting commands. “We will stay off their radar by remaining some distance away, and intercept them at this first meeting spot,” Metal explained. “But we need to catch up. Now, to the ship!”

But before he could lift off, a mechanical squeaking caught Metal’s attention from behind. He turned his vision to the distraction, claws outstretched in case someone was trying to stop him. His gaze was met by that of another Silver Sonic Prototype, who then imitated the awkward saluting motion the other two greeted their masters with. Metal narrowed his eyes at him suspiciously but lowered his guard. “What is the meaning of this?”

The small robot seemed to pull a yellow bandana from out of nowhere and quickly tied it below his muzzle, looking back up at Metal Sonic with his permanent sly grin. Metal scratched his chin pensively. “You wish to join us?” The prototype’s joints squeaked as it bobbed its head quickly and violently, causing Metal to slap his hand atop it like he was hitting a switch. “Enough! You’ll alert the others. Hm… State your serial number.” He lifted his right foot to reveal a string of numbers written on the sole, the last of which were “H1.”

“Ah, the very first…” Metal processed the unexpected interruption for a moment. He didn’t know how the robot had discovered his intentions, but there wasn’t much time to lose. At this point taking the additional support with him would at least keep word from getting to Eggman if H1 made a fuss. Metal supposed he could just deactivate him and toss him overboard, but…

“Very well, you may join me... But your outfit needs work. I’ll brief you on the ship- move!” 

H1 threw its hands in the air with excitement, the four of them taking off. Metal Sonic lead the charge to the ship anchored about a mile away as they shot down through the high clouds. 

-----

“Are we there yet?” Amy groaned from a lounge seat on the upper deck. The excitement from that morning had slowly turned to a boring exhaustion as the day dragged on. It was impossibly hot- the sun’s rays intensified by the inescapable humidity. The sun would be setting in another hour and they’d all been up since dawn, but Amy was the wariest.

“You know this is gonna take days, right?” Tails yawned. He had joined her on the deck while the boat was on auto-pilot, not intending to change direction for some time.

“I thought this first place was supposed to be close…”

“Yeah, it’s only a 12-hour boat ride,” he shrugged sarcastically. “But who knows how far the actual treasure is?”

“You two need to stop your belly-aching, you’re already getting on my nerves.” Knuckles was seated cross-legged on the roof of the helm. The others were sure he’d bake to death.

“Easy for you to say, all you do all day is sit around!” Amy huffed. 

Tails checked his tablet, which he’d equipped with a navigator. “We’re actually pretty close… We’ll be coming up on these coordinates in about 20 minutes.” 

Amy stretched her arms in an attempt to liven herself up. “Great! Then we have to figure out this weird puzzle…”

“I’m sure it’ll be obvious once we’re there,” said Knuckles. Tails couldn’t help but think he sounded awfully confident for someone who had no idea how to navigate.

“Hey, what is that…?” Tails hurried to take a pair of binoculars from his equipment and ran to the bow, staring into the horizon. The others listened in, Amy sitting up in the chair and squinting her eyes ahead. “Uh, there’s another boat over there… a big one.” The team all scrambled to the front of the boat, trying to look through the binoculars at once. A bright white ship could be seen in the distance- at least three times the size of Tail’s boat but just as modern. As they inched closer, some of the crew could be seen pacing around the main deck.

“Give me those,” Knuckles snatched away the binoculars for himself, zooming in on the ship’s bow as close as he could get them to focus. “You have got to be kidding me…”

“Rouge.” The woman he considered his arch-rival was sauntering about the bow of her ship, the stitched-together map in hand as she conversed with some crewmates. Two men each lugging a huge camera over their shoulder stood on either side of them. Amy and Tails groaned upon hearing Knuckles utter her name with disdain, knowing the squabbling that would come next. He watched as she squinted in the direction of their boat once they were in view of one another.

Tails brought his vessel in close to her ship, which towered above theirs. Rouge had to lean over the side railing to look down at the team. “Oh my, what is it you want?” she frowned.

Knuckles raised a foot to rest on a railing of his own. “We’re after Scarlett’s treasure, and you’re in our way.”

“I mean, they’re not really in our way,” Tails grumbled. “Can you take your foot down from there?”

“Quiet,” Knuckles held a palm up to him, chin still pointed up at Rouge.

One of the cameramen leaned over next to her, pointing his recording device directly at Knuckles. Rouge continued with a smirk. “It looks like we have some competition- not that they stand a chance at finding it before I do.”

Knuckles squinted. “What’s with the cameras?”

“Cameras?” Amy skipped over next to him and waved up at the ship. “Are you guys making a movie?”

“A documentary,” Rouge nodded. “And you look so cute. What do you think of this?” Rouge batted her wings and flew up to hover just above the railing, the camera following her as she did. She wore a brocade bustier over a lacey flared-sleeve linen blouse and fitted black trousers tucked into leather boots. She looked like a true pirate.

“Oh,” Amy beamed, “Gorgeous!”

Knuckles raised his voice as his vexation grew. “What the hell is happening? Why are you dressed like that?”

“Aesthetic,” she shrugged. “And how did you find this place, anyway? Are you tracking us?”

“I’ll have you know that treasure you’re after contains sacred Knuckles Tribe artifacts, and we have Captain Scarlett’s original map.” Knuckles crossed his arms confidently.

“No kidding?” Rouge pouted. “Well, good luck- we’ve been here for hours and can’t figure out where we’re supposed to go from here.”

“Typical!” Knuckles shot back.

“Hmph- If you’re so knowledgeable, hotshot, let’s see you navigate from here!” Rouge flew off out of sight with the cameraman on her heels.

“Whatever-” Knuckles marched up to the helm where Tails had already begun studying the map. “So... where do we go from here?”

“Beats me…” he shrugged.

“Are you serious?”

Amy joined them, picking up the crystal eyeglass and bringing it to her eye. She expected it to magnify things, but it didn’t appear to be a telescope. “Well, this has to have something to do with it. Hmm…” 

“Don’t forget the compass.” Tails brought it up to eye-level. “It’s pointing south by south-west. Weird.”

“What did the map say again?”

Tails held it up to the light, reading aloud. “‘Hand in hand we sailed to the horizon that faithful evening. I looked into her glassy eyes for guidance as the sky above turned, Scarlett.’ Whatever that means…”

“‘Sky above turned’... Like, turned to night?” Amy raised the eyepiece up high. The soft blue sky turned an intense shade of cobalt when viewed through the glass. “Ohhh, how pretty,” she remarked. “Glassy eyes…” Amy turned to tails with a gasp.

“The eyeglass!” they said in unison.

“But do we have to look up at the sky during the nighttime then?” Tails scratched his chin.

“I don’t think we’ll see much at night with this thing- it just turns everything blue.”

Knuckles took it from her, glancing through it with one eye. “What’s this even for?” 

“I thought it was a spyglass, but it doesn’t magnify anything. It’s just a blue glass at the end.”

“That’s useless…” The three of them pondered on it as the sun neared the horizon. It would be dark soon- they didn’t want to be stuck there trying to figure it out overnight. Both teams were so deep in contemplation that they hardly noticed a third object approaching on their radar until it could be seen in the distance.

“Is that a pirate ship?” Rouge could be heard from her ship’s deck. She flew up to get a better look through a telescope. “Do you guys have anything to do with this?” she accused.

“Uh, definitely not” Tails answered, glancing through his own binoculars. He zoomed in as far as the lenses allowed. A lanky figure with a spiky head could just barely be made out. “Is that… Sonic?”

“What? Gimme those,” Amy yanked them away from him to look. “Hey- isn’t that the pirate ship that was stolen yesterday?” 

“You’re right!” Rouge shouted. “And that does look like Sonic…”

Amy gasped in realization. “That’s not Sonic… That’s Metal Sonic.” 

“Oh great, now we gotta deal with Eggman, too?” Knuckles groaned. “What could he want?”

The ship was fast approaching. Rouge shouted orders at her crew, instructing them to ready their weapons. The TV crew scrambled around frantically, trying to catch all the action. Amy and Knuckles looked at Tails expectantly, not having anticipated getting into a battle at sea.

“I got this. Everyone get close!” Amy gathered the map, eyepiece, and compass and held onto them tightly as they scurried together at the helm. Tails entered a set of commands and the boat began to separate in two, bisected vertically to make way for an enormous cannon that rose from beneath the deck. The helm was raised up and back, a shield forming around it like a cockpit. “Knuckles, cannon. Amy, be on the lookout from the starboard and stem. I’ll keep an eye on the port side while I steer.” 

“Roger!” they shouted in unison. 

Metal Sonic’s ship approached from the south, circling around both vessels as it came close. “Ahoy!” his voice came shouting out of a speaker. He cackled as his opponents all seemed to look to one another with bewilderment.

“Could he always talk?” Tails asked his friends. 

Amy shuttered. “Not always…”

Rouge’s voice was amplified by a megaphone as she flew above her ship’s bow to address Metal Sonic. “Tell us what The Doctor is up to!”

“‘The Doctor’ has nothing to do with this. I’m here for her,” he extended a long, spiked claw to point directly at Amy, who jumped at the announcement. 

“Wh- Me?” 

“Yes, you. Now come, join my crew!” His hand closed into a fist as he made the demand. No one was more dumbfounded than Amy. At a loss for words, she looked incredulously at Metal Sonic. “Well, come on, I haven’t got all night.”

Shaking her head of the confusion, Amy finally answered. “Uh… no thanks?”

Everyone turned their attention back to Metal. He narrowed his eyes, crossing his arms behind him authoritatively. “Are you sure?”

All eyes shifted back to Amy. She was red as a tomato at all the attention. “P-positive…”

“Hm, very well.” Metal took some steps back onto the deck of the Royal Fortune, turning away from the others. Rouge held a hand back to her crew, a few of whom stood on the deck behind her with rifles. Tails and Amy glanced at one another while Knuckles held his fighting stance. Then, Metal spoke again. “We’ll do it the hard way, then.” 

Without warning, a cannon exploded in the direction of Tails’ boat. The three hit the deck as the cannon fodder made contact and shook the vessel. Rouge’s crew opened fire on Metal Sonic’s ship, making bullet holes in the old wood but leaving the robot unaffected as the ammunition bounced off his body. He gave her a look of boredom.

The sun began to set as it all unfolded, casting a deep ruby light over the environment. Amy struggled to find her balance and retrieve the eyepiece and compass that had rolled around the floor at the collision. The compass slipped out of her grip, too, sliding down the deck just beside the glass. She moved to snatch both pieces up but stopped when she noticed something glowing upon the compass in the light that reflected from the eyepiece. Picking them up carefully, Amy brought the spyglass up to look at the compass through. Drawn across the arrow was another arrow, pointing in the opposite direction. It illuminated as she looked at it through the glass and disappeared otherwise. “‘Sky turned…’ Oh! Scarlett!” The intense red light cast from the sunset had combined with the blue filter on the glass to reveal the otherwise hidden image. Upon turning the compass around, Amy found some text on the back in the same glowing lettering. 

“Amy, move!” Knuckles shouted from behind. She didn’t have time to react before she felt a metallic coil snake around her waist and pull her backward. It wasn’t a cannonball that Metal Sonic had fired, it was one of his minions, H3 with his extendable arms. Amy screamed as she suddenly lurched away.

“Hang on-” Tails commanded, turning the cannon sharply and causing the vessel to shutter again. H3 struggled to maintain his balance until Knuckles came up on his side and smashed a fist into his head, sending the bot flying off the side of the boat. He released Amy instinctually, using his arms to latch onto the railing instead.

Amy landed on her feet, the artifacts still in hand. “Tails, the compass! Look!” 

“Little busy!” Tails was turning the wheel at the helm frantically, trying to swing the cannon back around to fire back at Metal Sonic. 

“We have to hurry before the sun goes down! We need the red light!” She ran back to the safety of the helm, where the shield protected them from the front. The cannon charged as she scrambled to read the inscription aloud in the dimming light. “‘The Mirror’s bloodlust was nothing to me, for I’d have bled myself dry for you.’ Huh? Hey, this mentions the mirror-” 

Tails pulled the trigger then, expecting some kickback from the blast. Instead, the entire front of the vessel was launched upward, the shot deflected into the sky; something had come up beneath them, turning the boat up and threatening to sink it. Everyone aboard lost their balance as the boat listed back. Tails managed to hold on by the helm and Knuckles by a side railing, but Amy was sent sliding down, shrieking as she rolled overboard off the stern. 

Metal Sonic looked on in a panic as it unfolded. “Nooo!” his eyes blazed down at whatever had emerged from the sea to cause the collision. A huge steel submarine sat with its nose just under the front of the boat. “Aaaaargh!” he roared in realization. The logo plastered on each side of it gave it away- it belonged to Dr. Eggman.

“Attack!” the command could be heard coming from the half-submerged vessel. Two oversized badniks emerged from the water, a crablike robot that crawled up the side of the submarine and began blasting at Rouge’s ship, and another shaped like a torpedo made to resemble a shark which hurdled itself toward Tails’ boat, causing it to shake and list further.

“Amy! Knuckles!” Tails shouted. He was able to kick himself off and fly, taking the map as he looked for his friends.

“Over here,” Knuckles called. He reached up for Tails’ hand. “Where’s Amy?”

As she finally emerged from the water, Amy coughed and waved her arm up frantically. Spotting her, Rouge flew overhead. “I’ve got her!”

“No, you don’t,” Metal Sonic flew into Rouge’s side, kicking her out of the air and into the water with a grunt. He made his way to Amy, lifting her by the arm out of the murky water. She coughed and sputtered, but clutched onto both the compass and spyglass with her other hand. He pulled her up further to hold by the waist at his side as he circled his way around to pick up H3, still dangling off the side of Tails’ boat. He narrowly missed a direct hit from the shark badnik when it leaped out of the water for another hit.

“Be more careful! You are not to hit Metal Sonic!” Eggman’s voice screeched from the submarine.

Metal flew over it on his way back to the ship. “Why are you here?!” 

Amy had begun struggling under Metal Sonic’s grip, threatening to hurdle herself back into the ocean. “Let me go! I don’t want to join your weird crew!”

“Stop your squirming! Do you have a death wish?” Just as he finished the statement, Amy wormed her way out from under his arm and fell headfirst toward the water. Thinking fast, Metal chucked H3 toward his ship with a CLANG and dove for her. He was just quick enough to catch the girl before she fell in again, supporting her back and legs against him tightly; she wasn’t going to get out of this one so easily.

“What do you even want with me?” she yelled, trying to push away from him in vain.

Metal looked down at her, forcing eye contact. “... I need you.” He tried to sound sincere.

“What-” 

Bullets began raining down on them now that they were directly across from Rouge’s ship. Metal pulled Amy’s body in, deflecting the fire. “Is anyone here sane?!” Amy actually made an effort to cling to him now, drawing her knees as close as she could muster.

“Stop firing, you idiots, he has the girl!” Rouge wailed, finally hovering up and recovering from her run-in with Metal Sonic. “Are you trying to get her killed?!” She landed on the front of the submarine and swung her leg down on the crab robot’s face, splitting it in two. Meanwhile, Knuckles threw his fist into the side of the other badnik and rendered it useless as it flopped back into the water. Tails carried him up to the deck of the ship with Rouge not far behind. 

Metal flew into the hole in the side of the ship from which the cannon stuck out, allowing him to take them out of harm’s way faster. He dropped her harshly on her behind once they were inside. “H4, H1, make sure she doesn’t escape,” he commanded before flying up toward the main deck. 

“Ouch! Hey, wait- what do you want with me?” Amy got on her feet and was ready to chase after him when a pair of snaky appendages started winding themselves around her. “Not... again!” she wiggled out an arm, summoning her hammer; but another clawed hand shot out and knocked it from her grip, confining her before she could retrieve it. There was no squirming away now. “Metal! Get back down here and tell these things to let me gooo!” she screeched before one of H1’s arms coiled over her mouth like a muffler.

On deck, Metal Sonic hoisted the sails and began navigating away from the battle. Eggman had stuck his head out of the top of the submarine, waving at him. “Great work, Metal! I’ll hold them off.” the old man just barely dodged one of Rouge’s bullets before scurrying back in.

Enraged by The Doctor’s presence, Metal was tempted to disobey and continue fighting out of spite- but he had what he’d come for. Resenting the “help,” he blasted “Stay out of this!” at Eggman as his ship sailed into the darkening horizon.

-----

 In the aftermath of the battle, Rouge tramped around the ship shouting orders with cameramen on her heels. Eggman escaped once Metal Sonic had enough of a lead. Now, one of the ship‘s engines was badly damaged and engineers were sent down to make what repairs they could while Tails and Knuckles were given towels to dry off with. They sat in the enclosed cockpit discussing their next steps.

“I can’t believe they sunk my boat…” Tails was sitting with his head in his hands sorrowfully, lamenting the loss of his tech. “All that equipment…”

Knuckles sat with his arms crossed, grumbling. “Yeah, and now we have no chance of getting to the treasure before Rouge…” She marched into the room just then, slamming the door behind her and locking out the camera crew with a huff. Raising a brow, Knuckles addressed her. “Speak of the devil…”

“Don’t start!” she shot back at him. “I just saved your sorry behinds from being stranded at sea. I’m dropping you off at the next port-of-call, so don’t get too comfortable!” Rouge had a towel draped over her shoulders but hadn’t changed out of her wet clothes. She was getting goosebumps in the cool, air-conditioned room.

“We’re stopping? But we need to get to that treasure before Metal Sonic and save Amy!” Tails protested.

She marched up to the helm and pointed at several flashing indicator lights. “We can hardly go anywhere right now. Half the ship is under duress and we need to stop somewhere for repairs. I’m waiting for a tow.” Crossing her arms, she turned away from the pair. “And you are not part of my crew- we’re leaving you ashore.”

“Like hell you are!” Knuckles stomped over to her, placing a gruff hand on her shoulder. She was not amused, slapping it away from her.

“Hands off! Or would you rather we throw you overboard now?”

“And you’re fine with just abandoning Amy, then?”

With a gasp, Rouge whirled around again, hiding the shame on her face. “What do you want me to do? The ship’s barely operational, and I have a crew to think about…”

Knuckles grumbled but didn’t have a response. He hated to admit it, but she was right- they needed a ship to catch up to Metal Sonic, and theirs wouldn’t make it far.

“Can I take a look at the damage, Rouge?” Tails chimed in. They both looked back at him, then at each other.

Rouge shrugged with a slight shiver. “Fine- you probably know better than my best engineer anyway…”

“No doubt,” Knuckles retorted. “Go change, would ya? You look like you’re freezing.” 

“Hmph!” she glared at him. Picking up a microphone, she pressed a button that called the engine room. “I’m sending another engineer down, you are to do what he asks.” Once she received confirmation, Rouge slammed her own compass and eyeglass on the counter atop her map. “And figure this out!” With that, she was off, out a side door and into her quarters. The door shut harshly behind her.

“Hm.” Knuckles leaned back on the wall. “Now the question is, where do we go from here?”

“We’ll need a red light to find out. Come on,” Tails snatched up the items she’d left behind and beckoned his friend to join him in the engine room.

“A red-? Huh?”

Ignoring their questions as they went, Tails and Knuckles weaved around the camera crew that still lingered outside the room and headed down into the ship’s depths.

Some miles away, Amy’s muffled yelling could be heard below the deck of Metal Sonic’s ship. He descended the stairs slowly, stopping in front of her. He made a motion as if to clear his throat and addressed the girl. “Apologies for the restraints. I thought you might be liable to tear the ship apart otherwise.” He signaled for H1 to unwrap his arm, allowing her to speak freely.

“I’ll tear you apart first!” she writhed under the metal coils to no avail.

“If you don’t settle down, we will just have to wait for you to tire yourself out,” he shrugged. “And you’ll find there’s nowhere to go at sea but down- so I’d be careful about threatening the captain.”

Amy huffed and puffed but couldn’t get out from under the weight of so many restraints. Panting, she finally relented, raising her intense glare at him. “What do you want?”

Metal let out a mechanical “sigh,” as if exasperated. He stood with his hands at his hips, leaning forward slightly. “I do not wish to harm you…” It wasn’t a lie- not yet, anyway. “I’ll cut to the chase: I am after the Stone Mirror-”

“And why would I help you with that?”

“Silence!” he commanded. Amy scoffed, turning her head away. “Now... Why don’t we speak in private, hm?” With a snap of his metallic fingers, the heavy arms all snaked away from Amy, putting her down on her feet gingerly. She gazed from bot to bot with caution. Metal pointed at the wooden staircase with both arms. “After you.”

“Hmph!” Carefully, Amy made her way past each of Metal Sonic’s minions and then himself. They began up the stairs while he followed her closely. He looked away for a moment to signal something to the others; Amy saw an opening. In an instant, her hammer appeared in her fist as she swung around to smash it into the side of his face, knocking him off the third step and onto the floor. 

Metal Sonic shook his head violently as the light in his left eye flickered. Unfortunately for Amy, it didn’t actually impair his vision and he managed to catch up to her in a manner of seconds. H3 was already whipping his arms around and charging at Amy when Metal Sonic came up from behind to restrain her. “H3, stop at once!” The small henchmen dove onto his back at the sudden command, sliding across the deck with his extended arms dangling behind. He crashed into a beam feet-first, causing it to rattle. 

Kicking and flailing, Amy was only able to bring her weapon down behind her, repeatedly hammering the top of Metal’s head. “Let! Me! Go!”

“What do you even plan to do once you ‘destroy’ me? I told you, there’s nowhere to go- And stop the incessant hammering!” He pulled one of his arms away from her, seizing her hammer and chucking it overboard. The repeated hits to the head finally took out the LEDs in his left eye as it went out completely. He pushed her away and she turned back to him. To his surprise, the giant mallet was already back in her grip when she did. “What- How? Why?!”

Amy was breathing heavily, holding her hammer to her front defensively. Realistically, she knew he was right- even if she managed to take him and the others out, she’d just be lost at sea. Maybe he really wasn’t trying to hurt her… he had asked that smaller robot to stop attacking, after all. But Amy couldn’t see what good giving him access to the Stone Mirror would do. “What do you want with the mirror, anyway?” she asked, doubting he’d give a straight answer.

Metal Sonic straightened up into a neutral pose, smoothing down his lapel. His glare softened as an eyelid cast down over his functioning eye. “I shall tell you… After you stop dripping all over my deck.” Amy winced, realizing how sopping wet she still was from her dip in the ocean. Saltwater dripped from her quills and dress and had begun to puddle at her feet. “There’s a change of clothes in my quarters. Will you stop being combative and listen?”

Lowering her hammer- but not putting it away- Amy nodded reluctantly. “You first this time.”

“... Very well.” Metal Sonic led the way across the elevated deck to a set of double doors, opening one and motioning for Amy to enter. She hung back suspiciously. Metal rolled the eye he had left and entered first, allowing her to close the door behind them. Once inside, he plopped down on a large armchair, propping his feet up on the wooden table in front of him. “I’ve set something out for you there,” he pointed at an antique screen in the corner of the room. “Try not to take all night.”

Amy’s glare didn’t stray until she was safely behind the screen, when she put away her hammer. There was a frilled white blouse and ankle-length maroon skirt hanging beside some black stockings and red boots. A towel hung over the screen. Is he serious? She hesitated for a moment, wondering how she ever ended up in such a scenario, playing dress-up for one of her worst enemies. But the situation was hopeless if she didn’t comply. She just had to play along and wait for backup for the time being…

After 10 minutes of waiting, Metal grew impatient. “Do you need assistance?” he mocked.

“No!” Amy emerged a moment later, awkwardly shoving the bottom of the shirt into the bell-shaped skirt. She’d slipped the compass and spyglass into each of her sleeves in the absence of pockets. “Thanks for the clothes or whatever, but why this?”

Ignoring her question, Metal stood and approached her. She took a step back. “Hm… Needs accessories.” His heavy steps clopped against the hardwood floor as Metal strode to another box of costumes. He dug out a set of square scarves and made his way back to where she stood, as non-threateningly as possible. Standing silently, Amy crossed her arms over the front of her body; she didn’t know what to expect. “Would you try these on?”

Amy was in disbelief. What did he want with her that required such a costume? She took the large square of fabric from him and examined them, unsure what she was meant to do. “Uh…”

“Allow me.” Metal held out an unassuming arm. The annoyance on Amy’s face was clear as she placed them back in his hand and brought her hands up to her hips impatiently. “Lift your arms.”

“What?”

“These go around your waist. Now, lift your arms.”

She did what he asked with a grumble, gasping as he tightened each of them around her and tied the ends into forceful knots. Metal took a step back and admired her outfit. “Yes, very ‘pirate,’ don’t you think?” He motioned to a floor mirror across the room.

“I guess…” Keeping his reflection in her sights, Amy walked over to it. She was incredibly weirded out by his insistence, but supposed it could have been worse…

Her captor’s reflection grew nearer as he came up next to her, examining his face. “You really did a number on my eye; I’m impressed. But I wonder if it’ll affect…” 

“Hrm- I put on your silly outfit, now will you tell me what you want?”

The single burning eye on his face shot at her briefly. Rather than frightened, the girl seemed irritated at the situation. He measured her heart rate- it was consistent with that of a person at rest now. Her behavior was almost admirable. “It is only fair,” he said, taking a seat back at the table. “Sit.”

 “Is the word ‘please’ in your vocabulary?” she spat back.

Another eye-roll from Metal. “Please… sit.” Amy complied. She squirmed a bit as she sat, feeling restrained by the many layers around her midsection. She wondered silently if that was part of his plan. “The Stone Mirror. It allows one to become their ‘most desired self,’ is that correct?”

There was no way Metal Sonic should have known that. “I don’t know what you’re on about.”

His eye narrowed at her. “Fine- I will be honest. I know this only from spying on you and your friends. I have nothing to hide.”

“Is admitting it supposed to make it better?”

“No… I suppose not.” He leveraged himself against the table to stand. That glowing eye followed Amy as he paced around the perimeter of the table until he stopped at her side. “I know what the mirror is capable of, and I would like your help to retrieve it.” Leaning back on the table, he pointed at the cuffs of her sleeves. “The compass, if you will…” 

“You still haven’t told me why you kidnapped me.”

There was a silent pause. Metal locked his gaze with hers and softened his tone. “You are a compassionate person, Amy Rose. I believe you will understand my need to obtain this artifact.”

“Which is?”

He feigned another sigh. “I am growing tired of being under The Doctor’s command. He has given me some freedom, but…” Looking up, he crossed his arms defensively. “What I am most interested in is my autonomy.” His “acting” would have been impeccable if what he was saying was at all a lie. He hadn’t gotten around to his scheme yet.

“Okay…” The frown on her face told him she was listening, but still wary.

“I do not believe I will be able to achieve that in this form, you see.”

“So, what form are you trying to take? Another giant monster?”

“An organic form,” he responded simply.

Amy was taken aback. “A… A what?” Metal’s engine hummed in the quiet air. He began moving again, circling behind Amy, who didn’t take her eyes off him until he stopped on her other side. She wanted to stare at him intensely, to show that she wasn’t letting her guard down, but there was an impossible longing on his face. It was hard to look directly at him.

“It’s simple- I am a robot. I have an advanced AI far beyond that of others like me, but… There is something missing. This body, although immortal and perfect in design, seems to weigh me down.” He knelt down beside her so he was no longer looming, believing it made him appear more humble. “I wish to think for my own… to feel.” 

The moment was uncomfortable. Amy recoiled slightly when he’d come down, trying in vain to avoid locking eyes with him. He sounded so sincere. How could it be possible? “Wh- Why didn’t you just take the compass and run? Why did you have to bring me?”

“I took you so your friends wouldn’t attack me directly and spoil my plans.”

“So I’m a shield?”

“Not quite. I could have taken anyone- I chose you because,” he reached a hand out, gently taking hold of one of hers. She snatched it back with a glare. “Hm. I chose you because I believed you would understand my need and if the necessity arose, you could help me convince your team... I suppose I was mistaken,” he pushed himself upright.

“Wait,” Amy felt like she would regret it, but her good nature didn’t allow her to walk away from someone who seemed so desperate to change for the better- especially an enemy. “Can you… really not be free like this? You seem to have your own will…”

The trap was working. Metal found it easier to keep up the charade than he originally thought. “My thoughts and feelings are simulated. Would you feel ‘free’ if someone could reprogram you and take your memories at any moment?”

“Does… does Eggman do that?”

“... He has.” That wasn’t a lie.

“Oh,” Amy breathed. She held onto her wrists tightly, feeling for the compass and spyglass. This could all be a trap, she could be walking to her doom, and yet… “How do I know you’re not just gonna turn around and transform into something horrible?”

“You don’t. But…” he loomed over her chair slightly. “I will get what I want. You can either help me, or be stranded on the first remote island we come across until your friends rescue you. As it stands, you are only added assurance. The choice is yours.” 

So he was back to threatening her. Amy thought about it- he really didn’t need her. If he had evil intentions, Metal Sonic could have just as easily taken what he wanted from her and locked her up, or worse. Instead, he asked for her help. It was unprecedented. Then again, Amy thought she could at the very least stall him- pry into his plan and see if she could discern whether he was being truthful... And it was either that or become a castaway.

She turned back to him with resolve on her face. “Fine, I’ll help you.”

The first phase of the plan was officially a success. Now, all Metal needed to do was keep up the act and use her presence to his advantage should her friends catch up to them. Better not to celebrate, yet- he didn’t want to sound too confident. “Thank you, Amy Rose. I knew I could count on you.” He extended his hand once more, this time waiting for her response. She stood up and shook it with a nod.

“Just Amy is fine. And I hope this means you’ll start thinking for yourself instead of blindly coming after us.”

“Cutting words, Amy…” He may have held her in that handshake a bit harder than necessary as she couldn’t hide the slight wince in her eyes. “Now, the compass.”

A sly smile spread on her face. “No ‘please’?” 

Cheeky. Perhaps, Metal thought, she would be more interesting to keep as company than he thought. “Please,” he said in a low growl, drawing her in closer with a harsh tug. 

“Ugh,” Amy yanked her hand away from him distastefully. “Here, weirdo.” She pulled the compass from her sleeve and tossed it to him.

“Hm. I believe the next words are ‘thank you.’” Metal examined the compass front and back. “Perhaps you think you’ve stumped me without the little spyglass in the sunset, but…” A purplish glow came from his eye as he cast it down on the navigation device. “I am still a robot, after all.” 

With a scoff, Amy crossed her arms. She’d hoped to buy herself some time by not sharing the “solution” with him, but of course, he had a sharp eye. If she wasn’t able to trick him, she’d just have to get in his way.

“An inscription and all. So theatrical,” Metal chuckled. “Even back then, one could simply shine a red light upon this and use the glass filter…”

“You’re one to talk about theatrics.” She wasn’t sure if she should nod toward his outfit or the entire ship.

He let out a metallic laugh. “And here I thought you’d be entertained by all this. Come, we can finally navigate.” 

With that, Metal Sonic led Amy out onto the main deck. She followed him cautiously, taking note of her surroundings. Each of the little henchmen clinked their clamped hands to their heads as their master passed. They were cute in their strange little way, their wide smiles making them look silly for the most part. Amy couldn’t help cracking a smile at the one who stood under the roof of the helm.  She gave him a little wave and he reacted by springing his arms to the side and doing a handstand. “Pfff!” Amy cracked up.

“H1- stop fooling around. The sails need turning,” Metal demanded. H1 kept Amy giggling as he curled into a ball and rolled down the deck. “I will never know why they are such clowns…”

“Aw, lighten up! They’re fun. Well, when they’re not trying to strangle me.”

Metal ignored her, instead using the compass to navigate. “It seems we just have to go in the opposite direction from where this points. The glowing arrow is hardly necessary.” 

“I guess,” Amy shrugged. “Looks cool, though.” She appeared much more relaxed after the quick laugh. Supporting herself on a rail, she looked out into the dark waters. “You can’t see anything out there…”

“Well, you can’t.”

“And pretty soon neither will you. Might wanna start getting acclimated.”

The proud attitude Metal took toward his mechanical body was probably best hidden for the time being. He made a note to dial down the cockiness. “I suppose you have a point. We will light some lanterns, then.”

The great vessel turned gradually in the correct direction as the other minions brought out antique lanterns from the ship’s displays. They did little to light the ship’s way, but Amy at least had a way to see where she was going aboard. Metal Sonic gave her free access to its entirety, but she was more interested in watching the stars from under the unspoiled sky. He observed as she cocked her head up and around to capture what she could with what he only assumed was a much narrower ocular scope than his own. Still, her curiosity was interesting as it unfolded before him. Amy had surely seen the night sky before, yet she craned her head to stare up at it so intently. It was… cute. That word seemed to be thrown in her direction a lot.

Grumbling in her stomach caused Amy to turn her attention to her hunger. She worried there wouldn’t be anything to eat on a ship manned entirely by machines. “Hey,” she called out to him from the lower deck, “uh, do you have any food? I haven’t eaten in a while…”

Food. It hadn’t crossed his mind. Of course, organics liked to- no, needed to eat to survive. He scolded himself for the oversight. “We… did not bring any aboard.”

“Seriously?”

Surely, there had to be something on board as the vessel was operating just two days prior. “The galley, perhaps? Follow me.”

Metal descended the steps that led from the helm and beckoned for Amy to join him in the lower guns. He kept the layout of the ship in his vision as they navigated most of the way into its belly, finally reaching the kitchen down below. Luckily, there was a light switch and Amy was able to put down her lantern as she took in the sight of the huge space.

“Woah… That’s no galley…” she stepped inside, admiring the stainless steel countertops and modern, oversized refrigerators and industrial ovens. “This must be the catering kitchen,” she concluded, opening a fridge. It was full of food just waiting to be prepared.

“Ah, yes. I believe there was to be a wedding here until I commandeered the ship…”

“You took someone’s entire wedding venue?” Amy asked in shock. “I thought you were evil before…”

He supposed that was meant to be a quip, but he didn’t find the humor in her words. Metal walked calmly to one of the stovetops and tested the switch, which was working normally. “It appears everything here is operational. I’ll leave you to it.” He turned on his heel and made for the exit, byt stopped. She would need a place to sleep, too. “I suppose you’ll need sleeping quarters, as well- find me when you’re through and I’ll assign you a room.” 

“Uh-huh,” Amy answered half-heartedly. She was too busy deciding what to cook for herself and trying to figure out how to split the huge, catering-sized portions for one. 

It took some creativity, but she managed to make something that would last her a couple of meals. Amy didn’t feel great about all the stolen food, but beggars can’t be choosers. Once she’d eaten and cleaned up, Amy picked up the precarious lantern and began her way up the many steps to the main deck. There are modern appliances here and they couldn’t be bothered to get me a flashlight? Amy still didn’t understand what the pirate charade was about, but she had to admit how cute she looked in the historical outfit. Pirates were definitely cooler than sailors; she wished she’d thought of it.

She finally reached the floor below the upper deck to find Metal Sonic sitting at a table in the corridor, wiping and inspecting the blade of a sword. It was creepy. “Hey… I’m done eating.” She held up the lantern awkwardly.

“Have you ever used one of these?” he flicked his wrist, brandishing the sword above him.

“Uh… can’t say I really have.”

“Would you like to?”

Amy clicked her tongue impatiently. “I would like to take a shower and know where I’ll be sleeping.” 

The tip of the sword found its way quite startlingly into the wooden table-top as Metal stood. “‘Lighten up,’” he mocked her. 

“Are you gonna be this good at copying people when your programming disappears?” Amy did her best to look unphased, but her heart jumped when he stuck the sword into the table. It was beating a bit quicker now.

A monocular, dead-pan stare met her eyes. “Will being organic make me as dull as you?”

Even after years of intense battles and struggling bitterly against him, Amy never wanted to wack Metal Sonic harder than she did then. The whole situation was unbelievably annoying- trapped on a ship with a cocky narcissist. A dangerous one- the thought ran through her mind. Amy had to take a step back- once he changed, if he changed, he would be much less of a threat. If she wasn’t staying aboard for him, she hoped, she was at least doing it for the greater good. That at least gave her some comfort. “Just tell me where it is, I’ll go myself.”

Metal leaned an arm on the table with disinterest. “Down two floors and down the hall to your right. It will be hard to miss.”

“Hmph,” Amy took off, trodding back down the stairs. Other than a short temper, he was impossible to read. She had to find a way to learn more about his intentions.

Amy followed his instructions, arriving in a dark corridor. Amy squinted in the dim light, groping for a light switch. Once she found it, she was in awe. Ornate molding lined the ceiling and fine art hung from the walls. It must have been part of the wedding venue.

She admired the paintings leading down the hall until reaching a door with a gold handle. Bridal Suite was printed on a plaque that hung next to it. Entering, Amy found a bright white room furnished with a canopy bed and vanity, among other lavish furniture. Her irritability quickly melted away as she took in the luxurious surroundings. Maybe staying aboard the strange ship wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

-------

Hi yall so I’m taking a break from writing Unfamiliar as I outline the last few chapters. It’ll be back early 2021 ❤️

ALSO I meant to finish this in time for @metamy-ship-week prompt 7 (free day) but it ended up a lot longer than I expected - hope you don’t mind me tagging it!

Part 2 of this should be up in the next few days! Love yall besos 

#metamy #metal sonic x amy rose #metal sonic #amy rose #MetamyShipWeek2020 #metamy week #sonic fanfiction #sth #pirates

[true-blue-sonic]

Potential spoilers for Sonic 2022/Sonic Rangers and lots of rambles and ideas about how I think the game might work under the cut!

So with the news of Sonic Rangers getting me quite excited indeed, I’ve been mulling over some things, namely: how would an open-world Sonic game actually work? It’s something I’ve seen fans ask for for ages, so it’s great to see that it might get realised! Obligatory side-note: the only true open-world game I have ever played is Breath of the Wild, so all my experience with the genre is based on that game alone.

To get right to the point: from what I know, the main focus of open-world games is being able to explore, explore, explore! Next to beautiful scenery and challenging terrains the world map is littered with sidequests and collectables so you actually have something to travel to, as well. Although Sonic has experience with hub worlds, he’s never had a true open world to play through that wasn’t split up in Zones and Acts. That allows for lots of opportunities, but there are also some things I am very curious about regarding how this will be tackled!

So, the first ‘problem’ of sorts I can come up with is Sonic’s speed. This dude can run at the speed of sound, which for me can cause two potential issues related to his moving speed and world size. We want Sonic to be fast, but we also want a large world, and I can foresee some difficulties there. As such I quickly came up with two scenarios to describe solutions to both: 

In the first scenario, Sonic is… basically Not Fast, in order to be able to keep the world size to more manageable levels. He’ll be kind of like a Lost World!Sonic, where he wasn’t particularly fast either. While it would certainly help the development team with creating the map, since there is less to render and program, I feel like it would be somewhat unsatisfactory to play around in such a limited space with a slow hedgie.

In the second scenario, Sonic can run at Boost-level speeds, but in order for exploring and gameplay to be satisfying the would the world will have to be massive for it to feel like an actual place. If you can run from one edge to the other in minutes at best it’ll likely stifle the sense of immersion and desire to explore that open-world games (should) instil, and just like in the first scenario this wouldn’t feel very rewarding and fun to me either. This scenario will certainly be more of a challenge to realise for the development team, though I do hope they’re taking this route; the more places there are to travel around in, the better!

A second problem I can think of is how Sonic’s speed will influence gameplay. Going by the second scenario where Sonic can run pretty quickly, I fear that it’ll make gameplay, especially the puzzle and platforming sections, quite difficult. No-one likes flinging themselves off a cliff accidentally when trying to go just a bit faster during a puzzle or platforming section, after all! I’d say this is luckily solved easily enough by implementing the controls they had in Lost World (a run button… sorry everyone) combined with the boost mechanics; it would make Sonic able to walk, run at a controllable pace, and boost at high speeds at the same time. Especially with the current consoles it should be possible to give each an individual button, so you don’t go flying off the map when you just want to run slowly instead! And it would make the world more fun too: you can go fast if you so desire, or you can take it more easy and look around if you want while still going at a decent pace.

I was also thinking about what the world itself could look like. One of the problems in ‘06 is its massive hub worlds... with absolutely nothing in them to make them even remotely interesting, nor a way to travel around through them quickly. I do believe this is solved in Rangers by packing the game with puzzles and platforming sections, which would imply that there’s plenty of things to do! That’s assuring, at least for me.

Also, in BotW, one of the main features of exploring is Link’s ability to climb just about anything if the weather is nice. Now, I must say that I really don’t see Sonic as a climber, someone who can realistically scale mountains and high buildings at ease. The leak does say that platforming is involved, though that is not exactly the same as climbing. Maybe we’ll get something parkour-like like we got in Lost World, with Sonic being able to run against walls and thus reaching higher places that wat? It would certainly allow for more opportunities to traverse over the map, while also adding something more original to the genre.  

I have tons of questions too. The main one as of now is if we will be able to play with other characters, e.g. with each having a special power that allows them to explore the world differently? (E.g. Sonic’s faster speed, Tails’ flight, Knuckles’ digging, and Amy’s hammer, to name a few). I’d love that, though I’m not getting my hopes up. Perhaps it is preferable that the development team focuses on Sonic exclusively and give him a solid moveset, instead of needing to program a dozen characters while risking only one or two actually play satisfactory. I’m sure we’ll get more details about that and the alleged human ghost girl soon enough, though! I can’t wait ^-^

This is just my thoughts and what I think might happen in the game! I’m very much looking forward to learning more about it!

#sonic rangers #again this is just my own thoughts and opinions #but I'm very curious what it will become! #sonic the hedgehog

[another-sonic-blog]

The Fanfictioner Ch.1

Pineapple Pizza

The Fanfictioner

Pineapple Pizza

10K (ShadAmy)

.

.

.

The moon was above them and although it was a cold night, they didn't care. Sonic got closer to Amy, emeralds eyes shone brightly with love and desire. He caressed her as he softly placed his hands around her face, pulling her closer to him. Amy licked her lips as they begged to be touched by the blue blur. They have fought to be together for a long time and now nothing was stopping them. Finally, they could express and show their love to the world with no restrictions, with complete freedom. Sonic got closer to his lover, their lips just a few centimeters away and then-

"Amy, what are you writing?"

The pink hedgehog slammed shut her laptop as she mentally cursed for not being more delicate. Today was filming day but she promised her followers that she was going to update a new chapter of 'Falling Petals' by tonight. Of course, like the good fanfic writer that she was, she always kept her promises.

Amy shifted her body from the chair to look at the standing blue hedgehog behind her. She tried to hide the panic on her face but it seemed like this picked Sonic's interest even more.

"Um... my shopping list?" That came out more like a question than a statement. Once again, she cursed under her breath because although Sonic wasn't the smartest hedgehog out there, he wasn't dumb either.

"Then why are you acting so ... strange?"

Sonic had the sincerest of interest. He cared for the pink one and her recent actions had just baffled him. Recently, Amy was acting quite strangely. Before Sonic was free to use her laptop whenever he wanted and now, she kept it to herself and hid it as her life depended on it. The blue bur knew that Amy likes to write from time to time but now? Sonic found her writing whenever he visited her at her house. She would be checking her phone constantly and even smiled as she typed on it. The thought had crossed his mind that maybe Amy was 'seeing' someone and the thought alone just made him pay more attention to her.

"Are you sure-"

"Everyone get on ready on set!"

Amy was saved by the show's director once again. She smiled awkwardly at her blue friend as she placed her laptop on her chair. She heard Sonic sigh in defeat and Amy felt a little bit bad that she made her friend and love interest worried. However, she just couldn't go to him and say 'Hey, I know I have been acting strange but it's because I am writing fanfiction of Sonic Boom and I don't want you to think I am weird.'

Amy greeted everyone as she stepped on set. The camera, lighting crew and just every who crossed her path. Of course, her friends were there as well looking as fresh as they could be. They were outdoors and currently they were filming Sonic Boom's most recent and most wanted episode 52 of season 1.

"Hey, guys! Amy greeted her friends, Sticks, Knuckles, and Tails as they waved their hands from right to left, Sonic followed from behind.

Amy's attention was focused on the red echidna who had sleepy eyes. This was very strange because Amy knew that Knuckles was one who appreciated his sleep especially because he always woke up early morning to go workout.

"Hey Knuckles, you alright?" Amy asked. "You look very sleepy.

Knuckles let out a yawn as he stretched his body. "I didn't sleep much I was binge reading this book I found online and-

"WHERE IN CHAOS IS SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG?" The director of the show screamed in desperation as everyone was ready to go but the star of today's episode.

" I still can't believe they hired Shadow the Hedgehog to do this roll." Tails said with a bit of amusement in his voice. "I mean he is the same guy who appeared in Chao in Space 2."

"And in Anti-Vengers the Final Game," Sticks added.

"And in Fast and the Glorious 8," said Knuckles.

"It makes me wonder if Sonic Boom produces that much money for them to pay someone like him," Amy looked from side to side, in hopes that the black hedgehog would appear. She hasn't met him yet and if she was completely honest, she looking forward to his approval.

"He is not that big of a deal," Sonic rolled his eyes in annoyance. "I mean, I was in Chao in Space 2 as well."

"Yeah, as a side character. Shadow was actually the protagonist." Tails was saying this because it was the truth and not to annoy his blue friend. However, it was quite funny to see Sonic jealous over at Shadow the Hedgehog's accomplishments. Tails were lowkey a fanboy of the black hedgehog, although he would never admit that out loud.

"What is all of this fuzz about? I am right here,"

Finally, the hedgehog that everyone was waiting for arrived. He had an energy drink on his right hand and in one gulp he drank all of it. He then turned around to give it to his assistant who quickly took the can away from him. He stepped on the set where the rest of 'Team Sonic' waited to start.

"Mr. Hedgehog, nice to meet you!" Tails said as he extended out his hand, shaking a little due to the excitement. "I am Tails Miles Prower and I-"

"Yeah, I know who you are," Shadow said with a monotone voice.

The yellow fox leaned into Amy's ear and he whispered, 'Did you hear that Amy? He knows me.'

"You are the only one who has ... descent acting skills," Shadow let out mocking laughter as he looked down on the rest of the 'actors.'

Everyone looked at him, offended at his comment. It seems like the rumors that the black hedgehog had a prepotent personality was true.

"Says the one who can only portray edgy characters."

Everyone turned to look at Amy in disbelief. Actually, she had thought of that in her head but in one way or another, it came out of her mouth. The set was filled with silence until Sonic let out a big laugh and wrapped his right arm around Amy's shoulder.

"That was a good one Ames!" Sonic said.

Shadow wasn't expecting that from the pink hedgehog in front of him. Who did she think she was? She was no one compared to the great acting career he has had. Of course, he wasn't going down without a fight.

"My apologies, I don't accept criticism from people who can't even act," Shadow replied.

"Well maybe if you did, you would get a different type of role from time to time," Amy replied.

By now Team Sonic was static. There was so much tension between the two and they had only met two seconds ago. Vermillion eyes met emerald ones and neither one of them wanted to quit the internal battle.

Shadow the Hedgehog had to admit, this was interesting.

"Shadow!" Sonic Boom's director interrupted the moment as he had finally eyed the black hedgehog. "You are late! What were you doing?"

Mia, a brown girl hedgehog, and Shadow's assistant was watching the scene unfold from afar. She watched the director seated on his high chair and to prevent Shadow from getting scolded, she answered on his behalf.

"He didn't get enough sleep yesterday sir-" Mia said loud enough but the director, who was an old and strict monkey, raised his hand and interrupted her.

"I want him to tell him,"

In all honesty, if it wasn't because he was the director, Shadow would have said something offensive. However, the black hedgehog always had a sense of responsibility and respect towards his job and especially to the director.

Shadow sighed and looked up to the director, "I was up all night on my phone ... reading."

"Hey, me too!" Knuckles said in surprise. "I was reading this really good story about our show and-"

"I am sure that whatever you were reading doesn't compare to what I was reading," Shadow interrupted him and rolled his eyes

The director faced palmed himself and loudly he said, "I don't care! Just make sure this doesn't happen again, Mr. Hedgehog."

Shadow couldn't say anything more. It was his first day on set and he almost wanted to leave ... almost.

"Yes, sir."

.

.

.

The day ended worse than Amy expected. Shadow wasn't only prepotent, he was mean, rude and jerk. He took in every opportunity he had to bully and tease the hell at out of Amy. The black hedgehog mocked her acting, made fun of her lines and bumped into her multiple times.

And today has only been the first day of filming for this month's episode. Good thing that filming only took around two weeks to complete due that the episodes were short. They started every first day of the month. Today was September 1, they will finish on September 14 and they will have the rest of the month free. Thirteen more days to go, thirteen more days that she had to endure Shadow's presence on set.

She was quite disappointed when she found out who the real Shadow was. Just like her friend, Tails, Amy was secretly a fan of the acting he has done in the past. Although his roles were kind of repetitive, his acting was always exceptional. Even today, his acting techniques were really good, she even liked the character he was portraying.

Amy stretched her back as had finally reached the insides of her home. During today's break, she was able to finish the last chapter of 'Falling Petals' and to make it extra special, she wrote a 20 thousand final chapter. This chapter was filled with a lot of drama, romance, and fights which will lead to the second book. She couldn't wait to just upload it to her page so her readers will enjoy and maybe cry a little with her writing.

After showering and changing to her pajamas, Amy comfortably laid on her bed with her computer on her legs. She logged into fanfiction.com where she had already hundredth of comments in her work, reading for her to read. She always made sure to reply to them whenever she had the chance. The pink hedgehog even had created a bond with a couple of people who always commented on her fanfics. She scrolled down the comment section as she replied to them and a familiar username came into her screen.

"I've following your work since I stumbled upon 'The Forest of Dreams: A Love Story' and in all honesty, you are the best fanfiction writer out there. You improved so much and now every story you publish is great and you develop the characters amazingly well. Yesterday, I was re-reading all 30 previous chapters of 'Falling Petals' and I got late to work but it was worth it. I can't wait to read the final chapter tonight."

By: The Fanfictioner

Amy smiled to herself, she was always happy to read comments and it was one of the few things that kept her going through the day. She took a few moments to think about what to write and finally she began to type.

"This means a lot to me. 'The Forest of Dreams: A Love Story' was the first story I wrote and I am really happy you still enjoy it. I appreciate you a lot, I see that you always like and comment on my work. I'll keep working hard for you and my other readers. I hope you like the last chapter of 'Falling Petals' ... Thank you!"

By: A Rose Without Thorns

After she finished typing and hitting 'Enter', our adorable pink hedgie was now ready to publish the last chapter of her latest work. She uploads her writing file from her laptop, publishes it and waits for her reader's reaction. Amy closes her laptop and places it next to her, closing her eyes, the pink hedgehog drifted into sleep.

.

.

.

"CAN YOU GUYS BELIEVE SONIC LEFT AMY TO GO SAVE THE WORLD?!" Knuckles, who has his bubbly self again was walking right and left on the set. "AFTER EVERYTHING THEY WENT THROUGH, HE LEAVES!"

"Knuckles, I am right here," Sonic said as he read a magazine. It was early morning and 'Team Sonic' was waiting for everyone to arrive. "Also, I am not going anywhere. I have to save enough folks on the island as it is."

"I am not talking about you! I am talking about the Sonic on the story I was reading!" Knuckles replied again. "The writer said that they will publish a second book, so I have hope that they will end up together."

Amy, who was sitting on the actor's small chair circle, was interested in what Knuckles was reading. Especially since it seemed like he read the last chapter of her most recent work.

"Out of curiosity," Amy began. "What were you reading?"

"I read 'Falling Petals' by A Rose Without Thorns in fanxfiction.com," Knuckles replied. "I just love the writer's stories, they are so good!"

Amy hid her evident blush by taking a sip of her coffee.

"What if Knuckles is TheFanfictioner? He did say that he stayed up all night reading and his comment right now sounds a bit similar to the one of last night."

"Wait, fanxfiction.com?" Tails who was quietly drinking tea finally spoke up. "You read fanfiction?"

"I do," Knuckles said, still not seating down on his chair. "We need to support fans that create free content for others and besides ... Some of these writers are way better than the ones we have here."

"That, I do believe," Sticks puts down 'Theories Magazine', the issue of this month was government space theories. She was reading a very interesting story about a project that was created on a space colony and it was shut down due that scientists created a powerful ultimate life form.

"Still, it's lame," Sonic said, still not looking at his friends directly. "I understand your curiosity Knuckles, but I still think it's a bit weird. Especially the writer ... It's so cringy."

"It's not! Look!" Knuckles pulls out his phone and shoved into Sonic's face, making him drop the magazine that he was reading. "Read the first chapter! It's really good!"

The blue bur leaned his head a little, as he tried to catch a glimpse of Knuckle's phone. He read the first lines of the story and a smirk crossed his face. He grabbed Knuckle's phone and stood up from his seat.

"Although I was always pushed away by him, Sonic the Hedgehog was the only one for me." Sonic made his voice sound in a higher pitch, pretending to be the female hedgehog of the story. "His green eyes, his strong form, and heroic personality were some of the things that made me fall in love with him."

Tails and Sticks began to laugh. Even Knuckles who wasn't laughing at the story itself, but at Sonic's overly bad acting, let out a giggle or two.

"See? This is so bad!" Sonic said as he pointed to Knuckles' phone.

The blue one noticed that Amy was awfully quiet, just there, seating on her chair. As to look for her approval, Sonic asked, "Don't you think this is lame Amy? I mean just the fact that you love me is ridiculous enough!"

"Yeah, haha," Amy looked down to the floor, as she tried to hide her evident embarrassment. "It is pathetic."

She had never felt such embarrassment before. The pink one started this because she enjoyed writing and loved to write about the Sonic Boom characters. However, looking at her peer's reaction made her wonder. They were the ones who interpreted the characters and they thought it was lame. Maybe, she wasn't as good of a writer as she thought she was. Doubt filled her mind and before she could say or do anything else, Knuckles jumped to say something.

"You all are just uncultured," Knuckled said as he took his phone away from Sonic's grasp "You guys will never know how deep and life-changing 'Falling Petals' is until you read it-"

"Will everyone just shut up?"

The prince of dark and gloom appeared and to say that he looked bad was an understatement. Shadow the Hedgehog had dark circles under his red eyes. He arched his back and his stance was way too weak. He even looked sick. Shadow walked towards his chair and sat down with a cup of black coffee on his hand.

"Well, did someone forget to read today's script or something?" Sonic said mockingly.

"I had a very emotionally draining experience last night, I don't need your jokes at this moment," The black hedgehog replied. He was wearing a black leather jacket and out of it's right pocket, he pulled out some shades and puts them on.

"It wasn't a joke," said Sonic. "There was a change in plans yesterday and we are supposed to record another scene today, did you read your script?"

At that moment, Shadow thanked Chaos that he was wearing shades because otherwise, everyone would have seen his confused face.

Just like he sat down on his chair, he stood up again.

"I need to talk to my manager."

.

.

.

It was already 11 in the morning and they still haven't started filming. At this rate, they were just going to lose the day. It was September and the sunlight was running out short. Sonic Team was already eager to start but there was no sign of the director. Even less Shadow.

"Everyone takes one-hour break, come back at 12 P.M." The show director appeared. He had a tired face, one that showed that he was done with his job.

The director came into the circle of actors and approached Amy directly.

"Ms. Rose, I need to speak to you ... Privately," he said as he made a motion to follow him.

"Of course, Mr. Johnson," the pink hedgehog stood from her chair and followed the old monkey. Once again, they were supposed to be filming outdoors. They had closed a small part of Hedgehog Village so they could film. Her friends were on the other side while Amy and Mr. Johnson had already placed themselves behind the camera crew to get some privacy.

"Ms. Rose, I need a favor," Mr. Johnson said. Amy nodded, not expecting that from the director. "I need you to stay here and help Mr. Shadow the Hedgehog finish memorizing his script. I know you are the best at that."

Great, this is just what she needed. To spend her break time with Shadow, the rudest hedgehog she has ever known. She knew that this wasn't really a favor but part of her job and she normally wouldn't have cared. Amy was glad to help her friends memorize their scripts but Shadow? He was far from being her friend.

"I'll do it but, can I ask something?" Amy asked.

"Go ahead."

"Why is he here? Don't get me wrong but Sonic Boom doesn't seem like the type of show that an actor of his caliber would want to do."

The old monkey sighed and placed a hand on his forehead. "To be honest I don't even know either ... He just came in saying that he wanted to play a role in the show. He is charging us half the price he normally charges and this will definitely increase the rating of the show ... I know Shadow doesn't have the best personality but for everyone's sake ... Just be nice to him."

Amy nodded. She knew that Shadow was hard to deal with, but just like the director said, having the black hedgehog on the show will help everyone. More ranting equals more money. Also, there was a small part of Shadow that intrigued Amy. Why would he want to be in this show if he could literally be in anything he wanted? Maybe if she could make him open up a little she can find out.

The pink hedgehog looked back at her friends who were laughing again at her fanfiction as she saw that Sonic was once again holding up Knuckle's phone. Spending time with Shadow didn't seem so bad now.

.

.

.

It took all the strength in the world to come to terms with herself. Our pink lady was backing out of the previously made decision as she waited outside Shadow's dressing room. She knocked once and she wished for Chaos that whatever Shadow was doing will stop him from opening the door. Amy looked around nervously, it wasn't like she was afraid of the black hedgehog, well maybe just a tiny bit. She was more scared of having to go through an awkward situation or saying something that might cost her head. Incoming steps were heard by the pink one and in a blink of an eye, Shadow was in front of her holding the door open for her to step in. She looked at him with an awkward smile on her face as she made her way in, in a sense, it was her way of greeting him. Yesterday, they didn't have the best of days but maybe Amy could make up for that by helping him. As she made her way in, she realized that his dressing room was way fancier than hers. All black, a bed, a small kitchen, and even a small dining room. For all, she knew this could a small house.

"So," Amy pushed her thoughts away as she sat down on the small dining table. "Today's scene we are going to be introducing your character ... do you know any of the script yet?"

"Not really, I wasn't notified about today's change and I didn't have time yesterday, " Shadow sat down on the chair facing Amy.

"No worries, change in plans happen a lot around here so it's best if you get used to it now," the pink hedgehog kept her eyes glued to the script. "Alright, your dialogue start on page seven so let's go from there. If we can't finish memorizing the script then we can improvise-"

"Why are you helping me?"

The question took Amy by surprise, finally, she looked at the black hedgehog in front of her who had a monotone look on his face. His right hand served as support for his face as it delicately rested on his right cheek. The sunlight coming from the window highlighted Shadow's features and especially his eyes. Vermillion eyes studied her deeply and Amy could see why he was so popular with the ladies.

"To be honest, because they asked me to and ..." Amy sighed as she shook away the thought. "Because a part of me wants to start again with you."

"We didn't have a good start, did we?" Shadow looked outside the window as if he was in deep thought. Three seconds pass in which Amy thought it had been minutes, a very unpleasant feeling ran down her spine. She wanted to end with the awkwardness but Shadow beat her to it.

"There's no way I am going to memorize all 50 pages in one hour," Shadow said as he looked back at the pink hedgehog.

"Then improvise!" Amy replied. "This is your character, create your own dialogue."

"I don't know who this character is! And I am sure not even the writers know," Shadow stood up from the chair and walked towards the small bed that was across the dining table.

Amy looked over at the black hedgehog who was resting comfortably on his bed.

"Then even better! Make it your own!" Amy raised her voice a little. "Look, for what I know your character, 'Shadow', is mysterious and rude but he actually cares for others. He just doesn't know how to properly show it."

Shadow looked over to Amy and with a plain expression he asked, "Meaning?"

Amy stood up from her chair and placed herself in front of the black and red striped hedgehog. She looked at him as she placed her hands on her waist. "Meaning that maybe he had a tragic past, something that explains his personality. It makes him an interesting character ... You can work something from that."

"I don't know, doesn't it sound too-"

Shadow would have never expected what happened next. At one moment, he was laying peacefully on his bed. The next moment, he was still laying peacefully on his bed but the difference was that Amy was on top of him. Her hands were placed on the sides of his head. Her legs were slightly touching his as she had positioned them to each side of his legs.

"You need to stop!" Amy said, her face very close to Shadow's. "You have beaten up my friends! Why are you after us?"

Shadow blinked multiples times. First, nothing made sense but his brain connected the dots. This was similar to the scene he read on the script. Where Sonic pinned him down to the ground after a fight. He was pressured and he only had a few seconds, what should he respond?

"I am not after you nor your friends! I am trying to complete my mission and you are just on the way!"

A few seconds passed in which Amy and Shadow only stared at each other's eyes. Amy was looking at him, surprised that he actually followed along with her plan. And Shadow? Where he was starting to get lost. Lost in the pink one's emerald eyes and for a small fraction of a second, he had forgotten where he was.

"That was good!" Amy said as she made Shadow wake up from his trance. "It's a bit vague but that leaves up to interpretation and further build-up for the story."

The pink hedgehog moved away and took a sit on the edge of Shadow's bed. She didn't think too much about it. However, Shadow couldn't let go of that thought that easily.

"You are a strange one," Shadow said as he sat down on the edge of the bed, next to the pink one. "Last time someone confronted me like that was Rouge and it was a different circumstance."

"Rouge as ..." Amy gulped. " Rouge the Bat? The famous actress?"

"Yeah, do you know her?"

"Of course, I do! She is the best actress of our generation! She is great!" Amy said excitedly. Shadow noticed that Amy's tail was wiggling from side to side, it was something that he would normally make fun of but he had to admit that it is cute on her.

At that moment, Amy remembered that a couple of days ago she was reading a celebrities' magazine. There was a rumor saying that Shadow the Hedgehog and Rouge the Bat were in a secret relationship. She wanted to ask him about it but decided not to since that would be crossing the boundaries. Maybe she would ask ... Later on, if they ever get to be that open with each other.

"Anyways," Amy turned around to look at Shadow, who was once again looking at her with his vermillion eyes. "Should we practice a little more?"

.

.

.

Filming the scene did not only go great but Shadow got praised from everyone after the shooting. Even Sonic had to admit that he had done a good job and Mr. Johnson went personally to Shadow and thanked him for his commitment to his character. Every time this happened, Shadow looked back at Amy and gave her a small smile to acknowledge her help. He didn't exactly thank her, but Amy knew this was the best thing she could get from him.

More days like this came. In two weeks, Team Sonic had slowly made up their minds that Shadow was going to be sticking around for some time. There was still some conflict from time to time but it wasn't anything that they couldn't handle. The black hedgehog would even 'compliment' the other members once in a while. 'Not half bad', 'Could be better but it wasn't horrible', 'If you are going to say that, at least keep your head up. It will make you look more credible.'

Shadow had slowly made his way into the Sonic Boom family and nobody was complaining. He still had his prepotency and pride, which he would show more often than his soft side. But at least he was trying. Amy Rose didn't care now. He wasn't interfering with her job nor she was interfering with his. They didn't have much communication since she helped him improvise. Maybe just the casual, 'Is there any coffee?' and a 'Yes, it's over there.'

It was the last day of filming and as usual, Amy said goodbye to everyone on set. She won't be seeing them until next month so she made sure she got to say her goodbyes to every last one of them. Finally, her friends were last. She didn't care too much about saying goodbye to them because she knew she will seem them in the next couple of days. Probably when Eggman is attacking or something like that. Strange enough, Eggman never attacked them on filming days, it was as if he knew and didn't want to ruin their day on purpose.

"I say we should go to the beach soon," Knuckles said.

"I am down," Tails said and Sticks nodded in agreement.

"Same," Sonic was then quick to turn around and face Amy who seemed to look at something or rather someone else. In hopes that she will give him some attention, Sonic raised his voice a little. "What about you Ames? Do you want to go to the beach?"

"What about Shadow?"

Amy's response wasn't the answer Sonic was looking for and instead, he proceeded to walk towards the pink hedgehog and placed his arm around her shoulder in hopes to comfort her. "I don't think he is the type to go to the beach."

"Should we at least invite him?" Amy said, still looking away. She was a bit embarrassed that Sonic was doing this more and more often. "I mean just out of courtesy ...It doesn't matter if he says no."

"I guess if you want to you can do that but ..." The blue one faced the direction that Amy was looking at. His green eyes met the black figure and a small hint of jealousy treated to overtake the blue blur seeing that Amy was giving too much attention to Shadow. "You are still coming with us, right?"

The pink hedgehog had finally faced her blue hero and saw a small smile placed on his lips. She returned it and kindly she said, 'Of course!'

.

.

.

Shadow the Hedgehog was glad that the filming was done. A part of him was enjoying filming for this low-quality show but he still felt relieved that this was over ... for now. He walked outside the set where his beautiful black motorcycle waited for him. Today was going to be a relaxing night. Just him, a glass of wine and re-reading some of his favorite stories.

"Hey, Shadow!"

The black hedgehog recognized that voice, he turned around and met a running pink hedgie running towards him. Almost out of breath as if she had been looking for him everywhere. When she finally reached him, she took a few seconds to get air back into her lungs. Shadow watched every single moment of her and waited until she was ready to speak again.

"This month's episode is coming out next week. To celebrate the launching, my friends and I are going to the beach," Amy looked around, a bit nervous to look at him in the eyes. "I was wondering, I mean, we were wondering if you wanted to join us?"

Alright, this was something he had never experienced before. He was usually invited by other acting peers to go to parties and formal get-togethers where a large group of people were present. However, he had never been invited to such an 'intimate' activity before. Going to the beach? As like playing volleyball together? As building sandcastles? Doing a cookout and eating together after playing in the water?

Was Amy Rose that crazy?

"My apologies," Shadow said. "I am not interested in such things."

Amy mentally sighed in relieve, her job here was done. "It's alright! I won't see you for a while so if you need a friend, hit me up. I am one phone call away."

The rose hedgehog was already making her way out, she walked a few steps away until she felt something small hit her head.

She turned around again to face Shadow who was proudly playing with pebbles on his hand. "You said to hit you up if I need a friend."

Amy didn't know how to react to that. It was clever and even sweet of him. However, Amy didn't know until what extent he meant his words or if he was just saying it to tease her.

But she was about to find out.

"Well," Amy walked towards the black hedgehog, a small smirk decorated her face. She wasn't completely doing this, but she still decided to give it a try. She mounted Shadow's bike and placed her hands on the accelerator and the break. "I can be your friend right now."

It was very interesting, the strange dynamic that the two had. Shadow wasn't even complaining which even surprised him. He didn't let just anyone ride his bike, but if it was the pink hedgehog then maybe he could make an exception.

Her character and persona were just very intriguing to him. She was a simple hedgehog, very plain looking but still, there was something about her that attracted him to her.

"Very well then," Shadow said as he took a sit on his motorcycle. He placed his hands delicately on the pink hedgehog's hip, trying to touch as little as he could. They were close but Amy didn't seem to mind the contact at all. "Where to next?"

.

.

.

There was a soft aroma that Amy couldn't quite describe yet. It was probably all the natural scents radiating off the jungle. If she was being honest, she didn't quite understand what was going at the moment. It was certainly strange for her to be this close to the hedgehog, more strange because well ... They weren't even friends. Just to strangers taking a ride together. Now that she thinks about it, this scene with Shadow was very ... Unusual. She didn't know much about the black hedgehog besides everything that she read on celebrities' magazines. Of course, they weren't too reliable.

The stars sparkled above them, the air caressed their faces and moved their quills along the dancing wind. Amy's mind drifted towards the dark hedgehog behind her. His hands were softly placed around her waist, trying to touch her as little as possible. It was actions like this that made the pink lady realize that there was more to Shadow.

Where could Amy take such a guy? Shadow was the most popular hedgehog in town and if she was being honest, Amy was sure that he had seen more of the whole island than her. She really didn't think this through, come on Amy ... What was a place that was good enough to surprise Shadow the Hedgehog?

Oh, wait there was a place.

The rosette hedgehog let out a small smile decorate her face. This might turn into an interesting night after all.

A tulip flower field that crossed through miles and miles of grass. All of them planted beautifully according to their color. Although it was dark, the moon provided enough light to differentiate the colors. Amy tried to not look at the dark hedgehog, but something inside of her was looking for his approval. After all, the pink hedgehog really admired the success of Shadow even if he didn't have the best personality.

Shadow's ear moved from side to side as he looked around the field of tulips. His face had a small smile and he moved his body from side to side as he tried to get all the view possible. Amy had to admit that the dark hedgehog being excited was a pleasant view to witness.

"Like what you see?" Amy asked as she approached the actor.

"I have to admit that I have never seen anything like this."

Shadow and Amy began to walk next to each other, following a soil path and the beautiful tulips were next to them.

Dammit ... This is getting awkward again. Why did I think this was a good idea?

There was a heavy silence in which only the crickets and the sound of shoes impacting the soil could be heard. The wind also helped the atmosphere to be less silent as the strong air made the tulips and grass move from one side to the other and they softly touched each other.

"How did you know about this place?"

Just like that, all previous silence was broken, Amy turned her head to look at the black hedgehog and immediately regretted it. The moonlight softly landed on his face enhancing his strong features. His vermillion eyes shone brightly and there was a certain confidence on his face that Amy couldn't quite describe. Wow, was Shadow the Hedgehog an attractive one?

"Well, to be honest, I kinda stumbled upon it," Amy answered as she looked away to make the small blush on her face go away.

"So you are telling me you found this place ... by accident?"

"Yes."

"How?"

Just the thought alone made Amy embarrassed. If she was completely honest, she found the tulip field on one of her many times chasing Sonic. When they were younger, she was a total fangirl. Always chasing the blue blur, but Amy was always left behind by Sonic. In one of those days, she was chasing him and of course, he ran away from her. In an attempt to keep up with him she ended up lost. She walked a lot through the jungle and when it was getting dark desperation began to hit her. Then, she ran at different directions until she finally came across the beautiful tulip field.

But of course, she wasn't about to tell him all that.

"Well to put it simply... I was looking for someone, lost track of them, and ended up here."

"And did you find the one you were looking for?"

It was strange even for Shadow to be this intrigued about someone else's life. He mostly would not talk or just talk the minimum. Nonetheless he saw this as a way to return the favor. She helped him learn how to improvise and in exchange Shadow will listen to her. Although to be honest, he didn't know if that was an equal exchange.

"Mmm ... Not really, but it's alright now. I do seem him daily-"

The rosette hedgehog shut down her lips as soon as the words left her mouth. Before, she wouldn't mind expressing her long history of loving the blue one but now ... Well, it was better to keep that a secret.

"Something tells me, that this has to do with the blue one."

She really thought she was about to have a heart attack. Shadow has been part of the 'team' for a couple of weeks and he already felt something going on between Amy and the blue one.

"Am I that obvious?" She asked almost in a whisper. The awkwardness between them was completely gone now. It was just two hedgehogs walking under the moonlight on a flower field and enjoying each other's company.

"No ... I just guessed, and well, you just confirmed it."

Amy thanked Chaos that it was night time because otherwise, she was sure Shadow would be able to see her intense blush. She also cursed at the God under her breath for making her so gullible.

"Don't tell anyone, Sonic believes I am over him and the rest don't know."

The dark hedgehog let out a small sigh, he looked over at the pink lady next to him. He nodded and reassured her.

"Your secret is safe with me,"

A thought crossed Amy's mind. One of her secrets had just being exposed, she was feeling embarrassed and awkward. The pink one concentrated on the black hedgehog next to her, this time she could tell he was relaxed. He didn't look annoyed nor angry nor gloomy like he usually does. What she was about to do was risky, the whole night could go to waste but as her secret has been exposed, she might as well get something worth knowing out of this.

"Since you know a secret of mine ... don't you think its fair for me to know a secret of yours?" With her peripheral vision, she could see the hedgehog had kept his relaxed face, making her feel more comfortable. "Only if you want to of course."

" ... What do you want to know?"

"I don't know ... Do you like pineapple on pizza?"

Amy kept walking but to her surprise, Shadow had stopped doing so. She turned around and faced the black hedgehog who was a few feet away from her. While she had a stern look on her face, Shadow had placed a hand on top of his mouth. However, his other actions could not lie. His eyes were closed and his ears were trembling a little. His body was shaking as he placed a hand on his stomach. Soft attempts of trying to suppress the air from coming out of his mouth couldn't be contained and delicate sounds were created.

Amy couldn't believe it... Did she just make Shadow the Hedgehog laugh?

"Are you laughing?"

At her question, the dark hedgehog made a small turn and completely gave his back to Amy, trying to hide his evident humor.

"No," he responded but small giggles were still coming out of his mouth no matter how much he tried to suppress them.

"That was a serious question Shadow! Do you like pineapple on pizza?

Amy's serious voice was the breaking point Shadow needed to let go. This time he was full out laughing, his voice echoed through the field of tulips and it was moments like this that Amy appreciated.

A few seconds passed and Shadow was finally able to control himself. When he turned around to face the pink hedgehog, he noticed a cocky smile on her face. Shadow blames himself and Chaos for letting him act so 'out of character' for him.

"So, are you going to answer my question?" Amy asked once again as Shadow walked past her, gaining his proponent posture back.

"Out of all the questions you could have asked ... You decide to ask me if I like pineapple on pizza?" Shadow watched the pink hedgehog take small running steps to catch up with him.

"Well, do you want me to ask more personal things? What about the rumors that you and Rouge the Bat are dating?" When the question left Amy's mouth, Shadow's face turned to one of nervousness.

"Why would you want to know that?"

"Rouge the Bat is my favorite actress, she is so beautiful and smart ...I just want to know if it's true .. I don't see her dating someone like you." Amy made eye contact with Shadow and a part of him felt strange because the pink one hasn't been this straight forward with him before.

"Wait ... What is that supposed to mean?"

There was a certain tone to his voice that made him sound offended and the pink one immediately panicked. She just didn't want to ruin the good moment she was having with the actor.

"Nothing! I mean, you are very attractive and all but-" Amy felt her muzzle get hotter by the second, especially when Shadow had a smirk plastered on his face. "I mean it's just that you seem to be very ... um, quiet and Rouge is very flamboyant, to say the least."

A few seconds passed in which Amy waited for the red striped one to say something or make any type of movement. However, nothing happened and our pink lady decided to break the silence once again.

"But of course you don't have to answer that, I prefer if you tell me whether you like pineapple on your pizza or not," Amy said.

"Is that information important to you?" Shadow asked. He looked at the pink one waiting for anything that indicated that she had changed her mind on the question.

"Well, I need to see if you are trustworthy."

"And the toppings I put on my pizza decide whether or not I am worthy of your trust?"

"Of course."

Just like the situation was strange for Amy, it was for Shadow as well. He had personally known Amy for a few weeks in which they had only talked a few times for no longer than 10 minutes. Now they were talking, walking together and sharing 'secrets'. Shadow had now realized that it was true about it being easier to talk about yourself to strangers. What was even more bizarre for the black hedgehog was that even when it came to meet other actors or strangers, they seemed to talk to him out of courtesy ... but Amy? She was genuine about getting to know him.

Maybe that was why he tended to let his guard down around her.

"To be honest, I don't know," Shadow began, "I've never had pineapple in pizza, so I don't know if I like it or not."

"Oh, then next time I'll take you to the best pizza place in the village!" Amy excitedly said as the previous embarrassment was totally gone by now.

"Next time? Who says there would be a next time?" Taking his previous proponent attitude back, Shadow rolled his eyes in annoyance, clearly wanting to anger the pink one.

"Well, I am sorry Mr. Doom and Gloom! I thought you were enjoying my company. We can just go home now if you want." Amy made a turn, showing her determination to just go back home. It was intended to follow Shadow's attempt to tease her and not meant to be taken seriously. However, it seemed like the black hedgehog did think otherwise.

"Come on Amy, if I didn't like you I wouldn't be here."

The sentence made Amy's heart skip a beat. After all, anyone would feel embarrassed if a boy as attractive as Shadow said those kinds of things naturally. It wasn't like she liked him in that sense it was mostly because she made a small realization.

"That line could work great for the fanfiction I am working on ... Thank you, Shadow!"

"Well, that's nice to hear," Amy said, trying to get the most out of the conversation. This could lead to some very good dialogue scenes. "And don't worry, I was playing with you, I like you too Shadow!"

Amy was waiting for the dark hedgehog to say something but instead, a puzzled look stayed on his face. He didn't say anything but the only thing that happened was that vermillion eyes met with emeralds ones. The dark hedgehog was in a trance, in disbelief and so, Amy questioned him one more time.

"Are you alright?"

"Uh? Yes, my apologies."

Shadow quickly turned around and began to walk once again on the soil path. He looked at the flowers from side to side and then at the moon in the dark sky.

He turned around again and faced Amy on the distance. She had a worried look but soft and gentle at the same time. Her face shone brightly and her emerald eyes were more beautiful than any Chaos Emerald Shadow has ever seen. Indeed, Amy was beautiful even when Shadow did not see her with romantic eyes.

Or so he thought.

Without him knowing, Shadow let out a small smile decorate his face.

.

.

.

Amy had taken him to see other places. They were simple but Amy's small talk really made it memorable.

That night ended without any problems. Nothing else was said as they only enjoyed each other's company in silence during the motorcycle ride. Amy took Shadow across the island to see things he had never seen before. The moon provided enough light for them to fully appreciate the beauty of the forests, beaches, and even small villages. Amy let out a small smile whenever Shadow got excited about the smallest things. Did he see a pretty flower? His ears would move excitedly. Did he see a pretty view? Again his ears. Did he like the moon and stars? Ears. He was very expressive with them and Amy was found of such a cute act.

When their time as running out, Amy drove to her house. She thanked Shadow for the night and a sense of her told her that Shadow didn't want to say goodbye just yet.

She climbed out of the motorcycle and watched Shadow take her previous seat. The pink hedgehog was ready to enter her house but before, she had to properly say goodbye to those vermillion eyes.

"I'll see you next month Shadow," Amy said as she kept eye contact with the black one. "I hope you enjoy this month's chapter."

"Chapter?"

Holy shit.

"Episode! I meant to say, I hope you enjoy this month's episode!"

Amy cursed mentally at the fanfiction writer inside of her who was so used to saying 'I hope you enjoy this chapter.'

"I will ... I believe," Shadow replied.

"Well, you are a great actor," Amy said quickly. "Whatever you are on it, I am sure it will be great."

Her words weren't meant to come out of her mouth so easily. She said them so naturally that it caught her and Shadow in surprise. The pink hedgehog looked around nervously as she tried to hide the evident blush on her face. Amy wanted to disappear, to get inside her house, and just start writing the new fanfiction she had in mind.

A few seconds in which no one said a word until Shadow decided to break the silence.

"It will be great ..." Shadow said as he turned on his bike again, ready to leave. "Because you helped me along the way."

.

.

.

The next day, Amy was happy to have some time for herself. She concentrated on writing today. The pink one had different ideas she would like to explore for her new story. Although she didn't have a title just yet. She had been thinking about writing a Sonic Boom alternative universe story in which everyone was part of a Resistance and they had to fight the forces of evil aka Eggman.

The rosette hedgehog, who was still on her pajamas, was laying on the sofa. Laptop on top of her, and a bag of chips next to her and the television on. She was writing peacefully until a 'ring' sound came from her computer. It was a notification from fanxfiction.com.

She didn't think twice about checking out the notification.

It was a comment from one of her loyal followers, 'The Fanfictioner.'

" After I got home yesterday I couldn't sleep and decided to re-read 'Falling Petals' I can't believe just how good this is! The characters are well written and the romance is well developed. Although I don't like Sonic's character much especially how he treats Amy at the beginning ... but overall it's amazing!"

The comment caught Amy by surprise. She had never gotten a comment before saying that they didn't like Sonic's character. The pink one wanted to know more about the opinion of her reader. She began to type:

"Thank you for the lovely comment! However, I would like to know why don't you like Sonic's character?"

The pink one-clicked enter and she thought that it will take hours for The Fanfictioner to respond. However, as to prove her wrong, the anonymous reader responded within a minute.

"Sonic was kind of a jerk to Amy at the beginning and even after he confessed to her, he treated her badly just because he is shy. I think if Sonic was truly in love then he wouldn't hurt her so much as he did. At least if I had someone I liked, I would never hurt them by avoiding them and leaving."

Wow, Amy was impressed. She had never thought about it that way. Amy had to admit that although her work was praised, she knew that she lacked in the romance department. Especially because she had never experienced it. Well, she does love someone and knows the feeling of it very well ... but her feelings had never been corresponded.

An idea popped in her mind.

"I had never seen it that way ... Actually, would you tell me more about your opinion about the characters and story?"

Once again after replying to the comment, it didn't take long to hear a reply.

"Sure, I would be delighted to talk to a talented writer like yourself. Do you have a Xiscord?"

She smiled to herself as she read the comment. It was nice to have someone who appreciated her work and without a second thought she began to type:

"Yes, I do, ARoseWithoutTorns#0923. Please add me."

Amy thought she would get some feedback from 'The Fanfictioner' and that would be it. However, it turned out to be more than that. Yes, there was great feedback but they also talked about themselves. It was strange for Amy because although she had talked to her readers before, it had never been to this extent. They talked about their hobbies, their daily lives, and things of interest. They texted and texted each other and the pink one couldn't think of anything else but to be happy that she had made a new friend.

TheFanfictioner#0619: I am so bored at home, I wish I could take a ride on my bike, too bad it's raining.

Amy had been so engrossed in their conversation that she didn't realize that it was raining outside.

ARoseWithoutTorns#0923: What a coincidence, it's raining where I live too! To be honest with you the first time I rode a bike was yesterday.

TheFanfictioner#0619: Really? How did that go?

ARoseWithoutTorns#0923: Yes. I actually learned right there and then. I am pretty sure the guy I went with didn't realize that was my first time driving a bike.

Amy mentally laughed, yesterday was her first time driving a bike and she learned from the few times she saw Shadow driving it. She knew that Shadow would have never let her drive his bike if he knew that Amy didn't know how to drive. Therefore, she had to look confident enough so Shadow wouldn't doubt her skills. She was actually proud of her acting because Shadow seemed to not know that she was a first-time driver.

TheFanfictioner#0619: Well, your friend must be an idiot, its easy to know when it's a person's first time driving a bike.

ARoseWithoutTorns#0923: Well, he can be an idiot. He is rude but he can be nice ... Sometimes.

Amy's mind diverted to Shadow. He was indeed a very interesting hedgehog. And very unlike anyone she had known before. He was mysterious, quiet, and wasn't afraid to speak up his mind even when he seemed extremely rude. That's what she had gotten from him and the few times she had talked to the black hedgehog.

TheFanfictioner#0619: Maybe he is rude because he likes you. He doesn't want to be rude but he is unconsciously rude because he doesn't know how to deal with his feelings.

ARoseWithoutTorns#0923: Hahaha I doubt it! I think he likes someone else ... Besides, I have feelings for someone else as well.

The pink one made a disgusted face at the thought of Shadow having those kinds feelings towards her. Definitely, Shadow wasn't her type and she was sure that she wasn't Shadow's type either. The only thing that could happen between them besides a co-worker relationship was a friendship and that Amy didn't mind at all.

TheFanfictioner#0619: Well, that guy must be very lucky.

.

.

.

This month's episode of Sonic Boom wasn't great ... It was fantastic. People were just loving the introduction of Shadow the Hedgehog into the story. After a few hours of being aired, people were already talking about it their social media and other types of platforms. Amy even had to admit that if it wasn't because she was already in love with the blue bur, she might have been a Shadow fangirl. He acted amazingly and he made his character relatable which was very hard to compel.

Right now, the pink hedgehog was comfortably sitting on her sofa, as the TV was on and she was scrolling to her fanfiction web page. Tomorrow she was going to the beach with her friends and maybe she could take her laptop with her to finish some writing.

An idea crossed her mind and to celebrate the brand-new episode of Sonic Boom, she decided to open up prompt requests.

She began to type on her laptop.

"Sonic Boom's new episode was really good, wasn't it? To celebrate today's episode, I'll be opening up prompt requests! Send it right away and I'll answer you as soon as I can!"

By: A Rose Without Thorns

The pink hedgehog clicked 'Enter' and soon after she began to receive multiple notifications. She opened one from a username she clearly recognized. This person was a loyal follower of hers and it was now her personal goal to give them the best story they could ever ask for.

However, her heart skipped a beat when she read the prompt request.

"As I watched this recent Sonic Boom episode, I realized that Shadow and Amy's characters have great potential to develop a relationship. Can I request a story where Shadow and Amy fall in love? Thank you."

By: The Fanfictioner

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

A/N: Finally, 'The Fanfictioner' is here. I am super excited to continue writing this story, it's been a while since I have worked on a series like this. The chapters would take around a month or so to come out, not sure. But they will be long chapters ... So I hope you enjoy each and one of them! Thank you for reading! This story is going to have a little bit about everything. Romance, mystery, comedy and drama. 

I want to thank @redsunlight for the amazing artwork, please everyone check out her tumblr! Once again, thank you so much! I also want to thank @mysuperlaserpiss​, @nothing-fancy94​ and @justasadcloudpassing​ because they are just lovely people!

Ps. My other story "By Accident" will be uploaded soon too with a new chapter :)

Prologue: https://another-sonic-blog.tumblr.com/post/621393124729683968/the-fanfictioner

Wattpad: https://www.wattpad.com/user/PeachesAndReams

#shadow and amy #shadow the hedgehog #shadamy fanfiction #shadowxamy #amyrose #Amy Rose #sonic boom #sonic fanfiction #sonic the hedgehog #sonic fanfic #shadamy

[nothing-fancy94]

Accidental Love - Part 1

Hello people of tumblr! I’m back with another 2 part short! This time it is a Shadamy inspired by an ask given by @muffinbuttonfan to one of my best friends and fellow writers @another-sonic-blog! Please be sure to also check ASB’s version Love Potion

STORY SUMMARY: All Amy Rose ever wanted was to have Sonic love her back. But when a mistake with a love potion turns her world upside-down, will she chose an old or new love?

ENJOY! AND PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT!

ps. I didn’t proof read this, so apologies a head of time for errors ;)

~Part 1: The Mistake~

“Come on, Sonic! Just take a sip!”

“No, Amy, I’m not thirsty.”

“But I made it special for you!”

“Why are you being so insistent? It’s just a smoothie…”

Sonic’s eyes narrowed as he looked at Amy skeptically. She was standing before him with bright, pleading viridian eyes, and her little button nose twitched as she thought about the answer to his very simple question. She was wearing a different dress from her usual red and white trimmed one; a flowing soft pink sundress that gently fluttered in the summer breeze. And as he squinted, he noticed she’d put make-up on. It was something she hardly ever did, and as a result it was a bit sloppy. He would’ve thought it was cute if it wasn’t for the fact that Amy tended to only put in this amount of effort when she was up to something.

He looked down at the offered drink in her hand. It looked innocent enough, a watermelon pink with small flecks of red, indicating small bursts of fresh strawberries. It looked good enough that he almost took it from her, especially since it was a hot summer day and the cold, icey, sweet drink. Almost. However he had fallen for her tricks in the past and he didn’t plan on doing so again. In the past, she had resorted to sleep medicine to kidnap him on a date. He shivered at the memory. And as if to confirm his suspicions, Amy broke eye contact and looked off to the side while shuffling her feet.

“Just… I-I wanted to give you something nice on a hot day like today. I figured with all the running around that you do, you might want to have a cold smoothie… 

“I put protein in it.” She added as though this would be enough to convince him to take the drink. 

He scoffed and folded his arms across his chest as he looked her over.

“If there’s nothing wrong with it, then you won’t mind taking a sip before I drink it.”

Now it was Amy’s turn to narrow her eyes on her hero. She didn’t understand where the lack of trust was coming from, it wasn’t like she was gonna drug him… that hadn’t worked. Well, can I blame him? Especially considering I diiiid put love potion in the drink… She hadn’t planned on giving it to him, at least not at first. 

She’d been window shopping with Cream in Station Square, and as they’d passed one of their favorite clothing stores, she had noticed a small shop that was wedged between the store and the alley. It was a store that Amy had never seen before despite having passed by this spot multiple times in the last few months. Stranger still, the store front looked like it had lived in the corner for fifty years.

Amy stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes following the curves of aged wood, peeling white paint, and landed on a small hanging sign that read in faded cursive: Regina’s Apothecary and Oddities.

Cream hadn’t wanted to go in, but the pink hedgehog ignored her friend’s pleas. Something was calling to her, whispering in her ear… and before she knew it she had twisted the rusty, iron door knob and entered the shop with the tinkle of a bell. The inside was full of shelves that seemed to carry on for miles into the store. Which should’ve been impossible considering the size of the exterior. The floor was made up of aged wood that at one point had been an attractive light brown, but was now almost black from spilled substances and ground-in dirt. There was a light mist of dust in the air, and barely any lighting to brighten the store. Bottles filled with herbs, unknown liquids and powders filled the shelves. Each one a different color, and size, each one carefully labeled and priced. 

The ones closest to the door were sparkling in the small stream of sunlight that filtered through the foggy windows at the front of the shop. But as Amy looked at the ones a bit further away, she could make out a thin layer of dust settling onto the glass. Curiosity peaked, Amy made her way deeper into the store. Cream followed close behind, her trembling hands clinging to the hem of Amy's dress in a death grip. Her large brown eyes frantically darted around the store as they reached the dust covered bottles. Amy lifted a hand and wiped away dust to read the label. An Eye for an Eye.

“Looking to give someone a taste of their own medicine, dearie?”

The two young girls jumped and screamed, their arms instinctively wrapping around each other as the two turned to see an old, female cat. She smiled at the two girls from behind half-mooned glasses. One of her eyes was a startling amber color that shone as brightly and richly as the sun, while the other was white and unseeing. She chuckled and leaned forward on her cane.

“Sorry dearies, didn’t mean to frighten you. I’ve been told by other customers that I should wear a bell.” She laughed at her own joke while shaking her head. The two girls just stared at her with wide eyes and open mouths. The longer they stood staring at the old feline the more unsettled both girls felt. There was something in the air that hadn’t been there before, and it caused their hearts to race, and trepidation began to worm its way into them.

“Now don’t just stand there staring dearies, what can I help you with? I have a potion for any conceivable thing you could wish for!” She hobbled closer to the girls with a wide gaping smile, forcing them to press themselves against the shelves. Little tinks and clinks from jostled bottles rang through the air, but that didn’t stop the old feline from putting her hand beneath Cream’s cheek. The poor girl stood petrified, her large brown eyes close to tears.

“Maybe you want a way to grow up faster, but be careful that you pick the right potion. You may end up with one that will not change your age but make you taller than a skyscraper.” The woman cackled in humor, but it only served to make the young bunnie cower behind Amy.

“Oh, maybe a potion of courage for the young rabbit. I sense a wish to be brave in the face of danger. Do you have a tendency to run away, dearie?”

“L-leave her alone!” Amy finally managed to exclaim, her arm shooting out to block Cream from view. 

The elder’s one good eye moved slowly to stare at her, while the other one stayed still and stared ahead. The eye was unwavering, and as it bore into Amy, she felt as though she was clawing through the young girl’s very soul. Searching for her innermost desires, emotions and fears. Amy felt a mental shiver at the sight, but refused to expose any fear in front of the old female. The cat’s lips curled upwards, and her only remaining fang glinted in the small amount of light.

“My eye can see there is no need for courage with you. Your determination rivals that of the most passionate minds of all time,” the female lifted herself on her tiptoes, and looked Amy up and down with her golden eye. 

“Hmmm, maybe beauty…” The feline’s hand snapped out quicker than lightning and grabbed Amy’s hand, swiftly removing the white glove in one fluid motion.

“Hey!” Amy cried out, and tried to remove her hand, but the hold was ironclad. The shopkeeper’s tail flicked back and forth as her fingers brushed over the lines in Amy’s palm like the kiss of butterfly wings.

“You have a male who refuses to reciprocate your heart’s desire, do you not?”

Amy’s face twisted in horrified shock, and she once again tried to remove her hand but to no avail.

“No! How do you -”

“I can give you something that will make every male turn their eyes to you. A potion to make you the most beautiful female on Mobius. At a price of course,” the feline’s raspy voice cackled once more. 

“No, thank you.” Amy stated firmly and finally succeeded in removing her hand from the cat’s grip. She turned, grabbing hold of Cream's hand and made for the door.

“Come on, Cream, let’s go.”

The small girl nodded in agreement, and quickened her pace. She wanted to leave the creepy store and more importantly, away from the terrifying feline who lurked the dusty isles. 

“Not interested in vain looks, admirable. But what would you say to a... love potion?”

Amy’s feet stopped, and her ears twitched backwards in curiosity. A love potion. Something that she had read about in old books when she’d been researching ways to make a male turn their attention to her. She had thought that it was a myth, a legend that was as fragile as the pages she read the inked words on. However, an odd hope, no, desire, was awoken within her at the old shopkeeper’s tempting offer. Something about this store had called to her the moment it had appeared. The way it had appeared also solidified an odd weight to the elder’s words. It was a mysterious shop, with a shopkeeper, who while being creepy, was also oddly eccentric. Something about her told Amy that her offer was not an empty promise, and that this potion likely had a chance of working. How could she pass that up?

“Amy…?” Cream tentatively asked, her arm pulled at Amy’s, trying to guide the girl from the store. She looked up to plead with Amy, but she saw that fire burning in Amy’s eyes that only ever appeared when she was thinking about her next scheme to win the heart of her love. And when it came to Sonic and romance, there was nothing that could stop Amy from doing what she wanted.

“Love potion?” She whispered with her back still turned to the old feline.

Seeing that she had finally hooked one of the girls, the shopkeeper grinned from pointed ear to pointed ear.

“Oh yes. A harmless substance, meant to unlock the cage of the heart. Just a drop would be enough to turn your beau’s eyes in your direction.”

Amy’s body twitched, and Cream felt panic rise to her throat. She knew where this was going.

“Come on Amy… let’s just go.”

Unfortunately it was too late… Amy turned and tilted her head.

“And you’re sure this works?” She asked, taking a step closer to the cat. The elder smiled, and pulled her shaky finger twice diagonally across her chest.

“Cross my heart and call me a witch. 100% satisfaction guaranteed.”

“And it won’t hurt him, or make him grow an eleventh toe or some other crazy side effect?” She was almost to the old female now. The cat scoffed and made a face that looked like she was offended.

“I use only organic ingredients, and a splash of white magic, of course.”

“Amy… I really think we should just -”

“Show me.”

Amy moved forward and out of Cream’s grip, leaving the girl standing alone. Cream moaned in distress and looked at the door with wistfulness before following her friend deeper into the store.

They walked for a few minutes, while the tapping of a wooden cane was all that could be heard. Finally they reached a shelf with pink and red bottles. The shopkeeper ran her finger over several bottles, muttering all the while.

“Mother Knows Best, no… Scarlet L, well that’ll give desire, but not love… Puppy Love, no. Ah! Here we are!” Her raspy voice announced excitedly as she rubbed the label on an elegantly shaped bottle. As the dust cleared, they could see a very soft pearl shine on the pink glass, and the bottom of the bottle curve upwards into an inverted tear-drop. There was a crystal heart stopper plugged neatly into the opening, and the whole item was no larger than a jam jar.

The old feline blew on the bottle, and then thrust it into Amy’s hand.

“There ya are dearie! One Eternal Love potion for one lucky blue hedgehog!”

 Cream almost gasped in surprise. How did this stranger know that Amy’s crush was a blue hedgehog?! She looked over at Amy, expecting the girl to be just as aghast, but instead Amy was smiling with jubilant eyes at the crystal vial in her hand. Either she hadn’t heard the old female, or she simply didn’t care.

“How much do I owe you?” She asked, and almost as if in a trance, Amy’s hand reached into her dress pocket and pulled out her wallet. The elder shook her head and pushed Amy’s hand down.

“No dearie. I deal in many worlds and places, your rings will do me no good!”

Amy’s ears drooped, and she felt her earlier excitement dwindle as a flame dying on a candle wick.

“Don’t worry, dearie, you may have something I want…”

“Tell me!” Amy replied, her face bright and hope once again filling her heart. Her desire outweighed her caution, and she was almost willing to give just about anything in return to have the potion.

“Do you wear those bracelets everyday?”

Amy blinked in confusion for a moment before looking down at her golden bracelets. She had worn them for as long as she could remember and usually forgot that they were even there.

“Yes, I do. Did you want them?” 

She was hesitant to give up her favorite accessory, but then again she could always buy another pair, whereas she felt an odd sensation that this was her only chance to purchase the one thing that could give her what she wanted most. Sonic the Hedgehog’s heart.

“One will do dear. Gold worn by a pure maiden in love is difficult to come by.”

The fact that she didn’t have to give up both was enough to motivate Amy. Cream watched the scene unfolding in disbelief. How could Amy be so ready to trust this weird cat? It almost seemed like the young girl was under a spell. Amy quickly pulled her hand through a bracelet, and handed it over. The old witch snatched the jewelry like an angry viper, and shoved it quickly into her pocket.

“I don’t accept returns, dearie.” The old feline said hurriedly, and then began shoving the girls out of her shop.

“Now, I really must close, it’s time for me to do some cleaning. Enjoy your love!”

And with a final tinkle and slam of the door, the girls were back outside.

“Amy! Mobius to Amy!”

Amy blinked, her mind muddled from the memory. She looked up and saw Sonic staring at her with a concerned look. Right. She was with Sonic and trying to get him to drink the smoothie…

“Sorry, Sonic!”

“Jeez! If you weren’t so young, I would’ve thought you were having a stroke! Is everything okay?” Sonic stepped forward and looked closer at her face, trying to see if she was sick. Amy felt her cheeks burst into flame from their close proximity, and took the opportunity to shove the drink into his chest.

“I will be, once you drink this smoothie.” She replied with a smile. All concern immediately washed off Sonic’s face to be replaced with annoyance.

“Oh right… almost forgot. But it seems you also forgot that I’m not gonna take one sip of that until you try it first.”

Amy sighed in frustration. Chaos this hedgehog was stubborn. Well what's the harm right? I mean I already love him so drinking it shouldn’t do anything to me. She looked up at his smirking face, oh how she wanted that smirk to turn to a loving smile. To have infatuation gleam from those emerald eyes rather than arrogance. So she called his bluff.

“Fine, if taking a drink will convince you of my good intentions, then I’ll do it.”

She closed her eyes, and placed her lips around the straw and sucked. Sweet strawberry and banana flooded her mouth, and cooled her warm cheeks.

“Mmmm, see Sonic, it’s tasty!” But when she opened her eyes, Sonic was no longer in front of her. She blinked, but he still didn’t appear. Confused, Amy quickly turned around to look for him, when she bumped quite roughly into someone. The chest her head connected with was hard, and she saw stars at the edge of her vision. Smoothie splashed onto her pretty peony dress, and the unfortunate soul she had smashed into.

“Oh sorry! I didn’t mean to -” Her apology died on her lips when she looked up into the most blood red eyes she had ever seen. Beautiful, she thought.

“Chaos-dammit! You got smoothie all over this damn jacket Rouge forces me to wear. I’m never gonna hear the end of it.”

Amy blinked dumbly, unable to peel her gazed from his fiery eyes. They sucked her in, made her heart tremble, and her mind go blank. 

“Sorry, Amy!” Sonic called as he came up behind her, his hands clasped together in apology, “I saw an old lady with a cane struggling to cross the road,” He laughed nervously at his excuse for ditching the girl. He’d learned from past experience that abandoning her was never a good idea.

“You know me, I can never turn my back on a lady in need!”

When she didn’t respond, and instead kept a steady gaze on the person in front of them, he tilted his head. Usually she would gush over what a gentleman he was for helping someone in need, but she barely even seemed to register that he was there. He looked up to see who had the girl’s attention and was surprised to see a dark, and pissed off hedgehog.

“Oh, hey, Shadow. Surprised to see you walking about during the day,” Sonic laughed, causing a growl to emit from Shadow. Sonic removed his hand from Amy’s shoulder and brought his hand to his chin as he looked the glaring hedgehog over. He noticed the pink drink dripping from ebony fur and leather jacket.

“Oh, looks like you did me a favor!” The hero laughed again, placing a hand on Shadow’s shoulder. The ebony male growled and smacked Sonic’s hand away.

“Don’t touch me with those weak hands, faker.”

Sonic smirked, and folded his arms, his lids lowered mockingly.

“Oh? Someone wake up on the wrong side of the cyro sleeper today?”

Shadow growled once more, his fists clenching in anger. He was about to insult the blue hero further when suddenly a pink barrier popped up between him and his object of hate. Both male hedgehogs looked down in confusion to see Amy standing with her legs spread in a firm stance, and her hands shoving into their chests. They’d forgotten that Amy was there, and she was looking back and forth between them with a stern expression.

“Stop it!” She commanded. Shadow rolled his eyes at the dramatic display, here we go. Another lecture from the number one Sonic Fangirl, on how to play nice with the blue imbecile. He really had no time for this, all he’d wanted to do was try a new cafe that had opened up and raved about their bitter americano. All he wanted was to drink an ice cold, bitter, refreshing drink, and yet he was cursed by these two idiots. Screw it, I’ll just -

“Don’t you dare talk to Shadow like that! He didn’t do anything wrong, I was the one that bumped into him!”

A pregnant silence fell upon the hedgehog trio as both males looked at each other and then back to the young girl in shock. She wasn’t glaring at Shadow like she normally would have. No, instead she was glaring fiercely at her self-proclaimed boyfriend.

“Shadow is the Ultimate Life Form! You should show him some respect!”

Silence. Sonic blinked rapidly, and stuck a finger into his ear to clean out any imaginary wax.

“Uh, Ames… what are you saying?” The hero asked, his expression was entirely stunned and confused, a comical look for the self assured hero, if the situation hadn’t been so bizarre. Amy huffed and stuck out her bottom lip before grabbing Shadow’s arm. She yanked it to her chest and stared at Sonic from behind it while sticking out her tongue.

“Wow! You really are dumb! Do I need to repeat myself twice?”

Sonic’s mouth popped open like a toaster, and his eyes flicked from Amy’s aggressive sneer to Shadow’s frozen face. What in Chaos's name is going on?

“HAHAHAHA!”

Sonic and Amy jumped from the unexpected sound, and were surprised to discover that it was Shadow laughing his ass off. Neither of Mobious’ heroes had ever seen Shadow smile let alone full belly laugh before. 

“Looks like someone finally grew a brain! How does it feel to have your fangirl burn you like that faker?” Shadow chuckled some more before removing his arm from Amy’s grip.

“Well this has been interesting, but playtime is over.” His expression had returned to its usual glower, and he turned to make his way to his destination. He had only made it one step when he was yanked backwards by a pink hedgehog.

“Where are you going? Can I come?”

Shadow looked over his shoulder in disbelief to see Amy holding his hand and staring up at him with large puppy-dog eyes. What the fu -

“Amy! What the heck is going on? Is this some kind of joke or trick?!” Sonic exclaimed, his expression deeply concerned now. Amy was acting completely out of character as though someone else had taken control of her body. He had hardly ever seen her talk to the ebony anti-hero, let alone cling to Shadow like… well like she did with him.

Amy turned to look at Sonic once more, but she didn’t let go of Shadow’s hand.

“Nothing’s ‘going on.’ I just want to spend time with Shadow.”

Shadow flinched at the words, just what was this girl playing at? Spending time with someone she constantly berated as being ‘no fun,’ ‘dark and gloomy,’ and just plain mean. It was unbelievable, impossible. However, here she was, desperately holding onto his hand, and against his better judgement, he felt something stir within him.

“Seriously, Amy! You trying to make me jealous with another guy is so overused. Just drop the act!”

“What are you talking about?” Amy scoffed, and smiled sweetly up at Shadow. Shadow felt his heart stop for a single beat as he stared into clear jade pools of adoration. A look so honest and so raw that it cut through all of his barriers and walls, and pierced his ice-cold heart. Then those sloppily painted lips part, and a voice sweeter than honey announced,

“Shadow’s my boyfriend, of course I want to spend time with him!”

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic games #shadow the hedgehog #Amy Rose #Shadamy #love #love potion #romance #comedy #fun #fanfiction #writing #short story

[cutegirlmayra]

Hotsprings - Sonamy

Rated SE, for Shipping for Everyone ;)

prompt:

It was starting to take its small tolls on Amy.

One day, it was “Sorry, Amy! Eggman’s not playing nice today. Really wasn’t expecting this to come up so soon... but hey! There’s always next time!” ...Always, next time.

She didn’t think much of it until he started sprucing up the words every now and then, “Wow! Is it that time, already? You’re probably not gonna like this... but Tails just discovered-” or, “Dang, this bites, but hey! Listen to this!”, and, “Woohoo! I finally found Shadow! Tough job looking for a literal government secret, but I finally think we’re about to hit a breakthrough!”

It was never, “How ya doing?” or, “Let’s reschedule to about this day and time?” and, “Man, really miss ya though!”

So Amy’s heart began to pang, although she did love his goofy messages, knowing they were sincerely sorry... it just felt like he never had the time to be with her.

So, she took the lead and headed out in the dead of night. However, it was chilly, and she found herself hugging her arms close to herself and shivering as she made it over the hill, which was the last location he had mentioned to her.

“Ohh...” she whined, looking around but finding no trace of anyone there. It was full of crevices left from a battle though, craters and carved up rock cliffs... the ground was extremely uneven, but where Amy had trekked up the hill, it was relatively alright.

Realizing she was just too slow, she stomped her foot down on the wet grass, “Hmph! This is the last time I’m being left behind! ...W-whaaa!!!” She had scarcely moved her arms to her sides to bundle up her fists tightly in her frustrations when a sudden sharp and piecing wind rocked her back, and staggering against it, she found her awkward footsteps causing her to slip up over the flattened surface of fresh, sprinkled, and slushie-like snow to slide down the wet grass.

“Ahhh!!!!” she tumbled and slid until hitting the ground harshly with her chin, making her eyes close and their lids quiver at the pain. “Ah-ah-ouch...” she slowly got up, looking back at the field and through the sprinkled, cold wind could imagine Sonic and the gang’s epic showdown... the last adventure still evident in the landscape.

“...They...” she felt her bottom lip quivering, as though the pain was already forming tears, but her heart now wanted to join the pity party as well. “They must have had so much fun.” The struggle of not feeling somewhat envious of the boys was a bit too much on her poor heart.

She laid back down and softly let herself feel the sorrow of always being blown off to go on some--although important, and she knew it--fantastical adventure that they may or may not write her about.

She pulled out the Miles-Electric Tails had gifted her while tensing against the bitter cold.

She turned on her tracker, just in case anyone was wondering... in case... anyone would notice.

“If I stay out here...” she told herself aloud, desiring to hear something besides the quiet of her lonely, softly falling tears... though they were freezing against her cheeks and making her even colder. “I’ll catch a cold for sure.” She looked up at the foggy white sky... wondering if Sonic and her friends were cold too, or celebrating somewhere far away from her... far away from their devices... that would alert them to her beacon being sent out.

She pulled her legs closer to her, letting her head fall back to the stinging cold of the grass... but at least she couldn’t feel dirt or ground.

She’d have to wash up anyway, it’s not like she’d freeze to death...

She felt a sniffle come from her nose as her eyes were beginning to burn.

“Sonic hates crying...” she told herself, but continued to let little tears fall. “Maybe... he’ll just know... and come find me.”

Her hopes pushed through her mind as she continued to call his name, wondering if somewhere, somehow... he’d take a moment to think of her...

Then her Miles-Electric blinked on and she held it closer, desperate to see what was on it.

Another beacon... but not Sonic’s.

“Ohh...” Amy sat up and wiped some of the frosty tears off her cheeks, feeling the wind pick up and trying to face her back towards it, hoping to brace against the cruelty of the seasons of nature just a few more minutes.

She had traveled pretty far, but seeing the beacon, she responded with a message. “I’m out right now, and it’s freezing cold! Who’s out here too?”

The message she received looked a lot like Knuckles’s awful key-pressing, and trying to decode his bad usage of spelling and grammar, she tilted the Miles-Electric to get a better look... when the reflection showed a on-coming blizzard or avalanche sweeping through the forest.

She gasped and looked behind her, seeing the rolling cloud of snow like a large, trumpeting wave that was crashing over everything in sight.

Something so big... would easily cover her in seconds.

Gasping, she got up immediately and clicked on the video, sending the message out with her beacon active. “Help!!!” she cried out, slipping up the hill as she tried to find some traction.

Looking back at the on-coming snow storm, stampeding upon the ground and leaping in a rushed frenzy to spray out at the air, she abandoned the video and simply tried to run.

Finally making it up the slippery slope she gasped as she was covered immediately in pounding cold punches that seemed to topple over one another.

Afraid, she sucked in a breath, knowing she could suffocate if she didn’t.

It was hard though, with all the weight, she could barely feel her stomach want to move.

When the sounds turned muffled and she knew she was buried under feets of snow, she kicked and tried to waved about to loosen the snow but she was pinned...

The next best thing... was to...

Feeling she needed air, she curled up into a ball and spun as best she could. Making her body smaller was the perfect solution, the snow was easily manipulated by her spinning and she created a small hole for herself.

She uncurled and tried to breathe, pushing upwards but the snow only bumped slightly up. “No..!” she felt her breath freeze as though with each breath, icicles formed in her lungs, but she knew that was exaggerating.

It was so cold... she couldn’t feel her feet or hands anymore.

Realizing if she summoned her hammer, she could have the snow compact instead of remaining like flurries, and she knew she couldn’t risk it.

She instead started to burrow, but the snow quickly collapsed over her, “Ah!” and she had to curl and spin again.

Exhausted, not having enough oxygen, and feeling the snow would turn to slush soon and ice over... leaving her in an unpleasant prison or worse... tomb... she patted the edges to find the most grainy or soft falling snow pile she could, and dived.

“Rragh!” she kicked her legs through and started to tunnel, feeling it collapse on her, she held her breath. It already stung to breathe anyway, being extremely uncomfortable and somewhat painful to suck in.

She felt the weight keeping her from moving anywhere and then felt the snow under her collapse as well.

“Ahh!!” she was now with her legs above her and uncomfortably arching her back. Freezing... she wasn’t in her little crude igloo anymore...

As she tried to shift around, more snow fell, and she struggled to even get up.

Her hands were just moving through piles and piles of snow that dropped her further down... she had made a small tunnel pocket and then fell through more of the snow...

She began to panic, curling and spinning but the snow wasn’t strong here, so it just dug her down deeper and she uncurled again, back in an even more uncomfortable position with no way to push herself further up and out.

However... pushing the snow that had compiled at her face, she saw there was a yellow beam of light on the top.

“Ah..!” she knew she couldn’t make it, but at least the exit was somewhat closer than she thought. “Help..! Ah..” More snow tumbled the more noise she made...

Pulling out the Miles-Electric and brushing out the snow from it, she moved her arms to her center and tried to balance her weight on her head and shoulders, using her elbows to give somewhat a stability to her predicament.

If she had a neck, it’d be hurting twice as much too.

The Miles-Electric was still recording... “Someone get over here! I’m trapped!” she had just enough breath and strength to whisper a cry out for help again. The Miles-Electric then read- ‘Succeeded file limit, your recording has ended. Sending the first half.’

She groaned, “Tails...” she was about to complain but put that aside and didn’t record anymore, “Knuckles...” she clicked his beacon and found that it had ended. “...Sonic...” she felt more warm tears threatening, and just to feel the warmth, was tempted to cry. But knowing it would only freeze her faster, she didn’t. Shaking her head, she felt more wet snow fall on her head, and brushing it off, began to be afraid as breathing was harder in this position, her body heat was melting the snow... she would be in a icy prison sooner than she anticipated.

“I just wanted to find you...” she admitted, looking up at the top where she thought the exit was. “I... I’m so lonely... without you.” she hugged the Miles-Electric, a light as the yellow beam began to fade and it turned white with foggy light.

She was breathing irregularly, in shallow breaths due to the cold, her upside-down position, and her panic setting in as her body wanted to struggle but she forced some trained breathing that kept her somewhat warm.

She tried to close her eyes and figure out how to keep herself warm. The more spread out she was, the less she’d fall, but the colder she’d get.

“What’s taking them so long!” she finally blurted out, as more snow sounded out her vibrated echoes and then her vision was taken from her as the tunnel collapsed.

“Ah-!”

She didn’t know how long it had been... since she shut her eyes.

She wondered if when they found her, what would they react like? She didn’t want them to be sad... before coming out, she had thought about wearing something, but figured she’d arrive at the end of their adventure so they’d take her back with them regardless. She thought the worst she’d receive, at most, was a cold.

And then with a cold... at least Sonic wouldn’t feel guilty about canceling so much... she would have a plausible excuse... other than feeling it was making him feel a negative way by constantly having to write her apology texts.

It was so cold... she almost felt herself stop breathing just to avoid more melted snow she was swallowing ice over her insides... when muffled thumping came from above.

She squinted her eyes through the white snow, melting over her bangs... dripping down to her eyes as though she was submerged over water.

She tilted her head and shook it slightly, moving some of the snow as she still hugged the activated Miles-Electric.

More scuffling through the snow as she saw it start being scooped away in fast piles, just vanishing as more and more light came through.

She smiled, ‘Always... in the nick of time.’

She saw a familiar white glove reach down and continue digging.

‘Sonic...’ she felt her consciousness weakening at the growing light. ‘Couldn’t make an excuse this time... could you?’ she morbidly joked to herself as she felt his glove hit against her raised boot.

She could hear her name through the snow, muffled and seeming distant, she shivered and tried to move her foot to show she was alright.

But it was so numb, not even tingles anymore.

She could barely feel the pressure of Sonic’s hands gripping her boot and pulling. However, the snow had compacted, and pulling her out wasn’t much of an option without first cracking through it.

She shivered again, hoping the action served to prove she was alive.

She was too cold to speak out loud, but was so happy to be found.

More scooping through the snow, before finally, Sonic’s head could be seen through the small tunnel that she was looking up from.

“Amy!” she could hear him... she could see him through the blurry white of her vision.

She mumbled, trying to speak but he reached down, putting his whole arm through the snow and into the tunnel till he could feel the resting snow on her. He patted as though making sure he could reach her, before brushing off the snow and seeing her blink. “Can you move?” he called, but she could only shiver, her hands frozen in spot and shaking as she couldn’t even feel if she was gripping the Miles-Electric still or not.

She kept trying to form the words ‘help’ but couldn’t.

It just sounded like sniffling stifles, and Sonic moved out his arm to look in with his eye, seeing her predicament. “Wow, it tumbled you good, didn’t it? Hang on!” he spun through the snow. She wanted to warn him that by doing so, he’d slip into a nasty tomb as well, but it was too late.

She felt herself falling further and Sonic spread himself out after uncurling and realizing why Amy couldn’t move.

His gritted teeth now parted to show his amazement at how bad the situation really was, but she saw his expression change from a ‘rescue’ to a ‘life-threatening predicament’.

As his face turned serious, she was glad to see he was finally absorbing the true depth of the sad tale she was writing.

He bent down and wrapped an arm around her head, “Push me down and get yourself up, I can burrow through the snow.”

He couldn’t even swim...

When his glove touched her, she let out a painful cry, and he flinched away.

“What’s..?” he didn’t finish his question, her skin felt ice. He realized her back was probably frostbitten and that his immediate warmth and pulling on her probably just cracked skin. Now he was glaring at the top of the snow, “...Shoot.” it was like a cuss for him.

“Well, we’ve certainly gotten ourselves into an adventure... huh, Amy?” She knew why he wasn’t showing her his face... he was trying not to frighten her.

She didn’t want to feel anything anymore, but simply watch him, already comforted by the fact that she was found.

He’d get them both out of this... and maybe... when it didn’t hurt so much... give her a warm hug that never parted his arms from around her again.

Her lip trembled as she wanted to also comfort him but couldn’t speak, her lungs already severely damaged from the cold and her breathing even more appalling.

His ears flicked as he tested the snow’s durability and noticed how it became more solid above him and less so below. “Strange.” he look back at Amy, “Ready for a bit of a rushed exit?”

She knew what he was saying.

‘Brace yourself.’.

This was going to hurt a lot.

She mustered a nod, but slipped her balance and he grabbed her.

“AHH!!” she let out a cry and as his fast moving feet piled snow under them, and finally, he was able to manage to tumble the powdery snow away and get to the more crystal blue kind, and gripped the walling of the tunnel.

“Hang on!” he spin dashed her out with a throw. His supersonic feet made their usual sound effect as he got himself out as well, and saw Amy crash into the snow, sinking down. “No..!” he tried to move through the snow like he did last time to reach her and grabbed her before she could be sunken beneath the snow again.

His gloves were sprinkled with pink, flakey particles of skin and he winced at how badly her condition was. “Come on, endure it just a bit longer, I’ve got you.” he picked her up and moved her over his back as he tried to find a way to not touch her exposed back so much, not wanting to cause further damage.

Trekking through the snow, he had to go a lot slower than he liked too, but was continuing to move towards less and less snowbanks, more and more compacted, solid footing and sighed when he finally reached a tree, knowing he was somewhere near the mountain’s forest valley now.

“Phew, how we doing back there?” he looked over his shoulder and froze when he saw her out cold...

He bit his mouth shut and studied her unconscious face, feeling her shallow breathing from her stomach now.

It was a sunny day, but...

He looked to see the mountain had some caves, and knew a good spot for her recovery.

Thinking quickly, he didn’t want her back exposed to the sun if it really was frostbitten, and moved swiftly against the snowy terrain.

The rocks were cold and slippery, but he kept Amy on his shoulders tried to only grab at her arms and legs, keeping her from falling off.

When reaching the cave he had remembered, he was glad to see some fireflies also took shelter here, and watched them glow and descend in their sleep.

There were huge, leafy plants and other large ferns and then... a duel pool with two large mouths that had one wide waterfall from the top of a slit in the mountain.

It was misty... and he was glad he had found it in time.

Lightly setting Amy down near the mounded rocks by the waterfall’s slit, he looked to try and find anything that could warm her up safely.

Taking some of the leaves, he stripped them off the low, fatted tree sprouts and drapped them over her, rubbing her arms first and then her head.

She was wet and hardly breathing... he needed to dry her first.

Working swiftly, he had her dry but dared not to address her back yet.

He closed his eyes, getting a bit upset at the state she was in and trying to remember the locations where herbs for healing were.

Once calmed down enough to focus, he washed his gloves, luckily not stained, in the spring and then waited for them to dry before charging out of the mountain again.

Skidding down the peak with nothing but his red, golden buckled shoes to act as skis, he wobbled his arms for balance a moment and then expertly rode down the mountain. Normally, he’d be doing tricks, but in this case, he just bent his head down and made himself more angular, allowing the icy wind to move right over him.

He rolled into a spinball on his way down and then quickly went to gather the herbs. Each item wasn’t too far away... some for blood clots, disinfecting, encouraging skin healing, and others for the inner-use like to contrast the bitter cold and warm her up a bit.

He kept collecting whatever was useful but close by, and for him, that could be miles and miles away, but it was nothing to what he could do if he had solid ground to dash across.

Arriving back at the cave, he moved over and noticed Amy was finally breathing a bit more normal, the fireflies were attracting around her and a dragonfly went to sit on her ear but Sonic flicked his hand and it flew off.

He tsk’ed at the curious insects and also batted them lightly away, before sitting down beside her and getting the ingredients prepared.

“..Ah..! Ughh... S...Sonic?” Amy slowly came to, and he smiled.

“For a snowy retreat, you sure picked the worst place to be.” he kid, applying the second layer to her back.

“AH!” she tightened against the pain, “W-what is that? Moss?!”

“It’s chewed herbal medicine, for your information.” he lightly rubbed it over the cracking of her skin, and as he pulled his hand away, Amy noticed the red on his gloves...

“...Chewed?” she looked away, disgusted.

Sonic shrugged, half-heartedly pouting his lips a moment as though excusing her distaste. “Had to mix the medicines somehow. Don’t complain if it’s shoddy. I didn’t want to waste any time looking for proper applications at the grocery store.” he teased, and continued to work on her.

She endured, making less noise then before. Squinting her eyes, she moved her hands up to her chin, laying on her stomach and just trying to breath in the warm mist that was around her. “Where... emm... are we?”

“Welcome to Sonic Hotsprings!” he gestured, just playing around and keeping the mood light. “After all the times I couldn’t make it, I tend to pick the lousiest times to take you out, huh, Amy?”

It actually did make her smile, even through the yucky gunk he was putting on her back. It smelled... but she had the right to think it was moss, it was extremely dark green, and looked as though lumps of wetted goop.

“Did you find me..?”

“Through your tracker? Yeah. Didn’t expect the video though. That scared the living daylights out of Knuckles.” He seemed to grow more somber after saying that. “You... didn’t hold back on that shock effect.”

She realized she must have scared him too, but he didn’t want to admit it.

“I’m sorry...” she lightly spoke through the side of her muzzle, looking away as she felt the warm goop start stinging... but at least that meant it was working... somewhat.

“Don’t be,” Sonic’s voice turned tender, and she blushed slightly under hearing it, her ears curling back slightly to secretly hear him better. “I’m glad you made it. Seriously, if it weren’t for that video, we’d just have figured you were cold...”

“Would... would you have still come for me?” she didn’t know if he would really answer that, and with the sudden silence, she figured the video was what saved her life.

“Of course, I would have.” Sonic finally spoke out, but it was quiet... too quiet. “Why would you ask something like that..?”

She didn’t respond right away, but waited a moment. His hands on her back made her feel some form of a peace, and she finally did close her eyes and state, “I don’t know. Nevermind me. I’m just tired... that snow really bites.”

Sonic smiled a moment, his eyes bending as though knowing that was an understatement. “You can rest here, Amy. It’s warm. Though kinda damp, that ‘moss’ on your back will stay a bit wet and heal the better.” She heard him wiping his hands in a clap against each other and getting up.

She turned her head, “Where are you-Ah..!” she moved back into the position she was and felt Sonic kneel by her head, lightly placing a hand on it.

“Don’t move... you’ll crack more if you do.” His touch was more just precaution, and she didn’t feel any real pressure from it. “Your body is still like crumbling ice, give it a bit to thaw out. You’ll be fine overnight.”

“Overnight?” her eyes widened, “Wait-!” she saw him out of the corner of her eye descending the rocks to the hot spring.

He stopped, looking over his shoulder again to show he was listening.

“You’re not leaving me here... all alone... are you, Sonic The Hedgehog!?”

He laughed, “Didn’t realize you were scared of the dark.” He gave her a playful wink, “No, Amy. I’m not going anywhere.” he reassured her, and then pointed to the two pools. “I’m kinda cold myself. You can join me when you feel moving doesn’t bother you anymore.” he went down to the hotsprings as she sighed and grumbled at his inconsiderateness.

“So he heals my back but goes to warm up... typical.”

“What was that?”

“Nothing!” Amy cried out, but continued to grumble off to the side.

“This wouldn’t have even happened if you had just kept your appointments with me..?”

“What?”

“Must be the waterfall!” Amy continued to fib.

“Oh, cause it sounded like the waterfall wasn’t grateful.” Sonic joked, snickering from below as he dipped his hands into the water and washed up. “I was just about to tell the inconsiderate waterfall to quiet down so you could sleep, should I still scold it for being so splashy and loud?” he smirked and leaned his head up, hoping she could hear him over the naturally pleasant sounds of the falling, rushing water.

She remained silent, then he heard fake snoring and nodded his head.

“Okay! Nevermind.” he then moved to the mouth of the cave, “Mr. Waterfall, I expect you to tell Amy upon her next momentary spur of consciousness, that I have momentarily left you to host her as I forage for some food. Now, if she tells me you even so much as grumbled a complaint against me-” He turned back with a lazy point, “I’ll write you a bad review.” he then chuckled to himself and sped off.

When he was gone, Amy attempted to sit up, and trying hard not to bend or angle her back in anyway, finally got herself up to spread out her knees and sit on the rock and look out after him.

Longing... it was the only way to describe the expression on her face.

“He’s got a lot of nerve...” she puffed out, seeing the mist part at her breath. “But that’s my Sonic for you... always trying to brighten a dark cave.” She was amused over her analogy but digressed, moving to try and stretch out her sore limps and rubbed against her cold arms.

“Brr... he could have come sooner.” she argued, then looked to the waterfall. “...You wouldn’t rat me out... a guest... right?” she smiled to it, and then tried to get up. “Ah!” she fell to a knee as the goop was firmly attached to her back, but definitely holding back her bleeding back.

She shook her head, “No good... I really should rest... but... I don’t want to close my eyes again.” She admitted and crawled as well and slowly as she could down the rocks.

She dipped her hand into the water and immediately felt herself relaxing at the warmth it gave. “Awwh~... Now this is the only state of water I’ll ever accept.” she looked over to the large, almost stunted palm trees that were ginormous by the entrance and around the cave. “...Wow, they look prehistoric.” She cautiously stood up, wincing a time or two at her haste to move, but too stubborn to just sleep and wait for food.

She carefully removed her wet and still cold clothes, and tugged the palm tree leaf down.

It was perfect, it wrapped around her and even fell down longer than any towel she ever had, and tucked and tied it securely around her.

“Well, Sonic did say it was a hot springs...” She looked to see the two pools and quickly went to work making a curtain.

“Hmm... didn’t think this through.” she realized there wasn’t anything to hold up the long blanket she was trying to construct, and knowing if Sonic returned, the blanket would only cover the view from the two adjacent pools, not the entrance.

She lifted her head back and sighed, “Ahhh... he’s gonna think badly of me!” she let her head flop down to her chest and groaned at the stretching of her skin that she knew could only mean she was making her condition worse.

“Okay, we’ll cover the waterfall then.”

She tied the large palms to create a self-standing curtain, arching the waterfall, before realizing this trapped her within.

“Augh!” she kicked the curtain down, “Some hotsprings if it doesn’t even allow some form of privacy!”

She froze when the curtain fell and Sonic stared from having sped through the entrance of the cave, blinking as though not expecting Amy to be wrapped in a leaf sitting under the waterfall.

He averted his eyes slowly as they just so happen to come across her clothes sprawled against a branch of a leaf.

Amy, embarrassed, withdrew behind the waterfall and covered her face. “MMMMMMMM...” she groaned, “Nothing’s going my way today, is it?”

It’s not like Sonic could see anything, she was just wearing a long dress almost, but still...

She kicked her feet out from the waterfall, “Don’t just stand there! R-roll me the fruit!”

He thought to himself, ‘If I were a lesser man... this would be pretty bad for her.’ but then jokingly let the idea slide and walked to side, laying down the fruits and rolling them through the waterfall while avoiding looking at her.

“Any reason why you’re not sound asleep and trying to heal yourself?” he kept his eyes averted, but then sat down and began his own plans... taking his shoes and socks off to soak in one of the pools anyway.

She pulled her feet in and caught the fruit, chewing quickly on them.

“Hey! You’ll choke if you don’t-” he leaned his head back, looking over to her now as he heard her start coughing with a mouth full of food.

He sighed, dipping his head back down and walking over to the curtain, shaking his head.

“Not like I couldn’t have done this for you, you know?” he looked back at the blurred pink behind the waterfall, and smiled sweetly at her shyness. “You look like you belong in Hawaii with that dress on.”

She wouldn’t dare call it a towel now.

“I... I really wanted to be in the water...” she pushed her two pointer fingers together, taking more polite, lady-like bites now.

He moved to the water’s edge and dunked his feet in up to his knees, sitting down and sighing at the warmth.

“Yeah, well... I did say we’d be here a while.”

She could hear him judging her and spat out at the falling water.

His ear twitched, and he quietly chuckled at her growing frustration as he lifted one leg out of the water. “Want me to turn away while you get in?”

“No!” she barked, too embarrassed now to even move.

“Ah...” Sonic figured it was something like that, and lowered the raised leg back into the water. “...How’s the back?”

“...It hurts...”

“I told you to sleep it off. Did all the medicine I apply stay on?” he looked over his shoulder, but wasn’t actually looking at anything, just addressing her.

“...Yeah, it’s still on.”

“...I should check to make you an honest guest.” he muttered to himself, leaning over the water and scratching his nose.

“...What?”

“Hmm?” he leaned towards her direction.

“D-did you say something? I couldn’t hear you...”

“Oh, just Mr. Waterfall and me. He just informed me this is a co-ed hotspring. Guess we didn’t need this.” he kicked the blanket and she about had a tissy-fit, throwing some fruit at his head as he ducked and laughed. “Amy, since when have I ever disrespected you?”

“Don’t even joke about that!” she hid herself more behind the waterfall, but shivered since she couldn’t feel the warmth of the water anymore...

Sonic grew a bit bashful then too, realizing she was making this awkward when he was hoping it wouldn’t be.

“Fine. I’ll go.”

She heard the splashing of him leaving and immediately moved through the waterfall, “Wait!” she held a hand to the top of her leaf to make sure the waterfall didn’t sag the covering down, and then sat under the waterfall, blushing and looking away. “Geez, you really have no idea about social norms, do you?”

He didn’t look at her, but smiled and closed his eyes, turning to walk to the waterfall and sat a distance away from her, letting it massage his tired shoulders from digging them out of the snow. “Ahh~ I know the norms. But I didn’t exactly break any rules, now did I?”

“Are you blaming me then!?” Amy puffed up her cheek and he turned his head away, showing her even more so that he was respecting not to stare.

“You’re covered, anyway, but I’m not interested in anything than making sure the medicine stays on your back.” he stretched, showing he was relaxed, although she didn’t realize how uncomfortable he really was.

She blushed and looked away from him, but sighed and agreed that she should trust he only was interested in her recovery...

But that made her somewhat disappointed too...

“You... You saved me. Thank you.” she ducked her head down.

“Anytime!” he let the water slide off his back and kept his eyes closed for her, just so she didn’t have to worry or fret.

Amy watched the pools as Sonic and her’s splashes from the water hitting against them created rippling symphonies out of them...

“...Do you ... Do you know why I was there?”

“Last known location that I sent you.. yeah?”

She dipped her head further down, but moved her legs to let them sink into the warm water of the other pool.

She smiled at finally feeling warm and closed her eyes, looking up and no longer being self-conscious anymore.

“It’s been so long... since I had even heard your voice. For some time now, I wondered if you were just avoiding me again...”

“Again?” Sonic’s voice sounded surprised, but she continued.

“I just... I didn’t know why you would plan something and then let something else come up so frequently... a girl can only accept being told to wait so many times...” she gave a humorous grumble, but with her eyes closed, was glad she didn’t have to look to see Sonic’s reaction.

She tilted her head and bent to let the water flow more directly, and that’s when Sonic piped up.

“Hey, the medicine...”

“This ‘dress’ is locked so tightly that it’s not even touching it.” she argued, “Just trust me on that.”

Silence for a moment...

“Then trust me that I never planned to need to cancel on you so many times...”

She felt her heart, still slightly frosted, begin to melt with a few gentle thumps at his kind words.

She couldn’t help but giggle a second, lifting a leg up from the pool and letting it down again, hearing it’s gentle movement in the spring.

“Why did you cancel? Couldn’t you have rested from your big adventure with me?”

“Heh, guess you have a point.”

“I do, don’t I? Why didn’t you ever suggest alternative days? Or times? Why didn’t ask how I was feeling or how I felt about you canceling all the time... did you... did you just not think about how that might have affected me? After so many times..?”

He could tell by her voice she was getting upset, and took a big breath in.

“No, Amy.” He admitted, “I honestly didn’t think about it.”

She felt her lips tighten, but accepted his ignorance. “You’ve got a one-track mind, alright... But when you’re with Tails or Knuckles..? Compared to me..? Is it... is it somewhat different?”

“The solutions?” Sonic questioned.

“No, no... not their reactions to being blown off-”

“Hey! I never blew you off!” Sonic countered, “I just couldn’t make it! At least give me that.”

Amy rolled her head, stretching it out, “I don’t want to explain it to you...” she admitted, weakly sighing it out in an escalating trill. “Ahh~ You’re so annoying!!!~”

Sonic actually laughed at that, quietly, but she was glad he at least thought her complaining cute.

“...Give it a try?”

His words made her grow weaker... and not being able to resist his charms, she conceded.

“When I see you look at Tails... or Knuckles... it’s like you’re really looking at them.”

The waters sounds seemed to become ambiance as she spoke.

“I can’t remember the last time... you really looked at me. Seeing who I really am.., by looking down into the depths of my soul... and accepting every part of it. You always say how you see the best in people before the worst. You also say you just have this sense of knowing if someone is in the right or the wrong... I’ve been wondering... thinking a lot about it... have you... found something you can’t stand to see in me? That’s why you... you don’t mind being taken away on some amazing adventures with Tails and Knuckles... but you’re perfectly fine leaving me behind?”

When she opened her eyes, she wondered if the warmth was from the waterfall trailing down her form or from her own tears.

She hadn’t been this honest, even with herself for a long time...

“Being in that icy snow... was like being away from your gaze forever...”

When she looked over to see him, she was shocked to see his eyes were opened, staring into her soul, and not looking away.

With red all over her face at his intense but kind eyes, she summoned her hammer and walloped him into the water.

“W-ah-wah-wahhh!!” he fell instantly into the pool.

“Ah! Sonic!” She immediately regretted her action, and getting up, felt the sting in her back but still dived into the water.

Seeing him struggle, his cheeks were puffed with air and he kept trying to ‘run’ through the water, but couldn’t.

Giving up, he folded his arms and let himself sink, but looked up to see Amy wrapping her arms around his head, and getting to the bottom of the pool, kicking off and pulling him up too.

“Pah!” the two took a breath in together and Amy moved his flailing arms around her shoulders, kicking to guide him back to the edge.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry! I wasn’t expecting you to be that close!”

He coughed and hacked before looking back to her, “I just... wanted to see your eyes... real badly.” he panted, and then coughed some more.

She couldn’t help but smile, then push him back further onto the land. “Get the curtain, already!”

“Fine... fine...” He hacked at the end and then raced to get his bearings and do as he was told.

The two sat, back to back with the leafy curtain finally strung up between them.

She could feel his heart though, rapidly pacing and scrunched her body inward, hoping it meant something romantic and not just the fact that he was drowning moments before.

“...What did you see?”

“Nothing. Just you in a leaf dress.”

“No! Not that!” she batted the leaf curtain, “Sonic! I meant in my eyes!”

“O-oh, that...” he paused a moment...

In his mind, he had seen her descend through the water with the ends of her leaf dress spread out like miniature wings... Her quills had spread out around her head to flow effortlessly through the water as she reached him.

Her arms wrapped around him and he was pulled up to her, and it was the first time he had felt her so close to him...

He had a goofy grin and kept rubbing his muzzle, knowing his feelings might be all over it by now...

“I saw a girl.” he stated, thinking his words carefully. “Reaching out to me in the only way she knew how.”

Amy blushed and smacked her hands to the side of her cheeks, “A-and? W-wh-what else did you see... was that it?” she puckered her lips as though disappointed again, but he continued.

“Nah, there was more. So much more, in fact, that I couldn’t peel my eyes away... There’s so much more there than I ever knew... Even if it was a brief moment...”

His mind moved to seeing her eyes under the water, the warm heat and her arms around him, her eyes opened wide as she dipped down to embrace him and pull him up out of the depths of the pool.

He suddenly sneezed.

“Sonic!”

He rubbed his nose, “Guess I’ll have to make another appointment to finish, huh?”

“That’s-! Ah...” she was about to complain again before realizing what this meant...

He wanted to spend time with her. He wasn’t trying to push her away or pull himself away with his adventures.

She gripped her leafy towel closer to her and nodded, “Okay... but you better not be late this time! And you better tell me the end of that sentence, you hear me!? Sonic,..! Sonic The Hedgehog!”

“Yeah, yeah, I hear you, I hear you!” Sonic waved his hand about in the air, and looking back to the curtain, Amy could see his shadow doing the action. “But now, I’m pretty sure that medicine might have polluted the pool a bit...”

“It’s fine. I still feel it. You applied it well.” She looked towards where her clothes were. “S-Son-Sonic?”

“Hmm?” he was finally relaxing, enjoying the warmth, the company... even Amy’s rapidly beating heart.

He lifted a leg up and leaned slightly back against the curtain, hoping beforehand he wouldn’t hurt her by leaning against her back, but seeing as she was recovering well, decided to test it.

She didn’t wince, but instead, fidgeted and decided it was best to not ask for it quite yet.

“Nevermind... Thank you, for everything...”

“Nah, thank you.”

“For what?”

He patted the curtain, “For making this, without it, I might have actually tried to hold your hand.” he teased.

“Ah! Stop teasing me!” she pushed against the curtain, “Don’t you know how much I-! Ah! Sonic!” she realized she pushed him back into the pool, but instead of struggling this time, he waited for her to come in and rescue him.

“Sonnnniicc!!!” she pushed up the leafy curtain and dived in after him.

He was laying on the bottom of the pool’s floor again, eyes closed, hands behind his head and legs crossed slightly.

He looked up to see that same image, and smiled as her form met his at the bottom of the hotspring...

Wrapping an arm around her to pull her closer as she raced to save him, he never took his eyes... off of hers.

#sonamy #sonicxamy #sonic prompt #sonic au #sonic au prompt #sonic the hedgehog #amy rose #cutegirlmayra

[diffractor]

I was thinking back to childhood memories, and just realized that the gba game “Sonic Battle” I played a very long time ago was plausibly a subconscious motivating factor for finding AI safety to be an important thing to work on. Said game is a Sonic fighting game, with a hell of a story, though it only really clicks once you do a second playthrough with enough context to see what’s actually going on there. So, this is the plot with full context (and filling in tidbits of info that you only get on the second playthrough), and I’m doing it from memory so there may be some inaccuracies. Once upon a time there was the 4th great Civilization. Key word, “was”. The thing that wiped them out was that they made a very specific robot, as a weapon of war, named Emerl (though that isn’t the original name), and... it didn’t go so well. Emerl’s ability was to be able to copy any attack or weapon used against it, or that it observes. This manifests in the game as Emerl not having a fixed moveset, you can splice together whichever moveset you want from the moves of all the other characters you’ve fought against. Just stitch the best healing and the best movement speed and the best attacks and best projectiles and a “self-destruct after you die” special ability together from all the different characters, and plow through the rest of the cast. Anyways, it was built as a weapon of war, and the creators didn’t last too long after that, though it isn’t specified precisely what happened. Eggman’s father (or grandpa, maybe?) is tasked by the military with creating weapons of war. He doesn’t really want to do this, and so tends to make freely willed things that can reject being a weapon. One of which was Shadow the hedgehog, and also, as his logs show, he found Emerl on an archeology trip too, and kinda freaked out when he realized exactly what that particular robot was. He wasn’t able to completely override the original programming, just put in some modifications. Later, Eggman gets a hold of Emerl somehow, and after a bit of testing and using it to make crappy knockoff robots, deems it a useless pile of trash and certainly not the civilization-ending weapon it’s supposed to be and throws it away on the beach. Sonic finds the abandoned robot, and shows off his moves. Emerl bonds with him (read: follows Sonic around and obeys commands and if Sonic tells Emerl to obey someone else then Emerl has a new master), because one of the things it’s programmed to do is to obey someone who displays sufficient power. It can barely talk, isn’t that good at fighting, and Tails is trying to figure out what the deal with it is. It seems to be attracted to Chaos Emeralds, and after getting the first one, there’s a notable boost in its ability to copy things, fight, and talk, going from “barely able to talk” to “low-quality chatbot trained on a corpus of sonic and tails talking” to “gpt-2 trained on sonic, tails, knuckles, and amy” to “gpt-3 trained on the whole sonic cast” as the game progresses and you acquire more. There’s a bunch of adventures which are mostly pointless, by my estimation, with a bunch of characters trying to use Emerl for their own ends, and getting into shenanigans, and fighting off Eggman, while nobody seems to realize they’ve got a civilization-destroying weapon on their hands. The only sane character worthy of any respect in this entire shitshow is Shadow the Hedgehog, who knows what Emerl actually is and is trying his best to kill the damn thing, while everyone else unreasonably insists on getting in his way and feeding Emerl more Chaos Emeralds because he’s their friend. Idiots. We get to the Shadow arc. Apparently Shadow and Rouge have found Eggman’s (dad’s? grandpa’s?) logs, and apparently when it gets all 7 Chaos Emeralds, it will awaken to its original form. And he managed to set things up so if you say the password “bring hope to humanity” upon Emerl fully waking up... it gets sealed again, and acts as just a friendly Sonic character with free will again, having fun with the rest of the cast. Shadow gives Emerl the last Chaos Emerald and does that, after some meaningful chats. And then the Emerl arc, the final one. Eggman has apparently made some villainous spaceship floating in the sky and being ominous, and the sonic crew sends Emerl up to give Eggman an ass-whooping, which he does. And then Eggman reveals that it was a trap, fires the big spaceship gun (which apparently wipes out some stars, but I reject this because physics and my headcanon is that it just made a big new crater on the moon), and reveals that there’s one last bit of knowledge that nobody knew about. Emerl will always make a bond with anyone that displays overwhelming power, far in excess of what has previously been shown. And all the happy-go-lucky friendly robot nonsense is wiped away, and the ancient weapon of war (which Emerl always was, Shadow should have turned it into scrap) awakens at full power, and starts gathering energy. Eggman tries to direct it (and fails). It aims the big spaceship gun at earth, and Eggman is quite put out by this, because he just wants to rule the world, not destroy it. But, y’know, if you play around with civilization-destroying robots, your civilization might end up destroyed, who would have thought. Emerl beats Eggman up. Sonic takes the Master Emerald (capable of controlling the Chaos Emeralds) and teleports onto the ship to try to use it to reign Emerl in, as their last hope. The heroic victory at the last moment. Emerl unceremoniously smashes it before it can be used. 30 seconds until end of earth. Shadow chooses to go out with a few edgy lines about “the final voice of the last war machine” and “natural result of ignorant human desires” Cream chooses to go out with “are we all... going to die? :(” Tails chooses to go out frantically advising Sonic on how, if he can inflict massive damage on Emerl, since Emerl has too much power stored up and is highly unstable, it should be able to take him out. Sonic chooses to go out fighting Full Power Emerl entirely equipped with blink-fast 2-hit-ko attacks. And then you defeat Emerl and he suffers but shuts down back to normal and looks like he’s gonna live... And then beeping. Apparently Eggman’s grandpa put in a self-destruct safeguard. Emerl dies via self-destruct, and everyone is sad, and I cried a bit as a kid, and they talk about making a better world... And (it may just be me), there’s one last note of discontent in your mind after beating the game. You didn’t beat Emerl in 30 seconds. In fact, I don’t think it’s even possible to beat that final battle in 30 seconds. If the situation had actually happened, there wouldn’t have been a heroic final victory after Emerl shattered the Master Emerald. Sonic would have had his ass handed to him, or not won in 30 seconds, and the Earth would be destroyed thanks to Dr. Eggman and everyone involved in waking Emerl up and thinking they were helping, and Shadow failing at killing the robot early on, and that would be that. You now probably see why this old gba game could be a subconscious motivator.

[loudlypanickinginvenezolano]

Life is a Big, Bad, Joke. Chapter 2, edited. (Not the final version.)

Shadow is amnesiac, Tails is missing, the world is going bonkers, and Sonic... Sonic...He really isnt having a great day...

AO3

“…But I can’t. I don’t even know you, I don’t even know what is going on outside of-of-Or inside. Whenever I like it or not, sir, I am missing things in the bucket so I-You could be tricking me into a trap! You could be… someone… bad, I guess.” Shadow gently shook his head, mindful of his injuries, as he licked his suddenly dry lips. He was going to see Maria soon, after all, what was the point in getting them worse just to scare her poor heart? “How do I know I am not helping or talking with some criminal? Issy--She would break my neck again for being so naïve.”

Sonic tried not to make so obvious his frown, but it was becoming increasingly difficult the more Shadow talked. Because. Yes, yes, man, you are completely right; you are just turning your suspicious in the wrong guy here! I am, you know, actually trying to save both of our necks in here? Hello?

Why didn’t you ask yourself those questions when you helped Eggman!?

“I am not tricking you, Shadow! You are my friend, I would never ever, unless-unless we are playing or there is something big on stake but those are extreme situations. I just… I just need your help. I’m serious, just… just get me outta here, outta this cage and I will let you be. I swear.”

“I-I don’t even know your name or-or-or serial! I don’t even know if you have a—that ”

“ C´mon, c´moon, I need to find Tails, Shadow! You have to help me. He is missing, and we need to find him. We can’t lose more time” He didn’t wanted to growl, nor to sound so stressed, so uncharacteristically desperate, but he wasdesperate and he didn’t have the strength to try and fake it. How could he not be anxious? So many incognitos, so many what if, situations running through his mind once and once again without really a sense, adrenaline pumping through his veins…And there he was, losing time arguing with Shadow because he also needed to help his friend, losing his breath and what little strength he had, trapped who knows where.

He was starting to feel real sick.

It was like the dark corners in his peripheral vision were growing more and more over time and trying to swallow him whole. Take him away in their jagged edges, into the inky black bliss of unconsciousness. But Sonic couldn’t just give up now, could he?

He just couldn’t now, throw everything away and let himself be swept away into unawareness, no matter how good did that sound... He couldn’t. Nah. Wrong guy.

He was going to fight it all until the very end.

Right?

“Who-Who’s Tails even?!” Shadow, on the other hand, cried out, feeling more and more overwhelmed and out of control and balance. Honestly hating every minute of it, how he was babbling in his insecurity, stammering and tripping over his words like a goof, like a joke, as if he hadn’t been painstakingly correctly taught how to pronounce them. Painstakingly taught how to behave. He was reacting like a disgrace to the tittle he carried! And he was painfully aware of that.

Things just…they didn’t make sense. No matter how he looked at them, everything felt wrong. Tainted. Even the air around them, the flow of energy, every little thing around him was screaming… He wasn’t even sure about where to focus!

He wasn’t fucking sure about what they were trying to tell him.

He knew, he could swear, he knew how to speak! He knew…Things, all right? They just…weren’t so clear right now, he couldn’t get a grip on them right now. They were there, just…floating out of his reach.

He wasn’t misbehaving on purpose, either. Too many things to keep on mind, to many holes in the information he carried and misleadsand his headache was coming back, it was like his brain was telling him something but his stomach another completely different, so many things he could take into consideration, he…

It hurt Sonic. More than he ever thought it could. It pulled at his heartstrings without restrictions, pulling and pulling until he felt it broke into a million pieces.

He wanted to act, oh how bad did he wanted to break free and calm down his friend, maybe just talk to him and help him distract, or held his wrist or forearms softly, guide him into his side and keep him there so they both could calm down and think clearly, but, things as they were he couldn’t do something right now. No matter how much his fingers ached for running through the fur on Shadow´s belly or back until his chest started raising and failing slowly, in calm.

It was a luxury they didn’t have. And of course, being who he was, this desire just made him more adamant on his quest of getting them both out of this shithole and into safety.

Sonic still longed for holding and soothing the other hedgehog, though.

“He is like-He is my brother. He is and I don’t where he is, nor how, and I know Eggman has something do to with this. It’s a no-good, you need to believe me.”

Shadow hated, as well, how loudly his heart broke. How visibly he stuttered, and maybe even how he breathed in, how he flinched. One would think he was better at subtlety, but, Oh Teia, didn’t he knew how it felt like asking into deaf ears to be believed…?

<< And…He is also missing his family. >>

Goodness, wasn’t he weak? Wasn’t this too much of a coincidence?

Earlier that day, or maybe yesterday, he wasn’t sure, Shadow was told to wait here, that Hanna and his team and a squat of scientist were going to come for him, most likely Gerald himself and even Maria! They all were coming… He was promised he was going to go tothem, he just needed to wait here and obey. Simple, right?

But…the mister…A hedgehog, like him nonetheless! How unique was that?

Someone who claimed to be a friend…

A friend that, needed him?

Heeding not his uneasiness, he stood and walked to the bars that made his containing cell-like cage, so small it barely took him 2 steps to reach the end. Wrapping his hands around the chilly bars, he did his best to ignore the pain he felt and to look sure, confident almost, and not as intimidated as he very much felt, shifting his stance almost lazily and taking note of how the mister perked up noticeably at his closeness. He wasn’t aggressive, though. More like, hopeful? Poor guy was lucky to not be on the hands of his superiors, that much was true. Very little would be left of him, if so.

He wasn’t sure why the thought bothered him that much.

Maybe they did know each other? He did look familiar, and there was that strange feeling in his stomach when he saw him, the same one that made him give part of his bread in hopes of comforting him.

Maybe they did… if so, had they been close?

Were they?

The wounds on his midsection and upper back thanked his new position, as it relieved some tension and weight put onto them, but other parts of his body screeched at him in agony. He ignored it all, as he had a bigger prey to focus on, and his resources were inexistent in the moment. His hands were tied in that regard.

“So, sir. Are you really my friend?” Shadow kept his gaze trained in the heavily chained mister, on his disheveled blue fur, blood streaked skin and quills, and his pale, tired complexion. He observed, in silence, watching his expression changing by a multitude of emotions, how he tensed, where did he looked at, his hands, his shoulders and spines.

What called his attention the most, though, was the flame alive in his green eyes, the intensity on them, the brightness with which he looked at him.

The strength they spoke of.

It was amazing and inquiring. A sight he didn’t see commonly, not from the others projects or the scientist aboard. Just from Maria, and even sometimes the one she carried was so fake, it hurt to look at.

It was like the dark of the vast outside was slowly creeping in, or maybe sucking out all of the life up there. Snuffing all warm that there ever was with its permanent burning cold and leaving just pain, dried souls and dead eyes behind.

Shadow hated it. How he could feel the people around him dying alive, slowly like in their tortures or trainings, how he could feel how his own person was dying and withering and fearing… To see this guy, burning so much, so alive, and passionate… it was scaring and maddening the hell out of him, but… but it also made Shadow want to protect it. To not let it die.

Oh, what wouldn’t he do to make sure Maria and Gerald could have that look on their eyes?

“Yes.”

<<Why do you even doubt it? >> “Swell!” Shadow smiled, and Sonic felt dizzy for a completely different reason.

#Sonadow #Shadow the Hedgehog #Sonic the hedgehog #Sonic Fanfiction #Life is a Big Bad joke #I dont know what I am doing with my life. #Mutual pining #Kind of world building #Eventual romance #My writing

[ebachan]

Sonic Movie Review

So, nobody is going to be surprised I’m writing a review of this movie :-D I’ve seen it the last Saturday. Since then, I’ve calmed down a bit, so I’m not going to be “clouded” by emotions (too much XD)

So without further ado, here we dash by...

I’ll divide this into three segments - The Good, “The Neutral”, “The Bad”. This is a purely personal opinion, so you are free to disagree ;-) I’m open to discussion, but have patience with me ;-) This will be spoilerific, so watch out :-)

TL: DR

The movie is worth the money for sure. There is a lot of fun, good action, top-notch CGI, the voice acting is spot on, Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik works really well, and Tom with Maddie make a great couple. All of this and more makes one heck-of-a-ride you will enjoy for the second time as well.

I hope you won’t mind the tag, but I love to read from you ;-)

@movie-robotnik-positivity @movie-sonic-positivity @movie-sonic-adopted-au @aawesomepenguin @welcome-to-green-hills @dxrkblaze @deldiztmblr​ 

THE GOOD

The design...

We all can agree this Design is extremely good and flows well. I’ll remind you, I’m one of the rare people who liked Sonic 1.0. Yes, the one who was hated by almost the whole world. I still like this design, and I would be happy to see it again in action with small adjustments.

However, this one fits better. It has cartoony vibes, vibrant colors, the details are insanely beautiful, and the eyes are pure cuteness.

Jokes...

I liked almost every joke, and if I didn’t get it, I enjoyed the reaction. I can’t speak for English since I’ve heard only Czech dub, but they did well in translating or changing the jokes to fit the scene :-)

Voice Acting...

As stated before, can’t judge it, but great job on it! Czech one just sometimes for me loses some of the emotions Ben Schwartz expressed, but it’s not so bad.

Actions Scenes...

Fast-paced and well-timed. No DBZ-like fights and all of them lead to Sonic’s evolution and show his personality in the best light.

Tom and Maddie...

As I mentioned briefly, I like them both. They are a color-mixed couple, and I love them!!! It’s not forced like with words “Emancipation” or “Women don’t need men”. While Maddie isn’t an action type, she knows how to hold her ground. Like when she was calm when facing Sonic for the first time, or how she accompanied them later in the journey. She is level-headed as not even a dozen of egg-drones made her panic.

Tom is perhaps for some boring, but I like him. He is more collected and mature, which works for some nice dynamics. He is not just an adult, but Sherif too, so he has a strong sense of justice and can’t leave helpless people and alienhogs alike alone :-) He has some great lines, and takes Sonic as an equal.

Dr. Robotnik...

Only know I know he played in The Mask (a movie I’ve seen as a kid but didn’t like that much), but I’m soooo bad with names ^_^;. So, he wasn’t the reason I watched the movie, but I knew I love him as Dr. Robotnik. He makes him less 2D-villain-from-80s and gives him a spark. He is more interesting then SatAm’s Dr. Robotnik, and more close to Boom Dr. Eggman. Yet he is also very dangerous which makes for a great balance of goofy&over-the-top&serious threat.

Music...

I find it nice. Featuring smaller names like Hyper Potion or belowed Junkie-XL is a nice bonus, and they fit well the story. Except for Dr. Robotnik’s one. His moves were more fit for Fast Rock-like music. The Where Evil Grows feels too slow but fits his character. That was the only scene that threw me a bit off.

CGI...

I generally didn’t like 3D much less not fully CGI movies, but this CGI is gorgeous and so alive!! The first half-CGI movie I enjoyed was Detective Pikachu. In this decade, we have a technology capable of making those characters come to life! I hope to see more movies like this!

Easter Eggs...

I’ve spotted a few. And perhaps one I didn’t see anybody talking about. In the Bar Fight Scene, Sonic pulls out underwear of one man attacking Tom just like The Mask did XD Don’t tell me this isn’t an Easter Egg XD You can’t talk me out of it :-D

Emotions...

While I didn’t cry (as I feared), I still felt sadness or joy with Sonic.

The Neutral

Floss...

I don’t care! It’s a simple but challenging dance. It has fast-paced vibes that fit well with Sonic. Not to mention, Sonic mimicked children to feel like he has friends or he is “in”, so if some did Floss challenge, he would do it too.

Product placement...

I’ve noticed a few, and I didn’t mind them. They were relevant to the plot, quick easter-egg (pun intended), or a part of a joke. 

Some jokes...

I didn’t mind fart jokes... as silly as they are, there wasn't one every five minutes, so no big deal :-)

Sonic’s arms...

I still don’t get this argument (and I may not want to), but whatever... It’s a minimal change, and I never had a problem with it. The same goes for shoes or any other design choice. Small changes don’t ruin the character ;-)

“The Bad”

I don’t exactly have something I don’t like. But I thought I should mention a thing or two. I found a few “plot-holes” that bugged me after a bit, but they do have an explanation when you think about it. Let’s call them Sonic’s Fun Facts!

NONE of what I mention here is meant to trash the movie!! It’s more of an observation, a fun activity ;-)

The car...

I dunno if any of the cars have an alarm telling you to put on the seat-belt but in both cases of Tom and Sonic, it never rung. But some may not have this function.

The car v2...

Tom’s car lost the roof, yet we didn’t see anybody stopping him. I’m sure everybody would call cops. That would be so weird. The question is, how far he had it to Maddie’s sister, and how close that house was to the Center. Perhas he needed only a short distance or people thought he has those funny 3D-stickers or it’s part of s promotion... Who knows XD

The car V3...

Sonic’s driving... has a lot to desire. Yet, still no police on their tail. Maddie asked the right question. The answer... This is just a joke. Don’t think too deep about it :-D

The Terrorist...

Tom is called a terrorist, but we don’t see any police forces to approach him. Why? Perhaps Dr. Robotnik called dibs on him and given how much the government trust in him, they believe nobody else is needed. Also, if terrorist sees policemen, they tend to turn aggressive. So, for the protection of people, it’s best not to approach him ;-)

The terrorist v2...

Tom uses his badge to gain an access to the door with no security going after him even after the “kidnapping joke”. It still works with my previous statement. It’s meant as a joke, something silly and a bit of adult-humor that works with kids as well. You gotta love those people’s reactions XD

The door...

Sonic checked he needs a key to access the roof. Which is strange. In the beginning, we can see him run up some tall building. So why not here too? Simple... 1) Dr. Robotnik was chasing him, so he might have turn desperate and ran faster and more haphazardly then before. 2) He really wanted to stay with Tom and Maddie for the longest time possible <= Nail it! I’ve no doubt it’s this ;-) Sonic did “guilt-trip” Tom into helping him :-D

The last battle...

We know the story is Sonic’s memory leading to the final battle. Yet, when we get to the point Sonic didn’t run up a building. One would assume we would see similar/exact shot. But no problem here, the movie might have had “time-limit”, so instead of a repeat, we got something new ;-) 

The room painting...

When Tom goes and paints the wall with a freshly dipped paint roller, there is no wet mark. I’ve noticed it the moment I saw it. It’s kinda funny.

-----

Well, this seems to be everything I had on my mind :-) I’ve greatly enjoyed the movie that I go the second time <3

Thank you for reading <3 

#sonic movie spoilers #sonic the hedgehog #sonic movie #sonic movie positivity #sonic movie 2020 #tom wachowski #jeff fowler #maddie wachowski #james mardsen #tika sumpter #jim carrey #dr. robotnik #paramount pictures #paramount animation #movie review #ebachan rants

[nuttyrabbit]

Sonic Forces Thoughts

The title may seem a bit strange, given that the game is 3 years old already, and I’ve given my thoughts on the story plenty of times before as well as shared those of others, but I wanted to make this post because I decided to actually sit down and play Sonic Forces front to back for the first time since the game was on sale on the Nintendo Switch Eshop for a stupidly cheap price (10 dollars as of the time of this post)

Now that I’ve actually beaten the game and seen pretty much all the game has to offer (outside of Episode Shadow), I might as well give my thoughts on it.

On the whole, the best way to describe Sonic Forces is “mediocre”, because almost everything about it is just mediocre. The story, the  music (which kills me to say), the level design, everything about the game just reeks of unfiltered mediocrity.   It’s not terrible, but it’s not good either, it’s just kinda....there.

Now I could leave it there but I actually want to go into detail, so I’ll break it down into a couple of sections to get my thoughts out in an organized way under the readmore, starting with 

STORY:  As I said at the start of the post, I’ve said my piece about the story many times over and agreed with the thoughts of others on that matter, so I’ll keep this quick. 

The story feels incredibly undercooked and doesn’t even come close to fulfilling its potential, especially when it comes to Infinite. Holy shit I could spend 2 hours ranting about how much wasted potential this fucking character is on a story and gameplay level but at this point it’s beating a dead horse.  

The characters and their characterization is generally fine (except Tails holy shit what did they do to you) but like Infinite, they feel grossly underutilized and feel like they’re there for the sake of it rather than because they contribute anything of meaning. 

I don’t have much else to say other than that the story shares a common problem with the rest of the game in that it is very short. Like, I got Forces yesterday and I beat it in the span of what? 5 or 6 hours? As such, the story feels incredibly rushed because of that.  This segues into my next topic 

Gameplay:  This is a bit of a broad topic but I’ll break it down into something manageable, going from general to specific

Difficulty: Starting with difficulty, Forces is, for the most part, an incredibly easy game. The game defaults to the “hard” difficulty but it should really be called “normal” because nothing in this game will give you too much trouble (at least for reasons of actual difficulty). The boss fights, especially the final one, are pitifully easy and simplistic, especially if you use the Burst Wisp. Seriously, that thing destroys all the Avatar bosses with no issue. As such, the incredibly low difficulty makes the games’ length that much more noticeable, which speaking of

Length: The game, as I’ve said before, is incredibly short. I beat it in 5-6 hours but you could easily beat it in around 3 or 4. There’s 30 stages plus the Episode Shadow stuff and some bonus stages you unlock with Red Rings, but almost all of them are laughably short, the longest of them clocking in at around 4 or 5 minutes and the shortest being barely a minute and a half (the bonus stages are ~45 seconds long).  The only time I spent more than 5 minutes in a level is if I repeatedly died on a certain part, which happened only once or twice and for reasons I will get into.   It somehow feels shorter than Mania, a game that was sold for half the price initially and has less levels.

Controls: Next up is the controls and holy shit this is where the bulk of my complaints lie.  I don’t know how, but Classic and Modern Sonic control noticeably worse than they did in Generations or pretty much any other Classic or Boost game.  

Classic Sonic feels incredibly heavy, making each platforming section feel less I’m controlling Sonic the Hedgehog and more like I’m controlling an immobile brick.  That’s not even getting into how badly they fucked up his physics. The fact that this came out months after Mania is laughable.

Modern Sonic on the other hand, feels way too loose.  Whether it be in 3D or 2D, I feel like I’m barely in control of him when I start to gain speed, and there’s been multiple times where I careened off a cliff despite steering him away from it. It’s made even worse by the fact that for some fucking reason, they took away the drift, something that’s been in I think every 3D boost game since Unleashed.

They also gave Modern a double jump, but the double jump is so worthless and heavy that it’s gotten me killed more times than it’s actually helped me. It feels so stiff and awkward to use and combined with Modern’s loose controls, most of my deaths in this game came from Modern deciding to just randomly plummet into a pit because  I couldn’t correct a jump or he just slid off the edge of a runway for no good reason. Stage 27 is the best example of what I’m talking about because holy shit.

Finally there’ the Avatar, and he probably controls the best of the three, so I don’t have too many complaints on that end other than the fact that his jumps are incredibly slow and floaty.

Level design:  As I said before, most levels are incredibly short, being over pretty much as soon as they begin.  The design in the levels themselves is at best momentarily interesting (The 2nd Modern level for instance), and at worst is absolutely atrocious and terrible (Whoever decided to put an autoscroller in a Sonic level is just awful). and most of the time it just evens out to being incredibly boring and forgettable. This isn’t helped by the fact that most of the levels themselves are either throwbacks to previous games,  generic cityscapes covered in white or on fire, or that ugly, ugly jungle aesthetic.  There’s no levels in this game that really wowed me aesthetically or on a gameplay level. Hell, I can barely remember the names of most of the levels 

Music: The music in this game ranges from forgettable (most of the Modern tracks) to skullfuckingly awful (Every. Single. Classic. Song). Though that being said, I did like a couple of the Avatar themes, and the vocal tracks (Fist Bump, Infinite’s Theme, Light of Hope) were all pretty decent, though not nearly on the same level as prior games.  This is probably the most forgettable soundtrack in all of 3D Sonic. Even Lost World had more memorable and interesting tracks than this. 

Avatar:  I already talked about my grievances and thoughts on Modern and Classic in the control section, but I wanted to give the Avatar his own section because it’s easily the best part of the game.  Getting new gear for your Avatar and customizing them is admittedly really fun,  and I had a good time making my new OC Kick the Dog (do not steal).  The Wispons give a decent amount of variety and replayability to the levels that the other playstyles don’t have (Red Rings do dick in this game other than unlock clothes and EX levels which are so insignificant they ain’t worth it) and their levels are easily the most fleshed out and interesting of the bunch.    If I ever come back to Forces, it’ll probably be to replay Avatar levels

Content:  This game has barebones content, with the most pressing things outside of the main levels being Episode Shadow (which is 3 stages long), the bonus levels (pitifully short), the SOS missions (replay the levels again), and collecting the red rings/ silver moons/ whatever (Only unlocks more clothes and bad bonus levels).  Compared to something like Generations, which was also pretty short but had a lot of side content and unlockables that made it worth coming back to, and something like Mania which is packed to the brim with content and replayability, Forces is just kind of pathetic.  

Graphics:  One thing I’ll give the game is that the pre-rendered cutscenes and even some of the real time cutscenes look really damn good, at least aesthetically. Character animations still leave a lot to be desired though. The in-game graphics look fine. Nothing great but not terrible.  Keep in mind I played it on Switch so that could easily affect things, but generally the game looked....okay.

FINAL THOUGHTS:  As I said before,  Sonic Forces is the definition of “mediocre”. It’s a completely unremarkable game from start to finish, and most of what it does is done better by just about any other competent 2D or 3D Sonic game.  The  Avatar is fun and interesting and I want the playstyle to make a return, but that isn’t enough to save the game from being incredibly mediocre and just plain forgettable.   

If you really want to try Forces out yourself, I’d recommend getting it at a deep, deep discount. I got it at around 10 dollars and I’d say it’s worth between 10 and 20 dollars. Do not pay full price for this game. 

But otherwise, just skip it.

#Sonic #Sonic Forces #Sonic the Hedgehog #Blog Stuff