Amy couldn't believe it; Sonic had finally said yes. The pink hedgehog waited for him outside of Twinkle Park, an attraction renowned for its romantic scenery and popularity with 'cute couples', since entry for them was free once every fortnight. Realising that tonight was the only chance she would get for another agonisingly long two weeks, Amy had decided to ask Sonic out on a date. Just because he ran away from her every other time, didn't mean he would do it again. Twenty-seventh time lucky! That was her new motto ever since the twenty-sixth time failed, just like the previous twenty-five others. She remembered how giddy she felt when Sonic agreed; it was only a few hours ago so the feeling hadn't quite worn off yet. The love-struck youth caught Sonic during one of his runs through grassy mesa of Mystic Ruins. She'd just gotten off of the train on her way to the beautiful lake when she saw him. A blue blur whisked by her, snapping out of her day dreams. Seeing Sonic reminded her of the free entry into Twinkle Park and she yelled to him.
"Sonic!" Amy cried out. Sonic skidded to a halt and bent over slightly. The hedgehog looked tired and out of breath. The blue one was about twenty meters away from Amy where he stopped. "Will you come to Twinkle Park with me tonight?"
Sonic didn't answer for a few seconds as he got his breath back. Amy was surprised by this because she didn't see Sonic out of breath very often. She gave a concerned look and began to walk towards him. That's when Sonic looked back at her as though he'd snapped out of a trance.
"Umm, of course, Amy," Sonic replied, sounding confused to see her, and he shot off into the distance.
"I'll see you there at seven then!" Amy shouted as loud as she could. "Oh well, he knows when it opens…"
At seven, there was no sign of Sonic. Amy turned up ten minutes early, thinking that Sonic would be there before seven due to his speed. But, it wasn't a minute past seven when Amy realised that the time had come, so he wasn't late… yet. One past seven came and went, then two past seven; each minute felt longer than it should have. Amy kept glancing at the clock above the station across the road and the roads surrounding the area. Sonic would come from one side of the street, or perhaps even the station. But every time Amy looked at every passable entry, she was met with disappointment. Sonic was no-where to be seen. But it wasn't even five past seven yet. Sonic definitely wasn't on time, but he wasn't late either. She decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and wait until ten past.
For the following five minutes, Amy continued to glance around, becoming more and more impatient, but remaining as optimistic as she did when she arrived. Every time she looked at the pavements either side of her and by each side of the train station, she became more and more frustrated. There was no sign of Sonic anywhere. She wanted to stamp her feet in anger, but didn't want to make a scene. Many couples and families were making their way inside of Twinkle Park while she waited. There was a large queue. Realising this, she thought that perhaps Sonic knew that there would be a large queue and didn't want to wait around, so continued to run for a while. The queue would surely die down by half past seven, so that would be when Sonic would arrive.
The pink hedgehog changed positions and sat down on a nearby bench just across the road. If Sonic was to arrive then he would probably see her if he turned around. If not, Amy would see him first. The bench faced the front of Twinkle Park, and it was almost directly opposite it on the other side of the road. The problem was, that Amy no longer looked at the possible entrances to the area, or the clock. Every few moments, Amy turned around eagerly until her neck got tired. Then she tried not to look at the clock for as long as she could, then guess what time it was. When she thought it was half past seven, she turned around to see that it was only twenty-five past. At least Sonic would arrive soon.
Sonic was enjoying the wind breezing between the bristles of his fur and quills when he felt the air pressure against his body and face as he ran close to full speed. This urged him to try harder and run faster to make up with the lost speed that the air friction caused. He pushed his legs to step faster and faster and struggled to make his limbs push harder. His strides increased in strength and frequency. His muscles began to burn; there was too much lactic acid and not enough oxygen in his system. It was hard to inhale enough oxygen when most of it was pushed to the sides of Sonic's face. But the hedgehog ignored the pain and made the most of the air that he could get. His lungs felt as though they burned as they sucked in the cold, thin air. All Sonic had to do was stop to catch his breath and let all the pain and discomfort die down, but he refused. He wanted to go faster for longer. Sonic clenched his teeth and forced his eyes to stay open. It was so tempting to close them because of the wind and pressure against them, but he had to keep them open so he knew where he was going.
The hedgehog grunted as he tried to push himself just that little bit further. He could hear nothing and all he could see were blurs. As long as he avoided large walls he would be fine. All he had to do was go a little faster, after that he would aim to go even faster. He would not stop until he couldn't possibly run any more. The blur could feel his legs giving out; it was only a matter of time before he reached his goal: supersonic speed. It was possible in his super form, and he'd gone at that speed most times he'd taken that form. But Sonic always looked for challenges. He wasn't content with doing his best, he wanted to be better than that. All day he'd built up to it, trying again and again. He'd failed at Emerald Coast, Mystic Ruins and the outskirts of Central City. He tried his best to stay in the quiet areas since he didn't want to bother everyone with his Sonic Booms and constant turbulence. All he had to do was go over 915 miles per hour and he would reach Super Sonic speed. He knew how it felt to go at such speeds while he was in his super form, so he'd know when he reached that speed. But just in case he had sensed wrong, he had a speedometer on his wrist; this was another one of Tail's devices that proved useful to Sonic.
The pain caused him to grunt again, frustrating him even more. Surely he was nearly there! Sonic looked at the screen strapped to his wrist and smirked. 910 MPH! He was nearly there. Just a few dozen harder strides should bring him up to that speed. He pushed again and again, nearly slipping up when he hit soft grassy plains. Just a bit more! His chest began to hurt since he'd been running for nearly two hours straight. 914 MPH! Just a few more thrusts of his leg. The speedometer flashed at 915 for a millisecond, and Sonic saw it. But he just couldn't keep it up. He stopped, tripping himself up in the process. The hedgehog soared through the air, just above the ground like a passenger that was just thrown out of a crashed car. The hedgehog shut his eyes tightly and braced himself for impact. This would hurt a lot.
He impacted the soft ground then skidded across it. His face dug deeper and deeper into the mud and dirt until he got stuck in it. The soil allayed the force that his body launched with and brought him to an eventual halt. Sonic's crash created several miles of muddy tracks; the lush green grass flew to the sides and got caught in his fur. But at least he was relatively unharmed. The hedgehog's head got stuck in the ground almost horizontally. He put his arms against the tunnel of dirt and debris and pulled himself out of it. This was certainly different to the other face plants he'd endured. Usually he would end up with his head in the ground after falling from the sky, not from getting thrown off his feet at the threshold of supersonic speed. He spat out a mouthful of earth and stood up. He was glad his eyes closed during the impact, otherwise they would have stung even more than they would from getting blasted by air friction for several hours. He couldn't wait to tell Tails what he'd achieved, and perhaps ask for a pair of cool looking goggles to wear during his next try. After all, he wasn't finished yet. He'd reached his first goal, reach Super Sonic in his normal form; his next goal was to stay in it for more than a millisecond. If he needed a little protection to do that, then he would use it. Sonic had to use anything necessary to fulfil his next aim.
Sonic looked at his watch to see that it was 7:30pm. There was enough time to relax by himself before finding a place to sleep for the night. As much as he loved to stroll around the areas full of nature, his legs were aching and causing his a great deal of discomfort for him, so he needed to let them recover from the work he'd put them through. He looked to a nearby Oak tree that was a five minute limp away. He wanted to stay close to the damage he'd done to see if he could fix it at all in the morning.
When he reached the tree, he collapsed to his knees and leaned forward against it. He pulled himself closer with his arms and managed to sit comfortably. The hedgehog looked up to see the sun begin to set. The skies turned from blue to pink, then orange. Sonic admired this for as long as it lasted. Then the dark blue sky came at the threshold of night. Just a bit of sunlight left. That's when Sonic began to feel his eyelids go heavy. When the sun went behind the horizon completely, Sonic gazed up at the stars and moon for a few minutes until he fought his fatigue no more. By 8pm, he was fast asleep.
Amy sat on the bench feeling disappointed. She continued to wait impatiently, getting more and more worried and a bit angry, but Sonic didn't show up at half past seven. The queue diminished into nothing a few minutes after that, but Sonic still didn't turn up. Just when she figured that Sonic possibly didn't hear her shout seven o'clock, and that he perhaps thought the park opened at eight o'clock, the park ran out of spaces for cute couples. She and Sonic would have gotten in if he'd shown up on time. The sun had set and the street lights turned on. Amy was deeply disappointed that the sunset had passed, because she wanted to watch it with Sonic. Instead, she missed it herself because she was too occupied with her lookout for Sonic's arrival. The pink hedgehog looked at the clock behind her, it was past eight. Sonic was late even for his possible mistake, so he'd lost his benefit of the doubt. It didn't matter anyway. The hero had stood her up; that was unforgivable. She got up, looked around a few times to make sure Sonic wasn't about to arrive, then walked down the street to her left. Twinkle Park would have to wait for another two weeks. But her telling off for Sonic would only wait until she found him.