Chapter One

In an abandoned laboratory in a distant corner of the world, an old man worked tirelessly. There were bags under his eyes, and his white mustache drooped. "Sonic..." He said to nobody in particular, a sinister tone in his voice. "It's not much longer now, my friend. If I'm going out...I'm going out with a bang." He stepped back and admired the machine he had spent the last three days building. "And I know just how to do it..."

"Come on, Sonic! Where are we going?!" Amy Rose wondered aloud as she followed behind Sonic, the wind blowing through her quills, struggling to keep up with the blue hedgehog in front of her. "And could you slow down just a little bit?!" Sonic just looked behind him and smiled. "Maybe you should learn to run a bit faster, Ames! Besides, we're already here!" He said, before skidding to a sudden stop. Amy wasn't so lucky, though, and she slammed right into the back of Sonic, knocking him to the ground face first. "Oh, god, Sonic, I am so sorry!" She said, quickly scrambling to help him up. "Wow, Ames," Sonic dusted himself off. "If you wanted to come from behind you should've just said something." He joked, and then looked over to Amy, who had her arms crossed and was shooting him a stern look. "Excuse me? What's that supposed to mean? You're the one who decided to stop suddenly without warning me first!" Sonic walked over to her and forcibly put her arms down at her sides. "You need to calm down, Ames. If you don't, then I'm not gonna show you the whole reason I brought you all the way out here and we can just both go home. Now, close your eyes. I gotta go get it. It's right over here." Sonic said. Amy complied. After all, this was the first time the two had been alone together in a while. What could he possibly have to show her? Maybe it was a wedding ring, or a well-written confession of his love, or…

WHOOSH.

Of course. Of course it was all just a ruse to get her away from him. He had been doing the same thing for years, why would she expect anything different now? "I knew he wasn't mature enough." She lamented, taking a seat on a nearby log. She had started off her little escapade with Sonic expecting to finally get the guy of her dreams. Instead, she ended up feeling that all too familiar sting. The sting of rejection. Why did she even bother? Why hold on to this childlike adoration for him? It was always the same. Wake up in the morning with some new way to win over Sonic's heart, only to have her dream be crushed almost as soon as they next meet. A pitiful existence, to be sure-one Sonic would have felt sorry for, were he himself not the one causing the problem. A small glimmer of hope appeared in the back of her mind. What if he doesn't know the pain he's causing her? This hope was almost immediately extinguished, however. He knew exactly what he was doing. If Amy didn't know any better, she might even think he enjoyed it.

"Wow, you're kind of an asshole, dude." Tails said as Sonic explained where he had gone with Amy. "What? It was only a joke. It's not like I lead her to the middle of a warzone or something. Nobody got hurt. Just an innocent little prank, that's all it was." Sonic folded his arms and leaned on a nearby wall. "Sonic, every day you break that poor girl's heart, and every day you keep saying that 'it was just a joke' or 'I didn't mean to' instead of apologizing like you should. I have seen her walking into her house crying sometimes, Sonic." Tails scolded, his brow furrowed. "Tails? Not my fault. We're just friends. She knows that." Tails sighed, walked over to Sonic, and placed a hand on his shoulder. "That's what you may think, Sonic. But she doesn't feel the same." Then, he packed up his tools and walked to the door. "Anyways, I've gotta go. Some guy just called in that needs help with a broken down engine. See ya tomorrow, Sonic." He left, making sure to slam the door as loud as he could, almost as if showing his disapproval of Sonic's actions that day. Sonic sighed, and followed his friend's footsteps, making sure to turn off the workshop light before he left.

"Maybe Tails is right. Maybe I am too much of a jerk to her." Sonic pondered on his way home. He wasn't running, as he normally was. Instead, he was walking, as slowly as he could. More time to think that way. As he was passing by a television store, he noticed something out of the corner of his eye. It was a man, bald head and white moustache, egg shaped, seemingly having hijacked the television network. "Robotnik? No…impossible. He's died of old age by now, surely. It's been 10 years since I've seen him. It's not like him to just leave me alone for this long." But the more he listened, the more he realized that this was, in fact, Dr. Robotnik. "If you're listening, Sonic, then know that I am not dead. I have spent the last 5 years conceptualizing, building, destroying, conceptualizing again and rebuilding. All for a machine to destroy you, my friend. And the time is nigh. Soon, you-and all of your friends- will be nothing but memories." Sonic looked over to see an object falling from the sky in the distance. He couldn't see much of it, but it was clearly box shaped, and had been dropped from what looked like a smaller-scale, much less conspicuous version of Robotnik's airship.

And it was falling right towards the hill where he left Amy.

Author's Note:

Hey, guys! This is the first fanfiction that I've ever written. I used to write short (like 1-2 page) stories, but I've never actually used characters from a pre-established canon before. Still, I've been a Sonic fan for forever, so hopefully I can at least get these characters somewhat right? Also, yes, this story takes place 10 years after Lost World (or whatever your timeline places as the final Sonic game) and as such, the characters are all 10 years older. Is Robotnik old enough in the actual series to where 10 years would make him an old man? Who knows? And more importantly, who cares? Anyway, read and review. Don't be too harsh, please, but also don't go super easy on me. Tell me what I did wrong and how I can improve! Also, I absolutely CANNOT promise that this story will receive updates on a regular basis. I'll try my best to update semi-frequently, but for the most part I only write when I get inspiration. No inspiration, no writing. So yeah. Until next time!