Sonic sighed and shifted in the chair in the G.U.N. lobby. The metal armrests were hardly comfortable, but with his backspines slipped carefully over them and his legs resting on the other chair, he made the most of it. He had firmly decided, along with Tails, Knuckles, and Amy, to resign from his position as a G.U.N. agent. The amount of trouble it had caused was definitely not worth it, and so all had decided the safest option was to return to their regular hero duties. Knuckles dropped off the agency first, deciding the Master Emerald needed far more guarding than it was receiving. Amy had quit soon after, since she now blamed G.U.N. for Sonic's near-death experience. Their requests were processed quickly, as was Tails', when it came.
Sonic's resignation was apparently more of a problem. The Commander tried to persuade the cobalt hedgehog to stay, saying that the agency needed him. Of course, Sonic begged to differ, as Shadow and Rouge would certainly fulfill the needs of the agency as well as pick up where Sonic left off. Even though they had no choice but to let Sonic go, his papers were processed as slowly as possible, and the Commander continued to drop hints that it was not too late for him to change his mind and stay with G.U.N. as an agent. Each time, Sonic declined with little emotion or tolerance.
Trouble with G.U.N. had not been the only interesting thing happening since Luktani. Soon after the dark feline left and Sonic had regained his strength, he proposed. After having such a brush with death that his heart had stopped beating, even if only for a short period of time, Sonic swore never to postpone anything important again. He had come dangerously close to losing Amy, and then his life. There was no way he would ever make that mistake again. So, one midsummer evening, he asked Amy the question that she had dreamed of for years. Naturally, she accepted, and the news spread like wildfire, as the press ate it up like free chocolate cookies. Just the thought of Amy made Sonic glow with joy. She would be his… forever.
The rustle of paper made Sonic's ears twitch in the direction of the receptionist's desk, and he leapt to his feet and dashed over to the counter. All he wanted was an official piece of paper that allowed him to leave for good, but the receptionist seemed to have other ideas. She emerged with a small scrap of paper and a confused look on her face. "Sonic?" she inquired, glancing at the hedgehog.
"Who else would it be?" growled Sonic impatiently, motioning towards the empty lobby.
"Sorry. I've got your papers almost ready, but this was left in your box, so I thought it might be important." After handing the paper to Sonic, the young blonde disappeared again to fetch the initial papers requested. Sonic gave her an odd look as she left, but unfolded the small note. Instead of handwriting or typed text, as was expected, the letters had been cut and pasted one by one out of various magazines and newspapers. Amusingly enough, it looked like it had been snatched right out of an old detective show. With a perplexed expression, Sonic read the note:
rIng ArOUnd thE Rosie
FragiLe as a pOsie
ashes, ThrAshes
oNe New Kill.
At first, he assumed it was a practical joke, when he noticed something odd about the poem itself: Rosie was capitalized. In fact, the entire thing had a very menacing tone to it; written as a threat. Sonic snapped at the receptionist as she returned to the front: "Who left this?"
The girl jumped, startled. "I-- I don't know." She glanced at the computer. "There's no record of who left it." In a gust of wind, the lobby was empty again, save for scattered papers in need of signatures. The receptionist peeked out from behind the counter, alone to ponder the situation and the contents of the note, as well as to clean up the mess left behind from the cobalt hedgehog's rushed exodus.
Well, here it is. The first chapter of the story option in my poll, that won by a landslide, mind you. I didn't expect that many people would be interested in a sequel, but apparently, they are. If you have not read Incinerated, I can almost guarantee you that this story will not make sense. You can try, but all the history to the events here are written there. I highly suggest reading it first. Thankee.
~Wolf~