I Said It Because I Love You

Chapter 1

Villagers were screaming as they fled from a tall building, which was flowing with flames. Sonic and the gang ran through the crowd towards the Mayor's Building, knowing people still had to be inside.

"Sonic!" Tails called. "I'll fly to the top floor! Check to make sure no one is trapped!"

Sonic nodded an approval.

"Go for it, buddy. Be careful."

Tails hovered up to the highest level. Without warning, Sticks ran ahead and jumped, climbing the side of the building and, hopping from window sill to window sill, until she found an accessible window in which she could enter.

"Okay, I guess we each get a floor," Sonic quickly stated. I'll get the fourth, Amy gets third, Knuckles, you get second and first. We need you to break open the entrance, building pieces blocked it.

"I can just climb the window sills and-" Amy started.

"You're a smart girl, I trust you. Now go, and be care-" Sonic said before flames flared out of a window, breaking its glass. "Change of plans, you're going the other way. Let's move!"

The three ran to the building.

"This buiding is pretty tall for a mayor's office." Knuckles said. "Does he really need that many stories"

"He might have NO floors after this is over. Now let's move!" Sonic said.

Knuckles punched an entrance open, then shook the ash and embers off his hand and continued onward. Sonic, Amy, and Knuckles ran to their designated levels to make sure there was no one trapped inside. Wishing each other luck and saftey, they went on to be heroes once again.

-With Sonic-

The building was filled with smoke and heat, making it hard to see and breathe. Sonic covered his muzzle with his scarf and searched around frantically, making sure no one was still in there. Not one person was in sight.

No one. Good. Sonic thought.

After a quick second check, the blue hedgehog confirmed the room was clear, and spoke into his communicator.

"Fourth floor is all clear. Everyone okay so far?"

"I'm out already," Tails replied first. "Mayor Fink is okay; Minor smoke inhalation, but no serious injuries, over."

"Why are there so many floors? It's a freaking mayor's office for crying out loud!" Knuckles said.

"Don't worry about it right now, just get the people and get out of there!" Sonic replied.

He looked up to see an embered post falling towards him, ripping a large gap in the floor above him. He quickly jumped out of the way, landing in a somersault, facing his back towards the wave of smoke and ash that flowed his way.

"This place is falling apart," Sonic said, almost choking on smoke. "This building isn't going to be able to stand much longer!"

"Sonic is right!" Tails said. "You guys all need to get out now!"

-With Amy-

"Don't worry about it right now, just get the people and get out of there!" Sonic ordered.

"There are other people? Is my husband still in this building?!" a female walrus asked her panicky.

"Ma'am, please calm down! We will take care of everything! No one is getting hurt today." Amy reassured the woman. "Please, we have to go!"

"This place is falling apart," Sonic said, almost choking on smoke. "This building isn't going to be able to stand much longer!"

"Sonic is right!" Tails said. "You guys all need to get out now!"

She led the scared woman to the stairs going down, only to see it was blocked by broken, burning wood, and Amy yanked her back before she got burned, causing the woman to drop her purse into the wood.

"Okay, plan B. This way!" Amy yelled.

"But my purse!" Lady Walrus panicked.

"Do you not understand?! We have to-"Amy began, but was cut off by a post from the level beneath her gave way, leaving a large hole in the ground. "Come on!"

Amy grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her towards the nearest window, only to be cut off by a bookshelf collapsing in front of them. The two yelped in surprise as sparks flew, and quickly backed away.

"Amy, you okay up there?" It was Sonic on the communicator. "Amy!"

"We're fine, but our exit window just got blocked!"

"Then come down to my floor!"

"It's blocked, and I rather we not have to jump through the gaping hole. We have to go up to the next floor!"

"There's no time! Break your way into-"

A piece of the ceiling fell behind Sonic. Knowing that was Amy's floor above him, he worried that her floor was going to cave in, causing her, himself, and Knuckles, if he was still in there, to get hurt, or worse.

"Amy, your floor is breaking down!" Sonic warned.

"I have a plan! In case it caves in, you and Knuckles need to get out, now!" Amy said, and with that, she began to focus on getting her and Lady Walrus out.

-Outside the building-

Sonic and Knuckles ran out of the building, followed by three pedestrians, none of them being harmed. Knuckles, who had saved the three, was coughing, and seemed to be having trouble breathing. Tails and Sonic helped him sit down, and Sonic looked up at the floor Amy was on. He felt a hand on his shoulder, and looked to see his best friend.

"She'll be fine, Sonic, this is Amy we're talking about here. We all know she can do this."

"Yeah, but-"

"You said it yourself. She's a smart girl, and you trust her."

He has a point. Amy has grown to be more independent in the past few years. I just gotta trust her.

Feet pounded towards where the others were, and leading two soot covered citizens was Sticks, who was also covered in ash.

"Great, everyone made it out!"

"Not everyone," Knuckles said, coughing. "Amy's still in there."

Sticks grew wide eyed, looking up to where she just was. "Has anyone heard from her?!"

"Both her exits got blocked off; she's going to the fourth floor." Tails stated.

"I was just on that floor. She'll get her and whoever she has out with no problem!"

Tails looked back to Sonic and gave him that I told you look. Sonic only continued to watch that building, and waited.

If even one piece of that building falls off, I'm going in. Please be careful, Amy.

-With Amy-

Okay, Amy, think! The fire department can put a ladder up to the window, we can climb down, and we'll be safe. Not only that, but I need to make sure Sticks is out, too.

Without warning, Amy led the woman up to the next level, scanning for both an exit and Sticks. Amy let out a sigh of relief, for Sticks must have made it out of the building. She them saw the window, and the two ran to it.

After a frustrating war with getting the large woman through the window, she finally began to work her way down the window. She reached the bottom and was greeted by her husband, who Knuckles got safely out of the building, along with two other citizens.

"Good work, Ames, now hurry!" Sonic yelled from the bottom of the ladder. Amy gracefully slid down the side rails of the ladder, getting cheers from observing pedestrians.

-Outside the building-

"Okay, everyone get back!" a firefighter yelled, motioning everyone far away from the building. The villagers obeyed as the firefighters began to hose down the building in effort to put out the fire. The tension was over, now that everyone was safe and out of the building.

A cry came from the back of the audience. "MY BABY!"

No one had to turn their head to see that it was Lady Walrus, again. Sonic immediately started for the building when a firefighter got in his way.

"Oh no, you don't. No one enters this building. You've done your part, Sonic. We're the heroes right now. You need to back it up. And don't any of you think about going in there. We are the authorities here, so let us do our jobs."

"There's one problem with that, sir." Sonic stated, matter-of-factly.

The fire fighter eyed him mischievously. "And what's that?"

Before he could come up with a smart aleck answer, Tails spoke up. "Sonic, don't even think about it. That building is going to collapse any minute."

Sonic thought on this. Not on whether or not to run into the building, but how to get past that firefighter. It was as if the guy knew he was planning something.

Before he could say or do anything, though, a pink blur crossed the open area between the crowds of people. Sonic looked and saw Amy, dodging firefighters trying to block her way.

At first, Sonic didn't do anything. He was proud of Amy for being brave, and being able to avoid the obstacles. His eyes scaled the building, wary about the building, and how long it would remain standing.

"…needs to get back here! That building is going to collapse any second!" Tails said. "Sonic! Aren't you going to do something?!"

Sonic finally snapped out of it and realized.

Amy can't go in there! She could get hurt! Or worse…

Sonic stepped forward, alarming the firefighter keeping guard. "Amy! No! Get back here!" Sonic called to her.

"Get back!" The man ordered.

"Look, you don't get it, she doesn't know what she's doing! I have to stop her! Amy! Get back here!"

Amy was nowhere to be seen. She was already in the building. And no one could go in after her.

-Inside the Building-

"Is there anyone else in here?" Amy called out. No response.

It's a baby, Amy. He isn't gonna just stand up and wave.

Amy knew she didn't have much time. But there was no way she was going to let anything happen to that child.

What kind of MOTHER loses her baby in a burning building? How has she not gotten her kid taken away?

With no baby in sight, it came to the point where she started throwing things aside, searching frantically for the child. With no luck, she made her way up to the second floor. It was even more hot, more dark, more dangerous. Ready to start smashing things, she summoned her hammer and took some steps before tripping and landing on the ground. Amy froze, makin she the floor beneath her was okay to walk on, and began to get up when she noticed something causght on her foot. She looked down to see a hand bag, most likley Lady Walrus's.

"If she forgot about her baby," she tossed it into the flames on the side of the room. "She can forget about her purse."

She heard a giggling sound come from the corner of the room. She scanned the room to see the baby walrus, with not a single scratch. Amy ran, scooped up the baby, and said to the baby, "I'm going to give your mother a piece of my-"

"AMY! GET OUT OF THERE! NOW!" It was Sonic on the wrist communicator.

"I'm on it." Amy replied, and looked back at the baby. "I'm sure he's going to give me a piece of his mind. Now, watch as you see that girls can be heroes too."

The baby giggled again, and Amy sped down the the bottom floor, avoiding and getting burned by falling obstacles, sheilding the child with her own body. The exit came into sight, and Amy let out a sigh of relief and she made her way to the fresh air. Two firemen stood outside of buikding, ready to go in if they hadn't seen Amy coming.

"My baby!" The Lady Walrus cried out as she held her arms out to be united with her baby.

"Oh no you don't. You are a terrible mother." Amy said, handing the baby to a fire fighter. Ánd guess what? I found your purse. I threw it in the flames. It's a goner."

The Lady Walrus had an offended expression and crossed her arms, sticking her nose in the air and turning away.

"Hmph. Well I've never!"

A fire fighter spoke up. "We were going to give you a long lecture on what you did, but we think someone else has got that covered. Amy didn't know what he was talking about untio she herd her friends' voices.

"AMY!" Amy turned to the sound of feet pounding towards her and was immediately hit with Sonic's body, instantly wrapped in his arms, listening to all of the uneven breaths. He pulled back and grasped her upper arms, shaking her.

"What in chaos were you thinking!?" Sonic roared. "Are you out of your mind!?"

Amy was silent, and confused. Maybe even a little scared. She'd never seen this side of him before. Actually, no one had ever seen this side before. Not even Tails. Sonic began ranting about how what she did was dangerous, and how she could have gotten hurt, or worse.

Sonic was purple with rage, but Amy stood her ground; or at least tried. If it wasn't for Sonic holding her up, she would have been on the ground. Amy just stared blankly into Sonic's eyes. Sonic continued ranting, voice becoming hoarse, as Tails, Knuckles, Sticks, and others only stood back and watched, not sure whether to calm Sonic down and risk getting snapped at, or leaving it alone.

"…Do you not know what you did was dangerous!? Do you not care that you could have DIED!? C'mon, Amy, how could you be so stupid!?"

"Sonic," Amy spoke softly.

"Shut up, Amy!" Sonic yelled, and then froze. The atmosphere became silent, and all you could hear was the sound of the water from the fire hose making contact with the dying flames.

Did I really just say that?

"Did he really just…?" Knuckles began, eyes locked on the two.

Tails, who continued staring, just nodded his head slowly. "Yeah… I think he did."

"Amy…" Sonic began. Feeling uncomfortable by the crowd, he let go of her, noticing the red marks on her arms. There was so much he wanted to say to her, but he just couldn't. He just wanted to go home, get his friends home safe, and call it a day. He sighed and stepped back from her. "We'll talk about this later." And he turned to walk home. The looks he was getting were a mixture of sympathy, fear, and anger, for how he reacted to Amy's heroic yet dangerous actions.

"The fire is out, everyone's safe, and nobody got hurt. Everyone just go home. Please." Sonic spoke softly. Part of the crowd parted, while some hesitantly walked away, but stayed close enough to hear anything else.

Knuckles, knowing what Sonic was thinking, turned to the nosy pedestrians.

"You heard him, go home! Nothing to see here. Everything is fine." The people remained where they were. "Scram!" No one wanting to see what happened if you mess with a big guy like Knuckles, they went their separate ways.

The gang looked at Sonic in what to do next.

"Let's… let's go home, guys."

A soft moan came from behind Sonic, and then a Thump.

"Hey, guys?" Sticks called. "Amy's sleeping..."

"What? Sticks, what are you-" Sonic said, turning, but froze when he saw Amy lying on the ground.

"I don't think she's sleeping..." Knuckles said. Sonic immediatley ran to Amy's side, gently shaking her.

"Amy... Ames... Amy. Get up."

Tails knelt next to her and helped place her gently onto Sonic,s lap. She seemed to be sleeping, but Tails checked her pulse, and noticed her blood pressure was unusually high.

"She's not sleeping, she passed out. Call a paramedic. Now." Tails ordered.

"Wait, what? What's wrong?" Sonic asked, with a worried expression on his face. "What's wrong with her, Tails!?" Sonic demanded.

"I don't know, but her heart rate is pretty high. We need to get her to the hospital. Knuckles! Get… Sticks! Get a medic!"

"There's no time! Just let me take her!"

"Sonic, I don't think that's-"

"Please, just let me take her! I'll get her there faster." Tails could hear the plea in his voice, and see it in his eyes. They should have waited for the paramedics to show up, but it the right thing to do was to get Amy there as soon as possible. Tails nodded in approval and Sonic gently picked her up, leaning her head against his chest. Her breathing was ragged, and her face was covered in sweat and soot, ash covering her dress.

"We'll meet you at the hospital!" Tails called out. And with that, Sonic was off.

I didn't mean it… Sonic thought, with the limp, motionless girl in his arms.. I wasn't… I don't know why I said it…

End of Chapter 1