The faces might change, the architecture might go from a clump of mud huts huddling together for warmth to sleek glass buildings that cut through the clouds like sparkling knives. But somewhere at the very heart of things, something doesn't change. There have always been heroes and villains, and in some small way, they were always the same ones.
As things turned out, Amy did finally catch Sonic. At some point he even stopped running away.
And Sonic the hero changed to Sonic the father, became Sonic the
grandfather, fell asleep for one last time. Amy found him in the
morning and all she did was smile a little sadly. She followed him
within a fortnight, but not before revising her will one more time and
leaving their cat with their one daughter. That night she watered her
plants and sat outside, just watching the sun set.
She was smiling faintly when she went to bed that night. She never woke up.
Rosemary had just turned 16, and she couldn't sleep. She shivered, pulling the comforter tighter around her as she stared at the clock.
It was 3:26 in the morning, the exact minute of her birth. It was also a Monday. Rosemary had woken up an hour ago after several hours of restless sleep, and somehow she thought it would be interesting to wait up for this minute. And now it had passed, and she couldn't get back to sleep. Everything seemed to irritate the hedgehog more than usual - she was too hot, too cold, the wind was too loud against her window, her quills were scratching against her shoulderblades when she rolled over, and she was sixteen.
She felt impossibly old. Sixteen. She was practically an old lady now, her time for this world was trickling to a stop. Maybe if she really hurried, she could leave a lasting impression on the world before she turned into a withered old crone.
Rosemary fell asleep worrying that night. And somewhere far away, something else woke up...
Rosemary groaned, flopping down on one of the steps that lead to the school's entrance. She had done terribly all day, answering questions wrong and dozing off in class. She pressed her hands to her eyelids, wincing as fireworks exploded on her eyelids.
In the weak winter sunlight, anyone who glanced at her would see a hedgehog girl of average height, her skin of a deep blue with a faint trace of purple behind it. She was wearing a plain white T-shirt and faded jeans, and the only thing at all unusual about her were her quills, which were just a bit longer than average. They went a little bit past her shoulders and curved gently at the ends.
"Well, that was a disaster." She said with a sigh. She adjusted her backpack, standing up again. At least she had cake to look forward to at home, even if it came with the price of visiting cousins. Maybe if she'd had any friends at school that she'd actually want to spend more than ten minutes around, it would be different, but she didn't and it wasn't.
And then she heard the screaming. She froze in mid-stride. The noise was coming from the parking lot, near the bus stops, and now that she was listening she could hear something else - a repetitive metallic clanking. In blazing defiance of common sense and self-preservation, Rosemary ran towards the noise.
It was a robot. Or at least something large and metal and vaguely humanoid, with someone in a cockpit that was built into the torso. It was trying to pick up students with a pair of pincer-like hands, but each time they would wriggle through the loose grip and fall to the ground, usually shrieking. As Rosemary watched, it grabbed two people - a scrawny-looking fox and a human boy - who both squirmed free in a moment, the fox with considerably more ease than the boy. The robot's motions were growing increasingly choppy and frantic, and she could just barely see a flash of red hair in the cockpit. And now it seemed like the crowd of students had the sense to run for it, fleeing in all directions, with the exception of the fox, who was staring up at the machine. Rosemary came a little closer, still cautious.
"What are you doing?" She yelled, cupping her hands around her mouth to help the noise carry. The fox didn't turn her head, still watching the robot.
"It's got my backpack!" She called back, not taking her eyes off it. The robot jerked suddenly, one of its crude fingers twitching for a moment, and Rosemary could see that it did in fact have a backpack dangling from what should probably be called its wrist. With another jarring spasm, the mechanical thing started walking stiffly and quickly towards the street. Rosemary darted closer again, coming to a stop next to the fox, who seemed to be watching it in mute horror.
Up close, the girl was as scrawny as she had looked from afar, and considerably shorter than she had seemed. She was a light tan fox with brownish-orange tips to her ears and rings around her eyes, with very pale yellow hair that was just pushing the edge where it would officially become off-white. She was wearing an unbuttoned green jacket that was occasionally being buffeted by the wind, so that Rosemary could see a red sleeveless shirt underneath, as well as a fluffy patch of fur peeking over the top that was also and orangey brown. In addition to this, she had on a pair of worn bluejeans, orange sneakers, and an expression of utmost mortification.
"It's got my homework in it," She added, in the tone of voice that was normally reserved for phrases such as 'Dread Lord Rygaleyh has risen from his unearthly prison and is ravaging the immortal souls of all people left alive.'
It wasn't the best or most heroic reason, but every chain of events has to start somewhere...
Rosemary grinned at her silently and then broke into a run, following the machine.
This was what she really
enjoyed, drifting away into a world that was comprised almost entirely
of her feet against the asphalt. She settled into what seemed to her a
gentle, almost leisurely pace, dreamily watching her feet hit the
ground with soft little slap-slap slap-slap noises. She turned
carefully as the drive leading away from the parking lot curved,
maneuvering onto the sidewalk.
A moment later she was out into the bustle of a main street, still trailing the robot. A man who had just exited the grocery store and was staggering down the street, arms laden with bags, was aware of a faint blue blur passing him, accompanied by a pleasent breeze. If he had had any free hands, this would've been the point where he rubbed his eyes, shook his head, and walked away. As he was preoccupied, he mostly ignored it.
Rosemary drew up next to the robot, and something in her brain switched off. Suddenly she was going painfully fast instead of at a pleasant trot. The street around her was blurred and the wind stung at her eyes, making them water. She had a nagging feeling that she should shout a challenge to the... driver, pilot... person manning the thing, but she also felt fairly certain that if she opened her mouth her lips would end up dragging around the back of her skull.
Goggles, she thought, looking for somewhere to jump onto the robot. If I had goggles the wind wouldn't be in my eyes, and I'd be able to see better.
And then she leapt onto the thing's arm, currently held out stiffly in front of it as it stomped along the road. It was a little bit like jumping onto the top of a car, if the car was seven feet up in the air and wobbling alarmingly. She clutched at the metal, taking a deep breath. She could see the backpack from here - and the clear glass dome in the torso that served as a cockpit. Rosemary frowned, thinking, and dropped to her knees, crawling along the robot's arm. Somehow the combination of the height and speed seemed to slow time as she inched along, trying not to look down. Very carefully she reached out with one arm and hooked two fingers under the strap that was looped around the thing's claw, lifting it very slowly. After a few tries she managed to get the backpack free - and then almost dropped it, surprised by the weight. What on earth was in there? She slipped the straps over her shoulders and scooted herself backwards along the arm.
She could go now. All she had to do was get off this stupid robot and take the backpack back to that girl. She didn't know what had posessed her to do this in the first place. She didn't have to do anything else.
And yet... Rosemary took a deep breath and turned around, looking
more closely at the robot. It seemed like it was made in a hurry, or
just made badly - in some places the metal didn't quite cover the wires
and circuits inside it. There was a gap by her leg where she had
stopped, halfway along the arm, where the elbow would have been, and
another gap where the arm joined the body.
This is the stupidest thing I've ever done, and I hope I live to do something stupider.
Rosemary thought fervently, and plunged her hand into the arm. The
rough edges of the metal shell scraped her arm and she winced, groping
around until she found a bundle of wires. Then she pulled until she
felt several of them give, coming loose somewhere. She gave the cords
another sharp yank for good measure and started inching her way along
the arm. After an eternity, she was next to what would have been the
armpit, next to an even bigger gap in the metal. This one was big
enough to fit her head into, if she was feeling suicidal. She plunged
her arm in again, pulling a bundle of wires loose. One of them snapped
in two, sparking and burning her hand, and she yelped and let it go.
"I'm an idiot." She muttered to herself, the words whipping away on the
wind before she could really hear them.
But it seemed like she had done some good after all. The leg on the right side of the thing's body, underneath her, looked like it was moving even more slowly and choppily than it had been. The movements grew more jerky and erratic as she watched, and she shook herself. She had to get away before whoever was piloting this thing noticed her, if they hadn't already.
Rosemary jumped, landing heavily on the hood of a car parked in
the
street. She stared at her feet, startled. How had she managed to jump
off that thing without killing herself? She had landed on her feet. She
wasn't agile, she was clumsy. She walked into walls if she didn't pay
attention!
She shook her head, climbing down off the car. There were people
staring at her, she realized, and she felt her cheeks heat. Rosemary
turned back towards the school - at least, she hoped it was towards the
school - and broke into a trot. By the time she had reached the end of
the street, she was in a flat-out run, thinking of nothing but the joy
of the wind on her face and her feet against the ground.
When she got back to the school parking lot, the fox was still there, sitting on the curb by a miserable little island of shrubs. She looked up when Rosemary walked over to her, and her eyes widened when she saw the backpack.
"You got it back!" She said, staring. "How?"
Rosemary shrugged off the backpack. "Um... Just lucky, I guess.
Here you go." She handed it over to the other girl, grinning weakly.
She hadn't really realized that she'd been running mainly on adrenaline
until she'd gotten away from the excitement and her knees tried to walk
away from her without the rest of her body.
The girl unzipped the backpack and looked into it, relaxing
visibly. "Oh good, it's not broken..." She muttered to herself, zipping
it shut again. She looked back to Rosemary and smiled nervously. "Um...
thanks a lot. My name's Widget."
"I'm Rosemary. I really have to get home now, or my mom is going
to kill me. Um... goodbye." The awkward shyness was back now. Rosemary
smiled quickly and then turned away. At least while she ran home she
wouldn't have to think.
Widget watched her go and stood up, slipping on her backpack. She was thinking of blueprints while she walked home, numbers and shapes dancing through her head.