"Come on girl, you got this!"

Sweat flung off Amy's forehead as she flipped her quills quickly to the right before focusing her indefatigable determination back on the LED monitor in front of her. She pumped her legs harder and harder as she ran, fire sprinted up her legs as she wasn't used to moving as fast as she is now. She didn't let the pain waver her determination a single bit though. She ran faster still.

Her individual footsteps couldn't even be discerned as she ran as though she had high aspirations to be like the Blue Blur himself. The treadmill she ran on was a retrograde color; dark orange as though it was painted in the 90's in addition to the white pinstriping, Tails' surely did have a nostalgic sense of style. The treadmill was called the Turbomill 9000… it was specially built by Tails for whenever he wanted to test the capacity of Sonic's speed. The treadmill was built to withstand supersonic speeds and the vibrations and heat that went with such speeds. And since Tails and Sonic had stepped out, Amy decided that right now would be as good time as any to test herself, perhaps to reassure her that Sonic was still within reach…

Harder she ran, her lithe figure looking like the model figure for running advertisements everywhere. She pushed, she wanted that high score, she pushed! Her feet were a blur of speed; a pink, white, and red vortex. She watched as the speedometer climbed slowly but surely.

300 meters per second.

303 meters…

310…

Amy wanted to break the sound barrier, she wanted that more than anything at the moment. It would prove to her, prove that she could keep up with him just a little bit more, just a bit longer, she knew that she could do it.

The droning sound of the heavy flywheel roaring and the tiny electric motors within screaming became her music as her her earbuds popped out of her ears due to her strain to beat the speed barrier. Sweat embossed her supple lips like gloss, and her quills was at constant velocity, she should had tied it back... To her side her jade green eyes glanced, the workout mirrors to her right shown her legs to be like a tornado of color and speed, the fans that blew on her and the treadmill roared as she went faster and faster. She approached her goal even further. She wanted this, she wanted this!

314 meters per second.

315 meters…

316.5…

Victory was near, she could feel it in her thighs, or rather it was the excruciating pain of running almost the speed of sound without any pre-workout; it was a spur of a moment thing. She wanted, very badly, to prove her to herself (but moreso Sonic) that she could do it, that she can keep up, that she wouldn't slow Sonic down, that she wouldn't be a burden to his freedom… So she kept running.

She wanted this more than anything. Victory was near, she could feel it in her heart, or perhaps it was the agonizing fluttering of near-heart palpitations warning of an approaching heart attack. But she didn't care, she was on her way to victory, she can definitely feel it, and this time not within her body, but on the screen in front of her as the LED's blinked:

318 meters per second.

318.5 meters…

319…

She put in all she had, this was it, the cusp of the speed barrier! The runner's' high that she gained was phenomenal. The internal pleasure of running so fast; her mind spanned her imagination of keeping up with Sonic no matter where he would speed off to, she'll be right there, not slowing him down, becoming his 'freedom princess'. She gritted her teeth as she blasted her muscles to do one final big push for her goal!

I got this!

She could hear the whirring of the belt as the treadmill whirred, the howling as the flywheel howled, the buzzing as the motors buzzed, and then more lamentably, the creaking as nearby feet on worn wood planks creaked… and then chattering of her friends as they chatted, and thumping in her ears as her heart thumped, and then the odd stepping as she misstepped…

"AMY, NOOO!"

The two friends, Sonic and Tails, screamed.

It all happened as quick as a blink, and as frightening as Hell. Amy, in her sudden distraction of running and keeping pace with the machine by her putting her attention to her friends, she had misstepped and began tumbling like a subsonic ball of anxiety, fear, and confusion. Amy was like a pink pinball, revving up unintentionally on the blazing fast treadmill.

She then shot off… PWERRN!

And then like a atomic collider, a blazing ball of blue blew through to the space of the lab and straight towards Amy. A spiny ball of blue and a spiny ball of pink. The two met around the middle of the room. But since Amy was spinning just at the speed of sound, she bombarded into Sonic, changing his course, and then together the two bounced with extreme dynamism. Bouncing off the white walls, springing off lab equipment, bowling through glass beakers and monitors; the two momentum was surely something to duck! Tails gasped in horror as he quickly shielded himself under a steel table, then gasping in fear as the two, just as he pulled his exposed tails underneath the canopy of the table, banged into the table, sending a huge watermelon sized dent in front of the kitsune's face.

Soon the two lost their bombastic moment, and slowly the two unfurled on top of each other in the middle of the room. Amy breathed in a shaky breath in, and then was in the process of exhaling it back out when she pulled herself from Sonic's chest. Suddenly, she realized that it was Sonic that had kept her from harm's indiscriminate hooks. He blocked each bludgeoning collision with his body. She looked down dearly at the Blue Blur and sniffed as she could feel where bruises were most likely to form over his skin. She was grateful, but at the same time she felt like hiding, running away, she was embarrassed that she was caught…

Tails ran to his friends, a worried, scared expression donned on his face. The fur on in his ears quivered as they stood tall in attention trying to listen for the faintest sounds of entropy from his downed friends. He stooped quickly, picking up Sonic's head, which ushered Amy to dismount him and then doing the same. "Sonic, are you okay?" Tails asked slightly worried, Sonic can take a hit, that's an understatement in itself, but he was so unprepared for such a beating; basically hyper-bouncing between an subsonic furball and a bunch of not-so-soft lab equipment around the room.

In the background, sounds of electricity sparking could be heard just over the sounds of water running; probably a broken sink, glass tinkling on the ground from broken vases, windows, and the like, and also the sound of the treadmill still running, it's droning sound droned like a drone, lifeless, forever fixed in a humming detune. Sonic and Amy sure did banged into a lot of things, if the room was a massive pinball machine, they'll have the greatest score ever. It'll take forever to clean such a mess.

However, soon Sonic came to, his nose twitched in slight annoyance. "Well, that wasn't all that cool… Is that your new way to capture me, Amy?" He lifted his head a bit to look at his pink friend, slowly he pulled his arms underneath himself to prop his body up. A few bones popped as he stretched.

Amy sniffled in joy that he was okay, and then beamed softly, absolutely grateful for his joke, it was like a huge weight being lifted from her heart; she had actually feared that she had badly hurt her blue beau. "Did it work?" She smiled still, letting out an embarrassed, coy half-laugh. The bloom in her cheeks slowly dying off. She blinked rapidly for a few moments as she wiped a tear from her eye.

Sonic rolled his eyes and covered his eyes dramatically with his right arm. "Yes, you got me, bleah~" Sonic said playing along, even faking his theatric death.

Above him, Tails deadpanned as he watched the two chit-chat as though they weren't just two bruise-couriers with a package for whomever would had entered the room at the time of their indiscriminate bludgeoning and bouncing. "Glad that you're okay, Sonic." Tails shook his head and dropping his head, smiling down at his as Sonic groaned in mock pain.

The kitsune then put his eyes to Amy, this captured her attention.

"What were you doing in my lab anyways, Amy? Even more suspiciously, why were you training on the Turbomill?" He darted his eyes at the slowing, jeremiad moaning of the treadmill slowing down.

Amy froze, sudden nervousness crawled over her body and entrapped her like vines on brick. Even Sonic lifted his eyes to Amy in curiousness. Silence took her tongue before the cat could. She stuttered and stammered, her fingers fidgeted and her eyes darted this way and that as if she was trying to find the answer within the space around her. Slowly she calmed down, and finally she drew in a relaxing breath.

Upon exhaling, she conjured a determined face. "I wanted to test myself! I wanted to know if I could keep up with Sonic!" She pulled up a fist, "If perhaps I could prove to Sonic that I could keep up, I'll be able to help him out in combat better, and then… Perhaps he'll take my hand in supersonic matrimony!" Amy kept her eyes lifted to the ceiling with pride in her words. She felt good speaking it out, and hopefully her friends, and Sonic in particular, will respectfully clap and applaud her for brave resolution.

For a few moments more, there was no clapping and Amy slowly was dragged back to reality. She looked to Tails and Sonic in turn: her foxy friend had his lips pinched together as he struggled to stifle uproarious laughter. She looked down at Sonic who, unsurprisingly, looked at her with a slightly uncomfortable, slightly tickled smirk. Amy's brows furrowed in frustration and rolled her eyes, pouting, and then quickly aiming her glare away from her friends.

Tails took that as a go ahead to laugh, and then Sonic scratched the back of his head shyly, her endless admiration and attraction for him was understandable, he was a handsome-hog; as he'll put it, but regardless, it always took him aback to hear her declarations of their pairing and affection and made him quite coy. Amy's glare then softened into a slightly crestfallen look. Sonic then internally groaned and leant his sakura teammate his hand. He stood up and guided her up as well. He felt as though he had to say something. "Amy…" He started before Tails' laughter interrupted his words. Tails guffawed relentlessly before finally he calmed down moments later, so Sonic continued. "Amy…" Sonic started again, looking at his best female friend dearly. A sound spurred from his right, Sonic shot a more serious glare at Tails as he snickered and began to remove himself from the room.

Sonic watched him go before his attention was pulled back down to Amy by her tugging gently on his scarf. He smiled then took her hand into his. "Amy, you already proven yourself to be an awesome part of our team, our mission to defeat Eggman, and my-" Sonic stopped himself short and quickly diverted his eyes. "Our lives." Sonic motioned over to the portrait of the team on the wall nearby. "I know you can keep up, that's why you're my right-hand, our team's tactician. And honestly I really couldn't be happier to have you in my life- er…" Oh boy. Did I just say that aloud? Amy giggled at his rather coy show of embarrassment, she found it rather cute.

Amy smiled, her heart fluttered as Sonic spoke, every word that came from his mouth sounded like harp strings and gave her such a tickle in the belly. She held onto his hand a bit tighter, Sonic even braced himself for her signature "glomp" that she does whenever she gets excited around him, but it never came. Today's just full of surprises. Amy instead looked into Sonic's eyes, her own green eyes filled to the brim with admiration and an amorous glow.

Sonic tugged at his scarf with his free hand in chagrin. He then felt like backing up, turning tail, and then running away. He didn't mean to sound so repulsively mushy, all he wanted was to cheer Amy up… he didn't like seeing her so unhappy and down… but he did mean those words… just didn't mean to say it in front of her, in her face, while she was looking so amorous, oh darn… it'll be impossible to run away from her now…

Sonic prepared to take a step back, but just as his foot drew back, Amy stepped forward, closing the gap between them, and embracing him in a soft hug. She breathed in deeply, inhaling his scent, and relished in his lingering words and his presence. "Thank you, Sonic…" She muttered into his chest, she could feel his heartbeat racing, it could match hers, probably. She felt elated, emotionally. She clenched his fur with her hands just a bit tighter as she hugged him. "I love you…" Her words were wisps of clouds in the air around them, even with their close proximity Sonic couldn't make out what she had whispered to him.

"What was that Amy?" He lend his head down a bit trying to angle his ears towards her. "Could you say that again?"

Amy then smirked, her former self re-emerging from her coy front. "I said, I love you, you blue lug…" Amy said it a bit softer this time, a smile spreading along her peach colored muzzle.

Sonic bent down a small bit, trying to catch her words, but just at that moment Amy looked up, her eyes filled with her usual, enthusiasm and flirtatiousness. Sonic felt his heart skip a beat in panic, IT WAS A TRAP! Sonic tried to pull his head back in time, but he was not prepared for the quickness of Amy's grit. She lunged for him, bringing his head back down. Once caught she planted a passionate kiss on his already blooming cheek. She made extra sure to loudly smack when she drew back from his face just to add to his humiliation.

Sonic groaned in chagrin and turned his face away to hide the rosy blush that engulfed his whole muzzle. Amy giggled girlishly and clasped her hands together close to her face, basically staring at her blue beau with heart-eyes. "I said, I bet I can beat you in a race now…" Sonic lost his embarrassment at the first sound of her challenge. He almost looked at her ludicrously. A race, against him? HA! Sonic donned a smirk; but Amy wasn't finished talking. "And the winner gets a romantic cuddle session with this gal!" She winked at Sonic, holding both of her thumbs pointed at her triumphantly.

Sonic about fell over in shock. "You can't do that!" Sonic shouted in incredulously.

Amy closed her eyes and then threw her nose in the air in a show of mock-snootiness. "Hmph, I just did!" She then smiled through her facade and opened one eye at Sonic, eyeing him playfully.

Sonic shook his head frowning a bit before he then looked up at her with a smirk… He loves when she gets like this… Sonic then approached her, walking past her, and then out the door. He stopped at the door entrance and looked back at her. "Where's the finish line, Amy?" His playful smirk could've stopped her heart right then and there. She smiled and laughed happily as she chased him out of Tails lab.

Just as the two bolted out of the lab and down the beach side in an amalgam of pink and blue streaks of speed, the Turbomill started to beep as the motors and gears finally stopped moving. The reading of the top speed was highlighted in a segmented LED bits. On that screen was Amy's top speed, just before she had fell off.

327.5 meters per second.

In the distance the thrilling sound of a sonic boom rang out into the sky…

And then, seconds later, a subsequent sonic boom followed behind, joining the first one within the heavens.