Prologue
"Don't forget to read chapters 5 and 6 of Miller's Introduction to Physics for next class!" The Associate Professor's voice boomed over the crowd of first-year college students leaving the amphitheater. The noisy pack of young adults quickly dispersed in many different directions on campus, although most of them were intent on getting some dinner at the cafeteria. Among them were Derek the Toad and Tails the Fox, who were chatting excitedly about the professor's lecture.
"… cool class, eh?" Derek yapped as the two friends strolled around campus. "He's not the bestest professor around, but he sure knows his stuff, don't he?"
"I guess… but I already went over that stuff in high school. He's a bit boring really, if you ask me."
"Oh, yeah, totally! And, he's kind of ugly, too… I can't believe some of these girls keep going on about how handsome he is! He's, like, three times their age! You'd think they'd be more interested in someone their age…"
Tails grinned; having met Derek on the first day of class, he had quickly found out his friend wouldn't ever shut up about girls. "You mean, someone like you?"
"Well, yeah," admitted Derek. "Mind you, some of our professors are actually really attractive… D'you know Professor Taft? She teaches audio technology… She's pretty sexy…"
Tails shrugged. Although already in college, he still wasn't all that interested in the opposite sex – whatever age they were. Last year, an assertive vixen had pressured him into a date, only to find out Tails forgot to show up because he was watching a documentary about the electromagnetic spectrum.
Enrolled as an "undecided" major in the science department, Tails had just started his studies at the University of Mobotropolis. At 17 years of age, he was a year younger than most of his peers, which was surprising given that he had missed much of public school when he had been training as a soldier under the wing of his best friend Sonic. Upon going back to public school, however, he was so gifted he was able to catch up quickly with his peers and passed his baccalaureate a year ahead of everybody, acing all his science finals in the process.
Physics 101 was Tails' last class of the day, ending at 6pm; not hungry yet and resolved to starting his homework, Tails headed for his dorm by himself after Derek left to meet some friends at the cafeteria. After a few minutes' walk around the campus, Tails spotted the back of a blue hedgehog standing near the dorm's entrance: it was his friend Sonic, who, Tails deduced, had come to pay him a visit. After all, he wouldn't have any other reason to come to campus, and he knew where Tails' dorm was located, having helped him move in on the first day of school.
"Hey, Sonic!" Tails shouted, excitedly running up to meet him. "What's up? How're you doing?"
"Tails, Amy just called," Sonic said immediately and seriously.
Tails dropped his grin and did a sort double take. "What? Amy? Amy Rose?"
"Yeah."
Tails thought Sonic had to be kidding. "She called you? On the phone? When?"
"Just now. 30 minutes ago."
"But… That's impossible! Are you certain it was Amy?"
"I'm positive."
"But Sonic… Amy's dead! How could it have been her? What did she say?"
"She said she was in trouble with the police in a city called Harver. And we need to fly there to pick her up."
Tails couldn't believe this. "Harver… Harver in Servinia? But it's like, more than a thousand miles… Sonic, how do you know it was her? Did you recognize her voice?"
Sonic made a gesture of impatience. "Okay, she didn't actually say anything because she couldn't talk at all, but I know it was her. We can talk about that later – right now, we need to get the Tornado ready so we can go pick her up. We have a rendezvous with her on a small street tomorrow night."
Tails was trying to think fast. Obviously, Sonic was anxious to leave as soon as possible, but something just didn't add up. "Okay Sonic, please, I need you to hear me out. I see you want to rescue Amy, but there's something really sketchy about all this. You're saying that Amy just called you, even though she's supposed to have been dead for years, and asked you to meet her tomorrow night in Harver… and that she was in trouble with the police… but she didn't actually say anything?"
"Well, basically, yeah… but it was still her. It was hard to communicate but we found a way."
"But don't you think that's a bit sketchy? Why couldn't she talk? Don't you think it's some kind of prank call or even a trap set for you?"
"I think she just lost her voice. We'll figure it out when we find her. Look buddy, I know it was her. I just know it. I just have this gut feeling."
Tails paused for a second. He could definitely see how emotional and determined Sonic was over this whole business. Tails also felt tearful at the chance Amy could still be alive, but he tried to remain as level-headed as possible about the situation. "Okay, Sonic, I'm really sorry for telling you this, but… You know… I just think you're not thinking clearly about this. I mean, I think – in general, I mean – you've always been very hard on yourself about Amy's death, and so…"
"So what? What does this have to do with her call?" Sonic was getting annoyed; it seemed to him Tails was just stalling for whatever reason.
"But this could be some kind of trap! Maybe the people who took revenge upon her know we were her friends and want some further revenge or something…" Sonic and Tails had always believed Amy to have been murdered by relatives of two world-famous mercenaries killed by Amy during a battle a few months prior to her two-year-old disappearance. "If you didn't hear Amy speak, you don't know if it was really her!"
"Okay," Sonic said quickly, "I don't really see this as a reason for not going. If this is a small chance that she's alive and we can find her, than we should just go there, even if it might be a trap!"
"Don't you think we should investigate a little before going?"
"Dude, how would we do that?" Sonic asked, shaking his head feverishly. "We'd be wasting time, we're supposed to meet Amy tomorrow night!"
"Okay. Okay, let's just pause for a second. There's gotta be a way we can investigate. You said Amy told you – somehow – that she was in trouble with the police?"
"Yeah, and that's why we should come right away."
"Then – then there's gotta be a recent police record about her. In Harver, I mean. At the local police station. If we find that file, we'd know a bit more about the situation and so we'd be much better prepared."
"But – that could take days! How on earth would we get that file? It would also be dangerous – the police is looking for her, remember? She's trying to get away from them!"
"No, I have an idea. There might be a way to get that file quickly without the Harver police noticing it. We'd need Brad's help – remember he works for a human rights NGO called 'Police International'?"
"Yeah, okay…" Though older by almost ten years, Brad was a good friend of Sonic's and Tails's.
"So you know, his NGO basically evaluates all police departments in the different countries and then rates them on a scale for their human rights record. I think Brad worked on Servinia and the other countries from that region of the world. And he's traveled, met policemen around those places, and he said often he became great friends with them, and they sometimes gave him some secret information for his reports. Maybe he knows one in Harver who could be willing to covertly scan and email Amy's file without anyone knowing. We could go see Brad right now. It's worth a shot, right?"
Sonic sighed. This idea seemed a bit far-fetched, and he wanted to leave. At the same time, he couldn't argue against the fact that having that police file would help them know what they were dealing with. "Okay. Okay, you're right, except that if we can't do it by, say, 9pm, we should leave anyway, okay?"
"Okay, cool. That sounds good. I mean of course I do want to find Amy if she's alive. If by 9 our hands are still empty, we'll go and we'll just be really careful once we're in Harver." Secretly, Tails kept his fingers crossed; he definitely feared Amy's former enemies, and really hoped that Brad would help them clarify the situation.
Sonic and Tails immediately left for Brad's apartment. The fox didn't even bother to leave at his dorm his backpack, still filled with his physics books; the two friends simply rushed towards downtown Mobotropolis, hoping to grasp what might be their chance to find Amy for the first time since her disappearance and presumed death.
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End of Prologue.
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Introductory notes for Little Pinion.
(If you don't want to read the notes but just move on, check out the quick summaries at the bottom of the page to know about the premise, then go ahead with chapter 2.)
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Hello, and thanks for reading the prologue. I'm putting the introductory notes after the prologue, because I wished to introduce the story with something a bit more engaging.
As you might have guessed from the prologue, there is a premise to Little Pinion; essentially, this story is a sort of sequel to my first story called Egregious Exile, which was a half-adventure, half-psychological drama story about Amy Rose. However, this is not a direct sequel: Amy's full adventure is really a trilogy, with Egregious Exile being the first part, but Little Pinion is the third part, not the second. I may never write the second part – I'll get into that in a second.
I do want to insist on the fact that you do not have to read Egregious Exile to read this story. Anyway, the bottom of this page includes a short summary of the end of Egregious Exile, plus one of the events in the second story. It's perfectly possible to enjoy Little Pinion without previous reading; however, you could still read Egregious Exile if you're interested in the details of what happened to Amy (or if you just enjoy adventures about Sonic and Amy Rose). The introductory chapter of Egregious Exile, in particular, tells her early life, which is somewhat close to Sega's and Archie's vision of the early Sonic-CD Amy.
Unlike Egregious Exile, Little Pinion is lighter and more fun, and available to all readers, not just teenagers and young adults. (Except for some profanity.) (I don't want to scare anyone about Egregious Exile, though: it's slightly dramatic and intense, but not gruesome by any means. Most teenagers can probably read it and relate to its spunky version of Amy's character.)
I labeled Little Pinion as comedy/drama: there are some dramatic elements, but they're about situations and characters that, I hope, teens and young adults may relate to. As for the humor, it's definitely not side-splitting humor; when I occasionally use humor, it's not really to "lighten up" the mood, but more to show how Amy's oddity as a character disrupts normal situations (usually in a funny way). There's also "natural" humor from all characters, who are mostly teens and young adults, and can make jokes or get into ridiculous situations.
I cannot write the second story now, because it is very intense, much more so than Egregious Exile. If I ever write it, only older readers will be interested. It's about hatred and revenge, and probably drug addiction, which I need strength to write; I'm also not sufficiently familiar with drug addiction to do the job now.
Now, I understand that the "fragile girl with the tragic past" premise for the protagonist (Amy) sounds cliché in fanfiction. Of course, I don't dispute it's a perfectly valid criticism. I'm trying not to dwell too much on the details of what happened before Little Pinion, but maybe I could add two things: I'm hoping Amy's "tragic past" aspect is not gratuitous in the sense that I develop it in my other (existing and future) stories; also, the fact that she's a girl is really not that crucial. For example in Egregious Exile, except for the fact she's in love with Sonic, Amy could've been either a girl or a boy.
Disclaimer: characters such as Sonic the Hedgehog, Tails, or Amy Rose are owned by Sega. A few references in the story, such as planet Mobius, Mobotropolis, or the House of Acorn, come from the Archie Comics, although the story is not really based on their universe. Except for Nack the Weasel (owned by Sega), all the mercenaries in the story are my creation.
(I may update this in the future, depending on new minor characters in the story.)
Rating: "T" for some profanity.
Summary of the end of Egregious Exile:
You may remember that in Egregious Exile, which takes place somewhere called Ambrosia, Amy crosses the path of a married couple of famous mercenaries, Slug and Anya, who are working for Knuckles. Since Amy is monetarily indebted to them, Anya forces Amy to sign an employment contract of domestic service to the couple for an unlimited period. This almost works, except that Amy manages to slay the two mercenaries during a climactic scene; she then accompanies Sonic and Tails back home. She also grieves for the death of a friend she met in Ambrosia and who was murdered by Slug.
Summary of the events between Egregious Exile and Little Pinion.
In this second chapter of the trilogy, Amy crosses the path of Catherine, who is Anya's grieving sister and also a mercenary. While investigating her sister's death, Catherine finds the contract that Anya had forced Amy to sign. Since Ambrosia (where the contract had been signed) is considered "unexplored territory", it's under international law, which is still imperfect: therefore, Amy cannot be charged for murdering Slug and Anya; however, the contract is internationally valid, and it's still in effect because Catherine and her husband inherit of Slug's and Anya's resources as their last remaining relatives.
Using this pretext, Catherine kidnaps Amy and forces her to honor the contract of domestic service. Over the next two years, Amy lives at her boss' hideout/house. In practice, Catherine proves to be as mean and perverse as her dead sister. Deep down, Amy wants to rebel, but it's impossible because Catherine is much stronger physically and psychologically, to a point that Catherine even manages to forbid Amy to ever speak and express herself in any way. Of course, Catherine's character and her relationship to Amy are more complex than that, but that's the gist of it.
Catherine and her husband once leave home for two weeks, leaving Amy locked inside. She manages to free herself and set a trap. Catherine's return results in a climactic scene during which Amy succeeds in murdering her boss and her boss' husband. Although she leaves in a hurry, she stays behind long enough to find Anya's infamous contract and destroys it, while grabbing a firearm and a pile of cash that amounts to $300,000.
Little Pinion picks up shortly after Amy murdered her boss.