What had happened? After all that they had been through together, the ending had never been imagined to be like this. That it would go down the way things did could not have been expected. And yet, the injured fox lay there, in between the rubble and ruins of what had been their home. The shadowy figure in front of him slowly moved closer, but could not be identified through the wall of smoke. The stones crunched with every step, and even though he knew it was coming for him now, too, he couldn't move. His tear-stained eyes tried to make out what it was, but he couldn't see. He tried to move a bit, not wanting to get snapped out like the others were, but his body would not comply. Everything hurt, his vision was blurred, the ears rang and he felt his blood on his face. In his numbness, he tried to focus for the last time, needing to see what caused their demise, but still, the only thing he knew was that the crunches got louder.
Finally, the figure stood right in front of him, and he moved his head to look up. Only a shadow, then darkness. next thing he saw was three lights gleaming in the distance, then noise, then more darkness. Next was a voice without words, as nothing it said was even close to being audible. It was just there until it faded. He glimpsed again, a purple light and then…
"Those eyes!" Amy shouted. She was running towards a small kitten which was roaming through her garden, but just as she got close to it, the kitten quickly hid between the roses, making it impossible to reach it. There, it sat down and stared at Amy, who had knelt down to look at it through the leaves.
"Just be careful not to get stung by the thorns, sweetie!" she said before standing up and going back to work. Just a few minutes later a blue streak rushed through her garden until it came to a stop just next to her. "Hey Amy, what ya doing?" she looked up to see Sonic leaning against the wall with a grin on his face. "Just some garden work. You know, the usual, cutting dead leaves, watering the flowers,…"
"I see, Tails and I planned to head out to the beach this afternoon, wanna come?" Of course, she did, but due to the current heat wave and the dryness that came with it, she couldn't leave her work behind. She had hoped that Sonic would ask her out on a trip for quite a while now, so saying no was rather difficult for her. "You know, I'd really like to, but I can't. My flowers will die, so…" "And if I helped you?" Sonic had patiently waited for her answer and took a few steps towards her, but this patience was apparently over. Before she could respond, he picked a can and ran to the barrel with water. He quickly dunked the can into it and started watering the flowers for Amy, who stopped watching and continued cutting the small bush in front of her.
About 25 minutes later, the work was done and she got inside to pack all the things she needed for the trip. Sonic, who decided to wait outside, leaned against the wall just as he did when he arrived. Then, they left and Sonic called Tails while they walked down the streets of the suburbs, telling him that they would arrive soon.
The white lights disorientating him, the hedgehog's thoughts began to race. How did he get here? Where exactly was –here-? What was going on? He still couldn't see anything due to the lights, and no sound could be heard. He tried to move, and even though he knew he was moving, he couldn't feel it. Suddenly, everything went dark, but his vision still had a distinct tone of white in it. Still blind, he got on his feet and at least he could feel them touching the cold ground now. After what felt like eternity wandering the darkness, he heard a hissing noise just next to him, so he took a step in its direction. Immediately, he tripped and fell to the ground. He died then and there, breaking his neck in the process. An artificial voice filled the room –SUBJECT: JW42 FAILED. ACTIVATE: PROTOCOL 3. ENTER: SUBROUTINE CLEANSING 4. REBOOT IN PROGRESS. INITIALIZING: CASE 43-.
"That storm is looking pretty bad…" The fox had a worried look on his face as he saw the dark clouds in the far distance, feeling not so sure if their trip was going to work out the way they had planned. "Come on Tails, can't be that bad. It's a nice day, why wouldn't they let us down to the beach?" Sonic exclaimed. "You know, I think he might be right about that. We should probably turn around and find a place to stay. The last thing I want is to be out here when this storm arrives." Amy looked at Sonic, who looked at her and then turned to Tails. "Fine, you win. Let's go to my place, it's the closest." Sonic immediately turned around, looking a bit grumpy, as he had anticipated playing beach volleyball for hours. Amy and Tails followed, both wondering about the sudden change of weather these clouds on the horizon seemed to mark.
-SUBJECT: JW43 FAILED. ACTIVATE: PROTOCOL 3. ENTER: SUBROUTINE: CLEANSING 13. REBOOT IN PROGRESS. INITIALIZING: CASE 44-.
"Feel free to take anything from the fridge, I go fetch some snacks." Tails followed Sonic to the kitchen, leaving Amy alone by the door to Sonic's apartment. It was nice here and rather cheap, she would have taken it herself if she didn't own her house in the suburbs. Even though Sonic never really thanked her for making sure he got it, she knew he was happy with this apartment. Park nearby, nice view, plenty of space, just his thing. She walked into the living room and sat on the couch. Shortly after, Tails returned with a soda in his hand and sat next to her, opening the bottle and taking a sip. As soon as Sonic entered the room, he put a bowl with various snacks on the small table and the entire room went white for a split second, immediately followed by extremely loud thunder that seemed to shake the building.
Sonic's ears had fallen down, and he looked rather shocked. "Scared of storms, are we?" Amy mocked him, and his ears went up again. "Nah, just got jumped by it, didn't really expect that. Guess you two were right about the storm." Tails nodded and took another sip from his bottle. Another lightning bathed the room in light, followed by an even louder thunder to shake the building again.
"How can sound even cause these vibrations?" Tails wondered aloud. Sonic just shrugged and looked at Amy, who indicated that she didn't know either. Silence followed until the next thunder roared. "So,.. you guys wanna watch a movie? I don't wanna stand here all day doing nothin." "Sure, why not? You got that new Tommy Th…" Tails was cut off by the lights turning off after another lightning illuminated the sky, immediately followed by complete darkness. The thunder roared again as Sonic turned around to look out the window. Most of this side of the room was one big window, and as he gazed over the city, usually illuminated in various colors by thousands of different lights, he found it to be dark.
"Great, seems like electricity went down in the entire city. So much for the TV. Other ideas?" "First, we should have a little more light." Tails said as he stood up and opened his bag. He pulled out a flashlight and turned it on. Sonic crossed his arms and leaned back a bit, giving him a questioning look. "Tails, why would you bring a flashlight to the beach?" he asked. "You never know, right?" the fox replied and sat down again. Sonic, now able to see properly, walked to a cupboard in the corner, opened it and lightened a candle. Back to the question of what to do now, they all thought for a second until Amy spoke up. "How about board games?" "More like bore-games, Ames." She looked at Sonic in disappointment. "That was bad. Even for you." "What is that supposed to mean now?" "Nothing, nothing at all.." Tails grinned and watched them arguing and mocking each other, Amy even standing up and moving a few steps towards him, placing her finger on his chest to underline her statements, as the first raindrops began to hit the glass heavily. With the rain pouring and occasionally lightning and thunder filling the room with light and sound, he interrupted them. "Hey, how about we go to the kitchen? It should be less noisy there:" The two hedgehogs turned their heads and agreed, Amy grabbed the snacks and so they moved to the kitchen.
For a while they just talked, telling each other what they were up to for the past weeks. Amy told them about how she had planted a whole set of new flowers because the summer heat had caused many to dry out and that she was now thinking about opening a small business selling flowers and plants of all kinds. Tails reported that he had been working on a new invention, but wouldn't say what it was. Sonic just listened and commented that it was just the usual. Going to work, taking walks in the afternoon, relaxing.
"Hey, is it me or is the storm getting a bit more calm?" Sonic had just stood up and looked through the small kitchen window. Tails jumped off his chair to take a look, too but was interrupted when his phone rang. "You have one of those smartphones?" Amy asked surprised by the fact since they all said that they didn't like them when they were released to the market last year. "Built it myself" the fox shortly replied as he answered the phone. "Hello? Yes, it's me. Yeah, at Sonic's." A short pause followed with Tails looking more and more concerned. "What?!" Sonic and Amy gave each other a confused look. "Yeah, right away. See you soon, bye." Tails lowered the phone from his ear, sliding it into his pocket. "Guys, I have to leave now. My garage has a leak and is now flooded." He turned on the flashlight, left the kitchen and approached the door. "Hopefully the storm has calmed down." He muttered while he put his shoes on. Sonic and Amy entered the living room and wished him luck as he left, leaving them alone in the dark. "Should've brought the candle…"Sonic muttered as they both made their way back to the kitchen.
The white lights disorientating him, the hedgehog's thoughts began to race. How did he get here? Where exactly was –here-? What was going on? He still couldn't see anything due to the lights, and no sound could be heard. He tried to move, and even though he knew he was moving, he couldn't feel it. Suddenly, everything went dark, but his vision still had a distinct tone of white in it. Still blind, he got on his feet and at least he could feel them touching the cold ground now. After what felt like eternity wandering the darkness, the lights were finally turned on, revealing a white room which walls were not visible from his position. All he could see was the white nothingness of this seemingly eternal room. He looked around several times without seeing anything else, making him panic. "What the hell is going on?" he whispered to himself, insecurity filled his voice. Suddenly, a hissing noise appeared just next to him.