Finding Amy
Amy normally could handle anything Eggman threw at her, Robots chasing her? Her hammer could smash them. Being held hostage as live bait for Sonic? She'll find a way to escape. Metal claws gripping her to death? Meh, honestly she was almost used to it, but this last Eggman attack just really wrecked her nerves. During the whole Infinite incident, as the history books were putting it, she rarely slept not only because she was worrying if Sonic was still alive or not but also the anxiety she felt at any noise made because of the fear that that noise might lead to an attack. The Infinite situation dragged her sanity to the ledge and because of that something clicked in her mind.
When she was finally able to return to her apartment in Station Square she walked into her room she saw a huge hole where her window view used to be, her freshly new designer rug imported from overseas was halfway burnt, and the morning tea she made the morning before the attack had evaporated into thin air. Amy dropped to her knees, she couldn't do this, if Eggman was going to keep doing this over and over again she- she just can't, this is just too much for one girl to handle alone. At that instant her mind went blank, she gathered important documents and few clothes that were undamaged and left her ruined apartment. Before leaving she left an envelope with her remaining lease total enclosed along with a note that read. "I'm sorry but I need to go. I'm sorry that I left a mess but you're free to do whatever you like with the stuff inside". She ran outside after that, unsure where she was going or what she was really doing, she just...Left.
Tails hadn't heard from Amy in 3 days, it made him very nervous because Amy tried to call at least once a day to ask if he had any idea where Sonic was. Tails almost lost his best friend, he didn't want to feel that guilt and uncertainty again, so he quickly flew over to Amy's apartment. Arriving there wasn't easy since there was a lot of cleanup and reconstruction going on in such a huge area, he did the polite thing and just flew into the giant gaping hole that was located where Amy's room was.
"Hey Amy are you here?" He called out but he heard no answer. It didn't help that her room still looked like a mess, many people have already started cleaning up. Tails tried to stay optimistic and thought maybe she just went to find supplies to clean up, and just to confirm his theory he went up to the landlord to ask if he'd seen Amy.
"Sorry I don't think she's coming back. She left this envelope with the remaining costs to her lease along with a note. You can keep the note."
Tails immediately took the note and began to read it over and over. He was at disbelief. He quickly flew back up to her room to search for any hints of Amy but he couldn't find anything. She left almost everything back here. Her scrap books, picture frames, expensive clothing. One thing Tails noticed was that he couldn't find any of her sensitive documents, to this Tails felt a slight sigh of relief that Amy might be clinging onto hope, but he didn't want to risk anything, he called Sonic immediately.
Sonic didn't take the news too well, he was pretty good at keeping his emotions cool and under control but all those months of constant torture in the Death Egg have made that a bit difficult. Sonic quickly ran to all parts of the continent. Most airports haven't returned to normal routines since they're using the air ways to transport supplies, so Amy shouldn't have gone too far. He checked all of Amy's usual spots, the Mystic ruins where there was beautiful flowers overlooking the ocean, the beach where she often took relaxing evening walks, he even went asking around some of her neighbors to see if they've seen her the day she left, but unfortunately, there was no hint of Amy.
This really nerved him, he wasn't sure what to do next. He couldn't find her, where could she have possibly gone? The panicking brought Sonic back to the horrible memories of his torture, getting beaten up to a bloody pulp by Zavok, Chaos repeatedly suffocating him with water until he passed out, Shadow and Metal poking him with painful sharp daggers by either Shadow's Chaos spear or Metal's cold mechanical hands. The only thing that kept him sane were thoughts of Amy, no matter what, somehow she was always able to calm him down in a strange way. Seeing her excited to see him made him know that there was peace in the world, there was nothing to worry about and that's why she wanted to cling onto me, because she was happy. Memories of her throwing herself at him kept him hopeful that once he got out he would be embraced by Amy again and she would bring a picnic basket so that the two could share once she found him in the middle of Green hill zone.
"I've always silently depended on Amy, but I…. I just failed in making damm sure she could depend on me." Sonic quietly sobbed, he really hoped Amy would jump out from the bushes and tackled him right about now.
It had almost been about 4 years since Amy up and left, Sonic asked Rouge to inform him if there was any word about Amy, any. Meanwhile he was able to suppress the memory that was the Death egg and Tails had regained his nerves by writing a program to detect any news that spoke about Amy through the internet but even with everyone's combined efforts they haven't had much luck with clues. Since then there had been a couple attacks by Eggman, but just petty ones, he was trying to bring back his pride since the COLOSSAL failure that was the Infinite incident, but aside from that everything was relatively calm.
Across the vast land Casinopolis was getting ready to host their first Fashion show since the Infinite events and the city was as lively as ever. In a luxurious hotel room was Amy Rose who rented the room under the pen name "Juliette". Amy was looking out the window relaxing with a cup of tea that was freshly brought up by Hotel service. Her quills had grown long past her shoulders and she was getting ready to attend the fashion show later the evening. Since her vanishment she found herself roaming the land, each time finding herself in a new boutique helping with sewing up clothes for her boss' clients. Amy always loved fashion and style, it was something that helped her relax.
About a year ago Amy had begun working under a famous designer known as "Pier La'foux", she was an amazing designer who unfortunately lost 2 of her fingers on her dominant hand during the Infinite incident, and because of this it was hard for her to finish her projects with the exact and precise details she was most known for. Pier heard about "Juliet" when she was visiting a friend's newly opened boutique where Amy was working at the time. Pier's friend had told her that her new assistant was very good at those intricate details and recommended Pier to consider "Juliet" as her assistant. The moment Pier saw Amy's work she was astonished at how well she embroidered beautiful golden roses on a long black evening gown, Pier immediately took Amy under her wing to assist with continuing Pier's work. It wasn't until after a year that Pier realized that "Juliet" wasn't Amy's real name and asked her why she would leave her old life? At that point Amy had enough trust with Pier that she just broke down in tears.
"I was under so much stress and anxiety that I just left. It was a flight response that hit me so suddenly that I wasn't able to think much, I just ran and ran and ran until I found myself at the beach across the other side of the continent. I found a boat that had washed on shore and I just paddled, at that point I didn't care if I reached land, I just wanted to escape. I think I kept running for so long that I later realized a year had passed and I found out that Sonic and Tails and everyone else was worried about me, but at that point… I just felt guilt. I felt too guilty to come back. I felt like I left a lot of my closest, my only, friends down. I made them worry so much about me that I didn't feel like it was ok to just jump back into their lives when they had already stressed out so much, not only because of Infinite, but because of me. I didn't-I didn't want to face that." Amy cried and cried, she tried to stop sobbing but all the pain, all the stress, all the anxiety, all the panic and frustration just kept pouring out of her.
Pier looked at Amy and held her tightly for support. To Pier her dear friend had been bottling up so much negative emotions over the years that finally the bottle overflowed and broke. To comfort Amy she told her that she would keep her secret for as long as she needed, but Pier also promised Amy that she would help her find the courage to let her friends know that she was ok. This soothed Amy, not only the crying, but the encouragement and support from a friend.
Amy took a sip from her tea cup and thought to herself. If only Sonic or Tails or anyone was with me on the day I went back to my apartment, maybe then they could've comfort me or stopped me and I wouldn't have ran away. Amy then looked at the clock and saw that it was 1 hour before she had to meet up with Pier backstage at the fashion show to help with the models. She placed her tea cup on top of the coffee table and quickly readied herself with large sunglasses and a big beautifully decorated hat that carefully hid her quills and distracted from her face.
Tails was having his morning coffee as he watched the morning news as he did every other morning. There was a segment on the Fashion show that happened in Casinopolis last night after the commercial break, but he wasn't too enthusiastic about it so he was debating on turning the tv off after he finished the last sip of his coffee. Before he could come to a decision he got a message from his communicator, it was from Rouge.
The message read "Watch the Fashion show interview with Pier La'foux and tell me if the girl to her right looks familiar. 3 Rouge"
Tails quickly turned his head back to the tv as the last commercial was playing, he began to pay attention to the faces and names on the screen, then there was a quick interview with the person Rouge named. To the right of the fashion designer was a girl in a huge white hat with huge red roses layered onto the hat. The hat was so huge it was hard to tell if there was even a head underneath it, but just then, during the whole loud activity behind the two girls came a woman who looked a bit like Rouge and "accidentally" bumped into the girl on the right causing the hat, to fall off and her sunglasses to distort itself onto her face. Tails quickly paused the screen. The whole activity was happening so fast that the screen was a bit blurry on the girl, but it was no doubt, the girl on the right look exactly like Amy. He quickly messaged Sonic to come to his house where after a long 14.34 seconds Sonic arrived to confirm that the girl on the screen was in fact Amy.
The boys quickly contacted Rouge regarding her intel. She specified she had her suspicions when she was looking at a fashion magazine while she got her hair done, one of the articles on the magazine was an interview with a famous designer along with a picture of her and her assistant, her face and hair was covered up pretty well with decorated jewelry and glasses, the fact that she was pink and was only quoted by the name of "Juliette" made Rouge suspicious. Rouge also said that currently the best way to actually confirm if it was Amy is if they left at that moment to catch one of the many flights from the Casinopolis airport and see if Amy boards one of them. Sonic quickly got everyone he could to meet at the airport last minute and wait and go through different terminals just to make sure they didn't miss the chance.
Amy made sure that all of her belongings were in her luggage case before double checking that her disguise was intact. Compared to the elegant outfit she wore the night before she in contrast wore a baggy grey hoodie with some long black yoga pants and sneakers, she also made sure to wear sunglasses of course but just an outfit wasn't enough to go through a security check. Amy made sure her Wig was on properly so that she could keep it on through the process. With her double and triple checking she was ready to head out to airport unknowing that Sonic and the others were waiting there to see her.
The plan was now in motion, there was 7 terminals in the Casinopolis airport and there was at least 1 member of the Sonic team at each one. Tails in 1, Knuckles in 2, Sonic in 3, Rouge in 4, Vector in 5, Espio in 6 and Rookie in 7, they were all ready and alert to find any hint of Amy.
Amy arrived in a shuttle to terminal 3, she planned to go on a separate flight from Pier. While Pier was going back to her studio Amy was going to Holoska for some special Holoskan textiles for Pier. She checked into her flight and dropped off her luggage then waited at the security check without any problems of her removing her wig, she then headed towards her gate, a she turned the corner that's when she saw him, Sonic. Why was Sonic flying in a commercial Airline? Tails could give him a free flight at any time! Oh gosh, did they see the footage where her hat fell off? She knew she should've dyed her quills that day, ugg! All these "should haves" were meaningless, now it was time for action, now it was time to...run. Amy went to the womens restroom where she waited there until her plane began to board. Once Amy boarded the plane and headed to her coach seat the color from her face dropped… Sonic was sitting, right next, to her seat, sitting next to the isle, keeping her trapped, in her window seat. Amy quickly hailed a Flight attendant to ask if it was possible to change her seat but to continue her bad luck rolling, this was a book flight. Amy was stuck on a 3 hour flight, with Sonic. Normally she would be jumping with joy for just one second with Sonic, but right now she couldn't, she felt too much shame and guilt to show her excitement.
"Hey! Are you my seat buddy? It's not everyday you get to sit next to hero now is it?" Sonic got up to let the unknown passenger sit at their seat. "So where ya' heade-"
Amy quickly sat down and visibly put on her earbuds and connected them to the tiny tv screen and put on the first movie that came up. Internally Amy was still screaming. It was a very long and boring 3 hours for the two hedgehogs.
The exact moment the plane landed at the gate and opened it's doors Sonic was the first one out, he just couldn't wait another second inside that cramped airplane. Right now they were in Metropolis city, after this Amy would stay the night at a nearby hotel and then take a small plane to Holoska the next morning.
Sonic was about to head out the airport doors before he remembered to pick up his luggage, even though this was a small trip he thought about bringing a luggage case just to fill it up with jars of a special chili made only at one restaurant in the city. He impatiently kept stomping his foot as he waited by the luggage conveyor belt, honestly, how slow can a team of people be? Wasn't there at least 4 of them? Something caught Sonic's eye as the luggage started coming in, it was a bright pink case, it reminded him of Amy, just then he caught a quick glimpse at the name tag, "Juliette" written on the name tag.
"I got her now" Sonic thought, he stood by the side and waited to see who claimed the luggage case.
Amy was last to leave the plane, she was hoping Sonic would be long gone by now but she made sure to take, a bit, or extra precautions, she stopped by the bathroom and later looked at all the overpriced nik-naks at the airport store just to buy a sandwich from one of the many chain coffee shops located at the same terminal. She had to have taken at least an hour but maybe she didn't waste enough time because when she arrived at the conveyor belt she saw her luggage still going around, and a blue hedgehog standing by the courtesy hotel phones. Amy hid behind a giant ad pillar away from Sonic's sight and began to debate whether to leave the luggage behind, but she knew she couldn't do that because she had one of Pier's prototype's designs neatly folded in there and she knew Pier would kill her if she lost it. She lost the feeling to her legs and she dropped to her knees.
"Why me, why today, I'm just not ready." Amy sighed but she jumped when someone tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey there seat buddy! You doing ok?" Sonic teased his seat buddy. "Listen I was wondering, do you have a spare bed I can use?
Amy wanted to die. Sonic was here and she still couldn't face him with good conscience, She can't. She wasn't ready. But she had to. Amy tried her best to disguise her voice, only to sound like some strange dying whale. "Why don't you use the courtesy phones over there?"
"I did but they're all booked. Besides I was hoping to meet a friend here but I don't think that's going to happen."
My gosh. Does he know? No he doesn't...does he? Amy looked back at her luggage to see a staff member take it to the lost and found. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.
"Ack! They're going to take that? Did someone miss their flight?" Sonic sighed and drooped down and looked at the floor. He really had his hopes up that he would find Amy here, but he just traveled 3 hours for a flight that he could've easily outran by 5 minutes.
Amy felt bad, at that moment she really wanted to tell him but she was interrupted by her phone, it was the airport calling about her unclaimed luggage. She stepped off the the side to answer, she accidentally pressed the speaker button upon answering and her phone blasts the message.
"Hi! This is the lost and found for Metropolitan airlines, am I speaking with Juliette?"
"Umm… can I call back?" Amy said with the meekest of voiced.
"Ok just to let you know we can only keep your luggage here no longer than 24 hours, after that we will have to dispose of it. Thank you and have a great day!"
The clerk hung up. Amy slowly looked behind her. It was too late, Sonic was already right behind her.
"A-Amy?" Sonic stared deeply through Amy's thick sunglasses "Are you really here?"
At some point Amy had to come to terms with her mistakes, but she was hoping she was ready for it and right now she was not ready. "C-can I just get my luggage right now."
Sonic tightly embraced Amy, tears were running down both of their faces. "Where were you? Why did you leave? Why didn't you come to me if you had any problems? I was worried sick that,that someone took you, or even worse!"
Amy broke down at that point, she was bawling her eyes out and crying loudly "I'm-I'm-I'm SO-SORRY!" the two were making a scene, but Amy was at a point of no return with her tears. Her gut was hurting so much after being found out, but her heart had felt relieved to have finally talked to Sonic again after these past couple of years.
"Here, let's go someplace more secluded, I think the paparazzi might be headed their way." Sonic lifted Amy off her feet to make sure she never ran again.
"W-wait! I need my luggage case!" Amy adjusted her sunglasses to hide her puffed up eyes, Sonic let her back down and she started walking to the Help desk where they had the unclaimed luggage.
Amy took Sonic to her hotel room, she ordered some tea through room service along with some tiny pastries. She had asked Sonic not to ask any questions, it was hard enough on her to leave, it was even harder trying to come back, he understood this and sat down at the chair closest to the window.
"I-I couldn't handle it anymore" Amy couldn't handle the awkward silence anymore. "The whole thing with Infinite just broke me. I-I wasn't thinking much when I left honestly. I just needed to get away from it all."
"Then why didn't you come to me or Tails or anyone else?" Sonic looked away hiding his slightly tipped off face.
"Like I said I wasn't thinking. Seeing my home in shambles, it was like the final nail in the coffin. I know I could usually handle myself for the first time, I was just under constant stress every single day."
Sonic looked at Amy "I guess… I can understand that. Infinite wasn't easy, none of us really got out of it the same way."
Amy was glad he understood her "Yeah… I think what I really needed was to talk to someone, but at that moment it was hard to think about that. I'm really sorry for not talking with anyone, I just kept trying to escape the situation that I lost track of time, I felt too ashamed to go back, I made you guys worry too much and to me I thought you guys didn't need to see me again and relive those feelings." Amy started to cry again, she cried to much today she didn't think she could cry anymore.
"Well I can't blame you for wanting to change your life up, I gotta ask though...are you planning on being a designer or whatever for the rest of your life?"
"I really enjoy fashion and design, but to be completely honest I really miss the adventures of running around and saving people. But at this point I wonder if it's even possible to go back. I haven't touched my hammer in years" Amy laughed to reduce the tension in the air.
Sonic stayed quiet for a moment to put his next words carefully. "I won't lie but, I hope you can join us in adventures again, I kinda miss having you in them."
Amy's face grew red like her name, she was blushing madly, did she hear him correctly? She hopes she did. "I-I uhhh I miss the adventures too, maybe after this trip I'll try to pick up my hammer again."
Sonic's ears perked up, but tried to hide his enthusiasm "G-great! Just any time let me know when you need help with that, I'll help you train again if you need it!"
Amy giggled, she hadn't felt this great in years. All of her worries and anxieties almost vanished at that instant. If she had talked to any of her friends sooner she could've avoided year's worth of sleepless nights.