Amy's Choice
Chapter One - Tarot Cards and Predictions
It was a warm sunny morning outside Amy Rose's bedroom window. The sky was blue, the children were playing and the birds were in full song. In all it was a beautiful day but Miss Rose, paid no attention to the quaint scene. She had no intention of leaving her house until an important task had been completed, until she had answered her most vital questions and discovered the day's secrets.
She placed the pack of tarot cards before her and smiled. It was like greeting an old friend who she hadn't spoken to in a long time. Since the cards had guided her to the miracle planet and her very first meeting with Sonic, she had completely forgotten about them. They had remained in the purple silk string bag under her bed for months.
She dusted off the white box decorated with a single red rose in the centre and two large arches in red and blue surrounding it. The cards rattled pleasantly inside as she shook them and finally flipped open the lid. She let the cards fall into her open palm, feeling their weight. Flexing the cards back and forth she focused on the shuffling. The cards were quite big and she'd always had difficulty moving them around with her small hands. She slid the cards over the top of one another, separated, patted and twisted the pack into shape, jumbling them thoroughly.
When content she plucked seven cards from the pack and spread them across the floor in a horse shoe arrangement. Now she was finally ready to begin. Turning over the first card revealed a light blue background with seven goblets standing in a row,
"The Seven of Cups," she read out loud, "an important decision has to be made; however, there are many options to choose from. Make your decision carefully, for all is not as it seems hmm."
This was a pretty standard card, open to all sorts of interpretation. She couldn't hide her disappointment she had expected something more specific, but there were still six cards left. Plenty of clues still left to be found, she flipped over the next card.
This was the Page of Pentacles describing usually a conscientious person, thrifty and capable. Someone who had little money but splendid prospects - a student with a sense of duty. The image of a certain two tailed fox crept into Amy's mind. So she was to bump into Tails today? Yet again nothing out of the ordinary so on she went to the next card.
The next card depicted two swords crossed over - the meaning?
"A friendship at a time of adversity. An ally upon whom you can depend," Amy paid this card a little more attention, "… a decision has to be made logically, but there are no clues as to which direction to take. A balance between two equally matched opponents. A duel."
She felt the need to be slightly cautious, a duel with Eggman wasn't anything special. Sonic and Eggman had been sworn enemies and fighting duels for many years. The dependable ally business was intriguing so she decided to turn over another card. This time the card showed a woman opening a lion's mouth! The background was dark green. The woman looked fearlessly down the lion's throat, her hands with a firm grip around its neck.
"Strength, physical strength, courage defeating mean attitudes and hatred," She shrugged turning to the next card. "The Knight of Wands; an energetic warrior, he has a hasty personality and is quick to love or hate?" She laughed out loud there was only one echidna that could fit that description so very well.
Two cards remained and so far she knew that she could possibly be meeting Knuckles and Tails today probably having a fight with Eggman and using their strength to defeat him. Amy began to wonder if she was out of touch. Her busy life as a freedom fighter hadn't left much room for practise. Perhaps it would be best if she quit the tarot for good.
The second to last card showed a tall dark haired young man. Amy instantly took notice she knew this card very well. She had first seen it the day she met Sonic for the first time in person. She grinned broadly whilst reading,
"The Knight of Swords, an eloquent and confident person who is fast-moving and easily bored. He can be impetuous and is the type who breezes into one's life and then just as swiftly breezes out again." She sighed how very true it was.
This was enough to bring Amy to her feet. Sonic was going into battle with Eggman and since Tails and Knuckles would be around for the action she had the sudden urge to be there too. She hauled open the door and ran outside into the bright sunshine. As the door slammed shut behind her the cards scattered around the room. The gust of air had also flipped over the final card leaving it abandoned and unread in the centre of the carpet.
Meanwhile the Knight of Swords sorry, Sonic the Hedgehog was busy doing what he loved above all else, running as fast as he could. The Green Hill, Marble and Spring Yard Zones whizzed by in a single blur. He could make the full Mobian tour in roughly half an hour, every nook and cranny in every zone. Over the years Sonic had discovered the planet's landmass seemed to be expanding. There was always somewhere new to explore and Eggman had the extremely fortunate talent of finding new places for his operations. Eggman had Sonic to stop his plans and Sonic had Eggman to find new running tracks what a fantastic relationship!
He felt the wind rushing against his face and washing over his streamlined quills. He pounded his feet into the ground, forcing himself to travel faster until the familiar sound of a sonic boom exploded in his ears. Waterfalls, trees, houses and people disappeared from view. Sonic wanted a harder workout so he headed for the beach keeping as comfortably away from the water as possible. He leapt from one sand dune to another whipping the sand into a storm and smothering the outraged sun bathers on the beach.
"SORRY!" He tried to shout back but the wind was snatching away his breath.
He slowed down a little to write his name in the sand with his feet, he stopped to admire his work and then laughed with delight.
He took off again this time towards the Emerald Hill Zone, he wanted some loops to spin around. Curling into a ball he spun around the large structure several times before letting himself take off towards the skies. He opened out and manoeuvred himself towards the course of Mobius strips lined up in a row. Like a corkscrew he followed the path around and around, twisting and turning.
Next to Leaf Storm for some trick practise Sonic wasn't even feeling slightly tired. He jumped onto the vines and tried some new moves to add to his break dance routine.
Some robots he'd left behind on a previous visit joined him on the vine sliding down a steep slope. They fired homing missiles towards the hedgehog. Rather than worry Sonic winked at them and performed a series of astounding not to say reckless acrobatics to keep from harm's way. He somersaulted backwards over the robot's heads and landed on the vine perfectly. He maintained his balance and accelerated towards them. The robots turned aware that the homing missiles were still behind their target but were now actually heading for them as well!
Sonic fell from the vine with the explosion blasting behind him. He grabbed onto the nearby star gimmick that had once led to the special zone. He had been falling with such speed that he thought the gimmick was never going to stop spinning around. This was worse than the waltzes at the Mobian Summer Fair he felt a little sick now. When the handle came to a stop he opened one eye and looked about him. The ground was mere inches below him he grinned slightly embarrassed and let himself drop.
He was feeling quite hungry now and so decided to rejoin slow civilization for a hotdog and fries. Just before he was about to speed away he heard rumbling coming from above. It sounded like the propellers of a plane, Sonic squinted to look further into the distance and sure enough a black dot at 12.00 was growing increasingly larger. He saw the blue bodywork and the words 'Tornado' painted along the side. As the plane swooped lower Sonic spotted Tails making frantic hand gestures to climb aboard. He did so with a running leap and held on tight to the left wing.
"We've had a broken transmission from the floating island!" Amy suddenly piped up she'd concealed herself in the backseat before Tails had taken off. Since the tarot cards had mentioned Tails first she had started her search for Sonic there.
"It was definitely Knuckles on the other end of the radio Sonic," Tails explained, "but it kept breaking up! I heard the word help mentioned at least twice and the master emerald but I've no idea what's going on up there. I thought you might want to take a look."
"Read my mind buddy. We better check on chuckles just in case and at the same time we can have a race around the floating island. This is going to be great!"