Power Enriched by the Heart, a sonic the hedgehog fanfic

PROLOGUE

"Sonic! Look at this!"

Sonic raced over to his search partner, Amy Rose, and saw what she meant. It was a heavy duty looking security hatch with an Eggman insignia on it. It was on the forest floor, covered by a bunch of leaves and grass and such. Hhmm. Sonic wondered. I bet this leads to Eggman's secret base! Finally!

"Hey, look! The energy detector Tails gave us is picking something up! And it's coming from down there!"

"Yeah!" said Amy enthusiastically. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the walkie-talkie set they'd been given. She set the dial to the frequency Tails had told them to contact the others on and held down the talk button.

"Hey you guys, I think we've found something!"

It took to a count of five for the others to answer.

"What is it?" a slightly garbled voice asked. It was deep, so Amy figured it was Knuckles.

"It looks like a door with an Eggman symbol on it! We also picked up some Chaos Emerald energy on the other side. It's faint, but we think this is where the Emerald is!"

"Nice work, Amy! You, too, Sonic! We'll be over soon!" This time, it was Tails who spoke.

Maybe we should just go in real quick, just to check it out. Amy thought. But what if you don't make it back? She answered herself. She thought over it a bit longer then decided to ask Sonic what he thought.

"Well…" Sonic said hesitantly. I guess it couldn't really hurt, right? He thought over it for a moment more. He decided the others might take a bit longer coming over, so he told Amy it'd be ok.

They searched around a bit, finding nothing that might open the door. They tried talking to it, asking it nicely to open, threatening it, and even knocking. No luck. Sonic, being the impatient hedgehog he is, was about to give up, when he saw a little red light coming from underneath a pile of leaves next to the door. He went up to it and brushed the leaves off with his foot.

Not realizing that the light might be from an access board, he accidentally pressed something on it with his foot and the light turned green. He gasped, then the door flew open and he and Amy fell through.

"Ahhh!" Amy screamed as she fell, clinging to Sonic. He himself was a bit worried, too, so he didn't stop her. In fact, but he didn't say it out loud, it kinda felt good having Amy's warm person next to his. It even reminded him of that night she had taken care of him after his battle with Shadow, and how she was so… so nice. Wow. Sonic thought. Did I just think what I think I did? He looked down. Well, up was more like it, since he was falling upside down. He saw a metallic gray surface heading towards them very quickly.

"Look out!" he yelled. He thought of spinning into a ball to soften the landing, and then realized he had someone clinging to him, so that wouldn't work. He was running out of time, so he flipped over and made it so he was falling first. He also wrapped his arms around Amy so she wouldn't fall off him. He stared into her frightened eyes. Man, He thought to himself. Here I am not saying anything to her, and she thinks we're going to die.

"We'll be alright, Amy." He said to her, attempting to calm her. The look in her eyes started to vanish, but then she saw the ground approaching and noticed how Sonic had flipped himself so he would hit it, not her.

"Sonic, look out! The ground!" he nodded and shut his eyes and clenched his teeth. WHAM! A loud crash echoed through the base as Sonic hit the ground. He hadn't opened his eyes, but his grimace showed the landing hurt. His previously protective arms flopped to the ground and his vision went red for a second.

Amy quickly hopped off him and helped him up.

"Sonic, are you ok?" She asked, worried he was badly injured, which, by the way Sonic felt, he was.

"Yeah..." he replied groaning. The landing had been much more painful than he imagined it would be. He looked behind himself and saw that a big dent lay where he had hit the ground. He winced, and checked his back with his hand, all the while Amy checking him, too. He didn't hurt much, and he couldn't tell if anything was damaged on the outside, but his right hamstring was pulsing with mild pain. He stretched it, and noticed a little fragment of metal was stuck in the back of his leg, with a little red liquid coming out at the tip of the metal.

He braced himself and then yanked it out. He flinched. Amy did, too. The cut was bleeding a bit more now, so he asked Amy for something to tie around it. She willingly obliged and helped Sonic dress the wound. Once they finished, Amy spotted a door at the end of a hallway. She and Sonic approached and, finding yet another access panel, Sonic just spin-dashed through the door, motioning for Amy to follow.

Now inside, they continued walking for what seemed like forever. They would walk, hit a trap, break it, walk, dead end, turn around, walk, door again, spin-dash, walk etc. Eventually, the Chaos Energy Reading device started going crazy. They walked through the door ahead of them as it went wild. Then, much to their surprise, it blew up! They wondered why it had done that then saw that a certain fat evil scientists had just put a Chaos Emerald in a large gun on a walker. He hopped into the walker and, upon entering the vehicle and activating it, he saw the two hedgehogs at the entrance to the test grounds.

"Why Sonic! It's so nice to see you again! You and your friend are just in time!"

"Oh yeah ,Egghead? In time for what?"

"For the first test of my latest creation! A Rapid fire, supercharged laser cannon! Powered on TEN Chaos Emeralds!" Ten?! There are only seven! But what if…

"Oh, you noticed I said ten, did you? I actually have that annoying little pest Tails to thank for it! I analyzed the fake Chaos Emerald he had made for you to give to me on the space colony ARK and made clones of my own!"

"You'll never get away with it, Eggman!" With that Sonic began to run up the wall and tried to homing-attack the cannon, but he couldn't get nearly enough speed because of his wounded leg. He ran even faster, but the cannon had already fired. FFFZZT! Sonic jumped up to dodge the blasts, but one caught him in the left shoulder.

"Gah!" he fell back and landed next to Amy, who was still getting over that Sonic had been hit. When she registered where he landed, she gasped at the now smoking black burn on his shoulder. She helped him up and glared maliciously at Eggman.

"How dare you hurt my SONIC!" She screamed and charged Eggman with her hammer. "No, Amy!" Sonic weakly reached for her, but it was too late. Upon lifting the hammer up to smash Eggman, she exposed her torso and the gun fired at her. ZZZAAAP!

"AAaah!" She yelled as she was hit square in the sternum with the lasers.

"AMY!" Sonic screamed. He ran and caught her, but she was out. A huge blast mark resembling a caved in pile of ash was on her chest. Horrified, he set her down and checked her pulse. Still there. And she was breathing. Good. Sonic stood and turned toward the villain.

"You." He said in a vicious whisper. He ran full speed at Eggman, but still he fired the cannon. Sonic again dodged, only to be hit by three more lasers. Now he had a wound on his left shoulder, right ribs, left thigh and his lower back. He growled in frustration and started circling Eggman. Eggman was now too close to hit Sonic without hitting himself.

"Fine! If I can't shoot you, I'll just shoot your unconscious friend there." He aimed the cannon and fired.

"NOOOOOOOOOO!" Sonic ran as fast as he could to try and reach Amy. Time seemed to slow down as he raced the bolts to her. Of course, being the fastest thing in existence, he beat the lasers. He stood in front of Amy with his arms crossed in an X in front of him. Amy came to and just had time to see Sonic run in front of her and shield her.

"AAuuhhh!" Sonic fell to the ground next to Amy with a million new burns on him as Tails, Knuckles, Rouge and Cream broke through the door. First thing they saw was the same Amy did: Sonic shielding Amy as he was shot. They charged through the door, Tails and Cream running over to Sonic and Amy. Sonic, who surprisingly hadn't blacked out from the multiple blasts, now looked at Amy who looked at him. He reached his arm out to her and brushed her arm caringly.

Her faced seemed to ask him, why? Why did you do that for me? He had been wondering that himself, seeing as he could've just moved her and himself out of the way. The more they thought about it, the more they started to think the same thing. Just then the walker with the cannon exploded, thanks to Knuckles and Rouge. Sonic saw a big chunk of it flying at them and he shoved Amy with all his might to get her out of the way. He then tried to move himself out of the way, but was too late. Amy watched, horrified, as Sonic was crushed by the giant piece of metal.

"Sonic… Sonic… SONIC!" Amy screamed as she forced herself to stand and, with the extra help of adrenaline and Tails, lifted the metal off Sonic. After that, she fell to the ground on top of Sonic, too weak to stand. As the world faded away, she wondered, why had he done that for me? He could've just moved us both, but he sacrificed himself for me! Why? Then, all of the sudden, it all clicked. Sonic must like me to sacrifice him for me.

Sonic the Hedgehog likes me…

CHAPTER ONE…

BOOM! A sonic boom exploded violently, making the ground crack and the trees and other surrounding objects be thrown away from the burst. ffffFFFFFFFSSSSSSSssssssshhhhh! A blue streak flew away from the break in the sound barrier, hyper-fast legs kicking up the grass and dirt, and making the ground smoke.

"Wow, what a nice day!" The hedgehog said to himself and chuckled. "Sure hope everyone back home is safe!"

The Blue Blur sped away towards Station Square, where all his friends lived. Sonic the Hedgehog had just got back from stopping yet another evil (but flawed) scheme by Dr. Eggman, his arch nemesis. Eggman had tried to blow up Sonic by using a laser cannon powered by three Chaos Emeralds. He had managed to catch a bit of Sonic's right arm, along with most of the city, which resulted in Sonic getting mad and trashing the whole thing. He had also managed to snatch two of the Chaos Emeralds that powered the weapon.

Five minutes later, Sonic the Hedgehog arrives at his destination. And now comes the hard part. Hmph. Sonic then began racing all over the city. Almost the whole place was in ruins, mostly the center of it. After a bit of searching, he found a wall with a big smash mark in it. I don't remember this being here he thought. The others must've made a hideout while I was out beating ol' Egghead. Nice.

Sonic cautiously approached and looked inside. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but his ears were fine.

"Sonic! You're back!"

"Hey Ames! Tails! Sup Knuckles, Cream, hi, Rouge."

"Hi" they all answered. Now that his eyes had adjusted, Sonic could see where everyone was, and he also noticed that they all had some injury. He started helping Tails, who was the only one that WASN'T injured, tend to the others. When he got to Amy, however, it seemed she was tending him instead.

"Oh, Sonic, your arm!"

"I'm fine Amy, really."

"But… but… you're hurt, Sonic! It's huge!"

"Well, at least it's not bleeding, and besides, you're hurt more!"

He inspected Amy and found that she had a few scrapes and bruises, and one big burn across her right forearm. Sonic got some cloth he'd found on his way there and helped her dress the wounds. He noticed her flinch as she moved to reach and get more cloth.

"Amy, you ok?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm fine" she winced and Sonic noticed a bit of her dress missing in a big strip like she'd been sliced at. After convincing Amy to let him have a look, he saw it. A huge cut going across her side and a bit into her back. It had already stopped bleeding, but he could tell it still hurt her. Badly. He got some more cloth and covered the wound and tied it over her right shoulder, opposite the side of her body with the cut.

"Who… who did this to you, Ames?"

"…"

"Amy?" Sonic asked again.

"Shadow. Shadow did this to me."

A moment of silence passed between the group. Shadow was a very unpredictable guy. One moment he was your ally, kickin' butt with you. Next thing you know he's calling you a faker and launching you out into space to be blown up.

"Does it hurt bad?"

"Not… not really."

"Good." Sonic turned to the rest of the group. "I'm going to go get some food and supplies. Be right back"

Next second, BOOM! Nothing left of him but a cobalt streak. Now, where would a guy get food in a disaster stricken city? Sonic wondered. Maybe I should go check out the supermarket. Maybe it wasn't too destroyed. Ha. Sonic laughed at his thought. He soon came up on the store. Luckily, it wasn't too damaged, just a couple cracks and burns.

Sonic was about to enter when he felt a change in the air around him. He whipped around, but only managed to catch the kick to his face. He was shot back a bit. He looked up at the obviously hostile figure.

"Shadow!"

"Faker! You always manage to get in the way. You AND your little girlfriend."

"Sure. I gotta hand it to ya though. I almost didn't see that attack coming" He smirked. Sonic wondered what Shadow had used to cut Amy. He saw that Shadow had a knife strapped to his belt. I bet that's the one he used on Amy!

"GggrrrrAAAHH!" Sonic charged at Shadow, a sonic boom sounding off the beginning of the battle. He tried to punch him, but he caught it! Sonic kicked instead. He landed it on Shadow's chest. This knocked him back, and Sonic pounced on him and started punching. A few landed, but most he just dodged.

"How could you do this to us Shadow? Why'd you cut Amy!?" the punches kept flying. Finally Shadow caught one and threw Sonic behind him, and he landed on a jagged pile of rubble, cutting himself. He stood up groggily, but Shadow was a step ahead of him. He ran into Sonic and shoved him into the wall. Sonic fell down, and barely jumped out of the way as Shadow slammed the ground where Sonic had been laying.

"Because, Faker, she was interfering with my mission to eradicate all of your friends, by order of Dr. Eggman."

Sonic leaped angrily over Shadow and kicked him over. He started to run towards the store when Shadow tackled him from behind. He slid, scraping himself up in the process. He curled up and homing attacked Shadow, knocking him down. This time Sonic ran top speed into the store and slammed the door behind him. He then ran to where he knew the food isle was and started gathering stuff up in a bag he found. He also got medical supplies and such. He then burst through the door at around Mach 9, based on the fact that the store's front was now in scattered fragments.

He had made it far enough that he could see their hideout now, and Sonic thought he had made it, when a yell came from behind and he was knocked forward in to the hideout opening, now very injured from sliding through glass, rock and metal. The group thought he'd done it when Shadow ran over and yanked Sonic outside again. Sonic yelled "Ugh, catch!" and threw the bag to Amy and Tails, who were watching at the opening, dumbfounded and horrified.

Shadow put Sonic in a head lock, then tried to throw him down, but he escaped his grasp and threw an uppercut, but Shadow dodged. Sonic grabbed up a jagged rock and got ready to throw. Shadow took this pause while Sonic picked it up to kick his feet out from under him. Dazed, Sonic rolled over off his face and threw it at Shadow, and at the same time Shadow picked Sonic up by the feet and threw him. Both attacks worked, the rock hit Shadow in the face, after he threw Sonic, so hard he shot up ward and fell back down, unconscious, while Sonic landed in front of Amy and Started to black out.

"Ugh… Amy… T-Tails… hurry… you have to… take the others and… go to a dif-ffrent hiding place. Hurry!"

"But Sonic, w-what about you?!" Amy was crying.

"I'll be fine, Ames, calm-ah- down. I just.. gah… gotta… huff… m-make it…uh…"

"I won't let you!" With that Amy picked up her injured hero and the bag of food and medical gear, and took off. Tails woke Rouge and Knuckles and told them to follow Amy quickly. He then grabbed up Cream and her Chao, Cheese, and flew off behind Amy. He sure hoped Sonic was ok. That fight was brutal. Knowing Sonic, he probably would be. He just hoped Shadow didn't catch up with them first.

CHAPTER TWO…

After an hour of nonstop running/flying, they arrived at Amy's planned destination: Tails' workshop. She went in and carefully set Sonic down on the upstairs bed, and started going through the stuff he got to see if anything might help him. She was worried. Really. Sonic hadn't even moved since being thrown by Shadow, except for talking.

"Aha! Found it!" she exclaimed and pulled out what she needed: a roll of gauze and cloth. She carefully lifted him up and started tending his wounds like he had hers. Once she had finished, she looked around and, finding no other place to sleep and knowing that the others took all the down stairs stuff, she cautiously lay next to Sonic.

She was very careful as to not disturb her wounded hero. As she laid there she thought over the battle Shadow and Sonic had. Sonic was very injured when the fight began, and he still managed to fight. She was surprised. The next moment Sonic did something that surprised her even more. He stretched his arms out and held Amy even closer to him.

"Thank you… Amy." He said and she noticed him curling up around her to keep her warm. She blushed deeply. Wow! She thought. Sonic the Hedgehog is actually snuggling with me! Amy smiled and softly put her hands on his. She noticed again the deep burn he had on his arm. She covered it gently and whispered, "You're welcome." And with that they both fell asleep.

"Wake up, you guys!" Tails yelled at them from the door way. The two got up, and Amy realized that in her sleep she had turned towards Sonic and curled up. She blushed again and got up. She yelped a bit while stretching because of her side wound.

"What's wrong Ames?"

"Hmm? Oh, nothing, it's just the cut from Shadow."

"K. You sure you're alright?" Sonic asked again, and she could see the worry in his eyes.

"Yeah. I'm good." She smiled. She turned and walked down stairs. She greeted Knuckles and Rouge who, much like her and Sonic last night, were snuggling, but on the couch. She saw Tails beckon her into the garage and she followed. She heard Sonic gasp loudly upstairs.

"You ok Sonic?" She asked from down stairs.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Thanks, Ames." He smiled, even though no one could see it. Man. He thought. Now that I think about it, Amy is pretty awesome as a friend. Always looking out for everyone, especially me. And she's cuddly. He laughed aloud at his thought, however true it was.

Amy continued after Tails and saw the X Tornado hanging on suspension cables, the underside open and a bunch of electronic equipment lying around. She heard Tails describing the upgrades he was hoping to add, but that they needed more power than power rings. Amy remembered how Sonic had come back with two Chaos Emeralds.

"I know, Tails! We can try out the Chaos Emeralds Sonic brought back from his battle with Eggman!"

"That's a great idea!" Tails agreed. "I'll get working on the new engine so it can handle that much power!"

"'Kay! I'll go ask Sonic where he put the Emeralds." Amy rushed back upstairs. She found Sonic gently rubbing his wounds while sitting on the bed. She walked in and sat next to Sonic and leaned slightly on him.

Sonic blushed a little at this, then asked, "How ya holdin' Ames?"

"Great. You?"

"Same. More or less." He chuckled. Amy explained to him what Tails was planning on doing and he said it'd be awesome, but that he "kinda, sort of, left them at their last base."

"Well that's ok! You and I can go get them."

"Well… ok Amy. Let's go!" Sonic picked up Amy and held her in his arms like the groom would his bride, and then took off towards Station Square for the Chaos Emeralds.

Upon arriving they saw that their previous hide out was empty, and Sonic then remembered the last person to be here.

"Aah. I bet Shadow has them now."

"Wha?"

"It's alright though, Ames. I'll do better this time around."

"But Sonic! You're still healing! What if you aren't good enough and and…"

"Yes, Amy?"

"And what if you… you die." The last part came out barely audible. Sonic could tell this girl really did love him, and the thought of him dying scared her to death. Sonic reached out and embraced the now crying hedgehog. He held her for quite a while, the whole time telling her encouraging stuff to try and calm her down.

"Why would I die on you?" Sonic whispered lastly, and then clutched Amy a bit tighter. This cheered her up more, and she stopped sniffling. Sonic slowly released her, and suggests that the two go up on a skyscraper to get a better view. Amy agrees, and Sonic scooped her up again.

He dashed around, careful not to turn so suddenly as to discomfort his "passenger". After about five minutes of searching around, the two found what they were looking for: a mostly intact skyscraper that towered above the rest.

"Ready, Ames?"

"Yep!" she replied, still enthusiastic and not really disheartened by her earlier thought, however frightening to her it was. SSSHHHOOOMMM! Not even a second later they were on top of the building, looking for a red and black hedgehog.

After about forty minutes of looking, Amy suggested they look through the town on the ground, to get a closer look. Sonic was, at first, a bit worried that Amy and he would be ambushed and she would get hurt. After a moment of her pestering, Sonic finally obliged, scooped her up again, and took off down the building. This event brought back memories. Good memories. Of better times.

Once they reached the ground, Sonic slowed down to subsonic speeds so they could get a better look. After a few minutes of searching, Sonic again sensed a movement in the air and immediately set Amy down.

"What is it So-"Her sentence was cut short by the extremely powerful kick delivered by the black hedgehog to Sonic's chest. He flew back, spinning, and landed on Amy who, terrified, held him close and brought out her hammer.

"Why you little…"Amy brought down the hammer on Shadow's head then kicked him in the gut.

"How dare you even think of harming my little Sonic!" She carefully lay down Sonic and stood up to face the fuming enemy. She screamed at him then threw her hammer at his face, using his confusion at her extreme outburst to get an advantage over him. She made contact, jumped, caught the hammer then flew downward and slammed it down on Shadow. He fell unconscious and she then retrieved the two Chaos Emeralds from him. Amy then picked Sonic up and ran as fast as she could.

She made it to an unrecognizable building, far from where Shadow was, and quickly stowed herself and Sonic inside. She lie down against a corner and set Sonic down in her lap. She looked at his handsome unconscious face and then, slowly, laid her own head on his. Oh Sonic! She thought. You're so brave and selfless. I wish you were awake now, with me. Sonic must've been thinking the same thing, as at that very moment, he came to and saw Amy's tired face on his.

"Wow." He whispered once he saw her.

"What is it?" Amy asked innocently.

"Your face. It's just so… caring. And… and…"

"Yes, my Sonic?"

"And pretty." He whispered into her ear softly. With that he lay his head back down into her lap and stared into her surprised eyes. He winked at her, then went back to sleep in her lap. Amy was shocked. Did Sonic just say I look pretty? I must be dreaming. Oh what a nice dream! She thought, even though she knew she wasn't asleep. She lay her head again softly against his and fell asleep.

CHAPTER THREE…

Amy awoke first this time, and noticed that she had shifted a lot in her sleep. She was now perpendicular to Sonic and she had her arms around him. He was similar, but one of his hands was going through her head quills, while the other clutched her next to him. She decided then and there that she was not going to wake Sonic up.

She then tried to go back to sleep, when her brave hero woke up. He was a little confused at first, but then he looked up at Amy's blushing, content, face and decided to relax too. After about three hours of just enjoying each other's comfort, Sonic softly suggested that they continue on home, when they noticed a gold streak fly past the store they were in.

Sonic, upon realizing what it was, pulled Amy closer to himself and put on his cautious face.

"What is it Sonic?" Amy asked.

"Shadow. He just barely missed us. Hurry, get behind the shelf, Ames!" He softly shoved her behind it and hid there himself. About every five minutes he would peak out and see if Shadow was there. Every time he checked, it was clear. He figured Shadow was long gone, and helped Amy stand up and picked her up, getting ready to go.

"Ready, Ames? After all, I'm gonna have to go really fast to avoid him."

"Okay, Sonic!"

He picked her up, this time holding her closer to himself and told her to prepare herself. Then he did the biggest boost he'd ever done and blew up all the nearby objects within fifty feet. He leaned slowly more downward as to increase his aerodynamicness and achieve a greater speed. Once he got out of the city area he knew the way was clear, so he looked down at Amy, and saw her excited expression as he went from supersonic speeds to hypersonic speeds.

No sooner than two minutes had passed, he saw Tails' workshop ahead and started to slow down. He had to turn sideways and shove his feet into the ground to slow down enough not to hit the building. He then set Amy down, and asked if she was alright.

"Yeah, I'm fine, Sonic. I loved it!" Man, that Amy. Sonic thought. She can handle anything! And she's all about me. I just hope I don't get her hurt bad or anything. He then asked her if she'd gotten the Emerald's back. She said yeah and then motioned for Sonic to follow her to the garage to show Tails.

"Wow! Nice work you guys!" Tails exclaimed as the two showed him the gems. "I can't wait to show you guys the upgrades I added!"

"Hey, I know! How about we all take a short ride in it, ya know, now that it's all amped up and all!"

"Oooh! Great idea, Sonic!"

"Thanks, Ames."

They all hopped in, Sonic standing on the back near the engine since all the seats where taken. "Besides," He'd said when Amy offered him her seat. "I like it up there." Now that everyone was situated, Tails opened up the runway, and fired up the jet.

"Hold on tight!" he yelled as they took off. After they got a few hundred feet up in the air, Tails pressed the transform button, and warned Sonic to jump so he wouldn't be caught in the moving pieces. He did, and the view of the transformation was wonderful.

The wings folded back, and the tips split horizontally and the top and bottom spread out. The small little rudder-like winglet at the back of the plane popped up, enlarged itself, and a huge engine appeared underneath it. The nose cone popped forward and the propellers folded up inside it. Then the entire body of the plane split into multiple sections, and then the empty areas between them were filled by more plane body that just popped up. To finish it all off, a few intake vents came out from under the nose cone to fill that space as well.

Sonic landed on the now humongous hyper jet and Tails gunned it. They shot off, flying at speeds only at competition with Sonic the Hedgehog. They flew over the entire Station Square in less than two seconds. They then landed in a nice looking area in the middle of nowhere. They settled down and all of them, being tired as they were from their work, laid down immediately and fell asleep.

Once Tails fell asleep though, Amy stopped pretending to be asleep and scooted over to Sonic and snuggled with him. He was obviously out, but he chuckled then muttered something like, Amy.

She blushed, then wrapped her arms around him and laid her head on his neck. He chuckled again, then brought his hands up sleepily and set them on her back. She giggled, then, started to fall asleep.

"A-my! So-nic!" Tails said embarrassed at what he found them doing when he awoke. They had their hands on each other and were curled up around each other. They both sat up slowly, and then saw something even worse then what they were doing.

"Look! Tails! The X Tornado!" Sonic pointed at the super jet that now had a smoking hole through it.

"Huh...WHAT THE!?"Tails saw the damage and ran up to it to check it out.

"NO! The Chaos Emerald I used to power it is gone!"

"That's not good. Well, why can't you just use the other one?"

"Well, Amy, to tell you the truth, I used the other one to power the workshop's life support and security systems."

"Oh. Well, we could just go and get it again." Sonic suggested. "Here, one moment, I'll go ask the others for help."

The next moment he was gone and a long blue trail streaked out into the distance towards Tails' Workshop. Four minutes later Sonic returned saying, "They're up for it. They suggest we get a move on. Knuckles says he can still sense it, but it's moving fast towards Mystic Ruins."

"Okay then, let's go, Sonic!" He picked up the pink hedgehog and then motioned for Tails to come, too. He then shot off, moving so fast that the dust shot up twenty feet into the air. He shortly arrived at the workshop, Tails in tow. After a quick rest, the gang got some walkie-talkies and Tails passed out some devices he said could detect Chaos energy, though Knuckles passed, saying he could feel their power better than anything. They then got into pairs. Tails chose Cream and Amy Sonic, so Knuckles and Rouge had to pair up, too. They all chose their own way of getting there, Sonic running, Knuckles, Rouge, Tails, Cream and Cheese flying. They all get ready, then, set off to get back their Chaos Emerald.

CHAPTER FOUR…

"Sonic! Look at this!"

Sonic raced over to his search partner and saw what she meant. It was a heavy duty looking security hatch with an Eggman insignia on it. It was on the forest floor, covered by a bunch of leaves and grass and such. Hhmm. Sonic wondered. I bet this leads to Eggman's secret base! Finally!

"Hey, look! The energy detector Tails gave us is picking something up! And it's coming from down there!"

"Hey you guys, I think we've found something!"

It took to a count of five for the others to answer.

"What is it?" a slightly garbled voice asked. It was deep, so Amy figured it was Knuckles.

"It looks like a door with an Eggman symbol on it! We also picked up some Chaos Emerald energy on the other side. It's faint, but we think this is where the Emerald is!"

"Nice work, Amy! You, too, Sonic! We'll be over soon!" This time, it was Tails who spoke.

"Well…" Sonic said hesitantly. I guess it couldn't really hurt, right? He thought over it for a moment more. He decided the others might take a bit longer coming over, so he told Amy it'd be ok.

Amy quickly hopped off him and helped him up.

"Sonic, are you ok?" She asked, worried he was badly injured, which, by the way Sonic felt, he was.

Now inside, they continued walking for what seemed like forever. They would walk, hit a trap, break it, walk, dead end, turn around, walk, door again, spin-dash, walk etc. Eventually, the Chaos Energy Reading device started going crazy. They walked through the door ahead of them as it went wild. Then, much to their surprise, it blew up! They wondered why it had done that, then, saw that a certain fat evil scientists had just put a Chaos Emerald in a large gun on a walker. He hopped into the walker and, upon entering the vehicle and activating it, he saw the two hedgehogs at the entrance to the test grounds.

"Why Sonic! It's so nice to see you again! You and your friend are just in time!"

"Oh yeah ,Egghead? In time for what?"

"For the first test of my latest creation! A Rapid fire, supercharged laser cannon! Powered on TEN Chaos Emeralds!" Ten?! There are only seven! But what if…

"AAaah!" She yelled as she was hit square in the sternum with the lasers.

"Fine! If I can't shoot you, I'll just shoot your unconscious friend there." He aimed the cannon and fired.

Sonic the Hedgehog likes me…

CHAPTER FIVE…

"Amy!" Sonic yelled when he woke up. He was sweating. He looked around a minute, clearly confused at where he was, and then he noticed the whiteness of the walls and the styles of the beds he was in. I must be in a hospital. He thought. But the one in Station Square was destroyed. I must be in a one further away from there.

"Amy? Guys?" Sonic tried to sit up, but he immediately regretted it. He yelped loudly and looked down at his wrapped up body. He remembered the night before when he saved Amy three times from Egghead's laser gun.

He looked over to his right and finally spotted what he had been looking for. Amy. He lay back down and reached over to her and held her unconscious hand. He blushed and tilted his head to look over her injuries. She was mostly ok, so that meant that they had been in there for a long enough period of time for her to heal mostly.

"Uhh… huh?" Amy slowly came to and was a little freaked out about her surrounding like Sonic had been. Sonic gently rubbed her hand with his thumb and said, "Hiya Ames. You alright?" Amy looked taken aback a bit at his being there, but got over it and then replied, "Yeah, mostly. But, where are we?"

"I think a hospital somewhere other than the one in Station Square."

"Oh." The two stared into each other's eyes for a while, and then Amy finally asked what had been bothering both her and Sonic since the incident at Eggman's secret base.

"Sonic?"

"Ya, Ames?"

"Why did you shield me at his base when I was about to be shot, instead of just moving both of us out of the way?" She stared at his almost loving face as she waited for an answer. Finally, Sonic replied.

"I-I think we both know the answer to that, Amy." He grabbed her closest arm with both his, wincing as he did, and held her hand tight. He stared into her forest green eyes and her his Jade. Amy thought over his statement a bit, trying to process what he had told her. Seeing that she was confused, he blushed and leaned close to her ear, again flinching from the pain.

"I… I love you, Ames." Sonic whispered into her ear, and then kissed her cheek. She opened her eyes wide in surprise, blushing the whole time. Did Sonic just say what I think he did? Did he say that he… he loved me? Amy was so involved in her thinking that she didn't even notice the nurse entering the room and coming over to her bed.

"Are you feeling alright today, miss?" The nurse asked.

"Huh? Oh, yeah I feel ok." Great now, actually. She thought as she looked at her lover's attentive face.

"Ok, that's great miss. You will be released now then. Safe travels." As Amy got up to go, the nurse turned to Sonic.

"And how are you, sir?"

Sonic chuckled. "Great! Thanks for taking care of us!"

"That's awesome sir! Your welcome! Since you both are feeling great, and you're mostly healed, I guess we'll be sending both of you home today! Be safe!" Sonic stood, careful not to show that it hurt to do so. He walked over to Amy's side and they walked out of the hospital together. Once they were out, Amy asked, "Sonic, why'd you lie to the nurse? I could tell that you're not completely ok."

"Because, Ames. I wanted to heal the rest with you." He smiled, and looped his arm around her waist, careful not to touch any of her wounds. She then blushed, and found her arm around his waist. Sonic turned his head towards her and winked. He was wondering where Tails and the others were, when he saw them walking out of the hospital in their direction.

Obviously not embarrassed at what they were doing, the two just turned to meet the others. Once they had caught up, they asked how they were feeling. Sonic replied, "We're good, thanks Tails."

"Ok, cool! I think it's about time we head back." This time Rouge spoke, letting go of Knuckles hand to point behind her with her thumb.

"'K." Sonic turned to Amy. "Ready to go?" He smiled. Amy nodded, so Sonic scooped her up and ran off towards Tails' workshop. Upon arrival (it took Sonic and Amy about seventeen seconds to get there) Sonic told Amy to meet him in the upstairs bedroom in a bit.

A while later, Amy came in and lay in the bed Tails had put next to Sonic's. She turned to face him, and she wrapped her hands around one of his. She saw him flinch and remembered that the arm she held was the one with the big burn on it. She repositioned her hands and asked Sonic why he had asked her to come up here. He smiled and replied, "I-I wanted to ask you something. Now, I know you've been looking forward to this for most your life, so…"

"Yes Sonic?" Amy asked. He blushed, and then continued.

"I was wondering if… if you would… ya know…"

"Yes?"

"If you would like to go out with me… tonight."

"I… I…" Amy was speechless. Here was Sonic, the crush of her whole life, asking her out on a date. She just stared at his nervous face, not saying anything. She was astonished.

"It-it's alright if you don't wanna…"

"OH, SONIC! YES, YES, YES! FINALLY!" Amy answered immediately. Sonic was glad she was so pumped. In fact, he himself was pumped also. He was so happy, he almost leaned over and kissed her, but he stopped himself. He was going to save that for tonight.

After her accept, Sonic decided to just rest with her for a while. The couple lay there, enjoying each other's presence. They would talk, Amy would giggle at jokes by Sonic, and, eventually, they both fell asleep holding hands.

They awoke two hours later, but they didn't get out of their beds. They stayed and stared at each other. After a while, Amy suggested they get a move on before someone asked them to help or something. Sonic agreed, and they left, Sonic again holding Amy bridal style. He ran all the way to the other side of the planet, searching for a good place to have his first date.

At last, he spotted it. A huge mountain overlooking everything. He raced up its side, reaching the ledge he'd found in a second. He set Amy down, and sat next to her. He reached over and held her hand, then scooted closer to her and held her on his lap, his back against the mountain. Amy looked up into his dark green eyes, and smiled. Sonic looked away from the beautiful sunset to look at Amy, and saw that her face was even more awesome than the setting star. He gazed upon her in wonder. Why had I always pushed her away before? She's perfect. Maybe she just matured more. Or I did.

Soon it became dark, yet the couple had not left each other's gazes. Sonic saw that Amy had begun to shiver a tiny bit from the night air and height. He pulled her closer and curled up around her. She smiled and stopped shivering. The two held each other for what seemed like forever.

Suddenly, Amy frowned. Sonic asked, "What's the matter, Ames? You cold?"

"No, it's just… this seems so fake. All of it."

"Well, what do I gotta do to prove it isn't? I bet… this'll do the trick." Sonic pulled Amy's face closer and kissed her. He held her like this for a while, admiring Amy's flustered face as he kissed her. Soon, she started kissing him back, and the two curled up even more and didn't stop kissing for an hour. Once they had finished, Amy's face softened, and she kissed Sonic's cheek. He noticed how tired she looked, and he slowly shifted to cover her as she fell asleep, making her warm enough to do so.

He couldn't help but feel like this was what they were meant to do. Like, they were made for each other. Sonic took one last glance around and noticed how cold he was starting to feel. He gently picked Amy up, gave her a short peck on the cheek, and raced off towards their temporary home.

CHAPTER SIX…

Upon arriving home, the others saw that, even though they were out of the hospital, Amy and Sonic needed some more rest. They agreed, and both went upstairs, even though the other beds were open now. Sonic lay down on the soft bed and his eyelids started to droop. He could feel sleep slowly coming over him, but he fought it so he could wait for Amy. She was carefully removing some of her bandages to check her wounds.

Sonic saw that the cut on her side was still healing, and so were some of the burns from the laser fire. He sat up on the side of the bed and started removing his own wrappings to check on his wounds. Amy then finished and asked if she could help.

"Sure thing, Ames." Sonic smiled as she checked on the wounds he couldn't reach. His entire torso and most of his arms and legs were wrapped since he'd taken the blasts for Amy point-blank. Also, the first few blasts had made him spin a bit, so he was literally covered in burns. After checking all the wounds, which sadly looked far from being healed, they left most of the gauze on. Amy was about to remove most of hers, but Sonic stopped her.

"You'll be fine, Ames." He said. "Besides, they make you look sort of… hot." Sonic blushed at his last comment.

"Oh. They-they do?" Sonic nodded. Amy giggled and blushed.

Now finished, the two lay down in the adjacent beds. Amy looked over at Sonic and smiled. He smirked back and wrapped his hand around her's. His eyelids started to droop. So did Amy's. They looked at each other and shared a kiss before drifting asleep.

Sonic pushed Amy down and ducked behind the wall as another rock was chucked at him. He and Amy were hiding from Eggman and his new robot, which was now prying massive portions of a mountain off and throwing it at them. Sonic peeked cautiously over the wall and saw that the machine was busy extracting a new boulder to throw. He grabbed up Amy and ran towards the robot, hoping to catch it off guard.

He set Amy down and began attacking the mech. He tried spin-dashing into its feet, but nothing happened. He tried attacking the legs, but nothing. He then tried to homing attack the head, when it finished prying off the rock and kicked Sonic out of the way. He dodged and successfully landed the attack, but the robot had already thrown. He jumped away from the explosion and saw that the rock was hurtling towards Amy.

"No!" He exclaimed as he ran to try and save Amy. He kept pumping his feet, but realized he was stuck! He yelled at her, telling her to run, but she just looked up in fear as the rock came closer and closer. Finally Sonic was able to run, but it was too late.

"No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, NOOO!" He screamed and fell to his knees. "Amy… Amy! AMY!"

Sonic awoke in a cold sweat, clinging to Amy's sleeping hand as he remembered his dream of her death. He looked and saw that she was still here, and that it was only a night terror. He sighed and gazed gratefully over at her astonishingly beautiful face. He leaned over and kissed her and attempted to go back to sleep, when she woke up.

"You ok, Sonic?" She asked, worried. "I heard screaming."

"…"

"Sonic?"

"I-I'm alright, i-it was just a b-b-bad dream-m."

"You're sure? You don't look alright. What was it about?"

"I… no. I don't want to worry you." He said solemnly. Amy frowned and kissed his forehead.

"I want to know so I can make you feel better."

"I… ok." Sonic explained the dream to Amy, but at the part of her demise, he lost his voice.

"What's wrong, Sonic. What happened?"

"I-I couldn't run and-and-and…" Amy looked expectantly at Sonic's sorrowful face.

"And you were s-s-smashed. D-d-dead. All b-because of-f m-m-me. I wasn't quick en-nough."

"Oh…oh, Sonic! I-I'm so sorry for bothering you about it." Amy sat up and began to cry, but Sonic, now standing, leaned over and lifted her head up with his hand. He looked a moment into her beautiful eyes, then kissed her. She stopped crying, stood up too, and held him closer to her, kissing all the while. He reached around her and went through her head spines, slowly pulling her closer to him. The two broke apart after a few minutes of kissing, and saw that it was light outside.

"Well, I guess its morning now, huh Ames?" Sonic smirked and she nodded. The two kissed one last time before walking out of the room. Amy looked outside and, being as optimistic as she is, thought that day was going to be great. She jinxed it. Immediately after she thought that, she and Sonic both heard yelling and jostling coming from downstairs, and then a much louder explosion like crackling coming from above them.

They looked at each other and then simultaneously said, "Eggman!" Sonic ran to the door and flung it open, and ran down the flight of stairs towards the others. He barely had time to reach the bottom of the stairs when he heard a horrible screech of metal against metal, followed by a big CRACK and a gust of wind. He looked around and saw a huge hole in the wall where Knuckles and Rouge had been sleeping.

Outside of the hole there was a big bubble like field of energy slowly closing in on the workshop. The next second the field flickered and electricity arced all throughout the bubble. Amy stopped behind him and stared in frightened awe at what was happening.

"The whole place is being pulled apart!" Sonic exclaimed as another chunk of wall flew out into the energy field and was incinerated. He quickly looked around for the others and found them huddled in a corner. Why are they doing that? Sonic thought. He started to walk towards the opening to get a better view of what was happening, when Cream shouted, "No, Mr. Sonic! Don't!" but it was too late. A large tendril of electrical energy shot outward from the sphere and caught Sonic off guard, in the side of his chest.

He shot backwards, spinning, and landed with his body convulsing from the shock and his chest and gauze wrapping that were still there smoking. He grunted and managed to push himself up. He noticed that the wall of energy had closed in closer and was starting to electrify the inside of the hole in the wall.

As it closed in, Sonic realized what he had to do. He stood up shakily and turned towards Amy, who was now huddled up next to the others. He nodded and turned back to the wall of doom. He got into running position and the others realized what he was about to do.

"No, Sonic!"

"Don't do it, Sonic!"

"No, don't run at it, Sonic!"

"Mr. Sonic, please don't!"

"Chao chao!"

Amy was last to talk. "Sonic… please…no…"

"Sorry, Ames; I have to, for you guys." He winked and then shot off towards the shrinking mass of electricity. He was attacked by more arms of power as he left the room and ran towards it. He managed to stay on his feet and running, but barely. He started involuntarily to slow down, grunting and yelping from the pain. He had almost broken through the barrier when he heard a shout of disbelief from above.

He turned his head and saw Eggman looking down through the bubble mystified at Sonic's courage. He snorted and pressed a button on his egg-like ship and the energy field being projected from it shook as more electricity flew down it towards Sonic. Sonic opened his eyes wide in fear and tried to run away from it, but he was tired and the static electricity held him back. Desperately he looked towards the others and tried to smile.

He failed as the extra Taser boost got to him. His eyes shut themselves involuntarily and he fell to the ground, screaming in pain. He started shaking and contracting and felt himself start to black out. He fought it, slowly overcoming it, and managed to barely incline his head towards Amy and the others.

"Aaahhuuh! Gaah! R-r-run AAAH! Hurry! AAAAowww! GGRRAAAAH! S-save your-RRRAAAAUUuuuh-selves! Go-aaaahhh!"

He finally blacked out, but his body was still being electrocuted and still yelling. The field eventually passed over him, and his unconscious body continued contracting in pain while quietly grunting. The others looked at him desperately, before accepting that he was unconscious.

"No! Sonic!" Tails shouted.

"NO!" yelled Rouge and Knuckles simultaneously. Cream started crying and Cheese floated down, crying also. Amy was still frozen, staring horrified at Sonic's shaking body.

"No, Sonic, NOOOO!" Amy then too fell down and began to cry. The crying turned to screaming, and then she, as well as the others, heard a loud zapping noise as a huge tendril of electricity flew towards them and started shocking them like it had Sonic.

They obviously didn't have the strength of Sonic, as they passed out after a few seconds, all except for Tails, Knuckles and Rouge, who lasted at least a minute more. Eggman then shut off the field and snatched up all his captives and flew off towards his new base, chuckling with glee.

CHAPTER SEVEN…

"Huh…? Where are w- Sonic! Oh no, now I remember! Sonic! Are you alright?"

"What… the…? Oh, Sonic!" Tails and Amy were the first to wake after their short but painful torture session at the workshop. They noticed the burn spotted hedgehog as he lay still slightly convulsing at the entrance to their cell, which was obscured by prison-like bars. Amy crawled over to Sonic, as she was still in pain from the previous day. She carefully lifted him up by the chest and turned him over onto his back. She searched him for more injuries while doing this.

Amy only found one big laceration across his chest that was already scabbed over. However it did look very painful. This must be from him pushing at the barrier over and over and the first jolt he received. Amy thought. She checked the side of his neck for a pulse. She got one, but it was very faint and slow.

"Tails, come quick!"

"What is it Amy?"

"Sonic's still alive! He probably won't last much longer though, so we have to hurry!"

"Ok!" Tails quickly went through a mental list of anything that might help Sonic recover. I'd need some sort of a defibrillator to get his heart pumping steadily again. Now what in here can I use as a defibrillator? Tails looked around the room and found a large camera in one of the top corners of the cell.

"Ok Amy, I know what I need to do!" With that Tails jumped up and began hovering over to the camera. He floated above it, then sat on top of it and started ripping apart its connection to the wall. He pried it off, flew over to Sonic and Amy, and started ripping the camera apart. He detached all the casing and pulled out all the wires. Next he took some of the insulator off the wires' ends and tied them together, one end of the long rope of wires connecting to the camera's power supply line, the other end split into two other lines to use as paddles.

Tails knew that he would need more power for the construct to act as a real defibrillator. He went again through the guts of the hastily disassembled camera and found a large backup battery next to the inside of the camera's lens. He pulled it out and used the few spare wires he had left to connect it to the rest of the makeshift device.

After he had done so, he and Amy heard stirring behind them as the others woke up. Everyone had a few mild burns, but Sonic had so many he looked like a leopard. After a moment of confusion, the others realized too what had happened.

"We must been in one of Eggman's bases!" Rouge speculated.

"Yeah, I bet." Knuckles answered.

"Mr. Knuckles, Ms. Rouge, can you please help us with Mr. Sonic?" Cream asked shyly.

"Chao, chao chao." Agreed Cheese.

They stopped talking and rushed over to Tails, Amy, Cream and Cheese who were all kneeling or sitting next to Sonic's unconscious form. Amy had her head hanging over Sonic's and every now and then a tear would fall onto his face and slide down.

"Sonic… Sonic… Sonic…" Amy would quietly repeat his name every few seconds as she knelt crying over him. Tails finally finished the defibrillator and was about to use it on Sonic, when he noticed a control panel on the wall opposite to their cell.

"Cell 1: up and down. Cell 2: up and down. Cell 3: up and down. Cell 4: up and down. Cell 5: up and down. Huh. I wonder…" Tails said as he finished reading aloud the words on the panel and its buttons. I bet those up and down buttons for the cells make them retract into the ground and come out again. But for that to work a piston like mechanism must be attached to the bottom of the cells. And the piston's material is probably metal so…

Tails exited his thinking to tell the others what they had to do to survive the defibrillator's shock. He explained his theory on how the cells worked and how he was going to use there pistons and a grounder for the defibrillator. He also said that they should all hover a bit off the ground so they, too, don't get shocked. They agreed, and Rouge picked up Knuckles, and Cream picked up Amy. Tails then used his two namesakes and began hovering over Sonic as he prepared to revive him.

"Here we go!" Tails said hopefully as he quickly pressed the makeshift defibrillator's two paddles against the two sides of Sonic's chest. A large zap reverberated in the cell and his chest lifted a little with the paddles as Tails removed them. His body then flopped back down onto the floor and Tails said it was ok for them to land now.

The others touched down with Tails and they all ran up to Sonic's seemingly stabilized form. Amy again picked him up and set his upper back and head on her lap as she checked his exteriorly visible vitals. His pulse was now stronger and faster, as well his breathing. She beamed and, teary eyed, looked up at Tails.

"Thank you, Tails. Thank you so much! You saved him!"

Tails smiled, too, and nodded. Just then Sonic's eyes shot open and he gasped as he came to. Amy's eyes widened in joy and she smothered him in a hug.

"Huh? Where am-gah-I-wwaah! OOch! Amy, too tight!" Sonic exclaimed as his confused thoughts were interrupted by Amy's rejoicing at him being alive. She released him after a while and let him catch his breath.

"Phew, thanks Ames. And you, Tails, for reviving me. Now… to get out of here…" Sonic tried to sit up, but his chest wound stopped him. He yelped as he tried to sit, and Amy made him lay back down.

"I'm fine, Amy, really." Sonic argued. "I'm just… just slightly hurt, that's all."

"Sonic! You have a foot long rip in your chest if you haven't noticed! I'm keeping you lying down until you're ok!"

"But, Ames-"

"No. Lay down." Amy won the argument and Sonic kept his head in her lap. Tails and the others started looking for a way to get out, when the door on the far end of the room opened, and none other than Dr. Eggman walk out of it.

"Why hello, my pesky little enemies! I see you revived Sonic. It's really all too bad you did. I was hoping for him to die on Amy's lap." Eggman laughed evilly. Amy glared at him as he stepped forward, closer to the cell.

"I do, however, have an alternate method to exterminate Sonic. I present to you," Eggman stepped to the side to reveal his guest that followed him in. "Metal Sonic, version 3.0!"

"Uhh, not Metal again. That useless pile of scrap tin couldn't catch me if I was stuck in cement." The robot glared at Sonic and started moving forward. As it approached the cell bars, it simply phased through them, and continued walking up to Sonic and Amy.

Amy and the others gasped as Metal Sonic passed through the bars, but Sonic merely stared readily at it. He hopped up from Amy's lap, ignoring her shout of denial and his own pained grunt. He then came face-to-face with his metal copy, and the two stared each other down.

Metal then thrust out his fist towards Sonic in a punch, but he dodged and grabbed the extended arm, only to have it swung away from him. He told the others to stay out of the way, and he began running around Metal, though it was slower than normal and Sonic had a limp as he ran. Metal Sonic simply stared at him run for a while then he reached out and caught Sonic as he was running. He threw him in the air and jump kicked him into the wall.

"Whoa-aaaahh! Oomph!" Sonic grunted as he was tossed and kicked into the hard metal surface. He landed next to Tails, who was holding Cream protectively. Tails softly moved Cream and Cheese behind him and stood up in front of Sonic. Amy ran over and did the same. Sonic spin dashed between them and stood up in front of the trio. He waited for Metal to make his move.

He used his back booster to fly at Sonic and his friends, but Sonic also ran at him. The two clashed and were unable to make the other move, when Metal suddenly crouched down and did another jump kick, connecting his foot to Sonic's jaw.

Sonic flew upwards, spinning, hit the ceiling, and fell down in front of his adversary. He struggled to stand up, when Metal Sonic put his foot down on top of his back, and pushed him back down, crushing him in the process. Sonic continued trying to push himself up, but Metal kept him down. Suddenly Tails and Amy ran at the metal clone and started attacking it.

Amy was pounding away at Metal with her hammer, while Tails was attacking it from above. Amy then swiped its feet out from under it, and Sonic stood, jumped, and homing attacked the robot, punching a huge dent into its chassis.

Metal Sonic's eye lights were starting to go out, when his chest flung open and a huge cannon blasted Sonic, Tails and Amy off of it. They each landed next to each other, but Sonic was naturally the first to rise. The others stood up too, this time joined by Rouge, Cream, Cheese and Knuckles.

Metal slowly stood, and turned to face the gang of friends. Its hands opened, too, and more cannons came out of the openings. It began firing at all of them, and one stray laser burned off half of Dr. Eggman's mustache.

"Gaah!" The evil doctor exclaimed and ducked behind the wall to avoid more lasers, before running off into the safety of his base. The rest of the blasts, though, did not miss, but Sonic and his friends were ready. They all dodged the blasts and counter attacked in their own way. Sonic homing attacked, Tails lifted it into the air and threw it down hard, Knuckles punched it, Amy smashed it with her hammer, Rouge was kicking at it from above, and Cream was cheering the others on while her Chao, Cheese, was ramming itself into Metal Sonic's face over and over.

The red optic lights on Metal's face started to flicker and fade, then finally went out. The robot's chassis started to smoke as electricity enveloped the machine. The individual parts started to vibrate and shake as it began to blow up. Sonic and Tails, having fought this and all of Eggman's robots over and over, recognized what was happening and told the others to look out. They backed up against the far wall which was closest to the opening of the cell. Sonic and Tails then joined them, and when Metal Sonic finally exploded, Sonic ran towards the blast and started homing attacking all the big, sharp and quickly moving fragments. Although some of the smaller pieces made it past Sonic, his friends were able to dodge most of them. Tails had also, to protect the others from the shards, turned around so he was facing them and spun his namesakes like a fan to blow the shards back.

When the wreckage finally stopped flying everywhere, Knuckles suggested that they get out of there. Sonic agreed and tried spin-dashing the bars, but they wouldn't budge. He then tried homing-attacking them, but no luck either. Amy, upon seeing that the bars were "Sonic proof", pulled out her hammer and swung it at them. Not even a dent. Knuckles then tried punching it, to no avail, while Rouge flew at it and did a spin kick. No luck either. Tails tried also to break the bars, but even his technical approaches did nothing to the bars.

The team was getting desperate, and so was Sonic, so he tried spin-jumping the ceiling. He made a small dent, so he asked the others to help him. One by one the each performed their own attack, each blow dealing more and more damage to the barrier. Once Tails had said it was weak enough, Sonic simply jumped up and kicked it, and it broke through into a metal hallway much like the ones he and Amy had ventured through before discovering Eggman's Chaos Cannon. Sonic landed in it and announced the all-clear to the others. Tails and Rouge helped the others up through the hole.

Sonic then lead the way in the direction he hoped would take them out of the base. Eventually, it lead into a fork in the path, splitting three ways. They split up yet again, but this time Sonic chose Amy as his partner first. They went down the middle path, while Tails, Cream and Cheese took the right, and Rouge and Knuckles took the left. The plan was: search your path for a way out. If you couldn't find one within three hours (they all had watches), you would meet back up at the fork in the hall.

After a while of walking, Amy came upon a strange looking mark in the wall, and asked Sonic to come and check it out. Though he examined it he did not recognize it. He thought over it more and still did not come up with an explanation for what it meant. He told Amy that he had no clue about what it was. It had a strange avocado like shape with a vertical line through it and a single dot on one side of the slash.

They decided to leave it alone and kept walking. As they walked slowly down the hallway, Sonic started a conversation to break the silence. He was getting anxious.

"So, Amy… would it be alright if, ya know, after we got out of here, we go on another date? I could put on some new bandages so I don't look so bad."

"Oh, Sonic, that would be awesome!" Amy threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. He blushed and put his arm around her shoulders. "But you really don't have to wrap yourself up, unless you wanna. The scar makes you look…braver."

"Aw, thanks, Ames." This time Sonic leaned over and kissed her cheek. The pair laughed, and Sonic then scooped her up in his arms and kissed her fully.

"I dunno about you," Sonic said after they broke apart. "But I'm getting kinda bored of this endless hallway. How 'bout I just run through it instead?"

"Sure thing, my darling Sonic." Amy locked her arms around his torso as he sped off through the tunnel.

CHAPTER EIGHT…

As Sonic shot down the hall, Amy in his arms, they saw a single Eggman robot strolling along down it as well. Sonic ran up the wall opposite to the side of the hallway it was on and tried to run quieter, but failed. The robot spotted him instantly, and an alarm beeped from its head and red lights flashed all over in the hall.

"Great…" Sonic moaned. He slid back down onto the floor and started running faster. Amy's grip tightened as he went faster and faster, his legs pumping harder and harder. Then, a wall a few hundred feet ahead of them collapsed inward as a barrage of armed robots charged through.

Sonic dug his feet into the ground, set Amy down, and ran off towards them. He jumped over the first one, landing on the other one's head which caused the robots to shoot at it when Sonic jumped off. He continued using the robots as shields, then homing-attacked the last one. He dashed over to where he had left Amy, but she was gone!

"Amy!" Sonic screamed. "AMY! Amy where are you?!"

Sonic flew around the hall, to and fro, this way and that, searching for Amy. He couldn't find her. He noticed the wall that the robots had run through was still open, but was slowly closing. He dashed inside of it just as it shut.

"Well, so much for going back." Sonic crouched and sped off in the direction the new hall lead. It was significantly dimmer than the last, and was made of a different material. Sonic continued running for what seemed like ages until he came across a single oddly shaped round room. He darted inside, checking around for anything or anyone that might set off an alarm again. It was empty. Well, empty except for a mostly opaque glass window halfway through the room.

Sonic rushed over to it and peered through. On the other side was the other half of the room, and a large cylindrical tube large enough to hold a person sat in the center of it. A few control panels lined the glass Sonic was looking through, so he leaned over them to get a closer look.

He gasped loudly. Inside the tube was an unmistakable pink and red object, wielding what looked like a large red and yellow hammer as it tried to break the container it was in.

"AMY!" Sonic yelled at her through the glass. "AAMY!" Sonic took a few steps back then charged strait through the glass barrier. He got a few shards stuck in himself, and a few new cuts and scrapes, but he didn't care. He shot through the glass and ran over to the tube Amy was in.

"Amy! Amy are you alright?"

"N-no, Sonic p-please he-he-help me!"

"AMY!" Sonic pounded on the wall some more as he tried to break it.

"Amy, what's wrong?!"

"Th-the air! It's being p-p-pulled out of here! I c-can't breathe!"

"Hold on, Ames! I'll save you!" Sonic homing-attacked the tube in almost every open location, but it didn't break. Not even a crack formed. He then tried spin-dashing, kicking, punching, running at it, and almost every combo of those as well. Nothing happened.

"AMY! AMY!" Sonic kept smashing at it, to no avail.

"S-Sonic! I have an-n-n-n ide-ea!" Amy said, her voice getting more and more strained with every word as the oxygen in the tank was vacuumed out.

"Sonic, you h-have to…ugh"

"AMY!"

"I'm… I'm okay. Sonic, you h-have t-t-t-to stay sp-pin-dashing at this point." Amy weakly pointed at a small crack in the tube. He nodded and started spinning at it. When he collided, he didn't jump back and uncurl like he usually did. This time he stayed spinning into the wall where Amy had told him to.

Amy slowly lifted her hammer and started smashing at the crack. It didn't burst for five minutes. During this time, Amy's swings were getting slower and slower, and her breathing went down more and more. Finally, it broke and Amy collapsed into Sonic's outstretched arms.

"Amy…" Sonic said in a barely audible voice. He clenched her weak form closer to his body as she recovered. He knelt there for the next five minutes as Amy's breathing got better and better. She was cold, so he laid his back against the broken tank, ignoring the pain from the sharp edges, and curled around her to warm her up.

"Amy?"

"Uhh… S-Son-…Sonic… uh" Came her reply. He clenched her even closer to himself, and wrapped his arms around her. He looked at her pale face as slowly her eyes opened. She looked up at him and slowly a smile appeared on her face. Sonic beamed, slid down off the edge of the tube onto the floor, then inched his face over to hers and kissed her.

"Oh, Amy. I'm so sorry for leaving you behind. This was all my fault. It was just like my dream I had. Amy, I'm so sorry. I should have stay with you or checked on you or-" His sentence was cut short by Amy kissing him. She wrapped her arms around him as she kissed him. He did the same to her, and they continued holding each other in their arms and kissing for a few minutes.

"Sonic, I love you."

"Ames," Sonic said after the broke apart. "I love you, too." He kissed her again. Then a door opened behind Sonic, but neither he nor Amy noticed it.

"That blasted hedgehog! Ew! Zero, kill him!" Doctor Eggman said just quietly enough for the robot to hear him. It nodded and quietly floated over to the blue hedgehog. When it was within five feet, a knife popped out of its wrist right below its palm with a SHINK. It neared Sonic and Amy, and Amy noticed it getting closer.

Her eyes widened in fear and Sonic felt her expression change. He pulled back and released her.

"Amy, what is i-" Sonic froze, arching his back, as the knife entered it. Pain flared in his gut and he gasped, his eyes wide in pain and fear. Then, the knife retracted into the robot's arm, and Sonic's body went limp. His face remained in the expression he had when he was gutted. Amy crawled away backwards, her expression one of pure terror, and Sonic's eyelids started to close. His eyes rolled up into his head and he fell unconscious with a quiet moan of pain.

"No! Sonic, NO!" Amy screamed and forced herself to stand. She glared at Eggman and the robot that had taken her to this room and put her in the tank. She yelled at them, dragged Sonic behind her, and charged the two. She demolished the robot in one enraged swing of her hammer, while she only managed to whack Eggman out of the room. He ran away screaming, and the door shut behind him.

Amy set her hammer down and rushed back to Sonic. A bit of robot debris had settled on his unconscious form, so she carefully brushed him off and held him in her lap. A small exit wound on his stomach was left where the tip of the knife had poked out. She carefully turned him over to examine the cut. It wasn't very large, only about the width of a credit card. It was bleeding badly though, so Amy looked around for something to stop the bleeding with. It was too big a wound to just put pressure on it. Something had to be applying constant pressure until a scab formed.

She looked and looked, but could find nothing. Seeing that there was no other object to use, Amy undid one of the bandages on her own body and used it to wrap Sonic's. She scooted back until her back was on the wall, laid Sonic on her lap and sat there, wishing he'd be alright.

CHAPTER NINE…

Amy awoke to find that Sonic had woken up and was lying uselessly on her lap, his face tight in a grimace of pain. She lifted her arm up and set it on Sonic's chest. He looked up at her worried face and thought, Man. Amy's awesome. So caring and selfless. I hope she understands that I really do care for her. That I really do love her. Sonic then lifted his hand up and set it on Amy's. He smiled at her, and she smiled at him.

After a moment of staring into each other's eyes, Sonic shifted himself so he was leaned up against the wall like Amy. He reached over and looped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. She rested her head on his shoulder and wrapped her arms around him. The two cuddled for a moment more before Sonic suggested that they get a move on.

"But Sonic!" Amy protested. "You're hurt bad! You can't just run after being gutted!"

"I know, Ames. That's why I'm going to walk with you."

"Well, alright." Amy stood and helped Sonic to his feet. Once standing, Sonic left his arm around Amy and she helped him walk out of the room, using her own body like a crutch for Sonic. They soon got to the door/wall the robots had used to ambush Sonic and Amy. They heard talking and shuffling on the other side. The voices were of Tails, Cream, Knuckles and Rouge. It sounded like they were trying to figure out how to open it.

All of the sudden, a robot fell from the ceiling above them and landed on Sonic. It then aimed its gun at his head, but Amy smashed it off of him. A shout then came from the others.

"Sonic! Amy! Is that you?"

"Help!" Amy screamed back as the robot slapped her out of its way. It turned back to Sonic and shot at him. He rolled weakly out of the way, but it caught his right leg. He yelled in pain and the robot walked up to him and stood on his back triumphantly. It raised its arm and, yet again, a knife popped out of its wrist. The robot had barely started thrusting its arm at Sonic when Amy's hammer popped out of the robot's face and it exploded. Sonic got a bit scraped up from the burst, but the real damage was from when the robot had landed on him. After Amy lifted Sonic up and looped his arm around her shoulder, she held his hand and walked up to the exit. Amy was practically dragging Sonic with her now, as he was in too much pain to move by himself. She hefted up her hammer and smashed a hole through the collapsible wall and nodded a greeting to the others.

"Amy! Oh no, Sonic! Sonic, are you ok?"

"Good, you guys are ali-Sonic! What happened?"

"Oh my, Ms. Amy, Mr. Sonic, are you two alright?"

"We'll-ugh-make it-er." Amy grunted while lifting Sonic's near to limp body through the hole in the wall. She set him on the ground and started checking his injuries. His leg burn was about as bad as the one on his arm, which was still healing from two weeks ago, but his knife wound had started bleeding again and Sonic looked on the verge of unconsciousness.

"G-ugh-guys, d-did you find a-a way out?" Sonic asked weakly. Tails nodded and explained the directions of how to get there, while also explaining the stories of each of them as they looked for the way out.

"Just hang in there a bit longer, Sonic. We'll get you medical attention in no time." Tails said encouragingly. After a short while of silence, Knuckles asked the question everyone was thinking about.

"So, now that you've heard our stories, what is yours?"

Amy sighed and sat down next to her injured rescuer. She told them about how walking down this hall was taking too long, so Sonic picked her up and ran down it instead. She explained about how the lone robot had spotted them and called in reinforcements, and how she had been kidnapped by Zero while Sonic was fighting the robots. Amy then told them how Sonic had found her in the vacuum tank and saved her after a long time of trying. She left out the parts about her and Sonic kissing, Sonic asking her out on a date, and all the other mushy stuff that they didn't need to know.

Amy then explained how Zero and Eggman found Sonic rescuing Amy and how Zero had gutted Sonic. The team gasped simultaneously and stared at the red stained piece of gauze wrapped around his stomach. Amy continued on how they had nearly escaped and heard them on the other side when a robot fell out of nowhere and crushed Sonic. She finished up on how they beat it and then they got to where they are now.

"Wow, that's some adventure! I just hope Sonic's okay after all that." Tails said once Amy had finished.

"Knowing Sonic, he probably will be." Knuckles said. The group then discussed various ways to get back to the fork in the hallways and out of the base. Eventually, they all agreed on Tails, Cream and Amy carrying Sonic since they were the fastest of the gang.

As they ran along in between Knuckles and Rouge who were guarding the front and the back, Amy wondered if Sonic would make it without any long term damage. After all, being burnt to a crisp twice, getting electrically tortured, getting gutted and being crushed by a two ton robot within three weeks may do a bit of damage to you.

The transport soon arrived at their first destination: the fork in the hallways. They turned down the right side path and, after a long few minutes of walking, ended up in front of a large door. Tails told Rouge the code, who then walked up to the access panel, typed it in, and the door opened. Finally, after a day of being in Eggman's base, they were out.