Painful Memories

(A/N: I decided to go ahead and do more with this story. Ideas kept coming and I kept needing to write them down. I don't know much about certain things in Sonic games like what robots would work best where, so I could use help with that. Anything else that my readers can find that I don't know much about, please, tell me. I like to better my stories. This may be quite long depending on how I fare with it. There are many, many pairings, a lot of them very popular, and some that have never been done before that may seem odd. Some of them I just matched up once I had set out the cast of characters. I won't tell you what they are, I'll leave you to guess, but pairing that I don't plan on I will address just to keep fans of them happy, sort of like with the games and different hints at different couples. You've probably never seen some of the pairings though. If characters seem too out of character, since some of them I don't know much about passed what I've read on Wiki, then feel free to tell me and help me with them. Please enjoy this new brand of story. I may or may not defend my choices that I've taken with this story. Some parts may remind gamers of Sonic Heroes and some others as well as two of the cartoons.)

Team Rose (Read Author's note first)

The mismatched groups had come together at that house drawn by a common enemy, Eggman. It had been risky on the villain's part. It was a growing mistake. It certainly wouldn't go any better for him. He feared he was in over his head. He watched in secret from his eggmobile as Sonic and Amy spoke, as Sonic's friends searched for him. This would definitely be too much for him. He needed help, but whom? Who could he rely on not to betray him? Who could play the part of second in command? Who was smart enough never to disobey and if he disagreed do it tactfully, smart enough to know when to run and when to attack, smart enough to submit to his will? Robots were unreliable, so he'd learned with the E-series, Omega, and the metals, particularly Metal Sonic. He racked his brain. There was an old memory pulling at his mind. All at once his eyes lit up. He grinned wickedly. Of course, who better than him?

Before all this transpired, before the teams were together, Amy had been lounging in a lawn chair by the beach occupied in her favorite past time; daydreaming about Sonic. Big was sleeping on the beach. Cream's voice suddenly broke through her thoughts saying, "Good morning Amy, what are you doing?"

Amy was vaguely annoyed, yet she smiled affectionately at her rabbit friend then answered, "Not much Cream. What have you and Cheese been up to?"

"Chao, chao," Cheese said.

"That's right, we were picking flowers, see," Cream said as she held out a bouquet.

"Whoa, those are nice," Amy said, genuinely impressed. Cream never seemed to fail at finding beautiful blossoms.

Suddenly they heard the sounds of fighting. Both gasped then jumped up. All at once a figure flew off the edge of a roof with a shriek of terror. "Oh no!" Cream exclaimed.

"Come on Cream!" Amy ordered. She took her friends hand and rushed towards the building. Nearing it Cream took over, flying towards the falling figure. Amy was lifted with her. Amy reached out desperately and seized the figure's hand stopping its fall. "We've got you," Amy said. It was then that the person looked up. Amy gasped. "Shade!" she asked in shock.

"What are you doing here Shade? What happened?" Cream asked worriedly.

"Amy, Cream, look out!" Shade shouted pointing up. Cream looked up then gasped.

"Dr. Eggman!" she cried slowing her ascent. Eggman shot at her without a word making her cry out in pain and fall to the Earth. The three girls landed in a heap on the ground.

Amy and Shade climbed out from under Cream. "Cream, Cream, are you all right!" Amy asked worriedly. Shade looked nervous.

"Chao, chao," Cheese begged. Cream's eyes fluttered open.

She asked, "Am I alive?"

"Thank goodness it wasn't a bullet," Shade said in relief. "You're alive for now, but we won't be for much longer if he wins!" she continued pointing at the Doctor now descending in his eggmobile.

"Well, well, well, Cream and Amy. What brings you two out this fine afternoon?" Eggman asked in mock cordiality.

"We were trying to enjoy the sun," Amy retorted angrily.

"Yeah, and we were having fun until you came along and tried to hurt Shade," Cream angrily said.

"Oh I'm so sorry ladies," Eggman sarcastically replied. With that he called, "Bots, attack!" Suddenly they were surrounded by robots, each one with weapons trained on them.

"Oh no, what do we do!" Amy asked as the three girls went back to back.

"Fight!" Shade retorted as if it were obvious. With that the orange Echidna pulled on her helmet and leapt up to face their foes. Amy pulled out her peko peko hammer and with a war cry attacked.

Cream flew into the air saying, "Go Cheese!" The little Chao instantly attacked the assailants. Desperately the three girls fought side by side. Eggman watched in growing worry.

"Hmm, this is getting to be a little too much," he said half to himself. "Robots retreat!" he ordered as he flew into the air. "We have what we came for!" With those words he lifted something up to look at it.

"No!" Shade cried.

"What?" Amy demanded.

"He has a Chaos Emerald!" Shade replied.

"Oh no, not again! How!" Cream exclaimed.

"That's right girls, and there's nothing you can do to stop me!" Eggman crowed victoriously as he held it up for them to see.

Amy instantly grabbed Cream's ankles then said to Shade, "Grab on! We're going after him!" Shade obeyed and Cream took off. The bots, however, suddenly turned on the girls and shot. Cream screamed and was forced to dive for the ground. Eggman began to laugh, but suddenly the Emerald was pulled from his hand!

"What!" he exclaimed. The three girls looked back only to see Big reeling in the Emerald!

"All right Big!" Amy cheered.

"No!" Eggman cried. The girls, though, were getting up again. He looked hesitantly at them, longingly at the Chaos Emerald, then thought the better of it saying, "You win this round ladies, but I'll be back!" With that he and his bots continued fleeing.

Amy looked at Big, who looked scared and confused, and ordered, "Big, take the Emerald to our meeting place! We'll go after Eggman. Come on Team Rose, let's go!"

"Team Rose?" Shade questioned Cream.

"We'll explain on the way," Cream said with a cheerful excited smile.

As they rushed off Amy asked, "What happened Shade?"

Shade answered, "I saw Eggman in my territory yesterday morning. I suspected he was up to no good so I began to follow him. I tailed him all the way to Tails' workshop. Tails wasn't there and Eggman got in with no problem. He blew up a safe and I saw him grab the Emeralds! I didn't know why they were there, but I knew something bad was going to happen so I showed myself. He ran, I pursued. He lost me for a while but I found him in the city on the roofs. That's where I caught up. I hid to overhear his plan but only caught some of it; not enough to be helpful. As soon as he finished talking I jumped out and caught him by surprise. I was doing fine fighting him, but suddenly from nowhere came a small army of bots that caught me off guard. One shot at me. I dodged but forgot to watch for the ledge. I lost my balance and fell."

"He has them all!" Amy exclaimed.

"No Amy, we got one from him remember?" Cream said.

"And I managed to make him lose three more. I don't know where they fell though. All in all he has three now," Shade reassured.

"Oh thank goodness," Amy sighed in relief.

"No, something was off Amy. He didn't seem too concerned. I heard him mention something about it not mattering at the moment, when I caught him on the roof, because he had another power source. I heard him mention something about Sol Emeralds?" Shade said, half asking what the Sol Emeralds were.

"Sol Emeralds!" Amy exclaimed.

"But aren't those the power source in Silver, Blaze, and Marine's dimension? You told me about that," Cream said.

"That's right. It looks like we're going to have a bit of help soon," Amy said with a smile. They then began explaining the origins of Team Rose to Shade as well as the origin of the Sol Emeralds.