A/N: I'm selling myself to a doomed existence by continuing this, aren't I?
I'm surprised at the reception this fic has gotten! Quite frankly, I was expecting a lot worse XD. Well, here's the continuation of me pretending to know what I'm doing and likely failing miserably. Enjoy? Maybe.
Amy Rose held her chin in her hands, sighing as she slumped over the messy table. Scattered notes and a half-eaten pack of gummy bears were the other occupants of the area. The room she temporarily shared with Cream wasn't very well lit, but it was a requirement in not drawing any attention their way. Keeping a low profile was likely the only way they hadn't already lost. However, the state of living conditions wasn't what currently held Amy's thoughts.
Sonic still hadn't returned.
She couldn't help the stray theories that passed through her mind. Was it something she did? It wasn't likely; to her annoyance, she hadn't actually had much chance to speak with Sonic recently. Or perhaps that was the cause? Did Sonic miss her company that much?
Get ahold of yourself, Amy. Not everything's about you.
Still, she wouldn't be able to forgive herself if she were in any way responsible. The state Tails and she had found Sonic in hours ago didn't add up to anything she'd seen from him before. In that moment, she had been ready to murder whoever was responsible. Well...maybe murder was too strong of a word. It was hard to account all the emotions she'd felt, but they were passionate. She started organizing the table.
Classic was probably outside. She knew there was something both Sonic's shared that she was unaware of, and it irritated her that she didn't know what it was. Though, if Amy was being honest with herself, she should have taken into account that Classic didn't really speak. She would probably apologize later for scaring him; it wasn't like she was actually going to hit him with her hammer. He was just an adorable miniature Sonic.
Chewing on a gummy bear, Amy stood up as she finished organizing. Not as much of a distraction as she had hoped. Where are you, Sonic? She knew he was fine, wherever he had gone. She thought she knew. Knuckles had tried calling Sonic over the radio when he'd learned what had happened, but he received no answer. It wasn't like Amy didn't trust Sonic to look after himself, but not knowing where he was pained her. Closing her eyes, Amy made settled a debate in her mind.
Sonic would come back. In that, Amy had faith.
Idiot, Knuckles thought. Running away at a time like this? Who does he think he is?
The echidna had been on edge ever since he woke up two months ago to Angel Island in the middle of the ocean. Two months. He'd never been apart from the Master Emerald for so long! It was too far away for him to sense where it was, and even so, it was probably under a hundred different kinds of traps. He wasn't so stupid as to search for it on his own, but that didn't mean it wasn't frustrating.
Well.
He had gone searching for it, for just under a week, before he was herded into Sonic's posse and told to stay put. But that was irrelevant. Knuckles could safely say that, in this moment in time, he was not so stupid as to search for the Master Emerald on his own. Even he could recognize when the odds were far out of his favor. Instead, Knuckles was currently on hedgehog lookout duty. He'd radioed the Chaotix earlier since they were already out on a mission to find something pertaining to the chaos emeralds, but they had no sighting of the cocky scoundrel.
"Hey, Knucklehead!"
"GAH!" Knuckles almost fell on his back to the floor. To his right, Sonic seemed to have a hard time holding back a snicker. "Sonic? When the hell did you get back?"
"Just now," he answered with a shrug. "Why? Something happen while I was gone?"
"No, not really…" Knuckles shook his head, remembering why he was waiting in the first place, "Hey, what was all that crap before you ran off, anyway? Tails said something went nuts with you earlier. He looked pretty worried, to be honest."
"Oh, that?" Sonic said it as if it were the least important thing in the world. "That was just some weird drama act Classic and I did to get our minds off things for a bit. Guess it got a bit out of hand, huh?" Well, he sounded sincere enough. Sonic rubbed the back of his neck.
"That's it?" Knuckles asked, almost feeling disappointed. "Dang, you might wanna check up on your friends, then. They didn't seem to catch on to that. Perhaps consider sending out a Master Emerald search while you're at it. Can never hurt to look."
"Geez, Knux, you're starting to sound like a broken record," Sonic said, rolling his eyes. After a glare from Knuckles, he laughed again, before pointing inside. "You got a point, though, surprising as that sentence sounds. Imma go make sure no one missed me too much."
Knuckles shook his head, "I highly doubt anyone's sad because you weren't around with your snark and bad puns. Besides, you've been missing for longer in the past."
Sonic looked away, "Yeah. That too...Welp, see ya around!" With a quick wave, he was off to the abandoned hotel they'd made base in. Knuckles took a moment to enjoy the peace. So rare it was when Sonic was around.
"...You know he was lying, right?"
"HOLY- why do people seem so insistent on popping in out of nowhere?!" Knuckles was very close to knocking the smirk right off Rouge's face as she glided down in front of him from a balcony.
"Aw, are you really that mad at seeing me?" Her face was littered with feigned sorrow. Knuckles was not amused. "Oh, lighten up! I'm not here to do anything inimical."
Knuckles wasn't about to admit that he had no idea what inimical meant, instead opting to glare. Harder.
"Anyways, as I was saying, I wouldn't be so quick to believe everything that comes out of that hedgehog's mouth." She gave the ground where Sonic earlier stood a thoughtful look.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
Rouge crossed her arms, eyes closed, "I don't know Sonic as well as you do, so feel free to take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm just telling you, I've gotten pretty good at detecting liars over the years, and Pretty in Blue is no exception."
Knuckles raised an eye-ridge. He'd known Sonic for years, and every time he'd accused the hedgehog of lying, he'd been proven wrong. He could be annoying at times, but he was still a friend who had Knuckles' faith. "Psh, like I'd trust a bat thief over one of my closest friends."
She shrugged, "Have it your way, Knucky. I won't stop you. But if it does turn out that I'm right, you won't hear the end of it." Giving the echidna a wink, she flew inside the hotel base.
Knuckles stared at the entrance for a moment, before shaking his head, turning on his radio. "Hey Vector, while you're on that mission, I recommend keeping an eye out for bat spray. In fact, I'll pay you to grab some."
Sonic huffed irritably at the others. He still hadn't learned all their names yet, but it frustrated him that some of them seemed to regard him as less than his older counterpart. Was it because he was younger? That was a stupid reason. They were discussing who to send out on a mission once the...Chaos...Chaots...whatever-they-called-themselves returned.
"I got a call from Vector just earlier," Tails said. "He doesn't think the chaos emeralds are involved in any of this. Nothing they found matches the energy signatures." He glanced at the other Sonic in the room, who appeared bored of the conversation already.
"So that means they're still out there?" Knuckles chimed in. "Eggman doesn't have the emeralds?"
"As far as we can tell. The Chaotix' are skilled detectives, after all."
"If this is all true, then that gives us a huge possible advantage." The bat smiled. Was her name Rogue or something? "Shadow should want to hear this. I wonder where he is..."
If Sonic was correct, Shadow was the other hedgehog who always seemed to have a gun stashed in his quills for some reason. He was also difficult to keep track of.
Tails rubbed his chin. "If he has his radio with him, I could probably find out soon enough."
Rouge! That was her name! She waved a hand dismissively, "No need. He'll come back on his own time."
The other Sonic smirked, "Whatever he's doing, let's just hope he and Omega leave some robots for the rest of us. Hey, Classic? Next time we're both out there, howzabout a contest? See who can smash the most robots." And that was another thing...
Classic. Of all the names they could have chosen to call him, it was Classic. Well, he supposed it had a nice, authentic feel to it. Maybe it'd grow on him with time. It was the difference in names in general that weirded him out. He was used to just being referred to as Sonic. After all, that's what he'd been called his whole life...
"Sonic the Hedgehog."
Christmas Island was brimming with life. Flowers dotted the landscape around houses built from the surrounding cedar forests. A single volcano rose in the center, but it had been dormant for as long as anyone could remember. A river ran down from the mountain into the ocean a few kilometers away and flickys were heard chirping wherever anyone went. Anyone who visited would have to appreciate the calming beauty of it all. That was, if they weren't currently a very young blue hedgehog getting a stern look from his mother.
Oh no. What did he do? She always used that tone when he did something wrong.
Sonic looked up, an innocent smile plastered on his face. "Yes, Mom?"
She sighed, "Would you like to explain why Cinny is covered in thorns?"
Sonic looked to the right, spotting for the first time a very grumpy looking Cinnamon the Hamster attempting to remove blackberry thorns. Sonic had no memory of coming across him. "I dunno," he said honestly.
"According to Cinny," his mom continued, "he was picking blackberries when a blue streak flew by and knocked him right into the bush."
Oh. Woops.
"Um. Sorry," Sonic muttered, kicking one of his boots back and forth across the dirt. "I didn't mean it."
"I know, but that isn't my point. You need to pay better attention to where you run."
"But the island is so small! I can't go fast and keep watch of everything at the same time. That's really really hard!"
"Then slow down." She kneeled to look Sonic in the eye. "I know you don't like the idea, but one of these days you gotta realize that you can't just speed through life. It's far too short for any of that. Sometimes you just need to stop and appreciate what's right in front of you instead of looking for something you'll likely never find. Does that make sense?" Something in her eyes alluded to a deeper meaning in her words beyond Sonic's running, but he couldn't pick it out. Instead, he nodded. "Wonderful. Now, how about you go help Cinny remove some of those thorns. And please, be more careful next time. You know I'm already worried letting you run around the island on your own. Don't make me change my mind on that."
Again, Sonic nodded, an embarrassed smile on his features. He really, truly hadn't meant to knock Cinny into the bush. And he didn't recall anything of the sort, though it was hard to tell at his speed. And removing thorns sounded really boring. But he'd do it anyways. Not out of the good of his heart, but because he didn't want to get into any worse trouble. He liked everything just the way it was, thank you very much.
A/N: *slams head on desk* IhatewritingIhatewritingwhyisthissodifficultaaaaaaaaahhhh
The thing with getting decent reception on your first chapter is suddenly there's standards you gotta live up to and I'm worried that I'm gonna fail at that lmao plus im writing most of these characters for the first time
Actually though, I've got a niceee little outline for this fic all planned out. Idk how many chapters it'll add up to, but it should be a decent length. Dip derp i might draw art for this. i draw art btw my signature is SF. If you're really curious, i have an amino account with much arts.
slowly watch these authors notes grow more illiterate as time goes byyy R/R or whatever your choice