Epitaph Two

I'm being crushed by the darkness.
There's no light, no air, no anything. It's as if I don't exist.
But I have to exist to be in this much pain.

I woke up with a giant gasp of air. I held my pillow against my mouth so I wouldn't scream and wake up Tails or Sonic in the other rooms.

"That dream again..." I whispered to myself, attempting to calm down.

I'm Amy. Amy Rose. After chasing him around a lot, Sonic sort of begrudgingly let me into his circle of friends. I even live at his house now. That silly crush of mine? That's so last year. No, I'm an independent woman now. I even learned how to use a gun to defend myself. It's slightly more effective then a toy hammer. Of course, it doesn't really matter now that Eggman is gone... I don't know what any of us are going to do with ourselves. Who needs heroes when all the villains are gone?

I suppose my reaction to Eggman's death was more subdued then I would have thought. I'm not the kind of person who believes bad people should be killed, but after all the monstrous things he had done? I suppose karma was bound to catch up with him eventually. That being said, not everything about the man was evil. He was brilliant, and he even helped us save the world from the ARK. Admittedly, he had been the cause of the whole mess, and then he used the chance to get Shadow's DNA to make Androids, but I try to look at the good aspects of people.

I heard the front door open and close softly. Not long after, I heard the "BOOM" Sonic always makes whenever he had made it to the speed of sound. Sonic hadn't taken Eggman's death very well, and it seemed odd to me, as he was always such a cool customer. He'd taken to sleeping in late, living in a fog, and running in circles around the house at night. I suppose that was just his way of dealing with the hurt.

I heard a knock on my bedroom door that interrupted my train of thought.

"Come in!" I chimed, in my annoyingly cheerful tone. Gotta work on that.

"H-hey Amy?" Said Tails, as he slowly entered the room. "I hope I didn't wake you..."

"It's all right, Sonic woke me up anyway." I made a patting motion on the bed. "Sit down, what's on your mind?"

Tails sat down and let out a deep sigh. "See, it's Sonic. You know, he hasn't been himself the last few weeks..."

"That's for sure."

"...But I don't know what I should do. Every time I try to talk to him, I just get a complete shutout. He's my best friend, but ever since Doctor Eggman died... I just can't get through to him, and it's killing me."

I took a good, long look at Tails. Truth be told, I didn't know what to say to him. Unfortunately, whatever comfort I was going to express was quickly cut short by a second sonic boom, this time very close. That was quickly followed the sound of something moving outside our house.

I snatched the pistol I kept stashed under my mattress. Muscle memory kicked in, and years of being ready to fight at any moment propelled Tails and I out the door at lightning speed. I didn't have time to process the loud sound of two objects colliding somewhere in the distance, because there was the additional shock of a two-story creature a few hundred feet away from us. Seven black, spindly legs that were rapidly approaching us were connected to groping pincers on a circular abdomen. Most terrifying of all were it's crimson eyes, which when I gazed into, pierced me with blinding pain. I managed to fire two shots at the beast from my pistol, before screaming with all my might as I tried not to lose consciousness from the ripping agony. I felt as if acid had been injected into my veins, and was slowly eating my body from the inside out. I saw Tails on the ground next to me, thrashing and writhing in agony as the monster bent down to ingest us. I heard a third sonic boom, and with that I blacked out.

Chapter One

It was as if her scream brought me out of the haze I'd been living in. Suddenly, I remembered who I was. I'm Sonic the Hedgehog. I'm a hero. Last time I checked, the scream of a woman is the call for a hero to jump into action.

Like we were of one mind, Shadow was off me in a second, and we were sprinting towards the house faster then the speed of sound. Luckily, it wasn't far from the precipice where I had been so rudely clobbered. Unluckily, I found the reason for Amy's scream.

Robots are a piece of cake to me. Ghosts, a little creepier, but still no problem. Heck, I've even smashed some aliens when it was needed. This thing was far worse then any of those. The only word I can use to describe the behemoth preparing to ingest my friends is evil. An overused adjective perhaps, but the only one that is fitting.

"Grab your friends, I'll destroy that wretched creature!" I heard Shadow yell from my right.

Instantly I was dashing and dodging the obsidian limbs that had rearranged themselves for battle. Shadow lunged toward the midsection with all his might. I grabbed Amy as she seemed in the worst condition and deposited her around a hundred feet from the fray.

"S-Sonic..." Tails mumbled as I scooped him up. I heard one of the monster's legs break. Good job, Shadow.

"Don't worry little buddy, Shadow and I have this one." I said reassuringly, despite my doubts.

"...Don't...make...eye...cont...act..." Tails whispered as his eyes glazed over, showing he had drifted into unconsciousness.

"GRAAAAAH...!!" I heard Shadow exclaim, and the crunching sound he made as he fell to the ground. He was simply laying there, twitching. I didn't have much time to think about it as the monster suddenly whirled around on it's six good legs, marking me as it's next target.

"Don't make eye contact!" I heard a mature feminine voice suddenly shout in my mind. Definitely not the voice of my best friend.

"Don't make eye contact, got it." I heard myself say in automatic response. Making careful note not to lock eyes with the beast, I began launching myself in a homing attack towards the joints of the legs. One by one they snapped as a result of my thrashing, and suddenly, with a loud scream like that of nails on a chalkboard, the monster went down. Crashing with a mighty "BOOM" rivaling the volume of me piercing the speed barrier, I saw the red eyes of the beast grow dull and fade away. Appearing simply out of thin air, a letter sealed with wax dropped into my hands. Unsealing the note, I found written in cursive script,

"Who needs heroes when all the villains are gone?"

Eggman's death wasn't the end. It was just the beginning.

A/N: Thank you so much to those who reviewed my first chapter! To be perfectly honest, I wasn't expecting such generally positive feedback, and hopefully I haven't blown everything with my second chapter. I was having a tough time deciding if switching perspectives was wise at this point in the story, especially it being this early on in my writing experiences. However, after careful deliberation, I decided this was the best way to convey information: Epitaphs as "get inside the character's head" segments, and Chapters being written strictly from Sonic's perspective, with a main focus on action.

Please continue to let me know where I can work on my writing, as well as let me know if you are ENJOYING the story, as in my opinion, that is the most important part.

Oh and Trauts, I'll simply say this: I'm most assuredly not offended by your suggestion. Evil laughter.