Well, here's the next chapter of "Runaway Amy".

"Hey Sonic," Tails called from near the ceiling, where he was hovering while hanging up a pink banner. "How's this look?"

"Perfect, little buddy! Amy's gonna love it." The blue hedgehog nodded his approval and glanced around Knuckles' basement, which they had borrowed for the party. It was decked out with balloons and banners, all in pink and white, which were the favourite colours of the birthday girl. A chair decorated to look like a throne stood in the corner, near a large pile of presents. A large painting of Amy hung over the "throne". Nearby, a table groaned with all sorts of delicious food-tuna, cheese and cucumber sandwiches; cheese-and-onion, salt-and-vinegar and prawn cocktail crisps; salad; chili-dogs; chicken drumsticks; quiche; sausages on sticks; scones; cherry tarts; doughnuts; trifle; strawberry and vanilla ice-cream; chocolate blancmange; orange jelly and cream; iced buns; toffee popcorn; orange, cherry and cola soda and in the centre of the table, a triple-layer chocolate and almond cake, filled with buttercream icing, and topped with vanilla icing and cherries. On the other side of the room, Vector and Espio were setting up the sound system for the disco, while Charmy worked on making the pinyata. Blaze was putting the finishing touches on a plastic tiara painted silver and a pink ribbon sash which said, in purple letters, "Birthday Girl".

Sonic had been determined to make this the best birthday party ever, and he had rounded up all his friends to help. Several of them had surprised him, particularly when it had come to preparing the food. While he had known that Big would be a good cook, since the cat ate so much, he hadn't counted on Silver or Jet being so skilled when it came to culinary matters (although the hawk had warned that if Sonic breathed a word of his skills to anyone, he might find a rumour that he wore bunny pyjamas posted on the internet). He had also been surprised when Rouge had told him that she was giving Amy some of her old jewellery, knowing how much the bat loved jewels. But perhaps the biggest surprise had come when Shadow had unveiled the painting of Amy, which he had painted himself.

It had been beautifully painted, although admittedly, it was a little, well, unusual. The painting showed Amy in four different outfits: vampiress, with black lace dress, black and red cloak, black fishnet stockings, black heels and glittering fangs, while a bat (who bore an interesting resemblence to a chibi Rouge) perched on her shoulder; mermaid, with glittering pink tail, red starfish bra, and sea flower in her hair, perched upon the side of a rock pool; gypsy, with white baggy-sleeved blouse, deep green sash, gold bracelets, wine-red skirt, grass green sandals and silver comb in hair, dancing as she played a tambourine; and princess, with beautiful red, pink and white meringue gown, silver shoes, gold crown, orb and sceptre encrusted with a myrid of priceless gemstones. While Shadow had responded to the praise of his art skills with his usual caustic remarks, it had been obvious that he had been pleased. He had intended to wrap it up and put it with the other presents, but they had convinced him to hang it above the birthday "throne", so that everyone could see it.

Sonic smiled slightly. Thinking of these two presents had reminded him of the other gifts that his friends had bought. Apart from Rouge and Shadow, they had all agreed to keep their chosen gift a secret. While he had no doubt that they had all purchased something nice, he privately hoped that his gift would be the best received. After all, it had taken so much time and money.

"Sonic," Sonic snapped out of his thoughts as Cream's voice entered his ears. "Isn't it nearly time for you to go fetch Amy?"

"That's right! Thanks for reminding me, Cream." He clapped his hands, and all eyes turned to him. "OK, guys, I'm gonna fetch Amy, so find a place to hide until I get back! Vector, you guys nearly done with setting up the disco?"

"Almost." the crocodile answered. "Want one of us to come with you?"

"No, I'm good."

"Um...little help?" Charmy's voice asked.

Sonic had to stifle a laugh. Charmy had somehow managed to get himself entangled in the tape he was using to make the pinyata. Espio, on the other hand, was not as amused. "Vector, can you finish by yourself? I have to help Buzz-Brain." The chameleon walked over to the bee, and started trying to pull the tape from his body.

"Good luck with that. Once you're finished, hide somewhere. I won't be long." And with that, Sonic zipped out of the room.

In addition to being a super-fast runner, Sonic was also a super-fast thinker, and right now he was considering the best way to get Amy to come with him as he sped towards the apartment that he shared with both her and Tails. Originally, he had just planned to ask her "on a date", but after yesterday, well...

This was partly the reason why Sonic had wanted to fetch Amy alone. He needed to think about what he'd said to her yesterday, and if he'd gone with someone else, they might have noticed how unusually quiet and pensive he was. He paused for a few seconds, as the memories entered his head.

Yesterday, he'd decided to buy Amy's present. But it hadn't been just any present, oh no. It had been something very special indeed, something that she had wanted for a long time. The problem was, he'd had to search in about 50 different shops before finding what she had wanted. And then there had been a matter of price-he'd had to use all the money he had been saving. He'd briefly wondered if he should choose something else, but had decided against it when he'd thought of her happy face.

He had thought it would be simple getting it home, even if Amy did see him-after all, he was the fastest thing alive-but when she had indeed seen him, she'd surprisingly been able to catch up with him. Of course, he'd initially outpaced her, but the thought that he might break the gift (WHY had her most desired gift been made of glass?) had forced him to slow. She had easily glomped him, causing him to drop the present and break it.

Any hopes that it had survived the drop disappeared when he'd picked it up and heard the tinkling of broken glass. Amy had started to speak-perhaps to apologise?-but he'd seen red. And it hadn't just been over the broken gift, or all the time and money that he had sacrificed to purchase it, but EVERYTHING-all the times she had put herself in danger just so he could rescue her (especially when they had been younger and her infatuation had been a mere crush), all the times she had chased him, all the dates she had tried to get him to go on. He'd just lost it and screamed at her. It had been TERRIBLE. And it hadn't just been the screaming, but WHAT he had screamed at her, that had been terrible. He had heard himself scream, and yet he hadn't felt as though he were really saying them.

After he'd left to replace the gift, the image of her tear-stained face had remained etched into his memory, even as he'd slept. Not that he'd actually HAD much sleep, what with the words he had screamed echoing in his head like some broken CD that kept repeating itself. Even today, with preperations for the party to distract him, the guilt had remained, nagging at the back of his mind.

Sonic shook his head to clear it. If he didn't hurry, he'd be late back to the party. OK, she should still be at the apartment, he thought to himself. So just tell her you're sorry-after all, THAT's true enough-and that you want to take her out to make up for it. This thought firmly implanted in his mind, he resumed his run.

He arrived at the apartment within seconds. Opening the door and stepping inside, he realised that Amy had not greeted him as she usually did whenever he returned home, nor was there any sound of those silly talkshows she liked so much issuing from the TV. She must still be upset about yesterday, Sonic thought to himself as a stab of guilt jolted into his stomach. "Hey, Amy?" he called. "Are you here?"

Silence.

Sonic was starting to feel slightly worried. After all, no matter how upset Amy had been with him before, she had never failed to answer him when he called, even if it involved a slug with the Piko Poko Hammer. Besides, he didn't really know whether she HAD gone home after he'd been so horrible to her, as he and Tails had decided to spend the night at Knuckles', in order to prepare for the party. He decided to search in all the rooms for her, starting with her bedroom.

"Amy?" he asked, poking his head into her room. No sign of her. As he was about to leave, however, he suddenly noticed that her wardrobe door was ajar, and some of her clothes were spilling out. This worried Sonic, for he knew that Amy loved clothes and would never treat any item of clothing with such "disrespect", as she'd call it. His eyes spotted her piggy bank lying on her bed, cork removed. Even from where he stood, he could see it was empty.

Sonic took a deep breath. "OK, OK. Just calm down." he whispered to himself. "Just because her clothes are messed up and her piggy bank is empty, it doesn't mean she's..." He didn't go any further than that, for he'd suddenly remembered that her coat and umbrella had also been missing when he'd entered the apartment-he'd noticed it, but had paid it no attention until now. "Gotta check, gotta know for certain." he decided.

A quick look around the room confirmed that several of her things were missing, even that goofy stuffed giraffe of hers,Fuzzyfinkles or whatever it was called. Well, it was only natural that she'd take that if she had run away, as Sonic himself had given it to her himself when she was 6 and he was 8. She had been so attached to it even then, he mused. Perhaps that was when her little crush on him had begun?

Forcing himself back to reality, he darted into the bathroom and checked there. Yep, as he'd feared, her toothbrush and several toiletries were missing, as well as a blanket and cushion from the airing cupboard. Quickly he zipped into the kitchen to see if any food was missing, but he had barely started his search when his eyes spotted what looked like a note on the kitchen table. He picked it up, and quickly scanned it. The words he read filled him with horror.

"Oh no." he whispered. "No, no..." Tears came into his eyes, the angst she must have felt clear in every word.

He composed himself with difficulty. "Ok, get a hold of yourself. Crying never got anyone anywhere. I have to get back to the others, 'cause it looks like I'm gonna need help."

"I'm hungry." complained Big.

"SSSSSSHHHHHH!" Blaze hissed. "If we make a noise, Amy's surprise is gonna be ruined."

After Sonic had left, it had become clear that hiding places were limited, so they'd had to make do with what they had. Cream, Cheese and Knuckles were behind the throne, Espio was pressed against the wall (his colour-changing skills had certainly come in useful), Vector, Mighty, Charmy and Storm were behind the sound system and the other party guests were under the table.

"But..." Big began, only to be cut off as Silver clapped a hand over his mouth.

"Quiet!" he muttered. "Somebody's coming!"

Sure enough, they could hear the sound of footsteps approaching. As the door flew open, they all emerged from their hiding places.

"SURPRI..." The word faded on their lips as they saw Sonic, doubled over and gasping for breath in the doorway, and no Amy.

"Erm, Sonic," said Jet, the hint of a sneer in his voice. "Weren't you supposed to pick up Amy?"

Sonic glared at him. "I was, but something's come up."

"What kind of something?" asked Marine.

For an answer, Sonic held up the note. "Amy's run away!"

"WHAT! Gimme that!" Rouge snatched the note and read it quickly. When she had finished, she looked at Sonic. "You're POSITIVE that she ran away?"

"Of course! There's the note, for one thing, and for another half her stuff's gone!"

Marine gasped. "STREWTH! Why'd she take off like that for no reason?"

"Well, according to this note, she somehow got it into her head that Sonic hates her. So unless there's another reason, I believe that explains why." remarked Rouge.

Sonic opened his mouth, then closed it again. No...he couldn't tell them what he'd done, they'd be furious with him. Although, maybe he deserved it. After all, he HAD yelled at her over something that, as it had turned out, had been easy to replace.

"Can we eat now?" asked Big.

"BIG!" snapped Blaze, literally burning with rage and causing the other cat to cower. "Amy has run away, and all you can think about is your stomach?"

"Blaze." said Silver soothingly. "Screaming isn't going to find Amy. We need a plan."

Sonic nodded. "Right. We'll split up and look for her. Tails, you, Cream and Rouge take the Tornado and search by air. Vector, you, Espio, Charmy and Mighty look to the west side of town. Blaze, you, Silver and Shadow take east. Knuckles, you, Big and Marine go south. Jet, you, Wave and Storm look north. I'll do a general scout-around."

"Excuse me," said Storm. "But who exactly made YOU captain of this search party?"

He was answered by an icy glare. "No-one. But if we're gonna find Amy, we can't waste time with stupid questions or making other plans. Now let's go!"

Well, do you like it? Remember, I can always use ideas as to what should happen next!