I'm surprised that format last chapter was received so well, but now that I know I'll keep it in mind for stories that don't need so much dialogue in them as this one does. Therefor the Twinkle Park section will be a true flashback with dialogue as opposed to a narrative that 'tells' the story, who's primary charm is the imagining of reactions based on non-story speech, as elegantly pointed out in the reviews.
Yes, I do take my readers seriously. I just wish I knew if I had any readers that haven't read the original story (laughs to self).
Also, sorry for the long delay. In wanting to do this right, as well as real life needing attention, I did research. A LOT of research, in addition to a lot of work. Did you know that SEGA had a place called SEGAWORLD? There were a few of them, such as SEGAWORLD Sydney. I looked at the old website for it, and found an interesting ride: Aqua Nova. For those of you who know the battle theme of Sonic and Blaze from Sonic Rush, its a very odd coincidence. As a side note, research also does include playing through Twinkle Park as both Sonic and Amy, too. Also, I'm splitting it into two parts because of how long it's taking.
Btw, if you wanna see an epic (in my opinion) Back 2 Back music vid, look up "Back 2 Back" - A Kojin/Sonic Vid on youtube. I watched it many times while I was writing this to keep me feeling the Rush (pun intended).
And once again I'm worried about the quality, but I'll probably be saying that every chapter. Let me know if I wind up being right though. So, if you read all that, then here is your reward at long last, Part 1 of the Twinkle Park story:
Back 2 Back (Part 1):(Flashback chapter)
"Some people say my dad is overprotective of me. Not only do I find it hard to believe, but I think it's really quite weird people think it. Whenever my dad takes me anywhere and things go south, he doesn't try to get me out of danger because he knows I can handle it most of the time. Not that it happens often, and I really can't get into specifics of any situations that 'may or may not have happened.' Those are Mom's words, not mine. If anything, my mother says he isn't protective enough of me. From what I understand, he was an orphan who came up with almost all of his fighting techniques on his own time as he was growing up from trial and error. With what he handled learning on his own, he's told me, he already feels safer just teaching me how to use my abilities. When I inquired what would happen if I didn't know how to get out of a situation, he just laughed. While I have no evidence, it certainly seems that he has never gotten trapped during his adventures. Or at the least, never had any traps that could hold him. The latter is certainly more likely."
"Daddy, what's this thing called?" Anne called out. Blaze too wondered about it, but didn't feel necessary asking considering she was more interested in what lie on the other side of the line in front of them. Only the music and the view of the ocean through the windows were really worth the time coming here so far, and the delay was not helping her temperament. Royals never waited for anything, unless it was necessary such as gathering information, or preparing a proper meal from time to time. People waited for her, not the other way around.
"Which thing?" Sonic replied, his daughter resting on his head, something she had seen the human children doing and wanted to try. The only real danger was his quills, but that hadn't stopped Anne from insisting. Heck, if anyone insisted long enough, they could usually get the incorruptible hedgehog doing exactly what they wanted. Anne just had to say it once.
"This bridge-thing we're in."
"Oh, it's called a Skyway, Anne. You usually see them in urban areas, and especially in the northern cities where it gets really cold. It's still summer right now, though, so it's hardly necessary. And you see that in there, just ahead? That's where we get in."
Anne heard the voice of her mother as she spoke, but it didn't register. She could hear excitement now from inside the building, and her mind went wild. She had never heard such screams or laughs before. Step by step, the suspense overtook her. Lights flashed everywhere, every second. Stuffed animals and fun games filled her ears, echoing from the distance under the roar of roller coaster tracks. The ever changing pitch from the coasters drew constant attention despite their slow speed to the hedgecat. It was all overwhelming.
"I know, I know," replied Sonic. "You have the tickets, right?"
"Of course I do. Anne has hers in her pocket. I have ours in my pocket." The emphasis didn't pass him by, and for once, he bit. Or at least nibbled, he had already learned not to bite too hard when a feminine temper was involved, especially any female close to him and his age. At least Amy wasn't here.
"Well, exc-"
"Don't you dare say that, Sonic. Solaris knows I've heard that enough. Besides, I'm not a princess anymore."
"My point still stands that we are here, in Station Square, not in your castle. Or anywhere in your world, for that matter."
"Fine. Laws are more lax while being more... humane." It was an insult to the humans, stemming from her world that had leaked into this one slowly. Discriminatory by Humans against Sapient creatures like Sonic himself. "In your case, in regards to clothing."
"...You mean the pants?"
"Yes the pants."
"The lack of pants?"
"The lack of pants."
"Are you making fun of-"
"No. This is about setting an example for Anne. Not about your-"
"Hey, Blaze?" she scoffed at him. As heroic as the hedgehog could be, she was surprised at how sensitive he could be over-"Where's Anne?"
Her first facial expression was one of surprise from the radical shift in topic. The second was one of processing the physical movements of getting out the tickets and handing one to Sonic. The third was the final onset of the implications of the statement as a sense of panic struck the cat. Quickly getting her ticket punched, she rushed into the park only to be met by a wall of humans in front of her. Sonic quickly caught up to her, as reality sunk in.
"Anne!" She called out into the crowd. "Anne!" Blaze ran headlong in, crazed for the safety of her daughter. Said daughter could do minor flame creation and could run over one hundred miles per hour fairly easily even at her age, but to her mother it was irrelevant. Sonic, on the other hand, while concerned was limited to damage containment as the crazed cat searched for her daughter. He had grown up in real hostile environments, after all; this was a walk in the park. Or theme park; same difference. The only real thing in danger was whatever lie between her and Blaze.
"'Scuse me, Spinnin' on through. Blaze, You gotta calm down, you'll-" he looked up at the ride they went by a second time. Sonic sincerely hoped she wasn't on that log flume, or more specifically, trying to swim in it. Blaze had been sure to teach Anne swimming, but her father was still lacking in that talent. He peered at the sign, before looking over towards where Blaze had made another mess with a local couple. Running to the Vela Nova Log Chute exit, he hoped it wasn't too late. Something seemed familiar about that sign.
"Listen, cat. I haven't seen your kitten around, and we have better things to do."
"Commoners, if you don't let me look back there so help me I-"
"Blaze!" Sonic appeared next to her, being careful not to run too fast and blow his cover. "Come on, she's not here. Lets look over there." Quickly directing her further into the park, he turned back as he pushed her onto a bridge. "Sorry, that time of the month." He had never actually seen her having that time of the month, so it was a possibility. The lady seemed to forgive him, but the guy didn't seem so ready to forgive as they walked in the opposite direction. He closed his eyes for a moment, shaking his head. When was he ever the sane one?
"Is that her down there?" Blaze suddenly said, looking over the railing to a walkway below. Another young sapient appeared as a dot below, similarly colored to Anne but it wasn't certain.
"Donno, lets take the stairs and check it ou-Wait!" The mother cat was preparing to jump the distance down to the pathway suspended in stars below. It wasn't much of a fall to either her or Sonic, but...
"Its a clear shot, I know what I'm doing. She's right there!" the feline yelled back. "She is so going to..." Sonic called out to her to stop, but it was too late. Unknown to Blaze, Twinkle Park's 'lack of railings' were very cunningly hidden so they didn't distract from the atmosphere of eternal night that made up the holographic walls of the indoor park. They were invisible up until the touch.
And Blaze got quite the touch on the head.
Lets Play Sonic 2006: "And Tails moves like molasses."
"Well he's not really a hedgehog, is he?"
"Ow."
"Oh, Blaze, you're up. That's good." The cat's eyes opened, taking in their surroundings. She felt like she was laying on raw wood. Quite unroyal-like. "You hit your head on the invisible rails. Don't question it. It's how these holograms they installed work. Hold this." Blaze was in no mood to question the hedgehog as she placed a hand onto the cold water bottle. It probably had been cooler ten minutes ago when he got it from a nearby machine, but it probably would have stayed cooler longer if Blaze hadn't been, well, Blaze.
"Is everything a... hologram?" She managed, her eyes regaining a sense of liveliness. He guessed she was still trying to figure out what exactly was going on around her. He had moved Blaze off the bridge and over to a bench, but hopefully she wouldn't be too upset once she fully regained her senses. Still, it was a legitimate question, proving that there were gears turning in her head.
"No, they installed it several years after opening as a new attraction. Thus the eternal night. Besides, if they'd done that, they wouldn't have the giant AS-I Pinball machine."
"The what?"
"Nothing," He quickly said, "Never mind; forget I said anything." There was no way she would ever approve of Anne going on- "Anne. We were looking for Anne, remember?"
"I remember, Sonic." She chided him in a manner of false dignity, covering her fib. "Anne!" She called out towards a nearby crowd, standing up. "Anne, are you-"
"Mom!" came a voice back. "Daddy!" it squealed, followed by a small figure making her way out of the crowd towards her parents. "There you are!" Two supersonic hugs and a gust of wind later, she stood in front of her parents, grinning and holding up a medium sized stuffed gorilla. Sonic just went with it, smirking at the false beast's red tie. Blaze didn't seem to either notice or care for the prize, instead remembering exactly what it had been that made her so panicked.
"What did you think you were doing, young lady?" she said sternly. It took a moment for the hedgecat to realize exactly what her mother meant. "You are going to be grounded as soon as we get back to the palace.
"Mooooooom."
"Don't 'Mom' me, Anne. You know better than to run off while were here, especially without super-"
'Thud' went the back of Sonic's head as he tumbled between mother and child; a large, red blunt object settling on the ground in his place. Blaze turned back to the crowd as another hedgehog stepped from the veil of the crowd, making her way towards the trio. Despite the surprise, Blaze's face only showed a seemingly disconnected calmness. Anne looked down with slight shock and concern, but otherwise unphased. Sonic was eating holographic dirt, and as likely as it was that there was pain all around his head, his voice was its usual sarcastic self.
"You misplace your hammer, Amy?"
"Oh, no. It's right where I wanted it, thanks." There were few things Sonic and Blaze could ever agree on, but one of them was Amy Rose. Once Sonic's 'Number One' fan and self proclaimed 'girlfriend,' she now wanted nothing to do with him after the reveal of Anne to her. She had been present at the time when Blaze told Sonic about his daughter, and had quickly gone off the hook. Fortunately, her speed was lacking, allowing the duo to make a hasty escape to where Anne had been waiting. Now, she spent any occasion she came across the blue blur making his life miserable, often incurred with a hammer strike of some sort. 'Bowling for Sonic,' as it became known, was technically incorrect. So far, she had always found a new way to bean him in the head with her hammer, which was saying something.
"I found 'em, Aunty Amy," Anne told the pink hedgehog. It was an unfortunate name that was one of the few mistakes of the mechanical minded 'Uncle Tails,' who originally interpreted that all of Sonic's friends were going to be treated like aunts and uncles. Some names stuck, while others she let go of with ease when they finally clarified this to Anne; Aunty Amy in particular stuck most likely because of the alliteration. That was Blaze's guess, anyway. Sonic just figured she was showing of her vocabulary.
"Yea, you did, Anne. And Blaze," she cooed, hate burning beneath the words, "Its so nice to see you again!" Blaze put on her royal face, hiding any disgust she had with the hypocritical creature. It wasn't her fault Sonic never dated her. If she wanted him so bad, she could have him. Or, more preferably, kill him.
"Same to you, Miss Rose." Hostility was in the air, fresh from the cleaners, as she put her hammer away. "Might I ask where you found Anne?"
"We've been in Timeless Carnival for a while, but decided to leave for a bit." Wolverine would have failed to penetrate the tension, had it been in physical form. "I managed to snag the last two tickets to a magician later, though. Thought we might go back to that later." Blaze frowned, realizing Amy intentionally left out asking for permission.
"In case you forgot about me," Sonic muttered as he stood up, "Ow." Blaze handed him the now lukewarm water bottle, and he took it gladly. If he didn't do something quick, he wouldn't be the only thing needing some sort of first aid. "You girls wanna go on Rail Chase?"
"What's that, Dad?" Anne asked, curious.
"It's that roller coaster up there." He pointed to a large hill of some sort of track as a series of carts were pulled to the top. Anne watched with awe as it neared the top. Neither of the women cared to take more than a glance.
"That?" She kept her eyes on the coaster as it finally began gliding over the hump. Almost instantly, it started accelerating as screams erupted from the cars. They could hear the pitch change as it moved,, nearly a blur itself. It was one of the top ten fastest roller coaster rides in the world. "It looks slow."
Her father paused, almost stunned, before laughing. "I guess I should have expected that. All right, fine. We'll save it for when you find a boyfriend and wanna go for a gentle love cruise." At last, the tension seemed to be fading away, at least slightly. Amy let out a hardy, high pitch giggle and Blaze even laughed slightly, showing a rare smile. Sonic laughed again as his daughter stuck out her tongue in disgust.
"Hey, why don't we go to that magic show you were mentioning, Amy?"
"Oh, that? As I said, there were only two tickets left when I got there. I bought them since Anne really wanted to go." Blaze growled at the pink abomination. "The show's starting in about twenty minutes."
"Well, what about us?" Blaze asked, irritated, but Amy just ignored her as she continued talking to Anne.
"Come on, Anne, you don't wanna be late, do you?" Amy said to her as Anne was hoisted onto her shoulders, similar to how Sonic occasionally did it. "We'll meet you outside of the theater when the show end, ok? It goes until 2:30."
"Okay, Amy." Sonic called back while Blaze fumed, staring intently at the two figures. "Just don't get into too much trouble!" But Amy was already talking intently to Anne as they made their way back into the mess of people walking along the main path.
"I think she got her lying skills from Amy," Blaze said as soon as they were far enough away. Sonic just laughed.
"Come on, we might as well try to enjoy as much of this as we can." He pulled her arm in the opposite direction, towards the large castle that Rail Chase centered around. Regretfully, she agreed. It didn't mean she had to like the fact that she was with him, though.
Lets Play Sonic 2006: *Tails screams, falling* *group laughs hard*
"You killed Tails." "I'm so sorry Tails."
"I don't see what the amusement of this place is, Sonic." It was one of the few things that actually held some sort of interest in the hedgehog's mind, but Blaze was hardly impressed by the maze. "It's just a bunch of mirrors to get lost in. It's not even that hard to get out." Alas, there was a reason they didn't charge for the place. Then again, the Visionarium did have trap door floors that they hadn't come across yet.
"There's more here than just mirrors, Blaze," He tried to enforce. They were coming up on the first trap door section, and he didn't want to give too many hints. The coaster rumbled through a nearby tunnel behind the mirrors, vibrating them. Sonic watched himself in the mirror as Blaze continued walking, arranging his quills to stall for time. Suddenly, she stopped just on the edge of the first door.
"You mean like those hidden floor traps?" she said, nonchalantly. Her mind was clearly on other things, from the way she said it. Then again...
"How'd you know?"
"They vibrated when the coaster came through." There was a pause, and she looked back to see Sonic just staring at her.
"You're a regular detective, you know that?" The unintended flattery seemed to strike a chord, and she looked back to the trap door in the floor.
"If I was such a detective, wouldn't I have been able to find Anne? Am I just that bad of a mother?"
"Hey, being a detective and raising a daughter are two very different things, Blaze." He walked up beside her, offering a sympathetic face.
"Well, than why was Anne so intent on going with Amy earlier? I'm her mother, not that... that girl," she spat, emotions getting the better of her. It was rare for the queen to ever have such a breakdown, but something about this world changed her. Sonic noticed it, too, but never said anything about it. It put a distance between Blaze and her duties as ruler, something that allowed her to function in a more natural state. Still, this side of the lilac feline was rare; while she wasn't crying, it was clear that Blaze felt poorly of herself.
"Blaze, Anne is your child, and she's always around you. It's only natural to want to be with people you see less than with those you see more. At least, for the people you like. Amy's-"
"Then why does she like Amy more than either of us? Why'd she just run off? I should have been watching her closer, making sure she didn't pull off anything... anything like this. If I was the mother I should be then I should be making her laugh and teaching her how to control fire. Instead I'm bogged down all the time in governmental work..." She glanced over to Sonic, and was surprised to find his hand on her shoulder.
"Blaze, you have two, no, three of the largest responsibilities in the world: governing, protecting the Sol Emeralds, and raising Anne. Each one is more difficult than the last. Combined with the fact that her other parent isn't always around..." He was treading on thin ice, and he knew it, but for once it didn't seem to be breaking. "and the traits said parent has passed on to his protege, doesn't make raising Anne easy. It may not always seem like it, but she does love you just as much as she loves me." The sentence set off her frustration with the hedgehog, but it also calmed her in a way that statement normally didn't. "Originally it was just going to be Anne and I coming here, remember? But she pleaded with you to come along. There's only one reason why she would want you along when you normally enforce rules and regulations on her. You may spoil her fun, but that doesn't mean that she doesn't like having fun with you as much as she does me." He smiled softly, and as much as she didn't want to admit it, he did have a point. His faults only drove home the point in how chaotic Anne was, as well. "The only real difference is that I'm always fun to be arou-Ow."
An elbow was shoved into his side at her disapproval, but to Sonic it meant that she was all better. He smiled, clutching his side as he applied the now quite warm bottle of water to the side. It was hardly an injury, but with Blaze, it was better to be on the safe side.
"So, anywhere else that's actually exiting to go, Sonic?" She wore a stern frown, a relatively normal look. There was still some emotion in her voice, but it wasn't sorrow or regret. "This just... isn't doing it."
"Well, there's go-karts."
"Raced on air boards that go ten times faster than those things."
"There's the food court."
"I am not eating that disgusting edible garbage you call 'fast food,' Sonic."
"There's the Love Tunnel" She stopped and stared at him.
"You wanna get tossed in the deep end of that pool with the waves we passed earlier?"
"Okay, okay, sheesh. I was just joking. Hmm..." Blaze continued to follow him as they walked through the rest of the maze, carefully following his every step. At last, he gave up on trying to find an honest attraction that he thought she'd like. "Well, you wanna go to the AS-I Arcade and ride their giant pinball machine?" He heard her footsteps stop.
"What exactly is this 'giant pinball machine?" He flashed his trademark smile at the firey feline and kept on walking.
"Simple. The most exiting ride Twinkle Park doesn't know it has."
Lets Play Sonic 2006: "Did that kill him?"
"No."