Hey guys! I've decided, if Diamond Dust and Madame Unazuki prove popular enough, I may use them in another fic! Enjoy Chapter 4! Oh, I should mention, this one's going to be a little more lighthearted than the previous one.
Sonic zipped through the streets, hardly noticing the rumble of the thunder or the rain that came down in torrents, soaking him to the skin even with his speed. His feet splashed in the puddles, spraying dirty water over the few people who were either brave or foolish enough to be out and about in this weather. He hardly noticed the dirty looks he received, for his thoughts were focused on one thing and one thing only. "C'mon, Amy, you gotta be here somewhere." he thought frantically.
He was starting to feel panicky, for he had looked in all the places she might be-the mall, the park, the beauty parlour, even the miniture golf course-but even with his speed, he had had no success, and the fact that the town was a big place didn't exactly help matters. He was rapidly running out of places to look, as he'd checked in every shop, and if she wasn't in a shop then there weren't many other places for her to hide.
Stopping for a moment to catch his breath, as he'd done a lot of running even for someone as fast as himself, he tried to remember if there were any places he hadn't looked, but it seemed that every place that came into his head was a place that he'd already searched.
Let's see now... clothes shop? Nope, already looked in three of 'em. Shoe shop? Nope, already checked. SIX times. Perfume department at the mall? Nope, looked in there for an hour. He sniffed at himself, and nearly gagged. He'd had been sprayed with Aurora knew how much smelly stuff, and even the driving rain hadn't completely removed the stench. GAAH! I'm getting nowhere! I've looked in all the types of places Amy likes, but there's no sign whatsoever of Amy! Then a terrible thought drifted into his mind. What if something bad's happened to her? What if she's hurt? Or been mugged? Or even...
An image of Amy lying on the pavement, bleeding from knife or gun wounds as the rain fell like tears, appeared before his eyes. In the image, she lifted her head weakly and opened her mouth, but only had the strength to croak out "S-Sonic..." before she fell into unconciousness, or even...
Shaking his head to remove the morbid image, Sonic cupped his hands over his mouth like a megaphone and cried "AMY!"
"AMY-MY-MY!" reverberated through the empty streets, the echo almost mocking to his ears.
A small noise from an alleyway behind him made him spin around. "Amy?" he asked hopefully, approaching the alley.
The alley was pitch black, forcing him to strain his eyes in an attempt to make anything out. As his eyes slowly became accustomed to the darkness, he heard the noise again. Looking around, he spotted a group of rubbish bins in the corner, the source of the sound, and a shadow dart behind them. He approached them cautiously, for he knew that dangerous people lurked in alleyways, ready to mug unsuspecting victims. While he had no doubt that he could outrun them, he would much rather avoid them if he could.
"Amy, izzat you?" he asked, squatting down and poking his head around the bins.
In answer to his question, a cat, disturbed from its peace, jumped out at him, hissing and spitting. He fell onto his back with a startled yell as it scratched his nose before darting out into the street.
Sonic sat up, rubbing his nose. "I hope the others are having better luck." he groaned.
*
Knuckles grumbled to himself as he stood outside the telephone booth, waiting for Marine to finish her call. While he had to admit that she was probably correct in her assumption, that didn't mean he had to be happy about waiting in the pouring rain.
"Hey, Knuckles? What was Marine's plan again?" asked Big as he walked up from the hotdog stand he'd found, a hotdog covered in mustard, relish and onion in his hand. On his shoulder, his pet frog, simply named "Froggy", croaked happily, for she had always loved the rain.
Knuckles could not believe the cat was asking this. Well, actually he could, but that was beside the point. "Big," he said through gritted teeth (he was starting to feel a bad mood coming on). "Were you even LISTENING when she explained?"
Big had the decency to look ashamed. "Well, yeah, but then I got hungry, and saw the hotdog stand, and..."
"Never mind." sighed Knuckles, knowing he shouldn't be so mad at Big. After all the cat wasn't stupid, just clueless. "Listen now, and pay VERY close attention." the echidna said in a firm voice.
Big nodded, stuffing the hot dog into his mouth whole.
"Marine thinks that Amy took her mobile with her, so she's decided to call Amy's number and see. Admittedly, we don't know whether she DID take her mobile, but with Amy, it's more than likely, so it's worth a try."
At that moment, Marine put the reciever down and stepped out of the booth. Knuckles turned to her. "Any luck?"
Marine shook her head. "'Fraid not, mates. I tried 3 times, but I got nadda. So she either didn't take it, or she DID but hasn't turned it on."
Knuckles groaned. "Great. NOW what do we do?"
"We could go get ice-cream." suggested Big in his clueless way. Both Marine and Knuckles glared at him. "What?"
*
At a park across town (not the same one Sonic had searched), the Chaotix weren't having much luck either. In fact, that was a bit of an understatement. They were having no luck whatsoever, and in addition to that, they were currently sporting several injuries.
Vector was sitting on a park bench under a group of trees which provided shelter from the rain, muttering to himself as he rubbed his ankle and head. He'd been searching for Amy in a clump of bushes, when he'd had a run-in with a big dog who'd evidently thought it would be a bit of sport to sink his teeth into the crocodile's leg. Well, as one could imagine, Vector had NOT been pleased, and had spent the best part of an hour shaking his leg in a vain attempt to dislodge it. Luckily, after he'd stopped shaking his leg, Charmy had given the dog a good sting to get rid of it. Unluckily, the dog's owner, a very snobby-looking lady in a fur coat, had stormed up to them and hit Vector over the head with her handbag, completely ignoring the fact that the dog's actions had been unprovoked and insisting that Vector had scared her "poochy-woochy". In the end, she had only left them alone after Charmy had stung her as well, and had (reluctantly) threatened reprisals if she didn't leave.
Espio had been searching in the trees, his ninja skills having come in useful for jumping from branch to branch, when one had broken beneath him. While he had managed to jump off safely, the branch had unfortunately contained a hive of honey bees, who had immediately attacked Espio. He had run off the moment they had come buzzing out of their hive, jumping into a nearby lake in an attempt to evade them, but they had remained hovering over the surface of the water. When his oxygen-starved lungs had forced him to surface for air (VERY quickly), one of them had stung him on the nose. This had happened 5 times, each time with a different part of his head, until he had had the bright idea to break off one of the reeds and use it for breathing until they had left. Now he sat next to Vector, glowering as the places where he had been stung continued to throb.
Mighty was leaning against a tree, scowling at anything and everything. He had had the "bright" idea to search near the kid's playground, which had turned out to be a BIG mistake. When the kids had seen him, they had started to throw things at him, giving him several bruises that would probably take a week to fade. He had curled up into a ball to avoid the objects, but the little brats had then decided it would be more fun to hit him with their dolls, baseball bats or plain old sticks. He'd borne it patiently for a while, but when he'd finally decided he'd had enough and had unrolled in order to give them a good scolding, they'd knocked him to the ground, tied him up with their skipping ropes and forced him to play tea party with them. He'd probably still be there if their mothers hadn't scolded them for playing with a stranger and made them untie him and apologise.
In fact, the only one who had escaped injury was Charmy, who was currently sitting on the edge of the park fountain, happily swinging his legs and ignoring the rain.
"What are you doing, Buzz-Brain?" snapped Vector irritably. "Get over here before you catch a cold and give it to the rest of us."
Charmy shook his head. "Can't, I'm afraid. This is part of my brilliant plan."
"And what, pray tell, might that plan be?" demanded Espio.
"Well, we've been looking for Amy, but we've had no luck, so I figure if I sit here, everyone I've ever met in my life should show up, including Amy."
Mighty rolled his eyes. "Charmy, that is, without a doubt, the single most STUPID plan I have ever heard in my life. EVER."
At that moment, an elderly chipmunk with grey hair in a bun, wearing a red floral dress and carrying an umbrella in one hand and a bag of groceries in the other, walked by, calling "Hello there, Charmy."
"HI!" Charmy called back. "My second grade teacher, Mrs Minchpin." he explained to the other Chaotix members.
Vector, Espio and Mighty looked at each other. And decided it was safer not to comment.
*
"Enlighten me as to WHY exactly we had to come here, to the roughest part of the town?" asked Shadow, stepping over a rubbish bin which had been knocked over.
"Sonic told us to search everywhere, and that's what we're doing." said Silver in an annoyed tone of voice. "If you don't like it, go home and leave finding Amy to the real heroes."
"REAL heroes?!" echoed Shadow. "How, exactly, are YOU a real hero?"
"I helped save the world from an evil god."
"You nearly murdered Sonic because you were stupid enough to believe Mephiles' lies!"
"Oh yeah?! Well at least I never tried to destroy the whole world just because some guys with guns shot my girlfriend!"
"3 things. 1: she was not my girlfriend. 2: I had partial amnesia. And 3: NEVER BRING MARIA INTO THIS!" roared Shadow, throwing a punch at Silver. Silver dodged it, levitated a nearby bin and sent it flying at Shadow, knocking him into the wall. Shadow got to his feet, lowered his head and charged at Silver. Silver sidestepped, causing Shadow to smack into a lamppost. He staggered for a few seconds, then jumped on top of Silver and started wrestling him, finally looping an arm around his neck and throttling him.
Choking heavily, Silver spotted an old bicycle frame nearby. He stretched out his arm, levitating it a little, then jerked his arm back allowing it to smash into Shadow, knocking him off Silver. Still levitating the bicycle frame, Silver got to his feet and was about to drop it on top of Shadow, when a fireball smashed into it, knocking it into a wall.
"Will you two knock it off!" snapped Blaze. "We're here to find Amy, not pick stupid fights with each other!"
"He started it." grumbled Shadow, staggering to his feet.
"I don't care WHO started it! I'm finishing it! And if I hear one more word out of either of you, you're both getting fricasseed!"
"But Blaze-" began Silver.
"NOT ANOTHER WORD!" snarled Blaze, her temper fraying. She always dreaded it when Shadow and Silver had to work together, as they were always fighting. Perhaps it has something to do with Mephiles imitating Shadow's appearance? Well, whatever it is, we have more important things to do. She shot them both an icy glare, then walked off. If only there was something they agreed on.
"Stupid fire-wielder." muttered Shadow.
"This time, I agree with you." nodded Silver. He and Shadow stared at each other in shock.
"We never breathe a word of this to anyone, right?"
"Right."
*
"AMY!" yelled Jet as he, Wave and Storm zoomed through the streets on their hoverboards, scattering civilians everywhere. The angry shouts from those who were knocked over were ignored, for the Babylon Rogues were interested in one thing only: finding the missing pink hedgehog and bringing her home.
"AMY! Where the heck are you?!" called Wave. "C'mon, you've gotta be here somewhere, we've already searched half this sidea town!"
"AM-" began Storm, but the cry died in his throat, as he spotted a pink figure. A pink figure with a very familiar hairstyle, wearing a long trench coat.
"Hey, guys! THERE she is!" he cried, pointing. Jet and Wave glanced around at his cry, as did the figure. It gave a start, then darted into a nearby crowd.
"Quick! After her!" cried Jet, turning his hoverboard in the direction the figure had gone. Wave and Storm followed. Ploughing through the crowd, ignoring the cries of outrage from the shoppers, the Babylon Rogues pursued their target.
For some reason, Amy didn't seem to want to slow down and speak to her friends. Instead, she sped up in a desperate attempt to evade them. But no matter how fast she ran, the Rogues were always that bit faster, and they were soon gaining on her.
Suddenly, Amy slammed into a lamppost, collapsing to the ground and sparking-wait a minute. Sparking?
"HEY! This ain't Amy!" cried Wave, jumping off her hoverboard and pulling off the trenchcoat to reveal a metallic duplicate of their friend. "This is one of ol' Eggy's Metal Amys!"
"What's it doing here?" asked Storm.
"Don't know, don't care." replied Jet. "All's I know is, that ain't Amy, so the real Amy's still out there somewhere."
"But...what if it's dangerous?"
"Storm, it wasn't doing anything dangerous. And even if it was, well, it ain't gonna be doing anything much now, is it?" pointed out Wave.
"Well, I guess you're right. But I feel uneasy just leavin' it there."
"Don't worry." said Wave, picking up the robot's body and placing it in the storage compartment of her hoverboard. "When this is over, I'll take it apart. Might be able to use its parts for something else."
"Well, now that's sorted, we've got a friend to find." said Jet. "C'mon, Rogues, let's get going!"
*
"Any sign of her, Cream?" Tails asked.
Cream removed the super magnifying binoculars from her eyes and shook her head. "Not yet."
"I cannot believe we're out here, in the pouring rain, looking for Amy." complained Rouge. She'd been flying alongside the Tornado for an hour, and was getting soaked to the skin, not to mention chilled to the bone. "Look, can't we just go home where it's warm and dry?"
"Rouge!" Cream exclaimed in outrage. "How can you be so selfish?! Amy's out in this weather, and all you can think of is yourself!"
"Hey, I am not being selfish! I'm just saying, we haven't found her, and I highly doubt we're going to, so why not just call it quits?"
"You're a horrible, nasty old bat!"
"WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE!"
"Um, Rouge," ventured Tails. "I think she was referring to your species."
"You stay out of this, pipsqueak!" Rouge snarled.
"Don't yell at him!" shouted Cream. Cheese chirped in agreement.
"If I wanna yell at him, I'm gonna yell at him!"
"Then I'm gonna yell at you!"
"Don't even think about it, you stupid brat!"
"I am not a stupid brat! You're an old hag!"
"How DARE you, you immature little punk!"
"I'm not immature! You're immature!"
"OH YEAH?!"
"YEAH!"
Tails had to get them to stop shouting at each other, as he was starting to get a headache. "Um, could we please stop fighting?"
It worked. In a way. They stopped shouting at each other and yelled "STAY OUT OF THIS!" at him.
Tails groaned to himself. "Amy, you'd better appreciate this." he muttered to himself.
Well, you like? Read and review!
