Big "thank you" to all of you who have been with me till the end.
And yet... here we are, at "the end". ( Sobs, it's not fair!!)
Any- hoo, enjoy you guys!!
Chapter 7 .
The sky was blue and calm, the green grass around the station ruffled with the faint breeze. The two black limousines, flying red flags with a golden R, glittered in the sunlight.
A grey speck appeared on the horizon, upon getting bigger, it became a sleak, express train. It pulled up at the platform and the doors hissed opened, a pair of tanned legs followed by a pair clad in a navy suit exited the train. Glory stood with a couple of her female bodyguards in matching brown suits, ready to greet their guests. Next to Glory,with his surprise for his nephew safe in his hand, and reflecting the shine of the sun, stood a light-blue,elderly hedgehog. Sir Charles Hedgehog, Sonic's uncle, held onto her hand in a friendly gesture, Glory gave him a sad smile.
It was time to say good-bye.
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While Sir Charles, or Chuck as his friends called him, explained to Naminé's mother and her uncle- the Mayor- what had happened over the last week, Glory and her bodyguards walked to the nearby station café. At reaching the yellow door, with its peeling paint, she straightened a wrinkle in her skirt and coughed before pushing the door open. What she saw inside the small café made her wish for another way to do this.
Seated at one end of the room, Tails,Amy and Naminé were playing a board-game. By the look of the many multi-coloured slips of paper and yellow cards at her side, it seemed Amy was winning. On the other side, with his back to them, Sonic was busy hunched over a collection of papers, scratching his head every-so-often and rubbing his bruised leg.
She coughed loudly, " Naminé? They're ready for you."
Naminé looked up from her game, her eyes misting," O-okay, Miss Glory.." She took out a hankie, wiped her nose and blew with a honk. She stood and dusted down her dress front. She was dressed in a black tank-dress this time, again stopping at mid-thigh.Over which she wore a cotton, hooded sleeveless gilet in baby pink,also at thigh lenght. It was fastened by three big buttons in the middle, to allow freedom of movement. On her feet, she wore her new pink ankle-boots.
Amy picked up her travel bag, and Tails held onto her hand. Naminé looked over to where Sonic was seated, only to find the space empty. She looked down at Amy, who shrugged.
" He doesn't do good-byes..." She murmered softly as they followed the others out.
Glory spoke to them over her shoulder, cleaning her thick- rimmed glasses with a hankie. "Have you got everything, Naminé? Given out all your thank-you gifts to Sonic and the others?"
"Yes." She whispered.
Amy tugged on her gilet hem, " It was a nice thing you did for me, now I have lots of new clothes too,just like you. Aahh! We should go shopping sometime, a nice girlie day out, would you like that?"
Naminé grinned, " Yes. I would. Thank-you, Amy. And I'm glad you like your new outfits."
One of Naminé's gifts to Amy, were new outfits. Naminé had taken several of Amy's dresses and had them customized. Amy was now dressed in a tunic version of her red dress, complete with white halterneck collar, she wore a matching pair of loose-fitting trousers with wide legs to accomodate her big boots. And because Amy had been such a good friend to her during her stay, Naminé's second gift was safely tucked away in Amy's closet at Mystic Ruins, to be used when Sonic finally came to his senses and asked her out on a date.
Tails smiled at her with a blush, " I like my gift, Naminé. Now I don't have to worry if Sonic mis-lays my tools anymore, and my computer help-line will be more efficient and user friendly, thanks to your answering machine recordings and up grades."
Tails' gifts from Naminé were a brand-new tool kit, complete with high-tech self- scanning equipment in case of breakdowns and faults with a smart display case. Along with her gentle welcoming message for Tails' helpline,so people wouldn't be afraid that a kid-fox was helping them and to keep Tails' identity safe. Tails had blushed non-stop for hours before finding the courage to thank her.
Sunlight hit the groups eyes with dazzling effect. Glory shielded her eyes and her mouth dropped open, " I don't believe it..."
Sonic was standing with Chuck in conversation with the Mayor and Naminé's mother.The Mayor snapped his fingers,leaned forward and spoke in Sonic's ear. The hedgehog looked over to Chuck for a second, Chuck nodded and Sonic grinned before shaking his hand. Due to his hedgehoggy super sense, Sonic turned around and waved them over.
"Hey!!"
Glory narrowed her eyes at him, " Mister Mayor? I h-hope Sonic hasn't been troubling you?" She quickly put on her glasses, causing Sonic to raise his brows in bemusement.
" Oh no, not at all! Young Sonic here has just filled in the gaps. We're so grateful that you were able to cure Naminé of her parasitic tumour,"
" Well, that's one way of putting it," she mumbled.
The Mayor hadn't heard her," That we're oftering a reward of an all-expense-paid holiday to all of you. Anywhere you want to go, you'll go, our pilot is ready to take you anywhere. And as a bonus, I've just heard that G.U.N are going to be searching for Eggman, so you'll have nothing to worry about. Well.. how about it?"
Amy dropped the case onto Tails' foot. The fox howled and jumped around the platform. She shook her head," We can't accept it."
Sonic looked at her as if she'd grown an extra head, " Are you nuts!? A free holiday, free!!"
" If you'd let me finish, Sonic, " she took both his hands in hers, Sonic raised a brow. " You should take it, by yourself. You did most of the work, so you should get the whole reward. We'll stay here and help Chuck find Eggman."
" Amy..." She stopped him with a tap on his mouth. He smiled and kissed her finger tips softly, " Thank you."
" Come Naminé dear, lets get you home!" Called her mother from the train.
Tails sniffed loudly, Naminé knelt down in front of him and hugged him tightly. He cried into her shoulder, they were joined by Amy , who broke down in tears and sobbed into Naminé's other shoulder. Sonic stood way back to avoid getting soaked. She sighed and let them go, grabbing her bag she turned and walked towards the train.
As she crossed the platform, a gloved hand reached for hers, laced their fingers and squeezed." I'll come with you..." Came a soft voice at her elbow.
She blinked away tears, " Thank-you,Sonic."
The two friends stopped at the doors, her mother took her bag from her and went to find a seat, the Mayor was already seated. Sonic helped her up and then pressed a home-made book into her hands. She raised her snowy brows at it in question.
"It's not very good, " he admitted bashfully, "just for your eyes only, something for you to remember us by."
She looked down at the title: Naminé's Adventure. And held it close to her chest. " Thank you."
" No. Thank you, for my present."
Naminé's present to Sonic was one from the heart. Sonic was given a pair of brand-new sneakers with built-in sole fresheners and non-wearable treads.Sonic had broken them in with style, with a quick gobal run in ten seconds flat! A new record!
She grinned as the doors slid shut and waved at him through the windows. The train pulled out the station, gathered speed and disappeared around the corner.
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Sonic stood with the others, watching the train go. Amy held onto his left hand, while Tails held onto his right. The hedgehog lowered his head, shoulders sagging and sniffed.
" Sonnie?" Came Chuck's voice. Amy and Tails let him go with slight smiles on their faces. The elderly hedgehog gave Sonic a golden ring, Sonic looked at it ,then grinned. " Though I'm not your uncle, I do care about you and know that you really want to say good-bye to that charming, young lady. So use this and use it wisely."
"Thanks Unc.Okay everyone, hang onto something 'cause there's gonna be a big bang!"
He held the ring above his head.Everyone grabbed into the nearest thing they could find. Sonic glowed a brilliant gold, there was a sonic boom and he took off in a sparkling blue streak of light.
Glory flipped open her phone and said, " It's me. Follow him and take him where- ever he wants to go." She looked at the smoky trail with a smile.
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Naminé opened the book, her eyes filled with new tears that fell into her smile. Sonic had drawn their adventure and ended the book with a group picture in crayon. Her smile grew as she reached the end of the second row, standing next to a crayon Sonic stood a red and black crayon Shadow. She traced a finger down Shadow's face knowing he was safe now.
" What in blue blazes!"
She looked out the window and couldn't believe it.
Alongside the train, The Blue Blur himself, ran with every ounce of strenght he had. He looked up and their eyes met, he grinned at her and gave her a salute and a wink. She pressed a hand to the glass, smiled and winked back. Sonic started to slow, he rubbed his bruised leg and then shook his head at her. He came to a stop and waved good-bye as the train pulled away, he continued waving as it became a small dot on the horizon.
He wiped his face and was surprised to find it wet. He stood there, looking at his sodden hand and then back up.
" Good-bye, Naminé."
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A big lorry,a.k.a--The Eggernaut as its owner lovingly named it, stopped on the edge of the grassy verge. A pair of legs clad in black got out followed by a big, round belly hardly covered by a skimpy orange tank-top.
Eggman looked at the small version of Sonic on the ground below with contempt, true that the pesky hedge-rat had gotten the heart and soul of his grandfather's creation, but Eggman was one step ahead. He'd seen the body of the missing Shadow and was already making plans to make Shadow his, once and for all. With G.U.N checking all shuttle launches, he would have to be sneaky, and being sneaky was one thing a Robotnik was good at.
The back of the truck hissed open, Sliver Shadow stepped down the gangway to his master's side. A second figure approached, dressed in a long, black coat- dispite the warm weather- with the hood up. This figure was slightly thinner than Sliver Shadow, nearly the same but different in so many ways.
The Doctor put his arms around their shoulders, in a fatherly gesture, " My children," he cooed," There you see the object of our next attack. Sonic and his cohorts guard the last piece of the puzzle. We will not fight him now, but must return to The Badlands for more Diamondius for the final preperations for my next Android. Come, my children!!"
He got in the cab and started the engine. Sliver Shadow disappeared into the back and waited for the black cladded figure, who stood and watched Sonic as he got in a helicopter and flew away to start his vacation. They pulled back the hood and followed its flight-path.
" Rest while you can, Sonic the Hedgehog. Because this was only the beginning..."
To be continued in Volume Two-- Betwixt Twilights. ( Which I'm half- way through drafting.)
While drafting this chapter, I was listening to Transformers Movie, Original Score by Steve Jablonsky. Number 7-- the theme of Bumblebee-- and it just seemed to fit so well. ( It just set the sombre mood of the good-byes and then slowly building up to the heroic, moving climax as Sonic raced after the train.)
Please R R
Catch you on the flip side!!
