Up, Down and All Around
It was a gloomy night, in some grassy location. Sonic looked around, and it looked a lot like Angel Island, but there was something off about it. Suddenly, a brilliant flash of light came before him, and from the light came a young Echidna. She was tan, with tribal beads in her hair. She appeared no older than fourteen, but had the presence that she was many years older than she looked. She walked to Sonic, and smiled as she said
"Oh Sonic, thank chaos your back!" as she smiled, a look of concern masked below her smile "Things have been terrible without over the last year… as you may of guessed. I reached out to you, and showed you were Amy was, and your welcome for that, but there is much more at stake here than your friend's life. I'm sorry."
"Wait, Tikal, what are you talking about? Does Metal Sonic fit into all this?" Sonic said, trying his best to keep his cool "Cause if metal is to blame, just tell me how to stop him and I'll be off in a Mobius minute to beat him down."
"Calm down Sonic, it's much deeper than that. Yes, your friend 'Metal Sonic' is the cause of the current disturbance, but there is much more at stake. "She begun to say, looking away from Sonic and at the shrine where the chao played with Chaos "You see, he hasn't taken loss with any dignity. Metal Sonic is determined to win this time, and his plan involves many stages. From what we have gathered, he wants to weaken you, which it seems he has already done that… I'm sorry we couldn't help…"
"It's ok Tikal, he caught me off guard, that's all" Sonic said, trying his best to comfort her
"Be that as it may, his second part of this plan is what worries me. He is planning on collecting the chaos emeralds, again. But this isn't all. He wants to use the Master Emerald this time, for an evolution for himself, and finally transcend his one weakness… as he sees it." She had begun to say, not quite sure how to tell Sonic what his plan is.
"Tikal, please. Tell me. I can help defend this world from whatever he is planning; I just need to know what I'm fighting. Please…" Sonic asked, trying his best to convince her to talk.
"I'm sorry Sonic, but I can't cheat fate. You must learn this on your own, when the time comes. I've already pushed my limits telling you what I did. Just be careful. Metal Sonic may be cruel and calculative in his planning, but there is a deranged insanity in there hell-bent on killing you. I fear for your future Sonic. "She said, returning to her ball-of-light form
"I hope the next time we meet, you are still of flesh and blood"
"Gugh!" Sonic awoke, shaking his head of the dream he just had. "That's odd. Tikal wouldn't reach out to contact me if this wasn't incredibly important… I just wish she would have told me what I need to be careful about…" he lamented, as he climbed out of bed and took a shower.
"Man, I haven't bathed in … too long" he admitted to himself, smiling at the mere silliness of the statement. In roughly ten minutes, he was done showering and dressed up in a pair of pants that were falling apart, but still he loved his grunge pants. He then dawned an over-shirt to cover up his upper arms, and tied on his trademarked shoes. He looked in the mirror and said "Gotta look good today, I'm going to be seeing everyone again, and they deserve to see their hero looking as cool as he acts." He smirked, walking down to the medical bay to check up on Amy, if not just Tails.
The door swung open, and Sonic strolled right on in. "Yo Tails!" he said aloud, looking around for anyone. He saw Amy lying on her bed, taking a nap and Tails was in the nearby room on his computer. Sonic decided to let her sleep, and went into the adjacent room to talk to Tails real fast.
"Hey, listen Tails. Thanks a million for taking care of Amy." He said, patting his friend on the back. "If it's cool with you, I'm going to go visit everyone else, and say hi to them. It's been over a year, and most of them are probably missing me" he said, a laugh in his voice.
"Yeah… ok Sonic" the kid replied, clearly distracted by whatever was on his screen, all Sonic could make out were numbers and a picture of Amy. "Don't… be gone … for long." The kid droned on, becoming more-and-more absorbed by whatever the document showed him.
"Alright Tails…" Sonic said, a little worried about whatever it was Tails read. "Be back latez!" and with that he rushed into town.
"Think I'll visit the 'faker' first" he thought, a smile appeared on his face at the thought of seeing the person who could probably sympathize with him the most.
In a matter of minutes, Sonic was in the casino district of the town, and soon found his way to Club Rogue. "Hate being here, but love the clientele" he joked to himself, as he went inside.
"Oh hey-a Big Blue" a bat said to Sonic, winking seductively at him as she then turned to roll some dice on the table. "Yeah! That is how you roll 'em!" she shouted with glee.
"Hey Rogue, "Sonic replied, looking around for Shadow "You wouldn't happen to know where Mr. Dark and sulky went off too, would ya?" he asked.
"Oh him, he is no fun" she said, looking at Sonic as she walked over to meet him. "Unlike you Blue. Your all fun and adventure, shame you don't have a girl, ain't it?" she said, giving him a seductive look, as she sat down on a love seat facing Sonic.
"Yeah, real bummer" Sonic mumbled "But still, you see him or what? I got something I need to ask him…" he trailed
"Oh fine, be Mr. serious why don't you?" she replied, pouting at Sonic "yeah, he went to the nearby construction site, for some reason. Probably just blowing things up and releasing some stress…" she said, leaving the seat and going to the fridge to grab a beer. "Want one?" she asked while fetching one for herself.
"No thanks on the beer, but thanks on the 411" Sonic replied "I'll see ya later, Rouge." And with that he walked back out to the street.
"Don't be a stranger now, ya hear" she teased back, opening her beer and taking a drink.
Sonic walked down to the main district of the city, till he spotted a construction site. "This has got to be the place…" he thought, walking over to the site. He passed the main gate and looked around, but didn't see anyone. Or heck, any evidence that anyone has been here for months. Abandoning hope that he would find Shadow, he turned to leave when he heard a loud whistle coming towards him, and he reflexively leapt in the air to dodge something.
*CRASH* made the sound, as a crater appeared where Sonic was. In the midst of the crater was a black hedgehog, with red accent to his fur. He turned to look at Sonic, who was still in the air, and said "Let's see what you got, Faker" as he leapt off the ground to engage his advisory.
Sonic reacted quickly, by curling into a ball and forcing himself to be propelled to the ground, where he then bounced as he landed and un-curled to land in a fighting pose. Shadow shot overhead, landing on the skeleton of the unfinished building, just to shoot back right where Sonic was. Shadow forced his leg down on Sonic, who blocked and proceeded to swing his own kick at Shadow, who blocked and they started exchanging blows as such.
Shadow would occasionally discharge Sonic away, by using chaos spears or a blast. Sometimes, being overwhelmed by Sonic's string of hits, he would quickly use chaos control to teleport a short distance away, just too then re-engage Sonic.
Sonic would block Shadow's powerful kicks, and then force him off his balance and try to land a quick combo into his rival, before using a spin dash to launch them apart. Then they'd rush back into each other, clashing with force again. This went on for about twelve minutes, before they stopped 'pulling their punches'.
Shadow leapt in the air, and begun channeling his chaos energy, gaining power with each passing second. Sonic dove into a nearby pipe, and begun shaking his body with supersonic vibrations, healing himself while preparing himself to move at his faster speeds.
Shadow finished charging up, and unleashed a hell storm of chaos spears down upon where Sonic was, and Sonic leapt out of the pipe, and launched himself in the air at supersonic speed. Sonic kicked off of the spears, accelerating himself to Shadow at an alarming rate, and Shadow anticipated this by switching his spears for balls of pure chaos energy, forcing Sonic to have to improvise by leaping over to the building, and using it for a launch ramp to get up where Shadow was floating.
Shadow continued the torrent of chaos bombs, while changing it up with the occasional beam of chaos energy. His altitude slowly dropping as he burnt through his energy. Sonic used the building to soak up the majority of projectiles, while occasionally kicking one into another. Sonic's only goal was to tire Shadow out, so he could close the gap and lock Shadow in a quick supersonic-combo.
Three minutes passed, and Shadow was half the height he originally was, just barely above the top of the skeleton-building. But that didn't stop him from introducing Sonic to his full arsenal of chaos-themed attacks. Sonic, on the other hand, was leaping from floor to floor, carefully dodging everything Shadow threw at him, when finally he spotted an opening. He pushed off the building, with such force that the entire structure shook with reverberation. Sonic propelled himself right through the opening in Shadow's assault and connected into Shadow with a strong right hook, launching Shadow to the ground.
Sonic chased after, and begun his combo on Shadow. Quickly punching him to prevent him from gaining the upper hand, whilst mixing strong kicks in to force Shadow to block, thus opening himself to another barrage of the supersonic-combo. After about thirty second, Shadow used a quick chaos control to teleport out and turned to say "Enough!"
"What *pant* had enough *pant* Shadow?" Sonic said, bending over to catch his breath.
"You *pant* wish. *pant* Faker." Shadow managed to say, catching his breath. "So *pant* it's true. You've *pant* returned, have you?"
And with that, they walked to a nearby girder, and sat on it, catching their breath from their intense fight. After a minute passed, Sonic turned to Shadow to say
"So, what is with you greeting me with a royal brawl?" Sonic said, smirking.
"Just had to make sure you were the real Sonic, and not some Eggman copy." Shadow replied "and, besides, I really haven't had anyone good to fight for a little over a year…"
"Yeah, sorry 'bout that" Sonic said, feeling guilty that his friends have lived a year without his presence. "Want to hear why I was gone?" he asked, wanting to explain to Shadow why he was gone, so he could then ask some questions.
"Sure, why not. I could use a good story" He replied, and Sonic told Shadow about Egg-Mobius and how he escaped. And about finding Amy in the lab upon coming back, and thus, the return of Metal Sonic. "Wow, that is quite the tale…." Shadow said, contemplating everything he just heard.
"Yeah, you're telling me. And to top it off, I had a dream last night where things get weirder. Metal Sonic is going to hunt down the chaos emeralds and use them with the master emerald to achieve his greatest power… or something like that." Sonic said, trying to think what that meant.
"Yeah, no real surprise there…" Shadow replied "So, lemme guess. You want some help tracking down these emeralds, and you thought of coming to me first?" he said, smugly.
"Well…. Yes and no." Sonic said. "I mean, yes, stopping Metal Sonic is a top priority… we all know that. But we still have to be able to defend ourselves if Eggman attacks, or even Metal Sonic. Knowing him, he has anticipated me coming to my friends for assistance, and probably has some plan to make this only that much more difficult for me. I wouldn't know what… but trust me when I say that he is nothing to joke about. "Sonic said, with seriousness in his tone.
"I'm the Ultimate Life Form; you think I'm worried about some scrap version of you?" Shadow said a tone of smugness through his remark. "I'll go look around the world for the emeralds, and I'll take Rouge and Omega with me. We could use an adventure anyways…." He trailed off, thinking of getting out of the city for a bit.
"Shadow, I know that I can't talk you out of this, but please be careful" Sonic said, smiling but still concerned "Metal Sonic isn't someone to be trifled with. He plans on killing me, and I don't think he'll need much of a reason to harm you to get to me…"
"Sonic, you may of won our little skirmish, but come on. We both know I can handle myself. Sides, I'll have Rouge and Omega with me. Metal Sonic can't take the three of us on" he said, confidently.
"Fair enough…" Sonic resigned "I'm not getting through to him, but whatever. Maybe Metal Sonic hasn't anticipated Shadow teaming up with Rogue and Omega…."he hoped. "I'll see ya soon, bro. I got to go check up on some other people." Sonic said, leaping off the girder, and walking back to the street.
"Yeah, next time you see us, I'll have some of the emeralds and Metal Sonic won't know what to do with himself" Shadow said, laughing at the prospect of making the metal hedgehog mad. "Still, why can't you go out adventuring with us?" Shadow asked, suddenly realizing that Sonic wasn't already making plans to go out looking for himself.
"Gee, Shadow, I'd love to… but…. "Sonic trailed off. "You see. I am … still resting from my last adventure. I'll look around wherever I can, but I won't be off adventuring for a couple days…" Sonic admitted, sad at coming to terms with the truth.
"Not going to be the same without ya, Faker" Shadow laughed "Now I don't have any competition getting to each emerald."
"You'll have a metal version of me to deal with, should keep you occupied enough" Sonic replied "If not, we can fight when you get back" He said, smiling.
"Well, catch ya later" And with that Shadow used chaos control to vanish from the construction site.
"Interesting guy… Just when you think you know somebody…" Sonic thought, walking down the street to head back to the beach. "I wonder if Amy is doing any better…" he thought, feeling guilty that he hadn't thought of her sooner. And with that, he rushed to Tail's lab in a matter of second. He got to the door, when he felt how sore he was from the fight with Shadow.
"Hmmm, why am I so sore? Does using that supersonic vibration thing weaken me or something…" Sonic wondered, as he opened the door. "Yo Tails!" he shouted.
"In here Sonic!" came the reply.
Sonic walked into the kitchen and readied a plate of chili dogs, and took the food with him to the medical wing, snacking on them as he walked. He opened the door, and stepped inside to see Tails talking to Amy about something. Sonic caught the last bit of a sentence.
"- just don't tell Sonic…" Tails warned. Turning to look at Sonic. "Oh hey Sonic, mind if I have one. I haven't eaten since…" he looked at his watch "wow! I haven't eaten in about nine hours!" he laughed.
"Yeah sure Tails, you want on Ames?" Sonic said, gesturing the plate to Amy. She accepted one, thanking him. But she seemed sad or distant with him. It rubbed him the wrong way. "What's the matter Amy?" he asked
"Oh… nothing…" she said distantly, slowly snacking on the chili dog. "Just … thinking…."
"Cool. Cool. So Tails is our girl finally ready to get up and out of bed?" he asked.
"Just about Sonic, I just want to run one last test on her, then you can take her home…" he said, trailing off as he was typing things into a nearby machine. "Now Amy, I need you to put your arm on the mat." She did just that "Yeah, like that…" *ZAP* "There we go." He said, smiling at how he was finally done.
"Wow, I expected that to hurt…" said Amy, dumbfounded by what just happened. She ate the last bite of her chili dog, and turned to Sonic saying "So, Sonic. Would you be a gentleman and walk your lovely girlfriend home?" she said, tilting her head and having a cute smirk on her face.
"Oh, you know I can't say no to that face" Sonic said, helping her up off her bed.
"Oh, you can't now can you?" she asked, devilishly "Well then." She cocked her head again and smirked while saying "Sonic, will you marry me?"
"Hahahaha" Sonic laughed "I can still say no to that!" he said, laughing only harder until he went flying into the nearby bed from a solid whack from her hammer. "Geez Amy, lighten up" he said, pulling himself up from the floor.
"Hrumph!" she said, strolling over to her suitcase, and storming out of the lab. "I'll be walking home, if you need me!"
"See ya later Amy!" Tails said, waving. "Sonic, you should go apologize to her. Remember, she hasn't been able to see you for over a year, so you might want to cut back on the usual brand of 'Sonic Humor' if you catch my drift" he hinted.
"Yeah, sure Tails" he said, rubbing his arm. "I'll see ya later" and with that he bounded off to the main room, where Amy went.
"Hey Ames, I'm sorry." He said, catching up to her brisk pace.
"Yeah, sure. Whatever" was her reply "You've been gone a year, and yet you haven't changed a bit. But the rest of us, we didn't have that luxury" she said, her anger over-taking a tear forming in her eye. "I had to learn to live without you Sonic. You put me through that. And then you come back, joking and smiling like usual, oblivious to the hardships we had to go through" she said, walking faster.
"Amy, look, I'm really sorry." He said, catching up to her again "But come on, we both know you're not going to out run me. Now give me your suitcase, and let me walk you home like a gentleman" he said, flirtatiously, hoping that would soothe her anger.
It did. "Oh thank you Sonic" she said, giving him her suitcase, and wedging herself under his arm as they walked back to her apartment, albeit at a slower pace than before. She soon started asking him what he did on Egg-Mobius, and he answered. He asked her what she did while he was gone, and she answered with her own short answers. And they exchanged banter like this until her apartment complex showed up.
"Would you mind walking me to my door?" she said, leaning closer on him.
"Yeah, alright" he replied, sighing how he wasn't going to be able to shake her.
They climbed the stairwell, because Amy insisted on catching up on some missed Boxercising practice. They arrived at her apartment, where Amy used her key to open the door.
"Thanks for the walk Sonic" she said, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek. Sonic didn't flinch off, like he usually would have. He instead let her have her kiss. "It's better if I just let her have her little kiss now, 'sides, she deserved it. I keep forgetting they went a year without me…" he thought.
Cream strolled in from the other room, and saw the two of them and shouted "AMY! Your ok! Oh, you had me and Cheese so worried!" she said, running over to give Amy a hug, her chao following her "Chao Chao!"
"Oh Cream, and Cheese. I'm alright. I just needed… to take a little breather" she said, consoling her roommates.
"Oh, I'm just so thankful you're alright" the rabbit said, happy to hold her best friend again. "Oh, Mr. Sonic. Will you be staying?" she asked, parting herself from her Amy hug long enough to ask.
"Uhm…. " Sonic begun to reply.
"He would LOVE TO!" Amy said, grabbing him by the arm and yanking him inside, closing the door behind him.
Author's Note:
So, that makes ten chapters now. What do you all think? I finally caved, and started adding the interactions you all came to see. But don't be expecting a crazy orgy of awesome sex next chapter. Mwahahaha! At any rate, i want to send love to all of you out there who have favorited/subscribed to this. And i look forward to how you'll respond to this chapter. Feel free to send me a long and hard review. :D
Oh, and it celebrates one full week of work. So... ten chapters (20,000+ words) per week... seem reasonable enough, right?
I'll be posting Chapter eleven right after i get it done. So... most likely today. Still, Review, Rate and RAVE about my latest installment. 3 ya all
-ZiGeNaToR