Author's note: Okay, let's see. I updated Red and Purple last time, so now I update this story. Then I'll update that other story that isn't about Sonic, and after that I'll come back to Red and Purple. Ah, routine.
Chapter 10: Success and Failure (EDITS MADE)
"But Tails, I keep telling you- I'M Sonic the Hedgehog!"
Saul had spent the past fifteen minutes arguing with Tails on the doorstep of the latter's workshop. He still hadn't recovered from his "memory condition," and he still thought he was Sonic, no matter what Tails said. Basically, the argument was going in circles by now, and both parties were growing sick of it.
"Listen to reason, Saul," Tails protested. "Sonic the Hedgehog is not a raccoon!"
"I am not a raccoon," Saul shot back. "Stop wasting my time with nonsense, Tails!"
Before Tails could say anything more, a piece of paper that had been tossed about by the winds blew right smack into Saul's face, blinding him for a few seconds. When he pulled it off, he read it over from top to bottom. (I won't tell you what it was- you should've guessed it already!)
"Dr. Eggman," Saul said quietly. Then, he repeated it more loudly, as anger began to build. "Dr. Eggman! The fiend! Capturing Amy just so he can have his way! Well, if he wants the Chaos Emerald, I'll give it to him!"
As Saul skated off into the distance, Tails's head dropped into his hands.
The only thing worse than being trapped in a cage, Sonic thought to himself, is being trapped in a cage with your obsessive girlfriend.
Back at the outpost, the cage that formerly held Amy by herself now held Sonic as well. Needless to say, Sonic wasn't exactly happy about his jailmate, but by now she had tired out and was now asleep. Nearby, Lily leaned against a speaker-pole, with the key clipped to her belt, and Eggman, who now had Sonic's Emerald as well as the one Lily found, was repairing the Egg Tarantula.
"How are the repairs on the Egg Tarantula coming, Doctor?" Lily asked.
"Quite well," Eggman replied, "considering the fact that the first time through I purposely made it so that Sonic would wreck it. It'll be good as new in minutes."
Lily only smiled, and turned back to face the cage. For about fifteen minutes, Sonic struggled with the cage, Amy kept sleeping, Lily remained on guard duty, and Eggman finished his Tarantula repairs. It wasn't too eventful.
Then came disaster. At about the same time Eggman booted the Egg Tarantula up again, a certain raccoon showed up on the scene. "Dr. Eggman, you're going nowhere!" he yelled out.
Amy woke with a start. "Wha-? What's going on?"
Saul approached Amy. "Amy! There you are. I got Dr. Eggman's ransom note. Don't worry, I'll beat on him some and leave with both you and the Emerald in my hands."
When Sonic tried to interrupt, Saul noticed him. "And just who are YOU, you impostor?"
Sonic blinked. "You're calling ME an impostor? Just who do you think YOU are?"
"I," Saul shot back, "am Sonic the Hedgehog, the blue blur himself. And YOU are a grade-A impostor or my style. Sheesh, you remind me of Shadow." Eggman and Lily made no attempts to interrupt this scene; it was much too much of a turn of events to them, and they were too surprised to act yet. And besides that, it was kinda amusing.
"Wait just a minute!" Amy interjected. "You are not Sonic. Look in the mirror, for Pete's sake. I know Sonic when I see him, and Sonic is here in the cage with me. In fact, I believe you're Saul the Raccoon."
"Don't even bother," Sonic whispered to Amy. "I think he has amna- anime- ammo- anmi- well, he's lost his memory. He thinks he's me."
Around then, the Egg Tarantula began to approach the group of three. "Well, who have we here?" Dr. Eggman said aloud.
Saul turned to face the Tarantula. "Dr. Eggman, I brought the Emerald. Come out of that thing and face me like a man!"
Ah! I forgot about the Emerald he had, Eggman thought to himself. All right, I'll play this one. Then, he spoke. "Nothing doing, rac- uh, hedgehog! You'll have to beat me first!"
"So be it!" And with that, Saul repeated Sonic's technique of rushing up the leg and bashing the cockpit. It did just as much damage as when Sonic had done it.
Just as last time, the missiles came next. This time, there were four. Saul jumped between two of them, landed on the third, but missed the fourth. The missile knocked him in the side of the head, causing him to fall to the ground, hit his head on a rock, and go unconscious.
"Saul!" Amy screamed. Somehow she seemed to care about Saul almost as much as she did Sonic.
The impact to Saul's head wasn't enough to knock him out for more than a few seconds, but it was sufficient to undo the effects from the previous blow. When he got up, he couldn't remember anything that'd happened since he and Amy had quashed the Eggscavator.
Looking around, Saul immediately spotted the cage, and rushed over to it as if he hadn't just been to it. "Sonic! Amy! What are you doing in that cage?"
"Blame Dr. Eggman- he's right behind you," Sonic replied. Saul turned around, and there was the Egg Tarantula. Deducing all over again that the weak point would be the cockpit, Saul attempted to roller-skate up the Tarantula's leg to hit it.
It didn't go too well. The slope of the leg caused Saul to roll back and hit the ground, which for some reason hadn't happened when he thought he was Sonic. Lily took advantage of the opportunity, drew her stun gun, and dunned the raccoon from her vantage point.
Eggman laughed. "Good shot, Lily. Put him in the cage with the other two. And don't forget to search him for the Emerald."
"Roger, Doctor." Lily reached into her back pocket for the key to the cage.
The key was gone.
"The key was gone." What a powerful thing those words say if used correctly. See ya next chapter!
Secrets: I first joined SegaStH on February 17th. Remember Saul's zodiac sign at the beginning of the fic?