Yay! I'm back! Finally, huh? But yep, here it is. The next chapter, because, as I said, this story is NOT over yet! Nope. In fact, after this chapter, I'm fairly certain I still have a LOT of plot to cover. But you don't have to take my word for it (or...I guess you do, since I'm the author) so read on!
We arrived back at the picnic area not too long later. The first thing I noticed was my dad, who was miserably failing as he tried to flip burgers on the grill. I groaned and jogged over, stopping him just before he sent what looked like a third hamburger between the rungs of the grill.
"Dad, stop! Who would intrust him with the tongs?" I asked to pretty much everyone.
"Hey, he's the entertainment," Manic laughed.
"I guess I forgot about the food poisoning tradition at these things," my dad laughed. I rolled my eyes and tried to salvage the burgers before they were too charred to flip properly.
"We've had to rely on Sonic to carry out that tradition a few years now," Knuckles teased. "And, believe it or not, he's worse than you."
"Ouch. Now that hurts, Knux," Sonic droned monotonously, only proving his sarcasm.
"Vanilla, will you pass me a few more burgers?" I asked and put four more on the almost-empty grill as she complied.
"So how did you learn to cook so well when your father was such a mess?" she asked.
I shrugged. "I was never really that good; just enough to not rely on takeout every night. I think I got better once Peach came along too, since that was better than pizza every night."
"What's better than pizza every night?" Knuckles asked, more curious than taken aback, seeing as how he had just entered the conversation.
"Ice cream every night!" Manic announced and a wave of laughter hit us all in unison. From what I gathered, Manic was famous for causing those.
After a few more minutes, we had a tray piled high with hamburgers and hot dogs and a smaller plate with a few veggie burgers. Vanilla went to get Vector and the kids who were still swimming and I had to avoid Peach's dripping hug until I had him wrapped up in a towel. Jules and Knuckles, having claimed the role of the buff guys, pushed two picnic table together like they weighed little more than my backpack so that they stretched end-to-end like one super long table.
All thirteen of us crammed onto the benches with the food spread equally down the middle. On one side was Vector, Vanilla, Aleena, Jules, my dad, Manic, and Sonia, who proved to be the most mature of the younger group. Across from them was Charmy, Cream, Tails, Peach, me, Sonic, and Knuckles. Once seated, the organized food was almost immediately demolished as everyone made a grab for buns and burgers/hot dogs, chips, and drinks. With all the chaos around us, I really felt like I fit in...which was weird, but I guess everything was so hectic and being a part of it made me feel like one of the group. I'd felt like that a lot lately.
Everyone had finished eating now. The grown-ups stayed at the table talking for awhile and the rest of us took to the playground and such. Peach and the younger kids went to the playground and the rest of us headed to a volley ball net. I sat on a bench and was just going to watch, since otherwise there was an odd number of players, but as it looked, Knuckles wasn't going to have any of that.
"Come on Amy! You have no idea how many years these three have been bragging about how awesome a team they make! If you'll just be on my team then Sonic, Sonia, and Manic can play together and we'll recruit Jules or Tails or someone!"
"I don't want to play," I complained.
"Please? Please pleeeeaaase please?" he begged, giving me a puppy-dog look that only proved to scare me slightly.
"No! Wouldn't it be easier to just play the game how it is and use the even number you already have?"
"That's like asking if it would be easier to swallow four more weeks of mocking from those know-it-alls!"
"Knuckles," I wined.
"Amyyy," he pouted even bigger.
"Ehem," we looked over to Sonic, who was tapping his foot impatiently on the other side of the net. "We're waaaitiiiing."
"Oh come on! You don't want me on your team!" I hissed, trying not to let the other three hear. "I've never even played volleyball!"
"What?" Knuckles was much louder than me. "That's absurd! And all the more reason for you to play NOW!"
"No it's not! Why not, like, a practice game or something as a first game? I know they're serious about this and I can't imagine why you wouldn't. Why risk the game just so I can play?"
"It's no sacrifice! Ever heard of 'beginner's luck'? Duh!"
I groaned. "I don't want to play!"
"Too bad. You're in!" Knuckles grabbed my arms and then proceeded to drag me off the bench and onto the sandy volleyball court. I slouched down in resentment to try to make it harder for him, but he just rolled his eyes and tossed me across his arm.
"No, no, no, no, no no, nooo!" I complained as he plopped me down near the net.
"ANYONE UP FOR A GAME OF VOLLEYBALL?" Knuckles hollered in his naturally booming voice, so loud I covered my ears.
Only a moment later, a lot of the others had filed over either to watch or play. Jules was the first to step forward to play, followed closely by Tails, Charmy, and Vector.
"We only need one person," Manic said, then turned to Knuckles. "Unless you're up for four-on-four."
"You're on!" Knuckles exclaimed. "I'll even let you have Jules! It can be like a family thing! Charmy and Tails can play for us; Vector, you're best at calling scores."
"Alright!" everyone agreed unanimously...except, of course, me. But, being out ruled, I decided to respect my defeat with some dignity...as in trying to switch places with Vector before Knuckles noticed.
"Nuh-uh! Amy, you're playing, like it or not," he scolded and I groaned, letting him sit me back up at my spot at the closer right corner near the net. I was right across from Sonia, who smiled sweetly and gave me a quick thumbs up. "Okay...any idea how to play?"
"Not a clue," I said, though that may have been an exaggeration.
"Five minutes to warm up, you guys! Sonic, send me the ball for a bit! Ouch!" Knuckles called, taking a volleyball to the arm. "Okay, I'm gonna be across from you at the back left corner, meaning I'll serve first. We rotate every time someone scores in a clockwise direction and whoever is in the back left serves.
"Uh, basic rules...no more than three hits per side, and every time the ball touches the ground or net, the other team gets a point, as long as that was the serving team. The ball can graze the net when you serve, plus, since it's your first game, we'll give you a few practice serves your first time up. When returning a serve, you're only allowed to bump it. Okay...anything else? Oh yeah! Boundaries. You're allowed to serve from right outside the boundary lines, but otherwise the ball shouldn't leave the sand area. Got everything?"
"Uh..."
"Great! Let's warm up. We're just gonna volley this clockwise for a minute and then we'll get started. Ready guys?"
"Yeah!" Charmy shouted eagerly as Knuckles stepped back into his spot.
"Alright, we're going clockwise, so heads up, Tails!" Knuckles bounced the ball to Tails, who immediately sent it towards me. Wait, shouldn't he pause for at least a second or something?
"Ah!" I shrieked (yes, an actual shriek) and covered my head with my arms. "I wasn't ready!"
"Looks like you should add 'volleyballs' to the list!" Sonic laughed across the net.
"Ignore him," I muttered.
"No big deal," Tails tried comforting. "Try serving it to Charmy."
Charmy perked up and nodded vigorously. I sighed and bumped it to Charmy, who immediately returned it back to Knuckles.
"Yeah!" Charmy cheered as the ball bounced a few times between Knuckles's hands.
"Good job. I'm gonna pass it to Tails now and then you, Amy, so be ready this time," Knuckles said and I nodded as he passed it to Tails. I saw the ball coming towards me only a second later. I squeaked slightly, but reached out to hit the ball, sending it away from me and towards the excited bee. "Nice! Let's just keep going and see how many rounds we can get consecutively."
We continued to volley it around the circle, having to restart at longer intervals as we all got warmed up. Finally, everyone was warmed up and ready to start the game. Knuckles got the first serve of the game and Manic returned it to Tails. We volleyed it a few times back and forth, I even got in a hit or two without missing, until Charmy spiked it so fast that Sonia couldn't catch it in time.
"Point, Knuckles!" Vector shouted in his even-louder-than-Knuckles voice.
"Woo! Switch servers! Charmy, you're up!" Knuckles shouted and we all rotated.
Charmy blasted the ball over the net in a super-quick serve, but, of course, Sonic returned it with ease. Knuckles spiked it back and Manic dove, bouncing it up to Jules, who hit it at me. I got to it, though, but Sonia and I got in a lock so that the two of us just hit it back to each other a few times, even though we were now across from each other. Then I missed one time and, as Tails tried to catch and hit it back over, it went out of bounds.
"Sonic's serve!" That was scary.
Sonic hit the ball so fast and hard that, despite the rule, Knuckles literally had to attack it to get it back over. Vector looked tempted to call him on it, but shrugged it off because of Sonic's ridiculous serve. The game continued for almost an hour, with a water break every here and there, and it was almost 7:00 when things began nearing an end. Sonic's team had 25, but since we had 24 they still needed another point to win. The rest of the group had come to the benches to watch the end of the game by now.
Even I was getting into the game! It was Charmy's serve and, waiting for one of them to get distracted, he slammed it over the net and right at Sonic's feet. He looked to Charmy, eyes wide, and glared, returning the ball and staying dead focused now. Now we were tied, so whoever could score two more points won. Charmy served again, but Jules returned it swiftly, and sadly legally, towards Knuckles. He spiked it at Sonia who bumped it to me, then Tails. Tails hit it across, but it went slightly out of bounds and Manic caught himself before he returned it.
"Jules's serve," Vector called as their side rotated.
Jules served it to Tails and he bumped it back to Sonic. Sonic attacked and made Knuckles dive for it and bounce it to me. I jumped up and spiked it over to where, I'd noticed, was a weak spot. Right between Sonia and Manic, but closer to Sonia's back so she'd assume Manic had it, but too far for him to get to without a dive. Manic did dive, but the ball simply hit the net and rolled under.
"Amy's serve!" Vector hollered and I gulped, trying not to feel nervous.
We rotated and I took the ball, giving it my best serving spike across to Sonic. He returned it with ease, but Tails used his twin tails to drift up and give it a major spike at Sonia's feet. She glared and tossed the ball to me. I served it again, this time farther back between Sonic and Jules. Jules lunged and passed it forward to Sonic, who attacked it between Charmy and I. I bounced it to Charmy, who gave it one of his famous attacks towards the back middle between Jules and Manic. They practically ran into each other trying to get it, having to stop so they wouldn't and therefore missing altogether.
Everyone froze, staring at the ball, and we all went quiet for a moment.
"Game point..." Vector said, clearing his throat to snap out of the shock. "Knuckles's team wins!" And we all exploded into cheers.
We all yelled and went to Charmy's post to smoosh him in a hug. Knuckles made sure to get us all in a death grip, though. "In your FACES!" he shouted, after letting us all go for air.
"Rematch!" Sonic and Manic said together and the rest of us shouted "NO!" "Whatever; we'll get you some other time...and your little ball too!" Manic teased.
After a few more minutes of witty banter between Sonic and Knuckles, the crowd had almost completely dispersed. Once they were finished, we all decided to play a nice friendly game of Frisbee before it got too dark. The younger kids wanted to play kickball, now that Tails and Charmy were available and went to set up tree branch basses. Manic found a Frisbee and Jules went to sit with the others, admitting to us wearing him out after some son/daughter pestering from the triplets.
The sun was just starting to fall and traces of pink and orange outlined the outer edges of sky. We took to a mostly open field and started tossing the plastic disk around the five of us. Manic and Sonic, by the looks of it, had the most steady throws, as it wavered little to none in the air when the tossed.
Knuckles kept throwing too hard so that Sonic had to run for it, which seemed just fine with him, and Sonia liked to show off with fancy around-the-back or under-the-leg throws the glided to Manic without a hitch. He threw to me and I'd do my best to get in a steady shot to Knuckles, but I'd never really played...well anything really before I came here. Which meant I still needed some work. Nonetheless, we all were having a good quiet time for a good 10 minutes.
But I didn't realize that the chaos was just starting.
Because the sky started getting dark then. And it didn't even bother with the sunset. Or the moon and stars. No, it just turned, in almost an instant, to the gray kind of darkness that comes right before a storm. The kind I usually like to enjoy because it almost makes up for the raging thunder and lightening to come. But this wasn't a normal storm, and therefore unnerved me rather than comforted. After all, normal storms don't rain down instant demise.
I heard the screams before I saw anything, but once I did I know for a fact that my heart momentarily stopped. My eyes automatically went to the sky to see a huge machine descending quickly near the forest. Above it was a giant airship, the cause of the unnatural lighting, with several smaller metal vessels drifting out. My eyes widened in horror and I scanned the crowd to see a similar look on just about everyone's face, except Sonic, who looked nothing but enraged.
In the distance I saw the little kids panicking as the robot landed and immediately shot a blast of fire at the picnic table only a few yards away from ours. Too close. The grown ups had quickly abandoned our table and were making a wild dash for the kids, who met them halfway as everyone started running for the parking lot. I stood frozen in horror, suddenly understanding the term "dear in the headlights" and watched as the machine practically encircled the area in flames. Most of the grown ups had began attacking it, along with Sonic and his twin siblings, Tails, and Knuckles.
"Amy!" I looked over to see that Vanilla had been calling me for a few seconds now from the other side of a still-developing stream of fire. "We need to get out of here! Come with me!"
I was still in awe of the situation and could do little more than stare, both at her and the fire that was quickly spreading around the field. I didn't mean to be so distracted! But the gravity of the scenario was just too much for me to take in all at once. Which is probably why I didn't even notice that one of the smaller mechanisms was aimed directly towards me. Not until I felt my skin blistering with the flames that flickered closer my the semi-mili second, at which point I felt a jolt as Sonic swooped in pulled me away just inches before my incineration.
"Vanilla, go and get the others somewhere safe!" he yelled over the roar of the fire.
"What's going-" I started, hearing an edge of hysteria in my voice.
"Knuckles!" Sonic called and he was by our side only a few seconds later. "Take Amy to my house and keep her there awhile. I have to get back to the battle."
"What's-" but I was interrupted again by Knuckles this time.
"Are the others at the cabin or camp?"
"Cabin. You can call and tell them she's fine," Sonic said, his eyes darting back and forth between us and the battle. "I'll meet you there."
"Sonic!" I called, grabbing his hand before he could get away. "What's going on?" I tried to keep the waver out of my voice.
"This is a bad time to explain," he grabbed my hands tightly into his and looked me dead in the eye. "This is what Robotnic does. And what I do is stop him. I have to go now. Go with Knuckles and I'll see you soon, okay?" but his voice wasn't right. Not reassuring in the least.
"I can't-" I whispered, but he was already darting away. And I'm not sure if it was that or the burning smoke the was encircling me, but my eyes began to burn with tears.
"Amy! Come on!" Knuckles yelled, trying to pull me away from the scene. But it was too late; I'd already seen it. Everyone fighting, my dad included, and a ring of fire around them all. They were losing. "Amy!" Knuckles said again, louder now. "We have to go! NOW!" he waved a hand in front of my face, snapping me out of my trans.
I blinked and immediately regained control of my actions...and ran at the monster. Or started to, when Knuckles grabbed my arm and pulled me back. "No! Let me go!"
"Amy, STOP!" he yelled, trying to keep me from struggling.
"Let me GO!"
"NO!" he yanked me back and held my shoulders firmly, hitting a pressure point in the process so that I had to be still. "Amy, listen to me! This happens sometimes, and they know how to deal with it. You don't! Come with me to somewhere safe and I'll explain."
"No! I can't leave!" I cried, too neurotic at this point to imagine giving in. I tried to struggle from his grip, but he was much too strong, and I could tell he wasn't even straining to keep me in place.
"I don't think you have a choice right now," and with that, he grabbed me up over his shoulder and took off towards the slightly flaming parking lot. I kicked and screamed the whole way, but it was really no use against the super-strong echidna. "You're gonna have to be still for the ride over; I don't want you to get hurt. Just listen to me until you understand and then I'll let you do what you want, okay?"
My lip was quivering and my heart was pounding. But he was right; I didn't have a choice. He put me on the front of a motorcycle and slid on behind me, making sure to hold on tight so I wouldn't try to make a break for it. Damn, he was smarter than I'd thought. We zoomed out of the parking lot and down the mountain so fast I could barely look back. But when I did, I saw the devastating sight of the sky full of smoke and ashes.
I felt tears begin to stick to my face as we continued at the dangerously fast speed, heading out of the mountains. Soon enough, we were just outside of one of the actual cities in the area. Knuckles skidded the cycle to a stop outside of a fairly big house, not quite suburban but still not as isolated as the cabin. With my movements still constricted by his grip, Knuckles dragged me to the door and pulled out a key to open it. I fell inside as he let me go and turned on the lights, blocking the door so I wouldn't try to run out again, even after he had shut it.
"W-what was that?" I exclaimed.
"We need to call the cabin and check in with the others," he said, trying to keep a calming voice.
"No, we-we need to..." I took a deep breath (or seven). I would probably hyperventilate soon. "What was that?"
"It's like Sonic said; that was one of Dr. Robotnic's schemes. That is what the Freedom Fighter's are for; stopping things like that before they get out of hand."
"Are you saying that wasn't already 'out of hand'?"
"Well...I'll admit that was a little more well-planned than usual but-"
"But what? What if they need help? We have to go back and make sure they're alright!"
"Relax, Amy! Sonic does this kind of stuff all the time."
"My dad doesn't though!"
"But he used to!" and that's when it hit me.
I froze. My knees buckles and I slid to the floor. That was it. That was why we left. Why she left. This was the reason my life was how it was. Why I had, for all those years, been alone. And now it was starting again. I wasn't even sure if I was breathing, and if so too heavily, or if my heart was still beating. Knuckles moved me to the couch and sat down beside me.
"That's it," I whispered. "This is what his life used to be. Back with my mom. Right?" Knuckles's face fell and he looked nervous all of a sudden. "And this is why they left. She couldn't take it anymore. It was too dangerous."
Knuckles sighed. "It is dangerous. But that's not what's important. Everything...everyone! That's what we fight for! Not for ourselves or-"
"I know that!" I interrupted. "But why? Why would anyone make us fight in the first place? What could he possibly have to gain that he doesn't have now?"
"Status, power, respect," he turned to me with a serious expression, "and victory. We're still fighting...because he's still fighting. If we lose the battle, then we all lose everything. And he knows that. That's why." I frowned, willing myself not to cry, and nodded. "They'll be okay, though. They're better than you give them credit for and most everyone has faced worse than this. The best we can do for now is lie low and wait. It'll be okay," he promised.
I nodded, knowing I couldn't keep from crying any longer. Knuckles squeezed my shoulder once for good measure and stood up. "Thanks, Knuckles," I whispered.
He nodded. "I'm gonna call down to your place now; that's where the others are. Are you gonna want to talk to Peach?"
I shook my head. He couldn't hear how scared I was. "Tell him I'm fine and that I'll talk to him soon."
Knuckles nodded and proceeded to the other room to call the others. I stayed on the couch. There was a lot to think about, a lot to worry about, and a lot to do. But I had to start somewhere. And the best place I could think of was at the top of the mountain, fighting with the others.
:0 OMFG! Triple holy sumptins! Cliiifyyy! And I want to write more NOW! Buuut...it's 11:30, my laptop's almost dead, I've been "watching" Kung Fu Panda movies with the sibs for a few hours now without really seeing it, and I've got a horrible cold! So I'd say it's time to call it a night :/ But I hope to continue sooon! (Reviews will help with the matter ;P) No time to spell-check, so please forgive mistakes...especially since a puppy was chewing on my hands half the time I wrote this...she's teething. But whatever.
Hey, quick poll! Should Amy make it to the clearing or should Knuckles stop her or shal something by way of the universe get in her way to change her mind before she leaves? Still contemplating, and I'd love to hear you guys' opinions! Okay, thanks and goodnight! (And happy reviewing! ;D)
