Author's Note: Enter, Heroic Amy. On with the show!


It had been forty hours since she and Shadow took after those GUN soldiers in Westopolis. In that short span, Amy had gone through a lifetime's worth of life-changing experiences. She had learned that she was a bio-weapon, realized her love for Shadow, lost control of her own body, nearly experienced non-existence, and now she had overwhelmed and absorbed the soul of an ancient dragon, which was now mixed with her own inner stores of energy, and all of it was pulsing through every fiber of her being.

Amy gazed down from her aerial position at Ragozine, who was tense with frustration, his teeth clenched, and his grip on Shadow's throat loosening. Slowly she floated downward, drawing closer to him, relishing his look of dismay and frustration that became more and more pronounced as she drew closer. Finally, she landed about six feet from him. The two kept staring at each other for a few more moments, until Amy finally spoke up again.

"Drop him," she said, squinting a bit. Ragozine started to tighten his hold on Shadow's throat again, hoping to break her spirit.

"Don't make me ask you again," Amy said, her tone now becoming more annoyed. "Drop him." Ragozine tightened his grip more, causing Shadow to groan a bit.

Amy didn't need to ask again. In a burst of speed and agility that only Sonic or Shadow could perform in their Super forms, she lowered her visor, delivered a crushing haymaker to Ragozine's jaw, grabbed Shadow and rushed him over to where Sonic was lying down, then moving them both all in a matter of seconds. Ragozine was sent soaring into the air by the attack, spinning like a top as he flew.

As she lay Shadow down next to the unconscious Sonic, he managed to open his eyes, and gaze upon her face of his beloved for the first time in what seemed like forever.

"A-amy…w…what happened? W-where did…you get that…armor…t-those wings..that...?"

The pink hedgehog smiled and shook her head, gently putting a finger over Shadow's mouth to keep him quiet.

"Save your strength, Shad…just relax," she cooed. "I've got this one covered." She leaned over and kissed him on the forehead before laying him gently on the boulder. Just as she was doing this, Edgar, Rouge, Tahra and Mikael all came over to get a better look at the new Amy.

"Sis…I-I-I-I don't believe it!" Edgar exclaimed in baffled excitement. "You look incredible!"

"Yeah…I never had any idea you had this sort of energy, either," Tahra added. "You've told me stories about Sonic and Shadow going Super or whatever, but this definitely gives them a run for their money." Mikael nodded in agreement.

"So this is the culmination of Project Minerva, eh?" Rouge quipped. "I wonder if old Legachi anticipated this."

"Thanks, everyone," Amy replied with a smile, "but if it's okay, I'd like you to get Sonic and Shadow into the base so they can get patched up. As for me, I've got to teach Ragozine a lesson. He should be landing any second now." As if on cue, the sound of a violent impact with the ground came from about a thousand yards away. The four, not about to waste any more time, carefully picked up the two battered hedgehogs. Edgar picked up Shadow and hefted him on his shoulder, while Rouge worked together to carry Sonic. Tahra and Mikael, meanwhile, gathered up the Chaos Emeralds to bring them inside. The GUN mechs who had been standing by finally headed back into the base as well, to notify the others of this development.

Now that everyone was out of the way, Amy turned her attention to her enemy.


"I don't understand it…" Ragozine growled as he got to his feet after his fall, "…how did she get all this power? How could those mind control gems have backfired? Damn it!" As he got his bearings, the evil master of dragons saw Amy land about fifteen feet from him, at the edge of the crater that was created by his impact, her arms crossed and a smug smile on her face.

"What's the matter, Ragozine?" she taunted. "Looks like you can't take it nearly as well as you deal it out. You're nothing but a coward, hiding behind innocent dragons to fight the battles you can't win."

"You wretched girl!" the masked hedgehog bellowed, pointing accusingly at Amy. "No one insults the lord of all dracomancers like that and gets away with it! I'll tear off those wings of yours and beat you to death with them!"

"You'll have to catch me first," Amy replied confidently, beckoning Ragozine to attack. The dracomancer, still aggravated, lunged to grab his foe, only to grope at the air as his attack was sidestepped with a graceful twirl. While dodging, Amy delivered a powerful backhand strike to the back of Ragozine's head, smacking him face down in the dirt.

"Wow," Amy said in amused disappointment at her enemy as he lay there, "you're making this way easier than it ought to be. Maybe if you weren't so angry, you could focus or something."

"Damn you…" Ragozine growled through clenched teeth as he got back up and stood unsteadily. "How did you get all this power all of a sudden? How did you obtain this form? Tell me!"

Amy smirked, and held up three fingers. "It's your own fault. There were three mistakes you made that have now come back to haunt you."

Ragozine, still somewhat dizzy and disoriented from the two crushing blows he had received, wasn't in the most rational of mindsets at the moment, and wondered what they were.

"Mistake number one…"

Amy rushed at Ragozine and kneed him in the belly, and then roundhouse kicked him on the side of the head, knocking to the ground yet again.

"You let Legachi do your dirty work. He was a good man who saw right through you and planned accordingly."

Ragozine could only groan in pain. Never had he received such a beating. The humiliation was driving him crazy, but it was taking all of his strength to stand back up.

Mistake number two…"

Amy crossed her arms, and used the double chopping move she had used back in Westopolis. The attack split his elbow joints wide open, causing him to scream in agony as blood spurted out of them. Now, in addition to the humiliation, the pain was slowly driving Ragozine to madness.

"You tried to control me without all seven Chaos Emeralds."

The dracomancer simply stood there, his arms hanging limp and his blood dripping down them.

"And mistake number three…was harming my friends while I was around."

Amy finally delivered a devastating point-strike, driving her right hand, like the point of a sword or spear, into Ragozine's belly, piercing his chest armor. The masked hedgehog immediately spat some blood from his mouth as the silver-armored hedgehog delivered this final blow. But to her surprise, Ragozine did not fall. Instead, he started to exude a dark purple aura as his anger and frustration reached a boiling point.

"Now you've done it…" he gurgled as his eyes started to shine evilly. "That attack just sealed your fate. You've left me no choice…but to show you…my true power!" With a demonic laugh, Ragozine ripped the mask off his face. For the first time, Amy got a good look at her enemy's real face.

While he didn't look too unordinary, one could not avoid but notice five round scars on his face, definitely made by bullet holes. But she didn't have much time to think about it before she saw Ragozine transform and grow in size, as if the mask had been some sort of restraint on his power. But Amy didn't worry. She was still more than a match for him

In the span of a few minutes, Ragozine had transformed into a sort of dragon/Mobian hybrid about ten feet tall with a jet-black body, a crimson chest, a head festooned with wicked horns, a powerful clubbed tail and blood-red wings. The armor made of baby dragon bones, having been broken during the transformation, lay on the ground.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA!" the transformed Ragozine roared. "NOW I WILL CRUSH YOU LIKE THE BUG YOU ARE, AND THEN BURN YOUR FLATTENED CORPSE UNTIL THERE AREN'T EVEN ASHES LEFT!"

Amy looked up, and nodded a bit.

"Well…I guess I'll have to break a sweat after all," she sighed.

"SHUT UP AND DIE!!!" the monster screeched furiously as he brought down a massive fist on Amy's head, hoping to squash her flat. But without even blinking, the armored hedgehog raised her hand, and caught her opponent's attack. Ragozine tried to strike with his other hand, only to have that one caught as well. Amy, quite amused with the futility of her enemy's attacks, couldn't help but stick her tongue out at him mockingly. But then she opened her mouth wide, and started to slowly inhale.

Paralyzed by his rage and frustration, the monstrous dracomancer could only stand there fuming as he watched a small fireball form inside Amy's mouth as she inhaled. After a few seconds, she exhaled.

A passing blue plane carrying two passengers was nearly incinerated by the massive blast of fire the pink hedgehog had created, avoiding it by mere inches.


The atmosphere within the confines of the GUN base was like that of a packed stadium at a championship sports game, except the crowd was only rooting for one team. Almost every available video screen inside the base was displaying live footage of the epic duel between Amy and Ragozine, thanks to the cameras of the many surveillance drones buzzing about the base, and with few exceptions, all the personnel inside the base had their eyes glued to the screen, eager to see the pink hedgehog girl in armor beat the living daylights out of the big black monster.

Tahra, Edgar and Mikael were seated in the white and sanitized medical bay, keeping the recuperating hedgehogs company while watching the fight through one of the many television screens in the medical bay. Rouge was on other business in the confines of the base. Both hedgehogs were hooked up to heart monitors, and were bandaged in several places.

While Tahra and Edgar were waiting for Sonic and Shadow to wake up, Mikael's eyes were glued to the screen, enthralled by the action going on.

As they waited, Edgar's well-trained ears picked up the whir of a motorized wheelchair coming in their direction. He stood up to check out the sound, and saw Dr. Legachi slowly making his way up the hall in his wheelchair, with a smile of pride on his face. The handicapped scientist noticed the hedgehog just outside the door, and made his way up to him.

"Ah, Major. I'm glad to see that you are safe," the old man asked with a cough. "How are Shadow and the blue fellow faring?"

"Shadow is healing rapidly as expected," Edgar replied, looking back into the room. "The other one, Sonic, is still in bad shape, but he'll live. I assume you've come to check on them?"

"Yes, and I also overheard that a two-tailed fox and a red echidna on the premises who just arrived. They seem to know the blue fellow, and are on their way here."

"Huh? How could they have known?" Edgar asked with great curiosity.

"We have our ways," the voice of Tails said, a voice neither had heard before. Edgar looked up and saw Tails and Knuckles standing a few yards down the hall.

"Oh, are you Sonic's friends?" Edgar asked, and was answered by both of them nodding. "He's right in here. They're both still asleep, so you might want to keep it down." With that, the four entered the room. Tahra noticed the addition of guests, and stood up but she only recognized Tails among the newcomers.

"…Tails! When did you get here? And who are these other two?"

"The red guy is Knuckles," Tails quipped, pointing behind him with his thumb. "And we got here just a few moments ago, no thanks to Amy overdoing it on the fire breath."

"I am Dr. Samuel Legachi," the wheelchair-bound scientist replied cordially, with a nod. "Has Edgar made you aware of my existence and my connection with his sister?"

"Oh…yeah, he told me," the purple hedgehog replied, chuckling nervously, surprised to see that Legachi looked like he did. "It blew my mind."

"…Yay! Beat him up, Amy!" Mikael cheered loudly in the language he used around Tahra, as flung his arms up into the air, briefly forgetting to use the human language in this kind of setting. Tahra looked up at the screen and saw Amy rapidly punching the gigantic dragon creature in the face, the sound of her battle cries barely audible through the microphone attached to the surveillance drone. Amy finally delivered another devastating haymaker to her foe's chin, knocking him to the ground. Knuckles, surprised to hear non-human language coming from a hedgehog that seemed to be completely assimilated into human society, and glanced over at her.

"Wow, she's really got Ragozine on the ropes," Tahra quipped with pleasant surprise. "And it doesn't look like she's even trying!"

"Mmm…that's my girl…" Shadow suddenly mumbled as he smiled slightly. He then started to sit up and open his eyes. He rubbed them a bit, blinked a few times, and then looked around to get his bearings.

"Ah, you are awake, Shadow!" Samuel exclaimed happily as he moved his wheelchair closer, while Shadow, who was feeling much better, started to remove his bandages and the wires used to monitor his vitals. "Look, and see how Amy has Ragozine, who has transformed himself into a gigantic monster, completed outmatched. Her victory is inevitable." Shadow looked up at the television see Amy, her unscathed armor glittering in the desert sun, standing confidently over a bruised, bloodied and exhausted Ragozine.

"It looks it's over already," Edgar said with a sigh. "Ragozine doesn't seem too be breathing." Suddenly, they saw the monstrous form of Ragozine transform into a cloud of black fog, and float off into the sky. Amy took a few steps forward, as if trying to give chase, and snapped her fingers, annoyed that Ragozine had gotten away.

"Wow! Fight great! Amy really strong! Tahra, you very lucky to have friend like her!" Mikael whooped, standing up and dancing happily.

"Yeah," Tails agreed. "I'm glad we're all on her good side, here." Knuckles nodded as well, but his eyes were locked on Tahra. He swore he had seen her somewhere before, but wasn't completely sure. He would have to find out when there weren't a lot of people around. Tahra, meanwhile, noticed that the red echidna's attention was more on her than on the conversation.

"Hey, everyone…you should probably go and give her pats on the back and stuff. Especially, you, Shadow. If I'm not mistaken, you two are an item now." Shadow blushed with embarrassment.

"…But what about Sonic?" Tails asked. "I don't think he should be left alone."

"Knuckles and I can keep an eye on him," Tahra suggested. "You guys go on ahead."

"I do have other business to attend to," Dr. Legachi said with some slight disappointment. "I will give her my congratulations in due time." He slowly spun his motorized wheelchair around and made his way out of the room. Everyone else except Tahra, Knuckles, and the still sleeping Sonic soon departed as well. After a few moments of silence, Knuckles closed the door to the room, and walked back over to Tahra. Immediately he began speaking to her in a new language.

"Well, if it isn't the high priestess' granddaughter," Knuckles said smugly in Quillian, a language created by hedgehogs and echidnas so they could communicate with each other.

"How do you know that?" Tahra exclaimed in the same language. "Sonic couldn't have told you…"

"I'm the guardian of the Master Emerald," Knuckles replied, pointing to himself with his thumb, "That allows me to not only to call forth its power, but it also lets me keep tabs on the Chaos Emeralds. When I sensed someone using six of them to create a barrier, I knew only someone directly descended from the high priestess could do that. So I figured it was you….pretty smart, huh?"

"Um…yeah…" the purple hedgehog replied with embarrassment.

"It also lets me stay in contact with the temple in Sylvania," Knuckles replied, still smug as he talked about all the cool things he could do. "…Which means I also know what's going on there; those priestesses sure love to gossip." Tahra's ears perked at Knuckles' statement of knowledge about events in her hometown.

"Um…do you know if my parents are okay?" Tahra asked meekly. Knuckles jumped a bit in surprise.

"Wait…YOU'RE the girl who people claim to be passing on the ideas and values of humans to the city's youth?" the echidna exclaimed. "You do realize that since you weren't old enough to be tried as an adult your parents are taking the blame."

"Just tell me if they're alive or not!" Tahra screamed, grabbing Knuckles' shoulders. The cry suddenly awoke Sonic, who bounced up a few inches off his bed.

"Woah, hey, keep it down, Tar…" Sonic complained as he sat up. It took Sonic a second or two to notice Knuckles, who he was pleasantly surprised to see.

"Yo, Knux, when did you show up?" the blue hedgehog asked. "And what's this about someone being alive or not?"


The air was still crackling with the energy from the intense, albeit one-sided battle as Amy watched the gaseous form of Ragozine float off to the horizon. She had never felt a greater sense of satisfaction before in her life as she pondered her victory.

For so long, she had been confined to the sidelines, cheering Sonic and/or Shadow on as he did battle with Eggman or the evil monster that was threatening the planet, helpless to lend any direct aid. But now she was the one who had defeated the evil who threatened the world. This time, everyone was rooting for her.

With a deep inhaling and exhaling, she calmed her body, which was still throbbing and pulsing with energy, down. The power of the dragon queen sunk into a dormant state, to sleep within her until it would be needed again. Likewise, Amy's body, in a flash of light, returned to her regular form at long last.

Her body, accustomed to being super-charged, suddenly felt extremely heavy, and the pink hedgehog struggled to stay standing, a weakness that was exacerbated by the scorching desert sun. She wavered and wobbled for several minutes, until her legs could no longer hold her up, and she finally started to fall over.

But she did not hit the ground…someone had caught her as she fell.

She looked up to see her beloved Shadow look back at her with a smile on his face. She looked to her left and right to see Tails, Edgar and Mikael standing around her.

"Hey, guys…" she said as she breathed heavily. "Good to see…you again."

"You were great!" Mikael cheered, "…Better than cartoon!"

"Watch where you're aiming with that fire breath of yours, next time, Amy," Tails said lightheartedly. "You almost barbecued me and Knuckles!"

"You've made us all very proud," Edgar said, smiling and nodding. "I'm glad to call you my little sister." Suddenly, they all heard a cell phone ringing. The brown hedgehog reached into his pants pocket and produced his cell phone, which he promptly answered.

"Hello?"

"Edgar?" the voice on the other line, a gruff, soldierly one, spoke.

"…Dad!" Edgar exclaimed. Everyone looked at him quizzically, including Amy, who finally managed to get enough strength to stand up again.

"Amy, Dad wants to talk with you," Edgar said uneasily to his sister. Amy, having not spoken with her adopted father, Victor Bishop, in years, was shaking with anxiety as she took the phone and began talking into it.

"…Daddy?" Amy said, her voice quivering with anxiety and excitement.

"Amy…I have so much I want to tell you," Victor sobbed.

"Same here," Amy replied, happy to hear the voice of the man who raised her.


Author's Note: Sorry about not making the fight between Amy and Ragozine longer. It would have been boring and hard to write a one-sided battle scene that's 3000+ words long.