Yes, another pre-chapter note. But I just wanted to state that after rereading the previous chapter I noticed that things looked rather scrunched up, so I've decided that I'm gonna try and spread things out. Hope it looks better.

Anyways, I do hope that you enjoy this new chapter. Never be afraid to leave a review too.

Speeding through the countryside never got old to Sonic, but after spending several days in cities and Eggman controlled territories running like this never felt better. The bright blue sky that was slowly turning yellow and orange as the sun set, the puffy white clouds, the green grass, and the glistening lake that was nearby was all beautiful.

But even Sonic needed to rest every so often.

The blue Hedgehog raced up the side of a large hill and came to a stop at a little hobbled together tent that sat next to a tree which he'd been sleeping in while he was adventuring around the general area of this part of the world. The tent itself was nothing much, just a beige colored tarp with one sleeping bag and a lantern hanging from the branch that held the "roof" of the tent up.

A hand made fire pit sat just outside of the tent alongside a little foldable, portal chair. Taking a seat on the chair, Sonic would taking a deep breath of the cool evening air before grinning a little as he enjoyed nature as he usually does. But then suddenly, he heard a beeping sound come from his tent. Looking over his shoulder, Sonic saw that it was his Miles-Mini Universal Communicator (MMUC) that was trying to get his attention.

Not many people tried calling him on that thing as he'd usually be far away from it when they did, but he knew one person who would.

Reaching over to pick up the device, Sonic would readjust the way he was sitting on his seat before pressing the "ACCEPT CALL" button on the touch screen. The once black screen and beeping disappeared and was replaced with the live video of the person calling him. This person was a very specific female Hedgehog Sonic cared a lot about but hadn't talked to in ages. Someone he loved deeply. With a grin, Sonic said two simple words to his caller "Hi mom."

Bernadette the Hedgehog smiled wide at her son "Hello Sonic! How've you been?"

Sonic shrugged "I've been good."

Following the end of the war Sonic actually returned to his childhood home and the place his family still lived just to see them. Luckily, they were still there and completely safe. Sure, some had be furious at him for never getting in touch with them before then, but for the most part they were just grateful he was alright. With a bit of a grin, Sonic asked his mom "So, how's dad been?"

Bernadette sighed a little "Oh, he's been better. He's obsessed with trying to fix the toaster we never use."

Suddenly, the sound of Jules the Hedgehog yelling out "It's going to work, and then I'm going to make a butt-load of toast!"

Sonic's mother chuckled and shook her head a little before saying "Jules, take a break from that thing and come talk to your son!"

There was a moment of shuffling in the kitchen before Jules came into view of the communicator screen, running a hand through the brown hair on his head and letting out a sigh as he did. Bending over and putting his hands on his knees, Jules grinned at Sonic "Hey bud."

Sonic waved a little "Sup dad."

Jules then asked "So, where you at now?"

He shrugged, glancing over at the still setting sun to check the time before returning his attention to his parents "I'm just up by the mountains of Northamier, not far from Central City."

Jules grinned "So does that mean you won't be stopping by?"

Sonic chuckled "Guess not."

Bernadette jokingly sighed "That's too bad, Manic and Sonia were hoping you'd come home soon, after all, they'd just recently bought a nice little prank kit."

Jules nodded "Oh yeah! They sure did! They were ecstatic when it arrived, used it on me last week too!"

His wife nodded "Manic used the tried and true hand buzzer on him."

Sonic chuckled a little "Sounds like Manic. Gonna assume Sonia hasn't used anything from the kit yet?"

Much to Sonic's surprise, Bernadette shook her head "Oh no, she used something on her friend Mina."

Her son raised an eyebrow "Really? Interesting."

Jules shrugged "The two have been going back and forth since they met at Sonia's art school."

Sometime after the war a private company funded a project to create an all encompassing art school, and by all encompassing, that meant everything from interpretive dance to any kind of fashion you can imagine. Sonia was studying in fashion, and from what Sonic had been told, Mina was studying basically every form of music that she could get her hands on. Manic was doing the same, just more drum based. Sonic felt a little proud that his siblings were going to school, they were smart kids. Sonic was about to say something, when very suddenly, there was a loud rumbling sound not far from where he was. It was loud enough that even Jules and Bernadette could hear it, Sonic's mother asked "Sonic, sweetie, what was that?"

The blue Hedgehog looked around with a confused expression "Uh... I'm.. Not sure."

Standing up, Sonic would look around once again and see some dust raising from a little ways away. Sonic set down the MMUC before walking towards the edge of the hill and saw that something large had been stomping towards the location the dust cloud was. But, they were so spread out. What could've caused all of this? Well, Sonic's question would be quickly answered when suddenly eight red circles glowed out from behind the dust cloud before suddenly, a Death Crab began to storm out of the dust cloud quickly, heading right for a nearby village. Sonic sped back to the MMCU and held it up "Mom, dad, something's come up and I've gotta get to work. Talk to you sometime later."

He quickly turned off the device before the two had the chance to say anything, and with that, he spun around and boosted right down the side of the hill. The Death Crab just continued to barrel across the countryside with Sonic getting closer as the seconds ticked by. Sonic attempted to boost into one of the massive robot's legs only for the Death Crab to quickly flip itself upside down to avoid being attacked. Just as quickly as it had flipped upside down, it flipped itself right side up once again and continued forwards. Racing forwards again, Sonic sped between the robot's legs when the clawed arm of the robot swiped at him. Luckily, Sonic was able to dodge it by jumping through the still open claw and landing on the other side.

Speeding forwards once more, Sonic looked over his shoulder and at the robot over him "Not a bad race big guy! But there's no way I'm letting you trample that town!"

With that, he sped towards one of the legs before jumping up onto it and using the spikes on it to jump up to the top of the robot. Once up on the top of the robot, Sonic crouched down and charged up a Spin Dash. He spun faster and faster, before letting it loose. With a loud sonic boom, he sped off of the Death Crab as a chain reaction of explosions rocked the robot. He landed on the ground, spun around, and skid to a halt in a crouched position. Where he came to a stop was on the edge of the dirt road leading out of the town the robot had once been coming towards. The same robot toppled over and tumbled across the ground as it skid to a halt as well, the tip of its clawed arm coming to a stop just inches away from the still crouched Sonic and the villagers cowering a few feet behind him.

Sonic stood up and turned to face the villagers, he spread his arms out and bowed while saying in a sing songy way "TA-DAAAAH!"

The villagers who had once been cowering from the robot all cheered for Sonic, all the while Sonic smiled "Thank you, thank you."

Then suddenly, the sound of metal creaking came from behind Sonic, it came from the Death Crab. It began to rise up from the ground, Sonic turned to face it as he said "Resilient thing, aren't ya'?"

But out of nowhere, a pink Hedgehog fell from the sky and slammed her signature weapon down on top of it finally defeating the robot once and for all. Amy Rose slid down the top of the Death Crab and landed on the ground. She slung her hammer over her shoulder and rested it there while saying "You're getting sloppy Sonic."

Sonic put his hands on his hips "Amy, fancy meeting you here."

She smiled and shrugged "As you no doubt already know, Tails called to inform the Recovery Effort and while I don't doubt his abilities, I knew that even he couldn't have handled that attack as well as he said he did. So of course I figured you had stopped by to help out and it didn't take a genius to figure out you'd be heading to the nearest town to help if needed!"

He nodded a little "Huh, word travels fast..."

Sonic shrugged and turned around beginning to walk away "Ah, nevermind. Looks like things are under control here. Thanks for the save! Laters!"

The blue Hedgehog was about to speed off when Amy yelled out "Sonic WAIT! I came out here specifically to find you!"

Sonic stopped and looked over to her "Yeah, I know, it's kinda your thing and you just said that."

Amy huffed "Not like that! I mean, I'm always happy to see you and would follow you anywhere if you'd only let me b- but- UGH! You always get me so flustered!"

She reached out and grabbed one of Sonic's hands with both of her's, her tail wagging a little as she did "Sonic, I need you to come back to the Eggman Recovery Effort!"

Sonic just raised an eyebrow as he looked at his cupped hand "Come back? Amy, I technically wasn't ever apart of the ERE, just the Resistance. Besides, I thought you all were doing clean-up now that the war is over?"

She sighed, let go of his hand, and set her hammer down on the ground to rest her hands on top of the weapon's grip "That was the plan, but we didn't account for just how large the Eggman Empire's army was. The leftover robots are everywhere, even without Eggman to lead them, they're a constant threat. Randomly attacking anyone they find. The name 'Eggman Recovery Effort' is more of a misnomer now, with the Badniks still up and active, recovery is a bit of a side note."

She looked away from Sonic as she continued "The ERE is working to finish this fight by working from a centralized, organized, position. We can be way more effective that way."

Sonic nodded a little, understanding Amy's troubles, before turning around and saying "Nah, pass."

Her eyes went wide and she gasped "Oh for the love of- WHY?!"

Sonic turned around once again and put her hands on her hips as he said "Listen, Tails pointed out something that's been bugging me. The last group of Badniks we faced was way more organized than usual. The things came at a perfect time to catch everyone off guard and they had both heavy and light troops as well. But here's what I've been thinking, Eggman hasn't shown up to claim responsibility for that sort of thing. After all, subtly is not his forte."

He pointed to the now deactivated Death Crab "And now we meet up right as a Super Badnik attempts to attack this little village of no real purpose, you know, the place we're likely to be?"

Amy put a hand over her mouth "Yikes... I hadn't thought of that."

She took her hand off of her mouth and said with confidence "Then it's all the more reason for you to come back to the ERE!"

Sonic sighed "Again, never was apart of that, and it's all the more reason for me to hit the road and find out what's going on!"

The pink Hedgehog sighed "You could spend days, weeks, maybe even months bouncing around all over the place looking for clues!"

Sonic punched his right fist into his left hand's open palm "Saving more folks from more Badnik attacks, it's a win-win for everyone!"

Then suddenly, a villager rushed up to them and yelled between gasps and pants "Sonic! Ms. Rose! Emergency! We're under attack!"

Sonic put his hands on his hips and smiled "It's cool, we took out that Death Crab."

The villager shook her head "No! I mean an army! Invading from the west!"

Sonic glanced over to Amy "The Death Crab was a decoy.."

Amy nodded before Sonic began to speed forwards "I'll run ahead and thin them out!"

All the while, Amy and the villager ran into town behind him as Amy asked the other "Do you have any kind of defenses?"

The villager nodded "U- Uh, we turned town hall into a bunker of sorts during the war."

Amy grabbed ahold of the villager's hand "Take me there!"

Meanwhile, Sonic sped towards a group of Egg Walkers that were charging into town. The blue Hedgehog Spin Attacked through the lead one before the closest to him fired missiles at him. He dodged those attacks and sped up the side of a building, elsewhere, Amy had been lead to the town hall and she was now pointing at the doors to the building "Get all the unarmed inside! If you can fight, rally to me!"

While defenseless villagers began to run inside of the building, Amy ran over to a villager that had a Wispon of their own. She stopped them in their tracks and said "Get to the upper floors! Don't fire until the Badniks have entered the square!"

As the villagers began to get into position, Sonic leaped off of the side of the building he was on before Homing Attacking into one of the Egg Walkers, one after the other, he'd Homing Attack into more. While Amy was giving out more orders, a villager run up to her and said "Not everyone is accounted for!"

Amy turned to face the other and said "Pair up! Go door-to-door and bring back no more than ten at a time! Keep low and check your corners!"

With that, the two ran in different directions. Amy herself looked up to a villager with a Wispon up on a building's roof and yelled out "Incoming! Get ready!"

While Sonic was in the process of dealing with more and more Badniks that were flooding into the city, the blue Hedgehog glanced over his shoulder and saw that quite a few where getting past him. He grit his teeth and charged after them, but as the Badniks began to enter into the town square of the village, Amy would yell out "NOW!"

Then suddenly, the villagers fired their Wispons at the Badniks. The laser fire of the weapons, along with other types of weapon fire, decimated robots. Sonic himself sped over to Amy's side as the fire began to come to a stop. With a smile, Amy said "The first wave is down!"

The villagers chered and Sonic himself smiled as he dusted off his hands. Now that the rest of the Badniks had a lot of ways to go to find more villagers, Sonic looked over to Amy and said "I thought Knuckles was the commander of the Resistance way back when."

Amy raised her hands up and fixed up her quills "Oh, he commanded alright. But who do you think kept things organized?"

Sonic just chuckled "Nice. So, what's the plan?"

Amy crossed her arms over her chest "This is a good defensible position, and the militia is placed well, but..."

Sonic finished what she had been thinking "Too many Badniks?"

She nodded "Too many Badniks. We'll be overrun. We need to find where they're coming from and thin their advance so the villagers can stand a chance."

Sonic grinned, held out his hand, and said "Shall we?"

Amy picked up her hammer and reached out to grab his hand "Let's!"

Then suddenly, Sonic sped forwards with Amy who used her hammer to attack any Badniks that Sonic didn't deal with himself. After a point of Badnik smashing, Sonic would throw Amy up into the air and she'd spin around. As she came down, her spinning attack would take out several Badniks and Sonic sped forwards to grab her. As he continued to run, Sonic would throw Amy up into the air periodically so she could deal with one group of Badniks while Sonic dealt with others. As she flew through the air, Amy yelled out "Isn't this fun!"

Sonic smiled as he jumped over a laser beam "OH YEAH!"

Using an explosion from a Badnik, Amy flew up into the air and spun around a little before bringing her hammer down and sending a magic shockwave that destroyed several more Badniks. With that done, Sonic and Amy came to a stop and the pink Hedgehog looked over to the blue one "Y'know, you could do this sort of thing all the time with the E-"

Sonic quickly spun around and began to walk away "Nope."

Amy grunted "Oh come on!"

Returning to the fight, Sonic said "I already told you what I'm gonna do!"

Amy bashed a Badnik with a hammer as she said in reply "You didn't even consider coming back!"

Sonic himself sped up a wall to dodge laser fire "I don't need to!"

At the top of the building he had been running up, Sonic leaped off of it and slammed onto the ground destroyed several Badniks. As he stood up and dusted himself off as well as flicking away some of scrap metal from a Badnik or two "I already know what works best for me."

Amy slammed her hammer down on a nearby Badnik as she retorted "Well, what about what works best for the rest of us?!"

He just shrugged "I'm no good at figuring that stuff out. You are, so you do your thing I'll do mine. Behind you."

Indeed, an Egg Walker was coming towards Amy from behind "If you won't do it for the ERE, do it for me?"

Sonic put his hands on his hips as Amy swung her hammer around and knocked an Egg Walker into a nearby wall, all the while Sonic said "Can't play favorites."

"Then do it for your friends!? Egg Pawns closing in, thirty feet."

Sonic began to run forwards "The've got you remember?"

She brought cupped her hands around her mouth to yell at him "Do it for a chili-dog?!"

He grinned wide "OOH! Now you're talking!"

"SERIOUSLY!?"

Sonic boosted through a line of Egg Pawns and came to a stop at the edge of town, Amy following close behind. When Amy was close enough, Sonic said "Yo! Enemy convoy just outside the village. Looks like it still has plenty aboard."

Amy ran past as she said "That's not good!"

They both got closer to the large truck that was pouring out Badniks. Amy looked over the growing hoard "There's no way we can get through that crowd."

Sonic put his hands on his hips "Conventionally? No."

He looked over to the other with a smile "I think it's time for a Croquette Bomber."

She looked at him slyly "From this distance? You are a daredevil~."

With that, Sonic crouched down and began to charge up a Spin Dash as Amy waited for the right opportunity to send SOnic flying with her hammer. After a bit of waiting, she finally struck him and he went flying through the Badniks and the large truck, destroying them all. After the destruction of the convoy, Amy came running over to him "Are you okay?!"

Sonic himself was just laughing "HAHAHA! Nice shot Amy! Great job!"

Amy let out a relived sigh "That's it for the invasion. I guess... You'll be going then?"

Sonic nodded as he dusted himself off "Yep!"

He stopped and struck a bit of a pose as the setting sun's light shined on him "It's what I do. Just keep moving, doing good, saving folks, and living as free as the wind. Living by my way."

This sight caused Amy to blush hard and stare longingly. But after a point she'd shake away that flusteration as Sonic noticed it "H- Hey, Amy?"

She sighed a little "You're right."

Sonic raised an eyebrow in confusion "I am?"

Once again, Amy cupped one of Sonic's hands as she said "It's just who you are! And it's all the reasons I love you. I can't change you, I don't want to change you."

Sonic rubbed the bottom of his nose as he said "Heh.. Well... It's not like it's all or nothing, you could come with me."

She sighed "I can't. The ERE needs me to keep everything in order. I've been away too long as is."

She looked over to him "But if you don't mind some direction, Knuckles went to investigate a town to the south. I haven't heard from him, so he might need your help."

Sonic gave her a little salut as he said "Aye-aye cap'n commander Rose ma'am!"

She just shook her head a little "Don't make me slap you."

With that, Sonic sped forwards and off back towards the little camp he had been at before the Death Crab revealed itself, Amy all the while waved him goodbye as the sun finally set behind them.

But unknown to them, at some unknown location, the person who sat in what was once Eggman's chair said "Another failure I did not account for... How much Amy Rose has grown."

The person grumbled a little as they said "And now Sonic is deviating from my projected path. How... Frustrating."

There was a moment of silence from the person, before they pressed a button and spoke into an intercom "I am in need of your assistance."

Both Orbot and Cubot came out from a little door nearby and over to the chair. All the while, Orbot said "You called us?"

The person nodded "Yes.. I want to hold a meeting with the Remnants tonight... But before that, I want to get into contact with the Bishop."

The two robots nodded before Cubot pulled out a little computer chip and handed it over to Orbot who handed it to the person. Said person would slide the chip into a slot in the computer console in front of him as Orbot said "On the bright side boss, Sonic is changing course towards the Bishop's operatives."

Their boss laced their fingers together and said "Yes. I know."

After that, the screen in front of the person would turn on and the Bishop would appear in front of him "Hello King, you needed me?"

The King nodded "Yes.. Sonic has changed the plan... Tell your operatives to move out of there as fast as possible, we cannot lose them and their equipment."

The Bishop nodded himself "As you command."

The screen turned off and the King rested his arms on the chair's armrests "This will be completed as I had saw fit.. My plan will come to fruition, no matter what Sonic does."