Morning light shown down on Capitol Aero. And the faces of the Mobian bodies lying around the charred ruins of what had once been a school.
A collection of combots moved across the lawn, working through the rubble, from body to body, scanning. A second row of combots came up from behind, picked up the bodies and dragged them away.
The scanners stopped over a young Mobian girl lying near a collapsed school entrance, a rabbit with blonde curls, purple eyelids and three robotic limbs. They paused.
Even without true brains and eyes, the combots could recognize this Mobian was different.
Shadows passed over her still face. Blood caked the side of her mouth and pooled at her shoulder, where her robotic arm was attached with several leather harnesses. Not far from her, lay a male sea lion, also unconscious.
The combots bent over and scooped their "hands" under the bodies. They passed the Mobians from combot to combot towards something that looked like a train cart stacked with trays.
The rabbit's chest heaved and her head rocked as they moved her. The combots pulled out a tray from one of the compartments in the cart and dumped her onto it with a thud…
They moved on, leaving the mound that had once been the school side door entrance untouched. A broken pipeline of freezing water gushed from one of the crumbled walls, blinding their heat sensors.
Beneath the pile of stones, a sakura colored hedgehog stirred. She tried to open her eyes, then fell back.
Amy Rose had not been expecting many things that day. She hadn't been expecting to leave the school, she hadn't been expecting Sonic to not let her free him, and she hadn't been expecting to be shot at by Scratch. She hadn't even realized the ugly thing had a conversion arm blaster.
"-Book it, Ames!" Sonic shouted.
She swung her hammer like a bat and let out a scream. The blast and the head of her hammer seemed to collide in slow motion, and a great burst of light exploded around her. Except to her, it did not feel like an explosion. In those split seconds when her hammer met the blast, time seemed to slow down and all she felt was the light gently brightening and blinding all her senses white…
Now, there were things about Amy Rose. For one, she came from a great and ancient family of Eastern Mobia, the same one Sonic's mother had come from. Though she showed little to prove it, Amy Rose was a Lady in her own right, and as such, she carried a measure of power within her. Secondly, she was a hedgehog. The ancient Caste requirements forcing all hedgehogs to become Guardians had become obsolete. However, hedgehogs had been given the Guardian place in the Cast for a purpose. For some reason, hedgehogs were among the Mobian species that were often given visions. Glimpses of the future and uncanny insights. Amy Rose had first begun receiving hers when she turned thirteen.
And as the explosion overwhelmed her senses, something terrible flooded her inner eye. Within the white light, she saw shooting stars. Thousands of deadly, burning shooting stars. And they were all falling and exploding, coming down towards her—
And then as quickly as they had appeared, the light died, leaving nothing but the crack from the impact of the blast in her ears. She fell back with a cry, rolling onto her feet, away from Scratch. She turned and ducked down the nearest opening to the lower city as fast as she could.
She glanced over her shoulder, looking up at the sky. She began to run.
Bunnie had just been in the middle of talking with Sally when Amy Rose's signal came through.
"Anyone, someone, help—help me, please!" Amy Rose's voice cracked over the walkie talkie speaker, hysterical, scattered. "This is Rose, Rose coming in. Please answer, I need help—I need to send a message-!"
Bunnie snatched up the walkie talkie, clapping her hand over the speaker to try and muffle it.
"Rabbot reportin' in, Rose!" Bunnie hissed. She looked up from where she sat outside the servant's kitchen overlooking the palace runway. "Now, Rose, Ah don't know what's goin' on, but this is not the time to—" she glanced around, hesitating. "We're all tied up over here, suga', now if Mama Robotnik is givin' you trouble again—"
"Bunnie!" Amy Rose gasped.
Bunnie thought Amy had never sounded so happy to hear her.
"Bunnie, I'm scared—there are combots looking for me—"
At these word's Bunnie froze. Her eyes narrowed.
"—I can't go back to the school—I don't know where to go—I'm hiding behind the weaver's shop on Underwing street, but they could find me any time—" Amy's voice lowered a little, but it still shook. "And, Bunnie—I—I saw something—shooting stars—I saw shooting stars—I don't know what it means. B-but Bunnie, if something happens please tell Sonic goodbye for me. Tell him I forgive him for leaving me—but not for putting himself in danger—and tell him it was his bravery that inspired me and I hope he's proud of—"
The connection died.
"Amy Rose! Oh, bless mah stars," Bunnie breathed.
She knew Amy Rose could be melodramatic sometimes…but even Amy Rose would know not to joke about combots, especially with everything that had just happened.
"Sally!" Bunnie pressed the walkie talkie to her mouth. ""Sally! Ah just heard from Amy Rose and somethin' is real wrong, Ah'll be back shortly, but first Ah'm gonna find her! Ah'll be back real soon, Ah promise, Ah will back!"
Bunnie gasped for breath as she ran, pumping her metal arm and legs. Her robotic feet smacked against cobblestone and dirt. Trees and houses flashed past her. Strangers lurched out of her way and stared after her. Bunnie hardly noticed their looks this time.
She would have to redo her hair that night.
The cyborg rolled her eyes to herself. Really, this was no time to think about her hair.
Bunnie skidded to a stop and rounded a massive tree trunk. She turned into a narrow, paved tunnel and ran down it into the lower city. Lighted stones illuminated the underground streets in shades of green, blue, purple and red. Stone homes and shops and alleyways and side tunnels peeked out from the dark shadows of the street. The place rang with the sounds of business.
Bunnie followed the signs down the winding streets, deeper into the lower city. She turned down a pink-lit street with great wings carved over its arches and stopped at a narrow alley next to the weaver's shop.
Bunnie eyed the barrier of crates and trash cans between her and the alley, inwardly huffing.
Bunnie's legs made a clicking sound and they began to expand. Her shins extended upwards until she stood several feet over the crates. She hoisted herself up, retracted her legs, then dropped over to the other side.
"Amy Rose?" Bunnie hissed. She squeezed behind several crates and a trash can, trying to angle her body so that her metal legs fit. She winced as her hinges scraped the side of the can. "Bless mah stars," she muttered.
From behind a bin, a miserable pink ball uncurled.
"Bunnie?" Amy Rose lifted her head, her green eyes wide, tear stains running down her cheeks and smearing her mascara. She hugged her arms around herself and the drum of her piko hammer.
Bunnie scooted behind the bin and dropped down in front of the ball. Sadness filled her eyes. "There, there, darlin'" Bunnie leaned forward and hugged the hedgehog.
"Oh, Bunnie!" Amy Rose squeaked and threw her arms around the cyborg. She squeezed.
Bunnie choked. "Rosie, there's no use in squeezin' the stuffin' outta this old body."
"I'm sorry!" Amy Rose let go quickly. She blinked, looking Bunnie over as if to make sure she was still intact, then hugged her hammer again. "You shouldn't have come here for me."
"Now, don't you be silly, Amy Rose," Bunnie said. "We're a team and combots are nothin' t'be jokin' about. Ah can't stay long—Sally needs me-but Ah'm gonna get you safe first."
Fresh tears rolled down the hedgehog's cheeks. "Even…even though I'm annoying and dumb, when you could have been helping princess Sally?"
"Now, Amy, don't you talk like that, suga'." Bunnie's eyes snapped.
Amy Rose burst into tears, burying her face in her wet skirt. "Not even Sonic does that for me, and he—he's the best hero that ever lived." She hiccupped, wiping at her face.
"Aaww," Bunnie sighed in understanding. "Is that boy part of the reason you're cryin'?"
Amy Rose paused. Then nodded her head. "Mmm-hmm."
Bunnie rubbed Amy's shoulder. "He's a bad boy, dearie. What'd he say?"
"They—they're going to kill him, and he won't save himself."
"Oh," Bunnie made a face. "Well…he's a good bad boy. Don't worry about him, Amy, Sonic is a tough nut to crack, an' he'd be real sad if he knew you were back here, cryin' about anything. He'll be all right."
Amy sucked in a great breath of air and blinked hard, as if desperately trying to get ahold of her tears. "You're right."
"Also, he'd want you to be safe, so let get you back to the Underground—" Bunnie smiled. "—that way you can be there when he gets out of all this mess."
"But if I go out someone might see me!" Amy Rose gasped.
Bunnie hefted up a crate with her metal hand and ripped the whole cover off with a single yank. She carefully lifted out the weaving supplies and set them in the bin. "We'll just borrow this. Hop inside."
Amy Rose's eyes widened and she gasped. "Oh! Okay!" She crawled into the crate.
Bunnie pushed the lid back on top, and, with a single hiss of her hinges, lifted the entire box onto her metal shoulder. She winced a little as the harnesses strained, but she barely felt the weight.
The cyborg began to make her way back out of the alley, into the streets of Aero, and towards the school.
Note:
Thanks for reading, and sorry for making you all wait on what's going on with Sonic! ;-) See you next week with more updates, Lord Willing!
To Infinity and Beyond,
Constance/April
P.S. Oh, yeah and the Wattpad version with new art is up! *fistpumps* Link in my bio. ;-)
