It was like swimming a sea of quick sand. Amy's mind drifted in and out of void, she preferred the nothingness. She didn't remember the letter from Sega that said that she would not be appearing in Sonic Adventure Two, that Nails aka Rouge would be in her spot instead. She didn't need to remember Sonic, and his endless rejections to her advances.
* * *
Tails knew that something was wrong. Amy was a neat freak, she'd
never let her place get this hideous, for a moment Tails thought robbery
but the place looked destroyed from neglect more than from an intruder.
Then he thought of the last time he had seen Amy at Twinkle Park. She hadn't
been her normal cheerful annoying self, she seemed withdrawn, isolated,
she hadn't even spoken to Sonic, that itself was strange, but Tails had
been drawing up the blue prints for the Tornado Three and ignored it. It
was only later that Tails found out she had been dismissed too. Now not
chilling images of Amy's leaping off roof tops entered Tails mind.
He had to find Amy, but where was he to start looking? Station
Square wasn't gigantic, but it was still a city. It was hard enough to
find one person when knowing where to look, but to search around blindly
would be an act in futility. Where could she be? Where did she like to
hang out? He knew about Twinkle Park but that was about it. Ugh! If only
he knew more about her! Reentering her bed room to lay down on the bed.
Tails spotted a pink book with heart and Sonic the Hedgehog stickers on
it. A journal? Tails picked it up. A quick glance at the first page told
his first assumption was correct, it was Amy's dairy. Tails was never one
to invade someone privacy. But he need to know anything that could help
him find Amy.
He turned to
the last entry.
2000 December First.
If Sega doesn't have a use for me. Why am I still alive?
That did not give Tails a pretty picture of what was going
on in Amy's head. Tails realized he was going to have to do more reading
than that to figure out where Amy might be. He consider calling the police
for a missing person, but he knew police, she hadn't been missing for 24
hours, or more to the point Tails couldn't prove she had been missing for
24 hours. Ugh! Well, twenty four hours was better than nothing. Tails dialed
up the police and gave them a brief description of Amy and was given a
'we'll look into it' in return. Tails was not encourage.
Tails flipped to the first entry.
1999 January Third.
Have moved to Station Square, don't know when I'll see Sonic
again, Sonic .. . . he is so dreamy. .. . I know he loves me, he just needs
some encouraging, too bad South Island is about a hundred and fifty miles
in the Southern Sea, I'll never understand what Sonic sees on that hunk
of rock. OK, he was born there, point taken, but I wasn't born in a city
and I feel at home here. The browses didn't lie about the coast line, it's
just as good as in the pictures. I just got approval for my debit card,
I can't wait to go shopping, my current outfit is just way too behind in
the times. White dress with green ruffles and sneakers? What was I thinking
when I started wearing this stuff? Well, I was only a little kid
at the time, I didn't exactly have much fashion sense. I guess not living
in the city I was never bothered by people looking strangely at my tastes
in cloths because they weren't exactly up on the latest styles either.
Tails had the mental image that Amy's brain had been consumerized
only after a few days in Station Square. He had to keep reading, there
had to something to tell him where she was. He skipped over several entries,
most of them had to do with her moving in, arranging her new room, correspondence
with friends back in the country.
Tails truly felt like a burglar reading Amy's diary, a thief,
an invader on something that was hers alone. But she could be in trouble
and since her journey doubled as a date book, it might give him SOME hint
of where to start looking for her. He also knew while he was reading this
Amy could be mugged, raped, and shot twice over in that order by now. It
made Tails even more uneasy than before.
Why was he doing all of this? Just for her? Because she was a
friend. He told himself. As he would do for any friend. No, she was simply
a aquantence, a co-worker. Why should he feel for her at all? Because she
was like him. Taken under Sonic's wing when they were young, neither of
them had any real family to speak of.
"Perhaps she and I shared some kind of, kinship?" So much of
their pasts and histories were hidden from American audiences, because
they were suppose to be too stupid or lacked a strong enough attention
span to do actually wonder about the fate of the characters they played. It hurt Tails. Many excepted the Fleetaway British Sonic comic book version,
were Tails was from a fantasy dimension and Sonic had once pulled the little
fox out of quick sand. Then there was the USA game version were Tails had
just always been a live long admirer of Sonic. When in reality he and Sonic
had met on Tails' home of Westside Island.
Then Tails came across what he had been looking for. Amy's preferred
hang outs. Twinkle Park he already knew about, but he doubted she would
of gone there, all it would of done was remind her of E-100 'ZERO' . .
. . and Sonikku. The Burger Shop, cheap but good food, easy on the wallet
and easy on the pallet, though it was a quote from an advertisement Amy
said, it was actually a good description. Tails knew this was it. It was
a million to one chance but it was better than nothing. First Tails was
going to go there and ask if anyone had seen her, then he realized that
he would save precious time if he just used the phone. Tails was lucky
Amy kept the place's phone number in her dairy.
After picking up the pink telephone and dialing in the phone
number, Tails listened to it ringing for the next twenty seconds, apparently
the place was busy. Finally he got an answer.
"Hello this is Station Square Burgershop. This is Joe; how can
I help you?" The guy at the other end ended his sentence with a yawn, apparently
the guy hadn't sleep much in the last twenty four hours.
"I need to know, has a Pink Hedgehog girl come by recently?"
Tails asked concerned.
"As a matter of fact, yeah, she came in here last night, tried
to empty the place's entire stock of anything with alcohol in it, paid
with her debit card and went out the door, I think it was around eleven
at night, boy did she look a mess."
"Do you know where she went?!" Tails asked afraid.
"Look, they come in, they pay, they leave, you'd be surprised
how many I get like her every month-" Tails hung up on him and went out
of the hotel room.
He looked back at the door, it wasn't locked, but he didn't have
a key, so if he locked it he wouldn't be able to open it again. Then again,
it wasn't like anyone else knew it was unlocked, 'security by obscurity'.
Not knowing whether he would have to take Amy home or to a hospital when
he found her. Tails decided, (praying no one came in) to leave the door
unlock and went down the hallway, then the stairs and out of the lobby
onto the streets of Station Square.
Tails had visited Sonic during the Hedgehog's brief residence
in the large metropolis, and so knew which street to travel by, he knew
where the Burgershop was, Miles, Sonic, Knuckles and Amy had all gone there once a year after the encounter with Perfect Chaos to catch
up on old times, but Tails had never known it was a favorite spot of Amy's.
Tails found himself wondering again with dread if Amy was alright, Station
Square wasn't known for it's crime rate, but like any vacation spot it
collected the occasional weirdo and nut case(Eggman thankfully not among
them). Tails knew he was just letting his annexes get the better of him,
that Amy was more than likely going to be OK, but 'more than likely' didn't
cut it.
Murphy's law came to mind. 'Whatever can go wrong, [i] will [/i] go
wrong.'
Well, Tails and Sonic
had learned that the hard way during their attempts to get the emeralds
before Eggman did during Sonic Adventure, from the one Tails had found
during his test flights, the one set as a prize at Casinoplious,( the managers
had no idea of it's true value, ), to the ones found in Windy Valley
and the Ice Caps, Eggman had managed to get his ugly hands on each of them.
Tails knew running was no good so he switch to flying and took
into the air, his tails both spinning on it's own axis to give him lift.
Mobians didn't live in Station Square mainly, so it would be fairly easy
to spot a pink furred hedgehog in a red dress. Amy didn't have much variety
in her taste in clothing, all of it was red in one form or another, Tails
had seen that just from his quick look in her wardrobe.
Flying
above the cars Tails followed his mental road map and made a sharp left
toward the block with the Burger Shop.
He flew well above the cars, looking like toy models from his
perspective. He really wanted to go there as the crow flies, but for the
life of him he was never able to go over the sky scrapers. Another sharp
turn. And there was Station Square City Hall like a port in a sea of asphalt.
In the middle of that black sea was a green island bridged to the imaginary
main land by a pair of in street cross walks and on the coast of that black
sea was the Burger Shop with that statue of a fat man in a brown business
suit.
Tails plan was to start at the Burger Shop and then start out
trying to figure out which way a depressive self pitying teenage girl would
go. He didn't expect to see a red and pink collection of clothes and fur
in a pathetic heap slumping unconscious on one of the side walk "island"'s
benches.
No one noticed her, or rather, chose not to look at her. To them
she was just another drunk, just another person who didn't have the self
respect to get their life in order. To Tails she was a friend. Tails landed
his red sneakers touching the soft grass.
She did [i] not [/i] look good. Her quills and fur went in all
directions except the ones they were meant to. Laying on her side her dress
was up, showing too much of her. The flesh underneath her fur was pale.
"Amy." Said Tails straightening her dress down and righting her
so they were face to face. He shock her, her body moved as if it were rubber.
After an eternity her eyes cracked open, they were blood shot. Tails also
finally noticed the tear stains running down her cheeks. It took a minute
for her eyes to come into focus.
"Tails-san." She whispered, smiled, then vomited the contents
of her stomach on his chest fur and fainted on his shoulder. Tails pushed
her off back onto the bench. Some of the vomit had ended up on her dress.
Still no one took notice, it wasn't there business. Some did do a double
take to see that it was the fox who had raced Eggman to a nuclear missile
on Speed Highway and had battled the Egg Walker on Casino Street, but they
had there own lives to live, and didn't want to get involved something
like a drunkard. Tails groaned. Where was Sonic when he needed him? Wasn't
helping Amy suppose to be his department?
Guess not. Feeling like he was in some cliché movie,
Tails picked up Amy and began walking back to Beachside Hotel. When a police
car rolled by Tails was sure they were going to ask what he was doing or
what was wrong, but they kept on driving. Tails felt belittled. The sun
was rising to the point where it now beat down unfeelingly on Tails' back
heating his fur to absurd temperatures. Amy reeked of booze. Some would
have suggested a cold shower, but Tails knew that was the exact opposite
of what you wanted to do with someone who was drunk. You had to keep them
warm and a lower body temperature could be lethal. At least the heat was
doing that much for her.
The world ignored those who wanted to escape it. And Amy had
wanted to escape it badly.
The hotel sliding doors opened automatically welcoming the Kitesune.
The receptionist didn't even look at him. What was with people these days?
Tails had been afraid there would be an eviction notice on the
door when he got back. But the door remained the way it had been, unlocked
and bare.
Tails wished this was just some bad TV show where he could just
turn off the set. But life didn't work that way. The room was just as much
a disaster as when he left it. Entering Amy's bed room and depositing her
on the bed Tails placed the covers over her. Tails felt her skin and knew
she was cold. Finding himself praying for her sake Tails returned to the
living room and considered what to do next landing on the couch.
The two tailed fox sat there for a time, thinking, get Pinky
or Birdie Flickly or Sonic to cheer her up? But Saga had them working all
over. And who knew when they would get a break next? We'll Tails knew where
he could at least start.
Tails scoured
the apartment, living room, kitchen, bath room and bed room, (careful not
to wake Amy, though she was out like a light) for Amy's dirty laundry,
from the amount, Tails knew she couldn't of been to the dry cleaners since
Sonic Shuffle.
Tails crammed the dirty cloths into Amy's hamper after using
himself as a compactor.
Tails didn't know if Amy would kill him or thank him when she
woke up for what he did next, but he knew she would thank him some day.
Tails took the bottle from the kitchen table, hunted out the cans in the
freezer and cupboards and to Tails shock a second bottle under Amy's bed.
And dumped the entire collection of brain killers down the garbage shoot
in the hotel's hallway. Hearing the breaking glass with satisfaction, Tails
returned to Amy's room finding her still asleep (or intoxication induced
unconsciousness Tails couldn't tell).
Tails almost stroked her quills before remembering how fast a
way that was to cut his hand. His stomach with a growl reminded him he
hadn't eaten since last night and it was high noon.
Hoping Amy would understand he just didn't want to leave her
alone for too long and wasn't intently raiding her freezer he looked in
the fridge. There wasn't much to make a sandwich. Some dry bread, mayo'
and milk a day behind it's expiration date. Tails wished she had some meat,
foxes were carnivorous after all. Sighing, Tails made due with what was
there and the cheap meal took the bite out of his hunger.
Tails laid back on the couch. Nothing to do now, but wait until
Amy's brain cells started working again. Why was he doing all of this?
Wasn't his own career in enough trouble without having to look after some
little girl? But wasn't that was friends did? Helped each other when it
was easier to do the other thing and just ignore them? On that thought,
Tails closed his eyes, wondering what Amy could be dreaming of. Of times
gone by? Of her precious few good times with Sonic? Or nothing? Tails would
never know.
Flames, comments, suggestions, and the occasional constructive crictizem
all welcome.
