(Because the author has three furries running around in his head with nothing to do, I will now pass the task of forewords to them. Hopefully they will stop plundering innocent hope-islands now, I need those things badly. *AHEM!* With out further ado, say hello to Diet T. Fox, Pink D. Cat, and Cherry I. Racoon! Please note that I am too lazy to give you detailed descriptions of them.)

Diet: Maybe we'll get paid for this.

Pink: O.O PEOPLE! Hiiiiiii!!!! *waves*

Cherry: I…must…have…chicken!

(….this may have been a mistake.)

(Well, anyway, geki-go!)

Diet: Geki?

(Just bloody get on with it!)

Diet: Psh. Fine.

(Thank you….)

Diet: You're interrupting me.

(….)

Pink: Annnnnyway, this is the second chapter of "A whisper in the winds"! Yay! Anyway, lots of weird stuff happens in this one!

Diet: This is HIS fiction. When in his fiction does weird stuff NOT happen!?

Cherry: What, what, what about his school projects?

Diet: Eat the cookie. *gives Cherry a cookie*

Cherry: Oooh! A poor substitute for human blood! Cool! *eats the cookie*

Diet: ….. right. Anyway, the author-type person will probably blab some fish balls about how hes loves reviews and whatnot at the end of this thing. Be sure to read that.

Pink: Please do, and enjoy the story! Ja!

"A whisper in the winds" a fanfic by A Lonely Gray Kitsune

Super duper disclaimer thingy: I do not own Sonic the Hedgehog, in any of its forms. Sega, Archie, Fleetway, and whoever else do. Thank you.

The room was dark, like a black hole. No light resided within, save the glow of a computer screen. It emitted a pale white light, its color twisting, dictated by whatever happened to be on the screen. Right then, it was white with a news article. A news article that had never been created, never seen….except by one.

She sat, at a table, at this computer, in a chair. She sat, and read the collection of text, this scrap of reality, this piece of knowledge. It spoke of a van falling off a bridge in Station Square, disappearing below the water. It had never been made, never been seen, except by this one person.

The person was a tan rabbit, young, no older than twenty or so, clad in dark fabric. Orange eyes locked onto the screen, drinking in this truth that did not exist. A soda can stood on one side of the table, waiting to be drunk. It was ignored. As were this girl's feelings. Loneliness, depression, worry. Fear. She blocked them all out, she had to stay alone, people wouldn't understand her, not with what she knew.

The world was going mad. Not the monkeys on it, the world itself. She was the only living thing that truly knew this. For this, she was alone, cold, and afraid.

This was her life. And she hated it.

Amy frowned as the sunlight that sat with her disappeared. It was replaced by a gray hue, still light, but not as most think of it. Amy looked up. Her eye was met with water. Her head snapped back down and her eye shut, angered by this intruder. Another rude droplet of water landed on her head. Rain.

She got up immediately. There was a nearby café that would make good shelter from the bombardment. As she quickly made her way across the park, the light grew dimmer and dimmer, until it seemed almost as night. She entered the café just as the raining began.

She looked back, glad that she had missed the downpour. She quickly took a seat by the window, one with a table in front of it. The seat had looked lonely.

"Would you like anything?" a waitress appeared next to her. Certainly she had walked….

"No, I'm fine."

The waitress exited Amy's life.

Amy watched the rain pour down the window, vainly attempting to fall with the same velocity it had in the air.

"So, what do you think of madness?"

Amy's head snapped up to see two businessmen talking in seats near her. She listened raptly.  

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, madness! A loss of sanity, you know?"

"Ah… I don't think much of it, although I expect to experience it soon. What do you think of it?"

"I think it is a loss of perception, dear friend."

"A loss of perception?"

"Yes. You lose the ability to perceive things correctly."

"But, you perceive things incorrectly, and therefore differently. So, can't it be said that madness is just gaining a new perspective, a different way of seeing the world?"

"Pah! Madness is no more than a skewering of the proper way of seeing things. It's not a perspective in and of itself, just a perverted version of what normal people see."

"I think not. I think that it is a different sight altogether, since you still view the world."

"Then you are a fool. Madness is no more than a broken viewing lens."

"A fool am I? A broken lens is still a lens, not a thing to be fixed, but mayhap… enjoyed?"

"Enjoyed!? Have you gone mad yourself!?"

"Perhaps I have, old friend. But if you, through events in your life, see things from an insane perspective, why not enjoy what so few witness?"

"I think you truly have gone mad."

"Mayhap I have."

"Amy?"

Her concentration was ripped from the conversation. There, beside the seat across from her stood a shadow furred in white.

"Rouge?"

"Amy. Long time no see."

"Where've you been?"

"Ohhh… here and there."

Amy smiled "Always fun places to visit. Trying to stay dry too, huh?"

Rouge grinned back. "Yes. Mind if I join you?"

Amy blinked. There was another chair. Her chair had been alone…

"Sure."

Rouge hesitated for a moment, and sat.

Amy decided to speak first. "Soooo…. What's up?"

"Nothing really, just been rotting in my apartment." She answered with a wry grin.

Amy frowned. "That's bad for you, ya know."

"Perfectly aware. But, there's really nothing to do. I don't need to work and….."

Amy's curiosity again took hold. "And?"

Rouge suddenly became infinitely more uncomfortable. "Well… oh, hell, I need to tell this to someone, or I'm going to crack…"

Worry now took hold. "What is it?" she asked.

"Well…" and the very air around her seemed to become heavy, "it's Knuckles."

"I haven't seen much of him lately….is he okay?" her voice now manifested this worry.

 "I… I don't know… I haven't seen him… Amy, the floating island is gone. It's… moved."

"Moved?" curiosity mixed with the worry.

The troubled bat nodded. "Moved. I found it eventually, but it was up too high for me to reach it. Something about it looked…different."

"Different." A vague fear rested upon Amy when she heard that.

"It seemed to be… unstable, like it was just barely staying together."

"W-will it fall apart?!" Amy said in alarm.

"No, no, that's just what it seemed like. I'm sure its fine." The statement lacked conviction.

"Well, I'm sure Knuckles is okay." Amy said, trying to put on a mask of hope.

"I hope so." Rouge said, as though the world were bearing down on her back.

Amy smiled sympathetically.

Rouge sighed, and began to rise from the chair. "I need to go. Thanks for listening."

"No problem. Anything for a friend!"

Rouge stopped instantly. "Friend?"

"Yeah, a friend." Light seemed to cascade from the comment.

"Th…thanks." Rouge smiled, and abruptly finished rising.

"I'll see you around, I guess?" Rouge said, almost hopefully.

Amy's smile could have warmed the cafe. "Sure."

Who's to say it didn't?

Rouge smiled back, and left.

Immediately, the warmth around Amy left, and was replaced by the cold that had followed her in. It seems that even if she could avoid the storm, she could not avoid its effects.

She made a pillow with her arms, and laid her head down to rest. Maybe she'd just doze a bit till the rain let up….

Eyes open. They see…. that alone is grand, but what do they see? A meadow… and a girl, clad in red. A dream. This is what they see.

"This is a dream." Sonic said in realization.

The girl spoke. "Then it is a good dream."

Sonic approached her slowly, almost cautiously, as though she might break. "Yes…. it is…."

She grinned. "Come on, daredevil. Scared of lil' old me?" she said teasingly.

Sonic returned the grin. "Oh, you know I'm not." With that she ran over to her and scooped her up in his arms.

"Whoa!" a yell of surprise, from the red clad girl.

He grinned. "Whats the matter? Scared of lil' old me?"

She playfully bonked him on the head. "You know I'm not." She returned with equal happiness.

A cloud formed over the blue runner. "This… this isn't real."

"Does that matter?" she responded.

"No, no it doesn't…. what does matter, is are you real?"

All joy left the girl. "Sonic…"

"Answer me." He said, desperation and fear creeping into his voice.

"…."

"Answer me!" The fear seems as terror now, and desperation rampant.

The girl seemed to gain an unimaginable sadness within an instant. "…. I love you. That's all that matters."

"No… I have to know…"

She faded away.

"NO!"

The meadow, the beautiful patch of fantasy disappeared, revealing the endless, thick void around it.

"NOOOOO!!!!"

"NOOOO!!!"

With that mournful cry, Sonic Hedgehog awoke.

A gasp, and heavy breathing followed. He put his head in his heads.

"Why?" he asked of the darkness surrounding him. He would receive no answer.

And outside the darkness-plagued room, a child feared for his brother.

Somewhere, a man with a mind of metal questioned the darkness as well. He was wrapped, in a tower, a cocoon of cold, of steel, of lifelessness. He liked it this way.

He sat, in a red and gray chair, waiting for it. The voice, the thing he knew was his savior, the answer to his prayer!

Twice he had relied on outside sources. Twice both had turned against him.

Three times the charm….

iIvo….i

There! There it was!

iIvo….i

"I'm listening…" he whispered to the darkness, with an odd mixture of joy, eagerness and….disgust.

iYou…..i

"Yes?" his voice did not change.

It faded as it spoke. iYou want to embrace the….i

"Embrace? What?" his voice, in the opposite of the other, rose as he spoke.

"…."

"Damnit!" he shouted in anger. It was gone again! And again it left no more than puzzles, mocking riddles!

But he calmed. Patience was necessary. Soon, it would make sense. Soon he would have the power to crush those who opposed them, and their dreams. Soon the land would be coved in a blight none could imagine.

The void that was the absence of light surrounded her. You could barely see the door behind her, from the light of the monitor. It was a dull, lifeless light, a poor companion, but she'd take it. She was scared, horribly scared. What she knew frightened her, but she was glad to know it at the same time. She had to warn them, now, while it was early. If left on their own, they wouldn't survive. She had to-

Knock knock.

This is what she heard at her door. She knew no one. She had no ties to the world. She took out a gun, and checked a screen on the monitor. A camera was installed outside her door, in case a demon of some sort tried to accost her. And lo, on this screen, a man, clad in a dark gray, with red sunglasses. The lenses seemed to have substance of their own; a sharpness that suggested perhaps that they were eyes themselves. She knew what this was.

She aimed the gun to where his head was outside the door.

She fired. Once, and then lowered the gun to his neck and fired again. She glanced back at the camera's screen. It showed the thick black mass that filled it.

And just as her vision turned back, a cold hand grabbed her throat. She shot a bullet through the computer as the hand lifted her. She was brought close to where the light gave into the darkness and saw a cold, grinning face, with a bullet hole right directly between it's eyes. This was the last thing she saw as darkness overtook her.

"Well! Where in a bit of a stitch, aren't we Voice?"

I said nothing.

"Come on, now, you just lost your slave. Pity that."

Still I said nothing.

"Worst part for you is, she ain't even dead! But she's useless to you know. A slap in the face, that."

Nothing.

"Heh. You know you're pissed when you're givin' the silent treatment out." I could just see him grinning. "I'll be seeing you. Mayhap you be singing about my part in this, eventually."

With that he left. My own annoying little brother. Do you have one? More over, do you have one that is the representation of battle itself?

Do have a game you must watch, as an observer, yet somehow participate in, and dare I say, win?

I don't think you do.

And that's that, for now. I'm tired. I need food. Anyway, many thanks go to catalyst for reviewing. I'll have to mail her a cookie. Again, reviews and constructive criticism are immensely appreciated. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go soak my creative nodes in soothing liquids.

And remember, it's very important to know how to end your comments on your fanfics. Which I don't. Ja!