Chapter 2

Tails was sat in the hospital waiting room, a very disturbed looking young rabbit sat next to him. Her eyes were vacant, lonely. Tails looked at her and put his arm around her shoulder, and stroked his other hand across the back of her head repeatedly. Cream opened up to him, rivers of tears flowing into the fox's shoulder. He looked over towards the reception desk, and looked at Cream.

"I'll be right back, i want to know why it's taking so long. I want to know why we're out here and not in there....", he kissed the sobbing rabbit on the forehead and walked over to the reception desk, one hand wrapped around his other arm.

"Excuse me....", he murmured, barely audible. The woman who was tending to files and phones turned to him and tilted her head.

"Yes? What is it sir?", She replied, very polite and well spoken.

"I- I was wondering if you could check on a patient for me... her name's is Amy Rose.... ummm... she's that pink hedgehog that was brought in with...", the descriptions of the wounds got caught in his throat, making him gag, "Multiple.... stab wounds and.... and....."

The woman noticed his distress and sighed, "Would you like to wait in the relative's room? You and your girlfriend can talk to someone there and you won't be disturbed...."

Tails looked at cream, who had wrapped herself up in her arms, and had tucked her legs under her elbows. He turned back to the receptionist and nodded.

"Alright then, I'll have Carl take you there and I'll send a message up to the chief surgeon.", she smiled, waving over a colleague who had just dispersed a conflict between a penniless drunk and a coffee machine. He came over and smiled at the receptionist.

"Yes Floe?", he asked, he had a very deep yet soothing voice, a welcome type of voice to Tails right now, who felt about a soothed as a bus driving over a bed of nails.

"This young man.. Umm.. Fox.. And that young... Well, would you take them to the relative's room? They're friends of a patient and they're extremely worried."

"Certainly, if you'd like to get your girlfriend and follow me?"

Tails nodded slowly and went back to get Cream, who latched onto him like a barnacle and began to cry again, and followed Carl to the relatives room.

Back across town, gunshots and sirens were the lullabies of the sleeping, and Sonic was hopelessly trying to avoid getting a bullet in his spiky blue back

"What have i DONE?", he asked again, his voice breaking up slightly as he tried to yell and run around at the same time, he had had quite enough. he jumped forwards at the nearest police officer and whipped his gun out of his hand, twisted him around and placed the gun to his head, this was quite an achievement, as sonic was barely four feet tall, and the police officer, now twisted around like a pretzel so he didn't choke from the hero's grasp, was over 5 or 6 feet tall.

"I want answers!! And i want them NOW!!!!!!!!", Sonic roared, screwing the gun firmly over the policeman's temple. Hundreds of guns were held up at him, bearing down at him from all directions, even from below, as several snipers took aim from boats in the river underneath the bridge Sonic now stood upon.

"Now jus calm down laddies.", a Scottish accent bellowed, "Put dooon the gun and we'll talk to ye like civilised men."

Sonic growled, "Put your guns down!! I'm the one who's being chased around and shot at Put your gun down and be 'civilised', I want to know what's gong on!"

An officer standing behind a barrier grunted, "You're a ruthless criminal! You're a danger to society! You've already had one person cleaved nearly in two! And we're going to stop you and bring you to-"

"Shut up!!!", before he could finish his sentence the Scotsman had opened his mouth again, silencing the crowd, "That's enooof of your smart mooth!! Now listen here Sonic. You've done a terrible thing, and we're here to prevent more terrible things, now, are you gonna put that gun down so we can all relax a little bit, or are ye gonna start blowin' good officers brains ooot?"

Sonic looked at the police officer in his grasp, he was white as a sheet, praying for mercy. What had Sonic done to make these people think he was a danger, why had they opened fire on him and why were they now treating him like a monster? He pushed his captive away and sighed.

"Alright then. But if you shoot, I'm not going to be happy...", he frowned, throwing the gun away in three separate pieces. Instantly he was swamped by uniformed men, handcuffs slapped over his wrists, and his ankles shackled to prevent him running away. And he was tossed into the back of a police car. One thought going through his mind. Civilised, yeah right....

Above them on the top of one of the bridges suspension columns stood a lone figure, cloaked to hide it's identity.

"Excellent... Everything is running like clockwork.", it's deep and dark voice chuckled, before it vanished in a plume of smoke.

Just half an hour later, back at the hospital.

"Do you think Amy will be ok?", Cream asked Tails, he eyes glassy and red from all the crying she'd done. Tails hugged her and sighed.

"I wish i knew Cream. To tell the truth, I'm scared.", He admitted in return to her question. And he was telling the truth, he was terrified for the pink hedgehog who had become one of his best friends. When Sonic was too busy to help him with his gadgets Amy would lend a hand. And when he was lonely and just needed someone to talk to, Amy would listen and give him advice, she'd become like a mother to the Fox, and he didn't want to lose her...

"The doctor was lying wasn't he...? He didn't sound like he was telling the truth. He was too quiet...", Cream was about to cry again.

The doctor who had talked to them, said that the injuries were quite extensive, but his team were the best in the business. And that if they couldn't save her, then i was god's will for her to join him. Cream didn't like the use of childish metaphors. They made it sound like the doctor thought them stupid, "Tails, i don't want Amy to die..."

Tails held Cream close and kissed her forehead, "She'll be ok, I've known Amy for a long time and she's never given up on anything. Shhh... It'll be alright..."

"So... Why dya think playin stupid will help ye?", the scottish officer was the chief of Police, and had taken it upon himself to question Sonic as he had promised, and he had been civilised enough to have sonic in magnetic boots that held him to the ground so he couldn't move at all.

"I'm not 'playing stupid', i really have no idea what's going on. I went to sleep at my home in emerald city and the next thing i knew i was back in Station Square, covered in someone's blood.", Sonic frowned, he'd been here waiting for his civilised conversation for 20 minutes, and it still hadn't come.

"so y'admit to the attack?"

"What attack!? I keep asking you to tell me and you skip the details!", Sonic was furious. still no answers to his many questions.

"Y know full well what i'm talking 'boot. Did it make ye feel strong? To hurt the person who idolises ye so completely? Ye got to be cold te be able te do that.", the chief sat down on the desk in the middle of the solitary room. Sonic was forced to stand up in the furnitureless cell.

"Amy!? Wait a minute, i wouldn't hurt Amy! This is sick! What's going on!?", Sonic's face showed fear and disgust all at the same time, and both were drown out by nausia.

"Why don't YOU tell me?", he slid a brown envelope out of his jacket pocket, and opened it, sliding pictures onto the table and forcing sonic to look at them one by one, they were all andgle shots of Amy, with chunks missing, slashes all over her body and blood dying her pink fur red.

"Stop! I didn't do this! Put them away... Put them-", Sonic was brought to vomit, hurling up over the magnet boots.

"It's quite disgusting isn't it?", The chief looked quite pleased with the reaction he got from the blue hero, "is ye memory refreshed now?"

Sonic looked blank, Had he done that to Amy? Was it her blood that he was stained with?

"Get my gloves off, i can't take them off because of the cuffs.", He didn't move, just spoke, it was like he believed if he wasn't moving then it wasn't really happening, that it was just a bad dream, and he would wake up any moment.

The chief was quite abbliged to be taking Sonic's gloves, he could use them as evedence.

"So then, back to where we were. Why did you attack her?", The chiefs tone was cold, disgusted.

"I didn't",Sonic wasn't as defensive now, the photo's had taken the fight away. He was now subdued, defeated, "I told you. I don't know what's going on. I couldn't do this..."

A fist slammed down on the table, shaking the photos off of the table, giving sonic another glance.

"Bullshit!", the chief growled, "I know you did it, you know you did it, and these blood stained gloves are proof you did it, they're soaked in her blood. You're going to get the death sentence for this kind of brutality."

Sonic looked at his vomit coated boots, they were sparking and the chief hadn't noticed, maybe they'd stopped working.

"You listen to me. I did not hurt Amy, and i only need a day to prove it."

Tails's hands trembled, Cream had worn herself out and had fallen asleep against his shoulder, but he couldn't sleep. Sonic had hurt Amy, and now she might die. He couldn't bare the thought that Sonic, who he looked up to so much, would do such a thing. Tails had seen the wounds first hand, and his reaction was very similar to Sonic's, only, when he threw up, he did it to the point of passing out, Cream had been first on the scene and was just a silent wreck. And it was Sonic who did this, Cream had seen him. She'd coward in a corner as Amy tried to stand up for her, and Sonic had cut her up with a huge sword... Why? What reason?

He was left to think about this for a few moments more when a doctor opened the door quietly trying not to disturb the sleeping rabbit.

"Your friend is stable, but she isn't out of the woods yet", He announced, his voice keeping the same tone and showing not a hint of emotion,"Her wounds are very extensive and even if she does make a recovery, she will be very weak for a long time. Not to mention psychological damage"

Tails looked distressed again, "Can we see her?"

Te doctor shook his head, "not at the moment, we need to keep her isolated for a day or so. she still hasn't woken up yet. You look like hell. You should take your girlfriend home, get some rest, come back to-morrow."

Tails gave a quick nod and sighed. picking cream up in his arms to avoid her waking up and taking her to the tornado, which was on the roof.

"Sonic."

"Huh...? Who's there? Where are you??"

"Don't worry Sonic, help is coming"

"What? Who are you?"

Sonic woke from sedation, some kind of gas had filled the room when the chief had left. He looked around, the boots were no longer on his feet and were now smouldering in the coner of the room. Sonic scratched his head and looked around again. The room was pitch black, He could see nothing until he saw a small crimson glow. He stood up, and reached forwards, his hand trembling. He nearly fell back onto the floor when his hand was caught by a familiar glove with red tags on them.

"Not exactly your most gracious of settings", the familiar voice of a black hedgehog whispered. a small ball of energy floating beside him and lighting up the room. highlighting the vomit on the floor and the photo's on the desk.

"Shadow?", Sonic asked tiredly, half yawning lightly.

"Yes?", Shadow turned to him and frowned. He had no reason to frown other than the fact that he now had a strange stain on his shoe that wasn't there before he teleported into the prison cell. He looked out toawrds the door, clenching his fists. "I'd lovce to chat with you and talk about old times. But i think you've already noticed the high security prison we're in..."

Sonic frowned. Shadow hadn't changed one bit, he was still a headstrong arrogant... wait.... he's got a cloak! where'd that come from!?

"Shadow. Where did you get that cloak?"

"Stole it"

"Where fro-"

"ghost"

"Eh? Why?"

"bored"

"So let me get this straight. you went to-"

"Broke into..."

"Ok. Broke into ghost's place, stole his cloak when he wasdn't"

"He was wearing it at the time..."

"What!?"

"Punched him out"

"How?"

"Like this", Shadow then punched sonic square between the eyes, nocking him into the wall and sonding an alarm. Shadow rolled his eyes, and tossed sonic rather harshly onto his shoulder.

"Now look what you did you stupid blue idiot", he closed his eyes and waited until the moment the door flew open so he could dramatically charge through the armed guards and make a run for it. It didn't work like that as it went.

Tails let out a large and depressed yawn, and then locked the door behind him. Cream was still asleep in his bed, and Tails had slept on the couch for about an hour before waking up again with worry. He walked slowly down the early morning streets, still empty and quite eerie. He yawned again. and suddenly found himself in shock as he saw sonic charge by, a large bag on his back and a hellacious amount of rings stored in it and spilling out into the streets, he growled, running after him as fast as his legs would carry him and then span around his twin tails, shooting off like a mini hovercraft. But found himself on the floor when met by his hero's boot. A cold and emotionless glare in his emerald green eyes. Sonic sneered at the fox, before stomping on his chest one last time before dashing off again. Tails lay upon the hard stone floor, a light tracing of blood on his muzzle, he whimpered in pain as he climbed to his feet, looking off in the direction where Sonic had run. Tears rolled his cheeks, and he limped back to his home.

Sonic awake yet again to find himself in a dark room, a sole window to his right, sending light into his eyes, a scent of blood hung in the air, and Sonic looked around, half expecting himself to be back in station square again, framed for another attack. He rubbed his head; Shadow sure could lay a punch. How had he gotten so strong in the past few years? He groaned, jumping to his feet and dusting off his shoes. Another thing hit his head and dropped through the air. Sonic grabbed it and squinted to see it, it was a bar of chocolate.

"Wha'?", he asked quizzically to no-one in particular.

"Think about it. It looks like chocolate, so what could it possibly be?", Shadow's voice answered. the hedgehog stumbled into the room, holding himself up with an iron pole that was sticking out of the floor, blood trickling from his shoulder and dripping from the tips of his fingers.

"What happened to you Shadow?", Sonic winced, it looked quite painful, or that could have been from his pounding headache.

"Shot. As it goes, those cops aren't cops. They're from G.U.N. And it seems like they want to keep something hushed up and it involves you.", Shadow replied, ripping a piece of the cloak he was wearing and tying it around his shoulder. Sonic looked out of the window, the area he saw he didn't recognise. it was a strange open field with a yellow horizon and the sky seemed to be more like water than anything else. He gasped, spinning back to shadow and growling.

"Where are we!? And what the hell is going on! Amy..... I have to go see her! I have to find out what's going on!", he was now near hysterical and his hands were trembling. Shadow stomped up to him, close enough for Sonic to see right into his soul, then took a step backwards and lunged forwards, swinging a palm at Sonic's cheek. Sonic span around from the force of the slap and then fell over, rubbing his now throbbing cheek.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR!?"

"For suggesting something so stupid", Shadow sounded so calm, and it made sonic's blood boil.

"YOU MOTHERFUCK-" Shadow hit him again. That really wasn't deserved! Sonic glared at him through a red haze.

"If you've returned to your senses..." Shadow drawled. Sonic groaned and rubbed his head.

"I think they fell out when you hit me the second time." Shadow ignored him.

"You may have guessed you've been framed. What I don't think you've guessed is how badly."

The black hedgehog paused for dramatic effect. Sonic blinked.

"Well? Tell me already!" Shadow groaned.

"Ok, they want you dead. We're talking capital one murder."

"WHAT?! I didn't do anything!!"

"I know that and you know that, but they don't." Sonic dragged a hand down his face with another groan.

"Way to state the obvious. What do we do now?"

"We?"

"Well, you saved me, so I'm going to assume you're helping until further notice."

"Well... I'm going to be a little busy saving my own ass."

"What did YOU do?"

"Nothing..." Sonic raised an eyebrow at Shadow, who shrugged. "Ok, so I stole some stuff they wrote about me. Uh... they're a little pissed."

"Oh great. I'm on the run with a crazy thief."

"No, that would be Rouge." Shadow paused. "Who incidentally, is in on it."

"WHAT?! Who else is in on this?!"

"Well... Everyone."

"Even Ghost?"

"Well... Not Ghost."

"Shortfuse?"

"Well... Not him, either."

"Who then?!"

"Eh... Me, Rouge, erm.... You..."

"That's it?"

"Well... My circle of friends is small."

"You could've asked-"

"Annoyed with me."

"Why?"

"Stole his pants."

"WHAT?!"

"Bored."

"You seriously stole his..."

"Yeah, well. This time he wasn't wearing them."

"That image is too gross to imagine."

"He was wearing the other pair, sicko."

"i didn't know he had any full stop....."

"Yeah, well... He's changed a bit since you last saw him."

"are you gonna help me or not?"

"Let me think about it." Shadow turned to walk back out of the door and looked back over his shoulder, "Thought about it."

"Well?", Sonic was becoming quite bored, and was ready to just race out of the door.

"Yes. but only if you play it my way and don't argue with me."

With all that done with, Shadow turned away again and walked out of the door, pokig his head back round for a split second, "Stay here."

That was all he said, before using Chaos control to warp away. Naturally Sonic didn't listen to him and dashed out of the door, taken aback by what he saw. They were in the netherworld. Sonic had been here only once, and at the time, he was dead. If Amy had died she'd have been here, and that would mean he could find out what was going on. He rushed over to the temple for the newly departed and looked around.

Empty.

Not a single soul in sight. When Sonic had arrived here, there were hundreds all gathered in groups, whispering and muttering about him. But now, there was no-one in sight. Could he not see them because he was alive? He wouldn't be able to ask Amy anything, no matter what happened. He sat down in the middle, and curled up into himself, wrapping his arms around his knees. He openly cried into them. And then looked up at the fluid skies. "Damn.... What am i going to do? I can't just sit here moping can I", He thought, standing up and walking back to the solitary shack. And sitting down in one of it's damp corners. Waiting for Shadow to get back.

Tails woke that morning with the worst chest pain he'd ever had, and Cream was watching over him, fraught with worry. The Rabbit touched his chest lightly, and when he winced in pain at the mere touch, she looked into his eyes.

"Sonic did this to you?"

Tails couldn't keep his eyes locked with hers and turned away, rubbing his chest lightly. He sighed a long melancholy sigh.

"Yeah...", he fought back his tears, which only made more arrive to re-enforce the others, Cream hugged him from behind. She feared for him, because unlike Tails she had just seen a news broadcast only hours before.

One that terrified her, and made her very soul split in two. Amy had died in hospital.

"Tails... Don't leave me behind", she sobbed, soaking Tails' back, "Don't go away."

Tails relieved himself of her grip and turned around, placing his hands on her shoulders to reassure her and himself, "I'm not going to leave you Cream. Why would you say something like that?"

"Dead.", the words were said so calmly, the police chief had no sympathy. "It seems that the wee hedgehog managed to kill the guards somehow, and he escaped through a service exit."

Microphones were forced into his face as he spoke to the media.

"We are now treating Sonic as a serial killer, firstly for the cold blooded killing of one Amy Rose, and then for the senseless slaughter of my men."

More microphones were forced upon him.

"Chief Mac'hallen, do you have any leads upon Sonic's current whereabouts?"

"What do you believe could have made a hero such as sonic become so ruthless?"

"Are the rumours of his involvement with the evil scientist Eggman true?"

"No more questions, please, I'm a busy man, i have a killer te catch!", and with that the chief was off, into a car and down route 99. As he travelled, he activated a comm link, a dark figure clouded in shadows appearing on a small screen in his rear view mirror.

"I grow impatient police Chief Mac'hallen, you must retrieve the hedgehog before my identity is revealed"

"Don't ye be worrien' I've got that blue freak in the palm of me 'and."

"I hope so, because failure is not acceptable."

The screen went blank, and the chief continued towards the mystic ruins. And Tails.