CHAPTER 8: First Date

"What do you think?" Amy asked Espio, who was clinging to the ceiling, still invisible. In one hand off to her side she held a black silk dress, and in her other, held in front of her, was a red one, also silk. Behind her was a closet full of other outfits for various occasions.

"I think you should decide for yourself," Espio replied shortly. "After all it is YOUR date."

"I just want your opinion," Amy said. "If you don't want to say anything, don't."

"If you insist..." Espio grunted. "The red one. It matches your quills."

"That's what I thought too," Amy said, turning to the mirror beside her. The dress had spaghetti straps on the shoulders, and the top of it began a few inches above her breasts: she'd have a good bit of her chest exposed with it, and she had seen on TV that it was expected to get a little cool that night. The bottom part of the dress flowed down to about where her ankles were, with a slit up the right side up to a little above her knee. As for the back, there really wasn't one above the waist.

"Or you could do it the macabre way," Espio suddenly said, "and flip a coin."

"Nah, I'd probably end up picking the one I was leaning away from," Amy replied without turning away from the mirror. "I think I'll just go with this one."

Like I thought, she picks that one anyway, Espio thought. Amy set the red dress down on her bed, then she took the black one and hung it back up in her closet.

"Alright, out you get," she said when she turned around. "I gotta get changed." Espio left the room and closed the door behind him

At last, 7:00 rolled around. Sonic was prompt enough: he got there at 7:01. As he knocked on Amy's door, he couldn't help but wonder how he'd managed to get roped into this. He took a look around while he waited. Amy's house was modest enough for a business owner: it was a small, wooden, white-painted place in a small neighborhood. It had no garage and a short driveway with her Corvette parked in it. There was no doorbell or even one of those really crappy metal knocking things on the oak door, also painted white. The lawn was well-kept, though: the crass was green, cut to about two inches long, and no weeds. The was devoid of trees, though. There was also a garden off to the right side of the small porch: pansies were growing in the front, waxy-looking monkeygrass in the middle, and tall green cannas in the back, right in front of the window. In among these plants, several tulips were sticking up with yllow blooms. There was also a fern hanging in a small, green, plastic pot a few feet above Sonic's head and to his right. All of these were well-kept as well. The pansies and monkeygrass covered almost the entire ground they grew in, and the cannas had to be at least eight feet tall with orange blooms at the tops. The fern had been trimmed recently, so it wasn't very large.

Wow, Sonic thought, she's pretty good with plants. I wouldn't be surprised if she got some kind of award for having a good-looking lawn. Before he realized it, Amy was at the door.

"Hi Sonic!" she greeted. "I see you like my garden." Sonic took a look at her. He couldn't help thinking she looked beautiful in her attire: the red dress, no gloves or bracelets, red high heels, and a red headband(lotsa red, huh?).

"Yeah, you did a good job with it," he heard himself say while he admired her.

"Ah, no big deal," she replied. "Just a spare-time thing." Amy took a look around: aside from hers, there wasn't a car parked out front. "You don't have a car, do you?"

"Uh, no," Sonic said, "I run everywhere. It's faster."

"Well, guess I'll have to do the driving, won't I?" Amy stated. "We COULD walk, but heels aren't very good for walking in. My feet would be killing me before long."

"I can imagine," Sonic looked down at Amy's shoes and thought, If I had to wear those, I'd hunt down the bastard that invented them and kill him.

"Let me just grab my purse and we'll get going." Amy went back into the house for a moment, and came back with her black leather purse on her right shoulder. It strongly contrasted her clothes pretty much 24/7(except when she was naked), but if it mattered to her, she would have bought a new one LONG before then. She reached down and pulled out her keys as she walked toward the car, where Sonic was waiting.

"Well," he said, "the house is pretty modest, but the car sure isn't, is it?"

Amy shrugged and said, "Just thought I'd treat myself. It was the cheapest one on the lot, anyway." Sonic's eyes went wide as he and Amy climbed in, followed by Espio, who grabbed a spot in the back. "Seatbelts, boys!"

"Hmph," Espio grunted, pulling on the lap belt(the shoulder belt would have given him away). Sonic groaned.

"Does he HAVE to come along?" he asked.

"I hate to say it, but yeah, he does," Amy told him. "I probably won't be watching over my shoulder, and I'm sure you'll be just as preoccupied. If someone IS following me-"

"He wouldn't try to do anything with me around!" Sonic cut in.

"The hole in the window at the diner was the size of a bullet," Espio said. "So either he was really small, or he shot her from afar. If he'd been up close, he would have been seen."

"Exactly," Amy said.

"Alright, fine..." Sonic sighed. Amy started the engine and pulled out onto the road.

An hour later, Amy and Sonic were taking a little stroll in the park under the stars, both of them pretty full from dinner.

"Wow," Amy said contently. "No wonder those guys stay in business. The place is small, but they've got awesome pie."

"Yeah," Sonic agreed. "I'll bet they serve a lot of it, too."

"Probably." Little did either of them realize, a red dot had just appeared on the back of Amy's head. A figure in a tree about 100 feet behind them began to squeeze the trigger. Just before the figure fired, Amy stumbled on a rock, which was probably the luckiest thing that ever happened to her. The bullet flew right over her head and into the ground twenty feet ahead.

"WHAT THE!?" Sonic grabbed Amy's hand and ran behind a tree, which turned out to be the only tree nearby.

"What was that!?" Amy's heart was going a mile a minute.

"I think the killer's back!" Sonic peered around the edge of the tree, but jerked his head back when a chunk of the trunk was blown off by another shot. Frustrated, the figure in the tree 100 feet from them jumped down with a metallic thud. Espio, who hadn't moved yet, couldn't tell much about the figure, since it shot out the lights before it started forward. He COULD tell, though, that the gun was mounted to its arm, so disarming it would be difficult, if even possible. As the figure neared the tree Sonic and Amy were hiding behind, it lowered the arm with the gun mounted to it and raised its other. Espio's suspicions about its identity were confirmed when its hand was drawn back into its arm and replaced with the end of a flamethrower: it was a robot.

"CRUSH KILL DEMOLISH!" said a loud, mechanical voice. The flamethrower ignited and began spewing flames, engulfing the tree when the robot was within fifty feet.

"That sounds like one of Eggman's robots!" Amy exclaimed. "But I thought he died!"

"He did!" Sonic replied. "Alright, look, you run and don't look back. I'll deal with the robot, okay?"

"But Sonic-" Amy tried to argue, but a burst of flame from the side of the tree silenced her. The robot was closing in, so they had to act fast: if its aim was halfway decent, it could shoot her easily unless something distracted it, due to the lack of trees. At point-blank range, it was a sure thing.

"On three, start running. One, two-" a loud electric crackle made him stop. Sonic took a look around the side of the tree, in case the robot had a taser or something. To his surprise, the robot was engulfed in electricity. Within seconds, it exploded everywhere. Amy and Sonic came out from behind the tree cautiously.

"What just happened?" Sonic spat out.

"I took down a power line near one of the lights," Espio's voice said, "and the line hit the robot. The lights were out, but not the power."

"Oh," was all Sonic could manage to say. He was still a little shaken: while he was used to robot attacks, this one had seemed just a little too smart to be your run-of-the-mill robot.

"Any idea who could have sent it?" Amy had finally found her voice again.

"No." Espio kicked the robot. "It's got some high-quality armor on it. Whoever sent it was anticipating a fight, and apparently knew that shields could be blown off. What they didn't count on was a good electric shock."

"Will it be able to reactivate?" Amy asked.

"I doubt it," Espio replied, "but I'm no expert on machines."

"Maybe Tails could find out some stuff about it," Sonic said.

"Well, we'll be needing the car in that case," Amy stated.

"Espio," Sonic looked toward where Espio's voice had come from, "sorry about what I said earlier."

Well, first date- RUINED. Amy nearly has her head blown off with Sonic two feet away, and Espio manages to take out the attacking robot. But why Amy? Who sent it? Will Tails be able to find anything out? Maybe, maybe not. We'll find out later, won't we? R&R please.