Chapter 5 - The breakup
Tails was in his workshop with the door locked, sticking sensors to a large glass sphere and checking the readings on his computer. Lots of random vibration, but no harmony.
A thrall sphere was a chaos-powered crystal that could hypnotize the unwary, and at the same time allow the user to hear anything anywhere on Mobius. Tails could control it by hand, and had the idea to use a computer to fine-tune the sphere's frequencies.
His concentration was shattered by a knock on the door. Amy! He ducked behind the Tornado and cautiously peered through its windscreen. It was silent a moment, then the visitor knocked again. "Tails?" said a low, male voice. "I need your help, if you're in there."
Tails got up, relieved, and hurried to the door. He unlocked it and said, "Come in, quick, I don't want anybody to know that I'm here."
His visitor, a purple porcupine, whisked inside and watched as Tails re-locked the door. "Avoiding Amy, I take it?"
"You might say that," said Tails, feeling himself blush under his fur. He turned to Spike, who was holding a cracked metal tube.
Spike held it out. "I'm trying to fix a hovercar, but look at this energy conductor. I've never seen one crack before."
Tails took it and examined it closely. The clear crystalline fibers inside were exposed and tangled. "Wow, what'd they do, try to break the sound barrier?"
"They wouldn't say," said Spike, folding his arms and looking cross. "You should see the rest of the engine. I think I can repair everything, except this conductor. Can you?"
"Maybe," said Tails, carrying it to his workbench.
Spike was a mechanic like Tails, but his area of expertise was cars: hover cars, ground-cars, Mobian cars, human cars, any car. He had a souped-up hoverbike that he had rebuilt many times over the years, and everyone knew that this was because Serena loved riding it with him. Tails and Spike had an easy-going friendship because of their shared interest, and consulted each other on tough mechanical problems, like this one.
Spike hovered over Tails's shoulder as the fox clamped the conductor in a vise and flicked on a bright overhead light.
"Excuse me," said a synthesized voice behind them.
Spike and Tails looked around at the Tornado, sitting on its blocks with its legs folded. It had two black glass-paneled eyes, one on either side of the nose, and the pupils were blue lights. These were focused on the Mobians.
"What, Tornado?" said Tails.
"Pardon me for interrupting," said the Tornado, "but my scanners detect Amy Rose moving in this direction. You are avoiding her. Solution: I notified you of her approach."
"Thanks, Tornado," said Tails, ducking behind the workbench.
Spike crouched down with him, grinning. "Good thing it's on your side, huh?"
"You have no idea," said Tails. "Good grief, why won't she leave me alone?"
There came a knock at the door. A pause, then another. Amy yelled, "Tails, you have to come out sometime, and when you do, you are in SO much trouble!"
Tails crouched a little lower, ears flattening. Spike laughed silently, hand over his mouth.
After a moment the Tornado said, "Amy Rose is departing, Tails."
"Thanks," said Tails, cautiously standing up. "Man, what am I gonna do?"
"These hedgehog girls," said Spike, grinning. "Can't live with 'em and can't live without 'em. Find somebody else and tell Amy you're taken."
"Yeah right, like who?" said Tails, poking at the energy converter with a probe. "Serena's taken." He glanced at Spike.
The porcupine's eyes darted from side to side. "Who told?"
Tails shrugged. There was an awkward silence, then Spike said, "Well, don't go spreading it around. Sonic'll kill me."
Tails looked up with a grin. "Sonic can get engaged, but his sister can't even date. Kinda funny, isn't it?"
Spike smirked. "Yeah. And look. The sooner you tell off Amy, the better off you'll both be."
Tails gulped. "Yeah. The way it's going, I'm gonna have to."
On the other side of the village, a green hedgehog sat on the floor of his hut with a white gem in his lap. He stared into it, watching the burning white light in its heart. The inner facets were smokey, as if this emerald had tarnished from the inside out, lending this Chaos Emerald its grayish coloring. Spark could feel its power. Feel it, but not use it. It frustrated him, because Sonic had told him that if you could feel the power in an emerald, then you could use it. Spark had never had his chaos aura tested, but figured that he had a strong one or he wouldn't have his electrical powers.
He gazed into the emerald hungrily. Locked somewhere inside this gem was the power to heal. It wasn't native to this emerald, but Sonic said that he could reach all the powers through one emerald if he concentrated hard enough. Spark wanted healing for the poison in his veins. He had carried its taint from childhood, but now it was getting worse.
Who was he kidding? He had always known that his electric power would be his own downfall. Electricity was the catalyst for the mutegen inside of him. Every time he built a charge, more black spots appeared in his green fur. Sometimes he could feel the old fever at the base of his skull, and had to lie down before the world turned into a carnival funhouse of colors and sounds. Insanity was a bitter word. He wanted freedom from the sickness, and this emerald could give it to him, if only he knew how.
Spark held it up to his eyes and gazed into its glowing heart, unblinking. It was beautiful, tarnished as it was. If only he could touch that light ... direct it, control it, make it purify his cells ... He relaxed under the influence of that glow, tried to open himself to its power ...
He wasn't sure how it happened. One minute he was gazing, mesmerized, into the Chaos Emerald; the next he was staring into a pair of angry blue eyes, bigger than his own, with cat-like pupil slits.
Spark dropped the emerald and cringed away from it, heart hammering against his ribcage. He knew those eyes and why they were angry. He sat panting in fear, looking at the emerald that lay on the floor, twinkling innocently. Should he tell someone? No, he'd have to admit that he had stolen the Chaos Emerald, and who from. But how had he seen the eyes? Was he projecting his own guilt onto the emerald somehow? Or was one of his crazy spells setting in and he hadn't noticed? He touched his own forehead, but there was no fever.
Whatever had happened, Spark was unnerved. He got up and left his hut, leaving the gem in the middle of the floor.
Knuckles's communicator chirped around noon. The echidna thought he heard it, and paused in his digging, rocks and gravel rolling out of the rut in the wall. The com chirped again. He brushed off his hands, pulled off his shovel claws and unhooked the com from his workbelt. "Yeah?" he said into the speaker.
"Yo, Knux, it's Sonic," said the hedgehog's voice. "You got a minute?"
"I do now," said Knuckles, eyeing the rock wall. One of the main passages in Lava Reef had caved in, and he was digging a new tunnel. He had been hoping that Zephyer might call, and thus hearing Sonic's voice was a disappointment.
"Good," said Sonic, oblivious. "Did Zeff tell you that Spark is home?"
"No, she didn't," said Knuckles, surprised despite himself. "He just showed up again?"
"Yeah," said Sonic, sounding odd. "He's ... his whole poisoned thing is worse now. He's got ... a couple of months left."
Knuckles was silent, stunned. When he didn't answer, Sonic thought that he had been too vague. "He's going to die, Knuckles. He came back because he wanted me to Chaos Heal him, and you know I can't do that."
"No," said Knuckles quietly. "Max can. He's the only one."
"That's what I told him. Do you think you could take Talon down and get Max out for a few days?"
Knuckles thought about it. He was busy with this tunnel, and Zephyer was continuing Talon's education at home. Zephyer had been talking about adopting Max for Talon, as it would help calm the young anteater, but with a baby on the way, any chao adoption had been put on hold. A visit wouldn't hurt, though ... Talon had been working hard and completed several of his books already. He could use a little rest and relaxation ... not to mention that Spark's life was on the line ...
Knuckles recalled the green hedgehog's somber eyes, quiet cunning, and quick fingers as he toyed with his dagger. Then he thought of the time that Spark had rescued Sonic from being roboticized nearly at the cost of his own life. Spark was a good guy.
"Sure, Sonic," said Knuckles. "I'll talk to Zephyer about it tonight."
"Thanks Knux," said Sonic. "You take care of Zephyer, okay?"
"She hasn't complained yet," said Knuckles, and disconnected. He stood looking at the com in his hand for a long moment. Another of these life-and-death situations. Life was never simple anymore.
That afternoon, as Serena was walking home from school, the wind picked up and drove leaves in scurrying crowds across the road. She shivered and hugged her coat closer around her body. Overhead, through the bare branches of the forest, she saw great white cloud masses sailing through the blue sky. The weather was changing.
As the violet hedgehog stood gazing upward, she saw a tiny winged speck riding the wind, its wings beating once in a while to keep its balance. It might have been a bird, but Serena recognized the long, serpentine tail. Slasher loved windy days. Serena waved, and thought she saw the raptor wave back.
She walked on, glancing up every so often to check Slasher's progress. The raptor was drifting south, circling like a hawk, enjoying herself and probably hunting at the same time. After a while the road turned, and the trees hid her from Serena's view.
Serena's mind wandered. She thought about Spark's illness and how other nutritional aspects might influence the infection in his body. Sick or not, he was strong physically. His body could heal itself if she could just give it the help it needed.
From there her thoughts wandered to cooking Spike's dinner tonight, and what he might like. This became a daydream about Spike, imagining him proclaiming his love for her and kissing her passionately--something that wouldn't happen in the real world, but happened quite often in daydreams.
Serena was awakened from her introspection by a hiss from nearby. She jumped and looked around. Slasher was perched on a tree branch that arched over the road, her long tail danging. She smiled down at Serena, teeth gleaming, the wind ruffling the feathers on her wings.
"Where'd you come from?" Serena called.
Slasher cocked her head. "I come from where the sun sails and the moon walks. You thinking about anything in particular?" She opened her wings and glided into the road, then turned, inviting Serena to walk with her. Serena did so, and they walked on together.
"Just thinking about Spark," said Serena, "wondering how to help him."
Slasher nodded. "He underestimates his own body. He's still alive because his body can fight the poison--it's just been doing it so long that he's weakened. Chaos energy isn't the solution for everything."
"Yeah," said Serena. "I've been telling Sonic that for years, but noooo, what do I know?" They walked in silence for a few minutes, then Serena said, "What do you think of Spike?"
Slasher cast her a quick glance. "What about him? He's a nice guy."
Serena looked down. "You know. Sonic doesn't like me running around with Spike, but I don't know why. Spike's great. We like the same stuff and everything ..." She trailed off and looked at the raptor, hoping for her approval.
Slasher's mouth twitched. "Spike and Sonic have never seen eye to eye. In my opinion Spike has become a responsible young male, but Sonic still sees him as the punk upstart he was when he came here."
"I know," said Serena, laughing a little. "Sonic hates it when I hang around with Spike. But ... you don't mind, do you?"
"No," said Slasher. "But Sonic and Spark do."
Serena froze in mid-stride. "Spark, too? But why?"
"They don't like you dating," said Slasher, grinning.
Serena considered this for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Older brothers are jerks, aren't they? I'll have to watch out for them!"
"My thoughts exactly," said Slasher as Knothole came into view ahead. "I don't know how much more relationship conflict I can stand, actually. The deal with Amy and Tails is revolting enough."
"I know," said Serena, making a face. "I wish Tails would grow a spine and tell her off. It'd do Amy good for someone to tell her no for once."
Slasher nodded and said nothing for several paces. Then she said in a low, heavy voice, "You all look to me for advice in these things. I don't know anything, Serena."
Serena stopped and looked at Slasher, and the raptor halted as well, head hanging. It had never occurred to Serena that Slasher might be lonely for a male of her own species. Slasher had always been Slasher--the odd, feral-looking dinosaur with wings. For the first time in years, Serena really looked at Slasher. The green eyes, sharp teeth, leathery skin, long claws ... and the implanted wings that clashed with the muscular reptilian body.
The velociraptor saw that her eyes lingered on her wings, and nodded. "There are males of my species on Flicky Island. But my wings make me a freak. Males won't even take the first steps of the mating dance with me. I'm too horrible to them."
"Slash ... I'm sorry," said Serena, thinking of how hard it must be to watch all your friends pairing up when you yourself were without prospects at all. "Would you rather I don't talk to you about it?"
"No, no," said Slasher, swinging her head from side to side. "I've learned to deal with it. I do enjoy the intrigue going on. I just have no experience in these matters upon which to draw."
Serena patted Slasher's shoulder. "Your advice has been good so far."
Slasher snorted. "Look at all the good it's done. It'd be easier if I could eat Amy and be done with it."
Serena laughed. "Now that's the easy solution." They walked into the village laughing, but Serena's heart ached for her friend. She had never thought that Slasher carried such a deep grief; it was masked too well by her fierce exterior.
That evening the sun sank in a bank of red-rimmed clouds, washing the sky in violet and crimson. Sonic ran through the windy, color-saturated evening, ducking in and out of the forest as he cut between criss-crossing paths that led to the lake two miles north of Knothole. He liked the solitude of the lake sometimes when work had been hectic. His job was to move mail and supplies between Riverbase and New Mobitropolis, and today three large backorders had arrived at once. Sonic had been lifting, running and teleporting for eight solid hours. He just wanted to sit and watch the water and the sunset. Sally would meet him there in half an hour.
The lake was a ruffled mirror of the brilliant sky, the wind cutting trails and whorls across its surface. Sonic climbed the boulder that he liked to sit on, drew his knees to his chest, and gazed out across the water. The wind gusted and buffeted his ears, but Sonic faced it unflinching. He was tired, and his mind was a comfortable blank. All he had to worry about this evening was dinner and Sally's companionship.
He was lost in thoughtless contemplation of the glowing horizon when he heard footsteps. Glancing around, Sonic saw Spark's silhouette moving along the lake shore, his spines ruffled by the wind. After a while Spark halted and stood looking across the water as Sonic was doing. Slowly he reached up and unfastened his circlet containing the Eighth Emerald fragment. He drew back his arm as if to throw it into the lake, but hesitated, weighing the circlet in his hand. Sonic straightened in alarm. One of those fragments could do serious harm in the wrong hands. One didn't just throw away a chip of the Eighth Chaos Emerald.
"Spark!" Sonic called.
Spark jumped violently and spun around, nearly falling into the water. "What? What're you--Sonic!" He slapped his headband back on as he spoke.
Sonic stood up on the boulder. "You can't get rid of it that way. Somebody will find your headband if it's in the lake."
Spark stood stock still, face flushed red. He was humiliated that Sonic had seen him trying to dispose of the emerald, and his temper rose to the surface like boiling lava. "You should stay out of other people's business!" he yelled, fists clenched. "You stinking spy!"
"I have as much right to be here as you do," Sonic retorted, his own temper flaring. "I wasn't spying on you--"
"Yeah you were," Spark bellowed. "Leave me alone, Sonic! Just stay away from me!" He turned and ran into the woods, headed back toward Knothole. Sonic jumped off the boulder to follow him with his superior speed, but checked himself. Spark might be going through one of his insanity cycles, and confronting someone who was irrational was always a bad idea. But still, calling Sonic a spy ... the unjust accusation rankled.
Sonic was still standing there when Sally approached from the opposite direction. Sonic greeted her with a warm feeling in his chest; things were okay now. They climbed up on the rock and sat side by side, watching the sunset glow fade from the sky.
Sally looked at Sonic. "Sonic ... something's wrong. You have that look."
"Oh, it's Spark," said Sonic, shaking his head. "He was out here a few minutes ago ..." He recounted Spark's actions and words. Sally listened, watching him with a puzzled expression.
When he finished, she shook her head. "Maybe his fever is acting up again. But it kind of sounds like he was trying to get rid of that emerald shard. Has he said anything about it since you told him it was dangerous?"
"No," said Sonic. "I didn't want to nag him, and the thing with Amy this morning pushed it out of my head."
Sally was silent a moment, looking out at the gleaming lake. Sonic knew that the wheels in her head were turning as she processed the problem. After a moment she looked at him. "He sure has been acting funny since he came home ... guilty, almost. I wonder if I could talk to him about it?"
"Maybe," said Sonic. "He might accuse you of spying, too."
"I've been called worse," said Sally lightly. "Let's go back to the village before the light's completely gone."
They climbed off the rock and walked back through the woods, arm in arm. The trees scraped and tossed overhead, their bare branches shivering in the chill wind. Leaves blew along in clouds and collected in drifts out of the wind.
The warm yellow lights of Knothole seemed homey and inviting as the pair stepped out of the darkness. They were walking toward the kitchen hut when a voice called, "Sonic!"
Sonic and Sally turned to see Amy and Tails hurrying toward them. Tails's teeth were clenched, and his eyes were bright and angry. Amy was smiling and triumphant. "Tails said that you stood me up. It's your fault that we didn't get to go out today."
Sonic looked at Tails and saw that the fox was an inch from throttling the pink hedgehog. Behind Amy's back, Tails looked at Sonic and shook his head--he hadn't meant to tell. Sonic nodded slightly to show that he understood.
"So," said Amy, "Tails is going to kiss me to make up."
Sonic and Sally stared at Tails, who stared at Amy. This was new to him, too.
"I'm what?" said Tails.
Amy glared at him. "You're going to kiss me because you're sorry."
There was a heavy silence. Tails was half-inclined to give in, to kiss her and get it over with. But the other half of him resisted in revulsion--this was the last straw. He was absolutely not going to kiss Amy, no matter what she did to him.
"No," he said.
Amy's eyes widened. "What?"
"No!" said Tails. "I'm not going to kiss you." Figuring that he might as well do the thing properly while he was at it, he went on, "And you know what else? I don't want to date you. I've never felt that way about you."
Amy's mouth hung open in disbelief. She looked from Tails to Sonic and back; Tails had just embarrassed her in front of Sonic! He had stood up to her bullying at the worst possible second. She felt a surge of fury and anger welling up inside of her, and let it out as a scream--a long, drawn-out scream that made all of them flinch. Then Amy bolted for home, sobbing and not caring who stopped to stare.
"Well," said Sonic as Amy faded into the distance, "who wants dinner?"
Tails looked as if a load had fallen from his shoulders. He grinned as he had not done in days. "Sounds great! I'm starved."
As Tails, Sonic and Sally walked off, happy and triumphant, Amy flung herself on her bed in her room and screamed into her pillow. It was satisfying to make so much noise, to wail and thrash and beat her fists on the bedspread. Her feelings were hurt so deeply that her chest actually ached. She hoped that she was having a heart attack, because that would show them all. Then she realized that her chest hurt because she had not drawn a breath in over a minute. She lifted her head out of her pillow and inhaled, feeling better immediately.
Slowly her tears abated, and she curled up and stared at the wall, hiccuping. Sonic had turned her down. Tails had turned her down. She almost wondered if maybe she wasn't as attractive as she saw herself ... but crushed that thought before it could form. Of course she was a wonderful person. Sonic and Tails were just selfish jerks, that was all.
She wanted to hurt them both. But how could she do that? Short of beating them with her mallet, she couldn't think of anything. Who else could she date who Sonic and Tails would totally, completely disapprove of? Someone who they would be shocked to hear about? Someone extreme and dangerous.
As Amy entertained this idea, a memory swam to the surface. A dark room lit by blue planetshine from the windows. The silhouette of a black hedgehog looking out at the planet with death in his eyes. Of course. Shadow. She remembered seeing him in the Mystic Ruins forest, then again in Rio del Fuego. He was half-roboticized, which made him even more frightening and foreboding, but Amy was not afraid of him. Strange as Shadow was, he was still a hedgehog, and Amy did not fear hedgehogs.
Sonic would never approve of Amy dating Shadow. She smiled. A slow, evil smile.
But how to find Shadow? Sonic had rescued him from Robotnik's laboratory a few weeks ago, and Shadow had disappeared again. Maybe she could use a powerful scanner. Like one of the ones Tails had ...
An image of the Tornado leaped into her mind's eye, and of seeing her own profile on its screen. Suddenly she knew how she could take revenge on Tails as well as Sonic.
Amy got up and slipped out of the hut, and ran on tiptoe across the village toward Tails's workshop. Tails was still off having dinner with Sonic and Sally, Amy thought with a pang of bitterness. This would serve him right. She didn't bother with the front door of the workshop, because Tails always locked it. She had figured out how to break in earlier, last time Tails had barricaded himself in.
She circled around to the back door, slid open the window beside it, reached in and turned the door's lock from the inside. The door swung open, and Amy stepped inside. "Hello Tornado," she said.
The Tornado's blue eyes flicked on in the darkness. "Greetings, Amy," it replied in its vaguely masculine voice. "Query. Why are you here?"
The pink hedgehog trotted up and climbed into the cockpit. The screen on the control panel displayed her profile the way she knew it would. "Tails sent me," Amy said. "Do you think that you could find Shadow?"
The screen changed to display an image of Shadow, and oddly enough, and inset screen of Metal Sonic. "Affirmative," said the Tornado. "Mecha provided me with Mekion's ID number. Scanning. Please wait."
Amy waited, shivering in the cold seat. The screen displayed a global map of Mobius, then zoomed in on one continent and city. "Sapphire City," the screen announced. A green line began tracing down the wrinkled contour of the city's area, turning up green blips, which were partial ID matches. Amy watched in fascination, wondering if the next part of her scheme would really work.
The scan uncovered a red blip in the southern half of the city. The screen zoomed in on this blip and displayed a box containing Shadow's silhouette and ID number. "Shadow's location confirmed," said the Tornado. "Query. Why do you require this information?"
"I want to see him," said Amy. "Do you think that you could fly me down there?"
The Tornado said slowly, "I am forbidden to enter mobile mode without Tails's permission. Once it is acquired, I am capable of transferring you there."
"But you do have Tails's permission!" Amy gushed, secretly ashamed that she was telling a bald lie to the trusting AI. "I asked Tails before I came. He said to tell you to take me to Shadow."
The Tornado did not reply for almost a full minute. Then it asked, "Query. Is Shadow in danger?"
"I don't think so," said Amy. "I just want to see him. Uh, I want to make sure that he's okay."
The Tornado had taken second-hand orders before, and one of these had saved Tails's life. Its permission tables were weighted in the direction of pleasing its users, but especially Tails. Nobody had ever lied to it before. The concept of untruth was foreign to its new mind. Conveying Amy to Sapphire City would cause no harm to anyone, and besides, Amy said that Tails had given his permission.
"Affirmative," said the Tornado. "Please unblock my wheels and open the main door. In addition you should attach the cockpit canopy, for flight at this hour, at this time of year, is harmful or deadly to passengers exposed to the wind."
This was beginning to look a lot more complex than Amy had anticipated, but she obeyed. She unblocked the wheels, found the plastic canopy and clamped it over the cockpit with the Tornado displaying instructions on-screen. Then she opened the outer door of the workshop, ran back and climbed into the cockpit.
The Tornado extended its legs and stood up, lifting itself off its supports. Fortunately Tails had finished tinkering with its insides and had moved on to adding new components to its computer. The Tornado wished that Tails had finished adding the thrall sphere, but that could not be helped now.
The little blue mech walked out of the workshop and strode across the village. Most of the villagers were at the kitchen hut, eating dinner, but a few people saw the Tornado and watched it curiously. It was unusual for Tails to take it out at night. Amy slid down in the seat so no one could see her. She had lied to the Tornado and was now stealing it, and her conscience was uneasy.
The Tornado made its way to the airstrip, where it transformed into a biplane. Its legs folded up into its body, and the wings unfolded and extended, locking into place where the legs had been. The blades on the tail fin folded out, and the engine intake slid open, and the propeller emerged and began to spin. The engine roared to life, and the Tornado charged down the runway. It accelerated and lifted off with calculated precision, and all Amy had to do was hold on and watch.
As the forest fell away in a dark mass below her, Amy's stomach knotted as the reality of her actions sank in. She was really going to Sapphire City to find Shadow. What about food? What if she couldn't find Shadow? How was she going to refuel the Tornado? She hadn't brought any money.
Amy, as usual, had leaped in and landed way over her head. Well, there was no turning back now. She would throw herself at Shadow, and he would take care of her.
Wouldn't he?