Homecoming Hero

Amy Rose— with her mouth gagged and her hands bound together tightly lay on a stainless-steel table amidst the confines of a dingy laboratory. The room was dark, but a cone of cold, yellow light spilt onto the table from an overhead lamp suspended on a gimbal arm. On a tray nearby were arrayed the instruments of torture, knives, saws, and scalpels glinted in the dimness. A deeply tinted green window filled one wall; the rain poured against it and barely visible outside were the tall smokestacks belching clouds of noxious fumes that were ubiquitous in the Robotropolis skyline.

From a dark corner of the room, Sally watched the helpless pink hedgehog. Amy's eyes were wide with terror. Sweat and tears ran down her face in a steady stream, pooling on the table under her cheek. Sally tried to do something, anything to resist. She tried to raise her hands, but found herself paralyzed, unable to move. She couldn't even turn her head.

A short and rail thin figure appeared, silhouetted against the rain-lashed window. With slow steps accentuated by hollow echoes, he walked forward until the lamplight revealed his seamed face and scraggly hair. He wore a long, olive green buttoned at the shoulder and had a complicated array of lenses perched on his face. As he bent over Amy, the lenses turned opaque from the reflected light, and his pale lips parted in a mirthless grin, revealing a set of yellowing teeth. Amy Rose squeezed her eyes shut. A whimper escaped her mouth.

A door burst open and there Robotnik stood in his customary orange jumpsuit stretched taut over his enormous girth and a long yellow cape draped over his back. Snively lifted the lenses on his face looked up, smiled, and spoke with his customary nasally tone. "Ah, my eminence, you have returned. I was just getting things warmed up."

"Excellent work my nephew," Robotnik answered examining the bound hedgehog. "Here she is, helpless and in our power." Robotnik licked his dry lips and rubbed his fat pudgy fingers. " I think it's time we investigate the source of her power."

He bent over Amy again and ran a finger along her cheek. She trembled violently and made an inarticulate, high-pitched noise through the gag in her mouth. From under the table, he pulled an enormous, rusty chainsaw. Sally tried to yell, but couldn't open her mouth. She struggled, but something had pinned her arms and legs.

When Robotnik pulled the chainsaw's starter cord, the saw spun to life, its deafening motor producing a steady, rhythmic buzz. Straining with all her might, Sally shouted, "No! Nobody hurts my friends! Let her go!"

With a wide, toothy smile, the demented doctor brought the whirring blade down to Amy's forehead. The buzzing motor grew louder, more insistent. Sally thrashed and flailed— And found herself suspended in her hammock on her favourite tree and the buzz of the chainsaw resolved into the faint buzz of a fly by her ear which quickly zoomed off at the disturbance. With every hard heartbeat, her temples throbbed. The lab and the twisted visage of the two most evil men in all of Mobius had seemed so real, but they had been only a dream.

Overhead, the sun sat like a red blot on the horizon. With plenty of space in which to play in the Mobian sky, the clouds formed broad plains or tall, precarious towers that glowed pink and gold like still frame blossoms of fire. Fields of green and yellow grass bobbed in the faint breeze, and in the distance, silhouetted by the angry red light of the setting was a thick pillar of smog. This, Sally knew was where Robotropolis lay, shrouded in eternal darkness.

She felt her throat seize up and run bone dry even as cold sweat matted her body. She ran a hand down the rough bark of the walnut tree and into the picnic cooler suspended below. She ran a hand through a cold icy slush until her slender fingers found a bottle of sarsaparilla which she brought to her lips and drew a long sip from.

Twigs crunched on the ground behind her, but she didn't turn her head. She knew those footsteps.

"Hey, Sonic."

"Hiya, Sal." She felt the tree sway just a little as the blue hedgehog leaned against it. "Ya know, back when we were really small, we used to pretend this tree was a pirate ship. And way, way up was the crow's nest, and we argued over who was gonna be the lookout."

Sally put the bottle to her lips and swallowed until the sloshing liquid was half gone, and then she leaned over and handed it down to him. "You were eight," she said, "you were scared to climb that high. I said you wouldn't be a real pirate if you didn't get all the way to the top and I told you to keep going. So, you climbed higher, and then you slipped and fell."

"Slid all the way to the bottom and split my head on a root," Sonic confirmed

"I thought my heart had stopped beating."

"You carried me back to Doctor Quack, yelling for help. You sat in the car, held my hand and sobbed and told me you were sorry, and that you were going to fix everything, and that you'd never let me get hurt ever again."

Sally frowned. She rolled over onto her stomach and looked down at him. "I did?"

"Yep, you're always trying to take care of us," Sonic said, digging a gloved finger idly into the bark.

"I ... maybe I said that" she whispered. "Somebody had to look out for you."

Sonic laughed quietly. He tipped the rest of the contents into his mouth before he chucked the bottle toward the dense woods where it shattered amid the tangle of roots. "You've always been doing that, you know, trying to take care of everybody."

Sally rolled back over and turned her eyes to the sun again; it was halfway below the horizon now, looking like a molten puddle floating in a crucible. "Go ahead and say it Sonic."

Sonic ran his palm through the forest of quills at the back of his head. "Okay, look, Sal, I'm gonna tell you somethin. And I want you to promise me you'll keep it secret."

"Yeah, sure. What are you, five?"

After he finished, he watched Sally for a moment. "C'mon, Sal."

With a small sigh and a weak, indulgent smile, she said, "I swear upon my family motto: 'To rule with honour' that I won't spill the beans. There, you happy?"

He took a deep breath, looked down, licked his lips, and spread his hands as if laying them on a table. "Okay, here goes, it's stupid so don't get on my case."

"Get on with it, Sonic."

"Okay." He winced and glanced sheepishly at Sally. "I sort of have a crush on Amy"

She blinked a few times. "Sonic, I already knew that."

"What?"

"Yeah, it was obvious. Everyone knew it." Sal shook her head and waved a hand in the air. "Is that what this is about? Is that what has you so upset—?"

"Did you see them, the Mercian Freedom Fighters?" he asked.

"Yes, of course, I did. She saved them from the caves. How could I forget?"

"She won't be a little kid anymore. Not with her powers." Sonic protested stamping his red sneaker into the ground. "She'll be one of us, a Freedom Fighter. "

"Physically, she might be stronger than an ox and her abilities will likely only grow from there once she recovers. But I have my concerns. She looks up to you, you know. If she acts anything like you out there in the field we'll really be screwed."

Sonic slammed a fist into the tree trunk which trembled slightly at the weight of the blow. "I think maybe it's time for her to decide. Maybe it's time to let Amy make their own decisions."

Sally reached into her vest and ran her finger over the grooves of the Acorn family signet ring. Feeling pins and needles breaking out across her palms, she pried it from her vest pocket and watched the last sunrays glitter across its surface. "Do you remember the coup?" she asked

"Of course, I do, we were there remember? We all were."

"Don't you get it? I'm supposed to be the one bred to handle all this. I'm the one who was supposed to be looking out for her. And I took my eyes off her for a moment and then she was just gone!"

"It sounds like she did okay out there on her own."

"Haven't you heard, Mercia was destroyed."

Sonic shrugged, "You said it yourself, there's every chance Robotnik would have gotten there before us and –"

"Why does it matter?" Sally pondered, as she threw a limb over the thick bough, jumped off and landed hard on the ground. "Snottingham Castle, Hideaway village. All reduced to motes of dust and rubble. Their inhabitants scattered to the winds or roboticized!"

"I have a hard time believing anything could break the famed Rob O' Hedge."

"And I had a hard time believing anything could topple my dad, but something did."

"But we're still here," Sonic breathed. "That's gotta count for something."

The last glimmer of sunlight disappeared from the horizon, and the sky faded to deep purple. Venus shone brightly overhead. Sonic turned and trudged back toward his home, but he paused and looked over his shoulder. "Maybe you need to let her build something for themselves. You can't protect everyone. Not forever."

Sonic walked away and left her in the dark...

Amy rested in Sally's room. Playing in in front of her was her favourite movie while a large tub of soft-serve ice-cream sat in front of her. Yes, she had been given every material comfort she desired, save sleep she thought as she snuggled within her nest of quilted blankets. As her eyes started to droop, she found herself resting on the rough green tunic of cousin Rob O' Hedge.

"Hakuna Matata… What a wonderful phrase…Hakuna Matata… What a wonderful phrase…"

Rob sighed and clasped the back of his neck in apparent frustration "I don't really understand this story," he admitted. "I have seen the movie multiple times, but its meaning eludes me now."

"Here," Rob elaborated "we have the typical biblical tale of sibling rivalry, this I understand. It's the framing that bothers me. Here, is the ideal philosopher King that Plato describes. Yet, he allows the citizens to murder citizen under the auspices of the 'circle of life'. Also, the hyenas are a part of the 'circle of life', too, are they not? But here, the one attempting to bring them a meal is cast as 'villain'."

"Scar does betray the hyenas, though," Amy noted.

"Eventually, yes. But he is framed as villainous long before that. He's framed this way for killing a ruler who abused his apparent divine rights to oppress his people. But what I cannot reconcile is the drought. Am I to assume 'The-Kings-of-the-past' can manipulate the weather? And am I then to approve of their decision to punish those who had nothing to do with the coup?"

"It's symbolic," Amy said, trying to keep up with her cousin's flow of logic.

"Then why not show the bad things happening? Could they not think of actual consequences? The Lion King is a retelling of Hamlet, written for an audience who took the divine right of a king to be natural. An audience aware that the act of regicide was an affront not just to the ruling caste but to his realm. The audience understood that a usurper could indeed bring instability, famine and war. But in this adaptation, a drought makes no sense whatsoever."

"I think it's just a story to entertain kids," Amy said. "Teach them good morals and whatever."

"Ah, yes. They teach fighting oppression will result in getting torn apart by the very people you tried to rally and…" Rob paused when a loud crack Sally with Geoffrey in tow stepped into her home to find the leader of the Mercian Freedom Fighters with her ward.

"Rob?"

"Amy, I think that's lesson over for now. Let me help you to your feet then."

"I think I'm getting too old for this now" she confessed

"Nonsense, piggyback rides are like currency, best to accumulate as many as you can. " The hedgehog remarked before he wrapped his arms around the pink hedgehog and carried her.

"Aheem" Sally cleared her throat.

"Hello, Sally." He replied. "I trust that your period of physical recumbence after the battle was sufficiently rejuvenating."

"If you're asking whether I rested well, yes," Sally answered

"Excellent. Rest exists to enable us to resume vigorous activity, so mental rest is at the service of mental activity. Therefore, sleep is the balm of philosophers."

"I'm not a philosopher." Sally answered, "What is it you're doing in my bed?"

"I was certain you wouldn't find my presence intrusive" he mentioned.

"I don't, but I didn't expect to find you to drop in here unannounced."

"I've been mulling over some things, Sally and I've come to certain conclusions."

"But we're already fixing the problem. We've gotten better organized to fight against Robotnik. Have you reconsidered?"

"We would've left earlier, but I just had to see my cousin off" Rob replied, "Amy? Have you made up your mind? You know you are welcome to join us."

Tears ran down her face. "I don't really know," she said.

"Rob," Sally asked, "what's going on?"

"It's like this" Rob elaborated. "Out by the Southern Isle is floating Angel Island. It's home to the echidnas whose isolation has kept them out of Robotnik's machinations. Their guardian Knuckles has agreed to take in our people." he turned and smiled at Amy, whose eyes ran with tears. "I hope, too, that we're also taking our saviour along."

"Hold it," said Geoffrey St. John, moving to block the hedgehog. "You are taking fighters from my ranks. If they leave in this manner, they will be considered deserters."

"They were Mercians before they were your toy soldiers," Rob O' Hedge answered. "And Mercians stick together. You don't understand what we went through."

"I do," Geoffrey said. "I know." He nodded. "I too have lost family, but that doesn't—"

"And yet you cannot sympathize," Rob O' Hedge said" He looked around at the rest of his fellow Mercians, "Go ahead and build your little empire here. We'll build our own somewhere else."

Geoffrey's mouth worked as if he were trying to formulate words, but made no further sound of protest. The Mercian Freedom Fighters, one by one, walked to Amy Rose. Each one of them expressing their sincerest gratitude.

"We wanteth thee to cometh," Thorn the Lop said.

"It won't be quite right without thee," said Friar Buck.

"Whatever you choose," said Rob O' Hedge "know that you will always be special to us."

Amy, eyes glistening, looked around at all of them. She almost choked as she said, "Oh, I wish we could all be together forever, but . . . I can't.

"You brought my family together. But it will still be incomplete without you. "The Mercians will look to me for guidance, but I look to you. Come with me and you'll lead by my side."

Amy chuckled. "No, Cousin Rob. I belong here with Sally, Sonic and the others."

"Haply we'll visit," Bow Sparrow said," I can flyeth very much, very much far, so even though our new home beest very much far hence, I bet I can cometh to seeth thee."

"You'll be welcome if you do," Amy replied. "I'm going to take up baking, so if you come back, you'll get an apple pie."

Just then, a female echidna by the name of Mari-An stepped in to interrupt "The transport to Angel Island will arrive anytime now. We must be heading off soon."

"We must go!" Rob cried "Mercians rally to me: it is time to seek freedom once more!". Sparing a few sidelong glances, the Mercians turned to depart.

In Sally's room, all was silent for several minutes.

"But I can sympathize," Geoffrey murmured. "I really can."

Feeling somewhat in a daze, Sally spoke with Rob O' Hedge for a time. They thanked her for the help in tending their wounded and in turn offered advice on how to spruce up Knothole's camouflage from prying eyes. Sally bade them farewell, thanked them dully and shook hands all around before the Mercians finally made their departure.

Upon returning home and finding Amy unable to sleep, Sally took her by the hand and together they lay in the midst of a patch of feathery ferns in the middle of the woods. Above the sky was dark and overcast, with only a few windows through which a sea of glittering stars, the expanse of heaven could be seen. The air was warm, but every so often, a faint breeze, cooled by the moisture of the forest floor, prickled her skin.

Sally was the first to speak up "I just wanted to apologize that in all that excitement I never really noticed how you were feeling."

"Will you hate me?" Amy asked.

"Never." She confirmed.

"I think I know what it was like to be you. Cousin said you rode in on a dragon and charged headlong into battle with the Sword of Acorns"

Sally chuckled quietly. "I think Rob was embellishing the story. No offence but Dulcy can hardly fly."

"And I saw Robotnik again, just as he arrived and chased us off," Amy whispered. "I knew how you felt... it was so different from how I normally felt. When I was there in front of him, I didn't care about doing the right thing. I was just angry."She blinked, and the tears spilt over onto her cheeks. "I was like that once, just that I was so angry that I could kill and . . ."

"Shush, Amy" Sally tilted her head back, letting the soft moss close around her ears "You did the right thing."

"But The Marshal died, and he died because I pushed him—"

Sally gripped the sides of Amy's head, "He deserved to die."