A/N: The actual story takes place four days before the prologue
- Chapter 1: Misguided Conscience -
Sighing in frustration for the fourth time that same hour, Knuckles the Echidna ran a hand through his thick hair and read the note over again. He sat on the coffee table in Amy Rose's house, holding a piece of fancy, rose-printed stationary he had found that morning. Behind him, Cream Rabbit lied curled up on the magenta couch, several tears running down her face and trying to control her hyperventilation. On either side of her sat Big the Cat and Tails, two of her best friends next to Amy. Big rubbed her back soothingly while Tails shared comforting words with the little rabbit girl, but nothing could console her. She covered her face with her hands, trying to shut away everything that was happening. She desperately waited for Knuckles to say something... something of good news.
Finally, the red echidna stood and turned to face them, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Cream," he began, lowering his gaze to the ground-- his face not filled with saddness like the others, but anger. "I can't find any new clues other than what we already know."
"Which is?" Tails questioned.
"That something's not right," he answered under his breath as he handed the note to Tails. The situation was confusing and stressful enough as it was, but Cream's dispair over it was giving him a lot of extra pressure. He did not blame her, of course. She was just a child and her reaction was quite understandable, if not unreasonable. Knuckles rubbed his temples and checked the wall clock across the room. 'Sonic should be here by now,' he thought. 'He may think mysteries are a real bore, but when it comes to his friends in danger, he never bails out of them.' He glanced over at Cream, the child still keeping her face hidden. He put his gloved hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up from her fetal position. "Don't cry, Cream. We're not saying these things to scare you... it's just that I don't think there's anything else I can do on my own," he tried to explain.
Big nodded strongly. "He's right, Cream," the cat said with his slow, jolly voice. "We gotta put our heads together to find Amy... we just need more heads!" He chuckled at his own comment.
Cream giggled lightly and wiped most of her tears away from her drenched cheeks. "It's okay, Mr. Knuckles," she said sweetly, though a bit quavery from all her crying. "Thanks for helping me feel better." She sat up on the couch and tenderly hugged the kneeling echidna in front of her. Knuckles smiled and awkwardly hugged the little bunny girl back and this tender little moment lasted a few seconds. But then Big wanted to join too and stood up, grabbing the both of them into a big bear hug. Cream laughed, sitting on the purple cat's arm and feeling a bit better, but Knuckles had been grabbed by the neck and was getting choked. "Big... BIG! CAN'T... BREATHE!"
What's worse, there was a flash and the sound of a snapshot being taken. Knuckles turned his head as far as it could go and spotted Rouge the Bat holding a disposable camera and grinning widely. "Aww! That's one for the memory album!" she said laughing whilst watching the echidna trying to wriggle himself free. Big lets go, accidentally dropping Knuckles hard onto the floor. Rouge laughed even harder. "Oh man, what a riot! I gotta start hangin' around you guys more often!" She snapped another photo of him sprawled on the ground before he had time to react. Knux looked like he was ready to complain/scream about how immature and annoying she was being when he noticed there were others behind her.
"Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late," Sonic said, walking past Rouge. "But I wanted to go look for Rouge and Shadow." As he said this, Shadow stepped out from behind Sonic and Rouge and made himself comfortable on a dining room chair away from the group but still in a good listening range. No one really seemed to mind; he was often secluded that way. "After all," Sonic continued. "What better way to deal with an obscure mystery than with someone obscure and someone mysterious?"
"Ha-ha." Rouge groaned. Shadow silently voiced his sarcasm by rolling his eyes.
Seeing his joke wasn't as well-received as he thought it would be, he went straight to be point. "So, what's this note thing all about?" The cobalt blue hedgehog eyed all the members of this odd reunion, searching for an answer. Rouge and Knuckles sat on opposite sides of the living room coffee table. Shadow leaned back on the wooden chair, a good distance away from everyone else. Sonic raised an eyebrow at the sight of a puffy-eyed Cream being cradled by Big. It wasn't until he saw Tails that this pregnant pause came to an end. "Is this it?" he asked as he snatched the paper off the two-tailed fox's hands. The little mechanic had been concentrating hard on finding a code within the note and shot Sonic a dirty look.
Sonic's eyes quickly scanned the messege in the delicate piece of paper. Slowly, and almost dramatically, his collected smirked changed into a frown.
Dear Sonic and Co.:
I recently decided to cancel my party. Sorry I couldn't tell you guys face to face,
but I have been invited to one of the biggest family reunions in the history of... family
reunions! Tee-hee! I'll be able to see my folks again after all these years and it was an
opportunity I couldn't pass out. The tickets they mailed me were for tonight, so I had
to leave right away. Call ya when I get there and see you in a few weeks!
Love, Amy.
The only thing that could have fooled him was that the handwriting matched Amy's exactly-- right up to the hearts on top of the 'i's. But everything else could not check out. The "Sonic and Co.", especially. Who writes that? Amy would never... EVER cancel her thirteenth birthday party. She's been planning it since she turned ten! Plus, if she really did have to go to a family reunion, it didn't matter if she had to leave that very same day. She'd fill up everybody's voicemail with peppery messages about how exited she was. This note was a bunch of hooey... and there was only one explanation for it.
"Eggman..."
--- Meanwhile ---
The pink hedgehog, Amy Rose, paced around her tiny cell anxiously, quickly starting to lose patience. It has been almost three days since she had last seen a living soul. Nothing but robots and other artificial intelligence units passed by her prison. She had been captured by Eggman, no doubt... his logo was written all over this dreadful place. But she had not laid eyes on the man for the longest time... not even in the night when she was kidnapped in her very house! She did not remember much from that night except becoming unconscious under the influence of a gastric chemical and being carried away in cold, robotic arms. Next thing she knew, she was here in this cage. 'The nerve of the doctor!' Amy thought angrily. 'He didn't even come to gloat once so I could tell him off!'
Amy's legs grew weary and she leaned against the metal bars, letting out a quivering sigh. She looked past her cell and right across the room where her piko piko hammer lay behind some sort of light blue force field as if it was placed there just to tease her. Even if she were to escape from this cage, she would be weaponless against Eggman's robot army. She let out another sigh... the urge to cry was increasing. 'Why hasn't anyone come for me yet?' she'd whisper at the brink of tears.
It was so dark and quiet. All she could hear was the hum of machines and the drumming of her fingers on the metal floor. She had not eaten since her kidnapping, which was very strange. Dr. Eggman may be the villain, but he had always cared enough to keep his victims alive and healthy no matter the punishment that would soon come. No robot ever came down to offer her supper or water. Amy tried to swallow, but her mouth was too dry. She breathed through her nose so to not aggravate her throat and she lied down on her side. The floor panels were like ice against her skin and she tried to pull her small red skirt as far down as possible to cover her exposed legs. She did not have her long rubber boots on because she was preparing to head to bed right before she was taken away. Instead, she had light blue fuzzy slippers that she had borrowed from her best friend Cream, but forgot to give them back. It was hard to fight off the cold and the pain of hunger at once, so she tried to close her eyes and relax... to think happy, warm thoughts... about her friends, the beach... she slowly began to drift away.
But suddenly came a sound that made Amy jolt and her heart skipped a beat.
Footsteps.
She gasped and stood up quickly... a bit too quickly. The sudden movement gave her a head rush and she would have fallen over if she hadn't made a grab for the cell bars in front of her. She leaned against them and searched the large, dark room for whoever had entered the area. With all of her heart, she hoped that it was her blue knight, Sonic. Oh, how she just wanted to jump into his arms to be sped away to safety. Surely, it was him who had come to save her! "Sonic?" she cried out happily, finally seeing a silhouette appear against the dimly, purple-lit walls. But alas, she had spoken too soon. Her hopeful smile turned into a scowl when she recognized that tall, long limbed, obese figure.
"Eggman!" she growled under her breath as the evil doctor stepped out of the shadows. She blinked confused when seeing that he did not have his usual malevolent grin, but a strange, neutral look like that of a robot's. In his hands, he held a tray with two steaming mugs. Amy's stomach groaned loudly when she caught a whiff of what was in those mugs. She could smell the aroma of soup and her once dry mouth watered once more. She gazed up at the man, suddenly feeling like she did not have the strength to yell at him or just say anything at all. Right now, she could only think about how hungry she was.
"So sorry your stay here isn't as luxurious as previous times, Ms. Rose," Eggman said in a bored, but quite sincere tone. "But accomodations are quite uncomfortable for all of us since we recently moved to a brand new base of operations."
Amy cleared her throat between clenched teeth. "Ruh... really?" she said, barely listening at all; her emerald green eyes still fixated on the tray. Eggman slipped each piece of aliment through the bars one by one, starting with a warm bread roll that was a bit bigger than Amy's curled fist. She held it like a nugget of gold, but then felt unsure about this odd show of tenderheartedness. 'Don't do it, Ames,' she initially thought to herself. 'For all you know, it could be poison... or worse: truth serum! He's acting way too nice...' Unfortunately for her good conscience, her stomach won this battle. She ate the roll contently, taking her time to taste its sweet, flaky crust. After going so long without eating, it tasted like a little piece of heaven. When the two mugs were placed inside her cell, she sighed blissfully at its contents. One contained a small serving of vegetable soup and another had some delicious-looking hot chocolate. This time, she did not think twice; she grabbed the cup of soup and sipped it empty, feeling precious warmth coming back to her body.
Dr. Eggman observed the young hedgehog girl eat and drink everything she had been given down to the last crumb and drop. He rubbed his hands together and beamed at the kneeling Amy as she finished the rest of the hot chocolate. "Was it to the little lady's liking?" he asked.
For a moment, Amy had forgotten where she was. She stared ahead blankly and it took a few seconds to realize she had just been fed by the evil doctor himself. Normally, she wouldn't have overlooked that he had let her starve for three days first, but that was the last thing on her mind right now. She awkwardly nodded her head yes and as much as it pained her to say it, she uttered a meek, but polite "thanks."
By now, Eggman decided not to take this act any further. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a key as he hid a crooked devious smile the best he could. Amy gasped silently as she watched the doctor open her cell and step aside. Unless she was mistaken, it was a sure gesture for her to step out. She stood reluctantly and stuck her head out of the cell, half-expecting something to drop from the ceiling and attack her. But nothing unusual happened. When she fully stepped out of the cell, Eggman closed it behind her and began to walk in the direction he had first entered... another vague gesture to follow him. And Amy did so. It's not like she had anywhere else to go. There was no other way out of the room.
As she walked behind him, the meek and helpless self she couldn't help but be began to vanish now that she was starting to feel much better. "I don't even know why you bother, Eggman," she said, a little smirk forming in her lips. "Sonic is just gonna find your base, come rescue me and kick your sorry eggbutt; just like he always does."
Dr. Eggman stopped walking without warning. "Oh?" Amy stopped abruptly and stepped back a few paces as well, almost bumping into his legs. His body was only inches away from the locked, vault-like door, yet he attempted nothing to open it. He simply stood there... his shoulders hunched. Amy started to get awfully nervous just standing behind him, watching his back and shoulders shake the same way someone does when trying to hold back laughter. Reaching for his pocket, he punched a code into a remote device he pulled out and the giant metallic door slowly began to open. Over the loud sliding metal noise the vault door made, the pink hedgehog heard her enemy's voice turn back to its horrible, venomous tone. "But that's where you're wrong, Ms. Rose..." Without warning, he reached for the girl's arm, clutched it tightly and started to drag her past the door.
Scared half to death, Amy screamed, hurting from the man's large hand crushing her arm, but mostly angry at herself for letting her guard down. It was as if the doctor had manipulated her into doing so-- it was terribly unlike her! She struggled against him, punched at his arm with her free hand and tried to reach his legs for a kick in the shins. But it was hopeless. She started to tear up again as she looked back to the she had been previously held in. Her hammer still stood there. In a terrible tantrum, she roared and stomped her feet. It was out of her control. The powerless hedgehog girl was now being taken to who knows where and she had a deep feeling none of her friends knew where she was.
Her eyes full of tears, she was no longer trying to hold them back. 'Why hasn't anyone come for me yet?'