Chapter 3

Tails, Amy, Knuckles and Shadow had been searching for Sonic for over an hour but they didn't have any luck. All four of them were still going their separate ways.

"I don't know why I'm bothering to do this," Shadow muttered to himself as he searched the beach. He wasn't really bothering searching for Sonic at all, he just lazily walked along the pier with his head flopped down, just planning on informing Amy if he came across him.

Meanwhile Amy was searching a nearby park, looking behind every tree she came across. She was just looking around a very wide tree when suddenly; Knuckles came charging out of the alleyway next to her, knocking the pink hedgehog over.

"Watch it!" Amy called out grumpily as she got up. Knuckles muttered a quick apology before asking, "Any luck?"

"Well if I had found him he would be with me wouldn't he?" Amy snapped back moodily, hastily brushing grass off the bottom of her dress. At that moment Tails flew over the tree Amy had just been looking round and he landing swiftly between them.

"I see you haven't found him either," Tails frowned.

"Oh where is he?" Amy cried, stamping her foot on the ground in frustration.

"Wherever he is, he must know the place," Shadow called, suddenly appearing in a blast of orange light, emerging from a Chaos Control. All three of them jumped in fright.

"You've got to stop doing that," Knuckles gasped. Shadow just shrugged.

"Shadow has a point, I don't think Sonic would stick around a place he's unfamiliar with," Tails deduced, folding his arms.

"Yeah but he's lost his memory and won't know anywhere around here," Knuckles pointed out.

"Hang on... I have an idea where Sonic might be!" Amy announced and suddenly dashed off. Tails and Knuckles quickly ran after her. Shadow gave a deep sigh and muttered "again?" before reluctantly following Tails and Knuckles.

Shortly, Amy, Tails, Knuckles and Shadow arrived in a small country lanes surrounded by trees.

"This was where we were attacked," Amy informed them, gesturing to the pile of tiny pieces of metal that was once Eggman's robot. Tails picked a small piece up and examined it.

"I can't believe Eggman would blow up his own robot just to hurt Sonic," Tails muttered in disgust.

"Well anyway, I think he might be here of all places seeing as this is where he lost his memory…" Amy thought out loud, rubbing her chin.

"THERE HE IS!" Knuckles suddenly shouted out, making everyone jump.

"Gee, and you complain to me for making people jump," Shadow frowned, rolling his eyes.

Sure enough, the blue hedgehog was visible standing in front of a tall tree towards the bottom of the hill, looking up at its wide branches.

"Why on earth is he staring at that tree?" Knuckles asked confused.

"Probably because that's the tree he banged his head against, but who cares? At least we've found him," Amy exclaimed and ran down the hill, grabbed Sonic around the waist sharply and hugged him which startled him to no end.

"Oh Sonic, I was so worried!" she cried. Sonic looked up to find Tails and Knuckles grinning at him while Shadow had his usually miserable expression.

"Hey you look just like me!" Sonic observed, having noticed Shadow, who gave a sarcastic clap.

"Well done Sonic, you're really smart, nothing gets past you," he replied sarcastically.

"Are you my brother?" Sonic asked, not sure which answer he preferred.

"Yeah I am," Shadow replied, still in his sarcastic mood.

"Really?" Sonic was momentarily stunned by this information.

"He's not your brother, he's just winding you up," Amy informed him, before shooting a furious look at Shadow, "You're not helping, you know!"

"Well I can't see you doing any better," Shadow snapped back.

"Just go and bother someone else!" Amy shouted at him angrily.

"Fine!" Shadow shouted back and disappeared in his usual blast of orange light. Sonic rubbed his eyes at the sight of Shadow.

"How did he do that?" he asked, stunned by Shadows sudden vanishing.

"Super speed, the stupid show off…" Amy replied, glaring at the spot Shadow was standing seconds ago.

"Wow, which I could do that…" Sonic thought aloud, with a longing look lingering on the area Shadow had just been standing in.

"You can do that Sonic, it's one of the things that make you what you are," Amy replied, suddenly changing her mood to make her appear bright and happy.

"I can?" Sonic asked eagerly, looking at her now with shining eyes.

"Of course you can Sonic, just run to the top of the hill and back, you'll be really fast!" said Tails in a pleased tone.

Sonic ran up to the top of the hill, but a lot slower than usual. He soon returned to the others.

"See? I'm not fast at all!" Sonic complained sadly.

"You are, you've just forgotten. Why don't you try again, only this time really rev up your legs before you dash off?" Tails suggested. Sonic sighed and began running on the spot as fast as he could before disappearing in a streak of blue light. Suddenly there was a loud thud and Amy saw a distant tree wobble.

"Three guesses on what he's done," Amy sighed and she and Tails dashed after Sonic. Knuckles, who took this statement seriously, said "Well my first guess is that he hi-" before he noticed that Amy and Tails had gone. He quickly spotted them running.

"HEY WAIT FOR ME!" He called after them, tearing off after them quickly.

When they found Sonic, he was rubbing his nose, which was slightly swollen; he had clear run into the tree, but he looked perfectly cheerful and very pleased with himself.

"I think I need practice," he grinned. He glanced round at the three of them, who were all grinning in exasperation and shaking their heads. Sonic grinned back at them, then his grin dropped.

"Sorry for snapping back at you guys, it's just, I don't know any of you, I know I should, but, I don't…" Sonic confessed, unexpectedly feeling miserable.

"Look why don't we talk about it on the way back to town and we can get something to eat?" Tails suggested out of the blue.

For the next half hour, Amy, Tails, and Knuckles filled Sonic in on who they were and what Sonic's life was like.

"So... you attacked me thinking I was after your Master Emerald when it was really the Chaos Emeralds I was getting?" Sonic asked grinning as Tails filled him in on one of their old adventures.

"Did you have to tell him THAT?" Knuckles asked furiously as they entered the newsagents.

"Well he needs to know us properly," Tails replied grinning, buying a newspaper and taking pleasure in his old friend's sudden outburst.

"Well I can't help it if I'm gullible," said Knuckles angrily as they left the shop.

"Hey there's a cafe there, lets eat," Amy suggested. They all entered a small cafe and ordered.

"If only I could remember my life, it sounds very fun…" Sonic pondered thoughtfully, scanning the newspaper as they ate.

"Your memory might return some day, who knows, these things have different affects on different people," Tails shrugged, leaning back and watching Sonic thoughtfully.

"Hey, we're in the newspaper!" Sonic exclaimed who had suddenly stopped turning the pages.

"Why? What have we done now?" Knuckles asked, his interest piqued.

"Not us four, me and Amy, we're to be married remember?" said Sonic excitedly. Amy choked on her soda drink. She had completely forgotten about pretending they were engaged. She jerked the paper sharply out of Sonic's hand and began to read the small article.

Mobius' favourite hedgehog, Sonic, is engaged to be married, we can exclusively reveal, the hedgehog, famous for his various encounters with Dr Ivo Robotnik, is to marry a pink hedgehog who goes by the name of Amy Rose. A fan of Sonic's said 'I can't believe it when I heard them discussing it; I am so pleased for him.' No date for the marriage has been announced yet.

Amy finished reading the article and looked nervously at Tails, who was glaring at her, then at Knuckles, who raised both his eyebrows at her.

"You didn't forget did you? That's one of the things that has stuck in my mind since you told me! You seem like a lovely girl and I'm glad were going to be married," Sonic declared happily, looking giddy.

Amy glanced at Tails and Knuckles then looked at Sonic nervously. "Yeah about that... the thing is… we are...well… I... err... sort of... kinda...-" she stammered, feeling frightened.

"OH FOR HEAVENS SAKE JUST TELL HIM ALREADY!" Knuckles shouted out loud. The chatter in the cafe abruptly died down. Amy was more scared and nervous than ever.

"Well the thing is... I... well... lied to you…" she sobbed, her lips trembling.

"About what?" Sonic asked warily, aware that every head in the cafe was looking at them.

"About us being engaged. We were never engaged, we never even dated, and you never wanted to date me. I'm so sorry," Amy confessed sobbing, she reached out her hand to place it on Sonic's but he quickly jerked it away from the table.

"We're not engaged? You lied to me?" asked Sonic, seeking confirmation with a look of horror slowly dawning on his face.

"I'm really sorry," Amy replied, sobbing heavily. Sonic shot up out of his chair, his temper suddenly rising and he momentarily forgot everyone was watching them.

"HOW COULD YOU LIE TO ME?" He shouted, "I HAD A SERIOUS INJURY AND YOU DECIDE TO USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE! HOW COULD YOU?"

"I'm sorry!" Amy repeated, tears flowing from her jade green eyes. "Just let me explain I just wante-" she began slowly.

"DON'T... TALK TO ME!" Sonic shouted, hurt that Amy had lied to him under the circumstances and he dashed out the door. Tails and Knuckles immediately ran after him.

"Oh Sonic… what have I done?" Amy sobbed; she buried her head in her hands, leaning on the table as she cried uncontrollably.

How would Sonic ever forgive her?