Chapter 4
A few days after the spat at the restaurant, Tails found himself dashing up to Sonic who was looking in the window of a sports shop.
"Another one," he declared handing Sonic a white envelope, smelling strongly of Amy's perfume. Amy had been constantly sending letters to Sonic all week as he continuously avoided her, still refusing to speak to her over her deceit.
"Maybe you should just talk to her…" Tails suggested, tired of acting as Amy's postman. Sonic took the letter from Tails and without opening the envelope, ripped it cleanly in two and tossed it lazily into the road behind him. Tails sighed as a dozen cars drove over it.
"I told you, I don't want to hear anything from her. I trusted her and she let me down," Sonic replied in a dark tone.
"Come on, it's been five days and you haven't even let Amy so much as look at you," Tails pleaded, "I think she has learnt her lesson now, she knows what she did is wrong… can't you at least let her speak to you?"
"I'm sorry Tails, but I just feel so… angry with her," Sonic replied, walking away from the sports shop and looked into the cafe next to it, staring gloomily at the table where they had all sat that day.
"I was so happy in there," Sonic sighed, "I may have lost my memory but I had all my friends round me. Then she had to spoil it all."
Tails looked up at his best friend, who had a look of deep sorrow spread over his facial features.
"I'm sorry… I should have told you the moment I knew," said Tails guiltily, fiddling with his hands.
"Don't blame yourself," Sonic assured him, patting the fox gently on the head, "I don't blame you."
Meanwhile, not far away, Amy was pacing back and forth near a newsagent, glancing at her watch occasionally.
"Oh I hope he shows up, he's got to forgive me at some point," Amy said to herself nervously, but great periods of time had passed and Sonic had not shown up.
Soon Amy gave up waiting and decided to write yet another note. She grabbed a small notebook out of her pocket and hastily scribbled a note, tears falling from her jade eyes and landing on the paper as she wrote. As soon as she finished she tucked her pen away, ripped the page off the book and just finished folding the paper in half when she saw Knuckles in the distance.
"HEY KNUCKLES!" Amy called, waving her arms in the air and hurried over to him. Knuckles slowly skidded to a halt and sighed.
"Can you please give this to Sonic?" she asked, stuffing the note into his hand before he could object. Knuckles glared at her.
"Again? Amy, this is getting ridiculous!" Knuckles moaned impatiently. "He clearly isn't replying to your letters so why don't you just give it up? He'll talk to you when he's good and ready."
"It's been five days and he won't as much as look at me. How am I supposed to sort this out if he won't even speak to me?" Amy replied, stamping her foot on the ground. Knuckles rolled his eyes before he instantly spotted the headline on the front page of a newspaper hanging on the rack outside the newsagents which read 'Hedgehog Engagement a Fake'.
"Err… Amy, you might want to have a read of that," he said nervously gesturing to the paper.
As soon as Amy saw the headline, she dashed over to the rack and pulled the paper from it so violently that the rack tumbled over, crashing loudly on the floor. People in the street stopped to see what the noise was and Amy felt herself going red. She turned around and found Knuckles had disappeared. Sighing in disappointment, she settled herself on a bench and began to read.
On the front page under the headline was a picture of Sonic but it wasn't his usual cheery self like he normally was in papers. Instead Sonic had a look of anger and hatred etched across his face, making Amy feel even guiltier than she already did. She read the article where it had revealed that Sonic had lost his memory and how Amy had taken advantage of this.
After reading the article, Amy read it again, this time trying to see it from a stranger's point of view and found that she felt disgusted and ashamed at herself.
"I really need to talk to him," she told herself desperately.
In the meantime, Knuckles was watching Amy from a distance, around a corner out of her view.
"Hi Knuckles! What are you doing?" Tails called behind him, making Knuckles jump.
"Stop doing that!" Knuckles sighed, putting a fist on his chest, "Anyway, she gave me a note to give to Sonic. Look," he handed the folded note to Tails, who he saw had the newspaper clutched in one of his gloved hands, "Amy's reading that… did Sonic put that story in there?"
"Yeah, a couple of days ago," Tails replied in a monotone voice, "He's still angry with her and won't speak to her."
"I've had nothing but Amy whining and handing me notes every hour," Knuckles complained, slamming his left fist into his other open hand.
"I think it's about time we did something about this," Tails suggested, watching Amy crying while reading the article.
"Yeah, it's really frustrating," Knuckles replied moodily, punching the wall behind him, "If I get one more note…"
"Well, I say we get them together and leave them to sort it out whether they like it or not," Tails said, folding his arms in thought, "This needs sorting."
"What do you suggest?" Knuckles asked, not having a clue on how to solve this situation himself. Tails thought for a moment.
"Just tell Amy that Sonic will meet her on that country hill, it'll be quiet there, and she'll come running there and I'll just walk over there with Sonic and we will both make sure they stay there and sort it out," Tails informed him.
"Sounds good to me," Knuckles replied. "Where is Sonic anyway?"
"At a chilidog stand," Tails replied, grinning a little; at least Sonic's love for the chilidogs had not disappeared as his memory did. They watched Amy fold the paper and walk off.
"Let's do it then," Tails announced. He took in a deep breath and headed off to find Sonic, hoping that he could get his two friends back the way they were.
"It's a bit noisy around here… want to find somewhere quiet?" Tails asked when he eventually caught up with Sonic.
"Suppose so," Sonic replied nonchalantly; he and Tails headed towards the hill in question. Meantime Knuckles had informed Amy of the arrangement, who eagerly dashed to the hill to await the blue hedgehog.
Shortly, Tails and Sonic arrived and the moment Sonic saw Amy he had turned around and began to walk away. Tails, however, stood firmly in his way stretching his arms out.
"You two need to sort this out," he said firmly.
"I told you already, I don't want anything to do with her," Sonic replied in an annoyed tone, glaring at his friend.
"Yes, I know you've told me that but I think Amy's learnt her lesson and all this avoiding is really annoying me and Knuckles so can't you please just hear her out?" Tails pleaded, his blue eyes widening and his lip poking out into a persuading pout. Sonic glanced over at Amy, who hadn't yet noticed his arrival and was biting her fingers, looking tearful. Sonic eventually relented.
"Fine. She gets five minutes," he sighed, walking over to Amy while Tails walked away a short distance to leave them. He just turned the corner when he saw Knuckles peaking round a corner watching Sonic approach Amy.
"Knuckles, we're supposed to leave them to it! They won't appreciate us eavesdropping," Tails whispered angrily and dragged an irritated Knuckles away.
"SONIC!" Amy exclaimed when she spotted him approaching her; she ran up to him and threw her arms around him, crying on his shoulder.
"I'm really sorry, really truly sorry!" she sobbed. Sonic just stood there, arms folded. For a couple of minutes they just stood there, Amy crying on his shoulder and muttering apologies.
Eventually, Sonic broke his silence, "Why?"
"Oh Sonic, I just wanted you to love me!" Amy sobbed loudly, "But you never did, so when you lost your memory I just-"
"Took advantage," Sonic interrupted angrily.
"No, it wasn't like that! I wasn't thinking of the consequences at the time!" Amy cried, wiping her eyes carelessly with her hand.
"You could have just told me the truth. I may not have been as happy as I was but I wouldn't have felt hurt or heartbroken," Sonic replied with a hint of sorrow.
"I wish I did! I swear Sonic, I know what I did was wrong and I've learnt my lesson! I will always be honest with you from now on!" Amy announced. Tears had slowly stopped falling from her face.
Sonic looked at her sad, blotchy face; he wasn't sure what to do, "Do you realise how much you've hurt me?"
"Of course! I read that article - that explained clearly how you felt! I wouldn't be surprised if everyone in the city hates me now, I do regret what I did and I really want to help you with your memory loss!" Amy replied desperately. Sonic could see that she was angry with herself.
"Please Sonic, forgive me?" she asked hopefully. Sonic looked at Amy long and hard; she did seem genuinely sorry and he didn't really want to lose a friend, especially considering he could only remember so very few of them. Amy then sat on her knees in front of Sonic and put her hands together.
"See, I'll even beg! I don't want to us to lose our great friendship! I'll never do anything to hurt you again, ever! I'll be happy with us being friends and I promise I won't pester you about marriage or anything like that ever again!" Amy promised.
Sonic took hold of Amy's hand and lifted her up. It was then that she noticed, for the first time in days, Sonic was smiling a little.
"I suppose I was a little harsh," he sighed and pulled Amy into a hug. "Okay, I can see that you're sorry…I'll forgive you, just promise me no more lies," said Sonic, no longer feeling resentful to his friend, but strangely, he felt a little sympathetic.
"I promise," Amy assured him. For a while they just hugged; Amy was so happy that she felt like she could just stand there for hours. They broke apart when they saw a bright flash, catching sight of Shadow taking a photo of them from a distance.
"HEY!" Amy called and they both ran after him. But Sonic still couldn't run as fast as he normally could and Shadow soon got away.
"Why that cheeky little-" growled Amy, raising her fist.
"Let's just go and tell Tails and Knuckles the news," Sonic suggested and they headed back to the main street. On the way, Amy filled Sonic in on what she was really like and all the adventures she had with him in the past.
"Wow, you must really like me to keep following me around like that," Sonic thought out loud. He was subtly pleased that a girl liked him that much.
Amy blushed deeply, "Yeah, I know that I did kind of stalk you and I am sorry but as I've said, I won't pester you anymore…"
"That's okay, it's forgotten," replied Sonic, who was much happier than he was that morning.
They were just a few minutes from the city when something suddenly appeared behind them. Sonic and Amy turned round and stared in shock as a robot stood there, but this was no ordinary robot and Amy recognised it at once; the sharp grey fingers, the dark red eyes, the yellow chest, the metallic limbs…
It was none other than Metal Sonic.
"Wow, it looks just like me!" said Sonic with an air of surprise. He stepped forward to get a closer look at the robot but Amy quickly grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"No, Sonic! Don't go near it, that's Metal Sonic!" Amy warned. Sonic thought for a second… Metal Sonic? Didn't Amy mention him? Then he remembered what Amy said to him.
"Oh yeah I remember you telling me about him; he was the one that kidnapped you years ago wasn't it?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah, 1993 to be exact," Amy confirmed, sounding fearful. "Be careful… he can be very tricky."
They both stared at the robot; it stood there motionless, not moving.
"Watch out for any quick movement," Amy whispered, slightly scared.
"Welcome Sonic… I'd like you to meet your old rival," Eggman called from the cockpit of his vehicle above them, which had appeared out of nowhere.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT NOW?" Amy yelled, both angry and scared.
"I just want to see how Sonic can face up to Metal Sonic without his memory," Eggman sneered in reply, "Especially now I've made some great modifications to him."
"What modifications? What did you do, take his batteries out?" Amy called back sarcastically, though she was secretly afraid of what Eggman had in store for her friend.
"See for yourself," replied Eggman as he pulled out a remote and pressed firmly on the buttons. Metal Sonic immediately flickered in to life, it's eyes and chest lit up and it lifted it's head so it was looking directly at the two hedgehogs. Sonic and Amy, both feeling rather frightened, took a few steps back.
"What's so different about him? He looks like the same old heap of junk to me," said Amy in a terrified tone as she grabbed hold of Sonic's arm.
"And now, here he is with his new modifications!" Eggman announced, he pressed a few more buttons on a remote, gave an evil laugh before taking off.
Sonic and Amy, holding onto each other, stared fearfully at Metal Sonic, wondering what was going to happen. At once, Metal Sonic rose his arms up in front of him; his metallic silver hands then disappeared into his metal arms and Sonic and Amy stared in horror at what came out in their place.
"OH MY GOD!" Amy cried out in horror. Sonic swore loudly, both completely stunned and afraid; they both took a dozen paces back as Amy shrieked at the top of her voice.
"HE'S GOT GUNS!"