AN: Thanks for the reviews, y'all. *ehem the two of you* Keep them coming!
On a side note, I reviewed my own story. It's a lot of fun. You need to try it sometime =D
Chapter Two. Enjoy.
Love Struck
Chapter 2
The par- ehem, "get-together"- passed smoothly for a while, everyone mingling or attacking the snacks, or – in Shadow's case – staring vacantly into space and occasionally muttering, "Maria."
Sonic had finished eating as many chili dogs it was possible for him to eat, and was stretching out, ready to take an afternoon siesta, when Amy glomped him from behind.
"Ack! Amy, what is it?" he said, hoping his ribs wouldn't crack from the pressure.
Amy released him, but said firmly, "Come on. We're going on a walk."
"Wha- a walk?" Sonic looked at her curiously, with slight apprehension.
"Yes. A walk, silly. Not one of your runs, an actual walk for once." She moved closer and snuggled next to him, making him blush.
Oh, what the heck, Sonic thought to himself. "Alright," he said, "a short walk."
Amy gave a squeal of happiness, and Sonic noticed all the helium gone from her voice, and – he hated himself for noticing this – just how much he really needed her, and that unique tone of hers.
Blaze was sitting near Sonic and Amy, dozing lazily in a sleepy catnap, but when she heard Amy mention a walk, she pricked up an ear and opened an eye. Hmm. That certainly would be interesting.
The lavender cat crept after the hedgehog pair, unaware she was being followed herself.
Charmy had been oddly quiet throughout the whole get-together, something he was most certainly not known for, and kept his hands behind his back the whole time. As Blaze left, he saw the opportunity as a perfect test run, and followed after her and Sonic and Amy, all the way outside.
The hedgehog couple walked in silence for a while, Blaze stealthily tailing them and Charmy stealthily tailing her. Finally, the pink hedgehog paused, and Blaze slunk behind a think, tangled hedge at the edge of the sidewalk, and Charmy dove out of sight behind her.
Blaze crept closer toward the hedgehogs, feline in every way. She wasn't the type to go out of her way to eavesdrop, but as the say, curiosity killed the cat.
Amy looked at the ground and shuffled her feet awkwardly, obviously having something to say but not sure how to say it. Sonic looked around, avoiding the pink hedgehog's gaze.
The cat skulked even closer, and the bee noticed something she didn't – a small twig, one of the twigs that bend up from the ground in the perfect position to crack loudly if stepped on. Charmy pulled out what he had behind his back – a large bow, made of sleek wood painted white. He drew a red arrow with a blunt heart at the end from a small quiver and positioned it on the bow. None other than love arrows – but did they work?
"Sonic...." Amy started to say quietly. Blaze edged closer to them and Charmy flew silently to the side and cocked an arrow. The twig was right next to her foot, and Charmy held his breath and took aim....
"Sonic, I think I-" Amy began, but was interrupted by a loud sharp crack! The two hedgehogs spun around.
"Blaze?!" Sonic said incredulously, and a split second later fell to the ground, as an unnoticed love arrow silently struck his back.
"Wha- Sonic?" Amy said in bewilderment, helping him back to his feet and then proceeding to glare angrily at Blaze, who was standing frozen; heart thumping madly; tail bent straight and fluffed out. "Are you alright?" Amy asked Sonic. "You just fell like that!"
Sonic had a strange, distant expression on his face. "Of course I'm alright," he said dreamily. "I'm in... love."
"Sonic!" Amy squeaked happily, her voice sounding like it was full of helium again. "Do you really mean it?"
"Certainly," he said, and pulled himself out of Amy's grasp and knelt before the lavender cat that was just starting to regain herself. "I love you, Blaze."
It was so silent you could've heard a needle drop – only movement as Charmy, still unnoticed, pumped his fist in triumph, Blaze's tail puffed up again, and Amy's eyes filled with tears.
Finally, just to break the silence, Blaze said, "Are you... serious?"
"I've never been more serious in my life," said Sonic.
"...Really?" Blaze said worriedly after a small silence.
"Really."
At last, Amy couldn't take it anymore and burst into tears and ran off.
"Amy!" Blaze called, but then quickly decided that she'd deal with the pink hedgehog later. Now she just had to deal with....
She looked back down at Sonic and sighed wearily. Obviously there was something wrong with him. He'd never shown more than friendship to her before, and now....
Or maybe she was just being paranoid? She quickly shook the thought out of her head. No. She had to figure out if something was wrong with him - what was wrong with him.
Out of the corner of her eye she caught some movement, and turned to see Charmy quickly flying away. So he had something to do with this?
"Come on," she said to Sonic, following the bee. The blue hedgehog immediately got up and trailed after her, fawning like a dog toward its master.
Blaze pursued her quarry, Sonic still fervid with the opiate of love. She waited until she was directly behind the bee, and leapt forward, tackling the bee expertly out of the air and too the ground.
"H-hey!" yelped Charmy, unhurt but surprised as Blaze pinned him down. "What- get off me!"
"What did you do to Sonic?" Blaze said, not bothering to beat around the bush.
"Nothing!"
"Don't even try to play that card," Blaze snarled, subconsciously unsheathing her claws.
Charmy struggled, wishing he had claws as well, instead of a stinger that was really not of much use now. "I was just testing something, okay?! Hey!"
Blaze had pulled the bow out of Charmy's grip and stood up, examining it. She eyed the sling of arrows on Charmy's back and it dawned on her. "Are these- how did you-"
"Okay, okay, okay!" Charmy said, getting to his feet. "I shot Sonic, all right? But I just wanted to see if they would work, I swear, and I thought it would be funny, but really, I didn't know this would happen or it would be this strong! See, I got it a while back from this guy who said he got it as a birthday present from this guy who had never used it because he thought it didn't work and he got it from his mom who got it from her grandfather who had bought it at this antique shop who had bought it from a hedgehog who had found it-"
The bee shut up when he saw the look Blaze was giving him.
Blaze handed the bow back to Charmy and sighed and closed her eyes. "First things first, do you know how to reverse it?"
Charmy rocked backward and forward on his heels, looking like a little kid being interrogated by his parents. "Well..." he started, "not exactly."
Blaze growled. "What do you mean, 'not exactly?' "
"I mean, I might know," he said. "We might be able to by... pulling the arrow out, but I don't know."
"We can at least try it," Blaze said. "Sonic, come- where did he go?" she asked, looking around.
At that moment, Sonic ran up, arms laden with boxes of chocolates and bouquets of flowers. "I got all this for you!!" he said, yelling for no particular reason.
"Um, thank you," she said, blinking at how creepy Sonic was acting. "Just stand there for a second, please."
She walked behind him and gripped the shaft of the love arrow, which was embedded in his right back spike. She held his side for balance and gave it a sharp tug, and the arrow came out smoothly and easily, Sonic giving a small jump.
After a tense second, she asked him, "How do you feel?"
"Like I'm in a dream," he said, gazing at her longingly.
"It didn't work!" Charmy squeaked, positively terrified Blaze would start going off on him.
"What do we try now?" she asked, glancing at Sonic and flicking her tail.
"I-I dunno!"
Blaze sighed and looked off into the distance, and then something unusual happened. However, at this point in the story it is necessary to go back before we can go forward. You might've been wondering what happened to Amy – in fact, you should – so now I will describe to you what was happening to Amy back at the get-together until both these stories cross again.
Amy was back at the get-together, no longer crying, but still tearful. Tikal and Cream were near her, trying to comfort her.
"And... and... he told her that he loved her!" Amy finished, wiping her eyes, after telling Tikal and Cream exactly what had happened.
"That was very rude of Mister Sonic," said Cream. "He knows that you like him." Her voice was obviously audible because of the helium wearing off, and – as you probably figured out – everyone else's voices were not as high-pitched and if you haven't figured it out I recommend you to go to your neighborhood grocery store and buy a box of Common Sense.
"That's just the thing," said Tikal, who was slightly more suspicious. "Sonic's not that rude – he is a boy, after all – but he's not rude enough to reject you like that. Blaze doesn't seem like his type; their friends but nothing more. I think something fishy's going on."
"Yes, it is," sniffled Amy. "Sonic dumped me for a... a cat!"
"It's alright, Amy," said Tikal, putting her arm around the hedgehog. "We'll find out what's going on."
"We promise!" chirped Cream, and Cheese agreed, "Chao, chao!"
"Promise what?" asked Silver, coming over.
"Promise that we'll help Miss Amy find out what caused Mister Sonic to suddenly forget all about her and fall in love with Blaze," said Cream.
"What!?" Silver yelped, so loudly that Jet scowled at him and turned up the volume on his iPod.
"Cream said," said Tikal impatiently, "that we promise we'll-"
"No!" Silver said angrily. "The other kind of 'what'! I heard what you said, but I didn't understand it."
"Who really understands love?" Tikal said dreamily.
Silver looked very distressed. He turned to Amy. "What did Sonic say, exactly?"
"Well," said Amy angrily, "he said he was in love, and I got really excited, and I asked him if he really meant it, and he said of course, and he got down on his knees and told Blaze – who was spying on our private conversation – that he loved her... and it broke my heart!"
"That jerk!" Silver fumed. "Come on Amy! Let's go find that punk so I can teach him a lesson!"
"Good!" said Amy, who started to walk to the door.
Tikal looked shocked. "Amy! You're just going to let Silver beat up Sonic?"
"Yes."
"Fine," Tikal said wearily. "But I'm coming with you."
"What about me?" said Cream.
"You stay here," said Tikal. "Make sure that Rouge doesn't wreck the place; Amy would be even more upset."
Cream saluted. "I will perform the appointed duty with utmost regard and confidence, Miss Tikal!"
Knuckles and Tails came over. "We were eavesdropping on you;" said Knuckles, "we want to see Sonic get beat up too!"
"That's not-" started Tikal, but Amy interrupted.
"Great! The more the merrier! Let's go!"
And so, Silver, Amy, Tikal, Knuckles, and Tails set out.
They didn't have long to walk, because Charmy was heading towards Amy's house when Blaze stopped him. The two hedgehogs, two echidnas, and fox had first spotted Blaze somewhere around the time she had pulled the arrow out of Sonic's back, and from a distance, Silver... got the wrong idea about what was going on, if you get my point. The white hedgehog charged forward, blinded by rage toward the blue hedgehog he had once called his friend, using his telekinesis to go even faster.
(At this point, we are now resuming at the point we went back, in case you couldn't tell.)
"Silver?" Blaze asked incredulously as Silver gave a ferocious yell and Sonic was psychokinetically lifted into the air. Sonic writhed in agony, fear in his emerald eyes, as Silver's outstretched hands curled into tight fists, anger blazing in his golden eyes.
"So this is it, huh?!" Silver yelled. "I spare your life, I become your partner, I help you save the future – and you do this to me?"
"Silver stop!" Blaze yelled, though inside – even though she wouldn't have admitted it for the world – she was secretly pleased Silver was standing up to her like that.
The hedgehog growled and flattened his ears, but pulled his hands back and Sonic fell the few feet back to the ground. Then he turned to Blaze, his eyes glinting like golden coins.
"Nothing's going on between me and... Sonic," she assured him, glancing at the blue hedgehog that had already got up and was fawning at her heels.
Silver glanced at the sycophantic hedgehog and back at Blaze. "Are you sure? The way Amy said it sounded like he was friggin' proposing-"
"Proposing?!" cried Blaze so loudly and angrily Silver jumped in fear and a small patch of grass caught fire at Blaze's feet.
"Proposing!" exclaimed Sonic, and he darted off before either the argent hedgehog or lavender cat could do anything.
"He wasn't... proposing," Blaze said, blushing slightly. "You see, there's-"
"What's going on?" asked Tikal as the rest of the group caught up.
Blaze sighed. "I suppose I should explain. Charmy-" Blaze suddenly stopped and looked around. "Where did he go?"
Amy looked quizzically at her. "Where did who go? Sonic? I just saw-"
"No, Charmy!" Blaze said. "Oh, god.... He has these arrows, I swear, they cause love. That's what happened to Sonic."
"Did you ask him how to reverse it?" Amy asked excitedly.
"No, it never occurred to me," Blaze said, rolling her eyes. "Of course I did."
"What did he say?!" Amy asked excitedly, again.
Blaze had a hard time keeping her temper. "Well, Amy," she said, "if I had found out the way to reverse it, do you really think Sonic would still be in love with me?!"
Tails giggled. "Hehe, owned!"
"So it was just arrows?" said Silver, happy Sonic wasn't in love with Blaze of his own accord, but also slightly crestfallen. "Darn. I was looking forward to beating up Sonic some more."
Tikal sighed to herself, unhappy her pacifist ways apparently were leaving no mark whatsoever on her friends.
Knuckles crossed his arms. "What, exactly, did that bee say?"
"Nothing much, I'm afraid," said Blaze. "All that I really know for sure is that simply removing the arrow will have no effect."
Sonic came back at that moment, panting from running so far and fast, and knelt next to Blaze and pulled out a ring. "Blaze, will you-"
"Not now!" she hissed to him, her white muzzle turning pink from embarrassment.
"Nowcan I beat him up?" Silver said hopefully.
"Sorry, but I think we'll most likely need him conscious in order to bring him back to his senses," Blaze said, giving Silver a rare smile.
No one noticed the arrow fly out of the bushes until it was embedded in Blaze's back and she had fallen to the ground.
"Blaze, my love!" Sonic yelled in alarm, rushing to help, but Silver pushed him out of the way.
"Are you okay? Here, let me help you up," he said, helping the cat to her feet.
As Blaze stood, Tails' eyes grew wide and he pointed to Blaze's back with a trembling finger. "A... a... l-love arrow!"
Knuckles bared his fangs and leapt into the bushes, knuckle-spikes tearing wildly at the shrubbery. The bee zoomed out of the bushes with an evil grin on his tiny bee face.
"You really think you can stop me Knuckles? Mwahahahaha!" he laughed evilly before flying off as fast as his little wings could.
"CATCH THAT BEE!!!" Knuckles ordered, leaping after him with Tails and Tikal following.
"That laugh wasn't realistic!" Silver yelled angrily after Charmy. Then he turned back to Blaze. She was looking at him with an expression he had never seen on her, an expression that could only be....
"Uh, well, we should at least get that arrow off you, even if it won't help us with anything," Silver said awkwardly, and in response Blaze nodded dreamily.
"I'll do it!" Sonic announced, yet he never did, as the next moment he was detained by a large hammer.
"It looks like I got to beat him up, Silver," Amy said haughtily, drawing back her Piko Piko Hammer over her shoulder.
Silver nodded and walked behind Blaze. He grabbed the arrows shaft and yanked it. The arrow slid out more easily than he'd expected, and he held the arrow in his hands, shivering at the damage whatever opiate on the arrowhead could cause.
Blaze rubbed up against him, purring. Silver's initial reaction was shock at the behavior Blaze scorned, but reminded himself to remember this wasn't Blaze, not exactly – she was only acting this way because she was under the influence of the love arrows.
"What should we do now?" asked Amy quietly.
Silver sighed, and felt as if a giant weight was being pressed upon him. "We should watch after these two; make sure they don't try anything... you know. Now that Blaze has... gotten...." Silver couldn't bear to finish his statement. Blaze had been an unofficial leader when Sonic had gotten shot, and now that she was too, someone would have to take her place, become the new general.
Like a war, he thought grimly to himself. They had suffered casualties, and lost warriors. And he wasn't sure if he could save them....
So! Didja love it? Hate it? In-between it? Anyway, REVIEW PLEASE! I love all your comments! Even the criticizing ones! Except not as much, although I haven't gotten many of those. I rather like this one.... Though it went by faaast.... Gotta go type now....