Disclaimer: All characters are owned by Sega.

Chapter 2

Sonic and Amy had been running for about half an hour, he had to slow down quite a bit for her sake, but he was still pleasantly surprised at how well she kept up. He turned his head to look back at her, she looked worn out, he knew she wouldn't last forever so he decided to stop. Amy stopped along side him and bent over with her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath

"Why... are we... stopping?" She asked, panting heavily. "You're... not... tired... are you?"

Sonic smirked at her in response, this girl was something else alright. "You hungry? 'Cause I sure am." He said as he walked over and sat down at the base of a nearby tree, removing his backpack, he opened it up and pulled out several objects wrapped in tinfoil, he unwrapped the chili dog and took a large bite. Amy having finally caught her breath, perked up somewhat and sat down beside him, "That sounds good." She said as she pulled a fork and a Tupperware full of salad out of her pink knapsack and began to eat.

"So, Amy, what's your story?" Sonic asked with a mouthful, Amy couldn't believe it, the whole moment seemed so surreal to her, here she was sitting in the middle of the woods having lunch and chatting with her hero, Sonic The Hedgehog. "Well," she began, "I live with my Aunt in a small town called Quaker Park not too far away from here actually. It's a nice quiet place, very friendly. It gets boring sometimes though.."

Sonic smiled, "It sounds nice, I used to live in a quiet place like that, it's not so quiet anymore though. People come from all over now just to see me." he said before taking the last bite of his chilli dog. "That must be rough." "It is, but to be honest it's given me more of an incentive to run around and enjoy nature, you know? So, it's not all bad, Tails is a fun kid to live with too, he spends his time making all these neat gadgets and stuff." He said as he held up his arm and tapped what looked like a wristwatch, "This thing? It's a video phone, he made it out of an old busted computer and my watch. Honestly, it's hard to believe he's only 9." Amy's eyes widened, "Really? That's incredible."

"Yeah, it is, but anyway, you said you live with your Aunt? What's she like?" Sonic asked. "She's very nice, I used to live with my parents, but they've had to travel a lot lately so they let me live with her while they're gone." She sighed, as much as she loved her Aunt, she missed her parents very much. Sonic put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Hey cheer up, sad isn't a good look for you." Amy looked at him with a small smile tugging at her lips, she wrapped her arms around one of his and wrested her head on his shoulder, Sonic stiffened up and vainly tried to put some space between them, but she wasn't about to let go any time soon. "You know, you're even nicer than I thought you'd be." She said softly, causing Sonic to blush. "Err, thanks."

They sat there in silence for a few minutes, Sonic eventually relaxed and gave up trying to free himself. After several minutes, he broke the silence. "I think we should get going." Amy reluctantly let go of his arm and got up. "Yeah, I guess you're right." Sonic got to his feet, collecting all their leftover wrappers and such and stuffing them back in his bag, before pulling out his map again, "We should be about a mile away by now, think you can make it?" Amy smirked at him, "Of course I can! I might even beat you there!" she said before running off. Sonic smiled before putting the map back in his bag and following her. Eventually they arrived at Never Lake, where the Little Planet is supposed to appear, when they arrived, they were shocked at what they saw.

Gray, cold gray steel. Humongous towers jutted from the surface of the Little Planet, pumping foul smog into the air. One tower in particular was much larger than the others. It had a ludicrously huge chain attached to it trailing from the Little Planet to a nearby mountain, Sonic's eyes followed the chain down and saw a very familiar mustachioed face carved into the side of it.

"Eggman..." He said while crossing his arms. "What are you up to now?" Sonic was about to jet off when he heard a beeping sound, Sonic pressed a button on his watch and Tails' face appeared on the screen. "Hey Sonic, how's it go-" He paused, "Who's that?" Sonic turned his head and saw that Amy was peaking over his shoulder. "Err, Tails, this is Amy."

"Hi Tails!" She said waving at the tiny screen. "Hi Amy, it's nice to meet you. Anyway, how's the trip going Sonic? Good I hope." "Well, actually we have a problem here, buddy." Sonic responded as he turned the watch towards Little Planet. "You seeing this?"

"Eggman?" Tails asked. Sonic sighed, "You know it, think he's after the Time Stones?" "More than likely. Are you gonna need any help? I just gotta fuel up the Tornado." Sonic shook his head, "I got this." Tails furrowed his brows. "Sonic..." Sonic held a hand up, cutting him off. "I got this Tails, don't worry, I've dealt with Egghead before, how many tricks could he have up his sleeve?" Little did Sonic know how he would come to regret those words as this day progressed.

"Hey Sonic, what's that?" Amy asked pointing up to the sky. Sonic followed her finger and spied a small object darting across the sky towards the Little Planet, "I have no idea..." whatever it was, it was moving very fast. He looked back at his watch, where Tails had an amused look on his face. "You were saying?"

Sonic sighed, "Look, I'm gonna go check everything out. If I need help I'll call you, Sonic out." "Be careful Sonic..." said Tails, a concerned look on his face. "When am I not?" Sonic switched off the communicator and turned towards Amy. "You'd better get home." Amy huffed, "As if! I'm not gonna let you just ditch me! I'm coming too!"

Sonic crossed his arms over his chest again, "Listen, Amy, this ain't all fun and games, this is gonna be dangerous, I'm not gonna drag some girl into the middle of it all just because she wants to. Go home to your Aunt. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine." "Sonic, I am not going to just sit around and let someone ruin one of the most amazing things in the world, you are either going to let me come, or I'll just follow you." Sonic began to chuckle, "What's so funny?"

"Have fun trying to keep up!" Sonic said as he jetted off towards the mountain with Eggman's face on it. "YOU'RE NOT GONNA GET RID OF ME THAT EASY!" She yelled as she gave chase. When Sonic reached the mountain, he looked back and sighed when he saw that she was still in fact chasing him. He eyed the chain connecting the mountain to the planet.

'Boy is she stubborn' He thought to himself. 'But she's not gonna follow me all the way up there, she's not that crazy, I hope not anyway. I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if someone got hurt 'cause of me.' Sonic hopped up on the chain and began to run up it, he looked off to the side and spied that flying object again, it looked like it was touching down close to the tower the chain was connected to. 'What is that thing?'

Sonic turned his attention back up ahead and saw several mosquito-like robots flying towards him. "All right! Finally some action!" He said with a grin and proceeded to dodge between their attempts to dive-bomb him. He leaped up in the air and curled himself into a ball before launching himself at the robots, managing to smash several of them, before he heard an odd sound, from off to the side, almost like a jet engine. He managed to twist himself in mid-air towards the direction it was coming from but before he could register what happened something crashed into him, sending him plummeting to the ground.

Sonic landed hard, his vision blurred and everything went dark momentarily, when he finally came to, he pulled himself to his feet and looked around. "What was that?" He asked no one in particular. He looked up and saw that same object moving through the sky. Sonic sighed again, "Guess I do need to be more careful, I didn't even manage to get a good look at that thing." Sonic grabbed his arm and winced. "Oh well, one thing at a time, Sonic. At least I made it to the planet." He said as he surveyed the area, It was a pretty wide open area, some dead trees and hills here and there he noticed that a few were still alive, but they were in pretty rough shape., but all in all nothing too interesting. Sonic was about to run off when he heard a familiar voice cry out.

"SOOOONIC!"

'What? She really followed me here? Damn, she is crazy, either that or very brave.'

Sonic turned and saw the pink hedgehog running towards him. A concerned look in her eyes. "Sonic! Are you alright?" She cried out as she hugged him, Sonic placed his hands on her shoulders and pushed away, looking her right in the eyes, he said "I'm fine, trust me. I've taken worse falls than that before." He was about to ask her how she managed to find him but a loud crash behind them interrupted them.

Sonic turned and saw a large mech standing before them, it had two long legs as well as a set of arms attached to a central pod, inside the pod sat Eggman himself. Sonic smirked, "Hey Egghead, fancy meeting you here."

"Hello Sonic, ahh, I see you found yourself a new girlfriend," Robotnik said with an evil glare, "she'll make a fine power supply for my next project."

"Hey. how about we just skip the dialogues, and the chasing and you just give up? I think I've embarrassed you enough for one lifetime."

"Hmm, tempting, but I think I'll go with no." He said as he charged forward, Sonic scooped Amy up and quickly dodged the mech's attempt to punch him by leaping into the air and landing behind it. As it turned to face him again, Sonic yelled out "Too slow!"

"Blasted Hedgehog!" Eggman yelled as he charged at him again, Sonic sped off, 'Gotta find a place to hide her.' He looked down at the terrified Amy, she was covering her eyes, turning his head back towards Eggman he saw that he had gained considerable distance on him. He set Amy down, "Wait here, I'll be back before you know it." Before Amy could answer he was already heading back to face Eggman. When Sonic got close he rolled into a ball and launched himself at one of the mech's arms, severing it. As Sonic landed, he turned and spin-dashed back towards the mech, this time severing both legs.

As the mech's body crashed to the ground, Eggman realized he couldn't win and ejected his pod and sped off. "Just you wait Hedgehog! My latest creation will be the end of you!" He called back, Sonic could only chuckle in response. "Wish I had a nickle for every time he said that." He ran back where he left Amy, who seemed starstruck, "That was amazing!" she squealed at the top of her lungs before running towards Sonic and giving him a hug. Sonic sighed, "Amy, you have to get out of here. I know you mean well, but I don't want you getting hurt." She pulled away, putting her hands behind her back, "I'm sorry Sonic, I just..." she trailed off.

"How did you even find me?" He asked, Amy looked at him, confused "I... I don't know." she responded. "I just, felt something and I followed it." Sonic raised an eyebrow, "You 'felt something?'" Amy shrugged her shoulders in response, "I just felt like something was telling me to go this way, and then I found you." "Huh..." Sonic paused momentarily to think 'She felt something? What is she psychic?' He was pulled from his thoughts when Amy suddenly spoke up. "Oh, I almost forgot! I found something!" she said as she pulled something from her pocket, holding it out for him to see, it was a large green stone. "I think it might be a Time Stone." Sonic took the rock from her and looked it over, before smiling and stuffing it into his bag. "Whatever it is, I ain't letting Eggman get his grubby hands on it."

Sonic turned to leave, but paused, looking back at Amy. "We're gonna find a safe place for you to hide, I'll pick you up when I'm done with Egghead." Before Amy could utter a word of protest, Sonic scooped her up in his arms and dashed off. Amy's face went beet red, 'Oh my god, this is incredible.' she thought to herself. ''The way he handled that fight, how he's holding me, I still can't believe this isn't a dream.' Amy snuggled into Sonic's chest, 'I could stay here forever.'

Eventually Sonic found a small cave in the side of a cliff and stopped. He looked down at Amy and saw that she had fallen asleep, reluctantly, he nudged her awake. Her opened her eyes and groggily looked up at Sonic. "Am I dreaming?" Sonic laughed, "You weren't before and you aren't now." he said as he set her down on her feet. Amy smiled at him, "Sonic..." she said as she leaned in close to him, placing her hands on his chest. "Yeah?" he said, beginning to blush because of how close she had suddenly gotten. "I think I..." she trailed off, seemingly unsure of what to say next, "I think I-" Sonic suddenly cut her off by putting his finger over her lips. "Shh, do you hear that?"

It sounded like some kind of jet engine, Sonic had heard it before. It was that same sound he heard before he was attacked earlier. He turned to the direction the sound was coming from, looking to the distance he saw something closing in, something that was moving very fast. 'Could this be the thing Eggman was talking about before?' The thing came to a sudden stop a few yards away, kicking up a large dust cloud, obscuring his and Amy's view of it. As the dust settled, Sonic's blood went cold and a chill ran down his spine.

"What in the world?"

What stood before them was a robotic double of Sonic himself. Its lifeless eyes were black with glowing red pupils and its torso appeared to house a small turbine engine. Eggman had attempted robotic versions of Sonic before, but they were clunky and, though fast, incapable of matching his speed. But this one was smaller, more streamlined, and if his previous encounter with it was any indication, much, much faster. Sonic could feel Amy trembling behind him, she was obviously terrified. He was scared too, but he did his best not to show it, he didn't want her to panic. 'As if it wasn't bad enough, I've gotta keep her safe too.'

"Amy, go hide! I can take care of this." He whispered to her. Amy hesitated but eventually made a beeline for the cave. The robots gaze followed her. Sonic smirked, he had an idea. Taking advantage of the temporary distraction, Sonic rolled into a ball and built up some speed before spin-dashing toward it. To his surprise the machine then launched up into the air, completely dodging his attack. Sonic unrolled and dug his heels into the ground, stopping himself. He quickly spun around and looked up at it hovering in the air, almost mockingly. 'Oh right, it can fly. He must have put a lot of thought into this one...' Sonic truly had his work cut out for him this time, the thing was fast and maneuverable enough without the power of flight allowing it to dodge and attack him from any angle it pleased. He sped towards the cliff and ran straight up the side of it before launching himself at the machine again, and once again it dodged his attack. Sonic hit the ground running and turned back towards the cliff attempting to run up it once again, but this time Metal Sonic cut him off, forcing him to change direction. Sonic turned his head back to see if it gave chase, but he couldn't see it. Facing forward again, Sonic was shocked to see that it had overtaken him, and turned back. He didn't have time to change course before it zoomed straight up to him and swatted him aside like a fly.

Dazed, Sonic stumbled to his feet and tried to regain his bearings. He heard a familiar cracking sound above him before a massive shock wave floored him again. 'Did that thing just break the sound barrier?' He thought, his ears ringing, Sonic struggled to get back to his feet again. He looked around trying to find his opponent, turning around just in time to see it heading towards him, Sonic managed dodge out of the way in time, seeing his opportunity he charged towards it and attempted an attack. But Metal Sonic lifted one of its feet and fired the jet off at full blast, blowing him back. Sonic hit the ground hard, but managed to use his momentum to roll back to his feet. "Sonic!" He turned towards the cave and saw that Amy had come out. Sonic quickly turned back towards Metal Sonic and to his horror saw that it was looking right at her. "Hey you bucket of bolts! Over here!" He yelled, hoping to turn its attention back towards him. It looked back and forth between the two, almost as if wondering what to do. It eventually turned its attention to Amy and charged right towards her. 'Oh no!' Sonic thought as he sped forward, hoping to intercept it, he tried to cut in front of it but it maneuvered above him and gave him a swift kick in the head, knocking him to the ground again. '' 'It planned that...' This terrified him more than anything about this fight, it knew what he would do if it went after Amy, it knew he would try to stop it without so much as a second thought. His vision blurred and pain shot through his entire body as he tried to force himself to his feet again before collapsing. 'Get up!' Sonic wouldn't admit it, but he could not take a beating, especially one like this. He knew he had lost already, but he wasn't going to stay down. 'GET UP!' His brain practically screamed at him, he pushed himself up once again making it to his knees. He almost fell again, but managed to catch himself and force his way back up to his feet in spite of his bodies protest.

He turned to face his doppelganger once again, it just stared at him, Sonic was sure if it could show any kind of emotion it would have some kind of twisted smile on its face right now. Panting, Sonic took a step forward, then another. Metal Sonic looked like it was preparing to strike its final blow, but to both of their surprise Amy ran between the two of them, she stood face to face with the metal monstrosity, tears welling up in her eyes. "Stop! Don't you dare lay another finger on him!" she cried, holding her arms out defensively. "What are you doing Amy?" Sonic said as he weakly tried to push past her, but she managed to hold him back. "Protecting you!" She yelled in response. She was practically crying at this point as a combination of despair and terror gripped her very being. Her hero was being decimated by a robotic clone before her very eyes and there was nothing she could do but stand there, between him and it in some last ditch effort to protect him. Metal Sonic stepped forward and reached its hand out, grabbing her by the arm. "Don't you touch me!" She yelled as she swung her free hand, her fist connected with its jaw, causing her hand to throb with pain. It barely reacted to the blow, it just stood there. Still holding her by the arm, it then hovered into the air. "What are you doing!" She yelled, flailing about in a vain attempt to break free from its steel grip. "Let me Go! Sonic! Help!"

"AMY!" He yelled as he jumped up to try and reach them, but Metal Sonic jetted off before he could get close. After landing, Sonic sped off in an attempt to follow them, but the battle had worn him out, he ran as fast and as far and began to close in, unfortunately he couldn't keep up for long as it quickly managed to put more and more distance between them. He began to slow down before eventually dropping to his knees, reaching his hand out to the small dot that was them as it disappeared over the horizon. "Amy..." he said weakly before passing out.

Well, there's Chapter 2, little later than I said, but I've been kinda busy lately. What do you think? I like the way the Metal Sonic fight turned out. Leave me a review and let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.