Faster than sound, Sonic bolted out of Future City and straight to Station Square. The trip normally took about thirty minutes, but seeing as Sonic was running far faster than he normally did in traffic, his arrival time was much sooner. As he approached Amy's house, he saw dark clouds of smoke billowing in the sky around it. He pressed himself even harder, desperate to reach her. In a whirl of dust and debris he came to a screeching halt, darting into the house before the score of firemen outside could stop him. His emerald eyes scanned the flame-filled house anxiously.

The flames licked at his cobalt fur hungrily, seeming to come from every direction. They heated the room with an intensity Sonic was sure was what was keeping the firemen, who were supposed to be helping, outside the house. Unsure of where to go or where Amy was, he let his instinct guide him. Angry shouts echoed from outside, most likely from the firemen who realized someone had gone in the house. Sonic vaguely remembered a newspaper article where a two-story house burned to the ground in twenty minutes. He did not know how long Amy's house had been on fire, but he was sure his time was running short.

Over the snapping of the fire and crashing of failing support beams, he heard voices that were not from outside. Flicking his ears in the direction of the noise, he bolted up the stairs and glanced around, hoping to catch the sound again. While it did not repeat itself, only one door was shut out of every door upstairs: the one to a guest room. It was always left open, as the sun shone directly in it during the majority of the day, and would heat to an incredibly uncomfortable temperature if it was not aired out. Sonic attempted to open it, but found it to be locked. A cheap bolt was certainly not going to hold him back.

He backed up against the opposite wall, which was searing with heat from the flames on the other side, and propelled himself off of it. He curled into a tight ball seconds before reaching the door. The spindash allowed his quills to cut easily through the weak wood, and he landed, crouched, in the room. The first thing he saw was a dark figure outside an unnatural ring of flames. The ring was the only thing on fire in this particular room, which was odd, considering the rest of the house was essentially its own personal oven. The silhouette against the fire was definitely not Amy; it was far too robust for that, but it was just as surely not a fireman.

Sonic raced over and knocked the intruder down, who was hissing and spitting with anger as he tried to push Sonic off. His fur was pitch black, and his amber eyes were fiery with anger. The noises he continued to make, as well as his long claws and thick fur, revealed he was feline. "Who are you?!" snarled Sonic, pinning the cat down by the neck.

Before the villain could answer, a cry pierced through the deafening roar of the flames: "Sonic!" It was unmistakably Amy's voice, admittedly a very scared, shrill version of it, but hers nonetheless. The cobalt hero tossed all thoughts of the cat out of his mind as he shot towards the ring of fire in the center of the room, from the center of which the scream had come. His momentum allowed him to leap easily over the fire and into the middle, where Amy was cowering and crying. He scooped her up bridal-style and leapt out of the enclosing circle, which was now spreading to join the rest of the flames in the hallway. The cat Sonic had pinned was no where to be seen.

"Amy, get out of here! Before the flames block you out!" he shouted, pointing towards the exit.

"What about you?!" she exclaimed.

"I'll be fine, just go!" Reluctantly, Amy ran out of the house as Sonic went in the opposite direction, searching for any sign of the ebony cat he had seen earlier. Dodging flames as he went, Sonic made his way throughout the second story of the house, hoping to see just a glimpse of the intruder. It was when he was about to give up and head out to safety that he saw the feline trying to escape up to the attic. Seeing as the cat was already the majority of the way up the ladder, Sonic made no attempts to grab the intruder's tail or paw. Instead, he shot up after him, only to see him struggling to open and climb out of the small third-story window.

In a whirl of limbs and tails, Sonic pounced on the cat to prevent his escape. His momentum sent both flying through the glass. Shards of it cut across Sonic's quills as the cat landed on top of him, but the hedgehog was used to absorbing falls, and rolled out from under the feline soon after impact. After pinning him down again, Sonic glared into his amber eyes, which were lit with hatred and loathing. Sonic found this odd, seeing as he had never met the cat before in his life. At least, as far as he could recall. Normally, people did not hate him until after he thwarted multiple versions of their plans.

"Lemme go!" the feline growled, struggling against Sonic's grip. It was a hopeless attempt, as adrenaline provided the already-powerful hedgehog with more strength than usual. Not to mention the fact he had seen this particular cat inside a flaming house with Amy, so his temper was anything but controlled.

"Answer me first, then I'll see about letting you go! Who are you?!"

"It doesn't matter."

"It does to me!" shouted Sonic, forced to make his voice heard over the collapsing house behind him. Obviously, the flames were doing their job. "Who sent you, then?"

"The letter that tipped you off," hissed the feline. "All your answers are there. Now no more questions." The villain scraped his claws across Sonic's muzzle, who yelped and backed off, allowing the cat to escape. The hedgehog wiped the blood away with the back of his hand, glaring at the retreating figure. He could easily catch up with him, but Amy had priority. Besides, he had a feeling the cat had told him all he needed to know for now.

"Sonic! What happened to you?!" exclaimed Amy, her jade eyes wide as Sonic emerged from behind the house. He was certainly in far worse condition than when he had entered initially. In addition to the blood on his muzzle and quills, he was coated with ashes and soot, and his fur was singed in a few places. The female ran to her hero and embraced him tightly, tears streaming down her cheeks and landing on his ash-covered chest. Sonic returned the hug as firemen approached him, all looking more than a little angry.

"You shouldn't have run into the house. You could have been killed," growled an older man, his hair and moustache grey with age. It was obvious he was in charge, since the others simply nodded in agreement.

"Yeah? Well, if I hadn't gone in, then she would have died, for all the help you were!" barked Sonic, ears laid back as he glared at the chief.

"We didn't know she was in there," the fireman argued.

"Wait a sec, isn't that your job? To find out if people are still in the building that's on fire?"

"Yes, but someone came out just as we arrived and assured us the building was empty."

Sonic's ears perked. "And it wasn't her?" he inquired, nodding towards the hedgehog in his arms.

"Definitely not," replied the chief. "The one who told us the building was empty was a brown cat."

"Not black?" pressed Sonic.

The fireman glared at him. "If I'd meant black, I would've said black."

"Touché," muttered the azure hedgehog. "Fine, then. Seeing as the house is nothing more than a pile of ashes now, thanks to you, I'll be going."

A few of the younger firemen tried to protest, seeing as the hedgehog was injured, but the chief refused to let them. He would much prefer the hedgehog out of the way as they worked, despite protocol. Sonic swept Amy up again, then took off down the road to his apartment back in Station Square. Amy had stopped crying, but her muzzle remained buried in his chest, as if keeping the world from view would prevent anything else from happening. It did not matter whether or not she did, seeing as Sonic was just as determined to ensure nothing else threatened her. No matter what.

Omigosh, an update! Okay, I have to say, writing two stories at the same time is driving me crazy. However, seeing as I have people following both this and ToK, neither will get bumped. STILL. Note that the updates won't be as steady, and you might get some spans of time where the other story is updated instead. I'm going to try and keep it every other week for this story, but it's whenever the next chapter's ready, really. Thanks for the support,

~Wolf~