Thank you so much for the reviews, you guys!
********
Chapter 13: Taking Stock
The sun was up, and that meant Sonic was, too. He rolled over and a pillow fell on the floor, reminding Sonic that he was at Amy's. He wearily opened his eyes and the bright red digits of a clock greeted him.
Are you kidding? That couldn't be right. He never slept 10 hours all at once. He needed only 4 or 5 hours usually to function, as long as he had plenty of cat naps during the day. Sonic blamed Amy's couch.
Sonic jumped off, and had to bite his tongue to keep from yelping out in pain. Dang it. His ankle was still messed up. He sat back down and took it in his hand. The swelling had gone down considerably, but it was still a purplish color.
He had been hoping that it would have healed overnight. Things like cuts and bruises never stayed on him for very long, but this was a sprained ankle. He hoped. Sonic wouldn't let himself consider that it may be broken.
Ah well, he'd just have to suck it up and hope that Amy or anybody else didn't notice. If they did, they'd force him to rest it awhile, and the prospect of not being forced to sit down for a whole day scared him.
Sonic sighed as he pulled his socks and shoes back on and headed for the kitchen. He started looking around for something to eat, but realized it'd be better not to make noise and wake Amy up. He'd do better to go on a run first, check out how the gang was doing. Amy was usually one to sleep in, anyway.
After pulling out a pen and paper, he scrawled a quick note down so she wouldn't worry:
Amy,
I'm on a run. I'll be back later to pick you up,
Sonic.
He'd gotten to the door before he paused. Dude, that note was awful. You gotta make it sound more romantic.
Sonic frowned and went back to the note. He had no patience for this type of thing, but had to do it for her sake.
Uh...what to add?! Sonic bit his lip as he studied it, then added the word love before his name. I guess that's good enough....Besides, I'll probably be back before she wakes up anyway.
Sonic zipped out the door. He was pleased to see that it wasn't cloudy today, though the blue sky was obscured with a thick haze. As long as it didn't rain again.
In a about a minute he was inside Tails' workshop, greeting his best friend. The fox had his back to Sonic and was hunched over at his desk.
"Hey Tails."
The fox turned, shocking Sonic by how frazzled he looked.
"Woah, man. Did you get any sleep?"
Tails rubbed his eyes. "A little. But I couldn't at first. My mind just started doing calculations by itself and I figured it'd be better to write them down so I did. Good news, though: I calculated when the dimensions are going to become parallel again."
Sonic blinked, feeling a little guilty. He'd slept too well last night...
"Did what you find help you to sleep any better?"
"Yes and no," Tails said. "We have more time than I thought we did, but also a short window."
"Look, don't worry," Sonic said. "Are you sure you can function on only a few hours?"
Tails shrugged, and Sonic frowned. They were all in pretty bad shape now: his ankle, Tails like this, not to mention Silver...
"Hey, how's Silver and Blaze doing?"
"They're fine," Tails said, brushing his bangs out of his eyes. "They're in there, eating with everyone else."
"Everyone else?" Had he really slept in that late?
"Yeah, we've been waiting on you," Tails said casually.
Sonic rushed off into Tails' dining room. Sure enough, everyone was gathered around the breakfast table. Even-
"Sonic!" Amy said and jumped from the table to run and hug him.
"I thought you were still asleep," Sonic said as he accepted her embrace.
"You were sleeping like a baby on the couch and I didn't want to wake you," she whispered, not wanting to make it public knowledge he'd slept at her house.
"Thanks."
Amy then released him and went and sat back down.
"So did you all come up with a plan while I was gone?" Sonic asked, taking a seat next to Amy.
"No, we were waiting for you," Tails said as he came into his dining room.
"Heh heh. Sorry."
"Well, now that you're here..." Knuckles said and brought out his 4 Chaos Emeralds. "We now have 6 of these and 1 Sol Emerald. Any ideas on where the others could be?"
"Well, Eggman's out," Sonic said.
"We should never count him out," Tails reminded.
"I think we can this time," Rouge said. "If he had anymore Chaos Emeralds I would have found them in there."
"We should be able to track down the last Chaos Emerald no problem," Tails said. "It's the Sol Emeralds I'm not sure about."
"Couldn't you build another tracking device?" Amy asked.
The fox drooped a little. "Well, yeah, I could. It's just, I'm working on the dimension-hopping machine right now."
"Oh, didn't you say you figured out when the dimensions would become stable?" Silver asked.
"Yeah," Tails said, and bit his lip, trying to put it in layman's terms.
"Think about it like this," he started and held up two hands, palms facing each other. "These are the two dimensions." He then moved his hands to form an X. "This is what Sol Control caused: an overlap or a crossing. But that's not all: both sets of Emeralds are in the same dimension and that's a lot of concentrated energy. So they're reacting and changing both dimensions, making them become more aligned." Tails then moved his crossed hands slowly up and towards each other until they were parallel, forming a flat surface. "This is the point we need to use the Emeralds to send you two back home. If we use them any other time, we may cause another tear, then we'll have 2 tears and repairing them won't be easy."
Tails surveyed the team. Amy and Knuckles looked lost, but the other 4 more or less seemed to follow.
"How long until they're completely in line?" Blaze asked.
"Not exactly sure...but looks to be about a week, more or less."
"That long?" Blaze asked, a little disappointed.
Tails nodded. "More than likely less, though, because of all the energy that's in this world."
"A week is plenty of time," Sonic said. "So there's no need for you to be stressed. We can help you with the machine."
"But in the meantime, we track down the Emeralds," Blaze said.
Nods all around the table.
"Blaze," Knuckles said, "Since you're a guardian, you can sense the Sol Emeralds' prescence, right?"
"I can," Blaze said and pulled out her Emerald. "But their power doesn't feel as strong here. It may work."
"So that's our plan?" Sonic asked. "Just going around looking for Emeralds?"
"You have a better one?" Knuckles asked.
"No....it just seems so boring," Sonic said and shrugged. He turned to Amy, but the girl was biting her lip.
Knuckles rolled his eyes.
"Well, you can count me out," Amy said.
"Why?" Sonic said. Don't bail on me, Amy. If you don't come I'll really be bored....
"Well, I promised Cream I'd take her to the mall today. This was before all this happened and I really hate to break dates with someone..." She looked apologetically at Sonic.
"As long as you two are going shopping..." Tails produced a list. "Do you think you could pick up some parts for me?"
Amy took the paper from him and scanned it. "Uh, Tails? This is like Greek to me..."
"All you have to do is hand it to the clerk and he'll find them for you," Tails assured. "I'd really appreciate it."
Amy frowned. Hanging around an electronics store was not her idea of a good time. "Tails, why don't-" her eyes lit up as an idea hit her. Of course. It was almost too perfect. "Why don't you go with Cream?"
The fox blushed. "Uh, I have to stay here and work-"
"You work too much. And I don't think Cream will mind going with you instead of me. I think she likes you actually," Amy said with a wink. She had been hoping to talk with Cream about just that, but having them go together was even better.
Now Tails was completely red. "Uh, no I probably bore her to death-"
Amy stood up and pulled out her hammer. "Tails, you are going to the mall with Cream," she said in a threatening voice.
Tails jumped back. "Okay. I will," he said timidly.
"Great!" Amy said and her hammer disappeared. She grabbed Tails with two hands and dragged him to the door. "I'll call her and explain, you just have to show up. Don't worry, you'll have fun." She shoved the poor fox out of his own home and closed the door behind him.
She let out a breath and rolled her eyes. "Guys. They never do anything," she grumbled and sat down next to Sonic, who had found this whole episode hilarious.
"You really know how to make people blush," was all Silver could say.
Amy shrugged. "It's not my fault he gets embarrassed easily."
"Moving on," Knuckles said. "So do we have a plan?"
"Yeah, we go and look for Emeralds," Sonic said. "And I know just the thing."
********
He he he. I loved writing this. Amy is so mean to her brother-in-law. ;)
