Earlier. Saturday, October 19.

Everyone was acutely aware of their own mortality.


There had been a date with Sonic on the table, scheduled for today, until Silver's prophecy. Amy understood why the date was no longer on the table, but it was still disappointing. She sighed, chin propped up on her hand. She had called off work for this, but now nothing was happening. To say she was bored would have been an understatement.

She stood up from the kitchen table. The chair squeaked a little - was she putting on weight? - No, it was just old. She had something to attend to - the future.

There's a few things they don't tell you when you're a teenager. Like, what the future is like. Although, maybe it's more that they can't tell you. Like trying to explain color to a blind man, maybe it's just really hard to articulate. Amy's future, in any case, was college. At least, that's what she assumed.

A few colleges had sent her letters already; they looked interesting. But they were far away, too far from her home. And far too expensive! Her parents weren't rich, after all!

Her parents were rich. The colleges, in fact, were all in-state. Amy wondered briefly why she denied these facts.


"I think it's time we talked about college," Amy's dad said at dinner. This is the fourth time, Amy observed mentally.

Instead, she nodded in agreement.

"Now, your idea is to be a teacher?" her father asked. They had already gone over this. To say she and her parents were a bit out of touch would have been accurate.

She nodded in agreement.

"How about...Florida?" her father suggested. This was new.

She nodded in agreement, then cancelled the nod. She was confused. "Florida? Wait, what's in Florida?"

"A fine teaching school," Amy's mother offered.

"Tuition is no problem," Amy's father said as Amy opened her mouth to protest.

"And you can come visit every now and then," Amy's mother added. Suddenly, Amy realized that she didn't want to be close to home just to visit her parents. Well, it would be nice, but that wasn't the reason…

"How about a community college?" Amy insinuated. "Could be nice. Low tuition, not very far...you can go on vacation this summer and next summer."

"Amy, why not Florida?" her mother asked. "It's much better than a community college. Not that a community college is bad, but…"

"Florida's nice, too," her dad said. Amy was getting agitated.

"But if I go to Florida, I can't - " and then Amy realized exactly why she didn't want to go to Florida.

Unfortunately, her parents caught on fast. "Oh, Sonic? He'll be fine here," her mother answered. There was no verifiable proof that Sonic would be fine. Amy also knew that they didn't really like Sonic all that much, either. This was what worried Amy.

"You don't even like him," she muttered.

"Amy, come on. It's not that he's much lower class, but he's just…" Amy's father trailed off.

"Wild," Amy's mother came to his rescue.

"Careless?"

"Careless."

"Dad. I love him. Does that matter?"

"It's not that it doesn't matter, it's just…"

"You not liking him takes priority?" Amy raised an eyebrow.

"Right. No, er…"

The phone rang, and Amy's mother got up to answer it.

Meanwhile, Amy fumed. "It's not like I'm going for a med degree. I'd be going to Florida for teaching, and then I'd probably end up coming right back here."

Her father sighed and put his head in his hands. "You didn't used to be this difficult."

Amy glared, stung. "You didn't used to be this rude."

The meeting was interrupted when Amy's mother lowered the phone onto the receiver. "Dear? What's wrong?" Amy's father said.


"A fair rumble. That's what you said, yeah?" Sonic called as both groups met. Illuminated by the lights of the southern end of Burgertopia, Sonic was the picture of graveness. He knew the depth of the situation - if he won, he'd live to fight another day. But these upper-class fellas only had to win once. They had law enforcement on their side, however tacitly, and even if they killed someone from Sonic's gang, they'd get off scot-free.

"That's right. We play nice around here, right boys?" The tallest of the opposition grinned, smoothing his hair back.

That was when the second car showed up. "That sounds awfully fishy in light of recent events," Rotor spat.

"Aw, whaddaya mean? We'll go easy on ya."

Sonic's eyes narrowed and he stepped forward. "So you wanna have a little fun, huh?"

"What did you have in mind?"

"You and me. Winner takes all."

"Hmm...Boys, stand down. I accept."


The knife came out when Sonic landed a blow to the guy's face. Apparently, it was meant to be a fair fight until his face got bruised. Sonic wasn't in the mood for jokes, however.

Sonic's normally cocky grin petered out into a hard line as he remembered what Silver had said. "Not your usual self, huh?" his opponent taunted, and dashed toward him.

Sonic tried to sidestep cheekily, but the other guy had a different plan. He grabbed Sonic and pulled him towards himself, knife glinting under the street light. Sonic's insides froze.

If someone had to die tonight, then it was better him than someone else. But God, he didn't want to die.

Intense pain shot through his left side.


Blaze rounded the corner, relaxed. Although she was normally not a fan of the cold, the feeling of gliding over the ice rink was too good to pass up.

She gave a half-smile as a child slipped and fell, looking to her mother to help her up.

Then the mother fell, too. Blaze's eyebrows knitted.

Then someone screamed, and Blaze understood what was going on. That was because someone shouted, "He's got a gun!"