No Brotherly Love 2: Echoes In Time
Chapter 3: You're Him
'Ugh! God, my body! I-I can't-can't move! What the hell's going on? Why-why-AH! GOD! My-my ribs-they-they feel like they're-fuck!' This is what's going through my mind as I am incapable of moving my body, yet feeling all the injuries it's sustained.
"Christ, Green! He's waking up!" A male voice says in alarm.
An older voice then speaks up in a calm tone, "He is a tough one, isn't he? After that fall, I didn't expect him to ever wake up, never mind mere minutes after the thing happened."
"Doc!" The alarmed voice spoke again. "We need to stabilize him! Now!"
The older voice shushes him and replies, "Don't worry, I have it covered. Now young fellow, I would much appreciate it if you would allow this possibly dangerous amount of tranquilizer to knock you out. Is that too much to ask for?"
'Tranquilizer! That's hardly medically safe on me, ya know!' I shout in my brain. Not long after that, I fall into slumber once more. I have no idea how long I've been here, or wherever here really is, but I get the feeling I'm about to find out.
"Where-where am I?" I ask aloud as my eyelids open, and my vision suddenly suffers from a penetrating light above me.
"Waking up are we?" A female voice asks. My vision starts to clear and I see that the source of light is a light bulb attached to a crusty and decaying ceiling. I turn my head to my left and get a blurry image of someone's face.
"Who are you?" I ask, getting my bearings.
The woman laughs and answers, "Well, I guess you could say I'm your nurse."
I cock an eyebrow. "My…nurse?"
She smacks her hand on my arm playfully before standing up. "Don't worry, I'm not really qualified to be one."
I look back up to the ceiling. "And that's supposed to make me feel better?" She puts her hands on my shoulders. 'Has she ever heard of personal space?' I ask myself.
She then replies, "Oh, don't worry! I did everything right, stuck needles in the right places…"
'Needles!' I panic.
She continues, "…the new skin tissue was applied correctly…"
'New? New skin tissue?'
"…cut off and replaced the right places…"
'Cut-cut off…places?'
"…well, except your little friend down there, he had to come right off!"
"What?" I scream as I shoot up to check if she's messing with me. Luckily, she is, and I give her a look that would make zombies wish they were dead.
"Oh, c'mon! I was only having a laugh! You know what a laugh is, right? Or did you hit your head during that fall? 'Cause I don't fancy the idea of teaching you what a joke is." She 'jokes'.
"I've already decided, I don't like you." I spat.
"Well, I love you." She smiles, 'joking' once again.
"And I don't like your attitude." I continue.
"I think your's is smashing!" She says as she playfully punches my arm. I give her another death glare before she wraps her arm around my back and laughs, "I can tell we're gonna have loads of fun!"
'I sure hope not.' I partly pray in my mind.
"C'mon, Ol' Doc Green wants me to show you around." She says, while playfully pulling me from the bed I had been resting in.
"Hey-hey-wait!" I try to protest, but to no avail. It's not long until I'm out of her apartment, or so she claims, and am on the streets.
"This may be a space station, but she's a big one. And though she isn't doing her best these days, she's still home." The female informs me. Now that my visions cleared, she's quite pretty. She's a hedgehog, has short quills tied into a ponytail, has brown fur and hazel eyes. Shame her personality sucks.
"So, what's this place called?" I ask.
"Calamity Ark." She responds gleefully. I don't see what she's so happy about. Any fabrics on the streets are torn, wood is decaying, buildings are falling apart and windows are shattered. Basically, this place is on it's last legs.
"What made it like this?" I question, voicing my concerns.
She stops in her tracks, and turns to me, shrugging. "I don't really know. One day, everything was okay, nothing strange happening. Then boom, it all just changed. I never really kept track of anything after that, just stayed alive and helped who I could." I give her a sad look, when suddenly her mood picks up again. "It's not all like this. I think some areas of the city are unaffected. Heck, who knows! Maybe royalty is just immune to this sorta thing." She starts to walk again, and I follow.
"Royalty?" I ask. 'Could there actually be a king or some sort of monarchy on this thing?'
She turns to me, an all too obvious smirk on her face. "Yeah. We have an all powerful emperor who, if you disobey him, comes to your homes and steals your babies! And if the babies are good looking, he lets them become slaves! Or in special occasions, one of his four hundred children! But if the child is ugly, he takes them to his chef and has them with eggs and toast in the morning!" I give her an unconvinced look. She laughs a bit before truthfully explaining, I think, "When I say royalty, I mean the rich guys. Duh!" She pulls a silly face while saying that last bit, indicating that I must be stupid.
We walk for a while. She shows me around, tells me the best food joints, the best being full of cockroaches and God knows what else, and all the wonderful sights of their underground (technically in space) city. Not that those sights were anything special, just a worn down building there, a polluted fountain there. Well, you get the picture.
We eventually sit down on a rusty metal bench, and she sighs heavily, "And that's the wonderful little city I call home!" She spreads her feet apart, flings her arms behind the back of the bench and throws her head back and closes her eyes. In other words, imagine the most lazy position possible. Well, as lazy as one can look on an uncomfortable and cold bench.
I couldn't help but look at her and smile. 'She's just so laid back. A bit too laid back really, but it's not really anything to complain about.'
"Say, what's your name?" I ask.
She opens one of her eyes and looks at me, giving me a serious expression. "Why?"
I give her a confused look. 'I ask one simple question, and she looks at me like I'm a criminal? What?' I start again. "What's your-?"
"I know what you said, why do you want to know?" She leans towards me, her half lidded eyes staring at me, making me feel uneasy.
"Just-err-curious…" I mumble. She tilts her head and frowns at me, not long after which she jumps back to her side of the bench, laughing lightly.
"I'm only messing with ya. The name's Amelia, but you can call me Amy." She smiles. I give her a stare. Just hearing that name from someone other than Amy, the Amy I knew and lost, was like it was a crime, a felony this person had just committed. I quickly regain my posture and smile at her warmly.
"I think that's a great name." I say.
She shrugs at my words. "My mum used to say I was named after some daughter of some God of some sort of element which was some sort of thing that meant light and prosperity and-"
"Amelia Rosaline, daughter of the God of Light. Bound to mortal form for loving the son of the enemy, and was forever to be an outcast for her treachery. Everything she had vanished, including who she was and the forgotten memory of her lover." I interrupt and answer rather poetically.
Amy gives me a startled look. "That's…that's it. How did you know that?"
I give her a smile and shrug. "She was a God. It's hard for them sorta people to go unnoticed."
She nods. "True, true. Say, can I show you something?"
"Sure."
She gives me a judgemental look. "Can I trust you?" I nod and move closer to her. She pulls something from her pocket. "This was said to belong to the child of Amelia Rosaline and her lover, but it doesn't make sense to me since it didn't work out for them." I then see that she is holding a small wooden boat in her hand…the very one I once saw Shadow playing with when I travelled to meet Alicia's mother and father. "They say it's based on a boat that, centuries ago, was said to hold untold riches and was the boat used to trick the one Amelia Rosaline loved so dearly, the Son of Darkness if I remember correctly."
I reach for the small wooden toy. "Where did you get this?"
She looks at the boat emotionally, as if she remembers a fond memory by just looking at it. "My grandma gave it me, said it'd be good luck." Amy puts the boat back in her pocket and stands up, looking at her surroundings while I stay frozen, dumbfounded and unable to move. "But I guess it can't be that lucky since, well, look around."
I eventually get up and give Amy a smile. My voice breaks as I say, "You take care of that thing, okay Amy?"
She gives me a worried look. "Are you alright-?"
"Promise me." I cut in.
She gives me a questioning look, before smiling warmly and answering. "Of course." She takes one of my hands with both of hers and holds it to her chest. I give her a confused look, then she suddenly pulls at my hand and starts to run, dragging me along. "Let's go see the good Ol' Doc!" She says in a commanding way.
I don't know what's really going on, but my encounter with little old Amy here as eased my worries. Let's hope it lasts a while…
Here's another chapter. After a message from a fan of the story, who I thank you for alerting me of this, I would like to reassure you all that everything happens for a reason. From the voices developing in Sonic's head to not having clear answers about what the hell is going on, even with this being the second story. This is all because I want you all to be as confused as Sonic and get the answers when he does, and hope all this mystery and confusion makes you read on to find out. After all, the answers could be in the next chapter, or the next few ones. Anyway, I do stress that it's all meant to be patchy and confusing at this point, and hope I have gained your trust so that you know I know what I'm doing. Thank you, and if you cough reading this, here's an imaginary hanky! Peace out! J