Hello everyone! Welcome back to the story. Glad you could stick around! Things will start picking up a little now, so don't think that the next three chapters will be quiet, tranquil and peaceful with more and more descriptions of trees and bushes and stuff like that.

Enjoy!

*With Sonic and Amy, ten minutes later, in the Mobiocity Park*

"This is nice, eh?" Sonic asked, strolling alongside Amy and taking in the scene around him.

"Yeah. It's very pretty," The pink hedgehog agreed, then scrunched up her face. "Hard to believe that about two years ago, all of this was a giant wasteland with robots running around."

"That's in the past, though! Ever since we've beaten Nazo and those Darkspine goons, things've gotten much calmer around here. We've had time to actually live our lives instead of protecting others," The Blue Blur stated. "Not that that's bad; I love doing what we do, it's just that sometimes you need to take a detour on the highway of life."

The fangirl snorted. "That was one of the worst metaphors I've ever heard."

"It was not! I thought it was very clever…" The Fastest Thing Alive exclaimed, giving Amy a light shove.

The pink hero giggled and shoved back, making Sonic stumble over his own two feet and fall on his butt

The Blue Blur wagged a finger at the hedgehog as he got up. "You don't wanna get into a shoving match with me."

"What if I do?" Amy asked, laughing as she ran up and tackled Sonic.

The two laughed as they rolled down a small hill in the park, and when they reached the bottom, Amy sprawled out across the soft, green grass while Sonic tumbled right into the trunk of a tree,

"AW!" The speedy hero gasped as he felt pain rocket through his spine. "That hurt…"

"Sonic!" The fangirl cried as she scrambled over to the Fastest Thing Alive. "Are you alright? Are you hurt badly?"

"I can't feel my toes," Sonic whispered.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Amy asked, holding up a four.

"Uh… Looks like…Eighty-two?" The Blue Blur replied, smiling slightly.

The pink hedgehog cracked a grin as she pulled the hero to his feet. "You good?"

"Sure a—"

The blue hero was cut off when a giant heap of rock smashed into him, sending Sonic flying across the park and sliding across the earth to a stop. Amy looked around wildly to see where the origin of the attack came from. Her eyes stopped on a giant creature, which stood about seventy-five feet away, bearing a sinister grin.

The creature was made completely out of rock and boulders, standing at a staggering eight feet and completely bulked out. Red eyes shone from its sockets and green gas veins coursed through its legs, arms and chest. A rocky and jagged mouth was carved on its face, and it had no ears or tail.

People who were once going through their day without a care were now either screaming and running away or videotaping the event with their phones.

"Alright, buddy! Who do you think you are, going around and smashing my boyfriend like that?" Amy sassed.

"Not…dating…" Sonic wheezed, lifting up a single finger from the dirt.

The rock monster barreled towards the pink hero quickly, making the ground shake slightly as he neared his target. It reached its hands out in front of it, preparing to strangle the girl once it got there, but before that could happen, Amy whipped out her hammer and sent a stinging uppercut to the thing's jaw. The beast fell backwards and slowly got back up. Its mouth was completely obliterated, leaving a few rocky teeth left. However, once the monster readjusted its eyes on Amy, its mouth began to reform from parts of its face.

"Wha…?" The girl sputtered, taking a step backward. "That's not good."

Lifting up its giant fist, the thing readied itself to crush the small hero when a blue ball shot into it, tearing a hole in the beast's chest. Shooting up a tree and into the air, Sonic aimed right for the rock giant's head as he raced downward at the creation once more. Rocketing into the rock golem, Sonic pulverized the monster's head, shattering pieces of rock in every direction.

Landing next to Amy, the Blue Blur admired his handiwork as the monster slowly crumbled to the earth, leaving a pile of stone in its place.

"Well, that's that! Good to get a workout in every now and then!" The Fastest Thing Alive sighed, breathing in and out lightly. "Pretty easy to beat!"

Suddenly, the rock pile moved. The pieces of stone and rubble began to stick back together, and the gas lines appeared on the body again. Piece by piece, the beast cautiously stood up and glared at the two with its crimson eyes.

"Wrong," Was all the golem said.

"Obviously," Sonic responded, putting his arm in front of Amy.

"Toxic…" The monster called, looking around the park.

"The Plague…" A raspy, hissy voice replied.

Green ooze began to drip down from the surrounding trees and bushes, slinking across the grass and combining slowly. The slime began to come together more and more until another figure was before the two heroes. The new monster was made completely out of this lime green slime, dripping down its body and landing on the ground. It had long fingers that came to a point, and had bright white eyes, but no eyeballs—same as The Plague. It had no mouth or nose, and four tentacles made out of the ooze that emerged from its back were wiggling behind it.

"You look like a giant snot ball," Sonic stated, sticking out his tongue and scrunching up his face. "Maybe I can beat you with a giant tissue?"

"Kill…?" Toxic asked, turning to the rock monster.

"Kill…" The Plague replied, nodding its head.

*With Knuckles, back at the headquarters, five minutes earlier*

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Slow down!" Blaze exclaimed, walking into the main hall with her emergency phone in hand. "Diplomatic what?"

"What's going on?" The echidna asked, walking up the cat, but was quickly put aside when she held up a 'one moment' sign and paced back and forth.

"Yeah… Right… And if the deal goes awry?" The pyrokinetic questioned, and then sighed. "Fine. I'll be back over to put out this fire. No pun intended. Don't want any uprisings in the name of this bill or anything. I'll bring Silver in case it gets ugly. What do you mean 'Who's Silver?' Remember? Telekinetic? Iblis leave? Hedgehog? Whatever. Just hold on until I'm there."

The purple hero hung up and groaned.

"So…now can I ask what's up?" Knuckles asked again.

"My officials back in my kingdom are panicking because they can't find mutual ground with an opposing side to a bill, and if a compromise can't be reached, a small rebellion might start. Easy to put down, but I don't want it getting to that. I'm gonna have to take a few days leave to get this sorted out. I'm bringing Silver, if that's alright."

The Guardian of the Master Emerald shrugged. "Nothing big has happened for us in over a year. A few days ain't gonna change that."

Blaze nodded. "Thanks. I'll get my stuff and let Silver know. Let the others know about this, will ya?"

With that, the pyrokinetic trotted off.

A few minutes later, Tails arrived at the scene.

"Ran into Blaze a minute ago. She told me she was taking off for a few days and bringing Silver," The fox stated.

Knuckles nodded and crossed his arms. "Yeah. She explained the whole thing to me as well. It's not like we'll need them for anything big the next few days."

Tails agreed, and then turned around to see Shadow with a few duffle bags, walking towards the front door.

"Where're you going, Shadow?" The echidna called out.

"Rouge and I have been summoned by G.U.N. for an espionage mission on a few arms dealers. Gather intel and blow up a shipment of guns and stuff like that. We'll be gone for about three days," The Ultimate Life Form replied, his voice echoing off the hallway walls. "Let the others know about it."

With that, the dark hero exited the stronghold and shut the door behind him.

"Looks like it's just you, me, Amy and Sonic for the next few days. I'm sure we'll make the most of it!" Miles Prower cheered.

"Yeah…" Knuckles muttered. "Just us four."

There it is. Hope you all liked the second chapter!

Please leave a review with your thoughts on it so far! It helps me improve the story.

Message to Christian Ape: Yes, I still plan to use one of your guys for a brief period later on in the story. Don't fret. See what happens when you ask? :)

Message to Kookies: Sounds like a plan. I look forward to hearing from you both real soon.

More to come…