Chapter 4

The plane was uncomfortable.

For a multi-million dollar organization, you would think that they would spring for something a little more plush, but that wasn't what GUN was really about. And usually, Amy wasn't either, but all she wanted to do was sleep right now, and that was made near impossible by the cramped quarters and small seat.

"About thirty minutes until we touch down," Rouge sighed, making her way down the narrow aisle and shaking out her thin wings. "You doing all right?"

"Would you quit asking me that?" Amy snapped, then she sighed. "Oh, Rouge, I'm sorry. I'm just sort of wound up."

"I don't blame you," the bat replied, swinging herself down into the seat next to Amy. "I haven't even met these guys and I'm already anxious. They sound like a lot of trouble."

"Not all of them," Amy murmured. "You'll like Tails, he was always a sweetheart. Smart as all get out, too. I don't think we ever found anything that he couldn't fix, or make with his bare hands, or improve. And he was always the one I went to with my problems."

"So a tech genius, huh? We could use one of those around the agency," Rouge smiled thoughtfully.

"Not likely," Amy shook her head. "He's as loyal to Sonic as anyone I've ever seen. I can't see him ever abandoning the Freedom Fighters."

Rouge shrugged. "Shame."

"Knuckles is going to try to flirt with you, so be warned," Amy continued, still looking out the window. "He does that with anything that's female and moves. You'll probably think he's attractive, though. He was always a good friend, and usually protective of me."

"Now he sounds interesting," Rouge purred, smirking at Amy. "You're going to have to introduce me to him."

"Knuckles never flirted with me," Sticks quipped, and Amy looked up to see her hanging from a cargo net on the ceiling with one hand and eating an apple with the other.

"That's because you were nutty," Amy responded.

"True that," Sticks shrugged.

"So who else is over there? Besides the obvious, of course," Rouge questioned.

"Well, you'll probably meet Shadow. He's in and out of the agency from time to time, but I've never seen him around. He tends to pop into Boom Beach about once a week. He says it's to keep an eye on things, but he just likes having friends," Amy replied. "And I'm sure we'll come across Blaze and Silver at some point, especially if Iblis is stirring. Blaze will want to be somewhere quiet outside of her own dimension, and where Blaze goes, Silver usually follows."

"I haven't seen those two in forever," Sticks supplied. "I miss them."

"Well, most of your friends sound fabulous," smiled Rouge. "But I need you to be real with me for a minute, Amy. How do you want us to go about things with Sonic?"

Amy sighed. "I knew that would come up."

"Well, I just need to know how to act," Rouge explained.

"I know," Amy conceded. "I don't really want anything to do with him, so I'll probably just try to make myself scarce and focus on the mission. You should at least introduce yourself, though. I'm sure he'd love to meet you."

"You know he's going to want to see you," Sticks reminded her. "It's been six years and, let's face it, you two used to be best friends."

"Well, we aren't anymore," Amy fired off, standing up and making her way back to the bathroom.

Sticks and Rouge shared a concerned look. "I'm so tempted to get involved," Rouge murmured. "Six years? He REALLY screwed her over, didn't he?"

"You have no idea," Sticks sighed, looking after her best friend. The sound of the landing gear grinding down startled the two girls, and they had just enough time before they landed to peer out the side window of the plane and see a vast expanse of forest and beach below them.

"Wow, what a beautiful place," Rouge sighed.

Amy's first thought when she stepped off the plane was that it was much hotter here than it was basically anywhere else on Mobius. She was exceedingly glad that she had ditched her usual grey sport leggings for a pair of grey, tight shorts. They were high enough that they covered up her belly button piercing, but short enough that they proudly displayed the long scar on her thigh.

Two very different things. The navel piercing had been Rouge's idea. Amy had originally wanted a tattoo, but had chickened out when they got to the place, so Rouge had said that this was the second best thing. Sticks had come along and the fearless young woman had gotten a tattoo of her name in glyphs across her left shoulder blade. Rouge had joined Amy in piercing their belly buttons. It had hurt, but not badly enough for Amy to actually show any pain. Her pain tolerance had drastically increased since she was a child. The time that the robot cut off half of her finger, Amy had calmly finished Eggman off, spent about ten minutes searching for the other half of her finger, and when she didn't find it, she wrapped her hand in her tank top and had walked back into the agency in just her leggings and sports bra, trailing blood behind her. It had taken twenty minutes to convince her to have it stitched up.

The scar, on the other hand, had been from a battle with Metal Sonic. It was her very first assignment since she had left Boom Beach, and the robot's likeness to her best friend had caught her very much off guard. It had managed to slip around her and fire a fairly large laser right into her leg. Rouge had managed to get her to the hospital about five minutes before she bled out. It had taken her a long time to be confident enough to show off the scar, but now she considered it a proud battle wound. It stretched from the inside of her knee to about six inches up her leg, much darker pink than the rest of her skin and very easily seen.

Amy shook her head and looked around. Everything looked pretty much the same, except that Meh Burger had finally been closed down and had been replaced with something else. It looked like a small family restaurant. The sound of the ocean echoed its way from the beach, and Amy closed her eyes and allowed her body to take everything in.

"Amy," Sticks said incredulously, nudging her and pointing to something on the horizon. "Look!"

Amy and Rouge both squinted until the thing came into clearer view. It was a tall, lanky golden fox, sporting a clean white lab coat, his ever-present pair of goggles, and not one, but two fluffy, swishing tails. When the fox got just a few feet away, he waved and grinned hugely.

"Tails!" Amy yelled, sprinting over and crashing into him, knocking him over. She wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed tightly.

"Yeah, I missed you too," Tails laughed, hugging her back, secretly tearing up. "Oh, incoming…"

"TAILS!" Sticks cried, jumping on top of both of them and breaking into loud sobs. Eventually, the three composed themselves and got up, brushing dirt off of their backsides.

"Tails, this is my partner and best friend, Rouge," Amy introduced.

"Lovely to meet you," Tails smiled, shaking Rouge's hand. "O'Malley told me to expect you guys. I'm his contact over here."

"I should have guessed," Amy grinned, shaking her head. "You grew up, Tails."

"So did you," Tails gestured. Both Amy and Sticks looked so different! Amy had completely changed, but Sticks still looked a little bit like the badger that had followed her best friend to GUN six years ago. She no longer wore her brown top and skirt, but now wore a green tech shirt, a pair of calf-length brown leggings, custom-made green sneakers, and she still carried her boomerang, although it was now made of metal and was distinctly more lethal looking. "I fixed up your old place for you guys, Amy. I thought you could stay there."

"Thanks, Tails," Sticks grinned. Tails was struck by how much the badger had matured in just six years. Her blue eyes still maintained their youthful sparkle, but looked much less naive. She still wore her hair in her signature pigtails, though. She'd turned into a strikingly beautiful woman.

"I'm going to go unpack, I think," Rouge indicated. "You guys coming?"

"Right behind ya," Sticks replied.

"Actually, I think I'm going to hang back for a minute. There's a few things Tails and I need to clear up, if it's okay with you two," Amy admitted.

"Of course," Rouge smiled kindly. "We'll see you back at the house in a little while." The bat and the badger started down the path towards Amy's old place, occasionally shoving each other good-naturedly.

"So, on a scale of one to ten, how mad are you?" Amy asked sheepishly, folding her hands behind her back.

"Five," Tails replied, doing a "meh" hand gesture. "I mean, we all pretty much know why you left. Sonic told us about it before we found the notes. So I guess I can't really blame you for that. But I am mad about the fact that you essentially went and joined one of the most dangerous agencies in this timeline."

"Fair enough," Amy conceded, pressing her legs together so that Tails wouldn't be able to see her scar. No reason to make him even more mad. "But they trained me well over there."

"I don't doubt it," Tails smiled. "I'll have to test you out in training soon. I'm no slouch either these days."

"I'd love nothing more," Amy grinned, bumping shoulders with him.