Sonic was in the center of the room. Being held up by his shoulders by his friends. Barely able to lift his head. He tried to stand on his own, but his feet hurt, his knees hurt, his legs hurt. So did his arms, neck, back ,and head.
He was staring down the sights of three other people in a small room. They were dead silent, searching his appearance with gaping expressions.
Old friends, but they stared at him as if he were a stranger.
He started to feel the weakness in his stomach begin to push itself up his throat again. He felt his senses dim and he heard ringing in his ear. He wanted to so badly to stand up tall and show them who he really was but his whole body would barely move.
"Hello…" was the best he could do.
"What is this?" Said the woman sitting at the bar who had spun on the stool to observe the blue hedgehog. Rouge the bat.
"Is this supposed to be some sort of joke?" Growled the hedgehog sitting against the wall. He glared at sonic, then to Tails and Knuckles. Shadow the hedgehog.
"Tails, Knuckles? … What's going on?" Said the younger Rabbit, holding her paws close to herself. She looked scared and confused, her eyes remained steadily on Sonic. Cream the rabbit.
Knuckles and Tails suddenly had no idea what to say. Maybe this was a bad idea.
"I'm back. That's what's going on." Sonic explained. But he felt embarrassed, not even being able to stand on his own, his friends staring him down as if he's an intruder.
"You're joking. Who the hell are you supposed to be?"Hissed the dark hedgehog.
"I'm Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog."
"What… That's impossible..." Whimpered the young rabbit."Tails, what's going on?"
"Oh god, you idiots dragged him in here because he told you he was Sonic didn't you?" Shadow stood up. "How many times do you have to be told to let it go!?" he was getting increasingly more angry, walking closer, getting louder. Shadow walked up close and glared right down into the blue hedgehog's eyes. "We have very little respect for that traitor in the first place. I wouldn't even regard someone who would pretend to be him just to get these moron's trust as a living thing."
"Shadow—" Tails started to protest.
"You stay out of this, fox!" Shadow directed his glare up to Tails. Fear ran up Sonic's weak form.
"Shadow, this isn't just some person we picked up. You really think we'd be that stupid?" Knuckles spoke up, at eye levels
"I wouldn't put it past—" Shadow's glare narrowed as he turned to Knuckles.
"That's enough!" The bat sitting at the bar spoke up, putting out her hand to interrupt their argument. She sighed, all eyes turned to her. "Knuckles, you mentioned you had a reason. What is that reason?"
"It's… Where we found him, and the condition he's in…"Knuckles explained.
"Condition? Is… there something I could help with?" Cream spoke up, leaning forward.
"… Maybe." Tails replied.
"Nothing urgent, I don't think." Sonic said, trying to turn towards cream to address her. "I just need time to recover."
"Oh … Okay…" Cream looked a little reassured, relaxing, but keeping a steady eye on sonic.
Tails took a deep breath, and proceeded to recount them discovering sonic. Sonic realized that he actually wasn't sure what had happened either. He just remembered waking up in the car.
"Well, earlier tonight, I got this distress signal, from an old machine to the west of here… And so, I took knuckles with me to go check it out. I thought maybe it was a survivor, or someone who needed our help. "
"You… That's incredibly risky, Tails…" Rouge remarked.
"I know but… But anyway, when we got there, it was Eggman's old base, you know? The one we destroyed when we got here?"
"Where are you going with this?" Shadow had backed down, now he was sat at one of the tables.
"Well, when we got there, there was one thing that was left of the rubble. Basically, it was a control panel. And after I messed with it… a cryogenic storage pod came up from underground."
Shadow snapped to attention at this, his ears perking up.
"And… that's where we found him. The cryogenic storage was actually mostly broken… It was just barely keeping him alive. And it listed him as a prisoner..."
"A prisoner being held in an underground cryogenic stasis pod at the brink of death… "Rouge pondered it. Shadow sat back in his chair, staring at the wall in thought.
"So… You are Sonic…?"Cream asked.
There were footsteps behind the doorway.
Everyone in the room turned to look at who it was. Tails gasped.
"Knuckles! Take Sonic to the living room!"
Knuckles silently dashed to the door on the other side of the room, dragging sonic with him, Sonic's feet dragged against the carpet helplessly. What was going on? Why were they hiding?
"I'm back." said the source of the footsteps as she walked into the room.
"Want a drink, general?" Rouge held up a martini glass and winked at the girl who had just walked in.
"Some other time Rouge." She chuckled lightly "Have you seen Sally?"
"Oh, Miss Sally returned to her room just a while ago, she might still be awake…" said Cream.
"that's great. Oh, heya Tails, I see you're back. How did that impromptu investigation go?"
"Hey, Amy! Uh, it was great! I mean, we didn't find anything! Are you sure, wasn't there uh…" Tails was trying to stop her, trying to block her from entering the next room.
"you can't fool me tails, I'm tired and I'm done for the day, there's just one last thing I need to take care of and I want to go to bed."
"can't you go around? It can wait until tomorrow, right?"
"are you hiding something from me?" she asked, a little menacingly.
"uh…." Tails was starting to panic. Sonic wanted to know just who the heck they felt they had to hie him from.
Amy pushed past tails into the room. She stopped in her track upon seeing sonic.
A pink female hedgehog stood in the doorway. She had long quills, she wore a dress shirt with a tie, emblems embroidered on the chest. And on her shoulders was a militaristic blazer with medals pinned all across the collar and chest and shoulder. She was wearing a short skirt, and a bulky belt stacked with pouches, holsters, and containers.
She stepped slowly closer. Knuckles held out sonic so Amy could get a closer look at him, pushing sonic forward a bit.
her expression immediately shifted to frozen shock as they made eye contact.
"that... that can't be..." she mumbled, scanning him from head to toe with her gaze. Sonic smiled weakly at her.
"it is really me, Amy, sorry about being away for so long."
Amy didn't say a word, she looked at her feet. Her face was obscured, he thought she might be crying... she took a step towards him...
She looked up. Sonic the Hedgehog had never seen a more livid expression of unadulterated rage in her eyes. And before he could think, she swung up a hand and reeled back to smack him. All at once Sonic's heartbeat lept and he nearly felt himself gag.
"-Amy!" Tails yelled out. She stopped before Tails even spoke.
He was sure he was sweating. And his breathing was thrown off, his chest heaved and hurt as his heart pounded… Amy took a step back, turning away, lowering her hand, but maintaining her grimace, her stare fixed on the blue hedgehog.
Her cheerful attitude was nowhere to be seen. She was controlled. Calculated. A leader.
she turned to the other two.
"Tails. Knuckles. Why don't you bring him into the dining room with everyone else?" Tail's ears drooped guiltily, Knuckles was restless.
Amy returned to the kitchen and waited for the three to return to the room.
Knuckles helped sonic down onto the only reclining chair in the dining room. The other three in the dining room stared silently as the three lined up in front of Amy.
"You all knew about this?" she looked around at everyone in the room. They simply looked away and said nothing. She sighed."You know I hate surprises."
Her arms were folded as she glared at sonic and everyone else. She stood up straight and spoke to them with a commanding voice.
"When exactly were you planning to tell me about this?" she asked, turning to Knuckles and Tails.
"A…Amy…."
"we just found him earlier tonight…" Knuckles explained. "trapped in a cryogenic storage pod underneath the ruins of Eggman's base. He was the one who sent the distress signal."
"What do you have to say for yourself?Are you even sure that this hedgehog is Sonic?" Amy looked down at sonic. And sonic froze in fear. He wasn't sure what he was expecting when he met Amy. But looking into her cold, judgmental eyes made him doubt if this hedgehog really was Amy at all. He kept expecting the real Amy to walk in and stop her, but she continued to look at him with moderate disgust.
"come on Amy… you know it's me…." He really had no idea what to say, but he didn't want to say nothing. she locked eyes with him with shock.
"so its true." She stood up straight. Everyone was silent. "sonic the hedgehog is not dead…" her expression shifted to a cold glare. " he betrayed us."
Sonic wanted to speak to defend himself but he couldn't find the strength in his throat.
"everyone leave the room." Amy motioned towards the door. "I'm going to talk to Sonic."
Rouge, Shadow and Cream filed out, looking back to watch as they left. Tails waited by the door until Knuckles joined him. And they waved to sonic as they left, hesitating with a subdued concerned look on their faces.