She stood on the cliff, looking down upon the ruins surrounded by trees and bushes. She studied the map, and then looked down at the area again. After traveling through a dangerous labyrinth and scaling treacherous rocky terrains, the pink hedgehog was close to obtaining the Golden Lamp of Egypt, which was said to have been hidden in what remained of the Sahka Shrine.
Amy Rose, the fearless female hedgehog adventurer, threw the rope down and tied half of it to the pike in the rock by her feet. Then, she propped herself over the edge, gripping the line tightly, and climbed the rope towards the small jungle below.
Warm air rushed through her nostrils, and her quills rippled in the wind; the hammer-wielding hedgehog closed her eyes, focusing on her goal. She was not a little girl anymore; she'd matured, and she wasn't currently wearing that red dress and boots. For her adventure, she was wearing a revealing lavender tank top and light-blue shorts that accentuated her womanly figure.
Nobody dared to mess with Amy, even though the bad guys still gave her trouble. Then again, the bad guys always stirred up trouble, but Amy and her friends were ready to teach them a big lesson.
The intrepid pink hedgehog reached the bottom of the cliff and kicked aside a small rock. She walked towards the ruins, carefully stepping around vines and tree roots. Amy bent downward to avoid hitting her head on a hanging tree branch.
A slight chill ran up her spine as the fur on her leg brushed up against a green bush, which Amy didn't mind since it wasn't poison ivy. The sweet hedgehog girl stepped over a small brick, setting foot inside the ancient ruin. She stopped walking and raised her hands to her slender hips, surveying the place around her. Amy kept her eyes peeled for the first sign of the treasure.
She adjusted the straps of her pack, making sure it didn't slide off her back. The pink hedgehog had essentials in there and couldn't lose them; Amy needed a drink at some point, the place was humid, and the sun was glaring down on the ruins and the growing forest around it.
'Ok, Amy girl.' Amy thought, 'If you were hiding an ancient treasure in a place like this, where would you hide it?'
Glancing at a nearby statue, the head of which had long since decayed, Amy noticed the small space in the broken wall and stepped toward it. She crouched down, staring into the space, then she lowered herself and removed her backpack from her back. Amy looked at the hole more closely, seeing it was big enough to shove the bag through while crawling inside the light-sized space.
Amy Rose squeezed the bag into the tight hole, then pressed herself forward, pushing the pack along as she crawled inside. The green-eyed hedgehog grunted, breathing slowly as she made the effort. She crawled slowly and carefully until she'd reached the other side, entering what seemed to be an antechamber.
With places like this, there were often puzzles to solve. Amy slipped her backpack back onto herself and looked down at the floor for clues. She saw some floor tiles with wording etched into them covered in dust, and then she looked up at a small door that lay ahead.
One idea after another bubbled in the sweet hedgehog adventurer's mind, and then one idea began to click with her.
Amy moved towards a tile with an 'R' etched into it; she looked at it further, and then stepped on it. The floor clicked under her feet, indicating she had gotten part of the puzzle right, then she focused on a tile with the letter 'A', and stepped onto it. Amy looked around, studying the various letters, and her eyes quickly settled on the letter of 'M'.
She stepped over another title with the letter 'K' and touched the 'M' letter. Another study of the area and Amy stepped onto an 'S', her eyes scanned for more letters until she found 'E', partially obscured by ancient dust. And yet, she could see it clear as day.
It was impossible to mess up. Amy leaped towards the E, watching where her feet moved, and touched it without slipping on the dust. And then, she skipped back to the "S" tile, completing her spelling of the word 'Ramses'. Now, she had to find the letters used in the Roman Numeral system for the number two.
Luckily, she was able to find "I", but just barely next to "J".
Amy leaped over to "I", stepping on it once, then she jumped over to an empty floor space and proceeded to leap back to "I". That was when she heard a mechanism click, indicating she'd correctly assembled the puzzle. Ramses II had been the ruling pharaoh of Egypt when the Golden Lamp had been hidden in this shrine, which had to have been built in his honor before his passing.
She heard another click and turned, watching as part of an old, cracked wall rolled away. Amy stepped over the tiles and made her way over the threshold, entering another area in the ruins. Her eyes studied the soft grassy ground, the mossy stone floors, and the weed-covered decayed walls.
Moments later, her eyes settled on an altar up ahead. Amy's heart skipped a beat as she saw the glinting gold lamp that waited for her on the dais, decorated with Egyptian symbols.
Despite the odds, she had found it. Amy stepped around the rocks lying in her vicinity, walking towards the lamp's resting spot, another ancient artifact waiting to join the pink hedgehog's collection and to soon join the museum along with the other artifacts that had been sold there over the ages.
It felt satisfying to obtain a treasure without having to deal with any more puzzles or dangerous foes bent on getting in the way. Amy edged closer and reached out, her fingers briefly wavering over the lamp. She reached closer, picked it up and placed the artifact in her pack.
No traps triggered, no hidden surprises; the treasure was free.
Amy walked away and began to leave. However, she heard a click and turned to see someone else had come to the ruins. It was a shapely human woman with brown hair tied back in a ponytail, wearing a dark-green tank top and blue-gray shorts with leather boots. A gun rested at her side in a hoister upon the belt that ran around her waist.
The woman looked at Amy, and Amy stared back at her. Both girls were surprised, and then the former glanced at the empty dais before looking back at Amy.
With lightning reflexes, the woman drew her pistol and fired at the pink hedgehog, who ducked before the gun went off. Amy rolled behind a rock and shot upward, brandishing her trademark hammer as she prepared to face her opponent.
"You're one of Eggman's robots, aren't you?!" Amy shouted, "Eggman sent you to get the artifact!"
"I'm not a robot." The woman replied in a British accent, "But I could say something similar, that you are a mercenary out to collect the lamp to sell it on the black market like most rogue treasure hunters tend to do."
She fired off another shot, and Amy swung her hammer, deflecting the bullet into a wall. The pink hedgehog leaped at her shapely adversary, the end of her weapon coming up to meet her in the face. But, at the last second, the brown-haired female rolled out of the way. Amy glared at her, and they locked eyes, staring at each other in a very intense manner.
"You don't want to mess with Amy Rose when she has a big hammer!" Amy told the woman.
"Wait..." The woman lowered her gun, "You're Amy Rose, one of Sonic the Hedgehog's allies."
"So, you've heard of me..."
"Who hasn't?" Amy's acquaintance smiled sheepishly, "And looking at how you're dressed, I take that you're a fan of mine. I'm Lara, Lara Croft."
Amy was shocked and lowered her hammer; she hadn't recognized the woman at first, nor did she recognize Amy as well. The pink hedgehog was stunned, perhaps a bit terrified, mostly because she could have hurt the very person she was cosplaying as. She'd heard of Lara Croft and her adventures; Lara's quest for the Dagger of Xian was one of her favorites.
"Oh, gosh. I... I'm so sorry." Amy said, "I didn't expect to run into you..."
"Nor did I expect to run into one of Sonic's allies." Lara remarked, "The world's full of surprises. I didn't think you'd get the lamp before I did."
Amy smiled, "Well, you're a bit of an inspiration."
The pink hedgehog glanced at the nearby rocks, then she picked up a large six-inch wide rock and set it down in the middle of the area. Amy turned to a rock that was the size of a box, then she picked it up and placed it on the right of the rock before picking up a similar rock and placing it on the left of the bigger rock.
With the three rocks lined up as Amy intended to do so, she put down her backpack and pulled out two plates, put them on the middle rock, and then grabbed some cups. Amy grabbed a bottle of fresh tea, opened it, and poured half a gallon into one glass before filling up the other.
"What are you doing, Amy?" Lara asked curiously, "Is this what I think it is?"
"Have a seat, Lara." Amy invited, sitting down on her own rock and raising her tea cup, "We shouldn't have started off on such harsh terms, tea can help make a better bond."
"You know English manners well..." The archeologist remarked.
Lara walked over to the other side of the rock and sat comfortably on the smaller rock, picking up the other cup of tea. Both girls made sure their pinkies were out, then they sipped their cups and smiled happily at each other.
Amy sipped some more of her tea, which tasted relatively fresh after hours of being in the bag, and the pink hedgehog felt relaxed. Even Lara looked happy with her cup, slowly drinking the warm liquid with a tiny sip.
The girls took their time to chat happily with each other, discussing their adventures and the many treasures they found, while gossiping about handsome boys with Amy contrasting her experiences with Sonic to Lara's first meeting with Kurtis Trent, which saw him giving the archeologist a load of trouble.
"If we're being honest, the only trouble Sonic has given me is running away." Amy remarked.
"But you two sorted it out eventually." Lara commented, sipping a bit more of her tea.
"Things have been going well since we started dating, we've been to Twinkle Park and had ice cream while sharing many adventures as well as the usual battles with Eggman..."
"You're not worried about your enemies trying to ruin the happiness between you two?"
"We've made sure not to let our guards down." Amy sipped a little more of her tasty tea.
Just then, an explosion shook the ruins, and the girls shielded their cups as dust went everywhere. They finished their tea and cleaned up as quick as they could. Amy and Lara shot to their feet, and the pink hedgehog grabbed her backpack, then she and the archeologist scrambled to get out of the old shrine as fast as possible.
However, no sooner than they'd made it out of the ruins, a tree was blasted away in a ball of fire that scorched the grass, and a pair of giant robots revealed themselves, wielding mallets that dwarfed Amy's hammer, with red eyes flashing in a bright and menacing manner.
Another robot appeared, one that matched Amy's size, with a blue-ish color scheme and eerie red-black eyes and shaped like a hedgehog.
"Metal Sonic!" Amy shouted.
"Well, well, if it isn't Amy Rose and archeologist Lara Croft..." Eggman's voice spoke out of Metal Sonic as its red eyes flashed; "I didn't think you'd both be teaming up to get that lamp you have, but no matter, I was after it as well and you won't be keeping it. BADNIKS, ENGAGE!"
The large Eggman robots attacked the girls with their mallets swinging wildly. Amy launched herself into the air and bashed the first robot in the head while Lara tossed a grenade at the other robot. The grenade exploded in the robot's face, taking out its vision and making it blindly stumble backward until it tripped over its own foot and collapsed in a sparking heap.
Metal Sonic flew at Amy as she went for another mallet-wielding Badnik and intercepted the pink hedgehog. Amy fell to the ground, gripping the handle of her Piko-Hammer, and Metal Sonic swooped in to pin down the pink hedgehog for the Badnik to smash her.
Oh, there was no way the robots were gonna flatten her like this. Amy moved quickly; she rolled out of the way and smacked Metal Sonic hard across the side of the face, and his head spun in a rapid 360 angle that disabled the Sonic robot's vision.
"See you later!" Amy brought up her hammer and smacked Metal Sonic so hard he flew into the sky before he could activate his boosters.
Amy turned her attention to the other Badnik, which had shifted its focus to Lara. She leaped into the fray as the archeologist fired off several shots from her gun at the advancing Eggman robot. Lara aimed for the head, squeezing the trigger as hard as she could, and got in a lucky shot as the bullet pierced the Badnik's eye and half-blinded it.
Eager to take advantage of the robot's situation, Amy leaped high and swung her hammer as hard as she could. The yellow face of the pink hedgehog's weapon slammed into the side of the Badnik's face and the force of the blow tore every wire in its neck, the head popped out of the robot's bulky neck and rolled into a nearby tree.
Its remaining eye was deactivated, and the headless robot fell over; Amy put her hammer away and stood with Lara, observing the wreckage of defeated robots.
"Positively smashing." Lara remarked.
"Because we smashed 'em hard." Amy playfully elbowed the tomb raider with a smile.
"Damn right." Lara shook Amy's hand, "You were quite good. Well, that's that. We can't linger here all day; shall we pay a visit to the museum to deliver that treasure?"
Amy pulled the Golden Lamp out of her purse, and the girls took their time to regard the beauty of the treasure they'd protected from being nabbed by a lunatic scientist; it would have been a pity if Eggman had taken this thing and used it for some nefarious purpose. He probably thought it may have been a genie lamp that could have granted his wishes.
She looked at it a little longer, then the pink hedgehog put it away in her bag and hugged Lara with a positive, bubbly manner. "We should get it to a museum." Amy then said, "After that, maybe we can grab a coffee in Station Square."
"Now that sounds refreshing." Lara remarked, "Tea and coffee, fine idea there."
The archeologist hugged her new friend back, then Amy pulled away and smiled with her eyes closed briefly. Both girls looked back at the ruins, then they headed towards the cliff, ready to climb up and leave the place through the caverns, back to civilization, before sundown came and the first wave of night air hit. All had been dandy for Amy Rose and Lara Croft on the day of their fateful meeting...
The End