Chapter 2

Sonic and his friends swept through a remote part of Bygone Forest at exhilarating speeds.

The youngest thief in the group, Tails, was flying through the air, easily navigating the maze of tree trunks. The 17-year-old fox wore a yellowing button-down and a pair of suspenders that were stretched so far they couldn't possibly be functional anymore. Knuckles, the eldest at a fresh 30 years, jumped through the trees grunting quietly with the effort of propelling his muscular frame from branch to branch. The echidna man's white shirt billowed in the night wind, the neckline low enough to make any decent young lady blush, and his well-worn trousers, boots, and mitts bore the strain of his leaping faithfully. Sonic himself, 28 and the team lead, took the ground path, wind whipping his blouse and brown bandana around his neck, his leather boots obviously worn through and patched up slip-shoddily many, many times.

Sonic arrived at their favorite stakeout tree first - of course - and leaned up against it smirking. He took a deep breath of the evergreen air and allowed himself to enjoy the feeling of the cool breeze. The first hints of winter were in the air around him, and he pulled his leather doublet closer around his neck.

The chill had nipped even harder at Sonic as he had run, but it only spurred him to run faster - be bolder. The wind splashed cold water on the hot feeling of recklessness that filled him with adrenaline, and he could practically feel the steam coming off his fur. Night was the perfect time to watch for richies on the road; they'd all be asleep in their carriages, unaware of the expert ploys being used by Sonic and his gang to rob them blind.

When his friends caught up to him - Knuckles tossing him a dirty look as he arrived - all three of them perched behind a large patch of foliage and waited, deadly quiet, so as not to alert anyone who might be on the road to their presence.

"D'ya think anyone's coming?" Tails whispered after several moments had passed.

Knuckles quickly shushed him, but Sonic ruffled the embarrassed teen's golden fur and whispered back, "Don't you worry buddy, this road is full of fat cats with tons of goods just waiting to be taken!"

Tails smiled at Sonic gratefully. He had only been recruited by the camp of thieves around 2 years ago, and Sonic and Knuckles had made him their ward immediately and unconditionally.

"I hope so," Tails replied, "because if not, we're not gonna meet this week's quota, and you know how Scourge gets when -"

Knuckles shushed Tails again. Both Sonic and Knuckles had joined the thieves' camp at around the same time years ago. Though they never formally agreed to work together, the men just couldn't seem to escape being drawn into - at times - not-so-friendly competitions with one another. Consequently, they chose to run in the same circle as the other exclusively from the minute they had met. Sonic shot Knuckles a look, nudged Tails, and pointed to his ears - a sign to listen.

All three pairs of ears pricked as they heard the sound of hard, fast hoofbeats. In a flurry of dust, a beautiful brown horse carrying a pink hedgehog man dressed in fine pageboy clothing darted through the woods at unprecedented speeds - both before them and gone in the same instant.

Sonic grinned as he watched the blur disappear. They hadn't been able to stop the man and rob him then, he was going too fast, but Sonic knew one person who could catch up with the page easily.

He signaled to his teammates by tapping his nose and pointing in the direction the messenger hedgehog had disappeared in, receiving solemn nods back from the other two.

It had not escaped the group that the horse the pink man rode was far too well-bred to be anything less than a palace horse, and the crest stamped on the leather saddle proved it property of the Rose Kingdom. With royal messengers came royal messages, and royal messages could anything from a gala invitation to an expensive tribute delivered in an ornately set box.

Both were highly desirable pieces of quarry to a band of thieves.

Sonic followed the horse and its rider all the way to a small pond in the middle of a clearing spotted with wildflowers and overgrown thickets. Sonic knew the grove well. In fact, it was one of his favorite napping places for its total seclusion and beautiful scenery. He wondered how the other man knew of it as well.

Sonic smirked from his hiding place behind a bush, getting a better look at the back of his would-be victim.

The pink man was busy tethering the horse to a tree, his leather cap pulled low over his eyes. There was a satchel slung over his shoulder, and Sonic could see it bulged with strange lumps. His eyes gleamed. The unsuspecting man already had his back to Sonic - this would be a piece of cake.

Sonic tip-toed forward agonizingly slow, intending to slip behind the page and catch him off-guard. As he got closer, Sonic took a deep breath and smoothed his blue quills back, his hand on the hilt of his knife. Before he could make the first move, Sonic was forced to stop short when the man whirled on him and he suddenly found himself at the tail end of a rather intimidating weapon.

Sonic looked down the length of the weapon with bemused surprise at the page boy.

Well, he realized as he looked her over, page girl - page woman? She had swung at him with impressive speed and nearly caught him red-handed, and now, she was glaring at him with unchecked ferocity from the other end of a comically large hammer.

Sonic slowly raised his hands by his head, showing his surrender as he plastered on his trademark smile that was sure to get him whatever was in that bag of hers in 3 minutes flat.

A woman? he thought, his smile stretching wider. Make that two minutes flat.

"Who are you?" the woman asked unflinchingly.

Sonic was impressed. She seemed almost as if she knew how to wield the weapon she was holding, but he wasn't fooled. He knew she didn't. Women weren't trained in combat, and they especially weren't trained to use such unwieldy and illogically large weapons as the hammer she held. Sonic almost burst out laughing as he finally beheld the monster of a weapon that was currently pointed angrily at him. No one could handle such a hammer. This confidence was simply an act of hers.

"I'm So - …sorry to scare you," he recovered, placing a hand on his chest and keeping the other raised. "Name's, uh, Sonar the Hedgehog, now would you get that thing out of my face?" He winked at her, waiting for the blush to blossom on her cheeks as it often had on other women he used his charms on.

Amy almost relaxed. Almost. The handsome stranger was absolutely a threat, but she felt disoriented by his smile and cavalier casualness. He may be, at a glance, rather friendly, but he was a stranger and she would not be silly enough to take any chances. Rather than blushing, Amy's eyebrows crinkled in confusion and she looked him up and down slowly - sizing him up.

The man was a rather tall, blue hedgehog, with eyes like hers. She had to stop herself from thinking about how the fire behind his green eyes was familiar and enticing, and consequently broke their brief eye contact.

He looked athletic - lean - in his trousers, boots, and what she assumed had once been a white button-down. His blouse was so thinned and dirty that she doubted he had worn anything else for at least a year or two, and his leather doublet was just as, if not more-so, dilapidated. His smirk was partially buried behind a brown bandana which he pulled at as the silence stretched on, running a hand through his long quills.

She cocked her head at him as he fidgeted and determined that he seemed to be a rather pompous, impatient type of fellow.

"You're right, you obviously aren't a threat. I'll keep it out though, if you don't mind," she said as she drew her hammer back and leaned on it like a walking stick. She lovingly patted the hammer head for emphasis, watching with satisfaction as his eyes widened when he looked at it in all its glory.

"Ouch!" Sonic clutched at his heart and grinned at her, "you insult me, dear lady!" He lowered his hands slowly, daring her to make a move with his fiery stare. "I was simply stopping here for a drink before I continued on my way home for the night."

He took a few steps toward Amy, testing the water to see if she would spook. She only watched him with unflinching intensity, her grip tight on her hammer as he crept toward her. At the last moment, just as Sonic was about to get too close for comfort, he side-stepped. He heard her let out a long breath as he circled her, and she narrowed her eyes at him. Toying casually with the tense thread between them.

"Don't worry," Sonic sighed and turned his back to her finally, losing their staring contest on purpose. He knelt by the water's edge. "I'm not gonna attack you or anything. I'm nobody."

Amy raised a brow at him. "In my experience," she said, "people who aren't threats don't typically have to clarify that. Besides, I might attack you, so don't go getting any ideas."

Sonic smiled as he raised his hands to his lips, took an inconspicuous drink, and wiped his mouth. She was sharp, he'd give her that.

"Yeah, right - like you know how to handle a weapon that massive," he said, then turned his head to gauge her reaction to his teasing. Sonic wanted to test this woman's mettle, if not for some fun then because he was naturally curious about her. She simply wasn't adding up for him.

Amy's angry, competitive, green inner-monster reared its stupid head as he spoke. It was a monster formed of a lifetime stuck in a cycle of doubting and fighting - usually it was her father's doubt or the world's doubt that she railed against, but it was Amy's own doubt of herself that was often the hardest to battle. This time, it was this idiotic, grinning stranger's doubt that her heart demanded she fight. He didn't know he was talking to the first female captain of the guard. Or at least, she hoped she would be.

"Don't tempt me," Amy growled, "I'll prove it, and you wouldn't want me to do that."

Sonic stood and faced her again, cocking an eyebrow playfully and crossing his arms.

"Oh, I think I do," he said devilishly. If nothing else came from the evening, Sonic thought, at least he would be entertained.

Amy's nostrils flared as she hefted her hammer into a fighting stance. Her mind screamed at her to get a grip and calm down, but the anger in her heart stoked a flame that brought her body roaring to life. Her cheeks flushed pink and her fur bristled.

Sonic opened his mouth in surprised delight as he watched her assume a defensive position.

"How cute!" he drawled, excitement pricking his ears up. "You even got someone to show you a defensive stance!" He shook his head and chuckled. "Did you offer the sorry sod who showed it to you a kiss as thanks? C'mon, you can drop the act."

"Ohhhh, I see. Now you're afraid that you're actually going to get pummeled by me!" Amy mocked, her eyes gleaming up at him from underneath the brim of her cap.

Sonic stopped his laughing and almost whistled, impressed, at his opponent. He had to admit, she looked like a real fighter, and he was endeared by the spirit behind her green eyes. Her voice was so sweet and her appearance so… pink, but her words were laced with steadfast conviction. She just kept surprising him, which was usually hard to do.

He sighed and rubbed his neck, tampering his growing smile with faux hesitation. "Well… I don't want to walk back on my whole 'I'm not a threat' promise but -" he smirked darkly, and it hit Amy like a shard of ice in the heart.

"- I hate to disappoint a lady."

There was a flash of wind, and Amy worked to maintain her composure as the man disappeared before her very eyes. She heard a sound like a sonic pulse and felt wind in her hair, and then suddenly, his smug voice was in her ear.

"What's your name, by the way?" he quipped, and she stifled a gasp as his breath hit the back of her neck.

She swung around, bringing her hammer with her hard and fast, expecting to slam him away, but the wind whipped around her and her hammer found nothing. The unexpected emptiness and the force of her swing knocked her off balance briefly, and she struggled to get her footing back.

Amy blinked hard as she settled back into her stance, her fear instincts pricking to life. This was no ordinary man. A stranger with unknown special gifts - and now she was in combat with him.

She calmed herself, Shadow's warnings about being an emotional fighter ringing in her head.

"If you allow your emotions into the arena with you, you become manipulatable," he had said so many times before.

She focused back on the present and listened intently, her ears orienting forward, backward, and forward again.

Amy took stock of what she knew of her foe and determined that while he was not trackable, the wind and the sound of his movement were. She heard the sonic woosh of him behind her and followed it with her ears as he ran circles around her, aiming for the tree that he would be passing in three, two -

She grunted and threw her hammer overhead like an axe straight at the tree, smirking as it crashed cleanly through the trunk.

Sonic stopped short as something whipped in front of him, barely skimming the tip of his nose as it demolished the tree right where he would have been standing if his reflexes weren't so fast. He swung his arms to regain his balance after his short stop, and saw it was the woman's hammer that he had barely avoided.

"Whoa," he breathed, swinging around to look at her. "Nice aim, you even managed to avoid hitting me!"

Amy held her hand out, and Sonic watched agape as her hammer disappeared from the ground and re-materialized in her grip like magic.

"Oh, I meant to hit you," she said mischievously and lunged at him, swinging her hammer back, underhanded this time.

Sonic laughed in amusement and took off again, appearing behind her in a flash. He knelt and swept a leg under her as she charged, sending her careening forward. Amy reached out and turned her forward fall into a roll, hammer disappearing. She landed on one knee and whipped around to face him.

"So you have a good arm - so what?" Sonic chuckled and turned his back to her, pushing his sleeves up on his forearms.

Visions of her fight with Shadow earlier that evening played in Amy's mind.

"Sorry lady, one party trick isn't -" Sonic lurched forward, pure force hitting his back and winding him briefly.

Sonic's arms were pinned at his sides as the woman latched onto him. He was trapped, held in place by the long staff of her hammer pressing against the bottom of his chest. He tried to push forward to get away, but quickly realized just how strong she was. He expected to be able to break away easily, but was instead met with the iron lock of her natural strength.

"Name's Rosy," Amy grunted from behind him, burying her cheek into his shoulder and long quills as she held him to her chest, "and it would do you good to remember not to turn your back on an opponent, no matter how helpless you might think they are!"

Sonic struggled against her, gritting his teeth as he realized she was a fighter of a certain skill level. He laughed again breathlessly, enthralled by the fire in her. She had trapped him, momentarily, but he knew he had the size advantage against her and her victory would be short-lived. Sonic could feel her full body pressed into his back as she fought to keep him immobilized.

He grunted and bent at the waist, thrusting his hips back into hers, effectively lifting her feet off the ground. Sonic took them both forward, rolling them onto the grass. Their fair fight was quickly becoming a scrap, but he couldn't help but smile. He hadn't had this much fun fighting in years. Then again, he was usually fighting for his life - never once had he fought because a pretty woman had a point to prove.

They were on the ground with her underneath him, crushed under his back. He jabbed a gentle elbow into her ribs and used the momentum to escape out the other side of her hold.

Sonic sprang up and backed away from the girl, raising his hands gingerly once again, his quills and clothes rumpled. The breeze chilled him as he moved away from her warm body, and his mind began to sober. He knew he had gotten carried away.

"You're right," he panted, grinning. "You're right - you're a fighter, alright? I forfeit. You win, Rosy." He glanced down and saw her cap abandoned at his feet, and bent to pick it up.

Amy sat up from where she had been laying splayed out on the ground, wiping her forehead and smiling with exhilaration. She had gotten him! The training was working - she had the upper-hand in a real fight! Granted, she couldn't keep it, but she held the blue hedgehog man off, and that was a win. She laughed aloud to herself as she leaned back in the grass on her elbows, looking up at the sky, tired from her long day. Her head fell back in self-satisfaction and exhaustion and she took a deep, cleansing breath. The moon was full and the stars were bright overhead, and Amy felt truly alive in the universe for the first time in years. Like this one tiny win had brought her fully, electrically, gasping back to life.

Her view was shadowed suddenly as Sonic leaned over her, peering down at her with curiosity. She remembered with a jolt where she was and who she was with and scrambled to her feet, realizing her hammer had de-materialized at some unknown point in their scrap.

"I like your laugh," he said breezily, without his usual put-upon charm. Amy froze and met his eyes, straightening up slowly, caught off guard by the tender admission. She suddenly felt exposed without her cap and hammer, and prayed he hadn't recognized her.

Sonic held the cap out to her, only an arm's length away. He had been intensely interested in looking at her without the shade of the cap to cover her face. He saw the passion of a fierce personality shining through her eyes as she reveled in the view of the sky, and it made him smile for a reason he couldn't place.

"Uh, thanks," she said, taking the cap.

Amy couldn't help her sharp inhale as their fingers touched, the feeling of his hand affecting her only now, in this cold, quiet moment despite their full-bodied wrestling only minutes ago. She placed it back on her head, demurely tucking her hair back up into it, suddenly feeling rather foolish.

Sonic reached into his jacket pocket so she couldn't see that he had instinctively clenched his fist as he reckoned silently with the odd warmth that shot through his fingers at their brief touch.

He cleared his throat. "So, what brings a messenger like you over here? Even if you are the world's best fighter," he teased, "it's not safe to be running around the forest at night. Not every chance encounter in the woods ends up being with such a fun and handsome guy as myself." He grinned at her and raised an inquisitive eyebrow.

"You ask an awful lot of questions," she grumbled, feeling off balance.

His hands went up again at the accusation.

"Just trying to be friendly," he said with a shrug, back to his usual tactics.

"If you must know," Amy huffed, "I was…stopping for a quick training session…on my way back from the Kingdom of Babylon."

"Oh?" Sonic asked and cocked his head at the obvious lie. Surely they both recognized that moments ago she had not been riding away from the Kingdom of Babylon, but rather towards it.

"Is there some fancy-pants party coming up or something?" he guessed, rolling his eyes.

"You're very clever aren't you?" Amy mocked, hitting him with her most venomous stares.

Sonic shrugged, taking a tiny step towards her. Though she saw it, Amy did not move. They could feel their closeness now, tentatively letting their circles of comfortability grow smaller. Amy shivered a bit, and blamed it on the chill in the air.

"I like to think so, yes," he said, looking down at her with a genuine smile.

Amy felt herself warming to him and quickly looked away. She knew she should not be encouraging trust with this person. She didn't know why she had told him about the training she had come to do in the first place.

Sonic took a breath. He had been gone far too long and he'd have to explain his absence to Tails and Knuckles. He didn't want to have to do it while empty-handed. "Listen Rosy, is that thing about the Kingdom of Babylon true? Or were you just trying to cover up that you ran away from the palace in the dead of night without any clear reason to?"

Amy's eyes widened. Worries flooded her mind and she staggered back on one foot, breaking the dam holding back the tension between them. Without even knowing, she had let this man too close, and now it was time for her to leave - curiosity be damned.

"I shouldn't tell you that, I - there's thieves out here, the royal guard brought one in just today and -"

"What?" Sonic interrupted, his tone deadly serious.

Amy took a full step back at his sudden intensity.

"Why do you -"

"What are they going to do to him?" he asked, clearly growing desperate. Amy could see real pain flash in his eyes, and his sudden vulnerability threw her even further off her balance.

"I shouldn't - I mean, you're not a… are you a -"

"That thief is… my friend…" Sonic admitted hesitantly. "He's a good guy, he just… does what he needs to do to survive. Rosy, please, what're they gonna do to him? He doesn't deserve harsh punishment, I'd swear it on my life." Sonic stepped forward swiftly, and she tried to pull back as he grabbed her hands and held her in place.

Amy swallowed hard, stuck where she was. "Your friend? So you are -"

"No," he said severely, "I'm no one, it's just… we're friends." Sonic softened, suddenly realizing what he had done on instinct, but didn't let her hands go. "Besides, what's the problem with the thieves out here anyway…" he grumbled.

"They steal?" Amy offered.

"You don't think that it's turned into such a big operation because it had to? That there's a reason? That being the person who steals to live doesn't make you the villain?" Sonic countered.

Amy paused and gathered her thoughts, summoning up her diplomacy. "No…" she said slowly, "but I guess… I just - would be afraid of people that desperate…"

Sonic looked at her thoughtfully. "And I would be afraid of the people who are responsible for their poverty," he said simply.

"…Your friend is going to be fine for two weeks. Battered, but fine," Amy said after a long moment of consideration. She felt convicted by his words. And he didn't seem dangerous, she saw no reason to keep this particular truth from him. "After that… there will be a public execution."

Sonic's eyes flared. He pulled Amy in closer. "You work in the castle, don't you?" It was less a question and more a statement. "You don't need to lie, I won't hurt you. I… you could help us free him before that happens!" he pleaded. He was looking down at her with such sincerity it almost made her blush.

"I -" Amy was reeling. His proposal was ludicrous, but she had to admit she was intrigued. Still, she had no reason to risk treason against her own father for this man who was virtually a stranger. "Maybe I can help… if you tell me the truth about yourself, too," she sighed. Her kindness and curiosity would be the death of her, Amy was sure.

Sonic let his surprise at her ability to see through him show on his face for only a brief second, finally dropping Amy's hands. His palms felt hollow and cold as he let them go.

"Name's Sonic," he said, promptly dropping all pretense and holding out a hand. "And you?"

Amy hesitated. Her real name could be a danger to her identity, but if she lied again, she knew he would only catch her.

"Amy," she abbreviated, extending her hand slowly.

"Well, Ames," he shook her hand with a wink, his ability to flip-flop between sentiment and sarcasm hitting Amy like whiplash. "All you need to know is that I care about my friends. If I can get my buddy out, I'm going to. But it sure would be easier with your help."

"Nice to meet you," Amy said gingerly, reading plainly the grim determination on his face. Yes, he was very much like her, she decided. And how could she refuse to help an innocent? Being cruel was not, and had never been, in her character.

She lit up with an idea and charged forward with it before she could determine whether or not it was a good one.

"I can help you," Amy admitted carefully, "but I need your help with something in return."

Sonic placed his hand on his heart. "Anything!" he said gallantly.

"My own friend is going to be gone for the next few months… and I need to keep training, even without him. There's… well…" No going back now, she thought, and took the plunge. "The Tournament of Champions is coming up, and I plan on winning it."

Sonic blinked a few times as he processed what she said.

"Woah ho!" he laughed, stepping back in surprise. "You're gonna enter the Tournament? You are something else, Ames!"

"It's Amy," she reminded him scoldingly.

"Nah, I have nicknames for all my friends," Sonic said, waving her off. "I graciously accept this trade offer - it would be your honor to learn from the likes of me, I'm sure," he teased.

Amy snorted at his arrogance. "This is serious Sonic - entering this tournament is no laughing matter. If I lose…" She trailed off, the realization of what would happen if she were to lose washing over her for the first time.

Sonic looked at her as she got lost in thought. He wondered what was really happening in her life - why any sane person would put themselves on the line by entering a tournament where they would surely be killed, winner or not. Amy was still holding something from him, and he determined he would pry some answers from her one way or another.

"I should get back - to the castle," she said, obviously looking for a way out. "We can strategize an escape plan for your friend sometime this week. See you tomorrow? Same place, a couple hours after sunset?" She turned from him hurriedly, eager to escape any other questions he might have about why she was entering the tournament.

"Wait," Sonic said, reaching for her. He couldn't let her go yet - he had one more thing he needed from her.

Sonic quickly and gently swept her up into a hug, swinging her around. He heard the breath leave her lungs in a surprised gasp as her feet left the ground.

"Thanks," he said as he pressed his face into her shoulder. For a brief moment, he was lost in their dizzying spin and the surprisingly delicate smell of her fur.

The thought crossed his mind so quickly that he didn't catch it: she smelled nice.

Sonic released her and she staggered back, reaching to adjust her cap awkwardly.

"Um… no problem," she tried to recover herself smoothly. Amy called her horse over and mounted up expertly, her heart racing pleasantly.

"Tomorrow night?" she asked, looking down at Sonic.

"I shall count the minutes," he winked and bowed shallowly to her.

Amy rolled her eyes and snapped the reins, taking off into the night.

"See ya!" Sonic called cheekily, watching her go.

When she was out of sight, he took his hand from deep in his pocket, revealing the crumpled letter he had swiped from her satchel as he hugged her. He retrieved his knife from his belt and sliced the top open quickly.

"...The Princess' 25th birthday, all eligible suitors shall attend, an engagement will be announced by the end of the evening!" His voice rose in excitement the farther he read until finally Sonic raised the paper and kissed it joyfully.

He paused and took a deep breath, suddenly feeling like he hadn't been breathing since he stepped into the glade. He smiled to himself as he raced back to his friends, looking forward to seeing Amy again - to start on their breakout plan, yes, but also to spend more time digging into who she was and what she was really training for.

The closer he got to where he knew his friends were waiting, the more Sonic sobered. He needed to banish those thoughts and feelings and decide exactly how much he would tell Knuckles and Tails about his chance encounter with the odd, hammer-wielding woman in the woods.

It wasn't that he didn't trust his friends - it was that Sonic felt protective over his new informant for reasons he was too afraid to place, and didn't have the emotional capacity to try that night.


A/N: Mmmmm the flirting. I live! See you back here for Ch.3 - leave a review if you are enjoying!