Sonic IRL:
Controlling Digital Emotions
By: Cutegirlmayra (Hey! So, according to my handy-dandy- Pitchbook! We'll be experiencing some funny comedies for a time. Just a breather before the terrifying serious stuff comes back into play. :D k?)
"What!? What do you mean they're having 'complications'? I thought I just sorted that all out and they were being all couplely and stuff?" Dr. Hope, stepping out of the hired vehicle to pick her up from the airport, and was talking on the phone, before groaning and grabbing her suitcase, walking into SEGA of America.
"Look, I was talking with Sonic, alright..? The whole 'Rosy' fiasco was getting to him big time, but we talked and we made up our minds, together, that we'd take it slow and pause it a bit until the company made a final statement on it. So far, I haven't heard anything since from Sonic's side. Ugh, I was hoping that was a good sign! Okay.. Okay… yeah? Hmm… interesting… so he wants to change his data to react to her modern Amy data? Well, yeah, I mean… otherwise, he's stuck having weird feelings for an 8 year old, right? Haha… what, not funny? Fine. We'll consider it too soon. Just… just be a bro and try to connect with them so they let you in more on what's going on. W-wait… that's not-!... okay, so you don't have my doctorate in things, but frankly, I think you can still help out and pull some weight around this whole thing. Okay? I'm not being harsh, Hoshi-san! Alright, love you- I MEAN! S-SEE YOU AROUND!" she quickly hung up the phone, almost having a heart attack as she leaned on the reception desk and breathed wildly.
As her elbow rested on it, the secretary, now used to her antics, smiled sweetly and spoke up softly, with a gentle look in her eyes, "Said I love you to someone other than family?"
"Y…yeah." Dr. Hope looked up, a little shaken up, and nodded slowly.
"Happens to me all the time." She comforted, nodding and then handing Dr. Hope her badge. "The characters have been waiting for you." She smiled warmly.
She put the badge's lanyard around her neck, adjusting it, before pausing and looking shocked to hear her say that. "W-wait… you can see them?"
She snorted a cute laugh, "See them!?" she kept laughing, rocking back and forth. "Try working when Storm and Knuckles go at it!" she kept laughing till she saw someone walk up from behind Dr. Hope's smiling face. "Oh!" she quickly went back to looking like she was working.
Dr. Hope turned around.
"Happy to see you again." The man nodded, as his two security men behind him stood tall and large, and all their hands behind themselves, looking professional.
"Ah! Good day to you too, sir!" She outstretched her hand….
He didn't take it, just rocked on his heels and bowed a little bit.
"Ah… you have to forgive me. I've heard from the officials that you're only role here is to sort out the mess between the coding of Sonic The Hedgehog. Which… a lot of us feel you started." He was being blunt out of respect for his position, and although she understood the business world's 'cut-throat' society, it still was rather…. Heartbreaking.
She withdrew her hand.
Her usually cheeriness turned to a serious tone. "I understand. But I assure you, I wasn't the cause of it."
"Right, because video game characters can come to life and control themselves." He lowered his head and turned, the two men following him, as they expected her to follow.
She mumbled some statistics of that being true and followed after him.
"Sonic and Amy have been acting too friendly on camera… we're shooting a new game, as you know, and they're behavior is making it very difficult to advance from one stage to another…"
"Sounds like they're trying to advance their relationship from one to stage to anot-whoo-hoo!" Dr. Hope turned around to see a security man whack his police-stick just above her hip, putting her back in line.
"In any case.."
She rubbed her back, "What? They can't be that bad! Oh no! Heaven forbid their making eye contact on screen! O-or… is it worse?" she leaned forward, deciding to have fun with this. "They're holding hands!?" she gasped dramatically, almost falling back as the two security men looked about ready to catch her, before she bended her knees back up and started to continue acting out her 'horror', just in spite of the man. "Stamp the rated 'T' on this thing and hide the children! The Devil's work is at play here. Be goooonee evil! For love is the deadliest thing of all! The power of biased hate compels you!" she put her fingers into a cross, and shoved it closer and closer to the man's face. "Be gone! Gone, I say!"
"…Please, get a hold yourself." He swiped her hand away, as she snickered and followed him onward.
"Their interaction is not following script-format at all… and if they refuse to work probably, we're going to have to take your 'initiative' and report it as a failure to cooperate." He glared over his shoulder to her, as she suddenly realized what he meant.
She gulped.
"U-understood, sir." 'What on earth are those two doing that's making the game creators go loco-bananas?'
The man flung open a door, pitch black if not for the luminous glow of a huge, massively hanging screen where a man sat, his glasses glowing just from the brightness of the screen, at a control panel, and watching one big screen with little windows on the side of it.
"This is the emotion control room. It helps us moderate the animators' portrayals of characters and while they act out the scenes, we perfect it to our perfect vision. Lately, the controls have been moving on their own, without our intern here doing anything about it!" he turned to the boy, who shrugged, as if on cue, the control panel, looking like a sound system, had a little controlled clip suddenly move up a little, as the characters continued the scene.
"…It's like actors on the big screen." Dr. Hope had never seen the characters in virtual reality interacting with the real world to then mix together to make a game. So this… was kinda new and interesting to her.
Characters would act out a scene, and play the adventure as if they were really living it. But sometimes, it seemed more like shooting a movie at times, when the grunt work came into play. – end of author's note.
"We're leaving you here to manually straighten out the characters. The intern's the only one allowed to touch the control panel. Your job? Keep them letting him manipulate them!"
"Aye, aye. Drill sergeant, sir!" she saluted him without even gesturing to him, walking by him and putting her suitcase down, walking over to the machine.
"Incredible…" she breathed out, seeing Sonic and Amy on the screen, laughing, as a line of text stated -Offline- showing that the cameras weren't rolling.
As she examined their body language, she smiled kindly, seeing they were seeming to get along.
"I don't see any misbehavior. What are they so worried about?" Dr. Hope looked down at the intern, as the three men closed the door on the way out, looking a little upset.
"Heh, you'll see." He made a face, showing how he thought this was rather funny. "On air in 5…4…3…" he then mouthed and held his fingers up for the last few numbers, and then gave the 'A-Ok' as the characters looked to him from the screen and got into place.
They seemed to only hear where he was coming from though, and not actually noticing him.
As Sonic began his lines, it all seemed normal.
Amy then stated hers, seeming to act fine.
Suddenly, as the intern pointed to the script, Amy and Sonic began going off script, being a little flirty in their movements, before Sonic made a wise-crack and then winked a goodbye to her, dashing off.
"Cut!"
"That… was so implying it wasn't even funny!" Sophie hit her hands on the control panel. "They were teasing me so much!"
"They were off script." The Intern reminded her, and then looked to the controls. "They're too powerful! I try to move the slider back down to where it needs to be, but the characters push it up or down as they see fit. They flirt like this and make up new lines before finishing the script on cue. They've been playing this 'manipulation' game since the start of this scene. It's the only scene Amy really has with just Sonic himself, and not the rest of the team. I think they're trying to take advantage of that."
The intern sighed, and rubbed his head.
Sophie smiled.
"Can I talk to them?"
"No. I'm afraid we have no communication with them when they're in the virtual world. The animators have already dictated their actions, and they've been fine with everything else! It's just this scene that they refuse to follow anyone!" he threw his hands up, moving left and right in the chair, showing his age before looking back up at her and seeing her reach for the panel.
"…W-what are you doing?"
"Relax… this will be fun." She smirked.
"Uhh, no-no-no! Ma'am!" he caught her arm, as she pouted to him.
"Y-you don't have authorization! Besides! N-not to call you heavy or anything… but the panel is extremely fragile! If you fall on it, you'll-!"
"…" she turned her body to sit on the panel, using her age against him.
He noticed her shift and suddenly halted his protests.
"..Do you know what a character hates more than being limited?" She lowered her voice, and stretched her neck out towards him.
He blushed and gulped. "N…no, ma'am?"
She then smiled wickedly, throwing him off guard. "Forcing them pass their comfort zones."
"…You mean..?"
"He keeps moving this one up, right? His… hormones or whatever?"
"A-affections!" the Intern corrected for her, pointing to the label. "It's how much he shows affections for his friends or whatever is around him!"
"Right, well, he's pushing it up on his own right? And we want it…" she lowered it. "Here?"
"Y-yes…" he tried to move her finger but she flicked his away, keeping her finger on it.
"Turn the camera on again." She grinned, being sneaky about it.
Unable to really fight her, seeing as she was too stubborn to let him keep the rules, he turned on the mic again.
"You sure I can't talk to them?"
"…5…4…3…" he turned off the mic, and gave her a look.
"Oh, they don't want me 'influencing them' is that right?"
He shrugged again, as if saying, 'I'm only the intern, lady.'
Suddenly, Sonic and Amy were back into their routine.
"Hey, Amy! Haven't seen you in a while!" Sonic waved, coming to a running stop as he approached her.
"Sonic!" Amy exclaimed, and turned to greet him. "An absence I'm all too familiar with.." she folded her arms, pouting.
"Heh," Sonic put his hand behind his head, looking slightly apologetic. "Where's Tails?"
"Looking for you." She responded, leaning a little towards him before turning back around to look up at the sky. "He said something about Sky-Height Plains…"
"Sky-Height… Right! I better give him a little help while I'm at it!"
He moved by her, and that's when the Intern showed her the script, and she felt her finger, laying on the slider, suddenly move up on its own.
"….?" She was surprised by this, and looked back at the script, seeing he was meant to tell her farewell and then run off.
"Hey… is that a new dress?" he turned around, smiling to her, and stopped himself from running forward, keeping himself in a steady jog before moving around her.
He was… doing something different from the last time she saw them play this out.
"O-oh?" Amy giggled in response, posing as he examined her. "Not really, hehe. Why? Something take your fancy?"
Sophie looked to the side of her, at Amy's controls, and noticed her 'affections' levels rising with his.
She grinned from ear to ear, seeing as this was the only time Sonic had with Amy, the two were tag-teaming it to give Amy more screen time, and even, hint at a little something extra, possibly hoping the company won't mind.
Japan wouldn't allow such rebellious actions… but America was all too afraid of this sudden shift to know how to discipline it thoroughly.
"Hmm… don't know~" Sonic flirted, turning around to wink at her. "Maybe it's just me." It was all innocent, but Sophie could see how their improvising would frighten the main executives into calling her back again to fix the problem.
Even a little flirting was a bit much to some children's gaming companies… and sadly, under employment, she didn't really have much to say about how they handled it.
At least… SEGA was considering her thesis on what's wrong with the Sonic characters…. But until they reach an agreement, she was forced to take little jobs like this.
She was obliged too… since half of SEGA believed her to be the reason for all these problems… even though she felt she was half the reason why it helped them.
"Oh? I wouldn't want it any other way." Amy winked back, and watched him take off, having the scene end with the back of her looking off at where Sonic had zoomed off.
The intern called 'cut' and turned the mic off.
"See? They make up new scenarios. Hoping we'll somehow let it slide." He teased.
"….Do it again." Sophie lowered the slider again. "I know how to end this."
"…Do you want to end it?" He looked skeptical of her. "It looked like you were really enjoying their interaction."
"They should know better than to jump to trying to make a difference instead of waiting for some better timing. They're just having fun. They need to remember this is still a job." She was sad at that fact, liking the cute sonamy role they were slightly pursuing, but knew she was called to 'tame it down' and had no other choice.
Still… this should be fun.
"Go one more time. I'm ready. I won't be distracted again." She grinned.
He sighed, "Once more!" he turned the mic on, "5… 4… 3…"
"I'm not giving up."
The characters, returning to their positions, slightly laughing at how determined the employees were at making them do the scene right, before turning in shock at hearing a familiar voice.
They searched the screen, but seemed to not be able to see out of it clearly.
Amy mouthed Dr. Hope's name, and looked to Sonic, as the mic turned off, and the Intern made a worried face towards it.
"Ha!" Sophie cheered, "Now they know I'm here." She teased.
Sonic shook his head to Amy, talking to her, as she nodded and looked down, seeming saddened.
"Or maybe… they're second guessing it?" The intern suggested, and sighed in relief, seeming to be worried about his job for a second there.
Sophie looked back at him, "They really scared you about me… didn't they?"
"I have my orders." Was all he said, tucking his Sonic logo hat down and starting up the scene again.
"Hey, Amy! Haven't seen you in a while!"
As the scene played out again, Sophie grinned, ready for her mark…
"Sonic!" Amy exclaimed, and turned to greet him. "An absence I'm all too familiar with..".
On script… doing good…. "Test me." Sophie leaned forward, 'ready!'
"Heh," Sonic put his hand behind his head, looking slightly apologetic. "Where's Tails?"
"Looking for you." She responded, and looked to the sky. "He said something about Sky-Height Plains…"
The Intern looked down at her hand, seeing her ready to do something… but not sure what.
'Set!'
He looked back up at her, seeing her eyes focused, but her smile almost turning sinister in intent.
"Sky-Height… Right! I better give him a little help while I'm at it!"
She saw him pause, getting ready to improvise, and felt the slider shift, before she pushed it even higher up, as the Intern gasped and clamped his mouth.
Suddenly, Sonic's face turned from a normal smile, to a shift completely, and he held himself back before speeding over to Amy. "Sky-Height plains? I'm not sure I'm too familiar with that…" he leaned up against a tree, one arm resting on it and a leg moving up behind his other, posing…
Sophie flicked it up even further, grinning from ear to ear.
He suddenly shifted his hand down to flick his nose and rest under it, rubbing slightly and examining Amy more closely…
"W-w-wh-what are you doing!?" The intern whispered, seeing her raising it even more.
"H-huh?" Amy didn't understand the shift, but supposed he was playing again, and giggled, before playing along and turning away from him. "Oh, well. It's the stage with all the planes and balloons… I believe it's… somewhere… this way?" She turned to point to the direction he was suppose to run off too, not sure what else to do, but posed while she shifted, her arm moving over her head to hold her pointed arm in position, just playing around, as Sophie focused on Sonic.
He moved to her hand, about to grab it, before Sophie dropped his 'affections' slider extremely low, and he ended up whacking it away from himself.
"Ah! Hey!" Amy's affection slider slid back down to normal levels too, and Sophie felt his slider resisting her, and forcibly kept it down.
The Intern was right, it was harder than it looked!
She put both hands down, "Go!" she stated through almost gritted teeth, and looked back up at the screen.
A battle of wills at play here…
"Oh no, you don't!" She stated again, "You're going to feel what it's like to NOT get your way all the time!"
The intern was shocked! Seeing her actually keeping it down enough to be below where it wanted to go.
And she was a woman for crying out loud!
Sonic suddenly turned fierce. "I'm not playing games! Just show me the way, Amy!" he threw a hand out and behind him, taking a strange serious tone now.
Amy looked confused, raising an eyebrow before walking ahead. "O-okay… if you insist…" She dropped the act and looked behind her shoulder, concerned, before walking on and guiding the way.
Sophie smirked and suddenly let the slider move extremely close to the top of the panel, seeing as it was resisting her so much, she let the momentum move itself and then passed the normal point.
Sonic grabbed Amy from behind.
"AH!"
She then let the slider go and saw it drop and adjust itself to normal speeds.
He let her go on the screen, "Wha-huh?" he looked himself over.
"…Uh… you okay?" she raised an eyebrow again.
"F-fine." Sonic swung his arms around him, holding himself back. "Just peachy…" he nervously smiled, "So… which way was it again?"
Sophie raised the levels, this time, allowing him to resist.
He suddenly swooned behind her as she walked, but then turned back to normal and shook himself out of it when she would turn to look his way. He acted fine, but looking around, was trying to figure out what was going on, before shifting back into his flirty side and grabbing her hand.
"On second thought! Why not come with me?"
"Oh Sonic!"
She then tried to lower it, but this time, Sonic fought back.
"Stop! Wait!" he cried out, feeling the extremities and worried he was going to hurt Amy if this continued.
The Intern looked up, seeing the plea from Sonic, he immediately shut it off.
"That's enough!"
However, the disconnection made Sophie fall forward, feeling the emotion stop resisting, and her weight on the sensitive panel suddenly created a dent, and the levels to all the controlled characters started to shift.
"Uhh… oh…" Dr. Hope got up, adjusting her clothes as the panel started to spark, and the other panels started to shift in behaviorisms.
"Sonic!" Amy clung to him, feeling the shifting too. "What's happening?"
"Grr… The emotion control… it has to be!" Sonic saw the camera go offline and quickly raced away.
"Ah! Sonic!" Amy held a hand out to him. "Emotion… control..?"
"Hang on, Amy!" he shouted out back to her, "I'm gonna get to the bottom of this!"
He emerged out of the virtual world and started racing down the corridors, as many people either backed away, able to see him, or the others had their papers flying everywhere around the office.
"This is bad… this is very, very bad!" The intern gripped his head, trying to fix the control panel, but everything was now lodged into place, and he couldn't fiddle with anything. "Augh! It's gone into safety shut down! This mode could take a full day to fix!"
He looked around, and saw the closet shut.
"W-what? Why are you hiding! Get out here and help-!" Suddenly, the door above the room opened, and a bright line shone down.
Sonic's silhouette was clear enough to see as he stomped down the stairs, glaring at the intern.
The intern gulped,… She moved fast! For a real human.
"What happened here?" Sonic spoke seriously, as he turned to see the damaged board.
His affection levels… were high…
He narrowed his eyes.
The Intern moved back, accidentally falling into his chair. "I-I-I promise, Sonic! I'm a huge fan! I wouldn't have wrecked your panel, I promise!"
He shifted his eyes to the newbie, and walked forward. "Don't worry, I believe you."
"Y-…you do?" His eyes lit up, seeing his hero believed he was innocent.
"B-but how…"
Sonic moved towards the closet.
The Intern's whole face turned even more worried, his frown fully shifted down with his teeth clattering from within.
Sonic sprang open the door, and looked around.
"…huh?" The intern looked up.
Because Sonic was so small, he could only really see the coat hangers if he looked up… he had no idea… that Sophie had climbed all the way up to the second small, but long cupboard above the coats, where one would put their hats or shoes up too.
She raised her pointer finger, as her body was completely laid out and curled up to hide, and looked sternly at him, warning him to keep his mouth shut by gesturing a 'shh!' with her finger.
She then took the pointer finger and swiped it over her neck, showing that he would be in trouble if he pointed her out.
Sonic closed the door.
"Strange… I could have sworn…" he shook his head, and turned to the Intern. "You should get some guys to work on that. We can't finish the game without all its scenes." He stated, putting his hands on his hips, and trying to still look cool.
"R-right! I'm on it!" the Intern shifted his sonic logo hat back, and started to make some calls.
Sonic smiled, seeing a true fan admiring him and finally working for him was kinda nice to see, as he walked out, thinking it merely an accident.
Before he left, he took one final look at the closet.
He shook his head, groaning at the thought, and then closed the door.
The intern looked up, and slowly put the phone down to look back at the closet, expecting her to come down.
"Doctor?"
"SHHH!"
She shouted back.
"Why?" he whispered a call back, before the door flung open again, and Sonic glared down, squinting his eyes from the dark and light contrasts.
The Intern flinched, and kept his body straight.
Sonic saw nothing change… and just put a hand under his chin, questioning himself, before shaking his head in final resolutions that it couldn't have been her, and then closed the door again.
The intern relaxed back in his chair. "Phew…"
"Good thing they make him only 5 inches, huh?"
He flipped out, kicking his legs up and then turning to her again. "Doctor!"
She opened the closet, and slowly started to climb down. "Sonic isn't one to question what he first thinks is right. I knew he would test to see if anything shifted if he left the first time. You always have to be one step ahead of that character… haha, that's what makes him loveable, I suppose." She came down, and then wiped herself of all the dust, and patted the intern on his shoulder as he came up to her.
"Good work, Rookie! They'll make a fine… whatever you're studying,… out of you yet!" she cheered, and then continued to clean herself up. "I'm just surprised he didn't see the suitcase." She pulled it out from beneath the broken emotion control panel and started to dust it off, before seeing Shadow's emotion sliders, and noticing the affections slider was up high. "Huh… odd." She then looked to others.
Cream's affections were down, and Tails's were all the way up.
She gulped, and looked further.
Eggman's evil slider was down so low… it barely was touching the lowest setting, meaning that he was probably acting really good all of a sudden.
She looked to Amy.
Her curiosity was down, and her empathy was high.
She also noticed Blaze's anger was high and Silver's sorrow was higher than that.
"This… could get…"
She then saw that Metal Sonic's Jealous slider was all the way twisted, almost off the actual control panel, and saw the little stick where the slider was connected too was bent slightly as well.
"….Interesting." she smirked, though she knew she was in big trouble.
If she ever thought that characters were hard to counsel for now… she hadn't seen a broken emotion control panel character's session yet!
But she was about too!
As she walked through the halls, she kept her self alert of passing people, especially characters!
The maintenance men ran by, and she quickly pretended to get a drink at the watercooler, before tossing the cup as she hurried raced by them, only to stumble into Tails.
"Oh man, Tails! It's good to see you! I-!"
He started to rub his head up against her shoulder, and then flopped down, his tongue sticking out, as he had a flower in his hand.
"….Tails?"
"I am in search of a beautiful woman.." he looked up, and held the flower up. "You'll do."
Her eyes widened, and she pushed him off. "I'm so sorry! I'll fix this, I swear!" She cried out, before seeing him get all droopy-eyed again and try and get up, only to twist and turn and twirl before falling on his face again.
"I'm such a loner…" he goofily laughed out.
She continued to run, looking back to make sure Tails wasn't creepily following her or something like that, before running into Cream.
"Cream!"
"Out of my *** **** way!" Cream was bleeped out by Cheese, who looked just as aggressive, as she pushed with all her might to move Dr. Hope out of her way. "****** crazies!" "Chao ****!"
Dr. Hope's jaw hung open.
"Oh no, this is bad. This is really very, very bad!" She mimicked the words and actions of the Intern, before dashing to her office, only to find Metal Sonic attack Sonic, and then Shadow sweeping Amy off her feet.
"Help!"
"You called… and I am here."
"S-Shadow? L-let go of me! Sonic!" she pushed to get free and held out her hand for Sonic, before seeing Dr. Hope, and her eyes widening.
"Sophie?"
"Yeah, it's a long story, look I-AH!" she ducked as Metal Sonic flew over her, and then jumped as Sonic spin dashed and tried to finish Metal Sonic off. "What in blue blazes-?!"
"Blue Blurs! And I'm glad you're here! Ugh! Could you-? AH!"
Shadow had a killer death hold on her, as he held his head close to her ears.
"Maria… I wonder if she would accept me caring for another..?"
"WHAT!?"
"Oh right, you're not even curious as to why I'm here." Sophie remembered how the panel showed her curiosity down, and just put a finger up to her mouth, trying to remember what else she saw.
She suddenly saw a Boom character, Sticks, come up and whack Shadow upside the head.
"Release the girl, you foul, possessed by the dark forces, mashugana!"
"Sticks!" Dr. Hope had worked with her before, trying to explain this new plain of existence to her, which didn't… completely work, but she made some progress.
"Oh? Crazy Oracle lady." She was hanging off of Shadow's head, before spinning and hitting his knee, forcing him to stop ignoring her and let Amy go. "What brings you here?"
"I may have accidentally set everyone's emotions ablaze!" she exaggerated.
Sticks blinked twice.
"…I summoned forth a dark energy that when I sat on his magical portation device, took over all our other worldly friends from different dimensions and now they're being controlled by little evil creatures telling them what to believe and do." She wiggled her fingers out in front of her.
"Ah-ha! I knew this day would come!" Completely seeming to understand her now, she held out her boomerang and crouched down. "I'll take them in the west wing! You handle Amy and get that dark energy back under your butt!" she let out a battle cry and continued to attack Shadow.
"R-right." There was something loveable about that jungle badger, but first-!
She quickly ran up and scooped Amy up. "I'll explain!" she stated, but soon after Metal Sonic came back, pointing directly to Sophie.
"W-what now!?" Dr. Hope turned around.
"YOU ARE IN POSSESSION OF MY GREATEST ENEMIES MOST PRIZED POSSESSION. I SHALL KILL HER IN MY ENFINATE LOVE OF HER, AND PROVE ONCE AND FOR ALL, THAT SONIC IS NOT A GREATER LOVER THAN ME."
"…..Oh crap." Dr. Hope looked defeated, before charging down the hall, screaming before reaching the elevator in time and seeing a spiked hand strike it through.
"AHHHHHHHHHH!" the two yelled, terrified.
"Sophie, I'm scared!" Amy cried out.
"You should be asking what's going on!" Sophie shouted in her response.
Suddenly, the hand withdrew and there was a lot of noise out side.
The elevator opened, unfazed by the digital data, as they looked to see Silver had thrown him back and away.
He looked so sad… he fiddled with his fingers.
"I.. didn't mean to intrude… I know I'm useless… I just thought… nevermind. It was pointless…" he hovered sorrowfully away, before Blaze, in fury of fire, came flying up, and attacking in a mad cat frenzy Metal Sonic, who was thrown by Silver seconds before.
"…Ooookay, to the roof." Sophie hit a button, and made sure Amy stayed inside. "I have to protect you." She put both hands on Amy's shoulders. "Just stay there and don't ask questions… than again, you're curiosity is at an all time low so… yeah." She patted her shoulders and watched as the evelvator went up.
She then dashed and tried to dodge an emotional moody Jet, throwing a tantrum like a baby, and Wave acting drained and uncaring, and Storm throwing daisies everywhere and wearing a flower crown.
The horror didn't end there, as she saw more characters acting out of character.
She knew if she headed to the control room, they would accuse her of breaking it, and the intern's silence would be pointless.
So instead, she headed to her office, and hid there.
Turning on the computer, she was hoping maybe Japan could-…!
That's a bad idea.
When she went for an alternative, she suddenly saw a message pop up on her screen.
"W-what's this?" she clicked it.
"METAL SONIC BLOG: DAY 1. My love still alludes me. It is highly illogical. But If it torments Sonic to see me destroying his true love with my own love, then it shall be worth it. She will love me. In blood and without a heart beat. But it will be so. Next, I shall deduce how to measure the circumference of her buttocks…"
"PPFFHTTT!" Dr. Hope held her hand over her mouth, unable to control her laughter. She quickly subscribed to the blog, before getting up.
"I just have to lay low till they get everything under control and fixed right…" she looked around, and saw some Sonic plushies. "…that'll do."
Up on the roof, Amy felt the chilly air and held herself, looking around and wondering when it was okay to go down.
She didn't question anything around her, unable to because of her emotions, but feeling a little guilty about refusing Shadow so much…
She felt for the guy. So lonely. The ultimate lifeform must be rough…
Then Sonic sprang to the rooftops, and stopped when he saw her.
"Amy!" Completely out of character, he embraced her. "I thought something horrible had happened to you…"
It was all very odd, but she just hugged back, thinking he really was in the right state of mind.
Below, the men hurried to unlock the sliders from their positions, as the chaos kept getting worse.
Finally, they unlocked Shadows, and he naturally adjusted himself and threw Sticks off of him, embarrassed by his actions, he retreated further to the virtual world…
They got most of the other characters too, as Cream cried to her mother, wanting forgiveness, and Tails couldn't believe he had spoken to so many human girls such horribly lovey-dovey things!
When the whole mess was done with, there was only two more people to get too…
Amy pulled Sonic away, "Wait! That's right! The control panel! Sonic! You're-!" before she could say anything, Sonic looked genuinely back at her.
"Amy… I know I never say it enough… and I know we've had some ups and downs but… I have to tell you. From the bottom of my heart… I… Amy, I-!"
She was in shock, realizing what this could mean, before Metal Sonic burst through the door of the roof, and swiped the air.
"THE PINK HEDGEHOG IS MINE TO MURDER IN MY LOVE!" Metal Sonic attacked, and Sonic stood bravely to defend her.
Swiping his spiky fingers at Sonic, Sonic skillfully ran backwards, having fun and smirking before leading Metal Sonic into the back of the stair's sticking up building room that was on the roof, having him crash and spark with the damage.
Amy closed her hands over her mouth, shaking her head. "They're emotions! They're all out of character and out of control!"
Sonic continued to fight, "You'll never take her! So long as I'm around!"
"YOU ARE NOT THE BEST SONIC LOVER! I AM!"
"In your dreams, robo-trash!"
"RAHHH!"
Normally, Metal Sonic didn't even have a voice, but this Metal was from the Sonic Heroes line, and Amy pulled down her ears, realizing how silly this all sounded.
When Sonic finally kicked Metal off the roof, and Metal having no more rocket fuel to propel himself off, fell to his doom.
"NNNOOOO! MY AMMMYYYY!" he disappeared in a billion 0 and 1's, returning to virtual reality by force.
"This… is insanity." Amy lowered her hands "This should never have happened! If we just played the scene like we were suppose to.."
Sonic walked over to her, wiping away any tears on her face. "Amy. Amy? Why are you crying? Don't cry, Amy… I won!" he was completely unaware of what she was talking about, as his controls got worse the more the repair men tried to release the slider and have the functions work properly again.
"….Sonic…." she looked lovingly to him, unsure how to admit to him that he wasn't really feeling this way… "Sonic… it's all… it's a lie…"
"….What is?" he tilted his head, and her heart started breaking. "Haha! You're funny, Amy! That's why I like you so much!"
She grasped her heart.
It was more painful to know that his words weren't true… than to have to break it to him that his own feelings were false.
"Sonic.."
"Amy… I was about to tell you something… something important." He looked away.
"Sonic… don't…"
"….Amy… I've always-"
His eyes suddenly widened, and he moved back.
"WOAH!"
"Sonic?"
"WOAH, WOAH, WOOOOOAH!"
He spread his arms out in front of him.
"There, that should do it." The repairman leaned up, wiping his head as the dent was replaced with a new panel, and all the sliders were now in their proper order.
"Phew." The intern breathed steadily.
Sonic moved his hands over his chest, breathing hard, and realizing he was in control again.
"Sonic… Sonic I tried to tell you!"
"Yeah? Well you seemed to be taking your sweet time with it! Enjoying the romantic scenery?!" he seemed upset…
Rightfully so, though… but Amy…
"I-… How could you expect me to cut you off!?" Amy began, throwing her arms down, and feeling hurt he would say such a thing.
The Intern watched them leave, before sighing and sitting back down into the chair.
He then noticed Amy's emotion for hurt going up, and cocked his head.
"That's strange…" he rolled the chair over to her emotions, and checked on them. "What's happening here..?"
"It was barely a couple hours, and you were just SO excited to hear me confess, weren't you!? Even at my own expense!" His words were a little cruel… but it could be that he was venting out his frustrations at having no control over his being.
Sonic's worst fear was to be fully unable to control his own will. And for him to be a fictional character under the bounds of such a reality really got to him sometimes.
It went against his nature, and right now, he was furious that his greatest enemy… was literally himself.
The Intern then saw a drastic change in Sonic's anger slider, and moved over there, putting his hands up to his head. "Oh, no… oh no, oh no, oh no! these are suppose to be fixed!" he tried to put them back to where they were suppose to be, but saw them swipe up again. "Oh come on!" he cried out, giving up… before he saw the affection levels…. Decreasing…
"I wasn't trying to get anything out of you!" Amy cried out back to him. "This whole thing… it's a terrible accident! And -"
"Dr. Hope?" Sonic spun around, and fury raged in his eyes. "So it was HER!" he cried out, and pointed out to Amy. "You knew she was behind this and didn't say anything!?"
"I.. I didn't know until just a few hours ago!" Amy defended herself.
He then withdrew his finger and put his hand in a fist, gritting his teeth and throwing a fist up and out behind him, swinging as he did. "RAGH!" he walked to the edge of the roof.
He then spun around after squinting his eyes shut. "The companies right! This whole 'love fiasco is why all the trouble is starting in the first place! It's all.. Japan's stupid fault…" he was raging for a moment, before looking out at the sunset… and then swinging his head and hand down… unable to stay upset.
In the emotion control panel, seeing as they're may be a connection to Sonic and Amy's emotions being moved together, the intern lowered, gently, Sonic's rage… and then heightened his affections levels again.
"Amy… I'm sorry." He staggered back to turn to her, a truly apologetic look in his eyes. "I shouldn't blame you… or him… or Sophie… no one." He then shook his head… before raising it up. "The company… it's still not fair. We should control our own lives… our own destinies… and how we feel." He turned back to her.
She stayed silent, as the intern turned her hurt back to normal levels again. "It's okay." She softly spoke out, and lowered her hands from her muzzle.
"I just worry… that maybe you're right."
His eyes widened a little, turning more to her. "Amy…"
"It's true that… that the original American Amy started this whole affair… quite literally… but at the same time.. she's also destroyed a lot of the peace that we used to have… it just all became…"
"..Complicated.."
Sonic held his stare.
Amy nodded, and turned around, not wanting to fully admit it.
"Maybe… maybe we weren't meant to progress… so quickly."
"…Amy…"
"….Don't say it." She covered her eyes.
"Maybe we weren't meant to progress at all."
She burst out in tears, bending her knees as she felt like falling to the pits of despair.
The intern looked defeated, sighing as he couldn't move Amy's hurt levels down any further.
"…Come on, Sonic." He cheered. "Don't break her heart…"
As if on cue, Sonic felt a tinge of guilt, and looked away.
He then felt something, a different approach, cross his mind.
Was this the new data?
He wasn't sure.
He took a deep breath, and for Amy's sake, went with it.
He slowly walked towards her, before holding out his hand and helping her straighten up, holding her from the back and gently lowering his head.
"….So what if it wasn't meant to be easy…"
Amy's head lifted up slightly.
"So what if it's half pleasure… and half suffering."
She turned her head around.
"I may be the worst possible person to love, Amy? But I'm who you do love. And for that… I gotta start shaping up a bit."
He looked up and smiled to her.
"Heh, mind staying patient with me..? Amy?"
He tiled his head for approval.
Amy's face drop to once again letting out tears, but turned around and embraced him, as he held her there a moment, a little awkward about it, but let her cry as much as she needed too.
"Heh… these new emotions… you wonder if they ever get easier to control."
He nervously laughed, a little worried about that.
"We were doing fine a little while ago." Amy rubbed her eyes, but brought back the fun play between the two.
"Yeah… that was kinda fun… wasn't it?" he smiled kindly to her, playing a little, before his eyes suddenly shifted in realization.
"THAT LOUSY-!" he turned to the staircase.
"H-huh? What's wrong?"
Sonic dashed out of her arms.
"W-wait! Soooniiicc!"
Sophia Hope held a Rosy the Rascal doll in place, and mumbled something as she made it bounce around.
A Metal Sonic appeared, and she made him sound like a dinosaur roaring.
She then took her pinkie finger and pulled a Classic Sonic figure into play, and started having him jump too, and with Amy in hand, run from Metal Sonic.
She made a tornado noise as she whirled them in a circle around her table, before putting Rosy down and using classic Sonic to jump up and fight Metal Sonic, having them both crash to the ground.
She then had Rosy race over to Classic Sonic, and made it look like he was badly injured, saying something to her dramatically, before fainting.
She seemed to cry, as she made Metal Sonic get up, and like a western cowboy, move one foot forward at a time, as if Metal Sonic was injured too.
She rotated his plastic claw up skyward, as if ready to strike Rosy, before Sonic bounced back to life and held his arm up, catching his claw, and then spin dashing and kicking him away.
He then apparently held Rosy, and her to him, before she made them both shyly look away, before Amy hugged him, and made cute little noises between making them dance around before the real Sonic swung open the door and she threw the action figures behind her, flipping a paper out in front of her, and a pen that was backwards, pointing to the paper as if she was writing something.
"Yes?"
"YOU MESSED WITH MY EMOTIONS!" Sonic stomped into the room, and pushed the chair out of the way, glaring at her.
She lowered her being slowly down, reclining the chair back. "I'm sure I-"
He slammed his hand to the table, "I'm serious." He almost hissed out.
"…Know exactly what you're talking about and can explain. I was simply trying to-"
He slammed the other hand down, this time making her cup of pencils topple over.
"Okay! Okay! I can see your angry! Let me explain! You were acting up and they called me to tone you down and you resisted so I played your game and the intern got weirded out and turned the darn thing off and I slipped! There, the story!" she huddled under her desk, as he spun around and pushed the chair away, lowering himself to look under.
"You used me! You manipulated our feelings! And worse, you wrecked all the company in the frenzy you started!"
"Um, no? Heh. The company can't be wrecked by virtual peoples?" She tried to make herself look smart, holding up a hand and pushing her fake glasses up she was wearing.
"…" he gave her a deadpan look. "The computer program to our emotions was offline. We were literally losing our minds." His words made her feel even more guilty.
"…I was just trying to do my job." Sophie countered.
"Do me a favor. You've done enough. Go back to Japan and let them complain all they want. But leave us alone." He abruptly moved up and away, slamming the door shut.
Dr. Hope took a second to think about that… seeing the trust he once held for her… and any amount of respect… suddenly vanish.
She slowly got up from her desk, picked up her seat, scooted back to the table.
She then lowered her head and cried.
All the way around the world…
"Yes? America? I'll be there shortly…" Cy boarded a plane, before stopping abruptly, "WHAT!? She did-!... no matter, I'm sure everyone will recover. How long will she be there..? Comic Con? Of course I know what it is, you lout! I've been marketing Sega's comic con appeal for years… not to mention E3… yes, yes… I'll have her, and her silly initiative, under control in no time… I assure you, sir. I won't let her manipulate any of the characters as she has already… right… thank you." He flipped the phone down and entered.
Sitting on the plane, he pulled out his laptop, and started to look over more and more news articles about Dr. Sophia Hope. "Heh… what a woman." He sarcastically muttered, holding a hand up to his chin and looking through her history. "So many successful video game cures… but what makes Sonic so difficult for you to grasps?" he noticed that most of the characters she helped, ended up being closer to their love interests as well. "Bingo." He grinned.
"So? Link and his little princess weren't enough? You went for Spyro and a new girl, and continued to wrap up more and more couples to your whims? Sly and Carmelita? Who even is that? You really have a soft heart for pairings… I see… you're not so much a 'therapist' as you are a 'marriage counselor.'." he laughed.
"Once I convince SEGA that all you're trying to do is your own motives, they'll fire you instantly and your 'incredible' streak of successes will leave you ruined and penniless." He chuckled. "Ah. If only you knew how to play it dirty… sadly, you're too honest for your own dealings…" he closed the laptop, as a flight attendant gave him a glass to drink.
He raised it to them, and then took a sip, smiling a devious plan. "Doctor Doolittle to the video game characters, they say…. More like Doctor… who cares? Haha!"
Amy walked into Sophie's office, seeing her looking so sad, she softly closed the door and walked to her.
"H-huh?" Drying her tears quickly, Dr. Hope noticed Amy approaching, being silent and quiet as she did so.
"Amy, dearest?" she sniffed, "What are you doing here?"
"…I… I know I'm just the patient but…" she smiled up to her. "I felt like you could use a friend."
Dr. Hope burst out in a chuckle, before covering her mouth and crying again, before welcoming the girl to her side.
"You're not just a patient, you're most certainly my friend."
The two hugged a moment, before Amy spoke up again. "Crazy first day?"
"For some reason, in this place? They're always rough." She laughed, as Amy giggled below her.
"…Yeah… sorry about that. We're a pretty messed up family." She teased.
"Nah, you guys just haven't had it good in awhile… you've forgotten how to make it good!" she exclaimed, and then sighed. "Then again… I'm really questioning whether I'm helping that much…"
Amy looked up, and wiped some tears away. "No… we were messed up before you came and helped straightened up the madness a little bit more… I mean, Sonic would never have found his courage to accept his old data if it weren't for your help."
"…Some say it would have been better that way." Sophie looked down and away, her hand coming up to push against her eyes, trying to will them to not cry.
"No! Don't say that! You helped him deal with past issues that he didn't even know started from his original self! You helped both of them! And in return… you helped me." She looked so sincere, as she put her hands up to Sophie's face. "I know you're a specialist! You know why?"
Sophie shook her head.
"Because you care more about bits and data frames than any other person alive! You stick up for us when we can't do it for ourselves! Amy… the last Amy… died because she didn't have you to help her through it."
Sophie was hired because of that very incident, and turned to look up at Amy.
"You… you think I could have stopped her from glitching?"
"…Maybe not." She looked down, but then shook her head. "But you could have calmed her down! You could have recognized the glitch, and maybe even stopped her from dying as rapidly as she did! I just… I just wish she could have known you… you could have saved her… I feel like you would have." She looked away, shaking her head, before Sophie raised her head back to look at her eyes.
She smiled. "Amy… Maybe I am."
Amy looked deep into her eyes, before she grinned, seeing she meant her.
"You may think you're just some back-up, data copy…. But I bet you the last Amy only wished she had the same strength to do what you're doing."
Amy's smile faded, "W…what's that?"
"…To keep moving on through the pain… till a happy turnaround can be found." She tiled her head, and then bumped her head lightly against Amy's.
"Alright. They're closing down." She saw the lights start flickering off. "We should go."
"To bed?" Amy smiled, touched by her words.
"Yeah… keep enduring Amy." She put her hands tightly to her shoulders. "Glitching comes from not being able to mend will with coding… and getting stuck. You have to find a way to live with what's going on around you… no matter how hard or heartbreaking it may be… never... ever … give up on your dreams."
"…Thank you." She nodded.
"Preserve during these rough times… I know you'll make it somewhere with Sonic. I've seen it in Japanese Sonic's eyes. If the original can make adjustments, so can your Sonic."
"I… I can't thank you enough!" she hugged her again, "I just wish the old Amy could-!"
"I am telling her. As we speak." Dr. Hope hugged her tighter. "She is you, child. You are her. Who she was meant to be."
"…Em." Amy bit down on her lip, not sure how to take that. This whole time, she felt like she was second-rate, a ghost to most of the other characters.
But Sophie made her feel like she was the first and only American Amy, and that sent her heart whirling with joy and acceptance.
All she really wanted… was to be loved, and love in return.
"Thank you…" she breathed out.
"Thank you…"
(This was probably the most ridiculous chapter yet! I hope you liked the silliness! Comic Con's gonna start us off into the craziness of drama once more! So enjoy the laughs while you still have them!)