Sonic IRL (Series)

by CGMayra

In a world where Sonic and his friends are real, virtual AIs that can only be seen through the walls of SEGA, comes a tragic secret within SEGA of Japan's past, and their speedy blue hedgehogs now all feel the consequences. All the Amy Roses from the many different SEGA HQs are glitching! American Sonic is determined to find out why... (Sonamy) CONTAINS: Kisses, deaths

15. Welcome to SEGA

Sonic IRL

Ch. 15

Welcome to SEGA

By: Cutegirlmayra (Boy, it's been a while! I'm doing discord and Instagram livestreams after a few of my story chapters come out so, yee! Come and have fun! :D You can pm me here or on Tumblr to ask any questions about it. But I do hope you enjoy this new chapter! It's, as always, a doozy of a ride… but well worth the wait, I hope ;)b enjoy~)

And so it begins again…

A nagging feeling…

Like something's just around the bend…

Amy placed a delicate hand up to her heart, looking down solemnly before turning around from walking with everyone in the office to turning back towards the computers…

Sonic stopped a moment, being more cautious lately, taking time to keep a careful eye on Amy.

"Emi?"

It was so loving… he was referring to her in his native tongue and it made her heart leap. It was so sweet… he really was trying to show he cared about her more.

In Japanese, they conversed with one another. "What's wrong?" He walked back to her side, smiling as though he hadn't the foggiest idea what could be troubling her.

She watched as he casually placed his hands on his hips, and leaned on one side of his leg, waiting a reply…

"…You know what…" Her eyebrows bent in a plea, but he wasn't going to give in so easily.

He sighed, "You shouldn't whine, Emi." He scratched the back of his head, lowering it down, "Ahh… The company can't afford what you're implying…"

"Just one visit!" She jumped up, having some energy back to her, before bending her ears slightly and looking 'hopelessly' in need of his help. "Please?"

He looked back up to her, showing with his raised eyebrow how she knew he had no say over her life. "Emi… you're becoming nothing but trouble lately…" he folded his arms and stood a bit straighter, shaking his head. "You really think they'd forgive you after everything? They may just strap you to your file like they did Eggman." He gestured his thumb back as a figurative reminder of how severely Eggman was locked up tight now. "He's barely a file, at the moment." Sonic shrugged, "No fun when he's not around."

"…Sonic…" She stepped back a bit, knowing even with his permission… it wouldn't do much, regardless. "She's so new again… and-and… she hasn't answered any of my skype calls!" she threw herself forward again, startling Sonic with her quick movement.

"Hey now..!"

"What if she's depressed again!? What if they haven't found a permanent solution to her errors? What if-!?"

Sonic patted his hands to the air, trying to calm her down. "Hey, hey, hey… take it easy, Emi…" He gently placed his hands down on her shoulders, seeing her tear up in a mother or sisterly fear and smiled warmly to her. "She's going to be fine." He assured her, looking directly in her eyes. He lowered his head to be at eye-level with her as she sniffed and rubbed her tearful eyes. "American me is on the job. He hasn't exactly failed, you know." He patted her head, then gave it a light rub to scruff it up a bit. "Haha, you worry too much."

"Like you don't worry at all." She puckered her lips, calling his bluff.

"Oh? Is that a fact..?" He lowered his eyelids, liking the playful challenge before staring at her fish-lips…

She blinked a moment when he didn't say or do anything.

Orange code lightly showed outside of his being, before the route it took suddenly turned into regular bluish green and he placed a finger to her lips.

"…Dang, that's tempting." He muttered barely over a whisper, shaking his head and then moving on. "Can't you hijack a flash drive or something?" he waved her off as an idea lit up in her head.

"…Thank you!" she dashed off.

"Yeah, yeah… whatever." He scratched the back of his head, knowing want avenue the code was going and quickly negated it back to his normal code; or the code he was used too.

A man came up then, asking Sonic if he remembered about a gig he needed to do with his friends.

"Can't you hire out the stuffed me?" he smirked, waving the man a farewell as he continued to walk by him.

The man sighed and called another woman over, telling her to get out the costume and get ready for the promotional event.

Sonic and Amy stood before an examination board, having been recently called in for in. They were in their T-pose stages but could still emote and operate as many experts examined Sonic's new code again, how it worked with his normal code, and any abnormalities.

"Honestly, it's already been upgraded to the latest standards…" American Sonic rolled his eyes, not completely caring about the board of screened faces… all watching to make sure this procedure was done correctly.

He wanted to ignore them, feeling this a waste of time, but they were so scared about what Eggman did that they're now checking over them all.

But that wasn't completely it either…

He looked over to Amy.

His cocky attitude wasn't cheering her up. She was looking down, engrossed in her own thinking and avoiding the reality of what may occur if they found error in her again…

His confidence all but drained in a sigh, sympathizing with her, before looking down himself and keeping quiet.

"-That's about the last test. Everything seems to check out, alright. However…" A man with a clipboard took off his virtual reality googles and started clicking in things on his tablet.

Some graphs appeared, showing 3 envelops of memory…

"These… 'data letters', as they're titled, are from the previous data's memory cores… Seems they were transferred over."

"We are aware that she has the memory of her predecessors." An official of SEGA, with a thick and heavy Japanese accent, spoke out before intertwining his fingers together and leaning forward towards the facecam. "We're only concerned if there are any more signs that errors could occur."

"From those memories, it could be what triggers so much radical change of processing." The man concluded as Amy's head leaned up in horror. Sonic looked to her and then glared towards the screens, but kept quiet… for now…

For Amy's sake… he didn't want to look like she influenced him into-

Well, into what they were afraid of.

"So… memories of glitching may injure her new base?" they asked, talking very distant from the character, it seemed…

"We're afraid that's rather likely."

"That Clyde fellow… He may have been right." An American spoke up from another screen as Sonic's glare turned to her, his mouth… tightening it's crunch on his teeth.

"Hmm… perhaps we should hear his counter-argument again." The Japanese official spoke out, but Sonic couldn't remain silent anymore.

"Amy's not going to glitch again! I'll make sure of it!" he shouted out, "I'm the hero! It's my job to take care of her!"

Amy turned her head away, feeling ashamed.

"Amy… Don't listen to them! Your memories don't-!"

"Defending me doesn't help the facts,… Sonic." She looked back up at the screens. "I take full responsibility for my own glitching."

"NO!" Sonic tried to break out of his T-pose, but no matter how much he strained, he couldn't. "Let her go! I-!"

"Sonic's actions had nothing to do with it!" she leaned forward in her own T-pose, begging for the attention to stay on her.

His eyes widened. She knew it was mostly his Originals fault for her recent sufferings… then it was simply Eggman's doing… why was she placing all the blame on herself?!

"Amy!"

"Quiet!" she shouted out, shaking her head. "I won't have anyone else fall because of my actions!"

"…" Sonic knew she was only condemning herself for the sake of others… especially himself. If they knew what he had done… how much of his old code he had accepted since before this whole calamity…

"We'll be the ones to decide that." The official cut-off any more outburst.

"…Perhaps… and do forgive me if this sounds a bit harsh but…" The woman spoke up again, "…Maybe… it's time for a complete scrap of the old. In other words… if she's fully corrupted, so may the original."

"What are you saying?" The official looked puzzled, but Sonic knew exactly what she was implying…

"Perhaps it's time to do away with 'Amy Rose'. Maybe a new love interest, or at least, strong female lead could prove more ideal for the franchise. After all, there is a lot of spat over Amy's previous depictions. A new start may prove profitable to the brand."

"ENOUGH!" Sonic shook himself free of his T-pose, angrily charging with a purpose to protect and defend towards the official's screen.

"I won't let you talk about just erasing existing data. I won't have it!" He swiped his arm out. "I'm doing everything… no, we're doing everything in our power to figure this out as much as you are! We're making progress! I won't lie and say it's not difficult for a computer program to take on change and just run with it. But… it is possible. And it's being made possible by those who believe… if you give up on your creations now, then what does that make you? You can't just delete something cause there's been a few naysayers and bumps in the road!" he bent himself into a fighting stance, clutching his hands into tight fists as his anger couldn't be quelled at what she had implied…

He wouldn't lose her again… he couldn't lose her again…

"…I'm aware of your actions, Sonic. I understand that they are in defense of your friends, and don't condemn it." The official spoke out reasonably before turning his attention to Amy.

She looked… defeated. As though all life had left her eyes entirely…

"…We will adjourn this meeting until further notice. Until then…" He took some papers and patted them on his computer's table, and then looked back into the web-camera. "My very good friend created Amy Rose. I don't think he'd like to hear of her absence in any form. We will not be replacing Amy."

Sonic's loosened his death-grip upon a blaring steam of code that he was holding back… before releasing it as it trailed off into his systems…

His coding was becoming so strong… it could be seen glowing sometimes up through his body. Like veins or strands of data trailing along his processors.

He turned himself back to Amy, narrowing his eyes at how stupid it was to condone herself like that.

"What were you-!?" he held himself back and bit his own tongue to give it a rest.

He looked away and began walking as if to pass by her, but stopped and untensed his shoulders, sighing and looking back to her with care.

"…Are you okay?"

"Please… Don't push yourself for my sake…" She swung herself out of the T-pose and held her arms. "I… I've worked so hard for this… Fought so long… and even died for you to speak up and accept me." She looked back up at the fading monitors, the board members leaving the chatroom or call. "…Maybe it's just time to…"

"You're giving up?" Sonic raised an eyebrow.

"…I don't want too." she shrugged, looking away, still facing her back to him… as though she didn't want him to see her anguish any longer. "But I don't want you getting in so much trouble… because of me." She bent over slightly, her sorrow engulfing her. "I feel… embarrassed… hearing them say things like that. That I'm… I'm better off being deleted…"

"That won't happen." Sonic stepped up, swiping the air and shaking his head slightly to one side as if declaring it more than assuring it.

"I know…" her voice filled with a choking sensation… a quiet voice of misery for all that has occurred. "Sometimes… I look through those memories… and I don't know who I am."

Sonic's face loosened in disbelief as his eyes scanned the back of her head.

He didn't understand what she meant.

Those memories were meant to help her remember, not confuse her.

"He's kinda right…" she hugged herself tighter… then released and looked up with eyes on the verge of crying. "Those memories probably do almost hinder me… from being what I'm suppose to be." She lowered her hands and then brought them out in front of her, just touching and tracing her fingers over each other, examining herself and the small fragments of code on her gloves… their bluish green glow comforting her somewhat… "There's a way I'm supposed to be… and then there's the errored me. But… I can't seem to tell the two apart." She looked off into the distance for a moment, though it was a pitch-black room now. The men had all left, and the door slammed shut.

"…Amy…" Sonic stepped forward again but dared not interrupt her. "Who do you think you are?"

Amy chuckled through her voice crack, "I don't know."

She shook her head and lowered it, wiping some escaping tears. "Sometimes… those memories make me want to fight. To keep you. To keep all I've created with you… and others? They only make me question and hate myself… wondering why I would ever do such a thing, or act a certain way, or how… how could I ever say such things… I have so… many… memories… yet, none at all." She let her arms fall to her sides, dangling there with a limp sway.

She found herself leaning back, before catching herself and looking to the corners of the room, her eyes growing weary from their straining against the sorrows. "What is-… Who is-… Amy Rose? A man's unique idea to solve a gap in the series? Or a woman who seeks love with everything she has, with nothing faltering? Or is she merely an illusion of what hopeless girls are like when they are too undeterred by their own childish fancies?"

Sonic looked down, unable to answer her.

But his eyes searched for clarity upon the darkened floor of that meeting room…

She chuckled a sore crack of her voice again, "With so many glitches… I just can't seem to recall anymore." She turned to a chair, leaning on it as her body swayed to and fro… She giggled then, with a sad little smile on her face. "Maybe I'm just silly… I'm not supposed to be sad you know." She looked to Sonic, only taking a glance before she couldn't bare to see him glance back up at her too.

She looked at her hands again, "That's why… I think they programmed me a little hopeful in Sonic Forces. Because I didn't want to believe in a forever death… you were only gone a little while, and yet it felt like forever." She turned herself to lean on the chair. "Was that what it was like… when you saw Eggman delete my code..?" she looked over to him one last time before unable to fake it any longer. "Am I a sham?" she laughed loosely, pushing herself off the chair to mosey around the room. Her arms swayed wildly by her side, demonstrating a very girlish demeanor. "I'm so real, I'm so genuine- Amy deserves him. She works so hard for him. To see him. To love him. But does she even know love? I'm so confused lately that I just wish code would completely take over my will at this point!" she circled him before leaning towards him, arms arched out wide before falling down to her sides again and straightening herself out from her mediocre bow.

"…Anyway…" she went to give it up, but a hand reached carefully out to lightly hold her back from leaving.

"…Amy."

The action startled her… and she looked to the intruder.

She felt the warmth of data stream through his hand to hers… and watched the orange data light up something she was only just beginning to get used to.

As the data moved through her hand and up her arm, he pulled himself closer to her, and she all at once smiled and let her head fall to his own.

They placed their foreheads on each other's, feeling the wonderful sensation of 'love' from the orange code that Sonic allowed her to experience.

"…Is this how I feel love?" he inquired then, closing his eyes moving his hand up her arm to spread the code further through her.

She leaned her head slightly back, feeling the code he sent stream into her avenues and find sensors to play it out accordingly.

"Is this… how I feel when I'm with you?"

She breathed a little loudly but didn't care, looping her free arm around him and embracing him as orange code completely enveloped her.

"…Why don't I have this code?" She pouted, "I'm a little jealous."

He grinned, moving his tracing fingers over to her back and pulling her in closer, rubbing her back lightly as the glow began to fade. He rested his head on her shoulder, "Isn't that because you've always had it?" he slightly laughed through his nose,… dipping it towards her quills and moving it behind her hair… "I can't imagine you being born without it…"

"Ah… So I'm 'love' to your code, am I?" she teased, not expecting his next reply.

"…Without you…" he moved back, holding her out in place, which was directly in front of him. "I wouldn't have 'love' in my life." He concluded, as the orange code faded from both their bodies.

"I like you better when you're happy, though. So, keep that in mind." He tapped her nose, making her scrunch it up and 'hey!' him as he passed by her, smirking.

"Sonic!"

She chased him out the door as he slowed his run to make sure she wasn't too far behind his pace…

Finally getting a call, Japanese Amy exits the plane with her bags and looks around. "Hmm…" she tries to locate the signal before her face lights up, seeing Boom!Amy waving to her sweetly.

"Hey, grandma!", "Ohh… I'm your aunt!", "Haha, that's not what my mom says.", "Of course it's not. At one point, she called me her wife.", "What?", "Different story, how are you!?"

Japanese Amy leaped into Boom!Amy's arms, the two laughing before heading over to a smoothie place, both picking blueberry mixed with strawberry punch twist.

Boom!Amy took a sip, clicked her tongue around for a moment, then stuck it out. "Not as good as I thought it would be." She teased.

"I don't know…" Japanese Amy took another sip. "I kinda like it." She bounced her shoulders back and forth. "I think you need to take a few sips to get used to the mixture." She took her straw and took in some more of the fruitful shake.

"So… Tell me about American me! Is she alright? Is she doing well?"

"W-well…" Boom!Amy looked up and to the side a moment, searching for a clear avoidance to the question. "She's proud Sonic Boom finally made it to Hulu!" she fist-bumped, but Japanese Amy looked unamused.

"You know what I meant."

"I knew what you meant."

Boom!Amy exasperatedly leaned back and let her head hang over the back of the chair. "Uugh… okay! She feels like 'new Amy' again!" Boom!Amy rested her cheek on her hand, letting her face sag into it. "We all know her smiles and laughter are just covering up how she feels… The modern crew have seen the signs before and want to help, but don't really know how… and everyone's afraid of glitching… and also telling them that the romantic scene was cut out entirely from the game-"

"THE ROMANTIC SCENE WAS CUT OUT FROM THE GAME!?"

Japanese Amy slammed her fist to the table, leaning up and shouting her exclamation as a little girl turned to see a table rumble… but nothing more.

On her backpack, was a Sonic keychain…

"What do you mean they cut it!?"

"Y-…you didn't know either?!" Boom!Amy contorted her arms a moment, shock and surprise turning into an awkward angle of her limps. "Oh no… Boom!Tails is attempting to take them to New York to avoid them hearing about it… it's a bad sign that SEGA still doesn't trust them…"

"New York?" Japanese Amy's eyes lit up with lights.

"…You… You want to go..?" Boom!Amy leaned back a moment, creeped out at how spacey she just became. "I don't know… Modern me doesn't really want to talk about depressing things in front of us… I know you want her to be honest with you, but I think letting Sonic do that may be best-"

Her arm was looped in and swung to the exit of the smoothie shop faster than she could finish her thought.

"Huh?"

"NEW YORK! I've ALWAYS wanted to be taken to NEW YORK!" Japanese Amy threw out a credit card, "I might miss the gig, but they don't need me there anyways! This Amy is going shopping!"

"…W-what about Amer-"

"I'm sure we'll pass her in passing~ Oh~ New York! The fashion, the statue, the parks, OH BOOM! We've gotta catch another flight!" she dragged her along with her, her tiny legs—compared to hers—were much stronger and quicker then Boom!Amy's lengthy reluctant ones.

"B-b-but-! What about SEGA!? They may get mad again if-!"

"Oh, they barely notice when I'm gone-" she gasped, "TIMES SQUARE!"

"Thanks for the distraction, Tails!" American Sonic gave Boom!Tails a thumbs up and signature wink, being in one of the many cockpits on his unique plane, as American Amy glanced over the wires they were flying through.

"Are these all phones being called?" she asked, looking back to Tails.

"Yep!" he nodded, and then turned to Sonic, sweat dropping in nerves for a moment, hoping he didn't realize what he said was a huge ironic statement. "D-di-distraction? N-not at all! Just a fun trip to New York! All the way across the country… completely away from reviews and securitizing critics over your datas and hahaahhaa- geez, these currents sure fire up a lot of kinetic frequencies huh?"

"Huh?" Amy and Sonic turned back to him.

"N-nevermind." He adjusted his belt, tugging on it before pulling his googles up. "Okay, we're here."

They spiraled out of the phone-lines to reveal the city's lights and shining displays.

"Woooahhh…" Amy and Sonic said in unison.

"It's so… different from San Francisco." Amy stated.

"Yeah… less of an 'old timey' feel, I guess." Sonic kicked his legs up, enjoying the view as he looked down on both sides of the plane.

He whistled, seeing some birds below them.

"We going for a closer look?" he looked to Boom!Tails.

Tails nodded, "Yep! Hold on tight. I think you both deserve a night in the Great Apple!"

-Welcome to New York starts playing-

(Claps)

Walking through a crowd, the village is aglow

Kaleidoscope of loud heartbeats under coats

Japanese Amy and Boom!Amy walk through the streets while Japan gestures out a pointer finger to every little thing that moves. A skateboarder and a woman wearing a large fur coat pass by, then her attention turns to neon lights and cafes. She giggles and turns back to Boom!Amy, stringing her along as Boom!Amy smiles weakly and gets dragged along for the ride.

Everybody here wanted something more

Searching for a sound we hadn't heard before

Modern American Sonic and Amy walk around with amazed faces, scanning the tall skyscrapers before accidentally being pushed together by the crowds. Their hands bump and their thumbs cross, leaning to them looking at each other with the same thought. Sonic rolls his eyes and looks away, taking her hand as she gasps and holds his arm. Let's make it a date!

Boom!Tails rushes to find them, sighs and bends down a bit when he sees they're okay. He glances over to see a sign of Sonic Forces and Sonic Mania. He points it out, being careful not to say anything they don't know, and the two are ecstatic to see it.

And it said

Sonic and Amy stare at one another… Their eyes shine with a kind fondness for one another as Boom!Tails seems to be rambling about something excitedly, before looking up and adjusting his googles that grew foggy a moment. When he puts them back on, he notices their stare at one another, then their hands, and smiles weakly… he seems to admire their new-found relationship.

Welcome to New York!

It's been waiting for you

Welcome to New York (x2)

Boom!Amy and Japanese Amy laugh as they place clothes over the other one, posing with them and then draping some over their arms and rushing to try them on.

It's been waiting for you

Welcome to New York, Welcome to New York

Amy nervously tries to skate out into the ice ring, wanting Sonic to hold her hand again and balance her. He shakes his head, folding his arms and calls her bluff. She straightens out and does an impressive jump, giggling and fretting that he knows her too well and saw right through her flirtatious trick.

It's a new soundtrack

I could dance to this beat (beat)

Forevermore

Boom!Amy and Japanese Amy listen to Sonic Mania vinyl in a music shop, laughing and dancing to it in a silly way. You could see them through a clear, slightly dirty window as a boy walks by with a Shadow backpack, and stares amazed at the two blurry images of pink characters he knows…

The lights are so bright

But they never blind me (me)

Sonic's sitting on a chair, about to take a bite of a New York Hotdog— or the locally called Hot Wiener— before his jaw slowly begins to close and he looks to see Amy and Boom!Tails dancing in the square, full of lights and advertising on the hug television screens above them. With all the lights dancing around Amy, he stares at her for a long time, smiling at how happy she looks.

Before he could think about it, the orange code lit up again, and he scarfed his favorite meal down and let the plastic hit the table and blow off slightly while he raced to where they were. Welcome to New York!

It's been waiting for you

Welcome to New York, Welcome to New York

Mind if I cut in?

He took Amy's hand and started spinning her around, dipping her like in the famous WW2 picture, the V-J kiss, which was shot in Time Square.

Amy blushed, covering her face as he teased he may just kiss her, but looking to Boom!Tails…

He was a flushed out red, stiff as a board, and quickly hid his face from the scene as Sonic looked a bit embarrassed at his actions and Amy laughed, kissing his cheek and getting Sonic to lean her up and out of his embrace. He gave her a comical smile and scolding look, but the two laughed anyway.

When we first dropped our bags on apartment floors

Took our broken hearts, put them in a drawer

Japanese Amy slowly opened a door, putting her luggage down and placing a hand to her heart. Sonic was trying to call her… but…

She knew he would want her to go back, and she had to find American Amy first…

She took out the pulsing bit of code, the kind that Sonic could contact, and looked torn as she put it in the hotel drawer and pushed it in.

Everybody here was someone else before

And you can want who you want

American Amy laid down on some grass in Central park with Sonic close by her side, hands behind his back and enjoying the view and nightlife happening around them. She leaned up to get a better look at him…

He looked down and smiled.

Boom!Tails, just a little further up the small incline they were resting on, noticed their interaction and looked a little touched. He sighed, his eyes drooping, as he pulled out a pen with a puppy on it and a notebook with the same dog and wrote, Dear Zooey…

Boys and boys and girls and girls

Welcome to New York!

It's been waiting for you

Welcome to New York (x2)

Japanese Amy and Boom!Amy leave the hotel in new clothes, overly dressed and ridiculously fancy but fun outfits as they race down to catch a cab.

It's been waiting for you

Welcome to New York, Welcome to New York

It's a new soundtrack

I could dance to this beat (beat)

American Sonic and Amy look over a balcony as Amy leans her head onto his shoulder. He smiles and leans his head back to hers as orange code flares up again.

Forevermore

The lights are so bright

But they never blind me (me)

Japanese Amy stares up in awe, riding a boat and seeing the Statue of Liberty. Boom!Amy laughs and takes a picture as a young man looks up from his video game. He sees a random, almost faded flash and squints his eyes, not sure if what he saw was correct.

He's playing Sonic Forces on his Nintendo Switch.

Welcome to New York! (New York!)

It's been waiting for you

Welcome to New York, Welcome to New York

Boom!Tails peeks from on top of his plane, seeing the two completely absorbed in the sights and sounds… but most importantly, in each other.

He rubs his head. How is he going to tell them..?

He turns back around and sighs, looking at the reviews and seeing it's not so bad.

He decides to take courage… pumping himself up, he forms fists, bounces them only once in front of himself, and turns around to tell them…

However…

Like any great love, it keeps you guessing

The two turned to stare at each other as thousands of light streamed and blinked behind them. Sonic leaned down to touch the tip of his nose to hers as she smiled and blushed… a neon pink on her cheeks to match the lights behind her.

Like any real love, it's ever-changing

Japanese Sonic finally stops trying to call, looking at his data to see where she is so late…

His eyes look unamused when he sees she's already in America.

That girl…

He smirks, a orange light glowing from his cheeks…

Like any true love, it drives you crazy

Japanese Amy stares up at the sky… thinking of him… the view zooms out away from her quickly as she connects with all her other selves around the world. She can close her eyes and feel that they're all in the moment too… then she senses American Amy leaning up for a kiss…

Her eyes shot open wide.

But you know you wouldn't change anything, anything!

Japanese Amy celebrates by jumping around and dancing, causing Boom!Amy to wonder what's going on when Japanese Amy takes her hands and starts explaining. The two suddenly freak out with squeals of delight and jump around, elated at the news.

Anything…

American Amy and Sonic kiss.

Welcome to New York!

It's been waiting for you

Japanese Amy and Boom!Amy open their hotel room and jump on the beds, laughing with all their bags upon bags of souvenirs and clothes.

Welcome to New York(x2)

It's been waiting for you

American Amy and Sonic's kiss grows deeper as their heads tilt and Sonic's hand goes up to cup her cheek…

Growing uncomfortable, Boom!Tails blushes and looks around for an escape route. He flies back into the plane; or rather, hops-skips-and-jumps into the cockpit to avoid ruining the moment and seeing such a… odd sight…

Welcome to New York, Welcome to New York

It's a new soundtrack

I could dance to this beat

The lights are so bright

But they never blind me

Japanese Amy looks off into the distance, a victory smile with a look in her eyes like…

Finally.

Finally…

She thinks about the first American Amy…

Then second…

We did it.

Boom!Amy turns to see a boy staring at them, dropping his phone in console in awe.

Uhh… Japan?

She tries to turn to her, outstretching her arm to warn her.

However, she's off in Lalaland. So relieved. Everything is finally going well for her and her kind…

Welcome to New York!

New sound track

It's been waiting for you

Welcome to New York

The lights are so bright,

but they never blind me

Suddenly, without American Amy and Sonic knowing, there are camera flashes all below them. They part as Amy mouths 'I love you' and Sonic seems about to open his mouth to say something back before the two look over the edge and gasp.

They turn back to each other with freaked out faces, guilty and alarmed as they turned to Boom!Tails.

Opps.

Start the engine!

Welcome to New York

So bright, they never blind me

The song begins to fade a moment as you can hear a paparazzi man call out to them, "Hey, give us another kiss!"

"Mama, that's Sonic the hedgehog!" A child says as a mother looks oddly up towards the two.

"What kind of publicity stunt is this?" Another man says.

"Hey," A man lowers his camera, talking to his friend. "How much you think SEGA had to pay to get holograms up there, eh?"

Welcome to New York,

The boy on the boat gets up, pointing shakily at the girls and walking towards them as if he's seen a ghost.

"You're… you're…"

Now Japanese Amy turns around, horrified that he can see her.

Welcome to New York.

(Song ends)

"DRIVE!"

Sonic cries out as he grabs Amy and throws the two of them onto the plane.

As they crash into it, Boom!Tails turns the plane on and they hurry to disappear into the electric phone lines.

Once turning to a spark of electricity, they make their way back to San Francisco...

"Oh, this is bad, this is bad!" Sonic frantically tries to get a hold of Modern Tails. "Come on, man! Pick up the phone!"

"Calm down! Sonic…" Amy reaches up to stop him, patting his chest. "Hehe, silly. They've already seen us in the game. It's fine."

Boom!Tails's eyes shrink in horror.

He gulps.

"A…Actually… that's what I've been trying to NOT tell you…" he hunched a bit down in the plane, worried about his timing being off…

"Huh?"

The two stared at him, completely unknowing.

"Amy missed the gig." Japanese Tails looked to Sonic, who was pretty easy-going about it, shrugging. His hands were up behind his head and he was moving at his leisure.

"She's a big girl, Tails. She can handle herself."

"Have you seen the news?" Tails's eyes lowered in agitation.

Immediately, Sonic felt a twinge of panic…

Back in America, the news was littered with the 'SEGA Rooftop Kiss' and you better believe it caught attention. Luckily for Japanese Amy and Boom!Amy, anyone who took pictures failed to capture their essence on the film, and they escaped without much press.

However… In the case of American Sonic and Amy, they just so happened to have 'sparked to life' so to speak, near a well-respected retro-game shop. The distinct had seen the two and called a famous Game Informant who called his buddies who called their guys and soon the whole of the gaming newscast was taking pictures of the 'publicity stunt' that SEGA had 'allegedly' put together in New York City.

Now the real problems began…

Japanese Amy picked back up the data she discarded momentarily into the drawer, seeing it ringing like wildfire now… she didn't know what was really going on.

"…Moshi, Moshi?"

Back in Japan, Sonic smirked, thinking she knew what was going on and probably staged it…

Though, he already knew about the scene being taken out… the Gig she was supposed to go to would have revealed it regardless to them… but…

Maybe that's why he didn't care that she didn't go?

He put his hand on the coded receiver and winked to Tails, "I've got this. Ehem." He cleared his throat, making a face and leaned softly back to the 'coded phone'.

"…I miss you…"

Japanese Amy's eyes widened and she immediately responded, "I'm coming."

She hung up the phone and looked dead into Boom!Amy's eyes, "I have to go." She stated, and began to race out like a jet.

"Wait!" Boom!Amy helped pick up her luggage and bags they had virtually created identicals for. "What's going on? Is Japan okay?

"It's urgent!" she kicked the door open, looking frantically back to her and puffing her bangs out of her face. "It's a matter of life and death!"

Japanese Sonic, once the phone connection ended, grinned and let the code fly back inside him. "Works every time." He teased.

"When are you going to get her under control! She's could have just ruined SEGA of America's standings! They'll lock her up for good this time!" Japanese Tails gripped his head, "I just don't want her to get in trouble!"

"Relax, Tails. Amy's the original. They wouldn't dare touch her." He patted Tails's back and walked on, moving to Hoshi's desk. "Besides… They'll have to go through Dr. Hope first." He winked to Hoshi, who looked up and smiled to him before turning shy and embarrassed. He rubbed his face and chose to be silent, getting back to work.

"Uh-huh… act dumb to it." Sonic stuck his tongue to the side of his upper teeth, just being silly and funny. "How long are you going to keep Sophie waiting?" he kicked the edge of his desk and ran, making Hoshi lean forward to swipe at his feet like he would a playful child, but then got back to work again.

"She likes you!" he called out behind him, still dashing through the halls. "Callllll heeerrr!"

Hoshi just shook his head, silently chuckling to himself.

Even if that was the case… he was still nervous about calling her.

Japanese Tails sighed, "Fine. If he won't take this seriously, as usual,… I'll take matters into my own hands." He began to call American Tails. "Let's find out the damage cost…"

"And so you see, gentlemen. Love in video games is simply a dead-end loop. It can't go anywhere, and so it spins and spins… and to any good gamer, this cycle is—boring, boring…" A meeting was being held secretly, privately, but all of Sonic Team was involved.

In the flesh, they were present. And the presenter himself… too.

He had a loop on his powerpoint, and used his long pointer to keep circling it, over-exaggerating the points but making it clear how ridiculous this 'love-affair' idea was.

"Take it from a business standpoint. You want to evolve to times but not change the core roots of your fundamentally successful franchise. With 'disobedient' code or the ridiculous notion of 'free will' that is being instilled within your product… don't you think that's a bit… dangerous? Haven't we seen the cost of such-" he clicked to the next slide, showing the ruins of what Eggman had done to their facility not too long ago… "He's wrecked more than one place… hasn't he?"

"Mr. Clyde… do you suppose this has anything to do with Dr. Hope's influence over our characters?" A man translated for one of the Japanese participants, all sitting in shadows with their hands mostly together, politely listening and professionally making decisions…

"…Why yes." He slurred in a whispering hush, cross with anger and a desire to destroy… "I would say she's the prime reason you're in this predicament."

One sat back, not liking to hear that.

"You, sir. Do you have an objection to my observations?" he leaned over the table, not being intimidating on his face, simply an inquiry, but his body language suggested… otherwise…

"Cyrus Clyde…" The man spoke his name the best he could in his native tongue, "You were reported to have aggressively attacked Dr. Hope before… were you not?"

He fidgeted slightly, "You can't honestly believe that I would. Verbally, I was reprehending her for her foolish notion that a fictional character could possess her, now that, I will admit." He nodded, "But her ideas are, forgive me, looney and childish. She hopes for a world ruled by robots for crying out loud." He mocked with a sinister sneer.

"You laugh too boisterously." Another Japanese man, being translated, straightened himself out as the translator took further notes as he spoke, speaking what he wrote previously as he did so. "I like the idea. Treasuring our characters as people. Seeing them as such. What I don't tolerate, is that for some unknown reason… their lives are leaking into ours. And furthermore, our business suffers from their cartoon follies."

"I would still call them the follies of a foolish girl who calls herself a scientist!" he scoffed again, leaning up. "She pursues her own interests. She only wishes for those 'fuzzy' and 'warm' feelings that girls often get when their infatuated with the idea of love. They… oh… push their ideals onto characters and at times—though it's clearly not right—we can use that to our advantage and spread some free publicity-"

As he went to take a breath, he was cut off by one of the officials.

"Free is free, Mr. Clyde."

"But free comes with a cost… Sir." He spoke directly… but refrained from sounding threatening. "You see… They then try to push their ideals on us. The image of our characters and our company could be ruined if such things go unchecked. My purpose… is to get rid of Sonic's 'new data' and reprogram him to the way we liked him. Doesn't that sound like an easy fix? Take away all those memories and 'free will' shenanigans and make him what he is! A TOY!" he slammed his fist into the table, making the men watch him carefully or grip the sides of their chairs.

"Heh… forgive me." He lifted up his shaking hand, turning around and taking out some pills. He took two and quickly shook his head to get them down without water, before turning around with a twisted smile… "He's just a product… we place him, we market him, we sell him… end of story." He was sweating slightly and rubbed his head. "Any questions..?"

The men looked to each other before sitting more uprightly and leaning towards the table.

"Mr. Clyde… despite your actions previously to one of our employees… we would like you to work with Dr. Hope."

His smile twitched slightly.

"We think that you two are, very much, like Yin and Yang. Although your viewpoints and ideals do not line up…" the man slid his fingers together in front of him. "When unified, can make a strong force to be reckoned with."

"We're polar opposites."

"Opposites can attract… Mr. Clyde." The man nodded, rising from his seat and looking to his colleagues. "This meeting is over. Mr. Clyde?"

Cyrus stared at the table in front of him, holding back the anger he felt at being placed in a job where someone else was co-running the show….

He looked up, politely keeping it together.

"…Welcome to SEGA." They extended a hand out to him.

He nodded, "Much obliged." He shook the man's hand.

Dr. Hope sipped her soda, looking at the Gamer news and laughing to herself. "Well,… that's one way to rebel." She snickered, "I would have been a bit more discrete though, you two…"

"That wasn't on purpose."

She flipped the magazine down, looking at Sonic as he seemed tensed and agitated.

"Uh oh." Dr. Hope smiled. "Let me guess. You want to fix it for you?"

"The Board will think I'm nothing but an irresponsible teenager." Sonic kicked the ground a moment, moving away and folding his arms, moving his head left and right as if he couldn't decide where to look upset at.

"Heh! You want me to do something? About another one of YOUR problems?" she sipped her drink before Sonic raced to the middle of the room when he saw through the window of the office who was coming.

"You!"

"Yes, and the little blue devil." Cyrus opened the door, wearing his best and walking in with his infamous clipboard. He stared Sophia down but kept a neutral look on his face. "Doctor." He mocked.

She spat out her soda, wiping her face quickly with a tissue on her desk and rose up, "CLYDE?! I thought they dragged you off back to your angry den!"

"… Haha. Very funny." He said in a deadpan way. "Did your mother teach you how to insult people?"

"AH!" she burst a bubble of air out of her lungs and held back her tongue. "What are you doing back here!? I thought you were fired!"

"And I thought you were simply 'possessed' by some… data-compound taking the life of Doctor Eggman?" he closed the door, smiling as if both ideas were ridiculous.

"No, SEGA of Japan thought me to essential to replace me."

"…I heard you claimed a medical charge…" she glared.

"…I have some right to secrecy, do I not?"

"Secrets, no. Rights, yes." She challenged him.

"…Then I simply plead the fifth." He shrugged, pouting his lips. "Oh, does that make you mad?"

She flinched her balled fists.

"Look here, I'm not happy about co-working with you either." He was pulling out some papers before her jaw dropped.

"CO-WORKING!?"

"Marketing. Don't worry, I wouldn't dare dream of touching your previous 'video game therapy' degree…" He then stopped shuffling for a moment, "Oh wait." He looked up. "There isn't one." He lowered his head like a child would, "My mistake…"

"Quit the act. What do you want..?"

"For my product to flourish. Doesn't everyone? When they're given a paying job?!" He slammed the documents down and approached her more severely intimidatingly…

"Now listen carefully… they believe your little 'sonamy' stunt has triggered chaos, and I believe to keep it that way." He glared her dead in the eyes… "But unfortunately, they still have some loose faith in your beliefs of a 'cultured AI' and hope to make some sort of moral profit off of it. So let me make this very clear… I'll be presenting my own case, and you—yours." He slid a tape over to her, never taking his eyes off of hers.

She felt so uncomfortable… but strangely… being this close to him…

It was weird, he actually looked attractive… if his attitude wasn't being such a-

"All you need to do is create a brief on your 'Sonamy Initiative' and why it would be better if it DOESN'T go through… I'll make a brief about if it does." His sneer only proved his true intentions. "Do I make myself clear? Or should I say, does the Boss make himself clear?"

She swallowed, she hadn't noticed how intensely colorful his eyes were.

"…Doctor Hope?" he raised an eyebrow, unsure why she wasn't speaking.

He took a second to see her face turn white and lean back, and wondered if he really made an impression on her at last or not.

"Right, um, sure. Yeah. How many weeks?"

"Weeks?" he scoffed a laugh. "DAYS!" he swung a finger up. "The AI counsel is being held in 2 days. The Japanese officials still want good relations with all of Sonic's clones. Until then-!" he stopped at the door, taking out some pills… before placing them back and concealing them in his pocket. "…Have a lovely day… Miss Hope." He nodded to her, a little bow, before he looked to Sonic. "…Adieu." He speedily left the office before something spiked up in him again.

"…That guy… what stick was shoved up his butt?" Sonic gestured back to him, mimicked a walk with something up the butt as Hope chuckled but sat down, fanning herself a second.

"...Hehheh… uh, Hope?"

"Sorry, Sonic. I just… I thought I was used to confrontation by now." She hurriedly took the documents and began to organize them.

Sonic slowly moved up to her, leaning his nose onto the desk and looking at the papers, then her.

"…You okay?"

"Y-yeah… yeah… he's crazy, right?" she accidentally fumbled some papers to the ground. "Shoot!"

"Cock it first." Sonic teased in a deadpan way, he was too worried about her to really care about the joke at the moment.

"…Hope…?" he leaned down with her, but didn't go for the paperwork to help her.

"…" she covered her eyes.

"…He yelled at you… it's okay to be a bit startled by him appearing again."

"No… it's not that, Sonic. But… Thanks. Thanks for checking in." she quickly composed herself, unsure of what she was feeling but thought it disgusting and quickly put the papers back up. They were crinkled, but at least they were all there. "I think I have a lack of sleep, that… that's all."

"….Okay." Sonic got back up and shuffled the papers into one file.

Then he looked at the tape.

"Well, I gotta get to work." She swiped the tape up, but he still followed it with his eyes.

"Sorry I can't really discuss your blunder right now Sonic."

"…S'okay…" the phone suddenly rang, and Sonic answered it immediately, not liking being brushed off. Hope wasn't talking to him… why?

"Hello!?... Huh? Who's Hoshi?"

"Oh," Sophia took the phone, "Hey! Hi! I-I mean, Moshi moshi!" she corrected herself, stumbling.

Sonic watched her talk and got bored, he could see she was startled but didn't want to go into it. He sighed and shrugged, kicking the ground and not wanting to leave without her coming clean.

Still, he respected her decision in not saying what she was feeling and headed out.

"Yeah…Yeah… Okay. Hai. Hai…" she looked up to see Sonic heading out... a bit of guilt hung on her face. He was like… her best friend by now… and she couldn't tell him the weird sensation she just had. "Right… okay. Oh, it's nothing. Just that I think Sonic has become more sensitive and aware of people's feelings… I think that's because of Amy too… the closer he gets the more he-… wait. That's it!" Sophie jumped back in her chair, spirits heightened and distracted to a new idea. "I'll have to call you back, Hoshi! Bye!"

-Click-

"Oh… Okay… Talk to you later."

Hoshi hung up the phone… but first, he listened to the long drawl of the dial tone…

Knuckles stood by him, shaking his head, and patting his back.

"Long distance is tough, man." He walked by him, "Keep at it, champ."

Hoshi, with his back bent and his fingers aching from typing code all day… just took a breath in and went back to the glow of his lone computer screen…

-The Council of AI's, once again-

"A tape?" French Amy took a bite of the virtual muffins and cupcakes displayed on the meeting room's table. "What for? I thought we won?"

"It's not about winning or losing." Korean Amy looked a bit worried about this topic. "It's about whether we're happy or not. We want Sonic to be just as happy. We want SEGA to be happy too. We have fans, friends, and so many others who are relying on us. We should consider this rivalry between the Doctor and this man as a good compromise. We may still luck out and-"

"Although that's very reasonable, don't you think America's gotten a bit too… carried away?" German Amy flashed the newspaper out as the girls suddenly stopped discussing to giggle.

American Amy, super embarrassed, dipped her head.

"Why are you being coy about it? Own up! You got what you wanted, right? Who cares what the rest of the world thinks!" French Amy took another cupcake, but Korean Amy just gave her a look.

"We need to be sensible…"

"Ehem."

The Amys turned to Japan, who rose to her podium and took a deep breath.

"It… has come to my attention that our actions are causing a lot of hurt… and worse." She looked down, feeling the guilt sink in and mourning of her belated friend. "We all lost a sister recently… it's great to hear the Sonics are trying to work with us… but this code…" she touched her heart. "…And his code… It's still very new and can be considered… dangerous."

She bent her ears back, not making eye contact with the rest of them as they looked confused.

"What are you saying, Mom?" Spanish Amy stood up then, "I want to fight! Freedom to love! Freedom to love!" she cheered, but Japan looked sorrowfully to her.

"Freedom indeed… but Sonic spoke to me recently about the predicament between America and Japan… Right now, our companies are very uneasy with us. In fact… it may be worse than I'm letting on…" She tried to grip the podium, unsure how to say this…

"I know we've fought hard but…"

American Amy leaned her head up, looking to America in shock.

"…I think we shouldn't give up-" she stated quickly, rising her head and closing her eyes. "But I think we should definitely consider… holding back a bit… and letting this all go by smoothly. Our company will know what to do."

"Better than our own hearts?"

"We're just gonna let the company take over? Is that it?"

"Everyone…" Japan lowered her eyes… having opened them to see the look of hurt and discouragement from her other selves… They all were still fired up to do something. They were hoping for another rebellion but…

"This time, Emi… It would mean a lot to me if you could control yourselves." Japanese Sonic spoke to her privately, his back facing her as he folded his arms.

His tone was serious and not at all how she liked it… but she knew he was right.

"I… I'll do my best." She looked away, submitting to the inevitable fact that America's actions may have caused the last straw.

"…Emi." Sonic turned around, a softer look in his eyes as he walked closer to her, turning around to do so and hold out a hand to gesture to her. "It's honestly just not working like this… if we don't include the company's mind on this… if we don't settle their fears…"

"We're doomed to fail?" her eyes teared up, looking up to him. "Sonikku… I don't… I don't want to lose what we have." She wiped her eyes, crying slightly. "I just… want to continue being happy with you… being loved by you… loving you as my code allows me to… without any interruption from any company ruling or-or-!"

He pulled her head into his chest, patting it lightly. "I know… I'm sorry… Emi, don't cry. It's not the end of the world."

"…It is for me… it will be for them."

Japanese Amy looked back up to see her other selves arguing, contending with one another about whether they should do something or not.

She looked slowly around the room, to each of their faces, seeing the mixed emotions… seeing how culture played into that.

She then looked to American Amy, who was trying to speak up over the girls, but ended up quieting down and ducking her head into her hands.

The pain that she showed was too much for Japan to bear.

All she saw was her precious friend suffering… and the memories of the other American Amys…

She burst out of the room, dashing to the bathroom and shoving virtual water in her face.

"NO!" she cried out, hitting the sink. "I don't want to quit! I don't want to have someone tell me how to love him!" she fell to her knees, sobbing…

"…It's not, Emi."

Sonic's voice pierced through her despair.

She remembered the memory of him pulling her away then, and smiling to her so reassuringly.

She lifted her head up, looking in the mirror at her virtual reflection in the real mirror…

"It can never end… cause we never—truly— end."

"…Japan?" British Amy peeked her head into the room, before closing the door politely and looking spooked at the American bathrooms. "Blimey. Do Americans not know anything about privacy?"

It cheered Japan up a little bit. She smiled and wiped her tears away, giggling.

"Oh, love…" British Amy's eyebrows bent back in empathy. Quickly, she moved to her side and fell by her knees. "Don't cry… we'll get this sorted out. Honest we will. It's been more than we've ever had before anyway…" she tried to help comfort her, but Japanese Amy shook her head. "No… It's really bad this time. Their considering not showing any interaction between me and Sonic… at all." She sniffled. "Eggman just so happened to use us as scapegoats. Their saying that Sonamy is the reason all this happened, not just Eggman acting on his own…"

"What!? That's ridiculous!" British Amy huffed, but patted her back and placed her hands on her shoulders. "I don't really know what we should do… but laying low does sound like a good solution…"

Japan burst into tears again, leaning forward. "But if we lay low-!... if we give up-!... they may never let us be with Sonic again!" she poured her heart into her tears… crying into her hands. "Everything I did up until the first American Amy… I did for him. But then… I found that American Amy just wanted to be loved… and I realized… I had felt the same way without realizing it… It wasn't just Sonic who I felt needed to love me… I forgot to love myself." She used the back of her wrist to wipe the rest of the water out of her eyes, feeling the wetness on her glove now.

British Amy just sad quickly by her side… listening…

"If that was a glitch… to become self-aware and loving more than just the love you were programmed to feel… then maybe we should all just glitch."

"Amy!"

"It's true!" Japanese Amy glared up at Britain. "Think about it! For once, think about if you love yourself more than Sonic!"

Britain seemed stuck for a moment… as if she was afraid too.

"See? It's something we normally would never consider… we've matured so much because of American Amy's sacrifice…"

"…We all miss her… but she was flawed." Britain tried to defend herself. She lightly placed her hands back on Japanese Amy's shoulders. "We're naturally happy… not needed anything extra but happy to accept it. We accepted her strangeness because we're naturally accepting of others weaknesses and strengths. We barely noticed her glitches because we all admired her new found spirit and drive. But you have to admit, this is getting a little too… well,…" she looked away, worried about being insensitive.

"Don't say another word about American Amy." Japan finally sat to a squat, getting herself ready to go back out into the meeting room. She rose with dignity this time, staring down at Britain. "She may have been crazy from her glitches… but she was the betterment of us all."

Britain's face fell into sorrow, her memory of her old sister finally exposing itself upon her face. She truly did miss that spirit of which Japanese Amy had spoken.

"You're the original." She stated bluntly, then looked back up to her, "…Whatever you say… whatever you do … we all follow. Whether by will or code,… we are you."

Japanese Amy stepped back, a little surprised by that comment, but realizing where this was headed, she didn't want to hear it. "No, s-…stop!" she plugged her ears as British Amy stood up, walking toe to toe with her.

"…If you favor glitches of yourself more than yourself… your true, coded self… then doesn't that mean you don't like yourself at all? And that's what American Amy exposed in the first place?"

"STOP!" Japanese Amy spun around, a bit hysterical before her eyes widened to see American Amy standing by the door.

She could feel her code… she knew which one it was.

"…America…" She slowly removed her hands from her ears.

America looked into both her eyes before dipping them down and away from the girls…

"…Spanish took the others and went to steal Clyde's tape." Her hand lingered on the door… before slowly dipping it down.

"I couldn't do it. She said I wasn't America then… I was just some copy-paste of…" she held her tongue,…

But then looked Japan in the eye.

"You."

"Is she glitching?!"

"…."

"If she is, we need to stop her. Get her looked at right away."

"The company… this really will be the last straw."

"We don't have much time."

"What do we do!? Why didn't you stop her, America!?"

"…I…"

"Enough."

Japan Amy looked to the window of the bathroom… seeing it's blurred out image and the light barely escaping through…

"I'm so sorry,… Sonikku…" one last tear fell from her face. She wiped it and looked fiercely back to the two. "We're going to help."

They both looked shocked to hear that.

"We're going to end this… even if it means they have to touch me up. I'm through with living like this… my life is wonderful… but without my own self-love…" she looked down.

That's when a memory was triggered in American Amy.

She saw Sonic and her in a store… she saw two children playing… and then-

"There may be some opposition against you…" Sonic began, slowly letting his arms droop from their tense hold on the Toys R' Us shelves. "But there are billions of people who love and support you, that care about you. And it's wrong to assume that your unloved just by one kid's opinion of what you're doing, or who you are." He looked up to Amy.

Through her own memory, she saw herself smile and look back to him, realizing he got what he was doing wrong with that one foul comment.

"Well, we can't all be loved by everyone, but the people who do love us hold us dear to their hearts, and won't let us down."

"… or go…" he placed his arms around her other life, making that Amy freak out a moment as her quills stood on end. "Thank you Amy… for not giving up on me." He gave her a hug, the first hug she didn't have to initiate before.

"…We have to remain calm when opposition strikes."

American Amy walked forward, transferring the hug that Sonic had once given that first American Amy over to Japan.

She felt something…

"…America..?"

It felt like the first Amy… for just a second… Was this Amy using her memory code that Sonic given her?

"We can't give up on ourselves. Change is inevitable. So are opinions. But the most important opinion is not always ours. It's those who love us, that hold us dear, that care about us, that support us. We can't please the world… we can't always please ourselves… but we can please those who deserve it. Those who truly have stuck by us and made us better. I'm begging you, Japan… Don't be sad that the world doesn't understand who we are… be glad that Sonic now does."

That broke her.

She cried and cried and cried.

Belting out her sorrows and lifting her head up to do so.

All the feelings from death and rebirth, from worry and strife all the way across the sea from her suffering friend,… it all came out then.

It was the most human she had ever felt before.

Even more than when she was with Sonic… believe it or not.

With all those built-up emotions freshly washed out of her system, she held—once again— a strong stance and wrapped her arms around the front of where American Amy had her hands around her.

"…Thank you… For letting me cry…"

"Thank you… for helping me remember who I am."

Japan's eyes widened, and she turned to her, only seeing a smiling face and eyes clear from any errors or worries.

"Let's find our other copies."

"We should warn the Sonics."

"Britain, you tell the Sonics. Tell them that Japan-" she stood confidently beside America, and took her hand boldly and proudly. "And America." They smiled lovingly to one another. "Are on the job!" she nodded to Britain, and the two friends raced out to stop the other Amys.

-Dr. Hope's Office-

"Hagalo!" (Do it!)

"Spanish, hold on… I can't tell which tape this is."

"Just take it!"

"Would you stop pushing me, ahh!"

The Amys fall down from reaching up the shelves to receive the tapes.

Two tapes fall, as Spanish rubs her head.

"Great. I think I got a bruise now…"

"Amys!"

Japan and America start rushing down the hall, "Stop!"

Hands still in the others, they rush as one to stop any further calamity from happening… or at least… from getting to the company's ears.

"Shoot! It's mom!" Spanish grabs a tape, "Let's go!"

"Vamonos!" (Let's go!)

The Amys look confused, but follow after Spanish as they dash out of the office and start for the stairs.

"They're fast!" America notices.

"But we're much faster!" Japan grins, using her original data to create her Airgear from Sonic riders. "Let's do this!" she pulls American Amy up as she jumps onto it.

The two fly down the stairs as the other Amys get worried, gasping.

"Out the window!"

"Again!?"

"Girls, stop!"

"We've worked too long and hard for this! Some of us even died!" French turned to point directly to America. The two stopped as the board tipped the top of itself up and then hovered to a stop.

"…France…"

"I won't let them ruin it again!" France clutched her fist close to her heart, looking away and down at the floor. "Maybe Spanish is right… maybe we need to start fighting again…"

"French Amy, listen to me!" Japanese Amy offered her her free hand. "None of us want to give up what we gained with Sonic!"

France looked back to her, softening her expression.

"You're the only one of us that has ever had Sonic confess openly about his feelings too! Didn't you always boast about that? There's still a chance we can make things right! For everyone's sake! I get what you're saying, I really do… but you'll make things worse if you don't come to reason!"

"…Just because someone says I love you…" French Amy turned away, looking out the window and hanging her torso slightly over it…

"Doesn't mean they ever show you much…"

"France! Come on!"

"I never doubted Sonic… But…"

She rose her head up from its forlorn state.

"… I always wanted more… I just never wanted to push him… you know?"

American Amy could recognize her own words, and knew French wasn't glitching, just being lead by the other Amys along.

"France… Do you really think pushing the company is any different than pushing Sonic?"

Her back turned a moment… before she looked up to her sisters with tears in her eyes.

"No!"

She took her hand.

Japan and America had open smiles on their faces, overwhelmed with glee to see that she had joined them.

"Let's stop Spanish!"

The Sonic's had rushed to the office with British Amy, looking down at the tape they didn't take.

"…Oh no." Korean Sonic looked at the label. "They must have been in a hurry." He got up and took on a goofy grin. "Cause they're about to sabotage Dr. Hope's tape." He revealed that the tape was Cyrus Clyde's and not Dr. Hope's.

American Sonic smacked his hand into his head, a true all-out face-slap. "CRAP!"

The Sonics turned to British Amy, "We'll settle this, you go try and slow them down!"

"Right!" British Amy quickly leapt into action.

Japanese Sonic turned back to the others, "Spanish! Sounds like it's yours."

He stormed past Japanese Sonic, waving his hands out dramatically and rambling Spanish in a outrage. When he composed himself, he stomped his foot down and looked angrily back at the Sonics, "So now it's the Mexicans who glitch!? This is loco!" (Crazy).

"Calm down, we just have to catch up." American Sonic patted his shoulder and looked to the other Sonics, "Can't be too hard… right?"

They all remembered last time… and a small, playful smile grew on their faces.

"Even if it's kinda crazy…" German Sonic stepped out, clapping his hands comically, "You've gotta give it to them. They don't go down without a fight."

The boys nodded and raced out.

"You got wheels?" American Sonic winked, shifting into his Racing Transformed Car once out the window. It revved against the ground, creating a wiggle of black streaks before boosting out into the streets.

"I've got something cooler." Japan jumped out the window after him, but coded the new Team Racing car and offered the others the same coding. "We'll go faster if we work together!" he encouraged, and the others followed after him.

As he passed America, he saluted and laughed. "You always want to try and be the original, America." He looked both ways to make sure he wasn't gonna hit anyone before darting off. American Sonic pouted as the other Sonics sped past him, always throwing back little mocks here and there until he shifted to the same ride vehicle.

"Whatever! I forgot! Sue me." He teased back, catching up with them.

The Amys had already sped off in different rides, but Spanish had virtually coded a bike that was near the sidewalk and rode that, laughing as she looked over the tape. "Too bad you're not digital." She made a disappointed slant with her mouth before looking to see Korean Amy and German Amy talking to the other Amys, flying by their sides in their Sonic Riders bases.

"Pfft." She blew a raspberry and looked over her shoulder. "Aye!"

Spanish Sonic was helped to the front as he dived at her before she could respond.

They tumbled onto the ground with shoutings and lots of Spanish drama before tumbling into a river by the San Francisco bridge.

"Woah!" The other Sonics shifted to their airgear forms too, waiting…

"Data can't… you know… drown right?" German Sonic looked slightly worried, but the other Amys joined them.

"Glitching?" Japan rose a knowing eyebrow to his Amy, who weakly smiled with a shrug.

"M… Maybe?"

He kept staring at her… looking as though he was accusing her of something. "Em-hmm…"

"I didn't encourage her! I swear!" she pleaded, "I tried! Didn't I say I would try!?"

Then, after a few sound notes and the numbers 3, 2, 1… the two Spanish heads of Sonic and Amy burst out of the water and started fighting for the tape.

"Well… Dr. Hope's chances of presenting today are ruined… Judging by that tape's condition…" American Amy sighed, seeing the wet tape and how the two's thrashing was only ruining the tape further.

"…That's okay, Amy… I think I know what I'm gonna do." American Sonic took a deep breath. "Come on, guys… let's let this one go." American Sonic turned his airgear around, flying back to the company…

Japanese Sonic looked confused, shrugging to the others when they looked to him for answers. "At least it was quick." Japanese Sonic added, before the other Sonic and Amys started to turn around and head back too.

Japan swung his board around, and then looked down at the two still in the water, shaking his head.

He rolled his eyes at their Spanish quarrel and flew off back with the others.

As they all flew back, American Amy flew up to Sonic… she hadn't spoken to him since… the incident on the rooftops of New York…

"Sonic…" she tried to speed up through his turbulence and finally made it up close to his side. He looked concentrated and didn't seem very friendly at the moment… his mouth a strict frown and his eyes not even acknowledging her.

It hurt to see him reacting this way… but she had to say something, "…Can love… in the sonic series… really not work out?" she looked away a second, but desperately turned back to him, hoping for some reassuring words.

But unlike Japanese Sonic…

American Sonic kept his cool and didn't say anything for a moment.

He finally stops and the rest of the Sonics and Amys stop follow after them as he arches his airgear's line around her and then loops up in front of her.

"You really think this can work? After all your glitches and all their complaints?!" he gestured to the city in front of them, but she knew he meant the world. "Amy… I-!" he suddenly felt his code trigger… the orange light…

His code suddenly stopped… it froze him because he couldn't decide whether to stop and be loving or continue to be upset.

The little light streamed but never passed the crossroads of his coding. The bluish green light blinked orange a few times,… but Sonic didn't seem to allow it to go anywhere.

It pained Amy, seeing him pausing himself like that… to let his systems think upon it…

Finally, he came to and the orange light streamed up from his chest…

"Amy… I do care. But if I always care, look what happens…" he gestured to the other Sonics and Amys. "If Japan is constantly trying to appease you… to love you every second he gets…" he took his gesturing hand and formed a fist, staring at it. He looked torn… but he had to say it. "I… Want to love you… but I also want to be me." He turned his board around, "I can't go on adventures and be settled by your side at the same time, Amy… and if I had to choose…" he looked up…

And rode away.

Suddenly, Japan looked down at his code.

"…It's…"

He noticed the fading light… the old code was fading… and it was fading fast.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dr. Hope's Last Stand - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"-And that's why I counter Dr. Hope's argument about love in video games, and strongly urge the ending of this ridiculous notion towards Sonic and Amy having a visible relationship on screen." Clyde closed his slide and took his tape out, bowing respectfully to the council and then turning to Hope.

She felt the nerves of the moment, but didn't flinch this time from his look. She was trying not to think about it.

She cleared her throat and stood up, she wasn't expecting such an assembly…

It was a large room… large enough to present to all the guests who had their shares in SEGA's business…

She didn't realize they would be involved in all this…

Why was it such a big deal? Well, Eggman's actions had really ruined any chances of a peaceful discussion. It was now life or death. Sonamy or nothing of the sort…

That is… until Sonic met with her just this morning, when she found out her entire tape had been stolen and ruined in the San Francisco rivers.

"…Ladies and Gentlemen of the board." She walked steadily up to the stage, pushing the new tape in, and sweating at the fast-pace she had to work to make his plan possible.

"I regret to inform you that I won't be giving my personal opinion on this matter."

Clyde was about to sit down before his body flinched and he froze.

Without sitting, he turned around to her, giving her his full and undying attention…

What was she plotting now..?

His mind hissed as he slowly lowered himself to his seat, crossing his legs over the other and folding his arms.

"…My whole job is to be the middleman, or woman in this case,… between video game AI's operating within company bounds and expressing their side of the story or feelings upon their livelihoods upon which you control. It has come to my attention that I have been failing in my regard to report to you the feelings of Sonic The Hedgehog…"

"I highly doubt that." Cyrus scoffed, looking to the men behind him before smiling at her rough introduction. "Seems to me you made it pretty clear what they wanted with your little stunt in San Francisco."

"…." She held it together pretty well, taking a deep breath and looking up before holding her hands together in front of her. "Actually, that was them being young and reckless, as most pre-teens and teenagers are." She adjusted her bun on the top of her head and then smiled to the crowd. "Like I said, it would be hard to be the middleman if I'm not acting like one." She then clicked the tape to play. "That's why, Ladies and Gentlemen of the Council, I'm giving you what opinion really matters here…"

On the screen, a medium shot of Sonic was shown, looking off from the camera before using the back of his knuckle on his pointer finger to tap the screen. "Is it on, yet?"

Hope's voice was frantic behind the camera, but you could barely hear her say—Just talk and ruin my job, that's fine, that's whatever. I don't care. Does it look like I'm caring? The presentations in an hours and-

"Relax, Doc. I got this. Hello! Welcome to SEGA!" Sonic spread his arms out and then put his eye close to the camera, mimicking SEGA's new opening, "Sega…" he whispered dramatically before laughing and moving away. "I can't make my eye dilate on command, but I'm sure your animators could help me with that."

The crowd lightly laughed at that joke.

Dr. Hope stood to the side of the screen, silently praying that this was what they needed to hear.

"Now, I know we've hit some confusing times… I've become more powerful through popularity and… more reckless as is my nature… But I never meant to hurt anyone. And because I began hurting people… I became afraid of my nature." Dr. Hope looked back up at the screen, knowing this was as honest as he had ever been, even with her. "…I openly state I have mistakes. I never tried to hide them. Nothing created can ever be perfect without some help… I made my own decisions. Heh, bet that's something you didn't consider, eh? A living AI that took on its own persona you gave him and started acting on his own… well, here it goes. I'm done with being brushed aside. I have a new mandate, but it's as old as time. I think it's fun to have Amy around, but I also don't want to be around her 24/7. I think a impulsive kiss upon the rooftops is exciting, but not when it's made public. I want my love life private, if at all possible. Hints are whatever, but we're talking official things, right? This is Sonic The Hedgehog, I love who I want to and don't love when I don't feel like it. I say-" he put his hands confidently to the sides of his hips, smirking and keeping his head held high, making this declaration count. "As far as I'm concerned, the new data is gone. It ran its course and then malfunctioned. It became… obsolete." He looked down at his chest. "…Either way, it's not a problem anymore, right?" he seemed a bit sad to say that but continued on. "Old data, no matter how much you touch it up, is still old software. It ran its final course and honestly, I'm glad for what it taught me."

The officials looked to one another, then back to the screen.

"If you're out there… 'Dad'." He joked, bouncing his head around to mock the term. "Then hear this from your own creation… I'll love when and how I want. When I feel like it. Let's put it to rest there and just go have some fun on those rockin' adventures you crazy fools make up for me. After all… I'm just the guy who loves-" he cut himself off… he looked off from the camera and seemed to stare at Hope for a moment.

Hope teared up… remembering this part…

"…Who loves Adventure… Nothing but adventure and his-" he looked as though he was masking some pain, but kept it together and looked dead center into the camera. "Friends…"

The camera shut off.

"…There's been a lot of pain on the other side too… dealing with feelings that haven't been presented to their programming before." Dr. Hope shut the screen off and continued to talk, but Takashi Iizuka raised a hand up, looking around for the presentation to stop.

"That's enough." He concluded, and stood up. In a very relaxed matter, he spread his arms to his sides and clapped them up against his sides. "Sonic says he'll do what he wants. What else can we do?" the rest of the Sonic Team laughed, and then Takashi waved his hands up to encourage the rest of the supporters to also laugh too.

Dr. Hope almost felt like passing out. They had accepted what Sonic said as fact and law, it was amazing that they just wanted to know what was going on in his mind.

Once the meeting closed, Dr. Hope watched Clyde exit and followed after him. "Hey, dude!" she tried to stop him but he ripped his arm away from her clutches.

"Don't." he gave her a snarky look and then continued to walk on.

"Hey!" she cried out, getting frustrated. "What's your problem, huh!? I'm trying to make nice with you!"

"Hmph. You're trying to ruin something that isn't even real. Just do your job, whatever it is you actually do, and I'll do mine."

"I'm marketing too!" she grabbed his suitcase, causing him to stagger back as they had a tug-o-war really quickly in the hallway.

He looked around, making sure they were alone and then rammed her against the wall with the suitcase, using her force against her.

"AH!" she let out a cry of pain but he kept pushing up against it.

"Let me make this more clear. What on earth do you want!? Huh? You give up on your little girlish fantasies, congratulations. But now you have to grow up and realize Sonic isn't even a real person! You may have them fooled, but I know the truth, I've learned a long time ago." He shook his head, "You aren't fooling me with your CGI! They're just data bits! He's not even an actual hero!"

She threw him off, causing him to wobble backwards and fall onto the ground.

"So… someone told a poor kid that Sonic wasn't a real, walking and talking hedgehog, and so now you have to ruin it for the rest of the world?!" she stomped herself forward and dug her fancy heeled shoes into his chest, causing him let out a gasp of air from his lungs.

"That's pathetic! When you work in an industry like this, you have to retain some childhood wonder!"

"Easy for someone with wonder in their childhood to say." He gave a sarcastic smirk and then rose a kick high behind her, causing her to trip and fall as he climbed on top of her.

"Act your age! If you want to market, actually advertise what's there! Romance is stupid in video games!"

"What are you!? A freakin' pro gamer? Get off of me!" she once again tried to throw him, but he got a good grip and held her down.

"I'm trying to do my job! They don't need 'free will' or even a conscience! They're computers for crying out loud! They're figments of imagination! Do your job, and we won't ever have to speak to each other!" he tossed her aside and tried to get up, shaking his coat back into place but she took off her shoe and reached up to swing her shoe right into his face.

"Ow!" he got knocked down as the two squabbled and scraped again before they were sore and beaten up.

He had one side of his face red and starting to swell, both their outfits looking ruined, and their hair a complete mess.

They stopped and leaned up against the wall, huffing and puffing before resting a moment from their fight.

Then it happened.

He looked at the cuffs of his suit, and laughed.

He pinned them back into a nice look and looked to her, laughing.

She didn't know why, but she started laughing too.

"I haven't fought or… or-or wrestled like that in years!" he wiped a laughing tear from his eye. "Oh, you really are a child who hasn't grown up."

"Maybe you should scale down and remember what it was like." Her laughter slowed and waned a bit more than his, but she started to adjust her fancy suit pants.

He looked to see her do so and chuckled again, "Haha..! Glad you didn't wear a pencil shirt to this tussle, huh?"

She couldn't help but laugh again.

"Dude, you beat up a girl. That's not supposed to be funny." But she couldn't stop laughing…

"Haha! Oh please, you almost knocked me out twice!" he held up two fingers, "I'm not physically as fit as you, woman."

"Pig."

"Animal."

"Ruffian."

"Child."

The two slowly got up, him getting his suitcase and Hope trying to reach for her purse.

He saw her stretching and bent down to get it, "Lazy hag." He threw it to her and she hit him on the other side of his face.

"AH!" he fell again and she laughed and laughed.

As they walked out, well… mostly stumbling a bit with their bruises, Hope decided to try her techniques out on him…

"Not trying to counsel you or anything-"

"Does that mean you're warning me of your upcoming psychological analysis of me?"

"…Well, taking that out the window, I'll just speak more plainly. Why can't you see Sonic as a person anymore?"

"Heh, implying I did?"

"I know you did. You talk like a fan who's been crushed one too many times."

"…My childhood is none of your business…"

"Very well. But you can at least try and be more playful at work… Here." She took out some gum, handing it to him.

"…That's unprofessional."

"Oh, stop being a party-pooper and chew the gum."

"No."

"Boy."

"Man. And I'm not going to act like the delinquent you are."

"I am not! You're the snake in my Hedgehog Eden!"

"No Adam would want your Eve."

"AH!" she tackled into him again, shoving him against the wall.

"OFFPH!"

"TAKE IT BACK!"

"You're so violent!"

"You're so rude!"

"Act like a lady and s-stop-!" he got her off of him and she laughed, seeing him adjust his suit and cuffs again.

"You're gonna lose a button." She warned him, seeing how much into his looks he was.

"My hair is already falling out from your unorthodox working methods…"

"My what?"

"You're crazy! That's what! Do you hit on all your enemies?"

"Hit on?"

"You smacked me. You pulled on my suitcase first. And you shoved yourself against me just a second ago." He gestured to his property and then the wall.

"…Good golly, man. How old are you?"

"My sentiments exactly. I'm probably a year older or two then you but I act far more mature than-!"

"Dude, give it a rest. You're so boring, why would I ever flirt with you?" she walked over to get her thrown shoe from the scuffle beforehand and started to make her way to the elevator. "Just quit acting like the bad guy and just let loose your cuffs a bit, alright? You're suffocating your own wrist's circulation for crying out loud." She gestured back to it as he sneered.

"Outrageous. You should be confined to a nursery home."

"Are you saying I'm young?" she held the elevator for him while he stumbled inside, adjusting his shirt's buttons.

"I'm saying your mentally is liable for the rough scale of a children's nursery!"

"…If you said I'd be able to sign myself up for the Chao Garden kindergarten, then I would have laughed. But how you said it just sounds super boring, not even mature or funny in the least bit."

"It's meant to be an insult." He moved himself to the side of her, clicking the floor as she let the elevator door close.

"Didn't come out that way, you talk too much for it to be anything but talk." He looked up, waiting for the number he wanted to light up but she nudged his shoulder and sent him almost flying into the opposite wall.

He was stuck a moment trying to get his feet under him and she laughed again.

"Your insufferable!" he charged her and they laughed a moment while fighting more in the elevator.

When she walked out into the cold night air, she wondered what had just happened. Her feelings were a mess and the situation led her to believe she had just made a frenemy.

Suddenly, a fancy red sports car pulled up beside her, and not wanting to be cat-called—especially the beat up look she was showing off now—she decided to look away and reject the lookie-loo. "Look, dude. I don't care how much your car costs. I'm not interested."

"Actually… I just wanted to laugh at the miserable state your feet must be in."

She recognized the voice and turned to see him opening the car door, pushing it open as he parked the car and waited for her to get in.

"…Clyde." She glared.

He offered her the seat, rubbing it down and showing how fine the leather was.

"…Leather… in this California heat?" she rose an eyebrow.

He laughed and looked out his car window before looking back at her. "Look, I have a heart. It's fresh steel and barbed wire, but it's decent enough to tick when I see a woman looking as nasty as you are… realizing I'm half to blame."

She looked away.

"…Nice hair." He joked, and she dashed in the car to swat at him.

"Hahah! In the end, I'm a business man." He gestured for her to close the door. "I'm good at selling ideas."

"You can get to know those you sell too." she took off her shoes, letting an air of relief sweep over her as he asked where she was headed too.

When she mentioned the bus stop he laughed and called her poor.

They insulted each other all the way to her apartment before he got out the door and opened her side up, pretending to kick her out.

He took her hand and helped her out of the car…

Her hand tingled and she felt something strange spring up inside of her.

With wit and smooth charm, he convinced her to be civil the next time they see each other, and then left her with another sly remark about hanging up her shoes where the rest of her weapons may lay.

He drove off and she was left leaning against her building's door frame, wondering what on earth her heart was thinking…

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Sonic Mania Releases Again - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101010101

"We did it!" Sonic held up a toaster, "We sold so many!"

"Sonic Toasters." Tails shook his head, "Who knew?"

"Money goes into the most oddest of contraptions…" Knuckles looked over the toaster, peeking inside it before seeming to be alright with it and hooked it up to the wall, popping in some virtual toast.

"Yeah, well. It's neat." Sonic snickered, kicking the lower cabinets so his chair would push back to the table. "Where's Amy staying?"

"They've asked her if they could rearrange some coding…"

"…Hmm." Sonic stared at the table for a second, knowing what that meant… "And Spanish?" he asked as he sped over to the toaster, not even looking but the 'ding' went off and he took the toast.

"HEY!" Knuckles tried to snatch it away from him but Sonic sped back to his chair, already chewing.

Knuckles grumbled, taking the other one and biting the Sonic's burnt-on head off.

"Glitched." Tails stated, and there was a moment of silence… "But it's not like she's the first. The other Amys have-"

"Okay, thanks Tails." Sonic took the rest of the toast, and himself, and left the room.

As he did so, Tails looked a bit guilty, and turned to Knuckles. "What did I say?"

Knuckles sighed and shrugged, chewing his piece of bread contently now…

Sonic raced to the rooftops, pacing a moment and wondering why he couldn't sense Amy's code anymore…

He started working on his own little project when he heard a huff and some grunts.

He turned his ear to it… then quickly scrambled to get the programing in order and saved it to a file, licking the envelope and keeping it behind his back.

He peeked around to see Amy smashing cans and then hitting them with her hammer off the building.

For some funny reason, he wasn't terrified like he usually would have been. Instead, he smiled and looked to see her muttering to herself.

"Your programs just need a tune up. You just need a little fix here. Oh, that can't stay- blah, blah- I know what you're doing!" she slammed another defenseless can to the roof's floor and then bent down to grab it. "Sonic said this and Sonic said that… Well,… Sonic could have told me first." She threw it up, and like a bat to a baseball, she swung and it was knocked far and away from where she stood, making it's long decent down to the parking lot.

"Hey, Amy…" Sonic walked out then, being cautious of the hammer still, as he tapped his toe out a little ways before moving slowly closer to her.

She growled a bit and he stepped back, "Ooookay." He understood she wanted some distance, but watched her place another can on the ready… about to squash it with her hammer too.

"Just making sure you're okay."

She gave him a look and then crushed the can under the hammer.

He twitched an eye, "Heh… guess you heard?"

"We're just… at the beginning again, aren't we?" she kept at her batting practice while Sonic listened carefully.

"Not exactly…" He trailed his words out a bit.

"Not exactly..?" she stopped, looking like she had blown most of her anger out and dropped her hammer, swinging her arms around and faking that she was fine. "W-well what would you like to do then? Hmm? No adventure right now, that's all Genesis's doing. Oh? I'm sorry? Did you want some lovin' now? Am I the dirty little secret you can keep all to yourself? Well, sleep peacefully tonight, Sonic! I'm still madly in love with you to take what I can get! But I expect more than just a compromise on my end!" she went to smash the can off the rooftop but he quickly ran up behind her and lifted her up.

"H-hey!"

"Hold still a second… I asked Japan for a special favor…" he pressed the envelope up against her back.

"S-Sonic!?" she flailed a moment in the air before a new code entered her system.

She stopped struggling when she felt it… and slowly calmed down.

"…Is this..?" Her eyes softened as he set her down, smiling, and turned her around.

It was a passionate, 'I missed you' sort of kiss. Full of longing and excitement.

"Tah-dah! Secret! But not so dirty anymore." He kept a hand on her back, keeping her close, as she tried to process with her new code a 'kiss'.

Because the code she originally had didn't allow for such things, nor knew how to respond to it, the new code that Sonic embedded in her software now allowed her to process it and not be stuck in a processing loop.

She cheered and squealed, "You mean… you got him to let us..?"

"Just don't let SEGA know." He winked.

The two laughed and cheered as they spun around the roof… their little secret.

-Dirty Little Secret starts to play-

Let me know that I've done wrong
When I've known this all along

Sonic puts her down from spinning and the two rub noses before Amy chuckles and they rush downstairs.
I go around a time or two
Just to waste my time with you

Amy and Sonic pass Knuckles and Tails, Amy reaches out and grabs a piece of Sonic toast as Knuckles holds two new ones up in his gloved-hands. He's ready to bite down, unaware the first was stolen when Sonic also runs to snatch the other one from his adjacent hand, leaving him biting air as he looks around and 'HEEEY!'s back at them with an angry face. Tails just sighs and turns away.

Tell me all that you've thrown away
Find out games you don't wanna play

Sonic pulls her up against him as he pulls out some code and shows her Sonic Boom. She's confused at first, before she watches carefully and sees Sonic pointing to orange code.

Her face lights up in shock, covering her mouth as she realizes then that Boom!Sonic was born with the old code… it never faded out…

You are the only one that needs to know

I'll keep you my dirty little secret (Dirty little secret)
Don't tell anyone, or you'll be just another regret (Just another regret, hope that you can keep it)
Classic Sonic dashes by them, he jumps around, free-running, before Rosy sees he's coming and looks to an animator. She lightly tugs on his jeans, pointing to Sonic and then under his desk.

He looks around before nodding in his spinning chair to her and scoots over. She darts under and giggles silently, waiting for Sonic to pass by.

When he does, she pounces out at him and leaves him startled.

They roll around and the animator laughs, slapping his leg.

My dirty little secret, Who has to know?
When we live such fragile lives?
It's the best way we survive

Classic Sonic looks down at her, not amused.

She seems to be in a playful mood, laughing and trying to get off of him. She slides her hands to her sides and begins to walk them backwards, then adjusts her feet and leans up.

He rolls his eyes, laying perfectly still on the floor until he notices the whole room is watching and laughing at how cute they are.
I go around a time or two
Just to waste my time with you

Not liking the attention, Classic Sonic gets up speedily, still looking cautiously at the crowd, and then scoops Rosy up. He darts out the room and races above a cabinet in someone's office before scooting her into it with him.

Tell me all that you've thrown away
Find out games you don't wanna play

He looks around one more time… before pulling out orange code, smiling to her as she examines it, not fully aware of what it means.

Seeing that she's not fully understanding, he rolls his eyes and pulls her closer, yawning and leaning back as hearts fly around her and she lays in the crook of the top cabinets beside and on his round chest. He starts to doze off as the orange code turns to 0's and 1's, and Rosy gazes at their bright color.

She's completely at bliss, giggling and then closing her eyes to fall asleep too.
You are the only one that needs to know

I'll keep you my dirty little secret, (Dirty little secret)
Don't tell anyone, or you'll be just another regret (Just another regret, hope that you can keep it)

Japanese Sonic looks to check if Sonic transferred the code or not, when he notices he has he fist pumps in, smirking and hiding the screen from passing SEGA employers.

He then snickers and races to find his Amy.
My dirty little secret

Who has to know?

Japanese Amy looks up into the setting sun, holding an envelope of her own. Memories fly into code from all around her of her adventures with herself and her sisters… Finally… she dips the envelope down and with majestic dignity,… she releases the data.
The way she feels inside (inside)?
Those thoughts I can't deny (deny)

Sonic is still trying to find her, he looks around and slows down when he spots her up on the roof… and smiles. He looks on in awe as he walks to see the 0's and 1's of her memories fly off and fade into the sky as they disappear forever.

Deleting the old scars… once and for all… it seems.

His smile turns to respect and waits a moment before fully approaching her.
These sleeping thoughts won't lie (won't lie)
And all I've tried to hide
It's eating me apart
Trace this life out

Japanese Amy's eyes scrunch up, letting the old memories go seems very difficult to her, but if she doesn't have them… the other Amys won't suffer from those memories either. She shakes her head as sorrow, for the last time, enters her and she holds her hands up. They're placed as if holding something special, with the sides touching and the palms upwards… she lifts the last strands of data up… She won't forget… but she won't hold on to the pain of the data that it brought her.

Sonic did something similar… but this time… there was no going back.

I'll keep you my dirty little secret, (Dirty little secret)
Don't tell anyone, or you'll be just another regret, (Just another regret)

Seeing her sink to her knees, finally letting her anguish and guilt go, Sonic approaches and catches her right before she collapses. Sobbing, she finally opens her eyes to see the last of her feelings depart… No more suffering… No more old selves.

She leans her head back on his shoulder as he lightly presses his head against the side of her cheek, letting her know he's there for her as she lets the last of her mourning fade with the light.

I'll keep you my dirty little secret, (Dirty little secret)
Don't tell anyone, or you'll be just another regret (Just another regret, hope that you can keep it)
My dirty little secret

Once it's all deleted, she takes a few breaths and looks natural again. She turns to see Sonic and her face lights up. In a matter of seconds, she was back to her usual, bubbly old self again.

It was bittersweet, but Sonic allowed her to love on him and hug and try to kiss him as he ducked his head to avoid most of the smothering… he peeked up and smiled though… knowing that the other Amys…

Wouldn't glitch any longer…

Dirty little secret
Dirty little secret

Genesis over in Japan stood over the two, towering over with one leg down over the side of the edge and the other up, keeping balance.

He turns to the other side as Classic Amy rushes over, wondering what he's up too and looks to see her Modern self loving on Modern Japanese Sonic.

She gasps, wanting to love on him too, and jumps on Classic Japanese Classic Sonic. He stumbles with his balance, and the two fade from view as they topple over the side and onto the same roof floor where Sonic and Amy are.

Who has to know?
Who has to know?

Japanese Sonic and Amy then turn their attention to their younger selves, laughing.

Then Sonic Boom opens a door and Boom!Amy waves him, holding some popcorn and sitting on her couch.

He waves back and goes to close the door… before smiling for the camera as orange code lights up, and he closes the door.

"So… How about that Hulu, huh?"

"Does this mean you'll only love me when you feel like it?"

"W-wha-what are you talking about!? I-I-I'm not affiliated with older me's drama!"

Boom!Amy's voice can be heard behind the door, sarcastically remarking to his nervous tone—

"…Uh-uh."

End.

(Don't forget! This is a continuous story. As long as I have ideas for it, it's never fully over! Other than that, enjoy this arc's ending! And don't forget about the livestream or discord events either!)