I thank Whirlpool24 of DeviantArt for helping me.
Sparkle finished with the resin and smiled at her handiwork.
"Cream, here you go," Sparkle said as she held up the necklace.
"Oh it's so pretty. Thank you," Cream said as she looked at the pendant and put it around her neck.
"I'm glad you liked it," Sparkle smiled and then went to get Amy out of bed, "Amy? Amy, come on, get up."
"Ok, ok, I'm up," Amy groaned as she sat up and then yawned.
"We have a big day ahead of us, and it's going to take a lot of work," Sparkle said and clapped her hands to wake her up more.
"Oh, what are we doing?" Cream asked curiously as she came in.
"I'm going to help Amy mature a little more," Sparkle explained.
"Uh, how exactly are you going to help me be more mature?" Amy asked as she made her bed.
"First, look in the mirror at what you're wearing and when I tell you, compare it to my outfit," Sparkle said and pointed to the mirror on the wall.
Amy looked at her and then the mirror before going over to it. Then she looked at herself in the mirror and noted her red dress with the short skirt. And the white outline around it and her white boots.
"And...now," Sparkle said to her and pointed to her clothes. Though she didn't wear a dress, she was still fashionable. "Now, do you actually think your dress is made for battling?"
"...No I guess not," Amy said as she looked at herself in the mirror and sighed.
"One option for that is, we go shopping," Sparkle said as she put her hand on her shoulder.
"Oh, that sounds nice, but how can we go shopping?" Amy asked and then pointed to them in the mirror, "We don't exactly blend in."
"I have a solution for that too," Sparkle said and then zipped to her room and came back, "We can wear these."
Sparkle showed her some ponchos, hats and sunglasses. Amy smiled at them and then picked out the ones she wanted to wear.
"Can I come too?" Cream asked and looked at them with bright eyes.
"I suppose so. But you don't need to learn to be more mature yet," Sparkle said to her. "You're still a kid. And I mean that in the respectful way."
"Besides, didn't you say there was a program on TV that you wanted to watch with Cheese?" Amy asked her.
"Oh yeah, our favorite," Cream remembered and then nodded, "Ok, I'll stay here. But you'll model the new clothes you'll get?"
"Sure we will," Amy said as she patted her back.
"Deal," Sparkle said and then thought, 'Maybe I should get Cream a new bow or a hair clip or something while we're there.'
"Well, Amy, let's go," Sparkle said to her after putting on the poncho and the hat.
Amy put on the poncho, hat and sunglasses and said, "I'm ready and Sonic found us enough money."
She got some out of the jar they put it in and put it in a purse she found. Sparkle adjusted her sunglasses with a smug look on her face. Then the pair of them walked down the stairs to the floor and past Tail's workstation.
"We're going out, Tails. Be back in a little while," Amy said to him as she walked past.
"Ok, but be careful out there," Tails said after he looked up from under the Tornado. "Those humans don't seem to like us."
"Relax. They'll never take us," Sparkle assured him and put an arm around Amy's shoulder.
Amy smiled at her and the two of them were off in the blink of an eye.
XXXXXXXXXX
"There sure are a lot of humans here," Amy said as she looked around at the humans when they got into town.
"Were there always a lot of humans in our Mobius," Sparkle asked as she looked at them and walked down the sidewalk with them. "Can't seem to remember."
"I don't know. I mean other than Eggman, I haven't seen any other humans," Amy shrugged. "I always wondered how he even got to our planet anyway."
"Or maybe we've never taken the chance to go to places like Station Square," Sparkle said to her.
"Hmm, maybe you're right," Amy said as they walked, "I was always just happy being in the area around my house back home."
"You need to explore more," Sparkle said.
"Well maybe I will when we get that there. Ooh, look," Amy said and then spotted some dresses in the window.
"Perhaps there's some possibilities here," Sparkle hummed and then pointed out to her, "But we're not getting any more dresses. You have enough of those, and they aren't fit for battle."
"Hmm, alright," Amy agreed. "Let's see what cute tops and pants they have in here."
Sparkle opened the door for her and then came in herself. The store had white walls with black pillars. The walls had rows of clothes for men, women and children. Several mannequins were set out on display with stylish clothes and accessories on them. In the middle of the store were rows of shoes boxes.
"Ok, so I think I might need to shop over here where the human teenager clothes are," Amy said and pointed out to junior size clothes on the left. "They seem to be my size and if I need to, I can alter them."
"Pick the tops you like," Sparkle said. "I'll choose the jeans and accessories."
"Ok," Amy agreed then looked at a white top with a pink blouse with a red bow on the front. A melon top with a white ornate design and a yellow cardigan, a white top with a red tie and dark blue jacket with elbow-length sleeves and black and gold lapels. Then finally she picked up a white knit turtleneck with elbow-length sleeves and a black tank-top with gold chains, light pink and purple ribbon, gold amulets, and gold loops on each of the sides. "Hey Sparkle, look what I found."
"Well they're not what I would have picked out, but you can try them on too," Sparkle said as she looked at the tops and the skirts for them. "I got you some jeans. You can change in there."
"Thanks," Amy said and took them and then saw a light red long sleeve shirt and another one in dark blue. "Oooh, I like those, too."
"Well, get them to try on, too," Sparkle suggested.
"Will do," Amy said, went to a changing room and then put on the other outfits first "Hmmm. No. Nah. Nope. No. I already have dresses."
Amy sighed as she took them off and then put on the long sleeve red shirt and jeans before smiling at herself in the mirror.
"Much better," Amy nodded and then pointed her head out, "Hey Sparkle, can you come in here?"
"Now that's more like it, but I think it's missing something," Sparkle said as she came in and put a red rose pendant around Amy's neck.
"Oh, just like my last name. Rose," Amy says as she smiled at herself, "Ok, I'm going to get this and the dark blue one too."
"Yeah, we should hurry, pay and get out of here before the humans notice we're hedgehogs," Sparkle said as she peeked out to see if anyone was coming.
"Wait, don't you want some new clothes?" Amy asked her, "And what about Cream?"
"Don't need any, right now," Sparkle said to her and held up a plastic bag, "Plus, I got a little something for Cream."
"Alright," Amy said as she took off her new clothes and then put back on her dress and her poncho, hat and sunglasses. Then she put the clothes she didn't want into the basket by the door and made her way to the register. Amy smiled at the cashier and paid for the clothes.
"Now, we need to go," Sparkle said and then opened the door for her.
"I'm ready," Amy said as she walked out and then held onto her with her purchases on her arm.
Sparkle held onto her as she ran quickly. She got the feeling something was watching them.
"Whoa! Uh, you're going a bit faster than normal, aren't you?" Amy asked as she closed her eyes to shield them from the wind.
What was making Sparkle so nervous was a robot. It spotted them and then started to track and follow them. Then the robot opened a part on its eyes and snapped a picture. Or at least tried to as it rolled to keep up with Sparkle. Sparkle heard a click and looked behind her. On impulse, she punched the robot with her free hand.
"What the?" Amy exclaimed, looked behind her and saw a robot on a pole, "What was that?! "
"I'm not sure, but I think I heard the sound of a camera, " Sparkle said as she looked behind her.
"Stop," Amy said and glared, "Stop!"
"Why?" Sparkle asked in confusion.
"Just stop here," Amy ordered her.
Sparkle skidded to a halt and let go of her. "So what's up?"
"I'm gonna smash this piece of junk! What if it's another one of Eggman's?" Amy asked as she got out her hammer and started marching over to the robot.
Sparkle shrugged. The robot fizzed and sparked a bit as the monitor tried to focus. The last thing it saw was Amy before she brought her hammer down on it. She grunted as she pounded it repeatedly until all the lights were off on it.
"You know, I was just wondering," Sparkle said after the smashing, "What would you do if your hammer failed you?"
"You mean like when we were in that robot and I couldn't break the glass," Amy asked her curiously as she put her hammer back behind her.
"Yes. But there's more to that. You didn't have a backup plan," Sparkle said to her. "And that led to your downfall."
"Then what can I do?" Amy sighed as she shrugged her shoulders.
"Train to be a better fighter," Sparkle suggested, "Learn some martial arts."
Amy looked at her gloved hands and then at her before asking her, "Could you teach me?"
"You know I will. But I should warn you," Sparkle said and put her hands on her hips. "Training with me can be tough, and I'm still learning from Knuckles."
"I know you are," Amy said and then closed her hands in front of her, "But you could at least let me learn the basics and then we could learn the more advanced stuff together."
"Hmm, not a bad idea," Sparkle hummed and then nodded. "Ok."
"Oh thank you," Amy hugged her, "And I promise to listen to everything you say."
"Yeah, I should hope so," Sparkle said with a smile and then held onto her as they headed back to the warehouse.
XXXXXXXXXX
Meanwhile, the one who owned the robot back at G.U.N headquarters was stressing out.
"No! Darn it!" a scientist cursed and then typed on the computer to look at the video. "Come on, please let me get something from this."
As he was typing, he saw something on the monitor. A flash of lavender and pink and then the machine tumbled and crashed into something. The picture fizzled and then black and purple sparks shot out of the computer.
"No, no, no!" He yelled as the computer short circuited and pulled his hair in frustration, then he growled as he slammed his fist on the now ruined console. "Those things are a threat to everyone. And if we don't stop them, they could destroy us all. I need to get that robot back and show them the damage just two of those things did."
XXXXXXXXXX
Sparkle and Amy returned to the warehouse and sighed in relief.
"We're back," Amy called out as she let go of Sparkle.
"Welcome home," Cream greeted them.
Sparkle made head motions for Amy to go change.
"Cream, you got to see the clothes I got," Amy said as she went upstairs to her room to change into them.
"How did it go," Tails asked her as he wiped off his hands.
"Swell," Sparkle said and then whispered, "We're all gonna need to talk, later. It's a bad time, right now."
"Then we should have Sonic and Knuckles here then," Tails whispered in concern.
"Well, what do you think?" Amy asked as she came back down in her new clothes.
"Oh I like it," Tails said to her.
"It suits you," Sparkle nodded to her.
"And I have you to thank for it," Amy said to her and shook her hand.
"It's really pretty," Cream complimented her.
"Chao chao," Cheese excitedly said.
"Hey Sparkle, didn't you say you got something for Cream?" Amy asked Sparkle.
Sparkle nodded and then gave her the small bag she had.
"Ohhh, it's beautiful," Cream after she looked in the bag and gasped in delight at the hair clip. It was a light blue and white lily hair clip with blue glitter around the petals and an alligator like clip in the back. "Oh thank you."
"You're very welcome, Cream. Let me put in your hair," Sparkle said and put it on her. "There you go, very pretty. Wait till the boys see us."
"Oh, you like it, Cheese?" Cream asked him.
"Chao chao," Cheese squealed in delight and hugged her.
Some time later, Sonic and Knuckles came back in the door.
"Oh, there you guys are," Sparkle said and then presented Cream and Amy, "Take a look at my work on the girls."
"Hi, Sonic," Amy said as she smiled at him and waved.
"Hi, Amy," Sonic said and then did a double take. "Wow, you look great! And I love that hair clip, Cream."
"Thank you," Cream and Amy said together.
"You look nice. Both of you," Knuckles commented to them.
"Ahem" Sparkle cleared her throat. "Everyone, there's something I need to tell you. It's important."
"What's up?" Sonic asked her.
Knuckles arched his eyebrows at her.
"First, everyone on the couch," Sparkle said and pointed to the living room area.
Once everyone was sitting down, Sparkle began her explanation. She told them about how their shopping trip went and then up to the part where she noticed the robot and hit it away from her and Amy.
"So the bottom line is that there might be someone who's spying on us," Sparkle concluded.
"Eggman?" Knuckles suggested.
"No, it's not him," Amy said and shook her head.
"How do you know?" Sonic asked them.
"Because I heard a camera click," Sparkle explained and then pointed out. "Why would Eggman want to take pictures of us?"
"You're right," Knuckles nodded his head and then put his gloved hand on his chin, "That's not his style. He usually tries to blow things up."
"Do you have the robot?" Tails asks with interest.
"Uh, well, no," Amy sheepishly said and scratched the side of her head. "I kind of broke it. With my hammer."
"And I sort of smashed it in the eye on instinct," Sparkle said as she rubbed the back of her neck.
Tails groaned and then covered his face.
"Sorry Tails, but we didn't like it taking pictures of us," Amy apologized and then patted his back. "I'm sure it's still there. One of us could take you to it."
"We'll need to hurry," Sparkle said to him.
"I can keep up with you when I fly," Tails said and got up.
"Right. Follow me, Tails," Sparkle said and then headed for the door.
"Ready," Tails said as he twisted his two tails together and then hovered in the air outside. Then the pair of them took off.
"So where was it when you saw it last?" Tails asked as he followed alongside her.
"Over there," Sparkle said and pointed ahead. Then she spotted it still by the post. "Found it!"
"Wow!" Tails exclaimed as he looked it over. "Amy did a number on that for sure. But I think I can find out whose it is."
Sparkle nodded and kept an eye out for anyone who might come.
"See anybody?" Tails asked her as he picked it up.
"No," Sparkle said and shook her head.
"Hmm," Tails hummed and then shrugged his shoulders before flying up. "Well, I got it. Let's go."
A few minutes after they left, a car pulled up to the sight. The scientist got out of the car and went to the spot the robot was at. Only to find it gone.
"What the?" Scientist exclaimed and then looked around for the machine. Only finding little bits of it on the ground and growled. "Ohhhh, they're not only dangerous, they're thieves too!"
XXXXXXXXXX
Tails and Sparkle returned to the warehouse. Tails immediately went to work looking at the wrecked robot. And on the side he saw an emblem with the initials G.U.N. (Guardian Units of Nations).
"G.U.N.?" Sparkle questionably asked.
"I haven't heard of this," Tails said as he shrugged his shoulders.
"So what do we do?" Sparkle asked curiously.
"Well, first I would have to see if it's internal hard drive is damaged. And if it's not, see what pictures it got of you two," Tails said as he opened it up and then looked at the inside of it. Seeing that the hard drive was perfectly intact, he picked the hard drive out of the robot and then hooked it up to his computer. "Ok, let's see what it saw."
It brought up some pictures of Sparkle running and a video. It barely showed Sparkle in a lavender blur until she hit it. Then the picture bounced around before landing sideways. It focused on Sparkle and Amy in the distance until it showed Amy glaring at it and then she slammed her hammer into it and the picture went fuzzy.
"If someone sees that, we may be in trouble," Sparkle said with worry after watching the video.
"Which is why they aren't going to," Tails declared in determination and then typed on the computer. He deleted the pictures and the video. "And for good measure, I'm going to make sure the back up they might have on this unit doesn't show anything as well."
"But then what are you going to do with a busted robot?" Amy asked him and picked up one of the broken bits of it.
"Repair it and then reprogram it to return to its place of origin. I mean sure we broke it, but now I'm returning it. Whoever sent this doesn't trust us. Maybe it's from the humans," Tails said as he finished typing and then sighed as he turned to face it. "Now for the hard part, rebuilding this thing from scratch."
"Need some help?" Sparkle asked him.
"Yes, please," Tails said to her with a smile.
"How can I help?" Sparkle asked as she looked over the pieces.
"Well, first I need to take this completely apart and see which parts need to be replaced, and then we can look at a junkyard for them," Tails said as he looked at the robot.
"Right," Sparkle nodded.
Tails started to work on the robot and took it apart. "Hmm, say what you want about the humans, they still have some interesting technology."
"I never said I didn't like them," Sparkle said to him, shrugging.
"I just hope whoever owns this isn't too mad that it's missing," Tails said as he continued working.
Sparkle couldn't think of anything else to say and just sat down in a chair to watch him work. After a while she started to nod off.
"Ok, I think I know what we need now," Tails said after he wiped his brow.
"What?" Sparkle asked as she woke up.
"We need a lot of metal and these things," Tails said and showed her a list of materials.
"I'll come with you to get the material," Sonic said as he got up.
"Thanks," Sparkle smiled at him. "Let's go!"
With that, they left and then came back about three hours later.
"Thanks for your help," Tails said as he put the materials on his work bench. "This will help me fix it in no time."
After several hours, Tails managed to get the robot looking good as new. When the lights came on, he covered the robot with a blanket and turned it off.
"Whew, that was close. And now I just need to release it outside and it'll go back where it came from," Tails said, picked it up and then set it outside. "Everyone, I finished the robot!"
Hearing him outside, Sonic, Sparkle and the others came outside with him. The robot looked even better than it was before. Tails also made sure to replicate the G.U.N. emblem on the side. He turned it back on and the robot hovered in the air and then flew off into the sky to the west.
Cream watched it go off and nervously asked, "You sure it won't come back?"
"Positive," Tails nodded to her and smiled proudly of his work as he watched it disappear over the horizon. "And I hope whoever owned that robot is happy they're getting it back good as new."
But he was wrong. Oh boy, was he wrong. The scientist was telling his fellow colleagues and the head scientist about what had happened to one of their spy robot drones. But they didn't believe him. In fact several of them were trying to keep themselves from laughing out loud.
"But I'm telling you! They stole it!" the scientist insisted.
"Who stole it?" the head man asked him. "Aliens?"
"NO! HEDGEHOGS!" Scientist cried out to him.
There was nothing but silence.
"Hedgehogs?" the head man asked him with a look of skepticism. "Tiny little animals that roll into balls stole the camera drone?"
"YES!" Scientist screamed out at him.
"Then why is the monitor showing it's returning," a fellow scientist asked him and pointed to a video monitor.
The robot entered through a hole in the ceiling and hovered in place.
"Ah, there it is," the scientist smiled as he got it and looked it over. "Uh, it didn't look like this before. But I have video proof that the hedgehogs did this."
He brought it over and then hooked it up to the monitor. It showed nothing except the return trip through the city and the look on his face when it came back.
"Hedgehogs, huh?" the head man asked in derision. "You said it was damaged."
"Well, it, it is, was," the scientist stammered. "But I saw-"
"I think you might be working too hard," the head man said to him and then put his hand on his shoulder. "Might I suggest you go home and take a few days off?"
"No, I can't!" Scientist shook his head, "I have to-"
"That wasn't a suggestion. That is an order. You will go home and not come back for a week," the head man cut him off and then waved over two men. "Security, escort this man out of the building and to his car."
"No no no no!" the scientist grunted as they got behind him and started walking him out of the lab. He glared at them and everyone in that room,"You fools, you'll see that I was right! I swear you will pay and those hedgehogs too. Oh yes, they will pay!"