#meanwhile sonic and amy were just meh?

[kittydoremi]

SonKnux interactions vs S0nAmy interactions in Frontiers pretty much

[solalunar-eclipse]

Sonic Boom - S3E5

Episode title: Pay-to-Lose Games

Word count: about 4100 words

Author’s Note: Thank you to everyone who left comments of any kind on the previous episode! Feedback from others really helps me continue writing and putting my ideas out here for everyone to see :)

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[Scene opens up on Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy all hanging out at Meh Burger.]

Sonic lounged at the table, his head resting idly on a hand while he halfheartedly ate the (equally halfheartedly prepared) food. Tails and Knuckles were busy talking at speeds to rival the blue hero himself about the latest meme making the rounds on MeTube, while Amy scribbled in a notepad, marking down all the potential health and safety violations she could find.

“Rule number 120, lack of condiment maintenance…rule number 45, inadequate floor cleanliness measures…” she muttered to herself, ignoring the dirty looks and conspicuously loud sighs coming from Dave at the counter.

Sonic, meanwhile, was bored out of his mind.

But then, just as the hero resigned himself to his fate (but would never admit that it was because he had been secretly hoping for Shadow to barge in and stir up some trouble—hence his lack of interest in memes), Sonic saw something that made him just about choke on his fries.

Sticks.

Was wearing.

Shorts.

The hedgehog struggled to clear his windpipe as they walked up to the table, dropping their food on the semi-clean wood before sitting down. Sticks frowned at the group, who were all now staring blatantly at them. “What’s up with you guys? You look like you’ve seen a—”

They froze. “Did the paranormal invasion start without me?!”

“No no no, it’s not that!” Tails said quickly. “It’s just that…we’ve never seen anyone wearing pants before. Like, ever.”

“Well, now you have.” Sticks rolled their eyes. “Shorts are better for fighting than that old miniskirt, anyway. If I’m gonna wear clothes, they’d better be ones that work!”

“Uh…okay??” Knuckles said, still looking somewhat distressed.

“Why didn’t you get some earlier, then?” Amy asked.

“Well, obviously I couldn’t just buy them, store-bought clothing falls apart in a matter of months. And that’s for people who aren’t trying to uncover secret government conspiracies!” Sticks grumbled. “I made these myself, just like everything else I wear.”

Sonic leaned forward insistently, having finally recovered from his coughing fit. “Listen, I heard all that, I understand where you’re coming from, all those other things.” he said rapidly, glancing nervously at Amy, whose eyes were narrowed. The hero smacked his hands on the table decisively. “But here’s the real reason why you should never, ever wear pants…” 

But nobody would find out what he was about to say, because at that exact moment, a voice called, “Guess who’s back in town!”

[Camera cuts to T.W. Barker, grinning smugly with a hand on his hip, alongside his two circus bears.]

[Camera cuts back to the team, in varying states of frustration and despair.]

“Oh, no……” they collectively groaned.

[cue theme song]

[Team Sonic performs the intro sequence, complete with their usual team poses. 

This time, a new sequence appears: all of the more minor villains lined up in a row, still with their silhouettes backlit in red…until the camera malfunctions and it turns out that they’re filming in Dave’s mom’s house’s basement. Shadow appears and starts wrecking the equipment, apparently angry that he wasn’t invited (even though he wouldn’t have gone anyway). Knuckles shows up in the background briefly, having apparently ransacked the place’s snack cupboard, before vanishing again.

The same sequence of lines and camera movement then takes place, followed by the words ‘Sonic Boom: Ancient Secrets.]

[Then the music ends, at which point the episode title appears for a moment before the show returns.]

“Alright, Barker, what’re you up to this time?” Knuckles shouted, his eyes narrowed. 

“Nothing at all…unless you mean up to something fun!” the wolf replied smoothly. “That’s right, everyone!” he cried, turning towards the gathering crowd of people. “Come one, come all for some good old family fun at T.W. Barker’s Carnival of Delights! Right this way, people, right this way!”

A general ‘oooh’ of interest came from the villagers. 

“Wait!” Tails cried. “Can’t you see that this is obviously—”

“Will you be the one to win a prize at one of my state-of-the-art games today? Play now and find out!” Barker shouted over the rest of the fox’s protests, effectively capturing the town’s attention.

The team then collectively facepalmed upon seeing the townspeople rush off in the direction that Barker had pointed them. 

Amy sighed. “We should probably go see what he’s up to, I guess.” she muttered.

The other four made mumbling noises of reluctant assent, and together, they trudged off to the carnival.

It was set up in the middle of a nearby field, with a single carousel set in the center and surrounded by six different games. By the time the team arrived, most of the children in the village had swarmed the carousel, while others tried their luck at the various games Barker had set up.

Within minutes, it became obvious to all five—even Knuckles—that the games were rigged. After watching children struggle to maneuver stuffed animals and earbuds with a claw that auto-released after ten seconds, the tallest of townspeople fail to make basketball shots that were far more difficult than they would be on a court (Tails had measured it), and a test-your-strength meter that had all sorts of mechanisms in place to keep the slider from ringing the bell, they’d had enough.

“Hey, guys!” Sonic shouted, despite his creeping suspicions that this attempt to win the people over wouldn’t go well either. “Can’t you tell that these games are obviously rigged? Don’t waste your money here, go waste it on, uh…a vending machine? Or something?”

Barker scoffed. “Sounds like someone’s being awfully judgmental about games he hasn’t tried! Or are you just scared you’ll fail?” he asked, smirking.

The villagers had clearly been ready (as they always were) to crowd around Sonic and his friends at the drop of a hat, shooting the blue hedgehog accusatory glances. A few had already begun to agree with the ringleader, claiming that Sonic just wasn’t brave enough to give the games a go or that he didn’t know what he was talking about.

But then…

“Hey!” Tails barked, which was rather brave considering that he was now on the wrong end of a large group of adults. “Don’t talk about my brother that way unless you want a wrench to the face!”

“Yeah! One more dirty look out of any of you and I’m breaking out my hammer!” Amy cried, standing defensively in front of her friend.

“You leave him alone!” Knuckles yelled, doing his very best to sound aggressive. “He’s just trying to help!”

Sticks hissed menacingly, making a large part of the crowd shuffle backwards rapidly.

The villagers soon realized that they maybe didn’t want to get on the bad side of their town’s main (and only) defense force and dispersed. Most of them went back to their games, only grumbling a little bit. “Hmph.” Amy grumbled. “At least they’re learning when to give up.”

Sonic kicked one foot against the ground sheepishly, purposefully not looking at any of his friends. “Aw, guys, you really didn’t have to do that, y’know?”

[Camera cuts to face Sonic, with all of his friends’ faces suddenly obscured in darkness (except for their identical evil grins) behind him.]

The hero suddenly froze, somehow sensing the fact that behind his back, all of his friends were closing in for Group Hug Number Two of the season. 

[Screen cuts to black right as said friends grab him, with a generic spooky sound and a scream from Sonic.]

Later on, Sonic (now with a new boost of friendship-inspired confidence) stepped up to the claw machine, cracking his knuckles and rolling his shoulders. Tails, Sticks, Amy and Knuckles were all cheering from the sidelines as he smirked. “You think I’m just gonna sit back and let you think I’ve failed, Barker?” he asked smugly. “Well then…watch this!”

A zooming sound filled the air as Sonic’s arms turned into nothing more than a blur before the machine. Its mechanics struggled to keep up with his rapid movements, and within moments, the claw had released.

But this time, it wasn’t because of any preset timer.

Within seconds, Sonic had managed to snatch up one of the latest pairs of earbuds with the metal claw and moved them too fast even for the auto-release. They tumbled through the slot, and in the next moment he was already tossing them up and down in his hand. “Now then, which one should I beat next?” he said proudly, scanning the other carnival games.

Barker yelped and scurried over to his circus bears, one of which obligingly held up a whiteboard. “Nope! Can’t do that! You see…” he began, hurriedly scribbling on the board, “…nobody can play any more of the games after they’ve won a prize! Otherwise it wouldn’t be fair, after all. Everyone deserves a chance to win!” the ringmaster said quickly, gesturing to the board, which was now titled ‘RULES’ with ‘1: No repeat prizes’ listed underneath.

“Now then, would anyone like to try this state-of-the-art water pistol competition over here?” he said, his voice a bit higher than it had been previously.

Tails stepped up. “I’ve got this one, Sonic.” he said with a smirk, sending chills down the spines of several townspeople. The brothers did an overly complex high-five routine that lasted just long enough to become absurdly over the top, before the fox stepped up to the game.

Barker leaned on the counter, still unfazed. “And what’s a young fox kit like you doing with those kinds of weapons?”

Tails grinned at him with all the innocence of a predator about to strike, weighing the water pistol in his hands. “Oh, I have some…experience.”

Several miles away, Eggman felt his fight-or-flight instincts kick in and ran to cower under his desk for a minute or two.

Back at the carnival, the fox lined up with the targets, aimed...and fired. Five loud clanging sounds came from the stall within seconds of each other as Tails moved down the line with the skill of an expert, hitting a target each and every time.

Everyone except for the rest of the team took several steps away, suddenly very interested in not bothering Tails. Or doing anything else that might make him angry.

“Eheh…” Barker stammered, “T-take any prize you like, then!” He promptly got as far out of Tails’s way as it was possible to get, scampering to hide behind his circus bears.

The fox grinned and snatched up a twelve-sided Rubik’s cube (or a Rubik’s dodecahedron, as it were), running back over to the rest of Team Sonic to whoops and chants of his name.

“Well,” Barker began, regaining his confidence as he moved near the strength-test machine, “would anyone like to try their hand at—”

“I would!” Amy called cheerfully, now the one interrupting him. She made her way over to the machine and pulled out her signature hammer with pride.

Right as she was winding up to swing, however, the ringmaster held up a hand. “Oh, no you don’t!” he insisted, shaking a finger at her. “No personal hammers allowed here—that would be cheating, you know.” he said smugly. He handed her an old, badly weighted hammer instead, and she growled in disgust. 

After a moment, Amy rolled her shoulders, shook off her anger, and lined up, hauling it back with all of her strength. Barker chuckled, fully prepared to see her lose—so he was more than a little shocked when her hit not only rang the bell at the very top of the scale, but downright shattered it, sending pieces of metal falling everywhere. 

[Amy’s prize-winning hit is then shown about five more times in rapid succession, each time from a different angle.]

Every single safeguard Barker had put in place was completely broken, as was the sensor—there was even  a giant crack down its center! Amy then simply tossed the hammer over her shoulder, letting it soar a good twenty feet away into the forest, before calmly holding out her hand for her own prize. Ironically enough, she received nothing other than an inflatable toy hammer.

(It was honestly surprising that the ringmaster hadn’t just given up on winning already.)

Not long after that, Sticks took her turn at the guess-the-shell game. Barker chuckled as he mixed up the shells…and, of course, used a trick or two to shift the marble underneath them from place to place. The entire crowd seemed to agree that it had to be under the left shell—they’d all watched it carefully!

The badger didn’t even pause before choosing the one on the right. (And she was right.)

As they continued to play, the wolf grew so desperate that he flicked the marble right out onto the floor as a further distraction, but Sticks simply leaned down and picked it up before handing it back to him with a completely straight face.

In the end, she guessed correctly so many times that Barker decided that asking for ‘best out of twenty-three’ would not end well. So once again, he was forced to hand over a prize, gritting his teeth into something barely approximating a smile as he watched Sticks shout in elation upon receiving a cheap necklace with fake gems.

…which just happened to be the last thing she needed to build a space-laser-deflector. She didn’t actually care about jewelry that much.

[An over-the-top preparation sequence in the style of a sports movie then takes place, with Knuckles stretching and doing push-ups to train for his competition. It is then revealed that he has been doing all of this just in the past twenty minutes. He had somehow managed to do all of these exercises in varying locations over such a short time while still cheering his friends on. Because comedy.]

And then, it was the echidna’s turn. He chose to take a shot at the rigged basketball hoops, trying to act cool as he stepped up to the line…but he didn’t quite succeed. His attempt to spin the ball on a single finger looked more silly than awesome, really.

The crew cheered loudly for him, waving their respective prizes in the air as he took his first shot—

And missed.

The echidna winced as the crowd ‘oooooh’ed in excitement. He hesitated, his face losing a bit of its excitement. After a moment, he threw the next one…and missed again.

“Oh, so close!” Barker called smugly. “You’ve got one chance left. Be careful not to mess it up!”

“I’ll try my best!” Knuckles replied cheerfully, completely missing the double meaning behind Barker’s words. 

With far less focus or care than the other two attempts, he jumped up and threw the ball. It arced up in an impressive shot, sailing towards the net.

And of course, in accordance with the laws of Every TV Show And Movie Ever, he succeeded. 

Sticks chuckled briefly under her breath. “Of course he forgot the rule of threes! Classic amateur mistake.”

Barker, however, seemed relatively unfazed. “Here you go!” he said, handing Knuckles a knockoff glow-in-the-dark toy. 

“Oh, cool!” the echidna exclaimed…but everyone else on the team wasn’t quite as happy. 

“What’s the trick now, Barker?” Amy snapped.

“Oh, no tricks!” he said. “It’s just that I have one game left, and, well—” here he turned around— “would anyone else like to see if they can beat the games that only heroes have won thus far?”

People were practically throwing money at him before they even saw the game, and the team sighed tiredly. They looked over at the rows and rows of glass bottles with plastic rings already skimming over their tops, and were honestly just about ready to give up on the villagers for today.

But then…

“What do you think you’re doing?!” a familiar voice barked. “Nobody defeats those ‘heroes’ except for me!”

Shadow had appeared in the center of the carnival, stalking over to Barker and shoving his face mere inches from the other’s. “Have I not made myself clear to you second-rate villains yet?”

“Ugh, haven’t you ever heard of personal space?” he huffed.

Shadow merely growled in reply.

“Well, fine then! If you want to be the one to defeat them, go ahead…you’ll just have to land a ring on one of those bottles to earn that right.” the ringmaster replied proudly. 

Shadow folded his arms. “Then I will do exactly that.”

He shoved two or three rings (the currency ones, not the plastic ones) at Barker and grabbed a bucket of rings (the plastic ones, not the currency ones). Standing in front of the bottles, he sized them up.

Shadow briefly glanced at the rules listed on the side of the attraction, noticing one in particular that seemed especially useful. 

[Camera zooms in on the one that says ‘GOLDEN BOTTLE = X-LARGE PRIZE’, before panning over to the single golden bottle in the middle of all the other ordinary ones.]

The hedgehog got into a throwing stance, holding his first ring. Narrowing his eyes, he began to focus in on his target…

In the middle of the silence, Knuckles began to cheer excitedly. “Yeah, Shadow! You got this!”

Shadow jolted out of his furious focus, before turning around briefly, confused. He frowned at Knuckles for a moment (without any malice, oddly), before shifting his attention back to the game.

He lined up the ring.

Tossed it into the air.

And it landed right on the single golden bottle.

Team Sonic exploded in cheers, and Shadow lurched backwards in surprise, grabbing onto the wooden stand for support. “Wh-wha—” he wheezed, his eyes darting around in obvious confusion. 

Even as the rest of the crowd began to vanish, irritated at the loss of a chance to prove themselves equal to Sonic and his friends (which they would’ve failed to do anyway), Shadow remained shocked.

Five people cheering for him was five people more than he was used to all by itself. The fact that these particular five were doing this in spite of the reality that he’d done this to ensure that he could defeat them himself was more than his mind could handle. 

Instead of fulfilling his promise, Shadow found himself edging around the stand almost instinctively until he was out of sight, before teleporting away.

Most of the team were disappointed to notice that he was gone, but only for a moment—because then Barker had recovered from his momentary shock at seeing Shadow win and was more than ready to fight. He smirked. “A good gamemaster always has one last ace in the hole.” he said, pressing a button on a remote control…

…and then suddenly each of the carnival games sprouted metallic legs and began to look a lot more like they had eyes. Even some of the horses from the carousel had leapt off their poles and were now pawing at the ground ominously.

“Surprise twist! I’ve decided that I like having a robot army after all!” Barker cried.

“Alright, guys, let’s do this!” Sonic shouted, and they all sprang into their battle positions. Within moments, the team had launched into the fight.

All it took was a couple of good strikes from each of them, and within moments (or one mini-montage, as it were), the robots fell to pieces.

“Uh…that was anticlimactic.” Amy said irritably.

Tails frowned, picking up a piece of one of the stands-turned-robots. “It doesn’t look like they were made very well.”

Sonic opened his mouth to say something, but then shut it again, his eyes widening as he thought of something new. He held up a finger, his lips twitching.

“Hey. Hey Tails. You know, that shoddy craftsmanship might just bring shame on all wolf-kind,” was all he managed to get out before bursting into a fit of laughter.

(He wasn’t making fun of Shadow…mostly. More than anything, he’d just been dying to use that joke for over a season now.)

The team stared at him for a moment as the joke sank in. Then, they all promptly devolved into various states of hilarity, cackling at Sonic’s callback. 

Barker at first seemed indignant, but paused after he noticed that one of his circus bears was pulling at his sleeve while the other pointed frantically at the forest. “What—oh.” was all he needed to say. After all, this was the perfect time to leave before Team Sonic remembered that they were supposed to beat him up.

The three then sprinted off into the forest as quickly as possible, leaving the team to their antics. But soon enough, they left as well, off to the beach for a post-victory celebration.

However, most of them would have been incredibly disappointed had they been told that if they’d stayed just a minute longer, they would’ve seen someone else reappear…

A flash of blue light signaled Shadow’s return to the scene of his greatest victory yet. (Which didn’t say much about his winning streak so far.)

Despite the fact that all of the stands had fallen apart, most of the prizes were still intact, and Shadow walked over to the ring toss stand, looking down at the wreckage. “I’d better at least get something out of all this.” he grumbled to himself.

Most of the prizes for that particular game consisted of small stuffed sheep, either black or white, each with smiles on their faces. They were pretty cheaply made—the stitching was off on most of them, and each one bore a tag declaring that it was made of ‘100% pure cotton!!!’.

Shadow glowered down at the pile of sheep. “Is this seriously the only reward I get? After losing the chance to defeat Sonic and his friends yet again?!” the hedgehog sneered.

Suddenly, however, his face softened marginally, and he considered the pile once more. Then, after looking around to make sure nobody was watching, he knelt down to retrieve one particular stuffed animal from the ruins. 

This sheep showed more than anything that Barker had bought the prizes for cheap, honestly, as it wasn’t even from the same brand of toy as any of the others. Its wool was grey, not black or white, and it had no smile stitched on at all. The tag on this animal stated that it was made from ‘100% polyester’ and nothing more.

Shadow looked at it for a long moment, checking each and every square inch of material. Eventually, though, he seemed satisfied with what he had found, and almost (not quite, but almost) smiled. He would’ve said it was a smirk, really…but it was a little too thoughtful and relaxed for that to be true. 

Upon realizing that anyone could possibly walk in and see him like this, however, he vanished in a hurry.

Once he was back in his cave, he walked a little deeper into the cavern, to an area that had some natural shelves carved into the walls. 

[Most of the space is filled with oddly shaped crystals and items that look almost like…machinery?]

Quietly, he placed the sheep on one of these outcroppings, and spent a minute longer looking at it before turning to walk away.

[Fade out and cut to Team Sonic.]

Back on the beach, Tails was sitting cross-legged on the sand and staring at some readings on his Miles Electric as the other four lounged on deck chairs nearby. He frowned.

“Uh, Sonic? I’ve been analyzing the statistics from our latest battle, and it turns out that, well…Sticks’s fighting is at least twenty percent more effective now that she’s wearing shorts.” the fox said.

Sonic leapt out of his chair. “What? No. Nope. There’s no way.”

“There’s absolutely a way, actually!” Amy called from her chair. “Now that I think about it, that makes perfect sense—”

“Pants? Making sense?” Knuckles said, shaking his head in disappointment. “I thought you were the rational one here!”

Amy growled, summoning her piko hammer. “Why don’t you come over here and say that again.”

Sonic yelped and hurried in between them. “Hey hey guys, hold up a sec! We’re still technically a kids show, remember?”

“Violence! Violence! Violence!” Sticks chanted, smirking.

“You,” Sonic began, pointing at them, “are not helping! You’re the one who started this whole argument!”

“But I’m not arguing.” the badger replied smugly.

“Well, now you are.” Sonic said, equally proud.

The badger shrieked in defeat, which left everyone staring at them for a solid five seconds in silence.

[Everyone looks around in confusion.]

[...!]

[Cue (extremely late) cricket chirps.]

Then, they all burst out laughing. “You know what?” Sonic conceded. “Wear whatever you want, Sticks. I can get used to it…so long as you never, ever try to make me wear anything even resembling pants.” he added, his tone darkening at the end.

“No promises!” Sticks cackled.

[Iris out ending, in which Sticks winks briefly at the camera.]

[joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh]

Sonic X episode 3 rewatched. Meh episode. We start on about 90 seconds of content from the last episode. Then we meet Eggman’s first mech and with it one of my biggest issues with Sonic X - the lack of a real Sonic aesthetic outside of the main characters. The games around this time were indulging in real world settings so I don’t mind that too much, but Eggman’s robot here is like

Like this isn’t a Sonic thing. This is just a large robot. Doesn’t even have any cool tricks or gimmicks beyond extendable arms I guess, but that’s kinda lame. It’s so boring to look at and boring to watch. Oh well. They use the fight as kind of a reason to introduce us to the Sonic cast a little bit more - with a fairly confident and capable Tails who still does mainly play support; a lone wolf Knuckles who doesn’t get on great with anyone; and an Amy that’s bold and quick to anger, though unfortunately gets damselled real quickly. Meanwhile Sonic’s still his adventurous self, just exploring mountain ranges and shit. Not that bad a take on the cast tbf, but that didn’t really stop the episode from being just sorta eh. Also since I forgot if I mentioned it already I’m really not into the singular “power ring” thing that X has going on, borrowed from SatAM. I guess you can’t implement rings into this the way they work in the games, but you can’t not have them since it’s Sonic after all, but actually I’d just rather not have them than have this weird win condition thing lol. Anyway yeah done.

[sonisis]

.:Finding Amy Rose:.

[Very minor spoilers/ minor sonamy] After the Infinite incident a lot of the gang hasn't felt exactly the same, all though everyone seemed to manage just fine, Amy seemed to have silently suffered the most. Also can be read at Fanfiction.net

Amy normally could handle anything Eggman threw at her, Robots chasing her? Her hammer could smash them. Being held hostage as live bait for Sonic? She’ll find a way to escape. Metal claws gripping her to death? Meh, honestly she was almost used to it, but this last Eggman attack just really wrecked her nerves. During the whole Infinite incident, as the history books were putting it, she rarely slept not only because she was worrying if Sonic was still alive or not but also the anxiety she felt at any noise made because of the fear that that noise might lead to an attack. The Infinite situation dragged her sanity to the ledge and because of that something clicked in her mind.

When she was finally able to return to her apartment in Station Square she walked into her room she saw a huge hole where her window view used to be, her freshly new designer rug imported from overseas was halfway burnt, and the morning tea she made the morning before the attack had evaporated into thin air. Amy dropped to her knees, she couldn’t do this, if Eggman was going to keep doing this over and over again she- she just can’t, this is just too much for one girl to handle alone. At that instant her mind went blank, she gathered important documents and few clothes that were undamaged and left her ruined apartment. Before leaving she left an envelope with her remaining lease total enclosed along with a note that read. “I’m sorry but I need to go. I’m sorry that I left a mess but you’re free to do whatever you like with the stuff inside”.  She ran outside after that, unsure where she was going or what she was really doing, she just...Left.

------

Tails hadn’t heard from Amy in 3 days, it made him very nervous because Amy tried to call at least once a day to ask if he had any idea where Sonic was. Tails almost lost his best friend, he didn’t want to feel that guilt and uncertainty again, so he quickly flew over to Amy’s apartment. Arriving there wasn’t easy since there was a lot of cleanup and reconstruction going on in such a huge area, he did the polite thing and just flew into the giant gaping hole that was located where Amy’s room was.

“Hey Amy are you here?” He called out but he heard no answer. It didn’t help that her room still looked like a mess, many people have already started cleaning up. Tails tried to stay optimistic and thought maybe she just went to find supplies to clean up, and just to confirm his theory he went up to the landlord to ask if he’d seen Amy.

“Sorry I don’t think she’s coming back. She left this envelope with the remaining costs to her lease along with a note. You can keep the note.”

Tails immediately took the note and began to read it over and over. He was at disbelief. He quickly flew back up to her room to search for any hints of Amy but he couldn’t find anything. She left almost everything back here. Her scrap books, picture frames, expensive clothing. One thing Tails noticed was that he couldn’t find any of her sensitive documents, to this Tails felt a slight sigh of relief that Amy might be clinging onto hope, but he didn’t want to risk anything, he called Sonic immediately.

---------------

 Sonic didn’t take the news too well, he was pretty good at keeping his emotions cool and under control but all those months of constant torture in the Death Egg have made that a bit difficult. Sonic quickly ran to all parts of the continent. Most airports haven’t returned to normal routines since they’re using the air ways to transport supplies, so Amy shouldn’t have gone too far. He checked all of Amy’s usual spots, the Mystic ruins where there was beautiful flowers overlooking the ocean, the beach where she often took relaxing evening walks, he even went asking around some of her neighbors to see if they’ve seen her the day she left, but unfortunately, there was no hint of Amy.

 This really nerved him, he wasn’t sure what to do next. He couldn’t find her, where could she have possibly gone? The panicking brought Sonic back to the horrible memories of his torture, getting beaten up to a bloody pulp by Zavok, Chaos repeatedly suffocating him with water until he passed out, Shadow and Metal poking him with painful sharp daggers by either Shadow’s Chaos spear or Metal’s cold mechanical hands. The only thing that kept him sane were thoughts of Amy, no matter what, somehow she was always able to calm him down in a strange way. Seeing her excited to see him made him know that there was peace in the world, there was nothing to worry about and that’s why she wanted to cling onto me, because she was happy. Memories of her throwing herself at him kept him hopeful that once he got out he would be embraced by Amy again and she would bring a picnic basket so that the two could share once she found him in the middle of Green hill zone.

“I’ve always silently depended on Amy, but I…. I just failed in making damm sure she could depend on me.” Sonic quietly sobbed, he really hoped Amy would jump out from the bushes and tackled him right about now.

------------

It had almost been about 4 years since Amy up and left, Sonic asked Rouge to inform him if there was any word about Amy, any. Meanwhile he was able to suppress the memory that was the Death egg and Tails had regained his nerves by writing a program to detect any news that spoke about Amy through the internet but even with everyone’s combined efforts they haven’t had much luck with clues. Since then there had been a couple attacks by Eggman, but just petty ones, he was trying to bring back his pride since the COLOSSAL failure that was the Infinite incident, but aside from that everything was relatively calm.

Across the vast land Casinopolis was getting ready to host their first Fashion show since the Infinite events and the city was as lively as ever. In a luxurious hotel room was Amy Rose who rented the room under the pen name “Juliette”. Amy was looking out the window relaxing with a cup of tea that was freshly brought up by Hotel service. Her quills had grown long past her shoulders and she was getting ready to attend the fashion show later the evening. Since her vanishment she found herself roaming the land, each time finding herself in a new boutique helping with sewing up clothes for her boss’ clients. Amy always loved fashion and style, it was something that helped her relax.  

About a year ago Amy had begun working under a famous designer known as “Pier La’foux”, she was an amazing designer who unfortunately lost 2 of her fingers on her dominant hand during the Infinite incident, and because of this it was hard for her to finish her projects with the exact and precise details she was most known for. Pier heard about “Juliet” when she was visiting a friend’s newly opened boutique where Amy was working at the time. Pier’s friend had told her that her new assistant was very good at those intricate details and recommended Pier to consider “Juliet” as her assistant. The moment Pier saw Amy’s work she was astonished at how well she embroidered beautiful golden roses on a long black evening gown, Pier immediately took Amy under her wing to assist with continuing Pier’s work. It wasn’t until after a year that Pier realized that “Juliet” wasn’t Amy’s real name and asked her why she would leave her old life? At that point Amy had enough trust with Pier that she just broke down in tears.

“I was under so much stress and anxiety that I just left. It was a flight response that hit me so suddenly that I wasn’t able to think much, I just ran and ran and ran until I found myself at the beach across the other side of the continent. I found a boat that had washed on shore and I just paddled, at that point I didn’t care if I reached land, I just wanted to escape. I think I kept running for so long that I later realized a year had passed and I found out that Sonic and Tails and everyone else was worried about me, but at that point… I just felt guilt. I felt too guilty to come back. I felt like I left a lot of my closest, my only, friends down. I made them worry so much about me that I didn’t feel like it was ok to just jump back into their lives when they had already stressed out so much, not only because of Infinite, but because of me. I didn’t-I didn’t want to face that.” Amy cried and cried, she tried to stop sobbing but all the pain, all the stress, all the anxiety, all the panic and frustration just kept pouring out of her.

Pier looked at Amy and held her tightly for support. To Pier her dear friend had been bottling up so much negative emotions over the years that finally the bottle overflowed and broke. To comfort Amy she told her that she would keep her secret for as long as she needed, but Pier also promised Amy that she would help her find the courage to let her friends know that she was ok. This soothed Amy, not only the crying, but the encouragement and support from a friend.

Amy took a sip from her tea cup and thought to herself. If only Sonic or Tails or anyone was with me on the day I went back to my apartment, maybe then they could’ve comfort me or stopped me and I wouldn’t have ran away. Amy then looked at the clock and saw that it was 1 hour before she had to meet up with Pier backstage at the fashion show to help with the models. She placed her tea cup on top of the coffee table and quickly readied herself with large sunglasses and a big beautifully decorated hat that carefully hid her quills and distracted from her face.

------

Tails was having his morning coffee as he watched the morning news as he did every other morning. There was a segment on the Fashion show that happened in Casinopolis last night after the commercial break, but he wasn’t too enthusiastic about it so he was debating on turning the tv off after he finished the last sip of his coffee. Before he could come to a decision he got a message from his communicator, it was from Rouge.

The message read “Watch the Fashion show interview with Pier La’foux and tell me if the girl to her right looks familiar. <3 Rouge”

Tails quickly turned his head back to the tv as the last commercial was playing, he began to pay attention to the faces and names on the screen, then there was a quick interview with the person Rouge named. To the right of the fashion designer was a girl in a huge white hat with huge red roses layered onto the hat. The hat was so huge it was hard to tell if there was even a head underneath it, but just then, during the whole loud activity behind the two girls came a woman who looked a bit like Rouge and “accidentally” bumped into the girl on the right causing the hat, to fall off and her sunglasses to distort itself onto her face. Tails quickly paused the screen. The whole activity was happening so fast that the screen was a bit blurry on the girl, but it was no doubt, the girl on the right look exactly like Amy. He quickly messaged Sonic to come to his house where after a long 14.34 seconds Sonic arrived to confirm that the girl on the screen was in fact Amy.

The boys quickly contacted Rouge regarding her intel. She specified she had her suspicions when she was looking at a fashion magazine while she got her hair done, one of the articles on the magazine was an interview with a famous designer along with a picture of her and her assistant, her face and hair was covered up pretty well with decorated jewelry and glasses, the fact that she was pink and was only quoted by the name of “Juliette” made Rouge suspicious. Rouge also said that currently the best way to actually confirm if it was Amy is if they left at that moment to catch one of the many flights from the Casinopolis airport and see if Amy boards one of them. Sonic quickly got everyone he could to meet at the airport last minute and wait and go through different terminals just to make sure they didn’t miss the chance.

------------------------------------

Amy made sure that all of her belongings were in her luggage case before double checking that her disguise was intact. Compared to the elegant outfit she wore the night before she in contrast wore a baggy grey hoodie with some long black yoga pants and sneakers, she also made sure to wear sunglasses of course but just an outfit wasn’t enough to go through a security check. Amy made sure her Wig was on properly so that she could keep it on through the process. With her double and  triple checking she was ready to head out to airport unknowing that Sonic and the others were waiting there to see her.

The plan was now in motion, there was 7 terminals in the Casinopolis airport and there was at least 1 member of the Sonic team at each one. Tails in 1, Knuckles in 2, Sonic in 3, Rouge in 4, Vector in 5, Espio in 6 and Rookie in 7, they were all ready and alert to find any hint of Amy.

Amy arrived in a shuttle to terminal 3, she planned to go on a separate flight from Pier. While Pier was going back to her studio Amy was going to Holoska for some special Holoskan textiles for Pier. She checked into her flight and dropped off her luggage then waited at the security check without any problems of her removing her wig, she then headed towards her gate, a she turned the corner that’s when she saw him, Sonic. Why was Sonic flying in a commercial Airline? Tails could give him a free flight at any time! Oh gosh, did they see the footage where her hat fell off? She knew she should’ve dyed her quills that day, ugg! All these “should haves” were meaningless, now it was time for action, now it was time to...run. Amy went to the womens restroom where she waited there until her plane began to board. Once Amy boarded the plane and headed to her coach seat the color from her face dropped… Sonic was sitting, right next, to her seat, sitting next to the isle, keeping her trapped, in her window seat. Amy quickly hailed a Flight attendant to ask if it was possible to change her seat but to continue her bad luck rolling, this was a book flight. Amy was stuck on a 3 hour flight, with Sonic. Normally she would be jumping with joy for just one second with Sonic, but right now she couldn’t, she felt too much shame and guilt to show her excitement.

“Hey! Are you my seat buddy? It’s not everyday you get to sit next to hero now is it?” Sonic got up to let the unknown passenger sit at their seat. “So where ya’ heade-”

Amy quickly sat down and visibly put on her earbuds and connected them to the tiny tv screen and put on the first movie that came up. Internally Amy was still screaming. It was a very long and boring 3 hours for the two hedgehogs.

--------

The exact moment the plane landed at the gate and opened it’s doors Sonic was the first one out, he just couldn’t wait another second inside that cramped airplane. Right now they were in Metropolis city, after this Amy would stay the night at a nearby hotel and then take a small plane to Holoska the next morning.

Sonic was about to head out the airport doors before he remembered to pick up his luggage, even though this was a small trip he thought about bringing a luggage case just to fill it up with jars of a special chili made only at one restaurant in the city. He impatiently kept stomping his foot as he waited by the luggage conveyor belt, honestly, how slow can a team of people be? Wasn’t there at least 4 of them? Something caught Sonic’s eye as the luggage started coming in, it was a bright pink case, it reminded him of Amy, just then he caught a quick glimpse at the name tag, “Juliette” written on the name tag.

“I got her now” Sonic thought, he stood by the side and waited to see who claimed the luggage case.

Amy was last to leave the plane, she was hoping Sonic would be long gone by now but she made sure to take, a bit, or extra precautions, she stopped by the bathroom and later looked at all the overpriced nik-naks at the airport store just to buy a sandwich from one of the many chain coffee shops located at the same terminal. She had to have taken at least an hour but maybe she didn’t waste enough time because when she arrived at the conveyor belt she saw her luggage still going around, and a blue hedgehog standing by the courtesy hotel phones. Amy hid behind a giant ad pillar away from Sonic’s sight and began to debate whether to leave the luggage behind, but she knew she couldn’t do that because she had one of Pier’s prototype’s designs neatly folded in there and she knew Pier would kill her if she lost it. She lost the feeling to her legs and she dropped to her knees.

“Why me, why today, I’m just not ready.” Amy sighed but she jumped when someone tapped her on the shoulder.

“Hey there seat buddy! You doing ok?” Sonic teased his seat buddy. “Listen I was wondering, do you have a spare bed I can use?

Amy wanted to die. Sonic was here and she still couldn’t face him with good conscience, She can’t. She wasn’t ready. But she had to. Amy tried her best to disguise her voice, only to sound like some strange dying whale. “Why don’t you use the courtesy phones over there?”

“I did but they’re all booked. Besides I was hoping to meet a friend here but I don’t think that’s going to happen.”

My gosh. Does he know? No he doesn’t...does he? Amy looked back at her luggage to see a staff member take it to the lost and found. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

“Ack! They’re going to take that? Did someone miss their flight?” Sonic sighed and drooped down and looked at the floor. He really had his hopes up that he would find Amy here, but he just traveled 3 hours for a flight that he could’ve easily outran by 5 minutes.

Amy felt bad, at that moment she really wanted to tell him but she was interrupted by her phone, it was the airport calling about her unclaimed luggage. She stepped off the the side to answer, she accidentally pressed the speaker button upon answering and her phone blasts the message.

“Hi! This is the lost and found for Metropolitan airlines, am I speaking with Juliette?”

“Umm… can I call back?” Amy said with the meekest of voiced.

“Ok just to let you know we can only keep your luggage here no longer than 24 hours, after that we will have to dispose of it. Thank you and have a great day!”

The clerk hung up. Amy slowly looked behind her. It was too late, Sonic was already right behind her.

“A-Amy?” Sonic stared deeply through Amy’s thick sunglasses “Are you really here?”

At some point Amy had to come to terms with her mistakes, but she was hoping she was ready for it and right now she was not ready. “C-can I just get my luggage right now.”

Sonic tightly embraced Amy, tears were running down both of their faces. “Where were you? Why did you leave? Why didn’t you come to me if you had any problems? I was worried sick that,that someone took you, or even worse!”

Amy broke down at that point, she was bawling her eyes out and crying loudly “I’m-I’m-I’m SO-SORRY!” the two were making a scene, but Amy was at a point of no return with her tears. Her gut was hurting so much after being found out, but her heart had felt relieved to have finally talked to Sonic again after these past couple of years.

“Here, let’s go someplace more secluded, I think the paparazzi might be headed their way.” Sonic lifted  Amy off her feet to make sure she never ran again.

“W-wait! I need my luggage case!” Amy adjusted her sunglasses to hide her puffed up eyes, Sonic let her back down and she started walking to the Help desk where they had the unclaimed luggage.

------

Amy took Sonic to her hotel room, she ordered some tea through room service along with some tiny pastries. She had asked Sonic not to ask any questions, it was hard enough on her to leave, it was even harder trying to come back, he understood this and sat down at the chair closest to the window.

“I-I couldn’t handle it anymore” Amy couldn’t handle the awkward silence anymore. “The whole thing with Infinite just broke me. I-I wasn’t thinking much when I left honestly. I just needed to get away from it all.”

“Then why didn’t you come to me or Tails or anyone else?” Sonic looked away hiding his slightly tipped off face.

“Like I said I wasn’t thinking. Seeing my home in shambles, it was like the final nail in the coffin. I know I could usually handle myself for the first time, I was just under constant stress every single day.”

Sonic looked at Amy “I guess… I can understand that. Infinite wasn’t easy, none of us really got out of it the same way.”

Amy was glad he understood her “Yeah… I think what I really needed was to talk to someone, but at that moment it was hard to think about that. I’m really sorry for not talking with anyone, I just kept trying to escape the situation that I lost track of time, I felt too ashamed to go back, I made you guys worry too much and to me I thought you guys didn’t need to see me again and relive those feelings.” Amy started to cry again, she cried to much today she didn’t think she could cry anymore.

“Well I can’t blame you for wanting to change your life up, I gotta ask though...are you planning on being a designer or whatever for the rest of your life?”

“I really enjoy fashion and design, but to be completely honest I really miss the adventures of running around and saving people. But at this point I wonder if it’s even possible to go back. I haven’t touched my hammer in years” Amy laughed to reduce the tension in the air.

Sonic stayed quiet for a moment to put his next words carefully. “I won’t lie but, I hope you can join us in adventures again, I kinda miss having you in them.”

Amy’s face grew red like her name, she was blushing madly, did she hear him correctly? She hopes she did. “I-I uhhh I miss the adventures too, maybe after this trip I’ll try to pick up my hammer again.”

Sonic’s ears perked up, but tried to hide his enthusiasm “G-great! Just any time let me know when you need help with that, I’ll help you train again if you need it!”

Amy giggled, she hadn’t felt this great in years. All of her worries and anxieties almost vanished at that instant. If she had talked to any of her friends sooner she could’ve avoided year's worth of sleepless nights.

[another-sonic-blog]

First Impressions Pt.2

First Impressions

Pt.2

ShadamyBoom!

Just like promised, Shadow and Amy meet more constantly. And by constantly, I mean four to five days a week. Amy will talk about the constant battles with Eggman and Shadow would always listen carefully even if he knew the ending for each story. With “Team Sonic” always kicking Eggman’s butt.Shadow will always keep Amy updated about his costant search for the Chaos Emeralds and Lyric’s possible uprising. Before leaving to search for an Emerald, he made sure to tell Amy which made her respond with a “I’ll wait for you.”

Times has passed since Amy last saw Shadow and she has began to worry. She was honestly enjoying her time with the black hedgehog and didn’t want him to stop coming to see her. Amy didn’t even know where he was living, so she couldn’t go investigate in case Shadow was in trouble and needed help. The only thing she could do was to trust him and pretend like nothing was hapening in front of her friends, which were currectly eating all together at Meh Burger

“It’s already been a week”-Amy thought out-loud. Looking down at her burger, she began to think about the possibilities that might have happen to Shadow, but once again, she knew he could take care of himself.

“A week for what Ames?- Sonic asked curious about what the pink hedgehog could be thinking.

“You have been kinda out Amy”- Tails asked as welll as he took a bite out of his burger.

“Uh? No, its nothing!- Amy said and took a sip of her soda rapidly.

“Come on Amy! What is it? Did you forget to water your plants for a week? Did you forget to wash your clothes for a week? Because that has happen to me and-”- Sticks began but was interrupted by Knuckles.

“No guys, Amy is just worried that her boyfriend hasn’t come to visit her for a week!”- That was said and while Amy was choking on her on soda, everyone went to stare at her with a surprise look.

“What? eh? Boyfriend, Amy you have a boyfriend?, its not like I care or anything but-”-Sonic began to blabber at super sonic speed.

“What? No, I don’t have a boyfriend, I-”

“ Don’t be shy Amy! I have heard you guys talking couple of times!”- Knuckles said.

“What? How?”-Amy asked almost yelling.

“ I sometimes pass by your house because I do weight lifting near there, and I have heard you talk to someone regurlarly, I didn’t really make out who he was, but since it’s your bussiness, I didn’t pay to much importance.”-Knuckles explained, while calmly eating his burger.

“Wow, Knuckles, I never saw you as the one to take people’s privacy into consideration.”- Tail said surprised.

“There’s a whole history you don’t know about me bruh”

“Anyways Amy, who is this guy?, is he rich? does he own a technological corporation in which they have world domination as their main goal?!”

“He is not my boyfriend!”- Amy yelled, blushing really hard.

“Then who the heck is he?”- Sonic asked, a bit angry at the fact and forgetting about his chilli dog. Knuckles out of nowhere took out some pop-corn, already feeling where this was going, in which Tails and Sticks decided to join him and just sit back, relax and enjoy the upcoming drama.

“He, uh, he is…My student!”-Amy said quickly already sweating and not really thinking about the consequences.

“You have to stay quiet… if not I’ll kick you out”- Dave came out of nowhere and and just like he came with his “I don’t care attitude” he left. 

“Your student? Student of what?”-Sonic kept throwing her questions, not really caring about Dave’s warning.

“ah..Indoors design?… yeah that, hehe!”-Amy said with a nervous laugh. 

“Oh look at the time, I have to go now, bye~.” - And with that, Amy left in a rush.

“Wait, AMY!!!”-Sonic yelled.

“Ok this is it.”- Dave said to himself, a he push down the emergency bottom in which was under his counter, making everyone been ejected  from their seats and went flying over to an unknown place.

Amy came to her house, while trying to catch her breath she went to her fridge to get a sip of water. 

“Well, that was close”-Amy thought. And as she pull her head out of the fridge and close the door, she found no other than Shadow The Hedgehog behind the door looking at her.

“Shadow!”- Amy was surprised by his sudden apperance.

“It seems like I have come in a bad time.”- Shadow said and Amy was perplexed.

“It doesn’t smell like cookies.”- Shadow decided to look to the other side while saying this.

“Oh, Shadow!”-Amy was so happy to hear him and she hugged him, forgetting about her previous situation. She was just happy to know that Shadow made it back safely.

After a few seconds, she remember who she was hugging and she guessed it was time to go into the next level with her friendship with Shadow. Hugging a friend wasn’t wrong after all. She looked up to see his reaction, and he just had a surprised look on face. 

“hehe…heheheh”- Amy giggle as she separated from Shadow and turn around to get the ingredients to make cookies.

“What are you laughing about Rose?”- Shadow asked as he eyes followed Amy.

“Nothing, just your expression.. I have to say it was kinda cute”

“Tsk”

“Well, I won’t do it if you don’t want me too”- Amy said smiling, if Shadow didn’t want to be hugged, then she had nothing else to do but to respect his decision.

“…”

Amy felt Shadow’s gaze towards her, at every movement she did while preparing her things to make the cookies. That’s when she thought…

“hey, Shadow. Do you want to learn how to bake this?”

“Why would I do that?, I have you to make them for me. And besides, If I learn how to make them on my own, I wouldn’t have an excuse to come see you.”

“Well, I won’t be here forever, you know? and…I actually, well.. thought that you liked to come here not only because of my cookies, but because you, like me?”

Amy noticed Shadow’s change, his eyes opened a bit more and he seem to confuse the word “like.”

“In a non- romantic, comrade type of way!”- Amy quickly turned around to cut the cookie dough and kept Shadow from looking at her blush.

“Very well then, let’s began…”- Shadow came closer to Amy, ready to get his first lesson.

“But Amy…”- Amy turned her head to Shadow as she hear him call her name.

“Please, don’t remind me again that in a future you won’t be here.”

The lesson went smoothly after that. Amy felt bad for remembering Shadow about his immortality. So she try to make her lesson more fun for the both of them to enjoy. Shadow seemed to have had a good time as he learn to make cookies and in between recipes he took more bites of the different kind of doughs, which made him be in a better mood.

“Well, all done!”- Amy said happily and with pride, the tray was full of different kind of cookies.

“Rose… they are all burnt”

“Yeah, but you made it yourself, its a beginning! You should be proud!”- Amy sightly punch him in the shoulder in which Shadow pretend to be hurt and touched his shoulder as in to gain a bit of pity from Amy so she could let him eat part of her cookies.

They sat down in the sofa and with milk began to eat the cookies.

“They taste great Shadow! The burn part makes it have a different flavor.”- Shadow knew Amy was lying as he had tried his own cookies, but smirked at the nice thing the pink hedgehog said. They continued eating and watching a reality show in the TV until Shadow interrupted.

“Hey Rose, look at what I found”- Shadow said pulling out a green Chaos Emerald.

“Oh, you did find it after all!”

“Yeah, I had to fight some robots, but it wasn’t anything I couldn’t handle”

“Are you going to look for the other ones?”

“Yes, but since I already have one, it means that I must leave for sometime”

“What do you mean?”- Amy asked putting down her cookie and milk.

“With the previous battle I had, I am sure that Lyric is back… some of the robots I fought were under their command. Some of those robots were Eggman’s  prototypes… they know I have the Chaos Emerald, If I stay here I’ll put everyone in danger.”- Shadow said, looking straight at Amy’s eyes.

“But-but where would you be?”- Amy was really worry, she didn’t like the idea of having to wait for Shadow to come back, wondering if he was safe or not.

“To be honest, I don’t know, I’ll hide and plan my next move as I go. I need to get all the Chaos Emeralds, that way I can stop whatever plan Lyric has.”

“Then, I’ll go with you!”

“It’s dangerous, Rose”

“I can take care of myself”

“I know that but…”

“And besides, I don’t want to put anyone in danger either”

“What?”

Amy went to her room, and looked through her things. Meanwhile, Shadow wonder what in Chaos was Amy meaning by “ I don’t want to hurt anyone either”. When Amy came back, Shadow understood her words.

“A Chaos Emerald?!”- Shadow said surprised as Amy showed him a red Chaos Emerald.

“Where did you find it?”

“I believe this was the emerald you were trying to look for in the forest a few weeks ago, when you were injured.”

“So that’s why you were in the forest that night? You can also sense Chaos energy?”

“Only when I am really close to them. In reality, I was trying to find some berries for a cooking recipe when I sensed the energy, I looked futher into the forest and I found it. And I also found you not too far away from it.”- Amy said as she took a sit in the sofa close to Shadow.

“Amy, you can still give it to me and I’ll-”- Shadow began but she interrupted him.

“No, I found it. And I am resposible for it now. Please Shadow, let me go with you.”

Shadow thought for a moment, and he couldn’t just take the emerald from Amy and leave. Amy wouldn’t forgive him and he knew that.

“Fine”- Shadow finally agreed, not really sure about his decision.

“Yes! When are we leaving?”- Amy said, glad that Shadow accepted her request.

“Tomorrow morning”

“Well then, you should stay here the night”

“I accept”

“Great, I’ll make us some snacks for the trip”- Amy said as she stood up and went to the kitchen.

“oh and Amy…”- Shadow began and Amy turned around, there weren’t many times that Shadow called her by her name, she knew it has serious business when he did.

“Yes?”

“I like your cookies, but I also like you”

“M-me?”

“In a totally non-romantic, comrade type of way”

A/N: if there’s enough support I’ll continue, I must say that real romance begans after this chapter~~~

[solalunar-eclipse]

Sonic Boom - S3E1

Episode title: Friendship 101

Word count: about 3000 words

Author’s Note: I’m trying a rather new format for this fic, since it’s based on a TV show with various songs and camera angles. If you have any comments about whether it works well or not, please let me know!

(Also, the theme song choice is all thanks to khinesthetic, who used it here and inspired me to put it in this fic.)

Next

[cue Mr. Blue Sky by ELO (0:00-3:45)]

[The show opens on a zoomed-out view of Hedgehog Village from above. Stone walls separate the village from the wilderness outside. There are large spaces at several points throughout the structure for entry and exit. A large patch of grass with benches scattered about sits at one end of the village, and a marketplace made up of wood-and-cloth stalls runs along one of the walls. Houses are grouped in seemingly random clusters throughout the town, and the (in)famous Meh Burger stand sits all on its own, with picnic tables spread across its wooden flooring. As the music progresses, the camera begins to zoom in on the village- then on one of the streets in particular- and rotates down to eye level to face…]

Sonic the Hedgehog walked through the streets of Hedgehog Village with a bounce in his step, occasionally dancing to the music playing through his earbuds. As he wandered throughout the town, he passed the usual people running their stores, arguing over botched orders at Meh Burger, and, at one point, Aqua the Rabbit absolutely freaking out over the loss of a single follower on Angstagram (the latest social media network for moody teens).

He did a 360-degree spin before winking and pointing finger guns at Amy Rose when he spotted her haggling with the local grocery store owner. She paused briefly to wave at him with a smile. “Hi, Sonic!” she called, completely ignoring the irritated fennec in the process.

Then, the music froze and changed to something extremely ominous as she turned around to face the shopkeeper once more. A dangerous gleam appeared in her eyes as she pulled out her signature hammer. “Now then, about those prices you’ve been setting lately…”

The song cut back in as the view switched back to Sonic, who was now moving away from the scene at a slightly faster pace.

Really, though, he was more than happy to see his other friends not long after. Knuckles and Sticks were currently busy rummaging through the town’s garbage together, excitedly chatting about the latest piece of interesting junk they’d found, while Tails was fixing someone’s broken rain gutter (and attempting to ‘improve’ it in the process, which meant that it could now measure the amount and intensity of rainfall in a storm- a very useful, though unfortunately unwanted improvement).

Surprisingly enough, as he continued on his way through Hedgehog Village, he managed to get people from a few different places to wave back at him when he said hello. Although perhaps it wasn’t quite so surprising when one considered that this was one of the most cliched opening sequences that could possibly happen in any movie or TV show. Ever.

And of course, the only logical outcome of this scene led to everyone beginning to stop their usual activities and gather in one of the few open spaces in the town, clearly prepared to break into a fantastic musical dance number straight out of Broadway. Incredibly, this was one of the few moments in which everyone in the village seemed to be able to get along…

...until Eggman’s latest giant robot slammed feet-first into the ground, sending everyone off-kilter and scrambling for cover. Shrieks of panic rose in place of the music as the villagers fled the scene to hide in their houses. The dramatic entrance didn’t just ruin the mood, it absolutely crushed it with the sheer force of its impact.

And that was, obviously, when the show really began.

[cue In Your Face by Shockwave Sound (0:00-1:04)] 

[Each of the five members of Team Sonic appears on a black screen with their name spelled out in their signature colors (blue, yellow, red, pink, and green) and does a couple of cool fighting moves, followed by snippets of scenes featuring them from previous episodes of the show for about eight seconds each. All five of them then appear together in their usual fighting stances, emphasizing their status as a team.

The Eggman logo then appears in an ominous, glowing red, backlighting the doctor himself and all his creations- before the lights flick on to reveal him alone in his evil lair with a green screen behind him, at which point he shrieks and covers the camera with a hand. Then, neon blue electronic lines begin to appear across the screen and the camera spirals to follow them, selecting one particular line to trace. Not long after, said line ends at a circle which, with a flash, turns into the words ‘Sonic Boom’. Beneath the title, it says ‘Ancient Secrets’ in neon blue.]

[Then the music ends, at which point the episode title- “Friendship 101”- appears for a few seconds in the same color before the show itself returns.]

Sonic scrambled to his feet and zipped over to Tails, pulling him up from where he’d fallen after the robot’s overdramatic arrival. Amy managed to do the same with both Knuckles and Sticks simultaneously, which let Sonic stare for a moment, startled, and then promptly resolve to remember not to get on her bad side anytime soon.

Soon enough, the team had scrambled into their usual positions, ready to fight. Amy and Sticks kicked the battle off by handling the various smaller robots that threatened to get too close to their team, never faltering (and in fact seeming a bit gleeful in the badger’s case) despite the sheer number of enemies. Knuckles, meanwhile, launched Sonic bodily into the air for Tails to catch, before picking up a boulder about the size of a house and lobbing it directly at the robot’s chest.

“Hey! Easy with the boulders- QuakeBot took a lot of effort to make, you know!” Eggman shrieked from above, hovering in the relative safety of his Eggmobile. 

(Relative, in this case, was of course in comparison to mixing absurdly volatile chemicals in a lab, bothering Shadow at any and/or all hours of the day, or being on Tails’s bad side when the fox had a glue gun. The doctor still remembered that situation all too well, and currently ranked it as far more terrifying than merely being punted into the stratosphere by kids under half his height and about a third his age.)

Sonic paused to stare at Eggman from where he was currently dangling in the air. A smirk began to spread slowly across his face. “…what did you just call it?”

“You heard me the first time!” the doctor roared, now incredibly embarrassed. “I named it that since it makes the ground shake when it moves, like an earthquake??”

General laughter came from the heroes assembled on the ground and in the sky.

“Argh! Nobody appreciates my genius around here! Now, QuakeBot, stop standing around and start attacking!”

“I suggested TerraBot, since it still has to do with earth and is a play on the word ‘terror’, but nobody ever listens to my ideas, now do they?” Orbot muttered irritably to himself, tucked inside the Eggmobile.

“I listen to all your ideas!” Cubot offered encouragingly.

Orbot’s mouth shifted into a small smile. “Thanks, Cubot.”

Meanwhile, Sonic had been pulled into a spin by Tails, who whirled the hedgehog around before letting him shoot downwards toward the robot in a spin dash- only for him to get caught and sent flying into the nearest house.

He shook off the surprise quickly (and apparently sustained absolutely zero damage despite having literally crashed through a house, because superpowered teenagers), darting back over to the group. “Well, uh, guess it’s time for Plan B then!”

Crickets chirped in the ensuing silence. Even the robot had stopped moving to hear what he had to say.

“And the plan is…?” Amy prompted.

Sonic folded his arms with a huff. “I dunno, I thought you guys would have one!?”

The pink hedgehog rolled her eyes at that. 

Tails piped up. “I have an idea! Sonic, you’re going to need to be curled up for this, okay?”

The hero promptly did just that, before emitting a muffled “mmhmm?” from inside his layers of quills.

“Alright then, Amy, I need you to hit Sonic with your hammer right at the side of this house.”

Sonic’s blood ran cold. “Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second can we maybe rethink thiaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

He ricocheted all over the palace like a pinball, slamming into several key points of the robot thanks to Tails’s rapid calculations. However, the robot was sadly unaffected by his screaming at a pitch that came dangerously close to shattering glass.

The robot was easily disabled and the attack overall quickly repelled after that. Thankfully, it took Sonic only a moment to recover from his impromptu stint as an out-of-control projectile and get back to fighting with the others…complete with a “Let’s do that AGAIN!” moment, which was met with a resounding no from both Amy and Tails. 

Their ears were both still rather sore from last time, after all.

After Eggman was punted all the way back to his island by a well-placed kick from Sticks, though, the crew was about to head over to Meh Burger for a post-battle meal when they discovered that they had an entirely different problem to take care of. The villagers, who were beginning to come out of hiding after the attack, were furious upon seeing the damage dealt to their homes and stores.

“How could you let this happen?” one shouted.

Before long, the villagers found themselves a more specific target when the owner of the house that Sonic had smashed into pointed her finger directly in his face. “This mess is awful!” she cried. “And it’s all his fault!”

Within seconds, a mob of people had descended upon the overtaxed teen.

“I’ve never known a hero so irresponsible.” one fumed.

“How dare you!” the fennec from earlier roared.

The elderly wolf of the village shook her cane at him. “Shame on you!”

Sonic could feel himself beginning to tense up as the villagers turned their ire on him. Whether or not he’d admit it to anyone, he needed two main things in order to be his usual heroic, cheerful self: open space and positive reinforcement. Right now, he was getting exactly the opposite of both of those.

And he was not feeling good about it.

He looked briefly over to his friends for help, but Sticks had already vanished, Knuckles and Tails looked more nervous than anything, and Amy was already walking towards him with that look in her eye…

“Sonic, next time you do need to work on making sure the robot doesn’t catch you, you know-”

A streak of blue shot out of the village, leaving nothing but a scorched trail of grass and the snap of a sonic boom behind.

Sonic didn’t slow down until he reached the mountains- which technically wasn’t very far from the town at all, so he ran quite a bit more after that until he ended up in the middle of the jungle. Then, he sat down with his back to a tree and his arms around his knees, feeling very unheroic and overall pretty lame.

The blue hedgehog frowned at the dirt. Honestly, some days it really did feel like nobody seemed to like him. The only person who ever even suggested he was important on a regular basis was Tails, and Sonic didn’t blame him at all for not jumping into the middle of that crowd. Tails was only thirteen to his seventeen and a half years old- not exactly an age when he should be expected to go toe-to-toe with a crowd of angry adults.

Still, though. When being a hero got him all risk (no matter how low) and no reward...it was difficult for him to keep hold of that core feeling of “I can make the world a better place to live in!”, which, despite all his other claims, was truly at the center of what had motivated him to start fighting against Eggman so long ago…

[The scene morphs in a manner which shows the lighting shifting so that the sun is overhead. A sound effect of birds chirping plays over the scene change. This implies that it’s been several hours since he first fled the village.]

Sonic was still lost in thought when the snap of a twig in the bushes made him jump to his feet in surprise. The surrounding vegetation rustled ominously for a moment...only to reveal the four members of his team in front of him. He watched them all cautiously, his expression tense. More than anything, he looked ready to run at a moment’s notice- something which only served to make his friends(?) seem a little more distressed. “Uh…hey, guys?” he began tentatively.

“Sonic, I…” Amy began forcefully, before stopping herself. At first, it looked like she was about to scold him again, but then suddenly her face fell. “Listen, Sonic, we’ve all been talking a lot about what happened back at the village…and there’s something I want to say.” She gave a slightly tired sigh. 

“I know we usually like to make jokes and witty commentary, but...sometimes, the world’s just a difficult place to be in.” she said. “...so we really do need to talk about serious stuff occasionally, even though I know it’s tough for you to even mention how you’re feeling. Unless, you know, it’s ‘great!’ or ‘cool!’ or something like that.”

Sonic cringed at the mere idea, looking more and more like he thought running away was the preferable option here.

“So what I wanted to say was that in a world where there are too many people trying to beat you down...what I was trying to do was tell you how to be more tolerant, because I thought that would help. I figured you can’t change how other people are going to be, just yourself, so I hoped that might make things better.

“But...I’m not actually a licensed therapist- yet, anyway. So I might have been wrong on how I went about that. Maybe...instead of telling you off for not being able to stop all those people...in the future I’ll pull out my hammer and tell them to knock it off already. Does that sound better to you?” she asked.

The blue hedgehog froze. “Ames…I...” he croaked, trying his best not to think about why exactly it felt like his throat was so tight all of a sudden.

Sticks folded her arms. “I like that plan! Those people are way too crazy sometimes…and you guys know I have a verrrrry high tolerance for crazy.”

“We can make the villagers quit bugging you together, just like how we fight Eggman!” Knuckles added encouragingly. “It’s always better that way, isn’t it?”

There was still one person who hadn’t spoken yet, though.

Suddenly, Tails crashed full-force into Sonic, squeezing him in a hug that for once he didn’t pretend to hate. “You know I’ve always, always, always got your back, right, Sonic? No matter what?” he asked, looking up at his older brother. “Even if I don’t always know how to do it right.”

The blue hedgehog simply nodded, not trusting his voice to help him maintain his ‘cool guy’ status.

“It’s okay if you don’t feel up to talking about it now, though.” the fox added understandingly, stepping back but still leaving a hand on his arm. 

“But!” Knuckles added. “We won’t tell anyone if you ever decide you do need to get some stress off your chest every once in a while!” He smacked his own chest with a fist for emphasis.

“Nobody needs to know.” Sticks growled, the camera suddenly showing a dramatic angle of her face as the lighting dropped noticeably.

“Uh…that’s kinda dark.” Sonic said, holding up a finger with a bit of a confused frown, which let the lighting and camera angle zip back to normal.

“Anyway!” The pink hedgehog clapped her hands together, turning to face the group as a whole. “What do you guys think about heading over to my house and watching some movies? I’ll even…” She sighed, her whole body slumping. “…make some messy, simple, unprofessional chili dogs. In my state-of-the art kitchen. I know Sonic probably could use a pick-me-up right now, after all.”

“Thanks, Ames! You’re the best!” the hedgehog in question said cheerfully, the promise of good food and great companionship boosting his mood significantly.

Then, his posture shifted once again into something a little more vulnerable. “And thanks to all you guys. For, y’know, everything.”

“Of course!” Amy chirped.

Tails smiled at him. “No problem, Sonic.”

Sticks folded her arms. “That’s what a team’s for, ain’t it?”

“Of course it is!” Knuckles said, in that rather confusing manner where nobody was actually sure if he understood anything about what had just happened.

The echidna actually walked over to Sonic after that particular declaration, though, placing a hand on his shoulder as his face became uncharacteristically serious for a second. “Really, Sonic, we can all help you out, alright? Nobody gets to yell at our leader without getting yelled at back!” he declared, punching a fist into his other hand.

The hedgehog blinked twice before looking up at his friend. “You…just called me the leader?”

“Well, duh! That’s why everyone calls it Team Sonic, right?” Knuckles asked with a smile, letting an awkward (but genuine) grin spread across Sonic’s face.

Within seconds, the hero found himself squeezed in a big hug from all sides by his friends- and then actually lifted off the floor through a joint effort from Knuckles and Amy. 

“Guys- come on! I can’t even move here!” he cried out, his legs flailing so quickly they made a vibrating noise in the air. “Guyyyyssss….” he whined, though nobody seemed to care much about his halfhearted complaints (judging by the happy expressions on their faces).

Then, the episode began to end, as evidenced by an iris out transition. The slowly shrinking circle paused for a moment on Sonic’s current expression, highlighting it against the otherwise black screen. He now sported a sheepish, if slightly pleased smile, complete with a faint pink blush on his face from all the positive attention. 

Clearly Sonic liked being, well, liked far more than he let on.

Then, the circle snapped closed with a pop, and the credits began to roll.

[Voice Actors: 

Roger Craig Smith

Colleen Villard

Travis Willingham

Cindy Robinson

Nika Futterman

Mike Pollock

Kirk Thornton

Wally Wingert

Bill Freiberger

Original creation by:

Evan Baily

Donna Friedman Meir 

Sandrine Nguyen

Bill Freiberger

Takashi Iizuka

Writer/editor:

Solalunar “Sol” Eclipse

Thank you for watching reading.]