Sonic Forces

Ch. 4

By: Cutegirlmayra (Guess who finished Finals? :D this gal! Lol, so yeah. Here. Have something to eat.)

As though snow had dumped itself off the side of a cliff, Amy slumped forward with a sorrowful frown upon her face that day.

Her back formed like a question mark, mirroring the thousands of questions that were left unanswered by Sonic's disappearance once again.

'He's not letting himself rest... Does he still think he needs to prove himself to everyone?' She sighed, reclining her already bent body further down with the released air.

Girls in the resistance started giggling in a filled storage unit left mostly to dust over until the time for it was needed.

Amy's body slowly rose as her eyes turned to the laughter, her ear perking up at their voices...

Stealthily, as though breaking the law, Amy looked around and slid silently up against the wall, scooting towards the open door to listen in on what they were talking about.

"I don't know... the heat of the battlefield, the thousands of wispons shooting all around you... who wouldn't get turned on?"

"Melissa, you're so bad!"

"I've made out with a recruit who broke his leg once. Is that just as bad? I mean, he was already downed. I felt bad for him. Confined to his little gurney. He was so cute! But so lonely there, so I... gave him a pick-me-up..."

"So, basically you're saying... he already had you in his bed?"

"Gurney!"

"Sounds a bit too easy, Monica."

The girls laughed hysterically as Amy suddenly felt her hair stick up on end. Her quills rose in sudden realization about what the girls were talking about, and she felt like immediately leaving.

Her foot stepped out to do so but the next comment left her stuck in place.

"I can't remember the first time I wanted to kiss a boy... I just remember never knowing what it was really like. The realness of it all. The sensualness of touch."

The girls giggled again and Amy suddenly found herself wondering...

She slowly withdrew her foot back to her side.

"I was afraid to be honest."

"What!? You!?"

"Don't look at me like that! Haha! It takes a lot of 'umph' for a girl to kiss a dude she likes! I'll never forget my first love... terrible kisser. But once you take off the glasses—well, there's a man under there! A real beast!"

"Hoho! Sounds like someone's still in love!"

"I dig a man in glasses, I'll admit it."

"Yeah, now that I look back, I'm glad for the times I was innocent~"

"Gurl, I can't imagine you innocent."

"Beonca!"

"Let's talk about my first bite~"

"OHHHHHHHHH~"

Amy grew flustered, she wasn't sure why, but her hands immediately raced to the sides of her embarrassed cheeks.

She hurried down the corridor and closed her eyes, upset for some odd reason...

'I've never... felt that need... to be anything but innocent.' She kept hurrying until she opened her eyes and realized she was in the big pavilion. The room was a light brown, almost gold color with a creamy white secondary color around it. It was full of trash and cardboard boxes like the ones in storage unit now. No one keeping up with the place. She looked at the stage, remembering when they used to hoist concerts and speeches there to rile up the resistance into staying strong, and also... announcing Sonic's supposed death.

Her thoughts suddenly shifted to Sonic sleeping, then his gloveless, shoeless, and sockless body in the light of her window, turning around to her. The next moment her thoughts raced to his body moving up and down on her lap, the warm and moist breath on her leg and how uncomfortable that had been, but she ignored it.

She wanted so desperately to help him...

Amy shook her head. Looking greatly disturbed at her new realization. 'Even Sonic thought I was weird... when I didn't react to him before...' She thought of how wonderful it was for him to compliment her. Talking with him and being around him had always been enough for her. And when Sonic mentioned he thought she would be the first to think that way...

'...Why don't I feel that way..?' she placed a hand to her chest...

She wasn't afraid of kissing or... or whatever else would come.

She gripped her dress's ends, looking down. '...I'd always thought Sonic looked attractive... I just never... I mean, I wanted to kiss but...'

She stepped back, feeling small in a room so large and spacious. No one was really around these places at this time. They were either doing chores or preparing for another battle. Some would be finishing up breakfast about now too.

She was having a moment and no one was there to notice, which was sort of convenient in a usually crowded headquarters.

'Is there... something wrong... with me?' she wondered if she really had matured... looking over her body and then wondering about what it would be like...

She tilted her head, having blocked daydreaming for so long since Sonic's disappearance. But now that she knew he was alive...

Growing closer to Sonic... the dream was still alive. She cutely squinted her eyes and lifted her hands up daintily to hold by her sides, tilting her body to really put all her imaginative brainpower into it. "Hmm..."

She attempted to picture Sonic coming closer to her, placing his hand on her back and pulling her deeper against his chest and lowering his face to be inches from her own.

But his hands still had gloves on...

She pouted.

But when she tried to think harder on it...

Sonic moving his other hand around her waist, pinching the end of one of the glove's fingers to pull it off, the sliding paused momentarily and-

She suddenly popped that bubble and blushed, smacking her hands over her face and shaking her body wildly. Little pieces of falling dust spiraled away from her in the action, "No, no, no! Eeee! I can't!" she squee'd, giggling to herself before stopping abruptly.

She lowered her hands.

Could she... really not get passed that?

Did she admire him more on his personality than...

She held a finger up to her mouth before her quills stood on end again, her eyes shrinking.

Thinking of him...

Sexually?

"GAHHH!!!" she squealed in yet another embarrassed and flustered yelp. Covering her face, she violently shook back and forth again, "I can't! I can't! I can't! It's too embarrassing!!!" She was just so used to being comfortable with him after all these years. And although he was handsome... very handsome... she honestly couldn't think of a moment where she wanted to- "Ahhh!!! Hahaaaa!!!" she shook herself even fiercer now, unable to take even the thought of it. Though her mind tried to play out him sleeping on her nicely washed bed sheets, opening his eyes to smile up at her, the image just didn't feel 'right' or 'Sonic-like' to her. The heat of her cheeks was likely to knock her out in a fainting spell at this point, before...

"...What's embarrassing, Amy?"

She froze as a humorous ice sculpture at being snapped out of her inner-thinkings, suddenly recognizing the familiar voice.

Silver stood behind her, holding some papers that looked like filers and tilting his head in the air.

He landed and the glowing green around his body faded, "You looked like you saw a mouse." He admitted.

She lowly cranked her head back to him in the motions of a robot, weakly smiling with little flicks here and there of a twitch on the corner of her mouth. "I was just..." she gestured her hands to the room. "Admiring... the old pavilion." She fibbed... a little... she was getting more accustomed to that too...

She pouted when he looked around, stating, "There's nothing really left to admire..." and then happily walked up to her. He seemed completely oblivious; it was too easy at this point to fool him. Then again, it was really sweet at the same time how believing he was of his friends, how much he trusted them. "No one's seen Sonic in a while. If you're looking for him, I'd check the communications room. Besides, Knuckles and Tails are still pretty upset about the last stunt you pulled. You really ought to take better care of yourself. You could have gotten hurt." He shook the flier a bit at her, attempting to scold but Amy just held a deadpan expression.

"What's the flier for?" she avoided his attempt to reprimand her which made him flinch a little in surprise.

He lowered his head, dropping the act and realizing she wasn't going to see any authority in him whatsoever. She may respect him, but she wouldn't follow his instructions like she did with Knuckles or Tails.

And even then, her sheer will-power trumps them all...

"It's for a concert we were thinking of hoisting here again. Celebrating Sonic's return, but..." Silver looked over the flier, a bit of worried sweat sliding down the side of his face. "I fear... with everything that's been going on with Sonic lately..."

Amy also felt a twinge of sorrow tickle at her heart. Seeing Sliver's disappointed expression suddenly take hold of his face as he looked to the flier...

She wouldn't allow it!

"Sonic will come back!"

She said this with so much moxie and fire that Silver's head shot up in amazement. He was thoroughly convinced she knew it, without a shred of doubt in her mind, that it was true.

"R-really?" he asked, dumbfounded.

Amy took his hand that was holding out the flier with both her own, nodding and jumping up and down excitedly. "Absolutely! Hehe! There's no way Sonic would let his friends or his fans down!" she beamed with a hope she was famous for, and Silver smiled as the uneasiness faded away for a moment.

"Thank you, Amy." He stated with a nod of his head. "You always do know how to cheer anyone up."

Amy took that compliment with pride, removing her reassuring hands from around his own and sticking one down to her hip, the other pounding rhythmically against her heart. "Em-hmm! Leave it to me! I'll find Sonic and bring him straight home to recuperate! You just make sure there's a place for him." Amy passionately rushed off with a new found goal whirling around in her mind. She didn't need to think about anything else... just Sonic! And not failing to inspire hope in anybody else!

Silver smiled before he saw her fully turn the corner down the splintering hallways and frowned when he couldn't sense her anymore.

He looked back at the paper, "But with this new energy encompassing Sonic..." he felt his hope slipping, his faith in Sonic dwindling again.

He leaned his head back, and sighed.

.............

Amy takes off to the communication room, hearing a ruckus as many people are crowding the entrance.

"What's going on..?" Amy's eyebrows bent back in speculation. She tried to lean her head up and push herself onto her toes to see better, but all she could manage to see were more heads...

"Ohhh-oh-oohh..." with her infamous whine, she slouched down and shook her fists. "That's it! Outta my way!" Amy stomped through the crowd, using her authority as a popular figure in the resistance to have people just naturally move aside for her to come through.

She strode through the crowd, confidently swinging her arms in a bent march and sticking her head up, before crying out when she saw the screen.

"Sonic!"

"And he's not doing too good either!"

Tails immediately turned back to her, his headset on one ear and his hand typing onto the keyboard.

"I've been trying to convince him to back down and come home, but he just won't listen to me! I've sent the new recruit out to bring him back, but Sonic's... he's changed again!" Tails slammed his hand down on the keyboard, squinting his eyes shut again as they shook with trauma. "...What if he... he... He knows how we all feel right now. Why is he doing this? We all look to him to guide us... but he's not! He's just recklessly throwing himself into battle and losing all our trust!" Tails balled his hand into a fist, tears starting to poke through his once struggling to be strong demeanor.

"I almost lost it last time... I thought it was all my fault... that I was incompetent... I don't want him to lose face in front of everyone... I just want him to be here and..."

Amy couldn't take her eyes off the monitor, seeing the dark spiraling vortex before it shot out a pulse that knocked the illusions back, having them disappear with red cubes replacing them for a moment, and then flickering out of sight.

She slowly made her way to Tails, grabbing his head and ducking it into her shoulder.

She also... didn't want Tails to lose face in front of everyone either...

He sniffled and held it together, his other hand gripping the headset as cries and good people were being tossed left and right by Sonic's reckless actions.

The dark figure suddenly panted and fell to a knee, his head completely down with one eye closed. The white sockets disappeared to reveal deep blue eyes, shaking as a figure spun into him and knocked him down. His darkened fur suddenly flickered and he spran up with the white sockets again, the misty vines forming the monster over his being again that snapped at the blue ball of light that kept flying around him.

"What's that?" Amy wondered out loud, as everyone in the room leaned their head towards the screen.

The recruit's livefootage from his glasses showed him shoot out a grappling hook that tied Sonic down, swinging around as the blue ball unspun after knocking Dark Sonic down.

"That looks like..." Amy's eyes widened.

"The other Sonic." Tails smiled, "I found him just before Sonic returned. I think he was sent here by the universe. Even when Sonic can't-... Well, the universe still needs a Sonic." He shook his head, not allowing himself to finish his thought as he started typing things in again.

"Good work securing him recruit. You and the other Sonic report back to HQ immediately! We'll detain him and find out what's going on."

Amy let go of Tails, her hand flinching back at hearing all this.

"Sonic... detained?" She looked up at his unconscious body, the vines still whipping around him as the recruit and Classic Sonic stepped back... But they died down and fell back into Sonic's core... his fur turned back to its iconic blue color.

.....

It took no time at all to get back. Classic Sonic was awarded with the recruit an array of medals, which he seemed to pin onto himself in various locations around his body. It was sort of humorous, watching him finally move the medals enough to create space and smile before being handed another one and seeing his little brain turn on where, on his pudgy belly, to place the new one next.

While he scratched his head on the last one, deciding with a bounce to place it on the top of his head, he noticed people getting rushed out of Modern Sonic's recovery room. "The voice boomed, as the crowd's cheering hushed a little and turned to the nurses and doctors fleeing from the room with papers flying out everywhere.

Amy was up on the stage, looking heartbroken and worried.

He usually wasn't this rude or mean to everyone... but she knew he must be upset with being confined to his gurney.

She looked desperately to Tails, who also seemed to have the same broken hearted expression as her.

He saw her looking to him for permission, making sweet hedgehog eyes at him and sticking out her upper lip, her eyes glossing over. "Oh no! He needs isolation!" Tails defended, waving his arms out as the crowd dispersed and Classic Sonic got the recruit's attention, pointing to his badges happily and then bouncing his eyebrows up and down in a sly and cocky fashion at showing them off. The recruit just kindly placed his hand behind his head and scratched it, trying to be polite and tolerate the silly behavior. He had the same medals too...

"He needs me." Amy tilted her head, her ears dropping down to increase her cuteness factor.

As though working, Tails crunched his shoulders up and frowned, turning his head away but not looking away from her. "I said no..." he tried again, hoping to assert some authority, but knowing from previous experiences that there was no way Amy would take no for an answer.

"Fine." She sighed.

"Wait, really?" Tails straightened up, looking happy he might have won for once, but then Amy smiled back a confident grin.

"I'll just go in anyway~"

"Oh, Amy..." He flopped forward, defeated. "I already have to work on building a new X-Tornado! Can't you just help me with that instead of making Sonic even madder?" He lifted his head back, returning to his previous state of misery over his beloved plane.

"You know I'm super sorry about that!" She smacked her hands against the other to apologize, raising them up to him with a bit of awkwardness, "But I just know Sonic needs me! Even if he doesn't know it yet!"

Classic Sonic overheard the conversation and pointed his thumb back to Amy. He mimicked her hedgehog eyes and gestures, acting like a lovesick girl and pretending to be her, making fun of her. The recruit again just nodded awkwardly and smiled, not wanting to side with anyone on the matter of Amy's extremity...

"Besides, who's going to do Sonic's duties while he's out of commission?" Amy was hoping Tails would say himself, but instead, Tails just nodded enthusiastically.

"Got it covered! Little Sonic from another dimension has agreed to take over until Sonic's energy crisis is all figured out!" He gestured back to him as Classic Sonic immediately spun out of his mocking impersonation of Amy and looked politely up at the two. He nodded and jumped, doing a spin and then landing on one foot, holding two thumbs up.

"Hehe, well... you do sport his signature smile." She giggled, fond of his charms as she bent down and grinned to him. "Hey... Promise me you'll be alright, okay?" she tilted her head sweetly and cutely to him.

A sudden shiver broke Classic Sonic of his cool stance. He backed away a moment, before rapidly moving forward and looking at her face.

He seemed to regret making fun of her, seeing how sincere she was towards him.

He sighed and shrugged, deciding not to mock her again and winking to her encouragingly.

He hopped down and gave a thumbs up to the recruit, who returned the gesture as the two fist-pumped and ran off the pavilion's stage.

Tails watched them leave before sighing and losing his smile somewhat. "If I let you go in there... Can you just talk to him... nothing more?" he seemed to genuinely turn to her, asking a favor. "I really don't want him saying anything mean to anyone else... but he's really not acting himself. He could really hurt you deep, Amy..."

That's when Amy realized. The face that Tails was making... it wasn't just his heart that was shattered by Sonic's reckless actions.

Sonic must have told off Tails while he was trying to convince him to come back.

The shock of that made Amy feel like a thunderclap had struck behind her, sounding out over the loud room with an echoed return of pain.

"Tails..." Amy reached out, lovingly to comfort him, but he just shook his head calmly and smiled.