Chapter Text
Early mornings were usual for Amy Rose. She always had a random assortment of events and activities to complete before Eggman decided to show his face around town, so if she waited until later in the day, her plans were most likely to be ruined. She liked to keep as busy as possible or else she’d find herself bored, and if she was bored, she’d end up finding a way to hang out with Sonic and she didn’t need that. She wasn’t a child anymore; her life didn’t need to revolve around her crushes. It was her life and she wanted to do something inspired with it. Typically she would either paint or double-check her lesson plans for whatever class she was teaching that day.
Today was different, however, in that she was doing neither. Instead, she was leading a nature walk into the forest. Amy noticed that the village had been a bit on edge lately since Eggman attacked last so she suggested a nice walk through the forest. A few of the townspeople had agreed with her that it was a great idea, so she arranged everything from mapping out the route to packing extra granola in her bag just in case anyone got hungry. She was ready enough for anything. In fact, she could survive for three days just on her backpack alone. If Amy Rose was anything, it was prepared.
As she put on her backpack, she stepped outside, taking in a deep breath.
“Good air, great morning. Let’s do this!”
She felt confident that this was going to be a successful walk. Usually, she had at least three other villagers join her events, aside from her friends, and all together they made a decent-sized group. She wished that more people would join her but she understood that they were busy. The town couldn’t run itself.
She quickly made her way to the entrance of the forest, not being that far away from it. Most of the town that she passed didn’t seem quite active yet, which was typical since the sun hadn’t risen, so she decided to wait by a large rock nearby. No one else had shown up yet, but she was certain they were coming. They just needed some more time.
After a few moments, she decided to sit on the rock and eat some of the granola she packed, wondering how much longer they were going to be. The sun was starting to peer over the horizon.
Maybe the village got caught up in something?
If it was something bad, she would have gotten a message from someone on her team, but her communicator remained dull as the light hadn’t been triggered.
There was no way that they forgot, right? They had agreed just yesterday.
When she finished her snack, she determined that the villagers were not coming. She could hear the sounds of the town getting started for the day, like the usual talking and walking. Disappointment spread through her, though she should have expected this somewhat. The villagers were always a bit wishy-washy and flakey. She forced herself to stay positive, though. Certainly, if the town wasn’t going to show up, her friends had to.
She activated her communicator for a group call. “Anyone coming out for the nature walk?”
Sonic’s voice came through first “Uhm- no, I- I’m skipping leg day today. So no walking for me.”
“Don’t you run every day?”
“Uhh- going through a tunnel! Bye, Amy!”
Before she could reply, Tails’ voice chimed in. “Sorry, Amy. The town decided that they needed a defense system by the end of the day. I'm up to my neck in blueprints right now.”
Then Knuckles spoke, “Yeah and I’m up to my neck in potato salad.”
Confused, Amy asked, “Why are you making potato salad?”
“Why aren’t you making potato salad?”
Before she could ask, Sticks came in. “I can’t leave my house. The mushrooms outside are listening to my conversations as we speak.”
“So no one is coming out?”
The only thing she got in reply was Sticks yelling far away from the phone, “I’M ON TO YOU, MUSHROOMS.”
Sighing, she clicked off her watch and watched the sun begin to peak over the horizon. She put her granola wrapper back into her bag and decided that she was just going to go by herself. It was now or never before Eggman came to do his usual attack and she didn’t want everything she planned to go to waste.
Standing up, she did one more double take over the village before turning to head into the forest. She had hoped that maybe she’d see a straggler coming over the horizon, running a bit late. However, that hope was quickly crushed when she saw that no one was coming. It was just going to be her it seemed.
She took a moment to think about what had just happened. It was best to assess feelings, she always told herself. And at the moment, she was aggravated. The village people stood this up after agreeing to come out and she thought she could at least count on her friends. She understood that they were busy, even if Sonic sounded suspicious, but it still hurt a bit.
Taking in a deep breath, she decided that she’d treat this walk as alone time for her and to just brush off what her friends did. She knew that at the end of the day, they’d have her back no matter what and that they did care. Today just happened to be a bad day is all. She wasn’t going to let it get to her.
“Today will be a good day. After all, it's just getting started.”
Now more determined, she walked a bit faster with her head held higher. She was going to make sure she had a good day.
Thankfully for her, the weather stayed nice as she walked. Though she had been in this forest before, there wasn’t ever really any time to look around. Now, though, she was getting to take it in.
The trees around her grew taller and taller as she went further in. She took notice of the different plants and trees that grew around. She could name about half of them, labeling them in her head as she went along. She could survive in the wild, after all, recalling that little competition she and Sticks had with the boys. Perhaps if she ever had to, she could live out here just fine. She’d miss the town and the people though. Plus her house was in an ideal spot and it was furnished and arranged properly. She wouldn’t want to mess with perfection.
The sun was also rising beautifully through the trees that she had never noticed before either. She loved that in the thicker parts of the foliage; the sun seemed to come down in beams with small dust-like particles floating through them. She took a moment to stand in one beam just to feel the warmth of it while the rather cool morning still surrounded her. As she stood there, she heard the sounds of birds chirping up in those trees, no doubt enjoying the morning as much as she was.
And just like she suspected, she felt relaxed.
“Maybe I should do this more often after Eggman attacks.”
His battles were always so stressful, especially when the team had to split up or when they were having their own internal problems. Sure they won against him all the time, but he still cut into their personal time. She could be deep into a painting and then would be interrupted by a call on her watch. Pretty much the only time she wasn’t annoyed with him was when he was just being a person rather than trying to take over the island and then the world.
She could tell that she was getting aggravated from just thinking about it so she took a deep breath and let her mind wander back to the trees and herself in the present.
She was kind of glad that she ended up doing this alone. If they were all here, who knows what would have happened. She bet that she probably wouldn’t have been able to hear her own thoughts.
Amy entertained the thought though. Sonic would probably be tempted to run the map once around before actually walking with the rest of them. Tails would have some type of device that would cause some type of trouble like turning the plants sentient and evil or would end up transporting the entire forest away somewhere. Sticks would be scouting in the trees or collecting whatever she needed that day. Knuckles probably would have been the only one who’d enjoy this as much as her. She’d noticed that he seemed to like nature a lot. Though, he’d have to be warned of walking into some type of poison ivy. She smiled at the thought of them. Perhaps next time.
She took out her map and pinpointed her location, wondering how much she had left. Shockingly for her, she was two-thirds of the way done. Amy thought she definitely would have had more than that to go but she guessed that time flies when you get lost in your head. She was about to continue, putting the map away, when she heard the sound of something approaching extremely fast.
Assuming it was Sonic, she rolled her eyes and stood there waiting for him to run up next to her and talk about whatever fun thing he was doing that prevented him from coming along with her. She knew he was up to something. That excuse about “skipping leg day” was not thought out very well on his part. He had to have known that she knew he ran miles every morning. That was one of the things he loved talking about. Plus, the whole going into a tunnel excuse just to hang up was also not very well thought out. Tails had made them able to reach from practically anywhere, covering miles and any type of wall or enclosure. It was very rare when their comms didn’t work. A tunnel on an island wasn’t going to block the signal, especially since Sonic was able to call her once from a long road trip he, Tails, and Knuckles took.
She was waiting to hear the sound of slowing before turning around to see him but that sound never came. The speeding didn’t slow down and it was getting closer than she was comfortable with. Not wanting to get knocked off her feet, she turned to follow where the sound was coming from. Perhaps Sonic didn’t realize she was this far out?
However, as she turned, she realized it wasn’t a blue blur making that sound, but rather a black one.
As her mind pieced together, she realized who it was as he ran past her.
Shadow.
She watched him as he ran by, not paying one bit of attention to her. She was just like another obstacle in the path.
What was he doing out here? The last time she had seen him was when Eggman made that video of Sonic and used it to convince Shadow to fight him. At least, that’s what Sonic had told her. She didn’t actually see whatever it was that had made Shadow angry, but either way, that had been months ago.
What was he doing?
She didn’t feel like getting into whatever business he had going on, but usually when Shadow was active, something was up. She sighed, deciding to end her nature walk here. Hero duty comes first after all, and ensuring that Shadow or Eggman wasn’t up to something was hero duty.
She continued walking in the direction he went, not wanting to raise attention to herself. Even if he hadn’t looked at her while running by, she knew that he saw her. He was always on guard, never leaving an opening, which meant being aware of his surroundings at every moment.
She picked up speed a bit, turning her walk into a jog. She didn’t want to lose him either. As long as she could pick up his tracks and still hear the sound of his running, she could find him. She recalled that was how she used to be able to keep up with Sonic before she was able to gain the stamina and speed she had today. Of course, she knew she couldn't keep up with either Sonic or Shadow when they were at top speed but she had other ways than speed to keep track of them.
He left marks in a different way than Sonic did. Scorch marks. And it seemed that Shadow left less markings than Sonic did. The burns from his shoes seemed to go a few meters between each other and out of order. She wasn’t sure how he did it but it definitely made tracking him harder. After a point, she reached dirt, no longer on a gassy path and that's when she had to rely on disturbed piles of dirt. Anything that looked out of place, she followed. Rocks that were moved, bugs that looked disoriented, and even areas where the clay underneath was unearthed.
She tracked him for as long as it took but eventually reached a dead end. Her last clue was a small plant that had been blown over, but after that there was nothing else. It was a little disappointed but she kept her guard up. Perhaps he caught her following her and was now watching her? Or maybe he left red herrings around?
Amy felt a difference in the air though that made her think that there was something more here. It seemed- sad and angry but at the same time light-hearted and cheerful. She wasn’t quite sure how an area could possibly feel like those complex emotions and yet here she was in the center of it. It made her a bit nauseous due to its intensity but she kept herself together. She just needed to concentrate on her goal and not let this throw her off.
She closed her eyes to focus on trying to hear the sound of him running, but all she could hear was the sounds of dripping water. In fact, not only was it dripping, it was echoing. Was there a cave nearby?
Opening her eyes and grabbing her map out of her bag, she pinpointed her location. However, there wasn’t any type of cave listed. She turned around, looking for some type of semblance of a cave or rock formation or any kind of opening in the ground. Yet nothing sprung up to her. There had to be something though, her hearing was better than her eyesight so she knew she couldn’t have misheard anything.
Double checking, she closed her eyes and focused her ears once again. Just like before, she could hear the sounds of echoing water dripping. Determined to find where the sound was coming from, she followed the sound, relying only on her ears to lead the way. She was careful though to slowly move to avoid falling over as well as to stick her hand out to make sure she didn’t run into something.
She felt nothing around her as she followed the sound at first, but eventually, her hand brushed up against something. Opening her eyes, she found her hand touching what she thought was a rock wall covered in vines. However, on further inspection, it only seemed like there was a rock wall, but in fact, the vines acted merely as a curtain.
She was about to step foot through it when all of a sudden she felt a hand grab her shoulder and throw her back. Thrown off, she fell back onto the ground, and grabbing her hammer, stood up to face her attacker. Her attacker, however, was Shadow.
She lowered her hammer but kept her guard up.
“Shadow. What are you up to?”
“I’d ask the same of you.” She watched him as he crossed his arms, looking at her with disapproval.
“I was just doing my civic duty.” It seemed like it was up to her to figure out what he was up to. Nothing good ever followed him and she wanted to keep that as far away from the village as possible.
“What? Snooping?”
“Snooping? This is the forest. It’s free rein.” She looked at him in slight confusion. The forest wasn’t owned by anyone. She would know. She did massive amounts of research on the town and its surrounding area just to find out that Sticks was related to the founder of the town.
He scoffed in response.
“What?”
“So would you break into your badger friend’s house?”
“No! Of course not! …. Unless there was a good reason.”
“And what would be a good reason for breaking into mine?”
She blinked a few times connecting the pieces. She knew Shadow was a resident on the island, or at least visited it out of the few times she actually saw him, but it never really occurred to her that he lived somewhere. Now that he brings it up, it should have been obvious. Had she been asked before about it, she would have assumed that he either didn't stay on the island or had some hidden tucked-away house that no one could find.
“You live in a cave?”
He didn’t respond.
“What are you doing out here?”
“Why does it matter to you?”
She wished that he would be more cooperative sometimes. Sure he talked efficiently, but it seemed to her that he was trying to efficiently cover something up. She wanted nothing more than for him to slip up and admit something. However, he didn’t seem like the type to do so. “Trouble follows you.”
“And it follows your blue friend too, but that doesn't seem to put you on edge.”
“I’m not on edge.”
She watched him look her up and down as if he didn’t believe her. She couldn’t let him know that he slightly scared her, though. He was like battling Sonic, but more ruthless. Sonic would ensure that he didn’t cause any lasting damage, but Shadow. Nothing stopped him. She gripped her hammer tighter and furrowed her brow a bit.
“You’re not intimidating, Rose. You currently have three openings that you wouldn’t be able to block if I decided to attack. So don’t even try."
She felt her heart race in fear. Was he threatening her? And where were her openings? She shifted a bit, trying to close them.
“You don’t scare me Shadow. Why would you even tell me that I was open?”
“Because I’m not going to attack you. You’re not worth it.”
Amy felt anger rise in her. “You think I can’t fight you?”
He stared at her before saying, “You could fight me. However, you’d lose. Badly.”
She raised her hammer at that. “Do you want to test that?”
He quickly disappeared from her eyes and the next thing she knew, he was next to her, grabbing a hold of her arm. Before she could react, he pulled it up and snatched her hammer away from her grip. He then suddenly pushed her back, away from him, which caused her to slid back. Thankfully for her, she was able to keep herself upright. That simple movement of his, however, did confirm to her that he was just as strong as Sonic, but the slight stinging reminded her of his harshness that her friend did not possess.
Amy knew she had to be careful when dealing with him. She debated on calling for backup but Shadow could consider that an attack on her part and actually attack her. Not that she didn’t think she could handle herself, she just didn’t want to be the one to pick the fight.
She watched as he adjusted his grip on her hammer. Putting her fists up, she blocked her face in case he tried something. However, after a moment of studying, it didn’t seem like he was going to attack. She didn’t let her guard down though.
“See? It would be rather easy to stop you.”
“Disarming an opponent is surely one way to ask for a fight.”
He walked up to her and dropped her hammer right at her feet. “Then returning it should cancel it out.”
She looked down at her weapon and then quickly back up at him. What was his deal? She didn’t move to pick it up.
“Impressive though.”
“What?” She swore she could never figure out what he was going to say next.
“That hammer of yours. I never realized the weight of it. You’re quite strong.”
Now a compliment? That was strange for him and now she really did feel even more suspicious. She decided to say nothing.
She watched him as he walked over to the wall of vines and he mouthed something towards the cave, though she picked up no sound. The moment his back was to her, she quickly picked up the hammer and wielded it.
“What are you saying?”
“None of your business. Now leave.”
“Why should I? You seem to be up to something.” She wasn’t going to leave until she knew what he was doing. She needed to make sure that the town was safe. For all she knew, Eggman was using him again.
“I am up to nothing more suspicious than anything you are up to. Go back to your beloved village before Eggman destroys it.”
“So you do know about Eggman’s plan for today?”
“Contrary to what you want to believe, no I don’t. I have not had contact with him in months. But doesn’t he attack your town every day?”
“Most days, yes.”
“Better hurry back then.”
She scanned the area, determining that she wasn’t going to be able to explore to find out what he could be covering up. She rested her hammer over her shoulder.
“Not going to hit me with my back turned are you?”
“Why would I ask for you to leave just to attack you?”
She raised her free hand up in surrender and turned on her heel. She heard him move behind her as she walked away but she didn’t dare look back.
He was up to something though, she could feel it in her gut. And to her, a woman's intuition was never wrong. She put her hammer away and found her way back on the path she was on.
The rest of the walk wasn’t as relaxing as it was before though. She couldn’t get him out of her head. Something seemed off about that whole situation. She never pegged him for someone who have a place to live in, much less care enough to ward people away from it.
She shook her head. Maybe she was just being paranoid. Maybe everything was just as it seemed. He did seem like the type who’d want to live somewhere far away from everyone and keep it that way. Was that where he had been for months? Is that where he stays when no one sees him in town?
Maybe this was something she needed to let go. She sighed as she entered the town, trying to push down her worries. If he had truly been up to something, Sonic would have known about it by now.
Before she could continue her train of thought, she was interrupted by the sounds of an explosion coming from the center of town. She took her hammer back out and ran towards the sounds of fighting.
When she reached the fight, broken bots were littered across the ground from being smashed by her friends. And speaking of them, they were currently giving it their all to whatever Eggman had sent out. She had missed the big introduction that he usually gives his robots before the big battle, so she honestly had no idea what its primary function was. However, it was big, and with Eggman, that meant destructive.
She ran in, screaming, hitting the robot in its leg with her hammer as hard as she could. It didn’t do much besides dent it slightly. Landing on the ground, she assessed that a stronger blow to the leg could damage it enough to topple it over.
Behind her, she heard Sonic call out her name before moving to stand next to her.
“Where were you?”
“What do you mean? I was at that nature walk, remember?”
“Yeah, but we couldn’t reach your communicator.”
“My comm?” She looked down at her watch, realizing it had been switched off. She determined Shadow must have switched it off when he took her hammer so that she couldn’t call for backup. Or at least, when she figured out it was off, he would have enough time to escape or attack. “Shadow must have done this.”
“Shadow? You were with Shadow?”
She and Sonic both jumped to the side as a laser shot at them from the huge robot.
“Is this bot’s theme? Lasers?” Amy said out loud, mostly to herself, and ignored Sonic’s question. Shadow was the last thing she wanted to think about right now. Her goal at the moment was to protect the town. They depended on her and her friends, after all.
She stared at the bot, determining what its angle was. Eggman’s ‘big bad’ robots that he would use as his ‘secret weapon’ always had some sort of common theme to them. She always thought that it was a bit predictable, and if he really wanted to defeat them then he should do something more random. Maybe like having a robot that shoots fire but then its major move would be to freeze over the town. That would catch them off guard. Of course she wasn’t going to say that out loud. There was no need to give him any more ideas than he already had in that crackpot brain of his.
She was thrown off, however, when she felt Sonic grab her arm and pull her off to the side from the battle.
“Sonic, what are you doing? We can’t stop fighting now.” She turned her head back to the battle, watching the other three fight. If she could just run back out there now, she could get Knuckles’ help to destroy the leg.
“Amy. Are you okay?”
She turned back to face him confused. “Yes, why wouldn’t I be?”
“You were just in the woods with Shadow.”
“Yes?” She blinked at him, confused as to why he was choosing to talk about this now.
“He doesn’t necessarily like us, Amy. Did you two fight?”
“No, we didn’t. In fact, he specifically didn’t want to fight.”
He nodded, “Guess he’s off our radar then.”
That unsettling feeling she had during her conversation with Shadow rose back up in her. That unnerving bittersweet vibe that only piqued her curiosity more. “For now, at least.”
“What do you mean ‘for now’?”
“I’ll tell you later. We really need to take care of Eggman.”
She watched as Sonic looked behind her at the action. “Right. Let’s go.”
With a quick nod, she turned back towards the battle and ran in. “Hey, Knuckles!”
“Yeah?” was what she got in response.
“The leg is about to crumble. Punch my hammer during the swing and we can knock it out completely.”
He confirmed with a nod and she ran once more towards the robot. She jumped up, holding her hammer all the way back, calculating the best time for a perfect swing.
She took in a deep breath for what felt like a few seconds before shouting, “Now!”
As she swung the hammer around her, she felt the force of Knuckles’ punch course through it, propelling her forward a bit. Keeping her control of it, she directed it to the same spot where she hit before, causing a huge crack to form in the leg.
The moment she landed, she turned and ran to steer clear of the falling robot, preferably not wanting to get crushed.
She stopped to look the moment she heard it make an impact with the ground. Immediately after, she watched as Sonic used his spin attack to knock its head clear off of its body, sending it on a collision course to Eggman. He did quite the somersault in his eggmobile before vowing to come back later with a new plan and took off.
Amy walked back over to the now-destroyed robot to take a good look at it. “What was this anyway? I kinda missed Eggman’s big intro speech.”
Tails spoke up from behind her and continued to speak as he rounded her to reach the robot, disassembling it for any salvageable parts. “You pretty much saw what it did. ‘Laser bot’ was what he called it.”
“Not his best work. I think he’s having a midlife crisis,” she heard Sticks say as she walked up next to her.
“Have you ever thought of his work as good?” Amy responded, jokingly.
“Eh. Good point.”
Knuckles joined them. “I’m just glad I got to punch something today.”
Sonic was the last to walk over, brushing off his hands. “Amy. We need to talk.”
She felt all eyes turn on her at his comment. Sighing, she responded, “I think everyone needs to hear it.”
“Hear about what?” Tails asked, sliding off the robot and coming to stand closer to the group.
“I met up with Shadow in the forest today,” Amy replied, “And I believe he’s guarding something. I didn’t get to see what it was though. He tried to brush it off as nothing, but something tells me that it isn’t.”
“Shadow? We haven’t seen him in months,” Knuckles commented. “Has he just been hiding out there the whole time?”
“There’s no way. I scavenge through the woods every day and I never saw him,” Sticks countered.
Amy rebutted, “He’s been hiding in a cave that I was only able to find using my hearing.”
As Sticks went to think about what she said, Sonic made a decision. “We should scout the area.”
Amy gave him an unsure look. “Sonic, he turned my communicator off for a reason. I’m not sure if we should all just storm the place like that while he’s there.”
“That’s a good point,” Tails interjected. “Maybe we can scout the place first and see if he’s home?”
“Good idea Tails,” Sonic agreed. “Amy. Since you know where it's at, you and I scout the place. Then Tails can fly overhead with Knuckles and Sticks ready to drop down either as backup or as more scouts if we can determine he’s not home.”
“Should we really be bothering him again on the same day? I feel like that’s asking for a fight,” Amy responded.
“Look, if he’s there, we’ll leave immediately. Trust me. He won’t see us coming. Everyone ready?”
Amy nodded along with the other three. Sure, it wasn’t the most foolproof plan but it was something. She just hoped that it could get them closer to an answer than where she had been. There was just something off there, and she could feel it. Something dark and sad. She needed to find out what it was for the safety of the town.
She watched as Tails, Knuckles, and Sticks ran off in the direction of his workshop where he kept his plane. Hopefully, this plan wouldn’t be too hectic.
Seeing Sonic walk off in the corner of her eye, she turned to follow him and then led the way. She could tell as they walked that Sonic wished he could be running instead. If she could, she would be running. Maybe not as fast as him, but they had to stay quiet as possible to avoid alerting Shadow.
She noticed that the forest no longer seemed like a place of peace anymore. It felt like she was in a horror movie. It was like waiting for something to pop out at her while walking towards something that was possibly even more dangerous. Amy wasn’t scared per-say, but this walk was nowhere similar to the calmness that she’d felt earlier. She remained focused though, and said nothing to Sonic as they walked along.
Following along on her map, they both made it to the spot where she first spotted him zooming by. Putting away the map, she deviated off the trail, trying to recall her steps. It was a strange pattern that Shadow had made, looking back. Before she didn’t notice, but now, it seemed like Shadow had known that she was possibly going to follow him when he passed her.
About ten minutes into the new path, she heard Sonic speak up behind her. “Has he seriously been staying out here?”
“I guess so,” she whispered back. “It’s not impossible.”
“I always considered him a type of wanderer. I never thought he actually would be in a place long enough to, you know, have a home.”
Amy only nodded. The surroundings around her were becoming more and more familiar until she reached the clearing that she was in before.
“We’re here.”
They both quickly moved to hide behind a bush, keeping an eye and ear out for him. What she considered lucky for them, the only thing that both of them could pick up on was Tails’s plane soaring overhead after a few moments. Sonic then stood up and announced, “Looks like he isn't here anymore. Let’s go check out what you found.”
Amy nodded and stood up, following the echoing dripping water that she was able to pick up from before. Behind her, she could hear Sonic delegating the rest of the team. Knuckles and Sticks were to come down to help them while Tails was to stay in the air as surveillance to keep an eye out for Shadow returning.
Their two-men group quickly turned into four, and she was now leading the three towards the rock formation that she found earlier.
“Over here!” She took off running towards the vines, only slowing down to stop right in front of it. She heard the other three behind her do the same.
Amy stuck her hand out to reach between the vines to feel for the empty space that she was confident was there. To her disappointment, she felt the pressure of rock push back against her.
“What?”
Confused, she walked side to side, dragging her hand across the formation to try and find any opening. Yet she couldn’t seem to find any sort of entrance.
“Are you sure it was here?”
“Yes, Sonic. I'm positive. I tracked him to this spot.”
As she turned to face them, she watched as Sticks crouched down to sniff the ground, which Amy assumed was to try to track a smell.
“Maybe it caved in,” Knuckles suggested.
Sonic shrugged and then went to put his own hand against the rock wall.
“Why would Shadow live in an unsafe cave, Knuckles?” Amy questioned.
“Beats me. But it makes the most sense.”
Amy considered this for a second while Sonic spoke up, “It’s best that we leave before he comes back. Unless you found something, Sticks?”
At the sound of her name, Sticks popped up from a bush near Amy. “Nope. Everything smells like Amy’s perfume.”
Slightly embarrassed by what Sticks said, Amy agreed with Sonic rather quickly. “Yes, let’s go before he comes back and gets suspicious of us all.”
The four then started to backtrack the way that they came as Sonic signaled for Tails to return home.
While the other three chatted about whatever they had done that day, Amy was lost in her thoughts. How could a whole cave go missing? Especially within that short amount of time she was gone.
Was Knuckles correct? Could there have been a cave-in? She shook her head. No. They would have heard it. Or the area would have looked disturbed in some way. As much as she could tell, everything had looked the same as it did when she was with Shadow.
That also meant she couldn’t have tracked them back to the wrong spot. The sound of water dripping. The vines. Even the air felt almost the same as it did earlier.
Maybe she was going crazy. Maybe she didn’t see Shadow or a cave. Maybe the granola she had earlier had gone bad. Perhaps all of this was just a hallucination.
She was jolted out of her thoughts by someone calling her name. She turned around to see that it had come from Sonic.
“Earth to Amy.”
“Sorry, what did you say?”
“You coming to Meh Burger with us?”
Right. Food. She looked up to see the sun starting to set. Dinner. She probably needed to eat. All she had had that day was the possibly rotten granola that she swore she checked the expiration date on earlier before she packed it that morning. She didn’t feel hungry but after the extraneous activities she put herself through today, she should give herself something for energy. Not that Meh Burger was a good source of nutrients, and in all honesty, she probably had something better at home, but she figured she should stay with friends. Amy nodded at his question and after meeting back up with Tails, the five of them went off to eat.
It was a typical dinner there. They got her order wrong as per usual and the floors were definitely not up to code. Usually, this would bother her and she would give Dave an earful which she was sure went in one ear and out the other, but today she did none of that. She couldn’t shake that feeling. Her intuition was never wrong. Or at least, it was hardly wrong. She tried to push the feeling down and focus on her friends, but it seemed the longer she did, the more it would creep up on her that something was wrong. She usually didn’t care about what the people they fought did in their free time, but she couldn’t shake it off.
She was once again dragged out of her thoughts by someone touching her shoulder, causing her to jump slightly.
“You okay, Amy?” It was Sticks. She looked around a bit to pull herself back to reality. It seemed as if Sticks was able to grab an aside with her while the boys were going off on their own tangent in a conversation that she missed the beginning of.
Focusing back on Sticks, she nodded. “Yes. I’m fine.”
She watched as a confused look spread across her friend’s face. “I don’t buy it. There’s no way your sandwich, which you haven't even taken a bite of yet, is more interesting than what we’ve been talking about.”
Sticks was right, but Amy didn’t really feel like having this conversation. At least not in front of the boys. They’d probably think she was crazy for not being able to let this feeling go. “I’ve been paying attention.”
“Then what was the last thing we talked about?”
“Knuckles’ potato salad?”
Sticks sighed “Good guess but I know you weren’t paying attention.”
Amy looked down a bit dejectedly. In her peripheral vision, she saw Sticks get an idea and stood up from the table.
The next thing she saw was Stick’s hand in her face. “Come on. I’ll walk ya home.”
She looked up at her friend at the request and mouthed a ‘thank you’ to her. She knew she could talk to her about it away from the rest of the team. It's not that they wouldn’t believe or trust her, but Amy felt as if they wouldn’t take it as seriously as Sticks would. She grabbed her hand and Sticks pulled her up from her seat.
She heard Sonic turn as she stood up. “Everything okay?”
Before she could say a word, Sticks spoke up for her. “She’s not feeling well so I’m taking her back home.”
Sonic stood up, “I can walk her home Sticks. It’s not a problem.”
She watched as Sticks put a hand on his shoulder and pushed him back into the seat. “I got her, don’t worry yourself, Blue Boy.”
Knuckles then immediately yelled out ‘Blue Boy’ and started laughing, which caused Tails to start laughing. Sonic was immediately distracted, defending himself to them. With that, Sticks tilted her head in the direction of Amy’s house and the two walked off as the laughing and justifying comments faded into the distance.
Once they were out of ear-shot, Amy spoke. “Thanks, Sticks.”
“So, what’s up?”
“I just feel like I’m going crazy.”
“Did ya talk to a mushroom?”
“No. It’s Shadow. Usually, stuff like this doesn’t bother me, but something seemed off.”
“How so?”
“The first time I was there. It felt- strange. It felt sad and dark. But-”, she took a breath, trying to find the right words, “It was sad but in a light way. Like the air was drenched in bittersweet. Even Shadow seemed to be affected by it.”
“What do you mean? He was acting bittersweet?”
“He gave me a compliment.”
“Really? He seems tough to please.”
“That's the thing. He is. It was like he was in a good mood.”
“Hmm. Why’s that do ya think? Cause clearly you're thinking about it.”
“I’m not sure, but I just know it has something to do with that cave.”
“The one we couldn’t find?”
Amy nodded. “I can’t shake that feeling. It’s like it's haunting me. I felt it the first time I was there, but not the second. But now it’s like it’s creeping over my shoulder.” She thought maybe she was just thinking about it too much.
“Well, either the government has hacked into your brain or you need sleep. And I'm guessing you believe in the second option more.”
“Maybe you’re right. Some sleep might do me some good.”
At this point, they had just made it to her front door. She was looking forward to getting some sleep now that she was back home.
“You’re not crazy if that’s what you’re worried about.”
She turned to face her friend. “You think?”
“Your perfume wasn’t the only fragrant thing. There was another scent of flowers there too.”
“Well, we were in a forest.”
“There weren’t any other types of flowers around. At first, I thought it was just you but the further away we got, the scent disappeared. So either there was something there we were missing or the aliens were trying to pump some type of sweet scent into the air to trick our brains into hiding them from our eyes.”
Amy considered her point. Not the alien part necessarily, but that they were missing something. Perhaps there was something she didn’t notice both times that she was there. The first time being distracted by Shadow, the second time being distracted by the missing cavern. She decided that she’d go back the next morning to do some more investigating and if she didn’t find anything, she would let it go fully and ignore any feelings that would arise. Third time's the charm, right?
“Perhaps,” she yawned. “I think I should get some sleep though.”
Sticks nodded. “I’ll let the others know that you’re okay if they ask.”
“Thanks. See you tomorrow.” They waved as Sticks walked off back to the restaurant.
Yawning again as she entered her home, she realized that the moment her head hit the pillow, she would be out like a light. She hoped her thoughts of Shadow and the cave would be extinguished that quickly as well.