Chapter Text
“Alright team, what’re we thinking? Hike in the jungle, beach day, spa day or ooh! Movie marathon?” Amy asked, flipping through her spiral-bound planner. The other three were snacking at the table, eating away at their still subpar Meh Burger orders. Amy’s smile faltered when none of them answered. She tried again “Y’know, watch Jungle Fighter; Origins of the Jungle Fighter.”
Knuckles looked up from his deflated burger, mustard smeared on his face. Amy shivered at the mess he’d made. “Actually, I already watched that one with Mike yesterday. The ending was a bit boring, not that great from Jungle Fighter.”
Sticks shook her head. She tossed a fry at a nearby bird, knocking the poor animal unconscious. Amy winced. Frozen rock solid today, it seemed. “I gotta prepare, scavenge, and put up my defenses! The end times are near, and my bunker supplies are runnin’ low. The jungle dwellers have been stealing my stuff and settin’ off my traps!” The three of them glanced at the badger.
‘You’re the jungle dweller, though?’ They collectively thought.
Tails put down his fork, having barely touched his salad that was more newspaper than salad. “I can’t do a movie marathon, sorry. I’ve got a project I’m close to finishing, so I want to focus on that for now, Amy.”
“Oh.” Amy slumped, feeling dejected. It’d been a while since they had actually spent time together as a team, so she’d been hoping to organise something. But things were proving to be much harder than she thought it’d be. They never had this problem before. And for a moment, Amy wondered how Sonic had managed to guide their team as easily as he could. She shook herself, and tried again. “What about coconut hurl? It’s been a while.”
Knuckles sighed, wiping his face with the tablecloth. “Yeah, but Sonic’s the only one who plays with me, and I haven’t seen him. It’s no fun trying to have Tails throw me. He can’t even pick me up.” Tails looked up from the Miles Electric he’d started fiddling with and glared at the echidna.
“Wait, you haven’t seen him? Has anyone seen Sonic?” Amy asked.
The others shook their heads confusedly.
“I mean, nothing’s happened in a long time too.” Tails piped up.
Sticks tensed, alert. “That means trouble is ‘round the corner!”
M̵̢͂ ̸͙͠.̷̙̈́.̵̹̾ ̷̙͝ȋ̷̪s̶͉̎ ̶͆͜S̷̥̾s̶̨̀î̴͇ ̸̆͜n̵̢͆g̴̻͝.̶͙̆.̷̬̏.̶̩͘
ǵ̴ͅG̷̦͋ ̸͖̏o̵̝͛n̴͕͂ ̵̠̈ě̶̺
S̷̀͜s ̵̧̾S̷̋͜on̵̠̒ iĉ̵ͅ ̶͔͒wa ̵̠̃sn’t there.
Sonic has been gone for too long. So long, it was a little concerning. Amy frowned.
“Great job, Tails. You just had to acknowledge the lack of real plot.” Amy crossed her arms.
Knuckles turned and backed her up, as he always did. “Yeah. Not cool, Tails.”
The kit’s expression became sheepish from embarrassment. “Oh uh, sorry guys. At least we have something to do now?”
“But I was gonna head out with Mike and watch Jungle Fighter; Origins of the Jungle Fighter!” Knuckles whined, throwing himself onto the table. Amy gave him a murderous look, going unnoticed by the sulking echidna. A moment passed of nothing, and she looked away.
Unimportant.
They needed to find Sonic first.
‘Yes.’ Amy nodded. They needed to find Sonic. And the perfect place to start was his house.
The beachfront of Sonic’s house was quiet, the bungalow even more so. The silence wasn’t exactly out of place, per say; Sonic hardly spent time at his house beyond his need to sleep. But in the context of the missing blue hedgehog, the lack of life was eerie. Foreboding. Warning. Amy looked into the lit house, and saw nothing inside. Sonic wasn’t home. Amy frowned.
How unusual. Sonic would usually be found napping in his house. Or at least on his hammock that he sometimes brought outside. Which reminded Amy, she needed to talk to Sonic about his excessive napping again.
Privately, Amy thought Sonic looked like he needed to sleep as much as he did. Especially in more recent times. He moved slowly, lethargically. He spent quite a lot of time sitting or laying about. He’s even been walking around at a leisurely pace for once. And his eyes…
His eyes weren’t as bright as she’s sure they used to be.
His eyes were dull. Lifeless. Just a flat dull green with not a speckle of light in them.
Those weren’t the eyes of someone who thrived in the thrill of danger.
Those were the eyes of someone who wanted for everything to just stop.
Amy shook her head and turned back to her following entourage. “He’s not here. Everything’s perfectly normal. Sonic’s probably just on a run or something.”
Tails furrowed his brow, skeptical. “For so long?”
“He’s been out and about for long periods of time before.” Amy waved away his concern, stomping on her own worry. Nothing bad actually happens, and when it does, it never sticks.
“It’s been five whole days!” Tails cried out, the kit’s namesakes whirling around agitatedly. “Five whole days and none of us have seen Sonic! He’s in danger, and we’ve just been sitting around pretending everything’s business as usual!”
Amy recoiled at the kit’s outburst, shocked at the despairing tone of the usually rational fox. His grey-blue eyes were watery, on the verge of tears spilling. Guilt and worry bubbled in her chest, the hedgehog reaching out to comfort the young fox. “T-Tails! You need to calm down. C’mon, breathe with me. In, two, three. And out, two three.”
The fox glared at the ground, furiously swiping away any tears before they fell. He stomped petulantly, fur bristling. “I don’t need to calm down! You need to take this seriously!”
Amy backed off, trying to think of a different approach. In that moment she wished she was Sonic, able to comfort or redirect someone’s focus effortlessly without them even noticing. Not until days later, long after Sonic even remembers doing such a thing. “Well… Well, we can call him. How about that? He’ll answer and we can see if he needs help.”
Tails sniffled, turning his back to Amy as he opened his communicator. “Fine…”
Amy exchanged glances with Knuckles and Sticks, the former eyeing the fox with both worry and wariness. Sticks herself was staring at Tails with that unreadable expression she almost always had, eyes blank of any obvious emotions or thoughts. Not for the last time, Amy wondered how Sonic seemed to always know how everyone felt. That was her job, in her character description. Why could he do it better than she could ever dream of?
Amy shook her head, listening as Tails rang Sonic’s communicator. The tune buzzed dully, sounding out almost lifelessly. One, two, three… The tune repeated for a sixth time before the tone dial came through, an automatic reply in Sonic’s voice speaking. He hadn’t answered.
Amy frowned. “Try again. Maybe he missed it or couldn’t pick up.”
Tails nodded, pressing on Sonic’s contact once again. Fear, worry, anxiety. A feeling Amy couldn’t quite put a name to rose within her, her stomach churning with each ring that sounded. One, two, three… The tone dial rang out again, that same automated response playing. He didn’t answer.
Apprehension and real worry crept on Amy, clawing its way up her entire being with heavy limbs. She stared at Tails’ communicator, at Tails, at Knuckles and Sticks, then the communicator again.
Sticks nudged her arm to get her attention, pointing at the opposite end of Sonic’s shack. “I heard a buzzin’ noise over there! When Tails was tryna call Sonic!” Their attention was brought to Sonic’s table, where Sticks had been pointing. They approached the simple furniture, Amy’s brow furrowing when she caught sight of what sat on top.
Sonic’s communicator. Sitting on top of a note.
Amy picked up the gadget, turning it over in her hands. It was significantly lighter than her own, and when her gloved fingers brushed against an odd cavity she figured out the reason why. The underside of the device was open, bits and bobs missing from the structure Tails had so carefully designed. Tampered, by someone who clearly understood the design and functions of the communicator well. Incredibly well. On a similar level to Tails, but she knew the kit wouldn’t dare tamper with anything that wasn’t his own or at least not claimed by someone else already.
Amy felt like her face was going to be stuck in a frown with how often she was doing it.
It was unlikely Sonic had tampered with the communicator. On his own, at least.
Sticks picked up the note from the table, peeling it open with suspicion. She brought it close to her face, away, close, and then away again, trying to read whatever was on it. Eventually, the badger found an optimal distance to hold it. Amy lowered the communicator back to the table, watching worriedly as Sticks’ lips pursed. Not a good sign. The badger passed it to Tails with a muttered comment about chasing away speedy hedgehogs, but Amy ignored it.
She watched the fox kit’s ears flatten, eyes wide with shock, hurt, despair, a whole myriad of expressions Amy rarely saw on someone like Tails. He heart dropped, his reaction foreboding and troubling. Just what was written on the note?
“What… What does it say, Tails?” She asked tentatively.
He didn’t reply, only holding out the paper for Amy to take. She ignored the way her hand trembled slightly as she took the paper, watching how Tails’ expression was distraught and distant. Her heart hammer in her chest as she flicked the paper and read the note.
Team Sonic is over. I quit.
Don’t look for me.
Amy’s blood ran cold, ears ringing. She heard herself read the words out loud, saw the way Knuckles’ and Sticks’ faces had twisted in surprise and worry. But she wasn’t processing it, wasn’t quite swallowing down the information. The words on the note felt fake. The reality wasn’t setting in. It felt like Amy had just walked on to the set of a really bad and strangely real film set.
Sonic? Quit?
The team was over?
No.
No no no no no.
A chuckle bubbled up her throat, bursting into a manic bout of laughter. The note crinkled under her fingers, hands clenching until she could feel her knuckles creaking. And oh how she wanted to tear through that stupid note. The world narrowed down to just that note in her hands and those words, those stupid, stupid words written on it.
It couldn’t be true. It wasn’t true.
This was the sickest, cruelest joke Sonic had ever played on them. On her . And that blue hedgehog had goaded Knuckles into doing a wheelbarrow race through deadly valleys. Had gotten her house exploded by one of Eggman’s stray rockets. Had endangered everyone’s lives, his own life, just because he was convinced no one could catch him.
Yes, this was the cruelest joke Sonic could have ever thought of pulling over them. And when she got her hands on Sonic, she was going to get payback and make sure he never did this again.
She crushed the note in her hand, her smile tight. She had to keep hold of her emotions, be the mature and emotionally stable member of the group, of the team. Of Team Sonic. Her eye twitched. ‘Team Sonic is over’ her ass. Team Sonic would end when s h̶̺̓͒ḛ̸̒ said it could. And in that moment s h̶̺̓͒ḛ̸̒ didn’t want Team Sonic to end, ever . And that meant s h̶̺̓͒ḛ̸̒ ’d go find Sonic, hit him with her hammer for trying to leave them, and drag him back by his quills. At any cost. Any.
Amy laughed out loud again, humorlessly and bitterly. “We’re going to Eggman. We’re going to beat him like always, we’re taking Sonic back, and we’re going to make him regret everything.”
“What—Eggman?!”
“What, why?!”
“Why would he have Sonic?!”
“What else could it be? Eggman captured Sonic and planted this to make us think otherwise. If it isn’t, then clearly Sonic hasn’t learned from the last o̶n̸e̵s̸h̵o̸t̶ and it’s Just A Guy all over again.” Amy reasoned, feeling her world slowly right itself. Yes, that was the only explanation.
“But Eggman’s never been able to actually catch Sonic. Not even I’ve been able to catch him long enough for it to really count!” Tails argued. “Why’d he suddenly catch him now?”
Amy spread her arms out, trying to get them to see her point. “Well obviously, that’s the plot of this episode! We need to go over, beat him up and save the day. Like we always do, and always have.” Why couldn’t they understand that this wasn’t such a big deal? This problem would be solved as all problems are, and things would return to normal as if it never happened
“I dunno, I think we did a bit of evilling with the exploding ducks…” Knuckles muttered nonsensically.
“Come on guys, don’t you want to find Sonic? I do, and I need your help to find him and bring him back! I mean, Team Sonic has to stay together and keep protecting the villagers.”
The boys rubbed the back of their necks awkwardly before Tails nodded, Knuckles following in his example. “Yeah, we’ll help out. I am worried about Sonic…”
Sticks on the other hand, shook her head. “No thanks. I’m slam, busy preparing for the apocalypse.”
Amy glared at the badger, and she held her hands up defensively. “Fine, fine. I’ll keep an eye out for the blue hedgehog. I’m still busy scavenging to replace my missing supplies. There’s a cryptid, a creature, a monster out there tryna’ doom me for the apocalypse.”
“Sticks, I’m telling you. It’s just a wild animal. You need to stop putting your stuff outside.” A headache was beginning to form the longer Amy spoke to Sticks.
And rightfully so because that badger was far too unpredictable, too wild, too unstable, too… Uncontrollable. That badger needed a leash or something, to keep her in place for even a minute. Amy nodded. Yes, they needed a harness to keep her in check the next time they went out. Sticks went missing in the middle of outings far too often for it to be normal.
But no, that had to wait. Because finding Sonic was the top priority. And finding Sonic meant going to Eggman’s lair, making sure he still remembered who the designated heroes were, and forcing him to relinquish his hold on the blue hedgehog or at least showing them where he was.
The metal walls crumbled like sand under Amy’s fury-powered hammer, and there were no robots to speak of. Eggman’s lair was just as bland, bleak, and lonely as the man himself and Amy spared just a drop of pity before she continued on her crusade rampage. Tails and Knuckles trailed after her, supporting her on the rare occasion her (gorgeous, perfect) Piko-Piko Hammer wasn’t enough to handle the Doctor’s excessive amounts of fail safes and locks. The rush was thrilling, being able to cut through enemy lines like butter as she led the way, and Amy began to understand why Sonic loved to run in as vanguard so often.
Finally, the door to where Amy knew Eggman’s living space was crumpled under the wrath of Piko-Piko and they burst in ready for a fight. There Eggman was, sitting nefariously as he watched Hedgehog Abbey, just as Amy suspected.
Wait.
Amy lowered her hammer, staring at the lounging man in confusion. She watched in disturbed interest as he scooped up a handful of corn chips and slathered it in a disgusting amount of nacho cheese. Amy shivered, off-put by the display no matter how many times she’d seen it.
Hedgehog Abbey, seriously? That was the least best Hedgehog show in the series.
Amy shook her head. No, what was confusing was the fact Eggman was just sitting there , watching Hedgehog Abbey . By now, he’d probably brag about capturing Sonic, or at least hoisting a new plan to capture the rest of them. Though maybe not that last one. For whatever reason, Eggface (god, she was sounding like Sonic) cared way more about winning over Sonic than anyone else on the island, let alone Team Sonic.
The scientist looked away from the screen, corn chip halfway in his mouth. “Huh? Amy? Tails? Nuffles? What are you doing here? Our fight isn’t scheduled until Saturday midday. Can’t you see I’m busy? Hedgehog Abbey is airing a new episode.”
“What? No, that’s our question!” Amy brandished her hammer at the man like a sword, though maybe not as intimidating considering the weapon differences—Whatever. It wasn’t like Tails would comment on it, and Sonic wasn’t there to say anything about her handling of it. “You took Sonic and it’s been long enough! Hand him back now before I resort to more forceful methods.”
Eggman sat forward, interest piqued and confusion evident. “‘Took Sonic’? Listen, I’m flattered you think I’m capable of catching Sonic—which, I totally am! But I don’t have Sonic. Orbot and Cubot can vouch, Hedgehog Abbey has been airing all day.”
Summoned by their master, the red and yellow bots peered around the corner, one holding a new bowl of popcorn and the other with an even larger tub of caramel. “Boss is correct. He’s already eaten approximately 2700 calories worth of corn chips, nacho cheese, popcorn, caramel, and ice cream. That’s 10% less than the last time he binge watched the first season of Hedgehog Abbey.”
Amy was forcibly ignoring how much she cringed from that onslaught of information about a sad, sad man in favor of what they were implying.
“You mean, you really haven’t caught Sonic? He’s not here.” Amy’s voice sounded hollow to her own ears, and she felt a growing void in her stomach growing. It ate away at her, trying to tell her something, but she both didn’t understand it or want to hear it.
Eggman nodded, stroking his moustache. “Nope, though I totally could. Which, I guess it’s weird. I haven’t seen him at all for a few days, and usually I’d have run into him at the market by now. Or literally any other day of the week outside of our fights ‘cause you know, four locations.”
She felt numb as Amy turned on her heels and walked out that lair. The one person who might’ve known something aside from the team didn’t have a clue on Sonic’s whereabouts. They didn’t have any leads, and the island was still huge despite their limited settings. Heck, Roboken was still on the table as a possible location and it would take a long time before they reached the robot city in the sky. And Amy had a strong gut feeling Sonic hadn’t flown up all alone.
No, Sonic was somewhere on Bygone Island and Amy was determined to find him. She had to. Everything crumbled apart as long as Sonic was gone. It was called Team Sonic for a reason. She had to bring him back, through any means necessary.
“Alright boys. We have a whole island to search. And by whole island, I mean a count of at least 7 different locations. We’re finding Sonic, I don’t care how long it’s gonna take.” Amy ordered. It seemed the universe wanted to mock her when she had unknowingly come to a stop right outside Sonic’s house. Oh, how she wanted to burn that eyesore down. But she couldn’t, it was Sonic’s. The only physical thing that really belonged to Sonic, and it’d be cruel to get rid of it.
Just as cruel as Sonic was for making them search the entire island for him. From the village to both forests to Buddy Buddy Temple all the way to Mount Safety. There was no sign of Sonic, nothing that gave her hints to where Sonic could have gone, where he had disappeared off to. It was almost as if he didn’t exist. Almost as if Sonic was never a real person to begin with. Even though Amy knew he was real, even when there was standing proof that Sonic existed. The lack of literally anything was eating her up inside, making her itch under her skin, made her want to claw it out until she was bloody and free of the horrible feeling.
Even on the days when Sticks, the jungle expert, could join them on their search, they turned up nothing. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Amy wanted to burn down that forest, cleave the mountains, scream into the sky. Nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. Not even a ghostly trace of the blue hedgehog. A part of her tried to tell her that the lack of clues was clue enough, that Sonic was purposely avoiding them, that he had willingly run away. But that was a lie, Amy was sure. For what reason could Sonic have run away? They had everything he could ever want. There was no reason to have disappeared, to have abandoned them, to have vanished like that.
They had even resorted to searching the oceans, however unlikely Sonic was to be found down there of all places. Exploring down in the deep with Tails’ new submarine for that purpose was eerie and silent. It took all Amy had just to swallow down the bile coming up her throat every time they came across more nothing, had to force herself not to think about the theoreticals about finding Sonic swallowed by the thing he feared so much. She had been glad when they turned up nothing then, but that meant they had searched literally everywhere they could.
Sonic was still gone. Sonic was nowhere to be found.
A doubt was beginning to creep into Amy’s mind, that maybe…
Maybe Sonic didn’t want to be found.
It’d been a month and a half of searching, and Tails was drained. There was virtually nothing about where Sonic was. A few times he had thought he finally located him on the scanner of the Miles Electric, a dot on the edge of the radar. But he was hallucinating those instances with how fast they blinked in and out, he just had to be. Because if he wasn’t, that said so much about why Sonic was gone and Tails didn’t think he was ready to confront that possibility.
He had almost no energy leftover from searching and searching, and it didn’t seem the others did either from the way they were also slumped over as they walked away from Meh Burger. It had been a relatively short break, enough to take a breather before heading back out to search again and again and again. Amy had become obsessive over finding Sonic, so much so Tails was worried she was losing her mind over a singular task. After all, repeating the same action over again expecting different results was a sign of insanity, one that Amy was taking to a new level.
Tails privately wondered if he was going insane, following along Amy’s now daily routine expecting for Amy to give or Sonic to show up or just something, anything to happen. He thought he could hear Amy blabbering away to Knuckles as they left the walled confines of the village, but he couldn’t quite grasp what they were saying. His head felt fluffy and fuzzed out from exhaustion. Tails could only let his attention drift around as he slowly prepared himself for another fruitless endeavor that Amy would ignore as a sign to maybe stop.
Tails’ focus landed on a bluish figure digging around some crates by the wall and he felt the world stop. The air in his lungs was punched out of him, and he could only mutter out one word.
“Sonic?”
And it was indeed Sonic. Sure, he looked a little worse for wear and his quills were dotted with leaves and twigs. But there was no mistaking anyone else for the blue hedgehog. There was no mistaking his b̷̝͖͂r̵͚͋̓̄ó̷̠͓͋̓͆t̷͚̞̗́̃͒͑ḣ̴̬͉͝ḛ̸̘̗͒r̴̤̪͇̲̅͒̔ best friend for anyone except for Sonic.
Tails felt hope bubble in his chest and he called out to him. “Sonic!”
The blue hedgehog looked up from where he had been scrounging around, ears flicking as those green eyes moved to pinpoint who had called his name. Tails’ hope shattered into pieces and his heart dropped to his stomach in an instant when he was met with a vicious snarl.