Chapter Text
Art By: Pikomancer
Art By: FernsStories
Amy Rose. Legendary hammer-wielding heroine. An embodiment of love and passion.
12:00 PM
Sonic was peacefully laying back on a beach chair, sunglasses over his eyes and a straw hat protecting him from the sun. A server came by with a chili dog and beverage with a little pink umbrella.
“On the house, Mr. Sonic!” She reported.
“Awe, thank you, ‘mam!” Sonic replied. He picked up the chili dog and watched the beautiful meaty sauce glistening in the sunlight. “Hello, beautiful. Come here often?”
He was about to take a bite before hearing a faint shout in the distance.
“SONIIIIIC!” Amy shouted, from afar.
Sonic turned to look in her direction, pulling his sunglasses down a bit. “Oh, hey Ames!”
She arrived, hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath after running at full speed from who knows where or for how long.
“Wassup?”
“LOOK!!!” She spat, showing Sonic her phone.
Sonic took it, unamused before his eyes widened: 1 missed call from Shadow and a single text reading:
"This is Shadow. Please accompany me to a mission at 7 PM. I’ll explain the details in person."
“First of all: he has a phone?! And he knows how to use it?!” Sonic exclaimed, Amy frowned. “So, what’d you say?”
Amy scoffed. “You honestly think I’d say yes to anything that guy would say?”
Sonic shrugged. “Absolutely not!” Amy rebuked.
As Amy spoke, a seagull approached Sonic. He glared at it and tried to keep his sandwich away.
“I’ve got so much on my plate as it is: helping with what remains of Restoration HQ, my trip with Cream and Sticks coming up soon, my whole ‘giving my love to the world’ shtick I got going, I’ve been doing cardio at the gym on Tuesdays—“
Sonic threw a sandal at the seagull before turning back to Amy with a grin and raised an eyebrow.
“The point is: I am NOT wasting my precious time with whatever mess he’s getting himself into.” She finished.
“I thought you two were close after the ark? You are literally the only person that got through to him and changed his mind.”
“Yea, and I think about that a lot. But to be honest, as much as I try to understand and respect where he’s coming from, I’ve come to realize over the years that he’s nothing but a brash, inconsiderate jerk who only cares about himself and his self-proclaimed ‘protect the earth’ grand purpose I-don’t-need-friends-can’t-have-fun blah blah blah.” Amy said in a bad imitation of Shadow’s voice.
As she spoke, several seagulls surrounded Sonic as he tried to fight them off.
“You’re a bit arrogant and you’re independent, a lot of my friends are, it's fine. But I just can’t stand him! When he goes around calling himself ‘the Ultimate Lifeform’, it’s literally THE most annoying, conceited thing ever. UGH. So, I already know how that mission is gonna go, and I don’t like the idea.”
“You found that out with your future reading stuff?” He asked as he held a round towel with all the seagulls inside as they squealed and flapped madly inside.
“First of all, it doesn’t work like that. Second, well, um, no. But I know!” Amy responded, waving a finger. She turned around and Sonic quickly threw the blanket across the beach when she wasn’t looking before they all flew away. “Mark my words: whatever it is, it’s gonna be super dangerous and dumb and boring. And I just know, the moment I’m useless to him, he’s just gonna leave me behind! You know how I feel about that!”
“Yea, but it’s usually nothing personal.” Sonic replied scratching the back of his head. “Look, hear me out: I think maybe…just a tiny teensy-weensy bit ... you've mischaracterized him a bit. You just need to take some time to try to get to know him a little better, perspective take.”
“Need? Maybe you and I have different points of view on what the word ‘need’ means.” Amy retorted. “Besides, you can take a horse to a river, but you can’t make it drink. It’s not like I haven’t tried to get to know him, oh ho, Universe knows we’ve all tried so hard to include him in things and have been nothing but patient and kind, but you can’t bother with someone who just wants to be stuck in his own miserable way.”
Amy thinks for a moment and looks at her phone. “Of course, I’m not gonna tell him all that. He can find someone else to help him or just do it himself. Just a respectful ‘no’ should suffice.”
Sonic smiled, as he raised his chili dog to the sky and leaned back in his chair, releasing a long sigh.
“You wanna spread love to the world, right? Proactively make the world a better place?” Sonic explained. “Well, part of that is showing a little kindness to people that aren’t always interested in being helped, maybe they don't even deserve it. But that’s what you’ve always done anyway, right?”
Amy thought.
“You have a way of seeing things in people that sometimes they don’t even see in themselves, the good stuff I mean. If you were able to help him, you must have seen some potential when you met.”
“Yea, but I don’t think he’s that same person anymore.”
“Well, Shadow isn’t the type to ask for help if he can help it. But this time, he did, which means he trusts you, respects you.” Sonic grinned. “And I’m honestly a little jealous.”
Amy smiled.
“Believe it or not, Shadow’s missions are usually some of the coolest and highest stakes there are. I might not always agree with how he does things, but I gotta give credit where it’s due. He gets the job done and helps people who really need it, and he knows how to work with a team.” Sonic explained. “I’d say you two are a lot more alike than you think.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “That’s insulting.” As she took his drink and started drinking it.
Sonic laughs. “Hold on, hear me out: he’s a hedgehog who loves to challenge himself, and he’s a little stubborn and a bit of a hot head, but if he’s determined to do something, he will do it. He doesn’t care what people think of him, and even if I don’t always understand what he’s thinking, deep down I know he’s a good guy just trying his best to do the right thing and make the world a better place.”
Amy smiled with the straw between her lips, as she listened attentively, a little bit of blush on her cheeks.
“Hey, I respect how you feel…but you just never know what the future can hold. You of all people know that, so what’s the worst that could happen?” Sonic finished.
“Well, let’s see, federal crimes, getting held for ransom, being placed on a government watch list, getting shot at—”
“See! Nothing too different from the day to day! It’ll be fun!” Sonic smiled. He was about to finally take a bite of the chili dog before he noticed Amy’s expression of defeat and slight annoyance.
“You know, as my ‘long term bestie’, you’re supposed to be supporting my delusions, not making sense.” She pouted.
“Love you bestie!” Sonic waved and blew kisses as she walked away before the seagulls came back and started pecking him and fighting him for the chili dog.
Shadow the Hedgehog. The Ultimate Lifeform. Fearless, somewhat aloof.
5:30 PM
Now alone in her house, sun setting, after spending most of the afternoon procrastinating and avoiding this moment, she was now comfortably dressed in a robe, her hair tucked in a towel, and wearing a green clay mask all over her face. She paced back and forth in her room, typing and retyping on her phone an appropriate response to his message. Should she be professional? Should she be funny? Should she be snarky and respond apathetically? She took a deep breath and slowly released it in frustration.
“It’s just one time, Amy. A one-time, totally friendly, insignificant side quest.” She thought to herself. “And at least, if it ends up being horrible, like it probably will be, then we know to never try this sort of nonsense ever again. No harm, no foul.”
Finally, nervously, she reacted to Shadow’s text with a thumbs-up and began writing the word “yes”. Before she could press send, a sudden bright flash of light caused her to scream, and she jumped back. Shadow had chaos-snapped to her location and was now standing in front of her, lavender chaos emerald in hand.
“AAAA!” Amy shouted. She then groaned loudly in annoyance, hand on her chest as she breathed heavily. “Oh my god, don’t do that! Why do you always do that?! You’re gonna give someone a heart attack!” She shouted.
Shadow rubbed the bridge of his nose as he sighed heavily, avoiding looking directly at her.
“Perhaps this was a mistake.” He said as he turned around, disappointed in his tone. Amy noticed and felt guilty.
“W-Wait!” She shouted as she reached for his arm, and he stopped. “Just…give me a minute, please?”
After a few seconds of silence, his back still turned towards her, he gently shook her hand off his forearm.
“Fine. But hurry it along. We don’t have all night.” He said as he teleported out of the room to the other side of the door.
Her head fell right into the palms of her hands.
“Unbelievable.” They both muttered.
He tapped his foot while he looked around her pink home with his hands on his hips as the sound of running water filled the awkward silence in the house. He caught sight of a wall of photos, all neatly organized. He saw a couple of pictures of her with Cream and Vanilla, a few with just herself and Sonic, a couple of group photos, some with Rouge and Blaze, and he even found one with himself in the background, probably one of Sonic’s never ending birthday parties. And eventually, he found himself looking at a few pictures of just Amy. They were incredibly professional and high quality.
Suddenly, a light turned on in the hallway, and Amy weaved her way past him and headed toward her living room.
“Make yourself at home! Sorry that it’s a mess. I wasn’t expecting company.” At least not so soon, she muttered to herself.
She turned to see him, and he was simply standing and staring as he always did.
“Can …I offer you anything to drink? I have water, sparkling water but only the grapefruit flavor, yuck, tea—” She asked nervously as he stared blankly. “Okay, never mind, so—what are we doing exactly?”
She then sat on her pink couch and watched as Shadow positioned himself across from her. She also had some candies on her coffee table that she began to eat.
“Tonight, we will be infiltrating a local venue to rescue a civilian.” Shadow explained as he set a device on the coffee table, displaying a hologram of charts, photos, and videos. “I recently discovered that for the last few weeks, G.U.N. has been attempting to detain an unnamed, but extremely organized criminal group known for hosting savage, clandestine fighting rings all throughout the planet. However, each attempt has been disastrous, to say the least, ending in great collateral damage.”
“And G.U.N. seems to have done a pretty good job at hiding it, or else I’m sure Sonic and Tails or the Restoration would’ve been all over that by now. ‘Guess old habits really do die hard.” Amy added as she popped another candy in her mouth. “And the criminal syndicate, do you know these bozos?”
“Not yet. They’ve at least had some common sense to avoid crossing my path. But thus far, they are completely untraceable, even with an emerald.”
“So, we’re dealing with a huge network of bad guys that are basically immune to chaos control…that’s really weird.”
“Precisely.”
“Hmm. Then I assume there’s some kind of lure or trap involved to get the crooks out of the dark?”
“G.U.N. has made arrangements for a fake trade tonight underground at the public event. We need to arrive exactly 5 minutes before it begins.”
“Cool. Should be simple enough.” Amy added. “And what and where exactly is this ‘public event’?”
“According to my intel, it’s a ‘Hot Honey’ concert in Central Park.”
Amy gasped loudly.
“No way!!! You shoulda started with that! I’ve always wanted to see them perform! They’re literally my favorite band of all time!” She said with excitement as she ran to her room.
“I doubt you’ll have much of an opportunity to—” He began to explain before being interrupted.
“OOOO, and I know the perfect outfit! I’ve been wanting to use this for a while now.” She squealed in the distance.
“Don’t wear anything too flashy, we’re not supposed to draw attention to…” Shadow explained before hearing the door to Amy’s room open and seeing her. “...ourselves.”
Amy brushed her beautiful new dress down and spun around before taking a bow.
“Ready! And it only took 2 minutes! You’re welcome.” Amy grinned with a hand on her hip.
Shadow sighed before extending his hand to her. She frowned and grabbed his wrist instead in slight disgust.
He chaos-snapped them out of the house and towards the front lawn of her home. Fall trees and leaves everywhere.
There stood glistening under the lavender sky: the Dark Rider.
“Oooooo….” Amy said. “Can I drive it?”
“Don’t make me laugh.” Shadow retorted as he walked past her.
She gasped and snapped her fingers.
“Wait! We’re gonna need something important!” She said as she ran off to her garage.
She pulled out two helmets: a cute yellow duckling and a black one with cat ears. “Safety first!” She announced.
Shadow crossed his arms.
“My skull is stronger than military grade steel, you know?” Shadow explained.
Ain’t that the truth. Amy mumbled under her breath. “Well, mine isn’t, thank you very much!”
Shadow turned away and climbed onto the bike.
“You do what you want as long as it doesn't interfere with the mission.” He said as Amy carefully climbed onto the bike, keeping her distance, keeping her hands on the side of the bike. “Even if it is a poor fashion choice.”
“Excuse meEEE—” Amy shouted as Shadow drove off.
Abraham Towers. Previously, an annoying child. Currently, the annoying commander of the Guardian Units of Nations.
6:30 PM - Nighttime
Eventually, as they drove down a wide highway, they approached a long bridge. Several cars drove all around, the silhouette of the city shining across the water. Amy gazed in awe at the beautiful array of lights and signs.
Shadow caught sight of her curious, innocent amazement from the side view mirror and stared for a moment.
“Shadow!” Amy screamed before Shadow used his shoes to halt them to a stop before hitting the car in front.
“Hey! Watch it!” Amy shouted as she held onto Shadow, waving her fist.
“Sorry.” He responded as she pushed him away.
An apology? Didn’t think he was capable of that. Amy thought to herself.
Shadow tried to move back, but a truck closed them in. He then tried to move to the side, but more cars stopped all around. They were indeed trapped: a classic, evening-commute traffic jam.
“Oh, for the love of…” He muttered.
“Very likely most people here are trying to get to the concert too. But let me see if there’s a shortcut…” She said as she checked her phone as Shadow rested his head on his chin in annoyance of the situation. “My GPS says there’s a shortcut up ahead on the next exit, but I don't know how—”
Suddenly, Shadow’s ear perked as a whistling in the distance got louder. He sped up.
“Hold on.”
“What are you—” She responded as she held onto the seat tightly.
~ Song ‧ Flyday Chinatown by Yasuha ‧ 1981 ~
He weaved around the cars before hopping onto the side railing of the bridge.
“AAAAAA! I’M TOO PRETTY TO DIE!” Amy cried as she looked down the bridge before covering her eyes.
Suddenly, he began driving up one of the arches of the bridge.
“Whoaaaaa!” Amy shouted as she held on tight to her seat. “Shadow, what the heck are you doing?!”
“Turn around!” He responded.
“WHAT?!” She shouted as she turned and saw a fast-approaching missile.
“Guess the bad guys got word of your plan!” Amy said as she pulled out her hammer and whacked the missile at the highest point of the bridge, straight down into the water below, causing an enormous splash.
The force of her hit pushed the two down the other side of the arch like a roller coaster.
“WHOAAAAAAA!!!” She said, gripping the sides of the motorcycle as her fearful expression turned into a smile.
Once down the arch and evading the traffic, Shadow continued up into an exit and merged into another highway. Suddenly, a bright white light shined from above. Amy ducked, completely blinded, before hearing the roar of engines and beeps of drones approach. She squinted as she focused on the logo: G.U.N.
“GAH?! I thought you were working WITH G.U.N!?!” Amy shouted before Shadow continued driving closer into the downtown area.
“No! I’m working against them!” Shadow shouted.
Shadow jumped over an overpass and down to a street below.
“They weren’t supposed to know about this!” Shadow explained. “Rouge must’ve ratted me out for taking her gem…”
“Oh, GREAT! Thanks for the heads up!” She replied sarcastically.
Suddenly, a couple smaller, flying drones approached. He entered a stone tunnel, part of another overpass, where he spun up and down the tunnel walls, avoiding the shots.
After exiting the tunnel, they turned into a bustling market street with bright neon lights illuminating from store signs above, people crowding the streets speaking different languages, food carts hanging all sorts of yummy snacks. People walked around, unfazed as Shadow’s bike roared passed them along with the drones whipping past.
Amy tried to lift her hammer to nick them but pulled back to avoid hitting people and businesses.
“They’re coming in hot! But there are too many people!”
“Then we need higher ground!” Shadow shouted as he weaved between the skinny streets, lines of lanterns in the air, crates, and other market items everywhere.
They approached a wall.
“I got this!” She replied as she anchored her hammer deep into the ground, helping Shadow to turn with ease.
Several drones crashed into the wall.
“Efficient. Excellent.” Shadow replied in surprise.
As he raced, he noticed a parking garage with demolition cranes and construction vehicles, warning signs, and labels all around. Amy held onto the bike tight, looking slightly dizzy, as he looped up around the entrance and onto the wide floor of the parking garage, several concrete pillars all around.
Several drones now appeared as he serpentined to escape the bullets, Amy using her hammer as a shield.
Shadow groaned. “There are too many to shake off!” He said as he pressed a button on the bike and grabbed his gun.
“Can I—”
“No.” He replied before chaos-controlling off the bike, leaving Amy seated alone as the bike auto-piloted.
In the blink of an eye, he kicked, punched, and shot several of the drones. Suddenly, a few escaped ahead of him, shooting at Amy.
He shouted as he chased after the drones. “No!”
Amy turned around and noticed the hot approaching G.U.N. drones. She stood up on the bike, and with one arm, aimed it back as if to throw it.
“Duck!” Amy shouted.
With great force, she threw her hammer, hitting the closest drone, and her hammer ricocheted across the pillars of concrete, boomerang-ing back to her.
“Shadow!” She shouted as the top of the building started crumbling.
He skated forward, chaos-boosted across the rubble. Now seated behind Amy, who was happily positioned on the bike as if driving it. He proceeded pull Amy back by her jacket, taking the “wheel.” Amy frowned and crossed her arms.
She held onto Shadow as he burst through the concrete barrier on the edge of the parking garage, launching himself off the collapsing structure, towards the neighboring skyscraper.
“Wooooo!!!!” Amy cheered as Shadow chaos boosted them forward.
As they approached the building’s rooftop, they realized they were too far to land. They began to fall.
“NO!!!” Amy shouted.
Shadow used his chaos energy to reposition themselves onto the side of the building, and using his air shoes, boosted them up the side of the building with force.
Amy began to fall off the bike. She quickly gripped his quills. Shadow gritted his teeth with a small tear in his eye in pain.
“I’m slipping!” Amy shouted as her hand slipped.
Shadow extended his arm and grabbed her hand, gently pulled her close, and she instinctively held onto his shoulders. Now secured, he placed both his hands on the bike again, and they arrived at the top of the skyscraper.
He spun around, using his air shoes to stop the bike, locking them in their place. They breathed heavily, Amy still holding on tight. His eyes widened as he realized.
“Hey, you okay?” He asked, his hand finding her forearm.
“Y-Yea.” Amy stuttered as she jumped back and let him go.
BAM! The bright light again blinded them. It was the helicopter flying above them with a huge canon aimed towards them.
“Shadow, this is the commander. Stand down or we’ll be forced to bring you two down.” Abraham demanded from the intercom. “This is not open for negotiation.”
“Grrr! Idiots!” Shadow complained. “They’re stalling us. We need to lose them fast or we’ll miss the trade!”
Amy looked around before looking down and gasping. She pointed. “Head down! Now!”
Shadow noticed the train tracks below.
“Roger!”
Instantly, they evaded the blast of the cannon using Shadow’s chaos control and down they went off the edge of the skyscraper. The helicopter spun around towards the two. Shadow and Amy had jumped onto the top of a passing train far below. The canon aimed again.
“STOP!” Abraham shouted within his office to the G.U.N. soldier controlling the helicopter. “Are you insane?! You’ll hit civilians!”
Back in his office, Abraham watched from his monitors as they drove over onto another empty track and disappeared under the dark tunnel systems. Abraham punched the desk and sighed.
“Leave ‘em be. Tell the team to meet with the seller as soon as possible.” Abraham grumbled as he walked out of the office. “We’ll catch up to Shadow eventually.”
Shadow continued driving fast into the underground subway system in near pitch darkness with only his headlights.
“Don’t drive so fast! You can’t even see anything!”
“I know what I’m doing!”
“Just teleport us outta here!”
“Stop distracting me!”
“I’m not distracting you! You’re distracting yourself!”
“THAT DOESN'T EVEN MAKE ANY SENSE!”
Suddenly, the horn of a subway roared.
“T-TURN AROUND! TURN AROUND!!!” Amy shouted as Shadow spun around. The train was coming extremely close. Amy hugged Shadow tightly from behind.
“AAAAAA!!!” She screamed before he was able to chaos control them one last time.
Finally, they were above ground, back on the same highway they started…but they were driving in the opposite direction. Shadow cursed as he dodged the cars.
Shadow approached a semi-truck with a G.U.N. logo that was stopping to a halt, trailer spinning slowly towards them. The driver jumped out of the truck and ran away.
Shadow looked around before seeing Amy, their eyes meeting for a second. Suddenly, he scooped up Amy, who blushed as he stood up on the bike, and with great force, threw her high into the air.
“AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!” Amy screamed as she flew.
He grabbed his bike, leaned sideways, and skid under the trailer before coming back up and catching Amy on the other side. The semi swerved back and forth before finally tilting over and blocking the entire main highway. The contents of the trailer spilled all over: coal. Suddenly, G.U.N. cars and tanks surrounded the truck, unable to pass around it.
Shadow and Amy continued onward into the city, now cruising calmly down the river drive, their rapid, tired breathing slowing down. Shadow released a sigh of relief.
“There. That should stop ‘em for a while.”
Amy’s heavy breathing turned into hysterical laughing and cheers as she kicked her feet.
“That was AWESOME!!! Let’s do it again!!!” She shouted as she leaned forward, shaking Shadow’s shoulders.
“You…need help.” Shadow replied, shaking his head.
Hot Honey. Pop Rock Band. Amy’s Favorite Band.
7:00 PM
Eventually, they made their way past the city lights and cars towards a greener area, more open space, more abandoned buildings and parking garages.
“Dammit, we’re running late.” Shadow cursed.
“Hold your horses, concerts usually don’t start when they say they’ll start…usually because most people run late.”
“Then why the hell have a scheduled start time at all?!”
“Truer words have never been spoken.”
“So annoying...” Both Amy and Shadow grumbled at the same time.
Both said nothing as they ignored what happened.
Shadow slowed down as he noticed a group of Canadian geese and their babies wanting to cross the street. He stopped and allowed them to pass. Amy watched, raising an eyebrow.
“So…why’d you ask me to come? Doesn’t Rouge usually go with you on these missions?”
“No.”
“Omega?”
“Not built for stealth.”
“Or Tails, he coulda built you a gizmo or something. Or Sonic–”
“None of the people you mentioned would have been of any use to me for this particular mission. You were the ideal choice.” Shadow explained as he continued onward.
“Even though you could’ve gone solo?”
“If you did not want to come, I would have had no issue with that.” He replied before slightly looking back. “Are you implying that you did not want to come?”
“No! No! Of course not!” Amy defended nervously. “It’s just…since the ark, you’ve never really reached out much.”
“Never had a reason to.”
Ouch. Amy frowned as she leaned back and crossed her arms. Bitter. Just as suspected. He just needs me for something, and after I’ll be dead to him until who knows when.
You’re having fun now, but don’t get too close, Amy. Unless you wanna get hurt…again.
“Well, I’m glad to know you still remember the person who altered the entire course of your life for the better when you need them.” She finished sarcastically.
The last of the geese crossed before a single male Canadian goose stopped and looked directly at Shadow and Amy.
“Move.” Shadow demanded. Then the goose hissed weirdly.
“Gross.” Amy said. He then drove around it.
To be continued…