Chapter Text
Sonic spindashes into three buggbots zooming straight for the residents of a small town on a hill, a town that now was heavily under attack by a certain villain.
Tails, flying around, notifies Knuckles and Sonic about all the robo-hotspots, he turns his head to the side and sees a small building sized church bell flying his way, thrown by a gigantic eggbot, he dodges, but before he could react the bell flashes past him and hurtles directly into a family trying to evacuate.
Before the bell could reach the ground, a small figure stops it, the impact sending the figure back a couple of meters, leaving lines of their feet dragged across the sandy road trying to stop the massive object.
“You guys, okay?” Says a pink hedgehog panting and trying to muster a comforting smile while holding the massive bell and throwing it on the ground in front of her. “Please hurry, It’s a bit hectic today.” She said giving them a nervous chuckle.
The family of mice pressing their two intrigued children deeper into their hold quickly mustered a “thank you” and ran away.
Amy sighed with relief and looked at the direction in which sonic was fighting with the robots with an angry expression.
Sonic dunked to the floor dodging a crab-bot who was aiming to cut his head before Amy slams the thing into oblivion with her hammer.
“Where were you?”
“O-oh, hey Ames, good to see you.”
“Why didn’t you call me If you knew the town was under attack, I would have come here sooner!”
Sonic jumps kicking several bots midair at super speed.
“There was no need, we have it all under control.”
Amy slams her hammer into a bug-bot sending it flying into it’s counterparts, knocking them out bowling style.
“Oh really? Like the bell?”
“What bell?” Asked Sonic confused.
“That b-“ As Amy turned her head to look at where the bell once was her heart sank. It was gone. The massive, 2-ton bell was missing.
Suddenly the lower part of the town engulfed in screams.
“Damn it…” Muttered Sonic as he ran towards the noise. Amy followed as fast as she could, but all she could see the moment she got on the edge was the aftermath.
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To protect the weak.
From the very early days Amy’s heart had always been inclined to protect. It was part of her nature. Defending smaller animals, helping people in need, an unchangeable part of her.
At the beginning, she was quite weak. Not anything in particular, more so like a normal girl her age, but soon she begun to realize that it’s not enough. The people around her, they were incredible.
Sonic was faster than light, born to run, speed itself.
Knuckles was chosen by the master emerald, born to be naturally strong, a warrior who could use the emeralds at his disposal and yet chose not to.
Tails, despite being younger than her he was an undeniable genius, a prodigy with an incredibly bright future.
Heck, if you’d ask her personally, never in her life would she admit this, but despite how evil of a man Eggman was, he was remarkably smart, a gift to create just about anything he wished.
To her it all seemed otherworldly. And yet despite knowing that she just couldn’t contain her nature. Whenever the pink hedgehog saw Eggman terrorizing poor little critters she just had to step in, herself not being much stronger the result would ultimately be her getting captured and having to be saved by the prodigious heroes of green hills.
While her at the time saviors refrained from outright saying it, she was a burden, she knew it, she felt it. Being so overpowered all the time, feeling hopeless and having to be saved again and again, it felt awful.
She wanted to be able to help, she wanted to be extraordinary, to belong, be able to confidently stand next to them, to be just like them, so she began training.
Relentless training, one that would leave her muscles aching for days, making the poor thing bedridden, but oh well…What could she do? That was simply the price she had to pay for greatness.
To her delight, all her hard work started paying off, she noticed how much faster she was, how strong she was becoming, it made her so happy.
Alas such happiness didn’t last long, her body wasn’t made for such strength, at the end of the day she was but a normal person. While increasingly strong, she couldn’t handle punching anything, the rebound on her body would hurt her far too much for her to simply tough it out, as a solution the kid picked up a hammer.
Another problem was the unpredictable and unstable nature of her strength, she wasn’t used to it, it was all so new, combining that with her impulsive and emotional nature, it was a recipe for mistakes and disaster. Amy tried her very best not to take to heart all the walls she smashed by mistake, all the people she pushed or hugged a little too hard, their annoyed or scared faces. Her friends annoyed and scared faces.
In fact, over the years there’s a lot she tried to not take to heart, how everyone pushed her out of their plans, how Sonic always ran away from her, how most mobians preferred waiting to be saved by any of her other so called friends or how in battle she was usually told to “keep out” or let the others handle it.
It was all so much. Too much.
Despite that she kept smiling, never giving up, pushing trough, trying to prove herself, to control her strength, even putting weights on her arms and legs so her strength would become more stable, less unpredictable.
Yet despite how polite and graceful she had trained herself to be, how carefully she fought, trained her technique, she made mistakes, again and again, over and over.
That was the difference between her and her friends, they were made for this, she was trying to make herself for this.
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Amy fell to the ground covering her mouth, tears flooding her eyes, blurring out her sight.
What was wrong with her, how could she forget the damn bell.
Stupid stupid stupid stupid stupid.
A cold sweat covered her entire body as her insides heated up with regret.
The world around her started caving in, all she could see was the scared and angry faces of the townspeople.
They were yelling something, at her, they were correct.
All she wanted to do was to run, run away and hide in a hole, bury herself away from all of this.
Her breathing and the thudding heartbeat in her ears was loud enough for her not to hear or feel the eggmobile descend behind her or even the footprints of a heavy man approaching.
Only thing that snapped her out of her daze was when someone placed their hand on her head.
She turned around and to her horror, it was Eggman. She didn’t have the strength in her to fight right now, but she didn’t deserve to be able to call upon the others help.
Him standing there was one of her least problems right now, so before she could spit something out when instead of attacking or taking her by force he extended his hand, her mind gave up on trying to understand reason.
“I can take you away from here.” Said he with a calm tone, one that he used rarely.
This was exactly what she wanted, a place to hide, no matter how insane right now she didn’t have time to be picky, all she wanted to do is get away, so the girl took his hand.
The rest is more or less a blur, next thing she knew she was in a random cold room with walls made of metal, covered by a blanket, crouching in a corner.
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A hoard of white screens light up a room. Room with metal walls much like the one Amy is in.
“Boss, if I may ask, why her?” Asked Orbot peaking from the table, looking at a specific screen showing a little hedgehog trying to hide in a corner.
“Potential.” Muttered Eggman preoccupied by looking at the different screens on the wall.
“Potential?” Asked Cubot hiding behind Orbot.
“Don’t you two have anything better to do than bother me while I work?” Eggman pressed a couple of buttons changing the view on his screens into different clips of Amy and her friends fighting. “Look, tell me what you notice.”
“They keep kicking your butt?” Said Cubot confidently.
“NO, YOU MORONS! She’s a polymath. Who do you suppose is the strongest in their group?”
“Knuckles.” Said both in sync.
“Alright, now who’s the smartest?”
“Tails.” Said both in sync, now more excitedly due to getting the answer right the first time.
“Fastest?”
“Sonic!” Said both confidently.
“Don’t look so proud at getting such obvious things right you imbeciles.” He sighs. “I’m surrounded by idiots.”
“Alright, now tell me who is second in all those categories?”
“Umm…” Both looked at eachother confused.
“It’s her, its always her. Second smartest, second fastest, second strongest. The only thing that truly stands out about her is her chaotic nature. She’s unpredictable, too strong to handle, too passionate to know when to stop. I can imagine how suffocated that brat feels, being good has it’s standards you know?”
Eggman walks off to the door, opening it with a scan of his hand.
“Besides, that stupid rodent cares about her, screw kind, she’s perfect.”
Eggman exits the room closing the door in the two robots faces, leaving them in the room just as confused as they were before.
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Sonic spindashes and Knuckles punches the gigantic eggbot in its metallic chest at the same time, sending it crashing down on the ground.
“Last one! Good job.” Says Tails as he flies down high fiving sonic.
“Is it me or was there more eggbots today than usual? Not that I’m complaining or anything.” Asked Sonic looking around at the graveyard of smashed mech parts.
“No, you are right, today there was around 47% more robots than usual.” Answered Tails looking at data in his Miles electric.
“His birthday or something?” Said Sonic sarcastically scratching his head.
“Getting desperate.” Says knuckles stomping on a spider-bot trying to get up.
“Well, whatever, not like he’s doing a good job at it.” Says sonic shaking sand from his shoulders and quills.
“We’re not exactly doing ours perfectly either.” Said knuckles looking at Sonic with a serious expression.
“What do you me-“Said Sonic finishing dusting himself off and raising his head to look at knuckles who was now pointing at the bell slammed directly into the community hall building behind him. “Oh, that.”
“There wasn’t any casualties, besides it was Amy who stopped that thing and threw it at the edge of a hill.”
“I thought we agreed to give Amy a few weeks off from this before her birthday, she wasn’t supposed to be here in the first place.” Said the echidna crossing his hands, slightly pissed at Sonic trying to deflect his part in this.
“I agree, if she hadn’t been here that bell would have landed straight on the townspeople. Then we would really be counting casualties.” Said Tails coming in between Sonic and Knuckles trying to ease the tension.
“Hm? Wait, where is Amy anyways?” Asked Sonic looking around.
“Good question, I lost sight of her when knuckles decided to slam headfirst into a rocket.” Said Tails giving Knuckles a side eye. Sonic proceeds to comb the entire town at light speed.
“Shut up! I thought it would break from my sheer strength.” Said Knux turning his head away in embarrassment. Sonic returns, stopping just before them.
“She’s not here.” Blurred out Sonic.
“You sure?” Asked Tails looking confused.
“Yeah I’m sure, I ever ran around the surrounding area. She’s not here.”
Said Sonic once again scratching his head a bit puzzled.
“I’m sorry to disturb but can I say something?” A quiet voice was heard from his side. They turn their heads to the side to see a middle-aged mouse mobian holding a little kid in her arms, another mouse holding two other children behind her.
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It’s been hours…6? Maybe 9? Could have been a whole day Amy wasn’t sure. In that time period she barely moved an inch from the metallic corner she now deemed her own, only crying while holding her legs close to her chest and falling asleep a couple of times from fatigue.
How could she make such a mistake? All those screams… That damage…It horrified her to death… What has she done?
How can she ever go back? Sonic was right not to invite her to the battle, all she does is make things worse.
As she was slowly falling back into the self loathing phase of her breakdown the only door leading to this room opens.
It was Eggman.
The same Eggman that hates every inch of her and her friends existence, the same man who kept causing trouble for as long as she could remember. So why, why is he helping her?
Amy didn’t understand any of it, she just watched him carefully with a gaze that would put bullets in his head if it could.
Eggman slowly approached her and knelt down on his knees to get closer to her eye level.
“You really gonna stay here forever? Aren’t you hungry?”
Amy looked at him with an empty gaze, not saying a thing.
“Hey, despite what you might think I don’t need dead rodents lying around my base.” He extends his hand in front of her, holding an apple.
She hesitantly takes it and holds it in front of her with both of her hands, looking at it for a while before starting to cry again.
The doctor takes a deep breath massaging his temples in a tired manner then gently pats her on the head.
“…There there, stop crying, It is quite pitiful to look at, honestly.”
Amy looks back at him, now crying more while eating the apple.
“Oh, for the love of- Are you allergic to it or something?” Says the doc sounding annoyed.
“I messed up…I always do…It’s all my fault, If I wasn’t so careless…” Said Amy sniffing her nose.
Eggman’s expression softens, just a tad bit. He thinks of what to say to her for a while before sighing. “That’s just how life is for people like us. Beating yourself up for it wont change your nature.”
“People like…us?”
“Its not your fault, it’s the world’s for being so pathetically weak, why should you have to beat yourself up for something so stupid? Listen here kid, some people are born accident prone, that’s just the way it is, not much we can change about it, so instead of beating yourself up for your gift why don’t you embrace it?”
Amy sniffs, rubbing tears out of her eyes. “My gift?”
“Why pretend like you don’t belong on our side?”
Amy nervously starts shaking her head. “Oh no no no no, I’m not evil…I hate hurting people, I hate seeing people sad…I-“
“You think most of us don’t?”
Amy freezes in confusion. “You…don’t?”
“Oh no, I totally do.”
She tilts her head to the side befuddled.
“But not all villains are like me, most are like you, they cant fit in, cant be what the heroes consider normal. Don’t you hate it, having to always fuss over such small things like keeping your power in check, having to always muffle your anger, your feelings.”
Amy looks down at her hands covered in weight rings.
Eggman smiles sinisterly.
“You know they all think the same kid. Isn’t that why they haven’t taken you on adventures with them for a while. That’s why they didn’t try to stop me when I took you away, everyone knows this is where you belong.”
“You’re lying…You’re just trying to trick me!” Yelled out Amy her expression being a mix of anger and hurt.
“Sure, whatever you say, I mean you can always just go back out there. Little sweet Amy, going back to the chaos after hiding away in their worst enemy’s lair a whole day, I’m sure they will take it kindly, in fact I’m pretty sure in their eyes you’ve already voluntarily joined me.” Said the doctor chuckling.
Amy’s heart sank once again, she screwed up, big time.
“This wasn’t the first time you’ve messed up like this, wasn’t it? Stop beating yourself up for it and use that chaos.” Said Eggman getting up and turning to leave the room. “Well, if you leave or not, its up to you, come to me when you’ve made up your mind.”
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“She what?!” Yelled out knuckles angerly scaring the already anxious family.
“Calm down, there must be a reasonable explanation to all of this.” Uttered Tails holding his hands extended in front of knuckles trying to reason with him.
“Tails is right, she was kidnapped. Egghead probably used some brainwashing machine on her. We gotta save her!” splurred out Sonic feeling uneasy about the whole ordeal, already ready to run and take action.”
“Hold it! We don’t even know where he took her! Look…if its his lair we’re talking about then is probably his sky base, but that thing could be anywhere! We can’t just be aimlessly running around.” Exclaimed Tails.
“Sure we can, that thing is what? The size of a village? Pretty hard to miss you know.” Responded sonic already getting into position to run before Tails directly jumped on him.
“That thing has light reflecting coating on the outside! That’s exactly why its going to be impossible to just spot, if we want to help Amy we have to track that thing properly!”
“Tsk. Then we better hurry, what’s your plan?”
“I could try tracking the energy waves around the world, he makes a lot of robots, that has to have a powerful energy source, but I need to get to my house.”
“Alright.” Said Sonic grabbing Tails properly and getting ready to carry him to his base. “You gonna get back by yourself just fine right?” He asked knuckles.
“What do I look like to you?! Of course ill be fine, go, ill come after you.”
Sonic nods as he proceeds to run to Tail’s house. “Stay strong Ames, we’re coming for you.”
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Eggman was humming as he was fixing the robots damaged in the attack, quiet footsteps approached him from behind.
Eggman grinned deviously.
“I’m unpredictable.” A soft voice behind him uttered.
“Perfectly so.”
“I’m emotional and I can’t contain my strength. I might cause a lot of collateral.”
“Ill handle it all. You wont have to worry about a thing.” Said Eggman taking off his gloves covered in black motor oil.
“I refuse to intentionally hurt anyone who doesn’t deserve it.” Eggman turns around to look at the little figure standing in front of him.
“Guessed so, show me your thorns kid and I’ll show you hands ready to bleed.” He extended his hand for her to shake.
Amy took it, trying not to squeeze too hard.
“Welcome to the family!”
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