Dark Sonic Forces

Ch. 5

By: Cutegirlmayra. (So my writer friend, JuniorBLD, was telling me that if I want to get out of stress, I needed to write something that wasn't stressful. I've been doing Tumblr prompts and Commissions for a long time now, I haven't been able to work on my own fanfiction... but that's all about to change! Lol Second Breakfast? I'm ready to write Lunch!)

It was light as air, yet heavy as though a weighted rain cloud.

When he pulled her ear to slightly coax her to lying down by his side, kissing in a sweet lingering taste... it felt like nothing Amy had experienced in any daydream before.

When the first kiss broke, they stalled a moment to stare at one another, as though both unsure of their unsteady breathing... but as the dark fur began to seep back up through Sonic's skin, he gave it a slight, side-glare and took another breath, pulling Amy closer.

Her hands found their way up, cradling the gap between his back quills to allow him to drag her body under him and draw her nearer.

She wasn't sure what to do, or what was really happening within himself. She could only feel the sweetness of the moment grew more and more escalated with stronger, rougher kisses as he pushed into her mouth and seemed to explore more ways to drown out the darkness that still threatened to numb him.

However... was he unaware that no such darkness or impulse to push anything down was in Amy?

There was only love driving her to learn how to show it, but Sonic was in a constant struggle within himself, knowing that Amy somehow gave him the desire to feel more than to be taken over. This meant that Sonic's push to feel something through her was much more intense than Amy was ready for. There wasn't much wooing... and the suddenness of it all left a slight tightness in her chest, though the kissing still gave her bubbles along the sides of her skin that flowed like a rapid, warm waterfall throughout her whole being.

The feeling would drown out her worries at times, but the feelings she gave Sonic literally beat down the dark entity howling and raging against her.

She tilted her head to give herself another breath; unsure why the first kisses were so sweet and shy, and then immediately felt desperate and aggravated—other than she knew he wanted an escape. It hurt her to think that was all this was,... but her thoughts scarcely remained straight.

When he seemed to notice her slight setback, fidgeting under him and seeming to resist his lunges as he attempted to gain more powerful feelings from their kissing, he frowned and turned to where Amy was the one on top, him on the bottom.

The shuffle was smooth as he lowered himself to his back and pulled her up to give her more control of the situation. He seemed to be considering her now, realizing the invading darkness shouldn't overwhelm him into forgetting what he was doing... and that Amy was just as much at risk of getting hurt as he was, too.

He smirked with a flare as though trying to keep the mood light and not catch her on to the painful struggle inside himself. "Easier?" It was like he was giving her the reigns all of a sudden.

His consideration made Amy pause to stare at him in absolute love. "Falling in love with you was never easy," she admitted, lowering back to his face, feeling the shaking of his body and wondering just how physically and emotionally exhausting it was to fight against this dark power within him. It was able to take his emotions, turn him numb to everything except power, and fueled him towards anger and hate. She didn't want to think of that, but it was hard not too. So she played the game right back, pretending to keep the mood by making things just as light as he wanted it all to seem. "You just always made it seem that way..."

He smiled and raised an eyebrow, wondering if she was really thinking herself smooth before kissing again.

The cliché actually worked for Sonic. He found it humorous but sincere, just how he liked it. The turn-on actually stopped the luring darkness from tempting Sonic to be numb again, using his fear of hurting Amy against him. Instead, Sonic filled his body with the light sensations and miniature explosions of joy mostly in his stomach and chest, resisting the darkness thanks to how Amy made him feel. Strong, charming... he felt like he was in his super form, but in a different way.

Amy was conflicted too, but not like Sonic's actual battle. Was this really love? Or was she just a means of release from the darkness? She couldn't tell, but she also didn't fully care. Something in her wanted to save him no matter what it took. For her, sacrifice was apart of love... but to sacrifice her own feelings,... to get this close to Sonic only to realize that it didn't mean he actually-...

She refused the thought. She refused the sorrowful doubt that crept into her mind about Sonic. She immediately gave in to giving him all her heart in this one, exquisite moment of fate.

Giving her the control was the right move on Sonic's part, she controlled how much was happening, and it made him less eager to please her and just focus on the sensations.

The darkness felt like it was truly being tortured inside him. He gave all power to the electric feelings and nothing to its shrieks and howls of protest.

Amy's hands gripped at his quills and sent what felt like a spike of electric current through him. He really did feel loved by her, but it also made him slightly uneasy. He didn't know how to replicate it and worried he wasn't doing enough.

However, it was hard to think of Amy too much, as he did feel a tinge of the vines lash from inside him, clearly trying to reach out from him and attack her.

Before, it had seemed to only want to bind her, but now...

As Sonic drew more strength to resist it through her, it also gained an equal desire to destroy the source that kept it at bay. Trapped. Suffocating.

The lash snapped him forward as he gripped Amy closer and dived deeper into their embrace, a passionate kiss she wasn't fully expecting as he let nature—less thought—

guide his following moves.

This was now a fight or flight, the pain from the darkness was matching the joy of being loved, and Sonic was having difficulty knowing how to fully return that sensation.

Or... was he just too uncertain to fully accept it in his heart?

When they flopped back on the gurney from that moment of Sonic leaning up and squishing them together, Amy had opened her eyes and placed her hands instinctively by his arms. It was a defensive move to push him away if necessary, but the sudden lunge's power subsided and they fell back with gravity as she was once again confused as to what this was.

Amy found herself coming back to reality, realizing now that his fingers were—ever so sneakily—slipping under the edged boundaries of her exposed back and gripping her more tightly in their hold.

It gave her a funny feeling, like fireflies zapping light sparks that felt inviting at his fingertips, lighting up her skin with heat as she hadn't expected the touch before.

Then she wondered... and that wondering made her pull back a moment.

"W-wait..."

What were Sonic's morals?

They had never talked about it...

She had always watched those talk shows' discuss waiting to give everything till he was really in love with you, and proved it with a ring and vow. That was before the war,... when such luxuries were still amusing to her. She had always told herself she would play coy, never really giving anything away. She wanted marriage, and if men were natural-born hunters, then she'd have to give them a game. She would joke about it, but now she wondered... She figured she would pull Sonic into a spiral of desire for her before finally letting him marry her, but that was a long time ago... when she thought about all these things.

She was amazed they haven't come back into her mind until recently...

But now,... she felt her eyes blink as the fear of the unknown crept into her heart.

It wasn't that this moment wasn't everything she had ever wanted, it was just a little sudden, and a little overwhelming now that it was all happening.

And... if she was honest with herself... she wished it would have been in better circumstances. Not like this... Where she was so uncertain about everything except her own feelings for him.

"S...Sonic," Her voice was full of sincere concern, catching Sonic off guard as he pulled away.

...What if he was just as scared? What if this wasn't even him, but the darkness forcing him to suppress it. Was she the only cure? Was that right? Though it filled her with being needed, she feared it wasn't what Sonic wanted.

What if... she wasn't what Sonic wanted?

He was so focused on the darkness inside of him that he hadn't actually been paying attention to anything he was doing.

For the last few seconds, he was just trying to focus on the emotions and not let the darkness take them away from him.

His face spoke volumes when he saw her broken expression. He was just as startled by her hands all shoved into his quills and making his three spikes split out into a million smaller strands, going every which way direction.

They had only been kissing for a short time, but in that moment, they really had quite an experience...

His heart cracked and his soul splintered when he realized he was flickering out her very essence, possibly condemning her to thoughts that weren't his intent.

He could see the uncertainty in her eyes and worried greatly that this was too much.

"...Don't overthink it, Amy." He lifted a hand up to her cheek, trying to console her.

The darkness completely choked once Sonic's eyes returned to their lime-green shine when his care for Amy's feelings took over his own want for freedom from its grasp.

She breathed, trying to catch up with herself. She could feel his chest too, rising and falling as his thoughts must have caught up to the present of what was actually happening as well.

Too much. Too fast.

Too desperate.

It wasn't right.

She nodded then, "O-...Okay." She looked ready to go again but Sonic was already out of the danger zone.

'I can't do this to her,' he thought, pulling away a moment as his true felt started to regain some control over himself. 'Amy doesn't deserve to be freaked out by me. I don't want to use her... I do want to feel this... but I could also hurt her without meaning too. I'm feeling better... but I'm also feeling worst.' He had cradled her heart and then set it back down. Kissed it but then returned it to the shelf. It pained him to think about it that way, but he couldn't entertain the thought of breaking her spirit towards him.

He was her hero. He shouldn't have to convince her to save him like this.

It wasn't something his pride would allow him to do.

So when she flung herself at his face, he reverted back to his old, awkward self.

"Emmph!" He was taken aback, ready to call it quits when she speedily tackled back into his face. His eyes scanned the room around them while she pushed into his lips and squished his head back against the bar of the gurney's back.

'Ow..!' he thought to himself, 'Shoot, shoot, shoot!' he squinted his eyes and tried to lean back, thinking he could subtly maneuver himself away from her and slip back, but with her being on top now, it was almost impossible for that to occur.

Plus, the ground was dirty... Amy might get mad if he tried to dodge out of her devoted displays of affection...

And he'd rather be kissing her lips than that hammer!

But then... what on earth was he doing before!?

It was too many thoughts that he didn't want to process right now. Or ever. The feelings before had died down to a simmer, and though Amy's kissing had surprisingly improved in effect over him, he fought to stay out of the passionate sensations. Refusing to yield to both her and the darkness, he began to lose hope of ever escaping the double-edged sword he had cast over himself... quite literally...

His eyes swirled and his face flushed with pink, 'Help!' he mentally cried out, not sure how to get out of this one now...

But she kept right on coming... and suddenly his eyes relaxed. Those lighting bugs... those electric little sparks that twisted around his veins and pulsed his heartbeat into desire again... The feelings took over his thoughts and his body slowly surrendered back to the comforting cushions of the bed below him.

'Let her have this.' He thought to himself, but smiled internally... 'And let me have this... let's just have some fun.' He thought back to what he had previously stated about not overthinking it, 'Just between us two... let's just keep this... a little longer.' He figured if it felt this good to be loved by Amy, he might as well sit back and enjoy it.

If she'd ask for an explanation, there was always the door!

He raised his arms from having crawled back away from her, and let them go limp by his sides.

Gently, they found their way to her waist and his head tilted to invite her in.

Now he was trying to disillusion himself. He clearly wanted to kiss her back, rejoin the emotions that once prevailed against his own foolish stubbornness, but kept telling himself it was all for her sake.

He wouldn't admit that he chose the feeling of being with Amy over the alluring numbness of nothing through the darkness. Though he was once kissing her and being angry at the darkness, filled with hate for himself and his circumstances, he was now just kissing her to thank her—adore her. He wouldn't speak these as thoughts or anything like unto it. He just felt it, but he would deny it the second someone may have tried to see or sense it.

His eyelids rolled to a lulling close and his lips tenderly sought her back, playing off his resistance as a tease to keep her coming back with more.

The kissing now wasn't as desperate as when he felt the lashing whips of the darkness trying to destroy the remaining will he had regained through Amy's help. It felt like it would never yield and keep its nagging hunger to eliminate the threat of light Amy sent soaring through his being.

It was a growing light now... not as powerful as before simply because Sonic wasn't encouraging it to be anything like that. Now... it was a gentle pull to be more. It was a light turn of his head to scale her face and cheek, feel the soft, individual quills grace by like heavenly silk against him. Limp, but present. Light, but meaningful. The entire atmosphere had changed from panicked survival through her kisses, to now embracing them as more than that. The pleasure of being more acquainted with this intimacy they both were experiencing for the first time. It was less threatening but peaceful. It was soft and invited more exploring and play, brought out a softer side to this exchange that Amy had deeply wanted, but was worried it wouldn't happen. Sonic seemed to take his time soaking in the emotions still stirring from his heart... Less force, more learning... Less urgency, more time...

Before, it was like a cry for help to save him. Now, it was a call to overlap these electrical currents, merge the lighting bugs, and slowly let a whole new world be forged between them.

Holding her lightly, he skimmed his hands up to her quills and drifted them towards him. He liked the touch, the prickled tips and slender strands sliding off him. He treated her now as though she was delicate, kissing her as if she would fade if he wasn't too careful.

It was honestly more than she could stand, trying to mimic him before he coaxed her to relax and enjoy it too. She was too anxious, still fueled with the energy of saving him, he tried to introduce her to a new fuel... each other.

He continued to softly stroke her quills towards him so her face wouldn't move so far back as their lips would part and touch again. Over and over... constantly seeking a balance of air and delight.

But then... as Sonic had just begun to find a spark of courage to continue this... newfound development... and keep this flow of naturalness and liking increasing into a rhythm between them that they could both enjoy together... a creak came from the door.

The coziness that had started settling in all but fled as Sonic's eyes flung open. It was like a thousand air horns were vibrating their sounds in his head and he acted almost out of instinct.

Amy, without any warning or forethought from Sonic at all... was flung into the air and flopped off of him, falling like dead weight onto the left side of the gurney—out of sight with a slight, "Woo-op!" and Thud!

Sonic had resumed a positively 'faking that I'm chill' position with his body turned towards the opening door, his super-fast reflexes taking his two—once limp arms—to holding up his head and the other arched up and gripping his side. Classic. One leg lifted up and the other rested down, a true—'I wasn't doing anything, you?'.

Amy lay on the cold, hospital-like floor with dust spraying out from her immediate tumble. '...What just happened?' she thought.

Her eyes shrunk as she looked around, wondering how a moment ago she was kissing the love of her life and the next? Ground. Dusty... hard... ew.

Her anger now spiked, but it was quickly defused by her confusion when hearing footsteps walk in and Sonic's nervous laughter above her.

"Haha, Shadow! Good to see ya!" His voice sounded as though a child caught in the act of reaching for a cookie but swiping his hand out and getting the lid back on, scooting the stool he used to get up to the jar out of his way, and placing his hands behind his back while looking to his parents as though playing it off like he didn't know what they were staring at.

Shadow studied the room... something in the air didn't quite feel right.

"You're too jolly..." He grumbled, throwing what looked like one of Infinite's deactivated cubes on the counter as though a pair of keys, walking in and folding his arms to Sonic. "Weren't you on a raging tantrum not too long ago?"

The cube startled Sonic. He immediately broke his fake, embarrassed smile and got up, fixated on it. "Why isn't it glowing red?" he asked, confused. "And why aren't you just getting straight to the point?" He raised an eyebrow at Shadow, but there was clearly some ulterior motive for his question.

Infinite... He still had something to settle with him...

Shadow grinned, "I'll admit, I missed your smug little act." He closed his eyes, but there was something offsetting about Shadow in 'missing him' that rubbed Sonic the wrong way.

"But I'm honestly more curious as to how you broke out of your fit so early." Shadow raised his head up, opening his eyes with a haughty look to them. "...Wasn't Amy just in here moments before..?"

Sonic tensed, raising himself up a bit on the gurney and folding his arms and legs Indian-style, looking away with a pout. "Why's the cube not glowing..." he muttered, which only made Shadow shake his head.

"Suppose I was right. You do have a soft spot for the girl." He looked to the cube. "Even Tails couldn't get you to act civilly..."

"What do you want, Shadow?" Sonic threw an annoyed tone out, not wanting to continue on this any longer. He did feel bad, but it was Amy that brought about the will to fight for emotions he had once tossed aside. Tails wouldn't complain... Somewhere in Sonic's heart, he knew the little tike understood his repressed awareness of her charms.

"I want the hero of this world back." He gave Sonic a death glare out of the corner of his eye. "This cube was impersonating Infinite... but I found a way to hack its warping properties and stumbled upon a reality that Infinite creates within himself... Within-"

"The Phantom Ruby." Sonic's eyes continued to stare at the cube, a seriousness settling in.

Amy wondered, holding her hands up by her chest and breathing softly as to not be noticed. 'What is he thinking..? I'm glad he's not being triggered by the mention of Infinite... but doesn't he want to fight Infinite and avenge himself? Ooohhh... he better not do anything recklessly again!' She puffed up the side of her cheek, blushing in her loving worry of him.

"...Yes." Shadow picked up the cube and held it up to Sonic. "...Would you like to truly end this war? Fight in a reality where what's false can kill you..? What's really not there... can throw a punch?"

Sonic looked intrigued, leaning towards the cube as though fascinated by what Shadow was saying.

But Amy could see the tip of his shoe lowering to the floor, and in a panic that he would take the bait and run from the rebellion and his friends again, she summoned her hammer and bonked the bulge under the gurney where his butt must have sat.

"Ah..!" Sonic jumped a little in his seat and quickly glanced behind him with his eyes. 'Shoot... She'll kill me if I just leave now.' He sweatdropped, remembering he had to deal with that first...

"What was that?" Shadow looked around, his eyes skimming the surface of the ground, not sure where the thumping sound of muffled pounding came from...

Sonic nervously chuckled and shrugged, "If you need a hero looking to get square with Infinite, then I'm your hedgehog!" he nervously patted the end of the gurney's side behind him, as though gently trying to tell Amy to calm down below.

Luckily, Amy was well hidden behind the machines that were located directly beside Sonic's gurney, but also not wide, thick, or tall enough to obscure Sonic's launch of Amy's frazzled body over them.

"...Then,... Good." Shadow slowly nodded his head, still wary of the noise and looking around. "I've lured Eggman to a convenient location. Infinite will most likely target you. We can use that to activate our own version of the Phantom realm. We'll distort his own reality and make him a mortal mammal again." Shadow withdrew the cube back into his custody and headed out the door.

"Meet me near the exposed grounds near where Angel Island once stood above the waters... they're just sand heaps now, but Eggman's been building over them. Don't be late." With that, Shadow was gone...

Sonic withdrew a bit of his body down and away from Shadow's harsh, condensing glare as the door finally closed and he flipped around to peer down at Amy.

She was ticked.

But in a cute way.

Sonic let a bead of sweat streak down from the side of his head again, trying to muster a smile for her. "Ehh... Whoops?"

Though her blushing, angry pout was rather adorable, irresistible to Sonic even if she decided to maybe kiss him again... she covered her face and couldn't help but curl a little up in glee.

"Uhh... Thanks for keeping the darkness completely at bay, Amy!" He gave her a shaky thumbs-up before ducking to peek over the side of the gurney with only half his face showing.

She burst with a loud cry, "You're leaving! Again!" she kicked her legs out, fighting the impulse to strangle him and whack him upside the head. "And worse than that, I feel like I've been thrown off by the wind into the dust!"

His ears bent down, "Yyyeeahhh... S-sorry about that..." he nervously chuckled.

His body suddenly spiked in panic as he immediately jumped off the bed, her hammer slamming into the gurney, denting the once heavenly place... where they shared their first real adventure together...

"Did any of that mean anything to you!?"

"S-sure it did, Amy! I already said it did..."

He gulped.

"B-before... we... um... y-you know..."

"Made out?"

She put her hand to her hip, swishing her head around as if not taking any more of his crap.

Her quills... how alluring now. It was as though her entire figure had been pronounced to his eyes now.

He knew how they felt, the pathways to grip her closer to him, the bend of her arms and curve of her torso...

He stared a minute, she was beautiful in a completely new light.

He couldn't help but smile and lower his eyelids a bit, realizing how much had grown between them in such a short time... a small exchange that would change history.

But a rebel is still a rebel, and he looked back up to her eyes, shining with the idea that her lover couldn't possibly depart without her loyally following beside him into the fray of hardships and strife.

"I'd like to think of it more as..." He rubbed his chin, 'Dang, Amy... I kissed that?' he joked in his head, 'When did you grow up?' before looking towards the door. "Umm..."

"Don't you even think about it," She protested, a foot stomping down in front of her, ready to dash after him, refusing to let him leave.

He grew a bit uncomfortable, giving her a typical look of—Count to three!

"Sonic The Hedge-!" before she could finish her sentence, he had already bowed with his hands pressed firmly together in a pathetic apology—1. Then lifted a leg up—2. And speedily, as though running for his life, raced out the door.

"...Hog." She gripped her heart—3...

Lowering her hammer down as it poofed from existence, she sorrowfully stared at the door as it slowly swung back from the lingering force of his exit.

"...You're going to get yourself hurt... or worse." She closed her mind at the painful memory of hearing Sonic had failed, that he was missing, or dead...

That awful memory quaked her whole being, causing her mind to shiver from the loneliness it once had to endure but sung to her heart to soften her anger as she shook her head with tears.

"Don't you dare... Don't you dare leave without me again!" She bolted for the door, "Sonic!"

The door was swung open again, a large whack slammed against the wall beside it with its hinges creaking at yet another careless exit.

A small Classic Sonic stopped in his tracks.

He was the first face she saw stepping out. Half her body leaned out the door before she collapsed to her knees, her hands slipping from the side of the door's frame in her descent.

"Why are you so..!? So..!? Difficult!" she hollered, directly in his face as he blinked his eyes, completely unaware of what was happening. "I give you my heart and you just... you should learn to accept your feelings, already!" She jumped over him and took off, a woman on a mission as Classic continued to blink his eyes.

He slowly shifted himself to her fading form, racing through the pavilion towards a corner and sharply turning... Then he opened his mouth and closed it, shook his head as though reminding himself that she was crazy, and continued at his usual blur pace towards his next mission assignment.

The bumps from the ground rocked Amy in her hiding place, holding a miles-electric pad and having headphones in the cramped area to listen in on the communication channels. It wasn't looking good... everyone was suffering a lot, but Classic Sonic and a newly restored Sonic gave faith to the rebellion that all was going to shift. And shift it did.

Sonic had stated he had rested enough, was ready for action, and Amy was glad to hear his voice so full of the confidence she had long missed from before.

Battle after battle, zone after zone, more and more territory was being taken away from Eggman again.

But the thought still persisted... what about Sonic's darkness?

It had been quite a while since Amy snuck into Knuckles's tank division, hoping they were heading to the sand dunes. She was quite over any surprise when Knuckles finally did lift the chest-like box open to see her staring up at him as if saying—"'Bout time." And heard his hollered opinions about why she shouldn't be here.

"You've got to be kidding me!" He lifted her out by the scruff of her dress, dangling her as she instinctively lifted her legs up and pulled in her hands to grip the miles-electric. Again, she didn't look surprised by his actions, just waiting for them to settle down and let him go through the motions of scolding her.

Enraged, he continued, "Not once, Amy, but twice! You've snuck onto the battlefield and dared disobey a direct order!"

She had her eyelids lowered, unamused by his antics, and turned the miles-electric over to reveal she was still doing her job...

"Ah... wha... That's not-... Grr..!" He was left speechless at seeing she was still on-duty, so to speak, but then shook her up a bit as he pulled her face in towards himself. "You're still not allowed out here!"

She stuck her tongue out at him.

He sighed, setting her down gently.

He shook his head and held his face in his mitten-gloved, "If I didn't know any better... I would have said you were nuts. But let's get this straight, Sonic?" He knew whatever this stunt was, it was because she cared deeply for the blue boy.

She smiled with great enthusiasm.

"On the field?" he almost moaned out, gripping the skin on his face and dragging it down with his conflicted sentiment.

She cooed, "So intuitive~"

After seeing her so unabashedly unaffected by his usual thrashing and shouting, Knuckles breathed out the last of his remaining rage, "Gahh... Fine. What do you plan on doing then?" he lifted a hand to grip the side bars above as the tank kept scaling over the rough terrain.

Amy's perfect balance kept her from doing the same, showing off slightly as Knuckles seemed to ignore the fact that she was purposefully not gripping any support. "Where's Sonic? People have stopped talking about him on the communication channels." She took the headphones out and held the miles-electric by her side.

"They're a good few miles from the Infinite Trap. I'm calling it-!" he held out his free hand, excited to mention this, "Brilliant Blast'em and Shoot'em Plan'!"

He rubbed his nose, "Pretty great, huh?"

"Em-hmm." Amy cutely smiled and nodded, though it was clear she didn't share the same fondness for the name. "I think I overheard Shadow saying something about that to Sonic."

Knuckles suddenly shook his head and gave Amy a double-blink stare. "That's impossible." He stated, "Shadow was racing around with Rouge to spy on Eggman. Infinite hasn't been located in quite a few days, so they were finding out if Eggman was doing anything more to enhance Infinite and his chances against Sonic."

Amy's heart failed to keep in beat with the bouncing tank. She heard the engine match the pace of her blood pulsing into a panic, "What about the cube?" she breathed out, barely able to speak. "The warped reality... where what's false is real and what isn't there can punch you?" she paraphrased Shadow's words, but Knuckles just gave her a dumbfounded look again.

"Tails said something about the cubes having another dimension. Sonic's discovered false images thanks to Shadow's intel we received awhile back. To my knowledge, Infinite's cubes, once touched, can send you to that other dimension. But even while not being in that dimension, you can still get pretty beat-up by Infinite's endless clones..."

As his body rocked with the tank's movement, Amy's whole core shook in distress.

Her eyes widened, "Clones..?" as the memory of the previous incident from a few days back ran like a horror film through her mind, she noticed small details about Shadow that didn't seem right. The uneasiness in the air... the strange dialogue...

She suddenly rushed to the soldier at the wheel of the large tank, pushing him out of the way and sitting in his chair, getting down and hitting some switches that moved the Tank at irregularly fast speeds.

It floored over the rocky terrain and headed straight for the sand dunes, bulldozing over any Eggman creation around it and even bumping the side of a loop-de-loop that collapsed slowly behind them in their wake.

"A-A-Amy!" Knuckles spoke with the bumps of the tank, having him and his soldiers bounce to the beat of the fast-moving armored combat vehicle.

"Wh-whe-wher-where are you-ou go-o-oing!?" Knuckles tried to move through the bumps, bouncing in jumbled scrambles as he moved through the tight space to her, reaching for the wheel. "Th-at-at's the wr-o-on-ong way!"

However, Amy saw his hand and glared at it, looking out to see through the projected screen that there was a significantly large mound of dirt and sand up ahead.

Skidding the rolling steel expertly across the sand, taking logic and physics into consideration, she hauled the tank over the mound to throw Knuckles back by the force. When the tank clattered and bounced back into a stable, straightened path, Amy gave it a newfound speed boost by kicking the tank into overdrive.

As the engine flared with fire, spooking the soldiers, Knuckles threw an arm up to block the heated light from his eyes and face, turning to Amy again with a warning. Now, under a much more rhythmic spacing of sandy hills, Knuckles could get a cohesive line out to her, "We!" He said over the first elongated jump, "Could!" the second, "Self!" the third, all the while Amy's eyes fixated in a deep concentration of anger towards the fallen Angel Island ruins. "De-!" She saw something hovering in the distance... an egg-like form...

Her eyes widened as her mind filled in the blank of what that shape meant, looking at it as her mouth opened a little into a small 'o' shape.

"Struct!"

She grinned an evil stare as a long stretch of land was between her and a conveniently placed strip of sand that extended upwards toward an angled, steep cut-off... perfect for trajectory launches...

The bumpy ride was over.

As Eggman's forces came upon Sonic, he stood confidently without struggle, racing around and circling with a spinning typhoon of his spin-dash attack, blasting them as they strayed too close to the powerful wind storm and were either hit or sucked in to explode from his homing strikes.

"You've fallen into my trap, Sonic." Eggman billowed out, but Infinite looked like he was about to say that.

Lowering his hand down and glaring back to Eggman, he floated just below him, "Let me handle this." He almost hissed in his pride, floating down to see the sand settle as Sonic stopped in his tracks, posed in an epic halt from his speed and slowly folded his arms with a grin.

The robots all dropped as sparking husks of iron and steel around him, malfunctioning and turning quickly to heaps of sand by the continuing spiral of the falling sand to a lull of hushed heaps. Nature's natural eraser.

"You're fighting as you always have," Infinite mocked, motioning him to come at him. "Cocky and persistent... as though unaware of your truly horrendous weakness..."

Sonic just smiled.

This made Infinite's eye twitch slightly, "What..?" Both him and Eggman seemed a bit confounded by his lax appearance.

Eggman called to Infinite, "Where is it!?" leaning over his egg-mobile as Infinite turned to see his shaking hand at him.

He returned to his condensing glare towards Sonic, a flick of his egoistical tail. "Calm and collected... what ruse is this? Don't you wish to finish me? Stop the war you allowed to get this far..?" he opened his arms to him, moving above into the skies.

The cubes formed everywhere, but Sonic just grinned, seeing how frazzled Infinite and Eggman looked at him.

"You're ploys to lure out whatever you implanted in me isn't going to work this time." He shook an energized finger out in front of him, "I won't be phased by your delusions. The biggest one being that you, Infinite, are somehow more powerful than me!"

Infinite lunged forward but Eggman flew up in his path, "Wait..! He knows..." Eggman glared down towards Sonic, being much more careful now.

"You know what harbors within you?" Eggman raised his carved and protruding eyebrow up a moment.

There was a stillness... as Sonic smirked.

"...He doesn't know." Eggman concluded, moving up to allow Infinite to combat him.

Infinite rose up a clawed hand behind him, shooting like an arrow through the sky towards Sonic as he felt the lapping desert air against his feet.

He looked down...

'Amy... I may not know what this thing is... but I do know how to combat it.'

He closed his eyes, hearing the familiar whistle of Infinite's fast approaching body.

The swipe of his claw reaching for Sonic's face.

Sonic thought of her cute, angry face with her puffed-up cheek on the side. Then, embarrassingly covering her face in glee at having spent an unforgettable batch of time kissing him and being kissed in a returned affection back.

"Heh!" he chuckled, blushing himself at the memory as he suddenly vanished from sight.

"What!?" Infinite halted in air, looking around.

Sonic's form came back into view, grabbing Infinite's tail and yanking it down to the ground, "Yonk!"

"Grahh!" Infinite was flung to the sand.

"How can this be..!?" Eggman gripped his head, "No... there must be an explanation... he was uncontrollably in rage and inconsolable the last time we fought him!" Eggman bit his nails, thinking...

"Sonic! Yoo-hoo! Over here!" Eggman waved his hands about, distracting Sonic as he gave him a playful stare, smiling towards him.

"What will your friends think of you? Abandoning them to suffer like this so long!" Eggman grinned.

Sonic raised an eyebrow, seeing Infinite below him throw a punch and he expertly dodged by arching his back, seeing more fully Infinite's glove design. "P'ew! What horrid fashion sense. Did you choose the emo life or did Shadow give you a tip or two?" Sonic spat out a snarky statement. "Cringey, to say the least. Considering you smell of a depressed mood!" He raced away as Infinite followed him, infuriated as Eggman's mustache drooped down.

"He ignored me." He sorrowfully stated. "He didn't even quip back to me. He honestly didn't even consider my feelings on that one."

As he talked through the pain, Infinite and Sonic raced and battled.

"You're nothing, Sonic!" Infinite threw out his cubes, clones flying out at Sonic as he dodged them. They rolled, lifeless, against the sand as they moved at lightning speeds.

Sonic just stared up at him, loving how much they were trying.

"You can't save them, Sonic! You're useless! A weak, pathetic little insect!" Infinite bent forward, but Sonic spin-dashed into his stomach and brought him to the ground. His quills spiked and ground against the Phantom Ruby, pushing Infinite down as he struggled to fight him off.

"Hur-aah!" Infinite flung Sonic off of him and did manage to uncurl Sonic, flinging a claw into the ball and ripping Sonic to open into his normal state, snapping his claw out. "Why aren't you shifting?! Where is it!?" He pierced the ground by Sonic, but Sonic managed to crawl backwards, having the claw stab into the ground between his legs.

"Woah," Sonic stated, looking up with a goofy grin to Infinite. "That's personal." He jumped up and kicked Infinite in the face, causing him to stumble back as Sonic back-flipped with the effort and landed in a squat on the sandy ground. "And honestly, you need to be a higher leveled villain to unlock my redemption story."

"Gahh!" Infinite shook himself off from the impact, spreading his arms out wide, "I've had it with this! I'll just rip it out of you!" He charged Sonic, and they continued to fight as Eggman hovered above the two.

"Hmm... Maybe... Hey! Hey, Sonic! You may have taken back some of my land, but I'm still ruling an empire! You can't escape your doomed fate this time!" he laughed, putting on a show as Sonic was punched down by Infinite.

He shook his head and managed to dodge Infinite's oncoming foot-stomp.

He then sped off a distance and tapped his shoe, looking like he was having fun. "Is that all you two got?" Infinite rammed into him.

They tumbled against the sand a minute before disappearing into the warped reality. There was a wall of distortion, but Infinite was kicked out the other side as Sonic sped out with a knee up, ramming it under his chin and spending Infinite even farther.

He dusted off his hands, rubbed his knee and jogged in place.

Then Sonic looked to Eggman, stretching casually, as though this was another walk in the park...

"Words? What's wrong, Eggman?" He rotated his shoulder out, just warming up again as Infinite shook his head and gripped his mask, adjusting it as he got back up.

"Impossible..." Infinite began, "Where did he gain so much self-control in such a limited time?"

Eggman ground his teeth together, pounding his fists on his egg-mobile. "No, no, no! You're supposed to be fidgeting as your losing all consciousness over your physical self!"

"Me and my friends busted so much metal hide that you're finding it hard to recycle the scraps these days, Eggy?" Sonic looked to Infinite who charged him, but as he was moving, Sonic lured him towards a sand heap that Infinite tripped over while hovering over the sand. Most of the sand would loop into a crescent and let Infinite's aerodynamic body shoot right through; however, this time Sonic laughed and kicked the sand pile, revealing a previous robot that he had beaten just a few minutes before, "Your works are already disappearing to the sands of time, Eggman!" Sonic opened up his arms, mocking him bluntly. "And just like your old, metallic army..." He pointed straight at Eggman in the sky, "Your evil deeds done this day will be lost to history... No one will remember the fear or pain, damage, and loss you've put them through. Not while I'm still here."

As he lowered the finger, he took a deep breath, closing his eyes and thinking of Amy again.

The darkness tried to entice him with a lull of emptiness against Eggman and Infinite, but when that didn't work, a sharp rage that threatened to consume him in the doubt that he would fail to save the world again from Eggman.

The hero they deserved... was not the man the darkness made him to be.

Amy knew that... She reminded him of that... taught him the same lessons he lived by time and time again.

He may have lost himself, but emerging from the sands, he had risen to accept that man she saw in her eyes... and not to disappoint her again.

That image of them on the gurney... entangling after the darkness had finally fled back into the compounds of himself, allowing him to grow close to her without the need to break free of anything. A kiss that he could never be angry at, from someone who truly cared about him... it lingered in his heart and kept him stable. Sane. Enlightened.

He didn't surrender his will to it this time, letting the sensations of his memory strangle it into submission. He just tugged on his gloves and looked back to Eggman, confident and cool, the man he wanted to be.

He wouldn't lose that again.

He tapped his foot back behind him to make sure the tip of his foot touched the top of his shoes, making sure they were secure, though covered in sand.

Maybe that meant Amy would wash them again for him...

Maybe that meant he would be without clothes in her room again...

Maybe he should stop thinking about this and stick to the program...

He frowned, tilting his head as though that train of thought wasn't closure with him quite yet.

"Any last words, Egghead?" He was gonna keep on running.

"Grrr... How!?" Eggman hollered in defiance. "When did you become so assured!?"

Infinite rose then, flying up by Eggman, "I'll show you who you truly are..." he rammed into him, Sonic struggling and fighting him as they both re-entered the phantom realm.

Hurling Sonic towards the platform and cracking him against a floating piece of earth, Sonic falls to the runway of the realm and picks himself up. "That all you got?" Sonic smiled up to him, but it was clear that one had hurt a bit.

"Let me remind you of our time on the moon..." Infinite shot out some lasers and pillars of burning rays.

It wasn't long before Sonic was greatly overwhelmed by Infinite's control over the power of this realm. Weakened and seeming beat, scraped up from the underside of Infinite's foot, Sonic was now being lifted up by Infinite's claw.

Infinite scooped him up as the steel from the floor below Sonic left the feeling from his quills as the darkness once again lured Sonic into releasing it out.

"I've defeated you again... Sonic." Infinite's eye sharpened into a crossed-slash as he tightened his hold upon Sonic's neck.

"Gah...ah..." Sonic struggled for air, his feet slightly dangling.

"Only your darkness was a match for me... Whahaha!" Infinite's laughed carried, as though through all eternity in this realm.

Sonic gripped the arm, but couldn't kick. His body was stiffening by the large Infinite duplicate that loomed over him like a stretched out Chaos, gripping him in his claws and hoisting him up.

"No, wait-! Ahh!" Sonic was flung into the road, crashing through it.

His head wagged as though momentarily passed out from the impact, but his eyes slowly blinked open and he shook his head, looking to the large Infinite. "You must be the older brother... heh." He spoke weakly out, "Your arrogant dumbness seems to run in the family..."

"Enough." Infinite flew up and whacked Sonic across the face with the backend of his hand, sending Sonic out of the claw and all the way back to the runway, crashing down with his body bobbing along the ground.

His fingers twitched... "You and I remember the moon very differently..." He slowly got up to his knee, breathing heavily, trying to keep Amy's face in his mind.

The soles of his feet began to betray him, sliding against the plane beneath him and finally giving way, forcing Sonic to his knees and holding him up by his hands.

Infinite descended behind him, still laughing, but quieter now...

He folded his arms, "You should be killed just for your insolence... You can't even accept your own demise... You've been beaten yet again, Sonic... The ruin of your precious planet, the disappointment and hate from your precious friends... it'll all be made clear upon your pasting..." he held up a hand to him, powering up at the center of his palm another red ray...

Sonic looked behind him, shakily before being blasted by the ray.

The explosion sent him flying off the plane, but Infinite unfolded his hands and pivoted in the air, "Hmph." He flew down to grab him.

"What was given to you for a short, temporary time... will give me lasting power to erase all question that I—Infinite—am the true terror of the universe..!" He held Sonic's limp body up, holding back a claw to his rip into his chest... retrieving the substance implanted therein...

Sonic's head just dangled in front of him, his body looking like a rag doll.

"This is your true end-!" Infinite lifted Sonic up above him, "Sonic!"

Then a weak smile.

"What..?!" Infinite's eye shakes.

Sonic peeks up a tried eyelid, showing off his cloud-white teeth. "Not even in your fake reality, Infinite." Sonic grabs the Phantom Ruby, "Dreams do come true, right?" He beamed, wishing for the power he needed...

"Noo..!" Infinite saw the Phantom Ruby glow upon his chest, looking down to see its power warp the reality around Sonic... "This can't be-!"

Sonic's body wasn't weighted in Infinite's grip anymore.

His body shone a dazzling shine of yellowish gold, the whole of the phantom realm brightened up to it as Sonic ascended up, then pulsed out with his arms next to him a powerful burst of light that sent Infinite cowering back, holding his arms up in front of him. "This can't be happening!"

"Time to face your worst fears, Infinite!" Sonic threw a fist down, "Your own weakness!"

"Nooo!" Infinite was pummeled senselessly by a rapid, comet-like fire of scorching hot punches from Sonic's fist. An infinite round of continuous punches back until Sonic saw the expanse of the phantom realm come to a close, but not before he smashed Infinite's face headfirst into floating pieces of the runaway his other clone had created.

Once Infinite was out, he blasted a beam towards the clone, who was too slow to catch him now, and its face melted and it slowly reeled back, disappearing into cubes.

Sonic just smirked,... 'Bet you would have liked to see that... Amy.' He then flew out of the realm.

He looked at his hands, seeing he wasn't in his idealized super form anymore but felt his heart.

Yeah... Amy still made him feel like that super cool, awesome and heroic guy taking down the villain to save the world.

This time, he had to take down himself, and finally proved that the past is nothing compared to the present him he'll make today.

He tightened his fist and looked unshaken before Infinite's crumbling form.

His eye shook rapidly from place to place, shifting about in total terror.

He was paralyzed against a sand heap that slowly revealed itself to be an Eggman invention.

"Ah... No!" He moved away from the robot, "I won't end up like you... I can still fight!" He threw a hand towards Sonic, but he caught it.

"My feelings," Sonic began, 'For Amy...' he continued in his head, "Are purer than just raw power from numbness."

Infinite's hand trembled in Sonic's grasp.

Sonic held it there, intimidating the heck out of him.

"I've figured something out, Infinite... something... you'll never understand." He jammed the held fist into Infinite's shaking eye, causing him to reel back before Sonic pulled him back upright again.

His other hand covered his one eye.

"H-How-?!" Infinite finally spoke, his voice like a quiet tremor, breathy and unable to fight back or lie about his current state. He was helpless before Sonic. "I took everything from you! Your pride, your friends, your power!" he was slowly falling to his knees, unable to even stand anymore, caught up in his fear. "You were weak..." he shook his head, "Afraid!"

Sonic just stared down at him, little mercy, but lots of justice.

He didn't let go of him... "I didn't accept my feelings of disappointing everyone, my friends." He began, "Or not feeling good enough." His grip on Infinite's fist, now loosening to a quivering hand, tightened.

He wasn't letting him get away this time...

"But my friends always believed in me..."

Amy's constant companionship, her undying dedication when rushing into the battle to find him.

"And some... never gave up on finding a way to reach me."

"I'm yelling cause your yelling!" Her sweet, nervous laugh. A peck on the check. Her eager face to serve him breakfast. Her blush at closing the door and acting like she hadn't thought about the implications of him being naked in her room. The cologne and her tight embrace. His shiny shoe buckles...

He looked down now with sincerity to Infinite's terrified face, seeing Sonic now as a pillar of undying strength. "I can never be weak, Infinite. Not when my friends, their hope, dwells within my very soul!"

With a true roundhouse kick, Sonic sent Infinite flying back. He hit the ground a few times, his head motioning left a moment before falling limp to the right.

"My plans!" Eggman gripped his head, "Ruined!" he sobbed almost comically...

Then began to laugh manically as he pulled out a remote of some kind.

"But not entirely... heh-heh-heh... huh?" Eggman was about to push the button, making Sonic step out to a wider stance in preparation for whatever was about to happen, looking startled by that declaration before...

They both heard... just like the sound of the X-Tornado, an engine in the distance...

"Hmm?" Eggman turns around. "WHAHAHAHAHAAA-HOW DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING!" he bolts his egg-mobile forward, freaking out as a full-on military tank leaps and scales through the sky after riding along a huge, angled rock cliff disguised by the sandy terrain and comes crashing down towards Eggman.

Eggman manages to dodge the oncoming deathtrap but grabs at his chest, heaving and huffing at his old heart giving way to the jump-scare... literally again!

The tank sinks into the sand, and Sonic's ear flicks to hear Knuckles's blasting voice through the top of the tank as the whole thing begins to steam and power down.

"YOU BROKE MY BATTLE PLAN!" Clearly, Knuckles was so upset and filled with unquenchable wrath, that he combined the sentences—"You crashed my tank!" with "You ruined my battle plan!".

The tank catches slightly on fire from the back, as the whole of the crew begins to pile out in scrambled fright from the single holed exit lid they popped off immediately.

Vaguely, a pink head begins to wiggle herself out of from the lid, flipping her hair up and jumping determinedly to the ground. She stands boldly at the front of the tank, her arms having been just placed confidently at her hips before she stumbles forward from the blast of the engine, the entire tank blowing up in flames.

"MY HEAVY ARTILLERY!" Knuckles throws his arms up, "It took 8 MONTHS to build that thing!"

Amy pushed her hair back, looking through the part of her arms at Knuckles in an innocent look of, 'I didn't mean too' and then tried to regain her poise from before.

She dusted herself off and walked up to Sonic, trying to accentuate her hips in her steps.

She then stopped in front of Sonic, checks herself over, peeks to see his fixated reaction, and then poses again. "Miss me?" in a deep, drawled, luscious voice... she clearly tries to make herself look and sound like the hot action chick in any adventure movie.

She puffs a flying quill out of her face, but it continues to drift with the sandy breeze over her face.

Losing her completed scene, she fiddles with her hair and then her bangs start to do the same thing.

She ruffles her hands in her face and then turns her head to the side, avoiding the problem. She winks to keep the sand out of her eye now turned to the wind but plays it off as a cute, spunky flirt to him. "I'm gonna need a ride."

Sonic, with a big smile on his face, suddenly shifts into character and lifts a leg up, leaning towards her with his hands together, blinking as though swooning and falling for her. "I do believe you already have one." He then offers her his arms.

She's amazed at first by his response, but then her face slowly turns to excitement and she darts into his arms, jumping and wrapping her legs around his waist, hugging him with absolute admiration and love.

"Emm..! I just knew you'd give in someday, Sonic The Hedgehog!"

Peeking up at her, he smiles wider and closes his eyes, taking her in...

Eggman, noticing a shift in their usual dynamic, suddenly pulls his egg-mobile closer in curiosity. "What..." He lifts a hand up, twiddling its fingers for a moment by his chin. "Is this..?"

He looks to a flashing light on his monitors, seeing Sonic's dark energy dissipate as she came nearer to him.

His intelligent brain begins to speak to each individually genius brain cells, and soon, he connects the idea that Amy has something to do with the dark entity's inability to consume Sonic's will.

He looks again, noticing Sonic's reaction to Amy's usual, doting antics were this time reciprocated in a much more... friendlier... way.

Thankfully, he wasn't around for Sonic's speech, or that may have given too much away...

Eggman flies over to Infinite, grabbing him quickly and sparking two car battery charger prongs together, "This isn't the end for you." He electrocutes him awake. "I still have an ace up my sleeve..."

Eggman lifts Infinite up, shaking him, "Now you listen to me! No matter how ridiculous this may sound!" Eggman takes his face and shoves it in the direction of the two. "You get that dark substance out of him and implant it in the Phantom Ruby..." He then squeezed on Infinite's face, "And now tell me, not what you see... but what you feel?"

Infinite's eye began to calculate with its half-roboticized form the dark substance matching a similar ring on his scans to his own power... but then...

He looked to Amy, who's natural power seemed to counteract the dark substance. It seems to reach out for her, but as she giddily praised and doted on Sonic, his face lighting up to her, the dark substance thrashed and was withdraw back into itself.

"Oh... Her."

His head rose, the shaking of his fearful eye all but shook still.

Eggman grinned mercilessly.

"Yes." He agreed.

"Never thought I'd say this...But,"

He shrugged,

"Heeeerrrr."

His voice turned husky in a raspy hiss as he growled out her name upon the sand-littered winds that rushed by them.