This is pretty much a re-make of my old story 'Shining Emeralds'. I've tidied up the storyline seen as the other one wasn't going anywhere and I took this one in a slightly new direction. So I hope you like it.

Rated T for some mild language, violence and for darker tones later on.

I own nothing! All the characters are owned by SEGA and no copyright infringement is intended. No money is being made out of this; I'm just writing this for fun.

~ PROJECT DARKNESS ~

1: You're Such a Nuisance

"Attention citizens of Station Square! You are now under my rule and this will become the capital of the new Eggman Empire. Your only options are to surrender or die!" Doctor Eggman cackled into the microphone of his mech overlooking the large city as his Egg Pawns marched in, terrifying the people below.

"You just don't give in do you Egghead?" A familiar cocky voice yelled from the top of a huge skyscraper. The blue hedgehog smirked as he folded his arms over his chest with the sunset behind him giving the appearance of a halo around his head. The sound of a plane could be heard before the Tornado zoomed across the sky, carrying Sonic's friends as they came to his aid.

Eggman groaned. "I should've known it wouldn't have taken long for you to show up."

"Well, I am the fastest thing alive." Sonic boasted, uncrossing his arms to place his hands on his hips sassily, angling his face into the evening breeze, making his quills blow back dramatically.

"Are you sure you're not all talk Sonic?" Eggman taunted. "These new robots have been especially upgraded to resist your attacks from data I have taken from our previous battle. Call it a little gift from me to you."

"A little present just for me? You really shouldn't have Eggman. I'm gunna cry." Sonic sniffed and pretended to wipe a tear away. "Ok then, let's see what they've got."

Sonic leaped off the top of the skyscraper, jumping from building to building as he ran down to the ground where the army of Egg Pawns were waiting. They clearly looked more heavily armoured, but rather than feel threatened, Sonic couldn't wait for the challenge.

Eggman watched from high above, quickly pulling out his notepad and pen and began writing in shorthand the events in front of him. His eyes moved quickly from Sonic to the notebook and back again with the sound of an engine fast approaching him.

"Whoa!" Eggman gasped as he pulled back just in time for the Tornado to fly straight past him. "Honestly some drivers nowadays." He angrily shook his fist at the plane carrying Sonic's little squad.

Amy Rose glared down at the robots that Sonic was effortlessly tearing through despite Eggman boasting about how much he'd upgraded them. The blue blur didn't even look like he was breaking a sweat, but still he was grossly outnumbered and Amy wanted to get down there and protect him at all costs.

The pink hedgehog curled her fingers tighter around the wing of the plane, waiting for Tails' signal with anticipation. The wind whipped through her quills, stinging her eyes slightly as Tails dipped the plane around, ready for them all to jump off.

"Ready, GO!" Tails yelled over the roar of the engine and Amy didn't need telling twice.

She quickly let go of the wing and let gravity do the rest, reaching out to summon her trusty hammer before landing gracefully on the concrete ground. A few robots directed their attention towards her and instantly had her surrounded. Knuckles the Echidna smashed down next to her, slamming his powerful fists into the ground causing huge cracks.

"You wanna piece of this!" Knuckles swung forward, easily taking them out and Amy joined in, smashing her way through robots in order to get closer to her blue hero. No mere Eggman robots were going to keep them apart.

Sonic just realised there was a robot sneaking up behind him as Amy's large red hammer knocked it to one side where it smashed through the glass of an apartment building.

"Thanks Amy." Sonic smiled before running down the street causing Amy's heart to flutter. She'd managed to impress him slightly, if she could keep this up then maybe he'd finally start taking more notice of her. Her plan appeared to be finally working.

Chasing the blue hedgehog down the street, they both skidded to a halt when they saw Eggman hovering above them, yawning.

Sonic smirked up at him. "Tired of making robots that I can always defeat no matter what?"

"You wish." Eggman grunted in annoyance.

"Bah! Some updated robots they were. Piece of cake."

Eggman just smiled innocently. "Oh you thought I meant those robots? No, I meant this one." The mad scientist pressed a button in his mech and the ground began to vibrate. Sonic and Amy both stared at each other, Amy looked worried whilst Sonic seemed unfazed before they both turned towards the source of the sudden crashing noises coming from behind a large restaurant.

A ten foot tall, heavily armoured red robot charged around the corner, trampling on cars with its large metal feet causing alarms to go off and for broken pieces of glass and metal to go flying in all directions.

"A new toy to play with just for me." Sonic chuckled as he crouched into a fighting stance. "Let's see what this pile of scrap metal can do."

"Oh I'd be careful if I were you Sonic. The Egg Alpha was designed to be specifically undefeatable by you. You remember I told you about the data I stole from you? Well guess what I used it on." Eggman grinned mischievously.

Amy's green eyes lit up. This was it. This was her chance to impress him.

"Yeah well, you didn't put my data into it did you? Don't worry Sonic, I've got this." Amy laughed as she charged towards the large robot, hammer held high the air as she let out a battle shriek.

"Amy wait!" Sonic pleaded as his pink friend ran forward, noticing the huge fatal flaw in Amy's logic.

Amy leaped into the air, ready to hit the robot head on, but with one easy flick of its giant hand, it knocked her across the street. Her body slammed into a building, breaking through the glass of some offices where a few hiding civilians screamed in terror. Amy's arm erupted into incredible pain and she felt some blood trickle down her nose, staining the white collar of her dress as she tried to massage the pain out of the right side of her body where the robot had hit her.

"AMY!" Sonic cried out before growling lowly and curling into a spin dash all while Eggman continued to make notes. Sonic briefly wondered what the crazy doctor was writing that kept him so occupied, but he didn't have time to worry about that now. He needed this fight to be over quickly before anyone else got hurt.

He dashed towards the robot in a blue blur, but simply bounced off the thick metallic armour; luckily Sonic managed to land back on his feet.

Amy managed to pick herself back up and, ignoring the pain in her side, picked up her hammer and dived in front of Sonic, shielding him from the robot. She began swinging her hammer at it, but her hammer had no effect. In fact, it rarely even left a dent.

"Amy, just stop it and get out of the way." Sonic ordered, clenching his fists in frustration. Not this again. He appreciated Amy trying to help, but right now, she was just getting in the way.

"It's fine, I can do this." Amy said in a strained voice as she continued to swing her hammer.

If robots had emotions, this one would be bored out of its mind as it effortless flicked Amy off its body again, sending her crashing into Sonic.

"Oooof" Sonic grunted as the force of Amy's body colliding with his at high speed sent them both flying backwards. Sonic's back smashed against the concrete wall, leaving him feeling slightly winded.

Eggman just sat there and laughed. "I've seen all I need to see today." He said in a bored tone as he stopped laughing. "Come Egg Alpha, let's go. Some other time, Sonic the Hedgehog."

Eggman flew away with the Egg Alpha running after him.

Sonic frowned and roughly pushed Amy away from him before he stood up and brushed any debris out of his quills and fur. Amy groaned and rubbed the back of her aching head. Seeing the blood stain on Amy's white collar made Sonic clench his teeth and hiss in an unfamiliar emotion. This made his anger boil up at how Amy had almost gotten herself killed, causing Eggman to get away yet again.

Tails and Knuckles came running over with victorious smiles on their faces.

"Those robots weren't as tough as they looked." Knuckles smirked arrogantly.

"Indeed." Tails agreed as they fist bumped before turning to look at a dirt covered Sonic and Amy. Sonic especially was very sour looking as he tapped his foot impatiently.

"What happened to you guys?" Knuckles asked. "And where's Eggman."

"He got away." Sonic muttered impatiently through gritted teeth.

"What? How?" Tails gasped.

Sonic pointed at Amy who was just getting up off the floor. "Ask her."

"Hey!" Amy shrieked, offended. "I was only trying to help. Plus, can we focus on the fact that it was weird for Eggman to suddenly back away from a fight like that?"

"Uh, why does that matter? As far as I'm concerned, I lost a fight because of you getting in the way - again." Sonic could feel himself reaching the end of his tether with the pink hedgehog. He felt slightly guilty for talking to her like that, but it was true. If she hadn't gotten in the way he could've taken that robot down easily. He was tired of this happening and then it made him look bad and incompetent in front of everybody else.

Amy gasped. "I was only trying to protect you."

Sonic snorted as he folded his arms across his chest. "I don't need protection. You're always the one that needs protection. Constantly running into battles like that with little to no training. You can't always rely on that hammer and that's what gets you into so much trouble and then I have to be there to rescue you. I can't always do two things at once. That's why Eggman keeps getting away recently."

Tails and Knuckles watched awkwardly from the side-lines.

"Guys please – " Tails tried to reason before being interrupted.

"I highly doubt that it's one hundred percent my fault." Amy glared at her crush, both of the hedgehogs ignoring their friends.

"Yeah well this time it definitely was. I don't know what's gotten into you lately Amy, but you've been out of control and all over the place."

Amy bit her lip awkwardly. Sonic hadn't picked on up on her behaviour the way she hoped he would. She wanted him to be impressed with her more active involvement. She wanted to rescue him for once instead of it being the other way around. The need to be noticed by him in a positive way was unbearable as normally he just looked straight through her as if she wasn't there. Looks like her schemes to get him to notice her were backfiring badly. Now Sonic obviously deemed her weirder than ever before. Amy managed to bite back the tears that were threatening to form in her jade green eyes.

"Yeah well maybe it's the new me." Amy retaliated. "I'm not going to be the sweet damsel in distress forever; maybe I'm just growing up."

Sonic rolled his eyes. If that was Amy's goal then it sure wasn't working. The girl had messed up the last five battles with Eggman. Every time Amy just seemed to completely lose her mind in the fight and Eggman would always get away as a result. Then Sonic was the one getting blamed by the citizens who looked to him as their saviour and protector of their peace.

"Well you're doing a really good job then." Sonic said sarcastically, voicing his thoughts without thinking about what he was really saying. "You've ruined every previous fight and I've got the blame for it. You're such a nuisance and you always have been." Sonic finally snapped after bottling in all of his hurt pride for the past few weeks.

Amy gasped and took an automatic step back as if Sonic had slapped her across the face. Knuckles and Tails glared at Sonic for losing his temper like that. No matter what Amy did, they were all still friends and it wasn't like Amy did anything on purpose.

The pink hedgehog bit her lip as her sobs threatened to escape, but she managed to choke out, "Fine, if that's how you feel. I'll get out of your way then." She turned around and ran down the badly destroyed street and disappeared as she turned the corner.

"Smooth, Sonic." Knuckles muttered lowly. "Real smooth."

Sonic's frown dropped into an expression guilt as the reality of what he had said came crashing down on him. He didn't mean for it to come out that harshly, but what he said held some truth. Amy had done nothing but ruin things lately with her erratic behaviour.

"Yeah well, she'll get over it." Sonic sighed before running off in a blue blur to be alone with his thoughts.

After all, Amy always did get over things like this quickly. Right?

First chapter done. Feel free to let me know what you thought of it by leaving a review.