A/N: Sorry for the... 2 year delay. I just happened to be looking at this recently and realized it was pretty decent for something written when I was twelve, so I'll be finishing it, hopefully before the fourteenth. After it's (finally!) done, I'll bask around in happiness for a while, and maybe eventually get around to fixing it up and bringing it up to par with my current standards.

In any case, hey, anyone's who's been waiting this long, thanks for sticking with me. Hope you enjoy.

Love Struck

Part 6

Silver's heart beat frantically in his furry chest like a trapped hummingbird. He had no idea what on Mobius he could do to break Blaze's heart – and even if he did, the prospect of actually doing it was so very, very intimidating. He cringed inwardly at the fleeting, painful thought. All the years of being associates with the volatile purple cat had taught him the first rule when dealing with her: never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, purposely antagonize her.

The hedgehog recalled the two years previously at Christmastime when Sonic had talked him into baiting Blaze with a catnip mouse as a joke. She had responded as you might expect - it was quite the embarrassing situation for Silver, to have all his fur from the waist down completely burned away. And Sonic never let him live it down.

Blaze was watching him curiously, her head cocked slightly to the side. Her inquisitive golden gaze made Silver almost faint with nerves. If he refused to do this, everyone would know how much of a coward he is. But if he broke her heart, he'd be a goner for sure.

Okay. Okay. What's the worst that could happen anyway? Silver thought to himself.

The worst that could happen? He'd get roasted like a turkey. No big deal.

Yeah, right.

Silver heard Knuckles say something to Tails behind him. "He's not gonna do it! He's gonna chicken out."

A small wave of new determination tingled through Silver's veins. No one, no one at all would EVER be allowed to think of him as Silver the Chicken! Even though a lot of people already thought of him as Silver the Cockatoo, but that was a different matter of Bird Nicknames.

Just get it over with! Get it over with, and brace yourself for the pain! Maybe it wouldn't be that bad.

He took a shaky breath to calm himself. "B-Blaze?" he stuttered. The hedgehog subconsciously realized he was trembling like a... well, like a frightened hedgehog.

She looked up at him, bottled innocence shining in her eyes. "Yes, Silver?"

Just get it over with! he screamed inside his head, and it took all his effort not to scream it aloud. Even though if he did it might startle Blaze enough to break this trance, he thought that might give Knuckles a month's worth of joyous Silver-Teasing.

"I-I... I just w-wanted to t-tell you that..."

He faltered, his heart doing a tap-dance in his ribcage.

Blaze stepped even closer to him and took his hand in hers. "Tell me what?"

Silver became suddenly aware of the snickering behind him and Knuckles' particularly loud whisper of, "Is he going to break her heart or make out with her?"

Making a mental note to pound Knuckles into Red-Echidna-Pancakes, Silver said, slowly and trying not to sound tremulous, "I wanted to tell you that... I don't... like you... the same way you like me," he finished.

Blaze blinked in surprise, and then gave a small smile. "Oh, I see! You're making a joke. It's funny."

She gently reached out to caress her hand against his face, stroking his spikes lovingly. He closed his eyes, and felt like just getting lost, lost forever in the wonderful feeling of her touch. He didn't want to break her heart; he wanted to wrap his arms around her, to embrace her and never let go.

A deep despair blossomed in Silver's mind as he remembered, as much as he wanted to believe it, this Blaze was not Blaze at all. The real Blaze was hidden by a veil of lovesickness, and he knew that the only way to get her back was to...

He looked in her eyes, eyes driven by a lovesick mind. "No, I'm not joking. I don't feel the same way at all. I'm... sorry..."

Her expression changed to a puzzled confusion and then to a shocked sadness as tears welled in her eyes.

Dark crimson flames flickered on her fingers as she punched him in the stomach.

Silver gave an anguished yelp as his legs gave way beneath him and he fell painfully to the ground.

"Okay, maybe I deserved that..." he mumbled.

The befuddled lavender cat blinked her eyes once, twice. She felt like her mind had been clouded by a thick, dense fog that was just starting to fade. It was hard to remember anything at all from the past few hours. The only thing clear in her mind was a bitter rage at the silver hedgehog in front of her. She had no idea how or why, and not knowing only made her angrier. So, since he was already on the ground, she kicked him, very hard, where it would hurt the most. And I do not mean the face.

"Actually, I don't think I deserved that," Silver yelped, his voice unnaturally high, and it was not because of helium.

"S-Silver?" Blaze panted, her breathing rather ragged as her head began to clear. "I... I'm sorry, it..."

She appeared to be at a complete loss for words. Thinking hard, she began to recall the past few hours ordeal of trying to stop...

"Charmy," she said. "Where is he? Did we stop him? Are we-"

"Hey, just hold on!" said Knuckles. "Don't worry. I managed to capture him and single-handedly got the information of how to cure the victims!"

Amy crossed her arms. " 'Single-handedly?' "

"More or less."

Blaze closed her eyes, trying to hold on to the fleeting memories of what had been going on. The night was commencing, and a chilling wind rustling through the area helped her concentrate. "Heartbreak," she said. "I think I heard you talking about that. Is that important?"

"Think of it this way," said Tails. "It's about as important as the bat in the human sport baseball."

Knuckles grinned devilishly at him. "Speaking of bats..."

"Ha ha, real funny."

"All I meant was, you might be able to break Rouge's heart by threatening her with a bat. Heh-heh. Looks like you're up next, kiddo," Knuckles said with a grin. "One down, however-many-more-there-are-left to go!"

"Love arrow victims," said Blaze, "that's it, right? You're trying to cure them with... heartbreak?"

"That's it in a nutshell," said Tails. "It's getting late, though." The young fox's tails were fluffed up to keep out the chilling late-evening wind. "We don't have much time left until midnight, when the effect becomes permanent. We've helped you, and Cream already cured Marine. So we have Sonic, Espio, and Cream left."

Knuckles snickered. "You left out Rouge on purpose."

"That is completely true."

"Don't I get a say in this?" squeaked Charmy, who had been tied up by Tikal, since apparently restraining people doesn't go against being a pacifist.

Everyone ignored Charmy, and Tails insisted, "Why doesn't Blaze have to go next? I thought we were going in order of the people who got shot, so she would be next!"

"Blaze doesn't have to go next because she just got cured," Amy explained patiently, "and she's probably too tired and creeped out at the moment to break anyone's heart."

Tails glared at her. "That's not fair! Blaze is NOT too tired to break Sonic's heart!"

"Ouch!" Blaze said. "A sudden, shooting pain in my back! I must be too tired to break Sonic's heart!"

"You can be a real heck of a jerk sometimes," Tails huffed angrily.

While everyone was laughing Tikal led over a random batch of assorted lovesick victims. "I decided to bring over everyone now to save time. Oh, except I couldn't find Rouge, Tails. I'm not sure if that's supposed to be ominous or joyous."

"...oh, dear." Tails gulped.

"I'll... take that as ominous, then," said Tikal.

The fox shivered. Everything had seemed to become darker all of a sudden, and it seemed to have gotten considerably colder out. Or maybe it was just his active imagination playing tricks on him? How else could the entire world seem to become more menacing? Maybe the fact that the moon was nothing more that the slightest sliver of light tonight. Or maybe the fact that it had been quite a cold winter this year and the nighttime was just highlighting that. Or maybe it was because a dark shadow was diving soundlessly toward him through the dark.

Tails had no time at all to register this new bit of information before he was tackled to the ground by a nearly invisible force. His first bewildered thought was that somehow Charmy had managed to shoot him with a love arrow and this must be what it felt like. A split second later, as he began to regain his senses, he realized in terror what was going on.

"R-R-Rouge..." Tails whimpered.

The bat pressed him against the ground in a nearly immobile, impossible-to-get-out-of position.

"Tails," she purred, "I believe I promised I'd come back for you..."

As terrified as he was, Tails couldn't help but feel something nagging in the back of his head. Just something... wrong. He knew that to state it out loud would be suicide. But Tails had always been one to have everything righted. He wasn't a perfectionist, per se, it's just that when he saw something wrong, he liked to correct it.

"A-actually," Tails stuttered, "you didn't."

Even in the near dark, Tails could almost feel Rouge's glare.

"Didn't what?" she said icily.

Don't say anything! Tails pleaded to himself. Just say it's nothing, nothing at all!

He couldn't stop himself.

"I-I... Y-you see," he said, "you d-didn't p-promise anyth-thing at all. Earlier today."

Even as he said it, Tails knew he was good as dead.

He couldn't help but envy Silver. All he had to deal with was a very touchy, very irascible cat. Big deal. Rouge was much, much worse then Blaze. More touchy. More irascible. And - he couldn't help but feel - much, much more dangerous with her feminine wiles.

And Tails didn't even have Cream to get him out of this mess.

"Tails?" Rouge said in an eerily calm tone of voice.

"...Y-yes?" Tails whimpered weakly.

"You're going to regret saying that."

The fox didn't respond, as he suddenly realized his vocal cords weren't functioning correctly.

"I'm going to put in a state of emotional and physical shock so bad you'll take years to recover... if it doesn't finish you off now."

Love is too complicated, Tails thought bitterly. Fixing a car? Easy. Dismantling a train's engine? Piece of cake. Completely rewiring a plane's internal harddrive? A nice challenge. Understanding love?

Tails decided that if he survived he'd have to stay single for the rest of his life.

By the sidelines, everyone else was too amazed to do anything but stand. Well, amazement was only part of the reason. They all got a certain satisfaction from knowing that (at least for the moment) it was Tails' moment of complete humiliation, and not theirs. Sure, in a couple of minutes it would be their turn to be humiliated in front of everyone else, but right now? It was Tails' Torture.

Silver, being the helpful friend he is (Adding to that fact, that he'd also gone through this) stepped forward to defend Tails, but Knuckles stuck his arm out.

"No... Don't," the echidna said, completely transfixed.

Tails, at the moment, would have been happy to accept help from anyone, from the argent hedgehog to the red echidna, or even his nemesis Dr. Eggman, as long as it got him out of this situation.

"P-please, Rouge!" stuttered Tails. "I-I didn't mean anything from it, I just-"

"Don't try to make up some excuse, Tails!" Rouge's tone was harsh and cut off the fox instantly. "You really deemed it prudent enough to correct me? And at this particular moment?"

Once again Tails spoke without thinking it through first. "Yes."

The second he said that, Tails covered his mouth. He was really tempted to say a "bad word" he learned from Knuckles, but luckily this time he thought it out before he said anything.

"Wow, you've reeaally dug yourself into a deep hole, dude," said Vector.

Tails most certainly agreed. Very deep, he thought.

To say Rouge was angered would be the understatement of the year. The bat had a tendency to be as narcissistic as they come - and being corrected by an ignorant little fox; more importantly, the ignorant little fox who was the subject of her magically-induced-infatuation, was a matter of utmost pride and dignity. So what if she hadn't actually said that earlier? She was just trying to make a point, and if this annoying, irritating, exasperating excuse for a canine was going to just ruin the whole effect like that...

Ah, the things we do for love, thought Rouge, stroking the fox's fuzzy chest.

Adrenaline was coursing through Tails' veins; instinct was telling him fleeing was the best option. But he couldn't run, and if he stayed any longer... he was terrified of what Rouge might do to him.

The thought of what might happen to him gave Tails a new determination. Was he just going to sit there and let all this happen to him? Of course not; he's Miles Prower! He'd done far more dangerous things than fight off this... actually, on second thought, getting on Rouge's bad side was pretty dangerous. But no, it wasn't enough to finish him off!

"Stop it, Rouge!" Tails yelled, the tone of his voice surprising everyone, including him. "Snap out of the stupid love arrow's trance! I'm eight, you freaking pedo! You know better than to molest an eight-year-old! So get the frick away from me!"

Stunned silence was abound. Silver whispered to Knuckles, "Where on Mobius did he learn that kind of language?"

Tails was shaking like a leaf, but he held his defiance and mustered an angered glare toward Rouge.

"Get. Off."

Astoundingly, the bat obliged. With a flick of her indigo wings, she was hovering several feet above him.

Tails shakily got to his feet. Only then did he realize just how cold it had gotten. He briefly wondered why he didn't notice before, and then decided not to ponder the fact.

"Thank you," he said, his voice as unwavering as his expression.

A small smile was tugging on her colored lips. "You know, I should be thanking you."

No words left to be said, Rouge flew away, silent as a bat.

Tails' amused grin was the only expression that deviated from the utter shock expressed the group.

"...What the hell just happened?" said Knuckles, summarizing everyone's thoughts relatively well.

"One more down," Tails said. His cryptic words answered Knuckles' question in more ways than they had known at the time. He turned around and blinked at everyone's identical expressions.

"Stop standing around like that!" Tails said. He pointed to the sky, where the moon hovered above the horizon. Day was nearly over. "Don't you guys see? Every minute is one minute closer to midnight!"

"Tails is right!" Amy said, reminded with a horrible heartthrob of her dear Sonic's fate. She turned to face the others. "We've wasted enough time as is. No more complaining! We need to cure everyone before midnight!"

"I agree," Blaze said.

"As do I," Silver said with a nod.

"I do too," said Tikal. She gave Knuckles a meaningful look.

"I-I guess I do too," he stuttered. Somehow, this whole operation hadn't seemed real to him until now.

Vector gave Charmy a small look, and said, "I'll help in whatever way I can."

"Whoa, wait a second!" came Jet's harsh tone of voice. "You guys are overreacting. It's just a stupid-"

Amy launched herself toward Jet and none too gently grabbed the front of his shirt. With a yelp, the hawk found himself face-to-face with a furious fangirl.

"Overreacting?" she shouted, overreacting to his innocent statement. "Overreacting? Have you seen how everyone's acting? They have no mind or conscience, just blind love!"

Jet managed to scoff. "I seriously doubt-"

"You just don't get it, do you? They! Have! No! Free! Will!" Giving Jet a disgusted look, she pushed him away from her. "You just came here for the free food, didn't you? Mighty 'Jet the Hawk' doesn't care about anyone but himself. So what if everyone else is in trouble, if there's nothing in it to benefit you, then you want nothing to do with it!"

"Exactly," the bird said with a sneer. "Storm, Wave, let's beat it."

He started to walk away, but halted when he noticed the two made no motion to follow him.

"Did you two buffoons hear me? We're leaving!"

Wave glanced at Storm and nodded. The albatross looked slightly confused, but stated gruffly, "We ain't comin' boss."

"Fine, then!" he said, his nasally voice raising to a screech. "Do I really need you two with me all the time?"

"Yes," Wave said curtly. "You'd be lost without us… boss."

Pausing long enough to snarl at the two of them, the bird turned and stalked away.

There was a silence as everyone watched him, until he disappeared in the distance.

"Do you really think…" Tails started to ask, but he fell silent.

"He'll come back," Wave said, and everyone was surprised by her confidence. "He's just temperamental. He's bound to come to senses. Eventually." The swallow looked at Storm again, as if silently agreeing on something, and they both headed off in the opposite direction.

"H-hey!" Tails said, running after them and grabbing onto Wave's arm. "You can't... you can't just leave!"

She stared at him. "And why not?"

"I... well, you could help us. We could use your intelligence and Storm's strength, should it come down to that. We've only got a few hours left until midnight, and everyone's useful in this crisis, right?"

Wave gave him a grim smile. "You wouldn't want our help."

"Yes, we would!" Tails glared at everyone else. "Right?"

Knuckles sighed. "In all honesty, at this point more people are just more targets for that bee to continue his little game with. But, I suppose you were right that the birds could come in handy."

"We prefer the term 'avians', if you don't mind," said Storm.

"Avians, then," Knuckles said angrily, rubbing his temples. "God, you guys are giving me a migraine. Well, then, at least we're moving along smoothly. Tikal, it looks like you're up."

Tikal smiled warmly at Espio, who was standing beside her protectively and suspiciously looking at Knuckles.

"This other echidna," he said slowly. "What is your relation to him?"

"We-ll," Tikal started, "a lot of people suspect we're related, although there's no definite evidence of that, and hey, we were born a few hundred years apart, so it's not like it matter, yes? But we are both echidnas, and he is pretty hot, but seeing as I'm stuck inside this giant emerald and I get two days of vacation every decade, there's a not a lot of room for relationship building."

Espio stared at Tikal. "Giant... emerald?"

"Yeah, I know. It really, um, what do they say these days? Blues?"

"Close enough," Silver said with a snicker.

"Um, well," Tikal continued, "I certainly wish I had more time off. But the pay is nice and it's a lot roomier in there than you'd think! Also, I have Chaos in there to keep me company!" She noticed the forlorn expression on Espio's face and hastily added, "Not that you're a bad guy and all. In fact, you're much nicer than a lot of guys these days. So reserved and polite. But it's hard to take others with me into the Master Emerald. There's the whole absorption into light, and then the assimilation..." She took the chameleon's hands and gave him a sad smile. "Sorry."

Espio looked depressed. "I... understand."

Vector laughed and threw his arm around Espio. "Too bad for you, huh? We could've made off with that emerald a lot easier if you were cozyin' up with the girl in charge of it. Oh, and Knuckles, but he's nothin' to worry about. I mean, he prob'ly doesn't even know where that thing is right now!"

"I do too!" Knuckles shouted angrily. "It's on Angel Island, right where it should be!"

"With no one guarding it?" Vector grinned.

Knuckles only glared.