Story Time- Normal Text

"Story Time!"- Dialogue

"Story Time!"- Thoughts

Amy's Quest For Love

The clinking of various glasses resonated throughout the room. Many shady looking men of various ages and ethnicities sat around in a dreary, dirty tavern and conversed amongst each other while getting drunk from cheap booze in dirty glass mugs. A joke here or there elicited haughty laughter from a few men, but there seemed to be no suspicious activities going on at the moment. For the time being, everything seemed to be alright.

A loud *Thump* at the door caused the noise in the large room to immediately stop. A majority of the men in the room looked suspiciously at the front door, some even standing up to investigate. Many of them thought it was probably some drunk idiot that had fallen against the door.

Everyone in the tavern flinched back, startled, at the door suddenly being slammed open with enough force to nearly send it off its hinges.

The silhouette of a reasonably familiar being was cast from the bright light of the outside world, hiding any expression the being had on their face.

The sound of shattering glass sounded throughout the now-quiet tavern. Many of the men in the tavern stepped back in fear when they realized who the silhouette belonged to, while the others were confused and angry at the sudden intrusion.

"Who da hell do ya think ya are, comin' through our merry time?!" One of the angered, slightly drunk men angrily questioned.

The angered man flinched slightly when the being's head abruptly turned in his direction, signifying that the person was now staring solely at him. This served to unnerve the man, causing him to sweat nervously at having the beings sole attention on him.

Before the man could question the mysterious being any further, the being suddenly curled up into a ball and launched itself right at him. The man had absolutely no time to react before the fast moving ball slammed into him at speeds nearing terminal velocity. He was immediately launched backwards several feet, crashing into tables and any unlucky men in his way, until finally crashing straight into the bar area in a wrecked heap.

All were stunned into silence at this act, staring in horror at both the unconscious man, and at the now clearly visible person that had caused it.

"IT'S SONIC THE HEDGEHOG!"

Everyone who hadn't been in the know previously were filled with a sense of horror and dread at hearing that name. Horror was clear to see in everyone's widened eyes as the blue hedgehog's head slowly turned to face the rest of them, an empty, dead look in his green eyes.

For a single, long second, everything was dead silent as the fear-filled men stared into the empty eyes of their aggressor, and he in-turn stared at them with absolutely no expression on his face.

Then, all hell broke loose.

The blue hedgehog curled up into a ball once more. The fear everyone felt was intensified when they saw that the ball was surrounded by a bluish-green light that seemed to cover the hedgehogs curled up form in a manner resembling a suit of armor.

A moment, a mere millisecond, was all it took for every single man in the tavern to be beaten down by Sonic's light speed attack. One moment everyone was staring at his curled-up form, and the next they were all strewn about, unconscious, and heavy injuries on their bodies from the impact of the blue hedgehog's ruthless attack. One single man was able to hold on to consciousness, though just barely.

The man painstakingly looked around at the beaten remains of his drinking buddies and the rubble of wooden tables and broken glass scattered throughout the wrecked tavern. The sound of crunching glass caught his attention to the blue hedgehog that was slowly making his way toward him, causing him to crawl back, fear in his one open eye, the other bleeding freely from a shard of glass that had embedded itself into his eye.

"P-please... take anything you want, j-just don't come any closer..." The injured man whimpered in fright, his one functioning eye staring into the cold emerald orbs of his assailant.

The man flinched when Sonic's lips curled into a snarl, his teeth glinting malevolently in the dim lighting of the room. He stomped a foot onto one of the injured mans legs, eliciting a cry of pain from the man, which was immediately halted when the blue hedgehog roughly grabbed his throat. Tightening his grip on the mans throat enough to make it hard for him to breathe, Sonic brought the man to eye level and glared into his one functioning eye.

"What do you want?!" The man shouted in pain and terror.

"You know what I want..." Sonic hissed into the frightened mans ear. He tightened his grip on his victims throat a little more, "You know who I am, I can see the fear in you. Your fear of me." His victim whimpered pathetically, making the blue hedgehog snarl once more at the pathetic man. "Stop whimpering and tell me what I want to know!"

"I don't know what you want!"

"LIAR!" With a roar of anger, Sonic slammed the head of his victim into the hard wooden floor, bringing another gurgled cry of pain from the injured man. "Tell me what I want to know! WHERE'S AMY ROSE?!"

The injured man had to take a moment to recuperate from the hedgehogs assault before he could reply, which seemed to be a moment too much in Sonic's opinion since he was immediately slammed into the floor a second time. "P-please! Stop!" The injured man pleaded desperately, tears rapidly flowing from his eyes. "I don't know where Amy Rose is!

"Don't lie to me!" Sonic growled. rage burning in his cold green eyes. "If you have any information whatsoever to Amy's disappearance, then you better tell me now, or else!" He roared, tightening his grip on his victims throat tight enough to now restrict his breathing. "WELL?!"

"P-please...!" The man managed to choke out over being choked by his assailant. "I don't... know... anything!" The man followed up.

Sonic stared at his victim as the man tried to pry his hand from his throat, but quickly found that his efforts were futile against Sonic's superior strength. He watched as the pathetic mans face started to turn blue from lack of oxygen, and he could even see that his eyes were on the verge of rolling to the back of his head. Before the man could possibly die from suffocation, Sonic released his grip, finally allowing the man to breath.

Getting up from his kneeling position, Sonic walked towards the taverns entrance, not bothering to look back at the chaos he had caused, and the man he had almost killed in a bout of anger. Once he was standing at the entrance, only then did he look back at what his presence had caused.

Every single piece of furniture in the tavern was completely shattered beyond repair. Tables and chairs were scattered about everywhere in pieces, several chunks of sharp wood even having found themselves embedded into the flesh of some unfortunate men, who would most certainly be feeling the pain once they woke up. Glass shards littered the floor like a fine powder, promising injury to anyone that would dare walk barefoot on it, and several broken glass mugs were scattered about, now empty of their contents, which was now on the floor in various puddles of brownish-yellow liquid.

The man that he had nearly choked to death was still where he had left him, taking deep breaths to replenish his oxygen-deprived lungs. To his amusement and disgust, the man was audibly sobbing, even tears of crimson dripping down from his injured eye. He shook his head in disgust when his sensitive nose told him that the man had soiled himself at some point. Probably when he had started yelling at him. He couldn't really tell.

After observing the wreckage he had left behind, Sonic set out without a shred of remorse for what he had done. He had stopped caring some time ago.

Walking through the slightly empty streets, Sonic took in the sights of the shadier part of downtown station square that he was in. He saw that some of the few people that were walking around were looking at him intensely, judging whether or not he was a threat to them. He scowled in their direction, causing them to cringe and look away, too afraid make eye contact with the notoriously dangerous hedgehog. The blue hedgehog grinned evilly, seemingly satisfied at being feared by the shady humans.

Leaving the frightened humans behind, Sonic's evil grin regressed back into an emotionless expression. The people here weren't anyone that you wanted to associate with, but then again, neither was he at the moment. It had been the better part of a week since Amy's disappearance had been made public news, and many people, including he and his friends, suspected that she had been kidnapped. With this set in his mind, Sonic had immediately set out to find her with great haste, which is the reason for his presence in this area of station square.

In one week, Sonic quickly became notorious for taking out well-known gangs and thieves in downtown station square with ruthless efficency, which quickly earned Sonic the fear of many in this particular area. Some had tried to fight back, but they were quickly dealt with by the blue hedgehog with just as much cruelty as before. His actions had served to significantly lower the crime rate of station square in a short amount of time, which had served to put Sonic back in the good graces of a few people. He didn't care though. All he cared about was finding Amy and fixing the mess that he had caused.

This train of thought quickly drifted to thoughts about his friends. It was sad to say, but his relationship with his friends had dwindled slightly because of his actions.

He and Tails were still on good terms, though there were times that he would refuse to make eye-contact with him, but they hadn't spoken much since he had taken it as his duty to scour downtown station square for any information on Amy's possible kidnapping. Before he had left for his recent venture, Tails had voiced his concern over his lack of sleep, which Sonic had quickly waved off.

He and knuckles were on... shaky terms. They were acquaintances at best, heated enemy's at their worst. Knuckles clearly found Sonic in the wrong for what he had done to Amy, and it showed when the hot-headed echidna had tried to beat him up a few days before. Having known him for years, Sonic wasn't entirely surprised when Knuckles had shown up one day, in another of his "temper tantrums" and had attacked him repeatedly. Needless to say, he lost. Knuckles may have been physically stronger than him, but he more than made up for it with his super speed and quick thinking. They tended to stay away from each other from then on.

Not much had changed in his relationships with Shadow and Rouge. He and Rouge had never been "friends" per say, but they had been on good terms before the incident with Amy. Amy and Rouge may have butted heads in the past, but they were friends at the least, and Sonic being the cause of her disappearance was something that she couldn't forgive him for, at least not until she was returned to her home safe and sound.

He couldn't exactly call himself Shadow's "friend", but they were rivals that would occasionally get into scraps with each other, not unlike his relationship with Knuckles. Though their "friendship" was shaky at best, he knew that if the time ever came to take action, Shadow was someone he could rely on without a doubt. Now, however, their shaky relationship seemed to have degraded itself back to bitter acknowledgment for each other. He never knew that Shadow seemed to have a slightly deeper bond with Amy than he had initially thought. Amy was one of the few people in Shadow's life that he held no genuine resentment towards. To him, Amy was one of the very few people that he could trust, the only others being Maria, who was dead, Rouge, and Omega. Not even Sonic had Shadow's full trust, seeing as they had been enemies in the past, and whatever sort of camaraderie they had had was now gone.

The one person that worried them the most, however, was Cream.

After learning of Amy's disappearance, Cream had gone into a depression, one that even her own mother couldn't break her out of. It was extremely hard to believe that someone as young and cheerful as Cream could take the loss of a friend so hard. Cream and Amy had seemed to share a sisterly bond with each other, and seeing as Cream was an only child, she was a most loved and welcome companion to the young rabbit, as well as her mother. The last they had all heard of her, Vanilla had told them that she locked herself in her room all day, not even coming out to eat any of the dishes that Vanilla made for her in an attempt to cheer her up. She stopped doing anything altogether, not bothering to play with any of her toys, and not even Cheese, Creams precious Chao friend, could get any sort of reaction from the young rabbit. It seemed that only the safe return of Amy would break her out of her depressed state. The last thing Vanilla had to say to them was that she, Cream and Cheese all blamed Sonic for Cream's current condition.

Knowing all this served to add even more guilt and misery to Sonic's heart. An action that he had taken out of anger and frustration had now spread to affect all of his and Amy's friends. A child was miserable because of him and his momentary stupidity. His reputation had been tarnished, his friends were dwindling away from him, and even worse, a strange feeling was starting to overtake him.

He had looked back on all of the experiences that he had shared with Amy, and while not all of them had been good ones, they had all stuck together in the end, no matter how hectic things became. From the time that they had both met on little planet to the present day, Amy had always been there for him, even when he didn't want her to. If ever there was a time that his friends doubted him, Amy was there to reassure them, and most importantly, him. Even though many a time Amy was captured by Eggman or some other troublemaker, when the going got tough, she didn't run, she faced whatever situation she was in head-on, no matter the odds.

Now that he thought about it, that was how he tended to act as well.

It was weird, really. Looking back on everything that Amy had ever done to and for him, her helpful and annoying tendencies seemed to balance each other out. Thinking about all the good things that Amy had ever tried to do for him had made him realize that Amy was a friend that came only once in a lifetime, one that you could trust with your own life. She was a friend to him, and recalling how he had treated her for such a long time caused more guilt to settle in his heart. He had shed tears the first time that he had come to this realization, and he had thought about this several more times since then. The hurt that came from this realization he felt he deserved. For what he had done, he could see no punishment that was bad enough to redeem himself. For what he had done to her, he made it his obligation -no- his mission to find her, no matter the cost. If he had to push his body to its physical limits just to find a shred of her possible location, he would do so. That was what he had been doing for the past week.

A temporary reprieve of his more negative thoughts came in the form of him bumping into a pole on the street. He shook his head, finding that a slight nauseous feeling began to settle in. Maybe Tails' concerns about his lack of rest were valid, but he had too much on his mind to concern himself with something as trivial as sleep. Maybe he was tired; he had gotten barely three hours of sleep altogether this whole week, his bloodshot eyes proof of that, but, as tired as he may be, the overwhelming guilt and misery of what he had done to Amy had kept him going.

Leaning on the pole for a second, Sonic closed his eyes and relaxed slightly, feeling the slight breeze that blew through his sweaty, matted blue fur. The temptation to fall asleep then and there was high, but then his mind went back to what he had said to Amy on that day. Whenever he found a rare moment of time to rest his body, that memory always surfaced in his mind. Guilt pierced through his heart like a dagger at the memory of the cruel things he had said to her, so now, he barely rested at all, in fear of having to constantly re-watch that particular memory again.

His body and mind were so tired, he could feel it. But the guilt in his heart, and the misery in his soul urged him forward, forcing his body into action. No matter what happened to him, he would find Amy. His own needs and condition were no longer of any concern to him. All that mattered to him now was that he fix the mess he had started, and bring Amy back home, to her friends, to him, where she belonged.

Sonic's sensitive ears picked out the sound of activity in the not so far off vicinity. He forced his tired body forward, intent on doing the same thing he had been doing for the past week. His expression of weariness faded back into one of no emotion. He stalked towards a nearby group of people with negative thoughts in his mind driving him forward, intent on finding out if any of these people had any shred of information, though hopeless it may be.

He no longer cared about anything else. Until he finally found Amy and begged for forgiveness for what he had done, he wouldn't stop. He wouldn't rest. Not until that pink hedgehog was within his sights, and not until he could even attempt to redeem himself for what he had done.

As his feelings of guilt, misery, and sorrow drove him forward, Sonic's eyes tightened in anger.

Whether he knew it or not, he was slowly but surely... being consumed.

In a secret lab far off, preparations were being made for their imminent departure. Their creator himself had told them all that they would soon be of use in his plan to come. Many robots of differing size and ability gathered together in slightly organized groups, preparing themselves for imminent combat.

When their creator would call them, their target was set... to station square.

Its been almost 5 months since I've updated this story.

I apologize for that.

I don't really have any excuse for why it took me so long to update this story, but I hope this chapter can make up for the long wait.

This chapter is a bit darker than what I had originally planned, but I think it turned out pretty well. I delved into the aftermath of Amy's disappearance, including the impact it had on her friends. Sonic and Cream are taking it the hardest, but Sonic has seen it fit to take it to an extreme level.

The next chapter will switch back to the perspective of Amy and Ray, and it will cover Amy's adjustment into her new temporary home, as well as how Ray is handling the situation that he has found himself in.

Please tell me what you think in a review, constructive criticism is welcome and encouraged.

Have a nice morning/day/night!