Chapter Text
The sky was dark and cloudy, enough so to block out the moon's light. As a result, the entire forest was engulfed in darkness. Well, almost. There was still a small source of light, coming from a floating mobile. The mobile itself, however, wasn't illuminated. All that was visible from it were a pair of headlights.
The headlights illuminated tree after tree, reflecting a brief brightness for each until they passed on, leaving the trees once again shrouded in shadow. However, they then lit up a completely different object: a small pillar with some odd markings and a spherical shape on top.
The mobile's driver got out of the machine and walked over to the mysterious pillar, holding an unusual device in his hand. When he was standing directly in front of it, his mustached face twisted into a sinister grin, and he held up the gadget, before putting it onto the pillar. After that, the markings, along with the object, glowed a bright red.
"Uploading AI program now." A voice emitted from the device. Suddenly, the sky began flickering, before a kaleidoscope of red shimmered above. Seconds later, the man turned to see a portal opening up, and some unusual robotic creatures floating down and standing tall. In the distance, there was something looming. He had no clue what exactly these were, but didn't need to.
"Yes! It's all coming online!" The mustached man's grin grew even wider. "The Ancient's Secrets will be mine!"
Abruptly, he heard a spark and fizzing behind him, and turned to see his device sparking. As both the device and the pillar were glitching, the man stumbled back. "Status report! Answer me!"
"Simulations complete. Executing Protective Initiative." The machine suddenly seemed to... sink into the pillar?
"What! No!" He grabbed the device to pull it back. "NO!" But the pillar continued pulling the gadget, along with the man, inside. He attempted to use his other arm to push himself out, but it was failing badly. Before he could comprehend, he was pulled in, and the fizzing stopped, as the pillar powered down.
Several hours had passed, unknowingly to anyone else, since the mysterious incident. The skies were now bright, blue and clear, with fluffy clouds scattered across like marbles on a childhood floor. This was even evident far above the island, at altitudes where you could almost taste the quietness and the lack of threatening sounds or environments. The peaceful silence was suddenly cut by a loud roaring sound, and the clouds cut by the wings of an aircraft, before the shape of a plane came into view, soaring high above. On this plane, three passengers were visible.
The first was a blue-furred hedgehog, with a wide smile across his face. This, without a doubt, was the legendary Sonic the Hedgehog. He was known far and wide for his many heroic deeds, of which included facing against the evil villain mastermind, Dr Robotnik. Or as Sonic and his allies (coming to that in a bit) preferred to call him, Eggman. He was also very adventurous, evident by the fact that he was standing on the wings of the plane instead of in the seats. In fact, he had even volunteered to go on the plane roof, 'just in case'.
The second passenger, and pilot, was a yellow fox called Miles 'Tails' Prowler. He had two tails, hence his nickname, and was Sonic's best friend. Wherever Sonic went on an adventure, it was unusual for Tails to be far behind.
The third passenger, however, was someone who hadn't been on an adventure in a little while. A pink hedgehog named Amy Rose. She was sitting in the passenger seat behind Tails barely able to fit her hammer alongside herself. She was exhilarated to be able to come along on a journey with Sonic and Tails. Even though she no longer had a crush on him, Amy still admired Sonic quite a lot, mainly for his heroism.
She had been brought along because apparently, the Chaos Emeralds had been tracked to this location. Curious, Amy tried to look down to see if they had arrived yet, but it was too cloudy for her to see. In response to the movement behind him, Tails turned and faced Amy.
"We're coming up on the Starfall Islands," he informed, thrilling Amy further.
"How exciting!" she replied, with a smile on her face. Sonic heard the two talking and turned to look down at them.
"You tracked the Chaos Emeralds here, right?" Sonic asked. Tails nodded, and Sonic continued, "Let's find out what drew them here!"
The clouds beneath eventually parted, revealing a large island below, with several in the distance. Amy was blown away by the beauty of the islands, and Sonic and Tails, the former of which had turned back around, clearly were, too. The three gawked at the island, along with the others. But then a thought struck the trio pretty quickly: how were they going to know where the Chaos Emeralds were?
Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!
"Hm?" Tails glanced at his screen, and Amy peeked over his shoulder to check. The screen was flashing red, and every flash emitted another beep. The two glanced closer---
Abruptly, the plane jolted to the side as Amy and Tails yelped in fright. Sonic also yelled, startled, and almost fell off the wing, but grabbed onto the edge in time. He had only just climbed back on when the plane suddenly zoomed upwards, spinning in the process as the three passengers continued screaming. The spinning continued, but the ascent ended, transforming into a descent, clearly aimed for the ocean.
After a long few seconds, Tails managed to get the plane under control, but Amy was close to throwing up now, and from more than just the spinning.
"Whoa!" Tails called, as he slowly steadied the plane. "There's some kind of atmospheric charge!" he explained to the others. "Hang on!" He pulled back on the steering, decreasing the descent until they barely hit the water and ascended away from it.
Amy and Sonic were about to cheer for him when suddenly, they noticed something ahead. Was the sky creating a kaleidoscope?? It seemed so, a red, jewelled pattern... which opened up into a huge, gaping portal!
Sonic and Amy gasped in shock as Tails pulled back on the handle, but it was too late. The suction was dragging them in...
You all know this part. The segment where they fell through and got trapped. All but Sonic. Little did we know, that there is more than one timeline. And this is the moment where timelines split... where one split-second idea production created a new journey...
Sonic gripped tightly onto the wing, looking down at his friends. Tails was desperately trying to pull back, and Amy was screaming loudly. But then something caught Sonic's eye, and he looked slightly to the side of Amy's head. The plane was now vertical, which gave him a view of the ocean. And below them, he could see several rocky pillar things. Maybe...
"Abandon plane!" he called loudly, before letting go of the wing and dropping down. He then grabbed Tails and Amy by their collars, and pulled them out before he sprang off the plane. In shock of the grabbing, Amy attempted to reach for her hammer before she fell out, but unfortunately failed, as it slipped between her fingers, and the trio fell straight towards the ocean as the plane, and hr hammer, fell into the vortex.
Tails managed to recover, and created a tail propeller, before grabbing both Sonic and Amy by their hands and lowering them, along with himself onto the pillar.
"Good move, Sonic!" he commented. "If you would have been one moment slower, we would have been caught in the suction as well."
"Sorry, but you can't really find a sentence with both 'Sonic' and 'slower' in it," Sonic responded, smiling. "You both okay?"
"Well, I may not have my hammer," Amy responded, slightly melancholic over losing her prized possession, "but I am still alive, so I guess I can say I am."
"Wait, my plane!!" Tails glanced at the vortex, which had now closed, and his own prize invention was nowhere to be seen. "Nooooo!!" He fell to his knees in anguish. "How could I let this happen?!"
"Don't worry," Amy reassured, putting her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sure we'll find it again at some point."
"Are you saying that as a way of coping with losing the hammer?" Tails asked, glancing up.
"Oh, er, half true, but I still believe we'll find both eventually," Amy responded.
Sonic watched Amy reassure Tails, before she looked at him. "Thanks for the save, Sonic."
"Not a problem," Sonic replied. "Take it from me, vortex journeys are not comfortable."
Amy was smiling at Sonic, Sonic smiling back, and Tails mourning his loss. Therefore, none of them saw the vortex opening nearby. And although it was unable to suck them in at the distance it was currently at, it was able to pull in some rocks. Pebble-sized at first, but they slowly grew in size. It wasn't until one flew in front of Tails when he noticed.
"Argh!"
Sonic and Amy turned to face him, but the former suddenly spotted a large rock headed for the latter's head.
"Amy!" He dashed forth and pushed her out of the way, but the rock hit his head instead, which dazed him and made him lose his footing, as the portal was now able to suck them in too.
"Sonic!!" Amy grabbed his arm and tried to pull him back, with Tails standing and helping, but they lost their footing as well, and Tails attempted to use his tails to propel them back. "Tails, do something!"
"I'm... trying..." Tails replied tiredly, "but the... vortex... is too..." His tails, without warning, failed and the three were sent careening into the portal.
"Strooooooooooong!!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" Sonic and Amy screamed as the trio flew through, before it vanished. Now the dark clouds in the distance were clear....
Amy's head felt like a cement mixer as she slowly came around. She wasn't exactly awake, but was regaining consciousness. Not that she wanted to, considering her head was pounding with pain.
"Ohhhhh...."
What had happened? Amy struggled to remember. The plane they flew in fell into a portal, she and her friends fell into a portal, and then.... and then..... what?
Any memories between then and whenever now was were gone, the void filled with agony. And she hadn't even opened her eyes yet. She took the chance to try figure out what her surroundings were, and what she was lying on.
She felt like she was lying on something.... wet. And soft. She could also feel cold sensations across her body, in little dots. Not helpful, then. 'Thanks for nothing, sense of touch.'
Reluctantly, Amy began to unglue her eyelids, until she was now able to use her sight. And wow, did it have a lot of information for her.
She was staring up at a dark, grey sky, with even darker shapes in her peripheral vision. After summoning her inner power to stand, Amy realised she was in a canyon of sorts. One end was a dead end, except with a strange pillar with unusual markings. The other way led to a location she wasn't aware of. Amy obviously knew she had been lying on grass, and was now aware of the reasoning behind the cold sensations. The clouds were pouring thousands upon thousands of drops per second.
Amy wiped her face before glancing around. "Tails? Sonic?" Her two allies were nowhere to be found. Perfect.
Amy sighed and began to focus. Plane, portal, escape, portal..... platforms. Platforms? Platforms, of course!
She could vaguely remember a large segment of floating islands, and she was jumping across... and she could see Tails and Sonic.... doing it themselves...
"Of course!" she exclaimed loudly, to herself. "So we were in this place.... Sonic and Tails must have escaped and gone ahead without me. Maybe I could try track them down.... Eh, it's no big deal. I'm sure Sonic'll find me soon---"
"Mortal."
"Gah!" Amy glanced around wildly, caught off guard by the voice. "Uhh, who said that?"
"You have done the impossible." The voice seemed to be coming from... above? Amy glanced up. "You have escaped Cyber Space through your own power. You are the key."
"Uhhh, come again?"
"Find the Chaos Emeralds. Destroy the Titans. Tear down the walls between dimensions."
Amy looked hesitant. The more detail this entity was going into, the less it sounded like she was suitable for this job.
"What Titans? What even is a Titan? How do I know what a Titan looks like?"
"You will know when you see it." The voice then seemed to loop again. "You have done the impossible. You have escaped Cyber Space through your own power. You are the ke---"
"Okay, let me stop you there," Amy interrupted. "I am many things, as in, you can describe me in lots of ways. I am Amy Rose, I am a pink anthropomorphic hedgehog, I am an amateur botanist and I am skilled with using a hammer." She pulled her hammer up onto her shoulder as she said this. Or rather, attempted to. There was nothing. She scanned the area in panic. Her hammer was nowhere to be found. "Oh, right... it's gone." Calming her nerves, Amy continued. "Eh? Well, uh, I don't have the hammer, but yeah, skilled with a hammer. So as you see, I am many things, but I am most certainly NOT a 'key'."
"Indeed. You are the key."
"What? No, I just said I'm not a key!"
"You are the key."
"I'm not 'the' key either! I think you have me confused with my good friend, Sonic. He's probably exploring as we speak. If we just wait for him, he'll arrive." Amy sat down on the floor.
"There is no Sonic." The voice seemed insistent. "No other outsiders are on the Isle of Kronos. Only you."
"Don't be ridiculous!" Amy called up. "Sonic'll be here any minute now.
As Amy sat down, she failed to notice a pair of eyes watching her from behind the pillar.
It took several hours and an even larger downpour before Amy moved from her spot to take shelter under a ledge on the canyon side. And only 5 minutes later, she became aware Sonic wasn't coming.
She was quite certain that the 'Isle of Kronos' was the island she saw above in the plane with her friends. Even though it was huge, Sonic, with his speed, could have easily explored the whole island by now. Waiting for Sonic to come find her wasn't exactly working out.
"Well..." Amy muttered. "This is taking longer than I thought."
"I mentioned you were alone."
Amy yelped in shock. The voice had reappeared from nowhere.
"It is you. You are the key. Tear down the walls between dimensions."
"Hey, you're jumping to conclusions here. Maybe he's just, uhhh.... stuck! Yeah, stuck somewhere! I'll go find him."
Amy made that excuse more so to convince herself than this mysterious entity. She was really hoping Sonic was actually okay, and just stuck somewhere. Or napping. It had happened before.
"Be prepared for when you learn the truth. This island is inhabited only by you and the memories of those lost."
"What do you mean?" Amy asked.
.......
"Uhh, hello?" The voice seemed to have vanished. Weird. Well, she might as well look about.
Standing up, Amy walked through the canyon, using her arm to shield herself from the rain. Hopefully this island had an umbrella shop somewhere.
After a while, she made it out of the canyon. Though that didn't help matters, considering everything was concealed in a weird fog, and she couldn't see far. However, there were multiple bounce pads, and speed pads, and... rails? Sonic would love this place. Shame he was nowhere to be seen.
"Sonic!!" Amy yelled loudly, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Sonic! Can you hear me? Tails! Anyone?!"
The only sound in response was Amy's desolate echo. She was feeling more and more hopeless and lonely. Somehow, the atmosphere of rain made her feel even more isolated. Though there were some interesting structures around... maybe she would investigate them after she found her friends.
"Ho?"
"Huh?" Amy turned around. There was nothing. Weird... she could have sworn she heard something.
"Ko!" Amy suddenly felt something touching her leg. She was a bit confused and nervous, so slowly glanced down...
A small creature was nuzzling against her foot.
"Eep!" She leapt back.
"Argya!" The creature also leapt aside, before the two stared at each other.
The small entity looked like a stone or clay statue. It was pretty much a sphere with legs and a slight hairstyle. The hairstyle wasn't disimilar to her own. And it also had wide, black eyes with white circles around them.
"Oh..." Amy sighed in relief. "Hi, little one."
"Koco?"
"Aren't you cute!" Amy reached her hand down.
The little creature slowly approached, and investigated her hand. After deeming Amy as harmless, it slightly nuzzled against her fingers.
"Gada!"
"What does 'gada' mean?" asked Amy.
"Ua."
Amy felt slightly disappointed that she couldn't understand this creature's language. But either way, it looked and sounded adorable.
The creature jumped about in joy, when it suddenly glanced in a specific direction and rolled away. Literally.
"Huh? Hey wait!" She followed after it, confused yet curious. "Slow down!"
The creature didn't follow either command until it rolled so far ahead Amy almost lost sight of it in the fog. After that it paused and glanced back at her.
"Ua, heidya!" Amy got a strong sense of impatience.
"Sorry," she apologized. "I still have that headache, so... your fault for not slowing down."
"Koco!" The creature turned to face what was in front. Once she caught up, Amy looked ahead in surprise. Some of the buildings she had seen from earlier were now here. But these ones seemed to have several... bird's nests? Or, well... nests of some sort.
"What is this?" she asked.
"Kocooooo!"
After that, a bunch of creatures suddenly popped up from the nests. They looked like the one that led her here, but with slight differences. The creatures cautiously and slowly approached Amy, all with the same curious expressions.
"Hedyolia, arag ainta!" the leading creature called out, in which a response of messages flooded back at Amy.
"What's with the riffraff?"
Amy glanced in the direction of the sound. A much larger of the creatures, covered in moss, rolled over. It paused in front of the smaller ones, whom gathered around.
"Ah, a visitor," the creature politely stated, looking at Amy. "Welcome to the Starfall Islands."
"Um, hi there," Amy exclaimed. "My name is Amy Rose. Who are you all?"
"We are the Koco. A certain kind of species that dwell on the isles."
"Well it's nice to meet you all," Amy greeted. "That weird voice was probably wrong about me being the only one on this island, then. So what's going on?"
"Sadly, we are unable to say," the big Koco told her. "We can only wait until you see the happenings on this isle. Or maybe you won't need to if you leave."
"Leave? No way!" Amy told him. "I'm here to rescue my friends. They fell into this portal in cyber space and, as far as I'm concerned, I'm the only one who escaped, so now I need to save them."
"Ah. I see," the Elder Koco sighed. "Well, if you are here to search for them, look no further." He gently nudged forth the Koco that had lead Amy here.
"What for?" Amy asked, kneeling down and holding out her hand. The little Koco nuzzled against her hand.
"This little one has an uncanny sense of location. She is incredibly talented in finding anything you need her to."
"Really?"
"Really. You just need to give her a reference, and by a mysterious ability she has, she can show you the way."
"Ok," Amy replied. "Come on then, little Koco."
"Koco!" The creature followed after Amy as she stood in front of the village.
"Now then..." she picked up a stick and began drawing in the dirt. The Koco watched in curiosity as Amy created a somewhat accurate interpretation of Sonic. "I need you to find him. His name is Sonic." For effect, she reached and grabbed a few blue berries from a nearby bush, and crushed them up into a blue enough paint to show off Sonic's colour.
Once it was painted, the Koco studied this drawing, before closing her eyes and focusing. Amy watched her doing this, curious, before she opened her eyes, and rolled off in a direction.
"Hey! Wait!" Amy followed after her.
There was a very strong mix of rain and fog. Amy couldn't tell which one was stronger. All she knew was that this Koco was still navigating very well.
"You're doing great, little Koco!" Amy exclaimed.
"Koco!" she replied.
"Hmm, I wish your species wasn't called a Koco so I could call you Coco," Amy sighed. "But in that case, maybe I can call you Coco either way? Coco the Koco? Like it?"
Coco looked confused, but nodded in agreement.
"Coco it is!" Amy smiled. "So how far is Sonic?"
Coco glanced around, before rolling off.
"Hey, wait!" Amy cried again, dashing after her.
They kept rolling and dashing, respectively, when Coco stopped in front of something. It looked like a large purple.... gate?
"Well that's inconvenient," Amy muttered, annoyed.
Coco turned as if to ask Amy for ideas, when her eyes widened. "Haiyu!!"
"Haiyu?" Amy turned slowly. Then she gasped.
Standing ahead of her (previously behind) was a tall robot, about four and a half times her own height. It had a vaguely feminine shape, but otherwise it was a bunch of abstract shapes. The most she could make out was a body made of some sort of of black metal with red lights, and had a sharp form, with a triangular eye screen, a pointed head, wide shoulders and hips, a narrow waist, thick thighs, and long pointy legs with no feet. The robot thing stared at her, before it raised its sword-like arm.
"HAIYU!!!!" Amy cried as she leapt to the side. Even though she had been quick, she could feel the wind right next to her. It was sharp, and Amy felt it hit her hard. Imagine if she hadn't dodged... this was bad.
Upon landing, Amy stood tall and called, "Don't hurt me! I'm not a threat! I don't want to hurt you!"
The robot didn't seem fazed by Amy's promise and then held up its arms in a cross position.
One moment, Amy was staring at the robot in alarm and confusion.
Next thing she knew, she was sprawled on the floor, agony in every fibre of her being. She felt as though she couldn't open her eyes or move at all. She didn't even know what had happened, but she was aware that whatever this was, it should have killed her on the spot. Was this what it felt like to survive the unsurvivable?
"Ami!"
Amy opened her eyes in surprise. Coco was standing in front of her, looking concerned.
"Ami!" she repeated.
"You learnt my name?" Amy asked. "Well it's okay, I'm all right..."
"HAIYUU!!!"
Upon hearing this, Amy instantly managed to shove herself backwards. She had quickly learnt that 'Haiyu' was a sort of warning cry.
Just as she did, she saw a flash of black in the form of the robot's swipe. No wonder she had been so stunned out of nowhere. This thing moved really fast. Arguably as fast as Sonic. Sleek and agile, like a ninja. This was bad.
It turned to face her before making another cross. Amy stood up to jump to the side, keeping an eye on it as she did. This allowed her to see that it looked like it had teleported to Amy's previous position, before slicing a boulder.
Slicing a boulder?! How the heck did Amy survive last time?? No matter, she didn't want to fight anymore, so turned to run.
Sadly, the robot wouldn't allow it. Every time she almost got out, it sped to block her path. At one point, it even slashed with one arm to knock Amy into the middle, before it began circling her.
Amy felt a huge sense of dread. There was no way out.
'I can't run, I can't defend myself, and I think I can't take another hit like that and live. What do I do??'
"Ami?"
Amy glanced down. Somehow, Coco had found an opening to arrive by her side, and looked up, as if she wanted to help.
"Sorry, Coco," Amy told her sorrowfully. "Without my hammer, I'm as useful as a broken blade."
"Hama?"
"Hammer, yes," Amy nodded. "Wait... that's it! Coco, we need your tracking skills again!"
"Ko?"
"Here." She took a small piece of stone that had broken off and drew a line in the ground, with a cylinder on one side.
"Find me this!" She pointed at the hammer.
Coco studied the drawing for a few moments, before nodding and rolling off. Thankfully, the robot was too focused on Amy to try stop Coco from leaving.
Once Coco had vanished from Amy's sight, she held up her fists, hoping to defend herself somehow. She knew that this would be futile, and doubted that this thing would wait any longer for Coco to return with the hammer. What would Sonic do...
Amy closed her eyes and envisioned things that Sonic had done in the past to fight enemies. There was one thing he typically did... he would hold his arms close, then right as the enemy attacked, he would parry that, giving him a chance to strike back.
"Okay, let's try that then." Amy folded her arms in, waiting patiently for the creature to stop circling. Eventually it did, and crossed its arms right in front of her, prompting her to slightly whimper, afraid. If she didn't get this right, then she was going to become a very finely sliced key.
She and the robot stared each other in the eyes, one with no emotion or personality, the other with an obvious lack of confiden---
SLASSHHH!!!
Amy felt a large force, pressing against her arms, and it felt like they were being cut.
"NOW!" She yelled, to no one in particular, and shoved her arms forth. This pushed the bot back, to it and Amy's surprise, and the latter then unleashed a punch at its now exposed abdomen. That was a mistake.
"Owww!" Amy held her hand close. "What're you made of, titanium?!"
The robot recovered from Amy's parry, and stared at her, intimidatingly, before it held its arm up.
"It was just a genuine question!" Amy cried, jumping to the side as the robot slashed the pillar.
As Amy stood, she then noticed some debris falling in front of her face. She glanced up and saw that there was a crack between the pillar and the roof. The slash had dislodged it.
A plan formed in her mind. "If I can get that... Ninja thing to slash the pillar a couple more times, that might knock it out. I don't really want to hurt it, but I don't have much choice."
She ran to the pillar and started trying to shove it. However, it didn't budge. She continued trying and trying, but it felt as though it wouldn't make a difference whether she was an ant. If anything, being a tiny ant would be a plus in this situation, because she didn't have a cyborg Ninja breathing down her neck---
"AAAAHHHH!" She tried to dodge but it was too late. She was slashed in the back and fell.
Amy was trying to get her breath back as she layed on the floor. Not only did she knock the breath out of herself by landing roughly, but her back was... agh...
Amy reached her hand behind her back. She could feel her clothes had been torn, but were still intact. The moment she touched the wound, a sting of pain tingled through her spine. Bringing her hand back around, Amy was incredulous to discover that there was no more than a tiny bit of red on her index finger. Now that she was aware that she wasn't bleeding to death, she just needed to make sure things would stay that way. Which wasn't going to be easy considering the ninja was now looming over her.
"Can't we talk about this?" She begged, as she turned into a sitting position and backed against a pillar. Wait... the pillar!
The creature stared down, before crossing its arms. Amy took a deep breath and stared it in its... visor? Thingy?
This was a double or nothing. If she timed it right, the pillar would collapse, as would the roof. But if she was too early, that would give the ninja the opportunity to see her plan, restrain her, then she would be helpless. As Sonic would say, the game would be over. And if she was too late... enough said.
Amy waited, staring into the Ninja's visor.
. . . . . . .
Amy saw a flicker and heaved herself to the side, right as she heard loud slashing and cracking. Then came a loud rumbling sound, and next thing Amy knew, she was buried in rubble.
A few moments passed, as Amy remained still. She couldn't tell which way up or down was. She also wasn't sure whether she had lived, or whether the Ninja or collapsed temple had killed her. But after a few more seconds, Amy felt a familiar feeling on her hand. Several cold spots... rain. If she were dead, she wouldn't be able to feel that uncomfortability. She had survived!
Amy waited two more seconds. Her hands were positioned with palms facing in the same direction as Amy's face. And the rain was on her palm. Almost directly. This meant that the rain would be pouring onto Amy's face, and that meant that she was simply lying on her back. She used her other hand to shove the rubble in front of her, and managed to see light. She then took a deep breath of air, since she had forgotten to breathe, and finally freed herself.
"Wow... I can't believe I did that!" She glanced around, and the Ninja was nowhere to be seen. "I DID IT! WOOOOOHOOOO!!!" She looked incredibly excited for a few seconds, before her expression fell. Two things had dawned on her.
One was that she hadn't even intended to destroy this robot. Yet she did. Or did she...
That lead into point two: there was something blue, glowing under the pile of rubble. Was that the Ninja? It didn't seem to be moving...
Amy began pulling the rocks away, eventually revealing the source of the glowing. Some sort of... gear?
"What is this...?" she muttered, as she pulled it out among the rubble and studied it.
"Ami!"
"AAAAHHHH!!!" Amy turned sharply, her nerves shot. Thankfully, the only thing that had been behind her was Coco.
"Coco... you scared me! Are you okay?"
"Eido!" Coco replied.
Amy smiled a bit, when she suddenly remembered something. "Hey, Coco... any idea where my hammer is?"
Coco nodded, and rolled off.
"Oh, maybe she couldn't pick it up herself," Amy thought. "Wait for me!" She ran after Coco, which was made harder by carrying the gear.
After ages of running, Amy came to a gap, with a large island on the other side. Sadly, this island was too far to jump, and there wasn't any visible way to cross.
"Huh... well that's a shame," muttered Amy. She glanced around for an answer. Surprisingly, said answer came sooner than she anticipated. There were two large pillars on both her sides, each the same distance from her. The right pillar had some turning gears, well at least for the bottom half. There was a gap, and the top gears were still.
"I see..." Amy glanced down at the gear she had. Slowly and carefully, she walked to the pillar and held the gear up. Abruptly, the gear flew out of her hand and into the mechanism, fitting in place. "It works!" cheered Amy, when she noticed something. "Oh... it still can't reach the top gears..." She grabbed it and attempted to pull it out, to no avail. After giving up on that, Amy checked how wide the gear was with her hands, before hovering her hands above the gap. It was pretty much a perfect fit. "So I need another gear..."
"Take down the guardian."
"Eep!!" Amy glanced up. "Can you at least warn me every time you speak? You're making me nervous."
"There is another Guardian nearby. Just like the J̵̢̡̟̩̪̗̹̥̲͈̟̦̬͊̈́̂̃̃̕͜i̴̧̧̲̯͕͍̻̬̞̔̆͋̉̿́̉̅̎͆͘͜͠͝y̴̯̌̋͂̿̿͒̊̅̾̾̕͠á̴̝͖̜̰̳̗ģ̵̢͚̳̝̝̤̜͔̣̦̪̩̈́̋̋̐̓͌̈́͝͝o̸̳͎̥̙͌̇͗̀̀̂̄̾̓̕̕̕ you fought earlier."
Amy was confused. She had no clue what the voice had just said. "You mean the Ninja?"
"If that is your nickname for it, then yes. Another Guardian, known as the T̴̩̳̂ǒ̴͍̍r̷̹̱̕ö̴͕n̴̙̮̔́y̷̡̘̿ȃ̸̩, can be found nearby. That shall provide you with the gear needed."
"Um, understood," Amy told the voice. "Not very well understood, though..." She glaned around. "I'll go look for the Guidanya or whatever it's called...."
"Koko!"
Amy glanced down. "Oh right, Coco! Help me out here."
Coco nodded, thought for a bit before rolling through Amy's legs and in the opposite direction Amy had been facing.
"Here we go again..." muttered Amy, following Coco closely, as the rain continued to fall.