Archive of Our Own ^beta

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.

Chapter Text

"Coco! Wait up!!!"

"Lokian!"

Amy felt like she had been chasing Coco for ages, because she had. Despite this, they had gone in several circles, and were still by the bridge.

"Why are we still here?" Amy asked, confused. "I don't see anything..."

Suddenly the ground started shaking.

"Eh??" Amy glanced around, trying to identify the cause. As she did, she noticed something rising from the ground... a huge, dark-coloured pillar of sorts, with an owl-like flat head on top and a coiled part in the center.

"What in...." She stared up at the behemoth. Its head did not move, but she could tell it was eyeing her down, too.

"Right... uh..." Amy stepped backwards, doubtful. Suddenly, the pillar rose up, revealing that it was actually more of a stake, due to the pointed base. Sharp enough to impale me right through the heart, Amy thought, and then wished she hadn't.

The weird coil then began spinning, which launched multiple missiles at Amy. "Ahh!!" She very narrowly managed to dodge quite a few. Would have been embarrassing that she had defeated a Ninja and then instantly died to a tower. She didn't need that occuring. But, then again, this battle would be more tricky. Last time, she had external factors that helped, but she was only in a small field, now. Nothing other than the cliffs could help her. Besides, it would be cowardly to rely on outside sources constantly. Sadly, she had no other choice. She couldn't really get physical without her hammer...

Amy had no time to think. The tower rose over her, and prepared to stab down onto her.

"Agh!!" She dodged, within an even narrower margin than the missiles. "Coco! What do I do??"

Coco seemed thoughtful for a few seconds, before glancing toward the cliff face leading to the other island again, between two large, white pillars with blue crystals on top, mirroring another two on the other side..

"Coco, you know I can't get to the other side!" Amy told her.

Coco shook her head, and ran to the edge, which she looked down.

"Hm?" Amy walked over, forgetting about the tower temporarily, and looked down with her. Then she gasped. Down below, on a ledge, was an unmistakable wreckage of Tails' airplane. And right next to it was...

"My hammer!" Amy cried, overjoyed. "But... how did it get here?"

She then heard several blasts from behind, and turned to see a bunch of missles aiming at her.

"Gah! Guess we'll figure that out later!" She jumped down and landed gracefully on the ledge, before grabbing her hammer. It was in as amazing of a condition as it had been when she last saw it, which was confusing but convenient. She turned and clambered back up, curious about what had happened to the tower. She couldn't hear any missiles firing towards her anymore... When she got to the top, she saw what had happened.

Apparently to buy time, Coco had run off to draw the tower's fire. She seemed to do more, as the Tower was floating up and trying to crush her, almost as if it was angry.

"Coco!!" Amy ran at the tower. "Hey! Over here!"

The owl head on top swivelled to face her, before it then rose up and plummeted into the ground. Amy had less narrowly dodged, and leapt up, bouncing off the coil to reach the head.

"Take this!" She rose her hammer up and brought it right down onto the tower's head.

CRACK!!

The tower made a noise similar to the breaking of boulders, and then shut down. Amy was pleased, right up until the Tower slowly began toppling. "Gah!" She jumped off and landed onto the ground, witnessing as the tower fell apart like her jenga tower in the last match she played on Knuckles' turn. Then it slowly... evaporated? It just dissolved into particles, and all that was left was a blue gear, just like with the ninja.

"Ohhh.... that's what you were trying to find! Good work, Coco!" She picked it up and headed to the bridge.

"Helio!" Coco nodded, following Amy. Once there, Amy reached up and inserted the gear between the one she had previously placed and the top gear. At first, nothing occcured. But then, within a few seconds, there was a really loud grinding sound. Amy yelped and covered her ears to try mute it. Once the volume was at a tolerable level, she watched as the bottom gear slowly turned, as did the other two. Then the grinding stopped, so Amy took her hands off her ears. This allowed her to hear a new sound, a pulsing of some sort, to her right. She glanced to see the crystals on top of the two pillars from earlier glowing, which piqued her curiosity and she walked over. The other pillars on the opposite side also had glowing crystals, and the four crystals glowed brightly until the one on Amy's side fired a beam to the opposing side, and the opposite crystals blasted to Amy's side. After that, the beams then moved backwards, and there was a glowing... bridge between the two sides forming as the beams moved. As soon at the beams reached their original sides, they shut off, and the bridge stopped glowing, revealing a regular bridge.

"Whoa... what was that?" Amy asked.

"Luko arg!" Coco explained.

"Okay.... anyway, since you guided me here... that means Sonic's over there, right?"

Coco nodded and prepared to roll off.

"Then let's see what's wrong!" Amy ran across.

Amy was not having a good time. The path Coco had led her on was full of cliffs and smaller enemies. As easy as they were to handle with her hammer back, the journey had taken a toll on her energy. That's what had caused her to end up where she currently was: sitting on a rock, reluctantly swallowing the only food source she could find: some unbelievably sour berries.

"Bleuch... this would be much better if I still had my rations..." She had left the plane wreck far behind now, and had no sense of where she had been, so couldn't get the food she had packed for herself. After swallowing another few berries, she glanced at Coco. "So, are we far?"

Coco seemed thoughtful, before she began focusing. Amy sighed as she watched her, when suddenly something shone in the corner of the eye. She gasped and covered her eyes, before slowly turning to the glowing. The sun was reflecting off... something. Something... blue?

"Sonic???" Whatever the blue object was, it seemed to be among a few white pillars. Amy ran over, ignoring Coco's cries, to see what the object was. However, she didn't need to get all that close to it to realise she was wrong.

The object was far smaller, smoother and shinier than Sonic, and had a vastly different shape. The shame of a gem of sorts... or Emerald. Specifically, Chaos Emerald.

"Oh, of course... Tails did mention they were here!" She went toward the crystal, before suddenly realising there was a sort of forcefield around it. There also seemed to be a hole underneath the platform it rested on, which resembled a keyhole.

"Right... I'm going to need a key for this."

Coco rolled over and glanced up to Amy, who glanced back down. And then it hit her.

"Wait, what am I saying? If we need a key for this, Sonic'll have to be the one to find it. He's adventurous, he'll surely know where to start! Lead the way, Coco!"

"Okai!" Coco turned and rolled off, before Amy followed. As she did, she decided to try take in the nature a bit, considering they were in for a long walk. The rain had cleared up a few minutes ago, but there was still a heavy fog over the island, which wasn't helpful in her wish to see the views.

"Ami!"

"Hm?" Amy glanced over. Coco had stopped, right next to.... what? She couldn't exactly make out what Coco was next to on first glance. Even after a bit of analysing from slightly afar, the closest she could compare it to was a black object which looked similar to viruses she had seen when zoomed in a lot. And inside... inside? She couldn't make it out, but there was a slightly faded figure inside.... Amy slowly got closer, trying to make out exactly who the figure was. It took a while for her to see the basic shape, because the figure was flickering as though they were a hologram inside. She could slightly make out some blue quills----wait.... no... it couldn't be...

"Sonic??!!" She stood at an angle to look inside properly. The blue blur himself, the one she had been tracking all this time... trapped in a weird orb... Sonic didn't even seem to notice Amy. At first, Amy assumed it was because he was too busy to break out, but then she noticed a mix of expressions, all of those she had seen very rarely... concern. Fear. Dread. He looked genuinally afraid for the first time he hadn't gotten too close to water. "Sonic!!" She yelled again, hoping for him to notice her.

"Gotta... keep... running...." Sonic's voice sounded incredibly staticky, and he suddenly began running, seemingly on the spot, but the apparent wind blowing his hair back proved otherwise. "Can't... let it... spread..."

"Sonic?" She gently placed her hand on the orb, seeing Sonic look a bit under the weather. "I..." Amy suddenly gained a sense of confidence. "Don't worry. I'll get you out. Then you can help me find Tails.... hopefully he's not in this same state as you..." She turned and ran off, with a new sense of confidence and motivation. Coco looked at her, and quickly followed after her. And neither of them noticed the face staring at them from behind a large rock.

"She escaped.... impossible...." The owner of the face muttered. "...As must be to keep my creator safe, I cannot let her interfere."

Amy looked around, pretty upset. This wasn't something she was exactly pleased by. The worst part was that she had no idea what sort of thing could free Sonic. And this time, Coco couldn't help, because she could only search for things if she was given a referance.

"So... any ideas, Coco?" She looked at her new friend, open to answers.

Coco looked down, seemingly hesitant, when suddenly her face lit up. "Jem!" She turned to face towards Sonic.

"Um, what's your idea?" Amy asked in confusion. Coco shook her head and gestured past Sonic, to the blue chaos emerald. "The Emerald?"

"Ami jem! Polia jem!"

"Uhh, we can't get the 'gem', Coco. We need a key. ...Ooohhh, I get it! You want me to find the key?"

"A ho! Lekdas oregman aforo, eksmo Sani!"

"Um.... something along the lines of saving Sonic?"

"A ho!"

Amy smiled. She was slowly learning Coco's language. 'Haiyu' meant danger, 'Ami' was Amy, 'jem' was gem, aka: a Chaos emerald, and 'Sani' was the most likely word to be Sonic.

"That just begs the question... where can we find a key?"

This stumped Coco as much as it did Amy. The two looked down, thoughtfully. Then Coco looked up, curious.

"What's up?" Amy asked, following Coco's line of direction. Not too far away was a collection of some amount of... blue items? Amy got a bit closer, before realising that they looked similar to... floating chilli dogs? "Okay, this day keeps getting weirder, and not in a good way."

Coco then tried to seemingly grab, or at least touch one of them, but just phased through it.

"These might come in handy... I'm guessing." Amy reached to grab it, but instead of her hand phasing through, the chilli dog then became a tiny blue particle, which seeped into her hand. "Oh! Well, that works, I suppose."

"Olao!" Coco nodded.

"But back to the key..." Amy muttered, looking around. "Well, we have a large island to explore. Let's get to it!"

Dr Eggman wandered around, pretty frustrated. He was completely trapped in an odd dimension, full of crossroads and cars, all gathered in a way of floating segments. As impressive as this was, a new assistant of his was yet to help him escape. Blasted ancients with their blasted Cyberspace traps... how could this even occur?

He then heard some warping behind him, and turned, as a grin formed on his face. A floating girl with white hair, a black dress, a visible red eye and red particles surrounding her was staring at him.

"Status report. What's happening out there?" Eggman asked.

"Your nemesis, Sonic, and his allies, Miles Prower and Amy Rose, were sighted off the coast of the island. Although the result was not immediate, I have managed to trap and contain Sonic and Miles in Cyberspace."

"Oh, have they, now?" Eggman's grin grew wider. "Well, this is definitely helpful."

"To make matters better, I allowed for Sonic to relive his lowest moment on repeat almost indefinitely."

"Perfect! Looks like everything's fine up there. Now, how about helping me esca---"

"Not exactly." The girl interrupted swiftly. "Amy Rose has somehow escaped Cyber Space, and is now roaming around the island."

"Ah... you should have led with that. Not that it's too much of an issue... I'm completely fine here."

Seemingly concerned by Eggman's nochalance, the girl looked thoughtful for a second, as if calculating something. Only for a second, however. "Also, if Amy finds a way to access our data files, since your buildings are still in good enough condition for her to investigate, she could cause all of our data to either be undermined or worse, if handled incorrectly, erased."

"Erased?? I spent ages on that!" Eggman cried out. "Have you gotten good enough control over those large creations yet?"

"Titans, and I am still trying to build up enough power to do so."

"Right... well then just find a way to get rid of her! And find an exit from this place, while you're at it!"

"I have run 10,634,827 different simulations. None result in your escape."

"Well keep running!" Eggman told her. "Make it your number one priority! I mean, I know I want you to destroy Amy, but the sooner I can get out, the sooner I'll do it myself." He then went to his Eggmobile, and flew off, presumably to explore these roads.

The girl stared after him, concerned. Of course, the possibility of Amy causing destruction to data was a lie. But she didn't feel prepared to tell her creator the truth about why it was taking so long to find him an escape, or why she had to... recontain Amy. Destruction would only come if necessary. Amy, of course, was very far from being as capable as Sonic, but she could not take any risks. Almost three quarters of the simulations she had run of Amy exploring the islands without her interception would result in the result she found the most unbearable. It would put her creator in danger... and against what Eggman had said, keeping him safe was her true number one priority.

Amy was starting to sense that a large majority of her quest to purify Sonic would be following Coco around, as if she were on a leash. And something about that didn't appeal to her. Thankfully, this did mean she could grab a multitude of the unusual holographic chilli dogs, which didn't make this feel any less like this was a possibly fever dream.

Although, truth be told, she was quite fond of the scenery on this island. Now that the rain had stopped, she could now hear the tweeting of birds. This calmed her, as the voice had claimed there was 'none other than her'. And it felt less desolate, less.... post apocalyptic. She didn't know where she got that sense from, just that it had been nagging her for a while.

On the note of nagging, Coco had noticed Amy fall behind often, and would mostly stop to wait for her, yelling impatiently. Amy spotted her performing this process for the fourth time in this last hour.

"Amiii!"

"Okay, okay!" Amy picked up the pace. "Not everyone can be fast as Sonic."

Coco rolled her eyes, seemingly annoyed, when Amy suddenly saw a shadow over her. She glanced up.... and up.... as her mouth dropped open. A giant behemoth... tree? It reminded her of a tree. Well, whatever it was, it seemed to have two legs, three massive, flat arm-like appendages, and one of the latter headed right for Coco.

"COCO!!!!"

"Am? HAIYUU!!!" Coco quickly attempted to dodge, but the hand suddenly landed directly on her, eradicating her from Amy's view.

"NOOO!!!!" Amy charged at the hand and quickly prepared to bring her hammer on top, before realising something: that would likely kill Coco if she were still alive underneath. She could tell Coco was made of a hard, rock like substance, but she wasn't trusting her powerful hammer. Amy looked around for something, anything to help, when she noticed that the Tree had some red spikes on top of its arms, surrounded by forcefields. Considering the forcefields... that seemed like her best bet.

"Don't worry, Coco!" Amy cried, before she jumped onto the arm and ran right up to the first spike. The spike seemed to be on top of a platform, almost like a shoulder guard, so she leapt up and landed on said shoulder guard. Thankfully, the large, circular forcefields seemed to have a large gap between them. After perfecting her timing, Amy dashed in and smashed the spike.

BOOOM!!!!

"Gyah!" Amy was launched back as she landed on the ground, pretty hard, both from the force of the explosion and the height she had fallen from. Yet, she felt well enough to stand, and smiled to see the arm had disentegrated as Coco ran to her. But now the tree, with two arms left, seemed furious at Amy, and slowly lumbered towards her. "Guess I'd better finish this..." She ran towards it at high speed.

Suddenly, Amy noticed some red, holographic circles being projected outwards. Confused, Amy tried to stop, but was unable to diminish her momentum before she ran into one of the circles. It felt as though she had run headfirst into a trampoline, as she was instantly catapulted back.

"AGH!!" Amy yelped, managing barely to keep her footing. Thankfully, a gap quickly formed between the circles, which she quickly dashed between, and began clambering up the arm again. The climb wasn't as easy, however, and by the time Amy reached the top, she was a lot more exhausted. She was just about ready to obliterate this creature. Thankfully, she was at a great angle where if she tossed her hammer, she could crush both spikes at once. Amy tossed her hammer at the first one, only for the forcefield to deflect it back. She yelped and caught it right before it fell toward the ground, far below.

"What Blaze would give to not be here currently..." Amy muttered under her breath, before she steeled herself. Unfortunately, there was only one gap in the forcefield, so even if she hit the first spike, the forcefield would just bounce her hammer away again, and Amy would have to climb again... that would be possible, but she didn't really have the energy for it. Then she realised something: the forcefield didn't surround the whole spike. For both, the spike stuck out at the top, completely unprotected.... perfect.

"Right..." Amy crouched slightly. "Take this!!" She jumped up, moved forth and as soon as she landed, jumped again to gain height, as she rose to the level of the spike tops. Just haad to line it up... there!

"RAGH!!!" Amy tossed her hammer, and as it swirled, both spike tops were crushed, causing the rest of the spikes, as well as the arms, to disentegrate. Amy quickly ran to the Tree's apparent head so she wouldn't fall to the ground. A big mistake, which she quickly learnt after she felt the head, and the entire body, rumbling for that matter, as the Tree fell to its knees... and vanished, leaving Amy floating in the air.

Two sounds proceeded from the Hedgehog. The first was a small "Oh.." as the creature faded. Then a much longer sound proceeded as Amy fell towards the ground at an alarming speed: "AAAAHHHHH!!!!"

"Ami!!" Amy managed to see Coco running towards her, right as she landed face first into the ground.

"OOF!!!"

Amy wasn't knocked unconscious, but she was quite dazed for a while. It took a small while to process the little Koco stood in front of her face, saying her name in concern.

"Ow... I'm fine, Coco," Amy reassured her as she stood up. "I... think..."

Coco smiled, relieved, but then looked behind Amy in curiosity. "Pal?"

"Huh?" Amy glanced in her direction, which led to her seeing an odd... glow in the grass... "That's not normal..." Amy slowly approached the glowing object and brushed the grass away to make it out. A white stick with a hollow triangle on one end and two smaller lines vertically placed on the other end, if the overall stick was held horizontally.

"A key..." Amy muttered. "Well, that's odd---wait, a key? We need a key for the vault! Maybe this could work!"

Coco nodded in agreement, before the two left to find the Emerald. Thankfully that didn't take too long, as Amy could see a blue pillar of light leading to the blue vault. On the way, she managed to grab some more holographic chili dogs, sensing they were important in some way.

As soon as she reached the vault, Amy pulled out the key and inserted it into the lock. A perfect fit... she then tilted it and there was a loud 'click' sound, before the lock glowed and vanished. After that, the blue emerald floated up from its pedestal, and downwards towards Amy. She looked at it for a bit, curious, before she grabbed it and put it in her pocket. Before it fell right through.

"Oh great..." Amy muttered. It seemed that the powerful attacks from the Tree and Ninja had damaged her clothing quite badly, particularly the right side. No matter, she could easily fix it up once she rescued Sonic. Speaking of which, she walked over to him, and saw him, yet again, distressed.

"Poor thing..." she muttered. "Any ideas how to help him, Co--gah!" She said this as the chili dogs suddenly appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the cage, before it, sort of... absorbed them. "Odd..." Amy checked over the sphere, deducing that it was a lot more pale in the sense of the red coloring. Slowly, Amy reached her hand out towards the sphere..... right as it suddenly shattered into pieces, which became red beams that zapped right into her arm.

"GAH!!!" Amy held her arm close to herself, as it then began flickering slightly and turning black.... then she glanced at the prison and gasped.

Sonic was out of the prison... but his state implied he was not yet free.

Chapter Text

Sonic looked around, relieved to have restored the beasts before him to their regular states... all of his friends and allies, together, sharing his relief.... when they disappeared. Sonic glanced around, confused as to where everyone went, when he saw someone had remained. Amy. But instead of glancing around, she was holding her hand close, in pain, as it seemed her hand was being covered in a black substance... and then the background changed. He was now in a cloudy area, with pale grass wherever he glanced, and a few trees in the distance. But something felt... off... he moved his fingers slightly whilst not looking at his hand, and couldn't feel said hand doing anything. He couldn't feel... anything... he glanced down at his hand and gasped. He could almost... see directly through it, as it was barely visible. And the outlines seemed to be glitching slightly, as if his hand were a hologram.... scratch that, he thought, as he looked at his other arm, and his feet, with the same appearance as his hand, it's like my whole body is a hologram... what's going on?

"Sonic!"

Sonic glanced up as Amy ran over to him, still holding her blackened hand close as a weird clay doll thing rolled after her. "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" Sonic asked. "You're the one being infused with weird zappy stuff!"

"Doesn't that happen to you often?" Amy pointed out.

"Good point..." Sonic muttered. "Still, nice to see you again. I didn't have much fun in.... wherever I was..." He held out his hand. Amy smiled and gently grabbed it. Or tried to, as her hand passed right through his.

"AH!!" Both hedgehogs jumped back in fright and confusion at the occurrence.

"It's like you're a ghost..." Amy thought aloud. "What's happening?"

"Why don't you tell me?" Sonic asked.

"Wait, you are not normally a ghost?" The little clay doll thing asked. Something about it speaking gave Sonic a weird feeling, but he ignored it.

"No, not normally," Sonic replied.

"Who're you talking to?" Amy asked.

"Your little clay buddy here," Sonic replied, gesturing to said clay buddy.

"Wait... you can talk to Coco?" Amy asked.

"Wait, you can't?" Sonic responded.

"Hm... maybe whatever state you're in right now is.... translating Coco?"

"Good point," Sonic nodded. "Although it feels... natural. Like I could always do this. Then again, I've never met a creature like Coco before, so---"

"Koco!" Coco squeaked, interrupting him.

"Umm, yes, Coco. That's your name."

"That's also the species name," Amy explained.

"Ohhhh," Sonic nodded, understanding. "Right, so uh, where was I?"

"Good question..." Amy muttered.

"You know what, not important," Sonic exclaimed. "Where were you?"

"Oh, um, exploring the island," Amy explained. "I was looking for you and Tails... Coco here helped me find you."

"Nice of her," Sonic commented, bending down and patting Coco on the head.

"Yeah... I also heard this weird voice that told me some weird things..."

"Like?"

"Um... something along the lines of 'tearing down the wall between dimensions'... also it claims I'm a 'key' of sorts, but that can't be right, especially not the part about taking down Titans... that's clearly your job."

Sonic looked up at Amy, slightly hurt by the remark. "My... job?"

"Uhh, sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Amy apologized. "I meant to say that I feel like you would be much better for this... but you're in his state... maybe the rest of you is still in cyberspace? Hold on, I'll think of how to help! I can start by finding the emeralds for you to take on the titans!"

"Wait---"

"Okay seeya!" Amy quickly dashed off, as Coco followed. Sonic looked after her, feeling pretty bad--not just for himself, but for Amy. He was amazed by how much she thought Sonic was suitable for this more so than her, even though he had doubts that he was in the right condition for helping out anyone. Had he and Amy swapped positions, he would have eagerly used the emeralds to take on the titans... maybe that was why Amy felt bad. After all, he was more of the hero, since he had done a lot to help Amy. His recent... nightmare-like sequence was a good example of his often heroism... but Amy could often be a hero, too. Maybe it was more so that she was never really a 'chosen one' prior to now... maybe that was where her anti-confidence had come from.

"Might be faster to help her than for her to help me," Sonic muttered, as he dashed after Amy. Had he contemplated a few more seconds, he would have noticed the figure looming over the forest Amy had just run into, staring at her position.

"I must take actions soon." The figure glanced around, thoughtfully. "I will wait to see if she is able to obtain one more emerald. If so, then I shall make the move to imprison her, as a brief test of her skill. A good way to prove to father that she is a threat that needs to be eliminated as soon as this has been reaffirmed."

"So where is the second emerald?" Amy asked Coco. In response, she just looked up to Amy. "Oh, right... you don't know the colours of the other emeralds... well, any would work."

"I'd go for the red one next," Sonic exclaimed, as he suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Eep!" Amy jumped back, startled. "How did you do that?"

"I'm the fastest thing alive," Sonic responded, "How else would I have done that?"

"N-no, you just... teleported," Amy replied.

"I did?" Sonic looked down at himself. "I thought that was just my speed... hold on." Sonic began running in circles around Amy, but the difference in how fast he could complete a circle now and how fast he could complete one usually was night and day.

"What happened to your speed??" Amy asked, concerned.

"Huh... I don't know..." Sonic stopped running. "Maybe the part of me that's good at running is also stuck in Cyberspace."

"Well that's inconvenient..." Amy muttered. "Don't worry, I'll find a way to save you."

"Sounds good!" Sonic nodded. "So what can you tell me about this island so far?"

"Well..." Amy looked down thoughtfully. "It's inhabited by the Koco, and these weird mechanical beings... there's been a Ninja, a Tower and a Tree so far."

"Uhh... sounds kinda out there."

"It gets weirder..." Amy exclaimed. "I had to free you with the use of... holographic chili dogs."

"Come again?"

"I know... very odd..."

Sonic was clearly bewildered by this. "I expected to find all kinds of strange stuff around here, but not this stuff..."

"Yeah, it is we---"

"Haiyo!"

"Hm??" Amy pulled out her hammer quickly.

"Whoa, is the island that dangerous already?" Sonic asked.

"Huh? Uhh, well, I hear whatever she said as 'Haiyu', which implies danger."

"She just said 'look'," Sonic pointed out.

"Really??" Amy then realised she had said 'Haiyo' instead of 'Haiyu'. "Oh... what is it, Coco?"

The little Koco glanced upwards, and the pair followed her gaze. Floating above was an odd metallic body with some sort of purple stream following it. As Amy squinted to get a better look, she noticed that the head looked like that of a squid: a triangular head and a pair of tentacles.

"That must be one of the Guardians," Amy exclaimed.

"Erdio!" Coco exclaimed, as Sonic looked down, bewildered.

"What did she say?" Amy asked.

"I... I couldn't comprehend that word whatsoever," Sonic admitted. "Maybe we'll just call it a Squid."

"Erm, that's not too creative," Amy exclaimed.

"You got a better idea?" Sonic asked.

"Erm, maybe Kraken? That's at least a bit more intimidating than simply 'Squid'."

"Aw come on, it'd be pretty funny to call it a Squid," Sonic exclaimed. Amy did not like that.

"We're stuck on a mysterious island, and you're trapped as a hologram. How can you try to be funny at a time like this???"

"Hey, just trying to lighten the mood," Sonic replied, holding his hands up slightly. "Okay, Kraken wins."

"Good. So what about the Kraken, Coco?"

Coco then started chatting to Sonic, who nodded and glanced to Amy.

"She says that this Guardian might give us a key to the next vault," he translated.

"Okay, perfect! You look for the next vault, and I'll try get the key." Amy pulled out her hammer, but promptly hesitated. "Erm, on second thought, maybe I don't need to attack the Kraken... it hasn't even provoked us."

"Well it seems to be our best course of action," Sonic pointed out. "Well, good luck!" Sonic dashed off with his new slow speed, but redeemed himself by teleporting away.

"Oh... uh, okay.." Amy then ran towards the Kraken, with Coco in pursuit. "Hey! Kraken!"

Almost as if there was a spring in its neck, the Kraken sharply turned to face her. Upon seeing her, it started launching red orbs from its 'tentacles'.

"Whoa!" Amy sidestepped to the right to avoid the first, jumped left to avoid the second and used her hammer to deflect the next two. After that, it zoomed off, leaving the long purple trail behind. Amy followed, before noticing the creature flew under a natural bridge above a river, at a good enough level for Amy to jump onto the trail. With slight hesitation, Amy did exactly that, and began to run on the trail after the Kraken. "You can't shake me off that easily!"

The Kraken looked back, seemingly annoyed, before blasting towards its trail, the closest part, before the orbs flew along the tail towards Amy in patterns, such as going from left to right, or in the middle, then the sides. For the former, Amy jumped right, waited for the center orb, and went back into the middle to dodge the one on the right. And for the latter, she jumped to the left, then into the center, and then the right as it blasted in the middle again. After a while of running, Amy swiftly reached the Kraken's main body, and swung her hammer right at its supposed forehead.

After that, the trail that had been following suddenly was, sort of, 'yanked in', and formed a circle, as the Kraken stayed in the center. Amy glanced down, slightly jarred, before glancing up at the Kraken, which now had its arms poised in a striking position.

"Whoa!!!" Amy swiftly jumped over it, before she jumped up into the air and began spinning, swinging her hammer vertically to slam the Kraken on its head several times in a row. After that, she landed on her feet, and regained her footing, only for an explosion from the Kraken to knock her back, causing her to fall off the platform. "Not agaaaiiin!!!" She quickly stopped herself from flailing in the sky and was now falling in a starfish position, while her front faced downwards. As she glanced down at the world below, desperate for some way to break her fall, she then noticed a small sequence of bounce pads below. "There!" She slowly guided herself towards the bounce pads, and then righted herself so she was falling feet first. She braced herself for the impact...

BOING!!

"Whoa!!" Amy yelped in surprise as she bounced back upwards. Thankfully, her momentum from falling didn't carry over, so she didn't fly as high. This allowed her to properly land next to the bounce pad. She smiled, before glancing over at where the Kraken had been hovering. As she did, she then noticed another glowing key, slowly descending, before it landed in a small patch of red flowers.

"Right.... looks like it was worth it." Amy rushed over, and quickly grabbed the key, before looking at the debris of the destroyed Kraken... or lack thereof. "It's really strange, isn't it, Coco?" She glanced down at her small companion, who had rolled over to greet her.

"Uagi?" Coco seemed to be questioning Amy's confusion.

"Oh, err, well, whenever I defeat these Guardians, they just.... vanish. These are large, mechanical behemoths, yet when they're destroyed, they leave nothing behind...." She put the key in her pocket, only for it to fall through again. "Heh, except for scars in my clothing... once I get the red emerald, I'll get that fixed."

"Lupa!" Coco was looking at her dress.

"Erm, yes, dress," Amy nodded.

"Lupa lupa!" At that moment, Coco seemed to glance between her dress and the red flowers in the patch.

"Wait.... so... lupa means red?" Amy questioned.

"Lupa." Coco bluntly replied.

"Right...." Amy thought for a few moments, before smiling. "Okay, Coco, I need you to find the red emerald.... errm, lupa jem? Or... jem lupa? What's the order?"

Either way, Coco seemed to understand, and thought for a moment, before she quickly rolled off, down towards the stream where Amy had encountered the Kraken.

Amy sighed, before running after her. "Here we go again...."

Unlike most of her Coco chases, this one was blissfully short. After a mere few minutes of running, Amy had reached a large, yet shallow, creek, with a sort of island in the middle. As she approached it, she then noticed that indeed, there was a pedestal on the middle of the island, containing the red emerald. "Great work, Coco!" Amy inserted a key into the lock around the pedestal. Slowly, the forcefield dissipated, allowing for Amy to take this next emerald, and pocket it, this time in a pocket she knew wasn't broken. "Now to find Sonic...."

"Sani!" Coco rolled off, as Amy continued to chase after her. As they headed through a large, open field, Amy decided to spark up a conversation.

"You know, once Sonic and Tails are saved, I plan to properly look around this island in my own time," she remarked. "You know, without having to follow a Koco around constantly. Maybe I'll invite Cream and Sticks here. I'm sure they'd love a field trip!"

"Hai?" Coco seemed to briefly question Amy, before she kept rolling on.

"Oh, they're just two of many friends I have," Amy explained. "I know tons of other people, and most are great friends of mine! I hope that I... can...." Amy trailed off as she noticed the air slightly... distorting, about 100 metres ahead. She just shrugged it off. Maybe she was just tired.

"Fren?" Coco was now intrigued.

"Oh, well, yes, there's other friends. I probably would've invited some if I had more time, but I was busy fighting one of Eggman's robots.... There's a lot to explore. I'm sure Tangle would---"

Before Amy could say another word, the distorted air flashed, and there was a dark shape flickering, which suddenly appeared, right as Amy had run under it. And Amy saw it dropping, right towards her. "AAHHHHH!!!!" She screamed loudly, before narrowly dodging. As she did, she felt a large boom from behind her, as the... object landed. Slowly, Amy got to her feet, and turned. The weird black object was connected to.... something. Curious, she slowly glanced upwards, seeing it was connected to... to.... to.... Amy's mouth dropped wider and wider as she tilted her head further and further and further upwards, even more than she had for the Tree. Because compared to this behemoth.... the Tree was more of a Sapling.

Once Amy had finally tilted her head far back enough, she was left staring at an utterly enormous humanoid robot, with a broad torso and large shoulders compared to its narrow limbs and lower body. Its arms ended in three-fingered hands, while its legs terminated in rounded stumps, one of which was the object that had nearly crushed Amy earlier. Once she saw what appeared to be its head, said head appeared to have a massive mouth with multiple nested jaws of squared teeth. A pair of protrusions extended from its chin, and it had a long neck that gave it some sort of... hunchback posture. Light coursed through various lines on its body, and it had holes around its body, which eerily resembled the eyes that it lacked on its head. Upon drawing that comparison, Amy had wished she hadn't.

"What.... in......" Amy was feeling short of breath, as the creature was just.... bigger than anything she had ever seen. "What is...."

"Co......." Coco seemed in just as much shock as Amy did.

What the Behemoth did next shocked Amy even further. It was currently positioned in a way that it was facing Amy's left, but not completely. In a way that if Amy was north, and her left was east, the creature would be looking north-east. However, its head then slowly began to turn. Towards the 'north', and at the same time, directing its vision downwards. It then stopped both of these once its head was pointed in Amy's exact direction. Even though it had no eyes, Amy couldn't shake the feeling that it was.... staring at her.

"Oh.... oh no..... oh no no no....." Amy muttered, stepping back slightly. The creature continued to follow her. At this point, she suddenly remembered something. "Wait.... that voice mentioned Titans..... is this a Titan???"

"Argyu...." Coco seemed just as clueless, until she was alerted to something. "Haiyo!"

"Hm?" Amy glanced up. Next to the Behemoth, as she was naming it, roughly next to its head, was.... something. Floating. It was like a fly in comparison to the Titan. From where she was currently, Amy could only see a few of the colours.... the small thing looked red, and black, and slightly white, too.... on the top. She strained her vision slightly, when the thing vanished. Just.... completely vanished, leaving a few red particles. "Well..." Amy glanced down at Coco, then back up at the Titan. "That was wei---GAH!!!!" Amy had yelped suddenly, as something appeared in front of her, floating up slightly. From the colours, Amy could immediately tell that it was the thing from earlier, but after taking in its appearance, she was left in shock.

Whatever this thing was, it looked just like some sort of human girl... a young one at that. Couldn't have been older than Cream. Her body seemed relatively slim, with a round head, and pale skin, complete with white hair that covered her right eye. However, what frightened Amy was that her visible eye was a bright red, a similar red that matched a streak through her hair. And the rest of her body was just.... black. It looked like she wore a robe, but under that robe, her hands and legs seemed to be black, too. Only seemed, because the girl herself looked distorted. A course of red seemed to flicker across her body, almost like part of her was.... holographic. In fact, it reminded her of what Sonic seemed like in his current state.

"You. Leave. Immediately." The girl's words were sharp, as she stared at Amy.

"Wh...what's going on?" Amy asked, looking back at her. "Are you trapped in Cyberspace, too?"

"Your actions endanger the world, Amy Rose," she replied, seemingly ignoring Amy's questions. "Now give up, and leave the Starfall Islands."

Amy stared up, hesitantly. As she made eye contact, she shuddered slightly. The girl's eyes betrayed no emotion, as she stared blankly at Amy. Normally, Amy could tell what people were feeling by looking at them, but here.... she felt as emotionless as a robot.

"I.... I can't," Amy stated, finding her voice. "My friends need me... they're trapped, and I won't leave without them."

"If you do not leave, I will either force you to, or simply trap you again."

"Wait.... again....?" Amy thought slightly to herself, before she realised. "You're the one who trapped Sonic!!"

"I did what I had to. And I will again do what is necessary."

"What.... why do you 'have' to lock us up???" Amy demanded.

"That is classified information."

Amy glanced up, frustrated. "Alright, how about I give you my own choice??" Amy pulled out her hammer. "Let my friends go, and we'll leave peacefully. If you don't, I'll reduce that Titan of yours to scrap."

The robot-like girl seemed somehow unfazed by Amy's threat, before she seemed to think. "According to my database, it is Sonic who is stubborn and impulsive. And you are more quiet and gentle. Perhaps it needs updating."

"Database..? Er, well, of course it needs updating!" Amy was annoyed. "Now, do we have a deal?"

"This is your last warning," the girl stated. Amy could suddenly sense emotion: a very, very slight tint of rage deep in her bright red eyes, or eye that Amy could see. "I cannot fully control the Titan, but I can awaken its rage against you." As she made the statement, she slowly raised her arm behind her, seemingly gesturing to the Behemoth.

"I, uhh...." Amy seemed to hesitate, but shook her head and braced herself. "I've taken on four Guardians already! I'll do what I have to to save Sonic!"

"....Very well." The girl clenched her fist slightly, as the Titan stood alert. "If we are fortunate, it will destroy you." Without warning, she vanished again, leaving Amy at the mercy of the Behemoth.

"Wha---" Amy was once again shocked, as she glanced around. "Where did she..."

Before she could think properly, she heard what seemed to be a loud, low, growling sound, echoing all around her. It felt like an earthquake, simply hearing the voice...

"Guyo...." Coco seemed incredibly frightened by the sound, cowering by Amy's leg.

"Maybe I'm a bit in over my head...." Amy muttered as she glanced up at the Behemoth, clearly the source of the sound. It didn't seem to be making any moves yet... Amy glanced down at Coco. "It's alright, Coco. You get out of here, and stay safe."

"Ami...?" Coco asked.

"Yes, I'll be fine," Amy insisted, as she knelt down to Coco's level and gently nudged her. "Get to safety, little one. I'll handle this."

Even if most of Coco's language was still a mystery to Amy, she was definitely an expressive little Coco. And, at the moment, for some odd reason, she seemed to be absolutely seeping with reluctance. But she slowly turned and began walking off, turning to see Amy once more, before she ran off.

"Wonder why she seemed... sad to leave..." Amy muttered, before turning around to the Behemoth. "Well, uh... here goes nothing!" She raised her hammer and charged head-on towards the Behemoth. "RARGHH!!!"

As she charged, she was starting to wonder whether the Behemoth was actually planning to attack her at all. It didn't seem to be moving a lot, the most being its head as it watched her run towards it. But then, without warning, it started lifting its foot.

"Uh oh!" Amy quickly skidded to a halt, a rather safe distance. She had narrowly avoided crushing once, and didn't plan to make as close of a call again.

Oddly, the Behemoth didn't seem too focused on Amy stopping, as it quickly went down the route it would have if Amy kept running, and thrust its foot downwards, stomping with pure force.

BOOM!

Amy staggered back slightly, watching as the rocks erupted around the Behemoth's foot. But something weirder was that there seemed to be some odd... smoke rising up with the rocks. And weirder yet, some rocks that weren't near the broken ones were also rising up at a worrying speed. And the line these rocks were on were headed for---

"AAGHH!!!" Amy cried out in shock, as the rocks beneath her suddenly launched up, and she launched up with them. As she rose, she realised that indeed, there had been a line formed by the stomp, headed for her. A fissure seemed to have formed below, and the smoke was possibly the cause for everything launching up. But no other fissures... did Behemoth somehow control the fissure line forming??

That wasn't important. Apparently Amy had to take this Titan down to... tear down the walls between dimensions? Of course, that must mean that defeating this Titan would free Sonic from the Cyberspace Dimension he was mostly trapped in. Amy adjusted her grip on her hammer, and began leaping across from boulder to boulder, closing the distance between her and Behemoth that she had been too scared to earlier. As she did, she swore there was some sort of... glow coming from atop its head, but that wasn't important currently.

"Take THIS!!" Amy leapt at the creature, and swung her hammer in a sideways motion, with as much strength as she could. It smashed right into the left side of the creature, but... nothing. There was no crack, no sound besides a somewhat pathetic duff, no cracks or shards appearing, and no reaction. It was almost like she hadn't hit him at all. "Wha--"

Before Amy could think, the world suddenly went dark, at the same time as she felt something wrap around her, the grip constricting. "AGH!!!" Amy tried to get free, confused at what was going on, but it was no use. Her arms were pinned to her sides, as was her hammer, making the experience even less pleasant.

As she attempted to comprehend what was going on, she felt movement around her. Almost like whatever had wrapped her was now moving somewhere. Quickly, the sensation stopped, but the grip only tightened, causing more pain to her.

"Owwww...." Amy gasped, now struggling to breathe. "What's going---"

It was hard to comprehend what happened after that. She knew she had suddenly been blinded by light, as the darkness faded, but the light seemed to be contemporary, as she had almost instantly hit a terminal velocity of some sort, being launched in some way. As she spun through the air, she couldn't help but scream as her surroundings blurred, unsure what was going on. But the feeling got worse as---

CRASH! CRASH! CRASSSHHH!!!!

Amy felt several sudden jolts of pain as she hit what she could only presume were obstacles of some sort, almost feeling the remnants of these obstacles digging into her skin, before she hit another.

"AAAHHHHHH!!!!"

After the scream of pain, Amy barely realised she had come to a stop... barely realised, that was. She was quickly losing sense of reality, as she saw the Behemoth in the distance, somehow, still staring at her in intimidation...

As the Behemoth, and the landscape slowly rose up, until Amy was now facing some sort of floor below...

And falling towards it...

"Amiiiii! Aaaaammiiiiiii!!!"

"H......huh....?" Amy was struggling to wake up, again. Her headache was back, and more fierce than ever before, not to mention she felt immensely dizzy. But the calls... they sounded so desperate.... She slowly opened her eyes, to see two blurred shapes above her, a grey one and a blue one.

"Phew, glad you're up," the blue blur exclaimed, relief in his familiar voice. "Coco here thought you were gone!"

"A...and... you didn't...?" Amy weakly muttered, as her eyes adjusted, allowing her to see Coco and Sonic properly.

"Amii!" Coco started nuzzling against her cheek, clearly relieved to see her alive and well.

"You're pretty tough," Sonic replied. "It'd take more than Giganto over there to get you out of the picture." As Amy attempted to stand, yet struggled slightly, she noticed Sonic's smile somewhat faltering. "I'd take it easy for a little bit if I were you, though," he suggested, surprising for him. "That big guy clearly took a lot out of you."

"Wow... that's..." Amy murmured, as she slowly made it to her feet, but was still pretty shaky. "Pretty mature of you," she finished, looking at Sonic. "You're not the kind to suggest people take five and rest."

"Like I said," Sonic exclaimed, crossing his arms, "I'd take a break if I were YOU. But, if I were still me, and standing proud and tall, I'd be trying to figure out a way to kick that guy's butt."

It took a moment for Sonic's words to sink in, but as they did, Amy slowly felt miserable again. She glanced away, feeling more like a failure than she had before. "The voice was wrong..."

"Huh? What voice?" Sonic asked.

"Oh, right, I didn't mention..." Amy looked back at him. "When I arrived here, I heard a voice, telling me that I'm the key to destroying the Titans and breaking down the walls between this world and Cyberspace. At first, I thought she had the two of us mixed up, but when I saw you like..." She gestured to Sonic's see-through form as she spoke, "this, I was thinking, maybe they were right. Maybe I was meant to be the hero to help..." Amy looked away. "But after that embarrassing show against Behemoth... I didn't even make a dent.... I just... don't think they were right." She slowly sat down on the ground, and curled up, promptly realising that her dress was even more ruined than it was before. "I'm not a key... this is your responsiblity... I can't do anything to help."

"Ami..." Coco ran over and nuzzled against Amy's leg, almost attempting to reassure her. But Amy couldn't feel it. It was like trying to open a cupboard door to get the key inside. If the Behemoth was what kept Sonic in Cyberspace, and only Sonic could stand a chance against it...

As she stared down at Coco, she suddenly noticed something glowing slightly in the corner of her eye. She glanced over, and noticed that Sonic was trying to put his hand on Amy's shoulder, but since it kept phasing through, he seemed to give up and just let it hover slightly above her shoulder.

"From what Coco here told me," Sonic replied, "you can do stuff to help. You already have. You took on four of these Guardians and won, you got both the blue and red emeralds, and you freed me from Cyberspace!" He looked at his other hand, a flash of melancholy crossing his face. "Sure, I'm not completely free yet, but you're making progress!"

Amy smiled, very slightly. "Thanks... but I just don't know how to handle the Behemoth..."

"And you think I do?" Sonic asked, oddly smirking. "If your hammer couldn't make a dent, I don't see how I could've done any better even if I weren't like this. Most I'd do is try and persevere to find a way to defeat it. Maybe you can give that a shot?"

"Hm..." Amy considered Sonic's suggestion. "I suppose it beats sitting around haplessly." She stood up. "Alright, maybe you're right... there should be a way I can destroy it to get you free."

"That's the spirit!" Sonic exclaimed, beaming. "So what do we know?"

"Erm," Amy thought slightly, "it seems practically indestructable, and incredibly powerful."

"Yeah," Sonic nodded. "If it tried just crushing you instead of throwing you, chances are things would be much worse..."

"Yeah... wait, throwing?"

"Uh, yeah?" Sonic pointed upwards. "You hit a few pillars and landed in the side of that mountain. I saw that all the way from the distance."

"Huh?" Amy looked up, and gasped in shock. Behind them was a large mountain, a part of some sort of range, and a crater in the side of it. "I... I made that??

"Technically, Giganto, or Behemoth if that's what we're calling it, did, but yeah," Sonic replied.

"Where'd you get Giganto from?" Amy asked.

"Nickname," Sonic shrugged. "But that's besides the point. What else did this weird voice say?"

"Let's see..." Amy thought for a second. "Take down the Titan... tear down walls between dimensions... get Chaos Emeralds...." Suddenly something clicked in her mind. "Wait, that's it!"

"You figure something out?" Sonic asked.

"If the voice wants me to get Chaos Emeralds, it should be linked in some way to how I'm gonna take down the Behemoth!" Amy exclaimed, as she pulled out the red and blue emeralds she had gathered so far. "And if it wants me to gather all 7 Emeralds..."

"Then maybe that can give you a boost!" Sonic exclaimed. "Your Super form!"

"Huh??" Amy was caught off guard. She thought the emeralds would potentially just give her hints as to how to take down the Guardians. "My... Super form? But I haven't used that in ages...." She looked at the Emeralds in doubt. "And my Super form doesn't make me THAT much stronger, just invincible for a bit..."

"Maybe some things have changed," Sonic exclaimed, optimistically. "It's worth a shot."

"...just as worth a shot as trying to use the Emerald to pull you out of the Cyberspace?" Amy questioned.

"Hmmm...." Sonic thought for a moment, before shrugging. "You do you. Like I said, take a couple more secs to recover. I'm gonna go find some Emeralds for you." He then turned and ran off. "Later!" He cried, before vanishing into thin air.

Amy sighed, before glancing down at Coco. "What do you say, Coco? Ready to find some more 'jem'?"

"Talyu!" Coco replied, jumping around in excitement.

"Good to hear," Amy smiled. "Let's head off then! But, uh, take it a bit slower... it still really hurts..." She slowly lifted Coco into her arms, and set off, eager to find more Emeralds.

Chapter Text

To say Amy was shaken after her... confrontation with the Behemoth would be an understatement. Every time the breeze blew against her cuts and bruises, she couldn't help but relive the terror of flying through the air, crashing multiple times... it was a bit nerve-wrecking. Even more so for Sonic to suggest that she would have to confront it. She hadn't used whatever Super form she once had in years now, and even if she could, that wouldn't help nearly as much as Super Sonic would. She knew that the Titans had to be taken down in order to free Sonic, but she no longer believed that she should be the one to do it. What with how embarrassing her performance was, earlier...

"Don't worry about it, Amy..." She muttered to herself, as she continued to follow after Coco, who had grown restless after a while of being carried, and was now running ahead, pausing every few moments to let Amy catch up. "You only have two Chaos Emeralds, anyway. We should worry about how we're going to stop the Behemoth once we have all seven."

"Io?" Coco paused and looked at her, almost as though she was curious about what Amy was saying.

"Erm, don't worry about it," Amy replied, smiling. Her smile was partially forced, though, as her situation wasn't looking too great. Aside from her wounds, her clothes were still a mess, and she hadn't accounted for bringing spares. Of course, they were being held together quite well, but they had a lot of cuts and tears, and Amy still wished she had some better alternative.

"Hm..." Coco didn't look away, instead rolling over and circling Amy, almost as though she wanted to see if anything was wrong.

"I assure you, nothing's wrong," Amy chuckled slightly, trying to follow Coco as she rolled around. "It's just my clothing. Nothing much."

"Laool?" Coco stopped rolling and looked up at Amy, intently.

Amy debated for a moment, unsure what Coco meant by that. Instead, she just gestured to her dress. "This. Broken. I'll need to find something to fix it once this ordeal's over... even if I can't fight the Behemoth... yet... I'm not leaving these islands without Sonic or Tails."

Coco looked at Amy, and then the part of her dress she gestured to, before nodding, and rolling in another direction.

"Huh?" Amy watched her leave, confused. "W-wait! Where are you going??" She quickly gave pursuit, not wanting to lose sight of Coco.

Oddly, this time, Coco didn't seem to slow down, or wait for Amy. She kept on going, slightly slower than usual, but still pretty quick considering that she wasn't waiting. As she rolled over a bridge, Amy followed, and she began thinking.

Her head had been pounding since the encounter with the Behemoth, but now, she remembered something she had learnt: some... girl had locked Sonic into Cyberspace. Could Amy attempt to confront her directly? Perhaps if she defeated her, that would force her to release Son---

Wait. She paused, shaking her head. What was she thinking?? Resorting to violence, instantly? Maybe there was something Amy could try and... negotiate with her. Maybe if she explained exactly why Sonic had to be free, then...

"AMIIIII!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Amy ran across the bridge, and noticed that, to the right, there seemed to be a few buildings, akin to that village she had found that group of Koco, as well as the Elder, in. Only the buildings were somewhat... larger. "Wow... this looks like somewhere I could feasibly live... wait, Coco?" She looked around, trying to find her little friend. "Coco?"

"Ua!" She noticed some movement in the corner of her vision, and glanced over, seeing a particularly large building (not that large truthfully, but larger in comparison to the others) with Coco standing in the doorway, hopping in apparent impatience.

"Okay, no need to be impatient," Amy laughed, as she came over to her. "Why's she always so impatient? It's not like we're on a time limit..." Amy's smile faltered as she slowed to a stop in front of the door. "...is there? Does Coco..."

"Ami!" Coco suddenly turned and rolled further into the building, distracting Amy from her thoughts, as she slowly followed Coco inside. Once inside, she slowed to a stop, and squinted slightly. There was only one window, and the doorway, so not much light could get in and illuminate the building, but Amy was still able to somewhat perceive what was happening.

She could see a few furnishings which looked rather worn, such as some sort of stone bed in the corner... wait, no, two, one in each corner. The room was generally made of stone, it seemed, with moss across the floor, walls and even ceiling. But the part that caught Amy's eye was in the center of the room: a sort of... armour stand. Positioned onto it was some blocky... bronze armour, with a somewhat bulky chestplate, a bucket-like helmet atop, and some slightly more streamlined shoes, which still seemed rather heavy. Next to the armour stand was a small pillar, atop which was another Koco, covered in some sort of dark substance, which seemed to be rubbing its forehead against the side of the helmet. Amy tried to make sense of what was going on, but then she noticed more movement approaching the armour: another Koco, this one with a red flower on its head.

"Iar, mugfali!" The second Koco called up to the first polishing the armour, in an almost exasperated tone.

The first Koco glanced down, before rebutting, "eluashoma!"

"Aioyai! Moarsa!" The flowery Koco called, their voice now sounding annoyed.

"What're they talking about..?" Amy asked softly, looking down at Coco for answers. But to her surprise, Coco had rolled back and was now hiding behind Amy's ankle, looking rather frightened. "Oh... well, whatever it is, I presume you aren't a fan of the topic...?"

"Mia..." Coco muttered softly, as the two Koco continued talking, with both sides growing louder. After a few moments, the darkened Koco suddenly jumped off the pillar they were on, and rolled off towards the doorway, but then paused upon reaching Amy and stood up, analysing the tall creature in front of it.

"O-oh, uh, don't mind me," Amy replied, stepping aside, as Coco followed to stay hidden.

"Pio." The Koco nodded slightly in gratitude, before it continued rolling, exiting the building.

"Where's he going..?" Amy wondered, before glancing back at the other Koco, who was staring at the floor solemnly. After a moment, she pieced it together. "Oh... you had a fight?"

"Luiu..." Flower Koco muttered, turning to face the armour stand, in apparent regret. It seemed that she was rather hurt by upsetting her friend enough for... him, possibly, to leave.

"Ia?" Coco slowly left from behind Amy and approached Flower Koco, who glanced up at her presence.

"Nu? Yalo!" Flower Koco looked somewhat happier to see Coco.