Sonic the Hedgehog Amino - Contest Entries

Exposed inside

Mach's Blog and Art Contest [story]

Sonic Forces - Resistance vs Uprising

Exposed inside

Gentle humming filled the room - steady, unusual, calm, disturbing... From the hazel eyes of a teenage hedgehog lingered the fear and anxiety of war, and within the ruinous room left of this city stood eight warriors. Yep, this was the Resistance alright. Those eyes flicked across the room, observing - or maybe evading. Black and white battle suit, eye-piece tinged with purple, fastened utility belt - gifts that didn't make the cyan survivor feel any stronger. And the Wispon! Yes, the 'Burst' machine that had already enabled success in her first mission. At least that granted her a brief sensation of power...

"Amy, any news of Eggman's whereabouts?"

"Not yet, Knuckles, but Rouge thinks she has discovered another weapons factory."

Attentive, she watched as the pink hedgehog brought up data files on Green Hill; soon she and the red echidna were gesturing continually and once more part of the hum as the survivor's thoughts grew. What am I doing? What was she doing? Nothing. What would she do about it? Nothing. Perhaps she should speak to their leader - or simply speak to someone. Find something to do instead of merely stand around. One small step forward from the wall - opposite the screen of data files - one small step into the group. Something was stopping her, forcing and holding her back from any significant movement.

Suddenly hyperactive stripes whizzed about. Curious eyes flashed to her left, inspecting the source.

"Watch it Charmy!" an irritable crocodile groused. Modest chuckles emerged that were followed by the hum. "Don't knock into those crates! You already hit one; go stack it up again."

"Sorry!" the young bee replied. With a slight struggle, and an attempt at hiding it, he lifted the crate - probably five times his own size - and sat upon it. "Phew! They're heavy! What's in these boxes anyway?"

"Weapons," Knuckles interjected, "Wispons, wisp capsules, rings - anything we may need to end Eggman's tyranny."

Alert, the purple chameleon opened his eyes, "Yes, and it's best that we protect them, Charmy. We need all the supplies we can get. Vector, you and I - we are not enough by ourselves."

"Yeah! And I ain't getting paid this time! When this is all over, you need to find us some more work, Espio." the croc added.

"Why should I?"

Bowing her head, the survivor gave a brief smile until her thoughts caught up. Tyranny? An end? What if it doesn't end?

She remembers sprinting through fire. Vaulting, fleeing, crying, she makes her way through the tumbling rubble and screams of the dying and the undivided fear. Just this narrow alleyway... That's it, between the red brick... Now to the right, across the bridge. The bridge crumbles into the water. Echoing, that maniacal, deep, disturbed laugh echoing through the weeping of death. She looks up. Oh God why did she look up? A gem illuminates the grey-coiled sky with blood and the walls of the city crush into the hills. And reality comes back to her.

Sonic watched from afar. Four or five steps away. Glistening emeralds regarded his closest friend interacting with his dimensional counterpart. Likewise, the novice fighter - leaning against the wall opposite the data files - felt her eyes gazing and flowing across the blue hero. Sheer resilience and passion, true courage and ambition lay behind his eyes. Imagine possessing that... Imagine having no fear, no shame, no weakness... She studied his vibrant green eyes, the very colour of them etching into her mind. But then her own drifted to what he had been analysing; the young, yellow fox-cub gleefully narrated his past adventures to a smaller, rounder Sonic who giggled silently. This was cheer that had not been seen for some time. Folded arms, fewer blinks - he simply watched this friendship bloom. It felt strange to see him so quiet and composed in the little time she had known him... Something's different. Discreetly, she crossed the dark, red-bricked room - amongst the stack of wooden, splintering crates, gently away from the low drone of scrolling files, dissipating the warriors' hum to her mind - and slipped through the (momentarily) opened door, grasping quietly her Wispon.

Gleaming lava-red metal in the soft stretch of sunlight was struck by the heat so that touching it spread the essence of its power across your fingertips. With one quick yet determined movement of my fingertip...

"...You can set ablaze your fears."

With a jolt, she flicked her head in search of the voice. She knew it... Somehow.

"You feel weak, alone, afraid. Loss... Humiliation..." Carefully spoken words manifested into an ebony figure that levitated before the survivor, "Yes... Yes, I can taste your pain..."

Sullied puddles scattered few across the square-pebbled pavement. A (fairly) large semi-circle - perhaps like a stage - was adorned with sandbag walls, disfigured steel fences and high lampposts, most of which held canisters smashed and empty. The two stood within its heart. Heavily, inky clouds drifted across the horizon, never quite sinking into the dusk.

"There's a burning ember within you, child." Magenta purled from the core of the being. Black and white fur: white crawling from his spine and shooting from his neck; long, curled tail tipped five times with ice; several warped white dreadlocks held stiff. He was masked. Sharply sculpted to hide all of his identity, it only displayed one glaring, yellow iris that trapped a thin pupil. "It's delightful." Gloved claws and pointed, metal hi-tops. The look is completed.

And the sun dipped into the dark.

"I can end this. I can change your reality." Soft words from a somewhat coarse voice. As she blinked, his body leapt through light to be moved closer to her, and to her eyes. His hands held the Wispon and she flinched. "It's in your hands. The power to change..." His hidden face now beside her ear. "Everything."

Did she mean to do it? She nodded. The Wispon, still, was held in front of her by the two of them. Musky air bathed in the sun's fire encapsulated them and, only when they vanished in a crackle of blood-air, did the sun fall to the starless abyss.

And it was only then that Sonic the Hedgehog stepped out from the shadows.