Sonic had suggested that they all went to an evening picnic, of sorts, in the park, far out into the country, to 'calm everyone down', as he put it.
Word had spread like wildfire that Eggman had been spotted and that his time off was coming to a swift, unwelcome close. Many of the native Mobians were downright panicking that their months of peace might be taken away from them and, as such, the Sonic Allies were kept busy with reassuring the masses and putting on brave faces. The fact that Eggman had, as of yet, not actually done anything did not sit well with any of them. It was tiring to have to keep looking over your shoulder for fear that Eggman would suddenly spring a trap when you dared to lower your guard.
Still, just to put everyone in the right spirits, Sonic had thought that an evening together would be best for the team, to strengthen bonds and reestablish alliances.
The evening could not have been more beautiful; the moon was large, tinged orange, and the stars were beginning to slowly appear amid the darkening navy and coral sky.
Knuckles had brought Angel Island inland a little so that he was still in close contact with the Master Emerald as he and Rouge partook of the assossiation among friends including the likes of Blaze and Silver.
Blaze was often on the scene but Silver was a special treat.
He had been a mischevious little 14 year old hedgehog once. Now he was a mishevious little 24 year old hedgehog and to say that he didn't enjoy popping through the fabrics of time and space on a monthly basis would have been a lie. In truth, Silver was often lonely in his own time, a world that existed into the far future though no-one knew, for certain, how far into the future that was. Silver often teased that he knew which of his allies and friends would have children and even claimed that he knew their names and birthdays. Whether he was telling the truth or not, no-one bothered to find out. The future was an area that they agreed would not be touched by any of them save for Silver seeing as he lived there and only made the trips so as to ensure the future remained peaceful. Even Blaze opted to limit her visits though she was from an entirely alternate dimension altogether.
The fact of the matter was that Silver had very few friends in the future and the only close friends he had lived in his past. It was a complicated set-up. He hoped that his vists weren't always taken as a sign of impending doom but he really did like to spend time with his friends as much as possible, especially seeing as he still felt a need to make up to Sonic what he had tried to do to him once in an erased timeline.
- - - - -
The only ones not at the 'picnic' yet were the Chaotix who were trying to finish up their work as quickly as possible before leaving. Charmy was working out what to wear as Vector filed away some notes and photos and Espio went about typing up some information for later use.
"You know there was that trouble at the medical facility?" the chameleon then murmured quietly, seemingly out of the blue. Vector was the only one in the room to hear him and he nodded his scaly head.
"Yer mean the asylum? What about it?"
"I've just been connecting the dots," Espio went on, "The asylum is situated on an island north of the harbour. Lost one of its inmates recently. From which direction did the reports say our boat theif entered?" Vector paused in his filing and looked round, his reptilian eyes narrowing.
"North," he growled thoughtfully, "Yer reckon the boat theif is the same as the escaped madman?"
To that, Espio shrugged his shoulders.
"Just connecting the dots."
"As yer say," Vector grunted, closing a drawer and grabbing up his jacket, "Well keep that in mind. We gotta go meet up with the others, anyway, or we'll be late."
- - - - -
Blaze had made a campfire and Cream and Charmy were trying to roast marshmallows with Omega and Big which made for a comical scene for those watching. Rouge was getting a little fed up with her Team Dark teammates who found some way to take her wine from her and steer her away from any eggy foods. Tails was rocking a very sleepy Rosemary in his arms as Zooey was chatting away to Vanilla whereas Amy, on the other hand, was looking around for her significant other and caught sight of him walking off through the trees.
She sighed.
Sonic had tried so hard to ignore the news on Eggman, tried so hard to turn his back on getting involved, but Amy knew that there was no way the supersonic hedgehog could afford to be too ignorant. She knew Shadow had visited him recently and that something had been discussed that Sonic didn't like.
Thinking on her feet, Amy snatched up a cooling chili dog and hurried after him, following his path until she reached the other side of a copse of trees which lead right to the shore. Sonic was standing on the cliff, staring out to sea and up at the blue and pink sky.
"Nice colours, eh, Amy?" he smiled, sensing her presence. He had learnt to identify each of his friends by their footfall and their scent. It was his closest friends that he could identify best of all. Amy held out the chili dog like a peace offering as she walked towards him.
"Figured you might like something edible to chew on along with your thoughts," she said, hanging over the food and watching her boyfriend devour the whole thing.
He sighed in satisfaction and nodded. "You're right, that was good."
Amy stood next to him for a moment, not saying anything, simply staring at his strong profile in the glow of the sunset. It was all so very romantic, the child inside her said.
"Are you thinking about Eggman?" she chanced to ask.
To her surprise, Sonic's smile grew.
"Now why would I want to think about that idiot on an evening like this?" he chuckled and shook his head, "Nah, I'm thinking about telling you something... but I don't know how."
"Tell me what?" Amy asked, her brow creasing slightly, "Something good?"
"I would like to think it's good."
The pink hedgehog curled her hands around Sonic's arm, holding it gently as he gazed up adoringly into his face.
"Then tell me," she murmured, hanging on to his every word.
Sonic continued to gaze out to sea, a faraway glaze in his eyes.
"You know," he finally began to say in a soft voice, "I remember a time when it was just Tails and I living out in the wild. I actually believed that it was just going to be him and me forever."
"You wouldn't have minded that."
"Maybe not. But just seeing all the guys tonight... I guess it's made me realise how far we've come. A younger me wouldn't have believed that I would be making friends with a robot or a cat princess from another dimension or... or a hedgehog from the future, for crying out loud."
Amy closed her eyes and leant her head on his shoulder, inhaling a lungful of his scent, a smell that comforted her and Tails equally.
"That goes to show you're special," she sighed, "You attract special people."
"Or very desperate people."
"Calling me 'desperate'?"
"No," Sonic teased, looking down at her and flashing a cheeky grin, "I think I'd call you 'determined'."
"Then I'll call you 'patient"," Amy fondly giggled.
"Patient?" Sonic chortled, "Please... You were like some kind of game in my teenage years. I'd run, you'd follow. It was annoyingly fun, if a little terrifying."
"I already said I was sorry. Pre-teen hormones, you know. What was a desperate girl to do when faced with a handsome hero?"
"You were a persistant pursuer, I'll give you that. I sometimes wondered if you'd give up on me."
"There were times I considered it," Amy admitted, her words cutting Sonic deeply with guilt, "But I know I was a little selfish, trying to make you slow down."
"It's good to slow down every once in a while," Sonic mused with some reluctance, "I had to really slow down to think all this through."
"Think what through?" Amy asked, hugging him tighter, "This whole deal with Eggman?"
"Kinda," Sonic shrugged, making Amy's head bob, "Last time he was away this long, I went off on a holiday around the world."
"Yeah, I remember," Amy huffed in mock-annoyance, "I had to make up an imaginary boyfriend to make myself feel better."
"Yeah, well..." Sonic smiled awkwardly, "I've done that now. When we got rid of the last few rogue robots... I had to really think about where I was going to go in life."
"Like you had to give that much thought!" Amy laughed, pulling herself away to study the blue hedgehog with a fond scruitiny. Sonic looked at her in surprise. "Sonic the Hedgehog doesn't think about where he's going - he just takes off into the unknown, not knowing his destination until he gets there," Amy informed him in a matter-of-fact way, crossing her arms proudly.
Looking at one another in the light of the sunset, they both simultanously began to giggle like misbehaving school children.
"In that case," Sonic then went on, "I suppose it's time to really think about who is coming with me, into the unknown, as you put it."
"Besides Tails, of course," Amy nodded, "The fabrics of reality would crumble if the duo of Sonic and Tails were forbidden."
Sonic nodded thoughtfully, his green eyes sparkling as he thought of his best friend.
"Tails is a fixed part of me," he admitted, "He and Knuckles seemed to just... I dunno... fill me out, I suppose. You know, like, Tails is smart, Knuckles is strong, I'm fast. Knuckles is a hothead, I'm a wind-up, Tails is the peace-keeper..."
"The perfect team," Amy sighed wistfully, if a little enviously.
She had always been a trifle jealous of the loving bond Sonic had with Tails and the bond of companionable respect that he had with Knuckles. During the hero-ing teenage years, little Amy hadn't always thought that she had a firm role in Sonic's life other than being the crazy nut-job that followed him around.
"Yeah..." Sonic was saying quietly, "except there's always someone worriedly waiting for us with hot drinks and a sofa to crash on at the end of it all." His eyelids lowered and his pupils dilated as Sonic stared at his girlfriend. "Always someone ready with back-up, some common sense and a hammer."
She blushed furiously.
"All youngsters need a caring parent," she shrugged, pushing her pink quills from her face.
"How about a caring wife?"
Amy's head snapped up, her eyes as large as serving dishes, unable to comprehend what she had thought Sonic had just said.
"I said that I was thinking about who is coming with me into the futue, Amy Rose," Sonic continued, pulling a ring box out from behind him and dutifully lowering down on to one knee. "Do you think... maybe... you could put your running shoes back on and stay with me until the end of the line?" he asked, holding out the ring and asking the four words that Amy had dreamt of hearing.
- - - - -
It turned out that Sonic didn't even need to pull his trump card: the fact that he had ran several thousands of miles around the city to write out 'Will you marry me?" in squiggly writing when his progress was tracked which, he figured, he would just tell her about later.
When the newly engaged pair reemerged from the trees, Amy brandishing her recently bejewelled finger proudly before her, there were congratulations and celebrations all round. Of course, there was never any doubt in anyone's eyes that Amy was most likely to say 'yes' before Sonic had a chance of finishing his question.
With the night now coming in and the damp starting to come down with the dropping temperatures, everyone agreed to continue the party at Amy's house.
The engaged couple were walking hand in hand along the path at the back of the group, relishing the company of friends, when Sonic suddenly felt a cold chill run through him and he stopped, his ears catching the sound of movement in the forest beside the path and his nose detecting an unpleasent scent.
"Sonic?" Amy asked, tugging gently on his hand, "Are you okay? Sonic?"
Sonic didn't look at her.
He was gazing into the shadows of the trees where the shape of a man could be seen, leaning against a tree in a single shaft of bright moonlight. His eyes, shrouded by a pair of familiar looking spectacles, were fixed upon the blue hedgehog, unmoving.
For a reason that Sonic could not fathom, he felt as though he knew the slender man with the flame coloured goatee.
"...Who are you?" he asked, unintentionally tightening his hold on Amy's hand. Amy had followed Sonic's gaze and, catching sight of the creepy addition to the forest, clung to her fiancé fiercely.
"Yo, everything ok?" Knuckles suddenly asked, coming into view, "We moving or what?" Behind him, the others had stopped, one by one, and were turning to see what was going on.
"Sonic?" Amy gulped, "Who is that?"
Sonic tilted his head, confused. "That's..." ... ... ... Why did he feel as though he knew him? Something about the man told Sonic to be afraid but he couldn't imagine why. He certainly couldn't come up with any name to give the face. ... ... ... "Who are you?" he asked, unaware that his friends were slowly coming towards them, slightly worried at seeing Sonic's blank face and the mildly horrified faces of Amy and Knuckles.
The man, for a moment, did not speak until he opened his mouth and produced a raspy voice, deep in tone.
"...You don't recognise me?" he asked slowly, his lips curling into a false smile.
Sonic's brain was telling him to run at the sound of his voice but he didn't know why.
"Should I?" he asked back, unsure as to what to do.
"It was a while ago, I've been told," the man went on. Sonic glanced at Amy, staring fearfully back at him, then at an emotionless Knuckles and to the concerned faces of the rest of the group.
"...Look," Sonic sighed, turning back to the strange man that he didn't like, "don't mean to be rude but we're actually really busy. Did you need something?"
The reply was unexpected.
"...You're so grown up."
Sonic felt his left foot take a step back.
"Pardon?" he swallowed, an abnormal fear rising up from his gut.
"Last time we met," the man said, "you were the size of my foot." As though to confirm this, he lifted his foot and wagged it back and forth.
"Well... you can't expect me to remember that," Sonic mumbled with a nervous chuckle.
One of the man's eyebrows, lifted a little higher. "I would have thought you would have remembered what I did, little Sonic."
Amy felt the hand tighten again.
"Sonic?" she whispered, now feeling more worried for him than for the strange man.
Sonic's face was set in a cemented frown.
"...What did you do?" he asked, not really wanting to know the answer.
The man lifted a bony hand to his chest, pretending to look affronted.
"Can't even remember THAT?" he gasped, "Now that is shocking."
"You have a name?"
"Robotnik," he crooned, "Ira Robotnik."
Now everyone felt the same chill go through them.
Sonic had turned rigid at the sound of those three syllabals, his tongue turning to lead in his mouth.
"Well, Mr... Robotnik..." he murmured, finding the words difficult to say, "I'm sorry; I don't know you."
"Shame," the man, Ira, sighed dejectedly, "I know you very well." He then straightened and backed away into the darkness. "It's been nice seeing you again," he chuckled, "I'll be sure to get in touch."
Then he was gone, as though he had never been there at all, leaving Sonic to stare at where he was in a stupor.
A terrifying calm came over the group.
"I'll get a hold of GUN," Shadow murmured, moving away to privately make a phone call.