{"submission_id":"1548609","keywords":[{"keyword_id":"6182","keyword_name":"amy","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"4791"},{"keyword_id":"9534","keyword_name":"amy rose","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"8636"},{"keyword_id":"516","keyword_name":"blowjob","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"22044"},{"keyword_id":"1908","keyword_name":"cunnilingus","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"6089"},{"keyword_id":"35659","keyword_name":"female/male","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"13580"},{"keyword_id":"1008","keyword_name":"hedgehog","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"47858"},{"keyword_id":"165","keyword_name":"male","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"640418"},{"keyword_id":"416","keyword_name":"oral","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"34764"},{"keyword_id":"1425","keyword_name":"rough","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"2658"},{"keyword_id":"6055","keyword_name":"rough sex","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"1299"},{"keyword_id":"39178","keyword_name":"shadamy","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"391"},{"keyword_id":"1005","keyword_name":"shadow","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"9228"},{"keyword_id":"20724","keyword_name":"shadow the hedgehog","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"8502"},{"keyword_id":"115764","keyword_name":"sonic boom","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"1642"},{"keyword_id":"7252","keyword_name":"sonic the hedgehog","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"29067"},{"keyword_id":"95527","keyword_name":"tabletop","contributed":"f","submissions_count":"183"}],"hidden":"t","scraps":"f","favorite":"f","favorites_count":"10","create_datetime":"2018-02-20 22:32:18.599085+01","create_datetime_usertime":"20 Feb 2018 22:32 CET","last_file_update_datetime":"2018-02-20 22:16:03.591047+01","last_file_update_datetime_usertime":"20 Feb 2018 22:16 CET","username":"Chinry","user_id":"447612","user_icon_file_name":"153322_Chinry_image.png","user_icon_url_large":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/large/153/153322_Chinry_image.png","user_icon_url_medium":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/medium/153/153322_Chinry_image.png","user_icon_url_small":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/usericons/small/153/153322_Chinry_image.png","file_name":"2196705_Chinry_ic7.doc","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/2196/2196705_Chinry_ic7.doc","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/2196/2196705_Chinry_ic7.doc","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/2196/2196705_Chinry_ic7.doc","files":[{"file_id":"2196705","file_name":"2196705_Chinry_ic7.doc","file_url_full":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/full/2196/2196705_Chinry_ic7.doc","file_url_screen":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/screen/2196/2196705_Chinry_ic7.doc","file_url_preview":"https://nl.ib.metapix.net/files/preview/2196/2196705_Chinry_ic7.doc","mimetype":"application/msword","submission_id":"1548609","user_id":"447612","submission_file_order":"0","full_size_x":null,"full_size_y":null,"screen_size_x":null,"screen_size_y":null,"preview_size_x":null,"preview_size_y":null,"initial_file_md5":"3fd8281f2af9d886fad2f0b7a0d5df7d","full_file_md5":"3fd8281f2af9d886fad2f0b7a0d5df7d","large_file_md5":"","small_file_md5":"","thumbnail_md5":"","deleted":"f","create_datetime":"2018-02-20 22:16:03.591047+01","create_datetime_usertime":"20 Feb 2018 22:16 CET"}],"pools":[{"pool_id":"49514","name":"Internal Combustion","description":"My full blown story about the trials and tribulations of Amy and Sonic's early relationship. Boom based.","count":"14","submission_left_submission_id":"1543210","submission_left_file_name":"2188694_Chinry_ic4.doc","submission_right_submission_id":"1554176","submission_right_file_name":"2205572_Chinry_ic8.doc"}],"description":"The opening chunk of this chapter is new, so those of you who had read this story elsewhere have a little extra smut as a surprise. It's not super detailed, but I wanted more than my previous version talked about.\n\nThe creatures of the woods will not be described. Whatever they are, are whatever you see in the corner of your eye at night. They are our own fears, which is why they manifest in the way they do. Nightmares can be buried too, we may not always know what truly cares us. Shadow has many monsters in his life, so I figured he would also use monsters to protect him. The small place in the woods, is the only time he feels safe and the only time he feels real. \n\nAmy's parents are not remotely canon, it was just one of my ideas. ","description_bbcode_parsed":"The opening chunk of this chapter is new, so those of you who had read this story elsewhere have a little extra smut as a surprise. It's not super detailed, but I wanted more than my previous version talked about.

The creatures of the woods will not be described. Whatever they are, are whatever you see in the corner of your eye at night. They are our own fears, which is why they manifest in the way they do. Nightmares can be buried too, we may not always know what truly cares us. Shadow has many monsters in his life, so I figured he would also use monsters to protect him. The small place in the woods, is the only time he feels safe and the only time he feels real.

Amy's parents are not remotely canon, it was just one of my ideas. ","writing":"\tPerhaps one thing Shadow had not expected, was just how aware of her sexuality Amy would become. When he had finally returned she was waiting for him, in her work out vest and shorts, poised and ready for a fight.\n\n\t“Thought you might be waiting. How long have you been standing there?”\n\n\tShe frowned, “It feels like I've been waiting my whole life.”\n\n\tHe nodded, “I didn't expect any less from you now.”\n\n\t“Were you trying to back out?” she asked.\n\n\tHe smirked, “I do work, you know.”\n\n\tShe ran a tongue across her lips, “Not nearly enough yet.”\n\n\tHer voice was velvet and she smiled at him with a sultry grin. He started to walk towards the house, trying not to look at her again. He could not get the image of how she had gasped for breath out of his head. They had had a moment of weakness, and he had felt things he hadn't before, and he had taken her virginity without a second thought...but that didn't give him permission to expect her to give herself to him. \n\n\t“It's been a long day Bud, and I'm hungry.”\n\n\t“I've got something you can eat.”\n\n\tHe froze in midstep as she caught up with him, tilting her head to the side as she stood before him.\n\n\t“Oh?” he gasped.\n\n\t“Mmm, I made a stew earlier, there's plenty left.”\n\n\tShe skipped off in to the doorway, with one quick look behind her, she gave him a wink. He cleared his throat and shook the images out of his head. \n\n[center]*****[/center]\n\n\t“So, do you have the evening off since you were gone so much longer today?”\n\n\tHe took a gulp of his coffee and and nodded at her from across the table.\n\n\t“Are you...sticking around?”\n\n\tHe looked up at her again. She was leaning forward over the table, her vest pulled down low with more on display than he should willingly stare at. He cleared his throat again.\n\n\t“I hadn't thought about it yet. Why?”\n\n\tShe was up on the table, crawling towards him. Had he been prepared he might of acted nonchalant, but as it was she had caught him unawares and his jaw fell open. She didn't stop until she dropped herself in his lap and was cradling his face in her hands.\n\n\t“Well, I had some thoughts. I've had some thoughts all...fucking...day...”\n\n\tHis hands slid over her toned thighs as he stared at her lips. She was acting confident, but he could feel the delicate tremors in her body. \n\n\t“You are meant to spend the day studying,” he mumbled.\n\n\tShe looked down to give him her most innocent, wide eyed face, “Then I have been very, very naughty.”\n\tHe couldn't resist any more. He picked her up and dropped her down on the table, sliding anything that was in the way on to the floor. They kissed with passion and ferocity, and when his arousal made its appearance her hands were not shy. \n\n\t“Is this my punishment?” she gasped.\n\n\t He pushed her down roughly so she was lying on her back, and pulled off anything she dared to be wearing below her waist. She was giggling, it was high pitched and giddy, but when he entered her she gasped loudly before sighing with satisfaction.\n\n\tHe stood up straight, pulling her to the end of the table and grasped her hips. Her hands clamped down on to the wood, claws emerging as he pumped harder in to her. She was louder than the previous night, less ashamed or enjoying it more, he couldn't tell. But the intensity of the moment had taken its toll and before he knew it he was pulling out to spill himself on her stomach again. He tilted his head back and locked his jaws together tight, growling her name as he came. \n\n\tHe fell forward, supporting himself on his arms, and looked down at her. She smiled softly at him, her chest rising and falling at a quick pace, but her eyes showed a disconnection. Her body was in the moment, but he still felt she was never entirely there with him. He knew why, but he didn't want to think about it, not right away. The day would come, and soon, but for now they could both find pleasure in each other.\n\n\tHe scooped her up and carried her in to the bedroom, laying her down gently. She looked at him quizzically.\n\n\t“That was a bit rough,” he said, apologetic in tone.\n\n\tShe shrugged lightly, “you've put me through worse, and I've handled it.”\n\n\tHe licked her neck, “so you don't need me to kiss it better.”\n\n\tShe took a deep breath in, understanding his meaning immediately, but she was unable to vocalise a response. He didn't require it, and more it was something he felt he needed to do. It was as much for him as it was for her.\n\n\tShe was feeling a little raw after their rough and tumble on the kitchen table. It was more like a bruise than a wound, there was a twisted sense of enjoyment in the discomfort. But after the first flick of his tongue against her, all the pain melted behind a sea of uncompromising pleasure. She didn't think it could be so different to being stimulated by hand, but oh how wrong she was. She mewled like a kitten, her back arching as she grasped on to the covers for dear life. As his tongue probed inside her his nose rubbed against her most sensitive little bundle of nerves. She cursed and she called his name and with a final scream she hit her orgasm head on. She moaned as her body was shaken to it's very core, her muscles involuntarily twitching for moments afterwards. He simply lay between her legs, watching with an unblinking eye. \n\n\tWhen her body finally stopped convulsing, one lone tear fell from her eye, but he didn't see that. He was gone again.\n\n[center]*****[/center]\n\n\tThey caved again, they caved a few times in fact. Each time he would be facing her, and each time he came he would either bite down on his arm or his jaw would clamp tight. She would rub his ear until he released himself, and they would immediately part. She wasn't even sure she wanted him to stick around. At all times the voices in the forest were calling to her, sometimes they used Sonics voice, sometimes the shrill unnatural sound of their true nature. No matter what she tried, no matter how close Shadow held her, even in her deepest sleep, she was thinking of her Blue. Shadow had offered many times to take her back, never once suggesting he would miss her, but she knew they had become accustomed to each others company. She was too scared to leave, and too heartbroken to stay.\n\n\tThen their final evening, things changed, and the scales finally tipped for both of them. While she slept he crawled back in to bed with her, curling up against her, breathing in the soft smell of her delicately cleaned fur. It was too intimate, he was growing too fond of her touch, but he wanted to feel her body at ease next to his. She wasn't aware he was there until she woke the next morning to find a familiar black hand resting carefully on her hip. She smiled and hummed a good morning, and he buried his face in between her shoulder blades.\n\n\t“Bud, it's time,” he sighed deeply.\n\n\tShe buried her face further in to the pillow, “I know.”\n\n\t“I'm not demanding you go but...”\n\n\t“I should hope not.”\n\n\tHe let out a long breath that tickled her fur, but she was less shocked than she expected when he spoke again. She had been waiting for him to say it for days now.\n\n\t“I heard the message on your communicator,” he told her in a hushed tone.\n\n\t“I'm going to go out on a limb here, spy in the night, and say you already knew what he had been doing” she replied with a harshness in her tone she didn't intend.\n\n\t“It's true, I already knew. I wasn't going to tell you. If you were angry with him there was every chance you would...”\n\n\t“Sleep with you to get back at him?”\n\n\tHe didn't reply, so she rolled over, pushing him on to his back and straddling him. Who would have thought that at any point he would show such vulnerability. She had wondered it herself on more than one occasion. Was she sleeping with him just to spite Sonic? No, she had wanted to be with Shadow before that, Sonics message was that final push. He had kept it a secret for her sake, she had no right to be angry at him for Sonics misdeeds.\n\n\t“Shadow the Hedgehog, I did not do this to get back at Sonic. He doesn't know this even happened. This time together belongs to me, to us.”\n\n\tHe tenderly stroked her cheek, “We can't stay like this.”\n\n\t“No, I'm getting cramp in my thigh.”\n\n\tHe laughed. It caught her so completely off guard she burst in to laughter to, and rolling over they both lay on the bed like that until the giggles subsided. To hear him laugh like that was like perfecting a melody on a piano. The smile that accompanied it though, it was too much like his. Cheeky, sidewards, tinged with playfulness. \n\n\t“I need to face Sonic,” she finally admitted, “I need to go home, back to reality. I'm not who I was, I am a better version of her. All because you kidnapped me.”\n\n\tHe snorted happily, “I seem to recall asking several times if you wanted to go back.”\n\n\t“Oh sure, after Stockholm Syndrome had set in.”\n\n\t“That what you call your sexual appetite?”\n\n\tShe punched his arm, “Like you aren't going to miss me.”\n\n\tHe considered what to say before replying. Miss her? Yes that was most likely. When he had first brought her to this place it was misguided guilt. He should not have kept her around but he had enjoyed watching her flower.\n\n\t“I am going to bury myself back in to my work. I feel more...normal for the time I have spent here. With you. Just promise me you'll not doubt yourself Bud.”\n\n\tShe sat upright to look out of the window, “I can't, not if I'm going to get through that forest.”\n\n\tHe pushed himself upright next to her, blocking her gaze outside, “You don't have to, I can just...”\n\n\t“I need to,” she interrupted, “or all this will have been for nothing.”\n\n\tThere was another long pause before he very quietly replied, “It made me happy.”\n\n\tAmy didn't know what to say any more, so she finally plucked up the courage to do something she had been wanting to do since their first night. The more he hadn't expected it of her, the more she wanted to let her mouth work the same magic he had performed on her. If she was to part from him, she wanted him etched in to her memory. The sight of him, the smell of his fur, the sound of his satisfied sighs, and the taste of the very essence of him. Even with her lack of experience, she had him making more noise than she had heard in all their time. And sure enough, Sonic was right, it did put a smile on Shadows face.\n\n[center]*****[/center]\n\n\tPutting on her old red dress, her long socks and binding her waist with sports tape, Amy was ready to face the world she had left behind. Shadow had promised she would emerge from the forest right where he had taken her from those weeks ago. With all she knew about him now, it didn't sound far fetched, and she stomped head on towards the tree line. She didn't look back, though she felt his eyes on her. There was a pang of desire to stay and preserve what they had forever, but it passed as the voices of the forest called her. Goodbye sounded too final, so they had not said it, because though her life was about to start anew she could not imagine Shadow always with her in some capacity. \n\n\tDriving headlong in to the darkness, it wasn't long before the first ghosts formed themselves before her eyes. The speed at which they sent out their first demon showed how much they had been planning her visit. She would not been thrown off guard like that. A lilac hedgehog took shape, arms folded and looking directly at her. She was a small but imposing figure, her clothing feminine but her face hard as stone. It was her Mother.\n\n\t“You left me Rosie. You left me here all alone. If you hadn't been such a difficult birth I could have had more children, children who wouldn't leave me.”\n\n\tAmy stared hard at the apparition, and despite the painful memory that was presented to her, she did not cry. She had already come to terms with her Mother's parting words years ago and she knew what to say.\n\n\t“Maybe if you opened up a little bit, Mother, you could finally bond with Father instead. Or would that require some effort instead of just expecting it to happen?”\n\n\tThe ghost recoiled, “You will never find a good man with that attitude.”\n\n\t“You did, and he's still with you. Why don't you remember the girl you once were, you miserable hag.”\n\n\tThe ghost evaporated. The demons of the forest hadn't read her very well if they thought she was still troubled by her Mummy issues. Amy had seen and spoken to her Mother since she departed her family home, and they had a delicate relationship but a relationship all the same. She had felt anger towards her Mother more recently over the fact she had not told her about her accursed hormones, but looking at it now, her Mother was the last person to learn about love and sex from. \n\n\tShe walked for a while alone and in silence. Shadow's nightmares had come thick and fast, but what plagued him were a lot darker than anything she had hidden. They were struggling to read the recesses of her mind and she knew it. Poor Shadow, his demons would forever be on his shoulders. Had she really been so selfish she hadn't thought to try and help him clear them? \n\n\tFinally the wisp blew in to view again and formed itself in to Tails and Sticks. They were dead. Bloodied and broken and twisted in to garish angles, their lifeless eyes were fixed in her direction. She stopped still to suppress the bile that built up in her throat, but she did not look away. They were the youngest of her friends, perhaps physically the weakest but that didn't mean they weren't still strong. She didn't know what to do other than stare it down and make a mockery of it. For a time nothing moved, when all of a sudden Knuckles fell in to the scene too. He was trying to hold back the blood pouring from his neck, but she watched the life slowly slip away from him. The sound of his final gasps of breath were so loud. They would not win with such a cheap trick.\n\n\t“We fight every day,” she called out in to the void, “who wouldn't worry about losing their friends, this is nothing special.”\n\n\t“She led me to you,” came a well known, husky voice. Shadow, or a not-Shadow, walked towards her but he was talking to the space over her shoulder. As she looked towards the spot Shadow was talking to, she saw Sonic form from the mist. He was wounded badly, and she swallowed hard.\n\n\t“Amy wouldn't do that,” ghost Sonic gasped, “she's our friend.”\n\n\t“She was. Foolish girl just wanted to please me. She betrayed you, and once I am through with you,” the ghost whipped around to look at her, “I will finish her off too.”\n\n\tTrying to block out the garbled sound of the ghost Sonic behind her, she squared up to the not-Shadow and spat a come back she didn't expect to hear out of herself.\n\n\t“He can finish me off, but he has to use his tongue.”\n\n\tThe not-Shadow pulled a face and Amy burst out laughing. As it faded she was sure she caught a glimpse of it's real face, but it was hard to tell with her eyes scrunched up as they were. Shadow was not going to kill them, and if this demon represented what little doubt she had, Shadow had trained her how to fight against him. Perhaps the cryptic creatures did not know her too well, for Amy knew that Sonic could run out of reach if he ever truly feared for his life. \n\n\tSonic was in her next vision too, but here was the one image she expected to be presented with. Limbs tangled, fur ruffled, clothing strewn around the spot they lay in, but no mistaking it was Sonic and Staci. The mauve bandicoot was screaming in pleasure as ghost Sonic pounded in to her roughly. She had picture it in her minds eye so many times, but it was so much worse like this. Unlike her previous demons, which had been almost unbelievable, this one came with a heavy dose of reality. In a moment of weakness Amy flattened her ears and looked away. Just as Shadow had warned it would, this fed the monsters. \n\n\tSensing her struggle she felt them close in around her, lapping at the misery they were drawing out of her. The voices of the ghost Sonic and Staci grew louder until they seemed to fill the whole forest. They screamed each others name, they screamed how good the other was, how they could do it over and over again. She covered her ears with her hands and closed her eyes but the claustrophobic cold grew worse and she felt her mind slip deeply in to doubt. Her own voice whispered in her ear.\n\n\t“He never wanted you. You are just a stupid little girl. Look at them, don't they fit so perfectly together?”\n\n\tShe chanced opening her eyes. Her stomach twisted again with an insane jealousy but she would not give them the satisfaction of upsetting her. The not Staci and Sonic, though very much buried in each other, showed no real connection in their eyes. Amy knew better now, sex did not automatically to emotion.\n\n\t“No!” the real Amy cried, “they will never love each other!”\n\n\t“Oh no?” the ghost Staci called to her. She was still underneath the ghost Sonic but her head was tilting right back and her eyes were locked on Amy's, “and I suppose he loves you?”\n\n\tShe needed something to throw. Snatching her red band from her quills she aimed it straight at the apparitions, “Yes,” she snarled, “more than he ever will you.”\n\n\tHer band hit a tree and split in two. The image was gone in an instant, as Amy knew what she had told them was no bluff and they had detected that in her. Even if not in love with her, she knew Sonic loved her more than he could ever confess to. Staci was a roadblock, but Amy's spirit was a tanker. She vowed that each time her mind threatened her with the images of that slut of a bandicoot, she would drown them out with the sound of Shadows laughter.\n\n\tPicking up her broken headband she called again in to the darkness, “So what will it be next? Visions of me crying in school? Perhaps an evil clown could chase me if you're struggling? How about that time I nearly threw up on Shadow's shoes, that was pretty horrific.”\n\n\tThere was nothing but darkness. She knew they hadn't given up, Shadow had said she would be home when they did. Perhaps they were regrouping. She strolled forward, which was easier said than done in the dark. Her communicator was fading quickly but it still provided a weak enough glow to pierce the encompassing black.\n\tTime passed, her heart beat heavy in her chest, she called out again.\n\n\t“If you can't come up with anything you may as well just send me home. Much as I love walking around this dying forest I think you should admit defeat here.”\n\n\tAgain there was nothing, just a deafening silence. It felt like she had been forgotten left in the bottom of the toy box to gather dust. They knew she was there, they were the forest itself, they could not just walk away and leave her. She walked at quicker pace in the hopes of stirring up something, anything. She was no longer sure of direction, or the pace of time, and she began to panic.\n\n\tIt was then she heard a light giggle. Not a pleasant giggle, but the croaked, harsh sound of the monsters. They had fooled her; the darkness WAS what they were presenting as fear. She felt the air around her sucking the confidence she had built up out her heart. She stopped still to calm her heartbeat, and instead of walking any further she sat next to a tree and allowed herself to relax. It seemed to work, but the sound they chose to rouse her with was more haunting than anything she had yet encountered.\n\n\tIt was a babies cry. She tried to tell herself it wasn't real, but natural instinct and a desperate need for any sign of life won out and she began to hunt for the child. Twitching her ears this way and that she tried to focus in on it's location. As the sound grew louder she could see the wisp up ahead, a small bundle in the fallen leaves. She locked her hands behind her back to avoid the temptation to pick it up, but when she finally spied the child her resistance broke.\n\n\tIt was the baby from before, the little magenta girl with the red streak through the centre of her quills. She laughed as Amy picked her up, and for one blissful moment Amy's heart swelled with love. But Amy had broken the most important rule Shadow had told her to follow; don't touch anything. In front of her eyes the baby melted in to a squirming mass of tentacles and they wrapped themselves around Amy's head. They could physically do her no harm, but as they shrouded her mind with dark thoughts she screamed in horror and she tried to run. Blinded by darkness and fear she stumbled and crashed in to branches. She didn't notice once, adrenalin numbing her nerve endings. When she tripped down a small ravine she rolled a few times and finally stopped moving.\n\n\tIt was darker then, darker than it had been in all her time there. The cold penetrated her right to the bone and the only sound was that of her fears spilling out of her. The temperature and the terror hit every nerve and her whole body trembled, disturbing the dry foliage below her quivering form. How had she gone from such confidence to this?\n\n\tThrough the sound of her own heavy sobs she heard Shadow's voice call to her. \n\n\t“C'mon now Bud, you can't think much of me if you think my children will be octopuses.”\n\n\t She took a gulp of air between her shaking sobs and looked around desperately, “Sha...dow. Where...wh...are you?”\n\n\t“Close enough. I didn't think you would want me to help you cheat, but you aren't making this easy. Lets turn this on them, shall we? What would you call her?”\n\n\tAmy sat up and wiped away a tear, “Call her?”\n\n\t“The baby.”\n\n\tThe very reason she was in this mess; the beautiful little hoglet turned nightmare vision. Her stupid fucking maternal instincts had shot her in the foot. The creature she had picked up was a monster to her now, so Amy pictured instead the scene from Shadows vision. The happy family unit and the miniature version of them she had cradled. She hadn't had to name a baby before, she wasn't even that good at naming pets. In this case however, there was only one name that came to mind.\n\n\t“Maria.”\n\n\tHe was only a voice in the air, or maybe even only her imagination, but she could picture him smiling.\n\n\t“Perfect. But here's the thing Bud...I'm not sure Maria would appreciate a mass of tentacles being named after her. A beautiful little girl maybe.”\n\n\tAmy laughed, “No I'm pretty sure she wouldn't. If you loved her as much as I think you did, she deserves to have nothing but beauty named after her.”\n\n\tShe got up. The weight from around her head had lifted and she could see clearly again. The warmth spread back through her body like a wave and all signs of weakness dissipated in her laughter. She laughed loudly, at them, at the situation she was in.\n\n\t“One more Bud. You can do it.”\n\n\tShe blew a kiss in to the air and hauled herself out of the ditch. Pulling herself over the lip she could see Sonic stood staring at her. This time, the ghost Sonic was alone and focussed on her.\n\n\t“Do your worst,” she spat at it.\n\n\t“Like you did?”\n\n\t“Oooh very quick. Shadow is not the worst. You can't guilt me.”\n\n\tNot-Sonic sneered at her. It was an alien expression on him, “He is the worst, I can barely stand to look at you.”\n\n\tShe rolled her eyes, “It's not different to you banging Staci Bandicoot, or are you a different ghost to the one from before. You should look at your contact because he is having much more fun tha...”\n\n\t“Yes it is,” the spirit replied, walking towards her, “I'm a guy and I can do what I want without consequence. You on the other hand? You'll be called a whore. All eyes will fall on you and your actions with disgust.”\n\n\tShe folded her arms defensively as the creature stopped just out of arms reach, “How very old fashioned of you to think so.”\n\n\tIt twisted it's head and smirked. It enraged her so that these monsters would make such an uncanny image of her Sonic and...\n\n\tHer Sonic. Hers. That sounded good to her. Standing around here wasn't going to help make that a reality.\n\n\t“I've learned a thing or two spook,” she proclaimed, “and Amy Rose is no longer a wallflower. I am going to take what I want, who I want, when I want.”\n\n\tThe ghost flickered slightly, “You think having sex with the first guy that showed interest is how a strong woman lives?”\n\n\t“No,” she yelled, “this is.”\n\n\tIt was a pointless act, but she aimed a punch at the ghost. Her fist passed right through it, but all the same it flinched and backed away. She didn't fear making contact with them and they knew it. With Sonics speed he ran some distance from her and stopped again.\n\n\t“Want to try that again? You will never catch me, Wallflower.”\n\n\tShe charged at full throttle and swiped at it's face again. It dodged, and once again ran out of reach, making her chase it again. She couldn't tell if she was angry or happy at that point, but she knew she was fighting her corner in all ways she could. \n\n\t“You might be faster than me,” she yelled at it, “but I am ten times more determined.”\n\n\tOver and over again she ran after the ghost Sonic, aiming a blow at his stupid head but falling short each time. She took the broken pieces of her headband and threw them, and even took her communicator off her wrist and aimed that at his head. Nothing made contact, and she was growing tired and uncoordinated. Grabbing her strewn items she slowed to a march as he ran out of sight. She would not stop, not yet, and as she passed through a tangle of hedges she could see him up ahead with his back to her. \n\n\tGot him, she thought, and strolled towards her taunter. She was within arms reach when it turned round and looked at her with surprise.\n\n\t“Ames, you're...”\n\n\tShe punched, but this time she connected. She didn't just connect, she hurt her hand with the impact of it. As Sonic crumpled in to a heap at her feet her peripheral vision kicked in and she realised she was in the middle of Hedgehog village. She was home at last. In all the insanity of the last few hours of her life she hadn't prepared what she was going to say to Sonic. Now it didn't even matter, she had knocked him out cold. \n\n\tShe looked back to where she had come from but all she could see was the regular forest that surrounded the village. They monsters were gone, but so was the home she had come to know. There was no going back, no hiding from adulthood, from her actions and her indiscretions. As the villagers began to appear and walk towards her she became all too aware of reality, and unable to face anyone yet she bolted from the scene and towards her beautiful hut. She shouldn't have left Sonic like that, but her adrenalin was still pumping from the woods and she wanted to hide.\n\n\tHer newly trained ear picked up a sound in the bushes not far from the sanctuary of her home. It had been a long time, but she could feel the presence of her hammer again, and she called it to hand. If the demons had broken through they could taste the wrath of her Piko.\n\n\tIt was far worse than a demon, it was Sticks, and she was not happy.\n\n\t“Pod person! POD PERSON!” she screeched as she charged at Amy, teeth and claws bared. \n\n\tAmy held her hammer across her body in defence, “No Sticks, it's really me!”\n\n\tThe little badger hissed, “Lies! You smell strange, you aren't my friend!”. She jumped in the air, ready to drop a heavy blow.\n\n\t“You have a jar of your hairballs in a drawer because you're scared the Government wants your DNA!” Amy yelled, as she held her hammer above her head for protection. The blow never came. When she dared to open her eyes again Sticks was stood in front of her a with a skeptical hand on her hip.\n\n\t“You still smell too strange,” she said between nose twitches, “I can detect hints of Amy, mixed with a pinch of Shadow, layered heavily with something I can't place.”\n\n\tAmy released her hammer and fell to her knees. She was overwhelmed with exhaustion and the pain from all the damage she had done herself. She was an alien in her own land, in the eyes of those she needed most.\n\n\t“Oh Sticks....please....I need you to trust me. I'm Amy! Your best friend.”\n\n\tAs she watched the pink hedgehog begin to cry, the strange aura she was giving off lifted. In her eye it raised off Amy's back like a cloud of smoke, leaving the poor weeping rose behind. It brought Sticks to her senses. She fell to her knees as well and wrapped her arms around Amy, finally smelling the sweet scent of the girl who had stood by her through thick and thin for so many years.","writing_bbcode_parsed":"\tPerhaps one thing Shadow had not expected, was just how aware of her sexuality Amy would become. When he had finally returned she was waiting for him, in her work out vest and shorts, poised and ready for a fight.

\t“Thought you might be waiting. How long have you been standing there?”

\tShe frowned, “It feels like I've been waiting my whole life.”

\tHe nodded, “I didn't expect any less from you now.”

\t“Were you trying to back out?” she asked.

\tHe smirked, “I do work, you know.”

\tShe ran a tongue across her lips, “Not nearly enough yet.”

\tHer voice was velvet and she smiled at him with a sultry grin. He started to walk towards the house, trying not to look at her again. He could not get the image of how she had gasped for breath out of his head. They had had a moment of weakness, and he had felt things he hadn't before, and he had taken her virginity without a second thought...but that didn't give him permission to expect her to give herself to him.

\t“It's been a long day Bud, and I'm hungry.”

\t“I've got something you can eat.”

\tHe froze in midstep as she caught up with him, tilting her head to the side as she stood before him.

\t“Oh?” he gasped.

\t“Mmm, I made a stew earlier, there's plenty left.”

\tShe skipped off in to the doorway, with one quick look behind her, she gave him a wink. He cleared his throat and shook the images out of his head.

*****


\t“So, do you have the evening off since you were gone so much longer today?”

\tHe took a gulp of his coffee and and nodded at her from across the table.

\t“Are you...sticking around?”

\tHe looked up at her again. She was leaning forward over the table, her vest pulled down low  with more on display than he should willingly stare at. He cleared his throat again.

\t“I hadn't thought about it yet. Why?”

\tShe was up on the table, crawling towards him. Had he been prepared he might of acted nonchalant, but as it was she had caught him unawares and his jaw fell open. She didn't stop until she dropped herself in his lap and was cradling his face in her hands.

\t“Well, I had some thoughts. I've had some thoughts all...fucking...day...”

\tHis hands slid over her toned thighs as he stared at her lips. She was acting confident, but he could feel the delicate tremors in her body.

\t“You are meant to spend the day studying,” he mumbled.

\tShe looked down to give him her most innocent, wide eyed face, “Then I have been very, very naughty.”
\tHe couldn't resist any more. He picked her up and dropped her down on the table, sliding anything that was in the way on to the floor. They kissed with passion and ferocity, and when his arousal made its appearance her hands were not shy.

\t“Is this my punishment?” she gasped.

\t He pushed her down roughly so she was lying on her back, and pulled off anything she dared to be wearing below her waist. She was giggling, it was high pitched and giddy, but when he entered her she gasped loudly before sighing with satisfaction.

\tHe stood up straight, pulling her to the end of the table and grasped her hips. Her hands clamped down on to the wood, claws emerging as he pumped harder in to her. She was louder than the previous night, less ashamed or enjoying it more, he couldn't tell. But the intensity of the moment had taken its toll and before he knew it he was pulling out to spill himself on her stomach again. He tilted his head back and locked his jaws together tight, growling her name as he came.

\tHe fell forward, supporting himself on his arms, and looked down at her. She smiled softly at him, her chest rising and falling at a quick pace, but her eyes showed a disconnection. Her body was in the moment, but he still felt she was never entirely there with him. He knew why, but he didn't want to think about it, not right away. The day would come, and soon, but for now they could both find pleasure in each other.

\tHe scooped her up and carried her in to the bedroom, laying her down gently. She looked at him quizzically.

\t“That was a bit rough,” he said, apologetic in tone.

\tShe shrugged lightly, “you've put me through worse, and I've handled it.”

\tHe licked her neck, “so you don't need me to kiss it better.”

\tShe took a deep breath in, understanding his meaning immediately, but she was unable to vocalise a response. He didn't require it, and more it was something he felt he needed to do. It was as much for him as it was for her.

\tShe was feeling a little raw after their rough and tumble on the kitchen table. It was more like a bruise than a wound, there was a twisted sense of enjoyment in the discomfort. But after the first flick of his tongue against her, all the pain melted behind a sea of uncompromising pleasure. She didn't think it could be so different to being stimulated by hand, but oh how wrong she was. She mewled like a kitten, her back arching as she grasped on to the covers for dear life. As his tongue probed inside her his nose rubbed against her most sensitive little bundle of nerves. She cursed and she called his name and with a final scream she hit her orgasm head on. She moaned as her body was shaken to it's very core, her muscles involuntarily twitching for moments afterwards. He simply lay between her legs, watching with an unblinking eye.

\tWhen her body finally stopped convulsing, one lone tear fell from her eye, but he didn't see that. He was gone again.

*****


\tThey caved again, they caved a few times in fact. Each time he would be facing her, and each time he came he would either bite down on his arm or his jaw would clamp tight. She would rub his ear until he released himself, and they would immediately part. She wasn't even sure she wanted him to stick around. At all times the voices in the forest were calling to her, sometimes they used Sonics voice, sometimes the shrill unnatural sound of their true nature. No matter what she tried, no matter how close Shadow held her, even in her deepest sleep, she was thinking of her Blue. Shadow had offered many times to take her back, never once suggesting he would miss her, but she knew they had become accustomed to each others company. She was too scared to leave, and too heartbroken to stay.

\tThen their final evening, things changed, and the scales finally tipped for both of them. While she slept he crawled back in to bed with her, curling up against her, breathing in the soft smell of her delicately cleaned fur. It was too intimate, he was growing too fond of her touch, but he wanted to feel her body at ease next to his. She wasn't aware he was there until she woke the next morning to find a familiar black hand resting carefully on her hip. She smiled and hummed a good morning, and he buried his face in between her shoulder blades.

\t“Bud, it's time,” he sighed deeply.

\tShe buried her face further in to the pillow, “I know.”

\t“I'm not demanding you go but...”

\t“I should hope not.”

\tHe let out a long breath that tickled her fur, but she was less shocked than she expected when he spoke again. She had been waiting for him to say it for days now.

\t“I heard the message on your communicator,” he told her in a hushed tone.

\t“I'm going to go out on a limb here, spy in the night, and say you already knew what he had been doing” she replied with a harshness in her tone she didn't intend.

\t“It's true, I already knew. I wasn't going to tell you. If you were angry with him there was every chance you would...”

\t“Sleep with you to get back at him?”

\tHe didn't reply, so she rolled over, pushing him on to his back and straddling him. Who would have thought that at any point he would show such vulnerability. She had wondered it herself on more than one occasion. Was she sleeping with him just to spite Sonic? No, she had wanted to be with Shadow before that, Sonics message was that final push. He had kept it a secret for her sake, she had no right to be angry at him for Sonics misdeeds.

\t“Shadow the Hedgehog, I did not do this to get back at Sonic. He doesn't know this even happened. This time together belongs to me, to us.”

\tHe tenderly stroked her cheek, “We can't stay like this.”

\t“No, I'm getting cramp in my thigh.”

\tHe laughed. It caught her so completely off guard she burst in to laughter to, and rolling over they both lay on the bed like that until the giggles subsided. To hear him laugh like that was like perfecting a melody on a piano. The smile that accompanied it though, it was too much like his. Cheeky, sidewards, tinged with playfulness.

\t“I need to face Sonic,” she finally admitted,  “I need to go home, back to reality. I'm not who I was, I am a better version of her. All because you kidnapped me.”

\tHe snorted happily, “I seem to recall asking several times if you wanted to go back.”

\t“Oh sure, after Stockholm Syndrome had set in.”

\t“That what you call your sexual appetite?”

\tShe punched his arm, “Like you aren't going to miss me.”

\tHe considered what to say before replying. Miss her? Yes that was most likely. When he had first brought her to this place it was misguided guilt. He should not have kept her around but he had enjoyed watching her flower.

\t“I am going to bury myself back in to my work. I feel more...normal for the time I have spent here. With you. Just promise me you'll not doubt yourself Bud.”

\tShe sat upright to look out of the window, “I can't, not if I'm going to get through that forest.”

\tHe pushed himself upright next to her, blocking her gaze outside, “You don't have to, I can just...”

\t“I need to,” she interrupted, “or all this will have been for nothing.”

\tThere was another long pause before he very quietly replied, “It made me happy.”

\tAmy didn't know what to say any more, so she finally plucked up the courage to do something she had been wanting to do since their first night. The more he hadn't expected it of her, the more she wanted to let her mouth work the same magic he had performed on her. If she was to part from him, she wanted him etched in to her memory. The sight of him, the smell of his fur, the sound of his satisfied sighs, and the taste of the very essence of him. Even with her lack of experience, she had him making more noise than she had heard in all their time. And sure enough, Sonic was right, it did put a smile on Shadows face.

*****


\tPutting on her old red dress, her long socks and binding her waist with sports tape, Amy was ready to face the world she had left behind. Shadow had promised she would emerge from the forest right where he had taken her from those weeks ago. With all she knew about him now, it didn't sound far fetched, and she stomped head on towards the tree line. She didn't look back, though she felt his eyes on her. There was a pang of desire to stay and preserve what they had forever, but it passed as the voices of the forest called her. Goodbye sounded too final, so they had not said it, because though her life was about to start anew she could not imagine Shadow always with her in some capacity.

\tDriving headlong in to the darkness, it wasn't long before the first ghosts formed themselves before her eyes. The speed at which they sent out their first demon showed how much they had been planning her visit. She would not been thrown off guard like that. A lilac hedgehog took shape, arms folded and looking directly at her. She was a small but imposing figure, her clothing feminine but her face hard as stone. It was her Mother.

\t“You left me Rosie. You left me here all alone. If you hadn't been such a difficult birth I could have had more children, children who wouldn't leave me.”

\tAmy stared hard at the apparition, and despite the painful memory that was presented to her, she did not cry. She had already come to terms with her Mother's parting words years ago and she knew what to say.

\t“Maybe if you opened up a little bit, Mother, you could finally bond with Father instead. Or would that require some effort instead of just expecting it to happen?”

\tThe ghost recoiled, “You will never find a good man with that attitude.”

\t“You did, and he's still with you. Why don't you remember the girl you once were, you miserable hag.”

\tThe ghost evaporated. The demons of the forest hadn't read her very well if they thought she was still troubled by her Mummy issues. Amy had seen and spoken to her Mother since she departed her family home, and they had a delicate relationship but a relationship all the same. She had felt anger towards her Mother more recently over the fact she had not told her about her accursed hormones, but looking at it now, her Mother was the last person to learn about love and sex from.

\tShe walked for a while alone and in silence. Shadow's nightmares had come thick and fast, but what plagued him were a lot darker than anything she had hidden. They were struggling to read the recesses of her mind and she knew it. Poor Shadow, his demons would forever be on his shoulders. Had she really been so selfish she hadn't thought to try and help him clear them?

\tFinally the wisp blew in to view again and formed itself in to Tails and Sticks. They were dead. Bloodied and broken and twisted in to garish angles, their lifeless eyes were fixed in her direction. She stopped still to suppress the bile that built up in her throat, but she did not look away. They were the youngest of her friends, perhaps physically the weakest but that didn't mean they weren't still strong. She didn't know what to do other than stare it down and make a mockery of it. For a time nothing moved, when all of a sudden Knuckles fell in to the scene too. He was trying to hold back the blood pouring from his neck, but she watched the life slowly slip away from him. The sound of his final gasps of breath were so loud. They would not win with such a cheap trick.

\t“We fight every day,” she called out in to the void, “who wouldn't worry about losing their friends, this is nothing special.”

\t“She led me to you,” came a well known, husky voice. Shadow, or a not-Shadow, walked towards her but he was talking to the space over her shoulder. As she looked towards the spot Shadow was talking to, she saw Sonic form from the mist. He was wounded badly, and she swallowed hard.

\t“Amy wouldn't do that,” ghost Sonic gasped, “she's our friend.”

\t“She was. Foolish girl just wanted to please me. She betrayed you, and once I am through with you,” the ghost whipped around to look at her, “I will finish her off too.”

\tTrying to block out the garbled sound of the ghost Sonic behind her, she squared up to the not-Shadow and spat a come back she didn't expect to hear out of herself.

\t“He can finish me off, but he has to use his tongue.”

\tThe not-Shadow pulled a face and Amy burst out laughing. As it faded she was sure she caught a glimpse of it's real face, but it was hard to tell with her eyes scrunched up as they were. Shadow was not going to kill them, and if this demon represented what little doubt she had, Shadow had trained her how to fight against him. Perhaps the cryptic creatures did not know her too well, for Amy knew that Sonic could run out of reach if he ever truly feared for his life.

\tSonic was in her next vision too, but here was the one image she expected to be presented with. Limbs tangled, fur ruffled, clothing strewn around the spot they lay in, but no mistaking it was Sonic and Staci. The mauve bandicoot was screaming in pleasure as ghost Sonic pounded in to her roughly. She had picture it in her minds eye so many times, but it was so much worse like this. Unlike her previous demons, which had been almost unbelievable, this one came with a heavy dose of reality. In a moment of weakness Amy flattened her ears and looked away. Just as Shadow had warned it would, this fed the monsters.

\tSensing her struggle she felt them close in around her, lapping at the misery they were drawing out of her. The voices of the ghost Sonic and Staci grew louder until they seemed to fill the whole forest. They screamed each others name, they screamed how good the other was, how they could do it over and over again. She covered her ears with her hands and closed her eyes but the claustrophobic cold grew worse and she felt her mind slip deeply in to doubt. Her own voice whispered in her ear.

\t“He never wanted you. You are just a stupid little girl. Look at them, don't they fit so perfectly together?”

\tShe chanced opening her eyes. Her stomach twisted again with an insane jealousy but she would not give them the satisfaction of upsetting her. The not Staci and Sonic, though very much buried in each other, showed no real connection in their eyes. Amy knew better now, sex did not automatically to emotion.

\t“No!” the real Amy cried, “they will never love each other!”

\t“Oh no?” the ghost Staci called to her. She was still underneath the ghost Sonic but her head was tilting right back and her eyes were locked on Amy's, “and I suppose he loves you?”

\tShe needed something to throw. Snatching her red band from her quills she aimed it straight at the apparitions, “Yes,” she snarled, “more than he ever will you.”

\tHer band hit a tree and split in two. The image was gone in an instant, as Amy knew what she had told them was no bluff and they had detected that in her. Even if not in love with her, she knew Sonic loved her more than he could ever confess to. Staci was a roadblock, but Amy's spirit was a tanker. She vowed that each time her mind threatened her with the images of that slut of a bandicoot, she would drown them out with the sound of Shadows laughter.

\tPicking up her broken headband she called again in to the darkness, “So what will it be next? Visions of me crying in school? Perhaps an evil clown could chase me if you're struggling? How about that time I nearly threw up on Shadow's shoes, that was pretty horrific.”

\tThere was nothing but darkness. She knew they hadn't given up, Shadow had said she would be home when they did. Perhaps they were regrouping. She strolled forward, which was easier said than done in the dark. Her communicator was fading quickly but it still provided a weak enough glow to pierce the encompassing black.
\tTime passed, her heart beat heavy in her chest, she called out again.

\t“If you can't come up with anything you may as well just send me home. Much as I love walking around this dying forest I think you should admit defeat here.”

\tAgain there was nothing, just a deafening silence. It felt like she had been forgotten left in the bottom of the toy box to gather dust. They knew she was there, they were the forest itself, they could not just walk away and leave her. She walked at quicker pace in the hopes of stirring up something, anything. She was no longer sure of direction, or the pace of time, and she began to panic.

\tIt was then she heard a light giggle. Not a pleasant giggle, but the croaked, harsh sound of the monsters. They had fooled her; the darkness WAS what they were presenting as fear. She felt the air around her sucking the confidence she had built up out her heart. She stopped still to calm her heartbeat, and instead of walking any further she sat next to a tree and allowed herself to relax. It seemed to work, but the sound they chose to rouse her with was more haunting than anything she had yet encountered.

\tIt was a babies cry. She tried to tell herself it wasn't real, but natural instinct and a desperate need for any sign of life won out and she began to hunt for the child. Twitching her ears this way and that she tried to focus in on it's location. As the sound grew louder she could see the wisp up ahead, a small bundle in the fallen leaves. She locked her hands behind her back to avoid the temptation to pick it up, but when she finally spied the child her resistance broke.

\tIt was the baby from before, the little magenta girl with the red streak through the centre of her quills. She laughed as Amy picked her up, and for one blissful moment Amy's heart swelled with love. But Amy had broken the most important rule Shadow had told her to follow; don't touch anything. In front of her eyes the baby melted in to a squirming mass of tentacles and they wrapped themselves around Amy's head. They could physically do her no harm, but as they shrouded her mind with dark thoughts she screamed in horror and she tried to run. Blinded by darkness and fear she stumbled and crashed in to branches. She didn't notice once, adrenalin numbing her nerve endings. When she tripped down a small ravine she rolled a few times and finally stopped moving.

\tIt was darker then, darker than it had been in all her time there. The cold penetrated her right to the bone and the only sound was that of her fears spilling out of her. The temperature and the terror hit every nerve and her whole body trembled, disturbing the dry foliage below her quivering form. How had she gone from such confidence to this?

\tThrough the sound of her own heavy sobs she heard Shadow's voice call to her.

\t“C'mon now Bud, you can't think much of me if you think my children will be octopuses.”

\t She took a gulp of air between her shaking sobs and looked around desperately, “Sha...dow. Where...wh...are you?”

\t“Close enough. I didn't think you would want me to help you cheat, but you aren't making this easy. Lets turn this on them, shall we? What would you call her?”

\tAmy sat up and wiped away a tear, “Call her?”

\t“The baby.”

\tThe very reason she was in this mess; the beautiful little hoglet turned nightmare vision. Her stupid fucking maternal instincts had shot her in the foot. The creature she had picked up was a monster to her now, so Amy pictured instead the scene from Shadows vision. The happy family unit and the miniature version of them she had cradled. She hadn't had to name a baby before, she wasn't even that good at naming pets. In this case however, there was only one name that came to mind.

\t“Maria.”

\tHe was only a voice in the air, or maybe even only her imagination, but she could picture him smiling.

\t“Perfect. But here's the thing Bud...I'm not sure Maria would appreciate a mass of tentacles being named after her. A beautiful little girl maybe.”

\tAmy laughed, “No I'm pretty sure she wouldn't. If you loved her as much as I think you did, she deserves to have nothing but beauty named after her.”

\tShe got up. The weight from around her head had lifted and she could see clearly again. The warmth spread back through her body like a wave and all signs of weakness dissipated in her laughter. She laughed loudly, at them, at the situation she was in.

\t“One more Bud. You can do it.”

\tShe blew a kiss in to the air and hauled herself out of the ditch. Pulling herself over the lip she could see Sonic stood staring at her. This time, the ghost Sonic was alone and focussed on her.

\t“Do your worst,” she spat at it.

\t“Like you did?”

\t“Oooh very quick. Shadow is not the worst. You can't guilt me.”

\tNot-Sonic sneered at her. It was an alien expression on him, “He is the worst, I can barely stand to look at you.”

\tShe rolled her eyes, “It's not different to you banging Staci Bandicoot, or are you a different ghost to the one from before. You should look at your contact because he is having much more fun tha...”

\t“Yes it is,” the spirit replied, walking towards her, “I'm a guy and I can do what I want without consequence. You on the other hand? You'll be called a whore. All eyes will fall on you and your actions with disgust.”

\tShe folded her arms defensively as the creature stopped just out of arms reach, “How very old fashioned of you to think so.”

\tIt twisted it's head and smirked. It enraged her so that these monsters would make such an uncanny image of her Sonic and...

\tHer Sonic. Hers. That sounded good to her. Standing around here wasn't going to help make that a reality.

\t“I've learned a thing or two spook,” she proclaimed, “and Amy Rose is no longer a wallflower. I am going to take what I want, who I want, when I want.”

\tThe ghost flickered slightly, “You think having sex with the first guy that showed interest is how a strong woman lives?”

\t“No,” she yelled, “this is.”

\tIt was a pointless act, but she aimed a punch at the ghost. Her fist passed right through it, but all the same it flinched and backed away. She didn't fear making contact with them and they knew it. With Sonics speed he ran some distance from her and stopped again.

\t“Want to try that again? You will never catch me, Wallflower.”

\tShe charged at full throttle and swiped at it's face again. It dodged, and once again ran out of reach, making her chase it again. She couldn't tell if she was angry or happy at that point, but she knew she was fighting her corner in all ways she could.

\t“You might be faster than me,” she yelled at it, “but I am ten times more determined.”

\tOver and over again she ran after the ghost Sonic, aiming a blow at his stupid head but falling short each time. She took the broken pieces of her headband and threw them, and even took her communicator off her wrist and aimed that at his head. Nothing made contact, and she was growing tired and uncoordinated. Grabbing her strewn items she slowed to a march as he ran out of sight. She would not stop, not yet, and as she passed through a tangle of hedges she could see him up ahead with his back to her.

\tGot him, she thought, and strolled towards her taunter. She was within arms reach when it turned round and looked at her with surprise.

\t“Ames, you're...”

\tShe punched, but this time she connected. She didn't just connect, she hurt her hand with the impact of it. As Sonic crumpled in to a heap at her feet her peripheral vision kicked in and she realised she was in the middle of Hedgehog village. She was home at last. In all the insanity of the last few hours of her life she hadn't prepared what she was going to say to Sonic. Now it didn't even matter, she had knocked him out cold.

\tShe looked back to where she had come from but all she could see was the regular forest that surrounded the village. They monsters were gone, but so was the home she had come to know. There was no going back, no hiding from adulthood, from her actions and her indiscretions. As the villagers began to appear and walk towards her she became all too aware of reality, and unable to face anyone yet she bolted from the scene and towards her beautiful hut. She shouldn't have left Sonic like that, but her adrenalin was still pumping from the woods and she wanted to hide.

\tHer newly trained ear picked up a sound in the bushes not far from the sanctuary of her home. It had been a long time, but she could feel the presence of her hammer again, and she called it to hand. If the demons had broken through they could taste the wrath of her Piko.

\tIt was far worse than a demon, it was Sticks, and she was not happy.

\t“Pod person! POD PERSON!” she screeched as she charged at Amy, teeth and claws bared.

\tAmy held her hammer across her body in defence, “No Sticks, it's really me!”

\tThe little badger hissed, “Lies! You smell strange, you aren't my friend!”. She jumped in the air, ready to drop a heavy blow.

\t“You have a jar of your hairballs in a drawer because you're scared the Government wants your DNA!” Amy yelled, as she held her hammer above her head for protection. The blow never came. When she dared to open her eyes again Sticks was stood in front of her a with a skeptical hand on her hip.

\t“You still smell too strange,” she said between nose twitches, “I can detect hints of Amy, mixed with a pinch of Shadow, layered heavily with something I can't place.”

\tAmy released her hammer and fell to her knees. She was overwhelmed with exhaustion and the pain from all the damage she had done herself. She was an alien in her own land, in the eyes of those she needed most.

\t“Oh Sticks....please....I need you to trust me. I'm Amy! Your best friend.”

\tAs she watched the pink hedgehog begin to cry, the strange aura she was giving off lifted. In her eye it raised off Amy's back like a cloud of smoke, leaving the poor weeping rose behind. It brought Sticks to her senses. She fell to her knees as well and wrapped her arms around Amy, finally smelling the sweet scent of the girl who had stood by her through thick and thin for so many years.","pools_count":1,"title":"Internal Combustion: 7","deleted":"f","public":"t","mimetype":"application/msword","pagecount":"1","rating_id":"2","rating_name":"Adult","ratings":[{"content_tag_id":"4","name":"Sexual Themes","description":"Erotic imagery, sexual activity or arousal","rating_id":"2"},{"content_tag_id":"5","name":"Strong Violence","description":"Strong violence, blood, serious injury or death","rating_id":"2"}],"submission_type_id":"12","type_name":"Writing - Document","guest_block":"t","friends_only":"f","comments_count":"3","views":"132","sales_description":null,"forsale":"f","digitalsales":"f","printsales":"f","digital_price":""}