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It started when Surge had her ass handed to her.
First she couldn't even get close to Sonic without that asshole running off, leaving her to fend off his asshole friends, then she had to go save Kit's sorry ass, and ass ass ass ass ass! The cherry on top, the final straw, the crack in the dam was none other than Amy fucking Rose.
It was supposed to be another one of Starline's stupid stinkin' 'Field Tests', major gag. She could do so much more than just cause a few car accidents or start a raging wildfire. She was Surge the Tenrec, Gaia damn it, she was given the power to change the world by the very guy that she planned to destroy first. And she was gonna do it, okay?! She just needed to bide her time. Let that platypus think he's still got her on the ropes. That was the only reason she was still playing along. There was some seaside town, only a few hours away from Spiral Hill (seconds to her of course), and all that Surge and Kit were instructed to do was cause some trouble, collapse some buildings and junk.
She knew they weren't supposed to get caught by anyone. She just didn't give a damn. So a few townspeople saw her, big whoop. She made Kit incapacitate them. If they didn't wanna die so bad maybe they should've grown gills first. But no, he couldn't even get that far. Her little big-eared freak flunkey didn't work fast enough and who else popped up (riding a stupid fucking bicycle) but that lemur girl that Starline never bothered to brief them on.
Or maybe he did. Surge never paid attention unless it was about Sonic. Even then that was a stretch. She was too busy picturing the many painful ways she could kill him. Sue her.
But paying attention in meetings or not, here they were duking it out. Lemur girl was painfully annoying. Terrible at holding still and accepting defeat under Surge's boots. Too good at multitasking too, fending off Kit's hydro pack with that freak tail of hers all the while. Turns out she had enough limited brainpower to call for backup before engaging.
That busted clackety badnik Starline made them from knew that they were the ones to start that wildfire. She told them exactly who they were. Of course the fucking Restoration would show up.
And who paved the way but Sonic the Hedgehog!
Surge.
Saw.
Red.
She had to kick his ass. He was there. Ripe for the killing. She bowled past everyone else to get at him. It was infuriating. Every kick matched, each punch blocked. Neither of them were doing anything to eachother. Sonic didn't get tired. Neither did Surge.
The air was electric.
The one thing that Sonic had over her was his goddamn friends. Revolting.
She should have seen it coming. That was even worse. She pulled their fight away from the town because she wanted to get him alone. He used the momentum to pull it right back in. They kept at it for actual minutes (way too long) with that in, out, in, out.
It was only a matter of who wanted to win more. Surge wanted to win more than anything. Her whole life (what she remembered) led up to this moment. Just her and her prey.
Pink.
It flooded her vision.
As did a giant gigaton hammer.
And Surge was sent toppling ass over head. She landed on someone's car, the alarm not even getting the chance to go off as it was crushed like an empty soda can. She stood. Her vision was swimming (she didn't know it could do that) and her heartbeat spiked. The dust settled and there she was.
Amy Rose, looking pissed off.
Surge's breath caught in her throat (she really didn't know it could do that) and the next thing she knew there was a giant circular bruise with a heart outline stamped inside it forming on her ribs and she was embedded a foot deep into the concrete.
Sweet chaos, that was hot.
Surge wasn't stupid. Not by a long shot. Bored to death and back by learning? Absolutely. But definitely not stupid. The topic had come up when Starline was yammering on about the parasocial aspects of Sonic's heroism (even if her memories of hating him were fake, she knew that part genuinely did piss her off), and the concept of romance, real romance, had to be explained to both her and Kit. She'd never admit to thinking it, but in that moment, however brief, she was thankful for Starline's explanation. The one thing she hated almost as much as Sonic was being left in the dark.
But knowing that she was growing feelings was freaking her out, and Kit clearly wasn't going to get himself un-surrounded, so she grabbed him, gave everyone within the surrounding eight meters enough volts to leave 'em twitching on the ground, and bolted.
She was growing stronger against Starline's hypnotism, but she wasn't immune yet. A sticky note, crumpled into an annoyingly hard ball wedged inbetween her sock and her boot took care of what he made them forget.
Even if reading it afterwards just made her even more pissed and confused.
So clearly past her was just confused from getting whacked in the head repeatedly. Repeated hypno-brainwash-bullshit probably did that to you. She should know better than to trust her head by now after all.
Just in case, she kept the note. And made Kit steal some of Rose's battle footage, the ones that Starline trained his improved Egg-AI on. Just in case.
The next time it happened was definitely not her fault.
Alright fine it was, but shut the fuck up about it.
She had time to kill, lots of it, waiting for Kit to finish 'borrowing' as many Restoration internal files as he could. It was sad really, they just saw a sad little kid with an unusually big backpack and scooped him right up.
That poor little idiot was probably being smothered to death down there. And she was bored playing watchdog. So she did what any good superpowered tenrec would and did a little recon, familiarizing herself with the area without going as far as to notify Starline, who had definitely stuck something in her to track where she was at any given time.
So imagine her surprise when she returned to her post just as Kit was coming back up, escorted by restoration members who thought he was 'just the sweetest little thing' (ew, ew, ew), right as the woman who used to manage these dunderheads came strolling on by for a check-in.
Fucking. Damn it.
Kit escaped while Surge covered for him, even if she had to force him to stop sniveling and cowering and to move.
She was about to finish her off. Really, she was. As strong as Amy was, Surge had her beat good in speed. She didn't remember what her exact taunts were, something about giving Sonic a reason to show his ugly mug so she could make it eat dirt? But Amy was snarling, grinding her teeth even as Surge pinned her down, electricity dancing over her fingers in an eager arch. That unladylike bitterness towards Surge made her pause.
Wait, did she really just say something about her face being too pretty for that?
Holy fuck past Surge shut the fuck up-
Amy took the opportunity to launch Surge into a building. Another Piko-Piko bruise to add to the collection, even if they never stayed long.
Starline chose that moment to tell her to get back to base. Fine, alright. She was done here anyway.
Her beef was with Sonic.
She was doing a shit job at covering her tracks. She didn't feel the need to, since Starline had a pathetically one-track mind, but Kit? She couldn't shake him. Especially if she wanted to.
He looked like he wanted to say something, so she made him say it. She made him cower in fear when he mentioned that maybe it was okay to have a soft spot for a certain pink hedgehog. She stormed off after making him swear to never bring it up again. She prowled the base, making sure to avoid the areas Starline frequented.
She didn't have the patience for his bullshit. Not usually, but especially not now.
But Kit was never that great at ignoring her. He was hardwired not to, the kid practically didn't have a choice.
He actually didn't have a choice, but whatever.
The little twerp cared about her feelings and crap. So that meant he was gonna be annoying about it at any given opportunity.
Maybe you can fight Amy again on this mission. Maybe Amy will be there if we do this or that. Maybe maybe maybe.
If he was giving her a little hope? No he wasn't.
Another annoyance lived in the form of one Shadow the Hedgehog. That asshole had so many wasted opportunities to kill off Sonic that it just about made Surge physically sick. Which she explained to him in the most elegant, enunciated way she knew how.
Fake-gagging at him and trying to kick his ass, throwing taunts and insults like they were going out of style.
She didn't know why he was there at the base, per se, but she wasn't exactly complaining. He was on her ass-kicking checklist anyway, since he'd definitely get in the way of her plans. She'd take the opportunity when it was handed to her, no questions asked.
She should've been asking questions. While that defective Egg-bot that Shadow associated himself with kept Kit busy, fucking Rouge the Bat went around digging through all of Starline's damn dirty laundry (probably both literally and metaphorically, some of his ritzier clothes seemingly vanished from his wardrobe after the invasion) and wouldn't you know it, all of a sudden the next time Surge had the displeasure of seeing his Hot Topic ass he was looking at her and Kit with pity!
Surge. Hated. Being pitied. She made sure to tell him, colorful language included. And then that rat bastard had the balls to mention how Rose could help them too.
The power in that city was out for two weeks after that.
Shadow made it out with only a few electrical burns. Asshole.
After Surge and Kit were finally free from Starline.
After they tried razing the world to the ground.
After they were stopped by Sonic.
They weren't going to stop trying. It was Surge and Kit forever. Always at the back of everyone's mind. The shadow in the corner of their eyes. The monster hiding under their beds.
"ROSE!" Surge had roared out over a pile of rubble, staring right at the hammer-wielding hedgehog as she stood at the forefront of the Resistance's forces.
If she can't trust her head, she can trust her heart.
"FIGHT ME!"
And she obliged.