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Amy wasn’t sure how long she had been running, nor where she was running to, but she didn’t want to stop just yet. But her muscles had started to ache hours ago and all attempts to ignore the pain had gotten harder and harder. Not to mention her clothes were soaked, heavy from the storm that shrouded her. It was the worst storm she had ever seen since she was little, the day before her parents left.
She remembers believing the gods had been mad at her that day. They definitely were now. At least the rain washed away the blood.
A bolt of lightning struck the forest floor a few hundred feet away and in the temporary blindness she tripped. Her body fell like an anchor and she hit the ground just as hard. It took the girl several moments to even process what happened and wonder if the sickening crack she had heard was from the lightning or from herself.
The rain remained unforgiving though, and fought to push her back down when she dizzily stumbled back to her feet. Everything ached even more, she hadn’t expected the pain to get worse when she stopped but it was clear she couldn’t continue running again.
Her blurry eyes searched through the storm, it seemed no matter which way she looked the wind diverted to blow it in her face. Eventually she was able to find something though, a small opening in the earth, a cave, which she slowly treaded toward as she fought the burning sensation under her skin every time she moved a muscle.
She moved from the rain into the cold air of the cave like passing through a veil. The cave was rather shallow, the end being placed only about 25 steps away from its entrance. The chilled air brought minimal relief to the smoldering underneath her skin as she paced her way to the back, leaving puddles in her wake.
A large boulder rested on the ground. She stepped around it and let her body finally collapse. Her skirt hit the ground with a wet shlopping sound and her body continued to tremble violently. But she knew it wasn’t entirely from the cold.
She pressed her palms into the icy stone below her and attempted to take deep breaths. And to her instant regret, closed her eyes. Images flashed before her eyes, the looks on their faces, the-
Amy began to cough violently suddenly realizing she had started suffocating. She shook her head and redirected her attention towards her clothes. She grabbed a hold of a section of her skirt in her hands. She struggled to get a good grip through the bruising on her palms but to the best of her ability she twisted the fabric, though hardly any water rang out. She let go when her palms began to sting and let them fall to her sides again.
Another strike of lightning flashed outside, momentarily bathing the cave in a blinding white and the terrified hedgehog dove into a tight ball. The thunder echoed deafeningly against the rock walls and into her mind. She could hear them screaming again. She could hear herself screaming again.
Tears began to pool behind her eyes and begged to be released but she refused them. She deserved this after all.
She hadn’t meant to hurt those people. But even mistakes come at a cost.
Quickly she tried to shake them from her thoughts. She needed to ground herself. Amy took in one slow and unsteady breath.
- Three things you can see
The hedgehog opened her eyes but only saw darkness. She wasn’t exactly ready to uncurl herself just yet, so maybe she could just skip this part.
- Three things you can hear
Her attention went straight to the storm outside. It was still pouring and the rain sounded not unlike shattering glass hitting the ground as it showered down from the sky and smashed across the earth’s surface.
The second thing she noticed was her breathing. It was strained, shaky, and shallow. Which grew worse suddenly now with her attention brought to it. She had to force herself to make another attempt at a slow deep breath before she was able to continue.
The third thing she noticed was… Amy focused, trying to tune into any possible sound in this lifeless earthen cavity, but it was hard to hear anything past the…
Her ear twitched, through the unabated storm she thought she could hear a trickle of something almost metallic?
Yeah, the sound of metal scraping against metal and… were those footsteps?
They slowly grew louder and louder and it became undeniable someone else was now in the cave with her and she didn’t dare move a single muscle. Amy held her breath, ready to wait till the individual left but was met with a sudden loud clatter as if some large piece of metal hit the ground. She waited several moments for something to happen but the world inside fell still again.
Curiosity began to get the better of her and she slowly uncurled herself from her position. She was still hidden behind the rock, whoever was in here with her clearly didn’t think to make sure they were alone.
Against her better judgement, the hedgehog slowly peered around the corner and found that she was right. Right about it the sound being metal that is. Quite literally as the person sharing the small cave with her was none other than Metal Sonic, one of Sonic’s greatest rivals and strongest badnik in Dr. Eggman’s army, sitting against the stone wall a few feet from her.
What was he doing here?
She looked at him closer and noticed that he was in a critical condition. His entire right arm was missing as well as his ear. His chest looked torn open and from her what she could see at her distance he was covered with various dents and cracks.
Amy felt herself lurch forward slightly before she quickly stopped herself. Was she seriously about to run over to a well-known very murderous robot while she was in a state like this? Saying she was ill-prepared for a fight was generous. The girl didn’t even have her hammer. Not that she ever wanted to see it again.
She looked down at herself again, she was still trembling, her clothes were torn and wet, her limbs felt weak, and the black and blue across her palms was even darker than before. She really was in no condition to fight, but then again… neither was he.
Maybe approaching him wasn’t such a bad idea. Not being fit to fight aside, Amy had long since noticed that Metal had always seemed to treat her differently than the rest of her friends. For whatever reason, whether it was due to programming, some kind of glitch, or something else she wasn’t sure. But it was clear he avoided hurting her.
Sometimes it made her feel almost bad for hurting him in return. Almost. He was still an Eggman robot after all and he held no similar hesitations to harm when it came to her friends. Well, back when she still had them.
She shifted to rise, only now noticing the soreness of her muscles, she was weak and her soaked and weighty clothes seemed almost heavier than before. Forgoing standing up, she crawled over to the debilitated bot and sat in front of him. He remained entirely motionless the whole time. His “eyes” were “closed” and she hoped that meant he was simply in some sort of sleep mode rather than having completely shut down.
Now that she was closer she inspected him further, his chest, rather than torn out like she thought, was actually caved in near completely, the hole reaching towards his back as well. Wires poked out in several places, his right leg looked almost dislocated, his left hand was mangled, and the dents appeared even harsher up close.
It wasn’t a pretty sight.
Without thinking, she inched herself a little closer and reached out and cupped his face in her hands. He was colder than she was, ice-cold, and it sent a shiver up her arms. She knew he lacked the ability to feel it, but she still felt bad anyway.
Suddenly, a bolt of lighting struck the ground right outside the cave. Amy jumped, dropping her hands from the robot's face as his eyes flashed to life. In a single moment his claws were latched tightly around her neck, piercing into her skin.
She gasped and strugglingly pulled at his hands with her own. Desperate green eyes landed on the glowing razor-edged red ones in front of them. She saw them flicker and the hand rung around her neck let go. She fell forward and caught herself with her hands, coughing violently.
Amidst her coughs she heard a small distressed beeping sound in front of her. She looked up and saw Metal Sonic, looking a little bit more lively, his hands hovered over her as if he wanted to help but was too afraid to touch her again. Even at a time like this, she couldn’t help but find the behavior somewhat cute.
She forced a sympathetic smile onto her face, though it probably came out as some sort of grimace, “It’s okay Metal. That’s my fault, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
There was another beep and he lowered his hands, falling almost still again.
She was right, he didn’t want to fight.
She looked into his eyes and he stared at her. Metal was designed to look dangerous and threatening. A gaze that was created to intimidate and strike fear into whoever looked at them. But she didn’t feel that then. Not at all. In fact, she felt oddly reassured.
He was defeated, broken, and alone. Just like her.
“What happened to you?” she hesitantly asked, resisting the urge to hold his face again. He looked away from her and stared at the ground. She knew he couldn’t speak but she had expected a better response than that. He probably didn’t want to talk about it. She couldn’t blame him. Neither did she.
The two hedgehogs sat there in silence as Amy awkwardly looked about the cave unsure of what to do next. She could return to her spot behind the rock, which had been her original plan, but it suddenly felt wrong.
She looked at him again, attention finding itself at his right side where his arm was still missing. She noticed that he was leaning in that direction and realized that without an arm to catch himself he’d fall over.
So she did what any normal person would do when next to a murderous robot and moved herself over and sat beside him.
His head turned sharply as his eyes shot in her direction. She didn’t waver in her decision though, and gave him another smile, though this one she was sure looked much more sincere.
“So you won't fall over.”
He looked back and forth between the two of them a few times and she started to wonder if maybe she had actually upset him. Just as she was ready to move away, he finally stilled, tension quickly dissipating as he collapsed and leaned fully into her side.
She looked at him for a moment, almost stunned before a tiny smile crept onto face again. She joined him and let the built up tension escape her shoulders as all her muscles relaxed. Horrors scratched at the back of her mind, not ready to let her have peace, but she sighed and tried to keep herself grounded, attention shifting between the robot beside her and the wicked storm outside. At one point she found herself counting the seconds of each clap of thunder.
One, two, three, four,
One, two,
One, two three,
She felt the goddess of sleep call to her but she continued to count.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve-
The relatively irregularly long number caught her attention enough to pull her back further away from sleep and she listened to the thunder more closely. It didn’t sound right, it wasn’t cruel and loud like the others but instead was a soft persistent rumbling. And that was when she realized it wasn’t coming from outside.
Her eyes blinked open and she looked at the robot next to her. She slowly wrapped her arm around him, pulling him just a little closer to her and she rested her cheek on the top of his head.
The two really weren’t so different. Not anymore.
Everything had changed then and Amy knew it would never be the same again. So why not lie here? Curled around this broken purring hedgehog beside her. They could find comfort in each other. They already have.
And then they can return to the world again when they’re ready. Maybe when the storm has passed, maybe when the universe is ready to shine light down upon them again.