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Amy Rose was standing on her platform near the Chemical Plant stage.
Sonic– the modern Sonic— jumped out of the level, full of his usual cheerfulness.
Amy smiled.
It's not like she was supposed to be anything but happy in this game anyway.
Sonic ran up to her, his eyes sparkling with trouble.
"You got an S rank? This is...Wha— !"
Amy started, but Sonic grabbed her hand and dashed off before she could finish.
Oh.
Cool.
Wait, she WAS NOT SUPPOSSED TO MOVE!
"I gotta show you a level I found!"
Sonic ran forward, as if the flickering textures behind him weren’t even there.
Oh shoot... Glitches.... Not good.
The pink hedgehog grew anxious.
Oh No...
They had to stop before they break the game!
She tried to stop, to no avail.
The blue blur was stubborn.
"What? Sonic, No!"
A blue hedgehog dragged Amy across the white space of nothingness.
It was supposed to be the best birthday party ever for Sonic, and now…
They were stuck in here, frozen in time between the levels...
waiting for Sonic to save them.
Well, that was how it was SUPPOSED to go.
Amy wasn't exactly complaining, but she was not too happy about being dragged away from her assigned spot near the Chemical Plant Zone either.
"Sonic! I cannot leave my position, it is YOUR adventure,— I’m just an NPC! Where are we even going?!" she proclaimed, trying to keep up with Sonic.
The blue blur smirked and ran faster.
Amy chased after him, cursing under her breath.
She didn't even have her hammer with her.
Of course not.
She could only use it in the 3rd Challenge of Chemical Plant Act 2.
"Amy, just look!" he stopped.
Floating ahead of them was a strange, glowing palace — towers, ornaments, ha, you name it— clashing wildly with the empty whiteness around it.
Amy was amazed by its beaty.
But... It didn't seem like it was even supposed to be in this game in the first place...
Did Sonic glitch that it here?
"...Wow, I have never seen that before." she breathed.
"Yeah! It's from the adventure I told you about! With the lamp and Erazor Djinn! Do you believe me now?"
Sonic grinned widely and gestured towards the stage.
"That's... Cool... but... may I go back now?" she questioned, without really awaiting an answer, the pink hedgehog was already turning on her heels, ready to strom off back to her place, but...
She got stuck in the ground.
Oh chaos.
She was gonna fall rigth through!
Amy’s pulse skipped a beat.
"Whoa!" she shrieked.
Sonic did not let any second go to waste, and quickly helped her out of the texture lag.
"Let's go check it out!" he grinned instantly, as if nothing had happened.
Amy stared at him in horror, and took a step back.
"Sonic... What? No! We cannot do that! What if the game crashes? The player would have to delete the whole save! We cannot do that!"
Sonic waved his hand.
"The player tried downloading random mods in here anyway. I am sure it would be fine."
Amy widened her eyes.
"Let me get my hammer at least— Sonic no!"
Sonic ran off — half disappearing into the weird new stage already.
Ugh. Typical.
Amy groaned in annoyance quietly, because there was no sound in her data for it anyway.
She followed the blue blur inside this new... what was this eve supposed to be?
Arabian nigths level or something?
Oh, she was so gonna regret all of this...
This damn blue hedgehog.
Honestly... Amy had not expected an old game level design to be this... good looking.
"This is beatiful! You never told me you encountered such stunning levels in your adventures!"
She gasped in wonder.
Maybe she could run around here for a while?
No.
No!
What was she even thinking?!
In contrast to Amy's distress, Sonic grinned like a cheshire cat.
"Sure did! Do you believe me now?"
Amy stopped in her tracks.
Oh.
Was this whole thing about...?
"Well, I do."
She paused, admiring the ornaments in that stage.
"I am sorry for thinking that the story was an excuse... for you forgetting to hang out with me..."
Sonic gave her a crooked grin and thumbs up.
"All good! Let's go check it out!"
Amy blinked.
Sonic was repeating himself an awful lot lately.
Maybe there was not enough space for more dialogue in his database?....
Ugh. She was not exactly supposed to use those words either...
This would NOT end well.
Sonic dashed forward already, tapping his foot impatiently, that screamed
I'm waiting!
Ugh. Sonic.
She ran right after him.
"I think this would make a pretty good vacation spot... maybe a bit too hot though... What do you think?"
she asked in awe, eyes tracing the decorations.
Sonic shrugged, and walked forward.
She furrowed her brows.
... Now he was not talking at all, huh?
...
Well...
Weird… there wasn’t even music.
No SFX either.
At all.
Her ear twitched.
Oh no.
She spoke too soon.
As soon as the thought crossed her mind, glitchy music started began to play.
Awfully, broken music.
Amy covered her ears.
Never mind what she said earlier.
The silence was better.
Way better.
She'd take it over THAT every autosave.
Stop? Please?
Her silent prayers went unnoticed.
Ugh.
It sounded like the cacophony of the century.
Great.
This had been a bad idea.
Oh Chaos. This was a terrible idea.
"Sonic, lets head back!"
She shouted, trying, and failing, not to panic.
Sonic beamed — and something about that smile made her stomach twist— then pointed forward...
To...
What?!
No!
She was not about to run head first into a buggy level!
Amy bit her tongue, even as the creepy music hurt her ears, and every single line of her coding screamed to trun back.
"That might be a good place to check out!"
He called in that weird, overly happy tone.
Sonic was probably trying to tell her where the end of the stage was.
Ugh.
The player better finish this game fast, and beat that time eater guy so they all could return to their sweet, peaceful existence.
That would bore Sonic to the core of his code.
Amy took Sonic's outstretched hand.
He shot her a grin.
Her senses screamed that it was wrong, too wide.. too happy...
Then the blue blur ran forward.
Fast.
Like, real fast.
Apperently having an S rank on nearly all the levels, well, the unlocked ones, was not just for show.
Amy felt sick.
She tried not to think about what could happen if they end up stuck in a wall or anything.
Sonic had a gameover screen,
she did NOT.
The game would glitch if she suddenly disappeared from her designated place.
They reached a wall, weird, it felt like the end of the stage.
fell through it, and landed in the white space again — facefirst.
Sonic bursted out laughing.
Amy had none of it.
"Sonic! Dont do that! This is dangerous..."
She stopped herself.
The laugh played like a broken record on repeat.
This seemed painful.
Something was wrong.
A chill went down her spine.
Before Amy could panic once again,
The laugh vanished, as sudden as it started.
Sonic's texture glitched,
The blue blur flinched — hard —and sat up on the ground hastily.
"Yeah, yeah... Ouch."
The blue blur smiled nervously.
"You are right. But it was still fun, wasn't it?"
Sonic's face lit up with hope.
Amy allowed herself to smile lightly.
Finally, her Sonic was back. Not the overly excited one that was laughing like a maniac.
"Yeah, i think it was."
she admitted, standing back up in the white space.
"But don’t get too happy," she added, "I have to go back."
Before she finished the sentence, Sonic looked down for a second, almost seeming ... sad?
?!
Then he smiled at her.
"Yeah, yeah. Let's..."
He paused.
Amy raised an eyebrow.
Sonic continued.
"... Go, before you end up glitching through the floor."