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Tails screaming out "Amy!" Was the last thing Amy heard before a chunk of ice hit her head and she fell unconsciousa. She, Sonic, Tails and Knuckles had been fighting Eggman and his forces in the middle of a blizzard, on top of some glacial environment. Amy herself had managed to knock Eggman's stupid Eggmobile into the ground with her hammer only for the ground to give way underneath them. Eggman had yelped in shock, barking and order to his Badniks to save them. Tails and Knuckles tried to get to her, Sonic and Metal Sonic were both preoccupied with each other.
Now with a groan Amy finds herself coming to. She blinks, her vision blurry at first as her hand comes up to touch her head. It's throbbing. As she explores her state she first notices that her head has been wrapped in what feels like a bandage, and also that she's been propped up against the wrecked Eggmobile.
"Ah you're awake." The familiar sound of Eggman's voice cuts through her throbbing head even as it makes it a bit worse and makes her focus her vision. She blinks and looks up to see the large man looking over at her. His goggles are down and he appears to be inspecting the wall of this... Ice cave? Where are they?
"Eggman?" Amy manages to mutter.
"Even better, your memory is intact. Quite luckily for you my Eggmobiles medical kit survived our fall." He nods as he starts tapping on the wall for some reason. "Could you imagine if you had fallen to your certain doom with anyone but the great Doctor Robotnik?! " he booms out, cackling and causing Amy to wince.
"Volume." She grumbles.
He looks back over at her. "Ah of course. Apologies." He says with what to most would be a surprising amount of politeness but what Amy has come to expect. They fall into silence for a bit as Amy gets her bearings. Finally she takes a deep breath and sits up properly.
"We're going to need a story for why you patched me up." She groans in annoyance. Her first thought being cover.
"Mmm. Simple. I decided I needed you to help in our escape from this situation or some such." He waves a hand.
Amy nods a little. "That works."
"I have to say it does make this much easier that the one trapped down here with me is my very own Rodent-In-Law! Ohoho!" He laughs more with a surprising jovialness. Amy rolls her eyes.
"Metal and I aren't married." She replies.
"Details. Give my boy time! He'll get there!" Eggman declares as he finally sits down. He doesn't stop working though, instead he's pulling things from the Eggmobile making Gaia knows what. Amy can't help but smile and blush slightly at Eggman's declaration despite herself and despite the situation.
Amy and Metal Sonic had always had a strange tension between them, but a couple of years ago it had become more. Completely on accident they'd run into each other in a peaceful situation and that had been enough to let them start truly getting to know each other. Before long? They were something of an item. A secret item at first, of course. Still enemies on the battlefield too. It was difficult but they had a sort of understanding between them.
It was an understanding Amy's friends would never be able to accept, well not her main friends at least. Shadow and Rouge would be able to but they're not in what she'd call the main circle. Sonic maybe could if she told him she was trying to turn Metal to their side? He wanted everyone to have a chance to do the right thing. Everyone else though? No chance. Eggman and his empire, Metal Sonic included, have done horrible things. Terrible things. For people like Tails and Knuckles the idea that Amy could compartmentalize all of that would be...
Well it would start a fight.
So she didn't tell them. Much the same Metal Sonic did his best not to let Eggman know. They assumed of course that Eggman would be furious about it. That he might try to format or modify Metal. For quite a while it was a nightmare they both feared until Eggman did find out, and proceeded to not only not care but in fact was weirdly supportive about it. Metal Sonic had told Amy that Eggman had pieced it together, laughed, and then told metal "You Sly Dog! I always said you were better than Sonic! Now you've even stolen his girl!"
And life flipped sideways. Amy learned that Eggman was also capable of compartmentalizing. Keeping Work and Personal life separate he said. They fought on the battlefield. He tried to enslave the world, Metal helped him, Amy opposed them with her friends. Then on the off days she and Metal got to go to Eggman's insane evil carnivals for dates and Eggman apparently tried to give Metal advice on romance from time to time. Metal wouldn't go into detail about said advice, just telling Amy it was questionable.
Sometimes Amy wondered if it made her a little evil that she could live a double life like this. She tried not to dwell on it.
"Surely your Badniks will dig down here to get us." Amy decides to push forward with the situation at end. "Would it be safer to hunker down and wait?."
Eggman shakes his head as he assembles some device from random parts. "I considered that, it would definitely be better than risking a collapse of this pocket. Unfortunately we have a bigger issue than just getting out." He declares.
That makes Amy frown. Her focus sharpens just that much more. "What? Are we going to run out of air or something?"
"Worse. With neither of us on the field there's no one to stop Metal Sonic and Sonic from turning each other into paste." He grunts.
Now Amy blinks, then her eyes widen a little. He's right. No Eggman to call Metal off or Amy to throw herself between them...
One would think that maybe Metal and Sonic would put aside their differences to save their respective allies but frankly Amy wasn't so sure. Metal loves Amy, she knows that, but he also hates Sonic. A lot. He can get pretty bad tunnel vision not unlike his 'father'. There's even a strong possibility he didn't notice her and Eggman fall. Given the speed Sonic and Metal fight at they could be a mile away pounding on each other. Amy groans and rubs her temples.
That draws a chuckle from Eggman. "It sounds as if Metal will be getting a chastisement from both of us after this." He notes.
"You're the one that made him with such a thick skull." She shoots back.
"Well of course! If I hadn't then it would shatter against Sonic's when they headbutted one another!" He replies with a grin, and Amy can't stop herself from smirking slightly.
"Okay. What can I do to help?" She asks as she starts to pick herself up.
"I need some components from the Eggmobile. I'll describe them to you."
One thing about Amy's life is that despite her not being one of the overtly techy types she has actually, between being friends with Tails, dating Metal, and having Eggman as a quasi in-law, picked up on what certain things are and what they do. Which actually makes helping Eggman easier. Not that he needs much help. The Mad Doctor is many things and a genius is in fact one of them. Regardless it isn't long before they've jury rigged a sort of heat cone blaster that can melt the ice walls to make them a way to tunnel out. Now they walk along. The device takes a bit to recharge between blasts but progress is progress.
"So." Eggman says as they wait for their next blast to charge. "Have you given any thought to attending university?" He asks idly. Amy feels her head start to hurt again.
This conversation.
Amy frowns. "I've told you I don't even have a highschool diploma or anything."
"Bah! Start at a community college and transfer!" He shoots back.
"Okay but... Why? You know for a fact I'm not wanting for work or anything."
"Work!? " Eggman nearly shouts! "Work is irrelevant! The purpose is education in and of itself!"
"I don't need to go to college to learn! I've never gone to school!"
"Which is why I know you could do great in one! You're quite capable even lacking any sort of formal education!" He glares at her.
"Why me?" She huffs and puts her hands on her hips. "Why aren't you nagging Metal to go to college then?"
"Mmm." She watches Eggman stroke his mustache in thought. "He wouldn't be able to handle the social aspect."
That causes Amy to blink. She stares for a moment. It's a ridiculous response, a ludicrous counter argument. Yet as she imagines Metal on a university campus she can't help but agree. He'd be awful. He'd go four years without interacting with any other students.
"Okay you might have a point there." Amy admits.
"As I always am!" He huffs. "I could help get you into any number of prestigious universities you know! I have many connections!"
Amy raises a brow at him now. "How? You're Evil. Everyone hates you."
"Ha! True! But I also like to show up to conferences and humiliate certain people so their other enemies respect me."
"You- what?"
"I have no respect for Literature PhDs." He grunts as his answer to her question. Fully expecting that to completely Illuminate things. The silence after that statement stretches for a long moment.
"I'll think about college." Amy finally says.
"Good!" Eggman blasts more ice.
More time passes as they trudge ever forward. Eventually Amy gets a turn with their ice digging heat blaster. It has a surprising kick to it. As she fires it and watches the ice in front of them sublimate instantly and then also somehow not burn them, not entirely sure how that works but that's Eggtech for you, she poses a question.
"Has Metal talked to you about his idea for cleats?"
"His what?" Eggman glances up from a tablet he has pulled from his jacket with a grunt.
"He wants deployable spikes on the bottom of his feat." Amy says. "I keep telling him to just ask you."
Eggman grumbles thoughtfully. "For improved ground traction I assume?"
"He wants a better anchor for throws when not able to magnetize to metal." She explains. "Also I think he wants to stomp on Sonic with them."
"Sonic's quills are too strong for something that simple to injure." Eggman scoffs. "The blunt impact would do more than the spikes!"
"Well... Yeah." Amy admits. "Can you do it though? Modify his feet for that I mean?" She already knows he can but phrasing it like that tends to make Eggman want to prove the point.
"Of course I can!" He hmms. "I do need to update his foot assembly as it is. I could make room for such a mechanism without much trouble if I update the maglock system to a newer smaller design... "
Amy can't help but smile just a little. Sure this upgrade for Metal Sonic to be better at hurting her friends in the end but...
Maybe she is a bit evil. Morally gray? Ethically complex.
As Amy ponders the ethical ramifications of her helping her killer robot boyfriend get upgrades to better injure her friends with the earth starts to rumble and shake! "Woah!" Amy's stance widens to steady herself. Eggman stumbles but catches himself.
"Oho?!" He looks around. "We must be getting near the surface! I'd bet that was from the battle above!"
Amy nods in agreement. "You're probably right but that was big. Do you think things escalated somehow?" She glances over. Eggman meets her gaze and the two stare at each other for a moment.
"You don't think Sonic and Metal both just panicked and assumed we died do you?" Amy finally asks.
Eggman pinches the bridge of his nose and grumbles. "Repairing that boy is going to be a chore."
Amy sighs, then turns to blast more ice.
Finally after their terrible trek through this glacial ice tunnel they blast open a hole to the surface. The sounds of battle can be heard under the roar of blizzard winds. Both Amy and Eggman stand there for a moment, taking a final moment before they have to go in and mitigate whatever damage their fall to certain doom caused.
Eggman glances down at Amy. "Are we still on for family dinner next month?" He asks.
Amy nods. "Yeah. Remember I'm bringing dessert."
"Of course of course." Eggman nods and waves his hand around. Then with a deep breath he stomps up and into the snow. His voice booms! Somehow loud enough to be heard over the sounds of battle and the roar of wind! "METAL! FORCES OF THE EGGMAN EMPIRE! FULL TACTICAL RETREAT! RETURN TO THE EGG CARRIER! AND RETRIEVE YOUR MASTER!"
Quickly things play out. There's a loud sonic boom as Metal accelerates to Eggman's location, grabbing his creators arm and lifting the scientist into the air. For a moment Metal's eyes focus on Amy, lingering. She offers him a small reassuring smile and a nod. He's a wreck. One of his legs is dangling uselessly. His right arm is mangled. His eye screen is cracked. Amy's heart momentarily aches for her poor stupid robot boyfriend. Eggman will fix him up though, he always does.
"AMY!" She hears Tails shout! She turns and smiles as the fox flies up and lands in front of her. He actually runs up and hugs her! "You're okay! We were worried the worst happened!" He declares as Knuckles trudges over to them through the snow.
"What happened?" The Echidna asks in his gruff no nonsense voice.
"Eggman and I fell into some kind of ice cave together. We basically dug our way out."
"Eggman and you together?" Sonic asks as he suddenly appears by them, panting. He looks beat up too. Bruised, battered, some blood trickling from his nose and mouth. He's smiling though. He'll be better in no time, Sonic heals as fast as he runs.
Amy nods and touches her bandaged head. "He even gave me first aid. Said he needed an extra pair of hands to make his 'glorious escape' easier." She explains.
Knuckles grunts and rolls his eyes. Sonic chuckles and shakes his head. "Yeah that's Egghead for you." Then he steps over and hugs Amy! "Glad you're okay." He declares.
Amy blushes and smiles. Only for Knuckles to then join the hug and thoroughly crush everyone in his arms. "YES! I knew you would be too tough for certain death to kill you!"
"You were freaking out as much as me!" Tails declares defiantly.
"Nonsense! I had complete faith that Amy would survive!"
Amy starts to giggle at her friends antics. Warmth filling her. Maybe she's a little evil for the secrets she keeps and the things she brushes off, but she still loves her friends. Hopefully someday they'll finally defeat Eggman for good. Or maybe he'll just retire sometime. Then they can all just share moments like this.
Until that day comes though Amy will just have to keep her work and personal lives separate, and also decide what she's baking for the Robotnik family dinner next month.