Sonic: C O U N T E R P A R T

Chapter 8

Amy watched as her two foes walked out into the snowy field. Amy spent the rest of her money to follow them. But she was second-guessing her decision. Her goal was to go after Sonic, but with his fox friend next to him, it would make her job a whole lot harder.

So, she decided to hack into Eggman's system and activate the homing device installed in one of Eggman's bots. In a few minutes, it would be here. Hacking into Eggman's computer system wasn't too hard. His passwords were usually kept short and simple.

Sonic sped in circles, scattering globs of snow everywhere. He did this for a few seconds and stopped when a beam of light shone through the ground. Tails smiled and dusted the rest of the snow away, revealing a red jewel.

"A chaos emerald!" Amy gasped. She was very well aware of how much power that gem held. Chaos almost destroyed Station Square with all 7 of them. If it weren't for Sonic, it would still be flooded.

Amy wasn't so sure that she should go after Sonic now. She saw Eggman battling him with emeralds before. It would be impossible for her to catch him with the kind of power he could use with the emerald.

But what if he was going to use it to eliminate the doctor? "I can't let that happen!" Amy huffed. "I must protect the doctor at all costs!"

"Okay, now to secure it in my bag— WAH!"

Dum! Dum! Dum!

Tails grabbed onto Sonic's arm to steady himself as the ground shook. Sonic stood in front of Tails in a protective stance at whatever was headed their way. A large metal foot stomped inches away from the two friends, and Tails and Sonic quickly hopped away from it.

"No way!" Tails gasped. "I knew Eggman would follow us!"

Amy laughed and fist-bumped into the air. "Right on time, Eggbomber!"

Eggbomber was one of Eggman's robots. It was built 2 years ago. Eggman never used it because he discarded it as a failed prototype, but Amy knew it was still great enough to pack a heavy punch, or in this case, a large set of lethal explosives.

Amy tapped away on her wristband and began controlling its movements. "Shoot that emerald out of their hands!" Amy commanded. "Oh wait! Use a small grenade! Don't kill him!" She squeaked afterward, not wanting to be responsible for ending the fox's life. She just wanted to intimidate them, not kill them.

The robot reloaded his arm and aimed directly at Tails, and Amy pressed a button. It enabled the machine to pull the trigger.

"Tails! Out of the way!" Sonic grabbed onto his glove and quickly jumped out of the missile's way. The missile swerved up and away from the two and towards the tip of the mountain, perplexing Amy.

"What the? I said a small grenade you dumb bot! And aim! Why didn't it hit them!?" Amy growled out in frustration. The missile made an impact on the tip of the mountain and caused a large BANG! And thus began an avalanche.

"Where did this robot come from!? And where is Eggman?" Tails screamed.

Sonic glanced back and forth. "C'mon Tails, let's get back to the plane and outta here!" He sped off towards the X-Tornado.

"Oh no, you don't!" Amy snapped and pressed a button on her wristband again. She took no note of the tons of piles of snow shifting towards her. "You're not getting away until I get that emerald!" She growled.

Eggbomber fired small explosive discs at Sonic's feet and every 3 yards the discs went off. It popped several times flinging snow around randomly.

Sonic dodged them, but he was starting to get annoyed by the robot. "Go high Tails!" He swung Tails up in the air and released him. Tails maneuvered himself in the direction of the plane but paused briefly to observe Sonic. Then he squinted his eyes and glanced around.

"This is so weird! Eggman is not here. Sonic, be careful!" He hopped in the seat of the tornado and began flicking switches.

Sonic hopped in the air and curled into a ball before piercing straight through Eggbomber's body. The robot blew up instantly and sent flying metal debris across the air.

"NO!" Amy gasped. "Dr. Eggman is going to be livid!" She gripped onto her quills in frustration. And suddenly, the avalanche made contact with her. Amy was buried in snow in a matter of seconds and was dragged down. She screamed and tried waving her arms in the air, but the snow was too heavy for her to get out of.

"Start the plane, start the plane, START THE PLANE!" Sonic hopped onto the wing of the tornado.

"I'm trying!" Tails panicked.

"I need you to try a little faster, Buddy! Unless you want us to be flavored icicles!"

"Don't rush me! I get nervous under pressure!" Tails whined.

His hands were fidgety and his palms were sweaty, but he managed to turn on the ignition and the plane started to make a noise. Tails shifted the gears of the plane and took off just before the snow could engulf them.

While soaring through the air, Sonic noticed a small glove poking out from the snow. "There's someone down there!"

Tails glanced out of the plane and looked down. Not only did he see the glove, but he heard wailing. "They're going to be pushed off the cliff!"

"I'm going to help them."

"Wait!" Tails stopped Sonic and tossed him the red emerald. "Use this to help, just in case the snow is too strong. I'll pick you up right before you reach the edge."

"Nice thinking, Tails." Sonic caught the emerald and hopped off the wing. His body began to absorb the power of the emerald. He spin-dashed into the snow and grabbed onto Amy's hand. Then he yanked her arm up, letting her resurface.

She coughed and gasped for air, and her body began to tremble.

"Don't worry!" Sonic smiled. "I've got you!"

"W-What!?" Amy stuttered.

Sonic scooped Amy into his arms just as they reached the end of the cliff, and sprung himself into the air. Amy shrieked and wrapped her arms around Sonic's neck as they plummeted down to their death.

"I'm going to die!" Amy screeched.

"Relax!" Sonic chuckled at her.

The X-Tornado swooped down and Sonic caught onto the wing before they hit the hard rocks below, and used his other arm to wrap around Amy's waist.

Time seemed to stop for Amy. The amount of adrenaline she felt coursing through her body as they fell excited her. She blinked at the blue hedgehog in amazement and a warm fuzzy feeling made its way to her chest.

Her heart started pounding, and she felt her face go red. "He's..." Amy mumbled to herself. She watched as his quills blew in the wind and his emerald green eyes shone. He looked so carefree, so determined. He looked friendly, the opposite of how the doctor described him.

And what's worse, he made her feel warm and safe. She stopped trembling the moment he grabbed onto her. Whatever was causing her heart to stir was not a good sign for her future.