The Blue Comet

Friendly Reunion

The news spread quickly, Sonic has rejoined his friends, with certainty of his memories; at least to know that Eggman was the real enemy. Team Chaotix met everyone back on Angel Island where Tails was the first to great Sonic with tears and a tackle hug.  
"I thought you would never come back, I thought you were dead!" Tails had cried in Sonic's arms.
"Surprise lil bro." Sonic smiled feeling the guilt of making him worry so much, and missing how much the child fox had grown.

"SONIC!!" Amy kicked up a cloud of dust running to the blue hedgehog, snatching him and Tails into a tight hug and picking them both off the ground, "OH MY GAwD!" She huffed with a muzzle beat red.
"Uh!" Sonic squeaked in her arms her face familiar but her name still hadn't come to mind.
"You OWE me SO much!" She set him down, "I waited for YEARS for you to come back! Saving myself for only you because I knew you'd be back! And then I went to JAIL for you! This is worth so much more than just a date you run away from or fail to show up to Mr. Hedgehog! You better take me out and explain everything!!" Her yelling of excitement become muffled in tears, "I was so scared and alone! I missed you Sonic so much!"

Annie? No no, Angie? There was a 'y' -- AMY! Ah yes that was it! "Amy," Sonic smiled and began to laugh at the memories waking up easily as familiar faces brought them out from the dark, "I'll definitely take you out on a date after this, you've earned it."
Everyone gathered around to rejoys his return, Jet wanted a rematch race, a real one this time.
Finally after everyone settled down Sonic's eyes fell on Shadow. His night terrors wanted to leak into the day time, and for a minute he almost saw the blood filled moon and stained gloves on the other hedgehog's hands. But he shook that vision away, it wasn't real. The only thing real was this hedgehog who was willing to risk his life, to save the entire world just to keep a promise to a friend who was no longer around, his voice was the first memory he had when he arrived back to Mobius. He was there protecting him even when he ran, and trusted the wrong person.

Sonic stood watching him for a moment, what action exactly was appropriate for this moment, coming face to face with someone who had done so much for him and having been wronged for doing it, until it was all able to be understood?
They watched each other, Sonic toying with different scenarios in his head; reaching out for just a handshake felt like too little appreciation, a hug maybe ... but they have four years of distance between them. Before he was able to decide on anything Shadow nodded to him with a soft smile, something he wasn't used to doing before things had changed this way.

"Thank you." He said.
"Me? You're thanking ME?" Sonic was taken back, a full step back.
"Yeah, for everything. For taking my bullet, for telling me what I didn't know I needed to hear, and leaving, and coming back, forgetting, and remembering. All of it. Thanks."
"I- But you- you did so much-" Sonic sputtered trying to get all his racing thoughts in line and take turns.
"Nearly not enough. We have you back, now we have to save everyone else. As you might have realized, Eggman your old villain hasn't changed his ways as much as we thought. He lied his way into office and doesn't want to give his seat up."
"Yeah I've noticed." Sonic huffed, "He's collecting the emeralds."

"Why?" Tails asked cutting in, "What does presidential stuff have to do with having emeralds? He only uses it to power his shabby robots."
"I dunno Tails, he's got materials now, high end stuff. He's made up a false past for me to remember with only two emeralds. I'd hate to see what he wants to do with all seven." Sonic shuddered with the false memories bubbling up again every time they were mentioned.

"Well good news!" Amy chimed, "We've been tracking the Emeralds and each of us has one since we knew you were looking for them as well."
Three emeralds were brought forth as Sonic brought out the one he had left.
"Where's the other one?" Wave asked irritably, "The first one you took when we were watching you?"
"Oh uh... Scourge uh.. took it." Sonic rubbed the back of his quills.
"So find this Scourge guy and get the other emerald, and then we'll have five." Jet planned.

"Forget it." Shadow shook his head, "We can't beat Scourge into surrendering his emerald. He can decide to either fight by us or against us. For now we are best to assume he's still working for Eggman. Last I hear the Doc has two- assuming Scourge is with him, count it as three."
"I don't think he's working for Eggman. I mean not anymore." Sonic turned back to him.
"Well let's check!" Tails huffed pulling up the emerald tracker and dialed a knob to turn the screen on. The four emerald's gathered in one spot showed as dots on the screen, while two others stayed near the White House, and the last one far on out on the east coast of continent.
"Oh!" Jet growled, "All the way on the other side of the continent! OF COURSE!"
"Kinda outta the way for one emerald. I mean, do we really need all seven?" Amy pondered, "He's a high risk opponent, we should avoid confrontation with him if we really don't have to."

"High risk?! High risk of what?!" Charmy buzzed angrily, "I'll beat em!"
"Charmy you don't remember dragging a half dead Sonic back home?" Espio reminded him, just in case he forgot, which it seemed he did. "He's at a high risk of winning against us."
"Tch!" Charmy crossed his arms an attitude and remark Shadow had commonly made frequently enough that the child had picked up on it.

"Shadow and I will go get him." Sonic broke the bickering, "He wants to meet again, before the final confrontation. When he took the emerald from me he said the only way I could have it back was if I could take it from him. He knows we need it. We can't go up against Eggman without all seven."
"What? Of course we can Sonic." Amy huffed, "Honestly, I mean he isn't that though you've defeated him a lot with only just one or two, and now we have four. That's good enough!" She finished with a scream and stomping her foot on the ground and her face became a shade of red while her eyes became glossy with tears.
"A-Amy..." Sonic's ears pinned back, "You don't understand, he's planning something big, on a nationwide scale. We're talking some next level hypnosis and brainwashing."
"I don't care!" Amy growled back, "You don't need all seven! More often than not when you get all seven you always end up disappearing!"
"Or falling from the sky." Tails nodded in thought counting all the times they've gone on a wild hedgehog chase trying to find Sonic and the Emeralds.
"I don't want to lose you again..." She bowed her head hugging around him tightly.
Unable to promise something like that wouldn't happen again, Sonic patted her back looking at everyone as they watched, with the same question in their eyes, 'What should we do?'

'Bleep!- Bleep!' The emerald tracker broke the silence, Tails quickly snapped his gaze down to the screen, "Scourge is on the move. Heading right to the presidential house."
"Alright, back to plan A." Towers stated over everyone listening in the whole time.
Shadow nodded, "Be prepared for the coup of the century."
"About time!" Knuckles beat his fist into his palm.
"Let's go boys!" Rouge smiled deviously, "We're a chaos control away from taking back everything, why the hesitation?"
Everyone fired up and excited to start, except for Amy, worried about the aftermath.

"Hey..." Sonic placed his hand on her shoulder, "You don't have to come you know. If it makes you feel any better."
"Don't be stupid." Amy sniffled pulling his hand into her own, "The last time you disappeared was because I wasn't there to pull your stupid tail back to Mobius. So of course I'm going!" She joined the group going to the temple of the Master Emerald. Sonic smiled laughing to himself some, memory or not, he'd love to have met all of his friends all over again.