Chapter Text
XXIV. AMY
She barely had time to think as the circle of metal creatures folded in on them. She swung her axe horizontally, taking out a row of them with one slash. Behind her she could hear talking just barely over the roar of the rain, from a voice she didn’t recognize. She had no time to pay attention to that, though. Amy had to hold onto the two emeralds in her bag. That must’ve been what they were after.
Lightning struck behind her, illuminating the area for a brief second, before she launched into fighting again, her eyes darting from target to target. She swung downwards and cleaved one to bits, before she switched aims, doing her best to stay light on her feet. It was a mess of blades and metal, and she felt one slice at her side, narrowly avoiding the strap of her bag. She hit it at a vertical, decommissioning it easily. Rain was dumping down on her, making it hard to see on top of the fact that the sky was now completely covered by dark clouds.
As she turned to deal with another cluster of the machines, she heard Sonic cry out behind her, a yelp of shock she rarely heard from the speedster. The noise made her chest clench. “Sonic?” She tried to get to his aid, but caught one of the smaller metal creatures trying to nab her bag. She swiftly kicked it, enjoying the crush of metal at the impact.
She turned to the prince, to see him dropped to his knee. A deep gash was in the back of his calf, blood bubbling from it. And behind him was his metal duplicate, poised to strike. It was saying something in a strange voice, but she didn’t care to listen to what it was saying. Instead, she grit her teeth in rage and slammed the flat of her blade against the machine, sending it flying into a tree.
“It got me good, Ames,” he said with a wince.
She was panting already, and knew that there were too many of these things for her to handle alone. Running was her only option. “Hold on!” She kept an eye on the metal hedgehog as she slung Sonic over her shoulder, standing.
The double righted its impacted head, but it seemed more resilient, smarter than the lesser, swarming machines. It charged at them, but Amy stood her ground, dodging at the last second and slicing at it horizontally. She could see a gash open in one of its metal plates, and it was knocked off balance, offering a better opening than any to go. “You can’t run from me!” Came that voice again, warbled and wrong-sounding. Maybe it was Robotnik.
She tore through the jungle, sending her axe away to relieve some of her burden. She slipped past metal creatures despite the rain making the ground slick and harder to navigate. “Come on, Rose,” she muttered under her breath. She knew she couldn’t outpace this thing. Not like this. She slid under a downed tree trunk, its wood steaming and burnt, probably from a lightning strike.
“Amy, it’s gaining!” Sonic shouted.
“I know that!” She yelled back, glancing over her shoulder quickly. It really was getting too close for comfort. She took a sharp turn, trying to throw their pursuer off, but it did little to shake it.
She broke through the front line of jungle trees, the metal duplicate mere feet behind them. The grass turned to stone beneath her muddy boots, and almost as soon as she crossed into the main village, she heard a loud slam behind the two of them.
Amy turned to see a spiked fist slam into the machine and send it skidding across the stone, giving them a minute to breathe.
“What’s wrong with him?” Knuckles shouted, only taking a second to glance at the two hedgehogs before his purple eyes refocused on his opponent.
“It’s his leg, he’s hurt,” Amy said over the roar of rain.
“Can you run?”
“I think my leg would fall off,” Sonic said over her shoulder, a slightly teasing tone to his words.
“Then get him out of the way. If he can’t run, he’s of no use,” Knuckles said as he rolled his shoulder, loosening up as the metal duplicate pushed off the ground, recovering from the hearty blow.
“Wow, thanks, Knux. Good to know you think so highly of me,” Sonic commented.
“It’s Knuckles!” He corrected with a grunt, before he re-engaged with the machine, grappling with it. Amy could see more of the smaller metal creatures flood out of the forest, heading in all different directions. This was bad.
She took Knuckles’ direction, setting down Sonic in the doorway of the nearest building. She glanced over her shoulder to see the metal things begin to swarm, heading towards her. Luckily they were slower than the one Knuckles was fighting, so she had a second to ready herself.
She pulled her messenger bag off her, pushing it into Sonic’s lap. “Hang onto this for me. I’ll hold them off you,” she instructed, pulling her bandana out of her hair and instead using it to tie her quills back and out of her face.
“Great, I get to be the one who sits out and holds the important stuff. Riveting,” he complained, but she could see him wince a little beneath his teasing words.
“Don’t complain to me, you’re the one who got hurt,” She said with a small smirk. Amy swore she could see the tiniest hint of a blush on his tan muzzle, but she didn’t have any time to focus on that. She turned, exhaling and summoning her axe again.
Amy met the herd of machines face on, slashing and cleaving her way through rows of them in an attempt to keep them away from the emeralds. Every now and then a small rock sailed past her head from behind and smacked one of the machines. She guessed that was Sonic’s attempt to contribute to the fight. For how much of a brat he could be, he really was cute.
Despite the large amount of them she had already slashed through, she could feel the sheer number of them begin to overpower her attempts, as she took a few steps back. One of them lashed out, slashing straight through her skirt. Fabric fell to the ground in ribbons, and she grit her teeth. Great. Where was Shadow when you needed him?
And, as if on cue, Shadow tore his way through the horde of machines from the left, carving a path of destroyed metal creatures with his greatsword. He was fully decked out in his armor again, visor pulled down over his eyes.
“Fashionably late?” She called to him, kicking away one of the metal creations that had got stuck on her axe.
“Something like that.” He fought to stand at her side, each attacking in rhythm with the other. All those sparring sessions had paid off, as they were able to play off each other’s fighting styles quite well. Sparks flew as metal met metal over and over again.
Rain fell onto them harder and harder, sheet after sheet. They were tearing through the machines as quickly as they could, but they kept getting pushed back. The line in front of Sonic and the emeralds was getting closer, and eventually they’d run out of steam. “There’s too many of them!” She shouted above the crash of rain, her feet slipping on the slick stone as she hit a row of them with the flat of her axe. She glanced over to Knuckles, but he still seemed to have his hands full, literally, with the duplicate.
She furrowed her brow, gaining somewhat of a second wind as she ripped the living metal apart, one after the other. But it quickly burnt out, and before she knew it, she and Shadow were fighting directly in front of Sonic, their buffer zone having disappeared.
One of the metal creatures jabbed out at her with its sharp set of claws, the dented metal of her chestplate giving way as it sliced across her chest. “Shit!” She gasped, quickly kicking it away. They couldn’t keep this up much longer. Shadow was still fighting as fiercely as ever beside her, but she could tell that this was proving too much, even for him.
And then, rather abruptly, a flash of light illuminated the back of the mass of opponents, momentarily blinding Amy. She thought it was lightning, but the light was accompanied by the destruction of a whole swath of creatures, lightening the load significantly.
“Huh?” She squinted out to try and figure out what was going on.
It was Tikal. Her eyes were that same bright white it had been on the first night they’d arrived, and her face was the most enraged Amy had ever seen from the typically passive echidna. Water flowed around her floating form, the rain avoiding her as if by will alone. It was, perhaps, the most powerful display of Chaos magic she’d ever seen. “You face destruction itself!” Her voice cut through the air like a knife. There was a second voice mixed into hers, a much deeper tone that didn’t seem to belong to her. Regardless, she began fighting from the back, using Chaos energy to rip through the horde.
Amy steeled herself, pushing back against the machines that were continually advancing. She held her axe horizontally and placed two hands onto the long handle, throwing all her weight behind the weapon to gain some breathing room.
Shadow hadn’t hesitated for a moment since he’d jumped into the fray. Honestly, she didn’t know how he could fight like that. It was like his only drive now was tearing apart his opponents. It was both amazing and a bit terrifying all at the same time.
She tried to match his energy, to channel some of that relentlessness as she hacked and slashed. “They’re relenting!” It was true, the crowds were thinning out a considerable amount, thanks in no small part to Tikal. Amy hadn’t been watching him, but at some point Knuckles had joined her, the two echidna fighting side by side from the back.
And when the last one was torn apart, Amy felt a wave of relief was over her. She glanced across the courtyard to where the ripped up metal copy hedgehog sat, still flickering with some remnants of Chaos energy. She crossed over to it, narrowing her eyes as she looked down at it.
“If you can hear me, know that whatever you’re planning isn’t going to work,” she spat, unsure if he could actually hear her through the broken creature or not.
“Think you can keep that promise?” Came the voice one last time, more scattered and warbled than before.
She grumbled, before she heaved her axe straight into the imitation’s head, putting it fully out of commission.
She then quickly went to rejoin the group again, who all seemed to be looking over injuries and assessing the attack. Amy knelt down by Sonic’s side as she sent her axe away, worry returning to her face. “Are you alright?”
“I’ve been better,” he commented as he handed the bag back to her, which she slung over her shoulder again.
“Can you stand?”
He took a try, but an intense cringe of pain engulfed his face and he fell down again, shaking his head. “That’s a no.” Shadow had joined the two of them, holding a hand to where he had been injured on his dominant arm.
A little ways away from the three of them, Tikal lost her glowing eyes state again and collapsed, Knuckles catching her. He picked her up, passing by them. “Move him to the infirmary. I need to help her to bed,” he instructed, before he disappeared down along one of the streets.
“Alright, Sonic, up we go,” she prompted, supporting him by propping up his arm across her shoulder. He hopped across the courtyard with her as her crutch, one step at a time.
“You know,” he said in between winces, his face betraying the pain he felt. “I think my running adrenaline is wearing off right about now.”
Shadow trailed behind the two of them as they entered the infirmary, silently.
Amy set Sonic down on one of the cots, crouching down to get a better look at the gash on the back of his calf. She couldn’t tell how deep it was, but it looked rough. She sucked in air through her teeth in a concerned way.
“That bad?” He asked from where he lay.
“Yeah. Um, hang on, I can-” She started to move to find something to care for his injury, but was promptly cut off by Knuckles poking his head into the building again.
“Which of you is least injured? We need to sweep the forest,” he asked, urgency in his voice. Shadow started to open his mouth to volunteer, but Amy quickly interjected.
“I am. Let me go with you, Knuckles,” she offered. There was no way Shadow and Knuckles going on a patrol alone would end well in any universe.
“Fine. We need to go now,” he instructed, waving for her to follow him.
Before she left she turned to meet eyes with Shadow. “Help Sonic, please. It’s urgent.” She could only hope he would follow through.
He nodded simply, and Amy decided that would have to be enough for her. She followed the echidna into the forest, the rain finally having cleared up. When they began sweeping the jungle for any stragglers, in total silence, Amy could only think back to that duplicate.
He was wrong. She was going to keep that promise, no matter what.