Sonic Gem EP12: Away From Home

Away From Home (also known as "Down the Mine" during development) is the 12th episode of season one of Sonic Gem.
== Plot ==
*meow*
"Come here, kitty," called its concerned owner. But sitting up in a front yard tree, the feline could only sit there and meow more. Who knew how it got up there in the first place, but it couldn't find any sort of way to get itself down: no extra branches, no cracks between the bark for some grip, nothing but a straight drop if it actually tried anything. Not even the welcoming open arms of its child owner below made it want to even try for a good jump down.
"Come on, you can do it," he called. The cat just sat there and meowed some more, even backing up to the base of the tree. As he tried to get his cat down, eventually his mom went back over to him, phone in hand.
"Just sit tight for a while longer, I'm getting the county on the phone, they'll get her down."
They both heard the cat meow once more, staring down at them with a worried look as any trapped animal would. Just hearing the animal cry for help was getting to the boy more and more. The noise was just a bit worse than the boy could bare to hear.
So what was a young kid to do with his pet up in a tree ...? Well nothing until he saw the chance when his mother went off a ways from said tree. ...
"I'll get you down."
"Wait! STOP!"
It may have only been half a minute in between, but that didn't take long for the boy to start climbing up the tree towards his pet. By the time the mother got there, he was already high up in the tree at the same level as the cat, who was backing up to the base of the tree and meowing as much as ever. Not even the cat wanted him to do this.
"Don't worry mom, I almost got -" *crack*
Oh no. The boy gripped onto the tree branch as best he could, the small addition of weight being just a little more than this branch could bare. Both the boy and the cat glanced to one another just before the branch gave one final loud creak, and finally giving way! The boy could only yelp as he fell from the tree -
*WOOSH*
"Gotcha!" 
The mother barely even had time to jump before she suddenly found her son now safely on the ground rather than falling flat upon it. The boy was mostly stunned if anything, but he didn't have a scratch on him from his tumble. As for the cat, it didn't reach the ground either, and found itself caught in something else's arms. Even the cat needed a second to realize what happened, looking up right in the face of her savior.
Even if he was from a completely different planet, Sonic's appearance was easily familiar to the people there by this point.
"There you go, one cat and one kid safe and sound," Sonic said, giving the cat back to the mother.
"O-Oh. It's you," she muttered in surprise.
"Yep, it's me," Sonic said with a wink. The child was quicker to respond more loudly, going up and hugging Sonic.
"You saved kitty! And me! Thanks, Sonic!" the kid said, beaming. Sonic gave the kid a pat on the head and a smile on his own face.
"No sweat, sport. Just doing what I do, your smile's all the thanks I need," Sonic replied. Sonic glanced off to the skies above, and gave a few stretches of his legs as any runner would do.
"Whelp, I gotta dash. Catch you later."
"Bye, Sonic," the child called, just as the blue Hedgehog raced off on his way in a millisecond dash away to who knows where.
Another day, another extra rescue to add to Sonic's track record on Earth.
..
Sonic didn't need a lot of time before he went from small town to countryside once again, though he had enough on his mind with his recent small saves for him to not notice that much on his jog -he was running just over the speed of a car. - through Earth's North American range. He loved nothing more than free-running through an open field to who knows where.
The only moment he stopped in his stroll was over by a lone country tree by the edge of a farmer's field. Nothing to bother anybody with, and secluded enough so folks wouldn't be hunting him down or anything.
"Another day, another save for the track record," Sonic thought in his stroll, "Guess I can get as much saving done here as back on my own planet, and with Eggman actually stuck here too, Mobius's getting a holiday now. Lucky for me." Sonic gave a sigh before looking back to the sky again. "Still, I'm gonna definitely need to make up for it when I get back to my home turf. Don't want Mobius forgetting about me."
These thoughts did halt for a second though when he noticed in the skies a flying V formation of a group of ducks soaring overhead and keeping up with him in their flight path.
Sonic couldn't help it. With a quick rev up of his feet, he sped on ahead of the flock and started running backwards to give the flying ducks a wave of the hand like they were old friends. Of course the ducks didn't wave back, more busy honking to one another than much else, flying up just a little bit higher and keeping in formation. Sonic watched them fly higher and higher until a low-flying cloud blocked em off from view. Sonic checked out the clouds for a second.
"Lookin pretty dark for clear forecast today," Sonic remarked.
*Trip* "WHOA -" *WHAM*
Rule number one when jogging at the speed of a car: look where you're going. All it took was a study log in Sonic's way for the hedgehog to stumble head over heels over and over again. He just managed to get himself into a curled up ball to roll the rest of the way, but all that did was rush him off through the hillside having no idea where he was going. The spinning hedgehog only stopped when his spin dash met up with a side of a steep rock wall.
"....... Ow."
Sonic spun back to his feet, shaking off the debris from his own quills.
"Nobody saw that. That's good. Now where'd I end up now?"
Getting himself together, he started checking around the place some more. It was ... different.
Such blue skies and green grass were suddenly replaced by a much more barren landscape: dried up dust and dirt with cold rocks all around the place, and even the sky was now a dullish grey with dark clouds about the area. It was as if the vibrant colors of the world were sucked away, and left nothing but a dull husk behind. On top of that, the steep hill he slammed into was a bit more than a standard hillside. No, this hill had a HUGE cut into it: a canyon with the cleanest cut sides Sonic had ever seen. The hedgehog took a few steps, only to hear a very faint crack of a stick underfoot ... or rather, the shape of a stick. The slightest touch turned it into complete dust.
"I got some time to kill before my chilli dog pitstop, might as well take a look," Sonic decided.
Didn't take him very long until he rushed into the canyon before him. He didn't even start running that fast (moderate human speed) and that still left a dustcloud behind him as he went through the dried, dead landscape. Not a single sound outside of his own two feet echoed in the drafty air.
"Look at this place," Sonic said, "Eggman's really doing a number on the neighborhood here. Not even any birds flying around. ... Wonder what the doc's cooking up this time?"
No matter how far he got into the canyon, it all just looked so empty and quiet. Weird thing though: as Sonic continued along, a bit more than just birds and sound were missing from the area. All he could find for the most part was a set of tall foreboding walls of rock, and a fattened earth underneath his shoes. It was enough to make Sonic actually go into a walk, no longer in such a hurry for whatever's here - if anything.
"No big entrance, Eggman? No signs? No huge speech for my inevitable demise or ... something?"
Even his voice was muffled by the quiet in this place.
"Ok, Eggman, for real, where the heck are ya? I know you're not the hiding type!"
Still no response. By this point, Sonic was getting a bit impatient actually, going into another run through the empty place. He only stopped running when he got himself up on a nearby boulder for a better look around. At first it was just empty landscape of dust and rock, but as the low-hung fog began to move away from him, Sonic took an extra look upwards towards the top of the canyon wall. It was hard to make out at first, but about twenty feet up the wall he began to make out the shape of something.
A more robotic shape, clinging to the wall like a spider, and in direct sight of him. As far as Sonic knew, he was in its direct sight as well, and all he did was smirk on the sight.
"There we go. Alright, bring it on!" Sonic shouted, readying his fists and body for ....... nothing?
Sonic stood back casual, eyebrow raised at this dormant thing on the wall. It didn't even acknowledge him, nor moved an inch for whatever work it would be doing before he arrived. It just looked ... dead. Still like so many statues and just as lifeless as one.
Sonic glanced down to the ground and saw a fist-sized rock. Keeping his eye on the robotic thing, he jumped down, grabbed said rock, and chucked it right at the metal hull of the machine. Aside from the long, droning echo of the rock slamming into metal, nothing else happened. Well, that, and a chunk of metal falling off onto the cold ground underneath.
This combined with the chill in the otherwise summer air left this Hedgehog feeling just ... well, uneasy. With a slight shiver down the back. He took a second to check around him once more, before turning away from the robot.
"I've spent enough time here."
With that in mind, he turned around and bolted away.
~~~~~~
"How're they gonna get out of this one? ....... OH, that's how."
Steven continued his own little adventure in the pages of his current book. Not like there was that much to do for him since no one else was at the Beach House, even with the warp pad out of commission just a foot away from him. Keeping his mind distracted through the fictional world of novelty, it was just enough for him not to notice company until the beach door was swung right open.
"HI GUY - eeeee wow."
A simple hello wasn't gonna help Pearl, Amethyst and Garnet out here. It was hard to say what monster they were fighting out today, but whatever it was really left them looking rather out of it: they both had burn marks all over them, Pearl's hair in an absolute ruffled mess, and Garnet having a chunk of her hair blown off of her like a miniature bomb went off on it. As for Amethyst, she was just swung over Garnet's shoulder like a towel.
"Hello, Steven," Garnet said.
"Things like this is WHY we have Warp Pads in the first place," Pearl groaned, going right pass Steven with their prize inside a bubble, as per usual. Garnet just tossed Amethyst onto the couch next to Steven.
"I'm never leaving this couch," Amethyst groaned.
"Umm ... you ok?"
"I'm alive, so I'm good," Amethyst answered, her voice muffled by the sweet embrace of the couch pillow. Garnet sat down next to her.
"Hold onto something."
"Huh?"
*BAM!* right on cue, Sonic the Hedgehog was right through the door and into the house, the wind gusts brought up by the entrance knocking over anything and everything not nailed down (again). Yes, that included Amethyst, who was now on the back wall of the house. Steven just managed to hold onto the edge of the couch, and Garnet didn't budge an inch even with several pillow striking her in the process. When the dust settled and winds died down, Sonic was just casually standing back in the kitchen again. Pearl could only groan again.
"Sonic! For ONCE can you not just barge in the house? You keep making a mess every time you do," Pearl sighed, already beginning to clean up the new mess. Sonic paused.
"Really? Huh, never noticed that," Sonic said, legitimately surprised. Pearl didn't see the humor in it though and just got to cleaning up. At least cleaning the house wasn't as painful or as exhausting. Amethyst crawled back over to the couch, pulling herself up onto the arm of it until she was just laying on that.
"What's up, my man? Good run?" Amethyst asked. Sonic stretched for a bit as per usual.
"Eh, I'm doing fine thanks. The run's as usual. Oh, and here ya go Steven, I gotcha something."
Steven's eyes lit up as Sonic tossed him the "something" in question ... which was just a button pin he got from across the country. It had a yellow sun with sunglasses and a thumbs up reading "welcome to the sunshine state" on it.
"Wow, sweet!" Steven beamed. Sonic just smirked and while Steven went to put it away with the rest of his knickknacks, Sonic took a seat over by the other Crystal Gems, kicking his feet up and elbow resting on the cushions of the couch.
"So what's with you three? You guys look like you had a fight with a tornado or something," Sonic asked.
"We went out on a Gem mission several miles north of here. We found another monster coming back, so we took care of it on the way home," Garnet explained. She took a moment to fix up her hair, which mainly took the form of her bringing her hands to her head, her hair shining for a second, and "poofing" back to normal. Sonic would question how, but he was more than used to these magic gems by now to not be so surprised by that. 
"If you ask me, it's time you three get a break. Haven't you guys been hunting monsters all week?"
"It's nothing new for us, Sonic, it's fine. We're Gems, we don't actually NEED to rest unlike organic lifeforms," Pearl remarked. Even so, she let slip through her closed teeth "Wish the warp pad was fixed though."
"Speak for yourself, P. I claim this couch and I'm NOT moving," Amethyst stated, almost matter-of-factly. Pearl just rolled her eyes, not in any mood to get in any argument with the purple Gem today. She DID however, lift Amethyst up by the leg and flopped her aside onto the coffee table so she could get some cushions on it. No, Amethyst didn't even bother moving.
"Alright, fine, you do you. But if you three need somewhere to go that badly, I ran by a canyon earlier today. You guys could go there and do some exploring for a a nice break. I even saw these weird-looking robots hanging about on the wall," Sonic said.
"You saw robots?" Steven asked excitedly.
"Calm down, nothing happened. I thought ol' eggy made em but they weren't doing anything. No punching, no alarms, not even a simple "intruder alert"! They were just ... sitting there. What, can't he make a simple "hello, I'm gonna kill you" robot or something?" Sonic questioned. Pearl, even outside of this conversation, couldn't help but roll her eyes with a sigh.
"Sonic, we've been over this: Humans CAN'T MAKE THAT. Whoever this "Eggman" is just probably found some tech and is taking credit for it. Humans love doing that for some odd reason now that I think about it."
"Yeah, Eggman will not do that if his life depended on it. And "can't make it"? What about Metal Sonic? You telling me he didn't make that?" Sonic asked.
"Ok, I admit, that is super weird, but trust me Sonic: there is NO possible way any Human is capable of creating such advanced teach. It would take a race thousands - no, hundreds of thousands of years ahead of their time to even come close to making something like that."
"Like ... you?"
Garnet and Pearl paused on the mentioning of machines, but this only lasted for a short bit.
"Don't worry about it. You said nothing's activated there, so it's not worth thinking about," Garnet said bluntly.
With that, Garnet and Pearl went away towards the back door, but before they could actually get out of there, Sonic actually got up and got in the way. A bit of a blunt response, but it wasn't enough to get the canyon's curiosity out of Sonic's brain. Some silence hung up in the air a bit more until ...
"... OK then. Guess that's a touchy subject," Sonic sighed. "Well, I'm gonna be off -"
"Sonic, wait," Steven cut in. Sonic halted just at the door, turning his head to Steven.
"What's up?"
"I was thinking," Steven said with a pondering face, "You're always running off around the world every day, and you always do something fun and exciting. You think maybe ... well, I ... probably maybe sorta come with you?"
Sonic fully turned to him at this point, taking only a second to think before he just smirked.
"Eh, why not? Running solo's fine, but it's been a while since I had a traveling buddy," Sonic inquired.
"YES!" Steven beamed, fist-pumping with a big smile on his face, "Off on the open road, traveling the countryside, we'll be just like the No-Home Boys!"
"... The who?" Sonic questioned. Steven didn't waste much time in bringing out the book he was reading earlier, which turned out to be a few issues of said story, tossing one of them down to Sonic so he (and Amethyst by extension) can give em a look.
"The No Home Boys: It's a story about two boys who don't have a home! They travel all over the countryside, living in boxcars, riding on rafts down rivers, and solving mysteries! They had a successful run ... until the disastrous graphic novel adaptation."
Sonic placed the book down on the couch. "Sounds like my kind of people. Not worrying about the past, nor the future, nothing but the open road and living in the moment."
"Actually, they were first chased by a pursuer across the countryside, when really they were running away from the fear within themselves. That's my favorite book," Steven said, and he showed Sonic the book in question. Sonic just went over to the door again.
"Well, I don't think we'd be solving mysteries, but we can play the "no home boy" roleplay for the day. Pack up what you want, we're leaving in two."
Just the answer he wanted to hear. Steven quickly got up to the kitchen, already with a rag in hand, and getting a bunch of stuff together as Sonic just chilled out by the door. what's two extra minutes to a full day's trip anyway? As they both were doing this though, someone else got herself up off the couch and on her feet.
"Mind making it three?" Amethyst asked.
"You too, Amethyst?" Sonic asked.
"Yeah. No-Home Boys sounds like a lot of fun," Amethyst answered, "I can go for a trip that DOESN'T involve beating everything up anyway."
Sonic slid to her side, giving her a playful nudge on the shoulder, "Whatever happen to claiming the couch?"
"A queen can leave her kingdom for a day. So come on! LET'S RUN!"
That was all he needed to hear, as Sonic swung the door open.
"Then let's run!"
~~~~~~
And so, after a few minutes of packing up no-home-boy style - three bindle's worth of rations - they were off from the beach house and off to who knows where in the countryside. It really wasn't much time for them to pass by the "you're leaving beach city" sign, with a mix of Amethyst's transforming into a wagon and Sonic's fast running speed giving them just the boost they need to get to the expanse of the world.
"Alright, next stop just pass Beach City. Thank you for riding Sonic road," Sonic joked. Amethyst turned back to normal shortly after that, a bit dirty from the dust but nothing worth complaining over as Steven hopped off her back and onto the welcoming grass.
"And we still got a lot of day left. Where do you adventurers wanna go?" Steven asked.
"Just pick a direction dude, that's good enough for us," Amethyst replied, an arm around Sonic who just gave a thumbs up.
What a start. Steven went on ahead along the grass, covered his eyes with one hand and pointed ahead with the other. He stayed this way for a good while, turning this way and that as if his hand was like a compass: moving to the left for three seconds, and then right for two seconds, left again for one. Soon, he stopped.
"That way!"
Steven readied to walk, but suddenly Amethyst got underneath him and lifted him up on her shoulders.
"Then let's go!" Amethyst said. Steven just laughed as Amethyst went ahead in that direction, Sonic meanwhile just watching on. He couldn't help but smile with these two. Sonic trailed behind the two adventurers from there while Amethyst and Steven kept themselves going ahead, looking around the countryside as if they were off on holiday.
Their stroll away from the road took them right into the thick of it: open grass turned into clumps of forest, and flattened road easily turned into bumpy dirt and rocks with bushes, trees, and even a few flower patches all over the place. They even had the pleasure of finding themselves a small creek flowing through the spot.
"Cool, a creek! Maybe there's something in it," Steven encouraged.
"What kind of something would be in here besides rocks and fish?" Sonic questioned.
Steven shrugged, "I dunno, but the No Home Boys found a flowing river with a bunch of gold in it. Maybe we can find some gold and get rich when we pass the next town!"
Sonic and Amethyst just glanced to one another as Steven gleefully went into the creek and checked around for this gold or whatever. All the two did was shrug and smile before hopping into the creek to join him, splashing Steven in the process.
Their play in the creek lasted for a good while, about half an hour at least, before things started to calm down with the trio just relaxing at the brook, all three of them laying down by the edge of the water and staring upwards to the sky, a few clouds and a bird or two going by them as they tend to do.
"Well we didn't find any gold," Amethyst said, "But you know, being a No-Home Boy's not so bad."
"Yeah. Who'd of thought we find this spot while running away from home?" Steven agreed. "Usually you guys run into these places out on missions, but it just feels nicer to just stumble onto something like this."
"Cheers to that," Sonic said. In a sigh, he looked around him once again at all the scenery. "... You know. Feels like home."
Steven and Amethyst glanced over to Sonic, the hedgehog having his foot kicked up, eyes closed, and hands behind his head.
"... So umm ... what's it like back where you live? Besides fighting robots and stuff," Steven asked.
Sonic took a sigh and looked around the place again, letting his eyes wander as his mind thought back.
"My home? We call it Green Hill," Sonic sighed, "fresh green grass, a LOT of hills, a couple of loops and springs here and there. No pesky robots to mess with all the flickies. ... Well, not all the time, anyway: Eggy's always trying to get a bunch of animals over there, so it keeps it from getting too boring. But yeah, I couldn't ask for a better place."
The memories played through Sonic's mind like an old video. No matter how long he'd been away, nothing could make him forget the iconic fields of green. Steven and Amethyst tried getting a good image of it in their own heads, though while Steven thought on it with bewilderment and wonder, Amethyst looked a bit ... distracted somewhat.
All this talk about home. ...
As this was going on, Amethyst felt a butterfly flutter by her face. She was quick to swat it away, but the butterfly found a nice spot to land right on Sonic's nose. Not even the bug bothered the hedgehog enough to make it go away, just chilling out with a smile on his face until the bug flew off on its own.
"I dunno about you two, but I wanna keep going. That fine?" Amethyst asked, getting to her feet. Steven and Sonic were quick to join her.
"Sure, Amethyst. Why don't you pick a direction this time?" Steven offered. Sonic gave a thumbs up to Steven.
"Hmm ... now where would a bunch of No-Home Boys like us go ...?" Amethyst kept thinking this over for a while, pacing back and forth along the creek bank. She thought a bit more on what Steven mentioned about then: traveling around the countryside, riding down river rafts, living in -
*chooo-choooooo ...*
A sound that immediately gave them all the exact same idea. Amethyst smiled first, then Steven, and soon Sonic smiled, stretching his legs.
"Living in a boxcar!" Amethyst shouted in glee, "Let's get on it before it goes too far."
"Oh YEAH!" Steven beamed, almost shaking in excitement. How could they NOT?! 
*choooo-choooooo!*
With the second bellowing of a train horn sounding ever closer, they began to make their way towards the noise. Sonic just followed on behind them. That look in their eyes is something he was just far too familiar with - how could he stop them from a good time?
As for the noise in question, it only took them a short minute before they broke through the foliage and into the nearest clearing. Sure enough, there ahead of them was a train track, rails old and worn but still prominent enough. The only thing splitting them away from the tracks was a dropoff, going down at least a few feet or so right down to the tracks themselves from where they stood.
"Ok, so all we gotta do is wait for it to stop, and we'll just hop right on board," Steven said, fully confident in the plan.
"Doesn't look like there's a station nearby, kid," Sonic pointed out, checking ahead of them. Sure enough, if there were any station anywhere, it was just a spec by how far it would be. Steven felt a bit bummed out, until Sonic got a hold of his arm.
"Hey, don't count out yet. We still can catch ourselves a train," Sonic promised.
"I already like where this is going," Amethyst said smugly.
*CHOOO-CHOOOO!*
Then the train itself. It started coming into view a bit further away, but it was coming in quickly, charging through with wheels spinning at blinding speeds along the rails with a HUGE, long line of boxcars behind it. Who could ask for better than this?
"Geesh, it's like it's begging us to jump aboard," Amethyst said.
"Why leave it begging? Ok, Steven, get ready. Aaaaand ..."
Jump! In one leap, Sonic and Amethyst were in the air, Steven behind Sonic in the mad jump off their dropoff ledge. Only Steven wasn't actually smiling at the moment though, blank-faced and not sure why he was being held like a doll through the air. Lucky for him, the fly through the air only lasted about a few seconds, just before they all went from soft dirt to firm wood of the boxcar.
"Aha! Yeah, first try and without even any test runs!" Sonic said, fist in the air and psyched. 
Steven sat up after a bit from the fall, but he, Amethyst, and Sonic found themselves in quite a nice accommodation: the boxcar was filled with numerous bails of straw, many stacked up in varying sizes with different amounts for each.
"Alright, hay beds. This'll keep us comfy on our way to wherever we're going. I call that bed!" Steven said, pointing to the nearest bale of hay.
"Dibs on the top bunk," Amethyst replied, not hesitating to jump right on top of one of the hay piles. Steven followed her and got onto his hay pile. He stretched out and laid down, with a smile on his face. ... At first. ...
"....... You know, the No-Home Boys made hay look a LOT softer in those illustrations. It's actually kinda scratchy," Steven noted, trying to get comfortable. As he was trying to do so, Steven turned over to Sonic, who basically was chilling out right by the open boxcar door.
"Hey Sonic, you want a hay bed? We got plenty here," Steven offered. Sonic sat down right by the door.
"Eh, I'll pass," Sonic replied, sitting down with his head resting on the door rim, kicking his feet up, "You guys can take all the hay you want, I got a good view from right here."
"Your loss, dude," Amethyst shrugged. Soon after she said that she flopped down onto the hay and took the moment for a well-earned nap. Although not really tired, Steven did the same as he relaxed as best he could on his hay bed, with Sonic the Hedgehog staring off outside.
They made the boxcar their traveling ticket, now they gotta ride it.
......
Hours ticked on by in their train ride, mid-day turning into sunset and the trio were still moving along to who knew where along the tracks of the train. By this point, Steven and Sonic were sitting by the open door enjoying their respected snacks from their bindles, with Amethyst still laying on her hay bed in the back.
"So Steven," Sonic remarked in between bites of his chilli dog, "You got to spend a day living the free spirit life. Thoughts about it?"
Steven took a moment as he chewed a bagel sandwich of his. "Hmm, on one hand I LOVE how freeing it feels: just going wherever you want, whenever you want. I mean just today we went through a forest, hanged out by a creek, and we got a free and probably illegal ride on a train. On the other hand -"
*thump* there goes Amethyst, so deep in sleep she just flopped off of the hay bed and onto the floor.
"A bit rough on your first day, huh?" Sonic said.
"Well it's not THAT, it's - ... ok, that is what it is."
Sonic took another bite of his chilli dog. "Well give it some time, and you'll get used to it. It took me at least a week before I got used to it back in Mobius."
Steven took a second to glance at his bagel sandwich, then back to the hay bales, before turning to Sonic.
"I don't think I wanna be away that long. I mean ... Garnet and Pearl are gonna get worried after finding out we ran away from home."
"Don't they go off on missions all the time? I don't think they're gonna notice you being out for the day. Besides, it's healthy to go out and explore once and a while: just look at how I turned out," Sonic explained, with a thumb pointing at his grin. "Hitting 16 years old and I've been through deserts, jungles, ice worlds, and everywhere else. And that's just off my home island alone."
"You serious? I had no idea! ... I wish I can see your world, Sonic. It sounds amazing."
Sonic thought on Steven's words only for a few seconds before Steven felt Sonic's hand on his shoulder.
"Tell you what: I'm confident we can find a way to get me and my pals back home eventually. When we do, why don't you all take a vacation and come over to Mobius with me? You guys gave me a tour of town, I can return the favor for you. What do you say?" Sonic offered.
"... That would be the best thing in my entire life, of course!" Steven could barely contain himself. If even half of Sonic's stories from Mobius were true, Mobius was something he just HAD to see.
... But this excitement was short-lived: a bump on the tracks made Steven's food fall out of his lap, off the boxcar, and right into the passing grass.
"... I'd like to go back to MY home, though."
"Eh, fair enough. Soon as we get you guys home, we'll talk about it with the rest. K, Amethyst, we're going," Sonic replied.
However, as they were packing things up, Amethyst kinda ... didn't move. Actually, she didn't even get up. She had her back to them, just lying there as if she were still sleeping.
"Hey, Amethyst. You awake over there? We're gonna be -"
"I heard what you said. I'm just not done running yet."
"I'm pretty sure the others are worried about us. Wondering when we're coming home," Steven said.
"... That's not my home. ..."
Sonic and Steven glanced to eachother.
"What's that?" Steven asked.
"I said "that's not my home"," Amethyst repeated, a bit slower so her words didn't miss.
"It's not? But then -" Sonic then remembered something. "Oh wait, you guys aren't from Earth either are you? I remember you guys -"
"THAT'S NOT MY HOME EITHER!"
Sonic almost backstepped off the train with that kind of reply. "OK, geesh, chill out! Sorry I asked. ..."
Although Amethyst did calm herself down after that sudden outburst, that didn't mean the two were done asking questions. One in particular. ...
"So ... where are you from?" Steven asked.
...
Amethyst turned back and smiled. "I'll show you."
~~~~~~
Seemed that the train tracks themselves didn't actually reach it though, because soon the trio were actually just walking towards Amethyst's home rather than using wheels or tracks. Since Amethyst knew where to go though, she was the one who took the lead this time with Sonic and Steven walking behind.
"I thought you wanted to go home," Sonic remarked.
"I do, but I wanna see this. It'll be cool to see Amethyst's home, don't you think?" Steven replied.
"Well keep strolling you two, we're almost there," Amethyst stated to the two.
"Take your time, Amethyst, we got all the time in the world," Sonic reassured. No need to rush a casual walk.
Amethyst and Steven were a bit more focused on getting to this destination, but the mobian hedgehog brought his hands behind his head, casually looking around the place in their walk. They did have a pretty easy way getting to the destination: no big hills or any rugged terrain to worry about, just open fields and fresh grass giving them a easy-going path on their way. The walk, all and all, was a pretty good one and Sonic even had the time to turn around and did a good stroll backwards.
But as Sonic continued to observe around him in his casual backwards-facing walk, he began feeling a bit ... well, weird. That kind of feeling one would get when stumbling on somewhere vaguely known in their mind, but they couldn't quite put a finger on it. It really didn't help when he looked up into the sky as well.
"Hmm ... why am I getting a weird case of deja -"
*bump*
THAT'S when it clicked. Sonic's heel bumped into a decent-sized log in his backwards walk, and it was enough to give the hedgehog a shiver running all the way up and down his quills. He spun around and checked said log for a brief moment. He may have never gotten a good look first time around, but seeing the log now, his suspicions were proven spot on when he noticed a weirdly recent, shoe-shaped mark indented into the log's bark.
"Wait a minute ... did she -?"
"Here we AAARE! Welcome to the Kindergarten! What do you think?"
Yep she did. At least Sonic now had an actual name for the canyon they were all looking at. Same dead state, same grey look, not a single bit of it altered itself since Sonic saw it earlier that morning.
"It's ... great," Steven said, feeling a bit humbled himself.
"Wait, this place had a name ...?" Sonic thought. For once he didn't actually say his thoughts aloud, given how happy Amethyst actually was being there. Besides, even if he could, she didn't really wait for one as she grabbed Steven by the hand and began bringing him closer to the canyon.
"You bet it is. Come on!" Amethyst beamed, not hesitating in the slightest in her rush to get in there.
Well here we go again. At least this time Sonic had the benefit of having ANYONE ELSE with him to check out the place. Even so, as they were strolling through the canyon, the sights of everything in there just left him feeling a bit rough about it. Steven took the time to check around himself, seeing the tall empty walls with those same machines still sitting there doing nothing but ominously looming over them. While Steven and Sonic were taking everything in, Amethyst kept walking along like it was nothing, looking around with a look of nostalgia over her face.
"So to recap: you ... grew up here?" Sonic said.
"Yep, it's kinda where I'm from," Amethyst replied with a shrug.
"But I thought all Gems come from space ...?" Steven asked, confused. Amethyst brought her arm around Steven's shoulders.
"Well, Pearl and Garnet are, but I was made here on Earth. Like you!" she said with glee.
"Made here?" Steven asked. Before Amethyst could answer that, suddenly she saw something up ahead that made her almost flip out in excitement, rushing off ahead of them both for a good ten feet or so. She only stopped when she was right next to a decently sized boulder, about as grey and dry as everything else in the Kindergarten it seemed.
"CHECK IT OUT!" Amethyst said, "I can't believe it's still here, HA! My ol' climbing rock. Haven't climbed it in years," Amethyst wasted no time in doing just that, and crawled up the side until she sat down at the top of it just like she used to do. Steven and Sonic were still left confused as ever with this information.
"It must've been a long time since you've been here, huh?" Steven said.
"Oh, REALLY LONG TIME. It's where I stuck around since I was made here. At least until I met your mom and the others," Amethyst replied, just before she rolled back off the rock and back onto the ground. It didn't take very long until she was going around the place some more, checking out other rocks along the canyon floor. During the walk though, although it did take him a bit, but Steven did eventually notice Sonic lagging behind a bit. The hedgehog tried to look casual about the place, but his shifting quills showed that the place was still making him feel just that bit uneasy. All Steven did was give a look of concern before -
"STEVEN, SONIC, GET OVER HERE! You won't believe what I just found!" Amethyst called.
Steven and Sonic went on over and they found Amethyst over by one of the inner canyon walls. Specifically, she was standing over by a hole in said wall: the hole was about the size as Amethyst was, almost eerily so, but it wasn't the size of the hole that first got to them. Was first got to them was the shape of the hole: a smoothed-out base with a smaller part to just fit a head on a torso ...
"U-Ummm ok, what am I looking at here?" Sonic asked.
"Dude, it's my hole!"
"Your ... hole?"
"MY! HOLE! Look! It's me-sized!" Amethyst then slid right into said hole, fitting in so perfectly it was scary. Steven checked inside the hole as Sonic took a few steps back with this new information. Amethyst relaxed inside the hole in the wall with a sigh and a smile.
"You came out of THIS hole," Steven re-stated, dumbfounded.
"It's where I was made dude. Just *pop* right outta this hole," she replied.
Steven backed up a bit more from there, just about up to Sonic's side.
"Huh. I never thought any Gems were made on Earth, did you ...? ... Sonic ...?"
H-Huh? Sorry, got caught distracted. What's the question?" Sonic inquired. Now, it could no longer be ignored. 
"You doing okay, Sonic? you've been kinda quiet since we got here," Steven asked. Amethyst came out of the hole as well to hear Sonic's answer. Sonic just took a breath: he couldn't really keep it to himself forever.
"Guess I was, huh? Sorry I just feel a bit ... not in my element, you know? It's a bit ... different since Amethyst was last here, I'm pretty sure."
Amethyst raised an eyebrow.
"The heck? Dude, it was always like this, what're you talking about?" Amethyst questioned.
"... No it wasn't," Sonic muttered.
"Yeah it was."
"Hehehe, no, places don't just "look like this"," Sonic made clear, feeling a bit uneasy even more so now. Amethyst started to get a bit annoyed with him.
"Yeah it was," she insisted, "I've been hanging around earth for 5,000 years, I'm pretty sure I'd know what this place - !"
Sonic's face was locked up onto the wall, a look of being troubled written all over it. His eyes weren't actually on the other two though, but rather his gaze was focused up again on the wall above them.
To put it simply: Amethyst's hole wasn't the only hole lining the canyon wall. This wall had hundreds, thousands even! Each of these holes were also eerily human-shaped, slightly taller than the one Amethyst came out of, and very smoothed out as if someone implanted a print onto the wall. With what Amethyst just said, the reason behind these holes was more than clear. ...
"Sonic ...?"
*clank*
The fall of metal plates were quick to catch their attention, looking off further into the actual canyon. It was a small noise, just barely enough for the three to hear, but with their look down the canyon, a shadow soon started to creep itself up onto the other wall. It was hard to tell what this shadow belonged to though.
... until they heard laughing.
"Who's that?" Amethyst questioned.
Sonic suddenly began pushing Steven and Amethyst back into the hole. "Hope you got more room in there."
"Whoa, hey, what're you doing?" Steven asked, just before they both were just shoved inside.
"Making sure you're not in trouble. Here, I'll take care of this. BRB."
Before either Gem or Human could say anything, Sonic bolted away from them towards said shadow. By the time the two got out of their hole, Sonic was already off at the corner of the canyon walls, peering off just ahead of him. The hedgehog took only a few more seconds to actually see what was there, and the moment he did figure it out, he got himself a smirk slipping pass his face.
What Sonic saw before him was a sort of small carrier. Nothing really too big, about the size of a small car, but it was keeping itself hovering just off the ground as if it didn't even have any actual gravity to it. It was almost perfectly round in shape: grey black with a tint of yellow and black stripes along the rim of it. Then of course came the driver in this floating machine, examining closely at one of the many dead mechanical constructs hanging off the wall. Sonic couldn't help but get a slight smirk on his face.
"Bout time you showed up, Eggman," Sonic thought.
As he began circling around, Eggman kept his focus on the construct before him as he would any other machine. From an opening in his vehicle, a ray of scanners was going over the machine up and down as the man himself peered closer to examine it with his own eyes. The interior of this relic almost looked less like mechanical parts and like looking through an X ray: the "gears and cogs" looking more like flesh and organs. Anyone would be creeped out, but this doctor kept his scientific mind working on the meaning behind the workings.
"Hmm ... semi-organic constructs," Eggman said at last, intrigued and slightly impressed almost. "Such advance machines - a goldmine of technological advancement. Makes it almost too boring to study them for myself, but I'm sure there's some use for these machines yet."
"What's up, egghead?"
"SONIC!"
Yep, there he was. After the circling, Sonic got himself on top of the same machine Eggman was checking over, chilling out on top of it like it was some kind of weird hammock. It took Eggman a second, but his surprise quickly turned to glee.
"I was getting to miss you, Egghead. What, didn't get any invite like the rest of us?" Sonic remarked, his knuckle tapping the machine.
"Well if it isn't my favorite blue rodent," Eggman demanded, "Come to be a test dummy for my latest creations? I promise you they will be your last."
"Of course it will," Sonic said, rolling his eyes with a smug as he got to his feet, "So, what nutty "take-over-the-world" plan is it this time? Metal Sonic 3.0? Some kind of warp machine? Some big warship? Come on, give me something big, it's getting boring around here lately."
"Oh, you want something "big" do you? Let me give you a taste."
*snap* went his finger.
*wwwwrrrrrr* went the machine Sonic was standing on! Sonic managed to jump off, but the machine that was just dormant moments ago was suddenly coming alive again. The legs holding it to the wall jutted outward in a speedy walk, and the internal hue emitted a haunting red glow.
And it wasn't the only one: four more of these same machines suddenly began coming alive, moving off of the walls and whatever position they were in to confront the blue hedgehog. 
"WOW, and just this morning I was actually vouching for you but looks like you can't even come up with your own ideas anymore."
Eggman was about ready to go, but he actually just managed to spy Amethyst and Steven peeking around the same corner, out of danger for the moment. That was all it took for him to get a sinister grin along his face. Just one little thing before going off with his data ...
For the insult, Eggman brushed it off. "Not completely true: My ultimate genius simply perfected the designs and potential your Gem friends left behind!"
"Still not your idea, eggman!"
Sonic took a step back as Eggman kept talking, hovering over his sudden army, "Look at all these machines: weapons perfectly designed to sap away the lifeforce of the entire planet, and what do your friends do with them? Leave them here to rot! Not that they'd ever tell you, or that you have any time to ask!"
Eggman laughed maniacally as the robots started closing in on him. As much as Sonic didn't want to believe every single bit of Eggman's words, just about ... 2% of it was actually starting to bother him, looking around at the walls again at the many, MANY holes.
"Sapping life force ..."
"OOO look at you, THINKING. What's the matter, hedgehog? A bit high-strung knowing your friends played a part in destroying their own planet?" Eggman mocked.
Immediately Sonic snapped out of any doubt he got. Just in time too, as one of the machines was practically on top of him! All it took was a spin dash right at the center of it to smash the machine into pieces.
"I know what you're doing, Eggy, I'm NOT buying it!" Sonic insisted, smashing through robot after robot as he went, "Those three fight to PROTECT the planet, not turn it into some rocky graveyard. There's NO WAY they had anything to do with this "planet-draining" business, and they wouldn't get mixed in this creepy old place." To Eggman's frustration, the robots weren't actually tough at all, and it only took about five seconds to leave them all in a heap of metal on the grounds of the Kindergarten.
"And you're never gonna one-up me."
"Mock me all you want, hedgehog, when my empire's complete you'll only have THIS left to look forward to!" Eggman warned.
"Yeah, never gonna happen, buddy. Now, time for take off -"
*WHACK!*
Out of all the hits he could've gotten, this one blindsided him more than any other since he got to Earth. The strike stung his side and sent him flying off right into the wall (much to Eggman's delight).
"There she goes. Have fun, Sonic. Enjoy the distraction," Eggman thought.
Amethyst. Sonic pulled himself out of the rubble, seeing Amethyst staring daggers at him all of a sudden, just long enough for Eggman to slip away from them all. 
"Amethyst, what gives?!" Sonic shouted.
"Oh, GET OVER YOURSELF! Admit it: you hate EVERYTHING here! Including me!" Amethyst shouted, swinging at him with more of her whips. Sonic dodged it of course but it still left cuts in the wall.
"What're you talking about?!" Sonic protested.
"You serious?!" Amethyst protested. ""Ooohh my home's so perfect, so free and awesome, I wouldn't trade it for anything" NOTHING LIKE THIS HORRIBLE PLACE!"
Her shout followed by another swing of the whip, so quick and fast that even Sonic could feel a strand of it snap at his heels. Sonic had to roll just to dodge it before finding his feet again. At this point, Steven sprung into action and tried getting to them both.
"GUYS STOP!" Steven shouted.
"Stay outta this!" Amethyst then tossed her whip at Steven, but rather than a full attack, it just wrapped around his feet to keep him still.
"Ok, ok, I'm sorry for making fun of your home, I didn't think you took it THAT bad!" Amethyst poured it on: whip after whip she swung at him to get him to shut up, each time missing and striking the wall and ground.
"Oh yeah, I'm totally fine with you pointing out how bad everything is here! It's not like this is MY ENTIRE EXISTENCE!" Amethyst shouted.
"It's NOT! Amethyst, I don't know how much everything went on here, but I WILL NOT believe that any of this involved you -"
As soon as Steven broke free, Sonic finally got caught by Amethyst's whip (which was shocking in of itself), and the hedgehog found himself unable to move. As for the purple gem, she raised both arms and swung them down, the whip suddenly lighting up in a stream of purple flames!
Despite that, it wasn't the attack that landed the finishing blow ...
"STOP REMINDING ME OF EVERYTHING I HATE ABOUT MYSELF!!!"
...
Sonic found himself on the back wall, nothing much left but the dust cloud and a few strands of purple fire around him, leaving him bruised and battered for the first time in a long while. With the echoes going away, all that was left was silence, Amethyst standing there, whips gone but fists still clenched, looking daggers at Sonic again, but ... he could also make out a tear on her face.
They both stared at one another for a minute, but as Sonic tried getting up, his leg started to actually give out.
"Dang, that packed a lot of punch," Sonic thought. Before any of them could say anything, Steven managed to get in between the two.
"Guys, please! Amethyst, I know you're upset, but I can't stand watching you two hurt eachother," Steven pleaded.
Amethyst just stood there, slowly calming down and seeing Sonic struggle a bit, only getting onto his knee and nothing much else.
"Sonic?"
"Hey, I'm fine, don't worry about it," Sonic said in a groan, "But ... I think I screwed up. Amethyst, listen I -"
Amethyst was gone. Nothing left except a whip laying on the ground where she once stood. Lucky for them though, the footprints were pretty clean and clear, leading them straight back towards the wall. Namely, Amethyst's hole.
Steven was quick to rush over, though Sonic took longer getting there.
"Amethyst ...?"
"Go away," she groaned.
"Amethyst, come out please. We can talk this out. I don't know what any of this really means but -"
"No, you don't. If you did, you wouldn't even be talking to me. ..."
Steven stepped back. "Amethyst -"
"Hang on, sport. Let me try."
"Sonic?"
"I did kinda insult her existence, so ..."
Steven didn't say a word, but he did step aside as Sonic hobbled over to the hole, sitting down as Amethyst kept her back to him.
"Uhh ... hey, Amethyst. You uhh -"
"No, I'm not okay. Why would you even ask that?" Amethyst groaned.
"Amethyst, I was just ... I'm sorry if I offended you or anything. I just caught up in fighting Eggman. He smack-talks me, I smack-talk him, it's just a thing we do. It just happen to be about ... here. W-Wait, wait, I didn't mean -"
"Just leave me alone. You shouldn't even be around me. ..."
Sonic paused. "... Why?"
Not the best question. Amethyst glanced back to Sonic, her glare not as strong as before and still having a tear floating in the eyes. "Why? Oh, let me see: how about that I had to sap the planet's "lifeforce" just to pop out of this hole? Or what about the fact this everyone on my team hates this so much they want to forget this even happened? Oh wait, here's one: How about the fact that this mistake just tried to beat you up a minute ago?! I could've - ... you could've ..."
Amethyst couldn't even finish the sentence, but instead she brought her head to her knees, covering her eyes in shame.
"Just stay away from me. I'm bad, just like everything else here. You shouldn't be around me. ..."
...
"Not a chance."
"Dude, weren't you even listening?"
It was then Sonic pulled Amethyst out to the open again.
"I'm listening fine, now your turn to listen to me," Sonic said, "It doesn't matter to me where the heck you're from. Ok, I admit, I'm not ... happy with this place. But that's got nothing to do with what I think of YOU as YOU. You didn't build this place, and even if you did, clearly you don't like what the results were, and learning to work away from it. You're laidback, fun-loving, and love the Earth."
To top it all off, he looked Amethyst eye to eye, hand on her shoulder.
"You're doing good, Amethyst. That's good enough for me."
Amethyst just stared at him for a moment, every word taking its time sinking in. After all she said, and Sonic looked no different than he was just a minute ago when it came to her. Not even his injuries were bugging him at this point. Silence hung in the air for just a bit more, before Sonic backed away, stretching as well as his sore body would let him.
"That was amazing, Sonic," Steven muttered.
"Well, I have my moments," Sonic shrugged. "This has been a day and a half. I think it's time for these "No-Home Boys" to actually head on back. Hope you guys don't mind a long walk -"
Amethyst suddenly hugged Sonic tight. A bit quick but seeing Amethyst's tears and slight smile told Sonic all he needed to know.
"....... Thanks, Sonic," Amethyst muttered.
"Crystal Gems forever!" Steven beamed.
Category:Sonic Gem