The Flame

## Synopsis

**The Flame** stretches out the story between the doctor and the speedster. The hedgehog is told to fetch materials for Eggman, even though he doesn't know what the inventor/scientist is doing. During one of these missions, Sonic finds himself falling in the ocean, but gets saved by a bold fangirl.

## Story

Sonic did his job well.  He was able to fetch materials as soon as the doctor needed them, running from the jungle paradise to the village and back in mere seconds. He enjoyed it, too. For once, he was helping instead of harming, and it felt good.

The villagers noticed as well, though they were skeptical at first. When he began showing up to buy supplies, they couldn't quite believe it was the same boy. He had changed. His eyes sparkled with new-found kindness and joy and the confidence in his voice had replaced the insecurity and pain once found there.  The ugly whispers surrounding him faded away. It wasn't long before the name "Sonic" became a word people admired, even to the point where fangirls gathered whenever he came into town.

He'd humor them, winking every now and then at the nearest girl pining for his attention. But there was one he constantly found himself watching. She always stood near the back of the crowd, her green eyes studying him curiously but looking to the ground the instant he glanced her way.  He meant to talk to her sometime but every time he tried to reach her he was flooded by the crowds and she disappeared within the wave of faces.

Meanwhile, when he wasn't taking care of Sonic, Eggman tinkered away at whatever new invention he had thought up, constantly making remarks to the effect of "This will change the world!"  These bore little to no meaning to Sonic, as he had no idea what Eggman was building. Curiosity got the best of him once, though, and he peaked inside the workshop only to be instantly shooed away. And so his knowledge of Eggman's invention was limited to the materials he fetched.

For while a while things were great. Sonic finally felt as if he had a place to call home, someone to call family....Then the emeralds came into play.

It was about a year after Sonic's arrival when the first one was found.  Sonic had taken a longer route to get back when he had spotted it and brought the gem home as a sort of present.  He hadn't thought much of it at the time but Eggman seemed happy so he searched for more, finding two others within the next year.

Still, there was something about the gems that made him uncomfortable. The way Eggman looked when he held one scared Sonic, for one.  The man looked almost power hungry for a few moments before rushing the emerald into his lab, sometimes working nonstop for days afterwards. It was as if with each crystal he received, he became a little more obsessed with whatever he was working on.

Years passed and as Sonic entered his mid-teens he became more independent.  Eggman was more crazed than ever and though Sonic still cared about him like a son would his father, it was obvious a rift had grown between them.  Except for nights, Sonic barely hung around the mansion anymore unless he was delivering materials.  In truth, he felt uncomfortable there. There was a tension growing that he couldn't explain, but something told him that when he didn't need to be there, he should be as far from it as possible.

Yet it still got worse. Sonic had found three more emeralds in the past few years. He hadn't wanted to but after receiving the first few, Eggman demanded more, saying something about "needing all seven." Though they were more distant now, Sonic still trusted him and did as he asked, although at times he questioned whether it was the right thing to do.

It was the beginning of autumn when he found the seventh.  The leaves had just begun to shift to the vivid yellows and reds so characteristic of the season.  But mysterious storms had begun to arrive as well, blown in by cold winds that sent a chill through the air.  They were dangerous;  arriving suddenly and darkening the world with strange colored clouds in a matter of minutes. They only became more frequent and heavy as time went on but were ever as hard to predict, many times catching people by surprise in what had just been a sunny day.

It was one of these storms in which Sonic found himself caught on the way to bringing the seventh emerald back home.  As he ran through the sky its bright blue color had swiftly faded to an eery blood-red with clouds and fog so thick he couldn't see two feet in front of his face. Lightning followed suit, littering the sky with a series of furious flashes that preceded deep roars of thunder. Somewhere along the line he had veered off course to try and avoid the terrible wind, a decision he quickly regretted, and now had no concept of his bearings.

By now the storm had grown much worse and rain was falling in torrents. Sonic was dangerously low on the power rings which kept him in flight  so he knew he needed to get to the ground or risk falling either when his rings ran out or he became too exhausted to go on.  So he fought his way through the storm, struggling to keep from being pushed down too fast.

He was almost through his last ring when he finally broke through the clouds. Yet he was met not with earth, but water. He had unknowingly been pushed over the ocean and now hovered, terrified, over the threatening waves.

He kicked into overdrive, using every ounce of energy he had left to bolt above the water with the desperate hope there would be land nearby.  After what seemed like hours (though in reality it had been only a few seconds), the shadowy outline of the shore appeared. A breath of relief escaped Sonic's mouth and in that moment he let himself slow.

Huge mistake. The golden ring symbols on each of his items flared once then, finding no power, went dark and let him fall. He yelled once before plunging into the sea below.

As soon as he hit the water he was dragged under by the currents swirling beneath the waves. The water pulled at his quills as he grasped for the surface and panicked, furiously kicking and pulling at the water in unorganized strokes that made no difference to his position. The current thrust him above water for a moment and he gasped for air before being thrown under again.

This time he was dragged deeper to where the throbbing waves couldn't reach.  Panic set in when he realized just how far below he was and he kicked harder out of fear. But it made no difference. He only sank deeper into the darkness.  His lungs screamed for oxygen and he reached out his hand for the surface in a final, hopeless attempt to pull above the water and reach the air.  Then the feeling left his body and he went limp.

*He was a child again, screaming for his parents as he held on to the wooden piece of debris, the one thing keeping him afloat. The flaming ship burned in the distance, growing dimmer and dimmer as he was carried away by currents he couldn't control. Then the waves crashed over him.*

A hand grasped Sonic's and he felt himself being pulled out of the water. The wind and rain was roaring again but amidst all that noise there was something else... A plane?  He tried to look but didn't have the energy to open his eyes. A blanket was wrapped around his shivering frame as he was laid down by his unknown savior. They laid his head on their knee, stroking his spines in a way that warmed his entire being.  He moaned softly in content and the person spoke, "Shhhh. You'll be alright. You're safe now," she murmured, her voice smooth and soft as silk.

"Who-who are you?" Sonic whispered hoarsely, eyes still closed and his voice barely edible against the howling wind and sound of the plane.

He knew before she replied. It was her. He was certain.

"Amy. My name is Amy."

"Amy..." He echoed the name as though it were a beautiful secret, before succumbing to his exhaustion and falling into a deep sleep, soothed by the touch of her hands through his quills.